Perceptions of terror stricken tourism destinations

ABSTRACT

In the wake of global safety and security concerns, it is important to understand and document perceptions held by tourists so as to inform destination recovery efforts post terror attack. This exploratory study employs focus groups to examine American millennials’ perceptions of risk and their intentions to travel to terror-stricken destinations, specifically Nice, France. Perceived risks related to general international travel articulated by participants included, health, theft, and safety concerns. Participants indicated that they were willing to travel to Nice, post terror attack, with the exception of one group that would choose to travel elsewhere in France. Participants’ rank ordering of the sources they would consult during the decision making process for travel to a terror stricken destination included: family, people with lived experience of the destination, and government. This paper contributes to risk perception literature, particularly scholarship on the nexus between terrorism and tourism.     

Freedom of movement for all? Unpacking racialized travel experiences

In today’s world, more people have the means and opportunities to travel freely compared to the past. Yet, the freedom of movement and the right to travel are far from being globally recognized as human rights. For some, the freedom of movement is overshadowed by one’s race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and so on. When travelling across or even within borders, members of some groups may encounter discriminatory actions in the form of xenophobia, racism, and more recently, islamophobia. Increasing regulations and heightened security inevitably affect international tourism and travel. Drawing on our own travel experiences as tourists and tourism scholars of different racial backgrounds, we use this paper to explore the intersections of racism and tourism. Implementing innovative and improvisational methodologies, we unpack and interrogate the discourses that underpin racialized travel experiences. Our collective debriefings have been re-storied to further illuminate the importance of race in shaping tourism experiences, contributing to the lived frustration and discrimination at the borders and beyond. The insights gleaned from our experiences will contribute to the existing literature of tourism politics, and the discourse of racialized identities in travel and tourism.     

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.     

Historical blueprints of tourists’ paths from Poland to the former USSR

ABSTRACT

This article is a contribution to the developing body of research on tourism within the region of the Central and Eastern Europe. Our aim is to explore if and how Polish tourists to the former Soviet Union incorporate a historic past in their imaginaries. Sixty interviews carried out between 2008 and 2012 are analysed in order to establish if there are references to the past in tourist accounts although the fact history was not a major travel motivation. We were also interested in how the past co-creates tourist experiences and destination images. We found out that tourists may question dominant versions of historic memory in their straightforward references to the past. We also discovered that sources of memory are multiple and include not only first-hand memory but also family memory as well as non-representational memory. Some tourists purposefully suppressed the past. We suggest that more attention should be paid to ‘traces’ of the past in tourism imaginaries.     

An Exploratory Study of the Propensity for South Koreans to take Cruises: Investigating Koreans' Perceptions of Cruise Ship Travel

The purpose of the present study was to examine Koreans' perceptions of cruise ship travel to ascertain the potential for future development of that tourism segment. An understanding of Koreans' perceptions is essential for determining the potential of the Korean cruise market. Using survey data, the study investigated Koreans' knowledge level, willingness and desired travel patterns regarding cruise ship travel. Findings from the study can assist practitioners to enhance their comprehension of Koreans' perceptions and behaviors concerning cruise ship travel. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Paradoxical effects of tourism ethnocentrism on domestic tourism: The moderating effect of pandemic anxiety travel

This research findings to study the impact of socio-psychological, economic, and political antecedents on tourism and to study the relationship among tourism ethnocentrism (TE), civilized tourism behavioral intention, willingness to visit, and electronic-word of mouth. Also, it examines the moderating role of pandemic anxiety variables. The results show that American socio-psychological and political antecedents are factors that directly affect TE and have a significant effect on travelers who are insecure about traveling due to the pandemic. Travelers affected by socio-psychological and political antecedents were found to have higher TE and higher travel anxiety due to the pandemic. Therefore, this study suggests the need to strengthen people's patriotism and pride in their country to activate domestic tourism, which should be used as a tourism marketing material to promote domestic travel post-pandemic.     

Cultural tourism behaviour and preferences among the live‐performing arts audience: an application of the univorous–omnivorous framework

This study uses the omnivorous–univorous theoretical framework of the arts marketing studies to identify relationships between the live‐performing arts and cultural tourism behaviours and preferences. Patrons of a major performing arts centre were segmented in three groups — sporadic, univores and omnivores — and examined regarding their cultural tourism behaviours and preferences. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences among groups in terms of demographic characteristics, art and culture consumption and cultural tourism behaviour and preferences. Study results add to the body of knowledge of tourism, suggesting that the culture omnivorous consumption behaviour reported in art marketing studies is also relevant to cultural tourism. Results suggest the existence of omnivorous cultural tourists seeking a wide variety of cultural products and experiences. The identification of a group of individuals with little interest and consumption of culture, including cultural travel destinations, also emerges from this study. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An emerging Korean youth culture,Rail-ro: the application of cultural consensus analysis to domestic rail travel experiences

This study deals with an emerging domestic rail travel phenomenon among Korean youth, known as Rail-ro (Railo), which has influenced aspects of youth culture and domestic tourism in Korea since 2007. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Railo experiences exist as a coherent culture among Railers based on cultural consensus analysis. The result indicates Railers’ strong agreement about Railo experiences, which reinforces the view that a particular rail pass could be instrumental in forming a distinct youth travel subculture. This study demonstrates how travel culture driven by the seasonal rail pass supports domestic tourism and inbound tourism.     

Factors influencing cultural event tourism in Nelson Mandela Bay,South Africa

ABSTRACT

Cultural tourism has established a market share of approximately 20% in the tourism sector globally. In addition, it fosters socio-economic benefits for a destination and its residents. This study explores residents’ attitudes towards cultural events in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), South Africa, to enhance the destination image and induce stakeholder engagement. In this study, 3659 residents of NMB either completed an online questionnaire or a face-to-face interview. The results indicate that the residents of NMB have a positive attitude to cultural events. Notably, the demographic profile of the respondents is representative of the country and may be transferred to a national level to assist the South African tourism industry. The findings clarify insights to the market needs and cultural differences that may be used to tailor unique selling propositions in culturally diverse destinations.     

Speaking for the enslaved: heritage interpretation at antebellum plantation sites

Everyday resistance is a fruitful realm of study in tourism analysis. Rooted in in-depth ethnography, this article focuses on the everyday resistance in a Chinese Miao village, where the villagers were defending their interests in the context of elite-directed and capital-intensive tourism development. It reveals how particular incidents of resistance configured among these villagers, and pays particular attention to their internal politics and the cultural underpinnings of their resistance acts. Responding to various situations, these Miao peasants made rational choices among possible trajectories of action. If the resistance was direct, it was not open; if it was open, it was not direct. They, as the dominated, worked the existing system to their advantage: they cleverly utilized policy gaps to persist in their resistance; and they strategically used tourists as the scapegoat to resist the dominant. Despite the marginality and temporariness of the results, their resistance did affect the various forms of exploitation that they confronted, and was therefore significant in the sense that it narrowed the options available for the dominant regarding tourism development.     

An Exploratory Examination of Serious Surfers: Implications for the Surf Tourism Industry

Surf tourism is a multibillion dollar industry expected to continue expanding. Despite such economic significance, the surf tourism literature has gaps related to surf tourism segments. In response, this study applied the serious leisure framework to profile serious surfers and contrast their sociodemographic composition and travel behaviors. Although more serious surfers are more avid travelers in the quest for the perfect wave as compared with less serious surfers, preference for local attractions and conveniences did not vary between groups. In addition to contributing the scholarship of serious leisure and surf tourism, this study provides insights for the surf tourism industry. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Negative emotions in tourism: a meaningful analysis

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we critically examine the use of (negative) emotions in psychology, consumer behaviour and tourism. We find that (1) negative emotions form an integral part of the tourist experience in certain tourism contexts, particularly in dark tourism and types of travel that involve transformation of the self, (2) negative emotions can have multiple positive outcomes and (3) these positive outcomes are present in hedonic and non-hedonic tourism contexts, yet they occur occasionally in hedonic and more systematically in non-hedonic tourism contexts. We conclude that negative emotions contribute to eudaimonic experiences by affecting different types of meaning in life.     

Iran on the news – exploring videos’ effects on potential tourists

ABSTRACT

While previous tourism studies on the visual have tended to focus on the analysis of photos, only recently videos have received more attention by tourism scholars. Within the emerging tourism literature on videos, little has been written on the videos produced and shared by online news and documentary networks and their persuasive effects on potential tourists’ perceptions about a destination. By focusing on Iran, this work investigates whether videos produced and shared by online news and documentary networks influence viewers’ perceptions about the country and their willingness to travel to the country. This study employs semi-structured, in-depth interviews to explore the meanings and interpretations attached to two videos about Iran, which were produced and shared by an Iranian online news and documentary network. A total of 15 participants, including a film producer and 14 respondents as audience were interviewed. Overall, the findings of this study highlight that the videos’ interpretations by the participants were multiple and often diverged from the producer’s intentions. Moreover, although the videos were perceived as tools produced to attract tourists, they were not regarded as sufficiently persuasive to totally change previously formed images about Iran and create a strong desire to visit the country.     

Impact of travelers' consumer ethnocentrism on purchase and behavior intention: moderating effect of implicit prejudice

This study investigated the effects of rigid thinking, ideology, and explicit and implicit prejudices on consumer ethnocentrism. Explicit and implicit prejudices significantly affected consumer ethnocentrism, but not travel behavioral intention. Among the three variances—Asian–European American, skin tone, and Arab-Muslim Implicit Association Test (IAT)—used as implicit prejudice control variables, only implicit prejudice regarding Arab-Muslim names significantly affected travel product purchase intention and travel behavior. The results revealed that consumers with strong consumer ethnocentrism are likely to avoid purchasing overseas travel products. These findings suggest the introduction of customized tourism marketing methods in countries with strong ethnocentrism.     

Millennials’ travel motivations and desired activities within destinations: A comparative study of the US and the UK

Millennials are one of the largest groups to be targeted by tourism companies. This paper compares the travel motivations of Millennials from both the United States and the United Kingdom by ratings, rankings and perceptual structures of both push and pull factors. This exploratory study used a questionnaire to examine the inner motivations (e.g. push factors) and preferred destination activities (e.g. pull factors) of American and British Millennials (n?=?322). Data analysis included the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, an alternating least-squares algorithm (ALSCAL) model and ordinal regression. The results reveal that American and British Millennials are quite homogeneous in their push travel motivations and destination activity preferences. The most important motivational factors for both are ‘to relax’ and ‘to escape from the ordinary’. Both nationalities also agree that the most attractive destination activities are ‘to try local food’ and ‘to go sightseeing’. The findings indicate that the US and UK samples are similar and that there is room for segmentation according to demographics.     

Understanding the residents’ social impact perceptions of an African Cultural Festival: the case of Macufe

ABSTRACT

The Macufe is one of the Africa’s largest cultural festivals, and takes place annually in Bloemfontein, South Africa. This 10-day event attracts approximately 140,000 attendees, meaning that the residents have to share facilities and services with tourists. The effects of such interactions can be both positive and negative. Community members are stakeholders in any tourism ventures that take place in their area, meaning that their goodwill is of utmost importance. Therefore, the social impacts of this event should be well managed to foster community support. For this reason, a quantitative study was done to determine residents’ social impact perceptions towards the event. A total of 425 questionnaires were completed by willing residents who lived in proximity to festival activities. From an exploratory factor analysis, four factors were extracted, namely community enhancement, community degradation, tourism growth and increased public spending and interaction. It was found that the event does not generate significant levels of positive social impacts, and that the negative social impacts are viewed almost equal to the positive social impacts. This was one of the first social impact perception studies done on an African arts festival, which contributes to the sustainable management of such crucial events.     

Climate change and the air travel decisions of UK tourists

Whilst much effort has been made to communicate to the public the importance of reducing carbon footprints in the home, one area where emissions are growing rapidly and little attempt has been made to increase consumer understanding of the impacts is holidays, particularly those involving air travel. Using focus group research, this paper explores tourists’ awareness of the impacts of travel on climate change, examines the extent to which climate change features in holiday travel decisions and identifies some of the barriers to the adoption of less carbon-intensive tourism practices. The findings suggest that many tourists do not consider climate change when planning their holidays. The failure of tourists to engage with the climate change impact of holidays, combined with significant barriers to behavioural change, presents a considerable challenge in moving the tourism industry onto a sustainable emissions path. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives from psychology and sociology.     

The threshold effects of educational tourism on economic growth

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of educational tourism and other variables on economic growth using a balanced panel dataset comprising 61 countries. We use the threshold regression model with three different threshold variables (i.e. educational tourism, research, and information and communication technology) to estimate non-monotonic mediating effects on economic growth. Our findings suggest that educational tourism has a significant positive impact on economic growth, but the effect is non-monotonic and contingent upon the level of educational tourism, the output of quality research, and the development of information and communication technology (ICT). It is proposed that policymakers should take into consideration these factors when proposing measures to stimulate economic growth via the educational tourism channel.     

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.