Individual Tourist Research Articles

An Event Study Analysis of Political Events, Disasters, and Accidents for Chinese Tourists to Taiwan

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has been closely related to the political relationship across the Taiwan Strait. The occurrence of political events and disasters or accidents have had, and will continue to have, a huge impact on the Taiwan tourism market. To date, there has been relatively little empirical research conducted on this issue. Tourists are characterized as being involved in one of three types of tourism: group tourism (group-type), individual tourism (individual-type), and medical cosmetology (medical-type). We use the fundamental equation in tourism finance to examine the correlation that exists between the rate of change in the number of tourists and the rate of return on tourism. Second, we use the event study method to observe whether the numbers of tourists have changed abnormally before and after the occurrence of major events on both sides of the Strait. Three different types of conditional variance models, namely, the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity, GARCH (1,1), Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle, GJR (1,1) and Exponential GARCH, EGARCH (1,1), are used to estimate the abnormal rate of change in the number of tourists. The empirical results concerning the major events affecting the changes in the numbers of tourists from China to Taiwan are economically significant, and confirm the types of tourists that are most likely to be affected by such major events.

Functional role and importance of PR-technologies in marketing activities of tourist companies

The article is devoted to the definition of the functional role and importance of PR technologies in the marketing activities of tourist companies. It is revealed that in the tourism industry PR acts as an important component of the marketing system of a tourist company, namely as a tool for marketing communications, along with advertising, personal sales, sales promotion. It is revealed that PR technologies in the tourism business are used to inform potential consumers, popularize tourist services, to position and improve the image of tourist companies and destinations. Distinctive features of public relations in the tourism industry are the wide reach of the target audience, the variety of applied forms, long-term focus. Selected marketing tools used to solve PR problems in the tourism business are: work with the media (newsletter mailing, press conferences, interviews, briefings, information tours for journalists, media monitoring), special events for the presentation of tourist company, its products and services (exhibitions, fairs, seminars); company image advertising; sponsoring various events; charity; trainings, training courses for tourist companies. It is noted that participation in specialized exhibitions and fairs deserves the greatest attention among PR activities in order to present the tourist company and its services, establishing and maintaining business contacts and are one of the important PR-methods of promotion of tourist product in the market of tourist services. Authors provide the description of the leading international tourist exhibitions as well as tourist exhibitions held in Ukraine. The advantages and disadvantages of participation of Ukrainian tourist companies in specialized exhibitions and fairs are reviewed. It is noted that the impact of exhibition activity in the tourism industry has increased due to its mass character, significant number of contacts, various professional activities. It is proposed that all communication means used at the exhibitions by individual tourist companies should be selected in such a way so as to fully reflect its competitive advantages. When assessing the effectiveness of PR technologies in the tourism industry it is necessary to consider them in the context of a particular tourist company, taking into account its target audience and applied PR tools.

Human ethology and tourists’ photographic poses

In this study the ideas and approaches of human ethology are applied to the topic of individual tourists posing for a photograph at iconic tourism sites. The emphasis in the study is on tourists’ postures and, using both researcher collected examples and internet materials, the work outlines an original category scheme for the kinds of poses observed. An eight part coding scheme was built on a careful analysis of the position of the tourists’ head, trunk, arms, legs and gestures. The labels assigned to the five most common poses were composed, cute, bland, model, and interacting with the tourist attraction. There was substantial agreement among two coders who applied the eight part system to 325 images. Explanations for these posture styles were pursued through considering concepts from human ethology. The potential applications of this style of work were briefly noted.

방한 중국인 개별관광객의 한국 내 선호 관광자원 분포

The purpose of this study is to analyze preferred tourism resources in Korea by inbound Chinese individual tourists(FIT), whose portion has been gradually increasing. The data was collected from Mafengwo, the largest travel portal for Chinese individual tourists. Review data such as destinations, lodging facilities, restaurants, shopping stores were analyzed and further visualized. The results showed that Chinese tourists to Korea preferred Seoul and Jeju as expected. In Seoul they were likely to enjoy cultural experiences and natural resources, and natural resources were most favored in Jeju. Compared with these two destinations, Busan seemed to be less favorable in terms of tourism resources and popularity. These results imply that (1) travel authorities could accurately offer education and management programs to service suppliers, (2) lesser-visited sites could have the opportunities to upgrade their services to remain competitive in the travel market.

Specialized (niche) tourism: development of the concept in Ukrainian and foreign academic literature

The term “specialized tourism” has been widely used in Ukrainian academic literature for the last few decades. The analysis of main publications reveals that this term refers to different types of tourism, which are usually known as “niche tourism” in foreign literature. Another term “special interest tourism” or SIT sounds very similar, but in fact, it has a bit different and narrower meaning. Such a difference in terms between Ukrainian and English-language publications is caused by differences in economic systems of so-called “capitalist” and “socialist” countries in the past. The term “niche tourism” comes from the concept of “niche market”, which appeared in the western economic literature under conditions of market economy. Instead, in the former USSR, in terms of a command economy, the concept of “specialization” was more popular, so the term “specialized tourism” appeared. Due to the analysis of the development of the concept of specialized (niche) tourism in domestic and foreign academic literature we got the possibility to clarify its contemporary content. Specialized (niche) tourism is a set of different types of tourism, targeted at clearly defined and relatively stable groups of tourists forming market segments (microniches), quite narrow but sufficient for the creation of individual tourist products. Niches can be separated based on different criteria such as the purpose of travelling, special needs of tourists or special features of tourism destinations. The most important features of specialized (niche) tourism are as follows: well-defined and relatively stable target group of tourists; market segmentation based on aforementioned criteria; products targeted at narrow market segments (micronishes) and tailored to the specific requirements of tourists; niche size sufficient for the creation of individual tourist products. Key words: tourism, types of tourism, specialized tourism, niche tourism, special interest tourism, tourist product.

Measuring Sustainability of Individual Tourist Behavior

Theoretical frameworks for sustainable tourism include individual tourists (Juvan and Dolnicar 2016) as well as tourism enterprises (Buckley 2012). Individual tourist behaviors affect environmental outcomes at all scales, from local recreational impacts in parks to global resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (Gossling and Peeters 2015). Here I argue that attempts to measure the sustainable behaviors of individual tourists have been severely lacking in rigor, and a much more rigorous approach is therefore required.

Finisterre: being and becoming a myth-related tourist destination

ABSTRACTThe phenomenon of travelling to myth-related places has had a revival in recent decades, warranting an investigation of how such places are perceived by today’s tourists. While established myths and the specific places they are associated with have been extensively researched, there is as yet relatively little research on how tourists appropriate and rework conventional myth-based place meaning and identity. The aim of this article is to contribute to wider debates on place, meaning and identity in tourism studies particularly as regards myth-related tourist destinations. Relying on theories of place and identity, we highlight how mythical places and their identities are appropriated and consumed by and made part of individual tourists’ experiences. Drawing on qualitative interviews with tourists journeying to Finisterre in Spain, this article shows how tourists rework the classical symbolism surrounding mythical places and imbue these with new meanings and identities. Based on Finisterre as a case, our study found out that myth-related places have become tourist-driven attractions: at present it is tourist flows that shape traditional myth destinations.

The Impact of Tourism on the Cultural Environment in Turkey: The Case of Antalya

Tourism has begun to develop with the development of the socio-economic structures of the countries after the Second World War and has become one of the fastest growing and expanding sectors in the world economy since this period.When tourism is rapidly growing, developing countries that have limited resources such as Turkey have to make rational investment decisions for the economic future of the country. Turkey’s tourism policies that focus on coastal tourism began to be applied through development plans in the 1960s. In the five-year development plans that started in 1963, tourism was selected as the priority sector in the economic development of Turkey and the main principle of tourism sector was defined as mass tourism until the 1980s.In this period when tourism investments were increasing, for the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage, it was aimed to give priority to the regions which were seen as most convenient for tourism investments.In the 1960s, Antalya was one of the selected priority regions according to the directions of the development plans to concentrate on the regions with high ability to attract tourists and to get short-term results. After the 1980s, although the concept of individual tourism has been mentioned in the development plans, mass tourism investments in Antalya have increased rapidly with the Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634 issued in 1982. From the 1980s, accommodation facilities in various categories have filled the city, thus the negative impacts of tourism on the natural, cultural heritage and social structure have begun to become evident.The tourism sector contributes greatly to the economic, cultural and social development of both developed and developing countries. However, the rapid and unplanned development of the tourism sector and focusing just on the economic impact of tourism for a long time has caused negative natural and socio-cultural influences.In Antalya, overpopulation caused by the rapid development of tourism has caused deteriorations on the cultural and natural environment. Particularly, Kaleiçi which is the historic center of Antalya has been through cultural and social transformations and lost its original character.The aim of this study which is based on the ongoing doctoral thesis is to discuss the role of tourism developments shaped by national policies and legal regulations with reference to the transformation process of cultural values in the case of Antalya Kaleiçi. In the first part of this study, national tourism policies and investments in Turkey and the interaction between them and the protection of the historic environment are explained. In the second part, the cultural, spatial and social impact of national tourism policies and investments in the case of Antalya are determined.

Multi-Objective Artificial Bee Colony algorithm applied to the bi-objective orienteering problem

We propose a new evolutionary computation approach for solving the multi-objective orienteering problem. This problem has applications in different fields like routing problems or logistic problems. In our case, the final motivation is the design of individual tourist routes. The tourists have different priorities about points of interests grouped into categories (for example, cultural or leisure), so, a multi-objective solution system is needed. In order to obtain the best Pareto solutions, the Artificial Bee Colony algorithm (based on swarm intelligence) has been adapted to the multi-objective context. The performance of this approach has been compared with two previous algorithms from the literature for the bi-objective orienteering problem (P-ACO and P-VNS), in benchmark instances and real-world instances. The results indicate that this new approach is good for solving the multi-objective orienteering problem.

High unemployment and tourism participation

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses individual tourism participation decisions during a worldwide economic downturn. Given the nature of tourism services, a reduction in habitual consumption is highly probable during an economic crisis. Since the unemployment rate is strongly correlated with the economic cycle, the hypothesis that is discussed concerns whether residents’ decision to participate in tourism is affected by their region's level of unemployment. More specifically, it is suggested that unemployment not only affects the tourism participation decision of those who are out-of-work, but that aggregate unemployment (measured as the region's unemployment rate) also has a bearing on such decisions made by individuals in general. The results that were obtained for a set of EU countries show that the unemployment level has a positive effect on the probability of not going on holidays. This effect emerges when there is an unemployment rate of over 10%.

The Informal Tourism Economic Model of the Ethnic Minority Regionsin Southwest China

Yunnan province located in Southwest China and owns a variety of tourism resource that makes him become one of the most popular tourist resorts. But, due to these ethnic minorities who are directly transferred from the primitive commune economy and feudal lord economy to modern market economy disable to grip the operation essence of the current economy system and the out-comers who are proficient in the market competition crowded out the natives and occupied the resources, the economy of Yunnan separated into two skin which produced the ethnic tensions and obstacles of economic development. Under this circumstance, informal economy plays a non-negligible role. Through a field work in the northeast areas of these regions, we found that a kind of informal tourism economy model that through constituted an informal tourism network which consisted of varieties of travel agencies, local restaurants, hotels and inns to collecting the individual tourists to forming a tour group called Individual Spell Group. This complementary network attracts tourists to buy their tour package in an ultra- low price and inducing them to shopping in some of special shopping spots operated by local ethnic minorities in a way we called ‘Soft compulsive shopping’. So, that, the funds be ingeniously transferred to the pocket of local ethnic minorities and then distributing to the other members of this network. In addition, our research found that by artfully utilizing the change of tax levy way, this kind of informal model also help local government to avoiding revenue levied by the state and keep the funds to developing this region. We believe the informal economy not only play an important role in some economic system especially where the modernity absent but also could efficiently solving the social problems, changing political force and, ultimately, effecting the people’s thinking.

Analysis of Tourists Preferences on Smart Tourism in Yogyakarta (Case: Vredeburg Fort Museum)

Smart tourism is a supporting system of an individual tourism in the terms of a comprehensive and integrated information and technology service. An educational tourist destination such as a museum is expected to present an informative and interactive atmosphere. Vredeburg Fort Museum as one of the tourist destinations in Yogyakarta begins to lose its visitors. The lack of interest of public towards the museum and the assumption that the museum is an ancient, less well maintained, and boring place become main obstacles in attracting tourists. This research aims to find the important factors becoming the preferences of tourists to visit the Vredeburg Museum in Yogyakarta. The research method used is the Principal Component Analysis. The analysis shows there are four main factors with eigenvalue more than 1, i.e. the first factor of 8,623, the second factor of 1,920, the third factor of 1,175, and the fourth factor of 1.082. Those four factors are the result of the grouping of 20 preference determinant variables.

Odessa catacombs as an integral part of the tourist image of the Black Sea region

The article examines the history of the Odessa catacombs, focuses on the history of research of underground labyrinths, and their gradual transformation from objects of scientific interest to tourist objects. We understand the tourist image of the region as the system of rationally and emotionally formed ideas, which are based on specific features of the territory, emphasizing its individuality from the point of view of the tourists. Tourist image always is woven into a certain historical context and social situation. Each era generates its special perception of the environment, changing the era creates a modification of tourist image of the region. The Odessa catacombs, which today are an integral part of the tourist image of the Black Sea region, also have changed in the minds of people from time to time – from their purely practical application to the production of limestone; for a while they had a negative reputation as a refuge for criminal elements, smugglers. At the beginning of the last century researchers have engaged in advanced studies of catacombs. Only in the second half of the twentieth century, the catacombs became interesting tourist destination for individual tourists, but in the 21st century and for mass tourism. Thus, the purpose of this research is to update the modern views about the catacombs and underground museums of the Black Sea region and their contribution to the formation of the tourist image of the region. The history of the formation of the catacombs shows that they are obliged to exist in their existence by the ancient Pontian limestone, which was extracted as a building material by locals. Today, the length of the catacombs of Odessa and its suburbs reaches for various data from 1.7 to 3.0 thousand kilometers; they are famous for their multistage and meandering passages of underground galleries. The first studies of the dungeons were done by the paleontologist O. Nordman, the geologist M. Barbot de Marne, T. G. Hrytsay, modern – A. Dobrolyubsky, K. Pronin, M. Baranetsky, A. Babich, V. Yudin, and others. Several museums were created for tourists: the Museum of Partisan Glory in the village of Nerubaysk, the underground Grotto of the Odessa Art Museum, the museum «Catacombs of Odessa» under the Moldavanka district and in the city center «Kantakuzen's Catacombs». The quality of images that arise in mass tourists is directly related to the process of knowledge of the territory. In this connection, the development of travel routes as a way of getting acquainted with the territory becomes especially important. Moreover, contemporary museums are interested in attracting a wide target audience; they also offer expositions of different directions from mine history to various legends about the use of dungeons, from unique paleontological finds to historical drawings and inscriptions on the walls of the catacombs. As a result of understanding the importance of the existence of such an invaluable scientific and tourist facility, as well as maintaining it in a proper condition for historical and cultural monument, influences the formation of a positive tourist image of the Black Sea region.

방한 중국관광객의 라이프 스타일, 관광정보, 행동의도 간의 영향관계

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship influence among life style, tourism information, and behavioral intention on Chinese tourists in Korea, along with the difference in the relationship influence depending on the tourism type (individual tourism or group tourism) and the pertinent implications thereof. In order to accomplish that purpose, Chinese tourists who had visit Korea, departing from Incheon International Airport were selected as subjects for a questionnaire implemented from March 1 to March 31., 2016. A total of 250 questionnaires was distributed and 230 valid copies were used for the empirical analysis. As a result of the study, the life style of Chinese tourists noticeably influenced tourism information and the tourism information perceived by Chinese tourists noticeably influenced behavioral intention with a difference depending on the tourism type (individual tourism or group tourism). Therefore, the study implies that the tourism information provided to Chinese tourists should be differentiated with the newest information taking into consideration life style, tourism type and factors.

사회 연결망 분석을 통한 개별관광객의 관광지 접근성 분석

This study examines public transit, which is one of the constraint factors for tourism activities. The centrality of the network of bus routes near Ulsan destinations were examined through social network analysis to confirm the mobility environment of tourists. The network of bus routes was visualized to identify weaknesses involving tourism destinations by using the bus routes listed in the “Ulsan Metropolitan City Bus Route Guide.” Centrality was analyzed using UCINET and the bus networks using Netdrew. First, it was confirmed that social network analysis is useful as a methodology for research on tourism transit systems related to the mobile environment of individual tourists. Second, it was confirmed that visualization of the bus network is useful for bus route analysis and improvement. Third, it was confirmed that the number of accessible destinations using bus routes is limited, so tourism activities are also limited. Traffic-related research should jointly consider temporal and spatial characteristics. However, this study considered only spatial characteristics, so further research should also consider temporal characteristics.

Distracted gaze: Problematic use of mobile technologies in vacation contexts

Digital technology has undeniably altered the way tourists experience destinations. Yet, the problematic use of smartphones and similar mobile devices in vacation contexts has received limited attention. Using descriptive and interpretive approaches, this study explores tourists' experiences and perspectives on the impact or lack thereof of continual engagement with mobile media devices on their tourism experiences. The broad-spectrum view was that mobile distraction takes “something” away from individual tourist experiences as well as travel groups' experiences, although interpretations of the significance of this forfeiture varied considerably. Findings highlight the perceived repercussions of various forms of digital distractions for the quality and scope of the tourist's consumption of sights and sounds; the tourist's wellbeing; social interactions; and the experiences of ‘others’. However, some tourists' cognizance of these deleterious effects may not necessarily translate into mindful use of mobile technologies in the holiday context. Findings hold key implications for theory and practice.

All aboard! Strategies for engaging guests in corporate responsibility programmes

ABSTRACT Many tourism corporate responsibility (CR) programmes require the support of guests, yet little attention has been paid to the design of strategies to encourage guests’ adoption of responsible behaviours. Research in the areas of tourist interpretation, social marketing and sustainability marketing has examined aspects of this issue across a range of situations. This paper uses a systematic critical literature review of these areas to identify 10 major themes that have been addresses in the research. The evidence presented in these 10 themes was then used generate guidelines for the effective engagement of guests with CR programmes. Strategies based on the 10 guidelines are embedded into a holiday scenario to illustrate their application. The importance of extending CR strategies beyond the immediate confines and concerns of individual tourism businesses is also discussed.

A Study of the Impact of Business Strategy on Customers Tourism Behaviors, Motivation, and Satisfaction -A Case Study of Hotels at Kenting, Taiwan

A study was conducted via questionnaire to explore the impact of business strategy of hotels at Kenting Area on customers’ tourism behaviors, motivations, and satisfaction. The results of the research were as follows: the most were tourists visit Kenting on holidays, the majority of the tourists were males, aged 21-30, students, general and vocational high schools, from the southern Taiwan, with personal monthly income of NT$20,001 - NT$40,000, the most were tourists visit this hotel for the first time as individual tourist. The features of tourists was went to Kenting to play and stay overnight, and the critical for the business management of hotels was aim to leading innovation and sustainable development, followed by the most important strategy for learning experienced activities, we recommend to have such package tour for the hotel marketing, to mainly focus on the professional manpower training of hotels, and the partnership of hotels were alliance strategy to create the profit maximization.

An Event Study of Chinese Tourists to Taiwan

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has been closely related to the political relationship across the Taiwan Strait. The occurrence of political events and disasters or accidents have had, and will continue to have, a huge impact on the Taiwan tourism market. To date, there has been relatively little empirical research conducted on this issue. In this paper, tourists are characterized as being involved in one of three types of tourism: group tourism (group-type), individual tourism (individual-type), and medical cosmetology (medical-type). We use McAleer’s (2015) fundamental equation in tourism finance to examine the correlation that exists between the rate of change in the number of tourists and the rate of return on tourism. Second, we use the event study method to observe whether the numbers of tourists have changed abnormally before and after the occurrence of major events on both sides of the Strait. Three different types of conditional variance models, namely, GARCH (1,1), GJR (1,1) and EGARCH (1,1), are used to estimate the abnormal rate of change in the number of tourists. The empirical results concerning the major events affecting the changes in the numbers of tourists from China to Taiwan are economically significant, and confirm which types of tourists are most likely to be affected by such major events.

ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНА ТА ЛОГІСТИЧНА ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ УРБОТУРИЗМУ В КОНТЕКСТІ ЙОГО СТАЛОГО РОЗВИТКУ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ УКРАЇНИ)

The territorial and logistic aspects of the integrated strategy of sustainable development of urban tourism, based on two concepts – tourism decentralization and reverse logistics are outlined. The first concept is based on the geologistical organization of the tourist space of the city, which includes such components as: geologistical (geographical and logistical) identification of the resource base of urban tourism; geologistical planning of tourist flows and determination of their needs; geologistical design of tourist infrastructure; geologistical design of supply chains of tourist infrastructure. At the same time, the geographical identification of the resource base of urban tourism means geospatial localization of tourist objects in the city. They should be considered as a kind of “tourist magnets”, which attract the flow of tourists to certain parts of the city. Accordingly, the territorial concentration of tourist objects causes a concentration of tourist flows, therefore these considerations should be taken into account when creating and placing new tourist objects in certain parts of the city so that there will be no territorial over-saturation of them. Consequently, instead of the territorial concentration of tourist objects in the central parts of the city, their territorial dispersion, that is, dispersion across the city territory, should be proposed. Logistical identification of the resource base of urban tourism means the definition of the logistic potentials of individual tourist objects, that is, the maximum possible tourist flows, which will not affect the sustainable development of tourism and the state of tourist resources. Geologistical planning of tourist flows and their needs means forecasting the size and structure of tourist flows and their needs, which can be divided into needs of the first and second levels. Geologistical planning of tourist infrastructure is to develop a network of tourism infrastructure objects in order to meet the previously determined needs of tourists of the first and second levels. The geologistical design of supply chains to ensure the functioning of tourism infrastructure objects includes the development of territorial transport and logistic schemes for their supply, taking into account the characteristics of the road network of cities and the locations of the objects themselves. The second concept involves an integrated approach to the recycling of the total amount of urban waste, including tourist one, taking into account their collection and removal from the city, as well as processing at special enterprises. The experience of Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Kyiv in this context is considered. At the same time Kyiv is more efficient in processing municipal waste, including tourist one, and Lviv faces the problem of the removal and recycling of urban waste, including tourist, over which the city now works.