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Few studies of agritourism have focused on farm tourism on tropical islands, and even fewer have explored the motivations, challenges, and/or self-transformations of farmers engaged in farm tourism...

Although agritourism has received increasing attention among tourism researchers, few studies have focused on the phenomenon as it exists on tropical islands. This article helps to fill this resear...

While stress has recently been documented as an adverse impact of tourism, it has not been examined alongside traditional tourism impacts to determine their similarities and differences. To clarify the interrelations of these phenomena, we explored whether tourism-related stressors were similar to well-known tourism impacts, and whether perceived tourism impacts increased the likelihood of experiencing tourism-related stress. Residents of O’ahu, Hawai’i, were asked how much tourism impacted them on 36 variables, whether tourism caused them stress, and if so, how. Study findings reveal that tourism-related stressors often correspond with what have been traditionally considered tourism impacts. Moreover, only five of the tourism impact variables predicted the experience of tourism-related stress, and of these only one was a frequently cited stressor. Connecting impacts to stressors expands the possibility that certain tourism impacts could have consequences that go beyond mere opinions and attitudes, as stress has many health and wellness consequences.

Emotions and stress play an important role in individuals' quality of life and lived experience. Tourism can have a significant impact on the emotions and stress experienced by host community residents. In this study, the interrelationships between perceived tourism impacts, emotions from tourism, and tourism related stress were examined. Two mediated models were tested to examine the interdependence of stress and emotions. Several perceived tourism impacts predicted the experience of emotions from tourism and tourism related stress, while emotions and stress partially mediated relationships in both models. Host communities need to consider psychological outcomes such as emotions and stress when planning for the development of tourism.

No research has been published on the characteristics and behavior patterns of athletes traveling to compete in open water swimming events, despite the growing popularity of such events. This article fills this gap by profiling nonresident competitors in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, an iconic community-based event held annually on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Data were collected in an intercept survey of swimmers shortly after they finished the race. Nonresident competitors in the event were found to be a viable market segment according to established criteria for such viability. Their significant numbers and high incomes evidenced their potential profitability and their high levels of affiliation with swimming organizations suggested that personal selling to the organizations' leaders and advertising via the organizations' newsletters and websites might be effective channels through which to reach them. In addition, their high levels of education, athletic identity, experienced "flow," involvement with open water swimming, and importance ascribed to swimming "the famous Waikiki coastline" suggested that advertisements directed at them should be designed to resonate with well-educated, accomplished, and committed athletes, include reminders of the psychological and social benefits of race participation, and explicitly mention the event's unique and attractive geographic and historical setting.

Many destinations contain television channels that primarily exist to advertise tourist attractions and facilities to the destinations’ visitors. However, no empirical research has been published on the effectiveness of such advertising. To help fill this information void, this article reports results from visitor intercept surveys designed to evaluate a tourist-oriented cable TV channel in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. The results were consistent with theoretical expectations. Respondents who watched the channel, compared to those who did not, decided to take a trip that involved visiting the Black Hills significantly fewer days prior to their departures, were more likely to have stated that the Hills or a place therein was the main destination of these trips, and spent more money in the Hills on their trips. During the 30-day study period, about 10.4% of visitor parties had heard of the channel, 5.3% had watched it, and 2.0% were influenced “a great deal” to visit one or more featured attractions or facilities. Estimated audience size was 15,000 visitors and estimated advertising returns on investment for two prominent commercial attractions were $9.20 and $14.00. Suggestions for further research are advanced.

Although tourist attractions are the drivers of tourism to many communities, and local citizens’ support of these attractions is vital to their viability, the economic outcomes of such support have never been assessed. To help fill this information void, the authors examined the unusual case of a historical attraction that was closed in 1983 by the federal government agency operating it but resurrected the following year by local citizens who considered it indispensable to their town’s identity, cultural heritage, and tourist appeal. Since the attraction would not exist but for this intervention, the current value of the community’s resuscitation of it in 1984 was inferred from the economic impacts it currently generated. In 2007 these were estimated to be about US$1.6 million in direct attraction-related expenditures in the town, US$2.1 million in business revenues, US$629,000 in personal income, US$141,000 in local and state taxes and fees, and 27 new jobs.

Local visitors to recreation areas, many of whom provide voluntary support to area managers, and tourist visitors from outside the surrounding regions, whose expenditures stimulate the regions' economies, are among the most important clientele groups of such areas. The purpose of this article is to synthesize and expand past research on these groups, drawing upon results from a mail survey of visitors to a state park rail-trail used mostly for mountain biking. Sharp differences between local and tourist visitors emerged that corroborated many of the results of past studies. Compared to tourist visitors, local visitors tended to be younger, to have lower incomes, to visit the trail more frequently, and to place greater importance on visiting the trail for solitude, quietude, and the enhancement of health and fitness. Tourist visitors were more likely than their counterparts to have been mountain biking aficionados. Implications related to the formation of strategic alliances, the design and management of f...

The goals of participants in a given type of recreation activity available in a specific recreation area may be in conflict with those of participants in other types of recreation available in the same area, creating difficult challenges for area managers. Moreover, little is known about the characteristics and behaviour patterns of such groups and how they might differ from one another, leaving managers less equipped to communicate effectively with them than would otherwise be the case. This article helps to fill this information void by comparing the characteristics and behaviour patterns of equestrians, hikers, mountain bikers, and runners on a rail-trail in South Dakota, USA. Significant differences across these activity groups emerged. For example, compared to the other groups, equestrians tended to be older visitors who sought an appreciation of history and nature, almost always in the company of others. Runners, on the other hand, tended to be younger visitors who sought to ‘promote health and fitn...

This is a case study of the impact of the global economic recession of 2007–2009 on Hawai'i's visitor industry. The industry responded to the downturn largely with advertising blitzes to its primary market on the US mainland. Notwithstanding these efforts, diminished lift capacity and visitor arrivals, combined with widespread discounting, resulted in a 26% decrease in real visitor spending in 2009 versus that in 2006. The industry recovered during 2010 and 2011, but major hotel foreclosures, State bond downgrades and lost accommodations jobs are enduring scars. The experience demonstrated anew Hawai'i's need to strengthen its visitor industry and diversify its economy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tourism is frequently cited as a tool by which American Indians can strengthen the economies of their reservations. However, successful tourism development on such reservations requires effective tourism planning, and effective tourism planning requires public participation in the planning process. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) has proved to be a useful group process in the tourism field but its application to tourism planning on American Indian reservations has been unexplored. This article helps to fill this knowledge gap by reporting on an NGT workshop conducted on the Lake Traverse Reservation of the Sisseton–Wahpeton Oyate (people, nation) in North and South Dakota, USA. Rich information on tourism development possibilities for three lakefront properties was obtained. Possible success factors are discussed and suggestions for conducting similar future workshops on American Indian reservations are advanced.

Various general tourist markets have been successfully segmented based on the volume of tourists’ expenditures in destination areas. However, the approach has been rarely employed in more narrowly defined ‘special interest’ tourist markets. This study tested the viability of expenditure-based segmentation in the case of a special interest market comprised of visitors to a rail-trail in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. Nonresident visitors were classified as light, medium, and heavy spenders based on their total expenditures in the region. Although heavy spenders comprised only 33% of the Trail’s market, their spending accounted for 65% of the expenditures of the market as a whole. Compared to their counterparts, heavy spenders were more likely to have been mountain biking aficionados, to have had higher incomes, and to have had longer lengths of stay and greater involvement with recreation in the study region. Findings suggest how heavy spenders can be successfully reached, attracted, and served.

This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.

Although fall color touring has long been pursued by the traveling public and promoted by destinations, it has been the subject of extraordinarily little research. This article helps fill this knowledge gap and assists destination marketers seeking to more effectively attract this market niche. Analyses of data from a telephone survey of households in the Great Lakes region indicate that marketers who wish to attract fall color tourists should promote a wide range of ancillary activities in addition to foliage viewing and target primarily older individuals in nearby markets.

To mitigate the ill-effects of seasonality in the tourism industry, efforts to attract tourists during non-peak seasons must become more effective, but this can be accomplished only by better understanding the nature of low season markets. To enhance our understanding of the fall tourism market, this article presents insights gained from a telephone survey of households in the Great Lakes region. Fall tourists, compared to their summer counterparts, were found to be older, less likely to travel with children, and less active in recreation. Fall color viewing rarely motivated trips and was much more prevalent as an ancillary activity. Distinct types of fall tourists were identified based on patterns of participation in trip activities and whether trips began during the early, middle, or late fall.

This article documents the popularity of five types of trail-based recreation relative to other forms of recreation that tourists frequently participate in on their trips; identifies these trail users’ cross-participation in other outdoor recreation activities; and profiles the travel behaviour, media habits, trip planning behaviour, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of day hikers and snowmobilers as two particularly large trail user segments. Findings are based on data from a household telephone survey conducted in Michigan, surrounding states, and Ontario, Canada. Hiking/backpacking was found to be the most popular natural resource-based recreation activity that respondents participated in on pleasure trips taken during the past 12 months; other forms of trail-based recreation were significantly less popular; mountain bikers participated in nature-oriented recreation activities in Michigan at levels that were similar to those of hikers/backpackers; and snowmobiling appeared to be the foc...

Tourism development is widely considered a means by which the economies of American Indian reservations (AIRs) can be strengthened. Understanding attitudes toward tourism on AIRs is important to effectively plan for such development. This study contributed to the advancement of such an understanding, drawing upon data from intercept surveys of attendees at American Indian wacipis (pow-wows) in South Dakota, USA. It found that American Indian respondents were generally less sanguine about tourism on AIRs than non-American Indian respondents, that American Indian respondents generally supported tourism on AIRs but such support was by no means universal, that attitudes toward tourism on AIRs were only weakly related to demographic characteristics, that inter-tribal differences in such attitudes existed even among ethnically related Siouan tribes, and that American Indian respondents could be meaningfully disaggregated according to their attitude composites.