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.     

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.     

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Critical issues in health and wellness tourism: an exploratory study of visitors to wellness centres on Gran Canaria

The growing commodification of health care and therapeutic landscape, as well as the recent growth in international demand for wellness services and treatments, has led to the proliferation of destinations and enterprises that have selected health and wellness tourism as part of their corporate strategy, including coastal tourism destinations such as the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. This study discusses the commodification of health care and landscape, the relationship between everyday life and going on holiday, as well as the motives for medical and wellness tourism. Wellness tourism development on Gran Canaria is also analysed as a case study that could prove useful for those working on diversification within coastal tourism. An exploratory study of European visitors to wellness centres on the island is also presented. Major findings and contributions relate to socio-demographic characteristics, motives for the visit to the island, the importance of the wellness offer, tourist and travel behaviour and wellness behaviour both at the destination and at the place of residence. Another contribution refers to differences in the use of wellness centres and treatments among visitors, based on their place of origin, gender, age, marital status and job situation. Management and marketing implications are also suggested.     

Culinary tourism strategic development: an Asia‐Pacific perspective

Many destinations view their food and cuisine as a market niche. Operating within the Asia‐Pacific perspective, this study analyzed the key success factors in culinary tourism based on resource‐based theory in seven benchmark countries to identify the structure of promotional strategic development in culinary tourism. The methodology primarily involved in‐depth interviews and document analyses. The results identified four key success factors: (i) identifying and effectively using culinary tourism resources; (ii) evaluating governmental principles for promoting culinary tourism; (iii) adopting marketing strategies to promote culinary cultural sectors; and (iv) constructing educational environment for culinary culture and tourism. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding tourism development of historic districts from a representational perspective

This study investigated the tourism development of historic districts in Old South Downtown of Nanjing (China) from a representational perspective. Twenty-six residents, who are living or had lived within the four main historic districts of Old South Downtown area, were interviewed using snowball sampling. All written notes and audio records collected during the interviews were transcribed and coded by themes in the framework of social representation theory. The findings indicated that tourism development, as an unfamiliar phenomenon, was generally considered as negative impacts in the beginning (e.g. deprivation of residents’ homes and loss of traditional culture), especially by residents living within the districts for decades. Thereafter, tourism development in historic districts experienced an anchoring and objectification process. Anchoring is reflected in images of construction, reconstruction and demolition. In the objectifying process, struggling for individual's rights is obviously observed. Finally, propaganda conducted by mainstream media has helped residents of historic districts to form common sense and foster social identity. Problems of tourism development in historic districts were discussed as well.     

Travel for treatment: students' perspective on medical tourism

Medical tourism is the act of travelling abroad for health care. The theory of planned behaviour was used to investigate the medical tourism beliefs of 336 undergraduate students in a basic psychology course at a large midwestern American university. Students did not have positive intentions for mere willingness to seek more information about travelling to a developing country to receive medical treatment. An educational intervention is necessary to help promote travel for medical treatment. The intervention may include educating people on the availability of quality health care, highly trained competent doctors and the ability to vacation and see another country. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Migration and inbound tourism: an Italian perspective

This paper investigates the impact of migration on Italian inbound tourism flows in a dynamic panel data framework. Arrivals, expenditure and nights from 65 countries are analysed for the period 2005–2011. The migration variable is defined at both origin and destination in order to assess the pushing and pulling forces. Estimates were performed using both aggregated flows and flows disaggregated to separate the visiting friends and relatives (VFRs) from two non-VFR categories, namely holiday and business. The results suggest the presence of a strong migration-tourism nexus, which clearly goes beyond VFRs. Moreover, the effects of the different determinants vary according to the way in which the tourism market is segmented and, within each segment, to the way in which tourism demand is measured.     

Tourism occupations and education: an exploration study

This article contributes to the literature on the relationship between the tourism industry and vocational tourism education. It reports on an exploratory study of the work of a sample of tourism professionals and their education. The study attempts to classify tourism occupations by modifying an established scheme used in general administration. The study sought to find commonality within the diverse occupations and to go on to relate that to tourism education. The study found that the majority of the sample of 153 contained a common set of 24 activities. In educational terms, marketing, recreation and leisure and finance dominated as relevant subjects to study for tourism occupations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social impacts of tourism: an Australian regional case study

As the support of host communities is a precondition for a sustainable industry, regional social impact studies are a crucial input to tourism planning and decision‐making. This study assessed the social impacts of tourism in a rural region of Australia where tourism is an important sector of the economy. As well as providing data to aid regional tourism planning, this study identifies differences in personal and community‐wide impacts; advances understanding of the factors that influence residents' perceptions of tourism impacts; and assesses the degree to which tourism activity associated with protected areas contributes to the identified social impacts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Price,people, location,culture and reputation: determinants of Malaysia as study destination by international hospitality and tourism undergraduates

This study aims to examine why international hospitality and tourism (H&T) undergraduates (IHTUs) travel to Malaysia for higher education and what factors influence their choices. In-depth interviews were conducted with IHTUs studying in six different private higher education institutions. Thematic analysis found five noble factors: price, people, location, culture and reputation. Our findings can assist Malaysian private institutions in better meeting IHTUs’ expectations and reinforcing their loyalty to the institution. Our results can also be useful to improve the quality of the H&T educational systems in Malaysia and simultaneously facilitate the country’s greater aim of becoming a knowledge-based economy and retaining sufficient skilled labor for the H&T industry. Moreover, the results of this study can be effectively used when inventing strategies for the development of international education tourism in Malaysia.     

Time allocation in urban and transport settings: an international,inter-urban perspective

This paper reports the findings of analyses, conducted to identify regularities and differences underlying various aspects of activity–travel patterns across a set of cities, regions in the world. Activity–travel patterns, derived from activity diary data collected in Portland (USA), Midlands (UK), Fukuoka (Japan), Canadian metropolitan areas, and the South-Rotterdam region (The Netherlands) are compared. The results indicate that although idiosyncratic differences exist between the city regions, there is also considerable evidence of similarities between the city regions.     

Destination Stakeholders' Perceptions of Volunteer Tourism: An Equity Theory Approach

This study explores destination stakeholders' perceptions of volunteer tourism (VT) using equity theory. In this paper, 26 semi‐structured interviews were conducted to understand individuals' needs, motivations, expectations and their assessments of inputs and outcomes. Equity theory sheds light on the micro‐level of interaction between residents and volunteers and demonstrates why and how residents of Cusco (Peru) with an active role in VT develop certain perceptions in direct encounters with volunteer tourists. The data reveal how perceptions differ according to the respondents' social roles within VT. Heterogeneity, dynamism and a fluctuation between materialities and affection are discussed as important outcomes of these interactions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The e-mediated (Google Earth) gaze: an observational and semiotic perspective

This paper provides an observational and introductory semiotic analysis of the sharing of recorded images through Google Earth to provide a benchmark against conventional imagery, based upon a theoretical discourse, and to question the changing nature of image recording and sharing and of the consequential constructions of a place that occur. It gives consideration to the complex sociological relationships between new technologies and the ability to now view destinations online, with photos, street views and a myriad range of information sources. Many photos are shared by tourists, and many by local people, and there are contested constructs of the destination image as a result.     

Orientation to sustainability and strategic positioning of destinations: an analysis of international tourism websites

The communication that Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) address to destination stakeholders plays a central role in attracting attention and resources for sustainable destination development and disclosing the efforts made to be a sustainable territory. There has been extensive analysis on the role of official tourism websites that addresses both DMO's internal and external stakeholders. However, less exploration is available on the relationship between the contents disclosed through tourism websites and the strategic positioning of the destination. This study empirically examines that link with a focus on ‘green/sustainable/responsible' travel. Results show a positive association between the orientation to sustainability in online communication and both sustainable regulation of the tourism sector and tourism development. In contrast, there is no significant association with destination size, tourism maturity and pricing policies.     

Rural Residents' Perceptions Toward Tourism Development: a Study from Iran

This paper focuses on the identification and explanation of rural residents' perceptions toward the impacts of tourism development and their grouping with respect to these attitudes. Data from 262 households are used in the empirical analysis. Because of emerging stages of tourism development in the study area, most residents expressed a quite strong support for tourism development, although some social and environmental concern was expressed. The results revealed that respondents most value economic objectives, but the community was not homogeneous in its views. Education, gender, age, income, employment and a high degree of community attachment were found to be the major factors affecting the attitudes of residents. Findings of this study indicate that local people value the tourism in ways consistent with the social exchange theory. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning never goes on holiday: an exploration of social tourism as a context for experiential learning

This paper applies Experiential Learning Theory to examine learning experiences of UK children during a holiday to assess the potential of holidays as influencing factors in educational achievement and attainment. The paper presents findings from a study undertaken with low-income families who had received financial support to take a holiday through the concept of social tourism. The study concludes that across a range of holiday styles, tourism can provide a context for experiential learning, and that the holiday can help to contextualise classroom learning through relearning. Finally, this form of social tourism, which included cooperation between schools, families, social and education services and social tourism organisations helped to improve relationships between the schools and families, which could be beneficial for children's learning in school. This paper calls for further research on the links between tourism and education.     

Destination product characteristics as useful predictors for repeat visiting and recommendation segmentation variables in tourism: a CHAID exhaustive analysis

The present paper constitutes a segmentation research with the use of the exhaustive chi‐squared automatic interaction detection tree analysis approach which, through the characteristics of a tourist destination, aims at the illustration of the English and German tourist groups and more specifically, (i) those who are repeat visitors of several tourist destinations and (ii) those who express a willingness to urge other people to visit geographic tourist destinations that the former have already visited. The results of the research help the tourism managers to apprehend the characteristics of the destination products that best describe the visitors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thanatourism or peace tourism: perceived value at a North Korean resort from an indigenous perspective

This paper examines the underlying factors that affected perceived value among South Korean tourists who visited the North Korean Mt Kumgang resort. Results identified emotional, functional and economic values as core elements that directly affected guest satisfaction, which influenced intentions to recommend and revisit. Seen as a peace tourism site when the Sunshine Policy of rapprochement guided inter‐Korean strategy, we argue that the resort project is a heterotopia of comparison combining idealized cultural and contradictory political spaces in one place. Understanding this needs Korean ideas that lead to a thanatourism with an indigenous perspective, which is applicable to other non‐Western thanatourism‐like sites. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.