A Case study: discussion of factors and challenges for urban cultural tourism development

With both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study examined the success factors of cultural tourism development. It discussed reasons why some cities may find it challenging to sustain cultural tourism development. The findings suggested that the lack of advantageous factors may be because all factors were highly related and that one factor's defect in marketing could easily affect the performance of all other factors. The challenge for cultural tourism development in a less competitive destination may be more related to elementary problems such as governmental leadership and funding rather than the important factors emphasized in theoretical models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of a destination branding strategy for rural tourism on the perceived value of the conservation of the indigenous resources of the rural tourism destination: the case of Spain

The identification of mechanisms that encourage the tourism sector to contribute to sustainable conservation is of great interest. The present work proposes the use of destination branding based on contribution to the conservation of the indigenous resources of the rural tourist destination, and studies the effect this has on perceived value for the tourist visiting the destination. A scale of destination brand identity is validated, along with a scale for destination brand positioning and another for perceived value, as viewed by the tourist, of contribution to sustainable conservation. The perceived value scale offers an overall perspective which includes: functional-affective factors; benefits–sacrifices; the pre-visit stage; and the stay in the rural tourism location. These findings make a new contribution to both literature and to the professional sector.     

Residents' Perceptions of Tourism Impacts on Island Destinations: A Comparative Analysis

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the resident's perception of tourisms impacts on two very successful major mature island destinations (Tenerife and Mallorca). To do so, we conducted a study based on the social exchange theory by using a scale that measures residents' perceptions of tourism's positive and negative impacts on the economy, culture, society and the environment. The results based on more than 1100 interviews show that similar opinions arise on both islands; however, significant differences in terms of the level of perception of the impacts in the two destinations have also been unveiled. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing the impact of a promotional video on destination image change: application of China as a tourism destination

This study empirically examines the potential effects of a promotional video on the image change of China as a travel destination. The analysis is based on an experimental study conducted among young, international short‐term employees in the USA. Despite positive changes in almost all the destination attributes as a result of watching the promotional video, the structure of the image constructs remains fairly stable, providing critical insights on the potential role of publicity campaigns in affecting destination images. Results of the study reveal that China's image consists of mixed and often contrasting representations, especially the polarity of modernisation and progress versus nature and history. It was found that the dominant factor affecting the respondents' behavioural intentions was the cultural and nature tourism dimension. Although other image dimensions exhibit influence as well, findings of this study suggest that perceived value should be a strategic focus in promoting China as a desirable travel destination, in addition to culture and nature tourism. This paper ends with conclusions and implications for both research on destination image and destination marketing in China. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

A warm welcome for destination quality brands: the example of the Pays Cathare region

In this paper, the salient complexities characterising quality management at the tourism destination are outlined, and in light of these, a number of quality principles are deemed particularly appropriate for the further investigation of destination quality management (DQM). The complexities include the significant number of services provided at the destination, the highly fragmented nature of the tourism destination product and the large number of small businesses that go to comprise this product. General principles are drawn from the SERVQUAL, Kano and EFQM Business Excellence models in order to provide a tentative framework for investigating how one destination has striven to overcome these challenges. The example of the Pays Cathare Region in southern France, which has been recognised by the European Commission as an example of best practice in integrated quality management (IQM), shows how these quality tenets can be translated from the theoretical framework into actual practice by means of its destination quality brand. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

The growth of literary places in ancient town tourism destinations: based on the theories of Bourdieu,Danto and Dickie

Literary literature and tourism are closely connected, but the research on that connection is limited. Literary tourism spots are no longer just the places where historical accidents happened or were sites of a writer's birth or death, they can be any other places which have actual or even imaged linkages with the authors or their works. Based on Bourdieu's 1992 field theory and the ‘Artworld’ described by Danto [1964. The artworld. The Journal of Philosophy, 61, 571–584] and Dickie [1974. Art and the aesthetic: An institutional analysis. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; 1984. The art circle: A theory of art. New York, NY: Haven], this study proposes an analytical framework comprising the atmosphere, activities and agents of art field development in order to understand the formation of a literary tourism product. San Mao teahouse in Zhouzhuang, China is used as an example. On-site observations, interviews and secondary data were collected for this study. The study finds that San Mao Teahouse as a literary venue is the result of the interaction of the literary field of San Mao and the tourism field of the historical town of Zhouzhuang. In the early stage of development, the owner and manager of San Mao Teahouse played the role of producer and marketer, and later on, tourists took more active roles by writing more literary works and promoting the site on websites based on their faith in San Mao, her work and the place. The research also finds that literary tourism is not a conventional art product, but a special experience of literature in the tourism world. Overall, the research contributes to the current knowledge by presenting a new case of formation of literary venues in tourist spots, introducing a new analytical framework and also facilitating the understanding of cultural change in tourist destinations.     

Customer‐based Brand Equity for a Destination: the Effect of Destination Image on Preference for Products Associated with a Destination Brand

This study investigated how destination image of customer‐based brand equity for a tourist destination can be transferred to products associated with a destination brand. The effect of destination image on preference for products associated with a destination brand (PPADB) and the relationship between tourists’ destination preference and PPADB were investigated. Two hundred and ninety six individuals replied to a self‐administered questionnaire distributed to 318 students at a major US university. The results revealed that both cognitive and affective image of a destination are positively related to PPADB; preference for a destination is also positively related to PPADB. Suggestions are provided for a successful destination brand extension strategy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Host Community on Destination (re)branding: A Case Study of Hiroshima

This paper investigates local groups’ opinions on interpreting a dark heritage site for the promotion of tourism and analyzes their roles in tourism activities, through a case study of Hiroshima, Japan. As the first city suffered nuclear bombing, Hiroshima is a primary tourism destination in Japan but faced the challenge of revitalization. Fieldwork investigation methods, including semi‐structured interviews, were applied. The results suggest that local people hold favorable attitudes toward tourism development. They conduct an alternative approach to rejuvenating Hiroshima by identifying the essence of the place – a cheerful and peaceful city – and incorporating it into tourism events. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Structural Model for Examining how Destination Image,Perceived Value,and Service Quality Affect Destination Loyalty: a Case Study of Orlando

The primary objectives of this study were to investigate and develop a theoretical relationship among destination image, service quality and perceived value and to empirically test the constructs that are likely to affect tourist satisfaction, which in turn influence revisit intentions and word‐of‐mouth referrals. The results of empirical study indicated that destination image influences service quality and perceived value. In addition, the findings revealed that perceived value has a significant effect on satisfaction and loyalty. These research findings contribute to an extant knowledge in this domain, specifically focused on a family‐oriented destination where it was not studied yet with these relationships. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A critical discourse analysis of racial violence in South Carolina,U.S.A.: implications for traveling while Black

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to present a rich, detailed case that illustrates the way in which the discourse of racial violence has been constructed in the United States (U.S.), and how that has impacted Black travel. Using South Carolina, a state centrally-located along the East coast with historic, political, and social ties to the U.S. South as the context for this analysis, this paper employs a critical discourse analysis to examine the intersection of racial violence and tourism, situating cases of violence – historic to the modern. This study makes a case for more focused attention on the intersection of tourism and violence within the literature, as well as a call to the tourism industry to be proactive to discourses of violence, demonstrate a desire for diversity in their visitors, consider the critical issues of racial representation in their tourism products, and be aware of the emerging organizations supporting and facilitating Black travel.     

A case study: The impact of low-cost carriers on inbound tourism of Saudi Arabia

This study investigates the impact of low-cost carriers (LCCs) on Saudi Arabia's tourism demand. It also provides an understanding of the relationship between air transport development and tourism development in the Gulf region. The Box–Jenkins SARIMA-X models were employed to model and forecast international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia, using monthly international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia from July 2010 to December 2015. The forecasting models were significantly accurate, with lower values of MAPE, MAP, and RMSE. The findings suggest that an increase in airline capacity, religious travel, and airline competition are associated with the increasing international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia. This also indicates that there is a positive relationship between air transport development and tourism development. Further aviation liberalisation in the Gulf region is discussed to give opportunities for the region's LCCs to increase their share of the increasing air travel demand, thereby enhancing tourism development.     

Influencing factors and mechanisms on consumers' behavior: A case of tea tourism in China

This study explores the factors affecting tea tourism, including the action mechanisms and the impact level of each factor influencing consumer behavior intentions, to contribute to predicting tea tourism consumer behavior. This study surveyed 377 potential tea tourists and constructed a theoretical model of tea tourism consumers' planned behavior using SPSS and AMOS. The results show that: (a) The experiential perception and opportunity perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their attitudes, (b) The self-efficacy perception and convenience perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their perceptual control, and (c) The attitude of tea tourists can significantly positively influence their behavioral intention. This study not only broadens the applications boundary of the theory of planned behavior, but it also provides a new perspective for research on the behavioral awareness of tea tourism consumers. The findings have implications for predicting and promoting future tea tourism in China and beyond.     

Motivation and personality traits for choosing religious tourism. A research on the case of Medjugorje

Religion has long been a primary motivation for journeys and it is considered the oldest non-economic reason for travelling. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons tourists choose to travel to sacred sites, with the specific aim of discovering relationships between personality traits and motivations for religious travel. Participating in the research were 679 Italian travellers to Medjugorje sanctuary, who completed the travel motivation scale and big five questionnaire. The results show that motivation is focused prevalently on the need for discovery in men and socialisation in women. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that personality traits are predictive of motivation factors differently for males and females.     

The effects on tourism of airfare subsidies for residents: The key role of packaging strategies

Airfare subsidies for residents in remote tourism destinations can negatively affect the local tourism industry. In this paper, we study the effects of airfare subsidies on a remote region's tourism sector with a theoretical model of air transport and tourism service transactions involving a remote tourism region, the rest of the country and the rest of the world. We show that firms' widespread packaging strategies in tourism markets, i.e. selling tourism packages composed of air transport and tourism services at a single price, acts as hidden price discrimination, since the packages are cheaper than buying the services separately. Thus, in the presence of higher airfares due to a subsidy, the tourists not entitled to the subsidy have incentives to switch to a cheaper alternative, namely tourism packages. Consequently, a packaging strategy can lessen or even avoid the negative impacts of the subsidy on a region's tourism sector.     

Cluster-mapping procedure for tourism regions based on geostatistics and fuzzy clustering: example of Polish districts

ABSTRACT

In tourism, the phenomenon of spatial agglomeration (concentration of economic activity) spreads beyond the borders of the territorial units. It is referred to as geographic ‘spillovers’ that enhances spatial interdependence and functional relationship of neighbouring regions. Within the standard procedure of cluster-mapping, only concentration inside a territorial unit may be analysed which is a source of biased results in tourism studies. However, tourist agglomeration centres sometimes occur at the juncture of territorial units and the economic entities located in them form spatial clusters with a different degree of membership to several centres of agglomerations located in the neighbourhood. Therefore, we propose to measure ‘inter-regional’ agglomeration in tourism providing modification of spatial autocorrelation measures (regarding neighbourhood and distance). In order to measure neighbourhood more precisely, we use geostatistical information (global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of tourism entities) and geographically weighted fuzzy clustering approach (FGWC). We examine the method on the example of Polish districts (NUTS-4) using database of 131,338 firms registered in section I (accommodation and food services) of Polish Classification of Activity in 2015. The results proved that a novel method of cluster-mapping considering spatial dependency combined with geographic information system (GIS) and FGWC method increases the accuracy of the identification of tourism clusters (inter-regional agglomeration).     

A call for renewal in tourism ethnographic research: the researcher as both the subject and object of knowledge

Our critique of tourism ethnographic research argues that too much existing published work tends to cite preceding studies as methodological precedents without stating how particular approaches were operationalised. Moreover, findings are often presented as individual cases with limited utility in terms of theory-building or wider understanding of contextual phenomena. We argue that closer attention first to current developments within anthropology which seek to overcome researcher naivety and, second, greater philosophical reflexivity would elevate both the rigour with which such work is undertaken and the seriousness with which it is received in the wider academy. We call for a double-reflexivity in ethnographic research in tourism that accepts both the specific situational nature of individual studies and the wider discursive frames within which they are embedded. We call for constant reflection on, and acknowledgement of, this duality in ethnographic research where, after all, the researcher is so intimately embedded in empirical and subjective terms.     

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.     

Investigating the impacts of energy consumption,real GDP,tourism and trade on CO2 emissions by accounting for cross-sectional dependence: A panel study of OECD countries

The objective of this study is to analyse the long-run dynamic relationship of carbon dioxide emissions, real gross domestic product (GDP), the square of real GDP, energy consumption, trade and tourism under an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. Since we find the presence of cross-sectional dependence within the panel time-series data, we apply second-generation unit root tests, cointegration test and causality test which can deal with cross-sectional dependence problems. The cross-sectionally augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and the cross-sectionally augmented Im-Pesaran-Shin (CIPS) unit root tests indicate that the analysed variables become stationary at their first differences. The Lagrange multiplier bootstrap panel cointegration test shows the existence of a long-run relationship between the analysed variables. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimation technique indicates that energy consumption and tourism contribute to the levels of gas emissions, while increases in trade lead to environmental improvements. In addition, the EKC hypothesis cannot be supported as the sign of coefficients on GDP and GDP² is negative and positive, respectively. Moreover, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality tests exploit a variety of causal relationship between the analysed variables. The OECD countries are suggested to invest in improving energy efficiency, regulate necessary environmental protection policies for tourism sector in specific and promote trading activities through several types of encouragement act.     

A combined MCDM model based on DEMATEL and ANP for the selection of airline service quality improvement criteria: A study based on the Taiwanese airline industry

The aim of this study is to select airline service quality improvement criteria for the Taiwanese airline industry. Numerous factors such as low railway prices, the development of high-speed rail, increases in petroleum prices, increases in foreign airline competition, and the recent economic depression have led many airlines in Taiwan to encounter financial difficulties and even closure. Researchers have begun to identify critical service quality improvement criteria with the goal of increasing the competitive advantages of airlines. Most of the selected criteria, however, suffer from a major technical problem: all of the measurement dimensions are independent, leading to inadequate criteria for measuring service quality. Our calculations consider the interrelationships and effects among the evaluation dimensions and criteria to precisely rank and select criteria. The value of this study is that it provides airlines with a direction for measuring and improving their service quality with the goal of developing sustained competitive advantage over the long term.