Tourism Policy Makers Research Articles

Climate services for tourism: Insights from Caribbean Small Island Developing States

Peer reviewed literature on the availability and use of climate services in the operations and management of tourism is scarce. Using a multi-method approach, we provide insights on both basic and specialised climate information utilised by a range of public and private sector tourism decision-makers in the most tourism-dependent region in the world - the Caribbean. We also examined whether existing climate information meets tourism destination planning, marketing and operational decision-making needs and how the tourism industry could more effectively and efficiently integrate climate information to enhance sector performance. Results from research with 47 Caribbean hoteliers and tourism policy-makers show that short-term destination and source market weather information are widely consulted, but the use of historical climate information and longer-term climate forecasts is comparatively lower. There are few tailored climate information products and services, and uptake of the few that exist is low. Current climate information inadequately fulfills decision-makers’ needs due to a number of challenges, including a short history of engagement between the climate and tourism communities, along with a partial understanding of the needs and preferences of tourism stakeholders. Evidence suggests that a new generation of specialised climate information products can enhance climate risk management amongst tourism suppliers. Further research and relationship building will be needed to support the co-production and uptake of tailored climate information for the Caribbean tourism sector. Tourism-dependent Small Island Developing States in other regions interested in pursuing climate services for tourism can learn from the experience and approach used in the Caribbean.

Trust transfer effect of a successful mega-event on host destination loyalty : Long-term tourism impacts

This study develops and tests a theoretical framework that utilizes the trust transfer theory in the context of the 2012 Yeosu Expo to identify how the trust of a successful mega-event transfers to the host destination via visitors’ experiences and values. An onsite survey was conducted for visitors who had experienced the past expo site. In total, 417 questionnaires were distributed, and 337 questionnaires were used for the analysis. This study confirmed the role of trust in promoting destination loyalty for long-term tourism development. Trust in the 2012 Yeosu Expo had a positive relationship with the four dimensions of experiences. That is, the reputation of a mega-event associated with a host destination had a positive influence on visitors’ experiences at the destination. The positive relationships among the four experience dimensions and visitors’ perceived value suggest that visitors had more positive entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic experiences in Yeosu City, indicating that they are more likely to perceive Yeosu as an emotionally and functionally valuable destination. Furthermore, the positive impact of emotional and functional values on trust in Yeosu City led to host destination loyalty. This study provides theoretical insights into transforming the trust toward a mega-event into loyalty to the host destination in the long term. The findings suggest that tourism policymakers and practitioners in Yeosu City should continue to promote the Yeosu Expo as a successful mega-event by highlighting the success of past events and exhibitions.

Exploring the Factors Affecting Travel Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Structural Analysis

The purpose of this study is to identify structural relationships between factors affecting domestic tourism intentions in Iran under COVID-19 conditions, taking into account the importance of behavioral intention in predicting behavior. Therefore, it adds to the emerging body of knowledge about travel intentions during the pandemic. Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyze 383 online questionnaires, which revealed a positive impact of “frequency of past travel” and a negative effect of “Covid-19 risk knowledge”, “perceived risk,” and “risk aversion attitudes” on “travel intentions.” Furthermore, “perceived risk” and “risk aversion attitudes” mediated the relationship between “frequency of past travel” and “Covid-19 risk knowledge” with “travel intentions.” Meanwhile, “socio-demographic variables” and “travel purposes” moderated the relationships between “risk aversion attitudes” and “travel intentions” and between “perceived risks” and “travel intentions.” The findings enable tourism policy-makers, marketers, and businesses to take purposeful measures to recover domestic tourism.

CIRI-CIRI DAN PERKHIDMATAN RUMAH BOT SEBAGAI TARIKAN PELANCONGAN DI TASIK KENYIR, TERENGGANU

Houseboats are one of the tourist attractions in Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu. Their unique services have not been documented much which prompted this study. The objectives of this study are (i) to identify the features of houseboats as tourist attractions in Tasik Kenyir, and (ii) to examine the characteristics of services offered by houseboat operators to tourists visiting the lake. The design of this study is exploratory and the approach used is qualitative through in-depth interviews supported by observation. Eight houseboat operators and workers were involved in the study as informants. The results showed that the features of houseboats are unique in that they have complete facilities like those found in a house. Among the facilities provided are a living room, bedrooms, kitchen area, toilet/bathroom, barbeque area, and provision of safety jackets. The services include the types of packages, rental price, booking mode, and duration of booking including houseboat services payment method. In summary, the fundamental study of houseboats as a tourist attraction in Tasik Kenyir is relevant for the purpose of documentation and as a reference to various parties such as tourism policymakers, houseboat operators and researchers.

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATIONAL WISDOM IN THE HEALTH TOURISM INDUSTRY

Health tourism is when patients travel to another state (or within a country) to improve or restore health (Hudson and Li, 2012). Recent studies show that health care spending is on the rise, averaging around 9 percent of GDP in OECD countries, and that the right balance needs to be struck between spending on disease prevention and treatment. Assessing the problem field of the health tourism industry and the current situation, the following key problems are identified: lack of communication and support between health tourism policy makers and health tourism organizations; lack of a culture of cooperation and organizational partnership between the public and private sectors; lack of strategic planning; gaps in the targeted distribution of responsibilities between actors in the health tourism network; resistance of the public and private sector to change. Thus, the article solves the problem – how to ensure the effective application of the principles of organizational wisdom in the health tourism industry? According to the authors, it is expedient for the organizations involved in this complex field of tourism to base their activities on the principles of organizational wisdom. The aim of the article is to propose the application of the principles of organizational wisdom in the health tourism industry. For the systematic review, scientific articles were searched in databases: Cambridge Journals Online; EBSCO; Emerald Publishing; SAGE Journals Online; Science direct; Taylor & Francis. The scientific articles included in the systematic review cover the period 1999-2020. The following methods are used to present the results of the research: comparative analysis, synthesis, graphical representation and generalization. The study identified the following essential principles of organizational wisdom that are appropriate to adapt in the health tourism industry: transformational leadership; organizational culture, management structure and teamwork; recognition of environmental change and rapid and effective response to it; systemic thinking; interaction between different organizations that can lead to high-quality solutions (innovation); the ability to accumulate organizational memory to compare past and present situations and decisions made. The authors in the article substantiate the opinion that the sustainability of the application of these principles depends on the mechanism of organizational partnership in organizing / creating health tourism cooperative. Such an organization has: a balanced structure and clearly defined roles and responsibilities of participants; long-term commitments are matched by specific short-term objectives that can be measured; periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of the role played by each partner; accurate and effective communication between partners and all stakeholders.

Gaps between International Tourists’ Attitudes and Behaviours towards Japanese Heritage Tourism and Government Policymakers’ Views - Opportunities for Tourism Innovation Post COVID-19

Around the world, people travel to explore natural beauty, different cultures and social traditions. Much of this involves heritage tourism and this has become an important motivation for international travelers and contributes huge economic benefits to many countries. Besides, it can also bring positive impacts to the society, culture, and environment conservation of the country involved. The Japan Tourism National Promotion Basic Law (2006) states that culture and heritage are “the most important components of Japan tourism” and that Japan will emphasize its abilities to attract more international travelers and support conservation of cultural heritage [1]. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese tourism has been damaged significantly and is forecasted to take a long time to recover. The local government shows its concerns about how to reduce the pandemic impacts on the society and economy and encourage international visitors to return. The “new normal” situation requires an insight of the changes in international tourists’ attitudes, traveling behavior and motivations. The experience of Japan could provide a model which other countries in the Asia and Pacific area might study. The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with Japanese government tourism policymakers and a quantitative survey of 211 responses from 43 countries and territories which was conducted from July 2019 to June 2020. From the findings, some recommendations for Japanese tourism innovation are proposed.

Friendly Locals and Clean Streets?—Evaluating Jakarta’s Destination Brand Image

Destination image and city branding are accumulating a growing body of knowledge in urban studies and tourism literature. Although several visitor destination image models have been proposed, the most prevalent in Asia remains the comprehensive destination image model. This is the first research to test the applicability of this model beyond the United States and with international (rather than domestic) visitors. Jakarta is chosen as the geographical test area for this study, which incorporates structural equation modeling on a data sample of international leisure visitors in Jakarta. The findings indicate that the destination image model could be generalized beyond the US and applied to Jakarta. This study finds that tourism policymakers in Jakarta should focus on promoting the friendliness of local residents and improving the city’s cleanliness, as these are the two most positive and negative perceptions. Overall, this study showed that a unique destination image—a largely under-researched topic in place branding—is a variable that should be considered when formulating the overall place image of city destinations around the world.

Virtual pets want to travel: Engaging visitors, creating excitement

This paper proposes a gamified approach to promote tourism attractions based on users' interaction with a virtual pet in the context of an AR mobile application. Technology Acceptance Model, 6–11 Framework and Persuasive Systems Design are combined, to extract factors influencing the intention to travel with the virtual pet. A survey questionnaire was developed and administered online to 539 participants. Outcomes of this study highlight the significant role of emotional attachment and rewarding experience towards intention to travel with a virtual pet. The outcomes also helped us to develop a new ‘Intention to Travel’ (I2T) model. To interest and excite prospective visitors, a design of a mobile game with Augmented Reality (AR) features is proposed which will involve engaging interactions with virtual pets to attract visitors to desired location(s). Practitioners such as game developers and tourism policy makers may consider the virtual pets as a vehicle to impact tourists' behavior.

Collaboration for Community-Based Cultural Sustainability in Island Tourism Development: A Case in Korea

Constructive collaboration with host communities while maintaining their traditional culture is crucial when planning tourism ventures, particularly if ensuring sustainability is considered important. This paper investigates the cultural sustainability of Jeju Island in South Korea and whether collaboration with community-based tourism ensures this sustainability through in-depth interviews with local residents. The first part of the interview focuses on cultural components to assess the current situation of cultural sustainability on the island, and the second part is related to that collaboration. The findings of the interviews indicate that: (i) there are certain negative indications of cultural sustainability in that Jeju people holding informal power became vulnerable in the face of tourism demand; (ii) several barriers exist in the facilitation of community-based tourism collaboration notwithstanding the beneficial trends, and (iii) there is a strong relationship between collaboration and cultural sustainability. It is also noted that the collaboration itself does not coincide with the actualization of cultural sustainability so long as current power disparities exist. The study delivers significant implications to the tourism policymakers and practitioners on how sustainable tourism development should be planned and operated to secure a long-term benefit especially focused on how the local community should be involved in the overall development process.

The coming-of-age of tourism: embracing new economic models

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to re-examine the economic models and assumptions that have given rise to current day tourism. It suggests alternate models based on new values to help tourism emerge from the current COVID crisis and “come-of-age.”Design/methodology/approachThe paper delineates the assumptions of neoliberal economics upon which much of tourism has been based. It then summarizes the work of progressive economists in developing new models that value capital other than financial. Six of these models are briefly described and applied to tourism.FindingsSome assumptions underlying the neoliberal economic model that need re-examining are the ideas that: self-interest drives ideal economic behavior; success comes from competition, not cooperation; encouraging consumption for its own sake; giving owners priority over other stakeholders; and more income translates into more happiness. Redesign of economic systems requires consideration of social capital, natural capital, intellectual capital, compassion capital, trust capital and spiritual capital to name a few. Examples of alternate systems using these capitals are the collaborative economy, the circular economy, the creative economy, the gift economy, the sacred economy and the regenerative economy.Originality/valueThe paper’s approach is to interlace modern economic thought with the future maturation of tourism and to suggest that tourism policymakers and leaders learn from these thinkers to create a new model for the future of tourism.

A Fuzzy AHP-MAIRCA Model for Overtourism Assessment: The Case of Malaga Province

The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 has placed the tourism sector in an unfavourable position. It has altered the reality of destinations worldwide, changing the paradigm of tourism and showing an unusual scenario within the tourism sector, the undertourism. This paper confirms how this global pandemic has put the Spanish tourism sector at a halt, making it essential to establish public–private response strategies that reactivate it and, in turn, avoid overtourism in the post-COVID-19 scenario. This is done to emphasise the necessity of embracing an adapted systematic approach that entails a realistic set of factors to quantitatively measure the impact of overtourism on the local community. In this sense, a fuzzy modified hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is proposed, combining the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) model, the multi-attribute ideal–real comparative analysis (MAIRCA) model, and the sensitivity analysis. The modified F-AHP model is used to identify the criteria importance. For the final ranking of the considered alternative municipalities, the modified F-MAIRCA is applied. To validate the applicability of the proposed approach, we designated the province of Malaga (Costa del Sol) as an empirical study. The findings show that the municipality of Nerja was the most affected by overtourism in the pre-pandemic scenario, and today it is found in undertourism. This calls for transformative decisions of fully engaged tourism policymakers and practitioners to thrive in the post-COVID-19 tourism scenarios in terms of sustainability.

Drivers of Regional Destination Competitiveness: A DEMATEL – Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach

This paper aims to explore a conceptual criteria framework for measuring tourism destination competitiveness at the regional level to fill the existing gap in literature. This study was conducted in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province of Indonesia, by developing a tailored set of criteria for measuring destination competitiveness specific for the regional backdrop through rigorous literature review and in-depth interviews with tourism experts. Moreover, a hybrid MCDM approach combining DEMATEL and Fuzzy TOPSIS techniques was employed to analyze interrelationships and importance rankings of the developed measurement criteria. This research developed a six-factor and twenty-three indicator framework deemed relevant for assessing destination competitiveness at the regional level. The six factors comprise of destination attraction, general infrastructure, superstructure, destination management, price competitiveness, and regional government policy. The DEMATEL analysis revealed regional government policy to be the most influential factor, whilst destination attraction was rendered the most important one. Results from the Fuzzy TOPSIS present the most important indicators from the framework as a natural attraction, accessibility and port infrastructure, accommodation, the image of the destination, and priority towards the tourism sector. Findings from this research provide valuable insights in terms of proposing tourism policymakers with a blueprint of regional destination competitiveness criteria that offers critical inputs for developing medium and long-term tourism strategies.

Assessment of residents’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism development - A case study of Bačko Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve, Serbia

Residents' attitudes to tourism activities are crucial for sustainable tourism development. The sustainable tourism attitude scale (SUS-TAS) is implemented as a basis for analyzing local residents' attitudes towards sustainable tourism development. The aim of this research is to explore the attitudes of the local community (n = 1233) towards sustainable tourism development in the Bačko Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve (BPBR), located in northwestern Serbia, and examine the effectiveness of the SUS-TAS. The principal component analysis with a Varimax rotation was implemented to determine the dimensions of the SUS-TAS. Seven factors have been extracted. Among the seven factors, community members showed agreement to six factors of sustainable tourism development. This study supports the hypothesis that the SUS- TAS is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring residents' attitudes toward sustainable tourism development, even in developing countries like Serbia. Finally, the study shows that locals have a positive attitude toward the development of sustainable tourism in the BPBR. The present study reveals the need of local residents to be advised when developing destination-marketing sustainable tourism strategies. For sustainable tourism development in biosphere reserves one of the key elements is the acceptance and tolerance of tourists by the local population. Therefore, the following measures are recommended: 1. The destination's management and tourist organizations should allow residents to access information and enable them to participate in decision-making. 2. Tourism policy-makers in Serbia should pay significant attention to the attitudes of local residents in creating marketing and management strategies for tourism development. 3. Tourism developers and managers need to help residents understand how tourism development may improve their quality of life by creating access to better amenities.

The competitive productivity (CP) of tourism destinations: an integrative conceptual framework and a reflection on big data and analytics

Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study elaborates an integrative conceptual framework of tourism destination competitive productivity (TDCP) by blending established destination competitiveness frameworks, the competitive productivity (CP) framework and studies pertaining to big data and big data analytics (BDA) within destination management information systems and smart tourism destinations. Second, this study examines the drivers of TDCP in the context of the ongoing 4th industrial revolution by conceptualizing the destination business intelligence unit (DBIU) as a platform able to create sustained destination business intelligence under the guise of BDA, useful to support destination managers to achieve the tourism destination’s economic objectives. Design/methodology/approach In this work, the authors leverage both extant literature (under the guise of research on CP, tourism destination competitiveness [TDC] and destination management information systems) and empirical work (in the form of interviews and field work involving destination managers and chief executive officers of destination management organizations and convention bureaus, as well as secondary data) to elaborate, develop and present an integrative conceptual framework of TDCP. Findings The integrative conceptual framework of TDCP elaborated has been found helpful by a number of destination managers trying to understand how to effectively and efficiently manage and market a tourism destination in today’s fast-paced, digital and hypercompetitive environment. While DBIUs are at different stages of implementation, often as part of broader smart destination initiatives, it appears that they are increasingly fulfilling the purpose of creating sustained destination business intelligence by means of BDA to help tourism destinations achieve their economic goals. Research limitations/implications This work bears several practical implications for tourism policymakers, destination managers and marketers, technology developers, as well as tourism and hospitality firms and practitioners. Tourism policymakers could embed TDCP into tourism and economic policies, and destination managers and marketers might build and make use of platforms such as the proposed DBIU. Technology developers need to understand that designing destination management information systems in general and more specifically DBIUs requires an in-depth analysis of the stakeholders that are going to contribute, share, control and use BDA. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes the first attempt to integrate the CP, TDC and destination management information systems research streams to elaborate an integrative conceptual framework of TDCP. Second, the authors contribute to the Industry 4.0 research stream by examining the drivers of tourism destination CP in the context of the ongoing 4th industrial revolution. Third, the authors contribute to the destination management information systems research stream by introducing and conceptualizing the DBIU and the related sustained destination business intelligence.

Measuring the Valence and Intensity of Residents’ Behaviors in Host–Tourist Interactions: Implications for Destination Image and Destination Competitiveness

While studies have documented the valence (e.g., facilitation and harm) of residents’ behaviors toward tourists, research into the intensity (i.e., activeness or passiveness) for such behaviors and the corresponding matrix that could be generated by considering both of these dimensions in the context of tourism remains unexplored. This research offers a more holistic conceptualization of residents’ behaviors by generating a matrix that constitutes the framework of the Behaviours from Intergroup Affect and Stereotype (BIAS) Map. Twelve behaviors were measured and cross-culturally validated via samples from Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States: Active Facilitation (i.e., socializing, interacting, and starting a conversation with tourists); Passive Facilitation (i.e., tolerating, accepting, and enduring tourists’ behaviors); Active Harm (i.e., mocking, threatening, and being unfriendly to tourists); and Passive Harm (i.e., resisting, refraining, and being reluctant to help tourists). This research provides implications for tourism policy makers to manage host–guest relations that could influence destination image and destination competitiveness.

The trend of technology application in tourist behavior

In the context of the digital era, the role of technology in the field of tourism is vital and apparent. Technology has made traveling and tourism easier and more interesting; Internet and mobile devices have changed the way people plan and experience their trips. Tourist behavior is an underlying factor impacting the tourism services development. Understanding tourist behavior becomes prerequisite for tourism policy makers and practitioners, bringing practical values for stakeholders. Study on the impacts of technology on different stages of the travel cycle has been attracting scholars' attention. From the survey of 500 respondents living, studying or working in Ho Chi Minh City, this paper aims at mentioning the trend of applying technology in consume behavior in tourism, indicating level of technology use in different steps of the travel cycle ranging from information searching, booking, experiencing to sharing. The result showed that most of the respondents used technology at different levels in different stages of their travel cycle in which destination information searching and memories capturing were the most popular. Some implications and suggestions were also been indicated.

Responses to COVID-19: The role of performance in the relationship between small hospitality enterprises' resilience and sustainable tourism development.

Tourism is one of the hardest-hit industries by the global pandemic of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Small tourism enterprises have been heavily affected and have had difficulty in business recovery. This research is an early attempt to explore the direct impact of small hospitality enterprises’ resilience on sustainable tourism development as well as indirect impact through performance. A pre-tested questionnaire survey was self-administered to owner-managers of small hospitality enterprises in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS showed a positive, direct, and significant impact of resilience (planned and adaptive) on sustainable tourism development and indirect influence through performance. The results of the multi-group analysis showed that enterprise type has a significant effect on the results, where restaurant owner-managers expressed more resilience than their hotel counterparts. Several theoretical (for scholars) and practical implications for tourism policy-makers and owner-managers have been discussed and elaborated.

Residents’ perception on tourism impact factors: a study of Ohrid, North Macedonia

Rapid tourism growth may negatively affect the sustainability of the destination and disrupt the life of local residents. This paper explores the direct and indirect connections among tourism impact factors in the area of sustainability. Exploratory factor analysis is conducted in order to assess the underlying dimension of residents' satisfaction with given impacts of tourism development. The authors use the three-pillar sustainability concept (socio-cultural, environmental and economic) and suggest a model that measures residents' attitudes on tourism impacts. The model is empirically tested by elaborating the case of Ohrid (North Macedonia). The study informs tourism policy makers how to manage tourism impacts and to improve sustainability perspective. The proposed model can be adopted and applied to any tourism destination facing unsustainable development.

Mere association of product image and travel destination

While some recent studies found that product perceptions could engender an attitude toward the product's origin-country as a travel destination (destination-attitude), a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon remains unclear. This study provides causal evidence that the phenomenon occurs through mere association effect. Four experiments showed that destination-attitude formation occurred via an implicit (i.e., unconscious) process, and the attitude mediated the influence of product image on visit intention. Causal evidence was provided by visual and cognitive load manipulations. Finally, product-country incongruence was found to be a boundary condition. Hence, exporters, tourism policy makers and businesses should collaborate for mutual gains to enhance the competitiveness of the country's exports and tourism market.

The holiday practices of seniors and their implications for social tourism: A Wallonian perspective

With an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of age-related constraints, social tourism providers and policy-makers face significant challenges in providing holidays for seniors. Based on a large database from a research project in Wallonia (Belgium) implemented from 2015 till 2018, the study identifies the different types of holiday arrangements and activities associated with the benefits of holidays, largely in terms of wellbeing. It then examines whether they are age-related or not, and if so how, and how they can inform social tourism policies that target seniors. Data from the sample of 4144 respondents show a variety of age-related significant associations, with thresholds at retirement and after the age of 70. The study examines these associations in the context of various social theories of ageing and sets out the implications for social tourism policy-makers and providers.