CATE1178 Tourism and Development:Tourism in Mallorca in Spain

This assignment is based on the fieldtrip. This assignment comprises 2 parts :

Analysis of the role of the state in supporting a particular aspect of tourism development in Mallorca. Chosen topic is ''To what extent is the state effective in regulating the party tourism scene/ minimising the negative impacts on local communities'' which will synthesise fieldwork data collected by you and your group members and key literature.

Critical reflection on the deployment of the key primary date collection methods (observation, Micro-interview and questionnaire survey ) which engaged with key methodical issues/ challenges that were encountered whilst in the field(including ethic and triangulation) .

Part 1: Introduction

The assignment will describe about the different aspects of tourism development in tourism in Mallorca in Spain. It will illustrate about the role of state in regulating the negative impacts of the tourists on the local communities by controlling the party tourism scene. The study will also focus on the valuable feedback of the data collected by the researcher on the following topic. Tourism in Spain is popular and it attracts number of tourists not only from different parts of Europe but also from other parts of the world. However, the feedback of the local communities along with the tourists will verify whether government or the local controlling bodies have a positive impact on tourist development or not. Apart from that, the study will also provide recommendation to the government of Spain in order to develop initiatives that support tourism in Mallorca along with increased controlling bodies that will check the negative activities of the tourists while increasing the safety of the people residing on that area.

Relation of the data collected to the topic

It is seen that the data collected from the tourists and the local residents of Mallorca portrays a different picture on the role of the government and other tourism development department of the country. It can be said that Spain has various types of tourism. The tourists are mostly from England, China, Italy, Germany and Spain. According to the tourists, few respondents said that government of Spain are responsible for the development tourism in Mallorca. On the other hand, few tourists do not find any effort from Spain government regarding tourism development in that place (Bafaluy et al. 2014).

Most of the tourists so not find safe while travelling the streets and other places of Mallorca. The tourists do not find any initiatives from the local controlling bodies of Mallorca regarding the activities of many young tourists towards unethical works like disturbing people unnecessarily. The party tourism scene is not under controlled. It is also affecting the local culture of Mallorca as well as the local residents of that area. Due to the reckless attitude of the party tourists, the local communities are also getting affected. The deployment of the key primary data collection methods are related to the feedback provided by the tourists of Mallorca (Tugores and García 2015).

Role of state in supporting the tourism

justify;">Government of Spain and Tourism department of Spain has a wide role in the development of tourism in Spain. It can be said that due to terrorism fear, the tourism of Spain is enjoying an upward surge. However, in the island of Mallorca, the tourism is not so much developed. The local people of the region are having a rage against the tourists coming here. The tourists are responsible for creating a negative impact on the region as well as the local culture of the region. The locals in the Palma usually complain due to the soaring rental prices and property in the city. The capital of the Mallorca Island i.e. Palma is a beautiful place that highlight the local culture of Spain. It is pointed out that the places have a huge rush of tourists that violates the local culture and increase party tourism (Arbulú, Lozano and Rey-Maquieira 2017).

On the other hand it can be said that the economy of Mallorca depends on the tourism of Mallorca. Almost 80% of the income of the region comes from tourism. Hence, government has to take vital steps to diminish the rage of the people by starting some measures that will regulate the bad impacts of the party tourism (Tugores and García 2015).

Key conceptual issues

It can be said that government is facing issues in implementing new strategies to develop the tourism in Mallorca Island. It is seen that the place is crowded almost 7 months of the year. The tourists spend a lot on different types of party and nightlife in the region of Mallorca that is the source of income of the tourism department of Mallorca. However, the crowds are responsible for violating the culture and dignity of the place that the local residents do not want. It is the main issue pointed out by conducting the survey (Forteza Oliver 2015). Government of Spain must focus on this aspect in order to create strategies that will diminish the activities of the young tourists as well as developing the tourist destinations that will attract more tourists in the place. It is seen that the foreigners account for almost 40% of the total property sales in the island of Mallorca. The traditional shops are transformed into boutiques that sell vintage clothing (Mateos et al. 2014).

Literature review

According to Huang, Afsharifar and Veen (2016), satisfaction and tourist loyalty are the two important aspects that are considered as predicting the future of the behavioural loyalty in tourism. Authors stated that the satisfaction of the tourists as well as the residents of the area is responsible for the cultural interaction. Cultural exchange between the tourists and the residents are inherent in terms of the social contexts. Tourists also receive many benefits that satisfy their intellectual curiosity in terms of historic and cultural tourism. It is seen that loyalty of the tourists is not assured by the satisfaction in terms of the residents of the area.

The political and social transformation shifts in the neoliberal urban policies that alter the structuring of the metropolitan areas of Spain. The cultural heritage of the place is important in terms of the development of tourism in the country. The emerging geographic location of the place is developed by the government of the region in order to attract tourists from different parts of the world. However, there is a linkage between urban sprawl and real estate tourism in Mallorca Island in Spain. Residential tourism is very popular in the archipelago where mostly the foreigners own many real estate properties (Rivera, Croes and Lee 2016).

Chang, Gibson and Sisson (2016) stated that the tourism has a significant impact in the public-private environmental partnerships that are related to the solid waste management system of the municipality. There are interesting challenges faced by the private partnership companies in Mallorca. The real estate companies are also doing business due to the development of international tourism in Mallorca Island. The tourism will face challenges in terms of seasonality and scarcity of land for the traditional shops in the region. The aspect of sustainability is not up to the mark in terms of development of cultural tourism in the island of Mallorca.

There is a relation between the various components of destination experience and tourist satisfaction. The destination experience components include restaurants, attraction, infrastructure, and service performance. It is pointed out that the tourists have a prior knowledge regarding the various components of the destination experience. Destination marketing is also another aspect that is positively related to the aspects described above. The effects of infrastructure, attraction, restaurants and service performance are the impacts of the satisfaction of the tourists in the particular tourists’ destination (Arbulú, Lozano and Rey-Maquieira 2016).

Hof and Blázquez-Salom (2013) stated that there is an empirical relationship between the happiness of the customers and the tourist development in terms of the island destination. The happiness of the local residents is considered as an indicator in order to examine the meditating relationships of the both non-income and income factors. However, it can be said that it had created an impact on the comparisons of life as well as the quality of life. Hence, the happiness of the tourists and the tourism development are positively related with one another that yield to positive results in the perspective of tourism development strategies.

Conclusion and recommendations

The study focuses on the tourism development of Mallorca Island in Spain while regulating and controlling the negative impacts caused by the young tourists in Mallorca Island. It can be concluded that the initiatives taken by the government of Spain is not so much effective in the particular field of work while developing tourism in the place. The local culture of Spain is diminishing day by day by the party tourism scene in Mallorca. The field survey done by the researcher also portrays the same picture that is mentioned in the literature review section of the study.

Hence, tourism department of Spain and government of Spain have to formulate strategies by considering these aspects. The recommendations are provided in the following.

• Government must include the consent of the local residents of Mallorca while formulating strategies for tourism development.
• The local culture of the place must be highlighted in the development of tourism in the island of Mallorca as it is positively related with the happiness of the people (Saenz-de-Miera and Rosselló 2014).
• The reckless behaviour and attitude of the young tourists in the party tourism scene must be controlled by providing ample amount of power in the hands of the local power authority.
• The development of the destination marketing should be implemented while promoting the different elements of the destination marketing.
• The real estate companies of the Mallorca Island must develop the shops and traditions of Spain rather than promoting foreign culture in the country (Hof and Blázquez-Salom 2015).

Part 2

The study will describe about the critical reflection of the different types of field survey methods used by the researcher in order to conduct the primary research regarding the effectiveness of the government in regulating the impact of the young tourists on the local communities as well as the tourists of the Mallorca region in Spain. A critical reflection of the issues and problems faced by the researcher while conducting the primary research is also being described in a detailed manner in the study. The issues include ethical issues and triangulation issues while analysing and calculating the data in the research processes.

Critical reflection of the key methods of primary data collection

While collecting data from the tourists and local residents of the Mallorca Island, I have used certain methods of data collection methods such as micro-interview, questionnaire and observation. Apart from that, there are many methods of data collection methods such as secondary research methods, but there are certain reasons behind using these approaches. Besides this I have experienced numerous experiences regarding the tourism of Mallorca and about the nature of the people which are described in the following in a detailed manner.

Observation:

Observation method is defined as the systematic method of data collection approach that involves prolonged engagement in a social situation or in a setting, tactical and methodical improvisation while developing a full understanding in the setting of interest. By doing the method of observation in the data collection methods I have gained an understanding regarding the plot of the research. I also gained insight about the character of the people residing in the Mallorca Island. However, the observation of the positive and negative aspect of the region has helped me in analysing the data in a well method of interpretation (Wildemuth 2016).

In the observation method, I have observed many things such as attitude, behaviour and activities of the tourists and the local people. The activities of the tourists regarding the various types of works and situation are a lifetime experience in learning consumer behaviour in the travel and tourism industry. Observation method is used in observing the findings of authors of various scholarly articles and peer reviewed journals which have helped me in gaining a vivid knowledge about the tourism industry not only in Spain but also in other European countries regarding the party theme in it (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).

Micro interview:

Micro-interview is the method of data collection that I have used in order to collect the data regarding the tourists as well as the different types of thoughts regarding the island of Mallorca. When I was approaching for the interview to the sample respondents I learnt that it was not easy. People of the island are usually not fond of the tourists of the place. The micro interview of the local residents and the tourists of the Mallorca Island state that they are enjoying the place very much. They felt not secured in the place due to the party people. The interview of the sample respondents illustrate the fact that the educational tourists are more in number than that of the other tourists (Gill et al. 2014).

The micro interview helped me in gaining the insight about the actual feelings of the people of the area along with the tourists regarding the role of government in the development of tourism in the island. The different types of tourists in the micro interview of the research topic in the tourism development of Spain.

Questionnaire survey:

Questionnaire survey is the most popular form of data collection while conducting a research. Personally, I have also used this type of questionnaire in order to collect feedback from the local people as well as the tourists from the positive and negative aspects of tourism in Mallorca Island. The questionnaire has both open ended and closed ended questions that can express their views in the description of the tourism of the Spain (Johnson and Turner 2013).

The positive aspects of conducting the questionnaire survey are to validate the information that I have observed from Mallorca and from the different types of the visitors of the place. The survey that I have conducted in the Mallorca Island is the result of knowing many people in that. I have faced difficulties in framing the questions in the survey. It has happened to me because I was unaware about the fact that the people of Mallorca do not have a good conception about the different types of tourists in that place. The reason behind the dissatisfaction is their unethical behaviour in the region. Their culture has been diminishing day by day by the culture of the tourists in that area (Spradley 2016).

Key issues faced while collecting data

I have faced issues in conducting the research of the tourism of the country and the role of the government in regulating the party tourism. When a researcher conducts a field survey then he has to face a number of issues regarding the process of data collection and data analysis. The data collection method in this context is chosen as a primary research methodology contains ethical problems and aspects that researcher might face many difficulties in the field while collecting data from the sample respondents. I have chosen random sampling method while choosing the respondents for conducting my research regarding the role of government in the regulation of the party tourism scene (Bryman 2015).

When I am asking about the different types activities of the tourists to the local residents of Mallorca, I have seen dissatisfaction in the face of those people. They felt uneasy about the tourist activities in that region. I have faced difficulties while approaching to different types of people whom I want to take feedback by using different types of data collection methods of micro-interview, questionnaire survey and observation (Bryman and Bell 2015). It is a difficult task to convince the sample respondents while providing feedback for the research. They are hesitating in providing information. It is the responsibility of the researcher to convince the sample respondents about the privacy of the identity of the respondents and the ethical concerns of the research. The ethical part is an utmost important part of conducting the research (Padgett 2016). The social and cultural concern of the people of Mallorca is a sensitive concern that I have to keep in mind in terms of framing questions as well as the way of approach I was using to collect data from them. Besides this, I have many rejections during the time of approach. I have to assure the people regarding the safety of their identity while publishing the report and during the time of analysing the data. The ethical considerations include informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality, anonymity, risk of harm, right to service, good behaviour, humble attitude, using non-racial questions that will not hurt the emotional content of the people (Charmaz 2014).

Apart from that, I have faced issues in analysing the data regarding the process of triangulation used for data analysis. I have to believe on the information provided by the respondents that I have selected using the sampling method of random sampling in the research. As a researcher, I have to keep my behaviour humble and respectful so that the respondents can feel free to provide feedback to the questions and interview taken by me (Mertens 2014). In terms of calculating the data, the data collected from the secondary sources in the internet in many cases does not match with the information provided by the respondents in Mallorca in Spain. I have found many researchers that have conduct research on different aspects of tourism (Creswell 2013). On the other hand, my topic of research in Tourism will actually help government of Spain in order to formulate strategies regarding the regulation of the party tourism scene in the populated areas of Mallorca. The issue of budget is also a constraint for me while conducting the process of the primary research methodology in the data collection methods. Time is another constraint that I have faced while conducting the whole process of the data collection method in searching appropriate respondents for data collection (Clifford et al. 2016).

Conclusion

This field survey method is related with the collection of data from the tourists and the local residents of the Mallorca Island of Spain. The field survey is conducted in order to collect information from the sample respondents. The opinions of the respondents are important in terms of the generation of the results regarding the formation of recommendation to the tourist development strategies for the Mallorca Island in Spain. The critical reflections of the different methods of survey are also described in a detailed way in the study along with the issues and challenges faced by the researcher when analysing the data.

References

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