The influence of value perceptions on tourist souvenir purchase decisions

Shopping is an important activity impacting the travel and tourism industry. This research explores the influence of value perceptions on tourists' souvenir purchase decisions. A convenience sample of 380 respondents from a southeastern US university completed a survey regarding value perception towards the destination visited, type of shopping venue, and souvenir purchase intention. Through structural equation modeling, results revealed that functional and social value significantly influenced tourists' purchase intentions. This result provides valuable insight suggesting destination marketers should focus on these two indicators in future planning and promotion strategies. Limitations and directions for future research are provided.     

Travel and Aspects of Societal Structure: A Comparison of India and the United States

Most theoretical studies in tourism depend on the methods of illustrative comparison and case study. The limitations of the case study approach have lately been discussed. Like the method of illustrative comparison, it does not allow deductive development of theory. To rectify this situation, and to overcome the lacunae in methodology that Dann et al. (1988) and Nash (1996) complain about, the method of formal or systematic comparison can be brought to bear on tourism in various societies. In such a study, this paper compares two large, complex societies - India and the USA - and looks at the ramifications of travel. It analyses the institutionalisation of travel in a modern (US) and a modernising (Indian) society, including aspects of societal structure that are reflected in the language, and debates whether MacCannell's (1989) argument that tourism is a 'modern ritual' can be borne out. The paper concludes by looking at some of the theoretical implications and discussing the practical implications of the study for development of tourism in India.     

Wild horse-based tourism as wildlife tourism: the wild horse as the other

Wild horses as the focus of tourism occupy a unique position. This is a consequence of their ambiguous status in the natural and cultural landscape, particularly in North America. Wild horses are ecological agents, cultural icons, economic factors and political pawns. The complexity of their management environment has an impact on the tourism and recreational context. Focusing on the western US and western Canada, this article explores a conceptual framework for wild horse-based tourism and highlights unique characteristics of the encounter between wild horses and visitors, drawing on literature and empirical data. It positions wild horse-based tourism within a framework of wildlife tourism and introduces the wild horse as a charismatic animal which elicits strong reactions from visitors who encounter it. While visitors tend to embrace the wild horse as an integral part of its habitat, as a symbol of the western frontier, and an embodiment of freedom, the animal remains an extremely polarising subject in the management debate of public lands in the USA and Canada. The wild horse's beleaguered status in both countries seriously interferes with the realisation of the true potential of wild horse-based tourism. On the other hand, wild horse supporters pin high hopes on this industry's transformative power.     

Forays into the backstage: volunteer tourism and the pursuit of object authenticity

Volunteer tourism is a form of travel that combines traditional leisure pursuits with opportunities to volunteer in an organized fashion. The popularity of volunteer tourism stems from many factors, but the one motivation that appears in virtually every study is a desire for object authenticity, defined as the authenticity of toured objects, people, and settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by object authenticity in the motivations and experiences of volunteer tourists in the province of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Based on interviews with 62 volunteers and 15 directors, managers, and staff members from volunteer tourism organizations based in Chiang Mai, this paper argues that volunteer tourists conceive of object authenticity both as a package of cultural stereotypes focused on authentic people, and as authentic backstage settings where ‘real’ Thai reside. Aside from demonstrating that the desire for object authenticity is the central motivation for international volunteers in northern Thailand, this study indicates that the pursuit of object authenticity is complicated by language barriers, the potential staging of authenticity on the part of locals, and the need to balance familiarity with alterity in the carefully selected ‘voluntourscapes’ in which volunteer tourism takes place.     

A case study: The impact of low-cost carriers on inbound tourism of Saudi Arabia

This study investigates the impact of low-cost carriers (LCCs) on Saudi Arabia's tourism demand. It also provides an understanding of the relationship between air transport development and tourism development in the Gulf region. The Box–Jenkins SARIMA-X models were employed to model and forecast international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia, using monthly international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia from July 2010 to December 2015. The forecasting models were significantly accurate, with lower values of MAPE, MAP, and RMSE. The findings suggest that an increase in airline capacity, religious travel, and airline competition are associated with the increasing international tourist arrivals to Saudi Arabia. This also indicates that there is a positive relationship between air transport development and tourism development. Further aviation liberalisation in the Gulf region is discussed to give opportunities for the region's LCCs to increase their share of the increasing air travel demand, thereby enhancing tourism development.     

Testing the impact of a promotional video on destination image change: application of China as a tourism destination

This study empirically examines the potential effects of a promotional video on the image change of China as a travel destination. The analysis is based on an experimental study conducted among young, international short‐term employees in the USA. Despite positive changes in almost all the destination attributes as a result of watching the promotional video, the structure of the image constructs remains fairly stable, providing critical insights on the potential role of publicity campaigns in affecting destination images. Results of the study reveal that China's image consists of mixed and often contrasting representations, especially the polarity of modernisation and progress versus nature and history. It was found that the dominant factor affecting the respondents' behavioural intentions was the cultural and nature tourism dimension. Although other image dimensions exhibit influence as well, findings of this study suggest that perceived value should be a strategic focus in promoting China as a desirable travel destination, in addition to culture and nature tourism. This paper ends with conclusions and implications for both research on destination image and destination marketing in China. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travelling to the Ancestral Homelands: The Aspirations and Experiences of a UK Caribbean Community

This paper is based on an ethnographic study of the Caribbean community of Moss Side, Manchester (UK). Its aim is to reveal, interpret and analyse the personal meanings which members of the community attach to visiting the ancestral homeland in the Caribbean. This form of travel is defined in terms of 'ethnic reunion', which involves travelling for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives and/or searching for one's cultural roots. The study, which is based on an interpretive analysis of a range of ethnographic material, initially examines the reasons why first- and second-generation Caribbeans wish to participate in the 'homeland experience', and then illustrates ways in which they reconstruct an identity of themselves through their travel perceptions and experiences. The latter part of the paper discusses how people's travel encounters serve to illustrate how ethnic differences and boundaries between groups are constructed and/or reconstructed. It is argued that established perspectives of tourism motivation and behaviour do not fully account for the role of ethnicity as a significant variable in influencing specific forms of travel. The conclusion asserts that ethnic reunion should be conceptually viewed as a distinct form of 'travel', socioculturally dissimilar to conventional forms of 'tourism'.     

The influence of a film on destination image and the desire to travel: a cross‐cultural comparison

The objective of this study was to measure the immediate impacts of a film on the perceptions of viewers from different countries. The film chosen for this experiment was the Motorcycle Diaries in which South America was featured prominently in the film. Using established scales from the tourism and marketing literature, viewers from the USA, Canada and Spain were surveyed before and after seeing the film, and results showed that the film did change the viewers' perceptions of South America. After watching the film, a large percentage of the respondents expressed a desire to visit the countries seen in the film, with Canadians showing a significantly higher desire to visit South America than the US and Spanish participants. Those who were motivated to travel by the film were especially influenced by the scenery, landscape and the cultural attractions of the destination as depicted in the movie. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Representing protected areas: a critical discourse analysis of tourism destination building in a Greek travel magazine

The present paper examines the way protected areas are constructed as tourism destinations by the information sources (i.e. a Greek travel magazine) that are consumed by potential visitors to such areas. Specifically, it explores what form of tourism is proposed for virtual visitors, whether it is ecotourism (i.e. both tourism and environmentalism) or simply a nature‐based one (i.e. exclusively tourism). Examining the way a Greek travel magazine builds protected areas as tourism destinations, and consequently what expectations are created for readers and potential visitors to such areas, the focus of the present paper is on whether the media contribute to the failure on the part of visitors to protected areas, who are the majority of the people engaging in ecotourism activities, to incorporate environmentalist besides tourism pursuits in their travel experiences. The analysis suggests that the travel magazine cultivates the view that other protected areas (with a tradition in mass tourism) are suitable for nature‐based tourism, others (with great ecological interest) for environmentalism, but few for ecotourism. This means that visitors to protected areas will probably have a difficulty in combining tourism with environmentalist pursuits, rather than in developing environmentalist concerns in general. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What drives sustainable student travel? Mode choice determinants in the Greater Toronto Area

Examination of mode choice behavior is an important step in accurately predicting future travel demand. Despite having somewhat unique travel needs and challenges, there is a lack of knowledge in understanding the mode use behavior of university student population. The existing studies on university populations relied on a relatively smaller sample in investigating the behavior. Therefore, using world's largest university student's travel database, this study examines the factors affecting the mode choice behavior of a diverse university student population with student samples from four universities and their seven campuses located across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada. Additionally, stratifying this diverse population using their attitudinal responses towards numerous travel modes, this study also estimates three additional mode choice models to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of how students in different markets, with different latent attitudes towards transportation, vary in terms of sustainable mode choice. A cluster analysis based on fourteen attitudinal responses, was conducted to stratify the sample whereas the popular multinomial logit approach was used to estimate the mode choice models. This study finds transit pass and bike ownership as important determinants that govern sustainable mode choice among the students in the region. The findings of this study could facilitate the sustainability offices at the four universities in making an informed policy decision in shifting the mode use behavior of students towards sustainable modes.     

The ethnographic self as resource. Writing memory and experience into ethnography

Based on a critical reading of the history of Ashtanga yoga, participant observation, and interviews with Americans attending the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, this article explores the notion of authenticity within Ashtanga yoga itself and amongst yoga practitioners journeying to India hoping to find an authentic travel experience. Many of these tourists assume that the yoga experienced in Mysore is more genuine than that practiced in the West due to its location and groundedness in a distinct lineage. These yogis also desire a travel experience that matches their definition of the ‘real’ India, a narrow conception that spurns Western aesthetics, rejects technologies of modernity, and scoffs at local Indians who seek commodified relationships with tourists. Acknowledging that authenticity is ‘ultimately a discourse of power’ (Korpela, M. (2010). A postcolonial imagination?: Westerners searching for authenticity in India. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(8), 1299–1315. p. 1311), I suggest that the perceptions of authenticity that inform both the Ashtanga practice and the travel expectations of yoga tourists function to maintain Orientalist imaginings of a timeless, exotic, and mystical India defined in opposition to the materialistic and rational West. Consequences of these discourses include a rejection of the syncretic evolution of yoga, a denial of India's vibrant postcolonial present, and the construction of Otherness.     

Non‐participation of Domestic Tourism: Analyzing the Influence of Discouraging Factors

This study analyzes the factors that discourage non‐tourists' participation in domestic tourism. Data were collected in 15 cities in China and analyzed using a comparative analysis and non‐parametric ridit analysis. The findings indicate that (i) non‐tourists have low internal travel motivation and attitude and are more likely to be under 25 or above 55 years old, less educated, less healthy, with small child(ren) and lower income; (ii) non‐tourists consider less on destination environment and attraction, but focus on price and travel expenses when making a travel decision and destination choice; and (iii) economic and leisure time are their main situational travel constrains. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travel and tourism competitiveness index: The impact of air transportation,railways transportation,travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of air transportation, railways transportation, travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism in a panel of 19 tourists - oriented countries, over a period of 1990–2014. By applying principal component analysis, the study constructs travel and tourism competitiveness index for inbound and outbound tourism. The main constructs of inbound tourism index include international tourists' arrival, tourism receipts, receipts of passengers' transports items and travel items while the constructs of the outbound index include international tourists' departure, tourism expenditures, and expenditures for passengers transport and travel items. The result of panel Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) regression shows that the presence of air transportation, railways transportation, and trade openness positively affect inbound tourism index, while travel and transport services negatively affect tourism competitiveness index. The causality results confirm the bidirectional relationship between inbound tourism, air transportation, railways passengers carried, trade openness and travel and transport services, while there is a unidirectional causality running from inbound index to railway goods transported, from air transport freight to trade factor, and from travel services to air transport freight. Outbound tourism index confirmed the bidirectional causality relationship with air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport services, while the causality running from outbound index to trade factor, from air transport passenger carried to travel services, and from railway goods transported to trade and transport services, which support the unidirectional causality relationship between them. The variance decomposition results show that air transportation freight is the contributor that largely influences inbound-outbound tourism, while railways passengers carried and trade openness has the least share to influence inbound and outbound tourism index for the next 10-year period. The impulse response function indicates that air transportation, railways transportation, trade openness and travel services will positively impact on inbound truism while travel and transport services will positively affect outbound tourism for the next 10-year period. The study concludes with the importance of transportation sector that deem desirable to promote tourism worldwide. The concentration of different modes of transportation including air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport system would helpful to advance international tourism.     

Rural tourism development in the USA

Rural tourism has been a subject of study since the early days of tourism scholarship. Most of tourism's deleterious impacts were identified from studies conducted in rural settings. It is only recently, however, that rural tourism has become a special focus of study, dissimilar enough from urban tourism, to be a study subject unto itself. This paper reviews some of the history of rural tourism development in North America with most of the attention paid to the USA's experience, with some examples from Canada. The reason for this is the huge economic difference between the two countries with respect to tourism flows and impacts. In reviewing the history of rural development in the USA, the argument is made that most developments are unplanned and result from market and economic forces that have greatly transformed the American rural landscape. A review of these transformational forces is provided. It is also shown that rural destinations are used, primarily, by local tourists and do not, with few exceptions, cater to an international clientele. After the historical perspective is presented an argument is made that current rural tourism development practices rely on an old paradigm, which is to use local attributes as the primary basis for development and marketing strategies. This has led, in recent years, to a great deal of development attention being paid to the cultural/heritage attributes of a place. Using research conducted in the state of Minnesota on highway travellers and tourists to rural destinations, a new way to look at actual and potential visitors is offered. Instead of an attribute‐specific development approach, a benefits‐based model is suggested as a different way to position rural tourism destinations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding the meaning of the ‘journey’ to budget travellers

The purpose is to construct a hermeneutic understanding of the significance of the journey to budget travellers. Narrative interviews were gathered from budget travellers. This research confirms the complexity, holistic reflections and personal travel history associated with the journey. The participants' narratives indicated the primacy of personal authenticity instead of cultural authenticity. The sight became a landmark to distinguish the destination, participants' geographical placement and some of their travails on their journeys. The nomothetic significance of the journey involved the meaning themes of personal development and liminal encounters and meaning factors of styles, visual cues and problem solving. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

An Exploratory Study of the Propensity for South Koreans to take Cruises: Investigating Koreans' Perceptions of Cruise Ship Travel

The purpose of the present study was to examine Koreans' perceptions of cruise ship travel to ascertain the potential for future development of that tourism segment. An understanding of Koreans' perceptions is essential for determining the potential of the Korean cruise market. Using survey data, the study investigated Koreans' knowledge level, willingness and desired travel patterns regarding cruise ship travel. Findings from the study can assist practitioners to enhance their comprehension of Koreans' perceptions and behaviors concerning cruise ship travel. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Tourist Bubble and the Europeanisation of Holiday Travel

This account explores certain aspects of the developments in international, interEuropean holiday travel as a part of the phenomena characterised as modernity and Europeanisation. The focus is on the idea of 'travelling parochialism', i.e. whether large proportions of contemporary international holidaymakers and other travellers on their tours within Europe adopt some kind of furtherance of a home-like culture. The main point of departure is the idea of the 'tourist bubble' understood here as a territorial and functional differentiation and as an expectation of holidaymakers going abroad. The concept of 'travel ecumene' is introduced to examine implications for travellers of the development of a western European travel system. Moreover, the study analyses the extent to which the notion of the tourist bubble is still beneficial in comprehending significant aspects of inter-European holiday travel in relation to current discourses of internationalisation, Europeanisation and cosmopolitanism. The paper also discusses advances of cosmopolitan predilections and aspirations and their possible influences on contemporary international European tourism.     

Differential tourism zones on the western Canada–US border

This paper examines how a single international border can exact different policies, practices, spatial variations, and tourism spaces at various points along its length. Based on an examination of the westernmost portion of the Canada–US frontier, this constructivist study investigates how the juxtaposition of barriers, attractions, transit spaces, and tourism landscapes is created concurrently on a single stretch of an international boundary. Four coterminous ‘zones’ of tourism were identified, including an area of illegal activity, ports of entry or crossing points, the peace park, and the exclave zone. Theoretical and practical implications are drawn from this study for border managers, tourism planners, and border agencies.     

Profiling Sport Tourists: The Case of Super 12 Rugby Union in the Australian Capital Territory,Australia

The concept of sport related tourism has become more prominent in the last few years as both an academic field of study and an increasingly popular tourism product (Gibson, 1998). Sport tourism includes travel to participate in a passive (e.g. sports events and museums) or active sport holiday (e.g. scuba diving and cycling), and it may involve instances where sport or tourism itself is the dominant activity or reason for travel. However, little research has been undertaken to examine the profile of sport tourist market segments in an attempt to understand these segments and their potential as tourism markets. This paper will examine one such attempt to profile sport tourist spectators through surveying sport tourists attending Super 12 Rugby Union matches at Bruce Stadium, Canberra in April/May 2000. The paper discusses the preliminary results of this exploratory study, and examines the sporting behaviour and travel behaviour of spectators. The paper will then discuss differences between spectator characteristics with an emphasis on examining high yield segments based on sport and travel behaviour, and will conclude with a discussion of future research possibilities.     

Not a ‘museum town’: discussions of authenticity in coastal Denmark

ABSTRACT

This article investigates community perceptions of authenticity in connection to the fishing and tourism sectors and the relationships therein. Inspired by fieldwork in three Danish coastal communities, the article attends to discussions on fishing, tourism, and change, in which residents referred to ‘museum’ or ‘museum town’ as shorthand for an undesirable transformation. The article answers: (1) what are the underlying concerns of becoming a ‘museum town?’ and (2) how is authenticity employed by community members in connection to desirable and undesirable outcomes of transition? The analysis probes the ‘museum town’ expression as a means to understand host communities’ relationship to the fishing and tourism sectors and their expressed interest toward authenticity. Empirical material from semistructured interviews and ethnographic field observations initiates the thematic analysis, which then continues with a theoretical reflection on authenticity. Coastal community members understood authenticity through demonstrations of realness, waterfront and community activity, and a desired independence for the fishing industry. Being authentic required a working fleet, which carried deeper implications for transformation and the complementarity of tourism, as opposed to its suitability as a substitute for the fishing industry. Calls for the fishing industry to remain independent highlight the importance for cross-sector dialogue for local development.