Towards a community sensitivity index for tourism investment: A case study of regional Australia

This paper investigates the community-related factors influencing investment-readiness of local governments in Australia and how this may be measured in the form of a community sensitivity index (CSI). The intention is that a CSI will allow tourism investors to compare regions of interest beyond the ‘familiar’ tourism centres, whilst giving local governments a benchmarking tool to help identify strengths and opportunities. The methodology involved a reiterative process of needs specification, data availability mapping and indicator relevance testing with stakeholders, including tourism investors, local government associations and tourism data experts. The result of the research is a first operational version of the index, which suggests that community sensitivity is unlikely to be driven by negative perceptions of tourism. Instead, the indicators focus on process complexity, strategic alignment, the level of trust in local government and the quality of the engagement between local government and the local community. As with many composite indicators, the research presented here is ongoing and reiterative in nature. The results of the first version are published to attract academic debate within Australia and beyond. This will be important for the development of subsequent iterations to progressively increase the validity of the index and expand its applicability overseas.