Why does a firm participate in a travel exhibition? A case study of the Taipei International Travel Fair

This study explores the reasons why an exhibitor participates in a travel exhibition and assesses this marketing strategy. A total of 15 representative exhibitors who participated in the Taipei International Travel Fair were interviewed between January and July 2016. The results of the analysis indicated that exhibitors’ selection of a travel exhibition was based on the exhibition’s performance and condition. The primary purposes for participating in a travel exhibition were to enhance the firm’s reputation and sales. The exhibitors’ marketing strategies primarily involved on-site promotional activity and relevant five-sense experiences. An assessment of exhibitors’ participation factors and marketing strategies can both help firms implement their goals and enable organizers to create sustainable exhibitions. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing both theoretical and managerial implications for the travel fair, service, and tourism industries.     

湖南省旅游中心地空间结构系统的构建与优化

本文以中心地理论为指导,运用因子分析法和加法合成原理对湖南省旅游中心地空间结构系统进行了定量分析,综合考虑各城市的经济、文化、行政管理、旅游等方面的发展状况,配合旅游功能分区,确定长沙为一级旅游中心地,张家界、郴州、岳阳、邵阳为二级旅游中心地,株洲、湘潭、衡阳、常德、益阳、永州、怀化、娄底、吉首为三级旅游中心地.以此为基础,划分五大旅游区,分别是湘中大长沙都市旅游区,湘西山水风光和民俗风情旅游区,湘北环洞庭湖旅游区,湘东南宗教文化和生态休闲度假旅游区,湘西南丹霞、山地草原景观和侗文化旅游区.最后,提出了一些湖南省旅游中心空间结构系统的优化措施.     

In search of lost leisure: the impact of caregiving on leisure travel

One of the fastest growing market segments of the tourism industry over the last two decades is made up of consumers 55 years of age and older. As we enter the new millennium, over 50 million of these “mature adults” will find themselves on the edge of retirement, equipped with the freedom and financial means to travel, but restricted by a loved one who may become ill or disabled. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of caregiving on the leisure travel behaviors of family caregivers and their care-recipients. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods were employed. In addition to identifying impediments (physical, social, emotional) to pursuing or maintaining leisure travel for caregivers of older adults, the qualitative analysis yielded other emergent themes such as changes in patterns and types of leisure travel, entitlement, resentment, and anger. Implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners are included.     

Projected Images of Major Chinese Outbound Destinations

This study aimed to explore the projected images of major outbound destinations based on popular travel magazines in China. Travel articles on Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan from 2006 to 2008 were content analyzed. Japan was reported on most, and the projected images of the six destinations are dominated by leisure and recreation, and culture, history and art. Correspondence analysis was used to examine relationships between destinations and popular image attributes. The results showed that South Korea and Macau had distinct projected images, whereas Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam shared many similar image attributes. Practical implications for destination marketing organizations are provided.     

A Case for Wanderlust: Travel Behaviors of College Students

A case for wanderlust, or a strong desire to travel, was developed in an elaborate study involving numerous variables. Findings indicate that wanderlust begins with early, and varied, travel experiences and continues and inspires future travel behavior. Overall, college students exhibit a high level of interest in both leisure and business travel. The impact of past experience is dramatic with a strong relationship between travel experiences prior to college, while in college, and expectations after college. A financial commitment to this desire to travel was also found, particularly among females who exhibited a higher level of wanderlust for leisure travel. Overall implications for the travel and tourism industry are discussed.     

Bleisure: motivations and typologies

ABSTRACT

The theme of motivation in travel and tourism research has been largely dominated by a leisure focus and has consequently failed to reflect the changing landscape of business travel. This paper focuses on exploring the motivations of different types of “bleisure travelers”: individuals who combine leisure with professional business obligations when abroad. We employ a multi-disciplinary mixed-methods approach, using photo-elicitation to identify and describe five types of bleisure. As existing theories of tourist motivations have mainly been developed in a leisure context, they fail to fully capture the nuanced scope and subtle context of business and leisure motives. We therefore draw upon experiential learning, boundary-less career theory, expectancy theory, and social capital theory in order to put forward contemporary insights on the nexus between business and leisure tourism.     

Comforts of group tours

Travel can confer high status in American life. As individual travel becomes more complicated, it is time to re-evaluate the potential of the tour group. Although the image is often still of polyester hordes descending on out-of-fashion watering holes and the ever more accessible seven wonders of the ancient world, the actuality is that tour groups come in all sizes and shapes and for purposes that often involve “work” and “study”. This article is an ethnographic account of the role of the group in the travel experience. Americans join tours to meet safe strangers, be guided by experts, meet counterparts, unfold their own personal identities, and learn how to be travelers, as well as to see strange sights and bring back souvenirs, photographs, and tans.     

Tourists’ travel time values using discrete choice models: the recreational value of the Teide National Park

Abstract

The value of travel time is one of the most important factors in recreation demand models. Traditionally, the most common approach for its calculation has been the use of different proportions of the wage rate; however, criticisms of this method abound because in a recreational trip the relevant measure is the opportunity cost of leisure time rather than work time. In this paper, we adopt a novel approach in the literature using discrete choice models based on short-term decisions and independent of the labor market. We obtain the value of travel time through the trade-off between time and money considered by the tourist visitors when choosing the transport mode and we present the first calculation of the recreational value of the Teide National Park. Specifically, using a Revealed Preference survey of 801 park visitors, we estimate Mixed Logit models accounting for random preference heterogeneity, derive travel time values and incorporate them into a Zonal Travel Cost Method. This approach allows us to estimate different time values depending on transport mode and stage of the trip and shows that the use of discrete choice models instead of the wage rate approach has a strong impact on the recreational value calculated.     

Modeling International Travel Arrangements for Taiwanese Travelers: Potential Fits

Abstract

This paper presents a choice model of international travel arrangements for potential Taiwanese FIT (Foreign Independent Travel) travelers. Previous studies were based mostly on package vacations, with little attention given to FIT travelers. Recent years have indicated a transition toward FIT. Since this transition is likely to continue, it is important for travel and tourism organizations and for marketers to understand FIT individuals. This study distinguishes potential FIT travelers from non-FIT travelers, identifies variables useful in making this prediction, and provides recommendations to travel and tourism organizations of host countries. The findings indicate that Taiwanese FIT travelers are likely to be younger, male, highly educated, budget conscious, travel with a larger party size for purposes of meeting interesting and friendly local people, stay for longer periods of time, and have taken many trips in the last three years that in volved spending at least four nights away from home.     

Foreign travel and tourism prices and demand

Sunday, Alexander A., “Foreign Travel and Tourism Prices and Demand,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 2, April/June 1978, pp. 268–273. Using regression analysis and panel data this study estimates the parameter effect of prices on American demand for foreign travel and tourism. Findings suggest that higher air fares generate fewer tourists but greater expenditure per tourist visit.     

Competing priorities as constraints in event travel careers

An event travel career is a potentially lifelong pattern of travel to events linked with an individual’s preferred leisure activity. This paper applies the concept of an event travel career to non-elite triathletes. For these active sport tourists, ongoing pursuit of an event travel career is arguably constrained by competing priorities that intervene between everyday life and their pursuit of an event travel career. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 triathletes identified as pursuing an event travel career. Interpretive analysis revealed seven domains of competing priorities that could work to constrain their event travel career aspirations. These domains included familial relationships, domestic responsibilities, sociability, finances, leisure, wellbeing, and work/education. The seven competing priority domains were interrelated, and cyclical in their constraining effects. Data assisted in clarifying some defining characteristics of the event travel career concept, and challenged notions of leisure participation as entirely positive and fulfilling.     

China in the Eyes of Western Travelers as Represented in Travel Blogs

Travel blogs provide a new way of understanding consumers' perceptions on destination and its associated products. The purpose of this study was to examine international tourists' destination image of China as represented in travel blog discourse. Data were obtained from blog entries relating to trips to China posted on three dominant travel blog websites. Content analysis facilitated by Atlas.ti 6.0 was performed on a total of 89 China-related travel blogs. The study identified the most frequently discussed aspects of tourists' experiences in China. The results also indicated that the blog authors had mixed and paradoxical images of China as identified by previous research. Marketing implications for China's tourism development based on the results were discussed.     

Perception and Interpretation of Leisure Travel Articles

Limited attention has been paid to how readers perceive and interpret media messages about leisure travel experiences. This study examined college students' perceptions and interpretations of newspaper leisure travel articles revealing three central themes: intimacy and trust, tradition and authenticity, and socio-cultural knowledge. These themes are explored in order to understand the social justification of beliefs used by these college students when assigning meaning to leisure travel articles. Among the findings is the considerable role that leisure travel writers play as cultural intermediaries between local realities, readers, and future tourists. In particular, perception and interpretation of leisure travel articles revealed the expectations and shared meanings of these college students.     

Desired recreation companionship and travel behaviour of people with disabilities

This study examines whether people with disabilities(PWD) participate in leisure and travel activities with their desired companions and if there are discrepancies between their social networks and real recreation companions. The recreation companionship and travel behaviour of PWD have not been thoroughly explored, particularly in non-Western contexts. Accordingly, data were collected from 494 respondents in South Korea, and findings suggest that there was a significant gap between companions PWD desire and those they actually maintain. Travel and tourism were the least frequent recreation activities for PWD. The results can provide managerial implications regarding practices of inclusive and accessible tourism.     

The Impact of the Internet on Travel Agencies in Hong Kong

Abstract

In recent years, the travel and tourism industry has begun to develop Internet applications more extensively. Many travel service suppliers, such as hotels and airline companies, already use the Internet as a direct channel for customer reservations. The integration of the Internet into the travel and tourism industry, however, presents a challenge towards the traditional role of travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to find out what impact the Internet has on travel agencies in Hong Kong. Outcomes of this research indicate that travel agents generally have positive attitudes towards Internet applications, and the potential threat-disintermediation-has not yet affected the travel industry. Travel agents believe that they can take advantage of the Internet technology to provide value-added services for their customers. Outcomes of the present study also indicate that there are significant relationships between company size, age and some Internet attributes. Travel agencies should therefore pay more attention to these attributes when adopting Internet technology.     

Information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound travelers‐a comparison of business and leisure travelers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound tourists, in particular business and leisure travelers. The study clearly shows that business and leisure travelers demonstrate different information search behavior. ‘Personal experience,’ ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Airlines’ and the ‘Internet’ are most frequently relied upon by business travelers in searching for travel information, while leisure travelers prefer ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ The study also reveals that the total number of information sources used and the length of pre‐trip planning lead‐time are significantly different between these two groups of travelers. First time travelers also have a longer pre‐trip planning lead‐time than repeat travelers. Furthermore, business and leisure travelers perceive the levels of influence of several information sources, including ‘Corporate travel departments,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and the ‘Internet,’ differently. These information sources were classified into five different dimensions, including ‘Media,’ ‘Neutral,’ ‘Retail,’ ‘Interpersonal,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ Analysis based on travelers' purpose for traveling and demographic information was performed. Leisure travelers perceive the level of influence of ‘Neutral’ sources as significantly higher, and those with lower household incomes perceived the level of influence of ‘Personal experience’ as lower. The results of this study will allow marketers in Hong Kong to better understand travelers’ information search behavior so that they can more effectively tailor their marketing strategies to these two major markets.     

The Problem of Motivation in Understanding the Demand for Leisure Day Visits

Abstract

Motivation for leisure travel has been an equivocal aspect of the study of leisure travel. Psychological theory has been useful providing conceptions of tourism motivation based on drives and needs, however, operational problems occur using attitude constructs which have varying degrees of predictive ability. This paper offers an alternative approach to the problems of motivation, taking a pheno-menological approach to the issues, using ethno-methodological techniques in a logical, sociologically grounded analysis of conversational interview data.     

Taking a “Peak” at Leisure Travelers’ Positive Emotions

There is ample evidence to suggest that positive emotions lead to valuable life outcomes. This study examines daily positive emotion development before, during, and after a leisure travel experience. The study measured positive emotions on a daily basis in 25 mature adult participants before, during, and after two leisure travel experiences. Consistent with the “peak” model in previous research, positive emotions overall—and joy and interest in particular—increased before leisure travel, were elevated during travel, and declined afterward. Implications for practice include managing positive emotions before and after leisure travel. Future research should consider positive emotions in other populations and other leisure experiences.     

居民出游决策行为与家庭结构的关系探讨--以宁夏回族自治区为例

出游市场是旅游市场的细分市场之一，从家庭结构角度探讨居民出游决策行为的论文在我国目前为数不多。本文以宁夏居民的5000份抽样调查问卷结果为例，分析了居民出游行为与家庭结构的关系。这里的家庭结构包括三代同堂家庭、两代同堂家庭、夫妻二人家庭及单身家庭4种情形。本文从不同家庭的出游时间、出游计划、出游方式、出游心理、对旅游资源的偏好等方面整体性地分析了不同家庭的出游特征，进而通过对宁夏居民区外、区内出游行为空间的分析，得出不同家庭结构出游的行为规律。最后指出这一分析在旅游产品开发、旅游市场营销、旅游市场开发等方面的重要意义。