Visitor Services Research Articles

Opportunities and constraints for accessible nature-based destinations from the management perspective

ABSTRACT Offering an accessible environment to visitors in nature-based destinations often involves various challenges due to the need to balance accessibility with conservation. This study investigates the influences of practical methods, design elements, and other factors that affect visitors’ experience with reduced accessibility at eight nature-based destinations in the Taipei and northeast Taiwan area. Interviews with the destination managers of these eight sites have been conducted to understand their views on what constitutes ‘accessible tourism’, their experiences and views on the aspects of accessible tourism policy planning and management, including destination planning and design, accessibility facilities, and other management factors affecting strategies to attract visitors of various accessibility conditions. A qualitative analysis of the interviews affirms the importance placed by destination managers in providing accessible facilities. The management of the study sites combines physical facilities, visitor services, and accessible design into an all-around strategy to improve destination accessibility while maintaining the conservation of nature-based resources, which is an issue. A notable advantage is a people-oriented strategy to learn from the visitors, meet visitor demand, and improve visitor satisfaction with the sites.

Sustainable Eco-Tourism in Tinjure Hills: A Spotlight on Nepal's Rhododendron Capital

The main foundation of tourism development in Tinjure, a hilly district of Terhathum, is the vast blooming of rhododendrons across the hills. With 28 species of rhododendrons found in this region, the Tinjure, Milke, and Jaljale areas are known as the " Rhododendron Capital" of Nepal. Among these three areas, Tinjure is the region where the highest number of rhododendrons are found. Domestic tourists visit throughout the year, while both domestic and foreign tourists are drawn to the area during the rhododendron bloom from March to April months. This initiative aims to promote this important tourist destination globally through eco-tourism. The main objective of this study is to explore the foundations of tourism development and identify the challenges of eco-tourism in Tinjure Hills. Primary data were directly taken from the local communities through interview, and self-observation in 2024. Similarly, and books, articles, bulletin, journal, and website materials were used as a secondary data. Additionally, videos produced by Purvi Blues and Entertainment MMC were used as supplementary data to enrich the study. The Tinjure hills offer significant ecotourism potential, boasting diverse attractions, such as rhododendron forests (March-April), summer retreats, panoramic autumnal mountain views, and winter snowfall. This variety caters to broad tourist preferences while showcasing rich biodiversity. Cultural landmarks, including the iconic rhododendron and Tinjure Pathivara Temple, appeal to domestic visitors. Both domestic and international tourist numbers have been increasing annually. Infrastructure improvements support ecotourism growth. To attract international tourists, strategic planning, policy development, and research on visitor behavior and service optimization are crucial for sectoral advancement.

أثر استراتيجيات الموارد البشرية في الرئاسة العامة لشؤون المسجد الحرام في مدى تحقيقها رؤية المملكة 2030

The research aims at strategic planning for human resources. The results showed that the General Presidency applies strategies aimed at improving job performance, such as continuous training, leadership development, and modern technologies. It was found that there is a significant investment in digital transformation, which supports process automation and improves efficiency. It became clear that the Presidency faces challenges in areas such as job localization and achieving a balance between employee needs and the organization's goals. It also showed that training programs aimed at achieving the standards of Vision 2030 were enhanced, especially in the areas of leadership and visitor service. The study also aims to increase focus on motivation strategies to enhance job satisfaction and productivity. The Presidency seeks to improve recruitment and professional development mechanisms to ensure attracting the best competencies and localizing jobs. With the continuation of performance evaluation and linking results to indicators for measuring the goals of Vision 2030. It became clear that the Presidency plays a pivotal role in human resources strategies in enabling the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque to contribute to achieving the Kingdom's Vision 2030. However, it requires continuous review of these strategies to ensure adaptation to national and international variables and requirements.

Alaska Recreation and Visitor Services (DOI)

Alaska Recreation and Visitor Services (DOI)

Pengaruh Manajemen Pelayanan Pengunjung dalam Meningkatkan Kepuasan Pengunjung di Lembang Park & Zoo

Tourist attraction managers can improve visitor satisfaction by optimizing their human resources. This means that this study was conducted to determine how visiting tourists assess service management. The main factor in consumer satisfaction is their perception of the quality of service received. The expected results are to provide information about this service management process to help tourists assess staff performance during the operation of Lembang Park & Zoo. This study uses a quantitative approach design, using a descriptive method approach with a data collection technique, namely a survey. . By distributing questionnaires and google forms. Other populations are visitors who are active in the Lembang Park & Zoo area, which is 410,000. then the number of samples to be taken in this study is 100 tourists. The sampling technique in this study uses simple random sampling. Visitor service management has a strong correlation with visitor satisfaction at Lembang Park & Zoo, because the service provided by a destination is an effective thing that must ensure that the quality of service provided to visitors is consistent and satisfactory, including the speed in responding to complaints and the availability of friendly and trained staff to improve visitor satisfaction. Affirming that visitor service management is not only important in daily operations but is important in improving the image of a good destination and the attractiveness of a tourist destination. Visitor satisfaction has been shown to increase when their interactions with visitor service staff are positive and satisfying, meaning that this shows that in reliable service can bring benefits can greatly help tourist destinations by increasing visitor satisfaction and making tourists come back.

An Analysis of Visitor Behaviors and Satisfaction in Urban Forests: Focused on Major Forests in Incheon

Background and objective: Urban forests have increasingly integrated recreational and welfare facilities to enhance the quality of life for urban residents. This study explores the behaviors, perceptions, and satisfaction of visitors to major forests in Incheon Metropolitan City, aiming to offer guidelines for the improvement of recreational facilities within these urban forests. By understanding visitor needs and preferences, the study seeks to contribute to the development of more user-friendly and sustainable forest environments that cater to the well-being of city dwellers.Methods: The study focused on five major forests in Incheon: Munhaksan Mountain, Cheongnyangsan Mountain, Manwolsan Mountain, Wonjeoksan Mountain, and Gyeyangsan Mountain. Data were collected through field surveys and analyzed using cross-tabulation, one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis. Based on the results, targeted recommendations were made for the enhancement of recreational facilities in each forest.Results: For Munhaksan Mountain, expanding recreational spaces and offering trail-specific programs are key priorities, along with developing a maintenance plan to improve visitor satisfaction. In Cheongnyangsan Mountain, expanding popular facilities like barefoot walking paths and optimizing the forest structure for air purification and noise reduction are needed. Manwolsan Mountain requires a more efficient maintenance system, focusing on security, amenities, and visitor services to address the issue of low satisfaction. Wonjeoksan Mountain should enhance trail safety with more CCTVs and improve amenities such as restrooms and trash disposal. Gyeyangsan Mountain needs more rest areas and amenities, addressing congestion in the northwest while preserving natural scenery and providing an information platform for younger visitors.Conclusion: This study contributes to optimizing the use of urban forests and improving the quality of life for residents by proposing a strategic framework for the development of recreational welfare in forests. The findings are expected to serve as a valuable resource for local governments in formulating rational forest management and usage plans.

Conservation threats from tourism land grabs and greenwash

We report a new threat to conservation, namely land grabs by large tourism developers inside public protected areas. Locally, these tourism land grabs damage national parks through building footprints and access corridors, bringing habitat fragmentation, noise, light, roadkill, fire risk, and invasive plant and animal species and pathogens. They also create negative impacts on social equity and regional economies. The global tourism industry now perceives private development in public national parks as a mechanism to profit from land speculation, rather than merely monopoly provision of visitor services. Investment funds now use tourism, often with socialwashing components, as a political lever for land grabs. International “nature positive” marketing by tourism industry associations and multilateral tourism advocacy organisations is greenwash: it lacks substance, and aims to coopt conservation organisations.

Cultural heritage and economic development: measuring sustainability over time

This study investigates the role of museums and cultural heritage in local development, highlighting their ability to attract tourists, generate revenue, and promote inclusion and cultural diversity. According to traditional economic theory, cultural heritage provides positive externalities, enhancing employment and improving human and social capital, all while adhering to principles of sustainability. In this context, the Italian Survey on Museums and Other Cultural Institutions offers extensive data on heritage conservation, accessibility, and visitor services. Utilising this longitudinal data, we conduct a latent transition analysis to examine the evolution of the Italian museum sector with a focus on regional differences and museums’ dimension. Our findings classify Italian museums into three homogeneous sustainability states. Additionally, museum size positively affects both the initial and transition probabilities, while the macro-area significantly influences only the initial probability.

Pelayanan Pengunjung Disabilitas pada Museum Geologi dan Museum Konferensi Asia Afrika di Kota Bandung

This study is entitled "Disability Visitor Service at the Museum of Geology and Museum of the Asia Africa Conference in the Bandung City". This study seeks to find a discussion of museum services for persons with disabilities that substantively refer to the service quality concept revealed by Zeinthaml in 2006 consisting of (1) Tangibles, (2) Empathy, (3) Responsiveness, (4) Reliable and (5) Assurance, and performed at the Museum of Geology and the Museum of Asia Africa. This research uses a qualitative method approach. A qualitative approach is considered by researchers to be very appropriate in providing a holistic picture of the existing reality data. Data collection was performed using observation techniques, in- depth interviews, and documentation. Data analyzed was using the stages described by Miles and Huberman (1992: 16). Based on research, a conclusion can be drawn that both museums have all aspect studied for disabilities tourists. Broadly speaking, the Museum of Geology already has infrastructure and services that prepared for disabilities tourists, meanwhile the Museum of Asia Africa still has a variety of obstacles and minimal infrastructure will be aimed for disabilities tourists with some rules procedure and condition.

Exploring recreational ecosystem services and influencing factors in megaparks using mobile phone data—Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta region

At the large scale, regions composed of multiple cities and large parks are important nodes in the regional ecological network system. They provide diversified Recreational Ecosystem Services (RES), which are key components of the regional open space system. Traditional data and methods for evaluating RES in large parks have not fully considered the interactions between visitors and urban physical space environments. This study, grounded in the Theory of the Delivery Chain, defines parks over 100 ha as “megaparks”, employs mobile phone signaling data to effectively distinguish between local and non-local visitors in megaparks in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region. An index system was constructed to evaluate the RES effect of megaparks by measuring mobile check-in density, service radius, and turnover volume using Hierarchical Linear Regression (HLR) to reveal the relevant spatial influence factors of 677 megaparks. This study revealed that there are remarkable geographic and population differences in the RES effects of megaparks across cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. The turnover volume indicator can play an important role in measuring the RES of megaparks. Ten factors, including Internet users’ attention to parks, GDP per capita, Internet users’ attention to city, green coverage rates of megaparks, density of bus stations within a 500 m-buffer, the network distance to the administrative center, observable mountain or terrain fluctuations, landscape shape index, cultural heritage within the park, and supporting facilities around the park, have positive or negative impacts on the RES effect of megaparks, but none of the influencing factors worked simultaneously on the three indicators of mobile check-in density, service radius, and turnover volume of megaparks. We found that the turnover volume indicator is more advantageous in reflecting the spatial characteristics of RES in megaparks in a large-scale region, and the measurements are closer to traditional perceptions, which can serve as an important complement to the indicators of visitor mobile check-in density and service radius.

Agritourism Development through Leveraging Financial Support within the 4As Framework

Abstract Financing is a crucial issue in agritourism development. Financial considerations play a significant role in the successful implementation and long-term sustainability of agritourism ventures. This research focuses on understanding the financial challenges that arise within each component of the 4As framework. The research methodology used is a literature study. This study emphasizes the financial challenges that emerge within each component of the 4As framework. Key financial factors for sustainable agritourism includes infrastructure investment, eco-friendly planning, cost management, effective marketing, training, and environmental preservation. Developing and managing attractions requires financial investment in creating and promoting unique experiences while ensuring cultural sustainability and integrity. Access involves infrastructure development and maintenance, transportation costs, and the need to reach remote rural areas. Providing adequate amenities requires financial resources for facility development, maintenance, and visitor service management. Ancillary services pose financial barriers in terms of initial investment, operational costs, and balancing authenticity with visitor expectations. Innovative financial approaches and support mechanisms are needed to foster agritourim development. These include accessing funding opportunities, exploring public-private partnerships, leveraging community-based tourism models, and volunteer tourism. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of financial support programs through government grants and subsidies, incubators and accelerators programs, and tourism development funds.

Optimizing Spatial Layout of Campsites for Self-Driving Tours in Xinjiang: A Study Based on Online Travel Blog Data

Within the economic and cultural context of Xinjiang, the tourism industry has rapidly developed as a strategic pillar of the national economy, with the self-driving tour market emerging prominently. However, the uneven spatial layout and insufficient service facilities of self-driving camps limit their development potential. This study aims to enhance the attractiveness of tourism in Xinjiang and improve the visitor service experience by constructing an evaluation system for the layout of self-driving camps based on online travel blog data, utilizing methods such as literature review, surveys, ArcGIS spatial analysis, and web text analysis. The Delphi method and entropy weight method were applied to determine the weights of the influencing factors. The findings reveal spatial imbalances in the layout of Xinjiang’s self-driving camps and propose eight preferred scenic areas for camp location. This study also suggests sustainable development strategies. These insights and recommendations aim to optimize the layout of self-driving camps, enhance the tourism experience, and promote the sustainable development of Xinjiang’s tourism industry.

INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF HOSPITALITY ENTERPRISES

The article studies the main directions and stages of development of the strategy of innovative development of hotel enterprises. It is substantiated that the development and implementation of innovations is the most important condition for the progressive development of both a separate enterprise, an entrepreneurial structure, and the entire economy as a whole. Innovative processes are now becoming increasingly important, their main task is to achieve competitive advantages for enterprises and more fully meet consumer demand for high-quality services. At present, this can only be achieved through innovations that need to be widely implemented and used in modern economic conditions.
 Innovation drives the emergence of in the market for new or improved products and services. Innovative activities can lead a hotel company to qualitative changes in all processes activities. They are aimed at achieving results - increasing the speed and quality of the visitor service process.
 Innovation process at the enterprise hotel industry consists of a list of actions to introduce services with new properties, new technological processes, the use of new methods and methods of logistics.
 Innovative development in the hotel business allows you to win as many visitors as possible and in the best way satisfy their needs while maintaining a market segment. This development strategy hotel determines its recognition on competitive service markets.
 The best way to achieve good results is to plan a hotel enterprise development strategy based on a systematic analysis of competitors, consumers, and the hotel's technological profile.
 It should not be forgotten that for any hotel, the most important role in the process of innovative development is played by the staff. After all, the human factor certainly affects the positioning of the service and can lead to its positive and negative position

Can administrative data be used to research health visiting in England? A completeness assessment of the Community Services Dataset.

Health visiting is a community service provided to families with children under five in England and is a key focus of early years policy. Individual-level data on health visiting is captured in the Community Services Data Set (CSDS), an administrative dataset of publicly funded community services across England. Analyses of CSDS are considered experimental as the dataset matures. In this study, we aimed to identify health visiting contacts in the CSDS and assess the completeness of these data from 2016/17 to 2019/20 compared to external reference data. We identified the number of the four mandated postnatal health visiting contacts delivered, excluding those scheduled but not attended, between April 2016 and March 2020. We compared counts by local authority (LA) and financial quarter against the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities' Health Visitor Service Delivery Metrics (HVSDM) to identify a subnational subset of complete CSDS data. We explored the representativeness of this subset. During the study period, 10.2 million health visiting contacts were delivered to 2.4 million children in England. Of these, we identified 3.9 million mandated contacts based on CSDS codes and age at time of contact, which represented 44.7% of all mandated contacts reported in the HVSDM for the same period. There were 63 LAs with complete CSDS data in at least one quarter, which were broadly representative of English LAs overall. Variables related to staff characteristics were highly missing and only 13 LAs had four or more successive quarters of complete data needed for longitudinal, child-level analyses. We identified a subnational subset of complete CSDS data, compared to external reference data, which can be used for health visiting research. Until improvements are made to its completeness, analyses (particularly those requiring longitudinal data) may not be generalisable to the whole child population.

California Recreation and Visitor Services Program (DOI)

California Recreation and Visitor Services Program (DOI)

Using cellular device location data to estimate visitation to public lands: Comparing device location data to U.S. National Park Service's visitor use statistics.

Understanding human use of public lands is essential for management of natural and cultural resources. However, compiling consistently reliable visitation data across large spatial and temporal scales and across different land managing entities is challenging. Cellular device locations have been demonstrated as a source to map human activity patterns and may offer a viable solution to overcome some of the challenges that traditional on-the-ground visitation counts face on public lands. Yet, large-scale applicability of human mobility data derived from cell phone device locations for estimating visitation counts to public lands remains unclear. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by examining the efficacy and limitations of using commercially available cellular data to estimate visitation to public lands. We used the United States' National Park Service's (NPS) 2018 and 2019 monthly visitor use counts as a ground-truth and developed visitation models using cellular device location-derived monthly visitor counts as a predictor variable. Other covariates, including park unit type, porousness, and park setting (i.e., urban vs. non-urban, iconic vs. local), were included in the model to examine the impact of park attributes on the relationship between NPS and cell phone-derived counts. We applied Pearson's correlation and generalized linear mixed model with adjustment of month and accounting for potential clustering by the individual park units to evaluate the reliability of using cell data to estimate visitation counts. Of the 38 parks in our study, 20 parks had a correlation of greater than 0.8 between monthly NPS and cell data counts and 8 parks had a correlation of less than 0.5. Regression modeling showed that the cell data could explain a great amount of the variability (conditional R-squared = 0.96) of NPS counts. However, these relationships varied across parks, with better associations generally observed for iconic parks. While our study increased our confidence in using cell phone data to estimate visitation, we also became aware of some of the limitations and challenges which we present in the Discussion.

Marketplace accessibility: a service-provider perspective

PurposeThis study aims to explore the strategies that service providers use to facilitate marketplace accessibility, and identify the key challenges in that process. The authors do so to develop a roadmap towards improved accessibility and disability inclusion in the marketplace.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted eight semi-structured interviews with service providers (curators, visitor service coordinators and access managers) at museums who run access programmes for customers with visual impairment (VI), along with an embodied duo-ethnography of those programmes.FindingsService providers foster autonomous, embodied and social access. Resource constraints, safety concerns and exposed differences between customers compromise access. To overcome these challenges, service providers engage in three inclusionary strategies – informing, extending and sensitizing.Research limitations/implicationsThis service provider- and VI-focus present limitations. Future research should consider a poly-vocal approach that includes the experiences of numerous stakeholders to holistically advance marketplace accessibility; and apply the marketplace accessibility findings upon different disabilities in other marketplace contexts.Practical implicationsThis study offers a roadmap for policymakers and service providers on: which types of access should and can be created; what challenges may be encountered; how to manage these challenges; and, thus, how to advance accessibility beyond regulations.Originality/valueThis study contributes a service provider perspective on marketplace accessibility that goes beyond removing “disabling” barriers towards creating opportunities for co-creation; an approach towards marketplace accessibility that fosters inclusiveness while considering the inherent challenges of that process; and an illustration of posthumanism’s empirical value in addressing issues of accessibility in the marketplace.

Assessing Visitor Satisfaction and Service Quality at Impos Beach

Assessing Visitor Satisfaction and Service Quality at Impos Beach

Multisensory Stimuli, Restorative Effect, and Satisfaction of Visits to Forest Recreation Destinations: A Case Study of the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan.

The perceived quality of the restorative environment of forest resources should be a key consideration for forest recreational areas in managing ecosystem services to provide health benefits to visitors. However, previous studies on utilizing forests as a resource for restorative services have rarely explored the simultaneous integration of on-site sensory experiences from a multisensory perspective or evaluated visitor satisfaction from a service-oriented standpoint. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the association among multisensory stimuli, perceived restorativeness, and satisfaction with visits to forest recreation areas and clarify the mediating role of perceived restorativeness in the relationship between multisensory stimuli and satisfaction. This study deployed a questionnaire and collected 458 valid responses from visitors to the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the study hypotheses. The results indicated that visual sensations, auditory sensations, olfactory sensations, and tactile sensations had significant positive effects on perceived restorativeness and satisfaction and that perceived restorativeness also had a significant positive effect on satisfaction. Perceived restorativeness played a partial mediating role in this causal model. This study verified the psychological model of the relationships among a natural setting's multisensory stimuli, perceived restorativeness, and satisfaction. In practice, the findings of this study offer guidance for forest recreation areas to develop strategies for ecological services, encompassing the establishment of restorative environmental management and visitor service management approaches.

Problems and Prospects of Development of Restaurant Business in the City of Uman

Purpose: The objective of this article is to analyze the quality of service provision in organizing visitor services in local restaurants of various types and changes in their quantity in 2018–2022. Design / Methodology / Approach: Based on observation and survey methods, analysis, comparison, and systematization of results, the activities of restaurants of different types that continued to operate in the service market despite the changes that occurred after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been studied. Findings: The most competitive restaurants in the city of Uman, which are most popular among the local population and city guests, have been identified. The quality of visitor service has been analyzed, and errors that occur in the operation of establishments during visitor service have been identified. Originality / Value: The theoretical significance of the article lies in identifying problematic issues in their activities and determining recommendations for improving the operation of restaurants in the city of Uman, taking into account modern trends in the hospitality industry. Practical Meaning: It is noted that the absence of strategy and planning, as well as proper control by the owner, leads to a rapid decline in the ranking of competitive enterprises. It has been proven that the state of business in cities and individual territorial communities determines the economic development of the country as a whole. The activities of individual entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry not only contribute financially to the well-being of local areas but also create an impression of comfort and coziness for local residents and tourists. Further Research: Further studies are needed to investigate the compliance of the assortment of dishes and drinks with the type of enterprise, the price-quality ratio, serviceology, and the availability of additional services.