- My name is Bynum Boley and I am an Associate Professor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) within the... moreMy name is Bynum Boley and I am an Associate Professor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia.
My research interests largely focus on sustainable tourism with a specific interest in the unique natural and cultural resources of tourism destinations. These innate natural and cultural features interest me because I see the sustainable management and marketing of them as being vital to two of the primary goals of tourism development: 1) the ability to effectively attract tourists and achieve a competitive advantage and 2) having residents that are proud and supportive of the tourism industry within their community. I am also interested in how this increased attention to the economic and non-economic value of the destination’s unique natural and cultural resources translates into policy and management decisions influencing sustainable development.
My research has been primarily conducted in the Crown of the Continent region of Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia and in three rural communities along the Blue Ridge Parkway in southwest Virginia. This research has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications that can be found in journals such as the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, Tourism Geographies and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education.edit
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Citizen science (CS) is gaining recognition as a valuable approach to meet data needs for environmental projects while fostering collaboration between scientists and members of the public. Despite increasing implementation of CS by... more
Citizen science (CS) is gaining recognition as a valuable approach to meet data needs for environmental projects while fostering collaboration between scientists and members of the public. Despite increasing implementation of CS by natural resource entities, organizations’ motivations for engaging in CS remain poorly understood. We examined the utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and social exchange theory (SET) in identifying factors influencing support of CS by scientific organizations. To test predictions of the TPB and SET theories, we surveyed (quantitative, web based) state wildlife agency staff in the United States on their perceptions of organizational engagement in CS. We divided questions that measured TPB items into individual and organizational components to address the influence of personal‐ and organization‐level decision‐making on staff perceptions and attitudes. We used structural equation modeling to identify key constructs that influence staff support of CS in state wildlife agencies. The survey yielded 627 responses across 44 states. Both TPB and SET constructs accurately predicted staff support of CS; however, measures from SET (e.g., public engagement benefits and costs of CS to scientific credibility) were most influential (i.e., TPB constructs had less impact). Our findings indicate that organizational support for CS is primarily influenced by assessment of trade‐offs among perceived costs and benefits. Indicators of support for CS were further elucidated by including measures from the TPB model. Based on our results, we suggest that natural resource entities give careful consideration to CS project design, develop thorough communication and data management plans, and practice iterative evaluation of CS project productivity.
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With social media increasing the ability of tourists to both conspicuously and symbolically consume travel experiences in an effort to manage their self-concept, there is a need to better understand the divergent motivations behind this... more
With social media increasing the ability of tourists to both conspicuously and symbolically consume travel experiences in an effort to manage their self-concept, there is a need to better understand the divergent motivations behind this form of symbolic consumption. Leibenstein (1950) breaks conspicuous consumption down into dimensions driven by “snob” and “bandwagon” motivations. Bandwagon motivations are driven by people wanting to fit in whereas snob motivations are individual’s desires to stand out. At present time, no reliable and valid measurement tool exists to determine the role these motivations play in driving the conspicuous posting of travel experiences on social media. Hence, this extended abstract focuses on the creation of the Conspicuous Consumption Motivation Scale (CCMS) using the methods laid out by Churchill (1979) that will allow researchers to differentiate between snob and bandwagons motivations behind travel social media posts and eventually see how these motivations drive travel decisions
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ABSTRACTWhite‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations and deer hunter participation on federal public lands within the Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States have been declining over the last 30 years. Our study... more
ABSTRACTWhite‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations and deer hunter participation on federal public lands within the Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States have been declining over the last 30 years. Our study focused on Chattahoochee National Forest hunters in North Georgia, a region that has sustained a 64% decline in buck harvest success rates and 68% decline in hunter participation during 1979–2018. To better understand factors influencing satisfaction of remaining hunters, we sent mail questionnaires to 1,271 hunters in February 2019. We received 441 completed questionnaires for a 36% adjusted response rate. First, we used principal component analysis to identify 4 unique motivations for deer hunting: 1) escaping the daily routine and spending time outdoors, 2) harvesting deer for food, 3) socializing with hunting partners, and 4) harvesting trophy bucks. Second, we used ordinal logistic regression, which indicated that perception of a low deer population density was associated with lower levels of satisfaction. Perception of the right number of hunters on the landscape was associated with higher levels of satisfaction. In addition, greater importance ratings of harvesting trophy bucks were associated with lower satisfaction levels. Last, we applied revised importance‐performance analysis to 19 aspects of WMA deer hunting, which revealed that managers should focus on increasing opportunities for hunters to see deer and harvest bucks for the best chance at improving hunter satisfaction. Considering the 64% decline in harvest success rates between 1979 and 2018, the positive relationship between hunter satisfaction and perception of deer density, and hunter desires to see more deer and have more opportunities to harvest bucks, we recommend managing the deer population to increase numbers. Overall, our findings suggested that hunters and managers agree on the direction of deer management on North Georgia public lands for the near future. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.
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espite growing calls to include important stakeholder groups in order to ensure the sustainable management and marketing of tourism, there has been little concurrent research on residents and tourists’ perceptions of cultural heritage... more
espite growing calls to include important stakeholder groups in order to ensure the sustainable management and marketing of tourism, there has been little concurrent research on residents and tourists’ perceptions of cultural heritage sites. This study aims to compare tourists’ and residents’ perceptions for tourism attributes in Shandiz, one of northeastern Iran’s most popular tourist destinations. Our study isbased on four different approaches: Importance-Satisfaction Analysis [ISA] (itself a revised version of IPA); service quality gap analysis; Impact Range Satisfaction Analysis (IRSA); and Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA). Due to asymmetrical relationships between visitor perceptions of importance and performance, revealing influencing factors on those perceptions requires using new approaches. This study’s findings provide insights into the current debate around the best methods for service quality assessment and the identification and reconciliation of areas of agreement and disagreement between resident and tourist perceptions of cultural heritage sites.
Research Interests: Business, Marketing, Cultural Studies, Perception, Tourism Management, and 11 moreCultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, Service Quality, Sustainable Tourism, Tourism, Importance-Performance Analysis, Stakeholder, Resident Attitudes, Tourism Planning & Development, service Business, and Travel Tourism
With peer perceptions of vacation pictures on social media becoming firmly entrenched into the tourist psyche and the destination selection process, this paper buttresses the burgeoning research on social return’s influence on travel... more
With peer perceptions of vacation pictures on social media becoming firmly entrenched into the tourist psyche and the destination selection process, this paper buttresses the burgeoning research on social return’s influence on travel behaviour through additional theoretical development and empirical investigation. The paper assesses the cross-cultural construct and predictive validity of the Social Return Scale across the United States of America’s top-five international travel markets (Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, and China) using a modified Theory of Planned Behaviour model grounded in Guttman’s means-end chain model and Kenrick’s Fundamental Motives Framework. Results confirm the scale’s superb validity providing researchers with the theoretical and empirical support to confidently utilize the Social Return Scale to measure the perceived social return of different travel experiences across different contexts and cultures.
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Given the tourism industry’s economic importance and rapid growth, various international organizations have advocated for the sustainable development of tourism. A core piece of this focus on sustainability is the use of protected areas... more
Given the tourism industry’s economic importance and rapid growth, various international organizations have advocated for the sustainable development of tourism. A core piece of this focus on sustainability is the use of protected areas (PA) as conservation vehicles to simultaneously satisfy tourists demands for nature-based experiences and to provide the governance structure needed to protect important biodiverse ecosystems while providing the desired socioeconomic and community livelihood benefits to stakeholders living in close proximity to PAs. Participatory PA governance systems are now globally widespread and accepted while non- participatory policies are seen as ineffective, illegitimate and undemocratic. Empowerment has become a prerequisite for addressing the needs and the participation of marginalized people, and understanding the construct is considered essential for for facilitating sustainable policies. Using a deductive qualitative analysis, this study seeks to integrate a multi-dimensional conceptualization of empowerment in the evaluation and analysis of protected area governance quality in the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park in Bocas del Toro, Panama
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Increasingly, guests are choosing accommodations not solely for the functional service quality they provide, but on the experiential and symbolic aspects of lodging stays. While some have begun to compare the influence of functional and... more
Increasingly, guests are choosing accommodations not solely for the functional service quality they provide, but on the experiential and symbolic aspects of lodging stays. While some have begun to compare the influence of functional and self-congruity on lodging choice, there has yet to be a comparison between franchise and independent accommodations. This research compares the influence of functional and self-congruity on intent to choose franchise and independent accommodations. Results reveal that for a sample of 623 U.S. travelers, the decision to choose a franchise or independent accommodation is influenced by both functional and self-congruity. However, the influence of self-congruity on likelihood to stay was greater for independent accommodations than franchise accommodations, signifying that the symbolic aspects of staying at an accommodation are much stronger for independent accommodations. Other analyses such as paired samples t-tests and qualitative word clouds confirm that the two lodging categories are distinct offerings within consumers’ psyche.
Research Interests: Psychology, Tourism Studies, Hospitality Management, Service Quality, Social Media, and 12 moreSustainable Tourism, Hotel Operations, Tourism, Accommodation, Services Marketing, Hotel Management, Hotel and Restaurant Management, Self Concept, Franchise, SELF CONGRUITY AND BRAND PERSONALITY, Employment of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and Commercial Services
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Conceptualizing the Impacts of Short-Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs) Across the Urban Landscape Despite the growing importance of urban centers and their ability to provide the scale, proximity, amenities, and specializations to incubate... more
Conceptualizing the Impacts of Short-Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs) Across the Urban Landscape Despite the growing importance of urban centers and their ability to provide the scale, proximity, amenities, and specializations to incubate disruptive innovations such as short-term vacation rentals (STVRs), little tourism research has conceptualized the potential positive and negative impacts STVRs have across the urban landscape. With this gap in mind, this paper conceptualizes and unpacks the potential impacts of STVRs using an interdisciplinary framework that pulls from geographical perspectives on place-making within the tourism-residential landscape and a systems perspective which views destination development as a cycle with an apogee at which STVRs might most affect the trajectory of urban development. These perspectives are joined with a discussion of community resiliency to discuss the positive and negative implications for urban landscapes which are increasingly in the crosshairs of this type of entrepreneurial disruption
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While peer-to-peer accommodation research is increasingly cognizant of various stakeholders impacted by the rising popularity of this disruptive phenomenon, one stakeholder remains understudied – the host. This study uses a Deductive... more
While peer-to-peer accommodation research is increasingly cognizant of various stakeholders impacted by the rising popularity of this disruptive phenomenon, one stakeholder remains understudied – the host. This study uses a Deductive Qualitative Analysis to explore a tripartite of peer-to-peer accommodation host identities (entrepreneurial identity, residential identity, and sustainable entrepreneur identity) within the US City of Savannah, Georgia. Peer-to-peer accommodation hosts are agents of change in the communities in which they operate. This study posits that their impacts, whether positive or negative, on communities in which they operate depend on the existence of these identities. Potential opportunities for collaboration between hosts and local municipalities are discussed in light of the proposed identity framework.
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While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate toward franchise or independent accommodations. This article compares US tourists’ perceptions of... more
While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate toward franchise or independent accommodations. This article compares US tourists’ perceptions of the performance of franchise and independent accommodations on a range of functional, experiential, and symbolic attributes, and subsequently tests to see if there are separate reasons for why tourists choose the two lodging options and share word of mouth (WOM) and electronic WOM (e-WOM). Results reveal that franchise accommodations consistently outperform independent accommodations on “Service Quality” and “Utilitarian Quality.” However, independent accommodations were found to outperform franchise accommodations in “Experiential Quality” and “Symbolic Quality.” Modeling results reveal tourists choose the two accommodation options for separate reasons with Service Quality being important to both, but with Symbolic Quality also being important to ch...
Research Interests: Business, Marketing, Tourism Studies, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 14 moreHospitality Management, Service Quality, Social Media, Experience Design, Sustainable Tourism, Experience Economy, Tourism, Experiential Learning, Accommodation, Travel, Franchising, Franchise, service Business, and Commercial Services
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Resistance to sustainability practices often stems from the industry's view that sustainable tourism requires a profitability tradeoff where the additional costs associated with sustainability do not pay off in increased economic... more
Resistance to sustainability practices often stems from the industry's view that sustainable tourism requires a profitability tradeoff where the additional costs associated with sustainability do not pay off in increased economic returns, yet few studies have been attempted to prove or disprove this viewpoint. This study analyzed spending patterns and length of stay of visitors to Montana, USA to determine if strong geotravelers (higher sustainable behaviors) were different than those with less sustainable behaviors. Results found that total trip spending by strong geotravelers (US $1164) was significantly higher than the overall spending of both moderate (US $866) and minimal geotravelers (US $668). These findings suggest that sustainable travelers are a travel market to be reckoned with in the tourism marketing and business world. The combination of their pro-sustainable behavior and increased spending provides evidence of a market segment in which destinations can benefit.
Research Interests: Business, Marketing, Economics, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 15 moreTourist Behavior, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Tourism, Segmentation (Marketing), Market Segmentation, Geotourism, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism, Niche Tourism, Sustainable/Responsible Tourism, Destinations, Sustainability, Tourism Spending, Commercial Services, and Profitability Index
Research Interests: Human Geography, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Cultural Heritage, Black/African Diaspora, African Diaspora Studies, and 15 moreHeritage Tourism, Political Science, Cultures and heritage tourism, Empowerment, Sustainable Tourism, African American Studies, Cultural Heritage Management, Urban And Regional Planning, Pride, Tourism Impacts, Tourism, Gullah-Geechee, Scholarship, South Carolina Lowcountry, and Gullah
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the destination competitiveness literature and to articulate an agenda for future research on the interface between destination competitiveness and sustainability, with specific focus... more
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the destination competitiveness literature and to articulate an agenda for future research on the interface between destination competitiveness and sustainability, with specific focus on the associated resident quality-of-life issues. The chapter is predicated on two beliefs. First, tourism destination development and management in the future will continue to focus more and more on sustainability and contributing to local resident quality-of-life. Second, destination management organizations (DMO) will continue to be the leaders for destination tourism planning and strategy implementation. The current DMO management philosophy is largely focused on destination competitiveness. Hence, there is an important need to examine the interfaces of sustainability and destination competitiveness concluding with suggestions for how DMOs will be evaluated in the future and the research needed to support those evaluation structures. This chapter suggests that an increased focus on destination sustainability and/or destination competitiveness will result in increased resident quality-of-life.
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s CBTS-2020 Germany, 2020 Centre Tourism Management and Tourism Economics (TOMTE)
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Assessing Residents’ Attitudes towards STVRs in Urban Neighborhoods Abstract This study aims to model residents’ support for short term vacation rentals (STVRs) in Savannah, GA, a city that experiences year-round visitation and has... more
Assessing Residents’ Attitudes towards STVRs in Urban Neighborhoods Abstract This study aims to model residents’ support for short term vacation rentals (STVRs) in Savannah, GA, a city that experiences year-round visitation and has actively discussed and attempted to legislate STVRs. Through a combination of Weber’s Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality and Social Exchange Theory, intrinsic (substantive) factors of Psychological, Social and Political Empowerment and Perceived Environmental Sustainability along with the extrinsic (formal) factor of Personal Economic Benefit are tested for their influence on residents’ attitudes towards and overall support for STVRs. Structural equation model analysis reveals good model fit with support for ten our of seventeen proposed hypotheses and 75% of the variance in residents’ Support for STVRs explained by the model. While the City of Savannah implemented its most recent STVR regulations in September 2017, the debate remains as to whether policies comprehensively address residents’ concerns regarding STVR development
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Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jht-10.1177_10963480221076474 for Resident Empowerment and Support for Gaming Tourism: Comparisons of Resident Attitudes Pre- and Amid-Covid-19 Pandemic by Xiangping Li, B. Bynum Boley and Fiona X. Yang in... more
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jht-10.1177_10963480221076474 for Resident Empowerment and Support for Gaming Tourism: Comparisons of Resident Attitudes Pre- and Amid-Covid-19 Pandemic by Xiangping Li, B. Bynum Boley and Fiona X. Yang in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research
Grounded in Weber’s theory of formal and substantive rationality, this study aims to examine the influences of economic and noneconomic factors, namely resident empowerment and trust, on resident support for gaming tourism, a... more
Grounded in Weber’s theory of formal and substantive rationality, this study aims to examine the influences of economic and noneconomic factors, namely resident empowerment and trust, on resident support for gaming tourism, a controversial type of tourism development. In particular, with data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study also examines how resident perceptions of economic and noneconomic benefits of tourism have changed as a result of the pandemic. Findings show that perceived economic benefits and trust in government were significant determinants before and during the pandemic; however, the effects of empowerment seem to be mixed, depending on how controversial gaming tourism was at the time of data collection. Results suggest gaming tourism is viewed more critically during periods of high volume and that when gaming tourism dries up, residents start to become more supportive and to see the economic and noneconomic benefits in a different light.
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The United States and Cuba have a long, complicated, and entangled relationship. In light of recent economic and trade policy changes in both countries, this study seeks to understand how Americans currently view Cuba as a travel... more
The United States and Cuba have a long, complicated, and entangled relationship. In light of recent economic and trade policy changes in both countries, this study seeks to understand how Americans currently view Cuba as a travel destination. Specifically, we will explore some of the nuanced relationships between Americans’ perceptions of Cuba and their interest in traveling there. The research investigates the relationship of political leanings, knowledge about Cuba, and previous travel behavior with potential American visitors’ feelings about Cuba. Survey respondents were recruited using a panel to ensure that they met certain criteria (e.g., income threshold, having traveled from home within the past year); 800 responses were gathered in all. Several variables will be used to examine Americans’ perceptions of Cuba, including their feelings on the U.S. trade embargo, a sense of urgency to travel to Cuba, motivations for traveling to Cuba, concerns about traveling to Cuba, and perc...
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Abstract Despite place attachment’s prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard... more
Abstract Despite place attachment’s prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure. These types of discrepancies hamper the ability of researchers to directly compare findings across communities and conduct metanalyses on the antecedents and outcomes of place attachment. Furthermore, scales consisting of more than three items may unnecessarily burden respondents, thus impeding opportunities to add new constructs to surveys so that the precursors and outcomes of place attachment can be better understood. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to present and test the cross-cultural reliability and validity of an abbreviated place attachment scale (APAS) (i.e., three items for place identity and three items for place dependence) across seven samples spanning five data collections and four countries (United States, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Poland) involving residents and visitors. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the abbreviated scales perform just as well as their extended parents, and the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis reveals full measurement invariance demonstrating that the APAS is equivalent across cultures. Based on these results, the APAS should be given full attention by place attachment researchers seeking to expand the literature on the understanding of how people connect to places and the implications that these connections have on other important constructs such as quality of life, support for tourism, and place-based conservation efforts or individual environmental behaviors.
Research Interests: Psychology, Place promotion and marketing, Environmental Psychology, Place Attachment, Place and Identity, and 12 moreSpace and Place, Attachment Theory, Multidisciplinary, Place, Cross Cultural Psychology, Confirmatory factor analysis, Place Dependence, Cross cultural studies, Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Place Branding, Place Making, and Place Branding and Destination Image
Research Interests: Tourism and Ethnic Group
Research Interests: Perception and Tourism
Research Interests: Engineering, Sustainable Development, Urban Planning, Empowerment, Community Empowerment, and 11 moreGreenways, Environmental Sciences, City and Regional Planning, Atlanta, Rails to Trails, Urban Green Open Spaces, Beltline, Trails and Greenways, Resident Attitudes, City Parks and Public Health, and Urban Landscape and Planning
Research Interests: Engineering, Geography, Urban Geography, Recreation & Leisure Studies, Sustainable Development, and 14 moreUrban Planning, Urban Studies, Urban And Regional Planning, Greenways, Environmental Sciences, Urban Design, Atlanta, Importance-Performance Analysis, Beltline, Residents Perceptions, Trails and Greenways, Resident Attitudes, Elsevier, and Urban Landscape and Planning
While there has been extensive research on resident sentiment towards tourism, few have explored the uniqueness of gateway communities and their relationship to the Protected Areas (PA) surrounding them. This study explores how resident... more
While there has been extensive research on resident sentiment towards tourism, few have explored the uniqueness of gateway communities and their relationship to the Protected Areas (PA) surrounding them. This study explores how resident trust of PA managers and support for PAs surrounding their community can spillover to explain additional variance in resident support or opposition to tourism. To test this, traditional antecedents to resident support for tourism, like psychological, social, and political empowerment and the economic benefits from tourism, were modeled independently and in tandem with trust in PA managers and resident support for PAAs. Results from 405 residents of Transylvania County, NC, USA show trust of Pisgah National Forest managers (β = 0.137, p = 0.001) and resident support for the PA influence their support for tourism (β = 0.257, p = 0.001) and explain an additional six percentage points in why residents support tourism within their gateway communities when included in the model. These findings suggest that when evaluating gateway communities' support for tourism, it is prudent to also include resident perspectives of PAs and how they are managed as resident perspectives of the PA and its management can spillover to their attitudes towards tourism.
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As people seek to manicure their online presence within the current 'technomeritocracy,' there is a need to understand what sacrifices people will make to curate social media worthy travel experiences. Hence, the Social Media Sacrifice... more
As people seek to manicure their online presence within the current 'technomeritocracy,' there is a need to understand what sacrifices people will make to curate social media worthy travel experiences. Hence, the Social Media Sacrifice Scale was developed from the literature on identity theory and compensatory purchasing behavior to conceptualize and measure these sacrifices. The scale was purified using EFA (n=252) and validated using CFA (n=251). Results demonstrate validity across four sacrifice dimensions (spending money, sacrifices at home, discomfort, and rule breaking) providing managers with marketing strategies to attract markets with the right mix of sacrificial expectations for the destination.
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This study developed a new version of the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale-the RETS 2.0 by integrating two new dimensions of empowerment-economic and environmental empowerment-that the original RETS left off. The RETS 2.0 also... more
This study developed a new version of the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale-the RETS 2.0 by integrating two new dimensions of empowerment-economic and environmental empowerment-that the original RETS left off. The RETS 2.0 also abbreviates the original RETS to three items per a construct, reducing response burden, and opening up space for measuring different antecedents and outcomes of empowerment. The RETS 2.0 was empirically tested and validated in the small island destinations of Boa Vista and Sal, Cape Verde following Churchill's (1979) and Rossiter's (2002) three-stage mix-method scale development approach. After demonstrating convergent validity, nomological validity was demonstrated by all dimensions being significantly correlated with support for tourism. However, in the test of predictive validity, only psychological, economic, and environmental empowerment were found to be significant predictors of support for tourism. The RETS 2.0 is proposed as a holistic and parsimonious five-dimension scale that assesses resident's empowerment towards sustainable tourism development.
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While there have been a host of studies investigating the COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on outdoor recreation, few have investigated the socio-demographic composition and motivations of visitors who increased their outdoor recreation... more
While there have been a host of studies investigating the COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on outdoor recreation, few have investigated the socio-demographic composition and motivations of visitors who increased their outdoor recreation during this period and if these users will continue recreating at the same level as the pandemic wanes. This study surveyed visitors to the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests (NPNF) within the US state of North Carolina to identify if rising outdoor recreation participation is solely a result of the pandemic or more indicative of a renaissance. Demographic and motivational differences between those whose recreation decreased, stayed the same or increased during the pandemic were also analyzed to see if these patterns remain stable one year after the pandemic. The sample of 1,594 visitors from Georgia (n=483), South Carolina (n=682), and North Carolina (n=429) indicate growth in visitation to the NPNF is not just a fad but more of a renaissance with continued high levels of visitation forecasted after the pandemic. Results also show that outdoor recreationists characterized as more ethnically diverse with lower income and educational levels had visitation levels to the forest that increased during the pandemic compared to the outdoor recreationists who were White, more affluent, and highly educated. However, these changes appear to reverse moving out of the pandemic as these more diverse users mention having greater structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal constraints. Managers who seek social and environmental justice with the provisioning of outdoor recreation should follow-up with these more diverse users to better understand their satisfaction with the FS experience during the pandemic and identify strategies to help them negotiate constraints limiting their outdoor recreation.
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With many international entities pushing for the protection of 30% of terrestrial and marine habitat by 2030 through the 30x30 global initiative, the expansion of protected areas (PA) will inevitably interface with populations carrying... more
With many international entities pushing for the protection of 30% of terrestrial and marine habitat by 2030 through the 30x30 global initiative, the expansion of protected areas (PA) will inevitably interface with populations carrying lived experiences of PA management as well as their community’s collective memory of how the promises and outcomes of previous PA establishments materialized. One community recently experiencing a government’s desire to expand a PA is the Ngöbe Indigenous community of Salt Creek, located in and around the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park in Bocas del Toro, Panama. This qualitative case study applies an intergenerational social capital lens to demonstrate that time does not heal past grievances with park administration as broken social capital is a type of intergenerational trauma. It is suggested that repairing social capital is vital to achieving future sustainable tourism and global PA targets but will be a long and intentional process to overcome the collective memory of broken promises. While governments may find it expedient to expand PAs in areas with less resistance, we suggest the investment in repairing social capital will likely lead to better social and environmental outcomes and better align with the ethos of sustainable tourism and collaborative governance.
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While many have noted how country-level animosity negatively influences destination choice, little is known about factors that may dissipate animosity’s pervasive influence over destination choice. This paper uses Cognitive Dissonance... more
While many have noted how country-level animosity negatively influences destination choice, little is known about factors that may dissipate animosity’s pervasive influence over destination choice. This paper uses Cognitive Dissonance Theory as the theoretical backing to investigate how social return, a consonant cognition focused on the anticipated positive responses from posting travel photos on social media, mediates the negative influence animosity, a dissonant cognition, has on intent to travel. One thousand six hundred fifty-three respondents from the United States’ top five international markets (Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, and the U.K.) were surveyed with results showing social return partially mediating the relationship between animosity and intent to travel. These findings suggest target markets with high levels of animosity should not be entirely abandoned because there are psychological mechanisms to help dissipate or alleviate the negative effects of animosity.
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While the tourism literature has extended Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) in many ways, there has been little use of the gap scores associated with the differences between a destination's perceived performance on salient... more
While the tourism literature has extended Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) in many ways, there has been little use of the gap scores associated with the differences between a destination's perceived performance on salient destination-level attributes and the importance tourists place on these attributes to see how these positive or negative disconfirmations influence intent to travel. With this gap in mind, we walk readers through how gaps scores associated with IPA can be calculated and subsequently used as independent variables within multiple regression analyses to identify destination-level attributes that influence intent to travel. 21 destination-level attributes were administered to 1,653 international travelers from each of the U.S.' top five markets. Results revealed the gap scores associated with safety, price, national parks, food, scenery, and transportation were significant predictors of intent to travel demonstrating the value of leveraging IPA scores so that DMOs can better spend their marketing dollars on attributes that are shown to drive visitation rather than just focusing on the managerial prescriptions of "Keep Up the Good Work" or "Concentrate Here."
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espite growing calls to include important stakeholder groups in order to ensure the sustainable management and marketing of tourism, there has been little concurrent research on residents and tourists’ perceptions of cultural heritage... more
espite growing calls to include important stakeholder groups in order to ensure the sustainable management and marketing of tourism, there has been little concurrent research on residents and tourists’ perceptions of cultural heritage sites. This study aims to compare tourists’ and residents’ perceptions for tourism attributes in Shandiz, one of northeastern Iran’s most popular tourist destinations. Our study isbased on four different approaches: Importance-Satisfaction Analysis [ISA] (itself a revised version of IPA); service quality gap analysis; Impact Range Satisfaction Analysis (IRSA); and Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA). Due to asymmetrical relationships between visitor perceptions of importance and performance, revealing influencing factors on those perceptions requires using new approaches. This study’s findings provide insights into the current debate around the best methods for service quality assessment and the identification and reconciliation of areas of agreement and disagreement between resident and tourist perceptions of cultural heritage sites.
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With peer perceptions of vacation pictures on social media becoming firmly entrenched into the tourist psyche and the destination selection process, this paper buttresses the burgeoning research on social return’s influence on travel... more
With peer perceptions of vacation pictures on social media becoming firmly entrenched into the tourist psyche and the destination selection process, this paper buttresses the burgeoning research on social return’s influence on travel behaviour through additional theoretical development and empirical investigation. The paper assesses the cross-cultural construct and predictive validity of the Social Return Scale across the United States of America’s top-five international travel markets (Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, and China) using a modified Theory of Planned Behaviour model grounded in Guttman’s means-end chain model and Kenrick’s Fundamental Motives Framework. Results confirm the scale’s superb validity providing researchers with the theoretical and empirical support to confidently utilize the Social Return Scale to measure the perceived social return of different travel experiences across different contexts and cultures.
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Although research indicates deer management cooperatives (DMCs) provide the needed means to influence large-scale resource management changes, research has yet to identify which conservation initiatives DMC members find important and... more
Although research indicates deer management cooperatives (DMCs)
provide the needed means to influence large-scale resource management
changes, research has yet to identify which conservation initiatives
DMC members find important and would likely implement.
Therefore, we performed an Importance-Likelihood Analysis to ascertain
which conservation initiatives DMC members find important and
their likelihood of carrying out these initiatives. Results from our survey
of 459 DMC members across 5 U.S. states found that the conservation
initiatives of “increasing days spent on habitat management” and
“managing habitat for species other than white-tailed deer” fell within
the “Keep up the Good Work” quadrant. The conservation behavior of
“enrolling in government cost-share programs” fell in the “Hard Sell”
quadrant, and the initiatives of “becoming members of conservation
NGOs,” and “increasing money spent on habitat management” fell in
the “Communicate Value/Importance” quadrant. Thus, managers gain
insight to improve the likelihood of users implementing a given conservation
behavior.
provide the needed means to influence large-scale resource management
changes, research has yet to identify which conservation initiatives
DMC members find important and would likely implement.
Therefore, we performed an Importance-Likelihood Analysis to ascertain
which conservation initiatives DMC members find important and
their likelihood of carrying out these initiatives. Results from our survey
of 459 DMC members across 5 U.S. states found that the conservation
initiatives of “increasing days spent on habitat management” and
“managing habitat for species other than white-tailed deer” fell within
the “Keep up the Good Work” quadrant. The conservation behavior of
“enrolling in government cost-share programs” fell in the “Hard Sell”
quadrant, and the initiatives of “becoming members of conservation
NGOs,” and “increasing money spent on habitat management” fell in
the “Communicate Value/Importance” quadrant. Thus, managers gain
insight to improve the likelihood of users implementing a given conservation
behavior.
Research Interests:
Increasingly, guests are choosing accommodations not solely for the functional service quality they provide, but on the experiential and symbolic aspects of lodging stays. While some have begun to compare the influence of functional and... more
Increasingly, guests are choosing accommodations not solely for the functional service quality they provide, but on the experiential and symbolic aspects of lodging stays. While some have begun to compare the influence of functional and self-congruity on lodging choice, there has yet to be a comparison between franchise and independent accommodations. This research compares the influence of functional and self-congruity on intent to choose franchise and independent accommodations. Results reveal that for a sample of 623 U.S. travelers, the decision to choose a franchise or independent accommodation is influenced by both functional and self-congruity. However, the influence of self-congruity on likelihood to stay was greater for independent accommodations than franchise accommodations, signifying that the symbolic aspects of staying at an accommodation are much stronger for independent accommodations. Other analyses such as paired samples t-tests and qualitative word clouds confirm that the two lodging categories are distinct offerings within consumers’ psyche.
Research Interests:
Despite place attachment's prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure. These... more
Despite place attachment's prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure. These types of discrepancies hamper the ability of researchers to directly compare findings across communities and conduct metanalyses on the antecedents and outcomes of place attachment. Furthermore, scales consisting of more than three items may unnecessarily burden respondents, thus impeding opportunities to add new constructs to surveys so that the precursors and outcomes of place attachment can be better understood. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to present and test the cross-cultural reliability and validity of an abbreviated place attachment scale (APAS) (i.e., three items for place identity and three items for place dependence) across seven samples spanning five data collections and four countries (United States, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Poland) involving residents and visitors. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the abbreviated scales perform just as well as their extended parents, and the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis reveals full measurement invariance demonstrating that the APAS is equivalent across cultures. Based on these results, the APAS should be given full attention by place attachment researchers seeking to expand the literature on the understanding of how people connect to places and the implications that these connections have on other important constructs such as quality of life, support for tourism, and place-based conservation efforts or individual environmental behaviors.
Research Interests:
Despite place attachment’s prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure.... more
Despite place attachment’s prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure. These types of discrepancies hamper the ability of researchers to directly compare findings across communities and conduct metanalyses on the antecedents and outcomes of place attachment. Further-more, scales consisting of more than three items may unnecessarily burden respondents, thus impeding oppor-tunities to add new constructs to surveys so that the precursors and outcomes of place attachment can be better understood. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to present and test the cross-cultural reliability and validity of an Abbreviated Place Attachment Scale (APAS) (i.e., three items for place identity and three items for place dependence) across seven samples spanning five data collections and four countries (United States, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Poland) involving residents and visitors. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the abbreviated scales perform just as well as their extended parents, and the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis reveals full measurement invariance demonstrating that the APAS is equivalent across cultures. Based on these results, the APAS should be given full attention by place attachment researchers seeking to expand the literature on the understanding of how people connect to places and the implications that these connections have on other important constructs such as quality of life, support for tourism, and place-based conservation efforts or individual environmental behaviors.
Research Interests: Place promotion and marketing, Environmental Psychology, Place Attachment, Place and Identity, Space and Place, and 9 moreCross-Cultural Psychology, Cross-Cultural Studies, Place, Confirmatory factor analysis, Place Dependence, Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Place Branding, Place Making, and Place Branding and Destination Image
Increasing demand for water-based recreation comes with the need for recreation site managers to consider how to best satisfy different stakeholder groups. However, much of the previous water-based recreation literature has treated... more
Increasing demand for water-based recreation comes with the need for recreation site managers to consider how to best satisfy different stakeholder groups. However, much of the previous water-based recreation literature has treated resident users and tourist users as one homogeneous group despite differences in frequency of use, proximity to site, and economic importance of visitation to the local economy. Hence, this study segmented residents from tourists and conducted separate importance performance analyses (IPA) to see if these two distinct groups have different preferences for and perceptions of stream-access sites in southeast Appalachia. Data were collected using an intercept survey method across ten different Tennessee Valley Authority stream-access sites in north Georgia and western North Carolina. Independent samples t-tests reveal significant differences between residents and tourists on 10 of the 23 importance attributes and performance attributes. The IPAs reveal different quadrant placements for 9 of the 23 attributes. Specifically, tourists expressed greater dissatisfaction with information accessibility such as online information and river maps, and residents tended to place higher importance on the boating aspects of stream-access sites with higher levels of importance placed on attributes such as ramps, put in and take out sites, and room to maneuver trailers, illustrating the efficacy of segmenting residents and tourists within the context of IPA. Implications include management aims addressing both residents’ and tourists’ preferences for stream-access sites to simultaneously enhance regional tourism for its economic benefits while enriching the experiences of residents.
Research Interests:
While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate towards franchise or independent accommodations. This paper compares U.S. tourists’ perceptions of... more
While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate towards franchise or independent accommodations. This paper compares U.S. tourists’ perceptions of the performance of franchise and independent accommodations on a range of functional, experiential, and symbolic attributes, and subsequently tests to see if there are separate reasons for why tourists choose the two lodging options and share WOM and eWOM. Results reveal franchise accommodations consistently outperform independent accommodations on “Service Quality” and “Utilitarian Quality.” However, independent accommodations were found to outperform franchise accommodations in “Experiential Quality” and “Symbolic Quality.” Modeling results reveal tourists choose the two accommodation options for separate reasons with “Service Quality” being important to both, but with “Symbolic Quality” also being important to choosing independent accommodations. Likelihood to share WOM and e-WOM were more a function of “Experiential Quality” and “Symbolic Quality” than “Service Quality.”
Research Interests:
Researchers have recently begun to explore residents' perceptions of short-term vacation rental (STVRs) from both qualitative and quantitative approaches, but there is still a need for strong theoretical underpinnings to support this... more
Researchers have recently begun to explore residents' perceptions of short-term vacation rental (STVRs) from both qualitative and quantitative approaches, but there is still a need for strong theoretical underpinnings to support this growing body of research. This study addresses this gap through applying a theoretical perspective that combines Social Exchange Theory and Weber's Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality to assess residents' attitudes towards STVRs in the U.S. city of Savannah, Georgia. Results from 384 resident surveys revealed that support for STVRs was a function of both the costs and benefits associated with STVRs, as well as perceived Social and Psychological Empowerment from STVR development. These findings highlight the need for regulatory approaches that ensure STVRs do not infringe on residents' sense of community and that STVR activity reflects the values and norms of residents so that STVR visits induce resident pride in their neighborhoods.