Coach Tours Research Articles

Mundane ideologies of (in)hospitality: A guided coach tour

This article explores impressions of welcome and non-welcome in relation to a guided day tour in mainland China. The study is contextualized with regard to hospitality as ethics and tourism as a stage where the struggle for hegemonic ideology occurs. It focuses upon the author’s cognitive and emotional reception of the guides’ narratives and explores the mundane ideologies of (in)hospitality present drawing upon analysis of autoethnographic notes captured through sociological impressionism. Elements of the narrative sustaining the (in)hospitality discourse are identified. The tour serves as an embodiment of national hospitality and the guide as an ideology refractor. Ideological hospitality is one of the conditioning elements embedded in the hospitality interaction. Consideration is given to how tours might be ‘rehumanized’ through a social justice and equity guiding philosophy and education. In so doing, the study contributes to discussion regarding the possibilities of a hospitable society.

Mobile landscapes and transport tourism: the visual experience of mobility during cruises and coach tours

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the visual aspects of transport tourists’ experience of mobility focusing on British cruise and coach tourists’ international travel experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative data was collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with coach and cruise tourists and analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe visual experience of mobility (demonstrated in the paper by the example of cruises and coach tours) is critical in the formation of transport tourism experiences. The mobile tourist landscapes emerge from the interplay of the subjective experiences of particular modes of mobility (vehicle or vessel) and routes, whereby the two key visual elements are the changing scenery and views of everyday local life as experienced whilst traveling.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study focuses particularly on the visual elements of passive transport tourism experiences. It does not account for other tourist activities nor does it study the experiences associated with active transport tourism. Future research could perform a holistic analysis of tourists’ experiences of transport in all its forms.Practical implicationsThe findings point to the centrality of the experience of mobility in transport tourism experience. The following two key aspects of the experience emerged: the importance of variation of the scenery that the tourist consumes during their tour and a desire to observe mundane, everyday life elements of the destination, which should be taken into account by the tour operators and service providers in the route design and marketing.Originality/valueCoach and cruise tourism are rarely analyzed together; this study demonstrates considerable parallels between the two in considering them as transport tourism, a mode of recreational activity where mobility is the central part of the tourist experience and should, therefore, be considered a tourist attraction in and of itself.

ITiCSE 2016 report

Many details from this year's unique ITiCSE stand out including the Santa Catalina Monastery, the main colonial monument of the city built in the 16th century. It was the venue for the mid-winter outdoor conference dinner and the coach tour of the surrounding countryside, to name some of these details. The most important, though, was our research work: ITiCSE is truly an international conference, with submissions and presentations from a wide variety of countries: the first authors of the 54 papers were from over 22 different countries on six continents. ITiCSE also has a long tradition with its working groups and there were seven again this year.

Coach Tour

Coach Tour

Tour Guides as Storytellers – From Selling to Sharing

Due to changing tourist desires, the rise of the experience economy and technological innovations, the demand for stories has dramatically increased over the last few years. Consequently, an impressive demand for stories has generally emerged in tourism, and particularly in tour guiding. Based on a qualitative exploratory study, this paper identifies four major types of storytelling as an important feature, of which two types can be derived from and subdivided into three subgroups of organizations: official guides, alternative guides, entrepreneurial guides (commercial, event and coach tours), and relational guides (private, independent and residential guides). All types have different target groups, are organized differently and bring different kinds of stories, each using different experiential techniques. There is a clear development towards more topical and less historical stories, the use of experiential techniques, and a focus on niche tourists. However, young tour-guide organizations struggle to get on the radar of the established tourism industry because of their own anti-authoritarian position and the distrust of official guides.

Norovirus outbreak in a cruise ship sailing around the British Isles: Investigation and multi-agency management of an international outbreak

Managing an outbreak of gastroenteritis (GI) on board a cruise ship while minimising disruption to passengers' on board and shore visit activities is difficult. For this reason it is important to understand the complex patterns of transmission in a closed community. We describe the epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of norovirus during an international cruise. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using information from lists routinely maintained by the travel company, including the passenger manifest, and organised coach tour lists. Information on air-conditioning (AC) systems was used to assess the possible sources of exposures. Of the 1194 passengers 191 (16%) and 5 crew (<1%) became ill with GI symptoms. The attack rate was higher amongst passengers whose cabin was on the main deck (RR 3.41, 95% CI 1.47-7.94) that houses both passengers' cabins and leisure facilities including shops. Passengers who went on one of the organised coach tours where there were symptomatic passengers were at an increased risk of infection (RR 2.14, CI 1.51-3.03). Analysis of the 56 AC sections on the ship and did not detect an association with infection. Patterns of transmission of norovirus on a cruise ship are complex. Our study suggests infections are more likely among those passengers staying in areas of the ship that are highly transited or used for communal activities and more difficult to clean. Emphasis on the importance of early reporting of symptoms can help minimise transmission. Internationally agreed guidelines on the management of outbreaks on cruise ships are needed.

Gender buying behaviour: German tourists – informal craft markets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the gender buying patterns of German tourists travelling on coach tours while visiting South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on quantitative research methodologies and descriptive statistics were used to determine the gender buying behaviours of the German tourists in organised coach tours.FindingsIn this paper, the research questions are answered and provide the necessary insight into the buying behaviour of the tourists.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed to determine the different types of foreign tourists buying needs. The implication will be that not only German tourists must be researched but also other foreign tourists visiting South Africa.Practical implicationsThe informal craft market owner will know the tourists' preferences and by producing the crafts that are unique, the informal craft owner will be able to sustain not only themselves but also impact positively on the immediate communities as more jobs can be created.Originality/valueThis research is timely and much needed as it is the start of the building blocks for further research in informal craft markets and will help with the development of informal craft markets. By determining the buying needs of tourists that visit South Africa in organised coach tours, the craft owners will be able to produce the correct crafts that are sought by foreign tourists.

Rhythmanalysing the coach tour: the Ring of Kerry, Ireland

This paper utilises and extends Henri Lefebvre's ideas about rhythmanalysis to explore the rhythmic qualities of taking a coach tour. The paper investigates the Ring of Kerry tour in the West of Ireland and reveals both the reproduction and disturbance, through itinerary and narratives of the coach drivers, of anticipated discourses and visual indexes of commodified Irishness. Central to the paper is the ordering of different rhythmic assemblages, which connect and disconnect in multiple ways. It is argued that the rhythmic multiplicity of coach tours involve entanglements of embodiment, affective registers, technologies and materialities. The paper reveals how the myriad tempos and rhythms of the tour take on different consistencies and intensities at different stages of the journey, and investigates the capacities of these rhythms to affect and be affected by the pulse of the spaces moved through and stopped at. In so doing, a supplemented rhythmanalysis is suggested as a productive approach for apprehending tourist spaces, practices and landscapes.

Encounters in the Fields – Tourism to the Battlefields of the Western Front

The First World War is now slipping beyond the realm of lived experience, yet it continues to wield a profound fascination over the British modern imagination. The Western Front in France and Belgium, which was the decisive theatre of operations for the Allied troops, has fashioned its own mythology and imagery and has secured a firm place in modern memory. Although the unremarkable topography of the region now visually betrays little of the momentous nature of the battles fought across its expanses, thousands of British visitors travel to the area throughout the year. This paper explores the ways in which tourists embarking on commercial coach tours engage with the battlefield landscape by examining contemporary tourist performance. It also considers the role of the tour guide in setting and directing the tourist encounter.

The Coach Fellas: The Invisible, Paradoxical Leadership of the Coach Tour “Big Man” in Irish Tourism

Coach tours are ubiquitous in Ireland. On any given day in the cities of Killarney, Galway or Dublin, on the Ring of Kerry or the Cliffs of Moher, literally hundreds of tourist-filled coaches can be seen. Often scoffed at by visitors who consider themselves to be something other than uncultured and vulgar, coach tourists come to Ireland to see the place of their dreams. They come for the same reasons "less vulgar" visitors do. Many are descendants of the diasporic Irish forced to leave the island in search of a better life during times of famine or economic desperation. Having grown up hearing tales of "home" from their families, these tourists are visiting a land that for them exists in the dream-time of collective memories. For them, tales from parents and grandparents evoke a blissful otherworld of bucolic harmony (only disrupted by those annoying English and that Potato Famine). Likewise, tantalizing advertisements suggest an Ireland that "calls you back" and where "our mothers" wait for their children's return at the cottage door.

Performing a Young People's Package Tour of New Zealand: Negotiating Appropriate Performances of Place

This paper focuses on the negotiation between tour producers and tourist consumers concerning appropriate tourist performances in the context of packaged coach tours of New Zealand. The myth of New Zealand as a clean and green ‘natural utopia’ is not only used to seduce international tourists but is also the key narrative upon which the production of coach tours is based. This paper questions the extent to which such key myths are constructed and consumed by tourists themselves. The paper addresses this question by drawing on observation and interviews conducted with tourists on a packaged sightseeing tour for the 18–35 age group to look at tourists' nuanced ways of performing and giving meaning to their on-tour experiences. The discussion shows that, even in the packaged tour context, touring experiences and toured places are mutually constituted in ongoing negotiation between normalizing processes and elements of performative resistance. By focusing on the negotiations of appropriate tourist performances in this way, the paper furthers understanding of the relationship between tourism production processes and tourist consumption practices.

Recalling the Ghosts of War: Performing Tourism on the Battlefields of the Western Front1

The Great War battlefield landscape of the Western Front still exerts an enormous potency for tourists even though much of its geography requires significant decoding to understand its now hidden stories and dramas. Thousands of British visitors travel to the area throughout the year, drawn to empathize with its symbolic commemorative spaces. This essay explores the ways in which tourists embarking on commercial coach tours engage with the battlefield landscape by examining contemporary tourist performance, as well as the role of the tour guide in setting and directing their imaginative and emotional encounter with the area.

Narratives of place and self

This article addresses narratives of place and self as they are constructed in the context of package tours. Based on participant observation and interview research conducted on two eight-day coach tours aimed at different age groups, the discussion explores the self-performances of tourists while participating in sightseeing tours in New Zealand. The research showed that the narratives that tour participants either brought with them or generated in interaction while on tour were based on a complex set of meanings regarding place and self. For the older tour group, visiting New Zealand brought some closure to aspects of their lives that had been unresolved, but their experiences also served to heighten their sense of nearing mortality. For the other group, visiting New Zealand on this particular group tour aimed at young people was an opening to new aspects of their identity. This research thus challenges previous conceptualizations of package coach tourism which have not allowed for the multiple ways in which touring experiences serve to write not only touring selves but also toured places.

Towards Sustainable Tourism Transport: An Analysis of Coach Tourism in New Zealand

ABSTRACT This paper originates from a concern about the potential obstacles for sustainable development associated with spatial and temporal dimensions of coach tourism in New Zealand. For this reason, the travel patterns of coach tours in New Zealand were analysed in terms of their geographical and seasonal dispersion, transport usage and energy consumption, and tourists' travel costs which, in combination with the spatial analysis, allowed some indication of regional economic benefits. To account for potential differences between different cultures of origin, coach tourists were segmented into Australian, European, North American and Asian tourists. While coach tourism by nature focuses on tourist icons, it appeared that Asian and North American tours were concentrated particularly in primary hubs and were characterized by a higher mobility, resulting in considerable energy demand compared with Australian and European tours. The latter performed better on the indicators of regional dispersion – which is seen as beneficial for regional development – and transport behaviour, but spent less per trip and, in the case of European coach tours, showed more seasonal travel patterns. This research demonstrates that it is useful to segment coach tours by different cultures of origin when assessing indicators for tourist transport sustainability.

The American Group Tourist as Viewed by British, Israeli, Korean, and Dutch Tour Guides

A sample of 286 tour guides of British, Israeli, Korean, and Dutch nationalities rated 20 behavioral characteristics of American tourists on escorted motor coach tours. The objective of the study was to identify the similarities and differences of perceptions between the four nationalities of the tour guides. The results indicated that for the majority of the behavioral characteristics measured (11/20), there was a similarity of opinions, or a common mental model, among the nationalities of tour guides regarding the behavioral characteristics of American tourists on escorted motor coach tours. In 2 characteristics there was a uniformity of opinions among all four nationalities, and in 9 characteristics, three of the four nationalities had similar opinions.

Twenty-third Symposium of the International Committee for the History of Technology, Budapest, Hungary, August 7–11, 1996

Conference Report TWENTY-THIRD SYMPOSIUM OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, AUGUST 7-11, 1996 SUSAN SCHMIDT HORNING The Hungarian capital of Budapest was the site of ICOHTEC ’96, the Twenty-third Symposium ofthe International Committee for the History of Technology, held August 7-11, 1996. Celebrating the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the conquest ofits present territory by Magyar tribes, Hungary provided a vivid cultural setting for the symposium. Gyorgy Schmidt of the Hungarian Mining and Metallur­ gical Society (OMBKE) and Eva Vamos of the Hungarian Museum for Science and Technology organized the conference, which was held under the auspices of the former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Domokos Kosary. From an initial focus on two topics, the history ofmining and metallurgy and the development of forms of communication, the symposium quickly grew to encompass seventeen thematic programs that featured over one hundred ninety papers addressing an eclectic range oftopics. With nearly three hun­ dred scholars and guests representing twenty-eight countries from North America, Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and the former Soviet Union, this was by far the largest ICOHTEC symposium to date. Par­ ticipation and attendance tripled that of the last conference, held two years ago in Bath, England, attesting to the healthy growth of ICOHTEC. The first day of the conference, guests were treated to a coach tour of Budapest, taking in such sights as Heroes’ Square and a breathtaking view of the city from the Citadel. In the late afternoon, coaches took participants to the Museum of Ethnography for the opening ceremonies, which included a splendid demonstration of Hungarian folk music played on traditional musical instruments, Ms. Horning is a Ph.D. candidate at Case Western Reserve University. Her disserta­ tion focuses on the intersection of technological innovation and musical style in the post-World War II recording studio.© 1997 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/97/3802-0010$01.00 488 ICOHTEC Symposium, Budapest, 1996 489 with the museum’s main hall providing an ideal acoustical setting. ICOHTEC President Angus Buchanan and Vice President Carroll Pursell, SHOT President Robert Post, and the president of the Hun­ garian Committee of the International Union of History and Philos­ ophy of Science, Ferenc Szabadvâry, spoke at a commemorative ses­ sion honoring Melvin Kranzberg, a founder of both SHOT and ICOHTEC. We were privileged to have the Kranzberg family in at­ tendance, and some wondered if Mel was with us in spirit as a sign crashed to the floor during Carroll Pursell’s tribute. After the cere­ monies, participants enjoyed a lavish buffet of traditional Hungarian cuisine in the ornate second floor gallery. Sessions ran concurrently on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the conference rooms ofthe Hotel Platânus. Eleven one-day sessions addressed topics including patent history, Hungarian émigré scien­ tists and the technologies ofwar and peace, early modern machines and machine drawings, district heating, changing perspectives in his­ tory and technology, research and development, maser and laser technology, past and present informatics, the social reception of electrification, and the historiography of technology/technocracy. A session devoted to special topics included a stimulating discussion of technology and pornography byjonathan Coopersmith, andjulie Wosk examined the psychologically distancing effects of aerial pho­ tography and computer-generated ground target images in the per­ ception and conduct of war. Six two-day sessions brought an even broader range of interna­ tional perspectives to the session themes. Papers on the history of mining and metallurgy emphasized the emergence of large-scale in­ dustry throughout Central Europe up to World War II. Another ses­ sion addressed two related themes: the development of forms of communication and the impact of technology on infrastructure. In his comparative analysis of English and American railway signaling systems of the 19th and 20th centuries, Jeff Larrabee argued that cultural values as much as technical or socioeconomic consider­ ations dictated design parameters, resulting in an English system predicated on the mechanization of safety and an American system that stressed individuality and human agency. The music and technology session provided an unprecedented forum for discussing technology’s impact on popular culture and featured many papers by...

Characteristics of package tours in Europe

The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics and peculiarities of tour groups, together with certain aspects of their formation. On the one hand, the author considers such aspects as tourist motivation, reasons for choosing package tours, expectations of the tourists, and variables which influence the final degree of satisfaction. On the other hand, aspects of group dynamics such as interaction, setting, group size, and group cohesion have been considered. The information gathered directly from 574 tourists is coupled with personal observations of several coach tours. The findings underline the importance of the variables studied as influences on the group process, and of this process on the success of a trip.

The leek &amp; the thistle

A WIDE variety of attractive, colourful, and informative literature published by the Scottish Tourist Board and the Wales Tourist Board is available to prospective tourists and holiday‐makers. This year bigger and better than ever, Enjoy Scotland contains an outline travel map showing rail, ferry, and air facilities; features on places to stay and things to eat; double pages on suggested touring centres, public transport, the places to see and things to do; on events; and sources of information, in each of the nine tourist regions. Also featured are spring, autumn and winter holidays, festivals, details of companies offering coach tours from England and Wales, and special interest holidays.

Market Segmentation of New Zealand Package Tours

The package tourist has rarely been studied by the travel researcher. This paper examines package tourism in New Zealand and aims to provide more detailed information on the markets of three types of tours there: coach tours, camping tours, and fly-drive tours. Demographic and socioeconomic profiles as well as the process of tour selection are examined.

The Shallow end

AT EACH MAIN town in a tour of any part of the Soviet Union there is a free coach tour available. An Intourist guide describes the sights, explains the Soviet way of life and answers questions. Our guide on the sightseeing tour of Moscow was one Georgi—a pleasant and persuasive apologist for his country's regime.