An investigation of the influence of heritage tourism on local people's sense of place: the Macau youth's experience

With Macau making inroads into heritage tourism, Macau people are given a push to rediscover the city's heritage values. This renewed sense of appreciation has afforded locals across all levels of society a new perspective of their homeland. As such, with heritage tourism continuing to blossom in a heritage-minded society, inhabitants' sense of place (SOP) may be affected accordingly. Although tourism research literature does not lack timely discussions of Macau's heritage tourism, no studies to date have effectively explored the influence of heritage tourism on Macau people's SOP. Owing to this, the present study aims to investigate the influence of heritage tourism on SOP among young people in Macau.     

Enhancing the Role of Host Communities in the Management of Protected Areas through Effective Two-way Communications: A Case Study

This paper conducts an analysis of Macau's strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) as related to its gaming development strategy in the wake of its issuance of multiple gaming licenses. The analysis shows that copying the Las Vegas style is non-optimal for Macau because it will force Macau to compete with Las Vegas and other Las Vegas-style Asian gaming destinations for casino visitors and fight with Hong Kong for non-gaming tourists in the future. Furthermore, this approach will change Macau's current market position as a gamblers' destination and cut into operation profits. Taking advantage of its cultural heritage and unique market segmentation, Macau may develop Chinese- and/or Portuguese-theme casinos heavily leaning toward gaming activities. By creating its own gaming model, Macau may not only maintain its market niche in the future but also develop its gaming industry in a more profitable way.     

Tourism Restructuring and the Politics of Sustainability: A Critical View From the European Periphery (The Canary Islands)

There has been considerable discussion of sustainable tourism development, in both theory and practice. Less attention has been paid to the discourses, ideologies and power relations which help to shape 'sustainable' tourism policies and planning instruments. This paper analyses recent initiatives introduced by the regional government of the Canary Islands, designed to bring about a more sustainable model of regional tourism, including a temporary moratorium on tourism development and the drafting of a strategic and normative set of guidelines for sustainable tourism. The paper considers the contested nature of the public debate that accompanied these initiatives within the wider context of the regionally distinct pattern of tourism and capitalist development. It is argued that the legacy of uneven development, and the entrenched power of regional economic and political élites, is likely to undermine the prospects for a just model of sustainable tourism, and to consolidate the continuing privatisation of space and socio-spatial inequalities across the region.     

Challenges and potential improvements in the policy and regulatory framework for sustainable tourism planning in China: the case of Shanxi Province

A sound policy and regulatory framework is essential in planning for sustainable tourism development. The paper examines opportunities and challenges for China's planning for sustainable tourism development from both policy and regulatory perspectives. Despite the enthusiasm for sustainable tourism, China's existing relevant policy and regulatory frameworks are generally fraught with contradictory objectives, and they are also often incoherent, have ambiguous legal provisions, and many organizations have duplicate responsibilities, unclear definitions of responsibilities, interlocking activities, and weak coordination due to the complicated institutional structure. Based on Shanxi Province, the paper explores the policy and regulatory issues affecting tourism and its sustainability, and it also assesses the possible options to foster an improved policy and regulatory framework for China's sustainable tourism development. A much stronger political will from all levels of government will be required to overcome a prevalent mindset for short-term economic growth and deep-rooted practices in pursuit of departmental benefits. It is also necessary for China and Shanxi under the new national tourism law to articulate and coordinate its laws and regulations with much improved supportive bylaws. Finally, more rational and effective institutional arrangements are needed, with clearly defined functions and responsibilities for government at varied levels.     

Exploring Critical Factors of Macau's Heritage Tourism: What Heritage Tourists are Looking for when Visiting the City's Iconic Heritage Sites

Although Macau is widely stigmatized as a gambling paradise, its colonial past has left the city with a wealth of heritage and cultural attractions that can be converted into priceless tourism resources. Macau's status as world heritage city further creates opportunities for the city to develop its heritage tourism business. This requires Macau to understand heritage tourists whose needs and wants may vary from ordinary travelers. A review of the literature, however, indicates that most academic discussions of Macau heritage are from a history or conservation perspective rather than from the prism of tourism; because of this, the present study aims to explore, from a tourism perspective, the critical factors that are essential to enhance tourist experience when visiting Macau's major heritage sites.     

China's outbound tourism – Stages,policies and choices

China's outbound tourism has developed rapidly in recent years. This development has been accompanied by a continuous and expanding deficit in the tourism balance of trade, triggering debate among government officials and academia about whether China's outbound tourism development has outgrown general economic development. Understanding China's growth in outbound tourism and its impact has therefore become more than an academic issue; it also affects the future orientation of China's tourism policy. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the tourists, spatial flow, market size, and expenditure. Despite the above concerns, it is suggested that China's outbound tourism is still in a preliminary stage of development and furthermore complies fully with national policies. Therefore, orderly guidance and discretionary market policies are proposed to further facilitate the growth of the outbound tourism market in China.     

With or Without You? Building a Case for Further MICE (Meetings,Incentive Travel,Conventions, Exhibitions) Development in Macao

Macao's gross gaming revenues have increased considerably in the past decade since casino liberalization to more than 6 times that of the Las Vegas Strip (Nevada). Macao's global dominance in gaming revenues is in contrast to Macao's meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) development. With comparisons to the Las Vegas Strip model of a balance between gaming and conventions, Macao's MICE industry has not advanced in tandem with Macao's casino expansion. Macao's bolstering gaming revenues have presented little incentive for most gaming operators to move beyond, with conventions and exhibitions remaining on the fringes of hospitality offerings as a supporting unit to casino product positioning.

As the Cotai Strip enters its second wave of integrated resort construction an increasing number of MICE, as well as other nongaming venues, will be included within the resort designs. A key vision behind casino liberalization, as well as an expressed wish by the Chinese authorities, is for Macao to diversify its tourism portfolio to include more MICE development. Examining Macao's casino tourism growth trajectory, this article suggests this limited growth in MICE could continue. Isolating key limiting factors, strategic actions are presented in the paper as approaches to further involve and potentially advance MICE development along Macao's Cotai Strip.     

Exploring the relationship between government and destination competitiveness: The TALC model perspective

Competitiveness is evident in the marketplace as tourism has become a major tool for economic grow and job creation. Destinations must learn how to think more like businesses and develop new products, markets, and customers. Governments also play vital roles in tourism development, ranging from minimal to high level of involvement. Due to tourism's dynamic nature, Butler's (1980) tourism area lifecycle (TALC) framework helps explain the level of government involvement in tourism development. This article develops a conceptual model adding government involvement and destination competitiveness to TALC. Secondary data demonstrate the model and the results extend TALC's conceptualization by adding national competitiveness and government involvement to explain destination development.     

A Re-examination of the Legalization of Casino Gambling from the Japanese Tourist Perspective: A 10-year Review

With the explosion of casino development in the Asia Pacific as well as the USA, casino gambling has become more culturally embraced as a recreational activity. The purpose of this study was to re-examine the legalization of casino gambling in Hawaii from Japanese-speaking tourists' perspective and compare these results with a previous study completed a decade before. With the continuing decrease of Japanese visitors to Hawaii, and with the importance of the Japanese market to Hawaii's economy, state officials are considering other forms of tourism to help revive the Japanese tourism market and increase Hawaii's global competitiveness. By analyzing the responses of the current Japanese-speaking tourists to Hawaii and comparing these responses with the Japanese tourists surveyed 10 years previously (1996), an attempt can be made to determine whether Japanese tourists in 2006 have changed their perception of the legalization of casino gambling in Hawaii. This research examines a number of challenges to consider concerning the legalization of gaming in an established tourism destination such as of Hawaii. Although the findings of this study indicate that the Japanese-speaking tourists have changed their perspective from past studies on the effects that legalization of casino gambling has in Hawaii, future research should focus on other segments of the tourist market.     

A comparative study for determinants of gaming performance in Macao and Las Vegas

This paper studies gaming efficiency with data envelopment analyses (DEA) and its determinants with seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR). We show that gaming efficiency is higher in Macao than in Las Vegas and can be improved in both places. We find that Macao casino performance hinges on China's economic growth and visitor arrivals as well as VIP service and promotional marketing while non-gaming business and slot gaming are contributors to Las Vegas tourism efficiency. We also indicate that the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2014 China anti-corruption movement are hugely disruptive to gaming efficiency both in Macao and Las Vegas. Those results provide policy makers and casino managers with useful implications for efficiency enhancement in gaming-led tourism and hospitality.     

Liberalizing Nirvana: an analysis of the consequences of common pool resource deregulation for the sustainability of Fiji's surf tourism industry

In July 2010, the Fijian government issued a decree that liberalized Fiji's surf breaks and deregulated its surf tourism industry. It did this by canceling licenses that granted resorts exclusive use of surf breaks based on indigenous customary ownership of foreshore and fringing reef fishing areas as common pool resources. This paper analyses the sustainability of surf tourism in Fiji, utilizing a developing framework for sustainable surf tourism. Based on broader sustainable tourism theory and empirical research, the framework considers (1) the impact of economic neo-liberalism, (2) the need for coordinated planning and limits to growth, (3) the advantages of systematic attempts to foster cross-cultural understanding, and (4) the social benefits associated with the development of surfing at the village level. The study found that a lack of regulation is compromising the sustainability of Fiji's surf tourism industry in each of these four dimensions. However, evidence of a growing acceptance of the need for regulation by most stakeholders offers a starting point for a transactive, participative process to find solutions. A fifth element to the framework is recommended for future analyses based on the need for surf tourism to contribute to poverty alleviation in destination communities.     

旅游公共服务质量的提升:游客导向和创新导向的驱动作用

在将旅游业发展成为国民经济的战略性支柱产业和人民群众更加满意的现代服务业的过程中,旅游公共服务发挥着重要作用。对于政府管理部门内部有哪些因素会促进旅游公共服务质量的提升,学术界鲜有实证研究。本文从旅游行政管理部门的角度出发,构建了游客导向、创新导向、跨部门协调对旅游公共服务质量的影响模型。对广东省32个主要客源市场的旅游行政管理部门的309位工作人员进行了问卷调查,探讨旅游公共服务质量提升的驱动因素。结构方程模型结果显示,游客导向、创新导向和跨部门协调都有助于旅游公共服务质量的提升,跨部门协调中介游客导向对旅游公共服务质量的影响。本文在理论上弥补了旅游公共服务质量前因研究的空白,对旅游行政管理部门如何更好地提升旅游公共服务质量具有借鉴意义。     

Shaping leisure/tourism places - the role of holiday home owners: a case study of Courtown,Co. Wexford,Ireland

The formation of partnerships with the public, non‐profit and commercial sectors is becoming an increasingly common way for leisure service departments in local government to fulfil their mandate under conditions of economic restraint, political pressures and increased demand for services. However, these departments often lack the capacity to successfully manage the number and complexity of partnerships initiated. While under‐managed partnerships have been identified as a significant problem in the literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the organizational dynamics that underpin them. Interviews with leisure service managers and staff in ten Canadian cities were conducted, revealing a lack of guidelines, insufficient training, poor coordination and a number of other problems contributing to under‐managed partnerships. This warrants further research and attention because it can lead to unsuccessful partnerships and negative consequences for all partners involved.     

Responsible and responsive tourism planning in the community

In recognizing tourism as a community industry the intention of this article is to focus broadly on developing a framework for encouraging a broader, more participatory approach to tourism planning. Specifically, the constraints that befuddle community involvement are identified, and the difficulties facing public participation are discussed, as are some provisional action steps. The characteristics of a diversified approach to tourism planning are then highlighted. Appropriate creative, involving and learning techniques, such as scenarios should be utilized and the application of scenarios as a device to help develop and integrate a community's tourism goals, as a prelude to further planning, is explained.     

Residents' support for tourism development: The role of residents' place image and perceived tourism impacts

Drawing on the triple bottom line approach for tourism impacts (economic, socio-cultural and environmental) and adopting a non-forced approach for measuring residents' perception of these impacts, this study explores the role of residents' place image in shaping their support for tourism development. The tested model proposes that residents' place image affects their perceptions of tourism impacts and in turn their support for tourism development. The results stress the need for a more flexible and resident-oriented measurement of tourism impacts, revealing that more favorable perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts lead to greater support. Moreover, while residents' place image has been largely neglected by tourism development studies, the findings of this study reveal its significance in shaping residents' perception of tourism impacts as well as their level of support. The practical implications of the findings for tourism planning and development are also discussed.     

Indicators of Sustainable Tourism in New Zealand: A Local Government Perspective

The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) established a set of core indicators of sustainable tourism in 1995, which were promoted as a useful tool in the operationalisation of sustainable tourism development. Local authorities provide an established framework within which to operationalise the WTO's core indicators of sustainable tourism. This paper examines the extent to which sustainable tourism is reflected in the research practices and attitudes of local authorities within New Zealand. A nationwide survey investigated the importance of tourism, the current status of research and the perceived value of the WTO's core indicators of sustainable tourism within the New Zealand local authority framework (regional councils, territorial local authorities and regional tourism organisations). The importance of tourism within local authority areas was positively correlated with the number of different research activities undertaken.Two main types of research were identified: demand-related and supply-related research. Demand -related research is undertaken within the majority of local authority areas throughout New Zealand. However, supply-related research is under-represented. The WTO's core indicators were generically grouped into economic, planning, social and ecological indicator types. Regional councils showed a preference towards ecological indicators. Territorial local authorities and regional tourism organisations preferred economic and social indicators. The detailed implications are discussed.     

Mount Stirling: The Politics of Process Failure

This paper analyses the political decision-making process associated with the attempts to develop the tourism potential of Mt Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia). Its concern is with the failure of policy making since 1980 to bring about a strategic economic development programme that meets the needs of the regional community for a sustainable tourism industry. Using Public Choice theory to approach the analysis of collective failure, it is possible to identify the competing interests involved in the development debate and the causes of the impasse in government decision making. The paper examines the capacity of the disparate community interests to work together to generate alternatives to the government's own proposals which had consistently failed to incorporate regional economic interests in their planning procedures. The issues exposed in this example of process failure are not confined to Mt Stirling alone. They serve, perhaps, to illustrate a broader pattern of growing alienation and conflict between regional tourism interests seeking a greater voice in determining the sustainability of their own futures, and the demands of centralised urban decision-making systems.     

Malaysia's Tourism Development and Marketing

Abstract

Malaysia has proven itself as one of the most successful and fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. Being one of the world's greatest undiscovered and unexplored countries, there exists a vast tourism development potential in Malaysia. The Malaysian government in recent years has placed unprecedented importance on the role of tourism in its economic development process. This article reviews recent developments in tourism development and marketing efforts in Malaysia.     

The Tourism Policy

This article defines and explores the need for tourism policy. It considers the design of such a policy in terms of the development of tourism, the policy's aims and its relation to institutions and levels of development in various countries, before setting forth main guidelines. The article then applies this understanding of tourism policy to the example of Italy, emphasizing the supply of facilities, the demand on them, and the effect of government policy on tourism. The paper concludes by affirming the value of tourism policy both as a link between economic practice and theory and as an example of the world's governance by economic ideas.     

Sustainable tourism and its use as a development strategy in Cambodia: a systematic literature review

Governments in many developing countries endorse sustainable tourism, despite associated practical limitations and challenges as a development strategy. Using the case of Cambodia, this paper illustrates how sustainable tourism issues in a developing country may be better understood through a systematic review of scattered relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature. This can help in identifying emergent themes and challenges, gaps in knowledge, and opportunities for future research. Analysis of 77 documents on Cambodia's sustainable tourism revealed themes and challenges relating to: (1) an emphasis on nature-based tourism (ecotourism); (2) calls for greater community engagement for sustainable outcomes; (3) stakeholder perceptions and values as drivers of tourism success; (4) cultural heritage as a key tourism attraction; and (5) foreign investment shaping Cambodia's tourism future. Unequal emphasis is given to key government policies for tourism development and there is limited practical guidance on how to realise a vision of sustainable tourism. There is a lack of consideration of how the socio-economic and cultural context affects sustainable tourism. The evidence suggests that sustainable tourism in Cambodia is questionable until fundamental economic, social capacity and policy issues are addressed, along with greater emphasis given to the tourism system's demand side.