Regional Tourism Development Research Articles

Festivals: an Opportunity for Sustainable Development of Tourism Regions

Objective: The purpose of this development is to present the opportunities provided by festivals as organized events for the sustainable development of tourism regions. Theoretical Framework: The article focuses on several key concepts. First, it examines the role of festivals as organized events in promoting tourism. Secondly, it is based on the sustainability principles, balancing environmental, economic and socio-cultural factors. Lastly, it considers event tourism as a significant driver for local development. Method: An empirical research which includes an analysis of published materials and documents that study organized events and festivals in particular as part of cultural and historical tourism was conducted. Results and Discussion: Festivals significantly contribute to the sustainable development of tourism regions by enhancing local cultural identity and attracting tourists. The successful organization of festivals can strengthen the image of a region, promoting long-term benefits for both the tourism industry and local communities. Research Implications: Festivals can serve as strategic tools for sustainable tourism development by fostering regional cultural identity and attracting tourists. Policymakers and tourism managers should prioritize festival planning and management as a means to enhance the economic, social and cultural sustainability of tourism regions. Originality/Value: The originality of the article lies in its focus on festivals as a unique catalyst for the sustainable development of tourism regions, highlighting their multifaceted impact on local economies, culture, and social cohesion. This study provides valuable insights into how well-managed festivals can enhance the long-term sustainability of tourism destinations, offering practical guidance for policymakers and event organizers.

Multilayered Borders as a Method for Studying Tourism Destinations: A Case of Northern European Border Regions

ABSTRACT The article problematizes tourism destination development in the European borderlands of Denmark–Germany, Sweden–Denmark and Sweden–Finland, where border crossing has been relatively free for decades, except for the time of Covid-19 pandemic border restrictions in 2020–2021. The research contributes to border studies and tourism studies by developing a framework for analyzing tourism destinations through the prism of the multilayered border, with a focus on destination images, attractions, and hosts. The reseach complements previous studies on tourism development and cross-border partnership in the European Union territory by investigating multiple tourism destinations in the border regions and by contemplating to what extent borders form a resource for destination promotion in the aftermath of the pandemic. The examination of regional tourism development through the prism of borders informs us about the compatibility of the idea of a “borderless” Europe with border region “realities.”

Examining the Tourism Development in Bulacan Province, Philippines: Assessing Factors Shaping Tourism Growth

This research endeavors to assess the current state of tourism in Bulacan Province in the Philippines, examining the factors that influence its growth. It aims to provide valuable insights for local policymakers, stakeholders, and industry practitioners. Employing a quantitative approach, data is collected through surveys and statistical analyses to gain a comprehensive understanding of tourism dynamics in Bulacan. Key factors affecting tourism expansion, such as landscape, accessibility, and hospitality, are closely examined. Challenges faced by tourists, particularly in transportation and accommodation, are highlighted as significant factors influencing their experiences. Strategies to address these challenges are explored, offering practical recommendations to enhance the province’s tourism potential. The study’s findings contribute to the existing knowledge on destination management and regional tourism development. They offer guidance to policymakers, tourism planners, and industry stakeholders in devising effective strategies to leverage Bulacan’s unique attributes, promoting sustainable tourism growth and establishing the province as a prominent tourist destination.

Breaking Down the Barriers: Rethinking Government's Role in Indonesian Tourism Destination Development

Stakeholder involvement is essential to destination development. They may serve as catalysts or impediments to the growth of tourist sites. This study explores the barriers to tourism destination development associated with the role of local tourism authorities. A qualitative approach, employing semi-structured interviews, was utilized to examine the root causes of these challenges. Sixteen stakeholders, including ten government officials responsible for regional tourism development and six community leaders, were selected as informants in this study. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The investigation revealed four main barriers to destination development from government agencies. There are bureaucratic hurdles, contrived program activities, overlapping roles of local governments, and the community’s misconceptions about the government’s role in destination development. These factors collectively hinder the successful implementation of government-led tourism programs. The study suggests that understanding and addressing these barriers are vital to fostering a progressive, sustainable, competitive tourist destination. On a practical level, the findings can help policymakers redesign their strategies to create more community-centric programs, clearly define roles, and manage community expectations. Conceptually, this study expands the existing literature on the role of government and bureaucracy in developing tourist destinations. The study highlights the importance of a participatory approach that engages all stakeholders in the planning and implementation tourism policies and programs.

Implementation of the Empowerment Program for Culinary Tourism Business Actors in the Coastal Area of Manado Bay, North Sulawesi Province

The Manado City Government through the 2020-2025 regional tourism development master plan has determined a special tourism destination cluster for culinary tourism areas with urban-coastal tourism attractions. The determination of this cluster is in line with the culinary potential managed by the community such as bakat sea fish and local snacks around the coast of Manado Bay. By using a qualitative research design, data was collected directly at the research location through interviews and observations, and secondary data was also collected electronically through internet media such as Google Scholar, WoS databases, Scopus, Arxiv by Cornell, Ulrich's Web, Science Direct, Directory of Open Access, JSTOR, SciELO, ERIC, ResearchGate and others. Data analysis using an interactive analysis model with data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing/verification stages. In addition, for the validity of the data analysis discussion, a focus group discussion was also conducted. The research findings that the implementation of the empowerment program for culinary tourism entrepreneurs in the Manado Bay Coastal Area has been carried out by the Manado City Government. Training, mentoring, provision of capital and business facilities and supervision as a form of empowerment activities carried out. The empowerment program is carried out separately or in collaboration with other public organizations. The seriousness in managing and developing businesses from the Community is a measure of the success of the implementation of the empowerment program.

ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ КОЛИЧЕСТВЕННОГО МЕТОДА В ИССЛЕДОВАНИИ ОПОЛЗНЕВОЙ ВОСПРИИМЧИВОСТИ СЕЛЕОПАСНОГО БАССЕЙНА РЕКИ АГСУЧАЙ

The article uses a quantitative method to analyze dangerous landslide processes occurring in the mudflow-prone Agsuchay River basin, taking into account the active development of tourism and recreational activities in the Shamakhi-Ismayilli region. In order to identify landslide susceptibility and the potential manifestation of landslides, the “weight” of 9 factors associated with landslides was determined, including hypsometry, slope angles (slope steepness), slope exposure, geological structure (lithology), distance from faults, average annual precipitation, distance to the erosion networks, distance to roads and land use. By summing up all the landslide formation factors without exception and multiplying them by their “weight”, a map of landslide susceptibility of the mudflow-prone Agsuchay River basin was compiled. The reliability of the obtained models was assessed using the AUC ROC (area under the error curve) analysis, which showed a fairly high efficiency (up to 72 %) of the applied method.

A Strategic Study on the Planning of Accommodation Facilities in Tourist Attractions to Enhance Tourist Experience

In the context of the development of regional tourism, the planning pattern of accommodation facilities in tourist attractions plays a very important role in enhancing tourists’ experience perception, which is conducive to the enhancement of tourists’ goodwill towards tourist attractions. This paper is oriented to the theory of sustainable development, and selects GL city as the research case site to obtain the visitor evaluation data of accommodation facilities in tourist attractions. The evolution trend of tourist attraction accommodation facilities is analyzed by geographic concentration index, standard deviation ellipse, nearest neighbor index, combined with TF-IDF algorithm to extract high-frequency words of tourists’ experience on the planning of tourist attraction accommodation facilities, and coarse-grained tourism review text sentiment classification model is introduced to analyze the tourists’ sentiment evaluation of tourist attraction accommodation facilities. The geographic concentration index of accommodation facilities in tourist attractions increases from 20.19 to 53.72 from 1980 to 2023, and the relative frequency difference between “service” and “room” of hotel facilities in tourist attractions is 4.35 percentage points, while that of B&B is only 0.5 percentage points. The relative frequency of “service” and “room” of hotel facilities in tourist attractions differed by 4.35 percentage points, while that of B&Bs differed by only 0.77 percentage points, and more than 70% of the tourists had a positive attitude towards the experience of accommodation facilities in tourist attractions. Lodging facilities in tourist attractions need to enrich the sequence of lodging products, improve the layout of service and reception facilities, create relevant themed B&Bs, and enhance the service quality of lodging facilities by combining modern technology to further promote the sustainable development of lodging facilities planning.

Cultural Heritage and Regional Tourism Development in Yunnan, China

This study explores the relationship between cultural heritage and regional tourism development in Yunnan. The provincial government has initiated efforts to save and conserve the cultural heritage of its many ethnic communities. With the preservation, the government is also building the tourism industry. In order to achieve a harmonious equilibrium between economic advantages and the safeguarding of cultural treasures, it is imperative for all stakeholders to engage in meticulous and deliberate deliberations. This research therefore seeks to comprehensively explores Yunnan's experience with the goal of elucidating the mechanisms via which cultural heritage influences tourism and, reciprocally, how tourism influences the perception and preservation of cultural heritage. The research indicates that there is a distinction between national and regional officials efforts in spearheading the direction of tourism development.. The long-term impact of the subject under consideration will be contingent upon its ability to effectively integrate preservation initiatives with sustainable development.

Characteristics and Effects of the Last Kilometre of the Tourist City from the Dynamic and Static Perspectives

The accessibility of the “last kilometre” of a tourist city has a profound impact on the travelling experience of tourists. In-depth understanding of the characteristics and spatial effects of the “last-kilometre” traffic accessibility in tourist cities is conducive to further enhancing the accessibility of traffic travel and forming a new industry development pattern of deep integration of traffic and tourism. The results show that: (1) Private transport accessibility is significantly better than public transport accessibility, and the strong economic strength of large cities such as Peking, Shanghai, and Nanjing support a wider coverage of public transport compared with cities such as Qinhuangdao, Dalian, Ningbo, etc. Even for the middle-income and high-income groups of the large cities, the advantage of the broader travelling cost of public transport is still significant. (2) The average values of the fluctuation coefficients of travel time of public transport in tourist cities are all smaller than those of private transport, and public transport is less sensitive to traffic congestion, making it a more reliable choice for tourist travel. The higher number of public transport grids with more anomalous fluctuations and much larger fluctuations than private transport grids suggests that there is an urgent need to strengthen the standardisation of public transport services in the corresponding areas. (3) Urban tourism development has been moving from single-line to network development, and the impact of urban transport on urban–regional tourism development has been manifested in the place fission effect, corridor diffusion effect, and regional equilibrium effect. In general, our findings have been useful in understanding the accessibility characteristics of the “last kilometre” in tourist cities, optimizing the efficiency of inter-regional and intra-city transport connections, constructing a fast and convenient travel transport system, improving the accessibility of transport trips, and forming a new development pattern for the deep integration of transport and tourism.

Development of tourism in the mining areas of Scandinavia and Murmansk region

In this article, we set out to assess opportunities for the development of tourism in mining regions in the Scandinavian and Kola Peninsulas, as well as to identify threats arising from these activities in comparison with known examples. It is assumed that the Arctic zone can become a promising place for the development of tourism and urbanization in the future.

Introducing meta-governance as a sustainability tool in popular culture tourism regional development

ABSTRACT Popular culture tourism development suffers from a weak grounding in the broader societal system in which it operates, and there is insufficient understanding of how governance can assist in counterbalancing this trend. What is therefore required is a deeper understanding of how current and future governance can complement popular culture tourism development in the wake of the sustainability transition. The aim of this paper is to propose a meta-governance analytic framework that can serve as a critical lens for an improved holistic understanding of popular culture tourism development in the regional governance context. Drawing on a selective literature review of the meta-governance field, the concept is introduced as a critical lens through which existing and future popular culture tourism governance can be theoretically and empirically scrutinized. It is proposed that a popular culture tourism meta-governance analysis should revolve around the rationale for this form of niche tourism, resourceful stakeholders, the governance landscape, and appropriate governance strategies and tools.

Digital Economy and Regional Tourism Development: The Mediating Role of Information Search from a Spatial Spillover Perspective

Although studies have confirmed the positive nexus between the growth of the digital economy and regional tourism development, little light has been shed on the mechanism in between. This research made the first attempt to identify the mechanism through which the digital economy affects regional tourism development with consideration of spatial spillover effects using China’s prefecture-level city multisource panel data from 2011 to 2019. The findings reveal that information search is a mediating channel through which the digital economy affects regional tourism development, with significant spillover effects. The spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on regional tourism development become stronger as the distance between cities increases. However, because of competition effects, the information search in neighboring regions may restrict tourism development in the focal region. Results from this study deepen our understanding of the relationship between the digital economy and regional tourism development, thus providing insights for policymakers on regional cooperation in the context of digitalization.

Barriers to the Development of Art Tourism in Jingdezhen—The Perspective of the ‘Jingpiao’ Community

Jingdezhen, renowned as the cradle of Chinese ceramic art, has embraced new opportunities in the realm of art tourism amidst the global tourism boom. Nonetheless, this growth trajectory is fraught with challenges. This study aims to delve into the obstacles encountered in the development of art tourism in Jingdezhen and to identify the critical influencing factors through qualitative research methods, particularly grounded theory. By conducting in-depth interviews with ‘Jingpiao’ artists who have worked in the art industry in Jingdezhen for three years or more and have interacted with tourists, this research reveals that economic, infrastructure, human resources, government attitude, policy and regulation, promotion, and transportation are significant factors affecting the development of art tourism in Jingdezhen. These factors intertwine to form a complex system that impacts the sustainable development of art tourism in the region. The findings underscore the need for concerted efforts among government, businesses, and artists to optimise these key factors, thereby creating a more conducive environment for the development of art tourism in Jingdezhen. Moreover, this study offers valuable insights and lessons for the development of art tourism in other regions.

Товарный знак фестиваля как региональный туристский бренд

The article discusses the necessity and prospects of registering trademarks of festivals in order to increase the tourist attractiveness of Russian regions. The concept and types of festivals, their fundamental features are considered. It is determined that the Russian regions have a significant potential for holding numerous and diverse festivals that attract tourist flows. It is established that festivals as regional tourist brands provide the subject of the Russian Federation with a protected business card – a trademark that allows to monetize this intangible asset. The author identifies the advantages of registering a trademark of festivals for the purpose of branding the region. It is determined that the registration of trademarks of festivals can become a driving force for the development of tourism in Russian regions.

Analysis of the Communication Strategy of Generasi Pesona Indonesia (GenPI) on Social Media in Increasing the Number of Tourists in North Luwu

Tourism in Indonesia continues to be managed seriously by the Indonesian government in order to improve and develop tourist attractions in Indonesia with the aim and objective of increasing the number of tourist visits from both foreign and domestic tourists. Genpi is a forum for capturing various elements of the tourism community from the smallest scope. Generasi Pesona Indonesia's (GenPI) communication strategy on social media can play an important role in increasing the number of tourists in North Luwu through various social media platforms that are most effective in reaching the expected target tourists, such as Instagram. for visual content or Facebook for community and discussion. Tourism in North Luwu has the opportunity to be promoted and developed as a quality and valuable destination so that it attracts many tourists. Genpi North Luwu has established a close partnership with the North Luwu regional government and local tourism stakeholders to support joint promotions to improve the quality of tourism in the area. In the research, the author used a descriptive qualitative method approach; the researcher attempted to clearly examine and describe GenPI's communication strategy on social media. GenPI can utilize the potential of social media to significantly increase the number of tourists visiting North Luwu, providing a positive impact on the local economy and regional tourism development.

Scientific (Astro) tourism activities in Armenia and in South West and Central Asian region

Scientific Tourism activities have been initiated in a number of countries during the recent decades. Armenia was among the first countries developing Scientific Tourism and most probably the first to develop Astro Tourism. We were the first to introduce the term “Astronomical Tourism” (or “Astro Tourism”). This includes visits to astronomy-related sites (astronomical observatories, astronomical institutes, astronomy-related university departments, ancient sky/astronomy-related sites, medieval universities, planetariums, space/astronomy museums, etc.) but not only. The organization of astronomical meetings, schools, camps and other events with involvement of many visitors, we also consider as Astro Tourism activities. We give an overview of our activities, including the main project; development of Astro Tourism in the SWCA region. A detailed study of Astro Tourism sites in Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and (in addition) Uzbekistan was carried out, namely, modern astronomical observatories and institutes, ancient astronomy-related sites, medieval universities, planetariums, astronomy/space museums, etc. A webpage was built representing Astro Tourism in SWCA region. We also discuss the Scientific Tourism and Tourism in general as disciplines for studies and not only as service. We will share our experience on Scientific/Astro tourism activities and discuss how different items may be implemented in different regions.

Effects of tourism on socio‐economic well‐being and its inter‐regional convergence: Evidence from China's 291 cities

AbstractBig socio‐economic well‐being gap is common across countries and regions. This study examines the impact of tourism on socio‐economic well‐being and its convergence from a comprehensive and inter‐regional convergence perspective. Using panel data of 291 cities during the period 2005–2019, we provide the comprehensive evaluation of socio‐economic well‐being at the city scale in China. Considering the dynamic characteristics of socio‐economic well‐being, we therefore estimate the impact using the system generalized method of moments. The result indicates that tourism significantly enhances local socio‐economic well‐being and is found to be robust. We also find the dominance of domestic tourism, the positive moderator effects of general budget expenditure, GDP per capita and urbanization, and a greater driving force in cities with higher socio‐economic well‐being. Since both β‐ and σ‐convergence hold, we confirm the positive effect of tourism on the convergence of inter‐regional socio‐economic well‐being. We emphasize policies support for tourism development in underdeveloped regions through fiscal expenditure, financial transfer payments, intellectual support, urbanization, and infrastructure construction. We suggest incorporating tourism into frameworks such as rural revitalization and regional coordinated development. We also recommend accelerating the expansion of tourism in underdeveloped regions and enhancing the quality of tourism in developed regions as spatial strategies, while emphasizing inter‐regional tourism coordination and cooperation.

Evaluation of the Coupling and Coordination Degree of the Wellness Tourism Industry in Panxi Area

The party's 20th report points out that green and healthy development is an extremely important part of the China's modernization drive, an important guarantee for the sustainable development of the country, and a basic means to realize that "clear waters and green mountains are gold and silver mountains". Sichuan province actively promotes the construction of a strong wellness industry, and strives to build Panxi region into an international sunshine wellness tourism destination. In recent years, the mass tourism market demand escalating, promote the tourism market emerging industry development, wellness industry, in response to the mass tourism market development status, this paper built covers two evaluation dimensions eight elements 16 evaluation index wellness brigade industry coupling coordinated development index system, using the entropy method and coupling coordination model in panxi area wellness industry and tourism industry coupling coordinated development level, based on the evaluation results. The study results show that: (1) with good coupling development degree and strong interaction; (2) the coordinated development level of wellness tourism industry in Panzhihua is low, Panzhihua is in moderate imbalance, Liangshan Prefecture is on the verge of imbalance, with large development space; (3) from 2017 to 2021 is wellness lag type, Liangshan Prefecture is tourism lag type in 2020 alone. Through the research and analysis of the coordinated development of wellness tourism in Panxi region, the comprehensive level of coordinated development of wellness tourism in Panzhihua is revealed, and then three suggestions are put forward: (1) improve the construction of wellness facilities and enhance the coordinated development level of wellness tourism; (2) build the integrated development mechanism of wellness tourism and tourism and promote the coordinated development of wellness tourism industry; (3) optimize the wellness tourism environment and promote the sustainable development of wellness tourism.

The impact of cultural heritage listing on regional tourism development in China

AbstractExisting studies have shown that intangible cultural heritage (ICH) listing system promotes the development of the tourism economy. However, it remains unclear which regions benefit most from ICH listing due to inherent differences in ICH resource endowments across regions. We address this issue by examining the impact of ICH listing on regional tourism development using China's prefecture‐level panel data from 2000 to 2019. By employing a two‐stage least squares methodology, we address the endogeneity issue and identify which regions derive the greatest benefits from ICH listing. Our findings reveal that regions with higher cultural diversity have more ICH resources and benefit more from ICH listings, resulting in positive effects on domestic and international tourism. Additionally, tangible cultural resources further amplify this relationship. These results underscore the importance of ICH protection and provide valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to leverage local ICH resources for regional tourism development.

Cultural tourism as a factor in the sustainable development of rural areas

The article considers cultural tourism as a factor of sustainable development of rural areas on the example of the Ust-Aldansky district in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The main factor in this development is the historical and cultural heritage, which contributes to the attractiveness of the area. The object of the study is cultural tourism, the subject is the specifics of its development in the regions of new development on the example of the Ust-Aldansky district, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). A brief analysis of the concept and features of cultural tourism is given. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study the specifics of the development of cultural tourism in the Ust-Aldansky region. The development of the tourism industry in this region involves, first of all, the effective use of tourism resources. Museum collections are of particular importance in the development of cultural tourism. One of the interesting places to visit is the Ust-Aldan Regional Museum of Local Lore. The museum’s expositions allow guests to plunge into the history of this place of Yakutia and better understand its unique cultural and historical heritage. Cultural and historical heritage is a term that designates many similar types of tourism, including historical, religious, ethnic, folklore, anthropological, event, artistic, museum and architectural. All of them are «culturally oriented» because they are connected by common interests and motives of travelers, as well as the use of common cultural and historical resources. Recommendations have been developed to improve cultural tourism in order to promote the work of the museum.