Memorable Tourist Experiences and Place Attachment When Consuming Local Food

The purpose of the study was to model the memorable travel experiences, place attachment and behavioral intentions for consuming local food. Data were collected by self‐administered surveys of 378 tourists visiting Tainan, Taiwan. The survey results show that the experiences of consuming local cuisines enable tourists to create positive and unforgettable memories, and such positive memories further enhance their identification with or strong attachment to local attractions and behavioral intention. Place identity under place attachment also revealed mediating effects between memorable travel experiences and behavioral intention. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Place Attachment and Tourism Marketing: Investigating International Tourists in Singapore

The notion of place attachment has been evidenced impactful on enhancing the performance of tourism marketing. However, the theoretical development of place attachment characterizes obvious diversities. The current study integrates and reconfigures these diversities to propose the Strategic Management of Place Attachment model. According to the model, a comprehensive attachment‐nurturing foundation is constituted by holistic tourist experience, which contains emotional pleasure, cognitive stimulation, psychological growth, self‐expressiveness and communal awareness. Place attachment, nurtured upon such foundation, converts into a powerful driver of the tourist's revisit behavior. Noteworthy insights and implications are provided to put the notion of place attachment to best use for tourism marketing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motives and behaviour of second home owners in Iceland reflected by place attachment

Second home tourism has a long tradition in the Nordic countries, and seems to be gradually growing worldwide. The processes underpinning the decision to own a second home are often complex and connected with numerous influencing factors such as cultural setting, personal preferences and attitudes, economic situation, as well as practical questions regarding distance, anticipated utilization, and localization factors. The relationship between the environment in which the second home is situated and the prospective homeowners is likely to have a strong geographic character. This study aims to assess and analyse the habits and motivations of second home owners in Iceland and evaluate whether their behavioural patterns and patterns of geographical preferences can be explained by the concept of place attachment. The results reveal that place attachment can be seen as a significant localization factor influencing temporal and spatial development of second homes, which in turn helps explain the observed geographical patterns. While it has also been shown that homeowners with a prior connection to the locations in question do display different behavioural patterns than homeowners who obtained property in locations to which they had no prior connection, the results further reveal that heterogeneity is caused by diversity in lengths of ownership rather than being due to place attachment. In conclusion, the concept of place attachment is of only limited use in seeking to explain differences in behaviour among second home owners subsequent to the acquisition of property, suggesting that different forms of place attachment produce similar behavioural patterns.     

Film tourism: celebrity involvement,celebrity worship and destination image

Film tourism is a growing phenomenon worldwide. Previous studies have attempted to examine the relationship between celebrity involvement and destination image in film tourism, though the mechanism underlying this relationship remains a black box. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between celebrity involvement and destination image, and to clarify the role of celebrity worship for film tourists. A quantitative method is adopted to examine the hypotheses, and by applying multiple regression analysis. Questionnaire data from 390 Taiwanese purposeful film tourists indicate that celebrity involvement is positively related to destination image. Furthermore, celebrity worship mediates the relationship between celebrity involvement and destination image. The findings contribute to understanding this specific type of film tourist, and especially the role of celebrity in their image, motivations and decision. Research implications suggest that celebrity and film can be an effective promotional tool to induce these specific film tourists.     

Moving beyond visitor satisfaction to loyalty in nature-based tourism: a review and research agenda

Nature-based tourism is increasing worldwide and with it the opportunity to engage these visitors to support and advocate for the protection of natural areas. Loyalty research over the last decade provides a platform for action. Analysing loyalty as an important focus for nature-based tourism research and then proposing a research agenda are the aims of this paper. These aims are achieved by (1) reviewing the place of satisfaction and its relationship to loyalty in nature-based tourism research; (2) analysing recent loyalty and related behavioural intentions research; and (3) proposing a research agenda to further progress loyalty research. Conducting field-based experiments to determine the influence of improving service quality on loyalty and further investigating a suite of items of varying commitment for measuring loyalty (from recommending a destination to others to volunteering to work there) are pivotal to the proposed agenda. Also central are further elaborating and testing the measurement model for loyalty, with place attachment and pursuit of benefits, such as escaping from everyday life and appreciating nature, suggested as promising antecedents to loyalty. The importance of natural areas to society warrants urgent attention to the loyalty-centred research agenda detailed in this paper.     

How do the services of low cost carriers affect passengers' behavioral intentions to revisit a destination?

Understanding the main factors that affect travelers' behavioral intentions are essential for countries that intend to develop their tourism industry. This research investigates how the services of low cost carriers (LCCs) affect travelers' behavioral intentions to revisit and a willingness to recommend the destination to others. The results show that the perceived services of LCCs have a significantly positive effect on the destination's image, and the destination's image has a significantly positive effect on behavioral intentions.     

The effect of community attachment on cultural festival visitors' satisfaction and future intentions

This paper explores the characteristics of multicultural festival visitors on the basis of their attachment to a certain culture or a cultural community, and examines the influences of this attachment on levels of overall satisfaction and future intentions. Two distinctive types of visitors to cultural festivals are recognised based on their attachment to the culture of the festival. A total of 420 valid questionnaires from three multicultural festivals in Korea were collected. This study found that community attachment, defined as an attachment to a certain culture or a cultural community, had significant impacts on intention to revisit and positive word-of-mouth (WOM). Visitors who are attached to an ethnic culture or a cultural community are more likely to revisit and spread positive WOM than people who are not attached. The paper concludes that community attachment influences cultural festival visitors' future intentions, and can be used as a predictor of the relationship between satisfaction and future intentions. From the results of the study, strategic marketing and management implications, based on community attachment, are suggested to increase repeat visitation and attract more visitors through positive WOM.     

Evaluating residents' attitudes and intentions to act towards tourism development in regional Victoria,Australia

With the tourism industry expanding post‐2001, research on the impacts of tourism development continues to be important. Previous research has focused both on the types of impacts on the residents and the segmentation of the host community. Most of these studies have used attitudes as the clustering base. Although the resultant cluster groups have been able to discriminate community groups who either support or oppose future tourism development, these groups are difficult to identify in the community and the influence these attitudes have on the behaviour of residents remains unknown. This research investigated the link between positive and negative attitudes and the residents' intentions to act either to support or protest future tourism development. The results found no significant relationship between negative intentions to act (protest) and demographics, attitudes or the various community cluster groups. However, positive intentions to act (support future development) were related to gender, age, education, life cycle, length of residence and tourism business connection. Further, positive intentions to become more involved in tourism development within the community were related to both positive and negative attitudes. Finally, this research found that residents who traditionally involved themselves in proactive community groups had the strongest intention to ensure future tourism development benefited the community. Implications for the tourism industry, local government and the management of future tourism development were explored. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motivational place attachment dimensions and the pro-environmental behaviour intention of mass tourists: a moderated mediation model

As a majority of tourist group, the pro-environmental psychological mechanism of mass tourists has not been investigated adequately. Deepening one core facet of the model of goal-directed behaviour, this study investigates the relationships among attitude (i.e. place attachment dimensions), desire, intention and mass tourism value orientation to expound the pro-environmental mentality of mass tourists. Questionnaires were collected from 865 domestic mass tourists visiting Sanya, China. The results partially confirm the validity of the explanation model and delineate the pro-environmental motivating nuance of each place attachment dimension. Place affect and place dependence both significantly motivate the environmental activation of mass tourists. While the motivating effect of the former is rather solid, it is vulnerable to moderation when it comes to the latter. Place identity unexpectedly plays a negative motivating role. The implications of the research findings are discussed.     

Evaluating urban residents’ attitudes towards tourism development in Belgrade (Serbia)

This study empirically examines the relationships among residents’ place image, various domains of tourism impacts, and residents’ support for tourism development in an Eastern European city, as well as the role of residents’ socio-demographic characteristics and place attachment. The direct, indirect, and moderating effects were investigated using structural equation modelling and the method suggested by Hayes and Preacher [2010. Estimating and testing indirect effects in simple mediation models when the constituent paths are nonlinear. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 45, 627–660]. The findings show that none of the tourism impacts mediate the relationship between place image and residents’ support for tourism development. Moreover, with respect to Belgrade, perceived economic impacts have the strongest effect on residents’ support, followed by perceived socio-cultural impacts. By assessing the respective contribution of the three tourism impacts simultaneously, the results highlight the weight residents assign to a city’s peculiarities, thus illustrating contextual influences such as post-communist and centrally planned economy legacies.     

Exploring the impact of destination attachment on the intentional behaviour of the US visitors familiarized with Baja California,Mexico

This study focuses on exploring the existing relationship of destination attachment within the US visitor's intentional behaviour towards border places in Baja California, Mexico. The research consists in formulating a set of hypotheses for a model sustained by empirical data obtained from a telephone survey and analysed with Partial Least Squares path modelling. This study found a positive impact of destination attachment on intentional behaviour and visitor experiences, which influences significantly both mentioned constructs. In this context, characterized by the importance of cross-border flows and a stigmatization due to safety issues as well as other kinds of personal visit inhibitors, the study shows that familiarity with destination allows reverting and transforming this impression to a positive perception of the visited place.     

The Stein Effect: an Alternative Film‐induced Tourism Perspective

Cornwall, in the far west of England, has long been a popular holiday destination, attracting visitors with a range of motivations, both domestically and internationally. At the same time, gastronomy has become more of a motivation, and when viewed on the small screen with celebrity chef involvement, it is argued that a form of film‐induced tourism occurs. The research identified the influence of television celebrity chef Rick Stein upon visitors to the small, coastal town of Padstow, also now known as Padstein. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influencing factors and mechanisms on consumers' behavior: A case of tea tourism in China

This study explores the factors affecting tea tourism, including the action mechanisms and the impact level of each factor influencing consumer behavior intentions, to contribute to predicting tea tourism consumer behavior. This study surveyed 377 potential tea tourists and constructed a theoretical model of tea tourism consumers' planned behavior using SPSS and AMOS. The results show that: (a) The experiential perception and opportunity perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their attitudes, (b) The self-efficacy perception and convenience perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their perceptual control, and (c) The attitude of tea tourists can significantly positively influence their behavioral intention. This study not only broadens the applications boundary of the theory of planned behavior, but it also provides a new perspective for research on the behavioral awareness of tea tourism consumers. The findings have implications for predicting and promoting future tea tourism in China and beyond.     

Local intentions to participate in ecotourism development in Taiwan’s Atayal communities

By applying the theoretical concepts of planned behaviors and social exchange, this study aims to examine the decisive factors that influence the behavioral intentions of local residents in three Atayal communities in Yilan County, Taiwan, to participate in the community development of ecotourism. This study uses AMOS software to perform structural equation modeling. The results of the study indicate that (1) residents’ attitudes toward community-based ecotourism development, perceived behavioral control, and perceived social benefits have significant correlations with their behavioral intentions and that (2) respondents involved in community-related organizations have more positive behavioral intentions. Due to their location in remote areas to which tourists rarely venture, these three Atayal communities lack the incentives to attract tourists or to trigger the participation of the broader community in ecotourism development with the promise of sharing tourism revenue. Most Atayal residents in the research area clearly lack the ‘rights to develop’ and the ‘means to get involved’. From the perspective of power relations, this study could contribute insight into the theoretical and empirical implications of hierarchical influences to examine the political–economic inferiority of indigenous behavioral intentions toward community-based ecotourism development.     

Behavioral intentions of public transit passengers—The roles of service quality,perceived value,satisfaction and involvement

Understanding the behavioral intentions of public transit passengers is important, because customer loyalty is seen as a prime determinant of long-term financial performance. This study highlights such behavioral intentions and explores the relationships between passenger behavioral intentions and the various factors that affect them. Apart from the factors recognized by past studies, such as service quality, perceived value, and satisfaction, this study addresses the importance of the involvement of public transit services in passenger behavioral intentions. By using passenger survey data from the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT), a newly operating public transit system in Taiwan, we apply the structural equation modeling technique to analyze the conceptualized relationship model. The findings reveal that all causal relationships are statistically significant. Managerial implications are discussed.     

The Effect of Experience Quality on Perceived Value,Satisfaction, Image and Behavioral Intention of Water Park Patrons: New versus Repeat Visitors

This study proposed a conceptual model to examine how customers' perceptions of the quality of experiences influence perceived value, water park image, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions for first‐time and repeat customers of the water park of the tourism industry. This study finds that the quality of participants' experiences significantly affects perceived value, water park image and customer satisfaction. Moreover, perceived value and water park image exert a direct influence on customer satisfaction, and they also positively affect behavioral intentions. Finally, the impacts on customer satisfaction of experience quality and water park image significantly differ between first‐time and repeat customers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The structures and flows of a large tourist itinerancy network

This paper undertakes a detailed network analysis (NA) of the structures and flows of a large tourist itinerancy network emerging in six Southeast Asian countries, developed by aggregating 1668 tour itineraries accessed from 149 tour marketing websites. The analysis includes the examination of the network and of seven extracted subnetworks (modules). It identifies various macro-patterns in the network influenced by scale freeness, preferential attachment, and growth. It proposes that a small number of nodes and edges form supercores. These dynamical elements influence the network's emergence, which is occurring without central coordination. A network backbone formed by these supercores emphasizes the flows in the network. The implications are visualized by several conceptual models of tourist and related resource and revenue flows. It identifies that a basin and sink topology, which drains flows from the periphery towards a network backbone sink, is consistent with preferential attachment processes in the network. This paper assists in turning NA in tourism from textile metaphors towards research centred upon empirical relational data. In this case, it exposes a network emerging from the inherent physical connectedness of tourism.     

‘All that jazz’: the relationship between music festival visitors’ motives and behavioural intentions

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study investigated the relationship between visitors’ behavioural intentions (ex-post) and their motives (ex-ante) for attending a jazz festival. The aim was to discover whether a music festival brings additional intangible benefits. The research followed a quantitative approach by conducting a visitor survey at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in South Africa. Structural Equation Modelling showed that music festivals have the potential to create benefits beyond the festival itself or the host destination, particularly fostering an appreciation of a music genre, increasing purchasing of music, and boosting music tourism. The findings showed that a music festival could have far-reaching benefits that can contribute to its legacy. It also showed that visitors’ motives have a unique relationship with their behavioural intentions, which emphasizes the need to market the festival accordingly.     

Critical issues in health and wellness tourism: an exploratory study of visitors to wellness centres on Gran Canaria

The growing commodification of health care and therapeutic landscape, as well as the recent growth in international demand for wellness services and treatments, has led to the proliferation of destinations and enterprises that have selected health and wellness tourism as part of their corporate strategy, including coastal tourism destinations such as the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. This study discusses the commodification of health care and landscape, the relationship between everyday life and going on holiday, as well as the motives for medical and wellness tourism. Wellness tourism development on Gran Canaria is also analysed as a case study that could prove useful for those working on diversification within coastal tourism. An exploratory study of European visitors to wellness centres on the island is also presented. Major findings and contributions relate to socio-demographic characteristics, motives for the visit to the island, the importance of the wellness offer, tourist and travel behaviour and wellness behaviour both at the destination and at the place of residence. Another contribution refers to differences in the use of wellness centres and treatments among visitors, based on their place of origin, gender, age, marital status and job situation. Management and marketing implications are also suggested.     

Pajala as a literary place: in the readings and footsteps of Mikael Niemi

This paper concerns the relationship between literature and tourism, with specific focus on the Swedish novelist Mikael Niemi and his influence on local tourism development in his home municipality of Pajala. Attention is paid to how the success of Niemi's breakthrough novel Populärmusik från Vittula has turned Pajala into a well-known ‘literary place’, at the same time increasing tourism in the region. This paper discusses the literary meanings of Pajala by comparing two alternative ways of comprehending the idea of ‘Pajala as a literary place’. Pajala is approached as (1) a stage for the local and regional identities represented in Niemi's novel, and (2) a re-produced real-world experience for ‘literary pilgrims’, tourists wandering in the footsteps of Mikael Niemi. This paper also discusses the contradictions and disharmonies between these two literary worlds and the implications that these may have for local development strategies based on literary tourism.