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Happy Tourists, Unhappy Locals

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Abstract

The most recent of literature focuses more often on the happiness of tourists, rather than the happiness of residents affected by tourism. However, this study aims at filling this gap with a new and refreshing perspective. This is carried out by using the European Social Survey (2010–2012) merged with Eurostat tourism data at the province (NUTS2) level. Staying consistent with homophily or ingroup preference theories, we find that domestic tourists contribute more to the happiness of locals than foreign tourists. Also by staying consistent with Irridex theory, we find that tourism at low levels of development contributes more to happiness than tourism at a high level of development.

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Notes

  1. We define happiness in next section. Arguably, people tend to be excited before traveling, and they are relaxed and refreshed after.

  2. Chancellor et al. (2011) found in Orange county IN that happiness was higher in the periphery than in core, which is consistent with research about happiness and location, which found that in developed countries people are happiest in smallest areas (Okulicz-Kozaryn 2015). However, Chancellor et al. (2011) does not measure tourism other than defining core and periphery, and even if such crude measure captured tourism, the study does not test for the difference in happiness between the two areas.

  3. We briefly discuss some of the potential tourism costs and benefits—for a more developed discussion see Crick (1989).

  4. See Crick (1989) for a critical view.

  5. Jafari, the founding editor of Annals of Tourism Research, wrote: "That 'each man kills the thing he loves,' as Oscar Wilde observed nearly a century ago, should perhaps be engraved over the door of national and regional tourism offices" (cited in Crick 1989).

  6. “[…] Neuroscience has discovered racial prejudice rooted in brain areas that emerged early in primate evolution and that still govern our instincts today” (Smith et al. 2010, p. 4). There are at least three other theories: (1) homophily is a consequence of realistic group conflict, (2) homophily is an outgrowth of the authoritarian personality, (3) homophily is an expression of social identity (Kinder and Kam 2010). We find the evolutionary explanation most convincing. Of course, by relying on evolutionary explanation we are oversimplifying. Other factors like “the nurture”, matter as well and point to the role of education and upbringing in enhancing or diminishing homophily.

  7. For more detailed discussion of homophily and human nature see Fox (1994), Fu (2012), Kinder and Kam (2010), and Wilson (2012).

  8. NUTS stands for Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (from French Nomenclature des unites territoriales statistiques). NUTS2 refers to second level of aggregation, which is the second finest or most detailed level (after NUTS3). We mostly use level 2, but in some cases we use other levels as dictated by data availability from ESS. For details about NUTS classification see http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview.

  9. Prior research also found grass-roots local small-scale tourism development is after all more economically beneficial to residents than large-scale conventional tourism development (Crick 1989).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Policy and Administration, Rutgers University, 401 Cooper St, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn

  2. Vistula University, Stoklosy 3, 02787, Warsaw, Poland

    Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn

  3. Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

    Marianna Strzelecka

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  1. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn
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  2. Marianna Strzelecka
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Correspondence to Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn.

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Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., Strzelecka, M. Happy Tourists, Unhappy Locals. Soc Indic Res 134, 789–804 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1436-9

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