Creative experiences,memorability and revisit intention in creative tourism

The objective of this study was to identify hypothesised relationships among creative experiences, memorability, and revisit intentions in creative tourism. Face-to-face questionnaire survey was adopted and 399 valid questionnaires were collected in the pottery town of Yingge in Taiwan. The results show significantly positive relationships among creative experiences, memorability, and revisit intentions. Structural equation modelling analysis verified that memorability fully mediated the effect of creative experiences on revisit intentions. The study suggests that memorability may be a more appropriate predictor to revisit intentions, particularly in the case of creative activities.     

Creative tourism in Balinese rural communities

The present study extends knowledge on creative tourism in rural areas. It was unclear from previous research how features of creative tourism, such as risk of commodification, play out in rural areas of developing countries. The study built on theoretical overlaps which suggest that creative tourism may improve the potential of community-based tourism. Literature suggested that creative tourism may address three issues plaguing community-based tourism: (1) lack of financial resources could be circumvented with intangible heritage; (2) loss of cultural identity could be reversed by sparking interest for culture; (3) power relations between hosts and guests could be rebalanced by repositioning locals from servant to teacher. These theoretical overlaps were explored in the context of five Balinese villages using a microethnographic approach with participant observations and expert interviews. Findings from this study partly confirm and extend the theoretical synergies. Furthermore, a new synergy, increasing enthusiasm for intercultural exchange, and one negative interaction, intangibility as a differentiator, were found. Findings also revealed conditions for success in developing creative tourism in a community-based tourism context. In sum, we contribute the conclusion that creative tourism in rural areas is promising under certain conditions.     

Extending the theory of planned behaviour: testing the effects of authentic perception and environmental concerns on the slow-tourist decision-making process

Despite the importance of slow tourism, studies on slow tourists' decision-making processes are rare. The current study extends the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) by including authentic perception (AP) and environmental concerns (ECs) to explain the formation of behavioural intentions. The study also contributes by comparing its extended model with the original TPB and identifying salient belief items through a focus group and literature review. The results of a structural equation analysis revealed that the data fitted the extended model well and that the inclusion of the critical new constructs in a slow-tourism context significantly enhanced the prediction of behaviour intentions. The results also indicated that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and AP significantly contributed to forming the intention to participate in slow tourism. However, the influence from ECs to behavioural intentions was demonstrated to be insignificant. This study advances our understanding of tourists' decision-making processes in that these slow tourists are more likely to choose an “authentic”, rather than “environmental”, destination.     

Palestine's International Visitors Barriers: Case Studies of Bethlehem and Ramallah

This study investigated the demographic characteristics, the travel experiences and the intentions to revisit of international tourists to the cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, which are located in Palestine. The study conducted a survey to collect data from 293 international visitors, 8 years after the second Palestinian uprising called ‘intifada’ began. The results revealed that the majority of the foreign tourists were Europeans who traveled for religious and spiritual purposes. Moreover, most of the tourists were willing to revisit Palestine. This study resulted in a comprehensive understanding of tourism characteristics under the current political circumstances of Palestine, leading to significant implications for tourism policy‐makers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reinventing Macau tourism: gambling on creativity?

The paper identifies some major economic, social and environmental effects of gaming-related tourism in Macau, the world’s largest gaming location in respect of casino turnover. The main types of effects of casino development are typically those associated with growth machine theory. The paper also identifies major threats to the sustainable development of Macau as a gaming/tourism destination, arising from a narrow industrial base, competing destinations, community alienation, and what is referred to as the ‘China factor’. The paper discusses the types of strategies that are required if Macau tourism is to counter these threats and develop successfully as a ‘World Centre of Tourism and Leisure’. It is argued that Macau can most effectively achieve this goal if it develops its tourism and gaming industries to be consistent with the key attributes of a creative city.     

Tourist Word of Mouth and Revisit Intentions to Rural Tourism Destinations: a Case of North Dakota,USA

Destination managers in rural states, like North Dakota, understand the benefits of tourism and, thus, the importance of studying visitors' intentions. This study investigated visitors' perceptions of destination image, value and satisfaction and those variables’ relationship with future behaviors, with a specific focus on their intent to return and make recommendations to others. The results showed that destination image directly affects visitors' perception of value and revisit intentions, and it indirectly affects satisfaction and recommendation intentions. The results also demonstrate how tourism practitioners can apply past models to their destination. The overall findings support the concept that a positive image is important to attracting repeat visitors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motivational determinates of creative tourism: a case study of Albergue art space in Macau

ABSTRACT

Creative tourism is a new genre of tourism eliciting active tourist participation in learning and experiences. This study explores tourists’ motivations for participating in creative activities, as well as their perceptions of authenticity following a visit to the Albergue Art Space located in Macau, SAR, China. Empirical results indicate that vernacular heritage, service quality and participatory experience are key determinates for developing creative tourism. Sightseeing, social contact, self-improvement and escape emerge as primary motivations for participating in creative activities. In addition, tourist perceptions of authenticity in the context of creative tourism encompass objective and existential components. This study proposes to incorporate aspects of participatory experience into creative tourism products.     

Local intentions to participate in ecotourism development in Taiwan’s Atayal communities

By applying the theoretical concepts of planned behaviors and social exchange, this study aims to examine the decisive factors that influence the behavioral intentions of local residents in three Atayal communities in Yilan County, Taiwan, to participate in the community development of ecotourism. This study uses AMOS software to perform structural equation modeling. The results of the study indicate that (1) residents’ attitudes toward community-based ecotourism development, perceived behavioral control, and perceived social benefits have significant correlations with their behavioral intentions and that (2) respondents involved in community-related organizations have more positive behavioral intentions. Due to their location in remote areas to which tourists rarely venture, these three Atayal communities lack the incentives to attract tourists or to trigger the participation of the broader community in ecotourism development with the promise of sharing tourism revenue. Most Atayal residents in the research area clearly lack the ‘rights to develop’ and the ‘means to get involved’. From the perspective of power relations, this study could contribute insight into the theoretical and empirical implications of hierarchical influences to examine the political–economic inferiority of indigenous behavioral intentions toward community-based ecotourism development.     

Formation of festival visitors’ environmentally friendly attitudes: cognitive,affective, and conative components

This study aims to understand the formation of festival visitors’ environmentally friendly attitudes. Results reveal that environmental knowledge and concern influence environmental emotion, which, in turn, affects four environmentally friendly behavioural intentions. Results also show that environmentally friendly tourism behavioural intention is most influenced by environmental emotion. The findings offer a new framework for theory development on environmentally friendly behavioural intention as well as important practical implications for festival marketing managers.     

Reviewing Thailand's master plans and policies: implications for creative tourism?

This article contributes to an understanding of how creative tourism is perceived on a national level, by using Thailand as a case analysis. The primary objective of this article is to investigate Thailand's plans and policies for the creative economy at both national and ministry levels in relation to creative tourism. It also identifies how a national strategic plan can provide a blueprint for individual agency master plans to provide policy support for the development of the creative economy in the tourism sector. Thailand is chosen as an example of how government and related agencies can contribute to a national creative tourism movement in the country, especially in the light of the Tourism Authority of Thailand branding campaign to stimulate creative tourism to the destination. The qualitative research methodology through content analysis is used to scrutinise the plan and policy contents from the selected government agencies. The results demonstrate a better view of how creative tourism is positioned in the Thailand context and contribute to a policy study on the creative economy in the tourism sector as well as in creative tourism.     

The promotion of local agro-food products through tourism: a segmentation analysis

In order to analyse the role of inbound tourism in the promotion of future exports of agro-food products, this paper presents a segmentation study of the international tourism market of Portugal, based on visitors’ intentions to consume, and likelihood to recommend to friends and relatives, specific local products when they return to their home country. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted on a sample of inbound visitors and the responses were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis. From this analysis, three clusters were established and several statistical differences among them were identified concerning behavioural intentions regarding local food products, socio-demographic profile, consumption and purchase behaviour during and after the trip. The findings obtained have both theoretical and practical implications. On the one hand, this study analyses the importance of inbound tourism in the promotion of Portuguese exports of local food, an issue not previously explored. Additionally, this study applies as its basis of segmentation, variables that have so far been neglected in the literature: the visitors’ intentions to consume and to recommend to friends and relatives. On the other hand, the findings provide relevant inputs for the development of better marketing strategies to promote the local products to various target groups.     

Exploring the impact of metaverse tourism experiences on actual visit intentions: An integrated model of presence,the Technology Acceptance Model,and the Theory of Planned Behavior

This study seeks to understand the impact of tourist experience of the metaverse on users' actual visit intentions by proposing an integration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), using the construct of Presence. We developed a questionnaire-based experiment in which 478 responses were collected via an online survey to achieve the objectives of the study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the proposed constructs. The results indicate that presence is positively associated with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude, respectively. In addition to the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude, six other hypotheses within the model that merged TAM and TPB were statistically supported. Furthermore, the implications and recommendations based on the results are valuable contributions to the development of metaverse tourism.     

A model of wine tourist behaviour: a festival approach

The study constructs a temporal model of wine tourist behaviour on the basis of the social psychologist' theory of consumer attitudes and related concepts with regard to past behaviour, satisfaction, perceived value and behavioural intentions. More importantly, this study added two dimensions to this model by proposing that satisfaction and perceived value had an impact on the attendees' intentions (i) to visit a local winery and (ii) to buy local wine products. Using a path analysis approach and data collected from the attendees at a regional wine festival, the study examined the above relationships. The results of this path analysis can be summarised as: (i) past behaviour influenced the intention to revisit and the level of perceived value, but had no effect on the level of satisfaction; (ii) perceived value strongly affected the level of satisfaction; (iii) satisfaction had a strong impact on future intentions to revisit and also an effect on intentions to visit local wineries and to buy local wine products; and (iv) perceived value affected the intentions to revisit the festival and to visit local wineries but did not influence the intentions to buy local wines. It is believed that the results of the present study will be useful to organisers of wine festivals and/or wine tourism developers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Growing competition in the healthcare tourism market and customer retention in medical clinics: New and experienced travellers

This research sought to investigate international medical travellers’ post-purchase decision-making process by utilizing key concepts in medical tourism (i.e. medical product quality, effective communication, satisfaction, switching costs, and past experience [first-time vs. repeat experiences]). A visitor survey was conducted at medical clinics. Results of the structural model generally supported the proposed relationships among study variables. The role of study variables in generating revisit intention was found to differ significantly between new and repeat customers, and the strength of the proposed relationships was generally greater in the repeater group than in the first-timer group. This study also identified the mediating impact of satisfaction and switching costs. Additionally, the prominent role of satisfaction in the proposed theoretical framework was identified. The results of a structural-model comparison also revealed that a quality–satisfaction linkage was stronger than its alternative ordering in the proposed framework. Overall, this study provides great insight into medical travellers’ post-purchase behaviours.     

Creative tourism and visitor motivation

Creative tourism has been explained as a new genre of tourism that offers the visitor an opportunity to develop their creative potential through an engaged experience in the destination visited. Despite a growing literature on the topic, little attention has been given to examining what motivates creative tourists to visit particular places and events. This paper aims to address this research gap by applying the push-pull framework to investigate the travel motivations of creative tourists. To do so, the responsive interviewing model was employed to survey 20 of such tourists who had visited creative spaces and spectacles in three of China's UNESCO-designated creative cities. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews, a new push-pull framework is introduced to conceptualise the travel motivations of creative tourists. Our paper concludes with practical considerations for destination managers seeking to design and market creative tourism experiences.     

The influence of service performance and destination resources on consumer behaviour: a case study of mainland Chinese tourists to Kinmen

This paper draws upon the responses of 603 mainland Chinese tourists in Kinmen and attempts to understand their consumer behavior on the aspects of intentions, preferences, decision‐making process, satisfaction, and willingness to revisit. Variables such as service performance and destination resources that affect visitor's satisfaction are also tested. The findings reflect a ‘myth of mysteriousness’ of mainland Chinese visitors to the destination and suggest that it is essential for the market segmentation to participate in the tourism planning of Kinmen to develop an integrated policy for promotion and marketing, in order to enhance consumers' interest. In addition, this research has implications for tourism planning in Kinmen and provides references for other destinations striving for tourists from mainland China. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resident perceptions of rural tourism development: the case of Fogo Island and Change Islands,Newfoundland, Canada

The purpose of this study is to explore the applicability of the creative destruction model in the case of Change Islands and Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada, which may through preservation be delaying the threat of creative destruction. Using a mixed methods approach, this study seeks to understand the evolution of tourism planning and development on Change Islands and Fogo Island, residents’ attitudes and perceptions surrounding the tourism industry and the future directions and aspirations they have for their communities and where tourism fits into that future. An analysis of the findings determined that much of Fogo Island and Change Islands falls somewhere between stage one and two of the Mitchell‘s (1998) creative destruction model. However, it also concluded that the Town of Tilting, through a strong sense of identity and preservationist attitudes, did not fit so easily into the model. There is little research on the effects that tourism development has on rural communities in Newfoundland and if tourism is increasingly being viewed as a viable option to diversify rural outport economies, studies of this nature will be important.     

How do the services of low cost carriers affect passengers' behavioral intentions to revisit a destination?

Understanding the main factors that affect travelers' behavioral intentions are essential for countries that intend to develop their tourism industry. This research investigates how the services of low cost carriers (LCCs) affect travelers' behavioral intentions to revisit and a willingness to recommend the destination to others. The results show that the perceived services of LCCs have a significantly positive effect on the destination's image, and the destination's image has a significantly positive effect on behavioral intentions.     

Professional Development Barriers and Benefits in a Tourism Knowledge Economy

This study investigates small to medium tourism enterprise (SMTE) owner–managers' intentions to seek professional development. SMTEs in a regional tourism destination were surveyed, and an exploratory factor analysis identified barriers to, and benefits of, professional development factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict SMTE owner–manager's intention to pursue professional development based on perceived benefits of and barriers to training factors, education level and business size. ‘Staff performance benefits’ and ‘time/cost barriers’ of owner–manager's intention to seek professional development opportunities for staff. ‘Business performance benefits’ predicted owner–manager's intentions to seek professional develop for themselves. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.