Hispanic or Latino Population, percentage 5.9% 5

Abstract

A perceived place-identity impact study of the tourism industries on local communities are identified and examined using a mixed-qualitative method study in the cases of Asheville, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. There are organizations and individuals in Asheville and Greenville advocating for an expansion of the urban tourism and others advocating to keep the economies and consumption local. Despite resistance in Asheville, leading companies in the tourism industry have persisted in development. Data was collected through surveying, interviewing, participant observation, as well as document and spatial analysis. The analysis shows that there is misalignment in the sense-of-place conveyed by the actors in the system including the tourists, residents, local government, and tourism professionals in both cities. Actor-Network theory is used to bring light to the interactions between human and non-human actors within the system to gauge the equality of the interactions. In the case of Asheville, the state government regulates many of the other actors through hotel occupancy tax laws. Hotels are a critical non-human actor in the system. The purpose of this study is to define how sustainable the tourism system in each city is by determining who benefits from tourism and who is unsatisfied with the impacts of the industry. The study found that the tourism industries in Asheville and Greenville both must slow the rate of development to allow for more sustainable outcomes that are promoted by all actors. Specific attention must be placed on community needs.

Keywords: Place-Identity, Sense of Place, Sustainability, Tourism, Actor-Network Theory, Asheville, Greenville, Local

Introduction

This is a qualitative study of the impacts urban tourism has on a city’s sense of place and the local communities around it. To verbalize tourism’s impacts, this study is looking at the presences of sustainability in relationships and interactions within local tourism industries and city residents. Two Southeastern cities, Asheville, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina, were featured as case studies.

Urban Tourism became prominent in the city of Asheville in the early 1880s (BCTDA 2019). Since 1914, Asheville’s minor league baseball team has appropriately gone by the team name of the “Asheville Tourists” The team was originally given the name because none of the first players were Asheville native, but in recent years the name has taken on a new meaning (Caputo 2014). Within the last decade, Asheville’s tourism industry has grown, and more tourists have been drawn to the city throughout all four seasons. In 2019 the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (BCTDA) released their annual report that reported that tourism generated 3.1 billion dollars in the county and 368 million in tax revenue (BCTDA 2019). My research found that residents of Asheville show frustrations with the growth of tourism and changes that it has brought to the city including over crowdedness, increased cost of living, gentrification, and land-use disputes. Residents in Asheville display resistance towards infrastructure developments because it has caused significant levels of gentrification throughout the city as well as around the city.

Greenville as a city began to market itself as a “leisure destination” in 2007. Prior to 2007 Greenville focused on attracting tourists for business and sports tournaments (Greenville Tourism Professional). Since the switch, success in the city’s tourism has grown at a rapid pace. My research found that residents of Greenville welcome tourists with open arms. Residents of Greenville do not associate the development of tourism with the development of the city’s infrastructure, as the residents of Asheville do.

There are organizations and individuals in both Asheville, NC and Greenville, SC that advocate for an expansion of the urban tourism as well as entities that advocate to preserve local economies and keep consumption local in order to preserve the city’s authenticity. Both cities have strong Tourism Development Agencies that are making successful pathways for the expansion of tourism and infrastructure development of the city’s downtown areas. Table 1 displays relevant census data of the two cities to give context to resident populations discussed (US Census 2019, 2017, 2012).

Table 1. Census data for Asheville and Greenville

Asheville, North Carolina

Population Female Population, percentage Black/ African American Population, percentage Hispanic or Latino Population, percentage

92,452 57.2% 12% 5.9%

Greenville, South Carolina

68,563 51.5% 25.7% 5.2%

In Civilian Labor Force, ages 16 and up Women-Owned Businesses (2012) Minority-Owned Businesses (2012) Median Household Income (2017)

64.9% 67.4%

4,955 2,869

1,247

1,592 $48,984 $46,464

(US Census Data 2019)

The purpose of this study is to define the sustainability of these differing tourism industries in Asheville and Greenville. This study aims to find who benefits from tourism growth and who is marginalized or unsatisfied by the changing place-identity of these cities. This research aims to examine issues of social justice, political voice, land-use disputes, and misrepresentation. The issues are addressed using the following research questions:

1. How have the tourism industries in each region affected the city’s “sense-of-place”? 2. Are the effects of the industry in each city sustainable? 3. How can the effects of tourism industries be made more sustainable?

I utilize five methods: surveying, interviews, participant observation, spatial and document analysis to mobilize Actor Network Theory (Law 1992) and Place-Identity Framework (Kavaratzis 2015). These theories help identify themes and principles of Sustainability Science in the two tourism industries. Defining sustainability in a tourism context will allow us to identify areas of improvement for both cities and humans, both visiting and residential.

This research will analyze sustainable tourism industries criteria established by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to contextualize global tourism, Mihalis Kavaratzis’s Place Branding Framework to contextualize a city’s sense of place (Kavaratzis & Kalandides 2015). Actor Network Theory to contextualize how Greenville and Asheville’s tourism industries function as systems.

Principles of Sustainability Science

Sustainability, as defined by the United Nations, means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland 1987). The definition that the United Nations provides for Sustainable Development is, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations 2015).

The United Nations includes economic development as one of the three core elements of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. Scholars have debated whether sustainable economic growth is even possible given strong correlations between economic growth and environment degradation through natural resource use (Raworth 2012). For the purposes of this thesis we will consider the possible positive outcomes of degrowth, but sustainable economic growth represents the most practical outcome for Asheville and Greenville in the near future.

In 2015, the United Nations introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were designed to be met by 2030. There are 17 goals that require world-wide participation and support