Tourism Industry Practitioners Research Articles

Exploring Strategies to Market SMEs’ Activities: The Role of Personality Traits and Travel Motivations in Tourist Activities

Traditionally, professionals in the tourism sector have been encouraged to segment their market based on socio-demographic variables. However, the multifaceted nature of tourist activity calls for consideration of psychological factors to effectively shape marketing strategies. This study aims to provide insights for tourism industry practitioners by investigating the roles of tourists’ personalities and travel motivations in shaping their activities and their commitment to sustainability in Cumbria, home to UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Lake District National Park and Hadrian’s Wall. Data were collected using quantitative methods to identify correlations between personality traits, travel motivations, and tourist activities. Additionally, a qualitative focus group with SME representatives from Cumbria provided insights into their understanding of the model. The findings provide significant insights into how the relationships between personality traits, travel motivations, and tourist activities can benefit tourism SMEs. By comprehending tourists’ behaviour, SMEs can tailor their offerings to appeal to the right audience, mitigating the adverse effects of overtourism, and therefore do more than allude to the concept of sustainability. Using these insights, SMEs could make informed decisions and create more effective marketing strategies, fostering sustainable practices that benefit both their customers and the long-term viability of their businesses and the destination.

An overview of consumer preferences for souvenirs in China post-COVID

The COVID-19 epidemic had a major effect on the travel sector worldwide, with China's souvenir market being especially hard hit. Examining post-COVID-19 tourist preferences for memento designs, this study also attempts to explore the ramifications for the souvenir design business as the tourism sector starts to recover. In order to find pertinent publications from 2019 to June 2024, a systematic literature review procedure based on the PRISMA criteria was used to scan the Web of Science and Scopus databases. After screening the collected literature for research themes and post-pandemic development trends, the VOSviewer tool was used to perform keyword co-occurrence analysis. Four primary research issues were established by the study: (1) the rationale for cultural tourism; (2) community involvement; (3) technological integration design; and (4) cultural economic analysis. It was discovered that travellers prefer personalised travel experiences and engaging with local culture, and that creating keepsakes using technology is becoming more and more popular. Travellers' tastes for Chinese souvenir designs have changed since COVID-19, and they are now more interested in individualised experiences, cultural components, and technological integration. The study's conclusions offer legislators, souvenir designers, and other tourism industry practitioners insightful information on how to promote innovation and long-term economic success.

Cost-benefit analysis in UK hotels: A hybrid SOCP-MCDM approach

Performance evaluation has been an important topic of concern for tourism industry practitioners as well as academic researchers, and its investigation in the UK hotel sector is paramount because this industry has been experiencing a higher level of competition. The present study contributes to the previous literature on hotel performance evaluation in general by proposing an innovative hybrid method combining the second-order cone programming (SOCP) method and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method to estimate the performance of the UK hotel sector. The innovation lies in the synergistic combination of SOCP and MCDM methodologies, enabling a comprehensive assessment of hotel performance by managing a non-linear optimisation. Overall, this hybrid method benefits from the ability to be more flexible in addressing complex operational issues and provide more accurate results. This research provides a cost-benefit analysis within the proposed method, suggesting important policy implications in the tourism industry.

Virtual reality tourism: intention to use mediated by perceived usefulness, attitude and desire

Purpose COVID-19 halted global tourism, prompting stakeholders to use virtual reality (VR) tourism to maintain interest. Due to technological advancements and wider internet access globally, VR tourism has become increasingly popular. Guided by the attention-interest-desire-action (AIDA) model and the technology acceptance model (TAM) frameworks, and with the inclusion of personal innovativeness, this study aims to clarify consumer intentions toward engaging with VR tourism by investigating factors such as personal innovativeness, interest, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), attitude and desire. Design/methodology/approach Data was gathered from 252 participants using a cross-sectional approach, with partial least squares structural equation modeling used to assess the research model. Findings The findings indicate consumers' personal innovativeness strongly influences VR tourism intention, mediated by PU, attitude and desire. VR tourism intention is also significantly impacted by interest in VR tourism and is mediated by PU and PEOU, attitude and desire. PEOU and PU are significantly linked to interest and determine attitude. Attitude, both directly and indirectly, significantly influences VR tourism intention through users' desire, which mediates the relationship. Through multiple group analysis, the path from desire to intention is found to be moderated by age, education and marital status. Practical implications Theoretically, this study pioneers a framework that merges AIDA, TAM and personal innovativeness to advance the understanding of VR tourism adoption dynamics and enrich tourism research. Managerially, it provides valuable guidance on targeting communications and technology toward increasing VR tourism engagement and presents a roadmap for industry practitioners. Originality/value This research addresses the identified gaps in extant literature by combining TAM and AIDA with personal innovativeness to investigate the process of consumers' VR tourism intention, triggered by consumers' personal innovativeness and interest in VR tourism. The study highlights significant managerial insights for both tourism industry practitioners and academic researchers, which can assist with decision-making to promote VR tourism development.

VOLCANO TOURISM: HOW DO DESTINATION AWARENESS AND CREDIBILITY DEVELOP VISIT INTENTION FOR MOUNT BROMO IN INDONESIA

This study investigates the impact of destination awareness, credibility, reputation, and association on visit intention. The study was conducted at Mount Bromo, in Indonesia’s East Java Province, which has become a popular destination for domestic and international tourists. The study involved 227 participants selected through the convenience sampling method, and the collected data were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models. The study found that destination awareness and credibility significantly influenced destination reputation and association, which, in turn, had a significant impact on visiting intentions. These research findings are essential in advancing volcano tourism studies and provide a deeper understanding of the factors influencing tourist intention to visit such destinations. The implications of these research findings can guide tourism industry practitioners and decision -makers in developing more effective marketing strategies, and this study contributes significantly to volcano tourism literature.

What does personality tell us about travellers’ social media use, social return, and travel intentions?

ABSTRACT While much has been written on the influence personality has over travel behaviour, few have researched the relationship between personality, social media usage, and intent to travel. This research note is one of the first to bring social media into the discussion to see how one’s personality influences their utilitarian and socially symbolic uses of social media, social return, and, ultimately, their intentions to travel. Data from 1,653 international tourists from the United States of America’s top 5 travel markets revealed the Big 5 Personalities had significant but divergent relationships on utilitarian and symbolic motivations for using social media suggesting marketers should use personality profiles in their social media marketing campaigns. ‘Social Return’ was also found to be a crucial element in the proposed framework, reinforcing the proposition that DMOs and other tourism industry practitioners should use social media as a contemporary tool to boost travel to their destinations.

Analysis of English Learning Needs for Travel Bureau Students in Bali, Indonesia

The tourism industry in Indonesia, especially Bali, has developed rapidly in recent years. This drives the need for skilled workers in the tourism sector, including good English language skills. This research aims to analyze the English language learning needs of students majoring in Travel Bureaus in Bali, Indonesia. This research uses quantitative and qualitative methods. Data was collected through a survey of 100 students majoring in Travel Bureau and in-depth interviews with 10 lecturers and 5 tourism industry practitioners. The research results show that students majoring in Travel Bureau have a high need to improve their English language skills, especially in the aspects of speaking, listening, and reading. This need is driven by the demands of work in the tourism industry, where English is widely used to communicate with foreign tourists. This research provides an overview of the English language learning needs for students majoring in Travel Bureaus in Bali, Indonesia. The findings of this research can be used to develop English language learning programs that are more effective and relevant to the needs of the tourism industry.

Exploring the destination network in the context of tourism mobility: a multi-scale analytical framework

ABSTRACT Tourist mobility has attracted considerable attention from tourism academics and industry practitioners. This study explores the destination network, which is constructed based on tourists’ digital footprint data collected from online travel diaries, by proposing a multi-scale analytical framework. In particular, to analyze the tourism destination network comprehensively, the proposed framework integrates traditional quantitative analysis (gravity center model, statistics of flow directions) and three scales of network analysis (macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic network metrics), to reveal the structural patterns of the underlying pattern characteristics; furthermore, by using the multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure (MRQAP), the framework also explores the formation mechanism of the destination network by measuring the correlation and causality between the destination network and the corresponding transportation network, combining other potential driving factors. Based on illustrative case study data, which contains 18, 939 travel diaries and 51, 603, 044 transportation records from Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle in China, the empirical results show that the destination network is dynamically changed during four-year period, and the transportation network has great potential in explaining the formation of destination network. The dynamic characteristics of destination network and the exploration of formation mechanism offer the opportunities for improving destination planning and management.

Tourism, commodification of Dongba script and perceptions of the Naxi minority in the linguistic landscape of Lijiang: a diachronic perspective

Abstract Ongoing debates in the field of sociolinguistics are centred around the implications of the commodification of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities. Previous research has adopted synchronic approaches to describing how ideologies of tourist consumption shape language choices in the linguistic landscape. However, such snapshot analyses have proved to be inadequate in revealing changes in the linguistic landscape over time, especially the nuanced perceptions of minority communities who are subjects to ethnic tourism. This paper examines the use of Dongba script in the linguistic landscape of the Naxi minority in Lijiang under the conditions of commodification in tourism. A diachronic comparison of photographic data collected in 2016 and 2021 revealed the increasing visibility and prominence of Dongba script on public signs; interviews with ordinary inhabitants, tourism industry practitioners and Dongba priests within the Naxi community further demonstrated the evolving attitudes towards linguistic commodification, from hesitation and objection to integration and creative accommodation. The study provides new insights into how a diachronic perspective can help reveal the dynamic between packaging languages as commodities and retaining signs of identity, religion and culture.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability Governance and Sustainable Performance: A Preliminary Insight

This conceptual paper aims to investigate corporate social responsibility (CSR) practises in the tourism sector. Drawing on the existing literature this study conceptualises the linkage between CSR, sustainability governance, and sustainable performance. Moreover, this study conceptualises three sub-dimensions of CSR. The integration of CSR in the tourism sector is significant and novel. An analytical review is conducted to present conceptual linkage and research implications. The finding implies that CSR positively influences the sustainable performance of organisations and sustainable governance plays a mediating role between relationships. This study provides important implications that help tourism industry practitioners to realise the significance of reducing environmental and social problems, which cause by tourism activities. Further, this study obtains support from institutional theory to explain the relationships of governance mechanism and CSR that leads to economic performance as well as create value for nature and the local community. Additionally, the future direction of research is provided that highlights some important avenues in the sustainability field.

Impacts of advisory perception and cultural distance on travel intention: evidence from China

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of travel advisory perception and cultural distance on travel intention based on the push and pull theory, the stimulus–organism–response model and protection motivation theory.Design/methodology/approachThe paper conducts an empirical test with a questionnaire survey. The authors asked respondents to answer questions on a five-point Likert-type scale, which included threat severity, threat susceptibility, advisory perception, perceived cultural distance, travel motivation and travel intention.FindingsIn this paper, through a questionnaire of 424 respondents, the authors found that threat severity has a positive impact on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, and that advisory perception indirectly affect travel intention through travel motivation.Originality/valuePrevious literature has discussed the influencing factors of travel intention but rarely does it consider the intrinsic relationship and interaction between advisory perception and cultural distance. The results of this study help fill some gaps in the research on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, guide governments on how to better formulate travel advisories and provide a new perspective for tourism industry practitioners to improve their travel products after the COVID-19 pandemic especially.

Examining Tourists’ Behavior Using Protection Motivation Theory and Health Belief Model: Covid-19 Crisis

Purpose - The main objective of this study was to investigate tourists behavior by applying protection motivation theory and health belief model during COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the study examined how risk perception of COVID-19 affects tourists’ protection motivation and travel avoidance intention. Design/methodology/approach The empirical data was collected by self-administered questionnaires to obtain perception and behavior regarding COVID-19 pandemic situation. A total of 486 questionnaires were used for data analysis and SEM analysis was applied in order to examine seven hypotheses. Findings-The results showed that COVID-19 risk perception is a significant antecedent of threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and cue to action (H1, H2, H6). Moreover, protection motivation is affected by threat appraisal and coping appraisal (H3, H4) and influences on travel avoidance intention (H5). However, cue to action does not affect protection motivation (H7). Research implications or Originality This study provides insightful implications for tourism industry practitioners who will prepare the post-corona field and the results enrich knowledge of the tourist behavior during pandemic situation.

Has a Pandemic Provided an Opportunity for Food in Tourism?

This is an autoethnographic perspective, informed by my experience over four decades as a practitioner, policy maker and academic. The primary thrust of my argument is that, within the wider tourism industry, food in tourism is integral across all sectors, markets, and populations with enormous and sustainable social and economic potential. Realising that potential requires a shift beyond the existing traditional tourism paradigm that is based on narrow economic objectives. The pandemic may have created a tipping point, forcing that paradigm to shift to holistic, collaborative, and sustainable objectives reflecting fresh societal, cultural, environmental, and economic concerns. It is therefore critical to prepare for action in a post-pandemic world where challenges are different. This entails an awareness, and an understanding, of some of the conventions and practices of key elements outside of tourism and food. While there are many, I suggest focusing on those most critical to food-focused activity in tourism - that is, academic researchers in tourism, tourism industry practitioners, and tourism policy makers. In practice, these parties, and how they interact, inevitably require detailed attention and consideration in successfully advocating for any food-focused activity in tourism in general, and food in tourism in particular.

Is virtual reality technology an effective tool for tourism destination marketing? A flow perspective

虚拟现实是否能成为目的地营销的有效工具？一项基于沉浸理论视角的研究研究目的本研究旨在探索虚拟现实（VR）作为一项营销沟通工具来研究对目的地形象, 目的地态度改变, 诠释心流体验如何对目的地形象的影响, 以及目的地形象在心流体验对态度改变的中介作用的影响。研究设计/方法/途径本研究从342位观看了由HTC 提供的VR虚拟现实 VIVE 装备对旅游景区营销视频的参与者采集调研数据。调研数据由验证性因子分析和结构方程（PLS-SEM软件）来测试研究模型。研究发现研究结果显示由VR产生的基于心流体验的两个因子（友好程度和远程呈现）可以对目的地形象产生正面影响。研究显示目的地形象是心流体验影响态度变化的中介因素。研究原创性/价值由于旅游目的地面临着关于投资于不同VR 平台或者其他科技工具的战略性决策, 了解个体如何对各种VR刺激因素进行反应变得尤其重要。因此本研究结论为旅游业内人士提供了有价值信息。

A Study of Emotional Solidarity in the Homestay Industry between Hosts and Tourists in the Post-Pandemic Era

Tourists’ perceptions of various risks at their travel destinations have crucial implications for destination management organizations and other tourism industry practitioners, which is growing into an unprecedented concern in the post-pandemic era. The Internet has boosted the global homestay industry. The perceived risk of homestay tourists requires further attention from researchers to promote the sustainable development of the homestay industry, especially in the post-pandemic era. To supplement and enrich the literature, this study aims to explore the relationships between tourists’ perceived risk, three dimensions of tourists’ emotional solidarity with hosts (feeling welcome, sympathetic understanding, and emotional closeness), and their customer loyalty towards the homestay industry in the post-pandemic era by taking the homestay industry of Guangzhou, China as the context, and employing SmartPLS for the empirical analysis. The results indicate that perceived risk has a significantly negative impact on emotional solidarity and customer loyalty, while emotional solidarity has a significantly positive impact on customer loyalty and plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived risk and customer loyalty. The theoretical contributions of the article and the practical implications of the findings for the sustainable development of the homestay industry are discussed.

RETRACTED: Teaching innovation and practice of tourism planning education

The development and promotion of tourism planning education is the basis and premise of tourism management education.Based on the teaching objectives and career direction of Tourism Management Major in higher vocational colleges, the teaching innovation of tourism planning course is studied. To interpret and evaluate the planning as the goal, based on a large number of complete case texts, explore practical teaching and training methods. Through the industry research and analysis of the students' learning situation, this paper finds out the demand and ability requirements of the current tourism management major for the course learning; combined with the professional and professional needs, the teaching innovation is carried out with the analysis and planning as the course objective. Through the teaching design, curriculum practice and analysis, based on the actual combat exercises, this paper studies the appropriate teaching and training methods, innovates and improves the education and teaching of this course. The three major elements of tourism management activities are tourism subject, tourism object and tourism attraction. While emphasizing the demand side, paying attention to the reform of supply side is the focus of current tourism management. With the development of tourism industry, the requirement of tourism management personnel training is to have strategic vision and overall awareness. Tourism planning has become the main course of Tourism Management Major in higher vocational colleges. Its teaching effect has a long-term impact on students' career, and will certainly play a decisive role in improving professional accomplishment and overall situation awareness of tourism industry practitioners.

Emerging rural tourism in China’s current tourism industry and tourist behaviors: the case of Anji County

ABSTRACT Recognizing the notable growth of rural tourism in China, this research aimed to take Anji County as a case to comprehend the role of rural tourism destination performances in affecting destination image and predicting satisfaction and loyalty. The empirical outcomes revealed that the higher-order construct of rural tourism performance significantly and positively influenced responsiveness constructs. Additionally, the moderating effect of tourist expectation was also demonstrated. This study provided certain guidance and reference for both academics and rural tourism industry practitioners to deepen the knowledge on investigating the associations among tourist expectation, rural tourism performance, destination image, tourist satisfaction and loyalty.

Attributes of Senior-Friendly Tourism Destinations for Current and Future Senior Tourists: An Importance-Performance Analysis Approach

This study aims to identify the tourists’ expectation and satisfaction of destination attributes from the perspective of senior tourists in Malaysia. Two groups of tourists were chosen as the study sample, that is, future seniors (40–54 years old) and seniors (55 years old and above). It is hoped that, through recognizing and raising awareness on the need for equal traveling opportunities, senior tourists and future senior tourists will be encouraged to undertake more tourism activities. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) and paired sample t tests were employed to investigate senior tourists’ perceptions of senior-friendly destination attributes. Measures of destination attributes included the “4As” (i.e., attractions, accessibility, amenities, and ancillary services). The findings from a survey of 227 respondents revealed that the most important attributes for a senior-friendly destination are safety and cleanliness. Other attributes deemed important by senior tourists include the availability of leisure facilities and barrier-free public transportation. The findings also highlight attributes that tourism industry practitioners may use to improve tourists’ satisfaction and develop into competitive advantages against other tourist destinations. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.

Rise of the machines: towards a conceptual service-robot research framework for the hospitality and tourism industry

PurposeThis study aims to introduce a conceptual framework for service robot (SR) acceptance by customers, employees and policymakers – a framework to help determine corporate decision-making on SR workplace integration.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews SR adoption literature within the tourism and hospitality industry. These SRs may have some level of artificial intelligence capability and possibly anthropomorphic (e.g. humanoid) or zoomorphic (e.g. animal-like) features, contingent on task and design choices. The study then identifies factors that potentially influence employee and consumer acceptance and experiences of SR, as well as policy and compliance factors and all elements of the corporate decision-making process concerning SR adoption in the hospitality setting.FindingsThis paper reviews the obstacles and benefits of SR adoption in the hospitality industry based on employee, consumer and public policy considerations.Research limitations/implicationsSRs are increasingly deployed within hospitality and tourism settings. Future studies should further explore the value-adding functions of SRs implemented in existing hospitality operations.Practical implicationsHospitality and tourism industry practitioners should integrate the dimensions in the conceptual framework to make fully informed decisions on SR adoption.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide a holistic SR adoption framework offering theoretical and practical implications for ongoing SR research and implementation.

Creating local sustainability indicators towards evidence-based policymaking for tourism in developing economies: Evidence from the Philippines

ABSTRACT Sustainable development of tourism destinations is deemed a critical component of the global development agenda. Among developing economies whose tourism industries have remained a significant pillar of their economic growth, translating sustainability concepts and principles into policy remains a challenge. The incorporation of sustainability in public policies requires tourism development to generate positive impacts on the environment, economy, and society through the active involvement of stakeholders. At the core of this approach is the identification and use of indicators to evaluate the sustainability of destinations. This study primarily addresses concerns on the compatibility of existing indicators with local objectives and perceptions, with an aim of identifying local indicators that evaluate the sustainability of destinations in the Philippines. This study contributes to the existing development research through the identification of local sustainability indicators that are hinged on local understanding and perceptions of sustainability. A qualitative approach was employed to capture a holistic understanding of the multiple perspectives of stakeholders regarding sustainable tourism development. Results were determined through a focus group discussion with tourists and key informant interviews involving government authorities, tourism businesses, tourism industry practitioners, and academe.