Identifying tourism stakeholder groups based on support for sustainable tourism development and participation in tourism activities

The purpose of the study was to explore and identify stakeholder groups in tourism development based on a stakeholder's support for or against sustainable tourism development and a stakeholder's participation in tourism and political activities. To assist in identifying the stakeholders an instrument was developed and administered to two rural North Carolina counties, Johnston County and Martin County. The analysis of the data was conducted employing SPSS and developing decision trees for support for sustainable tourism and participation in tourism and political activities using the Exhaustive CHAID method in SPSS Answer Tree. Based on the results of the study evidence was found that allowed for the identification of twelve stakeholder groups. The stakeholder groups identified by the decision trees can be described as high participant/high supporters, high participant/moderate supporters, high participant/low supporters, high-moderate participant/high supporters, high-moderate participant/moderate supporters, high participant/low supporters, low-moderate participant/high supporters, low-moderate participant/moderate supporters, low-moderate participant/low supporters, low participant/high supporters, low participant/moderate supporters, and low participant/low supporters. From the results of this study a better understanding of the social dimension of sustainable tourism was developed.