Tourism Management

The tourism industry is prone to crisis and disaster which must be planned for and managed. The paper analyses the early reactions of Singapore Airlines to the crisis caused by the first fatal crash in the history of the main company within the context of crisis management theory. The accident is explained and company responses are reviewed, with emphasis on the communication strategies adopted and media reporting. Some reference is also made to the wider role of national carriers and final conclusions suggest the need for further research into crisis management and tourism with scope for collaboration between industry and the academic community.

Tourism planners are being asked to use greater community participation in tourism planning. There are two reasons for this. First, the impacts of tourism are felt most keenly at the local destination area and, second, community residents are being recognized as an essential ingredient in the ‘hospitality atmosphere’ of a destination. However, while many planners rush towards involving various publics in their work they do so without a full consideration of the progress of public participation techniques employed in other aspects of planning. Moreover, while many authors advocate greater public involvement few have tested or evaluated methods appropriate to secure local residents' interest and support for tourism planning. This paper reports on a research programme for Huron County, Ontario (Canada), that sought to apply and evaluate a three-stage participation programme for county residents.

The paper aims to illumine the longrun impact of specialisation in tourism. It is shown that specialisation in tourism may not be deleterious for economic welfare once the terms of trade are considered. Conditions for an improvement in welfare are laid out and their existence tested by econometric methods within an almost ideal demand system formulation of tourist expenditure for 13 OECD economies. The analysis uses cointegration techniques and novel sequential break dating procedures evaluated where the time dimension is small. The values of the estimated parameters suggest that long run growth may not be harmed by tourism specialisation.

The moral, ethical, social, and political arguments for taking action on environmental issues are becoming more persuasive and more widely accepted. The hotel industry is also taking various initiatives for the sake of the environment, for economic reasons, or to build a positive image. Some hotels have gone one step further and adopted the internationally-recognized ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard. By applying the predictive model developed by Quazi et al. (Int. J. Manage. Sci., 29(6) (2001) 525), this study investigates and identifies a number of variables to predict the motivation of hotels in adopting the ISO 14000 standards. Of the 1097 questionnaires mailed to hotels in the Hong Kong SAR, Macau, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou in China, 164 were returned. Using LISREL analysis, Quazi et al.'s (Int. J. Manage. Sci., 29(6) (2001) 525) model was found to not have a good fit with the sample data obtained from the hotel industry. An exploratory factor analysis was thereafter employed to identify interpretable orthogonal factors, resulting in the identification and interpretation of eight factors. By using a stepwise discriminant analysis, a predictive discriminant function was developed. Only two out of the eight variables were included in the model for the hotel industry. They were (1) corporate governance and (2) legislation.

The analysis of destination image is relatively recent. However, in almost three decades since the first studies emerged, the topic has become one of the most popular in the tourism research literature. A review of 142 destination image papers, published in the literature during the period 1973–2000, was undertaken to provide destination image researchers with a reference guide to the context, method and focus of previous studies.

This paper reviews a variety of the definitions which have been given to the term ‘ecotourism’, and presents them as a continuum where, at one pole, all tourism can be viewed as ecotourism and, at the other, no tourism can be viewed as ecotourism. Examples of ecotourism definitions are then classified according to their position along this continuum. As a result of this classification it is suggested that it is desirable to implement management strategies which attempt to shift the ‘ecotourist experience’ from simple enjoyment and satisfaction through stages of greater understanding, attitude change and finally more environmentally responsible behaviour. A model which displays this shift is offered and a series of indicators which can be used to measure the transition are suggested.

Parsons [Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] has persuasively argued that nineteenth century corroborees performed for non-indigenous audiences may be considered to be Australia's pre-eminent prototypical indigenous cultural tourism product. This paper extends Parsons' [Parsons, M. (1997). The tourist corroboree in South Australia. Aboriginal History, 21(1), 46–69; Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] analyses of ‘tourist corroborees’ in nineteenth century South Australia to corroborees staged in Victoria during the pastoral period and the gold rushes of the 1850–1870s. It argues that an Aboriginal-grown ‘business acumen’ developed rapidly in the economic climate of the Victorian goldfields. It also provides a historical context to this commodification.

This article examines the historical development of the Caribbean cruise-ship industry from 1880 to the present. Cruise-ship itineraries from the New York Times and other sources were used to derive potential passenger statistics by ports of call and embarkation. The spatial development and growth of this sector in the Caribbean since World War II are shown and discussed in the accompanying figures and text. The highly dynamic nature of the industry, particularly with respect to changing ports of origin is revealed. Major influences in the patterns include legislation, external economic factors and political developments, as well as market shifts.

The structure and nature of employment growth in the hotel and catering industry in the 1980s is presented. Comparisons with the 1970s highlight some interesting differences in sectoral employment trends and point to areas of potential research interest. Part-time employment remains and looks set to continue as an institutionalized feature of the industry.

This study extends the analysis of hotel occupancy in Yorkshire and Humberside, UK, hotels reported in the March 1985 issue of this journal, and confirms the ‘stability’ of the three previously identified dimensions of occupancy performance which reflect differences in overall occupancy levels, intensity of seasonal fluctuations, and length of season. The focus shifts to the identification and interpretation of longer term trends in occupancy performance. The results of a questionnaire survey of hotels are used in a stepwise regression model to relate occupancy trends to a range of ‘predictor’ variables measuring different aspects of the hotels and their management.

This research note presents an analysis of tourist flows to Amsterdam and it introduces a operational technique for the planning of the city's marketing. An empirical model is introduced to aid planning at a local level and estimated and tested. Using the model the paper then presents an analysis of overnight tourism to the city for the period 1982–1993. Additonally an input/output analysis is undertaken and a number of trends are demonstrated and commented upon.

The risks involved in hosting mega-events have been a major concern of event organizers, although little research has been done in this area. This article analyses the risk management process of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games and the actual losses associated with the Games. The management of television revenue and political risk is also considered.

The tourism industry in North Carolina (USA) is recognized as an important contributor to the state's economy. Successful tourism requires cooperation between government, private, and non-profit agencies. In order to better understand legislators’ perceptions of tourism and enhance communication between legislators and tourism practitioners, this study reviews North Carolina legislators’ knowledge of and attitudes toward the tourism industry in both 1990 and 2003, then analyzes more deeply the 2003 group. The findings indicate that legislators report a more positive attitude toward the economic importance of tourism in 2003 than in 1990, but still have limited knowledge of the tourism industry. The study also analyzes the 2003 North Carolina legislators’ opinions regarding legislative support for tourism. In response to these findings, possible strategies are suggested to improve legislators’ knowledge base, image, and attitudes of tourism with the goal of achieving strengthened legislative support for tourism.

One of the most important issues facing the further development of the Turkish tourism industry is the quality of its supply of indigenous trained personnel. Despite a spectacular increase in the size of the Turkish tourism industry over the last decade there is a danger that this growth will not be sustainable owing to the increasing shortage of skilled staff. In recognition of this the Turkish government has initiated a strategy to strengthen the provision of hospitality/tourism education and training through the development of a National Hospitality Management Curriculum and National Training Awards. It is these initiatives which are discussed in this article.

This article considers possible future developments in the European airline industry. In 1987 the EEC Council of Transport Ministers agreed on a more liberal regulatory regime aimed at promoting more airline competition. With 1992 the target for the elimination of all barriers to an internal EEC market, the marketing power of large airline size will emerge as the major factor shaping the industry. If EEC airlines are able to use the ‘Right of Establishment’ provisions of the Treaty of Rome to expand their operations into other EEC countries, this could usefully replace competitive market forces lost through national mergers.

The EC Directive on Package Travel (EEC/314/1990) was implemented in the UK in December 1992 by The Package Travel Regulations 1992 (SI 1992 No. 3288). The Regulations created a comprehensive scheme of consumer protection, the key feature being a bonding and security regime to protect holidaymakers in the event of insolvency by a tour operator. This article examines the impact of the Regulations on the UK travel industry. It concludes that the outgoing travel industry has successfully accommodated itself to the Regulations without major difficulties while the domestic industry has largely ignored the Regulations.

The Single (Internal) Market of the European Community (EC) will come into effect by 31 December 1992. This has implications for the tourism industry which is one of the largest single trades among the EC member countries. Although frontier controls, currency restrictions and customs documents have already been simplified through reciprocal and multilateral agreements, much remains to be done in the way of lifting restrictions on travel and transport, and harmonizing statutory and fiscal controls. The increased freedom of the European tourism market provides the UK industry with an oppurtunity to expand but at the same time marketing and product development will have to be of a high standard to combat increasing competition from the rest of the EC.

The purpose of this research is to replicate an earlier study that analyzed tourism research contributions during the decade of the 1980s (Sheldon, 1991) using a time frame of 1992–2001, the most recent 10-year period for which complete publication information was available. The three refereed travel and tourism journals, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, and Tourism Management were the focus of analysis. The results of a productivity analyses pertaining to author affiliation, repeat authorship, and research contributions from different regions of the world are presented. There has been considerable movement in the ranking of employing institutions when compared to the decade of the 1980s as well as significant change in contributions from different regions of the world.

The assessment of academic publishing performance has impliations not only for individuals and institutions, but also the development of tourism as a field of study. The article examines the ways in which academic journals are used and how this relates to scholarship and performance. The article notes some of the difficulties in citation analysis, questions what should be regarded as core quality tourism journals, and argues that citation analyses, without being linked to a broader understanding of the sociology of tourism knowledge, may be highly instrumental in character. The article concludes by questioning whether citation analyses are undertaken to actually contribute to understanding the development of a field and the knowledge networks which eventuate, or whether they represent a flawed attempt to develop `league tables' of performance.

Gaming in the United States is a $394 billion industry, with casino gaming accounting for about $297 billion. Casino gaming is a legal, legitimate and highly regulated industry, experiencing tremendous growth. Communities, states and Native American Indian tribes across the country are trying to capitalize on the success of Las Vegas and Atlantic City in attracting tourists and new money through gaming. The current wave of public pro-gaming sentiment is due to increasing fiscal constraints at the state and local level, coupled with an increasing demand on government to provide services. The potential for windfall profits that increase jobs, tax revenues, real estate investments and general economic and community enhancement makes gaming attractive. Concerns continue to center around morality and religious issues, compulsive gambling and the impact of gaming on community life in general and the culture of the Native American Indian in particular.

Technology and its relevance in tourism education was one of the key themes for the seventh annual conference of the Society of Travel and Tourism Educators held in Denver, Colorado from 9–12 November 1995. Academics and practitioners from Australia, New Zealand and the UK joined those from the USA and Canada for the wide range of research papers and commercial presentations.

This study examines the factors that lay behind the development of the Golden Week holiday system in China in 1999 and 2007. It does so by evaluating three dimensions, namely (a) dominant government policy, (b) the pattern of tourism demand and (c) the degree of public participation in the policy making process. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are used in a content analysis of 45 related documents. The results indicate that while little relationship existed between the demands of tourism and public policy in both 1999 and 2007, the requirements of social policies and a greater role being attributed to public participation in the policy making were more emphasized in 2007. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study are also addressed.

The Delphi torecasting technique is used to forecast tourism to Hawaii, particularly Oahu, by the year 2000. Local experts and travel agents were questioned on visitor arrivals and percentage of domestic arrivals to Hawaii, market share, visitor-to-resident ratio, maximum visitor accommodation and desirable growth rates, and probable scenarios for Oahu tourism. The results show few significant differences in responses among the groups, and confirmed expectations about convergence and consistency of managerial responses with statistical projections and existing trends. As such, this study demonstrates the value of combining qualitative with quantitative techniques in making long-term forecasts.

Strategic alliances have become a common strategy in tourism marketing. These alliances take many different forms, and operate with different objectives. Too often, though, alliances are created without realistic expectations, clear operating procedures, or objective criteria by which to evaluate success. This case study reviews a tourism marketing alliance that has been successfully created and operated for a number of years, the Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership. The partnership brings together the tourism ministries of four Canadian provinces, four industry associations, and the federal government. The basic role of the partnership is to promote Atlantic Canada in the US and selected overseas markets. This case discusses the strategic approach and results of the partnership and concludes with lessons learned from the case study and identification of areas for further improvements in the partnership.

This study investigates the impact of the February 2001 economic crisis in Turkey on the tourism sector in Northern Cyprus. A case study approach was followed. Empirical data were collected from 78 hotels in Northern Cyprus through the distribution of a questionnaire and by conducting a series of semi-structured interviews. The research findings reveal that the overwhelming majority of firms participating in the study did not foresee the economic crisis in Turkey. They therefore failed to take any advance measures to deal with it. The economic crisis was found to have had both a negative and positive impact on the tourism industry in Northern Cyprus, although the negative impact seems to have been greater. Implications of the findings are discussed and several recommendations for practice and for future research are provided.

The purposes of this study were (1) to examine the South Korean residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the 2002 World Cup Games on their communities before and after the games and (2) to compare any perceptual differences between the two time periods. Using the data collected prior to the 2002 World Cup Games, an exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify perceived impact dimensions. These identified dimensions were validated with the data collected after the games. MANOVA and a series of ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the differences in perceptions before and after the games. Significant differences were found in every dimension: benefits of cultural exchange, social problems, economic benefits, natural resources and cultural development, traffic congestions and pollution, price increase, and construction costs. The findings of this study can be used as valuable information for future sports mega-events organizing/governing bodies.

Sport tourism has received growing attention as a source of generating significant revenue and contributing major economic benefits to host cities, regions, and countries. However, current methods for assessing economic impact have had variable success in estimating tourist numbers and expenditure directly attributable to a sport tourism mega event. This paper reports on the assessment of one such event, the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea, using an estimation method that excluded tourists whose travel was non-event related. The survey research conducted during the event established that 57.7% of total tourist arrivals during the period of the event could be classified as either directly and indirectly attracted by the World Cup. Using this data it was calculated that the World Cup generated an economic impact of US$1.35 billion of output (sales), US$307 million of income, and US$713 million of value added for South Korea. The results also showed that foreign World Cup tourists provided a much higher yield compared with foreign leisure tourists, spending an estimated 1.8 times as much. Inclusion of the expenditure by non-World Cup tourists (42.3%) in the calculations of impact would have resulted in a significant overestimation due to the further multiplication of the expanded figures by an input–output model, misleading the net economic impact of the event. The use of survey data to distinguish event from non-event tourists, and their respective expenditure, clearly illustrates some of the methodological pitfalls associated with forecasting that is simply based on generic tourist data. Furthermore, the data generated by this assessment of net direct expenditure and economic impact using the input–output analysis can be used as a comparison point for other mega sport events. In terms of further research, it is evident that existing models of impact assessment have not adequately conceptualized aversion and diversion effects and this begs the future inclusion of these concepts in economic impact forecasting for mega-events.

This study empirically investigated residents’ perceptions on impacts of the 2002 World Cup that was held in Korea and Japan. Factor analysis of 22 positive impact items produced five dimensions and factor analysis of nine negative impact items produced three dimensions. Results revealed that housewives tended to perceive the impacts of the soccer event more positively than other occupation groups. In a comparison of residents’ opinions and perceptions on impacts over two points in time, respondents showed a decrease of mean values on two residents’ opinion items and one positive impact item, and an increase in one negative impact item. Thus, the results indicated that attitudes towards the event are likely to be modifiable with passage of time.

This research empirically examined changes in the images of Korea over two points in time among Japanese, Mainland Chinese and US visitors to South Korea. Between October 4 and November 10, 2002, about 3–4 months after the 2002 World Cup ended, 223 tourists from Japan, 143 from Mainland China and 173 from the US completed the survey instrument. According to the results of paired t-tests, the visitors from all three countries had more positive images after than before the World Cup. The findings from the ANCOVA tests indicated that the image changes due to the World Cup were different among the three nationalities. The correspondence analyses results also showed that the image changes after the World Cup varied according to nationality, educational level, age and occupation. Collectively, the study suggests that an internationally significant event can change the image of a tourism destination in a short time period.

Major international hallmark events, especially the Olympic Games, represent a significant opportunity for marketing tourism to the host country. Due to the scale and importance of the event, the coordination between the Olympic organizing committee and the destination marketing organization of the host country becomes a knowledge-intensive and exceptionally complicated task. Analyzing on-site interview data collected from top executives of the two major organizations involved in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games (ATHOC and GNTO), this research achieved two objectives: (1) extracted and organized the tacit knowledge from both organizations to discover major issues concerning the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and (2) identified the strategic alignment issues between the domains of Olympics planning and destination marketing and proposed a conceptual framework for the future Olympic host countries.

This paper analyzes the question of whether Ryanair's pricing strategies have changed over time. We create a panel dataset of fares for all of Ryanair's European flights over a two-year period, from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2007. We calculate the average fare over a 90-day period prior to departure and the intensity of dynamic pricing for each flight in the panel, in particular analysing the changes in these variables observed between pairs of “equivalent” flights. Our results show that overall, both average fares and the intensity of dynamic pricing decreased in 2007. More than one-third of flights saw a price reduction of more than 10%. Now that it has become the dominant low-cost carrier in Europe, Ryanair appears to be softening its dynamic pricing activities on existing routes, typically employed to stimulate additional touristic demand. Thus, booking in advance becomes relatively more expensive.

Tourism in the natural environment has been characterized by: (a) the marketing of resources without acknowledging the impact on resources that visitation can create; and (b) the management of resources without acknowledging the impact of protection policies on tourism operators and their clientele. Both responses have failed to consider adequately the long-term impact on the physical, social and economic environment and visitor experiences. This paper first examines historical and forecast demand trends in Australian tourism and then reviews patterns of visitation to some of that country's ecotourism destinations. Planning for ecotourism in the 21st century requires greater coordination between natural resource managers and the service delivery arms of the tourism industry. Coordination will need to be based on greater understanding between industry segments, and the realization of likely future demand and client expectations. Changes in perspectives and priorities will be necessary by the tourism industry generally, by natural resources managers and by specific ecotourism operators, if the requirements of the future influx of visitors are to be addressed.

This article reports findings from two studies of tourists aged over 55. It highlights the role of their past experience in determining holiday choice, and their loyalty to, in this case, Majorca. It also, based on conversations with such tourists, argues that conversations are an excellent research methodology for revealing the confusions and ambiguities involved in holiday-taking, and illustrates this with a discussion about the importance of ‘friendliness’.

Sustainable development and its derivative, sustainable tourism, have both conceptual and practical deficiencies that have frustrated their application. A sustainable livelihoods approach is introduced as being more practical, especially in the common situation in which communities and individuals sustain themselves by multiple activities rather than discrete jobs. When tourism is introduced into a community, it is important that it complements rather than displaces existing activities. A case study is presented of an aboriginal community in Taiwan to illustrate the links between tourism and other livelihood strategies.

The single internal market initiatives of the European Community, due to be completed by 31 December 1992, reduce internal barriers to the free movement of people, services and capital. Interviews with executives of US tourism firms and government officials of tourism—related agencies indicate that US industry expects EC'92 to only marginally affect their operations in international aviation, airline computer reservation systems, tour packaging, and US hotel development in Europe. EC'92 is anticipated to foster a mild increase in the flows and activities that have characterized US—European tourism demand and supply patterns over the last several decades, rather than to be a dramatic break with the past. However, much is yet to be resolved regarding how the European Community will treat US tourism businesses and visitor flows over the next five to ten years.

Festivals are increasingly being used as instruments for promoting tourism and boosting the regional economy. Festivals are a type of cultural events and are travel attractions with unique features. Much research, undertaken from a variety of perspectives, exists on festivals. However, very few studies related to aboriginal cultures have been published. The main objective of this study is to profile tourists based upon their motives and demographic characteristics, as these traits are associated with attraction to aboriginal cultural festivals and other related activities. The research reveals that cultural exploration, among other motivational dimensions, is the most important factor attracting tourists to the aboriginal cultural festival. In addition, not all tourists have the same degree of interest in the festival cultural experience. Furthermore, motivational variables are found to be more important than demographic variables in explaining and segmenting visitors to an aboriginal festival.

Gateway communities serve as entry points to our nation's public lands and are desirable to live within, but commonly subject to indiscriminate growth. The researchers used a variation of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to chart resident types and their evaluations of environmental, cultural and economic attributes to better understand perspectives on tourism development. IPA was chosen because it can serve as a simple evaluative tool for communities in gateway areas interested in employing a more comprehensive Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) planning framework. Environmental attributes were found to be what make the area special with it considered both important and of real concern from each resident-type perspective. With the exception of a few items no other cultural or economic attributes were perceived the same in importance and concern as the environmental items with few meaningful differences found between resident types. In summary, IPA is a tool that can provide insight about resident perceptions while serving to inform a larger LAC tourism development framework.

Sustainability has been a useful concept but one that has proven difficult to operationalize. The limits of acceptable change (LAC) planning system was used as a basis for research to exemplify a model that may be useful in applying the sustainability concept in regional tourism planning. A county on the coast of Texas, USA was used to examine regional attitudes toward tourism development and the perceived change that tourism might create. Respondent attitudes from three communities were compared. Results indicated that communities differed in the way they felt about tourism. These differences provided some justification for tourism development zones (TDZs) that can help separate development and activity types related to tourism. Communities also differed in perceived change that might occur due to tourism suggesting that different conditions and indicators might be needed depending on the TDZ of concern. Implications for application of the LAC planning system are discussed.

Information technology (IT) is an important strategic asset for hospitality organisations to improve organisational performance and strategic competitiveness. This paper makes an attempt to investigate the relationship between antecedents including information system quality, perceived value, and users’ acceptance of hotel front office systems (HFOSs) by adopting an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude towards use, and actual use were investigated including information system quality and perceived value. Empirical findings indicate that the significance of all but two new variables. As a result, the study is able to find the acceptance of HFOSs from the perspective of hotel frontline employees through the external variables of information system quality and perceived value in order to enhance the model. Additionally, the paper presents a progressive theory and a practical contribution to increase the acceptance in order to provide useful suggestions for hotel managers and hotel information system (HIS) practitioners.

Managers of remote and wilderness environments have been among the last to accommodate the needs of tourists with mobility-disabilities – partly because of the physical difficulties and expense of doing so, but also due to a wider desire and mandate to preserve the natural and wilderness character of such areas. This research explores the extent to which those with mobility-disabilities desire enhanced access to natural areas. Do they share the same desires and values with respect to wilderness and access as the able-bodied? This paper reports upon a survey of over 400 residents and tourists, some with mobility-disabilities and some able-bodied, and compares their attitudes with respect to the development of various forms of motorised access to wilderness environments. Significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of their desire for greater access and also in how they view the impacts of such development. The group with mobility-impairments expressed a stronger desire for enhanced access in such environments. The environmental values of both groups were also examined using the revised New Ecological Paradigm scale, however no significant differences were found between the groups. The implications for tourism providers and wilderness managers are discussed.

Studies have identified constraints with the way that accessible accommodation information is documented and marketed. Yet, no research has investigated the criteria that people with disabilities determine as ‘important’ to selecting accommodation and their preference for presenting this information. This paper presents the results of a survey (n = 566) to determine the relative importance of room selection criteria through the development of a 55-item Hotel Accessibility Scale. Four information formats were then presented to ascertain the preferences of the respondents. The results suggest that while sociodemographic variables offered some insight into criteria selection, the most significant explanation for criteria selection and information preferences were the dimensions of disability and level of support needs. The preferred format of accessible accommodation information provision was based on a combination of textual, floorplan and digital photography. The management implications suggest that detailed information provision using this format has benefits for accommodation stock yield and social sustainability.

Surveys of consumers interested in general ecotourism and of experienced ecotourists, reveal that a range of accommodation is preferred, form many types of fixed roof to no-fixed roof. In particular, ecotourists seem interested in more intimate, adventure-type accommodation. They also look for environmentally sensitive operations. However, the supply in some destinations does not match demand. The trend seems oriented to larger, more international hotel-type luxury accommodation, operated by major chains, or to resorts in the wilderness. Paradoxically, in some areas, there may be resistance to allowing any form of fixed roof accommodation in more natural areas. There is a gap in the supply side of the accommodation spectrum in the area of smaller scale, more rustic, adventure-type accommodation, such as cabins, ranches, lodges, inns or bed and breakfasts.

Per capita energy and water consumption figures of five fully accredited eco-resorts were benchmarked against 11 hotels, 13 condominium complexes and six caravan parks located in three major tourist destinations in Queensland, Australia. Somewhat surprisingly, it appears some eco-resorts fail to achieve above average standards with respect to these dimensions of environmental performance. The most efficient resource consumption outcomes were evident where resource use efficiency was factored in at the early stage of resort planning. A noteworthy observation was that none of the businesses investigated could provide data for waste and wastewater production.The problems of developing a benchmarking process for the consumption of water and electricity by accommodation providers are discussed. A major obstacle was found in the fact that consumption rates are influenced by a multitude of site specific characteristics such as age of building, building size and layout, nature of operation, extent of communal facilities, climate, etc. With such a large number of factors affecting energy and water consumption, one is drawn into the problem of how many benchmarking groups need to be developed in order for benchmarking accommodation complex resource consumption to be a meaningful exercise. This also renders problematic the development of environmental compliance accreditation criteria. The study's findings renew concerns about the focus of some industry administered green accreditation schemes and the emphasis placed on their role as a key instrument for promoting more sustainable outcomes for the tourist accommodation sector.

This paper develops a methodology which will enable the determination of the tourist profile which corresponds to the different types of existing accommodations in a certain destination of rural tourism. This is accomplished through the use of a two-stage method (a correspondence analysis followed by a cluster analysis) to classify the accommodations in a reduced number of groups, so that each group constitutes a type. The estimation of a Multinomial Logit model determines the characteristics of tourist who is most likely to opt for each type of accommodation. Results from a study in Murcia indicate that the wide variety of accommodations with respect to size and type is a suitable form of attracting individuals of different profiles.

Across the Western World there has been significant expansion in the multi-ownership of tourism accommodation complexes in recent years. Despite this development, this is believed to be the first study to attempt a holistic synthesis of the range of forms and structures that multi-owned tourism accommodation (MOTA) complexes can assume. A spectrum of MOTA types is developed based on the notion that MOTA complexes can exhibit varying degrees of ownership. This synthesis of MOTA types lays the basis for an evaluation of the relative merits of different MOTA types. A commentary is provided concerning the difficulty of quantifying MOTA growth and the nature of challenges that MOTA can present to a range of stakeholders.

Research into farm diversification typically considers aspects of marketing at a generalized level. This exploratory article focuses specifically on farm-based accommodation to provide a detailed exploration of advertising strategies employed by farm businesses in the promotion of this enterprise. Drawing upon evidence from a survey of over 200 farm businesses in three English counties, types of advertising media are considered and their relative benefits evaluated. Results show that from the complex range of available options, holiday accommodation ‘guidebooks’ produced by private companies and organizations represent the most popular methods of advertising used by farm businesses. However, the success of individual guidebooks in generating custom was highly variable between the different study areas. Cooperative marketing groups provide important advertising alternatives to guidebooks, mainly for bed and breakfast and self-catering operators. Overall, the need to advertise accommodation enterprises actively means that many farm family businesses develop closer interactions with external agents from the nonagricultural sector.

This research note reports a summary of the results of a survey carried out with the support of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association (SYHA). The focus of this research was to gain a better understanding of the requirements of budget accommodation users in Scotland, the characteristics associated with their accommodation choice and the levels of importance and satisfaction associated with the main Scottish provider of budget accommodation (SYHA).The research reported in this note is part of a wider study which focuses on a particular tourist segment commonly known as “backpackers” who are also defined in the specialist literature as “independent travellers”, “youth/budget tourists” and “uninstitutionalised tourists” (Loker-Murphy & Pearce, Ann. Tourism Res. 22(4) (1995) 819–843; Elsrud, Ann. Tourism Res. 28(3) (2001) 597–617; Murphy, Ann. Tourism Res. 28(1) (2001) 50–67; Uriely, Yonay, & Simchai, Ann. Tourism Res. 29(2) (2002) 520–538).

Accommodation companies offer a product of strategic interest to tour operators insofar as it determines to a great extent the cost of a package vacation, while it also significantly influences the degree of satisfaction of the tourists who purchase such packages. That, together with the increasingly competitive rivalry among European tour operators, suggests how important it is for the tour operators to exercise some control over the accommodation companies with which they deal. This study describes the control that German and British tour operators exercise over the accommodation companies with whom they do business and the characteristics of the two types of companies that influence that control.

This paper examines the relationship between small and medium sized tourism accommodation enterprises and European tour operators. Leisure “packaged” mass tourism and the Mediterranean basin are the main product and geographical contexts of reference. However, the potential applicability of the outcomes to other similar tourism products and areas is not excluded. Focusing primarily on SMTEs the study draws extensively from secondary research, while it also employs the outcomes of personal interviews of SMTEs’ owners/managers on the Greek island of Corfu. The paper portrays the current status of the co-operation between SMTEs and TOs by illustrating the advantages and the problems faced by SMTEs’ owners/managers when dealing with TOs. Finally, the study concludes by proposing actions and policies that could be incorporated in SMTEs’ strategies in order to strengthen their negotiating position with large tour operating consortiums and ameliorate their evident over-reliance on tourism intermediaries.

Database management systems used in information systems for the tourism industry and based on SQL are flexible insofar as they allow queries regarding the data stored in them. However, the SQL language, in spite of its flexibility, cannot deal with the vagueness of the queries clients present to travel agencies. Questions like “I want an inexpensive trip to an Italian city not too far from Rome” cannot be directly answered by the system. Rather, the agent has to make different queries about available trips and then has to summarise and adapt them to the needs of the clients. A solution that gives an answer to these requirements is found in fuzzy logic sets applied to databases. Currently, we have implemented a fuzzy SQL (FSQL) server in information systems as a result of our previous work in the field of information systems (IS). This server is available for Oracle databases and allows queries in traditional relational databases, as well as in fuzzy databases, by using the FSQL language. The FSQL language is an extension of the SQL language that allows vague or fuzzy queries to databases by using fuzzy conditions (with fuzzy comparators), fulfilment thresholds, fuzzy constants, etc. In this work we show an application of the FSQL language to the tourism sector, in particular, to the IS database of a travel agency which includes attributes with fuzzy values. That is, the database allows the storing of fuzzy values and queries with conditions involving such values. This allows the management of all the company's products to be carried out in a more efficient way and offers clients the products that best fit their requirements. Also, the system makes it possible to obtain the degree of match for each product in relation to the set obtained in the fuzzy query.