Alternative Tourism Research Articles

Digitalization of the Alternative Tourism Marketspace: Evidence from an EU Peripheral Economy

Digitalization of the Alternative Tourism Marketspace: Evidence from an EU Peripheral Economy

Sistem Pendukung Keputusan Pemilihan Objek Wisata Kabupaten Berau Menggunakan Metode Additive Ration Assessment (ARAS)

Indonesia is a country that is famous for its natural wealth and tourist destinations worldwide, and it is spread out in various regions. One of the regions in East Kalimantan that is popular and often visited by tourists every year because it is famous for its stunning underwater tourist destinations is the Berau Regency. According to the East Kalimantan Tourism Office, this district has the highest number of tourist attractions in East Kalimantan, which is 224. Many tourist attractions trigger confusion among tourists when deciding which alternative option to visit. Therefore, this research aims to build a decision support system to assist tourists in getting alternative tourism recommendations that are appropriate and to their needs. The method used in this research is the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method. There are 30 alternative attractions and 5 criteria: facilities, safety, cleanliness, cost, and distance. The results show that the ARAS method can recommend the best alternative to tourist attractions. The accuracy testing results using the confusion matrix method get a percentage value of 80%.

Cultural Heritage, Alternative Tourism as a Socioeconomic Driver in Xochiapulco Puebla

Cultural Heritage, Alternative Tourism as a Socioeconomic Driver in Xochiapulco Puebla

Implementation Of Tourism Policies In The Development Of Jerowaru Tourism Village, East Lombok

Alternative tourism through the development and empowerment of village communities is one solution to address poverty in coastal areas. Jerowaru Tourism Village is one of the villages implementing this policy. A case study method and Woolcock’s social capital theory are used to assess the extent of the policy's success, particularly regarding community participation in tourism village development. Data were collected through observation, interviews with community informants and stakeholders, as well as field documentation. The analysis results, through reduction and conclusion drawing, indicate that the implementation of policies, particularly for tourism villages, refers to the Tourism Law, Regional Autonomy Law, Regulation No. 10 of 2020, the Long-Term Development Plan, local regulations, and the NTB Governor's Regulation of 2021. Several important aspects support the implementation of the tourism village policy. First, there is the aspect of tourism policy implementation in Jerowaru, which includes coordination, communication, and disposition. Second, there is the aspect of community awareness and involvement, particularly the role of tourism awareness groups, especially among the youth. Third, there is the aspect of initiation. The initiation of tourism village development is driven by the tourism awareness community as a manifestation of independence and awareness in developing potential and ensuring sustainable environmental protection.

Evaluation of Social Media Tools in Health Tourism Marketing with Multi Criteria Decision Making Methods

Today, countries are turning to alternative tourism types due to the destructive and corrosive effect of mass tourism. Various factors in the global market affect consumer preferences and shape their demands. This situation leads countries to seek alternative tourism types. While developed countries tend to focus more on sports tourism, the rising value of health tourism stands out for developing countries. The high costs of healthcare services in developed countries, waiting times, and the lack of many health services offered by insurance companies lead consumers to outsource their helthcare needs. Relationship marketing plays a key role in health tourism services, and consumers seek first-hand answers to their questions. The health sector's sensitive and complex structure informs and raises consumers' awareness on the axis of relational marketing dimensions. This study aims to via multi criteria decision making to determine and rank the social media channels used in health tourism marketing. While the criteria weights are determined by the Best-Worst Method, the priority order of social media channels is determined by COmbinative Distance-based ASsessment. Expert opinions were consulted during the criteria determination and the ranking of the alternatives. As a result of the analyses, the importance of social media is emphasised once again. Social media tools, especially through mobile application applications, shape the age with the audience it reaches, the distribution between regions, the time spent and the information transmitted. The need for socialisation accelerates the development of technology with the rapid orientation of people towards this field. In this case, youtube, which has gained momentum with the number of users and the use of visual and auditory elements together, holds the leadership in the reflection of relational marketing on health tourism today, as it creates space for all segments, even though information pollution is experienced.

Alternative Tourism – an Ontology of Bulgarian National Revival Residential Architecture for the Purposes of an Intelligent Tourist Guide

In the article, we will explain the concept of alternative tourism and its subtypes, we will dwell on its role in the preservation of cultural and historical heritage of an architectural type by means of technological solutions – an intelligent guide with ontological knowledge.

Tourism governance in the new normal: lessons for Eastern Africa

ABSTRACT While destinations in Eastern Africa embrace tourism as an opportunity for economic development, the sector encounters a myriad of setbacks. Amidst the complexities of the contemporary geopolitical and economic landscape in the region, the imperative for a restructured governance framework becomes evident. This contemporary policy debate paper explores the complexities of tourism governance juxtaposed against the backdrop of the formidable challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and sustainability concerns. The paper puts forward a proposal for an alternative tourism governance model for Eastern Africa, which not only addresses the immediate challenges but also incorporates indigenous knowledge and embraces a holistic perspective that intertwines regional integration and actionable sustainable practices in the new normal.

Landscape Characters of Kampung Ciomas for Eco-edutourism

Abstract Kampung Ciomas has a natural physical environment. This condition has the potential to become a tourist destination with an eco-edutourism theme. This research aims to analyze the landscape character of Kampung Ciomas for eco-edutourism. Analysis was carried out using quantitative descriptive and qualitative descriptive methods. The research stages carried out were: 1) analyzing land cover, 2) analyzing slope, and 3) analyzing landscape character. The results of the analysis showed that there were 28 types of landscape character which were dominated by green open spaces on hill slopes. The landscape character protection required is the protection of green open space on sloping hills and moderate hills. Modifications of the landscape character required include the removal of several elements that are not in harmony with several buildings and ponds on sloping hillsides, stalls on sloping hills, emphasizing natural forms planned on green open space on medium hills, changes in natural form are planned for green open space on flat, undulating slopes and sloping hills, intensification is carried out on green open space on sloping hills and medium hills, intensive visual quality improvements are intensively planned for green open space on flat, undulating slopes, sloping hills and moderate hills, circulation paths on undulating slopes and sloping hills, BTS (Base Transceiver Station), WWTP (Waste Water Treatment Plant), parking lots on sloping hillsides, cemeteries and mosque on sloping hillsides. The impact of this research is providing alternative tourism in Bogor accordance environmental conditions and environmental utilization through conservation and education efforts.

Empowering Local Community and Bringing Awareness for Alternative Tourism

Empowering Local Community and Bringing Awareness for Alternative Tourism

Empowering Local Community and Bringing Awareness for Alternative Tourism

Empowering Local Community and Bringing Awareness for Alternative Tourism

Insta-fame or insta-flop? The pitfalls of using virtual influencers in tourism marketing

Despite the growing significance of virtual influencers (VIs) on social media, the utilisation of VIs in the tourism sector remains underexplored. Underpinned by the “computers are social actors” (CASA) paradigm and the Uncanny Valley theory, this study employed five focus groups with photo elicitation to investigate the key factors that inhibit audience engagement with VIs in tourism contexts. Embodiment (poor visual narrative, humanised content, and spillover effect from VI to content), the role of agency (ethical concerns and lack of relatability) and agent feature (uncanny appearance) were identified as primary impediments. While VIs are found to be alternative tourism endorsers in prevailing research, this study contributes to the literature by delineating the limitations of VIs in engaging with audiences, thereby providing critical insights for both scholars and practitioners. The findings consolidate the CASA paradigm by elucidating its boundary conditions, discerning the relationship between the CASA paradigm and the Uncanny Valley theory, and enabling practitioners to avoid pitfalls and adopt VIs more effectively.

Evaluation of the Botanical Tourism Potential of the Protected Areas in the Central Black Sea Region

When examining developed and developing countries, it is evident that the tourism industry holds significant importance due to the high returns from foreign exchange. Countries striving to increase their share of international tourism are engaged in various efforts. The behaviour of present-day local and foreign tourists in participating in tourism activities or purchasing tourism services indicates that alternative tourism activities could replace mass tourism. Therefore, countries aiming to enhance their international tourism revenues should preserve alternative tourism values and ensure sustainability. Developments in industry have brought about specific environmental issues. Due to natural balance problems, people are more interested in clean air and wildlife. This situation leads individuals and societies towards ecotourism. Botanical Tourism is also gaining prominence in this process. When considering this tourism activity, it is evident that our country has significant geographical potential. Turkey, located in the world’s temperate zone, stands out with its unique plant diversity compared to many surrounding countries. However, it is quite challenging to say that this potential is adequately recognised, protected and utilised for tourism purposes. This study aims to identify the elements related to botanical tourism in the protected areas of the Central Black Sea Region, one of Turkey’s rich regions in terms of natural and cultural structures. The aim is to contribute to promoting and developing botanical tourism. Sustainable tourism practices, particularly botanical tourism, should be given priority to ensure the region’s development.

ECOTOURISM, SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND NATURE BASED TOURISM: AN ANALYSIS OF EMERGING FIELDS IN TOURISM SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

The emergence and rapid growth of tourism paradigms such as ecotourism, sustainable tourism, and nature-based tourism signify a shift towards more environmentally and culturally conscious forms of tourism. We conduct a comparative analysis of these emerging fields with the aim of providing insights to the field and inform future research directions in this dynamic area of study. Our investigation spans diverse geographical regions over an extended period (1986-2022) to provide a comprehensive understanding of the global landscape of alternative tourism. The study utilizes descriptive bibliometrics and scientific mapping techniques using data derived from Scopus to depict changes and contributions over time and identify thematic structures and their evolution. Along with more established regional actors such as the US and European contributors, China and Latin America appear as emergent participants. The analyzed fields seem more prone to interdisciplinary approaches and more impactful than the average Tourism research. Also, international collaboration seems to have played a crucial role in advancing research in these topics. Overall, the study reveals a vibrant field with outstanding features in the context of general Tourism scientific area.

The Impact of Tourists’ Sensation Seeking in Space Tourism on Their Expectation of Experience Within the Postmodern Tourism Paradigm

Space tourism, within the post-modern tourism paradigm, emerges as an alternative tourism type in line with new information about space. The aim of research is to determine the impact of potential tourists' sensation seeking tendencies on their expectations of experiencing space tourism, which is expected to be a frequent activity in the future. To achieve this objective, a quantitative research method was used. The research was conducted on potential tourists living in Turkey. Data were collected through an online survey from potential tourists reached by convenience sampling, a non-random sampling method. This research is limited to the information obtained as a result of the resources available after a literature review in the field. finding of the study is that sensation seeking decreases as age increases. It is observed that individuals in younger age groups have a higher level of sensation seeking. A positive linear relationship is observed between the dimension of sensation seeking and the dependent variable of expectation of experience. The use of new technologies is often linked to hedonic motivation. Tourists' sensation seeking trait significantly influences their expectation of experience in space tourism. The study concludes that tourists' sensation seeking impacts their expectation of experience in space tourism by 37%. Space tourism has emerged as a new and rising field in recent years. The tendencies of potential tourists in this field can shape their future space experiences. In this sense, this study, which has a unique research area, can also provide important information for the marketing strategies to be developed by space tourism companies.

A holistic and pluralistic perspective for justice through tourism: a regenerative approach

Justice is integral in transformative tourism approaches that call for a complete restructuring of the travel and tourism sector worldwide. While justice through alternative tourism models promotes responsible, sustainable transitions in the tourism sector, these models are frequently informed by a perceived binary between the social and the environmental and long-held patterns of West-centric thought and West versus ‘the rest’ power dynamics, found both in tourism theory and practice and within justice frameworks. In this article, we explore the potential of the regenerative development paradigm to bridge these divides and adopt a pluriversal lens to devise a more just practice of tourism. The holistic, transformative tenets and pluralistic perspective of regenerative development and tourism are used to build a novel framework for justice. The framework’s capacity to analyse, unlock and catalyse place regeneration in different knowledge systems and restore just relationships has been leveraged in two rural areas in Colombia and Ecuador. Collecting data through mixed qualitative methods that combine reflexive ethnography with in situ and online interviews, we identified actions taken to address local inequalities and challenges while fostering pathways to the systemic transformation of residents’ livelihoods. These place-specific actions inspired by ancestral traditions have revitalised the areas’ ecosystems, including local human communities and the latter’s tourism activities. The discussion of results examines the potential of pluriversal regenerative development and tourism principles grounded in diverse knowledge and ethics frames to guide actions for systemic social and environmental justice.

Strategies for Mitigating Financial Leakage: Main Directions of Georgia’s Tourism Industry

Tourism is a vital economic driver for countries worldwide, fostering growth and diversi-fication across various sectors. However, the issue of financial leakage poses a significant challenge, particularly for countries heavily reliant on imports. This article delves into the strategic direction required to mitigate financial leakage in the Georgian tourism industry. The study identifies rural and gastronomic tourism as promising avenues for addressing this challenge through a comprehensive methodology encompassing in-depth interviews, statistical analysis, and literature review. By lever-aging Georgia’s diverse culinary heritage and distinctive cuisine, these alternative tourism forms pro-mote local products and services and offer tourists authentic experiences. The research underscores the growing global preference for authentic and unique tourism experiences, aligning with the shift towards locally sourced, high-quality offerings. Through strategic initiatives focused on rural and gas-tronomic tourism, Georgia can differentiate itself as a leading destination while ensuring equitable dis-tribution of tourism benefits within local communities. This study contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable tourism development, emphasizing the importance of local resources, traditions, and community involvement in shaping the tourism landscape.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Tourism in Tourist Destinations: A Qualitative Case Study from Türkiye

ABSTRACT This study investigated the critical success factors for Türkiye’s competitiveness in sustainable tourism practices. The study is based on data collected from face-to-face qualitative interviews with key tourism stakeholders in Antalya (n = 15) and Istanbul (n = 15), Türkiye’s most popular and most visited cities. A qualitative multiple-case study approach was employed as a research design, and content analysis was used to analyze the data using an abductive technique. The findings confirm that an all-inclusive system creates the main obstacle to achieving sustainable tourism and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Antalya, with overtourism being a main sustainability challenge in Istanbul. Further, it was found that the dependency between tour operators and hotels hinders the development of alternative tourism, subsequently causing barriers to the sustainability of destinations. Moreover, technology was proposed as the most influential driver in integrating sustainable tourism, CSR, and awareness.

Unraveling the Role of Actors in Sustainable Tourism Village Management Using the Pentahelix Collaboration Model in Bandung Regency

The number of tourists coming to Indonesia has increased, referring to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) (2024), foreign tourist visits are still increasing, namely by 30.17% in 2022 and cumulatively at the end of 2023, the number of foreign tourist visits has reached 10. 41 million visits, an increase of 110.86 percent compared to the same period in 2022-2023. This shows that the recovery of the tourism sector in Indonesia is still continuing. Tourist villages have become an alternative travel experience for tourists after the cultural shift from mass tourism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen crowds and massive numbers of immigrants shift to alternative tourism to enjoy rural nature and the social and cultural life of its people. Tourism villages are one of the priority programs of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the implementation of which requires cooperation from various parties. Petahelix Cooperation is an option in implementing this program. This research focuses on identifying the role of each actor involved in the Tourism Village ecosystem from each stakeholder who is part of the Penta Helix collaboration, namely the government as a facilitator and regulator, academics as a conceptor and tasked with sharing academic information, business which is a business actor who plays a role as an enabler for economic progress, community communities who serve as accelerators and drivers in tourism development and the media as information providers, entertainers and as social controls. Using a qualitative explanatory research method with a case study approach to describe the researcher's general view and try to reveal in depth the role of 5 actors in managing the Tourism Village in Alam Endah Village, Bandung Regency.

War heritage impact on museum dynamics in Budapest: a multidimensional analysis of visitor satisfaction through cultural, statistical, and netnographic modalities

ABSTRACT This study examines the museums in Budapest, Hungary, particularly those themed around World War and Cold War history. Recent years have witnessed these institutions attracting substantial domestic and international attendance, accompanied by elevated visitor satisfaction rates. Notably, numerous war memorials in Budapest are integral components of the conventional sightseeing circuit, while a burgeoning interest in alternative tourism, focusing on ‘hidden treasures’ such as bunkers, has emerged. Beyond presenting the current state and potentialities of Budapest's tourism heritage supply, specifically within the war-themed subcategory associated with dark tourism, this paper adopts a critical lens to assess both the supply and the motivations and expectations driving demand. Additionally, the study scrutinizes the interpretative challenges inherent in addressing this complex and sensitive historical subject. The findings of this research offer valuable insights that can contribute to repositioning Budapest within the context of post-COVID tourism. Anticipating evolving trends, the study underscores the growing significance of prioritizing safe, local attractions and the preferences of more informed and responsible travellers. Importantly, it argues that capitalizing on the city's war heritage could become a pivotal strategy for enhancing both domestic and international tourism.

Marketing Communication Strategy in Tourism Development based on Local Wisdom of Jayapura City Communities

<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> Based on a two-way communication model, effective communication between stakeholders can foster citizen participation in tourism management. Jayapura City's coastal tourism potential must be professionally managed, as evidenced by limited facilities and ineffective promotional strategies. The study aims to examine the community's social, economic, and cultural characteristics and devise an effective marketing communication strategy for developing coastal tourism in Jayapura City.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A qualitative approach utilizing a causal descriptive survey method, also called mixed methods. With Lisrell, the research was analyzed using multiple linear regression and the Structural Equation Model (SEM) model.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> The effectiveness of marketing communication in the development of beach tourism in Jayapura City is relatively low in the role of tourism managers and the use of media in tourism promotion. Coastal tourism managers are still dominated by the elderly who are not updated with digital technology. The potential of culture and local wisdom has not been optimized in tourism management. There has been no synergy between interested parties such as government, customary, and community in the application of tourism marketing communication.</p><strong>Originality:</strong> Many studies have been conducted on tourism marketing communication strategies, but only a few have studied them from the perspective of tourism development which involves participation and local wisdom of the people in Papua. This study shows that marketing communication strategies are part of the solution, and research on local wisdom and community culture can provide alternative tourism development to improve the welfare of local communities.