Shaping Tourism Research Articles

The importance of context: How university entrepreneurial climates enhances entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality graduates

Universities play a key role in shaping Tourism and Hospitality (T&H) students' entrepreneurial intentions (EI), referring to one's willingness and desire to consider the creation of a new venture as a career option. However, the importance of a university climate for entrepreneurship is often overlooked in enhancing entrepreneurial career aspirations in T&H students. Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory and Institutional Theory, this study examines the role of entrepreneurial climates within universities and the mechanism through which it can shape T&H students' entrepreneurial intentions. Using data from 190 T&H students in the final year of a tourism and hospitality program, the PLS-SEM results reveal that T&H students' entrepreneurial self-efficacy and outcome expectations play key sequential roles in translating entrepreneurial climates into greater EI. The findings highlight the importance of individual and contextual-level factors in the formation of EI among T&H students.

An Interpretable Moderated Mediation Model: How does Punctum Image Influence Tourists’ Behavioral Intention?

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the influence of punctum image in destinations on tourists’ behavioral intentions. The study proposes the concepts of punctum and studium image based on semiology and uses an interpretable moderated mediation model to examine the effects of punctum image, studium image, flow experience, and human interaction on behavioral intention. The proposed research collected data from 440 tourists who visited a destination and used a structural equation model to analyze the relationships among the variables. The study employed bootstrapping to test the significance of the mediating effects and conducted a moderated mediation analysis to examine the moderating role of human interaction. The findings of the study indicate that punctum image has a positive effect on studium image and behavioral intention. Studium image is found to mediate the relationship between punctum image and behavioral intention. Additionally, the study shows that there are multiple mediations of studium image and flow experience between punctum image and behavioral intention. Finally, the study finds that human interaction plays a moderating role in two of the mediating effects. The results of this research have important theoretical and managerial implications. The study highlights the importance of punctum image in destination branding and suggests that destinations should focus on creating memorable and distinctive images to attract tourists. The study also emphasizes the role of studium image and flow experience in shaping tourists’ behavioral intentions, which could help destinations to design more effective marketing strategies. Finally, the study underscores the importance of human interaction in shaping tourists’ experiences and suggests that destinations should focus on providing high-quality human interactions to enhance tourists’ experiences and satisfaction. The use of an interpretable moderated mediation model in this study enhances the interpretability and practical applicability of the results for decision-makers.

Force of nature

In one way or another, tourism often sits at the heart of place branding. Transformations of tourism induced by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have led to shifts in tourist demand and target markets, thus provoking changes in tourist place branding. In this article, I explore these changes from a sociolinguistic point of view by examining the ways in which a rural tourist destination in Alsace (France) mobilises language and discourse to adapt its tourist place branding strategy in response to rising demand for nature tourism. First, using data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork undertaken following the easing of lockdown restrictions, I show how ‘nature’ is positioned as a central trope in defining the essential characteristics of the destination, its population, and the activities that can be undertaken there. Second, I look at how this positioning contributes to the elaboration of a coherent destination brand whilst also shaping tourist experiences and thus tourist, geographical, and spatial imaginaries. Finally, I explore the dynamics of commodification that underpin this foregrounding of nature in the (re)framing of people and place.

How Outstanding Universal Value Attractiveness and Tourism Crowding Affect Visitors’ Satisfaction?

A World Heritage Site is a masterpiece of mankind and/or nature that possesses outstanding universal value (OUV). In this regard, the 5Cs strategic objectives (credibility, communication, capacity-building, conservation, and community) set by the World Heritage Committee have become a main issue for WHS sustainable development. As one of the key stakeholders of WHS, tourist's perceived OUV attractiveness, congestion, and attitudinal behavior have significant implications for heritage protection and tourism's sustainable development. Based on the perspectives of OUV attractiveness and perceived tourist crowding, and taking into account destination attachment, the influencing factors and mechanisms of tourist satisfaction are investigated. In view of the 536 questionnaire responses from tourists of Mount Sanqingshan National Park, the structural equation modeling approach was employed to study tourist satisfaction. The conclusions were sketched: (1) tourist crowding perception did not have a significant negative effect on OUV attractiveness; destination attachment, and tourist satisfaction, and the degree of crowding perception was low; (2) the OUV attractiveness has a significant positive influence on destination attachment and tourist satisfaction, which fully highlights the charm of OUV and its important role in shaping tourists' attitudes/behaviors; (3) destination attachment has a significant positive effect on tourist satisfaction, indicating that tourists' heritage-place attachment contributes to tourist satisfaction. Finally, the analysis of tourism crowding, OUV, and the satisfaction framework proposed broaden the horizons of visitor satisfaction research, which is also a positive response to the strategic objectives of the 5Cs of WHS, with some practical implications for heritage preservation and visitor management in World Heritage Sites.

Gastronomic Experience and Consumer Behavior: Analyzing the Influence on Destination Image.

Gastronomy experiences are becoming a fundamental factor that influences the making of a decision regarding choosing a travel destination, as well as being a crucial factor in shaping tourists' satisfaction regarding their overall travel experience. The aim of the study is to identify and explain the simultaneous impact of the key factors that influence a gastronomic experience and their impact on tourists' satisfaction with a trip and the destination's brand. These issues were addressed within the context of Ukraine, as this is an overlooked area of academic research, and an online survey was conducted, targeting domestic and international tourists. Structural equation modeling was used to assess and reveal the proposed hypotheses in the model. The study contributed to the theoretical understanding of the key factors that increases the occurrence of a memorable gastronomic experience and the relationship between the experience of food and its role in the satisfaction of and the perceived brand of a destination. Moreover, the finding showed that past experience and prior knowledge have a positive influence on the gastronomy experience, while tourists' prior knowledge effects the perceived quality of a destination's cuisine, as well as the food activities in the destination. Linkages in the model were empirically supported by statistical analyses. Nonetheless, the various level of the tourists' involvement with gastronomy might be used as an input to examine and improve the memorable gastronomic experience on-site. The research simultaneously highlighted the importance of gastronomy to tourist destinations for positioning on international and domestic markets. The paper not only provides theoretical but also practical implications. The hospitality and tourism businesses benefit from acknowledging the importance of local food and the local food market. The findings of this study are also deemed to assist destination marketers who observe that tourists have become more demanding in search of unique experiences offered by destinations.

Conflicting discursive representations of overtourism in Lisbon in the Portuguese digital press

PurposeThis study aims to explore the ways in which Portuguese online news reports and opinion studies have framed the discussion about overtourism in Lisbon and its impacts on the city and its inhabitants.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on critical discourse analysis applied to media texts, this paper discusses the discursive representations of overtourism by focusing on how an emerging new discourse which constructs tourism as problematic began to challenge the established discourse – in which tourism is perceived as beneficial.FindingsAs a consequence, and to maintain the status quo, many media texts deploy strong legitimating strategies focusing on the benefits of tourism growth. These are juxtaposed with de-legitimating strategies which serve to deny problems of overtourism. Findings highlight the role the media play in shaping tourism discursively and uncover the complexities of discourses on the effects of (over)tourism and the ways in which they are constructed, disseminated and discussed.Social implicationsThis research is particularly relevant when newspaper opinion articles from 2021 voice the Portuguese Government’s concern in bringing back to Portugal the pre-pandemic tourist numbers as soon as possible.Originality/valueThis study attempts to reveal the conflicting interests and imbalances of power among different tourism stakeholders by taking a qualitative, critical approach to the analysis of media discourse as a social practice within the broader socio-political context. This study argues that from an analytical-methodological perspective, media discourse is an optimum research site to critically explore how conflicting interests are positioned in the mass media and how this shapes public opinion.

Social comparison orientation and religious commitment influence on outbound travel intentions

ABSTRACT Tourists frequently engage in social comparison to track their success or assess their relative self-worth. Although the link between social comparison and travel behavior is evident in the marketing and tourism literature, the effect of social comparison orientation (SCO) on outbound travel intentions and its interplay with travel motivation, especially among religious or spiritually conscious tourist segments, remains unclear. Drawing on social comparison theory and the Stimuli-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study developed a conceptual model to examine the role of SCO, travel motivations, and religious commitment (RC) in shaping tourists' outbound travel intentions. This study adopted convenience sampling to collect survey data (n = 469) from Brunei Darussalam. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-group analysis (MGA) in AMOS 23.0 software. Findings revealed that SCO significantly affects intentions to travel abroad. This further demonstrates that push and pull factors of travel motivation mediate the SCO's effect on travel intentions, while tourists' religious commitment moderates the effect of SCO on overseas travel intentions. This study extends prior works on tourism marketing and the S-O-R framework by demonstrating how SCO influences tourists' responses to international tourism through travel motivation. It offers a unique understanding of the role of SCO on international travel behavior (symbolic or status-oriented consumption) from the perspective of religious influence. Theoretical and managerial implications and future research areas are also discussed.

The bleisure memories of business travelers

• The role of tourism in shaping “bleisure” memories of business travelers • Reflections on business trips at a time they were absent due to COVID-19 • Applying multiple-self theory to the study of business travelers

Influence of social media on shaping tourists’ preferences

The aim of this article is to present the role of social media and influencers (being an inseparable element of these media) in shaping tourists’ preferences. The research was conducted from March to May 2021. The method of research was a diagnostic survey with the use of the questionnaire technique. The answers were obtained from 127 adults. Based on the results, it can be concluded that social media are a popular and willingly used source of inspiration when planning a tourist trip and play a significant role in creating the image of a tourist destination. Influencers significantly contribute to the growth of interest in the destinations they promote. However, they are not treated as a source of reliable and credible information.

INVESTIGATING OVERTOURISM IMPACTS, PERCEIVED MAN-MADE RISK AND TOURIST REVISIT INTENTION

This research explores the interrelationships between overtourism impacts, perceived man-made risk and revisit intention among tourists visiting Melaka UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS). The aim of the study is to illustrate the overutilization of destination resources and subsequent human risk that shape tourist behavioural from the outlooks of sustainable and tourism impacts. Five hundred and ninety-three responses were quantitatively collected through an online data collection. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLSSEM) is employed to investigate the research hypotheses. It can be reported overtourism impacts have positive and significant influence on the perceived man-made risks. However, this is not the case for the relationship between overtourism impacts on revisit intention, and the perceived man-made risk on the latter construct. This renders the potential mediation role of perceived man-made risk as insignificant. The findings heighten the unique dynamics of overtourism within developing WHS planning in shaping tourist revisit intention.

Examining ecotourism intention: The role of tourists' traits and environmental concerns.

The study offers new insights by examining the influence of personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism) on tourists' intentions to visit ecotourism sites using the lens of the theory of planned behavior. It also investigates whether environmental knowledge moderates the effect of extraversion, neuroticism, and environmental concern on tourists' ecotourism intentions. We applied structural equation modeling on 350 responses collected through the Amazon M-Turk platform. Results highlight that extroverts are more likely to express ecotourism intentions than neurotic tourists. However, it was also noted that neurotic tourists' intention to visit ecotourism sites could be influenced if their environmental concerns were emphasized. The study offers important new insights to managers, policy-makers, and practitioners about the roles of personality traits, environmental knowledge, and environmental concern vis-a-vis their relative significance in shaping tourists' decision-making and choices for ecotourism sites. As a result, managers/practitioners need to devise specific communication strategies to enhance awareness and a sense of responsibility among neurotic tourists.

Strategies for Sustainable Tourism Business Development: A Comprehensive Analysis

This research paper explores the dynamic landscape of tourism as a business and focuses on strategic approaches for sustainable development. In an era marked by globalization and heightened competition, tourism businesses are confronted with multifaceted challenges, ranging from environmental concerns to shifting consumer preferences. This paper delves into key strategies employed by successful tourism enterprises to navigate these challenges and ensure long-term viability.The research begins by examining the current state of the global tourism industry, emphasizing its economic significance and its impact on local communities. Subsequently, it delves into the evolution of consumer behavior within the tourism sector, shedding light on emerging trends and preferences. Through a detailed analysis of case studies and industry best practices, the paper identifies successful business models that prioritize environmental sustainability, community engagement, and cultural preservation. Furthermore, the research investigates the role of technology in shaping tourism experiences and streamlining business operations. The integration of digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and data analytics is explored as a means to enhance customer satisfaction, optimize resource utilization, and foster innovation in the tourism sector. Additionally, the paper examines policy frameworks and regulations that influence tourism businesses, emphasizing the need for a collaborative approach between the public and private sectors. The impact of government initiatives on sustainable tourism practices and the role of certification programs in fostering responsible business conduct are discussed. This research paper provides a comprehensive overview of the strategies essential for sustainable tourism business development. By integrating insights from various dimensions, including environmental responsibility, technological innovation, and regulatory compliance, businesses can position themselves for success in a rapidly evolving global tourism landscape. The findings of this study contribute valuable insights to academia, industry practitioners, and policymakers seeking to foster a resilient and sustainable tourism sector.

Escape from air pollution: How does air quality in the place of residence shape tourism consumption?

Air quality has been demonstrated to be an important determinant influencing tourist decision making. In this paper, we investigate the effect of air quality in the place of origin on a resident’s tourism consumption and the moderating effect of household income on this relationship. We develop a conceptual framework to rationalize the effect and empirically examine it at the household level using China Labor-force Dynamics Survey data from 2016. The results show that poor ambient air quality increases tourism consumption. Furthermore, this relationship becomes stronger for the higher-income group: One standard deviation increase in the Air Quality Index would increase tourism expenditure as much as a 22.56% increase in family income. The methods of instrumental variable and functional-coefficient regression were employed for robustness analysis. These findings contribute to the literature by providing a new perspective for tourism demand studies and direct implications for tourism management and policy making.

Career resilience and professional attitudes of tourism practitioners in China under the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis paper investigates the current psychological state of Chinese tourism practitioners and their career resilience during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It empirically examines the effects of COVID-19 on Chinese tourism practitioners' professional attitudes and their career belief in the future. The study is intended to guide enterprises and governments to design effective strategies/policies to deal with the effect of this unfavorable environment.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 442 tourism practitioners in 313 tourism enterprises in China. The data were collected via a targeted online survey based on a well-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using statistical procedures including multilevel regression analysis.FindingsThe study results show that Chinese tourism practitioners have strong career resilience in the face of current turbulent time. After testing, the model shows that career beliefs and social support have a significant positive impact on the professional attitudes of tourism practitioners, and that career resilience has a partial mediating effect on their career beliefs, social support and professional attitude.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing literature on career belief, social support and career resilience. It provides a new interpretation on how career belief and social support impact career resilience and thus shape tourism practitioners' professional attitudes during pandemics.

Automatic Classification of Photos by Tourist Attractions Using Deep Learning Model and Image Feature Vector Clustering

With the rise of social media platforms, tourists tend to share their experiences in the form of texts, photos, and videos on social media. These user-generated contents (UGC) play an important role in shaping tourism destination images (TDI) and directly affect the decision-making process of tourists. Among UGCs, photos represent tourists’ visual preferences for a specific area. Paying attention to the value of photos, several studies have attempted to analyze them using deep learning technology. However, the research methods that analyze tourism photos using recent deep learning technology have a limitation in that they cannot properly classify unique photos appearing in specific tourist attractions with predetermined photo categories such as Places365 or ImageNet dataset or it takes a lot of time and effort to build a separate training dataset to train the model and to generate a tourism photo classification category according to a specific tourist destination. The purpose of this study is to propose a method of automatically classifying tourist photos by tourist attractions by applying the methods of the image feature vector clustering and the deep learning model. To this end, first, we collected photos attached to reviews posted by foreign tourists on TripAdvisor. Second, we embedded individual images as 512-dimensional feature vectors using the VGG16 network pre-trained with Places365 and reduced them to two dimensions with t-SNE(t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding). Then, clusters were extracted through HDBSCAN(Hierarchical Clustering and Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) analysis and set as a regional image category. Finally, the Siamese Network was applied to remove noise photos within the cluster and classify photos according to the category. In addition, this study attempts to confirm the validity of the proposed method by applying it to two representative tourist attractions such as ‘Gyeongbokgung Palace’ and ‘Insadong’ in Seoul. As a result, it was possible to identify which visual elements of tourist attractions are attractive to tourists. This method has the advantages in that it is not necessary to create a classification category in advance, it is possible to flexibly extract categories for each tourist destination, and it is able to improve classification performance even with a rather small volume of a dataset.

Do Visitors Visit What the Tours Industry Supplies? Sightseeing Tours Versus First-timers’ Photos

ABSTRACT Tourist behaviour within destinations is a research topic of increasing interest. The most relevant approaches focus on demand and are aimed at detecting factors affecting travel patterns, or revealing the mobility flows shaping tourism destinations. This paper adds another layer to this stream of research by including the supply-side, contrasting it with the demand-side. It aims to detect potential market opportunities by overlapping the geographical distribution of geolocated user-generated photos from social media taken by first time visitors to Cartagena, Colombia, versus the attractions offered in city tours. Mixed-method approaches are used to analyse the association between both datasets, including spatial analysis, correlation and cluster analysis. The results show a partial overlap in the correlation between attractions included in city tours and geotagged tourist photos. This opens up a debate on the need for tours to adapt their products to how visitors consume the city's attractions and spaces of interest.

Why urban setting matters in shaping tourist attitudes towards interaction with residents: Causation or selection in three urban settings

This paper addresses the question why tourist attitude towards the interactions with residents are more positive in some urban settings than others, by comparing three different urban settings within Hong Kong: the city centre (Central), a suburban shopping/entertainment centre (Sha Tin) and a new urban tourism area (Mong Kok). Two competing hypotheses can explain the variation in tourist attitudes. The first is causation; some settings provide more intensive and better interactions which lead to more positive attitudes. The second is selection; some settings attract different types of tourists with different attitudes. Mediation analysis provides weak support for causation and strong support for selection. Sha Tin attracts more repeat tourists, holidaymakers and shopping tourists, which have more positive attitudes. Managing growth of tourism is more effective if sub-centres are developed as product-market combinations that distract these tourists from the overcrowded city-centre. • Urban settings have an effect on tourists' attitude towards interaction with residents. • Causation hypothesis: some urban settings have a better environment for interaction. • Selection hypothesis: urban settings attract tourists with different attitudes. • Results: weak support for causation and strong support for selection. • Recommendation: develop sub-centres as product-market combinations.

Nanjing’s Intracity Tourism Flow Network Using Cellular Signaling Data: A Comparative Analysis of Residents and Non-Local Tourists

With the rapid development of transportation and modern communication technology, “tourism flow” plays an important role in shaping tourism’s spatial structure. In order to explore the impact of an urban tourism flow network on tourism’s spatial structure, this study summarizes the structural characteristics of the tourism flow networks of 43 scenic spots in Nanjing from three aspects—tourism flow network connection, node centrality, and communities—using cellular signaling data and the social network analysis method. A comparative analysis revealed the tourism flow network structures of residents and non-local tourists. Our findings indicated four points. Firstly, the overall network connectivity was relatively good. Core city nodes displayed high spatial concentration and connection strength. However, suburban nodes delivered poor performance. Secondly, popular nodes were intimately connected, although there were no “bridging” nodes. Lesser-known nodes were marginalized, resulting in severe node polarization. Thirdly, regarding the network community structure, the spatial boundary between communities was relatively clear; the communities within the core city were more closely connected, with some parts encompassing suburban nodes. Most suburban communities were attached to the communities in the core area, with individual nodes existing independently. Fourthly, the primary difference in the tourism flow network structures between residents and non-local tourists was that the nodes for residents manifested a more balanced connection strength and node centrality. Core communities encompassed more nodes with more extensive coverage. Conversely, the nodes for non-local tourists showed wide discrepancies in connection strength and node centrality. Furthermore, core communities were small in scale with clear boundaries.

The city and the country: Cardiff, England and the 2015 Rugby World Cup

ABSTRACT Major international sporting events have long been recognised for the role they play in city and/or nation branding. The 2015 Rugby World Cup, England 2015, was promoted as the world’s biggest sporting event of the year. In addition to the 12 stadiums in England staging matches, games also took place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Cardiff is not located in England but is the capital city of neighbouring Wales, a place where rugby union is the national sport and England its biggest rival. This paper looks at the incorporation of a Welsh city in an event hosted by England where the VisitEngland promotional campaign was based upon images of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’. Drawing upon the work of the cultural theorist Raymond Williams, it considers some of the issues shaping tourism promotion and assesses the imagery and discourse relating to a city that sits outside the borders of the host nation of an event.

Tourists’ interpretations toward tourism destinations: viewpoint to apply locus of control theory

Purpose Studying tourist behavior provides the privilege of diverging in the competition between destinations to attract tourists. Previous studies have explored the effects of tourist behavior on brand satisfaction, attachment and loyalty. However, there is a lack of studies that investigated the intuition behind shaping tourist behavior. To address this issue, this study aims to contribute to providing a viewpoint to apply locus of control (LOC) theory in the tourism context. LOC studies how individuals believe in controlling their feelings and judgment toward events.