Abstract

The southeastern United States is well-known for its natural beauty, warm year-round climate, and vacation and outdoor recreational opportunities. This study explores and compares factors influencing property owners’ attitudes toward different scales of sustainability in three coastal counties in North Carolina. In this region, tourism is the major economic driver, with second homes comprising nearly 40% of the total single-family housing stock. The research questions of this study then are: 1) Which factors influence property owners’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism development? 2) Does residential status (full-time residents vs. second-home owners) best predict property owners’ attitudes toward different scales/orientations of sustainability? 3) Which variables most contribute to predicting property owners’ attitudes toward different scales/orientations of sustainability? A total of 1,278 respondents were surveyed concerning their perceptions of sustainable development, satisfaction with community life, and attitudes toward tourism and second-home development. Factor analyses were conducted to identify three different orientations of sustainability as identified by the researchers: operational-oriented sustainability, community-oriented sustainability, and normative-oriented sustainability. Multivariate regression analyses were used to identify and compare factors which have significant influences on attitudes toward orientations of sustainability among different types of property owners. The study results are intended to inform decision-making that will contribute to the long-term economic, environmental, and socio-cultural sustainability of these counties.

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