Tourism

This volume presents academic papers and personal reflections written by the participants of the UAUCU student research exchange project 2019. These texts reflect the diversity of academic disciplines and approaches, as well as the diversity in cultural background, of this year’s participants. The program, which offers students from the University of Aruba (UA) and University College Utrecht (UCU) the opportunity to conduct research in a multidisciplinary international student team, has already proven a successful formula: work presented in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 volumes led to international publications, and thesis awards for several program alumni. We anticipate similar achievements for contributors to the 2019 edition.

The academic works included here treat topics like identity, culture, social and mental wellbeing, the social crisis plan, economics, and environmental conservation. The nature of the research is equally far-ranging, including pilot projects, theoretical explorations verified with respondent data, in-depth environmental studies, and sociocultural studies that explore fundamental issues confronting society. The diverse papers are linked by a common interest in sustainable societies, reflecting a strong sense of community awareness, and providing research findings that have meaning for Aruban society. The papers further demonstrate how the student researchers’ collaboration in a multidisciplinary team has influenced their approach to their work. The papers here are products of peer-to-peer learning: the student authors provided each other with feedback on content, method, style, language, and structure. In general, the papers appear as submitted by the authors -- including perhaps the odd raw opinion or hasty generalization. Some of the student-researchers are still working on the interpretation and presentation of their findings, and will later finalize project papers, or bachelor or master theses, based on the results of fieldwork presented.

The contents of this volume:

• Of People and Mangroves: illustrations of a social-ecological system.
• Off-road driving and the ecosystem: An analysis of the impacts on landscape functionality.
• Is it for me or the money? Local Inclusion in Tourism Development in Aruba.
• Mapping the Health Services Responses to Child Maltreatment: The Aruban Case.
• Social Crisis Plan Aruba 2018-2020: Stimulating and Hindering Factors.
• Once a Thief, Always a Thief? Factors Helping or Hindering the Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners on Aruba.
• Early detection of visual disorders in children in Aruba and assurance of timely care and services: The approach of the MDT-VOV.
• From dependent student to independent pupil: the developmental impact of the Academic Foundation Year on Aruban students.
• Sharing stories bou palo: the making of heritage in a Caribbean oil town.
• The import costs of fruits and vegetables on Aruba: mitigating the volatility of prices to ensure sustainable supply.

Tourism has not only brought an economic fortune to Bonaire island but also has a detrimental effect on its natural ecosystem. Studying tourist behaviour might be a good precaution step so that the stakeholders can manage better tourism in Bonaire island. This internship research tried to utilize machine learning on social media data to study tourist behaviour and tried to look at tourist demand in the future.

From 2003 to 2019, there are 13,706 geotagged Flickr data which was cleaned and converted into keywords in this internship research to study the tourist’s behaviour. The cleaned keywords then were weighted using TF- DF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) and clustered based on keywords similarity with DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Noise Applications). The most relevant and least relevant keywords in a cluster then determined the tourist activities/interest of that same cluster, but in respect to other keywords in all clusters. There are nine clusters which this internship research found make sense and useful for interpreting Bonaire tourist behaviour.

For tourism demand, this internship research has forecasted time-series of tourist arrival using both Flickr data and CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek) data. Although the number was unrealistic, Flickr data could show which continent the tourist came at which seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) from 2015 to the end of 2021. At the same time, CBS data could not show which continent the tourist came, but could show which seasons the tourist come from 2012 until the end of 2021 with a realistic number of government official data.

The attempt that this research has done could provide an insight into the stakeholder of Bonaire island to manage tourism by studying tourist behaviour using free social media data and an automatic method of machine learning.

The island of Aruba predominantly has a ‘sun, sea and sand’ tourism destination image. The Arub Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) aims to diversify the Aruban tourism product by developing tourism niche markets. One of the opportunities lies in the development of mountain biking (MTB), which is considered a popular and growing sport amongst tourists and locals. In November 2018, the A.T.A. received a proposal from an experienced trail building company in Colorado (USA) titled: Aruba MTB Trails. Developing a niche market for mountain biking in Aruba. The proposal aims to design and build some 54 km of bike optimized MTB trails.

Although the plan matches with the ambitions of A.T.A., the Authority questions whether the plan is really as sustainable as stated in the proposal. This environmental impact assessment (EIA) assessed this issue by answering following research questions:

• What are the impacts of the proposed MTB-trails on the (ecological) environment in the project area?
• What are the cumulative impacts (indicative) of other user groups on the (ecological) environment in the project area?
• What measures should be implemented to mitigate or compensate any ecological impacts assessed?

These questions were answered based on a thorough literature study, a field visit in November 2019, a field study of the Aruban Burrowing Owl and interviews with local stakeholders and experts. It could be concluded that: The proposed MTB-network is, in theory, an improvement for the ecological environment when compared with the present MTB-network, though additional measures are needed before speaking about a ‘sustainable’ MTB-network.

The length of the present 50+ km MTB-network is not so much different from the proposed MTBnetwork. The main difference lies in the fact that MTBs are assumed not to ride off-road anymore in the proposed situation. Off-road riding leads to the creation of informal roads and paths and results in soil erosion, habitat degradation and fragmentation, nest disturbances and (fatal) collisions with (ground) breeding birds and snakes, which are the most vulnerable species groups. Some of these impacts were observed while visiting the area.

In the proposed situation there are still species that would show moderate or substantial vulnerability to MTBs. This has to do with the fact that proposed MTB-trails are too close to potential breeding habitat of the Aruban Burrowing Owl and Least Tern as well as the potential for MTBs to collide with snakes between dusk and dawn. This requires rerouting of the proposed MTB-trails (spatial zoning) or closure of ‘problem’ trails at least during the most vulnerable months (breeding season owls and terns) or time of day (between dusk and dawn). These measures indicate, among others, that a trail network within the Tierra del Sol nature area, which is a stronghold for the endangered Aruban Burrowing Owl, is not realistic. Our use of ‘in theory’ in the conclusion above is intentional, as the sustainability-issue goes much further than the MTB-network. The main conclusion of this ecological impact assessment is therefore that: Sustainable development of Aruba’s wild north coast, can only be achieved with a nature and visitor
management plan (including MTB) for the area as a whole, that matches with the ambitions in Aruba’s Spatial Development plan 2019.

Present ecological impacts in the project area are substantial and concern habitat loss and fragmentation, damage to vegetation and soils, disturbance of fauna and to a lesser extent also the loss of individuals due to collision and pollution. Though these impacts can partly be attributed toMTBs, it is nothing when compared to the cumulative impacts of the multiple ATVs and UTVs which dominate the area (especially the lower terrace) with their numbers, speed, noise, off-road driving erosion and dust creation. The scope of these impacts goes beyond the project area and does not only relate to the ecological carrying capacity but also to the social (local community) and even psychological carrying capacity (tourists).

This situation is contradictory to the Aruba Spatial Development Plan 2019. This plan classifies the project area in two categories nature (e.g. Tierra del Sol) and nature and landscape with characteristics like silence, low-impact visitor-use, driving on formal paths and roads as well as restoration, conservation and development of natural values. This contradiction confirms the selfevaluation by the Ministry of Nature and Environment (Min. ROIM, 2018) in which the lack of law enforcement for the conservation of nature is regarded as one of the weaknesses, while not taking into account the ecological carrying capacity of Aruba risks the creation of an unlivable environment for generations to come. These observations make clear that sustainable development of the project area can only be achieved with a nature and visitor management plan for the project area as a whole. A list of 15 actions and measures is included in this report, which it is recommended should be integrated within the nature- and visitor management plan.

Elsmarie Beukenboom was the first board representative for Stichting Nationale Parken Bonaire (STINAPA Bonaire) when the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) was established in 2005 and is the former Director of STINAPA Bonaire. She set up and ran the Bonaire Tourism Training Centre, was Director of the Tourism Corportation Bonaire and for many years was the driving force behind Tene Boneiru Limpi (“Keep Bonaire Clean”). Before retiring from STINAPA Bonaire Elsmarie dedicated her time to a reforestation project which she ran on Klein Bonaire. Her dream is to see the nature on Klein Bonaire restored to its former glory.

See on youtube or listen on soundcloud

The main objective of this research is to explore the issues and politics associated with formal designing of landscape narratives on Statia. To achieve this goal, I will study the proposal for a new heritage trail as one way in which heritage is to be promoted formally within the current context of heritage implementation led by the formal organisations of the island.
The research focuses specifically on a proposal for a new heritage trail (Hellembrand 2010) proposed by Walter Hellembrand, who is director of the Monument Foundation and part of the administrative group of Sint Eustatius. The trail would include an area just outside Oranjestad, the only residential area of the island, rich in important archaeological sites although not all are accessible to the public at this moment. The use of the trail as a case study, together with a general analysis on how heritage is currently implemented on the island, would allow me to investigate the main themes and issues that emerge when designing a heritage trail on Statia. the objective may be divided into two research
questions:

• (RQ1) How does the Golden Rock Heritage Trail stand within the formal process of heritage building in Sint Eustatius, to enhance tourism and promote local identity, through the use of landscape narratives?
• (RQ2) What are the issues of dissonance that emerged during the analysis, upon this heritage trail, arisen with respect to the formal processes of heritage implementation towards meeting the dual purposes of tourism and identity?

The tourism industry is a worldwide growing sector with a significant economic importance. It is responsible for 253 million jobs worldwide and 3.1% of the world’s GDP. This is because the tourism industry creates several impacts in a region. Direct effects arise due to tourist expenditures in the closely related sectors. Indirect effects take place when money earned from the tourism industry is re-spent by the receiving industries to buy supplying goods and services that are necessary for their production. (Stynes, 1997). Induced effects show up when income is re-spent which is earned by the expenditures of tourists (Duffield, 1982). Employees who work in the tourism branch will use their salary to buy products and services for everyday use.

The island economy of St. Eustatius depends on a small number of economic resources: the public sector, the American oil company NuStar and in a smaller degree the tourism sector (Hoogenboezem-Lanselots et al, 2010 and Van de Kerkhof 2014). Therefore, there is a necessity to diversify economic activities in order to obtain economic growth and development. For this reason, the Tourism Foundation and Alterra started in 2014 with the development of a tourism master plan in which the different effects of tourism will be examined (Recreation and Space, 2015). This thesis forms a part of the masterplan and estimates the economic impacts of tourism on Statia.

The estimation of the economic impacts on Statia is done by applying the Input-Output model. This model is derived from the I-O table the which shows the relationships between different economic sectors within a region. Because a national I-O table of St. Eustatius is not available, a regional I-O table needs to be constructed. The most reliable to construct a regional I-O table is to derive it from an I-O table on a higher national level. The ones of Aruba (1999 and 2011) and Malta (2011) are therefore used instead. Several methods exist to perform this procedure, in this study this is done with the Flegg Location Quotient method.

To estimate the impacts, the Leontief Inverse, which shows how much output per sector is needed to meet the final demand in a specific sector. is multiplied with the final demand in a specific sector. The final demand is obtained by means of a questionnaire. Because there is ambiguity in the number of tourists, three scenarios are applied. 1500 tourists in the low case scenario, 2000 for the medium case scenario and 2500 for the high case scenario. The results are that for the situation of 1500 tourists per year, the number of jobs created varies between 38.42 jobs and 45.65 jobs. In the situation of 2000 tourists, this is between 53.45 and 80.85 jobs and for 2500 tourists this varies between 66.80 and 101.03 jobs. According to the latest data, the total number of jobs on the island is around 1100 meaning that the tourism sector has a share between 3.49% and 9.18% of the total jobs. Most of these jobs are created in the hotel and restaurant sectors which are mostly affected by the tourist expenditures. The total value added created by the tourism expenditures is around the 1 million dollars for the low case scenario, 1.6 million dollar for the medium case scenario and 2 million dollar for the high case scenario.

St. Eustatius, also known as Statia, is situated in the North-Eastern Caribbean. The islands located nearest to St. Eustatius are Saba, St. Maarten and St. Kitts. Approximately 3,800 local residents live on the island and represent more than twenty nationalities.
Tourism is one of the main economic pillars for St. Eustatius. St. Eustatius is aware of the need to develop tourism for economic purposes, but tourism is premature and undeveloped. Multi-destination trips are considered one of the main opportunities to stimulate tourism on the island. Multi-destination trips, also known as ‘island hopping trips’, are a series of short journeys between islands. The objective of this research is to examine the opportunities and constraints for multi-destination trips of which St. Eustatius is part of, resulting from existing tourism networks and flows between Caribbean islands. In order to examine these opportunities and constraints, next sub-research questions were answered:

• What are the current travel patterns and preferences of tourists and local residents of St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Maarten?
• What are existing tourism networks and flows between Caribbean islands?
• Which tourism networks and flows between St. Eustatius and other Caribbean islands can stimulate multi-destination trips?

The research took place on the islands St. Eustatius, St. Maarten and Saba during a nine-week period from the 13th of September till the 13th of November 2015. A quantitative research was carried out to gain insight into the travel behaviour and preferences of tourists and local residents per island, St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Maarten. A qualitative research was conducted to identify the presence and the extent of tourism networks. Also qualitative research was conducted to detect the constraints and opportunities for tourism networks that can stimulate multi-destination trips including St. Eustatius. Theoretically, I framed my research using the following concepts: ‘multi-destination trips’, ‘tourism destination’, ‘network theory’ and ‘mobilities theory’. Based on my research I discerned five tourism networks: a multi-destination network, a dive tourism network, a business tourism network, a cruise network and a local residents network. To improve tourism on St. Eustatius by multi-destination trips, one of the main opportunities is organising day trips to St. Eustatius from St. Kitts and St. Maarten. Diving and the (American) history are St. Eustatius’ unique selling points that can trigger tourists (e.g. American and timeshare tourists) from St. Kitts and St. Maarten for a day trip to St. Eustatius. Moreover, a multi-destination trip including Saba and St. Eustatius in the theme of diving is an opportunity that can stimulate multi-destination trips including St. Eustatius. Finally, different tour operators and a cruise company already offer St. Eustatius as part of a multi-destination trip. If they offer these trips more frequently, it can stimulate tourist arrivals to St. Eustatius. In order to realise these opportunities, better transport connections are required.

Furthermore, this research found that flows in current tourism networks are not ordered in such a way that multi-destination trips including St. Eustatius are stimulated effectively. Several constraints prevent tourism stakeholders from improving or creating networks that aim to stimulate multi-destination trips. The main constraints are: (a lack of) money, negative images, the ‘passive’ tourism policy of St. Eustatius government, strict airline regulations, time-consuming immigration and clearance procedures and the current tourism product of St. Eustatius.

Msc thesis

Tourism is an attractive development option for countries where other alternatives for development are limited. It namely creates among others opportunities for jobs. St. Eustatius, a small island in the Caribbean Sea, is an example of a country which would like to develop tourism. Therefore, it is developing a Tourism Master plan which aims at doubling the number of tourism related jobs from approximately 150 in 2014 to 300 in 2020. This study contributes to the Tourism Master plan by creating an understanding of the labour market in general and the tourism labour market more specifically in St. Eustatius. In order to create an understanding of the Statian (tourism) labour market the characteristics of the labour market and how these characteristics can be explained were firstly examined. By means of semi-structured interviews with local experts on the (tourism) labour market and document analysis it appeared that St. Eustatius' labour market is small, static, lacks diversity and has a lot of small businesses. In addition, it is dominated by three large employers, respectively the government, the oil firm NuStar, and the tourism sector of which NuStar is the biggest private employer. Furthermore, the third largest employer, the tourism sector, is perceived to offer high potential for economically developing the island. A last characteristic is that it is difficult to match demand for and supply of labour with each other as there exists a lack of qualified people and motivation among potential candidates. Several external factors were found to influence the labour market. Firstly, the physical geography of the island causes the island and its population number to be small. Opportunities are therefore limited, which contributes to the labour market being small, static, lacking diversity and having many small businesses. Also, the political economic situation contributes to this as political instability and lack of island government's budget complicates the island government to invest in the economy. Laws and regulations impede the population to set up businesses. In addition, culture plays a role, since the way of working and work attitude is affected by this. This influences for example the level of motivation to work. Another factor is education. Brain drain is a problem occurring on St. Eustatius, as many students do not return to the island after graduation. As a consequence, workers are brought in from abroad or foreign entrepreneurs start a company on St. Eustatius. A last external factor is the organizations on the island which influence the labour market by giving trainings, fitting vocational education to the labour market, striving for a favourable investment climate, acting as an intermediary between matching demand for and supply of labour, etc. The labour market is also influenced by the independent decisions which people make. People's decision to stay in or quit a job is affected by their job satisfaction. Moreover, whether they decide to work in a certain sector is affected by their perceptions of this sector and other sectors in the economy. These perceptions (with a special focus on the perceptions on the tourism sector) were examined by means of a self-administered survey, which was handed out to employees working in the government sector, tourism sector and private sector. First of all, total job satisfaction appeared to be equal for the government, tourism and private sector employees. However, tourism employees were more satisfied with ''The way company policies are put into practice'' than government employees. They were least satisfied with ''The pay and amount of work'', but most satisfied with ''The chance to do things for others''. This research also examined what people found important in a job and whether they thought jobs in the three largest sectors on the island could offer them what they perceive as important in a job. The four most important job factors were respectively ''A job that I will find enjoyable'', ''A secure job'', a ''Pleasant working environment'', and ''A job which gives responsibility''. Although the three sectors were in general perceived as not offering what employees found to be important in a job, NuStar wasmost positively perceived regarding offering the job factors which are valued important, followed by respectively the government and the tourism sector. In addition, perceptions on the economic sectors on Statia were investigated with a particular focus on the tourism sector. ''A job that I will find enjoyable'', ''Colleagues that I can get along with'', a ''Pleasant working environment'', ''The opportunity to travel abroad'' and ''A job where I can care for others'' was perceived to be offered by the tourism sector compared to the government and NuStar. However, the respondents perceived the tourism sector as providing the least ''Good starting salary'' compared to the government and NuStar. All of the above functioned as input to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the tourism labour market. The strengths 'Satisfied with jobs' (S1) and 'Positive image regarding a few job aspects compared to the government and NuStar' (S3) (e.g. enjoyable job, pleasant working environment, etc.) were the most important strengths of the tourism labour market. etc.). The largest weakness was 'Skill deficit: low level of service in the sector' (W5) and the biggest opportunity was the 'STDF (promotes, advices the government, raises awareness)' (O4). Lastly, the greatest threats to the tourism labour market were 'Lack of qualified people on the island' (T2) and 'Positions in the tourism sector are mainly occupied by foreigners' (T3).

Based on the results general recommendations regarding the development of the tourism sector and in particular recommendations regarding the tourism labour market were made:
 Collect reliable statistical data Without reliable statistical data, it is more complicated to design a proper general labour market policy and tourism labour market policy in particular.
 Increase tourist accommodation by means of attracting investors More tourist accommodation needs to be build in order to develop the tourism sector and create jobs on St. Eustatius.
 Improve the island's accessibility The island's accessibility (i.e. via air and sea) should be improved in order to develop the tourism sector and create jobs on St. Eustatius.
 Prevent the construction of a second oil terminal of NuStar The realization of a second oil terminal of NuStar on St. Eustatius should be prevented as it would hamper the development of the tourism sector and its potential to be a job generator.
In order to stimulate local employment in the tourism sector, also recommendations with regard to the tourism labour market were created:
 Emphasize positive aspects of working in the tourism sector This could be done by presenting at the career fair, giving information at schools and making the tourism market labour information open to the public.
 Improve the conditions of employment Several strategies were proposed, like raising salaries, introducing career ladders and increasing the level of job security.
 Stabilize the island government As the island government should be the key player in the labour market, it is recommended to stabilize.
 Develop human capital Ways for developing human capital are assembling tourism employers on the island in order to subsequently form a network, let people who are brought in from abroad for a specific job train locals, so that they can fill up the gap if that person leaves again, let tourism students do an internship at one of the neighbouring islands, and let tourism employers offer possibilities for further training to their employees.

Research-through-designing (RTD) is a method used in the landscape architectural discipline, where designing is used as a research method. Adaptive Delta Management (ADM) is an approach used in the Dutch Delta Programme to make water management strategies while dealing with uncertainty in future developments. In part one of this thesis (not included in this report) an extensive coding research revealed that in the Dutch Delta Programme, RTD was used to localise the ADM approach in four different ways: as an explorative method, a testing method, a method to create synergy and as a communication method. Part 2 of this thesis (this report) aims to assess if RTD is indeed a useful way to localise the ADM approach in a local design case.
The development of sustainable tourism in Lower Town (LT), Sint Eustatius (Statia), a special municipality of the Netherlands, is selected as a design case. LT has to deal with water related issues, such a sea level rise and coastal erosion, which make it an interesting case for ADM. Sustainable tourism developments form a linkage opportunity to give water management strategies an added value. RTD within the ADM approach was used as main method for the research. Part 1 of the thesis and a literature study on sustainable tourism provided a theoretical framework for the analysis and design.

A desk study and visit to Statia of a month with interviews and field visits resulted in qualities, challenges and ambitions for Statia and LT. A broad range of spatial scenarios were developed and shared with the inhabitants of Statia. Feedback received during the exhibition revealed that creating a good coastal protection is the biggest challenge for LT. Coastal protection options were explored, but too many uncertainties remained. Therefore the development strategy advises to place developments in the higher situated Upper Town, rather than in LT, and focus the design on connecting these two areas. A no-regret design was made for one area as incentive for future developments.
A reflection on the research process showed that RTD was indeed a useful way to localise the ADM approach, in particular for exploring problems and solutions and defining new questions. However, using RTD in this way results in local knowledge and not generalizable new knowledge, which raises the question if RTD is an actual research method.

Student thesis.

Sint Eustatius (Statia) is the special municipality of the Dutch Kingdom and intends to economically develop by means of sustainable tourism. Local entrepreneurship is necessary to achieve economic development; however entrepreneurship seems to poorly develop in the Caribbean region. The purpose of this research is to gain insight in the Statian entrepreneurial culture by investigating Statian identities. An adapted model of multiple dimensions of identity was used, in order to understand the local entrepreneurial culture from the individual’s social identity perspective. The empirical part of this research was conducted mid-October 2015 on Statia. Qualitative data for this research were collected among individual Statians by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Research findings shed light on intersecting identity dimensions – including culture, history, race, religion, political affiliation and family background – and economic factors – including capital, education, fiscal policy and industrial policy – influencing the local entrepreneurial culture on Statia. On the basis of the research findings, it can be concluded that the Statian community is heterogeneous and therefore ‘the typical Statian’ does not exist. The main conclusion of this thesis is that intersecting identity dimensions – including culture, family background, history, race, religion and political affiliation – of the Statian community affect the local entrepreneurial culture on the island.