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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop and test a practical model to identify a developing destination’s assets. Using the existing destination branding concepts and theories in the research, this study aims to identify how the assets of a developing destination differ from those of a developed destination. Design/methodology/approach: The study followed the “practical model for determining destination assets” proposed in the article. The first stage includes collecting the information on the tourism potential of the destination. In the second stage, in-depth interviews were carried out with information carriers of a developing destination and analyzed by highlighting keywords in the responses. The following stages include the questionnaire survey, factor analysis and segmentation analysis. Findings: The following conclusions can be drawn from the results of the study. First, the assets of a developing destination, recreation areas, attractive visitor facilities and obligatory additional services are rational. Second, the assets used for destination branding are based on their unique character. According to the analysis results, the Almaty region’s unique character is associated with natural resources. The direction of recreation in the Almaty region boils down to two components: cognitive tourism and sports tourism. Research limitations/implications: The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, given that external tourism faced significant constraints during the pandemic, we must acknowledge that a study of destination branding may be more appropriate before or after the pandemic. Second, the survey was conducted online in connection with the introduction of quarantine measures. Third, the assets of a developing destination were selected based on the results of the interviews. In future studies, including other attributes may allow the identification of new assets for branding. Practical implications: The practical destination branding model presented in the study has practical implications for destination authorities. Using the proposed model, assets of other destinations can be identified. In addition, the results of the analysis of the Almaty region as a developing destination will be effective for destination authorities in developing their tourism programs. Recreation areas, attractive tourism facilities and obligatory additional services can be used in destination branding. Social implications: This study drew on the experience of the population’s ambassador activity. The in-depth interview was obtained from the destination’s tourism informants, and the survey aimed to identify public opinion. The residents who participated in the interview and survey perform an ambassadorial function in strengthening the identified assets of the destination and implementing tourism programs. Accordingly, there is a growing sense of pride in being a resident of the destination. Originality/value: The study has both theoretical and practical significance with the following results. First, it provides insights on enhancing public participation from the beginning of the destination branding process and respecting the continuation of its ambassadorial activities, provided that the identified destination assets are rational. Second, destination asset associations for developing destinations are presented. Third, the study creates a realistic picture of the Almaty region as a destination for visitors and destination authorities.

ABSTRACTOver the recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of customers in luxury market. Such a substantial rise has gained much attention from both academics and industry experts seeking to better understand the meanings and factors involved in luxury consumption. Therefore, this special section aims to enrich and update the existing body of knowledge on luxury product and brand purchasing behaviour. We have encouraged the contributors to forward both conceptual and empirical papers reflecting current concerns in the field of luxury shopping, more specifically in luxury product and brand purchasing behaviour. In the end, this special section includes three papers on external store environment, meaning of luxury, and luxury brand fashion. Certainly, additional references are necessary for better understanding the meaning and contents of luxury consumption and main drivers behind it. The special section introduces the reader to some of these important references but also notes that there is still avenue for more studies in the future.

Purpose: Concerning the development of “experience” as an economic phenomenon, this study aims to analyse customers' evaluations of their experiences in five-star hotel businesses and to identify if the hospitality experience is evaluated as an “experience” by its specific aspects. Design/methodology/approach: Structural and thematic narrative analyses in a multi-dimensional setting were applied to stories from 107 participants who stayed in five-star hotel businesses. Findings: Customers evaluate their overall experience as an “experience” reflected by experiential statements. However, they demonstrate higher cognitive orientation at the sub-experience levels (food and beverage, rooms, etc.). Research limitations/implications: The paper sheds light on the fact that customers may evaluate their experiences with cognitive and experiential aspects. The study focuses on participants' lived experiences to understand the customer perspective with the “experience” concept leading to the memorability of customer experiences in hotel businesses. Further research is required with a larger sample group, mixed-methods implementation and longitudinal and comparable examination to understand seasonal, motivational and cultural differences. Practical implications: The paper reveals various aspects of customer experiences in five-star hotel businesses around the variety of their offerings evaluated by cognitive and experiential perceptions so that dedicated efforts of the managers will be enhanced with a better and strategic understanding of the “experience” concept to achieve business goals. Originality/value: The study offers insightful findings relating to customers’ service- and experience-based experiences and how “experience” is perceived by customers from various angles in the five-star hotel businesses.

ABSTRACTHealth and hygiene is a provision of conditions to maintain public health, and make tourists feel safer and tourism destinations become more competitive. The existing research has been conceptual or critical, and scarce empirical studies focus mainly on single-case studies. Therefore, this study came to fill a knowledge gap and analyse the importance and relationship between health and hygiene and destination competitiveness through a case study of the world’s most visited tourism destinations. The study employed three techniques to analyse the synchronic and diachronic data of the destinations, i.e. comparative analysis, graphical analysis, and One-way ANOVA. The results show that health and hygiene are the most important of the 14 pillars measuring destination competitiveness. The graphical analysis indicates a positive correlation between the health and hygiene pillar and overall competitiveness. This study should be an impetus for applied scientific research for public health policy and tourism competitiveness.

A number of research studies have investigated tourist satisfaction with mass tourism destinations, particularly during the peak (summer) season. However, there has been limited investigation of tourist satisfaction with off-season holiday destinations. This article reports the findings of a study to determine destination attributes critical to the overall satisfaction levels of tourists visiting Mallorca, Spain, during the winter season. Their future holiday intentions also are investigated. Findings are analyzed, and implications and limitations are discussed.

Hospitality operators seeking ISO 9000 certification should realize that this quality accreditation is not the marketing coup that some have claimed. The international quality standard BS EN ISO 9000 is [...]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the influence of neoliberalism and managerialism on the recruitment of tourism academics in the UK. The study analyses how sustainable the recruitment and retention of talents are in the tourism industry. Importantly, this study provides particular focus on sustainable tourism roles, as well as the impacts of COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative content analysis focuses on academic jobs in tourism advertised on Jobs.ac.uk between June 2020 and July 2021. Findings: Study findings reveal how, in the case of the UK, current educational ideologies, including neoliberalism and managerialism, significantly influence curriculum and recruitment. Such an approach facilitates the hidden curriculum of undisciplined tourism programmes and significantly constrains the prominence of sustainability principles. The development of curriculum, student life course and recruitment of academics are influenced by several variables (personal, environmental, behavioural), which must be identified to enable decision-makers to engage in efficient planning. Originality/value: This study provides a unique focus on the recruitment of tourism academics encompassing crucial factors like sustainable tourism and COVID-19. The proposed framework creates the foundation for the investigation and discussion of academics’ recruitment in different contexts. This study also offers several new avenues for future research.

The second decade of this century has been characterized by a particular emphasis on the significance of safety and security in human life in general and in tourist decision-making in particular. This study is therefore a timely overview of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on various parts of the travel and tourism industry across the globe. Specifically, this study revisits the subject of destination competitiveness by introducing possible new actors and paradigms through the concepts of chaos theoryand the butterfly effect. The study proposes a model, called the butterfly competitiveness model, to capture the edge of chaos of the tourism industry, the butterfly effects of COVID-19, cosmology, bifurcation events and behaviors, and health and safety-driven self-organization for destination competitiveness. It also clarifies the role of governments and health authorities as strange attractors in self-organization.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of tourism competitiveness over the years, ascertaining the state of the art and the degree of consensus among scholars on its constituent elements to propose an integrative and updated concept. Design/methodology/approach: A set of 130 definitions on tourism competitiveness formulated between 1999–2018 was analyzed and segmented into three periods, allowing its historical evolution to be ascertained. It is a qualitative and quantitative exploratory research that uses a combination of techniques, namely, content analysis, analysis of co-words and consensus analysis. Findings: The results indicated a low use of elements such as the quality of life and the environment in the authors' definitions during 1999–2018, although these elements were present in the first concept of tourism competitiveness by Crouch and Ritchie (1999, 2003). Another finding of this study shows a reduction in the analysis of tourism competitiveness based on the supply and demand side. Nowadays, the research tends to turn on the basis of the population directly affected. It also reveals the enrichment of the theoretical corpus with new lines of research arising and new groups of scholars of the subject, consequently a new frontier in tourism competitiveness. Research limitations/implications: The authors recommend deepening the analysis in each category of conceptual elements of tourism competitiveness to identify the origins of the low consensus. The authors also suggest conducting further research on the largest invisible schools of thought on this subject to understand their relations and perspectives, and thus to advance in the theoretical streams of the field. Finally, it is imperative to develop research on new models and monitors of tourism competitiveness that meet its renewed concept and integrate dimensions to consider the perspective of supply, demand, tourists and residents, as well as not excluding the economic bias but including the social side. Practical implications: Owing to the fact that monitors of tourism competitiveness have practically no variables related to the social, most of the surveys are carried out from the supply or demand perspective, leaving the resident distant from the process. In this way, the results allow authors to indicate that new models of competitiveness measurement should be formulated based on the vision of the community impacted by tourism, i.e. a new version of tourism competitiveness not based on productivity but rather on the social aspect. Originality/value: The findings of this study contribute to the field literature by offering an integrative concept of tourism competitiveness based on the elements with a higher level of consensus among researchers. Furthermore, the results accentuate a worrying fact regarding the operationalization of this concept, as the theoretical basis is not expressed in the monitors of competitiveness. Thus, nor it is possible in the management of the tourism industry.

ABSTRACTAs the COVID-19 outbreak expands across the globe, researchers in both the medical and health sciences and social sciences continue to share timely insight meant to enlighten all sectors of society. In this paper, a cross-disciplinary team of tourism and public health academics critically consider how these and other seemingly disparate research domains can cooperate on timely research endeavours, including but not limited to COVID-19. This article provides a brief overview of the intricacies of interdisciplinary work. We then discuss some of the diverse challenges and benefits of cross-disciplinary research. Future interdisciplinary research collaboration opportunities regarding COVID-19, within and outside tourism, are also proposed. Our conclusions should promote multidisciplinary research into global health problems as a way to enhance social welfare.

In academia, there appears to be a “publish or perish” (PoP) risk, resulting in the repetition of identical studies. Publishers and/or editors of journals, on the supply side, have decided to exclude additional sections to meet the increasing demand of only full articles. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the number of journal issues, articles, research notes, book reviews, and conference notes published in tourism and hospitality journals has varied over the last two decades. As well as using bibliometric analysis, interviews were also conducted with the editors of various tourism journals. Results conclude that the number of journal issues and articles has increased significantly while the number of book reviews and conference notes has had a sharp decline. The study finally notes the implications for the literature and avenues for future research.

This article discusses the history and status quo of traditional tourism motivation theories as well as their shortcomings. By adopting a collective approach to motivation, this study proposes a framework that examines tourism motivations from a complex adaptive system's perspective. To conduct this study, the destination-motivation semantic system was designed as a bipartite scale-free network that takes in inputs such as values, costs, benefits, experiences, reasons to avoid/approach, attitudes, and expectations, and delivers the outputs of motivational force (valence) and destination utility. Next, by employing expectancy and utility theories and applying the principles of information theory, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics, several appraisals were developed to determine the system's state, structure, and functionality. Finally, a toy model that presents the empirical proof of the proposed framework is depicted.

ABSTRACTUnderstanding the spending patterns of tourists and their major determinants is crucial to give practitioners the right directions to develop effective marketing strategies and also for researchers to define how to structure an expenditure model. This study attempts to search for the determinants of spending by European tourists travelling to Portugal. Unlike previous studies, this study benefits from the employment of the binary logistic regression to test a range of hypotheses. The study findings confirm that the amount spent by tourists is influenced by multiple factors both on the demand and supply sides. The paper also provides insights with theoretical and practical implications.

ABSTRACTBan Wangka Village is the most robust Mon community tourist destination in Thailand. However, since tourism arrived many changes have occurred. Sustainable cultural heritage tourism is the key element in the development of this destination and TBL is a key strategy that was implemented in order to develop the destination and to prevent unsustainable practices. Also, a qualitative method was applied using in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews with five groups of tourism stakeholders. The results reveal the details of the sustainable tourism situation and the various ways to best develop it. It was also found that the social and ethical dimension of the destination has been overshadowed by the economic dimension, which may lead to a lack of sustainability.

AbstractLake-destination areas are highly favoured places for tourists due to their aquatic environment as well as areas’ rich surrounding regions. Existing literature on marketing lake-destination marketing lacks insights to identify the main image attributes driving visitors and understanding the lake tourism concept. The present study examines textual and pictorial data to generate image variables about Alqueva Lake, Portugal, the largest manmade lake in Europe. Results provide insights to characterize the potential of lake-destinations and to develop a final list of variables specifically related to this destination type. The aim is also to help those involved in marketing the Alqueva Lake as a destination to identify and propose an adequate strategy.

The process of review is one of the most powerful influences in social sciences. But this process may have either a positive or negative impact on the quality of research outputs. The broader discussion about the paths to develop research surprisingly does not include the understanding of reviewers' and editors' procedures, which are the lifeblood of the system. This paper provides an analysis of the review process through the perspective of reviewers and editors. A mixed method approach was used to assess the motivations, goals and intentions of reviewers to keep collaborating with tourism research. Results suggest that, even under pressure, reviewers are willing to contribute in a positive way, though the added value of this duty is decreasing. Editors are aware of this evidence although they keep trying to push reviewers to deliver qualified contributions. Overall this process seems to be fed by the sense of belonging to the tourism academic community. This community is small but strong enough to keep the wheel turning. Finally, the research suggests the ways in which the review process can be improved to ensure its quality.

An extensive review of the literature indicates a very limited amount of empirical investigation on consumer psychology in tourism benefitting from travel narratives or storytelling. This paper therefore tries to uncover how visitors are likely to interpret the places, people and situations that they personally experience while travelling to three destinations: Dubai, Hong Kong, and Macau. Departing from theories on confirmatory personal introspection that suggest the use of multiple methods, this methodology employed in this study consists of the personal observation of the researcher (etic) and verbal and written expressions and memories of two members of a single family (emic) during the summer of 2014. The study contributes to the literature by offering a wider perspective of subjects in terms of visitor behaviour, tourism marketing and travel narratives.

AbstractThere is no doubt that destination image (DI) is an important sub-field of tourism destination marketing. Several meta-analysis studies have appeared since the emergence of this construct in the 1970s, resulting in almost 300 articles related with this topic. The mainstream of DI research was clearly identified by Chon (1990) and updated by Gallarza et al. (2002). Despite the existence of such evidence after forty years of research, several authors still recognize the lack of theoretical framework, stressing the difficulty in the operationalization of this construct. The risk of it being theoretical and non-scientific is a reality. But, at the same time, a wider scope of DI studies has emerged, and new methodologies have come to light. Considering these conclusions after four decades of research, a shift from a static to a more dynamic analysis is required. Scientific progress is not linear and cumulative but dynamic and evolutionary. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore Hirsch and Levin's (1999) life-cycle model mainly applied to ‘umbrella constructs’ (UC)—encompassing their birth, growth, maturity and decline—as the perfect framework for an evolutionary analysis. Implications of the model for future direction of the DI construct are explored and elaborated, in order to provide some insights to open avenues along which DI research can scientifically progress.

This paper explores the connection between three perceived Fundamental Moral Orientations (FMOs) and three perceived outcome preferences for men and women working in the Turkish hotel industry. Specifically, the study aims to investigate the relationships between the perceived FMOs of selfishness, self-fullness, and selflessness, and the perceived outcome preferences of serving personal, customer, and organizational interests. Additionally, the study examines whether gender influences either the perceived outcome preferences of hotel personnel or the FMO/outcome relationships. Based on data from 682 surveys, the FMO/outcome relationships and gender differences in those relationships are tested with correlation analysis; also gender effects and gender differences in the outcome orientations are explored with the single sample t-test and one-way MANOVA, respectively. Some gender effects and/or gender differences exist in each set of results. The mutual theoretical implications of the FMO/outcome relationship results and the outcome preference results are discussed, as are potential managerial implications for the Turkish hotel industry.

Given the importance of event organisations within a specific tourism destination, the main objective of this paper is to introduce the 2005 Universiade Summer Games held in Izmir, Turkey, as a case study, which will be assessed from various perspectives in the context of event and network management. Primary data collection was based on a face to face interview and a telephone conversation carried out among those people taking a direct responsibility in this organisation. The expected consequent benefit would lead to the promotion of destinations both at the local and national levels.

This study aims to identify employees' perceptions of the extent to which TQM programs are implemented into their hospital organisations; and to explore whether or not they perceive any problems with a successful implementation of TQM programs. According to the research findings, it appears that TQM perceptions are associated in the minds of hospital employees with the importance of their own responsibility and participation, patients' satisfaction, responsibility of upper-level management, measurement and reward system, and support of upper-level management. In addition, the responsibility of both upper-level management and employees has been raised as the most significant effect on employees' perceptions about the necessity of TQM programs at hospital settings.

ABSTRACTAs a result of increases in the demand for package holidays for the last two decades, it has been argued that destinations have, in a sense, become more important than individual attractions and facilities. Emphasizing the significance of quality management in the success of improving the performance of tourist destinations, this paper aims to design a tentative model of D-TQM, particularly applicable for the sustainable development of tourist destinations, and indicate the ways in which the model would work. The paper provides a discussion on why a destination-TQM approach is important in tourism followed by prerequisites for the successful implementation of D-TQM at the operational level.

AbstractModels should be used to facilitate understanding structure in data. This article is about using models that are adequate approximations to reality if models are used. A theory and research context for Markov modeling is given for repeat holiday travel and the examination of destination loyalty. A simple Markov model based on the literature and an expanded state space Markov model based on repeat travel related concepts in the literature are presented. Analysis of travel to Turkey from the UK and to the USA from Australia, Japan and the UK confirms Oppermann’s (1998a) claim that simple Markov models result in a poor approximation to reality. It is shown that expanded state space models can accommodate realism. Models producing hypothetical behavior or behavior that mirrors reality are discussed both generally and regarding repeat travel, specifically. Application of the ideas and methods presented to leisure research on matters other than travel is discussed.

In light of COVID-19's effects on individuals' social, economic, political, and psychological values, this paper aims to investigate the pandemic's role in possible changes to people's food consumption and meal habits in three countries, namely China, Portugal, and Turkey. The sample includes individuals from the three countries, exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests were used to test the differences. Results suggest that coronavirus has played a strong part in altering households' food consumption and meal habits within these countries. The pandemic has particularly led to greater consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and spending more time eating meals at home. Portugal appears to be consuming more seafood, bread, and butter whereas China features higher consumption of rice and meat products; Turkey is consuming more meat and eggs. The study closes with a set of recommendations for the society and future research.

ABSTRACTA number of research studies have been undertaken to investigate the importance and performance of destination attributes for holidaymakers visiting different locations and attractions. However, there has been limited investigation of visitor satisfaction with the Black Sea resorts. This paper reports the findings of empirical research carried out in Romania in order to highlight the importance of and performance levels of major destination attributes of Romanian resorts with respect to cross-cultural differences. Findings are analysed and limitations and implications discussed.

Given growing attention toward the effects on COVID-19 on tourism, a number of institutions have made macro-level predictions related to the disease. More micro-level research are, however, needed. This study seeks to advance the understanding of tourists' potential behavioral transformation by reviewing psychological distance and construal level theory, as well as the relationship between psychological distance and perceived risk. Multiple dimensions of psychological distance and perceived risk are summarized with respect to COVID-19. The discussion suggests that global health emergencies evoke three types of tourism pattern: from general to elaborate, from open-hearted to closed, and from radical to conservative. These categories provide a conceptual foundation for empirical research considering contextual and individual stimuli. Practically, this paper highlights strategies to reduce individuals’ risk perceptions, encourage specific types of tourism, and regulate unethical consumption. The recommendations also encourage the analysis of crisis recovery and relevant market analysis by tourism professionals and marketers.

•Size of choice sets differs for short-haul and long-haul destinations.•Size of choice sets for short-haul destinations is greater than that of long-haul destinations.•Range of set sizes is wider than that found in previous studies.•Long-haul tourists have a smaller early choice sets compared to short-haul tourists.•Travel-borne costs are one of the major constraints on international tourism.

Cross-border collaboration has become more valuable particularly for destinations that have had long-standing disputes in political relations but now seek peace. They are often forced to collaborate and develop economic and political bridges, developing friendships on the way. Although the industry has several cases of such collaboration in practice, this has been a neglected subject in academic studies. Therefore, this study explores the opportunities and benefits from a Turkey-Greece destination marketing collaboration. It seeks to identify catalysts for success through a range of potential instruments, organisations, solutions that remove possible barriers that may hinder a successful implementation. It also identifies the advantages of successful cross-border destination marketing such as being in close proximity in terms of history, culture, attractions and location. Finally, the paper discusses the ways to strengthen the competitiveness of both destinations as neighbouring countries. For instance, through their historical wealth and strategic location, both Greece and Turkey can obtain economic, social and political benefits from tourism that will also lead to peace making in the end. The study also provides implications for the practice and future research.