Community Attachment in Two Rural Gaming Communities: Comparisons between Colorado Gaming Communities, USA and Gangwon Gaming Communities, South Korea

Abstract

This study compared residents' community attachment in two rural gaming communities in Colorado, USA and Gangwon Province, South Korea by examining whether residents' socio-demographic variables were related to their community attachment and whether residents' community attachment affected their perceived impacts, benefits and support for casino gaming development. Both casino impact areas have shared similar underlying legalization characteristics; both communities were depressed mining areas whose economy had declined significantly. The findings revealed that residents' community attachments were significantly different between the two data collection sites. Consequently, the differences in community attachment influenced residents' perceptions of, benefits, and support for gaming development in both sites. The findings partly reinforced earlier findings regarding the relationships between community attachment and attitudes to tourism, supporting the notion that highly community-attached individuals view the benefits of tourism more positively and show a stronger support for tourism in their communities than less attached individuals. Résumé: Attachementà sa communauté dans deux communes rurales avec des casinos: comparaison entre des communautés du Colorado aux Etats Unis et d'autres de Gangwon en Corée du Sud Cetteétude compare le degré d'attachementà leur communauté de leurs résidents dans deux communautés rurales avec casino du Colorado et de la province de Gangwon en Corée du Sud. On examine si les variables socio-économiques des résidents ont un rapport avec leur degré d'attachementà leurs communautés et si cet attachement influence leurs perceptions des impacts et des bénéfices ainsi que leur soutien pour le développement de jeux de casino. Les deux zones partagent des caractéristiques semblables de légalisation; il s'agit aussi de zones minières en déclin dont l'économie a beaucoup souffert. Les résultats de cette recherche révèlent que le degré d'attachement des résidentsà leurscommunautésétait nettement différent entre les deux sites. Ces différences avaient donc une influence importante sur les perceptions des résidents au sujet des bénéfices et du soutien accordés au développement de jeux dans les deux sites. Ces résultats confirment lesétudes précédentes sur la relation entre le degré d'attachement et les attitudes vis-à-vis du tourisme. Ces résultats soutiennent le concept que les individus qui sont très attachésà leur communauté considèrent les bénéfices du tourisme de façon plus positive et démontrent un soutient plus prononcé pour le développement du tourisme dans leurs communautés que les individus qui sont moins attachés.

Place Attachment, Image, and Support for Marijuana Tourism in Colorado

“…An interesting result from this study is that how people's attachment is related to a situation-specific image construct (i.e., cannabis image). In summary, the significant relationships among place attachment, state image, and tourism support confirm a well-established research claim that the highly attached residents usually have positive images, which in turn influence their support of tourism development (Lee et al, 2010;Nicholas et al, 2009;Rasoolimanesh et al, 2017;Rasoolimanesh et al, 2015) in the context of marijuana tourism.…”

“…The inconclusive reports on the relationship between place attachment and other constructs insinuate that place attachment may play a different role depending on its location and development phase, warranting the examination of residents' support in the context of their situational environment (Lee, Kang, & Reisinger, 2010). Furthermore, the current literature concerning the place image of a tourist destination perceived by other stakeholders, especially local residents, deems scant and thus requires more urgent attention .…”

“…Perceived image of the state of Colorado was assessed with 15 items but two items were deleted (e.g., Baloglu, 2001;Baloglu & Brinberg, 1997;Baloglu & McCleary, 1999;Chen, 2001;Kock et al, 2016;Walmsley & Jenkins, 1992). Support of marijuana tourism was evaluated with five items (e.g., Lee & Back, 2003;Lee et al, 2010;Long, 1996). A 5-point Likert-type scale was used to evaluate all questions (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree).…”

Two Sides of a Coin: A Crisis Response Perspective on Tourist Community Participation in a Post-Disaster Environment

“…The first part included the characteristics of community population and tourism participation, including gender, age, monthly income, tourist source, occupation, education, etc. The second part consists of the measurement model scale, including community participation benefit perception [32,33,83], community attachment [60,84], community resilience [34,64], crisis response attitude [40,44], community participation attitude and intentional behavior [14,23], these questions items mainly come from the literature review, and based on preliminary research, comprehensive amendments were designed and developed (The research team has nearly 20 years of experience in the relevant case studies and content). Rating for each statement was based on a Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagrees to (5) strongly agrees.…”

Host community resignation to nightclub tourism

“…There are few cases where the focus is placed on a specific type of tourism offer or product. The only exceptions are enclave resorts (Hernandez, Cohen, & Garcia, 1996), national parks or reserves (Holladay & Ormsby, 2011;Sekhar, 2003;Walpole & Goodwin, 2001) and, mainly, destinations where gambling and casinos are an important tourist attraction (Brown, Roseman, & Ham, 2003;Carmichael, 2000;Coulter, Hermans, & Parker, 2013;Janes & Collison, 2004;Kang, Lee, Yoon, & Long, 2008;Ko & Stewart, 2002;Lee, Kang, & Reisinger, 2010;Lockyer, 2012;Stitt, Giacopassi, & Nichols, 2003;Sutton & Griffiths, 2008;Vong & McCartney, 2005;Vong, 2004Vong, , 2009). This paper tries to make a contribution to the literature of resident studies in the particular area of nightclubs.…”