Factors influencing tourist food consumption

This study attempts to identify the salient factors affecting tourist food consumption. By reviewing available studies in the hospitality and tourism literature and synthesising insights from food consumption and sociological research, five socio-cultural and psychological factors influencing tourist food consumption are identified: cultural/religious influences, socio-demographic factors, food-related personality traits, exposure effect/past experience, and motivational factors. The findings further suggest that the motivational factors can be categorised into five main dimensions: symbolic, obligatory, contrast, extension, and pleasure. Given the lack of research in examining tourist food consumption systematically, the multidisciplinary approach adopted in this study allows a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon which forms the basis for further research and conceptual elaboration.     

Managing the environmental and cultural impacts of tourism and leisure development

It is claimed that the state of development of tourism management as a discipline may be related to the claims of the tourist industry as a pressure group and the lack of adequate academic attention to the economic disbenefits and the environmental and sociocultural costs-benefits of tourism. This article sets out to redress the balance by proposing a social-theory base for tourism.     

The 1979 US gasoline shortage and its impact on the tourism industry

Owners or managers of 373 businesses on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, were interviewed in summer 1981 to determine whether they were affected by the 1979 gasoline shortage. The results indicate that half the respondents were affected, the majority of whom were adversely affected. More tourism businesses reported being affected than non-tourism businesses. The effects manifested themselves in staff layoffs and unfilled vacancies. Nevertheless, tourism businesses on the Cape did not alter any of their marketing strategies, excluding the lowering of prices.     

Community-based tourism (TourDure) experience program: a theoretical approach

This research tested the Theory of Planned Behavior model to reveal the formation of tourists’ intention to experience a tour program organized by a local community (i.e. TourDure) by taking the moderating effect of gender and age into account. TourDure is an excellent case of the community-based tourism initiatives in Korea. A field survey was carried out for data collection. Our findings indicated that attitude and subjective norm had a significant impact on intention. Also, destination attachment showed a positive influence on the intention. In addition, subjective norm and attitude was found to be significant across the gender group.     

Predicting Tourists' Intention to Try Local Cuisine Using a Modified Theory of Reasoned Action: The Case of New Orleans

The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of the modified theory of reasoned action (TRA) in predicting tourists' behavioral intention to try the local cuisine in New Orleans. The results indicated that the proposed model had strong predictive ability regarding tourists' intention to try the local cuisine. Attitude and past behavior were significant predictors of tourists' behavioral intention. In addition, the interdependence between attitudinal and normative components was partly supported. Gender had a significant moderating role in the relationships between attitude/past behavior and behavioral intention to experience the local cuisine. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Anticipated guilt and pleasure in a healthy food consumption context

Recognizing the increasing importance of healthiness in food-related businesses, this study attempted to investigate the role of consumers’ affective responses in a healthy food consumption context. To achieve its objectives, this study incorporated anticipated emotional constructs in a decision-making model and investigated the relationships among perceived healthiness, anticipated guilt and pleasure, and behavioral intentions (e.g., purchase, spreading positive word-of-mouth, and recommending the food) in a quick service restaurant setting. The results of this study suggest that anticipated pleasure positively influenced behavioral intentions and mediated the relationship between perceived healthiness and behavioral intentions, whereas anticipated guilt did not influence behavioral intentions. Additionally, this study investigated the moderating role of dietary concerns in consumers’ decision-making processes and found that the low dietary concerns group was more susceptible to anticipated pleasure compared to the high dietary concerns group. Further findings and implications are provided in the main body of the paper.     

Towards new tourism policies: The importance of environmental and sociocultural factors

Unrestricted tourism growth could lead to the positive economic effects of tourism being outweighed by significant social and environmental disadvantages, which could in turn translate the economic benefits into disadvantages. This process derives not only from tourism effects per se, but also from changes in the social structure. This article calls for not merely economic and technical adjustments in policies, but for a fundamental political transformation in the conception of tourism and recreation.     

Western environmental values and nature-based tourism in Kenya

Kenya is one of the leading tourist destinations in Africa. Most of the country's tourism is based on nature attractions. About 10% of the country has been set aside for wildlife conservation and the promotion of nature-based tourism. This study gives a historical evaluation of western environmental values and how these values influence wildlife conservation and the development of nature-based tourism in Kenya. Also, a comparative analysis is conducted between western environmental values and rural peasants' environmental perceptions.     

Trends in tourism planning and development

A number of tourism planning principles is considered and reference is made to the methodology of ekistics (the study of human settlements). Patmos, a Greek island, is taken as a case study, and the results of this tourism project are assessed in relation to the planning principles and methodology outlined.     

The sustainable integration of cultural heritage and tourism: a meta-study

This paper presents a cross-disciplinary thematic investigation into the relationship between cultural heritage and tourism. It systematizes evidence on concepts, policies and strategies and provides an interpretive synthesis illuminating the factors deemed critical by researchers for the sustainable integration of heritage and tourism. It seeks to find consilience to lead to a “new age of synthesis”. After an extensive literature review, 483 studies were selected and reviewed, assisted by a qualitative data analysis software (NVivo). The research followed the meta-synthesis approach, particularly meta-ethnography, of identifying findings, grouping findings into categories and grouping categories into synthesized findings, to produce a representative set of 15 synthesis factors. These include local involvement, education and training, authenticity and interpretation, sustainability-centered tourism management, integrated planning, incorporation into a wider sustainable development framework, controlled growth, governance and stakeholder participation, market and product diversification, suitable funding provision, international governance and support systems, a heritage capital approach, effective site management, destination management and a sound theoretical/methodological base. These 15 factors are suggested as the fundamental components of a more efficient theoretical frame and evidence-based policy in the fields of cultural heritage and tourism, aimed at achieving sustainability.     

Social learning and sustainable tourism development; local quality conventions in tourism: a Greek case study

This paper presents the trajectory of an innovative organisational scheme, the Local Quality Convention (LQC), concerning sustainable tourism development in the Lake Plastiras area, a less favoured area in Central Greece. It outlines the development issues of the area, the main actors, their views and practices and describes the creation, progress and emerging problems of the LQC scheme. Research reveals contradicting approaches to sustainable tourism development which, in turn, influenced the LQC's evolution. The findings are critically discussed in the light of the Social Learning (SL) approach to social change and sustainable development. According to SL it is only through interactive (participative), concerted action that stakeholders are able to co-construct an issue and its solutions. Given the dominance of “conventional” tourism in Greece as well as the top-down formation and implementation of policies, the importance of the long term facilitation of local stakeholders to achieve sustainable tourism development is demonstrated, along with other related lessons for planners and managers.     

Visiting the trenches: Exploring meanings and motivations in battlefield tourism

This paper provides insights into the motivations and experiences of tourists who visit sites associated with war and conflict, specifically 25 individuals who participated in a tour of the World War One battlefields of the Somme and Ypres. The paper discusses the narratives of four of these individuals to illustrate in detail how such battlefield tours offer opportunities for pilgrimage, collective and personal remembrance and event validation. All of the participants had a prior interest in warfare, which was a key influence on their battlefield tour experiences. For the study participants battlefield tours emerge as complex, deeply meaningful and in some cases life-changing experiences.     

The place of the family in tourism research: Domesticity and thick sociality by the pool

This article is concerned with the place of the family in tourism research. In an attempt at situating tourism theory, three discourses of tourism are examined in order to see what kind of articulations of the familiar they epitomize. This article is also concerned with developing theoretical constructs that are sensitive to the familiar character of tourism. Making space for the family in tourism research requires the reappraisal of domesticity and thick sociality in tourism. The article makes references to research on mass tourism in Menorca to discuss the implications of the re-socialization of tourism theory. The idealized notions of the nuclear family that are formed and performed on coastal resorts are contrasted to the complex realities of family life.     

Possible marketing tools for heritage tourism: the potential of implementing information and communication technology

The prevalence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has major marketing impacts on both the demand and the supply side in cultural and heritage tourism. However, while there is quite substantial research on how ICTs affect visitors and their experiences, little can be found in the literature on the supply side. The purpose of our study is to fill this gap. To do so, we executed in-depth interviews with 20 experts from cultural and heritage tourism in Germany. Through the interviews we gained evidence from the supply side on five discourses, which evolve around the issues of the shift in visitor typologies and demand, marketing benefits of digital technologies, preconditions and barriers of implementation and currently relevant technologies. All in all, the results clearly increase our understanding on what experts think on the implementation and use of ICTs in cultural and heritage tourism. Recommendations for practice regarding, for example, cooperation and professionalization and for further research conclude our analysis.     

Hospitality and tourism marketing: recent developments in research and future directions

This study reviews marketing research published in selected hospitality and tourism journals for the period of 2002–2003. The review includes summaries of research topics, industry applications, and methods of study design and data analyses. Significant topical research trends are identified and discussed to raise issues for future research. Included also are the industry-specific current trends and issues that dictate immediate research attention. The gaps between hospitality and tourism marketing research and industry's research needs are addressed to encourage additional research on neglected topics. The study concludes with general suggestions for future hospitality and tourism marketing research.     

Social planning for tourism in the developing countries

The usual perspectives on tourism planning have been economic. This paper argues for the need to take much more explicit account of non-economic costs (and benefits) in this field, and links the discussion to questions that have preoccupied those concerned with general issues of development in recent years. It emphasises that planners act in specific socio-politocal contexts, and that it is especially the dynamics of class structures and theis expression in the power relations at local and national levels which influence outcomes in this field. Practical issues of social planning for tourism are discussed, and the dangers of development which is too massive and too fast are stressed. Some attention is also paid to the role of transnational enterprises in the tourism field, and to the question of bargaining at the international level.     

The theory of planned behaviour in the context of cultural heritage tourism

An emerging body of literature addresses multiple aspects of cultural heritage tourism in multiple environments worldwide. This study seeks to contribute to current knowledge, studying visitors to a heritage building in the UK through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A questionnaire based on the various predictors associated with the TPB was designed to gather participants' motivations to visit the heritage building, including visitation to sightsee, attend events, and experience gastronomy at the building's restaurant. The findings confirm the validity and impact of attitude towards the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on behavioural intention, in this case, to become involved in heritage building visitation. In addition, it was noticed that respondents' level of agreement suggests their preparedness to invest in terms of travel, time, and financially spending when visiting heritage buildings. Implications of the findings will be discussed and future research avenues suggested.     

Historical and geographical context in festival tourism development

Festivals have increasingly become a significant tool for economic development through both tourism and the re-imaging and re-branding of cities and regions as modern cultural centers. To understand the issues and challenges of festival tourism events, it is important to know the historical and geographical context in which they occur. Conceptually, the historical context can be viewed through the degree to which an event has a vernacular indigenous origin or is newly created. The geographical context, on the other hand, reflects the degree to which a festival is defined by the place in which it occurs or is more global in its thematic orientation. A contextual framework for festival tourism that takes these two factors into account results in four types of festival events: Local Heritage Festivals, Local Contemporary Festivals, National Heritage Festivals, and Global Contemporary Festivals. These four festival types face issues related to their local identity, uniqueness, liminality, and authenticity. The contextual framework for festival tourism is applied to the current situation of rapid festival development in China, with recommendations that Chinese event managers need to focus more on historically and geographically meaningful themes developed in partnership with local populations if they want to ensure an event's long-term success.     

Leisure consumption in cricket: devising a model to contrast forms and time preferences

A large body of research exists on the motivation to follow sporting and leisure events. However, the main focus of these studies has been on those who attend events (direct consumers). Little research has extended the investigation of sporting and leisure consumption to include those who consume sport by other means such as the media (indirect consumers) and their scheduling preferences. With the growth of indirect consumption and its importance from both a finance and marketing perspective, this is an area of increasing interest in sports and leisure management. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consumption of sport in the UK and time and form preferences of spectators. We develop and validate a four-dimensional model to measure spectators’ consumption, empirically testing it using 632 questionnaires in the context of cricket. Our findings show that although there was a stronger preference for direct consumption, there was a greater engagement in indirect consumption forms. A number of these activities, such as following the sport on the Internet are peripheral to the actual game and complement consumption of the match. A further finding of the research was that weekend consumption was most favoured by those who were more involved in the sport as club members. They expressed a stronger preference for Friday evening and Sunday scheduling for two different competitions.     

If you dig it, they will come!: Archaeology heritage sites and tourism development in Belize, Central America

Tapping into a growing global tourism market, in recent years the Government of Belize has been marketing and promoting tourism as its primary economic sector. The latest efforts have included the cruise ship sector and marketing Mayan cultural history for tourism. Three phases of Mayan excavation can be identified: (1) pre-mid-1990s when sites were scientific exercises with tourism following; (2) the 1990s to present with the archaeological digs such as at Caracol fostering tourism development as the project is undertaken; and, (3) future sites yet to be excavated. This paper explores the positive and negative impacts of developing Mayan sites for tourism in Belize. The results are based on a survey of face-to-face interviews conducted with tourists based in San Ignacio, a community in west-central Belize. San Ignacio is adjacent to the Cahal Pech archaeological site and within a short drive of the Xunantunich and Caracol sites. Caracol is only partially excavated with temporary infrastructure providing access to tourists. In fact, the income generated from this access pays for continued excavations. The findings indicate that while there are obvious educational and economic benefits for such development, there are also concerns about how much is too much.