SUMMARIES EXAM MODULE 2
WEEK 1 – PERSONAL AND SOCIAL IDENTITY
Also look at the lectures
Quality-of-life indicators as performance measures - M. Uysal & J. Sirgy
To increase the visitor numbers, the QOL of tourists need to be improved by. That is,
tourist destinations constantly seek improvement in several aspects of management
and services (i.e., better designs and infrastructure for both tourists and local
residents) to increase tourists’ visits, which in turn is a resultant of increased visitor
satisfaction and their well-being as well as the well-being of residents of the host
communities and the service providers within the host communities.
Performance Measure Indicators = QOL indicators have yet to be formally treated as
performance measures. Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS’s)
Measuring Australia’s Progress Framework, the basic structure of the framework
architecture consists of four ‘tiers”: domain, headline areas, indicators, and measures.
The indicators are organized across three key domains of the triple bottom line of
sustainability: the economy, the environment, and society involving capital as- sets—
built, natural, and social capital assets. Headline areas, which refer to general topical
areas reflective of the target place, include key components such as gross tourism
products, visitor expenditures, employment, nature of infrastructure, visitor level,
activity level, accessibility conservation, environmental impacts. For each headline
area, there are associated indicators that reveal in more detail the significant drivers
or aspect of value added and impact. For each indicator, there are several possible
measures to signal how things are progressing.
Implementation = First, the research and organization define the destination and its
vision, identifies its important tourism assets and evaluates the situation at hand.
Then, the indicators are developed based on salient issues of the study area. Based
on the selected issues (e.g., environmental impacts of tourism development, QOL of
stakeholders, destination competitiveness), data are collected, and indices are
developed. In some cases, more measures are introduced to represent the same
indicator dimensions, or several indicators are used to represent a specific issue. The
third stage is the implementation of indicators with their defined measures. The
indicators are evaluated to decide what new processes should be established to
make improvements. More data are generated over time as these procedures are put
into place, and based on the data, corrections and revisions are made for
improvement. In addition, benchmark standards and norms are established internally
or based on external measures and com- parisons.
Quality of Life Indicators = In this vein, QOL indicators should be construed as
performance measures at the individual level (e.g., satisfaction, contribution of
experience to tourist well-being) and at the firm and or community level (e.g., arrivals,
sales/revenue generated from tourism, improved education or infrastructure).
Stakeholders = We will identify and describe QOL indicators in tourism and hospitality
in terms of three key stakeholders, namely tourists, residents of host communities,
and employees of hospitality firms. This is done for two reasons. First, for the sake of
discussion and broader coverage of stakeholder groups, it makes sense to include
these stakeholders as key groups. Second, the selected stakeholders are based on
the extant literature in QOL studies in hospitality and tourism.
Other studies done: A study by Neal, Sirgy, and Uysal (1999) has developed a set of
tourist well-being measures based on bottom-up spillover theory. The study involved
, the development of a measure of satisfaction with leisure travel/tourism services
related to life satisfaction. Also, for example, Lee et al. (2014) conducted a study that
provided validation support for a tourist well-being index related to natural wildlife
tourism. This tourist well- being measure was developed guided by need hierarchy
theory. The central theoretical tenet of the theory (Maslow, 1943) is that human
developmental needs encompass a wide range of needs grouped in terms of two
major categories, namely high-order and low- order needs. A recent study by
Saayman, Li, Uysal, and Song (2018) developed a two-stage framework of tourist
experiences to account for subjective well-being and calculated a tourist well-being
index. The innovative aspect of this study is that in the first stage of the study the
authors generated satisfaction indices for the four areas: accommodation, food and
beverage, visitor attraction and immigration. In the second stage, the study linked the
indices of satisfaction antecedents such as expectations, perceived performance, and
assessed value (i.e., quality relative to price) with its outcome variables such as
intention to complain and loyalty as well as subjective well- being.
Positive effects: With respect to the positive QOL impact, we know from past research
that increases in tourism development in the community to increase jobs in the
hospitality/tourism sector in the host community as well as sales receipts of the
hospitality/tourism firms. Increases in jobs in the hospitality/tourism sector of the
host community play a significant role increasing the economic, shopping, and
leisure well-being of community residents Increases in jobs and sales also
generate more tax revenue for the destination, which in turn leads to increases in
public sector spending. Public sector spending in turn, enhances residents'
economic, consumer, social, health, and environmental well-being of the community
residents.
Negative effects: With respect to the negative QOL impact of tourism, one can also
argue that increases in tourism in the community may lead to greater reliance and
dependence on tourism. Heavy reliance on tourism can be dangerous because
changes in the environment (e.g., natural disaster, economic crises such as
recession) may cause a significant decrease in travel, which in turn can cause a
significant loss of jobs in the hospitality/tourism sector as well as loss of sales of
hospitality/tourism firms. Loss of jobs and sales leads to loss of tax revenues. Loss of
tax revenues, in turn, leads to decreases in public sector spending, which adversely
affects the well-being of the community residents in many ways.
Input and output process: To understand the complexity of the interrelationships
among QOL indicators, we need distinguish between input (process) and output
(outcome) indicators across a given time span. Output (or outcome) indicators are
those directly related to community residents' QOL. These are shown in Table 2. The
major categories of community residents' QOL indicators are economic, consumer,
social, health, and environmental well-being. However, these output/outcomes
indicators represent superordinate goals in tourism context. That is, tourism
development influences these outputs/outcomes. This means that we need to have
another set of indicators of tourism development (we call “inputs/process”) that
influence these “outputs/outcomes.” The tourism development indicators
(inputs/process indicators) are shown in Table 3. These are the tourism-related
drivers that are theorized to affect residents' QOL. Examples include number of jobs
in hospitality/tourism-related firms, sales of hospitality/tourism-related firms, and tax
revenues from hospitality/tourism-related firms.
Kelly, J.R. (1987) Freedom to be, A new sociology of Leisure. Chapter 5 – Social
Identity Theory.
Community: One theme of the chapter is that of community. Community is defined as
the set of ongoing relationships in which there is reciprocal interaction,
communication, sharing of tasks or regular activities, and a history of such common
enterprise. When such community is on a deeper and more sustained level, it is
, referred to as intimacy. Intimacy is primary community in which the levels of trust and
sharing are sustained and include elements of vulnerability and lack of defense
against possible hurt and attack. Intimacy may include sexual dimensions; however,
just as there may be sexual interaction without intimacy, so there may be intimacy
without intercourse.
1. The first assumption of this approach is that human beings are social animals. The
biosocial nature of humankind presupposes conception, nurturing, and development
with as well as by others of the same species. We develop toward our maturing
potential in social contexts. There is no identifiable "real self” that waits within the
organism for release. Rather, our means of understanding and communicating what
we are and might be are learned from others. Through the life course we are always
becoming" through interaction with others. We become persons in a society.
2. The second assumption, however, is that we are also existential beings. We act as
well as are acted upon. What we become is not just a social determination. We act
toward other beings as well as toward the environment in ways that have
consequences for what we are becoming. In this process of becoming there is both
continuity and change, the persistent and the novel. Therefore, one of the primary
requirements of analyzing any identifiable set of social actions and interactions such
as leisure is to deal with the dialectic of existential action and social contexts.
Style: The concept of style incorporates both what people do and how they do it. The
evident diversity in environments, social contexts, activities, and mental states does
not permit taking leisure as a simple or monothematic phenomenon. Further, the
same environments and activities may be chosen for different reasons and with
different outcomes anticipated. Styles of participation cannot be reduced to quantities
of time or categories of activity. The existential element of leisure allows at least part
of the meaning of an event or episode to be created in the action.
1. In time, reanalysis of much of the same data disclosed that the similarities in
patterns among different social strata were greater than differences. Rates of
camping participation, for example, very little except for the upper elites and
those who are poverty-stricken. However, styles of camping can be
distinguished by cultural background and social position.
2. A second approach proposed that most adults seek some sort of balance in
their leisure. There may be a dimension of compensation that offers a contrast
to work conditions (Wilensky, 1960) as well as choices that reflect the
expectations and orientations of economic positions. Most adults balance
social and solitary, active and restful, high and low intensity, engagement and
escape dimensions in their leisure se lections. Further, the balance changes
through the life course as meanings related to developmental tasks and social
roles rise and fall. Most people do not do just one kind of activity but do a
variety of things, seeking different combinations of environments, investments,
and outcomes. They seek relaxation at one time and excitement another, risk
and also security, social involvement and also separation and quiet.
3. However, yet a third approach has also been found useful in dealing with the
realities of empirical findings. National surveys have revealed a significant set
of activities that are common to most adults and do not vary greatly through
the life course (Kelly, 1983b). This “core” of activities consists for the most part
of engagements that are relatively low-cost and accessible. Watching
television, interacting informally with other household members, conversing in
a variety of settings, and engaging in sexual activity are common to adults
through most of the life span. Other such activity includes walking, residential
enhancement, reading, and some regular events with kin and friends. This
core occupies the greatest amounts of time, especially those periods that
must be inserted between scheduled events. Further, core activities that
express and develop primary relationships are highly valued by most adults.
