Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

A tale of two caravan parks: friendship, community and the freedom thing
pieces of data. Reflecting on themes and ‘working’ the text is a dialectical process between
the text, the researcher and the act of writing.
In the following text pseudonyms have been used to protect the privacy of participants.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
According to McMillan (1996) a sense of community is created from a coming together of
four critical elements noted in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Building a Sense of Community – Contributing Elements (source: McMillan, 1996)
SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY
McMillan (1996) contends that the first element, spirit of community, is built around a number
of important and interrelated characteristics – friendship, emotional safety, boundaries and
a sense of belonging. The first of these, friendship, evolves in situations where we have a
“setting and an audience to express unique aspects of our personality” (p.315).
Friendship was particularly important to the south coast participants. Hunter commented that
he’d been coming here for 12 years and have probably got some of the best mates here. Yep,
I talk to locals as well as people that camp in the park [and] apart from family [they are]
some of the closest people to me. Barry echoed these sentiments and those of his wife for
whom their holiday was about friendship. 100 per cent friendship. I believe once you’ve
made a friend you’ve always got a friend and this is what its all about, coming, the friendships.
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper
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