The holiday meal: eating out alone and mobile emotional geographies

In this paper I explore the power imbued in ‘in situ bonding social capital’ when on vacation by investigating midlife single women's experiences of eating out alone on holiday. In contrast to much tourism research which envisions eating out together on holiday as carefree and sociable experiences, I consider the company of family and friends as an asset or as in situ bonding social capital. Drawing upon poststructural feminism, emotional geographies and tourism mobilities I demonstrate, on the one hand, the value of this capital by pointing to how lack of the same makes the women feel lonely and socially excluded and, hence, dislike eating out alone on holiday. I argue that this capital is incorporated and affected by the ‘normalised discourse’ of the vacation. On the other hand, I also identify times and spaces within which this capital is less powerful. On holiday some of the women enjoy eating out at lunchtime and in cities. I thus also argue that the women's emotional reactions to eating places are mobile and that in situ bonding social capital is a temporal–spatial asset. The findings are based on focus group pre‐ and post‐trip interviews and solicited on‐trip diaries. Thirty‐two Norwegian single women aged 35–55 years participated in the study.     

Segmenting Overseas Golf Tourists by the Concept of Specialization

A main goal of this study was to use the concept of specialization to segment and better understand Korean overseas golf holiday tourists' demographics, motivations, overseas golf tourism destination attributes, and preference for overseas golf tourism destination attributes. A total of 424 questionnaires were collected and 370 questionnaires were used for further statistical analysis. According to results of data analyses, the advanced segment was more likely to be motivated by the quality of overseas golf resorts and other benefits (such as business opportunities), compared to the beginner and intermediate segments. The beginner group was more likely to be a company employee or housewife who earn the least at between US$35,000–US$50,000 per annum, travel on full package tours, use information from family or relatives, and have a stronger preference for the Philippines or China as golf destinations. The study's results showed potential benefits using the concept of specialization in a sport tourism setting even though the concept has been popularly applied in the outdoor setting.     

An alternative structuralist approach to the psychology of tourism marketing

The paper begins with a brief discussion of the way in which traditional psychology would approach the subject of decoding the myths and meanings which package holiday companies seek to communicate through their holiday brochures. This approach is contrasted with an analysis using semiotic techniques. The approach is essentially a cognitive one in which it is suggested that holiday companies attempt to attract holidaymakers not through the overt and superficial attributes of holiday destinations as portrayed in the brochure photographs, but by providing the reader with a range of cultural tools with which fantasy, meaning, and identity can be created and constructed. The holidaymaker becomes an active participant in the creation and maintenance of ideology and myth.     

The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism is an increasingly popular activity in which individuals combine travel with voluntary work. On the whole, existing literature has provided an optimistic view of volunteer tourism, suggesting that it represents a more reciprocal form of tourism and facilitates the development of cross-cultural understanding among participants. However, more recently, it has been argued that if volunteer tourism programmes (VTPs) are not carefully managed, they may lead to cross-cultural misunderstanding and the reinforcement of cultural stereotypes. Through conducting an Appreciative Inquiry into a number of volunteer programmes, this research sought to explore these ideas further and, in particular, identify the role that volunteer tourism sending organisations can play in order to ensure that cross-cultural understanding develops through volunteer tourism. The findings from this research suggest that the development of cross-cultural understanding should be perceived as a goal of volunteer tourism rather than a natural result of sending volunteers overseas. This paper argues that sending organisations can play an important role in facilitating the achievement of this goal through pro-active management prior, during, and after their VTPs.     

The role of values for voluntary reductions of holiday air travel

Recent research has shown that holiday air travel constitutes a typical value-action gap as many people continue to fly despite their concerns about climate change. However, some people do voluntarily reduce their holiday flights. Little is known so far about the role that values play in this decision. This paper examines this question based on semi-structured interviews with participants in local climate change and energy-saving projects. It finds that people who voluntarily reduce their holiday air travel are more ready than those who continue to fly to accept that their behaviour makes a contribution to climate change; that they feel a moral imperative to act regardless of its effectiveness in mitigating climate change; and that they distance themselves from socially dominant norms related to holiday air travel. This paper argues that these characteristics are connected to values of self-transcendence and self-direction, and that in this way values remain important for understanding and supporting low carbon behaviour.     

Package mountaineer tourists holidaying in the French Alps: An evaluation of key influences encouraging their participation

This study investigates the key influences that encourage mountaineer tourists, classified as a type of adventure tourist, to participate in package mountaineering holidays. There is limited understanding of why tourists take package adventure holidays, yet the demand for such holidays has grown dramatically in recent years. The author conducted in-depth interviews with mountaineer tourists either during or at the end of their package mountaineering holiday in the Chamonix region of the French Alps. Interview findings provide an insight into package mountaineer tourists. Firstly, mountaineering was an important part of respondents’ lifestyles. Secondly, contrary to previous research on experienced mountaineers, respondents did not consider risk as an important motive and they did not view themselves as risk takers. Thirdly, skills development and experience were key motives encouraging package mountaineering holiday participation. Fourthly, a major concern for respondents was to have a safe mountaineering experience in which the mountaineering organisation and the guide played a key role.     

Non-Asian Tourists' preferred attributes: a choice experiment

This study aims to identify non-Asian tourists' preferred attributes for a one-day Seoul tour package by examining theoretical frameworks of values related to tourists' heterogeneity of choice behaviors. The study applies a choice experiment (CE) to capture the systematic heterogeneity of preferences in a non-Asian tourist group and examines whether different individuals' value orientations relate to heterogeneous preferences regarding the tour packages. The CE derives the preferences as a form of marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), a pecuniary value for additional units of the attributes. Historical/cultural destinations displayed the highest MWTP value of all tour sites in Seoul, which was estimated to be $74.32. The results also show that a respondent who emphasizes “money and enjoyment” and “authenticity” values is more likely to choose a tour package that includes more opportunities to visit shopping and historical/cultural sites, respectively.     

Towards an Integrated Image-based Typology of Volunteer Tourism Organisations

This paper focuses on volunteer tourism organisations that offer conservation expeditions, where volunteer tourists can assist in scientific research or ecological restoration. It seeks to identify organisational images and suggest how these images affect the expectations of volunteer tourists. Using the promotional material of volunteer tourism organisations, the contents of organisations' mission statements, promotional photographs and volunteer testimonies were analysed. Potential volunteer tourists were also asked to perform a multiple sorting procedure on the organisations' brochures to assess their images of volunteer tourism organisations. From the results, four groups of volunteer tourism organisations were identified and labelled ‘conservation research expeditions’, ‘holiday conservation expeditions’;, ‘adventure conservation expeditions’ and ‘community holiday expeditions’. It is proposed that organisations need to be aware of their perceived images in order to match their volunteers' expectations and needs, manage tourists' expectations and ensure the success of their volunteer tourism expeditions.     

Cultural Dimensions and the International Tourist Role Scale: Validation in Asian Destinations?

This study tests the homogeneity of international visitors from more than 50 countries to Thailand (Phuket) and Vietnam (Hanoi) using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. It addresses the issue whether it is nationality or, instead, cultural values that are related to holiday motivations, and therefore the more important criterion for segmenting the market. Replicating the International Tourist Role Scale succeeded in principle; however, not without some adaptations and critical questions to the scale. Comparing a limited number of countries of origin (11), it could be shown that travelers at the destination share many more cultural values among themselves than with their respective national sample scores, i.e. their counterparts at home. Overall, the proposed hypothesis that cultural orientation affects travel motivations could be confirmed at a weak-to-medium level of strength.     

VONNA(HBP)

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a new learning package, VONNA(HBP), which provides an interactive and online environment for novices to study and practice hotel budget planning, is introduced. Its design philosophy will be discussed thoughtfully with special focus on how to make use of the multimedia and Internet. According to literatures, learning packages are faced to be more effective in delivering teaching material. Researchers indicate that students using a self-paced learning package score higher than in a traditional classroom setting. Moreover, the learning package provides different scenarios for students to explore themselves in a practical environment and is more cost effective and systematic than lectures. Currently, most learning packages in hotel education are not implemented using multimedia with Internet access. Our paper describes a new learning package that fills the gaps.

VONNA(HBP) requires participants to investigate operational budgets on various areas such as sales levels, payroll, inventory level, promotion strategies, and facilities planning, etc. Eventually, the students/novices are required to practice their skills in a comprehensive case about a hypothetical hotel. They need to solve managerial problems by a combination of budgetary planning on human resources, staff training programmes, facilities' maintenance and replacement, or promotion schemes. Analytical tools are available for students/novices to judge an appropriate decision in handling constrained resources.     

A latent class approach to tourists’ length of stay

In this paper, a conditional demand function is estimated for the length of stay at a tourist destination. The microeconomic model specifies the demand for the length of stay conditional on the remaining holiday characteristics that the tourist has chosen (the destination, type of accommodation etc.). The empirical model uses a latent class truncated Poisson regression, which acknowledges the existence of groups or segments of demand with different preferences. In the case under study, a distinction is made between two segments with a preference for either a longer or shorter holiday. The statistical model also resolves a problem of multimodality, acknowledged in previous analyses to be one of the main characteristics of this variable.     

The price competitive position of Mediterranean countries in tourism: Evidence from the Thomson brochure

Tourism in the Mediterranean region is highly dependent on the few, large, mass market tour operators situated in the North European tourist originating countries. Price competition is intense both between the tour operators and between the Mediterranean countries themselves. This paper uses the hotel package prices listed in the Thomson summer and winter brochures to develop relative price indexes of each Mediterranean country with respect to the Mediterranean average. Indexes are developed in the 3 star, 4 star, 5 star, 7 nights and 14 nights, half-board holiday packages. The prices in the Thomson brochure can be regarded as a unified, internally consistent, set of price data, compiled by the largest UK tour operator and offered to UK tourists desiring a Thomson summer holiday. The change through time of the competitive relative price ranking of hotels, regions and countries listed in the Thomson brochure, may be regarded as an important competitive indicator by industry operators and national policy makers concerned about tourism development.     

Effects of personification and anthropomorphic tendency on destination attitude and travel intentions

This research examined how individual differences in anthropomorphic tendency (the tendency to humanize non-human agents/objects) influence how people respond to destination marketing communications. Specifically, this study examined whether individual-level anthropomorphic tendency and text-personification of destination marketing communications interact to influence destination attitude and travel intentions. Results from a study involving 210 Australian participants revealed that destination attitude and travel intentions were most favorable for people with high levels of anthropomorphic tendency and who were exposed to personified tourism messages. These findings indicate that text-personification represents a new communication tactic for tourism – particularly for target consumers who are high in anthropomorphic tendency – and one that can humanize the destination leading to more favorable attitudes and higher intentions to travel. This effect is mediated by positive emotions. People with high anthropomorphic tendency who are exposed to a personified advertisement feel more positive emotions, which lead to positive tourism outcomes.     

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.     

Do Travel Product Types Matter? Online Review Direction and Persuasiveness

Based on perceived risk and zone of tolerance theory, this study selected two popular tour-based products and two ticket-based products to investigate how travel product types and online review directions influence review persuasiveness. The study showed that travel product type and online review direction have a combined effect on online persuasiveness. Additionally, participants perceive negative reviews to be more persuasive than positive reviews for group package tours and packages of airline ticket and hotel accommodation products. However, positive reviews are more persuasive than negative reviews for budget airline ticket products. These findings have managerial implications both for product improvement strategies and for theoretical advances in hospitality and tourism.     

Holiday recovery experiences,tourism satisfaction and life satisfaction – Is there a relationship?

This research examines the relationships between holiday recovery experiences and life satisfaction through mediating variables of tourism satisfaction. Derived from a sample of 777 American respondents, it was found that individuals who were able to control what they want to do, feel relaxed and detached from work, and have new and challenging experiences during a holiday vacation were more likely to be satisfied with their holiday experiences and their life in general. The paper concludes with recommendations for the success of tourism businesses as well as the enhancement of tourists' senses of well-being.     

Mobilizing affect in the search for self-transformation: A case study of volunteer transformation in orphanage tourism

Emerging work in tourism has focused on the affective dimensions of student volunteer experiences across diverse cultural landscapes. Affect shapes how volunteers interpret their experiences in the developing world and make sense of themselves through these engagements. Synthesizing theoretical approaches of affect management/mobilization and frame analysis, this research contributes to affect theory by presenting a case study on how affect is managed and mobilized by a charismatic leader to elicit particular responses within the volunteer experience. Through intimate engagements with orphans and other American volunteers on the trip, participants visiting Malawi experience a poor, Christian yet joyful place that the leader contrasts to American inauthenticity. The leader prepares students for an emotionally charged experience meant to lead volunteers to self-transformation.     

New product development in Thomson Holidays UK: The use of research

New product development in the holiday business can be seen either as the continuation of an annual cycle or in the more classic sense as product innovation. The paper is concerned with the latter and describes the varying roles of market development and contribution of research to new package holiday developments at Thomson Holidays. It is shown that, unlike the field of fast-moving consumer goods, the live product test, without any kind of pre-launch testing, is often a more appropriate and cost-effective use of research time and funding.     

River cruise holiday packages: A network analysis combined with a geographic information system framework

This research analyzes the physical network of river cruise holiday packages as a relational system. A comprehensive network analysis is undertaken based on data from the Douro River (Portugal). Adjacency matrices are built to derive network centrality, constraint, and modularity metrics, further integrated into a Geographic Information System. Centrality and constraint measures are regressed on river-cruise holiday packages' attraction and logistical factors. Results reveal a major impact of logistical attributes rather than attraction on most centrality and constraint metrics. River cruising's destination network proves to be a multimodal transit network structure in a hub-and-spoke network framework, exhibiting several modules linked by connector hubs, which is consistent with a power-law distribution common to real-world networks. The results confirm river cruising's complex physical network of destinations, geographically diffused, which raises systemic and scale concerns that call for an integrated approach that articulates destination planning comprehensively.     

志愿观光的体验研究:广州亚运信使观光团案例

20世纪80年代,志愿旅游在西方兴起,分为度假为主的志愿观光和志愿为主的志愿旅游两个类别。目前,国内外研究集中于后者,而文章则聚焦前者的体验。根据志愿经验和意愿以及志愿活动的组织水平,志愿观光者被划分为四类,拥有不同的观光和志愿体验组合,而志愿活动也被划分为四类,带来不同的体验。搭便车者和失望的信使更靠近大众旅游者,旅途信使感受到团队互动的归宿感和凝聚力,但真正信使的志愿感受最为丰富,触及到志愿精神的本质。志愿活动能否对旅游者产生影响取决于两个因素:志愿的需求和经验是首要因素,其次是志愿活动的设计和管理。文章最后为旅行社开发类似产品提供了营销策略。