Organic ‘folkloric’ community driven place-making and tourism

The term 'place-making' describes a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public places for improving urban environments and residents' quality of life. Place-making has since become an institutionalized industry often supported by multi-million dollar budgets, but rarely are communities in control. The emphasis on improved welfare outcomes for communities has frequently omitted tourism benefits as an objective, although the tourism industry is often quick to exploit public space developments. Even though there is an emergent literature on place-making and tourism that has started to analyze this phenomenon, there is still little understanding of the role of place-making in tourism when place-making is the result of a community-led organic process. Five cases of place-making through emic, organic, folkloric, community-driven initiatives that differ markedly from the formal 'industry' of place-making that have achieved tourism-related outcomes even where tourism was not a primary motivation, are explored.     

Tour guide performances as sight sacralization

According to sociologist Dean MacCannell, sights are transformed into tourist attractions through five stages of “sight sacralization”: naming, framing and elevation, enshrinement, mechanical reproduction, and social reproduction. This paper hypothesizes that these stages of sight sacralization should have spoken correlates in the performances of tour guides. Through an ethnographic analysis of tour performances at the Lindheimer Home, this study shows how spoken correlates of these stages ritually transform an unimposing cottage into a valued cultural sight. The enshrinement stage, more than any other, has the potential to accomplish a ritual transformation of liminoid tourists into a state of communitas with the hostess and tour sight. The only sacralization stage without spoken correlates is mechanical reproduction. Yet the printed brochure serves as an analogue to tour performances. The paper suggests ideas for future studies of tour guide sacralization based on an examination of the structural oppositions and symbolic inversions which define types of tour performances.     

An exploration of foreign tourists’ perceptions of Korean food tour: a factor-cluster segmentation approach

Food tour in Korea has emerged as a popular program for foreign tourists who learn and experience Korean culture through cuisine, restaurants, and dining customs. The main objective of this empirical research is to investigate foreign tourists’ perceptions of Koran food tour and segment the emerging Korean food tour market. A total of 211 usable responses from foreign tourists who experienced Korean food tour were collected through the purposive sampling approach. The results of an exploratory factor analysis showed 7 food service factors delineated from 30 food tour service attributes and 4 segments of Korean food tour market (authenticity seekers, knowledge seekers, guidance seekers, and utmost experience seekers) were identified through the cluster-discriminant analysis. Detailed implications for the operators and marketers of Korean food tour programs are discussed.     

Tour Booking: Do Travelers Respond to Tourism Accreditation and Codes of Ethics Initiatives?

Tourism and hospitality organizations are spending more time and money on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, but at the same time not fully understanding how such initiatives enhance travelers’ responses. This study investigates the impact of two CSR initiatives that have been widely adopted by many travel organizations: tourism accreditation and codes of ethics. A large-scale survey collected data on how potential travelers responded to an online tour brochure. The results showed that both accreditation and code of ethics information in a brochure have significant but varying impacts on perceived tour value, trust, and tour booking intention.     

Tour operating planning in Thomson Holidays UK: The use of research

Thomson Holidays is the UK's largest inclusive tour operator with a turnover of over £200 million in 1982.The author, the company's marketing director, divides tour operating planning into nine major strategy areas: company strategy, marketing strategy, product strategy, marketing mix, the consumer, pricing, the brochure, annual programme plans and monitoring of results, and for each describes how research is used to deal with major problems and issues.     

Bringing the past to life: Co-creating tourism experiences in historic house tourist attractions

This ethnographic study concentrates on the co-creation of experiential value between the tourist and tour guide in a single historic tourism site; Huntingdon Castle, Ireland. Built upon the principles of service dominant logic, the research explores how storytelling acts as an engagement platform and value enhancing strategic resource. In doing so, it impels the value co-creation journey and shapes the tourist's experience. Observation is coupled with qualitative interviews to capture the dual perspective of both guides and tourists. Findings exhibit the co-creation process through the performance of stories; how and when people derive pleasure (value); the influencing aspects of the environment or place; and guide/tourist perspectives on how they feel and think during the experience. The research contributes by taking a practical operational view of how co-creation occurs. It goes beyond the guide's perspective and exhibits the importance of co-creation of lived experience in the story enhanced tourism experience framework.     

云南石林景点导游作为景观的旅游建构

文章在人类学田野调查基础上,以云南石林景点导游作为旅游景观的建构为切入点,梳理20世纪80年代以来政府对民族身份、性别在导游准入、导游管理中的认识和变化,以及导游自身的文化展演和符号行为等,以此呈现人、人的景观被规范到自然景现中,从而成为共同旅游景观的这一实践过程,并透过这一过程反映当地人的旅游实践.同时,在中国的文化背景和脉络下,对大众旅游表现出的不同意涵,该个案希望能提供一些有意义的启示.     

Tour guides and heritage interpretation: guides’ interpretation of the past at the archaeological site of Jarash,Jordan

Tour guides play a key role in the archaeological site visitor experience by providing interpretation and information. The archaeological site of Jarash, Jordan, is an important heritage destination for a diverse tourist market. It is located in a cultural landscape setting where many archaeological and historical monuments are well preserved. However, at present, this heritage rich seems far from being completely interpreted and valorized by not only local people but also by visitors. This paper reflects on the information and stories provided by tour guides about sites where heritage tourism experiences take place. Within this context, interpretation by tour guides is analyzed. A mixed-methods approach is used to accomplish this and includes qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, participant observations and desk research. The analysis is helpful in confirming that the way tour guides interpret a site influences site valorization and visitor experiences directly. From a practical perspective, the findings provide important insights for understanding how to develop an interpretative model that utilizes site values and the potential for providing better visitor experiences. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of guided package tours and provide suggestions for tour guides and heritage site managers in Jordan.     

Aurora Borealis: Choreographies of darkness and light

This paper explores some of the ways in which Northern Lights tourism is composed and performed. In particular, we will focus on the interplay between light and darkness and how tourists, tour operators and various more-than-human elements are engaged in and contribute to affective lightscapes of Northern Lights tourism through improvised choreography. The discussion is based on an ethnographic example from one Northern Lights tour. The paper advances understanding of the importance of how bodies and rhythms intertwine with the surroundings creating tourism experiences as well as contributing to the affective field of destinations.     

Tourism and the (re)making of rural places: The cases of two Chinese villages

Tourism is a major force in rural place-making and is widely adopted to maintain and revitalize rurality in times of economic uncertainty. A mixed methods approach is used to examine and compare place-making experiences of two villages in central China from the perspective of social capital Interviews, observations and household surveys are used to identify the place-making processes, experiences, and outcomes. Rural tourism place-making in both villages follow proposal, negotiation, implementation and maintenance stages. A clear tourism orientation in place-making processes and involvement of external partners brought higher economic benefits for residents but a lower sense of ownership. The social capital of the two villages resulted in variations in place-making styles and processes, and influenced rurality outcomes. Practical suggestions for the planning and management of rural destinations are offered.     

Hassles of tour leaders

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 15 tour leaders to explore the hassles in tour leaders' personal lives and work. Through content analysis, the hassles of tour leaders were identified and were found consistent with previous literature, namely a three-fold classification of: hassles in guiding tours, hassles from tour companies, and hassles in personal lives. Hassles in guiding tours include the annoying behavior of tour members, troublesome employees of the suppliers, obstacles during the tour, perceptual differences between the tour leader and tour members, and bearing responsibilities for errors caused by others. Hassles from tour companies include unfulfilled duties of tour company staff, inconsistencies between tour features and tour leaders' styles, and the irrational regulations of tour companies. Hassles in personal lives include work–family conflicts, work-related diseases, low and unstable income, hardship in maintaining social relationships, and difficulties in utilizing leisure time properly. Implications for management and future research are discussed.     

Guides' handling of multiple roles in interactions with tourists: The prism of impression management

Tour guides undertake multiple roles and may face role conflicts when interacting with tourists. A framework of impression management based on dramaturgical theory provides an insight into the inner mechanisms behind how tour guides deal with multiple role dilemmas. This situation is examined in interactions between local Chinese tour guides and Chinese group tourists in a walking-tour-shopping context in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Through observations and interviews, we find that the interplay of a moving stage and guides' role-shifting between being a Chinese sibling, a local and a cultural interpreter delivers authoritative and reliable impressions to tourists, and thus conceal their conflicting role as a shopping broker. We further refine the inner mechanism, which contributes to existing literature on tour guides' multiple-role practices. Our research also enriches the explanatory power of Goffman's framework by explaining a complex situation with multiple role dilemmas amidst a moving working stage in interactive studies.     

The impact of successful cross-competencies on a career in tourism in Italy: the meeting point between the students’ perceptions and the requirements for professionals

ABSTRACT

The paper aims to understand how the changes occurring in the tourism sector are affecting the labor market in Italy, with a special focus on the relevance of successful cross competences (SCC). It focuses on comparing the relevance of these competencies in the perception of both students preparing to enter the tourism field and tour operators. The two-step study combined qualitative analysis that put forth specific characteristics of the tourism labor market in Italy through interviews with experts, and quantitative analysis that correlated the requirements of the tour operators to the ideas students have of what competencies tour operators entering the field should have. The results evinced differing perceptions of SCC and their relative importance in professional fields. Students manifest to miss awareness of the importance of SCC for their future careers. Furthermore, organizational ability, self-control and self-esteem were perceived by tour operators as the most important competencies to be acquired.     

Service customization: To upgrade or to downgrade? An investigation of how option framing affects tourists’ choice of package-tour services

Package-tour operators often tailor trips to fit travelers’ personal requirements to create higher customer value. In practice, there are various options available for presenting an identical package tour to potential customers. This research investigates how option framing influences travelers’ decision making in a package-tour customization task. Based on a behavioral study and a logistic regression analysis, our results show that: (1) when both upgrading (i.e., starting from an economic package and customizing upwards) and downgrading (i.e., beginning with a luxury package and customizing downwards) methods are available, more consumers prefer upgrading to downgrading; (2) consumers customize their tour packages to a higher total price in the downgrading condition; (3) after separating peripheral service from core service attributes, our results further reveal that option framing affects peripheral services more than core services; and (4) consumers who are quality conscious and promotion-focused are more likely to choose a downgrading method for package-tour customization. Combined, these findings offer important managerial implications for travel companies.     

Virtual reality is so cool! How technology innovativeness shapes consumer responses to service preview modes

Today’s hospitality brands often gain a competitive advantage through being cool and employing cutting edge technologies. Virtual Reality (VR) is one of the most novel tools to advertise brands, introduce new products/services, and draw customers. Despite the marketing potential of VR, there is scant research revealing the psychological processes associated with the use of VR as a cool technology. To bridge the gap in the current literature, this research examines how consumers with different degrees of technology innovativeness respond to marketing of hospitality brands through three main service preview modes: VR, static images, and 360° tour. The findings from a lab experiment show that as consumers’ technology innovativeness increases, VR boosts self-brand connection that consequently elevates their visit intentions toward the hotel brand. The findings from this study would help hospitality marketers better target their efforts at a specific consumer segment.     

行为地理与城市旅游线路设计--以苏州一日游线路设计为例

行为地理学在研究人们的空间行为时强调个人之间的差异。旅游产品消费过程得到的效用满足也是以个体来衡量的。由于旅游线路是旅游产品之一，因此旅游产业的发展趋势是设计更多的旅游线路产品，以满足不同消费者的旅游需要。本文以苏州客调查资料为基础，并设计了显示旅游群体线路选择差异性的指标TRDI，通过计算苏州城市旅游中，不同年龄、不同受教育程度、不同职业人群的TRDI，分析不同群体旅游线路选择的多样性差异。而后提出中现尺度上旅游线路设计的基本理念及评价方法，从而为旅游业经营单位设计旅游线路和旅游者选择适当的旅游线路产品提出建设性的方案。     

Tour guide performance and sustainable visitor behavior at cultural heritage sites

Abstract

Using structural equation modeling, this study investigates how tour guide performance influences visitors’ sustainable behavior at cultural heritage sites by examining the mediating effects of visitor experience and satisfaction. The structural model was tested on a sample of 390 visitors at Petra Archaeological Park in Jordan. Tour guide performance was found to have a significant direct and indirect effects in enhancing visitor sustainable behavior. Moreover, the findings showed that visitor experience and satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between tour guide performance and visitor sustainable behavior. This research contributes to our understanding of the tour guide role in maximizing visitors’ appreciation and enjoyment, and minimizing their negative impacts on heritage sites. Managerial implications are discussed in light of the empirical findings.     

关于准入制度与导游管理体制的思考

很多研究从不同视角就导游管理问题进行了深入探讨,提出的对策主要是两个方面:严格导游职业准入制度和完善相关管理体制。文章认为,职业准入制度的主要功能对于解决我国导游服务中存在的市场机会主义问题并不具有针对性,对于真正实现导游数量控制、提高导游服务质量作用有限。加强监管的思路是合理的,但如何监管需考虑行业管理制度与企业微观机制的衔接和相互影响,从制度建设方面引导旅行社自身组织结构优化。从市场关系看,导游具有独立性,又对旅行社具有从属性,旅行社才是市场责任主体,其追求利益的方式影响企业组织结构,决定了旅行社与导游之间的关系,进而影响导游的行为和服务质量。旅游行业管理应该建立以旅行社为核心的行业治理模式,明确和强化旅行社的质量责任主体地位,促进导游服务质量提升。