Tourism Eclipsed by Crime

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between crime and tourism in Hungary with special reference to spatial and temporal aspects, focusing on the main groups of offences committed against foreign tourists and the problem of crime prevention. The study shows that trends in criminality are closely related to the number of tourists arriving and staying in Hungary and are less associated with general criminal conditions. Most of the victims are Germans; their cars, valuables, and wallets are particularly vulnerable to criminal activity. The density of crime is highest in Budapest, the capital, and in the region surrounding Lake Balaton during the summer season when levels of tourism are at their highest. Tourist information and frequent police controls are considered the most effective measures for crime prevention.     

The impact of power on destination advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of arousal in advertising

This study examines the impact of culturally-derived power (i.e., personalized vs. socialized power) on the effectiveness of destination advertising via the moderation of arousal in advertising, by identifying regulatory focus as an underlying mechanism. The findings indicate that high-arousal tourism destination advertisement is more effective for individuals primed with personalized power; low-arousal advertisement is more effective for individuals primed with socialized power. Culturally-derived power is found related to regulatory focus, which interacts with arousal in advertising to influence destination advertising effectiveness. This work not only contributes to the tourism literature by providing a new cultural perspective to the investigation of power, but also informs destination marketers of the importance of designing tailored advertising messages for different tourists.     

Destination gender: Scale development and cross-cultural validation

Destination gender traits have attracted considerable attention in the tourism marketing literature, inspired by the concept of branding. A scale to measure destination gender with a Chinese sample is first developed and validated in this study. Then, the scale is tested with a Western sample for comparison. Results show that destination gender is a second-order construct encompassing two first-order constructs (i.e., masculinity and femininity) and their sub-dimensions. Ultimately, a 25-item Destination Gender Scale (DGS) is assembled with four sub-dimensions of masculinity (i.e., dominance, vigor, courage, and competence) and four sub-dimensions of femininity (i.e., grace, softness, gorgeousness, and kindheartedness). Nomological validity results suggest that destination gender is positively related to individuals’ actual/ideal gender identity congruity and revisit intentions irrespective of their biological sex. This study contributes to the destination branding literature by considering destination image through a gender-based lens and presenting a reliable tool to assess destination gender. Destination managers can apply these findings to develop efficient marketing tactics around salient destination gender traits.     

A supplier side view of digital nomadism: The case of destination Gran Canaria

Digital nomadism is a rapidly growing lifestyle for living and working. Despite its potential transformative effect on destinations, little attention has been paid to destination communities in which digital nomads reside. This paper aims to examine the interface between the destination communities and digital nomadism: how the stakeholders in a destination community perceive and accommodate digital nomads. The case study comes from a popular European destination, the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. The study proposes an original supply side framework to theoretically inform the phenomenon of digital nomadism. Stakeholder theory is also applied to examine the interface between the local communities and the phenomenon. Applying the proposed conceptual framework, the results reveal a novel perspective on digital nomads, which is “new locals”. The results show that the accommodative strategies of local stakeholders correlate strongly with the stakeholder’s specializations, and include strategies such as: provider, communicator, integrator, and embracer.     

Visitors as victims crimes against tourists in Hawaii

Prior research has noted a statistical relationship between increased crime rates and tourism in resort destination areas. This study utilizes data from two Hawaii counties to derive independent crime rates for tourist and resident sub-populations. The analysis reveals that tourists in both counties experienced higher rates of larceny, robbery, and rape than residents. In Honolulu, tourists also had a higher rate of burglary. These data suggest that earlier findings of a relationship between tourism and crime are explained, at least in part, by the fact that tourists are disproportionately the victims of crime. A number of factors including certain attributes of tourists themselves as well as certain aspects of the tourist industry are discussed to explain these findings.     

旅游犯罪学:定义、领域、方法与意义

本文探讨了旅游犯罪学的基本理论问题。旅游犯罪学以旅游犯罪为研究对象，剖析旅游犯罪的形成原因、规律特点与防范对策，寻找预防和控制旅游犯罪的途径，以促进旅游业的可持续发展，旅游犯罪是发生在旅游过程中的犯罪现象的总和，包括旅游者犯罪、针对旅游者的犯罪和针对旅游资源环境的犯罪，具有流动性、区域性、季节性、周期性、影响放大性与延时性等特点。旅游犯罪的界定、分类、成因、规律、预防等问题是旅游犯罪学研究的主要内容。学科集成法、案例分析法、时空比较法是旅游犯罪学的常用研究方法。旅游犯罪学研究有助于旅游学科体系和旅游法规体系的完善，有助于旅游地和旅游业的可持续发展。     

Leverage points of tourism destination competitiveness dynamics

Tourism destination comprises a highly competitive and complex market. This paper integrates the principal factors of destination competitiveness into the Aggregated Model. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, it examines the impact of stakeholders' activities on the principal factors and related sub-factors. It identifies the factors which can be considerably influenced by stakeholders' activities and thus have the potential to become the leverage points of destination competitiveness. However, destination competitiveness is a multi-dimensional concept covering complex relations among the factors of competitiveness. The study exposes such relations by developing a systemic model. It identifies three leverage points that influence the highest number of interrelations in the model. Destination managers can use these points to improve destination competitiveness and its dynamics by focusing cooperation activities with local stakeholders on gathering data and conducting research, undertaking marketing activities, and creating the destination image.     

Brand personality of tourist destinations: An application of self-congruity theory

The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas and to examine the relationships among destination personality, self-congruity, and tourist’s behavioral intentions. A convenience sample of 382 visitors to Las Vegas was surveyed, and 368 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study indicate that tourists ascribe personality characteristics to destinations and that the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas is five dimensional: vibrancy, sophistication, competence, contemporary, and sincerity. These dimensions have a positive influence on tourists’ intention to return and intention to recommend. The study also supports the self-congruity theory within the context of tourism destinations, indicating that both actual congruity and ideal congruity have a positive impact on behavioral intentions. The study concludes that self-congruity is a partial mediator on the relationship between destination personality and tourist’s behavioral intentions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed within the contexts of destination branding and the self-congruity theory.     

Destination place planning and design

Destination place management requires that land use and development issues be addressed. Despite considerable advancement in the methodological processes, there is still no clear conceptual destination model to address these issues. Existing models have largely been developed through a fragmented case-study approach and have not yet achieved a sufficiently integrated conceptual basis for a comprehensive understanding of the spatial characteristics of destination regions. This paper attempts to sharpen the conceptualization of the core elements of destination regions by building upon existing models and concepts. The model presented here is a systemic construct and provides for a common platform from which investigations can proceed into the normative and functional aspects of spatial destination design.     

The Fuchsia Destination Quality Brand

SUMMARY

Quality has been widely recognised as a source of competitive advantage in tourism (Poon, 1993; Fayos-Sola, 1996; Laws, 2000). Given the shift that has taken place from interfirm competition to interdestination competition (Go and Govers, 2000; Crouch and Ritchie, 1999), a need to focus on the quality management at the destination level has been identified (Laws, 1995 and 2000; Woods, 2003). In an attempt to address this need, a case study of the Fuchsia destination quality brand, West Cork, Ireland, was carried out. The findings revealed that whilst the Fuchsia brand did not appear to function as a powerful signal of quality to the customer, it did provide a support system which fostered an environment conducive to knowledge sharing amongst the tourism service providers applying for brand membership. This was mostly as a result of the policy of compulsory training for brand applicants. The paper reveals the way in which policies and programmes undertaken to overcome reluctance to participate in a destination quality assurance system also helped remove obstacles to knowledge sharing amongst tourism suppliers at the destination.     

The Impacts of Mass Media on Organic Destination Image: A Case Study of Singapore

The shaping of organic destination image received limited investigation though it is an important factor influencing destination image and tourist's intention to travel. This study explores the impacts of mass media on shaping the organic destination image of tourism destinations. The organic destination images of Singapore in the views of Hong Kong residents were explored. This study explores the consumers' subconscious awareness of Singapore, and identifies that organic destination images are the outcome of readers' assimilation of material from newspapers, publications and books. The findings also demonstrate the process underlying the changes of organic destination images due to the information feeding of mass media. The findings indicate the importance for destination marketing organizations to monitor the new reports related to the destination in its main tourist origin countries/regions, and strategically deploy their marketing efforts to leverage the impacts of positive news reports, minimize the negative influence of unfavorable news.     

#ILoveLondon: An exploration of the declaration of love towards a destination on Instagram

Travellers increasingly use a combination of photographs, texts and hashtags to expressing their attitude towards tourism destinations (TDs). Existing destination branding literature has not yet investigated how consumers express their love towards TDs on social media. This study addresses this knowledge gap and explores how destination brand love (DBL) is expressed on Instagram using a mixed-methods approach. Study one consists of a qualitative visual content analysis of 700 user-generated photographs; while study two adopts text analytics with a sample of 48,783 posts. The findings show Instagram users’ declaration of DBL is expressed through photographs of some destination attributes (natural & architectural, people, public transportation, food, weather), accompanied by specific positive emotions (amazement, attractiveness, pleasure, preference, enchantment, nostalgia, belongingness, intimacy). The findings also illustrate how Instagram users express their love by providing emotional support when the destination goes through a crisis and that different stakeholders co-create the emotional capital of TDs.     

Strategic coupling evolution and destination upgrading

This paper adopts the concepts of strategic coupling and upgrading—key notions in global production network theories—under an integrated evolutionary and relational economic geography approach. It aims to understand the role of trans-local networks in increasing the innovativeness of local firms and, as a consequence, in shaping the evolutionary path of a destination. Empirical evidence derives from interviews with key stakeholders, complemented with secondary data. In doing so, the paper examines the influence of alliances between local stakeholders and global intermediaries operating in the Russian market in a Catalan destination from 1994 to 2013. The nature and dynamics of the strategic coupling patterns identified—cooperative, mediated, self-interested, and captive—as well as their upgrading outcomes are discussed.     

Existentially understanding tourism in locale: A dwelling perspective

This study draws heavily on Heidegger's post turn thinking of dwelling to provide a philosophically informed approach to comprehend host perceptions of tourism. The philosophical premise of dwelling, including (to) poetically dwell and the fourfold, existentially conceptualizes the host community and destination site as a oneness where host perceptions are formed and tourism-created consequences occur. A hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation of a village-based tourism initiative in China demonstrates that guanxi as the manner of dwelling fundamentally frames how a local destination community perceives tourism; in turn, the ongoing tourism development has profoundly influenced the hosts' existential condition (i.e., the fourfold), leading them to unpoetically dwell.     

A destination-branding model: An empirical analysis based on stakeholders

The purpose of this study is to develop a destination-branding model based on stakeholders’ interests. It is subsequently applied to a tourist destination, namely Castilla-La Mancha (CLM), thereby creating an index that measures destination branding’s success based on similarities and differences among the different stakeholders. The index, called Success Index of Triple-Diamonds (SITD), provides an empirical evaluation of the destination brand’s degree of success and confirms the existence of differences among stakeholders. The current study offers useful information for developing strategy on the part of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and reveals the risks of a traditional strategy focused only on visitors that ignores the objectives of local people and entrepreneurs.     

Travel Motivation,Destination Image and Visitor Satisfaction of International Tourists After the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake: A Structural Modelling Approach

This study investigates the relationships between travel motivation, destination image and overall satisfaction of international tourists visiting Sichuan province after the great Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. Did the earthquake influence tourist’ motivations for visiting Sichuan either positively or negatively, and did the earthquake affect their image of the province as desirable travel destination? Survey data collected from 346 international tourists in Chengdu, the provincial capital, revealed that respondents were primarily motivated by Sichuan's traditional attractions – its scenery and the giant pandas native to the area rather than by the earthquake. Structural equation modelling revealed a statistically significant relationship between travel motivation and overall visitor satisfaction, as well as relationships between travel motivation and types of destination image. Furthermore, both positive and negative destination images seem to have an effect on overall satisfaction. This study implies that international tourists to Sichuan tend to visit for its scenery and wildlife; the 2008 earthquake has had little effect on their travel motivations and destination images; and these visitors hold positive images of the province.     

‘You will like it!’ using open data to predict tourists' response to a tourist attraction

The increasing amount of user-generated content spread via social networking services such as reviews, comments, and past experiences, has made a great deal of information available. Tourists can access this information to support their decision making process. This information is freely accessible online and generates so-called “open data”. While many studies have investigated the effect of online reviews on tourists' decisions, none have directly investigated the extent to which open data analyses might predict tourists' response to a certain destination. To this end, our study contributes to the process of predicting tourists' future preferences via Mathematica^TM, software that analyzes a large set of the open data (i.e. tourists’ reviews) that is freely available on tripadvisor. This is devised by generating the classification function and the best model for predicting the destination tourists would potentially select. The implications for the tourist industry are discussed in terms of research and practice.     

Tourists' memories,sensory impressions and loyalty: In loco and post-visit study in Southwest Portugal

This study aims to offer some insights on the contribution of sensory diversity as perceived by tourists to memorable destination experiences and to explore the connection between long-term memory of sensory impressions and destination loyalty. The vital role of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences is stressed by current tourism research and supported by a multidisciplinary view on the role of the five external senses in human perception, memory, and behavior. While the marketing management approach highlights the importance of considering multisensory information in the process of facilitating positive and memorable destination experiences, there is a lack of empirical research to validate the theoretical literature. A two-step exploratory study was conducted in loco and six months after tourists' visits to Southwest Portugal. The findings suggest that perceived richer sensory tourist experiences may have a significant role in the long-term memory of individuals’ experiences, encouraging favorable tourist behavior towards destinations.     

The ‘magic of filter’ effect: Examining value co-destruction of social media photos in destination marketing

Excessive filter processing of social media photos may cause viewers to question the authenticity of the photos. From the value co-destruction perspective, this research examines the effect of photo filtering on consumer perceptions. Study 1 ran content analysis of 2035 social media user posts and identified that destination marketing failure caused by filtered photos is a process involving tourists' negative emotions and multi-stakeholder (including platform, travel blogger, and destination) value co-destruction, represented by a chain relationship mechanism of “stimulation of filtered photos→ negative emotions of tourists→ failure of destination marketing.” Study 2 applied an experimental design and found that filtered photos have a significant effect on tourists' negative emotions, which play a complete mediating role in the relationship between filtered photos and value co-destruction of destination marketing. Additionally, the moderating effect of tourists’ aesthetic and authenticity pursuit in the influence mechanism was partially verified. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.