East Carolina University : Research and Creative Achievement Week 2012
Tourism Impacts and Second Home Development in Coastal Communities: A Sustainable Approach, P. Long, H. Hao, W. Knollenberg, C. Landry, D. Peterson, T. Crawford, Center for Sustainable Tourism, Department of Geography, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 Studies of full-time and second home owners' perceptions on tourism impacts and second home development are useful in formulating plans to support future practices in sustainable tourism. A survey of randomly selected homeowners from Brunswick, Currituck, and Pender counties was implemented by ECU’s Center for Sustainable Tourism. Property owners were asked to assess the importance of a set of sustainable actions to the future economic success of the county as well as to determine the manner and extent that climate characteristics impact property values and recreational decisions. This study utilizes a Geographic Information System (GIS) to explore and analyze survey data results and to visualize geographic patterns of the response to the survey questions. The contributions of the spatial analysis will aid in the interpretation of the results and highlight the spatial arrangement of the responses in regards to the respondent's level of support for tourism, second home development, and sustainable tourism actions. Preliminary data suggests there are contrasts in the perceptions on tourism impacts between the full-time home owners and second home owners within the three selected counties and that significant spatial clustering related to these contrasts is present.
176
GDP7