World Heritage Site: an effective brand for an archeological site?

This study examines whether branding archeological sites as World Heritage Sites (WHSs) will affect potential demand patterns. The study's research objectives are (1) to explore awareness of potential visitors to the brand and logo of WHS; (2) to investigate the effects of the designation on tourists' future behaviors; (3) to clarify whether the number of sites designated (3 versus 10) has an effect on future visitation patterns; and (4) to reveal possible relationships between the perception of a site as part of the world heritage and UNESCO's designation. This study commenced with an exploratory stage followed by administration of structured questionnaires focusing on inbound tourists to Caesarea, an archeological historical site in Israel. The findings indicate only moderate visitor awareness of the WHS title and logo, implying low brand equity as well as insignificant effects on future demand patterns. Moreover, visitors' willingness to pay (WTP) as well as overall motivation to visit seems to decline following the designation. However, visitors' perception of the site as world heritage is positively linked to WTP. The number of designated sites within a particular state is found to have a positive effect on future demand patterns. Based on the findings specific recommendations are offered.     

Towards a strategic model of employment reform in developing countries: explaining and remedying experience to date

The article argues for the importance of employment reform as a subject for international HRM scholarship. Employment reform has been one of the most significant, but also most neglected, recent initiatives in international HRM. Explanations by the World Bank and IMF for the poorer than expected outcomes of reform to date emphasize the importance of political commitment. They are compared with explanations for the similarly poor outcomes of downsizing in industrialized country organizations, which emphasize strategy, diagnosis, incrementalism and provision for retrenchees. Further clarification is provided by the results of field interviews in Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda and the UK. The article argues for a strategic approach to employment reform, one based on diagnosis and drawing on HRM expertise. It should take account of process factors in reform, make provision for the 'victims' of reform, loosen the link between employment reform and pay reform, and refine the role of donors in supporting reform. HRM practitioners and scholars have an important contribution to make to developing a new approach.     

Transforming competitiveness into economic benefits: Does tourism stimulate economic growth in more competitive destinations?

This research note investigates the impact of a destination's competitiveness upon tourism's contribution to economic growth using a cross-section with 131 countries. Destination competitiveness is measured with the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, while tourism's contribution to economic growth is measured with the growth decomposition methodology. Results reveal that destination competitiveness has no statistically significant impact on tourism's contribution to economic growth. Tourism policy implications and directions for future research are also discussed.     

浅析沈从文笔下的湘西世界的建构与呈现

沈从文的湘西世界的建构，有他内在的乡村经历，但不可忽略的是他从边地踏上都会后，在都市大社会里生存所面临的种种外部环境。从沈从文的湘西世界里，可以明显的看出呈现在其中的田园牧歌图景的存在；尽管这种牧歌情调式的梦幻化的湘西世界使人如痴如醉，但深入研究其作品，还可以挖掘出湘西世界的非抒情、非梦幻的一面。同时，沈从文的湘西世界也是随着作者对社会新的体验与认识而有所调整和强化的。     

大型事件对旅游上市公司经营业绩的影响研究——基于因子模糊综合评价法

基于因子模糊综合评价法，以上海世博会为例，选取2002－2011年长三角旅游上市公司面板数据为样本，研究大型事件对微观企业经营业绩的影响。结果表明，短期的大型事件对上市公司影响十分有限。这一结论对于今后旅游企业如何参与事件，把握事件所带来的机会并从中获得收益具有一定的借鉴意义．     

Too Much of a Good Thing? Visitor Congestion Management Issues for Popular World Heritage Tourist Attractions

World Heritage Sites (WHS) are often popular and primary attractions for a destination for many reasons, in particular the economic benefits they bring in terms of increased visitation and extension of stay. However, without active management to reduce negative impacts, such as congestion, both tourists and the host community can become caught up in a downward spiral of poor visitor experiences and degradation of World Heritage values. Accordingly, this paper examines the nature of congestion and its impact on visitor experience at two popular WHS attractions in Macao. It also provides some insights into Chinese outbound tourist behaviour and visitation patterns. These observations should be of interest to planners and site managers of popular World Heritage attractions elsewhere in the world as China begins to adopt mass international leisure travel.     

A new economics approach to modelling policies to achieve global 2020 targets for climate stabilisation

This paper explores a Post Keynesian, ‘new economics’ approach to climate policy, assessing the opportunities for investment in accelerated decarbonisation of the global economy to 2020 following the Great Recession of 2008–2009. The risks associated with business-as-usual growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere suggest that avoiding dangerous climate change will require that the world’s energy-economy system is transformed through switching to low-carbon technologies and lifestyles. Governments have agreed a target to hold the increase in temperatures above pre-industrial levels to at most 2°C and have offered reductions by 2020 in GHG emissions or the carbon-intensity of GDP. The effects of policies proposed to achieve pathways to 2020 towards this target are assessed using E3MG, an Energy-Environment-Economy (E3) Model at the Global level. E3MG is an annual simulation econometric model, estimated for 20 world regions over 1972–2006 adopting a new economics approach. Additional low-GHG investment of some 0.7% of GDP, with carbon pricing and other policies, is sufficient to achieve a pathway consistent with a medium chance of achieving the long-term target. GDP is above reference levels because decarbonisation reduces world oil prices and increases investment. Employment is some 0.9% above reference levels by 2020 and public finances are almost unaffected.     

杭州世界休闲博览园的体验营销策略研究

体验营销是以顾客为中心,并提供有价值体验过程的营销活动。杭州世界休闲博览园将休闲与体验两者紧密结合,通过丰富的感官营销、情感营销、思考营销、行动营销、关联营销策略的完善,发展成为一个国际性的游乐世界、休闲王国、购物天堂。     

The Struggle for Alternatives: NGOs' Responses to the World Development Report 2008

This paper analyzes the response by NGOs to the 2008 World Development Report (WDR08). It does so at two levels of analysis, which in turn reflect two possible ways of reading the WDR08. The first is to read the WDR08 as a document for policy guidance on 'agriculture for development'. In this respect the paper shows how NGOs expose and challenge the WDR08's optimism for the benign impact of unregulated agribusiness investment on poverty reduction, and put forward a convincing alternative. The second, and politically more fertile, way of reading the WDR08 is to make sense of its numerous internal contradictions. These contradictions are functional to the World Bank's hegemonic effort of establishing a common, and broader, agenda for rural development. Having highlighted the WDR08's incoherent messages on (i) rural labour markets and their role in poverty reduction and (ii) what constitutes the most promising driver of poverty reduction in agriculture (returns from wage labour vs from own account farming), the paper documents NGOs' failure to detect and politically exploit these contradictions.     

Watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 in England: the sojourner perspective

Recent years have seen an emergence of a varied academic literature focused on the football fan, with a wealth of studies exploring issues such as hooliganism, fan behaviour and fan identification. No research, however, has documented the experiences and perspectives of the international sojourner, who follows the televised tournament far away from the home country. This paper offers a contribution to the literature on fandom by focusing on the experiences of becoming a temporary fan among a sample of nine international students in England during the period of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It shows the importance of the tournament for students away from their home nation, acting as a point of celebration and as a means of bringing sojourners of the same nationality together to support their team. It reveals how the tournament offered escape from stress, became a focal point for social interaction, provided the opportunity for recreation of home, and for the reinforcement of feelings of national identity.