Understanding the social impacts of tourism is important as it enables tourism managers and
developers to manage the impacts toward fostering vital community support for the industry.
More so the distinction between the tangible and intangible social impacts can refine tourism
management, development and marketing processes. The measurement and management of
these impacts are fairly straight forward in developed countries. However in developing
countries, such as South Africa, more challenges exist in identifying and managing their impacts
to the benefit of a wider community. South Africa has one of the most unequal distributions of
income in the world as well as a very high unemployment rate which all complicates the
understanding and management of these impacts. All factors taken into account create
prevailing socio-political, economic as well as cultural barriers. This translates into community
members not necessarily obtaining tangible benefits from the tourism industry such as
increased levels of income, job creation and infrastructure development for instance, which is
the ideal situation. The social exchange theory explains that these residents might as a result
deter their support for the tourism industry. However it is important to determine which types of
benefits will lead to increased levels of community support and therefore the following research
questions can be formulated: “What are the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism on
communities and how strong is the role they play in fostering community support for the tourism
industry?”
Therefore the primary goal of this thesis was to conduct a critical assessment of the social
impacts of tourism on selected communities with reference to the tangible and intangible
impacts. This primary goal was reached through the achievement of four objectives. The first
objective was a critical analysis of literature pertaining to sociology and how communities
perceive tourism from a sociological perspective. The review analysed communities’ roles in
tourism, barriers that hinder them from partaking in the industry as well as recommendations
that were made to overcome the barriers. The term “social impact” as well as models that
explain how and why social impacts take place, were analysed. This objective provided a
foundation for the rest of the study in terms of social impacts of tourism on communities.
The second objective was to critically analyse the social impacts that originate as a result of
tourism activity, but to interpret it from a tangible contrasted with intangible point of view. This was done in order to create a better understanding what role tangible and intangible social
impacts play, as well as how strong a role it plays in influencing community perceptions.
The third objective was to determine the residents’ perceptions of tangible and intangible social
impacts of tourism on three tourism dependent communities in South Africa as well as to
determine the variables that influence the perceptions of these impacts. This was done with the
aim of creating a model for measuring the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism
which will allow for improved marketing and managing of tourism in South African communities.
The distinction between the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism in mind, a selfadministered
questionnaire was distributed in three tourism-dependent communities in South
Africa by means of probability sampling within stratified sampling. The communities included in
the research were Clarens (n=251), Soweto (n=375) and Jeffreys Bay (n=417). The
questionnaires were captured in Microsoft Excel and analysed in the IBM Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS v 20.0.0), while the software package, Analysis of Moment Structures
(AMOS v 21.0.0) was utilised for the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The analysis of the data
was done over three phases. The first phase was exploratory research which included the use
of two-way frequency tables for compiling a combined community profile as well as two
Exploratory Factor Analyses to explore the ways in which tangible and intangible social impacts
can be grouped. In the second phase, Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) revealed the
theoretical model with four reliable tangible social impacts and two reliable intangible impacts.
The tangible social impacts included: environmental improvement; environmental degradation;
cost of daily living; and economic improvement while the intangible social impacts included:
community upliftment and pride and community protection and education. The intangible social
impact, community upliftment and pride was perceived as the most important impact, thus
revealing the power of intangible social impacts for fostering community support for tourism.
Significant to this study it was found that community members remained supportive of the
industry, even if they are not directly involved in it. It was furthermore found that the
communities are not homogenous which holds major implications for tourism planners and
managers. This resulted in further analyses to compare the communities.
Analyses were done in order to determine the influence of variables such as tourism
perceptions, involvement in the tourism industry as well as residents’ levels of education on the
perceptions of the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism. Very few instances were
found where these aspects acted as strong predictors of the perceptions of tangible and
intangible social impacts of tourism. During the third and final phase, a model was developed for measuring the relationships
between the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism. This innovative model has been
optimised so that it can be applied to other tourism dependents communities in South Africa.
This model can thus assist tourism planners and managers to understand the tangible and
intangible impacts as a result of tourism in the designated communities as well as how these
communities will perceive the impacts. This model thus serves as a tool for maximising the
positive social impacts created by tourism and minimising the negative, thus contributing to the
sustainable development of the industry.
The last objective was to draw conclusions and make recommendations with regard to the
objectives of the study. The contributions of the study were also discussed as part of this
objective. It was determined that this study makes multiple contributions towards social impact
literature in tourism, towards the applicable methodology of determining social impacts in
developing countries as well as practical contributions that will inform future planning and
development in communities. This thesis firstly contributed towards the literature by
distinguishing between tangible and intangible social impacts within a tourism and
developmental context. These categorised social impacts can also be used in future research
as it contributes to the research methodology through the development of a questionnaire that
can measure the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism within a South African
context. This measuring instrument can also be used in future research. The finding which
revealed that the intangible element (community upliftment and pride) was the most important to
local residents has implications for tourism planning and development. It is therefore a factor
that should be taken into account in future research. There are also several practical
implications for tourism marketers, managers and developers. The development of the tangibleintangible
impact model provides the latter with an instrument that can be used to measure and
effectively manage the various social impacts of tourism. It is clear that communities cannot be
seen as homogeneous, therefore individual planning should be done based on the character
and composition of the applicable communities. / PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11974 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Scholtz, Marco |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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