Tourism Scholars Research Articles

Communication in the Era of Media Convergence and Tourism Enhancement in Samut Songkhram Province Based on the Digital Economy

This qualitative research aims to explore the problems and obstacles of communication in the era of media convergence for tourism promotion and the ability to enhance tourism in Samut Songkhram Province based on the digital economy. An in-depth interview was used to collect data from 27 people: Samut Songkhram representatives or community leaders, tourists, and communication and tourism scholars. The data was analyzed by content analysis and interpretation to present a descriptive narrative. The findings revealed that problems and obstacles to communication in the era of media convergence include the need for a more concise communication process in tourism. Many steps in coordinating cause inconvenience and slowness, which is considered a high cost and expenditure for communication in tourism. As for communication, the era of media convergence and the ability to enhance the provincial tourism of Samut Songkhram based on the digital economy, the respondents thought that they should use integrated communication that combines all platform media to foster innovation in development and support the economy from the grass root which creates and distributes income to residents in Samut Songkhram community. They should develop technological skills and creativity to achieve excellence so the community can adapt to the current and future changes. In this regard, the discussion revealed interesting information that communication in the era of media convergence, where content is delivered across multiple platforms simultaneously, can be used as a guideline to elevate Samut Songkhram tourism with the concept of "Digital Economy Creative Tourism," which Samut Songkhram communities must adjust to keep up with changes that occur all the time.

‘Still hungry, not enough’: the past, present, and future of food tourism scholarship

This paper provides a state-of-the-art critical review of past and current food tourism scholarship and offers key insights and directions to establish a more comprehensive perspective on the field. The food tourism scholarship evolved, transformed, and progressed from earlier intellectual discussions and scholarly discourses on ‘food in tourism’. Through a rapid transition from ‘food in tourism’ to ‘food for tourism’ and ‘tourism for food’ as the current status quo, this paper proposes four directions for future food tourism research. These are: the application of contextualism philosophy with particular attention to the localities and peculiarities of emerging and/or new food tourism geographies, the accumulated experiences of food tourists in a holistic manner from a food cultural capital perspective, the alternative and sustainable foods and foodways regarding ongoing discourses of overtourism and degrowth, and the hypermobility concept of food travel and tourism. As such, the future of research directions, perspectives, issues, and concerns are plural and multifaceted.

The relationship between technology and place in tourism

ABSTRACT Tourism digitalization is often understood and implemented in a technocratic sense and implicitly viewed as a solution to perceived shortages in tourism development. Despite this, little attention has been given to the fact that digital technology has spatial and social implications and is strongly intertwined with tourism places and various actors. We address this intending to identify the dominant disciplinary and contemporary research approaches to tourism digitalization through a systematic review of 2 480 publications from the Scopus database. With inspiration from geomedia studies, an explorative thematic analysis found a separation that poses a risk of technology development being detached from its actual context, suggesting that tourism scholars and practitioners would benefit from broadening their readings and critically addressing the interconnection between technology and tourism places.

Reimagining Indigenous Tourism: The RISE Framework

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the RISE framework (Rich Intercultural Spiritual Exchange), aimed at innovating Indigenous spiritual tourism planning and execution. Grounded in the capability approach and acculturation theory, RISE facilitates immersive cultural experiences while preserving spiritual legacies, responding to calls for reimagining Indigenous tourism. Despite its potential, current practices often marginalize Indigenous communities, perpetuating issues like misrepresentation and limited participation. Embracing indigeneity unlocks opportunities for cultural exchange and community empowerment. Spiritual tourism, a key aspect, fosters personal growth and well-being while promoting cross-cultural understanding and environmental stewardship. RISE addresses shortcomings by prioritizing Indigenous voices and cultural preservation. This framework offers valuable contributions to tourism scholarship, providing insights into visitor engagement and cultural assimilation. It also aids destination planners in creating meaningful, sustainable experiences, fostering cross-cultural understanding and community empowerment. Ultimately, RISE guides stakeholders in developing authentic, culturally enriching tourism that benefits both visitors and Indigenous communities.

Regenerative Development Approaches Involving Tourism: Insights Derived from Place

ABSTRACT With the rise of questioning whether it is acceptable for capitalism and economic growth to drive tourism development, alternative development approaches are emerging. This paper draws insights from two research projects investigating tourism’s contributions to developing healthy urban social-ecological systems. In recent years, a surge of interest by tourism scholars has driven increased publications about the approach commonly referred to as “regenerative tourism”. Two research designs that used qualitative case studies were applied and analysed using a post-development lens. Critical findings from both studies centre urban places in the analysis and consider the applicability of a regenerative (tourism) development approach for transforming the health of urban places. This paper challenges the notion that “tourism is primarily an economic phenomenon” and argues that in alignment with the regenerative development lineage, tourism as a tool for development must be designed from place rather than economies.

Cocreating value with hotel guests in the “new normal”: the case of Spain

Purpose This paper aims to identify the role of coproduction and value-in-use in the overall hotel experience value, and its effects on cognitive-affective satisfaction and loyalty. The country chosen is Spain, in the context of the “new normal,” where the increase in tourist flow after the COVID-19 pandemic has been very relevant, setting up the chance to better assess and discuss value creation in a post-pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach The causal model is validated with partial least squares (PLS) in a panel of 405 hotel guests (applying sampling quotas by sex, age and region). Findings The chain of effects is verified with stronger links at the end and with a greater weight of value-in-use compared to coproduction. Hotels’ efforts to adapt to the pandemic situation work better if a customized, unique experience is offered and if intensive communication is with and not just to the guest. The role of experience value is key for the cocreation to produce results for satisfaction and loyalty. Originality/value This study contributes to the value creation literature by highlighting the respective roles of coproduction and value-in-use as drivers of the satisfaction−loyalty chain, and by introducing the guest’s overall hotel experience value into this chain. This is viewed against the backdrop of the contextual changes that have occurred since 2020 in the Spanish hotel industry. The post-pandemic context “forces” the client to actively participate. Analysis of the implications of this kind of new cocreation on the overall customer experience is relevant for both tourism scholars and managers.

Trends in Sustainable Tourism Paradigm: Resilience and Adaptation

In recent decades, sustainable tourism has emerged as a central paradigm, attracting growing scholarly interest. External factors, such as the SDGs, climate change agendas, smart and digitalized tourism, cyber and astronaut travel, pandemics, and shifting trends in economic competitiveness, mass tourism, and overtourism, are shaping the 21st-century paradigmatic landscape, challenging both the theoretical “what” and practical “how” of the sustainable tourism paradigm. Using Kuhn’s paradigmatic framework and the Web of Science bibliometric database from 1991 to 2022, this analysis traces trends in sustainable tourism research, advances in academic communication through influential co-citation networks and interdisciplinarity, and the emergence of alternative and quasi-paradigms. The findings suggest, first, a positive trend in tourism scholarly research production; second, weak and diverse communication and interdisciplinarity, as scholars do not sufficiently collaborate in co-citations; and third, the coexistence of the sustainable tourism paradigm with numerous alternative, rival, and quasi-paradigms. The lack of influential knowledge communication highlights the need for the academic tourism community to reconsider its knowledge generation practices. Enhanced collaboration through co-citation and interdisciplinary cooperation is crucial for fostering a deeper and shared understanding of multiple tourism-related concepts. Further thematic and interactive research is needed on the resilience and adaptability of the sustainable tourism paradigm. This article contributes to advancing sustainable tourism scholarship by advocating for a more influential and adaptable paradigm to ensure its relevance amidst emerging challenges.

Understanding the impact of ChatGPT on tourism and hospitality: Trends, prospects and research agenda

The prevalence of ChatGPT (and generative artificial intelligence in general) has precipitated a paradigm shift in diverse industries, including tourism and hospitality. ChatGPT revolutionalises all business functions (from marketing to operations), empowering tourism and hospitality organisations to transform and innovate their business models. This study seeks to comprehensively examine the use and implications of ChatGPT in tourism and hospitality by discussing the current and future state of the technology, while also suggesting an agenda for future research. To that end, six areas, namely, business intelligence and tourism analytics, tourism marketing and experience, hospitality services, cultural and heritage tourism, travel services, and destination management, are elaborated on in depth. By compiling views solicited from international experts, this groundbreaking opinion piece unveils profound insights into the evolutionary journey of an emerging technology that is shaping tourism and hospitality. The paper provides useful implications for tourism scholars and professionals alike.

Inclusion of people with disability (PWD) in the tourism workforce: a critical discourse analysis of policies and plans

Purpose This paper aims to critically examine the discourse on the disability workforce in Australian tourism policy and planning documents. Design/methodology/approach This research draws on a database of 490 Australian tourism policy and planning documents, across national, state, regional and local levels of governments, destination management organisations and peak industry bodies, to systematically examine the issues pertaining to disability workforce over the ten-year policy cycle (2013–2023), through critical discourse analysis. Findings Analysis revealed 20 of the existing 490 documents had mentions of the inclusion of people with disability (PWD) in the tourism workforce. Through critical discourse analysis, the nuances of political attitudes are evident. Tourism policies tend to exert a cautious approach towards the inclusion of PWD employment. PWD do not have a strong voice when it comes to the formation of tourism policy, especially not as members of the tourism workforce. Practical implications This research underscores an emerging call for the government’s commitment to considering the underrepresented social group of PWD in the tourism workforce. By shedding light on critical discourse analysis of the disability workforce, tourism scholars and practitioners understand the current challenges and explore opportunities to implement tangible actions for an inclusive work environment for all. Originality/value The research is novel and innovative as it critically examines the discourse of the disability workforce in the tourism sector through an institutional theory perspective. The limited emphasis of government policies on the disability workforce may result in missed opportunities to encourage meaningful employment engagement of PWD in tourism organisations. Consequently, this research contributes a tripartite model of policy recommendations that explicitly articulates the mechanisms for change that are tailored to tourism workforce and advocates for the active voices of PWD community in the policy formation process.

Reconciling neologisms and the need for precision in tourism epistemology

ABSTRACT Generating and advancing knowledge in tourism can entail the emergence of neologisms: new terms are coined to describe new realities. Given the interdisciplinary and pluralistic nature of tourism epistemology, stakeholders from diverse academic and non-academic domains tend to contribute to generating knowledge, and to negotiating the semantics of neologisms. As a result, tourism neologisms can have diverse discipline and context-specific meanings. This, however, can pose challenges to tourism science, where precision and accuracy are key requirements. A lack of semantic precision can invalidate study results and hinder mutual comprehension in the field. Additionally, the pressure to publish and generate citations in academia can lead tourism scholars to work with neologisms whose meanings are still vague. In this paper, we show how tourism researchers have rushed to adopt the non-academic neologism ‘overtourism’, but frequently failed to contextualise its use or to contribute to a more precise conceptualisation of the term. Our analysis illustrates that this has adverse effects on the quality of the scholarly output. The paper concludes with recommendations for increased precision and accuracy for tourism researchers, lecturers, and journal editors.

Good news urban tourism researchers! 19 ways to enhance the usefulness of your observational video analysis research

PurposeThe present article encourages urban tourism researchers use pre-recorded (like YouTube, TikTok and security camera footage) and self-recorded video data in research. The author highlighted the benefits of doing so for urban tourism scholars, as well as ways in which these investigators can use the observational video analysis technique to produce convincing findings and advance their field.Design/methodology/approachTo accomplish the purpose, the author reviewed 25 scholarly articles on the topic from several fields.FindingsOne benefit of observational video analysis research (OVAR), the author highlighted, was the ability of scholars in different locations to simultaneously observe interactions, the focus of the study, in their natural setting and discuss them. This practice is not possible with traditional ethnographic research. Also, one way the author mentioned researchers can accomplish rigor in their OVAR project is through multimodal transcription. With multimodal transcription, verbal and non-verbal happenings in videos are transliterated and later analyzed.Research limitations/implicationsIt is hoped because of the present article, increased use of the technique in urban tourism research will be seen.Originality/valueThe present article is the first, to the best of the author’s knowledge, to detail how rigor can be accomplished in OVAR in urban tourism.

Millennials’ work values: a systematic review and synthesis of factors

ABSTRACT Work values is a key concept in understanding generational identity in workplace settings. Drawing on a systematic literature review (N = 30), we capture, describe and synthesize the factorial space of work values for the Millennials’ (post 80s) generation in tourism research. The findings reveal a disparate space of more than 70 different factors, derived mostly from inductive approaches. Using a “start with theory” approach drawn on basic human values theory as applied in tourism work settings, we synthesize these factors along four dimensions – instrumental, cognitive, affective, and prestige. This unifying conceptualization brings clarity, enabling tourism scholars to contribute more refined, accurate, and comprehensive work values conceptualizations for intra and cross-generational inquiries in tourism work contexts.

Honoring Valene Smith, our prescient foremother

Written by the Convenor of the Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group (ATIG) at the American Anthropological Association on behalf of the Board and membership, this memorial article celebrates the life and multifaceted work of Dr. Valene Smith, the pioneering founder of the subdiscipline of the anthropology of tourism. It examines her prescience throughout her life that made her the pathbreaking scholar, teacher, traveler, and tourism practitioner that she was. Such foresight led to her convening the first anthropology of tourism panel at the AAAs in Mexico City in 1974, the product of which became the classic volume, Hosts and Guests. his and her subsequent publications are put into broader context of other classic tourism-focused social scientific works at the time, revealing her role in the development of tourism studies more broadly. As anthropologists are particularly keen on tracing kinship and lineage, the article argues that she rightly is considered anthropologists’ and tourism scholars’ “foremother”, or ancestral mother, who paved the way for generations of anthropologists to begin taking tourism seriously, recognizing its nature as a “total social fact” that can shed light on the holistic human experience.

Valene Smith, tourism, and the remapping of anthropological terrain

This article argues that Valene Smith’s contributions were fundamental for mapping out the terrain for what was envisioned as an ‘anthropology of tourism.’ As the first major collection of anthropological research on the topic of tourism, Smith’s 1977 volume Hosts and Guests offered a wide geographical range of ethnographically grounded studies of tourism, charted typologies, and chronicled tourism impacts, much as one would map a ‘field of ethnological study’. This article addresses the role of Smiths’s volume in legitimizing what had previously been an off-the-radar realm of anthropological study. It also traces one of the many legacies of Smith’s landmark volume: the blossoming of a realm of tourism studies oriented toward examining the politics, performance, and negotiation of identities (including ethnicity, gender, nationalism, and heritage) in and beyond encounters between ‘hosts’ and ‘guests.’ Finally, the article addresses Smith’s 2001 revised edition of the volume, Hosts and Guests Revisited, arguing that her essays in that volume presciently identified 21st-century realms of interest for tourism scholars, including space tourism, voluntourism, terrorism and tourism, and cyberspace.

Historical perspective on niche tourism: recreational trout fishing in South Africa

Niche tourism is an important focus in current tourism scholarship. Although the international literature on niche tourism is relatively recent in origin it must be acknowledged that niche tourism is not a new phenomenon and that many types of niche tourism have a long history. The aim in this paper is to address a knowledge gap in current niche tourism literature by examining its under-researched past with a case study of recreational trout fishing in South Africa. Using archival sources this study documents the emergence of trout fishing in South Africa and gives historical insight into its origins as a niche form of rural tourism. The popularisation of recreational trout fishing was given an important boost by the infrastructure and agency of the South African Railways especially its publicity and marketing material. Enhanced automobilities and the emergence of early drive tourism, a by-product of improvements which occurred from the 1930s in South Africa’s road network, further boosted the growth of trout fishing as a niche in rural tourism.

Are our voices now heard? Reflections on Indigenous tourism research

More than a decade ago, Nielsen and Wilson (2012) developed the ‘Critical Typology of Indigenous Tourism Research’ in this very publication, the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. They argued that Indigenous voices are rarely heard in tourism research that is dominated by White, western academics. Critical tourism scholars are still echoing this sentiment today, calling attention to the need for Indigenous tourism research to be led by Indigenous peoples. This research commentary rethinks and reframes the typology, presenting an Indigenised model, the ‘Spectrum of Indigenous Engagement’. This contemporary model presents four approaches: blind, superficial, collaborative and Indigenist, illustrated by recent examples of Indigenous tourism research. The paper draws attention to scholars who are effectively implementing innovation and inclusive methods of Indigenous engagement, and identifies barriers to the widespread adoption of Indigenist research approaches. Above all, this paper seeks to provoke increased reflexivity and critical dialogue within the Indigenous tourism research community.

Collaborative research in higher education: Benefits for scholars in tourism

Collaborative research in higher education: Benefits for scholars in tourism

Past Niche Tourism: The First Chapter of Mountain Tourism in South Africa

Mountain tourism enjoys a long history in many countries, much of which is unrecorded. This paper addresses one dimension of the neglected past of recreation and tourism in the Global South. The focus is on the development of mountain tourism as a form of niche tourism in South Africa. The paper contributes to the limited international historical scholarship on niche tourism. In addition, it extends the literature in South African tourism scholarship on tourism’s past, tourism history and the historical geographies of tourism. Using the limited extant literature and with primary archival sources the early development of mountain tourism in South Africa is investigated. The time period covered is from the mid-19th century to the early 1950s. Arguably, the initial origins of mountain tourism in South Africa must be situated at Table Mountain in Cape Town. The focus shifts subsequently to the growth of mountain tourism in the high Drakensberg range. Although mountain tourism is dominated by domestic visitors it is argued that the South African Railways played a vital role in exposing South Africa — and especially the Drakensberg — as a potential destination for international mountain tourists.

Mapping online viewers’ social and non-social emotions using the lens of watching UNESCO cultural heritage sites’ travel vlogs

ABSTRACT Emotions are highly influential variables in tourism. While emotions have gained momentum and have been regularly studied by tourism scholars in various aspects of tourism, social and non-social emotions remain underexplored, especially in heritage tourism. Considering the power of heritage YouTube vlogs in eliciting emotions that are essential in creating sustainability for heritage sites, this qualitative sentiment analysis investigation was undertaken to surface the social and non-social emotions present in the comments posted on select YouTube heritage vlogs. Accordingly, sixty-four (n = 64) heritage vlogs featuring the Historic City of Vigan, Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, and Baroque Churches of the Philippines were utilized. Using Data Miner, three thousand eighty-nine (n = 3,089) significant YouTube comments were extracted, filtered, and underwent Phronetic Iterative Data Analysis (Tracy, 2013, Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons). Consequently, a protractor model dubbed as Vlogs as a protractor of audience social and non-social emotions with its three angles of reminiscence, intrigue, and desire emerged where various time perspectives and accompanying groups of social and non-social emotions generated by heritage vlogs situate themselves. Theoretically, this study expands the applicability of social and non-social emotions in heritage research while practically providing heritage tourism practitioners with information on utilizing social media to understand and promote heritage sites to online viewers.

International development and tourism geographies

This commentary reviews the state of tourism and international development scholarship with special attention to publications from this journal, Tourism Geographies. Rather than assuming that tourism is the end game, or goal, as a body of researchers tourism geographers have often identified concerns about the exploitative impacts of tourism development on low income communities and countries, and negative environmental implications, especially when tourism is externally-driven. However, many of us have also asked, ‘can tourism contribute effectively to international development, and if so, how?’. The articles resulting from this line of research focus on a range of approaches, from sustainable tourism through to inclusive and regenerative tourism, which show that there are ways in which tourism can facilitate rather than impede development. In a neoliberal-dominant world facing significant challenges including climate change, structural inequalities and complex conflicts, it is more important than ever that we keep this question – can tourism contribute to development and if so, how? - central to our research. After providing a concise history of research in this field, this article will discuss the value of some recent trends in tourism scholarship, as well as identifying research gaps and pointing to future directions for research by tourism geographers.