Behavioral Cultural Intelligence, Legal System, Cybersecurity and Cultural Heritage as Determinants of the Choice of Foreign Tourist Destinations

The process of globalization has implied greater interdependence of national cultures and economies, and the development of information technologies and transport services has made it easy to organize business and tourist trips to countries around the world. A certain group of people considers spending vacations at domestic tourist destinations a moral obligation and a patriotic act, while another group of people has a high level of innovativeness, follows fashion trends, technological innovations, stays informed about current events through social networks, has a pronounced openness to other cultures and different ideas, and frequently visits foreign tourist destinations. The research was conducted with the aim of examining the influence of consumer ethnocentrism, influencers, personal innovativeness, cognitive and motivational cultural intelligence on the respondents' decision to visit a foreign tourist destination. The field research was conducted using a survey method, and the respondents' answers (505) were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) within the statistical package SmartPLS 4. The results showed that consumer ethnocentrism has a negative impact, while influencers, personal innovativeness, cognitive and motivational cultural intelligence have a positive impact on the respondents' decision to visit foreign tourist destinations. These findings are important for formulating an appropriate marketing strategy by service providers in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Due to the process of globalization, travel has become much more affordable, so tourists have the opportunity to visit foreign and even some exotic destinations. Market research helps travel agencies in formulating a marketing strategy, which should attract tourists and ensure their satisfaction, which ultimately enables the service provider to make a profit. The purpose and goal of the research is to determine whether cultural intelligence as a push-factor implying the desire of tourists to learn a foreign language, and get to know other cultures and their value systems and cultural heritage as a pull-factor implying touring buildings, and cultural monuments of other countries, influence the choice of foreign tourist destinations. Furthermore, the research examines whether the influence of these variables from the aspect of a demographic characteristic of age is more pronounced in respondents belong to generation Z compared to the generation X respondents. The sample includes 208 respondents from the Republic of Serbia. After statistical processing of the data, the obtained results show that variables have a statistically significant positive impact on the choice of foreign tourist destinations, and that their impact is more pronounced in generation Z respondents compared to those of generation X, so the research provides useful information to marketers and travel agencies.

This study explores tourist affinity and animosity and their effects on foreign tourist destination choices before and after a foreign holiday. To achieve these research objectives, semistructured interviews with critical incident techniques were employed to recall tourists about their past foreign holidays, to identify their specific affinity and animosity components towards foreign destinations, and to explore their impacts on tourist destination choices. As a result, 17 interviews lasting 40 min to almost 1.5 hr were done. The results show that tourist affinity including components such as feelings of sympathy, admiration, and attachment toward a specific foreign country are positive drivers of tourist destination choices, while tourist animosity including components such as war animosity and the pandemic of COVID-19 animosity negatively influences tourist intention to visit and provide word of mouth. As such, this study tracks tourist affinity and animosity on tourists’ attitude changes during holidays, enriches the literature on tourism affinity and animosity, and also provides a further understanding of Vietnamese tourist destination choices.

Based on the popularity of mobile information and the important role of mobile information in marketing, the use of mobile information to publish travel information and travel advertisements has become a new choice for operators, which can also attract sports and fitness people. This article studies the influence of official microblog of tourist destination on tourists’ choice of tourist destination. In this study, five factors, such as the usefulness of official microblog, are taken as independent variables, tourist destination selection as dependent variables, and the mediating role of use attitude is taken into account. A research model is established to explore the impact of these variables on tourist destination selection. The results show that usefulness, ease of use, interactivity, and entertainment have direct effects on tourists’ willingness to choose tourist destinations; ease of use and interactivity can indirectly affect tourists’ choice of tourist destinations using attitudes; perceived trust needs to have a positive effect on tourists’ willingness to choose tourist destinations using attitudes.

Digital movie platforms are one of the most prominent modern entertainment mediums that play an increasing role in influencing audience perceptions on various topics, including tourist destinations. The study aimed to evaluate the impact of digital platform films on perceptions of tourist places among the Jordanian public, using a questionnaire on a purposive sample of 400 Jordanians. The study revealed that the majority of respondents (47.2%) watch films on digital platforms extensively, with Netflix being the most popular platform for film consumption. The beautiful depiction of these locations was the main feature of digital platform films that shaped respondents’ perceptions of destinations. Furthermore, digital platform films about destination depictions, as well as their role in promoting cultural communication and understanding, significantly influenced the choice of destinations. Although the impact of these films on promoting tourist destinations was moderate, it has been proven that increasing the number of viewers of films on digital platforms significantly enhances their ability to shape the image of tourist destinations and improve communication and cultural understanding. Results show that younger and more educated consumers are more interested in the places depicted when they use these channels. Demographic factors influence media consumption patterns, and digital films can be great tools for tourism marketing and cultural interchange. The findings of the study also show that there is no correlation between the degree of respondents' viewing of digital platform films and the role these films play in promoting tourist destinations from the study sample perspective. This indicates that the frequency of watching digital platform films does not influence the promotion of tourist destinations. Meanwhile the results demonstrate that there is a positive correlation between the degree of respondents' viewing of digital platform films and the role these films play in influencing their choice of tourist destinations. This suggests that the more respondents watch digital platform films, the more these films influence their choice of tourist destinations. Furthermore, the study opens pathways for tourism policy makers to collaborate with media producers to create cinematic portrayals that both attract international interest and enrich the domestic tourism landscape. Future research could expand on these insights by exploring the long-term effects of repeated digital film exposure on tourism behaviors and investigating how genre-specific content contributes to the appeal of travel destinations.

Does social trust influence safety and tourists’ destination choice? Our claim is that the roots of safety may take two forms: either formal institutions or informal institutions. Formal institutions concern how society can build up control mechanisms through the legal system, police authority and military. The problem is that high visibility of police and military in public spaces may give the tourist the impression of an unsafe and insecure destination. Instead, social trust through self-enforcements of social norms for behaviour may be important because the informal institutions guarantee the safety of tourists (and locals) without signalling a problem with safety. Building social trust may further enhance the feeling of safety and thereby attract even more tourists. Thus, our trust-safety theory may guide the active use of social trust by tourist officials and policy makers.

Photo by Engin Yapici on Unsplash ABSTRACT Medical tourism has excellent potential and downfalls, which this paper will extensively cover. While medical tourism has great economic benefits to the host country and calls for the increase of professionalism and skill of physicians, it also influences doctors locating to private hospitals and skewing healthcare costs and access for locals. Given the many weights and balances to consider, the discussion of expanding this type of healthcare into Turkey is ethically needed. INTRODUCTION I watched from the hotel lobby as a group of men with surgically wrapped heads strolled in line behind a young woman; she was speaking to them in English with a heavy Turkish accent. Across the room was another group like this one, but the women had bandages on their noses. As a Turk, this sight was not new to me: over the years, I witnessed the number of foreigners coming to Turkey for medical procedures increase by tenfold. And, I began to see how savvy Turkish tourist companies became over time, creating enticing packages for people to tour the beautiful city of Istanbul while receiving a hair transplant procedure or rhinoplasty. While I understood why individuals would come to Turkey for their procedure ― lower prices, expert physicians, and a lovely tourist destination ― I began to question whether profiting from the health care of others was ethical. This paper examines whether it is ethical for Turkey to invest in a growing medical tourism field, which has the potential for significant economic benefits yet could threaten health inequalities between locals and foreigners. Further, it will outline why tourists choose Turkey as a medical tourism destination, the reasons to favor medical tourism, and the reasons to oppose it. Finally, the paper will conclude that Turkey should cultivate and invest in medical tourism, with suggestions for expanding the field into a thriving market. ANALYSIS By definition, a medical tourist is an individual who travels to a foreign country to experience both cultural tourism and medical treatment.[1] Global medical tourism is a $55billion industry, and the industry in Turkey is experiencing an annual growth rate of 22.6 percent.[2] In 2017, more than one million individuals traveled to Turkey for medical tourism, putting approximately ten billion dollars of foreign currency into the economy.[3] Medical tourists who traveled to Turkey received, on average, more than one procedure during their stay.[4] Due to the increasing demand for medical tourism, the Ministry of Health in Turkey emphasized the expansion of medical tourism in its strategic plan, implementing initiatives to grow the industry.[5] These initiatives include improving the quality of Turkish hospitals and receiving Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, which is an internationally recognized quality healthcare index.[6] There are multiple reasons why individuals choose Turkey as their destination for medical tourism. First, it is easy to travel to: individuals need only an E-visa, which they can easily receive through an online application.[7] In addition, Turkey has lower prices compared to the Western hemisphere.[8] The Turkish government incentivizes medical tourism through lucrative advertising specials. For example, Turkish Airlines offers discounted airline ticket prices of 50 percent for patients who demonstrate a patient admission document from a Turkish-certified health institution.[9] Private hospitals have opened advertising offices in the Ataturk airport as well.[10] Lastly, hotels and hotel chains collaborate with hospitals to offer lucrative tourist packages for patients.[11] While these perks and incentives draw people to Turkey, the lack of insurance coverage, high cost of treatment, and long wait times in their home countries are the most significant reasons that tourists choose Turkey as their medical destination.[12] Arab tourists previously traveled to the United States and the United Kingdom for medical treatment, but due to the implementation of strict travel sanctions after the September 11 attacks, they have had to look elsewhere.[13] For Arab tourists, the similarity of culture and religion in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, is also an enticing factor.[14] And, while Thailand and Singapore offer lower health care costs than Turkey, the shorter distance from the home country plays an important role in choosing Turkey as a medical destination.[15] European tourists choose Turkey for different reasons. For example, some surgeries conducted in Turkey are not available in Europe.[16] Patients from the Balkans and Central Asia prefer Turkey because of Turkey’s highly trained physicians and brand new, well-equipped hospitals compared to those in their home countries.[17] Interestingly, the low costs rank lower in importance than cultural similarity among those seeking care in Turkey.[18] The most important factor for choosing Turkey was quality: most tourists came from countries with a healthcare system marred by a lack of expertise or technological advancement.[19] One Turkish physician stated, “[Turkey] really ha[s] practices, doctors, services, hospitals and treatments that are above world standards in terms of health care.”[20] l. Ethical Permissibility of Medical Tourism in Turkey Health tourism has the potential to make a significant impact on the economic and social life of countries.[21] As a developing country, Turkey cannot afford to overlook this economic possibility.[22] The expansion of medical tourism in Turkey has allowed the country to reform its healthcare system into one that competes with health care quality in the Western hemisphere. Since 2010, there has been a significant increase in patients traveling to Turkey for health care.[23] The AK Party in Turkey pledged to promote health tourism in its campaign in 2011.[24] This inspired health care reform in 2013, with Turkey instituting a publicly funded and organized healthcare system.[25] In 2013, the Turkish government created publicly funded city hospitals. These hospitals were formed for medical tourism, meeting quality levels never-before-seen in the country.[26] In 2014, the Ministry of Health began granting accreditation to medical providers for medical tourism services and supporting translation services, patient transportation, and marketing.[27] Additionally, strategic initiatives were implemented to increase the number of Turkish medical school graduates.[28] The number of private medical schools increased from five before 2013 to 24 by the end of 2015.[29] A 50 percent tax reduction was granted to healthcare institutions that provided health care to foreigners.[30] Finally, Turkey began reforming hospital systems to obtain JCI accreditation. The growth of medical tourism in Turkey has resulted in positive reform of Turkey’s healthcare system. Turkey has over ten city hospitals in Istanbul, with qualified professionals proficient in English and other languages.[31] These hospitals are public and thus open and available for use by the general Turkish community, offering excellent quality health care to the country’s citizens. However, private hospitals have also flourished and, in some cases, have drained some of the doctors from public hospitals. With the increase in quality measures and regulatory healthcare committees, such as the Health Tourism Coordination Council (SATURK), Turkey’s healthcare system rivals the West's with highly trained professionals, competitive medical schools, and modern medical facilities.[32] Turkey has even reached the forefront of medical advancement: the World Eye Hospital is renowned for its cutting-edge ophthalmology services.[33] The investment in medical tourism has allowed Turkey to invest more in its private sector as well: the total expenditure on health as a proportion of the GDP rose from 2.4 percent in 1980 to 6.1 percent in 2008,[34] with an almost $2 billion national income from medical tourism in 2010. ll. Arguments Against the Ethical Permissibility of Medical Tourism in Turkey While public city hospitals were opened with the potential to support the Turkish medical tourism industry, private hospitals support 83 percent of the medical tourism market, and the gap between private and public hospitals has been growing yearly.[35] Private hospitals have mostly opened in urban areas, such as Istanbul, Ankara, and Antalya.[36] As a result, there has been a “brain drain,” in which members of the health workforce have left rural areas and have moved to urban cities where they can make larger profits from the medical tourism industry.[37] In addition, the use of public city hospitals has been met with concern regarding whether inequalities in health care between foreigners and Turkish citizens will arise. The Ministry of Health pays rent for the city hospitals in US dollars, exacerbating inflation in the Turkish lira currency and increasing reliance on high-paying medical tourists to support the public hospital system.[38] Due to this pressure, the prices for medical services are not consistently kept at affordable levels for Turkish citizens.[39] The head of The Private Hospitals and Health Institutions Association, Resat Bahat, stated, “Turkish citizens must receive priority for public resources. You cannot treat a Libyan or a Dutch when your own citizen is shaking at home with pneumonia. You [the public sector] can perhaps engage in medical tourism if you have excess bed capacity. But it is hard to do this [medical tourism] with the public sector.”[40] Rapid growth has also compromised patient safety and health care quality. While clinics must receive medical tourism certificates to provide treatment, fraud has risen.[41] In 2016, six out of ten hair transplant clinics were operating illegally.[42] These clinics offered hair transplants for as low as $800 when the treatment costs approximately $2000 i

Purpose: this study aimed to identify the relationship between psychological motivations and destination image of self-defined LGBT+ tourists’ destination choice. Design/ methodology/ approach: The study was operationalized through a survey with 239 respondents. Which 89 were self-defined as LGBT+. Statistical univariate and bivariate analyses were used for data analysis. Findings: (1) both targets value leisure as the primary psychological motivation for choosing the travel destination; (2) infrastructures and socio-economic environment and affective image are the most critical dimensions of destination image; (3) the psychological motivations increase the destination image of self-defined LGBT+ tourists'; (4) there was no significant difference between the choice of tourist destination between heterosexuals and the LGBT +. Originality/value: Previous studies have focused on analyzes of consumption of LGBT + tourist destinations, but not understanding the main psychological motivations and their association with the image of the destination, either check whether there are in fact differences between the LGBT + and heterosexual audiences. This study answered to this gap.

Tourism plays a big role in practicing one's self-realization and improving the quality of life. However, the participation of the disabled in tourism faces various difficulties compared to general tourists. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve and improve the quality of tourism for the disabled by exploring the selection attribute factors and constraint attribute factors of tourism for the disabled. In August 2024, a panel survey was conducted through the Ministry of Rehabilitation Hospital of the National Rehabilitation Center, and a total of 150 people with disabilities in Korea responded to the questionnaire. The answered questionnaire was classified as a valid sample and analyzed through SPSS 26.0. As a result of the analysis, first, the 'tourism destination' factor among the attributes of tourists with disabilities' selection of tourist destinations affects the intention of tourism behavior for the disabled. It was found that the convenience, activity, accessibility and attractiveness of tourist destinations, and the environmental and specificity of food and beverage businesses have an effect. Second, among the factors of tourist restriction attributes of tourists with disabilities, 'institutional constraints' and 'facility constraints' affect the intention of tourism behavior for the disabled. The lack of support systems and direct help facilities for the disabled is believed to limit visits to tourist destinations. This study identifies the factors and constraints of tourists with disabilities' choice of tourist destinations and guarantees 'tourism rights' to tourists with disabilities, who are socially disadvantaged. It is of great significance in that it suggests that the tourism rights of the disabled should be protected in the future and tourist destinations should be improved in practice.

Rural tourism is becoming an increasingly important segment of the tourism industry in the Republic of Serbia, especially in the context of the growing interest of people in spending holidays in nature and escaping urban environments. Leisure time, as a socially and economically conditioned category, plays a key role in shaping tourist behavior and destination choice. In this regard, rural areas offer specific values and experiences that meet the need for relaxation, recreation, and engagement with tradition and an authentic way of life.The aim of this paper is to examine how tourists use their leisure time in rural areas and which factors influence their motivation to stay in such environments. Particular emphasis is placed on the potential of rural tourism to contribute to local economic development. The research was conducted in the territory of Western Serbia, using a survey method and a sample of 224 respondents. Data processing was carried out in SPSS 20.0, applying descriptive statistics.The results indicate that tourists most frequently choose activities in nature, gastronomic experiences, stays at rural households, and interactions with the local population. Motivational factors such as tranquility, fresh air, homemade food, and direct contact with nature play a dominant role in destination selection. From an economic perspective, these findings highlight the significant potential for developing small family businesses, rural households, and tourism service providers in rural areas.The paper concludes that improving the offer in line with tourist expectations and supporting the development of rural tourism can represent a significant step toward sustainable economic growth and the revitalization of rural areas in Republic of Serbia.

Czas wolny od nauki i pracy powoduje wzrost popytu na dobra i usługi turystyczne, ale istotnym czynnikiem popytu zrealizowanego, a nie takiego, który pozostaje tylko w sferze marzeń, jest siła nabywcza ludności (Gaworecki, 2007). O konsumpcji dóbr i usług turystycznych w dużym stopniu decydują warunki ekonomiczne, co często podkreślają różni autorzy zajmujący się tą problematyką, np. R. Brudnicki (2006). Należy tutaj dodać, że uprawianie turystyki nie musi być związane z ogromnymi wydatkami, szczególnie gdy turystą jest student, a standard usług nie jest wysoki. Analizy prowadzone na poziomie makroekonomicznym wykazują jednak, że istnieje korelacja między wysokim poziomem rozwoju ekonomicznego w danym kraju a dużą aktywnością turystyczną jego obywateli. Wysoka aktywność turystyczna stanowi jedną z podstawowych cech rozwiniętych gospodarczo społeczeństw. Głównym celem artykułu jest przedstawienie czynników ekonomicznych warunkujących aktywność oraz destynacje turystyczne chicagowskiej Polonii. Wśród tych czynników wyróżniono takie aspekty, jak: poziom dochodów badanych osób, ich wydatki na podróże, ich własna ocena sytuacji materialnej oraz sytuacja zawodowa. Celem badania było również sprawdzenie, czy cena, koszt wyjazdu jest ważnym wskaźnikiem dla Polonii chicagowskiej, który wpływa na jej aktywność turystyczną oraz wybór destynacji turystycznej. Główną metodą badań była metoda ilościowo-jakościowa. W artykule zaprezentowana zostanie metoda sondażu diagnostycznego w postaci badań ankietowych wśród Polonii w liczbie 1014 (w tym ankieta internetowa online – 347, tzw. CASI), w języku polskim i angielskim. W opracowaniu zostaną przedstawione wyniki badań, które mówią o tym, że wraz z miesięcznym wzrostem dochodów zwiększa się ilość pieniędzy wydawanych na podróże, częstotliwość wyjazdów w ciągu roku oraz długość trwania wypoczynku turystycznego, natomiast wzrost miesięcznych dochodów nie wpływa na wybór destynacji turystycznej chicagowskiej Polonii.

Purpose. Presentation of activity and the choice regarding tourist destination of the Chicago Polonia. Discussing the determinants of the tourist activity in the light of literature and creating one’s own model of activity and tourist destination for the whole American population. Method. Desk research – studies of foreign and Polish literature. Empirical research concerning tourist activity and the choice of destination by the Chicago Polonia in the form of a survey questionnaire. The research group included 1,014 people divided into 7 age sub-groups. The applied methods and statistical techniques: chi2, degree of freedom (df) and level of statistical significance (alpha). Findings. In all age groups, the factors deciding about tourist activity of the respondents and the choice of tourist destination include: the price, the cost of the trip, in second place – development of tourist facilities and in the third– fashion. The largest barrier in undertaking tourist activity for the Chicago Polonia is lack of free time (37.6%), financial barrier (31.4%) and occupational work (17.4%). Individuals who form a single-person household do not travel more often than those who run multi-person households. Research limitations and conclusions. The empirical research included only American Poles living in the Great Chicago Metropolitan Area and not the whole population of American Poles. Practical implications. The research presents the level and nature of participation in tourism of the Chicago Polonia as well as characteristics of seven factors which mutually interact and influence activity and tourist destination of them. Originality. There is a large research group. Creating one’s own model of tourist activity including internal (demographic, social, cultural, economic) and external factors (geographical, political and legal , organization of tourism). Type of paper. The article presents the results of empirical research and contains a review nature of the tourist activity models known in the subject literature.

Self-congruence, functional congruence, and destination choice

The OTT platform is distributed worldwide and allows tourists of various forms, including language and race, to reach tourist destinations. Those contribute to the success of the content leading to an interest in the filming location. This phenomenon increased the interest of foreign tourists in Korean culture and had a ripple effect on the selection of tourist destinations for Korean tourists who had slowed down due to the pandemic. In this study, four activation measures were suggested as follows through preliminary research data and case analysis, such as the growth of the OTT industry and screen tourism cases. First, developing various Korean cultural contents (K-culture) is necessary. Second, it is necessary to come up with a solution to over-tourism. Third, policies and administrative support related to the OTT platform are needed. Fourthly, the development of a Barrier-Free tourism sector is needed. Fifth, it is necessary to establish a sustainable tourism development governance system. In this study, we tried to analyze how the growth of the OTT industry affects consumers’ choice of tourist destinations and to derive implications for ways to revitalize tourist destinations exposed to the platform. With this study as an opportunity, a continuous activation plan and policy for the occurrence of screen tourism through the growth of the Korean OTT platform should be prepared.

This paper evaluates the impact of high-speed rail systems on tourist attractiveness in Italy. The analysis is carried out with reference to provincial capitals, only some of which are served by high-speed railway lines. To achieve this objective, two multiple linear regression models were specified and calibrated, which relate arrivals and presences in accommodation facilities to several factors that could influence the tourist destination: cultural, historical, and monumental heritage, commercial activities, recreational activities, accessibility, etc. Both models showed that the availability of high-speed railway services is an important factor in the choice of tourist destination, being, moreover, the only accessibility variable found to be significant; furthermore, the elasticity of tourist demand to this factor was significant too.