Tourist self-presentation and diet regulations

This study examines tourists' dietary behavioral changes associated with how they are concerned with self-presentation. A within-subject mediation analysis reveals that tourists' self-presentational concerns can influence their diet regulations. Such concerns tend to be lower in the destination environment than in the familiar home setting. Thus, tourists at their destinations engage less frequently in diet regulations for self-presentational purposes. Key findings suggest that, although the effects of tourism on health are multifaceted, the products and services offered by hospitality organizations and businesses in the tourism system may negatively affect tourists' health owing to the relief of diet regulation and other health-related self-presentational concerns that are strongly present at home.     

Authenticity and nostalgia – subjective well-being of Chinese rural-urban migrants

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the subjective well-being of Chinese rural-urban migrants by examining the effects of nostalgia and perceived authenticity in the context of rural tourism. Founded on the concepts of tourist motivation and nostalgia and drawn on selected Chinese philosophical values, this study identifies the unique Chinese philosophical value of ‘old home’ as the key factor of motivation for migrants returning to rural destinations. Rural-urban migrants deem rural regions, as well as, mentalities, cultures, and environments in general, as their cultural and spiritual hometowns. The study also reveals that migrants pursue authentic rural destinations, which would have an emotional and memorable appeal, because it stimulates their nostalgic feelings. The study proposes the necessity of investigating Chinese issues through the lens of Chinese philosophical values and invokes an age-old value to understand their perception process of authenticity: ‘one can't have fish and bear at the same time.’ Returning to rural destinations improves these tourists’ subjective well-being because they achieve an important lifetime goal based on their traditional Chinese philosophical value of ‘searching for ancestral roots.’ The study suggests that preserving rural authenticity can improve the social and cultural welfare of hosting communities and the subjective well-being of tourists.     

Temporarily returning to an ideal life: Research on Chinese rural tourists' home experience

Home and away’ makes up a fundamental dichotomy during journeys. However, the knowledge of tourists' home experiences is limited. This study investigates Chinese rural tourists' home experiences to extend home research to more general tourism patterns and short-term tourist groups. Adopting a qualitative method to collect tourists' home experience data with the help of pictures that they prepared in advance, the study found that home experiences are an important motivation for Chinese rural tourists. It was immersion in nature, connection with history, sense of ease in interpersonal relationships and engagement with the true self and inner freedom that provided rural tourists with home experiences. The home experiences are mainly inner feelings that manifest as identity awakenings and senses of belonging and are also a manner of dwelling in the world. Rural tourism destinations should pay more attention to the construction of homey surroundings to attract more itinerant urbanites to them.     

It’s so hot: predicting climate change effects on urban tourists’ time–space experience

Abstract

Progressive changes in mean annual temperatures are arguably the strongest evidence of ongoing climate change. In destinations with a Mediterranean climate, in contrast to the colder months, during summer, rising air temperatures are believed to inhibit tourist movements and activities, and consequently affect tourists’ evaluation of and satisfaction with their experiences. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has investigated the potential impact of climate change on tourists’ time–space activity using actual behavioural tracking-based information. Data collected via GPS technology and a post-visit survey of tourists (n = 404) visiting Lisbon during the summer were analysed via structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results report empirical evidence of the present impact of (summer) weather on urban tourists’ time–space activity and on their intra-destination experience evaluation. Specifically, maximum air temperature is found to have a significant negative effect on overall satisfaction, while the meteorological conditions of the entire day reveal a significant impact on tourists’ activities and movements. The results are particularly useful for the sustainable adaptive management of urban attractions and destinations that are especially vulnerable to climate change, as well as in managing its adverse impact on tourists’ experiences.     

Finisterre: being and becoming a myth-related tourist destination

The phenomenon of travelling to myth-related places has had a revival in recent decades, warranting an investigation of how such places are perceived by today’s tourists. While established myths and the specific places they are associated with have been extensively researched, there is as yet relatively little research on how tourists appropriate and rework conventional myth-based place meaning and identity. The aim of this article is to contribute to wider debates on place, meaning and identity in tourism studies particularly as regards myth-related tourist destinations. Relying on theories of place and identity, we highlight how mythical places and their identities are appropriated and consumed by and made part of individual tourists’ experiences. Drawing on qualitative interviews with tourists journeying to Finisterre in Spain, this article shows how tourists rework the classical symbolism surrounding mythical places and imbue these with new meanings and identities. Based on Finisterre as a case, our study found out that myth-related places have become tourist-driven attractions: at present it is tourist flows that shape traditional myth destinations.     

Assessment bias of environmental quality (AEQ), consideration of future consequences (CFC), and environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) in tourism

Optimism bias in the environmental field and its effects on environmental behaviors have not been well investigated to date. This study examines if temporal and spatial biases exist when tourists assess the environment’s current and projected quality of (1) their residential places, (2) their travel destinations, and (3) a country overall. Thereafter, we examined the effects of assessment bias and consideration of future consequences on tourists’ environmental behaviors (including behaviors in destinations and general behaviors). In a sample of Chinese domestic tourists, temporal optimism was dominant in their assessment of the future environmental quality for all three spatial areas, above. Spatial optimism was found when comparing residential places and destinations to the whole country, but spatial pessimism was found when comparing residential places to destinations. Assessment bias was not associated with the environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) of tourists. However, the consideration of future consequences and absolute environmental quality assessment did have a significant influence on their ERB. Furthermore, the general ERB of tourists had a significant effect on their site-specific destination ERB.     

Special interest tourism is not so special after all: Big data evidence from the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse

This study puts to empirical test a major typology in the tourism literature, mass versus special interest tourism (SIT), as the once-distinctive boundary between the two has become blurry in modern tourism scholarship. We utilize 41,747 geo-located Instagram photos pertaining to the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse and Big Data analytics to distinguish tourists based on their choice of observational destinations and spatial movement patterns. Two types of tourists are identified: opportunists and hardcore. The motivational profile of those tourists is validated with the external data through hypothesis testing and compared with and contrasted against existing motivation-based tourist typologies. The main conclusion is that large share of tourists involved in what is traditionally understood as SIT activities exhibit behavior and profile characteristic of mass tourists seeking novelty but conscious about risks and comforts. Practical implications regarding the potential of rural and urban destinations for developing SIT tourism are also discussed.     

Experiencing the real village – a netnographic examination of perceived authenticity in rural tourism consumption

There is an upsurge of research interest regarding authenticity in contemporary tourism consumption as modern tourists have been found to prefer involve in real backstage experiences to participating in pseudo-events and mass congregations. This paper presents a netnographic analysis of tourists’ reviews on village destinations and explores how authenticity is experienced by tourists in a village setting and the indicators pertaining to it. Trip Advisor reviews of three Indian villages were downloaded and analysed. Findings reveal that tourists consider authenticity as a critical factor in rural village experience. The indicators of rural authentic experience and their implications are also highlighted.     

Rural tourism quality of services: fundamental contributive factors from tourists’ perceptions

Despite the importance of quality of services in the rural tourism sector, it is somewhat surprising that little study has been done to delve into the fundamental contributive factors that contribute to quality of services from the tourists’ perceptions. This is the first known study undertaken with a view to understand the fundamental contributive factors (i.e. climate change, carrying capacity, relaxation environment, and community support) from the environmental perspectives that link with quality of services in rural tourism destinations. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to the tourists who visited four study sites from Borneo Heights, Sarawak, and 215 were returned and used for analysis. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modelling and then bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that tourists are more concerned about the changing of climate and relaxation environment at the destination. They also agreed that community support plays a significant role in the development of quality of services in the rural tourism. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future research.     

旅游目的地游客安全感的影响因素实证研究——以福建泉州为例

安全感是旅游目的地安全状况的“晴雨表”,是游客在旅游目的地的最基本需求.文章通过文献回顾、案例分析和在线网络点评数据挖掘,归纳出游客安全感的影响因素,同时通过对来泉州游客的问卷调查,采用因子分析,提取出游客安全感的5个影响公因子:治安状况、旅游环境、服务内容、地域文化和感知信息.为进一步研究游客安全感的影响因素对游客的影响程度,采用K-means均值快速聚类法,将游客划分为平衡型、谨慎型和冒险型3类；采用多元回归分析验证了游客安全感的5个公因子与安全期望的相关关系,其中,感知信息、旅游环境、治安状况、服务内容4个公因子与游客安全期望成正向影响,地域文化与游客的安全期望成负相关.     

Identifying tourists with smaller environmental footprints

This paper identifies which information about tourists serves as the best predictor of their pro-environmental behavior at home and on vacation. If a small set of predictors can be identified, the tourism industry would be able to use them to focus attention on attracting tourists with smaller environmental footprints. Results from a survey asking respondents about pro-environmental behavior in their role as residents and tourists indicate that environmental concern, altruism, feeling morally obliged to behave in an environmentally friendly manner, age and regional identity are the best predictors of the segment of people who behave in an environmentally friendly way at home. Income levels and moral obligation best predict membership of the segment of environmentally friendly tourists. The two segments overlap; differences between them are due to the fact that, at home, people can create the infrastructure they require to behave in an environmentally friendly way. On vacation they need to adjust to the infrastructure provided, which can act as a barrier to pro-environmental behavior. Results have direct practical implications, highlighting the value of demand-side approaches to environmentally sustainable tourism for protected areas, both urban and rural, such as focusing on those market segments that have the highest intrinsic inclination to protect the environment.     

The roles of perceived internal and external benefits and costs in innovation co-creation: lessons from Japan

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that motivate tourists to engage in collaborative efforts with tourist destinations for the co-creation of innovative tourism products. Targeting tourists who have visited Tokyo for tourism purpose, the study verifies the antecedents of tourists’ intention to co-create, which include perceived benefits (PB), perceived costs (PC), subjective norms, and ability to co-create tourism innovation. This study further reveals that PC do not have a significant impact on tourists’ intention to participate in innovation co-creation activities, while the other antecedents play important roles. Also, separating PB and costs into internal and external factors, perceived internal benefits (PIB) play a significant role in motivating tourists to participate in co-creation, while perceived external benefits do not. Practical implications are provided for destinations such as Japan to encourage tourists to share their valuable knowledge to improve tourism products and services of tourist destinations.     

强关系网络移动社交平台旅游分享行为研究——基于微信与QQ用户的资料分析

在移动社交媒体时代,旅游分享已成为当下旅游者的行为偏好,越来越多的旅游者选择微信、QQ这类强关系移动社交平台进行分享。国内学界对移动社交平台旅游分享行为的研究随之日增,但少有文章从理论上系统地揭示旅游分享行为的过程与动因。文章采用扎根理论研究方法,构建反映强关系网络移动社交平台的旅游分享动态过程理论模型。将旅游分享行为动态过程划分为分享前因、分享实现与分享结果3个阶段,总结每个阶段的行为特征、表现方式及阶段之间的演替规律,并探讨这类旅游分享行为的特点与动因。研究发现,在旅游分享动机上,强关系移动社交平台强调情感联结与互动,从而旅游者受到与个体相关动机的影响更为显著;分享内容上,平台的强关系特性与熟人社交促使旅游者尽量避免分享负面信息;分享结果上,强关系移动社交平台的旅游分享能调节旅游者行中、行后的体验水平,并形成兼具网络时空拓展性与熟人圈规模局限性的口碑传播。     

旅游者满意与旅游者忠诚的关系研究——观光旅游者与乡村旅游者比较分析

旅游者忠诚是旅游市场研究的重要内容,对于旅游地市场开发意义重大。文章通过对观光旅游者与乡村旅游者调查获取丰富基础数据,比较分析旅游者满意与旅游者忠诚之间的关系及其差异性。研究发现,无论是观光旅游者还是乡村旅游者,旅游者满意对其忠诚的重游倾向、口碑宣传二维度具有显著正向影响,重游倾向与口碑宣传存在递进关系,而在旅游者满意与其忠诚的寻找替代旅游地维度的关系上,两种类型旅游者存在显著差异,观光旅游者满意对寻找替代旅游地具有显著正向影响,乡村旅游者满意对寻找替代旅游地具有显著负向影响。文章最后提出了相应管理启示,指出了研究局限及未来研究方向。     

旅游者恢复性环境感知与游后行为意向——影响机制和边界条件

游客恢复性环境感知作为联结旅游体验和健康的重要环节,是游客与旅游地环境交融形成的综合性体验,是游客管理研究的新视角,但游客恢复性环境感知对游后行为意向的积极效用还未得到深入理解。文章从注意恢复理论出发,应用Mehrabian-Rusell模型,探讨游客恢复性感知、满意度对游后行为意向的影响及游客涉入的调节作用。通过问卷调查收集数据,得到547个有效样本,使用结构方程建模。研究发现:游客功能类恢复性感知(一致性、新奇)正向影响情感类恢复性感知(迷人、兼容性、逃逸);兼容性比迷人对满意度的正向影响更大;新奇比逃逸对游后行为意向的正向影响更大;兼容性与满意度在"一致性、新奇-游后行为意向"的结构中有多重链式中介作用;迷人、兼容性对满意度的影响受游客涉入的正调节。游客恢复性感知对游后行为意向的影响过程表现为"环境刺激认知-情感-意向"三阶段传递机制。最后讨论了上述发现对目的地营销与管理的启示。     

Investigating wellness tourists’ motivation,engagement, and loyalty: in search of the missing link

Wellness tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the current thriving tourism industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate tourists’ motivation and its relationship with engagement and loyalty at wellness tourism destinations. Specifically, tourists’ motivation was evaluated via four components: prestige and luxury; novelty and knowledge; self-development; and relaxation and escape. Tourists’ engagement was assessed from two perspectives: experiential and reflective. The study confirmed the impact of tourists’ motivation on engagement, which consequently leads to loyalty. The present research provides industry practitioners with strategies to understand and predict tourists’ behavior in wellness tourism destinations.     

旅游地日常生活的康复性意义研究——以丽江古城为例

健康是人类关注的永恒话题,旅游和健康本源上存在密切联系,近年来已成为旅游学及其交叉学科关注的研究热点。旅游地如何促进旅游者健康体验、幸福感甚至社会福祉,是亟待回答的学理和实践命题。基于此,文章将旅游地日常生活与旅游者健康体验联系起来,以丽江古城客栈主与旅游者为研究对象,通过深度访谈和参与式观察,明晰旅游情境中日常生活对于旅游者主观健康体验的积极作用。研究发现:(1)旅游地从空间、时间、社会实践3个维度营造了特定时空中的生活新范式与典范形态,建构了环境、日常生活与健康交互新面向;(2)旅游地日常生活为旅游者提供了物质、社会和心理多重资源,形成了生理、心理和精神、社会人际交往能力三维康复性意义结构;(3)旅游地日常生活的康复性意义是在旅游者与旅游地复杂性、动态性关联中建构的,并从生产与消费两端对康复性意义进行共同塑造与整合。研究从微观层面的日常生活出发,以实证分析回应了旅游、日常生活、健康体验之间的互动关联,为深入理解旅游的意义提供了新思考,也为旅游业实现美好生活需要提供现实指导。     

A broader social identity comes with stronger face consciousness: The effect of identity breadth on deviant tourist behavior among Chinese outbound tourists

Deviant tourist behavior (DTB) among Chinese outbound tourists has sparked concerns that such behavior not only exposes destinations to various negative impacts but also damages the international image of China. Hence, it is necessary to explore how to reduce such behavior. Social identity cues are an effective inhibitor of DTB; however, previous research has focused on the influence of the interdependent and interactive nature of social identities on DTB, neglecting the inclusive nature of social identities. To fill this gap, the current study focuses on how Chinese outbound tourists’ identity breadth affects their deviant behavior in international tourism contexts. In Study 1, we examine a distinctive feature of international tourism contexts and find that tourists have high face consciousness. Second, we propose and document that Chinese outbound tourists primed with a broad (vs. narrow) identity develop higher face consciousness and a lower intention to engage in deviant behavior (Studies 1 and 2), with face consciousness mediating this process (Study 3). Finally, Study 4 finds that the number of fellow tourists with the same identity moderates this effect. The influence of identity breadth on DTB is manifest when there are few in-group members present. Our findings provide meaningful practical and theoretical value regarding how to reduce tourists’ deviant behavior through identity-related cues.     

Holiday Home Owners,a Route to Sustainable Tourism Development? An Economic Analysis of Tourist Expenditure Data

Although sustainable tourism comprises economic, social and environmental aspects, economic analysis has been less evident in the literature. This paper takes an economic perspective to evaluate the contribution of holiday home owners to a local economy. Tourism destinations which are at the mature stages of the tourism lifecycle wish to maximise revenue from tourism while minimising costs such as overcrowding. A prime objective has to be to attract the more economically valuable tourists. In this paper an analysis of North Wexford in Ireland poses questions such as: How does the holiday home owners’ expenditure in the local area compare to that of traditional tourists? Do they purchase different types of goods? What levels of local expenditure do holiday home owners engage in for the upkeep or development of their second properties? What are the implications of these findings? The results show that there are clear economic benefits for an area that people deem attractive enough to build or purchase a holiday home in. This type of tourist has a high annual spend relative to other tourists and much of this expenditure seems to be concentrated in the local area. These findings need to be incorporated into the broader debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of holiday home owners and the possibility of them comprising a route to sustainable development for local tourist areas.     

Reject or select: Mapping destination choice

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore tourists’ destination choice processes. Destination choices are investigated using a combination of data on destinations and on tourists’ individual destination choices. Data were collected in Munich/Germany in 2013 using personal interviews; 622 interviews were completed. This approach allows detecting reasons for the rejection or selection of certain types of destinations during the destination choice process. Results show that tourists often start the destination choice process with various combinations of destination types but act similarly when choosing the final destination. The investigation of tourist and destination characteristics results in a tourist typology that varies in regard to similarity and type of alternative destinations at different stages of the destination choice process.