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The study responds to the paucity of understanding of tourists' attitudes toward peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation services in less-developed economies. By gaining insights into the extant literature, the study proposes and tests a research model that accents the impact of perceived economic benefits, social incentives, and trust on consumers’ attitudes towards P2P accommodation. Notably, it also explores the potential attitudinal effect of the new materialist lifestyle. Data were collected through a web-based survey involving 112 consumers aware of P2P accommodation with prior domestic tourism experience in the Philippines. Partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was employed for data analysis. The findings reveal that only economic benefits and trust perceptions can predict consumers’ attitudes towards P2P accommodation services. Considering this, accommodation providers should continue to emphasize the economic value of their services to expand the customer base. Additionally, platform and accommodation providers can also enhance trust-building initiatives to reduce consumers' risk perceptions potentially aggravated by the ongoing pandemic.

This study investigates how virtual reality (VR) can enhance telepresence and stimulate VR use and travel intentions in the sustainable tourism industry. 512 local and international tourists in Vietnam participated in an online survey after experiencing a VR experiment. They interacted with an app presenting a sustainable tourist destination based on nature, with the treatment group using VR sets and the control group viewing it on a 2D screen. Results indicate that VR-based tours facilitate greater telepresence than 2D presentations. VR is not a substitute for actual travel, with higher intentions reported to use VR in the future and to visit the tourist destination in real life due to their greater telepresence and perceived enjoyment from VR. This has implications for nature-based sustainable tourism, with further research needed for other types of tourism, including extreme activities.

Objective: The advancement of Internet technology brought up the tourism industry towards new development and opportunities. With application of the Internet technology tourism industry comprises a vast range of virtual communities such as Trip Advisor, Agoda, Travelocity and so on. Existing research concentrated on evaluating the factors influencing virtual communities' behaviour with limited evaluation of tourist perception. This paper focused on examining the tourists' perception of a virtual tour through the sentimental analysis model based on eWOM for sustainable development. Method: The developed model comprises the group average Bayesian network with the computation of the polarity of the tourist perception. A Bayesian network is a data-driven method involved in estimating dependence among the variable with probabilistic computation. Results: The analysis is based on data collected from sample population in Vietnam with consideration of the 11 variables. Participation intensity, social identity, functional value, emotional value, sharing, interaction, and user satisfaction are among eleven primary variables that have been chosen. Conclusions: The analysis of the results expressed that the user satisfaction level is based on the user's experience and functional value. Additionally, the analysis stated that social value comprises the intermediary role in virtual tourism. This research adds to research methodologies of user engagement methods as well as serves as a reference for theoretical research and management practise in the virtual tourist community.

Objective: The advancement of Internet technology brought up the tourism industry towards new development and opportunities. With application of the Internet technology tourism industry comprises a vast range of virtual communities such as Trip Advisor, Agoda, Travelocity and so on. Existing research concentrated on evaluating the factors influencing virtual communities’ behaviour with limited evaluation of tourist perception. This paper focused on examining the tourists' perception of a virtual tour through the sentimental analysis model based on eWOM for sustainable development. Method: The developed model comprises the group average Bayesian network with the computation of the polarity of the tourist perception. A Bayesian network is a data-driven method involved in estimating dependence among the variable with probabilistic computation. Results: The analysis is based on data collected from sample population in Vietnam with consideration of the 11 variables. Participation intensity, social identity, functional value, emotional value, sharing, interaction, and user satisfaction are among eleven primary variables that have been chosen. Conclusions: The analysis of the results expressed that the user satisfaction level is based on the user's experience and functional value. Additionally, the analysis stated that social value comprises the intermediary role in virtual tourism. This research adds to research methodologies of user engagement methods as well as serves as a reference for theoretical research and management practise in the virtual tourist community.

What makes tourists revisit a particular destination? Contemporary researchers have approached this problem through the lenses of various operant conditioning models. The current study explores the dimensions of ecotourism and destination loyalty anchoring on the expectation-confirmation theory. The findings confirm that factors such as destination image, tourist satisfaction and tourist experience significantly predict destination and ecotourism loyalty. The investigation first employs a confirmative factor analysis (CFA) model with a marker to inspect correlations among the latent variables. After the constructs are validated through the CFA procedure, a series of hierarchical regressions are introduced to test the hypotheses formulated. The empirical observations approve of all direct and indirect pathways in the structural equation model. For the purpose of the study, 522 Vietnamese tourists who travelled to the Czech Republic for tourism were recruited. The examination has profound marketing implications for ecotourism businesses and DMOs to improve their delivery models.

This study aimed to assess the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for destination marketing of sustainable tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 249 students, who were shown a video about low-impact tourism in Vietnam using one of the two media types, namely VR and on-screen 2D. A structural model was proposed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and was estimated using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach. The results provide evidence for VR to have a positive effect on travel intention through both higher perceived enjoyment and higher environmental involvement. However, these effects were observed to be not as significant when considering travel intention during the pandemic. While stronger telepresence achieved by VR may encourage users to engage in more sustainable behaviour and improve enjoyment from the experience, the avoidance to travel stemming from health and safety concerns amidst the pandemic greatly offset the effectiveness of VR as a marketing tool. The results highlight the importance of considering individual-level preferences in tourism.

Purpose: An extant literature review of hospitality manpower performance reveals the scarcity of green skills among young graduates of hospitality management in the Asian context. Studies signal the discrepancy between knowledge imbibed and skills acquired. The current study is a call to action to identify the barriers to green training at the academic level. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a qualitative investigation by senior academics from Asian countries. Thematic analysis is the primary method deployed. Findings: Four major themes emerged from the analytical exercise. They include lack of resources, policies and regulations, an overburdened curriculum and awareness. Interestingly, the themes are in tandem with the Tourism Education Futures Institute (TEFI) value framework for nurturing sustainability practices in the hospitality industry through systematic programming of hotel management education. Practical implications: In order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2030 (Goal 4) of ensuring lifelong strategic education to foster sustainability, the green skill–knowledge gap must be bridged at the academic level. The current paper sheds light on how the synergy between industry and academia can address this knowledge–skill gap and develop sustainable capacities in the long run. Originality/value: This study used a qualitative dataset, and the findings contribute to the sustainability literature. Further studies can be undertaken using big data in varied settings.

Over the last few years, more and more people have been using YouTube videos to experience virtual reality travel. Many individuals utilize comments to voice their ideas or criticize a subject on YouTube. The number of replies to 360-degree and unidirectional videos is enormous and might differ between the two kinds of videos. This presents the problem of efficiently evaluating user opinions with respect to which type of video will be more appealing to viewers, positive comments, or interest. This paper aims to study SentiStrength-SE and SenticNet7 techniques for sentiment analysis. The findings demonstrate that the sentiment analysis obtained from SenticNet7 outperforms that from SentiStrength-SE. It is revealed through the sentiment analysis that sentiment disparity among the viewers of 360-degree and unidirectional videos is low and insignificant. Furthermore, the study shows that unidirectional videos garnered the most traffic during COVID-19 induced global travel bans. The study elaborates on the capacity of unidirectional videos on travel and the implications for industry and academia. The second aim of this paper also employs a Convolutional Neural Network and Random Forest for sentiment analysis of YouTube viewers' comments, where the sentiment analysis output by SenticNet7 is used as actual values. Cross-validation with 10-folds is employed in the proposed models. The findings demonstrate that the max-voting technique outperforms compared with an individual fold.

The Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India, located at the height of 150 meters above the surrounding sandy plains, is one of the city's most prominent monuments built over the Jodhpur group-Malani-Igneous Suite. The old city, which boasts numerous blue-painted houses, lies adjacent to the Mehrangarh Fort. The residents of the old city play a significant role in keeping the geoheritage and cultural heritage intact. The study investigates the moderating role of residents’ Perception towards support for Geoheritage Tourism and Conservation in and around Mehrangarh Fort. A combination of Weber’s theory of substantive and formal rationality (WTSFR) and Social Exchange Theory (SET) is used to investigate and infer the interposing and moderating role of residents’ perception on the relationship between influencing factors and support for geo-heritage conservation. A PLS evaluation of the SEM reveals a substantial capacity of the residents’ perception to predict support for conservation and tourism development. © 2021 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.

The main purpose of this study is to capture key pro-environmental behaviours that are triggered when individuals are subjected to a virtual environment simulation of a pristine tourism destination. The study made use of virtual reality headsets to gauge potential predictors of pro-environmental behaviour. Pre and post intervention response differentials were recorded through a structured questionnaire on 100 individuals. The study was divided into two stages. The first stage comprised of the PLS-SEM algorithm which empirically tested postulations anchored on the Pro-Environmental Behaviour framework. The second phase of the study deployed the PLS-MGA algorithm to observe changes in propensities. Findings reveal that, virtual reality interventions partially effect how individuals perceive pro-environmental behaviour. The study advices policy makers and practitioners to cultivate industry 4.0 technologies like virtual reality to raise awareness about climate action among tourists. For academicians, the study expands the utility sprectrum of the Pro-Environmental Behaviour (PEB) framework and it is suggested that future studies inculcate virtual/augmented/extended reality competencies in experiment based investigations. The study maybe repeated in the context of other developing economies where sustainable tourism development remain a challenge. © 2022 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.

Job security for most working population is crucial in ensuring living standards. The main goal of this article is to find out, based on the analysis of employment, unemployment, vacancies, and wages in various job categories in the Czech Republic between 2015 and 2022, which job groups are most prone to job insecurity and job loss. Data from the Information System on Average Earnings (ISPV) and MLSA portal were used to analyse the structure of job seekers and job vacancies and to establish employment and wages. Data were processed using descriptive statistical methods. An evaluation of the variance was performed among the selected variables. A t-test was used to measure differences in job security between the observed employment categories. The results show that higher-skilled worker requirements characterize the best job classes regarding job security and wages. On the other hand, the unstable job categories with high unemployment rates and low wage rates were support and unqualified jobs and service and sales jobs. A final important finding is that firms are creating jobs with low educational requirements, which may indicate stagnation in future job innovation.

This research study focuses on the positive impact of eWOM in determining the selection of eco-tourism destinations. A positive review of tourism destinations has significant images, content and experience. Its natural beauty, environment-friendly practices, sustainability, and other factors determine an eco-tourism destination. The paper's findings suggest that tourists research before selecting a destination. An honest review of a previous consumer has more impact on a potential customer. Travellers opt for online and offline media to judge the authenticity of the destination. This research paper also examines how electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) impacts the tourists' decision to select and visit eco-friendly destinations?

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the best predictor of firm performance among different proxies. A sample of 287 Czech firms was taken from automobile, construction, and manufacturing sectors. Panel data of the firms was acquired from the Albertina database for the time period from 2016 to 2020. Three different proxies of firm performance, return of assets (RoA), return of equity (RoE), and return of capital employed (RoCE) were used as dependent variables. Including three proxies of firm's performance, 16 financial ratios were measured based on the previous literature. A machine learning-based decision tree algorithm, Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID), was deployed to gauge each proxy's efficacy and examine the best proxy of the firm performance. A partitioning rule of 70:30 was maintained, which implied that 70% of the dataset was used for training and the remaining 30% for testing. The results revealed that return on assets (RoA) was detected to be a robust proxy to predict financial performance among the targeted indicators. The results and the methodology will be useful for policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and managers to take strategic business decisions and forecast financial performance.

An extensive, PRISMA-led bibliometric analysis of scientific literature from the last 20 years was conducted to extract future research agenda in the niche field of sustainable tourism and the application of virtual reality+ technologies (extended, mixed, hyper, and augmented). The field being investigated contains significant opportunities through meta-analysis methods like linear-logarithmic transformations, coupling clustering, and network analysis. Astringent keyword inclusion rule ensured that the most pertinent scientific literature entered the analysis. The authors used critical content analysis parameters like Cohen's kappa to include the best fit papers. This bibliometric analysis convenes the need to focus on emerging areas like cyber-neurotics, telekinesis, cyber-optics, and gamification to provide impetus to sustainable consumption and production in the tourism and travel industry. The paper expresses the paradigm shift in research topics as the world enters the COVID-19-induced pandemic and its impact on future research endeavours.

The study revisits the predictors of consumers' intentions to use peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) services and accents the impact of positive emotional responses from COVID-19 crisis response communication efforts adopted by P2PA service providers. An online scenario-based survey was carried out among 265 consumers from the Philippines. The results of the analysis reveal that peer-to-peer accommodation usage intentions remain driven by perceived economic benefits, environmental benefits, and trust while dismissing the desire for social interaction. Emotions elicited from crisis response communication affect consumer psychology and behavior, hence, service providers should aptly communicate crisis response efforts along the route to crisis recovery.

As the sharing economy continues to diffuse in the global sphere, this paper seeks to understand the relevant behavioral antecedents for individuals to supply resources in technology-enabled platforms, especially in environments where resource scarcity subsists and the cultural landscape varies. Explicitly, we examine the impact of a set of belief factors and the individual-level collectivistic orientation on the core constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior. A web-based survey was carried out in the Philippines, and a total of 365 valid responses were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results show that attitude and perceived behavioral control strongly drive the consumers' intention to share resources in the sharing economy. Attitude is markedly preceded by altruistic and social tenets traditionally attached to sharing practices, while perceived behavioral control is endorsed by perceived trust and ease of use. Also, this work recognizes the attributions of culture to behavior as evidenced by the significant positive effect of collectivism towards the subjective norm. However, the potency of subjective norms on behavioral intention is argued. The study findings offer relevant insights to existing and prospective sharing economy platform providers in fostering peer-provider participation in the less developed world.

The Czech Republic has experienced momentous tourism expansion in recent years. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical investigation about this development. Innovations are an essential factor for the sustainable development of the tourism industry in the Czech Republic. The paper expounds on the effect of technical and process innovations among the tour and travel companies in the Czech Republic. The study surveyed 96 travel and tour operators aged 18-40 working in the various small, medium, and large travel agencies to determine their perceptions towards innovation in their respective travel businesses. A two-phased statistical process that combined PLS-SEM and GLM examined the responses of the individuals. It revealed that technical innovation had a robust and positive relationship with corporate profitability. Process innovation remains a grey area for Czech travel businesses. The study builds upon the Process Innovations in Colombia's Tourist Enterprises or PICTE framework to induct critical insights for travel agencies and tour operators to provide these businesses a way forward and make them more competitive and sustainable. It has been observed that tourism businesses that were not early adopters of disruptive technologies became vulnerable to market mechanisms. Therefore, the relevance of this study is further accentuated. COVID-19 has accelerated the climate of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) among Czech tour and travel operators, many of whom winded up or downsized operations. Many of these firms were in the medium and small segments. In light of the present situation, it becomes imperative that travel service providers invest in modern technologies and ensure the same diffusion among the staff. The paper gave the strategies towards human resource mapping and digital transformations for the best interest of the tourism industry. Future studies are recommended to focus on longitudinal measures towards understanding innovation

This research focuses on the impact of the tourist experience on the relationship among destination image, tourist motivation, and tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty by examining the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationship between constructs. A research model was proposed, in which nine hypotheses were developed, and the empirical data were collected from Hue city, which is a major tourist destination in Vietnam. A total of 204 questionnaires were returned, and the data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The moderating effect of the tourist experience on the impact of the destination image, tourist motivation, and tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty is analyzed in this article. The proposed conceptual model was tested, and the results reveal a significant relationship between the two constructs to destination loyalty (destination image and tourist satisfaction). Furthermore, the findings support the proposed destination loyalty model: destination image, tourist satisfaction directly influenced destination loyalty, and tourist experience play an important role as a moderator in the relationship between tourist motivation and tourist loyalty. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This paper aims to develop a behavioral intention theoretical model using destination image, tourist motivation, tourist satisfaction, tourist experience, and re-visit behavioral intention constructs. The research analyzes and measures the direct impact of destination image, tourist motivation, and tourist satisfaction to re-visit visitors and the role of tourist experience as a moderator variable. These relationships will be investigated for a sample of international tourists visiting Hue city in Vietnam. A total of 421 questionnaires were returned, and the data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). A path analysis results indicated that destination image and tourist satisfaction get affected to re-visit tourist sites, and tourist experience has significantly affected behavioral intention to re-visit visitors. The implications and limitations of the study would be discussed and presented in conclusion. The outcomes of the study have a significant impact on destination managers. © the authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.

The study utilizes robust neural network mechanisms to analyse and predict Filipinos’ sharing tendencies of capacity-constrained resources on sharing economy platforms. Specifically, it underscores insights that supplement marketers’ efforts in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector by clustering various groups with their preferred choice of shared resources. The literature answers market related gaps in the implementation of sharing economy enterprises in the tourism industry by advising possible avenues of consolidation. The investigation leads to further discourse by experimenting with demographic level data to split the market into groups for service design and delivery. The paper attempts to contribute to the existing corpus of knowledge by introducing machine learning algorithms in the sharing economy perspective. © the authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.

This study contributes to the literature by offering insights over the relationship between job satisfaction and work stress with employees' motivation among travel agencies in India. The paper aims to determine the impact of job satisfaction and work stress on employees' motivation level with a specific focus on the moderating impact of employees' expertise and marital status in the context of travel agencies in Southern India. A survey was conducted over employees of travel agencies in Southern India by adopting scales from the extant studies, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling through Smart PLS. The outcome of the study reveals that job satisfaction has a strong significant effect on employees' motivation, unlike work stress and employees' expertise has a partial significant moderating effect on the relationship between work stress and motivation. The study stressed much about the combined effects of the mediators. The present study has tested the new composite scale to measure the overall motivational level, unlike the previous studies. The survey was conducted between November 2019 and December 2019 and entails 164 respondents, the majority of the subjects are millennials between 18 and 35 years, with 43.3% having master's degree, all were found to be pre-qualified for the investigation. © 2020 LLC CPC Business Perspectives. All rights reserved.

People are visiting rural places of interest like never before; this has garnered much interest in tourism academia. With scholastic advances in the field of sustainable tourism development over the last 4 decades, it is important that growth should be managed and measured through the paradigms of sustainable tourism development (Institutional, Economic and Environmental), that becomes the essence of this conceptual paper wherein an attempt is made to predict the attitudes of tourists towards rural destinations in order to further comprehend the economic dynamics of sustainable tourism development and its implication on rural destinations. The study aims to utilise existing epistemological aspects pertaining to the investigation of tourist behaviour, the authors have attempted to adapt the Theory of Planned Behaviour and use one of its verticals that is `attitude' to study the population.