Is a cluster a necessary condition for success? The case of Benidorm

This paper analyses the application of the cluster concept to tourist destinations using Benidorm as a case study. A questionnaire was administered to tourism firms based in Benidorm in order to determine whether this destination currently constitutes a tourism cluster or whether it possesses the ideal characteristics to become a cluster with the private agents' collaboration, that is, whether it is a potential cluster. The results obtained from this research indicate that Benidorm's success is not derived from the presence of a cluster due to a series of elements that prevent its existence. In this destination there is a need to strengthen cooperation between public and private agents (especially in those areas that determine the competitive advantage of the destination) and to design a strategy based on shared goals. Both of these elements are fundamental for the characterisation of a cluster.     

Marketing performance measurement in hotels,travel agencies and tour operators: a study of current practices

As successful tourism firms invest heavily in marketing to defend or improve their competitive position, they increasingly need to measure their marketing performance. Previous studies related to tourism have largely focused on financial and operational performance, but the marketing perspective has been largely overlooked. Drawing on an in-depth investigation involving 12 hotel chains, 8 travel agencies and 8 tour operators, this study provides an overview of the state-of-the-art marketing performance measurements among some of the leading tourism firms in Italy. Several issues and unanswered questions are also identified.     

Restoring tourist flows and regenerating city's image: the case of Belgrade

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of the post-1990 transition on the relocation of tourism and changes in the structure of tourism over the last 20 years in Belgrade. Economic and social development altered spatial relations of tourist factors and elements. Apart from the old city core, new tourist zones and directions appeared. Tourist flows and economic challenges influenced the rationalisation of doing business and relocating the hotels outside the central city municipalities. Belgrade has been acknowledged as a low-cost destination of fun and nightlife and the city's new image has attracted more foreign tourists. Both the volume of foreign tourists and their countries of origin have changed significantly over the last several years. However, there have been negligible economic effects on the city's economy, despite this increase in the number of foreign tourists. In conclusion, we examine the implications of new directions in tourism development for the future position of Belgrade as a tourist destination in a competitive European market.     

Agglomeration Density and Labor Productivity in China's Tourism Industry

The primary objective of this study is to examine the extent to which tourism agglomeration density contributes to tourism labor productivity across the provinces of China. This objective is achieved by analyzing a panel dataset from 2000 to 2011. Our estimation results indicate that tourism industry agglomeration density and per capita capital stock are important determinants of labor productivity and that the benefits of locating in dense areas can offset the associated costs for tourism firms. However, diverse industrial circumstances have a negative effect on tourism labor productivity of tourism firms, such as star‐rated hotels, travel agencies, scenic spots, transportation enterprises and other firms. These results are robust for a large series of empirical tests. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism Innovation in the Global South: Evidence from the Western Cape,South Africa

A research gap exists for the conceptual strengthening, measurement and analysis of innovation at the tourism firm and systems levels, especially in the context of the global South. This paper investigates tourism innovation in the Western Cape region of South Africa. In particular, the nature and types of innovation by tourism firms and system actors are interrogated. It is revealed that innovation by tourism firms is widespread, albeit is largely incremental in nature. The main contribution of this research is the development of an expanded evidence‐based tourism innovation typology from a cross‐sectoral survey of tourism firms and qualitative interviews undertaken with tourism system actors. In addition, recommendations are provided regarding measurement of innovation in tourism. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Tool For Measurement of Innovation Newness and Adoption in Tourism Firms

The paper focuses on the newness characteristic of realized innovations and their adoption in tourism firms. For that purpose it investigates three research problems: (i) measurement of newness level and adoption of tourism innovations; (ii) definition of tourism innovations taxonomy (needed for the measurement); and (iii) statistical analysis of innovations’ adoption in tourism destinations (result of the measurement). The main aim of the research was to develop and validate the tool used for such measurements. The tool should help researchers and managers in tracking and benchmarking how innovative tourism firms are. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wellness Tourism in China: Resources,Development and Marketing

China's natural and cultural resources are the foremost offerings of the country's wellness tourism sector. Although wellness tourism in China is in its infancy, it can offer new opportunities in, and strengthen the overall competitiveness of, China's tourism industry. To achieve this, the assessment and development of wellness tourism resources in China are required. This study examines the potential for wellness tourism development in terms of resources and promotion from the point of view of wellness tourism experts. It surveys professionals working in tourism, health and education in China. The results reveal that environmental assets, including fresh air, clean water and natural features, are considered the most important attributes for the development of wellness tourism in China and that the promotion of wellness tourism can best be achieved through advertising in mass media, governmental support and organizing new regional events. The study implications and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Destination competitiveness: evidence from Bali

Within the dynamic global tourism industry, understanding the reasons for a destination's competitiveness is essential in order to enhance its performance, facilitate more effective destination management, and inform its overall sustainable economic development. This paper applies Kim and Wicks’ (2010, July 30. Rethinking tourism cluster development models for global competitiveness, international chrie conference-refereed track, University of Massachusetts) tourism cluster development model to Bali – a small, mature destination in the developing economy of Indonesia. It demonstrates that there are complex relationships between: (i) cluster actors; (ii) barriers preventing effective networking; and (iii) the significance of these interactions for the local host community. This paper contributes to the debate by addressing new and different attributes and actors such as transnational corporations, universities, and the concept of co-opetition, as being significant attributes in Kim and Wicks’ initial model. Through a qualitative approach involving N?=?23 semi-structured interviews, this paper illustrates intricate issues and relationships that are identified in Bali, a small mature destination. Purposive sampling methods were employed to generate a range of key stakeholders who informed our understanding of ‘cluster actors’ in Kim and Wicks’ terms. The systematic examination of these key tourism elements provides a detailed analysis of the destination's strengths and weaknesses, and a more nuanced understanding of what facilitates a destination's competitive position.     

Small firms in the tourism industry: some conceptual issues

Public policy to promote small business development is an established feature of the political landscape throughout western Europe. In a tourism context, there is a growing interest in the small business dimension, in both academic and policy terms. Yet, research relating to small firms does not appear to inform policy development. This paper argues that such a situation is exacerbated, if not precipitated, by a lack of common understanding about terminology and reasons for categorisation. The paper explores various definitions of ‘small tourism firms’ and examines the utility of adopting such a grouping as an analytical category. Following a critical review of statistics relating to the sector, it argues that additional research is required so that policy initiatives might be more finely focused. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flows into tourist areas: an econometric approach

The globalisation of the tourism industry has led to a horizontal and vertical penetration of firms, leading to strong competition in all tourist centres. In light of these circumstances there is a need to develop strategies that encourage entrepreneurial actions and help firms to design the most competitive tourism offer possible. For the development of these strategies, the current work attempts to identify the degree of interrelation existing between the different tourist markets. Specifically, the study is based on an analysis of the evolution in the relations between the main tourist‐receiving centres in Spain. It identifies the short‐ and long‐term dynamic relations existing between them, and determines their degree of interdependence and any potential leadership relations between them. The methodology used is the one underlying Cointegration theory and vector autoregressive theory, together with forecast error variance decomposition and the impulse‐response function. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Planning for urban tourism: a critique of borough development plans and tourism policy in London

The paper presents a critique of tourism policy in London in the context of local environmental plans and central government policy for tourism and hotel development. Rationales for local authority tourism policies are assessed in relation to city‐level planning imperatives and local land‐use plan formulation. A comparative analysis of borough development plans and the treatment of tourism is based on a survey of London's 33 unitary authorities. The paper presents a World City case study of urban tourism from the position of the environmental planning process and in the light of the highly concentrated distribution of hotel provision and tourist activity in London. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Type of diversification and firm resources: new empirical evidence from the Spanish tourism industry

This paper analyses the diversification strategies followed by tourism firms from the perspective of the resource‐based view. More specifically, it seeks to verify whether the composition of the firms' resources has a bearing on the decision to undertake one type of diversification or another (related or unrelated). From a mail survey to 80 Spanish tourism firms, we identified 94 entries into new business areas. We applied an ordered logit regression and have statistically confirmed that intangible resources lead to a more related type of diversification. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of the major supply factors and business choices affecting the growth rate of wine tourism in Greece

Wine tourism is considered one of the alternative forms of tourism internationally. Wine tourism combines wine production with tourism activities, mainly in agricultural areas, as it embraces the tourism interest for wine production and the enjoyment of vineyard activities by the tourists. Greece, as a well-known tourist destination, is actually a new wine tourism area that has still a long way to go before claiming that it can render high-quality services in this very competitive sector. The objective of this paper is to examine and present the extent of wine tourism development in Greece, the characteristics as well as the main business choices related to wine tourism supply, aiming at highlighting the necessary key elements that can play a decisive role in its further growth. In terms of this paper, we attempt to examine the Greek wine producer's viewpoint of wine tourism by setting out data related to the development of the product, the satisfaction of businessmen involved, the means used to promote the product, the difficulties faced by and the expectations set by wine producers. In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, a research was conducted by means of a constructive questionnaire sent to all major Greek wine producers from April to June 2007. The participants in the wine tourism industry in the country were considered a major source of information.     

Tourism in the Middle East: Conflicts,Crises and Economic Diversification,Some Critical Issues

This paper briefly examines tourism activity over a 60‐year period in the UNWTO Middle East region together with Israel and Iran. The region has been subject to political turmoil over that period, and its tourist arrivals have not fully capitalized on the potential that the region holds. The region has a wealth of heritage, a climate conducive to tourism and a range of leisure resources that should provide a comparative and competitive advantage to its tourism industry. This paper examines the vulnerability of tourism in the region as countries try to diversify their economies away from energy dependence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Case study: discussion of factors and challenges for urban cultural tourism development

With both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study examined the success factors of cultural tourism development. It discussed reasons why some cities may find it challenging to sustain cultural tourism development. The findings suggested that the lack of advantageous factors may be because all factors were highly related and that one factor's defect in marketing could easily affect the performance of all other factors. The challenge for cultural tourism development in a less competitive destination may be more related to elementary problems such as governmental leadership and funding rather than the important factors emphasized in theoretical models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism: a sacred journey? The case of ashram tourism,India

Religious tourism — tourism that is motivated by faith or religious reasons — has been in evidence for centuries. In more recent times, however, it has been suggested that modern tourism has become the functional and symbolic equivalent of more traditional religious practices, such as festivals and pilgrimages. In other words, it is claimed by some that tourism is a sacred journey. To date, however, little work has been undertaken to explore this position; the purpose of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to this debate. Based on an exploratory study, it considers the motivations and experiences of Western tourists visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the nearby utopian township of Auroville in Pondicherry, south east India. It identifies two principal groups of visitors, namely ‘permanent tourists’ who have immersed themselves indefinitely in a spiritual ‘Other’, and temporary visitors. The latter are categorised into sub‐groups which point to a variety of spiritual and non‐spiritual motives. The paper concludes that there is a continuum of spirituality inherent in tourism, though this is related to tourists' experience rather than initial motivation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does freedom of the press enhance inbound tourism?

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects of the freedom of the press on inbound tourism in 160 countries for the period from 1995 to 2016. By using the fixed-effects, the Hausman–Taylor, and the dynamic panel data estimation techniques, we show that a higher level of the freedom of the press promotes inbound tourism. The main findings are robust to consider the countries at the different income level, the inclusion of the various control variables, using the different measures of the freedom of the press, excluding the outliers, and excluding the observations in the different regions.     

Tourism and economic regeneration: the role of skills development

An increasing number of local economic development agencies in the UK are turning to tourism as a means of urban regeneration and employment creation. Although initiatives vary, there is a nationally inspired emphasis on the development of employee skills as a core element of many regeneration strategies. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of the demand for and utilisation of skills by tourism firms in East London, an area that is the recipient of substantial urban aid funding, a proportion of which has an overt focus on skills enhancement designed to develop the tourism sector. It then examines the processes of skills supply within the locality. The paper concludes by identifying the key issues likely to be important if regeneration programmes are to be effective. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anticipating Italian census tourism data before their official release: a first solution and its implementation to Piemonte,Italy

Tourism is a complex and highly competitive sector. In this scenario, incoming tourism flows represent one of the key indicators for public institutions, willing to adopt an informed decision‐making process for resource allocation. The accurate and timely knowledge of both the inter‐regional and the foreign component at a sufficiently detailed geographical level of such flows allows a better strategical, tactical and operational planning of marketing activities. The paper describes a methodology to complete the database of the official statistical data on tourism flows with an estimate of missing data, which are originated by non‐respondent accommodation structure. The methodology has been applied to the inbound tourism flows into Piemonte, Italy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.