The influence of recreation experience and environmental attitude on the environmentally responsible behavior of community-based tourists in Taiwan

This study examines the relationships between recreation experience, environmental attitude, and the general and site-specific environmentally responsible behavior of tourists at Taomi and Smangus in Taiwan. The first is an agriculturally based community and the second home to one of Taiwan's ethnic minorities. A total of 862 usable questionnaires (432 for Taomi and 430 for Smangus) were collected in this study. The empirical results indicate that recreation experience is positively and significantly related to environmental attitudes among tourists. Environmental attitudes are also positively and significantly related to general and site-specific tourist behaviors and mediate the relationship between recreation experience and environmentally responsible behavior. The paper contributes to the literature by examining the structural linear relationships between recreation experience, environmental attitudes, and environmentally responsible behavior. This study suggests that tourism destination providers should provide pro-environmental activities, ecotourism experiences, and interpretations of environmental issues to enhance tourists' environmental attitude and general and site-specific environmentally responsible behavior, thereby potentially reducing the adverse environmental effect produced by tourists during daily life and at tourism destinations. Reducing the adverse environmental effect of tourism destinations will benefit the development of sustainable community-based tourism.     

Conflict and agreement in stakeholder attitudes: residents’ and hotel managers’ views of tourism impacts and forest-related tourism development

This paper probes differences in attitudes toward tourism impacts between two leading stakeholder groups in tourism, local residents and the managers of tourism facilities. It uses case study surveys of residents and managers in Belek, Antalya, Turkey. Differences in attitudes across seven main areas are investigated, including the positive and negative economic outcomes of tourism; positive and negative sociocultural impacts; negative environmental impacts; views on further tourism development, and benefits and problems related to forested land close to destinations. The results reveal that some attitudes are held in common – especially positive attitudes including tourism's benefits in creating jobs and income. Differences were mostly observed not in the direction but in the strength of opinion. The most significant differences were found in managers' beliefs that tourism's environmental and social impacts were few, while residents were extremely negative about those impacts. Differences of attitudes on the future use of forestland headed the list of all differences between managers and residents. Divergent loyalties were revealed. Managers supported their business and employers; local people supported their local area. The need for further research, including the role of perhaps distant “moral stakeholders”, and for more comprehensive understanding, and more sustainable outcomes, are highlighted.     

流域一体化进程中旅游地可持续发展研究框架

流域是相对封闭、自成体系的地理空间,流域旅游是流域可持续开发的重要组成部分。从流域生态系统服务出发分析流域一体化进程中旅游地的可持续发展,以全流域功能和结构转型视角探究旅游地绿色发展的优化策略与调控路径,是适应国内流域经济带建设、提升流域社会福利和发展公平性,促进流域生态安全屏障建设的重要探索。本文分析了流域一体化进程中旅游地发展研究面临的关键问题,结合现有研究基础阐释重点研究主题并构建研究框架。研究认为,流域内旅游地研究正在从点状分析走向网络和面域协同发展,旅游地发展在流域生态补偿、流域产业融合等方面产生的效应越来越明显;外部环境变迁、多要素交互作用下,中国流域一体化进程中的旅游地可持续发展面临的形势迫切,流域内旅游地的供需结构、均衡发展、协同治理均面临挑战;未来应重点关注旅游地时空演化特征、外部环境因素、演化更新机制、时空情境模拟、优化调控路径5个方面,为正确认识流域内旅游地要素交互作用的趋势规律、实现流域内旅游地可持续发展提供科学依据。     

The influence of artistically recreated nature on the image of tourist destinations: Lanzarote's art,cultural and tourism visitor centres and their links to sustainable tourism marketing

Can distinctive natural assets in tourist destinations be artistically recreated and used to improve destination image and attract more visitors? This paper analyses the formation of the tourist image based on artistically recreated local nature icons, and shows how those images can enhance the overall destination image. It focuses on the island of Lanzarote, a destination with its development based on promoting an environmental image founded on the creation of a network of multifunctional, high-quality art, culture and tourism centres exhibiting artistic recreation of its unique environmental assets. The methodology utilizes a questionnaire (n = 453) structural equations modelling approach in which the overall image of the destination is directly dependent on the image of the environmental conditions and indirectly influenced by the image of the artistically recreated centres. Results show that the destination's image is significantly grounded on the image of the art, culture and tourism centres using art based on Lanzarote's natural assets. They suggest that destinations have relevant opportunities to artistically enhance natural assets to improve their tourist image and marketing, that quality multi-functional visitor centres can be important within a sustainable tourism policy, and part of the emerging breadth of approaches taken by sustainable tourism marketing.     

Buyer Decision-Making Behavior in International Tourism Channels

Summary

Despite the development and maintenance of effective channel relationships in international tourism markets being critical to a firm's success, little research has been undertaken in business-to-business relationships in cross-national markets (March 1997a; Crotts, Aziz & Raschid 1998). This research paper offers insights into the decision-making behavior of a critical intermediary in international tourism channels, the inbound tour operator (ITO). In an exploratory study, the purchasing attitudes of ITOs, in their functions as purchasers of tourism products on behalf of overseas clients, are examined. Respondents were asked to assess the importance of a number of supplier attributes for three types of tourism products: hotels, coach companies and restaurants. Twenty-six inbound tour operators specialising in the Asian or Japanese inbound markets into Australia were surveyed; though small in number these firms handled over 800,000 visitors to Australia in 1998 (including 82% of the entire Japanese market). The results from a 43-item questionnaire, designed after preliminary discussions with ITOs, reveal differences between the attitudes of Japanese-market and Asian-market ITOs in their purchase decision-making behavior and in buyer attitudes toward different product types. The findings offer useful lessons for suppliers in the management of their relationships with inbound tour operators.     

When less is more: Sustainability messaging,destination type,and processing fluency

The purpose of this research is to explore consumer responses to hotel sustainability messages based on the congruence of preexisting cognitive schemas with newly presented information. Based on information processing theory, this research proposes that variations in the processing fluency of a sustainability message will interact with the cognitive perception of the hotel’s destination (NBT versus urban) to affect the perception of the message and the attitude toward the hotel. Results suggest that under conditions of low fluency, consumers are less skeptical of messages presented by hotels in NBT destinations than of similar messages presented by hotels in urban tourism destinations. Low fluency messages also generate more positive attitudes toward NBT destinations than toward urban destinations. These results suggest that the most effective sustainability messages depend not only on the presentation of the message, but also on the type of the destination.     

A Review of “Raj Rhapsodies: tourism,heritage and the seduction of history”

Many researchers have used stage-based and life cycle models to describe destination development and local residents’ changing reactions to tourism. Typically, they report that resident attitudes towards tourism, and its perceived outcomes for host populations, worsen with increasing experience and involvement in tourism. However, stage-based models traditionally focus on mature destinations in developed countries. In contrast, scholarship on ecotourism derives largely from developing countries and suggests that increased participation leads to more favourable outcomes and attitudes towards tourism. This paper breaks new ground by exploring attitudes to tourism in an emerging destination in a developing country and linking that exploration to a revised stage-based model. It uses ethnographic data to evaluate responses to recent tourism development in Nicaragua. While findings are complex and do not support a linear relationship between the level of experience in tourism and the attitudes of local residents, they do indicate a relationship between these two theoretical perspectives that can be used to inform one another. Notably, workers in tourism are more critical of the tourism industry than residents are. Important amendments to stage-based models are suggested that will assist tourism planners with the creation of more sustainable, community-centred development.     

Mass tourism and water efficiency in the hotel industry: A case study

Mass tourism, which has traditionally been associated with an unsustainable use of natural resources and intensive land use, is frequently identified as a major environmental stressor in coastal regions. Nonetheless, mass tourism resorts typically have a compact and vertical urban configuration and have been shown to make more efficient use of water resources than other low-density tourist destinations. This article investigates how the main variables identified by the literature as determinants of water consumption by hotels influences water efficiency in hotels in Lloret de Mar, a well-known mass tourism destination on the Costa Brava in Spain. The results of a generalized linear mixed model show that large, high-rise hotels that attract thousands of tourists annually also benefit from economies of scale in terms of water efficiency.     

Determinants of willingness to pay to stay at a green lodging facility

The adoption of green initiatives is attracting increasing attention among tourism providers and researchers. One important dimension of travellers’ environmental concern is their willingness to pay higher rates for green travel products. This study determines the association between pro-environmental attitudes and beliefs, and willingness to pay a higher room rate at a green lodging facility. A survey of 388 travellers in Michigan, USA, revealed a positive relationship between environmental concern (measured using the New Environmental Paradigm scale) and willingness to pay for a green hotel room. Income was the only one of a series of socioeconomic, demographic and travel pattern variables to reach statistical significance. Additional evidence regarding consumer attitudes towards and concomitant behaviours with respect to travel and the environment is vital to the broader consideration of the sustainability of the tourism and hospitality sectors. Understanding of willingness to pay for green practices has important marketing and management implications.     

Sustainability through food and conversation: the role of an entrepreneurial restaurateur in fostering engagement with sustainable development issues

Food justice, food cultures and people's engagement with healthy food production and consumption are key contemporary concerns, with a growing sustainable hospitality and tourism literature. Efforts range from narrowly focused initiatives, such as promoting organic produce and fair trade, to more holistic challenges to current systems through initiatives like the slow food and locavore movements, which may represent systemic alternatives. However, little analysis is available on how cafés and restaurants might become sites for experimentation in profitable and just sustainable hospitality, and places for sustainability engagement and education. Focusing on the evolution of a sustainable café in Adelaide, South Australia, this article explores how one entrepreneurial restaurateur uses his café to engage customers and community in a collaborative conversation about sustainable development, food, hospitality and tourism, helping transform our food culture and even lifeways. Our findings indicate the value of deep local embedding as a pathway to meaningful sustainability. The study offers insights into how hospitality and tourism can contribute to dialogues on alternative consumption which may offer visionary pathways to alternative futures. It also explores the role of pioneers in sustainable business and hospitality, their drivers and their views. A forthcoming global research initiative is discussed.     

Green purchase and sustainable consumption: A comparative study between European and non-European tourists

This research aims to investigate tourists' sustainable consumption values and choice behaviour regarding green products in Europe by integrating the Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and consumption values (TCV). This study also compares the decisions of European and non-European tourists to purchase green products and services while travelling in some selected European cities. A total number of 720 useable questionnaires were collected from residents of two tourist groups in Europe. PLS-SEM, MGA, and other newly developed advanced analysis methods were applied to test the model and hypotheses. Findings reveal that environmental attitudes, environmental knowledge, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, conditional value, and emotional value have a significant positive relationship with green purchase intentions for European and non-European tourist groups. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical study that broadly provides a theoretical framework for green purchase choice and sustainable consumption intention in Europe. The theoretical and practical contributions to tourists' purchasing green products are discussed.     

How would the contextual features of a destination function together with individual factors to enhance tourists’ intention toward ST in Taiwan?

Abstract

Slow travel (ST), which emphasizes deeper experiences via slower transportation modes, has been promoted as an alternative to current practice and a more sustainable form of tourism. With lower GHG emissions being a national environmental goal in Taiwan, ST concepts have been garnering attention. The relationship between the environments of destinations and pro-environmental behavior of tourists has attracted relatively little academic attention. To remedy this, the current research establishes a fairly complete model for incorporating factors at the contextual level into the individual determinants useful in encouraging ST. The goal of this research is to understand how certain predictors directly and interactively influence the choices of tourists toward ST. This study collected 508 validly filled surveys addressing 13 industrial tourist destinations, and applied Hierarchical Linear and Nonlinear Modeling (HLM) analyses. In addition to the individual-level factors, including perceived benefits of tourism experiences and ages of tourists, the design of onsite tourism programs at the contextual level was one of the most influential drivers to encourage visitors’ ST intentions. Included in this research are the insights into how to promote ST and corresponding suggestions for tourism operations within the context of sustainable tourism and destination management.     

Safer destinations,healthier staff and happier tourists: Opportunities for inclusive water,sanitation and hygiene in tourism

Sustainable tourism development, including tourism's COVID-19 recovery, requires a holistic view of environmental and community benefits, including access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). This study presents a system-wide Inclusive WASH in tourism framework for destinations. Using a qualitative approach including interviews and focus groups, the framework is applied at three system scales: hotels, the community and wider destination to assess the current WASH situation in Mandalika, Lombok, Indonesia, a water-scarce destination earmarked for rapid development. Findings highlight differences in Inclusive WASH practices between hotels and communities, the potential for conflict and gendered inequalities. Barriers linked to system elements, structure and the enabling environment are identified. Addressing inequitable planning processes, improving stakeholder engagement and creating tools for hotels to improve Inclusive WASH can contribute to improving destination value. Findings are relevant for practitioners, government and community organisations integrating Sustainable Development Gaols 5 and 6 into tourism development and recovery.     

旅游企业社会责任对目的地形象及游客忠诚的影响研究

在旅游市场竞争日趋激烈的背景下,由旅游企业经营所引发的社会责任问题受到广泛关注,但学界关于旅游企业社会责任的影响研究还不够系统和深入.文章将旅游企业社会责任划分为6个方面,将目的地形象划分为认知形象和情感形象两个方面,并构建了旅游企业社会责任对目的地形象及游客忠诚的影响模型.实证研究表明,旅游企业社会责任在目的地形象及游客忠诚形成中发挥非常重要的作用,其中,经济责任、环境责任、游客责任、员工责任和法律责任对认知形象有正向影响,游客责任、员工责任和慈善责任对情感形象有正向影响；认知形象和情感形象不仅对游客忠诚产生直接影响,而且通过游客满意对游客忠诚产生间接作用.相比认知形象,情感形象对游客满意和忠诚的影响作用更大.     

After over 25 years of accrediting beaches,has Blue Flag contributed to sustainable management?

This paper examines the qualitative, quantitative, and geographical evolution (1987–2012) of the Blue Flag campaign and accreditation process in Spain, a leading coastal tourism destination heading the list of awards. The standard Blue Flag criteria for crowded, developed beaches are now adapting to new demands for natural beaches, but they still fail to capture essential sustainable tourism features, such as limiting user numbers, or preserving and restoring sand ecosystems. Given these shortcomings, some destinations are moving to alternative awards with a higher environmental commitment, such as EMS, ISO14001, and Eco-Management and Audit Schemes (EMAS). A cluster analysis of Blue Flag data for 983 beaches in Spain over 26 years revealed different behaviour patterns: established tourist areas that have always opted for the Blue Flag programme; tourist areas that adopted the Blue Flag early on but replaced it with ISO14001 and EMAS; recently developed destinations applying for the award to boost their tourism promotion; and tourist areas with no well-defined policy that have opted intermittently for Blue Flag. These profiles illustrate the different policies of Spain's Autonomous Regions, and they are useful for tourism managers to verify whether their destination's behaviour pattern contributes to sustainable tourism and matches strategic policies they have designed for them.     

Satisfaction With All-Inclusive Tourism Resorts: The Effects of Satisfaction With Destination and Destination Loyalty

Despite the fact that all-inclusive package holidays play a major role in the tourism developments of sun and sea destinations, relatively little research has been done within the hospitality literature to investigate the relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive, destination satisfaction and loyalty to a destination. Moreover, the measurement of satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts, satisfaction with destination, and destination loyalty, in order to understand the generation of tourist satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts. Based the previous theoretical and empirical evidence in the related literature, a questionnaire survey was conducted during summer 2008 at Antalya, a major sun and sea tourism destination of Turkey. The data were analyzed using several statistical techniques. The results suggested that there were significant relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts, satisfaction with destination and destination loyalty. It is also noteworthy that an all-inclusive package tour is the most popular traveling mode for tourists visiting Antalya.     

Food Tourism as a Viable Market Segment: It's All How You Cook the Numbers!

This study examines whether food is a special interest or mainstream tourism product. Much of the research on special interest tourism examines the activity in isolation of the broader suite of products available in the destination mix. Such a myopic approach may produce impressive looking numbers, but may not define viable market segments. Instead, based on their research findings, the authors argue that a more holistic approach is required to examine food tourism within the context of other products in the destination to determine its value. Overall, this study suggests that consuming food may be a ubiquitous activity for most visitors to sophisticated urban destinations and may not be representative of a specialist segment.     

A Review of Personality Research in the Tourism and Hospitality Context

Most commentators agree that human relations are central to tourism and hospitality. Different personalities thus display different reactions to the same task. This article provides an overview of prior studies on personality in the context of tourism and hospitality. Using EBSCOHost's Hospitality & Tourism Index, the largest online database for tourism and hospitality research, we analyzed published articles on the topic. Broadly speaking, prior studies can be grouped into the seven dimensions of disposal, biological, intrapsychic, cognitive, social, and adjustment in personality research, plus brand personality. Interestingly, our results show although the Internet has become one of the major marketing channels for hospitality and tourism, only a small number of published articles are related to consumers' online behavior. We thus propose that this area be further researched in the future.     

The implications of hotel employee attitudes for the development of quality tourism: the case of Cyprus

In an increasingly competitive market, the issue of quality has grown in significance for tourism businesses and destinations alike. This has been influenced by a number of factors, such as the expansion of consumer rights and the alleged emergence ‘new’, quality conscious tourists. In particular, it is the need to retain or increase competitive advantage that has underpinned the drive for quality in tourism—certainly, many destinations, especially those operating in the highly competitive summer-sun market, are now adopting quality tourism development strategies. However, little or no attention has been paid to the role of tourism industry employees, particularly those in hotels, in the success of quality management programmes. The purpose of this paper is to address this omission. Based upon a survey of hotel employees in Cyprus, it identifies a number of factors that may support or limit the drive towards quality service provision, with a variety of implications for the destination as a whole as well as individual hotels. In particular, hotel management should implement strategies based on reward systems, empowerment and reducing staff turnover, whilst there is an important co-ordination and guidance role to be played by the national tourism organisation.     

Introducing Environmental Management in the Hotel Industry

Summary

The hotel industry in Jamaica, like so many other tropical destinations, markets itself on the “3-Ss”-sea, sun, and sand. Hotels ring the north coast of the island in four main resort areas (i.e., Negril, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and Port Antonio). Located in sensitive coastal ecosystems, most of Jamaica's hotels face the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of their operations while meeting the increasing demand of a growing tourism industry.

This article presents a case study of the introduction of environmental management practices and systems in the hotel industry in Jamaica over the past 3 years to provide an answer to the environmentally sustainable tourism challenge. It describes the programmatic approach, the results at both the property and industry level, and the lessons learned in replicating the approach to other tropical tourism destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America.