Tourist Intentions to Continue Poverty Alleviation Actions After Participating in Microfinance Tourism

82 Pages·2017·1.33 MB·English

Clemson University
TigerPrints
All Theses Theses
5-2013
Tourist Intentions to Continue Poverty Alleviation
Actions After Participating in Microfinance
Tourism
Michelle Nance
Clemson University, [email protected]
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Part of theRecreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons
Recommended Citation
Nance, Michelle, "Tourist Intentions to Continue Poverty Alleviation Actions After Participating in Microfinance Tourism" (2013).All
Theses. 1633.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1633
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TOURIST INTENTIONS TO CONTINUE
POVERTY ALLEVIATION ACTIONS AFTER
PARTICIPATING IN MICROFINANCE TOURISM
_______________________________________
A Thesis
Presented to
the Graduate School of
Clemson University
_______________________________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management
_______________________________________
by
Michelle Nance
May 2013
_______________________________________
Accepted by:
Dr. Ken Backman, Committee Chair
Dr. Bob Powell
Dr. Bill Norman
Abstract
The tourism industry has begun to incorporate microfinance into a new type of
niche tourism that integrates local entrepreneurs and tourists. This type of tourism is
called microfinance tourism. The study investigates the tourist role in poverty alleviation
using the Theory of Planned Behavior to explore how attitude, perceived behavioral
control, and social norms impact intention to continue investment and/or donation to
microentrepreneurs and microfinance organizations. The study was conducted in
conjunction with Investours, a non-profit organization that offers ‘microfinance tours’ in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The study found perceived
behavioral control and attitude to be strong predictors of intention to donate and/or invest
in microentrepreneurs and/or microfinance organizations.
Keywords: Microfinance, Pro-Poor Tourism, Theory of Planned Behavior, Ecotourism

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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my Committee for their guidance and
mentoring over the past two years. To my advisor, Ken Backman: I appreciate all the
time you have spent challenging me and supporting me from cultivation of project ideas
to the writing of the thesis. Your advice and wisdom have been integral in the successful
completion of the PRTM Master’s Program. To my committee member, Bob Powell: I
cannot thank you enough for the hours you spent guiding me through the data analyzing
process and the time dedicated to helping me conceptualize and organize some of the
more difficult elements of the thesis. To my committee member, Bill Norman: allowing
me into your PRTM 840 class my first semester gave me the background knowledge and
Google searching keywords to develop my passion into a thesis project. Thank you for
pushing me to explore tourism literature and cultivate my interests.
I want to acknowledge and thank the Investours staff and participants who helped
make this research study possible. A special thank you goes out to Elly, Corrina, and
Peter for their hospitality and for sharing their wealth of knowledge on Investours with
me.
I am grateful to the staff, professors, faculty members, and fellow graduate
students of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management for their
support and comradery. In particular, I’d like to thank Dr. Brett Wright for his
commitment and encouragement. The experiences in and outside the classroom have
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been enlightening and I am thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to share this journey
with so many great people.
I would like to thank the Clemson University Athletic Department and the
Women’s Rowing Team for their incredible support throughout the course of my
Master’s Degree program. The many people cheering me on were integral in my
successful completion.
Finally, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my family and friends for all
their love and encouragement over the years. I especially want to thank my parents for
listening to me and helping me through the ups and downs of life.

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Table of Contents
Page
Title Page ............................................................................................................................. i
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii
List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii

Chapter

1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................1
1.1 Background and Purpose .......................................................................1
1.2 Investours: Microfinance and Tourism ..................................................4
1.3 The Theory of Planned Behavior ...........................................................5
1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................7
1.5 Research Hypotheses .............................................................................7
1.6 Research Procedure ................................................................................8
1.7 Operational Definitions ..........................................................................9
1.8 Thesis Outline ......................................................................................10

2. Thesis Article .....................................................................................................12
2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................12
2.2 Eco-Tourism Experiences and Impacts
on Behavior ....................................................................................15
2.3 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................16
2.4 Investours .............................................................................................19
2.5 The Investours Experience in the
Framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior ............................21
v
Table of Contents (Continued)
Page
2.6 Methods................................................................................................23
2.7 Research Instrument.............................................................................24
2.8 Results ..................................................................................................30
2.9 Discussion and Conclusion ..................................................................45

3. Discussion ..........................................................................................................49
3.1 Summary ..............................................................................................49
3.2 Contribution to Tourism ......................................................................50
3.3 Contribution to Microfinance ..............................................................50
3.4 Contribution to Theory of
Planned Behavior ...........................................................................51
3.5 Limitations ...........................................................................................51
3.6 Implications..........................................................................................52
3.7 Future Research ...................................................................................53

Appendices .........................................................................................................................54
A. Investours Pre-Questionnaire Email to
Past Participants .........................................................................................55
B. Cover Letter Email with Link to the
Online Questionnaire .................................................................................56
C. First Reminder ...................................................................................................58
D. Final Reminder ..................................................................................................59
E. Web Questionnaire ............................................................................................60

List of References ..............................................................................................................68

vi
List of Tables
Table Page
1: Attitude Questions .............................................................................................25
2: Social Norms Questions.....................................................................................26
3: Perceived Behavioral Control Questions ...........................................................28
4: Intention Questions ............................................................................................29
5: Demographics ....................................................................................................31
6: Trip Characteristics ............................................................................................32
7: Change in Understanding Mean Score ..............................................................34
8: Scale Reliability Values .....................................................................................35
9: Attitude Mean Score ..........................................................................................36
10: Social Norms Mean Score ..............................................................................37
11: Perceived Behavioral Control Mean
Score ..............................................................................................40
12: Intentions Mean Score .....................................................................................41
13: t-Test Comparison............................................................................................43
14: Correlation Table .............................................................................................44
15: Regression Analysis .........................................................................................45

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List of Figures
Figure Page
1: Modified Model of Theory of
Planned Behavior ...........................................................................17

viii
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background and Purpose
Poverty has been a long standing condition in much of the world. Despite the
advances in society, poverty persists today in both economically developed and
developing countries. According to the World Bank (2008), over three billion people,
almost half the world, live on less than $2.50 USD a day. Throughout the centuries
various approaches and ideas surrounding the best practices to alleviate poverty have
ebbed and flowed. Tourism has been identified as an economic strategy for many nations
to create jobs and provide inflows of foreign currency to help alleviate poverty and boost
local and national economies. However, research disputes the claims that introduction of
tourism into an economically developing country will improve the status of the poor
(Britton, 1982; Brohman, 1996; de Kadt, 1979; Nash 1977; Smith, 1977; Mbaiwa, 2005).
The findings suggest that intervention is required if one of the goals of tourism is to
improve the standard of living of the local people through economic opportunity.
Traditionally, tourism development requires large amounts of capital and
infrastructure improvement particularly in less developed countries during the early
stages of tourism development (Mill & Morrison, 2002). The largest single source of
external finance for developing countries has been Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) since
1993 (Kant, 1996). Effective growth in tourism depends heavily on FDI instruments
which are generally dominated by large transnational corporations (Endo, 2006). In order
to finance these costs, governments allow large outside enterprises to develop the area
creating an environment where outsider opinions and needs trump the needs of locals,
1