Zealand Tourism Research Articles

Themes and Trends in Australian and New Zealand Tourism Research: A Social Network Analysis of Citations in Two Leading Journals (1994–2007)

Assessments and rankings of the contribution and influence of scholars, institutions and journals in tourism are becoming increasingly common. This article extends the existing literature by providing a finer grained understanding of key influences in tourism research. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the tourism literature by examining papers authored by Australian and New Zealand researchers in Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management between 1994 and 2007. A general picture of the field is drawn by examining keywords, the most-cited authors and works, as well as co-citation patterns. The analysis is extended by the use of social network analysis to explore the links between keywords and influential works in the field. The article also addresses the conference theme by identifying emerging themes and influences. Results indicate that tourism research in Australia and New Zealand has been strongly influenced by sociology and anthropology, geography and behavioural psychology. Emerging themes have focused on the health and safety of tourists, risk, wine tourism and segmentation.

The Maori of Tourist Brochures Representing Indigenousness

This study analyses how Maori operators in the tourist industry portray indigenous culture in their brochures. For close to 150 years, Maori people have been involved as entrepreneurs in New Zealand's tourist industry. Although now integrated into the modern New Zealand nation-state, the representation of their culture in tourism gives an image of a traditional people radically different and set apart from modern New Zealand (Kiwi) culture. Utilising Fabian's ideas regarding the organisation of otherness through cultural constructions of time and space, this article demonstrates how certain spatial arrangements are necessary to sustain the imaginary temporary division between a modern Kiwi culture and the representation of a traditional Maori culture, the latter is a tourist attraction in itself. Auto-ethnography in the discourse of tourism inevitably becomes ‘self-Orientalism’, even if some spaces makes co-presence possible.

A Field Taking Shape: Papers from the 5th International Coastal and Marine Tourism Congress

*School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA †Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand ‡Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA §School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand ¶New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Using the concept of yield to assess the sustainability of different tourist types

Sustainability assessments have become important tools for decision makers. This research assesses the sustainability of different types of tourists in New Zealand by using the concept of yield and by developing yield indicators in the areas of financial, public sector and sustainable yield. The concept and indicators have been developed in cooperation with the New Zealand tourism sector and therefore provide a sector-driven approach to implement a sustainability assessment. The analysis shows that there are numerous ‘trade-offs’ between indicators when attempting to define the ‘ideal visitor type’. Coach tourists, for example, are the largest spenders and generate the greatest Value Added in tourism on a per-day basis, but they contribute less to the financial sustainability of tourism when the costs of capital are accounted for. Coach tourists are highly concentrated in a few key destinations and at the same time produce substantial amounts of CO 2 emissions due to their air travel component. In contrast, backpacker and camping tourists provide greater financial yield and are more dispersed, but they are also the greatest user of publicly provided tourist attractions and therefore come at a higher cost to government than other tourist types. Camping tourists are also contributing considerably to CO 2 emissions. The yield analysis proposed in this paper could be a valuable tool for complex policy decision making and identifying strategies that lead to high-yield tourism.

Back of the Envelope: Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises' Approaches and Attitudes to Planning

Small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) dominate New Zealand's tourism industry. They are important vehicles of economic development in rural areas and have a sizeable influence upon a tourist's experience. Literature has reported that SMTEs do not plan strategically, have an under-appreciation of planning and are disinclined to seek external planning assistance, despite planning being purported as a way that could help overcome their inherent difficulties. This points to a need to explore and understand the perceptions and approaches owner-managers have of planning. Based upon semi-structured interviews of owner-managers, this paper reveals that most operators are informal and ‘back of the envelope’ planners, with their experience allowing intuitive decisions instead. Considerable operational involvement results in a need for owner-managers to prioritize their time, and documenting plans is not considered necessary. Despite these findings, owner-managers reported that they value planning. This paper provides insight into the experiences of owner-managers from a peripheral, rural area of New Zealand and argues that business owners are indeed strategic planners, but are not recognized as such because they do not have the typical corporate or business strategies commonly prescribed in the management literature. Rather, they adopt unique lifestyle strategies such as the purposeful avoidance of business growth. Considering their informal planning methods, it is more pertinent to describe SMTEs as having ‘strategic intent’. The owner-managers' vision and intent are strategic, albeit unique, as they are driven by lifestyle motivations.

Distribution Channels in International Markets: A Comparative Analysis of the Distribution of New Zealand Tourism in Australia, Great Britain and the USA

This paper presents a systematic cross-national approach to examining the distribution of international tourism. The distribution channels for New Zealand tourism in Australia, Great Britain and the USA are compared in order to address the following questions: do the distribution channels vary from market to market; in what ways, why and with what implications? The research is primarily based on in-depth interviews with in-market intermediaries in the three countries. The comparative analysis identifies and elucidates such issues as the challenges of marketing long-haul destinations, distributing touring products rather than resort-based packages, the role of destination specialisation, variations in the attributes of channel members and the factors accounting for similarities and differences in channel structure. Given the structural differences identified, providers need to be aware of and make decisions regarding the most appropriate channels through which to distribute their particular products in given markets. The paper concludes by outlining future directions for research in this field and by offering a general framework for analysing the distribution of international tourism in other contexts.

Isolation of Vibrio cholerae O1 strains similar to pre-seventh pandemic El Tor strains during an outbreak of gastrointestinal disease in an island resort in Fiji

Five strains of Vibrio cholerae O1, one each from an Australian and a New Zealand tourist with gastrointestinal illness returning from an island resort in Fiji and the remaining three from water sources located in the same resort, were extensively characterized. Conventional phenotypic traits that are used for biotyping of O1 V. cholerae categorized all five strains as belonging to the El Tor biotype. Genetic screening of 11 regions that are associated with virulence in V. cholerae showed variable results. The absence of genes comprising Vibrio seventh pandemic island-I (VSP-I) and VSP-II in all the strains indicated that these strains were very similar to the pre-seventh pandemic V. cholerae O1 El Tor strains. The ctxAB genes were absent in all strains whereas orfU and zot were present in four strains, indicating that the strains were non-toxigenic. Four strains carried a truncated CTX prophage. Although epidemiological and molecular studies suggested that these strains did not cause cholera amongst tourists at the resort, their similarity to pre-seventh pandemic strains, their prior association with gastrointestinal illness and their presence in the island resort setting warrant more attention.

Promoting Niche Tourism Destination Brands

Promoting tourism destination brands presents many challenges and this article opens by briefly reviewing the destination brand management context. Critical to the creation and promotion of a durable destination brand is the identification of the brand's values, the translation of those into a suitably emotionally appealing personality and the targeted and efficient promotion of that message. While this is difficult, it is not impossible to achieve in destination marketing, and, having reviewed some of the key issues in brand management, the article explores the context and creation of the New Zealand and Wales tourism brands. The recent initiatives of both Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) and the Wales Tourist Board (WTB) represent the first ever-global branding strategies for both destinations and the article examines how innovative promotion can showcase landscapes, peoples, cultures and tourism activities. The article concludes that through effective marketing research and partnerships, and by harnessing the World Wide Web (WWW) and public relations opportunities, both TNZ and WTB are creating strong travel destination brands, positioned as appealing niche players in today's global tourism industry.

Māori Tourism: The representation of images

The resurgence of Māori culture in the last two decades has led to demands for Māori control over tourism development and the use of cultural artefacts and images in promotion (Keelan, 1996). This study examines how the vestiges of past colonial constructs remain entrenched within society (albeit often in subtler forms or different institutions) by examining promotional tourism images of Māori. It also looks at how Māori tourism operators are contemporising their products to meet market demands and thus (re)presenting their image as one of a ‘living culture’. There is currently a strong move within New Zealand tourism to promote our ‘unique’ indigenous Māori culture. Such an initiative to incorporate the indigenous culture within parameters of promotion and marketing obviously raises the question ‘who represents whom?’ and asks how such representation occurs in regard to cultural integrity. Cultural tourism was specifically identified in the New Zealand Tourist Strategy (NZTS) 2010 (NZT, 2001) as a sector ‘requiring further development in order to maximise its potential’. Amongst the stated objectives of the strategy was to ‘ensure Māori participate and are partners in the tourism sector and that Māori culture and identity is protected’. It has been stated that ‘control, not wealth are at the heart of Māori tourism’ (Keelan, 1996). The right of Māori to have control over their resources, culture, social and economic being is an integral factor to the growth of New Zealand tourism. This paper represents a portion of a wider research focus that examines both national and regional tourism structures in order to identify points of difference that might assist the development of Māori tourism. It seeks to discover if a national or regional (tribal) identity is an inherent feature of current New Zealand tourism promotion, and if Māori themselves believe the success of their tourism image is based upon such a distinction.

Economic Effects of Advertising on Tourism Demand: A Case Study

The objective of this study is to quantify the long-term effects of advertising on tourism demand. A single equation demand model is specified which includes advertising as an explanatory variable along with other economic determinants of demand, prices and incomes. Using the Phillip–Hanson procedure, long-run elasticities of demand are estimated for Australian tourism from its major markets – Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. The results indicate that Japanese and New Zealand tourists are more responsive to advertising than UK and US tourists and that they are also highly sensitive to prices compared with UK and US tourists.

Safety in New Zealand's adventure tourism industry: the client accident experience of adventure tourism operators.

Injuries and fatalities among participants of adventure tourism activities have the potential to seriously impact on New Zealand's tourism industry. However, the absence of statistics for tourist accidents in New Zealand, and the lack of detailed academic research into adventure tourism safety, means the extent of the problem is unknown. The aims of the present study were to determine the incidence of client injuries across a range of adventure tourism activity sectors, and to identify common accident events and contributory risk factors. A postal questionnaire survey of New Zealand adventure tourism operators was used. Operators were asked to provide information related to their business; the number of recorded client injuries during the preceding 12 month period, January to December 1998; common accident and injury events associated with their activity; and perceived risk factors for accidents in their sector of the adventure tourism industry. The survey was responded to by 142 New Zealand adventure tourism operators. The operators' reported client injury experience suggests the incidence of serious client injuries is very low. Highest client injury incidence rates were found for activities that involved the risk of falling from a moving vehicle or animal (e.g., cycle tours, quad biking, horse riding, and white-water rafting). Slips, trips, and falls on the level were common accident events across most sectors of the industry. Perceived accident/incident causes were most commonly related to the client, and in particular, failure to attend to and follow instructions. The prevalence of client injuries in activity sectors not presently covered by government regulation, suggests policy makers should look again at extending codes of practice to a wider range of adventure tourism activities. Further research considering adventure tourism involvement in overseas visitor hospitalized injuries in New Zealand, is currently in progress. This will provide supporting evidence for the risk associated with participation in a range of commercial and independently undertaken adventure activities.

New Zealand tourism entrepreneur attitudes and behaviours with respect to climate change adaptation and mitigation

Although the potential impacts of climate change on tourism has been examined with respect to tourism destinations and resorts there is a dearth of information on the attitudes and behaviours of small firm entrepreneurs even though such enterprises make up by far the bulk of the tourism industry by number of businesses. The attitudes and adaptation and mitigation behaviours of New Zealand entrepreneurs towards climate change is reported in a longitudinal qualitative study of 43 rural tourism businesses. Climate change was regarded as potentially significant in the future but in the short-term ranked well below other business concerns. Significantly, where enterprises had been affected by extreme weather events attitudes and behaviours towards climate change differed markedly from those unaffected, although opposition to regulatory approaches with respect to climate change continued. Overall, adaptation rather than mitigation appeared to be the favoured strategies of tourism businesses.

Participatory Approaches and Geographical Information Systems (PAGIS) in Tourism Planning

Tourism researchers and planners continue to grapple with the problem of how to achieve more sustainable forms of tourism development; community participation and stakeholder interaction are increasingly seen as central to achieving desired outcomes. This paper explores how participatory approaches (PA) and geographical information systems (GIS) – PAGIS – can be blended to provide a framework that can facilitate a better understanding of attitudes towards tourism and enhance participation and stakeholder interaction in tourism planning. The paper demonstrates the initial development process of PAGIS by focusing on the case of Marahau, a small community in New Zealand. Marahau lies at the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park, one of New Zealand's tourism icons. The community is facing considerable changes that impact on their quality of life. This is, in part, due to increasing visitor numbers and tourism developments resulting in growing conflicts over common resource use. There are multiple stakeholders (community, Maori, local government, industry, developers) involved in deciding the future of Marahau and this paper suggests that PAGIS has the potential to play an important role in enhancing sustainable tourism development outcomes.

Sixth Biennial New Zealand Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference: ‘Tourism Research: Advances and Applications’

Sixth Biennial New Zealand Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference: ‘Tourism Research: Advances and Applications’

Who buys that? Who does what? Analysis of cross-cultural consumption behaviours among tourists in Hawaii

The purpose of this paper is to investigate planned product and service consumption patterns among US, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, South Korean and Australian/New Zealand tourists in Hawaii. Using multiple analyses of variance, the first study empirically explores the influence of a tourist's residential country of origin on planned product and service consumption. The second study explores the planned consumption differences between, and among, American and Japanese first-time and repeat visitors to Hawaii. The results reveal significant cross-cultural differences in consumption patterns among international tourists to Hawaii.

E-business in the New Zealand Tourism Industry: An Examination of Implementation and Usage

This article presents the findings of a web-based survey examining the extent of e-business uptake in the New Zealand tourism industry. It provides a snapshot of both the implementation and usage of e-business. The survey extends the earlier research on New Zealand e-business by Clark et al. (2001) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2000), focusing specifically on tourism. This study shows that the tourism industry is committed to the establishment of e-business, and recognises the competitive advantages of this. It also appears to be adopting e-business more quickly than other industries, reflecting the industry’s service and information bases. While this sounds positive, concern must be expressed at the superficial level of implementation of e-business, particularly from SMEs which constitute a large portion of the economy. The New Zealand tourism industry respondents seem to be basic users of the technology, rather than ‘champions’ of e-business. Unless the simple adoption of ICT can be developed into a sustained and dynamic acceptance of e-business, the New Zealand tourism industry risks missing the opportunities provided by the global marketplace, and thus, becoming increasingly marginalised.

Complexity in Tourism Structures – the Embedded System of New Zealand’s Regional Tourism Organisation

Chaos and complexity theory implies a holistic, evolutionary systems approach to tourism. This paper discusses the key elements of chaos theory and provides a brief description of how chaos and complexity theory has been discussed and applied in tourism research with specific reference to regional tourism organizations in New Zealand. The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010 has acted as a catalyst for change in the wider New Zealand Tourism system and more specifically for Regional Tourism Organizaations (RTOs). Given current changes in New Zealand’s tourism policies and the renewed debate about RTOs, the use of chaos theory may contribute to gaining an understanding of the nature, role and functions of RTOs and their evolution and process of change.

Does Event-Driven Tourism Provide Economic Benefits? A Case Study from the Manawatu Region of New Zealand

The prime purpose of the New Zealand tourism industry is to create income. Events are becoming a major component of the tourism product. This study analyses the economic impact of an events festival in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. Destination Manawatu, the region's tourism organization, wanted to know whether an events festival held in March 1999 had provided net benefits for the region. Analysis indicates that the festival did produce significant economic benefits for the Manawatu, suggesting that event-driven tourism is an effective strategy for Destination Manawatu.

Chinese Students – A New Zealand Tourism Niche?

AbstractThis paper describes the findings of research into the travel patterns of 264 University students at a university in New Zealand. The number of overseas Chinese students studying in New Zealand in 2002 is estimated to be about 15,000. The paper finds relatively high levels of independent travel by the sample. They tend to travel in groups, by private car but spend relatively highly if only because they prefer motel and hotel accommodation to cheaper alternatives like backpacker hostels. They are also unlike northern European counterparts by not participating very highly in adventure tourism activities, but prefer more passive activities. A cluster analysis indicated three main groups that are labeled as being “combined motivation travellers”, “social traveller” and “new experience explorer and adventure seeker”.

Commodification and Adventure in New Zealand Tourism

This paper discusses the ways in which the commodification of adventure in tourism has increasingly become implicated in the production and consumption of tourist places. It examines the notion of adventure in tourism and the changing nature of commodification in postmodern and 'post-tourist' times. The rise of adventure tourism in New Zealand is used as an example of how adventure has been commodified. A survey of tourist brochures for adventure tourism attractions in New Zealand reveals some of the particular characteristics of adventure which are being incorporated into commodity form for tourists. These characteristics include place, spectacle, embodied experience and memory. Although aware of the limitations of using textual evidence from brochures, the paper concludes that Best's (1989) society of the commodity and the society of the spectacle are clearly significant in New Zealand. Sign exchange is also important in the commodification of adventure although it is concluded that places and practices are as yet rarely eclipsed by adventure signification.