Resident Segmentation Using SUS-TAS BEST Education Network Think Tank Kingston, Jamaica June 19, 2005

1. Resident SegmentationUsing SUS-TASBEST Education Network Think TankKingston, JamaicaJune 19, 2005 Ercan Sirakaya, Ph.D. Texas A&M University Linda J. Ingram, Ph.D. Candidate - Texas A&M University Hwan-Suk Choi - University of Guelph

2. Introduction • Residents are considered an integral part of destination planning and development as their receptiveness to both visitors and tourism plays an important role in creating a sustainable tourism industry (Davis et al., 1988; Cooke, 1982) • The traditional development paradigm • Issues • The sustainable development paradigm • Issues

3. Introduction • The traditional development paradigm • Issues:produced socially inequitable and environmentally disruptive growth by construing developmentto mean simply economic growth. • Marginalization of residents: they are often excluded not only from tourism planning but also from decision-making and management of tourism projects. (Murphy 1985; Jamal and Getz, 1995).

4. The sustainable development paradigm • Issues:Sustainable tourism refers to an alternative tourism form that can improve “the quality of life of the host community, provide a high quality of experience for the visitors, and maintain the quality of the environment on which both the host community and the visitor depend (McIntyre et al. 1993, p.11).” • Foundation of the sustainability paradigm rests on community residents’ participation in the planning and development process (Butcher 1997; Hunter 1995).

5. The sustainable development paradigm • …attempts to strike a balance between the traditional ‘utility paradigm’ and its derivative ‘social exchange theory’ and the ‘new environmental paradigm (NEP)’. • The former concentrates on trade-off between economic costs and benefits, whereas the latter focuses on conservation/preservation of all resources by eliminating human impacts (Choi and Sirakaya 2005).

6. The sustainable development paradigm • One topic within sustainability literature garnering a great deal of attention as of late concerns the development of the tools necessary to monitor developmental progress in destination communities.Sustainability indicatorsare one such tool. • Recognizing that tools developed solely to measure perceptions of positive/negative impacts of tourism within the traditional conceptual works are insufficient • Choi and Sirakaya (2005) developed and tested a new measurement tool that reflects the paradigm shift toward sustainability. • This new scale, termed SUS-TAS, is a gauge to be used for measuring community sentiments toward tourism development.

7. The sustainable development paradigm • This study is an extension of our original study that utilizes SUS-TAS scale as a segmentation tool among the residents of a community. • As with previous attitude studies, it is hypothesized that residents’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism development will not be uniform across the population stratum.

8. Purpose • To identify relatively homogeneous resident segments within the sustainability framework. • To profile and describe these resident segments using a factor-cluster segmentation approach & test whether there are any differences between various segments of the host population with regard to its socio-economic, socio-demographic characteristics, & selected behavioral & community variables.

9. Methods/Data Collection • Segmentation analysis is a well-established marketing technique that is used to identify groups of tourists with similar characteristics so the marketing mix (e.g., tourism product, distribution, pricing, promotion) can be modified to satisfy the needs of the customers. • Segmentation technique is used not only to delineate customer profiles but also to identify and profile the other side of the coin: the residents.

10. Methods/Data Collection • Development of SUS-TAS • Application - New Braunfels, Texas • Varimax rotated principal component analysis

11. Results • Seven factor items: • Perceived social costs • Environmental sustainability • Long-term planning • Perceived economic benefits • Community centered economy • Ensuring visitor satisfaction • Maximizing community participation

12. Results • Seven factor items: • Perceived social costs • e.g., I often feel irritated because of Tourism in my community, • I do not feel comfortable or welcome in local TB. • Environmental sustainability • e.g., The diversity of nature must be valued and protected, • Regulatory environmental standards are needed to reduce the negative impacts of TD.

13. Results • Seven factor items: • Long-term planning • e.g., I believe we need to take a long-term view when planning for TD. • Perceived economic benefits • e.g., Tourism creates new markets for our local products.

14. Results • Seven factor items: • Community centered economy • e.g., I think TB should hire at least one-half of their employees from within comm. • Ensuring visitor satisfaction • e.g., TI must ensure good quality Tourism experiences for visitors, • Maximizing community participation • e.g., Sometimes, it is acceptable to exclude community's residents from TD decisions.(reverse coded)=

15. Factor tables

16. Factor tables

17. SUS factors by clusters

18. Results • Identification of cluster groups: • Ecological Sustainers • Utilitarian Sustainers • Discriminating factors: 94.7% of original grouped cases correctly classified. • Profile of clusters

19. Profile of Ecological Sustainers • 27.1% of the sample (n=120) • More likely to be sensitive to social costs associated with tourism development • More likely to be sensitive to environmental sustainability issues associated with tourism development • Less likely to support tourism development • More likely to be longer term resident

20. Profile of Ecological Sustainers • More likely to believe that tourism development caused an increase in the cost of real estate in New Braunfels • More likely to believe that environmental deterioration has occurred due to tourism development in New Braunfels • More likely to believe that loss of community character has occurred due to tourism development • More likely to believe that cultural assets (historical icons) were ruined because of tourism development in New Braunfels

21. Profile of Utilitarian Sustainers 67.5% of the sample (n=256) • More likely to value long-term planning approach to tourism development • Less likely to believe that tourism development was damaging and destructive to environmental and cultural assets of the community • More likely to be sensitive to the development of community centered economy • Satisfaction plays a role in the evaluation of sustainability • More likely to support tourism

22. Mutual Characteristics of Both Groups • Sensitive to economic benefits associated with tourism • Value maximizing community participation • Have similar socio-demographic backgrounds (no difference in social economic variables) • Believed that tourism caused significant negative impacts such as increase in noise, crime, traffic, inflation, traffic congestion but not in standard of living.

23. Implications • SUS-TAS: An innovative theoretical framework • Resident attitudes • Adoption of sustainable policies • Resident perceptions of tourism on the community • Introduction of SUS-TAS as a segmentation tool

24. Implications • Residents perceived tourism as responsible for significant negative impacts in the community, with only a few positive economic impacts. • The majority of the residents tended to be Utilitarian Sustainers - 67.5% of the sample - (n=256) who seemed to be pleased with the status quo and how resident participation was handled in their community. • generally perceived less deterioration in environmental and cultural assets due to tourism development than Ecological Sustainers.

25. Implications • Ecological Sustainers, typically are those residents who offered less support for tourism, seemed more concerned with social and environmental sustainability.

26. Conclusions • Residents as major stakeholders in the tourism development process • Of particular interest is the finding that utilitarian sustainers do appear to exist even within the sustainability framework,

27. Conclusions • Testing the SUS-TAS model in areas of different size and demographic makeup would provide greater insight both as to the model’s efficacy. • Repeated use of the model could potentially lead to a database reflective of ongoing concerns as well as issues that appear consistently in community after community and those that are location specific. • This type of database would be a valuable tool for planners and government officials as they initiate new sustainable tourism development projects by offering information that could head off potential issues before they become problematic. • Future research efforts should also explore resident understanding of what is actually involved in applying the principles of sustainability to their communities on a practical level.