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In the business literature, coopetition is defined as simultaneous cooperative and competitive activities among actors. In the informal economy, norms and trust take the place of formal contracts among actors and may allow these actors to move from engaging in competition to cooperation easily suggesting that patterns of coopetition in this context might be different to that in the formal economy. This research explores coopetition among informal tourism economy actors using the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and the concept of shared resources. The results of qualitative case studies of pedicab drivers and street vendors in Yogyakarta indicate that simultaneous coopetition occurs when the actors share multiple resources while sequential coopetition occurs in the context of a single shared resource.

This paper distinguishes between the concepts of socio-cognitive mindfulness applied in a number of tourism studies and meditative mindfulness derived from a Buddhist philosophy. An operational definition of meditative mindful tourist experiences is proposed based on forty-three semi-structured interviews involving 77 episodes of meditative mindful experiences. The paper also proposes a framework of meditative mindfulness in tourism. The framework identifies a number of antecedents to meditative mindful experience episodes and reveals several psychological and physical benefits including mental ease and response flexibility. This is the first paper to examine meditative mindful tourist experiences in tourism contexts and to explore their antecedents and consequences.

Although problems are a fundamental dynamics of tourism knowledge production, a systematic, exclusive, and in-depth study of tourism problems or tourism problemology has been overlooked. This study, which represents the first time to examine the nature of tourism problemology, aims to fill this gap. A theoretical model is developed and partially tested through a survey of 212 Chinese tourism researchers. Results show that researchers generally consider problems as difficulties or contradictions that require resolution. Moreover, personal/environmental factors influence the researchers’ understanding of problems, and such understanding further affects their evaluation and selection of problems at the early stage of research. The study highlights the significance of problems as an important, yet overlooked reflexivity of tourism knowledge production.

A common theme in the tourism literature is that tourists are motivated to travel to escape from ordinariness. This may lead to the assumption that the activities tourists choose to undertake in a region are motivated by the same desire for the extraordinary. Some studies have found travellers who are highly involved in a particular recreational activity are likely to participate in it both at home and while on holidays. This study examines the travel motivations and destination activities undertaken by Slow Food members and finds that they undertake similar cooking and food related activities while away as they do at home. A theoretical explanation for this behaviour is taken from the concept of lifestyle and Bourdieu's habitus.

This paper examines leadership and governance among large tourism stakeholders, notably airlines, airports and state/national DMOs, in the context of air route development (ARD). An exploratory mixed method is used to identify the key leadership and governance attributes of successful ARD, and the strongest correlation among them. This study has identified a substantial difference between the key attributes perceived by small/medium enterprises (SMEs) and large tourism stakeholders. Large stakeholders identify partnership, effective communication, and information sharing as key leadership attributes, and strategic vision, leadership, and knowledge sharing as critical governance attributes. Additionally, a significant difference is observed in the correlations of attribute perception, which is dependent on the leading ARD stakeholder.

The study of tourism in the Muslim world can be about religious topics such as hajj and pilgrimage, but it actually means and involves much more. Because religious life and secular life in Islam are closely intertwined, study of its tourism is also partly about its worldview and culture as well as a means of reflecting on Western concepts of travel and hedonistic tourism. This review article introduces selected aspects of Islam to non-Muslims and reviews the tourism literature to identify themes and areas for further research. In addition to scholarly goals, an understanding of the patterns and requirements of the growing numbers of Muslim travellers is of practical importance for the tourism industry. Significantly, the Muslim world provides opportunities for studying differences in policy and development decisions that can offer new insights and inform tourism by providing alternative perspectives.

This study empirically tests the ability of cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to explain the antecedents of emotions from tourism experiences. Delight, an emotion related to hedonic consumption and characterized as aroused positive affect is the particular emotion selected for this study. Data was collected from 645 tourists leaving a theme park and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results identify a set of appraisal dimensions that are antecedents of delight. Different evaluations on these dimensions provide multiple paths eliciting delight. This contrasts with previous research which has only noted one path involving surprise. The results allow concepts, such as magic joy, and real joy, to be parsimoniously explained. These findings are useful in designing tourism experiences.

Highlights• We interviewed members of a tourism cluster on the Gold Coast, Australia.• Clusters are an effective way to facilitate destination marketing and development.• Focus on individuals rather than firms to create a successful tourism cluster.• Having passionate and committed cluster members is important for success.Niche tourism clusters are often used by managers of mature destinations to improve competitiveness. Cluster bring together geographically concentrated businesses (Porter, 1998) that have a common interest (Gray, 1985), allowing them to pool their efforts to achieve advantages, such as economies of scale (Palmer & Bejou, 1995). Prior research on clusters focuses on businesses entities as the unit of analysis (Novelli, Schmitz, & Spencer, 2006), through use of concepts of partnerships (Selin, 1999), strategic alliances (Palmer & Bejou, 1995) and networks (Tremblay, 1998). This research note seeks to advance this body of knowledge by concentrating on the characteristics of the individuals involved. The prior literature of clusters emphasises structural properties of clusters as explanatory actors for success, whereas, the results here indicate that certain characteristics of key individuals are also important.The research investigated a case study of the Gold Coast Adventure Travel Group (GCATG), a successful tourism cluster on the Gold Coast, Australia.

This paper presents a review of the methods of the science of networks with an application to the field of tourism studies. The basic definitions and computational techniques are described and a case study (Elba, Italy) used to illustrate the effect of network typology on information diffusion. A static structural characterization of the network formed by destination stakeholders is derived from stakeholder interviews and website link analysis. This is followed by a dynamic analysis of the information diffusion process within the case destination demonstrating that stakeholder cohesion and adaptive capacity have a positive effect on information diffusion. The outcomes and the implications of this analysis for improving destination management are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

This paper examines those forms of social power in evidence in a destination branding process. Despite numerous conceptualizations of destination branding as a collaborative process, this paper finds that power is exerted in various forms and a destination branding process can have a positive outcome even if there is a lack of unity and collaboration amongst stakeholders. Furthermore this study provides a detailed inventory of how stakeholders advanced their interests in a branding process by using power in the forms of persuasion and authority. The Gold Coast, Australia, destination branding process was selected as a case study as it provides a context where branding is of singular importance to stakeholders.

Tourism involves a network of organizations interacting to produce a service. This paper examines the structural properties of interorganizational networks within destinations. Network analysis adopts a whole of destination approach and does not impose predefined groupings on the organization of tourism in a region. Information flows between key agencies provide the basis for analyzing structures and linkages, allowing strategic weaknesses in the cohesiveness of the destination to be addressed by policy and management. The paper outlines four Australian case studies that demonstrate the utility of network analysis by illustrating features such as product clusters, structural divides, and central organizations.