VOLUNTEER TOURISM—“INVOLVE ME AND I WILL LEARN”?

Voluntourism or volunteer tourism is increasingly available and popular amongst everyday tourists in different parts of the world. Despite its seeming virtue and it often being positioned as a form of “justice” or “goodwill” tourism, critics in the public media have begun to question and criticize the effectiveness or “real” value of volunteer tourism. However, academic work has not yet critiqued volunteer tourism in the same manner. This paper thus provides a critical and timely review of volunteer tourism, using interviews and participant observation with 11 respondents on a volunteer tourism trip to South Africa. This paper reviews volunteer tourists’ motivations (what prompted their participation); performances of the “self” in volunteer tourism; and the tensions and paradoxes surrounding volunteer tourism.     

Attractiveness of cultural activities in European cities: A latent class approach

Cultural tourism behaviour and destination preference was analysed for 19 European capital cities, utilising the level of participation in cultural activities (participation) and the level of enjoyment of those cultural activities (attractiveness). A latent class model with three classes described the association in the data satisfactorily. Class 1 was labeled “low participation and high attractiveness”, Class 2 was labeled “high participation and high attractiveness”, and Class 3 was labeled “high participation and low attractiveness”. The Class 2 respondents with high participation and attractiveness had the highest cultural capital, and could be considered ‘specific cultural tourists’, whereas the Class 3 respondents could be considered ‘general cultural tourists’. Class 1 respondents, with relatively infrequent participation but high enjoyment, are potentially most interesting in marketing terms.     

Rosanzerusu is Los Angeles an anthropological inquiry of Japanese tourists

The popularity of Los Angeles with Japanese tourists prompts the anthropologist to ask what they are seeking there. An ethnography of that tourism discloses a number of “must see” sights for first time tourists. Subsequent tourists may seek more esoteric sites, as disclosed by an examination of tourist guide texts. Tourists progress from “mass” to “elite” status. Against a theoretical perspective of life as “sacred journey”, and of pilgrimage, tourism is seen as a ritual of modernity, amenable to semiotic analysis in the manner of Barthes. Los Angeles' ecumenical tourism reflects the mythology of the movies. Japanese tourists select sites drawn from this mythology which also reflect Japanese preferences (e.g., the Hollywood Bowl). They also emphasize sites where they may purchase souvenir or “marker” goods (e.g., UCLA). They thus attach importance to some sites thought to be quite minor by Angelenos.     

Tourists and retailers' perceptions of services

This paper describes a study which measures tourist and retailers' perceptions of service levels in a tourism destination. A service quality model was used to develop survey items and interpret the results. The service dimensions used to evaluate a tourism experience included reliability, responsive, assurance, and access. The results indicate tourists evaluate tourism services based on “who” delivers as opposed to the nature of the services (as outlined in the Service Quality model). This has implications for those who create and service tourism destinations, such as city planners and leaders, tourism convention and visitor bureaus, and retailers.     

Toward a critical analysis of tourism representations

This paper advances a “critical analysis of tourism representations” through examination of photographic postcards of African Americans from the South during the period 1893 to 1917. Analysis of these photographic images reveals that specific iconographic strategies were employed by postcard photographers to culturally inscribe black bodies with “Otherness”. Analysis of the postcard senders' messages reveals that these texts were often interpreted by tourists as interchangeable images of the mythic Old South or as attempts at humor. These images positioned black subjects in a racist regime of representation that constructed subjectivities for those depicted and identities for their viewers.     

From drifter to gap year tourist: Mainstreaming Backpacker Travel

Long-haul, long-term independent travel—here backpacking—has become increasingly common over the last few decades. Once considered a marginal activity undertaken by society’s drop-outs, it has gradually entered the tourism mainstream. Based on interview and internet material and ethnographic field research, this article considers where this growth in interest has come from, and how transformations in the perception of backpacking have taken place. Focusing on the travel imagination, it examines socioeconomic and cultural “incitements to travel”. As backpacking has become more mainstream its “alternative” standing has diminished, but it continues to be a potentially status-enhancing activity.     

Subjective food-risk judgements in tourists

Sources of risk in contemporary tourism vary over a long array of phenomena ranging from the risk of terror attacks to risks related to food and consumption. Currently, alleged food-risk sources such as Creutzfeldt–Jacobs Disease (CJD; commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”), Salmonella, Scrapie disease and even genetically modified food are salient in mass media.In the present study, we addressed the pervasiveness of tourists’ judgements of such food-related risks. As part of a larger study, some 1880 individual tourists (from 48 different nations) answered a questionnaire pertaining to food-risk issues. Based on the logics of the availability heuristic, we expected that food risks would be judged to be lower in one's own home country than abroad. We also expected that people would rate various sources for food risk differently when rating food risks at home and abroad.The results indicate that risks linked to food are indeed perceived to be higher abroad than at home, regardless of where the respondents’ homes are, although attributions of risk to the various risk sources seem to vary between at home and abroad. The results also show a significant, but moderate correlation between travel experience and food-risk judgements abroad and at home. The results also indicate cultural differences in risk judgements concerning food.     

The impact of customer-to-customer interaction and customer homogeneity on customer satisfaction in tourism service—The service encounter prospective

Customer satisfaction has been an important topic in tourism service management. Many researchers have argued that customer-to-customer interaction may affect customers’ evaluation of the service experience. Consequently, the objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between customer-to-customer interaction, customer homogeneity and customer satisfaction. This research adopted questionnaires to investigate tourists traveling to foreign areas from Taiwan. In conclusion, the perception of customer-to-customer interaction incidents could be extracted into six factors, including protocol and sociable incidents, violent incidents, grungy incidents, malcontent incidents, crude incidents, and inconsiderate incidents. The results of the analysis indicate that “protocol and sociable incidents” have a significantly positive impact on the “evaluation of fellow customers”. However, “malcontent incidents” have a significantly negative impact on customer satisfaction. “Marital homogeneity” has a positive influence on the “evaluation of fellow customers”. Finally, “evaluation of fellow customers” has a positive influence on customer satisfaction. Some suggestions for practitioners to manage customer compatibility and enhance customer satisfaction are proposed.     

Tourism dance performances authenticity and creativity

Despite shifts in scale and context, dance performance in tourism settings, unlike some other artistic expressions, remains “authentic” and creative. Possible explanations for this include the manner in which “authentic” and “creative” are defined, the unique properties of dance as expressive behavior, and the particular politico-economic situation of different settings. The data used for this study are cross-cultural, assessing Native American, Oceanic, Caribbean, and African studies of dance performance, primarily those collected during fieldwork in Haiti and Cuba. The analysis is interpretive, based on cultural framing and examination of dance behavior and its affect.     

More than an “industry”: The forgotten power of tourism as a social force

This paper argues that in the current neo-liberal era, the discourse of tourism as an “industry” has overshadowed other conceptualisations of the tourism phenomenon. An argument is developed that this discourse serves the needs and agendas of leaders in the tourism business sector. However, the author desires to revive an earlier understanding of tourism that predates the neoliberal era. Tourism is in fact a powerful social force that can achieve many important ends when its capacities are unfettered from the market fundamentalism of neoliberalism and instead are harnessed to meet human development imperatives and the wider public good. Examining the human rights aspects of tourism, investigating phenomena such as “social tourism”, exploring a few “non-western” perspectives of tourism and outlining some of the tantalising promise that tourism holds, this paper attempts to revive and reinforce a wider vision of tourism's role in societies and the global community. It is argued that it is critical for tourism academics, planners and leaders to support such a vision if tourism is to avoid facing increasing opposition and criticism in a likely future of insecurity and scarcity.     

Human resource managers’ perceptions of the applications and merit of the balanced scorecard in hotels

The extent to which performance measures that align with the “learning and growth” dimension of the balanced scorecard (BSC) are applied in the hotel industry has been examined by conducting interviews with 14 hotel human resource (HR) managers. Minimal appreciation of the BSC concept was in evidence. When an explanation of the BSC framework was provided, the interviewees unanimously held the view that the term “learning and growth” did not adequately encompass the HR oriented performance measures that they seek to apply. Further, it was found that most hotels were using a single measure of employee satisfaction to represent “learning and growth”, which does not enable examination of the five separate dimensions of “learning and growth” represented in the BSC model. These findings suggest a significant schism between BSC theory and the application of HR oriented measures in the hotel industry.     

Negotiating landscape in rural tourism

Landscape is a vitally important asset for Norwegian rural tourism. Different views and perceptions of landscape are negotiated among key actors such as operators, tourists, and farmers. This article investigates these negotiations in relation to three dimension of landscape: values and requirements; how it is experienced; and future development prospects. The study shows that while actors hold different positions and attitudes, all of them unite in their concerns about landscape change, and in their desire to preserve food traditions and local produce. Further, this paper argues that there is a general re-orientation in landscape perception from “spectacularization” towards “multi-sensing”.     

Integrating tourism with rural development

Tourism can play a much more powerful role in stimulating rural development than it has in most regions. Achieving this objective will require more careful integration of visitor marketing and rural development strategies. High “quality” visitors and accommodations may not be the same in rural and urban areas. What may be good for the region as a whole may not be good for its rural periphery. In the case of Hawaii, the expansion of tourism was not planned as an integral part of the rural development process, even though most of the state's hotel rooms will eventually be located in non-metropolitan areas. Hawaii may not, therefore, serve as an ideal planning model for other island regions to follow.     

Tourists’ intention to visit a country: The impact of cultural distance

Culture has long been recognized as a possible reason why people in different countries make different decisions, but research into its impact in tourism contexts has been limited. This study addressed this gap by examining the influence of cultural distance on tourists’ destination choices. Five cultural distance measures were examined. Of the five measures, perceived cultural distance and Clark and Pugh's index were found to be most strongly related to Australian tourists’ intentions to visit a variety of holiday destinations. The perceived cultural distance measure appeared to be a better predictor and offers some advantages to researchers as it allows respondents to include relevant cultural information in tourism research. However, as Clark and Pugh's method provided similar information, cultural differences can be inferred when it is not possible to survey tourists directly.     

Geographical consciousness and tourism experience

Scholars of many persuasions have recognized the experiential features of geography, such as the consciousness arising from the spatial and temporal bonds between people and places. Until recently, however, tourism researchers have largely overlooked those features. In partial response to this omission, this article presents a phenomenological exploration of leisure tourism experience. By describing the lived experiences of Canadian tourists traveling to and within China on two separate package tours, this article discusses if and how geographical consciousness influences the tourists’ experiences. Its main purpose is to provide insights for research and application.     

Tourists and troglodytes: Negotiating for Sustainability

This paper contributes to the continuing discussion concerning the paradox that tourism destroys the object of its desire. An analysis is made of tourism relations and hospitality in a Turkish village, and it is argued that in their close interactions with tourists traveling independently of organized tour groups, local people are in a position to negotiate both their own “traditional” identity in the presence of tourists and the latter's quests and experiences in themselves. A dynamic notion of sustainability in cultural tourism is developed, by challenging the assumptions that tourist localities must remain authentically “traditional” to meet with the expectations of tourists.     

Planning considerations for cultural tourism: a case study of four European cities

Utilising the information gathered in four European cities, this paper discusses and tests a framework of reference for visitor-friendliness, a complex concept that encapsulates the main dimensions of the urban tourism product such as its quality, accessibility and image projection. This concept is particularly relevant to assess whether investments in culture and hospitality genuinely respond to the impulses coming from the market. The case studies highlight how specific soft elements of the urban tourism product are the ones that matter most in determining the attractiveness of a city for international visitors, and yet they are often overlooked by city planners. The paper also identifies a number of “best practice” in tourism management.     

Market shares analysis: The Case of French Tourism Demand

This paper examines the magnitudes and determinants of changes in destinations’ shares of a major tourist origin market. The Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to quantify the responsiveness of French tourism demand in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to changes in relative prices, exchange rates, tourists’ expenditure budget, and external events. The results indicate that effective price competitiveness is a key variable driving changes in market shares. Policymakers who wish to maintain their shares of the French market should pay particular attention to tourism pricing policies, as well as to improving the tourism offer.     

Wives' involvement in tourism decision processes

This study segments tourism decision-making tasks into 17 categories. Wives were asked to assign a score to their level of involvement in each task. A marginal involvement in tasks related to the “financing aspects” of the trip was observed whereas involvement was high in tasks such as “shopping”, “selecting restaurants”, “collecting information”, and “preparing luggage”. Two hypotheses were tested: the socioeconomic characteristics of wives and trip characteristics have a positive effect on the level of involvement in the tourism decisions; and levels of task involvement are consistent for the 17 tasks (stability in tasks involvement). Marketing implications and recommendations for future research were also discussed.

Résumé

La participation des épouses aux décisions de voyages. Cette étude segmente les décisions et taches des voyages en dix-sept catégories. On a demandé aux épouses d'attribuer une valeur numérique selon leur niveau de participation dans chaquetâche. On a observé peu de participation aux “aspects financiers” tandis que la participation était élevée pour le “shopping”, le “choix des restaurants”, la “collecte d'information”, et la “préparation des bagages”. On a vérifié deux hypothèses: que les caractéristiques socio-économiques des épouses ainsi que certaines caractéristiques du voyage ont un effet positif sur la participation des épouses aux décisions du tourisme, et que les niveaux de participation pour les dix-sept tâches sont stables. On discute aussi des implications de marketing et des recommandations pour la recherche future.     

Poland's international tourism : Long-term growth: breakdown: rapid recovery

This article provides a synthesis of the factors governing Polish international tourism, set against a background of 40 years of post-war development followed by the political and economic crisis of the early 1980s. Tourism fell sharply in the early 1980s but had already begun a rapid recovery by 1983–1984. Official agencies, and cooperative and private-sector enterprises cooperate closely in the provision of tourism services and management. Poland has an “open-door” tourism policy and participates in a variety of international tourist organizations and agreements. This account demonstrates the close relationship between international tourism and the economic, political and social situation of the destination country.