Search results for: travel and tourism

Authors: M. Fernanda Salgado, Alfonso Tierra, David S. Sandoval, Wilbert G. Aguilar

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Public transportation buses usually vary the speed depending on the places with the number of passengers. They require having efficient travel planning, a plan that will help them choose the fast route. Initially, an estimation tool is necessary to determine the travel time of each route, clearly establishing the possibilities. In this work, we give a practical solution that makes use of a concept that defines as areas of commercial incidence. These areas are based on the hypothesis that in the commercial places there is a greater flow of people and therefore the buses remain more time in the stops. The areas have one or more segments of routes, which have an incidence factor that allows to estimate the times. In addition, initial results are presented that verify the hypotheses and that promise adequately the travel times. In a future work, we take this approach to make an efficient travel planning system.

Keywords: commercial incidence, planning, public transport, speed travel, travel time

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Authors: Siripen Yiamjanya, Kevin Wongleedee

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This research paper aims to identify travel motivation by push and pull factors that affected decision making of international tourists in selecting Thailand as their destination choice. A total of 200 international tourists who traveled to Thailand during January and February, 2014 were used as the sample in this study. A questionnaire was employed as a tool in collecting the data, conducted in Bangkok. The list consisted of 30 attributes representing both psychological factors as “push- based factors” and destination factors as “pull-based factors”. Mean and standard deviation were used in order to find the top ten travel motives that were important determinants in the respondents’ decision making process to select Thailand as their destination choice. The finding revealed the top ten travel motivations influencing international tourists to select Thailand as their destination choice included [i] getting experience in foreign land; [ii] Thai food; [iii] learning new culture; [iv] relaxing in foreign land; [v] wanting to learn new things; [vi] being interested in Thai culture, and traditional markets; [vii] escaping from same daily life; [viii] enjoying activities; [ix] adventure; and [x] good weather. Classification of push- based and pull- based motives suggested that getting experience in foreign land was the most important push motive for international tourists to travel, while Thai food portrayed its highest significance as pull motive. Discussion and suggestions were also made for tourism industry of Thailand.

Keywords: decision making, destination choice, international tourist, pull factor, push factor, Thailand, travel motivation

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Authors: Wikanda Boonma, Jang Hyunmi

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Smart tourism applications (STAs) play an important role in tourism to enhance the quality tourism experience and add value to tourists with accurate information, better decision support, greater time-saving, and providing more personalized information to meet tourists’ expectations. This paper intends to develop and investigate the effect of smart tourism applications on memorable tourism experiences in enhancing tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty. Questionnaires were distributed to tourists who are traveling in Bangkok, Thailand. A structural equation method was used to find the relationship among smart tourism technology attributes, the perceived value of the STAs, memorable tourism experience, tourist satisfaction, and destination loyalty. The findings of this study provide insight into the critical role of smart tourism applications, which create chances for smart tourism development. Additionally, some theoretical and managerial implications were derived from the findings.

Keywords: smart tourism applications, memorable tourism experience, tourist satisfaction, destination loyalty

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Authors: Anilkumar L. Rathod

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This paper examines event tourism as a field of study and area of professional practice updating the previous review article published in 2015. In this substantially extended review, a deeper analysis of the field's evolution and development is presented, charting the growth of the literature, focusing both chronologically and thematically. A framework for understanding and creating knowledge about events and tourism is presented, forming the basis which signposts established research themes and concepts and outlines future directions for research. In addition, the review article focuses on constraining and propelling forces, ontological advances, contributions from key journals, and emerging themes and issues. It also presents a roadmap for research activity in event tourism. Published scholarly studies within this period are examined through content analysis, using such keywords as knowledge management, organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals. All contributions found are then screened for a hospitality and tourism theme. Researchers mostly discuss knowledge management approach in improving information technology, marketing and strategic planning in order to gain competitive advantage. Overall, knowledge management research is still limited. Planned events in tourism are created for a purpose, and what was once the realm of individual and community initiatives has largely become the realm of professionals and entrepreneurs provides a typology of the four main categories of planned events within an event-tourism context, including the main venues associated with each. It also assesses whether differences exist between socio-demographic groupings. An analysis using primarily descriptive statistics indicated both sub-samples had similar viewpoints although Maharashtra residents tended to have higher scores pertaining to the consequences of gambling. It is suggested that the differences arise due to the greater exposure of Maharashtra residents to the influences of casino development.

Keywords: organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals

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Authors: Xinyi Gao, Xiaoyun Feng, Ruijie Liu, Yumin Xia, Min Shao, Xinqing Wang

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This paper outlines the travel challenges, the absence of society, and studies around disabled women and chooses the Chongqing area as a case study to explore how terrain characteristics and city construction influence our subject's travel choice. It also highlights future transport options and the necessity of addressing the difficult travel position of women with disabilities. This study focuses on the travel demands of women with disabilities, illustrating what their ideal method of travel would be. An analysis of related smart cities like Hong Kong illustrates the aspects to consider in the reconstruction of Chongqing. Finally, relying on current smart city modelling approaches, several design ideas for assistive tools are suggested for the safety of women with disabilities during travel.

Keywords: future smart city, disabled women, Chongqing, inclusive design, human-computer interaction

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Authors: Riham A. Ragheb

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Tourism can do a great deal of good in destinations, whether it be by bringing economic benefits to local communities, helping with conservation efforts or in placing a value on aspects of cultural heritage. As responsive travelers, we must all try to do more of the good and less of the negative. This is simply description of the sustainable tourism. This paper aims to set some criteria of successful sustainable tourism development and then through these criteria analyzing the development of some resorts in Egypt known as sustainable resorts. Hence, a comprehensive improvement of the touristic areas is certainly needed to ensure a successful sustainable tourism development radiated the sense of uniformity and coherence. Egypt can benefit from these criteria to develop its resorts in order to preserve and revitalize its unique natural character and achieve mixed uses and tourism development.

Keywords: Egypt, resorts, sustainable tourism, tourism development

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Authors: Eric D. Olson

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The lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer/questioning tourist (LGBTQ+) travels more frequently, spends more money on travel, and is more likely to travel internationally compared to their straight/heterosexual counterparts. For Vietnam, this represents a huge opportunity to increase international tourism, considering social advancements and recognition of the LGBTQ+ have greatly increased in the past few years in Vietnam. For example, Vietnam’s Health Ministry confirmed in 2022 that same-sex attraction and being transgender is not a mental health condition. A robust hospitality ecosystem of LGBTQ+ tourism suppliers already exists in Vietnam catering to LGBTQ+ tourists (e.g., Gay Hanoi Tours, VietPride). Vietnam is a safe and welcoming destination with incredible nature, cosmopolitan cities, and friendly people; however, there is a dearth of academic and industry research that has examined how LGBTQ+ international tourists perceive Vietnam as an LGBTQ+ friendly destination. To rectify this gap, this research examines Vietnam as an LGBTQ+ destination in order to provide government officials, destination marketers, and industry practitioners with insight into this increasingly visible tourist market segment. A self-administered survey instrument was administered to n=375 international LGBTQ+ tourists to examine their perceptions of Vietnam. A factor analysis found three categories of LGBTQ+ factors of visitation to Vietnam: safety and security (Eigenvalue = 4.12, variance = 32.45, α = .82); LGBTQ+ attractions (Eigenvalue = 3.65 variance = 24.23, α = .75); and friendly interactions (Eigenvalue = 3.71, variance = 10.45, α = .96). Multiple regression was used to examine LGBTQ+ visitation factors and intention to visit Vietnam, F=12.20 (2, 127), p < .001, R2 = .56. Safety and security (β = 0.42, p < .001), LGBTQ+ attractions (β = 0.61, p < .001) and friendly interactions (β = 0.42, p < .001) are predictors to visit Vietnam. Results are consistent with previous research that highlight safety/security is of utmost importance to the community when traveling. Attractions, such as LGBTQ+ tours, suppliers, and festivals can also be used as a pull factor in encouraging tourism. Implications/limitations will be discussed.

Keywords: tourism, LGBTQ, vietnam, regression

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Authors: Rania Alshikhe, Vinita Jindal

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Digital innovation has played a crucial role in managing smart transportation. For this, big trajectory data collected from traveling vehicles, such as taxis through installed global positioning system (GPS)-enabled devices can be utilized. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to trace the movements of vehicles in fine spatiotemporal granularity. This paper aims to explore big trajectory data to measure the travel efficiency of road networks using the proposed statistical travel efficiency measure (STEM) across an entire city. Further, it identifies the cause of low travel efficiency by proposed least square approximation network-based causality exploration (LANCE). Finally, the resulting data analysis reveals the causes of low travel efficiency, along with the road segments that need to be optimized to improve the traffic conditions and thus minimize the average travel time from given point A to point B in the road network. Obtained results show that our proposed approach outperforms the baseline algorithms for measuring the travel efficiency of the road network.

Keywords: GPS trajectory, road network, taxi trips, digital map, big data, STEM, LANCE

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Authors: Shosh Shahrabani, Sharon Teitler-Regev, Helena Desivilya Syna, Fotini Voulgaris, Evangelos Tsoukatos, Vitor Ambrosio, Sandra M. Correia Loureiro

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International crises that affect tourism, such as terror attacks, political unrest, and economic crises have become more frequent, and their influence has become broader. The influence of such extreme events depends on their salience in the tourists' awareness. Hence, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying tourists' selection of travel destinations, especially their perceptions of crisis-related events and the impact of the sociopolitical and economic context in their countries of origin. The current study examined how the socio-political and economic context in the home countries of potential young tourists affected their selection of travel destinations. The objective was to elucidate how the salience of various crises (economic and political) in the tourists' perceptions, due to their experiences at home, color their construal of destinations affected by similar hazards and influence their travel intentions. The study focused on student tourists from Israel, Greece, and Portugal. Today about a fifth of international tourism is based on young people, especially students. These countries were chosen since Greece and Portugal are in the midst of economic crises. In addition, Greece and Portugal have experienced political instability, while Israel has security-related problems (including terrorist incidents). In 2013, a total of 648 students, responded to a questionnaire that included questions concerning attitudes and risk perceptions regarding travel to destinations with various risk hazards as well as socio-demographic details. The results indicate that over half of the Israelis intend to visit Greece or Portugal. The majority of the Portuguese intend to visit Greece, while less than a third of them intend to visit Israel. About half of the Greeks intend to visit Portugal, and most of them do not intend to visit Israel. The results indicate that greater perceived importance of economic crises mitigates the intention to travel to destinations with economic crises for tourists from origin countries that are also marked by economic crises, such as Greece and Portugal. However, for tourists from Israel, a country with a relatively stable economy, issues related to the economy barely affect their intention to travel to the other two countries. The findings also suggest that Greeks and Portuguese who are highly concerned about political unrest are unlikely to select Israel as a tourist destination. In addition, strong apprehension regarding terrorism impedes the intention to travel to destinations marked by terrorist incidents, such as Israel. The current research contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the impact of travelers' personal previous experience with crisis on their risk perceptions and in turn on their intentions to travel to countries with similar risks. Therefore, in a world where such incidents are on the rise, understanding tourists' risk perceptions and behavior and the factors influencing their destination-related decisions are crucial for countries that wish to increase the numbers of incoming tourists.

Keywords: economic crises, political instability, risk perception, young tourists

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Authors: Anna Paola Micheli, Carmelo Intrisano, Anna Maria Calce

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This research focused on the capability of health tourism to improve the economic and financial performance of healthcare companies. It is assumed that health tourism companies have better profitability and financial efficiency because they can also count on cross-border demand differently from no health tourism companies. A three-level gap analysis was conducted: the first concerns health tourism companies located in Italy and in the other EU28 states; in the second Italian and EU28, no health tourism companies were compared; the third level is about the Italian system with a comparison between health tourism and no health tourism companies. Findings highlighted that Italian healthcare companies have better profitability performance if compared to European ones, but they present weaknesses in the financial position given the illiquidity and excessive leverage. Furthermore, studying the Italian system, we found that health tourism companies are more profitable than no health tourism companies.

Keywords: financial performance, gap analysis, health tourism, profitability performance, value creation

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Authors: Djamel Boussaa

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Cultural heritage and tourism have become during the last two decades dynamic areas of development in the world. The idea of heritage is crucial to the critical decision-making process as to how irreplaceable resources are to be utilized by people of the present or conserved for future generations in a fast changing world. In view of the importance of ‘heritage’ to the development of a tourist destination the emphasis on developing appropriate adaptive reuse strategies cannot be overemphasized. In October 1999, the 12th general assembly of the ICOMOS in Mexico stated, that in the context of sustainable development, two interrelated issues need urgent attention, cultural tourism and historic towns and cities. These two issues underscore the fact that historic resources are non-renewable, belonging to all of humanity. Without adequate adaptive reuse actions to ensure a sustainable future for these historic resources, may lead to their complete vanishing. The growth of tourism and its role in dispersing cultural heritage to everyone is developing rapidly. According to the World Tourism Organization, natural and cultural heritage resources are and will remain motivating factors for travel in the foreseeable future. According to the experts, people choose travel destinations where they can learn about traditional and distinct cultures in their historic context. The Qatar rich urban heritage is now being recognized as a valuable resource for future development. This paper discusses the role of cultural heritage and tourism in regenerating Souk Waqif, and consequently the city of Doha. Therefore, in order to use cultural heritage wisely, it will be necessary to position heritage as an essential element of sustainable development, giving particular attention to cultural heritage and tourism. The research methodology is based on an empirical survey of the situation, based on several visits, meetings and interviews with the local heritage players. The rehabilitation project initiated since 2004 will be examined and assessed. Therefore, there is potential to assess the situation and propose directions for a sustainable future to this historic landmark. Conservation for the sake of conservation appears to be an outdated concept. Many irreplaceable natural and cultural sites are being compromised because local authorities are not giving economic consideration to the value of rehabilitating such sites. The question to be raised here is 'How can cultural heritage be used wisely for tourism without compromising its social sustainability within the emerging global world?'

Keywords: cultural heritage, tourism, regeneration, economy, social sustainability

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Authors: Sibel Ecemiş Kılıç, Muhammed Aydoğan

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The rapid development of culture tourism has drawn attention to conserving cultural values especially by developing countries that would like to benefit from the economic contribution this type of tourism attracts. Tourism can have both positive and negative outcomes for historical settlements and their residents. The accommodation-purposed rehabilitation and revitalization project in “Sigacik Old City Zone” are to be discussed with spatial, economic, social and organizational dimensions. It is aimed to evaluate the relationship between the development of tourism and sustainable heritage conservation.

Keywords: Sığacık, urban conservation, sustainable tourism, Seferihisar

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Authors: Eric Hawkinson

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After designing and implementing several iterations of implementations of augmented reality (AR) in tourism, this paper takes a deep look into design principles and implementation strategies of using AR at destination tourism settings. The study looks to define augmented tourism from past implementations as well as several cases, uses designed and implemented for tourism. The discussion leads to formation of frameworks and best practices for AR as well as virtual reality( VR) to be used in tourism settings. Some main affordances include guest autonomy, customized experiences, visitor data collection and increased electronic word-of-mouth generation for promotion purposes. Some challenges found include the need for high levels of technology infrastructure, low adoption rates or ‘buy-in’ rates, high levels of calibration and customization, and the need for maintenance and support services. Some suggestions are given as to how to leverage the affordances and meet the challenges of implementing AR for tourism.

Keywords: augmented tourism, augmented reality, eTourism, virtual tourism, tourism design

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Authors: Zainab Olabisi Tairu

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Strategic partnerships are a core requirement in delivering sustainable tourism for development in developing nations like Papua New Guinea. This paper unveils the strategic partnerships for sustainable tourism development in Papua New Guinea. Much emphasis is made among tourism stakeholders, on the importance of strategic partnership and positioning in developing sustainable tourism development. This paper engages stakeholders’ ecotourism differentiation and power relations in the discussion of the paper through interviews and observations with tourism stakeholders in Papua New Guinea. Collaborative approaches in terms of sustaining the tourism industry, having a milestone of achieved plans, are needed for tourism growth and development. This paper adds a new insight to the body of knowledge on stakeholders’ identification, formation, power relations and an integrated approach to successful tourism development. In order to achieve responsible tourism planning and management outcomes, partnerships must be holistic in perspective and based on sustainable development principles.

Keywords: stakeholders, sustainable tourism, Papua New Guinea, partnerships

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Authors: Phillip F. Kanokanga, Patrick W. Mamimine, Molline Mwando, Charity Mapingure

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Tourism development tends to follow anchor attractions, including cities and their surroundings, while marginalizing small towns and their environs. This is even though the small towns and their hinterlands can also offer competitive tourism products. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) gathers visitor statistics of major tourist destinations only thereby sidelining the density of tourist traffic that either passes through or visits the small towns in the country. Unless this problem is addressed, the tourism potential of small towns and their hinterlands will not be fully tapped for economic development. Using qualitative research methodology, this study investigated the opportunities for tourism development in the Greater Chinhoyi Area. The study revealed that the Greater Chinhoyi area had potential for heritage tourism, village tourism, urban tourism, educational tourism, dark tourism, recreational tourism, agrotourism, and nature tourism. There is a need to link the various tourism resources in the Greater Chinhoyi area to anchor attractions in dominant resorts, then develop and present the tourism products in transit towns as ‘appetisers’ or ‘appetisser attractions’ before one gets to the main destination.

Keywords: anchor attractions, appetisers, heritage tourism, agrotourism, small towns, tourism corridor, systems approach, hidden treasures

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Authors: Boutkhil Guemide, Chellali Benachaiba

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has an inevitable impact on different industries and their performances. The tourism industry as the largest and fastest growing industry in the world cannot be excluded from this technology and its huge impacts. ICT provides information about tourist attractions in the different destinations before travelling and may improve tourists’ satisfaction. Although Algeria has great tourism potentials, it still needs to be performed well in promoting its attractions to international tourists via ICT tools yet. This research explores the impact of ICT on foreign tourists’ satisfaction of the tourism industry and uses Algerian tourist agencies as a case study, and proposes a model for the impact of ICT on sustainable tourism. Finally, it is concluded that e-ticketing, e-reservation, online payment, multilingual and updated information websites are essential needs for planning strategies in the field of e-tourism. Also, it is recommended that the tourism authorities should develop e-tourism infrastructures in order to keep up with the competitiveness of this field to enable the country to benefit from the global benefits of the tourism industry.

Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), tourism, tourists’ satisfaction, sustainable tourism

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Authors: Abdul Hamid Mir

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Tourism which is considered as the economic bonanza of Jammu and Kashmir plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Jammu and Kashmir. It is considered as a multi-segmented industry which provides different type of jobs like hotel managers, receptionists, guides, tour operators, travel agents, photographers, etc. Kashmir Valley which is one of the three meso regions (Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh) of Jammu and Kashmir State is famous all over the world due to its natural beauty. It attracts tourists from the every corner of the globe that is why it has earned name as ‘Paradise on Earth’ and ‘Switzerland of Asia’. It is full of natural treasure and gratifies the several types of tourists. The tourists are experiences fun, thrilling events and safe experience in Kashmir valley, but on the other hand, the adventure tourists are experiencing the physical risks, dangers and losses (injuries, death etc) too. Kashmir valley has greater potential to become one of the best adventure tourism destinations in the world. It offers immense opportunities to the adventurists to explore the wonderful exotic Himalayan ranges and landscapes, in addition, to facing the challenges of fast flowing rivers. Adventure tourism is at the initial stage of development in Kashmir valley and virgin areas needs to be explored and develop which in result will increase not only tourist arrivals but also enhance the business opportunities and economy of local people in Kashmir. Thus the exploitation of virginity of adventure tourism potentials in Kashmir valley is need of the hour. Therefore the present study highlights the potentials of adventure tourism in Kashmir valley and also focuses on the problems in the development of adventure tourism. Furthermore, the study extends to give various recommendations and suggestions in order to develop adventure tourism and broaden the base of tourist arrivals on one hand and sustained the growth on the other hand.

Keywords: adventure, Kashmir, tourism, tourists, potential, rafting, skiing

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Authors: Nancy Ayman Kamal Mohamed Mehrz

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As the economies of other countries in the Mediterranean Basin, the tourism sector in our country has a high denominator in economics. Tourism businesses, which are building blocks of tourism, sector faces with a variety of problems during their activities. These problems faced make business efficiency and competition conditions of the businesses difficult. Most of the problems faced by the tourism businesses and the information of consumers about consumers’ rights were used in this study, which is conducted to determine the problems of tourism businesses in the Central Anatolia Region. It is aimed to contribute the awareness of staff and executives working at tourism sector and to attract attention of businesses active concurrently with tourism sector and legislators. E-tourism is among the issues that have recently been entered into the field of tourism. In order to achieve this type of tourism, Information and Communications Technology (or ICT) infrastructures as well as Co-governmental organizations and tourism resources are important. In this study, the opinions of managers and tourism officials about the e-tourism in Leman city were measured; it also surveyed the impact of level of digital literacy of managers and tourism officials on attracting tourists. This study was conducted. One of the environs of the Esfahan province. This study is a documentary – survey and the sources include library resources and also questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that if managers use ICT, it may help e-tourism to be developed in the region, and increasing managers’ beliefs on e-tourism and upgrading their level of digital literacy may affect e-tourism development.

Keywords: financial problems, the problems of tourism businesses, tourism businesses, internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management economic competitiveness, enhancing competitiveness

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Authors: S. Halioui, I. Arikan, M. Schmidt

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Tourism sector in Tunisia faces several problems that range from economic challenges to environmental degradation and social instability. These problems have been intensified because of the increased competition in the tourism market, the political instability, financial crises, and recently terrorism problems have aggravated the situation. As a consequence, a new framework that promotes sustainable tourism in the country and increases its competitiveness is urgently needed. Planning for sustainable tourism sector requires the integration of complex interactions between economic, social and environmental aspects. Sustainable tourism principles can be implemented with the help of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, which ensures the full integration of economic, social and environmental considerations while planning for the tourism sector in Tunisia. Results of the paper have broad implications for policy makers and tourism professionals.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, strategic environmental assessment, tourism planning, policy

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Authors: Alka Obadić

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The research concentrates on the role of tourism in generating female employment and on impact of gender discrimination in tourism sector. Unfortunately, in many countries there are still some barriers to the inclusion of women at all hierarchical levels of tourism labor market. Research analysis focuses on EU countries where tourism is a main employer of women. The analysis shows that women represent over third persons employed in the non-financial business economy and almost two thirds in core tourism activities. Women's gross hourly earnings in accommodation and food services were below those of men in the European Union and only countries who recorded increase of gender pay gap from the beginning of crisis are Bulgaria and Croatia. Women in tourism industry are still overrepresented in lower status jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression and are often treated unequally.

Keywords: employment, gender discrimination, tourism, women’s participation

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Authors: Feyi Olorunshola

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Over the last few years, the senior travel market has been noted for its potential in the wider tourism industry. The tourism sector includes the hotel and hospitality, travel, transportation, and several other subdivisions to make it economically viable. In particular, the hotel attracts a substantial part of the expenditure in tourism activities as when people plan to travel, suitable accommodation for relaxation, dining, entertainment and so on is paramount to their decision-making. The global retail value of the hotel as of 2018 was significant for tourism. But, despite indications of the hotel to the tourism industry at large, very few empirical studies are available to establish how this sector can leverage on the senior demographic to achieve competitive advantage. Predominantly, studies on the mature market have focused on destination tourism, with a limited investigation on the hotel which makes a significant contribution to tourism. Also, several scholarly studies have demonstrated the importance of the senior travel market to the hotel, yet there is very little empirical research in the field which has explored the driving factors that will become the accepted new normal for this niche segment post-pandemic. Giving that the hotel already operates in a highly saturated business environment, and on top of this pre-existing challenge, the ongoing global health outbreak has further put the sector in a vulnerable position. Therefore, the hotel especially the full-service luxury category must evolve rapidly for it to survive in the current business environment. The hotel can no longer rely on corporate travelers to generate higher revenue since the unprecedented wake of the pandemic in 2020 many organizations have invented a different approach of conducting their businesses online, therefore, the hotel needs to anticipate a significant drop in business travellers. However, the rooms and the rest of the facilities must be occupied to keep their business operating. The way forward for the hotel lies in the leisure sector, but the question now is to focus on the potential demographics of travelers, in this case, the seniors who have been repeatedly recognized as the lucrative market because of increase discretionary income, availability of time and the global population trends. To achieve the study objectives, a mixed-method approach will be utilized drawing on both qualitative (netnography) and quantitative (survey) methods, cognitive and decision-making theories (means-end chain) and competitive theories to identify the salient drivers explaining senior hotel choice and its influence on their decision-making. The target population are repeated seniors’ age 65 years and over who are UK resident, and from the top tourist market to the UK (USA, Germany, and France). Structural equation modelling will be employed to analyze the datasets. The theoretical implication is the development of new concepts using a robust research design, and as well as advancing existing framework to hotel study. Practically, it will provide the hotel management with the latest information to design a competitive marketing strategy and activities to target the mature market post-pandemic and over a long period.

Keywords: competitive advantage, covid-19, full-service hotel, five-star, luxury hotels

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Authors: Silvia Rocha, Flavio Tiago, Maria Teresa Tiago, Sandra Faria, Joao Couto

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The Azores have a tourist potential that has been developing, especially after an increase in promotion and the liberalization of airspace. However, there is still a gap with regard to the understanding of tourists from North America. Previous studies referred to the existence of two basic types of touristic flows: Emigrants and locals. Looking to help fill this gap, a study of travelers from North America was conducted. Using cluster analysis, it was determined the existence of three segments: nostalgic, regular and frequent. The recognition of these three segments is important to determine the necessary adjustments in tourist offerings to this market.

Keywords: tourism, diaspora, nostalgia, culture

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Authors: Sakul Jaariyachamsit, Kevin Wongleedee

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The objectives of this research were to study five perceptions of service quality from international tourists who visited Bangkok, Thailand. The independent variables included gender, age, levels of education, occupation, and income while the dependent variables included their opinion on the service provided by employees in Thai tourism. An accidental random sampling method was utilized to get 215 respondents. The respondents were both male and female in the same proportion and most were between 21-40 years old. Most were married and had a graduate degree. The average income of the respondents was between $20,000-40,000. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents came to Thailand for the first time and spent about 6-8 days in Thailand and preferred to travel in small groups with no children. The five service perceptions of employees in tourism by the international tourists in descending order according to mean were reliable employees, neat and clean employees, polite employees, timely employees, and competent employees.

Keywords: experience, international tourists, service quality, Thailand

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Authors: Rania S. Hussein

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Background: This study aims to determine the evolution of service provision by Egyptian travel sites and how these services change in terms of their level of sophistication over the period of the study which is ten years. To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study that focuses on an extended time frame of ten years. Additionally, the study attempts to determine the popularity of these websites through the number of links to these sites. Links maybe viewed as the equivalent of a referral or word of mouth but in an online context. Both popularity and the nature of the services provided by these websites are used to determine the traffic on these sites. In examining the nature of services provided, the website itself is viewed as an overall service offering that is composed of different travel products and services. Method: This study uses content analysis in the form of a small scale survey done on 30 Egyptian travel agents’ websites to examine whether Egyptian travel websites are static or dynamic in terms of the services that they provide and whether they provide simple or sophisticated travel services. To determine the level of sophistication of these travel sites, the nature and composition of products and services offered by these sites were first examined. A framework adapted from Kotler (1997) 'Five levels of a product' was used. The target group for this study consists of companies that do inbound tourism. Four rounds of data collection were conducted over a period of 10 years. Two rounds of data collection were made in 2004 and two rounds were made in 2014. Data from the travel agents’ sites were collected over a two weeks period in each of the four rounds. Besides collecting data on features of websites, data was also collected on the popularity of these websites through a software program called Alexa that showed the traffic rank and number of links of each site. Regression analysis was used to test the effect of links and services on websites as independent variables on traffic as the dependent variable of this study. Findings: Results indicate that as companies moved from having simple websites with basic travel information to being more interactive, the number of visitors illustrated by traffic and the popularity of those sites increase as shown by the number of links. Results also show that travel companies use the web much more for promotion rather than for distribution since most travel agents are using it basically for information provision. The results of this content analysis study taps on an unexplored area and provide useful insights for marketers on how they can generate more traffic to their websites by focusing on developing a distinctive content on these sites and also by focusing on the visibility of their sites thus enhancing the popularity or links to their sites.

Keywords: levels of a product, popularity, travel, website evolution

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili, R. Gvelesiani, E. Kharaishvili, M. Chavleishvili

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The topic reviews the situation existing currently in Georgia in the field of tourism in conditions of globalization: Touristic resources, the paces of development of the tourism infrastructure, tourism policy, possibilities of development of the Wellness industry in Georgia that is the newest direction of the medical tourism. The factors impeding the development of the industry of tourism, namely-existence of the conflict zones, high rates of the bank credits, deficiencies associated with the tax laws, a level of infrastructural development, quality of services, deficit in the competitive staff, increase of prices in the peak seasons, insufficient promotion of the touristic opportunities of Georgia on the international markets are studied and analyzed. Besides, the levels of development of tourism in Georgia according to the World Economic Forum, aspects of cooperation with the European Union etc. are reviewed. As a result of these studies, a strategy of development of tourism and one of its directions-Wellness industries in Georgia is introduced with the relevant conclusions, on which basis the recommendations are provided.

Keywords: about tourism, tourism policy, wellness industry, business, innovation, technology

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Authors: Wuttigrai Ngamsirijit

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Creative tourism is an ongoing development in many countries as an attempt to moving away from serial reproduction of culture and reviving the culture. Despite, in the destinations with diverse and potential cultural resources, creating new tourism services can be vague. This paper presents how tourism experiences are modularized and consolidated in order to form new creative tourism service offerings in evanescent cultural communities of Bangkok, Thailand. The benefits from data mining in accommodating value co-creation are discussed, and implication of experience modularization to national creative tourism policy is addressed.

Keywords: co-creation, creative tourism, new service design, experience modularization

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Authors: Valeri Arghutashvili, Mari Gogochuri

Abstract:

Tourism industry development is one of the key priorities in Georgia, as it has positive influence on economic activities. Its contribution is very important for the different regions, as well as for the national economy. Benefits of the tourism industry include new jobs, service development, and increasing tax revenues, etc. The main aim of this research is to review and analyze the potential of the Georgian tourism industry with its long-term strategy and current challenges. To plan activities in a long-term development, it is required to evaluate several factors on the regional and on the national level. Factors include activities, transportation, services, lodging facilities, infrastructure and institutions. The major research contributions are practical estimates about regional tourism development which plays an important role in the integration process with global markets.

Keywords: regional tourism, tourism industry, tourism in Georgia, tourism benefits

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Authors: Yixuan Peng

Abstract:

Music tourism is the phenomenon of people visiting a place because of their association with music, as well as the process of creating an emotional attachment to a place through the connection between people and music. Music offers people the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture. Music tourism is increasingly recognized as an industry with economic and social impacts. People often come together for a common purpose of music at a certain time and place, such as concert, opera, or music workshop. This is very similar to the act of pilgrimage: the process of participation evokes strong emotions; it takes time and money to get to the destination; the gathering, and the emotional co-frequency. This study conducted further qualitative research using MAXQDA by applying the musical topophilia model with East Asians as interview subjects. There are three steps to traveling: before, during and after the trip. To date, 53 individuals living in East Asia have been interviewed one-on-one (online/offline) about their travel experiences. This part of the interview is limited to the two stages that are before and after travel. Based on the results of the interviews above, and as Europe has the most representative music industry and the richest variety of music genres. The " during the trip" phase of the observations and interviews were conducted in Europe and involved on-site music in Salzburg and London, including musical theater, street music, and musical pilgrimages. Interviews with 24 people were conducted in English, Chinese and Japanese. This study will use data to demonstrate the followings: the irreplaceability of music in faraway places; the identity and sense of belonging that music brings; the ethnic barriers that music crosses; and the cultural communication that music enables.

Keywords: belongingness, gathering, modern pilgrimage, anthropology of music, sociology of music

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Authors: Santi Mutiara Asih, Sinta Kemala Asih

Abstract:

Along with the development of tourism in Indonesia, which is increasingly a lot of domestic and foreign public interest in sharia tourism, the Indonesian government is currently developing the program. It was seen that this program would have a good impact, especially for Indonesian tourism. So it is necessary to develop appropriate marketing strategies. Then to develop tourism prospects sharia government could use such a marketing strategy, for instance, marketing mix and Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning (STP). The marketing mix is a set of marketing tools used by a state or a company to continue achieving its marketing objectives in target market. STP is the most important initial step in identifying customer value. In such away, it is expected from the use of this strategy could make sharia tourism as a market leader in the field of tourism in Indonesia, it also could attract more tourists to visit and increase economic returns.

Keywords: STP, marketing mix, market leader, sharia tourism

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Authors: Arvin Ludovice

Abstract:

The modern way of communicating and connecting people has been in its easiest forms nowadays, one of it is blog. Blogs, nowadays, are truly relevant in informing people of different as aspects, interests, and fields through these blogs. The evidentiality and testimony of collective people are easily been accessed. However, the description of blog in the making is persuading people, choice of language is one—adverbial intensifiers. Measuring the language on a scale of its intensity subdue the intensity per se. The present study determines, scrutinizes and analyses the adverbial intensifiers used in Filipino and Malaysian. The corpus consists of 30 top travel blogs written by Filipinos and 30 top travel blogs written by Malaysian for a total of 60 travel blogs. The application AntConc was utilized to tag the necessary intensifiers. A frequency distribution of the scores is used to identify the most common intensifiers used by travel bloggers from the Philippines and Malaysia. The scale or degree of intensifier is taken from Quirk Degree of Intensifiers as the basis for the functions of intensifiers. The result found that Malaysian travel blogs are more expressive with the use of the adverbial intensifiers vis-à-vis Filipino travel bloggers, consequently, ranking of the intensifiers, boosters are most used one in expressing and utilizing the language choice a more. The conclusion states that Malaysian travel bloggers are of using the functionality of the adverbial intensifiers. The distinction on the pedagogical implications are hereunto stated as well to deepen and give its significant and importance in language teaching.

Keywords: adverbial intensifiers, blogs, Filipino and Malaysian blogs, AntConc

Procedia PDF Downloads 157