Travel Sector Research Articles

The sustainable tourism organization of rural spaces. The island of Sardinia in the era of "staycation"

Abstract. What future for tourism in the COVID-19 era? This is a question that has become part of the daily life of many tourist destinations. The pandemic has affected all economic sectors and tourism is one of the sectors most suffered. According to data from the World Tourism Organization (2021) due to the health emergency 100% of countries have introduced restrictions in the travel sector and for this reason international tourist arrivals dropping by 74% in 2020. Future projections indicate 2023 as the year when a the "regular" flow of tourists can be recorded globally. However, in the meantime, there is a need to improve this sector by implementing strategies to promote and enhance the places to motivate sustainable tourism. The insecurity of travel and of some destinations, due to the many emergency restrictions, pushes tourists to live an outdoor vacation in contact with nature and host community. Thus, the search for authentic places moves minds more consciously towards sustainable tourism practices showing a greater interest in some forms of tourism such as rural and cultural.The aim of this work is to understand how to deal with the "new" needs of the demand, bringing out the rural realities through the creation of an organized sustainable offer that revolves around existing accommodation facilities such as farmhouses. In particular, the case of Sardinia will be analyzed, an island that has long been known for its seaside tourism, but whose rural and internal areas are still not much used touristically. The study intends, after a short review of the literature on the sustainability of rural tourism, highlight the possibility to create rural tourist itineraries capable of enhancing the territory's peculiarities by combining the different landscape assets. The exemplification of the creation of these routes will be realized in GIS field through the creation of a model of accessibility to the Sardinian rural space. This model will be based on the use of isochronous curves obtained from the analysis of travel times both to move towards and from the agritourism that offer accommodation and within their landscape offer.

Personality Traits That Affect Travel Intentions during Pandemic COVID-19: The Case Study of Serbia

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has enormous effects on peoples’ lives and on the global economy. The outbreak and effects of COVID-19 have resulted in fears, concerns, and anxiety among people all around the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety, and travel intention among residents in Serbia. In addition to the above, the aim of the study was to examine the impact of personality traits on the fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety, and travel intentions. To enhance the understanding of the relationship between the mentioned variables, this study proposes a research model based on the use of measurement scales from the existing studies to develop the questionnaire. The standard paper-and-pen survey was used for data collection from the respondents from Serbia. The total sample include 987 respondents. It was determined that Travel intention was negatively influenced by Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, but positively by Extroversion and Openness. The supposed Agreeableness did not have a significant effect on Travel intention. This study contributes to understanding the respondents’ behavior during pandemic of COVID-19, and their responses to the crisis according to their personality traits might have practical implications in the travel sector.

The Effects Of Corporate Websites Usability Of Travel Agencies On Their Technological Capabilities

ABSTRACT The effects of technology on the tourism industry are increasing day by day. Especially in the travel sector, technology has given rise to fierce competition. The emergence of travel organizations that run all the transactions related to travel online causes agencies to be disadvantaged in the competition. The success of traditional agencies in the competition is proportional to their technological capabilities. This research aims to test a model that shows the impact of the corporate websites usability of travel agencies on their social media, e-mail and e-commerce use. The study was designed in the form of quantitative research, and the data were collected through surveys. The study population consists of the traditional travel agencies operating in Istanbul. 433 face-to-face questionnaires conducted with the managers of these agencies were analyzed. According to the results of the research, the corporate websites usability of the agencies explain their use of social media, e-mail and e-commerce. Corporate websites usability of businesses contribute positively to social media, e-mail and e-commerce activities.

Study on Muslim Friendly Hotel in Malaysia: A Conceptual Framework

The tourism industry is one of the biggest economic drivers contributing to the world's economic advancement. The growth of Muslim travelers is a new emerging segment within the travel sector that affects the global tourism industry. Given the inherent strengths to cater to the Muslim travellers, Malaysia took this opportunity to gain a greater share of this growing segment and increase the overall tourist arrivals. Since Malaysia is a Muslim majority country and pioneer for the Halal industry, the increasing demand for Islamic products and services has led the hoteliers in Malaysia to provide more Islamic friendly hotel services to fulfil the Muslim tourists’ needs. However, it seems there are limited studies focusing on Muslim-friendly hotels, whereby in the past, most studies were focused on conventional hotel industry catering for travellers of different faiths. This study is very vital to promote a new field of Muslim-friendly tourism under the sector of faith travel. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a general framework in conceptualising the Muslim-friendly hotel in Malaysia that can be guided by the Islamic principles and teaching. The proposed framework may provide an insight into Muslim-friendly hotels in Malaysia by exploring the concept and the elements that enact the industry. The library research method was conducted to gather relevant information and materials on the subject matters to meet the objective of this study. This paper provides a new dimension to the hotel industry, specifically to the hoteliers, marketeers, businesses and other related agencies, by encouraging them to develop suitable products and services to cater to the needs of Muslim travellers. The outcome of this paper adds to the body of knowledge and may lead to new studies on the implementation of the Muslim-friendly hotel concept, elements and implementation in Malaysia.

Hotel and Travel Sector in Sri Lanka and Easter Attack 2019: An Event Study

This paper examines the impact of the Easter Attack, which took place in Sri Lanka, after the thirty-years of brutal civil war, on the Hotel and Travel Sector. As the hub of the Tourism Industry, the stock performance of the Hotel and Travel Sector is observed and investigated with the major objective of finding the impact of the Easter Attack and testing the Semi – Strong Form Efficiency of the Hotel and Travel Sector since three out of eight bombings has taken place in Hotels. The Event Study Methodology has been used to analyze the data and investigate the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). With the Market Model implication, the Abnormal Returns is calculated by using daily stock prices on thirty-three (33) companies belong to Hotel and Travel Sector, and for the Market Return data, the daily All Share Price Index (ASPI) is taken into account. For 41 days Event Window, which includes 100 days Event Timeline, Graphical presentation of Average Abnormal Return (AAR) and Cumulative Average Abnormal Return (CAAR) and t - Statistics analysis is guided for analyzing the event. The findings of this study have shown a quick drop in both AAR and CAAR has been shown. It provides evidence for Semi – Strong Form efficiency on the event day in the Hotel and Travel Sector Stock prices since the market efficiently and negatively responded regarding the event of Easter Sunday Attack since the quick drop on the event day and the significant t-statistic at 5%. Nevertheless, a few days after the event were also showing significant results but declining continuously due to maybe investors’ over-reaction situation. However, Semi – Strong Form Efficiency could not be proved because it takes considerable time to adjust stock prices. In practice, investors will be able to trade stocks in a market except for the possibility of beating the market in the future.
 Keywords: Easter Sunday attack 2019, efficient market hypothesis, event study methodology, hotel and travel sector, Sri Lanka

Human Capital Efficiency and Employee Productivity: A Comparative Analysis of the Manufacturing Sector vs. Service Sector Public Listed Companies in Sri Lanka

Human capital is one of the most vital organizational knowledge assets, which is a part of organizational Intellectual Capital. Therefore, it contributes to organizational competitive advantage through enhancing employee productivity. Hence, the objective of this study was to find out the relationship between Human Capital Efficiency (HCE) and Employee Productivity (EP) in manufacturing sector companies and service sector companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange as a comparative study. Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) is a method used to measure the value creation efficiency of a company and HCE is one component of VAIC, which has a substantial impact on EP. Therefore, it is vital for finding out the relationship between HCE and EP in the practical scenario. But, there is a dearth of studies related to the relationship between HCE and EP in Sri Lanka. This study is carried out as a solution for bridging this empirical and contextual gap. Data were collected from 25 manufacturing companies and 25 service sector companies (Hotel and travel sector) during the period from 2015 to 2019. The data were analyzed using the Pearson Correlation and regression. The results of the data analysis indicated that the relationship between HCE and EP is moderate and significant in service sector companies, while an insignificant weak relationship was found in manufacturing sector companies. Further, a significant impact of HCE on EP was found in the service sector, but that impact was not significant in the manufacturing sector. It can be concluded that service sector companies pay more attention to enhance the HCE since the knowledge and skill embedded in employees are more valuable in providing services to their customers than manufacturing sector companies. Ultimately, the results show that good HCE can indeed improve EP, which has significant meanings for investors, company management, decision-makers, and industry regulators.
 Keywords: Employee Productivity, Human Capital Efficiency, Manufacturing sector, Service sector

THE IMPACT OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE TOUR AND TRAVEL COMPANIES IN MALAYSIA DURING COV-19 PANDEMIC: PARALLEL MEDIATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY

The aim of this research was to examine the parallel mediating effect of social media and relationship quality between relationship marketing and customer loyalty. A series of regression analysis provided the statistical result that tested the hypothesis proposed in this research. The total population of the travel and tourism firms registered with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was 4746. The results of this study were obtained from data collected through 361 out of 600 self-administered questionnaires. A series of regression analysis assessed the impact of relationship marketing on customer loyalty in the tour and tourism companies in Malaysia. The results indicated that social media platforms utilised and the application of relationship quality are statistically significant and mediates the relationship between relationship marketing and customer loyalty. It can be concluded accurately from the literature and the statistical analysis conducted that there is concrete evidence that relationship marketing impacts customer loyalty. The intervening variables tested were social media use and relationship quality. The outcomes verified that social media and relationship quality are crucial factors that induces customer loyalty. Both social media and relationship quality defines how the effects between relationship marketing and customer loyalty occur. The mediating effects of social media and relationship quality between relationship marketing and customer loyalty are the actual factors that generate customer loyalty which then leads to customer retention and repeat purchase in the travel and tourism sector in Malaysia.
 
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Survey Paper on Recommendation System for Tourist Reviews using Aspect Based Sentiment Classification

The tourism and travel sector is trying to provide different facility using a large amount of data collected from different tourism web sites. The tourist easily retrieves to reviews, evidence of different tourists and accesses them properly. It helps tourists have made the planning of visit to tourism place. So that, a major challenge faced by tourism sector is to utilize the accumulate information for detecting tourist preferences. Unfortunately, some user's comments are irrelevant and complex for understanding and long-winded these become hard for recommendation. Aspect based sentiment classification methods have shown promise in overcome the issue. In existing not much work on aspect based sentiment with classification. Here in this paper represents a framework of aspect based sentiment classification recommendation system that will not only identify the aspects very efficiently but can perform classification task with high accuracy using machine learning algorithms. This framework helps tourists to find better tourist spot, hotels, restaurant and resort in a city, and here performance has been evaluated by conducting experiments on Yelp and foursquare real-time datasets.

Analisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi konsumen memilih akomodasi pada situs tiket.com di wilayah kuta selatan

The travel sector is one of the products or services that are widely accessed through the internet today which are provided for inter-regional mobilities such as tourism and work trip. Therefore, more companies are emerging startups in Indonesia that are engaged in the field of airline ticket booking and hospitality accommodation. PT. The Global Ticket Network or commonly called Tiket.com is one of the online travel agent companies that provides hotel reservation services, airplane tickets and trains online. The purpose of this research is to to find out the factors that influence consumers to make decisions to choose accommodation and the dominant factors that contribute to influencing consumers to make decisions on Tiket.com sites in the South Kuta. The method of data collection is done by questionnaire, documentation, and library study. The sampling technique uses the Cochran formula with a sample error rate (sampling error) of 10%, the sample taken is 96.04 respondents and rounded up to 100 respondents and uses confirmatory factor analysis.
 The results of this study explain that there are five factors that influence consumers to make a decision to choose accommodation on Tiket.com sites in the South Kuta area and named as follow: convenience and information systems (45.978%), site visual appeal (7.196%), customer service (6.117%), company image (4,530%), and purchase motivation (4,057%). The dominating factors are convenience factors and the site information system which consists of 13 variables: (1) convenience when searching for a website, (2) time spent accessing the web, (3) company domain name used, (4 ) ease when ordering, (5) complete information, (6) accurate information, (7) information presented is interesting, (8) exposure to appropriate information, (9) availability and accessibility, (10) competitive prices , (11) overall experience, (12) security of personal data, and (13) security when making payments.

Post-pandemic tourism resilience: changes in Italians’ travel behavior and the possible responses of tourist cities

PurposeSince the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the travel sector has faced an intense challenge, making tourism one of the most affected sectors at the time of writing. Based on the results of a survey administered to a sample of 700 Italian tourists, this paper aims to acquire an empirical understanding of key challenges for the travel and tourism sector in the coming months and the possible responses of tourist cities.Design/methodology/approachTo study tourism after the pandemic, OUT (University of Naples Tourism Research Center) has created an online survey to answer the following questions: What will tourism be like after the pandemic? What will the main changes in travel behaviors be? What role will new information technologies play in future tourism? Are there territorial differences based on the spread of the virus?FindingsThe pandemic has inevitably affected everyone’s tourist choices, regardless of how much their specific area of residence has been impacted by the virus. Consequently, it will significantly influence travelers’ experiences. The Italian tourists who were survey respondents are aware that physical distancing rules will probably remain in effect for an extended time and, therefore, they cannot imagine future tourism not conditioned by these measures. This does not mean that Italians will give up tourism in the short-medium term, however. Indeed, the research data highlight the resilient character of tourism in that it is transformed but does not cease to exist.Originality/valueBy studying the future through a sociological approach, it is possible to identify how the COVID-19 emergency will impact tourism and how both the form and social meaning of mobility will be conditioned. On the basis of the data, the analysis will be directed from the present to the post-pandemic horizon, hypothesizing possible scenarios for the future of tourism and providing some possible policy indications.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) COVID-19 post-pandemic tourism recovery: A system dynamics approach

ABSTRACT The economy of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is highly dependent on tourism and travel sector. Under the impact of COVID-19, these islands have suffered strongly. Possible recovery strategies are tested through exploring the concept of risk perception as an important factor to influence the behaviour intention under the framework of theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A behavioural simulation is built to help evaluate tourism policies. This paper takes Maldives as an example. Four strategies are tested in the model: social distancing, tax reduction strategy, travel bubble strategy and joint strategy. The results show that the most effective way to change tourist behaviour intention is the travel bubble strategy. The results also indicate that the reduction in tourism arrivals may bring opportunities for local ecosystem recovery. This study exemplifies the advantage of using the system dynamics approach when the past pattern is not a good predictor for the future by making predictions based on how the system works.

Web Intelligence Based Flexi Vehicle Insurance Application

Computerization is currently a key element in everybody’s life – individuals, businesses, travel sectors, medical services and many more. As the world is pushing ahead, the web and innovation have been the implications that these areas use to contact individuals and get benefit from the brand or administration they advance. The private protection area is perceived as one of the quickest developing ventures. This quick development has powered unfathomable changes over the previous decade. These days, most valuable resource protective items exist, such as homes, vehicles, gems, life, etc. All insurance agencies are at the forefront in taking leading tasks, measures and numerical models in order to increase benefits by adapting customer claims. Customary techniques based only on human-in-the-loop models are extremely tedious and incorrect. In this paper we are establishing a safe and computerised protection framework that reduces human communication, ensures safeguards, alerts and illuminates hazardous customers, distinguishes misleading cases and reduces money-related unhappiness. The proposed Framework for Vehicle Protection Strategies is a single-page online application that aims to establish an entirely practical, free framework to monitor vehicle insurance records. It is designed to provide such insurance agencies with an online stage for exact preparation, coordinated information, production recovery and record capacity.

Rainforest tourism: a systematic review of established knowledge and gaps in research

ABSTRACT Rainforests provide exceptional spaces for nature-based tourism activities attracting large numbers of visitors. Simultaneously, tourism activities may create environmental, social and economic impacts that require management in order to conserve sensitive rainforest environments. Rainforest tourism constitutes a travel sector that receives growing interest worldwide. This study presents a timely review of current knowledge and research gaps in a new conceptual model to give recommendations for a future research agenda. Through a systematic quantitative review, the study identified 48 peer-reviewed journal articles addressing conservation and management topics (33), followed by visitor-related research (23), impacts (10), and finally community and stakeholder research (3) of rainforest tourism, published between 1975 and 2019. The majority of research focused on management issues relating to policy development, planning, education and conservation measures. A strong geographic bias was noted with very limited research available for rainforest regions in Africa and Asia. Future research should be concerned with expanding and linking rainforest research across countries, and filling knowledge gaps around visitor monitoring, specific impacts and causes, and the complexity of community and stakeholder involvement in managing impacts. Protocols may need to be established to facilitate the design and delivery of standardised research approaches across the globe.

COVID-19 and mobility in tourism cities: A statistical change-point detection approach

This study uses statistical change-point analysis to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's mobility in tourism cities. Based on the collected data sample containing mobility time series of nine tourism cities on three categories of places - Retail and Recreation, Parks and Transit Stations, we find apart from the mobility reduction observed on all place categories, most cities experienced a three-phase pattern. Moreover, a time lag between the mobility decrease and introduction of lockdown measures is detected, suggesting that the latter is not the reason for people to reduce movement. Further, the mobility reduction is found less significant on Parks and appeared earlier on Transit Stations. The findings provide useful insights on how tourism, hospitality and travel sectors are affected by crisis events.

Impact of Covid-19 on Tourism Sector in Nepal.

Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange earnings for the government and contributes to the livelihood of millions in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore and illuminate the preliminary impacts of COVID-19 in tourism sector in Nepal and further the paper puts forward policy recommendations for government to avert the worst effects and facilitate recovery. In Nepal, the travel and tourism sector contributes to 8 percent of GDP, 6.7 percent of total employment, and it generates 6 percent of the total foreign exchange earnings. Nepal Tourism Board estimates that loss of 85.2 billion USD monthly from tourism sector only and three in five employees lost their jobs due to COVID-19 in Nepal. The “Visit Nepal 2020” campaign had cancelled which aimed to attract 2 million tourists in the country this year. Tourism sector has already suffered a huge loss, and it is going to take quite to restore. The government should form special task force to create economic response package that will support Nepalese, their job, their businesses from the global impact of COVID-19, and to ready the economy to recover.Keywords: Covid-19, Tourism, Economy, Nepal.

Implications of COVID-19 Induced Lockdown on the South African Tourism Industry and Prospects for Recovery

South Africa has one of the largest and most developed tourism markets in Southern Africa. Consequently, the sector's performance, therefore, has implications on the regional tourism market. In the advent of COVID-19, South Africa emerged as one of the global and regional epicentres of coronavirus infections. In March 2020, South Africa was one of the countries that adopted hard lockdown measures to control the pandemic. The consequent sealing off of the country’s ports brought the tourism industry to a sudden halt. This study is aimed at examining the impact and potential reopening strategies that the tourism industry can adopt in South Africa. The study is based on critical document analysis of survey reports from South Africa’s National Department of Tourism, Stats SA, Google Mobility and other authoritative, relevant sources. The study concludes that the pandemic had a devastating impact on various sectors of the tourism economy. The most devastating industries include the aviation, maritime, special events, accommodation and attraction sectors. The sudden halting of the tourism industry threatened conservation efforts and the business viability of many tourism establishments. Consequently, public and private airlines were liquidated or placed under business administration with far-reaching implications for various destinations and travel sectors. The study recommends a well-engineered financial aid package for the region's tourism industry, reduced tourism levies and taxes backed by the adoption of stringent health protocols to help the industry recover and make travel appealing and attractive again. A robust vaccination program must support such efforts.

The Strategies for Mitigating the Adverse Impact of Covid-19 in Malaysian Tourism Industry

Tourism is a major contributor to the Malaysian economy in terms of GDP, export earnings and employment. The outbreak of COVID-19 led to travel restrictions of the governments to halt the spread of the virus. COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the Malaysian tourism industry in particular the hotels, transportations, travel agencies and food beverages outlets. As of June, 2020, the reported projected losses were RM45bil, with total loss of about RM31bil from the international travel sector and about RM13bil in the domestic segment.MethodologyA mixed method methodology was used for this research. The data collection tools were literature review, personal interviews, and online questionnaire surveys with 135 participants. A five-point Likert scale was adopted to indicate the respondent's degree of agreement or disagreement. ResultsCOVID-19 brought the entire tourism industry to grinding halt when the Malaysian government-imposed travel bans and border closure to contain the spread of virus. These measures led to job and revenue losses. However, Malaysian Government faces several barriers to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 for Malaysian tourism industry, including lack of the financial support, technological knowledge, expert support and the absence of a competitive and contingency mindset. Conclusion and RecommendationsThe findings revealed that domestic tourism and ecotourism are important to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 to Malaysian tourism industry. Successful implementation of domestic tourism and ecotourism required proper Destination Management, marketing and promoting the Malaysian Tourism Brand in appropriate and effective way, enhancing Service Quality, offering the new tourism products and services, and creating Destination loyalty.

Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?

We propose that assortative matching, a well-established paradigm in other industry sectors and academic disciplines, can underpin the concept of destination matching. This provides a new foundation to integrate research concepts and terminology in destination marketing and destination choice. We argue that the commercial tourism industry already applies destination matching approaches, with three historical phases. Initially, matching of tourists and destinations relied on the tacit expertise of specialist agents. This still applies in specialist subsectors. For generalist travel and accommodation, human agents were partially replaced by online travel agents, OTAs, which are customised algorithms operating only in the travel sector. These still exist, but their share price trends suggest decreasing significance. Currently, automated assortative algorithms use multiple sources of digital data to push appealing offers to potential purchasers, across all retail sectors. Digital marketing strategies for tourism products, enterprises, and destinations are now just one category of generalised product–purchaser matching, using entirely automated algorithms. Researchers do not have access to proprietary algorithms, but we can identify which components they incorporate by analysing their underlying patents. We propose that theories of destination marketing and choice need to reflect these recent and rapid real-world changes via deliberate analysis of destination matching.

The Deployment of Fiscal Policy in Several ASEAN Countries in Dampening the Impact of COVID-19


 
 
 The COVID-19 crisis is casting a long shadow over ASEAN and its member states. The number of individuals infected by it is continued to surge daily. COVID-19 has rapidly morphed into unprecedented health, economic and geopolitical crisis. Among the sectors that have practically ground to a halt are the tourism, aviation and travel sectors. This paper attempts to examine the initiatives taken by several ASEAN countries in mitigating the impact of COVID-19. A comparative analysis of the economic stimulus packages of selected ASEAN countries were analysed in order to dampen the effect of COVID-19. To make evident this statement, several evidences are presented in this paper by referring to published data, and information from secondary sources such as scholarly articles and journals, newspapers and data from the web. The findings were also strengthened by connecting those initiatives with a political economy theory of fiscal policy. The study found that the majority of ASEAN countries employ fiscal policy in order to stimulate the economy and encourage full employment.

The Rise in the Cross-sectoral Dispersion of Earnings Expectations During COVID-19

This paper documents a durable increase in the cross-sectoral dispersion of earnings expectations during the COVID-19 crisis. An empirical analysis shows that the rise in dispersion of earnings forecasts can be explained by the introduction of lockdown measures, which had a particularly adverse impact on the travel sector. Accordingly, in terms of earnings expectations, countries that are relatively independent from the travel sector were least affected by a tightening of lockdowns. At the same time, the start of vaccination campaigns has been a game changer: more stringent lockdown measures added far less to the crosssectoral dispersion in earnings expectations once vaccines started to be rolled out in late 2020. Going forward, the dispersion in earnings expectations remains elevated, implying that analysts may expect the effects of the crisis to be of a rather structural nature.