The Socio-Economic effects of dolphinariums on small island destinations By: Joanne Armantrading & Stefan Oosterwaal International Management & Business Research Methodology University of Aruba 2008 Table of contents Intro 3 Literature Review 6 Conceptual Model11 Stakeholders14 Hypotheses 21 Research Design23 Secondary data analysis27 Primary data30 Conclusion37 References38 Introduction There has been a lot of talk about whether there a dolphinarium should be established on the island of Aruba. There has been a lot of controversy from the side of the community. Animal Rights Aruba and Aruba Marine Mammal Foundation are just some of the organizations that have expressed their feelings about this matter. They are not afraid of voicing their opinions, and their opinions are not always positive when it comes to building a dolphinarium on Aruba.
The idea of a dolphinarium on Aruba is not highly appreciated. Why not? Most people will tell you that it is a form of animal abuse. Keeping animals in captivity and training them just to amuse humans is immoral. However, we are not going to look at the biological or ethical side of this matter, we are going to look at the impacts that a dolphinarium ight have on our community.
Are there positive impacts, are there negative impacts? Will these impacts be social, economic, environmental or all of them? This is what we want to know. We would like to get an answer to some of the questions that arise about a dolphinarium on Aruba. There are different islands in the Caribbean that do have a dolphinarium. The statistics of these islands can be of important value for us to see what can happen to us once we have a dolphinarium on the island. The visitor arrivals in Aruba normally are above the 1.
000. 00 per year, these people arrive by either airplanes or cruises. As soon as people set foot on the island they spend money here. Now, one of the questions that we have is: Once we have a dolphinarium, will more people come to our island and will they spend more money? We need to find the ideal methodology to answer our questions. As mentioned, there are other destinations in the Caribbean that do have a dolphinarium and we’ll be analyzing their visitor arrivals and expenditures.
We will also make a survey to ask the public opinion. Do people actually agree with the idea of a dolphinarium or do they resent it? Will these opinions have an effect on the possible economic welfare a dolphinarium can bring? Another big question is: Is a dolphinarium sustainable, and can it help with the sustainable development of our island. Sustainable development is a term coined by the Brundtland commission; it is defined as “ development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ” Aruba, like many other destinations, is trying to become a sustainable destination. We want to find out whether the effects a dolphinarium has on our island contribute to its sustainability.
To analyze the effects of a dolphinarium on Aruba we need data. The data that we are going to use in our research is data from other destinations that got a dolphinarium in the last six years. We are going to analyze the impacts that these dolphinariums have caused. By analyzing these effects, we will come to the conclusion whether a dolphinarium will be a significant contribution to our social and economic lives.
By building a dolphinarium we will be contributing to the diversification of our island. We offer great products for different markets. For people that like activities in the sea & sun we offer a great variety of water sports and other water activities. For people that want to wine and dine we have Aruba Gastronomic Association.
We offer almost everything for everyone. However, one of the things we don’t have yet is a dolphinarium. Why not diversify even more and attract even more markets? First of all, let’s define a dolphinarium. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: A dolphinarium is an aquarium for dolphins.
The dolphins are usually kept in a large pool, though occasionally they may be kept in pens in the open sea, either for research or for public performances. Some dolphinariums consist of one pool where dolphins perform for the public, others have expanded into much larger parks, keeping other marine animals and having other attractions. These larger parks are often not considered to be dolphinariums themselves, but marine mammal parks or theme parks that include a dolphinarium. A marine mammal park is thus seen as a combination of a public aquarium and an amusement park. Marine mammal parks are different from marine parks, which include natural reserves and marine wildlife sanctuaries such as coral reefs, particularly in Australia. Literature ReviewThe public has strong opinion on both the developments in the tourism industry as well as the dolphinarium itself.
We will now explain some of the models that have been used in the past to explain the development of tourism, as well as the reactions that go hand in hand with these developments. We know that a dolphinarium can add to the economic welfare of a destination. In the first place, it creates job opportunities. Will it be better if people are for the idea, against it, or does it not really make a difference? The people that are against the idea of a dolphinarium are in the end also the ones that benefit from it.
People that come to visit the dolphinarium will need a place to stay, a place to eat and might want to do some other activities than going to the dolphinarium. Secondary data we found is from R. W. Butler (1980).
He made a tourism life cycle for marine tourism. Possible stages in the development of marine tourism attractions (adapted from Butler, 1980) When analyzing this first graph, we see that in the beginning it’s the discovery process and that the number tourists is quite low. People might not know or be too familiar with the attraction, and therefore don’t visit it a lot. For this same reason the local people may be very cynical, they might not believe in the attraction and think that it will not do the local economy any good.
As time goes by the attraction starts doing better and others see that it does benefit our local economy and their own pocket. They might even start to give some competition and try to offer their own attractions. As time goes by, people start becoming more familiar with the product and more people will start coming, they might tell others about it and the others will come. More people will come and a rapid growth will develop. Will this growth go on forever? In later stages stability will occur. This is where we believe something needs to be done.
There are three things that can happen once you’re stable: stability can remain, you can decline, or you can grow. Now, preferably everyone would like to keep growing and making more money. What is the reason that you are stable now? Are people fed up with your product? Are your prices to high? You can reinvent yourself by starting to offer new products, lowering your prices. Again, you have to go and seek the public opinion to see what it is the people want.
Once you know that, you can offer them that product and get into growth again. If you do not care that you’ve hit stability, you have a big possibility that slowly you’ll start declining. On Aruba, at this moment in time, the development has reached stability, and a possible way to start growing again is through new attractions, and attracting more markets. We have not been reinventing ourselves and we can say that we’re in the stability phase. What better way to figure out what people want or think than asking them? This is why we believe that a survey is in its place.
Possible stages in the development of locations and associated operator reactions (adapted from Butler, 1980) In this graph we can see that the public opinion does a play a role in our success. You have to make sure that the opinion of the public remains stable and positive and that you care. Because else, instead of growing or even staying stable in profits with our dolphinarium, you will decline, because people will not back you up. If something starts well, it does not mean that it will stay that way.
People that are positive in the beginning and back you up, have very high expectations. If in your rapid growth process people start getting annoyed, this can have a very negative effect on your business. This is what shows that the economic situation and social situation go hand in hand. Aruba wants to be a sustainable destination.
In order for a destination to be sustainable, it has to make sure that it practices sustainable development. The graph shown below gives an example of how the three parts involved in sustainable development should come together to create a sustainable destination. Johann Dreo (March 9, 2006), Sustainable development. Retrieved: April 22, 2008 from www. ikipedia.
org/sustainable_development This model was created by Johann Dreo, he put it forward in his work on sustainable development. The three factors are: -Social factors -Environmental factors -Economic factors These three factors are key in the development of a country, if it wishes to be sustainable. These pillars that we want to build on should always stay in balance, so that we can realize sustainable growth. This shows us that it is important to study the socio-economic effects a dolphinarium can have, as these impacts are the foundation of sustainable tourism and development. Conceptual Model Now we will introduce our conceptual model that we will use to analyze and categorize our findings.
Plenty of outcomes are possible, for example: Dolphinarium ? more visitors? more expenditures? more profit? positive socio-economic impacts? Or is it Dolphinarium? less visitors? less expenditures? less profit? negative socio-economic impacts? Or is a dolphinarium independent from the welfare of an island? There are many forces that affect the tourism industry on a destination; it is not just the building of a dolphinarium that will influence the number of visitors. Economic situations in other countries, the building of new hotels on island, increases in airlift to the destination and competitors all influence the tourism industry. They can influence how many people visit and how much they spend. We cannot simply state that the building of a dolphinarium is the only force that will shape the future of a dolphinarium. This conceptual model is created so we can simplify reality and show the effects that a dolphinarium can have on a small island destination. We will be using a matrix to divide the effects into Social and Economic impacts as well as looking if these effects are considered positive or negative.
Social effects are the impacts that the dolphinarium will have on the people involved with the project. This includes both tourists and the local population. Some environmental issues can also be considered social effects, as they affect the population directly. Economic effects are impacts on the economic situation of the destination. This includes changes in the GDP, tourist expenditure and tax payments. The ultimate question will be whether the benefits outweigh the costs and vice versa.
We will leave it up to the reader to decide that. We will just identify the effects a dolphinarium would have. The variables: We need some variables that we can measure in order to identify changes that the dolphinarium brings. Here are the variables we will be observing. Tourism arrivals: Did the dolphinarium create a new market, are more people visiting the destination? Is this because of the dolphinarium, or are there other factors involved.
Tourist expenditure ($ per tourist): Did the expenditure per tourist increase? Are people paying extra on their vacation to swim with dolphins? Who are the stakeholders in this project? Now we will identify the stakeholders in this project. These are all the people, organizations, businesses and other instances that will be directly or indirectly affected by the building of this new attraction. Aruba as a tourism destination Aruba, when looked at as a destination, might be greatly affected by a dolphinarium. The island of Aruba can be seen as one organization, one business that is always trying to market itself, create customers and keep people coming.
One might ask what kind of effects this dolphinarium will have on the marketing plans of Aruba. Can this be incorporated into the current marketing plan? Are our customers the type of tourist that would like a dolphinarium? Many of our hotels and other businesses try to keep their marketing and products on one line with the marketing that is done to promote our island. ATA and AHATA are the main bodies that are concerned with the marketing of Aruba as a destination. It is important that these organizations sit down with De Palm and discuss this, so we can make sure that there are no major differences in terms of goals, objectives and the ways of achieving those. Aruba needs to make sure that its marketing and the products that are actually delivered are always in line with each other. De Palm Tours The company that wants to introduce a dolphinarium to Aruba is De Palm Tours.
De Palm Tours is one of Aruba’s oldest activities operator. De Palm Tours started out as a transportation company and grew into a big organization that is active in transportation, snorkeling tours, jeep tours and other land and sea activities. What is the reason for bringing a dolphinarium to Aruba? Is the company only after the economic profits that it can potentially create for them, or does De Palm genuinely think that they can help the dolphins and the environment through educating the people? It is hard to believe that De Palm Tours is planning this project purely for the improvement of the general public’s knowledge about dolphins and how to protect them. It is more likely that De Palm is engaging in this to make money.
This raises certain questions form several groups of people, as well as lots of controversy in the media. What are the consequences for De Palm Tours if they turn this dream, which is for some people a nightmare, into reality? If successful, the project might mean a lot of revenues and profits for De Palm. Tourists, as well as locals will want to swim with these marine mammals, and they will be willing to pay a hefty price to do so. However, a very different scenario might be the case.
The project might be a failure. Some hotels have already started a boycott against De Palm. These hotels, which include the Bucuti Beach Resort, have stopped selling De Palm Tours activities through their concierge service. Other organizations involved with De Palm might do the same thing. De Palm has a chance of vercoming this obstacle, as they are a very big company with many selling locations, most of which are operated by De Palm itself. Some of the tourists might also boycott De Palm Tours, as they are against the holding of dolphins in captivity and/or training dolphins to do tricks and perform.
The same might be true for the general population of Aruba. Some individuals might say that they will boycott De Palm. There is even the possibility of a smear campaign, in which all of the stakeholders that disagree with De Palm can join together to bring a stop to the dolphinarium. Local Population & TouristsAs mentioned above, the opinion of the tourists that visit Aruba, or are thinking about doing this, as well as the opinion of the local population can have a big impact on this project. These people will decide whether this project will succeed or fail. Research can be done in order to figure out what the people of Aruba think of this project.
The same can be done for our visitors. Both locals and tourists have voiced their opinion in newspapers and on the internet. Within the local population there are several organizations that have made clear that they are definitely against the establishment of a dolphinarium on our island. The organizations include Aruba Marine Mammal Foundation, Animal Rights Aruba, Accion Ambiental and Stimaruba. These organizations have signed open letters to De Palm Tours, as well as the Aruban government expressing their feelings about this project.
Aruba Marine Mammal Foundation has even started an “ anti-captivity campaign”, which is aimed at raising awareness and support for the fight against the dolphinarium. Government Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The system of Government in Aruba is based on Western democratic principles. The structure of the Aruban government is as follows: The Legislature consists of a 21-member parliament, elected by popular vote for a four-year term of office. The Council of Ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister, forms the executive power. Legal jurisdiction lies with a Common Court of Justice of Aruba and the Antilles Netherlands and a Supreme Court of Justice in Netherlands.
In 1994 the Government realized that the economic development in Aruba was largely concentrated in the western part of the island. In rder to promote the economic development in the eastern part of Aruba, the Government started a project called “ The Sasaki Development Plan”. This Development Plan is an equitable growth model developed for the region of San Nicolas. It includes an ambitious investment program related mainly to infrastructure, road and housing projects. The investment needed to develop the eastern areas will be financed by both private and Government funds.
Does the government have a saying about the companies that establish themselves on Aruba? Most definitely! Can the government tell what they can and cannot do? Can just anybody come and work in Aruba? The government basically has a saying about anything that happens. Permits When opening a business, you cannot do this based on your own decision. You have to ask permission from the government. You have to explain about the activities you plan to do on the island. Whatever you want to do, it can never go against the local laws. Since there is almost no unemployment in Aruba, where will they get people to work at the dolphinarium? That is another story of permits.
In the Aruban workforce there are a lot of foreigners. You cannot just hire a foreigner to work for you. First of all this person needs a permit to stay on the island and he/ she needs a work-permit. These work-permits are not life-long permits; they need to be renovated after a while.
So, whatever type of business it is you’re planning on running, you are not independent from the government. Rules & Regulations Once you got your permits to start operations and the permits for people to work for you, you can’t think that the government can no longer interfere. Whatever it is you want to do needs to be stated in the paper you got when you registered at the Chamber of Commerce. If you do not obey the rules you may receive a fine and it can go even further, your permit(s) may be taken away from you.
Taxes There is no dolphinarium in Aruba at the moment. If there comes one, it will be the only one. Therefore, we can speak about monopoly. There are no competitors, so the prices won’t have to be lower than the next dolphinarium.
Does this mean that they can abuse the local population and the tourists in terms of prices? No, not really. The government tries to have a control on the profits organizations make. One way the government tries to have a control over profits is by demanding taxes. The more money you make, the higher the taxes are that you have to pay. Hypotheses There are many outcomes possible when a dolphinarium is built.
Now we will discuss some of the hypotheses that we can analyze with the data that will be collected. Establishing a dolphinarium will create jobs One of the hypotheses is that when the dolphinarium comes to Aruba it will create a lot of jobs, which is favorable for our island. This can help more people earn money and boost our economy. Employment will be of all sorts, including maintenance, marine biology, dolphin trainers and marketing personnel.
The exact opposite can also happen. It could be that most of the jobs that will be created will be filled by people from overseas. That most of the positions require special forms of education that none of the local people possess, meaning people will have to come in from abroad to work these jobs. The design and construction of the aquarium, the various water systems that need to be installed are all examples of things that need to be done by people from the outside. Together with these comes the training and the caretaking of the dolphins, these dolphins need to have a certain diet; they need exercise and have other special needs that have to be catered to by specialists from other nations Of course we have to keep in mind here that Aruba has a low unemployment percentage.
Today, less than three percent of people on Aruba are unemployed. This means that there will probably be people needed from other countries. A dolphinarium promotes eco-tourism There has been a shift going on the past few years in the world, a shift towards a greener earth, with more care towards the environment. The tourism industry is not lagging behind on this issue.
Many big travel magazines have been giving out awards to the greenest destinations and hotels for the past years. Islands magazine introduced their Blue List, which is made up off 100 hotels that are eco-friendly. Green Globe Certification provides guidelines and benchmarks to make tourism “ greener”. Also, some travel agents and tour operators have demanded that the destinations and hotels they are selling must be eco-friendly.
If this is not the case, these tour operators will stop selling for this company. The hypothesis here is that the dolphinarium is a part of eco-tourism and that it will help in the fight for a more environmentally friendly type of tourism on the island of Aruba. The hypothesis says that through the observation and interaction with these animals we can create awareness for the problems we face. At the same time, it creates an opportunity to educate the public about why it is important that we conserve nature, protect our wildlife and save our environment. It might be possible that this is not true. The dolphinarium may take us in a different direction.
By catching dolphins and keeping them in captivity you are working against the environment. You take these animals out of their natural habitat, which may lead to an imbalance in nature, which can have big impacts. You are basically showing that it is all right to capture animals and that it is good to exploit nature for profit, which is the exact opposite of what eco-tourism stands for. Also, the way that this dolphinarium will be built is important.
A dolphinarium will increase tax revenue for the government and help the economy This basically says that the money generated by the dolphinarium will benefit the island, as it results in more money for people to spend on the island, and more tax for the government. More tourists will be coming to the island and they will spend more because they want to swim with the dolphins. Investments will be made in Aruba, which is good for the island. However, the opposite might be closer to the truth. This project will be realized by De Palm Tours in collaboration with a Dolphinarium from another country. This could mean that a substantial amount of profits will actually go overseas instead of being brought into our Aruban economy.
The same goes for the salaries, which may be going overseas as well. The same story might be true for the investments. The design and construction of a place like this needs to be done by a specialist that is very knowledgeable in the building of marine parks. This means that this money that is invested will go to another country as well, as there are no specialists on the island capable of building this thing. Special equipment to maintain the water and he facilities will also have to come from the outside. The main investment, which is of course the dolphins themselves, will also be brought in from another country.
Another point made is that the people coming to Aruba may not spend more money; the budget for their vacation will remain the same. A dolphinarium will bring diversification to Aruba’s product range and increase visitor arrivals One more hypothesis is that the dolphinarium will help Aruba because it diversifies the products that the island offers. Next to enjoying our beaches and relaxing in our sun the visitors can swim with dolphins. This can be used in marketing plans and attract more visitors. People may choose to go to Aruba instead of another island just because Aruba offers a dolphinarium while another destination may not have this. On the other hand, something else might happen.
For example, the dolphinarium may actually keep tourists from coming here. This project will show potential visitors that we do not care about the freedom of the animals and that we will exploit nature to make money. Especially with this global shift towards eco-friendly tourism, some people expect that the way that potential tourists view Aruba will change in a negative way. Dolphin therapy can help with illness Some dolphinariums have claimed that their dolphin encounters have helped children with autism and other neurological disorders. Through interaction with the dolphins for several days they say that they have helped over 1000 children, claiming a 97% success rate. (http://www.
cnn. com/HEALTH/9803/28/dolphin. therapy/) Many experts, as well as people in the general public are very skeptical of this, and say it is nothing more than recreation for the children. They say it is of no therapeutic value, and that it is just another way to make money. Research Design This research will consist of two parts. The first part will be the analysis of secondary data of another island destination that have a dolphinarium.
We will do this to get an idea what happened in that location, and to see whether it is likely that the same effects will take place in Aruba. This will be a qualitative study on the effects of a dolphinarium. The second part will be data that will be gathered by us, the primary data. This will be a survey so we will know what people think about the issue of a dolphinarium in Aruba. This will be a quantitative research. Comparing Aruba Aruba does not have a dolphinarium.
But we do want to know what will happen to Aruba if we get one. This is not a trial and error thing. We cannot just put up a dolphinarium, see what happens and take it away if we don’t like it. We have to make sure that careful planning and organizing is done before we build something like this.
Thousands of dollars will be invested, and big changes will need to be made, we cannot just gamble and take a chance here. We need to make sure that we can predict what will happen. One way to predict what will happen is to look to other islands that have already done this. Many small islands have at least one dolphinarium.
Anguilla, Bahamas, Curacao, Dominican Republic and Jamaica all have at least one dolphinarium. We need to make sure that the destination we are comparing Aruba to is in many ways the same as Aruba. You cannot compare apples and oranges. The destination that we have found to compare to Aruba is Curacao. What do Aruba and Curacao have in common? Curacao is an island in the Caribbean. It happens to be located right next to Aruba.
So, geographically speaking it is the same as Aruba. The population size is a little bigger than that of Aruba, and the island of Curacao is larger as well. Both of the islands fall under the Dutch kingdom, meaning their cultures and way of life are very much alike. The major industries in both of these countries are tourism, while both islands also have oil refineries.
The economic and political situations are stable in both countries, and are expected to stay that way. Above, we stated why we chose Curacao to compare to Aruba. However, these two islands are not twins, and there are some differences that need to be kept in mind when comparing these two islands. These will now be discussed. In what aspects are Curacao and Aruba different? Aruba and Curacao are different in terms of their economic development.
Whereas Aruba has seen a giant tourism boom since the late 1980s, Curacao’s boom has recently started. Also, the main tourism markets differ between these two islands. Aruba focuses more on the North American market, and Curacao has a bigger share of tourists coming from Holland, other parts of Europe, and other Caribbean islands. Collecting the data In order to find out what effects the dolphinarium will have, we will need a lot of data. Some of our data will be secondary data, as we are taking data that already exists to analyze. We will also have primary data, which is data that we have collected ourselves.
The primary data that is used will be collected through a survey. This will be given out to locals as well as tourists. This survey will give us an idea on what the people think about the establishment of a dolphinarium on the island. Our secondary data will come from online research. The Caribbean Tourism Organization and the Curacao Tourism Board have statistics readily available on their website. The variables we will be analyzing are: Tourism arrivals: This is a good variable to measure whether more people are coming to the island.
This can help us answer questions like: Did the dolphinarium create a new market? Are more people visiting the destination? Tourist expenditure ($ per tourist): This number will tell us how much each tourist is spending on the island. This will help us answer questions like: Did the expenditure per tourist increase? Are people paying extra on their vacation just to swim with dolphins? Public opinion: This is hard to measure, but it is very important to know how the people feel about changes in their society. After all, it is these people that will decide whether they will visit the dolphinarium or not, which in turn will mean the difference between failing and succeeding as a business. We will collect data on tourism arrivals and expenditure ranging from 1999 to 2006. The dolphinarium in Curacao started operating in 2002.
The range that we chose will give us a good idea of the trends and prospects of this island, and it will tell us whether the dolphinarium had any effects on arrivals or expenditure. Secondary Data Analysis Tourism Arrivals The data we will analyze now are the tourism arrival numbers from Curacao. These are numbers from the period of 1999 to 2006. In the table and graph below can be seen that we have the arrival figures for both the visitors that came with a cruise ship, as well as those tourists that came as stay-over visitors. Tourism arrivals: Tourism Arrivals19992000200120022003200420052006 Stay-over198271191246204603217963221395223439222073234383 Cruise220706308281300138318378279378219385276217321551 Total418977499527504741536341500773442824498290555934 These are the arrival numbers that can be used to see whether more or less tourists came after the opening of the Dolphinarium.
Tourism Expenditure Now we will take a look at how much money people are spending when coming to Curacao. Together with the expenditure per visitor variable, these numbers will give us information about the economic advantages or disadvantages a dolphinarium has. Visitor Expenditure*19992000200120022003200420052006 Stay-overN. A202, 1229, 8248, 8264, 4279, 5261, 84N. A CruiseN.
A24, 522, 923, 819, 616, 420, 58NA. TotalN. A226, 6252, 7272, 6284295, 9282, 42N. A *(In millions of $) Expenditure per Visitor Expenditure/Visitor19992000200120022003200420052006 Stay-overN. A$1.
056, 75$1. 123, 15$1. 41, 48$1. 194, 25$1. 250, 90$1. 179, 07N.
A CruiseN. A$79, 47$76, 30$74, 75$70, 16$74, 75$74, 51N. A TotalN. A$453, 63$500, 65$508, 26$567, 12$668, 21$566, 78N.
A The figures shown above can help us analyze what a dolphinarium might impact when it is established on a small island destination. Peaks or valleys that are not in line with the overall trends might suggest consequences of a particular event. However, we must always keep in mind that a dolphinarium is not the only factor influencing these variables. Primary Data To get a better view of what the people think we can use a factual survey. An example of this would be: Survey (If stated to choose ONE answer, please choose one answer) Date: 1.
Purpose for visiting Aruba: (Please pick ONE answer) oHoneymoon/Wedding/Anniversary oFamily/ Friends oGastronomic, Culinary & Cuisine oCultural & Heritage oRest & Relaxation oNightlife & Entertainment oHealth, Wellness & Spa oSea & Sun oMeeting, Incentive, Conference & Exhibition oOther 2. How many times have you been to Aruba: o1st visit o2-4 times o5-7 times oMore than 7 3. How long is your stay here? Days 4. What is your country of residence? 5. Do you think Aruba has a big variety in attractions? Yes/ No 6.
What do you think about the idea of Aruba introducing a dolphinarium? oVery bad oBad oIndifferent oGood oVery good 7. How much money are you willing to spend to go to a dolphinarium? o$0-$50 o$51-100 o$101-150 o$151-200 o$201-250 o>$250 8. Is it more likely that you will return to Aruba if we put a dolphinarium here? Yes/ No 9. What is your age? o0-20 o21-29 o30-39 o40-49 o50-59 o60-69 o> 70 10.
What is your gender? oMale oFemale 11. What is your annual income? o <$30. 000 o$30. 000-$50. 000 o$50. 000-$70.
000 o$70. 000-$90. 000 o$90. 000-$110. 000 o>$110.
00 This survey can help us to give us to get a better idea of what people think about the idea of a dolphinarium, and if they would like it, how much they are willing to pay. Seeing that yearly we get a little over one million tourism arrivals, a sample size of 10. 000 people would be good. We could spread these surveys out over the first quarter of the year through the fourth quarter.
This way we can survey 2500 people each quarter, which will mean a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of only 1%, as shown by the table below. http://www. research-advisors. om/tools/SampleSize. htm Ideally, this survey would have to be done in the high and low season.
This should be done so we have a broader sample range, and not just the people that visit during spring break for example. To analyze the data we have collected, we’ll be making use of SPSS. First we have to define the variables. Purpose of visit: ordinal How many visits: interval How long here: ratio Country of residence: ordinal Variety of attractions: nominal Idea of dolphinarium: ordinal Spend how much: interval Return: nominal Age: interval Gender: nominal Annual income: intervalDefining the type of variables will help us in analyzing them and knowing what type of correlations we will have to do.
We now know which is the richer and less rich variables when analyzing. The different questions are there for different reasons. Some questions are there because of other questions. For example question 7: How much money are you willing to spend to go to a dolphinarium? o$0-$50 o$51-100 o$101-150 o$151-200 o$201-250 o>$250 And question 11: What is your annual income? o <$30.
000 o$30. 000-$50. 000 o$50. 000-$70.
000 o$70. 000-$90. 000 o$90. 000-$110. 000 o>$110.
000The question about annual income is not just out of curiosity, but to look for a correlation between that and how much people are willing to spend. We will analyze if there is a positive or negatie correlation between the two. Will people with a higher income spend more to go to dolphinarium? Or will they spend less because they want to do other things? After we get these answers we can check the frequencies to see what the average annual income is of our visitors, in that we can see what they are willing to spend and try to base our prices on that. What is the average age group of people that come to our island? Do they even want a dolphinarium? And if so, what are they willing to spend? Country of residence is also not there just so that we can know where the people come from. The market that visits Aruba is mainly from North America. Now, what if it the people that come from other countries are more interested in a dolphinarium? Will it be profitable for us? The answers we get from this survey can surely guide us in the direction whether it is a good idea or not to come with a dolphinarium on this island.
Conclusion Building a dolphinarium is a big step for a company, and a big step for a destination. To be sure that the effects of this marine park on the destination are not negative, appropriate research needs to be done. Analyzing existing data from similar destinations can be a big help in this research. Even though it is hard to tell whether it is the dolphinarium that caused the effects, or another force, it is important that we minimize the level of doubt.
Especially in this age of sustainable tourism, it is important that the impacts on a destination are predicted and managed to the maximum extend. This is in the best interest of the company involved, the destination, the tourists and the local population. There are several ways to do this. De Palm needs to work closely with the Aruban government, as well as the major tourism organizations. This must be done in order to provide guidelines in terms of permits, rules and regulations, as well as the marketing aspect of a dolphinarium, and how this marketing will fit into the marketing plan for the destination that is Aruba.
De Palm also needs to make sure that the ecological effects are kept to a minimal. This means careful planning, seeking advice from experts and making sure that all the natural systems surrounding the building area are understood. It is also in the best interest of De Palm to keep the environment clean and healthy, as it is also a big part of their product. De Palm also needs to make sure that most of the profits stay in the country.
This can be achieved by hiring as many local people as possible, instead of foreigners, and by making sure that the ownership of the dolphinarium is mostly local. If De Palm fails to create a dolphinarium that will fit into the bigger picture of sustainable tourism it will lose support from the public. This can create complications for De Palm in terms of boycotting of their products, and tourists refusing to come to Aruba. References Burns, P. (2005) Ecotourism Planning and Policy ‘ Vaca Pacifica? ’ Tourism and Hospitality Planning and Development.
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