积极心理学在旅游学研究中的应用

积极心理学是心理学研究的一个新思潮。它关注人类的积极品质,探索人类的美德,主张用开放的、欣赏的眼光去看待人类的潜能、动机和能力等。积极心理学不仅契合社会发展背景,而且迎合民众追求幸福的心理,因此其在学术研究和普通民众中的影响力日渐增加。在澳大利亚旅游心理学家菲利普·皮尔斯等(Philip Pearce,et al.)的引荐下,旅游学,一门致力于提升个人和社会的和谐发展与幸福指数的学科,也开始关注积极心理学的应用。文章首先阐述积极心理学的基本主张,注重条理化归纳,然后对积极心理学与旅游学的融合研究做重点述评,注重客观的应用性拓展研究介绍,最后结合国内外的研究现状和国内实情,认为积极心理学在旅游学研究中具有广泛的应用和提升空间,创新的核心是融合中国传统与当代文化,做有深度的研究。结合国内外研究现状,文章提出三个创新提升方向:关注旅游社区的居民福祉,聚焦旅游与游客个人发展、社会和谐的关系,关注日益庞大的老年旅游群体。     

旅游电子商务成熟度对在线旅游预订意向的影响——以携程旅行网为例

旅游服务商为了抢夺市场份额,纷纷投资进行技术改造和产品扩张,促进旅游电子商务不断走向成熟。近年来,IT管理的成熟度理论开始应用于旅游电子商务领域,旅游在线预订及其影响因素研究也日渐增长。但是在学术界,旅游电子商务成熟度对在线旅游预订意向的影响研究却十分少见。文章以携程旅行网为例,基于文献研究提出相关概念模型,运用探索性因子分析及结构方程模型,探讨旅游电子商务成熟度对在线旅游预订意向的影响机制。确认旅游电子商务成熟度的4个维度均正向影响顾客信任,但交易机制对顾客信任的效用最大,其次是信息质量;4个维度中,顾客为中心、服务响应正向影响顾客的积极态度,以服务响应对积极态度的效用最大;旅游电子商务成熟度的4个维度通过顾客信任和积极态度这两个中介变量影响在线旅游预订意向,且顾客信任和积极态度是完全中介效用,统计意义上,顾客信任对积极态度没有显著影响。     

Ecotourism as a conservation tool and its adoption by private protected areas in Brazil

Ecotourism in private reserves combines the establishment of protected areas with an incentive mechanism to conserve biodiversity. Brazil's private reserve system is well-established but little is known about its links to tourism. This study puts the global private protected area into context and quantifies the extent to which ecotourism has been adopted as a sustainable land-use practice on private reserves in Brazil. Our findings demonstrate that small reserves do contribute to conservation and are used for ecotourism. The belief that large reserves are necessary for ecotourism and conservation is challenged. Only 4% (n = 45) of the 1182 reserves are engaged in ecotourism, mainly those within the Atlantic Forest biome and these are generally small in size (<50 ha). Reserves provide modest to basic accommodation as well as education and economic opportunities that include adjacent communities. Hiking and bird watching are the most popular activities but many reserves are threatened by poaching and invasive species. The low adoption of ecotourism appears due to a combination of factors, including lack of landowner interest, constraints imposed by regulations, logistics and anthropogenic threats. Nonetheless, there is potential to expand ecotourism within private reserves as 143 further private reserves are located near those already engaged in ecotourism.     

旅游经济增长及其溢出效应的空间面板计量经济分析

文章首次基于空间面板计量经济学模型,在检验我国省域旅游经济增长是否存在空间依赖性的基础上,估计了资本和劳动对旅游经济增长的贡献,检验了旅游经济增长过程中的空间溢出效应。研究结果显示:2001~2009年间,中国省域旅游经济增长的空间依赖性和集群趋势加强,邻近省域的经济增长及旅游资本投入的空间溢出效应明显;资本和劳动的旅游产出弹性系数均为正,前者对旅游经济增长的贡献大于后者,我国省域尺度的旅游经济增长主要依赖于资本要素投入驱动,呈现出资本密集型特征,劳动力要素的贡献尚未充分发挥出来。政府在制定旅游产业政策和发展规划时,必须致力于加强邻近地区旅游资本和劳动投入的合作与交流,促进旅游经济增长中的资本空间溢出效应,改革旅游业国民收入初次分配及再次分配体制,激活邻近省域旅游劳动力投入与旅游经济增长的空间互动性,以便提高邻近地区及本地区劳动力对旅游经济增长的协同贡献。     

‘Up in the air’: A conceptual critique of flying addiction

The ‘flyers’ dilemma’, where an individual’s self-identity as an environmentally-responsible consumer conflicts with the environmental impacts of frequent air travel, has been shown to produce a range of negative psychological effects. Some have argued that frequent flying may represent a site of behavioural addiction, characterized by guilt, suppression and denial. While this sort of pathologisation finds parallels in other forms of excessive consumption, its application in a tourist context is problematic in terms of classification validity, attribution of negative consequences, transfer of responsibility, and tendency towards social control and domination. We argue for an alternative conceptual approach to frequent flying which elaborates the structural reproduction of the ‘flyers’ dilemma’, rather than its individual, psychological effects.     

Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modelling

Wildlife tourism experiences have the potential to positively impact tourists’ awareness, appreciation and actions in relation to the specific wildlife they encounter and the environment in general. This paper investigates the extent of such impact across multiple sites, and uses Structural Equation Modelling to identify factors that best predict positive long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Three sets of variables were measured – visitors’ entering attributes (including pre-visit environmental orientation and motivation for the visit), salient aspects of the experience, and short- and long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Although attributes such as pre-visit commitment and motivation to learn were among the best predictors of the long-term impact of the experience, there was evidence that aspects of the experience were also important. In particular, reflective engagement which involved cognitive and affective processing of the experience was found to be associated with short- and long-term environmental learning outcomes. The implications for wildlife tourism managers are discussed.     

Blue Flag or Red Herring: Do beach awards encourage the public to visit beaches?

Surveys of beach visitor motivation in Ireland, Wales, Turkey and the USA indicate that beach awards play an insignificant role in motivation to visit beaches. However, a number of criteria closely identified with awards, notably cleanliness and water quality, are revealed to be very important. Aesthetic and emotional factors such as scenic setting and general ambience, and practical concerns such as proximity and range of activities available are much more important than beach awards in attracting visitors to beaches. The merits of beach awards are critically reviewed and it is concluded that any benefits that might accrue are in areas other than attracting visitors.     

Gay tourism in a sun and beach destination

Gay tourism is seen as an attractive business opportunity for many destinations. However, there is a lack of research at identifying the resources necessary for success in this type of tourism. This work is aimed at filling this gap by using the premises of the resource based view and transfers them to the analysis of territories to identify the valuable resources that are required for a sun and beach destination to attract gay tourists. To this end, this study has focused on a gay tourism sub niche, tourists lodged in gay-exclusive resorts in Gran Canaria. In order to confirm the validity of this approach, the relationship between the satisfaction of gay tourists and the condition of the valuable resources was studied by means of a robust statistical new method, namely Bayesian model averaging. That method permits the inclusion of uncertainty in the theoretical models that determine destination competitiveness, thus reducing many of the problems that arise in the application of the more conventional statistical methods in this type of analysis.     

Identifying changes and trends in Hong Kong outbound tourism

Despite the numerous research endeavors aimed at investigating tourists’ preferences and motivations, it remains very difficult for practitioners to utilize the results of traditional association rule mining methods in tourism management. This research presents a new approach that extends the capability of the association rules technique to contrast targeted association rules with the aim of capturing the changes and trends in outbound tourism. Using datasets collected from five large-scale domestic tourism surveys of Hong Kong residents on outbound pleasure travel, both positive and negative contrasts are identified, thus enabling practitioners and policymakers to make appropriate decisions and develop more appropriate tourism products.     

The motivations and expectations of international volunteer tourists: A case study of “Chinese Village Traditions”

International volunteer tourists devote not only financial support but also time and effort to conservation, preservation, or humanitarian projects outside their original countries. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a qualitative study on the motivations of ten international volunteer tourists who joined the “Chinese Village Traditions” expedition of the Earthwatch Institute in the summer of 2008. The main research question was, “Why do people join international volunteer tourism trips?” Eleven themes dealing with motivations emerged and were categorized into three groups: personal, interpersonal, and other. Four personal factors were measured: authentic experience, interest in travel, challenge/stimulation, and other interest. Four interpersonal factors were also considered: desire to help, interaction with locals/cultures, encouraged by others, and enhancing relationships. Other factors included unique style of the trip, time/money, and organization goal. The findings of this study echo previous literature reviews in different settings.