Sustainable development in a tourism destination context: A Plimsoll model of sustainability in Tyrrell County, North Carolina

The purpose of the research was to develop and test a conceptual framework for sustainable tourism development to address (a) the apparent lack of a theoretical framework for sustainable development; (b) the integration of social, economic, and ecological elements of sustainable development; and (c) the contextual nature of sustainable development. General Systems Theory was used as a theoretical framework to adapt the Plimsoll Line to model the driving force, state, and response indicators of sustainability in Tyrrell County, North Carolina. Tyrrell County is in the preliminary stages of tourism product development, has multiple cultural and natural resource attractions available to develop, and has framed their philosophy about development around sustainability principles. Data collection was guided by the catalog of baseline issues and indicators developed by the World Tourism Organization. Indicators such as employment in the tourism industry, expenditures attributed to the tourism industry, air and water quality, community services, and housing issues were used in the study. Two datasets were used for the analysis: a 24-year dataset based on the available Tyrrell County data, and a 250-year dataset of imputed values based on the 24-year dataset. The 250-year dataset was used to test model stability and most conclusions were drawn from the 24-year dataset. Structural equation modeling using the AMOS software platform was used to generate and analyze the hypothesized relationships. The analysis process yielded three iterations. The first, a unidimensionality analysis, reduced the number of items useful to model relationships from 24 to 18. The second iteration resulted in a removal of state indicators from the overall model to improve model fit. The final iteration of the model improved model fit by connecting covariant relationships in error variance predicted by AMOS Significant relationships were found between the driving force and response indicators for the 24-year dataset, indicating a tourism destination in its infancy. The Plimsoll Model of Tyrrell County indicates that, currently, the state indicators of the destination do not provide enough information about “cargo” of the destination to be considered important when reviewing the overall model. This can be interpreted in one of two ways. Mathematically, those particular indicators are not important to the function of the model, i.e., the cargo are not important to the overall function and successful voyage of the ship. Conversely, one could conclude that the very fact those items were not important in the model could be interpreted as an indicator that these components of the model need specific attention, more so than any other variables. Specifically, issues regarding air and water quality and the ratio of average tourism industry income to total income should be addressed. Regarding the driving force and response indicators, interpretation of the results suggest a lack of employment opportunities in the tourism industry accompanied by a non-increasing net migration. Development of the tourism product may stem the tide of out-migration from Tyrrell County through the provision of employment opportunities.;The next step in model testing is to collect similar data for a county with a more developed tourism product in a similar geographical area and compare results of an analysis of that county to those of Tyrrell County. As more and better data become available, the model can be modified and verified to provide a better “picture” of the current state of development and tourism in Tyrrell County and potentially make recommendations regarding planning decisions (in the form of response variables).;Broader implications for sustainability research suggest the importance of theoretical foundations in the form of General Systems Theory is crucial to any attempt to model an entity as complex as the systems of interaction between social components (e.g., migration patterns of residents and workers, provision of social services to residents, and employment patterns), environmental components (e.g., air and water quality, use intensity, and community expenditures on environmental protection), and economic components (e.g. revenues from tourism, payroll for travel industry employees, costs of community services) at a tourism destination. Models developed without a theoretical basis that underlies the interconnectedness of elements of a tourism destination, and the use of such a tool for policy-making could potentially lead to poor planning and the negative impacts attributed to tourism. What drives development, and therefore sustainable development, in a tourism destination is integrally related to the responses the community has through policy or otherwise to those forces. More research is needed into the complex relationships underlying the elements of a community in order to understand more completely the manifest relationships.