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Description:
This paper describes a series of studies
that were designed to identify the attitudes toward tourism in various
destination communities. The studies refer to Hawaii, Republic of
China, Canada, Oregon, and Washington. Aside from community based
differences in support for tourism, the most notable feature of
resident reactions in this case is the similarities of specific
predictors for support for tourism. Planners suggest that local
economic development policy (of which tourism development is one
aspect) adoption is expected to be consensus-oriented. Yet some
tourism planners maintain controversies over policy may constrain
economic development. In fact, Donovan (1993) found that in cities
where controversy over economic development options was high, the
city did less to promote economic development. The findings of the
studies consistently found that "if people feel like they have access
to the planning/public review process and that their concerns are
being considered, they will support tourism." A long term sustainable
tourism industry is characterized by decisions that are made locally,
and cooperatively implemented. In order to develop an effective
and cooperative citizen participation process, the issues, concerns
and discrepancies in preferences and attitudes toward tourism and
recreation development need to be adequately identified on a continued
basis, and utilized in the planning and policy making arena. This
presentation will provide attendees with example questionnaires,
discussion of survey research issues in the context of tourism impact
monitoring, and how practitioners can use the findings of these
types of studies to begin community participation methods for tourism
development. Slides, handouts and Powerpoint will be used for this
presentation.
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