Typology Of Visitors Research Articles

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial: remembrance, dissonance and resonance

Purpose– The purpose of this article is to expand the discussion pertaining to Vimy beyond traditional historic and military circles and to illustrate that the site is a significant tourism attraction featuring evolving management and interpretation approaches. This is achieved by describing the commemoration of First World War sites and the evolution and transformation of visitor typologies at these sites. The conversation is framed within a discussion of the role of heritage dissonance in management. Since this article was written at the onset of the centennial of the Great War, an examination of the management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which includes a tourism perspective, is timely.Design/methodology/approach– Consisting of participation observations and a review of literature, documentation, government reports and Web sites describing the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, this analysis is complemented by site visits and discussions with key personnel involved in the management of the site.Findings– Because this article precedes the upcoming centennial of the Great War, an examination of the management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which includes a tourism perspective, is timely. The discussion and conclusion sections provide a suggestion of how dissonant heritage can be addressed, and present an argument for the inclusion of new technologies in the management and interpretation of First World War memorials and the celebrations associated with the centennial of 2014-2019 in order to embrace new visitor types.Research limitations/implications– This is a conceptual paper examining past and current management strategies of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. No participants or manager was interviewed or surveyed.Practical implications– Strategies to improve future management through the engagement of tourism researchers, new technologies and by addressing dissonant heritage are provided through literature review and on-site visits.Social implications– Currently, the management of the Vimy Memorial caters largely to a certain segment of Canadian population. The findings suggest that by addressing other components of Canadian society and even other combatants, the management and interpretation of the site could be greatly diversified and could eventually become a battlefield like Gettysburg or Gallipoli, where all combatants are recognized and honored.Originality/value– This is the first paper examining the management of the Vimy Memorial from a tourism perspective.

IPOP: A Theory of Experience Preference

AbstractThe theory and practice of IPOP emerged from structured observations and interviews with visitors to the Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, D.C. from the 1990s to the present—a dataset useful in constructing a long view. This research has had one overarching intention: to serve museum visitors better, that is, to provide visitors with experiences that are above average, special, significant, and memorable. In numerous studies and interviews during the last 16 years, visitors have repeatedly spoken about their reactions to Smithsonian museum exhibitions in four typologies distilling their primary interests: I = ideas, P = people, O = objects, and—as we were obliged to add at a later stage—a second P for “physical.” The evidence suggests that exhibitions that strongly appeal to all four visitor typologies will be highly successful with visitors.

Prosuming creative urban areas. Evidence from East London

This research explores the role creative clusters play in the development of tourism. It involves an in-depth study of characteristics, motivations and experiences of visitors to creative urban areas using qualitative analysis of 142 interviews in creative, non-central locations in East London. The data show that the concentration of creative industries affords opportunities for consumption and for the accumulation of cultural capital, leveraging the presence of creative producers and other creative visitors, who are themselves perceived as an attraction. These factors, combined with a particular urban morphology and the presence of everyday activities, contribute to the areas’ perceived authenticity, bohemian atmosphere and cool image. The paper develops typologies of visitors to creative areas and concludes with a discussion of Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital applied to a contemporary urban context.

Tabula diptycha: Differential HIV knowledge, stigma and intended behavioural outcomes amongst visitors at Vietnam's Pain and Hope exhibition

Stigma reduction efforts in Vietnam have been encumbered by contradictory and dynamic views of people living with HIV and the epidemic over the past two decades. World AIDS Day 2010 saw the launch of Pain and Hope, a museum exhibition showcasing the lives and experiences of Vietnamese people living with AIDS at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME). Between December 2010 and May 2011, a random sample of visitors completed exit surveys regarding their attitudes towards the exhibition and Vietnamese living with HIV/AIDS. The survey sought to determine what kind of visitors the museum and exhibition attracted, and the stigma-related impacts of this kind of exposure and parasocial contact. Of 2500 Vietnamese visitors randomly selected, 852 completed the computer surveys (response rate of 34.1%), 92.3% of whom had seen Pain and Hope. We found two sub-strata or types of visitors attending the exhibition, with varying demographic characteristics, HIV-related knowledge, some differences in stigma ideation, and clear differences in intended behaviours specifically attributable to the exhibition. Social desirability biases notwithstanding, there has emerged a diptych typology of visitors to the VME, for whom the experience of the exhibition is likely interacting with divergent prior knowledge, experiences, interests and motivations.

Quantitative Analysis of Image Factors in a Cultural Heritage Tourist Destination

The tourism consumer’s purchase decision process is, to a great extent, conditioned by the image the tourist has of the different destinations that make up his or her choice set. In a highly competitive international tourist market, those responsible for destinations’ promotion and development policies seek differentiation strategies so that they may position the destinations in the most suitable market segments for their product in order to improve their attractiveness to visitors and increase or consolidate the economic benefits that tourism activity generates in their territory. To this end, the main objective we set ourselves in this paper is the empirical analysis of the factors that determine the image formation of Tarragona city as a cultural heritage destination. Without a doubt, UNESCO’s declaration of Tarragona’s artistic and monumental legacies as World Heritage site in the year 2000 meant important international recognition of the quality of the cultural and patrimonial elements offered by the city to the visitors who choose it as a tourist destination. It also represents a strategic opportunity to boost the city’s promotion of tourism and its consolidation as a unique destination given its cultural and patrimonial characteristics. Our work is based on the use of structured and unstructured techniques to identify the factors that determine Tarragona’s tourist destination image and that have a decisive influence on visitors’ process of choice of destination. In addition to being able to ascertain Tarragona’s global tourist image, we consider that the heterogeneity of its visitors requires a more detailed study that enables us to segment visitor typology. We consider that the information provided by these results may prove of great interest to those responsible for local tourism policy, both when designing products and when promoting the destination.

Ideas, Objects, or People? A Smithsonian Exhibition Team Views Visitors Anew

An exhibition team at the National Museum of the American Indian, working with a visitor studies specialist from the Smithsonian’s Office of Policy and Analysis, used visitor studies conducted by the entire team during planning for a reinstallation of part of the permanent collection. The studies evolved organically during the exhibition planning as questions and hypotheses arose among the team. The answers led to further studies. This research model brought team members together in a spirit of inquiry and a process of discovery, changed their perceptions of themselves and their subjects, and suggested a new typology of visitors.

The Visitor Experience of Crime: The Case of Central Scotland

Issues of crime in a destination area affect real and perceived visitor safety; away from rare but high profile incidents such as terrorist attacks, visitor security is more likely to be affected by a lesser criminal activity. This paper contributes to our existing understanding of how tourism can be affected by criminal activity by selecting a definable geographical area and investigating the dimensions, scale and nature of visitor-related crime and the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of visitors in relation to safety issues. The results indicate that, although visitors believed the destination to be a safe one, the statistics indicated that they were more susceptible to crimes of dishonesty, in particular vehicle-related theft, and the times and places they were at risk evidenced different patterns to residents. With visitors accounting for less than 10% of the total population, these differences are not immediately apparent. Visitors are not homogenous and distinct groupings based on perceptions, attitudes and behaviours were found. TheREFore, there is a requirement to examine how crime is impacting on visitors by distinguishing them from the overall crime figures, but measures to protect visitors also have to be tailored to take cognisance of typologies of visitors.

Profiling Major Sport Event Visitors: The 2002 Commonwealth Games

It has become common practice for governments and municipalities around the world to bid for the right to host a major sporting event. Prior to embarking on the bidding process, politicians attempt to determine whether such an event will be of value to their municipality; and often focus on the estimated economic consequences of hosting such an event. Frequently, studies are commissioned to predict the event's economic value. However, these studies often miscalculate the potential impact of sport event visitors as consumers. We argue that enhanced profiling of these visitors will enable a more accurate assessment of economic impact. The current research surveys 1,196 spectators of the 2002 Commonwealth Games to demonstrate four important aspects of visitor profiles related to economic impact: (i) visitor typology, (ii) sport tourist behaviors, (iii) consumption patterns determined by interest, and (iv) consumption patterns determined by distance traveled. Overall, the work makes three important contributions to the literature by: (i) empirically supporting that different sports attract different market demographics, (ii) underlining the need for segmentation in economic impact studies, and (iii) identifying the need to develop metrics of economic impact analysis that consider segmentation effects.

The Huckster and the Fox: a fable from the Exhibition Hall

This paper reports on the communications issues which arise from exhibition and trade fair activities. Drawing on research conducted at exhibitions in the UK and Greece, the author outlines some of the potential failures in communication which arise through a mismatch of agendas on the part of exhibitions and visitors. Unrealistic expectations on the part of exhibitions and a failure to appreciate the needs of visitors to exhibitions are the main reasons why exhibitions often fail to achieve the desired outcomes. The author offers a model of exhibitions as communications devices and also offers a typology of visitors and exhibitors which illustrates the importance of considering visitors' needs when planning an exhibition. The overall conclusion of the paper is that exhibitors largely concentrate on selling objectives and, by doing so, almost certainly disappoint and even alienate visitors, the majority of whom do not include buying in their agendas.