The relevance of practice theories for tourism research

Practice theories offer a new perspective on tourism, by not focussing on individual agents or social structures, but on social practices as the starting point for theorising and conducting research. Illustrated by the practice of Arctic expedition cruising, we discuss the basic premises of practice theories and their potential applications to tourism studies, including various ways of conceptualising social practices, the principle idea of a flat ontology, the methodological implications and the relevance for tourism policies. Practice theories could contribute to the agenda of tourism studies in three ways, i.e. by enabling in-depth analysis of performed tourism consumption or production practices, by facilitating analysis of change in tourism over time and by unravelling the embeddedness of tourism practices.     

Foraging tourism: critical moments in sustainable consumption

Despite the prevalence of sustainability discourses across the Global North, for the majority of people abstract issues of sustainability often have a low salience with the realities of travel choices. Researchers examining sustainable tourism recognise that any changes resulting in sustainable performance are likely to come about as a result of shifts in everyday highly routinised social practices, relations and socio-technical structures. Attending to these debates, this paper examines relations between social practice, sustainability and tourism through the rise in foraging tourism in the United Kingdom. Using evidence from interviews and media analysis detailing perspectives of foraging course leaders and attendees, alongside participant observation, the paper records the ways in which foraging experiences are negotiated and accomplished in commercial contexts and what participants “do” with the ideas and practices post-experience. By engaging with debates surrounding the meanings of sustainable tourism, the paper extends understanding of these concepts through the identification of foraging tourism as a facilitator in rethinking everyday practice and discourse. The paper ends by evaluating the potentials of tourism in facilitating sustainable performance and discourse.     

Tourism transition in peripheral rural areas: Theories,issues and strategies

This article examines the relationship between “rural peripherality” and “tourism transition” to describe the ongoing transformations within the tourist supply in rural areas, highlighting the importance these concepts are acquiring in both the theoretical debate and the formation of policies. Based on the classification of peripheral areas provided by the Italian Strategy for Inner Areas, the authors have undertaken a detailed statistical analysis at the municipality level, considering tourism as an important driver of socio-economical change. A model of governance based on “transition management” is put forward as a practical tool to guide these processes. A case study conducted through participatory action-research offered the opportunity to overcome existing governance practices and experiment with more adaptive methods to manage the transition.     

Tourism as practice of making meaning

In this paper we attempt to investigate how the semiotic construction of touristed landscapes “works” in tour owners’ ideologizing of the representation of Romania as an ecotourist destination. A semiotic framework of tourism as meaning-making practice is proposed on account of the theory of meaning as well as on cultural geography theories approaching landscape. The paper also addresses the ecotourism ideology as background to our study. The semiotic analysis frames the study of signs on levels of significance, along with the theory of intertextuality. The research corpus shows how the embodied experiences, practices and performances shape the significances we attach to objects and how tourism is meaning made by multiple actors, both tourism promoters and tourists.     

Community-owned tourism and degrowth: a case study in the Kichwa Añangu community

Abstract

Tourism is a booming global industry, seemingly at odds with a degrowth movement seeking to challenge the profit-maximizing model embedded in capitalist expansion. However, the tourism industry is not a homogenous entity, but is instead characterized by diverse forms of distinct tourisms. In Ecuador, the Kichwa Añangu Community has chosen to dedicate their livelihood to community-owned tourism. Añangu owns and operates two lodges, whose management and oversight are administered through communal governance. As a result, tourism is locally embraced as a vehicle for livelihood wellbeing, cultural reclamation, and environmental stewardship. Community-owned tourism will not provide a cure-all answer to the critiques levied against tourism or to the vulnerabilities inherent in the practice of tourism. However, Añangu’s project offers a compelling case study for considering how certain tourisms could become a vehicle for developing a localized degrowth society. The Añangu have decentralized the value placed upon profit in the practice of tourism, replacing it with Kichwa forms of communal organizing guided by their goal for Sumak Kawsay, or the “good life.” For the Añangu, the sustainability of their project cannot be separated from its economic viability, however, success is also measured by how tourism contributes to a number of community-defined goals.     

Profiling the Strategic Marketing Activities of Small Tourism Businesses

Abstract

This study profiles the strategic marketing activities of small tourism businesses, by examining the extent to which they engage in specified practices which may be broadly described as “strategic.” It was found that city-based enterprises are more strategic in their emphasis than their rural counterparts, and that larger small businesses are more strategic than smaller small businesses. Businesses which engage in product packaging appear to be more strategic than those which do not. Possible explanations for the relatively low incidence of strategic marketing amongst small tourism business generally are a lack of managerial expertise and the absence of staff to whom tasks may be delegated.     

A “load-carrier” perspective approach for assessing tourism resource carrying capacity

To address the challenge of global tourism resources being overloaded or underutilization, there requires an adequate method for assessing the tourism resource carrying capacity (TRCC). However, the majority of previous evaluation perspectives on TRCC are limited by thresholds. This paper develops an innovative approach for assessing TRCC from the “load-carrier” perspective. TRCC is assessed by exploring the interaction between the carriers and loads of tourism resources. Chongqing city in China is employed as the case city to demonstrate the application of the established TRCC method. The conclusions are as follows: 1) This study elaborates the new connotation of TRCC from the perspective of “load-carrier”, and establishes the TRCC evaluation system based on the dynamic relationship between the carrier and load of tourism resources. 2) The proposed TRCC evaluation method is proved effective through an empirical study of Chongqing. 3) Chongqing's case unveils that the overload performance of TRCC can be dynamically monitored and predicted. By applying the TRCC evaluation methodology developed in this study, tourism managers and policymakers can identify whether it is the load or the carrier of tourism resources that affect the performance of TRCC, thereby taking targeted policy measures to eliminate potential risks of overload or underutilization.     

Tourist decisions in renting various personal travel modes: A case study in Kitakyushu City,Japan

Recently, personal transportation modes have diversified remarkably, and rental use in a tourism area can be one of the strategies to popularize them. This study focused on Kitakyushu City, Japan, and analyzed users' decision-making processes to choose among four modes (ultra-lightweight vehicles [ULVs], electric-assisted bicycles, electric scooters, and electric four-wheel carts) by four evaluation standards: “safety,” “convenience,” “mobility,” and “joy.” The results found that, regarding overall satisfaction of the rental service, most users were satisfied and want to use it in a tourism area as an alternative to, primarily, private cars, even if the service will be provided under a continuous-charging model. In addition, a detailed analysis of the decision-making process of rental use showed that users ranked the criteria in descending order of importance as “safety,” “convenience,” “joy,” and “mobility,” and regarded ULVs as the most preferable transportation mode.     

A comparison of the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the economic development for islands and other countries

Tourism is usually one of the top industries in most countries, especially islands. However, there is some question as to whether there is a negative potential impact if a country relies too much on tourism as a means of economic development to the detriment of other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for regular countries and island economies, including “small island developing states” (SIDS). This study uses quantile regression on panel data from the WDI database from 1995 through 2014 for all of the countries that report tourism and economic data. The findings demonstrate that tourism reliance does have a moderating effect on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for all countries, but mainly at higher levels of economic development.     

Cultural sustainability and fluidity in Bhutan's traditional festivals

Abstract

This paper engages the “culture gap” in the sustainable tourism literature by addressing issues of cultural sustainability through an investigation of traditional festivals in Bhutan. Cultural sightseeing is the major motivation for tourism to Bhutan, and religious festivals are among the primary contexts within which local people and tourists interact. Tourism brings forces of modernization and globalization into contact with traditional practices, with various consequences. Based primarily on on-site observation of religious festivals, and interviews with Bhutanese monks and abbots, this paper explores the incursion of modernization into traditional festivals. Bauman's concept of "liquid modernity" is applied to articulate the intertwining of traditional and modern practices and frames of reference in constantly changing ways. This leads to a critical discussion of how the case of Bhutan’s festivals reveals the necessity of seeing cultural sustainability in fluid and evolutionary terms, especially in our “liquid modern” times. Foreign tourists and local youth are identified as particular agents of liquid modernism in the religious festivals, bringing perspectives and behaviors that diverge from those of the traditional society within which the meaning and practices of these festivals are rooted, which in turn affects the performance and performers of the dances.     

The secondary crisis communication of Occupy Central on Weibo: A response to Denis Tolkach

This is a response to the rejoinder by Tolkach (2018) to Luo and Zhai's (2017) paper (“I will never go to Hong Kong again” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott). The authors recognize Tolkach's suggestion on academic debates but hold different opinions to his arguments. Thus, further clarification is provided to Tolkach's two main concerns: the impact of Occupy Central on Hong Kong tourism and sentiment analysis of censored material. This response emphasizes that Luo and Zhai primarily discussed the secondary crisis communication and public emotions that arose in the Chinese social media over the events in Hong Kong, and not the events themselves. Additionally this rejoinder provides more information on Tourism between mainland China and Hong Kong, the environment of Chinese social media, and academic research progress in mainland China. It also advocates an “empathetic understanding” in cross-cultural academic dialogue.     

Monitoring tourism flows and destination management: Empirical evidence for Portugal

We propose the use of a tool recently introduced by Gayer (2010), known as the “economic climate tracer”, to analyze and monitor the cyclical evolution of tourism source markets to Portugal. Considering the period 1987–2015, we evaluate how tourism to Portugal has been affected by economic cycles. This tool is useful as it clearly illustrates the evolutionary patterns of different markets, and allows us to identify close relationships with economic fluctuations. We found that German tourism plays a leading role, since its movements are followed with delays by tourism flows from other countries, and exhibits higher resilience to shocks. Also, domestic and Spanish tourism have both displayed less irregular behaviors than tourism from other source markets. On the contrary, tourism from the Netherlands and the UK, have displayed irregular patterns, which demonstrates the urgency to diversify tourism source markets to reduce the country's vulnerability to external shocks and economic cycles.     

Examination of tourism undergraduates’ industry commitment,in the context of China

Grounded in the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this study developed a comprehensive research framework that encapsulated both personal and contextual factors in terms of tourism undergraduates’ commitment to career choice in the context of China’s social and vocational contexts. Applying structural equation modeling (SEM) to the data collected from 446 undergraduate students studying tourism in China, this study shows that “self-interest,” “others’ support,” “social status,” “outcome expectation” and “nature of work” exert significant effects on students’ commitment to career choice. Implications of the findings include suggested interventions in attracting tourism students to persist in their career path.     

The seven sins of hunting tourism

In a review of situational pressures on tourists, we identify seven sins or risk zones that induce moral disengagement and allow for behaviour that would be considered unethical by the same people when not on holiday. The context of hunting tourism reveals the following sins act cumulatively on the hunting tourist: “The Pay Effect”, “The Tourist Bubble”, “Last Chance Tourism”, “The Bucket List”, “When in Rome”, “The False Display”, and “The Saviour”. Identifying these sins and the way hunting tourists draw from them to neutralize eco-guilt are argued to be a first step on the call to set standards and practices within consumptive wildlife tourism consistent with the Precautionary Principle in tourism planning.     

Why do people share their travel experiences on social media?

Tourism practices and destination decisions are more and more affected by the opinions of trusted friends channeled through social media, and it is therefore of great interest to explore the role that this plays in the travel context. It is also valuable to understand the behaviour of people commonly known as “lurkers”, who travel but do not share their experiences with others. We draw on social influence theory and its three constructs – identification, internalization, and compliance, as well as the users’ personality, to investigate these issues. Based on 381 responses, findings reveal two dominant reasons: first, perceived enjoyment was the most important motive for travellers to share their travel experiences on online networks and travel websites. Second, security and privacy issues are the top latent reasons. This study extends the tourism literature by combining all online behaviours into one single model. We also provide suggestions for further research.     

社区旅游参与视角下民族村寨旅游地居民地方感生成研究

居民地方感领域的研究在深化“人-地”关系认识、旅游目的地地方性塑造、旅游资源开发与保护以及旅游规划等方面具有特殊意义。已有研究主要探讨人口统计学特征、物理环境和社会环境等影响因素,缺乏对旅游世界中人与场的积极互动而产生的地方感等问题的讨论。本研究从社区旅游参与视角,通过田野调查的方法收集郎德上寨村民主诉的旅游参与实践,对民族旅游村寨居民地方感的生成问题进行分析。研究发现:郎德上寨村民的社区旅游参与主要表现为“合作激励型”“自我激励型”“机械被动型”和“利益激励型”4种类型;在社区旅游参与过程中,村民获得了强烈的地方感,并由自然地理和人文物理环境、社会文化特性、经济制度、乡土认同、血缘认同、文化认同、房屋归属感和生活便利性等内容体现。本研究还发现,居民地方感在不同的社区旅游参与形态中表现出差异性;社区旅游参与和地方感之间是双向、交互式的影响关系,其中,旅游效益感知因素在二者的关系中起着重要的中介作用。     

“Girlfriend getaway” as a contested term: Discourse analysis

All-female leisure travel is a fast growing tourism market segment that is frequently called “girlfriend getaways.” This study explored the meanings associated with the “girlfriend getaway” term, using discourse analysis to understand the ways women build significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and sign systems and knowledge with respect to it. Eleven focus groups and 15 individual interviews were conducted with 83 American and Canadian women. The analysis revealed that “girlfriend getaway” is a term with contested and polysemous meanings. While some women found it to be adequate, accurate, cute, and reflective of their all-female tourist experiences, others described it as stereotypical, narrow/claustrophobic, “pink,” inadequate, and unreflective of their experiences. At times, the same symbolic meanings attracted some women but alienated others. Thus, tourism marketers need to identify and engage with different strands within their female clientele to ensure that their strategies appropriately respond to various preferences and lifestyles.     

Dependency on Tour Operators

Abstract

Tour operators have increasingly emerged as the most powerful and influential factor of international flows from the main generating countries to various destinations, since they are able to interpret and manipulate the “push” and “pull” factors of the tourism process to a commercial end. As a result, many tourist-receiving destinations have to face the intervention of foreign tour operators in their tourism industry. Despite the crucial role played by tour operators for the development of insular regions' tourism, little empirical evidence is available on the relationship between tour operators and the destination tourism suppliers. This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken during the summer of 1997 on the Greek island of Crete. From the findings, it is evident that the Cretan tourism industry is heavily dependent on tour operators, and that various actions should be undertaken by the island's public and private sector to overcome this problem.     

关于乡村旅游、农业旅游与民俗旅游的几点辨析

目前,乡村旅游、农业旅游与民俗旅游越来越受到我国旅游业界和学界的关注,但是,包括研究论文、会议发言和旅游规划中的片面理解不仅相当普遍,而且也正在传播.本文作者认为,如果业界、学界能够更广泛的注目业态实践,并在此前人们已有研究的基础上进行更深入的研究,则将有可能对乡村旅游、农业旅游与民俗旅游的理论和实践产生更加积极的作用.本文的几点内容,就是作者试图根据自己近20年的接触对乡村旅游、农业旅游、民俗旅游所做的一点个人的诠释和辨析.     

对构建旅游资源产权制度的探讨

现有的旅游资源产权制度安排在某种程度上已束缚旅游业的进一步持续发展和妨碍旅游资源的持续利用，变革旅游资源产权制度成为必然的趋势。本文试图运用有关产权理论在对我国旅游资源产权制度安排的现状分析的基础上，提出我国旅游资源产权制度构建的建议。