Self-efficacy and sustainable rural tourism development: local communities’ perspectives from Kuching,Sarawak

The future of the tourism industry is dependent on local communities’ ability to develop and sustain tourism developments, especially in sensitive rural areas. But there is limited research on this topic to guide tourism authorities and governments. In particular, few studies have studied sustainable rural tourism development from the perspective of the local communities. Therefore, this study examines local communities’ views on their capability to achieve sustainable rural tourism development in selected rural areas in Kuching, Sarawak. Questionnaires were distributed to the local communities residing at three rural tourism destinations in Kuching, Sarawak. Interestingly, the results indicated that local communities’ self-efficacy has a positive relationship with social, cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability. Hence, this study offers theoretical and practical contributions to sustainable rural tourism development literature and the tourism industry.     

The decarbonisation impasse: global tourism leaders’ views on climate change mitigation

Abstract

The Paris Climate Agreement is based on pledges from 195 countries to substantially reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) to prevent dangerous climate change. The tourism sector has likewise pledged to reduce its GHG emissions (?70% by 2050); however, current emission trends would result in a tripling in the same timeframe. In order to understand how the sector understands the decarbonisation challenge, 17 senior tourism leaders were interviewed with regard to their perspectives on the risks and opportunities associated with climate change impacts and action. Respondents affirmed that the climate is already changing, fuelled by human activities, including tourism, and that its impacts on society and tourism will be largely negative and devastating in some regions. Opinion was divided regarding mitigation timelines, the compatibility of continued tourism growth with Paris Climate Agreement decarbonisation goals, and the role of technology and governance in reducing emissions. The paper examines leaders’ perspectives in terms of “belief systems” that interpret information in decision-making, as well as forms of agnogenesis; this is, the fabrication of uncertainty to justify non-action. Belief systems and agnogenesis are thought to represent important barriers to progress on the decarbonisation of tourism, as they are for the global low-carbon transition.     

Emerging youth tourism: fostering young travelers’ conservation intentions

Greening is one of the most important issues faced by the tourism industry today. Nevertheless, theoretical and empirical research on young travelers’ sustainable behaviors is scarce. This study developed a conceptual framework involving biospheric value, environmental concern, environmental awareness, ascribed responsibility, and moral norm in order to better explain young travelers’ pro-environmental decision-making process. A total of seven hypotheses were proposed and tested using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that the postulated theoretical model satisfactorily accounted for three dimensions of young tourists’ environmentally responsible intentions; the study variables are all significantly related; and the mediating impact of moral norm and environmental concern was evident. Moreover, the prominent role of moral norm in forming intentions was noteworthy. Our findings from the invariance test further indicated that environmental awareness and ascribed responsibility acted as moderators. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Persian literary heritage tourism: travel agents’ perspectives in Shiraz,Iran

Literature is a cultural component and literary niche tourism is a novel strategy for preserving and transferring literature heritage. This research has four major purposes: (1) to discover why Shiraz can be a destination for promoting literary tourism in Iran; (2) to identify strategies for stimulating this niche tourism; (3) to measure travel agents’ awareness of literary tourism; and (4) to investigate the attitude of travel agent managers towards this niche market. The results illustrated that travel agents are interested in the literary tourism development and they have a high interest in offering and organizing literary tours for tourists, but they are not familiar with this concept.     

Analysing stakeholders’ perceptions of golf-course-based tourism: A proposal for developing sustainable tourism projects

Social interpretations of the impact of development on territories differ according to the socio-political positions of different actors, and especially depending on the degree of power wielded by each actor. These interpretations should be taken into account if the governance of development projects is to be improved, and with it, the sustainability of tourist projects in general. This paper examines a range of stakeholders' perceptions of the impacts of a golf-based tourism development in the south-west of Spain. A mixed methodology is used to analyse the results, highlighting the significance of a social impact assessment. Our findings confirm two differing discourses, one corresponding to influential actors and the other to non-influential, showing unequal degrees of variety and complexity in their argumentation and a clearly distinct capacity for shaping the local socio-environment. Our conclusions indicate that the impact of tourism development is perceived differently in line with stakeholders’ socio-political positions.     

The role of tourism management in adaptation to climate change – a study of a European inland area with a diversified tourism supply

The Carpathian Basin is one of the most vulnerable European regions in terms of potential climate change impacts on biodiversity. Its wide range of tourism activities make it uniquely suitable for assessing the effects of climate change on tourism. This research sought to create a Tourism Adaptation Portfolio (TAP) for the Szentendre micro-region in Hungary and to assemble an adaptation toolbox for current and future use by tourism organizations. The TAP contains practical, easy to implement solutions for key stakeholders in the sector by adaptation type (technology, management, behavior, education, policy). Surveys of local tourism suppliers showed that 70% said they were well informed, largely by the Internet, but 55% admitted to not knowing enough. The methodology outlined here is transferable and the process can be replicated elsewhere, supporting other regions in becoming climate-friendly tourism destinations, creating opportunities for uniquely positioning a region for consumers. The article provides a concise overview of tourism provider attitudes assessed through a questionnaire, shedding light on points of intervention, willingness to pay, main barriers and suitable adaptation instruments. The adaptive capacity of stakeholders is also discussed, which is indispensable for implementing successful practices in adaptation and maintaining the current level of environmental services.     

Tourist arrivals,energy consumption and pollutant emissions in a developing economy–implications for sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism management policies should aim at maximising economic benefits from tourist arrivals while minimising associated adverse impacts on the environment. This study assesses the short-run and long-run relationships between tourist arrivals, per capita economic output, emissions, energy consumption and capital formation, citing Nepal as a specific case study. We developed four hypotheses and tested them using time-series econometrics based on the autoregressive distributed lag model and Granger causality tests. The results provide strong evidence of an economy driven tourism sector where expansion in economic output leads to expansion in tourist arrivals. More tourist arrivals, in turn, generate positive impacts on gross capital formation. Energy consumption negatively affects tourist arrivals, calling for increased attention towards improving energy efficiency and energy diversity. We conclude that national policies to increase tourist arrivals should be integrated with national energy and environmental policies in order to facilitate the transition towards a sustainable tourism sector.     

Peak Oil: a hidden issue? Social representations of professional tourism perspectives

Peak Oil, the peaking of global oil production, is a collective risk highly relevant to the tourism sector. Public discourse on Peak Oil, however, is limited. To better understand what “sense” tourism experts make of Peak Oil, and provide a platform for future debate and action, this research used the theory of social representation to explore core and peripheral elements that constitute Peak Oil representations and help tourism stakeholders to conceptualize and address this issue. Using free association methodology, 101 tourism experts worldwide provided up to five words and three mental images describing their thoughts and feelings about Peak Oil. The analysis highlights the importance of economic impacts and alternative energy sources, as well as anchoring effects to more established concepts such as sustainability and climate change. Notably, each of the four professional sub-groups approached (academics, consultants, government and industry representatives) had markedly different core beliefs. There was no agreement on whether Peak Oil was concerning or not, and whether action is required by the tourism sector to address negative impacts. This was particularly evident with the industry sub-group. Future research and policy implications are outlined, including the role of the media, and its responsibility to facilitate this discourse.     

Tourists’ representations of coastal managed realignment as a climate change adaptation strategy

In coastal destinations climate change adaptation is needed to address coastal erosion due to a combination of sea level rise and more frequent extreme weather events leading to loss of natural features and tourism infrastructure. Managed realignment is increasingly adopted as a strategy to address coastal change; however, this has often proved a contentious strategy with stakeholder groups. This study explores tourists' representational framework of managed realignment and how this frames understanding of the concept, understanding of how coastal resources might change and implications for future visitation. Data compiled using a questionnaire adopted a social representations theory perspective to analyse how collective tourists’ ideas may serve to mobilise the public in various ways. In general tourists have a poor understanding of managed realignment anchored to historic coastal management strategies and contextualised by use values with consequent implications for tourism planning and coastal management decision making.     

Destination familiarity and favorability in a country-image context: examining Taiwanese travelers’ perceptions of China

Building on international marketing research on the country-of-origin image effect, this research examines how people evaluate a culturally familiar country as a tourist destination. Derived from a sample of 710 Taiwanese travelers, research findings showed that when evaluating China as a tourist destination, respondents relied on both their general image of the country (country image) as well as tourism-specific perceptions (destination beliefs), while a few respondents with low familiarity with China relied only on their general image of the country to evaluate the destination. The research also showed that respondents with high levels of familiarity with China had more positive destination beliefs, resulting in more favorable destination evaluations; however, country image was found to be persistent and difficult to be changed by destination promoting materials and/or actual visits. The paper concludes with recommendations for destination marketing in the context of international tourism.     

Conflict and agreement in stakeholder attitudes: residents’ and hotel managers’ views of tourism impacts and forest-related tourism development

This paper probes differences in attitudes toward tourism impacts between two leading stakeholder groups in tourism, local residents and the managers of tourism facilities. It uses case study surveys of residents and managers in Belek, Antalya, Turkey. Differences in attitudes across seven main areas are investigated, including the positive and negative economic outcomes of tourism; positive and negative sociocultural impacts; negative environmental impacts; views on further tourism development, and benefits and problems related to forested land close to destinations. The results reveal that some attitudes are held in common – especially positive attitudes including tourism's benefits in creating jobs and income. Differences were mostly observed not in the direction but in the strength of opinion. The most significant differences were found in managers' beliefs that tourism's environmental and social impacts were few, while residents were extremely negative about those impacts. Differences of attitudes on the future use of forestland headed the list of all differences between managers and residents. Divergent loyalties were revealed. Managers supported their business and employers; local people supported their local area. The need for further research, including the role of perhaps distant “moral stakeholders”, and for more comprehensive understanding, and more sustainable outcomes, are highlighted.     

Travel app users’ continued use intentions: it’s a matter of value and trust

This study examines the factors that influence the continued use intention of mobile apps designed for travel-related purposes. Interviews with 22 individuals provided data for developing a conceptual model of travel app continued use intention. The model draws on the expectation confirmation model framework, as well as interviews, to illustrate the relationship between functional value, hedonic value, satisfaction, and trust, and to discuss the link between moderators of familiarity, travel purposes, travel app types, and technology proficiency as predictors on continued use. The study’s results establish an in-depth understanding of continued use for travel apps.     

Exploring the discrepancies in perceived destination images from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives: a revised importance–performance analysis approach

A comprehensive and balanced understanding of both local residents’ and tourists’ perceived destination image (DI) is a pivotal step for successful tourism development. Using the revised importance–performance analysis approach, this study assesses the differences between residents’ and tourists’ perceived implicit importance and performance of DI attributes in the Liyu Lake Scenic Area in Hualien, Taiwan. A mixed methods approach was adopted. First, 30 pertinent image attributes were identified by interviewing local residents and tourists. These image attributes were subsequently used in a questionnaire survey. Results indicate that residents’ and tourists’ opinions were divided on environmental issues and purposes of visit. The most significant finding is that both the residents and tourists regarded the majority of the attributes as “possible overkill,” suggesting that destination management organization should reconsider the direction for future development and try to realize the “real needs” of the residents and tourists based on their motivations.     

Country image formation,stability, and change: a longitudinal assessment of consumers’ image of Azerbaijan

In 2012, Azerbaijan hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. For this emerging tourism-oriented country, the cultural mega-event represented a unique opportunity to present itself to a broad international public and construct a positive country image. The present longitudinal study explores how consumer images of Azerbaijan as a country were formed and changed as a result of the nation’s hosting of this event. By measuring the same respondents’ country image evaluations before and after the event, the present findings shed light on consumers’ processes of country-image formation and illuminate the event’s impact on Azerbaijan’s country image.     

‘Heritagisation’, a challenge for tourism promotion and regional development: an example of food heritage

As a marker of regional identity, heritage remains a complex field of inquiry. The discussion proposed here will use food to investigate the process of heritage construction or ‘heritagisation’ as an important issue for rural tourism promotion. If food today is considered to be a locus of inter-cultural exchange that contributes to the construction of social identities, then it could also be considered as an important resource for rural development strategy. As it is also strongly associated with the tourism sector, gastronomic heritage, in its forms of construction and mobilisation, calls into question the social and cultural dynamics of a given space. The objective of this discussion is twofold and will treat the notion of heritage as a social construct and as a resource for action. We will attempt to answer the following question: At what point can heritage become a resource and component of professional opportunities? To what extent does this prove to be undeniably subject to the process of local ownership? Methodological note: I emphasise that this discussion, which results from a study of three rural regions in France, will attempt to formally and objectively posit a means of comprehending the process of heritage creation.