Tourism competitiveness index of the Asia-Pacific region through consistency analysis

The world’s economy shifts to a more competitive environment as globalization expands and countries have to adjust by making decisions to improve their competitiveness in all sectors. The Travel and Tourism Report, a useful tool facilitating policy-making and business decisions, allows entities to envision their ranking in the face of the travel and tourism through the creation of a competitiveness index. Focusing on Asia and the Pacific, this paper intends to investigate internal consistency of the constructs based on data analysis techniques such as correlation and reliability, essentials to broader acceptance of the index. The results indicate that high linear association between index and pillars leads ultimately to good level of consistency and highlight the lack of relationship between overall consistency and inter-class consistency. It is suggested to pay close attention to unidimensionality of constructs and inter-relation between variables while building an indicator system as it increases its reliability.     

Extending tourism competitiveness to human development

This study presents the Tourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis, anchored on a dynamic framework, and unifying the competitiveness theory with human development. The hypothesis rests on the recursive nature between tourism competitiveness and human development. The relationship was tested through a mixed-effect regression model in ten South American countries. The results suggest mutual reinforcement links mediated by the human development dimensions, especially health. The study also designed a typology model identifying four groups of countries that revealed distinct, non-linear behavioral patterns. Theoretical and managerial implications centered on the relevance of resource use, public allocation choices toward human development sectors, and the required sequencing to promote the mutual reinforcement nature embedded in the Tourism Competitiveness Theory Hypothesis.     

Evaluating the Competitiveness of the Tourism Industry in Cambodia: Self-assessment from Professionals

The annual tourism growth rate in Cambodia is among the highest in the world; however, tourist industry impact on Cambodian's economy is quite low. The purpose of our study is to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the Cambodian tourism market so that a framework can be established to help the country's policy-makers formulate strategies to use its resources effectively to create sustainable tourism competitiveness. This study used the perspective of tourism experts in the industry and Ministry of Tourism in Cambodia, and academia in the tourism field to evaluate Cambodian tourism competitiveness relative to its major competitors in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) based on nine categories: endowed resources, created resources, supporting factors, destination management, situational conditions, demand condition, technology, openness and market performance indicators benchmarked from previous research. The results showed that Cambodia has a lot of endowed resources, but lacks supporting resources and factors to achieve tourism competitiveness.     

Is sustainable tourism an obstacle to the economic performance of the tourism industry? Evidence from an international empirical study

Sustainability has become an important strategic objective for tourism destinations worldwide. All analytical tourism competitiveness models make direct or indirect positive references to sustainability. It is accepted that sustainable tourism can reduce resource costs and help create market differentiation. Nevertheless, it has traditionally been considered that, short term, sustainability measures can reduce profitability and compromise competitiveness. Debates on the progress, implications, and practicality of sustainable tourism remain open. The relationship between economic sustainability, and environmental and sociocultural sustainability, is a central but largely unresearched area for tourism scholars, especially at the macro level. This study explores that difficult but essential area, using the World Economic Forum's empirical evidence from 128 countries, backed by the economic data search tool of the World Travel & Tourism Council. It demonstrates that progress in tourism sustainability does not affect a country's main economic tourism indicators in the short term, and does not constrain profitability and competitiveness. It also finds that sustainable tourism is not a luxury that only rich countries can afford, nor should it prevent development and perpetuate poverty in developing countries. An effective marketing and communication program about sustainable tourism is, however, found to be essential for economic success.     

The Study of Post-disaster Tourism Recovery and Reconstruction Based on Tourist Motivations: The Case of Jiuzhaigou after “5·12” Wenchuan Earthquake

旅游业灾后恢复重建是灾区经济社会恢复重建的重要“突破口”,尤其在旅游业作为主导产业或支柱产业的地区;而理解灾区游客旅游动机有利于旅游业灾后恢复重建管理战略的制定.该研究以遭受“5·12”汶川地震影响的九寨沟为例,运用结构方程模型,引入“灾害事件引发的旅游动机”,对灾区国内游客的多种旅游动机交互作用关系进行分析,证实了灾区旅游业恢复重建管理中:①恢复重建的关键内容是“核心旅游吸引物与安全”;②恢复重建的重点区域是灾区内已有高知名度的旅游地或在灾害事件中成为全球关注焦点的地区;③对目的地优质旅游接待服务意象的修复或构建能够恢复和提升灾区的旅游市场竞争力;④灾后旅游业市场营销需要重新区分客源市场并进行定位;⑤国民对灾区的爱国情怀可能会为目的地带来更多的国内旅游流,但需要营造“到灾区旅游是对灾区恢复重建最大援助”的社会氛围.     

Building composite indicators in tourism studies: Measurements and applications in tourism destination competitiveness

Composite indicators are useful tools to synthesize and monitor multidimensional phenomena. The aim of this paper is twofold: to offer the methodological foundations to build composite indicators in tourism and to evaluate a set of currently available composite indicators. Tourism destination competitiveness indicators constitute the object of this contribution. Their definitions, concepts and measures are analyzed and their evaluation is performed through the application of an original protocol. The results highlight that several methodological issues still surround the measurement of destinations competitiveness indicators. This paper provides tourism scholars and practitioners with a set of statistical guidelines to build composite indicators and with an operative scheme to assess indicators' effectiveness in empirical evaluations.     

基于三维分类法的旅游信息分类体系与编码初探

随着国民收入的增长、消费理念的转变以及闲暇时间的增多,旅游业飞速发展,逐渐成为国家战略性支柱产业,为其提供理论、技术、信息支撑的旅游信息科学呼之欲出。进行旅游信息分类体系与编码研究是旅游信息科学理论的重要研究内容,同时为旅游管理、规划决策、旅游信息平台搭建提供技术与信息支持。文章基于旅游三体、旅游六要素、需求层次、协同、可持续发展和信息组织六大理论,结合目前旅游业与相关产业融合发展态势,全面系统地提取了各类旅游信息;采用时间、空间、属性三维分类方法,建立了旅游信息三维立体分类模型,构建了旅游信息五级分类体系基本框架;应用“空间维＋时间维＋属性维”信息编码结构,确定了旅游信息编码的3段37位代码;通过陕西省旅游信息管理数据库系统的实践验证,旅游信息分类体系和编码系统性强,完整性高,操作便捷,可为旅游信息科学的理论研究及实践应用提供借鉴。     

Perceived Impact of a Naval Base on a Tourism Destination

Perceptions toward tourism development have been explicitly and extensively investigated within the tourism literature. However, there is little study of perceptions toward non-tourism development (NTD) in tourist destinations. NTD in a tourist destination may be unavoidable, because as tourism grows, the destination may need more facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs of tourists and residents. Alternatively, the NTD may not enhance tourism at all, but rather compete for space and human, financial and political resources. The objective of this study is to reveal how residents of a small tourism-oriented island, JeJu Island in South Korea, would perceive NTD and examine ramifications of a naval base for tourism preferences. Residents were clustered into three groups based on their preferences for tourism activity, Tourism Supporters, Tourism Neutrals, and Tourism Opponents. Study results revealed that the three groups differed among socio-demographic variables as well as perceived cultural and local infrastructure impacts of NTD.     

The destination competitiveness of Kinmen's tourism industry: exploring the interrelationships between tourist perceptions,service performance,customer satisfaction and sustainable tourism

Based upon an empirical investigation, the study draws upon the responses of 1623 tourists in Kinmen to explore the notion of destination competitiveness and how it is related to customer satisfaction with tourists’ perceptions, service performance and destination competitiveness. It also considers the question of destination competitiveness and sustainable tourism development. Variables such as tourists’ pre-visit perceptions, post-visit satisfaction toward destination attractions and resources, willingness to recommend and revisit, and competitiveness with foreign destinations are tested. The results of the study suggest that there is no correlation between tourists’ overall satisfaction and destination competitiveness. Implications of the study outcome illustrate that a destination's unique tourism characteristics can be the most important variables for destination competitiveness. In Kinmen's case, battlefields, historic relics, beautiful scenery and travel security gave it a competitive edge, despite high prices. In addition, developing the destination's brand image was found to be critical for tourism marketers and authorities in the context of increasingly global tourism competition.     

Travel and Tourism Education in Thailand

SUMMARY

The main principles of the tourism policy as established by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports during 2003–2006 is to develop Thailand to be Tourism Capital of Asia within 3 years starting from 2004 to 2006. To achieve the ambitious government target, the success of any tourism development strategy will be determined to a large extent by human resources, which can deliver efficient, high quality services. The travel and tourism education in Thailand at an undergraduate level was offered in the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Chulalongkorn University in 1955 under the Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major field of study in “Travel Management.” Prince of Songkla University (PSU) brought the concept of community college from the U.S.A. to put into action by setting up Phuket Community College by offering 2-year diploma program in Hotel and Tourism Management to meet the staff requirement of tourism industry in Phuket in 1977. The findings of 'Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees in Tourism and Hospitality Studies in Thailand: The Current Situations, Problems and Future Development' studied by Chaisawat (1997) and Chaisawat (2000) found that the situation of the universities/institutes that offered programs in hospitality and tourism had changed with a lot of quantity improvement in terms of institutions, number of staff, and number of input/output students as well as research projects. But the very important issues that relate directly to the quality of graduates, problems and constraints running in the hospitality/tourism programs still existed. The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) (2004) did an in-depth study of the labour force situation among middle- and high-level personnel within the tourism industry in order to increase productivity and capability of the national competitiveness. Chaisawat and Boonchu (2005) did another study on Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees in tourism and hospitality studies in Thailand in 2003. Both studies also found that the quantity of graduates from the educational institutions was sufficiently to serve the demand of the industry. However, there were problems in terms of quality since graduates' qualifications were not up to the standards required by the employers. Finally the paper recommended that Thailand should be positioned as a centre for hospitality and tourism studies and training, locating at major tourism destinations. In terms of strategic implementation of tourism development, tourism educations and training institutions should play the catalyst and coordinating roles with the stakeholders in each region or destination.     

A Review of Personality Research in the Tourism and Hospitality Context

Most commentators agree that human relations are central to tourism and hospitality. Different personalities thus display different reactions to the same task. This article provides an overview of prior studies on personality in the context of tourism and hospitality. Using EBSCOHost's Hospitality & Tourism Index, the largest online database for tourism and hospitality research, we analyzed published articles on the topic. Broadly speaking, prior studies can be grouped into the seven dimensions of disposal, biological, intrapsychic, cognitive, social, and adjustment in personality research, plus brand personality. Interestingly, our results show although the Internet has become one of the major marketing channels for hospitality and tourism, only a small number of published articles are related to consumers' online behavior. We thus propose that this area be further researched in the future.     

The social-ecological status of small islands: An evaluation of island tourism destination management in Indonesia

A social-ecological system approach has been applied to measure the complexity of sustainable tourism development on small islands. In general, tourism development and ecosystem management have been shown to be relatively unbalanced. Tourism development attempts have not yet been accompanied by environmental management efforts. In this paper, the social-ecological status is measured to improve the sustainable development mechanism with appropriate indicators. Using the Gili Matra Islands as a case study, the social-ecological status of tourism in the region was examined using the social-ecological status index (SESI), a coupling index of the coastal waters quality index (CWQI), the coordination degree model (CCDM) and the index of information entropy weight (IEW) as tools for measuring and evaluating the social-ecological status and sustainable development of small island tourism.     

The stereotyping of tourism management students in a business school setting

Previous research has shown that students in business schools hold stereotypes concerning their peers who are undertaking different specializations. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, no research to date has investigated the stereotyping of tourism management students by other business students. The present study seeks to fill this research gap. The insights are important because negative perceptions exacerbate the challenge of attracting high-quality prospects for tourism degree programs and of producing graduates who enjoy favorable recognition by their peers and by industry. Tourism management students are future leaders who are critical to the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism sector. In-depth interviews revealed three stereotyping themes: personality attribution, legitimacy, and professionalism. The study concludes by discussing potential stereotype-reducing strategies.     

温泉旅游经济效益四圈层结构研究——以辽宁省弓长岭温泉为例

旅游经济学家认为,旅游可以带来直接经济效益和间接经济效益.在温泉旅游研究中,由于所消耗的温泉水是可以准确度量的,如果仅坚持直接效益与间接效益二分法,势必忽视温泉资源与各种收入的关联.本论文提出了温泉旅游经济效益具有四圈层结构,并给出了具有资源可持续利用意义的吨水效益指标.     

Developing a Tourism Destination Monitoring System: A Case of the Hawaii Tourism Dashboard

To develop and manage a tourism destination sustainably, it is important for all stakeholders to understand the interrelated tourism dimensions and activities within a destination. One way of determining the conditions of a destination's “health” is to establish a process by which existing data on various aspects of a destination can be assessed. For this purpose, this paper presents the development processes of the Hawaii Tourism Dashboard (HTD), an online information clearinghouse for multiple stakeholders and a diagnostic tool to monitor the conditions of Hawaii's tourism. As a joint effort between the industry and academia, it is hoped that the HTD can play an important role in increasing public awareness about tourism's multifaceted characteristics and in assisting decision-making and policy development by the government and the industry.     

城市旅游与城市协调发展水平评价及其影响因素分析——以河南省为例

旅游业已成为提升城市综合实力的重要支撑,探究城市旅游与城市协调发展水平及其影响因素,对增强城市旅游功能、提高城市旅游竞争力具有重要价值。本文以河南省为例,构建城市旅游与城市协调发展水平评价指标体系,并采用TOPSIS法进行评价。研究结果表明：2002—2019年,河南省城市旅游与城市协调发展水平值的变化总体呈现递增态势,伴有较小波动。从城市层面而言,郑州、洛阳、开封是城市旅游与城市协调发展水平较高的城市,而西部省界沿线的灵宝、济源、沁阳、辉县等地城市旅游与城市协调发展水平相对较低。依据城市旅游与城市协调发展测评结果,可将河南省城市划分为高度协调型、中度协调型、低度协调型和微度协调型。根据指标性质可将城市旅游与城市协调发展的影响因素归纳为城市环境建设、城市基础设施投资规模、城市经济政策支持力度、城市社会发展环境,其对两者间协调发展影响的重要性程度依次降低。     

The medical tourism index: Scale development and validation

Medical tourism is an estimated $100 billion dollar industry. Despite the increasing number of people, companies and countries involved in medical tourism, we know very little about the key drivers and how countries are perceived as medical tourism destinations. The purpose of this paper is to present the Medical Tourism Index, a new type of country-based performance measure to assess the attractiveness of a country as a medical tourist destination. We followed a rigorous multi-steps scale development procedure by using four empirical studies based on 4995 respondents. The MTI is a multidimensional construct with 4 dimensions (country, tourism, medical costs, medical facility and services) with 34 underlying items. Our results show the MTI allows to measure meaningful differences between countries, not only on an aggregated level but also on each sub-indexes. It provides a useful tool for the various stakeholders to measure and manage their medical tourism destination brand.     

俄罗斯环贝加尔湖滑雪旅游区竞争力评价研究

俄罗斯是冰雪运动大国,滑雪旅游活动在俄罗斯拥有悠久的历史。俄罗斯的环贝加尔湖地域区位优势明显,自然资源丰富多样,地貌类型独特,滑雪旅游已经成为该区域冬季最具吸引力的旅游项目。本文以俄罗斯环贝加尔湖五大滑雪旅游区为研究对象,建立冰雪旅游区综合竞争力评价指标体系及定量评估模型,科学评估环贝加尔湖冰雪旅游区综合竞争力水平。研究发现：（1）索博利纳亚（Соболиная）滑雪旅游区的竞争力优良,比奇亚（Бычья）和伊斯特兰（Истлэнд）滑雪旅游区竞争力中等,达万（Даван）和马迈（Мамай）滑雪旅游区竞争力薄弱,区域自然资源和基础设施建设是影响综合竞争力评价水平的关键要素;（2）根据评估结果提出以索博利纳亚滑雪旅游区为核心,打造国际绿色、低碳冰雪旅游示范区及中蒙俄经济走廊国际冰雪旅游特区等发展对策。研究结论可为环贝加尔湖冰雪旅游产业综合竞争力提升和区域冰雪旅游高质量发展提供决策依据,为中国冰雪旅游发展模式完善和中俄冰雪旅游产业跨境国际合作提供借鉴参考和科技支撑。     

Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan

Abstract

Post-disaster tourism is often perceived as a form of Dark Tourism associated with death, loss and destruction. In Japan, the term Dark Tourism has gained prominence following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. This paper focuses on a community-led approach to post-disaster tourism development, initiated in the coastal area of Minamisanriku and labelled by the locals Blue Tourism. From its inception Blue Tourism incorporated non-dark activities which concentrated on the beauty of nature, social and environmental sustainability and the development of an enriched tourist experience. Its co-creational ethos helped transform some of the negative narratives of loss associated with Dark Tourism into positive accounts of communal renewal and hope. The paper highlights the limitations of Dark Tourism to post-disaster recovery and contributes new insights to the community-based tourism literature. We argue that Blue Tourism is not a type of Dark Tourism but a form of resilience which builds around local place-based practices and traditional community knowledge. Consequently, it is capable of achieving sustainable disaster recovery and tourist satisfaction simultaneously.     

How does culture influence a Country's travel and tourism competitiveness? A longitudinal frontier study on 39 countries

The greater competitiveness of a firm improves the chances of its success. Likewise, countries are constantly attempting to improve their travel and tourism competitiveness to attract global tourists. In this study, we present a theoretical framework linking the culture of a country and its travel and tourism competitiveness. We adopted the theoretical foundation of global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural values and practices to examine the panel effects of culture on competitiveness. We conducted a longitudinal study by using secondary data of 39 countries from 2011 to 2021. Results show that the culture of a country influence its travel and tourism competitiveness. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence by performing longitudinal frontier analysis to determine which GLOBE model, that is, cultural practices or cultural values, is appropriate for future studies. Findings of this longitudinal study contribute to the novel understanding of competitiveness and culture.