Tourism Studies Research Articles

Tourist Souvenirs: Learning Cultural Identity Representation Through Design

The massification and standardization of souvenirs offered in major tourist destinations around the world seem to compromise the authenticity and representation of the cultural identity that these products intend to evoke. Although the tourist souvenir is a product widely addressed by academic studies in tourism and other social areas, there is a gap in design studies about the value this object has as a representative of unique cultural expressions. In this article, we observe the potential offered by souvenirs as a subject for teaching design, in a didactic exercise focused on valuing cultural identity. In 2009, the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was preparing itself to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Rio2016 Olympic Games. From 2009 to 2011, three hundred students of the Methods and Processes in Design course, from the Fashion Design degree of SENAI-CETIQT – Chemical and Textile Industry Technology Centre of the National Service for Industrial Learning, were encouraged to develop an innovative souvenir that could represent the local culture. It was possible to notice the relevance of cultural aspects as a determinant factor of differentiation and authenticity in the souvenir design project, in addition to bringing to the students a greater awareness of the role of the designer in creating non-verbal messages about the cultural identity of a nation or locality.
 Keywords: souvenir design, cultural identity, design education

Beyond displacement: the co-existence of newcomers and local residents in the process of rural tourism gentrification in China

The arrival of an increasing number of newcomers to rural areas has contributed to rural tourism gentrification, the sustainable development of which requires the co-existence of gentrifiers and local residents. While current research in gentrification and tourism studies highlights one-way power relations – highlighting the privileged position of either newcomers or local residents, few scholars have explored the more complex power relations between them. To address that gap, this study explores how Rural Tourism Makers (RTMs), a group of middle-class urbanites who lead the process of rural tourism gentrification in China, negotiate to co-exist with local residents. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, the study captures a holistic picture of the relationships between RTMs and local residents in the Chinese context, which goes beyond direct displacement. Although RTMs have brought indirect displacement to local residents, local people have not become victims of rural tourism gentrification. Instead, they benefit from rural tourism development opportunities. Meanwhile, RTMs have compromised to adapt to the Renqing society in rural China, in which local residents are supported by a strong social network. The findings demonstrate new forms of indirect displacement and respond to the specifics of rural places in tourism gentrification studies in rural China.

Culture, heritage looting, and tourism: A text mining review approach.

Tourism scholars have been devoted to exploring the significance of cultural heritage in generating economic, environmental, and social values. However, limited efforts were found to verify potential threats that demolish these values such as looting issue in the global heritage tourism industry. Therefore, this study has reviewed extant publications to demonstrate the potential emerged textual clusters discussed by previous studies. It also summarized the network distribution of articles journals and authors’ affiliations to capture the mobility and diversity with a focus on the business and tourism management field. Hence, the core clusters discovered were related to heritage destruction, public access, world heritage, human rights, cultural heritage preservation, and protection of cultural heritage in the event. The results have established theoretical insights and research agendas for future tourism studies, while it determined critical drawbacks in employing technology tools including virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence for cultural heritage preservation/protection.

Developing halal consumer behavior and tourism studies: Recommendations for Indonesia and Spain.

Developing halal consumer behavior and tourism studies: Recommendations for Indonesia and Spain.

The formation of multi-destination image: A study of China's Greater Bay Area.

Many governments promote the concept of multi-destination tourism to attract foreign visitors to stay longer in a region. This study constructs a higher-order multi-destination image model to examine how the unique cognitive images of Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou collectively constitute the overall cognitive image of China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA). Then, it further examines how this overall cognitive image builds affective, overall, and conative images of the GBA. The results of an online survey of non-Chinese tourists from Guinea, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States show that cognitive images of three cities in the GBA take different weighting in constructing the overall cognitive image of the GBA. The overall cognitive destination image significantly influences the formation of the affective, overall, and conative images of the GBA region. For constructing the conative image, the affective image shows the greatest impact, overall cognitive image follows; the impact of the overall image is less. This study proposes theoretical implications for future regional tourism studies. Practical recommendations are also proposed.

Gender, race and researcher positionality in decolonial surf tourism research: lessons from the field

ABSTRACT Current scholarship in the field of critical surf studies interrogates issues of gender, race and coloniality in global surfing tourism and culture. This literature focuses primarily on cultural discourse and tourism practice, yet has recently begun to examine researcher positionality in ethnographic and reflexive surf tourism research. As a novel empirical contribution to existing decolonial trends in surf tourism and intersectional surfeminist research, this article explores dynamics of gender, race and researcher positionality in conducting community-based participatory action research (PAR) in surfing tourism, through a year-long ethnographic project in Playa Hermosa de Cobano, Costa Rica. This contribution draws on discussions in feminist geography interrogating gendered and racialized dynamics in ethnographic and participatory research. Reflexive lessons from the field highlight the complexities associated with employing decolonial and poststructuralist feminist methods in critical surf tourism studies, particularly for white/white-assumed female-presenting researchers from the Global North working in Global South field contexts. These complexities include considerations of multiple researcher subjectivities related to postcolonial intersectional power dynamics in research team composition and throughout the PAR process.

In the shadow of the mountain: the crisis of precarious livelihoods in high altitude mountaineering tourism

This article focuses on the crisis of precarious work/livelihoods that pervades the global tourism industry and prevents many from experiencing fair and just employment. Drawing on an ethnographic study of high-altitude mountaineering tourism in the Himalaya, we explore the various ways in which mountain workers are precarious, vulnerable, marginalised and often overlooked in the context of cross-border tourism practices. Drawing on concepts of justice and fairness we argue that the ongoing racial and social contours of colonialism give privileges to some bodies and not “Others,” entrenching precarity of vulnerable communities and workers. However, despite these unfavourable conditions, local workers are not without agency to shape their conditions and experiences. Mountain workers on Everest provide an example of how, despite their precarity, workers can self-organise and exercise their voice to secure more just and equitable work. Decent work, secure livelihoods, and equality are core features of the sustainable development goals and will only be achieved through collective action, solidarity from different tourism stakeholders and the realisation of fair and just employment practices for the most vulnerable communities.

Algorithm of Apriori-Based Rural Tourism Driving Factors and Its System Optimization

Rural tourism, as a vital component of tourism, is critical to the development of rural economies, farmers’ income, rural civilization, new rural construction, and urban-rural interaction. Simultaneously, as the size and complexity of data sets grow larger, how to improve the efficiency of association rule algorithms for mining large data sets has become a hot topic in association rule mining. Rural tourism development that is cultural and creative not only contributes to rural revitalization, but also to the preservation and inheritance of rural culture. The Apriori algorithm is the most widely used and influential algorithm for mining Boolean association rules, and the majority of current algorithms are extensions of the Apriori algorithm. Demand, supply, marketing, and support forces of rural tourism, which are the core driving force of rural tourism development, are formed by the basic needs of each subsystem of rural tourism. One of the main methods is to promote the sustainable and healthy development of rural tourism in accordance with the nature, characteristics, and laws of rural tourism destination construction, in order to create a dynamic system for long-term development and establish a rural tourism development dynamic system. The study of rural tourism driving factors and their system optimization is proposed in this paper. The main tourism dynamic system is adopted by the association rule algorithm of Apriori, the driving factors of rural tourism development are analyzed in the paper, and the system optimization method is proposed, all based on the Apriori algorithm. In terms of support, the Apriori algorithm is 0.436 higher than the CD algorithm and 0.568 higher than the SVM algorithm, and the Apriori algorithm can greatly reduce database size and improve record reading speed. As a result, the findings of this paper can be used to improve the spatial layout of rural tourism and to develop urban-rural tourism.

Self-recorded conversations in tourism memory research

• Self-recorded paired conversations are a novel data generation method. • Research participants are not influenced by the presence of researchers. • The method produces highly intimate and emotionally charged memories. • A comparison of individual and dialogic material adds greater depth. • The method has many potential applications within tourism studies.

Development of Tourism for Culture and Innovation Based on Convergence of Data in the Perspective of Industrial Integration

The blurring of industry lines, or the phenomenon of new products or industries crossing over, is becoming more common. Academic circles have taken notice of this phenomenon, and the term “industrial integration” has been coined to describe the shift in interindustry relations. It can not only meet the demand of urban residents to return to nature and tradition with the connotation of rural ecology, agricultural production, and farmer’s life in tourism for culture and innovation, as well as the expression of tourism activities. However, traditional tourism, which is primarily based on sightseeing, is no longer able to meet the demands of customers. People are increasingly interested in interactive, creative, experiential, and diverse tourism, and tourism destinations and services are increasingly valued for their cultural connotation and unique creativity. The basic idea behind data convergence as a data processing method is to make extensive use of data from all aspects of the system in order to extract the most effective information about the object or environment, resulting in a more precise and comprehensive understanding of the observed object or environment. As a result, this paper uses convergence of the data method based on a large amount of empirical research experience to study the driving factors, paths, and patterns of the fusion of commercial and innovative businesses with the tourism industry. It is based on industrial fusion theory and value chain theory and uses convergence of the data method based on a large amount of empirical research experience to study the driving factors, paths, and patterns of the fusion of commercial and innovative businesses with the tourism industry. The experimental results show that the global adjustment algorithm improves the model (i.e., the evidence) without changing the fusion formula. The fusion results improved by 0.595 on average when compared to the D-S algorithm, and the probability rapidly increased. As a result, the study of tourism for cultural and innovation development based on data convergence summarises the interaction between subsystems with logical thinking and depicts the process and direction of tourism creative industry fusion development in a more image and concrete manner.

Tourism, compounding crises, and struggles for sovereignty

Applying justice theory in tourism studies has yielded a vibrant flourishing of scholarship in recent decades. Yet, it is still argued that a clear conceptualization of justice tourism is still lacking. Sovereignty theory has seen broad application across many social sciences in recent decades, yet despite a clear connection, the tourism scholarship has engaged minimally with the sovereignty literature. This article aims to assimilate sovereignty theory into the justice tourism scholarship by carrying out a deep historical analysis to demonstrate how destination residents negotiate chronic and acute crises in the Galápagos Islands, a place with no original human population. With global immigration projected to grow and exacerbate environmental conflicts in the coming years, the current research is well-poised to provide urgent and generalizable insights into the sociocultural underpinnings of increasing human mobility, the environmental conflicts that exist between different value systems and worldviews, and the opportunities that exist to promote improved destination management on behalf of human wellbeing in places experiencing intense in-migration. Historical analyses are thus critical to understanding the subjective and temporal nature of struggles associated with justice-centric concepts, including but not limited to sovereignty.

Dal Grand Tour all’educazione globale: gli immaginari europei nelle performance visuali di viaggio

This paper frames international student mobilities throughout Europe as a novel Grand Tour to revise the social and material tourist encounter with the continent and ordinary life therein, and advance cultural and political debates concerning the European space. This is done by analysing how European imaginaries are enacted in three tourist pictures of Rome, collected through photo-elicited focus groups with international students. The methods employed in the latest visual and tourism studies were used herein. This study shows how persistent and often stereotyped representations of Europe come together with critical readings of the European society, and highlights the importance – in the geographical analysis of tourist photography – of including more-than-epresentational accounts of what happens before and after shooting a tourist picture.

Studi Identifikasi Potensi Pariwisata & Kuliner Kabupaten Indramayu, Provinsi Jawa Barat

“The Identification study of Tourism and cullinary at the Indramayu Regency, West Java Province” is the research which has purpose to identified about the tourism and cullinary potentiality at the Indramayu Regency, West Java Province. The research question of this research is: 1) how is the actual condition of the Indramayu Regency as a tourism destination?, 2) how is the actual condition of the tourism site at the Indramayu Regency as a tourism destination?, 3) how is the actual condition of the local cullinary at the Indramayu Regency as a tourism destination? This research is done by the qualitative method. The data was collected by: 1) literature study, 2) observation and 3) interview. The result of the research shown that Indramayu Regency has several potential tourism site and local potential cullinary to become a tourism atraction and destination.
 Keywords: tourism, cullinary, indramayu, west java.

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.

Local habitus and temporal overtourism in Yogyakarta

PurposeThis paper aims to unpack personal narratives of local residents in relation to the effects of overtourism in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The paper uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to understand how local residents cope with temporal overtourism.Design/methodology/approachFindings were gathered from observations and interviews. Interviews were conducted with 12 informants, consisting of local small-to-medium enterprise tourism entrepreneurs, local informal tourism workers and a group of locals uninvolved in tourism.FindingsThe paper has two key findings. First, locals uninvolved in tourism show empathetic behavior toward the locals involved in tourism despite their experiencing negative effects of tourism. The involved locals, for their part, were aware of the importance of resolving issues with the uninvolved locals through regular communication so as to secure the sustained future of tourism. Second, the use of social capital by involved and uninvolved locals reflects the local Javanese culture and value system in which social harmony and integration are paramount.Research limitations/implicationsLocal habitus forms and informs locals’ perceptions on temporal overtourism issues. It enables an understanding on how locals manage the effects of overtourism in Yogyakarta. The habitus, which is greatly influenced by Javanese values, creates attitudes and behaviors which are empathetic and tolerant.Practical implicationsTo avoid the potential conflict when overtourism explicitly or implicitly frustrates locals, policy should be formulated by taking into account the findings of this paper on the local habitus. The study contributes to the overtourism debate by looking at the inter-relationship of local social structures and cultural context with local responses to temporal overtourism.Originality/valueUsing the concept of habitus, this research deepens existing understanding on the local responses toward overtourism. This research expects to theoretically enrich and complexify debates on tourism–habitus nexus in tourism studies.

Sustainability of Chinese Village Development in a New Perspective: Planning Principle of Rural Public Service Facilities Based on “Function-Space” Synergistic Mechanism

Public service facilities are important carriers of sustainable rural development. However, the “holistic” planning principle for cities has resulted in the inefficient use of public service facilities in villages. Under the guidance of the sustainable development of rural areas in China, relying on the theory of “destination attractiveness” in tourism studies, this research puts forward the assumption that the real logic of the operation of rural facilities lies in the synergistic attraction between function and space for villagers. This study applied research methods such as field survey, questionnaire survey, importance–performance analysis, space syntax, and Spearman correlation analysis. It builds the “demand-frequency” coupling model of the facilities and explains the functional attractive attributes and degrees of four types of facilities in the coupling between different demands and use frequencies. Through analyzing the accessibility and traffic potential of rural facilities and the correlation between facility numbers and their spatial distribution characteristic parameters, the study reveals the synergistic mechanism between the functional and spatial attraction of the “selected facilities”. It is to clarify the planning principle of rural public service facilities based on villagers’ demands, to put forward the basic guarantee framework for different combinations of “functional attributes and spatial distribution” under the goal of good facility operation, and to achieve the goal of improving the resource efficiency and upgrading the level of the rural living environment. Eventually, it contributes to the sustainable development of rural China with theoretical and methodological support.

Extending the memorable tourism experience construct: An investigation of tourists’ memorable dark experiences

Dark tourism is an important part of tourism at some destinations; however, little is known about the factors that influence the overall dark tourism experience. This research aims to contribute to this existing knowledge gap by improving our understanding of the nature of the dark tourism experience and its formation process. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 tourists in the war zones of Iran, participants were asked to talk about their memorable experiences and why the experience was special to them. Using a grounded theory approach, a theoretical model of memorable dark tourism experiences (MDTEs) was developed and four key factors influencing dark tourism experiences at a destination were identified: learning from dark experiences, spiritual experiences, involvement in activities and emotional experiences. The findings of this study contribute to ongoing efforts in tourism studies to understand the nature of memorable tourism experiences in general and in the context of dark tourism experiences in particular. The theoretical and practical importance of the research results is discussed and various approaches are proposed for future research.

Toward critical race tourism: valuing counter-narratives and endarkened storywork

In this article, we argue for tourism scholars to amplify the stories and lived experiences of traditionally silenced groups through the adaption of critical race theory (CRT) toward a framework of Critical Race Tourism. Critical Race Tourism includes a specific focus on counter-storytelling, endarkened storywork, and regular engagement of interest convergence. We believe Critical Race Tourism can contribute to racial reconciliation and healing, particularly during a time of a global pandemic, that exacerbates systems of marginalization and oppression. Using a Critical Race Tourism framework is about realizing the potential of thick, rich data of everyday lived experiences from marginalized communities in order to enrich the theoretical, empiricism, and scholarly insights offered by academic writing. We begin by defining CRT and describe the employment of and application within tourism studies. We introduce the framework of endarkened storywork, which responds to the sustainability and justice challenges resulting from past, current, and future inequities for BIPOC communities. We close with implications for tourism contexts and research.

Factors affecting Tourism Behavior of Rural Tourism in China

Many tourism studies have shown that travelers and tourism industry participants are the most important contributors to the image of a location in the tourism business. Considering the potential to find possible links between motivation, rural tourism destination image and tourist satisfaction. The main objective of this paper is to review the literature on the variable that affects tourist behavior based on (motivation, image and satisfaction) that can improve the developments especially in rural tourism in China and to find the most influence variables.

Homes of sports: a study of cultural heritage tourism and football

ABSTRACT Many places in the world claim to be the ‘home of’ a particular sport, for example, Cooperstown and baseball; Springfield College and basketball; Lord’s and cricket; St Andrews and golf; Newmarket and horseracing; Twickenham and rugby; and Hawaii and surfing. This appellation is a desired title because it suggests distinctiveness and authenticity, and so provides the potential for tourism, inward investment and a sense of place. However, some of these claims to be the ‘home of’ a particular sport may not be well-founded or are sometimes only a myth, and therefore may be contested by other locations. To help determine the veracity of claims to be the ‘home of’, this paper uses objective authenticity indicators of original artefacts and authoritative confirmation. Indicators of football cultural heritage are then identified and combined with authoritative sources to assess the claims of Sheffield to be the home of football. It is argued that the adoption of objective authenticity indicators might assist in disputes about where a particular ‘home’ might be located.