Krenzbach (2020)

October 23, 2020

Politics and Tourism Development

by Rheinhardt Krenzbach

Abstract

For this study, a 5-point Likert scale was employed, with a rating of 1 indicating “strongly disagree” and a rating of 5 representing “strongly agree.” Survey participants were presented with a series of questions using the aforementioned scale and diverse statements to assess various levels of sociopolitical control regarding local tourism development.

Introduction

Based on the insights gathered from group interviews and expert panel discussions, 17 items were selected to represent the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment towards local tourism development (SPCS-T). These items were either identical or similar to the 17 original items used in previous studies on the SPCS (Peterson, Lowe, et al., 2006; Peterson, Peterson, Agre, Christens, & Morton, 2011; Peterson, Speer, et al., 2011; Smith & Propst, 2001; Zimmerman, 2000; Zimmerman, et al., 1999). The eight statements related to leadership competence (LC) were identical to the ones present in the full version of the SPCS. These statements include: “I am often a leader in groups,” “I would prefer to be a leader rather than a follower,” “I would rather have a leadership role when I am involved in a group project,” “I can usually organize people to get things done,” “Other people usually follow my idea,” “I find it very easy to talk in front of a group,” “I like to work on solving a problem myself rather than wait and see if someone else will deal with it,” and “I like trying new things that are challenging to me.”

Nine statements of the SPCS-T were rephrased from the original SPCS items to reflect the tourism context of political control (TPC): “I enjoy political participation because I want to have as much say as possible in influencing the tourism department of my city,” “A person like me can really understand what is going on with the tourism department of my city,” “I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the important tourism development decision making processes in my city,” “People like me are generally well qualified to participate in the tourism development decision making process in my city,” “It makes a difference who I support for local tourism development because my support will represent my interest,” “There are plenty of ways for people like me to have a say in what the local tourism development agency does,” “It is important to me that I actively participate in local tourism development issues,” “Most local tourism development agency officials in the city would listen to me,” and “Local tourism development is important to support.”  Table 1 provides the s definitions and sources of the major constructs used in this study.

Sample and Data Collection

The study was conducted in the city of Jeongup, South Korea, located in the southwestern part of the country.  The study selected the city as a research area because the city has actively incubated the local-based small scale tourism industry with a focus on its cultural and farm tourism activities through active citizen participation and empowerment to improve the financial independence of individuals and businesses.  To achieve local and small-scale tourism development success, community support and participation are essential.  Most studies related to development of the SPCS and its validity in evaluating community program outcomes are based in the US; therefore, a pilot study was necessary in order to test whether the rephrased scale items reflect the South Korean tourism sociopolitical context.  The pilot study was conducted with 67 residents of Jeongup to minimize measurement error in the two dimensions of the SPCS-T.  SPCS-T scale items for both the LC and the TPC dimensions demonstrated acceptable reliability ranging from α = 0.84 to α = 0.91.

The study population consisted of city residents who were more than 19 years old, and were living in the city as of 2012.  In South Korea, 19 year-olds are legally eligible to vote, so the members of the study population eligible to engage in sociopolitical activities.  Data were collected via a household survey of the city as part of the city’s Tourism Comprehensive Plan.  As of 2012, the total number of households in the city was approximately 40,000; therefore, to achieve a plus or minus 3% sampling error, the required sample size was approximately 1,040 households (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2009).  Based on the households’ mailing addresses, every 38th household was systematically selected, and 1,040 surveys were mailed.  Due to its sensitivity to sample size, many studies claim that CFA requires a relatively large number of responses (Yuksel, Yuksel, & Bilim, 2010).  There is little consensus on the recommended sample size, but Garver and Mentzer (1999) proposed that a sample size of 200 or above is critical for conducting  CFA and  structural equation modeling.

In total, 547 city residents completed the household survey (response rate: 52.6%), and the citywide margin of error was 2.87% with a 95% confidence level.  The final sample consisted of 50.4% females and 49.6% males.  The average age of respondents was 45 years and their average monthly household income was USD 1,809.   For those who were born in the city (87.2%), the average length of time living there was 12 years.  Less than half of the survey participants (44.1%) had more than a high school education. 

Purification of Scale Items

Three steps were followed to purify the 17 items of the SPCS-T.  Before testing reliability and validity of the SPCS-T, item values were transformed into z-scores, with a mean of zero and standard deviation of one, to calculate the probability of a score fitting the normal distribution and identify univariate outliers (Babbie, 2001; Hepper & Hepper, 2004).  The second procedure for purifying the scale items was conducted with the Cronbach’s alpha test, which estimates inter-item consistency (item reliability) (Cronbach, 2004; Vaske, 2008).  The alpha values of all items ranged from 0.936 to 0.940 which exceeded the recommended standard of 0.7 (Kline, 2005).  The third purification step involved exploratory factor analysis (EFA).  EFA is recommended to demonstrate the dimensionality of a construct when the items of the latent variables are modified or rephrased not only from one discipline to another but also from one population to another (Chu & Murrman, 2006; Churchill, 1979; Dunn, Seaker, & Waller, 1994; Wang, 2003).  EFA was conducted through principal components factor analysis of the 17 items, utilizing Varimax and Oblique rotations. The two hypothesized factors, leadership competence (LC) and tourism policy control (TCP) emerged and explained 71.8% of the model variance.  The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.948, above the recommended value of 0.6 (Vaske, 2008), and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was statistically significant (χ2 (136) = 5240.84, p<0.001).  Based on the EFA results (Table 1), one item, “Local tourism development is important to support” was removed because the item failed to meet the minimum criterion of having a primary factor loading of 0.5 (Dimitrov, 2012).  As a result, the hypothetical structure of the constructs of this study, consisting of 16 items, is depicted in Figure 1.

Table 4.  Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Sociopolitical Control Scale for Tourism (SPCS-T)

ConstructItemDescriptionStandardized Factor LoadingComposite ReliabilityAVE
Leadership Competence   0.9560.729
 LC1I am often a leader in groups,0.805  
 LC2I would prefer to be a leader rather than a follower.0.813  
 LC3I would rather have a leadership role when I am involved in a group project.0.835  
 LC4I can usually organize people to get things done.0.883  
 LC5Other people usually follow my idea.0.876  
 LC6I find it very easy to talk in front of a group.0.863  
 LC7I like to work on solving a problem myself rather than wait and see if someone else will deal with it.0.839  
 LC8I like trying new things that are challenging to me0.815  
Tourism Policy Control   0.9500.705
 TPC1I enjoy political participation because I want to have as much say as possible in influencing the tourism department of my city.0.778  
 TPC2A person like me can really understand what is going on with the tourism department of my city.0.820  
 TPC3I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the important tourism development decision making processes in my city.0.817  
 TPC4People like me are generally well qualified to participation in the tourism development decision making process in my city.0.816  
 TPC5It makes a difference who I support for local tourism development because my support will represent my interest.0.859  
 TPC6There are plenty of ways for people like me to have a say in what the local tourism development agency does.0.852  
 TPC7It is important to me that I actively participate in local tourism development issues.0.826  
 TPC8Most local tourism development agent officials in the city would listen to me.0.692  


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