Components of cultural tourists’ experiences in destinations

Destinations provide a combination of products and services. Using these resources, tourists create their own experiences. Providing a pleasing tourist experience is crucial for destinations’ long-term success. Although travellers’ experiences have been subject to extensive research, various segments might perceive them differently based on their motivations. Despite the fact that cultural tourism is considered as an important segment for most urban destinations, factors affecting cultural travel experiences have not been clarified in the literature so far. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting cultural tourists’ overall travel experiences. In order to achieve this study's goals, we chose Istanbul as a research context. After interviewing 21 tourists and analysis of transcribed data, 64 items were merged under 5 dimensions emerging as the key constructs affecting cultural tourist experiences in a destination, namely social interaction, local authentic clues, service, culture/heritage and challenge. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

The growth of literary places in ancient town tourism destinations: based on the theories of Bourdieu,Danto and Dickie

Literary literature and tourism are closely connected, but the research on that connection is limited. Literary tourism spots are no longer just the places where historical accidents happened or were sites of a writer's birth or death, they can be any other places which have actual or even imaged linkages with the authors or their works. Based on Bourdieu's 1992 field theory and the ‘Artworld’ described by Danto [1964. The artworld. The Journal of Philosophy, 61, 571–584] and Dickie [1974. Art and the aesthetic: An institutional analysis. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; 1984. The art circle: A theory of art. New York, NY: Haven], this study proposes an analytical framework comprising the atmosphere, activities and agents of art field development in order to understand the formation of a literary tourism product. San Mao teahouse in Zhouzhuang, China is used as an example. On-site observations, interviews and secondary data were collected for this study. The study finds that San Mao Teahouse as a literary venue is the result of the interaction of the literary field of San Mao and the tourism field of the historical town of Zhouzhuang. In the early stage of development, the owner and manager of San Mao Teahouse played the role of producer and marketer, and later on, tourists took more active roles by writing more literary works and promoting the site on websites based on their faith in San Mao, her work and the place. The research also finds that literary tourism is not a conventional art product, but a special experience of literature in the tourism world. Overall, the research contributes to the current knowledge by presenting a new case of formation of literary venues in tourist spots, introducing a new analytical framework and also facilitating the understanding of cultural change in tourist destinations.     

Yeats's country and “Yeats Country”: conceptualizing literary spaces

The year 1991 saw Dublin named as a “European Capital of Culture”; 1991 was also the year that the Dublin Writers' Museum found a permanent home in numbers 18 and 19 Parnell Square. Currently, there are 12 other attractions in Dublin designed to draw tourists interested in Dublin's literary history. What does it mean for a nation to capitalize on its literary production? Failté Ireland, currently responsible for marketing Ireland to tourists, seeks not to create the artifice of an “authentic” Ireland, but to allow tourists to experience on a more personal level what Ireland has produced. The increasing emphasis on cultural production over cultural difference belies the extent to which contemporary tourists struggle with the issue of authenticity. As Erik Cohen shows, the desire for authenticity forms a central part of the tourist experience. Considering the tourist from this perspective, my project analyzes tourist sites related to literary figures in both Ireland and St Petersburg, Russia. Exploring this form of tourism as a model for life in general, my paper asks whether tourist attractions related to literature can work against the larger process of “spatial homogenization” endemic in the postmodern era.     

Pajala as a literary place: in the readings and footsteps of Mikael Niemi

This paper concerns the relationship between literature and tourism, with specific focus on the Swedish novelist Mikael Niemi and his influence on local tourism development in his home municipality of Pajala. Attention is paid to how the success of Niemi's breakthrough novel Populärmusik från Vittula has turned Pajala into a well-known ‘literary place’, at the same time increasing tourism in the region. This paper discusses the literary meanings of Pajala by comparing two alternative ways of comprehending the idea of ‘Pajala as a literary place’. Pajala is approached as (1) a stage for the local and regional identities represented in Niemi's novel, and (2) a re-produced real-world experience for ‘literary pilgrims’, tourists wandering in the footsteps of Mikael Niemi. This paper also discusses the contradictions and disharmonies between these two literary worlds and the implications that these may have for local development strategies based on literary tourism.     

Exploring combined tourist offerings: the case of sightrunning

This study provides preliminary empirical insight into the contemporary tourist phenomenon of sightrunning. This combined offering simultaneously concurs with and evades theoretical perspectives of hybrid tourists, sport tourism, cultural tourism and urban tourism, favouring examination of such phenomena through first-hand experiences of the participants. For the purpose of the empirical study, automated content analysis was applied in order to analyse 858 reviews of sightrunning tours extracted from Tripadvisor web pages. Results reveal that running is the dominant concept, which refers to a gratifying ‘way to see and experience the city’ (rather than the sights). Additional concepts and themes, such as knowledgeable guides and proper pace, further mediate and effect participant experiences. Findings suggest that sport tourists might be concurrently interested in involving cultural experiences, and this offers some preliminary theoretical and managerial implications. They namely identify the potentially neglected tourist segment, which is of relevance for conceptualization, research and management of tourist offerings and experiences from (and beyond) the perspective of ‘running shoes’.     

Tourist experience of nature in contemporary China: a cultural divergence approach

The study of Chinese nature tourism is a relatively independent research realm which adopts a cultural perspective to study the tourist experience. Chinese tourists are regarded as being accustomed to experiencing nature through associating it with high culture such as landscape poetry and paintings, calligraphy, and so on, and the impacts of traditional popular culture are seldom addressed. Yet, for the majority of Chinese, popular culture has significant influences on their behavior. From a cultural divergence approach, this paper chooses Huangshan Mountain as a case to investigate the way common Chinese people experience nature, and it is found that cultural impacts are differentiated, since neither cultures nor tourist groups are homogeneous. Specifically, tourists can be classified into classicists and folklorists according to whether they have professional knowledge about the traditional arts. As the majority of Chinese are folklorists and are largely neglected in the research, they are the main interest of this study. High culture has a weak impact on folklorists because they lack professional knowledge to associate with nature through high culture. It is popular culture that strongly influences folklorists’ behaviors in their drawing farfetched analogies to nature and praying to nature.     

A new take on an old structure? Creative and slow tourism in Krakow (Poland)

The contemporary tourism market trends indicate an increasing need for the individualisation of tourist experience and necessitate a move away from the standardisation of tourism products, including those offered within the cities that primarily market their cultural heritage. The concept of creative tourism as a way of practising cultural tourism is a response to the changing needs and expectations of tourists. This is because it offers non-traditional uses for the cultural potential of cities. This article attempts to embed creative tourism in the overall tourist product using an example of a historic city – Krakow. The authors examine the development of tourism products in Krakow, focusing primarily on cultural and historical heritage tourism and secondarily on new forms of tourism that have emerged, such as creative tourism and slow tourism. They analyse this issue in terms of districts – traditional and new tourist areas, indicating the potential for tourism growth.     

Conviviality and everyday life: the appeal of new areas of London for visitors

Literature on tourism development in converted cities or new districts of polycentric cities emphasises planned processes to create attractions, often resulting in standardised tourism zones. The demands and experience of tourists themselves have been neglected. Qualitative research with overseas visitors to new tourism areas suggests that character and sense of place that visitors enjoy derives from a combination of unlike elements, ‘lashed up’ to create a distinctive place, in which everyday life plays an important role. Rather than familiar stories of conflict between ‘hosts’ and ‘guests’, the emphasis in some areas is on conviviality among different groups of city users. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A small place,by Jamaica Kincaid: envisioning literary tourism in Antigua

ABSTRACT

This work departs from a reading of the novelistic essay A small place (1988), by Jamaica Kincaid, to analyse the representation of the tourism industry and of tourists in Antigua (the author's birthplace). From there, we present Kincaid's text as ‘tourist literature’ (Hendrix, 2014), also aiming to contribute to the examination of tourism-centred literary texts. Within the context of literature and tourism studies as well as comparative studies, this paper examines Kincaid's literary text in order to consider the promotion of literary tourism in Antigua. This example is then considered in light of recent contributions from literary tourism, space production, community-based tourism, mass tourism as well as responsible and sustainable tourism. Literary heritage as a resource for the tourism industry could bring tourists and locals closer and conspire to break down barriers between the largely dark-skinned hosts and the white tourists in Antigua.     

The Poetics of Tourist Experience: An Autoethnography of a Family Trip to Eilat1

This paper is an autoethnographic exploration of a tourist’s experience. Through interpreting qualitative material, in the form of a poem I wrote in 1994 about a short familial excursion to an Israeli seaside resort city (Eilat), the research seeks to sensitively describe the intricacies of travel experience. The research explores the advantages of the autoethnographic method of inquiry, and discusses tourism-related emotions and memories in the context of performance and representation. The paper joins recent efforts in attempting to challenge and loosen the grip of positivist epistemologies and discourses on mainstream tourism studies, by illustrating the emotional complexities and contradictions in the travel experience of tourists. In line with traditions of critical research in sociology, the exploration sheds light on the materiality of texts and on the role language plays in tourism, viewing the poem read in this paper (‘Quiet Eilat’) simultaneously as a representation, performance and material object of discourse.     

Pedagogies of Cultural Change: The Rotary International Youth Exchange Program and Narratives of Travel and Transformation

Every year, Rotary International sends thousands of American teenagers to live in foreign lands. Rotary is responsible for teaching students about travel and culture and for preparing teens for their year-long intercultural experience. Rotary International Exchange Students are ‘embedded tourists’, living in their host countries in order to ‘acquire’ a binational subjectivity. Rotary International's Program is a pedagogical site, where students are taught how to think about and consume cultural difference and are given ways of conceptualising tourism, travel, cultural adaptation, and personal transformation. Based on over three years of ethnographic research with Rotary clubs in the US Midwest and New England, this paper explores the narratives utilised by Rotary International as they socialise American teenagers for study abroad. The paper asserts that Rotary's narratives employ many of the tropes utilised in Euro-Western tourist and travel accounts. At the same time, the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program sees its students as cultural change agents and thus helps to cultivate in these students a sense of global citizenship by fostering a commitment to cultural diversity and an interest in intercultural communication. Hence, Rotary International's Youth Exchange Program is intentionally designed to bring about cultural change.     

Investigating the effects of a shared bike for tourism use on the tourist experience and its consequences

ABSTRACT

As public bike-sharing systems have been widely set up in cities around the world, a shared bike for tourism use can enhance tourists’ experience at destinations and lead to tourists’ post-visit evaluations. Thus, this research explores the attributional effects of the value of using shared bikes (namely, instrumental value and affective value) on tourists’ emotional experience (namely, hedonics and perceived uniqueness) as well as on satisfaction and destination loyalty. We obtain a sample of 302 tourists using shared bikes as transport modes during their visits to examine the proposed relationship model. Results show that both instrumental and affective values of shared bike use positively relate to hedonics and perceived uniqueness experiences. While both hedonics and perceived uniqueness have positive effects on satisfaction, only perceived uniqueness shows a positive effect on destination loyalty. The findings of multi-group analyses indicate that the direct effects of the tourism experience on destination loyalty are significantly positive for the low-motivation group but not for the high-motivation group. Empirical implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed herein.     

Re-visiting Luang Prabang: transformations under the influence of world heritage designation

This article examines the influence of a growing global tourism industry on the World Heritage City of Luang Prabang, Laos and more specifically the role played by the built environment in the transformations that have followed in the wake of its designation as a World Heritage City in 1995. Paradoxically, as increasing numbers of tourists seek to experience the extraordinary milieu of Luang Prabang, the physical and cultural landscapes that undergird this milieu are increasingly transformed by the pressures of global tourism. Using observations of tourists and residents, photographic documentation and comparison to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) archival materials, we show that regulations intended to preserve the heritage of Luang Prabang, have valorized a particular aspect of the city's history while effectively erasing others. As a result, the built environment of the city has been transformed into a tourist landscape. Simultaneously, the intangible heritage, the everyday life and experience of local populations are undermined as the built environment is transformed into tourist-focused landscapes. This case study illustrates, and continued UNESCO concerns over development in Luang Prabang indicate, it is not enough to create a policy designed to protect the physical environment without simultaneously working to protect the embedded socio-cultural dimensions of heritage tourism destinations.     

Tourist Identities in Narratives of Unexpected Adventure in Madeira

This paper examines the shift that occurs in role identity, from a tourist to an adventurer, as travel bloggers construct an adventure narrative from their experiences of Madeira's ‘levada walk’. Travel blogs, as a naturally occurring data source, offer insight into both tourism experiences and tourists themselves. The research finds that, while bloggers have touristic motivations for visiting Madeira, they cast themselves in a heroic role as they construct an adventure narrative from their experience. The paper concludes that tourism has the potential to become an ‘adventure’ in which tourists overcome challenges and discover themselves in the process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enriching the Tourist and Host Intercultural Experience by Reconceptualising Communication

The aim of this paper is to reconceptualise intercultural communication as it is conventionally understood in the field of tourism studies. Tourism literature identifies many problems related to intercultural communication between tourists and hosts from different cultural backgrounds. Some of these 'problems' occur only because tourism researchers assume that the appropriate goal for communication is 'communing', that is, finding common ground or understanding. This philosophical paper suggests that if one reconceptualises communication without the communing, using the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Jean-Luc Nancy, the 'problems' in intercultural communication disappear and communication becomes a source of enrichment for both tourists and hosts. This paper suggests that the basis of intercultural communication in tourism should be the acknowledgement of cultural differences between international tourists and local hosts, and the goal should be the 'spacing' of culturally different individuals rather than the 'communing' of 'idle talkers'. Treating intercultural communication in this way creates an opportunity for both sides to appreciate and value cultural difference. Experiencing cultural difference is one of the most fundamental motivators for travel and for opening host communities to international tourists. Reconceptualising intercultural communication by adopting Heidegger's and Nancy's philosophies promises not only to enrich the tourism experience but also to transform researchers' approaches to tourism education and training, and to tourism marketing and management.     

Effects of drought on cultural tourism: selected cases of Maasai tourism groups surrounding Tarangire National Park in Tanzania

This study explores the effect of drought on cultural tourism by applying the case study approach using the Maasai women’s groups surrounding Tarangire National Park (TNP) in Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to collect data from 30 purposefully selected Maasai women and 30 tourists. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings show that drought affects tourism both positively and negatively. Positively, drought forges unity among individuals, and creates the community’s external links that are crucial for tourism development. Negatively, drought interferes with the development and delivery of tourist products, thus destroying their quality and service delivery. Despite the challenges tourism faces during times of drought, including the scarcity of raw materials for making cultural products, 50% of the respondents would rather continue with tourism as a strategy to curb the effect of drought than their traditional livelihoods. Theoretically, the study shows the importance of the cultural ecology and livelihood lenses in investigating the effects of drought on tourism in a cultural setting. Practical recommendations for tourism authorities and stakeholders, as well as areas for future research, are provided.     

Tourist–community interactions in ethnic tourism: Tuva villages,Kanas Scenic Area,China

Tourists and destination communities interact in different contexts. Such interactions play a key role in constructing a rewarding experience and cultural understanding for tourists and influence the social and cultural life of the destination community. It is particularly so at ethnic areas where tourism experiences are acquired through encounters with the ethnic community. A diagram of tourist–community interactions in ethnic tourism is developed to outline different types of interactions, factors affecting these interactions, and impacts to both groups of actors. This research explores tourist–community interactions through a comparative examination of tourists' and residents' perceptions at Tuva villages in Kanas Scenic Area (KSA), China. In-depth interviews were conducted with residents involved in tourism and tourists to KSA through two field investigations in 2010 and 2013. Research results indicate that the ethnic encounter is not perceived by tourists as a primary motivation to visit Kanas, but it contributes to the formation of a satisfactory on-site experience. Tourists and community members have diverse needs for these interactions and are impacted by these interactions to different degrees. The research also reveals that community participation influences how and to what extent these interactions occur. Practical implications for KSA are then discussed.     

Planning Host and Guest Interactions: Moving Beyond the Empty Meeting Ground in African Encounters

In many senses viewing the ‘other’ has always been a part of the tourist activity of dominant cultures. The ‘other’ has been seen as a source of difference and excitement with possibilities for exotic pleasure while at the same time dominant cultures have reinforced their own sense of superiority through viewing the ‘other’. The view from the ‘other’ is now becoming a part of tourism research and enabling mechanisms for this view are being developed in tourism planning. This paper seeks to examine how we can move beyond MacCannell’s view of the contact between tourists and hosts as an ‘empty meeting ground’. Just as postcolonial theorists have been critical of the exclusion of the ‘other’ in tourism theory, we argue for the voice of the ‘other’ to be heard in tourism planning practices. In this paper we examine the extent this is able to bring benefits to the process of community-based tourist development in developing countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. The paper theoretically scrutinises the relation between and the fluidity of the concepts of tourism, communities and power and the actuality of approaches to tourism planning that do not involve a submissive, subservient, exoticised and inferiorised view of the ‘other’. The particulars of inclusion of the voice of the ‘other’ bring some fresh insights to Western notions of community-based tourism planning.     

A cross-cultural study of on-site film-tourism experiences among Chinese,Japanese, Taiwanese and Thai visitors to the Daejanggeum Theme Park,South Korea

There has been a growing research interest in the film-tourism phenomenon and its associated film tourist motivations, expectations and experiences at filmed locations of popular media programmes, in particular, in film and television series. However, with some exceptions, research into non-Anglophone linguistic and cultural settings remains relatively unexplored. There is also a lack of cross-cultural studies of film tourists’ experience in this research area. This current study addresses this gap and contributes to the existing film-tourism literature by examining the impact of nationality on film tourists’ actual experiences. The study looks at those experiences at filmed locations associated with Daejanggeum, a Korean historical television drama in the inter-Asian context. Adopting a structured survey questionnaire, the primary research data were collected at the Daejanggeum Theme Park (the main filming location of Daejanggeum in South Korea) among international visitors mainly from China, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Exploratory factor analysis identifies three salient dimensions to the film-tourism experiences, namely, ‘novelty and prestige’, ‘beyond screen experiences and re-enactment’, and ‘intimacy and memory’. In addition, it is empirically suggested that nationality does affect film tourist's on-site experiences. These findings provide important implications for destination marketers in relation to film-tourism destination development and experience design and management.     

Giving voice to heritage tourists: indicators of quality for a sustainable heritage experience at Petra,Jordan

ABSTRACT

The tourist experience should be placed at the heart of management and planning process to achieve the goal of sustainable heritage tourism. The concept of indicators and standards of quality, which emerged in the field of natural resources and outdoor recreation management as a conceptual framework for understanding visitors’ experiences, has been widely applied in nature-based parks rather than cultural heritage sites. This study applies the concept of indicators to heritage experience at Petra Archaeological Park in Jordan. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 tourists to understand the tourist experience at the park, and to formulate indicators of the tourism experience. Results suggest that cultural and natural scenic value, crowding, attractions accessibility, vendor persistence, and odor of animals waste are potential indicators for the tourism experience at the park. Related management implications and recommendations are also discussed.