Noel Scott

An insightful and much-needed textbook, a welcome gesture from an Arab perspective. It simply tackles the problems of demarcation between the Arab world and the rest of the Muslim world with narratives that open the eyes of outsiders to the wealth of tourism to be found within the Arab civilisation. Yeganeh Morakabati, Bournemouth University, UK In today's competitive and culturally diverse global village it is encouraging to see the first volume that explores tourism in the Arab world. This unique volume provides an interesting analysis of this multifaceted, complex and sometimes controversial subject. This is a timely volume that is a must-read for all involved in the tourism industry. It provides a comprehensive overview of emerging research agendas and perceptive insights into contemporary issues. Yvette Reisinger, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait An authoritative business-based resource book, penned by international authors in the know, the volume unveils covert tenets of the Arab tourism world whose development potentials are poorly understood, let alone sustainably realized. Insightfully pragmatic. Jafar Jafari, University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA This book is the first to explore Arabic tourism from a business viewpoint, rather than taking a sociological, anthropological or political stance. It focuses on business planning, management and marketing destinations in the Arab World, which are topics crucial for industry stakeholders and which have previously been neglected in the tourism literature. The book examines similarities and differences in the emergence and development of the tourism industry in countries across the Arab world as well as its inbound and outbound travel flows. It analyses several different aspects of Arabic tourism including tourism policy, organisation and planning, tourism product development, destination marketing and consumer behaviour. This volume will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers of tourism studies, business and Middle Eastern studies.

Research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations is an established area of scholarly attention. This research note provides a systematic review of the theoretical trends in 162 journal articles on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations in top tier journals between 1977 and 2019. This short communication contributes to tourism research and scholarship by demonstrating that prior research on visitor attitude is descriptive and lacks theoretical engagement, with the gap between atheoretical and theoretical articles continuing to expand. Subsequently, future research should consider the application of active theory from parent disciplines such as social psychology and cognitive psychology to provide research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations with further depth, substance and theoretical maturity.

This paper explores the potential of a social media platform, WeChat, for adding value to qualitative data collection in research on tourism experiences. This manuscript details how WeChat provides a unique opportunity for researchers to collect rich in-depth qualitative data without physical immersion into sampling. Additionally, WeChat encourages sustained interaction between the researcher and the subject to enhance the depth of the data collected to answer theoretically-driven research questions and ensure the data collected trustworthy. A conceptual model of WeChat-mediated data collection within memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) research is presented. This manuscript contributes to an emerging scholarly debate on the collection and interpretation of tourism qualitative data in a society where interaction has become increasingly mediated through social media. Future research should focus on studies which assess the efficacy of comparable social media platforms for conducting internet mediated research in tourism.

Traditionally, previous studies regard destination competitiveness as a static concept. More recent studies adopting a demand perspective consider competitiveness to be dynamic, with destination competitiveness varying according to tourism niche. Competitiveness also varies within tourist segments in the same niche. The authors apply the concept of travel experience to understand destination competitiveness better. Using the SCUBA diving tourism niche, the authors investigate the extent to which tourists' level of travel experience influences the importance they give to destination competitiveness attributes in a hypothetical SCUBA diving destination. Cluster analysis of results from an online survey (n=712) revealed three groups with different levels of travel experience. Significant differences among the three groups were apparent in seven of ten destination competitiveness factors. The findings demonstrate the dynamism of destination competitiveness when measured from the demand perspective. Results also demonstrate that travel experience is an appropriate characteristic for classifying tourists regarding destination competitiveness attributes.

In cognitive psychology novelty is an antecedent of attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. However, the relationship between novelty and experience memorability remains conceptually underdeveloped in tourism. This research applies cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to explore the contribution of novelty and emotion to memorable tourism experiences (MTEs). Seventy-five novel travel episodes were identified through semi-structured interviews. Analysis focused on the antecedent and consequent conditions of novelty. Novel experiences, whether positive or negative, were identified as critical to experience memorability. Novelty could be segmented into trip-related and event-related dimensions. Novelty contributes to how spatial, temporal, and contextual details of tourism experiences are remembered and reconstructed due to the elicitation of intense emotions. Analysis revealed negative experiences deemed as novel were found to be re-evaluated and often remembered as a positive experience. A conceptual model titled "cognitive appraisal of novelty in memorable tourism experiences" is presented for consideration in future research. By applying a retrospective and prospective approach the conceptual model explores the role of novelty through the process of cognitive appraisal, identifying goals, attention, and prior experiences as central for the experience of novelty. Future research should consider the application of recent advance in CAT to advance inquiry on tourism experiences as a psychological phenomenon.

Smartphone technology has the potential to change the nature of a tourists’ experience in a protected area. A smartphone running an augmented reality (AR) app may contribute to the protection of national parks while enhancing a visitor’s experience. This paper examined potential visitors’ to Potatso National Park, Shangri- La, China, their preferences for seven such AR experiences and the effect of visitors’ acceptance of technology on the perceived value of visiting the park. An online questionnaire (n = 323) identified results and provided insights for enhancement of national park experiences using AR.

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

This study investigates the influence of emotional responses evoked by destination television advertisements on three common variables of interest when assessing tourism advertising effectiveness: attitude towards the advertisement, post-exposure destination attitude and visit intention. In particular, this study used a combination of self-report and psychophysiological measures of emotion and explored the consistency between these two measurement techniques. 101 participants were exposed to 18 existing destination commercials while their real-time psychophysiological responses and self-report data were collected. The results show that the influence of ad-evoked emotions on tourism advertising effectiveness varied according to the way emotion was measured. The effects of pleasure on tourism advertising effectiveness were much weaker when pleasure was measured physiologically than when self-report measures were used. Physiological arousal, however, was not found to be a significant indicator of advertising effectiveness. The results highlight the importance of valid and reliable measurement of emotion and raise concern over the possible overestimation of the relationship between self-reported emotional responses and advertising effectiveness.

This paper examines the meaning and significance of screen tourism location authenticity. The paper analyses the interrelationship among places (real versus substituted historical sites associated with tourists' favorite films and TV programmes), and activities (reenactment of photo shootings and costume rentals). The study finds a number of visitor segments go to screen tourism locations. For Screen Authentic Tourists, objective and existential authenticity do not matter as long as the destinations are associated with their favorite films. Screen tourism is a rapidly growing sector; this paper examines its dynamics and evaluates various approaches to screen tourism authenticity particularly theoplacity.

Emotion is emerging as a central concept in tourism research, critical for the delivery of memorable tourism experiences. However, existing approaches in tourism do not adequately explain the process by which emotions are elicited. Recent advances in cognitive and neuropsychology demonstrate that emotions are elicited through an appraisal process, which occurs in the cortex of the brain. These processes produce chemical monoamine neurotransmitters that lead to bodily feelings, which in turn enable our brain to recognise emotions. This research note draws on Lövheim's Cube, a self-report scale that provides a proxy indicator of the likely presence of monoamine neurotransmitters of serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. Six images of the Great Barrier Reef were used as a stimuli in an online panel survey (n=1249). Results demonstrate that images used by tourism stakeholders are likely to produce stronger neurological reactions than images from an environmental non-governmental organization. Combining recent advances in self-report methods with a neurocognitive approach has the propensity to offers additional insight into emotional reactions to visual stimuli. Further research should focus on the efficacy of utilising self-report measures with cutting edge psychophysiological techniques, such as ambulatory electroencephalography (EEG) to open the door to the next frontier in tourism emotion research.

This study provides a review of eye-tracking as a technique for measurement of attention. The review discusses its theoretical basis, advantages and disadvantages, data collection procedures, analysis methods and application in tourism and hospitality. Areas for further research in tourism and hospitality are provided based on a systematic review of tourism research using eye-tracking.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature at the intersection between air transport and tourism research. Air transport and tourism are synergistic industry partners, but research on their interaction is a neglected topic and one where there is a growing interest. A
systematic literature review method was used to analyse relevant articles from 54 ABDC (Australian Business Dean Council) journals ranked A*, A or B, published in the period 2000-2014, and to identify trends and research themes, leading researchers, as well as their
institutions and geographical locations. Among the identified research themes, ‘environment’, ‘passengers’ and ‘airlines’ are found as the most common. The use of a systematic review has identified gaps in the literature and directions for future studies.

Competitive advantage arises from a superior value that, rather than delivered by suppliers, is co-created by tourists. Using a set of destination competitiveness attributes, this study investigates the importance of destination competitiveness attributes in a ‘hypothetical successful scuba diving destination’ from the perspective of scuba diving tourists. Further, this study also investigates to what extent level of experience as a scuba diver influences the importance given to destination competitiveness attributes. An online survey (n=712) identified ten underlying factors: diving operations, risk perception, diving conditions, price, destination management, big wildlife encounters, diving training, tech diving, general tourist attraction and visa policy. Furthermore, this research established that the attributes related to diving operations are the most important and that divers with different levels of experience value differently six of the ten destination competitiveness factors. This research presents evidence that destination competitiveness may be explored through unique demands in tourism niches (and within niches) rather than generally for a destination.

Purpose: This review discusses concepts and theories from cognitive psychology, identifies tourism studies applying them, and discusses key areas for future research. The paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of cognitive psychology for understanding why tourists and particularly pleasure travellers demonstrate the behaviour they exhibit. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews 165 papers from the cognitive psychology and literature regarding pleasure travel related to consciousness, mindfulness, flow, retrospection, prospection, attention, schema and memory, feelings and emotions. The papers are chosen to demonstrate the state of the art of the literature and provide guidance on how these concepts are vital for further research. Findings: The paper demonstrates that research has favoured a behaviourist rather than cognitive approach to the study of hedonic travel. Cognitive psychology can help to understand the mental processes connecting perception of stimuli with behaviour. Numerous examples are provided: top down and bottom up attention processes help to understand advertising effectiveness; theories of consciousness and memory processes help to distinguish between lived and recalled experience; cognitive appraisal theory predicts the emotion elicited based on a small number of appraisal dimensions such as surprise and goals; knowledge of the mental organization of autobiographical memory and schema support understanding of destination image formation and change and the effect of storytelling on decision-making; reconstructive bias in prospection or retrospection about a holiday inform the study of pleasurable experience. These findings indicate need for further cognitive psych ology research in tourism generally and studies of holiday travel experiences. Practical implications: Cognitive psychology provides insight into key areas of practical importance. In general, the use of a cognitive approach allows further understanding of leisure tourists' behaveiour. The concept of attention is vital to understand destination advertising effectiveness; biases in memory process help to understand visitor satisfaction and experience design; and so on. Use of cognitive psychology theory will lead to better practical outcomes for tourists seeking pleasurable experiences and destination managers. Originality/value: This is the first review that examines the application of concepts from cognitive psychology to the study of leisure tourism in particular. The concepts studied are also applicable to study of travellers generally.

Increasingly, residents of developed nations such as Japan who retire from work are choosing to live in Thailand or other less-developed countries. Such international retirement migration (IRM) is due, in part, to the baby-boomer generation entering into retirement and living longer. This paper investigates Thai stakeholders' perceptions of the developments required to cater for international retirement migrants. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were undertaken with 35 industry participants in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand. Content analysis of the transcribed recordings found considerable new real estate development and services specifically for these retirees has been created in recent years, but that there is lack of stakeholder collaboration in catering to this market, deficiencies in local resident knowledge and skills of the retirees' culture and language; along with a need for policy and planning support from government. The study highlights the importance of retirement accommodation, medical services centres, professional staff, safety and security and convenience to retirees.

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

Although an objective and increasingly common technique in marketing, media and psychology, psycho-physiological measures are rarely used in tourism research to detect tourism consumers' spontaneous emotional responses. This study examines the use of psycho-physiological measures in tourism and in particular explores the usefulness of skin conductance and facial electromyography methods in tracking emotional responses to destination advertisements. Thirty-three participants were exposed to three destination advertisements while their self-report ratings, real-time skin conductance and facial electromyography data as well as post hoc interview data were obtained. The results demonstrate that, compared with self-report measures, psychophysiological measures are able to better distinguish between different destination advertisements, and between different dimensions of emotion. Participants' affective experience reported in post hoc interviews was found to be consistent with emotional peaks identified from continuous facial electromyography and skin conductance monitoring. These results validate the ability of psychophysiological techniques to capture moment-to-moment emotional responses and it is concluded that psycho-physiological methods are useful in measuring emotional responses to tourism advertising. Methodological insights regarding the constraints associated with the use and application of psychophysiological methods are discussed.

This paper explores the HR challenges faced by hotel managers in Langkawi due to the implementation of the Minimum Wage Order (MWO). Design/ methodology/ approach – This study collected qualitative data from twenty managers from nineteen hotels of various sizes and level of service including budget and boutique resorts on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. Semi structured interview is used to ask the question " What are the challenges faced by hotel managers due to the implementation of the MWO? " Findings – The challenges faced by the managers are: low employee productivity levels, many employees with a salary below the minimum wage rate, difficulty paying staff due to low revenue and issues related to the service charge. Research limitations/ implications – This study provides an initial qualitative exploration of an important current legal development impacting hotel managers in Malaysia. It provides some initial findings from Langkawi but the findings may not represent the attitudes of hotel managers in other parts of Malaysia. Practical implications – This study contributes to HR management literature by providing insight to challenges faced by four to five star hotel managers in a developing country. To the managers, the MWO guideline is a serious challenge as some of their employees are not productive enough to be paid at the minimum wage rate. To address increasing labour cost some have turned to the employment of foreign workers while others have increased their casual employee numbers. These insights may serve to guide policy makers and hotel managers in other developing countries that are planning to introduce a MWO. Social implications – For the MWO to be effective, it is crucial for the government to develop effective guidelines for its implementation, and for employees amongst the Langkawi community to increase their level of productivity. Originality/ value – The Malaysian MWO policy was introduced in 2012. The policy affects employees' remuneration and provides a challenge in implementation for the Malaysian hotel industry especially in Langkawi. While many studies on MWO implementation focus on unemployment this study provides the managers' perspective on the challenges faced due to the implementation of this policy and identifies reasons why the unemployment rate for local workers may increase after an MWO.

Abstract The notion of the student experience has risen in prominence in response to changing student cohorts, reforms to the higher education system and broader societal and technological trends. Indeed, contemporary notions of the student experience extend well ...

This paper addresses the central guiding questions: "What principles of services management need urgent rethinking in Asian Century? What opportunities and challenges lie ahead?" The paper addresses this question from a psychological and customer perspective. Services managers are well-positioned and have a great future for two reasons. Firstly, services in general are the growing part of the global economy. Secondly, services managers provide the experiences required by increasingly affluent consumers. On the other hand, there is in general within the services sector a lack of knowledge and expertise in understanding the consumer psychology of hedonic consumption. Additionally, and especially in Western countries, there is lack of knowledge about the cultural differences in experiential requirements of Asian consumers. To address these issues this paper provides a review of relevant literature on hedonic consumption and related issues of emotion, attention, mental time travel, and importantly how these phenomena may be measured.

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This study examines on-site co-creation experiences from a tourist perspective. A review of the relevant literature and in-depth interviews with 22 tourists who participated in a 'swimming with dolphins' experience are used to explore the importance of active participation and interaction in enhancing tourist attention and the memorability of the experience. Findings show that high levels of attention and memorability have been associated with particular cognitive and physical activities and interactions during the overall experience, and suggesting that on-site co-creation influences memorability by focusing a visitor's attention. This study contributes both to the understanding and conceptualization of co-creation experiences in the field of tourism by substantiating the usefulness of a psychologically-based approach to experience design.

Food is an important topic in the field of tourism, and has also been studied in many other disciplines. While most tourism literature considers food as an important motivating factor to travel, researchers such as McKercher, Okumus, and Okumus (2008) have suggested that the methods used to study food tourists do not examine the reasons for travel; instead they provide only tenuous causal relationships between actions (visiting a food destination) and motives (wanting to eat food). Thus, a more holistic approach to studying food tourists is required to better define the relationship between tourists’ motivation to travel to a destination and their participation in food-related experiences. Therefore, this study examines the vacation decision-making of a group of Slow Food members with a high interest in food in terms of how they select their vacation destinations and their activities in those destinations.
Vacation decision-making is a complex process with different stages. Of the different decision- making models available to study this process, the FLAG (fits-like-a-glove) theory was adopted as the framework in this study. This model has a naturalistic approach that considers decision-making as a process, and that each individual’s decision is influenced by their past experiences (Woodside, 2006). While many underlying variables influence decision-making, two that require further investigation are involvement and lifestyle.
This study aimed to understand how food is important in the vacation decision-making of Slow Food members; thus, it examined Slow Food members’ destination activity preferences based on their involvement and lifestyle. The Slow Food movement is a non-profit foundation with over 20 years of history and over 100,000 members in 150 countries around the world. The philosophy of Slow Food is based on acquiring ‘good, clean and fair’ food. “Good food is defined as being tasty and diverse, and produced in such a way as to maximise its flavour and connections to a geographic and cultural region. Clean food is sustainable, helping to preserve rather than destroy the environment, while fair food is produced in socially sustainable ways that emphasise social justice and fair wages” (Schneider, 2008, p. 390).
In order to achieve its aim and objectives, the study adopted a mixed methods exploratory research approach. In Phase 1, 40 interviews were conducted with international Slow Food members from four continents to identify their vacation decision-making, food-related lifestyle, travel lifestyle and destination activity preferences. Data analysed in Phase 1 was used in the development of a destination activity preferences scale included in Phase 2. In Phase 2, an online survey of Slow Food members and an on-site survey of non-Slow Food participants were carried out. These surveys ii
collected 337 valid responses from international Slow Food members and 207 valid responses from non-Slow Food participants.
Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data collected in Phase 1 assisted by NVivo 9.2. In Phase 2, SPSS 19 and AMOS 19 were used to analyse the quantitative data. Statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, factor analysis, one-way ANOVA, multiple regressions, two-way ANOVA and path analysis were used to test the relationships among the major variables related to involvement, lifestyles and destination activities.
Findings from the qualitative data suggested Slow Food members had two stages of decision- making. In the first stage, members made their decisions about travel to a destination independently of food, with the availability or types of food unimportant in the process of deciding on their travel destination. However, when members arrived in the destination, they undertook a second stage of decision-making regarding the activities in the destination, with most members’ destination activity preference behaviour being associated with their Slow Food philosophy. Slow Food members showed preferences for certain food and travel activities that were related to ‘good, clean and fair’ food, and to slow tourism.
The quantitative data analysis compared three involvement groups in Slow Food: high involvement (HI); low involvement (LI); and no involvement (NI). The results showed distinctive differences between Slow Food members (HI and LI groups) and non-members (NI group). Slow Food members shared similar interests such as buying good quality food products, a love of cooking and learning about local cultures. These interests coincided with Slow Food basic values and corroborated the findings from the qualitative data. On the other hand, non-Slow Food participants demonstrated more price sensitivity, preference for comfort travel and affinity for adventure.
Overall, this study demonstrates that Slow Food members present consistency in their behaviour at home and in their destination. Although food was not an important motivator for Slow Food members to travel to a destination, when members arrived in the destination, their involvement in Slow Food, food-related lifestyle and travel lifestyle did influence their destination activity preferences, as they chose activities related to Slow Food core values. This thesis presents a different approach to the study of food and the decision to travel to a destination, and provides evidence that involvement in Slow Food, food-related lifestyle, and travel lifestyle influenced participants’ selection of destination activities.

Today's tourism industry is not possible without air transport, modern airports infrastructure, efficient and safe airline services and worldwide air transport networks. According to the WTO report (2006), 40% of the international tourists now travel by air. The main purpose of this paper is to review the literature of air transport and tourism research. A systematic literature review (SLR) method was used to analyse relevant articles from 54 ABDC list journals ranked A*, A or B, published in period 2000-2014. This paper provides a summary of the trends and research themes identified. Key researchers, as well as their institutions and geographical locations are also mapped. The findings have shown a growing interest in researching and publishing on this subject. The use of SLR has allowed areas for future studies to be identified.

Most of the existing destination competitiveness models are exclusively derived from a supplier's' perspective, even those that recognise demand as an important element of the competitiveness of a destination. A small number of studies investigate competitiveness from a demand perspective of the destination attributes. However, destination attributes on those models are derived from a supplier's perspective. This study aims to review the literature and determine these gaps by focusing on the demand point of view, particularly from the tourists' perspectives of value in a market niche. In addition, a conceptual framework is proposed to facilitate further research in this area.

A Means-end Chain (MEC) approach was used to examine the outbound travel motivation at the attributes/ consequences/ values levels, as well as the structure and interrelationships between them, in order to link between the destination attributes with motivational drivers. A two-step process was used with 60 in-depth interviews using a soft-laddering method, and 600 hard laddering surveys conducted.  Six key means-end chains emerged from the data analysis serving as the basis for understanding the underlying motivations of Chinese travellers to travel outbound. This study not only enriches the literature of travel motivation, but also provides meaningful insights into the research on the Chinese outbound leisure travel market, which is an emerging market with strong potential for future growth.

Emotion plays a pivotal role in tourists’ decision-making processes and is also an important component of tourist experience. Measuring these elicited emotions has always been challenging for both academics and practitioners. Existing tourism studies still record tourists’ emotions by use of a self-report questionnaire which in the majority of cases require respondents to recall their emotions after the trip. While useful and inexpensive, self-report questionnaires face a series of criticisms such as discontinuity, cognitive bias and participant fatigue. Acknowledging the deficiencies of self-report measures, this paper discusses psychophysiological techniques and proposes two techniques (skin conductance and facial electromyography) as suitable options in tourism research. Psychophysiological measures provide an objective and authentic record of individuals’ affective responses and do not involve significant cognitive disturbances. The paper concludes that the application of psychophysiological techniques in tourism studies could help to better understand tourists’ emotions and enhance the reliability and validity of results.

This report documents the results of a research project which aimed to enhance the quality of the experiences provided by Australian tourism businesses. Tourism is a lead industry in the experience economy. In this new era, operators are seeking ways to provide experiences that offer unique and meaningful experiences for consumers, through dialogue and connection, rather than stock-standard, passive tours and products. As a leading
Australian leisure tourism destination, the Gold Coast offers a variety of interesting and attractive experiences to its visitors and wants to be at the forefront of experiential tourism. The Gold Coast is receiving increasing numbers of Asian visitors and this research examined how to enhance the visitor experience, with a specific focus on developing product for the international student market.

Al-Riyami, H., Scott, N., Ragab, A. and Jafari, J. (2017) Sustainable tourism in Oman: lessons for the Gulf Cooperation Community Region, in Stephenson, M.L. & Al-Hamarneh, A. (eds.) International Tourism Development and the Gulf Cooperation Council States: Challenges and Opportunities. Taylor & Francis.