Tourism Studies Research Articles

EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION OF URBAN TOURISTS TO TRAVEL WITH PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR LEISURE: ANALYSIS OF TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS

Analysis of online reviews on tourism studies has been widely used among researchers. Transportation plays an important role and acts as a medium to connect tourists towards tourist destinations. There is still a lack of studies concerning their reasons for using public transport. Hence, this study addresses to investigates the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of tourists to use public transport in Kuala Lumpur through TripAdvisor. This research analyses 3,345 reviews of Go KL City Bus, Light Rail Transit (LRT) Kelana Jaya Line, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Monorail and RapidKL Bus in Kuala Lumpur, manually using NVivo 12.0 to determine their reasons for using the bus service through content analysis. The findings indicate that the majority of the tourists’ motivation to ride public transport is for sightseeing and exploring the city for free. Understanding tourists’ motivation to use public transport could assist tourism agencies in providing proper facilities for them to reach tourism destinations easily.

A tribute to Nelson Graburn: the joy of tourism research

This article explores Nelson Graburn’s enduring impact on the field of tourism studies, specifically through his mentorship of students and colleagues, his boundless energy organizing colloquia for the UC Berkeley Tourism Studies Working Group, and his creation of a global kinship network of tourism researchers. The author also reflects on her personal connection to Graburn, who served as her dissertation advisor, and their experiences in the field doing tourism research.

Authenticity, Landscape and Tourism

Both tourism and landscape academia heavily and passionately debate the authentic nature of both destination experiences and appearances. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between the concept of authenticity in landscape research and that in tourism studies. Using the landscape-related derivation of Popper's three world theory, the authors analyse various tourism and landscape-related phenomena that are typically used to determine authenticity in the two disciplines. As a result, they conclude that there is no such thing as an objectively authentic tourist experience, just as there is no such thing as an objectively authentic landscape. The appreciation of each is attained through the eyes and the perspective of the viewer and ultimately leads to a (social) construction of the authentic.

Modeling Marine Tourism from the Perspective of Sustainable Tourism in Serangan Tourism Village

The study of marine tourism in Serangan Tourism Village from the perspective of sustainable tourism is very important. Still, it faces pressure from tourism development that can threaten environmental sustainability and the welfare of local communities with increasing tourist visits. As for the theoretical basis in this study using sustainable tourism, the method in this study uses qualitative research methods, the research location of the research was carried out in the tourist village of Serangan Bali, the method of collecting data in this study by conducting observations, interviews, and documentation, and data analysis in this study using qualitative descriptive with the help of Nvivo 12 software. The results of this study show that in the economic aspect, the business of making environmentally friendly souvenirs is one example of a business such as woven bags from palm leaves, jewelry from shells, and handicrafts from bamboo. Socio-cultural aspects unique traditions and cultures can be introduced to tourists, thus broadening the community's horizons and benefiting from new ideas and practices that can improve the quality of life and strengthen social relationships between communities and tourists visiting Serangan Tourism Village. The environmental aspect of increased education and environmental awareness is very important. Constant efforts are to educate tourists and the local community about saving energy and reducing waste. Therefore, the village is not only a beautiful tourist destination but also an example of sustainable tourism development that considers environmental sustainability a top priority in reducing the various potential negative impacts of tourism on the environment.

On tourism, geography and the biopolitical

Biopolitics concerns all manifestations of politicisation of life. The academic literature accordingly views the biopolitical as both an analytical framework and a governmental tool in modern societies. It is thus widely accepted in the tourism literature that biopolitics plays a significant role in shaping contemporary mass experiences of leisure travel and consumption. This article critically reflects on how the geographical literature in Tourism Studies has considered biopolitics both as a set of practices associated with tourism and as an analytical approach to understand the management of bodies and the politics of life in tourism. Initially focused on segregated tourism spaces and the associated power relations, geographical work on tourism engaged with questions of biopolitics has since expanded to include the examination of other spaces and other forms of social interaction related to the politicization of life. In the future, this debate may face increasing challenges in teasing out the ways in which the biopolitical governance of mobility manifests itself in highly differentiated practices of sovereign power over the bodies of tourists, tourism workers and the associated spatialities. Such analysis will require taking into consideration not only how bodies are represented but also how their representation affects the mobility of different subjectivities as a function of biopolitical dispositives based on class, race, sexuality, gender, age, nationality and other categories that incorporate groups and individuals within specific power rationalities.

Exploring the emergence of the ‘incense-burning and Buddha-worshipping’ phenomenon among China’s generation Z: unveiling the role of healing experience

ABSTRACT In China, the trend of ‘incense-burning and Buddha-worshipping’ is increasingly popular among Generation Z. To gain a deeper understanding of this emerging phenomenon, this study employs a mixed-methods design to explore the religious tourism experiences of Generation Z (RTEGZ) and their impact on behavioural intentions (BI). First, we conducted hierarchical coding of interview data and user-generated content (UGC) from Weibo, identifying five dimensions of RTEGZ – aesthetic, educational, entertainment, ritual, and healing – revealing that the healing experience profoundly influences the other four dimensions. Next, a questionnaire survey examined the complex relationship between RTEGZ and BI. The results indicate that all five dimensions of RTEGZ are positively correlated with BI, and further mediation analysis shows that the healing experience mediates the relationship between aesthetic, educational, entertainment, and ritual experiences and tourists’ BI. This research expands the scope of religious tourism studies. It enriches the restorative environments theory and reveals the unique psychological pressures Generation Z faces in a rapidly changing society. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of religious tourism as a means of seeking psychological support and emotional healing, providing practical guidance for managing and marketing religious sites.

Values, attitude, and desire in organic food purchase intention in Mexico

IntroductionThis investigation analyses the purchase intention for organic foods through the influence of the consumer’s values, attitude, and desire, how this attitude mediates the relationship between consumer values and purchase intention, and how consumer desire mediates the relationship between attitude and purchase intention.MethodsThe quantitative approach was used with a transversal type of research. Data was collected through a survey of 204 consumers of organic foods in Mexico. The analysis of these results was carried out through partial least squares structural equation modeling.ResultsOnly appearance consciousness and environmental awareness are the motivators of the goals to influence the behavior of consumers when attitude mediates the relationships. However, when attitude mediated the relationship, health consciousness and social awareness were not significant motivators of behavioral intention.DiscussionThis analysis serves as a basis for deepening the study of gastronomic tourism in rural areas such as Mexico since this type of food is sold in tourist places. The model proposed can be used as a theoretical framework for future studies. Marketers can also use the results in marketing strategies as community marketing in economies like Latin American countries.

Chronicles of Film Tourism: An Integrative Review and Future Research Directions

This study triangulates historiographical and scientometric reviews to provide a systems perspective on film tourism. The three phases of historiographical analysis (exploration, growth, and maturity) correspond to the three clusters of scientometric analysis: (i) initial research exploring film tourism development and management, (ii) growing the field through studies on film tourists’ perceptions and practices, and (iii) reaching maturity through extending research into different cultural contexts and meaning-making processes. Based on the analysis, we offer a set of directions for future research, including the need to integrate sustainability research and film tourism studies in developing country contexts, as well as intertextuality and its impact on film tourism. We further recommend research on developments in media consumption and its impact on film tourism, investigation of the relationship between digitalization and film tourism, and the need for interdisciplinary research. Finally, we suggest combining product life cycle analysis to complement historiographical analysis for robustness.

A Comparative Study of State Tourism Websites with Special Reference to North Eastern States of India

A Comparative Study of State Tourism Websites with Special Reference to North Eastern States of India

Effects on Heart Rate Variability and EEG of Type of Participation in Health Tourism Programs Involving Stays in Hot Springs and Forests in Asan

Background and objective: Health tourism, which involves activities for health promotion and therapeutic travel, is gaining attention as a means of stress and fatigue relief. While therapeutic programs involving forests and hot springs have been reported to have positive effects, there is a lack of research on the combined benefits of these environments, as well as comparative studies of static and dynamic health tourism. Therefore, this study aimed to examine changes in stress levels by analyzing heart rate variability (HRV) and electroencephalograms (EEG) taken from participants in different types of health tourism programs involving stays in hot springs and forests.Methods: A total of 20 adults (9 males and 11 females) were randomly assigned to either the Relax Tour program (N=10) or the Activity Tour program (N=10). Both health tour programs, which included forest walking and aquatic exercise in hot springs, were implemented. To ensure homogeneity between the groups, physical characteristics, EEG, and HRV were assessed using independent samples t-tests. The effects of the health tourism participation type on EEG and HRV were analyzed using a two-way mixed-design ANOVA. When significant differences were found, post-hoc analyses were conducted using the Bonferroni method.Results: An HRV analysis showed no significant differences between the groups; however, significant changes were observed based on the time points measured. An EEG analysis showed a significant increase in alpha waves in the Activity Tour group, while the Relax Tour group also showed a trend toward improvement in alpha waves.Conclusion: The effects of a health tourism program combining forest and hot spring activities on the autonomic nervous system and EEG were analyzed. The Activity Tour group showed an increase in alpha and beta waves, while both the Activity and Relax Tour groups showed a decrease in RMSSD and SDNN in HRV. This suggests that physical fatigue and mental activation may occur simultaneously. Therefore, it seems necessary to consider long-term effects and optimization in program design to reduce physical fatigue and maximize psychological stability and cognitive recovery to increase effectiveness.

Forest Tourism in Southeast Asia: A Bibliometric Analysis

With the potential to bring about considerable economic, social, and environmental advantages, forest tourism has emerged as a crucial industry for sustainable development in Southeast Asia. However, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to balance the consumption of natural resources with their conservation. As a result, this study uses bibliometric analysis to shed light on Southeast Asian forest tourism research. The Bibliometric R program was used in this study to assess a total of 174 articles that were chosen from the Scopus database using search criteria that included keywords such as forest, forestry, tourism, and touristry, limited to English-language journal articles from South Asian countries. The findings revealed that the key areas of focus in the analyzed studies centered on conservation and ecotourism. This bibliometric analysis also reveals periodic growth in forest tourism research, likely driven by increasing global and regional awareness of sustainable development goals, the economic potential of ecotourism, and the need to balance conservation with tourism activities. Additionally, the consistent pattern of author and institutional collaboration may be attributed to the interdisciplinary nature of forest tourism research, which often requires expertise from fields such as environmental science, sociology, and economics, fostering partnerships across institutions. These results offer insights into the development of future studies in forest tourism as well as empirical evidence to build strategies and policies for creating sustainable forest tourism.

TOURISM study (Treatment Outcomes in UteRIne SarcoMa): a 10-year retrospective evaluation of practice in the UK

BackgroundAlthough rare, uterine sarcomas account for a high proportion of uterine cancer mortality. Treatment options and robust trial data are limited.ObjectivesThe TOURISM study (Treatment Outcomes in UteRIne SarcoMa) is a...

A Comparative Study of Tourism and Advantageous Industries Between the Philippines and Thailand

The Philippines and Thailand are famous tourist countries in Southeast Asia. Against the backdrop of increasing competition in the tourism industry in Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries, this article undertakes a comparative and analytical examination on the development of the Philippines and Thailand's dominant tourism industry segments, namely eco-tourism and medical tourism. Compared with Thailand, the Philippines, which has a lower international reputation as a tourist destination, can enhance the competitiveness of its tourism industry by strengthening publicity on streaming platforms and promoting rural tourism while improving infrastructure construction. The Philippines' increasingly sophisticated model of environmental eco-tourism has a long-term vision. Thailand is known worldwide for its low-cost, technologically advanced medical tourism, and offers world-renowned Thai massage to further maintain its advantages in the international market. Facing the huge tourism pressure of Thailand's ecological environment, this paper puts forward some suggestions on closing scenic spots during off-season, collecting environmental protection funds from tourists, and opening digital exhibition of national culture. The Philippines and Thailand are the representatives of island and mainland tourism countries in Southeast Asia respectively. This article has a practical reference for other countries in Southeast Asia that take tourism as the pillar industry.

A critical review of dark tourism studies

The topic of dark tourism emerged in the last three decades as tourism became more accessible. It allows forgotten history to be revised and transferred to the public. This study aims to restructure existing categorization regarding dark tourism and address the research gaps in dark tourism studies. We collected studies from international publication databases – Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. We pre-processed the following data for each study: topic, authors’ location of university affiliation, study area, year of publication, top-cited articles, top productive journals in publishing dark tourism studies, keywords, and internality/externality of the author from the study area. With the current paper, we analysed review articles published from 1996 to 2024 (first quarter), applying qualitative methods. Based on these, a new analytical framework was generated. Furthermore, the connections between research topics were also analysed. The results of the analysis highlight specific research gaps in the literature on dark tourism and address poorly visible research fields in international journals, e.g. terrorism-related research, social media links of dark tourism, postcolonial contexts, or commemoration of communist past and heritage. Consequently, certain countries and regions are underrepresented in the literature. This critical review offers new research areas but also gives some directions to the theoretical enrichment of the dark tourism concept.

Mobile Tourism Research and Practices: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Exploration and Future Study Direction

Even though mobile tourism analysis is developing, there is still a lack of literature regarding its formation patterns which makes the picture of its evolution incomplete. The evaluation in this study was carried out in general by emphasizing the evolution of exploratory analysis on the theme of "mobile tourism". This article aims to determine the increasing development of mobile tourism in terms of the number of publications, journals, authors, and the most relevant citations. Then analyze the itinerant tourism distribution map based on grouping, with merging, joint citation, collaboration network analysis, and joint word assessment, and interpret the conceptual structure of the country's co-occurrence and collaboration network regarding its visual representation. The method used is a descriptive approach through bibliometric analysis. An in-depth search of the Scopus database and RStudio software was conducted, screening, analyzing, and interpreting 752 relevant articles from 2014 to 2023. The findings show that an increase in the development of mobile tourism is identified from an increase in the number of publications, the most relevant journals, and authors, as well as the increasingly diverse origins of the authors even though the number of annual average citations has decreased slightly. Recommended six themes in mobile tourism studies, namely Tourism, Technology Acceptance Models (TAM), Mobile Applications, Recommendation Systems, Loyalty, and Cultural Tourism, and produced Technology Acceptance Models and Tourism as important studies with great prospects in the future.

Development of a Tourist Information System for the City of Pedernales, Manabí

Objective: This study aims to design a Tourist Information System (TIS) for the city of Pedernales. Theoretical Framework: In today's digital age, information has become increasingly accessible. With just a click, people can now purchase airline tickets. Society is constantly consuming information through digital means. It is undeniable that tourists seek information about their desired destinations, whether through a tourist information system or social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Method: This research employed a field study approach, involving 375 surveys administered to tourists. Results and Discussion: The results reveal that 96.5% of respondents indicated the utmost importance of utilizing a tourist information system. Research Implications: A proposal was developed to design a Tourist Information System for the city of Pedernales, aiming to provide information to visitors. Originality/Value: This research offers an original contribution to the field of tourism by focusing on the design of a specific Tourist Information System for the city of Pedernales. Its value lies in the extensive field research conducted, which allowed for the identification of the specific needs of tourists and the design of a tailored solution. Beyond its relevance to local tourism development, this research contributes to the academic understanding of tourist behavior in the digital age and can serve as a model for future studies in sustainable tourism.

Exploring the Constitution of Resilience in Places: A Media Place Approach to Tourism Studies

Resilience in tourism studies has mainly departed from a socioecological system theory approach and has developed knowledge in relation to different tourism contexts. This approach has consequences for the conceptualization of resilience and sets limits. Calls for theory development on resilience see a need to take account of, for instance, politics and power relations, and conflicts over resources. As a response to this call, this conceptual article discusses the ontological underpinnings of resilience in tourism studies from an interdisciplinary approach and argues for a media place approach to resilience. From a general socioecological system approach a tourist place is ontologically constituted as a subject with clear boundaries even if it has interactions, relations, and dependencies. The tourism place is therefore constituted as a fixed entity in its essence, even if equilibriums can be positioned differently. However, tourism resilience is a complex issue that calls for additional perspectives. The proposed interdisciplinary media place approach follows changes and dependencies between mediatization of tourism places and changes in the resilience of tourism places. The role of mediatization and its significance for changes in places are put at the center of the analysis. The approach assumes that a tourist place is constituted as a verb that is constantly created and re-created in a process. Additionally, resilience in places must also be conceptualized ontologically as a fluid concept that evolves over time. To understand sudden and long-term changes in tourism place resilience, special attention must be given to nodes or flows of information that connect the media systems and constitute places. Further, the article concludes that resilience is molded by the politics of media practices. An interdisciplinary approach brings new answers to complex questions that cannot be solved from a single disciplinary perspective.

Concepts Without Image, Knowing Without Representing: Lessons Learned from Foucault and Deleuze and Guattari

Deleuze is known for his desire to release philosophical thought from the constraints of representation. For Deleuze, the problem of philosophy is rooted in the Western image of thought, which is based on an arborescent deductive approach to experiencing the real. This article presents an attempt to argue that this mechanism also informs traditional disciplines that are involved in the study of tourism. In order to be able to account for the complexity of tourism realities, concepts should not be representative, descriptive, universalizing objects, but rather malleable, unstable, contingent tools that variate as they encounter experience. In so doing knowledge privileges encounters with experience rather than disciplines. By adopting a conceptual postdisciplinary approach and drawing on insights from tourism studies, cultural geography, sociology, and philosophy, the aim of this article is to highlight the contribution of Deleuze’s and Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy to tourism studies. The article starts with presenting Foucault???s ideas on power and knowledge, which highly informed Deleuze’s thought. The principles of the rhizomatic thought, introduced by Deleuze and Guattari, serve well to account for the complexity that must be acknowledged in the unfolding of tourism worlds. Rhizomatic thought rejects universalizing theories and concepts, which would in fact echo Foucault, silence, subjugate, substitute, and, as such, fail to disclose multiple alternative possible understandings of tourism realities.

Urban Tourism Studies: A Transversal Research Agenda 275

The debate on tourism in cities, both academically and in practice, has for a long time taken place in relative isolation from urban studies. Tourism is mostly addressed as an external agent and economic force that puts pressure on cities rather than as an interdependent part of city systems. The recent debate on city touristification and excessive dependence on the visitor economy, as well as the associated processes of exclusion, and displacement of local city users, serves to highlight how tourism is an integral part of urban developments. A wider urban perspective is needed to understand the processes underlying the tourism phenomena and more transdisciplinary perspectives are required to analyze the urban (tourism) practices. The current article seeks to contribute to such a perspective through a discussion of the literature on urban and tourism studies, and related fields such as gentrification, mobilities, and touristification. Based on this, theoretical reflections are provided regarding a more integral perspective to tourism and urban development in order to engage with a transversal urban tourism research agenda.

Dominant Tourism Educational and Research Reasoning: A Critique to Portugal’s Case

In this article, we present a reflexive criticism of the Portuguese university-level tourism education by analyzing CAEs’ evaluations (External Evaluation Commissions) that the A3ES (https://www.a3es.pt/) has been doing at bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degree level in Tourism courses. In our analysis, we underline the role of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in curriculums and CAEs’ subjective appraisals that reduce tourism to a technical, managerial, mercantile, and neoliberal research exercise, following academic capitalist principles. The proposed multidisciplinary of two CAE reports stand as examples of a discourse that camouflages a practice of exclusion, blocking a truly multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approach, and the opportunity to consider the potential of partnership between tourism studies research reasoning and other related disciplines and approaches. This has reduced tourism training and education to a homogeneous, monodisciplinary, reductionism, endogamic, quantitative, and positivist practice, recognizing only hyperspecialized educational models and tourism curriculums as valid. CAEs’ abusive promotion of a technical and managerial specialization of tourism professionals dismisses those that establish interdisciplinary partnerships between tourism and other fields of knowledge which favor a complex humanistic training.