Internet and tourism ‐ part v: Starasiatravel.com

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships between cultural familiarity (CF), Korean cultural involvement (KCI), involvement with Korean celebrities (IKC), attitude toward a country (ATCOUN), and word-of-mouth (WOM) toward Korea. Survey data were collected from 358 Tanzanian college students within Tanzania in March of 2017. The findings reveal that CF exerted a positive and significant influence on KCI, IKC, and ATCOUN. Moreover, KCI positively and significantly forms both IKC and ATCOUN. Additionally, IKC was a positive influence on ATCOUN. ATCOUN was demonstrated to be a significant predictor of WOM, while KCI was demonstrated to act as a partial mediator between CF and ATCOUN. IKC was a partial mediator between CF and ATCOUN. IKC was a full mediator between KCI and ATCOUN.     

Exploring Chinese outbound exhibitors’ motivational factors and characteristics to U.S. exhibition market

For exhibitions to have sustainable success, they must attract enough high-quality exhibitors. As China has opened up and grown economically in the past several decades, more Chinese exhibitors are participating in exhibitions worldwide, and United States exhibitions are among their top destination. To examine what motivates the participation of this growing group, this study conducted a self-administered survey among Chinese outbound exhibitors who have attended exhibitions in the United States. With the help from the Chinese exhibition organizers, a questionnaire survey was distributed to Chinese exhibitors having participating in U.S.-based trade fairs in the past 12 months via email for collecting data. An exploratory factor analysis and a series of ANOVA tests were carried out to examine the Chinese exhibitors’ characteristics. The results of the 314 usable responses showed that exhibitors with their characteristics differed significantly in the five motivational dimensions. These dimensions relate to motivations in social contacts and networking, sales, incentive, “guanxi,” and competition. The findings have marketing implications for exhibition organizers in both the United States and China for recruiting and retaining Chinese exhibitors.     

Training,tracking, and traversing: digital materiality and the production of bodies and/in space in runners’ fitness tracking practices

ABSTRACT

The impact of the Quantified Self (QS) movement, or the digital quantification of the body for the purposes of self-betterment, on leisure has been well-established within the literature. Drawing on the experiences of ten women who self-track while running, this project extends the literature on running and place, and lived experiences of the QS, by considering the role of fitness tracking on embodiment and emplacement. First, I trouble the notion that running data is an objective replication of a runner’s activities, illustrating instead that fitness tracking is an accomplishment of human and non-human agencies and that this accomplishment does not always go according to the runner’s plan. Second, I complicate the idea that personal data collection is a disembodying act that turns visceral sensations into impersonal numbers. Instead, I argue that running data collection is often intertwined with visceral and experiential aspects of running, thus maintaining a connection between the body and the data that is collected on that body. In so doing, I contribute to digital leisure studies efforts to characterise the lived experiences of self-tracking, pointing in particular to the role of non-humans and place in those lived experiences.     

Potential Mainland Chinese Cruise Travelers’ Expectations,Motivations, and Intentions

The global cruise industry is the fastest growing sector in the entire leisure market. Due to the limited development of the Chinese cruise sector and government controls on outbound travel, the cruise, especially the outbound cruise, is a new concept in China. Few studies have addressed Chinese consumers’ perceptions of cruises. This study aimed to explore the preferences of potential Chinese cruisers and their expectations, motivations, and intentions in relation to taking an outbound cruise. This study also proposed and tested a conceptual framework: the Expectation, Motivation, and Intention (EMI) Model. Data were collected in Beijing and Shanghai; 242 valid responses were received. The results partially supported the proposed model. The theoretical and practical contributions of the study are discussed.     

Hotels’ corporate social responsibility practices,organizational culture,firm reputation,and performance

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are considered one of the key success factors influencing firm performance. However, how CSR practices should be integrated into an organization’s business practices has not been investigated empirically. The present research proposes an integrated model incorporating the interrelationships among CSR practices, organizational culture, and corporate reputation to improve firm performance in the hotel industry. The proposed model is developed using stakeholder theory and the perceptions of the general managers. According to the study’s results, organizational culture influences different dimensions of CSR. The results further indicate that hotels using CSR practices related to employees and customers strengthen their reputation. Through improved reputation, CSR practices positively influence firm performance. Furthermore, hotel managers perceive that CSR activities in the local community and related to the environment do not significantly affect a hotel’s reputation. Theoretical and practical implications are provided, and the limitations of the study and future lines of research are discussed.     

Film tourism – Evolution,progress and prospects

Film tourism has emerged as a major growth sector for research in tourism and it is widely recognised as a driver of tourism development for many destinations. To date, there has been a relatively substantial literature on the subject, little of which has sought to synthesise and engage with the wider social science paradigm of culture, film and media research. The aim of this Progress Review is to critically evaluate film tourism as a subject of cross-disciplinary academic study, highlighting the major research themes, issues and contributing conceptual frameworks, critiquing existing and developing perspectives and addressing critical gaps in knowledge. This review is particularly timely as the literature on film tourism has not been synthesised from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Accordingly, this paper seeks to provide a road map of the exponential growth in social science literature associated with the cognate areas that study, or contribute to, film tourism.