Self-catering accommodation in Switzerland

This article examines the situation of self-catering accommodation in the light of tourist experience in Switzerland. Swiss tourism is currently declining, and so are traditional forms of accommodation such as hotels. At the same time there is evidence that the demand for self-catering holiday properties is increasing. Yet very little is known about this sector in Switzerland. The present paper attempts to identify the number of Swiss self-catering properties and presents the results of interviews and an on-line survey, which shed light on this industry and allows the situation in Switzerland to be compared with that in other countries. The number of holiday homes in Switzerland has increased steadily since the 1980s, and could provide a valuable source of rented property and local income. The Swiss self-catering industry is highly seasonal, although rental properties are mostly available all year round. Swiss accommodation is relatively small and expensive, partly because the rent usually includes laundry and other services, not offered in other countries. Owners often rent to offset the cost of upkeep, rather than to make a profit, and this attitude is reflected in the fragmented and rather unprofessional nature of marketing, representation and communications in the sector. A number of recommendations are made for developing the industry, based on the findings.     

‘Tourism poverty’ in affluent societies: Voices from inner-city London

There is now a significant body of work analysing the multifaceted connections between tourism and poverty in less developed economies. Far fewer studies discuss the relationships between tourism and poverty in the world’s affluent societies and most of these concentrate on social tourism and on the benefits of these holidays for deprived and marginalised groups. This paper provides an insight into the experiences of families unable to afford any form of paid holiday away from home. Based on participant-driven interviews with 20 low-income parents living in a deprived area of Inner London, the paper reveals that for these individuals exclusion from tourism makes a clear contribution to their children’s exclusion from everyday norms as holidays are regarded as part of contemporary British family life. The study discusses policy and business implications and suggests further investigation of trans-generational ‘tourism poverty’.     

Advertising and farm-based accommodation: a British case study

Research into farm diversification typically considers aspects of marketing at a generalized level. This exploratory article focuses specifically on farm-based accommodation to provide a detailed exploration of advertising strategies employed by farm businesses in the promotion of this enterprise. Drawing upon evidence from a survey of over 200 farm businesses in three English counties, types of advertising media are considered and their relative benefits evaluated. Results show that from the complex range of available options, holiday accommodation ‘guidebooks’ produced by private companies and organizations represent the most popular methods of advertising used by farm businesses. However, the success of individual guidebooks in generating custom was highly variable between the different study areas. Cooperative marketing groups provide important advertising alternatives to guidebooks, mainly for bed and breakfast and self-catering operators. Overall, the need to advertise accommodation enterprises actively means that many farm family businesses develop closer interactions with external agents from the nonagricultural sector.     

The self-catering accommodation market: A review of electronic and other sources

This paper contributes to a better understanding the self-catering accommodation sector by considering its nature and scope within Scotland, the UK and the international context. It reviews the available literature search and also presents an exhaustive search of the Internet. The term “self catering accommodation” typically refers to cottages and holiday flats, but also may include larger premises as well as mobile units such as boats. Student accommodation comes into this category, as do serviced apartments for business use. Self-catered accommodation is widely used for activity holidays, and courses for outward-bound or country pursuits. The sector is considered in terms of economic impact, ownership, and mode of use, and an analysis of the market shows that it has grown and changed rapidly since the 1980s driven by changes in the economy and advances in technology. During the same period demand has increased due to demographic, economic and lifestyle changes, the predominant segments being older and middle-aged customers and young couples without children. The growth of short break holidays and a growing interest in country pursuits and activity holidays favour the self-catering sector.     

Holidays of older gay men: Age or sexual orientation as decisive factors?

Studies of holidays by gay men and lesbians reflect the characteristics and tourism profiles of younger persons. Invariably such studies show intensive holiday-taking and a desire for gay space when on holiday. Existing specialist product offer is targeted at this younger market by a small number of specialist tour operators. In this UK-based study, the requirements and current holiday profile of older gay men were examined. Studies of older gay men identified various views about lifestyles including both lonely, closeted individuals and well-adjusted individuals with surrogate families. Studies of ‘mainstream’ senior tourists implied intensive and experiential holiday-taking. On the basis of this literature it was postulated that the tourism profile of older gay men would be ‘positive’. The study was undertaken through interviews conducted with 23 men over the age of 35. It was concluded that holiday requirements were similar to those of other older people but with the further dimension of gay-friendliness. Informants felt there were opportunities for specialist and other tour operators to develop products and for destinations to be positioned appropriately for an older gay man's market.     

Weather perceptions,holiday satisfaction and perceived attractiveness of domestic vacationing in The Netherlands

Despite variable and relatively cool summer weather, domestic vacations in countries around the North Sea are an important type of tourism. However, relations between weather and domestic tourism in this region remain understudied. A quantitative research (n = 326) among domestic camping tourists in The Netherlands explores perceived personal significance of the weather, operationalized as Weather Salience (WxS), and its relation with attractiveness of domestic vacationing, adaptive touristic behavior and perceived differences between home and destination. Results show that WxS relates positively to attitudes toward domestic tourism and to holiday satisfaction. While higher levels of WxS enhance feelings of being away from home due to the weather, lower WxS increases indifference about holiday weather. Weather differences between home and destination are perceived but depend on region, accommodation type and WxS levels. Implications for (domestic) tourism climatology research are discussed and potential lessons for stakeholders employing tourism activities in temperate climates are provided.     

The relationship between Islamic religiosity and residents’ perceptions of socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Iran: Case studies of Sare’in and Masooleh

Religion is known to influence people’s perception and behaviour. This study explores the influence of Islamic religiosity (measured on dimensions of ‘Islamic Belief’, ‘Islamic Practice’, and ‘Islamic Piety’) on the perceived socio-cultural impacts of tourism among residents in two tourist areas in Iran. The results showed that respondents both possessed a high level of Islamic Belief and perceived socio-cultural impacts of tourism positively. The propositions which stated that ‘Islamic Belief’ and ‘Islamic Practice’ have negative relationships with the perceptions of socio-cultural impacts of tourism are not supported. However levels of ‘Islamic Piety’ had statistically significant variations relating to potential changes in infrastructure, life quality and cultural practices that may be due to tourism. This paper also discusses the implications of its findings.     

The influence of dance music on the UK youth tourism market

Today's young people are influenced by a variety of factors when considering a holiday. During the late 1980s and 1990s we have witnessed a rise in recreational drug use and the move in music taste towards repetitive rhythms of re-mix DJs creating their music from synthesized tunes on records and CDs. The ‘Big Name’ DJs such as Sasha, Pete Tong, Danny Rampling, etc. are superstars within today's youth culture and receive wages to match their status. During the past 5–10 years, we have also witnessed a move towards young people taking holidays to pursue their interest in Dance Music and to follow their favourite DJ to wherever in Europe, or the world, they may be playing. Often the established night-clubs within countries will seek to attract these DJs, but sometimes special holidays are packaged by tour operators with a distinct Dance Music theme, highlighting famous ‘superclubs’ such as Cream and Ministry of Sound. Radio stations are also becoming involved, especially London's well known Dance Music station ‘Kiss FM’ who, in conjunction with a tour operator, offer a distinct Dance Music tourism experience.     

Foreign travelers’ satisfaction with traditional Korean restaurants

Despite the tourism growth in Korea, foreign travelers remain dissatisfied with Korean restaurants. Accordingly, this research investigates the factors influencing foreign travelers’ satisfaction with traditional Korean restaurants. Using a modified SERVQUAL scale, three dimensions of service quality (‘intangibles’, ‘tangibles’, and ‘food’) as well as expectation and value for money appear to positively influence foreign travelers’ satisfaction with traditional Korean restaurants. In turn, foreign travelers’ satisfaction has a positive influence on both their intention to revisit and their intention to recommend. The results of this study are useful to help restaurants develop strategies to strengthen foreign travelers’ satisfaction with their experience at traditional Korean restaurants.     

‘Empirical characteristics’ of scholarly journals in hospitality and tourism research: An assessment

The objective of this study is to describe the ‘empirical characteristics’ of scholarly journals in hospitality and tourism research by assessing selected journals. A sample of scholarly journals was selected on the basis of journal ranking lists. The ‘empirical characteristics’ assessed in this study were found to be variable across the studied journals.     

The impact of seasonality on tourism and hospitality operations in the alpine region of New South Wales,Australia

Despite the recognized importance of seasonality for tourism businesses, there has been a distinct lack of studies undertaken in the past that discuss the impact of seasonality on alpine accommodation resorts, and more specifically that focus on an Australian location. The main purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the Australian alpine accommodation providers and ski operations have been significantly impacted by the issue of seasonality and to determine more specifically, had there been industry pressure placed on them to become all season operations? For this study, a total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers of hospitality businesses located in the sub-alpine region of Jindabyne, and nearby alpine areas of Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales, Australia. Study results indicated that the majority of managers acknowledged the fact that there has been an increase in the number of summer visitors each year which has pressured them to make changes to their operations. They conceded that such activity has served to reinforce a ‘stand alone’ mindset which was still prevalent amongst the majority of the managers in the region.     

Benefits of visiting a ‘dark tourism’ site: The case of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park, Korea

This research examines visitor experiences at a contemporary dark tourism site: the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorializing one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. The study employed quantitative and qualitative research methods, with 46 semi-structured interviews forming the basis of a questionnaire, and 407 valid questionnaires obtained for data analysis. The implications of the findings are firstly that ‘obligation’ remains a key motivation for a visit, with a number of subsequent visitor benefits also identified. Secondly, that a benefit-based approach provides an effective framework for comprehending visitor experiences in dark tourism contexts. And thirdly, that a ‘hot interpretation’ of visitor experiences in dark tourism contexts remains particularly valid for comprehending visitor experiences, and in turn, for effectively designing and managing dark tourism sites within Asia and more generally.     

Web-based GIS in tourism information search: Perceptions,tasks, and trip attributes

People’s strategies and choices to utilize tourism information have shifted dramatically over the years following ubiquitous access to the Internet. Despite the fact that many tourism information searches on the Internet involve geo-spatial information through WebGIS, little is known about tourists’ behavioral patterns with this media. The purpose of this study was to examine tourists’ trip situations, tasks, and perceptions toward WebGIS. An electronic survey method and multiple regression technique were used to collect and analyze data. Findings indicate that ‘usefulness’ and ‘playfulness’ were the key factors that determined the level of usage and interaction. Users showed distinct behavioral tendencies under different trip situations and task performances when searching tourism information using WebGIS.     

Perceptions of place,modernity and the impacts of tourism – Differences among rural and urban residents of Ankang,China: A likelihood ratio analysis

This paper reports results from a survey of urban and rural residents’ of the perceived impacts of change induced by tourism in Ankang, China. The paper will initially indicate the literature that informed the research and the geographical context of the study. Second, results derived from a questionnaire that incorporated both open-ended and closed questions will be presented. The concepts that informed the research were derived from past similar studies, place attachment and senses of modernity. Initial analysis showed no differences between urban and rural residents, both on impact assessment scales and categorical data derived from the coding of responses to open-ended questions. Overall it was found that residents had favourable attitudes toward tourism. The use of comparison based likelihood ratios did reveal some nuanced differences between ‘high’ and ‘low scorers’ relating to the issues of economic development and pollution independent of place of residence but based on a sense of that place of residence being ‘special’. The total number of respondents was 474. Implications for future studies are discussed and include comments on the need for direct contact and observation.     

Off-season tourists and the cultural offer of a mass-tourism destination: The case of Rimini

This paper assesses the potential implications on off-season tourism of enhancing the cultural offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination hosting about 12 million overnight stays per year. Since more than 9 million of these stays are concentrated in the summer season, in the last 20 years. Rimini has been undergoing a policy of seasonality smoothing, which mainly pivots around business and cultural tourism. This assessment has been carried out through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of about 800 tourists who visited Rimini outside the summer months. Since tourism can be viewed as a composite good, which overall utility depends on how the component characteristics are arranged, the choice experiments allow to disentangle the importance and the willingness to pay of tourists for different attributes of the holiday. The choice model incorporates a number of possible changes to actual tourism features (which are also the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative “holiday packages”. The conditional logit analysis of the choice experiments can highlight any synergy or trade-off between cultural and business tourism. Results suggest that business and leisure tourists share many features related to the use of the territory, while there are important trade-offs between these two groups and cultural tourists. Since business tourists have a higher willingness to extend their stay, a softer budget, and their demand is also complementary to the demand of summer tourists (Brau, Scorcu, & Vici, 2009), from the destination point of view investing in this market segment would be the best option. Although a “second best”, however, cultural tourists share with the local population of Rimini many aspects of the demand of territory (Figini, Castellani, & Vici, 2009). Hence, cultural tourism can play a fundamental role in the intermediate season as a tool for smoothing seasonality, to diversify investments and to give value to the city’s cultural heritage.     

Tourist accommodation price setting in Australian strata titled properties

Strata title units (dwelling complexes in which individual units are owned by small investors) represent the vast bulk of Australian self-catering tourism units. In many areas, such as Australia's Gold Coast, strata title owned properties have overtaken hotels as the most popular form of tourist accommodation (Warnken, J., Russell, R., Faulkner, B., 2003. Condominium developments in maturing destinations: potentials and problems of long term sustainability. Tourism Management 24, 155–168).     

Understanding Japanese tourists’ shopping preferences using the Decision Tree Analysis method

This study was designed to assess the factors affecting Japanese tourists’ shopping preference and intention to revisit Korea. The analytical method applied in this study was Decision Tree Analysis, which is under-utilized in tourism studies. A total of 300 questionnaires were collected on the basis of on-site survey method and used for data analysis. Among interesting findings, three groups including ‘respondents who were satisfied, accompanied, and spent US$50–300 on shopping’, ‘respondents who were satisfied, accompanied, and had a shopping expenditure of US$300–1000’ and ‘respondents who were satisfied, accompanied, and had a shopping expenditure of US$1000–5000,’ showed a high level of intention to return to Korea for the purpose of shopping. In addition, two groups ‘those who were interested in shopping in Korea, preferred a shopping mall as a shopping destination, and had an educational level of below high school’ and ‘those who were interested in shopping in Korea, preferred a shopping mall as a shopping destination, and had an educational level of a college graduate or above’ showed a higher level interest in merchandise than in shopping venue attractiveness.     

Revisiting the convergence hypothesis for tourism markets: Evidence from Turkey using the pairwise approach

This paper empirically revisits the tourism markets convergence hypothesis (Narayan, 2006) for the case of Turkey by employing the newly developed pairwise approach to the analysis of stochastic convergence ( [Pesaran, 2007] and [Pesaran et?al., 2009]). This new approach allows for unit root tests to be conducted on all possible pairs of tourist arrival differentials across Turkey’s 20 major tourist source markets, thus avoiding the need to choose a base source market or total tourist arrivals figure as the benchmark. Using monthly data over the period January 1996 to December 2009, the main finding is that despite considerable ‘co-movement’ of international tourist arrivals in Turkey, there is no evidence of long-run ‘convergence’ among Turkey’s major tourism markets. Cluster-based club convergence analyses alongside bivariate pairwise estimations confirm the lack of convergence and highlight specific tourist source markets with considerable untapped potential. These findings have profound policy implications for Turkey’s inbound tourism planning and promotion.     

Holiday Home Owners,a Route to Sustainable Tourism Development? An Economic Analysis of Tourist Expenditure Data

Although sustainable tourism comprises economic, social and environmental aspects, economic analysis has been less evident in the literature. This paper takes an economic perspective to evaluate the contribution of holiday home owners to a local economy. Tourism destinations which are at the mature stages of the tourism lifecycle wish to maximise revenue from tourism while minimising costs such as overcrowding. A prime objective has to be to attract the more economically valuable tourists. In this paper an analysis of North Wexford in Ireland poses questions such as: How does the holiday home owners’ expenditure in the local area compare to that of traditional tourists? Do they purchase different types of goods? What levels of local expenditure do holiday home owners engage in for the upkeep or development of their second properties? What are the implications of these findings? The results show that there are clear economic benefits for an area that people deem attractive enough to build or purchase a holiday home in. This type of tourist has a high annual spend relative to other tourists and much of this expenditure seems to be concentrated in the local area. These findings need to be incorporated into the broader debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of holiday home owners and the possibility of them comprising a route to sustainable development for local tourist areas.     

Rethinking social impacts of tourism research: A new research agenda

Understanding the social impacts of tourism on communities is extremely important for government at all levels so that action can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a community backlash against tourists and tourism development. Given that the residents of many tourism destinations are a fundamental part of the tourism ‘product’, resident attitudes and behaviour have a sizable impact on the success or otherwise of a destination. Research on the social impacts of tourism on communities is substantial and ongoing and while advances have been made in the area, the research has not addressed some of the deep seated issues faced by tourist destinations. This paper provides a critique of the social impact of tourism literature, highlighting the inadequacies in the research that has been conducted to date, which then leads to the development of a new conceptual framework. The paper traces the key developments in social impact research and argues that the predominance of quantitative methods potentially limits our ability to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impacts and how they influence both the host community and tourists. The paper finds that the quantitative focus from previous social impact research has led to a narrow understanding of the issues surrounding social impacts and proposes a new research agenda based on ‘layers’ of social impact understanding through the use of ethnography or phenomenology. The paper concludes with recommendations to progress social impact research beyond simply describing the issues towards explanations of why they occur by suggesting that social impact research examine, in greater depth, the values and intrinsic characteristics of the host residents.