Are tourism livelihoods sustainable? Tourism development and economic transformation on Komodo Island,Indonesia

Tourism development has often been regarded as an effective strategy for poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods. However, tourism often triggers transformations of traditional livelihoods and complete dependence on tourism-based income. Presenting the case of Komodo village on Komodo Island, Indonesia, this study provides an empirical evidence for such transformation. Based on qualitative methods, this article discusses the ways in which tourism development has led the local fishing community to give up their fishing to become fully dependent on selling souvenirs. Although currently, the souvenir business offers adequate return for local people, potential threats to this new livelihood, like a limited market, fierce competition, a short tourist season, and high dependence on cruise ship visits, are looming large. If tourism declines, local people will be left with no options to sustain their livelihood.     

Tourists’ aesthetic assessment of environmental changes,linking conservation planning to sustainable tourism development

Abstract

Tourists often travel to experience the natural beauty of a destination such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia. This nature-based destination attracts millions of tourists every year because of its outstanding underwater aesthetics. Recently, parts of the GBR have been degraded by warming sea temperatures and other local anthropogenic influences, threatening the Reef aesthetics and tourism in the region. In order to deal with this topical issue, the current research investigates tourists’ aesthetic assessment of environmental changes in the GBR ecosystem. Research outcomes indicate that tourists’ perceived beauty of the Reef is sensitive to environmental changes. The disappearance of sea animals (colourful fish, turtle), degrading coral and decreasing water quality negatively influence their aesthetic assessment, which can reduce tourist visitation in the long-term. Hence, sustainable tourism development in the GBR regions can only be achieved when government support for environmental management is strengthened. Conservation programs of the GBR should expand beyond coral restoration for controlling water quality, reducing pollution and protecting aesthetically appealing sea animals.     

‘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.     

Visitors with their ‘Backs to the archaeology’: religious tourism and archaeology

This paper presents a conceptual analysis of the crossover between religious tourism and archaeology. It begins with a clarification of what religious tourism is and continues to consider the link between archaeological sites, religious heritage and religious tourism. It then moves on to a supply-focused typology of sites and a typology of visitors according to their characteristics. It also discusses the primary conflicts existing today between archaeology and religious tourism. In light of this discussion, it concludes with thoughts on possible future research needs. The paper conceptualized the multiple relationships between religious tourism and religious archaeology. Archaeological remains that also serve as attractions for religious tourism appear to have unique characteristics, the understanding of which is important for long-term planning and development that will take into consideration archaeological, religious, political, and tourism needs. A better understanding of these contexts may also ultimately contribute to our understanding of the development versus conservation arguments facing archaeological areas.     

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.     

Exploring political parties’ manifesto discourse on tourism: Analysis of Scottish,Welsh and Northern Irish elections 1998–2011

This study explores the level of attention (‘issue-salience’) and use of language (‘policy framing’) related to tourism in political parties’ manifestos in Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections in the UK. The findings reveal significant increases in the salience of tourism as an election issue—as well as parties’ contrasting use of language when placing policy proposals before voters. Notably, as part of their state-building agenda, civic nationalist parties put particular emphasis on tourism as an expression of national identity and means of boosting international standing. This study’s wider contribution to tourism scholarship lies in showing how public policy is grounded in the representative process and revealing the party politicization and contingent nature of tourism policy development.     

Travel,tourism, climate change,and behavioral change: travelers’ perspectives from a developing country,Nigeria

While studies have examined people's understanding of climate change and its relationship to tourism, these focus largely on developed country populations. Much future tourism growth will come from developing countries following economic development; often countries where climate change will be strongly felt. Do tourists from developing countries have the same knowledge gaps about travel, tourism, and climate change as in the developed world? Will behavioral change policies be successful in encouraging more environmentally friendly approaches to climate change and tourism in developing countries? This paper presents findings from 20 in-depth interviews with active Nigerian tourists, analyzing their understanding of climate change, the links known, or not, between their travel and climate change, and their willingness to change their tourism patterns. Understanding of climate change was limited and there was conceptual confusion. Participants did not view their own travel as a cause of climate change and many were embedded in air travel practice. Participants were unwilling to change their tourism patterns to reduce their contribution to climate change. Significant structural barriers limit low carbon tourism travel in Nigeria (and other developing countries), including reliability, availability safety, and speed. Behavioral change will be difficult to achieve.     

Urban vs. rural destinations: Residents’ perceptions,community participation and support for tourism development

This paper investigates and compares the effects of residents' perceptions of the impacts of tourism on community participation and support for tourism development across urban and rural world heritage sites (WHSs). Partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), has been employed to perform the analysis. The results reveal significant differences between the effects of residents' perceptions and community participation on support for tourism development in urban and rural destinations. However, the findings did not support any differences between the effects of positive perceptions on community participation, and the indirect effects of negative perceptions on support for tourism development. This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the urban and rural tourism and residents’ perceptions literature by comparing rural and urban WHSs residents. Furthermore, this study has a number of practical implications for the local authorities of rural and urban WHSs.     

‘Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours: towards a feminist political economy of volunteer tourism

Barbie Saviours is a satirical Instagram account and linked Facebook page that depict white western Barbies volunteering in Africa with the bio, ‘Jesus. Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years old. It’s not about me… but it kind of is’. Drawing on emerging theories of feminist political economy, we address the growing backlash against volunteer tourism in the popular media and argue that critiques against these images reflect an anti-hegemonic project that highlights the role of sentimental colonialism in contemporary forms of international popular humanitarianism. Widely described as a critique against the ‘White Saviour Complex’, Barbie Saviour is used to popularise a negative image of western female volunteer tourists which currently comprise more than 75% of the industry. These critiques question the morality and legitimacy of female volunteer tourists as well as related spaces of western forms of development in the global south. These satires shine a spotlight on the neocolonial aura of the practice. However, we argue that while this critique is a productive reminder of the symbolic violence of racialised inequality, the critique itself also, albeit inadvertently, perpetuates the ahistorical and apolitical racial, ethnic, gender and class-based binary thinking that it seeks to condemn.     

Volunteer tourism and “The White Man’s Burden”: globalization of suffering,white savior complex,religion and modernity

While many volunteer tourism studies have acknowledged the significance of volunteer tourism and challenged conventional understandings of socio-economic change in the Global South, the ways in which ideas about globalization of suffering and religion and modernity flow through volunteer tourism and development discourses are rarely spoken about. Utilizing postcolonialism and whiteness studies theoretical framework, this study intends to take volunteer tourism research into a different trajectory by arguing that much like imperialism is operationalized through different kinds of institutional power (agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank), similarly volunteer tourism exerts power and exploits the Orient as the West’s pleasure periphery. Taking the case of Mother Teresa, this study also argues that Christian ideologies, which were so dominant during the colonial days, continue to pervade the structures and institutions in society with similar hegemonic connotations of privilege based on religion and race. Future tourism scholars should investigate these remarkable yet somewhat ignored issues in contemporary volunteer tourism practices.     

How to enhance hotel guests’ acceptance and experience of smart hotel technology: An examination of visiting intentions

Smart hotel is a novel concept in the hospitality industry, and few studies have examined hotel consumers’ intentions to visit smart hotels. This study investigates the relationship between technology readiness (TR) and technology amenities (TA) as antecedents to visiting intentions, using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Based on an online survey with 648 valid responses, the results indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are correlated with TA, but not with TR. Furthermore, TR affects intentions to visit smart hotels, but TA does not. The findings enrich the hospitality literature and have practical implications for hospitality marketers designing technology-related marketing strategies to maintain competitiveness. This study contributes to raising awareness of the importance of technological amenities and services for the future visiting intentions of hotel consumers.     

“This is not only about culture”: on tourism,gender stereotypes and other affective fluxes

In this article, I challenge the idea of a “one-way” relationship in which tourists are supposed to contribute with economic resources and freer gender roles to the development and empowerment of “poor, rural and traditional women”. By reflecting on my own located, gendered and embodied position during my ethnographic fieldwork among women performing bobbin lace in the Coast of Death (Galicia, Spain), I analyze how gender roles and stereotypes interact in both directions, leading to misunderstandings and performances of pride and resentment on behalf of the craftswomen. Some gender stereotypes associated with the craftswomen by the tourist gaze and other affective fluxes such as policies, economy and heritage regimes are not only changing contexts but also being embodied, traditionalizing the craftswomen and curtailing their flexible economic practices by transforming both crafts and bodies into something that is just “culture”.     

Is UNESCO recognition effective in fostering tourism? A comment on Yang,Lin and Han: Reply

This note replies Cellini's comment on the real effect of WHL in inducing more tourist arrivals in Yang, Lin and Han (2010, Tourism Management). Due to the time-invariant feature of the WHL number in the short-run, the fixed effect of panel data model seems to be inadequate on evaluating the impact of WHL on attracting international tourists. However, pooling estimates show that a region with more WHLs can attract more tourists.     

Suzhou’s water grid as urban heritage and tourism resource: an urban morphology approach to a Chinese city

ABSTRACT

Historically, many cities were served by water transport as an important mode of circulation. Suzhou in China is a case in point. Its orthogonally designed water-based grid was connected to the Grand Canal and the Tai Lake. Merchants and travellers entering into Suzhou would go through city gates serving both waterborne and road traffic. The water grid once played an important role for commercial activities and social interactions in the city, but over time, more and more canals were filled to pave roads and build houses. The transport system has by now almost entirely switched to the street grid. Drawing on historical maps, chronicles, artwork and existing studies, this paper employs urban morphology as a method to understand the significance of waterways for the identity of Suzhou. The authors argue that the waterways have a high heritage value, but lack practical functions. Tourism development is then presented as a chance to reactivate the water grid for heritage conservation, transport and the enhancement of tourist experiences. The paper supports this argument based on concrete findings, and it critically reflects on the meaning of heritage and discusses the appropriateness of the urban morphology approach for heritage research.     

Customers’ perceptions in value and food safety on customer satisfaction and loyalty in restaurant environments: moderating roles of gender and restaurant types

Using a valid sample of 334 restaurant diners, this study investigated the relative effects of perceived value and food safety on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The proposed model was consistent with other cognitive–attitudinal–behavioral frameworks. This study also explored how these two perceptions on customer satisfaction were different based on gender and restaurant type. We found support for all of the hypothesized relationships. Results from the structural equation modeling showed that customer satisfaction mediated the relationships between two antecedents and customer loyalty. Implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research were discussed.     

Introducing the concept of environmental policy integration into the discourse on sustainable tourism: a way to improve policy-making and implementation?

Many studies have explored how the tourism sector and tourism policies understand and relate to the concept of sustainable development. A common conclusion is that tourism concentrates on economic and social viability at the expense of environmental sustainable development. This paper considers if and how the concept of environmental policy integration (EPI) could improve sustainable tourism policy implementation. It defines EPI, and explores both the three-level (co-ordination, harmonization and prioritization) and four-level (inclusion, consistency, priorities and reporting) EPI approaches. It notes that there is both strong and weak EPI, and both political systems and policy analysis approaches. The paper then describes Norway's post-2007 adoption of sustainable tourism as a central part of its national tourism development strategy, with 10 defined principles, and suggested defined development standards, and assesses the implementation of the national strategy through the lens of the EPI concept. While there are now 18 pilot sustainable tourism destinations, with 44 criteria and 108 indicators, there remain many difficult issues to address. A series of suggestions are made, the chief of which is the need for a politically strong central authority that has been entrusted with having environmental concerns within the tourism sector as its key mandate.     

Tourism and health: using positive psychology principles to maximise participants’ wellbeing outcomes – a design concept for charity challenge tourism

This conceptual paper explores the use of psychology, especially positive psychology, to inform the design of travel experiences for a specific health outcome – enhanced participant wellbeing or mental health. It extends the concept of sustainable tourism as a tool for local, regional and societal improvement. Mental health is a growing issue in many developed countries: 30% of Australians report depressive symptoms, with implications for social sustainability. The paper reviews how positive psychology seeks to combine hedonic, eudemonic and social wellbeing into the integrated concept of “flourishing”, creating positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. It uses the charity challenge model to explore tourism experiences that enhance participant wellbeing. Charity challenges are participatory, group travel events combined with extended physical activity, awareness-raising, and fund-raising for charity. These events inherently combine recognised pathways to wellbeing, e.g. being active, doing something meaningful, giving, and connecting with others. Other principles from positive psychology, such as intentional and volitional activity, goal attainment, activation of signature strengths, experiencing positive emotions/gratification, and capitalisation on positive experiences, can be incorporated into the event design to foster wellbeing outcomes. The paper suggests how this design might take shape, as well as management implications and further research questions.