International university students’ travel risk perceptions: an exploratory study

Tourism researchers have identified the impact of perceived risk on destination choice and travel behaviour, and differences in general traveller risk perceptions based on both traveller and trip characteristics. However, such research has neglected the travel of international university students, despite the expansion and economic importance of this market. This paper outlines an exploratory study conducted on international university students studying at an Australian university. A total of 407 valid responses from the sample were achieved. Factor analysis identified four main risk factors which were labelled ‘human-induced risk’, ‘social–psychological risk’, ‘financial risk’, and ‘health risk’. Student origins were found to influence risk perceptions. In particular, Asian students perceived higher levels of human-induced and social–psychological risks compared with students primarily from America and Europe. Travel experience and repeat visitation significantly reduced risk factors apart from health risks. Financial risks were higher for students planning to travel in Australia compared with Asia and America. The implications for destination marketing are considered, and future research avenues based on the results are outlined.     

Workplace sexual harassment: exploring the experience of tour leaders in an Asian context

Sexual harassment is a prominent issue in the workplace; it presents a particular challenge with regard to this sensitive area in the Asian context due to the Asian cultural value. Tour leaders are one of the main components of the tourism industry workforce and are expensive to train in terms of both time/experience accumulation and financial investment. The potential risk of sexual harassment in the hospitality and tourism workplace remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate tour leaders’ experiences of sexual harassment at work and their awareness of the organizational polices/regulations relating to sexual harassment in the workplace. A survey was conducted on the tour leaders in Taiwan and results of the study suggested that gender sexual harassment and seductive harassment behaviour were found to occur more frequently than sexual bribery, sexual coercion and sexual assault. Asian tours leaders tend to adopt extremely passive coping strategies in dealing with sexual harassment incidents. More than half of the tour leaders in the current study were ‘unsure’ whether their affiliated travel agencies had a sexual harassment policy.     

The role of ICTs in everyday mobile lives

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are permeating modern lifestyles, shaping and colouring the undertaking of activities and travel. This article reports on a qualitative diary and interview study that explored the ways in which ICTs are being used by students aged 18-28 and part-time working mums. Study participants were selected on the basis of being ‘informal experts’ - reflecting their affinity for engagement with ICTs. Through an exploration of the interview findings, it becomes clear that relatively new technological devices and applications have quickly become embedded into the participants’ everyday travel and communications. Changes in social practice at the level of the individuals are not visibly dramatic, but at the same time, there is evidence of a cumulative influence of ICTs on their daily lives. Technologies are enabling the participants to better accommodate the uncertainties in activity and travel scheduling and yet also contributing to a ‘fluidity’ in time-space co-ordination of activities. They are also allowing the juggling of life roles in time and space leading to apparent fragmenting of activities. The article reflects upon the travel behaviour consequences of ICTs in their influence on everyday life.     

The travel behaviour intentions of young people in the context of climate change

This article examines the factors influencing the future travel behaviour intentions of young people (aged 11–18), with specific attention given to how climate change considerations affect these. Overall it is found that the participants’ travel behaviour intentions are dominated by a desire to drive and that their values relating to identity, self-image, and social recognition (at the expense of their environmental values), as well as their affective attitudes towards transport modes, are key influences on this. Although they are aware of climate change, the participants’ understanding of the link between transport and climate change was weak. At the same time, they illustrated an apathy towards climate change – in part due to the timing and intangibility of its associated impacts and their lack of self-efficacy with respect to tackling this issue. However, despite claiming that their current environmentally friendly travel behaviours (such as walking or cycling to school) are not influenced by the issue of climate change, a number are accepting of the idea of enforced travel behaviour change – away from use of the car, towards more ‘environmentally friendly’ modes. This acceptance was in part due to their belief that such action would remove the influence of the ‘social dilemma’, where their own efforts to tackle climate change may be rendered worthless by the inaction of others.     

International Mobility Biographies: A Means to Capture the Institutionalisation of Long-distance Travel?

An important aspect of current international travel and tourism is the degree to which they are becoming embedded as regularised and prescribed parts of the lives of individuals, families, and various organisations. At the individual and family levels, patterns of regularised international mobility often only manifest themselves on a time scale that far exceeds that of the reference periods normally used in long-distance travel surveys. Other methods are thus needed to address these issues. This paper discusses a particular method used in ongoing research into the international mobility of young Swedes. Students in the last year of upper secondary school are asked to formulate their international mobility biographies, i.e. all international trips conducted during their childhood and adolescence. The paper discusses the potential of such a ‘biographical approach’ to gathering information about various forms of the regularisation or institutionalisation of international mobility. The approach suggested is contextualised through a review of relevant biographically oriented concepts and approaches in the fields of mobility and tourism research. Methodological challenges involved in collecting information on travel behaviour retrospectively are then discussed, with reference to initial experience gained from research concerning the international mobility of young Swedes.     

Changing student mobility behaviour under financial crisis: Lessons from a case study in the Oporto University

This paper explores how the commuting patterns of university students have changed in the face of the financial crisis that has affected Portugal in 2008. In this research, we focus on the mobility behaviour of students from the Faculty of Engineering of Oporto University (FEUP). Based on two similar surveys carried out in 2006 and 2012, i.e. before and during times of financial crisis, and macrosocial data from the Portuguese Census and from the metropolitan public transport system, we provide detailed accounts of commuting patterns, including main motivations, barriers, and discuss the influence of considering different scales of analysis of the built-environment. The results show a general trend to reduce the students' costs of commuting by living with their families and using more often public transports. Our results also suggest an increasing level of inequality towards mobility, reinforced by austerity policies, which may lead to undesirable travel behaviours in the future. Although the overall evolution of students' travel behaviour points towards greater sustainability, the identified changes also suggest social-spatial injustices.     

Carer-employees’ travel behaviour: Assisted-transport in time and space

Assisted-transport demand is a daily caregiving task that affects carer-employee’s activity-travel behaviour; however, little is known about such behaviour and the types of constraints that impact carer-employee health. Combining the principles of Hägerstrand’s time geography and Mckie et al.’s caringscape terrain, this research develops a mixed-methods framework to classify the travel behaviour of carer-employees based on their travel experience and the space-time fixity of their weekly schedules. The mixed-methods framework consists of sentiment analysis and k-means clustering, both which are used to analyze 25 randomly selected participants within the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTAH). Participants were asked to reflect on their recorded one-week trips in a trip summary questionnaire. Sentiment analysis was used to thematically describe carer-employees’ travel behavior, whereas, k-means clustering generated travel behaviour profiles. “Time”, “pressure”, “parents”, “run”, and “long” were several thematic keywords describing the carer-employees’ travel behaviour. K-means clustering identified three relative types of carer-employees’ travel behaviours: 1) flexible, 2) between flexible and fixed, and; 3) fixed. These results provide critical information for the establishment of custom transport programs, such as maximum monthly telecommuting allotment; such programs are useful for employers to use in order to alleviate assisted-transport demand on their employees.     

Policy aspects of driver support systems implementation: results of an international Delphi study

Driver support systems are generally assumed to contribute to public traffic goals. However, much uncertainty exists about their future: technology development, market introduction and impacts on driver and traffic behaviour. An international Delphi study, collecting expert opinions on these issues, is describe this paper. In three rounds opinions were collected from 50 experts from USA, Japan and Europe. The article focuses on market introduction, driver behaviour, general barriers and policy options.     

“Cycling was never so easy!” An analysis of e-bike commuters' motives,travel behaviour and experiences using GPS-tracking and interviews

The market for electrically-assisted cycling is growing fast. When substituting motorized travel, it could play an important role in the development of sustainable transport systems. This study aimed to assess the potential of e-bikes for low-carbon commuting by analysing e-bike commuters' motives, travel behaviour and experiences. We GPS-tracked outdoor movements of 24 e-bike users in the Netherlands for two weeks and used their mapped travel behaviour as input for follow-up in-depth interviews. Most participants commuted by e-bike, alternated with car use. E-bike use was highest in work-related, single-destination journeys. It gave participants the benefits of conventional cycling over motorized transport (physical, outdoor activity) while mitigating relative disadvantages (longer travel time, increased effort). The positive experience of e-bike use explained the tolerance for longer trip durations compared to other modes of transportation. Participants were inclined to make detours in order to access more enjoyable routes. Results demonstrate that e-bikes can substitute motorized commuting modes on distances perceived to be too long to cover by regular bike, and stress the importance of positive experience in e-bike commuting. This provides impetus for future actions to encourage commuting by e-bike.     

Determinants of the effectiveness of travel feedback programs—a review of communicative mobility management measures for changing travel behaviour in Japan

This paper reviews the literature on travel feedback programs (TFPs). These constitute soft measures designed to change travel behaviour, mainly from automobile to non-automobile travel, in mobility management. We classified TFPs according to place, technique, procedure, and communication media, and reviewed the effectiveness of 10 TFPs in Japan. We found that TFPs in Japan reduced CO₂ emissions by about 19% and car use by about 18%, while increasing the use of public transport by about 50%. In addition, we found that TFP effectiveness increased when participants were asked to make behavioural plans to change their travel behaviour.     

Internet‐enabled Tourism Entrepreneurs. International Entrepreneurial Values Elicited through Repertory Test and Laddering Analysis

Although the tourism industry has been dramatically altered due to the Internet, there has been limited research published about international entrepreneurial values and Internet use in tourism firms. The findings of this study point to a relationship between the values of Internet‐enabled international entrepreneurs in small‐sized to medium‐sized enterprises and the inclination of the firm to develop and initiate international activity. The findings of this study suggest that Internet‐enabled tourism entrepreneurs share similar construct values. Two effective but underutilized qualitative methods were used in this study. The first method, repertory test, is an efficient technique for exploring constructs in decision making; the second method, laddering analysis, facilitates understanding of the perceived consequences and personal values guiding behaviour. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

A critical review of contemporary Greek shipping policy 1981–1996

It has been argued that Greek shipping policy, during the whole post-war period, had mainly among its objectives the maximisation of the foreign exchange inflow from shipping. This objective has been achieved in the sense that shipping foreign exchange inflow was increasing up to and including 1981. For reasons explained, on board Greek flagged vessels foreign crews were allowed to work during the post-war period, a fact that has resulted — as shown by our research — in a foreign exchange payment of US$406 million per year. Naturally, foreign crews remit their wages to their countries. Fortunately, however, for Greek shipowners it was only in 1983 — under the pressure of the then acute shipping crisis — that Greek Government legislated that foreign crews should be paid in future not according to Greek crew wages but in accordance with the wages prevailing at their countries. Our research has shown that this policy measure benefited Greek shipping with US$321.4 million per year. Our analysis covers also further policy measures which constitute Greek shipping policy during the last 15 years. The cause of this article was to see a rather small economic nation like Greece taking policy measures for a giant (first world position) international offshore sector like its commercial shipping.     

Students' travel behaviour: a cross‐cultural comparison of UK and China

This paper compares the travel behaviour and attitudes of two different nationalities of undergraduate students from the United Kingdom and China. The survey did find some similarities between the two. Both groups enjoyed beach holidays, and placed importance on having fun and relaxing after their studies. Both were motivated to discover somewhere new and both preferred to eat the local food of the destination. In other ways, the two groups showed significant differences. The Chinese students thought it more important to see the famous sights and learn about other cultures and history, while the British were more concerned to have fun, to socialise and enjoy the challenges of outdoor adventure. These differences were found to exist in both male and female groups. The paper discusses the extent to which these differences could be explained by cultural factors as opposed to market factors or the students' previous experience in their travel career. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social tourism programmes for the senior market: a benefit segmentation analysis

The senior market has gained increasing interest from the tourism industry, mainly because of its considerable size and time flexibility. However, seniors are also a group facing many constraints to participating in tourism, which has led some countries to promote social tourism programmes for this market. However, little is known about the success of these programmes, while research showing the benefits derived by participants would be useful to continuously improve these initiatives. This paper presents a segmentation analysis of senior participants in a Portuguese social tourism programme, based on benefits derived. A questionnaire-based survey was undertaken, yielding a total of 848 valid responses, which were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis. Three clusters emerged: the least benefitted, the most benefitted and active and the highly benefitted and locally socializing seniors. The clusters were compared regarding socio-demographic profile, travel behaviour, satisfaction and loyalty. Several statistically significant differences among the clusters were observable, providing relevant inputs for managing social tourism programmes for this market.     

The self‐presentation and self‐development of serious wildlife tourists

The notion of self‐concept and choice of tourism products has yet to be applied to wildlife tourism. The question of how consumers perceive themselves is considered fundamental to understanding purchase and consumption behaviours. This ethnographic study is based upon ‘serious’ wildlife tourism participants, for whom studying fauna and flora is the primary motivation for travel. The findings demonstrate how the ‘culture’ of ‘serious’ wildlife tourism is made up of individuals who differentiate themselves from other tourists in terms of dress, behaviour, development of skills, equipment and intellectual capital, illustrated by their desire to scope, identify and photograph wildlife. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global Heritage and Local Problems: Some Examples from Indonesia

This article examines what happens to those who live in and around monuments as a result of World Heritage designation. Using the examples of Borobudur and Prambanan in Indonesia as study sites, it is argued that the values that local people attach to heritage are often different from, although not necessarily less important than, the values ascribed by international agencies, government officials, tourism developers and others. However, their perspectives are often not adequately represented or respected by other participants in the planning and management of sites, to the detriment of both the plans and the people. The tendency to adopt top-down, rational comprehensive planning procedures has resulted in the disenfranchisement of local people, giving greater prominence to expressions of national, 'official' culture and nationalism at the expense of local culture. It has tended to freeze sites and displace human activities, effectively excluding local people from their own heritage.     

Predicting the intentions of tourism major students in a Korean University to acquire foreign language skills

The theory of planned behaviour was used to examine intentions of Korean tourism major students to acquire foreign language skills (FLS) and uncover the beliefs that contribute to that intention. Belief elicitation and belief measurement questionnaires were collected from 38 and 242 students at Woosong University in November and December 2010. Attitudes and subjective norms were found to be significant contributors to the sample students' intention to acquire FLS. Favourable attitudes and perceived social pressure should be maintained by targeting the behavioural beliefs and normative beliefs to heighten the intention level.     

Accessibility and attitudinal barriers encountered by Chinese travellers with physical disabilities

The China travel industry is growing rapidly and is expected to grow even more in the next 15 years. Another segment of the population that is increasing is individuals with physical disabilities. China has enacted several laws to enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and to make travel more accessible. Although individuals with physical disabilities travel less than those without disabilities, the potential market is expanding. If travellers with physical disabilities encounter few barriers during their travels, they may travel even more in the future. This study examined four tourism industry sectors in China in terms of the accessibility and attitudinal barriers that participants with physical disabilities encountered. The four sectors were transportation, accommodations, eating–drinking establishments and attractions. Furthermore, comparisons were conducted on the participants' functioning level, income and types of mobility assistive devices they used. Results suggested that participants' functioning level was an appropriate indicator of the amount of barriers they encountered while travelling. Conversely, the amount of barriers encountered by the participants was not predicated by their income or the type of devices they used. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travel behavior of university students who live on campus: A case study of a rural university in Asia

With their irregular class schedules and considerable freedom in the campus environment, university students are an example of a social group that tends to have complex and unique travel behavior. This study examined travel patterns of 130 students who study and live on campus in a rural university of Thailand. All survey participants completed a travel diary for seven consecutive days in a typical school week. Other than overall travel patterns, such as trip generation, mode split, distance traveled, and travel time, this study also investigated the differences in traffic patterns of four student groups, categorized by their gender and whether they own a private vehicle or not. It was found that students of both genders appeared to have similar travel patterns in all aspects. Whether they own a private vehicle does not appear to impact daily trip generation nor the total distance traveled of the students, but it does have an effect on the travel modes used by students. Those students who own a private vehicle mostly rely on driving the vehicle, while those who do not own a vehicle rely on three modes of travel: primarily being a passenger on or in a friend’s private vehicle, and to a lesser extent, driving a friend’s vehicle, and taking a bus (the only form of public transport on the campus). The results indicate a high social interdependency among university students, which makes the development of a model to simulate travel behavior of university students a complicated task.