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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics on their perception of destination personality and emotional experience on the example of the city break tourism destination.

To examine this relationship, survey research was conducted on a sample of 203 national and international tourists who visited Novi Sad, the second-largest city in Serbia.

Research results confirmed the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in shaping their emotional experience and destination personality perception. The findings pointed out significant divergences in the perception of emotional experience in the case of respondents’ education level, previous visits to the city and travel companion. On the other hand, the analysis showed that repeat visitors significantly differed from first-time visitors regarding destination personality perception. In addition, differences in both destination personality and emotional experience assessment were found between national and international city break travelers.

The current study is first to focus on the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in simultaneous modeling of their perception of destination personality and emotional experience within the city break destination context. Besides, results revealed some new influencing factors of both destination personality and emotional experience perception, thus contributing to the existing tourism literature. In addition, this paper offers useful practical implications for city break marketers to adapt promotional activities, more effectively present the desired brand personality of the city to different sociodemographic categories of tourists and sustain repeat tourists’ perception of Positive surprise.

Smart tourism is a destination management approach that requires the buy-in of a myriad of stakeholders. Its many audiences and complexity demand the creation of meaningful brands to effectively position and communicate smart tourism initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how smart tourism branding strategies have been implemented to communicate relevant values, benefits and attributes to industry stakeholders through institutional websites.

Based on a semiotic analysis of two smart tourism-related sites (destinosinteligentes.es and smarttourismcapital.eu), the research interprets the brand-related visual and verbal signs.

The findings highlight how brand elements embedded in websites communicate a brand identity and facilitate particular interpretations of smart tourism. Both brands use similar signs to promote a techtopian vision of smart destinations but employ different strategies to motivate stakeholder buy-in.

Smart tourism is currently largely embedded in overall smart city initiatives and finding tourism-specific examples online is difficult. However, the two selected websites reflect the brands of multiple destinations and permit a detailed analysis of meaning making. Future research can focus on how brand-related signs are perceived by different stakeholders.

Identifying the strategies and shortcomings of current smart tourism brands informs future smart tourism branding efforts and effective communication with smart tourism stakeholders.

Semiotics is a relevant but underutilized method to understand how smart tourism initiatives conceptualize “smartness.”

Image has been found to be one of the important influences in the selection of consumers' choice for visiting and investing in a destination leading to sustainable development. Important determinants of tourism namely, knowledge of destination attractions and image association were employed in this research based on previous studies in a number of fields. The research reported in this paper presents the results of an empirical test of the determinants related to tourism using Liverpool as a case study because of its selection as the European Capital of Culture (CoC) for 2008. European Capital of Culture scheme has among its many objectives the idea of sustainable development for the chosen CoC. Combination of data collection methods was used for the research. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on destination image association by providing empirical evidence through the case study or Liverpool as well as how consumers relate to a destination and especially a CoC. One of the major findings of the study was the identification of image association clusters with regard to Liverpool as a CoC. We brand this clusters as the ‘tangible attractions cluster’ and ‘intangible attractions cluster’. The results of this research provide important implications for strategic image management and can aid in designing and implementing sustainable marketing programs for creating and enhancing tourism destination images.

The purpose of this paper is to examine urban destination marketing from a mainly practitioner standpoint, though one of its principal observations is the gap between theory and practice; while the former is premised on related notions of difference and competitive advantage, in practice the greater part of urban destination marketing eschews competitive advantage, resulting in a pervasive marketing of “sameness”.

The paper is in three parts. The first set out the urban tourism context in respect of historical, market, supply, impact and definitional/measurement dimensions. Part two profiles the bespoke delivery mechanisms established for urban destination marketing, examining nomenclature, core purpose/mission, status, size and finances, as well as overhead and operating parameters.

The final section comprises a state-of-the-art review, setting out a five variable model of purposeful urban destination marketing, concluding that “good” in urban destination marketing is atypical and currently in Europe is confined to only a handful of European cities.

This paper is intended to give the reader a better understanding of why, in such an important field of human endeavour, success is so problematic. It hopefully gives pointers to practitioners and academics as to how best in future there can be more winners and fewer losers, so that increasing numbers of towns and cities maximise the impact locally of the world's largest industry and at the same time become “known”.

The purpose of this research was to explore residents' perceptions of special event tourism at a destination. Specifically, the research examined residents' perceptions of the social, economic and environmental impacts of special event tourism on the destination. The study also examined dimensions of community life that were impacted or curtailed as a result of event tourism.

Data were collected by means of a telephone survey. The survey solicited residents' perceptions of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of special event tourism. The study was exploratory and followed a descriptive design.

Residents are generally in favor of events that contribute socially and economically to the destination. They are, however, not ambivalent to some of the negative impacts, but are willing to cope with these negative impacts as long as the perceived benefits exceed the negative impacts.

Although the sample was adequate for statistical analysis, a larger sample size would yield more generalizable results. Consequently, caution should be used in making generalizations based on this study.

The constant question faced by destination managers and tourism development authorities is how to plan for optimal tourism development, while at the same time minimize the impact of this development on the resident population. One approach is to monitor residents' opinions of perceived impacts as a means of incorporating community reaction into tourism planning and development. Hence, this study proposes an all inclusive community‐centric approach to event tourism policy making rather than a top‐down approach.

Both practitioners and educators will benefit from the results of this study as it provides insight into a destination's residents' perceptions of special event tourism. This topic has received little attention in the past.

The positioning of a tourism destination can easily change due to external uncontrolled factors, such as a pandemic. In this scene, the purpose of this study can be summerized in two main points: to investigate the main topics associated with a religious tourism destination (Vatican City) before and from the pandemic crisis, and to identify potential topics that could be highlighted to reposition this tourism destination more favorably.

The information was extracted from Trip Advisor, specifically from the web Vatican City (7,152 reviews). This information was analyzed using text mining software applied to English text data.

The results show that the image of Vatican City has evolved, from a larger cultural, artistic and historical destination to a destination with a strong religious orientation, probably due to the growing influence of tourists and pilgrims in search of spiritual consolation in a global health crisis. New comments have emerged in the pandemic on topics such as Pope, Catholicism and love.

The authors recommend repositioning this tourism destination under what they have dubbed the umbrella of the three “Rs”: religion, renaissance and relaxation. Also, two outstanding attractions are frequently mentioned by tourists in this more spiritual scenario: Saint Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel.

Studies about religious tourism are scarce, and those considering an urban city as a key religious tourism destination even more.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new perspective on urban tourist motivations by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to help to understand how tourists make decisions about which destinations to visit.

This study was based on 30 one-hour-long structured interviews with visitors to Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. Respondents were asked to express their preferences between different pull-factor motives for their visit, using Saaty’s scale, and further qualitative data were collected to examine these preferences in more depth.

The results of this study indicate that the most relevant criteria and thus predominant factors in motivation for visits to Ljubljana are the Cultural and Nightlife pull factors, while religious and business motives are the lowest ranked factors. The paper argues that the results show the value of applying the AHP model to understand the role of pull factors in urban tourism destination choice.

As a single-destination case study, it is important that the findings of this research are evaluated against similar studies in other cities. A limitation of this research is the fact that sub motives within major groups of pull-factor motives have not been explored in this study and this should be the subject of future, more detailed research.

This research shows the value of applying an under-used methodology to understand urban tourist motivations and knowledge gained through applying this method will be of value to destination marketing organisations as well as to researchers conducting future studies.

The research analyses the spatial-temporal behaviour of international visitors using mobile positioning data (MPD) in three second-tier cities in Hungary: Szeged, Debrecen and Pécs. The purpose of this study is to identify the origins of visitors, length of stay, seasonal concentrations and mobility between cities.

A large volume of data generated by foreign mobile phone users was processed and analysed for six consecutive months in 2018. The movements of around 3.5 million foreigners visiting Hungary were captured.

The data showed significant differences in tourist turnover, mobility patterns and flows indicating different levels of tourism activity and potential in the three cities. This included day trips, cross-border tourism, seasonal fluctuations and activity-driven demand (e.g. special events and cultural tourism).

MPD cannot fully explain or predict drivers of visitor behaviour, such as purpose of visit, the precise activities that they undertake there and the experiences that they gain. It can, however, provide information on spatial and temporal flows, patterns and concentrations of visitors.

The investigated cities should follow distinct tourism development policies to attract more tourists and strengthen the links with their neighbouring destinations at the same time as differentiating themselves through marketing as competitive alternative destinations.

Augmenting tourism has socio-economic implications for residents and communities. The development of cultural tourism and local event-based tourism must incorporate community needs.

The paper analyses the extent to which MPD can provide insights into visitors’ spatio-temporal mobility and flows in relatively under-visited second-tier cities and it highlights opportunities and gaps for big data research in an urban context.

The purpose of this study is to provide a series of indicators to determine the limits to urban tourism growth, tourism gentrification and overtourism. The study addresses overtourism within the frame of urban liveability through a proxy analysis of tourism-relevant indicators for major European tourist cities.

Based on the various indicators, a composite overtourism indicator is derived. The following dimensions are considered for the composite indicator: total number of overnight stays per relevant tourist area in km²; number of museum visitors per population; average annual change in total nights between 2009 and 2017; and foreign nights per population.

Based on the results, Venice is the city with the highest degree of overtourism, followed by Florence, Seville and Lisbon. The remaining cities have a lower than average overtourism potential as indicated by the negative z-score.

This study and the composite overtourism indicators are only a starting point that can lead to further research in the field. Recommendations for further studies include the assessment of visitor flow and overtourism at different times of the year and to expand the study to other European urban destinations.

The paper suggests that policymakers should use these indicators when managing urban tourism development and monitoring visitor growth. Furthermore, they can be a starting point from which to assess the impact of tourism on the quality of life of local residents.

This study provides a starting point from which to assess the causes for social unrest tied to overtourism. If the city under study is found to have a lower than average overtourism potential, this indicates that there may be other social or psychological issues at play apart from sheer overcrowding.

To date, there has been no composite indicator that considered the different numerical aspects of overtourism altogether. This study provides a set of key indicators and a composite overtourism indicator to provide a preliminary appraisal of overtourism as a demand-side phenomenon with evidence from a range of established European urban destinations.