Tourism Use History: Exploring a New Framework for Understanding Residents’ Attitudes toward Tourism

Abstract

This study attempts to answer the question “What influence does an individual’s travel have on attitudes concerning who should develop tourism in their community as well as the role of the government in such development?” Research on residents’ attitudes toward tourism has traditionally focused on demographic, socioeconomic, and spatial predictor variables, with relatively few consistent findings. Based on the experience use history concept from the leisure and outdoor recreation literature, this study explores a new framework for understanding residents’ attitudes toward tourism in two distinct destinations in South Carolina, United States. Tourism use history was used to create resident groups within each community and assess attitudes about who should develop tourism (e.g., local businesses, outside investors and developers, government, or a public—private partnership) and government support for tourism businesses. Results are discussed in relation to the stage of tourism development in each destination. Further development and testing of tourism use history is recommended.

Residents’ perceived impacts of all-inclusive resorts in Antalya

“…However, mixed findings have developed, as no one socio-demographic variable has consistently yielded significant results (Harrill, 2004). This is likely explained by the fact that resident attitudes' studies are highly contextual, whereby not every community is homogenous in its composition of residents, exposed to the same phenomenon, and located in the same region across the globe (Draper, Woosnam, & Norman, 2009;Woosnam & Norman, 2010). In applying the social exchange theory, Ward and Berno (2011) found that gender, age, and employment (i.e.…”

Understanding Residents' Support for Tourism Development: The Case of Aqaba City in Jordan

“…Results are discussed in relation to the stage of tourism development in each destination. Further development and testing of tourism use history is recommended (Draper et al, 2011) …”

The Evaluation of the Impact of Tourism on Residents: The Case of Taormina

“…Despite the diversity of approaches and content, research developed in this field shares the utilization of a predefined set of independent variables (Huh & Vogt, 2008;Draper, Woosnam & Norman, 2011) adopted to predict the perceptions of residents towards tourism, such as the traditional socio-demographic dimensions (e.g. age, gender, education, length of residence, ethnicity), socio-economic (income and economic dependence in tourism activities); those most closely linked to the geographical space-dimension (e.g.…”