A climate change vulnerability assessment methodology for coastal tourism

Coastal and marine environments are among the most popular areas for outdoor recreation and tourism. Coastal areas have also been identified as the most vulnerable to climate change, for example as a result of extreme events and sea-level rise. It will be increasingly important for coastal tourism destination managers to understand their vulnerability to climatic changes and to devise appropriate adaptation. This paper presents a five-step vulnerability assessment methodology for tourism in coastal areas. The five steps include (1) system analysis, (2) identification of activity and hazard sub-systems, (3) vulnerability assessments for the different sub-systems at risk, (4) integration for the destination as a whole and scenario analysis and (5) communication. The framework is illustrated by an example of how it might be applied to Fiji. The paper concludes that a consistent methodology, like the one proposed, will facilitate vulnerability assessments in a range of coastal destinations, allow comparison to be made of vulnerabilities across different situations, provide a basis for more research into specific adaptation measures and assist destinations to develop a more sustainable tourism industry.     

Investigating tourist destination choice: Effect of destination image from social network members

This paper aims to investigate tourist destination choice, focusing on the research question how and to what extent the destination images of tourists' social network members influence their choice behavior. To this end, data were collected using a sequential stated adaptation choice experiment, in which respondents were requested to choose a tourist destination from a single choice set twice, once before and once after being informed about the destination image of social network members. A discrete choice model was estimated to investigate tourists’ choices. The estimation results revealed that the destination image of social network members allow tourists to update their existing knowledge toward destinations, through which their choice behavior is influenced. Tourists tend to adopt their destination image of social network members no matter whether they have a prior image or not. The magnitude of this social influence depends on the properties of the social networks.     

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.     

Putting tourists in harms way – Coastal tourist parks and hazardous unpatrolled surf beaches in New South Wales,Australia

This study investigates relationships between coastal tourist parks in New South Wales (NSW), Australia and the hazard rating and extent of lifeguard patrols of their nearest surf beach. The vast majority (91%) of NSW coastal tourist parks are closest to surf beaches rated as hazardous to swimmers. Of these beaches, 35% are completely unpatrolled by lifeguards while another 61% are only partially patrolled (<25% per year). Visitors to tourist parks in the Southern Region of NSW are at greater risk when bathing due to a higher percentage of unpatrolled beaches. These findings raise important questions regarding the provision of lifeguarding services on these beaches, the availability and dissemination of beach safety material, and the duty of care of tourist park operators. It also highlights the need to further incorporate human usage and interaction variables into existing beach hazard rating systems.     

After over 25 years of accrediting beaches,has Blue Flag contributed to sustainable management?

This paper examines the qualitative, quantitative, and geographical evolution (1987–2012) of the Blue Flag campaign and accreditation process in Spain, a leading coastal tourism destination heading the list of awards. The standard Blue Flag criteria for crowded, developed beaches are now adapting to new demands for natural beaches, but they still fail to capture essential sustainable tourism features, such as limiting user numbers, or preserving and restoring sand ecosystems. Given these shortcomings, some destinations are moving to alternative awards with a higher environmental commitment, such as EMS, ISO14001, and Eco-Management and Audit Schemes (EMAS). A cluster analysis of Blue Flag data for 983 beaches in Spain over 26 years revealed different behaviour patterns: established tourist areas that have always opted for the Blue Flag programme; tourist areas that adopted the Blue Flag early on but replaced it with ISO14001 and EMAS; recently developed destinations applying for the award to boost their tourism promotion; and tourist areas with no well-defined policy that have opted intermittently for Blue Flag. These profiles illustrate the different policies of Spain's Autonomous Regions, and they are useful for tourism managers to verify whether their destination's behaviour pattern contributes to sustainable tourism and matches strategic policies they have designed for them.     

Geospatial analysis of barrier island beach availability to tourists

This study geospatially analyzes beach availability for global recreational tourism management with focus on a case study of Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia, USA. Aerial digital imagery in combination with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and geographic information system (GIS) mapping and analysis are employed to delineate accurate shorelines with regard to accessible and available beach area. This analysis demonstrates geospatial techniques for the identification, delineation, qualification and geovisualization of dry beaches, a popular tourist destination worldwide that is subjected to diurnal flooding by tides. The accurate depiction of shorelines using remotely sensed differences in Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) and Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) levels is required to identify dry beach areas available for coastal tourism and management. Such information allows tourists to choose beach areas suitable for recreational or ecological activities. Dry beach availability also assists coastal restoration managers to plan and implement beach conservation measures. Results predict shoreline changes and dry beach access while promoting minimal impacts by tourists on fragile coastal dune ecosystems.     

Environmental Management,Environmental Image and the Competitive Tourist Attraction

Studies of competitiveness have been most often conducted at the destination rather than the attraction level. However, a destination is an aggregation of tourist attractions plus supporting infrastructure and services, and many attractions are small-scale destinations in themselves, providing visitors with multiple opportunities. This paper, by examining the environmental strategies adopted in the development process of Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, the most visited attraction in Hainan, China, shows that the image, and hence the competitiveness of tourist attractions can be enhanced through sound environmental management practices.     

Airport stops and flights on small airplanes as inhibitors of tourism-related air travel: A case study

This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.     

Sequential choice behavior: Going on vacation and type of destination

The literature of destination choice has so far studied multi-stage decision making processes that are more representative of the general choice behavior of tourists (e.g. going on vacation, going abroad, and destination country). Alternatively, this study proposes a multi-stage decision process to the choice of tourist destination types (going on vacation, coastal character, and urban character of the destination) as these choice sets are more idiosyncratic to tourists who prefer a specific type of tourist destination (e.g. Spain with clear coastal and inland variations). In order to test this multi-stage choice process as well as the sequential order of both decisions, coastal character and urban character, the current study analyses decision processes vs. different hierarchical multi-stage processes (going on vacation and coastal character preceding urban character; and going on vacation and urban character preceding coastal character). The empirical findings support the existence of a multi-stage choice process where coastal character precedes the urban character destination choice. The main implication of these findings is that, given the limited human analytical capability, a hierarchical choice process can be useful to handle the information overload and the complexity inherent to the destination type choice.     

Spatial movement patterns among intra-destinations using social network analysis

To explore popularly visited tourist locations, travel movement patterns, and movement points, this study collected samples of 321 Chinese tourists and 337 Japanese tourists who were visiting major tourist destinations in Seoul and its vicinity in South Korea. Results of analyzing movement patterns showed that Japanese tourists tend to be clustered around popular attractions, whereas Chinese tourists tend to spread over a larger area of attractions. Some specific shopping and amusement attractions were the locations most popularly visited by both groups. The start points and end points in the two groups’ itineraries were dissimilar overall, even though their patterns were similar in regard to major preferred tourist attractions. Thus, the findings of this study have the potential to contribute to understanding spatial mobility in a tourism destination through tracking tourists’ movement patterns.     

旅游地社会责任、声誉、认同与旅游者忠诚关系

文章构建了旅游地社会责任、旅游地声誉、旅游地认同与旅游者忠诚关系的整合模型,以厦门市旅游者为研究对象,采用结构方程模型( SEM)方法,对整合模型进行实证检验,发现:(1)旅游者社会责任直接正向影响旅游地声誉和旅游地认同,并通过旅游地声誉对旅游地认同产生间接影响,通过旅游地声誉和旅游地认同对重游倾向和口碑宣传产生间接影响;(2)旅游地声誉正向影响旅游地认同、重游倾向和口碑宣传,并通过旅游地认同对口碑宣传产生间接影响;(3)旅游地认同直接影响口碑宣传;(4)重游倾向和口碑宣传之间存在递进关系.最后,文章对研究结论进行了讨论,并指出了研究局限和未来研究方向.     

A quantitative valuation of tourist experience in Lisbon

The increasing value of tourist satisfaction for tourism promotion has led to a substantial increase in research into the process of measuring the satisfaction of tourists, and various approaches and theories have been developed.This paper proposes an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach to ensure the measurements of perceptions and satisfaction of tourists. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered to tourists who had visited Lisbon. The formulation of the IRT models allowed us to determine the influence of some demographic and travel behaviour characteristics on a number of given destination attributes. We also specified georeferenced IRT models to attain geographically differentiated measures of tourist satisfaction. The main findings from the models are compared and discussed.     

Insights into the repeat vacation phenomenon

The study focused upon the repeat visitor. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire at two Texas Highway Visitor Centers and through indepth personal interviews with a small sample. A majority of the sample were returning to a destination that had been visited before. Compared to those visiting a destination for the first time, repeat visitors were more likely to be older individuals seeking relaxation and visiting a friend and/or relatives on their vacation. The qualitative component of the study uncovered five factors which contributed to people returning to a familiar destination. They were a reduced risk that an unsatisfactory experience would be forthcoming; an assurance that they would find “their kind of people” there; emotional childhood attachment; to experience some aspects of the destination which had been omitted on a previous occasion; and to expose others to an experience which had previously been satisfying to respondents.     

旅华外国散客旅游流地理分布和网络结构研究

散客旅游是全球主流旅游方式,入境散客市场在中国入境旅游市场中也占据重要地位。文章主要采用问卷法采集数据,研究样本总量1451份,运用地图分析法研究旅华外国散客旅游流的分布和扩散规律,运用社会网络分析法研究旅华外国散客旅游流网络结构特征。研究发现:散客以北京、广州和上海为主要出入境口岸,以香港为辅助口岸,旅游线路以单目的地、短线为主,平均到访目的地数量较少;北京和广州是单目的地散客的主要旅游目的地;多点散客旅游流集中分布在中国人口线东南部,以"北京—西安"之间的流量最大,并形成了长三角、珠三角、川滇3个区域性集中分布区;散客旅游流网络规模较大,但网络密度较低,整体结构松散,发育程度较差;网络具有小世界特性;网络中的节点可以划分成综合性节点、枢纽节点、重要节点和一般节点4种角色类型。文章首次从宏观联系的视角对旅华外国散客旅游流进行了整体研究,丰富和拓展了中国入境旅游流研究内容。     

DISTANCE‐SEGMENTED RURAL TOURISTS

This article uses travel distance to segment rural tourists in a tourist destination in the U.S. Midwest. A distance decay pattern was identified, with more than half of the respondents traveling from a location within 200 miles of the destination. The differences in the socio‐demographic, trip‐related characteristics, and destination activities of these tourists were examined across distinct distance segments. Among other findings, the study revealed that tourists from within a 50‐mile radius participated in most of the activities, and those traveling between 200 and 600 miles made up the majority of business travelers. These two segments also had a higher participation rate in the recreational activities than did the other distance segments. The findings of the study show that simple variables such as distance travel remain viable for destinations, particularly those in the rural area, to understand the tourists for segmentation purpose.     

The implementation of a world-famous tourism ecolabel triggers political support for beach management

Blue Flag (BF) is one of the most renowned tourism ecolabels in the world. Although this ecolabel is based primarily on environmental education and management, it is argued that its core strength is the capacity to trigger political will. This paper presents the BF implementation process in a country through application of a BF Readiness Matrix and interviews with key stakeholders in eight coastal municipalities in Colombia. The matrix used 87 items to assess the level of compliance of 12 beaches with each of the 33 BF criteria. The challenges faced in the implementation of BF are presented and discussed. Because they are not unique to Colombia, the results and conclusions are applicable to many low and middle-income countries that historically have not committed to the management of tourist beaches. The conclusions underline the capacity of BF to raise political will to support beach management and generate specific management actions.     

Eco-efficiency and its determinants at a tourism destination: A case study of Huangshan National Park,China

This study creates a comprehensive evaluation index system, including undesirable outputs and a Slacks-Based Measure-Data Envelopment Analysis model, to analyse the characteristics and evolution of eco-efficiency at an individual tourism destination. This study also empirically identifies the determinants of eco-efficiency. Huangshan National Park, one of the most iconic and highly visited national parks in China, was chosen as the study site. The study results indicate that eco-efficiency has improved continuously. Pure technical efficiency is higher than scale efficiency, while eco-efficiency is more relevant to scale efficiency than to pure technical efficiency. The evolution of eco-efficiency undergoes four stages: an initial inefficient stage, a rapid growth stage, a mature efficient stage and a downside risk stage. Moreover, tourism development, industrial structure and technical level have significantly positive impacts on eco-efficiency, but investment level displays the opposite trend. Environmental regulation emphasizing waste control does not effectively promote eco-efficiency. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions of the findings are discussed in the context of eco-efficiency at a tourism destination. For instance, an eco-efficiency analysis of a destination should treat the tourism destination as a macro-scale system with complex evolutionary rules and should combine this perspective with theory, such as the tourist area cycle of evolution proposed by Butler in 1980.     

Achieving destination advocacy and destination loyalty through destination brand identification

Brand identification enhances customer loyalty and develops long-term relationships between the customer and the brand. However, only a few studies have explored the role of identification in building long-term and favorable relationships between tourists and a tourism destination. In this study, we propose and empirically verify destination personality congruence and destination trust as the drivers of destination brand identification, and destination advocacy and destination loyalty as its outcomes. For assessing these proposed relationships, a sample of 342 respondents was collected from foreign tourists visiting Dharamsala, which is a famous tourist destination among visitors in northern India. The results of structural equation modeling reveal that destination personality congruence significantly influences the destination loyalty through destination brand identification. In addition, destination trust emerges as a significant predictor for both destination advocacy and destination loyalty. The study offers important implications for both acadmecians and practitioners.     

U.S. tourist destinations: A history of desirability

This study supplies a ranking of the most desirable tourist destinations for US travelers from 1907 through 1980, as gauged from a content analysis of travel-related advertisements appearing in two national magazines; Harper's Monthly and National Geographic. The amount of advertising space that features each destination is calculated, and from these totals the rankings of desirable destinations are derived. Maps and accompanying narrative give external validity to the content analysis, while use of consistent coding forms provides reliability. Listings of frequently visited areas accompany each map and narrative, and these in turn generally agree with those developed from the advertisements.