The travel cost method and the economic value of leisure time

Recent estimates of high values for tourist related recreation USA amenity values indicate that allocation of basic water and terrestrial resources to recreation activities should be given precedence over conventional market oriented activities that often degrade or even extirpate the resource. We discuss at length the travel cost method (TCM), a survey based technique that quantifies the non‐market benefits of trips to recreation sites. The TCM has been cast in the role of an ‘umpire’ in recent resource allocation debates. Understanding the key role of the TCM in the debate will aid tourist agency officials throughout the world. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the U.S.A.     

Routing and refueling plans to minimize travel time in alternative-fuel vehicles

A driver who drives an alternative-fuel vehicle (AFV) from an origin point to a destination point needs to consider how to get there (i.e., the routing problem), when to stop, and how and when to refuel (i.e., the refueling plan). In this study, models and algorithms are proposed that optimize a one-way-trip path such that the total travel time from the origin to the destination is minimized. The travel time consists of the setup time, the refueling time and the driving time. The setup time includes waiting for the AFV to be served at a refueling station and the preparation time of charging the machine. We categorized the problems into two types: (1) the refueling plan problem when the routing decision is given and (2) an integrated problem of routing and refueling. Another axis of categorization is when (1) setup time and refueling times are site-independent and (2) parameters are site-dependent. We propose optimal algorithms for site-independent problems and the integrated problem of routing and refueling planning with site-independent parameters. We also conduct experiments and sensitivity analyses for the site-dependent integrated problems of routing and refueling.     

Determinants of the Adoption for Travel Information on Smartphone

Many travelers are interested in the usage of smartphones for their trips. This study aims in investigating the determinants of their intentions to adopt information on smartphones for travel decision making. This paper suggests a combined model to examine travelers’ intentions to use travel information on their smartphones from two standpoints: hardware using the united theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and software using the e‐satisfaction (E‐SAT) model. The results show that four main determinants influence travelers' intentions to use travel information on smartphones for their trips: usefulness, ease of use, social influence, and satisfaction with travel websites. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An investigation into the impact of vacation travel on the tourist

This paper explored the impact of vacation travel on the ‘self’ using a questionnaire survey and interviews. Vacation travel emerged as a form of learning about the self, a journey of self‐discovery rather than self‐recovery. Travel impacts are predominantly self‐centered, producing changes that provide opportunities for personal growth. Experiences leading to these changes are mainly influenced by interactions with the ‘other’. Importantly, no significant association was found between personality type and being impacted, and no difference was found between a pleasurable and a miserable experience and being impacted. Both findings offer a contribution to knowledge and a platform for further research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating the impact of COVID-19 on air travel in the medium and long term using neural network and Monte Carlo simulation

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the airline industry. Air travel in the United States declined in 2020 with significantly lower domestic and international flights. The dynamic change and uncertainty in the trend of COVID-19 have made it difficult to predict future air travel. This paper aims at developing and testing neural network models that predict domestic and international air travel in the medium and long term based on residents' daily trips by distance, economic condition, COVID-19 severity, and travel restrictions. Data in the United States from various sources were used to train and validate the neural network models, and Monte Carlo simulations were constructed to predict air travel under uncertainty of the pandemic and economic growth. The results show that weekly economic index (WEI) is the most important predictor for air travel. Additionally, daily trips by distance play a more important role in the prediction of domestic air travel than the international one, while travel restrictions seem to have an impact on both. Sensitivity analysis results for four different scenarios indicate that air travel in the future is more sensitive to the change in WEI than the changes in COVID-19 variables. Additionally, even in the best-case scenario, when the pandemic is over and the economy is back to normal, it still takes several years for air travel to return to normal, as before the pandemic. The findings have significant contributions to the literature in COVID-19's impact on air transportation and air travel prediction.     

Design of limited-stop bus service with capacity constraint and stochastic travel time

This paper develops a mathematical model for the optimal stopping design of limited-stop bus service, which allows each bus vehicle to skip some stops. To better reflect the reality, this paper considers the vehicle capacity and stochastic travel time. Also, vehicles are all allowed to skip stops whereas any stop is not allowed to be skipped by two consecutive vehicles. A hybrid artificial bee colony (ABC) and Monte Carlo method is developed to solve the optimal stopping strategy. Finally, the model and solution method are validated by a numerical example, and a sensitivity analysis is performed on the passenger demand.     

Investigating the Impact of SERVQUAL Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction: The Lessons Learnt from Serbian Travel Agencies

Despite the rise of online travel booking services, it seems that traditional travel agencies remain an intractable part in the process of making travel arrangements for most travelers. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what triggers travelers' satisfaction with travel agencies. In order to explore this, we focused on Serbian travel agencies and researched the impact of the five individual SERVQUAL dimensions on travelers' satisfaction. Results revealed that four SERVQUAL dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) had a significant influence on customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travel industry structure in fast growing but immature outbound markets: the case of Korea to Australia travel

This paper examines the structure of the travel industry in Korea with particular reference to outbound travel to Australia. The relationship between the wholesaling and retailing functions is examined. It was found that despite the existence of strict licensing procedures, which have created three categories of travel business, the distinction between the wholesaling and retailing functions remains blurred. Most business is handled by a single category of operator — general travel agents. In contrast to the oligopolies evident in other industrial sectors in Korea, however a fairly large number of companies each handle a fairly small proportion of the market. This may change as a combination of intense price competition and the impact of the East Asian financial crisis forces less competitive operators out of business. Until the expected shake-out occurs, inbound tour operators in countries such as Australia will feel the pinch. An excessive and continuing emphasis on price will make it difficult for long-haul destinations to offer high quality products and to build high-yield business. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Income and distance elasticities of values of travel time savings: New Swiss results

This paper presents the findings of a study looking into the valuation of travel time savings (VTTS) in Switzerland, across modes as well as across purpose groups. The study makes several departures from the usual practice in VTTS studies, with the main one being a direct representation of the income and distance elasticity of the VTTS measures. Here, important gains in model performance and significantly different results are obtained through this approach. Additionally, the analysis shows that the estimation of robust coefficients for congested car travel time is hampered by the low share of congested time in the overall travel time, and the use of an additional rate-of-congestion coefficient, in addition to a generic car travel time coefficient, is preferable. Finally, the analysis demonstrates that the population mean of the indicators calculated is quite different from the sample means and presents methods to calculate those, along with the associated variances. These variances are of great interest as they allow the generation of confidence intervals, which can be extremely useful in cost-benefit analyses.     

Analysis of user satisfaction to promote public transportation: A pattern-recognition approach focusing on out-of-vehicle time

Public transportation has been regarded as one of the most sustainable forms of transport, because of which local governments have put efforts in increasing the mode share of public transportation. Recently, not only level of service but also user satisfaction has been focused on for the assessment of transport policy; however, several points have been overlooked in previous research, such as attribute-based satisfaction, the relationship between level of service and satisfaction, and user expectation. This paper deals with these issues while assuming the heterogeneity of satisfaction, which is an indicator of perception. Out-of-vehicle times, particularly headway and access time, were selected in the analysis because they can affect travel behavior of current and potential public transportation customers. In this analysis, pattern-recognition models were applied, and public transportation users were segmented in terms of perception. The results suggest several notable recommendations for public transport policies and investigations.     

Islamic tourism: an empirical examination of travel motivation and satisfaction in Malaysia

The objectives of this study are to test the relationship between tourism motivations and tourist satisfaction, and to test how ‘Religion’ moderates the relationship. The variable ‘Religion’ is represented by the availability of Islamic norms and practices relevant to tourism at the destination. The results of the partial least square indicate that tourism motivations are significantly and positively related to tourist satisfaction. The results also showed that Religion significantly moderates the relationship between pull motivation and tourist satisfaction. However, the moderating effect of Religion on the relationship between push motivation and tourist satisfaction was not supported.     

The spatial and temporal variation in passenger service rate and its impact on train dwell time: A time-series clustering approach using dynamic time warping

This study aims to improve the understanding of the underlying mechanism of passenger boarding and alighting processes, as well as its potential influence on train dwell time and train operation. Empirical data collected from one of busiest metro stations in Seoul, Korea, demonstrates the spatial and temporal variation in the passenger service rate, as a result of interference between boarding, alighting, and standing passengers. This study postulates that the level of interference can be associated with the train car occupancy and the proximity of train door to entry points, as waiting passengers tend to cluster near the platform entries. A unique temporal service rate curve is derived from each door location. We introduce Dynamic Time Warping for similarity assessment and clustering. It revealed four groups of train doors showing distinct shapes of curve from each platform. The first cluster includes the train doors located closest to the platform entry points where the initial service rate is drastically impeded by severe inference among passengers. The level of interference gradually diminishes as the door is located farther away from the entry points, but the overall service rate decreases as well. A passenger service time model is derived to include the cluster variable. To test its significance, the prediction capability of the model is presented with and without the cluster variable. The results of this study may be used to guide waiting passengers along the platform to minimize interference and to avoid serious disruption during passenger service time.     

Mitigating the impact of errors in travel time reporting on mode choice modelling

Travel time is a major component in understanding travel demand. However, the quantification of demand and forecasting hinges on understanding how travel time is perceived and reported. Travel time reporting is typically subject to errors and this paper focuses on the mitigation of their impact on choice models. The aim is to explain the origin of these errors by including elements of travel behaviour (e.g., activities during the trip), which have been shown to significantly affect mode choices and commuting satisfaction. Based on responses from a revealed preferences survey, we estimate a mode choice model that treats travel time as a latent variable and incorporates different sources of data along with information on travel activities. Employing these multiple – sometimes incongruent – sources of information in the choice model appears to be beneficial. Results from comparing a logit model assuming error-free inputs and the integrated hybrid model revealed significant impacts on the generated policy scenarios. The model results also contributed to identifying the main travel activity features that affect travel time reporting, providing indications that can assist in understanding and mitigating the impact of imprecise measurements.     

Managing ethics in the tourism supply chain: the case of Chinese travel to Australia

The purpose of this paper was to provide clues to the industry and the academia on how best to approach the challenge of managing ethics in the tourism supply chain. To achieve this objective, the paper provided a case study of how the Australian government has responded to concerns about unethical practices in the tourism supply chain from China to Australia. A series of best practice recommendations were provided following a review of both the demand side and the supply side processes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Socio-occupational and geographical determinants of the frequency of long-distance business travel in France

Business travel, and long-distance business travel in particular, has received much less attention in research than home-to-work travel. This article explores some determinants of the frequency of long-distance business travel. It focuses on the influence of two parameters that have been little studied: the individual’s socio-occupational group and the workplace location. The data used were provided by the 2008 French National Transport and Travel Survey. Following a review of the literature, a Poisson regression is performed on the frequency of long-distance business trips. The most significant determinants are socio-occupational category, income, gender and the urban or rural nature and size in terms of the number of inhabitants of the area of location. In particular long-distance business trip frequency is lower in the Paris urban area than in all the categories of urban areas as well as rural areas because of the highly centralised organisation of economic activity and the transport network in France.     

Market segmentation based on time use: an empirical analysis in the historic city of Toledo,Spain

There are two major scarce resources for visitors: time and money. However, literature on tourism has paid less attention to the former than to the latter. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to evaluate the effectiveness and profitability of time use in a destination as a segmentation criterion in tourism. The empirical analysis took place in the historic city of Toledo (Spain), and was based on information obtained from 799 day-trippers and tourists. The results obtained reveal the existence of four segments as regards day-trippers and another four as regards tourists. What is more, there are significant differences in the spending and future intentions of the clusters of day-trippers and tourists. All of these findings have led us to conclude that the segmentation criterion proposed will be of great use when determining which groups of visitors the destination most/least needs to attract. The empirical evidence obtained also provides practical orientation as to how to improve activity and service offers.     

Financial Disclosure in the Travel and Leisure Industry

This study explores the determinants of Internet financial disclosure in the travel and leisure industry. Studying the case of the firms that are listed in the London Stock Exchange, we employ the generalized method of moments in order to investigate the cross‐sectional variation in the quantity of financial information, which is disclosed on corporate websites of travel and leisure firms. We find that disclosure is positively associated with corporate size, financial leverage, concentrated ownership, dual listing and profitability. We also discover that profitability is not only a determinant of financial disclosure in the travel and leisure industry but also its consequence: More profitable firms yield more requests for transparency among their stakeholders, and they also have the necessary resources to respond to these requests. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Smartphones,travel time-use,and attitudes to public transport services. Insights from an explorative study of urban dwellers in two Norwegian cities

The uptake of mobile media with internet connection has increased rapidly in almost every part of the world, and this has significantly changed how public transport passengers use their travel time. Studies have documented that use of mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) while traveling has the potential to enrich use of travel time and in some cases, strengthen positive attitudes towards public transport. The alternative hypothesis—that mobile communication technologies make travelers more critical and demanding, e.g., due to the risk of interference—has so far hardly been explored through empirical studies. Based on a web-based survey of travelers in two of the largest cities in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim), this paper investigates how use of smart devices are related to general attitudes toward public transportation services. A segmentation of travelers in three clusters based on their mobile use habits, shows that the most active group of mobile media users—a group of younger and middle-aged urban dwellers—were those who bore the most critical attitudes to the public transport services. In contrast, the groups that used their mobile phones rarely, or less actively, on their public transport trips were more satisfied. The findings suggests that a new generation of “equipped travelers” has developed expectations regarding their public transport journeys that service providers might have problems to fulfill in current times. Thus, there is a risk of the most active smartphone users developing negative attitudes to public transport if (or when) their experiences are not improved.