Religious Perceptions and Hegemony on Tourism Development: the Case of the Islamic Republic of Iran

This paper highlights tourism development constraints with regard to religious perceptions in a religion‐dominated country, Iran. The ruling class does not want to discount any of the fundamental social and cultural values in the process of preparing strategies for national tourism development plans. Countries such as Iran, concerned about potential negative influences of tourism development, de‐emphasize potential positive economic impacts. In post‐revolutionary Iran, tourism development and promotion follow unique, religiously‐based strategies. The current five‐year development plan is a first step towards a transition to the recognition of the importance of tourism for economic development and improved international relations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism,Religion and Religiosity: A Holy Mess

Although religion and religiosity are well-known factors for influencing behaviour in different social settings, there is very limited research that explores the links between them and visitation patterns of tourists. In this study tourists' visitation patterns to a heritage site of religious significance (the Wailing Wall, Israel) are explored. Differences are found between tourists based on their religious affiliation and religiosity. The findings also reveal that the tourists' religiosity has different effects on those with different religious affiliations. It is argued that the actual relationships between a tourist's religion and strength of religious belief need to be understood in relation to the site visited, the tourist's perception of it and the meaning he or she attaches to it. The implications for tourism management and the theoretical investigation of heritage tourism are discussed.     

Entrepreneurship and indigenous enterpreneurs in religious tourism in India

This paper demonstrates how indigenous religious entrepreneurs drive religious tourism in a non‐western context. Building on the case study of Vrindavan, an emerging religious tourism destination in India, it explains religious tourism as a natural progression of traditional pilgrimage economy, where entrepreneurship springs from socio‐cultural and ritual exchanges and knowledge of religious protocols and procedures between indigenous religious functionaries and visitors. Using religious hegemony, social status and networks, religious entrepreneurs innovate, develop new products and expand the cultural economy of rituals and performances to suit the demands of the burgeoning tourism. The tendency to consider such entrepreneurship as ‘informal’ not only exempts them from most regulations and legal responsibilities but also undermines their contribution in maintaining the ‘religious’ — the most important resource in religious tourism. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regenerating urban traditions in Bahrain. Learning from Bab-Al-Bahrain: the authentic fake

Gulf cities are determined to diversify their economies in an attempt to face the new realities resulting from the post-oil paradigm. Knowing the fact that its oil resources are about to dry up, Bahrain is forced to bank on alternative activities in order to sustain its development. For Bahrain, the diversification into the financial and tourism sectors is more urgent than for its neighbours. As a major development strategy, a tangible tendency towards using the visual scenery of their culture and history can be observed in new projects intended to achieve economic diversification. The aim is to create dreams, fantasies and models to attract tourists, travellers and visitors who are ready and prepared to ‘consume’ the ‘authentic’ heritage of such traditional cities. This construction of an image of the past – a persona – is part of what Baudrillard call ‘reality by proxy’, a stimulated environment. This paper uses Bab-Al-Bahrain as a case to investigate notions of ‘hyper-reality’ and ‘hyper-traditions’ emerging from, and imported by, globalisation. This hyper-tradition emerges from the ‘birthplace’ of the tradition it is stimulating. This might also provide a case study of what Eco refers to as ‘authentic fake’. The inevitable necessity of diversifying Bahrain's economy allowed the island to see itself as the financial, commercial and recreational hub for the gulf region. Historically, the old port that was once the main gate to Manama city, the Bahraini capital, actually called Bab-Al-Bahrain (Bahrain Gate), was a commercial pole that extended to the main market (souq). This paper focuses on the area of Bab-Al-Bahrain and its urban and architectural adjacencies to illustrate Bahrain's efforts in promoting its historical and cultural heritage and using it as a vehicle for touristic development. An emphasis on the relation between event, place and the community in the selected context will provide a different vantage point from where to explore the importance of religious festivity and ethnic diversity in tourism development. The paper will also investigate the legitimacy and the complex dynamism of transforming historical heritage into a ‘hyper-tradition’ or a sort of ‘authentic fake’ in order to facilitate the tourists' consumption process of Bahraini culture. It would also argue that tourism changes the host community and influences its ‘authenticity faking’ process.     

Space–time fixity and flexibility of daily activities and the built environment: A case study of different types of communities in Beijing suburbs

Space–time fixity constraint is an important concept in transport geography, but the influence of the built environment around both people’s residence and activity locations is not clear. Due to the housing reform and rapid suburbanization in China, various types of residential communities and diverse built environments coexist in the suburbs. Comparing how people’s space–time fixity/flexibility varies among different community types and built environments can thus enhance our understanding of the transition process in Chinese cities. This study investigates how space–time fixity/flexibility and their relationships with the built environment vary among different types of residential communities in Beijing suburbs. Activity-travel diary and 7-day GPS tracking data of 709 respondents in Shangdi-Qinghe area of Beijing collected in 2012 were used. We investigate how variations in space–time flexibility are associated with built environment factors and four different community types: danwei communities, commodity housing communities, affordable housing communities and relocated housing communities, controlling for personal, household and activity attributes. The results suggest the influences of the built environments at residential place and activity place are different, and the relationships between space–time fixity and the built environments of different community types are different. Space–time fixity is not so sensitive to the built environment for residents in danwei communities and affordable housing communities. Gender and age differences in space–time fixity are not consistent with what was observed in Western countries. This seems to reflect the influence of unique social, cultural and family norms in China.     

Social Capital,Tourism and Regional Development: SPCC as a Basis for Innovation and Sustainability

Traditional views of regional development have focused on economic factors and potential innovation in technical and resource exploitation processes. Similarly, regional tourism development is usually couched in economic terms, such as number of jobs and increasing land values. This approach usually ignores the social and community aspects of tourism development; thus an alternative view argues that the community needs to be factored into our planning and development strategies to balance the traditional economic view. It is argued in this paper that fostering innovation in regional development is much more than a process of community consultation. Rather, what needs to be factored in is SPCC – social, political and cultural capital. This works in both directions; tourism development depends on a level of social, political and cultural capital in order to be a successful regional development tool (even in economic terms) while at the same time tourism development can be undertaken in a way that contributes to SPCC in the region. The paper outlines the key concepts of social capital, political capital and cultural capital. It does so within the context of regional tourism development and the concepts of systems of innovation and sustainable development.     

The effect of community attachment on cultural festival visitors' satisfaction and future intentions

This paper explores the characteristics of multicultural festival visitors on the basis of their attachment to a certain culture or a cultural community, and examines the influences of this attachment on levels of overall satisfaction and future intentions. Two distinctive types of visitors to cultural festivals are recognised based on their attachment to the culture of the festival. A total of 420 valid questionnaires from three multicultural festivals in Korea were collected. This study found that community attachment, defined as an attachment to a certain culture or a cultural community, had significant impacts on intention to revisit and positive word-of-mouth (WOM). Visitors who are attached to an ethnic culture or a cultural community are more likely to revisit and spread positive WOM than people who are not attached. The paper concludes that community attachment influences cultural festival visitors' future intentions, and can be used as a predictor of the relationship between satisfaction and future intentions. From the results of the study, strategic marketing and management implications, based on community attachment, are suggested to increase repeat visitation and attract more visitors through positive WOM.     

Religious culture and rural car ownership

Transportation policy generally restricts the predictors of car ownership to socio-economic variables without consideration of cultural factors. However, culture – the ideas, norms, and objects that a society shares – affects consumption decisions. Excluding this cultural context may limit consideration of potentially successful policy interventions. The research presented here statistically tests the impact of religious culture on rural car ownership in the United States by incorporating religious adherence rates into statistical models of countywide motorization rates. This research explores whether religious affiliation is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and whether the addition of those religious variables results in a statistically significant improvement in model fit. The findings suggest that religious affiliation, expressed as countywide adherence rates, is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and that its inclusion improves model fit; however, while statistically significant, that improvement in model fit is quite small. This research concludes that considering culture is a valuable direction for targeting car consumption policies aimed at curbing climate change. This research also demonstrates the need for additional exploration using disaggregated cultural data to better understand the import of this approach to policy development.     

Impact of culture on tourist decision‐making styles

This paper developed and tested an integrative model to examine the relationship between tourism decisions and their cultural background. The model was tested using surveyed data from 400 tourists travelling to Lisbon, a cultural city and the capital of Portugal. The results of a structural equation analysis revealed that culture affect tourist decisions. The decision to visit Lisbon relies on its quality, brand and price. This decision is shaped by the likelihood of visitors to accept social differentiation (power distance), moderated by their sense of individualism as well as their long‐term orientation. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of the authenticity of the Catholic pilgrimage site on spiritual well-being and quality of life of pilgrims

With the growing interest in spirituality, there has been a corresponding rise in the number of pilgrimages. Modern pilgrims embark on pilgrimages not only for religious purposes but also for their own mental peace and health. To enhance our understanding of this trend we conducted an empirical survey of pilgrims visiting Saenamteo Catholic Martyrs' Shrine, a representative martyrdom site in Korea located on the Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route, the first Vatican-designated international pilgrimage site in Asia. The analysis showed that the authenticity of the pilgrimage site impacts both the religious and the existential aspects of spiritual well-being. However, while the existential aspect of spiritual well-being impacted on quality of life, the religious well-being was insignificant. These results indicate that modern pilgrims feel that their happiness and health, rather than their religion directly affects their quality of life.     

Visitors’ diversified motivations and behavior – the case of the pilgrimage center in Krakow (Poland)

The article presents the visitors’ motivations and behavior at the pilgrimage center in Krakow (Poland). Here, the relation between these elements, i.e. whether their motivations have a correlation with what buildings they visit, is emphasized for the first time. The most important motivations for visits were religious and tourist ones, often rated equally high by the same respondents. They visited religious, cultural and tourist buildings and facilities. The stay of visitors with religious motivations was not limited to religious practices, but was extended by tourist behavior. Similarly, visitors with tourist motivations visited religious buildings and participated in religious practices. However, they visit tourist and cultural facilities more often. Additionally, the three groups of respondents were categorized and, on the basis of importance of the religious and tourist motivations, three types were distinguished, i.e. pilgrims, religious tourists and tourists. Their characteristic has been expanded by the analysis of their behavior. Nowadays, visitors’ motivations and behavior at pilgrimage centers include those typical for pilgrims and tourists in the traditional meaning. In addition to their religious function, these sites offer cultural and tourist facilities. The article highlights the dedifferentiation approach to visitors’ motivations and behavior, and in respect of the spatial organization of pilgrimage centers.     

Residents’ attitudes to tourists visiting their mosques: a case study from Istanbul,Turkey

Resident perception of tourism impacts has been one of the most studied areas of tourism. However, there is an extremely limited literature on resident perceptions of religious tourism development, especially in non-Western countries. This study investigated the attitudes of local residents toward tourists visiting four important mosques in Istanbul, Turkey and their perception of religious tourism development. All residents surveyed were practicing Muslims who prayed in a mosque at least once a year. We found that, in general, local residents are supportive of tourists visiting their mosque, but the level of support may differ based on the demographic and cultural background of the residents as well as on the number of tourists visiting the mosque.     

Intellectual Capital and Business Performance: What Structural Relationships Do They Have in Upper‐Upscale Hotels?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationships among intellectual capital (INCAP) dimensions and business performance (BUPER) in upper‐upscale hotels. This study classified INCAP into three dimensions: human capital (HUCAP), organizational capital (ORCAP) and customer capital (CUCAP). This study applied a structural equation modeling to investigate the proposed model and hypotheses. The results showed that HUCAP affects ORCAP and CUCAP and that ORCAP influences CUCAP. INCAP dimensions, with the exception of HUCAP, directly affect BUPER; however, HUCAP indirectly affects BUPER via ORCAP and CUCAP. This study helps upper‐upscale hotel managers identify relevant INCAP dimensions and their indicators to enhance BUPER. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourist experience of nature in contemporary China: a cultural divergence approach

The study of Chinese nature tourism is a relatively independent research realm which adopts a cultural perspective to study the tourist experience. Chinese tourists are regarded as being accustomed to experiencing nature through associating it with high culture such as landscape poetry and paintings, calligraphy, and so on, and the impacts of traditional popular culture are seldom addressed. Yet, for the majority of Chinese, popular culture has significant influences on their behavior. From a cultural divergence approach, this paper chooses Huangshan Mountain as a case to investigate the way common Chinese people experience nature, and it is found that cultural impacts are differentiated, since neither cultures nor tourist groups are homogeneous. Specifically, tourists can be classified into classicists and folklorists according to whether they have professional knowledge about the traditional arts. As the majority of Chinese are folklorists and are largely neglected in the research, they are the main interest of this study. High culture has a weak impact on folklorists because they lack professional knowledge to associate with nature through high culture. It is popular culture that strongly influences folklorists’ behaviors in their drawing farfetched analogies to nature and praying to nature.     

Tourism-induced mobilities and transformation of indigenous cultures: where is the Vedda community in Sri Lanka heading to?*

ABSTRACT

Mobilities that encapsulate global- and local-level movement of people, capital, information, material and intangible heritage across boundaries influence distant socio-cultural structures and processes linking them to evolving global networks. Indigenous cultural tourism is a catalyst of mobilities that expose the habitats of distant spaces. This paper examines the Vedda community’s concurrent context and indigenous tourism-informed mobilities’ contributions to transforming their cultural character through anthropological approaches. Data were collected through a series of interviews, overt observation and review of documents. Findings indicate that the Vedda are susceptible to the influence of mobilities within and without the indigenous tourism practices. Enforced restructuring and governance push Vedda towards novel livelihoods, while automobilities, image, communication and geopolitical mobilities challenge Vedda heritage and temporalities. Vedda lead a hybrid life; real one being modern and the other being pseudo attributed for tourist attraction. Indigenous cultural tourism causes losing the inherited meaning of their cultural values. The Vedda, with their anatomically proven Mesolithic inheritance, have drawn world’s attention to preserving and recognizing them before their unique culture is subsumed by the modern world. Findings indicate that tourism planners should realize the significance of distinctive Vedda heritage parallel to commercial gains of tourism.     

小交通量路网改造资金优化投资模型的研究

传统的以经济效益为目标函数的优化模型在一定程度上影响了路网改造项目决策的合理性.针对我国西部地区经济落后、交通量小、客货在途时间价值低的特性,采用以道路服务水平提高值作为目标函数,资金投入作为约束条件的优化模型,对西部路网改造资金进行了优化分配.该模型在湖北省恩施地区的路网改造资金优化中取得良好效果.     

Trip Cultural Activities and Tourism Expenditure in Emerging Urban‐cultural Destinations

Although tourism expenditure is determined by different factors, the literature has not analysed the extent to which trip cultural activities affect tourism expenditure in the destination. The focus of this paper is a microeconomic analysis performed in 14 emerging urban‐cultural destinations in Andalusia (Spain). The results confirm that there are activities related to cultural visits, attendance at events or gastronomic activities that determine tourism expenditure. These results guide the implementation of specific actions by the policy‐makers in these destinations aimed at increasing the economic impact of tourism, based on the creation of high value‐added tourism products to overcome their mere dependence on built heritage. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Encounters in the Fields – Tourism to the Battlefields of the Western Front

The First World War is now slipping beyond the realm of lived experience, yet it continues to wield a profound fascination over the British modern imagination. The Western Front in France and Belgium, which was the decisive theatre of operations for the Allied troops, has fashioned its own mythology and imagery and has secured a firm place in modern memory. Although the unremarkable topography of the region now visually betrays little of the momentous nature of the battles fought across its expanses, thousands of British visitors travel to the area throughout the year. This paper explores the ways in which tourists embarking on commercial coach tours engage with the battlefield landscape by examining contemporary tourist performance. It also considers the role of the tour guide in setting and directing the tourist encounter.     

Informal tourism entrepreneurs’ capital usage and conversion

ABSTRACT

This article examines informal entrepreneurs’ capital usage and conversion in the Thai tourism sector. On the Bourdieusian assumption that people perpetually transform tangible and intangible forms of capital, this study seeks to answer how informal tourism entrepreneurs transform intangible capital into tangible capital, and vice versa, at different stages of their development process. A visual dataset of 78 filmed interviews and of 426 photographs of informal entrepreneurs in three tourist-island destinations in Thailand was compiled and analysed using thematic qualitative analysis. The results show the importance of diversification of capital mix at informal entrepreneurs’ different development stages. Whereas cultural and symbolic capital are more salient for freelancers and small-size entrepreneurs, economic and social capital are more important for mid-size and large informal entrepreneurs. Furthermore, this study introduces dream capital as a new form of capital. Developing countries are recommended to introduce a policy on profiling informal tourism entrepreneurs so that the appropriate level of regulation can be applied in order to maintain or increase their benefits to society.     

Reflections on pilgrims' identity,role and interplay with the pilgrimage environment

This article critically analyses the evolving concepts of the identities and roles of pilgrims as well as how their interaction with the pilgrimage environment contributes to a better understanding of the religious journey in the postmodern society. The article concludes that the predominantly theoretical paradigm framing pilgrimage as a tourism phenomenon might be limited and downplays the complexity of the pilgrims' experience nowadays. Alternatively, it proposes to explore the experience in terms of the pilgrims' evolving identity and role based on two universes. The first explores the impact of exposure to different levels of mundane dimensions in everyday life; and the second unveils the possible influences of the Ego–Alter (pilgrim–pilgrimage environment) relationship on pilgrims' identities and roles. The theoretical review and discussion on these reflections develops an alternative experiential spectrum that looks at these identities and roles. This proposed spectrum is constructed by four pilgrim typecasts stretching from the ‘traditional pilgrim’ up to and including the ‘post-postmodern’ one. This spectrum allows a better understanding of the cohabitation of different pilgrim typecasts experiencing the pilgrimage environment simultaneously but with varying levels of religious engagement.