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While the number of tourists worldwide is expected to reach 1.8 billion people by 2030, tourism destinations try to meet demand for increasing tourism. However, some tourism destinations are experiencing a maturity period of destination life cycle intensively. During these mature periods, while they meet the demand above their tourism carrying capacity, they encounter some problematic issues. In tourist destinations such as Venice, Barcelona and Paris, the negative feelings developed by the local people towards overtourism or tourists result in serious problems like negative destination images, tourism phobia, etc. In these destinations, to prevent the negative consequences of overtourism, destination stakeholders should develop solutions to these problems. There are many solution techniques for the problems which cause overtourism. One of them is the different tourism types which have been developed as an alternative to mass tourism. These alternative tourism types can be handled as a method for solving problems revealed through excess demand in tourism destinations at risk. For example, some tourism destinations which have both beach tourism and nature-based tourism types can bring nature-based tourism activities to the forefront with promotion and marketing activities and therefore, the tourism demand could be balanced between these tourism types. In this context, firstly, comprehensive literature review of overtourism and alternative tourism will be conducted in this study. And then the different types of tourism such as ecotourism, cultural tourism and responsible tourism will be discussed in detail and their relation in reducing the negative consequences of overtourism will be investigated theoretically via secondary data. Therefore, alternative tourism potentials will be investigated and tried to present the managerial suggestions for the development of different alternative types of tourism. As a result, it has been seen that, alternative tourism not only contributes to the growth of tourism in both popular and remote destinations but also makes sure that destinations get their fair share in income distribution of the country.

The chapter aims to identify the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the overtourism with two intermediate forms of tourism (i.e. mass tourism and alternative tourism while representing the potential of alternative tourism). For this, secondary research was adopted in which secondary data were collected through an inclusive literature review. This review consists of tourism journals, newspaper articles, blogs, World Health Organization statistics, governmental data and website materials. In early 2020, the rapidly spreading Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has wreaked global disaster. With no vaccine and limited medical capacity to treat the disease is a big challenge to the world. International, national and regional travel restrictions immediately affected the tourism industry. Even war, economic downturn, terrorist attack and various other diseases are all futile to cause an absolute decline in overall (international and domestic) tourism like Covid-19. This virus has enormous impacts on the tourism industry as the most crowded tourist destinations or overtourism in the world are deserted due to shut borders, no domestic or international flights or transport systems, and mix up to deal with the biggest impact in the history of the world – Covid-19. Overtourism means an extreme number of tourists at a specific destination at a particular point of time, or the excessive spread of people at various tourist spots has led to a situation known as overtourism. Due to Covid-19, the economic consequences on many destinations will be harsh, but some destinations suffering from overtourism might feel short-term relief, but it is a big hit in the long run. Overtourism will take a back seat during the crisis. Now post-Covid-19, people will be very particular while choosing their holiday destinations; likewise, there will be a shift from mass tourism to alternative tourism. Only a few people will wish a return to overtourism.

The purpose of this paper is to explore efforts to create alternative and special interest tourism products and services in order to help mitigate the severe seasonality of sun and sea tourism that has affected the island nation of Cyprus for decades.

The paper is qualitative in nature and provides a systematic data review of the efforts to create alternative and special interest tourism activities in Cyprus and the main challenges Cyprus faces.

Findings reveal that for decades, policymakers and practitioners have made a significant effort to create alternatives to the traditional sun and sea tourism in the popular island destination of Cyprus. Further, different programs, initiatives, and projects have been undertaken to develop rural, health and wellness, wine and food, casino, religious, rural, sports and other types of tourism. These efforts mainly face challenges of insufficient demand and supply and they appear to have been hindered by a public sector “top-down” approach.

The paper provides a systematic review of data relating to efforts to create alternative and special interest tourism activities and destinations in Cyprus and a discussion of the related challenges and opportunities.

This study aims to examine the latent capability of alternative-responsible tourism and ecotourism management in sustainable tourism and rural communities' livelihoods in Musina Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and benchmark the capability with other African countries amid climate change and environmental degradation dilemmas. Hence, the aforementioned objective coordinates with various agrarian locations elsewhere abroad.

Literature reviews, document reviews, interviews, and focus group discussions were employed to gather data, which was enriched by field observation views. To this end, potential climate change-linked environmental degradation, rural tourism, agricultural, and environmental management issues came to the fore.

Environmental degradation poses a possible threat to natural resource management, as evidenced by the rural development, ecotourism and agricultural activities within the study region. Thereupon, environmental degradation supplements the probability of adverse effects from climate change and precarious incomes. According to the research, responsible tourism and ecotourism are vital to promoting sustainability in rural localities.

The plenteous biodiversity of the municipality offers a better scenario for sustainable ecotourism in tandem with agritourism efforts to address the identified ongoing and liability issues. These issues have therefore symbolized the need for an adequate and allied tourism strategy to boost the local people in Musina Municipality and, conceivably, throughout the continent.

Ethnic food is a pivotal polysemic artifact, yet commonly studied based on experience. This leaves an eclipse in understanding its overall significance and implications. The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactions of experience, intimacy and embodiment from the lens of alternative tourism and Asia as a destination image.

The authors conducted four focus group that include Asians who take experiential learning trips and spiritual journeys across Asia-Pacific.

Alternative tourists promote the growth of ethnic foodies who value impact which they determine as quality food-scape, longitudinal caring interactions with and the constant assurance of consuming food which are safe and healthy to their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Although our research does not employ any quantitative technique and devoid of inferential analysis, the rich qualitative data offer insights for further work that benefit ethnic food industry.

Industry and policy makers are encouraged to generate contextual solutions for management of the ethnic food industry. Ethnic food consumption may flourish if the industry leads its growth through a post-modernist approach.

A broad perspective in growing the frontiers of ethnic food tourism beyond the landscape of an economic or consumerism-dominated approach would benefit the cross-mobility of quality talents and skills as this fosters cross-cultural literacy.

The authors develop the Ethnic Foodies Perspective-Ethnic Food Destination Image Matrix as a pathway to further motivate knowledge cross-fertilization in ethnic food tourism studies and leverage on the transdisciplinary science, innovation, socio- and sensuous geographic arena. A constellation of ethnic food innovation should link the economic side of exotic differentiation and heritage with food processing, safety and traceability.

This paper aims to examine rural tourism preferences as an alternative niche market to mass tourism destinations. The analysis discusses the differences in perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for various packages of rural tourism activities in Gran Canaria Island among residents and non-residents.

The analysis is based on a convenience sample of potential young customers who are familiar with outdoor recreational activities in nature. This study considers a discrete choice experiment that includes the type of accommodation as well as four types of rural tourism activities: active, passive, cultural and aquatic. The degree of preference for the considered attributes is obtained from the estimation of different discrete choice models.

Results reveal that the inclusion of the investigated attributes in holiday packages increases tourists’ utility, which motivates the promotion of rural tourism for young residents and non-residents. The most significant differences in perceptions of attributes between residents and non-residents were found in the activities of diving/snorkelling and stargazing, as well as the type of accommodation and package price.

This study will contribute to a better understanding of an alternative tourism market which will help key stakeholders in the tourism sector to better serve this important segment of the industry and to encourage more sustainable tourism in the future.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the WTP for rural tourism packages as a more sustainable alternative in mass tourism destinations and taking into account resident vs non-resident perceptions.

本文将乡村旅游偏好视为大众旅游目的地的替代利基市场。该分析讨论了居民和非居民对大加那利岛各种乡村旅游活动的看法和支付意愿的差异。

该分析基于熟悉户外休闲活动的潜在年轻客户的便利样本。该研究考虑了一个离散选择实验, 包括住宿类型以及四种类型的乡村旅游活动：积极、消极、文化和水上活动。所考虑属性的偏好程度是从不同离散选择模型的估计中获得的。

结果表明, 度假套餐中包含调查的属性增加了游客的效用, 从而促进了年轻居民和非居民的乡村旅游。在潜水/浮潜和观星活动, 以及住宿类型和套餐价格方面, 居民和非居民对属性的认知差异最显着。

据作者所知, 这是第一项评估农村旅游套餐的支付意愿作为大众旅游目的地更可持续的替代方案的研究, 并考虑了居民与非居民的看法。

该研究将有助于更好地了解替代旅游市场, 这将有助于旅游业的主要利益相关者更好地服务于该行业的这一重要部分, 并鼓励未来更可持续的旅游业。

Este trabajo examina las preferencias del turismo rural como nicho de mercado alternativo a los destinos turísticos de masas. El análisis discute las diferencias en las percepciones y la disposición a pagar por varios paquetes de actividades de turismo rural en la isla de Gran Canaria entre residentes y no residentes.

El análisis se basa en una muestra de conveniencia de potenciales clientes jóvenes que están familiarizados con las actividades recreativas al aire libre en la naturaleza. El estudio considera un experimento de elección discreta que incluye el tipo de alojamiento, así como cuatro tipos de actividades de turismo rural: activo, pasivo, cultural y acuático. El grado de preferencia por los atributos considerados se obtiene a partir de la estimación de diferentes modelos de elección discreta.

Los resultados revelan que la inclusión de los atributos investigados en los paquetes vacacionales aumenta la utilidad de los turistas, lo que motiva la promoción del turismo rural para jóvenes residentes y no residentes. Las diferencias más significativas en las percepciones de los atributos entre residentes y no residentes se encontraron en las actividades de buceo/snorkel y observación de estrellas, así como en el tipo de alojamiento y el precio del paquete.

Hasta donde los autores saben, este es el primer estudio que evalúa la disposición a pagar por paquetes de turismo rural como una alternativa más sostenible en destinos de turismo masivo y que tiene en cuenta las percepciones de los residentes frente a los no residentes.

El estudio contribuirá a una mejor comprensión de un mercado turístico alternativo que ayudará a los principales agentes del sector turístico a atender mejor este importante segmento de la industria y a fomentar un turismo más sostenible en el futuro.

This study aims to explore the latent potential of alternative-responsible tourism and ecotourism leadership in sustainable tourism and the sustenance of rural communities in Musina Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It also sought to compare this potential with other African pastoral areas and to integrate it with various rural sites elsewhere abroad.

Narrative literature, document reviews, interviews and focus group discussions were used to garner relevant data and were analyzed through cross-tabulation analysis and manually. On this account, probable climate change-bound environmental consequences, rural, tourism, farming and ecological administration issues came to the forefront.

The examination correlates the potential position of proper ecotourism exercises and responsible tourism as an agreeable path to promote sustainability in rural localities. Subsequently, upon apparent countryside products, ecotourism and farming exercises glimpsed in the study area, environmental degradation poses a conceivable hazard to natural resource governance. Hereafter, it aggravates the possibilities for climate change effects and poor subsistence.

The rich biodiversity in the study area provides platforms for sustainable rural tourism enterprises and addresses any pertinent concerns. Thus, the study has manifested a demand for a creative tourism approach and innovations against environmental change outcomes and to capacitate Musina Municipality residents and probably others elsewhere on the continent to engage in ethical tourism initiatives and sustainable livelihoods.

This study aims to uncover socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics of sustainable consumers as a means to advance the demand for sustainability practices by the tourism and hospitality industry. Socio-demographic and psychographic variables were tested for their influence on an individual’s self-assessment as a sustainable consumer, which was then tested for its influence on behavioral outcomes in the form of environmental and social sustainability concerns, objects of sustainability concerns, subjects considered responsible for sustainability and tourism choice vis-à-vis mass vs alternative forms of tourism.

Because of the paucity of a well-established and robust theory on the characteristics of sustainable consumers, both content analysis of the literature and quantitative analysis of survey data were used to identify the socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics of consumers. Plausible variables identified in the literature were filtered through principal component analysis and ordinary least squares regression analysis to fine-tune the variables a priori to develop a suitable model, which was subjected to partial least squares-structural equation modeling to further trim variables a posteriori by testing their reliability and validity.

Understanding who sustainable consumers are and what they are likely to believe and do is imperative for increasing sustainable practices by the industry. The study shows that people who consider themselves to be sustainable consumers are likely to have higher levels of ethical views, be more feminine and more liberal in personality, demonstrate concern with environmental and social sustainability issues, consider all pertinent parties responsible for sustainability and chose alternative forms of tourism over mass tourism. The study implies that general American consumers have the potential to buy into sustainability practices.

Despite researchers’ sporadic attempts to describe different characteristics of sustainable consumers and sustainable tourism consumers, past research has not substantiated a comprehensive description of who is a sustainable consumer in terms of socio-demographics, psychographics and behavioral characteristics. The literature on sustainable consumer characteristics is scarce and atheoretical; thus, the current study sets the stage for the development of this area of work across all sectors of the global tourism and hospitality industry. The model test results provide a clear profile of sustainable tourism consumers in socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral domains for the industry to respond to.

可持续旅游消费者：社会人口学, 心理变数, 以及行为的特征

本研究旨在揭示可持续消费者的社会人口学, 心理变数, 以及行为的特征, 并以此作为推动旅游业和款待业对可持续发展实践需求的一种手段。本研究首先测试了两个变量：社会人口学特征和心理变数特征对个人作为可持续消费者的自我评估的影响; 然后测试了其对消费者行为性后果的影响, 包括对环境和社会可持续性问题的关注, 关注的主题, 对可持续性问题责任性的关注, 以及针对大众和其他旅游形式选择的比较。

由于缺乏关于可持续消费者特征的公认理论, 本研究采用了对相关文献内容的定性分析和对调查数据的定量分析来识别消费者的社会人口学, 心理变数, 以及行为特征。在建立合适的模型之前, 研究通过采用主成分分析（PCA）和普通最小二乘法（OLS）回归分析, 首先对文献中已识别的合理变量进行过滤和调整。继而基于偏最小二乘-结构方程建模（PLS- SEM）对可靠性和有效性的测试, 来进一步确定后验变量。

了解可持续消费者的界定, 以及他们的信念和行为对于行业增加可持续性实践至关重要。该研究表明, 当人们认为自己是可持续消费者时, 他们便可能具有更高水平的道德观念, 具有更加女性化和自由的个性, 表现出对环境和社会可持续性问题的关注, 对可持续发展责任性的考虑更全面, 以及对其他旅游形式选择的偏爱。本篇研究的结果显示出普通美国消费者具有实践可持续性行为的潜力。

尽管以往的研究曾零星地尝试描述可持续消费者和可持续旅游消费者的不同特征, 但并未从社会人口学, 心理变数, 以及行为特征这几个方面去全面地界定和证明可持续消费者。文献中依然缺乏关于对可持续消费者特征更加理论性地讨论。因此, 本研究旨在为全球旅游业和款待业的各个领域对于可持续旅游的讨论和发展奠定基础。模型测试的结果也为行业提供了一个关于可持续旅游消费者的社会人口学, 心理变数, 以及行为特征的理论框架, 以供行业响应。

El consumidor de turismo sostenible: Características sociodemográficas, psicográficas, y de comportamiento

Este estudio busca revelar las características sociodemográficas, psicográficas, y de comportamiento de los consumidores responsables para promover la demanda de prácticas de sostenibilidad en la industria del turismo y la hospitalidad. Se evaluaron variables sociodemográficas y psicográficas para determinar su influencia sobre la autoevaluación de un individuo como consumidor responsable, que después se evaluó para determinar su influencia en resultados conductuales, específicamente preocupaciones de sostenibilidad medioambiental y social, objectos de preocupaciones de sostenibilidad, sujetos considerados responsables de la sostenibilidad, y la elección de turismo de masas versus turismo alternativo.

Debido a la falta de teoría robusta y bien establecida sobre las características de los consumidores responsables, un análisis de contenidos de la literatura y un análisis cuantitativo de datos obtenidos a través de una encuesta se utilizaron para identificar las características sociodemográficas, psicográficas, y de comportamiento de los consumidores. Las variables plausibles identificadas en la literatura fueron filtradas a través de un análisis de componentes principales (ACP) y un análisis de regresión por mínimos cuadrados ordinarios (MCO) para afinar a priori las variables para el desarrollo de un modelo adecuado, el cual fue evaluado utilizando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por el método de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM por sus siglas en inglés) que permitió seguir afinando las variables a posteriori por medio de la evaluación de su confiabilidad y validez.

Entender quiénes son los consumidores responsables y qué son propensos a creer y hacer es imperativo para aumentar las prácticas sostenibles en la industria. El estudio demuestra que las personas que se consideran consumidores responsables son más propensas a tener niveles más altos de opiniones éticas, a tener personalidades más femeninas y liberales, a demostrar preocupación por los problemas de sostenibilidad medioambiental y social, a considerar a todas las partes pertinentes como responsables de la sostenibilidad, y a escoger formas alternativas de turismo en vez de turismo de masas. El estudio sugiere que los consumidores americanos en general tienen el potencial de apoyar prácticas sostenibles.

A pesar de los intentos esporádicos de otros investigadores para describir las diferentes características del consumidor responsable y de los consumidores de turismo sostenible, las investigaciones anteriores no han generado una descripción completa de quién es un consumidor responsable en términos de sus características sociodemográficas, psicográficas, y de comportamiento. La literatura sobre las características del consumidor responsable es escasa y sin bases teóricas; por lo tanto, este estudio sienta las bases para el desarrollo de esta área de investigación en todos los sectores de la industria global del turismo y la hospitalidad. Los resultados de la evaluación del modelo proporcionan un perfil claro de los consumidores de turismo sostenible en los ámbitos sociodemográficos, psicográficos, y de comportamiento para que la industria responda.

Local government has a significant role to play in securing sustainable destination development. This paper aims to identify the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of municipalities in North Cyprus as they aspire to become sustainable Cittaslow tourism destinations.

A qualitative research approach was used to observe the perceptions of municipalities as they transition to become sustainable Cittaslow tourism destinations. The data have been obtained through in-depth interviews with the mayors of the municipalities that are members of the international Cittaslow network.

The results of the study show how alternative forms of tourism could help to improve the local economy. Also, the reasons for challenges and weaknesses are explained by the limited economic conditions of countries, high demand for mass tourism and lack of awareness about the importance of being a Cittaslow member.

This study reflects on the critical points in relation to the destination’s management at the local level. It also provides empirical indicators for achieving sustainable tourism development in North Cyprus.

This study contributes to the tourism literature by addressing municipalities' roles in the sustainability of tourism destinations in developing countries, more specifically in North Cyprus. A review of the literature reveals that there are very few prior studies of the role of municipalities in sustainable Cittaslow tourism.

Depending on the technological, economic and sociological developments seen in the global world, the needs of potential tourists differ, and alternative tourism activities are seen in the tourism sector, which has different dimensions. Film tourism is one of the alternative tourism activities that has become prominent in recent years, especially with the opportunities it offers to reach more audiences with the development of technology. The desire of potential tourists to see different components such as filming locations, actors and local facts of the films they watch turns into a need over time. This situation directs potential tourists' decision-making and purchasing processes for their destination preferences. This chapter aims to create a body of knowledge that will have a widespread effect on the relevant body of knowledge based on current data on alternative and film tourism. In addition, it aims to examine films' effects on destination preferences based on secondary data sources. This chapter, which is designed as conceptual research with descriptive analyses and document analysis, which is one of the qualitative research methods, is vital in terms of revealing general patterns based on new trends in film tourism, which is seen as an export element and has a significant effect on destination preference.