To be or to refuse to be? Exploring the concept of leisure as resistance for young people who are visually impaired

This study explored the concept of leisure as resistance to social constraints of blindness. Leisure, because of its relative freedoms, has been conceptualised as a forum in which dominant cultural discourses and stereotypes can be challenged or resisted. A post-structural analysis of the leisure narratives of five young people who are blind revealed that they intentionally used aspects of leisure to resist some constraints and stereotypes of disability. Three strategies were identified: advocacy, redefinition and passing. Advocacy targeted other people’s beliefs; yet, some activities done to resist dominant discourses actually perpetuated them. Redefinition was a covert strategy to show themselves that they could be the same as everyone else. Passing was used in different ways. One young person used it when advocating, another to maintain social connections. However, maintaining social connections by passing was often at the cost of enjoyment, engagement and perceptions of ability. Empowerment through resistance in leisure related primarily to gains in self-confidence. These gains in self-confidence have the potential to contribute to social interactions and perhaps influence some of the discourses that operate as ‘truths’ about people who are blind.     

To buy or not to buy? The effect of time scarcity and travel experience on tourists' impulse buying

By its very nature, tourism is a temporary experience. But how time scarcity makes an impact on tourists' impulse buying is still unclear. By looking into the role played by travel experience and overconfidence, this study explores the mechanism behind the influence of time scarcity on tourist impulse buying of local products through an integrated series of experiments together with a post-trip survey. The results show that the interaction between time scarcity and travel experience affects impulse buying. For tourists with rich travel experience, time scarcity increases their impulse buying, while for tourists with less travel experience, time scarcity decreases it. Overconfidence plays a mediating role in the effect of time scarcity and travel experience on tourists' impulse buying.     

Tour to Snow-covered Guandong

The train left Beijing to head northeastwards, passing Shanhaiguan Pass, before reaching Guandong (east of the Pass) which covers three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. This is a vast land filled with wonder and romance, where tourist attractions can be found everywhere in the luxuriate forests of the scenic Changbai Mountain and Xing'an Mountain, on the fertile fields of the vast plains, and along the golden beaches of the Liaodong Peninsula. In winter, when the land is blanketed with     

Intention to “Leave” or “Stay” – The Role of Internship Organization in the Improvement of Hospitality Students’ Industry Employment Intentions

This study aims to identify influential internship organization factors that affect student interns’ industry employment intentions. A mixed-methods approach using both content analysis and questionnaire surveys was utilized to develop a practical scale and objectively reflect a variety of internship situations. The findings indicate that there are five internship organization factors: (1) interpersonal recognition, (2) benefit, (3) supervisor leadership, (4) job arrangement, and (5) training. The implications of this study offer preliminary insights into the hospitality industry, which aims to manage total quality initiatives. The results of this study lay the groundwork for the development of influential factors for the hospitality industry to retain prospective talent. In the long run, effective utilization of the influential organization factors derived from this study may eliminate the shortcomings of middle- to high-level managerial personnel in the hospitality industry.     

Paradoxes in planning Tourism Elitism or Brutalism?

While the rhetorics of environment, sustainability and ethics are prominent in academic discussions on tourism planning, they remained somewhat remote in the case of Eritrea. The debate about how the poorest countries should proceed with tourism remains polarized and confused. To help analyze this, a continuum is proposed upon which various types of planning advice may be placed. The two poles are represented by Tourism First (in which developing the industry is the focus of planning) and Development First (where planning is framed by national development needs) The terms of reference which are the key planning guide for tourism consulting firms conducting planning, are identified as being particularly inadequate.     

Taxing tourism: enhancing or reducing welfare?

Using a modified simple general equilibrium model of international trade, the theoretical construct proposed by this research note shows that taxing tourism may increase or decrease economic benefit depending on the destination's market power. Yet, from a social point of view, taxing tourism can be welfare-enhancing, as externalities of rapid tourism growth should be internalized. Therefore, a social rather than a private optimum should be pursued via taxing tourism in order to guarantee sustainable tourism. From political economy perspectives, however, the actual taxation policies may not be welfare-enhancing, as they heavily depend on the political system and power relations in the destination.     

Inducible or Not—A Telltale from Two Movies

By content analyzing two movies, Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Australia (2008), this paper empirically examined some arguments found in the extant literature that are related to film-induced tourism. Crocodile Dundee usually received the accolade of inducing tourism, while Australia was copromoted by Tourism Australia to help revive the dwindling tourist arrivals. This paper does not suggest which movie induces more tourism to Australia. Rather, through comparison and identification of differences, it tries to explore the factors that might be associated with tourism-inducible film. After decomposing two films into individual temporal segments, 583 shots of Crocodile Dundee and 2,604 shots from Australia were extracted and analyzed respectively. The findings indicate that Crocodile Dundee had relatively more landscape scenes and longer duration per shot by including less cuts (visual information) than Australia. Suggestions for future research in this area and marketing potential are also briefly examined.     

Trauel to Shandong in New Year

The new year chime ushered in "Visit China 97". To mark this major event in China's Tourism industry, east China's Shandong Province has prepared colorful tourist programs. While introducing Shandong's tourism to this reporter recently, Li Deming, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Tourism Bureau said that it is auspicious that the province has many representative tourist products which are related to the word "three", since an old Chinese New Year blessing goes: "With three##属性不符     

Consumers' responses to hotels’ donation of rooms to homeless people: The impact of political ideology

Our research examines how consumers’ political ideology affects their intention to stay at hotels that have donated rooms to homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose that conservative consumers are less likely than liberal ones to stay at hotels that have donated rooms to homeless people due to their greater feelings of disgust toward such hotels. However, we further argue that the proposed effect would be mitigated when the hotels are luxury (vs. non-luxury) establishments. To provide convergent evidence for those arguments, we conducted four experimental studies. Our research contributes to the literature on political ideology, corporate social responsibility, contagion, and hospitality. We also provide practical guidelines for policymakers and hotel marketing managers on how to design initiatives for corporate social responsibility, especially involving the donation of rooms.     

职业球员or业余球员难以界定的身份?

正今天阅读《世界高尔夫》杂志"《规则》难以界定业余球员身份"一文感觉有必要分享出来,供广大球友一起讨论!高尔夫统计数字-专业和业余的差距。近来在微博上又有了热炒的话题,那就是业余比赛设置奖金。虽然双方人马各持己见,针锋相对,激烈的的唇枪舌战也让围观者一头雾水,但是这个问题的关键还是双方对于球队补助款的理解不同。虽然队员不是为个人争取奖金,但是只要业余比赛有奖金就已经违背了业余的高尔夫精神了。按照高尔夫对业余球员的规定,业余赛事是不能设置现金奖的,不管"名义"是球队补助     

Does ecotourism contribute to sustainable destination development,or is it just a marketing hoax? Analyzing twenty-five years contested journey of ecotourism through a meta-analysis of tourism journal publications

ABSTRACT

Conducting a periodical systematic review on a given field of study enables to comprehend the conceptual development of a discipline. A decade has passed since the last in-depth systematic review on contemporary ecotourism research has been published. This study is, therefore, executed to systematically analyze ecotourism research articles published in the previous twenty-five years and thereby to reassess the past, understand the present and envisage the future of ecotourism development. 470 articles published in nine top-tier tourism journals are screened and analyzed. Thematic and summative content analyses are employed to examine the contents of each publication. The findings highlight that over the years, researchers have examined myriads of ecotourism research themes. Despite fluctuations over the years, the overall publication trend shows growth. Most ecotourism studies are conducted in developing countries, with Asia taking the lead followed by Africa and Latin America. However, in terms of researchers’ domicile, the USA becomes the first followed by Australia, the UK, and Canada. Despite modest successes, overall, the contribution of ecotourism towards sustainable destination development remains indiscernible. The current study provides up-to-date insight into the ecotourism literature by highlighting the main themes and trends of ecotourism research over the last twenty-five years. Research findings also enhance our understanding of the evolution of ecotourism research and ignite further study in ecotourism by suggesting issues that merit rigorous investigation.     

Are there cultural limits to tourism?

This article poses the question: are there cultural limits to tourism? It argues that tourism is a culture industry in the sense that it markets cultural products to tourists as cultural experiences. The three elements of tourism as culture are: the cultural foundations of tourism products, the sophistication of tourists’ perceptions and experiences of tourist cultures, and the cultural consequences of tourism development on resident communities. Yet these aspects are usually treated in a tokenistic way in favour of economic and environmental considerations, ignoring the cultural consequences of major changes to destination communities as a result of tourist development. This article proposes that the changes and consequences of tourism on the culture of destinations and on the culture of tourists should be central to debates about sustainable tourism development. The article proposes a number of conditions or indicators to identify the matrix of impacts of tourism from which acceptable and unacceptable limits can be determined. The use of these indicators should be central to planning, management and monitoring practices to achieve sustainable tourism.     

Do you dare to travel to China? An examination of China's destination image amid the COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 on destination image is critical for international tourism recovery. This study is conducted focusing on China, the first epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with mixed methods. Drawing on survey data collected from 500 US travelers, the study first examines China's destination image perceptions and travel intention. The results reveal that (1) US respondents have low travel intentions to China amid the pandemic; (2) Destination safety and security is the most influential image factor that leads to the low travel intentions to China. News media is proposed to have significant influence on China's image formation due to the COVID-19. A simple content analysis is conducted on CNN's news and China is found to be tied closely with COVID-19 and most news articles are emotionally negative. Those respondents who follow news outlet websites for COVID-19 view China more negatively and have lower travel intentions.     

Self-discipline or self-interest? The antecedents of hotel employees' pro-environmental behaviours

Abstract

Motivating employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviours is an essential topic in the tourism and hotel fields. This paper advances this research direction by integrating the mechanisms of cognition and incentives from the externalities/spillovers perspective. This paper argues that we can view the environmental and financial benefits received by hotels and natural environment as positive spillovers from employees' voluntary pro-environmental behaviours. Accordingly, internalization (the subject of positive spillovers cognitively perceives oneness with beneficiaries like hotels and physical environment) and compensation (beneficiaries offer incentives for positive spillovers' subject) are two leading solutions to the positive spillovers issue, which can improve employees' engagement in pro-environmental behaviours. Hence, this paper explores the impact of employees' cognitive internalization (work ethic) and positive incentives from the organization and nature (hotel's environmental benefit sharing and health rewards rooted in employees' ecological embeddedness) on employees' pro-environmental behaviours in the hotel industry. The empirical analysis of a sample of 324 employees working in Chinese luxury hotels suggests that employees' work ethic, hotel's environmental benefit sharing and employees' ecological embeddedness are significantly positively related to employees' pro-environmental behaviours and that the interplay of employees' work ethic and ecological embeddedness significantly and negatively affects employees' pro-environmental behaviours.     

Riding a Panda Bus to the Creat wall

The Panda bus is one of the series of products CITS has recently promoted for overseas tourists to China. The bus is so named not because it looks like the panda bump er cars we see in amusement parks, but becuase it bears eye-catching panda symbols. CITS, a renowned travel agency, discovered that there has been a sharp increase of FITs to China in recent years and that manyof them preferred traveling independently,instead of joining organized teams. But independent traveling is more expensive and adds the difficulty of finding an interpreter.     

Visitors’ Emotional Responses to the Festival Environment

Despite the importance of emotions and psychological commitment to loyal behavior, little empirical work has been done to explore their simultaneous effects on the festival loyalty development in the tourism literature. Guided by Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) framework in environmental psychology, this study examined how emotions elicited from the festival environment influenced visitors’ postvisit behavior. Data were collected from visitors to community festivals using the onsite and postvisit survey procedure. Results revealed that festival atmospherics had a positive indirect effect on loyalty via positive emotions, satisfaction, and psychological commitment. Based on the study findings, both practical and theoretical insights were provided.     

Association meeting planners’ loyalty to hotel chains

Many associations alternate the location of their annual convention. Hotel chains can have a significant advantage over independent hotels in that respect due to their network of properties across the country and the consequent potential for cross selling. This study explores the relationship between association meeting planners and hotel chains, with a particular focus on loyalty issues. It investigates meeting planners’ reasons for being loyal to a specific hotel chain and their future intentions. Hotel practices, features, and benefits that planners regard as important in developing loyalty to a chain are identified. Performance ratings for these attributes are then established, and contrasted with importance ratings, highlighting opportunities for hotel chains to improve relations with loyal planners.     

Does climate change matter to the travel trade?

This study evaluated the awareness of, attitudes toward and opinions about the ability of travel agencies in Hong Kong to help address tourism's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The retail travel agent sector is a major player in the tourism distribution system, accounting for about 25% of travel activity, and is the primary distributor of package tours. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers and owners/operators of a sample of travel agencies in Hong Kong, followed by a survey of 485 front line staff. The study revealed senior managers adopted a range of neutralisation techniques to abrogate themselves from any personal or corporate responsibility in this issue. Front line staff were largely unaware and ill-informed, and mainly see their role as simply pushing products. Cluster analysis revealed five groups with diverse views: Cluster 1, the “Deeply concerned” group (11%); Cluster 2, the “Deep knowledge” group (6%); Cluster 3, the “Moderate knowledge and awareness” group (18%); Cluster 4, the “Concerned but unaware” group (31%); and Cluster 5, the “Neither concerned nor aware” group (34%). The combination of lack of leadership among managers and ignorance among front line staff means that neither feels responsible for, nor able to, address this issue.     

For Me or Not for Me? Exploring Young Adults’ Museum Representations

Abstract

While museums are widely recognized for their important roles in society, there are concerns about their relevance to young adults, who are claimed to rarely cross museums’ thresholds. This study explores social representations of museums held by 259 young Australian and Chinese adults. The analysis revealed a shared social representation of museums as places for school groups, families, or cultural elites who sought to learn from exhibits of authentic objects. While there were some differences between the perceptions of Chinese and Australian respondents, it was clear that neither group regards museums as places for young adults. Both groups suggested museums would be more appealing if they were more engaging, relevant, welcoming, and offered opportunities for social interaction with peers. Implications for the future design of museums are discussed.     

Lodging Managers' Perceptions of Work and Personal Life: Balanced or Imbalanced?

ABSTRACT

This study serves two main purposes: (1) to assess lodging managers' perceptions of difficulties and success in balancing their personal and work lives, and (2) to investigate if lodging managers' work interferes with or is enhanced by their personal lives, or vice versa. The results indicate that most lodging managers believe that they have struck a satisfactory balance between their work and personal lives. This study identifies the respective bidirectional effects of the interaction between work and personal life. Personal life boundaries are more permeable to work demands than work boundaries are to personal life demands.