Role In Tourism Development Research Articles

Role of tourist destination development in building its brand image: A conceptual model

Tourism is truly an international/global industry. Tourism is vital to the economy of a country and sustainable tourism development requires an understanding of the complex interrelationships and interactions among a multitude of environmental factors and interdisciplinary forces that play a critical role in tourism development. While overall the field of tourism has been abundantly researched, there are certain areas where there is a paucity of research, namely, competition analysis, branding and positioning. Our research contributes to this extremely important but relatively less researched subject. Specifically, we study the relationship between destination development and its brand image. We develop a conceptual model which identifies various constructs, processes and linkages involved in the relationship between destination development and its brand image. We propose that the brand image has three components corresponding to the three stages of consumption/travel, namely, pre-travel, during travel, and post-travel. In developing this model we draw upon the interdisciplinary nature of tourism and discuss a variety of influences, such as, economic, social, cultural, political and psychological factors.

Analysis of Climate Resources Impact on Guilin International Resort Tourism Development

Guilin is trying to be an international tourist destination. Climate resources development and utilization can play a catalytic role in the sustainable development of tourism. By analyzing the climatic resources of tourism in Guilin, the climate conditions, meteorological disasters and climatic comfort of 13 stations in Guilin were studied. The city has clear four seasons, with short winter cold and summer heat, and the accumulated temperature conditions, rainfall, sunlight, wind is proper for tour; all of these bring a high human comfort. Guilin’s climate is very beneficial to the ecological environment, biological species and picturesque scenery, which is very suitable for living and tourism. While, meteorological disasters also occur from time to time, so in the tourism project development we need to pay great attention for it.

Transportation and tourism sustainability in major Jordanian tourism cities

ABSTRACTTourism in Jordan is a major industry that contributes significantly to the national income both from local and international tourism. Transportation is a key element in developing the economy of any country in the world. Transportation advancement plays a crucial role in tourism development and sustainability worldwide and in Jordan. This paper focuses, using Ajloun city (a major tourism area in northern Jordan) as a case study, on analyzing and assessing the existing transportation system conditions and their contribution to a sustainable tourism industry in Jordan. Spatial analysis is utilized to elaborate more about other related parameters such as topography, land use, road condition, and climate and their relation to tourism development in the study area. Results indicated that major modifications to the existing transportation system are needed to achieve a sustainable tourism industry in Jordan. Tourism planning in Jordan should take into consideration the physical system of transport as a major component of the tourism development master plan.

Development of Urban Tourism , Emphasizing Impact of Climatic Factors : A Case Study of Farsan County

Today, tourism industry can be considered as one of the biggest existing industries and one of the most important branches of industry and trade around the world and is in top of job creative industries. According to importance of tourism industry, in addition to cultural, social and political factors, environmental factors play also key role in development of tourism and attraction of tourist. The main aim of the present study is development of urban tourism emphasizing impact of climatic factors and Farsan County has been investigated as case study. Applied method in this study has been descriptive-analytical method. Statistical population of the study includes experts of Farsan in field of tourism and climatology, in which 50 persons have been selected as sample using snowball sampling method. According to obtained results from regression analysis, climatic factors can affect development of tourism to 31%; change in seasons and weather to 20%; codifying effective strategies to 35% and attracting investors can affect it to 14%. Therefore, through focusing on these factors, one can improve tourism development to desirable level of development plans.

Zakopiańskie dziedzictwo architektoniczne przełomu XIX i XX wieku jako potencjał rozwoju funkcji turystycznej

The article analyses the problem of using architectural heritage resources for the development of tourism, taking the Polish city of Zakopane as an example. By analysing the past and present functions of the selected group of heritage objects included in the municipal register of monuments, the relationship between the location and state of preservation of the object with the occurrence of its role in tourism development is examined. Studies have shown that Zakopane continues to grow, at least in quantitative terms, its tourism potential and that it utilises its architectural heritage resources to that purpose. On the other hand, market pressure is weakening the city’s identity, atmosphere and originality, both in terms of individual objects, and its entirety as a resort.

Community Based Tourism Development in Sikkim of India—A Study of Darap and Pastanga Villages

The Community Based Tourism Development is based on the engagement of local communities as the central stakeholder in tourism development. However, for most of the times, this concept of the bottom up planning is usually given in the top-down manner because of lack of awareness on the part of communities. The communities participated from planning to execution level are often catalyzed by external forces such as non-governmental organizations' encouragement to the local communities, and there has been little exploration of what communities think of their roles in tourism development. This paper studies this aspect in the Darap and Pastanga villages in Sikkim of India. The focus of the research is to understand the perspective of the local communities at a point when tourism has developed with the intervention of outside agencies that have involved locals in many roles.

Sustaining culture and seeking a Just Destination: governments, power and tension – a life-cycle approach to analysing tourism development in an ethnic-inhabited scenic area in Xinjiang, China

Set against the background of China's changing economy and its rapid rise as a major tourism provider, this paper examines the development of tourism, and tourism policies, in Kanas (Xinjiang), an ethnic inhabited scenic area in north-western China which has seen visitor numbers rise from c. 800 to c. 1 million annually from 1990 to 2013. It uses the first four stages of Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle model (TALC) as a framework, analysing governments’ role in policy-making and implementation, and the tensions and conflicts at each TALC stage. It finds that the TALC is a useful analytical framework in China, despite its command economy, and governments’ multiple roles in tourism development. The position of cultural heritage and the characteristics of the Tuva and Kazakh ethnic minority peoples in tourism in Kanas are critically examined, as is China's concept of social harmony and progress. Social harmony is compared – and contrasted – with the emerging concept of the Just Destination in destination planning and management. The minorities are found to be weak in knowledge, capital and bargaining power, but the relationships involved are complex and still evolving. The paper is one of a JOST series on China's new tourism management policies.

Tourist Expectation and Tourist Experience in Cultural Tourism

Chiang Rai is one of the most famous destinations in Thailand due to its rich tourism resources especially with many cultural resources and well-organized and developed tourism infrastructure. As a consequence, Chiang Rai has targeted to promote and develop cultural tourism in order to attract more foreign tourists to visit and satisfy their needs and expectations, which is seen as one of the most important aspects in the current tourism development strategies in Chiang Rai. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to compare the gap between pre- and post-experience of foreign tourists who visited Chiang Rai towards their expectation and experience on: (1) arts and crafts; (2) life style of local people; (3) local food; (4) festivals and local traditions; (5) ethnic/indigenous life style and culture; and (6) cultural heritage. The quantitative approach has been chosen to conduct the study by using a questionnaire with 400 foreign tourists and One-way ANOVA was the statistic used for gap analysis between tourist expectation and experience. The data collection included the analysis of government documents and the relevant literature. The finding of the study illustrated that cultural tourism plays an important role in tourism development in Chiang Rai and the gap between pre- and post-experience of tourists. However, in order to minimize the gap between pre- and post-experience of tourists and maximize their expectation and satisfaction, both government and private sectors should have an in-depth understanding towards the management of cultural tourism. The tourist needs more quality cultural products and foreign language skills from staff and local people.

Assessment of rural destination residents' attitude toward tourism development in Uttarakhand, India: a research note

As an important component of tourism, the host community has been given increasing research attention to its role in tourism development. A supportive host environment is prerequisite in order to sustain the long-term and successful development of the tourism industry. Within the considerable body of knowledge, host community attitudes towards tourism have been extensively studied with the help of the costs and benefits of tourism perceived by community members. The impacts of tourism are exhibited in a wide range from the change of economic structure to social, cultural and environmental issues. The present study is an attempt to analyse the attitude of the community members towards tourism development in the Ukhimath, Sari and Makkumath villages in Rudraprayag District of Uttarakhand. The study area, due to its high altitudinal geography, healthy climate and enchanting scenic beauty is ideal for small scale community based tourism development. Since tourism in the area is in its nascent stage, it is quite important to ensure the sustainable development of tourism for which understanding of residents’ attitude is very essential. To assess the attitude of the residents of identified villages, field surveys have been conducted in the study villages during March, May and October, 2011. Personal observations and unstructured interviews were used as the survey tools.

Analysing the Relationship Between Urban Infrastructure and Attracting Urban Tourists by Using TOPSIS and AHP Models

Identification of top tourism spots (often referred to as “honeypots”) has been always considered important in tourism planning issues, but the approach has been somewhat passive (i.e. simply “counting” visitors). Strengthening these areas as main tourist destinations can help provide more and better services for tourists visiting these destinations. Accordingly, it can be linked to tourism infrastructure, which can play an important role in tourism development. The main aim of this paper is to determine and rank the factors attracting tourist in Isfahan province by combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) models. To achieve the objectives of this paper and to emphasize the importance of tourism in the Isfahan province, different cities in the province were selected as samples. In this exploratory research, the systematic view of AHP and TOPSIS as well as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for data analysis. The preliminary result obtaining from TOPSIS model shows that the city of Isfahan, Shahin Shahr, and Kashan were the first three cities ranking in terms of having proper tourism infrastructure. In the second stage, two models were combined and the results show that the cities of Isfahan and Kashan are the top two tourism destinations in the province. Such work can be used by planners and policy-makers to allocate resources.

Policy and Tourism Development as Exemplified by the Lublin Region (Southeast Poland)

Since the late 1980s a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have emerged from an environment of centralized planning to models closer to Western European ones. This process of transformation occurred specially at a regional level, where tourism is examined as a vehicle for sustainable development especially in Europe's less developed regions. Within this context, local authorities' role in tourism development is examined. In this study it was assumed that tourist policy is composed of three fundamental groups of components: the activity of local authority and management of tourism in the municipality; promotion and information; cooperation. The relevant data reflect the socioeconomic changes that have been taking place in Poland for about 15 years at the central and local level.

The Role of Local Communities in Tourism Development: Grassroots Perspectives from Tanzania

One of the core elements of tourism development is to encourage local communities’ participation as it is central to the sustainability of tourism industry. While the literature suggests a number of roles local communities could take in tourism development, little emphasis has so far been given as to how local communities themselves feel about this. As a result, there has been little evidence, especially from the grassroots, on what communities really think of their role(s) in tourism development. Using a case study of Barabarani village in Tanzania, this paper contributes to the understanding of community participation in tourism development by examining local communities’ views on their role in tourism development. The paper triangulates both quantitative and qualitative data to bring together perspectives from the grassroots based on household questionnaire survey with some members of the local community and a two-month period of field observations in the study area, coupled with the researcher’s experience with the wider community. The findings revealed that local communities want to be involved when tourism policies are being made to enable policymakers to prepare a policy that meets stakeholders’ needs and addresses their concerns. They also want to be part of tourism development decisions to ensure their needs are incorporated. Furthermore, local communities want to have a voice in development issues (not necessarily tourism development) to enable them to protect community interests, and increase transparency and accountability, and wipe out embezzlements and abuse of offices, which are rampant acts amongst decision-makers. Similar to previous studies, they rejected the statement ‘local people should not participate by any means’ in tourism development. It is clear from the findings that people are against the prevailing top-down approach in decision making when it comes to tourism development in their areas. It also depicts the nature of the central government which controls all the forms of decision making when it comes to development and policy formulation. The study emphasizes on small scale methods in analysing and assessing the role of local communities views of participation from the communities themselves rather than what has been normally imposed on them.

Re-defining the rural space in the Kuiseb Delta: Examining the potential tourism benefits for the Topnaars in Namibia

The purpose of the study was to redefine the rural space and explore the potential tourism benefits for the Topnaars in the Kuiseb Delta. Kuiseb Delta has unparalleled archeological/historical sites of which 235 have been well researched. The historical sites are being threatened by unauthorized tourism and recreational activities. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism proclaimed community concessions recently which hold out hope for the Topnaar and other communities’ future to benefit from tourism. Topnaars are marginalized and are increasingly dispersing into adjacent towns or mines. The study utilised a naturalistic inquiry which is based on an illuminative approach. This involved the use of focus group interviews with participants in the tourism industry and a key informant technique with the Topnaar community. The method followed was important as it enabled the researchers to understand the principles underpinning potential community benefits and the industry’s role in tourism development in the Kuiseb Delta. The study unearthed that the proposed tourism activities are ideally located and offer unique tourism opportunities for the Topnaars. The proposed tourism products appeals to a growing market segment and could be marketed through binding market agreements with chosen partners. In addition, the project could be viable and could be operated at marginal cash. The study recommends the granting of a concession to the Topnaar community, the proclamation of the area as a ‘conservation area’ in terms of the ‘heritage act’, development of a management plan and an environmental impact assessment, attracting private sector partnership and providing of appropriate training for tour guides. The study further recommends continued archeological survey and documentation of additional cultural/archeological sites. Key words: Tourism, community benefits, sustainable development, rural space, tourism products.

Community Networks and Sustainable Livelihoods in Tourism: The Role of Entrepreneurial Innovation

Entrepreneurial innovation plays a significant role in tourism development, especially in communities with limited experience or expertise in tourism. Innovative tourism businesses, often in the small business sector, are likely to be more beneficial to the local community in terms of job creation and economic linkages. Such forms of tourism could offer new forms of livelihood in destination communities, making tourism an effective strategy for livelihood diversification that is more sustainable and community-based. Community-based tourism initiatives can also help form community networks that facilitate involvement of local stakeholders in a more efficient manner. This paper analyses the role of entrepreneurial innovation in facilitating community networks and sustainable livelihoods in tourism. A case study of an eco-heritage tourism resort of Coconut Palms, in the Indian state of Kerala provides an illustration of how entrepreneurial innovation helped form a community network and offer sustainable livelihood diversification opportunities to stakeholders in the periphery of tourism. The paper thus contributes an example of a sustainable community–private network and a new understanding into a phenomenon that has potential to make a real contribution to the lives of individuals in disadvantaged communities.

An Establishment Of The Role Of Private And Public Sector Interests In The Context Of Tourism Transport Planning And Development: The Case Of Malaysia

Although 90% of the tourism industry consists of small businesses, the approach of consecutive governments in Malaysia is that tourism has reached a stage where its promotion and funding is the responsibility of the private sector. When national and regional tourist promotional boards were established, it was the intention that these would act as a vehicle for cooperation between the public and private sectors. This has proved to be extremely optimistic, with only a small number of tourism businesses actually joining in the decision-making processes of the direction for tourism development. The role of tourism development has been further undermined with the increasing rate of tourist arrivals, further implicating the control of public-sector resources, while governments place reliance on private/public partnerships as the model for the future. This research paper reports on the findings of a two-year study on the promotion of transportation in tourism development in Malaysia. It establishes the role of private and public sector interests in the context of tourism transport planning and development. A qualitative approach to in-depth interviews was conducted with respondents from the public sector (policy makers and local authority and government agency representatives) and the private sector (tour and travel agents) in Malaysia. The empirical evidence has shown that implementing stakeholders within the tourism industry are receptive to the promotion of transportation and aware of the differing roles each sector plays in the context of tourism transport planning and development. However, they do not fully exploit the complementary role played by the other sector for mutual benefit via consultations and public private partnerships at the planning stage.

The role of tourism development in the framework of integrated development in Egypt

The role of tourism development in the framework of integrated development in Egypt

EU and Tourism Development: Bark or Bite?

In the absence of major programmes to strengthen the quality and competitiveness of European destinations, the role of the EU in tourism development has often been seen as fairly limited. Despite this, spill‐overs or side effects from adjoining policy areas with extensive European regulation or intervention can be equally important, and the paper examines key aspects of the EU’s role in tourism development in order to discuss to what extent the traditional interpretation of a passive actor of little consequence should be modified or even discarded. Drawing upon European and Nordic documentary sources as well as existing specialist literature, the text first examines the development of an EU policy statement on tourism, and then two areas of EU policy – competition policy and regional development – are analysed with a view to establishing side‐effects in European and Nordic destinations. It is concluded that while policies specifically targeting tourism have been limited in reach and profile, the touristic side effects of other economic and social policies central at the European level have clearly been considerable, primarily by facilitating the emergence of new multinational tour operators and budget airlines, but also by supporting development of new services and experiences in parts of Europe where tourism has until now been a socio‐economic activity of relatively limited importance.

Dracula tourism in Romania Cultural identity and the state

The state plays an important role in tourism development, in planning and policymaking, and also as the arbiter of cultural meanings. States choose to encourage forms of tourism that are consistent with their cultural and political identities. But they may have to contend with forms of demand that are beyond their control. “Dracula tourism” in Romania is one example. Founded on a place myth of Transylvania as the home of the supernatural, this activity is discordant with Romania’s self-image and the way it wishes to present itself to the wider world. This paper examines the way the Romanian state has managed and negotiated such tourism, in both socialist and post-socialist contexts.

The world bank’s role in tourism development

Over the last four decades, commitment to tourism as a development strategy for developing economies has fluctuated within the World Bank. This article reviews the bank’s experience from 1966 to the present as it has evolved through various phases of its own institutional role towards development. Today, driven by strong country demand, there is renewed interest within the bank in the role of tourism in the fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The paper analyzes the role and approach of the World Bank toward this development aim.

Sustainable tourism planning and development: Understanding the capacity of local government

Through decentralization, local governments play an increasingly important role in tourism development. While there has been much research on local government's role in achieving sustainable tourism, relatively little research has been conducted on the capacity of local government to achieve sustainable tourism. This is particularly the case for developing countries such as Thailand. Applying the Nominal Group Technique and using in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders, this paper seeks to examine the capacity of a local Thai government administration, namely, the Tambon Administrative Authority (TAA). This research also examines the local government's influences on and responses to sustainable tourism development. The research findings demonstrate the TAA has adequate capacity in terms of legislative authority mandate, but limited capacity in terms of its resources including insufficient knowledge of tourism issues, budget and staffing. The paper concludes these limitations have resulted in a number of tourism issues affecting the ability to achieve sustainable tourism development in Koh Tao. Such issues may also affect sustainable development in other developing countries which have similar patterns of tourism development.