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Sister City between Yogyakarta and Kyoto is one of the most active cooperations in Indonesia. This cooperation covers various fields such as academics, economy, culture, and tourism. This paper focuses merely on the tourism sector program from 2015 to 2018 because Yogyakarta and Kyoto are famous tourism destinations. Moreover, from 2015 to 2018, there was a significant increase in Japanese tourists coming to Yogyakarta. It prompts an investigation on ‘how did the implementation of the cooperative agreement in tourism from 2015 to 2018 between the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Kyoto lead to mutual benefits?’. It is underpinned by two theoretical frameworks: the sister city concept and cultural diplomacy. This research aims to unpack the implementation of the Sister City Program between the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Kyoto in tourism from 2015 to 2018. This research revealed successful cooperation related to disaster risk and tourism management, promotion, and information.

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether medical tourism can be a frontrunner in terms of post-pandemic recovery for the industry Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method analysis of 17 interviews and 210 questionnaires involving medical tourists to Iran was applied. Findings Medical tourists perceived the risks posed by COVID-19 as a temporal one, and attitudes toward post pandemic visitation intentions remained strong. In addition, these tourists can mostly be classified into responsive individuals, who demonstrate not only high risk but also high efficacy levels to negotiate the threats posed by the pandemic. No gender differences were located between male and female medical tourists in terms of post-COVID-19 travel intentions to Iran. Originality/value This research extends the application of the risk perception attitude framework to a medical tourism context. Furthermore, medical tourists are uncovered as another segment of crisis-resistant tourists.

This research note explores the under-investigated assumption that cryptocurrencies are a panacea to stimulate regional tourism demand. Through the application of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory, a case study was designed to examine the cryptocurrency effect on two adjacent towns of Agnes Water and 17 70 in Central Queensland, Australia. The findings revealed three major factors that led to merchant receptivity for adopting cryptocurrencies - First, a novelty effect perceived as a good strategy to induce consumer spend. Second, the low entry barriers for merchants adopting cryptocurrencies to conduct transactions. Third, cryptocurrencies incurred zero overhead costs. Nevertheless, the favorable attitudes of these merchants towards cryptocurrencies require a demand-side intention to use such tools during tourist visits to these regional destinations. Other regional tourism destinations will need to consider other ways of integrating such digital innovations to their landscapes.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue for the merits of design thinking as an approach to develop a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course in hospitality education. This argument is primed to address the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of the tourism and hospitality industry prompts educators to emphasize on learners developing industry-readiness outcomes through integrating innovative methods.Design/methodology/approachA quasi-experimental approach was used to examine how design thinking enhances industry-ready competencies. A two-phase self-administered survey on design thinking and added instructional design were facilitated at the beginning of the semester and subsequently close to the end of the semester. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to give more meaning on the matter.FindingsFindings of this study reveal that problem-solving, critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills were enhanced as a result of integrating two teaching components related to design thinking.Originality/valueThis paper articulates the important and valuable role of design thinking to hospitality curriculum and provides tangible outcomes to explain how such a technique may be mapped onto a CLIL course.

This research compares four travel motivations—socialisation, responsibility, attractions, and food—across four countries, namely India, Japan, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. The investigation ascertains the factors that account for domestic traveller confidence during a pandemic. Through an online survey of 2,076 domestic tourists, it was found that responsibility was a key antecedent of domestic travel confidence, while food was a strong predictor in all countries except India. The allure of attractions was only partially supported in the findings, and the need for socialisation was insignificant. The study highlights differences and similarities between the four countries and provides theoretical and practical insights that can inform destination travel recovery strategies post-pandemic.

Daigou may be simply understood as purchasing on behalf of others. However, as an informal economy, Daigou trade between buyers and sellers is now a lucrative market and has emerged as a distinctive tourism segment. While Daigou occurs on the back of technological platforms that facilitate electronic commerce between customer to customer, academic literature on Daigou from a Chinese outbound tourism perspective remains scarce. Prompted by this dearth in knowledge, this research explores the emerging practices of Daigou tourists as a subset of Chinese outbound tourism through an online questionnaire survey conducted with 300 respondents from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Through an embedded mixed methods inquiry, the research reveals that Daigou tourism is a heterogenous market and are driven by product quality, profit margins and country of origin associations. This offers distinct theoretical and managerial contributions and elucidates a more nuanced understanding of the Daigou phenomenon as a fluid, under-regulated and micro-entrepreneurial practice in tourism.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some hotels have introduced a new service model called contactless service. This paper unpacks this new hospitality landscape through a random sampl...

COVID-19 has flipped traditional face-to-face exchanges. This quickly prompted involuntary changes that required appropriate pedagogical strategies suited to online courses. This study explored the...

This study probes the ethics of intrusive technologies for experimental research in tourism, through the lens of collaborative ethnography. Amidst the increasing uptake of technology to assess participant responses, the role of ethics in an experimental setting has received scant attention in tourism and hospitality. While intrusive technologies such as eye tracking, skin sensors and neuroscience headgear become more ubiquitous, the ethical boundaries of using such equipment are increasingly blurred and inconsistently approved. Seeking convergence of ethics concerning intrusive technologies is complicated when framing political spaces, target audiences and management of data obtained. Rather than view the role of intrusive technologies as a dichotomous outcome of ethical or unethical approaches, this paper argues that ethics needs to be contextually embedded with increased collaboration and co-creation in the application preparation and approval process.

Blockchain technologies are predicted to substantially transform the tourism industry. At present, cryptocurrencies are the most advanced application of public blockchains that promise benefits suc...

PurposeThis paper aims to reconceptualise entrenched supply chains associated with coffee production and consumption to digital supply chains for sustainable development.Design/methodology/approachA case study of seven small businesses involved with Philippine coffee is employed to examine how coffee value chains should be envisioned following COVID-19.FindingsThe COVID-19 pandemic reveals truncated barriers concerned with the lack of infrastructure, poverty cycles, sporadic workforce development policies and financial pressures that need to be redefined for coffee production and consumption to be more sustainable in the future.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is restricted to a single country and a small pool of respondents that may not reflect similar practices in other regions or contexts.Originality/valueThis paper illuminates the plight of coffee farmers in an emerging production landscape of the Philippines, and develops new propositions to envision a digital value chain post-COVID-19.

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to tourism due to the global nature of its pandemic effect. Health pandemics, such as the COVID-19, are some of the various types of crises that confront the tourism industry. While academic attention has been devoted to the management of crises, very little is known about the use of medical tourism as a panacea for destination recovery. Drawing from interviews conducted with 17 medical tourists to Iran, this research note provides nuanced cues to suggest how tourist sentiments and medical tourism destination image can be valuable tools to aid in post-crisis recovery strategies.

Purpose This study aims to unpack the notion of travelling mobilities from the perspectives of an Asian solo traveller using the context of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. Design/methodology/approach An autoethnography was used for this research, analysing reflective notes drafted on hand-written journals over the duration of six days over three host cities of the sporting event. Findings Asian solo men appear to be treated very differently from their Western counterparts and solo female tourists. In addition, engaging with a sport that is highly Western-centric exposes the liminal spaces of in-between. Being of Asian appearance and conversant in Japanese further blurred the travelling mobilities of being an unlikely sports fan, an impromptu translator, a presumed local resident and an unconventional wanderer. Originality/value These limitations notwithstanding, the research has contributed to the paucity of knowledge surrounding Asian solo male tourists and some aspects of their corresponding travelling mobilities. Such nuanced understanding then inform tourism and hospitality knowledge and practice of offering relevant experiences to such a market.

Extant literature has emerged to shed light on Indigenous tourism peoples, places and partnerships. These studies to date have uncovered a rich diversity of contexts and collaborations, but likewis...

Liminal spaces of medical tourism remain under-investigated. To address this gap, liminal spaces of Azerbaijani, Armenian and Iraqi medical tourists to Tabriz, Iran are explored. Using a mixed-meth...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the disrupting usage and impacts of blockchains and cryptocurrencies and advocate their role as enablers of sustainable tourism development goals. Design/methodology/approach Literature on blockchains and cryptocurrencies is critically synthesized, debated and expanded to identify and discuss their implications toward sustainable tourism futures. Findings As a distributive digital ledger, blockchains have the potential to create a more inclusive tourism future to address debates around tourism as a vehicle for sustainable development that alludes to value accruing to only certain providers and consumers. Blockchains and their cryptocurrencies (as a financial transaction capability) elevate trust and relational capabilities in an expedited and holistic manner, democratize participation in economic systems and re-distribute power and economic relations amongst actors by influencing the way data (the currency of the digital economy and the lifeblood of tourism) is collected, stored, exchange, owned and traded for co-creating value. Research limitations/implications The paper is conceptual and speculative by identifying ways in which blockchain and cryptocurrencies can support sustainable tourism development goals. Directions for future research are provided for further elaborating and collecting primary evidence on whether the premise and applications of these technologies can deliver the acclaimed sustainable impacts. Originality/value The paper contributes to the emerging but controversial literature about the trajectories between technology and sustainability by critically debating on how blockchains, through cryptocurrency economies, can be positioned to facilitate sustainable tourism futures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore leisure etiquette as negotiated through the lens of recreational drones. While drones have experienced spectacular growth in terms of sales and revenue, ther...

Due to the kinship ties existing between hosts and guests, any VFR host is likely to experience elevated levels of stress in preparing for such encounters because of the desire to deliver a good experience to their guests. As such, existing literature has sought to unpack VFR hosting behaviour and practices, albeit mostly from an Anglo-Saxon perspective. However, little is known about the influence of East Asian cultures and gendered perspectives of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) hosting behaviour and practices, which is underrepresented within extant literature. From a sample of 91 Taiwanese hosts based in Brisbane, Australia, this research suggests that accommodation considerations are a main factor to Taiwanese VFR hosts in Australia, and that first-time VFR tourists also warrant heightened hosting efforts. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how East Asian and gendered lenses of VFR hosting behaviour manifests, positions these individuals as potential destination ambassadors, and strategically launch post COVID-19 tourism recovery.

While social media receive considerable scholarly attention, studies reveal mixed outcomes in relation to its influence on tourists’ destination choices. There is nonetheless a persistent perception that social media has a fundamental influence on destination choice. However, those studies that do find a social media influence are in contexts where tourists are predisposed to be influenced (the contexts were selected due to social media presence or influence). These studies also have limitations in terms of social media types, tourists and destinations. This research responds to the challenges and explores social media influence across diverse destination choice contexts. Through face-to-face interviews conducted with 39 Australian tourist decision-makers, the findings reveal that social media influence is only apparent when specific context-conditions are co-present. Instead, most destination choice contexts are likely to result in low levels of social media influence. The findings advance theory by identifying three contextual dimensions for social media influence: level of social media engagement; destination novelty or familiarity; and complexity of the planning decision. This research importantly demonstrates the need to illuminate context when conceptualising social media influence on tourists’ destination choices. Practically, destinations should utilise social media to demonstrate ease of visit planning.

This research provides empirical insights to reveal how value convergence occurs within Uber’s sharing economy. Uber’s business model is built on a digital platform that links private vehicle owners and their under-utilized assets to be economic revenue generating units for on-demand transport requests from potential clients. By analyzing adoption values for drivers and users of Uber, we identify antecedent operational and behavioral values for Uber adoption. We add to extant Industry 4.0 research and show value convergence emanating from economic and convenience motives. On the basis of our findings, we develop propositions for value convergence leveraging on cyber-physical systems embedded in Industry 4.0, and its application for theory and practice within the broader domains of the sharing economy.

Purpose This paper aims to present the case for a new integrated resort business model. It does so by integrating the notion of a smart tourism ecosystem into the concept of dynamic capabilities so as to guide integrated resort theory and practice in an evolving landscape. Design/methodology/approach The theoretical model is derived from synthesising the gaps surrounding literature that contextualises business models and the relatively scarce body of knowledge related to integrated resort business models. Findings Integrated resorts are characterised by strategies using a follower mentality. Destinations seeking to create new integrated resorts largely emulate existing product or service points of differentiation, though such attempts are often quickly eroded by competition. By integrating the smart tourism ecosystem to the theoretical framework, this conceptual paper elucidates how an information-rich environment can help to better realise sustainable competitive advantages. Research limitations/implications This conceptual paper will require empirical data to validate the theoretical model. Implications stemming from the research will hasten greater social networks that need to be incorporated to foster timely and necessary circulation of information to attain optimal outcomes generated by the dynamic capability effect. Originality/value This paper re-conceptualises the business model for integrated resorts. By integrating the notion of smart tourism ecosystems to business model literature, the paper illuminates how integrated resorts can be better positioned in adapting to the changing operating environments.

This article examines trends associated with tourism-related academic conferences scheduled between mid-2016 and end-2018. As a subset of a lucrative business events market, studies on academic conferences remain underinvestigated. Moreover, academic literature to date reveal that extant studies are often fragmented—using one conference or through the perspective of a single stakeholder group. To address the paucity of literature related to academic conferences, this article uncovers trends within 360 tourism-related academic conferences through four aspects: Host locations, themes, gender representation, and costs. The findings reveal that tourism-related academic conferences are mostly held within the continents of Asia and Europe, mirror academic and industry contemporary discourses, reflect the persistent gap in terms of gender representation, and present increasing costs of attendance unequally skewed towards a few conferences. Timing of tourismrelated academic conferences are also largely scheduled towards the first half of the year. Further recommendations are made to organizers planning for future tourism-related academic conferences to make these events more inclusive such as (1) deriving themes from industry inputs, (2) creating a balanced profile of male and female keynotes speaker, and (3) considering cost-efficient practices to create more sustainable academic conferences.

This paper aims to propose a framework for engaging tourists as citizen scientists in marine research. Justification for such a framework is driven by the increasing use of citizen science (CS) as a method for collecting data in various research projects. While the tenets of CS exist, few studies have demonstrated how these could be integrated to address the challenges and benefits of engaging tourists as scientists.,A systematic review focused on CS-based literature within environmental management, tourism and marine tourism revealed 18 models. Key themes, those repeatedly identified, were extracted. These were adapted to inform the proposed theoretical framework for engaging tourist scientists.,The key themes were clarified and incorporated into the framework to enhance the value of marine research by engaging tourists. Important features considered were the singularity and sporadic nature of tourist participation, training and engagement as well as the reliability of data collected by citizen scientists., ,The framework informs the unique requirements of research in marine environments and the under-used potential of tourist scientists.,抽象,本文构建了一个吸引游客成为海洋研究的公民科学家的框架。越来越多的人使用公民科学(CS)作为在各种研究项目中收集数据的一种方法, 这证实了这种框架具有合理性。尽管 CS 的原则是存在的, 但很少有研究表明如何将这些原则整合起来, 以便在吸引游客成为科学家的过程中解决问题, 实现效益。,本文对环境管理, 旅游和海洋旅游领域基于 CS 的文献进行了系统的回顾, 发现了18 种模式。接下来, 提取出重复确定的关键主题。为了吸引旅游者成为科学家, 这些都根据所提出的理论框架作了调整。,为了通过吸引游客成为科学家来提高海洋研究的价值，本文明确关键主题并将其纳入框架。同时，本文考虑到了一些重要因素，包括游客参加, 培训和融入的奇异性和零星性，以及公民科学家收集的数据的可靠性, ,该框架反映出，海洋环境研究具有独特的要求，以及旅游者科学家的潜力尚未得到充分利用。,Resumen,Este articulo propone un marco de trabajo, para involucrar a los turistas como ciudadanos cientificos en la investigacion marina. La justificacion de este marco, esta impulsada por el uso creciente de la ciencia ciudadana (CS), como un metodo para recopilar datos en los proyectos de investigacion. Si bien ya existen los principios de la CS, pocos estudios han demostrado como estos podrian integrarse para abordar los desafios y beneficios de involucrar a los turistas como cientificos.,Una revision sistematica, centrada y basada en la literature sobre CS, y al mismo tiempo relacionada con la gestion ambiental, turismo y turismo marino, revelo 18 diferentes modelos. Se extrajeron los temas clave, identificados repetidamente. Estos fueron adaptados para fundamentar el marco teorico propuesto e involucrar a los cientificos turisticos.,Se aclararon los temas claves y se incorporaron en el marco de trabajo, para aumentar el valor de la investigacion marina, mediante la participacion de los turistas. Las caracteristicas consideradas importantes, fueron la singularidad y la naturaleza esporadica de la participacion turistica, la capacitacion y el compromiso, asi como la fiabilidad de los datos recopilados por los cientificos ciudadanos., ,El marco de analisis, expone los requisitos unicos de investigacion en entornos marinos y el potencial infrautilizado de los cientificos turisticos.

Rainbow looms, America’s 2014 Toy of the Year, are associated with colourful rubber bands that can be weaved into intricate objects using a plastic loom. These sets are sold without any accompanyin...

The 6th Annual Conference of the Travel & Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter (TTRA APac) was held at RMIT University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 1 to 3 December 2018. The theme o...

While the notion of external referencing has been undertaken across a range of disciplines, its adoption in a tourism setting remains largely fragmented. This project applies a ‘floating classroom’ as part of a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) to enable tourism policy and planning educators to perform a benchmarking exercise for maintaining teaching quality despite geographical separation and social distancing mandates. Virtual CoPs can help maintain teaching quality at a time when universities are increasingly required to uphold international standards of excellence and as the coronavirus continues to make face-to-face interactions risky. The CoP enabled mutual support and knowledge sharing for the design of teaching approaches, materials, and authentic assessments. The paper was limited to three educators teaching similar courses in Anglophone institutions and reports the results of a one-off study. But findings will assist educators interested in maintaining or enhancing teaching quality over the course of the pandemic and post-COVID-19 futures.

This paper examines tourism academic policy impacts of higher education subscribing to arbitrary citation impact measures of quality and the consequence towards tourism scholars engaging within int...

Responsible tourism has been crafted in the narrative of tourists making ethical decisions to ensure that they engage in tourism in respectful ways. Likewise, tourism practitioners also embed responsible tourism practices to their operations, to derive desired brand and destination images that are aligned to responsible tourism outcomes. However, little is known as to how theme parks engage in responsible tourism, especially when confronted with a crisis or disaster. Using the case study of the Dreamworld equipment malfunction incident in 2016, social media contents and the coroner’s report revealed the gaps related to the duty of care by the theme park in delivering a safe and secure visitor experience over the past few decades. It is hoped that this incident offers a solemn, but timely reminder of the need to weave responsible tourism management practices across service and operational design in the theme park industry.

Community-based tourism (CBT) is part of East Asia’s tourism landscape as local communities seek to diversify their livelihoods towards tourism. However, little is known about the evolution of research surrounding CBT in the region. Through undertaking a bibliometric analysis of 401 Scopus-indexed articles, this research found that CBT practices have increasingly questioned the legitimacy and authenticity of its value to local communities. Findings also illustrated most studies centred on China, and co-authorship networks mostly occurring between research supervisors and their students. Theoretical and practical insights to advance CBT research in East Asia are proposed.

This research note highlights eclectic approaches to analyze recreational cruise sustainability. Whilst recreational cruising have become increasingly popular, studies to date are largely fragmented, often adopting an economically-centric perspective based on a particular cruise market or specific destinations. This research note advances cross-disciplinary perspectives to analyze recreational cruise sustainability via novel data-collection methods such as geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing data, along with underwater and surface audio recording of cruise-related and marine biology (dolphins, humpback whales) activities. These methods may prove extremely effective to inform contemporary and future theory and management practices related to sustainable real-time impacts on visitor mobility to manage parks and recreational zones. Subscribe to JPRA

Discussions about diverse economies have often been positioned in opposition to profit-focused global economic activity, whereas local communities are often assumed to be sites of diverse economies...

Despite the importance of social capital to organizational performance, there is scant insight within service contexts. Accordingly, this research explores social capital in two Asia-Pacific service enterprise cases – a Thai coffee franchise and a Coffee Roasters Guild in Australia. In the Thai case, social capital in the service experience emerged from norms common in Thai society and manifested via social enterprise initiatives. Findings from Australia indicate social capital helps form a strong organizational identity leading to better economic and social outcomes and an enhanced service experience, benefiting numerous stakeholders. The study demonstrates varying patterns of social capital in Asia-Pacific service enterprises, contributing to theory and practice.

This paper explores the developments of domestic medical tourism for Australia's Sunshine Coast. Most studies have characterised medical tourism to be an outbound phenomenon, where affluent tourists select mostly developing destinations for elective surgeries due to cost, quality or faster access to treatments. However, studies concerned with domestic medical tourism remain highly implicit. Employing a case study perspective of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, this research explored the potential for domestic medical tourism to be conceived. This research found that while most stakeholders considered the region to be well-suited for medical tourism, three issues presented some barriers to its development. The three issues were residents' access to hospital facilities, lack of cooperation and hostile attitudes between practitioners. This research shows the contested battlegrounds of domestic medical tourism initiatives, and how the development of a multi-stakeholder involvement model of medical tourism can bring desired outcomes to fruition.

Ron and Timothy (2019) have probably integrated the first book ever published to illuminate the under-researched field of pilgrimages and religious travels related to contemporary Christian practic...

Existing literature has portrayed tourism as a conduit for learning and transformation, with a view that such mobilities elucidate tourism cosmopolitanism. While such propositions are insofar useful in characterising global dispositions, very little has been done to investigate how the virtual space has helped to develop or curtail effects of tourism cosmopolitanism. The virtual space has transformed tourism engagement and consumption patterns, though few studies have paid attention to deviant online behaviour and its corresponding effects on cosmopolitanism. Drawing from outcomes of trolling instances within forums, this paper argues that deviant online behaviour is of consequence as an antecedent in determining one’s disposition to destinations, challenging the decision type and raising serious concerns to self-image and virtual representations. These attacks on any individual necessitate a cautious approach for scholars and practitioners when engaging with the electronic realm as a different, yet instrumental facet in characterising tourism cosmopolitanism.

The sharing economy has transformed the tourism landscape, though different destinations have featured various levels of receptivity. Two of the main organisations, or disruptors, are AirBnB and Uber. These two organisations were examined and compared in terms of how they have featured within two countries, Australia and Singapore. Using a case study approach, online contents concerning AirBnB and Uber were analysed to elucidate tourism responses in the respective countries. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of disruptive innovation and smart tourism ecosystems, this research amplified that governance structures influenced how these two organisations carried out their operations. For instance, AirBnB received for more access in Australia than Singapore. In contrast, Singapore was more receptive to Uber and other ridesharing organisations than in the case of Australia. Incidentally, tourism responses have been almost non-existent within the two countries. In order to steer strategy and governance concerning the sharing economy, there is an urgent need to re-align existing legislation and business models in order to realise the true potential of smart tourism ecosystems.