Local Destination Research Articles

Consumption of a literary tourism place: a perspective of embodiment

With contemporary cultural transformation and the expansion of consumption, tourism has been elevated to embodied consumption of the entire tourist destination. This study examined the case of Liangshan in the Shandong province – the birthplace of the famous story of Water Margin in Chinese classical literature – to construct an analytical framework for the consumption of literary tourism. Using data collected from personal interviews and online blogs and analyzed by content analysis, this study determined the relational structure of literary tourist embodied consumption. Research findings revealed that the existence of literary works as a ‘preconstruction’ or ‘preunderstanding’ was an expectation of literary tourists. There were different dimensions of embodied consumption of literary tourism, which were interdependent and mutually permeating. Perception, imagination, understanding, and emotion are mutually evocative in the multisensory experience of a literary tourism place. This study contributes to theory by providing further understanding of literary tourists’ aesthetic experience of embodied consumption and offers implications for literary tourism resource development, local destination brand marketing, and the inheritance of humanistic values.

Local tourism policy makers and e-image of destinations

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to propose a suitable measure for evaluating the effectiveness of regional destination management towards building a successful destination image. The study introduces a new methodology that examines the similarities and differences of the views between the tourism demand side as expressed by tourists’ opinions on TripAdvisor and the supply side as expressed by local policy makers. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative survey data reveals measurable discrepancies caused by local strategy and policy decisions and by attributes of the destinations. Destination management organizations could conduct similar surveys to evaluate the effectiveness and overall success of local branding and destination promotion strategies. This is one of the few studies focusing on the individuals with key roles in local tourism management, comparing the perspectives of the demand and supply side and identifying reasons for failure, based on factors acknowledged by the local policy makers.

Co-creating an integrated curriculum alongside community partners: a creative analytic approach

ABSTRACTTraditional approaches to university education are not effective. Problematically, the emphasis in education is teaching rather than the ability for students to learn. Recognising the constraints of traditional instruction, we assembled a collegial team exploring a creative pedagogical tool to co-instruct and co-learn from our practice. Specifically, our contribution explores our process of co-creating an Integrated Curriculum Design (ICD) project together with our community partners. Our ICD reflects our response to a concern brought forward by a local Destination Marketing Organisation, and was mutually informed by professors, graduate students, and adapted based on the feedback of our undergraduate students, and iterative consultation with our community partners. We employ Creative Analytic Practice (CAP) as a series of vignettes to aid in our understanding of how we co-created our ICD model and the value it has generated for all those involved, pausing at a scholarly-community intersection to reflect on opportunities in co-creating tourism pedagogy with an array of scholarly and community partners.

Fuel prices at petrol stations in touristic cities

While it may seem obvious from common sense that retail fuel prices should be higher in touristic rather than in nontouristic cities, the related empirical literature has failed either to clearly support this assumption or to qualify and quantify the effect of tourism on retail fuel prices. Using a self-created data set that includes prices across a large sample of petrol stations located in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, we seek to evaluate the effects of tourism on local destination retail petrol prices. The estimations prove three main effects: Petrol prices are higher in cities with high levels of tourism, nearby beaches, and/or with the socioeconomic influence of a national park. In fact, petrol stations add a margin of around 6.6% and 6.4% for unleaded gasoline 95 and diesel, respectively, in touristic cities. Second, the more touristic the city, the higher these prices. Third, in the case of touristic municipalities, the percentage of travelers from abroad and being within the area of influence of a national park are two of the main drivers that explain this overpricing.

Measuring quality for destination marketing: local public stakeholders’ perceptions in Portugal

Based on academicresearchand international recommendations on tourism quality, this study sought to develop a wide-ranging tourism quality scale adapted for Portuguese contexts. The research included creating and validating a marketing subscale to measure local public stakeholders’ perceptions of marketing strategies focused on improving tourism destinations’ quality. A self-administered survey was conducted with a sample of Portuguese municipalities including, more specifically, 134 local public stakeholders commonly considered local destination marketing organisations, as well as public policy-and decision-makers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to measure destination marketing quality, resulting in the identification of two factors: (1) image and promotion and (2) product differentiation. The proposed instrument was shown to have validity and reliability and to be a useful measurement tool. The findings highlight local public stakeholders’ responsibility to ensure the quality and competitiveness of tourism destinations’ marketing and provide multiple useful practical and theoretical implications and insights to guide future research

DAMPAK KEBERADAAN SEKTOR PARIWISATA TERHADAP PENINGKATAN FAKTOR SOSIAL EKONOMI MASYARAKAT KAMPUNG TENUN SAMARINDA DI KOTA SAMARINDA KALIMANTAN TIMUR

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of the impact provided by the existence of tourist destinations on the social and economic influence of the local community's destination. This method uses qualitative descriptive method and purposive sampling method, focuses on the chairman of the business group. The results of this study indicate that there is a synergy between the existence of the tourism sector to improve the economy and social community in tourist destination areas.
 Keywords: Tourism, Impact, economy, social, Destinations

Does Designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site Influence Tourist Evaluation of a Local Destination?

The purpose of this study is to explore whether the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) designation affects tourists’ evaluation of the local destination hosting the site, building on a large sample of about 0.8 million tourists who visited Italy over the period 1997–2015. We find that the inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List exerts surprisingly a negative effect on the overall evaluation of the destination and also on the evaluation of its artistic assets though the magnitude of the latter is lower. The effect is heterogeneous across visitors, depending on evaluation levels, as well as origin/destinations and demographics. Nonetheless, the presence of multiple WHSs in the same destination tends to increase evaluation, suggesting that destination stakeholders with previous experience in dealing with WHS designations are better equipped to manage the complicated relationship between tourism and preservation. Managerial and policy-making implications are discussed.

ECO-HOMESTAY; CONCEPT AND DEVELOPMENT AT PASIRMULYA TOURIST VILLAGE, BANJARAN, BANDUNG – WEST JAVA

Rural areas experience an imbalance between rural development and cities due to a centralistic development approach. Noting this reality, the government shifted its approach to development strategies that led to decentralization policies. The development of tourism in the village of Pasirmulya is directed at the concept of sustainable development, where local communities are given the authority to manage the tourism potential that exists. The problem is that there are no accommodation facilities for visitors in the village of Pasirmulya, according to the character of rural areas. Eco-homestay is the concept of accommodation facilities in the local ecotourism destination area which is natural, clean, healthy, safe, orderly and environmentally friendly. Applied the concept of marketing, understanding the values ​​of tourism, and improving the quality of human resources, is expected to contribute economically to local communities in the village of Pasirmulya. The results of mentoring that have been carried out are the ability of the community in tourism awareness, can carry out independent cleaning of the homestay and increase income in homestay management.

Analysis of push and pull factors in food travel motivation

ABSTRACTWith a lack of a comprehensive understanding of travel motivation toward a food destination, this study aims to identify internal motives of potential food tourists and their preferred destination attributes by adopting the push–pull framework. A survey was conducted via online networks of ‘foodies’ yielding 335 valid responses. Results of exploratory factor analyses and measurement model evaluations indicated three push factors: taste of food, socialization and cultural experiences; and three pull factors: core food-tourism appeals, traditional food appeals and local destination appeals. The results contribute to our understanding of food travel motivation from both a tourist and a destination perspective. Practical managerial implications for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are also provided.

Leaving Light Footprints – the Importance of Promoting Responsible International Travel

Irresponsible travel has the potential to harm both the traveler and the host destination. The subject of responsible travel is a major focus of the International Society of Travel Medicine, whose Responsible Travel special interest group has been very active in providing leadership for travel medicine practitioners in relation to the protection of local travel destination communities. Healthcare professionals have a responsibility to safeguard the dual interests of travelers and their hosts. This can be achieved by drawing the traveler’s attention to examples of irresponsible tourism during the pre-travel consultation. This perspective article aims to explore various aspects of irresponsible travel, including environmental damage travelers may cause; medical tourism and its impact on both the home and destination health service; voluntourism involving poorly prepared volunteers interacting with vulnerable communities in the host country; and sex tourism, including prostitution and child trafficking. Further research is needed to better understand the attitudes of travelers, travel health professionals, and the travel industry towards responsible tourism and to overcome barriers to its implementation.

Distributed leadership typologies in destination management organisations

This paper investigates processes and practices related to the enactment of Distributed Leadership (DL) within Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) through a cross-disciplinary approach by adapting a framework developed by Hoppe and Reinelt (2010) for evaluating leadership development in networks in situ and the visual strand of Social Network Analysis (SNA). The paper unfolds the case of Milton Keynes – an emerging destination in England and its local destination management structure – Destination Milton Keynes. Six leadership typologies within a network of DMO member organisations are identified, which demonstrate different, yet complementary DL behaviours. The study contributes to an understanding of how traditional DMOs shift their predominant organisational models through the development of different leadership behaviours of their member organisations in line with changes in their operational environment. The identification of different leadership behaviours serves as the basis of the development of DL typologies to support DMO policy and practice.

The main trends in the Russian tourism and hospitality market from the point of view of Russian travel agencies

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss recent developments in the Russian tourism industry and the main reasons for new initiatives in local destination development.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on qualitative research methodology. A summary of key literature is presented alongside the analysis of the survey results.FindingsThis paper sheds light on the challenges and changes that took place in the Russian tourism business between 2014 and 2017. The subject is poorly covered in academic literature. The basic data for analysis presented in official statistics are scarce. Therefore a more effective way of obtaining relevant information was to conduct a survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, with tourism business actors as respondents.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper provides mostly conceptual analysis based on limited empirical data; directions for further empirical research are proposed in the conclusion.Originality/valueThe paper reveals something of the impact of economic and geopolitical factors, both negative and positive ones, on the restructuring of the Russian tourism market and the emergence of promising opportunities for the development of new domestic destinations. As a result, tourism market actors are able to become more diverse.

Towards a model of destination innovation process: an integrative review

ABSTRACTThe goal of the present paper is to integrate five types of literature related to the innovation process (i.e. cluster theory, innovation systems, network relations, knowledge management, and innovation types) and apply them to the local tourism destination to build a destination innovation process model with macro and micro perspectives. The suggested models intend to broaden the thinking on destination innovation process for tourism-related agents at the local and national level. The paper undertakes a careful review of the relevant literature before creating the conceptual models. The paper’s novelty and uniqueness lies in suggesting a new conceptual model of addressing how innovation competence of tourism destinations can be developed, and offering insight for tourism-related agents at the local and national level into how to effectively create and manage innovations. Future research should undertake empirical studies to test the integrated models presented in this conceptual paper.

Modeling the elevated risk of yellow fever among travelers visiting Brazil, 2018

BackgroundUnlike the epidemic of yellow fever from 2016 to 17 in Brazil mostly restricted to the States of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, the epidemic from 2017 to 18 mainly involved São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and resulted in multiple international disseminations. To understand mechanisms behind this observation, the present study analyzed the distribution of imported cases from Brazil, 2018.MethodsA statistical model was employed to capture the risk of importing yellow fever by returning international travelers from Brazil. We estimated the relative risk of importation among travelers by the extent of wealth measured by GDP per capita and the relative risk obtained by random assignment of travelers’ destination within Brazil by the relative population size.ResultsUpper-half wealthier countries had 2.1 to 3.4 times greater risk of importation than remainders. Even among countries with lower half of GDP per capita, the risk of importation was 2.5 to 2.8 times greater than assuming that the risk of travelers’ infection within Brazil is determined by the regional population size.ConclusionsTravelers from wealthier countries were at elevated risk of yellow fever, allowing us to speculate that travelers’ local destination and behavior at high risk of infection are likely to act as a key determinant of the heterogeneous risk of importation. It is advised to inform travelers over the ongoing geographic foci of transmission, and if it appears unavoidable to visit tourist destination that has the history of producing imported cases, travelers must be strongly advised to receive vaccination in advance.

지역관광종사자의 고객접촉 수준에 따른 관광지에 대한 공유된 믿음과 관광객과의 정서적 연대 관계의 차이 연구

Emotional understanding between tourists and local residents has been one of the new research approaches in community-based tourism. This study analyzed tourism employees’ emotional solidarity (ES) toward tourists, focusing on the hypothesized interaction effects of ES between tourism employees’ shared beliefs (SB) about the local tourism destination and the two different levels of interaction with tourists. Empirically significant differences were identified between tourism employees (the high customer contact group) who directly encountered tourists in Old Bagan (a cultural tourism destination famous for 2,300 Buddhist temples) in Myanmar and those (the low customer contact group) who worked in general hospitality service industries outside of the Old Bagan area. The high customer contact group exhibited higher sympathetic understanding and emotional closeness toward tourists, but the low customer contact group showed higher welcoming nature than the other group. This result implies that tourism employees who have direct contact with customers within cultural heritage sites tend to communicate their emotional intimacy with tourists. On the other hand, tourism employees engaged in low contact tend to appreciate tourists because of the economic benefits from having them in the area. Therefore, educational and consulting support are needed to guide employees to understand tourists sympathetically and build emotional closeness.

Cycle Tourism as a Driver for the Sustainable Development of Little-Known or Remote Territories: The Experience of the Apennine Regions of Northern Italy

One form of cycle tourism can be represented features tourism that focuses on the relation between biking and the discovery of a territory. Geared toward forms of holiday that allow for the low consumption of natural resources and a connection with the landscape, cycle tourism represents a concrete expression of sustainable tourism. As an emerging phenomenon in Italy, cycle tourism requires further understanding in order to identify methods of development and applicable business models. The aim of this paper is to explore the characteristics of cycle tourism’s development in northern Italy in order to identify the links that exist between sustainability and the group of cycle tourists who prefer to spend their holidays discovering little-known or remote territories. For this study, we selected three different destinations in sensitive mountain areas that converge on the common goal to use cycling to rejuvenate the tourism sector. It has been found that the development of cycle tourism in areas not characterized by mass tourism, such as those considered here, is economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial. The business models through which cycle tourism usually develops include a bottom up approach or a top down approach, involving the cooperation of several local destination stakeholders.

Secure Model to Generate Path Map for Vehicles in Unusual Road Incidents Using Association Rule Based Mining in VANET

Logical behavioral arrangements are a class of conventional arrangements to illustrate the happening of incidents in an appropriate and structured approach in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). These incidents are characterized as a list of path segments that are passed through by the vehicles for the duration of their journeys from a pre-decided local source to a local destination in a structured manner. A set of proper description illustrating the paths traversed by the vehicles as logical behavioral arrangements is described in this paper. The data gathering scheme based on secure authentication to gather the data from the vehicles is proposed in this paper. This proposed data gathering scheme based on secure authentication is compared with the existing data gathering schemes by using veins framework and the results of analysis reflect that the proposed scheme outperforms among others. The data collected from the vehicles by the proposed data gathering scheme is stored at distributed road side units (RSUs). From these collected paths, the common and frequent paths opted by the vehicles in a certain region are determined by using frequent arrangement mining approach. An estimation model is used to decide the next path and the whole path map opted by the vehicles in unusual situations like accident, jams, or a particular time of day. The proposed scheme will help the society in reducing the waiting time in vent of emergency or normal working days.

Evaluation of water quality using hydrochemistry, stable isotopes, and water quality indices in the Lower Volta River Basin of Ghana

The Lower Volta River Basin of Ghana is an important international and local tourism destination. Communities in the basin depend on shallow aquifer systems, the Volta River, and nearby streams as their sources of water for domestic purposes, cattle watering, and irrigation. Due to increasing human activities and limited information on water quality in the area, a holistic assessment of the quality of the water resources in the basin was conducted using hydrochemistry, δ2H and δ18O, principal components analysis, and selected indices. EC ranged from 141 to 19,370 μS/cm and 60.9–986 μS/cm for shallow groundwater and surface water respectively. NO3− levels above 45–1049.9 mg/l were observed in 45% of analyzed wells. Na–Cl- and HCO3–Ca-dominant facies are identified. Silicate weathering, evaporite dissolution, cation exchange, and salinity are the hydrochemical processes influencing the shallow groundwater in the area. δ2H–δ18O‰ plot showed meteoric shallow groundwater recharge. Ion ratios, EC, and Cl− versus δ18O‰ relationships suggest dissolution and seawater intrusion as causes of groundwater salinity. Hydrochemistry, principal components analyses, and NO3− versus δ18O showed evidence of anthropogenic pollution on water in the basin. All analyzed surface water and 79% of well samples were within suitable range for irrigation. Based on the CCMEWQI model criteria, 85% of the surface water were in good-to-excellent categories while majority of the shallow groundwater were in fair, marginal, and poor categories. The combined approach provided vital information on water quality in the basin. Strategic control measures were proposed.

Distributed Mode and Power Selection for Non-Orthogonal D2D Communications: A Stochastic Approach

The coexistence of device-to-device (D2D) and cellular communications in the same band is a promising solution to the dramatic increase of wireless networks traffic load, in particular in the presence of local traffic, when source and destination nodes are in close proximity. In this case, the mobile nodes can communicate in a semi-autonomous way (D2D mode), with minimal or no control by the base station (BS), but they may create a harmful interference to the cellular communications. In order to avoid it, we design a distributed approach that allows the mobile node to acquire in real time local information by observing few channel and topology parameters. Based on this information, each user can infer in advance not only the quality of its transmission, but also its impact on other ongoing surrounding communications toward the BS. This enables a smart, adaptive mode, and power selection performed with a network wide perspective. Differently from most approaches, this selection is made autonomously by each D2D sources, with no need for a centralized scheduling. We compare our strategy to the state-of-the-art in the same distributed network scenario, showing the importance of exploiting local information for a dynamic, interference aware power, and mode selection.

Local cuisines and destination marketing: cases of three cities in Shandong, China

ABSTRACTThis study analyzes how the three cities of Jinan, Qingdao, and Qufu in Shandong Province of China use their cuisines in promoting their destinations. Based on a critical review of previous studies, a conceptual framework was developed, which included five closely related areas: foods, beverages, dining, farming, and food festivals. All related texts, images, videos, brochures, booklets, and websites designed to market these three cities were content-analyzed. The study findings suggest that all the three cities have not yet fully utilized their cuisines in their destination marketing efforts. Although some of their culinary resources appear in their marketing materials, the local cuisines of these three cities are not yet skillfully integrated into their marketing efforts. The present study offers specific theoretical and practical implications on marketing the culinary resources of destinations that are in the early stages of their development.