Groups Of Visitors Research Articles

How Festival Experience Quality Influence Visitor Satisfaction? A Quantitative Approach

Abstract The purpose of research presented in this paper is to determine how selected characteristics of a city event affect the satisfaction of visitors. In particular, the aim is to identify factors related to event atmospherics that determine visitor satisfaction in the city destination in continental part of Croatia. For this purpose, questionnaire was created based on previously conducted research by Bitner (1992), Oliver (1980, 1997), Baker and Crompton (2000), and Lee, Lee, Lee, and Babin (2008). It comprised measures for assessing event atmospherics, visitor satisfaction, and demographic characteristics of the respondents. The research was conducted among visitors of a city event that takes place every year during December 2018. A total of 191 questionnaires were obtained during the one-month period. Principal component analysis was utilised to determine the factor structure of city event atmospherics. In addition, multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine which factors may serve as predictors of visitor satisfaction in city event context. As a result, the analyses revealed four factors related to city event atmospherics. In addition, these factors positively and significantly affected visitor satisfaction, indicating that they have important role in determining visitor satisfaction in a city event context. These findings can contribute to the knowledge advancement of the city events, their influence on tourist satisfaction, and consequently, to better understand specific groups of visitors as well as establish efficient marketing and promotion strategies.

VISITORS SATISFACTION IN DUBAI AND PRE - TRIP DESTINATION IMAGE

Understanding the factors that influence tourists’ satisfaction and the pre-trip destination image of potential visitors is particularly important for policy makers and tourism marketers. The objective of this study is twofold; first to assess the satisfaction level of tourists who have visited Dubai and further explore the factors that shape it and associate with it. Second, to assess the intention to visit Dubai according to the pre-trip destination image of potential tourists. This empirical study relies on a unique sample of 210 participants from all over the world in the year 2017. Several demographic characteristics as well as variables related to the trip process and the city attributes are collected and explored in order to document any relationship between the two groups. The major findings of the ordered logit analysis demonstrate that the city attributes are the most significant contributors to tourists’ satisfaction and to non visitors’ intention to visit Dubai. Trip factors and demographic characteristics also play a significant role only for the group of visitors. The overall satisfaction is what creates loyalty and drives tourists to repeat their visit.

Managing invasive Siberian chipmunks Eutamias sibiricus in Italy: a matter of attitudes and risk of dispersal

Eradication of invasive alien species is a form of pest control linked to biodiversity conservation, which usually involves animal killing. Squirrels are prominent among invasive alien species in Italy, with four species introduced. Three of them are included within the list of alien species of European concern, and their eradication and control is recommended. However, their local control is not an easy task, being often hindered by the general public. We propose a socio-ecological approach to evaluate the feasibility of eradicating Siberian chipmunks Eutamias sibiricus populations in Italy. We performed a structured questionnaire to assess the social perception of invasive Siberian chipmunks in urban parks, and to identify groups of visitors who might oppose eradication. We also carried out geographic profiling to test for the spatial expansion of chipmunk populations. Overall, park visitors regarded chipmunks positively and appreciated to see them, but human-chipmunk interactions were still rare. We did not identify any group of visitors with a strong attachment to chipmunks, who might oppose future control programs. Geographic profiling showed that chipmunks in Valeggio sul Mincio are starting to expand outside of their introduction site. Data from questionnaires show that chipmunks eradication, coupled with adequate communication initiatives, might be feasible. Moreover, geographic profiling indicates that time for a rapid removal is running out. Socio-ecological approaches, combining the analysis of structured questionnaires administered to stakeholders and statistical modeling of pest observations, could be a valuable tool to decide the feasibility and the urgency of invasive alien species control.

How can the use of a mobile application change the course of a sightseeing tour? A question of pace, gaze and information processing

When we use a smartphone as we move about, we see our surroundings in a different way, adopting new practices to combine physical exploration of place with digital navigation on the Web. This article seeks to identify how consulting digital information as we go along modifies our behaviour. Specifically, we will focus on the use of a mobile application dedicated to the presentation of a tourist site. Our exploratory study is based on a comparison of two groups of visitors: the first group was provided with a printed tourist guide, and the second had the same guide plus a smartphone with a tourist guide application. For the purposes of comparison, the visitors were followed step by step (their movements were tracked by GPS) and click by click (the application recorded the user’s browsing history). At the end of the tour, participants were also invited to comment on their experience, in semi-structured interviews. The results of the study suggest that the use of a smartphone while sightseeing modifies significantly our walking pace, the number of halts and slowdowns we make, and also the type of circuit we follow. Using the smartphone leads visitors to follow more carefully the itinerary proposed and, as a result, to explore the world with greater application

Predicting Popularity of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Urban Context

The availability of charging infrastructure is essential for large-scale adoption of electric vehicles (EV). Charging patterns and the utilization of infrastructure have consequences not only for the energy demand, loading local power grids but influence the economic returns, parking policies and further adoption of EVs. We develop a data-driven approach that is exploiting predictors compiled from GIS data describing the urban context and urban activities near charging infrastructure to explore correlations with a comprehensive set of indicators measuring the performance of charging infrastructure. The best fit was identified for the size of the unique group of visitors (popularity) attracted by the charging infrastructure. Consecutively, charging infrastructure is ranked by popularity. The question of whether or not a given charging spot belongs to the top tier is posed as a binary classification problem and predictive performance of logistic regression regularized with an l-1 penalty, random forests and gradient boosted regression trees is evaluated. Obtained results indicate that the collected predictors contain information that can be used to predict the popularity of charging infrastructure. The significance of predictors and how they are linked with the popularity are explored as well. The proposed methodology can be used to inform charging infrastructure deployment strategies.

Evaluating the taxa that provide shared pollination services across multiple crops and regions

Many pollinator species visit multiple crops in multiple regions, yet we know little about their pollination service provisioning at local and regional scales. We investigated the floral visitors (n = 13,200), their effectiveness (n = 1718 single visits) and response to landscape composition across three crops avocado, mango and macadamia within a single growing region (1 year), a single crop (3 years) and across different growing regions in multiple years. In total, eight wild visitor groups were shared across all three crops. The network was dominated by three pollinators, two bees (Apis mellifera and Tetragonula spp.) and a fly, Stomorhina discolor. The visitation network for the three crops was relatively generalised but with the addition of pollen deposition data, specialisation increased. Sixteen managed and wild taxa were consistently present across three years in avocado, yet their contribution to annual network structure varied. Node specialisation (d’) analyses indicated many individual orchard sites across each of the networks were significantly more specialised compared to that predicted by null models, suggesting the presence of site-specific factors driving these patterns. Identifying the taxa shared across multiple crops, regions and years will facilitate the development of specific pollinator management strategies to optimize crop pollination services in horticultural systems.

Make Them Move: Understanding Visitors' Sedentary Behavior in Protected Natural Areas. A Case Study in Spain.

Protected areas are important attractions for promoting healthy life habits. Consequently, to date, a number of studies have examined the association between visitors' characteristics and physical activities. However, little is known about the specific users inclined exclusively to have sedentary behavior during a visit. Thus, using the Alt Pirineu Natural Park (Spain) as a case study, the aim of this study is to determine the influence of sociodemographic, trip, motivational, and opinion descriptors on the likelihood of participating in sedentary behavior while visiting a protected natural area. The data used were randomly collected from visitors through an onsite structured questionnaire (N = 628). Metabolic equivalent consumption was used to empirically distinguish the sedentary (22.6%) from the active (77.4%) visitor groups. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the trip and motivational descriptors explained the highest degree of the overall variation in reporting sedentary behavior. The study contributed to documenting the information about visitors' behavior in protected areas, and the findings may aid park managers in developing effective management strategies for promoting and enhancing physical activity in protected natural areas.

AGRITOURISM AS A WAY OF SPENDING FREE TIME OF URBAN FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN

The aim of the study is to present agritourism as a way of spending free time with families with children living in cities. The article presents, among others, preferences, behaviour and expectations regarding stay and rest in agritourism farms of this group of visitors. The research was carried out by means of literature analysis and a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was disseminated on social media. The number of respondents was 195. Respondents chose several shorter stays rather than one long one. The most popular were farms located on a lake or river, in mountainous or coastal areas. They were popular mainly in summer. The village was visited mainly due to the possibility of rest in peace and quiet and its pro-health qualities. When selecting a particular object, respondents mainly considered the price. During their stay in the village, respondents were willing to undertake physical activity - bike and walking tours prevailed. Respondents were satisfied with their stay at an agritourism farm. Almost everyone declared that they would like to use this form of tourism again and would be ready to recommend it to their family or friends with children.

ICU Patient Family Stress Recovery During Breaks in a Hospital Garden and Indoor Environments.

Measure the immediate change in intensive care unit (ICU) family members' state stress levels from the beginning to the end of a person's visit to a hospital garden and compare the changes produced by the garden with those associated with spending time in indoor hospital environments intended for respite and relaxation. No previous research has compared the efficacy of different physical environments as interventions to foster stress reduction in family members of ICU patients, a group of hospital visitors known to experience high levels of distress. A convenience sample of 42 ICU patient family (from 42 different families) completed the Present Functioning Visual Analogue Scales (PFVAS) before and after each visit (128 total visits) to a garden, an atrium/café, or ICU waiting room. Stress scores significantly declined (i.e., improved) from the start to the end of a break on all PFVAS subscales (p < .0001) in both the garden and indoors locations. However, it is noteworthy that garden breaks resulted in significantly greater improvement in the "sadness" scale than breaks in indoor locations (p = .03), and changes in all five other PFVAS scores showed somewhat more reduction of stress for breaks spent in the garden than indoors, although these differences were not statistically significant. Creating an unlocked garden with abundant nature located close to an ICU can be an effective intervention for significantly mitigating state stress in family members of ICU patients and can be somewhat more effective than indoor areas expressly designed for family respite and relaxation.

Benefits and limitations of isolated floral patches in a pollinator restoration project in Arizona

This study examined invertebrate floral visitor responses to floral richness, floral abundance, and distance between floral patches within a newly planted pollinator restoration habitat in an arid ecosystem in central Arizona, United States. We created a pollinator habitat experiment consisting of a large central garden (11‐m diameter) surrounded by concentric rings of smaller habitat patches (1‐m diameter), separated from one another by 1, 8, 13, and 21 m, respectively, and including four flowering species. We observed plant and visitor interactions via structured 10‐minute flower visitation observations over a 3‐month period. Key findings included: (1) each plant species interacted with a variety of flower visitors, but flower visitor groups differed only marginally among the plant species; (2) floral patches outside the central garden exhibited reduced quantities of floral structures; and (3) number of floral structures per patch, but not isolation of floral patches within the habitat, affected the number of visitors and visitor taxa richness. For practitioners and land managers looking to restore pollination systems in arid ecosystems with low establishment via seeding, the results of this study suggest that installing species‐rich and florally abundant patches of flowering plant species within a habitat could efficiently support plant‐pollinator interactions.

Floral reward and insect visitors in six ornamental Lonicera species – Plants suitable for urban bee-friendly gardens

Pollinator decline is a global threat with serious consequences to biodiversity. Mosaic structure of urban habitats and greenery areas are regarded beneficial for insects. However, for proper ‘pollinator-friendly’ management of urban areas, detailed information on floral reward offered by particular plant species is required. In this paper floral rewards of six ornamental Lonicera species (Caprifoliaceae), growing in the city of Lublin, SE Poland, were investigated. In this temperate zone, the investigated Lonicera species bloomed during May-June or May-October and could be considered as valuable food resources for pollinating insects. The mean amount of nectar sugars per shrub ranged 8.6–66.3 g (L. caprifolium - L. maackii, respectively). The mean pollen yield was 2.1–110.1 g per shrub (L. xylosteum – L. maackii, respectively). Due to considerable differences in corolla depth, Lonicera species attracted diverse groups of insect visitors, i.e. short-corolla species represented morning pattern of flower opening and attracted mainly honey bees and bumble bees, while long-corolla species opened in the evening and lured Apoidea, butterflies (mainly hawkmoths), and sporadically wasps, syrphid flies and beetles. Two high sugar- and pollen-yielding species, L. maackii and L. tatarica, are however regarded invasive in some geographical areas. Therefore, the spread of the species should be carefully monitored in urban green areas.

Filling the Egyptian pollinator knowledge-gap: checklist of flower-visiting insects in South Sinai, with new records for Egypt

Flower visitor surveys were conducted across the St Katherine Protectorate of South Sinai, Egypt, between April-July 2012 and 2013. We present a checklist of 112 species of flower visitors belonging to the orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. The Hymenoptera were the most diverse group of flower visitors, consisting of 69 species from eight families: Apidae (14), Colletidae (8), Crabronidae (10), Halictidae (13), Megachilidae (19), Scoliidae (1), Sphecidae (2) and Vespidae (2). We recorded nine species that were endemic to the region and thirteen that were new to the Egyptian fauna, including one new to science, Hylaeus oliviae Dathe, 2015. The study provides a valuable initial checklist of pollinators within the St Katherine Protectorate, but the description of novel species and the high proportion of new records for Egypt suggest that species numbers are likely to be underestimated. We highlight the need for future research into Egyptian pollinator fauna, particularly within the St Katherine Protectorate where endemic bees are still being described.

A Comparative Study on the Preferences of Residents and Tourists in Urban Underground Street Planning

In urban planning and design, more and more scholars tend to adopt modern sociological research methods to study public opinions and suggestions on urban planning and design. Underground street is an important urban recreation resource. Visitor preference has a very important reference value for measuring the planning effect of underground street because there is no direct interest relationship between visitors and underground street developers or planners. Visitor preference can become a standard to test planner's works, especially for unsuccessful developed underground street. In the current underground street research, no literature has been found to study the visitor preferences. Therefore, this paper takes Diyi Underground Street, an unsuccessful underground street in Chengdu City, China, as an example, adopts the method of questionnaire survey and designs a special scale to investigate two groups of underground street visitors: residents and tourists. It intends to compare and analyze tourists and residents’ preferences by using SPSS software, and to explore the key points of underground street planning and transformation in the future. The research divides the questionnaire items into six dimensions: environment, decoration, commercial form, public facilities, traffic and other. The results show that there are not only similarities but also significant differences between residents and tourists in the above six dimensions. Similarity concentrates on the issues of common concern of the two groups, while difference reflects their different recreational needs. Therefore, the planning and design of underground streets in the future should first meet the common needs of residents and tourists, and then, according to the market positioning of underground streets and facing the differences in the number of groups, planning and transformation of key projects should be carried out selectively.

Visitor responses to environmental interpretation in protected areas in Vietnam: a motivation-based segmentation analysis

ABSTRACTEnvironmental interpretation is regarded as an effective soft management strategy for educating visitors and managing their impacts on protected areas. Only limited research has been conducted on visitors’ views on environmental interpretation in protected areas in the rapidly developing destinations of South-East Asia, with particular gaps in understanding different visitor groups. This article seeks to fill this gap in the context of Vietnam by examining visitor responses to services for environmental interpretation in one of the country’s largest national parks. The research employed importance-performance analysis and subsequent motivation-based visitor segmentation based on 237 sets of pre- and post-visit questionnaires distributed by the authors as self-complete questionnaires at the entry and exit gateway to the national park. The findings highlight that site interpreters were considered the most important service providers, while displays at the museum and videos were identified as important but low performing. A number of differences between motivation-based visitor groups as well as some culturally anchored response patterns emerged which highlighted the need for park management to consider different visitor groups; not only in terms of their motivations to visit but also their cultural backgrounds when designing, investing maintenance funding, and evaluating interpretive services.

Graphical factorial surveys reveal the acceptability of wildlife observation at protected areas

Approaching large ungulates at protected areas is dangerous both for visitors and the animals. To promote the use of safe distances, conservationists need to be sure about which factors influence the acceptability of human-wildlife encounters. In summer 2018, we recruited a sample of 202 visitors at the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). They evaluated the acceptability of nine digitally modified pictures, depicting a group of visitors observing an alpine ibex (Capra ibex) close to a trail. Pictures were characterized in terms of group size and distance from the ibex. Observing ibexes was deemed to be acceptable if visitors were further than 25 m from animals and when groups included less than three people. Approaching ibexes at 5 m was always unacceptable. The Potential for Conflict Index (PCI) was constant across distance classes and it was generally low. Our findings indicate that visitors share normative beliefs about the optimal distance and group size that visitors should maintain when observing large ungulates in the park. These normative beliefs are crystallized, because previous encounters with ibexes did not affect the evaluation of each scenario and because the PCI was constant and low. We believe that behavioral interventions aimed at promoting respectful and safe human-ibex interactions can be enforced in areas where this interaction is critical, mostly in the form of panels on hiking trails introducing normative pressures on visitors and motivating them to comply with rules.

Extrafloral nectaries mediate the arboreal beetle community (Coleoptera) in a Neotropical rainforest

ABSTRACTNectaries are structures that secrete a sugary solution and can occur on vegetative and/or reproductive parts of plants. The significance of floral nectaries to reward vertebrate and arthropod pollinators is well supported. The role of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) is more ambiguous, though research has been skewed to the ant-plant mutualism. Many other insects feed at EFNs, but these interactions are vastly understudied. This study addresses the hypothesis that EFNs may influence the occurrence and structure of Neotropical canopy beetle communities. Seven canopy trees (four families) exhibiting EFNs and their associated beetles were studied over a one-year period in southern Venezuela. In total, 6818 adult beetles identified to 868 species were recorded on 25 investigated canopy tree species (#47 individuals). Of the 868 beetle species, 150 species (517 individuals; 17.3% species) from 20 families were observed drinking from foliar EFNs on seven EFN-bearing tree species. Dietary dependence on EF nectar varied, with 95 beetle species utilising this nectar within a broader diet and 55 species found feeding exclusively on EFNs. This study demonstrates unequivocally that EF nectar is a frequently utilised food resource of many beetle adults and beetles have been a significantly underestimated visitor group. A more detailed study was conducted on six individual canopy trees of two species of Chrysobalanaceae, Licania hebantha Mart. ex Hook. f. and Moquilea subarachnophylla (Cuatrec.) Sothers and Prance. In total, 115 individual adults of 64 beetle species were collected on nectar secreted on newly-sprouted leaves. These beetle assemblages were dominated by species utilising EF nectar and were associated with distinct phenological phases of the host trees. Altogether, the beetle survey found support for the hypothesis that EFNs influence the occurrence and structure of beetle communities. These beetle-EFN relationships have implications for spatial arrangement, community assembly and evolution of both host plants and beetles. Like ant-EFN mutualism, EFN-bearing trees and beetles may also form mutualism. It is possible that the plants offer easier access to a nutritious resource that may deflect herbivory of vegetative parts.

Habitat-Dependency of Transect Walk and Pan Trap Methods for Bee Sampling in Farmlands

Abstract Bees are the most important group of flower visitors providing an essential ecosystem service, namely pollination. Due to the worldwide decline of bees, there should be standardized sampling methods in place to ensure consistent and comparable results between studies. We compared the two commonly used sampling methods of yellow pan traps and transect walk to determine (i) which habitat variables affect the species composition, abundance and species richness of sampled bee communities, (ii) which method potentially contains sampling bias towards some individuals or groups of bees and (iii) the efficiency of sampling in various habitats. We conducted fieldwork in different agricultural habitats distributed along landscape heterogeneity and topography gradients. Our results showed that the height of vegetation, the average number of flowers and the amount of woody vegetation had the greatest influence on the sampling efficiency. Our survey also demonstrated that sampling by transect walk captured less bees in general, especially in stubble, maize, and cereal fields. We found that Apis mellifera and Bombus spp. were well represented in samples collected by the transect walk method, while the abundance of other genera, especially Dasypoda, Hylaeus and Panurgus was higher in pan traps. Based on the results, we suggest (i) the transect walk method to compare samples of flower-visiting wild bee communities from various habitats of different vegetation and flower characteristics, (ii) application of the transect walk or pan traps to compare similar habitats and (iii) adoption of a comprehensive method which would incorporate both sampling techniques to gain a more complex insight into wild bee species composition.

An exploratory study of visitors’ motivations at a heritage destination

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine visitors’ motivations for going to the South Luogu Alley, a famous hutong with an over 700-year history in Beijing, China.Design/methodology/approachThe study applied a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from visitors on the main street of the South Luogu Alley.FindingsIt was found that most visitors of the hutong are casual tourists pursuing relaxation, including tension release and spending time with friends and family; seeking authenticity is not visitors’ most important motivation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used only one hutong to assess visitors’ motivations in hutong tourism, so the results may not be applicable to all hutongs.Practical implicationsThe research on the demographics and different motivations of the South Luogu Alley visitors can be useful to managers of tourism-related organizations.Social implicationsThis study shows that tourists with different motivations for visiting a hutong have varying requirements for authenticity. The reconstruction of some historical hutongs is not always perceived as negative, and the influence of Western cultural elements can be seen as positive if they contribute to the sustainable development of the local culture.Originality/valueThe term “hutonger,” which includes casual visitors, entertainment seekers, authenticity seekers and pure escapees, based on these respective motivations, is introduced to describe the specific groups of hutong visitors and contribute to the hutong tourism literature.

A comparative study of outcome quality, perceived value, and loyalty in four-star and five-star hotels

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to follow a comparative framework to investigate the effects of outcome quality on loyalty through the mediating role of perceived value in four-star hotels and five-star hotels.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a review of the literature, some hypotheses were formulated to examine the effects of outcome quality on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intention through the mediating role of perceived value. The data guiding the comparative analysis were collected from two groups of visitors staying either in four-start or five-star hotels. The sample included 356 international tourists who stayed overnight in four- or five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsAnalyzing the data obtained helped to construct three models. In the first model, the effects of outcome quality on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intention through the mediating role of perceived value in both group of customers was analyzed. In the second model, the effects of outcome quality on behavioral intention through the mediating role of perceived value were compared across the two groups. In the third model, all dimensions of attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intention were combined into one single variable called composite loyalty.Originality/valueIn the first model, the (in)direct effect of outcome quality on both of the dimensions of loyalty (attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intention) was confirmed through perceived value as the mediating variable. The results of processing the second model showed that the impact of outcome quality on behavioral intention was greater in the four-star hotels clients, whereas the effect of perceived value on behavioral intention was greater in the five-star hotels visitors. The third model revealed that the (in)direct effect of outcome quality on composite loyalty through perceived value was greater in the four-star hotels clients than that in the five-star hotels clients.

Festival quality, self-connection, and bragging

Festivals provide opportunities for experiential consumption, attracting both first-time and repeat visitors. However, current understanding of the perceptual and behavioural differences between these groups remains incomplete. This study investigates how experiential purchase quality influences experience self-connection and braggart word-of-mouth, for both first-time and repeat visitors, using a mixed-method approach. The qualitative (n = 32) and quantitative (n = 909) results together reveal that the combinations of experiential purchase quality dimensions stimulating experience self-connection and braggart word-of-mouth in repeat visitors differ significantly from those for first-time visitors, emphasising the need for festival managers to pay close attention to how different visitor groups perceive and prioritise experiential purchase quality dimensions. The findings thus extend current understanding of how braggart word-of-mouth emerges in an experiential consumption context.