Measuring Sustainable Tourism Development in Remote Rural ...

Tabel 2: Average scores for the 27 community profile items
Statement Lindoso/ Svaneke Numerical
Soajo
difference
1 None seems to care much how the community looks. 3.73 1.96 1.77
2 Everyone here tries to take advantage of you. 3.21 1.52 1.69
3 Living conditions in the community should be improved 4.63 3.00 1.63
4 The responsibility for older people should be confined to themselves and
their families instead of the community.
3.10 1.60 1.50
5 Our schools do a poor job of preparing young people for life. 3.76 2.28 1.48
6 A community would get along better if each one would mind his own
business and others take care of theirs.
2.83 1.83 1.00
7 People are generally critical of others. 4.23 3.24 0.99
8 A good citizen should be willing to assume leadership in a civic
improvement organisation.
3.98 3.00 0.98
9 The town council gets very little done. 3.91 3.04 0.87
10 The community tries hard to help its young people along. 2.09 2.93 0.84
11 If their children keep out of their way, parents are satisfied to let them do 2.77 2.00 0.77
what they want to do
12 Everyone is out for himself at the expense of everyone else 2.98 2.28 0.70
13 People do not work together to get things done for the community. 3.62 2.93 0.69
14 The church is a constructive factor for better community life. 3.27 2.69 0.58
15 This community lacks real leaders. 4.02 3.41 0.51
16 The local council runs the town to suit themselves. 3.27 2.78 0.49
17 Progress can best be accomplished by having only a few people involved. 2.92 2.45 0.47
18 People give you a bad name if you insist on being different. 3.63 3.29 0.34
19 A citizen should join only those organisations that will promote his own
interests.
1.97 2.27 0.30
20 Busy people should not have the responsibility for civic programmes. 3.52 3.32 0.20
21 Most of the churchgoers do not practice what they preach. 4.02 3.82 0.20
22 Only those who have the most time should assume the responsibility for
civic programmes.
3.05 3.24 0.19
23 Too much time is usually spent on the planning phases of community
projects.
3.78 3.60 0.18
24 Community improvement should be the concern of only a few leaders in
the community.
1.93 1.89 0.04
25 What is good for the community is good for me. 3.83 3.80 0.03
26 In order to grow, a community must provide additional recreation facilities. 4.08 4.11 0.03
27 The social needs of the citizens are the responsibility of themselves and
their families and not of the community.
2.20 2.19 0.01
(strongly agree=5; strongly disagree=1)
The residents of both Lindoso/Soajo and Svaneke are found to have a positive attitude
to tourism, mainly because of the employment opportunities it offers, even if they
themselves do not gain any direct benefit from this sector (see tables 3 and 4). In the
case of Soajo, most residents of the community are aware of the concentration of
tourists around one single village that is felt to have unfairly captured the local tourism
market by having most investment concentrated on that one village. The other villages
of Soajo, having little or no tourism benefits, feel that they have attractions that could
draw people. But because of a lack of interest on the part of the local leadership, it has
not been local policy to distribute infrastructure investment in the other villages. The
researchers feel that the main reason is a lack of leadership and entrepreneurship
among the smaller villages. Also, having to do with the traditional patriarchal system all
major activities are conducted around the village where the main church is located.
Because the local elite is traditionally from this village, and because these elite carry a
high influence in the community, the residents of the main village tend to be more
dynamic and entrepreneurial. Thus, local investment, be it public or private, tends to be
concentrated.
Svaneke is a tourist-town from May – September. The town is well-known by the
visitors to Bornholm and almost everyone wishes to go there once during their holiday.