Building God's City: The Political Economy of Prayer Camps in Nigeria

The proliferation of religious spaces is a relatively recent development in Nigeria. Nowadays there are more than a hundred religious camps belonging to different religious groups in the country. The most popular of these camps, the Redemption Camp of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, is located 42 kilometres outside of Lagos and measures several thousand acres. Although initially not designed as such, developments in and around Lagos have compelled the managers of the Redemption Camp to present it as an urban alternative to the city of Lagos, which is generally deemed chaotic. The prestige of this camp and its activities have led to expansive urban development that involves the creation of numerous residential estates stretching from Lagos to beyond the Redemption Camp. Based on a recent ethnographic study of the Redemption Camp, this article argues that the process of urban expansion in and around Lagos is propelled by an aggressive form of religious revival that transcends the borders between economics, spirituality and territorial conquest. This article thus illustrates how church‐driven, religio‐urban developments follow a different logic of city making than often presumed by theorists of African cities, who generally neglect the religious forces that inform urban transformations in Africa.     

The contribution of holiday trips to life satisfaction: the case of people with disabilities

This study analyses the contribution of holiday trips to the life satisfaction (LS) of people with disabilities as compared to people without disabilities. Particular attention is paid to the effects of the intensity of taking part in holiday trips on LS. We are interested in testing two different hypotheses: (a) holiday trips increase individuals' LS and (b) the effects of holiday trips on LS are different for people without and with disabilities, being greater for this latter group. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we estimate LS equations (running generalised least square random-effects models) for people without and with disabilities which include a set of variables measuring participation or not in holiday trips and its intensity. Although people with disabilities are less likely to participate in holiday trips than people without disabilities, the results indicate that people with disabilities obtain higher levels of LS than people without disabilities from their participation in holiday trips, especially when this participation is more intense. Policy-makers and the tourism industry must promote and facilitate full access and participation of people with disabilities in holiday trips by eliminating all barriers, understanding their differential needs and providing an inclusive leisure environment.     

Making sense of tourists' complaints

The problem of dealing with tourists' complaints is not fully covered in the tourism literature. This article discusses the quality of the data available on tourists' complaints and it is proposed that two concepts from social psychological research can be used to interpret and understand them; first, the notion of ‘fit’ between tourists and the environments they visit; second, the concept of attribution theory is shown to be useful for understanding the process by which tourists allocate blame and responsibility.     

Towards an understanding of international city break travel

This paper explores city break tourism and, in particular, the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel. The city break is examined and compared with other types of trips. The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach involving both a visitor survey and in‐depth interviews. The findings show the international city break trip to have a number of distinctive characteristics. These are summarised into five main areas (5 Ds) — duration, distance, date flexibility, discretionary nature and destination travel party. These distinguishing features provide a useful insight into one of the most important yet least examined travel segments in tourism research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“假日经济”的思考

目前我国每年的公休假日达１１４天,几乎占全年总天数的１／３,假日消费可谓举足轻重。但假日消费高潮的背后,存在着一些亟待解决的问题,要从政府、服务行业、消费者等几方面着手,引导消费,促进经济。     

Transitions to Sustainable Tourism Mobility: The Social Practices Approach

In this article, we argue that current research on sustainable tourism mobility can be divided roughly into two streams. One covers primarily the organisational and technological side of tourism mobility, while the other concentrates on travellers' attitudes. To date, these streams have been organised as separate bodies of research. There is much to be gained by being able to create linkages between the two. To do this, tourism research will have to develop a less generalised and more context-specific approach to travelling behaviour. In this paper, the Social Practices Approach is suggested as an interesting conceptual tool to interrelate current approaches. By giving greater consideration to the contextual dimension of tourism practices, citizen-consumers might be mobilised more effectively as change agents. To analyse the potential roles of citizen-consumers in transition processes towards sustainable tourism mobility, two citizen-consumer-led change processes are differentiated. The first is directed at tourists in their consumer-role, by providers developing sociotechnical innovations enabling and tempting tourists to behave more sustainably, and by incorporating consumer-logics in supply. Second, tourists can be mobilised in their role as citizen-consumers through processes of sub-politics, social movements and political consumerism.     

Modeling domestic holiday tourism demand in Australia: Problems and solutions

An econometric model is very useful for understanding the underlying relationship between tourism demand and economic variables such as income and travel prices. However, a long time series horizon of data is essential to run an econometric model that is consistent with economic theory. Although time series data on the number of domestic trips and visitor nights in Australia are available since 1978–79, breaks in the time series in different years have made it difficult to estimate a domestic holiday demand model. It is because the data series in different periods are not directly comparable. In this study, a simple data adjustment technique has been used to obtain comparable data series. Among several econometric demand models, a single equation multivariate time series demand model in a double log linear functional form was found to be the most appropriate and practical model to estimate and analyze the demand parameters of domestic holiday travel in Australia. However, the model with variables in level terms was observed having the “spurious regression problem” which has been corrected using the cointegration and error correction mechanisms. The estimated income and price elasticity of domestic holiday travel demand are consistent with economic theory and therefore can be used for forecasting and other purposes.     

Response to The One-Way Mirror

The variable, place attachment, has recently been used by investigators to assist in understanding visitor responses to fee programs on public lands. This paper examines the relationship between place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence), attitudes toward paying fees, and visitor preferences for spending fee revenue within the context of social judgment theory. It was hypothesized that both place dependence and place identity would moderate the relationship between recreationists' attitudes toward the site's fee program and visitor support for spending revenue generated by the fee program in the areas of facilities and service development, environmental protection, and environmental education. Data were collected at Mono Basin Scenic Area over the summer of 1998. Results indicated that only place identity was a statistically significant moderator, such that it magnified the relationship between recreationists' attitudes toward the fee program and spending support. As place identity increased and recreationists' attitudes toward the fee program became more positive, support for spending fee revenue also increased. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

中国假日经济可持续发展思路探析

在概述中国假日经济的基本特点和发展轨迹的基础上,针对其存在问题,进一步着重探析了中国假日经济可持续发展思路,包括健全卖方市场、提高服务质量、完善“旅游信息统计预报系统”、适当调整“黄金周”假期时段、逐步实行国民带薪休假制度和拓展假日经济多元化格局六个方面。     

如何撬动“假日经济”这块奶酪？——191“光棍节”之启示

随着人们生活水平和休闲方式需求的日益提高,产生了一种被称之为“假日经济”的新的经济现象,这种新的经济模式不仅受到了企业和政府各界的欢迎,更丰富了人们的生活,但同时也出现了一些亟待解决的问题。如何更好地实现假日经济健康持续发展,本文就这一问题做出浅析。