A note on the use of Markov chains to analyze the off‐peak season provision of guided tours to tourists

In this note, we provide answers to two hitherto unstudied questions in the tourism literature. Specifically, we first show how the theory of discrete‐time Markov Chains (DTMCs) can be used to effectively model and analyze the problem of providing guided tours to tourists during the off‐peak season. Next, we model the existence of a capacity constraint and then show how DTMC theory can be used to derive a metric of interest to an optimizing tour providing firm, namely, the long run fraction of tourists to whom the firm under study is unable to provide tours. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Grid‐group Analysis of Tourism Motivation

Marketing theorists have widely proposed that culture is one of the underlying determinants of consumer behavior and that increasing globalization is creating a multicultural marketplace. Empirical inquiries in the field of tourism remain scarce, particularly regarding the understanding of behavioral influences. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of sub‐cultures on tourism motivation. Drawing on grid‐group cultural theory, an analysis of survey data from 727 Chinese tourists reveals that respondents classified as different cultural types had different travel motivations. Contributions and limitations of the study are discussed, and future research directions are suggested. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Negotiating stigmatisation of deviant behaviour: an exploration of locals’ perceptions of nude tourists

ABSTRACT

Stigma may result in tense social interactions and discrimination between stigmatisers and stigmatised individuals. Despite its social relevance, stigma has been largely neglected in tourism sociocultural studies. Framed by Goffman’s and Falk’s theoretical propositions of social stigma, this paper aimed to explore local’s stigmatisation of tourists’ behaviour. This study revealed that locals’ stigmatisation of tourists’ behaviours can be spatially negotiated and deconstructed through social interactions. The data analysis also found that not all tourists are equally stigmatised and that tourists’ conduct can be highly stigmatised if adopted by locals. Based on in-depth interviews, these findings were drawn from an examination of locals’ perceptions of tourists’ nudist behaviours in a Mexican destination. This research’s results contribute to a fuller understanding of how locals (de)construct their stigmas of tourists’ behaviours through local-tourist sociocultural interactions.     

Profiling tourists based on their perceptions of the trustworthiness of different types of peer-to-peer applications

This research profiles tourists based on the extent to which they trust user-generated content (UGC) uploaded in different types of peer-to-peer applications, also considering their socio-demographic characteristics, frequency of travel and motivations for using the Internet and UGC when making their travel choices. For this purpose, latent class segmentation was applied on a sample of 609 Italian tourists and three different clusters were identified, namely: “distrustful tourists”, “untrusted tourists” and “social web tourists”. The findings suggest that hospitality marketers should improve their social media strategy by focusing their attention on Travel 2.0 applications according to the socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics of their target market.     

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.     

Micro-modelling of individual tourist’s information-seeking behaviour: a heterogeneity-specific study

Previous research done on tourists’ information-seeking behaviour has focused on aggregate-level information seeking. The aggregate-level study has significant disadvantage in decision-making since actual behaviour of tourists gets averaged out due to aggregation. Understanding the responses of individual tourist’s information seekers in different contexts can be better performed by individual-level study. This study emphasizes the importance of information-seeking behaviour in the context of personal differences between the tourists. Heterogeneity suggests that different tourists behave differently when seeking information. With data of 307 tourists, we first find tourists’ information-seeking behavioural dimensions. We then group the tourists into segments according to these behavioural dimensions, and then investigate the impacts of these behavioural dimensions considering individual-level heterogeneity through hierarchical Bayes estimation. We then compare these estimates with aggregate-level estimates to find out the improvement of prediction if inter-individual heterogeneity is considered.     

‘Homesick tourism’: memory,identity and (be)longing

‘Homesick tourism’ commonly refers to the travel of Germans who visit their former homes in what is now Poland and other Eastern European countries, from which they were expelled in the wake of the second World War. The paper first differentiates homesick tourism from related types, with which it is often conflated, notably roots tourism, personal heritage tourism and migrant return travel. Drawing on travel reports written by German homesick tourists, the role of memory is identified as the defining criterion. It is shown that homesick tourists are characterised by a unique ‘tourist gaze’. Such clear definition and differentiation are useful in order to better understand and analyse the homesick tourism phenomenon, because homesick tourism is arguably a much wider international phenomenon, albeit unrecognised and sometimes politically contested. Much can be learnt from the German experience in this regard. As the homesick tourism phenomenon is soon going to be over, due to the passing of the survivor generation, the paper ends with the suggestion that Poland is in an ideal position to develop a genuine form of roots tourism targeted at future German tourists.     

The Attractiveness of Wellness Destinations: An Importance–Performance–Satisfaction Approach

The attractiveness of tourism destinations is a topic of great interest to researchers and professionals wishing to understand the ability of destinations to attract and satisfy tourists. However, there is a lack of consensus on the attributes that could explain the attractiveness of destinations, attributes that can also vary according to the tourist product under analysis. An importance–performance–satisfaction approach is adopted, to identify the attributes that are important for tourists travelling to enjoy wellness vacations, assess the performance of Gran Canaria in those attributes and analyze the possible association between the performance of Gran Canaria and tourist satisfaction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dependency,Globalization and Overseas Sex‐related Consumption by East Asians

Previous research has used dependency theory to explain sex consumption by rich, northern men travelling to ‘developing countries’. Little is known about how this perspective can be applied to sex‐related consumption by tourists from non‐western regions. Analyzing the East Asian Social Survey of 2008, we found that many eastern Asians had engaged in sex‐related entertainments abroad. People from the newly rich countries had become exploiters of sexual services in peripheral countries. East Asian tourists also went west and north bound overseas for sexual pleasures. We argue that the increasing economic activities and travelling opportunities across borders may better explain the overseas sex‐related consumption of eastern Asians than dependency theory. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying Critical Brand Contact Elements of a Tourist Destination: Applications of Kano's Model and the Importance–satisfaction Model

A destination brand comprises brand elements that lead tourists to form a brand impression of a destination. Based on a literature review, this study contributes to a model for exploring tourist destination brand contact experiences. The results from applying Kano's model and the importance–satisfaction model to a specific hot spring destination indicate that four types of contact elements can be identified as having different quality attributes. The contact elements related to staff's service efficiency, attitude and willingness of serving customers are identified as the critical brand contact elements for the tourist destination. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo coast region

In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip, total expenditure was $6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between $2.4 and $4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can we enhance low-carbon tour intentions through climate science or responsibility sharing information?

In line with social representations theory, our study presents two mediating models to examine the psychological mechanism underlying how tourists’ intentions toward low-carbon tours could be enhanced through a reduction in their ambivalence toward low-carbon tours. Recruiting 767 independent tourists, applying an ordinary-least-square simple regression, and following the mediating testing approach of Baron and Kenny (1986), we have found that using scientific climate information can efficiently strengthen tourists’ travel intentions toward engaging in low-carbon tours and can also reduce tourists’ ambivalence toward low-carbon tours. We found, however, that another tourist education approach, responsibility sharing, did not have a similar effect, owing possibly to the social-loafing effect.     

Assessing preferences for mega sports event travel products: a choice experimental approach

Hosting mega sports events spreads positive destination images and generates massive tourism arrivals for the host communities. It is, therefore, important for tourism businesses to better understand what types of travel products, tailored for particular mega sports events, are purchased by sport tourists. Using a choice experimental approach, this study aims to examine how sport tourists formulate their preferences for travel products customized for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games by making intricate trade-offs among various product attributes. We utilize a gender perspective to further understand the preference dynamics embedded in segmented sport tourism markets. Study results suggest that sport tourists put distinctive weights on each of the attributes comprising the Olympic travel products. Gender differences are also identified in sport tourists’ choice decisions for sports event travel products. Based on the study findings, this paper proposes several marketing strategies to meet the needs of targeted market segments.     

Exploring the role of expedition staff in volunteer tourism

Conservation volunteer tourism (VT) (or nature conservation expedition)‐related organisations can provide a meeting point for both tourists and field‐based scientists. Expedition leaders should be aware of the needs of the volunteer tourists that can be fulfilled through VT. It appears that the role of expedition leaders is central to the successful execution of the VT expedition. This study aimed to understand the expedition leaders' perceptions of VT, their perspective of the expectations of their volunteer tourists and their requirements of the volunteers, and assess how volunteers perform with regard to those requirements. The results suggest that there may be some differences in perceptions between leaders and volunteer tourists that may affect the success of the expedition. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A classification framework and management approach for the sustainable use of natural assets used for tourism

There is growing concern internationally about how best to sustainably manage natural assets used by tourists. Existing approaches lack a coherent framework around which like‐assets can be clustered and managed consistently. In this paper we propose an integrated framework which provides for a simple‐to‐use asset classification system, management guidelines based on the relationship between importance and fragility of the asset, and a set of indicators based on the pressure–state–response model for monitoring management progress. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on shared transportation for tourists with special reference to the Israeli sherut

In this note, we provide answers to two hitherto unstudied questions in the literature concerning the provision of shared transportation to tourists. First, we ascertain the long run fraction of time that there is no sherut taxi at a designated taxi stand. Second, we determine the long run fraction of tourists who are lost to the sherut taxi providing firm because no taxis are available when arriving tourists want a taxi. Finally, we show that these two long run fractions are equal because the so called PASTA property holds in our model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural and behavioral differences: tour guides gazing at tourists

The aim of this exploratory study is to describe, examine, and analyze the manner in which tour guides in Israel gaze at the groups of foreign tourists they lead, in light of their close familiarity and cumulative experience with them. How do Israeli tour guides view different types of tourists, tourist behaviors, and tourist worldviews? The concept of ‘gaze’ refers to the manner in which people view the world around them. When a gaze is focused, it may include both visual and nonvisual elements. The study methodology is based on a grounded theory approach and on in-depth interviews with Israeli tour guides regarding their attitudes toward and perceptions and images of the tourists in their groups. The study proposes a model of five complementary gazes that develop over time, which depicts the processes and elements that help shape how hosts understand the tourists with whom they come in contact. Although the model was based on findings generated by interviews with Israeli tour guides, who are professional hosts, it may also be applicable to other kinds of hosts in different contexts.     

Gastronomy as a tourism resource: profile of the culinary tourist

The aim of this paper is to explore the characteristics and motivations of culinary tourists whose destination is the city of Córdoba (Spain) while attempting to determine whether gastronomy is an important aspect of the trip or if it is perceived simply as a secondary activity. Fieldwork was carried out among a series of restaurant establishments in the city of Córdoba. A demand survey was conducted in 10 particular establishments that were selected among those offering local dishes and which are regularly visited by tourists and the questionnaire was distributed among clients obtaining 206 valid answers. Our results reveal the strengths and weaknesses of Córdoba's restaurant sector. While 10% state that the cuisine is one of the main reasons for visiting the city, 68% believe that the local cuisine is an important but not an essential aspect of their trip and the rest view it as being secondary. These three types of tourists exhibit different kinds of motivation. This suggests that strategies should be designed and developed to promote gastronomy as one of the city's chief tourist attractions. Good tourism management based on initiatives such as the creation of culinary routes could be an alternative for implementing strategies aimed at the social and economic development and promotion of particular areas, for example turning typical food from rural areas in certain regions into a marketable attraction.     

Testing Heterogeneous Image in Cultural/Non‐cultural Tourism Markets: a Latent Model Approach

We identify the latent variable ‘destination image’ to segment tourism demand based on the different types of behaviour generated by those images. We used simultaneous latent structure analysis, which also permits a comparison of the degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity of two or more tourist markets. After presenting the most significant methodological aspects of this technique, we describe its application to the data of a study of the behaviour of tourism demand of Andalusia to determine whether those tourists with a marked inclination for cultural tourism have a similar (homogeneous) image of this destination as do other tourists. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.