Does tourism lead to peace?

Tourism is often heralded as a force for peace, however, empirical research to confirm this suggestion is scant. To address this gap, this research integrates several datasets on conflict and tourism to examine whether a larger inflow of tourists makes civil conflict less likely. Several theoretical arguments of the role of tourism alongside other peace determining factors are presented. These inform the development of a probit model, and several specifications, that tests the hypothesis based on data from 126 countries and for the years from 1995 to 2010. The findings provide strong evidence that increasing tourism arrivals have a stabilising effect and increase the chance of peace. Implications for tourism and its role in the process of development are discussed.     

Tourism, peace, politics and ideology: impacts of the Mt. Gumgang tour project in the Korean Peninsula

A number of researchers have postulated that tourism between nations that have been divided or remain hostile to each other may be a means of reducing tension and promoting peace. The Korean Peninsula has remained divided since the Korean War and tensions between the North and South remain high. In the first tangible attempt to develop meaningful relations between the North and South outside of the UN structure, the Hyundai Corporation of South Korea was given permission to build and operate a resort destination at Mt. Gumgang in North Korea. The project has not been well supported by South Korean tourists and has required significant financial assistance from the South Korean Government. The paper examines the background of the project, the issues that were the primary cause for low demand and the role of the project as a vehicle for promoting peace. The paper finds that while tourism may be a method of reducing political tension as suggested by Butler and Mao (Asia Pacific J. Tourism Res. 1(1) (1996) 25) and Yu (Asia Pacific J. Tourism Res. 2(1) (1997) 19), it may also have a darker side and inadvertently become a vehicle for inhibiting peace. Further the paper suggests that in the case of Mt. Gumgang, tourism is the consequence of a political process aimed at rapprochement, not the genesis of the process.     

Changing perceptions and reasoning process: Comparison of residents’ pre- and post-event attitudes

Upon a systematic assessment of how residents’ trust in government(s) and attachment to a marquee event influence their evaluations of the event’s impacts and subsequent attitudes towards the hosting of the event, this study further explores the dynamic nature of residents’ subjective evaluations and corresponding attitudes to the event. In line with the confirmation bias theory, findings clearly demonstrate that residents’ trust in government(s), attachment to the event, perceptions of the event’s impacts and ultimate support to the event have changed in a predictable manner over time. Moreover, findings indicate that individuals’ direct experience with the event alters the associations between their cognitive/affective evaluations and attitudes towards the event, with a shifted focus to the cognitive evaluations after the event.     

Heritage protection and tourism development priorities in Hangzhou, China: A political economy and governance perspective

Government interventions can be important for determining priorities between heritage protection and tourism-related development at heritage sites. This paper uses a political economy approach to examine the government’s role in determining these priorities in China, for two heritage schemes at West Lake in the city of Hangzhou. The study considers policy making for heritage protection and tourism development in the context of broad economic and political circumstances, the power and influence of different actors in the schemes’ governance, strategic selectivity in the policy choices, and whether views about the policies exhibited a uniform hegemony among powerful and less influential groups. Consideration is given to how the relative priority for heritage protection and tourism development in policies reflected the state’s regulation of the economy and maintenance of its political legitimacy. A powerful policy community was found that was beginning to consider other actors’ views, but tourism development remained a prominent driver.     

“I will never go to Hong Kong again!” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott

Social media, an open space for the public's opinion and expression, has become an increasingly essential issue in crisis events, leading to secondary crisis communication. Realizing the potential risk of that, this study took the “Occupy Central” spreading on Weibo as a case, and applied topic clustering and sentiment analysis to examine the sequential characteristics of secondary crisis communication on social media in topics and emotions. Results show that the topics Weibo users discussed shifted from a political event to tourism boycott, with emotions turning increasingly negative. The turning point of such a transfer was aroused group conflicts and negative emotions elicited between people from mainland China and Hong Kong. The results indicate the necessity of emphasizing secondary crisis communication during a crisis due to the dynamic and sequential change of topics and public's emotions, which may result in new crises impacting the tourism destination where the initial crisis occurs.     

The impact of product placement on TV-induced tourism: Korean TV dramas and Taiwanese viewers

This study examines of the ways in which Korean TV dramas affect Taiwanese consumers’ attitudes toward the locations where the dramas are filmed (onscreen locations). Previous studies have incorporated balance theory into product–character association models and have demonstrated that consumers tend to align their attitudes toward products with the valence of a character’s attitudes toward the products. Unlike previous studies, this article attempts to investigate the product–character association model in a cross-cultural setting where the ‘products’ considered are the onscreen locations. To account for the effect of similarity between Taiwanese culture and Korean culture, the concept of perceived cultural proximity is introduced into the balance-theory-based model. The results show that consumers’ parasocial relationships with a character and consumers’ attitudes toward the character are related to their attitudes toward the location. However, this relationship is significant only for those viewers with high perceived cultural proximity between Taiwan and Korea.     

Social disruption theory and crime in rural communities: Comparisons across three levels of tourism growth

The study compares rural tourism places under different growth levels in terms of crime effects. Adopting social disruption theory, the study hypothesized that average crime rates would differ for tourism counties with different growth levels, and that high growth tourism counties would experience the greatest increase in average crime rates. The study used data from a sample of rural Colorado tourism communities. Results partially supported the hypothesis and confirmed some results of the relationships between rapid growth and crime identified in previous boomtown studies. The results of the study provide useful insights to public leaders and policy makers engaged in processes of evaluating alternative tourism growth strategies for their community.     

饭店服务学研究综论

本文在对国内外服务学及饭店服务相关研究文献进行综述基础上,分析饭店服务学研究应遵循的逻辑思路,并提出了一个初步的饭店服务学研究框架,目的在于通过探寻饭店服务的理论基础,审视饭店服务的实践过程,相互验证,融合提炼,逐渐上升为服务理论进而构建饭店服务学科,为旅游学科体系的建设尽绵薄之力。     

Why do people share their travel experiences on social media?

Tourism practices and destination decisions are more and more affected by the opinions of trusted friends channeled through social media, and it is therefore of great interest to explore the role that this plays in the travel context. It is also valuable to understand the behaviour of people commonly known as “lurkers”, who travel but do not share their experiences with others. We draw on social influence theory and its three constructs – identification, internalization, and compliance, as well as the users’ personality, to investigate these issues. Based on 381 responses, findings reveal two dominant reasons: first, perceived enjoyment was the most important motive for travellers to share their travel experiences on online networks and travel websites. Second, security and privacy issues are the top latent reasons. This study extends the tourism literature by combining all online behaviours into one single model. We also provide suggestions for further research.