Assessment of tourism's social impacts in Oregon coast communities using contingent valuation, value-attitude, and expectancy value models

Graduation date: 1996Tourism development has expanded in Oregon coast communities and in rural communities elsewhere in the nation. This expansion has brought economic gains, but has also brought social costs. The identification and management of tourism's actual and perceived social impacts has received significant attention. This dissertation presents two approaches that extend social impact analysis. First, the contingent valuation (CV) method is used to measure selected tourism-related social impacts in an economic metric. Such measurement facilitates benefit-cost analysis of mitigation projects and contributes to integrated analysis of tourism's diverse impacts. Adjusted mean willingness-to-pay\ud (WTP) for the noise, congestion, and housing commodity models is, respectively, $130, $186, and $161 per household per year. Adjusted mean WTP for the policy models is $95, $110, and $103. The magnitude of these amounts signifies that tourism's economic\ud benefits have come at a substantial social cost. Second, a general conceptual model of resident attitudes toward tourism is\ud presented. Two sets of specific models derived from this general model are evaluated using structural equation modeling. The value-attitude models indicate that, for the present data set, the strength of resident values regarding economic gain better predict\ud attitudes than do values regarding disruption within the community. The expectancy-value models indicate that perceived economic and congestion impacts have greater effect on attitudes than do perceived crime and aesthetic impacts. In addition, the data support the hypothesis that demographic variables affect attitudes indirectly through values, but not directly. Lastly, methodological issues within the CV field are addressed. A relatively thorough No vote follow-up system is illustrated. Scope effects are evaluated and are not found in the present data set. Varying significance levels for the tests used in this\ud evaluation indicate that conclusions regarding scope sensitivity may be dependent on the test used. WTP estimates are not found to be stable across formats, and the data suggest that the mail format may provide the time needed for respondents to fully evaluate their budget constraints. The present contingent valuation and resident attitude models are the first of their kind within the tourism field. Recommendations for future research on these, and related, topics are presented