Rural destination management organizations (DMOs) are faced with considerable challenges as they attempt to promote economic prosperity through tourism. This study sought to identify rural destination management challenges in Tucker County, West Virginia; identify the roles and activities of the destinations DMOs in addressing these challenges; and develop a perceived destination management framework. DMO challenges include maintaining authenticity and sense of place; economic diversification; seasonality, low wage jobs, and lack of employees; connecting resorts to small businesses and communities; and establishing a common vision, identity, and coordination of activities. While the majority of tourism literature calls for DMOs to play a dual marketing and management role, this paper makes an important contribution by identifying the need for a Convention and Visitors Bureau and a separate organization with a specific mission to sustainably develop and manage tourism and coordinate activities of the stakeholder network.
Purpose This paper aims to describe the transdisciplinary, multiphase, mixed methods, generative design research, participatory planning and social design activities developed and implemented by the West Virginia University Rural Tourism Design Team and associated outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The multiphase methodology included quantitative and qualitative research in initial stages of the study (key informant interviews, resident attitudes toward tourism survey, visitor preferences survey, economic impact analysis) which informed social design activities at latter stages (asset mapping, landscape design/visualization of opportunities and sites targeted for development and cultural identity design) using generative design tools facilitating co-design with the communities and helping the destination take sequential steps toward achieving their goals and objectives. Findings Opportunities and challenges identified through multiple methods were triangulated and pointed to the same conclusions including the need for long term planning and managed growth; protecting community values; underutilized natural, cultural and historic assets; the opportunity to develop nature-based, cultural and historical attractions; and the need for a common vision and collective identity. Research limitations/implications This study makes a unique contribution to literature on sustainable tourism planning by incorporating social design activities to visualize findings of more traditional planning methods and provide tangible, visible outcomes of planning activities which can guide local stakeholders in rural destinations more directly to funding for planning recommendations and project implementation. Practical implications The transdisciplinary and social/generative/participatory approach provided a scaffolding of outputs to the community with citizen control and active involvement throughout the planning and design process. The incorporation of social design provided tangible outcomes including site designs and a cultural identity. Generative design research gives people a language with which they can imagine and express their ideas and dreams for future experiences. Originality/value This paper investigates the role of social design in a transdisciplinary, multiphase project to support sustainable tourism planning.
West Virginia University's Extension Service partnered with the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Program to offer an entry level certification opportunity to interpretive guides in West Virginia. The result of this partnership is the West Virginia Interpretive Guide Heritage Steward Program aimed at providing low-cost, widely available training course to guides throughout the state. The course is divided into two components—a set of online modules and an in-person skill assessment workshop. This exploratory study used a retrospective post-then-pre survey design to assess the course impact on participants’ beliefs related to the effectiveness of the course, as well as self-reported changes in interpretive competency. Results indicated the course was successful in increasing participant competence related to developing and delivering interpretive talks. This effective regionally based certification course is potentially a model that could be used to expand personal interpretive certification opportunities for guides.
We use county-level data to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the tourism and hospitality sector, which was by far the most impacted of all sectors, focusing on employment and wage changes. Results support our hypothesis that rural counties experienced fewer negative impacts or even benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of job growth . We present maps showing the pandemic’s effects on leisure and hospitality (L&H) employment across the nation, identifying the communities both hardest hit and least impacted. A linear regression model is developed to explore independent factors that influenced the pandemic’s local impact. Results are robust across different measures of the key variable (rurality), including rural-urban continuum codes, distance from metropolitan areas, and population density. We also consider the impacts of social capital, income, and local economic diversification, among other factors. Our results suggest that remote, less-populated counties were more likely to experience stable employment in the L&H sector relative to pre-pandemic levels, and in some cases even experienced employment growth. JEL Classification: J2, J3, R1
This paper analyzes the effect of social capital on resident attitudes toward tourism and support for tourism based on data collected from 637 residents in Tucker County, West Virginia. Data analysis includes descriptive analysis, factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, multi-group analysis, and ANOVA. Results confirm findings of other studies that concern for the potential environmental, and social impacts of tourism and long-term planning have a direct positive effect on support for additional tourism development. In addition to the direct effect of the social and environmental impacts of tourism and long-term planning on support for tourism, this study identified that a common vision and participation in local organizations and informal social groups has a significant direct effect on long term planning and protection of community values and an indirect effect on support for tourism development. In addition, significant differences were identified according to group, stake, and power in the community.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.