Process innovation capability and subsequent collaborative team performance in travel planning: a knowledge exchange platform perspective

Purpose: Backpacker tourism is flourishing in this century as the high development of Internet technology which enables travellers to search for resources they need easier. The research goal of this study was to exam how virtual skill and collective efficacy affect process innovation capability and subsequent team performance of collaborative design team in a virtual community. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we formulated the virtual team model from the perspectives of open innovation paradigm and virtual competence, and we collected virtual community participation samples from the online communities. Invitation emails were delivered to numerous trip plan initiators in two well-known online travel communities for filling survey questionnaires for this study. In total, 3000 invitation messages were mailed, of which 373 were returned completed. The model and hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling. Findings: Virtual competence, including collective efficacy and virtual media skill, is the essential key to facilitate process innovation capability and subsequent team performance success. Besides, knowledge sharing significantly moderates the relationship between process innovation capability and the team performance. Originality/value: Backpackers in the online travel communities have to have not only the willingness to collaborate, but also the abilities of using the correct tool to help with their tasks. When a self-efficacy gets into collective efficacy, it enables the collaborative team to develop with good virtual competencies. Accordingly, trip plan initiator and participants of a virtual team are as expertise contributors between conformity in online communities and online compulsive control tendencies.     

Zero acquaintance benchmarking at travel destination websites: what is the first impression that national tourism organizations try to make?

This paper examines the marketing effectiveness of hospitality and tourism websites. An extensive review of literature on website effectiveness in hospitality and tourism revealed a total of 47 different instruments that have been used to evaluate hospitality and tourism websites. Using the grounded theory technique, a website evaluation tool called the online promotion evaluation instrument was developed with the aim of condensing the 47 existing tools into one benchmarked instrument with applicability across the various hospitality and tourism sectors. The developed online promotion evaluation instrument comprised three main features—aesthetics features (destination visualisation and Web design); informative features (uniqueness, monetary value and cultural promotion); and interactive features (e‐travel planners and online communities). The instrument was tested using a random sample of 25 National Tourism Organization websites worldwide. The results of the instrument development and testing process are presented in this paper with directions for future research in website evaluation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attracting tourists to travel companies’ websites: the structural relationship between website brand,personal value,shopping experience,perceived risk and purchase intention

This article aims to examine the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention from travel websites. Built upon the theory of consumers’ perceived risk, a theoretical model was proposed and a questionnaire was developed. The fieldwork utilized responses from 409 participants who purchased travel items from websites of Malaysian travel companies. Partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM), was used to assess the overall goodness-of-fit tests, measurement and structural model. The results highlight different aspects related to the effectiveness and attractiveness of travel companies’ websites. Its unique finding highlights the importance of personal value as a user characteristic factor that can strongly affect online purchase intention. In addition, by combining user characteristics and website characteristic and examining them in a single model, this study provides a clear multidimensional picture of causal relationship between latent constructs in an online travel purchase context. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Enhancing destination image through travel website information

Effects of a travel website on tourists' destination images were examined. The relationship between information search using websites and destination image was studied. In addition, the validity of experimental design as a method for examining destination image was explored. A static‐group comparison design was conducted using two sets of students as experimental and control groups. A travel website search was the stimuli for the experimental group. Results revealed that exposure to a travel website significantly affected the majority of cognitive and overall destination images. Additionally, experimental design was shown to be an effective method in measuring changes in destination image. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community context,human needs,and transportation choices: A view across San Francisco Bay Area communities

The aggregate of many individuals driving alone in private vehicles, common practice in most U.S. communities, is a major source of carbon emissions in the United States. Finding ways to couple sustainable transportation with individual self-interest and fulfillment of human needs may be critical to shifting transportation behavior to other modes. Taking a community perspective, this study considers how individuals discuss their needs in relation to community conditions impacting personal transportation choices. We collected data through 14 community listening sessions, or modified focus groups, conducted in diverse communities across the greater San Francisco Bay Area (USA). The community context for the groups indicated three types of transportation orientation: (1) car-dominant in which driving alone was the primary mode of travel, (2) mixed-mode in which driving alone as well as a variety of other transportation modes were used for travel, and (3) sustainable transportation-oriented in which alternatives to driving alone were primarily used. In all three types of communities, personal transportation choices related to physical and sociocultural conditions that allowed residents to meet different needs. Our findings suggest that considering how community-level conditions meet practical and psychological needs may offer ways to more effectively support individual-level sustainable transportation choices.     

The effects of tourists’ knowledge-sharing motivation on online tourist community loyalty: the moderating role of ambient stimuli

This study explores the role of tourists’ knowledge-sharing motivation in the formation of online community loyalty. More specifically, the study examines (1) the theoretical relationships between five factors influencing knowledge-sharing motivation, knowledge contributions (KNC), knowledge-sharing continuance intentions (KCI), and community promotion (COP) and (2) the moderating effects of ambient stimuli on the relationship between KNC and KCI and on that between KNC and COP. For valid respondents, a convenience sample of online travel community members was obtained using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Hence, a total of 410 responses were employed to test the research hypotheses through a structural equation modelling analysis and a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results show that four factors influencing knowledge-sharing motivation, namely altruism, expected reciprocal benefits, reputation, and trust, had positive effects on KNO. KNO had positive effects on KCI and COP, and KCI had a positive effect on COP. In addition, a positive group perception moderated the KNC–KCI and KNC–COP relationships.     

In search of the ‘good life’: Understanding online grocery shopping and everyday mobility as social practices

Online grocery shopping offers an alternative to everyday grocery shopping, which often requires car travel. A growing marketplace of online grocery shopping services enables distributors to control ‘the last mile’ by which products reach consumers. However, realising the energy-saving potential of online grocery shopping entails addressing several problems, as increased e-commerce does not necessarily mean decreased car use. Today, calculated potential energy savings are based on estimates and assumptions rather than on thorough knowledge of consumers and their preconditions for e-commerce. This paper is based on a survey of 19 households that regularly buy groceries online. Qualitative interviews combined with travel diaries enable discussion of the household members’ rationales, attitudes, expectations, and mobility practices. Online grocery shopping is considered here as a social practice that could contribute to a more sustainable mobility. In line with social practice theory, practices are understood as successful configurations of material, meaning, and competence that are also dependent on networks of other practices. This framing enables discussion of the likelihood that consumers will change mobility practices as an effect of online grocery shopping. The paper suggests that mobility practices results from constraining activities in everyday life, in which urban planning, norms of food and food purchasing, and the search for better quality of life are more decisive than is the practice of online shopping per se. This paper contributes empirically and theoretically to the study of mobility practices and discusses, from a user-centred perspective, the possibility of creating sustainable transport solutions.     

Travelling to the Ancestral Homelands: The Aspirations and Experiences of a UK Caribbean Community

This paper is based on an ethnographic study of the Caribbean community of Moss Side, Manchester (UK). Its aim is to reveal, interpret and analyse the personal meanings which members of the community attach to visiting the ancestral homeland in the Caribbean. This form of travel is defined in terms of 'ethnic reunion', which involves travelling for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives and/or searching for one's cultural roots. The study, which is based on an interpretive analysis of a range of ethnographic material, initially examines the reasons why first- and second-generation Caribbeans wish to participate in the 'homeland experience', and then illustrates ways in which they reconstruct an identity of themselves through their travel perceptions and experiences. The latter part of the paper discusses how people's travel encounters serve to illustrate how ethnic differences and boundaries between groups are constructed and/or reconstructed. It is argued that established perspectives of tourism motivation and behaviour do not fully account for the role of ethnicity as a significant variable in influencing specific forms of travel. The conclusion asserts that ethnic reunion should be conceptually viewed as a distinct form of 'travel', socioculturally dissimilar to conventional forms of 'tourism'.     

Toward a spatial understanding of active transportation potential among a university population

Universities and surrounding communities stand to benefit when active travel mode choices are elevated. Despite this, there is little research on travel mode choice at commuter universities and, in particular, the nonlinear spatial relationships among active travel potential and various contextual and compositional factors. The purpose of this study was to examine and visualize linkages among personal, household, density, diversity, and design factors, and active travel (bicycling, walking, and mass-transit modes) among a commuter-university population residing throughout southeastern Michigan, USA. This was accomplished by employing exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, and a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The GWR model outperformed the traditional OLS model in terms of goodness of fit (R² = .534 and R² = .461, respectively). A novel cartographic mapping technique was employed to depict where statistically significant parameter estimates negatively or positively influenced active travel. The main finding was that personal, household, density, diversity, and design estimates varied in both magnitude and spatiality throughout the university's study area. Interestingly, distance was not a universal barrier to active travel potential. These variations emphasize the importance of promoting active transportation through localized interventions as well as coordinating efforts among universities and surrounding communities.     

What does the consumer want from a DMO website? A study of US and Canadian tourists' perspectives

Destination marketing organisations (DMOs) are facing intriguing challenges to provide quality information online in an era of information overload. Insufficient knowledge of tourist's online information preferences and search behaviour has hindered them from effective information management. This research aimed to examine consumers' perspectives of the information role of the DMOs and their preferences and attitudes towards what constitute engaging and relevant Web contents and functionalities for a DMO website. The results suggested that tourists' preference of information content varied across the different levels of DMO websites (country, state/province and city). In addition, the study revealed that travellers' information needs and behaviour change over the entire information consumption process, which include the before, during and post‐trip period. Implications for DMOs were discussed at the end. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social capital in Malaysian homestays: exploring hosts’ social relations

This paper explores social capital among Malaysian homestay providers. More specifically, this work focuses on the social relationships between (a) the homestay providers and their family members; (b) the homestay providers and other accommodation providers; and (c) the homestay providers and other members of the community not involved in the homestay business. Despite the conspicuous body of knowledge on social capital in the social sciences and the increasing number of studies on social capital in tourism, little is known on whether and how homestays contribute to increase levels of social capital among the host families and between the host families and other members of the community in Malaysia. In an attempt to fill in this gap in knowledge, a qualitative study was conducted in a Malaysian homestay programme to explore hosts’ social relationships. One of the findings of the study is that homestay contributes to strengthen social capital among certain groups of the host community. However, as communities are constituted by heterogeneous groups with diverse interests, the dynamics of social capital and conflict vary according to the different groups of the host community.     

Social inequalities of park accessibility in Shenzhen,China: The role of park quality,transport modes,and hierarchical socioeconomic characteristics

Identifying the geographic units with restricted access to intra-urban parks has become a hot issue in transport studies. Previous literature has examined the social inequalities of park accessibility under the Western context; however, the issue has seldomly investigated against the non-Western background, especially in China. Using a case of Shenzhen (China), this paper examines the accessibility to parks of three quality levels (official standard) under four transport modes (public transit, walking, bicycle, and private car). In particular, the daily travel time from each community (8117) to each park (625) was harvested from the Baidu Map during 18:30–20:30 in July 2016. We further, based on the travel time calculations, develop four baseline indicators (the weighted average, the minimum, the maximum, and the standard deviation travel time) and three tolerance indicators of park accessibility (weighted average travel time within visit tolerance thresholds, standard deviation travel time within visit tolerance thresholds, and number of parks within visit tolerance thresholds) to measure park accessibility for each community. Results show that the seven accessibility indicators generate different estimations and the quantified accessibility varies greatly with park quality levels and transport modes. Communities present greater variations in accessibility to the first quality level and second quality level parks via walking and public transit. In addition, hierarchical regression is utilized to quantify the relationships between park accessibility and sociodemographic characteristics at two geographic levels (community and district). It is found that the associations are subjected to park quality, transport modes, and geographic levels. In particular, we discover significant social inequalities in park accessibility under the mode of public transit, walking, and bicycle. Our study should provide some new insights into accessibility research and advance the understanding of unequal park provision in developing countries.     

Not a ‘museum town’: discussions of authenticity in coastal Denmark

ABSTRACT

This article investigates community perceptions of authenticity in connection to the fishing and tourism sectors and the relationships therein. Inspired by fieldwork in three Danish coastal communities, the article attends to discussions on fishing, tourism, and change, in which residents referred to ‘museum’ or ‘museum town’ as shorthand for an undesirable transformation. The article answers: (1) what are the underlying concerns of becoming a ‘museum town?’ and (2) how is authenticity employed by community members in connection to desirable and undesirable outcomes of transition? The analysis probes the ‘museum town’ expression as a means to understand host communities’ relationship to the fishing and tourism sectors and their expressed interest toward authenticity. Empirical material from semistructured interviews and ethnographic field observations initiates the thematic analysis, which then continues with a theoretical reflection on authenticity. Coastal community members understood authenticity through demonstrations of realness, waterfront and community activity, and a desired independence for the fishing industry. Being authentic required a working fleet, which carried deeper implications for transformation and the complementarity of tourism, as opposed to its suitability as a substitute for the fishing industry. Calls for the fishing industry to remain independent highlight the importance for cross-sector dialogue for local development.     

Towards a holistic framework for road safety in Australia

Current road safety programs and thinking in Australia are constructed within a paradigm that tends to accept existing cultural arrangements. Such programs therefore, favour symptomatic solutions and technical and/or physical solutions as a way forward. Fundamental redesign of cultural arrangements is necessary in order to challenge the “culture of speed”. Our research is developing a holistic, social ecological model for reconnecting road safety with communities that value quality of life and slower ways of being. Improving road safety through reduction in the volume and speed of motorised traffic is integrally related to enhancing health and fitness, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving neighbourhood planning and community cohesion. In this regard, community-based travel behaviour change initiatives are deserving of much greater attention in the road safety area. As well as these changes at the personal and community scale, policy changes to urban and transport planning that address the broader issues of sustainability in an era of climate change and peak oil can also be linked to improvements in road safety.     

The Singapore Gold Circle: Perceptions of local customers of travel agencies

The Singapore Tourism Board has created an ambitious service quality programme, the Singapore Gold Circle (SGC), for the local tourism industry. To date, the Board has made the programme available to the retail, travel agent and tour operator, and spa sectors. This study looks at the SGC to determine, from a travel consumer perspective and with a focus on the travel agency sector, the value and effectiveness of the programme. In addition to the value of the findings to the local tourism community, if successful, such a programme may serve as a blueprint for other national tourism organisations or regional associations seeking to raise the quality of their product. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The decline of the traditional travel agent model

This article analyzes the struggle between traditional travel agencies and airlines to gain control of the Spanish airline services market. Also analyzed is the strong emergence of a third player, online travel portals that act as online travel agencies. We use a multinomial logit model to study the influence of 27 socio-economic factors and trip attributes on passenger purchase channel choice. The results show that the profile of a passenger who has a greater likelihood of making his/her bookings online is that of a young person, a student or educated to a high level, a habitual traveler, booking a simple journey and using an LCC. The factors linked to an increased likelihood of making purchases by phone include: being male, middle-aged, on a business or short trip, and the passengers usually use a travel agency. Finally, passengers who are over 65 years of age, with a lower academic level, who use a travel agency and are going to make a more complicated journey, are more likely to purchase their tickets in-store.     

The spatial characteristics and influencing factors of modal accessibility gaps: A case study for Guangzhou,China

This paper presents an analysis of the spatial characteristic of the modal accessibility gap (MAG) in Guangzhou based on travel times for public transport and cars to public centers calculated by the Travel O-D point Intelligent Query System (TIQS). Four spatial regression models are used to investigate the effect on the MAG of six factors of the built environment (distance to city public centers, residential density, landuse mix, bus stop density, metro station density and road network density). The results show that travel time for a given origin to destination (OD) trip is likely to be larger by public transport than by car, especially for a trip of longer travel time. The MAG values of all the communities are larger than 0, indicating that when compared with public transport, travelling by car takes less travel time for individuals. Residential density, land-use mix, bus stop density and metro rail station density have significant negative direct impacts and indirect impacts (spatial spillover effects) on MAG, which indicates that appropriate increase in community residential density, providing diversified service facilities within a community, and improving public transport supply are beneficial to promote modal shift. Specifically, the role of metro rail is greater than that of buses. However, the road network density has significant direct positive impacts on MAG, and its spillover effect is also significantly positive, which indicates that building more roads is not an effective way to narrow the accessibility gap between public transport and cars but may facilitate more car travel instead.     

Analysis on spatiotemporal urban mobility based on online car-hailing data

As an emerging travel mode, online car-hailing plays an increasingly important role in people's daily travel. Car-hailing data provide a new source to study human mobility in urban areas. This study focuses on identifying the distribution of regions with high travel intensity and the correlation between travel intensity and points of interest (POIs), based on the online car-hailing data collected in Chengdu, China. Firstly, the whole city area was divided into 16,100 uniform blocks and the number of pick-up and drop-off activities in each block was counted. Then, all POIs were categorized into 13 types and the number of different types of POIs in each block was counted. On this basis, the grade of travel intensity and POIs density in each block was identified according to the number of travel activities and POIs respectively. Finally, the correlation between the travel intensity and the POIs density was explored with ordered logistic regression. Experiment results showed that regions with high travel intensity are mainly distributed within the Second Ring Road, while those in the suburbs of city are usually the large transportation hubs, such as airports and train stations. Different types of POIs have different impacts on the online car-hailing travel intensity, and the density of traffic facilities has the greatest impact, including pick-up and drop-off, followed by density of scenic spot. The densities of service facilities and sports facility have an impact on the intensity of pick-up, while the impact on the intensity of drop-off is not significant. The density of company has no significant impact on the intensity of neither pick-up nor drop-off. These findings can contribute to a better understanding of online car-hailing travel activities and their relation with the urban space, and can provide useful information for urban planning and location-based services.     

Online and off‐line travel packages preferences: a conjoint analysis

Past research has suggested that a number of travel package attributes impact on people's choices. In the present study the impacts of a number of these elements (price, package characteristics, travel agents and a seal of approval) in online and off‐line environments were examined using conjoint analysis. It was found that price had the biggest impact, although travel agent and airline reputation and trustworthiness also impacted on people's preferences. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the attributes' impacts in the online and off‐line environments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Online Social Network Travel Websites in Creating Social Interaction for Gen Y Travelers

This paper aims to evaluate Generation Y users' social interaction with online social networks (OSNs) by testing a theoretical model, which consists of antecedents and consequences of social interactions in an OSN travel context. An online self‐administered questionnaire was sent to a systematic random sample of 12 000 college students at six US universities, and 513 respondents in total participated in the study. Study results suggest that innovativeness, perceived utility, and information sharing are effective for developing online social interaction. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of study results and provides suggestions for future research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.