First-time Visitors Research Articles

Oastea Domnului: The army of the lord in Romania∗

It is over three years since the world's attention turned to the events in Romania that ultimately led to the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceau~escu and his repressive regime. With the opening of its borders, this beautiful and sometimes perplexing Balkan country became the focus of mUltiple aid organisations, mission groups, churches, evangelists and faith healers as well as individual entrepreneurs. For most, Romania was a novelty: a European country with an educated populace but with Third World living standards; a country whose warm and hospitable people caught many first-time visitors by surprise; a country where that same effusive hospitality and graciousness often concealed the darker side of Romanian culture, a side characterised by bribes, favouritism and patronage. For most western visitors, then, Romania was an unknown quantity. To be sure, many Christian visitors came having heard or read of the large Baptist and Pentecostal churches with their fervent church services and meetings. In contrast, the Orthodox Church to many represented a compromised state church which had sold its birthright to the communists for a pot of privileged porridge. It therefore came as a surprise to many visitors to discover in the context of the Orthodox Church a strong and vibrant renewal movement: Oastea Domnului, the Army of the Lord. This grassroots movement today is in a unique position on the religious landscape of Romania. Perhaps its greatest challenge and task is remaining true to its mission of spiritual revival, of 'preaching the crucified and risen Christ' in the context of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Potential and complexity

The potential and complexity of marketing Jordan internationally are discussed. Although Jordan has been at peace for over two decades, uncontrollable regional conflicts affect the number of international tourists that Jordan is capable of attracting. Nevertheless, since the occupation of the West Bank by Israel in 1967, which included most of the known tourist attractions at that time, Jordan has rebuilt its tourism industry. This now has the potential to diversify into several distinct market segments, which are described in this paper. A survey has also been conducted on a small sample of potential first-time visitors from the UK; this reveals that the tourism industry is still failing to market Jordan successfully as a holiday destination. Reasons for this include the government's weak contribution reflected by a low tourism budget, and the lack of coordinated marketing strategy among the various components of the tourism industry.

The ‘Little Parliament’: The General Court of the East India Company, 1750–1784

The historical verdict on the General Court of the East India Company has often been an unfavourable one. The Court, the ultimate sovereign body within the company, has invariably been described in terms similar to those which used to be applied to the eighteenth-century house of commons: it has been seen as a corrupt, disorderly, and disreputable political institution. Macaulay set the general tone in 1840 when he painted a typically vivid picture of proceedings at the General Court in the mid-eighteenth century. ‘The meetings’, he wrote, ‘were large, stormy, even riotous, the debates indecently virulent. All the turbulence of a Westminster election, all the trickery and corruption of a Grampound election, disgraced the proceedings of this assembly on questions of the most solemn importance’. This unflattering and somewhat impressionistic sketch has occasionally received uncritical acceptance from modern-day historians, and indeed it may be endorsed by contemporary observations of particular events at the Court. In 1767, for example, a first-time visitor to the Court room at India House in Leadenhall Street was appalled by what he saw, and he came away with the impression that this was ‘the most riotous assembly I ever saw’. And yet, on numerous other occasions commentators were full of praise for the good order and high standards of oratory at the Court. This has prompted two of the leading modern authorities on the history of the company in Britain to comment favourably on the quality of debate at India House during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth century.

Humanity, ethnicity, nationality

5/12/90 Although it was almost 11 pm, we could make out the features of a diminutive figure from the upstairs window of the Praga Restaurant. The May light in Moscow is memorable to a first-time visitor. Not only does the evening refuse to blacken, but it has a bleak translucence that plays a peculiar trick on the eyes: it appears actually to sharpen vision, to lengthen its focus. As she moved slowly, agonistically it seemed to me, from Kallinnprospekt toward the Arbat, the young woman in the street below shifted a baby, swathed in newspaper, from her left side to her right. She was obviously very young, her bowed body notwithstanding. Although I was in a party of a dozen or so people, only one other, a Russian apprentice-ethnographer, saw her as I did. Our eyes crossed. So did our voices: "She is terribly poor," I heard myself murmuring, in a fit of banality. "And the child... ?" The scene reminded me passingly of a hollow, Hollywood script, ca. 1910: the over-dressed, over-fed wealthy gaze down from their lush interior world onto the immiserated people of the snowbound streets as they make their way through their chill lives. But this was not a celluloid romance. It was all too real, it was 1990, and it was not snowing: "She's Uzbek," noted he, "they are very backward and poor." And then, over my silence: "They breed a lot. It's their nature."

A Probability of Revisitation Model: The Case of Winter Visits to the Grand Canyon

This paper finds that on average first-time visitors to the Grand Canyon are willing to travel significantly greater distances than repeat visitors. These findings are based upon a binary logit model of repeat visitations estimated from a recent sample of Grand Canyon visitors. This model expresses the probability of repeat visitation as a function of distance travelled and visitor demographic profiles. Included among the demographic characteristics are income, available leisure time, and the number of previous visits. An important managerial implication of this study - not only for the Grand Canyon but also for other tourist destinations - is the value of ‘probability of revisitation’ approach in identifying subtle market fragments. This opens the door to sophisticated marketing strategies that, in this case, cater to the separate needs and desires of repeat and first-time visitors to enhance revenue possibilities.

格子状街路網地区における経路の選択ならびに探索に関する調査実験

A questionnaire survey about residents' path choice and experiments on wayfinding performance of the first-time visitors in residential areas organized by rectangular grid streets have been executed. Two types of path choice behavior, i.e., "boundary walking" and "zigzag walking", and also characteristics and situation of each walking type are identified. These results are discussed with respect to the Garbrecht's model of random walking and random paths.

From community mental health services to specialized psychiatry: the effects of a change in policy on patient accessibility and care utilization

In 1975, a community mental health (CMH) centre with most of its resources channelled to outpatient services was set up in a defined catchment area of 75,000 inhabitants near Stockholm. In 1981, the CMH centre was allocated 3 inpatient wards of its own. An outpatient unit to treat long-term psychotic patients was also built up from existing resources. Emergency cases were directed to the primary health care services or to the emergency department of a hospital. During the same period, the number of doctors in the area's primary health care services increased fourfold. The social, demographic and diagnostic composition of the patient population and its utilization of in- and outpatient care in connection with these organizational changes are described. The population of the cathment area increased by 12.5% and the patient population decreased by 40%. The decrease was particularly great among first-time visitors (-54%), patients from lower social groups (-53%) and those with crisis diagnosis (-71%). The number of patients with psychoses increased (+26%). Outpatient visits and hospital utilization increased by one third. The number of compulsory admissions increased by 20% (still being far below the mean number in Stockholm). The decrease in the patient population is attributed to the reduction in accessibility to the CMH centre at a time when primary care services in the area were undergoing a sizeable expansion. The increased care utilization is the result of an internal redistribution of resources in favour of resource-demanding, long-term psychotic patients.

Information Search Strategies B y Destination-Naive Tourists

First-time visitors to a novel destination who are not visitingfriends or relatives may be viewed as being destination-naive. This article examined the information search strategies used by destination-naive vacationers to Alaska and their associated vacation-specific behaviors. Three distinct information search strategies were identified, with the travel agent playing a pivotal rolefor two of the information search strategies. The third strategy involved using information sources other than a travel agent. Marketing implications of the differences between the segments are discussed.

Environmental learning of first-time travelers

A major objective in the marketing tourism services is to increase the activities and commerce of tourists within an area or location. The extent of environmental learning and knowledge exerts a significant influence on such an objective. This study addressed the factors influencing the rate and degree of environmental learning of first-time visitors to an international destination. The relative contributions of direct experience, and direct and indirect sources of information to tourists learning of a new environment, were examined in this empirical study of visitors to a European city. Implications for increasing visitors' learning of and commerce with tourist attractions and retail elements in an area through marketing and promotion are discussed.

A bite from the big apple

The first-time visitor to New York is struck by how familiar it all looks -the yellow cabs, the WALK/DON'T WALK signs, the steam from the ventilation shafts. A thousand movies set in New York City have ensured that the place looks as familiar as your own home town.

A Study of the Relationship between Social Network, Perceived Ill Health and Utilization of Emergency Care: A Case-Control Study

Several studies have shown that persons who repeatedly turn to somatic emergency departments, besides having ailments also often have social and psychological problems. It has also been shown that this group of patients differs from the general population and can be considered a psycho-socially exposed group. In the present study a group of recurrent users (4 + yearly visits) was compared to a group of first-time visitors to the general emergency department of a middlesized metropolitan hospital. Both patient groups were asked to complete a questionnaire that contained 45 items, covering socio-demographic and social network variables, social and personal problems, perceived state of health and contacts with other care-giving institutions. The results showed that the first-time visitors were significantly younger than the recurrent users, and more often actively employed. Only 2 percent of the first-time visitors developed a behaviour of recurrent use of the ED. The recurrent users were well-known at the hospital, not only in the emergency department but also at the out-patient clinics and the social work department. The multiple Odds ratio showed that alcohol abuse, lack of close friend, general health problems and deteriorating health were important risk factors for recurrent ED use. It is suggested that an individual treatment plan including medical, social and societal measures could be one alternative in an attempt to more efficiently treat these patients.

The Demand For Package Tours: A Mode Choice Model

A model is presented to explain a traveler's choice of vacation mode. The possible modes considered are independent travel, travel on an inclusive package tour, and travel on a basic package tour. The model is tested using logit analysis and survey data on travel to the Hawaiian Islands. The results indicate that purchasers ofpackage tours are likely to be elderly, be intent on visiting several destinations, contain few people in the party, intend to make short visits, and be first-time visitors to the destination.

Holiday destination image — the problem of assessment: An example developed in Menorca

This article describes a method of assessing secondary images of holiday resorts to determine what effect such images have on tourist decision making. Passengers en route to Menorca were provided with a list of attributes from which to build up a word picture. First-time visitors and returning visitors could be separated by discriminant analysis but with a degree of overlap. The results seem to show that the package-holiday product itself is more important than the destination because of the vague place information given in brochures; also that unexpected deviations between reality and preconceived images have negligible effect on holiday enjoyment.

Introducing the Holy Land: A Guidebook for First-Time Visitors

Every year, Professor Maxwell Miller, a distinguished archaeologist and Old Testament scholar, conducts a selected group on a tour of Israel and Jordan. This guidebook was originally prepared for their private use and has gone through several editions in that form. It is designed primarily for first-time visitors and provides a survey of the geography and history of Palestine, supported with maps, archaeological plans and chronological outlines; there are also a large number of photographs. While the emphasis is on biblical times and places, it takes into account the whole sweep of Middle Eastern history including, for example, the Crusades and the events leading to the current Arab-Israeli conflict. There are three parts. Part I is a general orientation, providing historical and geographical information. Part II focusses on the actual place which tourists normally visit - or should visit - in the Holy Land and gives information about each site, including simplified road maps, site plans and excerpts from ancient documents. Part III is packed with details - a compact and valuable reference work. The guide is essential reading for those fortunate enough to visit the Holy Land; and those unable to can still learn a good deal from a reading in armchair or classroom. J. Maxwell Miller is Associate Professor of Old Testament in the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta.

Cognitive Map Formation as a Tool for Facilitating Information Transfer in Interpretive Programming

ABSTRACTUsing mail questionnaires, first-time visitors to Gettysburg National Military Park were asked to rate the perceived clarity of Gettysburg Battle events. Perceived clarity was found to be r...

The Political Economy of Hunger in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe

The first-time visitor to Salisbury cannot help but be impressed by the exceptionally clean and modern downtown area. The well-kept parks and spotless boulevards put any city in the United States to shame. Supermarket shelves are well stocked, and the near total absence of beggars makes one wonder if this is in fact part of the African continent. If one stays inside the downtown area and its rich suburbs, one can easily miss the ugly truth that millions of people in this relatively affluent nation are suffering from malnutrition and that whole communities have been destroyed by starvation.

Who Uses Highway Welcome Centers?

Highway welcome centers are operated in most states. This article investigates visitors to these welcome centers and discusses their demographic and expenditure patterns. Comparisons are made to nonwelcome center visitors in terms of trip and traveler characteristics. The differences in a first-time visitor and a repeat visitor are also analyzed.

The Outsider Inside: Retracing Carpentier's Lost Steps in the Eastern Caribbean

This reading of Carpentier's four 1958 chronicles on Barbados analyzes how they rhetorically enact the skills of intercultural self-positioning that Carpentier had acquired by this mature stage of his journalistic career as an expert Caribbean chronicler but first-time visitor to Barbados. Furthermore, whilst these chronicles at least partially vindicate autochthonous Caribbean cultural expression, this analysis identifies the conspicuous absence therein of any direct engagement with social realities such as the continuing colonial status of Barbados and interrogates these omissions through other critical readings of Carpentier's approach to race and political engagement, and through his response to the Guadeloupian poet St. John Perse. Though Carpentier's fictional oeuvre repeatedly confronts the claims of humankind's theoretical perfectibility through historical progress with those of the subjective ego, his Barbados chronicles exemplify a countervailing tendency to erase sociopolitical contexts from his travel writing in a manner that can be regarded as problematically apolitical.