Conference Proceedings (Volume II)

Conference Proceedings (Volume II) Rural Mountain Tourism: Preserving Culture and Heritage of Mountain Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

Proceedings of 4 International Conference on Tourism Research th

Rural Mountain Tourism: Preserving Culture and Heritage of Mountain Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

Editors: Assoc. Prof. Sr Dr. Mastura Jaafar Tania Maria Tangit

Organised by: Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster (STRC) Universiti Sains Malaysia and Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sabah Branch

In association with: 5 International Rural Responsible Tourism Symposium in conjunction with International Mountain Day th

Published by: Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster Universiti Sains Malaysia Room 16, Ground Floor, Building H25, Lorong Cahaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia Tel: +(6)04-653 5850 Fax: +(6)04-653 5101 E-mail: [email protected] ISBN: 978-967-394-205-3 Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research

Copyright © 4th International Conference on Tourism Research, 2014 All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, store in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

PREFACE

The 4th International Conference on Tourism Research held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian-Borneo from 9 - 11 December 2014, created a strong presence of linkage, with an overarching theme of “Rural Mountain Tourism: Preserving Culture and Heritage of Mountain Minorities and Indigenous Peoples”. This theme was developed in recognition of 'International Mountain Day', an annual celebration on December 11th to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life. This volume contains two (2) parts; 1) e-Conference Proceedings, and 2) SHS Web of Conferences indexed by Thomson Reuters (Web of Science). The total count of papers published is 114 papers. There was an overwhelming response of more than 200 abstracts and full papers were reviewed. One of the unique and valuable dimensions to the 4ICTR is the way the event brings tourism educators and practitioners together from around the world to discuss ways to greatly serve the industry. The contents of this volume prove selected high-quality papers of the academia. Readers will discover that both common challenges and creative solutions emerge from very diverse settings – not only through the lens of Malaysia, as it encompasses a universal array of studies from South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Brazil and other countries as well. Indeed, we hope that you will enjoy and find valuable knowledge through your engagement with scholarly ideas in sustaining your own professional development in the global world of tourism and hospitality education. The success of organizing the 4ICTR is its people. Our heartiest thanks and gratitude go to the scientific committee members for the reviews and comments of submitted papers, members of the organizing committee and authors for their contribution to the conference.

Mastura Jaafar @ Mustapha Tania Maria Tangit Editors-in-Chief

th

PROCEEDINGS OF 4 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM RESEARCH (VOLUME 2) Rural Mountain Tourism: Preserving Culture and Heritage of Mountain Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Accepted Full Papers Health Tourism in South Africa: Current Dynamics, Benefits, Challenges and Future Prospects Unathi Sonwabile Henama

1

The Influence of Tourism Event on the Residential Neighborhoods in Abi Local Government Area, Nigeria Eja Iwara Eja, Joseph K. Ukwayi and Eteng Eloma Usang

8

Developing Ecotourism Adaptive Management Framework for National Park Hon Loong Chee, Alias Abdullah and Shamzani Affendy Mohd Din

16

Relationships among the Characteristics of Serious Leisure, Group Cohesion, and Leisure Involvement in Volunteer Interpreters Wen-Shiung Huang, Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur, Yung-Sen Lin and Chi-Ling Lien

24

Events as Catalyst to Attract Tourists to Destinations: Spectator Perceptions of the Social Impacts of Events in East London. A Study of Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa 70.3, Buffalo City Siyabonga Mxunyelwa

35

A Study of Impact on Flight Attendants’ Emotional Intelligence and Social Support for Team Commitment Cha Minyoung and Yoon Sunyoung

43

A Study on the Impact of Perceived Glass Ceiling, Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction among Female Airline Employees Choi Eunjoo and Yoon Sunyoung

51

Promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through Business Tourism: A Conceptual Study in Malaysia Norliza Abd Rahman, Tarmiji Masron and Molood Seifi

58

Diversity of Lepidoptera (Rhopalocera) in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Siti Sarayati Abd Mawah, Suhair Hawa Anadele Suarno and Nor Bazilah Razali

67

Preliminary Study of Unveiling Bajau Foods Characteristics in Papar, Sabah Shalawati Ibrahim, Muhammad Shahrim Ab Karim, Abdul Lateef Krauss Abdullah and Jusang Bolong

75

Waterfront Development and Land Reclamation for Urban Tourism in Manado, Indonesia Bet El Silisna Lagarense and Agustinus Walansendow

82

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research

Health Tourism in South Africa: Current Dynamics, Benefits, Challenges and Future Prospects Unathi Sonwabile Henamaa Department of Tourism Management, Tshwane University of Technology, 0183 Pretoria, South Africa Abstract. The tourism industry is one industry that has grown in leaps and bound since the watershed moment in 1994. Mining and manufacturing have declined their share of gross domestic product contribution, whilst tourism has been a perennial growth sector. The growth of tourism has resulted in tourism becoming a priority sector by government and the private sector. Tourism creates jobs, attracts investment, foreign exchange and diversifies the economy. Health tourism can be regarded within the definition of special interest tourism, which is regarded as ‘’new tourism’’. The private healthcare system in South Africa is world class, and the growth of tourism has led to synergies being formed for the development of medical tourism in South Africa. The paper reviews health and medical tourism secondary literature to present an argument for the development of the industry, and the identification of obstacles to the growth of health tourism. There is paucity of academic gaze on medical tourism and the secondary research will present certain findings that will be of benefit to the health tourism industry in South Africa.

1 Introduction The 1994 ascent to power of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa after the first democratic elections, the ANC was faced with the realities of high unemployment, an unstable economy and high inequality and poverty. Employment in the traditional resource-based industries, namely mining and agriculture has been shrinking since the 1980s [1]. Only two in five working age adults in South Africa (those aged 15 to 64 years old) have a job and more than 4 million people-24% are currently unemployed [2]. The tourism industry more than any other industry, has the potential to bring about economic growth and jobs. The tourism industry employs a multiplicity of skills in addition to low barriers of entry [3]. Tourism generates 8.7% of world employment [4]. Almost all countries in the world have jumped on the tourism bandwagon. Tourism by far, has the potential to provide the jobs required by the economy to address unemployment, and spatial development. Tourism directly supports 3.9% of total employment and 2.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011 [5].

a

Corresponding author: [email protected]

1

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research Tourism is too often regarded as a panacea - an economic, social and environmental ‘cure-all’ [6]. This is closely related with the promotion of tourism as a poverty alleviation strategy. There is less well-known knowledge on how tourism contributes to poverty alleviation [7]. The economic importance of tourism is exaggerated usually for political expediency [8]. Tourism remains increasingly important due to its continued and sustained growth curve. However, tourism is challenged by seasonality and lack of geographical spread across provinces [9]. The growth of tourism in South Africa has been associated with the growth of special interest tourism (SIT) such as medical tourism that have tender to change the typical tourism consumer to South Africa that would be classified as either sand, sea and sun and wildlife tourists. This desk (secondary) research will add to the paucity of academic gaze on health tourism which would ignite future research.

2 Special interest tourism in South Africa: Health tourism South Africa’s fast-growing tourism industry complements a worldwide trend towards alternative tourism [10]. The growth of tourism in South Africa during the past ten years resulted in the development of various types of tourism such as: eco-tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, business tourism, sports tourism and event tourism [11]. SIT offers destinations an opportunity to diversify its tourism consumer market segments by attracting new tourism needs and from potentially other countries, divergent from the core inbound tourism countries. This would ensure that the tourism industry is resilient from being too overly dependent on the major sources markets such as the USA, UK, Germany and China. There is no uniform definition available for the health care market [12]. Travel to spas, resorts, hot springs and healing retreats is often characterised as ‘’health tourism’’, ‘’wellness tourism, and ‘’spa tourism’’ [13]. Medical or health tourism is travel across international boundaries to obtain healthcare [14]. Health travel can involve travel within the borders of the country inhabited by the patient [12]. Domestic health tourism gets scant academic gaze when compared to international health tourism. Health tourism falls into three categories: (1) health tourism for services that are illegal in both the patient’s home and destination country (such as organ purchase); (2) medical tourism for services that are illegal or unapproved in the patients’ home country but legal in the destination country; and (3) medical tourism for services legal in both the home and destination country [13]. One of the most controversial forms of medical tourism is euthanasia which attracts ‘’death tourists’’ to Switzerland, because the procedure is illegal in their home countries [14]. Most health tourists come to South Africa for cosmetic surgery, but the country’s skilled surgeons can also provide organ transplants, cardiac, orthopaedic and obesity surgery and dentistry [15]. South Africa is one of the few countries to offer abortion as a choice with the adoption of the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996. South Africa must do much to promote the abortion as a health tourism option as part of a broader health tourism marketing outlays. With reference to Table 1, SIT is regarded as better form of tourism than mass tourism. Table 1. The difference between mass tourists and the special interests tourists

General Interest Tourists Constitutes the majority of the travelling population; Tend to be primarily drawn from the lower/lower-middle socio-economic segments of the population; Are relatively price sensitive; Are relatively inexperienced and unsophisticated traveller; Would tend to be mainly psycho centric, in

2

Special Interest Tourists Constitute a minority of the travelling population; Are usually from middle to upper-middle socioeconomic groups; Are generally less price sensitive than general/mixed interest tourists; Tend to be experienced ad sophisticated travellers; Have high expectations in relation to the activity/interest but not necessarily in terms of accommodation facilitator;


terms of psychographic types; Either have not developed a special interest or are not eager to pursue such an interest on their holidays; Look for consistency in their patterns of trip and destination choices, especially in relation to their social references frames at house; Opt for generally accepted behaviours and codes which are viewed as ‘normal’ is relation to the destination visited; Demand relatively high quality accommodation facilities.

Are adventurous, allocentric, types of people who do not like to follow the majority; Have no specific social obligations for their holidays, and do not feel the need to choose ‘socially acceptable’ holidays; Are likely to see the special interest holidays as an extension of their home-based choices and activities; View alternative destinations as context for the pursuit of their special interest.

Source: [15]

The traditional pattern of medical tourism movement had been from the developing countries to the developed [16]. Patients from highly industrialised nations like the USA and Britain are often attracted to overseas hospitals and clinic by the relative low cost of medical care [17]. In addition, the reason for the health tourism growth has been the long waiting lines at source markets, whereas at the health tourism destinations, such long waiting lines do not exist [17]. As health care costs skyrocket, patients in the developed world were investigating overseas destinations for medical treatment [14]. That had led to the opening up of destinations that will cater for health tourists, and effectively create a market for health services to be purchased in the global economy. This change in pattern therefore created an opportunity for Third World countries to benefit in the outsourcing of health and medical treatments due to lower costs of operation. Cross-border medical training and widespread air travel have been identified as one of the main engines that drive health tourism growth [18]. One of the first countries to actively promote this new form of medical tourism was Cuba in the 1990s [18]. The great competition amongst destinations for this type of tourism has afforded customers with a wide variety of destinations to choose from. As result some of the medical destinations for medical tourism are Jordan, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, South Africa and India. South Africa has emerged as a ‘’surgery and safari’’ destination where the aspects of the medical treatment are catered factored in with some adventure in the vast nature reserves in South Africa. Health tourism has developed to respond to the dominant consumer culture that is not only seriously health conscious but also beauty conscious. Health tourism can be bought for needs but it is imperative to understand to the status that it yields for the consumer that consume it and those that are yet to procure it. Health has become widely accepted as a consumer good and is seen as a contributor to lifestyle [10], and the growth of health tourism appears to be inevitable [19]. Because of the sustained growth of health tourism, it has grabbed the attention of policy makers and politicians.

3 The stratification of health tourism There are three categories of health tourism, namely: 1. The tourist paying out of pocket: this represents by far the bulk of the market for health tourism as they may be either underinsured or not have medical insurance at all. Health tourist investigate destinations that will give them health procedures at affordable prices with relative importance afforded to the exchange rate benefit as they change their hard currencies into a local currency. In the USA, over 47 million Americans lack health insurance [21]. 2. The medical insurance company: they can pre-arrange the journey to a foreign destination with a database of hospitals, services and health care professionals. They can get costs saving on the medical bills by using an overseas provider, thereby saving on benefits on the medical aid. The existence of health insurance is imperative as it has provided the ‘’push’’ when the medical

3


3.

procedures that they cover are expensive in the country of operation versus a destination in another country, spurring the development of medical/health tourism. Medical insurance companies by offering guarantees to cover procedures in certain associated medical institutions in foreign countries can lead to the development of medical tourism. Government prompted medical tourism is the last category where European Commission members face obligations to reimburse citizens for medical treatments attained in other member countries [13].

The continuums of treatments that are catered for by medical/health tourism include: 1. Surgery: associated with ‘’health tourism’’ as it involves diagnostic tests and medical procedures associated with biomedicine [11]. There has been a growth of what is called transplant tourism where individuals travel to countries for transplants [22]. Medical travellers were older adults with chronic (non-infectious) conditions [23]. 2. Beauty treatments: can be associated with ‘’wellness tourism, ‘’spa tourism, and ‘’health tourism’’ [11]. Health tourism has a stronger orientation to health care than to tourism [10]. Dental care, hip replacements and plastic surgery have emerged as major reason for travel for treatment overseas. 3. Holistic or exotic treatments: local healing tradition or alternative tourism can be taken by medical/health tourism. Chinese medicine was promoted by China as one of the ‘niche’ medical tourists service [23]. In the context of South Africa, this can include the journey to traditional healers ‘’Sangomas’’ that are become standard features of township tours. The key selling points of health tourism include the following: 1. The lower costs of service overseas [10]. The costs of some procedures can be 50 per cent cheaper in Dubai compared to clinics in the United States [22]. The lower costs can be attributed to lower input costs such as low wages and low currencies. Even with return cost of airfare, the costs of doing a medical condition overseas is cheaper than in the United States and the United Kingdom [14]. 2. Patients from more wealth countries that don’t have medical insurance or those that have depleted their benefits. This means that they can still get procedures at affordable prices in overseas countries. 3. Operation cost, physician and family reputation and hospital accreditation were ranked as the most important factors in choosing out-of-country care [23]. The incorporating of cutting edge technology, new facilities and doctors trained overseas are some of the aspects marketed to medical tourists. 4. The confidentially and anonymity that comes with doing a medical procedure overseas is one of the benefits of medical tourism. 5. Medical tourists importing countries receive the foreign exchange in addition to creating the incentive for retaining skilled health staff against brain drain. 6. Long waiting lists at the source markets can initiate travel to get procedures elsewhere [10]. 7. Lack of accessibility in a home country of a medical/health tourist for procedures that are not allowed such as abortion and euthanasia. 8. The growth of health tourism has also been facilitated by the emergence of brokers between international patients and hospital network [14]. 9. The customer base for health tourism where from affluent countries such as the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia [25]. Their hard currencies are of greater value considering the considerable deterioration of the South African Rand (ZAR) in value against major economic currencies. 10. Health tourism creates opportunities for the hotels and accommodation providers to create new revenue streams from medical tourists. Luxury hotels are best placed to cater for the needs of the

4

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research medical tourists than economy hotels due to limited services than luxury hotels [26]. Tourist accommodation accounted for 30% of the total tourist expenditure [27]. Health tourism therefore creates growth opportunities for hotel groups to seek new opportunities in healthcare.

4 Conclusions Health tourists can diversify the tourism markets niches serviced by South Africa. However, health tourism because the international outbound tourism markets are from the major international source markets such as the USA and Britain, health tourism can help to entrench South Africa as a destination from these source markets. Because of the intricate relationship between healthcare and tourism, health tourism requires greater working relationship between the two economic sectors. Its quiet clear that health tourism will be a key feature of urban tourism as it will take place in urban areas with their big hospitals and good network of out of hospital support. It’s therefore clear that also health tourism will reinforce concentration in the major metropolitan centres of South Africa such as Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. South Africa is a country with huge inequalities, categorised by duality in the healthcare system, a world class private healthcare system, side-by-side with an inadequately funded public healthcare system consumed by the majority of the population. Health tourism will naturally benefit the private healthcare system in South Africa which is concentrated in urban areas, which means that medical tourism in South Africa will basically be an extension of urban tourism. To ensure shared growth, peripheral areas to urban centres must create leisure experiences for the medical tourists during their recuperation before they fly back from their destination countries. In addition, in the development of health tourism, investigations must be made to ensure that the development of health tourism does not lead to a deterioration of the public healthcare system in terms of pricing, investment and human resources. In 2009, the Indian government announced that it would give medical tourists a chance to explore options such as rural and adventure tourism and the cost for such packages would be borne by the government [28]. This in turn ensured that medical tourists would consider the bundle offering by the Indian government which ensured that tourists extended their stay in India. This on the other hand increased the disposable income for the medical tourists that could be used in food, beverages, and excursions. South Africa would have to review its emigration laws to make increase the ability for skilled emigration to spur economic growth. Having the best standards, enforced by regulatory bodies, a highly skilled staff compliment and the best facilities should be the hallmarks of medical tourism in South Africa. Undercutting other medical tourism destinations cannot be regarded as a sustainable strategy for the development of medical tourism, rather increasing investments in infrastructure and research. Medical tourism product offerings should be bundled with the immense scenic beauty of South Africa, great climate, cultural richness, wildlife and game parks. India’s forte lies in dental tourism. Dental work in India is good, yet economical [29]. South Africa will have to choose the medical tourism market niche that it will seek to develop and ensure that it specialise in them. American medical tourists travel mostly to Asia or the Middle East, with the majority going to China [30]. International tourism is still largely dominated by the industrial world, as the majority of tourism flows is between the industrialised world [18]. However, no country has a monopoly on the ‘best health-care providers’ and ‘top medical facilities’ in the world [21]. This means that there is room and scope for new destinations to gain a foot in the growing health tourism sector an opportunity for South Africa to grow its stake. There is a link between visa facilitation and economic growth through tourism [31]. South Africa would have to identify the countries that it seeks to create visa free travel in order to promote medical tourism specifically and tourism growth in general. It’s therefore important that South Africa follows the lead of Jordan by establishing a Health Tourism Directorate. This can be located for jurisdictional purposes under the Ministry of Health with inter-departmental contact with the Department of Tourism, and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Abortion can be promoted as a medical tourism procedure more aggressively to attract more

5

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research medical/health tourists to South Africa. Switzerland is one of the few countries that allows ‘’suicide tourism’’ where anyone from the world can apply for is a thriving business with potential. The author is of the view that active euthanasia should be offered for foreign tourists as a medical tourism product offering in areas that receive the least tourists such as the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. On the other hand, South Africa must consider following the Iranian model of legalising the commercial sale of organs [17]. A ‘’willing seller, willing buyer’’ principle in official organ procurement will be a win-win for the demand and supply and the state that will set the checks and balances, through proper legislation [22]. The Medical Tourism Association of South Africa (MTASA) will have to lead the lobby in partnership with the face of tourism big business in South Africa, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA). Academic institutions must invest more heavily in conducting descriptive and casual research into the medical tourism market, trends and characteristics to unpack detailed information for decision making by tourism authorities and entrepreneurs. The development of health tourism in South Africa will have a knock-on effect on the healthcare system (both private and public) in that it will lead to a demand for more medical professionals, especially doctors. This would hopefully lead to the government allowing private providers of doctor tuition to unlock the bottleneck in doctor training. South Africa has been one of the countries that has been assisted by the good political relations with Cuba, as many Cuban doctors have stemmed the brain drain and lack of doctors in South Africa. If the number of doctors remains, the public sector is at risk of losing more doctors due to better working conditions and better salaries in the private sector. South Africa post 1994 closed some nursing colleges run by the state which led to private healthcare providers, opening up their own nursing training institutions. The private sector as noted earlier is the one that stands to benefit more from the growth and development of medical tourism and therefore must be allowed to open up private doctor training institutions.

References 1. M. Altman, Identifying employment-creating sectors in South Africa: The role of service industries. Development Southern Africa, 23 (5):627-647 (2006) 2. National Treasury, Confronting youth unemployment: Policy option for South Africa. Discussion paper for public comment. Pretoria: National Treasury (2011) 3. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, White Paper on the Promotion and Development of Tourism in South Africa. Pretoria: DEAT (1996) 4. World Travel & Tourism Council, The Comparative Economic Impact of Travel & Tourism. London: WTTC (2012b) 5. World Travel & Tourism Council, Travel and Tourism: Economic Impact 2012 South Africa. London: WTTC (2012a) 6. S. Chok, J. Macbeth, C. Warren, Tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation: A critical analysis of ‘pro-poor tourism’ and implications for sustainability. Current Issues in Tourism, 10 (2/3): 144-165 (2007) 7. J. Mograbi, C.M. Rogerson, Maximising the local pro-poor impacts of dive tourism: Sodwana Bay, South Africa. Urban Forum, 18: 85-104 (2007) 8. T. Mihalic, Tourism and Economic Development Issue. In. Sharpley, R. & Telfer, D.J. Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues. Clevedon: Channel View Publications (2004) 9. Department of Tourism, National Tourism Sector Strategy, February 2011. Pretoria: GCIS (2011) 10. J. Viljoen, K. Tlabela, Rural tourism development in South Africa: Trends and challenges. Retrieved from: http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za. [Accessed 01 March 2012] (2007) 11. A.J. Stydom, The economic impact of the Volksblad Arts Festival. Acta Commercii, 87-98 (2006) 12. L.G. Turner, Canadian medical tourism companies that have exited the marketplace: Content analysis of websites used to market transnational medical travel. Globalisation and Health, 7(40):1-16 (2011)

6

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research 13. K. Kohler, Health tourism in South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal. Retrieved from: http://www.zulu.org.za. [Accessed 01 March 2012] (2009) 14. J. Connell, Medical tourism: Sea, sun, and ...surgery. Tourism Management, 27: 1093-1100 (2006) 15. I.G. Cohen, Medical tourism, access to healthcare and global justice. Virginia Journal of International Law, 52 (1): 1-57 (2011) 16. A. Smith, Medical tourism and organ trafficking. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 2 (1): 1-9 (2012) 17. A. Nicolaides, E. Zigiriadis, F.C. Cardio, Medical tourism as an important niche of tourism development in South Africa. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 1 (3): 11 (2011) 18. R.D. Smith, R. Chanda, V. Tangcharoensathien, Trade in health-related services. The Lancet, 373: 593-601. 19. A. Honkanen, P. Mustonen, Tourism consumption revisited-an empirical study of Finish consumers. Research on Finish Society, 1: 43-58 (2007) 20. A.L. Leahy, Medical tourism: the impact of travel to foreign countries for healthcare. Surgeon, 6 (5): 260-261 (2008) 21. L.G. Turner, Quality in health care and globalisation of health services: accreditation and regulatory oversight of medical tourism companies. International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 1-7 (2010) 22. D. Bass, Kidneys for cash and egg safaris-can we allow ‘transplant tourism’ to flourish in South Africa? South African Medical Journal, 95 (1):42-44 (2005) 23. M.J. Alsharif, R. Labonte, X. Lu, Patients beyond borders: A study of medical tourists in four countries. Global Social Policy, 10 (3): 315-335 (2010) 24. R. Bundhund, Medical tourism prescribed for Dubai. Retrieved from: http://www.thenational.ae [Accessed 01 March 2012] (2009) 25. A. Hadi, Globalisation, medical tourism and health equity. Symposium on Implications of Medical Tourism for Canadian Health and Health Policy, November 30, 2009. Ottawa: Canada. (2009) 26. L.F. Hume, F.J. Demicco, Bringing hotels to healthcare. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 8 (1): 75-84 (2007) 27. S. Divisekera, Economics of tourist’s consumption behaviour: Some evidence from Australia. Tourism Management, 31: 629-636 (2010) 28. S. Hudson, X. Li, Domestic medical tourism: A neglected dimension of medical tourism research. Journal of Hospital Marketing & Management, 21 (3): 227-246 (2012) 29. A. Saha, Medical tourism: Answers to some frequently asked questions. Retrieved from: http://blog.theotherhome.com/medical-tourism/. [Accessed 01 March 2012] (2011) 30. J.Gill, B.R. Madhira, D. Gjertsin, G. Lipshutz, M. Cecka, P.T. Pham, A. Wilkonson, S. Bunnapradist, G.M. Danovitch, Transplant tourism in the United States: A single-centre experience. American Society of Nephrology, 3: 1820-1828 (2008) 31. World Tourism Organisation, Tourism Visa Openness Report. Spain: UNWTO (2013)

7


The Influence of Tourism Event on the Residential Neighborhoods in Abi Local Government Area, Nigeria Eja Iwara Eja1,a, Joseph K. Ukwayi2, and Eteng Eloma Usang3 1

Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria Department of Sociology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria 3 Centre for General Studies, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria 2

Abstract. In recent times, tourism event has become a major catalyst for destination promotion especially destinations with great tourism potentials. Although, the impact of most tourism events such as carnival, football and festival are yet to be fully utilized by most communities which is the main focus of this study to evaluate the influence of festival on three autonomous communities in Abi Local Government Area. The three communities used for this study were Usumutong, Ediba and Anang. In order to obtain data for this study, a checklist was used to capture information such as visitors arrivals in the festival events, expenditure from events attendees, emerging tourism support services and the annual attendees. The result obtained from the data collected indicate that even though the festival recorded tremendous impact on community livelihood, as observed in the F-value of 6.41 attendees greater than the table value of 3.68, it activities were not devoid of challenges such as increase in prostitution, inflation and divorce of marriages. Nevertheless, much is still needed to be done by the various stakeholders if the festival in Abi Local Government Area must be sustained.

1 Introduction Tourism events have become one of the most famous activities in destination development. Tourism events such as carnival, football and festival have impacted significantly on the socioeconomic livelihood of most tourism destination such as South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago (Triandos, 2005). In most cases, tourism events are important tourist attractions which influence destination attractiveness and competition and at the same time sustained the rate of visitors and tourists arrivals (Getz and Anderson, 2009). Tourism events such as carnivals and festivals are important motivator of tourism and future prominently in the development and marketing plans of most tourism destinations. However, tourism events have other important roles to play such as community building to urban renewal and cultural development for fostering national identities. The Cross River State scenario shows that tourism events especially the carnival Calabar has significantly improved the livelihood of residents in the area. Today, the Cross River State carnival gave rise to a


8

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research most tourism events in the state especially in the various Local Government Area such as Yakurr, Abi, Obudu among others (Eja, 2011). In Abi Local Government Area, tourism events such as festivals, wrestling, football which occurs once every year have significantly impacted on the local people and their local economy. These events are the main focus points of each community due to the fact that it draws many people from various destinations within the neighbourhoods to the area as also evidenced by (Sharidan, 2005) in his empirical findings on the economic and socio-cultural impact of festivals and events in any tourism destination.. However, in spite the fact that works on the subject matter have been conducted in a global perspective none has been able the critically evaluate the impact of festivals on the residential neighborhoods in Abi Local Government Area which is the premise of this research to evaluate the impact of festivals on the residential neighborhoods in Abi Local Government Area with specific reference to evaluating tourist arrivals in the events, visitors expenditure emerging tourism support services as a result of the festival event.

2 Literature review New academic fields such as tourism, leisure or hospitality studies generally arise from professional practice that justifies courses or degree programs at universities and colleges. When a critical mass of students, programs, and teachers is reached, research and publications in research journals follow. The academics who teach, do research and publish within the emerging field typically need to elevate the status of their work from that of purely applied to something more theoretical and at the same time academically credible. This describes the evolution of tourism management with tourism studies, and recreation management with leisure studies, so we can similarly justify the relationships between 'event management' and 'event studies'. The study of events has long existed within several disciplines, manifested in research and theory development on (for example) the anthropology, geography or economics of events, but the term 'event studies' appears to have been coined in 2000 in a conference held in Sydney. Event studies became unnecessary and perhaps an irrelevant idea until academics doing event-related teaching and research had published a critical mass of papers and books relating tourism events. In terms of events-related education the majority of programs appear to be at either the practical, hands-on level (encompassing 'event design') or those with emphasis on applying management theory and methods to events and event-producing organizations. Accordingly, the term event(s) tourism' was not widely used, if at all, prior to 1987 when The New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department (1987) reported: "Event tourism is an important and rapidly growing segment of international tourism. Getz (1989) in Tourism Management ('Special Events: Defining the Product') and developed a framework for planning 'events tourism'. Prior to this it was normal to speak of special events, hallmark events, mega events and specific types of events. Now 'event tourism' is generally recognized as being inclusive of all planned events in an integrated approach to development and marketing. As with all forms of special-interest travel, event tourism must be viewed from both demand and supply sides. A consumer perspective requires determining who travels for events and why, and also who attends events while traveling. We also want to know what 'event tourists' do and spend. Included in this demand-side approach is assessment of the value of events in promoting a positive destination image, place marketing in general, and cobranding with destinations. Cultural celebrations, including festivals, carnivals, religious events and the arts and entertainment in general (mainly concerts and theatrical productions) are often subsumed in the literature on cultural tourism (e.g., McKercher & du Cros, 2002; Richards, 1996, 2007). Festivals in particular have been examined in the context of place marketing, urban development, tourism and more recently social change (e.g., Picard & Robinson, 2006a). 'Festival tourism' has been the subject of quite a few research papers (e.g., Anwar & Sohail, 2004; Donovan & Debres, 2006; Formica & Uysal, 1998; McKercher, Mei, & Tse, 2006; Nurse, 2004; Robinson, Picard, & Long, 2004; Saleh & Ryan, 1993). Occasionally art exhibitions and tourism have been examined (e.g., Mihalik & Wing-Vogelbacher,

9

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research 1992). A major study in the USA by the Travel Industry Association of America and Smithsonian Magazine (2003) profiled the cultural – historic tourist, including cultural events as attractions and activities. Several researchers have sought to determine the marketing orientation of festivals (Mayfield & Crompton, 1995; Mehmetoglu & Ellingsen, 2005; Timothy, I. & Olsen, 2006). It has often been observed, and the research tends to confirm this suspicion, that arts festivals in particular display a lack of concern for tourism and take a product orientation that tends to ignore customer needs and commercial realities. Carlsen and Getz (2006) provided a strategic planning approach for enhancing the tourism orientation of a regional wine festival, but perhaps wine and tourism make more natural partners. Although arts and tourism linkages have been advocated by many, and certainly exist with regard to festivals, concerts and staged performances, there will always remain tension between these sectors. The anthropological literature on cultural celebrations is vast, with tourism sometimes being viewed as an agent of change, such as giving rise to declining cultural authenticity. Along these lines, festival tourism and festivalization' has become issue in cultural studies (Quinn, 2006). Prentice and Andersen (2003) assessed festivals in Edinburgh, looking at their role in image creation and tourism generation, and it is that kind of emphasis that has led to the evident backlash.

3 Methodology This research paper is focus on tourism event “festivals” in Abi Local Government Area, Cross River State taking into consideration three autonomous communities in Bhahumono nation such as Usumutong, Ediba and Anong. However, three years were considered in this research which are 2008 to 2013. In each of the year, a checklist was distributed to attendees in the event, and also hotels and in joints were most of the attendees converge in each community. Information such as visitors arrivals, expenditure by the attendees, length of stay, emerging tourism support services and the annual arrivals were captured in the checklist which was distributed during the events. Although, interviews were held with chiefs council, community leaders in order to appreciate the opinion of the people on the festival in the area. One hypothesis was stated which try to assess if or not there is significant variation in the visitor arrival visitors arrivals in the years under investigation using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) which try to compare the mean of variation of three or more variables. However, the stated hypothesis which was tested using the analysis of variance is mathematically stated thus: TSS = B+ WSS Where: BSS

=

∑(∑x2) – (∑∑x)2 N

WSS

=

∑∑x2 – ∑(∑x)2 N

Degree of freedom for BSS dfB = k-1 Degree of freedom for WSS dfw = N-K MBS

=

BSS dfB

or

BSS K-1

10

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research MSWS =

WSS or WSS dfw

F

=

N-K

MBS MWS

K

=

number of samples or groups (sampled support zone communities)

N

=

number of observations in the sample

X

=

mean for all observations (grand mean)

F

=

fisher ratio

Xi

=

mean for the first sample

∑∑

=

the sum of all the items (k column)

TSS

=

total sum of squares

BSS

=

between sample sum of squares

WSS

=

within sample sum of squares

4 Findings 4.1 Visitors arrivals in the festival events The rate of visitor’s arrivals in the festival events as presented in table 1 shows that indigene residing permanently in each community constituted the major attendees of the festivals between 2010 to 2013 as compared to those residing outside respective communities with values of 51.95 and 34.73 while foreign visitors were on the least side with a value of 1.87%. However, it was observed in table 1 that Anong and Usumutong festival event attracted more attendees as shown with values of 44.51 and 40.75% compared to Ediba festival event with a value of 14.73%. The result in table 1 indicate that the festival events have significantly influence the rate of tourists and visitors arrivals to the area even though majority of the visitors constitute the locals that were either from the villages or from communities within the Local Government Area. Table 1. Visitors arrivals in the festival events in Area Festival attendees

Indigenes away from home Nigerian not residing in Abi LGA Foreigners Other communities in Abi LGA Total

Categorization of attendees in the festival (2008-2013) Usumutong Ediba Anong Total Average attendees expenditure 315 285 119 719 51.95** 63 72 24 159 11.48 9 177

14 245

3 58

26 481

1.87 34.75**

564 40.75**

616 44.51**

204 14.73

1384

100

Source: Field survey, 2013

11


4.2 Attendees expenditure in the festival event The attendees expenditure during the festival event as indicated in table 2 shows that over eight hundred and eight visitors that came to the festival spend only one day which shows 58.38 average expenditure rate followed by those that stayed in free accommodation with a value of 21.0%. However, table 2 revealed that visitors that came to Ediba festival were more and at the same incure more expenditure compared to other visitors from other communities during the festival events.

Table 2. Expenditure of various attendees in the festival events Festival attendees One day stay (visitors) (N) Visitors staying in the hotel (N) Visitors in free accommodation (N) Total (N)

Usumutong 9150000

No. of visitors 305

2264400

Ediba 13266000

No. of visitors 402

111

2673000

222000

148

31636400

564

Anong 3030000

No. of visitors 101

Total 808

Average expenditure 58.38

99

2220000

74

284

20.52

348000

115

69600

29

292

21.09

16284000

616

53196

204

1384

100


4.3 Emerging tourism support services The emerging tourism support services as a result of the festival events as presented in table 3 shows that the festival events organized every year in these three communities have seriously influence the emergence tourism support services such as mobile phone operators, drinking joint and restaurants as observed with values of 34.75 and 22.82 followed by barbing/hair dressing saloons and retail shops with values 14.13 and 10.86% respectively. Besides, it was noticed that the emerging tourism support services were more in Ediba with value of 64.13% while Usumutong and Anong have values of 50.08 and 9.78%. This result revealed that the festival events has influenced the emergence of tourism support services in Ediba and Usumutong as compared to Anong community. Table 3. Emerging tourism support services in the areas Emerging tourism

Restaurant Barbing/hair dressing saloon Hotels Mobile phone operators Laundry services Rental shops Total

Usumutong festival 7 4

No. of support services 26.08 4.34

Ediba festival 11 8

11.95 8.69

1 7

1.08 26.08

6 21

2 3 24 30.00

2.17 3.26 100

6 7 59 64.13

Source: Field survey , 2013

12

No. of visitors

Anong festival

No. of visitors

percentage Average

3 1

3.26 1.08

22.82 14.13

6.52 2.82

1 4

1.08 4.34

8.69 34.78

6.52 26.08 100

0 0 99.78

0.00 0.00 100

8.69 10.86 100


4.4 Annual visitors arrivals in the festival The rate of visitors arrivals presented in table 4 shows that 2011 and 2013 recorded the highest attendees with values of 23.79% and 26.58% followed by 15.96% which was recorded in 2012. It was also noticed that in 2009 and 2010 attendees were almost the same with values of 11.92% and 11.99% while 2008 the attendees were at the least side with a value of 9.75%. Nevertheless, table 4 indicate that Ediba and Usumutong festival attracted more attendees with a population of six hundred and sixteen attendees and five hundred and sixty four which shows percentage average attendees of 44.50% in Ediba community and 40.15% attendees in Usumutong community.

Table 4. Annual visitors arrivals in the festival Annual arrivals (years) 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total

Usumutong 51 75 48 135 14 161 564 40.75

% arrival 3.68 5.48 3.46 9.75 6.79 11.63 100

Annual visitors arrival 2010-2013 Ediba % Anong arrival 63 4.55 21 71 5.13 19 85 6.14 33 1.53 11.05 41 89 6.43 38 155 11.19 52 616 100 204 44.50 14.73

% arrival 1.51 1.37 2.38 2.96 2.74 3.75 100

Percentage average 9.75 11.92 11.99 23.77 15.96 26.58 100


In order to affirm the above result, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was further used to investigate if not there is a significant variation in the number of attendees in the three communities between 2008 to 2013. However, the result shows that there is a significant variables in the annual attendee of the festival in the three communities as evidenced in the F-value 6.412 greater than the table value 3.68 as presented in table 5. Table 5. Analysis of variance showing visitors arrivals in 2010 to 2013 Sum of square

Df

Mean square

F

Sig

Between groups

16780.444

2

8390.222

6.412

.010

Within groups

19627.333

15

1308.489

Total

36407.778

17

Source: Data analysis, 2013

The challenges associated with the festival event presented figure 1 indicate that prostitution, inflation, divorce and increase in waste generation were the major challenges associated with the festival as indicated with a value of 61.83%. It was also discovered that increase in waste generation was a major challenge associated with the festivals in the three communities as observed with as value of 14.50% followed by prostitution with value of 12.22%. Although, it was noticed that inflation and marriage divorce was also a major problem associated with the festival event as observed with values of 7.33% and 4% respectively.

13

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0

Ediba

Usumutong

Anong

Total

Percentage

Prostitution

35

23

16

74

12.33

Inflation

20

14

10

44

7.33

Divorce

13

6

5

24

4

Increase of waste

33

32

22

87

14.5

All of the above

99

125

147

371

61.83

Figure 1: Problems associated with festival event in Abi (Source: Field survey, 2013)

5 Recommendations It is quite clear that tourism events such as festivals, carnivals among others have great impact on community livelihood. The Abi Local Government Area scenario in Cross River State show that if the dividends from festivals must be fully utilized the following recommendations are hereby put forward: ¾ The organizers and the stakeholders of the events must ensure that adequate publicity is carry out using the respective media in the state ¾ The festivals must show uniqueness, this would help encourage and attract numerous visitors and tourist to attend the events ¾ The local Government Area should be involve in the event activities through funding, this would help not only to promote the socio-cultural base of the people but would help to foster unity among the people. ¾ There should be adequate security to guarantee the safety of the attendees of the events ¾ The government and other stakeholders in tourism industry in Abi local Government Area should ensure that the necessary facilities are provided before the event would start.

6 Conclusion Tourism events are major catalyst for destination development which was evidence in a case study on the influence of tourism events in Abi Local Government Area, Cross River State. Today, tourism events such as wrestling, football and festivals have impacted significantly on the livelihood of most communities in Cross River State and Abi local government in particular as evidenced in the findings and result obtained during data collection in this work. However, the data obtained show that even though much is still needed to sustained the festivals in Abi local Government Area, the festivals have significantly impacted on the livelihood sustenance of the people as witness in the emerging tourism support services and the expenditure from the visitors and tourist during the festival. It is therefore the responsibility of all the stakeholders in tourism industry in Abi local Government Area to initiate new paradigms that would ensure a smooth festival events in the Local Government Area.

14


References Eja, E. I. and Otu, J. E. An assessment of the relevance of Christmas festival in the development of sustainable hospitality industry in Calabar city. African Journal of social sciences, Vol.1, No.3,( 2011)1-9. Getz, D. Event tourism and the authenticity dilemma. In w. Theobald (Ed). Global tourism (2nd ed. Pp. (1989), 409-427) Oxford. Getz, D. Event studies and event management: On becoming an academic discipline. Journal of hospitality and tourism management, 9, 1 (2002) 12-23 Mckercher, B. & Ducros, H. . Cultural tourism. Nework Haworth. (2002) Richard, S, G. (Ed) . European cultural tourism: Trends and future prospects. Wallingford, UK: CABI (1996). Richard, S. G. (Ed) . Cultural tourism: Global and local perspectives. New York : Haworth.(2007) Anwar, S. & Sohails. Festival tourism in the United Arab emirates: first-time visitor versus repeat visitor perception. Journal of vacation marketing, 10,2, (2004) 161-179. Donovan, A. & Debres, K. Food of freedom. Juncteenth as a culinary tourist attraction. Tourism review international 9,4(2006), 379-389. Formica, S. & Uysal, M.. Segmentation of an international cultural historical event in Italy. Journal of travel research 36,4(1998) 16-24. Mckercher, B. Mci W & TSC. T. Are short duration festivals tourist of sustainable tourism, 14,1(2006) 55-66. Nurse, K. Trinidad carnival festival tourism and cultural industry event management 8,4 (2004) 223289. Robinson, M. Picard, D. & Long, P. Festival tourism: producing, translating and consuming expressions of culture(s) event management, 8,4 ((2004), 187-189. Saleh, F. & Ryan. Jazz and knitwear: factors that attract stand of festivals tourism management, 14,4 (1993) 289-279. Mihauk, B. & Wing Vogelbacher, A. Travelling art expositions as a tourism event: A market research analysis for ramesses. The Great journal of travel and tourism marketing 1,3(1992) 25-41. Mayfield, T. & Crompton, J. The status of the marketing concept among festival organizer. Journal of travel research, Spring, (1995)14-22. Mchmetoglu, M. & Ellingsen, K. Do small-scale festivals adopt market orientation as a management philosophy ? Event management, 9,3(2005) 119-132. Carlsen, J., Getz, D. Strategic planning for a regional wine festival: The Margaret river wine region festival.(2006) Picard, D. & Robinson, M. (eds) festivals, tourism and social change: remarking worlds. Clevedon: Channel View. (2006) Timothy, I. & Olsen, D. (eds) Tourism, religion and spiritual journey : London, New York: Routledge (2006)

15


Developing Ecotourism Adaptive Management Framework for National Park a

Chee Hon Loong , Alias Abdullah, and Shamzani Affendy Mohd Din Kulliyyah of Architecture & Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract. Ecotourism has become an important economic activity in National Park areas around the world including Malaysia, which is a booming tourism industry. It provides opportunities for visitors to experience powerful manifestations of nature and culture and to learn about the important of biodiversity conservation and local culture. At the same time, ecotourism generates income for conservation and economic benefice for communities living in rural and remote areas. Rising of this ecotourism industry, obviously question about the future of this National Park. Has tourism already surpassed some critical environment and social thresholds? Is tourism endangering the ecological well being of the area? As an applied approach to ecotourism management, adaptive management allows researchers and protected area managers to cooperatively improve management policies, and achieve the dual mandate to protect natural resources and provide high quality recreational experiences. It can be used to synthesize our understanding of a system and facilitate the exploration of possible impacts of changes in management, climate and other factors. Adaptive management process can identify knowledge gaps and prioritizing monitoring requirements and management options. The aims to established a framework to guide the development of tourism in a National Park by synthesizing and representing the vision of all the stakeholders while fulfilling the conservation objective for the site. It should result in a document expressing the stakeholder’s recommendations for how ecotourism is to be carried out in a particular National Park area.

1 Introduction Ecotourism is about traveling to and visiting natural areas, places where nature still exists in a relatively unaltered state. In a world where population pressure and increased resource consumption are placing huge demand upon our natural resource base, natural areas are increasingly hard to find. At the same time, our global cultural heritage is under attack, making it increasingly difficult to learn from other cultures and to remain in touch with cultural roots throughout the world. Today, the remaining natural areas are mostly protected in some way. Ecotourism attractions, whether they are a


16

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research wildlife viewing possibilities or dramatic natural landscapes, tend to be found in these National Parks areas. Ecotourism are usually a part of the management strategy for National Parks area. The degree to which tourism activities are pursued depends upon the priority assigned to them by the area managers, who in turn should be guided by an ecotourism planning management plan prepared for the purpose. The ecotourism planning management plan should be the result of a comprehensive evaluation of the area’s natural and cultural resource base. It determines the stresses, their sources and the real threats to the area’s natural and cultural integrity, as well as the strategies to reduce these threats. The plan should define the area’s long-term management objectives and a zoning scheme that identified where certain activities may take place. In most ecotourism management projects, and ecotourism adaptive management plan implementation is no exception, the work is never really done. No matter how well you plan the project or program, it never goes exactly as you intent it to. This uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. In many ways, the most interesting results, the findings that lead to true advances in understanding, are the ones you never expected to get. You will only benefit from these unexpected results, however if you are ready to look for them and act on them. Changing conditions at National Parks area and unexpected outcomes of project activities mean that you must always be prepared to respond to new situations to keep your project on track. Applying Ecotourism Adaptation Management is a constant process. In order to reach project goals and objectives, continually change and modify Ecotourism Plan according to available information. However, important changes should never be made unilaterally; relevant stakeholders should always be consulted. Ecotourism is increasingly being considered as a management strategy for National Park that, if implemented appropriately, constitutes an ideal sustainable activity. It is designed to have minimum impact upon the ecosystem. Ecotourism also contribute economically to local communities, and be respectful of local cultures. Ecotourism management process be developed using participatory processes which involve all stakeholders and be monitored in order to detect negative and positive impacts.

2 Methodology When most of us think about planning for Ecotourism National Parks, we think about management plans for a specific national park or other type of protected area. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that planning for individual National Parks takes place within a more general planning context with several different levels and components. Each level impacts upon the others. The reason for this derives from the role that protected areas play in achieving national and local development goals, which should be based on the concept of sustainable development. Based on the Ecotourism Management for National Park (1980 Act) and National Policy on Biodiversity Plan for Malaysia (1998), a give directive and act as a guide to all government agencies including state governments on the ecotourism, conservation, and management of biological diversity in Malaysia. All representative from state authority, director general, treasury, economic planning unit prime minister department, tourist development corporation, department of forest and six other person to be appointed by the Minister. The main function of the National Parks Advisory council, they shall advise the Minister on matter relating to the conservation, utilization, care, control, management and development of the National Parks and such other matter as the Ministry may from time to time refer to it. In Malaysia, management plans carry the force of law or ministerial sanction. In others they are less strictly approved, and national park managers have more liberty to apply them. Many management plans have been prepared over the years, and much has been learned about how to develop them. Some of the major lessons learned are: 1.

National Parks must be planned as an integral part of the development of the region and country where they are located.

17

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research 2. 3.

4. 5.

Management objective should orient planning at all levels. The best planning is carried out by a team of people that has representatives from different discipline, institutions and points of view. Local community organizations, tourism operations, and governments should be represented in the planning process team. Some of these representatives may also be in a good position to provide lodging, transportation or even some funding for the planning team. The effective interaction of these individuals creates a synergistic situation in which the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Good planning depend upon the effective participation of all relevant stakeholders.

With regard to an Ecotourism Management Plan, these stakeholders include all persons and institutions that will be involved in carrying out the ecotourism program within the National Parks or other natural area. The Ecotourism management plan usually determines that ecotourism is the kind of tourism that is desired for a particular National Parks and that ecotourism, or perhaps public use, will be a specific program to be carried out by National Parks managers. The Ecotourism management plan will also define the zoning configuration for the area, which in turn will designate those sectors that will be available for tourism purposes. How long will it take to accomplish these steps from start to finish? The length of the planning process depends on several factors, principally: 1. The availability and amount of funding. If funding is fully available at the beginning of the planning process, then this facilitates the Ecotourism Adaptive Management planning process. 2. The complexity of the tourism or public use situation of the National Parks. If there are already a large number of visitors, tourism operators and or visitor sites, the plan may require a lot of data collection and analysis. On the other hand, when a National Parks has little tourism but a lot of perceived potential, more evaluation of potential and resources needs to be done. The sheer size and number of actual potential visitor attractions is also a factor. 3. The amount of time that the planning team dedicates to the process. When planning team members have others responsibilities, the Ecotourism Adaptive Management process tends to be prolonged. 4. The amount of support that the planning team receives from stakeholders, active positive participation by local communities, tourism operators and others makes the process more effective and productive. 5. The amount of detail that is required in the plan. This is related to the amount of knowledge presently available or that can be obtained without huge amounts of effort or cost. There is so much that needs to be done to adequately plan for ecotourism that a first Ecotourism Adaptive Management may only deal for any programme, e.g., site development plans and architectural drawings. In any case, it is very important that the planning team and the National Parks administration agree about the level of detail required in the plan before the process begins. It is common to hear planners state that “the process is more important than the final document.” While the process is designed to obtain the results needed to prepare the final document or plan, it is also a tool for involving all of the various stakeholders. If the stakeholders feel that they are a part of the process, they will then be committed to its implementation. An inclusive, participatory planning process provides extremely valuable, long-term support for the National Parks management. Major factors involved in the decision to prepare a management plan including overall management plan, commitment to ecotourism, funding and logistical support and appropriateness of area for ecotourism.

18

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research 2.1 Who prepares an Ecotourism Management Plan? Ecotourism, by definition, is about inclusion and involvement of all concerned. The planning process should represent the point at which all relevant stakeholders become involved in the decision making about ecotourism. An Ecotourism Adaptive Management process should be based on the consensus of: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Tourism professionals (operators & guides) interested in and/or involved with the protected area. Representatives from communities who will be impacted by ecotourism Representatives from local governments, government agencies, NGOs and others who have an interest in ecotourism development in the region. National Parks staff who know the area well and who will be responsible for the plan’s implementation.

In order to achieve consensus, a participatory approach to planning must be applied. It is not sufficient for a consultant or the tourism program director to develop the plan alone and then present it to the others for their approval. The democratic approach to planning may take more time and more energy, but it produces better results. It should be designed so that all participants feel ownership of the plan and thus have a vested interest in its successful implementation. 2.2 Suggestion Adaptation Ecotourism Design process approach 1) Settings priorities: a) Identify targets (eg. trails, campsite, recreation activities) b) Set goals for number and distribution of ecotourism targets c) Assemble information and relevant data d) Design a network of ecotourism national park to meet goals 2) Strategies National Park Planning a) System (the ecotourism targets) b) Stresses (eg. soil erosion) c) Sources of Stresses (eg. tourism-related impacts) d) Strategies: (i) identify and evaluate possible tourism related threat mitigation strategies (ii) identify and evaluate ecotourism national park development potential e) Stakeholder consultation f) Success measures - Establish indicators for success 3) Taking Action a) Prepare agreements with partners b) Build partner capacity c) Provide training, technical assistance and resources (i) tourism-based ecotourism finance (ii) threat mitigation (iii) community enterprise development 4) Measuring Success a) Biodiversity health b) Threat abatement - Success of mitigation strategy c) Partner capacity d) Financial Management

19

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research e)

Adjust priorities, strategies, work plans (through participation in annual budget and goal setting)

3 Data analysis Once the data has been collected, the team needs to analyze it and begin to make decisions about what the Ecotourism Adaptive Management will recommend. A lot of data will have been accumulated, and planners need to be able to use this information. A useful beginning point is to look at the opportunities that have presented themselves, as well as the obstacles. Is there a lot of potential interest in establishing an ecotourism program in the National Parks? Are local communities already involved in ecotourism? What are they doing? Are they doing it well? What do they want to do in the future? Is there an international donor interested in providing funding? Are there potential development projects that may impact (positively or negatively) ecotourism implementation? Another useful analytical tool is to think in terms of critical sites , or critical activities . What sites need to be tourist oriented? At what sites has tourism had a negative impact? What are the activities that must be carried out if ecotourism is to be successful? Ecotourism Adaptation Management process provides a very useful structure for analytical work. Its focuses on identifying the stresses on key biological systems in the National Park and then identifying the actual source of the stress. Planners then identify the critical threats. In this data analysis phase, critical threat identification should be a priority. If key biological systems have not yet been identified via the general management plan or other scientific studies, then Ecotourism Adaptive Management planner will need to assess this issue so that ecotourism activities can be planned accordingly. High impact or unmanaged tourism may already constitute a threat to some important environments. Ecotourism may constitute a strategy for alleviating that stress. A key result of the analytical phase must be some conclusions about: 1. What the major threats are to the site – National Parks area and how Ecotourism Adaptive Management process might address them? 2. Where ecotourism is going to take place? 3. What kind of activities will be carried out to implement ecotourism? 4. Who will be in charge of implementing these activities and what precautions need to be taken? 5. By who and how this will be monitored and funded? In order to reach these important conclusions, the planning team will need to work together. Perhaps each person could be responsible for reaching tentative conclusions regarding one aspect of the Ecotourism Adaptive Management process. These would then be presented in a group setting and discussed by all. At some point after the initial analysis, it may be useful to have a workshop involving the stakeholders to ask their opinions about various scenarios, e.g., if visitor site X would work better as an ecotourism site if it were restricted to groups of six people or less, or if an eco-lodge run by a concessionaire would be an acceptable means of providing lodging in a distant, but touristically-important, part of the National Parks. Preparing and presenting information to a group of stakeholders on a situation, including viable alternatives, can be very productive and educational. 3.1 Implementation process of the Ecotourism Adaptive Management Plan In most ecotourism projects, and Ecotourism Adaptive Management implementation is no exception, the work is never really done. No matter how well you plan the project or program, it never goes exactly as you intend it to. This uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. In many ways, the most interesting results, the findings that lead to true advances in understanding, are the ones you never expected to get. You will only benefit from these unexpected results, however, if you are ready to

20

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research look for them and act on them. To borrow a phrase from Albert Einstein, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Changing conditions at National Parks and unexpected outcomes of project activities mean that you must always be prepared to respond to new situations to keep your project on track. Adaptation is a constant process. In order to reach your project goals and objectives, you must continually change and modify your Ecotourism Adaptive Management according to available information. However, important changes should never be made unilaterally; relevant stakeholders should always be consulted. You should take advantage of the Ecotourism Advisory Committee to help you in this process. If something in your Ecotourism Adaptive Management is not working, change it! If you do not, chances are the project will suffer. Success is usually a moving target. You will find that the only way to attain it is by being flexible and open to change. 3.2 Monitoring and measures of success of the process As we move slowly from “works-in-progress” toward “demonstration sites” of ecotourism, it is important to identify indicators of success. We need to keep track of where we are and whether or not we are on track in implementing the Ecotourism Adaptive Management and accomplishing our goals and objectives. Program evaluation should be a part of a site’s routine management. Unfortunately, many managers do not systematically evaluate how they are doing with regard to carrying out planning recommendations and in making the decisions necessary to keep them on track. In order to do this, they need guidance, or indicators, to help them make these decisions. There are three primary goals that should be achieved if ecotourism is to be successful: 1. Threats to conservation targets are reduced. 2. Income is generated for conservation. 3. Local communities are benefited. Ecotourism is more than an economic activity. It must also aid in reducing the threats to conservation of the site whether they are caused by uncontrolled tourism or from other activities that impact negatively upon the site’s natural resources. Are programs in place to mitigate problems with flora and fauna? Are cultural impacts with communities monitored? Have residents maintained access to their local National Parks? Are tourism facilities following low-impact principles? Are natural resources better protected through having visitors? Is conservation moving forward? Conversely, we should be asking if the critical threats identified in the planning process are being abated in some way by implementing the Ecotourism Adaptive Management. Additionally, ecotourism should be generating significant income for both the ecotourism site as well as local communities. Is revenue coming in to the protected area or ecotourism site administration? Is that income being used for conservation purposes? Are local communities receiving economic benefits? How much? Are jobs being created in communities? What kind? Are these jobs helping to diversify and strengthen the local economy or making it vulnerable as ecotourism becomes the dominant industry? What is the longterm economic picture for this area? It is critical to track ecotourism’s economic strengths and weaknesses over time. In order to measure the success of an Ecotourism Adaptive Management , indicators should be established for periodical evaluation which reflect the above-mentioned priorities. A primary indicator is progress towards completion of established goals and objectives. 3.3 The process of measuring success As you may have noticed, public participation in the process of preparing your Ecotourism Adaptive Management has been singled out as fundamental to its success; it is also important for evaluating achievement of project objectives and in establishing the indicators and standards for the Limits of

21

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research Acceptable Change process. It should not be surprising then to discover that evaluating where you are in terms of implementing the Ecotourism Adaptive Management should also involve the pertinent stakeholders: National Parks personnel, community entrepreneurs and leaders, tourism industry representatives (especially those working in and around the protected area) and other relevant government representatives. It is a relatively simple process to look at an Ecotourism Adaptive Management that has established easily quantifiable objectives to be achieved in a given time frame and determine what has been accomplished and what has not. What is not so simple is determining why a particular objective has not been met and what can be done to overcome whatever obstacles may have hindered carrying out appropriate activities. The answers to these questions are best answered by a group of involved stakeholders, the evaluation team, not by one or two National Parks staff members who may lack the perspective that a more diverse group would have. Many of these stakeholders may have participated in the planning process and/or be a part of an advisory committee for the ecotourism program. The evaluation team will need to review all of the objectives and activities in the Ecotourism Adaptive Management’s Strategic Plan and determine what has and what has not been done. Major questions to be answered are :1. Are the major players fulfilling the roles that have been assigned to them? 2. Has the proper legal context needed to achieve ecotourism goals been established? 3. Has the funding for ecotourism projects been forthcoming? 4. Is the Ecotourism Adaptive Management too ambitious given available human and economic resources? 5. Have stakeholders done all they can to find sufficient resources? 6. Is the technical support needed to implement ecotourism projects available? 7. What can be done to improve logistical arrangements that might facilitate project implementation? 8. Are other protected area management actions coordinate with the ecotourism program? 9. Do we need to change program objectives and/or activities in the face of changing conditions, or do we need to do a better job doing what is already planned?

4 Summary With regard to LAC and public participation, the relevant stakeholders must be a part of all of the steps in the decision-making process, including establishment of the indicators and standards that will be used to monitor tourism impact. For example, assume that we have decided that the presence of a species of bird found in a particular visitor site is an important indicator of tourism impact. A standard then must be set which represents a consensus regarding the number of these birds to expect in an appropriate number, given a well-managed visitor site. In making this determination, it is only reasonable to involve tour guides, site personnel, biologists and probably others who will have a huge stake in making sure this standard is met. As you might guess by now, we are strong believers in the power of adaptive management to help ecotourism be more successful over the long term. And we believe that our definition and the framework of conditions, steps, and principles for effective ecotourism adaptive management that we have synthesized are sound. But can we be sure? Is ecotourism adaptive management really the best way forward? Is it the most efficient and effective way to learn? Will practitioners find it useful? Are the steps we outlined and the principles we proposed both necessary and sufficient to achieve ecotourism through adaptive management? In thinking about how to answer these questions, the obvious thing to do is to take our own advice and evaluate the adaptive management framework outlined in this research using the same steps and principles that we have presented in this research paper. To this end, we have followed the first few steps in the ecotourism adaptive management process as shown in figure 2 making explicit our goal, model, and assumptions behind this research paper. In order to realize the potential of ecotourism

22

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research adaptive management, we must test it in projects, institutions, and portfolios, and across the entire field of ecotourism. Practitioners who wish to learn more about ecotourism adaptive management and under what conditions it is most useful must find ways to collaborate, learn together, and document what they have learned. For improvements in ecotourism to occur through adaptive management, there must be broad participation by not only practitioners, but also non-governmental organizations, donors, foundations, academic institutions, and government agencies. Our work is based on the work of those who have gone before us. We see this research paper as one step in the process of collectively developing a better understanding of ecotourism adaptive management. We hope other research will use it to generate new and useful insights into ecotourism adaptive management and document what you learn along the way so that others may benefit as well.

References Nick 2001 Adaptive Management: A Tool for Conservation Practitioners Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) Moir, W.H. and W.M. Block. 2001. Adaptive management on public lands in the United States: Commitment or rhetoric? Environmental Management, 28(2):141-148.. Manning, Robert E. and David W. Lime. 2000. Defining and Managing the Quality of Wilderness Recreation Experiences. In: Wilderness Science in a Time of Change Conference Proceedings. S.F. McCool, W.T. Borrie, J. O’Loughlin (eds.). May 23-27, 1999, Missoula, MT. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Ogden, UT. RMRS-P15-VOL-4, pp. 13-52. Leung, Yu-Fai and Jeff Marion. 2000. Recreation Impacts and Management in Wilderness: A Stateof-Knowledge Review. In: Wilderness Science in a Time of Change Conference Proceedings. S.F. Cole, David N. and Stephen F. McCool. 2000. Wilderness Visitors, Experiences and Visitor Management. In: Wilderness Science in a Time of Change Conference Proceedings. S.F. Goetz Phillips, Claudia and John Randolph. 2000. The relationship of ecosystem management to NEPA and its goals. Environmental Management, 26(1):1-12. Drumm, A., et. al. 2004. Chapter 4: Revenue-generating mechanisms and Chapter 5: Visitor impact monitoring and management. Volume II: The business of ecotourism development and management. Ecotourism development: A Manual for Conservation Planners and Managers. Arlington, Virginia: The Nature Conservancy. Available at www.nature.org/ecotourism. Ecotourism Management for National Park (1980 Act), National Park Malaysia, Forestry Department Malaysia. National Policy on Biodiversity Plan for Malaysia (1998), Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment, Malaysia.

23


Relationships among the Characteristics of Serious Leisure, Group Cohesion, and Leisure Involvement in Volunteer Interpreters Wen-Shiung Huang1,a, Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur 2, Yung-Sen Lin3, and Chi-Ling Lien4 1

Graduate Institute of Business Administration, National Chiayi University, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality Management, National Chiayi University, Taiwan 3 Department and Graduate Institute of Tourism and Leisure Management, Ling Tung University, Taiwan / Department of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan 4 Department and Graduate Institute of Tourism and Leisure Management, Ling Tung University, Taiwan 2

Abstract. Volunteer interpreters play an important communicative role in the leisure and recreation of tourists; interpreter services build bridges among tourists, administrative institutions, and leisure resources. An important issue in this field involves the continuation of the involvement of volunteer interpreters in their guidance tasks. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between serious leisure and group cohesion on a personal level, as well as their relationships with leisure involvement. We used volunteer interpreters from non-profit organizations as the research sample, and surveyed 34 non-profit organizations. We also used convenience sampling in distributing questionnaires, and acquired 394 valid samples. We used the method of partial least squares (PLS) to analyze the relationships among variables. Results showed that the characteristics of serious leisure in volunteer interpreters would positively affect group cohesion and leisure involvement, and that group cohesion would positively affect leisure involvement and had a mediation affect in the model.

1 Introduction Interpreters play very important roles for administrative institutions, leisure resources, and tourists. Among the various types of guidance media, interpreters are the most direct and effective (Haig & Mcintyre, 2002). Volunteers are willing to help others, and they contribute to world development with their skills, knowledge, and experience; this is also a type of participation in serious leisure (Stebbins, 1994). Volunteer interpreters combine the characteristics of docents and volunteers. Participants use their leisure time to serve as volunteer interpreters to assist the tourists in achieving greater understanding and insight; in this way, they serve as bridges among administrative institutions, leisure a


24

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research resources, and tourists. The study by Havitz and Howard (1995) showed that in different activities, the higher psychological involvement scores of the participants correlated to the increased time that was devoted to such activities. Havitz and Mannell (2005) asserted that participants with a high psychological involvement would show positive correlations among the frequency, intensity, and time of participation. Even though psychological involvement does not have an absolute effect on behavioral involvement, there are still considerable correlations between psychological involvement and behavioral involvement. In other words, if volunteer interpreters were willing to devote more time, administrative institutions would also have more sufficient human resources. Iwasaki and Havitz (1998) pointed out that personal characteristics are the precursors to involvement. The characteristics of serious leisure would promote participants to devote more time to leisure activities (Stebbins, 1982; Tsaur & Liang, 2008). Therefore, the first research topic in this study seeks to engage the perspective of serious leisure to explore its effect on the leisure involvement of volunteer interpreters. Johnson and Fortman (1988) and Yalom (1995) pointed out that cohesion influences individual actions, resulting in greater identification with group objectives, greater ease in accepting designated tasks and roles, greater motivation and perseverance in group tasks, and more self-expression. In highly cohesive teams, members usually have a great deal of devotion to group tasks, are less inclined to be absent, and demonstrate greater cooperativeness in executing tasks. There is usually a high level of satisfaction among members, and performance achievement is promoted by a greater commitment to group objectives (Forsyth, 1990). The second research topic in this study involves the question of whether a mediation effect exists between the characteristics of serious leisure and leisure involvement for the volunteer interpreters with greater cohesion. Considering the above, since volunteer interpreters play important communicative roles in tourist leisure and recreation, the important issue of the ways through which one may enable the volunteer interpreters’ continuous involvement in guidance arises. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the relationships among the characteristics of serious leisure, group cohesion, and leisure involvement. These are the motivations behind this study.

2 Literature Review 2.1 Serious leisure Serious leisure has been defined as the systematic exploration of activities by amateurs, hobbyists, or volunteers; participants would even discover that these activities are interesting and challenging, and would therefore continue to participate in them. Participants acquire and express certain skills, knowledge, and experience in these activities (Stebbins, 1993). Stebbins (1982; 1992; 2001) created six categories for the characteristics of the participants of serious leisure: (1) Perseverance – the participants’ persevering spirit behind their activities. (2) Career development in their endeavors – the participants’ view of their leisure activities as long-term careers, pursuits for personal careers and experiences, and more generally as diligent devotion without compensation. (3) Significant personal effort – the participants’ devotion of a great deal of hard work to acquire related knowledge, training, or skills. (4) Durable individual benefits – the benefits that can arise from the participation in leisure activities. (5) Unique ethos – the participants’ possession of unique values in their social lives that are similar to the norms, values, and beliefs within a subculture. (6) Strong identification with the activity – the participants’ strong sense of identification with the chosen leisure activity. In addition to these six characteristics, subsequent researchers have also added self-expression, which is the expression of one’s personal ability and characteristics through one’s personal talent and capabilities (Brown, 2007; Shen & Yarnal, 2010). Many studies have explored the causal relationships among these characteristics of serious leisure and other constructs. For instance, Tsaur and Liang (2008) discovered that the characteristics of

25

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research serious leisure have a positive effect on the professionalization of leisure; Kim, Dattilo, and Heo (2011) asserted that the characteristics of serious leisure positively influence life satisfaction and views on health. These studies have shown that when participants of leisure are equipped with more characteristics of serious leisure, their leisure participation is affected, which in turn affects positively their attitudes toward leisure after their participation. 2.2 Leisure involvement Wiley, Shaw and Havitz (2000) pointed out that leisure involvement refers to the extent of an individual’s involvement in a specific activity, and the attitude that would allow participants to continue their involvement in a specific activity. Havitz and Dimanche (1997) and Kyle, Graefe, Manning, and Bacon (2003) asserted that leisure involvement is a psychological state that is elicited by specific encouragement or situations; it is an unobservable state of motivation, epiphany, or importance toward a certain activity or related products. These definitions have shown that leisure involvement is a psychological state experienced by the participants of leisure activities in response to their participation in these leisure activities. In terms of measuring the dimensions of involvement, McIntyre and Pigram (1992) asserted that activity involvement is comprised of the three dimensions of attraction, self-expression, and centrality to lifestyle. (1) Attraction refers to the importance of the activity to an individual, and the pleasure derived from the participation process. (2) Self-expression refers to the individual’s need to pursue self-actualization, which leads to the identification of the activity in which one participates and the conveying of related impressions to others, possibly to persuade them to participate in leisure engagement. (3) Centrality to lifestyle refers to the arrangement of an individual’s overall lifestyle or social network that is based on leisure activities. Leisure involvement is the volunteer interpreter’s continuous process of choosing to participate in the activity, which ultimately fosters a high degree of enthusiasm. This involvement is an intangible motivation and a psychological state that is elicited by encouragement or special circumstances. On the other hand, the volunteer interpreters’ involvement in the continued devotion to their activities can also be inspired or motivated by external and internal factors. 2.3 Group cohesion Group cohesion is an important factor that influences group interaction; it is the dynamic process via which team members are closely connected and jointly complete group objectives. Carron, Widmeyer, and Brawley (1985) proposed the conceptual model of group cohesion, which is divided into the two main categories of group integration and the individual attraction to the group. (1) Group integration represents the unique closeness and affinity in groups, and is considered as reflective of the consistency of the whole. It also refers to a uniform degree of similarity and affinity, which represent the strength of the relationships. (2) Individual attraction to the group represents the purposes that influence the individual to remain in the group, or the individual’s and members’ feelings about the group. These two definitions of cohesion both involve connecting the members and seeing them as a whole (unit). The two categories can be further divided into the two categories of task orientation and social orientation. Task orientation is the power by which team members achieve specific team objectives and goals, while social orientation is the extent to which interpersonal relationships are developed and maintained. The present study measured both task and social orientations. 2.4 Deduction of research hypotheses (1) The relationship between serious leisure and leisure involvement Iwasaki and Havitz (1998) pointed out that personal characteristics are the precursors to

26

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research involvement. Participants with the characteristics of serious leisure would devote more time to leisure activities (Stebbins, 1982; Tsaur & Liang, 2008). According to the theory of serious leisure, participants with the characteristics of serious leisure have greater involvement than that of the casual leisure participants. In the profit hypothesis, Stebbins (1992) asserted that in the pursuit of internal returns or rewards, serious leisure participants continue their involvement in serious leisure activities. Iwasaki and Havitz (1998) also mentioned that the pursuit of personal interests is a key to the continuous increase of the level of involvement. It is evident from the above that the occurrence of participation is first based on the personal characteristics of the participants, which in turn increase their continuous involvement in an activity. Thus, this study proposed the following research hypothesis: H1: The characteristics of serious leisure in volunteer interpreters would positively affect leisure involvement. (2) The relationship between serious leisure and group cohesion Stebbins (1994) divided serious leisure participants into three types: amateur, hobbyist, and career volunteer. Among these, career volunteers are happy to help others due to a combination of factors that relate to others and altruism; they contribute themselves to the development of the world with their skills, knowledge, and experience. Levy, Itzhaky, Zanbar, and Schwartz (2012) exp lored the formative factors of cohesion in group volunteers, and found that cohesion is affected by Personal Resources and Community Indices. They also asserted that personal resources included self-esteem, a sense of mastery, and a sense of coherence. Serious leisure participants can achieve continuous personal benefits from leisure events, including group attraction, group accomplishments, and group maintenance (Stebbins, 2001). Therefore, due to the characteristics of serious leisure, volunteer interpreters would have to possess a higher level of group cohesion in order to achieve group goals. Thus, this study proposed the following research hypothesis: H2: The characteristics of serious leisure in volunteer interpreters would positively affect group cohesion. (3) Group cohesion and leisure involvement Teams with higher cohesion tend to have high morale and a stronger team spirit (Bollen & Hoyle, 1990). Past studies have found that group cohesion can affect group performance, member satisfaction, behaviors, and attitudes (Beal, Cohen, Burke, & McLendon, 2003; Huang, 2009; Westre & Weiss, 1991). In highly cohesive teams, members usually have a great deal of devotion to group tasks, are less inclined to be absent, and demonstrate greater cooperativeness in executing tasks. Additionally, there is usually a high level of satisfaction among these members, and performance achievement is promoted by a greater commitment to group objectives (Forsyth, 1990). For volunteer interpreters, members in more cohesive teams not only elevate their self-value, but also respect each other for cooperating; they are also willing to commit their efforts to the achievement of group objectives. In other words, they have a greater degree of involvement. Thus, this study proposed the following research hypothesis: H3: Group cohesion in volunteer interpreters would positively affect leisure involvement.

3 Methodology 3.1 Research subjects and sampling This study focused on non-profit organizations, and used the volunteer interpreters in these

27

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Tourism Research organizations as research subjects. As the subjects considered by this study were volunteer interpreters with different degrees of involvement, we conducted this study in two stages. The first stage was divided by organization; in this stage, we conducted purposive sampling for the 37 non-profit organizations that had volunteer interpreters. The second stage involved convenience sampling with 20 questionnaires at each organization. Thus, 740 questionnaires were distributed, and 450 questionnaires from 34 non-profit organizations were retrieved. After discarding 56 invalid questionnaires, we had 394 valid questionnaires. 3.2 Research tools and analytical tools For the characteristics of serious leisure, we primarily referred to Cheng and Tsaur (2012)’s Serious Leisure Scale, the dimensions of which included perseverance, career development in their endeavors, significant personal effort, durable individual benefits, unique spiritual quality, and strong identification with the activity. There were three questions on each dimension for a total of 18 questions. For cohesion, we primarily referred to Estabrooks and Carron (2000)’s Cohesion Scale in our use of five and six questions on task-oriented cohesion and social-oriented cohesion, respectively, for a total of 11 questions. For leisure involvement, we primarily referred to Kyle et al. (2003)’s Leisure Involvement Scale in our use of three, five, and three questions on self-expression, attraction, and centrality, respectively, for a total of 11 questions. We used the Likert 7-point scale to measure the dimensions; responses that ranged from “highly disagree” to “highly agree” were given 1 to 7 points. In this study, we also used partial least squares (PLS) to analyze the structural model.

4 Analysis of results and discussion 4.1 Analysis of socioeconomic backgrounds We analyzed the 394 valid questionnaires that were retrieved in this study to determine their socioeconomic backgrounds. Most respondents were women (58.9%), in the age range of 51-60 years (28.2%), married with children (59.9%), had university-level education (47.2%), were employed (53.3%), were currently or recently teachers (16.8%), had average monthly incomes in the range of 20,001-40,000 NT Dollars (26.9%), had spent between 1 to 3 years in volunteer services (26.6%), generally served as volunteers for 1-3 hours per week (42.6), generally served between 1 to 3 years as volunteer interpreters at their current organizations (30.7), had volunteer service certificates (80.2), and had not joined other volunteer service organizations (57.1). 4.2 Analysis of measurement models There were two steps in the analysis and interpretation of the PLS model. The first step was to test the reliability and validity of the model. The second step was to test the significance and predictive ability of the path coefficients in the structural model. We tested the model with the consideration of the following indicators: (1) Factor loading was in the range of 0.79-0.91, which was greater than 0.5; (2) Composite reliability was in the range of 0.88-0.93, which was greater than 0.7, thus giving the study internal consistency; (3) Average variance extracted (AVE) was in the range of 0.68-0.80, which was greater than 0.5, thus giving the study composite validity; (4) AVE square roots of the sub-dimensions were in the range of 0.72-0.87, all of which were greater than the correlation coefficients of the other sub-dimensions; this meant that the measurements had good discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2014). For details, see Table 1 and Table 2.

28


Table 1. Assessment of confirmatory factor analysis Construct

Variable

Characteristics of serious leisure

Group cohesion Leisure involvement

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 G1 G2 Y1 Y2 Y3

SEF

IR

0.81* 0.88* 0.85* 0.79* 0.81* 0.83* 0.88* 0.91* 0.86* 0.91* 0.83*

0.65 0.77 0.71 0.62 0.65 0.69 0.78 0.82 0.74 0.83 0.69

CR 炷AVE炸

0.93 (0.68)

0.89 (0.80) 0.90 (0.76)

Note: p