Residents' perception of their quality of life and tolerance of tourism as a diagnostic model for assessing the social carrying capacity in small island developing states: The case of Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to test the residents' perception of quality of life and tolerance of tourism as reliable predictors of the social carrying capacity in small island developing states. The concept of Carrying Capacity and by extension social carrying capacity in tourism destinations has long been explored. However, the social carrying capacity of SIDS is understudied. SCC limit is traditionally measured by the number of tourists in a destination resulting in residents and tourists displaying a negative attitude towards the industry. At this point the tourists no longer are attracted to the destination and residents are not welcoming of the guests. Hence, the tourism industry is no longer sustainable. The need to study the SCC in SIDS is especially critical as the small size of their land mass intimates their capacity is limited. It is noteworthy for many SIDS tourism is their main export industry. There is the tendency for SIDS to practice mass tourism in an effort to maximize their export earnings, which means at times the visitors outnumber the residents.

Several researchers have used the number of tourists to measure the SCC but have themselves questioned its validity. It is suggested by other researchers to use indicators that give early warning signs of possible threats to the SCC threshold. In this study the residents' perception of their quality of life and tolerance of tourism are tested as plausible predictors of SCC. Selected socio-demographic variables were tested as moderator variables and the dependency on tourism as a mediator variable. To test the hypotheses, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used by grouping the variables that are highly correlated into scales. A number of statistical data analyses methods including regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses.

The findings of the study showed quality of life as predictor of the SCC in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, but tolerance of tourism was not. Other findings revealed residents fully dependent on tourism for their livelihood were satisfied with their quality of life, while residents with tertiary education had a very good perception of tourism but felt their quality of life declined. In addition, residents who were more dependent on tourism were less tolerant of tourism. One of the recommendations of the study is for the tourism industry to remain sustainable destination managers need to change their strategy from being quantitative to qualitative. Additionally, to garner the support of the community they ought to be integral to the planning the development of the tourism industry.