Tourists’ travel time values using discrete choice models: the recreational value of the Teide National Park

Abstract

The value of travel time is one of the most important factors in recreation demand models. Traditionally, the most common approach for its calculation has been the use of different proportions of the wage rate; however, criticisms of this method abound because in a recreational trip the relevant measure is the opportunity cost of leisure time rather than work time. In this paper, we adopt a novel approach in the literature using discrete choice models based on short-term decisions and independent of the labor market. We obtain the value of travel time through the trade-off between time and money considered by the tourist visitors when choosing the transport mode and we present the first calculation of the recreational value of the Teide National Park. Specifically, using a Revealed Preference survey of 801 park visitors, we estimate Mixed Logit models accounting for random preference heterogeneity, derive travel time values and incorporate them into a Zonal Travel Cost Method. This approach allows us to estimate different time values depending on transport mode and stage of the trip and shows that the use of discrete choice models instead of the wage rate approach has a strong impact on the recreational value calculated.     

Toward an Understanding of Tourists’ Authentic Heritage Experiences: Evidence from Hong Kong

Authenticity in tourism has been a topic of discussion since the 1960s, but the concept is still to be fully developed. This study focuses on tourists’ perceptions of authenticity, and in particular how they evaluate authentic heritage experiences. The appearance and physical settings of attractions were found to be the initial and most important indicators of authentic or inauthentic experiences. Other criteria for assessing the authenticity of heritage experiences include the presence of local culture and customs, constructed elements, commodification, and atmosphere.     

Tourists’ hotel event experience and satisfaction: an integrative approach

ABSTRACT

Tourists’ hotel event experiences have received little attention in tourism research. By proposing an integrated model of expectation–confirmation theory (ECT) and the experience economy concept, this research explores the relationship between tourists’ event experience and their satisfaction regarding the hotel event setting. The hypothesized model was empirically validated using a sample of 663 tourists who experienced a holiday event at a resort hotel. Results confirmed that the integration of the experience economy and ECT provided a better understanding of tourists’ post-satisfaction in a pleasure-driven setting. This affective–cognitive approach advances the knowledge of tourists’ experiences and satisfaction at hotel events.     

Influence of design on tourists’ recommendation intention: an exploratory study of fjord cruise boats

ABSTRACT

In this article we study the influences of esthetic, functional, and symbolic dimensions of design on attitude toward fjord cruise boats and intention to recommend using the product. Also, we argue for the importance of a product to blend in with the surroundings in which it is used – contextually congruent design. In two studies we find that aesthetic, functional and contextually congruent design has positive influences on attitude toward fjord cruise boats. Designers of fjord cruise boats should develop boats with designs that are congruent with the surroundings in which they will be used.     

What hinders hotels’ adoption of environmental technologies: A quantitative study

In response to our planet’s severe environmental problems, many businesses use environmental technologies to strengthen their environmental performance. However, the adoption rate of using such technologies in hotels is still slow, and very few quantitative studies have examined the reasons why. This study examined the barriers to environmental technology adoption in the Hong Kong hotel industry. We sent 648 questionnaires to the target sample and eventually received 102 completed responses. Seven barriers were identified: (1) monopolised after-sales service; (2) human resource limitations; (3) government and initial support; (4) financial performance; (5) lack of green knowledge and green network; (6) customer experience; and (7) environmental feasibility. An independent samples t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to investigate the relative significance of the seven barriers for different hotel demographic variables. This study offers specific theoretical and practical implications. Recommendations for the industry are also provided.     

Ecotourism in Bako National Park,Borneo: Visitors’ Perspectives on Environmental Impacts and their Management

Ecotourism potentially provides a sustainable approach to development in Malaysia. However, to realise this potential the adverse effects of visitor activity and associated infrastructure on the natural environment and the tourism experience must be identified to guide management actions and thus to sustain the resources on which ecotourism ultimately depends. This study, conducted in Bako National Park on the island of Borneo, reports one of the first efforts to identify the impacts of ecotourism in Malaysia from the perspective of visitors. Environmental conditions of greatest influence on visitors’ experiences included litter and biophysical conditions such as soil erosion and vegetation damage. These conditions were of greater concern to visitors than social conditions, such as the number of people. These results suggest that management efforts can be directed towards indicators of greatest concern such as litter, soil erosion and vegetation damage. The broad support given by those surveyed for a range of management actions provides managers with a choice of strategies to sustain ecotourism in Bako National Park. This study, with its sociopolitical approach, contributes to a greater understanding of the implications of the ecotourist experience for ecotourism management in Malaysia.     

Tourists’ willingness to pay for an accommodation: The effect of eWOM and internal reference price

Understanding the determinants of consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) is an important challenge especially for practitioners. This study evaluates the effect of external information (eWOM valence and volume) and internal information (internal reference price) on consumers’ WTP for an accommodation. The results of an online experiment (n = 766) show a direct effect of valence on WTP which is strengthened by both volume and the internal reference price. Consumers with high reference prices are more sensitive to the effect of an increase in valence. Moreover, internal reference price has a non-linear influence on WTP. The findings suggest the relevant role of eWOM as well as internal reference price in determining consumers’ WTP. The inclusion of these two variables in dynamic pricing strategies could lead to greater benefits for hospitality managers.     

Indigenous and democratic decision-making: issues from community-based ecotourism in the Boumā National Heritage Park,Fiji

Participatory development literature involving community-based ecotourism management (CBEM) has only recently addressed issues pertaining to indigenous governance and decision-making systems. This paper contributes to sustainable tourism by presenting local decision-making practices and issues arising from the perspective of the members of one village in the Boumā National Heritage Park, Fiji. It shows that introduced democratic decision-making systems may not contribute to political empowerment in CBEM and can cause difficult situations. It is argued that greater attention to local systems of governance is required if tourism practitioners are to fully understand decision-making and participation in CBEM. The paper also offers a culturally appropriate methodology that may produce more meaningful outcomes for sustainable tourism research in indigenous Fijian contexts, and in other contexts worldwide. It argues that levels of empowerment should not just be treated as the outcome but as a part of the process of tourism development. It explores the core Fijian cultural concept of vanua as a way of life, involving interrelated social, ecological and spiritual elements. An emic perspective utilising informal talanoa (discussions) is used and examined, along with the roles of kin groups, village spokesmen and clan systems, and their relationship with western business decision-making practices.     

Sino-western Tourists’ Place Attachment to a Traditional Chinese Urban Destination: A Tale from Hangzhou,China

This article investigates the constructs of tourists’ place attachment to a traditional Chinese urban destination as well as the differences of these constructs across tourists with different cultural backgrounds. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis show that place attachment consists of four major factors: place identity, place dependence, affective attachment, and social bonding. Estimation results also reveal differences in the importance of place attachment constructs between Chinese and Western tourists. In addition, tourists’ socio-demographic and travel characteristics are found to be associated with their attachment to places in the urban destination. Based on the empirical results, policy implications are provided.     

Characteristics of small business leadership from employees’ perspective: A qualitative study

Leadership is a much-studied topic, and yet, the topic still attracts researchers. As an essential factor in every organization, however, leadership contributes significantly to a business failure, especially in small independent restaurant businesses and this could be due to the unique operations of the industry and the lack of leadership studies on small hospitality businesses. This study aims to fill the gap by exploring the ideal characteristics for small independent restaurant leaders to become an effective leader using a qualitative approach from their employees’ perspectives. Qualitative data were collected through four focus groups and one dyadic interview. The findings of the qualitative data analysis revealed nine themes: respectful, compassionate, effective communicator, experienced, effective delegator, gives recognition, sociable, emotionally controlled, organized. The paper discussed implications of the findings for small independent restaurant businesses and the hospitality industry in general as well as implications for theory.     

The effect of information presentation modes on tourists’ responses in Internet marketing: the moderating role of emotions

In order to enhance our understanding of the effectiveness of information transmission through virtual reality (VR), this study used a modified stimulus–organism–response framework to examine the relationships between information presentation modes (VR versus picture), emotions (pleasure and arousal), and tourists’ responses, namely attention, interest, desire, and action (AIDA) in the context of Internet tourism marketing. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were employed to analyze data gathered from 184 respondents participating in a factorial experimental design. The results indicated that compared with the picture mode, the VR mode had superior effects on tourists’ responses, but these superior effects were moderated by arousal. High-arousal tourists had stronger AIDA responses in the VR mode than in the picture mode. However, the stronger effects of the VR mode on tourists’ AIDA responses disappeared in the low-arousal group. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for Internet tourism marketing.     

Virtual reality and mixed reality for second chance tourism

The deterioration of attractions, landmarks, artefacts and destinations is a critical issue facing tourism across the world. The closure of tourism sites and attractions is increasingly more common due to the difficulty and expense of managing preservation with onsite tourism engagement. However, the closure or destruction of tourism sites presents challenges for tourism development. The inability to foster meaningful visitor engagement at sites has implications for the local communities. This paper aims to explore the efficacy of creating tourism experiences in destinations and sites that have succumbed to over-tourism, resultant deterioration and even, destruction. To achieve this objective, the paper introduces the concept of second chance tourism and the role of innovative preservation methods such as virtual and mixed reality. Based on the proposed framework, the collation of data will provide indications on site preservation and impact mitigation via a second chance to reduce pressure on inherently fragile destinations.     

Augmented Reality Smart Glasses (ARSG) visitor adoption in cultural tourism

ABSTRACT

A number of organizations in cultural tourism have started to explore the use of augmented reality (AR) to enhance visitor experience. While many studies have been conducted to identify adoption criteria of mobile AR applications, research exploring the adoption of augmented reality smart glasses (ARSG) is still limited. This paper contributes to the technology adoption literature by investigating attributes of visitor adoption of ARSG in cultural tourism. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with visitors to a UK art gallery, where they experienced an ARSG application. Findings inform an ARSG adoption framework that integrates societal impact, perceived benefits, perceived attributes of innovation, and visitor resistance as the main themes of ARSG adoption in cultural tourism.     

Spuriousness and tourism: Politics of Two Canadian Provincial Government

Papson, Stephen, Spuriousness and Tourism: Politics of Two Canadian Provincial Government. Annals of Tourism Research 1981, VIII(2):220–235. Using Boorstein's and MacCannell's notions of pseudo-events and of staged authenticity, this paper explores the process by which socio-cultural reality takes on the quality of spuriousness. Theoretically, it is argued that reality is spurious to the extent that it is imposed from sources outside of the everyday existence of members of a community. Empirically, the policies of the provincial governments of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are analyzed. It is argued that tourist marketing, routing and zoning, creating community events, and organizing historical sites are a form imposing a layer of reality over the everyday which is spurious.     

20 years of research on virtual reality and augmented reality in tourism context: A text-mining approach

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have undergone technical evolutions over the last few decades including improvements in immersion and the feeling of telepresence. Several examples of the applications of such techniques can be found in stores, tourism, hotel, restaurants, and destinations. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of studies employing such techniques in tourism-related studies is difficult to find. The current study uses citation network analysis and text-mining techniques to conduct a full-text analysis of 56 journal papers and 325 conference proceedings related to VR and AR in the tourism context. This paper intends to (i) provide an overview of the VR and AR-related tourism studies network and discuss them over time, (ii) present the most important topics and studies emerging from this literature, (iii) suggest avenues for further research. Findings reveal 10 core topics in journal papers and 11 core topics in conference proceedings, which are presented together with an overview of the published studies and the main authors.     

Virtual wine tours and wine tasting: The influence of offline and online embodiment integration on wine purchase decisions

Applying the theory of embodied cognition as the research framework, the purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of virtual wine tours on young consumers' wine sensory experience and purchasing behaviors. A lab tasting experiment was conducted to compare the influence of a VR video with that of a traditional video featuring a vineyard and winery tour. Results indicated that the VR wine tour video evoked higher intentions to purchase and willingness to pay than the traditional video. Consumers with higher levels of wine knowledge appreciated the video presence and the tastes/aromas of the wine more than consumers with lower levels of wine knowledge. Combined with the taste/finish of the wine, video presence mediated the relationships between video types and consumers' purchase behaviors, revealing that the integration of offline and online embodiments makes a difference in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Recommendations were then provided based on these results.     

Influence of Social Media on Chinese Students’ Choice of an Overseas Study Destination: An Information Adoption Model Perspective

This study is an experimental investigation of the influence of social media on choosing an overseas study destination. The elaboration likelihood model of communication and persuasion provides a conceptual basis for this study. Data was collected through convenience sampling of Chinese students from three Brisbane tertiary institutions. Participants were provided with one of the four treatments with manipulated stimuli. Results suggest that social media content is an influential factor in determining destination attractiveness, and may, if correctly specified, facilitate high elaboration and generate corresponding positive or negative impressions of the study destination from students.     

乡村旅游发展与构建农村居民利益分享机制研究——以北京市海淀区西北部地区旅游业发展为例

文章运用利益相关者理论,对北京市海淀区西北部地区旅游发展中利益相关者的利益关系进行分析,提出构建乡村旅游的利益分享机制,通过为旅游行业提供公共服务、对旅游市场实施行业管理、向当地社区提供财政支持和转移支付等措施,达到了以旅游业发展促进农村居民等弱势群体增权的目的,进而实现区域旅游业的和谐发展.     

Enhancing the customer experience with virtual and augmented reality: The impact of content and device type

Virtual and augmented reality are changing how companies interact with customers. However, previous research has paid little attention to compare their effectiveness. This study focuses on the perceptions of presence elicited by different types of contents (real or digital) and embodied devices (head-mounted display or smartphone), and their impact on user’s pre-experiences with hotels. Results from a lab experiment show that contents with high levels of factual realism (360-degree videos) have a positive influence on perceptions of presence, ease of imagination, and visual appeal, and on booking intentions. These effects are stronger when high embodied devices (head-mounted displays) are applied. Additionally, presence positively influences ease of imagination and visual appeal, which mediate the impact of content on booking intentions. These findings stress the importance of inducing presence as a key driver for behavioral intentions in hospitality. The comparative influence of conventional VR and AR experiences is also discussed.     

Restaurant diners’ self-protective behavior in response to an epidemic crisis

This study is designed to conceptually propose and empirically examine a theoretical model for restaurant diners’ self-protective behavior in response to an epidemic crisis. Based on Weinstein's five-stage PAPM, a prospective model and a classification scheme for five corresponding types of self-protective behavior adopters are proposed in this study. By using ten-year longitudinal survey data provided by a timely research sample which was obtained from a multi-store restaurant's diner club members immediately after the peak period of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan, both theoretical and managerial applicability of the proposed stage-based model are empirically verified in this study. The results show that the type of self-protective behavior respondents adopted is significantly associated with their marital status and risk attitude toward the epidemic. Besides, respondents significantly advance their type of self-protective behavior adoption along successive epidemics from the SARS to avian influenza A(H7N9) in decade.