Goal programming: Planning process of tourism organizations

The complex rapidly changing environment faced by tourism organization officials makes tourism planning extremely difficult. Goal programming can aid the tourism planner in appraising the goal attainment potential associated with proposed tourism marketing program alternatives. By changing priorities of goals, budgetary limitations, and organizational constraints, the policy maker can test the effect of changes before they are implemented. By utilizing goal programming, a tourism organization can more systematically evaluate the nature and relative importance of organizational goals, critical constraints affecting the organization and marketing program alternatives.     

Earthquake effects on tourism in central Italy

This paper proposes an approach to economic assessment of the impact on tourist flows of the earthquake that hit the Umbria region in Central Italy on September 26, 1997. Local arrivals in Assisi fell drastically the month following the main shock, compared to the same month of the previous year. The event study methodology, frequently applied in finance, is employed to evaluate the statistical relevance of the shock over time and space. A further and straightforward application of the event study analysis assesses the substantial amount of loss between October 1997 and June 1998 due to the drop of tourism business.     

Financing constraints and US cross‐listing

This study investigates whether relaxation of firms' financial constraints is an important outcome of the US cross‐listing mechanism. We use the association between investment spending and cash flow to test for the presence and importance of firms' financing constraints. Consistent with the bonding hypothesis, the results suggest that US exchange and private placement cross‐listings significantly alleviate firms' financing constraints. In addition, the financial benefits associated with exchange listings are larger than those associated with private listings, while on the other hand, over‐the‐counter programs do not improve capital allocation. The study also shows that US exchange cross‐listing benefits have not been eroded by the enactment of the Sarbanes‐Oxley (SOX) Act in 2002. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Youth on the road: Reflections on the history of tramping

Tourism is conventionally traced to the eighteenth century Grand Tour of aristocratic youth which, it is then suggested, was gradually democratized and adopted in modified form by the middle classes. In such a perspective, the road culture of contemporary youth travelers would simply represent one form of this democratized elite tradition. This paper argues instead that contemporary road culture is better seen as an upwardly rather than downwardly mobile cultural form. Tramping originated as a well-institutionalized travel pattern of working class youth. Despite its instrumental functions, it always had touristic components, serving as the young workingman's Grand Tour. When, in the course of the nineteenth century, it declined as a labor institution, it was romanticized and adopted by middle class youth for exclusively tourist purposes.     

The rediscovery of America: Elite automobile touring

The automobile has radically changed tourist habits this century. In the first decade it was enthusiastically embraced by a small, wealthy elite. In America this elite “rediscovered” the romantic northeastern scenery painted by the Hudson Valley School of artists. This process is documented both in the general elite tourist literature of the period and in a specific case study from an elite summer colony. In the second decade “mass followed class.” Cheaper automobiles allowed the middle classes to follow the elite tourists of the first decade. The elite began to lose interest in the automobile as something exclusive to them, and turned their attention to the possibilities for touring of aviation.     

Geographical aspects of state travel marketing in the USA

Almost all of the formal Federal and state government involvement in domestic travel marketing in the United States has been undertaken by state travel offices. Of particular interest to the geographer are state-to-state variations in the size and activities of these travel offices. In this discussion, differences in the total budgets of state travel offices are presented and compared to differences in state population and domestic travel expenditures by state. A three-fold classification of state travel marketing strategies with a geographical basis is then introduced. While the overall discussion provides some explanation for the differences observed, the conclusion is reached that political and other considerations regarding state travel offices are too subtle to be explained by just a few variables.     

Tourism in British Columbia Metropolitan and Camping Visitors

Two issues common to tourism planning are investigated in the context of a current planning proposal between the British Columbia and Canadian governments. These issue are the problem of spatial imbalance in travel patterns and the place of camping in market development strategies. Through the use of multiple regression two group discriminatory analysis, several characteristic of metropolitan and campers visitor to British Columbia are differentiated. The dominant tourist position of British Columbia's two metropolitan centers is shown to be a function of their relative location and the availability of familiar visits. The campers proved to be independent travellers: independent of familial ties and metropolitan locations. Some implications and planning strategies for the integration of these two groups into the travel industry development objectives for the province of British Columbia are suggested.     

Liberation wars and tourism development in Africa : The case of Zambia

Development of Africa's immense tourism potential is severely limited for reasons including lack of capital, distance from the large North American and European markets, the cost of travel to Africa, and Africa's poor image abroad. A key factor contributing to this image problem is political instability. Since World War II, almost all African countries have achieved independence. In several countries, this decolonization process has taken the form of long and often bloody liberation wars. This paper examines the impact of Zimbabwe's protracted liberation war on tourism development in Zambia and suggests that a detailed examination of major internal and external political events associated with the decolonization process in Zimbabwe could provide important perspectives on the obstacles to tourism development in other African countries.     

Value Relevance of Fair Values—Empirical Evidence of the Impact of Market Volatility

This study examines empirically the effects of market volatility on the value relevance of fair values. Using the modified Ohlson model ( 1995 ) and a sample of U.S. financial companies for the period of 2008 to 2013, this study shows that fair values are priced at a significant discount when market volatility is high. Song ( 2013 ) shows analytically that the effectiveness of fair value accounting is negatively affected by market volatility. Findings of the current study suggest that investors understand the effects of market volatility on fair values and price them accordingly. The study extends the research on the determinants of the usefulness of fair values by looking beyond factors associated with the reliability of estimated fair values (Level 2 and Level 3 fair values). This study has practical implications: current accounting standards for fair value measurement acknowledge the limitations of the market as a source of fair values by offering a three‐level fair value hierarchy with provisions for fair values to deviate from market prices. Findings of this study shed light on a previously little studied factor, that is, market volatility, on the usefulness of fair values.     

The evolution of tourist arts

Tourist arts with ethnic content are at the nexus of changing tourism, ethnicity and art in the modern world. This paper explores the range of varieties of tourist arts, the dynamics of change between various types of artifacts, and the interaction between tourist arts and notions of ethnic self-perception. The analogy between language and art is pursued to illuminate the nature of the various communication codes embodied in tourist and ethnic arts. The paper concludes by stressing that tourist arts are not an end-point, but one possibility within the fluid relationships between material symbols, outsiders' demand, and the defense and reformulation of ethnicity. It also concludes that the evolution of ethnic awareness, combined with increased education and travel opportunities, is bringing a uniformity of attitudes towards tourism, material heritage, and museums among the middle classes of all nations. Thus minority ethnic symbols have become the manipulated “totems” of touristic identity.