Visitor perspectives on sustainable tourism development in the Pitons Management Area World Heritage Site, St. Lucia

Authors: Nicholas, Lorraine¹; Thapa, Brijesh²

Source: Environment, Development and Sustainability, Volume 12, Number 5, October 2010 , pp. 839-857(19)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

The Pitons Management Area (PMA) World Heritage Site is one of the most visited tourist attractions in St. Lucia. Given the magnitude of the tourism industry in St. Lucia in general, coupled with the expanding growth of tourism in the PMA, the need to adopt a sustainable approach to tourism development is imperative. Identifying visitors as a key stakeholder group in sustainable tourism development, this study examined their perspectives and support for sustainable tourism development in the PMA. More specifically, it examined visitors' environmental, economic, and social attitudes based on a sustainable tourism development framework and explored the effect and best predictive validity of attitudes on support for sustainable tourism development. Results indicated that attitudes were generally positive, and as each of the respective attitudes increased, visitors' level of support for sustainable tourism development at the PMA also increased. The Economic Attitudinal Index had the highest predictive power, followed by the Social Attitudinal Index. The Environmental Attitudinal Index was not significant although it was strongly correlated in the bivariate analysis. Implications of the findings for the sustainable development of tourism in the PMA are discussed.

Keywords: Visitors; Sustainable tourism development; World Heritage Site; Pitons Management Area; St. Lucia

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10668-009-9227-y

Affiliations: 1: Center for Tourism Research and Development, Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8208, USA, Email: tourismphd@hotmail.com 2: Center for Tourism Research and Development, Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8208, USA, Email: bthapa@hhp.ufl.edu

Publication date: 2010-10-01

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