The impacts of student and life satisfaction on tourism students’ perceived sense of belonging

This study explores how tourism students’ satisfaction with their lives and academics affect their sense of belonging within their school communities. The primary supporting research was conducted using a questionnaire, which 285 students in Akdeniz University’s Faculty of Tourism answered. The mean scores of the two scales (life satisfaction and sense of belonging) and the dimensions of student satisfaction were used to conduct multiple regression analysis. The results suggest that two aspects of student life (teaching staff and school management vs. student support and counseling) and life satisfaction had a direct correlation with students’ sense of belonging.     

家庭生命周期与旅游态度的关联研究——以长沙市居民为例

家庭是旅游态度形成的最重要环境背景,也一直是旅游活动的重要组织单元,探究家庭生命周期与旅游态度的关系意义重大.文章依据已有研究成果,建立家庭生命周期模型,制定旅游态度量表,以问卷工具面向长沙市居民进行调查,获得基础数据,运用因子分析得到了追求享受、强调卫生、看重设施、向往体验、关注身心健康等5个方面的旅游态度主成分,通过验证性因子分析后,再用相关分析、多元回归分析探究家庭生命周期与旅游态度5个主成分的关系.结果表明,随着家庭生命周期的演进,人们愈发追求享受、看重设施、关注身心健康.无巢期人群看重设施和关注身心健康的表现低于其他阶段人群,空巢期人群追求享受的表现高于其他阶段人群,空巢期、鳏寡期人群关注身心健康的表现高于其他阶段人群,满巢期人群向往体验的表现高于其他阶段人群.     

农村宅基地使用权制度面临的问题及对策

我国以"一户一宅"为基本特征的农村宅基地使用权制度,为广大农民不断改善居住条件,维护"住有所居"基本权利提供了保障.但是,在经济社会背景发生了巨大变化的条件下,农村宅基地使用权制度的一些缺陷和不适应性开始更多显现,其中,较突出的是不少地方农村宅基地使用很难确保公平和达到集约节约利用的要求.论文在对部分地方进行的农村宅基地使用权制度改革的实践和探索进行评析的基础上,提出了一些解决当前存在矛盾与问题的建议.     

The contribution of vacations to quality of life

The contribution of vacations to people’s life satisfaction and Quality of Life (QOL) has recently attracted substantial attention among tourism researchers. Yet, most QOL scales do not include vacations: 7% explicitly measure vacations whereas 42% only include items relating to vacations within the broader Leisure domain. Leisure and vacations, however, differ substantially in nature with leisure referring to regular home-based activities and vacations being infrequent leisure activities away from home. As a consequence of the common amalgamation of vacations with leisure, there is limited knowledge about the specific contribution of vacations to people’s QOL. The present study (1) presents empirical evidence for the contribution of vacations to QOL, (2) determines the extent of this contribution, and (3) investigates variation in the extent to which vacations contribute to the QOL of different people. Results indicate that vacations contribute to the QOL of the majority of people, are as important a QOL domain as Leisure and People, and that QOL means different things to different people at different points in their life, representing an individual and dynamic concept.     

Why do satisfied customers switch? Focus on the restaurant patron variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement

Company efforts to make customers switch from competitive brands to their own or induce them to repurchase their own brands are very important in their marketing activities and in this regard studies of customer variety-seeking orientation and level of involvement in decision making play a crucial role in explaining customers’ product selection activities. The purpose of this study intends to examine interrelationships among customer satisfaction, loyalty, and switching intent in family restaurants and verify the moderating effect of customer variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement. A total of 305 patrons in Korea participated. The results showed a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Participants expressing a high level of satisfaction were more likely to switch restaurants. Whether customers feel loyalty determines their switching intent. There were moderating effects related to customer variety-seeking orientation in the causal relationships between customer loyalty and switching intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

The role of family decision makers in festival tourism

This study assessed the role of family decision makers in participating in a festival according to five stages of festival participation. A survey process was conducted using two sampling groups: the sample for families with children and the sample for families without children. According to the results of the study, a number of marketing implications were generated. For example, the husband was revealed to more actively join transportation-related activities including driving, deciding travel routes, automobile safety checks, and filling up with gasoline. The wife was a strong decision maker in selecting restaurants or menus in the festival tourism management process. Likewise, the role of the wife is very significant, from suggesting the festival participation at the first stage to determining a revisit to the festival at the last stage. However, the children or joint decision-making patterns were not distinctive as they are said to be in other tourism literature. Findings of the study are expected to offer valuable insights for all festival stakeholders including festival vendors, local government, local residents, and festival organizers.     

Examining the relationship of work–family conflict to job and life satisfaction: A case of hotel sales managers

The study was designed to clarify the ambivalent relationships between work–family conflict (WFC) and measures of satisfaction. Both the direct and indirect effects of WFC on job and life satisfaction were investigated. Job satisfaction was also separated into two components: affective reaction and cognitive appraisal. Data were collected by a field survey of 121 sales managers from 26 hotels in China. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated a critical role of one's affective reaction to his/her job in the relationship between WFC and life satisfaction. Specifically, the present study found that both work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) have significant negative association with an individual's affective reaction to his/her job, while only FIW reduced the cognitive appraisal of a job. Further, affective reaction, rather than cognitive appraisal, had a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction. Finally, FIW was negatively associated with life satisfaction. The results suggest the strategic role of family friendly human resource polices in hotels.     

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.     

Promoting quality-of-life and well-being research in hospitality and tourism

There is an increasing interest in quality-of-life/well-being research in hospitality and tourism. The goal of this paper is to further promote the development and use of quality-of-life/well-being concepts in the discipline by reviewing seven major theories of quality of life and well-being (and their application in hospitality and tourism based on the research that I and my colleagues have conducted over the years) and suggesting future avenues of research. The theories discussed are self-congruity theory, self-expressiveness theory, bottom-up spillover theory, leisure benefits theory, goal theory, need hierarchy theory, and broaden-and-build theory.     

Progression,Stability, or Decline? Sociological Mechanisms Underlying Change in Specialization Among Birdwatchers

Using a panel of American birdwatchers collected in 1997 and 2002, we tested the extent to which birdwatchers progressed over a five-year period. The impact different career contingencies and life course events had on predicting change in birdwatchers' behavior, skill, and commitment was also examined. Findings indicated that although progression characterized some birdwatchers' participation, involvement by others was better characterized by stability or decline, which was true for each of the indicators used to measure specialization. Career contingencies and life course changes had only a moderate influence on predicting change in the specialization indicators over time. Support from family members and retirement were the best predictors of change in specialization.