Exotic Destinations Research Articles

Voluntourism: Motivations of Gen Z Participants in Bali

Voluntourism is becoming increasingly popular among Generation Z (Gen Z) in Indonesia. This study examines the motivations of Gen Z volunteer tourists who participate in voluntourism activities in Bali. This study used a qualitative descriptive approach. The informants comprised twenty-six Gen Z tourists in Indonesia, all selected through non-probability and snowball sampling. The result shows that Gen Z tourists are motivated by push and pull factors, including helping others, gaining new experiences, meeting new friends, personal development and growth, cultural interest, visiting Bali, and personal interest in specific volunteering activities. This study provides an in-depth insight into how Gen Z views voluntourism as a means to explore exotic destinations such as Bali and as an opportunity to contribute to the local community positively. The implications of these findings can provide valuable guidance for the tourism industry and volunteer organizations to develop more relevant and meaningful voluntourism programs for Gen Z.

Couples-travelers' hotel satisfaction attributes: Thai perspsectives

Couples travelers grow exponentially and tend to visit more exotic destinations. Yet, the existing literature has largely concentrated its investigation on the context of Western destinations. A better understanding of couples travelers' hotel satisfaction in the Southeast Asia context would help scholars to understand a holistic picture of couples travelers’ hotel satisfaction and assist hoteliers to prepare their hotels to welcome and serve such guests. This study extends the existing hospitality literature by investigating and identifying the attributes of couples travelers’ hotel satisfaction in Thailand. A total of 695 couples-travelers feedback on the TripAdvisor website were reviewed and content analyzed. Our study indicates that couples travelers’ hotel satisfaction is determined by 10 common themes and two new emerging themes. Among these themes, staff attitude was found as the most important attribute while privacy was noted as the least important attribute to generating couples-travelers’ hotel satisfaction.

Managing Sustainable Sharing Economy Platforms: A Stimulus–Organism–Response Based Structural Equation Modelling on an Emerging Market

Due to the rising appeal of travel, as well as the appearance of low-cost carriers that fly to both popular and exotic destinations, people nowadays tend to book their accommodation through the more convenient and flexible sharing economy platforms. The success of such platforms among consumers depends on various factors, such as satisfaction and platform credibility, and on sustainable performance among contributors, increasing their relevance and visibility. This research proposes a conceptual model for measuring the success of sharing economy platforms in tourism, based on added value, unique experience, and enhanced social interactions, together with credibility and sustainable performance. In this vein, the authors conduct an empirical investigation in an emerging market—Romania—where the development of such sharing economy platforms is still in its infancy. Data gathered by the authors by means of a self-developed questionnaire distributed to 500 respondents are modelled via structural equations with SmartPLS. The results indicate that the platform credibility and sustainable performance of sharing economy platforms are key elements in generating their success. The research adds value to the stimulus–organism–response approach, highlighting some insights from a relevant emerging market, which in the future could become a turning point for inbound and outbound tourism.

What drives senior tourists to travel to islands? The case of the Azores

PurposeAccording to the theory of push and pull factors, the current work aims to present two objectives: (1) to detect what attributes drive senior tourists to travel to the Azores islands, the role played by lecturing activities (LA) as push factors and their influence on the island's offer (pull factors) are analysed; and (2) to understand the personal and contextual barriers of tourists to provide information to the agents who form part of the tourism supply process on the island.Design/methodology/approachThe data has been processed using the statistical package SmartPLS version 26. Using an exploratory methodology based on structural equation modeling (SEM) structural equations applied to small sample sizes, a tentative model has been generated to define the drivers of tourism for elderly people who visit the islands.FindingsThe research study reveals that LA are the key factor in completing the offering of tourist destinations in the Azores. Educational packages should be made available to senior tourists. Likewise, several tourism barriers, such as flight times, cost of the trip, concern about the safety of destinations, type of accommodation, language difficulties and medical and health care should also be revised by tourism authorities and flight stakeholders with regard to the Azores Islands.Research limitations/implicationsThe reduced sample has made the results impossible to show greater predictive power.Practical implicationsThe role played by push factors, such as lecturing or educational activities, and pull factors, such as the tourism offering by the island, allows us to envisage educational packages based on the preferences of senior tourists, such as attending lectures on the history of the Azores, gastronomy (traditional food), active ageing flora, and interesting facts and legends of the islands.Social implicationsAs a push factor, social interaction has become the main motivation among senior tourists. Such tourists have conveyed not only their desire to meet other tourists but also their interest in socialising in tourist activities, relaxing and visiting other new places.Originality/valueEven though LA are relatively common among university students and those with bachelor's degrees, educational packages for senior tourism are now gaining in popularity. Better socio-economic conditions worldwide and easier access to education for mature people have allowed them to expand their knowledge by travelling to exotic destinations such as the Azores. This paper links that interest with barriers to travel as well as to the Azores' rich touristic offering.

Cultural Dissonance: Surfers' Environmental Attitudes and Actions.

Surfers often see themselves as “green”. In this study we examine Norwegian surfers' attitudes and actions towards the environment. The article is based on a questionnaire (n = 251) and six qualitative interviews. The results show that most surfers see themselves as environmentally conscious. Oppositely, the data also show that they also buy a lot of surf-related apparel and equipment and travel a lot, and thereby contribute with a lot of CO2-emissions. In the article we investigate the apparent attitude-action gap amongst surfers. Does the gap give rise to emotional conflicts? And, if so, to what degree and how do they cope with it. In the article we start out by analysing such potential conflicts by using the concept cognitive dissonance. Further, we analyse the phenomena from a cultural, Bourdieusian perspective where values within the surf-field is highlighted. On the one hand, surf culture highly values connexion to nature and “green” thinking, on the other hand it also values and gives recognition to surfers that travels to and explore exotic destinations. Hence, values within surf culture leads surfers to conflicting actions. We end the article by discussing if these conflicts could be framed as cultural dissonance.

Exploring the world together: The colonial continuity of family adventure travel

The article examines notions of family holidays in the marketing of family adventure travel, a small but growing segment of the alternative tourism sector in Sweden. In family adventure travel, the family vacation is oriented toward exotic destinations in the Global South. The analysis is conducted through a multimodal discourse analysis of web-based marketing material from seven Swedish travel agencies. It shows that the travel style of family adventure travel is constructed through a novel discourse, filled with overlapping meanings of family life, authenticity, and adventure. The article offers a unique approach to family tourism research by theorizing family adventure travel from a post-colonial perspective. It demonstrates how family adventure travel entails a colonial continuity, where notions of exploring and discovering the world become reproduced and re-negotiated in the context of family tourism. In the marketing of family adventure travel, the family vacation is reimagined as a journey of discovery.

Liminality (Re‐)Realized in the Psychedelic Rave

SUMMARYThe literature concerning rave parties uses Victor Turner’s concept of liminality to consider the hours‐long dancing to electronic dance music as a state of ambiguity that potentializes sociopolitical change. Liminality seemingly corresponds to the performances in question since they entail a serious play with stimulants and hallucinogens. Yet, what if the experiences unfolding within the rave space circuses are not exclusive to the event but rather circulate as images and fantasy echoing the fables of modernity? The article traces manifestations of the journey—a crucial narrative in the psychedelic rave—to situate the event in our techno‐mediated worlds. In light of how designer drug experiences multiply in different social settings, the mobility to dreamworlds in exotic destinations prompts me to question whether liminality creates the space for “transformational experiences.” Instead, I examine how it reifies the modern ideals of adventurous traveling, aesthetic intimacy, and individualized self‐discovery, resonating an oncoming modernity.

Uticaj kulturalne inteligencije i nasleđa na izbor inostranih turističkih destinacija

Due to the process of globalization, travel has become much more affordable, so tourists have the opportunity to visit foreign and even some exotic destinations. Market research helps travel agencies in formulating a marketing strategy, which should attract tourists and ensure their satisfaction, which ultimately enables the service provider to make a profit. The purpose and goal of the research is to determine whether cultural intelligence as a push-factor implying the desire of tourists to learn a foreign language, and get to know other cultures and their value systems and cultural heritage as a pull-factor implying touring buildings, and cultural monuments of other countries, influence the choice of foreign tourist destinations. Furthermore, the research examines whether the influence of these variables from the aspect of a demographic characteristic of age is more pronounced in respondents belong to generation Z compared to the generation X respondents. The sample includes 208 respondents from the Republic of Serbia. After statistical processing of the data, the obtained results show that variables have a statistically significant positive impact on the choice of foreign tourist destinations, and that their impact is more pronounced in generation Z respondents compared to those of generation X, so the research provides useful information to marketers and travel agencies.

Factors related to development of cruise shipping industry

In recent decades, there has been a strong growth of the cruise industry, which has managed to develop innovative concepts in terms of safety and security service and to offer attractive vacation to the exotic destinations around the world. Thus, the cruising has gradually become a major part of the tourism sector and has become one of the main economic factors for development of shipping industry. Based on analysis of the global demand on cruising this article defines the factors influencing the development of cruise fleet and leading cruise lines and provide a vision for future efforts in field having in mind also the dynamic changes in current situation.

The Attractive Power of Rural Destinations and a Synergistic Community Cooperative Approach: A “Tourismability” Case

The recent climate change, food scandals, pollution and work-related stress, are affecting life in big cities and tourism is suffering changes expanding its typical boundaries. The past decades were characterized by the tourism choice of exotic destinations; nowadays, a route inversion would be visible and remote and inner destinations are acquiring value and attractiveness. According to this perspective, administrators and event organizers are planning and structuring strategies ensuring memorable experiences for the tourists. In the sense of sustainable development, important aspects are cooperative approaches and capability to integrate traditions and expectations. The proposed research work focuses the attention on the analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews through SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and perception analysis on an event called “Dream of a night…to that town” provided by the Municipality of Colobraro, Basilicata Region (Italy). The proposition of the research would focus the attention on a case study able to form not a top-down/bottom-up, but a horizontal strategy, a sharable best practice for the whole tourism sector in rural areas that would make truly effective the State decentralization, in which the small communities’ activism configures crucial source of competitiveness. The case proposed, contrasting modern lifestyles and common tourism choice, would be able to redirect the concept of attractiveness in privileging remote places that could offer memorable tourism experiences. So, a promotional “tourismability” strategy, integrating agricultural connotates of the territory with heritage, traditions, myths and legends, through a synergistic community cooperative approach, would be necessary to constitute an identitary, attractive, memorable and immersive tourism experience in rural areas.

Where in the World Did You Get That Rash?

1. Panteha Eshtiaghi, HBSc* 2. Miriam Weinstein, MD, FRCPC† 1. *Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 2. †Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Abbreviations: ACD: : allergic contact dermatitis CD: : cercarial dermatitis CL: : cutaneous leishmaniasis CLM: : cutaneous larva migrans DF: : dengue fever HFMD: : hand, foot, and mouth disease HSV: : herpes simplex virus KD: : Kawasaki disease PCR: : polymerase chain reaction PR: : pityriasis rosea RT-PCR: : reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction The challenge to diagnose cutaneous eruptions and lesions in patients who have spent time in foreign countries is increasingly common. With the advent of increased global travel, foreign adoptions, immigration, and refugee seekers, rashes that were once relegated to the realm of the exotic and likely to show up in a tropical diseases clinic may now present to a general pediatrician. Furthermore, the pediatric traveler is at increased risk for dermatoses. (1) It behooves the practitioner to be aware of these skin findings, to be able to recognize them and distinguish them from other skin conditions. After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Identify and classify rashes by main morphologic patterns. 2. Develop a broad differential diagnosis and diagnostic approach for a rash in a returned pediatric traveler based on initial morphology, history, epidemiology, and other clinical features. 3. Consider both infectious and noninfectious causes of skin disorders presenting in a patient with a travel history. 4. Outline the basic investigations and principles of management for travel-acquired and non–travel-acquired dermatologic illnesses. 5. Discuss …

Travel writing: Always has always will be

Travel writing has changed over the past fifty years to reflect the fact, as Jan Morris has said, that ‘nearly everyone has been nearly everywhere’ (Morris 2009). In the 21st century, travel writing has become a medium for authors to investigate their own lives as much as to explore exotic destinations. Examples of this ‘recording (of) the experience rather than the event’ (Morris 2009) in travel writing include: John Krakauer’s Into the Wild (1996) and Into Thin Air (1997), Pico Iyer’s Global Soul (2001), Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways (2012), Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (2013) and Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path (2018). The switch to a more character-focused, experiential-based style of travel writing reflects the genre’s roots in one of the world’s oldest story structures, namely the journey narrative. It is through this connection that we can identify some of the universal structures behind successful contemporary travel writing; the ability to look objectively at life by placing oneself in a liminal space (Turner 1964, Mahdi 1987), and the fact that travel and narrative is in all of us through our ancestral memories of Homo sapiens’ seventy-millennia long history of migration around the globe (Harari 2011, Mithen 2005, Tattersall 2008).

Senior Foodies:A developing niche market in gastronomic tourism

The world's population is ageing. Because of these global demographic changes it has resulted in the increased participation of older (or senior) adults in tourism and leisure activities and has prompted governments and tourism providers in many developed regions of the world to identify senior travellers as a priority market. An increasingly healthy senior market segment now has the time and purchasing power to travel more frequently, because many want to seek out and experience new and often exotic destinations in their desire to enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle. This has helped to create an emerging special interest or niche market that has been termed culinary or gastronomic tourism. The relationship between food and tourism has always been an increasingly important segment in the real worlds of hospitality, destination marketing, and tourism development. However, only recently we have seen the acceptance of the growth in interest in gastronomic tourism as an academic field of study. However at the same time, there has been little research that has been carried out on the socio-demographics of this niche market, and in particular, older gastronomic tourists. In other words, researchers have previously assumed that they all tourists experience gastronomic tourism in similar ways. As a result, little research has been found in the tourism literature, however there is some evidence to suggest that older gastronomic tourists are often very experienced travellers who have the time and money to seek out and experience foreign cultures through local food consumption that display different food preferences. On the other hand, other studies have noted diminished taste and olfactory sensitivity of older tourists, and a preference for familiar foods rather than trying out local cuisine so as to avoid any negative effects from change in diet or to control existing health problems. More research needs to be conducted to assist tourism providers and marketeers to better understand and promote the importance of the gastronomic consumption needs and expectations of the older market segment.

Визначення проблем та перспектив розвитку екстремального туризму в Україні

The state of development of extreme tourism in Ukraine is investigated in the paper. According to the results of research, it has been established that exotic destinations of extreme rest are more popular. Тhe reason for this is that the resorts of Turkey and Egypt, which now belong to the category of mass tourism recreation, can not fully satisfy the interest of customers. The most popular types of extreme tourism in Ukraine are characterized and their cost is given. It is known that the practice of extreme tourism is not cheap sports, it can negatively affect the number of extreme people who can afford this type of recreation. The tourist territories of Ukraine, which have more than enough potential for the development of various types of active tourism, including extreme view: the Carpathians, Dniester, Polesie, Bug, Black Sea. It was determined that the tourist region of Dniester is especially interesting for popular rafting. It has been also determined that among the extreme types of tourism, military tours are popular, trips to abandoned industrial facilities, especially to the Chernobyl zone. It has been substantiated that Ukraine has all the resources for the development of an extreme type of tourism, therefore this direction may become attractive for attracting the value of the number of foreign tourists. This will accelerate the improvement of the quality of services, development of infrastructure of extreme tourism in Ukraine. In order to develop the tourism industry, special attention should be paid to the directions of development of the tourism industry in Ukraine: the creation of a unified training system for tourism industry in accordance with international standards; consolidation of the received knowledge in production, organization of measures for internship at the main tourist enterprises in Ukraine and abroad, exchange of experience; introduction of innovative marketing tools for the recognition and development of tourism in Ukraine; ensuring the development of an innovative type of tourism – extreme tourism in Ukraine, including the expense of state support.

Exotic Tourist Destinations and Transmission of Infections by Swimming Pools and Hot Springs-A Literature Review.

A growing number of people undertake international travel, and yet faster growth of such travel is expected in the tropics. Information on the hazards presented by pool and hot spring waters in tropical countries is very limited. This review aims to collate available information on pool water quality, alongside data on cases and outbreaks associated with swimming in pools in tropical regions affecting both local populations and travellers. Bacteria species commonly causing cases and outbreaks in the tropics as well as elsewhere in the world were excluded, and the review focuses on studies related to pathogens that, with the exception of Cryptosporidium, are unusual in more temperate climates. Studies concerning subtropical countries were included in the light of climate change. Diseases transmitted by vectors breeding in poorly maintained, neglected or abandoned pools were also included. 83 studies dealing with Microsporidia, Leptospira spp., Schistosomas spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Acanthamoeba spp., Naegleria spp., Clostridium trachomatis, viruses, and vectors breeding in swimming pool and hot tub waters, and fulfilling predefined criteria, have been included in our survey of the literature. In conclusion, prevention strategies for pool safety in the tropics are imperative. Public health authorities need to provide guidance to westerners travelling to exotic destinations on how to protect their health in swimming pools.

Travel and biologic therapy: travel-related infection risk, vaccine response and recommendations.

Biologic therapy has revolutionized the management of refractory chronic autoimmune and auto-inflammatory disease, as well as several malignancies, providing rapid symptomatic relief and/or disease remission. Patients receiving biologic therapies have an improved quality of life, facilitating travel to exotic destinations and potentially placing them at risk of a range of infections. For each biologic agent, we review associated travel-related infection risk and expected travel vaccine response and effectiveness. A PUBMED search [vaccination OR vaccine] AND/OR ['specific vaccine'] AND/OR [immunology OR immune response OR response] AND [biologic OR biological OR biologic agent] was performed. A review of the literature was performed in order to develop recommendations on vaccination for patients in receipt of biologic therapy travelling to high-risk travel destinations. There is a paucity of literature in this area, however, it is apparent that travel-related infection risk is increased in patients on biologic therapy and when illness occurs they are at a higher risk of complication and hospitalization. Patients in receipt of biologic agents are deemed as having a high level of immunosuppression-live vaccines, including the yellow fever vaccine, are contraindicated. Inactivated vaccines are considered safe; however, vaccine response can be attenuated by the patient's biologic therapy, thereby resulting in reduced vaccine effectiveness and protection. Best practice requires a collaborative approach between the patient's primary healthcare physician, relevant specialist and travel medicine expert, who should all be familiar with the immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory effects resulting from the biologic therapies. Timing of vaccines should be carefully planned, and if possible, vaccination provided well before established immunosuppression.

Changing Trends in the Baby Boomer Travel Market: Importance of Memorable Experiences

Globally, the number of baby boomers who are age 60 years and over are expected to more than double, from 841 million people in 2013 to more than 2 billion in 2050. In recent years, boomers have demonstrated that they are willing participants in new and memorable experiences where they can learn and broaden their minds through travel to new locations and to learn more about different cultures through a variety of first-hand experiences. As a result, the numbers of baby boomer travelers over 60 years of age have grown substantially from 593 million international travelers in 1999, which has been forecast to exceed 2 billion trips per annum by 2050. The hotel and resort industry needs to respond to their changing needs, and allow guests to achieve memorable experiences in exotic and different destinations as well as through the provision of hotel design that is inextricably linked to the place they are visiting. This article outlines the changing sociodemographic trends of baby boomers, examines their need for different hotel and resort experiences in an expanding market place, and concludes with a discussion of key marketing considerations.

Place des Vosges par Michel Braudeau

Reviews 247 Braudeau, Michel. Place des Vosges. Paris: Seuil, 2017. ISBN 978-2-02-134295-6. Pp. 152. The beautiful, once-royal square invoked in Braudeau’s title points less to a classy neighborhood than to a crucible in time and place that contains many of the basic elements that made of the author a writer, and a prolific one at that. The era in question is the 1970s, a period deeply marked by May 68, but somewhat directionless in its aftermath. The author, clear-eyed and articulate, documents his own weaving path through the decade and among the famous inhabitants of the comparably famous place. Thus the young writer that he was experiments randomly with alcohol and the drugs of that decade’s choice; he travels, sometimes to exotic destinations, but without experiencing any profound epiphanies; and he dabbles in a number of light-hearted sexual relationships, grazing the possibility of genuine intimacy only a very few times. The descriptor of this text as a récit could not be more perfect: Braudeau recounts story upon story, as though paging through a photo album. His connections at the time to Jean Cayrol, chief literary consultant at Éditions du Seuil, gave him additional access to a constellation of the intellectuals of that age: Sollers, Barthes, Lacan, Sarduy. The cameo portraits he offers reveal a keen eye for character-revealing detail: William Burroughs had “un rire très court, un hoquet sarcastique, comme du gravier dans un arrosoir, et un haussement d’épaules [...] de tous les maîtres à dé-penser [...] il était l’un des plus mystérieusement sages”(48–49). The young writer also gets caught up in the aura of one extravagant and unpredictable Thomas, who he later learns is the son of Veit Harlan, creator of the infamous Juif Süss, anti-Semitic film of the 1940s. This lifemaiming accident of Thomas’s birth gives Braudeau insight into “sa personnalité si forte et malheureuse” (92). For this reader, the most touching admission of the book comes as the young writer fears that writing novels after the two great wars seems a naïve and potentially bootless enterprise, that the French language of novelists is archaic, useless, and forgettable. That Braudeau defied the literary Zeitgeist of the 1970s by writing more than twenty novels and that he made a career of defending literary language (not the least as editor-in-chief of the Nouvelle Revue Française) is a fitting postscript to Place. As for the book itself, situated in a pre-history of formative encounters with a vibrant generation of thinkers, it combines the uncertainty of an age with the sure writing of a master. Lawrence University (WI) Eilene Hoft-March Bruneau,André. Sourde rancœur. Québec: Apothéose, 2016. ISBN 978-2-89775-0329 . Pp. 406. Julien Poirier is a dedicated Montreal police investigator whose meticulous approach to crime-solving usually allows him to forget the frustrations that gnaw at ...

Empires of Otherness in Tourism Advertising. A Postmodern Approach

In this paper we envisage disscusing tourism as a postmodern manifestation that involves cultural issues projected, in the consumerist society, through media. In the larger context of post-war international relations, we shall see different perceptions of Otherness, understood in terms of exotic destinations locating minor cultures. The peculiarities of tourism also lead us to examine its cultural paradoxes, further depicted in the light of sociolinguistic perspectives of tourism. The question is to determine to what extent has Otherness became an issue of cultural, linguistic and economic reversed relations and what role does media play in shaping identities at the level of the specific promotional language of tourism.

Mychajl’ Semenkos ukrainischer Futurismus zwischen west- und osteuropäischer Avantgarde

The article deals with the Ukrainian futurist Mykhail' Semenko (1892-1937) in order to remember this figure of the European avant-garde movement. Firstly, his poetological and ideological positions are contextualised by looking at his activities within the literature scene in Kiev and Charkov. Secondly, his poetry's characteristics are analysed, which are intertextuality, intermediality, synaesthetic efforts to amalgamate different arts and ways of perception, especially visual poetry, accompanied by a parodistic tendency. Besides, he was striving for a new language, fascinated by distant and exotic destinations and the idea of communism. Semenko's poetry has successfully combined contradictions between Western and Eastern European futurists, internationalism and Ukrainian traditions, urban and rural life.