Residents' perceptions of tourism.

Abstract

This study addressed the issue of residents' perception of tourism in two Small Island developing states and sought to compare resident's support for tourism between a mature destination and a less developed destination. This was achieved using a linear model, based on previous work by Jurowski et al (1997). Another objective was to compare the findings with those of a previous study conducted in 1990. Employing ethnographic techniques, the research was carried out on the two peripheral communities of Speightstown and Charlotteville in the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Tobago, respectively. The first stage involved a pilot study which consisted of two focus group meetings. The outcome of these sessions provided useful information for refining the draft questionnaire, which underwent further refinement after piloting on the streets. The second stage was the main survey of 420 residents conducted over 8 weeks using the questionnaire as an interview schedule. The findings suggest that there is widespread support for tourism development in both communities despite their varying levels of tourism sophistication and residents' perceptions of negative consequences of tourism. This apparent paradox was explained by Social Exchange Theory. Key variables which influence support for tourism were found to be personal and community benefits, socio-environmental impacts and community attachment. A proposed Caribbean Tourism Support Model was found to be more applicable in the Barbados context and this may suggest that several other factors influence tourism support in emerging destinations such as Tobago. This study makes a useful contribution to the body of knowledge on hosts' perceptions of tourism as it builds on previous research conducted in other countries while it provides empirical evidence of the applicability of established theories reported in the subject literature. Further, its significance is also derived not only from its use of consistent methodologies in each of the two study areas, but also in the fact that both surveys were conducted within the same timeframe. In this light, it may be considered pioneering research. Nonetheless, this study remains exploratory in nature indicating that further research is necessary in developing a deterministic model of support for tourism development in a contemporary Caribbean context.