The development of olive tourism in Western Australia: a case study of an emerging tourism industry

The recent development of olive growing in Western Australia, and its amalgamation with tourism and hospitality, provides opportunities for growers to showcase their products and for visitors to experience olive‐tasting and learn about an ancient food culture and rural activity ‘transplanted’ into the ‘New World’ from its ‘Old World’ roots. The present study examines the dimensions of this emerging niche market in Western Australia. Face‐to‐face and telephone interviews were conducted among 23 small olive‐growing operations located in this region to understand their scope for developing olive tourism. Overall, respondents' comments suggest that their involvement in olive tourism and hospitality could substantially provide benefits for visitors to rural areas and become a complementary alternative to other activities. To fulfil this potential, however, growers heavily rely on greater collaboration within their own industry, as well as on local authorities and tourism bodies in ways that include assistance, partnerships and promotion. Moreover, collaboration between olive growers and regional/tourism stakeholders, as well as government support may not only contribute to the sustainability of olive growing, but also to the emergence of olive tourism. In turn, these developments may also help develop a culinary identity and a tourism concept that may help minimise the threats of outside competition (cheaper olive imports) and rural decline. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rural tourism — meeting the challenges of the new South Africa

Rural tourism in South Africa has undergone fundamental change since the advent of political democracy in 1995. Previously perceived as a ‘white man's thing’, rural tourism is increasingly finding a home amongst South Africa's formerly marginalised rural communities. The country has considerable potential in attracting tourists in search of new, exciting experiences in areas of unexploited natural beauty and rich cultural resources. The concept of rural tourism has mushroomed to include adventure tourism activities, cultural tourism and, lately, a new phenomenon in rural communities known as ‘township tourism’. There are, however, substantial challenges to be overcome if the rural tourism sector is to achieve its goals. These include a lack of capacity at local government level, the difficulties involved in operationalising community‐based rural tourism and the dearth of entrepreneurial expertise, management skills and capital with which to expand the rural tourism infrastructure. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of the Public Sector in Rural Tourism: Respondents' Views

Using a four round Delphi survey, a focus group and semi-structured interviews, this study investigates the respondent perspective of the public sector role in providing an environment conducive to the development of the rural tourism sector in Britain and South Africa. Although South African respondents generally perceived a greater need of support for the rural tourism sector than did their British counterparts, many of the problems, concerns and frustrations that emerged from the study were similar. Respondents perceived the public sector as ‘leader’, ‘strategist’, ‘mentor’, ‘co-ordinator’, ‘champion’ and ‘partner’ in their endeavour to build the rural tourism sector. Grappling with the problems of uplifting the quality, viability and communal benefit of rural tourism is seen as a futile exercise if the facilitatory platform of rational policy, planning and support conducive to the sustainability of the sector, is not in place. Above all local authorities are seen as ‘the enabler’ of successful rural tourism projects that diversify the local economy and generate employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. However, whilst there is respondent acknowledgement of the role played by the public sector, there is evidence of widespread disenchantment with the efficacy with which this role is fulfilled.     

Sustainable leisure life modes and rural welfare economy. The case of the Randers Fjord area,Denmark

As increasing attention has been paid to rural tourism as a specific form of tourism development, so too has the scope of research into tourism in rural areas become more diverse. Typically, studies focus primarily upon the economic developmental contribution of rural tourism, although a significant amount of work has been undertaken on the consequences of rural tourism development and attitudes/motivations on the part of visitors and/or local communities. However, no attempt has yet been made to integrate studies of both visitors and local communities within the framework of rural tourism development policy. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the literature. Drawing on a study of tourism in the Randers Fjord, a relatively underdeveloped area of rural Denmark, it identifies and analyses three groups of tourists characterised by life modes: (i) traditionalists, (ii) peace seekers and (iii) adventurers. In each case, expectations, behaviour and future needs are revealed through qualitative interviews. The predominant (traditionalist) life mode of tourists, it is argued, closely matches that of the area's residents. This, the paper suggests, presents significant barriers to the development and enhancement of tourism, as do the prevailing economic structures and employment patterns. Thus, tourism development policy should take into account both tourists' and locals' life modes in order to progress towards sustainable rural tourism development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism Development: The Challenges of Achieving Sustainable Livelihoods in Bhutan's Remote Reaches

Merak–Sakteng is a remote area of Bhutan, which is targeted for development of tourism owing to the unique culture and way of life of the semi‐nomadic local ‘Brokpa’ people, whose livelihoods depend on herding yaks and sheep. These livestock enter forests where local residents and government see their grazing as threatening their crops and causing environmental degradation. The semi‐nomadic life centred on livestock, which has long been essential to Brokpa culture and economy, thus comes under threat. The opening of Merak–Sakteng to tourism is intended to address this conflict by lessening the Brokpas' economic dependence on livestock. This paper reports on research into the potential of tourism to transform this ethnic minority's economic way of life through the introduction of tourism into the local livelihood mix. Sustainable livelihoods issues are investigated through a consideration of both economic and socio‐cultural aspects of the local way of life, based on observation, and the findings of a survey of local people, semi‐structured interviews with village leaders and government officials concerning development of the area. The survey found that despite land‐use conflicts and limited grazing land, Brokpas still aspired to spend money gained from tourism on purchasing more yaks, which may escalate land‐use conflicts and threaten environmental sustainability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co‐operatives in southern Spain: their development in the rural tourism sector in Andalucía

This paper examines the characteristics of a number of recently established rural tourism co‐operatives in Andalucía, southern Spain against the background of the theory of co‐operatives as economic organisations. The origins and composition of the co‐operatives are examined, their local impact, their policies on employment and remuneration, and their internal management characteristics. Few of the businesses in the sample appear to possess the characteristics of the ‘ideal type’ of co‐operative identified in the literature. Although small‐scale, beneficial impacts may be identified within their localities, these appear to be no different to those associated with any small business organisation in the rural tourism sector. Furthermore, it is concluded that their prospects for developing genuine alternative forms of employment structures are not strong, partly owing to the circumstances of their foundation and partly because of the very nature of rural tourism itself, where extreme seasonality imposes a very specific labour regime. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Red tourism: sustaining communist identity in a rapidly changing China

‘Red tourism’ is to exploit the historical heritage of the Chinese Communist Party for tourism development. Such tourism practice has been used by the nation state of China both to drive the country's economic growth and develop new patronage of the communist ideology among the young generation. From the broader context of China's economic and social changes since 1978 when the country started its open-door policy and economic reform, our paper attempts to examine ‘red tourism’ by analyzing how the nation state of China promotes the communist heritage through ‘red tourism’ in order to sustain the communist identity in a rapidly changing China. Research questions are raised to address the economic and social factors for the nation state involvement in ‘red tourism’: the specific roles of such involvement and the outcomes. Based on a case study, this paper presents how heritage is interpreted at a specific ‘red tourism’ site in order to portray a selective part of the communist heritage as a symbol of the Chinese nation. In so doing, ‘red tourism’ aims to serve the purpose of the nation state to sustain the communist identity in the continuing effort of developing a ‘socialist country of Chinese characteristics’.     

The influence of service performance and destination resources on consumer behaviour: a case study of mainland Chinese tourists to Kinmen

This paper draws upon the responses of 603 mainland Chinese tourists in Kinmen and attempts to understand their consumer behavior on the aspects of intentions, preferences, decision‐making process, satisfaction, and willingness to revisit. Variables such as service performance and destination resources that affect visitor's satisfaction are also tested. The findings reflect a ‘myth of mysteriousness’ of mainland Chinese visitors to the destination and suggest that it is essential for the market segmentation to participate in the tourism planning of Kinmen to develop an integrated policy for promotion and marketing, in order to enhance consumers' interest. In addition, this research has implications for tourism planning in Kinmen and provides references for other destinations striving for tourists from mainland China. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourist modernisation and social legitimation in Spain

Spain's modernisation has been based, to a large extent, on the so‐called ‘residential tourism’. Its two‐fold nature—as a production model and a type of lifestyle migration—has complex repercussions. The aim of this paper is to delve, with a qualitative approach, into the key factors that explain the current social legitimation of this process by the Spanish society. The research suggests that the process is legitimated by its definition as an essentially tourism phenomenon. The label ‘tourism’ acts as some sort of ‘funnel’ that would not allow to go through it the problems associated with lifestyle migration or urbanisation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A mobilities approach to tourism from emerging world regions

Increasing numbers of people from the emerging world regions, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East engage in tourism practices at domestic, intra-regional and long-haul international scales. In this article, we deploy an innovative application of the mobilities approach, which we argue moves beyond the Eurocentrism implicit in modernist tourism studies, in a comparative analysis of tourism in and from these regions and those in the ‘West’. Our analysis opens up the systematic study of tourism in emerging world regions in terms of the mobilities paradigm, and concludes: one, travel had a multiplicity of origins in societies in the emerging regions, but most did not possess an equivalent emic term to ‘tourism'. Two, tourism at domestic and intra-regional levels tends to be entangled with other discretionary mobilities, whereas the long-haul level is more differentiated. Three, the development of domestic discretionary travel in emerging regions can be represented by four overlapping ‘mobility constellations’. Four, there are significant historical differences between the regions in their long-haul mobility constellations, although their kinetic hierarchies are all still steep. Five, forms of movement and associated practices of discretionary travellers from the emerging regions and Western countries became increasingly similar under the impact of socio-technological, economic and cultural globalisation. Six, differences between the emerging regions, particularly Asia, and the West are most salient on the emic level of representations of international travel: the specific cultural motive forces for tourism do not centre on authenticity-seeking, but are instead bound up with prestige and markers of modernity.     

Developing Rural Tourism: the PAT Program and ‘Nong jia le’ Tourism in China

Despite the fact that the last three decades have witnessed the rapid development of rural tourism (RT) in China, which is being promoted by the Chinese government as an important new type of tourism due to its special role in revitalizing China's rural economy, there is still little knowledge about the economic impacts of RT on Chinese rural communities in terms of socio‐economic development and regeneration. Accordingly, this study represents an attempt to address this issue by examining the Poverty Alleviation through Tourism program and ‘Nong jia le’ (Happy Farmer Home) tourism within the Chinese context. The findings not only confirm the widely held importance of RT, as expected, but also identify the problems and challenges relating to the sustainable development of RT in the future. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Industry convergence in rural tourism development: a China-featured term or a new initiative?

ABSTRACT

Industry convergence is a popular term that has been widely referenced in the context of rural tourism development in China. All levels of government (local, regional, national) in China have repeatedly addressed the significance of industry convergence in their tourism plans and related policies. Despite its popularity, limited studies at present have explored this concept in-depth. Using Huai’an as a case, this study applied a path analysis and reported the industry convergence process in a destination. The findings of this study can provide both theoretical and practical implications that are useful for tourism planners and policy makers.     

Communicating ‘normalcy’ in Israel: intra/intercultural paradox and interceptions in tourism discourse

This case study of Israeli tourism discourse during a time of heightened violent conflict compares official state discourse, which situates tourism in Israel as safe and the country's status as ‘normal’, with material–symbolic interceptions of individuals and occurrences. I locate an intra/intercultural dialectic of ‘normalcy’ used to signify several paradoxical meanings, to achieve and preserve security of being, and to strategically situate an ‘interpretive mismatch’ for ideological and economic intercultural consumption. I also reflexively examine the complicit and resistant roles of foreign media press trips in co-constructing state tourism promotion strategies, in part looking at my own role as a journalist as echoer of strategic intercultural regimes of truth and filterer of interceptions.     

Tourist narratives about the dissonant heritage of the Borderlands: the case of South-eastern Poland

ABSTRACT

One of the important effects of the political transformation after 1989 in Eastern Europe is the development of tourism and increasing mobility of citizens from many countries, previously separated by the ‘Iron Curtain’. The process of economic and socio-cultural change justifies the debate regarding the future, but also on the legacy of the past. As for South-eastern Poland, tourism has been used as an important narrative tool for spreading, strengthening or weakening ethnic and national stereotypes by promoting cultural resources and performances that enable cooperation and mutual understanding. However, it can also be a source of potential fears or conflicts, for instance by creating controversial tourist attractions and stories about certain historical events. This paper discusses strategies of ‘past presencing’ of the heritage of South-eastern Poland border regions in public life, culture and tourism, drawing on a few examples which show different ways of restoring the memory of the former Eastern Borderlands. The theme village called ‘The Borderland Settlement’ and the historical reconstruction ‘Volyn 1943–2013’ relate to the main myths and the active memory concept that frame tourist narratives and contribute to the reinvention and reinterpretation of dissonant heritage.     

‘Hafa Adai … means hello!’ Written banal codeswitching on tourism websites

In the expanding research on the discourse(s) of tourism, a paucity of work exists in the context of written codeswitching (CS), that is, the use of two or more languages (codes) within a written text. In this article, I explore the presence and use of indigenous language CS within the English text on official tourism websites. The focus is on ‘exotic’ US island states and territories including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands. Though English is predominant on these sites, a few codeswitches into ‘exotic’ languages are found within the English text. In contrast to Mühlhäusler's [(2008, August). Developing language-based tourism products for Norfolk Island. Paper presented at the 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Essen] findings related to Norfolk (Norf'k) Island, Australia, that tourism promotes not only the island but also the language native to the island, I argue that this particular type of CS, which I label ‘banal’, may function solely for the purpose of promoting the identity of an exotic Other rather than to promote or maintain their indigenous languages.     

The tourists of developmentourism – representations ‘from below’

Tourism has become part of the ‘development’ agenda. As an agent of post-modernity, tourism helps increase the commodification of what were previously regarded as uncommodified matters of social life. Accordingly, ‘development’ is now a tourist commodity in many localities in the so-called ‘South’, where the tourists in turn assume a moral consumer style. This paper is primarily about (strategic) representations of the tourist-other as a protagonist of assistance in the realm of what I call developmentourism. My argument is to a large degree empirical, based on two villages in Mozambique. In particular, the two cases studied indicate the interlaced relationship between tourism and ‘development’, and its repercussion on the discursive activity and representations of the members of the two villages. Moreover, both cases analysed in this paper inform the broader non-governmental economic and moral order in which they are situated.     

Nostalgia,Identity and Tourism: Bollywood in the Indian Diaspora

In today's global world of movement our personal identities are changing. So, ‘where is my “home”?’ and ‘what is my “identity”?’ have become essential questions in one's life. In recent times, more and more diasporic communities visit their homelands, perhaps to reroot their identities. This study explored the influence of Bollywood movies in the Indian diaspora's identity construction and notions of home and tourism behaviour to India. Findings revealed that the Indian diaspora's imagination of India is strongly informed by Bollywood movies. Yet, different generations of the Indian diaspora have different reasons for travelling to India. The first generation's nostalgia arises from watching Bollywood movies, and as a result, creates a motivation to travel to India. The second generation's main to travel behaviour to India is to experience the new ‘modern’ country, portrayed in the affluent surroundings of contemporary Bollywood movies. And, for those first generations, who have never seen India before, Bollywood movies enable them to romanticise their homeland and create an urge to visit India. Thus, Bollywood movies have immense importance in the Indian diaspora's identity construction, promote diaspora tourism and constitute a huge opportunity for economic development.     

‘Personal memory tourism’ and a wider exploration of the tourism−memory nexus

This paper investigates the varied intersections between tourism and memory. It begins with a brief consideration of the parallel developments between the emergence of the ‘memory boom’ and that of the ‘tourism boom’, as well as the academic fields of memory studies and tourism studies, respectively. Memory is a crucial factor in choosing a destination; it impacts on the tourist experience at the destination and on the sharing of the experience with others after the trip, notably through narration, photography, and memory objects, such as souvenirs. Both memory and tourism rely on media and representation and on audience and consumption; both are allied with processes of identity formation. It is argued that tourism drives the memory boom as much as memory drives tourism. Bartoletti's [(2010). “Memory tourism” and the commodification of Nostalgia. In P. Burns, C. Palmer, & J.-A. Lester (Eds.), Tourism and visual culture (pp. 23–42), Vol. 1. Wallingford: CABI] conceptualization of ‘memory tourism’ as overlapping but distinct from ‘heritage tourism’ and Timothy's [(1997). Tourism and the personal heritage experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(3), 751–754] concept of ‘personal heritage tourism’ are discussed as foundations for what is then defined as ‘personal memory tourism’. The latter revolves around travel associated with personal memories – not only the revisiting of places associated with happy memories, but also the return to sites of personal trauma and suffering in a quest for healing.     

Domestic tourism encounters in the Masurian lake district: multiple tourism moralities,reversible relationships,and social well-being in contemporary Poland

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on different moral economies of domestic tourism encounters in late-post-socialist Masuria, in the rural Northeast of Poland. An ethnographic study of three different tourism entrepreneurs brings to light different, concurring legacies of the ‘good’ tourism encounter in the area and indicates a shift of tourism discourses and social aspirations of living well together in contemporary Poland. In a climate of mutual stigmatisation and boundary drawing, rural tourism entrepreneurs mobilise the encounter with domestic tourists to subvert evolving power asymmetries in Poland and to offer alternative readings to dominant narratives of inequality in the transforming country. However, their proposed alternative tourism socialities with the national ‘other’ do not arrive naturally: relationships in tourism are shown to be ambivalent and reversible to their participants; their performance demands much moral work and requires a degree of cultural complicity or compatibility with the other. The article contributes to current debates on the moral economy of encountering in anthropological literature of tourism, post-socialism, and morality.