21st Nordic Symposium in Tourism and Hospitality Research. “Developing Tourism – Sustaining Regions” Advancing Research Methodologies for Sustaining Regional Tourism
Why stakeholders’ perceptions matter in tourism sustainable development and evolution? An exploratory study using Delphi technique Cinta Sanz Ibáñez & Salvador Anton Clavé Department of Geography, Rovira i Virgili University
Umeå University, Umeå , Sweden. 8th – 11st November 2012
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Background: Role of stakeholders in tourism destination evolution Objective: To analyse community involvement phenomena from stakeholders’ perspective Study area: The Ebro Delta (Catalonia, Spain)
Methodology: Case study applying Delphi technique Results: Limitations and opportunities for stakeholders involvement in the Ebro Delta Concluding remarks
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Background Tourism destination evolution Complex path- and place-dependent process that is determined by the interaction and relations of destination stakeholders and their ability to adapt (path plasticity – incremental changes) or creating new development paths (path creation – radical changes) (Baggio, 2008; Boschma & Martin, 2010; Garud & Karnoe, 2001; Li & Bathelt, 2011; Martin, 2010; Strambach & Storz, 2008)
Needs Values Agendas
Perception
Action
Policy Involvement Collaboration
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Objective To analyse community involvement phenomena from stakeholders’ perspective
With the aim to assess policies to improve tourism destination sustainability and competitiveness
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Study Area (1): The Ebro Delta
Catalonia 180 km south of Barcelona
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Study Area (2): Facts & Figures
General information
o Second largest wetland area in the western Mediterranean region (32.000 ha) o Natural Park (7.802 ha) and other protection figures o 7 municipalities o 64.000 inhabitants (2011) o Economy based on primary sector (rice production: 125.000T/year in 25.000 ha) and growing tourism activity
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Study Area (3): Facts & Figures
Tourism context
o Products: Natural Park and beaches o Number of visitors in the Natural Park (2011): 137.000
o Main markets (2011): Catalan (46%), Spanish (29%), French (13%) o Number of accomodation establishments increase (1986 2011): 75% (5.750 new beds) • • •
8 campsites (65% beds) 31 hotels (31% beds) 36 Rural guesthouses (4% beds)
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Study Area (4): Justification 2009
2000 – nowadays: 1983 - 1986: River Ebro Natural Park defence creation
2007 – nowadays: European Charter for Sustainable Tourism
70s: Municipalities independence
Stakeholders have driven
destination evolution through successive stages of
path creation and path plasticity
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Methodology (1): Delphi technique Qualitative research method that elicits judgments of a panel of experts on highly subjective and complex issues (Garrod & Fyall, 2005) Anonimity
Iteration
Controlled feedback
Statistical aggregation of group response
Delphi in tourism research (from the 80s) Impact & sustainability assessment
Management studies
Policy evaluation
(Liu, 1988;
(Green et al., 1990;
(Monfort, 2000;
(Pulido, 2007;
Lloyd et al., 2000)
Choi & Sirakaya, 2006
Landeta, 2006)
Beas, 2009)
Event & demand forecasting
Community involvement from stakeholders’ perspective
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Methodology (2): Procedure
Experts selection
Questionnaire design
Convergence round
Scoping round
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis
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Methodology (3): Experts selection
Number of experts o 15 experts Selection criteria
PUBLIC SECTOR
• Catalan Government (territorial representative) • Tarragona Province Government Tourist Board (Manager) • Ebro Delta Natural Park (Director) • Baix Ebre Territorial Government (Tourism technician) • Montsià Territorial Government (Tourism technician)
PRIVATE SECTOR
• Tourist Companies & Activities Association (President) • Rural Tourism Association (President) • Nautical Tourism Association (Manager) • Entrepreneur of the accommodation sector • Entrepreneur of tourism activities sector • Entrepreneur of the restaurant sector
CIVIL SOCIETY
• SEO/Birdlife (representative) • Farmers Association (representative) • Productive sector (representative)
o Reputation method: Agents with a prominent role in tourism development and valuable knowledge or experience
o Balance & representativeness: Public sector (6), private sector (6) and civil society (3)
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Methodology (4): Questionnaire design
Selection of issues o Literature review o Preliminar interviews
Formulation of questions o Issues: 4 o Items: 60
o Type: • 1 to 7 Likert scale affirmations
• Chance to argue responses
o Criteria: • Clarity and precision
• Adaptation to stakeholders’ language and knowledge
Issues
Examples of items
Social context
• The Ebro Delta has a singular territorial identity • Population of the Ebro Delta have strong feelings of belonging
Expectations towards collaboration
• Collaboration among destination stakeholders make easier to obtain funding for tourism development
• Destination stakeholders have a Relations among agents fluent and frequent communication • Destination stakeholders distrust each other
Roles of agents
• The presence of a Natural Park in the area has been crucial for the development of tourism • The national government was the first who believe in the potential of the area as a tourism destination
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Methodology (5): Interviews
Scoping round o Face-to-face interviews (1h 30min) o Structured questionnaires o Additional information (experts arguments and justifications)
Convergence round o E-mail questionnaires (100% response rate) o Structured questionnaire with aggregate group judgements
o Additional information (experts arguments and justifications)
Time between rounds:
1 month
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Methodology (6): Statistical analysis
Statistic measures Opinion of experts
Degree of consensus
Degree of consensus Unanimity Consensus Differences Disagreement
Justification
Central tendency: Median
More robust in the presence of outlier values than the mean
Summary: Minimum & Maximum values
Least robust but show extreme opinions to respondents
Dispersion: Inter-quartile range
More suitable when working with Median and more robust statistic (preferred to total range)
Inter-quartile range 0 1i2 3 4
Scoping round % items 1,57 74,80 18,90 4,72
Convergence round % items 3,15 83,46 13,39 0,00
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Results (1): Community involvement in the Ebro Delta
Limitations
Opportunities
to enhance
to reinforce
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Results (2): Limitations for community involvement
Need to improve relations among stakeholders
o Division between public and private sector (communication, trust, support, collaboration)
o Public administrations not coordinated o Relations among members of private sector in an early stage
Disagreement with roles of stakeholders
o Different perceptions of who was the driving force behind tourism development o Distribution of functions and authority not clear
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Results (3): Opportunities for community involvement Shared identity & belonging
o Strong territorial and tourism identity
Natural area protection & tourism project
o Natural Park as the driving force of tourism development
Positive expectations towards collaboration
o Emergent systemic consciousness
o European Charter for Sustainable Tourism as a common vision and strategy o Trust in benefits of collaboration
o Motivations to collaborate: 1. Prestige, innovation and attract visitors 2. Funding and influence in policy planning 3. Information transfer and visitors experience
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Concluding remarks
Tourism destination evolution is a path dependent and socially- constructed process
Stakeholders’ involvement in tourism development can be better understood by analysing stakeholders’ perspective
Results of Delphi method are valuable inputs to assess policies aimed to improve tourism destination sustainability and competitiveness
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Concluding remarks
Half empty
Half filled
Thanks for your attention!
[email protected] [email protected]
Acknowledgement: The research that this paper is based on was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ref. CSO2011-23004/GEOG).
References •
Baggio, R. (2008). Symptoms of Complexity in a Tourism System. Tourism Analysis, 13, 1-20.
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Beas, L. (2009). Les polítiques turístiques en el marc de la reestructuració de les destinacions litorals. Avaluació dels plans d’excel·lència turística al litoral català. Tesi doctoral, Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
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Boschma, R. & Martin, R. (2010). The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Choi, H. & Sirakaya, E. (2006). Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism. Tourism Management, 27, 1274-1289.
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Garrod, B. & Fyall, A. (2005). Revisiting Delphi: the Delphi Technique in Tourism Research. In B.W. Ritchie et al. (2005) Tourism Research Methods. Integrating Theory with Practice. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.
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Garud, R., Karnoe, P. (2001). Path creation as a process of mindful deviation. In R. Garud & P. Karnoe (Eds.) Path dependence and creation (1-38). London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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Green, H., Hunter, C. & Moore, B. (1990) Application of the Delphi technique in Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 17, 270-279.
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Landeta, J. (2006). Current validity of the Delphi method in social sciences. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 73, 467–482.
References •
Li, P-F., Bathelt, H. (2011). A relational-evolutionary perspective of cluster dynamics. SPACES online, 9, issue 2011-02. Toronto and Heidelberg: www.spaces-online.com
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Liu, J. (1988). Hawaii tourism to the year 2000: a Delphi forecast. Tourism Management, 9 (4), 279-290.
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Lloyd, J., La Lopa, J.M. & Braunlich, C.G. (2000). Predicting changes in Hong Kong’s hotel industry given the change in sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997. Journal of Travel Research, 38, 405-410.
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Martin, R. (2010). Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography – Rethinking Regional Path Dependence: Beyond Lock-in to Evolution. Economic Geography, 86(1), 1-27.
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Monfort, V. (2000). La política turística: una aproximación. Cuadernos de Turismo, 6, 8-7.
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Pulido, J. (2007). Elementos para orientar la formulación de una política sostenible en los parques naturales andaludes. Cuadernos de Turismo, 19, 167-188.
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Storz, C. (2008) Dynamics in innovation systems: Evidence from Japan’s game software industry. Research Policy, 37, 1480–1491.
