The Ulysses Factor: Evaluating Visitors in Tourist Settings

263 Pages·1988·8.23 MB·English

by  Philip L. Pearce (auth.)

Recent Research in Psychology
Philip L. Pearce
The Ulysses Factor
Evaluating Visitors in Tourist Settings
With 52 Illustrations
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
Philip L. Pearce
Department of Behavioural Sciences
James Cook University of North Queensland
Townsville, Queensland 4811
Australia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pearce, Philip L.
The Ulysses factor: evaluating visitors in tourist settings /
Philip L. Pearce.
p. cm.--(Recent research in psychology)
Bilbiography: p.
Includes index.
1. Travelers--Psychology. 2. Tourist trade--Psychological
aspects. I. Title. II. Series.
G156.P43 1988
910'.01'9--dc 19 88-20190
Printed on acid-free paper
(tl 1988 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the
written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010,
USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in
connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer
software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is
forbidden.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc. in this publication, even if
the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as
understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely
by anyone.
Camera-ready copy provided by the authors.
9 8 765 4 321
ISBN -13:978-0-387-96834-6 e-ISBN-13:978-1-4612-3924-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3924-6
To Gianna
PREFACE
In 1982, when my book The Social Psychology of Tourist Behaviour
was published, it was almost possible to review academic research on
tourism. In 1988, in a book of similar scale, such a review is almost
impossible. The aim of the present volume is, therefore, to outline a
body of work which adopts a consistent theme and method in
exploring the topic of tourism. The approach is one of emphasising
tourists' reactions and behaviours. The work is both behavioural and
cognitive, and stems principally from applied traditions in social and
environmental psychology. The examples of tourist studies tend to be
Australian, British, and North American, principally because work
elsewhere in psychological studies of tourists is less well organised.
The nationality of the researchers should not, however, confine the
application of the research findings, since while the examples may be
specific the results are applicable in Brisbane, Bognor or Bogota.
The book is intended not just for academic tourism researchers but
also for all psychologists, so that they might note an understudied
phenomenon within their discipline. For leisure researchers it is
hoped that it will provide an opportunity for them to see
developments parallel to their own research efforts in studying
recreational behaviour. Is it also a volume for tourism managers and
executives? In part it is, and the sections such readers might find of
particular interest are Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 9. It is not intended as a
student text in tourism, but it will hopefully provide a reference for
psychological research in the field. For graduate students, in
particular, it should provide important guidelines for designing
tourism studies.
Over a long period of time Professor George Kearney and the
secretarial staff of the Department of Behavioural Sciences have
supported the tourism studies discussed in this volume. I would
particularly like to thank Anne Sharp for her considerable secretarial
help on this book. I would also like to thank Gianna for her ideas and
assistance especially with Chapters 5 and 7, and I hope that Susan
likes the photos.
Philip L. Pearce
Townsville
Australia
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter 1 : Tourism Studies in Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
Chapter 2: Conceptual Approaches to Vi~itor Evaluation. . . . . . .. 23
Chapter 3: Methodological Issue in Tourist Research . . . . . . . . . .. 45
Chapter 4: The Theme Parks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 60
Chapter 5: Museums and Visitor Centres. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 90
Chapter 6: Historic Sites and Farm Tourism .......... . 114
Chapter 7: Tourist Attitudes in Natural Environments ... 140
Chapter 8: Foreign Places and Faces;
Images and Authenticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 9: Tourism Industry Research ....................... 194
Chapter 10: Conclusion ..................................... 219
References ................................................. 229
CHAPTER 1: TOURIST STUDIES IN CONTEXT
"For always roaming with a hungry heart"
Imagine a nation with a population equal to half that of the United
States. Consider the problems of finding housing, food, entertainment
and transport if this entire nation decided to leave home on anyone
evening. Such a massive daily movement of people represents the
global scale of the tourism industry as the twenty first century
approaches. Our nation of travellers fluctuates in population: in July
and August there may be 300 million people involved in travel and
tourist activity in the Northern hemisphere with intense pockets of
concentration around the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the coastal
margins of Europe, Japan and America. In the quieter months of the
northern hemisphere winter, the number of travellers adrift at any
one time may be of the order of the population of Britain; still
sufficient to arrest anyone's attention. Shortly after World War II the
travel scholar Pimlott commented:
"in the present century holidays have become something of a
cult... for many they are the principal objects of life - saved
and planned for during the rest of the year and enjoyed in
retrospect when they are over" (1947 :211).
The cult Pimlott identified has swelled into a respectable religion just
three decades later.
Our hypothetical nation is an affluent one, it is multilingual and its
interests are staggeringly diverse. Like other nations the tourist
community has its own bureaucracy, a legion of service and organising
personnel to cater for the multifaceted needs of the travellers. It
would be a mistake though, to assume that this support group, loosely
called the tourist industry, is a cohesive or well integrated union. The
specialised services provided by the transport, accommodation and
attraction components of the tourist business make each group self
contained and sometimes unable to appreciate the total needs of
travellers. Our mobile nation itself displays the full range of social
stratification apparent in any large human group, with elites,
intellectuals, a mass culture and fragmented specialist sub cultures.
Finally, our mobile nation has a problem with its international image.
From its fledgling beginnings in the seventeenth century to its
contemporary growth bulge, the nation of tourists has attracted a well
defined and global negative publicity. There is, Adam Smith wrote in
1775, nothing "more conceited, more unprincipled, more dissipated
2
and more incapable of any serious application either to study or to
business" than the returning tourist. If tourists are not liked when
they return home, nor are they always welcome at their chosen
destination. In the West Indies tourists have been greeted at airports
with banners advising them to go home (Bryden, 1973), while many
vIsItors to Arab and Eastern Mediterranean countries have
experienced host hostility and covert malevolence. As Kent (1977)
noted, for many destinations plagued by the pressure of too many
visitors, there is "a grimace behind every smile".
The goal of this chapter is to set tourism research in the context of
community attitudes and tourism industry needs. It is important
therefore to explore reactions to tourists and tourism in some detail.
This will be approached by assessing three key contexts for the
expectations of tourism research. In this chapter the impacts of
tourism will be discussed to appreciate community reactions to the
nation of tourists and consequently the general need for tourism
studies. Secondly, the academic and scholarly approaches to tourism
will be considered and finally the interaction between tourist scholars
and the tourist industry research requirements will be reviewed.
Community Reactions to Tourism
The global scale of the tourism phenomenon has already been
emphasised. There is, however, little information assessing local
people's responses to the phenomenon as a whole: instead there are
numerous reports documenting host community reactions to tourists
and tourism impacts in specific settings. These reactions can be
understood by referring to Figure 1.1.
The figure specifies the key planning elements or units to be
considered in understanding host reaction to tourism development.
The circles represent the size of the tourist and host communities and
the size of the tourist presence or impacts. The degree of overlap of
the circles represents the amount of the intrusion of each sector on
each other sector. For example, in the first part of the figure, the
impact of a large tourist enterprise on a small community (such as the
construction of a 500 person resort on the outskirts of a 100 person
town) can be seen to dominate the existing community. If social
interaction between locals and tourists is encouraged, and if the resort
uses a setting already central to the community, then the tourist
presence will not only be large but will effectively invade the social
and environmental resources of the locals. By way of contrast a resort
which is of comparable size, but which functions as a self contained
FIGURE 1.1: MODELS OF TOURIST IMPACT ON HOST COMMUNITIES AND
ENVIRONMENTS
A. Large Scale Tourism Enterprises Affecting Small Communities
I. Large resort built on II. Large resort built 5km
on main beach of small town away from small town
~
Local
Local Local People Local Environment
People ~ Environment
Tourist Presence Tourist Presence
B. Tourism Enterprises Affecting Large Communities
III. Small Tourist Attraction in IV. Changes to Existing Tourist Attraction
Large City in Large City
Local Local
/ \ / \
People Environment People Environment
®I i", ,,,'""'" I
®
Tourist Presence
V. Construction of Large Tourist Attraction
(e.g. "EXPO") in Major City
Local
/ \
People Environment
~O",i"
''0'""'"
LEGEND: NATURE OF IMPACT: 0 [ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
•• [INTERPERSONAL CONTACT
•• [RESOURCE, LAND USE, COMPETITION
4
social milieu, will not have such an impact on the local people directly
but may still utilise recreational venues valued by that local group.
The hypothesis guiding this model and supported by the impact
studies is that the greater the amount of intrusion on both social and
physical dimensions the greater the negative reaction to tourists and
tourism (Cohen, 1978; D. Pearce, 1981; Mathieson and Wall, 1982).
The second part of Figure 1.1 suggests that the tourist presence has
less effect when the host community is larger. The new tourism
infrastructure and the presence of the visitors may, according to the
options described in the figure, extend the present facilities, blend in
with existing operations or in the case of a major tourist event affect
the character of the whole community.
The model described here is built principally around the impacts due
to the size of the tourist presence in relation to the local community.
Additionally one needs to consider the sophistication and technological
level of the host community. A range of studies and analyses have
demonstrated that the effects on host communities is greater when
the cultural and technological gap between guests and hosts is large
(Cater, 1987). In order to understand the context in which tourist
research operates it is instructive to examine the content of these
tourism impacts. These impacts shape the reaction to tourism by
many host communities and generate expectations as to how tourism
research and planning should operate.
The impacts of tourism can be broadly categorised as economic,
social/cultural and environmental. As indicated in Figure 1.1 some
impacts are direct, in the sense that they are the result of
interpersonal contact, while others are indirect, such as the long term
environmental consequences of altering ecosystems to build resorts.
There have been some notable attempts to summarise tourism
impacts with models and stage approaches to the host-guest
interaction process. Doxey (1975) argued that there were 5 levels of
tourist irritation, while Hills and Lundgren (1977) made some efforts
to quantify the extent of the irritations and impacts of the tourism
development process. This one dimensional approach has not been
employed here since it is argued that direct and indirect effects are on
different time scales, and that the sophistication as well as the size of
the receiving society may ameliorate or exacerbate the impacts.
Additionally stage models have the unfortunate tendency of masking
individual differences and assuming an inevitable sequence of events.
Tourism developments and impacts on the other hand, may follow
some common rules but they also produce unorthodox and unique