Exploring Residents’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Traditional Villages: The Lens of Stakeholder Theory
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Stakeholder Theory
2.2. Sustainable Tourism Development
2.3. Residents’ Perception and Attitude in Tourism
2.4. Resident Perceptions, Attitudes, and Sustainable Tourism Development
3. Research Method
3.1. Brief Description of the Research Procedure
3.2. Qualitative Approach
3.3. Study Site
3.4. Data Collection
3.5. Data Analysis
3.5.1. Open Coding
3.5.2. Axial Coding
3.5.3. Selective Coding
4. Findings and Discussion
4.1. Economic Impact—Analysis of Resident Perceptions and Attitudes
“The old house that I could not afford to build before became a treasure, in order to develop tourism, the road was built in all directions. In the beginning, when the tourists came to the village, we locals sold some specialties, tea, bamboo shoots and so on, and then more and more tourists began to open hotels, the old people do not understand, young people came back one after another to start a business, hotels, restaurants, specialty stores batch after batch.”P02
“Of course there is an influence, Hongcun was originally an ordinary village. It became the intangible cultural heritage protection unit, only after becoming more attention from the outside world. Now, tourism is the pillar industry of Hongcun. In recent years, Hongcun has a specialty bazaar, which is estimated to have a high attendance rate of 90%.”P06
“Tourism will promote more employment and bring some business opportunities, which is definitely good for the local people.”P09
“Life is stressful, now in addition to living expenses, children’s education is a big problem, children in college, the monthly living expenses cost several thousand, not to mention the other…”P01
“After the land transfer, most of them are bought, prices are rising fiercely, vegetables and rice are more expensive than before; money is not enough…”P12
4.2. Environmental Impact—Analysis of Resident Perceptions and Attitudes
“The development of tourism has made the overall reception environment of the village better. The parking lot and road planning are very impressive”.P01
“The development of tourism in Hongcun has a great impact on the environment, not only does it have wide and flat roads, but also inns, hotels, stores and handicraft workshops, all of which are reasonably laid out.P03
“As there are too many tourists, there is more garbage and more sewage from restaurants, which is more or less damaging to the environment”.P01
“There are many sketchers who come to the village, so the paint is a big source of water pollution. Although the village has many especially prepared buckets, and people will pull them out every day for special treatment, but there are always people who are not conscious and dump the wastewater from washing paints, which is very damaging to Hongcun”.P11
4.3. Social and Cultural Impact—Analysis of Resident Perceptions and Attitudes
“The local residents are more commonplace, living in the village every day, the heritage, old things should not be talking about protection, I think it should be considered the strongest group of destruction. Because they do not know why tourists come and how valuable the ancient architecture is. Usually, they decorate some old buildings with modern architectural styles for convenience and short term benefits, making them tasteless”.P07
“Constructive destruction of the original cultural relics in Hongcun for commercial purposes, that is, in the name of tourism, the ancient architectural heritage of the village is arbitrarily altered, the old is demolished, and the new is built, and the walls are broken to open stores. For example, in the absence of proper planning, the ancient dwelling houses have been converted into restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and other tourist facilities to increase income. The overly commercial atmosphere not only destroys the original tranquil and simple ancient village scenery of Hongcun but also has a great negative impact on the protection of the ancient village heritage, to some extent leading to the loss of the historical style and making tourists lose the authenticity of the tourism experience in Hongcun.”P12
5. Conclusions and Limitations
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Informant No. | Permanent Address | Gender | Age | Education | Job |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
P01 | Lu an, Anhui | Female | 35 | Junior College | Guided Tours |
P02 | Yixian County, Anhui | Female | 36 | Junior College | B&B owner |
P03 | Yixian County, Anhui | Male | 40 | Master | Hotel owner |
P04 | Hefei, Anhui | Female | 68 | Bachelor | Retired university teacher |
P05 | Zhuhai, Guangdong | Female | 31 | PhD | scholar |
P06 | Huangshan, Anhui | Male | 39 | PhD | University teacher |
P07 | Yixian County, Anhui | Male | 43 | Bachelor | Resident |
P08 | Hefei, Anhui | Male | 31 | Master | scholar |
P09 | Huangshan, Anhui | Male | 35 | Master | Government Staff |
P10 | Yixian County, Anhui | Female | 55 | High School | Village official |
P11 | Nanjing, Jiangsu | Male | 40 | Bachelor | Freelance Painter |
P12 | Hefei, Anhui | Male | 45 | PhD | University teacher |
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Code | Categories | Concepts | Interviews |
---|---|---|---|
OC-1 | Living expenses | Rising prices High education expenses Greater income polarization Increased cost of living Improved quality of life | “Life is stressful, now in addition to living expenses, children’s education is the big problem, children in college, the monthly living expenses will be thousands of dollars, not to mention other…” (P01) “… our village’s economic income has also increased, not only family equipment has improved, many people deposit, the county has a house. Many foreigners have also settled here…” (P01) “In recent years, many people in the village have begun to transfer their own house and their own store to foreigners to operate, at ease when the “landlord”, business model has become more and more diverse, the level also came out…” (P01) “… their own ancestral house cannot just renovate, although the scenic area will give a small amount of maintenance fees, some people cannot afford to buy a house in the city, the old house is dark and damp, … forced or have to spend money to buy a house in the county to pay the mortgage, this kind of situation is relatively helpless.” (P01) |
Code | Categories | Concepts | Interviews |
---|---|---|---|
AC-1 | Economic Impact (Positive) Economic impact (negative) | Land transfer fee Housing rent Employment status Wage income Daily living expenses Education expenses | “In recent years, many people in the village have begun to transfer their own house and their store to foreigners to operate, at ease when the “landlord”, the business model has become more and more diverse, the level also came out” (P01) “After the land transfer, most of it is to buy, and prices are rising fiercely, vegetables, rice, are more expensive than before; money is not enough…” “The pressure of life, now in addition to living expenses, children’s education is the big head, children studying University, the monthly living expenses will be several thousand dollars, not to mention other” (P01) |
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Song, H.; Zhu, C.; Fong, L.H.N. Exploring Residents’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Traditional Villages: The Lens of Stakeholder Theory. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13032. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313032
Song H, Zhu C, Fong LHN. Exploring Residents’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Traditional Villages: The Lens of Stakeholder Theory. Sustainability. 2021; 13(23):13032. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313032
Chicago/Turabian StyleSong, Hongmei, Chris Zhu, and Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong. 2021. "Exploring Residents’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Traditional Villages: The Lens of Stakeholder Theory" Sustainability 13, no. 23: 13032. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313032