Tourism Analysis

This paper intends firstly to estimate tourism productivity in 208 countries in the years 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004. Secondly, it analyzes if the differential of productivity across countries could be due to some structural characteristics of the countries themselves. The study uses a stochastic production frontier approach and a technical efficiency model to analyze the determinants of efficiency across countries. Private capital and labour result to be more influential than public capital on the number of arrivals. The results suggest that the tertiary school enrolment, the level of communication technologies, the country openness to international trade all significantly contribute to efficiency.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of September 11 terrorist attacks on the US air transport passenger demand. The article focuses on how soon and to what extent passenger traffic recovery will emerge from the September 11 terrorist attacks. After selecting ARIMA (0,1,1)(0,1,1)12 as the most appropriate model, the intervention model estimates that the total impact amounts to a demand decrease of approximately 67,432,000 within first 9 months. The impact of the intervention continues to drop for the rest of the periods but the decreasing level is getting smaller. Overall, therefore, it seems that the terrorist attacks appear to have a short-term impact on air transport passenger demand. In contrast, in the long term, there are no strong impacts on air transport passenger demand. It is meaningful to evaluate whether the US air transport industry, in terms of passenger demand, has rebounded from the crisis. This study deals with how to manage tourism and travel demand policy in case of future interventions and provides insights to policy makers in the tourism and travel industry to respond to the unexpected exogenous shocks.

This article draws attention to a neglected field in tourism research: the study of the demand for package tours. In particular, two research questions were addressed. First, the possible changes in the demand over time for package tours abroad were examined using Norwegian household expenditures data from 1989 to 1999. Second, the article examined how a number of sociodemographic and locational variables affected the demand for this kind of tourism. Because a large number of households in the data did not take part in a package tour abroad in the period studied, a sample-selection regression procedure was adopted as the estimation strategy. Three results were especially noteworthy: 1) An increasing number of Norwegian households took part in a package tour as the decade progressed. 2) Among those households that took part in a package tour, the mean expenditures decreased throughout the decade. 3) Permanent income had a positive influence on both the propensity of taking part in package tours and on the expenditures on such tours.

The aim of this article is to establish the primary economic determinants of hotel occupancy in Jamaica by reviewing for the period January 1991 to December 2008. The rationale is to help policy makers of Tourism and Hospitality management identify factors that have the biggest impact on hotel occupancy. The empirical results showed that stopovers, length of stay, events such Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues festival and to a lesser extent Reggae Sumfest are the main economic factors affecting occupancy levels. The study also seeks to establish whether seasonality affects hotel occupancy.

This article identifies five themes in Chinese rural tourism studies, including (1) definitions of rural tourism, (2) rural tourism planning and development, (3) pragmatic challenges and solutions, and (4) policies and impacts. Further, these themes are grouped by three methodological approaches, including supply-side perspectives, policy-oriented research, and descriptive methods. The article is based on the review and synthesis of 325 research articles published between 1997 and 2006 in China. The findings contribute to an understanding of China's rural tourism industry and current state of academic research on rural tourism issues unique to China but having global significance.

As ecotourism becomes more and more popular, the emerging trend creates an "ecogeneralist" market segment. The purpose of this study is to present statistical evidence to illustrate the changing market profile of the ecogeneralists in North America, through the investigation of as well as through an analysis of ecogeneralists' spending habits and activities undertaken between 1998 and 2003, during their visit to Florida. The findings of this study indicated that: (1) the basic demographic characteristics exhibited by ecogeneralists in Florida coincided with those market profiles from the previous research findings specific to ecogeneralists, (2) all demographic and behavioral characteristics of ecogeneralists from different geographical origins were found to differ significantly, (3) the economic environment of the US had the most significant impact on the international ecogeneralists' travel experience.

This article discusses the applications and the results of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting model to predict the international tourist arrivals into Malaysia using the monthly data from January 2002 through December 2007. Based on the arrivals and the average length of stay, the revenue was computed and the time series forecast model was fitted to estimate the total revenue for the Malaysian tourism industry. International arrivals into Malaysia remained resilient and have been dominant by Asian visitors. The five Asian countries, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, and China, together accounted for 75.3% of the international tourist arrivals into Malaysia and contributed to 66.5%, of the Malaysian tourism revenue for the year 2007. The forecasting models were also fitted for tourists coming into Malaysia from these five countries for future planning and managerial applications. It is worthwhile to mention that the forecasted arrivals and revenue for the year 2008 almost coincide with the actual Malaysian official tourism figures and the variation is negligible, which strengthens the validity and the robustness of the fitted models.

In October 2002, the monstrous bombing of the Kuta Bay entertainment district in Bali was a climacteric wake-up call for all who work in Tourism Studies/Tourism Management. The al-Qaida attack on tourists in Indonesia starkly underlined the fact that tourism considerably matters as a realm of symbolism in the contemporary world. Many believe that the Kuta Bay assault by radical Islamist groups—yet to be confirmed at time of writing—was an attack on the shape and profile of current Western-led international tourism (and all that the industry signifies), itself. In these momentous and dire respects, this review article argues that while the fully fledged political science studies of tourism have always been rare, the singular study of symbolic value/significatory practice in Tourism Studies has been especially uncommon. The article therefore seeks to remedy that long-seated shortfall of attention by firstly drawing a number of cardinal insights from the ``Bali 2002'' incident on the need for both Tourism Studies researchers and Tourism Management practitioners to be schooled in the emergent transdisciplinary field of ``Representation Studies,'' to be more alert to the power and reach of the symbolic meanings and the cultural and political reach of the significations those who work in international tourism axiomatically deal in on a day-by-day basis. Thereafter, and secondly, the article seeks to highlight the importance of the role and function of tourism in the development of symbolic understandings by distilling an example of symbolic critique vis-à-vis tourism. Here, the review article examines the recent work of Haynes on the way the deserts and the arid outback of Australia (i.e., the famous ``Red Centre''/``Dead Heart'' of Australia) have been variously represented/symbolized over the last two centuries, and now also conveyed through tourism itself. Although Haynes's magnus opus (Seeking the Centre) is not a publication expressly written for Tourism Studies, per se, it is argued that the domain indeed needs to generate all manner of creative new inquiries into the discourse and praxis of symbolic meaning/significatory action if researchers and practitioners are to come to terms with not only the intended, but the unintended, communicative power of tourism. The article advances by translating (within the Appendix) the meaning of 10 important conceptional ``subjects'' or ``approaches'' within Representation Studies, and concludes by generating (within Exhibit 1) a list of 20 cardinal research agendas on ``symbolism'' and ``signification'' that—after Kuta Bay, October 2002—it is critical for newly qualified Tourism Studies scholars sincerely and robustly delve into, if the world-shaping/worldmaking projective authority of tourism is to be decently understood by those working deeply within the very field.

This venture in reflexivity attempts to trace the production of an edited book that deals with the early history of the field of tourism research as seen through the personal histories of its founders. In a kind of ethnographic study of an unexpectedly new and unusual productive process that involved a series of problems (e.g., culture shock) and opportunities (e.g., for creativity) experienced by the editor and other participants in the study, an insider's view of some researchers' constructive activity in laying out the emergence and development of a new field of science was obtained.

In April 2002, the city council of Virginia Beach, Virginia, passed new regulations allowing hotels located at the oceanfront resort area to grow to a maximum height of 200-feet tall, up from the previous height of 100 feet. This article is an investigation of the possible effects this new regulation may have on tourism in Virginia Beach. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to construct a three-dimensional model of the oceanfront resort area and to generate simulations representing possible development scenarios that may occur due to this new regulation. Taller hotels along the boardwalk may have an effect on open space and views of the Atlantic Ocean. Viewshed analysis was performed to examine the potential effects of views of the beach and ocean under each simulation. Finally, a discussion of the potential impacts to the area from a tourism and economic view was examined. This model and its accompanying simulations offer a tool for visualizing and analyzing the changes to the resort area once the construction of taller hotels begins along the boardwalk and the potential effects this will have on tourism.

Endorsement of products by successful aboriginal people might enhance the effectiveness of their marketing. While there is much research regarding aboriginal tourism, there is apparently little discussion of marketing strategies other than frequent criticism of the stereotypical portrayal of aboriginal people. The purposes of this study were to explore the effectiveness of different types of endorsement and to determine what types of advertising appeals are most effective in attracting tourists to visit aboriginal cultural sites. This research adopted a between-subjects experimental design. In total, 610 samples were valid. Among them, 461 questionnaires were returned by the six experimental groups, and 149 were obtained by the two control groups. The main interest of this study was to explore the effectiveness of endorsement advertising of aboriginal products, in this case aboriginal culture villages in Taiwan. The results revealed that an employee endorser (i.e., aboriginal dancer) stimulates a better response than a celebrity endorser. In addition, an emotional advertising appeal was more effective than using a rational advertising appeal in an aboriginal cultural village's brochure.

Guidebooks play an influential role as mediator among the traveler, the travel experience, and the traveled destination. Despite the centrality of guidebooks in the experiences of independent travelers such as backpackers, the question of how readers use these texts has received little attention in tourism research. This article explores the influence of guidebook texts on backpacker experiences with, and interpretations of, Aboriginal Australia. The investigation is drawn from the textual analysis of three popular guidebooks to Australia, coupled with interviews with a sample of 28 international backpackers traveling in Australia. The research reveals that guidebooks are negotiated through the lived and imagined experiences of their readers at various times throughout the travel experience. Significantly, the interplay between the backpacker travel experience and the guidebook text is dynamic and primarily situational. The findings highlight the role that the text plays as mediator between the traveler (the backpacker) and the traveled culture (Aboriginal Australia).

The purpose of this study was to examine motivations of college students' participation in study abroad programs. The study is based on surveys conducted with a group of university students who participated in a study abroad program to either the South Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji) or Europe (Austria and the Netherlands). The study results suggested four motivation domains: international travel, escape, social, and academic. Of the four motivational dimensions, the strongest was international travel, followed by academic, social, and escape. The implications of the findings to the student travel industry and study abroad programs are discussed.

When the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST) was first launched at its charter meeting in 1988, its central stated mission was to foster tourism research internationally. This otherwise subjective insider study attempts to evaluate this goal longitudinally by applying a series of objective indicators to the composition and primary activity of IAST during the past 19 years. In particular, it examines what changes have taken place over these two decades with respect to the source of ordinary membership and of the executive committee, the location of biennial meetings, as well as the editorship and contributor profiles of its six official publications. Regarding the last, an additional chapter-by-chapter linguistic analysis of accompanying references is undertaken, which seeks to establish whether or not there are significant patterns of ethnocentrism. The overall account thus highlights areas of over-representation as well as pointing to spheres of under-representation. Looking toward the future, the article explores the implications of a continuation of such trends for the organization as a whole.

The purpose of this article is to identify and evaluate determinants of cultural acceptance among tourists. Specifically the question to be answered is: which variables influence travelers' cultural mobility and which clusters of cultural interest can be identified among specific groups of Japanese long-haul distance travelers to alpine destinations? While the first part of the article provides a literature review focusing on tourists' cultural mobility, the second part of the article presents a case study in form of a survey that was carried out in the winter of 2005/2006 in the Alpine region of St. Anton, Austria and Zermatt, Switzerland. The two winter sport destinations differ appreciably in terms of their characteristics of cultural supply vis-à-vis Japanese long-haul visitors. Japanese tourists had been asked to indicate their travel motives as well as their satisfaction with the supplied tourism products and services offered. In addition, the questionnaire assessed their overall destination activities and their participation in cultural/local events. The authors were able to cluster Japanese long-haul tourists into two groups. To do so, their participation in local cultural events was analyzed and interpreted. The authors present this case study in order to demonstrate the relevance for continued research in the area of cultural and spiritual mobility. Tourism policy implications as well as suggestions for the design of destination authenticity will be presented in the final part of the article.

Tourism in Ghana has become a major socioeconomic activity and one of the most important and fastest growing sectors of the Ghanaian economy. It is the fourth largest foreign exchange earner after cocoa, gold, and remittances from abroad. Ghana's tourism growth rate is about 12% per annum. Hence, the importance of tourism and its sociocultural, political, and economic values to Ghana is enormous. The tourism industry has over the years demonstrated its ability to contribute significantly towards national economic development, especially in the areas of employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty reduction at national and community levels. Since independence in 1957, a number of tourism development plans has been drawn up to guide the growth of the industry. Unfortunately, none of these plans has been fully implemented due to unfavorable economic and political environment. Although most sections of Ghana's tourism development plans since independence have not been fully implemented, the tourism sector in Ghana has seen substantial growth. The government is determined to reap the full benefits that the industry offers by putting in place necessary plans, policies, actions, and resources to stimulate guided growth in the sector and ensure that tourism does not become a missed opportunity. This article gives an overview of tourism in Ghana; in particular, the demand and supply trends in the accommodation sector. It also examines the contribution of the accommodation sector to the Ghanaian economy.

This article investigates the significance and importance of transport and other service or nontransport (accommodation) infrastructure as important factors in the development of Cameroon as a future competitive eco/nature tourism destination. Based on the results of primary data collected in Cameroon, the article examines and sheds light on the evolution in Cameroon's service infrastructure since independence in 1960 with particular emphasis on the transport and accommodation infrastructure into and within Cameroon's natural parks, reserves, and other tourist attractions. Through an analysis of a tourist satisfaction survey, field observations, and discussions with tour operators, the article points out the sensitivity of tourists visiting the country to the service infrastructure especially with regards to the transport and accommodation infrastructure and how these services impacted on their general holiday experience and the image it portrays of Cameroon—an eco/nature tourism holiday destination. It also examines the current state of the transport system and infrastructure both into and within the country as well as its accommodation infrastructure, and in the process highlights shortcomings that are to be found in Cameroon's transport and other service infrastructure. The concluding section of the article proposes a way forward in alleviating some of the concerns raised after analyzing data from the survey, discussions, and field observation. Recommendations that should be taken into consideration by all stakeholders responsible for the conception, development, and implementation of policies dealing with transport, accommodation, and other service infrastructure to and within sites that attract tourists, nature lovers in particular, and Cameroon in general, thereby enhancing the image of the country as a favorable eco/nature tourism destination are proposed.

This article uses narrative, case study analysis to investigate three major alternative models to state tourism funding that emerged in the 1990s. Although many academics and researchers are familiar with these models, few know the specifics of how they arose, how they work, and their implications for the tourism industry. The alternative models reviewed in this article include industry self-assessment (CalTour), public-private partnership (Visit Florida), tourism-related tax revenues (Missouri Division of Tourism), and an attempted hybrid model (Rhode Island Tourism Advisory Council). Based on these models, the article suggests new hybrid models will appear based on the best characteristics of the initial models: equity, consensus, and accountability, respectively. Given the dearth of academic study tourism funding, the article concludes with suggestions for future research.

The tourism satellite account (TSA) has as its main categories “tourism-specific,” “tourism-related,” and “non-tourism-specific” production industries, which in turn produce “tourism-specific,” “tourism-related,” and “non-tourism-specific” goods. The latter comprise goods and services supplied primarily to nontourists. The macroeconomic importance of tourism and its contribution to the overall value added is a crucial index for economists. For calculating the total economic impact of tourism, the TSA results have to be corrected for indirect effects triggered by tourism as the TSA concept considers only the direct value-added effects. Further, in an overall economic perspective, business trips of residents have to be excluded to get the right impact figures. In the case of Austria, it was found that in the year 2002 the direct and indirect value-added effects, excluding business trips, of Austrians contributed 9.6% to the GDP whereas direct effects contributed only 6%.

The agreement between international agencies that Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) are the most appropriate way to measure the economic contribution of tourism has led to an explosion in the number of countries (and regions) developing such accounts. In reliably reconciling visitor supply and demand, TSAs offer improved information for tourism policy development and economic impact assessments, both of which are important in guiding resources and support for new tourism infrastructure and individual events. There are, however, a number of conceptual and structural issues that limit the usefulness of the TSA for economic modeling purposes. This article suggests that while the collection and manipulation of information that supports the TSA will aid impact and policy assessment, a further reengineering of the TSA framework is necessary to lever the full benefits for such studies. The TSA is found to be ideally used as a basis for complementary modeling techniques, including that of Computable General Equilibrium and Social Accounting Matrices.

While cross-cultural geographical mobility is considered as one of the main social conditions of contemporary times, social sciences research in mobility has examined mainly leisure mobility or mobility of sedentary populations (e.g., sojourners). This article studies a group of contemporary nomads, transnational mobile professionals (TMPs)—a global consumer segment characterized by cosmopolitanism and voluntary mobility that is not anchored in national territories and is constantly on the road. Contrasting TMPs to sojourners, the article suggests that TMPs experience mobility as an out of ordinary experience, as a mean for creating, transforming, and developing self-identity, and a way of achieving other professional or life goals. The article also shows that TMPs take a cosmopolitan perspective on mobility and other cultures and engage voluntary in the acculturation process in the host country.

Both data patterns and forecasting accuracy have been identified in the literature as important constructs in tourism demand forecasting. However, the relationship between the two was either ignored or addressed only indirectly. This study develops an innovative methodology to identify and categorize typical tourism demand patterns, and assesses the impact of the identified patterns on the accuracy of various tourism forecasting methods using a large data set. Four distinct patterns were identified: (1) a stable linear trend, (2) a nonlinear trend, (3) a wave-shaped trend, and (4) an abrupt change pattern. These four arrival data patterns affect the accuracy of forecasting models in a specific and systematic manner. Within the tourism industry, it might be feasible to categorize data based on a small number of typical, easily observable features. The relationships between the performance of the forecasting models and these data patterns could be exploited for optimal selection of a forecasting method, improving the accuracy of the forecasts.

Tourism is a big revenue–generating industry in Kenya, hence interest in its stability and status. But this industry is very sensitive to a number of factors that affect its performance. To help bridge realized and potential tourism of protected areas as tourist destinations, this study compared the influence of these factors and how they affected tourism achievement. Six factors (biodiversity attributes, physical landscape attributes, cultural attractions, marketing campaigns, facility endowments, and health/security risks) were considered. Scores were assigned for each factor for each protected area and mean scores determined. The mean score of factors for each protected area was considered an index of its tourism potential. This tourism potential index was used to assess whether each protected area had significant tourism potential, had achieved it, or exceeded it (tourism achievement). Only 12 (22.6%) of the protected areas had achieved and/or exceeded their tourism potential, and only 22 out of 53 protected areas (41.51%) had any meaningful potential for tourism. Generally, tourism potential scores were higher than those based on tourist numbers alone (Wilcoxon signed rank test, T = 3.00, p = 0.003), implying that tourist visits alone were not sufficient in evaluating the tourism potential of protected areas. Protected areas that had a high tourism achievement index were: Aberdares, Lake Nakuru, Buffalo Springs, Tsavo West, Nairobi, Tsavo East, Maasai Mara, Lake Bogoria, and Amboseli, respectively. Generally, biodiversity and facility endowment influenced tourist performance, and specifically the marketing campaigns, communication facilities, accessibility, and the diversity of large mammal species. These findings confirm that Kenyan tourism is mainly wildlife based and strongly influenced by facilities and infrastructure. A national tourism–based conservation strategy should be targeting protected areas that have tourism potential but have failed by improving facilities and infrastructure, rather than the current ad hoc approach.

Destination management is an important competitive marketing method for global tourism destinations. Especially, when cooperated with image and brand management, it helps destinations to stand out from today's severe crowd of competition. The successful and efficient destination management companies usually play a major role in marketing their destinations, but there exists a conflict in literature on the level of involvement in related marketing activities. Though managing an autonomous organization having its' own budget and freedom in decision making seems to be the best solution to meet the rapidly changing trends and needs of global tourists, it needs to be analyzed within the organizations' managerial level. The aim of this article is to determine the perspectives of DMO managers from the most important two destinations in Turkey, which is a very popular country that is usually in the first 10 in the international tourism market. The destinations chosen are Istanbul and Izmir, which by using destination management within the last 10 years were able to become popular global brands in the world market by increasing their share rapidly.

Each summer millions of northern Europeans have historically escaped the unfavorable weather conditions in their countries in search of the traditional "sun, sand, and sea" vacation in the Mediterranean region. Climate change may alter this longstanding tourism flow, however. Based on combination of a series of scientific climate change scenarios with the Tourism Climatic Index (TCI), a method of evaluating a location's climate for general tourism activity, this article examines projected changes in climatic suitability for tourism in northwestern Europe. Under all the scenarios considered, peak season conditions throughout northwestern Europe are projected to improve over the course of the coming century. In addition, the length of the peak season is also projected to increase in many regions, encompassing not only summer, but extending also into spring and autumn. Our findings suggest that projected climate change could considerably enhance northwestern Europe's competitive advantage relative to the Mediterranean in the summer season. Such shifts in climatic suitability could potentially have substantial impacts on the volumes, spatial distributions, and timing of travel within and to Europe. Together, these alterations to tourism activity have profound implications for the operation of the European tourism industry, from the planning, location, and development of new accommodations, transportation routes, and attractions, to the staffing and operation of existing enterprises. As discussed further in the article, the ability of tourism businesses to successfully adapt to these new conditions is likely to depend heavily on their recognition of climate change as an issue (i.e., the adoption of a proactive rather than reactive stance); to their organizational flexibility; and to the mobility of their capital investments.

The adaptation to perceived cultural differences and its relationship to visitor satisfaction and intent to repeat visit was the focus of this study. Drawing from a sample composed of 256 international visitors who had completed their first trip to Hong Kong, this study revealed that subjects residing in high cultural distance (CD) countries that availed themselves of fully prepackaged tours reported higher visitor satisfaction and probability to repeat visit than those that did not. In contrast, those that resided in low CD countries and engaged in free and independent travel behaviors reported higher visitor satisfaction and repeat visit intent compared to those with more structure in their visit. Though the adaptation to CD, as measured, proved only moderately effective in explaining visitor satisfaction, statistically the measure proved superior to other predictive measures including previous international travel experience, trip expenditures, education, age, and household income. Implications for future research are discussed.

As one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries, tourism's dependence on the natural environment and climate mean that it is extremely vulnerable to, and could be dramatically affected by, climatic variability and change. However, the vulnerability of the tourism industry to climate change is generally poorly understood by stakeholders, and the adoption of appropriate adaptation strategies remains in the early stages. This study investigates the impacts of climate variability and potential climate change, the level of destination vulnerability, and the adoption of adaptation strategies in Torbay, England. Data were obtained from 106 tourism businesses in the area. Results showed that over 60% of tourism businesses in Torbay have already been affected by changing climatic conditions, for the most part increased storm intensity and frequency, and shifts in seasonality. These changes were also perceived as the greatest future threat to businesses. However, businesses often failed to recognize the role that the good environmental performance of their business could play in minimizing the negative impacts of climatic variability and change. The major barriers to implementing any adaptive changes identified by respondents were cost, a lack of government incentives, and lack of knowledge. The provision of additional information regarding the interrelationships between tourism and climate change—to businesses and tourists—was one of the main needs identified by the study. These issues must be addressed if businesses are to change their attitudes and, ultimately, behavior, minimize the negative impacts of climate change, and take best advantage of the potential opportunities offered by this phenomenon.

Data collection is always a challenge. Researchers in the hospitality and tourism industry can benefit from the extensive amount of industry related data that are publicly available on the Internet. The issue holding most researchers back is how to efficiently collect such data. This article provides a solution: automated data collection using Web spiders. The coding logic needed to implement a custom Web spider is outlined. Also addressed are the ethical and operational issues associated with Web spiders.

This article focuses on the development of tourism in the Three-Border Area of Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. Often named the Hearth of the Alpen–Adria region, this southeastern alpine landscape tends to develop tourism disregarding borders and nation-state disputes. In an area of less than 2000 km2, three major cultures of the world intertwine: the Romance (Italian), the German (Austrian), and the Slavonic (Slovenian). Through the concept of “bricklaying,” the existing natural and cultural resources are to be glued together and marketed as one single product. The major idea is not to expand existing tourist infrastructure but, instead, to point out the uniqueness of the area and the compatibility. The article registers natural and human resources in relation to demographic and economic patterns of the second half of the 20th century. It discusses protected sites, winter sport destinations, white-water attractions, battlegrounds of World War I, heritage, and cuisine in an effort to produce an outstanding market product. As a result, a less popular tourist destination of the Alps could become recognizable. Due to the fact that the research was done at the dawn of the 21st century, several proposed cross-border packages are already operational.

The "grey nomad" phenomenon is a growth market in Australia. Grey nomads are one type of grey tourist, and are generally referred to as people who are aged 55 years and over, who independently travel around Australia by caravan or campervan for an extended period of time. This study used an ethnographic methodology to collect qualitative data from four couples who undertook an extended, multidestination holiday through the Northern Territory and the State of Western Australia. Narratives were used to illustrate a variety of themes that emerged about the everyday experiences of grey nomads on tour. Travel diaries, and a questionnaire that was completed at the end of the trip, were used as a means of investigating the nomad's engagement with friends and family while "on the road." This article argues that being "far away" physically did not necessarily mean that they were disengaged and isolated for their family and friends. Rather, the study results suggest that these ties were important connections that were maintained throughout their travels.

Preferences of tourists and visitors are varied in a number of markets, making it difficult for managers to understand how underlying segments might respond to changes in service offerings. Market segments differ in preferences for specific features, as well as how consistently they make their choices. In this article, we illustrate recent developments in choice modeling that allows for simultaneously modeling feature preferences and consistency of choice. We use the Scale-Adjusted Latent Class Model (SALCM) to better understand choices in the context of a research project conducted in collaboration with six major Australian museums involving a sample of 3,685 museum visitors. We identify three preference classes of museum-goers that explain preferences for levels of 26 museum attributes: Life Force (two thirds of visitors), Educated Thinkers, and Wealthy At-Homes. Our results indicate sensitivity to general entry prices, including preference for free entry or entry "by donation." Tours are preferred if smaller, lengthier, and conducted by paid museum staff. Not unexpectedly, the findings suggest that museums should cater for children, with some classes responding positively to providing supervised child areas. Most visitors prefer museums that are dynamic, offer new experiences, and regularly update permanent displays. However, the three classes identified have different overall experience preferences; for example, Educated Thinkers see museums as an educational opportunity, but Wealthy At-Homes prefer entertaining experiences. Incentives for return visits and cross-museum promotional offers are valued by the Life Force class, but have little effect on Educated Thinkers. The SALCM approach may be attractive to other areas of tourism analysis, especially where offerings contain many attributes and potential market segments are difficult to define and understand.

North Cyprus had recently positioned itself as a conference destination. Given external and internal factors such as political isolation and the over dependency on casino tourism, policy makers have recognized the importance of the conference sector in creating sustainable growth for North Cyprus's tourism-driven economy. Increasingly, Turkish conference organizers are choosing North Cyprus as a destination to host conferences. As such, Turkish conference organizers were questioned via an Internet-based questionnaire to determine attributes considered important within the conference destination selection process. An Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was performed; the findings identified that North Cyprus was perceived as a high performer with reference to: ease of accessibility, distance of destination, conference venue and accommodation price, safety and security, climate, hospitality, quality, quantity, and availability of hotel rooms. However, in relation to North Cyprus, a unique application of IPA identified macro- and microdestination attributes that North Cyprus should improve on: transportation within destination, availability of technological resources, the range of conference venues, conference staff training, destination's marketing activities, and quality of local restaurants. The findings provided implications for destination managers in terms of branding, as well as conference venue and accommodation providers in terms of targeting conference organizers more effectively and promoting North Cyprus to conference sector stakeholders.

Research indicates that tourist motivation and behavior are often determined, in part, by the desire for a learning experience. It is contended in this article that ecotourists have a desire for environmental learning and that ecotourism operators who differentiate their product through the provision of high-quality environmental education programs establish a potential sustainable competitive advantage. However, it is asserted that this potential long-term competitive advantage will only be realized if sufficient tourists can be attracted to the offered ecotourism experience. It is further asserted that attracting the required number of clients can be done, in part, by ecotourism operators emphasizing environmental learning in their printed and electronic advertising material. Content analysis of the current advertising material of ecotourism operators reveals that many ecotourism operators are not placing emphasis on their environmental learning offerings in their advertising. Using the results obtained, it is argued that the relatively small emphasis on ecotourists' demand for environmental learning in advertising directed at potential clients is a substantial weakness in some companies' strategic marketing. It is further argued that authentic and expert ecotourism operators who capitalize on this shortcoming are likely to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

An emerging body of research indicates that males and females often respond differently to advertising stimuli. Therefore, this research used a between-subjects experimental design in study 1 to illustrate that a written touch reference in a destination ad (e.g., Visit the Newstead Cove Resort and feel the soothing Caribbean sand and water as you walk on our pristine award-winning beach) positively influences females' affective responses to the advertisement and image of the destination, without having a significant impact on male sentiment. Next, study 2 used two photo-elicitation sessions, one conducted with females and the other with males, to probe deeper into these findings. The managerial and research implications of both studies are discussed.

A 2 × 2 factorial experimental design was used to test the effect of cooperative advertising on an individual's propensity to visit an area. Cooperative advertising and co-op programs both refer to advertising communication whose sponsorship and cost are shared by more than one party. The term partner refers to either other cities/towns or various types of business entities. For the tourism industry the main object of co-op programs is to create demand for an area as a tourist destination of choice and demand for local goods/services offered by co-op partners. Results showed that visitor preference for cooperative advertisements increased in situations where advertisements were viewed for low effectiveness, that is, the level of advertising or copy effectiveness/believability was low. This was especially true for historical and average city types. Differences in visiting preferences between business and leisure travelers were not supported by the data. It is suggested that small towns embrace cooperative advertising strategies to help attract tourists.

This study investigates relative images and positions of select US convention cities as perceived by association meeting planners. Based on a cognitive-affective framework, it utilizes a perceptual mapping technique and controls direct experiences of the meeting planners with the convention cities. Data were collected from randomly selected members of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) about Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Orlando. For each city, no image difference was found between the planners who had direct experience and those who did not. The findings suggested that the convention cities should use both cognitive and affective evaluations in developing a positioning strategy because they provide a picture from different angles and complement each other. The joint perceptual map also helps identify major and minor competitors. The findings also demonstrated that the circumplex model of affect holds for, and can be applied to, domestic and well-known convention cities. The study also extends the model in the sense that it examines places (cities), cognitive evaluations, and affective responses simultaneously and still finds support for the theorized structure of the model. The study provides implications for positioning, communication, and/or product development strategies for the convention cities, and discusses future research.

Youth tourism is one of the most dynamic elements of the global tourism economy. Key drivers of youth tourism are the segments of backpacking and volunteer tourism. Against the backdrop of international writings on youth tourism—especially of backpacker and volunteer tourism—this article reviews evidence from South Africa, as an example of an emerging destination for youth tourism in Africa. It is argued that the expanding youth tourism economy of South Africa provides opportunities for developing a more responsible tourism as well as for expanding local pro-poor development impacts of the tourism economy.

This article models inbound tourism demand for South Africa using a theoretical framework that is based on the gravity model and provides elasticity estimates that are useful for policy purposes. It uses a well-established gravity model following Anderson and van Wincoop's model (2003) to explain tourism flows. The article departs from most of the existing work estimating tourism demand and builds on the recent work of Durbarry, but employs a dynamic panel data setting. The results show that tourists are not too sensitive to changes in the tourism price of South Africa, indicating that it offers a unique product and experience to tourists. In fact, evidence tends to suggest that competing destinations may imploy tourism products that are unique to their destinations in the region. The level of development and tourism infrastructure also affect arrivals. It is also found that distance negatively affects arrivals, but common border and language play an important role. The dynamic model supports the presence of repeat tourism and positive word-of-mouth, particularly from European and American origins.

The growing interest in heritage tourism in Africa is reflected in the Cairo Declaration of 1995, which was adopted under the auspices of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The objective was for African countries to identify, develop, and preserve a number of World Heritage Sites in cooperation with international agencies and special interest groups. Ultimately, it was expected that such development would enhance the promotion of cultural, thus heritage and ethnic tourism as part of the continent's economic development strategy. A number of forts and castles built by Europeans are currently being restored for heritage tourism in Ghana and the country also has several vital cultural resource sites that are critical components of the "Slave Route Project." Cape Coast and Elmina are two communities in Ghana currently receiving an increasing number of international visitors, including a significant number of African-Americans to the three World Heritage Sites located in the two towns. The purpose of the article is to examine how residents of Cape Coast and Elmina perceive African-American and White tourists. Data for the study were gathered in Cape Coast and Elmina through interviewer-administered surveys. Results indicate significant differences in residents' perceptions of Black and White visitors. The study concludes that considerable care must be exercised in the development and utilization of historically sensitive areas and properties for tourism.

In this article the author compares the regular (mass market) or common nature-oriented tourism on the African continent to some new and interesting features and examples from other leisure and tourism venues occurring today in tourism-generating countries. Recognizing the fact that the tourist of the 21st century has enough travel experience and is critical of both the services and the products offered, this article would like to show how traditional players in the nature-oriented leisure industry, such as museums and zoos, cope with their expectations and willingness to participate in presentations and educational exhibits.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a regional economic grouping of 14 countries. The region receives the majority of tourists to Africa. However, it has not managed to make a significant impact in terms of tourism arrivals as it attracts only 3.2% of the world's tourism receipts. This article is based on the review of literature on SADC. The findings indicate that there are a number of factors that militate against successful marketing of SADC as a unique tourist destination. There are multiple stakeholders with competing interests; countries in the SADC region are at different stages of the destination lifecycle; there is stiff competition among SADC countries for the international tourists; lack of resources; South Africa's domination of tourism industry in the region; lack of uniform standards as well as lack of uniformity in grading and classification of tourism facilities in the region. RETOSA with the responsibility of marketing and developing regional tourism was found to be highly ineffective. There are also exogenous factors that make the region uncompetitive.

This article estimates changes in total productivity in travel agencies in two stages. In the first stage, it breaks down total productivity into technically efficient change and technological change by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA) applied to a representative sample of travel agencies operating in the Portuguese market. The aim of this procedure is to seek out those best practices that will lead to improved performance in the market. We rank the companies according to their change in total productivity for the period 2000-2004, concluding that some companies experienced productivity growth while others experienced a decrease in productivity. In the second stage, the inefficient scores are regressed into contextual variables of inefficiency with a bootstrapped Tobit model. The implications arising from the study are considered in terms of managerial policy.

This article proposes a new framework for analyzing decision-making unit (DMU) productivity changes during two time periods. This method is based on the Luenberger productivity indicator, which uses the directional distance function. The method has two advantages, which are explained in the article. First, it evaluates simultaneously the scale of the economies and the improvements in production that have been achieved by each observed entity during the time span. Thus, it can be considered as a method that indicates the performance evolution of DMUs. Moreover, it indicates technical efficiency and technological changes during the period. This framework is applied to a Portuguese travel agencies sample that has faced a number of threats during the period 2000-2004. Conclusions are that productivity increased for the majority of the travel agencies analyzed and that these good performances are almost always explained by technical progress. Some managerial implications beneficial for agencies' productivity are drawn from this study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between the business environment and the operational strategies of travel agencies. We examine and analyze the strategies adopted by travel agencies with different performance levels when facing the changes in business environment. The results indicate that the travel agencies concerned with business cost and political factors tend to adopt the cost leading strategy, those concerned with labor availability and dynamism in the market tend to adopt the differentiation strategy or focus strategy, those concerned with competitive hostility and travel risk tend to adopt the focus strategy, and those concerned with market environment and travel risk tend to adopt the flexibility strategy. Furthermore, high performers place more importance toward the environmental dimensions of cost leading and labor availability. Data also present that the high and low performers use different strategies. The research validates the theoretical framework for the relationship between business environment and operations strategy choices. Some useful suggestions are offered as references for travel agents.

Travel agency industry is one of the most important and relevant activities of franchise in many countries. One key aspect necessary for the suitable development of the franchise system in any country is the expansion of the franchisors. For this challenge to be a success, the franchisors must select the franchisees correctly. In this work the characteristics of potential franchisees preferred by franchisors are analyzed. A study was made in one of the most dynamic and important industries of the franchise system, that of travel agencies, and it used a combination of the methodologies of conjoint analysis and principal component analysis. The results show the profile preferred by the franchisors and give a ranking of the most important characteristics that the franchisors look for in travel agency franchisees.

Data collection and analysis continue to be important for the travel industry to be aware of and responsive to their markets. One of the important limitations with most tourism data is that the number of interviews available can be too small to allow conclusions to be reached with the confidence desired. Many times, data are temporally aggregated to reach sufficient sample size. However, studies have shown that temporal aggregation does not always bring about plausible estimates. Thus, it is necessary to consider the pros and cons of temporal aggregation when one wants to put data aggregation into practice. The main objective of this article is to examine the considerations necessary to successfully apply temporal data aggregation within the context of the US In-Flight Survey (IFS) data. This article raises and addresses important issues related to temporal data aggregation from several perspectives.

For indigenous communities around the world, ecotourism is not only a means of protecting valuable and threatened ecological and cultural resources but also a viable economic opportunity for maintaining livelihoods. Consequently, communities need to know to what extent ecotourism is the economic activity that best satisfies their needs, given available resources and other existing alternatives. Such information can strengthen community control and ownership of resources, an important objective of community-run ecotourism projects. In collaboration with community members and an indigenous NGO, a decision-aid model based on multicriteria decision support approaches was set up to assess the potential of ecotourism to satisfy economic, social, and environmental priorities of a community situated in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. The study considered existing resources and combinations of ecotourism with other available economic alternatives. Representatives from a number of stakeholder and user groups were approached to obtain their views on the relative importance of priorities for community well-being. Weights of importance assigned by those representatives were integrated in the model to find out how stakeholder and user group perceptions influenced their preferences over livelihood alternatives. Results suggest that three out of four groups favored a combination of ecotourism with conservation. Sensitivity analysis helped identify economic incentives that could be used to obtain agreement between stakeholder and user groups as regards resource use scenarios. It is suggested that this information could be further employed to seek consensus between group views on the role of ecotourism for sustainable community development.

This study observes the potential decrease in air travel as a result of terrorist attacks in relation to individuals' sociodemographic variables and media usage. Drawing from a sample of 2,023 respondents in the 2008 General Social Survey data set, this study seeks to identify market segments that have been most significantly impacted by terrorism events since September 11, 2001. Data are analyzed through direct logistic regression, resulting in a statistically significant model, χ2 (10, N = 685) = 25.40, p = 0.005. Results show two significant predictors of a terrorist-based decision to reduce air travel: occupational prestige and gender. Conclusions reveal the sociodemographic profile defining the market segment that has reduced air travel because of terrorist activity. Finally, recommendations are provided for enhancing and delivering marketing advertisements to this market segment.

This study set out to examine the service quality and customer satisfaction delivered by the national airline company in Northern Cyprus, using a SERVQUAL scale. For this purpose, the translated instrument was purified using an item categorization technique and administered to 270 current users of the national airline company at an international university in the region. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the predicted five-dimensional structure of SERVQUAL was partially confirmed by the data. SERVPERF scores gave a better prediction of overall satisfaction and showed almost the same reliability and validity as those from which expectations were subtracted. The largest service gaps were identified with the reliability and responsiveness dimensions, and the smallest with the empathy dimension. Reliability and responsiveness dimensions were found by path analysis to be significant determinants of customer satisfaction. Implications of the results are discussed.

This is a 3-month time series study of airlines fares on three third-party websites (Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity), showing the level and changes of fares and their implications for traveler decisions as to when and where to buy airline seats. We discovered that it is best for travelers seeking the lowest fares to purchase tickets early, because fares tend to be volatile on the upside over time, culminating in the highest fares on the days of departure, and to fly on weekends. It is also best to check fares on as many websites as possible to get the lowest fare, because the evidence seems to suggest that fare parity does not exist, and not all airlines are represented on all third-party websites.