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Coastal tourism projects are promoted in the Dominican Republic as national-level economic development initiatives that will create jobs for local residents, subsequently benefiting the households in these communities. However, the economic benefits of tourism can be severely weakened as a result of the neoliberal economic policies that guide such projects. Like other economically developing countries—particularly small island nations—the Dominican Republic embraced neoliberal policies that have ultimately reshaped the country’s economic, political, cultural, and physical landscape. As a result, transnational companies, foreign investors, and large-scale enclave tourism projects are the dominant form of tourism development in the Dominican Republic. Though companies’ revenue and profit data are not available for analysis of economic leakage, households can be investigated to understand the level of economic benefits obtained by residents of the local communities. Toward this end, 360 household surveys were collected to examine household income and material assets across 12 coastal communities in three regions of the Dominican Republic. Because of the noted differences in previous development literature, gender of the head of households and whether the household was dependent on income from tourism employment were compared across these measures after adjusting for regional differences. Results indicate that the gender of the head of the household and tourism dependency positively predicted household income, while only gender of the head of the household predicted material assets.

The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which the employment of women in the tourism industry has challenged or reinforced the traditional machismo–marianismo gender ideology in the Dominican Republic. Semi-structured individual, coupled, and group interviews were conducted in 12 coastal communities to investigate residents’ perceptions about gender ideology as it intersects with the employment of women in tourism. The findings reveal tourism employment as a source of opportunity, with women gaining economic and social independence, but also conflict as women and men negotiate new gender roles and identities. Emphasizing issues such as the double workload, negotiating domestic tasks with partners, and tension resulting from employment, this study illuminates the pressing practical needs of Dominican women.

The purpose of the study was to understand what motivated people with mobility impairments to travel frequently. Two focus groups were conducted and results were analyzed in light of Crompton’s (1979) push/pull conceptual framework exploring pleasure travel motivation. Results showed that although travelers with acquired mobility impairments shared many similar motives with travelers not identified as having mobility impairments, they also had unique motivations including “Independence”, “The Desire of Being in a Natural Environment”, “Adventure/Risk”, “Do It Today”, and “Accessibility.” Findings and limitations of the study are discussed and implications of the results are suggested.

This project examined the Sustainable Tourism Attitude Scale (SUS-TAS), which measures residents’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism. This study has two major purposes: (1) to reassess reliability and construct validity of the 44-item SUS-TAS using confirmatory factor analysis and (2) to identify a shorter version of the SUS-TAS that would not compromise the scale’s psychometric properties. To accomplish these purposes, an empirical study was conducted in rural Orange County, Indiana. Findings support a seven-dimension SUS-TAS model using 27 items that maintained construct validity and internal consistency.