Search

Individuals' participation in tourism recreation events can be constrained by a number of situational factors and can also be bolstered by key influences such as a desire for a particular social identity. This study extends the current body of research by investigating the effects of social identity, motivation, and perceived constraints on desire, and thus on the intent to participate in organized motorcycle tourism events. This research was carried out on a sample of participants at an internationally acclaimed motorbike event: the Transitalia Marathon. The results of the structural model indicate that social identity has a positive influence on motivation, the desire to participate, and the intent to participate. In addition, social identity has a negative, direct effect on perceived constraints, which in turn have a negative effect on motivation. This motivation has a positive, direct influence on the desire to participate. The practical and research implications of this study are presented herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder tourism development has revolved around the sustainable branding concept and brand engagement challenges. Addressing concerns on branding and sustainability, this study aims to investigate the stakeholder destination image (socioenvironment, infrastructure, natural and cultural resources, and pleasant atmosphere) impact on destination brand (brand meaning, presented brand, brand awareness, and brand equity) with the mediating role of stakeholder brand engagement (behavioral, affective and cognitive). We draw on the self-congruity theory to develop hypotheses and collect data from different stakeholder groups (local people, visitors, and entrepreneurs) (N = 350). Structural equation modeling with second-order analysis was undertaken using SmartPLS 3.3.9. Our results show the significance of stakeholder destination image in positively building destination brand. The results also showed that stakeholder brand engagement partially mediates between destination image and destination brand. Our study provides implications for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work reports a holistic tourism destination assessment of Bantayan Island (Philippines) using an expanded tourism area life cycle (TALC) model. The expanded TALC contains five evaluation areas: destination characteristics, marketing response, economic impact, social impact, and environmental impact. Using various sources of evidence, findings suggest that Bantayan Island is positioned in the involvement stage of the TALC model. However, specific areas yield different results as the island is in the development–consolidation stage for destination characteristics, involvement–development for marketing response, involvement for economic impacts, development for social impacts, and involvement for environmental impacts. With these findings, various policy insights for destination management are offered, such as establishing carrying capacity, embracing a proactive marketing content and marketing analytics, managing resiliency of the locals and the tourism industry, integrating local culture in tourism packages, and reducing material and energy use and waste generation. These insights can be extended to other tourism destinations with similar conditions, particularly in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to obtain a deeper understanding of how the media frames the recent overtourism phenomenon and to theorize the impacts of such framing on policy making and mitigation by using framing theory. We conducted a content analysis of 85 media articles to compare the negative impacts of overtourism across destination types. The results revealed media reports of critical environmental impacts at national parks, beach destinations, and archaeological sites; high socioeconomic impacts at archaeological sites, island destinations, and urban destinations; and high infrastructural impacts at national parks, archaeological sites, and island destinations. Differences in the severity of impacts by destination type have implications for destination planning and management frameworks. We also used Entman's classification of frames to analyze the media's portrayal of the phenomenon. Results revealed that the media overemphasizes redefining overtourism and fails to cover a range of possible solutions for properly managing the complex issue, especially by major news sources. These findings suggest that the media continuously redefines overtourism as a new phenomenon and oversimplifies its complexity, which prevents addressing the root cause of the problem and misleads policy implications. Theoretical implications of media framing are discussed, as are remedial strategies for destination management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze factors determining tourist satisfaction with nautical destinations. To this aim, survey data were collected from 255 nautical tourists visiting Cape Verde and an ordinal logit model was used. Data analysis confirms that tourists' satisfaction increases with the diversity and quality of the nautical and cultural offer, and the security offered by the destination, in line with previous research. As novelty, the affective feelings towards the nautical destination were also found as an important antecedent of nautical tourists' satisfaction conformation. The study also confirms that tourists who had been in the archipelago previously do experience a higher level of satisfaction compared with nonrepeaters. Lastly, the fact of visiting other competing nautical destinations influences the level of satisfaction of the nautical tourists in Cape Verde, although not all previously visited destinations have the same impact. This suggests that strategies for nautical tourism development should be more attentive to establish long-lasting relationships and networking structures with some key competitors, and segment their marketing plans according to tourists' past destination choice. The results are of great importance for several destinations seeking to utilize the promotion of nautical activities as a key driver for tourism competitiveness and positioning improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destinations around the world are rolling out smart tourism initiatives to increase their competitiveness and to support their sustainability goals. However, whether smart tourism development can also help them build resilience is a question that currently lacks an answer. This article links the two concepts of smart destinations and destination resilience at the conceptual level and presents a five-pillar framework of smart destination resilience. Specifically, it suggests smart tourism infrastructure and governance equip smart destinations with sensing, opening, sharing, governing, and innovating capacities that can enhance destination resilience by supporting six specific resilience conditions. As such, the article provides the necessary theoretical building blocks to support empirical research at the intersection of smart tourism and destination resilience. It further provides practical insights on how to ensure that smart destination development leads to greater resilience but also warns of the need to scope out potential vulnerabilities inherent in smart destination design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a dearth of scholarly attention to the relationship of destination aesthetic and restorative qualities, this research investigates the connection between destination aesthetic and restorative qualities. It also explores the interrelationship between restorative and aesthetic qualities in nature-based and urban destinations. Associations between destination aesthetic qualities (Locale Characteristics, Scope, Upkeep, Accord, Perceived Age, and Shape) and restorative qualities (Compatibility, Extent, Mentally Away, Physically Away, Discord, and Fascination) were estimated by canonical correlation analysis. In nature-based destinations, the results illuminate the criticality of experiential characteristics of nature aesthetics to perceived destination restorative qualities and of fascination to destination aesthetic qualities. In urban destinations, findings indicate the importance of experiential characteristics of destinations and compatibility of tourists' needs and predispositions to vacation destination characteristics. Implications to tourism experience design are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comparative study of the destination competitiveness of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau and those strategies developed to enhance their future positions in the global destination "marketplace." The methodology adopted is secondary in nature in that a critical review of the existing literature was conducted along with a synthesis of current practices across the three city-state destinations. The 15 Cs Framework provides the research parameters for the study in that it advocates an inclusive approach to those challenges and opportunities facing destinations as they seek to enhance their overall competitiveness. In particular, the study explores the specific approaches of the three destinations in terms of their similarity to thematically grouped clusters of the 15 Cs. The article closes by highlighting particular opportunities and challenges and potential management approaches that could be adopted within the destinations for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic and social changes have had dramatic effects on regional areas. In a search for diversification, tourism and film may be targeted by these regions. Challenges of regional planning, however, include lack of local expertise, decentralized decision making, and diverse stakeholder groups. Specifically for film tourism this includes anticipating visitation numbers and assessing potential negative impacts. Broken Hill, located in Outback Australia, was used to investigate the complementary integration of film into regional development and tourism strategies. A stakeholder engagement process that adopted a transactive approach was implemented. The main findings of this process highlighted the need to develop the strong film presence into a visitor-friendly product, coordinating the film product with other destination strengths, establishing an expert and sector-diverse governance team, and developing a consistent brand with film as a component. Implications for other regional areas include considering how a film presence can be harnessed to develop film tourism experience opportunities, utilizing film tourism and production expertise to develop a coordinated and sustainable product, and to promote film experiences reflective of their place in the destination hierarchy. Finally, for film tourism, is the need to utilize representations of the range of destination experiences in film in destination marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to determine the suitability of the dyadic approach and the network relationship approach when engaging destination stakeholders and to identify the roles of the public sector within destination management. These study aims are investigated in the context of Mbombela Local Municipality, South Africa. A conceptual framework was developed based on a literature review. Data were then collected through official documents, 55 semistructured interviews with key stakeholders, a local economic summit, forum discussions, and 504 demand- and 403 supply-side questionnaires. The study findings suggest that the network relationship approach was the most suitable approach for the engagement of destination stakeholders. In addition to the roles identified in previous studies, the study findings identified several additional roles that the public sector should fulfill in destination management. Based on the study findings, a new conceptual framework for the role of the public sector in destination management has been proposed. By utilizing the conceptual framework developed in this study, destinations can engage their stakeholders more effectively and increase the attractiveness of their destinations. This is one of a few studies from Africa providing empirical findings on destination management and the role of the public sector within destination management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Created as a celebration of art, music, and surf culture, the Bleach Festival was designed as a fringe- style event to be positioned in the week between two major surf events (Quiksilver/Roxy Pro and Burleigh Pro) held annually in Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia. Using visitor data collected at the event, in conjunction with an in-depth interview of the event's manager, the study evaluates the success of the festival against its own objectives of tourism extension, destination brand development, and local artist engagement. Additionally, the study explores the utility of augmentation strategies in achieving these objectives. Resultant issues in measuring the value of arts and cultural development in conjunction with tourism are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since customers increasingly base purchase decisions on online reviews, tourism has to constantly manage and evaluate the whole service chain from the guests' perspective. Service design as a contemporary approach provides methods to analyze and visualize service chains in a holistic and user-centered manner. A customer journey map visualizes a sequence of direct and indirect touchpoints. Touchpoints are moments in which customers encounter a certain brand or destination from their first online search, their evaluation through social media, and the booking process, as well as the travel and stay itself and writing subsequent online reviews. The intentional design of service systems through the eyes of customers is becoming fundamental to compete for customer' s satisfaction. Service design builds on ethnographic research of real-life customers. However, quantitative and classic ethnographic research methods tend to fail when applied on the spacial scope and temporal extension of customer journeys in the field of tourism. In consequence, the innovative approach of mobile ethnography was developed to overcome this problem through integrating tourists as active investigators using smartphones. Mobile ethnography contrasts with other quantitative and qualitative research methods through its open approach. It is the guests who decide what is a touchpoint during their individual customer journey. This article reports on an EU-funded pilot study applying mobile ethnography in seven European tourism destinations. The findings of the study in St. Anton, Austria demonstrate the research design of mobile ethnographic research for tourism destinations and indicate its potential to iteratively improve the customer experience in a destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism destination governance is a topic that has been attracting the interest of scholars in the tourism field due to the difficulties associated with the management of destinations that are characterized by high fragmentation. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies addressing the topic of the stakeholder coordination that is needed so that all stakeholders work towards the development and promotion of the destination in a comprehensive and unique way. The present research aims to explore this somewhat neglected area of tourism research by studying how stakeholders working within a destination are coordinated. In order to achieve this aim, a case study approach on the city of Edinburgh in Scotland was applied. Two partnerships were studied: one was responsible for promoting the city as a place to live, invest, work, and study, and the other was responsible for the city's tourism development. Secondary data such as documents and reports from the two partnerships were analyzed and primary data were collected through 12 semistructured interviews with people involved in one or both partnerships. The results show that coordination needs to be carried out by adopting several mechanisms that can be used in conjunction in order to complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The audiovisual medium represents a tool that is able to influence the perception and the decision-making process of a large potential tourist demand. This can be commonly observed but is also confirmed, year by year, by a wide variety of empirical research studies worldwide. In some of them it emerged that the mere portrayal of a destination in an audiovisual production is not enough to reap the benefits of film-induced tourism. Tourism destinations need to work proactively to orient this phenomenon and to promote their territory and resources, among a whole and articulated destination strategy. In recent years, several tourism organizations worldwide recognized the opportunities associated with film tourism, but the lack of a clear strategy allowing the destination to benefit from such opportunities has often resulted in missing good chances. It is still unclear how much tourism development managers believe in the potential of audiovisual productions as a tool to be included in their destination management and marketing strategy. Furthermore, it is not clear whether such destination managers consider audiovisual and film productions among their tourism promotion tools at all. This article's aim is to shed light on this situation. In order to understand what is, or is not, happening, a significant and heterogeneous panel of 30 European tourism destinations has been surveyed with a quantitative research approach through a questionnaire-based web survey. It emerged that, as indicated by 100% of the respondents, European destination managers are aware of the relationship between film and tourism and mostly keen to work on it. But it is also possible to notice--among the results--that it seems movie-induced tourism is used just through sporadic attempts and therefore not approached in a strategic way. The survey explores both existing attitudes towards the phenomenon, and the commitment to develop it, using film in tourism communication strategies. The results of this article provide a new foundation for further research, as well as operative suggestions for worldwide tourism professionals committed to tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destination management (DM) is a collaborative process requiring destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to reconcile the diverging interests of various stakeholders and actively involve them in decision- and policy-making processes. Web 2.0 tools and e-democracy applications empower DMOs to further enhance the role and deepen the participation of tourism stakeholders in such collaborative DM processes. However, the literature has paid limited attention to such issues. This article synthesizes literature from four fields [namely stakeholder theory, collaborative decision making, collaborative destination management (CDM), and e-democracy] for developing a framework showing how DMOs can exploit Web 2.0 for developing collaborative decision-making processes for DM. The theoretical and practical implications of this framework are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development pattern of a tourism destination network is a factor in determining the growth of each tourism destination. This research note provides an analytical framework to investigate the dynamic properties of a tourism destination network and separately estimate the individual and destination benefits from destination network development. The method assumes network development is a dynamic process and uses estimates from expert assessors to measure the changes in network properties over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destination management is an important competitive marketing method for global tourism destinations. Especially, when cooperated with image and brand management, it helps destinations to stand out from today's severe crowd of competition. The successful and efficient destination management companies usually play a major role in marketing their destinations, but there exists a conflict in literature on the level of involvement in related marketing activities. Though managing an autonomous organization having its' own budget and freedom in decision making seems to be the best solution to meet the rapidly changing trends and needs of global tourists, it needs to be analyzed within the organizations' managerial level. The aim of this article is to determine the perspectives of DMO managers from the most important two destinations in Turkey, which is a very popular country that is usually in the first 10 in the international tourism market. The destinations chosen are Istanbul and Izmir, which by using destination management within the last 10 years were able to become popular global brands in the world market by increasing their share rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism distribution research to date has essentially taken a tier-by-tier approach to questions of channel structure and channel relationships rather than a nodal network approach. This article provides a new perspective by extending existing notions of distribution channels through a more explicit articulation of tourism distribution in network terms. It is based on a review of the literature and is informed by the experience of undertaking a major 5-year project on tourism distribution in New Zealand. Concepts and examples of tourism distribution networks are outlined; limitations in existing distribution research reviewed; ways to take network analysis forward are suggested and illustrated with examples; and the management implications for firms and destination management organizations are outlined. Steps to operationalize a network approach to tourism distribution include identifying the focal actors, considering the form of network and the structural dimensions to be analyzed, developing typologies and exploring network relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer complaints are an important factor for service providers; effective handling of consumer complaints can be a key to acquiring loyal customers. However, despite the abundance of studies on customer complaints regarding goods and service products of hotels and restaurants, there is a lack of research on customer complaints regarding tourism destinations. Aiming to specifically focus on customer complaints about a tourist destination, researchers of this text investigated (1) what types of complaints foreign tourists have, (2) how they tend to report their complaints and to whom, and (3) what sorts of practical measures they recommend to resolve their own complaints. To achieve this, an on-site self-administered survey was undertaken on foreign charter tourists visiting the southwest part of Turkey during the summer of 2004. Results showed that tourists had several complaints and several suggestions about resolving their complaints, mostly with monetary compensation. The article includes managerial implications and future research suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of uncertainty over traveler security, tourism experienced two major crises in 2003—the Iraq War and SARS. While the relative impacts of a complex array of impacts on travel decision making are almost impossible to dissect, this article explores the economic effects of the SARS crisis on tourism to Australia. Although the crisis resulted in less inbound tourism, it also has lead to reduced outbound tourism. The net economic impacts on the nation depend upon the extent to which cancelled or postponed outbound travel are allocated to savings, to domestic tourism, or to the purchases of other goods and services. Using a computable general equilibrium model of the Australian economy, simulations of the impacts of the events suggest that the net effects were not as severe as were perceived by tourism stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]