An Overview of Benchmarking Literature

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to review the concept of benchmarking with emphasis on its strengths and weaknesses and the methods by which it can be applied to tourist facilities and destinations. To achieve its aim, the paper presents several approaches to the benchmarking and benchmarking development. In doing this, it examines the perceived benefits and costs of benchmarking and the implementation process. It then examines the different benchmarking methods using qualitative and quantitative research to identify performance gaps. From this, weaknesses of past benchmarking research are addressed. Finally, it analyses the development of benchmarking within the tourism industry together with some examples and its limitations.     

Application of Fuzzy Benchmarking Approach for Strategic Planning of Tourism Destination

The quality of strategic planning and resulting strategies is a key factor for the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Even though this is not a typical field where benchmarking methods are widely used, such an approach can be successfully applied. This article drafts a methodology for strategic benchmarking based on a quality evaluation of development strategies in tourism destinations. These strategies are evaluated by key regional stakeholders. The evaluation of fifteen selected strategies of the Czech, Slovak, and British regions has been made by an on-line application incorporating carefully defined criteria designed to operate with fuzzy data. The best strategies—as an etalon of good practice—are selected by the means of the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The Region of Vysocina was selected for realization of the benchmarking gap analysis towards all strategies from the etalon with the aim to identify the opportunities for quality enhancement and corresponding good practices.     

旅游地居民环境行为研究综述

旅游地居民环境行为研究是旅游情境下环境行为研究不可或缺的环节。本文从研究进展、研究内容和研究方法3个方面出发,对旅游地居民环境行为的国内外研究进行梳理和分析。研究发现：（1）旅游地居民环境行为研究起步较晚,大致经历了萌芽（2002—2004年）、起步（2005—2013年）和发展（2014—2020年）3个阶段,国内外研究成果均较少,国外研究成果领先于国内;（2）旅游地居民地环境行为的概念界定尚未统一,测量量表的开发也较为薄弱;影响因素探究是旅游地居民环境行为的研究热点,但形成机制探讨相对匮乏,并缺少旅游地居民环境行为的预测研究;（3）旅游地居民环境行为研究方法较为单一,数据搜集方法以问卷调查为主,半结构式访谈为辅,数据分析方法以结构方程模型为主。基于此,分别从研究视角、研究内容和研究方法上剖析现有研究不足,指出旅游地居民环境行为未来研究方向,以期为旅游目的地环境管理提供有益指导。     

信息传播:旅游目的地营销与服务的关键环节

文章讨论了旅游业作为信息密集型和信息依托型产业的特征,并指出,旅游目的地信息传播既是一种社会现象,也是目的地营销的基本内容,同时,传递信息也是为旅游者提供旅游服务的一种重要形式.     

基于本地旅游需求驱动的旅游地空间系统重构

旅游地空间系统是一个复杂而敏感的系统,易受空间内外部各种因素特别是市场要素变化的影响.文章在对以外来旅游需求为牵引的传统旅游空间系统及其不足和形成机理进行深入分析的基础上,结合国民休闲和内需扩大战略背景下本地旅游需求不断提升的现实变化,重构了内外需求更为平衡条件下的新旅游地空间系统.该系统应具有良好的空间外部环境、通畅高效的信息流、域面平滑流畅的旅游地发育、便捷立体的旅游通道、趋向均衡互补的内外部旅游市场等内涵,从而对传统旅游空间系统进行了补充和完善.     

The Influence of Tourist Satisfaction on Tourism Expenditure in Emerging Urban Cultural Destinations

Satisfaction is an excellent predictor of tourist behavior, often used in marketing and destination management. This paper analyzes the extent to which tourist satisfaction influences tourism expenditure at the destination using a gamma regression model, based on the information obtained from 2967 surveys conducted in 14 emerging urban cultural destinations in Andalusia, Spain. The results obtained show that there is indeed a correlation between tourist satisfaction and tourism expenditure at the destination, and guide the implementation of specific policies by stakeholders in these destinations, in order to increase the economic impact generated by this activity.     

The signalling effect of eco-labels in modern coastal tourism

As the demand for environmentally sustainable tourism grows, eco-labels are becoming increasingly popular as a signal of environmental quality. However, the existence of a causal link between awarding a seaside eco-label and the increase in tourism flows is still under discussion in the literature. In this article, we gauge the signalling impact of a specific eco-label, the Blue Flag award, using detailed data on tourism flows to seaside Italian destinations during the period 2008–2012. We adopt a recent econometric modelling strategy – the synthetic control method – in shaping estimation results and testing the sensitivity and robustness of our results. We find that being awarded the Blue Flag increases the flow of domestic tourists for up to three seasons after assignment. However, we find no effect for the flow of international tourists. Investigating the mechanisms driving the results, we find that the award of a Blue Flag only positively affects the flow of domestic tourists when it is used as a driver of organisation, coordination and integrated management of the tourism supply.     

Do Blue Flag promotions influence tourists’ willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations?

The Blue Flag is a popular eco-label in tourism. This study aims at examining the effectiveness of Blue Flag promotion on tourists' willingness to pay a price premium to coastal destinations via two online experiments. Study 1 shows (n = 152) that the Blue Flag stimulates higher willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations directly as well as indirectly through self-congruity and destination brand identification. Study 2 (n = 160) used a new sample to enhance external validity and generalizability of the Study 1 findings. Study 2 shows that destination brand quality and destination brand identification serially mediate the effect of Blue Flag promotions on the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium. The findings suggest that destination managers should deploy the Blue Flag Logo in destination promotions to enhance self-congruence, destination brand identification, perceived destination quality, and the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium.     

Seasonality in tourist flows: Decomposing and testing changes in seasonal concentration

This paper shows that changes in timing and magnitude of seasonality in tourist flows can be measured by decomposing the change in the Gini index, a widely used index of seasonal concentration, into two components. One of them tracks the change in the pattern of seasonal fluctuations and the second captures the change in their magnitude. To assess whether changes in the seasonal pattern and magnitude are significant, a technique for testing hypotheses concerning the two components is developed. We examine changes in the seasonal concentration of tourist arrivals in six tourist destinations in the Veneto Region, one of the most tourism-oriented regions in Europe, from 2006 to 2016. The magnitude of seasonality significantly decreased in some destinations with a diversified tourism product, such as Euganean Spas and Lake Garda. The seasonal pattern remained substantially stable for all destinations except Venice, where a non-negligible shift in the seasonal pattern occurred.     

旅游接待地社会文化保护问题新论

对旅游接待地的社会文化保护一直是中外旅游发展中备受关注但始终未能妥善解决的问题。本文针对这一问题分析了旅游接待地所扮演的文化角色,分析了旅游业的过度发展对旅游接待地社会文化造成的6个方面的冲击,在此基础上提出对旅游接待地实施社会文化保护和文化提升的战略思考。笔者认为,我们对保护一词首先应有正确的理解,应采用旅游学术研究最新成果,制定文化保护和文化提升战略,制定和颁布相关法律和政策,建立相关的执行和协调机构,应充分发挥社区居民在旅游接待地社会文化保护和文化提升方面的作用,应重视在旅游接待地社会文化保护和提升方面的国际合作。     

全息理论视野下旅游目的地空间系统的发展思维——以城乡交错地重庆市璧山县为例

本文在回顾全息理论的发展历程及其内涵的基础上,对比分析传统旅游目的地空间系统构成及其划分,据此构建全息理论视野下的旅游目的地空间系统,并对其全息现象进行解读;最后在空间思维模式的指导下,结合全息理论,选择重庆市近郊璧山县为实证案例,解析旅游目的地空间系统发展思维并作出对策研究.     

待开发乡村旅游地客源市场调研方法探索——以攀枝花市迤沙拉村为例

由于待开发乡村旅游地的旅游业尚未起步,到访的旅游者很少,其客源市场统计信息的获得就存在较大困难,难以科学地测算其客源市场的需求规模.本文基于待开发乡村旅游地的城市目标导向和与其所属市级城市的内在依附关系,挑选出多个潜在客源市场需求规模的影响因子,设计了简单适用的市场调研方案和抽样调查问卷,建立了相应的测算模型,并将其应用于攀枝花市迤沙拉村的客源市场调研工作中,取得了较好的应用效果.     

基于实验人文地理学的旅游目的地选择行为研究

文章基于实验经济学和计算机实验人文地理学的方法思想,以旅游目的地选择行为研究为案例。首先设定研究目标,进而提出了实验的前提假设。采用地理信息科学和网络服务技术,构建旅游目的地选择行为实验平台,展开实例研究,研究结果表明:(1)进行大尺度旅游目的地选择时,被试者表现出不断追求旅游效益最大化这一目标,且与旅游目的地的资源类型无关。(2)被试者经过一定实验学习后,总体上呈现出不断追求个人收益最大化的趋势。然而,有些情况下,也可能出现决策失误。案例研究的成功进一步表明,实验人文地理学思想方法和研究手段对于典型人文地理学问题进行研究是可行的。文章为正在发展的实验人文地理学发展提供了案例指导。     

京沪高铁对主要站点旅游流时空分布影响

交通是影响旅游流时空分布的最主要因素之一。文章以京沪高铁线为例,运用旅游场理论和社会网络分析方法,比较京沪高铁开通前后9个主要高铁站点的旅游流时空分布变化特征。研究表明:高铁开通强化了北京、上海和南京等重要旅游客源地和目的地的领先地位,呈现出高铁旅游流的"马太效应";高铁促使靠近重要旅游目的地的竞争处于劣势的旅游地旅游流呈现"过道效应";高铁促使空间距离临近的两个城市的旅游流呈现"同城效应";高铁提升原本缺乏区位优势的旅游资源型站点的可进入性,同时对区域核心城市的交通依赖程度明显下降;高铁的时空压缩效应缩短旅途时间,可实现小长假的远程旅游,双休日的中程旅游,一定程度上避免了中远程旅游对黄金周的依赖,从而缓解出游时间的集中性,提高了旅游质量。     

Vicious advice: Analyzing the impact of TripAdvisor on the quality of restaurants as part of the cultural heritage of Venice

Venice is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. In Venice, as in other middle-sized heritage European cities, strong tourism pressure is trapping the city in a vicious circle that is eroding the quality of its tourism attractions. This development is related to the growing numbers of excursionists who lack the time to make informed decisions about the quality of goods. Consequently, suppliers reduce the quality of their offerings and instead focus on market share. Consumer-generated media (CGM) may help resist this development by providing excursionists with aggregated, up-to-date information on the quality of tourism offerings as perceived by customers. In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of TripAdvisor in helping tourists to make informed decisions and in increasing the popularity of restaurants offering a higher expected quality. Our findings suggest that, although TripAdvisor's algorithm is designed to reward quality, it does not adequately meet these goals.     

旅游开发对语言文化景观的影响效应研究--以西安为例

语言变化是衡量社会文化变迁与旅游开发之间关系的一个重要指标。本文在国内外相关研究进展综述的基础上,以西安为例,从文化地理学的角度,就旅游开发对目的地语言文化景观的影响效应进行了综合分析,并探讨了产生这些效应的原因和空间特征。研究发现。旅游开发导致了目的地当地方言的淡化,外来方言的渗入以及外语产生的影响,具体表现在：①土语景观萎缩,普通话景观扩张,形成新语言占据土语空间和两者并存的现象;②目的地语言景观曼趋多元化,空间上形成了以旅游区为主体的粤方言渗透区;③外语作为一种异质文化,与方言相互交融。形成中外语言景观并存,交互并用的格局。文章最后指出,经济上的巨大落差。构成了文化能量的累积差异。从而产生西方文化、粤文化等经济发达地区文化向旅游目的地的传播和影响。同时,旅游开发对目的地语言文化景观的影响表现出其独特的影响方向和空间特征。     

美国休闲游客对中国作为国际旅游目的地的评价:基于IPA方法

运用IPA分析法对美国休闲游客对中国作为国际旅游目的地的评价进行实证研究,并通过统计分析探讨了到访美国游客与未到访美国游客对中国绩效性评价方面的差异。研究结果明确了中国今后在继续保持、表现过度、毋须优先和改善重点方面应关注的要素,并提出了具体的应对措施。     

Synergy and congestion in the tourist destination life cycle

Discussion of agglomeration and clustering in the tourist area life cycle (TALC) literature has not led to a corresponding change of the principal equation used to formalize the model. This paper proposes a modification that accounts for the synergies between the accommodation, entertainment, and other components of a tourist destination. The modified model is contrasted with the original TALC and estimated for a cross-section of Caribbean and other island destinations. Estimations based on visitor expenditures and experts' evaluations of destination authenticity are compared. The results illustrate how parameters representing synergy and congestion vary across tourism styles and time. The implications for destination growth are illustrated by comparing the solution to the proposed model with the TALC. The model exposes a core dilemma that while destinations should realize positive synergies to achieve self-sustaining growth, with this threshold achieved, the resulting pace of investment may drive destinations to overshoot, and uneven growth.     

旅游信息服务视阈下的智慧旅游慨念探讨

智慧旅游的丰富实践使研究者不断思考“什么是智慧旅游”的问题,而对这个基本问题虽有很多解答但仍然需要进行探索。文章试图通过对国内外有关智慧旅游的概念进行了梳理,建立起以旅游信息服务为基础的智慧旅游的基本概念,即把智慧旅游定义为旅游者个体在旅游活动过程中所接受的泛在化的旅游信息服务。该定义旨在强调智慧旅游以旅游者个体为核心、以信息服务为载体的支撑体系,以泛在化作为核心内涵,以旅游者行为方式、旅游业营销方式、管理方式和服务方式的根本性变化为主要外延,并据此对国内外智慧旅游概念进行了全面评价。文章的价值在于将智慧旅游的概念与旅游信息化（特别是旅游信息服务）有机结合,既承上启下又能开启智慧旅游发展的新思路。     

基于地方情感的旅游目的地选择模型建构研究

旅游目的地选择模型建构的研究多数以微观经济学、认知心理学与市场营销学等为基础理论,较少从个体与地方感情连结的视角探讨游客旅游目的地选择决策行为。文章以旅游目的地选择为研究主轴概念,结合地方情感概念中的旅游目的地意象和地方依恋,根据研究文献梳理结果、基础理论界定模型建构的路径变量与逻辑框架,进而提出基于地方情感的旅游目的地选择模型及模型过程步骤。文章建构模型表明,游客旅游目的地选择始于旅游目的地意象的形成,随着整体认知意象的深化,游客对旅游目的地将产生地方认同感,再通过选择决策行为选择意向的旅游目的地从事旅游活动,通过对旅游目的地旅游体验的功能满足产生依赖感,最终形成对旅游目的地的地方依恋感。研究成果对于旅游目的地选择具有交叉研究的创新价值,对于旅游目的地市场战略规划实践活动而言具有参照价值。