Tourist Destination Research Articles

Beyond Illumination: Stakeholder Perspectives on Urban Lighting Master Planning for Chiang Mai Old City, Thailand

Chiang Mai Old City, a cultural heritage site and major tourist destination in Thailand, has significant cultural capital but lacks a well-designed urban lighting system, limiting its nighttime development potential. This issue arises from the absence of an urban lighting master plan, a crucial tool for guiding the city’s growth. The challenge lies in reconciling the diverse perspectives of stakeholders to create a comprehensive lighting master plan that meets shared goals. This research proposes a system dynamics approach to analyze stakeholder complexity. A qualitative, multi-stage method was employed, through in-depth interviews and focus groups with 60 stakeholders from three groups: government, professionals, and end users, to prioritize critical factors. Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) were used to illustrate the interrelations among those factors, leading to alternative scenarios for the lighting master plan’s development. The findings demonstrate that safety and security is the top priority, followed by cultural and economic factors. Eleven reinforcing loops and two balancing loops are proposed through CLD visualization. This framework highlights the importance of a participatory process, advocating for a systematic and holistic approach where all stakeholders with diverse perspective collaborate side-by-side in the development of the urban lighting master plan for Chiang Mai Old City.

Analisa Wisata Edukasi Sejarah di Smart Museum Gedung Sate

The Gedung Sate Museum, a historical educational tourism destination in Bandung, is the focus of this research. This study aims to analyze the tourist attraction and the implementation of historical education tourism in the museum. The methods used include observation, interviews with visitors, and documentary studies. The research results show that the attraction of the Gedung Sate Museum lies in a unique combination of core resources in the form of an iconic historical building, modern and interactive additional services such as augmented reality technology, interactive floors, and interactive picture frames, intangible values that evoke nationalism through the stories of heroes' struggles, and strong context markers related to the history of Gedung Sate. Furthermore, the implementation of historical education tourism in this museum successfully integrates clear instructions, diverse teaching methods through visual and interactive media, and active learning experiences that directly involve visitors. These findings provide valuable insights for the development of historical education tourism in other museums, especially those adopting the smart museum concept.

Mapping the Distance: An Analysis of Visitor Travel Distance to German National Parks and Biosphere Reserves

The ecologically valuable and unique natural and cultural landscapes of protected areas are popular nature tourism destinations. From a spatial perspective, travellers visit protected areas by moving from their place of origin to the destination for a temporary stay. This paper analyses the travel distances of day visitors and overnight guests to German national parks and biosphere reserves. National parks position themselves as both regional and national destinations. In contrast, biosphere reserve tourism is more regionally concentrated due to the proximity of biosphere reserves to urban centres, which are the primary places of origin for visitors. On average, visitors travel 278.6 km by car to visit a national park, taking 172.1 minutes (02:52 hours). Opting for public transport increases the average travel distance to 312.5 km, with a travel time of 284.5 minutes (04:43 hours). Visitors to German biosphere reserves travel 208.7 km by car, requiring 134.7 minutes (02:15 hours). When using public transport to visit biosphere reserves, the average distance increases to 234.0 km, with a travel time of 239.1 minutes (03:59 hours). The automated, GIS-supported distance analyses offer an innovative approach for assessing nature tourism catchment areas and the accessibility of protected areas, serving as a basis for effective spatial planning, development, and regional marketing.

Analysis of Online User Reviews for Popular Tourist Attractions: Almaty Case

Attractions in the tourism industry are one of the components that motivate tourists to visit destinations, such as entertainment, natural, cultural, and historical richness. For such reasons, people decide to visit unique destinations and spend time there. Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan, is one of the significant attraction centers of the Central Asia region, offering tourists unique and pleasant features with several tourist attractions. This study aims to analyze online user reviews of tourist attractions in Almaty, Kazakhstan, using machine learning and text mining methods. The primary focus is on identifying the main thematic clusters of reviews and their sentiment and comparing these themes with the types of attractions: historical, natural, and man-made. A total of 7,515 reviews were collected from the TripAdvisor website. The data was processed using sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and hierarchical clustering methods. The analysis revealed that 38% of the reviews were related to natural attractions, 34% to man-made, and 28% to historical ones. The most positive reviews were associated with natural attractions, while historical and man-made attractions received 79.38% and 81.40% positive reviews, respectively. In addition, the items that make up these attractions are identified, and their sentiment levels are pointed out. In addition to this situation, visitors have the most positive expressions for natural attractions, especially landscapes and lakes. The findings emphasize the importance of considering review themes to improve the quality of tourist services and to enhance the positive image of Almaty as a tourist destination.

Analysis of the Tourism Revenue Sharing Status at the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve of Kazakhstan

Sharing tourism-generated revenues with local people has become a popular strategy for implementing sustainability in nature-based tourism destinations globally. Although the local people have received some economic gains from tourism development, there are still some limitations to fair income sharing. These limitations are evident in many underdeveloped countries and lead to a passive situation of local community participation in tourism development. The primary purpose of this article is to determine the level of tourism revenue sharing in the Aksu-Zhabagly tourist destination and, at the same time, to make appropriate recommendations on the remaining issues. To understand the status of tourism revenue sharing, we surveyed the perceptions of 44 nature reserve employees and 66 travel company workers, respectively. The survey results show that although the business operations of tourism organizers do not harm the living environment of the local population, they usually do not spend part of the income from tourism on the common good of the local population. Most residents are unsatisfied with tourism development, and their participation in tourism is also comparatively low. The results also reveal that the comparatively low level of sharing the tourism-associated revenue with local development is the leading indirect cause of residents’ dissatisfaction with the development of the tourism industry. In conclusion, we believe that the results of this study and our recommendations help local authorities understand the importance of removing constraints in the fair distribution of tourism revenues in this tourist destination.

Focus Group Discussion and Workshop on Exploring the Tourism Potential of Jumpinang River Tubing Pasuruan

This community service program aims to improve the quality of management and promotion of Jumpinang River Tubing tourist destinations in Pasuruan through the use of digital technology. Implementation methods include problem identification, website creation, and guiding and safety training for local communities. This process was carried out for 3 months, with core activities in the form of Focus Group Discussion (FGD), website development, and technical training. The results of the program show that the community's capacity is increased in the management of tourist destinations, as well as the ease of promotion through digital platforms. The implication of this program is the increase in the number of tourist visits and the strengthening of the sustainability of tourism management by the community.

The Impact of The Turtle Beach Tourism Destination Management Model on Improving The Economy of The Ekas Buana Village Community, Jerowaru Sub-District, East Lombok District

This study aims to determine the management model of turtle beach tourist destinations, and to determine the impact of the turtle beach tourist destination management model on improving the economy of the Ekas Buana Village community, Jerowaru District, East Lombok Regency. This research is qualitative research, data collection techniques using unstructured observation techniques, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Determination of informants using purposive sampling. Data analysis techniques used are data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing/verification. The results of the research based on the data as well as the results of interviews and field findings show that the turtle beach destination uses the management of the Community-Based tourism (CBT) model, an approach that focuses on active participation and empowerment of local communities in the management and development of tourism destinations which are managed by the Pokdarwis and the community around the turtle beach tourist destination. This shows that the impact of the management of the Community-Based Tourism (CBT) model on the economy of the Ekas Buana Village community has a positive impact on economic activities consisting of increasing income and opening up jobs and business opportunities for the community as tourism actors. The community around the tourist attraction gets a good livelihood as a food and beverage trader, and as a restaurant employee as well as a surfboard rental provider for tourists who want to surf on the turtle beach.

Socio-economic transformation follows environmental change on Svalbard

The European Arctic, which includes the Svalbard archipelago, is situated in one of the areas showing most notable changes due to global warming and associated cascade events and processes. The main driving factor, temperature rise, is continuing to cause a large-scale overall decline in ice, from glacier retreating, less coastal land-fast ice to thinning and shrinking of open-sea pack ice. This, together with increased inflow of Atlantic waters, is causing profound changes in the local fauna, food web and biodiversity. In parallel, changes in landscape are also notable, mainly due to increasing coastal erosion and glacial melt. Over the past decades, both the traditional hunting-trapping lifestyle and mining have declined almost to the point of non-existence. At the same time, destination tourism and scientific research have become the major industries, both associated with an increase in the size of the main settlement of Longyearbyen, and thus also service jobs and local administration. Along with the shrinking of the glaciated Arctic landscape, the archipelago exemplifies the broadest level of nature protection in Europe. Strict environmental regulations that restrict and even prohibit human activities in large areas contribute to Svalbard being one of the best formally protected wilderness environments in the entire Arctic. Thus, as Svalbard marine ecosystems continue to change, they also are becoming more accessible to humans, and so also anthropogenic pressures are both changing and increasing in extent. We provide a compilation of both ecosystem components and human activities, together with indications of how these are, in parallel, changing. This forms the basis for future ecosystem and societal valuation assessments.

Revitalization of Tourism Village Facilities as an Effort to Increase Income and Sustainability

Developing village tourism in Indonesia is a crucial government strategy to boost the local economy and increase regional income. Villages with diverse assets such as natural beauty, rich cultural traditions, traditional cuisine, handicrafts, and historical sites have the potential to become attractive tourist destinations. This research focuses on Gunung Wangi Nature Tourism, which offers attractions such as sunset views, city lights at night, and camping activities. However, constraints such as inadequate facilities and infrastructure are the main focus of this research. Through a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach, this research offers solutions to revitalize the facilities and infrastructure and a long-term revitalization strategy to increase the attractiveness of Gunung Wangi. Local community involvement is integrated into every research stage, including problem identification, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), implementation, and evaluation. Revitalization efforts at Gunung Wangi Nature Park have shown positive results, with substantial improvements reported in post-revitalization evaluations. Feedback from stakeholders, including visitors, MSME players, and Gunung Wangi Tourism village managers, showed significant improvements in infrastructure and visitor experience. While a few respondents suggested room for improvement, the overall success is evident in the increase in visitor numbers, with the majority experiencing a significant increase. This revitalization has rejuvenated this tourist spot's attractiveness and boosted economic growth in the local community

Spiritual tourism development: a comprehensive synthesis for sustainable destination planning and growth

Purpose This paper aims to explore the dimensions of spiritual tourism development, examine its current status, effectiveness and scope and analyze the knowledge landscape in terms of theories, contexts and research methodologies. The study also seeks to guide future research on spiritual tourism development. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis were used using a framework-based approach. The theories, constructs, characteristics and methods (TCCM) framework guided the SLR, whereas VOS-Viewer facilitated comprehensive bibliometric analysis. Findings The study conducted a quantitative SLR, analyzing 80 research articles published between 2003 and 2023. Using the TCCM framework, the research identified crucial factors influencing the growth of spiritual tourist destinations, such as intrinsic motivation, destination physicality, tourist experience, spiritual activities and host community support. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to theoretical advancement in spiritual tourism, provides insights into the current research landscape, offers practical guidance for stakeholders and serves as a roadmap for future research endeavors. Originality/value This research enhances knowledge by thoroughly assessing prior research, addressing gaps and offering practical managerial insights for spiritual tourism development. The managerial implications outlined in the study offer practical insights for destination planning and promotion in the context of spiritual tourism.

SUPPORTING AND INHIBITING FACTORS IN DEVELOPING GASTRONOMIC POTENTIAL AS A TOURIST ATTRACTION IN SUKOREJO TOURISM VILLAGE, SRAGEN REGENCY, CENTRAL JAVA

This research aims to determine the supporting and inhibiting factors in developing the potential of gastronomy as a tourist attraction in the Sukorejo Tourism Village. The research method used is a qualitative approach with data collection techniques through interviews, observation and documentation. The research informants consisted of managers and culinary activists in the village. The research results show that the supporting factors in developing the potential of gastronomy as a tourist attraction are destination readiness, carrying capacity, cultural attractions, agro-tourism attractions, while low public awareness about the potential and benefits of tourism, skills in processing derivative products can hinder the development of gastronomic potential and tourist attractions in addition to There are also budget limitations which can hinder the realization of tourism projects, most recently the lack of communication and community involvement creates synchronization between destination development and support from the village government. This research concludes that an emphasis on natural, culinary, cultural, agrotourism and accommodation attractions, coupled with support and expectations from the community, is the key to realizing the development of this village's gastronomic potential as an attractive and sustainable tourist destination

Smart tourism transformation of the Şi̇le district: strategic aspects through a SWOT analysis

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the smart destination potential of the Şile district by identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to smart city applications.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive SWOT analysis was conducted using data from participants and relevant documentation to assess the feasibility of smart tourism initiatives in Şile.FindingsThe analysis reveals that Şile, due to its proximity to Istanbul, has significant potential to develop into a smart tourism destination. Key strengths include its natural attractions, while challenges revolve around infrastructure limitations.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to the Şile district and may not be generalizable to other regions. Future research could expand the scope to include comparative studies with other potential smart tourism destinations.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the growing body of literature on smart tourism by offering strategic recommendations tailored to the unique context of Şile, a district with significant but underutilized potential.

Sustainability in sustainability certifications in Thai hotel industry

Thailand is actively working to position itself as a sustainable tourism destination, with sustainability embedded within the nation’s tourism industry framework. Assessment and certification play pivotal roles, serving as essential tools that validate the implementation of sustainable management practices within the accommodation sector. This article explores the concept of sustainable tourism through the lens of widely adopted certifications in Thailand’s hotel industry. A content analysis was conducted to compare certifications based on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria. Furthermore, the study evaluated the efficacy of certifications in promoting the practical integration of sustainable tourism. To deepen the analysis, a thematic review examined the extent to which these certifications integrate principles of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). The findings highlight a tendency of certification organizations to prioritize environmental aspects over economic and social dimensions. This suggests a need for better alignment in facilitating the holistic integration of sustainable tourism principles into certification practices.

Writing poetry storynomics tourism perspective of generation Z Indonesia

ABSTRACT Indonesia has a great tourism potential destination. This can be seen from Indonesia's tourism destination sector which continues to advance and develop very rapidly. Unfortunately, the huge tourism potential destination is often not recognized by students. So, this research aims to explore writing poetry about the storynomics of Indonesian tourism to educate students at the secondary level. We conducted a literature review on Indonesia's knowledge granaries and proposed a formulation for writing poetry. Sam Illingworth's concept of science-poetry became a reference for us to carry out four stages in writing storynomics tourism poetry from the perspective of generation Z Indonesia, namely (1) facilitation, (2) explanation of scientific symptoms, (3) communicative interaction, and (4) transformation. We have the opinion that writing storynomics tourism poetry has the potential to provide strengthened knowledge about Indonesia's wealth as well as a means of introducing Indonesia's wealth to the world.

Attractiveness of tourist destinations and collaborative tourism governance on Revisit Intention as a support for the tourism economy of the Paropo area of Dairi Regency with Tourist Experience as an Intervening Variable

The challenge of tourism is how to create tourists who are loyal to tourist destinations because every corner of tourism has an impact on the economy for the business community in the tourist destination area, if tourist visitors enjoy their tour and have the intention to return to visit the tour, it will have an impact on increasing the economy of the community located in tourist destinations. This research will be conducted in Sumatra Utaran precisely at the location of the paropo tourist spot in Dairi Regency with a population of paropo tourist visitors who have visited at least twice as many as 230 tourists, this research approach is quantitative with the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) model. This approach is able to test a model that is most ideal in estimating endogenous variables, the sampling technique in this study uses Non-probability sampling where sampling does not provide opportunities or opportunities for each element or member to be selected as a sample The analysis model used to test the hypothesis in this study is multiple regression analysis using the Smart PLS application Directly that the attractiveness of tourist destinations, collaborative tourism governance and tourist experience have a significant effect on Revisit Intention as a support for the tourism economy of the Paropo area of Dairi Regency. Directly that the attractiveness of tourist destinations and collaborative tourism governance have a significant effect on tourist experience as a support for the tourism economy of the Paropo area of Dairi Regency. Indirectly, tourist experience has a significant role in mediating the attractiveness of tourist destinations and collaborative tourism governance on revisit intension as a support for the tourism economy of the Paropo area of Dairi Regency

Sistem Pendukung Keputusan Pemilihan Objek Wisata Kabupaten Berau Menggunakan Metode Additive Ration Assessment (ARAS)

Indonesia is a country that is famous for its natural wealth and tourist destinations worldwide, and it is spread out in various regions. One of the regions in East Kalimantan that is popular and often visited by tourists every year because it is famous for its stunning underwater tourist destinations is the Berau Regency. According to the East Kalimantan Tourism Office, this district has the highest number of tourist attractions in East Kalimantan, which is 224. Many tourist attractions trigger confusion among tourists when deciding which alternative option to visit. Therefore, this research aims to build a decision support system to assist tourists in getting alternative tourism recommendations that are appropriate and to their needs. The method used in this research is the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method. There are 30 alternative attractions and 5 criteria: facilities, safety, cleanliness, cost, and distance. The results show that the ARAS method can recommend the best alternative to tourist attractions. The accuracy testing results using the confusion matrix method get a percentage value of 80%.

Navigating overtourism destinations: Leveraging smart tourism solutions for sustainable travel experience

<p>This paper explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and smart tourism technologies to address the multifaceted challenges of overtourism in tourist destinations. Overtourism leads to significant environmental degradation, strains local resources, and diminishes visitor satisfaction, ultimately threatening the sustainability of these destinations. Destinations can enhance sustainability and tailor travel experiences by utilizing cutting-edge technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and big data analytics. These technologies offer innovative solutions to optimize resource use, enhance visitor engagement, and promote responsible tourism practices. The study underscores the potential of smart tourism technologies to manage tourist flows, reduce environmental impacts, and improve the overall quality of life for local communities. Strategic planning, substantial investment, and collaboration among various stakeholders, including government agencies, local communities, and the private sector, are essential for the successful implementation of these solutions. The findings highlight the critical role of technological innovation in fostering a balanced and sustainable future for tourism, ensuring that destinations can thrive economically while preserving their cultural and natural heritage. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and tourism managers aiming to mitigate the adverse effects of overtourism through the adoption of AI and smart tourism technologies.</p>

Retrofit of green architecture through adaptive reuse of heritage buildings in sustainable tourism management

ABSTRACT The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings as tourist attractions is a growing trend. From an architectural point of view, this concept can be optimized with green architectural retrofit strategies, which help minimize construction waste and encourage environmental conservation. The challenge lies in technically implementing green architectural strategies to transform cultural heritage buildings to ensure safe and comfortable use as tourist destinations. This research uses method in-depth observations of several case studies to identify the subject’s strengths and weaknesses through SWOT analysis. The findings from this analysis are used to develop strategies for managing cultural heritage buildings through green retrofit architecture. The research results provide detailed insights into the effectiveness of management practices based on previous research, addressing issues such as limited awareness and capacity, challenges in interpreting and managing cultural heritage, data management, costs, and inadequate knowledge. Research recommends applying green retrofit techniques such as energy efficiency, water and waste management, landscaping, building material, and indoor air quality to cultural heritage buildings. This approach aims to optimize and increase energy efficiency by revitalizing buildings through landscape designs that consider environmental conservation and climate change.

The Impact of Home Environment Insecurity on Tourists’ Self-Protective Behavior in the Event of a Terrorist Attack

Terrorist attacks have a profound and lasting impact on tourism destinations and tourists’ safety. By applying protection motivation theory as the theoretical lens and adopting the threat of a terrorist attack in London as the study context, this study examines the impact of home environment insecurity on tourists’ risk evaluation (i.e., threat and coping appraisals) and self-protective behavioral intentions amid a terrorism incident while traveling. Data were collected from 793 U.S.-based respondents in Amazon-Mturk. The results show that tourists’ home environment insecurity has a positive (vs. negative) impact on their threat (vs. coping) appraisal of the terrorism related risk. Notably, the lack of security in one’s home environment indirectly affects tourists’ tendency to adopt self-protective measures, through tourists’ coping appraisal in relation to their self-efficacy and response-efficacy. This study offers valuable theoretical and practical insights that may enhance tourist safety during a terrorism incident.

Slow tourism experience: impact on emotions, engagement and well-being

PurposeAs the overflow of information accelerates the pace of life, people search for opportunities to escape from their fast-paced lifestyle by engaging in slower consumption. This research empirically tested the role of slow tourism experience (STE) in improving one’s well-being.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, 205 qualified tourists participated. Exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis with Promax rotation in SPSS v.26 was deployed to examine scale factors. Study 2 consisted of 460 tourists to test the conceptual model using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Multi-group analysis identified statistically significant differences between path coefficients in the structural models for males and females.FindingsResults revealed a three-dimensional STE measure: deceleration, immersion and self-reflection. STE significantly impacted positive emotions and mediated tourist engagement and subjective well-being. Gender multi-group analysis indicated STE had a positive direct impact on SWB for male tourists; however, STE positively affected SWB through tourist destination engagement for female tourists.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to tourists who had stayed at a destination. Future research may consider the different modes or mindsets that tourists use in designing their itinerary, length of stay, type of transportation, level of investment in the environment and culture.Practical implicationsPractitioners can distinguish tourism activities based on gender, focusing on engaging female tourists and triggering emotions for male tourists.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to operationalize and examine STE, extending the broad-and-build theory’s relevance in slow tourism research by revealing the effects of STE on tourists’ SWB.