Resident benefit: how do you measure the impact of tourism on residents?

The ‘Guide to measuring resident benefits’ is intended for policymakers who are looking for a suitable approach to make resident benefits transparent. The publication explains each method, names the advantages and disadvantages and illustrates it with practical examples. The research was conducted by NBTC and CELTH, in collaboration with the Hotelschool The Hague and Eilandmarketing Schouwen-Duiveland, where various methods were tested in practice.

Resident perspective is increasingly important

The Guide is an important knowledge component on the road to tourism that contributes to broad prosperity for all Dutch people. It is important that tourism not only provides economic benefits but also has a positive impact on the destination as a whole. Many actors play a role in the tourism ecosystem, including residents, who are playing an increasingly important role. Negative sentiments often predominate in the dialogue with residents about tourism, and not all groups of residents are given an equal say. To balance this discussion, it is important to map out all aspects of resident benefits. The Guide offers a substantiated theoretical framework for this and a useful overview of methods for measuring resident benefits.

Project leader Elisa van den Heuvel on the importance of the ‘Guide to measuring resident benefits’: “It provides stakeholders with tools to explore emotional, often hidden and unconscious dimensions of tourism-driven benefits for residents and gives a voice to what matters to residents, so that policy is based on empathetic understanding and reflects lived experiences and not just measurable outcomes.”

Taking into account impact and experience dimensions

Measuring resident benefits is not a straightforward task because you have to consider three impact dimensions and three experience dimensions.

Impact dimensions

• Economic impacts
• Sociocultural impacts
• Impacts on the living environment

Experience dimensions

• Actual versus perception
• Conscious versus unconscious
• Individual versus collective

Eight methods examined

The Guide focuses on methods that measure the perception of tourism rather than the actual impact. Together with more than 30 practical experts and researchers, the researchers examined many measurement methods and presented eight methods in the Guide. These vary from obvious and frequently used methods such as questionnaire research, focus groups and interviews to innovative methods such as photo elicitation, participatory mapping, art-related research and social listening.

Elisa sees many advantages of creative and participatory methods: “Implementing creative and participatory research methods not only supports a better understanding of the subjective benefits of tourism but can also function as a subtle form of intervention, which promotes reflection, dialogue and connection with the wider public.”

The following methods can be used effectively for measuring resident benefits, either in combination or separately. All methods have been investigated, four methods have been uses in the experiments tested in practice: photo-elicitation, participatory mapping, online dialogue and arts based research.

• Questionnaire research (survey): a structured method to systematically collect opinions, experiences and perceptions. This method often has a quantitative approach.
• Focus group: a qualitative research method in which a structured discussion is conducted with multiple participants, usually at least four, to explore a specific topic or issue in depth.
• Interview: a qualitative research method that helps to collect in-depth information by talking directly to individuals.
• Photo elicitation: a research method that uses photos to stimulate the creation of conversations and insights.
• Participatory mapping: a way to visually map how participants view and experience a place.
• Arts-based research (SBR): a research approach that uses artistic processes to explore, represent and interpret human experiences.
• Online dialogue: a focus group that uses a digital platform. Depending on the platform chosen, participants can enrich each other's messages with comments, likes, images, GIFs and videos.
• Social media monitoring and social listening: this involves collecting, structuring and analysing online and public messages (on social media platforms, forums, blogs etc.). Social listening is about understanding what and especially why people say something and what the underlying trends or themes are.

CELTH's Environment Theme Manager, Jeroen Klijs: "The Guide enables DMOs, municipalities and other organisations involved in destination management to choose the right method for measuring resident benefits and to apply it effectively. It improves the quality and comparability of tourism impactstudies and promotes data-driven decision-making in recreation, tourism and hospitality."

Open mind essential

The Guide concludes with numerous tips for policymakers and researchers. For example, it is important to distinguish between personal benefits that residents can experience as a result of tourism and benefits for the community as a whole. In addition,

The Wegwijzer voor het meten van bewonersprofijt is free for download on the site of NBTC.