Backpackers in Hong Kong – motivations,preferences and contribution to sustainable tourism

This paper examines the backpacker market in Hong Kong, in terms of profile, motivation, preferences, and contribution to sustainable tourism development. The purpose is to provide an understanding of this market to help in marketing and promoting services and products that meet backpackers’ needs as part of expanding Hong Kong’s target market. Currently, Hong Kong relies on tourists from mainland China and recent reports reveal the issue of social conflicts between mainland tourists and Hong Kong residents. Based on a survey of backpackers in youth hostels and hiking trails in Hong Kong, this study revealed that backpackers are pushed by the search for new ideas and pulled by the uniquefood culture of Hong Kong, preferring to experience such a unique food culture in a traditional setting. Moreover, they are less likely to spend on international brands in Hong Kong as part of promoting sustainable tourism development.     

“I recycle,I turn out the lights”: understanding the everyday sustainability practices of backpackers

As holidays merge more intimately with the everyday lives of an increasing number of people, questions of sustainability in tourism contexts become ever more urgent. Using the concept of everyday practices, in which sustainability is thought to emerge in the routines of people going about their day-to-day lives, this mixed-method study aimed to understand how sustainability figures in the practices, of backpackers. Findings revealed sustainability to be of minimal concern to most backpackers who nevertheless performed a range of sustainable practices but unintentionally. Environmental sustainability was practised via reduced resource consumption and waste, economic sustainability by working and spending more money overall than other tourist types, and social sustainability through demonstrating cultural respect and community participation. The main factors encouraging sustainable practices amongst backpackers were their low-budget focus and their use as a labour source by industries that require temporary and flexible workers. When backpackers were employed, each facet of sustainability became mutually reinforcing. The results of this study are in contrast to usual perceptions of tourism as a time in which norms of sustainable behaviour are suspended, as backpacking was found to provide opportunities for the performance of more sustainable practices compared to home.     

Rural tourism and gendered nuances

Research findings on rural residents’ attitudes towards tourism are often contradictory, in part due to a lack of data examining the often divergent perspectives of particular subgroups. Regional survey data from the Intermountain Western United States is used to provide an improved understanding of rural tourism attitudes as they are linked to community involvement and changes, while also exploring both intragender and intergender differences. Group differences in levels of community involvement, perceptions of tourism and various other issues are observed. While differences emerge, there is also widespread agreement on the importance of preserving local culture and the opposition to sale of agricultural land for development.     

Travel motivation for Taiwanese hearing-impaired backpackers

Why do hearing-impaired people desire to undertake outbound travel as backpackers despite their hearing and speaking limitations? To investigate the reasons, this study applied the push and pull model of travel motivation as the framework. A total of 30 hearing-impaired backpackers participated in face-to-face interviews and responded to questions concerning their motivation to travel overseas. The results of this study reveal many unique motivation themes in the push and pull groups; specifically, five push themes (constraints of group tours, self-challenge, independence, different experience, and invitation by hearing-impaired friends) and two pull themes (enjoy local culture and lifestyle and the “I have been there” feeling) were identified. Furthermore, the participants’ desire to travel as backpackers is based on their previous negative experiences in group tours. Moreover, they prefer backpacking with hearing-impaired partners than with normal-hearing partners. Furthermore, for them, their independence enables them to their parents that they can travel alone. In addition, the study findings suggest that “communication negotiation” should be considered for inclusion in the motivation typology as a new dimension for hearing-impaired backpackers. Finally, the current study provides valuable insights into the behaviors of hearing-impaired backpackers and recommendations for tourism operators.     

环境感知因素对旅华背包客旅游决策行为影响研究--以西安为例

通过对2005年9月西安旅华背包客旅游决策行为调查的第一手资料,从行为分割空间角度初步研究了环境感知因素对旅华背包客决策行为的影响,研究揭示:现阶段,旅华背包客决策行为主要受个人相关因素影响,旅游目的地环境感知因素传递受旅游客源国环境感知因素影响,当旅游者确定国际旅游后,旅游目的地感知因素对旅游者决策行为影响高于客源国环境感知因素.     

TOURISM AND CULTURAL PROXIMITY: Examples from New Zealand

While tourism products based on Maori culture are popular among some overseas tourists to New Zealand, there has been little research as to their appeal to the domestic market. This paper discusses notions of indigenous tourism and the role of cultural and spatial difference in European conceptualizations of the exotic other. It argues that although there is a common cultural antecedence between non-Maori and European culture, the lack of spatial distance between Maori and tourists means that European New Zealanders are not drawn to Maori culture as an attraction in the manner that those from Europe and North America are. The paper discusses “kiwi culture” and familiarity as determinants of tourist demand.     

Backpacker tourism: sustainable and purposeful? Investigating the overlap between backpacker tourism and volunteer tourism motivations

Alternative tourism, particularly backpacker and volunteer tourism, has developed significantly in recent times. This rapid development has contributed to criticism of potential negative effects, notably of the environmental, cultural, economic and social impacts associated with backpacker tourism. Volunteer tourism, by contrast, has been seen in positive terms as more sustainable, combining altruistic motivations with the travel concept. This paper explores backpacker interest in volunteer tourism and identifies overlaps in motivations between the two forms of tourism; 249 self-administered questionnaires were collected from backpackers within backpacker hostels in central Melbourne, Australia. The findings of this study suggest that a motivational overlap exists between backpacker and volunteer tourists, indicating potential for the creation of volunteer tourism products catering specifically for the backpacker market. This may encourage more sustainable tourism experiences within the burgeoning backpacker market, thus addressing some of the negative criticism of the latter. This paper also discusses the implications of these findings for the marketing and development of volunteer tourism products for both the backpacker and volunteer tourism markets.     

Tourism and culture shock

This paper is concerned with the concept of culture shock in relation to immigrants, sojourners, and tourists. The concept of culture shock is analyzed as well as the salient literature arising from it, such as the stage-wise process of adaptation to an unfamiliar environment and individual and situational determinants of adjustment. The paper is also concerned with the effect of tourism on the host population. It is argued that many of the concepts found in the mental health, migration, and sojourner-adjustment literature are applicable to the study of tourism.     

洲际背包客旅华空间流行为模式研究

本文以西安和桂林为例,通过问卷调查,分析总结出了洲际背包客旅华空间流动模式.从国际视角研究发现游客选择目的国的3种情况,从国际、国内视角研究发现洲际背包客旅华路线规律.研究结论对旅游产品开发与营销有指导意义,彰显了旅游产品开发与营销中国际合作、国内合作的重要性.世界遗产级旅游产品对洲际背包客的强大吸引力不容忽视.     

The disciplinary dilemma of tourism studies

Though tourism is a complex phenomenon crossing many disciplines, researchers tend to approach tourism studies from within the specific boundaries of the main discipline in which they have been trained. Existing tourism theory is thus fragmented and weak. This paper looks at the potential for developing more holistic and integrated theories than currently exist, and for tourism studies evolving into a distinct discipline. The current state of debate in this area is introduced, and several disciplines impacting on tourism studies are examined. Insights are drawn from two distinct philosophy of science perspectives, T.S. Kuhn and R.J. Bernstein. Suggestions are made for advancing the evolution and integration of tourism studies.     

Backpacking Your Way into Crisis

SUMMARY

Risk and tourism have become more closely interlinked in recent years. Recognising the complexity of tourist behaviour, research by Cohen (1972) classified tourists according to the degree of novelty or familiarity sought. Whilst the subject of extensive debate, many questions remain including to what extent perceived risk can be used as an indicator of tourist roles. Focusing upon the growing youth tourism market, backpackers in particular, travel patterns and attitudes towards risk were questioned and possible responses to a crisis differentiated through an exploratory qualitative study. The findings challenge both the resilience of the market alongside Cohen's (1972) typology suggesting backpackers exhibit different roles (drifter and explorer) dependent upon the risk in question. Given the exploratory nature of the work, the paper concludes calling for further targeted research.     

Comment on Richter''s political implications of Chinese tourism policy

The purpose of this study was to analyze the development of tourism in American Samoa. The government in American Samoa initiated efforts to develop tourism during the early 1960's. In spite of this, tourism in American Samoa is still in an early development stage. Internal factors which have constrained tourism growth have been the limited natural resources and underlying conflict between the traditional Samoan culture versus western ideas. External factors in the form of increased competition from nearby destinations and shifts in airline services also have limited the number of tourists to the area. The development of tourism in American Samoa is relevant to other less popular and newly developing destinations in the Pacific. Thus, it illustrates the risks and problems in developing tourism in similar Pacific destinations.     

丽江大研古城文化变迁中的“虚无”与“实在”:以酒吧发展为例

全球化背景下旅游业迅速发展,旅游目的地文化变迁日益显著,并引起人们的关注.作为世界文化遗产的丽江大研古城自旅游开发至今吸引了来自世界各地的大量游客,古城原生文化也经历着某种程度的变迁.文章在两次实地调研的基础上,综合运用访谈法和观察法,以古城酒吧发展的视角,探求反映古城文化变迁过程,并应用乔治·里茨尔“虚无”与“实在”理论分析古城酒吧发展过程中“虚无”与“实在”的表征及动因.     

Tourism land use conflict in the United States

Despite numerous articles detailing the consequences of tourism, one's understanding of the conflict caused by tourism development is limited. This paper attempts to identify generalizable features of the tourism development debate in the United States through the use of a locational conflict framework. A typology of tourism development was created using content analysis of newspaper articles that described conflict over tourism related land use changes. The results of the analysis indicate that the number of tourism development conflict incidents and the issues involved in these incidents varied substantially across the United States. Analysis also indicates that the participants involved in the conflicts aligned themselves into different coalitions, depending upon the particular issue. This suggests that the particular tourism development issue is the most important variable affecting generalizations about tourism development conflict.     

漂移的旅行者——关于背包旅游者的演进轨迹

国内背包旅游火热的实践和对背包旅游理论研究的滞后形成了鲜明的对比,而国内外在对背包旅游的认知上也存在着显著的差距.本文从背包旅游者内部文化的角度,通过回顾34年来国内外的相关研究文献,讨论背包旅游者的概念、动力学机制及其行为特征.文章最后总结了目前对背包旅游者内部系统研究的成就和不足.     

Residents' perceptions on tourism impacts

The limited explanatory research on residents' perceptions of tourism impacts has resulted in an underdeveloped theoretical orientation of research on this subject. This paper presents a social exchange process model as a theoretical basis for some understanding of why residents perceive tourism impacts positively or negatively. The model is based upon the concept of the exchange relation. Propositions are derived from the model to test the relationships between the model's components. These propositions have been developed from inferences based upon the social exchange literature.     

Market shares analysis: The Case of French Tourism Demand

This paper examines the magnitudes and determinants of changes in destinations’ shares of a major tourist origin market. The Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to quantify the responsiveness of French tourism demand in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to changes in relative prices, exchange rates, tourists’ expenditure budget, and external events. The results indicate that effective price competitiveness is a key variable driving changes in market shares. Policymakers who wish to maintain their shares of the French market should pay particular attention to tourism pricing policies, as well as to improving the tourism offer.     

Harmony rules in Chinese backpacker groups

Despite recognition that Chinese backpackers travel in small, self-organised groups, studies have yet to examine how group dynamics affect the travel experience. Multi-sited ethnography and netnography were deployed to follow Chinese backpackers in Europe to explore their group dynamics. The findings reveal that Chinese backpackers sustain hierarchical group relations by applying cultural attributes of ‘respect for authority’ and ‘keqi’. A conflict-free status is achieved by following the codes of ‘guanxi’ and ‘conformity’. Harmony is practiced to either develop harmonious relationships or resolve potential discord. This study contributes to the literature on harmony by synthesising relevant cultural attributes to understand their applications in group dynamic. It furthermore contributes to the literature on backpacker tourism and self-organised travel group dynamics.     

Evaluation of demand: US tourists to Aruba

This study examines international tourism demand to Aruba from the United States. This is the first empirical attempt to estimate the income, price, and exchange rate elasticities on Aruban tourism. An accurate estimate, understanding, and forecasting of the demand based on appropriate analytical methods is important for both the government and private investors. Tourism demand estimates from either the linear and the double log linear models reveal that the effects of income dominate those of prices and exchange rates. In general, US tourists appeared to be highly sensitive to the income variable and inelastic with respect to price. The exchange rate variable was not significant.     

Tourism and cultural revival

Cultural change is a recurrent concern in tourism anthropology studies. Host societies frequently remodel their culture following the creation of a tourist resort. But, that does not necessarily imply an acculturating process, since what actually takes place is pragmatic cultural production work in response to the touristic demands that offer consolidated economic alternatives and livelihood. As for the Pataxó Indians of Porto Seguro of Brazil, they have sponsored a “cultural revival” process. In other words, they have generated the traditions that start being exhibited commercially in arenas where the prospect of emergent ethnic tourism is perceived.