Search results for: tourism in istanbul

Authors: Elifsu Sahin

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In the world and in Turkey, approximately 1 in 10 people is 65 years of age or older. The age group of 65 and over is the fastest-growing age group since 1990. This demographic aging trend and demographic transformation have spread over a long period in Western Europe and North America, while in Turkey, they have occurred over a relatively short period. The aging of the population poses many challenges in terms of housing supply, housing satisfaction, and economic access to housing, due to factors such as a decrease in the number of people in households, low incomes, and increased time spent in housing and housing neighborhoods. On the other hand, since 2000, neoliberal economic policies and government policies have led to serious growth in the construction and housing sectors in Turkey. During this process, the housing market in Turkey generally produced housing for high-income groups and foreigners. Housing has become an investment instrument, and rising housing prices and rents have seriously reduced both the affordability of housing and households' chances of living in healthy housing. Housing has become a growing problem for vulnerable groups such as low- and middle-income households, students, refugees, and the elderly. Moreover, in recent years, international migration, pandemics, economic crises, inflation, and the expected Istanbul earthquake have raised housing prices and rent in Turkey as a whole, especially in Istanbul. The aim of the study is to investigate how elderly households that don't own homes deal with the economic accessibility of housing and other affordability-related housing problems in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area today, when housing becomes an investment instrument, the issue of social housing is not on the agenda, and households can be added to the market according to their ability to pay. A complex method was adopted in the research, using a combination of various statistical data and interview findings. Based on household income, in-depth interviews were conducted with 100 elderly households who don't own their own homes and were randomly selected in identified neighborhoods, analyzing the micro-area within the districts in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area, where middle- and low-income households are concentrated. The study found that more than 50% of the net income of elderly households was spent on rent and other housing expenses. Some of the households said that they restrict spending on food, health, and entertainment because of their housing expenses. Among the findings of the study is that households receive financial support from their children or move into their children’s house for economic reasons. Due to the decrease in household income, especially after the loss of a spouse, the single individual moves into their children’s house. Moreover, some of the interviewed households had to change their house and move to a smaller, lower-rent house on the urban periphery for economic reasons after retirement, especially after 2020, despite their unwillingness.

Keywords: affordable housing, elderly households, housing policy, istanbul metropolitan area

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Authors: Akhilendra Nath Tiwary

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Vindhyanchal is a very famous pilgrimage and tourism site in the west of Mirzapur city of Uttar Pradesh State in India. The city in east is a commercial center for cotton, metal ware and carpets. Among the Hindu population, it is believed that the primordial creative forces of the GOD and the power of the GODDESS make respective triangles which superimpose opposite to each other as hexagram at a point or node (Bindu (point) +Vasini (located) or Vindhyavasini, located in a point/node). Mirzapur city has served as a natural connecting point between north and south India. Before independence of India from Britain in 1947, it was a flourishing commercial center. Post-independence, the negligence of planning authorities and nexus of bureaucrats and politicians started affecting its development. In the meantime, emergence of new industrial cities as Kanpur, Agra, Moradabad, etc., nearer to the capital city of Delhi, posed serious challenges to the development of this small city as many commercial and business activities along with the skilled workforce started shifting to these new cities or to the relatively bigger neighboring cities of Varanasi in east and Allahabad in west. In the present paper, the significant causes, issues and challenges in development of Vindhyanchal is discussed with geographical perspective. An attempt has been made to find out the ways to restore the lost glory of the city as a center of pilgrimage, tourism, and commerce.

Keywords: cultural node, pilgrimage, sacred, Vindhyan triangle, ommercial centre

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Authors: Toni Buterin, Robert Doričić

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Mainstream bioethics, narrowed down mainly to human medicine and research, can hardly be expected to efficiently face modern challenges related to environmental issues. Departing from the interpretation of "European Bioethics" as a discipline considering ethical duties not only toward fellow humans, but to all living beings, this paper presents the results of a study conducted in three communities in Croatian Northern Adriatic region, selected for their recent experience of ecological threats (Labin – thermo-electric power plant; Bakar – cokery), or representing a highly-valuable and vulnerable natural insular pocket (Mali Lošinj – health tourism, dolphin wildlife refuge, fragrant gardens programme, etc.). After targeted workshops and interviews had been organised in those communities, the results of the obtained insights were combined with experts' opinion and a list of around hundred “bioethical standards” was formed. "Bioethical standards" represent a set of principles and measures of the correct attitude of people towards their own health, animals, plants, and the eco-system as a whole. "Bioethical standards" charter might improve the level of local community environmental consciousness, and provide direct guidance for its sustainable development (including its tourism-advertising ace card). The present paper discusses the standards' potential benefits and some implementational risks.

Keywords: bioethical standards, croatia, European bioethics, local communities

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Authors: Laura Ramona Nae

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The issue of risks faced by companies providing tourist and hotel services in the HoReCa field, related to the goods belonging to consumer tourists left in hotel storage, has acquired a new dimension in the context of the economic and geo-political influences that have recently intervened at the global level. Thus, hoteliers and not only had to create contractual mechanisms regarding the risks and to protect the businesses in this field of activity. This situation has led to a reassessment of the importance of insurance, in particular with regard to hotel liability insurance-premises liability, safety, and security of goods. Interpretation of clauses in contracts concluded between hoteliers and tourists consuming hotel services and products, all the more so in the current pandemic context of Covid 19, stressed the increase in the number of disputes generated by them. This article presents a general picture of the significance of the risks related to the activity carried out in the hospitality industry, tourism, respectively within the HoReCa field. The study mainly marks the specificities of the hotel deposit contract, as well as the related insurance specific to the field, as a way to cover these risks. The article also refers to alternative methods of out-of-court settlement of disputes (ADR) in the HoReCa domain, generally used in both Romania and the European Union.

Keywords: consumer tourist, disputes and ADR methods, deposit contract, hotel warehouse and hotelier insurance, hotel services and tourist products, HoReCa

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Authors: К. Lisinchuk

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An effective approach to the management of international educational mobility in regional universities with the purpose of increasing tourist activity in the region is considered.

Keywords: export and import of tourist and educational services, international academic mobility, regional tourist activities

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Authors: Y. Yılmaz, C. Ünal, A. Dursun

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Distribution channels play significant role for hotels. Direct and indirect selling options of hotel rooms have been increased especially with the help of new technologies, i.e. hotel’s own web sites and online booking sites. Although these options emerged as tools for diversifying the distribution channels, vast number of hotels -mostly resort hotels- is still heavily dependent upon international tour operators when selling their products. On the other hand, hotel sector is so vulnerable against crises. Economic, political or any other crisis can affect hotels very badly and so it is critical to have the right balance of distribution channel to avoid the adverse impacts of a crisis. In this study, it is aimed to search the impacts of a general crisis on the selling prices of hotels which have different weights of distribution channels. The study was done in Turkey where various crises occurred in 2015 and 2016 which had great negative impacts on Turkish tourism and led enormous occupancy rate and selling price reductions. 112 upscale resort hotel in Antalya, which is the most popular tourism destination of Turkey, joined to the research. According to the results, hotels with high dependency to international tour operators are more forced to reduce their room prices in crisis time compared to the ones which use their own web sites more. It was also found that the decline in room prices is limited for hotels which are working with national tour operators and travel agencies in crisis time.

Keywords: marketing channels, crisis, hotel, international tour operators, online travel agencies

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Authors: M. Žibert, T. Špindler, S. Uhan, A. Lisec

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We can find Slovenia in the heart of Europe and has really good geographical location. With same slogan are promoted Switzerland, Montenegro, Greece and probably many others. However, from anatomic point of view, injustice is being made to someone because the heart is placed only in left part of chest cavity and there we can`t find place for the entire territory from Switzerland to the south of Balkan.

Keywords: Ljubljana, logistics, Slovenia, tourism

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Authors: Sanusi Abubakar Sadiq, Rebecca William Chiwar

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Wildlife Park stands a chance of contributing to tourism development in different ways, but available infrastructure, and facilities required by visitors when they arrive, access road to the destination, and resources to facilitate positive experience are lacking in certain areas. The study set out to find out the need to develop Sumu Wildlife Park Bauchi State, to an international standard. The study focused on identifying the existing facilities and infrastructure at the park and to further identify the available resources used by visitors. In attempt to find out the impact of developing Sumu Wildlife Park and ways of filling the gap of the actual standard data were obtained from fifteen administrative staff of Sumu Wildlife Park, ten staff of Bauchi state Tourism Board and twenty-five residents of the community in Kafin Madaki, Bauchi. Relevant literature were reviewed in the study; data collected were organized and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS), software for analysis. Findings revealed that though Sumu Wildlife Park has attractions to keep visitors patronage but has insufficient facilities to maintain visitors and has not been developed to an expected standard. The problem faced by the management of Sumu wildlife Park is lack of adequate facilities, infrastructure and resources. The need to develop Sumu Wildlife Park has enormous benefits in increasing patronage. Provision of more funds would help improve standard as there would be more activities within and around the park. Regular maintenance of those facilities protects the life span of the park.

Keywords: attractions, facilities, infrastructure, resources

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Authors: Parastoo Kazemiyan

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Over the past 80 years, in compliance with the advent of modernity in Iran and Turkey, the presence of women in economic and social arenas has creates serious challenges in the capacity of urban spaces to respond to their presence and transport because urban spaces up until then were based on masculine criteria and therefore, women could use such spaces in the company of their fathers or husbands. However, as modernity expanded by Reza Shah and Ataturk, women found the opportunity to work and be present in urban spaces alongside men and their presence in economic and social domains resulted in their presence in these spaces in the early and late hours of the day. Therefore, the city had to be transformed in structural, social, and environmental terms to accommodate women's activities and presence in various urban arenas, which was a huge step in transition from a masculine man-based culture to an all-inclusive human-based culture in these two countries. However, the optimization of urban space was subject to political changes in the two countries, leading to significant differences in designing urban spaces in Tehran and Istanbul. What shows the importance and novelty of the present study lie in the differences in urban planning and optimization in the two capital cities, which gave rise to different outcomes in desirability and quality of living in these two capital cities. Due to the importance of the topic, one of the most significant factors in desirability and acceptability of urban space for women was examined using a descriptive-analytic method based on qualitative methodology in Tehran and Istanbul. The results showed that the infrastructural factors in Istanbul, including safety of access, variety, and number of public transport modes, transparency, and supervision over public spaces have provided women with a safer and more constant presence compared to Tehran. It seems that challenges involved in providing access to urban spaces in Tehran in terms of infrastructure and function have made Tehran unable to respond to the most basic needs of its female citizens.

Keywords: gender differences, urban space security, access to transportation systems, women's challenges

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Authors: Paiboon Jeamponk, Tasanee Ponglaa, Patchapon Srisanguan

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The aim of this research paper was based on an examination of sources of water supply and water quality for local consumption, conducted at eco-tourism villages of Suan Luang Sub- District Municipality of Amphawa District, Samut Songkram Province. The study incorporated both questionnaire and field work of water testing as the research tool and method. The sample size of 288 households was based on the population of the district, whereas the selected sample water sources were from 60 households: 30 samples were ground water and another 30 were surface water. Degree of heavy metal contamination in the water including copper, iron, manganese, zinc, cadmium and lead was investigated utilizing the Atomic Absorption- Direct Aspiration method. The findings unveiled that 96.0 percent of household water consumption was based on water supply, while the rest on canal, river and rain water. The household behaviour of consumption revealed that 47.2 percent of people routinely consumed water without boiling or filtering prior to consumption. The investigation of water supply quality found that the degree of heavy metal contamination including metal, lead, iron, copper, manganese and cadmium met the standards of the Department of Health.

Keywords: sources of water supply, water quality, water supply, Thailand

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Authors: Naniek Widayati Priyomarsono

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Introduction: In beginning of Karaton formation, namely, era of Javanese kingdom town had the power region outside castle town (called as Mancanegara), settlement of karaton can function as “the space-between” and “space-defense”, besides it was one of components from governmental structure and karaton power at that time (internal servant/abdi dalem and sentana dalem). Upon the Independence of Indonesia in 1945 “Kingdom-City” converted its political status into part of democratic town managed by statutes based on the classification. The latter affects local culture hierarchy alteration due to the physical development and events. Dynamics of social economy activities in Kampung Karaton surrounded by buildings of Complex of Karaton Kasunanan ini, have impact on the urban system disturbed into the región. Also cultural region image fades away with the weak visual access from existant cultural artefacts. That development lacks of giving appreciation to the established region image providing identity of Karaton Kasunanan particularly and identity of Surakarta city in general. Method used is strategy of grounded theory research (research providing strong base of a theory). Research is focused on actors active and passive relevantly getting involved in change process of Karaton settlement. Data accumulated is “Investigation Focus” oriented on actors affecting that change either internal or external. Investigation results are coupled with field observation data, documentation, literature study, thus it takes accurate findings. Findings: Karaton village has potential products as attraction, possessing human resource support, strong motivation from society still living in that settlement, possessing facilities and means supports, tourism event-supporting facilities, cultural art institution, available fields or development area. Data analyzed: To get the expected result it takes restoration in social cultural development direction, and economy, with ways of: Doing social cultural development strategy, economy, and politics. To-do steps are program socialization of Karaton village as Tourism Village, economical development of local society, regeneration pattern, filtering, and selection of tourism development, integrated planning system development, development with persuasive approach, regulation, market mechanism, social cultural event sector development, political development for region activity sector. Summary: In case the restoration is done by getting society involved as subject of that settlement (active participation in the field), managed and packed interestingly and naturally with tourism-supporting facilities development, village of Karaton Kasunanan Surakarta is ready to receive visit of domestic and foreign tourists.

Keywords: karaton village, finding, restoration, economy, Indonesia

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Authors: Mira Tripathi, Ken Hughey, Hamish G. Rennie

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Management of water resources is a major challenge throughout the world and in many long-established societies people still use traditional water harvesting and management techniques. Despite often being seen as efficient and cost effective, traditional methods are in decline or have been abandoned in many countries. Nevertheless, traditional approaches continue to be useful in some countries such as Nepal. The extent to which such traditional measures, in this case via stone spouts, may survive modernization, while fulfilling socio-cultural, tourism, and other needs is the focus of the research. The research develops an understanding of the socio-cultural, tourism and other values of stone spouts for the people of urban and peri-urban heritage and non-heritage areas of the Kathmandu Valley to help ongoing sustainable management of remaining spouts. Three research questions are addressed: the impacts of changes in social and cultural norms and values; development activities; and, the incremental and ongoing loss of traditional stone spout infrastructure. A meta-theory framework has been developed which synthesizes Institutional, Attachment, Central Place and Common Property theories, which form analytical lenses for the mixed-method research approach. From the exploration of the meta-theory approach, it was found that no spouts are in pristine condition but those in non-heritage areas are in better condition than those in heritage areas. “Utility value” is the main driver that still motivates people to conserve spouts.

Keywords: stone spouts, social and cultural norms and values, meta-theory, Kathmandu Valley

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Authors: Delia Gabriela Moisa, Demos Parapanos, Tim Heap

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The tourism sector is mainly comprised of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMEs), representing approximately 80% of global businesses in this field. These entities require focused attention and support to address challenges, ensuring their competitiveness and relevance in a dynamic industry characterized by continuously changing customer preferences. To address these challenges, it becomes imperative to consider not only socio-demographic factors but also delve into the intricate interplay of psychological elements influencing consumer behavior. This study investigates the impact of personality traits and travel motivations on visitor activities in Cumbria, United Kingdom, an iconic region marked by UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including The Lake District National Park and Hadrian's Wall. With a £4.1 billion tourism industry primarily driven by SMEs, Cumbria serves as an ideal setting for examining the relationship between tourist psychology and activities. Employing the Big Five personality model and the Travel Career Pattern motivation theory, this study aims to explain the relationship between psychological factors and tourist activities. The study further explores SME perspectives on personality-based market segmentation, providing strategic insights into addressing evolving tourist preferences.This pioneering mixed-methods study integrates quantitative data from 330 visitor surveys, subsequently complemented by qualitative insights from tourism SME representatives. The findings unveil that socio-demographic factors do not exhibit statistically significant variations in the activities pursued by visitors in Cumbria. However, significant correlations emerge between personality traits and motivations with preferred visitor activities. Open-minded tourists gravitate towards events and cultural activities, while Conscientious individuals favor cultural pursuits. Extraverted tourists lean towards adventurous, recreational, and wellness activities, while Agreeable personalities opt for lake cruises. Interestingly, a contrasting trend emerges as Extraversion increases, leading to a decrease in interest in cultural activities. Similarly, heightened Agreeableness corresponds to a decrease in interest in adventurous activities. Furthermore, travel motivations, including nostalgia and building relationships, drive event participation, while self-improvement and novelty-seeking lead to adventurous activities. Additionally, qualitative insights from tourism SME representatives underscore the value of targeted messaging aligned with visitor personalities for enhancing loyalty and experiences. This study contributes significantly to scholarship through its novel framework, integrating tourist psychology with activities and industry perspectives. The proposed conceptual model holds substantial practical implications for SMEs to formulate personalized offerings, optimize marketing, and strategically allocate resources tailored to tourist personalities. While the focus is on Cumbria, the methodology's universal applicability offers valuable insights for destinations globally seeking a competitive advantage. Future research addressing scale reliability and geographic specificity limitations can further advance knowledge on this critical relationship between visitor psychology, individual preferences, and industry imperatives. Moreover, by extending the investigation to other districts, future studies could draw comparisons and contrasts in the results, providing a more nuanced understanding of the factors influencing visitor psychology and preferences.

Keywords: personality trait, SME, tourist behaviour, tourist motivation, visitor activity

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Authors: Ma. Manna Farrel B. Pinto

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As global industrialization progresses, the environment remains to be at risk of disturbances brought by developments of cities and communities. Impacts of flourishing industries such as tourism require rapid growth of establishments and may threaten ecosystems and natural resources. Puerto Galera as a biosphere reserve and declared as the Center of the World’s Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity is on the brink of ecological deterioration as tourism further develops in its coastal areas. Apparently, attempts were initiated to establish a baseline for designation of protection in the economic and coastal marine zones of Puerto Galera but continuity of its implementation and coordination of concerned units remains deficient. Indications of eutrophication have been observed based on water quality analysis although parameter values still comply with the national standards for coastal waters. Water quality data, biodiversity and hydrodynamic information, gathered from studies, and local government units were analysed to assess the condition of the coast as well as acting policies implemented by the local authorities. Sources of contaminants were also located in its three main communities, and their shores wherein in recommendations for installing wastewater treatment facilities and further improvement of policies of waste discharge must be addressed. With a conceptual framework proposed in the study, a comprehensive data analysis and coordinated management are necessary to form an integrated coastal management for further protection and preservation of the sustainable coastal marine ecosystem of Puerto Galera.

Keywords: coastal management, environmental management, integrated resource management, Puerto Galera

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Authors: Berna Yaylalı, Isin Can Traunmüller

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This paper explores the emergent bottom-up practices in the fields of architecture and urban design within comparative perspectives of two cities. As a temporary, easily affordable intervention that gives the possibility of transforming neglected spaces into vibrant public spaces, tactical urbanism, together with creative place-making strategies, presents alternative ways of creating sustainable developments in derelict and underused areas. This study examines the potential of social and physical developments through a reading of case studies of two creative spatial practices: a pop-up garden transformed from an unused derelict space in Favoriten, Vienna, and an urban community garden in Kuzguncuk, Istanbul. Two cities are chosen according to their multicultural population and diversity. Istanbul was selected as a design city by UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017, and Vienna was declared an open and livable city by its local government. This research will use media archives and reports, interviews with locals and local governments, site observations, and visual recordings as methods to provide a critical reading on creative public spaces from the view of local users in these neighborhoods. Reflecting on these emergent ways, this study aims at discussing the production process of tactile urbanism with the practices of locals and the decision-making process with cases from İstanbul and Vienna. The comparison between their place-making strategies in tactical urbanism will give important insights for future developments.

Keywords: creative city, tactical urbanism, neglected area, public space

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Authors: Rinyu Shei Mercy

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Protected areas are the potential areas for the development of ecotourism because of their biodiversity, landscapes, waterfalls, lakes, caves, salt lick and cultural heritage of local or indigenous people. These potentials have not yet been valorized, so this study will enable to investigate the evaluation and possibilities of valorization of ecotourism potentials in the Mbam and Djerem National Park. Hence, this was done by employing a combination of field observations, examination, data collection and evaluation, using a SWOT analysis. The SWOT provides an analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and strategic suggestions for ecological planning. The study helps to determine an ecotouristic inventory and mapping of ecotourism potentials of the park, evaluate the degree of valorization of these potentials and the possibilities of valorization. Finally, the study has proven that the park has much natural potentials such as rivers, salt licks, waterfall and rapids, lakes, caves and rocks, etc. Also, from the study, it was realized that as concerns the degree of valorization of these ecotourism potentials, 50% of the population visit the salt lick of Pkayere because it’s a biodiversity hotspot and rich in mineral salt attracting a lot of animals and the least is the lake Miyere with 1% due to the fact that it is sacred. Moreover, from the results, there are possibilities that these potentials can be valorized and put into use because of their attractive nature such as creating good roads and bridges, good infrastructural facilities, good communication network etc. So, the study recommends that, in this process, MINTOUR, WCS, tour operators must interact sufficiently in order to develop the potential interest to ecotourism, ecocultural tourism and scientific tourism.

Keywords: ecotourism, national park Mbam and Djerem, valorization of biodiversity, protected areas of Cameroon

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Authors: Bui Duc Sinh

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Ecotourism in national parks seemed to be one of the options in the conservation of the natural resources and to improve the living condition of local communities. However, ecotourism development will be useless if it lacks the perception and support of local communities and appropriate ecotourism strategies. The aims of this study were to measure residents’ perception and satisfaction towards ecotourism impacts and their attitudes for ecotourism development in Cuc Phuong National Park; to assess the current ecotourism strategies based on ecotourism criteria and then to provide recommendations on ecotourism development strategies. The primary data were collected through personal observations, in-depth interviews with residents and national park staffs, and from surveys on households in all of the five communes in the Cuc Phuong National Park. The results depicted that local communities were aware of ecotourism impacts and had positive attitudes toward ecotourism development, and were satisfied of ecotourism development. However, higher perception rate was found on specific groups such as the young, the high income and educated, and those with jobs related to ecotourism. The study revealed the issues of concerns about the current ecotourism development strategies in Cuc Phuong National Park. The major hindrances for ecotourism development were lack of local participation and unattractive ecotourism services. It was also suggested that Cuc Phuong National Park should use ecotourism criteria to implement ecotourism activities sustainably and to harmonize the sharing of benefits amongst the stakeholders. The approaches proposed were to: create local employment through reengineering, improve the ecotourism quality, appropriate tourism benefits to the stakeholders, and carry out education and training programs. Furthermore, the results of the study helped tour operators and tourism promoters aware the real concerns, issues on current ecotourism activities in Cuc Phuong National Park.

Keywords: ecotourism, ecotourism impact, local community, national park

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Authors: Armando Luis Vieira, Carlos Costa, Arthur Araújo

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The tourism system is viewable as a network of relationships amongst business partners where the success of each actor will ultimately be determined by the success of the whole network. Especially since the publication of Gümmesson’s (1996) ‘theory of imaginary organisations’, which suggests that organisational effectiveness largely depends on managing relationships and sharing resources and activities, relationship quality (RQ) has been increasingly recognised as a main source of value creation and competitive advantage. However, there is still ambiguity around this topic, and managers and researchers have been recurrently reporting the need to better understand and capitalise on the quality of interactions with business partners. This research aims at testing an RQ model from a relational, imaginary organisation’s approach. Two mail surveys provide the perceptions of 725 hotel representatives about their business relationships with tour operators, and 1,224 corporate client representatives about their business relationships with hotels (21.9 % and 38.8 % response rate, respectively). The analysis contributes to enhance our understanding on the linkages between RQ and its determinants, and identifies the role of their dimensions. Structural equation modelling results highlight trust as the dominant dimension, the crucial role of commitment and satisfaction, and suggest customer orientation as complementary building block. Findings also emphasise problem solving behaviour and selling orientation as the most relevant dimensions of customer orientation. The comparison of the two ‘dyads’ deepens the discussion and enriches the suggested theoretical and managerial guidelines concerning the contribution of quality relationships to business performance.

Keywords: corporate clients, destination competitiveness, hotels, relationship quality, structural equations modelling, tour operators

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Authors: Müjde Erol Genevois, Hatice Kocaman

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Growing concerns about the increasing consumption of fossil energy and the improved recognition of environmental protection require sustainable road transportation technology. Electric vehicles (EVs) can contribute to improve environmental sustainability and to solve the energy problem with the right infrastructure. The problem of where to locate electric vehicle charging station can be grouped as decision-making problems because of including many criteria and alternatives that have to be considered simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated AHP and TOPSIS model to rank the optimal sites of EVs charging station in Istanbul, Turkey. Ten different candidate points and three decision criteria are identified. The performances of each candidate points with respect to criteria are obtained according to AHP calculations. These performances are used as an input for TOPSIS method to rank the candidate points. It is obtained accurate and robust results by integrating AHP and TOPSIS methods.

Keywords: electric vehicle charging station (EVCS), AHP, TOPSIS, location selection

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Authors: Tao Zhang

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Job stress appears nearly everywhere especially in the hospitality industry because employees in this industry usually have to work long time and try to meet conflicting demands of their customers, managers, and company. To reduce job stress, employees of casino hotels try to perform leisure activities or tourism. However, casino employees often meet many obstacles or constraints when they plan to travel. Until now, there is little understanding as to why casino hotel employees often face many travel constraints or leisure barriers. What is more, few studies explore the relationship between travel constraints and job stress of casino employees. Therefore, this study is to explore the construct of casino hotel employees' travel constraints and the relationship among job stress, travel constraints, and job satisfaction. Using convenient sampling method, this study planned to investigate 500 front line employees and managers of ten casino hotels in Macau. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed, and 414 valid questionnaires were received. The return rate of valid questionnaires is 82.8%. Several statistical techniques such as factor analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis were applied to analyze the collected data. The findings of this study are as follows. Firstly, by using factor analysis, this study found the travel constraints of casino employees include intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, and structural constraints. Secondly, by using regression analysis, the study found travel constraints are positively related with job stress while negatively related with job satisfaction. This means reducing travel constraints may create a chance for casino employees to travel so that they could reduce job stress, therefore raise their job satisfaction. Thirdly, this research divided the research samples into three groups by the degree of job stress. The three groups are low satisfaction group, medium satisfaction group, and high satisfaction group. The means values of these groups were compared by t-test. Results showed that there are significant differences of the means values of interpersonal constraints between low satisfaction group and high satisfaction group. This suggests positive interpersonal relationship especially good family member relationship reduce not only job stress but also travel constraints of casino employees. Interestingly, results of t-test showed there is not a significant difference of the means values of structural constraints between low satisfaction group and high satisfaction group. This suggests structural constraints are outside variables which may be related with tourism destination marketing. Destination marketing organizations (DMO) need use all kinds of tools and techniques to promote their tourism destinations so as to reduce structural constraints of casino employees. This research is significant for both theoretical and practical fields. From the theoretical perspective, the study found the internal relationship between travel constraints, job stress, and job satisfaction and the different roles of three dimensions of travel constraints. From the practical perspective, the study provides useful methods to reduce travel constraints and job stress, therefore, raise job satisfaction of casino employees.

Keywords: hotel, job satisfaction, job stress, travel constraints

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Authors: Frederica Pettit

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Contribution: Stakeholder involvement in CSR is essential to ensuring pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Despite increased awareness of the benefits surrounding a collaborative approach to sustainability communications, its success is limited by difficulties engaging with active online conversations with stakeholder groups. Whilst previous research defines the effectiveness of sustainability communications; this paper contributes to knowledge through the development of a theoretical framework that explores the processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours in stakeholder groups. The research will also consider social media as an opportunity to communicate CSR information to all stakeholder groups. Approach: A systematic review was chosen to investigate the effectiveness of the types of sustainability communications used in the hospitality and tourism industries. The systematic review was completed using Web of Science and Scopus using the search terms “sustainab* communicat*” “effective or effectiveness,” and “hospitality or tourism,” limiting the results to peer-reviewed research. 133 abstracts were initially read, with articles being excluded for irrelevance, duplicated articles, non-empirical studies, and language. A total of 45 papers were included as part of the systematic review. 5 propositions were created based on the results of the systematic review, helping to develop a theoretical framework of the processes needed for companies to encourage pro-environmental behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Results: The theoretical framework developed in the paper determined the processes necessary for companies to achieve pro-environmental behaviours in stakeholders. The processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours are stakeholder-focused, identifying the need for communications to be specific to their targeted audience. Collaborative communications that enable stakeholders to engage with CSR information and provide feedback lead to a higher awareness of CSR shared visions and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. These processes should also aim to improve their relationships with stakeholders through transparency of CSR, CSR strategies that match stakeholder values and ethics whilst prioritizing sustainability as part of their job role. Alternatively, companies can prioritize pro-environmental behaviours using choice editing by mainstreaming sustainability as the only option. In recent years, there has been extensive research on social media as a viable source of sustainability communications, with benefits including direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities and encouragement of pro-environmental behaviours. Despite this, there are challenges to implementing CSR, including difficulties controlling stakeholder criticisms, negative stakeholder influences and comments left on social media platforms. Conclusion: A lack of engagement with CSR information is a reoccurring reason for preventing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across stakeholder groups. Traditional CSR strategies contribute to this due to their inability to engage with their intended audience. Hospitality and tourism companies are improving stakeholder relationships through collaborative processes which reduce single-use plastic consumption. A collaborative approach to communications can lead to stakeholder satisfaction, leading to changes in attitudes and behaviours. Different sources of communications are accessed by different stakeholder groups, identifying the need for targeted sustainability messaging, creating benefits such as direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities, and encouraging engagement with sustainability information.

Keywords: hospitality, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, sustainability communication, social media

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Authors: Antonio De Lisa

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The aim of this contribution is to describe a Sufi ceremony personally observed and recorded in Istanbul. It is part of research on the semiotics of religion that has been going on for some time. Over the centuries, Sufism has produced remarkable literature, elaborated mainly in the context of Arabic literature and Persian literature, but has also found expression in many other languages (Turkish, Indian, Malayo-Indonesian, etc.). Among the genres cultivated are: devotional books (prayers, meditation, spiritual exercises, etc.); the hagiographic texts, containing the biographies and sentences of the best-known Sufis; the texts that illustrate the abodes or stations of the spiritual path; finally, the theoretical treatises on various topics, often of an apologetic nature. Another typical expression of Sufism is in the literature in verse, which includes first-rate poets of both Arabic (Ibn al-Farid, Ibn 'Arabi) and Persian (Farid al-Din al-Attar, Rumi, Hafez, Gohar Shahi) expression. To observe an authentic Sufi ceremony, we contacted the Silivrikapı Mevlana Cultural Center in Istanbul. The ceremony we will talk about is a characteristic of the brotherhood called Mevleviyye (Mawlawiyya), so called from Mawlānā ('our lord', in Turkish: Mevlānā) Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (13th century) better known as the brotherhood of the Whirling Dervishes, founded in Konya. The characteristic of the order is to pray about one's love for Allah with music and dance in a ritual that has the name of Semà. The dance is a swirling movement in a group, representing a mystical journey of the spiritual ascent of man through the mind and love for the 'perfect'. Turning towards the truth, the follower of the group ascends towards love, passing beyond the World and Nothingness. After asceticism, he returns to the common world to communicate his own experience.

Keywords: semiotics of religion, sufi, rumi, islamic philosophy

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Umran Kahraman, Huseyin Cetin

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Internet financial reporting and corporate governance issues are in the focus of academic and professional studies due to their attributed importance by stakeholders of corporations. Major aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between internet financial reporting which is held as dependent variable and some indicators of corporate governance such as the ratio of managerial ownership, blockholder ownership, number of independent members in the board of directors, frequency of meetings by audit committee and education level of audit committee members which are held as independent variables. Main purpose is to reveal the effect of corporate governance on the voluntary efforts of Internet Financial reporting. The scope of the research is limited to the Turkish Corporations listed in Borsa Istanbul (Istanbul Stock Exchange) and findings which are generated by means of SPSS software are revealed in results section and interpreted in conclusions.

Keywords: audit committee, corporate governance, internet financial reporting, managerial ownership

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Authors: Hsuan Yu Lai, Hsuan Hsuan Chang

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The consumer decision process steps through problems by weighing evidence, examining alternatives, and choosing a decision path. Currently, the COVID 19 made the tourism industry encounter a huge challenge and suffer the biggest amount of economic loss. It would be very important to reexamine the decision-making process model, especially after the pandemic, and consider the differences among different generations. The tourism industry has been significantly impacted by the global outbreak of COVID-19, but as the pandemic subsides, the sector is recovering. This study addresses the scarcity of research on travel decision-making patterns among generations in Taiwan. Specifically targeting individuals who frequently traveled abroad before the pandemic, the study explores differences in decision-making at different stages post-outbreak. So this study investigates differences in travel decision-making among individuals from different generations during/after the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the moderating effects of social media usage and individuals' perception of health risks. The study hypotheses are “there are significant differences in the decision-making process including travel motivation, information searching preferences, and criteria for decision-making” and that social-media usage and health-risk perception would moderate the results of the previous study hypothesis. The X, Y, and Z generations are defined and categorized based on a literature review. The survey collected data including their social-economic background, travel behaviors, motivations, considerations for destinations, travel information searching preferences, and decision-making criteria before/after the pandemic based on the reviews of previous studies. Data from 656 online questionnaires were collected between January to May 2023 and from Taiwanese travel consumers who used to travel at least one time abroad before Covid-19. SPSS is used to analyze the data with One-Way ANOVA and Two-Way ANOVA. The analysis includes demand perception, information gathering, alternative comparison, purchase behavior, and post-travel experience sharing. Social media influence and perception of health risks are examined as moderating factors. The findings show that before the pandemic, the Y Generation preferred natural environments, while the X Generation favored historical and cultural sites compared to the Z Generation. However, after the outbreak, the Z Generation displayed a significant preference for entertainment activities. This study contributes to understanding changes in travel decision-making patterns following COVID-19 and the influence of social media and health risks. The findings have practical implications for the tourism industry.

Keywords: consumer decision-making, generation study, health risk perception, post-pandemic era, social media

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Authors: Eli Avraham

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The Arab Spring was widely covered in the global media and the number of Western tourists traveling to the area began to fall. The goal of this study was to analyze which media strategies marketers in Middle Eastern countries chose to employ in their attempts to repair the negative image of the area in the wake of the Arab Spring. Several studies were published concerning image-restoration strategies of destinations during crises around the globe; however, these strategies were not part of an overarching theory, conceptual framework or model from the fields of crisis communication and image repair. The conceptual framework used in the current study was the ‘multi-step model for altering place image’, which offers three types of strategies: source, message and audience. Three research questions were used: 1.What public relations crisis techniques and advertising campaign components were used? 2. What media policies and relationships with the international media were adopted by Arab officials? 3. Which marketing initiatives (such as cultural and sports events) were promoted? This study is based on qualitative content analysis of four types of data: 1) advertising components (slogans, visuals and text); (2) press interviews with Middle Eastern officials and marketers; (3) official media policy adopted by government decision-maker (e.g. boycotting or arresting newspeople); and (4) marketing initiatives (e.g. organizing heritage festivals and cultural events). The data was located in three channels from December 2010, when the events started, to September 31, 2013: (1) Internet and video-sharing websites: YouTube and Middle Eastern countries' national tourism board websites; (2) News reports from two international media outlets, The New York Times and Ha’aretz; these are considered quality newspapers that focus on foreign news and tend to criticize institutions; (3) Global tourism news websites: eTurbo news and ‘Cities and countries branding’. Using the ‘multi-step model for altering place image,’ the analysis reveals that Middle Eastern marketers and officials used three kinds of strategies to repair their countries' negative image: 1. Source (cooperation and media relations; complying, threatening and blocking the media; and finding alternatives to the traditional media) 2. Message (ignoring, limiting, narrowing or reducing the scale of the crisis; acknowledging the negative effect of an event’s coverage and assuring a better future; promotion of multiple facets, exhibitions and softening the ‘hard’ image; hosting spotlight sporting and cultural events; spinning liabilities into assets; geographic dissociation from the Middle East region; ridicule the existing stereotype) and 3. Audience (changing the target audience by addressing others; emphasizing similarities and relevance to specific target audience). It appears that dealing with their image problems will continue to be a challenge for officials and marketers of Middle Eastern countries until the region stabilizes and its regional conflicts are resolved.

Keywords: Arab spring, cultural events, image repair, Middle East, tourism marketing

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Authors: Patrick Andrew McCoy

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The intense fascination with ancient Egypt has persisted for thousands of years and across cultures globally, known popularly as Egyptomania,’ ‘Tutmania,’ ‘Mummymania,’ and ‘Orientalism. A review of the literature indicates psychological themes for its behavior are curiosity, escapism, existentialism, religiosity and spirituality, and cultural, racial, and ethnic identity. A mixed-methods study is initiated with established tools to explore these themes and discover additional motivators. Objectives: The purpose of the study is to explore the themes underlying the intense fascination of ancient Egypt. The abstract themes of the fascination of ancient Egypt are cross-cultural phenomena that motivate people in their interactions with other cultures. These interactions have both been beneficial and combative. Methodology: A mixed methods research study is designed where quantitative (QUAN) survey of participants’ strong fascination with ancient Egypt, within psychological themes derived from a review of the literature. The qualitative (QUAL) survey consists of open-ended questions to explore participants’ exposure to ancient Egypt that may have influenced their fascination and their behaviors resulting from the phenomenon. The themes are explored in QUAN data and QUAL data to discover what themes are established and inferred the psychological motivations of the phenomenon. Main Contributions: This study will provide more information on several scientific disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, Egyptology, and tourism. This study seeks to benefit the tourism industry for not only in Egypt but hopefully with generalizability of cultural tourist industries in other countries.

Keywords: cross-cultural psychology, international psychology, mixed-methods, identity, ancient Egypt, phenomenology, escapism, curiosity, existentialism, religiosity, spirituality

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Authors: Mengxin Feng, Feng Xu, Zhiyong Lai

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As a typical representative of the countryside, traditional Chinese villages are rich in cultural landscape resources and historical information, but they are still in continuous decline. The problems of people's weak protection awareness and low cultural recognition are still serious, and the protection of cultural heritage is imminent. At the same time, with the rapid development of rural tourism, its cultural value has been explored and paid attention to again. From the perspective of tourists, this study aimed to explore people's perception and identity of cultural landscape resources under the current cultural tourism development background. We selected eleven typical landscape elements of Lingshui Village, a traditional village in Beijing, as research objects and conducted a questionnaire survey with two scales of perception and identity to explore the characteristics of people's perception and identification of landscape elements. We found that there was a strong positive correlation between the perception and identity of each element and that geographical location influenced visitors' overall perception. The perception dimensions scored the highest in location, and the lowest in history and culture, and the identity dimensions scored the highest in meaning and lowest in emotion. We analyzed the impact of visitors' backgrounds on people's perception and identity characteristics and found that age and education were two important factors. The elderly had a higher degree of perceived identity, as the familiarity effect increased their attention. Highly educated tourists had more stringent criteria for perception and identification. The above findings suggest strategies for conserving and optimizing landscape elements in the traditional village to improve the acceptance and recognition of cultural information in traditional villages, which will inject new vitality into the development of traditional villages.

Keywords: traditional village, tourist perception, landscape elements, perception and identity

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Authors: Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona; Oscar Mascarilla-Miró

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Mature destinations have different challenges trying to attract tourism and please its citizens. Hence, they have to maintain their touristic interest to standard demand and also not to undeceive those tourists with more advanced experiences. Second, they have to be concerned for the daily life of citizens and avoid the negative effects of touristification. This balance is quite delicate and often has to do with the sensitivity and commitment of the party in the local government. However, what is a general consensus is the need for destinations to differentiate from the homogeneous rest of regions and create new content, consumable resources or marketing events to guarantee their positioning. In this sense, the main responsibility of destinations is to satisfy users, tourists and citizens. Hence, its aim has to do with holistic experiences, which collect these wide approaches. Specifically, this research aims to analyze the volume and growth of tourist houses in the central touristic neighborhoods of Barcelona (this is Ciutat Vella) as the starting point to identify the behavior of tourists regarding their interests in searching for local heritage attractiveness and community atmosphere. Then, different cases are analyzed in order to show how Barcelona struggles to keep its attractive brand for the visitors, as well as for its inhabitants. Methodologically, secondary data used in this research comes from official registered tourist houses (Catalunya Government), Open Data (Barcelona municipality), the Airbnb tourist platform, from the Incasol Data and Municipal Register of Inhabitants. Primary data are collected through in-depth interviews with neighbors, social movement managers and political representatives from Turisme de Barcelona (local DMO, Destination Management Organization). Results show what the opportunities and priorities are for key actors to design policies to find a balance between all different interests.

Keywords: touristification, tourist houses, governance, tourism demand, airbnbfication

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Authors: Parisa Göker, Hilal Kahveci, Özlem Candan Hergül

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Humans are generating culture while being in touch with nature. Along with skills, local knowledge based on experience, and many other subjects developed within this process, 'culture' offers humans a chance to survive. For this reason, culture forms the equipment for humans, which facilitates their survival in all ecosystems. Together with technology, quick consumption of natural sources and overuse culture of humans have brought up the eco-village concept. Ecovillages are ecologically, economically, socio-culturally, and spiritually sustainable settlement models. It is known that the eco-village approach is applying a proper methodology on behalf of integrative and versatile solution generation. Today, the eco-village approach, introducing a radical criticism to the understanding of civilization and consumption culture and deeming urban solutions inadequate as a spatial reflection to civilization and consumption culture, while making a difference about integrative solution offering with multidimensional features, along with the goal of creating self-sufficient communities, is creating solutions on the subject of both reducing the ecological footprint of humans and to provide social order and also to solve the injustice seen in terms of income and life standards. In this study, environmental issues, sustainable development, and environmental sustainability topics are examined within the context of eco-tourism and eco-village. Alongside this, the natural and cultural landscape values of Kurşunlu village which are located in Bilecik province’s Gölpazarı county, and a contextual frame is created for the facilitation of sustainability in the event of dynamizing the Kurşunlu village in terms of tourism-oriented activities.

Keywords: eco village, sustainability, rural landscape, cultural landscape

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Authors: A.Halim Sahelan, Mohd Halid Abu, Jamaluddin Hashim, Zulisman Maksom, Mohd Afif Md Nasir

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This study aims to assess the students' needs for the tour planning e-guide. The study is developing on the contribution and importance of the Educational Tour Planning Guide (ETP) is a multimedia courseware as one of the effective methods in teaching and learning of environmental science among the students in primary schools of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. It is to provide the student with knowledge and experience about tourism, environmental science activities and process. E-guide to ETP also hopes to strengthen the student understanding toward the subject learns in the tourism environmental science. In order to assess the student's needs on the e-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental Science, the study has produced a similar e-Guide to ETP in the form as a courseware to be tested during the study. The study has involved several steps in order to be completed. It is such as the formulation of the problem, the review of the literature, the formulation of the study methodology, the production of the e-Guide to ETP, field survey and finally the analyses and discussion made on the data gathered during the study. The survey has involved 100 respondents among the students in standard six primary schools in Kluang Johor. Through the findings, the study indicates that the currently tested product is acceptable among the students in learning environmental science as a guide to plan for the tour. The findings also show a slight difference between the respondents who are using the e-Guide to ETP, and those who are not on the basis of the e-Guide to ETP results. Due the important for the study, the researcher hopes to be having a fair discussion and excellence, recommendation for the development of the product of the current study. This report is written also important to provide a written reference for the future related study.

Keywords: the tour planning e-guide, the Educational Tour Planning Guide, environmental science, multimedia course ware

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