Prospective Tourists Research Articles

From Old West to Cosmopolitan: Changing Narratives of Oklahoma City Tourist Guidebooks

This article seeks to bridge the gap in scholarship between entrepreneurial urbanism and the understanding of place image as presented through tourist guidebooks. Tourist guidebooks have long been used to sell regions and attractions to prospective tourists. Narratives in these guides often shift to reflect the changing economics, politics, and culture of a region or city. More recently, the rise of entrepreneurial urbanism has been one of those factors that have impacted tourist guidebooks. The (re)construction of a place image through entrepreneurial policies results in the promotion of a select package of facilities or highlighting specific attributes associated with that place. This article illustrates how entrepreneurial urban projects and policies can directly shape a city's tourist promotions. I use Oklahoma City as a case study to explore these impacts and examine more than 30 years of tourist guidebooks to understand the changing narratives of the city in light of entrepreneurial urban policies. More specifically, I show that Oklahoma City officials shifted tourist narratives from overt Old West constructs to constructs rooted in cosmopolitanism in light of entrepreneurial agendas, like the Metropolitan Area Projects and business improvement districts.

You exist in my song! How a destination-related popular song enhances destination image and visit intentions

Research on media-induced tourism has been growing in recent years. The existing research has shown that films, television programs, and radio commercials can induce tourism behavior. The present research aimed to introduce a new form of music-induced tourism to the literature by examining the impact of a destination-related popular song on prospective tourists’ intentions to visit the destination. A theoretical model that included music-evoked mental imagery, affective image, overall image, and visit intentions was developed; 381 respondents participated in a web-based experiment to test the hypotheses, and the model was validated using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that music-evoked mental imagery led tourists to generate positive affective images and overall images of the destination, which in turn influenced their intentions to visit the destination. The implications of the findings for tourism marketers and future research directions are also discussed.

Storytelling in destination brands’ promotional videos

Storytelling represents an extensive and rich body of research in tourism. Prior studies mainly focus on tourists’ stories in understanding travel experiences and little knowledge exists as to whether destination promotional videos embed the principles of storytelling. Using the Hero’s Journey as a guiding framework, this study conducts a narratological analysis of six destination brand commercials. The advertisements are deconstructed, assessing their story structure, story type, archetype enactment, and experiential outcome. Findings indicate that the majority of destination commercials fail to exhibit state of the art practices of storytelling and this represents a missed opportunity. The Hero’s Journey offers a useful tool to help destination marketers to develop powerful storytelling promotional videos that connect with and engage prospective tourists.

Sri Lanka-China Tourism Relations An Analysis of Recent Trends in Chinese Tourist Arrivals to Sri Lanka

Tourism is widely recognised as one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, accounting for approximately 10% of the global GDP, and employing a growing workforce of 283.5 million. In the context of Sri Lanka, the tourism sector is the 3rd largest foreign income earner and the total contribution to the economy is around 12% of GDP. This paper examines the recent trends in Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka along with the comparative position of Sri Lanka as an outbound tourism destination of China. It is observed that during the period of 1984 – 1994, Germany held the number one spot in Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals. Until 2004, Germany, India and the UK were the ‘top 3’ countries among Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals, and China’s contribution to local tourism was insignificant. In 2014, however, China was raised to the rank of the 3rd major tourist partner of Sri Lanka, accountingfor 8.4% of total tourist arrivals. Moreover, Chinese tourist arrivals grew remarkably by 72.5% in 2010-2016, while Indian and UK tourist arrivals increased only by 19.3% and 10.3%, respectively. Furthermore, tourist arrivals from China increased by 68% in 2015 compared to 2014, while Indian tourist arrivals grew only by 30%. Despite the impressive growth rate in Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka, these numbers are negligible in comparison to Chinese outbound tourism to other countries. Even though Sri Lanka was among the top 25 tourist destinations of Chinese travellers in 2007, it no longer holds this valuable position. Thus, this study recommends promoting Sri Lankan tourism destinations, e-tourism sites, improving air-connectivity between the two countries and cultivating tourism-friendly ‘soft power’ by celebrating festivals such as Chinese New Year, increasing the number of Chinese-speaking guides and hotel staff and introducing Chinese-language apps for tourists in order to multiply prospective tourists from China.

Implementation of Tahani Fuzzy Logic Method for Selection of Optimal Tourism Site

Indonesia has a variety of tourism industries. Travel makes people’s interest increase in visiting tourist sites. A recommendation application in the field of tourism is needed for the selection of the right tourism object was to be implemented in Central Java. This application is expected to provide information on prospective tourists in choosing tourist attractions effectively. This application can facilitate prospective tourists to choose tourist objects that match the criteria by applying the fuzzy tahani method. Fuzzy Tahani describe a fuzzy query processing method, based on language manipulation known as SQL (Structured Query Language). The Fuzzy Tahani model is very appropriate to be used in the process of finding the right and accurate data. Variables used in this application are variable ticket prices, number of facilities, number of visitors, distance traveled and types of tourist attractions.

Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Prospect of Tourism

In recent times, the economic fortune of Nigeria has been dwindling as a result of a drastic fall in the price of oil in the world market coupled with the illegal bunkering and the Niger/Delta militancy. This calls for the need to diversify the economy. Tourism is one sector that can guarantee numerous benefits for a sustainable growth from the over reliance on the oil sector. This paper therefore, examined the prospect of tourism as a source of income generation, foreign exchange earner and a source of employment. The sources of data were secondary gotten from CBN Statistical Bulletin and the World Tourism Organization. The paper examined the relationship between tourism and economic growth using Least Square. The result revealed that there is a significant relationship between tourism and economic growth. This confirmed the tourism led growth hypothesis that tourism triggers economic growth because tourists’ spending provides foreign exchange earnings and job opportunities. It follows that if well annexed, tourism can serve as a good alternative to oil reliability thereby bringing an end to Nigeria’s over dependence on oil with the attendance volatility. The paper recommended provision of infrastructural facilities and improvement in security in order to motivate prospective tourists.

Destination Assessment and Certification: Challenges and Opportunities

This study examines recent developments in destination assessment and certification as a basis for identifying challenges and benefits they engender, from tourist and tourism organizations’ perspectives. It uses online surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect primary data from prospective tourists and key informants on destination assessment and certification. The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of schemes currently in use, including various factors that might influence their future development. Specifically, the study finds that destination assessment and certification are affected by four key issues, namely, practicability, reliability, visibility, and (un)availability of incentives. It concludes that the manifestation of these issues and their ensuing complexity affect the way in which tourists and tourism destinations engage with destination assessment and certification. This, therefore, delimits the inherent opportunities and constraints within such schemes.

Prospective tourists’ risk perceptions and intentions to travel to a mega-sporting event host country with apparent risk

ABSTRACTWhile the global appeal of the Olympic Games has attracted a massive amount of attention, this increased focus has resulted in heightened risk occurring around the event. Prospective tourists’ growing anxiety related to terrorism and political instability regarding a travel destination could have serious implications on tourism. This article aims to examine the relationship between tourists’ risk perceptions and their intention to travel to an Olympic host country with apparent risks of terrorism and political instability during and around the event period using the case of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. Terrorism risk was found to have a negative impact on travel intention while political instability did not. The results suggest that potential terrorism risk is a vulnerable point for the host country, and host organisations’ collaborative risk management strategies for minimising potential threats and generating a safe destination image are necessary to attract a higher number of visitors around and during the Olympics. This study contributes to the sport and event tourism literatures by focusing on a specific case. As a result, the findings enable the authors to highlight the impact of terrorism and political instability on travel intentions of prospective tourists to a host country with apparent risks. More specifically, this research discusses the reason(s) for the impact of terrorism and political instability risks on the travel intentions, and calls upon the efforts of future Olympics and mega-sporting event host countries to mitigate the loss of international visitors and to boost global tourism during and after the event.

Komunikasi Pemasaran Dinas Pariwisata Kabupaten Buleleng Dalam Meningkatkan Jumlah Wisatawan Di Buleleng

By using a qualitative descriptive approach, this is to explore the activities of the marketing department of the Buleleng Regency Tourism Office in implementing marketing communications to increase the number of tourists. The tourism sector is one of the factors that influence the economy of Buleleng Regency. Through a good marketing communication strategy in marketing, the results will be good too, this will also increase tourist visits and help economic growth in Buleleng Regency. Similarly, tourism marketing aims to inform, persuade, introduce and increase tourist consumers so that prospective tourists have a desire to visit Buleleng Regency. The strategy carried out by the Buleleng Regency Tourism Office in increasing the number of tourist visits included advertising through television electronic media, online media, brochures, banners. Then face-to-face sales (Personal Selling) by introducing tourism products that are the object of tourist attractions. Furthermore sales promotion (Sales Promotion) through writing or direct communication, and publicity (Publicity) in the form of commercial news about products that are broadcast both through print media and electronic media. As well as direct marketing (Direct Marketing) is a form of promotion carried out by persuading prospective tourists. This can be done through writing that tells the experience on a personal blog. So that prospective tourists who want to go to Buleleng Regency can read someone's experience on various internet sites related to tourism objects, entrance ticket prices, locations, and so on. In addition, based on (Marketing Max) there are 13 elements including Products, Prices, places, promotions, people, physical condition, process, brand, segmentation, service, positioning, sales, and targets.Keywords: Marketing Communication, Buleleng Tourism Service, Travelers

The Construction of the Territorial Image in Tourism Websites: The Case of the Veneto Provinces

Websites are popular platforms for institutional Tourist Boards that want to promote their territories to visitors from all over the world. When tourism promotion is directly conducted by local institutions it entails greater responsibilities for the promoters since they are the real, actual territory introducing itself to prospective tourists. Therefore, the construction of the territorial image is fundamental to convey the aspects that best symbolize the land and that, eventually, will be the reason why tourists will choose to visit the area. This study investigates how local institutions in the Italian region of Veneto promote their districts (a.k.a. ‘provinces’) both in English and in Italian. To do so, the official tourism websites of the seven Veneto provinces are considered. The corpora, composed of texts taken from the websites, are examined quantitatively and qualitatively to identify the most recurrent keywords used in the texts. The aim is to identify the most representative aspects chosen by the seven territories as their symbolic markers, i.e. elements typical of a destination that are selected to provide an iconic, but also stereotypical, image of the local culture they are promoting.

Korean dance performance influences on prospective tourist cultural products consumption and behaviour intention

We examined to what extent viewing the Korean dance performance by Beyond The Scene (BTS) at the 2018 Melon Music Awards influenced global viewers’ purchase of Korean cultural products and tourism behaviour intention. We surveyed 230 prospective tourists from the USA (black adult females = 50%; mean age = 34.9, SD = 1.116) in terms of their preference for Korean cultural products and intention to visit Korea. We conducted structural equation modelling to map the paths among cultural product preferences and tourism intentions. We found that viewing the Korean dance performance by BTS not only increased the purchase of Korean cultural products among participants, but also their tourism behaviour intention. We also found that the purchase of Korean cultural products by participants was associated with increased Korea tourism behaviour intention. We conclude from these data that viewing cultural performances by would-be tourists and their purchase preferences are important for promoting tourism through cultural industries.

DESAIN SHOW ROOM BAGI PARA PERAJIN ROTAN DS. TRANGSAN, KEC. GATAK, KAB. SUKOHARJO

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to realize the building of a product show room in the center of the Trangsan rattan handicraft industry, Gatak, Sukoharjo through cooperation between various elements. The existence of a show room is to facilitate prospective tourists in looking for rattan handicraft products and increasing the sales of rattan crafters is the purpose of this study. The method used to achieve these results is by planning, designing, building and displaying products in the show room. The collaboration between various parties involved, therefore researchers are more focused on the activities of planning, designing, and monitoring development. The planned location of the construction of the show room is in the Trangsan Village Hall complex. The process of designing data sources is obtained through existing conditions, literature, and informants. Data collection techniques are through interviews, literature review, documentation and Forum Group Discution (FGD). Data analysis is through interactive analysis which includes three components which include data reduction, data presentation (data display) and data validation (verification). The results of the study are in the form of design drawings which include work drawings, perspectives and detailed drawings ... Keywords: displays, products, rattanÂ

Medical tourism in Japan: an examination of Japan's international hospitals' online communication

This study examines the online information about Japanese hospitals, designated Japan international hospitals by the Japanese government, provided at JAPAN Hospital Search, a government portal site, and the hospital websites in order to explore how these hospitals are presented online and attempt to appeal to the perceived needs of prospective medical tourists. The content of 39 hospital websites are analysed across five dimensions: hospital information and facilities, admissions and medical services, interactive online services, external activities, and technical items. Results show differences in the extent to which the hospitals convey information across the five dimensions. Additionally, the findings reveal inconsistencies between the hospital information presented at JAPAN Hospital Search and the hospital websites. Recommendations for improving the online communication about the hospitals are discussed, and suggestions for future research are proposed. The study serves as a starting point for further research on the online communication about Japan international hospitals as Japan strives to grow its medical tourism industry.

Prirodni i antropogeni resursi kao pokretači razvoja turizma - primer Starog Slankamena

Stari Slankamen is a village in the Vojvodina Province (Northern Serbia), which administratively belongs to the municipality of Indjija in Srem district. Research for this paper was carried out mainly in the field work through visits of the facilities and by interviewing the experts. All of the information was gathered from various research papers, as well as verbally. The goal is to conclude, through the study of natural and anthropogenic values, the current situation in the observed location. The objectivity and possibilities for the implementation in accordance with their available potentials were taken into account. The goals are directed towards increasing the level of quality of the provision of services to prospective tourists as well as improving the current situation in Stari Slankamen. The survey questionnaire was used during the research. Respondents were visitors from Novi Sad and Stari Slankamen as well as the employees of the local restaurants who were asked to estimate the existing potentials for the development of tourism in Stari Slankamen. Based on the analysis of dependent and independent variables, it has been concluded that existing resources are not used properly for tourism purposes and that the prerequisites exist only if effort and resources are added towards these purposes.

Prospective tourists’ cognitive image prone to safety and security destination: the case of Sabah, Malaysia

Safety and security are important for travellers and the tourism industry. One characteristic that influences travel intention is the type and level of safety and security related to destinations. It is generally accepted in tourism literature that the importance destination image of which is universally acknowledged, is often used as a significant element for local tourists in the choice of a vacation destination. The main focus of this study was to identify the underlying dimensions that influence prospective tourists’ travel intention to visit Sabah. A total number of 362 questionnaires were distributed to gain the information from a prospective international tourist who had not visit Sabah before. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the sample profile. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying dimensions of the cognitive destination image. Using this method, four main dimensions of cognitive destination image; natural environment, appealing activities, attractive conditions and essential condition were identified. Based on the results, suggestions were made to build up strategies for improving and maintaining the Sabah image. Furthermore, the limitation and implications for future research are also provided.

Model Sistem Informasi Biaya Kunjungan Wisata di Provinsi Sulawesi Utara

Cost is one of the important information needed by tourists and prospective tourists in planning and conducting tourist visits. This study aims to produce a system model that can record, process, and present information about the cost picture when tourists or potential tourists to travel in North Sulawesi province such as overview of accommodation costs, transportation, culinary and cost of tourist attraction. Using waterfall method in system development. Data collection by observation, interview and literature. Testing system using blackbox method. The result of this research is a system model that can present information about the cost picture starting from the description of minimum cost and others which make the information need of the cost can be fulfilled, so it is expected to help the tourist in traveling and support the tourism industry in North Sulawesi Province.

Tourist’s Perceived Risk and Image of the Destinations Prone to Natural Disasters: The Case of Bali and Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Tourism has emerged as one of the largest and most rapidly growing economic sectors in the world. Nevertheless, many tourist destinations have been periodically confronted by natural disasters that threaten their survival as an industry by negatively impacting their image and safety perception. This research assessed tourists’ perception of the risk and images of a destination that is considered prone to natural disasters, by surveying 537 tourists in Yogyakarta and Bali. This study contributes to the debate on tourism development issues related to negative perceptions and images that have discouraged prospective tourists from visiting affected destinations. The results of the survey indicated that the occurrence of past disasters did not strongly influence tourists’ decision to visit Indonesia. Instead, the creation of the destination image was informed more by its current situation, and it is these current factors that may encourage or discourage potential tourists. These findings should signal to tourism planners that while environmental disasters are unavoidable, post-disaster rehabilitation of a destination’s image would significantly increase its chances of rebounding quickly.

Tourist’s Perceived Risk and Image of the Destinations Prone to Natural Disasters: The Case of Bali and Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Tourism has emerged as one of the largest and most rapidly growing economic sectors in the world. Nevertheless, many tourist destinations have been periodically confronted by natural disasters that threaten their survival as an industry by negatively impacting their image and safety perception. This research assessed tourists’ perception of the risk and images of a destination that is considered prone to natural disasters, by surveying 537 tourists in Yogyakarta and Bali. This study contributes to the debate on tourism development issues related to negative perceptions and images that have discouraged prospective tourists from visiting affected destinations. The results of the survey indicated that the occurrence of past disasters did not strongly influence tourists’ decision to visit Indonesia. Instead, the creation of the destination image was informed more by its current situation, and it is these current factors that may encourage or discourage potential tourists. These findings should signal to tourism planners that while environmental disasters are unavoidable, post-disaster rehabilitation of a destination’s image would significantly increase its chances of rebounding quickly.

Health Resorts and Multi-Textured Perceptions of International Health Tourists

Health and medical tourism is considered one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry. Recently, research on health resorts has been gaining academic attention in tandem with the positive contribution of the health and medical segments to the tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to better conceptualize how the behavioral intentions of health tourists are shaped in the emerging context of the health resort. This study illuminates the likely perceptions of prospective tourists about the attractions of health resorts, and endeavors to examine the response of health tourists using data from 359 international health tourists/travelers, comprising of Thai, Indian, and Chinese nationalities. The study also uses the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique in order to analyze the responses of international tourists gathered at two international airports in China. The present study shows that tourists’ expectations and their behavioral intentions are generally associated indicators of perceived health resort attractions. Expectations play a significant mediating role, while culture impacts the overall phenomenon of proposed associations in a moderating way. Moreover, sustainable tourism attractions also play a significant role in shaping Thai travelers’ behavioral responses, while medical facilities and risk levels are considered significant in determining Indian and Chinese travelers’ behaviors. By developing theoretical and empirical grounds, this study offers implications for further research and development in health resorts and other niches of health tourism.

Exploring Islamic Tourism in Malaysia

Malaysia aims to be the global halal hub by 2020. Halal does not only cover products but also services. Tourism is part of services and becoming one of the major income for the country. In order to sustain the receipt of Muslim tourists, the government has announced Islamic tourism as one of tourism products in Malaysia. As such, there is no clear guideline on the concept of Islamic tourism to be offered to prospective tourists. This paper is an attempt to develop the concept of Islamic tourism and the practice as experienced by Malaysia will be indicators for future development of the concept of Islamic tourism. The data gathered and analyzed primarily based on qualitative method. Both observation and content analysis have been used to understand the acceptable practice of Islamic tourism. We propose that Islamic tourism is established upon economic, cultural, religious, social, spiritual and physical dimensions. It is also found that the government was very serious to develop Islamic tourism as one of tourism products and the establishment of Islamic Tourism Centre in 2008 was the proof. The initiative taken by the government was successful when a total of Arabs came to Malaysia in 2009 was 284,890 and increase year by year.