Golf tourists in South Africa: A demand-side study of a niche market in sports tourism

The targeting of tourism market segments is considered to increase repeat visitations to tourism destinations because it allows destination marketers to accurately determine the needs and expectations of targeted tourists, develop more effective marketing strategies, which in turn, assists with ensuring that the targeted tourists segments support and return to the destination. Consequently, the aim of the study was to determine the profile of golf tourists attending an international golf event in South Africa by shedding some light on their key trip-related and general golf tourism behaviour patterns. To date, most research undertaken has focused on product-driven research concerned with golf course facilities and the marketing thereof and little emphasis on demand-side research concerning the golf tourist. Personal interviews were conducted using a structured questionnaire involving 314 golf tourists selected through a systematic random sampling technique. The paper investigates the level of development of golf tourism, analyses the golf tourism market and highlights critical factors for its success, in South Africa.     

Online tourism destination marketing in Kumasi Ghana

This study develops a conceptual research model to identify and induce local and international tourists to visit historical attractions and facilities in Kumasi the Ashanti region of Ghana. Websites provide valuable information about tourism destination marketing and tourism products to visitors and enhance tourists purchasing intentions. Data from a judgemental sampling technique were used for the research. Full time front desk employees from 36 hotels and 396 customers contributed to the study. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the model measurements. The analytical results indicate that online destination image, online word of mouth, online security vulnerability test significant with tourists’ satisfaction as a mediator. The results also provide reliable reference for tourism administrators and researchers interested in online destination marketing and suggest that tourists perceive online security vulnerability as a menace to society and should be prevented.     

Are tourists rational or irrational consumers?

The purpose of the study is to identify whether applying assumptions of consumer behavior in economics or marketing in the tourism context is validated. Therefore, this study investigated whether tourists, as subjects of consumption at a tourism destination, are rational. Also, additional work was performed to identify the determinants in rationality of tourists. Survey research through the three steps of instrument development has been conducted for those who visited the Jeju Island, South Korea. The adequate sample size of 280 pairs was employed for statistical analyses such as a multiple regression analysis. As a result, the study concluded that an application of the assumptions of consumer behavior in economics or marketing to decision-making of tourists’ consumption was inappropriate because the propensity of tourist expenditure at a tourism destination was evidenced as both rational and irrational. More discussion and implications were provided.     

强关系网络移动社交平台旅游分享行为研究——基于微信与QQ用户的资料分析

在移动社交媒体时代,旅游分享已成为当下旅游者的行为偏好,越来越多的旅游者选择微信、QQ这类强关系移动社交平台进行分享。国内学界对移动社交平台旅游分享行为的研究随之日增,但少有文章从理论上系统地揭示旅游分享行为的过程与动因。文章采用扎根理论研究方法,构建反映强关系网络移动社交平台的旅游分享动态过程理论模型。将旅游分享行为动态过程划分为分享前因、分享实现与分享结果3个阶段,总结每个阶段的行为特征、表现方式及阶段之间的演替规律,并探讨这类旅游分享行为的特点与动因。研究发现,在旅游分享动机上,强关系移动社交平台强调情感联结与互动,从而旅游者受到与个体相关动机的影响更为显著;分享内容上,平台的强关系特性与熟人社交促使旅游者尽量避免分享负面信息;分享结果上,强关系移动社交平台的旅游分享能调节旅游者行中、行后的体验水平,并形成兼具网络时空拓展性与熟人圈规模局限性的口碑传播。     

Vulnerable populations with psychological disorders in tourism: Methodological challenges and recommended solutions for empirical research

Vulnerable groups, including travel-eligible tourists with medical conditions (e.g., early- and mid-stage dementia), represent an emerging niche market in the tourism industry that has been largely overlooked in the tourism literature. By identifying and addressing the challenges of conducting empirical research for this population, unreliable and misrepresentative data (and resulting imprudent recommendations) can be avoided. Given that tourism-based interventions may provide a new avenue for patient-oriented treatments, rigorous methodological guidelines are needed to advance knowledge in this interdisciplinary area. This paper provides insights into the potential challenges of empirical research involving tourists with psychological disorders. Collecting primary data from target participants requires preparation and deliberate contemplation when identifying and recruiting travel-eligible tourists. Solutions such as clear recruitment criteria, randomized controlled trials, and integrated health research approaches are recommended. Resultant studies on exposure and outcomes can inform tourism management and marketing strategies regarding these populations.     

Corporate social marketing in tourism: to sleep or not to sleep with the enemy?

ABSTRACT

Social marketing is regarded as an effective consumer-oriented approach to promoting behavioural change and improved well-being for individuals, communities and society. However, its potential for tourism, especially sustainable tourism, remains under-researched. This article examines the utilisation of social marketing by tourism businesses. A search strategy identified 14 behavioural change programmes that involved tourism businesses. Half of these programmes label themselves social marketing; the others tend to be part of corporate social responsibility efforts, using a form of corporate social marketing (CSM). Most programmes seek to encourage pro-environmental behaviours in tourists, tourism businesses and other stakeholders including suppliers. Although tourism businesses can develop social marketing programmes alone, typically they collaborate with public and non-profit agencies as partners and sponsors. The strength of the tie between the promoted behaviour and the sale of a company's product varies considerably. It is suggested that social marketing can make significant contributions to environmentally sustainable tourism. However, this research also suggests that social marketing is not a substitute for, but rather an essential complement to, technological and regulatory approaches to climate change. Changing behaviour is a long process: without a long-term commitment from private sector companies, CSM programmes will fail to achieve behavioural change goals.     

The mediating effect of place attachment on the relationship between golf tourism destination image and revisit intention

Focusing on golf tourism in Hainan Province, this study examined the relationship between place attachment, golf tourism destination image, and revisit intention of golf tourists. Data were obtained using questionnaires distributed to golf tourists in Hainan Province, China in 2016. Survey data from 218 tourists indicated that destination image was positively related to place attachment. Moreover, place attachment mediated the relationship between destination image and revisit intention. Implications of these findings for golf tourism marketing strategies as well as future research directions are discussed.     

Reconciling unsatisfying tourism experiences: Message type effectiveness and the role of counterfactual thinking

While attracting new tourists is an important issue in destination marketing, it is also imperative to manage tourists' experience post-trip, particularly in cases of unsatisfying experiences. Yet, the questions of how to rectify unsatisfying tourism experiences received little attention in tourism scholarship. In the present research, we investigated the effectiveness of different forms of marketing messages and the role of counterfactual thinking in the ability of a marketing message to improve tourists' attitudes towards the destination and intentions to recommend, when a tourism experience was not up to tourists' satisfaction. A scenario-based experiment was conducted with 480 respondents. The results showed that user-generated messages and the messages employing emotional appeal were more impactful than destination-generated or rational messages. Respondents who engaged in downward counterfactual thinking, that is imagining the situation in which their experience could have been worse, was shown to have a greater positive effect on unsatisfied tourists.     

旅游目的地品牌资产驱动因素模型研究——以凤凰古城为例

旅游目的地品牌资产逐渐成为学界关注的焦点,值得深入研究。该文基于已有研究成果,分析旅游目的地品牌资产与品牌知名度、品牌形象、品牌质量、品牌价值、品牌忠诚的结构关系,构建旅游目的地品牌资产驱动因素结构模型。以湖南省凤凰古城为案例,采用问卷调查法获得基础数据,分析发现:旅游目的地品牌知名度、品牌形象、品牌质量通过旅游目的地品牌价值与品牌忠诚对旅游目的地品牌资产产生显著影响,证实了旅游目的地品牌资产的二阶驱动因素模型。具体来看,旅游目的地品牌形象对品牌忠诚的影响最大,而旅游目的地品牌忠诚和品牌资产关联度最大。根据研究结论得到管理启示:第一,全面认识旅游目的地品牌资产的驱动因素,综合递增旅游目的地品牌资产。第二,着力突出旅游目的地品牌资产的核心要素,注重提升旅游目的地品牌形象。第三,认真建设旅游目的地品牌资产的关键内容,致力强化旅游目的地品牌忠诚。     

Tourists' Attitudes Toward Tea Tourism: A Case Study in Xinyang,China

Tea tourism as a new niche market has become more and more popular. Through a case study in Xinyang, China, this research explores tourists' attitudes and perceptions toward tea and tea tourism, identifies who the potential tea tourists are, and compares their attitudes with others. One hundred seventy-nine questionnaires were administered; one-way ANOVA and chi-square test were used based on their willingness of tea tourism. The results suggest that tea tourists and non-tea tourists have significant differences in terms of their attitudes toward tea drinking and their willingness of buying tea as souvenir. Tea tourists are mainly tea lovers driven by their high interest in tea and tea culture; they tend to be both males and females (yet females show a significant higher percentage than males), between ages 31–40, who have a positive attitude toward tea drinking, and who often drink tea. This research also provides some marketing suggestions for this niche market.     

Self-care for the researcher: dark tourism in Varanasi,India

ABSTRACT

Dark tourism is a popular niche of tourism that allows tourists to come into close proximity with death, atrocity, and the macabre, and therefore has the potential to be an emotional and even traumatic encounter for tourists. While this context has inspired tourism researchers to investigate dark tourists’ motivations, as well as the marketing and representation of dark tourism sites, we have yet to attend to its implications for the researcher. This paper analyzes the emotional experiences and aftermath of fieldwork at the cremation grounds of Varanasi, India, which involved working closely with tourists, Doms, and Aghoris by focusing on the relations of reflexivity, positionality, and emotionality. As a result, we suggest a number of reflexive and self-care practices to be put into place so as to attend to the researchers’ emotional well-being in the fieldwork process.     

基于地方情感的旅游目的地选择模型建构研究

旅游目的地选择模型建构的研究多数以微观经济学、认知心理学与市场营销学等为基础理论,较少从个体与地方感情连结的视角探讨游客旅游目的地选择决策行为。文章以旅游目的地选择为研究主轴概念,结合地方情感概念中的旅游目的地意象和地方依恋,根据研究文献梳理结果、基础理论界定模型建构的路径变量与逻辑框架,进而提出基于地方情感的旅游目的地选择模型及模型过程步骤。文章建构模型表明,游客旅游目的地选择始于旅游目的地意象的形成,随着整体认知意象的深化,游客对旅游目的地将产生地方认同感,再通过选择决策行为选择意向的旅游目的地从事旅游活动,通过对旅游目的地旅游体验的功能满足产生依赖感,最终形成对旅游目的地的地方依恋感。研究成果对于旅游目的地选择具有交叉研究的创新价值,对于旅游目的地市场战略规划实践活动而言具有参照价值。     

云南海外客源市场发展及开拓

旅游客源市场是旅游业发展的重要前提，而旅游产品的无形性与不可运输性特点，决定了旅游宣传促销和市场开拓的重要性。本文在分析了云南海外游客市场发展现状和海外旅游者消费水平的基础上，提出了云南开拓海外客源市场的主要对策措施是：突出云南旅游特色，塑造鲜明旅游形象；调整旅游客源结构，开拓高素质游客；充分利用各种媒介，创新旅游宣传促销方式；运用市场经济规律，建立旅游市场开拓机制；加快对外开放步伐，加强区域旅游合作；应用现代科学技术，加快培养旅游营销人才；努力提升开拓海外客源市场的能力和水平。     

Market segments based on the dominant movement patterns of tourists

This paper presents an innovative method for tourist market segmentation-based on dominant movement patterns of tourists; that is, the travel sequences or patterns used by tourists most frequently. There were three steps to achieve this goal. In the first step, general log-linear models were adopted to identify the dominant movement patterns, while the second step was to discover the characteristics of the groups of tourists who travelled with these patterns. The Expectation–Maximisation algorithm was then used to partition tourist segments in terms of socio-demographic and travel behavioural variables. The third step was to select target markets based upon the earlier analysis. These methods were applied to a sample of tourists, over the period of a week, on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. A significant outcome of this research is that it will assist tourism organisations to identify tourism market segments and develop better tour packages and more efficient marketing strategies aligned to the characteristics of the tourists.     

旅游信息服务视阈下的智慧旅游慨念探讨

智慧旅游的丰富实践使研究者不断思考“什么是智慧旅游”的问题,而对这个基本问题虽有很多解答但仍然需要进行探索。文章试图通过对国内外有关智慧旅游的概念进行了梳理,建立起以旅游信息服务为基础的智慧旅游的基本概念,即把智慧旅游定义为旅游者个体在旅游活动过程中所接受的泛在化的旅游信息服务。该定义旨在强调智慧旅游以旅游者个体为核心、以信息服务为载体的支撑体系,以泛在化作为核心内涵,以旅游者行为方式、旅游业营销方式、管理方式和服务方式的根本性变化为主要外延,并据此对国内外智慧旅游概念进行了全面评价。文章的价值在于将智慧旅游的概念与旅游信息化（特别是旅游信息服务）有机结合,既承上启下又能开启智慧旅游发展的新思路。     

野生动物旅游景区游客情感特征研究——以长隆野生动物世界为例

情感分析已成为大数据文本挖掘领域的热门话题。分析旅游者对野生动物旅游景区的情感,对于理解人与野生动物的互动机制具有重要意义。文章以长隆野生动物世界为例,采用国内旅游社交网站的用户评论文本为数据源,运用内容分析法和情感倾向分析法,在建立野生动物旅游专属词库基础上,从景区体验情感、管理要素认知情感、动物生境感知情感、科普教育互动情感4个角度,分别进行了情感特征词提取、情感值计算、高频词统计和社会语义网络分析。主要研究结论包括:(1)旅游者对长隆野生动物世界的景区体验大多持积极正面情感评价;(2)旅游者对动物生境空间感知情感具有差异性,涉入程度、互动方式、接触距离、游客密度、场地大小等因素都会影响游客时空行为和情感评价;(3)旅游者负面情感较多来自景区管理,主要是承载力超负荷和景区门票偏高;(4)科普教育互动情感中,旅游者较少关注野生动物福祉和负面影响。该研究对其他野生动物旅游景区的管理和营销具有一定的借鉴意义。     

How do environmental knowledge,environmental sensitivity,and place attachment affect environmentally responsible behavior? An integrated approach for sustainable island tourism

Previous studies have explored tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) from the perspectives of individual commitment, attractiveness, and involvement. This study approaches from the standpoint of environmental knowledge (EK); it probes tourists’ behavior to facilitate sustainable tourism development, and constructs a sustainable island tourism development model by integrating EK, environmental sensitivity, place attachment, and ERB. Four hundred and seventy seven tourists visiting the Penghu Islands, Taiwan, were surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationships among the variables and the mediating effects. Results indicate that higher levels of tourists’ EK about the Penghu Islands are associated with stronger environmental sensitivity; environmental sensitivity which tourists have for island tourism is positively associated with place attachment. The extent of place attachment of Penghu as perceived by tourists is also positively associated with stronger ERB. When tourists are highly sensitive to the attraction, they are more likely to exhibit ERB. Environmental sensitivity and place attachment were found to exert significant effects in mediating the relationships between EK and ERB. This study pioneers the integration of all four constructs in a sustainable tourism behavior model for tourists to island tourism destinations. Suggestions for marketing and implementation of sustainable tourism, and their managerial implications are proposed.     

The Relationships of Destination Image,Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions: An Integrated Model

Built upon the tourism and marketing literature, a conceptual model depicting the relationship among tourism destination image components, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions was proposed. A conceptual model consisting of six hypotheses was empirically tested using survey data from 550 Chinese tourists who visited Zhang-Jia-Jie, a major Chinese tourism destination shown on the list of the World Natural Heritage. The empirical findings reveal that: (a) overall tourism destination is reflected by both cognitive image and affective image, and (b) overall tourism destination image has an indirect impact on behavioral intentions through satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed before the article concludes with limitations and directions for future research.     

Tourism as a cultural domain the case of Taos,New Mexico

This paper offers an analysis of tourism as a cultural domain through a combination of hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling procedures not previously used together in touristic studies. The data for the study were gathered from interviews with 89 tourists who completed a card-sorting task for fifty items selected as representative of the range of real behavioral choices available to visitors to the Taos region. The two solutions presented, based on the U-statistic and the KYST program, are in reasonably good agreement and also correlate well with an earlier analysis reported in this journal (Kemper 1979). The approach used here not only enhances ethnographic understanding of tourism as a cultural domain and complements field research carried out using more traditional participant-observation and survey interview methodologies, but also offers a number of valuable applications for conceptualizing and marketing tourism.     

旅游企业社会责任对目的地形象及游客忠诚的影响研究

在旅游市场竞争日趋激烈的背景下,由旅游企业经营所引发的社会责任问题受到广泛关注,但学界关于旅游企业社会责任的影响研究还不够系统和深入.文章将旅游企业社会责任划分为6个方面,将目的地形象划分为认知形象和情感形象两个方面,并构建了旅游企业社会责任对目的地形象及游客忠诚的影响模型.实证研究表明,旅游企业社会责任在目的地形象及游客忠诚形成中发挥非常重要的作用,其中,经济责任、环境责任、游客责任、员工责任和法律责任对认知形象有正向影响,游客责任、员工责任和慈善责任对情感形象有正向影响;认知形象和情感形象不仅对游客忠诚产生直接影响,而且通过游客满意对游客忠诚产生间接作用.相比认知形象,情感形象对游客满意和忠诚的影响作用更大.