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This Letter updates and expands a study conducted during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. That study confirmed the applicability of Plog's model of Allocentricity and Psychocentricity within the context of the pandemic, as Allocentrics were found to be much more open to travel during the first 4 months of the pandemic, as the theory would predict. The current research, employing the identical survey instrument and research method, extended the data collection for an additional year as the pandemic evolved. This has allowed a far more extensive examination that confirmed and expanded the earlier findings, providing significant value to both academics and practitioners while again affirming the value of Plog's model for destination marketers during a period of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects the findings of research that studied DUI [driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs] issues in Charleston, South Carolina, a tourism-oriented Southern USA city. The results of that study provided local police with a detailed analysis of the city's DUI arrests over an extended period of time and provided recommendations for both deterrent and enforcement improvement. What makes the research appropriate for this journal is that the work was done with undergraduate student assistance and also that it became the focus of a class project for an upper-level hospitality and tourism management course. We are pleased to share the results of the study and the class assignment so that others wishing to do so may replicate the valuable learning exercise into their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 year-end holidays were a time of much apprehension regarding COVID-19, with U.S. health officials concerned that travel would result in a post-holiday surge of the disease. As such, much effort was expended encouraging people to forego their normal travel. Many Americans, however, ignored this advice and a strong uptick of travel within the U.S. was soon followed by an alarming increase in COVID cases. A U.S. online survey was conducted to better understand those individuals who made the risky decision to travel despite being encouraged by their government not to do so. Those who traveled for the holidays were compared with those who stayed home, based on their attitudes toward COVID, various psychographic characteristics associated with risk, political attitudes, and demographics. The between-group differences, shared herein, were startlingly clear. The findings are of theoretical value and will prove useful when setting policy and messaging during future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism and politics are symbiotic. This research, conducted before the impacts of COVID-19 were evident to most Americans, provides insight into the influence one's political persuasion has upon their view toward travel issues related to the disease. The key finding: political tribalism was highly evident, with Republicans, the more conservative USA political party, significantly more supportive of closing the country's borders to those visiting from places where the virus was apparent than were Democratic respondents. Republicans were also considerably less supportive of governmental financial support to hospitality and tourism providers negatively impacted by the then evolving pandemic. Documenting this early glimpse is valuable, helping us better prepare for similar episodes that may follow by depoliticizing actions that are based on health science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to destinations. Even those with thoughtful and comprehensive crisis management plans likely have struggled to navigate this difficult period. This research, based upon an application of Plog's Model of Allocentricity and Psychocentricity and utilizing data collected during the early stages of the pandemic, provides insight regarding consumer attitudes toward vacation and VFR travel from early in the pandemic when no end to the crisis was in sight. The research provides strategic guidance to tourism marketers as they look for solutions during future challenging times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research looks at the relationship between political libertarianism and personal self-interest, as informed by the concept of NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard) that underlies much of the resident attitude toward tourism literature. Based on a comprehensive survey of more than 500 residents from Charleston, South Carolina, a city heavily dependent on tourism, the research determined, as the literature would predict, that general views toward tourism were highly dependent on where one lives. However, for specific tourism issues, one's personal political views tended to trump geography. Application of theory and suggestions for tourism policy makers are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of a city’s retail core is largely dependent on the composition and organization of its merchant constituents. Not only should the price-point and products of a city’s retail align with its resident and visitor demographics but the stores should be strategically balanced to maximize consumer spending and interest. Heritage destinations dependent on the tourism market should pay special attention to this issue, assuring their visitors a valuable shopping experience while simultaneously preserving the destination’s cultural appeal. This case study considers the rapidly evolving shopping district of Charleston, South Carolina, focusing specifically on the retail core’s recent influx of chain merchants to what was once predominantly a local main street. A historical account, paired with an in-depth survey of merchants, is presented. The research builds on previous studies that have considered the issue of merchant mix from the perspective of the city’s stakeholders, tourists, and residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at King Street, Charleston, South Carolina, the main street of a successful historic tourism city that in recent years has seen a steady transition in tenant mix from one dominated by local merchants, to one today that features such national chain merchants as Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Gucci, and many others. The issue considered herein, based upon survey data collected from both local residents and tourists, is the effect of the city’s changing merchant mix. The findings offer insight that should be helpful to tourism and government officials in any city experiencing, or concerned about, a similar metamorphosis in their community. Helping to explain the community attitude toward change, a new model, the Cycle of Acceptance, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nontravel behavior has been studied in some depth, with the intent generally to find ways to motivate the segment to travel. This research examined an aspect of nontravel behavior previously unexplored: their “at-home” behavior. The results are very informative and reflect a highly sedentary lifestyle. The nontravelerers were found to be far less active in their daily lives, both recreationally and culturally, than were those who traveled. This sedentary lifestyle, not before identified, is an important characteristic adding to the difficulty of motivating the nontravel segment to travel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research reports the results of an empirical study that compared the effectiveness of two advertising approaches, "generic" versus "iconic," in affecting a destination image. While politics may dictate that a state (as studied herein) or national tourism office may feel the need to spread advertising funds across a range of destinations, the experiment conducted for this study suggests that a focus on well-known iconic sites may well represent the more effective approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism marketers and managers must be sensitive to those psychographic characteristics that distinguish their visitors and potential visitors. A growing list of psychographic characteristics has interested tourism researchers through the years. One such personality trait is the concept of sensation seeking. It is widely accepted that some vacationers seek higher levels of arousal than do others and that the appropriate matching of the trait to the destination or product is an important element of successful tourism marketing. But how does one measure sensation seeking? This article discusses the results of an empirical test that compared a somewhat cumbersome but well-established testing method with a relatively new scale created to serve as an alternative. The findings validate the new, simplified approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection of accommodations taxes, generally paid by nonresident visitors, has become a well-accepted means of raising tax revenues in tourism communities. This article looks at small communities and counties across the State of South Carolina to determine categories of use that may provide local governments their best return on their expenditure of these funds. The findings, decidedly exploratory in nature, suggest that the use of accommodation tax funds for the promotion of the arts, cultural events, and other tourism-related events is a successful strategy, enabling tourism growth (as measured by growth in the accommodations sector) while hopefully fueling a virtuous cycle that yields still greater tourism dollars for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some hospitality and tourism management programs face the challenge of filling available seats, others are blessed with the problem of over-demand. When demand exceeds supply, schools must consider placing enrollment caps on their student intake, which of course leads to the issue on how best to administer such a cap. This paper explains and empirically evaluates the selection process employed by Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) to learn if their efforts were effective in identifying the `best' student candidates. The findings should be of value to administrators of programs with, or considering, enrollment caps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding family/spousal vacation decision making is important to tourism marketers. Twenty-five years ago, Jenkins divided the process into multiple subdecisions, such as where to visit or how much to spend, and studied how a sample of U.S. families allocated their decision-making responsibility for these decisions between the spouses. The current research, based on Jenkins `s work, uses recent data extracted from two sample populations, one from the United States and the other composed of Singaporean couples, to re-visit the question. Whereas Jenkins found a large percentage of decision making to have been "husband-dominant," the current studies each found a significant trend toward joint decision making. The article discusses the apparent trend and suggests, a generation after Jenkins' work, how these new findings may be of value to tourism marketers promoting the family vacation product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continued growth in global tourism, an increasing number of scholars are incorporating national culture as a key variable in their research. However, researchers confront a fundamental methodological issue: Should they be concerned with their respondents' national culture of birth, residence, or citizenship? Drawing from a database composed of 847 international travelers whose country of birth, place of residence, and national citizenship differed, this study replicated two recent studies to ascertain which measure best explained traveler attitudes and behaviors. Results indicate that assigning participants' national culture measures based on their country of residence provides researchers a more robust means to account for cultural differences than does either country of birth or country of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convention and exhibition industry, an industry on the threshold of major technological advances, is facing a potential evolution in the delivery of its product from the real world to the virtual world. This paper, based upon views expressed by industry experts and an empirical study of business travelers with videoconferencing experience, explores the future cyber-conference and questions whether the significant investment currently being made in convention and exhibition centers can be justified in light of the impact of new technologies still hiding over-but not very far over-the horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism researchers continually seek to improve their primary data collection methods. With the spread of Internet and e-mail technologies, various researchers have begun to explore the potential and efficacy of electronic data collection. This article reports on a study that compared respondent data from two data sets based on the same survey instrument: the first, collected via a traditional mall-intercept-type data collection exercise and the second, an "e-sample" collected from random e-mail addresses. Analysis of the responses found similar travel psychographic characteristics but significant differences in demographics and travel patterns. The article concludes that while there seems to be legitimate potential for tourism research "e-surveying," current logistical problems and issues of sample bias remain serious stumbling blocks precluding widespread use of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many businesses, travel agencies need to segment their markets and develop marketing strategies targeted toward specific groups of customers. One targeting strategy used successfully by both packaged goods and services marketers is to concentrate on the heavy-user segment. Our study describes heavy usage of travel agents based on a survey of 184 adults in Singapore. Compared with light users, the Singaporean heavy users of travel agents were found to be more involved with vacation travel, more innovative in their choice of vacation travel products, more enthusiastic about travel, more knowledgeable about vacation travel, more widely exposed to travel information from the mass media, and to travel more frequently for pleasure. Demographically, in contrast to some previous studies of other products and services, this study indicates that heavy users of travel agents exhibited differences from light users. The implications of these findings for travel agencies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions the often-stated claim of tourism as the world's peace industry. Question on existence of a casual relationship between tourism and peace or a co-relationship with tourism as a beneficiary; Arguments from the peace-tourism camp.

Literature regarding the effectiveness of various practices for nurturing student learning typically focuses on the different outcomes of passive versus active approaches and suggests that active teaching, including exposing students to real-world learning experiences, facilitates a richer and more authentic understanding. Limited investigation of the impacts of instructional scaffolding—implementing a progression of methods that supplements passive procedures with active learning initiatives—has been undertaken in hospitality and tourism education. This study measures learning among 59 students enrolled in an introductory hospitality and tourism course after they were exposed to passive, situated, and authentic instruction in an effort to determine the degree of understanding at each stage. Our findings revealed that incorporating real-world learning opportunities through situated and authentic teaching strategies helps students build upon theoretical knowledge gained passively to reach praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]