Restoring tourist confidence and travel intentions after disasters: some insights from a rejoinder to a series of unfortunate events in Malaysian tourism

Many countries face a decline in tourist confidence and reduced travel intentions after disasters. However, Malaysia – a country that experienced a series of aviation tragedies throughout 2014 – encountered an overall increase in inbound tourists and monetary receipts. This article more closely examines the effects of these unfortunate events on Malaysian tourism and identifies several strategic avenues that can contribute to restoring tourist confidence and reigniting tourist interest in travelling to disaster-stricken countries.     

The influence of the environment on adventure tourism: from motivations to experiences

Inherent in most definitions of adventure tourism is the fact that it takes place in natural outdoor settings. Yet, the influence of this setting on the behaviour of adventure tourism consumers has yet to be adequately addressed. This study, therefore, investigates the relative strength and nature of environmental influences on adventure tourists in both motivations for participation and in the context of the experience. The results are based on questionnaires collected from 459 participants in adventure tourism activities along the southern coast of South Africa. They show that, although the majority of research on adventure tourism focuses on the ‘thrill’ involved, the environment is increasingly recognized as influential. The assessment of motivations, using a push and pull factor approach, demonstrates that the environment not only plays an important role in attracting adventure tourists towards specific destinations, but that they also seek out interactions with nature. In addition, participants suggested that the environment is an especially significant component of their experiences. The fact that the findings demonstrate the importance of the environment in both the motivations and experiences of adventure tourism participants, means that such an approach would make a definite contribution to discussions, planning, and policy linked to the adventure tourism industry.     

Testing the impact of a promotional video on destination image change: application of China as a tourism destination

This study empirically examines the potential effects of a promotional video on the image change of China as a travel destination. The analysis is based on an experimental study conducted among young, international short‐term employees in the USA. Despite positive changes in almost all the destination attributes as a result of watching the promotional video, the structure of the image constructs remains fairly stable, providing critical insights on the potential role of publicity campaigns in affecting destination images. Results of the study reveal that China's image consists of mixed and often contrasting representations, especially the polarity of modernisation and progress versus nature and history. It was found that the dominant factor affecting the respondents' behavioural intentions was the cultural and nature tourism dimension. Although other image dimensions exhibit influence as well, findings of this study suggest that perceived value should be a strategic focus in promoting China as a desirable travel destination, in addition to culture and nature tourism. This paper ends with conclusions and implications for both research on destination image and destination marketing in China. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Voices from Costa Rica: exploring youth perceptions of tourism and the influence of tourism on identity formation and cultural change

Tourism has become a rapidly growing phenomenon in Costa Rica over the past two decades, with a rate of foreign tourists per capita of 0.46 (one of the highest rates in the Caribbean basin). As tourism increases, it is clear that the impacts will continue to be a major change-agent, especially for small communities in Costa Rica. To explore youth perceptions of the impacts of tourism on their culture and community and to better understand the ways in which tourism influences the formation of cultural identity, this qualitative Photovoice study focuses on youth ages 10–16 living in a Costa Rican community. Through the participants’ photographs and discussion, four themes emerged, including economic impacts resulting from tourism, the preservation and loss of culture and history, the importance of respecting the land, and injustice resulting from tourism development. The youth demonstrated the ways in which their experiences and personal histories related to tourism are intertwined with their sense of identity and pride for their community and culture. The results emphasize the relevance of exploring cultural identity within youth populations and support the assertion that tourism generates significant cultural change, which in turn influences youths' past, present, and future perceptions of their community and culture.     

Anatomy of tourism crisis: explaining the effects on tourism of the UK foot and mouth disease epidemics of 1967–68 and 2001 with special reference to media portrayal

This paper studies the UK foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemics of 1967–68 and 2001. It briefly analyses the characteristics of each outbreak of disease and the contrasts between them. The paper then assesses the effects on the UK tourism industry from both outbreaks and also focuses on the role of the media in its portrayal of the effects. Data are gleaned from secondary sources such as BBC archives of radio and television programmes, other media such as key newspapers, as well as specialist journals and government reports. The study concludes that the 1967–68 outbreak had only a limited actual effect on tourism (and an even more limited effect as perceived in the media), whereas the 2001 epidemic had a much larger effect — actual and as perceived in the media. It is suggested that there are many explanations for the differences, including the time of the year of the outbreaks, the spatial spread of the disease, the amount of countryside that was deemed to have restricted access and the growth in supply of rural tourism operators. The changed character of news reporting itself created some different effects — the media role in the 2001 crisis was not entirely passive. Indeed, the paper finally stresses that the role of the media is crucial in tackling any future such crisis — the media can be harnessed as a key element of tourism contingency planning. In this respect there is, indeed, much similarity between the 2001 FMD crisis and other current crises worldwide. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the impact of metaverse tourism experiences on actual visit intentions: An integrated model of presence,the Technology Acceptance Model,and the Theory of Planned Behavior

This study seeks to understand the impact of tourist experience of the metaverse on users' actual visit intentions by proposing an integration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), using the construct of Presence. We developed a questionnaire-based experiment in which 478 responses were collected via an online survey to achieve the objectives of the study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the proposed constructs. The results indicate that presence is positively associated with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude, respectively. In addition to the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude, six other hypotheses within the model that merged TAM and TPB were statistically supported. Furthermore, the implications and recommendations based on the results are valuable contributions to the development of metaverse tourism.     

Assessing the impacts of aviation liberalisation on tourism: Some methodological considerations derived from the Moroccan and Tunisian cases

At a time when the liberalisation of air transport is increasingly being promoted as a means to induce the growth of the tourism business, it is striking that there is little evidence to suggest that such liberalisation has indeed led to a growth in tourism. Furthermore, the evidence is usually restricted to the impacts of sole low-cost airlines on tourist destinations newly served by such airlines. In contrast to various ideological or naïve statements, this paper shows that assessing the relationship between liberalised air markets and trends in tourism is challenging. On the transport side, aviation liberalisation is rarely considered as a dimension that can be measured accurately; similar protected markets are not considered for comparison; and trends in charter flights are neglected. On the tourist side, broad definitions of so-called tourists are usually considered and include immigrants visiting their home country; nights spent are neglected, despite a possible trend in declining length of stay; and substitution between places is usually disregarded, as are the long-term effects.     

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.     

The potential of management networks in the innovation and competitiveness of rural tourism: a case study on the Valle del Jerte (Spain)

Since the 1980s, rural tourism has witnessed a significant and generalised growth among the European Union members. However, from the perspective of business management, rural tourism suffers from several obstacles that complicates its competitiveness as a tourism product. By focusing on the Valle del Jerte (Extremadura, Spain) case study, this study analyses a rural tourism business network, from the social network analysis perspective, to critically discuss its potential as a structure that enhances competitiveness and innovation. The results demonstrate that these networking structures contribute towards the creation of a cohesive destination, whereby the sharing of resources enables innovative local responses to the global market challenges.