Bundling attractions for rural tourism development

Tourism is often regarded as a viable solution to economic crisis, especially for remote areas without many development options. While many tourism destinations have strong cultural or heritage assets, not all destinations have primary attractions that can bring visitors to the region. Rather than developing special interest “themes”, rural areas that do not have enough of any one type of tourism resource to act as a primary draw may consider bundling different attraction types to increase visitation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the preferences of visitors to secondary heritage sites and explore the relationship between heritage tourism and alternative, non-heritage activities in rural areas. Findings revealed that motivation to visit small-scale heritage sites consisted of two dimensions: learning and recreation. The two motivational dimensions influenced visitors’ interest in different heritage attractions and likelihood of visiting heritage tourism “scenarios”. As for alternative activities, there was a cluster of “popular” activities that were enjoyed by both learning-oriented and recreation-oriented respondents, but recreation-oriented visitors were more interested in nature-based activities and sport-related activities than learning-oriented visitors. Findings can help rural communities improve secondary attractions and diversify their tourism product by bundling heritage attractions with non-heritage activities.     

Visitor responses to the changing character of the visual landscape as an agrarian area becomes a tourist destination: Yilan County,Taiwan

The development of rural tourism and tourism to protected areas relies heavily on visitors' appreciation of scenery. This paper assesses visitor responses to Taiwan's changing rural landscapes, which have experienced agricultural decline, and a government-aided shift to rural tourism, with landscapes rapidly transformed from farm production scenery to recreation-oriented scenery. The study describes the changing character of the visual landscape characteristics of the Dongshan River Basin in Yilan County, and the influence of those changes on visitors' landscape preferences. Using a recognized nine landscape characteristics typology, survey results indicated participants believed that agricultural landscapes represented the qualities of historicity, naturalness and ephemera more than tourist landscapes, but showed fewer qualities of stewardship, disturbance and visual scale than tourist landscapes. Participants did not perceive the two types of landscapes differently for their qualities of coherence, imageability and complexity. They also preferred tourist landscapes to agricultural landscapes. For agricultural landscapes, when the qualities of ephemera, coherence, imageability, complexity, visual scale, stewardship, naturalness and historicity increased, participants appreciated the landscapes more. However, as the quality of disturbance increased, participants appreciated both landscapes less. Overall, when ephemera, coherence, imageability, complexity, visual scale, stewardship and naturalness increased, participants liked the landscapes more.     

Implementing sustainable tourism in Scotland: an interview

In China, sites categorised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites are commonly used as a means of economic regeneration through tourism development. This study is of a recent addition to the list, the diaolou (fortified tower houses) of Kaiping, Guangdong, in South China. This rural zone, characterised by past emigration and farming, is in the early stages of tourism development. The study, based on interviews and a survey, permits findings to be compared with other rural areas in China such as Hungcun and the Tangyue Arches of Bao Village in Anhui, and thus while similarities in attitudes are found, in Kaiping differences exist whereby tourism has been found to permit entrepreneurial activities while retaining an agricultural base as the “new tourism rich” employ others to continue farming. The work is contextualised within a model of evolving literature related to tourism impacts on communities. The paper explores a range of issues in sustainable tourism, including the use of tourism as a tool for social, economic and cultural development, holistic approaches to heritage tourism, and the development of glocalisation as a response to globalisation. It discusses differences in approach to heritage tourism, cultural change and commodification between western and Chinese scholars and society.     

Hospitality and Tourism Curriculum Development

Abstract

This project presents a case study illustration of a qualitative research approach for enhancing an undergraduate curriculum of a hospitality and tourism management program at a large university. Four focus groups consisting of current students, alumni, faculty, and industry practitioners provided extensive information about past and current performance of the travel and tourism program. The data collected indicated areas of concern in three different levels: the university, the hospitality and tourism program, and the university's relationships with external constituencies. Recommendations and suggestions for curriculum enhancement took into consideration the perceptions of the focus groups' participants.     

Audience Members’ Motivation,Satisfaction, and Intention to Re-visit an Ethnic Minority Cultural Festival

This study investigates the relationships among audience members' motivation, satisfaction, and re-visit intentions at an ethnic minority cultural festival. As an empirical study, an on-site survey was conducted at the 2009 Fe?ta–Croatian Food and Wine Festival in Adelaide, South Australia. The results of the study identified eight main motivational dimensions for ethnic minority cultural festival attendance: “community support,” “escape,” “knowledge/education,” “food, wine, and entertainment,” “novelty,” “family togetherness,” “marketing,” and “socialization.” The findings of this study also confirm the implication that festival audience members' motivation is an immediate antecedent of overall satisfaction and likelihood of future attendance, and that the level of a festival audience members' overall satisfaction has a direct impact on the likelihood of future attendance. These findings offer important implications for public or private festival and event organizations, state governments, and local communities that have an interest in creating and staging ethnic minority cultural festivals.     

Baby boomers turning grey: European profiles

Globally, the senior or “grey” tourism segment is of increasing importance, reflecting a richer aging population with good health and a desire to travel. Though this niche is traditionally described as homogeneous, grey tourism comprises different subgroups. Identifying the profiles, preferences, and behaviors of these subgroups has become an important task for organizations competing to satisfy tourist demands. This study classifies the factors that most influence mature travelers' decisions. Using a database of 3458 respondents from 35 European countries, four new grey tourism market subgroups were identified. These were named “explorers”, “livewires”, “vacationers”, and “homebodies”, to reflect different preferences and behaviors. The implications for destination marketing and management are also discussed.     

Tourism transition in peripheral rural areas: Theories,issues and strategies

This article examines the relationship between “rural peripherality” and “tourism transition” to describe the ongoing transformations within the tourist supply in rural areas, highlighting the importance these concepts are acquiring in both the theoretical debate and the formation of policies. Based on the classification of peripheral areas provided by the Italian Strategy for Inner Areas, the authors have undertaken a detailed statistical analysis at the municipality level, considering tourism as an important driver of socio-economical change. A model of governance based on “transition management” is put forward as a practical tool to guide these processes. A case study conducted through participatory action-research offered the opportunity to overcome existing governance practices and experiment with more adaptive methods to manage the transition.     

地域功能视角下旅游引导山地城乡一体化发展策略研究——以河南鲁山县为例

旅游业已经成为中国城乡发展的新动力,在城乡地域功能演化中起到的作用越来越显著。山地丘陵地区在旅游业驱动下,多种地域功能交互重叠,构成了多类型复杂耦合空间,面临着区域可持续发展的模式抉择。本研究以河南鲁山县为例,探讨山地丘陵地区在旅游引导下的城乡一体化发展策略。研究发现：（1）山地丘陵地区的地域功能正在从传统单一的“居住-农业非农业生产”向综合功能的“生态保障-居住-农业非农业生产-休闲文化服务”转变,多类型空间交互特征明显。（2）鲁山县由农业经济主导向旅游经济主导转变,可划分为旅游服务承接平台区、山地生态旅游发展区、特色林业旅游融合区、平原高效农旅融合区,进行中心城区-中心镇-一般镇-中心村的层级划分和产业方向优化。（3）发展策略应强调分层实施、分类引导,优化城乡利用空间,做好城乡地域分类引导,实现资源要素合理配置。研究成果为认识山地丘陵地区地域功能演化规律、制定城乡一体化发展策略提供了科学案例。     

Tourism in rural areas

This article derives from reflections on recent books by Newby (“Green and Pleasant Land”) and by Shoard (“Theft of the Countryside”). The nature of rural areas is changing, and this affects tourism to these areas. Both books are concerned to analyse and discuss the British countryside experience, although the issues raised are most certainly relevant to European countries and, to a lesser extent, to North America.     

Exploring Fijian's sense of place after exposure to tourism development

Tourism, Fiji's largest foreign exchange earner, is growing rapidly. Remote and less developed villages in Fiji's Yasawa archipelago are experiencing some of the greatest tourism growth and impacts on residents' sense of place. This paper uses photo elicitation to address the meanings that residents attach to their “place” (i.e. villages). Photo elicitation provides residents with a “visual voice” and gives researchers insights into the social or cultural characteristics of the village believed to be integral to sustainability. The results indicated that residents value the Fijian village and way of life, the culture and history associated with traditions, and also new technology and its impact on daily life. They also spoke of the importance of protecting the physical environment as central to the continued maintenance of their traditions and lifestyle as well as tourism. These findings would not have been apparent had traditional methods been used to capture the meanings of sense of place. They lend support for the notion that sense of place is multidimensional, and make evident factors that must be considered by planners and marketers in the development of sustainable products and services.     

Domestic tourism and sustainability in an emerging economy: Brazil's littoral pleasure periphery

The littoral pleasure periphery (LPP) is a major and expanding spatial feature of Brazil that is dominated by almost 200 specialised coastal resorts, beachfront metropolises and beachfront cities. It is notable in an emerging economy context for the extent to which domestic forces have influenced its development, including not just favourable geographic features but patterns of historical settlement, modernisation processes, national culture, and geopolitical motivations. Reflecting Brazil's economic and social dualities, the LPP exhibits two distinct models. The southern LPP, like counterparts in the more developed world, is long-established and displays an “organic” growth trajectory. The northern LPP is a hybrid of “organic” and “induced” impulses exhibiting more rapid and largely planned growth manifested in low density development. Despite efforts of a multi-partner regional tourism initiative – the Programa de Desenvolvimento do Turismo (PRODETUR) – to facilitate economic and social equity through targeted tourism investment, the northern LPP resembles classic Third World LPPs where mainly “non-white” local residents are often displaced by coastal development involving “white” investors and tourists. Unsustainable tourism outcomes are therefore indicated in both components of the Brazilian LPP and minimal progression toward an enlightened mass tourism ideal.     

Charleston,South Carolina Tourism and the Presentation of Urban Slavery in an Historic Southern City

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism's depiction of slavery makes for an interesting study. Several years ago, David Butler published an article in this journal that was highly critical of the depiction of slavery by Southern US plantations during tours offered to visitors, indicating that these attractions “whitewashed” this aspect of their history. The current study, intended as an extension of Butler's work, focused upon urban slavery versus plantation slavery and the handling of the issue by historic antebellum houses now opened as heritage tourist attractions in Charleston, SC. Encouragingly, it was learned that these historic homes are doing a much fairer job of exposing their guests to the issue than had been noted by Butler's plantation tours.     

乡村旅游开发中农业景观特质性的保护研究

农业景观的特质性是农耕活动千百年演变积累下来的人地关系,表现为所在地域自然环境特征与人文地理特征叠加的土地形态,是具有生产、生活、生态“三生”功能的景观系统.在乡村旅游开发过程中,若缺乏对农业景观特质性全面、深入的认识,盲目采用城市景观建设方法来指导农业景观的建设,将导致农业景观特质性核心价值的消失与乡土特色的丧失.农业景观资源的科学旅游开发利用已经成为亟待研究的重要问题.文章首先分析乡村旅游开发中的农业景观特质性保护和开发利用面临的主要问题,然后依据农业景观特质性的“三生”功能,提出整体性、资源可持续发展、地域分异与协调共生原则以及农业景观特质性的系统保护模式,并以广东南海西樵旅游开发中西樵山七星村的传统特色农业景观“桑基鱼塘”有机再生为例,分析如何在旅游开发中实现农业景观特质性的有效保护和可持续利用.     

A new visitation paradigm for protected areas

Current “second generation” approaches to visitation in higher order protected areas are based on biocentric management and monitoring that positions visitors as an inherent threat. The result is suboptimal sustainability outcomes of coexistence and possibly increased conflict in an era of escalating demand, reduced public funding and growing threats to global and local biodiversity. A “third generation” model is therefore required that repositions visitors as an inherent opportunity, and augments management and monitoring accordingly with visitor motivation and mobilisation for mass participation in on-site park enhancement activities. Strategies and issues for implementation - including the model's dialectical underpinnings and its relationship to a broader context of people-focused park management -are considered, toward achieving optimal sustainability outcomes of park/visitation symbiosis.     

Local government intervention in tourism-driven rural gentrification: Types and interpretative framework

Exploring the role that the local government plays in tourism-driven rural gentrification has the potential to make a contribution to rethinking the influence of power mobility on local development. Using 115 in-depth interviews and non-participant observation, this study examines the local government's changes in interventions in Pingnan county, Fujian province in China. It was found that the Pingnan County Government adopted deregulated, performative, and contractual interventions as strategies in three different spatio-temporal scenarios of tourism-driven rural gentrification; the underlying logic of tourism-driven rural gentrification is the vertical and horizontal mobility of power, which is directed by the internal mechanism of “political utility-power flexibility-risk control.” This study is expected to extend the applicability of rural gentrification theory to government-dominated contexts and provide practical insights for policymakers to intervene in an adaptive and periodic manner in local socio-economic affairs, including rural tourism development.     

社区旅游参与视角下民族村寨旅游地居民地方感生成研究

居民地方感领域的研究在深化“人-地”关系认识、旅游目的地地方性塑造、旅游资源开发与保护以及旅游规划等方面具有特殊意义。已有研究主要探讨人口统计学特征、物理环境和社会环境等影响因素,缺乏对旅游世界中人与场的积极互动而产生的地方感等问题的讨论。本研究从社区旅游参与视角,通过田野调查的方法收集郎德上寨村民主诉的旅游参与实践,对民族旅游村寨居民地方感的生成问题进行分析。研究发现:郎德上寨村民的社区旅游参与主要表现为“合作激励型”“自我激励型”“机械被动型”和“利益激励型”4种类型;在社区旅游参与过程中,村民获得了强烈的地方感,并由自然地理和人文物理环境、社会文化特性、经济制度、乡土认同、血缘认同、文化认同、房屋归属感和生活便利性等内容体现。本研究还发现,居民地方感在不同的社区旅游参与形态中表现出差异性;社区旅游参与和地方感之间是双向、交互式的影响关系,其中,旅游效益感知因素在二者的关系中起着重要的中介作用。     

Exploring Factors Influencing Residents' Satisfaction with Tourism Development in Poverty-Stricken Areas: A Case Study of Five Poor Villages in China

As one of the key stakeholders in tourism development, residents' satisfaction with tourism development (RSTD) has an important effect on the alleviation of poverty. Despite its great significance, only limited research had been conducted by researchers to explore factors influencing RSTD in poor regions. To fill the void, this study built the proposed model of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas by structural equation modeling technique. The results indicated that (1) six key influencing factors, namely, perceived benefits of tourism development, perceived costs of tourism development, residents' participation in tourism development, distribution of personal benefits from tourism, residents' expectations for tourism development, and community attachment, were proved to be the antecedents of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas. (2) According to path coefficients between constructs, “distribution of personal benefits from tourism” was the most significant antecedent of RSTD in poverty-stricken regions. Furthermore, “residents’ participation in tourism development” also need to be paid more attention.     

Cave Tourism: Tourists' Characteristics,Motivations to Visit,and the Segmentation of Their Behavior

Geotourism is one among many types of ecotourism or nature tourism. Cave tourism within geotourism has gained popularity in Korea. The study's objectives include cave tourists' characteristics, segmenting them according to motivation factors, and finally identifying who they are. The sample population for this research consisted of tourists who have visited the Hwansun Cave in Samchuk City. Among a total of 547 questionnaires distributed, 537 questionnaires were used for further data analyses. On the basis of cluster analysis using the motivation factors, cluster 1 was named an “escape-seeking group”, cluster 2 was termed a “knowledge- and novelty-seeking group”, cluster 3 was called a “novelty-seeking group” and cluster 4 was termed a “socialization group”. Differences in socio-demographic variables, beliefs about cave tourism resources, preferred cave tourism products, satisfaction with this tour, willingness to participate in another cave tour and belief in the value of cave tourism resources were found among the four clusters. The study's findings were expected to be helpful in understanding who they are.     

旅游发展影响下农业文化遗产社区韧性感知研究——以河北宣化传统葡萄园为例

农业文化遗产作为重要的旅游资源之一,其动态保护关系到遗产地社区的生计选择、农民的生活改善和乡村的可持续发展。面对旅游活动所带来的一系列人为干扰,遗产地社区如何应对关系到农业文化遗产的可持续利用以及乡村振兴的实现。本文以河北宣化传统葡萄园为例,运用基于地方居民感知的指标测量法,针对社区居民进行旅游发展影响下农业文化遗产地社区韧性感知研究。研究结果显示：（1）旅游发展对于农业文化遗产地社区存在着较为积极的影响;（2）农业文化遗产地社区韧性各个子系统受旅游发展影响程度存在着一定的差别,由高到低分别为社会、生态、文化、经济、制度;（3）各旅游因子发挥了不同的作用,其作用程度由高到低分别为旅游设施因子、旅游形象因子、旅游产品因子和旅游规模因子。本文探究了农业文化遗产社区韧性在旅游发展中受到何种影响,分析其形成原因,以期实现农业文化遗产保护与可持续旅游的协调发展。