Employers' and Managers' Perceptions of Drilled Oil Risks for Coastal North Caro Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Employers? and Managers? Perception of Drilled Oil Risks for Coastal North Carolina?s Tourism-Impacted Businesses and Organizations Center for Sustainable Tourism and Departments of English and Sociology, East Carolina University P.I.?s: Huili Hao (PhD) and Whitney Knollenberg. Co-P.I.s: Catherine Smith (PhD), Ken Wilson (PhD), Donna Kain (PhD), Rebecca Powers (PhD) and Patrick Long (EdD). Goal: We propose to collect baseline data for comparison to future data collected if drilled oil should become present in coastal NC. The population chosen for study is employers and managers of tourism-impacted businesses and tourism-related organizations in NC?s eight oceanfront counties. Significance/benefits: Given the importance of tourism to NC?s economy (Kleckley), such a study that promotes the tourism industry?s resilience or its ability to absorb disruption while retaining structure and function (Walker and Salt) helps to sustain the state?s economy as tourism faces a specific disruption. More generally, assessment of qualitative influences such as perception and attitude can inform risk managers? capacity to address ambiguity, to correct misconception, and to provide the best available information to those concerned (Renn). Objective: To identify the chosen population?s concerns, we will ask questions about a range of influences on their perception of oil-related risks. Topics for Question Development ? What sources of information are used to learn about the risk of drilled oil in NC?s ocean waters? ? What social and cultural networks of affiliation and association are consulted to interpret information? ? What are respondent expectations of how the presence of oil will impact their business or organization? ? How does ambiguity both in terms of probability of occurrence and the severity of impact affect respondent perceptions of the risk? ? How do employers and managers perceive oil-related stigmatization of goods or services by potential visitors? ? Do respondents perceive an unfamiliar risk, the presence of drilled oil, as similar to or different from a familiar risk such as hurricanes? ? Has the recent deepwater well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico influenced respondent attitudes toward potential North Carolina offshore oil drilling? Methodology: Sample: The sample is a ?random digit dialing sample? of North Carolina employers and managers of tourism-impacted businesses and organizations stratified by county and by business size (i.e., large, medium, small). It facilitates collection of data from a sample of respondent that are representative of those in the eight oceanfront counties. The sample is from previous studies of this same area and includes the name of the contact person for the business and details about the business. (To protect confidentiality, identifying information will be kept separate from interview and survey responses.) For this study, we use a broad definition of tourism-impacted business to include secondary beneficiaries of the tourism industry. Multiphase Mixed Method Data Collection: Phase 1: Telephone interviews with Key Informants. Start date based upon timing of approval. A semi-structured telephone interview will be conducted with key informants (e.g. federal or state ?owned public land managers and county emergency managers) in the 8 oceanfront counties to ascertain what formal plans to deal with oil-related emergencies have been developed at the local level. These interviews will be conducted by co-PIs between September 8 and September 30, 2010. The goal is to obtain approximately 15-20 completed interviews. Phase 2: Telephone interviews with sample of respondents: Potential start date September 7th, 2010. Interviews will be conducted at the Community Research Laboratory (CRL) located in the ECU Department of Sociology. The interviewing done a

date/time interval

  • September 2010 - December 2010

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