Raija Komppula

University of Eastern Finland | UEF · Business School

This study surveyed 1562 wellness tourists in Finland, the St. Petersburg area, and Lithuania to explore what were their motivations for taking a wellness trip, to investigate what differences there were between different nationalities and determine how wellness tourists could be segmented based on their motivation. As most previous studies analyse...

Humans, more than ever before, pursue connections with legends and legendary figures, not least at intentionally designed settings. This quest has endured for millennia as a reflection of legendary narratives that inform the origins, cosmologies, and festivities of people. This study, grounded in an environmental psychology theoretical lens, attemp...

Responding to the research gap in cross-cultural studies in wellness tourism this study aims to increase the understanding about the differences in wellness tourists’ service preferences in different source markets by investigating how service preferences are associated with motivational factors. Based on 1,562 online survey responses from wellness...

Competitive fishing is a global phenomenon covering thousands of fishing contests annually. We studied the experiential value of angling competitions from the participants’ point of view by using an online survey data among Finnish anglers who had been on an overnight angling competition trip within the last two years. The theory of consumption val...

The goal of this study is to examine how destination image and destination sentiment change over time using content from online travel reviews. We explore the evolution of Finland’s destination image from 2013 to 2018 by analysing 10,197 unstructured Chinese travel reviews. With a mixed analysis approach, we identify the evolutions of the perceptio...

This paper examines the conceptions of wellness tourism among wellness enterprises, investigating how wellness tourism is materialised in their service offering. This multiple case study encompasses Eastern Finland, Russian Karelia, and Lithuania. First, the study indicates the main differences in the concept of wellness, proposing that regulation,...

This study explores service providers’ perceptions of the luxury tourist experience as a product and its challenges in Finland. To examine the essence of this product, eleven narrative interviews with service providers were analyzed. The findings indicate that service providers facilitate prerequisites for a luxury experience based on the customer’...

Online travel reviews have been extensively used as an important data source in tourism research. Typically, data for online travel review research is collected only from one platform. However, drawing definite conclusions based on single platform analyses may thus produce biases and lead to erroneous conclusions and decisions. Therefore, this rese...

This book analyses social tourism across the world, exploring the theoretical foundations of this type of tourism with examples of practical implementations. Part II is composed of case studies discussing the historical evolution of the concept and implementation of social tourism in different parts of the world. This discussion also results in the...

This book analyses social tourism across the world, exploring the theoretical foundations of this type of tourism with examples of practical implementations. Part II is composed of case studies discussing the historical evolution of the concept and implementation of social tourism in different parts of the world. This discussion also results in the...

This study contributes new findings on well-being outcomes in social tourism initiatives. Based on a two-stage survey of 371 respondents of the largest Finnish Social Holiday Association, including a control group, we assess subjective well-being, experience of inclusion and family outcomes. Positive effects on satisfaction with life, leisure time,...

(The article is published in Finnish) This research helps understand experiential value in fishing tourism, the related value dimensions, and different fishing tourist types based on these value dimensions. The data consists of 13 interviews among Finnish fishing hobbyists, who regularly take fishing tourism trips in Finland and abroad. The interv...

This study examines emotional commitment, brand identification and place attachment’s role in hotel brand loyalty and subsequent behavioral intentions. Data for the study stemmed from 823 quantitative and qualitative responses to an online questionnaire by Finnish customers of a Finnish hotel chain. K-Means cluster analysis identified three custome...

This book on winter tourism consists of three parts. Part I is addressed to current challenges in winter tourism including regional planning, socio-cultural conditions, climate change and economic challenges. Part II gives an overview of behavioural research in winter tourism. The authors present case studies and methodological concepts for both un...

Few studies of hotel loyalty programs, particularly field studies, examine basic questions such as the need for loyalty programs or their effects on hotel choice. Other gaps in loyalty program research include business versus leisure travelers, travel frequency and multiple loyalty program memberships. This case study extends loyalty program resear...

Schwartz's (1992, 1994) classification of human values is applied when comparing a group of Finnish and Russian university students in terms of their environmentally and socially benign orientation, which is measured by including all three dimensions of sustainability in the measures of consumers' self-reported travelling preferences. A total of 87...

Literature has demonstrated the central role of stakeholders and collaboration in destination branding. However, empirical studies on stakeholder interactions and their dynamics in destination and place branding are still rare. The objective of this study is to examine how different kinds of factors and internal stakeholders’ actions contribute to...

Purpose This paper aims to highlight the crucial role of individual people, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the development of a tourist destination during its life cycle. The purpose is to increase our understanding of individual actors as contributors to leadership and development of tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach An i...

The objective of this study is first to compare the image perceived by the visitors of five Finnish ski destinations with the image projected by the respective ski resort DMOs. Second, the profiles of the five ski resorts are then compared. A quantitative content analysis of the printed marketing material of the destinations was conducted. The impo...

The aim of this study is to examine the ability of a company to utilize customer involvement, benefits derived from it, and the challenges faced in the process of involving customers to participate in new service development (NSD) in different stages of the NSD process by adopting a case study approach. The findings show that a company gained sever...

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the formation of the social holiday experience, and the role of specially arranged activities in that experience. It draws on the specific case of Finland. An intrinsic, intensive case study research strategy is applied and an ethnographic approach is taken using observation, semi-stru...

The aim of this study was to improve our understanding of how frontline employees cope with service recovery situations and recover from them. It also takes a closer look at employee empowerment. This work represents a qualitative case study, and investigates the topic from the perspective of frontline employees. Data collection is implemented by i...

Importance of senior travellers as travel segment for the tourism industry increases continuously as the number of pensioners increases. These new senior travellers differ from earlier generations in many ways, one being increasing use of Information and Communication Technologies as part of their information search process. This study examines sen...

The importance of senior travellers as a travel segment for the tourism industry is continuously increasing as the number of pensioners increases in the Western world. These new senior travellers differ from earlier generations in many ways, one of which has to do with the increasing use of information and communication technologies as part of thei...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs with varying growth intentions differ from each other with regard to market orientation and brand orientation. Both of these strategic orientations are seen to lead to enhanced market performance. Consequently, the authors investigate whether those small firms that regard growth as an impor...

The aim of this case study is to increase our understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in enhancing the competitiveness of a rural tourism destination. A literature review of the research on destination competitiveness with a focus on the roles of different stakeholders is first presented, followed by a narrative about rural tourism development,...

The aim of our study is to look into the meaning of Business Model Canvas (BMC) and of peer group dialogues to learning processes of three Finnish firms participating in a service business training program. We inquire the relevance of these learning tools as mediators for reconceptualize a vision for service business logic. Our study highlights tha...

Since several authors argue that tourism motivations are a decisive part of tourism behavior, the purpose of this study is to identify sport event visitor segments based on motivations at the Sulkava Rowing Race event. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were applied to identify the profile of each segment. Differences between segment...

Purpose – This study is an attempt to increase the understanding of the hunting tourism customer. The purpose of the paper is to explore the characteristics, motivations, values and expectations of Finnish hunting tourists, and to try to distinguish between different types among them. Design/methodology/approach – Twelve semi-structured, narrative...

The aim of this paper is to increase our understanding about the experienced value of hunting as a travel experience. Experienced value refers to the individual's multidimensional outcome of the hunting experience. The study consists of an auto-ethnography of one hunter and diary notes, photos and memories of the other. Holbrook's typology of consu...

The aim is to examine whether growing, stable, and declining small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) differ from one another in terms of market orientation and brand orientation. The results show that growing SMEs have adopted market and brand orientations to a greater extent than have the stable or declining ones. They also suggest that these or...

The purpose of this case study is to identify and gain knowledge about movie-induced tourism push motivations of SF-Filmvillage visitors (SF as Suomen Filmiteollisuus Oy). Thirty motivational statements used in the study were reduced with principal component analysis into four underlying themes: Control, Novelty, Relaxation, and Nostalgia. Using hi...

The purpose of this study was to identify those factors that are supposed to be the most important in terms of success in the three investigated branches of industry (tourism, ICT, plastics and metal), especially from the SME point of view. The measures used in the questionnaire were based on and adapted from Pasanen’s (1999, 2004) and Valos and Ba...

The purpose of the paper is to segment Finnish ski resort visitors according to ski destination choice attributes using data-driven segmentation. In addition, segments are compared in order to ascertain possible differences in personal (gender and age) and situation-specific (type of visitor and traveling companion) characteristics between customer...

The purpose of this study is to segment tourists according to the benefits they seek from a tourism destination. These segments are examined in order to find attractive segments for local wellbeing products. Segmentation in the context of wellbeing and wellness provides companies information on what kind of tourists are most interested in buying we...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences and relationships of push and pull motivations in two different rural tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from tourists visiting rural tourism companies in Finland and in Tyrol (Austria). The data were analyzed using analysis of variance and co...

The goals of this article are twofold: first, to investigate if rural tourism could be seen as a form of wellbeing tourism by comparing motivations; and second, to use motivation segmentation to find out how the wellbeing segment differs from other segments. A questionnaire was developed based on literature on wellness and rural tourism motivations...

Purpose The objective of this paper is to identify the factors determining a business organisation's use of an intermediary when buying convention packages and meeting services. Design/methodology/approach The data are based on a case, a public organisation responsible for promoting and intermediating meetings, incentives, contentions and events (...

Eastern Finland is an area that is rich in lakes, aquatic environments and pure nature. Unfortunately, this rich potential is scarcely utilized in well-being and wellness tourism product development. To answer this, the purpose of this article is to discuss if the experiential environment of the lakes and lake landscape can act as a potential resou...

The purpose of this paper is to offer an integrated view on the adoption of market orientation in SMEs and what kind of marketing capabilities are necessary for a small firm to act in a market oriented way. It is also discussed how market orientation is related to small firm success. Data were collected through a survey and thematic interviews in t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into small firm entrepreneurs' perceptions of success and how these perceptions affect the performance of a firm. The emphasis is on non‐financial measures of success and their interaction with the financial indicators of a firm's performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents...

The purpose of this study was to identify those factors that are supposed to be the most important in terms of small business success in tourism industry. The empirical data is collected within one region in Finland. The respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of the given factors for the firm's success and how highly the respondent evalu...

This book addresses European tourism within the framework of an enlarged European Union of 25 members. It looks at the substantial reorientation of the organizational framework of European tourism and its profound implications for future structural and geographical patterns of development. Providing a series of thematic evaluations of relationships...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss development of the quality of nature‐based tourist products in the light of a case study in Finland. The paper first conceptualizes the nature‐based tourist product by suggesting a descriptive model of the prerequisites for the customer‐oriented tourist product. The quality of the tourist product is briefly d...

In the 1990s, the practical measures aimed at developing tourism industry and the objectives set by the sponsors of various development projects emphasised the importance of networks, both at a regional and business level. Regional development projects and the criteria for the EU subsidies also made networking and cooperation their key words; conse...

New product development in tourism companies has been a nearly ignored theme in tourism marketing literature. Research on product development has in major studies handled destinations, development of resorts or sites as a total tourist product. This paper will introduce two case studies, which will aim to help us to identify the major problems as w...