Examining the ‘relative image’ of tourism destinations: a case study

Many traditional destination image studies employ a non-comparative assessment approach. This study, however, suggests defining and measuring destination image in a comparative manner (termed ‘relative image’) for the purpose of destination positioning. Using a case study on American leisure travellers’ image of Mainland China, the author proposes and demonstrates the utility of a multi-step procedure of relative image assessment. The author concludes that by utilising competing destinations as a reference frame and replicating tourists’ actual decision-making process, relative image assessment may generate more relevant information and insights for destination marketers.     

Terrorism and tourism demand: a case study of Lebanon,Turkey and Israel

Using a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model, this paper examines the impact of domestic and transnational terrorism on tourism demand (as measured by visitor arrivals) to Lebanon, Turkey and Israel. The distinguishing feature of this paper is that we use a dynamic framework that takes into account (i) the intensity of terrorism and (ii) the associated spillover effects. The empirical results, based on monthly data from 1995 to 2007, reveal that terrorism in one country affects visitor arrivals not only to that country but also to other countries. We find that tourists view Lebanese and Turkish tourism markets as substitutes. Terrorism in Israel, of all types (i.e. domestic or transnational) and intensities, affects visitor arrivals to Lebanon and Turkey. In overall terms, terrorism has a much larger negative impact on visitor arrivals to Lebanon.     

The power of social media in regional tourism development: a case study from Ōkunoshima Island in Hiroshima,Japan

This research letter introduces a new insight into the power of social media in tourism development using a case study from ōkunoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan. The island has been experiencing an unprecedented tourism boom since 2014, when videos posted by social media led to an increase in international tourists in a formerly domestic destination. The results of our structured interviews suggest that tourists acquired information about the island through social media. This result implicated social media’s power in developing tourism in peripheral regional areas, which are often left out from the international tourism circuit.     

Visitors’ brand loyalty to a historical and cultural theme park: a case study of Hangzhou Songcheng,China

Conducting research on the factors affecting brand loyalty to theme parks is an important method for enhancing brand loyalty among tourists. This paper takes the Hangzhou Songcheng historical and cultural theme park as a case study. Hypotheses are proposed and structural equation model is constructed based on tourist perception theory. Findings show that theme park brand satisfaction is related to brand loyalty through brand attachment and historical and cultural performance. The quality of facilities and attractions has no significant correlation with perceived value and brand satisfaction. The service quality of attendants also has no significant correlation with tourist perceived value.     

Public transport modernisation and adjustment to EU accession requirements: the case of Malta’s buses

Within the context of Malta’s progress towards EU accession, this paper aims to evaluate the major factors behind, and the consequences for, the modernisation of Malta’s public transport system. In particular, the paper focuses on the nature and role of the bus system, its structural and functional challenges, and the implications of change for its role within the wider context of the islands’ growing traffic management problems. It is concluded that the major structural and organizational changes required for EU accession will need to be complemented by a strong campaign aimed at shifting modal choice.     

Residents’ attitudes on the contribution of cultural tourism in Tanzania

This study aimed at evaluating residents’ attitudes towards the contribution of cultural tourism to the social welfare of the local rural residents participating in cultural tourism activities by factoring gender and level of education as possible differentiating factors in residents’ attitudes. Based on survey of local people in northern part of Tanzania, a questionnaire was administered that yielded data that were subjected to a series of t-tests. The results indicate residents to have both positive and negative attitudes towards the contribution of cultural tourism. Gender differences are noted to relate with cultural tourism participation and attitudes towards the contribution of cultural tourism. Females benefit more from cultural tourism than males in economic terms. Having education raises the chances of locals having a more positive attitude towards cultural tourism. From the results, implications to facilitators in cultural tourism to further aid tourism contribution to the locals are derived.     

Residents’ perceptions of tourism development – implications for small economies business: the case study of Ali Sadr,Iran

Ali Sadr Cave is the world's largest water cave and is a protected national heritage of Iran. This paper examines the residents’ perceptions of tourism development. In total, 250 residents of Ali Sadr village were interviewed. To improve the economic outcomes of the exchange between individuals from various cultural backgrounds, it is important to resolve the conflicts between residents and international tourists. In the management of tourism in the region, the local people who strongly support tourism development are not involved much. This paper concludes with recommendations for tourism managers to improve the economic outcomes of local people through tourism development.     

Optimizing transit maintenance and rehabilitation to support human development and sustainability: A case study of Costa Rica’s railroad network

Public transportation plays a critical role in improving human development and consequently the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations. Convenient and efficient transit enable inhabitants to reach labor markets, access social support facilities as well as health and education services. This study develops a decision-making support framework for transit agencies to select optimum maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrade alternatives to accomplish good levels of service and improve human development and sustainability indexes. A case study of Costa Rica’s great metropolitan area is used to illustrate the study with various budget scenarios. The results show that the proposed system can accomplish significant improvements on both level of service and human development. It is also confirmed that the explicit consideration of human development and sustainability made a significant difference as compared to the classical approach, which only considers the level of service (LOS). The proposed model could be used by other public transit systems.     

Market segmentation for a leverage revitalization of China’s inbound tourism: the case of US leisure tourists

China’s inbound tourism currently faces a tough choice between a niche strategy and a wide-range tourist attraction. The derivative concept of ‘leverageable market’ provides a reasonable method to solve the problem. This study, thus, attempts to conduct market segmentation for identifying a core crowd in the leisure tourism market of US near-venturers that leverages revitalization. A mixed segmentation method was adopted that combined ‘a posterior approach’ with ‘a priori approach’ in an overall multi-stage framework. ‘Venturesomeness’ in Plog’s psychographic model was the first principle segmentation variable used, which is intrinsically pertinent to the connotation of a leverageable market. ‘Activity participation’ was added to further partition the near-venturers identified, yielding refined management strategies. The data first indicated an obvious shift of China’s psychographic destination position from ‘near-venturer’ to ‘mid-centric’. Cluster analysis further identified four activity-based near-venturer segments: outdoor stimulus experiencers, recreation and amusement seekers, culture searchers, and extensive interest holders. Significant socio-demographic and trip-related features were found among the clusters. The corresponding managerial and theoretical implications, limitations, and agendas for further related research were finally discussed.     

Tourists’ destination image: an exploratory study of alternative tourism in Palestine

This study aims to understand how alternative tourism can contribute to the destination image of Palestine, given its negative image in the media. It proposes a framework for various destination image aspects and applies this framework in the context of alternative tourism in Palestine. It seeks to explore the key image formation factors, the perceived images of Palestine, and the post-visit behaviours of tourists who had engaged in alternative tourism in Palestine. This research contributes in fulfilling intriguing gaps in the Palestinian destination’s image literature, as well as the alternative tourism field that has emerged manifestly in Palestine. This study is exploratory in nature applying qualitative methodology by using open-ended questions in email interviews, and the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The empirical results proved that tourists who had visited Palestine and engaged in alternative tourism, had positive destination images, opposite to the ones portrayed in the media that show Palestine as a dangerous place to visit. Finally, this research provides academic and managerial implications.     

The role of schedule delays on passengers’ choice of access modes: A case study of Japan’s international hub airports

We empirically study passenger modal-choice behavior to access an international hub airport, by using stated preference (SP) data and by constructing a binomial logit model. We found that passenger modal choice is affected by the service level of the access modes: travel time, travel cost, waiting time, and delay cost. The results also indicate that if passengers choose access mode in advance they consider service frequency: departure timing from home, and the arrival timing at the airport. Moreover, our results indicate that travelers’ willingness to pay for saving time differs by time of a day. They are apt to pay more in the morning than in the afternoon. These outcomes must contribute to improve the access flight service from local to hub airports to handle the needs of passengers.     

Grid–group analysis and tourism: tipping as a cultural behavior

Cultural bias, or grid–group theory, was developed by Mary Douglas in the 1980s to explain individual behavior within a particular society. In this paper, grid–group theory is adapted to show how it may be used in a tourism context. The advantages of this approach are that the same typology can be used for both hosts and guests, not only in general terms, but also for given types of behavior. Grid–group theory shows how the same individual may exhibit different behavioral patterns in different situations. The example used to illustrate this approach is tipping. The literature on tipping provides mixed and conflicting results. By using grid–group theory, it is possible to explain why these mixed results may occur.     

Arctic ‘concessions’ and icebreaker diplomacy? Chinese tourism development in Iceland

This paper is based on a case study on a Chinese investment proposal in Iceland and sets out to explore the different ways in which actors from different backgrounds, with an extensive range of expectations and ideas of what a destination could and should be, produce and sustain ideas about tourism development. Our point of departure is how tourism represents a new globalised economic expansion possibly reflecting processes of empire building of days gone by. This research suggests that the conflicting worlds of Chinese investment plans, seemingly pregnant with imperial aspirations, core-periphery dichotomies, as well as contesting ideas of regional development, represent a need to begin re-thinking our understanding of tourism regional development from the perspective of what empires are.     

The end of growth in residential tourism destinations: steady state or sustainable development? The case of Calpe

This article discusses how the slowdown in the real estate market during the most recent economic and financial crisis has affected residential tourism destinations on the Spanish coast. The afore-mentioned crisis, which gave rise to a standstill in residential activity, coincided with the turbulences experienced in the competing destinations of Northern Africa, which brought about a record number of international tourist arrivals to Spain. The resulting situation enables us to explore the future scenario of all the Spanish destinations that, due to the depletion of available land, are reaching their maximum levels of urban growth. Examining the case of Calpe, a destination which is representative of the Spanish Mediterranean, the study analyses whether the foreseeable dynamics for the future are conceptualized in the favourable terms that characterize “sustainable development” or, on the contrary, exhibit negative implications which the classic economists refer to as the “steady state”.     

Disentangling the tourism sector’s fragmentation: a hands-on coding/post-coding guide for interview and policy document analysis in tourism†

Qualitative tourism research is inevitably multidimensional. The fragmentation of the tourism sector across policy domains, scales, space and stakeholders leads to ‘blurry’ and aggregated datasets. Yet, tourism studies have a weak record in describing how results emanate from raw qualitative data. This paper presents a coding/post-coding scheme that proved robust in disentangling multidimensional tourism datasets in a middle-range research project that necessitated reflecting on the position of the researcher and the literature study during the data analysis. It describes the pragmatic decisions taken to organise the qualitative data from a research project on cross-border tourism and regional development processes. The paper also functions as a reflexive account of how this scheme came into existence. It contributes to the tools available to practically acknowledge the fragmentation of the tourism sector and the resulting multidimensional qualitative data, and calls for a more open accounting of the data analysis process and the underlying research values in tourism studies.     

Simple living and tourism in times of ‘austerity’

The sharp increase in domestic tourism in the UK in 2009 and 2010 has prompted speculations about an embryonic quest for ‘simpler pleasures’ and greener, less exotic holidays. Absent from these debates is a more thorough reflection about the complex ways through which people negotiate everyday senses of normalcy, simplicity and excess in consumption and travelling. This is important to understand the political, economic, cultural and technological contexts that may facilitate a shift towards simpler, sustainable lifestyles. The paper presents results of fieldwork looking at ways in which tourists negotiate what is normal and excessive in holidaymaking. Data suggest that tourism is a highly valued symbolic aspect of modern life which few people are ready to sacrifice on environmental grounds and which is inextricably entangled with contested notions of accessibility, citizenship, equality and fairness.     

Tourism,development and ‘destination Dubai’: cultural dilemmas and future challenges

The aim of this conceptual paper is to provide a critical assessment of Dubai's approach to tourism development, focusing on its cultural implications. The work initially observes ways in which the destination is building an image based on iconographic grandeur, monumental innovation and super-modernism. In doing so, the enquiry indicates that one fundamental sociological concern for destination Dubai is its perceived lack of cultural consistency, particularly in terms of the absorption of the old into the new. This position is evident through a paucity of heritage resources and institutions associated with the tourism market, as well as limited public knowledge concerning the ethnic and traditional elements of the indigenous society. Emphasising a more culturally focused tourism agenda could help to socially sustain and ground local communities (and identities) threatened by rapid urbanisation and Westernisation. However, one noted dilemma relates to the complexity of defining and deconstructing indigenous forms of ethnicity and identity. Nevertheless, the discussion claims that it is imperative not to lose sight of the possible opportunities for the productive advancement of localised forms of tourism and cultural capital. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of examining the diversity of local perceptions of tourism, culture and development within an empirically informed framework.     

Micro-modelling of individual tourist’s information-seeking behaviour: a heterogeneity-specific study

Previous research done on tourists’ information-seeking behaviour has focused on aggregate-level information seeking. The aggregate-level study has significant disadvantage in decision-making since actual behaviour of tourists gets averaged out due to aggregation. Understanding the responses of individual tourist’s information seekers in different contexts can be better performed by individual-level study. This study emphasizes the importance of information-seeking behaviour in the context of personal differences between the tourists. Heterogeneity suggests that different tourists behave differently when seeking information. With data of 307 tourists, we first find tourists’ information-seeking behavioural dimensions. We then group the tourists into segments according to these behavioural dimensions, and then investigate the impacts of these behavioural dimensions considering individual-level heterogeneity through hierarchical Bayes estimation. We then compare these estimates with aggregate-level estimates to find out the improvement of prediction if inter-individual heterogeneity is considered.     

Analyzing the spatial–temporal evolution of a gateway’s hinterland: A case study of Shanghai,China

This paper analyzes the spatial–temporal evolution of the attractiveness of a country’s gateway for its international trade, using Shanghai as an example. The attractiveness is regressed on the transportation facilities and geographical conditions. Seaport development is found to have a major positive impact, followed by inland waterway, highway, and airport development. These positive impacts decrease with the need for highway haulage and with the distance from Shanghai—showing an inverse U-shape distribution. Rail appears to have a U-shape distribution, implying a low application of multimodal transportation. A geographical pattern for the impacts of different transportation modes is delineated.     

‘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.