Regional Tourism Products Research Articles

“Tourism – Common cause”. Polish tourist products

This research note relates to the Polish programme entitled “Tourism – common cause”. It describes the programme, project ideas and problems encountered during the creation and operation of tourist products and methods of solving these problems. “Tourism – common cause” is the largest training and consulting project in Poland, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Polish government and is specific for tourism. The aim of the project (completed in March 2008) was to fully define a tourism product and to transfer knowledge concerning methods of its creation throughout the wider region. The purpose was to aid the development of the tourism industry in Poland through the creation of regional tourism products within a network and enhancing the qualifications of those working in the industry.

Cruising Tourism - Development Chance of Kotor

Diversification and specialization of the nautical tourism offer, initiated by more and more turbulent changes within the domain of demand preferences in nautical tourism, resulted in the appearance of the types of this aspect of selective tourism, the most prominent of which is cruising tourism. The issue is about new industry on the global tourist market, within which 20 mil. passengers are to be carried in the year 2011. Development of cruising tourism is particularly interesting for Kotor, the tourist destination with valuable natural and anthropogenic tourist resources on the Montenegrin coast. It can become one of the main bars of its economic development in future. However, realization of such scenario requires intensive structural changes in the domain of local and regional tourist product.

THE EVALUATION OF BEACHES IN NORTHERN MALAYSIA

This paper reports on findings of an IRP A Long Term Research that among others, aims at ranking natural tourism resources found in the states of Penang, Kedah and Perlis. Selected tangible resources such as beaches and waterfalls \Vere assessed using structured evaluation sheets. This paper discusses the methods and approaches utilized in assessing the products. Five evaluating factors that were used to determine product attractiveness and quality include transportation & accessibility, accommodation, facilities & infrastructure, tourist activities and physical features. The resulting quantitative rankings can assist tourism planners and marketers in planning and plotting potential tourist routes and developing more integrated regional tourism products.

THE EVALUATION OF BEACHES IN NORTHERN MALAYSIA

This paper reports on findings of an IRP A Long Term Research that among others, aims at ranking natural tourism resources found in the states of Penang, Kedah and Perlis. Selected tangible resources such as beaches and waterfalls \Vere assessed using structured evaluation sheets. This paper discusses the methods and approaches utilized in assessing the products. Five evaluating factors that were used to determine product attractiveness and quality include transportation & accessibility, accommodation, facilities & infrastructure, tourist activities and physical features. The resulting quantitative rankings can assist tourism planners and marketers in planning and plotting potential tourist routes and developing more integrated regional tourism products.

The Third Tier of Public Sector Tourism: A Profile of Local Government Tourism Officers in Australia

Local government tourism represents the third tier of public sector tourism. While state and national tourism organizations are chiefly responsible for the design and implementation of tourism strategies and national and international marketing campaigns, it is the lesser-known local government authorities that shoulder the responsibility for promoting the regional tourism product. This article reports on a study of local government tourism officers conducted in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. The study raises a number of questions about the level of professionalism in the local government tourism field. Local government tourism officers generally lack formal educational qualifications in tourism or marketing and have little prior tourism industry or public sector tourism experience. This sector also records a high turnover rate of between 40% and 50% per annum. In addition, gender preferences were noted in hiring practices: men typically were appointed to manage larger, better-funded organizations, while women were appointed as either managers of tourist information centers or to support managerial positions in large organizations.

Tourism and resource development conflicts on the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, Otago, New Zealand

The Kawarau and Shotover Rivers are in the heart of Southern New Zealand's premier tourist region, focused upon Queenstown in Central Otago. Over the last fifteen years they have become important as the venue for a variety of adventure activities, principally jet boating and white water rafting. These have grown rapidly to become a major part of the regional tourism product. During the same time period, proposals for hydro electric power development on the Kawarau threatened to eliminate white water rafting and severely modify jet boating; during the last five years a revival of the region's gold mining industry, which was founded in the 1860s, has threatened rafting on the Shotover River. This paper examines the ways in which these conflicts were assessed and managed, and points to a new threat, namely that of overcrowding.

The white paper on Valencian tourism

At the beginning of the 1990s, tourism in the Mediterranean is at the most crucial stage of its dynamic history. The tourist industry has developed up to the present within the general context of a buyer's market and a demand lacking in segmentation. The tasks of communication and sales have traditionally been placed in the hands of intermediaries who have demonstrated little interest in the differentiation and qualitative improvement of the product, while the lack of contact with new demand has produced a stagnation of supply and a scarcity of innovation. In the case of the region of Valencia, which could serve to typify the tourism issues of the European Mediterranean region, a new business culture has begun to emerge, with a tourism strategy which has been agreed upon in the White Paper on Valencian Tourism. The differentiation of regional tourism products occupies a key position within this strategy.