Destination Strategy Research Articles

Measuring event experience and its behavioral consequences in the context of a sports mega-event

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the impact of event experience on event satisfaction and intentions to return and recommend the destination.Design/methodology/approachRelationships among constructs were tested on data gathered from 542 tourists during the America's Cup World Series held in South Italy in April 2013 by using a structural equation modeling approach. Moreover, a multigroup analysis was developed to test the possible moderator factors.FindingsThe results revealed that event experience and event satisfaction had positive impacts on the intentions to recommend and return to the host destination. Moreover, nationality, gender and trip motivation emerged as important moderating factors in the relationships among the latent constructs.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this paper enrich the existing literature and help tourism destination marketers and managers consider the triggering factors of a satisfying mega-sports event for the host destination and the marketing power of the on-site experience.Practical implicationsPractitioners should draw on the insights provided by this study to design destination strategies, particularly by paying attention to how an event experience causes an attendee to return to and recommend the host destination.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing event literature in several ways. First, it emphasizes the importance of the event experience to the satisfaction level and willingness to return and recommend the host destination for a vacation, supporting the link between an event and its destination. Second, it provides a moderating analysis that offers new insights for marketing the event experience. It offers a multilevel model of mega-event tourism legacy, which opens up new avenues of research. Third, complementing the consumer-based analysis, this research includes the trend of visits (after 2013 to the present) to examine how a mega-sport event has brought about more postevent visits.

An Intelligent Disaster Management System Approach to Evacuation Strategies

The importance of disaster management systems is undeniable and is unable to be underestimated because of the numerous manmade and natural disasters now days like theearthquake in Japan, the tsunami disaster in 2011 and the Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The Japan disaster estimated cost was more than 300 billion US dollar. The role of telecommunications and transport is an indispensable resource to manage disaster in averting the human life loss, economic cost and in controlling the disruption. Focusing on the emergency transporting systems, an emergency response system was proposed for disasters at various levels of scale. The system exploits the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) developments, in addition developing a new tool/model to assess the suggested intelligent disaster system within the transportation evacuation strategies performance. The Speed Strategy (SS) and Demand Strategy (DS) were evaluated separately and simultaneously, for traffic in urban networks. In this work the intelligent disaster system Intelligent which utilizes the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) were employed. In other words, varied substitute technologies which includes VANETs (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks) and mobile technologies are applied to suggest and examine an evacuation strategy called (Destination Strategy) while using the proposed Intelligent Disaster Management System. The effectiveness of the current developed system was observed by comparing the modelled consequences of a disaster on the transport environment with that of when the disaster management was implemented. Moreover, a balance and improvement in the traffic flow with effortless evacuation was observed as an outcome of the developed current work along with the implemented Designation Strategy.

The futile pursuit of sustainability? Exploring diversity as an approach to achieving resilient tourism destinations

This literature review conceptualises resilience within the context of complex adaptive systems and explores the applicability of resilience as a development strategy for tourism destinations. Evolutionary approaches to resilience focus on the process of development, which enables destinations and their residents to react, adapt and learn from inevitable change. Diversity emerges as the central element in creating resilient destinations as communities have more opportunities and resources at their disposal to increase adaptive capacities. For effective destination management, resilience must therefore be fostered at a community level and further research is required to develop implementable frameworks of resilience for tourism development.

Combating tourism crisis following terror attacks: image repair strategies for European destinations since 2014

ABSTRACT Researchers to date have presented strategies and theoretical models built mainly on the efforts of destinations in the developing world to recover from tourism crises following terror attacks. As terrorism has expanded to Europe after 2014, it is interesting to analyze the strategies used by European officials to repair their destinations’ images. To date, only several studies have been written about the subject, and those were primarily analyzes of specific case studies. Therefore, a multi-case study is needed. Using a qualitative content analysis of advertisements, websites, media reports, digital marketing and ‘the multi-step model for altering place image,’ the study examines strategies used to bring back tourists after 89 terror attacks by European destinations between the years 2014-2019. The analysis reveals a major use of message strategies (‘business as usual’, crisis mitigation, initiating events and new attractions, image expansion, and encouragement of film production). The study also reveals a minor use of source strategies (physical threats of news people or media blockage) and audience strategies as well (new audience expansion, emphasis of similar values).

Importance of Social Media in the Image Formation of Tourist Destinations from the Stakeholders’ Perspective

This research aimed to provide a more informed and systematic basis on which to develop the positioning strategy in social media due to the interactive capacity and influence that social media has in the success of tourist destinations. In particular, we investigated the role of stakeholders. We carried out an exploratory study using a mixed method which included interviews and an analysis of the activity conducted on the official social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) of the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Catalonia, and Valencia. The findings provide insight into how tourist destinations promote their image through the use of social media. Social media was found to be a strategic platform for enhancing brand image and achieving tourist engagement. Additionally, the role of stakeholders in supporting and facilitating the image destination strategy is worth highlighting. This study shows that the results achieved by social media can be improved by identifying all stakeholders and defining a content generation strategy by integrating and adding value.

Levada walks and canyoning as mountain sport products in nature tourism

Abstract Physical activities organised in nature have earned more commitment from tourists who intend to actively visit natural and authentic environments. This paper analyses the profile and the perceptions of active tourists who experienced canyoning and levada walking in the mountains of Madeira Island. The study uses a quantitative methodology analysis, based on an anonymous questionnaire designed for 160 levada walker tourists and 130 canyoning tourists. Differences were found between the two groups in terms of their profile and assessment of the two activities. The levada walking profile is the one of older, but more active tourists who stay on the island more than 6 days and intend to experience unique and memorable activities related to waterways, mountain trails and cultural landscapes in a sense of freedom and well-being that nature provides. The canyoning profile is the one of younger tourists, more male than female, who are less active, travelling by cruise, and is with an emphasis on the challenges and natural barriers afforded by the steep and unpredictable characteristics of canyons (hedonism). The findings recommend segmentation of the tourists and a strategy for tourism destinations that highlight culture, endemic forest, authentic landscapes and the hospitality of local people in active tourism services.

Sustainable and Religion Food Consumer Segmentation: Focusing on Korean Temple Food Restaurants

As demand for temple food has significantly grown, this study’s objective was to conduct a market segmentation analysis of temple food consumer motives in order to develop effective marketing strategies. The study identified six motives specific to Korean temple food consumption representing “health-oriented,” “ethical vegetarianism,” “meditative mindfulness,” “educational experience,” “taste,” and “environment protection.” Motives were then used to generate four distinct temple food groups named Highly Motivated, Vegetarian, Environment-Oriented and Minimally Motivated. This study provided useful information for the application of Korean temple food marketing strategies for destinations featuring this growing trend in culinary tourism.

Rural Tourism Destination Strategy through SWOT Analysis in Kg. Kolosunan, Penampang, Sabah

Kg. Kolosunan is located upstream from Babagon dam in Sabah and currently gazetted as Babagon water catchment area. Since then, human activities on land and river within the vicinity of the dam has since been restricted by local authorities. This has affected local communities’ livelihood that has traditionally depended on farming and river fishing to source for food. Chosen as a pilot project for Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) since 2015, this project aims to educate and gain support from the local communities to conserve the area. This paper explores the potential(s) of ecotourism in Kg. Kolosunan as an alternative livelihood for the local community which were affected by resource use restriction due to the gazettement of the water catchment area. Data collections were done through survey, in-depth interviews analyzed using SWOT analysis and finally from previous reports. Results showed that the existing ecotourism in Kg. Kolosunan has the potential to be developed as a sustainable ecotourism site. SWOT analysis also identified the requirement management strategies to improve tourism development in Kg. Kolosunan.

The impacts of location and attributes of protected natural areas on hotel prices: implications for sustainable tourism development

This study analyses the economic effects of the protected natural areas and discusses the implications for public and private sector organisations involved in nature-based tourism development. To do so, we apply the Hedonic pricing method to address the variations of hotel prices with regard to the impacts of location and other proposed site characteristics, i.e. attributes of National Park (NP) Plitvice Lakes. The research results reveal a linkage between unique environmental and site-specific attributes and hotel rates. Hotels located close to the territory of the NP charge premium prices, whereas increasing distance from the territory of NP reduces the positive impact. This distance decay effect builds on hotels’ expectations regarding the opportunities for taking advantage of the NP. We argue that protected areas (PAs) are constituents of the integrated tourism product, influencing the price of the complementing tourism services, visitors satisfaction, and destinations competitiveness. The study places value on non-traded resources, which is often a prerequisite for acknowledging their importance and for the inauguration of policies promoting sustainable use. Thus, the findings have potentially significant implications for the design of pricing systems for hotels and accommodation service providers, the development of governance and fiscal policies, and the creation of marketing strategies for tourism destinations.

Chinese firms’ export dynamics: experimental but promising

We study China’s trade dynamics at the firm, firm–product, firm–destination and firm–product–destination levels. Using a very rich panel data on firms’ export transaction from 2000 to 2006, we decompose China’s export growth at the intensive and extensive margins, emphasising the roles of firms, products and destinations. We group firms, firms’ products and firms’ destinations into three categories as new (successful or one-time), continuing (continued) and exiting (dropped). We capture China’s export annual growth from the perspectives of trade relationships being created, survived, or destructed. We find that exporters maintain very active strategies in their export product mix and destination portfolios. They routinely introduce new products and drop some old products in order to have a product mix for their destination markets, while also maintaining a core product strategy. A similar pattern is observed for firms’ destination strategy. Our results suggest that some of the newly introduced products and/or destinations become firms’ continued products and destinations, which are the driving forces for firms’ year-to-year success. China’s annual trade growth is primarily driven by the intensive margin, though new births always contributed a very large share to its annual export changes. In the 7-year period, it is the extensive margin that drives China’s export growth.

The Impact of the Geographical Diversification of Saudi Exports: An Intensive and Extensive Margin Approach

This paper investigates the impact of the diversification of Saudi exports on countries and sectors’ performance using the geographical extensive margin approach. This concept suggests that the diversification strategy is based on two aspects—a country exporting old products to new markets and new products to new markets. A multiplicative gravity model that includes traditional control variables, such as economic size and geographical distance between trade partners, was used to estimate the determinants of Saudi exports. This model was augmented by a concentration index as an additional barrier to trade. This estimation used the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) method in order to cover Saudi partners during the period 1999–2018. This technique deals with data such as the zero observed dependent variable, and it provides consistent and robust estimations. The study’s analysis found that the Old Product New Destination strategy led to an increase in export value as a result of the emergence of new market demand in China and India. On the other hand, the New Product New Destination strategy is limited and doesn’t contribute to the diversification of Saudi exports.

The cultural content analysis of the international tourism destination websites

Travel and tourism represents one of the most globalized sectors facing strong competitive pressure. Thus, cultural adaptation has become a vital strategy for tourism destinations that desire to succeed in the global tourism market. The paper focuses on the international tourism destination websites as a key marketing communication channel in the 21st century. Its aim is to analyze to what extent the websites of five European top destinations reflect the cultural values of the English-speaking Asia-Pacific countries. To meet this aim, cultural content analysis based on adaptation of Hofstede’s framework is conducted for the English versions of the official tourism websites of France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. The results are subsequently compared with Hofstede’s cultural scores for six English-speaking countries located in the UNWTO Asia-Pacific Region. The results reveal how intensively the tourism destination websites meet the predominant culture values of the Asia-Pacific region. In such a way, the results should help destination marketers to attract visitors from the promising Asia-Pacific market more effectively.

The roles of involvement, source credibility, and authenticity in the formation of online destination image

Social media platforms are now prevalent in tourism literature and have the potential to influence tourists’ decision-making by impacting the process of their destination image (DI) formation. The aim of the study was to investigate the DI formation process by simultaneously incorporating three pivotal constructs—involvement, source credibility, and authenticity—in the context of social media platforms, a context relatively unexplored in the literature. The study employed a mixed research design to verify the proposed model empirically. The interrelationships among different constructs were analysed with a sample of 210 tourists who had recently visited or intended to visit Saint Martin’s Island, Bangladesh. The data were tested using PLS-SEM method. Results indicate that: (1) authenticity and source credibility both have positive influence in the formation of DI, demonstrating it as an antecedent of the tourists’ intention to visit; (2) tourists’ perceived authenticity has a direct positive impact on the intention to visit; (3) tourists’ involvement might not be a significant factor in the formation of online DI. Practically, this study highlights the factors that affect tourists’ perception of and intention towards selecting a tourism destination in the context of social media platforms, which can serve as a basis for tailoring an effective online positioning strategy for destinations.

The bilocal migrant: Economic drivers of mobility across the rural-urban interface in Central Java, Indonesia

The trends of bilocality – in which an individual will spend part of the year in a rural area, and the other in an urban area – presents a unique and increasingly common manifestation of the circular migrant. In this paper, we explore the dynamics of bilocal migrants in Indonesia from a Central Java city and examine migrant points of origin in terms of their characteristics, mobility patterns, and remittance uses. Data were collected from 105 sample cases among those classified as migrants distributed across the study area. We apply the Flocktracker software for our study, which is a mobile-based application that combines online questionnaires and provides associated locational attributes. Most of the bilocal migrants continue to migrate as a strategy to address the lack of income in rural areas. Migrants not only circulate between two destinations from their rural origins to one city, but also increasingly gravitate to other cities as a multiple destination strategy depending on networks and employment availability. A key finding of this study is that overall, although migration to urban areas supports rural household incomes, it contributes in limited ways to the commonly anticipated rural development outcomes. This suggests that policy interventions are mistaking job creation and remittances as a proxy for rural development, whereas policy priorities should be looking beyond job creation to identify other ways to support development in rural areas. • Bilocal migrants migrate as a strategy to address the lack of income in rural areas. • The amount of remittance is following the income-earning by the migrants in the city. • Migrants invest more on-farm supporting activities instead other types of investment. • Income gain contributes in limited ways to rural development outcomes. • Bilocal migration is a distinct trend to live to some degree in both worlds.

Tourist food consumption and its arable land requirements in a popular tourist destination

Determining the resource intensity and environmental impacts of tourist food consumption is important for the design of sustainable development strategies for tourist destinations. Yet, studies aiming to accurately quantify the environmental repercussions of tourist food consumption for specific destinations are rare and take limited account of temporal changes in food consumption patterns among tourists. This study contributes to knowledge by calculating the impact of temporal changes in tourist food consumption on arable land requirements (ALR) in a popular tourist destination of Lhasa, Tibet. It finds that tourist food consumption per meal has increased by 8% within the period of 2013–15 which translates into over 50% increase in ALR. The study further pinpoints that 84% of the ALR increase is attributed to the animal-based food consumption of tourist. Lastly, the study shows that, in 2015, nearly 62% of the arable land area of the Lhasa region was required to meet the growing tourist demand for food.

Impact of Spatial Change on Tourism by Bridge Connections between Islands: A Case Study of Ganghwa County in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to (1) measure the change in street networks of islands that are connected by bridges using space syntax and verify the relationships among spatial centrality, traffic volume and tourism facilities (small accommodations) and (2) establish strategies for sustainable tourism management through identifying the impact of this island connection on tourism destinations. Ganghwa County (Ganghwa Island, Seokmo Island and Gyodong Island) in South Korea was chosen as the study area, and we applied the angular segment analysis (ASA) method by metric distance based on space syntax. The results of this study showed that the construction of sea-crossing bridges between islands affected street networks considering metric radii (on a local scale, a mid-scale and a global scale) and areas with high spatial centrality in the study area affected traffic volumes and increased the number of small accommodations following the construction of bridges. The core areas of the whole street network were analyzed, and alternative paths for tourist flow diffusion, tourism development, land use regulation and environmental education for responsible tourism were proposed as key strategies for sustainable tourism. The findings of this study will contribute to reducing the potential for social and ecological damage by providing practical management strategies for island tourism destinations connected by bridges.

Innovation and internationalization as development strategies for coastal tourism destinations: The role of organizational networks

Since the mid-twentieth century that several coastal areas in southern Europe began their tourism development, attracting unprecedented numbers of tourists, and culminating in the emergence of mass tourism. Henceforth, several negative impacts occurred, leading to the loss of attractiveness and competitiveness in the face of emerging tourism destinations. Therefore, there is a need for greater diversification of products and markets that underpin the tourism economy of seaside territories and enhance their competitiveness, which should be based on innovation. Recent territorial innovation models rely on networks, considering that the relationships established among organizations play an important role in the development of new products and services. This research aims at identifying the international dynamics that coastal tourism destinations should adopt within tourism innovation networks, that most contribute to regional-level innovation. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is applied to tourism stakeholders located in the coastal region of Aveiro, being possible to identify the structure and the processes underlying the international ties established towards the development of tourism innovation. The results bring important contributions to coastal tourism policymakers and governance, as it allows to (i) design innovation strategies based on international networks that increase competitiveness; (ii) acknowledge the most important type of organizations in coastal tourism innovation; and (iii) promote the geographical diversity of stakeholders in the network in order to capture new knowledge leading to innovation and to avoid the “lock-in effect”.

Destination Strategies to Enhance Secondary and Niche Tourism Products: Literature Review and Case Study

The topic of this article is enhancing destination competitiveness, with particular interest to entrepreneurial strategies able to valorise secondary and niche attractions. A literature review reveals that, by means of cooperation, local stakeholders could increase success of mass destinations, while promoting the discovery of niche attractions, with a positive impact on the whole territory. Also, the role of DMOs is important, facilitating cooperation among between private and public stakeholders and among private companies. Destination branding strategies could be set, to define the competitive advantages of a territory, leveraging on synergies among primary and secondary attractions. The specific case study of Liguria is proposed and analysed by means of a questionnaire, spread among potential tourists, so to investigate their perceptions about both the capacity of the territory to offer secondary tourism products and the existence and effectiveness of collaborative strategies among local stakeholders. This Italian region has a tourism concentrated during summertime (bathing season), but possesses other specific features, that could differentiate the offer and potentially attract tourists also in other periods. The questionnaire, in fact, reveals that many tourists also like to explore the inland, which should therefore be further promoted. It also emerges than about 9% of tourists didn’t take advantage of secondary tourism products, not being aware of them, while about 46% believe that secondary attractions could be interesting for tourism, but are not adequately exploited, due to the lack of both strategic cooperation among local businesses and direct promotion.

The emerging smart event experience: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Purpose The use of “special events” as an attractor for destinations in the smart tourism paradigm has been suggested as one element of an effective destination strategy. This study aims to create new understandings of this potentiality by exploring an event from a participant perspective in smart tourism contexts by creating a model integrating factors impacting the smart event experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted five online focus groups by using Facebook secret groups to engage spectators of an international sports event. Discussions focussed on the digital event experience with particular reference to the event app. A subsequent interpretative phenomenological analysis facilitated the examination of how people make sense of this digital phenomenon and the impact on the overall event experience. Findings The findings demonstrate an increasing demand for real-time event integrative information, with more immersive and augmented experiences often sought by users. This has significant implications for the management of the digital event experience for all event stakeholders. Research limitations/implications This study is limited in its analysis of the smart event experience because of the use of a purposive sample from the International NW200 Event in Northern Ireland, which may limit the generalisability of research findings. Originality/value The study therefore, meets a critical gap in existent literature by providing the first event experience model in a smart tourism context and presenting the interlocking elements through the 4P’s (people, processes, personalisation and places) and 7R’s (rituals, realms, realities, renewal, review, relational and resourcing) of digital event experience.

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА И РАЗВИТИЕ МЕТОДОВ МАРКЕТИНГОВОГО АНАЛИЗА И ПЛАНИРОВАНИЯ ТУРИСТИЧЕСКОГО БИЗНЕСА РЕГИОНА

This article presents a comparative analysis of the existing methods of marketing analysis, in terms of the possibility of using them for research of the tourism market, as well as determining their role in developing marketing strategies for tourism destinations and organizations in the region. The study was conducted using the general scientific methods of the unity of historical and logical, comparative and system analysis, dialectical method, analysis and synthesis, descriptive methods and a structural-functional approach to study the concept and apparatus of marketing. In this article, effective factors of regional development were evaluated by conducting a SWOT analysis in the tourism sector of the Belgorod Region, to help establishing a diagnosis of the internal potential of the tourist destination and its environment, to assess the current situation, the future direction of the tourism sector in the region, and to find out the prospects for marketing strategies in order to promote the tourism sector in the region with better strategic planning. The article proves that local and regional tourism development strategies should be based on the study of the expanded macro environment, microenvironment and internal environment of travel agencies by using the marketing analysis methods discussed in this article and their development in the new conditions: globalization, integration, clustering, and other trends.