Understanding resident subjectivities toward tourism using Q method: Orchid Island, Taiwan

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainable destination tourism should begin with an understanding of resident subjectivities. Residents are concerned with good governance and cultural integrity, and they are aware of their role as stakeholders in tourism in their communities. In this study, residents of Orchid Island, Taiwan, were interviewed using Q method in order to evaluate their subjectivities toward tourism. Forty-two statements regarding a theoretically and historically defined discourse of tourism were sorted by 34 respondents. This forced-choice method revealed four types of subjectivities, which are distinguished as Culture Broker, Cultural Conservative, Cultural Purist and Pragmatic Governance. The results show how the respondents perceived tourism in their destination. They agreed upon certain core issues regarding destination tourism, while contesting other issues. Respondents held strong views concerning how government policy affects their community and how tourism and culture shape each other. It is concluded that many issues in tourism research are highly relevant to residents of small tourism destination communities. This implies that tourism research should focus on understanding and coordinating resident subjectivities so as to inform government planning and decision-making, especially in indigenous communities or small islands.

使用Q方法来理解居民对旅游的主观性：台湾兰屿

对可持续性目的地旅游的追求应该从对居民主观态度的理解开始。居民是良好的政策治理和文化和谐中需要考虑的，并且他们也认识到他们在旅游和他们社区里作为利益相关者的职责。在这个研究中，兰屿的居民在使用Q方法下来被采访，为了衡量他们对旅游的主观性。通过34个回复者，42份关于旅游的理论性和历史性定义的言论被整理出来。该选择方法揭示了四种主观性，被区别为``文化侵入''，``文化保护''，``文化精粹''和``务实政策治理''。结论显示回复者在他们的目的地中是如何看待旅游的。他们对于目的地旅游的一些核心事务表示统一，同时为其他的一些事情存在分歧。回复者都对政府政策如何影响他们的社区，和旅游和文化如何影响对方，有着很强的看法。文章总结旅游研究的许多事项是与小型旅游目的地社区的居民是高度相关的。这意味着旅游研究应该着重于理解和协调在告知政府规划和决策时的居民主观性，特别是本土社区或是小岛。

Keywords:

• resident attitudes
• subjectivity
• Orchid Island
• Q method
• qualitative research
• Taiwan

关键词:

• 居民态度
• 主观性
• 兰屿
• Q方法
• 定性研究
• 台湾