SOME LINES ARE CLEAR Continuum is clear that goals vary wide- ly between different resident groups. Keeping in mind the three KPIs of (1) current position on the continuum, (2) desired position, and (3) the difference between the two (the “departure gap,” which represents work to be done), there are broad differences between home- owners and residents. Residents that live in the town year- round are far more likely to perceive their community as heavily tourism-centric than second-home owners, and they’re also likely to seek a more resident-centric focus as a future state. But while indica- tive of the proximity argument, that falls short of the real details. Digging in ( see graphic below ), when asked to place their community on a scale ranging from +5 (wholly tourism focused) to -5 (wholly resident focused), full-time, year-round residents that rent the home they live in place their commu- nity at 2.1 points toward tourism focused, more than any other cohort in the study. Again, renters are a group tied inti- mately to the tourism economy via employment. They also experience the pressures of that economy most acutely, including a dependence on community services that can be negatively impacted if town resources aren’t directed toward them. It’s not surprising, then, that they favor the largest swing toward resident centricity, with a desired -1.5-point posi- tion on the continuum and the largest departure gap of all groups, -3.6 points. Renters see their community as furthest from their desired state. » continued
are so clearly delineated in the findings, we’ll use residency and home ownership as the basis for the data we present here in this article. It became clear that full-time, year- round residents—both those that rent and those that own the home they live in—had a more negative view of desti- nation tourism than their second-home owner counterparts. This is the result of them living the impact of a tour- ism-based economy day-to-day. Sec- ond-home owners, by absentia, don’t experience the direct impact of tourism and are inclined to support an ongoing robust tourism trade, particularly if their second home is a short-term rental (STR), which makes them tourism-dependent business owners. There are also differences in how full-time, year-round residents who are renters feel compared to those that own their home. Renters have a paradoxical relationship with the tourism econo- my. Though most are employed directly in the tourism sector, they tend to push back against the tourism economy even more than their homeowning peers despite the potential threat to their live- lihood if visitation slows. SHIFTING QUALITY OF LIFE Understanding the value respondents place on quality of life (QoL) is at the center of putting Continuum KPIs to work. Quality of life is largely perceived as declining in mountain resort commu- nities. Overall, 34 percent of respondents feel that QoL has declined in the past
few years, while just 13 percent feel it’s improving and 31 percent say it is improving in some respects, declining in others. As noted earlier, one of the key fac- tors in a perceived decline in QoL is proximity. The more a respondent lives day-to-day with the impact of tourism, the more they feel it negatively impacts their quality of life. Of the full-time, year-round residents in our study that own their home, 42 percent say QoL is declining and only 11 percent feel it’s improving. Conversely, just 18 percent of second-home owners feel it’s declin- ing while 20 percent say it’s improving. The perceived consequence of living the tourism economy day-to-day is clear. One of the primary issues is over- crowding, which has a downstream impact on many quality-of-life issues from parking or grocery store invento- ry to internet speed or first responder resources. And when we assess over- crowding, we find similar responses to those around quality of life: 49 percent of full-time owners and 45 percent of full- time renters agree or strongly agree that the area is overcrowded because of too many visitors, while just 30 percent of second-home owners feel the same way. It’s apparent that the challenges of communities are acutely internal, even to the degree that the second-home own- ers, though invested in the community but not physically located there, may not be fully aware of the day-to-day impact of tourism on quality of life, presenting both tactical and educational opportuni- ties in the search for balance.
Community Balance ... at the present? -------- vs. --------> ... in the future?
Average rating on a scale from :
5: Tourism-focused
-5: Resident-focused
Rent
2.1 ----------------------------------> -1.5 (-3.6)
Own - primary residence
1.4 --------------------------> -1.1 (-2.5)
Own - secondary residence, NOT STR
0.8 ---------> -0.3 (-1.1)
Own - secondary residence, AND STR
0.8 -> 0.7 (+0)
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
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