A review of empirical research on interorganizational relations in tourism

During the last few decades, a growing body of literature has been produced on various aspects of interorganizational relations (IOR) in tourism. This paper provides a review of that literature. The findings are based on a review of 269 empirical papers published in 37 tourism journals between 1989 and the first quarter of 2017. The review identifies six main research themes relating to relationship formation, structure and activities, governance, maintenance, outcomes, and evolution. Based on the insights from this review, an organizing framework for research on IOR in tourism is developed and four opportunities for advancing research on IOR in tourism are proposed relating to the pursuit of causal inference, supply networks as a unit of analysis, quantifying outcomes of IOR in tourism, and addressing marginalized topics.     

Sport tourism: a framework for research

Sport‐based travel has grown dramatically over the past two decades but it has only recently become the focus of concentrated academic inquiry. This paper contributes to the emerging body of literature by conceptualising sport in the context of tourism's activity, spatial and temporal dimensions. A definition of sport tourism based on these dimensions and featuring a sociological perspective of sporting activity is presented. The distinguishing features of sport as a tourist attraction are then highlighted through the use of Leiper's systems model of attractions. Finally, the paper proposes a framework which highlights a series of research questions that emerge as the relationships between the fundamental dimensions of sport tourism are systematically explored. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of the environment on adventure tourism: from motivations to experiences

Inherent in most definitions of adventure tourism is the fact that it takes place in natural outdoor settings. Yet, the influence of this setting on the behaviour of adventure tourism consumers has yet to be adequately addressed. This study, therefore, investigates the relative strength and nature of environmental influences on adventure tourists in both motivations for participation and in the context of the experience. The results are based on questionnaires collected from 459 participants in adventure tourism activities along the southern coast of South Africa. They show that, although the majority of research on adventure tourism focuses on the ‘thrill’ involved, the environment is increasingly recognized as influential. The assessment of motivations, using a push and pull factor approach, demonstrates that the environment not only plays an important role in attracting adventure tourists towards specific destinations, but that they also seek out interactions with nature. In addition, participants suggested that the environment is an especially significant component of their experiences. The fact that the findings demonstrate the importance of the environment in both the motivations and experiences of adventure tourism participants, means that such an approach would make a definite contribution to discussions, planning, and policy linked to the adventure tourism industry.     

Progress on outbound tourism expenditure research: A review

ABSTRACT

This study aims to identify how the paradigm of outbound tourism expenditure (OTE) research transforms from economic to social concern. It also explicates the evolution of OTE from an advocacy platform to a sustainability platform. This study adopts a hybrid of narrative and systematic reviews to study OTE as a complex social phenomenon. This hybrid review is complemented by a thematic review and semantic network analysis on gaps and future directions of relevant studies. The results reveal that the paradigm of OTE research is directed from economic toward social thinking. This study proposes an application of socially related antecedent configurations, social theories, pragmatic methods, and various scales of study contexts as promising solutions to address the complexity and heterogeneity of OTE. The study concludes that the conceptual structure of OTE is premised on a sustainability platform, which is influenced by socio-cultural, environmental, economic, and political issues. This study provides a road map that enlightens the current state of OTE, prevailing topics, and pathways for further research.     

A review of website evaluation studies in the tourism and hospitality fields from 1996 to 2009

This paper reviews website evaluation studies in the tourism and hospitality fields published between January 1996 and September 2009. A website evaluation framework that includes evaluation by phases, evaluation by features, and evaluation by features and effectiveness is developed. The strengths and weaknesses of each method of evaluation are analyzed, and research gaps and future research directions are explored. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review of eye-tracking research in tourism

This study provides a review of eye-tracking as a technique for measurement of attention. The review discusses its theoretical basis, advantages and disadvantages, data collection procedures, analysis methods, and application in tourism and hospitality. Areas for further research in tourism and hospitality are provided based on a systematic review of tourism research using eye-tracking.     

How sustainable is sustainable hospitality research? A review of sustainable restaurant literature from 1991 to 2015

This research was designed to evaluate our current state of knowledge by systematically reviewing tourism and hospitality academic literature concerning sustainability in the restaurant sector by undertaking a systematic review and content analysis. The characteristics of 76 articles are listed in a comprehensive table, presenting research design and research variables, and the articles are examined for their approach to the sustainability concept as applied to the restaurant industry (i.e. the range of responsible practices addressed in each work). The findings indicate that the majority of the literature only engages with parts of sustainability, particularly ecological, rather than holistic sustainability. This matters because it may mean we fail in our attempts to achieve more sustainable restaurant operations.

This research suggests that tourism and hospitality studies need to re-engage with the evolving conceptualisation of sustainability to ensure that best practice responses to changing requirements are undertaken. The narrow focus on ecological aspects of sustainability featuring in restaurants does not acknowledge the full meaning of sustainability and therefore may constrain efforts to secure more sustainable futures. Illuminating such gaps in knowledge is important in order to strengthen our conceptual understandings, refine our practices and thereby secure more sustainable futures through tourism and hospitality.     

Perceived Benefits and Challenges to Wine Tourism Involvement: An International Perspective

This study extends institutional theory as a lens through which to critically examine the perceived benefits and potential challenges of developing wine tourism. The study applies an international perspective, with 471 participating wineries predominantly located in Italy and Spain. Fundamentally, the promotion of the winery's wines, distantly followed by the potential to significantly increase wine sales emerge as the main benefits winery respondents perceive from wine tourism. However, realizing these outcomes is not assured because of barriers including airport security checks, anti‐drink‐drive laws and limited physical resources. The implications from the findings are discussed, and opportunities for future research identified. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding tourists' itineraries in emerging rural tourism regions: the application of paper-based itinerary mapping methodology to a wine tourism region in Michigan

In recent years, many rural areas have turned to tourism as a way of reviving their communities. One challenge to such efforts is that community leaders in these areas often have limited experience with tourism and consequently lack the knowledge and resources to best facilitate sustainable tourism initiatives. Moreover, an influx of tourists to an area puts new demands on infrastructure. Information about tourists' itineraries can help communities to address new challenges that result from tourism, however using emerging technologies such as GPS and Internet-based map surveys can be expensive and require expertise many rural tourism planners do not have. Paper-based itinerary mapping methodology can be a cost effective way of providing local officials, tourism planners, and businesses with important information to inform decisions about how to invest limited resources. This study applies paper-based itinerary mapping to an emerging wine tourism area in a rural county in the US state of Michigan. Because it involves tourists travelling from place to place within a region, wine tourism is particularly well-suited for itinerary mapping. Results provide specific recommendations to local officials, tourism planners, and businesses. Moreover, the study offers an example to researchers interested in conducting studies that use paper-based itinerary mapping methodology.     

Appraisal of literature on customer experience in tourism sector: review and framework

A substantial body of literature has been built up in experience marketing. In spite of that there is no cohesive framework that has systematically examined antecedents, formation and implications of customer experience, or has classified different aspects of customer experiences. The purpose of this article is to derive an integrative review of published articles on consumer experience and its related topics. The study synthesizes the research on customer experience through two different but interrelated streams: (1) experience as a product attribute or a complete product and (2) consumer experience created due to customer interaction with the physical environment or people. This article develops a framework that corroborates literature related to (1) definitional aspects of customer experience, (2) formation of customer experience, (3) asserting consumer psychology in engaging in the creation of experience and its consumption and (4) the effects of customer experience. We first review available prior research and present the salient features of these articles and their findings. The research gaps are then identified and a set of propositions provided, followed by directions for future research. This article also identifies some methodological issues that are relevant in the context of individual level effect on customer experience.     

Beyond the journey: the lasting impact of culinary tourism activities

In general, food tourism research has focused on tourist behaviour prior to or during trips, as well as food tourism development and marketing from a destination perspective. This exploratory study investigates food tourism from a broader context to determine if food tourism activities may impact attitudes and future behaviours. Data from a nine-country survey indicate that food activities likely impact trip satisfaction and influence intention to return and likelihood to recommend a destination. Food experiences are connected with memory, and these food experiences and souvenirs may influence destination image and lead to future purchases. Suggestions are provided for further research.     

A review of Delphi forecasting research in tourism

The Delphi technique is the most popular judgemental forecasting method in tourism studies, but theoretical and empirical developments in this area (especially for forecasting purposes) have been slow. This paper analyses published research on Delphi forecasting in tourism and hospitality, explores how the Delphi forecasting method has progressed over the past four decades in terms of topical areas, empirical applications, and issues of reliability and validity, and is thus expected to advance understanding of the Delphi technique, providing topical and methodological recommendations for researchers and industry practitioners for producing accurate forecasts. The literature concerning the qualitative and quantitative applications of Delphi forecasting in tourism is mainly divided into three research themes: event forecasting, forecasting tourism demand, and forecasting future trends/market conditions (the most popular application). Issues of accuracy, reliability, and validity, as well as a group of Delphi-specific characteristics, such as panel size, panel selection, consensus measures, and analysis of results, are summarized and discussed. This study also examines the accuracy of Delphi forecasts as well as exploring the role of the Delphi approach in integrating human judgement into quantitative forecasts.     

The time has come: a systematic literature review of mixed methods research in tourism

The existing literature mapping the state of mixed methods research in tourism does not provide in-depth information concerning the number and type of mixed methods studies published in tourism, or the paradigmatic beliefs informing the mix of quantitative and qualitative studies in the same project. By conducting a systematic review of articles published between 2005 and 2016 in tourism journals, this work seeks to answer four main research questions: (1) how have different tourism scholars employed mixed methods in their studies?; (2) what approaches have been utilised in mixed methods studies?; (3) how are paradigm(s) conceptualised in mixed method designs?; and (4) how is reflexivity operationalised in mixed method designs? Overall, the findings show that the majority of mixed methods tourism studies have not declared their epistemological, ontological and axiological stances. Also, the studies tended to privilege sequential mixes over concurrent approaches, and reflexivity was rarely contemplated.     

Institutions,research and development: tourism and the Asian financial crisis

This report examines the repercussions of the Asian financial crisis on regional institutions and on tourism research and development. It is concluded that the importance of regional institutions for the provision of quality information, research and development will continue to grow. In the short term the crisis has lessened the commitment of key intraregional and national institutions to tourism research and development activity, although some useful collaboration between countries within the region has been evident. Asia should re‐emerge as the world's fastest growing tourism region, provided that the countries most affected by the Asian financial crisis do not impose restrictions on tourist movements or turn away from their long‐term commitment to strategies underpinned by research and development. The move by Pacific Asia Travel Association from San Francisco to Bangkok is identified as an important symbol of the role that regional institutions will continue to play in tourism research and development. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human resources development and sustainability — the case of Indian tourism

The goal of sustainability oriented tourism development requires a number of human resources development (HRD) strategies aimed at the tourism industry personnel, host community and the tourists, and underpinned by concepts and practices of sustainability. Sustainability based ‘work culture’, ‘professional ethics’ and operational practices are basic to sustainability in tourism. Indian tourism, despite its immense potential, has seen tardy development, and shortcomings in the HRD domain have been one of the reasons for this below par performance. This paper suggests a comprehensive and strategic approach to HRD, catering to the training and education needs of Indian tourism at various levels for the major target groups. The paper also identifies the pressing issues confronting HRD in Indian tourism and potential strategies to address them within the context of sustainability. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determining the Critical Success Factors of the Wine Tourism Region of Napa from a Supply Perspective

Napa is a renowned region for wine tourism and demonstrates how wine can be an instrument to develop tourism. The purpose of this research is to identify the critical success factors that have shaped the area's rise and growth, and its unique competitiveness in both the domestic and global marketplaces for wine tourism destinations. The findings from the research provide the foundation for a proposed conceptual model of success factors in wine tourism research and as insight to practitioners/suppliers. Findings reveal an aligned marketing effort and strategic partnerships among suppliers of Napa wine tourism. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitudes in the Danish tourism industry to the roles of business and government in sustainable tourism

The introduction of more sustainable forms of tourism in a country is likely to be the result of a combination of government regulations and other interventions and businesses making their own decisions in response to the market. This paper examines attitudes among senior managers in the Danish tourism industry to where prime responsibility lies for promoting sustainable tourism practices. The opinions of these senior industry managers are also reported on incentives and obstacles to the adoption of sustainable tourism practices, on external assistance that may encourage the introduction of these practices, and whether there should be more government regulations to encourage their adoption. Industry attitudes in Denmark to these issues are of particular interest because of the relative prominence of environmental issues in the country. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A critical review of climate change risk for ski tourism

Ski tourism is a multi-billion dollar international market attracting between 300 and 350 million annual skier visits. With its strong reliance on specific climatic conditions, the ski industry is regarded as the tourism market most directly and immediately affected by climate change. A critical review of the 119 publications that have examined the climate change risk of ski tourism in 27 countries is provided. This growing and increasingly diverse literature has projected decreased reliability of slopes dependent on natural snow, increased snowmaking requirements, shortened and more variable ski seasons, a contraction in the number of operating ski areas, altered competitiveness among and within regional ski markets, and attendant implications for ski tourism employment and values of vacation property real estate values. The extent and timing of these consequences depend on the rate of climate change and the types of adaptive responses by skiers as well as ski tourism destinations and their competitors. The need to understanding differential climate risk grows as investors and financial regulators increasingly require climate risk disclosure at the destination and company scale. Key knowledge gaps to better assist ski tourism destinations to adapt to future climate risk are identified.