Destination Attractiveness Research Articles

Marketing tools to ensure the competitiveness of tourism businesses destinations

Abstract. The aim of the study. The purpose of the study is to develop methodological principles for making public management decisions, in particular, investigated marketing tools to ensure the competitiveness of tourism businesses distentions, which will have a positive impact on tourism businesses. Methodology. The article used research methods: induction, deduction, objectivity, system, generalization, which allowed to present and justify the main results. Results. In today's conditions, there is an urgent need to preserve tourist facilities and socio-economic development of individual regions and increase the competitiveness of tourism entrepreneurs in local communities, which requires strengthening measures to use marketing tools. One of the marketing tools for the development of tourism businesses in local communities and ensuring their competitiveness is a tourist card. The article considers the development of a tourist map, which will increase the attractiveness of the tourist destination, increase the tourist flow of individual tourists (who leave more money than organized groups with short stays), and hence income from tourism in hospitality - hospitality, catering and in retail. As foreign experience shows, the use of tourist product cards is not only beneficial to tourists, but also forms in them an idea of the variety of attractions and attractions in the destination. Obviously, the tourist is not able to visit all the interesting places at once, however, he will get an idea of the unrealized prospects for recreation, which can be returned in the coming seasons. Thus, the card system influences the formation of new motives for re-visiting the community.
 The practical significance of the study lies in the applied nature of the proposed program, which will create a competitive tourism product that can best meet the tourist needs of the community, on this basis to ensure integrated community development while preserving ecological balance and historical and cultural heritage. Optimizing the use of tourist resources will allow further formation of the tourist product, which will increase revenues to the budgets of all levels and contribute to the socio-economic development of the community. Prospects for further research.

A global perspective of the role of domestic economic, financial and political risks in inbound tourism

PurposeIn this study, as part of an attempt to foster sustainable development, the aim is directed at understanding the perspectives of domestic economic, financial and political risks in tourism development. On the other hand, the role of other agents of sustainable development: innovation, infrastructure, health and primary education and global crisis in tourism development, was illustrated.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this objective, the current study explored the (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique for a panel of selected 73 economies over the period 2006–2017. This GMM approached is not undertaken without first establishing the stationarity (a preliminary test) of the employed dataset by utilizing the relevant unit root techniques.FindingsFirst, the study found that minimizing risks from economic, financial and political aspects is significant and vital to the attractiveness of the tourism destinations and the eventual development of the tourism sector. Second, the study presents innovation or technological readiness and health and primary education as agents of sustainable development through the growth of international tourism arrivals while global crisis is significantly detrimental to tourism inflow.Originality/valueOverall, the study presents the contribution of tourism as a pathway to sustainable development from unique dimensions. Investigating a large panel (of 73 countries) is a unique approach. In addition, considering the economic vulnerability of the panel countries from the aspects of risk arising from economic, financial and political aspects is another interesting dimension to the novelty of the study. Thus, this study offers relevant policies for tourism stakeholders.

Determinants Of Destination Image And Competitiveness In Sibu Heritage Trail: A PLS-SEM Approach

Tourism is the largest sector in the world and contributes significantly to the economies of the most advanced and developing countries. A major concern on limited resources and acknowledgement of competitiveness all led to the expansion of the literature on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. While, there are limited studies that investigate destination image and destination competitiveness, no studies have been found to examine the determinants of destination image and destination competitiveness. Thus, the present study attempts to explore whether accessibility quality, accommodation quality, destination attractiveness & resources on destination image and competitiveness. Data were collected from 132 tourists who have visited Sibu Heritage Trail. The research employs PLS-SEM, and the result specified that there are total of four hypotheses were supported. The implications and limitations of the present study were further discussed.

Destination Familiarity and Perceived Attractiveness of Four Polish Tourism Cities

Destination familiarity has been analyzed for many years as an important factor influencing the perceived attractiveness of a destination and its image. However, previous research has concentrated on this relation considering familiarity with a destination as a whole, while the issue of familiarity with particular elements of a destination has not been explored. The current research aimed to detect if and how familiarity with three selected elements of a destination, namely, tangible tourism attractions, events, and traditional cuisine and dishes, impacts the perceived attractiveness of a city destination. The research was conducted using the following four Polish cities as examples: Gdańsk, Katowice, Łódź, and Wrocław. The research questionnaire was distributed among the citizens of another Polish city—Krakow. Over 200 responses were received. The results show that familiarity with tangible attraction was correlated with high perceived attractiveness of a destination, while the other two factors did not impact the level of perceived attractiveness. The results were achieved on the basis of the indication of several scientific and practical conclusions.

WORLD ACHIEVEMENTS AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN MODERN TOURISM AND HOTEL RESTAURANT BUSINESS

The purpose of the article – find out and summarize the practical experience of using innovative technologies in the hotel and restaurant and tourism business. The research methodology consists in the application of methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, forecasting, as well as in the use of systemic and activity-based approaches. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that this article presents modern product innovations, technological innovations in the development of transport infrastructure, accommodation facilities for the premium segment and tourism innovations in different regions of the world. Conclusions. As a result of the study, it was found that innovations in the tourist infrastructure contribute to a change in the structure of demand and the volume of tourist flow, to attract funds to the country, create opportunities to increase the attractiveness of a tourist destination. Keywords: innovations, innovative activity, product innovations, technological innovations, transport infrastructure, hotel infrastructure.

Tourism Actors' Engagement and Logics of Whale Protection and Conservation in Norway

The perception of activities that may harm whales and their coexistence with whale tourism can be problematic for a destination's attractiveness and its potential role in setting good standards for the sector and educating tourists. This research note investigates the online debate about the legitimacy of a research project on wild whales in Norway. In particular, it investigates the local tourism actors' engagement in such debate, and how the two sides of the debate argue for the legitimacy of different logics of whale protection and conservation. The findings derived from a thematic and discourse analysis show that the local tourism sector and academia minimally engage in the debate and that the debate presents elements of different logics relating to the traditional and compassionate conservation paradigms. This article considers the tourism actors' non-engagement in the aforementioned debate as a missed opportunity, and concludes by inviting the reader to reflect on the collaboration between the tourism sector and academia, in particular its desirability, motivations, and consequences.

Investigating Factors of Customer Loyalty Formation for Wellness Spa

Research question: The objective of this paper is to examine the level of the development of spa tourism with a special review of the wellness tourist offer of the Republic of Serbia, and also which factors of this tourist offer we should pay special attention to and improve, to achieve the highest level of tourist loyalty. Motivation: The tourism potential of the Republic of Serbia has not been sufficiently researched and that served as a basic motivational factor. Idea: Considering the tourist potential that Serbia has and partly the work of Han et al., (2017), the fact that spa tourism is the fastest-growing sector in the entire tourism industry, and that the wellness tourism offer is a very important segment of spa tourism, there is a need to identify factors that influence the visitors' loyalty formation for such tourist destinations. As the Republic of Serbia has a lot of wellness centres, it represents a very convenient location for conducting such research. Data: This research included 298 guests of wellness centres in Vrnjačka Banja: "Solaris", "Aleksandar", "Merkur", "Zepter", "Kralj", "Slatina" and "Iwa Wellness Centre". Data collection was performed during July and August 2019. Methods: The PLS-SEM method was used in this paper to test the defined research hypotheses. Factors that contribute to loyalty and revisit for the wellness and spa tourist destination were investigated, and they were measured by the appropriate number of questions: quality of wellness and spa tourism, the value of wellness and spa services, attraction of wellness and spa tourist destination and satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination. All attitudes were measured using a five-point Likert scale. Results: The quality and value of wellness and spa services positively impact the affection for wellness and spa tourist destination and satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination, while the attraction of wellness and spa tourist destination positively affects satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination and tendency to revisit by tourists. The existence of a positive influence of satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination and the desire to revisit the tourist loyalty formation was also shown. Contribution: Improving the quality, value, and effect with the Republic of Serbia as a wellness and spa tourist destination will increase the satisfaction of visitors and their desire to revisit this tourist destination, which will lead to greater loyalty in the future. This will increase the revenue generated from this type of tourism and accelerate local and regional development.

Exploring the ecotourism service experience framework using the dimensions of motivation, expectation and ecotourism experience

This study explores the ecotourism service experience framework by analysing ecotourists’ motivations and expectations, as well as the dimensions of ecotourism experiences. A total of 51 ecotourists were interviewed in person at ecotourist lodges in Lower Kinabatangan, Malaysia. Interview responses were analysed using thematic analysis, and a multi-data triangulation was carried out to identify key service experience dimensions guided by the co-creation concept. Findings reveal that motivations and expectations of ecotourists are connected to the dimensions of ecotourism experiences. Several findings reveal that key dimensions include ‘wildlife’, ‘nature/environment’ and ‘experiences driven from ecotourism activities’ (such as riverboat cruises and jungle trekking). Based on the interviews, these dimensions can be further interpreted and conceptualised as ‘education’, ‘aesthetic’, ‘escape’ and ‘entertainment’, similar to the four realms of experience in the experience economy model by Pine and Gilmore (1998 , 1999) . Hence, an ecotourism service experience framework, comprising both tangible and intangible elements, is proposed as a sound and practical approach to understanding ecotourism service experiences. This study offers empirical evidence and an innovative approach by identifying the ecotourism service experience dimensions and exploring a relevant framework, which was previously neglected. Ecotourism operators should utilise the four identified service experience dimensions to stage unique ecotourism experiences and enhance destination attractiveness and competitiveness. Experiential marketing can capitalise on these dimensions as innovative selling points and attract ecotourists, thus providing practical value in marketing ecotourism destinations.

Dimensions of Destination Attractiveness in Cape Coast

Abstract Destination attractiveness has received much attention in tourism literature and has been identified as crucial in terms of visitors’ perceived value. The aim of this paper was to assess the attributes that make Cape Coast an attractive destination. Focusing on the supply side perspective, the push and pull theory serves as the basis for the study. The study employed a cross-sectional survey and sampled 294 tourists with the help of a questionnaire using a convenience-sampling technique. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, in which means scores and standard deviations were used to measure the dimensions of destination attractiveness. The results showed that natural, cultural and man-made resources and amenities were the major attributes that make Cape Coast an attractive destination. It is recommended that natural resources and cultural heritage should be well preserved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) together with Ghana Tourism Authority to ensure its sustainability. It is therefore of utmost importance that Ghana Tourism Authority will ensure that the attractions are constantly improved and expanded in accordance with the new trends and developments of tourism in the marketplace.

Crowding-out or crowding-in: The impact of Chinese tourists on selected tourist segments in Vietnam destinations

This study estimates the short and long-term impacts of Chinese tourists on Vietnam's five leading inbound tourist markets. While most prior studies perceive crowding as an undesirable phenomenon relating to visitors' dissatisfaction and lower perceived destination attraction, this study extends the understanding of crowding's impacts on tourism by identifying crowding-out and crowding-in effects among tourist segments. The study contributes to the existing literature by considering crowding's impacts on different cultures in Vietnam's context, representing a fast-growing tourist destination that only earned a reputation in recent years and is different from ones previously considered. The methodology includes unit root, cointegration, causality testing, and application of the Limited Information Maximum Likelihood regression method. The findings indicate that Chinese tourist demand has primarily positive impacts on the other researched tourist markets. The findings provide practical implications for policymakers to strengthen inbound markets and enhance sustainability-oriented tourism development in the long run. • Chinese tourist demand for Vietnam has both crowd-in and crowd-out effects. • Chinese tourists foment demand from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the United States. • Chinese tourists have both crowd-in and -out effects on Korean tourists to Vietnam. • Crowd-in and crowd-out effects can have both long- and short-term dimensions.

Winter sports tourism to urban destinations: Identifying potential and comparing motivational differences across skier groups

Winter tourism is often associated with rural areas and snow-based sporting activities. However, urban destinations can also offer outdoor winter sports and an integrated set of urban tourism product bundles not only sports-related. Previous research has strongly focused on highly developed rural winter sports destinations but has barely explored the case of urban destinations offering winter sports as an integrated activity in their urban tourism product bundles. This paper, therefore, investigates the potential for market innovations that combine urban assets with winter sports activities by segmenting urban winter sports tourists and extending the understanding of urban tourism attractiveness. This paper identifies skiers’ motivation factors for visiting urban destinations with a winter sports infrastructure. It builds on a three-step quantitative approach (N = 338) with factor analysis, cluster analysis and posthoc testing to compare cluster means. The results highlight five push (exciting, knowledge, relaxation, achievement and family) and six pull factors (basic assets, urban assets, natural scenery, social events, economic aspects and winter sports activities), which can be clustered into three unique and statistically different groups: “moderate skiers”, “urban recreational skiers” and “focused skiers”. Addressing these identified clusters highlights the market potential of bundling winter sports and urban tourism, thereby addressing customers who have not been of strategic relevance for winter destinations. Additionally, urban winter destinations can gain a unique selling proposition and help to counteract crowding tendencies in rural alpine winter sports while also improving urban destination attractiveness post-COVID-19. Our findings deliver empirical support for destination managers' efforts in establishing urban destinations as alternative skiing hotspots (cf. Grenoble and Innsbruck). Urban destination managers should evaluate destinations' profiles and consider including (winter) sports as an integrated activity in their urban tourism product bundles. Winter sports can help to diversify urban destinations and improve their strategic positioning. Segmentation studies help marketers to address specific target groups; in the urban winter tourism context, these often include “moderate skiers”, “urban recreational skiers” and “focused skiers”. Empirical findings show that skiers' request multi-optional holidays with urban assets and not only sports-related activities. An innovative combination of urban tourism with winter sports offers new experiences and helps to increase visibility and customer satisfaction in competitive markets. Urban areas offer touristic infrastructure and authentic local assets which contribute to the overall tourism experience of winter sports tourists

Паспортизация туристкой дестинации как интеллектуальный потенциал развития туризма в регионе

World and domestic experience shows that it is very effective to use the method of "tourist destinations" for the development of complex programs or strategies for tourism (1). As a result of numerous studies, a fairly coherent system of describing a "tourist destination" has been developed, allowing you to have a fairly comprehensive idea of both the product itself and the conditions for its receipt, attractiveness and related products. At the same time, the task of entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of regional authorities responsible for the tourism industry is to determine the prospects for the development of a particular tourist product or route. To do this, it is necessary to solve the problem of determining the investment attractiveness and prospects of a particular tourist destination, determine its competitiveness in relation to those available in this region and make a decision on the priority and expediency of investing in this direction of the tourism industry.
 This article is an attempt of the authors to formalize the process of determining the priority and promising development of regional tourism directions in the region, using the example of the tourism industry of Udmurtia. The basis is the preparation of a passport of a tourist destination and the use of expert assessments.

A Composite Index to Measure Smartness and Competitiveness of Heritage Tourism Destination and Historic Building

The key issue of this current study is related to shaping the attractiveness of heritage destinations, highlighting the significance of reuse and upgrading their historical buildings to achieve a high level of competitiveness and distinctiveness through a smart approach. Some of these cultural assets and events tend to be monotonous, and not so attractive for various categories of tourists, which negatively affects investment opportunities, tourism development, and social and economic resources. Furthermore, previous works have criticized the lack of evidence to support that the structure contains critical attributes and measurement items linked to the competitiveness of smart heritage destinations. As a result, this study aims to design and develop a composite index for evaluating these destinations and their buildings, which includes nine dimensions (attributes) and a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) of intelligent performance and competitiveness, reflecting the combination and noticing the distinct perspective between them. A mixed-methods approach was used between qualitative and quantitative methods to perform content validation on the proposed index. Furthermore, a pilot study was implemented for tourism heritage destinations to improve the quality and efficiency of the proposed index. Then, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to analyze the data to develop the proposed index and measure its validity and reliability. Finally, the proposed composite index was finalized with 139 KPIs and applied to a case study (Salah El-Din Citadel). After that, we validated its utility in providing a quantitative evaluation of this heritage destination, identifying critical intervention priorities, and determining dimensions that need to be restructured. Additionally, it highlighted recommendations for future improvements to strengthen these heritage destinations to become smart heritage destinations capable of competition in the tourism sector.

Tourism and Road Transport Emissions in Italy

Tourism is of great importance to European economies, but environmental degradation could reduce the attractiveness of many European destinations considerably. This is even more evident if the future of tourism is depicted in the UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. However, official statistics on the environmental impact of tourism provide only partial information, and almost always with an “accounting scheme” approach, such as occasional and experimental experiences on integrated economic and environmental accounts of tourism. It is necessary to enrich the activity of monitoring and measuring the impact of tourism on the environment and implement policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of the sector. This work intends to contribute to extending information about the theme, providing a new approach based on the integration of official data to study the relationship between tourism and the environment. In detail, the objective of the work is to estimate the level of emissions—in terms of the primary air pollutants—produced by tourists travelling in Italy by road transport in the period 2015–2019. Even if much has to be done to improve the knowledge on the tourism–environment nexus, this paper represents a first relevant step towards an approach that can be easily implemented in all EU countries.

Mountain Landscape Preferences of Millennials Based on Social Media Data: A Case Study on Western Sichuan

Mountain area is one of the most important modern tourist attractions, and unique mountain landscapes are highly appealing to millennials. Millennials post their travel photos and comments on social media, and these media messages can positively influence other millennials’ travel motivations. To fully understand the attraction of mountain tourist destinations to millennials, this study analyzed their landscape preferences using images posted on social media. As a case study, we analyzed the landscape resources in Western Sichuan Plateau Mountain Areas (WSPMA). We found that differences in genders, modes of transportation, and travel patterns of the millennials influenced their preferences for mountain landscapes. Our results broaden the current knowledge on mountain tourism from the perspective of millennials through social media data. Moreover, studying the landscape resources in WSPMA can facilitate the analysis of regional advantages. This will ultimately enhance tourism publicity and integrate various resources for tourism management and planning in more targeted and attractive ways.

Destination attraction clustering: segmenting tourist movement patterns with geotagged information

This study used geotagged Instagram information to analyze tourist movements in Hong Kong. Data were collected over a four-year period from over 600,000 posts at 202 attractions. Destination-wide analyses of cluster attractions can illustrate relationships between attractions and facilitate comprehensive multi-destination planning. Using geotagged information for tourist movement patterns between attractions, we connected attractions based on tourists’ common motivations and described the corresponding clustering effects by sorting the attractions into four clusters. A new framework was used to reveal the characteristics of these intra-cluster attractions through three dimensions: theme, visit volume, and importance level by attractiveness propagation rank.

Human mobility models reveal the underlying mechanism of seasonal movements across China

Understanding the spatial interactions of human mobility is crucial for urban planning, traffic engineering, as well as for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Although many models have been developed to model human mobility, it is not clear whether such models could also capture the traveling mechanisms across different time periods (e.g. workdays, weekends or holidays). With one-year long nationwide location-based service (LBS) data in China, we investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of population movements during different time periods, and make thorough comparisons for the applicability of five state-of-the-art human mobility models. We find that population flows show significant periodicity and strong inequality across temporal and spatial distribution. A strong “backflow” effect is found for cross-city movements before and after holidays. Parameter fitting of gravity models reveals that travels in different type of days consider the attractiveness of destinations and cost of distance differently. Surprisingly, the comparison indicates that the parameter-free opportunity priority selection (OPS) model outperforms other models and is the best to characterize human mobility in China across all six different types of days. However, there is still an urgent need for development of more dedicated models for human mobility on weekends and different types of holidays.

Assessing the tourism sustainability of EU regions at the NUTS-2 level with a composite and regionalised indicator

In the tourism sector, sustainability has become a principal goal in destination management to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of destinations. However, when it comes to sustainability, there is no absolute scale to conduct spatial analysis. In this article, we propose regions as a unit of analysis for sustainability assessments. Our empirical approach aims to assign regional variability to national indicators, which would make it possible to achieve a good compromise between data availability and comparability and the value of scaling down to consider local details. This approach would enable combining rich information sets based on existing indicators with the wide availability of quantitative regional indicators freely obtainable from official statistics sources, such as Eurostat. Using the Tourism & Travel Competitiveness Index framework as a starting point, we develop regional sustainability indicators for the 281 NUTS-2 European regions. Therefore, this article contributes to the regionalisation of national indicators, which enables monitoring not only the individual level of destination sustainability but also its standing among all other European regions. Moreover, we develop a practical tool for continuously monitoring and benchmarking EU regions’ sustainable development, which can assist stakeholders in their decision-making processes.

Destination attractiveness and place attachment: a multi-group analysis of visitors from the Greater China Region

ABSTRACT The study examines the attitudes of 854 respondents arriving in Macau from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The study examines (1) to what extent are there differences in perceived destination attractiveness, destination value and satisfaction between these three groups, (2) is there evidence of intra-ethnic differences and similarities? A multi-dimensional model is analysed using partial least square analysis accompanied by multi-group analysis. The findings demonstrate that intra-cultural variation can exist within a similar Chinese ethnic background, based in part on differing attitudes toward symbolic values. In short, the Chinese ethnic groups evidence intra-group differences, but it is suggested that these differences are explained by factors other than culture. This study contributes to research on intra-ethnicity/cultural variation. The conceptual and managerial implications are examined.

Halal destination attributes and revisits intention: the role of destination attractiveness and perceived value

PurposeThe growing numbers of Muslims visiting halal destinations motivated this study to explore halal destination attributes and revisit intention. This study aims to investigate how halal destination attributes affect destination attractiveness. Hence, it identifies the influence of halal destination attributes on perceived value, including functional and emotional value. It also verifies the effect of destination attractiveness on both functional value and emotional value. Finally, this framework verifies the effect of functional value and emotional value on revisit intention.Design/methodology/approachThis study collects data from visitors who have visited a halal destination located in three cities of Central Java Province in the past two years (2019–2020) using purposive sampling methods. A total of 314 respondents participated in this study and the data are analyzed by using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe result showed that halal destination attributes positively and significantly impact destination attractiveness. Moreover, halal destination attributes positively and significantly affect both functional and emotional value. Destination attractiveness positively and significantly affects functional value, as well as emotional value. Concerning the effect of functional value and emotional value on revisit intention, only emotional value positively and significantly affects revisit intention while functional value does not.Originality/valueThis study contributes to city tourism by elucidating halal destination attributes based on the means-ends theory. The results of this study reported the importance of halal destination attributes and the role of halal destination attractiveness and emotional value in enhancing Muslim travelers’ revisit intention to halal destination.