The classification of heritage tourists: a case of Hue City,Vietnam

Heritage, especially with World Heritage status, is increasingly becoming the main attraction of many tourist destinations. Heritage tourism is also the major tourism product in Hue city, Vietnam. Hitherto, there are almost no official statistics and research pertaining to heritage tourism as well as heritage tourists in Hue. This study aims at providing a preliminary profile of heritage tourists to Hue city and identifying different categories of heritage tourists, with a special focus on package tourists. The international heritage tourists' profile seems to be similar to official statistics of international arrivals, indicating almost no difference in socio-demographic profile between heritage tourists and general tourists in the context of Hue. Various significant differences were found between international and domestic tourists in terms of tourist characteristics, trip profile and the perception of Hue. Adopting McKercher's [(2002) Towards a classification of cultural tourists. International Journal of Tourism Research, 4, 29–38] cultural tourist classification, five categories of heritage tourists were identified, including purposeful heritage tourists, sightseeing heritage tourists, casual heritage tourists, incidental heritage tourists and serendipitous heritage tourists. Among these, sightseeing heritage tourists and purposeful heritage tourists were dominant.     

饮食旅游动机对游客满意度和行为意向的影响研究

饮食旅游是近年来发展最快的旅游类型之一,但有关游客动机和行为的研究却很少.文章构建结构方程模型,剖析饮食旅游的推动和拉动动机要素,明确旅游动机对游客满意度和行为意向的作用机制.在澳门进行问卷调查获得368个有效样本后,检验假设模型,发现饮食旅游的推动动机为休闲放松、饮食猎奇和文化探索,拉动动机包括饮食产品和配套服务;休闲放松、文化探索和饮食产品对满意度有正向影响,饮食猎奇要素对行为意向有正向影响.文章从供求两方面明确了饮食旅游的参与原因及其后续效应,为发展饮食旅游、提升游客满意度和忠诚度提供了指导.     

Eudaimonic tourist experiences: the case of flamenco

In recent years, participation in flamenco, as a cultural art form, has gained momentum within Spain and internationally. Engagement in flamenco music and dance workshops in Spain has also become an increasingly significant tourism activity. Despite this trend, little research has looked into the nature of leisure experiences of flamenco. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by exploring how tourists experience flamenco music and dance courses in the city of Seville. Through a grounded theory research strategy in which in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 participants, the study reveals that four key themes characterise tourists’ experiences of flamenco. These are: the social and physical environment, which refers to physical flamenco spaces in Seville and tourists’ interactions with instructors and peers; secondly, the experience of challenge, characterised by hardship and sacrifice in the pursuit of flamenco; thirdly, activation of the sensual body or a sense of arousal; and lastly, an intrinsic and deep desire for self-discovery. The study demonstrates that the flamenco tourist experience strongly contributes to self-realisation and fulfilment of those who engage in it, or in other words, that the flamenco tourist experience is eudaimonic in character. The interview findings were linked to literature on self-realisation, self-fulfilment, true self, stress-related growth and related eudaimonic themes. Eudaimonia, or a sense of personal expressiveness and self-realisation, has not been previously established in this context. Therefore, the research findings provide a theoretical understanding of what a eudaimonic tourist experience of dance and music may look like.     

Forms of body usage in tourists’ experiences of flamenco

This study explores the role of the human body in tourism and focuses on cultural tourists’ experiences of flamenco dance and music in Seville, Spain. It is suggested that the tourists who fully engage in flamenco activities use their bodies towards different ends. First, through disciplined practice, tourists seek to remedy a lack of self-esteem. Second, bodies are used in order to fulfill the need for self-expression and self-exploration. Third, tourists use flamenco as a means to differentiate themselves from other social groups, and bodies are used to contest established social structures. These findings point to the centrality of the body in understanding tourists’ practices and the construction of embodied identities.     

Domestic tourists to Elmina Castle,Ghana: motivation,tourism impacts,place attachment,and satisfaction

Abstract

Current research on dark tourism lacks an in-depth investigation of the relationships between the various psychological factors that influence tourist satisfaction. Using the cognitive-affective-behavior system, this paper evaluates a theoretical model that postulates relationships between four constructs, namely: motivation, perceptions of tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction. The study extends the tourism literature on cultural sustainability by showing the psychological connections of domestic tourists to a dark heritage site, and the implications for perceptions of tourism impacts on this heritage. Based on a sample of 414 domestic tourists at a dark heritage site in Elmina, Ghana, PLS-SEM confirmed several inter-relationships among the four constructs. Motivation had a positive relationship with perceptions of positive and negative tourism impacts, suggesting that the tourists who were more motivated to visit the site for cultural/learning experiences were also more inclined to perceive both positive and negative tourism impacts. Implications for dark tourism and how heritage site management can influence tourists’ perceptions of impacts are offered.     

The cultural tourism potential of a fashion-related exhibition – the case of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty held at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London attracted a total number of 493,043 visitors from both the UK and overseas, making it one of the most visited exhibitions throughout the museum’s history. Much of the exhibition’s popularity was drawn from the late designer’s fame, reputation, and exceptional technique in design and clothing construction. The V&A museum also having the title as the greatest Museum of decorative arts and design, and founded during the late Victorian era, possesses heritage value that may also have played a role in attracting visitors to the Savage Beauty exhibition. Findings suggest that Savage Beauty appeals more on the local cultural tourism context for its connection to London. The V&A’s heritage value as Grade I listed may be of minimal interest to tourists; however, visitor interest in London and the number of great museums in the city serves well enough to attract and enrich cultural awareness of potential tourists both local and international. Special exhibitions such as Savage Beauty may also prove effective in attracting tourists, leading to increasing cultural tourism once tourists learn more about London’s culture, which includes fashion, but only in a derivative sense.     

A Study of Authenticity in Traditional Korean Folk Villages

The purpose of this study is to examine the structural relations among tourist motivation, the perception of authenticity, and tourist satisfaction. Structural equation model (SEM) analysis was performed to the study model. It is confirmed that study concepts have significant relations through multiple regression analysis (MRA). The suggestions of this study are as follows. First, the authenticity is perceived through the direct tour activities consisting of the tourist's experiences on the basis of the results of the preceding studies, and it is an important factor of cultural tourism activities. Second, cultural tourism sites including traditional folk villages are to choose city dwellers, club members who like adventure and exploration, and student groups as target markets. Third, tourists are to be made to have various historical and cultural experiences by realistic and lively compositions of traditional culture.     

How Cultural Differences Cause Dimensions of Tourism Satisfaction

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual model of the relationship between different cultural values and how they influence consumer satisfaction in the tourism industry. It is hypothesized that cultural differences manifest themselves in different levels of importance being placed upon different aspects of service, and the differences between the levels of importance and the actual service received cause differences in the levels of satisfaction. These hypotheses are tested using 269 independent samples of levels of importance and 411 independent samples of satisfaction of tourists from four cultural groups (Australian, USA/Canadian, Japanese, Mandarin speakers) who visited Melbourne, Australia in the period May-September, 1996. The analysis develops dimensions of importance and satisfaction separately for each cultural grouping, and uses structural equation modeling (Amos 3.6) to develop the causal model measuring the way in which importance of service dimensions cause dimensions of satisfaction. Conclusions from the analysis show little evidence of a causal relationship between importance of service quality attributes and satisfaction. However, significant differences are found between cultures for different levels of satisfaction resulting indirectly from differences in the importance and actual levels of service received.

The implications for cultural differences affecting tourism satisfaction are discussed.     

国外游客对世界文化遗产苏州园林的形象认知研究——基于自然语言处理的不同粒度分析

世界遗产地是文化传播的重要窗口,挖掘国外游客的世界遗产目的地形象认知,有助于实现旅游的跨文化交流功能和目的地的国际化发展。本文以世界文化遗产苏州园林为案例地,通过获取TripAdvisor网站的评论数据,从主题词、语义网络、句子情感等粒度角度,展开国外游客对世界文化遗产苏州园林的形象认知研究。结果表明：（1）国外游客对世界文化遗产的认知包括整体形象、语义网络形象和情感形象3个维度,遗产景区的跨文化交流得到实现,积极情感占据主导,表达了国外游客对苏州园林的喜爱和满意程度。（2）国外游客主要关注到世界文化遗产的景观、体验、空间符号和服务等方面,同时关注敏感度存在差异,呈现出体验>景观>服务>空间符号的特征。（3）核心吸引物差异会导致国外游客对世界文化遗产构建的认知网络差异。     

野生动物观赏旅游者的敬畏感体验：基于斯里兰卡大象旅游的实证研究

野生动物观赏旅游在唤起敬畏感方面有着巨大潜力,值得研究者多加重视。本研究以斯里兰卡大象旅游为例,试图对敬畏感所包含的4个维度（时间感、联通、浩瀚和适应）进行描述性分析,并对具有不同人口统计学特征或旅游行为特征以及到访不同野生动物生境下的旅游者所获得的敬畏感差异进行检验。采用独立样本T检验和单因素方差分析等方法对回收数据进行分析。结果表明,大多数旅游者获得较强的敬畏感,但旅游者之间存在一定差异。其中,女性、中年人或受过高等教育的旅游者能够获得更强的敬畏感;与大象拥有特定文化联系的斯里兰卡和印度游客体验到的浩瀚和适应感明显高于西方游客。此外,自然情境在旅游者获得的适应感方面亦发挥重要作用。     

Halal tourism: antecedent of tourist’s satisfaction and word of mouth (WOM)

The concept of Halal tourism has emerged recently in research. It becomes an important factor in determining the satisfaction of tourists or their loyalty. However, this concept is still not well known; thus, it needs to be developed in certain areas. The research was conducted to see the link between the attributes of Halal tourism (i.e. Islamic facility, Halalness, general Islamic morality, and alcohol drinks- and gambling-free), satisfaction of tourists and word of mouth (WOM). The respondents of the research were 345 derived from 5 municipals in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The research used structural equation model. The result of the research shows that the attributes of Halal tourism have significant impacts on satisfaction of tourists and WOM. There is no significant direct relationship between the attributes of Halal tourism and WOM. However, the satisfaction of tourists is significant as the mediator. Furthermore, some limitations and future research are discussed.     

Off-season tourists and the cultural offer of a mass-tourism destination: The case of Rimini

This paper assesses the potential implications on off-season tourism of enhancing the cultural offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination hosting about 12 million overnight stays per year. Since more than 9 million of these stays are concentrated in the summer season, in the last 20 years. Rimini has been undergoing a policy of seasonality smoothing, which mainly pivots around business and cultural tourism. This assessment has been carried out through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of about 800 tourists who visited Rimini outside the summer months. Since tourism can be viewed as a composite good, which overall utility depends on how the component characteristics are arranged, the choice experiments allow to disentangle the importance and the willingness to pay of tourists for different attributes of the holiday. The choice model incorporates a number of possible changes to actual tourism features (which are also the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative “holiday packages”. The conditional logit analysis of the choice experiments can highlight any synergy or trade-off between cultural and business tourism. Results suggest that business and leisure tourists share many features related to the use of the territory, while there are important trade-offs between these two groups and cultural tourists. Since business tourists have a higher willingness to extend their stay, a softer budget, and their demand is also complementary to the demand of summer tourists (Brau, Scorcu, & Vici, 2009), from the destination point of view investing in this market segment would be the best option. Although a “second best”, however, cultural tourists share with the local population of Rimini many aspects of the demand of territory (Figini, Castellani, & Vici, 2009). Hence, cultural tourism can play a fundamental role in the intermediate season as a tool for smoothing seasonality, to diversify investments and to give value to the city’s cultural heritage.     

Cross-Cultural Differences in Tourism: A Strategy for Tourism Marketers

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of understanding cultural differences for developing positive tourist-host contact and, consequently, enhancing tourist holiday satisfaction and repeat visitation. The cultural differences between Korean tourists and Australian service providers are identified and dimensions of these differences are determined by principal components analysis. The strength of the relationships between the cultural dimensions and their critical indicators is measured by using structural equation modeling Submodel 1. The results indicate that the most critical dimensions of cultural difference between Australian hosts and Korean tourists are: communication and understanding the tourist, display of feelings, interaction and idealism. Their critical indicators are identified. The implications of the results for tourism industry marketers are presented.     

Tourism and Aldo Leopold's “cultural harvest”: creating virtuous tourists as agents of sustainability

Sustainable tourism aims to achieve a balance between the needs of tourists, the environment, local people, and businesses – a situation complicated by the numerous ethical issues at play. This paper presents an original account of the ethics of Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), a key figure in the development of modern environmental ethics, as it unfolds in his classic work, A Sand County Almanac. We argue that prior interpretations failed to incorporate Leopold's lynchpin cultural harvest idea into his larger “land ethic”, and that a proper understanding of the cultural harvest reveals how tourism and other recreational activities can drive a person's ethical development. Ultimately, the land ethic helps us protect and nurture the most precious sustainability resource: human beings that value and respect the environment. The paper will be of value to tourism scholars, to heritage interpreters, to travel journalists, to tourism marketing staff, and to tourism managers. It shows the enormous opportunities for better marketing and heritage interpretation, notes the potential value of slow tourism, and the need for opening five key areas of the cultural harvest for tourists: storytelling, learning and knowledge, beauty and aesthetic appreciation, rarity and the hunt for trophy, and signature/personality.     

Satisfaction with Cultural/Heritage Sites

SUMMARY

This study attempted to investigate the relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and overall satisfaction, and to identify the difference in the overall satisfaction of tourists in terms of selected demographic and travel behavior characteristics. The expectancy-disconfirmation theory provided a conceptual framework for this study. This theory holds that consumers first form expectations of products or service performance prior to purchasing or use. The study area for this study was Virginia Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and York-town). The survey was conducted at five different sites in the Virginia Historic Triangle. The findings indicate that there is a relationship between destination attributes and overall satisfaction with cultural/heritage experience. The study also reveals that overall satisfaction may show variation by gender, length of stay, and decision horizon. The study concludes with appropriate marketing and management implications.     

Local Perspectives on the Impact of Tourism on Religious Festivals in Bhutan

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is known to embrace Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product as the measure of its people's well-being. Happiness, spirituality and cultural authenticity are prominent factors in Bhutan's tourism image, and these attributes are most clearly exhibited in the traditional festivals that are among the most popular attractions for many foreign tourists. This paper introduces the cultural practice of religious festivals in Bhutan and investigates how tourism may be affecting these festivals. Within this context, this paper reports on the findings of a survey of Bhutanese monks and lay people, regarding their impressions of the effects of tourists on one particular event – the Tsechu festival. With the Bhutanese government's aim to increase the number of annual tourists more than fourfold to 200,000 by 2018, this research provides a baseline study of the perceived impact of tourism on religious festivals and addresses the issue of whether such an increase in volume of tourists would pose a threat to the integrity and value of these festivals as perceived by Bhutanese people.     

Museums as narrators: heritage trails in a digital era

ABSTRACT

In today’s tourism industry, merely offering tourists a variety of cultural events is not enough. Fully understanding their desire for an experience is the key. The attraction value increases if tourists can become personally involved and be affected by the narratives involved in place-making. This article examines the connections and cooperation among museums in a region where an important heritage trail is operating. When the old Telemark Canal was active (1892–1990), this enabled important products to be shipped from the upper mountainous areas to the coastal urban region in Telemark County, Norway. Shortly after being closed, the canal was transformed into a heritage trail and tourist attraction through renovation initiatives. Based on a closer examination of two of the attraction clusters along the heritage trail of the canal, we ask whether there is a key narrative that can link the local museums and cultural centres in the canal region. The discussion will consider how the widespread use of the internet has created new options for museums and cultural centres to benefit from neighbouring tourist attractions such as heritage trails.     

A cross-cultural study of perceptions of medical tourism among Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists in Korea

The purpose of this study is to observe factors related to perceptions of and possible participation in medical tourism by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean visitors to Jeju Island in Korea. It aims to identify cultural differences among them, and how those differences affect their pursuit of medical tourism in the future. The research results illustrate that significant differences exist in how Chinese, Japanese and Korean visitors view factors of choice, discomfort and preferred product items. The study establishes four factor groups regarding medical tourism with exploratory factor analysis. Based on these findings, differences of participation intention and behaviors among the three groups are explained. From this, the study describes distinct characteristics of medical tourism among the three cultural groups. The differences among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean tourists with regard to the selection of destination, inconveniences, and preferred products were found to be all significant. Korean tourists placed most significance on selection factors, followed by Chinese tourists, and, lastly, the Japanese. On the other hand, inconveniences related to medical and care services, stay and cost, and information and insurance elements were most strongly associated with Japanese tourists. This may be a reflection of a possible tendency of Japanese tourists to value safety and cost effectiveness. For Chinese tourists, the importance of stay and cost was equally high as those of their Japanese counterparts, which is indicative of Chinese tourists’ cost sensitivity. Light treatments (minor surgery) were preferred by Chinese tourists, while more significant treatments (major surgery) were preferred by Japanese tourists. In terms of aesthetic and healthcare services, Chinese tourists showed the most interest, while Japanese tourists placed emphasis on rehabilitation (lifestyle-related), which may reflect the Korean Wave’s influence in certain Chinese market segments, leading to an increased demand for cosmetic or plastic surgery.     

The Flamenco Factor in Destination Marketing: Interdependencies of Creative Industries and Tourism —the Case of Seville

This study builds on the concepts developed by Florida in his work “The Rise of the Creative Class”. In doing so it seeks evidence for the claims made that the creative arts address deficiencies identified in the terminology of ‘cultural tourism’. The case relates to flamenco performances in Seville. The art complex of flamenco survived on the one hand as a symbol of Andalusian culture on the other hand it depends strongly on the international tourism market. Additionally flamenco is used in destination marketing to differentiate Seville from other Spanish cities.