Casino Tourism Research Articles

Rebooting Tourism in Vietnam: The Ho Tram Strip

Abstract: Over many years, the Government of Vietnam made various statements on the importance of sustainability and tourism sector growth. Corporate tourism developers quickly followed suit with similar rhetoric, as did some sociological scholarship—at times promoting tourism uncritically and sometimes critiquing it unapologetically. This article is based on ethnographic observations of casino tourism development along the Hồ Tràm strip on the South-eastern Vietnamese coastline, both before and during COVID-19, as well as close commentary monitoring government statements, corporate press, and promotional sociological studies within tourism management. The article addresses target markets for casino tourism, planning, infrastructure, issues for workers in associated sectors, and environmental ecosystems with longer, toxic histories. What 'sustainability' means after COVID-19 might be questioned in the 'rebooting' of the tourism economy.

Rural Tourism Under Apartheid South Africa: The Case of Transkei

Rural tourism scholarship has greatly expanded over the past two decades. One aspect of rural tourism that is undeveloped in literature is the historical evolution of rural tourism destinations. This paper uses an historical approach and archival documentary sources to examine the evolution of rural tourism under apartheid in one of the former Bantustans of South Africa, namely Transkei. It is shown tourism became a sector of policy interest because of disappointments associated with national government programmes for industrial decentralization. Early tourism promotion centred on leisure tourism around the natural beauty and attractions of Transkei’s coastal areas. With the grant of ‘independence’, however, a new institutional environment emerged which resulted in the Transkei becoming a focus for casino tourism at a time when casino gambling was prohibited in South Africa. The growth of casino tourism was, however, linked to corruption which occurred between South African tourism capital and the leadership of this Bantustan.

Does diversification drive tourism demand? A structural change perspective: Evidence from a casino tourism destination

AbstractStructural change in the tourism industry is a potential driving force for tourism demand. Using sectoral‐level data of capital formation, employment, and value‐added as diversification measures, a positive relationship is found to exist between sectoral diversification and tourism demand in Macao. Heterogeneous effects on market origins of varying saturation levels show that sectoral diversification is a potential strategy for attracting visitors from more distant and less saturated origin markets. In order to build up a long‐lasting resilience to external shocks, development policy should focus on cultivating market incentives for private sector stakeholders to participate in the diversification process.

TOURISM EVOLUTION IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA: FROM NATIVE RESERVE TO APARTHEID BANTUSTANS c 1920-1994

Historical research is valuable for understanding the evolutionary pathways of tourism destinations. The aim is to contribute to the historical tourism scholarship of rural destinations in the Global South. The focus is the development pathways of rural tourism in specific areas of South Africa, namely the rural (former) Homelands or Bantustans that were created by apartheid planning. The study uses an archival approach with material sourced from a range of historical documentary sources. The historical specificities of these rural spaces catalysed the appearance of particular forms of rural tourism. The analysis unfolds through three sections of material. First, the earliest period for the development of tourism in the ‘Native Reserves’ is chronicled. The second section reviews the apartheid project for the making of the Bantustans. Third, the tourism developments occurring in these rural spaces are examined for the apartheid period from 1948 to the early 1990s focussing especially on the phenomenon of casino tourism.

Modelling economic structure: the perspective of tourist cities

This study uses a theoretical method and also mathematical programming (MP) models to assess the polarisation of Macao’s tourism industry in terms of economic realism, with Las Vegas as a reference. The industrial polarization of Macao’s gaming industry has led to a serious imbalance in the development of the city’s industrial structure. The author posits that market structures in the two locations vary in significant ways. Due to diverse market circumstances, including tourist amenities and consumer preferences, push forces are prominent in Macao, whereas pull forces are essential in Las Vegas. As such, Macao cannot and should not endeavour to reach the same level of diversification as Las Vegas due to the possible adverse consequences of being economically non-viable because of differences in market circumstances. These theoretical implications have been validated in reality in recent years. Indeed, the emergence of up-to-date resort assets have reinforced, rather than alleviated, the specialisation of Macao’s hospitality sector. The results suggest that casino tourism in Macao will continue to expand in a polarised fashion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Macao’s diversification, although politically mandated, is economically realistic. With the implementation of policies such as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and the Guangdong–Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, it is hoped that the study’s policy relevance will become increasingly apparent in the coming years.

Specialization or diversification: A theoretical analysis for tourist cities

This paper uses a theoretical approach to investigate the polarization of economic structure in Macao as a reflection of its increased specialization in casino tourism. Las Vegas is used as a benchmark city, with its tourism diversification ending up with less gaming and more non-gaming activity. We show that push factors are crucial for Macao but pull factors are important to Las Vegas due to different market conditions, such as tourism amenities and customer preferences. We also find that it is infeasible and inadvisable for Macao to pursue Vegas-style diversity. Our prediction points to the sustainable polarized growth of casino tourism in Macao. These theoretical results are confirmed in Macao as the construction of new resort properties and the upgrading of current casino assets have accentuated rather than mitigated the structural polarization of its hospitality industry. However, over-tourism along with social costs of casino gambling requires Macao to revise its urban planning substantially to quicken land reclamation, deepen regional cooperation, and strengthen horizontal diversification.

Understanding Tourist Citizenship Behavioral Intentions: The Role of Social Interactions and Brand Perceptions

ABSTRACT This study integrates tourists’ social interaction quality and experience with a casino brand to examine changes of tourist citizenship behavioral intentions between pre- and post-casino trips. A two-stage sampling method was deployed with data driven in the casino industry: a random sampling approach to select casino properties followed by a quota sampling approach to respondent selection. It advances the casino tourism literature by delineating that brand experience and attachment partially mediate the relationships leading from a triadic social interaction process to changes in casino tourists’ citizenship behavioral intentions. Moreover, branded casinos relish a greater change in such intentions, as casino tourists may feel the urge to reciprocate the tourist resources geared toward them and associate themselves with these brands.

The Effect of Casino Tourism and Reentry to the Casino Gaming Industry - The Case of Turkey

The Effect of Casino Tourism and Reentry to the Casino Gaming Industry - The Case of Turkey

Casino tourism development is blessing or curse? Assessment of casino tourism impacts and suggestions for sustainable casino tourism development

ABSTRACT This study aims to assess the level of casino tourism development as perceived by residents of the Grand Ho Tram Strip in Vietnam. This study is timely and crucial because the local government needs to make a decision regarding the extension of the casino tourism development based on local residents’ opinions about responsible or sustainable development, taking local residents’ wellbeing and their futures into consideration. Positive economic impacts did not entail satisfaction in the casino tourism community. Other structural paths were all significant in explaining resultant variables and signs regarding their relationships were the same as hypothesized. The results of this study stress the need to monitor community residents’ reactions to casino tourism development.

Casino tourism destinations: health risk for travellers with gambling disorder and related medical conditions.

Casino tourism destinations have expanded worldwide in the last two decades, and they attracted recreational, social, and professional gamblers, as well as travelers with addictive gambling disorder and other medical conditions. Greater health and social attention should be payed to these vulnerable travelers before, during, and after travel.

The Study on the Effect of Casino Tourism Policy : Focused on the Casino Tourists Service in Macau Area

Purpose - This study is regarding customer service environment in casino marketing under a study on the factors affecting casino tourist satisfaction based on casino tourists' various needs. Research design and methodology - The study of casino tourism policy factors is proceeded by interviewing tourists of Macao casino. A total of 220 copies were distributed and 193 copies were collected, but 13 copies were not conceded due to insincere responses, and a total of 180 cases were analyzed for this study. Based on the analysis results, the casino tourism policy factors were derived through satisfaction level of casino tourist service as follows. Results - Firstly, the casino tourist satisfaction is a positive influence on casino visits, so efforts should be made to enhance tourist satisfaction when establishing cultural experience programs and casino marketing strategies. Casino culture for tourist should be matured to develop casino tour. In order to increase the satisfaction level of revisiting casino resorts, various cultural products such as clean environment should be developed to enhance the satisfaction level of casino visitors in the future. Secondly, a positive impact of cultural, experiential visits and psychological motivations affect to tourists' psychological stability through cultural experiences as well as casino games. Thirdly, casino tourist satisfaction has been shown to provide a positive impact on behavior intention. Conclusions - Based on the results of this research, the marketing of casino tour is to identify tourists' needs and increase satisfaction.

The inequality-housing price nexus in tourist resorts: theory and evidence

ABSTRACTFast expansion in casino gaming is widely perceived as an underlying reason for housing bubbles in tourist resorts such as Macao. Yet it remains unclear whether such bubbles have any bearing on income inequality that comes with tourism expansion. This paper provides a formal explanation for the inequality-housing price nexus by using a vector autoregressive model with exogenous variables (VARX) and an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). We find that casino tourism expansion plays a fundamental role for both income inequality heightening and housing price hiking, with rising inequality also contributing significantly to housing bubbles. Our empirical findings accord well with theoretical predictions made in this paper. Useful policy implications can then be derived from those findings.

Casinos in Goa: The Challenge Ahead is to Implement Sustainable Strategies to Minimize Their Ill-Effects

The government of Goa has been promoting casino tourism in Goa arguing that promoting casinos is necessary to bolster the economic growth of Goa especially in the aftermath of the mining ban that deprived Goa and its government of the substantial revenue generated through mining. The casino promotion, however, has met with strong protests in Goa from the time the government decided to encourage casinos to expand the growth of tourism in Goa. Casinos have taken strong roots in Goa and clearing the ever-growing forest of casinos is becoming more and more difficult as years roll by. The offshore casinos have almost fused with the landscape of Panjim making it almost next to impossible to visualize Panjim and the river Mandovi sans the casinos. At this juncture, accepting, despite all opposition, that the reality of Panjim ‘casinoscape’ will linger on into the future, the challenges ahead lie in implementing sustainable strategies to maximize the gains from casinos and counteract the prospective ill-effects from casino type tourism instead of imagining a return back to the Panjim of the 1990s and earlier.

Casino Business in the Context of Tourism Development (Case: Montenegro)

Special Interest tourism (SIT) represents an answer to mass tourism and its goal is to ensure tourist destination sustainability. The casino industry is growing intensively in the territory of Montenegro and a question arises whether casino tourism development is an opportunity or a danger for Montenegro and its sustainability. The goals of this paper are to show and assess the current offerings and potential for development of casino tourism in Montenegro, to point out advantages and challenges in development of casino tourism in this type of destination. Econometric models were used for the needs of this paper (time series correlations and regression for defining relation between casino business and tourism, ARIMA model for prognosis of casino business in the context of tourism until 2020). For the first time in the territory of Montenegro, 14 anonymous interviews were carried out with casino players to determine the quality of current offerings for development of casino tourism in Montenegro. The main finding suggests that casino tourism in Montenegro is not sufficiently developed, but that we can boast of a high-quality casino offering such as Slovenia. Limitations lie in the lack of data over a long period and the non-existence of the records on number of casino tourists in Montenegro. The emphasis is put on the economic effects of developing casino tourism, rather than the social ones.

From gambling exposure to adaptation: Implications for casino sustainability

This paper draws upon the adaptation theory and discusses the impact of adaptation effect on casino business growth and sustainability. The study deploys secondary data and provides evidence for likely existence of the adaptation effect. This effect is derived from analyzing visitors’ profiles over 20 years from various sources. On the basis of this analysis, the study proposes various strategies including promoting casino tourism instead of gambling focus to sustain casino business. The current study lays foundation for sustainability research on the casino industry. Findings of this study have implications for researchers and practitioners in the gambling, tourism and hospitality fields.

The impacts of casino tourism development on Macao residents’ livelihood

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine the livelihood impacts, any inequalities and poverty consequences in the special administration region of Macao, following the liberalization of the gaming industry and the subsequent development of casino resorts.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive research design was used, which adopted the case study method to conduct this research study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify and gain better understanding of the impacts influencing residents’ livelihoods. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings identified and examined the major livelihood impacts affecting local residents, and the recommendations of local residents in addressing these impacts were provided.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted as a descriptive cross-sectional study. To fully understand holistically the recent casino development and monitor the likelihood outcomes, a longitudinal study could be undertaken. The unit of analysis for this study was individual residents. Not all stakeholders representing different groups and organizations in the community were included, such as local authorities and community groups.Originality/valueThe result of this paper can provide policy-makers, planners and non-government organizations with a better view of the consequences of casino tourism development. The study will extend our knowledge of casino tourism development and enhance decision-making regarding tourism development that can deliver “real” rather than perceived benefits for all in the community.

Casino tourism, economic inequality, and housing bubbles

Potential linkages among tourism, inequality, and housing are addressed for an integrated analysis in this paper, with Macao treated as a typical case. Casino tourism, albeit performing as a major key to local economic growth, is ultimately vulnerable to external shocks to gambling demand, as evidenced by the current sharp downturn in Macao. We find that faster gaming growth leads to higher income inequality while at the same time both factors are responsible for soaring housing bubbles, which constitute the very source of social tensions as in Macao. Casino tourism if not well managed may not be a panacea for all development goals. The implication for policy derived from this study is that Macao must deal with underlying issues rather than apply palliative measures. Its market failures may necessitate government interventions to ensure social equity and sustainable tourism.

The Socioeconomic Impacts of Casino Tourism in Slovenia’s Obalno-Kraška Region

Abstract Casino gambling in the Obalno-kraška region has had a long tradition, its origins dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Ever since its rebirth during Yugoslav times in the 1960s, casino tourism has contributed significantly to the development of the area. Until recently, casino tourism has been one of the most important forms of tourism in addition to 3S and congress tourism. The purpose of this paper is to determine the contribution of casino tourism to the regional development of the Slovene Istria. To this end, selected socioeconomic indicators were examined and compared with the average indicator rates of regional development at the national level. The results show that casino tourism is an important factor of regional development. However, casino tourism’s future role in regional development remains an open question due to the impacts of the financial crisis and the consequent decline in the number of guests, as well as reduced levels of investment in the region.

The Economics of Taxation in Casino Tourism with Cross‐border Market Power

AbstractThis paper provides a theoretical proof that casino taxation may have great potential as a contributor to tourism efficiency under sufficient market power. We also examine empirical evidence for the economic efficiency of casino tourism in Macao even with a “high” tax owing to geographic market power. Both theory and evidence point to such power as a key factor that affects the ability of a tourism resort to pass along local taxes to gambling visitors. This ability makes all the difference between the good or bad effect of casino taxes on tourism development. The policy implication is that a gaming tax should be lowered to support casino businesses if it is inefficient, but can be raised to extract public revenues if it is efficient.

To be or not to be? Addressing the ethical void in Macao’s tourism and casino development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of ethics and codes of responsible behaviour in Macao’s casino tourism industry given its global leadership position in gaming, with suggestions on a way forward toward ethical tourism integration. Design/methodology/approach – The research examined the corporate mission statements of Macao’s casino concessionaires with regards to social message content as well as social outcomes to date within Macao’s various tourism stakeholders. Relevant literature on cross-sector social partnership was examined as a possible consideration for Macao’s tourism industry. Findings – Despite generating the world’s largest gaming revenues and tourism revenue contribution to gross domestic product, there are limited codes of ethics and an agreed level of acceptable behaviour and responsibility throughout Macao’s tourism and hospitality industry. This is further amplified by Macao’s small landmass, limited workforce pool, increasing tourism arrivals and a vast dependency on imports, creating a constant battle for resources and added pressure on its community and natural environment. Social implications – There are possible conflicts between Western casino compliance issues within those of Chinese business cultural practices. It is suggested that greater appreciation of this cultural and community setting is required to realistically adopt ethical codes. Originality/value – There has been limited discussion within Macao’s tourism industry on establishing a definition and scope for a code of ethics. Given the numbers participating and financial liquidity in Macao’s tourism system, the paper highlights the need for codes of ethics adoption, suggesting a cross-sector social partnership mechanism.