Residents' attitudes towards an instant resort enclave

Researchers have suggested that residents' attitudes towards tourism depend on the expected costs and benefits of tourism. While many studies have examined this proposition towards the later stages of development, few have examined the pre-tourism phase. This study used in-depth interviews with residents of Isabela, Puerto Rico, to examine their attitudes towards a proposed “instant” enclave resort in their community. At the time the research was conducted, Isabela was the planned site of the largest resort in the Caribbean. Results indicate that respondents are aware of both some of the positive and negative impacts of tourism, and are quite ambivalent about the planned tourist site.     

Resident attitudes to tourism in North Wales

This article investigates residents' attitudes to tourism in North Wales, using factor analysis. The most important concerns are found to be a negative social impact, economic input, stereo-typing of visitors, purchasing of second homes by foreigners, cultural exchange, and the ecological impact of tourism. Lifelong residents and Welsh language speakers tend to be more sensitive to the impact of tourism on their culture and residents in high density tourist areas tend to appreciate the benefits and importance of tourism more than those who have less contact with tourists.     

Resident attitudes toward sustainable community tourism

This study examined, using social exchange theory, a range of variables involved in determining resident attitudes toward tourism development and the adoption of sustainable tourism. After a comprehensive review of the literature on the role of residents in tourism development, and of the use of social exchange theory, 430 completed questionnaires obtained in a Texas town involved in tourism were analyzed. A structural equation model was utilized to understand the effects of selected components of sustainability on the attitudes of the respondents about future tourism development and to test hypothesized causal relationships among the variables. The findings revealed that three major components of sustainable tourism, namely long-term planning, full community participation and environmental sustainability within tourism, are critically related to support for tourism and to the positive and negative impacts of tourism. The paper uses the findings to suggest critical implications that local governments need to consider when developing tourism.     

The effect of on-site experience and place attachment on loyalty: Evidence from Chinese tourists in a hot-spring resort

As an antecedent of place attachment, on-site experience plays a key role in obtaining customer loyalty in the context of a hot-spring resort operation. However, few studies have addressed the consequences of on-site experience in terms of its components and examined empirically the relationship between on-site experience and place attachment. This study was focused on ascertaining the dimensions of on-site experience and examining the relationship between on-site experience and loyalty through place attachment. A conceptualization of on-site experience is proposed, with three dimensions: environmental experience, on-site self-related experience, and on-site social interaction. The results revealed interesting relationships between components of on-site experience and place attachment. Finally, managerial implications of the results are discussed for managers of hot-spring resorts.     

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.     

Sensation seeking and the prediction of attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists

Although socio-economic variables are commonly used for market segmentation and are widely applied in describing winery visitors, increasing awareness is evident in the literature that personality might also be useful for that purpose. The present study examined whether, compared with socio-economic variables (age, gender, education level, personal income, and household income), the personality variable sensation seeking adds to the ability to predict differences in various attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists. With the effects of the former controlled, sensation seeking was observed to be significantly related to spending on wine, and wine drinking, as well as to the frequency of visits to wineries and the number of activities engaged in at wineries, the use of the internet as a source of information about wineries, venturing off the beaten track during a visit to a wine region, and the strength of opportunity for learning, stimulation, or indulgence as incentives to visit a wine region. Sensation seeking was also observed to be significantly related to all but one of those variables when the effects of another variable which is receiving increasing attention as a means by which to characterize wine tourists, “involvement”, were controlled. The practical significance of the results for winery and wine region marketing and management is discussed, and several requirements for further research are identified.     

Encouraging behavioural change towards sustainable tourism: a German approach to free public transport for tourists

Constantly growing transport demand by tourists within holiday destinations and related increases in CO₂ emissions have helped foster a new trend amongst German destinations towards promoting a green transportation mode for vacationers. A key innovation is the “Gästeticket” or Guest Ticket concept, which offers tourists free public transport, on buses and trains, within defined destination areas throughout their stay. This paper describes the background to this concept, and the many different ways in which it has been created, designed, implemented and administered. A qualitative research methodology interviewed key public and private sector stakeholders, including local and regional politicians, accommodation providers, public transport providers and public transport authorities to identify favourable starting conditions, successful financial and institutional implementation strategies, and both supporters and opponents of guest tickets. Local politicians and many small accommodation providers opposed the concept, while regional and national politicians supported it, as did public transport providers and public transport authorities. The concept is compared to the more holistic Alpine Pearls concept founded in Austria, and the case made for better explanation of the Guest Ticket concept to its opponents, better marketing, further research and closer cooperation between transport providers and planners with tourism attractions and accommodation providers.     

Resort hotel service performance (RESERVE) – an instrument to measure tourists’ perceived service performance of resort hotels

Based upon a rigorous psychometric process of scale development through preliminary qualitative studies and a subsequent survey in the resort hotel setting, the authors propose the RESERVE scale as a comprehensive instrument for assessing resort hotel service performance. The proposed scale conceptualizes resort hotel service performance as a second-order, three-dimensional construct that assesses tourists' perceptions of setting, audience, and actors. The data supports the dimensional structure of RESERVE, providing empirical evidence for the scale's validity. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications and future research directions.     

An analysis of attitudes towards management during culture shifts

Based on the principles of the Social Exchange Theory, the purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to investigate the underlying dimensions of employees’ attitudes towards management factors during a time of organizational change with a focus on culture shift, and (2) to evaluate the relationships of these dimensions with job satisfaction and job recommendation. The data were gathered from 1807 employees of a world-wide hospitality company with 744 hotels. The online survey instrument was utilized. Analyses included factor and multiple regression. Study findings enabled the development of an “attitude towards management” scale during culture shifts. The findings of the research introduce and conceptualize the culture shift term within the hospitality industry context. Results also validate the efficacy of the Social Exchange Theory in predicting and explaining the attitudes of employees during the organizational change process. Additionally, findings suggest key strategies for hotel businesses to successfully manage an organizational change.     

Evolutionary and socio-cultural influences on feelings and attitudes towards nature: a cross-cultural study

Mounting environmental issues have prompted reconsideration of the human–nature relationship. Accordingly, attitudes to nature, as an important dimension of human–nature interactions, have become a research focus. How feelings and attitudes towards nature are influenced by evolutionary and social-cultural constructions, and whether there is variation between different cultural groups, demands more attention. Using a survey of visitors to two very different National Parks, the New Forest National Park, England and Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, China, this paper shows that of nationality and living environment, differences between the two nationalities were significant in respect of both attitudes and feelings. Specifically, it demonstrates that the biophilia thesis, which purports that people have an innate and a genetically inherited need for affiliation with nature, is influenced by their socio-cultural environment, in particular their national culture, but also by their current living place. The study contributes to our understanding of sustainable tourism in natural areas.     

Subjective food-risk judgements in tourists

Sources of risk in contemporary tourism vary over a long array of phenomena ranging from the risk of terror attacks to risks related to food and consumption. Currently, alleged food-risk sources such as Creutzfeldt–Jacobs Disease (CJD; commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”), Salmonella, Scrapie disease and even genetically modified food are salient in mass media.In the present study, we addressed the pervasiveness of tourists’ judgements of such food-related risks. As part of a larger study, some 1880 individual tourists (from 48 different nations) answered a questionnaire pertaining to food-risk issues. Based on the logics of the availability heuristic, we expected that food risks would be judged to be lower in one's own home country than abroad. We also expected that people would rate various sources for food risk differently when rating food risks at home and abroad.The results indicate that risks linked to food are indeed perceived to be higher abroad than at home, regardless of where the respondents’ homes are, although attributions of risk to the various risk sources seem to vary between at home and abroad. The results also show a significant, but moderate correlation between travel experience and food-risk judgements abroad and at home. The results also indicate cultural differences in risk judgements concerning food.     

Impact of distance on the arrivals,behaviours and attitudes of international tourists in Hong Kong: A longitudinal approach

This study revisits the impact of distance on international tourist behaviours in Hong Kong. This work divides and cross-validates the concept of distance into physical and cultural distance. This work also proposes an alternative cultural distance measure by introducing optimal weight amongst Hofstede's dimensions and then compares the proposed measure with the traditional Kogut and Singh's and Kandogan's measures. By using data from the Visitor Profile Report of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the World Trade Organisation from 2002 to 2017, along with latent growth curve modelling, multivariate regression and panel data analysis, findings confirmed the significant role of physical and cultural distance. In addition, quadratic relationships are detected using cross-validation methods. The effect of physical distance on tourist demands clearly dominates that of cultural distance in the overall market. The problem of spurious correlation and the results of three cultural distance measures are also discussed.     

Managerial attitudes towards environmental management among small and medium hotels in Kuala Lumpur

Empirical work on the acceptance of environmental impacts and responsibilities by hotels in developing countries is still relatively rare. There is also little work on understanding the relationship between business and environment among small and medium hotel companies. This research helps fill the knowledge gap by providing information on the responsiveness of small and medium hotels towards environmental management within the context of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, It explores the awareness and attitudes of small and medium hotel managers towards environmental management and their opinion on how things can be improved. Questionnaires containing Likert scale questions, supplemented by open-ended questions, were personally administered to willing participants. The findings indicate that respondents generally tend to provide positive response to the Likert scale questions, but refused or were unable to give clear answers to the open-ended questions which were designed to explore further the answers they provided. In practice, managers also did not go beyond the basic common sense of cutting their water and energy costs. These indicate a lack of clear and adequate knowledge about environmental management, and their tendency to be “politically correct” in relation to environmental issues. The paper ends with recommendations on how to improve the environmental management knowledge and know-how among managers of small and medium hotels.     

Are sustainable tourists a higher spending market?

Resistance to sustainability practices often stems from the industry's view that sustainable tourism requires a profitability tradeoff where the additional costs associated with sustainability do not pay off in increased economic returns, yet few studies have been attempted to prove or disprove this viewpoint. This study analyzed spending patterns and length of stay of visitors to Montana, USA to determine if strong geotravelers (higher sustainable behaviors) were different than those with less sustainable behaviors. Results found that total trip spending by strong geotravelers (US $1164) was significantly higher than the overall spending of both moderate (US $866) and minimal geotravelers (US $668). These findings suggest that sustainable travelers are a travel market to be reckoned with in the tourism marketing and business world. The combination of their pro-sustainable behavior and increased spending provides evidence of a market segment in which destinations can benefit.     

Ecosophy and tourism: Rethinking a mountain resort

This paper explores how an ecosophically inspired tourism strategy could enhance a Scottish mountain recreational site threatened by climate change. Drawing on qualitative data, the paper focuses on three research questions concerning: the impact of current infrastructure and management strategies on tourist experiences; tourists’ current interpretations and desires; and how the notion of an ecosophically informed tourist attraction might be realised in the light of these experiences, interpretations and desires. Conclusions indicate that the site is a long way from being an ecosophically inspired tourism resort which might foster an engagement with nature. Insights are provided as to how this might be achieved. Critical to the paper is a consideration of how the ‘packaging’ of tourist experiences militates against a meaningful personal connection with the mountain environment.     

Modeling community support for a proposed integrated resort project

In recent years Mauritius has experienced a rapid increase in integrated resort developments, which have been intended to secure income from new tourism segments and to boost the local economy. Using data on the responses of residents of Le Morne, Mauritius, to a proposal to construct an integrated resort, this study develops and tests a model of community support for the proposed development. The structural model indicates that residents' satisfaction with their own community, their utilization of the resource base, their perceptions of the state of the local economy and their environmental attitudes are antecedents of their views about the costs and benefits of the project. Opinions about the benefits and costs of the project were also found to determine the level of community support. All factors in the model were found to be determinants of the perceived costs and benefits of the project, except for residents' perceptions of the impact of the development on their utilization of the resource base. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed. The most notable contribution of the study is its findings on the influence of residents' satisfaction with community services on their attitudes and support for tourism development.     

Managing tourists and politicians in India

This article describes one approach to matching the needs of foreign tourists and local communities in India—ldstar circuits” (a way of routeing tourists around a collection of sites) and condominium hotels (a way of allowing locals to participate in providing a range of tourist services). Also discussed are some of the problems that arise when Indian politicians consider tourism projects.     

Causes and consequences of underutilised capacity in a tourist resort development

There is a widespread presumption that the development of tourism resorts brings direct and indirect benefits to the area where they are located. There has been extensive critical discussion about the magnitude and distribution of these benefits. This paper adds to knowledge of these benefits by investigating the causes of under-utilisation of tourist resort capacity, typified by the problem of “empty beds”. Many owners of holiday homes in tourist resorts choose not to rent out their property when they are not making personal use of it, thereby reducing income earning potential of businesses in the area. This paper reports on a qualitative and quantitative study of holiday home owners at a ski resort in France. While personal use of properties was low, 40% of owners had never rented out their property. Analysis of the data converged on four emergent themes to explain this apparent reluctance to rent out: fears about the social habits of renters; issues of freedom and flexibility in use of their property; life course changes which forced renting/non-renting decisions; and financial issues. Financial issues were not a driver of investment/rental decisions, but derived from other social and lifestyle factors. The paper makes suggestions about how resort management can help to reduce owners' reluctance to rent, and thereby alleviate problems associated with empty beds.