Hosts, guests and politics: Coastal Resorts Morphological Change

Resort morphology goes through a predictable sequence of stages: from pre-tourism low through high-density development to an urbanized state. Three elements are considered essential in such coastal resorts change: hosts, guests, and politics. Using historical data from the mass-developed Greek island of Crete, ten principal characteristics are identified as determinants of the morphological change of coastal resorts. A temporal model of unplanned change is also proposed. Although the study was constrained by limited data availability, the proposed model is deemed able to represent the morphological change of Cretan mass-developed coastal resorts.     

Resident perceptions on cross-cultural understanding as an outcome of volunteer tourism programs: the Bahamian Family Island perspective

This paper examines the perceptions toward volunteer tourism from the viewpoint of Bahamian Family Island residents with a specific focus on cross-cultural understanding as an outcome. Cross-cultural understanding reflects the idea that there is a greater opportunity for exchange between tourists and residents as a result of volunteer tourism. Utilizing social exchange theory (SET), this research examines whether residents’ perceived benefits, positive impacts, negative impacts and support for volunteer tourism activities predict their support for cross-cultural understanding. Additionally, this study reveals factors contributing to residents’ motivation to participate in volunteer tourism activities within their community. A mixed-method research design that employed face-to-face interviews and quantitative surveys revealed eight major themes: Community Involvement, Empowerment, Sustainability, Education, Dependency, Neglect of Community Needs, Community Involvement and Communication. Multiple regression analysis results suggest partial support for SET and reveal new predictions for the support for cross-cultural understanding. Implications for volunteer tourism programs, host communities and national tourism organizations are discussed. Future research evaluating the volunteer–host relationship is warranted.     

导游实践中的跨文化交流

导游员是旅游业的灵魂,在旅游产品转化为旅游消费的过程起着至关重要的作用。由于游客来源与背景等文化差异,这一转化过程受到不同文化因素的制约,而跨文化交流意识的养成与跨文化交流技巧的运用是使这一转化顺利实现必不可少的一种手段。在导游实践中,合理运用跨文化交流知识与技巧,将有助于实现旅游产业的最优化,促进和谐的导游与游客的关系。     

The Critical Relationship between Climate Change Awareness and Action: An Origin-Based Perspective

While it is now widely accepted by scientists and governments that human activity contributes to climate change, there is a lack of understanding whether this realisation is now gaining greater attraction with the general public than it had 5 or 10 years ago. Additional gaps in knowledge relate to the link between awareness and action, which could be hypothesised to have become stronger in light of evidence being produced of some projected climate changes occurring already. This article examines climate change awareness and the link with travel-related decision-making by adopting an under-utilised origin perspective in Wellington, New Zealand. The findings, generated by a household mail survey, indicate that the majority of the respondents are aware of tourism's contribution to climate change and think that it is likely that their lives in New Zealand will be negatively affected by climate change. However, when examining the respondents' recent holiday decision-making, it is evident that for the overwhelming majority, climate change awareness does not appear to influence travel-related decisions. This article concludes by discussing demand-focused measures aimed at reducing the GHG emissions generated by tourism.     

Does hospitality diversity education make a difference in undergraduate students’ emotional intelligence

Soft skills are typically referred to as the attributes exhibited or contained by an individual that display his/her ability to interact with others. Two types of soft skills that are often discussed within the hospitality industry are diversity awareness and emotional intelligence. Diversity may be explained or defined as a state of unlikeness, the conditions of being different, and all things that make us different. Areas where differences may exist include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political affiliation and emotional reaction. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been defined as the ability to perceive, understand, regulate, and harness emotions in the self and others. How one deals with emotion is one characteristic that varies from culture to culture. Research has shown that EI may be a contributing factor in a moment of truth being considered a failure or success. The purpose of this study was to examine if undergraduate student EI scores change after completing a diversity issues course. Students completed the Assessing Emotions Scale on the first class day. At the conclusion of the 15-week course covering approximately 20 diversity issues concepts students completed the same EI assessment. Paired sampled t-testing was conducted to determine whether mean differences existed when comparing post and pre-course scores. Results of this study suggest that certain components of EI are significantly changed after taking the diversity issues course.     

The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism is an increasingly popular activity in which individuals combine travel with voluntary work. On the whole, existing literature has provided an optimistic view of volunteer tourism, suggesting that it represents a more reciprocal form of tourism and facilitates the development of cross-cultural understanding among participants. However, more recently, it has been argued that if volunteer tourism programmes (VTPs) are not carefully managed, they may lead to cross-cultural misunderstanding and the reinforcement of cultural stereotypes. Through conducting an Appreciative Inquiry into a number of volunteer programmes, this research sought to explore these ideas further and, in particular, identify the role that volunteer tourism sending organisations can play in order to ensure that cross-cultural understanding develops through volunteer tourism. The findings from this research suggest that the development of cross-cultural understanding should be perceived as a goal of volunteer tourism rather than a natural result of sending volunteers overseas. This paper argues that sending organisations can play an important role in facilitating the achievement of this goal through pro-active management prior, during, and after their VTPs.     

Re-envisioning community-based heritage tourism in the old city of Nazareth

This study specifically examines the potential for heritage tourism development to promote cross-cultural dialog in the historic old city of Nazareth (Israel). The paper focuses on a case study of a small-scale heritage tourism venture that seeks to influence tourism development in Nazareth's old city. This is an exploratory case study that uses qualitative research methods including extensive participant observation and in-depth interviews with the venture's senior management group and selected employees. Study findings indicate a model of the relationship between community-based tourism development, heritage, and peace-building in a city that has experienced a wide range of cross-cultural conflicts. This model represents an alternative view to the notion that heritage serves to enhance differences and dissonance between different cultural groups. In contrast, findings from this study suggest that heritage in the form of tourism can help create shared interests between different communities in settings characterized by cross-cultural conflict.     

Attitude toward luxury cruise,fantasy, and willingness to pay a price premium

This study applies the functional theory of attitudes in examining the structural relationships among the social-adjustive, value-expressive, hedonic, and utilitarian functions of attitudes, fantasy, and willingness to pay a premium. This study also identifies the moderating roles of sensory innovativeness and maximization in the relationships between the four functions of attitudes and fantasy. An online survey (N?=?543) was conducted to collect data from American respondents. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test proposed hypotheses. Results showed that the four functions of attitudes had significant positive effects on fantasy. In subsequent process, fantasy had a significant positive effect on willingness to pay a premium. Sensory innovativeness moderated the relationship between value-expressive function and fantasy, and maximization moderated the relationship between fantasy and willingness to pay a price premium. Given these findings, valuable theoretical and practical implications are discussed regarding the role of fantasy in luxury cruise decision-making.     

Island of Peace or Island of War: Tourist Guiding

The role of tour guides in conveying information, offering explanations, and developing narratives has become a contemporary research theme. The guide is introduced as a translator of the culture, who has the crucial task of selecting, glossing, and interpreting sights. The study will examine how the Island of Peace—a border site between former adversaries, Israel and Jordan, is introduced to Israeli tourists by Israeli guides and what messages the guides deliver to their captive audience. Based on participant observation of the guided tours in the site the article will show that the guides’ narratives and messages in many cases do not portray the site as a site of peace (as its name suggests), but mostly as a site with a past of tension and conflict.     

Impact of Tourism Openness Across the Taiwan Strait: Perspective of Mainland Chinese Tourists

ABSTRACT

Millennials, who are different from the older generations in leisure and consumption propensities, constitute more than 30% of the global population. The increase in the proportion of millennials in the population has motivated national museums in Korea to implement a new operational strategy for attracting this generation. Using data envelopment analysis, this study reveals that Korean millennials are more interested in special exhibitions and participatory events compared to the earlier generations. The results also indicate that enhancing the overall revisit rate significantly improves the overall performance of national museums. This study is expected to help museums and event organizers to establish differentiated operational strategies according to visitor types for “what service should be provided for whom.”     

Travel-Related Behavior of Japanese Leisure Tourists: A Review and Discussion

Summary

Japan has emerged as a leading generator of international tourism in the past decade. Given the importance of Japanese tourists to the global tourism industry, understanding of their travel-related behavior has become an essential item in the tourism research agenda. A review of literature revealed that a number of studies related to various aspects of Japanese tourists' behavior was reported. However, these studies did not follow any systematic themes of research and the information generated by these studies has not been well conceptualized. Therefore, this paper aims to present a comprehensive review of the literature which pertains to the travel-related behavior of Japanese leisure tourists and to conceptualize the major behavioral attributes and findings of reported research.     

Public involvement and tourism planning in a historic city: the case of the Old City of Jerusalem

One of the most widely discussed parameters in the field of tourism management and development concerns the issue of the cooperation and involvement of the public in decision-making processes. In regions characterized by various types of conflicts, questions regarding tourism management and development and the role of the local populations in these processes are political and ethical issues of the highest degree for the society and culture of that location. The aim of this article is to present the tremendous political sensitivity regarding the status of the Old City of Jerusalem, since there is no consensus on its political status which is one of the major stumbling blocks to finding a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The purpose of this article is not to propose a solution to the political conflict of which Jerusalem is part, but rather to argue for the central place that should be devoted to tourism in a future solution, and within that, to emphasize the involvement and cooperation of the public in the processes of tourism management and development and how in the case of Jerusalem it should be implemented in East Jerusalem and particularly in the Old City.     

Tourism between divided nations: An examination of stereotyping on destination image

This research examines the interplay of tourism and political conflicts in the context of two historically politically divided nations. Specifically, this research investigates the effect of stereotyping on destination image as well as the moderating role of previous destination experience. Results revealed that international stereotype had a direct effect on cognitive and affective images and indirect effects on travel intention, while the effects of stereotyping were equally strong among visitors and non-visitors. These findings suggest that even when inter-governmental relations have been gradually normalized people might still perceive their former rival nation as hostile, which can negatively influence their destination images of the nation.     

Investigating the Structural Relationships among Authenticity,Loyalty, Involvement,and Attitude toward World Cultural Heritage Sites: An Empirical Study of Nanjing Xiaoling Tomb,China

This study examined the relationships among authenticity, loyalty, involvement, and attitude toward world cultural heritage sites (WCHS), as well as the relevance between two basic authenticity concepts in cultural heritage tourism, that is, constructive authenticity and existential authenticity. A structural model was proposed, in which authenticity is regarded as a key mediating construct between attitude and loyalty. The data were collected by a self-administrated questionnaire survey at one of the WCHS in China – Nanjing Xiaoling Tomb Scenic Area. The structural equation modeling method was employed to test the research model and the hypotheses with the sample data. The results indicate that involvement, attitude, and existential authenticity have significant effects on tourists' loyalty to the world cultural heritage visitation and that constructive authenticity and existential authenticity are significantly related. The theoretical and management implications of authenticity are also discussed in this paper.     

Cross-cultural negotiations in the hospitality industry: the Japanese market

The growing importance of travel and tourism to the economy of the United Kingdom is widely acknowledged. The increasing contribution made by travellers from Japan to the income of this industry has also been acknowledged. The authors review the guidance given in the literature to those responsible for negotiations with representatives of the Japanese market and compare this with their own findings obtained from interviews at senior management level in London hotels for which the Japanese market represents a significant proportion of their business. It emerges that certain guidelines can be identified which will help managers in the hospitality industry prepare themselves for negotiations with the greater probability of a successful outcome.     

Educational travel: The Overseas Internship

An important objective of educational travel programs is to teach students how to bridge cultural distance. Research remains inconclusive to what extent and under what circumstances students actually learn from educational travel experiences. This paper examines the influence of cultural distance on the perceived learning effects of the overseas internship, specifically cross-cultural competencies and management skills. It is shown that asymmetric cultural distance and psychic distance have a negative relationship with the perceived learning of management skills and interaction with locals. Students traveling to low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in particular tend to face difficulties.     

Attitude towards immigrants and security: Effects on destination-loyal tourists

This study was conducted in the midst of a surge of undocumented immigrants into a popular seasonal migrant destination in the U.S. and the subsequent state response of adding security forces. Factors examined include the effects of the role of media in shaping perceptions about security forces, perceptions about security force effectiveness, perceptions of undocumented immigrants and political orientation. The study of 413 respondents found that attitudes toward undocumented immigrants affect felt safety in the region, likelihood of recommending and returning to the region. Perceptions of the effectiveness of the security forces were important in affecting likelihood of recommending the region to others but not return intention. These and other findings contribute significantly to the scant research on both effectiveness of crises management responses and on effects of perceptions of undocumented immigrants on traveler behavior.     

Understanding Medical Tourists in Korea: Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Medical Tourism among Patients from the USA,Russia, Japan,and China

A cross-cultural approach is adopted to examine factors related to perceptions of and attitudes toward medical tourism by American, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese tourists to Korea. Results from a survey with a sample of 883 tourists show that respondents' overall attitudes significantly differ across the four nations. Russian patients hold most positive attitudes, followed by Chinese and Japanese. Major perceptual factors are found to have different effects on overall attitudes among respondents. While travel-related risks are the most influential factor among Russian, Japanese, and Chinese patients, Americans are influenced mostly by health-related risks. American and Japanese attitudes are also affected by cost factor but not by convenience factor. On the other hand, convenience factor significantly affects Russian and Chinese attitudes. Additionally, post-operative risk, access to information, and availability of procedures have different effects across the four nations. Possible explanations and practical implications are discussed in conjunction with the cultural contexts of the four nations.     

Safety,security and peace tourism: The case of the DMZ area

It comes as no surprise that peace and tourism is an important topic today in tourism literature. Despite the strength of global tourist demand, many destinations, especially in the developing world, are facing fluctuations in tourist arrivals, due to unsafe political conditions. This study discusses the symbiosis between tourism and peace and its opposite, war, and the likely impacts of each condition on several tourist destinations. A turbulent security environment, caused by international and civil wars, coup d'etat and terrorist attacks has already demonstrated its negative impact on tourism development in many countries around the world (Taylor & Quayle, 1994). The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between safety, tranquility, peace, and successful tourism, using surveys completed by both international and domestic tourists. More specifically, it is about the effects of the absence of safety, security and peace on domestic and international tourism in the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) area. The general findings demonstrate that the subjects of the study view the implication of the existence of a peaceful environment on tourism favourably.     

Regaining Missed Opportunities: The Role of Tourism in Post-war Development in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had the opportunity to become one of the best tourism countries (TCs) in Asia immediately after independence in 1948. However, it missed opportunities on a number of occasions due to inappropriate economic policies, continuous political violence and war. Between 1983 and May 2009 the Sri Lankan tourism sector was seriously affected by nearly three decades of separatist war. Immediately after the end of the war, tourism in Sri Lanka bounced back and it has now become one of the main engines of economic growth in post-war Sri Lanka. In this article, a historical analysis has been undertaken to demonstrate how, despite its large tourism potential, Sri Lanka missed opportunities and fell far behind its Asian counterparts on a number of occasions. This article demonstrates that opportunities exist for the Sri Lankan tourism sector to play a vital role in the current post-war inclusive development strategy in terms of generating much needed foreign exchange, poverty alleviation via employment generation, accelerating economic growth and uplifting living standards of all Sri Lankans.