The social impact of tourism on residents of Ohakune

Abstract

The objective of this research was to do an exploratory examination of the social impact of tourism on residents of Ohakune, a small town, at the foot of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand, and the nearest town to the AHI Turoa Skifields. The aim was to examine the impact of tourism on the town, as perceived by its inhabitants. One questionnaire was distributed to one person from every household in Ohakune Borough where the occupants considered themselves to be permanent residents. The questionnaire focussed on residents' opinions of the number of tourists Ohakune presently attracts, the advantages and disadvantages of tourism, alternative uses of Ohakune's tourist attractions during the summer, what additional facilities Ohakune needs for tourists, the Ohakune Borough Council's role in tourism and the main tourist developers in Ohakune (AHI Turoa Skifields). A section requesting socioeconomic data was at the end. Data was subjected to various statistical analyses including bivariate and multivariate computation. In relation to national demographic patterns, the sample was, where measurable, similar. One important aim of the research was to examine whether residents' attitudes towards tourism were conditioned by their socio-economic status, as has been hypothesized by some overseas writers (for example, Pizam and Acquaro, 1977). The idea that higher socio-economic status should correlate with favourable attitudes towards tourism has been termed "the effect of subgroup-in-society status on the hosts' attitudes towards tourists" (Mathieson and Wall, 1982). Results from the survey of Ohakune showed that the strongest determining factor in resident attitudes was occupation: those respondents whose occupation was related to the tourist industry were much more likely to be favourable in their attitudes than those whose occupation was not so related. Overall, residents' perceptions were positive, but by no means overwhelmingly so. The link between positive perception of tourism and respondents' age was not strong, but the trend showed residents in the 25-55 year age groups as having a more positive perception of tourism than those under 25 years and over 55 years. Other socio-economic measures such as education, length of residency and income did not show significant results. A possible explanation for this is that Ohakune has several other important industries besides tourism. There was a tendency for residents to view the benefits of tourism as greater to the town of Ohakune generally, than to themselves personally. Most residents agreed that tourists should be encouraged to visit Ohakune during the summer, however nearly half felt that there shouldn't be as many tourists visiting Ohakune during the summer as there are in the winter (for skiing).