AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF MULTI‐CULTURAL VIEWS ON THE DISNEY‐MCDONALD'S ALLIANCE

This article examines the effects of co‐branding on the brand equity of partner brands and the resultant co‐brand (brand alliance), taking the Disney‐McDonald's alliance as a real life example. The issue is examined from the perspectives of different geographies and cultures by surveying Western, Asia‐Pacific, and Chinese consumers. Findings indicate that co‐branding is not always a win‐win strategy for all partners regardless of how powerful each brand is separately. Results also show that respondents' attitudes toward individual brands also affect their attitudes toward the co‐brand; however, these attitudes vary from one market to another.     

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.     

Scarborough based study on bodies’ affective capacities

This paper conceptualises leisure-seekers’ sociality using Deleuze and Guattari’s framework of Body without organs (BwO). Data, collected in Yorkshire’s coastal town of Scarborough, indicate how the ‘beach’ acts both as a magnet and a protective shell for a whole gamut of ‘intimate social microcosms’. Overall, the value of this study lies in its illustration of bodies’ affective capacities and in particular visitors’ agency in creating new possibilities for perception and experience of tourist sites. In doing so, it urges tourism studies to engage with how leisure-seekers’ bodies enact multiple sensibilities, become ‘bodies without organs’ without determinate form, in the process of experiencing a locality and (re)imagining its place in their lives.     

EXPLORING EXPENDITURE‐BASED SEGMENTATION FOR RURAL TOURISM: OVERNIGHT STAY VISITORS VERSUS EXCURSIONISTS TO FEE‐FISHING SITES

About three fourths of new small tourism businesses fail within the first few years of operation mainly due to poor identification and lack of knowledge of their markets. While understanding visitor spending pattern is critical for the market to be economically viable and successful, research on rural tourist spending behavior is lacking in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore a visitor segmentation approach based on rural visitor spending behavior. Multiple regression analysis suggested accommodation attribute as the most useful predictor for visitor spending. Two subgroups were developed using accommodation type as a segmentation criterion—overnight stay visitors versus short excursionist. Comparative analyses were done using socio‐demographic variables, trip behavior, recreational motivation, and activity preferences. Overnight stay visitors and short excursion group showed significant differences on several behavioral and motivation variables. Practical suggestions are provided for attracting tourists to rural tourism destinations.     

Strategies for minimising tourism leakages in Indo‐Chinese development countries

For developing countries in Indo‐China embarking on tourism for economic growth, their success hinges on minimizing three types of tourism leakages, namely financial, structural, and operational leakages. This paper proposes financing and market strategies for those countries to reduce tourism leakages. The strategies suggest that Indo‐Chinese developing countries should target fairly‐developed countries in Asia as their main capital markets and tourist feeders at the early stage of tourism development. In later phases of tourism growth and expansion, they may seek tourism capital and tourists from both fairly‐developed and well‐developed countries. The recent Asian financial crisis has presented new challenges to Asia Pacific tourism. It may, however, create opportunities for developing countries in Indo‐China to attract more regional tourists and investors and reduce tourism leakages.     

BENEFIT SEGMENTATION OF VISITORS TO A RURAL COMMUNITY‐BASED FESTIVAL

This study examines the motivation of the attendees of a community‐based festival in the rural Midwest of the United States. Six motivational factors are identified from the visitor data collected at the festival: escape, novelty, nostalgia and patriotism, event excitement, family togetherness, and socialization. Among them, escape was the most dominant motivation. Five clusters are identified, including family travelers, event enthusiasts, loyal festival goers, escapers, and social gathering lovers. The five clusters are distinct in terms of the respondents' perception of the festival and revisit intention. The characteristics of each segment are given, and the practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

A content analysis of travel agency web‐sites in Korea

The Internet has become a dominant issue in today's tourism environment. This paper is to provide large travel agencies in Korea with a better understanding of their Web‐based competitive environment. A content analysis of the top 60 travel agencies Web‐sites in Korea suggests that many travel agencies do not develop their own Web‐sites and although travel agencies are using the Web, they have not, as yet, fully utilized capabilities of Web‐sites. This study also suggests some implications for successful cyber tourism marketing, including the establishment of a Web‐site, on‐line selling, customer supports, and cyber marketing mix strategy on the Web. Limitations and further research issues are also suggested.     

Youth leisure careers during post‐communist transitions in the South Caucasus

This paper reports findings from interview surveys with 1215 respondents, split between the capital cities (Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi) and one non‐capital region (Kotayk, Aran‐Mugan and Shida Kartli) in each of the three South Caucasus countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The respondents, who were drawn from households in larger representative household social surveys, were all born between 1970 and 1976 and were aged 31–37 at the time of the fieldwork in 2007. Their life stage transitions from childhood to adulthood had roughly coincided with their countries’ transitions from communism to post‐communism. Data was collected on the samples’ participation in selected leisure activities from age 16 to 30. Similar data was collected on the samples’ careers in education, the labour market, housing and family relationships. This information enables us to identify typical leisure careers and how their development was affected by events in other life domains, all in the context of the macro‐changes that were in process in each of the research locations. The evidence enables both personal leisure careers and aggregate leisure trends in different socio‐demographic groups to be identified This shows that changes in leisure behaviour between age 16 and 30 were neither widening nor narrowing the differences between the leisure of males and females, or those who married and became parents on the one hand, then, on the other, those who were still single and childless at age 30. In contrast, differences by place, and by social class, grew progressively wider, thus raising the social costs of geographical and social mobility. Changes in leisure behaviour between age 16 and 30 were separating young adults into those who participated in little, if any, structured out‐of‐home leisure, whose main leisure spending, if any, was on alcohol and tobacco (typically consumed in homes and neighbourhoods), and those whose leisure was characterised by relatively high and sustained participation in sport, consumption of high culture, and going out to bars, cafes, cinema, discos, etc.     

De‐exoticizing Tourist Travel: Everyday Life and Sociality on the Move

Abstract

Tourism is traditionally treated as an escape from everyday life and tourism theory is concerned with extraordinary places. Tourism and everyday life are conceptualized as belonging to different ontological worlds. The former is the world of the extraordinary while the latter is one of the ordinary. This interdisciplinary review article argues that this separation is flawed by examining research that shows how leisure travel, tourism and everyday life intersect in complex ways. It begins with a conceptual discussion of the everyday, which works as the theoretical foundation for the article. Then the article outlines how everyday routines and conventions inform tourism performances: much traditional tourism revolves around socializing pleasantly with one’s co‐travelling family and friends, while more and more tourism concerns visiting friends and family members living elsewhere. The conclusion discusses what consequences an everyday life perspective has for future tourism research.     

TOURISM SENSE‐MAKING: THE ROLE OF THE SENSES AND TRAVEL JOURNALISM

The tourist experience is corporeal and multisensory. Tourism organizations, therefore, need to pay attention to the sensual content of promotional messages conveyed to potential tourists to provide incentives for seeking enriched experiences of place. Together with other image formation agents, travelogues (travel articles published in newspapers and magazines) offer information on and prompt imagination about destinations that help frame visitors' expectations and influence their subsequent travel decisions and behaviors. This article content‐analyzed 199 travelogues about New Zealand to identify relationships between regions and perceptions based on sensory allusions. It was found that the reporting of New Zealand as a whole by visiting journalists tended to utilize an appeal to all senses, but this was not true of individual destinations. It is suggested that urban destinations such as Auckland and Wellington possess potential for a wider sense appeal than is currently used through products based on urban adventure tourism and culinary tourism. An “ideal” itinerary is proposed that would permit journalists to capture a sensory experience of New Zealand.     

The social‐economic and educational implications of establishing casinos in Penghu,Taiwan

Toward opening casinos in Penghu, Taiwan, it still remains a controversial issue today. Proponents regard a casino as an excellent economic booming tool that quickly generates revenue for local communities and residents. Many government officials consider that casinos pave the way in a seemingly painless and effective fashion for collecting tax revenue and providing job openings against decreasing local unemployment. However, opponents lay emphasis on the social costs associated with casinos, such as crime, compulsive gaming, and decadence of the work ethics.     

A STUDY OF PERCEIVED RISK AND RISK REDUCTION OF PURCHASING AIR‐TICKETS ONLINE

The concept of perceived risk explains consumers' purchasing behavior that involves risk with unanticipated or uncertain consequences. Using perceived risk theory, this study explored customers' risk perceptions regarding online air‐ticket purchases. This study discovered that security risk was the most important predictor to overall risk regarding online air‐ticket purchases. In addition, nonpurchasers perceived a higher risk than online purchasers, in terms of performance, security, financial, psychological, and time risks. Regarding risk‐reduction strategies, shopping around over the web was more important to online purchasers than to non‐purchasers. In addition, reputation of web vendor, well‐known brand, symbol of security approval, and recommendation of family and friends were perceived as preferred risk‐reduction strategies when making online air‐ticket purchases. Further, this study's results revealed that respondents' perceived risks of online air‐ticket purchases differed according to demographic characteristics. The implications of the research findings for online marketing activities are discussed.     

Importance‐Performance and Segmentation: An Application at a Biosphere Reserve in Vietnam

This paper examines how importance‐performance analysis (IPA) used with segmentation can be an effective natural resource management tool. Data were obtained from visitors (n = 368, response rate = 66%) to the Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam. Two distinct user segments were identified according to their preference for facility development within the reserve. The two segments differed in their importance‐performance ratings for (a) attractions, (b) beach facilities and services, (c) facilities in the area, and (d) beauty of the area. Those favoring development rated each of these reserve attributes as more important (p < .001) than those less disposed to additional development. Those favoring development rated the performance of three of four attributes positively, while all four attributes received negative performance scores for those less disposed to additional development. Implications show that segmentation can allow for more accurate planning and decision making.     

An Initial Investigation of Integrating Innovation Diffusion Models for Drawing First‐time Visitors

Prior studies in the existing tourism literature have frequently emphasized the relatively expensive costs for drawing first‐time visitors. These studies, however, have largely failed to explain how to draw first‐time visitors to a destination. In other words, little was known regarding what destinations should do to attract first‐time visitors in an effective way. To provide more insights, this research investigated the impact of three diffusion models on attracting first‐time visitors. These models included an external influence model for impact of mass media, an internal influence model for impact of interpersonal communications, and a mixed model for impacts of both mass media and interpersonal communications. Assessing the model impact in a macroapproach for first‐time visitors to Hong Kong, empirical findings indicated that the mixed influence model provided the highest explanatory quality, with word‐of‐mouth being a dominant factor.     

Assessing recreation carrying capacity of the environment attributes based on visitors’ willingness to pay

Recreation carrying capacity (RCC) is one of the most important indictors used in measuring the usage limits for the forest park resources. However, the consensus has not been reached with respect to the RCC’s content and its measuring metrics. In this paper, we attempt to establish a new RCC theoretical framework based on the demand theory of the tourism product characteristics. In the process, the choice experiment and orthogonal design methods are used in questionnaire designs and the conditional Logit model is used for parameter estimates. More than 700 park visitors are surveyed for data collection at the Shenyang National Forest park of Liaoning province in China. The primary park attributes being considered encompass vegetation, coverage, water quality, number of rubbish on the park trail path, admission fees, and congestion. The carrying capacity threshold for each specific attribute is identified.     

Personal identity (de)formation among lifestyle travellers: a double‐edged sword

This article explores the personal identity work of lifestyle travellers – individuals for whom extended leisure travel is a preferred lifestyle that they return to repeatedly. Qualitative findings from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with lifestyle travellers in northern India and southern Thailand are interpreted in light of theories on identity formation in late modernity that position identity as problematic. It is suggested that extended leisure travel can provide exposure to varied cultural praxes that may contribute to a sense of social saturation. Whilst a minority of the respondents embraced a saturation of personal identity in the subjective formation of a cosmopolitan cultural identity, several of the respondents were paradoxically left with more identity questions than answers as the result of their travels.     

Multiobjective planning for integrated land use and outside‐allied transportation systems in recreational areas

In recent decades, recreational needs have dramatically increased due in part to increased economic prosperity and people becoming more wealthy. As a result, the utilization of recreational resources and the management of recreational areas has become an urgent issue for the government and private authorities. In past studies, the planning or developing of land use for recreational areas almost only dealt with resource planning, and neglected to consider the problems of transportation systems. This resulted in two problems: 1) the supply of recreational resources and recreational needs could not be balanced, which resulted in an overuse of resources; and 2) the outside‐allied transportation service systems and recreational needs were Unbalanced, which resulted in traffic flow problems. This paper focuses on the level of service associated with outside‐allied roads for recreational areas and considers the transportation conditions needed to build a normative model for recreational land use using fuzzy multi‐objective planning. The best balance, should take into account the trade‐offs of various objectives: the flexible constraints of the resources and satisfactory transportation conditions. The optimum solution for developing areas and categories of land use should include these four objectives: a) the maximum satisfaction of recreational needs, b) the maximum amount of resource conservation, c) the maximum economic benefit, and d) the maximum level of service for the outside‐allied transportation systems.     

Allotment holding as an eco‐leisure practice: the case of the Sataf village

This article explores the phenomenon of allotment holding as a leisure practice, by drawing upon on a 2‐year field study conducted at the Sataf village allotment site near the city of Jerusalem. The findings indicate that plotting at the Sataf involves an ideological commitment to nature and environment‐friendly related themes. Accordingly, plot holding at the Sataf is termed an eco‐leisure practice. In addition, the findings indicate that plotting at Sataf is an individual rather than a socially oriented experience. These findings are interpreted with regard to all of the particular features and developments in Israel, the specific literature on allotment holding, the study fields of leisure and tourism, and George Simmel's philosophy of experience.     

Changes in tourists’ perception of well-being based on their use of emotion regulation strategies during vacation

ABSTRACT

Based on the theoretical foundation of emotion regulation, this exploratory study aimed to examine changes in tourists’ perceived well-being and to determine whether these changes were due to use of emotion regulation strategies (ERSs) during their vacation. This study used travel diaries to record tourists’ use of ERSs on a daily basis, and also measured tourists’ perceived well-being one day before and after their vacation. Results indicated that tourists had significantly higher perceptions of well-being after vacation, and those who used ERSs were more likely to indicate a higher sense of well-being after vacation. The results provide new insight into which aspects of tourists’ subjective and psychological well-being can be boosted by taking vacations and how these aspects may be enhanced by using different ERSs.