Determination of indicators and standards for tourism impacts in protected Karaj River, Iran

This study was conducted with the main objective of determining the indicators and standards for the impact of tourism on the protected Karaj River in Tehran Province, Iran. The survey was carried out during the visitors’ peak season at several recreational areas along the protected Karaj River. Discriminative analysis was used to differentiate between the sites in terms of visitor satisfaction. The indicators were as follows: trash in the water, trash along the river banks, water quality, number of visitors, visitors’ distance to river, and visitors’ awareness of indicators. The following standards are suggested to improve the management of the site, including less than 12 percent of trash (both on the water surface and river banks), a family biotic index of less than five, less than 625 individuals per hectare, settlement points of more than 9 m from the river and a score of more than 32 on the scale of visitors’ awareness of potential impacts.     

Branding destinations versus branding hotels in a gaming destination—Examining the nature and significance of co-branding effects in the case study of Macao

This paper considers destinations and hotels operating within a gaming destination as co-branded experiential choice products. Specifically, it examines the overall and individual effects of visitors’ perceived brand equity of a gaming destination and their perceived brand equity of various hotels, including ‘flagship’ or branded hotels, in terms of influencing their reaction to a hypothetical brand loyalty scenario in which their intended and preferred hotel was unable to provide accommodation thus forcing them to either: (1) choose an alternate hotel in the destination and continue with the visit, (2) cancel the trip and choose another destination to visit, or (3) insist on staying at the preferred hotel but postpone the trip at another period. The study's expectation is that visitors’ response to such a hypothetical scenario is moderated by the relative influence of their perceived brand equity for the destination and for hotels. The emergent gaming destination of Macao is used as a case study for this purpose. The study's findings indicate that visitors’ overall destination brand equity perceptions—rather than hotel brand equity perceptions—is robustly significant when it comes to influencing visitors’ response to the brand loyalty scenario. Results of the study indicate several relevant implications for destination management organizations (DMOs) seeking to enhance their destination-branding efforts and for hotel operators, especially internationally branded hotel chains.     

The Influence of Food Expenditure on Tourist Response to Festival Tourism: Expenditure Perspective

Festival tourism, which combines the theme of a festival with the local characteristics of an area, has become an extremely attractive marketing method in recent years. In addition, local food and beverages are items that many visitors enjoy consuming and that can become attractions in their own right. The aims of this study are: (a) based on expenditure theory, to explore how spending on food and beverages and other items such as accommodations and transportation influences intentions to revisit and make positive recommendation; and (b) to examine whether or not tourists with different lifestyles use or experience different sources of information, evaluation criteria and travel expenses. A questionnaire survey was conducted using visitors to the 2009 Penghu Sea fireworks festival, and 308 valid samples were collected. The results were as follows. First, food and beverages had a significant positive influence on revisit and recommendation intentions. Second, the total expenditure on a tourist visit had a significantly negative effect on revisit and recommendation intentions. Third, there were statistically significant differences with regard to information searching, evaluation criteria and tourism expenditure among tourists with different lifestyles. Based on these results, we can conclude that food and beverage expenditure during festival tourism is an important factor in whether or not tourists plan to revisit an area and recommend it to others. The findings also show that more tourists can be attracted if festivals are well suited to local conditions and characteristics (such as the availability of seafood in the example examined in this work).     

New or repeat customers: How does physical environment influence their restaurant experience?

This study proposed a conceptual model to examine how customers’ perceptions of the physical environment influenced disconfirmation, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty for first-time and repeat customers in upscale restaurants. Using a structural equation modeling analysis, this study showed that facility aesthetics, lighting, layout, and service staff had significant effects on disconfirmation. Moreover, disconfirmation exerted a direct influence on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction also positively influenced customer loyalty. Finally, the impacts of facility aesthetics, lighting, table settings, and service staff on disconfirmation significantly differed between first-time customers and repeat customers. More specifically, facility aesthetics, lighting, and service staff were significant predictors of both first timers’ and repeaters’ perceived disconfirmation, while layout and table settings were significant determinants of only repeat visitors’ perceived disconfirmation. The implications for academic researchers and marketing practitioners are discussed.     

What Facilitates a Festival Tourist? Investigating Tourists’ Experiences at a Local Community Festival

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of festival attributes and tourism facilitators on tourist satisfaction. The results of this study show that festival attributes has a positive and significant effect on tourists' satisfaction. Data analysis also revealed a positive and a significant effect of intrapersonal facilitators and structural facilitators on tourists' satisfaction. However, interpersonal facilitators do not allow a significant impact on tourists' satisfaction in the festival context. One of the most important findings is that festival commercialization is the strongest predictor of tourists' satisfaction. Structural facilitators are regarded as of primary importance in determining the satisfaction of festival tourists. Future research is needed to investigate other important antecedents of tourists' satisfaction across other festivals or locations, and to identify the complex nature of festival tourists' satisfaction. Finally, a longitudinal approach will better elucidate the relationships between measurement variables and their antecedents.     

Visitors’ memories of wildlife tourism: Implications for the design of powerful interpretive experiences

One of the aims of wildlife tourism is to educate visitors about the threats facing wildlife in general, and the actions needed to protect the environment and maintain biodiversity. To identify effective strategies to achieve this aim, this paper examines participants’ memories of their wildlife tourism experiences and explores processes through which such experiences can lead to long-term changes in conservation behaviour. Findings are based on 240 visitors’ extended open-ended responses to a follow-up web survey administered approximately four months after a visit to one of four marine-based wildlife tourism venues in Southeast Queensland. Qualitative analysis revealed four levels of visitor response to the experience, implying a process involving what visitors actually saw and heard (sensory impressions), what they felt (emotional affinity), thought (reflective response), and finally what they did about it (behavioural response). Recommendations are provided for ways tourism managers and wildlife interpreters can maintain and strengthen these dimensions of memorable experiences in order to enhance visitor satisfaction and encourage visitors’ long-term adoption of environmentally sustainable practices.     

Impact of government policy and environment quality on visitor loyalty to Taiwan music festivals: Moderating effects of revisit reason and occupation type

Tourists' repeat patronage is a prerequisite for sustainable festivals. Past studies have examined tourist cognition, affection, and conation to festivals. Government involvement in festivals has increased during the past decade; however, few studies have examined how government policy and environment quality influence visitor loyalty to festivals. Using sample data collected from 931 visitors during spring music festivals held in Southern Taiwan, this study used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent variables to examine these influences. The results suggest that government policy positively influences perceived environment quality, visitor satisfaction, and loyalty to festivals. Furthermore, the results from a multigroup SEM approach reveal that tourists' revisit reason (revisit festival versus other) and occupation type (student versus nonstudent) moderate the relationships between government policy and festival loyalty. Implications on festival planning and government policymaking are discussed.     

Analyzing tourists’ length of stay at destinations with survival models: A constructive critique based on a case study

The statistical modeling of tourists’ length of stay at destinations is a topic that recently has received much attention from tourism scholars. In this regard, so-called “survival models” have been introduced as a means of studying how a set of independent variables explain variation in the number of days tourists spend at destinations. This paper provides a critical look at these studies. There are two main findings. (1) The various justifications offered for favoring the survival models over the traditional OLS regression do not hold up under closer scrutiny. (2) An empirical study shows that the OLS regression model describes the association between a set of independent variables and length of stay at least as effectively as a battery of survival models. In line with the principle of parsimony it is concluded that future studies on tourists’ length of stay should abandon survival models if they are conducted along similar lines as the ones to date.     

Multidimensional scaling of spectators’ motivations to attend a film festival

The purpose of the article is to examine spectators’ motivations to attend a film festival in the context of demographic characteristics. For this purpose, data were collected utilizing a self-administered questionnaire from the 742 audience members who attended the film screenings during the 18th International Eskisehir Film Festival. A structured survey instrument was used for the data collection utilizing multidimensional scaling and correspondence analysis to examine the differences and similarities of the demographic variables in terms of motivations. Findings suggested that International Eskisehir Film Festival participants were mostly young, single, high school graduates and visited the festival with their friends. Motivational factors were grouped under four dimensions, namely novelty, socialization, escape, and togetherness. While motivations of young female participants were found to be high, relatively older, and married people only showed a high motivation for togetherness. The results provide useful information to those responsible for cultural policies and the management of similar events.     

Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modelling

Wildlife tourism experiences have the potential to positively impact tourists’ awareness, appreciation and actions in relation to the specific wildlife they encounter and the environment in general. This paper investigates the extent of such impact across multiple sites, and uses Structural Equation Modelling to identify factors that best predict positive long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Three sets of variables were measured – visitors’ entering attributes (including pre-visit environmental orientation and motivation for the visit), salient aspects of the experience, and short- and long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Although attributes such as pre-visit commitment and motivation to learn were among the best predictors of the long-term impact of the experience, there was evidence that aspects of the experience were also important. In particular, reflective engagement which involved cognitive and affective processing of the experience was found to be associated with short- and long-term environmental learning outcomes. The implications for wildlife tourism managers are discussed.     

A visitors' evaluation index for a visit to an archaeological site

This study aims to propose and validate a visitors’ evaluation index (VEI) that captures service evaluation in the context of a visit to an archaeological site. Drawing on the literature on the concepts of ‘service quality’, ‘service experience’, ‘service convenience’, and ‘visitor's satisfaction’, the study develops a measurement index that includes the specific components of service evaluation associated with a visit to an archaeological complex. To validate the proposed VEI, the paper describes an empirical study of 1021 visitors to the Roman archaeological site of Italica, located in Santiponce (Spain). Following structural equation modelling (SEM), the results validate the proposed structure of four theoretical components in the VEI: (i) ‘service experience’; (ii) ‘service quality’; (iii) ‘access sacrifices’; and (iv) ‘effort sacrifices’. Of these, ‘service experience’ is found to be the major contributor to the robust VEI proposed and validated in the study.     

Whose festival is it anyway? Analysis of festival stakeholder power,legitimacy, urgency,and the sustainability of local festivals

Abstract

The sustenance and institutionalization of local festivals hinge on the extent to which various stakeholders work together effectively. While all stakeholder relationships matter in this respect, research has often failed to focus on the various relationships between all stakeholders involved. This study uses the tenets of stakeholder theory (power, urgency, and legitimacy) to examine the differences between stakeholders in local festivals. It is based on a questionnaire survey of 1,092 festival stakeholders from eight groups in six local festivals in Ghana. The results indicate that festival organizers have the highest level of power, urgency, and legitimacy. The results also reveal varying levels of power, urgency, and legitimacy between government authorities, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, visitors, and the media. Given these differences, festival committees need to give the right priority each stakeholder group and properly respond to each based on their relationship with other stakeholders. Groups such as vendors with low legitimacy need to be actively included in planning committees and decision-making regarding the festivals. The involvement of the regional tourism offices, which is lacking, will help in providing training to festival organizers and other stakeholders in order to institutionalize the festivals.     

An examination of food tourist’s behavior: Using the modified theory of reasoned action

A number of studies have been conducted to examine the behavior of tourists. However, there has been little research done on food tourism examining food tourist’s behavior. Food tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and areas of interest in the tourism industry today. The current study provides an integrated approach to understand the effect of food tourists’ behavior based on perceived value and satisfaction as it relates to their intention to revisit using the modified theory of reasoned action (TRA). The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived value on intention to revisit (H1) and satisfaction (H2), and satisfaction on intention to revisit (H3). Empirical findings indicated that H1, H2, and H3 were supported significantly in this study (p < 0.01). H1 was supported (β = 0.67) showing the perceived value is the antecedent of satisfaction. H2 and 3 suggested that attendees’ intention to revisit is predicted by the perceived value (β = 0.13) and satisfaction (β = 0.67) respectively. The most significant contribution of this study is a theoretical understanding with empirical results using the new factors (i.e., perceived value, satisfaction, and intention to revisit) in the context of the modified TRA rather than using the original factors. The implications will be very useful for food festival organizers as well as destination marketing organizations.     

An Empirical Study of Behavioral Intentions in the Food Festival: The Case of Macau

The behavioral intentions of visitors play an important role in predicting future profits in the food festival. The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of festival quality and examine the interrelationships between behavioral intentions and the other constructs related to behavioral intentions as perceived by visitors to the food festival using structural equation modeling (SEM). The dimensions of festival quality are built and a multi-dimensional and hierarchical model is used as a framework to synthesize the effects of festival quality and visitor satisfaction on behavioral intentions of visitors to the Macau Food Festival (MFF). The findings of this study are based on SEM analysis of a convenience sample of 428 respondents. The findings reveal that there are four primary dimensions and 11 sub-dimensions of festival quality in the MFF.     

Applying the caption evaluation method to studies of visitors’ evaluation of historical districts

A historical district is a comprehensive form of historical attractions, and has diverse features that visitors can gaze on. This study proposes the application of the caption evaluation method, participatory research involving photographing by subjects, to a study of visitors’ evaluation of a historical district as a tourism destination. Thirty Japanese undergraduates who majored in commerce and 27 Japanese adults with an interest in architecture and/or town planning photographed settings of their choice in a Japanese historical district and stated how they perceived the captured settings in an open-ended form. Their statements were subjected to analysis using a software package as well as manual analysis. The results indicate relationships between various elements in the district and the subjects’ feelings and desires. Particularly, favourable evaluations of old objects and unfavourable perceptions of modern objects were implied. The results also suggest the types of activities visitors may wish to participate in.     

Potential for collaboration among agricultural food festivals in Korea for cross-retention of visitors

Abstract

This study examines visitor intentions to attend different agricultural food festivals within the same region to explore whether they can collaborate to promote cross-visits. Building upon the literature on co-branding and satisfaction, this study proposes the direct effect as well as the mediating roles of involvement and variety seeking between visitor satisfaction with a current festival and behavioral intentions to visit similar festivals. The results found that all relationships appeared to be positive and significant as conceptualized and visitor intentions to attend similar festivals were as high as those to visit the festival that had been attended again. Furthermore, comparison of three models suggested that the partial mediation model (PMM) is a significant improvement over the direct effect (DEM) and full mediation (FMM) models. This study seeks to make both theoretical and practical contributions to agricultural food festivals and rural tourism, specifically to the cross-retention potential of visitors to relevant festivals.     

Mediation Between Tourism Contribution and Economic Growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion

The objective of this paper is to determine the mediation between tourism contribution and economic growth in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) (i.e. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). The sample period is semi-annual data from 1995 to 2013 and is also estimated by bootstrap panel cointegration, Panel Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares method and the Sobel test. The results show that the variables are cointegrated as three models; economic growth is running to tourism's total contribution to GDP and international tourism expenditure for passenger transport whereas international tourism expenditure for passenger transport is running to tourism's total contribution to GDP. Therefore, this study finds that international tourism expenditure for passenger transport is a mediator and has partial mediation. The GMS needs to develop every economic sector and improve the potential of the transport sector as a regional integration project which supports the sustainable development of the region.     

The carnivalesque and event evolution: a study of the Beltane Fire Festival

This paper centres on the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. The objectives are to: first, identify the stages of the festival’s evolution and their respective characteristics; second, distinguish features corresponding to the carnivalesque; and, finally, examine the changes in event evolution, particularly regulatory interventions, and their effect. A qualitative approach comprising interviews with internal and external festival stakeholders was utilised. It is argued that there are three stages in the festival’s evolution: revival and early development; development and regulation; and, maturation. The characteristics of these evolutionary stages are identified. As the festival has developed and been subject to increasing regulation, features of the carnivalesque have been reduced.     

An integrated model of tourists’ time use and expenditure behaviour with self-selection based on a fully nested Archimedean copula function

This study presents an integrated model of tourists’ time use, expenditure by explicitly incorporating the influence of destination visit behaviour based on the concept of self-selection. Inter-destination interactions (between time-use decisions, between expenditure decisions, and between decisions on both time use and expenditure) are incorporated by using a multilinear utility function. The study uses a Type-II Tobit model with a Frank-type fully nested Archimedean copula to deal with issues caused by correlation between these variables. The Archimedean copula is used to combine marginal distributions to obtain a joint distribution of error terms of utility functions with the help of dependency parameters. The effectiveness of the model is confirmed empirically by using data collected in the Tottori Prefecture of Japan in 2007. Dependence structures across destinations, inter-destination interactions and the relative importance of each destination in decisions are examined.