Restoring tourist flows and regenerating city's image: the case of Belgrade

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of the post-1990 transition on the relocation of tourism and changes in the structure of tourism over the last 20 years in Belgrade. Economic and social development altered spatial relations of tourist factors and elements. Apart from the old city core, new tourist zones and directions appeared. Tourist flows and economic challenges influenced the rationalisation of doing business and relocating the hotels outside the central city municipalities. Belgrade has been acknowledged as a low-cost destination of fun and nightlife and the city's new image has attracted more foreign tourists. Both the volume of foreign tourists and their countries of origin have changed significantly over the last several years. However, there have been negligible economic effects on the city's economy, despite this increase in the number of foreign tourists. In conclusion, we examine the implications of new directions in tourism development for the future position of Belgrade as a tourist destination in a competitive European market.     

Tourism and economic regeneration: the role of skills development

An increasing number of local economic development agencies in the UK are turning to tourism as a means of urban regeneration and employment creation. Although initiatives vary, there is a nationally inspired emphasis on the development of employee skills as a core element of many regeneration strategies. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of the demand for and utilisation of skills by tourism firms in East London, an area that is the recipient of substantial urban aid funding, a proportion of which has an overt focus on skills enhancement designed to develop the tourism sector. It then examines the processes of skills supply within the locality. The paper concludes by identifying the key issues likely to be important if regeneration programmes are to be effective. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing staff turnover: a view from the English Riviera

This paper explores the extent of labour turnover in tourism businesses in the seaside resort of Torbay. In‐depth interviews assisted in providing a better understanding of factors contributing to staff turnover in the destination. Turnover rates were found to be high, but varied depending on type and size of business. Evidence was found that supported the literature of a split in the tourism workforce between core and peripheral workers. Perceptions of factors that cause turnover varied considerably. Little difference was found in employers' and employees' perceptions of factors that cause staff turnover. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism managers' view of the economic impact of cruise traffic: the case of southern Spain

This article focuses on analysing the perception that the tourism sector itself has of its impact in cities at which cruises call. We use a sample of 371 managers of tourism establishments in the hinterlands of two Spanish cruise ports. The conclusions confirm the good public image that cruise traffic has traditionally enjoyed. However, the vision that the managers have is not uniform but depends on the characteristics of the tourist establishment and its own experience. Managers also advocate the direct intervention of the public administrations, even with economic aid, to favour the implementation of cruise tourism in their cities.     

International tourism and economic development in South Africa: a Granger causality test

One of the major objectives of macroeconomic policies in many developing countries is sustained economic growth, and South Africa has been striving to achieve and maintain this in various ways. One of these is through international tourism. Although international tourism contributes to the growth of many economies, it is in turn, impacted by growth in many developed countries. Real gross domestic product (GDP), international tourism earnings, real effective exchange rate and exports were analysed within a multivariate vector auto regressive model using annual data covering 1980–2005. The main focus of this study therefore was to demonstrate the direction of causality between international tourism earnings and long‐run economic growth of South Africa, among other variables, using Granger causality analysis. The result obtained showed a unidirectional causality running from international tourism earnings to real GDP, both in the short run and in the long run. The error correction mechanism carried out also supported this causality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anti-shopping tourism: a new concept in the field of consumption

In this article, based on qualitative research in Hungary, we propose a new phrase for the field of tourist consumption. Our notion ‘anti-shopping tourism’ refers to the resistant attitude towards consumption and spending money during shopping-related tours. The research discussed in the paper analyses participants’ motivations, attitudes and behaviour on one-day coach trips that include various programmes, for example, sightseeing, lunch, spa visits and even a range of gifts, for a very low price, in exchange for participation in a professional sales show during the trip. Our main goal is to explain and, from an economic and anthropological point of view, conceptualise this form of tourist attitude, and to show how this unique way of travel may be situated in a certain historical setting in Hungary, more than two decades after the collapse of the socialist regime. In order to understand how the participating individuals negotiated this unique form of travel that exists in a grey zone of the institutionalised travel industry, notions such as debt, sacrifice, resistance, gift, seduction and informal contract are discussed and connected to the phenomenon.     

Pro‐Poor Tourism in a First World Urban Setting: Case Study of Glasgow Govan

This research investigates pro‐poor tourism (PPT), which has only been considered in a third world context, in a first world country, determining whether PPT principles are being used to alleviate poverty in a developed location, Glasgow Govan, in Scotland. The research develops and applies a new PPT principles tool to regeneration projects in the area and reveals a significant level of PPT application there. The findings suggest that PPT can be an over‐complication of a common sense development approach that any responsible government should promote. The results also question the validity of community based tourism initiatives. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An emerging Korean youth culture,Rail-ro: the application of cultural consensus analysis to domestic rail travel experiences

This study deals with an emerging domestic rail travel phenomenon among Korean youth, known as Rail-ro (Railo), which has influenced aspects of youth culture and domestic tourism in Korea since 2007. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Railo experiences exist as a coherent culture among Railers based on cultural consensus analysis. The result indicates Railers’ strong agreement about Railo experiences, which reinforces the view that a particular rail pass could be instrumental in forming a distinct youth travel subculture. This study demonstrates how travel culture driven by the seasonal rail pass supports domestic tourism and inbound tourism.     

Paradise from the other side of nowhere: troubling a troubled scene of tourist encounter in Belize

When Shaky was run over by a drunken tourist one night in April of 2003 on the main street of Placencia, one of several coastal ‘tourist paradises’ in Belize, the image and stories of his mangled body stimulated a flow of narrative that conjured a nervous dread troubling the smooth, laid-back, tropical vibe of the place. In such a moment of shock and impact, images of a Caribbean dream-world suddenly enter the senses like a nightmare to agitate things. This paper tracks the affective forces of Shaky's death as an arresting image and the troubling state of suspense and suspension that still haunts the place and its people. It explores how the stories of a ‘death in paradise’ focused anxieties and wild speculations about tourist encounters. This paper is about the local public pulse of things in moments of impact and of the generative potential lodged in fashioning life in a space of tourist encounter.     

Off-the-beaten-track tourism: a new trend in the tourism development in historical European cities. A case study of the city of Krakow,Poland

In the recent years, substantial changes in the manner of sightseeing in cities have been becoming visible. Tourists are leaving the old city centres and are deciding to visit places that are not typical tourist attractions. In such places, alternative forms of city tourism described as off-the-beaten-track tourism are developing. In Europe, this pertains especially to historical cities, specifically capital cities and large agglomerations, such as Krakow, one of the biggest cities in Poland, commonly described as the cultural capital. The aim of this article is to analyse the management of tourism in European historical cities in the context of off-the-beaten-track tourism’s development using the case study of Krakow. To illustrate the issue, two districts, Nowa Huta and Podgórze, were chosen as the examples. In both districts one can observe changes affecting the model of city tourism that stems from the shift in motivations of visitors and from alternative ways of spending free time in the city they are visiting. This process necessitates appropriate management of tourism in the city in accordance with the rules of sustainable development and protection of cultural and historical authenticity of places and buildings.     

Comparing the contributions of tourism and non-tourism exports to economic growth in Malaysia

An in-depth study using data from 1974 to 2013 is conducted to assess the role of exports in Malaysia's economic growth through the neoclassical growth model. Unlike previous studies, we segregate exports into four major components, namely tourism, electrical and electronic (E&E), palm oil and rubbers. By doing so, we are able to assess the relative contributions of tourism and non-tourism (i.e. E&E, palm oil and rubbers) exports to Malaysia's economic growth. To achieve the objective of this study, we perform the cointegration, Granger causality and the variance decomposition tests. Our findings suggest that only tourism, E&E and palm oil exports significantly influence economic growth in the long-run. Likewise, our Granger causality results also suggest that only tourism, E&E and palm oil exports Granger-cause economic growth. Thus, it supports the tourism-led growth, E&E export-led growth (ELG) and palm oil ELG hypotheses in Malaysia. With reference to the contributions to economic growth, the long-run estimation results and the results of generalized variance decomposition consistently suggest that tourism is relatively more important than the three non-tourism exports, especially in explaining the long-term economic growth of Malaysia.     

Enclave tourism versus agritourism: the economic debate

The approaches to tourism development vary in different settings. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conversation on the relative economic advantages of enclave and agritourism in a small island context. This study explicitly discusses these two forms of tourism in the island of Mauritius where tourism is a key pillar of the local economy. This study uses a novel format where stakeholder perspectives are reviewed based on a simulated debate between two sets of advocates. The debate arguments rely on a grounded methodology where in-depth interviews were conducted to gather the opinions of three substantial groups of stakeholders: notably, government officials, business interests and local community members. The multi-faceted arguments are built on the identified local concerns and perspectives and provide a forum for the voices of diverse participants from the tourism world of Mauritius. The format offers a rich, realistic set of arguments exploring the economic merits of both forms of tourism in a specific setting. Five main themes influence the economic support for tourism development: certainty of tourism income, scale of tourism development, employment, regional disparity and the challenge of change.     

Eating ants: understanding the terroir restaurant as a form of destination tourism

This paper explores the idea that there is a new form of restaurant that requires definition recognition that it fulfils a significant role in contemporary tourism. The adoption of foraged foods frequently reflects the historical and cultural foundations of place; in this respect, it is possible to adopt the French notion of ‘Terroir’ to conceptualize this new hospitality movement. The paper utilizes Noma in Denmark as a case study of this new gustatory movement and provides an exemplar of the terroir restaurant. The terroir restaurant provides a space in which the diner can consume tangible elements of both culture and landscape; often, this involves entry into a constructed visceral ‘sensescape’ where the dining experience becomes elevated to a higher level. The terroir restaurant provides the tourist with a gustatory concept and philosophy that move far beyond the notion of food as fuel, to one that is underpinned by a geographical and cultural aesthetic that reinforces the consumers ‘being in the world’ and their individual identities.     

Mega‐events and host‐region impacts: determining the true worth of the 1999 Rugby World Cup

An increasing interest in the impact of sporting mega‐events on host regions has sparked discussion on the most appropriate approaches in determining both benefits and costs. The paper defines the nature of the impact on Wales of the 1999 Rugby World Cup (RWC99), both economic and social, and qualitatively assesses the extent and nature of the impact of RWC99 in a number of areas. It concludes that there were considerable benefits for the region, although many areas of potential benefit were not maximised. This was due in large part to the structure of the bidding process and organisational inadequacies, which in turn led to relatively low spectator spend and mixed press coverage. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of a film on destination image and the desire to travel: a cross‐cultural comparison

The objective of this study was to measure the immediate impacts of a film on the perceptions of viewers from different countries. The film chosen for this experiment was the Motorcycle Diaries in which South America was featured prominently in the film. Using established scales from the tourism and marketing literature, viewers from the USA, Canada and Spain were surveyed before and after seeing the film, and results showed that the film did change the viewers' perceptions of South America. After watching the film, a large percentage of the respondents expressed a desire to visit the countries seen in the film, with Canadians showing a significantly higher desire to visit South America than the US and Spanish participants. Those who were motivated to travel by the film were especially influenced by the scenery, landscape and the cultural attractions of the destination as depicted in the movie. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism in Trinidad and Tobago: carving a niche in a petroleum‐based economy

Trinidad and Tobago lies within one of the world's most tourism‐intensive regions, the Caribbean. Yet, unlike its neighbours, it has not relied heavily on income from travel and tourism since its economy is dominated by the energy sector. The energy sector is the mainstay of the economy contributing approximately 34.1% to the country's GDP, 85.5% to merchandise exports and 37.1% to Government revenues in 2004 (Ministry of Energy, 2006). The Government, in its aim for developed nation status by 2020, recognizes that the energy sector is unable to provide the sustainable jobs needed to achieve this. Thus, the Government's policy strategy, Vision 2020, identifies tourism as one of five (5) sectors that should be developed to contribute to the country's economic development. The tourism industry currently represents 13.8% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Trinidad and Tobago and is expected to increase its share by nearly three percentage points to 16.5% by 2015. It accounts for 16.7% of total employment, and this is forecasted to rise to 19.2% (WTTC, 2005). Several challenges are evident, that continue to limit the industry's full potential for growth in the country. It is against this background that this paper seeks to identify and analyse the strategies that can be adopted to maximize the contribution of the hospitality and tourism industry to economic development in Trinidad and Tobago. The three main strategies proposed are a greater focus on local entrepreneurship; the re‐orientation of the role of the local financial mechanisms in tourism development and; the development of competitive tourism investment incentives for potential investors in the hospitality and tourism industry. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Panel Cointegration Analysis of the Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth: Evidence from the Middle East Region

This paper examines the contribution of tourism industry to the GDP of three selected destinations in the Middle East region: Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. We introduce a quadratic functional form and apply the advanced panel cointegration dynamic model with robust estimation to test our hypothesis. Our analysis is based on a comprehensive set of panel data of tourism receipts, education investment, foreign direct investment and fixed capital formation over the period of 1981–2008. The results show a long‐run relationship between tourism growth and GDP. We also show that tourism has a stronger impact on the economy than other related sectors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism gateways and regional economies: the distributional impacts of MICE

The meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry is a rapidly expanding sector of tourism world-wide, but particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Of the many challenges underlying development of this sector none is more important than determining the economic benefits from devoting resources to industry growth. The paper argues that although research has been undertaken on the economic impacts of MICE events and MICE destinations, regionally and nationally, the issue of the distribution of these benefits between tourism gateways and more remote regions has been neglected. The paper seeks to help remedy this neglect. It presents a framework for assessing the economic impacts of the MICE industry in a regional economy. It then illustrates how the framework can be used to compare economic impacts of MICE tourism in destination gateways and more remote areas, with the use of Australian data. The paper draws attention to the types of data deficiencies that seem to be endemic to estimating the economic impacts of MICE, and which constitute a barrier to informed public policy making and planning. Finally, the implications are discussed for development of MICE tourism generally. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Serious tourists: a proposition for sustainable indigenous tourism

This article proposes serious tourist as an approach that has the potential to assist in the development of sustainable indigenous tourism. Many indigenous places have reformed their economies by introducing tourism with ethnic culture as the core attraction. However, many have experienced adverse consequences, resulting in threats to the sustainability of indigenous communities. The main debates over sustainable indigenous tourism involve tensions and disputes regarding culturally appropriate development and economic gains. A serious tourist approach can contribute to the achievement of these dual goals of sustainable development. Visitors with a serious approach towards indigenous tourism will more likely express economic support for indigenous culture by spending on culture-related products and services. Likewise, serious travellers will reveal their respect and support for indigenous culture by seeking authentic experiences and donating to cultural conservation. These propositions regarding serious travellers are assessed and confirmed in the context of an indigenous destination in Taiwan.