The Buried village,New Zealand – An example of dark tourism?

In 1886, the explosion of Mount Tarawera resulted in the loss of 150 lives and the burial of the village of Te Wairoa, the base from which tourists had visited the Pink and White Terraces, a silicone-stained natural formation then advertised as one of the natural wonders of the world. Since 1931, the buried site has itself been a tourist attraction and Smith and Croy have argued that it serves as an example of “dark tourism”. This paper uses a different methodology to argue that Lennon and Foley's original definition of dark tourism is precise, that the buried village of Te Wairoa does not meet that specification, but does support the model suggested by Sharpley, that the site's characteristics are those of grey tourism supply. However, the findings derived from a sample of over 600 respondents indicate that sites are complex packages of potential experiences, and are potentially multi-faceted in terms of the experiences they offer. It is also suggested that cultural components might play a role in the experience of what is “dark” about a site.     

Mortality salience – shedding light on the dark experience

ABSTRACT

Mortality salience, a key term in Terror Management Theory, refers to self-awareness of one’s vulnerability and ultimate mortality. This exploratory study, based on psychology and tourism literature, clarifies the degree to which a visit to a heritage site of death and atrocities evokes mortality salience as well as the relationship between mortality salience and various dimensions of the visit experience. The findings indicate that not only was mortality salience evoked during the visit, it is also an important component in understanding the motivation to visit dark sites, the emotional experience of the visit, and the impact of the visit on visitors. We therefore propose that the conceptualization and management of a death-centered heritage site can be enriched by the integration of sense of mortality salience. Additionally, the high Cronbach’s alpha suggests that the study can provide an initial basis for a scale to quantitatively measure Mortality Salience.     

志愿观光的体验研究:广州亚运信使观光团案例

20世纪80年代,志愿旅游在西方兴起,分为度假为主的志愿观光和志愿为主的志愿旅游两个类别。目前,国内外研究集中于后者,而文章则聚焦前者的体验。根据志愿经验和意愿以及志愿活动的组织水平,志愿观光者被划分为四类,拥有不同的观光和志愿体验组合,而志愿活动也被划分为四类,带来不同的体验。搭便车者和失望的信使更靠近大众旅游者,旅途信使感受到团队互动的归宿感和凝聚力,但真正信使的志愿感受最为丰富,触及到志愿精神的本质。志愿活动能否对旅游者产生影响取决于两个因素:志愿的需求和经验是首要因素,其次是志愿活动的设计和管理。文章最后为旅行社开发类似产品提供了营销策略。     

Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain: The Case from China

This study aims to develop a measurement scale assessing motivations of tourists traveling to religious sites within the Chinese context. Deploying quantitative methods in relation to Putuo Buddhist Mountain – one of the most visited Buddhist destinations in China, this study depicts 20 motivation attributes. Accordingly, the scale dimensionality of tourist motivation in the context of religious tourism is first revealed by an exploratory factor analysis and further validated by a confirmatory factor analysis. Consequently, three resultant constructs entailing religious belief, cultural enjoyment, and mental relaxation exhibit acceptable levels of reliability. Construct validity, including discriminant and convergent validity, is satisfactorily established. Furthermore, this study examines how tourists’ past experience and degree of religious belief affect the derived constructs that define the motivations of religious tourist. The results suggest that past experience significantly affects tourists’ motivation to achieve religious beliefs, while degree of tourist religious belief has a great impact on both their motivation to achieve religious beliefs and mental relaxation. Finally, according to motivation theory, religious beliefs and mental relaxation can be classified as push factors, while cultural enjoyment and one item belonging to religious beliefs are pull factors.     

Services Research in Destination Marketing

Abstract

This paper examines the past performance of, and future prospects for, services marketing research into tourism destination marketing and management. While service delivery by individual enterprises is important, the fundamental products of the industry are destination experiences that incorporate commercial tourism services as well as non-commercial activities and interactions. For this reason, the paper focuses on tourism destinations rather than the individual enterprises that deliver services to tourists at destinations. The paper identifies areas that have attracted a concentration of research effort to date. The principal objective of the paper, however, is to identify services research issues deserving greater attention by service researchers in general and tourism researchers in particular.     

游客体验及其研究方法述评

从众多的游客体验研究文献中,以研究方法为主线,框架性地提取出4种研究路径,对于各种研究方法的理论基础也进行了相应的探讨,旨在介绍国外学者对于游客体验的研究方向和成果,以便拓宽国内游客体验研究的视野.     

旅游社会学研究初探

由于理论体系和方法论尚未成熟,旅游社会学仍处于初期发展阶段。本文在前人研究基础上,对旅游社会学的研究对象、研究方法进行了尝试性探讨,认为旅游社会学的研究对象范围应是旅游者的社会行为和社会关系以及由此引起的相关问题的集合,包括旅游者个体和群体两方面。旅游者个体研究包括旅游者行为及引起该行为的动机、心理、价值取向、审美观念等深层因素,属微观旅游社会学范畴;旅游者群体研究包括社会关系、跨文化交际、社会影响、旅游人流等宏观旅游社会学的层面。此外,本文还对旅游社会学的研究方法进行了初步探讨。     

Japanese Visitors to Guam: Lessons from Experience

Abstract

Naisbitt (1994) notes that 60 percent of the world's radio broadcasts, 70 percent of the worlds' mail, 85 percent of international phone calls and 80 percent of computer data are in English (pp. 24-25). Perhaps a similar preponderance exists in tourism literature. But beyond this language orientation there is a “Western” orientation of thought regarding tourist behavior and culture that might influence survey design and research methodology. This may leave researchers less able to understand the heterogeneous Asian travelers that are traveling in increasing numbers. It is important to understand the culture of the sending country when analyzing tourist behavior and motivation. This paper illustrates how understanding Japanese culture enhances the development of survey instruments as well as the interpretation of survey results. Examples are taken from the quarterly visitor exit surveys conducted on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory that serves as one of the major short-haul destinations for Japanese travelers.     

Domestic tourists to Elmina Castle,Ghana: motivation,tourism impacts,place attachment,and satisfaction

Abstract

Current research on dark tourism lacks an in-depth investigation of the relationships between the various psychological factors that influence tourist satisfaction. Using the cognitive-affective-behavior system, this paper evaluates a theoretical model that postulates relationships between four constructs, namely: motivation, perceptions of tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction. The study extends the tourism literature on cultural sustainability by showing the psychological connections of domestic tourists to a dark heritage site, and the implications for perceptions of tourism impacts on this heritage. Based on a sample of 414 domestic tourists at a dark heritage site in Elmina, Ghana, PLS-SEM confirmed several inter-relationships among the four constructs. Motivation had a positive relationship with perceptions of positive and negative tourism impacts, suggesting that the tourists who were more motivated to visit the site for cultural/learning experiences were also more inclined to perceive both positive and negative tourism impacts. Implications for dark tourism and how heritage site management can influence tourists’ perceptions of impacts are offered.     

What Facilitates a Festival Tourist? Investigating Tourists’ Experiences at a Local Community Festival

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of festival attributes and tourism facilitators on tourist satisfaction. The results of this study show that festival attributes has a positive and significant effect on tourists' satisfaction. Data analysis also revealed a positive and a significant effect of intrapersonal facilitators and structural facilitators on tourists' satisfaction. However, interpersonal facilitators do not allow a significant impact on tourists' satisfaction in the festival context. One of the most important findings is that festival commercialization is the strongest predictor of tourists' satisfaction. Structural facilitators are regarded as of primary importance in determining the satisfaction of festival tourists. Future research is needed to investigate other important antecedents of tourists' satisfaction across other festivals or locations, and to identify the complex nature of festival tourists' satisfaction. Finally, a longitudinal approach will better elucidate the relationships between measurement variables and their antecedents.     

国内外影视旅游研究进展及启示

影视旅游也称为影视引致旅游,是近年来旅游研究的热点。本文对国内外的影视旅游研究进行了系统的梳理,总结发现:国外关于影视旅游的研究内容主要集中于影视对旅游主客体的影响分析、影视旅游主体的感知体验和影视旅游吸引力3个方面;国内影视旅游研究刚刚起步,研究内容主要集中在影视旅游发展现状和影视城、外景地的经营战略上,对影视产生的旅游影响、影视旅游主体的感知体验和影视旅游客体吸引力的研究稍有涉及。在研究方法上,国外一般采用访谈结合结构式问卷(运用李克特5级量表量化数据)的案例研究,而国内停留在定性研究阶段。本文在对近年来国内外影视旅游的研究成果进行分析总结的基础上提出了加强影视旅游研究的若干方向建议,并提出了一些对已有研究成果进行实践利用的策略。     

Tourism in South America

Summary

This article introduces a collection of eight revised papers that focus on the connection between slavery and tourism. After tracing the history of the former from its origins to the present day, and after providing some examples of related attractions, it confronts a number of dilemmas associated with their juxtaposition. A brief overview of the contributions to the volume is supplied, along with some epistemological and methodological concerns that they raise. Slavery tourism is finally contextualized within a framework of thanatourism, dark tourism and dissonant heritage, a field which in turn poses several questions for further research into this new and exciting phenomenon.     

旅游文化与文化旅游:理论与实践的若干问题

“旅游文化”与“文化旅游”是两个容易被混淆的概念,也是两个应该引起重视的研究领域。本文从对比这两个概念在国内外的研究状况入手,辨析了这两个概念的含义及其研究范畴,指出目前研究的局限和应有的研究框架,并分析其相应的实践应用方向。     

国外黑色旅游研究综述

黑色旅游是近年来国外,特别是欧美地区旅游学界新兴的热点研究领域,也是一个颇具争议的领域.文章对国外有关黑色旅游的文献进行梳理,认为黑色旅游的概念界定、黑色旅游者行为特征、黑色旅游展示和历史原真性的争议、黑色旅游的影响是国外黑色旅游研究的4大主题,并对每一个主题进行了总结.     

现象世界的旅游体验:旅游世界与生活世界

本文从基础理论研究的角度探讨了旅游现象研究的几个基本范畴.作者认为,旅游现象是一种纷繁复杂的社会经济现象,而构成这种复杂现象的内核的元素就是旅游体验.这种旅游体验过程是一个有一定自组织能力的连续系统.它由一个个富有特色和专门意义的情境串联组合而成,这些情境则共同构成了一个有别于人们日常生活世界的另类行为环境:旅游世界.通过对旅游世界结构性要素的分析和描述,本文构建了一个理解旅游现象的新的视角,而这种视角的哲学渊源来自现象学方法.