Community-based Tourism Enterprises Development in Kenya: An Exploration of Their Potential as Avenues of Poverty Reduction

The United Nations World Tourism Organization endorses tourism for economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries, emphasising the role of micro-, small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises. In Kenya, community-based enterprises (CBEs) are preferred. This paper evaluates CBE potential and challenges for poverty reduction in Kenya. Reviewing literature on Kenyan tourism development, it uses case studies of six Kenyan CBEs spread across Kenya's tourism-focused community-based initiatives selected using opportunistic and snowball sampling. The case studies used individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with community leaders, CBE managers, tourism academics, support organisations and government officials, and focus groups with community members. The paper develops a detailed understanding of the CBEs, identifying the catalyst for their establishment and the role and degree of external intervention. It explores critical success factors, the extent to which CBEs alleviate poverty, and factors making communities welcome CBEs (or not). The results emphasise the conservation orientation of CBEs, with support agencies preferring partnership approaches involving white investment which inadequately addresses community priorities. Through foreign resource control and heavy reliance on donor funding, CBEs promote neocolonialism and reinforce dependency. An urgent review of the support framework for community tourism development in Kenya integrating the principles of sustainable development is advocated.     

Tourism participation and expenditure behaviour: Analysis using a scobit based discrete–continuous choice model

Using a new type of discrete–continuous choice model, this paper simultaneously models two interrelated tourist choices, namely, tourism participation and tourism expenditure. For the analysis, we employ a scobit model, which includes a skewness parameter to relax the assumption that sensitivity to changes in the explanatory variables is highest among individuals with indifferent preferences concerning participation and non-participation in tourism. We undertake the empirical analysis using data collected in Japan. The results confirm the interdependency between tourism participation and tourism expenditure and that the scobit model is superior to the logit model in modelling these tourism-related decisions. We also discuss the main factors influencing both tourism participation and expenditure.     

多元化类型与旅游企业价值关系研究

文章以2003~2010年17家旅游上市公司为研究对象,采用关联比例作为多元化类型的代理变量衡量相关多元化程度,以资产收益率衡量企业价值,运用面板数据回归和二阶段最小二乘法,探讨哪种多元化类型更有利于促进旅游企业价值,以及哪些因素影响旅游企业多元化类型的决策选择。实证表明:股权集中度、企业价值对旅游企业相关多元化具有显著正向影响,国有股比例、资源可转移性、公司规模和公司年龄对旅游企业相关多元化具有显著负向影响;在外生性视角下,相关多元化对旅游企业价值具有正向影响,存在2.6%的相关多元化溢价效应;在内生性视角下,相关多元化对旅游企业价值的正向促进作用进一步提升,相关多元化溢价效应为9.7%。     

Tourism and the refugee crisis in Greece: Perceptions and decision-making of accommodation providers

This paper focuses on the tourism impacts of the 2015–16 refugee crisis in Greece. It examines the implications of the related publicity for the perception of Greece and the expected reaction of inbound tourists; the way refugees are regarded from a security and cultural aspect; the interaction between refugees and host communities; and the decisions made by the Greek tourism accommodation sector to face the crisis. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis the paper employs a nationwide survey of 811 tourism accommodation managers. The results reveal three configurations explaining the decisions of respondents characterised by refugee-centric orientation; the emphasis on the visitors-locals nexus; and the host communities' behavioural impact on tourism. The paper also compares asymmetric with symmetric analysis highlighting the suitability of the former when dealing with complexity. The modelling exercise also steps forward from fit to predictive validity. The findings contribute to both managerial and methodological aspects of tourism.     

Market Structure Analysis of Media Selection Practices by Travel Services

This paper examined media selection practices by tourism business competing in Alaska. Two media selection decisions, media use and media mix, were investigated. Media use decisions focused on the use/not use of television, national magazines, radio, newspapers, outdoor advertising, and a regional travel magazine. Media mix decisions explored what combinations of these six media firms utilized. A market structure analysis revealed that both media selection practiced were affected by organizational, task, and demand characteristics facing firms. The market structure analysis also suggested that media mix decisions were likely to be more highly constrained that are individual media use decisions.     

Tourism's external account and the balance of payments

This paper argues that the balance of payments on tourism account is not the best measure of economic tourism activity needed for good policy formulation at the government level. The balance on tourism should be replaced with a broader concept, tourism's external account, which includes expenditures and receipts from tourists together with those other international transactions which follow indirectly from tourism. This concept will provide a broader understanding of the tourism industry so that better policy decisions can be made.     

The development of a conceptual model of greening in the business events tourism sector

This paper examines the process of corporate greening, and proposes a general conceptual model of the process, which may be relevant in a number of different corporate sectors. The model includes drivers of greening and barriers to greening and also the organisational context in which greening decisions are taken. In addition, this paper considers the role of media coverage in influencing pro-environmental behaviour amongst organisations. The paper then tests the model in one particular tourism context – that of business events – in order to ascertain the specific nature of the corporate greening process in that context. The paper concludes that the general model may be applied to a number of industry sectors, and the model specific to business events tourism may be used to underpin future research in this area.     

The impacts of temporary but anticipated tourism spending: An application to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

An extensive literature attempts to identify the economic impact of tourism expenditure. While Input-Output methods have been widely applied these may not always be appropriate for such applications and there is a growing use of more flexible Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) approaches. This paper uses a multi-period Scottish CGE model to estimate the system-wide effects of the temporary tourism expenditure related to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. We quantify the sensitivity of our results to model specification, focusing in particular on how investment and consumption decisions are made and shifted over time to accommodate the temporary tourism shock. As part of this analysis we identify the pre-announcement period that optimises the present value of the economic impact. Whilst the empirical results apply to a specific event, our results have implications for similar analyses applied to mega events and other temporary phenomena affecting tourism expenditure, such as terrorism attacks or epidemics.     

Tourism destination decisions: the impact of risk aversion and prior experience

This study broadly explores the impact of risk aversion on tourists' destination decisions and, in particular, explores for differences in individuals' leisure and medical tourism destination decisions. The results of this study indicate that risk aversion significantly distinguishes tourists' destination decisions in both leisure and medical tourism in Indonesia, but not in Singapore. All risk-averse groups are less likely to visit Indonesia than Singapore for leisure and medical purposes. By contrast, all risk-averse groups are likely to visit Singapore for leisure purposes, although they remain unlikely to travel to Singapore for medical tourism. In addition, the study found that the impact of prior experience on the likelihood that the two risk-averse groups will travel to Indonesia and Singapore for leisure was significant. Conversely, the effects of prior experience on medical tourism generally do not significantly differ between the two countries.     

Yearly,monthly and weekly seasonality of tourism demand: A decomposition analysis

Annual seasonal variations in tourism demand have been a central theme in literature. However, annual seasonality is not the only time-based inequality in tourism flows that has important implications on policy-making decisions at destinations. Within the context of tourism, this study aims to make an in-depth analysis of intra-monthly and intra-weekly tourism demand using the entropy and relative redundancy measures as alternative seasonality indicators to the Gini coefficient in order to provide new tools to manage tourism and propose new action policies at these frequencies. In comparison with the Gini coefficient, the entropy measure is simpler to compute and it is easily decomposable. Using the case study of air arrivals and departures to and from the Balearic Islands, results show the appropriateness of entropy and relative redundancy as seasonal indicators but also as a new information tools for tourism seasonality analysis.     

Consumerism in Sustainable Tourism: A Survey of UK Consumers

This article presents the results of a survey of tourism consumers from the Destinations Travel Show in the UK in 2000. Four hundred and eleven tourism consumers were interviewed over four days at the show on the type of information that they used in the selection of their holiday destination. This article posits that the power of the consumer can be a major force for progress towards greater sustainability by the tourism industry, acting as a rationale for change, which is often missing from more traditional planning, management or regulatory techniques. The research shows consumers are already making decisions based on environmental, social and economic quality for day-to-day products and are keen to transfer these habits to the purchase of tourism products. Recommendations are made, highlighting the need for the tourism industry to capitalise on this demand for a wider range of product information and so promote moves towards greater levels of sustainability in the industry.     

Effects of entrepreneur passion on persuasion: Study of venture capitalist funding decisions toward hospitality and tourism business plan presentation

This study investigates the effects of entrepreneurs' passion on persuasion by focusing on venture capitalist funding decisions toward hospitality and tourism business plan presentation. To this end, we conducted two studies. In study 1, we collected evidence from 13 hospitality and tourism start-up financing projects broadcasted on China Central Television Channel 2 by utilizing a Linguistic csQCA. In study 2, we conducted an experimental analysis of entrepreneur passion and venture capitalists'(VCs') funding decisions via the causality test of 277 participants. Our findings indicate that both cognitive and affective passion have significantly positive effects on VCs' funding decisions and that VCs' involvement moderates the effects of cognitive passion and affective passion on VCs' funding decisions. The established integrative model has important implications for research on entrepreneur passion and investment decisions in entrepreneurial pitches from an involvement perspective, and the impact of entrepreneur passion on persuasion in hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship.     

Social tourism participation: The role of tourism inexperience and uncertainty

Social tourism initiatives tend to facilitate access to tourism for groups who would otherwise be financially unable to participate in holidays. The tourism products offered in social tourism vary between individual and group holidays, and day trips. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study with social tourism beneficiaries and social support workers, which explores via interviews and focus groups how these different tourism products can be tailored most effectively to the needs to the beneficiaries. The findings of the study highlight the important role of travel inexperience, and associated uncertainty, in travel decisions made by this target group. The findings show that (public sector or charitable) providers of social tourism can offer the most tailored and potentially most cost-effective tourism product to each beneficiary by closely considering previous travel experience and uncertainty levels before departure.     

PROCESS STUDIES OF TOURISTS’ DECISION-MAKING

We review tourism decision-making paradigms. We conclude that the literature is dominated by ‘variance’ studies of tourists’ decisions by causal analysis of independent variables explaining choices by tourists. This ‘choice set’ approach is in consonance with the need to understand important issues such as destination attractiveness and marketing. We argue that this approach does not incorporate an ontology of decision-making as a process, a deeper understanding of which may only be generated through studies that involve narrating emergent actions and activities through which individual or collective endeavours unfold. From this base we review the tourism decision-making literature and argue for the development of process studies as an important adjunct to the current body of knowledge.     

Justice motivation and place image influences on volunteer tourism: perceptions,responses, and deliberations

In the growing area of alternative tourism, tourist motives have been discussed but there is little consensus about what drives volunteer tourists. This paper explores the salience of justice motivation to the travel decision and deepens this understanding by contextualizing the volunteer tourism decision within the destination place image. Interviews were conducted during a Kenyan expedition. Results show justice motivation theory contributes to the explanation of trip participation as perceived injustices aligned with poorly perceived dimensions of the country’s image.     

Regional Environment of Destination and the Entrepreneurship of Small Tourism Businesses: A Case Study of Dali and Lijiang of Yunnan Province

Small tourism businesses play vital roles in tourism destinations. However, an understanding of the extent to which the destination where the business is located influences decisions made by tourism entrepreneurs has not received the attention it deserves. Based on 173 questionnaires and 50 interviews in Dali and Lijiang, and using factor analysis, the author explores the effect of regional environmental factors on the entrepreneurship of small tourism firms. Seven factors were derived with a cumulative variance of 66.8% explained. Tourism attractiveness, including the natural and human environment as well as regional economics, drives the macro-location of small tourism firms and is the most important influence factor, followed by information and communication factors. The market potential and accessibility, which are keys to success, are also important factors that entrepreneurs considered. The family background provides support for entrepreneurs. Also, emotional supports among entrepreneurs with shared values, hobbies, and experience are crucial for lifestyle entrepreneurs to start a venture. However, the influence of financial environment, government policy, and labor conditions are not perceived to be significant to the entrepreneurs.     

Can the tourist-area life cycle be made operational?

The tourist-area life-cycle concept has become accepted in the minds of tourism planners and managers. If the lifecycle concept is to be useful it must be made operational. This paper reviews six major conceptual and measurement decisions necessary to accomplish this task. The applicability of the life cycle to tourism forecasting and marketing strategy is then considered. The article concludes with some thoughts on how tourism planning might be better served if the concept of evolution of a tourist area were based more on a framework of structured analysis and the Darwinian natural selection theory than the life-cycle concept.     

Tourism in marine protected areas: A view from Nha Trang Bay,Vietnam

Tourism development is considered a key accompanying strategy in creating alternative livelihood options for the communities living in and adjacent to the Marine Protected Areas. This paper examines the socioeconomic characteristics of the Nha Trang Bay protected area to determine the factors that influence the decision to participate in tourism sectors, and analyse whether these decisions would help to improve the economic wellbeing of the local communities. Using a mixed-method approach, including a strategic model and analysis of household surveys, the paper shows that tourism development has not yet helped to improve economic well-being of the communities, as was expected. The primary factors that prevent local residents from participating in the tourism industry are low levels of education, long distances between homes and tourism destinations, and perceptions of the effects of tourism. Thus, improving education and supporting the communities to meet multiple social and ecological goals should be a priority policy.     

Grounded Theory of Leisure Travel

Abstract

This article reviews grounded theory studies available in the literature that deepen understanding of leisure travel decisions and tourism behaviors. The article includes a set of core propositions that are examined empirically. The reported study includes applying the “long interview method” and “theoretical sampling” in completing personal, face-to-face, interviews of travel parties at the moment of just ending their visits to a Canadian Province. The empirical analysis focuses on acquiring process data held in the minds of customers-that is, the analysis illustrates emic-based storytelling of what was planned and what actually happened that led to what specific outcomes. Achieving such holistic, case-based views of leisure travel decisions and tourism behavior provides a rich, deep and nuanced-filled understanding of the causes and consequences of such behaviors.