Destination BC Launches New Resident Perceptions of Tourism Research Toolkit and Snapshot Series Reporting

Destination BC is pleased to announce today two new resident sentiment research outputs that will transform the BC tourism industry’s ability to understand and communicate its significance to the well-being of BC residents, local communities, and the province, and residents’ understanding of its impact:

• Developing and Designing Research Studies – Examining Resident Perceptions of Tourism in BC: As tourism becomes an increasingly complex industry that impacts many aspects of residents’ lives, having a comprehensive understanding of resident perceptions of these impacts is essential for ensuring engaging and effective destination management. This free toolkit, available for destination management organizations throughout BC, is designed to equip communities and the tourism industry with a framework that provides a consistent, credible, and robust measure of resident perceptions of tourism. It includes a step-by-step guide to help tourism partners conduct this type of research, including details to consider, how to determine the most suitable resident sentiment sampling methodology, which survey administrative tools to use, how to develop a survey, and recommended data analysis and reporting.

• BC Resident Perceptions of Tourism Snapshot Series Reporting: This new reporting series presents BC resident perceptions of the economic, social/cultural, environmental, job/career, and Indigenous impacts of tourism at the provincial, regional, sub-regional, and local level. It shares important insights on how residents view tourism in specific areas, like cities with a large enough population for local-level reporting. The series includes a BC-wide report, six regional reports, seven sub-regional reports, and 18 local reports. Download Snapshot Series JPEGs for social media and presentations, here.

*PLEASE NOTE: The reporting does not directly compare cities, as the purpose of this research is to inform and educate, not instill competition at the community level.

Key Findings and Highlights Include:

• Overall, the majority of BC residents, spanning across every region, sub-region, and large locality, express a positive sentiment towards the economic contribution made by visitors, with 80.4% province-wide acknowledging this value. Additionally, a significant portion, 71.5% province-wide, believe that tourism has a positive impact on the quality of life in their community.

• Communities have diverse perspectives on the optimal level of tourism, and residents in different communities hold differing views on their desire for tourism growth or degrowth. Province-wide, residents are more likely to tolerate tourism growth during winter (December-February), followed by fall (September-November), and then spring (March-May).

• For BC residents, the most positive impacts of tourism are experienced in the Social-Cultural aspects of their lives, including the range of amenities, the development of local businesses, and the diversity of people supported by tourism, followed by strong positive perceptions of the Economic impacts from tourism.

Guided by Destination BC’s Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Jarrett Bachman, these new tools from Destination BC’s Resident Perceptions of Tourism Research Program directly support the organization’s commitment to building a globally competitive tourism ecosystem, to improve the lives of all people living in BC and visitors through tourism.

Links and Resources:

• Toolkit: Developing and Designing Research Studies – Examining Resident Perceptions of Tourism in BC
• Reporting: BC Resident Perceptions of Tourism Snapshot Series
• Snapshot Series JPEGs for Social Media and Presentations
• Destination BC Research Hub

Further Reading: 

Community Size for Snapshot Reporting and Future Publications:

During our broader annual Resident Perceptions of Tourism survey – the data from which was used to create the Snapshot Series – the sample size for certain locations was deemed too small to gather sufficient responses, resulting in the inability to produce a Snapshot Series report in some cases.

If a ‘Snapshot Report’ is currently not available for your community, our new Research Toolkit provides guidance on how smaller communities can independently conduct their own resident perceptions survey. In the future, Destination BC will be available to provide Snapshot series reporting for communities that have conducted their own independent survey using the key questions identified in the new research toolkit.

Destination BC will work with interested smaller communities in 2024-25 to address needs regarding resident perceptions of tourism research and encourage increased participation in future surveys.

The long-term goal is to provide useful, credible, and consistent research and reporting across the province for various partners, including DMOs, local governments, provincial government areas, and private businesses. The Snapshot Series reports will be an annual release moving forward with year-over-year changes tracked within each report.

About Dr. Jarrett Bachman:

Dr. Jarrett Bachman (he/they) is a Scholar-in-Residence at Destination BC and Associate Professor/Associate Director in the International School of Hospitality, Sports, & Tourism Management on the Vancouver campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU). Dr. Bachman also serves as the Scholarship Committee Chair and member of the Industry Advisory Board for the British Columbia Hospitality Foundation and Advisory Board for the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Selkirk College.

Prior to joining FDU in 2016, Dr. Bachman was the Lead Faculty in the development of a Bachelor of Science program in Sustainable Hospitality Management at California State University in Monterey Bay. Dr. Bachman received his Ph.D. in Tourism Management from Clemson University and has research interests in resident perceptions of tourism, values-based tourism management, sustainable hospitality and festival/event management, 2SLGBTQ+ tourism, craft beer/wine tourism, and outdoor/sport/recreation-based tourism.

Residing in Vancouver, Dr. Bachman is an avid traveller, hiker, Nordic skier, and sports fan who completed the 2,178-mile Appalachian Trail in five months in 2008 and can often be found hiking and skiing in the greater Vancouver area, exploring BC, and attending local festivals and events.

About Destination BC’s Research & Analytics Team:

Destination BC operates as a data-driven organization led by our in-house Research & Analytics team who work collaboratively to engage in comprehensive studies across various facets of the tourism industry in BC. The team monitors evolving markets and multiple performance indicators, leveraging a diverse range of research tools and methodologies to ensure a comprehensive approach that provides industry partners with data and insights to enhance the effectiveness of future marketing and development projects and yields valuable information utilized by tourism partners, government entities, media outlets, and educational institutions.