Resident Perceptions of Tourism Impacts and Their Support for Tourism Development

ABSTRACT

LOCAL RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TOURISM IMPACTS AND THEIR SUPPORT FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF HANOI, VIETNAM

Tourism industry has an increase in not only developed countries but also developing countries. Many countries try to develop tourism industry because of their advantages. The most important element for the success and sustainability of any type of tourism development is that understanding local residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts and their attitudes toward tourism development (Pham Hong Long, 2012). There are many studies which give much attention to the development of tourism industry. They try to figure out the benefits and drawbacks of tourism industry. However, almost all studies have been carried out thoroughly in this topic of the developed countries like USA, France, and Australia and so on. In the developing countries, the government and also other studies just has little research has mentioned about this topic especially in Vietnam. They have not seen the importance of tourism. As a result, this study tries to investigate residents’ perceptions of tourism’s impact on community to contribute to the sustainable development.

There are many previous models developed by Gursoy and Rutherford (2004); C.Jurowski, Uysal, and Williams (1997); Perdue et al. (1990) to find out the advantages and disadvantages of tourism. All these models have used social exchange theory (Blau, 1986; Emerson, 1976; George Caspar Homans, 1961), they see that theory as its theoretical foundation to understand and evaluate residents’ perception of tourism impacts which are economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts as well as their support for the development of tourism in the future. Social exchange theory is the rooted in economic theory and modified by Thibaut and Kelly (1959) for the study of the social psychology of groups. This theory focuses on the perceptions of the relative costs and benefits of relationships and their implications for relationship satisfaction. As such, social exchange theory has provided a conceptual base for the examination of the inter-relationships among perceptions of costs and advantages, positive and negative impacts, and support for tourism (Choi & Murray, 2010; Jurowski & Gursoy, 2004; Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2010a, 2010b). There are two main hypotheses were tested regarding the socio-demographic characteristics of the residents’ and their perceptions of tourism impacts which include overall evaluations of tourism impact.

This research used the method which is based on a self-administered survey which is a type of questionnaire, and this survey has been sent to 18-years-old who live in Hanoi, Vietnam between July and August 2017. From 163 surveys, the result and analysis have shown that respondents have seen tourism positively and only showed a medium support for tourism development. As have been showed, people who live in Hanoi felt significantly interested in benefits and also drawbacks of tourism that contributes and affects economically and socio-culturally to Hanoi. However, they were not very interested and have not shown a clear opinion about environmental variables.

The result of this study has shown that social exchange theory is useful in explaining the perceptions of residents, and their attitude towards, tourism. This study also is expected to be useful to the government, the local planners and other students who feel interested in the attempt figuring out the way applying social exchange theory in finding the perception of residents toward tourism development.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DEFINITIONS OF KEY CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

I. Background

II. Statement of the problem

III. Research objectives

IV. Research questions

V. The main parts of the study

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANOVA	Analysis of variance
Df	Degree of freedom
Sig.	Significance
KMO	Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
SPSS	Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

DEFINITIONS OF KEY CONCEPTS

Terms and concepts upon their operational value are defined and described for the effectiveness of this study

Tourism impact: Positive or negative changes caused by the the interchange between tourists, host communities, and destinations (Mathieson & Wall, 1982).

Economic impact: Positive or negative changes resulting from the development and use of tourist facilities and services (Mathieson & Wall, 1982).

Socio-cultural impact: Positive or negative changes in the life, culture, traditions, beliefs, relationships of local residents in tourism destination areas (Mathieson & Wall, 1982).

Environmental impact: Positive or negative changes in the natural environment whether they be natural or human processes (Mathieson & Wall, 1982).

Costs/benefits: Tourism impacts can be analyzed in positive (benefits) and negative (costs) ways in terms of economic, socio/cultural and environmental aspect (Ap, 1992a).

Residents: Individuals living in the study area (Yoon, 1998).

Perceptions: Residents’ views, attitudes, and reactions of tourism impacts, and tourism development (Yoon, 1998).

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

Background

From the day due to people would have a high demand go out of their house and take a trip, the government has realized that tourism is one of the most important industry to develop their economies. Not only in developed countries in the world but also many developing countries have realized this. The rural communities of some developing countries have many problem and high unemployment. With this development of tourism, people in the rural can have more job options and boost their local economies. To develop the economy in rural communities and solve the difficulties, they have adopted tourism as a new economic development strategy (Latkova, 2008). However, in some rural communities, the planners would not balance between the benefits and the drawbacks of tourism development. Therefore, many negative impacts of tourism like a large number of tourists, environmental pollution, and ruined legacy outweigh socio-cultural, economic and also environmental advantages. As a result, it is crucial to understand the opinions of residents regarding future developing before starting any tourism development program (Latkova, 2008).

Some previous studies about tourism development have demonstrated that it depends much on the goodwill, participation, and support of residents (Yoon, Gursoy, & Chen, 2001). Following the findings of Yoon, Gursoy, and Chen, they suggested that tourism should be developed base on the needs and desires of residents. The fundamental for the success and developing sustainability of tourism industry is that understanding the perceptions of local residents about tourism impacts and their attitudes (Allen, Long, Perdue, & Kieselbach, 1988; Lankford & Howard, 1994; Yoon et al., 2001). Many researchers have seen that fact and they have developed some models and suitable theory to examine the perceptions and the attitude of residents in developed countries especially in the USA, Europe, and the England. However, none of them try to examine in developing countries. There are just a few studies which have examined with some countries in Asia. Realizing this gap in research, this study tries to examine the perceptions and the attitude of residents regarding tourism impacts in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Statement of the problem

Not only developed countries but also many developing countries usually face with an important question is “how to plan for optimal tourism development, while at the same time minimizing the impacts of its development on the resident population” (Pham, 2012). According Jackson (2008), one approach is to monitor the opinions of residents of perceived impacts as a means of incorporating local people’s reaction to tourism planning and development.

As mentioned above, there are many studies which have examined the perceptions and attitudes of residents of developed countries. However, “it is necessary to conduct other research about tourism development in some other geographical locations because, in different location, they will find it easy to identify and explore other elements which can prove social exchange theory and improve the models. However most studies directed at residents’ perceptions of tourism and community-based planning have been conducted in the west: Canada (e.g., Ritchie, 1993), the US (e.g., Ap & Crompton, 1993), the UK (e.g., Robson & Robson, 1996), or Australia (e.g., Brown & Giles, 1994). Community involvement effects social impacts within Asian countries is still an open point that has yet to be fully examined As a result, to contribute a little research and develop on residents’ perceptions of tourism impact, this study was researched in Hanoi, Vietnam

Research objectives

This study has two main objectives. Firstly, it is to test and examine the model of Pham Hong Long (2012) explaining the perception, the attitude and their support for tourism, also apply the theory social exchange theory.

Secondly, this study tries to understand some main factors like socio-demographic effect on the perceptions, evaluation and their support of residents of tourism impacts.

Research questions

To understand and fulfill the purposes of this study, there are two primary questions are addressed:

1. What is respondents’ opinions about economic impacts, socio-cultural impacts, and environmental impacts?
2. What are the main factors which explain the perception of Hanoi residents, and their evaluations, and their support for tourism?
3. What are the residents’ perceptions, evaluations, and support differences between eight socio-demographic characteristics?
4. What is the relationship between socio-demographic variables and the perceptions, evaluation of residents, and their support for tourism development?

The findings of this study can contribute to finding solutions to develop tourism in Hanoi by giving some suggestions and recommendations to planners, local government, and developers. This study also combines and try to apply the new model and the social exchange theory and prove the importance of this theory in understanding the attitudes and the perceptions of residents. Besides, this study also contributes a literature for a future researcher who does studies which relate to tourism impacts and the support of residents in tourism development.

This study may not complete because of limited time for the deepest researching like interview residents, and also applied some models from other researchers in other countries may not have some difficulties for this place because of different residents, culture, and religions. However, this study tried to test the social exchange framework by concentrating on the perspectives of residents, their evaluations of tourism impacts, and their support.

This study is to take a sample of residents in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

There are two assumptions in this study

1. Residents perceive and their evaluate tourism impacts, and their support tourism development in the context of exchange, that is, in terms of the expected benefits or costs obtained from tourism (Ap, 1992b)
2. Residents’ perceptions and evaluations are predictors of their support (Ap, 1992b)

The main parts of the study

The study includes five main parts starting with the introduction. This part shows the overall idea, research questions and explains how its relevance with this study.

The second part is a review of the literature. This part will provide the context and the justification of this study and try to focus on the principal contributions, different methodological approaches to this topic. This part also gives some relevant literature and articles to answer the research question and contribute to have the right method and theory.

The third part is methodology, this part presents the approaches and methodologies that have studied in Preparation for Graduating Project class.

The next part consists of data collection, statistical analysis and a discussion of the findings.

The last part will provide a conclusion, and also recommendations for future research.