Smart governance for heritage tourism destinations: Contextual factors and destination management organization perspectives

The sustainable development of tourism is a major concern for destination management organisations (DMOs) in heritage tourism. Smart tourism advocates claim that technologically-driven innovations can help DMOs to optimise tourism development by addressing issues such as carrying capacity, stakeholder management and community involvement. This study enhances the understanding of smart tourism governance (SG), showing how contextual factors affect DMO perspectives of SG. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate heritage tourism destinations in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that well-established DMOs do not perceive SG as potentially beneficial, as they already perform well in many areas in which SG promises improvements, such as citizen engagement, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement. Despite this, this research highlights the aspects of SG that these destinations can take advantage of as social inclusion, environmental performance and the provision of citizen-centric services. All of these can help heritage tourism destinations to optimise their tourism development. This research additionally demonstrates the effect of contextual factors, such as the level of public-sector support for tourism and the growing influence of non-tourism stakeholders in destination management, on DMO perceptions of SG and makes recommendations for how developments in the use of SG by DMOs can be made, in light of these.     

The influence of the political environment and destination governance on sustainable tourism development: a study of Bled,Slovenia

In the context of sustainable tourism development, there are many studies about the exchange process between residents and tourism, yet this issue is practically unexplored with respect to the political environment of tourism. Therefore, this paper introduces and posits that the political environment is a necessary enabler for implementing sustainable tourism. The authors extend the established three-pillar sustainability concept by adding in the political dimension. Then they surveyed how residents' positive and negative perceptions of tourism impacts determine their satisfaction with life in the tourism destination and thus their support for tourism in their community. The model was empirically tested within the context of the long-established Alpine destination of Bled in Slovenia. The findings confirm the importance of the political environment and question the sustainability of Bled's tourism development. It is suggested that the community has relatively weak destination governance due to the underdeveloped political environment. The survey expands and deepens the tourism sustainability debate by adding in the political environment and how it relates to the emerging growth of research on destination governance. The proposed model can be adapted and applied to any destination in order to improve its governance, including the implementation of sustainable tourism development.     

Developing sustainable tourism through ecomuseology: a case study in the Rupununi region of Guyana

Sustainability is a concept that continues to evolve and perplex in tourism, one of the world's largest industries. Effective new theories and practices are constantly explored so as to incorporate sustainability into tourism frameworks. Due to their focus on participation processes, integration of resources, and responses to specific needs and contexts, ecomuseum principles can be very useful for the development of sustainable tourism. This paper examines the potential of using the principles of ecomuseology to support sustainable tourism development. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach involving local expert stakeholders at the case study site, the Rupununi region of Guyana, South America. The findings from this research suggest that the principles of ecomuseology possess considerable potential to support sustainable tourism development in the Rupununi and potentially other destinations internationally. In particular, this study illustrates how ecomuseological principles can be used to manage heritage resources and economic development by focusing on, for example, holistic interpretation and information sharing, placing equal attention on heritage resources, and monitoring changes to the region over time.     

The resource-based and the market-based approaches to cultural tourism in alpine destinations

This study focuses on the relevance of cultural resources in tourism, including cultural heritage sites, cultural landscapes, events or festivals. It seeks to reveal the differences between two management strategy perspectives, the market-based view or approach (MBV) and the resource-based view or approach (RBV), of involved destination stakeholders and the impacts of those differing approaches on their perception of cultural tourism development. The literature on the strategy orientation of organizations/destinations is reviewed and serves as the theoretical background. Data were gathered from 38 semi-structured interviews with experts and key stakeholders in alpine destinations of cultural tourism in Northern Italy, using GABEK, a tool for analyzing complex qualitative data. The results indicate differences between destinations with diverse strategy-perspectives in terms of authenticity perception, standardization, leadership and sustainability orientation. The MBV requires larger financial resources to create an effective brand image. Authenticity was found to be very important and the VRIO framework (valuable, rare, inimitable and organized) a valuable tool. The RBV is best related to niche market products. The RBV also leads to more sustainable strategies for resource use but requires strong vision and network management skills.     

目的地开发的市场问题

目的地的市场行为已越来越成为激烈的全球范围内的竞争行为。本文解释了与目的地有关的一些概念，并介绍了几个关于目的地管理和市场策略的理论模型。通过几个模型的综合运用分析，作者强调了目的地市场行为中产品细分，公共部门和私有部门合作，以及协调各利益集团物关系和当地资源可持续性利用的重要性。此外，作者还指出新技术和互联网络也是提高目的地竞争力的一种有效方式。总之，目的地的市场行为应突出优化旅游业影响和保证目的地各方获利的原则。     

A climate change vulnerability assessment methodology for coastal tourism

Coastal and marine environments are among the most popular areas for outdoor recreation and tourism. Coastal areas have also been identified as the most vulnerable to climate change, for example as a result of extreme events and sea-level rise. It will be increasingly important for coastal tourism destination managers to understand their vulnerability to climatic changes and to devise appropriate adaptation. This paper presents a five-step vulnerability assessment methodology for tourism in coastal areas. The five steps include (1) system analysis, (2) identification of activity and hazard sub-systems, (3) vulnerability assessments for the different sub-systems at risk, (4) integration for the destination as a whole and scenario analysis and (5) communication. The framework is illustrated by an example of how it might be applied to Fiji. The paper concludes that a consistent methodology, like the one proposed, will facilitate vulnerability assessments in a range of coastal destinations, allow comparison to be made of vulnerabilities across different situations, provide a basis for more research into specific adaptation measures and assist destinations to develop a more sustainable tourism industry.     

The vulnerability of destinations to climate change: A comparative analysis of contextual socio-political factors

Climate change affects tourism and tourism affects climate change. Thus, both adaptation and mitigation strategies are needed to guarantee the sustainability of destinations. As well as the direct impacts of climate change, the effectiveness of these strategies determines the vulnerability of destinations. This paper compares the Riviera Maya (Mexican Caribbean) and Alt Maresme (Spanish Mediterranean) to identify the contextual socio-political factors that influence the vulnerability of destinations to climate change. Thirty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from tourism and the environment, public organizations, NGOs, and different levels of the public administration at both destinations. This research focuses on the perception of risk and agenda setting, the stakeholders’ involvement and the limitations of public action. The results show that awareness is greater, climate change is more important to the tourism agenda and private organizations are more involved in the Riviera Maya than in Alt Maresme. Five socio-political aspects are identified and discussed to explain the results: the destination’s evolution; the characteristics and evolution of tourism policy; extreme meteorological events as breaking points for policies; the socioeconomic context and the dependence on tourism; and the characteristics of the tourism offer, such as the dependence on natural resources and seasonality.     

An integrative framework for sustainability evaluation in tourism: applying the framework to tourism product development in Finnish Lapland

The adoption of sustainable practices has become widespread in tourism and has led to the proliferation of sustainability evaluation tools. They focus mainly on measuring outcomes, making scientific expertise an essential part of evaluations. This study argues that involving stakeholders throughout the evaluation process is essential if evaluation is to play a role in promoting the necessary understanding of sustainability to address the ecological and social concerns within a tourism setting. Drawing upon multi-stakeholder thinking, ethics, the Bellagio Principles and action research, this paper introduces a theoretical and methodological framework for engaging tourism organisations in collaboration with stakeholders in planning and implementing sustainability evaluations. The application of the framework is illustrated using a study of tourism product development, involving a group of eight craft-based entrepreneurs and their stakeholders in Finnish Lapland. A focus is placed on using ethical theories to promote dialogue and critical reflection and to expose the plurality of moral orientations behind the multiple views of sustainable tourism. Through discourse analysis, four moral discourses, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics, are constructed and examined. The paper shows how each influences the various ways in which stakeholders perceive sustainable tourism and the practical outcomes of the process.     

The role of individual entrepreneurs in the development of competitiveness for a rural tourism destination – A case study

The aim of this case study is to increase our understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in enhancing the competitiveness of a rural tourism destination. A literature review of the research on destination competitiveness with a focus on the roles of different stakeholders is first presented, followed by a narrative about rural tourism development, the competitiveness of rural destinations and the role of entrepreneurs in establishing successful destinations. The data consists of six case studies and nine semi-structured interviews among tourism entrepreneurs and managers at a rural tourism destination in Finland. The findings challenge the prevailing DMO dominated approach to destination competitiveness development, and call for the acknowledgment of collaboration between small tourism enterprises in the enhancement of rural destinations. Municipalities have a crucial role as facilitators of the entrepreneurial environment, but without innovative, committed, and risk-taking entrepreneurs no destination will flourish.     

Examining the Linkages of Community Intervention Strategies and Destination Quality of Ecotourism Destinations

Local communities are considered as a stockholder of an ecotourism programs particularly protected area (PA)-based destinations. The purpose of the study is to develop a model of community intervention strategies (CIS) in PA-based ecotourism tourism destinations and to examine the contribution of CIS toward destination quality (DQ). Study adopted exploratory sequential method and administered focus group discussion and expert interview followed by questionnaire survey. Measurement models were drawn with AMOS 22 and employed WarpPLS 6.0 for structural model. The study result indicates that there are three dimensions for CIS, and the quality variables have a strong presence in these destinations. However, the study could not establish a significant and positive relationship between CIS and DQ. Subsequently, investigator adopted a participant observation method and identified local specific reasons such as changes in general consciousness, intervention of related departments and nongovernmental organizations, and destination life cycle, for the same. Study assumes significance in the context of community-based ecotourism programs and indicates the need for strengthening community collaboration for quality destinations. Study extends scope for further research in measuring other perceived linkages of CIS with destination sustainability and quality of community life.     

“I recycle,I turn out the lights”: understanding the everyday sustainability practices of backpackers

As holidays merge more intimately with the everyday lives of an increasing number of people, questions of sustainability in tourism contexts become ever more urgent. Using the concept of everyday practices, in which sustainability is thought to emerge in the routines of people going about their day-to-day lives, this mixed-method study aimed to understand how sustainability figures in the practices, of backpackers. Findings revealed sustainability to be of minimal concern to most backpackers who nevertheless performed a range of sustainable practices but unintentionally. Environmental sustainability was practised via reduced resource consumption and waste, economic sustainability by working and spending more money overall than other tourist types, and social sustainability through demonstrating cultural respect and community participation. The main factors encouraging sustainable practices amongst backpackers were their low-budget focus and their use as a labour source by industries that require temporary and flexible workers. When backpackers were employed, each facet of sustainability became mutually reinforcing. The results of this study are in contrast to usual perceptions of tourism as a time in which norms of sustainable behaviour are suspended, as backpacking was found to provide opportunities for the performance of more sustainable practices compared to home.     

Innovation,sustainable tourism and environments in mountain destination development: a comparative analysis of Austria,Slovenia and Switzerland

This paper contributes to the comparative tourism sustainability debate in the context of mountain tourism destinations. It is based on a published three-dimensional Mountain Destination Innovation Model (MDIM) which claims that tourism development depends on a destination's innovation levels, and is subject to different conditions in a variety of important destination environments (using that term in its broadest sense), including sociocultural, natural, political, legal and technological. The authors comparatively analyzed Austrian, Slovenian and Swiss mountain destinations, which are located in small countries in the Alpine region, and that makes their environments, innovation levels and stages of development relatively easy to compare. The analysis used 88 managers’ replies to a 72 element questionnaire employing both objective and subjective measures about performance with regard to MDIM dimensions. The findings confirm differences in the stages of tourism development, in innovation levels, as well as in the supporting role of their corresponding wider environments. Swiss and Austrian mountain destinations outperformed Slovenian in almost all respects, but not in protection and quality of the natural environment or in inherited sociocultural attractiveness, where significant differences were not determined. The findings could help development and tourism policy authorities to improve the factors that determine sustainable tourism destination development.     

Communicating sustainability through a destination’s website: a checklist to inform,motivate, and engage stakeholders

This study investigated sustainability communication through destination websites. In particular, it suggested an online sustainability communication checklist (OSC-Checklist) that informs, motivates, and engages stakeholders to contribute towards the development of environmental, sociocultural, and economic sustainability. The OSC-Checklist was applied to the official websites of the top 50 competitive destinations with the aim of evaluating the extent to which each destination communicates sustainability on its website. The results indicated that the sample destinations lack an appropriate online approach to communicate sustainability. The results also revealed that the less developed and competitive destinations scored higher in terms of communicating sustainability than other more competitive developed destinations. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided.     

Ethical travel decisions travel agents and human rights

This paper explores the ethics of selling tourism products for destinations that have known major human rights issues. The study uses the moral intensity framework to analyze the ethical decisionmaking of New Zealand travel agents. Qualitative interviews reveal support for all aspects of the framework. In particular, agents’ judgements are strongly influenced by their perceptions of how their decisions impact upon their clients. In contrast, uncertainty surrounds the probability and magnitude of consequences of their decisions for destination communities. Strong social, cultural, legal, and economic links between the agent and the more proximate stakeholders mean that ethical decisions commonly favor these stakeholders.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Operationalization Challenge for Global Tourism Organizations

Tourism businesses have increasingly sought to contribute to society through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Larger tourism organizations normally seek to institutionalize CSR under their corporate CSR policy and strategy that is common for their whole organization. This presents challenges for organizations with global operations. This article examines the operationalization of CSR policy by hotel properties in coastal destinations in Thailand. The research found that stakeholders other than the hotels played pivotal roles in the implementation of CSR programs and that there was a preference for involvement by hotels in local projects, over those situated elsewhere in the country or internationally. These hotels tended to partner with other non-hotel stakeholders to execute their external CSR programs and for these to be directed at social issues rather than environmental issues. Overall it was concluded that there are limits to the extent that corporate headquarters may direct the implementation of CSR.     

Understanding tourism leaders’ perceptions of risks from climate change: an assessment of policy-making processes in the Maldives using the social amplification of risk framework (SARF)

Coastal tourism destinations are highly vulnerable to climate change risks, including sea-level rise, inundation, and extreme weather events. While such risks pose major challenges to the sustainability of these destinations, they have been insufficiently examined in tourism research. This study uses the social amplification of risk framework as a basis for understanding how climate change risks are perceived and what processes lead to an amplification or attenuation of risk perceptions at management and governance levels. In the context of the extremely low-lying Maldives, 12 leading tourism stakeholders, including representatives of government, industry, and NGOs, were interviewed to gather empirical data on risk perceptions. Results indicate that, while climate change risks are amplified for international audiences, several factors lead to an attenuation of risks for domestic audiences. As a result, local tourism stakeholders are not immediately concerned, and adaptation measures are woefully inadequate to cope with future climate risks. Detailed reference is made to the policy inertia found, the conflicts inherent in playing down risk in order to attract jobs, profitable tourism investment and tourists, and the equally pressing need to stress risks in order to attract expertise and funds to enable adaptation policies to be designed and funded.     

Sustainability Indicators for Small Tourism Enterprises – An Exploratory Perspective

Despite the numerical dominance of small tourism enterprises (STEs) in many destinations, little is known about their role in helping destinations progress towards sustainability objectives. The a priori assumption is that, by being small and locally owned, these enterprises automatically contribute to sustainable tourism development. This paper argues that to test this assumption, relevant indicators of sustainability (ISTs) should be developed. In contrast to destination and community ISTs, which are often stakeholder driven, the indicators developed here take an unconventional but not unprecedented approach, drawing on published frameworks and peer-reviewed case studies. The methodology of this approach has been made explicit so that potential users and researchers can assess its value and build upon it. A list of indicators that emerge from the process, covering the four broad sustainability dimensions, is given, which can be used in assessing the STE's progress towards a destination's long-term sustainability goals.     

The evolution of coastal tourism destinations: a path plasticity perspective on tourism urbanisation

Evolutionary and relational approaches to economic development are gaining ground in geography as a discipline, although in the subfield of tourism geography, their potential is only just becoming recognised. This article focuses on the evolution of mature tourism destinations, taking the path dependency concept forward from the notion of path creation into the new domain of path plasticity. Drawing on the notion of cultural political economy, we examine how tourism destinations can break with path dependency routines incrementally and move steadily towards different future paths, which may recast tourism in a different light in the overall “urban” context of the destination. Using a case study of a Mediterranean coastal destination on Catalonia's Costa Daurada, we explore the inter-tangled tourism and urban development processes in relation to the socio-spatial dimensions of urban change. The article argues for a wider range of social and cultural criteria in the analysis of tourism evolution – advocating the use of path plasticity and a cultural political economy approach – to offer an alternative perspective on shifting tourism situations, reflecting the inherently “urbanising” nature of tourism development in the traditional coastal resort context. It adds to the growing literature on governance and strategy-making in sustainable tourism.     

Seeking tourism sustainability – A case study of Tioman Island,Malaysia

This study evaluates Tioman Island's sustainability achievement using the Sustainable Ecotourism Indicator System (SEIS). Sustainability is achieved if each stakeholder makes a positive contribution to others in social, environmental, and economic dimensions. The overall sustainability score allows objective comparisons across destinations, which may provoke positive reactions from stakeholders to play their parts. Three questionnaire versions were designed in which each stakeholder group (39 government officers, 104 local communities, and 105 tourists) rated their perceptions of sustainable relationships with two other stakeholder groups, resulting in six sustainable relationship aspects. The results indicate that Tioman Island is classified as ‘‘potentially sustainable’’ (58.89%).     

The destination competitiveness of Kinmen's tourism industry: exploring the interrelationships between tourist perceptions,service performance,customer satisfaction and sustainable tourism

Based upon an empirical investigation, the study draws upon the responses of 1623 tourists in Kinmen to explore the notion of destination competitiveness and how it is related to customer satisfaction with tourists’ perceptions, service performance and destination competitiveness. It also considers the question of destination competitiveness and sustainable tourism development. Variables such as tourists’ pre-visit perceptions, post-visit satisfaction toward destination attractions and resources, willingness to recommend and revisit, and competitiveness with foreign destinations are tested. The results of the study suggest that there is no correlation between tourists’ overall satisfaction and destination competitiveness. Implications of the study outcome illustrate that a destination's unique tourism characteristics can be the most important variables for destination competitiveness. In Kinmen's case, battlefields, historic relics, beautiful scenery and travel security gave it a competitive edge, despite high prices. In addition, developing the destination's brand image was found to be critical for tourism marketers and authorities in the context of increasingly global tourism competition.