Types Of Visitors Research Articles

A Preferred Road to Mental Restoration in the Chinese Classical Garden

The impact that classical gardens have on the well-being and quality of life of visitors, especially city dwellers, is an important topic. Scholars have previously focused on landscape aspects, such as water bodies, plants, rocks, chairs, pavilions, and public squares, in various green spaces but have overlooked the road settings that visitors walk on. This study used the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum as the subject region and employed a convenience sampling method (n = 730) to analyze the preference and mental restoration of different road settings of Chinese classical gardens. According to the findings, the majority of visitors felt that the road settings in these classical gardens provided psychological recovery, and half of the roads received a preference score of five or above. The regression results indicated that nature, culture, space, refuge, and serene were found to be important predictive dimensions for both mental restoration and preference. Furthermore, this study divides landscape elements in road settings into two major categories (natural and artificial elements) and eight subcategories (trees, shrubs, lawns, roads, fences, walls, decorations, and buildings) to investigate the relationship between various types of specific road setting elements and visitors’ perceived preferences as well as restorability. The correlation results showed that in terms of preference, tree > lawn > path > fence > shrub > wall; in terms of restoration, tree > lawn > shrub > fence > path > decoration > building > wall. Overall, the findings of this research can improve visitor preferences and restoration in a given environmental setting, resulting in a more enjoyable experience.

The self-concept and psychological antecedents of intention to recommend a heritage site: The moderating effects of visitor type

Using the developmental theory of place attachment, this study evaluates several psychological antecedents of tourist intention to recommend a heritage site. Specifically, self-concept, motivation, positive, and negative emotions are evaluated as determinants of place attachment, tourist satisfaction and intention to recommend. We test a proposed theoretical model on a sample of 500 visitors (250 international and 250 domestic) to Su Nuraxi, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sardinia, Italy. The results supported 11 of the 14 hypothesized relationships. Self-concept had a significant and positive relationship with tourist motivation, satisfaction and place attachment, highlighting its conceptual importance in the heritage tourism context. Tourist motivation had a significant and positive effect on positive emotions, and also exerted a positive effect on negative emotions. Visitor type moderated only the relationship between tourist motivation and negative emotions. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications, particularly for heritage site management, marketing and destination management.

Crossover Paths for Peri-Urban Markets in Tourism Planning and Development: Mobility Motivations, Career Stage, Life Stage, and Desired Characteristics

This study is a case examination of multiple types of resident and visitor markets of a county that can be described as a fringe community, having both rural and urban amenities and characteristics. It is part of a larger economic development study examining perceptions towards a fringe community seeking to encourage additional company relocation to the county, entrepreneurial activity, and attraction of new residents and visitors. This research is supported by data collected from an online survey, six focus groups, a “speed survey” of business managers, and secondary data. The various markets examined were visitors, relocates, returnees, retirees, “outsiders”, entrepreneurs, young professionals, and long-time residents; however, the critical findings lie in the overlap of these markets, and how these markets may transition from—or “crossover to”—one to another. The study revealed economic development markets evolving over time, possessing multiple characteristics that are not mutually exclusive; tourism functions as a significant driver along varied dynamic paths. Therefore, the industry’s influence on economic growth should be considered beyond its short-term economics to its role in resident migration. Implications for destination leaders to identify and plan for markets over a lifetime are discussed including those associated with entrepreneurial amenity migration in fringe communities.

The Fuxi Taihao Mausoleum: sustaining cultural tradition

ABSTRACT This paper presents a study of visitors to the Fuxi Taihao Mausoleum and provides two sets of results derived from mixed methods research. The first is a description of motives and behaviours derived from observation and interviews with visitors. The second set reports statistical data derived from questionnaires completed by 553 informants pertaining to motives for visiting the site and perceived cultural importance. The paper covers practices relating to the belief systems associated with Fuxi and Nuwa, constructed, objective and existential authenticity, the strength of traditional Chinese cultural practices, but also the role of good site management. The study identifies the types of visitors and their understanding of authenticity. In addition, it notes that observation of faith-based activities and management care reinforce a sense of site ‘authenticity’. Finally, it is suggested that longitudinal study is required to assess the impacts of long-term demographic and social change on faith-based tourist attractions and uses a directed acyclic graph to suggest future research questions.

IMPACT OF THE FESTIVAL ON LIVING SPACE ALONG THE STREET IN URBAN AREA CONSIST OF TOWNHOUSES (PART1): FEATURES AND TRANSFORMATION OF LIVING SPACE USAGES DURING THE FESTIVAL IN MIKUNI-MINATO DISTRICT, SAKAI CITY, FUKUI PREFECTURE

This paper aims to clarify how the living space of the townhouses is used during float festival, the characteristics of the space for watching it, and their transformations. Findings are as follows. First, the living space is open to the street, which has become more prominent at present. Hospitality has not changed, but the visitor type has been unified and fixed. Second, basically, the watching space faces the street. In addition, view of the street, daily use and floor finishing affect its selection. At present, a new watching space appeared with the change of living space.

Assessment of forest visitors’ route preferences – Impact encounters across a range of forest environments

Studies of visitors' preferences for forest environments play a central role for the understanding of recreational behaviour. The encounter of other agents, such as wildlife or other visitors, has proven important for preferences, and this is something visitors may affect themselves. Thus, this study focusses on forest visitors’ preferences for forest environments and potential encounters with other agents. 1089 respondents have been asked to consider a choice for change of direction at trail junctions, during a visit to the forest, by ranking five cards representing possible path segments. Each segment constituted a given forest environment (represented by text and a photo) and agent types and numbers (text and an icon), and the direction (text only) – relative to a preferred direction. Results show that on average respondents will detour from their preferred direction, disregarding the forest environment, to experience wildlife. At the other end of the scale, larger groups of mountain bikers or runners can make respondents detour in all forest environments, except for the most preferred ones, to avoid an encounter. Based on a latent class analysis three classes are identified with distinct preferences. 20% of the respondents are unlikely to detour no matter the possible forest environment or agent types. 30% are not affected by encountering other agents, but are to a slight but significant extent affected by the forest environment. The majority, constituting 50% of the population, is strongly influenced by forest environments and even more by potential encounters with other agents. Results largely confirm earlier studies using an ordinal scale, but in addition, we estimate the mutual strength of the preferences and thereby allowing for better guidance of how to manage for forest recreation. In our study, a large group of people state that encountering other types of visitors or wild life matters a lot, and often overrules, the diverse utility of different forest environments. This highlights the necessity of focusing on the management trade-offs between nature conservation and recreational use. One implications of our study relates to path network planning. In areas with less preferred forest environments (e.g. as present in afforestation areas), path segregation may be more important than in the more preferred (e.g. older, more consolidated) areas, where encounters with other visitors have less negative influence on visitors utility.

Exploring Visitor Perceptions towards Urban Park Design and Levels of Enclosure: A Case Study from the UAE

Abstract As cities transition towards urbanization and sustainability, designing attractive green spaces and urban parks is an important issue to planners and urban designers. One factor believed to have some impact on a park’s attractiveness is level of enclosure. Despite the importance of such a factor in identifying types of park visitors and frequency of visits, a limited amount of research has attempted to statistically model impacts of level enclosure on a park’s attractiveness. To address this gap, this article explores impacts of multiple physical characteristics, including levels of enclosure, on park attractiveness and user behavior. Activities in two parks in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE) were studied using field observations, photography, interviews, and statistical analysis. Field observations were utilized to model people’s attitude while using parks. Logistic regression was employed to the field observations to investigate associations between different factors and park attractiveness. Results indicated levels of enclosure had a direct influence on park users. Gender, age, and ethnicity were also found statistically significant determinates of park visitor attitudes and park choice. Traces of territorial behaviors and social conflicts were also observed.

Testing competing hypotheses about the behaviour of floral visitors in mixed‐flower stands

1. Plants occur in mixed stands and flower simultaneously. Most hypotheses about how flowers affect the visitation rates of conspecific or heterospecific neighbours involve attractiveness. Attractive flowers are thought to monopolise visitors, but also to act as magnets increasing visits to unattractive neighbours. Attractiveness may be density‐dependent: Visitors could profit from focusing on abundant species, sometimes forming search images that make rare flowers less detectable.2. We tested four hypotheses using data on visitation rates by honeybees (Apis melifera) and bee flies (Bombyliidae) to 1072 stands comprising six plant species in different densities. Hypotheses were compared through multi‐model inference using the disc equation (a functional response model) modified for co‐flowering species and density‐dependent attractiveness.3. We found that the most attractive flowers had attributes (colour, position, mobility) that elicit strong responses in the sensory apparatus of each type of visitor.4. Attractiveness usually increased with conspecific floral density, indicating that visitors focus on abundant species. The most attractive flowers strongly reduced the attractiveness of their neighbours, reinforcing visitor monopolisation. However, mildly attractive species increased the attractiveness of less alluring flowers, acting as magnets.5. In bombyliids, flowers increased the attractiveness of same‐coloured heterospecifics but reduced it when colours differed, suggesting search‐image formation. The results were similar for both types of visitors but were weaker and less consistent in honeybees. This suggests that Apis behaviour is not as rapidly adjusted to local densities as that of bombyliids, perhaps because of longer‐term memory or a strong role of sociality in determining individual behaviour.

소셜 네트워크 분석을 활용한 울산 방문 외래관광객의 이동 패턴 분석

In order to analyze the movement patterns of foreign tourists visiting Ulsan, this study conducted social network analysis using the raw data of a 2019 foreign tourists survey. Through this, we tried to identify the tourist destinations they visited and to understand the characteristics of the network structure between the destinations. Furthermore, in order to understand the travel characteristics of foreign tourists that affect the travel planning, an analysis of differences between groups was conducted. As a result of the study, foreign tourists visiting Ulsan were largely classified into two patterns, one via Incheon International Airport and one via Seoul and Busan. Because the centrality index of Ulsan tourist destinations is low, indicating that attempts to improve centrality index such as increasing international air routes and charter flights are necessary. In addition, as a result of the analysis on the characteristics of multi-destination travel, the purpose of visit, travel type, period of stay, and nationality had a significant impact on visits through Seoul. Furthermore, on the number of destinations visited, the purpose of visit, type of travel, period of stay, and type of visitor had a significant effect.

Avian scavengers' contributions to people: The cultural dimension of wildlife-based tourism

Scavengers provide significant nature's contributions to people (NCP), including disease control through carcass removal, but their non-material NCP are rarely considered. For the first time, we assess the extent and value of the NCP provided by European avian scavengers through a scavenger-based tourism at Pyrenean supplementary feeding sites (SFS). Using a two-step cluster analysis, two different types of visitor were identified (specialist avian scavenger-watchers and generalist nature-lovers) at those SFS offering recreational experiences (n = 20, i.e. birdwatching, educational, or photographic activities). Most visitors (85%) perceived avian scavengers as beneficial NCP providers, associating this guild with non-material NCP (mostly supporting identities), followed by regulating and maintenance of options NCP (<1%). Our findings help to characterize the type of people who participate in scavenger related recreation and to identify and value their perceptions of avian scavengers. There has not been much previous research on positive human-wildlife interactions, even though ignoring people emotional bonds with nature can be perilous for biodiversity conservation.

MAPEO DE SERVICIOS ECOSISTÉMICOS CULTURALES EN ARUBA DEL SUR DEL CARIBE

The objective study was to map cultural ecosystem services (aesthetic appreciation and recreation) in Aruba, from tourists’ point of view. The Public participation Geographical Information System was used. Aruba has two types of visitors: Stay-Over visitors (who spend at least one night in Aruba) and Cruise visitors (those who do not spend the night). Data was obtained by interviewing tourists using Public Participatory Geographic Information System in October and November 2016 and March 2017. The data was used to determine tourists’ aesthetic and recreational hot spots (areas with an abundance of events) and then to compare Cruise visitors’ hot spots with Stay-Over visitors’ hot spots. Then, tourists’ hot spots were compared with the local resident’s hot spots. The residents’ data was obtained from a previous study. Tourists and local citizens indicate that the California Lighthouse was an aesthetic hotspot and that Eagle Beach was a recreational hotspot. Tourists and local citizens disagree about Palm Beach and Arikok National Park aesthetic value and about Surfside Beach recreational value. It is concluded that Eagle Beach, Palm Beach and California Lighthouse are areas of great interest and that there are similarities and differences in stakeholder perception of Aruba's aesthetic and recreational hotspots.

Kişilik Tipleri ve Fiyat Algısı: Yerli Turistler Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Tourist behavior is generally shaped around demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, national culture or individual preferences. However, it is currently a complex process that still needs to be explained. In this research, it is aimed to define the price perception of domestic visitors towards touristic services and to associate them with personality types. For this purpose, the data collected within the scope of the survey technique from 403 domestic visitors who visited the Antalya destination in 2019 were analyzed. Within the scope of the analysis, personality types of the Antalya destination visitors are altruistic personality, extroverted personality, the personality prone to use and predisposed personality. In addition, it has been determined that the personality types of the visitors affect the price perception positively.

Pollination Biology of an Endemic Hawaiian Tree, Erythrina sandwicensis (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae), in a Novel Ecosystem1

Tropical dry forest ecosystems are among the most endangered ecosystems globally. In Hawai‘i, dry forest species are under threat due to habitat destruction, invasive species, and a loss of mutualisms including pollinators. Understanding the pollination biology of species at risk can inform conservation strategies. This study aimed to identify the breeding system and types of floral visitors to Erythrina sandwicensis (Fabaceae) or wiliwili, an iconic Hawaiian tree in decline and with little regeneration. We conducted hand-pollination trials and observed visitors in two sites: a botanical garden and a forest site. We compared fruit set, seed set, seed germination, seedling growth rate, and seedling size across four pollination treatments: open control, autogamy, geitonogamy, and xenogamy. We found that wiliwili is visited by a novel suite of non-native visitors. All treatments produced seeds, but the xenogamous (cross) treatment produced significantly more fruit and seeds than the control or other treatments. Seedlings produced from cross-pollinated treatments were also taller and had wider basal diameters after twenty-eight days of growth. These results indicate that wiliwili employs a mixed-mating system, and that trees are pollen limited. Enhancing current populations of wiliwili to promote cross-pollination could help increase population regeneration.

Exploring the motivation-based typology of religious tourists: A study of Welcome Royal Lord Festival

Religious tourism plays an important part in the history of tourism development. People visit religious sites with different motivations. Previous studies have examined different experiences of tourists from pilgrims to secular tourists and this pilgrim-tourist debate is built upon a specifically eurocentric construction of the pilgrim. Limited studies have examined the religious tourist typology in polytheistic society. To address this issue, this study explored the rites of the Welcome Royal Lord Festival in the town of Donggang, Taiwan as the research context. The findings support the proposition that different types of visitors, who are predominantly pilgrims and secular tourists exist. Significantly, the study revealed four distinct tourist groups in a polytheistic context; namely, “Sacred Pilgrims,” “Believers,” “Experience Companion” and “Secular Polytheists.” In addition, these four types of tourists have differences in terms of satisfaction, participation behaviors, perception of cultural authenticity, and sacred place attachment. Conflicts between tourism development and religious sustainability may occur among different types of tourists. The findings may have a significant value for event management as it offers a reference for seeking to sustain religious culture and develop tourism attraction in a destination. • Different visitors, mostly pilgrims and secular tourists exist in the Welcome Royal Lord Festival. • Four types of participants were identified: Sacred Pilgrims, Believers, Experience Companion, and Secular Polytheists. • These vary in satisfaction, participation behaviors, perception of cultural authenticity, and sacred place attachment. • Religious tourists may have different degrees of satisfaction because of the extent of different tourism motives. • Conflicts between tourism development and religious sustainability may occur among different types of tourists.

Recreational ecosystem services of mountain lakes in the European Alps: Preferences, visitor groups and management implications

Lakes provide many opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism, but growing visitor numbers and global changes increase negative effects on recreational values and environmental impacts requiring targeted management strategies. Since there is a lack of information about visitors and their preferences related to natural mountain lakes, this study aimed at assessing people's preferences with a focus on recreational activities, accessibility, and touristic facilities. We collected 526 responses through an online survey and identified recreational visitor groups using cluster analysis. Our results indicate that mountain lakes are mostly valued for passive recreation such as nature observation and relaxation, while recreational activities such as boating or having a barbecue were less often associated with a visit to mountain lakes. Respondents mostly valued hiking/walking trails along the lakeshore as well as direct access to the lake, while they indicated less often the importance of playgrounds and water sports facilities. We identified two major visitor groups: (1) nature-oriented visitors, preferring pristine and remote mountain lakes, and (2) leisure-oriented visitors, favouring mountain lakes that were easily accessible and developed for tourism. Accordingly, the latter group valued most recreational activities at lakes such as reading/listening to music or having a picnic higher. Although there is potential for conflicts between these two visitor groups, the presence of lakes with different level of accessibility may defuse such conflicts. Our findings provide valuable insights for developing targeted management strategies based on the preferences of different visitor groups. Mountain lakes are associated with high recreational values. Maintaining marked hiking trails is essential to provide access, but the construction of tourist facilities needs to be cautiously evaluated, as this can cause a change in the type of visitors with possible negative consequences. The results of the survey also indicate diverging preferences between two major visitor types. Improved and easily accessible tourist facilities at mountain lakes support more recreational uses and may attract leisure-oriented visitors. In contrast, recreational values of nature-oriented visitors could be maintained by preserving the naturalness of remote lakes and not improving accessibility.

Maintaining External Connections During Incarceration: Latent Class Analysis of Visitors for Women and Men in Prison

Research on the prison visitation context has recently grown, yet little is known about the overall composition of who visits. This paper describes visit groups using latent class analysis (LCA) separately for women and men incarcerated two or more years in New York State. In this context where policies support frequent in-person visits, many maintain large, diverse groups of external connections. Although theory suggests that some groups may be more beneficial than others (e.g., prosocial influence or social support), visitor classes did not predict recidivism, but recidivism was higher for those with no/few visits. Policies that restrict visitor types or amounts may diminish valuable external social ties that can be maintained and offer ongoing support in more visit-positive regimes.

Factors affecting the preparedness of overnight hikers in national parks: Insights from Tasmania, Australia

Visiting and experiencing national parks, especially hiking in backcountry areas, has become a global phenomenon. Park managers are often challenged by how to ensure that hikers are not harmed due to lack of preparedness. Rescuing injured visitors and recovering deceased can be expensive, dangerous and emotionally difficult. Prevention of harm rests primarily on visitors’ preparation (e.g., packing essential gear, conducting pre-planning, trail familiarisation). This paper reports findings from research using a combination of a systematic quantitative literature review and a cross-sectional survey to examine preparedness of overnight hikers to national parks in Tasmania, Australia – an internationally popular wilderness travel destination. Data was collected on the gear carried, socio-demographics, experience, information sources, and self-reported ratings of fitness, risk, and preparedness. Results show 13% of hikers had never previously completed an overnight hike. Safety items were less frequently carried; female hikers often missed items. We found a weak positive correlation in males between self-reported preparedness and fitness, and risk and preparedness. Better prepared hikers were more open to improved safety solutions compared with under-prepared hikers. Findings suggest interventions need to be tailored to visitor type, and may include education, advertisements, EPIRB check in/check out and fines for noncompliance. Management implications suggest using diverse intervention methods and targeting hiking behaviour to reduce future problems. Further research is necessary to validate findings in other countries.

Comparing established visitor monitoring approaches with triggered trail camera images and machine learning based computer vision

The management of protected areas and other recreational landscapes is subject to a variety of challenges. One aspect hereof, visitor monitoring, is crucial for many management and valuation tasks of ecosystem services. Its core data are visitor numbers which are costly to estimate in absence of entry fees for protected areas or recreational landscapes. Camera-based approaches have the potential to be both, accurate and deliver comprehensive data about visitor numbers, types and activities. So far, camera-based visitor monitoring is, however, costly due to time consuming manual image evaluation. To overcome this limitation, we deployed a convolutional neural network and compared its hourly counts against existing visitor counting methods such as manual in-situ counting, a pressure sensor, and manual camera image evaluations. Our study is the first one to implement, and explicitly assess the performance of a computer vision approach for visitor-monitoring. The results showed that the convolutional neural network derived comparable visitor numbers to the other visitor counting approaches regarding visitation patterns and numbers of visits. Further, our approach also allowed for counting dogs and recreational equipment such as backpacks and bicycles in automatic manner. We thus conclude that it is a fast and reliable method that could be used in protected areas as well as in a much wider array of visitor counting settings in other recreational landscapes. Managers of protected and recreational areas could benefit from our comparisons of convolutional neural network camera image evaluations with existing visitor counting approaches as: • Time-consuming manual image evaluation can be replaced by computer vision approaches based on convolutional neural networks (40 h to manually analyze more than 13,000 images by one expert vs. 10 h to do it automatically in the background). • In contrast to pressure sensors, this approach also allows to differentiate visitor types and activities (dog-walking, cycling, etc.) at comparably low-costs. • Future efforts should concentrate on training specific convolutional neural networks dedicated to visitor monitoring in recreational settings which could process imagery at real-time in the field using single-board computers. • Nevertheless, this approach is prone to the usual disadvantages of camera-based visitor monitoring (risks of theft, vandalism, malfunctioning; data security issues), which need to be considered when setting up the device.

Case-based Mobile Tourism Attractions Recommender System

The variations and the increasing number of tourism attractions give tourists more choices to enrich their travel experience. However, it also presents drawbacks, including confusing tourists when planning a trip, because they have to choose from many tourist attractions options that match their preferences. In this study, we propose an algorithm that can generate recommendations of tourist attractions to the user using a case-based reasoning approach. Case-based recommendation is chosen because it gives the user a more personalized recommendation that they can customize later on within the application. Besides, the implementation of this approach in the tourism domain is still hard to find. As many as 217 tourist attraction objects in Yogyakarta city are gathered as the case study. We label each object with three attributes, namely category, visitor type, and activities. A similarity function called the simple matching coefficient is used to calculate the item’s score based on the user specification. For assessing the proposed algorithm, we implement the model as an Android application. To evaluate the recommendation result, we use mean absolute error calculation (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), resulting in 4.1 MAE and 5% MAPE, which is considered highly accurate. Thus, the recommendation from the system is well suited to the user’s preference.

Study of Future Public Library Trends & Best Practices

ABSTRACT In their dual roles as community hubs and knowledge facilitators, libraries of the future will experience major change: they will have fewer books and increased available physical space; they will shift from content warehouses to content creation enablers; they will serve new types of visitors including digital natives, knowledge creators, and entrepreneurial learners. These trends will affect four tools used to achieve library goals: technology, collaboration, physical space, and people. This article summarizes a literature review, performed on behalf of the Squamish Public Library in British Columbia, Canada, that examined these future public library trends.