VALUE, SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS IN AN ADVENTURE TOURISM CONTEXT

The growth in demand for adventure tourism has been significant in recent years. This study applied an existing marketing framework and empirically examined the relationships between value, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism context. Four hundred and two respondents provided their perceptions of the value for an adventure tour in Australia. Customer value was conceptualised as a multidimensional construct and indeed three value dimensions had strong, positive influences on customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism setting. Value-for-money was prominent, but also emotional value and novelty value were also significant predictors of satisfaction and future intentions. The present study suggests that researchers should take a broader, holistic view of value in a tourism context.     

THE POLITICS OF AESTHETICS IN VOLUNTEER TOURISM

In this paper I address the “politics of aesthetics” in volunteer tourism. By “aesthetics,” I mean two things. First, I adopt Jacques Ranciere’s notion of aesthetics as the structured way human sense is organized. I argue that volunteer tourism perpetuates an aesthetic structure that systematically depoliticizes the global economic inequality on which the experience is based. Second, drawing on recent scholarship in critical tourism studies as well as 16 months of ethnographic research in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I illustrate how volunteer tourists aestheticize the host community members’ poverty as authentic and cultural. This reframing contributes to the legitimization of volunteer tourism as a celebrated cultural practice that perpetuates the aestheticization rather than the politicization of poverty in the encounter.     

ADDING PSYCHOLOGICAL VALUE TO HERITAGE TOURISM EXPERIENCES REVISITED

In 2001 the authors explored the underlying motives and needs of visitors to a heritage site, employing a method known as the Hierarchical Value Map (HVM) technique. Drawing from a small sample of visitors to a preserved 18th century plantation via qualitative interviews, the analysis revealed that most respondents were looking for a satisfying leisure experience where pleasure and learning are complementary. Recently, as part of a PhD by Jewell, this site was revisited with the methodologies of the HVM technique and Associated Pattern Technique (APT) combined in order to conduct quantitative research on a larger sample size. Results validated the 2001 research but with some differences detected. When comparing the current study to the 2001 study, differences were found regarding the connections between attributes, consequences/benefits, and values. The main difference that occurred between the 2001 study and current study was that the end core value of “Stop Repeating Mistakes of the Past,” was not considered by either visitors to Drayton Hall or Control Group respondents as being an important end core value. The end core value for both groups was, overall, that heritage made for a satisfying experience which in itself was pleasurable.     

ENGAGING TIMESHARE OWNERS IN TOURISM DESTINATION MANAGEMENT: TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM MARKETING IMPLICATIONS

It is important to understand tourists' willingness to participate in tourism planning and the factors influencing their willingness because they are an integral part of the destination and ultimately one of the main buyers of the product. Timeshare owners are a special group of tourists who have additional connections with the tourism destination through their timeshare. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among timeshare owners' perceptions of tourism planning, civic engagement, sense of place, and willingness to participate in tourism planning.

This study was based on a questionnaire survey of U.S. timeshare owners. The total sample size was 302. A two‐stage structural equation modeling approach was applied in data analysis. Results from the measurement model suggested that the model fit the data quite well. Results from the structural model suggested that timeshare owners' perceptions of tourism planning, their past history of civic participation, and their sense of place significantly impact their willingness to participate in tourism planning, while timeshare owners' past experience in political participation did not significantly affect their willingness to participate in tourism planning. Implications of the findings in tourism planning and tourism destination marketing are presented.     

BEING THERE TOGETHER: DARK FAMILY TOURISM AND THE EMOTIVE EXPERIENCE OF CO-PRESENCE IN THE HOLOCAUST PAST

This study examines the motivations and lived experiences of Israeli descendants of Holocaust survivors who set out on family roots trips to heritage sites and sites of atrocity accompanied by their survivor parents. Post-trip semi-structured interviews disclose the marginalization of historical heritage and post-tourist identity work. Instead, descendants highlight pathos-filled familial sociality. Co-presence in sites of atrocity enables the performance of survivor emotions tacitly present in the home thereby evoking descendant empathy and identification. Emergent “we-relationships” and family “home-making” while away calls for the deconstruction of binaries such as: ordinary/extraordinary, mundane/sacred, and home/away. Findings problematize the mystification of dark tourism and suggest the ‘domestication’ of secular pilgrimages. Finally a re-presencing of the family in mainstream tourism research is called for.     

FRAMING TOURISM GEOGRAPHY: NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

Tourism geography is a significant contributor to the study of tourism, yet is generally perceived as marginal to geography. The review frames contemporary tourism geography by examining it in the context of geographical knowledge processes, changes to the environment within which it is situated, issues of marginality, and the ongoing significance of major binaries in geographic thought including physical/human geography and applied/theoretical geography. These frames are relevant to the wider domain of tourism studies as well. Although noting the dangers of invented disciplinary traditions and heritage as a result of the writing of reflective reviews and texts, the article argues that tourism geography has been a significant contributor to the bringing together and hybridity of geographic binaries, especially in the development of more critical applied geographies of environmental change.     

RELATIONSHIP INTENTION AS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN RELATIONAL BENEFITS AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE TOUR OPERATOR INDUSTRY

Relationship and customer loyalty management have been an important field of research in marketing for decades. However, the focus for many years was mainly on the benefits of relationship marketing for companies. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the benefits of relationship marketing for customers in the travel industry. It investigates the effects between relational benefits, relationship intention and intentional loyalty using the tour operator industry as an example. Relationship intention will be introduced as a variable influencing intentional loyalty. The role of relationship intention in the customer benefit‐intentional loyalty context will be analyzed by testing different path models. The measurement model is estimated, based on a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL with a sample of 1,702 tour operator customers. The structural model as well as the estimate path coefficients were analyzed applying a partial least square approach (PLS) using SmartPLS. This article not only contributes to the further development of models explaining intentional loyalty, but also to the development of practical insights about the influence of different measures and tools on intentional loyalty from a customer benefit perspective. It can be concluded that the intention of a customer to invest in a relationship is dependent on the perceived level of relationship benefits. Further, the results show, that the buying behavior of customers is influenced by the perceived relational benefits. With the management of customer relations, a provider can influence the behavior of the customer to exploit the earning potential efficiently. Therefore, a provider has to be successful in creating new relational benefits for his customers through measures of customer relation management.     

CRISIS KNOWLEDGE IN TOURISM: TYPES,FLOWS AND GOVERNANCE

Driven by the rapidly growing number of crises that affect tourism, the study of crisis knowledge management is gaining an increased interest in the tourism field. Effective management of crisis knowledge enhances the resilience of tourism organizations and destinations in crisis situations, strengthens their defense mechanisms, limits potential damages and allows them to bounce back to normalcy faster. This paper uses critical incident interviews with 21 tourism executives in order to identify the types of crisis knowledge they employ in the advent of a crisis and to explore the crisis knowledge management processes and flows within their organizations. Drawing from extant generic literature and the informants’ responses, the paper proposes a framework for the governance of crisis knowledge in tourism.     

PROFIT,RESPONSIBILITY, AND THE MORAL ECONOMY OF TOURISM

This paper furthers an understanding of the moral economy of tourism by analyzing how economic activities in the tourism industry are influenced by moral norms, and how these norms are compromised by the logic of capital accumulation. Through a case study of indigenous entrepreneurs in Lijiang, China, we argue that responsibility is a localized practice to defend social ties and cultural tradition, while profit making can be regarded as a universal logic in a commercial society. By analyzing how entrepreneurs become entangled in the dynamic balance between profit making and social responsibility, this paper demonstrates that local people actively choose their best strategies to participate in the global tourism industry.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN TOURISM JOURNALS FROM 2000 TO 2007: A GOOGLE SCHOLAR APPROACH

This research note reports a study that analyzed the 100 most influential articles, which is operationalized as the most cited publications published in tourism journals from 2000 to 2007. A Google Scholar‐based software system was developed in Java to retrieve the citation information. The empirical findings show that 10.16% of the citations were from Institute for Scientific Information‐listed (ISI) journals, and that 71.64% of them were from neither ISI nor tourism journals. The most popular topics covered by these articles were psychology and tourist behavior, followed by destination image and marketing. This article contributes to the literature by providing an alternative means of assessing the impact of research into tourism.     

THE TAIPEI MRT (MASS RAPID TRANSIT) TOURISM ATTRACTION ANALYSIS FROM THE INBOUND TOURISTS' PERSPECTIVES

Of all cities in Taiwan, Taipei is fully internationalized and best‐equipped with a completed metro public transit system. Taipei MRT Company is trying to increase the number of inbound tourists by providing a better travel experience and design different marketing strategies to increase better MRT tourism attraction. The study purposes are to investigate inbound tourists' considerations for choosing public means of transportation during their travel in Taipei City, conduct the tourism attraction analysis of Taipei MRT system from the perspectives of inbound tourists, and identify how inbound tourists' traveling behavior influence their perceptions of Taipei MRT tourism attractions. The study sampled 312 inbound tourists in August and September of 2006 by using a closed‐ended questionnaire. Factor analysis revealed five factors that can be attractive to inbound tourists: holistic, service, information, tourism image, and location attraction. The study result also indicated that inbound tourists with different socio‐economic characteristics, traveling behaviors, and different MRT experience have statistically different perceptions of Taipei MRT Tourism attractions.     

BUDDHISM AND TOURISM: PERCEPTIONS OF THE MONASTIC COMMUNITY AT PU-TUO-SHAN,CHINA

While there exists a considerable body of literature on pilgrimages and religious tourism, research on Buddhist pilgrimage sites remains scant. In particular, little has been published about how tourism is perceived by the monks and nuns living at the Buddhist sites that receive visitors. This article examines the Buddhist monks’ and nuns’ perceptions towards tourism at Pu-Tuo-Shan, one of the Four Sacred Mountains of China, that during the last decades has become the destination of increasing numbers of pilgrims and tourists. Interviews with monks and nuns reveal how they perceive the presence of visitors in their sacred land. The study also finds that the Buddhist worldview plays a significant role in shaping their attitudes.     

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF VISA RESTRICTIONS ON TOURISM: A CASE OF TWO EVENTS IN CHINA

Increasing attention has been paid to evaluate the impacts of large scale events on tourism demand. For providing policy suggestions, it should consider the economic impact of both events themselves and other factors. This paper evaluates the economic effects of visa restrictions on tourism as a result of the 1989 Tian’an Men Square Incident and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games by using an innovative combination of econometric and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The results show that both events generated economic losses. The unexpected negative economic impact of the Beijing Olympics seems attributable to visa restrictions. Suggestions for the alleviation of the negative impact of visa regulations are provided.     

INDUSTRY RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Emotional intelligence, a type of social and personal intelligence, is important in managing interpersonal relationships and interactions, especially in the business sphere. Businesses that involve frequent customer contact and interaction, such as those in the field of tourism, can benefit from the application of multiple intelligences. This study examines how, and to what extent, emotional intelligence can benefit the travel and tourism industry. Seven tour operators were interviewed to assess their attitudes, opinions and observations about emotional intelligence and its application to the relationship between tourists and residents of a community. Results showed that all tour operators, to a certain degree, utilized emotional intelligence to offer more personalized travel solutions for tourists. It was found that understanding the cultural values and social etiquette particular to each travel destination was essential for healthy tourist-resident relations.     

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM: A REVIEW OF PUBLICATIONS FROM 2005 TO 2007

The tourism and hospitality industries have widely adopted information technology (IT) to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Grouping the findings into the categories of consumers, technologies, and suppliers, the article sheds light on the evolution of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries. The article demonstrates that IT is increasingly becoming critical for the competitive operations of the tourism and hospitality organizations as well as for managing the distribution and marketing of organizations on a global scale.     

NETWORK ANALYSIS OF TOURISM EVENTS: AN APPROACH TO IMPROVE MARKETING PRACTICES FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Farmers' markets have recently emerged as a new tourism event around the globe. Yet, little information is known about them. This article explores the network of stakeholders associated with farmers' markets through a qualitative analysis over a period of time of an Australian farmers' market. Multiple methods of data collection were used to build a case study of the farmers' market. The findings highlight the acute need for this farmers' market, and potentially many others that are similar, to strategically establish an appropriate and effective network of stakeholders for both organizational longevity and tourism sustainability.     

A NETWORK ANALYSIS OF TOURISM RESEARCH

This paper uses network analysis to identify the pioneering scholars and seminal works which have influenced recent papers in leading journals. The analysis extends beyond rankings of scholars by using co-citation networks to visualize the relationships between the most influential scholars and works and to uncover the disciplinary contributions which have supported the emergence of tourism as a field of academic study. The networks of scholars and works illuminate invisible colleges, tribes and territories in tourism research and indicate that while the social sciences have been most influential, business-related citations are increasing. The findings contribute to the discourse about the epistemology of tourism research by using bibliometric techniques to offer insights into the interdisciplinary structure of tourism research.     

TOURISM AND SPIRITUALITY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Using phenomenological analysis, this paper examines the concept of ‘spirituality’ in the lived travel experience of an individual tourist. The paper contributes a phenomenological snippet of the tourist’s ‘portrait’ (the individual’s rich story, much like a portrait painting) to reveal the spiritual meaning Amber reportedly gained from and imbued onto her travel experiences with the tour operator, Hands up Holidays. The paper argues that when discussing the ‘spiritual’ dimension of tourism, one potential avenue is to seek to understand how people seek meaning and life purpose themselves, their quest for meaning, and experiences of transcendence and connectedness as subjectively lived through their travel. The paper concludes that the phenomenological view may be a useful frame through which to further examine the personal meaning of travel as lived by people, both in religious and non-religious contexts, but contextualised within the wider meaning of their lives.     

丽江铂尔曼,隐居被遗忘的纳西王国

品牌铂尔曼铂尔曼是雅高旗下高档酒店品牌,专为满足商务旅行人士的需求而打造。酒店均坐落于全球各大地区及国际都市的中心地段。铂尔曼酒店旨在为高端商务旅行人士提供全方位的卓越服务、尖端科技以及铂尔曼创新会议,一种商务会议与奖励项目的全新组织方式。在铂尔曼酒店,商务旅行者们既可选择独立自由的旅居方式,也可放心依赖酒店员工的全天候     

VOLUNTEER TOURISM: A HOST COMMUNITY CAPITAL PERSPECTIVE

This study examines the impact of volunteer tourism on host communities utilising a community capitals perspective. A research design that includes focus groups, interviews and website analysis targets a cluster of communities that have hosted NGO run volunteer tourism programs in the Philippines for over twenty years. Flora’s (2004) community capitals framework is applied to delineate a broad spectrum of impacts resulting from volunteer tourism. This framework accounts for political, built, natural, financial, human, cultural, and social (bridging and bonding) capitals. The data provides strong evidence that, in this case, volunteer tourists exert bridging social capital that in turn impacts every form of community capital. The study also reveals two additional forms of capital: welfare and personal.