Perceptions of tourism products

The concept of the tourism product has been rooted in the minds of industry professionals as the industry has rapidly developed. Yet research into the tourism product and its constitution has not been a particular focus. Smith (1994) was one of the first, and remains one of the few, researchers to have decomposed the tourism product into basic elements. His five elements formed a single core and a series of four encapsulating shells. The study reported here first clarified the definition of tourism product and employed Smith's framework to analyze various tourism products in different tourism sectors. A student sample was used in a survey to rate the importance of five elements of tourism products. The results showed that the five elements were prevalent but that they differed in their importance for tourists across a variety of tourism products. Tangible physical plant was considered to be the most important component of nearly all tourism products. Finally, a new model of the tourism product is proposed here, and managerial priorities when creating sustained and satisfying tourist experiences are discussed.     

Exploring well-being as a tourism product resource

This study employs a qualitative research approach where focus groups (n = 11) with key stakeholders were used to understand how tourism investors view the concept of well-being in relation to tourism and the potential to use it as a tourism product resource. Findings validated by a wider group (n = 50) exposed the barriers and enablers of implementing well-being in this way. The potential for businesses and policymakers to transform these barriers into enablers was also identified. In addition, study findings were mapped onto a robust model extracted from the public health sector and applied in a tourism context using a systems theory approach. This further highlighted the potential offered to the fields of public health and tourism in the concept of well-being, and demonstrated the well-being value of tourism. Data from this research will aid tourism business practice and development by embedding a well-being philosophy for tourism destinations' strategies.     

When rich pictorial information backfires: The interactive effects of pictures and psychological distance on evaluations of tourism products

Using data from five studies (i.e., a pilot study and four experiments), we examine the interactive effects of pictures and psychological proximity on consumers' evaluation of tourism products. The extant literature has suggested that providing rich pictorial information or construing a psychologically proximal tourism product can independently increase consumers’ generation of mental images and render a positive attitudinal judgment. However, our findings on the effectiveness of these two strategies in combination are mixed. Specifically, we find that if the tourism product is a psychologically distal one, consumers evaluate it more favorably when rich pictorial information is provided than when the information is not available. If the product is a psychologically proximal one, the reverse is true. Our findings, therefore, suggest an important situation that might be intriguing to both tourism product managers and advertisers --when rich pictorial information backfires.     

Towards a geography of tourism

This paper traces the development of geographical interest in tourism during the past half century and examines the range and scope of the geography of tourism. The available literature is reviewed and suggestions are made regarding possible research aveneus and theoretical developments. Six major areas of interest are identified: spatial aspects of supply, spatial aspects of demand, the geography of resorts, patterns of movements and flows, the impact of tourism, and models of tourist space. Through an emphasis on spatial interaction an attempt is made to provide some cohesion and synthesis for this body of knowledge which constitutes the basis of the geography of tourism.     

Individual tourism systems

This research note tests the proposition that unique tourism systems exist through an analysis of participation in attractions and activities among a sample of free and independent tourists who visited Bali, Indonesia.     

Perceptions of tourism promotion and business challenges: A survey-based comparison of tourism businesses and promotion organizations

Tourism is an important economic development driver in the U.S. especially in rural areas. Most US regions have tourism-related economic development organizations to assist the local industry. Despite such assistance, however, many tourism-based businesses struggle. One possible reason is a disconnect between business needs and the activities of related organizations. This study uses survey data from tourism-based businesses and tourism promotion and economic development organizations in rural western Pennsylvania and West Virginia to compare how the various actors perceive the most pressing tourism promotion efforts and business challenges. In general, tourism businesses and support organizations agree on the promotional needs of tourism-based businesses and hold similar perceptions about industry problems. However, tourism promotion agencies underestimate the role of the internet in promotions and perceive workforce issues differently than do businesses. Better alignment of priorities within tourism partnerships should enhance promotional and educational efforts as well as the integration of tourism into overall economic development efforts.     

International academic impact of Chinese tourism research: A review based on the analysis of SSCI tourism articles from 2001 to 2012

Between 2001 and 2011 Chinese authors published over 838,000 articles in SSCI rated journals, second only to authors in the United States. However Chinese tourism academics lagged behind their counterparts in obtaining such publications, with only 157 papers in the Thomson Reuters SSCI listing for tourism and hospitality. However in recent years the numbers of Chinese authored publications have significantly increased. The paper argues that access to SSCI ranked publications is important for Chinese tourism academics because (a) it helps inform the world of developments in Chinese tourism, (b) it is a recognition of the standards of Chinese research and a means of improving Chinese research and (c) it provides a motive for international collaboration between Chinese researchers and their counterparts.     

Towards a post-conflict tourism recovery framework

While there is an increasingly extant literature on tourism crises and disasters, a lacunae exists regarding robust conceptual and theoretical frameworks for reviving tourism in a post-conflict context. Holistic frameworks that build tourism resilience in post-conflict destinations is still considered an emerging area in crisis management research. This paper aims to address this gap. An in-depth critique of research across leading peer-reviewed tourism journals, involving 102 individual papers; 63 on crises and disasters, and 39 on tourism recovery frameworks, was undertaken to develop a post-conflict tourism recovery framework. The framework proposed synthesizes complex relationships for post-conflict destinations operating “on the edge of chaos”, and enables consideration of key factors that influence their capacity to be resilient, adapt, and recover.     

Towards a history of tourism in Sarawak

The study of the historical development of tourism is still in its infancy with the majority of publications focussing very much on development in the western world. Even these documented histories fall mainly into just a few categories; the spas, the pilgrimages, and the Grand Tours. Only a handful record the story in non‐European locations, although these have been primarily about places which have colonial histories, thus maintaining the European focus to a large extent. Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, fits this category also. Famous for its colonial White Rajahs and its indigenous long‐house cultures, Sarawak has a variety of resources on which to base a strong special interest tourism industry. This study seeks to encourage the documentation of the historical development of tourism in Sarawak. A further aim is to provide reference points for other scholars while another is to ensure that tourism is not seen strictly as a post‐federation phenomenon but as a factor which was present in the overall development of the state. It concludes that in tourism, as in every other human activity, the weight of the past is inescapable.     

Managing tourism products and destinations embedding public good components: A hedonic approach

Decision making by tourism firms' managers and public policymakers is complex for many reasons. One of them is that many tourism products embed a combination of multiple public (external to the decisions of individual firms, related to location and essentially non-rival) and private attributes. Since tourists get satisfaction from each of the components of the product variety bought, managers face the daunting task of putting together, promoting and pricing a bundle of heterogeneous components. This paper draws on hedonic pricing literature to obtain insights (beyond making correct pricing decisions) for tourism firms' managers and public policymakers when dealing with products and destinations embedding public good components. An application to coastal hotels in tourism destinations of Catalonia is presented.     

Progress in tourism management: A review of website evaluation in tourism research

This paper reviews tourism studies published from 1996 to July 2009 that pertain to methodological approaches to website evaluation. The paper analyzes the initial work and continues up to recent developments in website evaluation. In general, prior research can be divided into five evaluation approaches: counting, automated, numerical computation, user judgment, and combined methods. The strengths and weaknesses of each method are examined. Research gaps and opportunities for future studies are discussed.     

Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: Monitoring local government planning under the Resource Management Act

In the light of the increasing pace and scale of tourism activity in New Zealand, the concept of sustainable tourism has become a key ingredient in the nation's tourism strategy. This paper explores sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand at the level of local government, and in particular, focuses on the implementation of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) as a mechanism for achieving sustainable tourism. Using the findings of a survey of Regional Councils and Territorial Local Authorities, the paper explores public sector planning responses to tourism impacts and sustainability concerns in New Zealand. The paper extends the earlier work of Page and Thorn (1997. Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: public sector planning responses. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 5(1): 59-77; 2002. Towards sustainable tourism development and planning in New Zealand: the public sector response revisited. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10(3): 222-238), which identified major issues of concern at local council level with regard to tourism impacts and argued the need for a national vision for tourism to ensure that the RMA achieved its original goals. Since then, a national tourism strategy has been published and changes in legislation have further empowered local authorities to further progress the sustainability agenda. This paper examines these developments and the ensuing implications, concluding that significant progress has been made in developing tourism policies at the local level, but that a number of constraints and issues limit the development of New Zealand as a sustainable destination.     

A model of tourism advertising effects

This study develops the AIEDA tourism advertising effects model and examines this model by tourism destination types and advertising formats in a field experiment. The AIEDA model extends the traditional AIDA model in the advertising field and additionally considers the unique features of tourism products. It includes five hierarchical stages: Attention→ Interest→Evaluation (Perceived Usefulness→ Perceived Credibility) → Desire →Action. Findings of experimental research indicate that destination type and advertising format have main effects and interaction effects on tourism advertising effects. In addition, this study discovered that, for natural and cultural destinations, video ads yielded similar or more positive advertising effects than virtual reality ads, whereas print was the least effective advertising format.     

Analysing relationships in tourism: A review

In recent decades, a systemic notion of tourism has been gaining ground, leading to its recognition as a set of interacting elements. From this perspective, relationships have become an important factor in research for understanding tourism, proving useful in the planning and management of tourism destinations. By means of an comprehensive review of the main contributions in the scientific literature in this regard, this paper highlights that there is no one single conception or theoretical-methodological approach to studying relationships, and proposes a classification of the literature on the basis of six major research lines, with a view to identifying and analysing the main advances and gaps presented by each of the research lines. In short, the article identifies the main lines of research developed in this field, analysing the main contributions and making a series of proposals to guide the future research agenda regarding the analysis of relationships in tourism.     

Social tourism participation: The role of tourism inexperience and uncertainty

Social tourism initiatives tend to facilitate access to tourism for groups who would otherwise be financially unable to participate in holidays. The tourism products offered in social tourism vary between individual and group holidays, and day trips. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study with social tourism beneficiaries and social support workers, which explores via interviews and focus groups how these different tourism products can be tailored most effectively to the needs to the beneficiaries. The findings of the study highlight the important role of travel inexperience, and associated uncertainty, in travel decisions made by this target group. The findings show that (public sector or charitable) providers of social tourism can offer the most tailored and potentially most cost-effective tourism product to each beneficiary by closely considering previous travel experience and uncertainty levels before departure.     

The length of stay of golf tourism: A survival analysis

This study analyses the length of stay of golf tourists in the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal. The analysis employs a questionnaire to ascertain the significant characteristics influencing the length of stay of golf tourists. A survival model is used to analyse which characteristics are associated with the length of stay, taking into account the uncontrolled heterogeneity of the data. Robustness tests are implemented and policy implications are derived for improving the understanding and management of the length of stay of heterogeneous tourists.     

Paths to success: Benchmarking cross-country sustainable tourism

Given the complexity of the issues surrounding the concept of sustainable tourism, the current paper tries to provide a unified methodology to assess tourism sustainability, based on a number of quantitative indicators. The proposed methodological framework (Sustainable Tourism Benchmarking Tool – STBT) will provide a number of benchmarks against which the sustainability of tourism activities in various countries can be assessed. A model development procedure is proposed: identification of the dimensions (economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure) and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation on three Asian countries. This application to three countries shows us that a similar level of tourism activity might bring on different sorts of improvements to implement in the tourism activity and might have different consequences for the socio-ecological environment. The heterogeneity of developing countries exposed in the STBT is useful to detect the main problem that each country faces in their tourism sector.     

Pakistan tourism industry and challenges: a review

Travel and tourism has great association with other industries in the national economy making major indirect earns and also enhances foreign investment, opportunities of trade, investments in private, local development, and public infrastructure. Pakistan has rich potential of tourism due to its rich culture, geographical and biological diversity, and history. Tourism has developed as an instrument for creating considerable economic gains. The country has various tourist destinations at Swat, Malam Jabba, Behrain, Kalam, Shangla, Balakot, Kaghan, Naran, Ayoubia, Murree, Chitral, Gilgit Baltistan, Hunza, and Neelam valleys, other mountainous ranges, and historical and archaeological sites. Pakistan has great potential and offers diverse opportunities for tourists, such as trout fishing in the glacial water of Gilgit Baltistan and Swat rivers, Shandur Polo traditional tournament, paragliding, rock climbing, and trekking in northern areas, Jeep and camel safari in the Cholistan desert, Wild Boar hunting, and crabbing in the Arabian Sea.     

A taxonomy of creative tourists in creative tourism

This study aims to characterize creative tourists and their perceptions of creative experiences at tourism sites. Creative tourists are active co-creators of their experiences; hence, they should be treated as a heterogeneous group of co-producers who have subjective opinions and feelings toward their creative experiences. The existing literature suggests that a creative experience is constructed by ‘inner reflections’, which include not only ‘consciousness/awareness’, ‘needs/motivations’ and ‘creativity’, but also ‘outer interactions’ which refer to ‘environment’, ‘people’ and ‘activity’ (Tan, Kung, & Luh, 2013). However, how a particular mix of factors interact and define an individual's perceptions of a creative experience may vary among different types of creative tourists. Q methodology was used to reveal the tourists' inherent subjectivity of creative experiences with regard to the constructions of personal meaning. Five distinct groups of creative tourists were identified: novelty-seekers, knowledge and skills learners, those who are aware of their travel partners' growth, those who are aware of green issues, and the relax and leisure type. Each consists of a different composition of factors which can provide new insights into how different creative tourists construct their personal creative experiences at these sites.     

Monitoring tourism flows and destination management: Empirical evidence for Portugal

We propose the use of a tool recently introduced by Gayer (2010), known as the “economic climate tracer”, to analyze and monitor the cyclical evolution of tourism source markets to Portugal. Considering the period 1987–2015, we evaluate how tourism to Portugal has been affected by economic cycles. This tool is useful as it clearly illustrates the evolutionary patterns of different markets, and allows us to identify close relationships with economic fluctuations. We found that German tourism plays a leading role, since its movements are followed with delays by tourism flows from other countries, and exhibits higher resilience to shocks. Also, domestic and Spanish tourism have both displayed less irregular behaviors than tourism from other source markets. On the contrary, tourism from the Netherlands and the UK, have displayed irregular patterns, which demonstrates the urgency to diversify tourism source markets to reduce the country's vulnerability to external shocks and economic cycles.