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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the “Sharing City, Seoul” (SCS) project in order to highlight the role that Millennials are playing in transforming the tourist market by relying on the tools of the sharing economy. The Korean project, in fact, is promoting and favoring online Millennial enterpreneurship, thus impacting also on the tourism sector.

A three-stage methodology – based on in-depth interviews with the “sharing organizations” (SOs) involved in the SCS project, participant observation, and institutional and online materials – has made it possible to comprehend how Millennials are changing the travel and tourism landscape in Seoul through disruptive innovation of the sharing economy, and to propose some broad recommendations for the tourism market.

The research, analyzing the SCS project, highlights the increasing purchasing power of Millennials, confirming the importance of adopting a generational perspective to understand needs and tendencies of this generation and orient the tourist market. The SOs interviewed for the research, mainly founded and managed by Millennials, demonstrated to know how to recognize, intercept and satisfy the styles, personalities and requests of tourists, especially Millennials. Thus, Millennials are able to enter in the market not only as users and travelers, but also as entrepreneurs and creators of new online travel services.

A further analysis should include interviews also with the funders and staff members of the other sharing enterprises that operate in the tourism sector. Moreover, a map of the current state of the sharing enterprises is suggested in order to determine whether or not the number of enterprises with a tourism vocation involved in the project is growing and under which conditions. This map would also be helpful to frame new tendencies in the sharing tourism industry and to monitor the role of Millennials in the market. It would be helpful to compare the Korean case with that of other Asian countries.

Through the analysis of the Korean case, the research shows that Millennials are massive users of traveler sharing platforms. At the same time they are able to enter the tourist market not only as users and travelers but also as entrepreneurs and creators of new online travel services. The paper offers some broad indications to help in orienting the future tourism market so that it takes account of the growing presence and purchasing power of Millennials.

This paper aims to examine critically the literature on transformational tourism and explore a research agenda for a post-COVID future.

A systematic review of the transformational tourism literature is performed over a 42-year period from 1978 to 2020.

Further research is required in terms of how transformative experiences should be calibrated and measured both in qualitative and quantitative terms, particularly from the perspective of how tourists are transformed by their experiences. Similarly, the nature and depth of these transformative processes remain poorly understood, particularly given the many different types of tourism associated with transformative experiences, which range from religious pilgrimages to backpacking and include several forms of ecotourism.

Future research directions for transformational tourism are discussed with regard to how COVID-19 will transform the dynamics of tourism and travel, including the role of new smart technologies in the creation of enhanced transformational experiences, and the changing expectations and perceptions of transformative travel in the post-COVID era. In addition, the researchers call for future studies on transformational tourism to explore the role of host communities in the delivery of meaningful visitor experiences.

Transformational tourism is an emerging body of research, which has attracted a growing level of interest among tourism scholars in recent years. However, to this date, a systematic review of published literature in this field has not been conducted yet in a holistic sense. This paper offers a framework for future research in this field.

How prevalent is COVID-19 in Southeast Asia (SEA), and when will the region open its doors to foreign visitors? Following more than a year of global travel restrictions, these are the major concerns of potential visitors. The article examines border relations in SEA in the face of border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2020, the region had been successful in sustaining low COVID-19 rates. This began to change with the emergence of the delta strain, which forced numerous countries in the region to deal with large outbreaks. For this paper, we relied heavily on secondary data, including the most recent relevant literature and credible and reliable publications from reputable organizations, to ensure the data sources' validity, reliability, and quality.

Different countries have responded to the pandemic with distinct domestic and international travel restrictions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stringency of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) countermeasures in Japan against their G20 cohorts. Primary data were monitored at a ski resort in Kyushu regarding the social acceptance of initial COVID-19 countermeasures, ranging from hygiene and local “lockdowns” to border control measures.

The stringency of the COVID-19 countermeasures was examined using data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) and triangulated with the early stage social acceptance of survey respondents in Aso Kuju National Park in February 2020 that consisted of 165 valid Japanese language questionnaires.

An one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) identified significant differences in social acceptance for countermeasures, with more-concerned respondents agreeing more strongly with “low-tech” health protocols, such as washing hands (M = 3.7) or wearing a mask (3.4). More concerned visitors were significantly more likely to modify their travel plans (2.9) or cancel their trip altogether (2.7). Male day trippers were less likely to be concerned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper's originality is derived from a triangulation of the stringency of Japan's initial COVID-19 countermeasures via a combination of comparison with G20 cohorts and social acceptance of domestic snowboarders and skiers. Moreover, by shining a light on the trade-off between public health and human rights, the paper provides a current review of the ethical dimension of a travel restriction debate that is often overlooked in the ongoing pandemic.

This study is an attempt to apply the techniques of semiotics in conjunction with quantitative analysis to decode and interpret an advertisement which promotes the South Australian Barossa Valley as a tourist destination.

A survey was submitted to a Southeast Asian student and postgraduate sample. Regression analysis and qualitative analysis were carried out, which suggested that the advertisement was engaging the majority of the audience.

Most respondents expressed a desire to visit the location and used language which was evocative and connective. Those who did not or who were turned off by the advertisement's content expressed themselves in language which terminated further engagement.

The sample was a non-target group, but this is an advantage because it provides a base level of unconditioned response.

A better understanding of semiotics may reinforce other areas of marketing endeavour such as social marketing approaches which are gaining more importance in the still developing COVID-19 economy. This methodology can be extended to other marketing communication contexts.

Once campaigns have been aimed at target audiences, there may be potential to orientate another campaign at non-target audiences using the same advertisement. In terms of global marketing, this is extension rather than adaptation.

This study provides an example of how marketing could use semiotics in conjunction with quantitative methods to determine an audience's response and the intention to purchase a product or service.