Doxey's Irritation Index

The most well known theory of culture shock is “Doxey’s Irritation Index”. According to Doxey’s theory, when there is no touristic activity in the region, hosts are curious and interested in tourists; they are welcome, delighted and excited about tourists’ presence. Furthermore, it is a general phenomenon that more people move in and out of tourism sectors.

Moreover, when the number of tourists increases, they are taken for granted and contact between tourists and hosts becomes more formal and locals. The theory become indifferent towards tourists; they do not know whether to welcome tourists or not. When the number of tourists reaches to a maximum level, tourism development reaches the saturation stage and the rate of tourism growth is expected to be even higher, hosts become concerned over price rises, crime, and tourist rudeness, and cultural rules being broken and eventually irritated by tourists’ presence; tourists are perceived as an annoyance.

When tourists are blamed for all wrongdoings in the host society, and are seen as lacking human values, hosts become hostile towards them. Hosts start to believe tourists can be exploited. Eventually, hosts call for actions which would offset the negative impacts of tourism development.

Stages of Doxey’s Irriation Index:

Limitations of Doxey’s Irriation Index:

The limitations of Doxey’s model are its measurement based on only a macro view and the residents’ attitudes towards tourism development point out and steadily developed to negative prospects only. However, Doxey’s theory is considered that destinations may not be able to grow without justification. The model proposes that local residents become negative towards tourists when the visitor numbers rise over time, however; tourist arrival numbers will not continually grow at the same rate over time and they may decline as well. Although Doxey’s categories are very useful and have proven valuable in understanding the range of perceptions exhibited within a community. There are differences among attitudes based on different resident typologies depending on many factors such as socio-economic factors.

Questions

• Explain about Doxey’s Irriation Index.
• What are the successive stages involved in Doxey’s theory?