Dr Noel Scott is Adjunct Professor of Tourism Management in the Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast. His research interests include the study of wildlife tourism, tourism experiences, destination management and marketing, and stakeholder organization. He has over 300 academic articles published including 16 books. He is on the Editorial Board of 10 journals, a Fellow of the Council of Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Educators, and a member of the International Association of China Tourism Scholars. He has experience in tourism in a number of countries including China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka
An insightful and much-needed textbook, a welcome gesture from an Arab perspective. It simply tac... more 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.
[Extract from Preface] by Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General
United Nations World Tourism Organizati... more [Extract from Preface] by Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General
United Nations World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Spain
June 2010
Tourism in the Muslim World presents the first collection of scholarly writings concerning tourism in the Muslim world. Its chapters provide a synthesis of thought on this important issue for tourism and indeed for our times, offering a point of focus for tourism students, researchers, managers, and developers in Muslim countries and beyond, eager to increase their share in this 1.6 billion strong tourism market.
The 21 chapters of this book have been contributed by scholars from 16 countries: Australia, Brunei, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Each chapter sets out a distinct view of tourism in the Muslim world, indicating a vibrant and developing field of study.
This research note distinguishes between the concepts of novelty, unexpectedness and surprise (N-... more This research note distinguishes between the concepts of novelty, unexpectedness and surprise (N-US) applied in research on tourism experiences. In many tourism studies, these concepts are used interchangeably leading to terminological ambiguity and conceptual confusion. However, in cognitive psychology each term has distinct and identifiable meaning. This short communication articulates and interprets each concept through the lens of feelings-as-information and cognitive appraisal theories. In cognitive psychology, novelty is an appraisal dimension influencing the intensity of emotion. Unexpectedness can be explained as a conscious recognition that novelty or a feeling of surprise has been experienced. Surprise can be defined as an unconscious (emotional) state, as well as conscious awareness of the event associated with feelings, which occurs due to mismatch between expectations and actual experience (leading to an appraisal of novelty). Each of these three concepts have neutral valence, and thus may be associated with both pleasant and unpleasant tourism experiences. Overall, this research demonstrates that use of cognitive psychology can provide much needed conceptual clarity concerning mental processes that connects perception with consequent behaviour and memorability.
Research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations is an established area of scholarly attenti... more 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 qualita... more 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.
This study examines a phenomenon that has recently emerged in China –vegan tours. An exploratory ... more This study examines a phenomenon that has recently emerged in China –vegan tours. An exploratory case study was conducted to examine the features of a vegan tour (VT) to Wuyi Mountain, explore tourist’s motivations for joining and their benefits from such a tour. Motivations include personal vegan food preferences, changing family members’ attitudes toward vegan food and visiting local attractions. The vegan packaged tour includes vegan meals and activities emphasizing self-reflection and eudemonic benefits such as personal growth and mindfulness. This study provides an in-depth understanding of VT and has implications for developing meaningful food tourism experiences.
Traditionally, previous studies regard destination competitiveness as a static concept. More rece... more 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.
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research , 2020
This paper examines how real-time emotions elicited by advertisements affect post-viewing judgmen... more This paper examines how real-time emotions elicited by advertisements affect post-viewing judgments, with the goal of determining whether the key moments of real-time emotions lead to enhanced global retrospective judgments. Facial electromyography was used to measure objective and unbiased moment-to-moment emotions. One hundred and one participants watched three destination advertisements while their real-time facial EMG data and self-report ratings were collected. The results demonstrate that tourism consumers’ average, peak and end emotional experiences are correlated with their post-viewing attitude towards the advertisement. However, this study does not provide additional support for superiority of the peak and end moments in driving global retrospective evaluations in tourism advertising. The study advances our understanding of how consumers evaluate tourism advertisements based on more objective physiological data, and extends the literature on key moments and retrospective evaluations. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
In cognitive psychology novelty is an antecedent of attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. How... more 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.
Tourists often travel to experience the natural beauty of a destination such as the Great Barrier... more Tourists often travel to experience the natural beauty of a destination such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia. This nature-based destination attracts millions of tourists every year because of its outstanding underwater aesthetics. Recently, parts of the GBR have been degraded by warming sea temperatures and other local anthropogenic influences, threatening the Reef aesthetics and tourism in the region. In order to deal with this topical issue, the current research investigates tourists’ aesthetic assessment of environmental changes in the GBR ecosystem. Research outcomes indicate that tourist’s perceived beauty of the Reef is sensitive to environmental changes. The disappearance of sea animals (colourful fish, turtle), degrading coral and decreasing water quality negatively influence their aesthetic assessment, which can reduce tourist visitation in the long-term. Hence, sustainable tourism development in the GBR regions can only be achieved when governmental policies regarding reducing pollution, improving water quality and protecting marine life are strengthened. Conservation programs of the GBR should be expanded beyond coral restoration to comprehensive planning to secure water quality and nurture aesthetically appealing sea animals.
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management., 2020
Food is a necessary part of a trip, but it can also create a memorable experience. This study exp... more Food is a necessary part of a trip, but it can also create a memorable experience. This study explores the relations between food experiences, place attachment, destination image, and revisit intention, as well as the moderating effects of food neophobia and food involvement. The study was conducted in Macau using a survey of 450 inbound tourists. Findings indicated that food experience has a significant correlation with place attachment and destination image. This study also found food neophobia has an important moderating effect on the relationship between food experience and place attachment. Food involvement moderated the relationship between food experience and destination image. These results indicate that positive food experiences can increase place attachment and destination image, but its impact is moderated by food-related personality traits.
Tourists may experience the same negative event during their travel but evoke different emotions,... more Tourists may experience the same negative event during their travel but evoke different emotions, some may express anger and others undertake dangerous actions. An understanding the relationship between such negative events, the emotions elicited, and tourists' subsequent actions will help in managing these emotional situations. This study adopts cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to examine the antecedents of tourists' negative emotions (worry and anger) evoked by a flight delay, as well as their respective effects on tourists' behavioural intentions. Data was collected from 610 tourists who experienced a flight delay during travel. The results demonstrate that, as predicted by CAT, the appraisal dimensions of goal incongruence, certainty and other-agency are the common determinants of worry and anger, while the appraisal of circumstance-agency is negatively related with anger. The results also reveal that anger can lead to tourists' switching intentions, complaining behaviours, and negative word-of-mouth, while worry only affects complaining behaviours. This study extends our knowledge of appraisal dimensions that lead to tourists' emotions of worry and anger. It also discusses the impacts of such emotions have on tourists' behavioural intentions.
An insightful and much-needed textbook, a welcome gesture from an Arab perspective. It simply tac... more 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.
[Extract from Preface] by Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General
United Nations World Tourism Organizati... more [Extract from Preface] by Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General
United Nations World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Spain
June 2010
Tourism in the Muslim World presents the first collection of scholarly writings concerning tourism in the Muslim world. Its chapters provide a synthesis of thought on this important issue for tourism and indeed for our times, offering a point of focus for tourism students, researchers, managers, and developers in Muslim countries and beyond, eager to increase their share in this 1.6 billion strong tourism market.
The 21 chapters of this book have been contributed by scholars from 16 countries: Australia, Brunei, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Each chapter sets out a distinct view of tourism in the Muslim world, indicating a vibrant and developing field of study.
This research note distinguishes between the concepts of novelty, unexpectedness and surprise (N-... more This research note distinguishes between the concepts of novelty, unexpectedness and surprise (N-US) applied in research on tourism experiences. In many tourism studies, these concepts are used interchangeably leading to terminological ambiguity and conceptual confusion. However, in cognitive psychology each term has distinct and identifiable meaning. This short communication articulates and interprets each concept through the lens of feelings-as-information and cognitive appraisal theories. In cognitive psychology, novelty is an appraisal dimension influencing the intensity of emotion. Unexpectedness can be explained as a conscious recognition that novelty or a feeling of surprise has been experienced. Surprise can be defined as an unconscious (emotional) state, as well as conscious awareness of the event associated with feelings, which occurs due to mismatch between expectations and actual experience (leading to an appraisal of novelty). Each of these three concepts have neutral valence, and thus may be associated with both pleasant and unpleasant tourism experiences. Overall, this research demonstrates that use of cognitive psychology can provide much needed conceptual clarity concerning mental processes that connects perception with consequent behaviour and memorability.
Research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations is an established area of scholarly attenti... more 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 qualita... more 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.
This study examines a phenomenon that has recently emerged in China –vegan tours. An exploratory ... more This study examines a phenomenon that has recently emerged in China –vegan tours. An exploratory case study was conducted to examine the features of a vegan tour (VT) to Wuyi Mountain, explore tourist’s motivations for joining and their benefits from such a tour. Motivations include personal vegan food preferences, changing family members’ attitudes toward vegan food and visiting local attractions. The vegan packaged tour includes vegan meals and activities emphasizing self-reflection and eudemonic benefits such as personal growth and mindfulness. This study provides an in-depth understanding of VT and has implications for developing meaningful food tourism experiences.
Traditionally, previous studies regard destination competitiveness as a static concept. More rece... more 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.
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research , 2020
This paper examines how real-time emotions elicited by advertisements affect post-viewing judgmen... more This paper examines how real-time emotions elicited by advertisements affect post-viewing judgments, with the goal of determining whether the key moments of real-time emotions lead to enhanced global retrospective judgments. Facial electromyography was used to measure objective and unbiased moment-to-moment emotions. One hundred and one participants watched three destination advertisements while their real-time facial EMG data and self-report ratings were collected. The results demonstrate that tourism consumers’ average, peak and end emotional experiences are correlated with their post-viewing attitude towards the advertisement. However, this study does not provide additional support for superiority of the peak and end moments in driving global retrospective evaluations in tourism advertising. The study advances our understanding of how consumers evaluate tourism advertisements based on more objective physiological data, and extends the literature on key moments and retrospective evaluations. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
In cognitive psychology novelty is an antecedent of attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. How... more 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.
Tourists often travel to experience the natural beauty of a destination such as the Great Barrier... more Tourists often travel to experience the natural beauty of a destination such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia. This nature-based destination attracts millions of tourists every year because of its outstanding underwater aesthetics. Recently, parts of the GBR have been degraded by warming sea temperatures and other local anthropogenic influences, threatening the Reef aesthetics and tourism in the region. In order to deal with this topical issue, the current research investigates tourists’ aesthetic assessment of environmental changes in the GBR ecosystem. Research outcomes indicate that tourist’s perceived beauty of the Reef is sensitive to environmental changes. The disappearance of sea animals (colourful fish, turtle), degrading coral and decreasing water quality negatively influence their aesthetic assessment, which can reduce tourist visitation in the long-term. Hence, sustainable tourism development in the GBR regions can only be achieved when governmental policies regarding reducing pollution, improving water quality and protecting marine life are strengthened. Conservation programs of the GBR should be expanded beyond coral restoration to comprehensive planning to secure water quality and nurture aesthetically appealing sea animals.
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management., 2020
Food is a necessary part of a trip, but it can also create a memorable experience. This study exp... more Food is a necessary part of a trip, but it can also create a memorable experience. This study explores the relations between food experiences, place attachment, destination image, and revisit intention, as well as the moderating effects of food neophobia and food involvement. The study was conducted in Macau using a survey of 450 inbound tourists. Findings indicated that food experience has a significant correlation with place attachment and destination image. This study also found food neophobia has an important moderating effect on the relationship between food experience and place attachment. Food involvement moderated the relationship between food experience and destination image. These results indicate that positive food experiences can increase place attachment and destination image, but its impact is moderated by food-related personality traits.
Tourists may experience the same negative event during their travel but evoke different emotions,... more Tourists may experience the same negative event during their travel but evoke different emotions, some may express anger and others undertake dangerous actions. An understanding the relationship between such negative events, the emotions elicited, and tourists' subsequent actions will help in managing these emotional situations. This study adopts cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to examine the antecedents of tourists' negative emotions (worry and anger) evoked by a flight delay, as well as their respective effects on tourists' behavioural intentions. Data was collected from 610 tourists who experienced a flight delay during travel. The results demonstrate that, as predicted by CAT, the appraisal dimensions of goal incongruence, certainty and other-agency are the common determinants of worry and anger, while the appraisal of circumstance-agency is negatively related with anger. The results also reveal that anger can lead to tourists' switching intentions, complaining behaviours, and negative word-of-mouth, while worry only affects complaining behaviours. This study extends our knowledge of appraisal dimensions that lead to tourists' emotions of worry and anger. It also discusses the impacts of such emotions have on tourists' behavioural intentions.
International Journal of Hospitality Management , 2020
Emotions are key drivers of consumption in the tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, advanci... more Emotions are key drivers of consumption in the tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, advancing our understanding of the determinants of consumer emotions is critical for tourism and hospitality marketers to effectively influence consumer affect-driven consumption behavior. However, research on the determinants of pre-consumption emotions remains under-explored. This study aims to fill the research gap and proposes a theoretical framework to explain affect-driven behavior. Grounded on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we hypothesize that marketing stimuli are personally appraised based on several dimensions such as novelty and goal relevance. These appraisal dimensions determine the elicitation of positive emotions, leading to behavioral intentions. A total of 655 participants were recruited for an empirical study to test this framework in the context of a tourism event experience. We use an experimental research design to examine consumer appraisals, emotions and behavioral intentions in four conditions: two marketing visual formats (poster vs. video) over two delivery channels (advertising vs. e-word-of-mouth). Research outcomes support the theoretical framework of consumer affect-driven behavior, suggesting that the elicitation of positive emotions beneficially guides consumer behavior in goal striving and novelty seeking. Based on this, emotion-focused marketing implications are recommended, including goal-based segmentation, goal-relevant content development and the use of eWOM as an emotion-enhancing message delivery channel.
Although problems are a fundamental dynamics of tourism knowledge production, a systematic, exclu... more Although problems are a fundamental dynamics of tourism knowledge production, a systematic, exclusive, and in-depth study of tourism problems or tourism problemology has been overlooked. This study, which represents the first time to examine the nature of tourism problemology, aims to fill this gap. A theoretical model is developed and partially tested through a survey of 212 Chinese tourism researchers. Results show that researchers generally consider problems as difficulties or contradictions that require resolution. Moreover, personal/environmental factors influence the researchers’ understanding of problems, and such understanding further affects their evaluation and selection of problems at the early stage of research. The study highlights the significance of problems as an important, yet overlooked reflexivity of tourism knowledge production.
Tourism, by definition, involves travel outside one’s usual environment. This means that a touris... more Tourism, by definition, involves travel outside one’s usual environment. This means that a tourist’s attention cannot rely only on previously experienced known symbols and markers and instead derives meaning from paying attention to their surroundings. In this context, management of a visitor’s attention processes is a key issue in the design of memorable tourist experiences and business success. Psychological research highlights two types of attention processes: bottom-up and top-down. This research is the first to identify factors influencing bottom-up attention during on-site experience and to examine the moderating impact of top-down factors of attention. The empirical research used questionnaires obtained from tourists participating in two animal-based experiences at a theme park. The results show that of the bottom-up factors analysed, only two influenced attention, Rarity and Environment stimulation. Concerning the moderating influence of top-down factors, the research found that Interpersonal interaction and Task performance/Goal achievement affect the way external factors impact on attention, and that the intensity of this relation varies according to the relevance of this moderation.
Purpose-This study aims to investigate the decision-making processes of international retirement ... more Purpose-This study aims to investigate the decision-making processes of international retirement migrants. The development of a place in response to the high demand for international retirement (IR) migration has become an important strategy for stakeholders within host destinations; of particular interest is IR migrant behaviour and intention to stay and retire in a foreign country. Design/methodology/approach-This research presents the results of a qualitative study using face-to-face interview techniques. Content analysis technique was used to analyze data from interviews with thirty-three international retirees in Thailand. Findings-Destination stakeholders must consider: creating awareness of the destination through WOM, trustworthy websites, and government channels, that migrants evaluate a destination based on pre-retirement visits that create attachment and emotional feelings for the place, and finally, the decision-making processes of short stay, semi-permanent and permanent migrants. Research limitations/implications-This qualitative study investigated migrants from Europe, USA and Australia. An understanding of IR migrants from Asia needs further research. Practical implications-The results can be used as guidelines for government, hospitality and tourism stakeholders. IR migrants want different destination attributes to mainstream tourists, especially a peaceful environment, mild weather (not too cold or hot), and to live among locals. Originality/value-This study examines migrant decision-making processes. The results provide a theoretical foundation for how IR migrants decide to retire overseas. This is comprised of three components: firstly, destination awareness, secondly, evaluation of the destination's resources, and finally, the decision and implementation of their plans.
Structured Abstract: Purpose-Hotel labour costs in Malaysia are increasing. This paper explores L... more Structured Abstract: Purpose-Hotel labour costs in Malaysia are increasing. This paper explores Langkawi hotel managers' perceptions about reducing labour costs using various information and communication technology (ICT) innovations. Design/ methodology/ approach-Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from 19 budget and boutique resorts on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. Qualitative data was recorded, transcribed and content analysed using latent coding. Findings-All hotel managers reported using some form of ICT. The purpose for ICT adoption found was to increase productivity and efficiency instead of reducing hotel labour costs. A hotel's customer mix, the need of the organization and the technology budget available influenced the outcome of technological innovation. Langkawi hotels had successfully implemented Property Management Systems (PMS) but self-check-in/out kiosks were not seen as important as they do not meet their customers' service expectations. Research limitations/ implications-This study identifies some factors influencing uptake by hotels of technological innovations. This initial qualitative exploration of the technology adoption feasibility in Langkawi suggests that implementation to reduce labour cost is more likely for employee-operated devices rather than customer-operated devices. Practical implications-This study contributes to the Human Resource (HR) management literature by providing insight into the reasons hotel managers introduce technology in a developing country context. Results suggests that hotels face challenges in reducing labour costs through technology. These insights may serve to guide policy makers and hotel managers in other developing countries that are planning to use technology to solve their HR issues. Luxury hotels can consider adopting ICT for back-of-the-house operations such as using a HR Information System within the HR department, and PMS for the hotel overall operation. Social implications-These findings can increase the Malaysians awareness of ICT importance especially in the hotel industry. Originality/ value-The Malaysian national minimum wage order (MWO) policy was introduced in 2012. This policy has resulted in increased labour costs and suggests a need to adopt ICT. This paper is the first to examine the viewpoints of hotel practitioners as to the viability of this strategy. Whilst many studies on the adoption of ICT in the hotel industry focus on its impact on productivity and firm's performance using quantitative methods, this study used qualitative methods to explore hotel managers' perceptions on its feasibility to reduce dependence on labour.
This paper examines the current state of research on well-being from tourism from the lens of pos... more This paper examines the current state of research on well-being from tourism from the lens of positive psychology. A systematic review of 82 peer-reviewed articles published in English-language tourism journals indicate that tourist well-being is predominantly examined as a consequence of travel, rather than linked to tourism marketing and management. This study presents a conceptual framework of the antecedents, episodes and consequences of tourist well-being. Practically, results suggest strategies on how well-being can be used to generate better outcomes for tourism marketers and managers. By mapping what is known in the intersection between positive psychology and tourist well-being, this study identifies existing gaps and opportunities for future research in this area.
Providing a perspective on 150 years of research of a topic such as consumer behaviour is perhaps... more Providing a perspective on 150 years of research of a topic such as consumer behaviour is perhaps an ambitious task. At this timescale, well beyond an individual’s lifetime, it may be only useful to discuss those types of phenomenon that operate relatively slowly. Certainly, 1946 was a watershed year for tourism in that it was when many countries, stimulated by the development of new technologies such as the jet engine, began to plan for the development of tourism in their countries. And from this beginning, tourism has developed into a global industry of central importance to the economies of many countries. Yet in 1946, academics applied many of the same concepts and theories that we use to study consumer behaviour today. Concepts of motivation (Maslow, 1943) and attitude (Newcomb, 1943), and the stimulus – response (S-R) model were in use then, as they are today. “Buying habits, attitudes and motivation” was a developing area for marketing research (Phillips, 1946). Indeed, many of the concepts discussed in a recent review of the psychology of tourism, ironically entitled “Minds on the Move” (Pearce & Packer, 2013) would have been familiar to marketing researchers of 1946. This perspective article discusses what has driven the adoption of psychological concepts and theories into tourism and why these hold back the application of cognitive psychology.
Smartphone technology has the potential to change the nature of a tourists’ experience in a prote... more 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. De... more 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.
Cultural tourism and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) plays a key role in tourism worldwide, an... more Cultural tourism and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) plays a key role in tourism worldwide, and is especially important for communities in developing countries, due to the demand for authentic experiences. This article provides a review of existing literature on the authenticity and authentication of ICH. The review reveals scholarly inquiry has evolved from external-expert ‘cool’ authentication to direct host-guest on-site or ‘hot’ authentication whereby tourists participate in the process of determining authenticity. Existing models for authentication of ICH have focused only on either a guest’s or host’s perspectives with little attention to the inevitable mutual interaction of the host and guest in the authentication of ICH. Mutual authentication can enhance the tourist experience and improve community empowerment. This paper develops a conceptual model of the mutual (host-guest) authentication of ICH, incorporating both hosts’ and tourists’ perspectives. This model has application in ICH based tourism and emphasizes power relationships between the host and guest, and community empowerment across political, social, psychological and economic domains. Future research is needed to test and validate this conceptual model.
Dr Sarah Gardiner has been working with Get Wet Surf School on the Gold Coast, Australia to creat... more Dr Sarah Gardiner has been working with Get Wet Surf School on the Gold Coast, Australia to create and test a new beach activity for Asian international visitors to the Gold Coast. This experience incorporates a guide bush walk with a beach awareness program and a swim in the surf. It aims to introduce Asian visitors to the beach environment and introduce them to what Aussie love to do - jump and splash in the waves!
Governance is defined as the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority necessa... more Governance is defined as the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority necessary to manage a nation’s affairs. Governance in tourism has been defined by the UNWTO as a system and process to define strategies and implement them to achieve competitiveness and sustainable development of the tourism destination . In its work on public governance, the OECD has identified the following elements of good governance: accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, responsiveness, forward-looking vision, and rule of law. Other principles of good governance that may be taken for granted by governments in their normal processes but are of fundamental importance when developing public private partnerships are: legitimacy of the organisation’s authority to govern and inclusiveness of the different stakeholders. In addition the nature of tourism policy requires consideration of: a whole of government approach: integration of national and sub-national policymaking at horizontal and vertical levels and the capacity of organisations and individuals to develop and implement policy.
This presentation discusses main challenges to effective governance and policy development in tourism, trends in tourism governance in OECD countries and identifies good practice. Governance is defined as the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority necessary to manage a nation’s affairs. The material for this presentation is derived from a review of government websites and publications, a survey of policy material provided to the OECD tourism unit by member countries and discussions with OECD and member country representatives. While there is unlikely to be one set of governance arrangements that are universally applicable, the findings discussed may be a source of inspiration and learning for others. The results indicate that governance related issues are an important tourism policy topic for many OECD countries. The cross-sector nature of tourism means that there is a need for a ‘whole of government’ approach and co-operation across levels of government and between government and the private sector.
Traditionally, sun, sea, and sand are the major reasons why tourists travel, however, in post-mod... more Traditionally, sun, sea, and sand are the major reasons why tourists travel, however, in post-modern tourism, tourism products are no longer restricted by these types of natural resources. In order to extend the tourism life cycle and to attract more inbound tourists from overseas, more and more niche markets are developing. One such market that has been highlighted recently is food tourism. Over the past two decades, food tourism is emerging as an area of practical interest for both the host country and tourists as food is an inevitable experience at the travel destination. Food, unlike other natural resources can be provided year-round by utilizing local ingredients. For destination managers there is a need to develop a sense of regional distinctiveness and to maintain the local cultural traditions of their regions. For tourists, food provides the tourists with a novel experience and the chance to become more deeply involved in the local culture and traditions.
Accordingly, because of the benefits of food tourism, it has also created interest among scholars to investigate in greater depth. However, even though the study of tourism is increasing, research issues and topics are still somewhat limited. At this stage, there is still a lack of research regarding the tourist’s traditional food consumption behaviour. In redressing this omission, this study examines consumer choice behaviour of traditional Taiwanese foods. The specific objectives of this study are to: firstly, explore the food choice behaviour in relation to traditional food; secondly, to examine the impact of personality traits on tourists’ traditional food choice behaviour. After a review of the literature, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was selected to help explain tourists’ traditional food buying behaviour. This theory of TPB was used as it explained human’s behaviour from the perspective of the attitude-behaviour relationship and allows the researcher to conduct empirically based research. Furthermore, personality traits have been regarded as an important factor that influences people’s food choice behaviour. Therefore, in order to examine the influence of food tourism, two personality traits, food neophobia and sensation-seeking have been examined in this study.
A quantitative research study design was adopted which was based on the postpostivism paradigm. A pilot survey was conducted in Australia involving 149 respondents to confirm the validity and reliability of the six scales used in the pilot study. As a result, the final questionnaire consisted of a total of 44 items in six different scales and two open-ended questions. The final survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews in Taiwan, with Caucasian tourists using a convenience sampling design. This resulted in 389 completed questionnaires. SPSS version 21 and AMOS version 21 were employed to analyse the numeric data and to test the hypotheses. Statistical techniques used with the pilot survey data included item analysis, reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. For the final survey, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used to examine the effect of socio-demographic variables while structural equation modelling was used in conjunction with a confirmatory factor analysis, as well as inferential and moderating effect analyses.
Findings from this study revealed that the Theory of Planned Behaviour provided feasible explanations for traditional food consumption behaviour of tourists. In other words, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control all significantly contributed to the prediction of purchase intention of traditional Taiwanese food. This study also found that the personality trait of food neophobia had a significant negative relationship with traditional food purchase intention. However, it is interesting to note that the sensation seeking personality trait did not appear to be significant. This study also examined the moderating effect of food neophobia and the sensation seeking personality trait using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Results found that food neophobia was a moderator of the relationship between attitude-purchase intention and subjective norm-purchase intention. However, sensation seeking was neither a predictor nor a moderator of the intention to purchase traditional foods.
Results from the open-ended questions found that the major reasons to purchase traditional Taiwanese food was associated with “new experiences”, “good reputation”, “affordable price”, and “cultural exchange”. The reasons for not trying traditional Taiwanese food was ascribed to “unfamiliar ingredients”, “food poisoning”, “unsanitary environment”, and “language barrier”. This study provided evidence that one of the effective ways to understand tourists’ traditional food buying behaviour is from the perspectives of both attitude-behaviour relationships and personality.
Food is an important topic in the field of tourism, and has also been studied in many other disci... more 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.
"The application of sustainable development in the tourism industry has been widely advocated, bu... more "The application of sustainable development in the tourism industry has been widely advocated, but it’s achievement in practice has been criticised. Ecotourism has been identified as a subset of sustainable tourism in which the challenges of achieving sustainable development goals in practice is played out. Ecotourism practice has resulted in mixed outcomes in general and in the Philippines in particular. There is a need to
understand better the factors that influence sustainability in ecotourism, based on practical on-the-ground realities to determine its potential for poverty alleviation in developing
country settings.
This study adopts a multiple case study approach examining three ecotourism cases in the Philippines. These cases provide contexts where there are differences in: the
way ecotourism development was initiated, how management is undertaken, the implementation methods used and actual ecotourism outcomes. These were analysed through a within-case analysis and cross-case synthesis based on an analytical model developed from the literature. This model focuses on the convergence of three interrelated factors affecting ecotourism outcomes: ecotourism understanding, the implementation or
development context, and stakeholder relationships.
The study results confirms the complexity and contentious nature of ecotourism where achieving holistic environmental, social, and economic benefits is difficult. In the cases, ecotourism is found to have resulted in both positive and negative outcomes and its
potential as a catalyst for sustainable development is still problematic. The strengths and weaknesses of ecotourism as a form of sustainable development are related to contextual
needs and realities, especially cultural and political, as well as stakeholder values and relationships. Understanding these variations is critical in assessing ecotourism in order to
build on the strengths and overcome weaknesses to address issues of sustainability.
This study has contributed to furthering knowledge about ecotourism and suggests important considerations for its development in order to achieve sustainable development
outcomes. Case study 1 demonstrated that prescriptive approaches, while useful, may do more harm than good as how to implement ecotourism differs according to context and
thus needs to be dynamic and adaptive to the realities in the area. This is because prescriptive approaches assume similar capacities and does not take into account the weak institutional frameworks that exist in developing countries, as well as culture that is political and complex, often prioritising smooth interpersonal relationships rather than good outcomes. Case study 2 exposed the threats to sustainability of having a purely
environmental conservation or community-management bias in ecotourism development, and instead advocates for more pragmatic definitions of ecotourism that emphasises
inclusiveness, where ecotourism practice can be manifested in softer forms while adhering
to core criteria. Case study 3 revealed the critical need for refocusing priorities in
ecotourism development to building lasting multi-stakeholder partnerships and
collaborative institutions that would enable mutuality in articulating ecotourism development priorities consistent with the unique development contexts within which stakeholders operate and ecotourism is implemented. This also allows for the genuine
independence and real empowerment and trust in allowing local stakeholders to decide their own futures. Overall, the cases taken collectively suggest the shifting of ecotourism development priorities to building collaborative institutions that fully integrate local complexities and diversity. As such, the development of ecotourism should not be solely based on prescriptive approaches.
Ecotourism is about achieving a balance between often conflicting environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political concerns that reflect changing values and priorities. It is essential that knowledge from ecotourism practice continue to inform the ways in which sustainable development may be achieved."
""Consumer experiences may be distinguished from the intrinsic aspects of goods and services, as ... more ""Consumer experiences may be distinguished from the intrinsic aspects of goods and services, as they involve a mental journey that leaves the customer with memories of having engaged in something special, having learned something, or just of having fun. An experience involves both a personal process and the psychological outcomes that result from involvement in that process. Experiences are an active area for research within the tourism literature. However, few studies have focused on how the attributes of an experience staged by managers of a tourist destination affect tourists’ perceptions.
This thesis explicitly examines two perspectives on an experience, building on prior studies that focused on either the manager’s or the customer’s perspective. From a managerial perspective, an experience is a combination of technical, functional, and experiential attributes staged in a rationalised or planned process involving supplier-created meanings, services and goods. From a customer perspective, an experience is inherently individual and spontaneous, and constructed through a series of encounters and interactions that engage customers at an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level. In experiential consumption, what customers perceive may be different from what managers offer to them due to the subjectivity of experience. Customers do not buy goods or services, but rather the benefits and experience those goods and services provide for them. They identify and evaluate selected attributes, performances, and consequences from the whole experiential process to determine the benefits the experience provides for them, namely, customer value. An initial conceptual framework to guide this study was developed and evaluated based on these ideas.
This thesis therefore provides an exploratory study of how an experience designed by managers affects tourists’ perception of the value of their experience in a tourist destination. A case study, research strategy, and qualitative methodology based on the interpretive constructivist paradigm were adopted. The ancient Chinese water town of Zhouzhuang was selected as the case study, as it provides a rich historical and cultural experience for visitors. Purposive sampling was adopted and 83 semi-structured interviews conducted with customers (63 first-time Chinese overnight tourists who visited during the weekdays) and experience managers (20 destination managers). The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. NVivo 9.2 qualitative analysis software was used to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the data analysis process.
Findings from this study indicate that during the experience process, tourists were selective in the destination attributes they perceived. Tourists’ previous knowledge about the town or attributes found throughout the town led them to perceive the key theme and attributes that managers staged for them. However, there were also differences between these two perspectives; therefore, tourists were not merely passive receivers, but creative and interactive agents who actively co-created their own experience process. The attributes either designed and staged by managers or perceived by tourists could be clustered into five attribute-groups, namely, theme, atmosphere, interactions, memorabilia, and service. A theme was perceived in tourists’ mind that linked together attributes from the four other attribute-groups. Service attributes were found to be important as media for tourists to be involved in their experiences of Zhouzhuang. The perception of the combination of attributes in all groups formed a themed experience process.
Findings also indicate that tourists’ perceptions of value were diverse and multi-dimensional, but able to be grouped into four types identified in prior literature: functional, experiential, symbolic, and cost value. Their value perceptions were based on both direct evaluations of Zhouzhuang’s attributes, and on comparisons, not only between benefits and sacrifices, but also between desired and undesired consequences. The four types of value were not found to be independent of each other in contrast to findings in the prior literature. The attributes and value were linked in a variety of ways: attributes in different groups led to the same type of value; a hierarchy of functional, experiential, and symbolic value was found; and links were found between the cost value (‘give value) and the three other types of value (‘get’ values). In addition, a linkage between value and tourists’ behavioural intentions was confirmed. These findings indicate that while managers may try to create customer value in advance, value is actually co-created by managers and tourists during the tourists’ experiences.
This research is the first to examine the experiential and functional attributes embodied in a designed destination experience. The findings of this study suggest that the concept of experience is different from but overlaps with that of service as discussed by some previous authors. This research has developed the first typology of destination experience attributes and has related these to four types of value in a process model. This model is considered to be a useful tool for experience managers to understand the influence of their designed experience on customer value and further identify opportunities to create new value for customers.
""
Dark tourism has been recognised as a distinctive tourism phenomenon of the twenty-first century,... more Dark tourism has been recognised as a distinctive tourism phenomenon of the twenty-first century, with increasingly significant numbers of visitors and tourists going to dark tourism attractions and sites, new dark tourism products and attractions emerging, and modern global communication media generating interest in dark tourism attractions, while at the same time affecting the image of destinations. The phenomenon of dark tourism has been examined in academia from the mid-1990s; however, it remains one of the less developed areas of tourism and leisure research. Not surprisingly, knowledge of the experiences of visitors and tourists at dark tourism attractions and sites is both theoretically fragile and limited.
In redressing this omission in tourism and leisure research, this study examines the effect of enduring involvement and socio-demographic variables on visitor experiences and benefits gained at a contemporary dark tourism site. The focus of the study is the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorialising one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. In doing so, the study developed a theoretical framework for understanding visitor experiences at dark tourism sites, using a benefits-based approach along with the concept of enduring involvement. This approach provides a framework for comprehending visitors‘ dark tourism experiences by identifying reasons for visit, on-site experiences, and benefits gained from these experiences. Enduring involvement is applied to investigate the effect of a visitor‘s ‗personal connection‘ to the tragic event when it comes to their experiences at the site.
The April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island commemorates a violent political conflict, which began on April 3rd in 1948, and resulted in 30,000 of the inhabitants dead or missing. The park was inaugurated in 2008 for the purposes of education, commemoration, and reconciliation within the Jeju community, in which the family and relatives of both victims and perpetrators still live. The research employs qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore visitor experiences. In its qualitative component, 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted between September and October 2008 in order to identify reasons for visit, the cognitive and affective on-site experiences of visitors and the benefits gained from their visit. This data was utilised in the construction of a site-specific questionnaire. In the quantitative component, self-administered questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were conducted from June 23 to July 31, 2009. A total of 407 valid questionnaires, out of 450 distributed, were utilised to test 16 hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework.
The results indicate that a benefits-based approach was effective in exploring visitors‘ dark tourism experiences. With this approach, a sense of obligation or personal duty was identified as one of the key reasons for visiting the site. Emotional experiences were also found to be important, and likely to lead to the visitors‘ benefits gained. However, results also indicate a benefits-based approach was not effective for segmentation of visitors. In relation to enduring involvement, visitor experiences and benefits gained from experiencing the site and its history were found to differ significantly based on visitors‘ level of enduring involvement. High involvement visitors were more likely to recall actual memories of the April 3rd incident, as opposed to acquiring knowledge of it or related issues at the site itself, in stark contrast with low involvement visitors. These differences in visitor experiences and benefits gained were due therefore to visitors‘ prior knowledge of and familiarity with the incident. The results of the study also indicate that high involvement visitors are more likely to be elderly, to reside locally, to be connected to the incident, or to have higher levels of education. Low involvement visitors on the other hand are more likely to be young, non-local, and with generally lower levels of education.
The study concludes that an effective way of understanding dark tourism experiences from a theoretical perspective is to apply both a benefits-based approach and the concept of enduring involvement.
Hajj (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) is the oldest Muslim pilgrimage. It is the fifth pillar in Isl... more Hajj (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) is the oldest Muslim pilgrimage. It is the fifth pillar in Islam and it is compulsory for all Muslims who are financially and physically able. Recently, the experience of Hajj has changed from a purely religious focus to providing one emphasising comfort and satisfaction. In the past, Hajj travelling was risky and involved difficulties such as limited transportation, infrastructure, and accommodation and it took months and even years to travel to Mecca. However, today's technology makes travelling for Hajj from anywhere in the world simple and easy. In Indonesia, there are two Hajj travel packages being offered to pilgrims: regular Hajj and Hajj plus. The difference between these is the cost and services provided. Both packages, however, seek to provide satisfactory experiences including travelling by premium airlines and for Hajj plus, staying in five-star hotels. This change in focus is reflected in the literature where Hajj satisfaction is the key focus of attention rather than the outcome of the pilgrimage itself. The aim of this paper is to highlight areas for research in the modern Hajj from Indonesia by providing a framework for examining the differences of psychological outcome between regular Hajj and Hajj plus.
Today's tourism industry is not possible without air transport, modern airports infrastructure, e... more 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... more 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.
Prior research has found that travel contributes to individuals’ wellbeing and relaxation. This s... more Prior research has found that travel contributes to individuals’ wellbeing and relaxation. This study links the peace of mind and wellbeing that can be experienced during travel to the concept of mindfulness, which is a psychological construct that has been applied in social psychology, tourism and clinical psychology studies. In this paper, meditative mindfulness is distinguished from socio-cognitive mindfulness. In a qualitative study of 43 Taiwanese backpackers, mindfulness is found to be associated with attention to one’s surroundings, awareness of those surroundings in a non-judgmental manner, and a lack of elaboration of awareness regarding one’s surroundings. The results of this study indicate four antecedents associated with meditative mindfulness experiences. Nature-based destinations in Australia are found to trigger tourists’ attention and mindfulness for Taiwanese visitors to Australia. As a consequence, a model of meditative mindful tourist experience is proposed and the mental process of how these constructs lead to wellbeing is discussed.
A Means-end Chain (MEC) approach was used to examine the outbound travel motivation at the attrib... more 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 comp... more 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.
Prior research has found that socio-cognitive mindfulness can be used to understand communication... more Prior research has found that socio-cognitive mindfulness can be used to understand communication and interpretive experiences in visitor settings. This study adopts an alternative concept of mindfulness - meditative mindfulness, to analyse qualitative semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese backpackers in Australia. The results of this study indicate ‘quietness’ embodied in tourism settings fosters tourists’ attentiveness to sensations and permits them access to deeper experience. An ‘absence of noise’ and ‘absence of normal light’ help to evoke meditative mindfulness. As a consequence, tourists derive intrinsic satisfaction from a meditative mindful experience.
Mindfulness, a psychological construct related to a mental state, has been applied in social psyc... more Mindfulness, a psychological construct related to a mental state, has been applied in social psychology and tourism studies to understand how visitor experiences can be made more engaging. Studies aimed at improving mindfulness have provided benefits such as more effective communication and learning, increased satisfaction and enhanced self-exploration. This paper reviews and contrasts the Western (socio-cognitive) and Eastern (meditative) conceptualisations of mindfulness and associated constructs and mental modes. The results indicate how benefits such as relaxation or well-being may be enhanced through encouragement of meditative mindfulness in experiences.
This study examines how emotion influences revisit intention differently across three emotion-bas... more This study examines how emotion influences revisit intention differently across three emotion-based segments. The research involved a survey 450 individuals who had visited a live show in Macau. An emotion-based segmentation using cluster analysis followed by discriminant analysis was used to predict visitors’ cluster membership based on their pattern of emotion. Three clusters with distinct patterns of emotional response, namely exhilarated, indifferent and serene were identified. Emotions of calm and relaxation are the most influential factors that differentiate the three clusters. The results revealed that emotion influences revisit intention of the emotion-based segments differently.
This paper discusses two questions: is tourism a fragmented industry and is tourism a fragmented ... more This paper discusses two questions: is tourism a fragmented industry and is tourism a fragmented policy area. The discussion in this paper is based on results of recent research by the author into the organization of tourism destination stakeholders and of government tourism policy development. It will be argued that fragmentation in tourism may be true but that does not have to be true. The conclusion is that tourism can be a (more or less) fragmented industry but that a number of mechanisms are available to address (in part) this fragmentation. Also tourism can be a fragmented policy area but again a number of tourism ministries in countries are proactively seeking to address this fragmentation. Tourism fragmentation is not inevitable and instead can be addressed by effective organization at both destination and national government levels. While fragmentation in tourism is a partial reality and not a myth, further organizational research and innovation may reverse this in the future.
Coopetition is a concept found in the organizational, management and tourism literature that desc... more Coopetition is a concept found in the organizational, management and tourism literature that describes a practical strategy of actors to simultaneously cooperate and compete with other actors. This paper reviews the wider literature of coopetition and identifies four themes namely process, intensity, dynamism, and level of coopetition. Tourism coopetition research addresses all of these themes. Based on the review, coopetition is a dynamic behaviour of the actors influenced by internal and external factors and, an actor’s decision to compete or cooperate may change the process and intensity of coopetition. A tourist destination as a co-location of various actors provides an opportunity to study coopetition at multiple levels as well as exploring the overlap of these themes in particular situations.
Sensation seeking is a personality trait associated with the need for change and novelty and is a... more Sensation seeking is a personality trait associated with the need for change and novelty and is a useful predictor of behavior. This study analyzed the effects of sensation seeking on the intention to purchase traditional Taiwanese food. Data was collected from 149 respondents in Australia using a self-completion questionnaire. The results indicate that respondents who scored higher on intention to purchase the Taiwanese traditional food, also scored higher on the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS). The findings provide empirical support for the proposition that personality traits may influence traditional food purchase intention.
Networks are an important area of study for the services industries. The guest editors of this vo... more Networks are an important area of study for the services industries. The guest editors of this volume contend that networks are indeed a fundamental feature of services – services intangibility makes service providers heavily dependent on the recommendations of others to direct customers to a particular business; makes acquisition of knowledge about customers and competitors more difficult and often leads to exchange of information through knowledge networks. Fluctuations in services demand are perhaps more difficult to deal with as the ‘product’ cannot be stockpiled, but one strategy to deal with this is to work within a referral network to cater to demand peaks. Services require people to be engaged in their production. This leads to an increased proportion of smaller firms in the service industries because scaling up volume is more difficult with people involved. These are just a few of the reasons why networks in the service industries are important. This introduction to the special issue on advances in service network research concludes that firstly, many of the concepts of central concern for service researchers, especially those interested in inter-organisational relationships, are related to concepts that have been developed from, and studied using, the network perspective. Secondly, there is a need to move to the use of more quantitative techniques for network analysis and lastly, recent developments in network research show much promise in the use of complex systems mathematical techniques to simulate and model networks and the effect of interventions. Thus it is possible to provide suggestions as to how a network may evolve over time and inform those involved within networks as to the relative advantages of alternative modes of action. Overall this collection of papers indicates that there are significant opportunities for further research in this emergent field of study.
World Tourism Organization. (2015). Public-Private Partnerships: Tourism Development (Vol. Volume... more World Tourism Organization. (2015). Public-Private Partnerships: Tourism Development (Vol. Volume eleven). Madrid: UNWTO.
This report documents the results of a research project which aimed to enhance the quality of the... more 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.
This is a list of literature reviews in the tourism and related literature prepared as at 28_4_20... more This is a list of literature reviews in the tourism and related literature prepared as at 28_4_2015 by Noel Scott with contributions from TRINET members.
Al-Riyami, H., Scott, N., Ragab, A. and Jafari, J. (2017) Sustainable tourism in Oman: lessons fo... more 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.
Smartphones are growing rapidly in usage around the world. This mobile, interactive technology of... more Smartphones are growing rapidly in usage around the world. This mobile, interactive technology offers tourism businesses the opportunity to augment the visitor experience and provide engaging, personalised content in real time. Accordingly, many tourism businesses are searching for innovative ways to incorporate this technology in order to design better experiences for their customers. This chapter highlights the latest developments in smartphone technology in tourism and includes case study research on the design of a tourist attraction app. The chapter examines how smartphone technology is changing consumer behaviour and impacts on future tourism experience design.
This chapter examines emotions and the important role they play in many aspects of consumption ex... more This chapter examines emotions and the important role they play in many aspects of consumption experiences. Emotional outcomes are regarded by consumers as crucial elements to evaluate the quality of hedonic experiences. Tourism managers need to develop more positive emotive responses such as delight by emphasizing the experiential components of consumption experiences. Delight is defined as an emotional response coexisting with customer satisfaction and is a specific emotion elicited by a consumption experience that impacts on attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. This chapter uses cognitive appraisal theory to explain a number of paths by which delight and other emotions are elicited.
Cities have attempted to differentiate themselves throughout history based on their spatial quali... more Cities have attempted to differentiate themselves throughout history based on their spatial qualities, inhabitant characteristics, social conditions and historical roots. In the twenty-first century, however, media plays a significantly greater role in shaping the perception of cities than it has previously. City governments are increasingly turning to the tool of branding to differentiate themselves from other cities. This is especially true for tourism-oriented economies such as Queensland's Gold Coast. The local print media, together with local television stations and tourism bodies have historically promoted the image of the Gold Coast as a place that is growing and is desirable to visit, live and work in, and continue to do so. Throughout the city's development, the media have sold the Gold Coast to outsiders by focusing on the trinity of sun, surf and sand, and in the early years of the new century, with references to modernity, sophistication and culture. The Gold Coast is often portrayed as a resort town and Australia's playground in a narrative designed to attract the visitors on which the tourism industry depends. The greater frame of reference for the media focuses on growth by promoting large events, ease of development, functionality of infrastructure and the city's potential for population growth. Underpinning both these tourist and growth narratives is the media's emphasis on the potential for future residents to have a relaxed and prosperous lifestyle. Growth and development of the Gold Coast is a goal supported by the power elites, the service workers, the property industry and its boosters. Print and television media have nurtured their special influence on the Gold Coast by supporting this vision. Media support has led to a large number of interstate and international migrants taking up residence and contributed to large-event opportunities such as the 2018 Commonwealth Games choosing the Gold Coast as home. Molotch (1976) proposes that cities are machines driven by an elite group with a vested interest in the success of the city as fuelled by ongoing economic, social and population growth. This elite group of players includes (but is not limited to) local land and small business owners, politicians, local boosterists and media organisations such as newspapers. They participate actively in organisation, manipulation, structuring and lobbying to influence the growth of the city based on their varied personal and commercial interests. The Gold Coast's progression from a series of small tourist towns to a globalising city with multiple economic drivers has been accompanied by the ongoing reflection and visioning of planners, marketing groups and particularly the media.
Since the 1980s, the Gold Coast has consistently ranked as the third most popular destination amo... more Since the 1980s, the Gold Coast has consistently ranked as the third most popular destination among Australian cities for domestic travellers (after Melbourne and Sydney) and fourth or fifth most popular destination for international travellers. Tourism has been and remains central to the development of the city of Gold Coast: it is the main economic activity and source of employment within the city. In 2013, tourism sustained more than 30 000 direct jobs in the city, and directly contributed $4.7 billion to the economy (City of Gold Coast 2014a), demonstrating its importance to the Gold Coast. Tourism has also directly influenced the Coast's urban landscape, with the numerous high-rise buildings along the coastline being iconic features of the city. Development along the coastal strip has been prolific and led to three quite distinct areas: a densely populated, high-rise coastal beach area, surrounded by suburban sprawl and backed by a green semi-rural hinterland containing a small population – the 'green behind the gold' (Potts et al. 2013, p. 323). Most of the hotels and resorts are located in the northern precincts of the city at Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, while the southern end of the Gold Coast is characterised by mostly older accommodation stock (Dredge and Jamal 2013). The hin-terland has a distinct character, containing Queensland first national park (Frost 2004) and small-scale, dispersed tourism developments, such as health retreats, chalets and lodges, and bed and breakfast accommodation, as well as local art and craft, food and wine and nature-based tourism experiences. This chapter seeks to understand the role of tourism in the development of this city by exploring how the northern Gold Coast (around Southport and Surfers Paradise) was able to out-compete two historical competitor regions (first Sandgate, then Coolangatta) but now faces competition at a global scale. The historical expansion of the Gold Coast as a site of tourism began late in the nineteenth century. At that time, the coastal resort of Sand-gate, now part of metropolitan Brisbane, was the main competitor for Southport, and both resorts developed facilities and attractions modelled on the well-known and popular Eng-lish resorts of the time, such as Brighton and Blackpool. Eventually Southport became the preeminent calm water resort when an early governor of Queensland established a holiday house there. In the first half of the twentieth century, following changes in swimming habits and development of Australian beach culture, the focus of tourist activity in the northern Gold Coast shifted to Surfers Paradise with its surf beaches. During this period, Surfers Paradise faced competition from Coolangatta on the southern end of the Gold Coast. In the 071501 Off The Plan 1pp.indd 31 19/07/2015 13:03:02
Rainforest Tourism, Conservation and Management: Challenges for Sustainable Development, 2014
This paper examines aspects of the development of tourism in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, Au... more This paper examines aspects of the development of tourism in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, Australia. It examines the contrasts between the commercialized coast and rainforested hinterland as well as between two eco-lodges located in the hinterland.
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Books by Noel Scott
United Nations World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Spain
June 2010
Tourism in the Muslim World presents the first collection of scholarly writings concerning tourism in the Muslim world. Its chapters provide a synthesis of thought on this important issue for tourism and indeed for our times, offering a point of focus for tourism students, researchers, managers, and developers in Muslim countries and beyond, eager to increase their share in this 1.6 billion strong tourism market.
The 21 chapters of this book have been contributed by scholars from 16 countries: Australia, Brunei, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Each chapter sets out a distinct view of tourism in the Muslim world, indicating a vibrant and developing field of study.
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Papers by Noel Scott
United Nations World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Spain
June 2010
Tourism in the Muslim World presents the first collection of scholarly writings concerning tourism in the Muslim world. Its chapters provide a synthesis of thought on this important issue for tourism and indeed for our times, offering a point of focus for tourism students, researchers, managers, and developers in Muslim countries and beyond, eager to increase their share in this 1.6 billion strong tourism market.
The 21 chapters of this book have been contributed by scholars from 16 countries: Australia, Brunei, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Each chapter sets out a distinct view of tourism in the Muslim world, indicating a vibrant and developing field of study.
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researchers’ understanding of problems, and such understanding further affects their evaluation and selection of problems at the early stage of research. The study highlights the significance of problems as an important, yet overlooked reflexivity of tourism knowledge production.
This presentation discusses main challenges to effective governance and policy development in tourism, trends in tourism governance in OECD countries and identifies good practice. Governance is defined as the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority necessary to manage a nation’s affairs. The material for this presentation is derived from a review of government websites and publications, a survey of policy material provided to the OECD tourism unit by member countries and discussions with OECD and member country representatives. While there is unlikely to be one set of governance arrangements that are universally applicable, the findings discussed may be a source of inspiration and learning for others. The results indicate that governance related issues are an important tourism policy topic for many OECD countries. The cross-sector nature of tourism means that there is a need for a ‘whole of government’ approach and co-operation across levels of government and between government and the private sector.
Accordingly, because of the benefits of food tourism, it has also created interest among scholars to investigate in greater depth. However, even though the study of tourism is increasing, research issues and topics are still somewhat limited. At this stage, there is still a lack of research regarding the tourist’s traditional food consumption behaviour. In redressing this omission, this study examines consumer choice behaviour of traditional Taiwanese foods. The specific objectives of this study are to: firstly, explore the food choice behaviour in relation to traditional food; secondly, to examine the impact of personality traits on tourists’ traditional food choice behaviour. After a review of the literature, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was selected to help explain tourists’ traditional food buying behaviour. This theory of TPB was used as it explained human’s behaviour from the perspective of the attitude-behaviour relationship and allows the researcher to conduct empirically based research. Furthermore, personality traits have been regarded as an important factor that influences people’s food choice behaviour. Therefore, in order to examine the influence of food tourism, two personality traits, food neophobia and sensation-seeking have been examined in this study.
A quantitative research study design was adopted which was based on the postpostivism paradigm. A pilot survey was conducted in Australia involving 149 respondents to confirm the validity and reliability of the six scales used in the pilot study. As a result, the final questionnaire consisted of a total of 44 items in six different scales and two open-ended questions. The final survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews in Taiwan, with Caucasian tourists using a convenience sampling design. This resulted in 389 completed questionnaires. SPSS version 21 and AMOS version 21 were employed to analyse the numeric data and to test the hypotheses. Statistical techniques used with the pilot survey data included item analysis, reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. For the final survey, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used to examine the effect of socio-demographic variables while structural equation modelling was used in conjunction with a confirmatory factor analysis, as well as inferential and moderating effect analyses.
Findings from this study revealed that the Theory of Planned Behaviour provided feasible explanations for traditional food consumption behaviour of tourists. In other words, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control all significantly contributed to the prediction of purchase intention of traditional Taiwanese food. This study also found that the personality trait of food neophobia had a significant negative relationship with traditional food purchase intention. However, it is interesting to note that the sensation seeking personality trait did not appear to be significant. This study also examined the moderating effect of food neophobia and the sensation seeking personality trait using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Results found that food neophobia was a moderator of the relationship between attitude-purchase intention and subjective norm-purchase intention. However, sensation seeking was neither a predictor nor a moderator of the intention to purchase traditional foods.
Results from the open-ended questions found that the major reasons to purchase traditional Taiwanese food was associated with “new experiences”, “good reputation”, “affordable price”, and “cultural exchange”. The reasons for not trying traditional Taiwanese food was ascribed to “unfamiliar ingredients”, “food poisoning”, “unsanitary environment”, and “language barrier”. This study provided evidence that one of the effective ways to understand tourists’ traditional food buying behaviour is from the perspectives of both attitude-behaviour relationships and personality.
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.
understand better the factors that influence sustainability in ecotourism, based on practical on-the-ground realities to determine its potential for poverty alleviation in developing
country settings.
This study adopts a multiple case study approach examining three ecotourism cases in the Philippines. These cases provide contexts where there are differences in: the
way ecotourism development was initiated, how management is undertaken, the implementation methods used and actual ecotourism outcomes. These were analysed through a within-case analysis and cross-case synthesis based on an analytical model developed from the literature. This model focuses on the convergence of three interrelated factors affecting ecotourism outcomes: ecotourism understanding, the implementation or
development context, and stakeholder relationships.
The study results confirms the complexity and contentious nature of ecotourism where achieving holistic environmental, social, and economic benefits is difficult. In the cases, ecotourism is found to have resulted in both positive and negative outcomes and its
potential as a catalyst for sustainable development is still problematic. The strengths and weaknesses of ecotourism as a form of sustainable development are related to contextual
needs and realities, especially cultural and political, as well as stakeholder values and relationships. Understanding these variations is critical in assessing ecotourism in order to
build on the strengths and overcome weaknesses to address issues of sustainability.
This study has contributed to furthering knowledge about ecotourism and suggests important considerations for its development in order to achieve sustainable development
outcomes. Case study 1 demonstrated that prescriptive approaches, while useful, may do more harm than good as how to implement ecotourism differs according to context and
thus needs to be dynamic and adaptive to the realities in the area. This is because prescriptive approaches assume similar capacities and does not take into account the weak institutional frameworks that exist in developing countries, as well as culture that is political and complex, often prioritising smooth interpersonal relationships rather than good outcomes. Case study 2 exposed the threats to sustainability of having a purely
environmental conservation or community-management bias in ecotourism development, and instead advocates for more pragmatic definitions of ecotourism that emphasises
inclusiveness, where ecotourism practice can be manifested in softer forms while adhering
to core criteria. Case study 3 revealed the critical need for refocusing priorities in
ecotourism development to building lasting multi-stakeholder partnerships and
collaborative institutions that would enable mutuality in articulating ecotourism development priorities consistent with the unique development contexts within which stakeholders operate and ecotourism is implemented. This also allows for the genuine
independence and real empowerment and trust in allowing local stakeholders to decide their own futures. Overall, the cases taken collectively suggest the shifting of ecotourism development priorities to building collaborative institutions that fully integrate local complexities and diversity. As such, the development of ecotourism should not be solely based on prescriptive approaches.
Ecotourism is about achieving a balance between often conflicting environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political concerns that reflect changing values and priorities. It is essential that knowledge from ecotourism practice continue to inform the ways in which sustainable development may be achieved."
This thesis explicitly examines two perspectives on an experience, building on prior studies that focused on either the manager’s or the customer’s perspective. From a managerial perspective, an experience is a combination of technical, functional, and experiential attributes staged in a rationalised or planned process involving supplier-created meanings, services and goods. From a customer perspective, an experience is inherently individual and spontaneous, and constructed through a series of encounters and interactions that engage customers at an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level. In experiential consumption, what customers perceive may be different from what managers offer to them due to the subjectivity of experience. Customers do not buy goods or services, but rather the benefits and experience those goods and services provide for them. They identify and evaluate selected attributes, performances, and consequences from the whole experiential process to determine the benefits the experience provides for them, namely, customer value. An initial conceptual framework to guide this study was developed and evaluated based on these ideas.
This thesis therefore provides an exploratory study of how an experience designed by managers affects tourists’ perception of the value of their experience in a tourist destination. A case study, research strategy, and qualitative methodology based on the interpretive constructivist paradigm were adopted. The ancient Chinese water town of Zhouzhuang was selected as the case study, as it provides a rich historical and cultural experience for visitors. Purposive sampling was adopted and 83 semi-structured interviews conducted with customers (63 first-time Chinese overnight tourists who visited during the weekdays) and experience managers (20 destination managers). The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. NVivo 9.2 qualitative analysis software was used to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the data analysis process.
Findings from this study indicate that during the experience process, tourists were selective in the destination attributes they perceived. Tourists’ previous knowledge about the town or attributes found throughout the town led them to perceive the key theme and attributes that managers staged for them. However, there were also differences between these two perspectives; therefore, tourists were not merely passive receivers, but creative and interactive agents who actively co-created their own experience process. The attributes either designed and staged by managers or perceived by tourists could be clustered into five attribute-groups, namely, theme, atmosphere, interactions, memorabilia, and service. A theme was perceived in tourists’ mind that linked together attributes from the four other attribute-groups. Service attributes were found to be important as media for tourists to be involved in their experiences of Zhouzhuang. The perception of the combination of attributes in all groups formed a themed experience process.
Findings also indicate that tourists’ perceptions of value were diverse and multi-dimensional, but able to be grouped into four types identified in prior literature: functional, experiential, symbolic, and cost value. Their value perceptions were based on both direct evaluations of Zhouzhuang’s attributes, and on comparisons, not only between benefits and sacrifices, but also between desired and undesired consequences. The four types of value were not found to be independent of each other in contrast to findings in the prior literature. The attributes and value were linked in a variety of ways: attributes in different groups led to the same type of value; a hierarchy of functional, experiential, and symbolic value was found; and links were found between the cost value (‘give value) and the three other types of value (‘get’ values). In addition, a linkage between value and tourists’ behavioural intentions was confirmed. These findings indicate that while managers may try to create customer value in advance, value is actually co-created by managers and tourists during the tourists’ experiences.
This research is the first to examine the experiential and functional attributes embodied in a designed destination experience. The findings of this study suggest that the concept of experience is different from but overlaps with that of service as discussed by some previous authors. This research has developed the first typology of destination experience attributes and has related these to four types of value in a process model. This model is considered to be a useful tool for experience managers to understand the influence of their designed experience on customer value and further identify opportunities to create new value for customers.
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In redressing this omission in tourism and leisure research, this study examines the effect of enduring involvement and socio-demographic variables on visitor experiences and benefits gained at a contemporary dark tourism site. The focus of the study is the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorialising one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. In doing so, the study developed a theoretical framework for understanding visitor experiences at dark tourism sites, using a benefits-based approach along with the concept of enduring involvement. This approach provides a framework for comprehending visitors‘ dark tourism experiences by identifying reasons for visit, on-site experiences, and benefits gained from these experiences. Enduring involvement is applied to investigate the effect of a visitor‘s ‗personal connection‘ to the tragic event when it comes to their experiences at the site.
The April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island commemorates a violent political conflict, which began on April 3rd in 1948, and resulted in 30,000 of the inhabitants dead or missing. The park was inaugurated in 2008 for the purposes of education, commemoration, and reconciliation within the Jeju community, in which the family and relatives of both victims and perpetrators still live. The research employs qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore visitor experiences. In its qualitative component, 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted between September and October 2008 in order to identify reasons for visit, the cognitive and affective on-site experiences of visitors and the benefits gained from their visit. This data was utilised in the construction of a site-specific questionnaire. In the quantitative component, self-administered questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were conducted from June 23 to July 31, 2009. A total of 407 valid questionnaires, out of 450 distributed, were utilised to test 16 hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework.
The results indicate that a benefits-based approach was effective in exploring visitors‘ dark tourism experiences. With this approach, a sense of obligation or personal duty was identified as one of the key reasons for visiting the site. Emotional experiences were also found to be important, and likely to lead to the visitors‘ benefits gained. However, results also indicate a benefits-based approach was not effective for segmentation of visitors. In relation to enduring involvement, visitor experiences and benefits gained from experiencing the site and its history were found to differ significantly based on visitors‘ level of enduring involvement. High involvement visitors were more likely to recall actual memories of the April 3rd incident, as opposed to acquiring knowledge of it or related issues at the site itself, in stark contrast with low involvement visitors. These differences in visitor experiences and benefits gained were due therefore to visitors‘ prior knowledge of and familiarity with the incident. The results of the study also indicate that high involvement visitors are more likely to be elderly, to reside locally, to be connected to the incident, or to have higher levels of education. Low involvement visitors on the other hand are more likely to be young, non-local, and with generally lower levels of education.
The study concludes that an effective way of understanding dark tourism experiences from a theoretical perspective is to apply both a benefits-based approach and the concept of enduring involvement.
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.