Special Tourism Research Articles

Hotel robots: an exploratory study of Generation Z customers in China

Diseño/metodología/enfoqueEste estudio se diseñó bajo una investigación secuencial exploratoria que incluyó dos métodos cualitativos (es decir, técnicas proyectivas y entrevistas semiestructuradas) para alcanzar sus objetivos.PropósitoDado que se ha arrojado poca luz sobre la preferencia de los turistas de la Generación Z o de los turistas de diferentes orígenes culturales hacia los servicios de robótica en el sector alojativo, este estudio tiene como objetivo explorar las preferencias de servicios de robots en el sector del alojamiento en China, con un enfoque específico hacia la Generación Z.ConclusionesEste estudio sugiere que los robots de servicio son más preferidos para tareas rutinarias, existiendo diferencias de género en la preferencia del nivel de antropomorfismo del robot de servicio. Las preferencias están impulsadas por cuatro factores basados en diferentes niveles de valores hedónicos y utilitarios: 1) valor hedónico experimentado, 2) valor hedónico utilitario, 3) valor relevante para la tarea y 4) valor utilitario.Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigaciónPrimero, debido a la naturaleza exploratoria de este estudio, la interpretación de los datos es inevitablemente subjetiva, por lo tanto, los resultados pueden confirmarse utilizando un método de investigación más riguroso. Además, este estudio solo se enfoca en la preferencia de los clientes de la Generación Z para el sector hotelero en China, ya que las diferencias culturales existentes en diferentes países, no pueden generalizarse fácilmente entre poblaciones y contextos de servicio. Por último, este estudio no profundiza en el efecto de las diferencias de género en los distintos niveles de atributos antropomórficos.Implicaciones prácticasA medida que los hoteles vayan adoptando servicios con robots, los gerentes deberían identificar las preferencias de servicio de los clientes y priorizar tareas para robots o para recursos humanos cara a un servicio más eficiente. Particularmente importante es comprender los beneficios y desafíos de las implementaciones de robots específicos, en lugar de buscar un modo de operación único para todos.Originalidad/valorEste es el primer estudio que comprende la preferencia de servicios de robots con respecto a grupos de turistas específicos para ilustrar su preferencia por la prestación de servicios. Basándose en la teoría de la autodeterminación, este estudio proporciona potencialmente una base teórica para la optimización del proceso de servicio del hotel.

Soviet Tourist Maps: A Short Overview

ABSTRACT In recent years, many maps produced in the former Soviet Union have become available. However, researchers have focused on topographical maps or those of Western cities produced by the General Staff for military use, and less on maps created by GUGK, the state mapping agency, for domestic purposes, including tourism. By contrast, this paper focuses on maps produced for tourists, whether travelling by private car or on an organized rail or bus tour. The 42 maps reviewed take three main forms: those covering a single administrative region, ranging from an oblast to a Soviet republic; those of a specific tourist area or associated with a literary hero; and strip maps connecting major cities. The paper considers the general design and symbology used on these maps, tracing some of the stylistic changes and developments in the quarter-century prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Introduction: the Interface of Culture and Communication Through Tourism

The introduction to this special issue explores why in an "age of communication" it has become increasingly important to revisit a somewhat lost sense of communication that we describe as the interface of culture and communication. Inspired by Karen Barad's work and the diverse range of contributions to this special issue, we reflect on the fragmented, multiplied, and diffracted sense of communication that has emerged in recent years. We examine this emergent form of communication through three interlinking yet distinct areas of study: "affective communication," "tourism media interface," and "interface of the human and nonhuman." Providing grounded empirical research alongside unique theoretical insights, the eight articles bring together a diverse and complex range of contexts that would otherwise not enter into conversation with one another. And yet in their own ways each contribution challenges how communication has been approached and perceived in specific tourism settings and opens up spaces for understanding communication as diffraction and differentiation rather than a coming together. By revisiting communication in this way, previous relationships embedded in tourism can be seen in new and interesting ways. The introduction to this special issue offers an initial exploratory conceptual framing of what we call the interface of culture and communication in effort to forefront new ways of thinking and engaging with culture and communication in tourism studies and beyond.

Regional differences, dynamic evolution, and driving factors of tourism development in Chinese coastal cities

Tourism plays a significant role in the economic development of coastal cities. This study constructed an evaluation index system to evaluate the development of the tourism industry in Chinese coastal cities. Based on data from 39 coastal cities in China from 2010 to 2019, the regional differences, dynamic evolution, and drivers of tourism development in coastal cities in China were studied using the entropy method, Dagum Gini coefficient, Kernel density estimation, and spatial Durbin model (SDM). The following results were obtained. (1) The level of tourism development in China's coastal cities showed a pattern of decline, followed by an increase. (2) Regional differences in the development of tourism in coastal areas were significant, and mainly derived from intra- and inter-group differences. (3) The evolution of tourism development in coastal cities showed a clear gradient effect and divergence. (4) The direct effect of economic development, transport construction, technological innovation, and high-end special tourism services on coastal tourism development was positive; the indirect effect of transport construction and economic development was positive; and both the direct and indirect effects of environmental regulation intensity showed a U-shaped curve. The findings of this study have practical implications for promoting the development of the tourism industry in coastal areas and for enhancing regional economies.

A Study of Tourism Objects in Supporting Fieldwork-Based Geography Learning in Sumbermanjing Wetan, Malang Regency, Indonesia

Tourism objects in Malang Regency have variety of interactions in fulfilling the needs of tourists, including in Subermanjing Wetan District. Sumbermanjing Wetan District is an area that has a variety of tourism objects attractions. The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental and social conditions in the tourism object attractions of Sumbermanjing Wetan District in supporting fieldwork-based geography learning. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative, while data collection is done through observation and field surveys. The results of this study indicate that the Sumbermanjing Wetan sub-district has various kinds of tourism objects such as marine tourism, water tourism, cultural tourism, educational tourism, culinary tourism, and special tourism object attraction. The existing tourism objects have their own characteristics in geography learning process. The application of geography learning in tourism attraction areas can be done by conducting fieldwork based learning and university programs. Fieldwork-based geography learning is related to the study of physical, environmental, social, tourism, and cultural geography, where each location can have various objects of study to support geography learning. In college tourism objects field work, of course, there will be obstacles related to finance, security, and licensing.

Penguatan Storytelling Dalam Format Digital Untuk Wisata Sejarah Di Museum Pusat TNI-AU Dirgantara Mandala

The Indonesian Air Force Dirgantara Mandala Central Museum is a very special tourist attraction in Yogyakarta. This museum is a representative place to study the history of the struggle of the Indonesian people in the field of aerospace. Not only the main collection of weapons system and various other historical relics, the TNI-AU Dirgantara Mandala Central Museum also stores various patriotic and heroic stories from historical actors. Each museum collection that has its own story will be very interesting if it is expressed in the right storytelling scheme. The study focuses on how to include storytelling content related to the stories of the sky knights and the main weapon system. The method used is observation and literacy studies as well as scrutiny of documentation photos which is then recorded digitally to obtain a storytelling format model that is easy to observe repeatedly. The results show that digital storytelling may represent a new experience for tourists' understanding of museum collections. One important thing is that this storytelling format can be easily downloaded, duplicated, repeated to get information that is not only accurate but also convenient in understanding what has happened in the aerospace history of the Indonesian nation.

Evaluating Competitive Ability of Tourism Enterprise by Using MTP-MCDM Technology for Resource-Based Viewpoint

Tourism industry is an important industry for many countries because this industry can bring a lot of profit and worker opportunity. Tourism enterprise is the element in the tourism industry. Many scholars execute research to understand the compatibility of tourism enterprise. However, past research evaluates the compatibility ability of tourism enterprise based on tourism enterprise entire resource, but past research does not evaluate the compatibility ability of tourism enterprise in detail under consumers’ viewpoint. The goal of the work is to build the framework to evaluate the competitive ability of tourism enterprises based on tourism resource in each tourism destination. Based on this framework, tourism enterprise can understand its competitive ability in special tourism regions. Some advantages of the proposed method and future research should be taken over finally.

Tourism Information Management System Using Neural Networks Driven by Particle Swarm Model.

Based on the concept of “smart tourism,” this paper designs and implements a tourism management information system based on PSO-optimized NN. The foreground tourism web page of the system adopts DIV + CSS mode for page planning and layout, PHP as the client script language, and SQL server as the database to store and analyze user information. At the same time, the system adds personalized components to the user's search ranking results, so that the routes and scenic spots presented in front of users in the result interface are more in line with users' consumption habits. In order to verify the performance of the model and algorithm constructed in this paper, several experiments were carried out in this paper. Experimental results show that the prediction accuracy of this algorithm is 94.67% and the recall rate is 96.11%. This algorithm can overcome the disadvantages of traditional algorithms and provide some effective suggestions for tourism management. At the same time, this paper applies the concept of “smart tourism” to specific tourism informatization, which can promote the transformation and upgrading of tourism industry structure and further enhance the overall development level of tourism industry.

World heritage sites, international tourism demand and tourist specialization in Latin America and the Caribbean 1995-2019

The relationship between international tourism and the registration of a place as World Heritage, both tangible and intangible, has been newly studied. Nevertheless, little progress has been done with regard to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries. This paper aims to approach this problem. Furthermore, the analysis is differentiated according to the kind of destination. To do so, a specialization index is introduced indicating whether a country is specialized in tourism or not. The study is based on a panel data of 32 countries in LAC for the 1995-2019 period. Results show that there is a strong direct effect of the number of World Heritage Sites on international tourist demand and, that this relationship is much stronger for those countries that are tourism specialized. However, when differentiating between tangible and intangible heritages, tangible ones have an important significant effect on international tourist demand in not tourism specialized countries, but intangible elements not so much. Conversely, cultural intangible heritage is only significant for tourism specialized countries.

SISTEM REKOMENDASI PERJALANAN WISATA BERBASIS EXPERT SYSTEM DAN ALGORITMA GENETIKA

The development of tourism cannot be separated from the use of E-Tourism technology as a medium for disseminating and promoting tourism information through the media of certain sites. The existence of these sites is still considered static and simple. Site providers are considered not prioritizing responsiveness and interactivity to users. Users need a system that is able to respond and iteratively is able to provide recommendations for the needs of tourists personally. The problem of responsive and interactive concepts on tourist sites has been tried to solve previously through several previous studies. These studies have given good results. However, the implementation of the previous methods is seen as still having weaknesses. For example, it has not been able to meet the personal aspects of the specific tourist needs. considering that each tourist has different characteristics. Seeing these problems, the researchers developed a system that is able to provide a travel recommendation by combining the Genetic algorithm and the Rule Base Expert System (RBES). Users are given a recommended travel route based on the location and time that is suitable by the Genetic algorithm. Furthermore, RBES is tasked with perfecting the results of these recommendations by adjusting them to tourist characteristics. The results of the combination of the two methods show that the improvement of the route and travel time can be improved personally by RBES in accordance with the characteristics of tourists.
 Keywords: E-Tourism, Genetika, Rule Base Expert System, Recommendation System

BUSINESS STRATEGIES OF SMALL, AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMEs) TOWARDS POST-COVID-19 ADAPTATION: A CASE STUDY ON SMEs WEAVING CRAFTSMEN IN TANA TORAJA REGENCY

Adaptation of post-covid-19 pandemic changes is the government's plan in overcoming economic problems as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. SMEs as one of the business sectors that most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic must have a business strategy so that they can revived by the adversity due to the pandemic and ready to face the post-covid-19 changes. This study using SWOT analysis to identify internal and external factors of SMEs Weaving in Tana Toraja Regency and formulate the right business strategy. TOPSIS method is used to rank alternative business strategies. Based on the SWOT analysis, there are four alternative business strategies formulated. The alternative business strategies are making woven product innovation, using digital marketing to sell the weaving products, using a business license to obtain capital for the development of a weaving business, creating a special tourist village for Toraja Weaving. Based on the output analysis of the scenario simulation results using the dynamic system method using Powersim 10 software, if the Weaving SMEs applies the four business strategies alternative, there will be an increase the profit value of weaving sales about 571% with a profit rate of Rp. 127,360,773.78 in a year.

Education Based Tourism Model at Pagilaran Tea Plantation, Keteleng Village, Batang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

The phenomenon of traveling is now returning to nature, which is a beautiful and naturally identical environment in the village. Rural areas that offer special tourism potential become a separate tourist magnet for domestic tourists from urban and foreign countries.Pagilaran tea plantation is a natural potential of Batang regency which is administratively located in Pagilaran Hamlet, Keteleng Village, Blado District, Batang Regency. Pagilaran Tea Plantation should be one of the leading icons of Batang Regency to be maximized into agro-industry, agribusiness and agro-tourism. PT Pagilaran as part of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has always been active in carrying out the mandate of the tri dharma of higher education in order to create a sustainable tea commodity plantation world, through various scientific studies by students, lecturers, and researchers as well as the empowerment of National Nuclear Plantation Farmers (Pir). Until now, The Pagilaran tea plantation is used as a place for student practice from the faculty of agriculture from several universities in indonesia. Educational and research activities are going well at the pagilaran tea plantation and there are even researchers from japan who are conducting research on tea plants at the Pagilaran Tea Plantation.

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.

Military tourism as a peculiarity of tourism development in a post-conflict territory


 
 
 
 One peculiarity of tourism development in the post-conflict territories of the Ukraine-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is the possibility of development of military tourism and this is the urgent problem considered in the proposed article. The relevance of the article lies in the possibility of exploiting the existing negative factors in certain eastern territories and turning them into a source of interest and a point of no return. Military tours can have an enormous educational and instructive value both for the younger generation and for all people’s understanding of what conflict situations can lead to. The aim of the work is to develop proposals for the creation of innovative military tours as a feature of post-conflict tourism development in the affected area. General scientific methods, namely analytical, comparative-geographical, historical and marketing analysis are applied. World experience in organizing military tourism was analyzed and some recommendations for organizing such tours in Ukraine, and particularly in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, were revealed. The author’s classification of possible military tours in our country is offered. Recommendations on development of military tours to Ukraine are formed. Ukraine-controlled parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions are evaluated as potentially promising areas for military tourism development. We have suggested specific tourist locations for creating military tours and developed proposals for creating innovative military tours as a feature of post-conflict tourism development in the affected areas in Ukraine’s eastern regions. The organizational mechanism of creating and promoting military tours on the tourism market on the example of the eastern territories of Ukraine has been studied. It is determined that military tours in the post-conflict times can become one of the promising directions of economic development of the eastern regions of Ukraine. The key provisions, factual material and conclusions of the article can be used for further research into the process of tourism development in Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to develop the national tourism industry. In the future, similar tours may be developed throughout the region after the reintegration process.
 
 
 

Wine and Cultural Tourism as One of Niche Tourism Opportunities in Canada and Slovakia

The article deals with new development in tourism, especially after the pandemic situation of COVID-19. In the period of economic crises and turmoil tourism places are able to benefit from the positive influence of so called soft and more sustainable values created by the improvement of image, reputation and the quality of destination services, by using of local cultural resources and heritage. The objective of this study is wine tourism, which has become one of the growing niche attractors in specific regions all over the world. In the combination with culinary tourism and cultural tourism offers a specific tourism product not only to the segment of cultural tourists, but tends to be more attractive to the segments of seniors. The study will be focused on two countries, Canada and the case of Brand Niagara Region and Slovakia. The qualitative research has been prepared, especially focused on product development and the innovative promotion strategies. These two countries were chosen due to a personal experience, former research and interest in this topic.

Masterplan Pengembangan Desa Wisata Gerbosari Kecamatan Samigaluh Kabupaten Kulon Progo

Tourism development has become an option in many areas as a way to reduce poverty. One of the resources developed as a source of income is natural and cultural resources which are exploited as tourist objects and attractions. Tourism can be developed to improve the economy that is directly towards the community around attractions. Gerbosari Village is one of the leading villages in Samigaluh Subdistrict, Kulonprogo Regency which has a special tourism potential for use by tourist villages. The potential given by Gerbosari Village is a chrysanthemum plant whose data grows well, ponders beautiful nature, and harmonious community culture. The Village Government and Gerbosari Residents have a strong commitment to managing the potential of the village and creating innovations to enhance development through local tourism development. To realize the developed tourist village and provide direction to the welfare needed by the Gerbosari Tourism Village development masterplan. Based on the results of the preparation of the Gerbosari Tourism Village Development Masterplan, several Tourism Village objects that will be developed in the next 5 years include chrysanthemum agro-tourism areas, educational tours for the use of home yards, Camping ground and tracking of Jongkang Mountain, and the peak Cultural Tourism of Suroloyo.

Wellness Tourism Enhances Elderly Life Satisfaction

ABSTRACT This study investigates how local culture sharing and altruistic values from the elderly affect satisfaction levels with travel and life satisfaction via tourism product selection. Stratified random sampling is used in this study, we invited 1,000 qualified elderly tourists to participate in the survey from hot spring areas in Taiwan. We received 242 usable responses and that was fully completed questionnaires. Our research analysis and hypotheses were evaluated with partial least squares (PLS) modeling using SPSS and SmartPLS software. The findings of the study point out the elderly look forward to vacationing with other members to enjoy the local values of wellness tourism at tourist destinations, the service providers provide suitable and special tourism products to attract elderly tourists. Likewise, hoteliers, will provide more fun facilities for the elderly; marketers of travel agencies can emphasize the fun of wellness tourism with advertising icons; therefore, a happy travel experience contributes to the dignity and quality of life of the elderly.

Methodology of Cyclical Research of the Tourist Image of Podkarpackie Province (Poland)—A Proposal of a Solution and Selected Research Results

The attractiveness to tourists of Podkarpackie Province is related to its natural diversity and rich cultural heritage. The communes located in the southern, Carpathian part of the province are the most attractive tourist destinations. However, the volume of tourist traffic in Podkarpackie Province differs from many other regions in Poland. It is visited by far fewer tourists than might be expected. In order to conduct a more effective tourist policy, it was necessary to acquire knowledge on the structure of tourism in the region and its image. The aim of this article is to present the proprietary methodology of cyclical research of the tourist image of Podkarpackie Province and the key results of the research conducted in 2021. The proposed set of methods and techniques includes: (1) an analysis of strategic documents in terms of the assumed tourist image (Atlas.ti), (2) a verification of search trends for keywords related to the identified associations (Google Trends), and (3) a search of widely available internet resources for spontaneously generated content (Google Search). The obtained results indicate that potential tourists find online information about tourist assets deviating from the planned tourist image presented in the strategic document. First of all, they look for opinions and tips on specific tourist attractions. In the perceptions of average, potential tourists, some sub-regions such as the Low Beskids and the Southern Roztocze are practically unnoticeable. They clearly ‘lose’ with the Bieszczady, which are most associated with the region. Ultimately, the comprehensive image research consists of qualitative and quantitative modules. Only the combination of both will allow for a holistic view of the image of the region.

The effect of social media on travel planning process by Chinese tourists: the way forward to tourism futures

Purpose This paper investigates the usage and trust of Chinese social media in the travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip) of Chinese tourists.Design/methodology/approach Through a combination of structured online survey (n = 406) and follow-up interviews, the research identifies the diversification of the demand-and-supply patterns of social media users in China, as well as the allocation of functions of social media as tools before, during and after travel.Findings Social media users are diverse in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour and scope; the levels of trust and influence; and their ultimate travel decisions and actions. Correlations between the level of trust, influence of social media and the intended changes in travel decisions are observed. Destination marketers and tourism industries should observe and adapt to the needs of social media users and potential tourist markets by understanding more about user segmentation between platforms or apps and conducting marketing campaigns on social media platforms to attract a higher number of visitors.Research limitations/implications This paper demonstrated the case of social media usage in mainland China, which has been regarded as one of the fastest growing and influential tourist-generating markets and social media expansions in the world. This study further addressed the knowledge gap by correlating social media usage and travel planning process of Chinese tourists. The research findings suggested diversification of the demand-and-supply pattern of social media users in China, as well as the use of social media as tools before, during and after travel. Users were diversified in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour, scope, the levels of trust, influence and the ultimate travel decisions.Practical implications Destination marketing organizations should note that some overseas social media platforms that are not accessible in China like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram are still valued by some Chinese tourists, especially during-trip period in journeys to Western countries. Some tactics for specific user segments should be carefully observed. When promoting specific tourism products to Chinese tourists, it is necessary to understand the user segmentation between platforms or apps.Originality/value Social media is a powerful tool for tourism development and sustainability in creating smart tourists and destinations worldwide. In China, the use of social media has stimulated the development of both information and communication technology and tourism.

The role of the MICE sector in Singapore's tourism policy. A historical perspective

ABSTRACT The present study develops a holistic analysis framework to unravel the complexity of the tourism policy process, with a special focus on the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector in Singapore. A qualitative approach combining two research methods was adopted: qualitative content analysis and documentary analysis. This is a relatively novel perspective in tourism studies. The vision of the tourism policy process offered by the research, through the integration of multiple levels of analysis (micro and macro) and its historical contextualisation, led to a better understanding of the evolution of Singapore as a MICE destination. The paper identifies a series of patterns of action over the last 50 years in the unique and successful MICE tourism development model of this city–state. These have included interventionism, public-private collaboration, long-term planning, and innovation. By using the Singaporean MICE sector as a case study, the paper also provides valuable insights into the dynamics of the tourism policy process. The findings indicate that public policy aimed at the development of a specific tourism segment, namely MICE, should not be analysed in isolation from other policy areas. It is an activity that is embedded within broader economic, political and cultural processes.