Social representations and community attitudes towards spring breakers

Abstract

Social representation theory has been adopted for explaining tourism impacts and local attitudes. However, its usefulness in segmenting local population in terms of their attitudes towards specific types of tourists has not been tested. This study identifies the attitudes of local people towards spring break, a North American young tourist phenomenon in the context of the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco. Although residents perceive an increase in alcohol consumption, drug use, noise and litter during the spring break season, they largely recognise economic benefits and are thus generally supportive for the phenomenon. Based on these attitudes, three clusters were identified: spring break supporters (identified by their high appreciation of spring break benefits), ambivalents (who are uncertain about both benefits and costs) and realistics (characterised by recognising both benefits and costs). The main contribution of this study lies in the confirmation of the usefulness of social representation theory in explaining residents’ attitudes towards a very specific type of tourists whose hedonist behaviours are a common characteristic.

Keywords:

• spring break
• social representations
• community attitudes
• tourism impacts
• Mexico
• segmentation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Carlos Monterrubio

J. Carlos Monterrubio received his PhD in tourism from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is a lecturer and tourism researcher at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Mexico. His research interests include the sociocultural impacts of tourism and tourism as a field of study.

Konstantinos Andriotis

Konstantinos Andriotis is professor in tourism at Middlesex University. He holds a PhD in tourism development and planning (Bournemouth University, 2000) and a postdoc in tourism marketing (Hellenic Open University, 2006). He edits the International Journal of Tourism Policy. His research interests are in tourism development, policy and planning, community attitudes and tourism experience.