CHAPTER I
PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
This dissertation study analyses the social impacts of youth tourism in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece. This way, together with skills in finding research evidence and changing practice as a result of research, the study would have a route to close the gap between research and practice and as such makes an essential contribution to improving tourism quality in Greece.
This chapter starts with the overview of the study, background of the study, objectives of the study, statement of the problem, and significance of the study.
Overview of the Study
Tourism is classically regarded as traveling for recreation although this definition has been expanded in recent years to include any travel outside of one’s normal working or living area. The tourist originated when large numbers of middle class people began to join aristocratic travelers. As societies became wealthier, and people lived longer, it became not only possible but probable that lower-middle and middle class people steadily employed would retire in good health and with some significant savings.
The tourist is usually interested (among other things) in the destination’s climate, culture or its nature. Wealthy people have always traveled to distant parts of the world, not incidentally to some other purpose, but as an end in itself: to see great buildings or other works of art; to learn new languages; or to taste new cuisines. Organized tourism is now a major industry around the world. Many national economies are now heavily reliant on tourism. The term tourism is sometimes used pejoratively, implying a shallow interest in the societies and natural wonders that the tourist visits.
Greece is a country of a rich cultural heritage. Democracy was invented in Athens, Greek culture is the mother of Roman culture and has very much influenced other civilizations. Famous places to visit include the coast of the Aegean Sea, the Peloponnesus with antique Olympia, the host of the next Olympic Games Athens with its Pantheon and the Acropolis, or Thessaloniki in the north. On the island of Crete are great beaches. These sites and places of tourists has an impact to the economy. Moreover, tourism possess some social implication to the development of the industry.
Background of the Study
International tourism remains a consistently productive industry in a volatile global economy. Between 1950 and 1999, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide increased from .025 billion to .664 billion and are expected to reach 1.56 billion by 2020. In 1999, gross receipts from international tourism topped billion in 59 countries and territories. The United Stares led all these with .3 billion (World Tourism Organization, 2002).
Tourism is an “invisible” industry, encompassing transportation, lodging, and entertainment. Unfortunately, tourism is also invisible to many planners, so tourism development is often left to private developers and leisure service providers. Scholarship on tourism planning remains scarce some 15 years after it was announced as one of planning’s “emerging specializations” (Inskeep, 1988, p. 360). Given tourism’s substantial social, economic, and environmental impacts–positive and negative–planners can no longer afford to dismiss tourism as tangential to other planning functions.
As one of the world’s largest industries, tourism has the capacity to improve the material life of communities that have lost traditional industries as trade barriers have fallen. However, tourism can also have severe negative impacts on a community, outweighing any economic and cultural benefits. Historic districts tend to magnify these negative effects, as deeply rooted residents in a restricted physical environment live with tourism on a daily basis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the social impacts of youth tourism in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece.
Most tourism planners consider maintaining and improving resident-tourist relations critical to the long-term viability of tourism destinations (Ap, 1992; Ap & Crompton, 1998). Resident attitudes toward tourism development range along a continuum from negative to positive. Milman and Pizam (1988) found that despite positive feelings toward tourists, residents often noted specific negative impacts. These impacts included increases in unsafe traffic conditions, crime, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Benefits perceived by residents included increased employment opportunities, income, tax revenues, and quality of life. Many tourism researchers have assumed that determining sources of negative impacts can result in policies that mitigate them and improve resident attitudes (Lankford, 1994; Lankford & Howard, 1993). McCool and Martin (1994) hypothesized that residents with strong feelings of community attachment were more likely to have negative attitudes toward tourism development than less attached residents, but their results refuted this notion. Now, this study tends to investigate to the social impact of youth tourism particularly in the area of Greece.
During the years of mass tourism after World War II, the tourism industry stressed tourism’s positive economic benefits. By the 1970s, however, researchers began documenting negative social, economic, and environmental impacts of tourism (Jordan, 1980; Pizam, 1978; Rothman, 1978). Over the last 20 years, a more balanced perspective has emerged, with researchers investigating both positive and negative impacts as reflected in resident attitudes (Ap & Crompton, 1998). Mental states or dispositions, attitudes are “reinforced by perceptions and beliefs of reality, but are closely related to deeply held values and even to personality-unlike opinions, they do not change quickly” (Getz, 1994, p. 247). Resident attitudes are now recognized by tourism researchers as related to both the processes and outcomes of tourism development (Lindberg &Johnson, 1997).
McCool and Martin (1994) examined relationships between tourism attitudes, length of residence, level of tourism development, and feelings of community attachment. Williams, McDonald, Riden, and Uysal (1995) measured community attachment as length of residence, age, and income, and Jurowski (1998) asked respondents to rate their quality of life and satisfaction with the community as a place to live or the impact of tourism in social cases.
Um and Crompton (1987) found that resident perceptions of tourism impacts on environmental quality did not relate significantly to attachment levels. However, the authors did find that, except for the environmental dimension, the more attached residents were to a community in terms of length of residence, birthplace, and heritage, the less positively they perceived tourism development impacts in their community. Conversely, McCool and Martin (1994) reported that strongly attached residents rated the positive dimension of tourism higher than unattached residents, although they were more concerned about sharing the costs of tourism development. Similarly, Williams et al. (1995) found that residents with high levels of attachment, measured as regional identity, tended to be more supportive of tourism development than less attached residents. Jurowski (1998) reported that residents with stronger feelings for their community were more supportive of tourism development and more optimistic about the impacts of tourism on the quality of life in their community.
With the exception of Um and Crompton (1987), the research on community attachment and attitudes toward tourism development suggests that highly attached residents tend to view tourism development more favorably than less attached residents, although with some reservations, as noted by McCool and Martin (1994).
Tourism Planning is one of the important things to consider in gaining positive impact to the community. Although resident attitudes toward tourism development are frequently discussed in the context of communities, rarely do researchers discuss the implications of these attitudes for urban planning. At the same time, however, tourism planning continues to evolve from having a design orientation toward having a more inclusive and sustainable community approach.
Beginning in the early 1970s, a few authors proposed planning techniques for sustaining tourism on the destination or attraction level. Contemporary to McHarg’s (1969) Design with Nature, signaling the beginning of environmental design, Gunn’s (1972) Vacationscape: Designing Tourism Regions sympathetically integrated landscape design principles with a region’s tourism resources. This emphasis on physical planning was followed by Baud-Bovy and Lawson (1977), who called for integrating tourism planning into national economic policy. However, although these technical approaches, mirroring comprehensive rationality, fostered new awareness of tourism as a planning issue, many early attempts at tourism planning placed little emphasis on resident attitudes or citizen participation.
Following the advocacy movement, tourism planners in the 1970s began to acknowledge the need for a more participatory approach. For example, Gunn (1979) advocated the participation of multiple stakeholders in the tourism planning process, although such an approach was rarely practiced. Rosenow and Pulsipher (1979) noted that growth management contributed to sustaining the tourism product, with final decisions best left in the “hands of managers of resources with full public input” (p. 229).
During this period, international tourism increasingly faced criticism for cultural exploitation. Critics demanded that planners respect the traditions and values of residents to avoid possible boycott by the emerging socially conscious traveler. Such travelers expanded tourism s global scope by establishing a demand for authentic destinations “off the beaten track” and were forerunners of today’s adventure, heritage, and ecotour travelers.
During the 1980s and 1990s, community-driven tourism became a major research theme, frequently under the guise of downtown redevelopment. In this era of strategic planning, tourism was seen by many planners as a replacement for “twilight” industries and a form of civic boosterism (Judd & Fainstein, 1999). In Tourism: A Community Approach, Murphy (1985) stressed resident involvement early in the tourism planning process, before key, and often irreversible, decisions are made. The author also emphasized social and environmental issues as critical elements of successful tourism planning. However, in many cases, downtown tourism development merely resulted in a poorly planned “tourist bubble” (Judd & Fainstein, 1999, pp. 35-53)-a standardized, mass-produced tourism venue. In many cities, sports stadiums and convention centers represent the interests of powerful urban regimes rather than those of residents.
Recently, the concept of sustainable development has provided new momentum for tourism planning. For example, Hall (2000) and Inskeep (1991) identified sustainable development as a primary planning and development theme. In addition, Gunn’s (1994) third edition of Tourism Planning included a chapter on sustainable development as a critical element of effective tourism planning.
Recent contributions to tourism planning show a diversity of perspectives. For example, The Tourism City (Judd & Fainstein, 1999) is composed of case studies on urban tourism as an economic development strategy. Managing Tourism Growth: Issues and Applications (Bosselman et al., 1999) approaches tourism planning from a growth management perspective and presents case studies of historic districts in Santa Fe and New Orleans. Articles by Marcouiller (1997) and Ioannides (1995) address rural tourism planning in the United States and tourism planning in less developed countries, respectively. Marcouiller’s (1995) extensive tourism planning bibliography remains a useful guide to seminal research in the field. Finally, the World Tourism Organization’s (1994) National and Regional Tourism Planning offer tourism planning case studies from an international perspective.
This paper adds to these perspectives by addressing a question of increasing importance in many cities: how to preserve and maintain built environments, as embodied in historic districts, while balancing the interests of residents with a citywide interest in enhancing tourism as an economic development strategy or in other words, this paper analyses the social impact of tourism in Greece.
Statement of the Problem
This researcher finds the necessity for a study that specifically tackles how youth tourism affects the society of Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece. Specifically, this study intends to understand the effect of social impact on the community and the business itself. It will also try to fill in gap in social responsibility theory and research about its impact in tourism business. Moreover, this study will try to answer the following queries:
1. What are the strength and weaknesses of the tourism industry in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece?
2. How does this industry affect the economy of Greece?
3. How does Greece benefit/suffer from the changes and problem issues of tourism industry?
4. Do tourism industry outperform other institutions in Greece?
5. What are the positive and negative related factors in tourism affects the economy of Greece?
6. What is the degree of impact?
Hypothesis of the Study
This paper will work on the following hypothesis:
Youth tourism in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece has a significant effect to the society.
Tourism Industry has a higher degree of social expectations than other industries in Greece.
Aims and Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the social impacts of youth tourism in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece. It aims to understand the different factors in tourism that has a significant effect to the society. This is done by carefully examining some of the interviews and information gathered and conducted by the researcher. This study also aims to determine if strategists in tourism industry are effectively applying the best technique to gain economic development.
Moreover, the study aims to explore as to what related factors is exploited by the industry for its benefits. Literatures show that tourism has several implications to the development of a certain country. Likewise the effects of many factors add to the difficult process of tourism development. Therefore this study will propose solutions, guidelines and measures in planning what type of technique must be used specifically in the tourism industry.
Moreover, in this study, other aspects of the tourism industry that are also considered in development are tackled. These include the organization of the industry, human resource, community issues and tourists’ satisfaction.
Significance of the Study
This study will be a significant endeavor in promoting youth tourism in the society of Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece. It is true that the said industry has greater social responsibility compared to other industry in Greece.
Moreover, this study will be helpful to the tourism industry and business practitioners in training and informing them in the area of social responsibility and tourism development. It will help them in formulating social policies, objectives, and strategies. It will also serve as a future reference for researchers on the subject of tourism development and business social responsibility. And importantly, this research will educate consumers/tourists in deciding on whether an industry is really fulfilling its responsibility to the community or is just showing off to promote its business.
Scope and Delimitation
This paper shall attempt to identify the social impact of youth tourism in the community of Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece using a random sampling survey that will be conducted. Moreover, the literature covering the area of social responsibility and tourism development, the overview of tourism business, the nature of industry and culture and statistics on tourism workforce will be gathered and analysed using the Human Resources Development approach.
This research shall cover tourism industry in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece as the source of data; and the data acquired will be used for the analysis. Analysis shall be limited on the outcome of the survey that will be conducted. Related Literatures, especially the study by Chrisman and Archer (1984) will be used as a comparative tool to further highlight/contradict the outcome of this research.
References:
Ap,J. (1992). Residents’ perceptions on tourism impacts. Annals of Tourism Research, 19(4), 665-690.
Ap,J., & Crompton, J. L. (1998). Developing and testing a tourism impact scale. Journal of Tourism Research, 37(2), 120-130.
Baud-Bovy, M., & Lawson, F. (1977). Tourism and recreation development. Boston: CBI Publishing.
Bosselman, F. P., Peterson, C. A., & McCarthy, C. (1999). Managing tourism growth: Issues and applications. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Chrisman, J.J., R. W. Archer (1984). Small business social responsibility: some perceptions and insights. American Journal of Small Business Vol. 9 (2).
Getz, D. (1994). Residents’ attitudes towards tourism development: A longitudinal study in Spey Valley, Scotland. Tourism Management, 15(4), 247-258.
Gunn, C. A. (1972). Vacationscape: Designing tourism regions. New York: Van Norstrand Reinhold.
Gunn, C. A. (1979). Tourism planning: Basics, concepts, and cases. New York: Crane, Russak.
Gunn, C. A. (1994). Tourism planning: Basics, concepts, and cases (3rd ed.). New York: Taylor and Francis.
Hall, C. M. (2000). Tourism planning: Policies, processes, and relationships. New York: Prentice Hall.
Inskeep, E. (1988). Tourism planning: An emerging specialization. Journal of the American Planning Association, 54(3), 360-372.
Inskeep, E. (1991). Tourism planning: An integrated and sustainable approach. New York: Van Norstrand Reinhold.
Ioannides, D. (1995). Planning for international tourism in less developed countries: Toward sustainability. Journal of Planning Literature, 9(3), 235- 254.
Jordan, J. (1980). The summer people and the natives: Some effects of tourism in a Vermont vacation village. Annals of Tourism Research, 7(1), 34-55.
Judd., D. R., & Fainstein, S. S. (Eds.). (1999). The tourist city. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
Jurowski, C. (1998). A study of community sentiments in relation to attitudes toward tourism development. Tourism Analysis, 3(1), 17-34.
Lankford, S.V. (1994). Attitudes and perceptions toward tourism and rural regional development. Journal of Tourism Research, 32(3), 35-43.
Lankford, S. V., & Howard, D. R (1993). Developing a tourism impact attitude scale. Annals of Tourism Research, 21(1), 121-139.
Lankford, S. V., Buxton, B. P., Hetzler, R., & Little, J. R. (1995). Response bias and wave analysis of mailed questionnaires in tourism impact assessments. Journal of Travel Research, 33(4), 8-13.
Lindberg, K., & Johnson, R. L. (1997). Modeling resident attitudes toward tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(2), 402-424.
Marcouiller, D. W. (1995). CPL bibliography 316: Tourism planning. Chicago: Council of Planning Librarians, American Planning Association.
Marcouiller, D. W. (1997). Toward integrative tourism planning in rural America. Journal of Planning Literature, 11(3), 337-357.
McCool, S.F., & Martin, S. R. (1994). Community attachment and attitudes toward tourism development. Journal of Travel Research, 32(2), 29-34.
McHarg, I. (1969). Design with nature. New York: Garden City Press.
Milman, A., & Pizam, A. (1988). Social impacts of tourism on Central Florida. Annals of Tourism Research, 15(2), 191-204.
Murphy, P. E. (1985). Tourism: A community approach. New York: Methane.
Pizam, A. (1978). Tourism’s impacts: The social costs to the destination community as perceived by its residents. Journal of Travel Research, 16(4), 8-12.
Rosenow, J. E., & Pulsipher, G. L. (1979). Tourism: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Lincoln, NE: Media Productions and Marketing, Inc.
Rothman, R. A. (1978). Residents and transients: Community reaction to seasonal visitors. Journal of Travel Research, 16(3), 8-13.
Um, S., & Crompton, J. L. (1987). Measuring residents’ attachment levels in a host community. Journal of Travel Research, 26(1), 27-29.
World Tourism Organization. (1994). National and regional tourism planning: Methodologies and case studies. London: Routledge.
World Tourism Organization. (2002). Facts and figures. Retrieved November 8,2002, from http://www.world-tourism.org
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the description of the research method to be used, population and sampling techniques, the instruments to be used, the data-gathering procedures and statistical treatment utilized in analysing the data that will be gathered. Because research is not a linear process, the only way to help judge the type of and amount of data is to decide on the methods, which is used to analyze them to obtain a feel for the data, establish reliability and to understand how the results are interpreted.
Method of Research to be Used
There are three kinds of research methods, correlational, experimental and descriptive. (Walliman and Baiche, 2001) The correlational kind of research method is used due to ethical problems with experiments. Moreover, it is also used due to practical problems with experiments. Likewise, inferring causality from correlation not actually impossible, but very difficult. This mode of study is widely applicable, cheap, and usually ethical. The correlational research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics (r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance (r-squared). A correlational relationship between two variables is occasionally the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect. If a strong relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can test causality.
On the other hand, the experimental method is the only method that can be used to establish cause-and-effect relationships. (Creswell, 1994) That is, it is the only one that can be used to explain the bases of behaviour and mental processes. In this method, the subjects are split into two (or more) groups. One group, called the experimental group gets the treatment that the researcher believes will cause something to happen (this treatment is formally called the independent variable). The experimental and control groups are compared on some variable that is presumed to reflect the effects of the treatment, or outcome. This is formally referred to as the dependent variable.
And lastly, the descriptive research method uses observation and surveys. In this method, it is possible that the study would be cheap and quick. It could also suggest unanticipated hypotheses. Nonetheless, it would be very hard to rule out alternative explanations and especially infer causations. Thus, this study will use the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize observations in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell (1994) will guide the researcher when he stated: Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study.
For this study, primary research and secondary research will be used. Primary research will be conducted using questionnaire surveys that will be sent to intended respondents in Greece who were or are mainly affected by youth tourism. The researcher will also be conducting focus group discussion with travelers, tourists, economists, businessmen, government officials and tourism officials. Here, the questionnaires will be used to collect quantitative data and the interviews will be used to provide qualitative insights into the data collected.
As stated above, this research will partially base its findings through quantitative research methods because this permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allows investigation of important new issues about tourism in developing countries particularly to Greece and questions as they arise, and allows the investigator to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan.
This study will also employ qualitative research method because qualitative elements that do not have standard measures such as behavior, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs within the realm of youth tourism will be analyzed. Furthermore qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.
The data collection instrument will be a structured questionnaire that will be based on Likert scale. A Likert Scale is a rating scale that requires the subject to indicate his or her degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement. By rating scale we mean the scales that are usually used to measure attitudes towards an object, the degree to which an object contains a particular attribute, (Like or dislike), toward some attribute, or the importance attached to an attribute. The secondary sources of data will come from published articles from economic journals, books and related studies on tourism and economic problems.
For this research design, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from economic journals; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material. Afterwards, the researcher will summarize all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provide insightful recommendations.
Research Method This study uses the descriptive-normative-survey approach. This descriptive type of research utilizes interview, observation and questionnaires in the study. The survey part refers to the gathering of data regarding current conditions. Normative is used to ascertain the normal or typical condition. Interviews will be scheduled to cover the information that is vital to this study such as how is social responsibility in tourism is defined. The data will be coming from accomplished questionnaire and interviews.
Because research is not a linear process, the only way to help us to judge the type of and amount of data is to decide on the methods, which we will use to analyze them to obtain a feel for the data, establish reliability and to understand how the results are interpreted.
Population and Sampling Techniques
A number of related personalities in tourism, workers and tourists will be surveyed and interviewed as to the realm of this study. They will be sent questionnaires pertaining to the topic. Their cooperation will be fervently sought after. A descriptive analysis (with strictest confidence given to financial aspect) of its organization will be undertaken, form the organizational structure down the most intricate detail permitted. The object is to find out the exact nature of youth tourism and its impact on the community and the industry itself.
Data Gathering Procedures
The researcher will personally administer the questionnaire. Retrieval will be done according to mutually agreed number of days. Upon retrieval, the researcher will conduct an unstructured interview with the different respondents for further clarification on the answers given.
The secondary sources of data will come from Tourism and Management books, thesis studies on tourism development and articles from journals, specifically the Journal of Tourism and Business management.
Respondents of the Study The general population for this study will be composed of randomly selected respondents in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece related to tourism and tourists/travellers in the place, numbering to 60 respondents. The researcher shall also provide interviews for 10 randomly selected personalities in tourism (such as businessmen, tourists, tourism officials, etc.) and government officials. Instruments to be Used
To determine the effects of youth tourism in Faliraki, Rhodes, Greece, the researcher will prepare a questionnaire and a set of guide questions for the interview that will be asked to the intended respondents. The respondents will grade each statement in the survey-questionnaire using a Likert scale with a five-response scale wherein respondents will be given five response choices. The equivalent weights for the answers will be:
Range Interpretation
4.50 – 5.00 Strongly Agree
3.50 – 4.00 Agree
2.50 – 3.49 Uncertain
1.50 – 2.49 Disagree
0.00 – 1.49 Strongly Disagree
Validation of the Instrument
For validation purposes, the researcher will initially submit a sample of the set of survey questionnaires and after approval; the survey will be conducted to five respondents. After the questions were answered, the researcher will ask the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary corrections to ensure further improvement and validity of the instrument. The researcher will again examine the content of the interview questions to find out the reliability of the instrument. The researchers will exclude irrelevant questions and will change words that would be deemed difficult by the respondents, too much simpler terms.
Administration of the Instrument
The researcher will exclude the five respondents who will be initially used for the validation of the instrument. The researcher will also tally, score and tabulate all the responses in the provided interview questions. Moreover, the interview shall be using a structured interview. It shall consist of a list of specific questions and the interviewer does not deviate from the list or inject any extra remarks into the interview process. The interviewer may encourage the interviewee to clarify vague statements or to further elaborate on brief comments. Otherwise, the interviewer attempts to be objective and tries not to influence the interviewer’s statements. The interviewer does not share his/her own beliefs and opinions. The structured interview is mostly a “question and answer” session.
Statistical Treatment of the Data
When the entire survey questionnaire will have been collected, the researcher will use statistics to analyse all the data.
The statistical formulae to be used in the survey questionnaire will be the following:
1. Percentage – to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire.
n
% = ——– x 100 ; n – number of responses
N N – total number of respondents
2. Weighted Mean
f1x1 + f2x2 + f3x3 + f4x4 + f5x5
x= ——————————————— ;
xt
where: f – weight given to each response
x – number of responses
The researcher will be assisted by the SPSS in coming up with the statistical analysis for this study.
References:
Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Walliman, Nicholas and Bousmaha Baiche. (2001) Your research project. SAGE Publications
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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