Marketing visitor attractions: a segmentation study

This research revisits issues related to the travel behaviours of first‐time versus repeat visitors to a destination, with a special focus on the impact that the repeat visitor segment has upon the paid‐attraction sector. Healthy attractions are critically important to the success of a destination, but as this research notes, attractions have difficulty drawing guests in a repeat visitors‐dominated market. Implications that should be of value to marketers and attraction management in any maturing tourism destination are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

'Heritage' Tourism in Northern Ireland: Opportunity Under Peace

Having endured terrorist violence for 30 years, Northern Ireland is on the verge of achieving a lasting peace. Tourism is well poised to benefit from the prospects of peace and the economic growth that is anticipated to follow. In this paper the first section, based on an analysis of secondary tourism data collected between 1994 and 1997 (a period during which the Irish Republican Army declared two cease-fires), assesses the extent to which tourism can benefit within a climate of peace. Heritage tourism within Northern Ireland is examined, on the basis that the majority of tourist attractions and the tourism experiences being sold to visitors fall under the heritage label. Heritage and heritage tourism is discussed within the Northern Ireland context. The second half of the paper examines what are emerging as the key challenges and issues facing the tourism industry in Northern Ireland and the opportunities for long-term growth. The paper reveals that tourism benefited for the yearsin which a cease-fire held, but that the heritage attraction is somewhat complex, with a range of heritage types ranging from natural to industrial. Discussion centres on how this 'heritage' experience is to be planned and managed, and the challenge of ensuring sustainability of a product that has the support of both 'communities' in Northern Ireland.     

Clustering and compatibility between tourism attractions

Cumulative attraction or compatibility is a powerful factor in locational decisions of retail outlets, but it has received little attention in the tourism literature. Existing studies largely ignore the impact of spatial and thematic clustering on compatibility between tourism businesses. This research questions whether and how spatial and thematic clustering are related to tourist movements between visitor attractions. The study in Cornwall, England, is based on in‐depth interviews with tourist attraction managers and key informants, complemented by a survey of 435 tourists. It provides insights into the relationship between the nature of the tourism product, spatial clustering and tourism behaviour. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating attraction compatibility in an East Texas city

The study was undertaken in Tyler, Texas, a city of 83 000 population in which the primary tourism attraction is the Caldwell Zoo. The focus was on the compatibility of ancillary attractions to the zoo and their role in adding to the city's cumulative attraction. A sample of 1559 zoo visitors were surveyed. The results revealed that (i) there was a high degree of compatibility between the zoo and other attractions within the city; (ii) tourism spending by those travelling more than 60 miles was significantly higher than those travelling fewer than 60 miles; (iii) expenditures increased as the number of additional attractions visited increased, but started to decrease when the number of attractions totalled to five or more; and (iv) the number of additional attractions visited decreased as the distance travelled increased. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of clustering,cooperation and complementarities in the visitor attraction sector

Cooperation and complementarity are important but understudied components of tourism clusters, in general, and of the tourist attraction sector, in particular. This paper addresses product similarities, in general, and thematic similarity, in particular, in the context of spatial proximity and clustering among tourist attractions. These relationships are examined by exploring cooperation between tourist attractions in two tourism clusters in Cornwall, UK. Interviews with attraction managers and other key informants, and case studies, reveal that tourist attractions have established cooperative–complementary relationships of production based on external economies at both the local and the regional scales. Differences between the two clusters in terms of interviewees' perceptions of the relationships between factors indicate the importance of understanding the specific features of individual clusters.     

Measuring the Socio‐Economic Legacies of Mega‐events: Concepts,Propositions and Indicators

Legacies have become a key rationale underpinning the bidding process for hosting mega‐events. These long‐term effects are deemed to hold benefits and costs, and measurement is important. However, there is limited theory or empirical evidence on legacy impacts. In this article, the literature on legacies of mega‐events is reviewed and event tourism isolated to develop an interdisciplinary conceptual model to measure tourism legacies, and develop propositions on measurement issues. This paper develops a framework of key indicators, propositions and measures to evaluate socio‐economic legacies, which will support event organizers and decision makers to formulate policies for improving event legacies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Research on China's Tourism: A 35‐Year Review and Authorship Analysis

This study reviewed 333 articles on China's tourism from 96 English‐language academic journals within and outside of tourism from 1978 to 2012. Tourism policy and impacts, and tourism industry development and promotion were the two predominant research themes. Tourism development, policy, ecological impacts, attractions and markets were the five most popular topics. On the basis of an authorship relationship analysis, three research networks were producing most of the China tourism research output in English. A majority of the authors were based in Mainland China, the USA and Hong Kong. Trends and gaps in the literature on China's tourism were identified. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing Visitor Impacts at Visitor Attractions: An International Assessment

This paper presents the findings of a study designed to extend and develop a previous study conducted by the authors on the management of visitor impacts at visitor attractions in Scotland. This follow-up study sets out to discover the extent to which attractions in other countries experience similar impacts, with comparable management challenges to those already identified in the Scottish visitor attraction sector. In order to provide a direct comparison to the Scottish study, a replication of the research methodology employed in that study was considered necessary. A self-completion survey was thus mailed to managers of paid-admission attractions in Canada, Australia and New Zealand: three ‘leading-edge’ destinations selected for comparison. Findings suggest that although many impacts are perceived to be similar across the four countries, a number of important differences are evident. Given that the reasons for such differences vary, the paper concludes that the development of a generic strategy for the management of visitor impacts internationally remains something for the future. In the meantime, the sector should rely on the identification and adoption of best practice on a case-by-case basis. The sector’s diversity and fragmentation suggest that qualitative research holds the key to identifying appropriate techniques for managing visitor impacts.     

Changes in Host Community Reactions to a Special Sporting Event

Special events are a popular component of tourism and economic development strategies for communities and regions in many parts of the world. Researchers continue to develop an understanding of the positive and negative aspects of the events, and to assess residents' support for these events and their views about impacts. The main objective of this paper is to assess residents' reactions over a one-year period to hosting a special sporting event. The analysis is based on three community surveys, one undertaken before the event, the next immediately following the event, and the final one six months later. The research found that support remained high over this period, though a decline in overall support was evident. Over time, views about changes to facilities and services in the community shifted and there were distinct differences in residents' opinions on the impacts of hosting the event. The paper concludes that longitudinal studies must include a time-frame that extends beyond the immediate post-event period and, further, that a comprehensive event hosting impact scale would be useful for research in this field.     

Is social class still working? Revisiting the social class division in tourist consumption

The effects of social class division have been extensively examined in tourist behaviour studies, but mostly on specific tourism forms, attractions, or activities. Limited empirical research has looked into the effects of social class difference (as well as other demographic variables) on tourists' destination consumption in a holistic and comprehensive way. To revisit the role of social class in today's tourist consumption, this study stratified a group of American tourists based on their social class and compared their participation patterns in four types of destination activities: cultural, hedonic, nature-based, and shopping-related. The empirical data were from a conversion and destination branding study conducted for Thoroughbred Country, South Carolina. The analysis gained mixed results, as social class was found to have significant impacts on tourists' consumption of certain destination products/activities, but not on others. It was expected that this study could not only contribute to the research endeavours in tourist consuming behaviour, but also provide practical implications for more effective destination marketing and market segmentation strategies.     

Developing metropolitan tourism on the fringe of central London

The paper examines the growth of a ‘new tourism area’ in Islington, north London — a locality that lacks a large attraction, acknowledged distinctive heritage and has not been planned as a destination. We review supply side changes and link them to the recent literature on economic and spatial trends in cities, particularly the role of amenity. We report on a survey of Islington visitors that shows they are drawn by distinctive qualities of place rather than particular attractions. The visitors have characteristics that distinguish them from visitors to London as a whole, but we speculate that they have similarities to Islington workers and residents in their search for amenity, entertainment and high‐level consumption services. In the final section of the paper we explore the consequences of our findings for understanding the growth of urban tourism. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism distribution channels in Wellington,New Zealand

This paper outlines a multiple method approach used in Wellington as a way of researching issues of distribution channels for tourism in urban areas. The study combines information obtained from interviews with providers and intermediaries, visitor surveys and the analysis of catalogues to present a systematic examination of distribution channels for a range of accommodation and attractions. The results highlight the complexity of distribution channels in Wellington, with variations occurring by market segment and by type of accommodation and attractions. Chain hotels have the most complex channels. Smaller properties and attractions tend to pursue simpler ‘at destination’ distribution strategies. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Kids on board: methodological challenges,concerns and clarifications when including young children's voices in tourism research

A knowledge gap exists concerning the dearth of children's voices in tourism research. One of the main reasons for this is attributed to the methodological challenges that confront researchers when interacting with child respondents. Based on a recent study conducted with young children between the ages of 5 and 6 years, this article discusses five methodological issues to contemplate prior to conducting research with children. This article raises important considerations for children's developmental phase, the use of appropriate props and prompts during data collection, and the positionality and pre-requisites of the researcher when designing methodologies for research with children.     

Waterfall attractions in coastal tourist areas: the Yorkshire coast and Queensland's Gold Coast compared

A comparative study of tourism development on the Yorkshire coast and Queensland's Gold Coast illustrates the importance of waterfalls as attractions, even in beach orientated tourist areas catering mainly for seaside holidaymakers. A relative decline in the importance of the Yorkshire coast waterfall attractions whereas those of the Gold Coast hinterland continue to play a major role is attributed to differences in quantity and quality of these scenic resources, problems of access and the availability of other, and, for many, superior, waterfall attractions within easy reach. Appropriate levels of development at and access to waterfall sites are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

The economic impact of the lifting of sanctions on tourism in Iran: a computable general equilibrium analysis

The imposition of sanctions on Iran, after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, resulted in economic hardship. Many problems were experienced, such as increased unemployment and high inflation, currency fluctuations and economic instability. One area that was hard hit was the tourism sector. With the lifting of United Nations sanctions on 16 January 2016, there is an opportunity for an increase in international tourists to experience the natural attractions and cultural heritage that Iran has to offer. This research employs a single-country multi-sector computable general equilibrium model to estimate the economic impact of the lifting of sanctions to tourism and the wider economy in Iran. The findings reveal that tourism provides a boost to the economy; however, there are redistributive effects that draw resources away from other export sectors. However, just as in the past where there has been a heavy reliance on oil and natural gas, expanding tourism too quickly will also cause problems. Moderate tourism growth would be the appropriate sustainable path to take.     

Economic Impacts of Inbound Tourism under Different Assumptions Regarding the Macroeconomy

On what is taken to be the 'Standard View', increased tourism expenditure from inbound markets has direct, indirect and induced effects on a host destination, leading to increased production, income and employment. Strong links between tourism and other sectors of business reduce import leakages from tourism expenditure thereby enhancing the multiplier effects of the injected expenditure on domestic output, value added and employment. The usual technique for analysing these effects is input-output analysis. This paper argues that economy-wide effects must be taken into account in determining the impacts of increased tourism expenditure on a destination, and that the 'Standard View' is superficial and very often misleading. An expanding tourism industry tends to 'crowd out' other sectors of economic activity, reducing the demand for traditional exports and import competing industries. The extent of these 'crowding out' effects depends, in turn, on the workings of labour markets, changes in prices and the real exchange rate, and the macroeconomic policy context. It is argued that these mechanisms can only properly be taken into account using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models rather than input-output modelling. The paper then looks at applications of CGE modelling to tourism growth in both nations and regions, classifying the various studies according to assumptions made about labour markets and government policies. The discussion has relevance for estimating the economic contribution of tourism in all destinations. The paper concludes with some observations regarding the use of CGE modelling in tourism contexts internationally and issues for further research.     

Bibliometric visualisation: an application in tourism crisis and disaster management research

A limited number of studies have applied bibliometric visualisation to explore the network structure of scholarly tourism knowledge. This study uses CiteSpace to analyse and visualise the intellectual structure of the tourism crisis and disaster management (TCDM) field. The use of new bibliometric visualisation techniques makes a methodological contribution to the mapping and presentation of bibliometric data in tourism research. Potentials for using these methods to provide new insights into research patterns and gaps are illustrated with an analysis of the TCDM literature. The study demonstrates how bibliometric visualisation can provide new insights into an area of literature by better communicating key findings, facilitating the exploration of data, and providing rich information to readers. Findings indicate that TCDM research has moved from broader topics to more specific issues, with a more recent focus on resilience and economic crises. The visualisation of co-authorship networks reveals that major collaborative networks are based on geographic and institutional proximity, dominated by scholars in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Seven major research clusters are identified from the visualisation of a co-citation network. The identification of structural holes and bridging papers draws attention to research gaps and future research opportunities in the TCDM field.     

Commercial development and competitive environments: the museum sector in scotland

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) warn local authorities that fail to value the potential role of culture in socio‐economic development do so at their peril. The development of a destination's cultural credentials to facilitate economic progress is central to policy geared to regenerate communities in decline and to revitalise financially strapped museums. Within this argument more scrutiny is placed on the skills accountability of the museum profession and their ability to compete in the visitor attraction sector and generate their own sources of income. This paper considers the competitive position of museums as tourism visitor attractions within a framework of commercial development. The strengths of this paper lean towards qualitative primary sources gathered by the authors during a number of recent heritage development projects. This has influenced the analysis of statistical data gathered in 1999 by the Moffat Centre on behalf of the Scottish Tourist Board's Visitor Attraction Monitor. Concluding paragraphs stress the development of appropriate quality schemes that are flexible enough to accommodate the distinctive Scottish Museum experience as critical. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of European Union funding on tourism in the Grampian Region

The European Union (EU) has no specific tourism policy. Even though there are divergent views on its involvement in regional development, there is a consensus on the fact that the EU is involved by its principle role of ‘Subsidiarity’. There is also continued participation of the EU in activities related to tourism development in the community. Undoubtedly, the EU is having an impact on regional development of members states. Research carried out shows the contribution of the EU in regional development and tourism. The EU funding has tended to focus on peripheral areas and where traditional industries are declining. Tourism related projects (such as visitor attractions) have benefited from such funding programmes, on the assumption that these projects will create employment and increase visitor numbers, as well as promote the economies of these regions. Consequently, this paper considers the contributions of EU funding of tourism attractions in the Aberdeen and Grampian region of Scotland and issues affecting the effectiveness of the attractions themselves. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.