Elizabeth D. Baldwin

Residents as Travel Destination Information Providers: An Online Community Perspective

Prior research regarding residents and tourists has focused on their commonalities and interactions occurring on-site. What is missing from the literature is an examination of residents as information sources to potential tourists. Online travel communities offer such a viable venue. This study has two main purposes. The first is to examine the influence residents may have on travel decisions and identify the types of travel decisions they influence. The second is to compare the influence residents have on travel decisions with other online community members (i.e., experienced travelers). Treemapper is used to identify the country forums, and thematic networks are used for the analysis of influence of eWOM. The results reveal that nearly one-third of the communication threads (including 1,699 postings from 713 contributing members) have been influential for members. Residents are more influential in accommodations and food and beverage recommendations, whereas experienced travelers are more influential in the destination information category.

Influence of an Online Travel Community on Travel Decisions

Influence of online community member’s postings on travel decisions were analyzed using thematic networks. Tremapper was used to discover which country postings to be analyzed and resulted in analysis of 8 countries. This study identified 8 organizing themes from an analysis of 81 communication threads that consisted of 713 members and 1691 postings. Out of the 81 threads included in the study, 23 showed a clear evidence of influence. The members’ decisions were categorized by the information sources experience at destination such as residents and experienced travellers The analysis of the chosen countries and topics indicate that residents were more influential in food and beverage recommendations, safety concerns at the destination, and travel itinerary refinements (including things to do and places to see) whereas experienced travellers were more influential in accommodation recommendations, transportation, monetary issues like exchanging money and how much money to carry during the travel, destination information including tourist hassle at a specific destination, and itinerary advice.

Integrating Expert Judgment into Systematic Ecoregional Conservation Planning

This chapter offers insights on integrating expert judgment into ecoregional conservation planning. We describe three examples that focus on benefits and challenges of (1) delivering GIS-based expert systems in stakeholder-based contexts, (2) integrating expert judgment and computer-based site selection scenarios, and (3) reaching expert consensus on delineating conservation planning areas across a diverse ecoregion. The examples highlight several important lessons. First, engagement of experts should not be simply about gaining approval. To maximize the extent of buy-in by experts, they need to be legitimately involved in the creation of methodology and results. Second, experts need to be distinguished in the planning process from stakeholders and local residents. While precise definitions are elusive and likely to vary from one region to another, a transparent methodology for assessing and weighting each group’s input is important. Finally, the methods used for engaging expert participation need to match the experts’ technological capabilities and conceptual understandings. While a lack of familiarity with certain aspects should not disqualify an expert from participation, it does highlight the importance of advanced preparation on the part of those facilitating the process. Beyond these more technical issues are those related to the social sciences of expert engagement. Social and qualitative forms of data are needed to build this understanding.

Member reputation and its influence on travel decisions: a case study of an online travel community.

The purpose of this research was to investigate member reputation in an online travel community and its influence on different types of travel decisions. The research design employed a case study approach. In order to examine the influence of member reputation on travel decisions in this community, the members were divided into three groups according to their total number of postings: low-, medium-, and high-activity members. The results showed that medium-activity members were influential in accommodations, food and beverages, safety, money, destination information, and itinerary decisions; low-activity members were influential in food and beverages, transportation, destination information, and itinerary decisions; high-activity members were influential in food and beverages, destination information, and itinerary refinements.

Small Parks as Local Social–Ecological Systems Contributing to Conservation of Small Isolated and Ephemeral Wetlands

ABSTRACT: Publicly owned lands designated as parks can be important tools for biodiversity conservation. In the U.S., state parks are afforded direct protection from localized development pressures, which may help to protect small, ecologically significant ecosystems such as isolated and ephemeral wetlands and headwater streams. We used the South Carolina State Park system as a case study to examine the structural and functional differences between small wetlands located inside vs. outside of parks in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge ecoregions in order to evaluate the efficacy of a small-scale conservation framework for protecting small, under-protected freshwater ecosystems. We evaluated data relating to water quality, wetland structure, and biodiversity parameters collected between January 2010 and June 2011. Our results indicated marked differences between park and non-park wetlands, with park wetlands having shallower depths, higher abundances of sensitive benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, and lower average tolerance values consistent with more sensitive macroinvertebrate species and higher water quality. These findings demonstrate that state parks can serve to protect freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. State parks, thus, represent a preexisting network of protected areas to aid in the protection of localized habitats, such as small isolated and ephemeral wetlands, that may not otherwise receive the conservation protection warranted by their ecological function.

A different “we” in urban sustainability: how the city of Chattanooga, TN, community defined their own sustainability path

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to try to understand the process of community building that helped transform the City of Chattanooga to become one of the greenest cities in the country and why the sustainability program worked for Chattanooga. Design/methodology/approach In total, 30 key informants, identified through snowball sampling, were interviewed. To corroborate the interview data, numerous documents were reviewed and repeat field visits to Chattanooga and surrounding area conducted over a period of three-and-a-half years. Interview data were analyzed using MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software. Findings Findings show that the transformation process from “the dirtiest city in America” to “green city” was mainly a community agenda. Led by concerned private citizens and visionaries, Chattanooga went through aggressive community mobilization, citizen empowerment and participation in environmental improvement, building of social capital and economic revitalization. Research limitations/implications Research limitations include under coverage and researcher bias. Practical implications Lessons for cities that share the same industrial history as Chattanooga. Social implications Community-building and community participation can work in a collectivist culture. Originality/value The lead author collected the data, conducted analysis and did all the writing with mentoring from the co-authors.

Park-based urban regeneration and tourism evolution in a cityscape: a case for Chattanooga-TN

Abstract The United States’ city of Chattanooga is endowed with abundant natural beauty including mountains, ridges and the Tennessee River. Historically the downtown area had little to offer in terms of tourist attractions and infrastructures until the early 1990s when a system of parks started developing along the river. The movement to create urban parks followed concerted environmental clean-up process after Chattanooga was declared America’s most polluted city in the late 1960s, and the subsequent collapse of the heavy manufacturing economy. However, no detailed study has been conducted to document evolution of tourism in the downtown. The aim of this study was to trace the growth and success of Chattanooga’s tourism. Thirty key informants were interviewed. Data was complemented by review of grey literature, analysis of archival records, and field visits. Interview data were sorted and analyzed using MAXQDA computer software. Findings show that investment in parks and green infrastructures were antecedents to emergence, growth and success of tourism in the city. Results also paint a bright future for Chattanooga’s tourism owing to continuous investment in parks and environmental improvement. Chattanooga lessons could be used to inform park-based urban revitalization and development of recreation amenities in cities going through similar challenges.

Social and spatial relationships driving landowner attitudes towards aquatic conservation in a Piedmont-Blue Ridge landscape

More than half of land in the U.S. is privately owned and covers most of known endangered species habitat. An understanding of private landowners’ attitudes towards conservation may help to bridge the science-practice gap in regards to conservation initiatives. Aquatic biodiversity is particularly imperiled; in the United States headwaters and isolated wetlands receive little protection through regulations, becoming a focus of conservation planning. In an effort to assess how landowners view such efforts, a 27-question mixed methods survey was mailed to 409 landowners in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont ecoregions of South Carolina with wetland areas and where land was owned by a family or individual, not a corporation. We received 70 completed surveys and analyzed the results using an encapsulated mixed methods approach that analyzed both scaled and qualitative questions. The combined results gave a more contextual understanding of conservation on private lands in the study area. In this article we present a history of private land conservation and surveying landowners in understanding conservation potential. This demonstrates a need for a more comprehensive method needed in conservation planning. We then show our use of an integrated methodology, using quantitative and qualitative questions, to measure landowners’ interest in conserving land. Through classification and spatial analysis, our study demonstrated that aquatic areas and wildlife are valued by and show influence on landowners’ decisions. We also found that distance from protected area has a positive correlation to the willingness to protect aquatic areas. Landowners showed concern for threats of pollution from runoff and siltation. Disinterest in conservation seemed prevalent throughout many of the respondents’ answers. These results suggest a relation to geographic distance and that the attitudes are more related near each other and specific places in the landscape. We conclude that any successful implementation of aquatic conservation initiatives must include focused outreach and communicating the benefits for society and landowners for building capacity for landscape-scale cooperation.