Cultural sensitivity: Engaging difference in tourism

Cultural sensitivity is highly relevant but inadequately conceptualized in tourism contexts. This article explores and advances understanding of cultural sensitivity in relation to Arctic tourism where local and Indigenous livelihoods and environments are tethered to dynamics of recent tourism growth and decline, climate change, and colonial power relations. Framing cultural sensitivity as a subjective orientation towards otherness, the article illuminates differences between ethnocentric and ethnorelative orientations and discusses the importance of relational tourism processes. By advancing the conceptualization of cultural sensitivity, the article offers a framework for developing tourism services and products, and approaching tourism encounters, in ways that can enhance recognition, respect and reciprocity towards otherness in Arctic tourism and beyond.     

Living with mosquitoes

This paper joins the debate on multispecies encounters in tourism by focusing on a hitherto overlooked animal: the mosquito. Drawing from feminist new materialist literature, it works towards a post-anthropocentric approach to exploring the narratives performed around the mosquito–tourist encounter and to casting a transformative narrative – living with mosquitoes – that recognises tourists and mosquitoes as fellow travellers. We use a memory-work method to generate our empirical materials, complemented by media materials. Our analysis details, via two thematised stories, the trans-corporeal nature of the mosquito–tourist encounter and the complexity of ethical relations – discussed in terms of violence and care – involved in it. The study enriches understanding of multispecies encounters and multispecies ethics in tourism.     

Sex tourism

This article reviews the existing literature on sex tourism and prostitution. The review reveals a relatively narrow definition of what the subject constitutes. This paper proposes a holistic framework that moves beyond the traditional use of monetary exchange as the defining criterion of sex tourism. Besides pecuniary aspects, the framework incorporates several parameters, including intention and opportunity, tourism, length of time, prostitute–tourist relationship, sexual encounter, and who travels. These are used as important criteria in establishing what constitutes sex tourism and/or identifying sex tourists. By adopting this new perspective it is hoped that existing double standards towards sex tourism and its workers are recognized and overcome.     

Urban sensory map: How do tourists “sense” a destination spatially?

Tourism sensory experiences represent a spatially constrained and constructed process influenced by various environmental stimuli. Although growing academic attention has been devoted to sensory tourism, few studies have incorporated spatiality into investigations of sensory experiences. This study establishes a macro–meso–micro analytical framework to explore the relationships among sensory experiences and spatial environmental characteristics based on social media big data. This research also moves beyond the conventional five-sense framework to include a sixth sense—interoception. Results (a) uncover the spatial distribution and relationships among sensory experiences in a destination; (b) demonstrate associations between attraction types and sensory experiences; and (c) illustrate interactions between environmental attributes and sensory encounters. This study theoretically clarifies relevant antecedents, extends a sense-based framework, and multidimensionally enriches tourism sensory experiences; empirically offer guidance for sensory environment planning, marketing, and management. Results also produce methodological insights for adopting social media big data to capture sensory experiences.     

A systematic review of AI technology-based service encounters: Implications for hospitality and tourism operations

The hospitality and tourism industry faces serious challenges during public health emergencies such as COVID-19. Managers are concerned not only about how to maintain business and provide humanized services but also about social distancing. This study presented artificial intelligence (AI) technology-based service encounters as a possible solution and examined the antecedents and consequences of the encounter triad including customers, employees, and AI. Based on a systematic literature review, the study identified 4 modes of AI technology-based service encounters: AI-supplemented, AI-generated, AI-mediated, and AI-facilitated encounters. In addition, the study developed an integrated model to specify the factors that influence AI technology-infused service encounters in general and the customer service outcomes that result from the encounters. The findings contribute to service management and AI application theoretically and practically.     

Constructing Indicators of Culinary Tourism Strategy: An Application of Resource-Based Theory

A tourism destination that seeks to develop culinary tourism products must combine the featured culinary cultures with tourism resources to support the culinary tourism strategies. A concrete strategic framework will aid tourism destinations in identifying local culinary products and experiences and creating promotional strategies and tools for the development of local culinary tourism. The purpose of this study is to construct a strategy framework and indicators for culinary tourism in Taiwan based on resource-based theory (RBT). This study included a qualitative document analysis, a literature review, in-depth interviews, and application of the Fuzzy Delphi method. The results show a culinary tourism strategy framework consisting of four dimensions and 75 indicators. The four dimensions are resources, capabilities, strategy, and education. The four dimensions are comprised of 10 factors (strategies) with a total of 75 indicators. In addition to its practical implications, an important contribution of this study is its application of RBT to develop national culinary tourism resource and strategy planning.     

Puzzling out “Toyrism”: Conceptualizing value co-creation in toy tourism

This study discusses the value of “toyrism,” the emerging mobile and social play patterns in association with toys through the object-based, but technologically enhanced practices of toy tourism. The study combines the value dimensions of play value afforded in the toys with the value generated in the co-creative activity of toy tourism, involving artifacts, affects, and touristic playscapes. Based on literature reviews on toy play, tourism experiences, and souvenirs, a conceptual framework was created and empirically examined through interview data. According to the results, the value of toyrism manifests in the functional value of making toys mobile and the emotional value of creative and visual documentation of toys' journeys. Furthermore, the value of toyrism is co-created through playful encounters between the player and the toy while traveling and in the process of playing: enabling experiences, documenting, and sharing the toy travels for others to enjoy through social media platforms.     

Customer Roles in Self-Service Technology Encounters in a Tourism Context

This paper reports on a study which explored the customer perspective on their roles in SST encounters in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic. The study employed short qualitative interviews with airline passengers at an international airport. The findings suggest that customers can assume six roles in an SST encounter which can be viewed as either positive or negative in terms of value creation. Therefore, a key contribution of this paper is the development of a role–experience continuum which depicts the variations in customer experiences of value creation in a tourism context.     

The human dimensions of wildlife tourism in a developing country: watching spinner dolphins at Lovina,Bali, Indonesia

The number of cetacean watching tourism operations in developing countries has doubled in the past decade. Practices are typically unregulated and not informed by research, especially research into the human dimensions of the tourist experience. Dolphin watching tourism at Lovina, Bali, started in the late 1980s when local fishers formed self-regulating cooperatives. Up to 180 dedicated operators use small fishing vessels to carry passengers to watch dolphins close to shore. Most tourists come from western countries, although the industry also attracts Asian visitors. Most visitors are tertiary-educated. Tourist satisfaction ranges from low to medium. While there was no significant difference between the average satisfaction of western and Asian tourists, the associated variables were different. The satisfaction of western tourists was associated with encounter management, preferred number of boats and the number of dolphins seen. Encounter management was the only variable associated with the satisfaction of Asian tourists. Satisfaction was positively associated with willingness to recommend the tour: western respondents who felt neutral to very comfortable with their dolphin encounters were more likely to promote the tour. Better understanding of the tourist experience is crucial in designing sustainable marine wildlife tourism in developing countries; such research appears to be rare.     

Performance measurement in tourism firms: A content analytical meta-approach

This paper performs a meta-analysis of tourism performance measurement by synthesising tourism and hospitality research. A framework for understanding and advancing knowledge about tourism performance measurement is presented to overview three important dimensions of the tourism performance measurement literature (unit of analysis, approaches and disciplines). Computer-Aided Text Analysis of 978 articles covering a nineteen-year period, 1996 to 2014, is used to analyse approaches and disciplinary contexts. Specifically, we aim to advance a concrete understanding of tourism firms' performance measurement literature and to assess whether the temporal trends in performance measurement literature will help position tourism firms for the emerging tourism context. We propose some key research areas to guide a future tourism performance measurement research agenda.     

Places around us: embodied lay geographies in leisure and tourism

Places are one pervasive component of leisure and tourism. Leisure and tourism include encounters with place. Encounters with other people and material things, imagination and memory occur in places. In social science increasing attention is being given to the human individual as productive in everyday practices, as producer rather than consumer. This position is informed through a discussion of the phenomena of embodiment, the human subject and practise. In this paper these elements are outlined and attention directed to ways in which these inform thinking about place in leisure and tourism. These elements are considered in relation to the sensuous, social and poetic dimensions of embodiment. Embodiment denotes the ways in which the individual grasps the world around her/him and makes sense of it in ways that engage both mind and body. It is argued that these dimensions offer a route into a more human-oriented comprehension of leisure and tourism than has been prevalent in much recent work in leisure and tourism studies, and thus provides ground for a more inclusive approach to policy in the new millennium. It is important to note that this emphasis on the human individual in no sense draws away from recognition of other contextual concerns which are on the contrary given more affective consideration.     

Analysis of Employee Performance during Cross-cultural Service Encounters at Luxury Hotels in Hawaii,London and Florida

Globalization has motivated managers and scholars in the tourism industry to focus more attention on the problems and characteristics of the cross-cultural service encounter. During these interactions, differing cultural norms and values often create misunderstanding and conflict, which can result in an unhappy customer, a frustrated service provider and lost business. Therefore, the focus of this study was to analyze the effect of intercultural sensitivity on tourism employee performance in cross-cultural service encounters in three similar, but distinct service-dependent markets: the Hawaiian Islands, Greater London (UK) and the state of Florida. The results indicate that tourism employees with high intercultural sensitivity generally scored significantly (p < 0.05) higher than employees with low intercultural sensitivity in terms of service attentiveness, revenue contribution, interpersonal skills, job satisfaction and social satisfaction as they relate to cross-cultural encounters. There was no significant difference in results for motivation to work, tenure (years at present organization) and primary rewards (compensation, recognition, etc.). Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Governmentality and surf tourism destination governance

Abstract

Surf resources are critical to thousands of coastal communities as the natural resource base for many tourism services that spur development. There is, however, almost a total lack of formal surf-break management around the world, despite many surf resources becoming crowded, which leads to nuanced resource conflicts with social, economic and environmental implications. Managerial approaches and surf research, we argue, could become more effective by incorporating a nuanced understanding of the scales and process that govern behavior in surf tourism. This conceptual article first applies tourism destination governance (TDG) to outline the many stakeholders and scalar dimensions involved in governing surf tourism. To expand this normative analysis, Foucault’s governmentality framework is used to discuss different informal governance regimes (sovereign, disciplinary, and neoliberal) that conduct behavior at surf-breaks. The intersection of TDG and typologies of governmentality then help to discuss empirical cases demonstrating how governmentalities operating both at the surf-break and at wider scales, often overlap to either reinforce one another and powerfully condition behavior or compete and make governance ineffectual. This elaboration of surf tourism destination governance (STDG) opens up a new research agenda for surf tourism scholarship also applicable to other forms of tourism dependent upon contested natural resources.     

Service encounter value and online engagement behaviors

This study investigates the relationships between service encounter values and online customer engagement behaviors in the context of hospitality and tourism services. Given that interactions are contextual in nature, this study examines the service encounter values across four major service sectors, i.e., hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and airlines through 1710 responses from actual service consumers. Multiple structural equation modeling techniques are conducted to test the hypotheses. Various values (i.e., emotional value, social value, functional value, and epistemic value) are identified in different sectors of service encounters that pose significant influences on online customer engagement behaviors such as online rating, online reviewing, online blogging, and online customer-to-customer interactions. Practical and theoretical implications are provided, as well as future research directions.     

游客间互动对再惠顾意愿的影响研究——基于游客体验的视角

同顾客与员工、顾客与服务环境之间的互动研究相比,服务接触中顾客间互动的研究明显匮乏,这也逐渐成为了服务接触理论进一步深化研究的关键领域。文章基于顾客体验的视角,构建并实证检验了游客间互动对游客再惠顾意愿影响的概念模型,发现了游客间互动的4个维度在影响游客体验价值各层面上存在的差异性以及体验价值的不同维度在游客间互动对再惠顾意愿影响中的不同中介作用：礼仪违背、友好交谈对情感性、认知性、社会性体验价值有显著影响,并间接影响游客的再惠顾意愿;一方面干扰和争执对功能性、情感性体验价值有显著的负向影响,建议与帮助对体验价值的4个维度有显著正向影响,进而间接影响游客的再惠顾意愿,另一方面干扰与争执对再惠顾意愿有直接的负向影响,建议与帮助对再惠顾意愿有直接正向影响作用。此外,有效辨识出各人口统计变量的不同水平对各研究变量影响的差异。这对于旅游企业开展良好的顾客关系管理具有重大的指导意义和价值。     

Tourism and the geopolitics of Buddhist heritage in Nepal

This study explores the intricacies of geopolitical imagination at a heritage attraction in Nepal, when a Chinese NGO proposed an investment project to develop it as tourism hub. It seeks to investigate the discourses and reasons deployed by Nepali tourism stakeholders in explaining the Chinese plan. The study applies qualitative methodology and the primary data which were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews. The study shows that in articulating the project aim, the agency of national actors is shaped by the regional power struggle and a ‘nationalist’ sentiment originated from perceived threat to the heritage in question. The finding is useful in understanding the complexities of geopolitical constraints that can influence tourism development projects.     

Participant crowding and physical contact rates of whale shark tours on Isla Holbox,Mexico

Whale shark tourism is a growing niche market within the marine wildlife tourism sector. Increased visitation and declining whale shark numbers at some tourism sites worldwide raise questions over the long-term sustainability of this industry. This study examines the social and potential biological impacts of “swim-with” whale shark tourism on Isla Holbox, Mexico. A total of 397 tour participants completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding perceived crowding, reported encounters and encounter norms, as well as self-reported physical contact rates with whale sharks. Relatively high physical contact rates suggest that tourism may cause some harm to sharks. Users who encountered more swimmers than their norm felt significantly more crowded and were more likely to perceive the industry as having a negative impact on the sharks and surrounding environment. However, the results suggest that the number of boats in the whale shark viewing area may have a greater influence on crowding than number of swimmers. Management interventions to improve the sustainability of the industry include improved interpretation and guide intervention, achieving higher compliance with existing guidelines, and limiting the number of boats allowed in the whale shark viewing area.     

社会学框架下的旅游学学科属性定位分析

本文在假设旅游学是一门独立学科这一前提下，借用社会学关于学科属性定位的分析框架，对旅游学的学科属性进行定位分析。从学科的认知维度来看，旅游学是一门“应用”性较强的“软”学科；从学科的组织维度来看，旅游学是一门“分野度”较高而“城市化度”较低的学科。旅游学学科的这些属性的确定。为我们解释旅游学发展现状提供了基本依据。能够使我们明确旅游学的发展阶段、发展方向以及应注意的问题，这对于旅游学学科建设具有重要意义。     

国际旅游地理的最新进展

长期以来,人们都认为旅游业是极富韧性的产业。在过去几十年中,旅游业虽然遭受了许多打击,但是依然呈现增长的态势。国际旅游地理研究也呈现蓬勃发展的态势。2020年以来的全球新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对旅游业产生了巨大的影响,旅游地理研究也发生了相应的改变。本文对近十年来旅游地理学研究的主要领域进行了回顾,探讨在Covid-19影响之下,该学科于未来几十年中主要关注的问题。本文指出即便在全球疫情的严峻形势下,旅游地理方面长期关注的许多关键问题仍然具有重要的现实意义,例如旅游的影响、作用及其与可持续发展目标的关系,旅游与气候变化,近几十年及未来几十年旅游的地理尺度变化等。疫情影响下,旅游地理会更多地关注如何实现“更好的旅游业”、迅速崛起的旅游服务数字化和社交媒体对旅游业的影响以及旅游业的韧性。从与地理学的其他分支学科相比被边缘化,这场全球疫情以多种方式表明,休闲和旅游业从来都不是边缘产业,而是一个重要的经济产业,它不仅有助于人们的社会福祉,也有助于提升人们的幸福感。     

Role interpretation during service encounters: A critical review of modern approaches to service quality management

This paper tries to place the notion of employee role interpretation within concerns for service quality. More specifically, it argues a case that dyadic analysis reveals that role reinterpretation is a process that can adversely affect service encounters when it takes place within the encounter. The paper addresses the issue of how relationships in personal service encounters deteriorate and explores this issue in the context of tourism and hospitality. The rationale for such an approach is acceptance of the limits of emotional labour and the lack of explanation in the literature for the variable results of normative managerial approaches to service quality. Role interpretation is seen as being distinctive form of coping outside the acting solutions of emotional labour and the purview of organisational culture as it is currently conceived. One consequence of arguing for the salience of role interpretation is a view of job satisfaction that places the concept of ‘job’ as being as important as that of satisfaction with it.