Actual Visits Research Articles

Consumer Behavior towards Cafes in General Luna, Quezon

This study aims to explore consumer behavior towards cafes in General Luna, Quezon, focusing on understanding consumer profiles and the factors influencing cafe visitation. The consumer profile will cover age, civil status, sex, occupation, and address, serving as bases for segmenting customer groups. Using a descriptive research design, the study will describe the respondents' demographic characteristics, beliefs about visiting cafes, sources of influence, and actual behavior towards cafes. Additionally, descriptive correlation will identify relationships between these variables. Respondents will consist of cafe consumers in General Luna, Quezon. They will be identified through two methods: referrals from cafe owners and on-site observation from July 2024 onwards. Due to the challenge of identifying all potential respondents, the researcher will apply a snowball sampling technique, where initial respondents will refer others. The researcher will design a survey questionnaire grounded in consumer behavior theories, including the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Reasoned Action. The questionnaire will undergo validation by a panel to ensure reliability. Data will be analyzed using Frequency and Percentage Distribution, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The study will assess consumers’ attitudes toward cafe visits, sources of influence, and the degree of behavioral control, including self-efficacy and facilitating conditions. It will also examine the relationship between consumer profiles and their attitudes, influences, behavioral control, and intention or actual behavior towards cafe visits. Ultimately, the study seeks to determine how attitudes, influence, and control predict consumers’ intention and actual visits to cafes in General Luna, Quezon.

Sample size determination for a study with variable follow-up time

ABSTRACT For a study to detect the outcome change at the follow-up visit from baseline, the pre-test and post-test design is commonly used to assess the treatment-control difference. Several existing methods were developed for sample size calculation including the subtraction method, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and linear mixed model. The first two methods can be used when the follow-up time is the same as scheduled. Although the linear mixed model can analyze the repeated measures by including the actual visit time to account for the variability of the follow-up time, it often assumes a constant treatment-control difference at any follow-up time which may not be correct in practice. We propose to develop a new statistical model to compare the treatment-control difference at the planned follow-up time while controlling for the follow-up time variation. The spline functions are used to estimate the trajectories of the treatment arm and the control arm. We compared the performance of these methods with regards to type I error rate, statistical power, and sample size under various conditions. These four methods all control for the type I error rate. The new method and the ANCOVA method are often more powerful than the other two methods, and they have similar statistical power when a linear disease progression is satisfied. For a study with non-linear disease progression, the new method can be more powerful than the ANCOVA method. We used data from a completed Alzheimer’s disease trial to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

E-advertising and Offline Consumer Behavior in Saudi Arabia: Impact of Lifestyle Change

This research will present the main point of electronic advertising in Saudi Arabia, through an exploratory study of the relationship between online advertising and the visit to the traditional store. We have assimilated the lifestyle change as mediating variable and the implication with the product as moderating variable. Data were collected using an electronic survey. The survey involving 400 Internet users in Saudi Arabia. This research has used a structural equation model and multi-group analysis. The results of this research demonstrate the lifestyle change mediates the relationship between online advertising and actual visits to the magazine. Involvement with the product moderates the effect of online advertising on the lifestyle change in Saudi Arabia. This study of the investigation of the consequences of online advertising on offline consumer behavior in Saudi Arabia is an unprecedented investigation. The implication of this research will improve e-advertising in Saudi Arabia.

Investigating the Factors Behind Patients' Desire and Decision to be Accompanied: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Medical education typically focuses on the dyadic interaction between patient and physician. However, there is another significant presence in the room that can also impact the patient's health outcomes: caregivers. This topic has been relatively underexplored until now, and there is insufficient information available regarding situations in different cultures. In this study, we aimed to separately examine the characteristics of patients that influence the frequency of being accompanied and those that affect patients' preferences regarding the presence of a companion. This cross-sectional study was conducted in family medicine clinic of a tertiary hospital. During a period of 15 days, a total of 285 patients who visited the clinic were administered the questionnaire face-to-face. Two logistic regression models were used for dependent variables of "actual" and "desired" situations of admitting to healthcare service with companion. Of the participants, 167 (58.6%) were female, and the mean age was 36.8 ± 16.2 The sole significant factor, influencing actual visits to be occurred with a companion, was the solution for transportation issues (odds ratio [OR]: 26.25). It was found that unmarried individuals (single/divorced/widowed) (OR: 5.47), those with higher income (OR: 1.84), and older individuals (OR: 1.04) had a higher tendency to prefer visiting the clinic with companion while female are as opposite (OR: 0.50). Anxiety, perceived social support, and health literacy weren't associated with actual situation or desire to have companion. Patients have companions to address tangible issues. However, different factors may influence the desire to have a companion. There is a large group of individuals who, are accompanied at clinic visits against their wishes, indicating a conflict between being accompanied and the desire for one. Our study was inspired by the unsolicited comments of patients made about their companions during clinical visits. Additionally, community provided valuable feedback during the pilot application phase, particularly in the development of the data form.

Using electronic medical records to analyze outpatient visits of persons with epilepsy during the pandemic—experience from a low middle income country

BackgroundElectronic medical records (EMR) can be utilized to understand the impact of the disruption in care provision caused by the pandemic. We aimed to develop and validate an algorithm to identify persons with epilepsy (PWE) from our EMR and to use it to explore the effect of the pandemic on outpatient service utilization.MethodsEMRs from the neurology specialty, covering the period from January 2018 to December 2023, were used. An algorithm was developed using an iterative approach to identify PWE with a critical lower bound of 0.91 for negative predictive value. Manual internal validation was performed. Outpatient visit data were extracted and modeled as a time series using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. All statistical analyses were performed using STATA version 14.2 (Statacorp, USA).ResultsFour iterations resulted in an algorithm, with a negative predictive value 0.98 (95% CI: 0.95–0.99), positive predictive value of 0.98 (95% CI: 0.85–0.99), and an F-score accuracy of 0.96, which identified 4474 PWE. The outpatient service utilization was abruptly reduced by the pandemic, with a change of -902.1 (95%CI: -936.55 to -867.70), and the recovery has also been slow, with a decrease of -5.51(95%CI: -7.00 to -4.02). Model predictions aligned closely with actual visits with median error of -3.5%.ConclusionsWe developed an algorithm for identifying people with epilepsy with good accuracy. Similar methods can be adapted for use in other resource-limited settings and for other diseases. The COVID pandemic appears to have caused a lasting reduction of service utilization among PWE.

Audience development through cultural synergies: Organizing an exhibition of postmodern art at the Historical and Folklore Museum of Nikiti

Audience development, the notion of maintaining and increasing cultural organizations’ audiences, is inextricably linked to marketing. Marketing tools facilitate constant communication with audiences and broaden the experience of art even after the actual visit to an organization’ s premises. The paper examines the development of audiences in regional museums in Greece through synergies with other art forms and the use of marketing tools. The author examines the case of organizing a periodical postmodern exhibition with works by an Austrian painter, in the Historical and Folklore Museum of Nikiti. The aim of the research is to develop the museum's audience by featuring a new artist and promoting the event through various marketing tools and technology. The research questions revolve around political, economic and social issues and the ways they affect audiences’ attendance, the sustainability of regional museums, the recruitment of specialized staff, the creation of a strategic financial management and marketing plan for the museum and the specific exhibition. The outcome of the research could be used as a guide for regional museums that strive to increase their audience, as it proposes synergies with various art genres, periodic exhibitions of new artists as marketing tools for audience development.

Uncovering Tourist Visit Intentions on Social Media through Sentence Transformers

The problem of understanding and predicting tourist behavior in choosing their destinations is a long-standing one. The first step in the process is to understand users’ intention to visit a country, which may later translate into an actual visit. Would-be tourists may express their intention to visit a destination on social media. Being able to predict their intention may be useful for targeted promotion campaigns. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to predict visit (or revisit) intentions based on the texts in posts on social media. The algorithm relies on a neural network sentence-transformer architecture using optimized embedding and a logistic classifier. Employing two real labeled datasets from Twitter (now X) for training, the algorithm achieved 90% accuracy and balanced performances over the two classes (visit intention vs. no-visit intention). The algorithm was capable of predicting intentions to visit with high accuracy, even when fed with very imbalanced datasets, where the posts showing the intention to visit were an extremely small minority.

Direct medical charges in a population-based systemic lupus erythematosus cohort

Aim This study aimed to obtain estimates for the direct medical charges associated with hospitalizations and emergency department visits of validated SLE cases in a diverse Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) population. Methods The Georgians Organized Against Lupus (GOAL) cohort is a population-based cohort of adult SLE patients from metropolitan Atlanta, GA USA, an area having a diverse SLE population. The GOAL cohort aims to study the impact of social determinants of health (SDoH) on outcomes relevant to patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers. For this study, survey data collected during 2011-2012 was linked to the Georgia Hospital Discharge Database (HDD) to capture hospital admissions (HAs) and emergency department visits (EDVs) throughout Georgia from 2012 through 2013. Direct medical charges were summarized by HCU type among all patients, among those with actual visits, and by socio-demographics and healthcare factors. Results Among 829 patients (94% women, 78% Black, 64% non-private insurance, 64% not-employed, mean age of 46), 170 (20.5%) and 300 (36.2%) participants had at least one HA and one EDV in 1-year of follow-up, respectively, with 111(13.4%) having both HA and EDV. On average, each patient experienced 0.38 HAs and 0.91 EDVs, with per-patient direct medical charges of $14,968 for HAs & $3,022 for EDVs, and $39,645 per HA & $3,305 per EDV. Patients with higher social vulnerability or more severe disease had higher charges for both HA and EDV (p < 0.01), likely due to the delayed care and neglected health needs leading to more advanced and costly medical treatments. Living below the federal poverty level was associated with higher charges for EDVs (p < 0.001) but with lower charges for HAs (p = 0.036). Conclusions This study underscores the economic burden of SLE on vulnerable populations, emphasizing the importance of including socio-economic factors in healthcare planning. Policy efforts should prioritize reducing disparities in access to care and implementing preventive strategies.

Nuclear Reactor Operations Education and Training with Virtual Reality and an Immersive Desktop Application

A virtual reality learning module to train nuclear engineering students in reactor operations to understand reactor power excursions has been developed. The learning module was taught with an Oculus-2 headset and controllers (now called Meta Quest 2). The class was comprised of 71 undergraduate students, mostly in their fourth year of the nuclear engineering curriculum at Texas A&M University. The learning module simulation of power excursion, called pulsing the reactor, was modeled after the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station TRIGA reactor. First, the students visited the TRIGA reactor for pulsing and answered a technical quiz on the subject. Next, the students performed pulsing in the equivalent virtual reality module developed in this work. One of the primary learning objectives in the laboratory exercise was the role of passive and active safety mechanisms in a rapid reactivity insertion and power excursion. Data from the actual reactor visit showed that most students did not understand a key passive safety mechanism during the reactor visit. However, the students showed a notable improvement in their understanding of the safety mechanisms after the virtual reality reactor visit. When asked if the virtual reality learning module would have made the quiz at the reactor easier, 96% of the students reported that at least one of the quiz questions would be have been better answerable with the virtual reality module. Students also noted that the virtual reality module needed to expand its scope to include more details and teaching components. Although most students were reluctant to completely replace the pulsing reactor visit with its virtual reality module version available at the time of the study, they appreciated it as a learning reinforcement tool. Student opinion may change more favorably in the future with continued improvements and enhancements of the module.

PICTORIAL MAPS AND THE RISE OF MODERN RESORT IN ŌISO IN THE MID-MEIJI PERIOD

This study explores three pictorial maps produced in the mid-Meiji period (1868–1912) featuring Ōiso and the relationship between these maps and the rise of Ōiso as a modern resort. Ōiso was a town located on the highway Tōkaidō connecting Edo (or Tokyo after 1868) and Kyoto. It became a modern seaside resort after the late 1880s. Previous studies on visual and cartographic representations of towns and cities in Japan, for example, Kindai nihon no shikakuteki keiken [Visual experiences of modern Japan] (Nakanishi and Sekido 2008), have already narrowed the analytical focus and shifted away from the metropolises to provincial cities and hot spring towns. However, some questions, such as the social functions of these materials, remain unexplored. This study analyzes three maps and argues that these maps highlight Ōiso as an attractive place, particularly by featuring its villa residents from the high society. Visually, they resemble the conventional meisho zue [pictures of famous places] developed in the Edo period (1603-1867) and share with other city/town maps produced in the Meiji period in showing preferences for bird’s-eye views and emphasizing symbols of modernity such as railroads and electricity. The depiction of villa clusters is a remarkable feature of the three maps. However, rather than encouraging actual visits to the villas, the mapmakers – the local shop owners and administrators – achieved in producing these maps as souvenirs and creating a public desire for the lifestyle of high society.

Assessing the environmental and downstream human health impacts of decentralizing cancer care.

1522 Background: Greenhouse gas emissions from healthcare are substantial and harm persons with cancer. Emissions from outpatient cancer care visits are not well described, nor are the downstream reduction in human harms that could be obtained through visit “decentralization” (telemedicine and local care when possible). Methods: This life-cycle assessment (LCA)-based study evaluated changes in emissions and downstream health harms associated with (1) telemedicine visits using retrospective observational analysis and (2) fully decentralized visits using counterfactual modeling. The retrospective observational cohort included persons receiving cancer care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and 20 affiliated facilities between 5/2015-12/2020. The main outcome was the adjusted per visit-day difference in emissions (in kilograms carbon dioxide equivalents: kgCO2e) between two periods: an in-person care period (5/2015-2/2020; “Pre”) and a telemedicine period (3/2020-12/2020; “Post”). Mixed effects log-linear model assessed emissions changes adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and cancer type, with random effects on person. The counterfactual model assessed emissions changes between actual in-person visits during the Pre period and a counterfactual with maximal decentralization. Visit-day eligibility for decentralization was obtained by categorizing appointments (e.g., clinician visit, infusion) as DFCI required, local care possible, or telemedicine possible. This cohort was matched to a national population diagnosed with cancer over the same period (Cancer in North America [CiNA] dataset) using mixed-effects linear modeling, through which annual changes in disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) from clinician visit decentralization were estimated using Eckelman’s mortality cost of carbon conversion. Results: There were123,890 unique patients in the DFCI cohort seen over 1.6 million visit-days (Pre N=110,180, Post N=61,691) at a median of 6 visit-days per patient (IQR 2, 15). An estimated 72,554,006 kgCO2e were within scope of the LCA emitted during the study period. In mixed-effects log-linear regression, the adjusted mean absolute reduction in per visit-day emissions between Pre and Post periods was 36.4 kgCO2e (95%CI 36.2,36.6), or a reduction of 81.3% (95%CI 80.8,81.7) compared to the baseline model. In the counterfactual decentralized care model of the Pre period, there was a relative emissions reduction of 33.1% (95%CI 32.9,33.3). When demographically matched to 10.3 million persons in the CiNA dataset, decentralized care would have reduced national emissions by 75.3 million kgCO2e annually; this corresponds to an estimated annual reduction of 15.0-47.7 DALYs. Conclusions: Employing decentralization through telemedicine and local care can substantially reduce emissions during cancer care delivery; this corresponds to a small reduction in human mortality.

Catering establishments in the everyday life of urban residents

The article is devoted to the analysis of consumer preferences and behavioral practices of urban residents in the catering market. The conceptual framework of the study was the theory of "third places" – spaces outside home and work that create conditions for full communication of visitors. The empirical basis of the study was the results of an online survey conducted among the residents of Ekaterinburg in 2024 (n=610). The study tested the hypothesis about the significance of the socio-communicative function of catering establishments in the perception of citizens. The results of the study showed the important role of catering establishments in the everyday life of urban residents: the behavioral practices of urban residents indicate the regularity of visits to catering establishments regardless of the day of the week, the preference for evening visiting time, more frequent use of actual visits compared to the use of ready meal delivery services. Consumer preferences of citizens in the catering market are characterized by a clearly expressed communicative dominance, confirming the importance of the social function of catering establishments. The most significant motive for visiting catering establishments is communicating with friends and relatives. The most popular venues are those that provide the best atmospheric and spatial opportunities for "live" communication. Among the factors for choosing catering establishments, the leading ones are the "internal" factors of the establishment – food quality, hygiene and safety, service, menu and variety of dishes, and the atmosphere created. External factors – reviews on the Internet, ratings of establishments on specialized sites, recommendations of food bloggers – do not have a decisive influence on the choice of consumers. The results of the study can be used to improve the quality of service in the catering industry and to develop an effective promotion strategy of enterprises in this sphere.

On Promoting the Quality Improvement of Tax Services by "Managing Taxation with Numbers" by Grassroots Tax Authorities under the Background of "Smart Taxation"

Chinese path to modernization is a modernization that conforms to the development of the information age and the digital process. Digital technology is fully integrated into all fields and the whole process of economic society and ecological civilization construction, which has brought extensive and profound impact on human production and life. This article conducts an actual visit to grassroots tax authorities in Bengbu City, and based on a questionnaire survey, adopts a literature research approach and statistical analysis method to explore the implementation effect of this problem. It objectively sorts out and balances the impact of "digital tax governance" on improving the quality of tax services provided by current tax authorities, attempts to identify and identify some unreasonable links and problems in the current tax service process under the background of smart taxation, and analyzes the causes and mechanisms of these problems. Finally, based on the combination of theory and practice, it summarizes and explores targeted improvement strategies that can be used for further improving the quality of digital tax services.

Capacity Utilization Assessment Using Discrete-Event Simulation: Case Study of a High-Density Crowd Visiting the Holy Rawda in the City of Madinah

Managing a high-density crowd is challenging, especially when space is limited, due to increased risk of crowd disasters. There are many considerations to lower disaster risk and ensure crowd safety such as infrastructure, facility, staff, emergency response plan, education and awareness. This paper investigates capacity management, which is the most critical consideration when space is limited. Discrete-event simulation (DES) technique is highly adept at reproducing complex real-world operations and can incorporate numerous stochastic variables, thereby improving its effectiveness in decision-making. The objective of this study is to assess capacity utilization of small space through formulating space features and crowd dynamic with a DES model. The model is intended to provide support for informed decision-making process related to capacity management. A real case study about a high-density crowd visiting the Holy Rawda was employed. The data related to the visiting parameters and visit experience KPIs were captured through a range of interviews and actual visits. Comparing the results of the simulation scenarios against the proposed KPIs had a surprising result, there is only 79% utilization of the area, although, intensive high-density crowd were featured during all the visits. It means better management of the crowd may allow 21% more visitors to visit the Holy Rawda.

Visitors’ perceptions of urban wilderness. A case study of Jiangyangfan Ecological Park in Hangzhou, China

Numerous studies show the benefits of wilderness to humans and the environment. Therefore, preserving and developing wilderness areas within urban settings are crucial to combat and mitigate challenges like biodiversity decline resulting from urbanization. According to previous studies, human-wilderness interactions can be contradictory, e.g., relaxing while feeling anxious and insecure. How individuals perceive and comprehend intentional urban wilderness, what dimensions contribute to their perceptions, and how these dimensions influence the visitors’ perceptions remain to be investigated. Selecting Jiangyangfan Ecological Park (Hangzhou, China) as a survey case, this research investigates if and how people perceive intentionally incorporated and designed urban wilderness and how various dimensions of attributes shape their perceptions. This study identified three dimensions that may contribute to visitors’ perceptions of the urban wilderness; namely, cognitive landscape attributes, perceived environmental attributes, and their visitation experience. A mixed-method approach was employed using a questionnaire, mental maps, and environmental behaviour observation as diverse data sources to assess visitors’ urban wilderness perceptions and comprehension from the three dimensions. Results indicate a high propensity to visit the park as an urban wilderness. Our findings also revealed that visitors' perceptual environmental attributes, e.g., the existence of vegetation and waterbodies and encounters with wild animals, as well as their visit experiences, e.g., their satisfaction with the visit and their motivation for experiencing nature, significantly influence their perceptions. In contrast, prior knowledge and experience-based cognition of urban wilderness attributes showed no significant influence on their perceptions. Moreover, attributes like plant diversity, water visibility, and plant density emerged as critical factors shaping visitors’ perceptions. These findings underscore the importance of considering visitors’ on-site perception of environmental attributes and actual visit experience when assessing the value and acceptability of urban wilderness areas. Future implications of this study for urban wilderness planning and management were also discussed.

The Time Burden of Office Visits in Contemporary Pituitary Care, 2016 to 2019.

The concept of "time toxicity" has emerged to address the impact of time spent in the healthcare system; however, little work has examined the phenomenon in the field of otolaryngology. To validate the use of Evaluation and Management (E/M) current procedural terminology codes as a method to assess time burden and to pilot this tool to characterize the time toxicity of office visits associated with a diagnosis of pituitary adenoma between 2016 and 2019. A retrospective cohort study of outpatient office visits quantified differences between timestamps documenting visit length and their associated E/M code visit length. The IBM MarketScan database was queried to identify patients with a diagnosis of pituitary adenoma in 2016 and to analyze their new and return claims between 2016 and 2019. One-way ANOVA and two-sample t-tests were used to examine claim quantity, time in office, and yearly visit time. In the validation study, estimated visit time via E/M codes and actual visit time were statistically different (P < 0.01), with E/M codes underestimating actual time spent in 79.0% of visits. In the MarketScan analysis, in 2016, 2099 patients received a primary diagnosis of pituitary adenoma. There were 8490 additional-related claims for this cohort from 2016 to 2019. The plurality of new office visits were with endocrinologists (n = 857; 29.3%). Total time spent in office decreased yearly, from a mean of 113 min (2016) to 69 min (2019) (P < 0.001). E/M codes underestimate the length of outpatient visits; therefore, time toxicity experienced by pituitary patients may be greater than reported. Further studies are needed to develop additional assessment tools for time toxicity and promote increased efficiency of care for patients with pituitary adenomas.

Role of Promotion in Increasing Tourist Visits to Telaga Saat Puncak Destination, Bogor, West Java

This research aims to analyze the role of Telaga Saat's promotional strategy. Telaga Saat is located in Tugu Utara, Cisarua District, Bogor Regency. This research focuses on the importance of the role of promotion in introducing the Telaga Saat destination to visitors, with an emphasis on the BAS method (Branding, Advertising, and Selling), in increasing the number of tourist visits to the Telaga Saat Puncak destination. The research involved analyzing the effectiveness of various promotional campaigns, including branding approaches to strengthen the destination image, advertising strategies to raise awareness and selling techniques to convert interest into actual visits. The research methods used included direct observation, social media monitoring, interviews with management, and document analysis. A descriptive qualitative approach is used to understand how the role of promotion has an impact as a whole to increase visits to a destination. Branding activities have not been realized because the manager focuses more on selling and advertising. In conducting publications using paid media techniques, owned media, social media, endorse (POSE) and succeeded in increasing the number of tourist visits. The results provide an in-depth insight into the positive impact of the BAS method in increasing tourist visits to Telaga Saat Puncak. The findings in this study can help tourism actors to improve promotional strategies especially in branding, advertising and also selling to increase awareness and encourage visits to this destination.

Family Adoption Program for Undergraduate Medical Students at a New Medical School of Jharkhand: An Experience and SWOC Analysis.

Family adoption program (FAP) incorporated into the undergraduate medical education curriculum is beneficial to all stakeholders involved. Many medical colleges have started FAP at different times and various levels based on resources availability, feasibility, and accessibility. This article is intended to cover the process of FAP implementation, the strength, weakness, opportunities, and challenges at various levels, and its scope in future. FAP was launched by adopting a hamlet 17 km away from the college. During the foundation course, orientation lessons and logbook discussions were conducted online before the actual field visit. During the initial visit, families were assigned, which was followed by collecting sociodemographic information, a plantation drive, and organizing medical camp/ door to door screening in the last visits for phase one students. The strengths perceived were early community exposure of students and leadership skills, and the weaknesses were allocating adequate number of slots in the curriculum, adopting families far away, etc., Similarly, FAP has an opportunity to achieve the larger goal of Heath for All in terms of identifying, following up, and managing various socio clinical cases in the adopted families. However, few challenges can pose as it progresses across other phases, such as language problem, allotment of problem families, existing social pathology in family, cultural taboos, etc. The article suggests that once a student leaves, another student should continue the cycle of adoption and provide continuum care of services to prevent the family from being orphaned.

Exploring the impact of metaverse tourism experiences on actual visit intentions: An integrated model of presence, the Technology Acceptance Model, and the Theory of Planned Behavior

AbstractThis study seeks to understand the impact of tourist experience of the metaverse on users' actual visit intentions by proposing an integration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), using the construct of Presence. We developed a questionnaire‐based experiment in which 478 responses were collected via an online survey to achieve the objectives of the study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the proposed constructs. The results indicate that presence is positively associated with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude, respectively. In addition to the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude, six other hypotheses within the model that merged TAM and TPB were statistically supported. Furthermore, the implications and recommendations based on the results are valuable contributions to the development of metaverse tourism.

Comparative Analysis of University Accreditation Systems in Nigeria, Egypt, Malawi and Japan: Lessons for Regulatory Authorities

Purpose: Ensuring quality in accreditation standards and process for higher institutions is highly imperative in order to produce qualitative students and staff (national and international), and to securing the recognition of qualifications that institutions are awarding. The objective of this study was to investigates the similarities and differences in the accreditation process in Nigeria, Egypt, Malawi and Japan. Methods: The study was based on qualitative approach. The study adopted the historical method of data collection. This study being descriptive, as well as historical, relied essentially on secondary information sources gathered by the researchers via many books, articles, journal periodicals, internet materials, and notable books. Data were analyzed using a narrative method that leaned more on the interpretivist approach. Results: The study showed that accreditation process in the selected countries has some similarities in process and standards such as setting of minimum standards, self-study, selection and training of reviewers, site visit, reporting, final decision, disclosure, academic matter (curriculum), students, staffing, facilities and funding. Also, there exist some differences in the process and standards across the countries of study in term of preliminary/preassessment visit before actual site visit, factual error checking, virtual visit, third party agencies, verification of external auditor’s report, etc. Conclusion: The study assesses the university accreditation systems in Nigeria, Egypt, Malawi, and Japan. Accrediting agencies need to focus on future accreditation in term of digitalisation of accreditation process, emergence of non-traditional providers of higher education, high demand for competency-based university education/learning, high rate of global competitiveness, and elimination of academic and accreditation corruption in the system.