Place attachment,recreational activities,and travel intent under changing climate conditions

Globally, climate is changing and will likely alter where and when visitors decide to travel. This study looks at how visitors’ attachment to Mount Desert Island (MDI), Maine, affects their intended future visitation under changing climate conditions. Additionally, this research explores the relationship between recreational activities visitors participate in and their attachment to the destination. Visitors were identified on-site and asked to complete an online survey (n = 416). Segmentation analysis was used to group visitors by their level of attachment to the destination: high (27%), medium (49%), and low (24%). Results indicated that those with a high level of place attachment participated in more recreational activities during their trip, although only some activities elicited significant differences. Additionally, those with high attachment said they were less likely to be deterred from visiting MDI in the future under potentially negative changing environmental conditions. Results indicate that under changing conditions, visitors’ place attachment influences future visitation intent. It is easier to retain visitors than attract new ones, so destinations (including gateway communities) would benefit from developing strategies that enhances visitor place attachment to capitalize on repeat visitation and increase long-term economic sustainability.     

Antecedents of novelty seeking: international visitors’ propensity to experiment across Hong Kong's culinary traditions

The factors that influence the scope and range of visitors’ culinary choices were the focus of this study. Responses to a survey composed of 968 departing visitors from Hong Kong who reside in one of 18 countries revealed that culinary experimentation is influenced by four factors. They are in order of importance: national culture; length of stay; age; and repeat visitation. Specifically, respondents from low uncertainty avoidance countries patronized a greater number and diversity of culinary offers when compared to respondents from high uncertainty avoidance countries. In addition, repeat visitors and length of stay were positively correlated with both the number and range of culinary explorations, while first-time visitors and age were negatively correlated. The implications for managers is that visitors of different nationalities travel to destinations with different thresholds of tastes and uncertainty avoidance thresholds, and differences should be anticipated in terms of dining preferences and ranges of culinary experiences.     

Visitation of tourism attractions and tourist expenditure patterns ‐ repeat versus first‐time visitors

Marketing wisdom suggests that it is less expensive to reattract previous customers than to acquire new ones. Yet, few tourism destinations are actively trying to understand their current visitors in order to more effectively market to them. The present study analyzes international repeat and first‐time visitors to Rotorua, New Zealand, in order to gain insights into their respective visitation patterns of tourist attractions in the area, as well as their trip and expenditure patterns. The results of this study indicate that there are significant differences with regards to trip characteristics, and it offers a few insightful differences with respect to the attractions frequented.     

An exploratory inquiry into destination risk perceptions and risk reduction strategies of first time vs. repeat visitors to a highly volatile destination

The paper examines the relationships between first-time vs. repeat visitors to a highly volatile destination in terms of destination risk perceptions, risk reduction strategies and motivation for the visit. The exploratory research question centers on possible differences in tourist behavioral profiles associated with their decision to visit a foreign destination again. Set in Israel, a highly volatile tourist destination, researchers interviewed 760 international tourists using a questionnaire classifying them as either first-time or repeat visitors. Discriminant analysis revealed that first-time visitors were characterized by human-induced risk, socio-psychological risk, food safety and weather risk. In contrast, repeat visitors were associated with the destination risk factors of financial risk, service quality risk, natural disasters and car accidents. First-time vs. repeat visitors were also compared and contrasted in terms of risk reduction strategies such as consulting with people who had previously visited specific destinations and gathering information from travel agents. Differences between first-time and repeat visitors were also found regarding motivations for the visit. Similar analyses were conducted on the three sub-groups of repeat visitors, classified in terms of number of visits.     

Assessing the economic impact of a UNESCO World Heritage designation

Grand Pré Historic Site in Nova Scotia (Canada) is in the process of applying for a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site (WHS) designation. Conventional wisdom is that such a designation would generate public awareness and increase visitation to the site. The goal of this paper is to estimate the impact of a WHS designation on tourist visitation and related expenditures. Various tourism statistics (covering 1990–2008) for Nova Scotia and its only other established UNESCO site – Lunenburg (designated in 1995) – served as data. Regression analysis produced an estimate of the tourist visitation impact that a WHS designation had on Lunenburg, and could be expected to have on Grand Pré. An increase of 6.2% in tourist visitors due to a WHS designation was estimated. Survey data collected at Grand Pré provided average spending per visitor. The economic impacts were analyzed under both a projected and a historical scenario of visitation. Based on its 10-year historic visitation average, a WHS designation for Grand Pré would generate an increase of 3000 visitors per year. These visitors would generate spending of approximately $200,000 annually in the local economy. Such spending would provide a boost to the local tourism industry, which has experienced significant decline in recent years.     

The effect of destination social responsibility on tourist environmentally responsible behavior: Compared analysis of first-time and repeat tourists

Utilizing a Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study presents and examines an integrated model that investigates consumption emotions (positive and negative) and tourist-destination identification as mediating variables between perceived destination social responsibility and the environmentally responsible behavior of Chinese tourists (n = 539). Previous research has suggested that prior experience with a service can impact the relationships between constructs; as such, this study also investigates the potential moderating impact of visitation frequency on the proposed model. Findings indicate that consumption emotions (positive and negative) and tourist-destination identification do mediate the effect of perceived destination social responsibility and environmentally responsible behavior. Only positive emotions were found to significantly impact tourist-destination identification. A moderating effect for first-time, relative to repeat visitors, was found for some paths between the investigated constructs in the proposed model. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed, limitations provided, and future research directions suggested.     

Wine Tourists’ Destination Region Brand Image Perception and Antecedents: Conceptualization of a Winescape Framework

This study conceptualizes the winescape framework using a wine region's image as perceived by wine tourists, in the process integrating grounded theory, namely servicescape, destination choice, and place-based marketing theories. Using an a priori approach, it identifies the winescape construct in a framework of eight dimensions within the wine tourism environment in a study with 996 respondents in a well-known Canadian wine region. The most important dimension of the winescape is the region's natural beauty/setting (landscape). Other high impact characteristics are the service staff and friendly local people, overall ambience and the diversity of wine estates. The dynamic of first-time and repeat visitation plays a key role in visitors’ wine tourism behavior and their perception of the winescape. The decision to engage in wine tourism is generally impulsive, even spurious, and the motivations guiding the visitors’ behavior predominantly hedonic in nature.     

A new visitation paradigm for protected areas

Current “second generation” approaches to visitation in higher order protected areas are based on biocentric management and monitoring that positions visitors as an inherent threat. The result is suboptimal sustainability outcomes of coexistence and possibly increased conflict in an era of escalating demand, reduced public funding and growing threats to global and local biodiversity. A “third generation” model is therefore required that repositions visitors as an inherent opportunity, and augments management and monitoring accordingly with visitor motivation and mobilisation for mass participation in on-site park enhancement activities. Strategies and issues for implementation - including the model's dialectical underpinnings and its relationship to a broader context of people-focused park management -are considered, toward achieving optimal sustainability outcomes of park/visitation symbiosis.     

Protected areas,conservation and tourism – financing the sustainable dream

Many commentators suggest that tourism could help fund the ever growing number of protected areas. The traditional reliance on government sources to support protected areas is increasingly untenable, in both the developed and developing world. This paper reviews the relationship between tourism and protected areas to assess opportunities for sustainable funding to assure effective stewardship. It explores a range of innovative and creative alternative funding mechanisms which could be consistent with a positive evolving relationship between tourism and protected areas. An outline classification of four protected area archetypes for management and funding purposes is suggested, based on a combination of visitation and biodiversity levels. To service the management of those four types, a series of non-government revenue streams are explored such as payments for ecosystem service (ES), environmental mortgages, intrinsic value funding, carbon abatement funding and research dividend funding. Issues discussed include: the willingness to pay on the part of potential visitors, the potential impact of fees on visitation, “quarantining” particularly valuable ecosystems from visitation and intrinsic value funding, the unpredictability of environmental mortgages and the potential stability of ES payments. Further research is required in data analysis and into the design of land tenure systems and regulatory mechanisms.     

Using web and mobile technology to motivate pro-environmental action after a nature-based tourism experience

Nature-based tourism provides an ideal context for motivating pro-environmental action, as it draws travellers interested in the natural world and showcases unique, and often threatened, environments. This study examines efforts to motivate environmentally related behaviour in tourists' everyday lives using a technology-based intervention following an elephant seal viewing tour at California's Año Nuevo State Park. A total of 362 visitors completed pre-tour and post-tour surveys, with 94 visitors completing a final survey three months after the tour. We found that, although the intervention had little influence on conservation action overall, it was effective for a social media-related action. Post-tour conservation actions were significantly affected by emotional connection to wildlife during the tour and repeat visitation to either the same or another state park. We found that visitors' connectedness to nature increased during the three-hour tour, but returned to pre-visit levels three months later. Practical implications include that parks should encourage repeat visits, suggest an assortment of other experiences that support connecting to nature, and link their conservation messaging to visitors' close, personal, and emotional experiences with fauna. We suggest that one simple, yet effective, way to do this is through maintaining the visitor–park experience through a social media community.     

Spiritual attitudes and visitor motivations at the Beltane Fire Festival,Edinburgh

Outside the peak season for tourism to Edinburgh, Scotland, during the evening of April 30th, visitors attend a festival with ancient Celtic overtones. Frequently, the evening is cold and windy. Our objectives are to: identify motivations for attending the festival; trial questionnaire items on spiritual attitude; and assess whether spirituality might be relevant in assessing visitor intentions. The method of investigation involved exploration and confirmation phases to test structures in distinct subsamples. Further, a strict approach was applied to identify factors that had theoretical value. Spirituality attitude is found to be a factor, as well as the motivations of cultural adventure and escape. Given the nature of the event, the time of year and composition of the audience, encouraging repeat visitation and using this to develop and manage Edinburgh's tourism strategy has potential. Recommendations are made to management.     

The effect of price on word of mouth: First time versus heavy repeat visitors

Many tourist destinations strongly focus and depend on repeat visitors. A central assumption thereby is that repeat visitors are more profitable (e.g. through lower marketing costs) and that their positive word of mouth (WOM) is essential to attract new guests. In this paper, we present a large-scale empirical study to investigate the effect of price for first time and heavy repeat visitors of ski resorts. Applying a hierarchical linear modelling approach, we show that price is negatively related to WOM for first time visitors and that price has no effect on WOM for repeat visitors. Thus, we show that the effect of price on WOM decreases for repeat visitors.     

INVESTIGATING DIFFERENCES IN ANTECEDENTS TO VALUE BETWEEN FIRST‐TIME AND REPEAT FESTIVAL‐GOERS

This study aimed to capture the underlying quality dimensions (value antecedents) that distinguish between first‐timers and repeaters and that cultivate festival loyalty. Structural relationships were analyzed across the quality dimensions, value, and loyalty for first‐time and repeat visitors. Structural equation modeling revealed that program and convenient facilities alone were antecedents to value for repeaters, whereas food and souvenir, as well as program and convenient facilities, were value antecedents for first‐timers. Specifically, repeat visitors showed stronger relationships on program value and convenient facility value than did first‐time visitors. On the other hand, first‐time visitors associated more strongly with relationships on food value and souvenir value than did repeat visitors. This distinction resulted in a stronger value‐loyalty relationship for repeat visitors than for first‐time visitors. These findings contribute to the understanding of festival‐attendee behavior and thus, provide researchers and practitioners with insights into how to design a festival in such a way that promotes repeat visitors.     

Examination of benefits sought by hiking tourists: a comparison of impact-range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis

This study assesses the benefits of hiking for visitors to the Jeju Olle Trail on Jeju Island in Korea, which has been designated as a World Heritage Site. Data were collected from a total of 318 tourists visiting the Jeju Olle Trail. The study focused on comparing the benefits sought by first-time visitors and those of repeat visitors. Analytical results found that first-time visitors and repeat visitors sought different benefits from their hiking experiences. First-time visitors sought to observe nature and interact with people. For first-time visitors, benefits that delighted them were buying unique souvenirs and enjoying educational experiences, whereas repeat visitors demonstrated a good assessment on interactions with new people and buying unique souvenirs.     

Why Do They Keep Coming Back? The Effect of Push Motives vs. Pull Motives,and Attribute Satisfaction on Repeat Visitation of Tourist Destinations

We conjecture that attribute satisfaction, push motives and pull motives will be positively related to return visitation of tourist destinations. We also hypothesize that push factors will be stronger related to return visitation of tourist destinations than pull factors, both directly and indirectly as mediators of the relationship between attribute satisfaction and return visitation. In addition, we predict that age and gender will moderate the effect of push and pull factors on repeat visitation. Finally, we argue that push factors and pull factors will be mutually reinforcing. To test these hypotheses, we conducted an online survey of repeat tourists’ motives, and received 986 complete responses. Survey participants were randomly chosen from a group that met a series or qualifying questions. PLS-SEM analysis of the data showed that, as we hypothesized, attribute satisfaction and push motives were positively related to repeat visitation. In contrast, pull motives were not related to repeat visitation, either directly or indirectly, but did reinforce the effect of push motives; gender did not moderate either push or pull motives and age moderated only pull motives. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Measuring customer experience in situ: The link between appraisals,emotions and overall assessments

Customer experience is frequently researched using one-off recall studies, missing the opportunity to assess the momentary fluctuations associated with consumption in real time. To address this gap, this study investigates how specific experience appraisals of an event affect emotions at different points in time, as well as determining how these appraisals contribute to overall satisfaction, recommendation, and repeat visitation. Fifty-one event goers report their experiences on four occasions (three during and one post event). Results show appraisals of having fun predict feelings of joy at each of the three sampling periods, whereas appraisals of sensory experience predict feelings of inspiration. Overall, sensory appraisals at Time-2 and appraisals of fun at Time-3 are associated with higher ratings of recommendation and repeat visitation. This research extends the understanding of customer experience by demonstrating the differential role of appraisals and emotions in real time and the flow-on effects to post experience assessments.     

A comparison of local and non-local visitor information-seeking behavior by visitors to civil war-related US National Park Service sites

Although previous research has documented differences between local and non-local visitors, the differences in the information sources referenced when planning trips have not been assessed in published studies. Differences in the sources used by local and non-local visitors to National Park Service Civil War conflict sites were examined, as were differences in ages and visitation characteristics. Although the vast majority of respondents had gathered information about the sites prior to visiting, differences existed in the type of sources used in general, sources used by locals as opposed to non-locals and sources used by visitors of different ages. Locals were more likely to be younger and to use past experience and the advice of acquaintances, whereas non-locals were more likely to be older and use impersonal sources. The results from this study can be used to target certain geographic or demographic populations with site information.     

First-time versus repeat visitors to a music festival in South Africa

This research segmented visitors to Spring Fiesta, a music festival aimed at the House, Hip Hop and Kwaito music festival market in South Africa, based on the frequency of visits to distinguish between first-time and repeat festival attendees. A research survey was done over four years (2013–2016) and 788 visitor questionnaires were included in the analysis. Independent sample t-tests, two-way frequency tables, and Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data and segment first-time and repeat visitors based on socio-demographics, behavioral characteristics, and overall satisfaction and travel motivations. These differences should be considered when the festival program is designed and marketed.     

The Effectiveness of Post-Disaster Recovery Marketing Messages—The Case of the 2009 Australian Bushfires

An understanding of how best to communicate with the tourism market in the wake of a disastrous event is essential for destination marketing organizations seeking to manage the misperceptions and media-imposed attitudes held by potential visitors. To date, the literature remains silent in terms of the types of messages destination marketing organizations are best to employ when a disaster has hit and consequently marketers often take an “ad hoc” approach to their post-disaster communications that may or may not be effective in terms of encouraging visitation. In response to this knowledge gap, the research presented in this article adopted an experimental methodology to examine the effectiveness of nine disaster recovery message themes commonly used by destination marketing organizations. The messages were presented to respondents via a print advertisement promoting the Victorian region of Gippsland—a tourism region severely affected by the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires. The results revealed that a marketing message endorsed by a well-known and well-associated celebrity figure is likely to be most effective in encouraging tourists to return to or visit a disaster-affected destination 12 to 24 months following the event. The findings also revealed a significant relationship between past visitation and the time frame in which visitors will visit a disaster-affected region. Those who had visited the region four times or more were much more likely to return within 6 months of the event than less frequent visitors. A final important message revealed in this study was the fact that the tourism market is not averse to disaster recovery promotional activities, a concern often considered by destination marketers when planning their post-disaster recovery campaigns.     

Segmenting Wine Tourists on the Basis of Involvement with Wine

As involvement with wine may vary significantly among wine consumers and wine tourists, segmentation based on product involvement seems to be a reasonable choice. A multinational sample of 517 winery visitors is divided into three groups of low, medium, and high involvement levels; similarities and differences are examined. Results confirm that it is meaningful to segment winery visitors on the basis of their involvement with wine, as important differences can be identified in terms of visitation motives and patterns, demographic characteristics, relationship with wine, pre-visit attitudes towards the winery, evaluation of the winery experience, post-visit attitudes, and future behavioral intentions. Management and marketing implications are discussed.