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This paper investigates the usage and trust of Chinese social media in the travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip) of Chinese tourists.

Through a combination of structured online survey (n = 406) and follow-up interviews, the research identifies the diversification of the demand-and-supply patterns of social media users in China, as well as the allocation of functions of social media as tools before, during and after travel.

Social media users are diverse in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour and scope; the levels of trust and influence; and their ultimate travel decisions and actions. Correlations between the level of trust, influence of social media and the intended changes in travel decisions are observed. Destination marketers and tourism industries should observe and adapt to the needs of social media users and potential tourist markets by understanding more about user segmentation between platforms or apps and conducting marketing campaigns on social media platforms to attract a higher number of visitors.

This paper demonstrated the case of social media usage in mainland China, which has been regarded as one of the fastest growing and influential tourist-generating markets and social media expansions in the world. This study further addressed the knowledge gap by correlating social media usage and travel planning process of Chinese tourists. The research findings suggested diversification of the demand-and-supply pattern of social media users in China, as well as the use of social media as tools before, during and after travel. Users were diversified in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour, scope, the levels of trust, influence and the ultimate travel decisions.

Destination marketing organizations should note that some overseas social media platforms that are not accessible in China like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram are still valued by some Chinese tourists, especially during-trip period in journeys to Western countries. Some tactics for specific user segments should be carefully observed. When promoting specific tourism products to Chinese tourists, it is necessary to understand the user segmentation between platforms or apps.

Social media is a powerful tool for tourism development and sustainability in creating smart tourists and destinations worldwide. In China, the use of social media has stimulated the development of both information and communication technology and tourism.

Understanding tourist experiences with virtual reality (VR) products is essential for firms using VR for tourism marketing, particularly in developing countries where customers do not have access to personal VR devices or gadgets. This study aims to provide insights into technology usage for tourism marketing India, which is a developing country. It explores 360° virtual tours as an upcoming strategy for tourism promotion by analysing tourists’ perspectives through a qualitative approach.

360° YouTube video launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was shown to the participants as a marketing stimulus, followed by questions to understand tourists’ experiences and intentions. Responses were collected from 45 tourists who visited popular tourist destinations such as Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala districts of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The findings of the study indicate that several crucial elements play a pivotal role in creating the 360° VR experience. Based on interviews, it was found that 360° video experiences assist in visualising a destination through imaginative exploration, generating curiosity about the destination, forming a favourable image of the destination and facilitates ease of experience. A few participants mentioned experiencing discomforts, such as motion sickness and eye strain, while viewing 360° videos. Moreover, tourists provided valuable insights into various factors, including how 360° videos elicit arousal through entertainment and excitement, develop immersion and engagement in the virtual environment (VE), aid in assessing destination suitability, offers advantage over other media, serves as a substitutes for travel during constraints, generates assurance and influences intentions. These factors have emerged as significant considerations influencing their willingness to adopt such technology in the future.

In the contemporary market landscape, 360° VR technology is anticipated to enhance the experiential elements within VEs. While existing research has focused on the technical attributes of VR, there remains a crucial gap pertaining to the experiential and destination-related elements and their influence on usage, travel planning and intentions. Therefore, this study provides deeper insights into the unexplored concepts and dimensions of the virtual tourism experience, particularly concerning interaction with 360° videos. The study contributes novel insights to the existing body of tourism literature and provides practical implications for enhancing 360° virtual tour experiences.

This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship among urban tourism, sustainability and the contributions of natural environments to the quality of life and convivial atmospheres in urban destinations. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive synthesis of existing knowledge, exploring the nuances of how natural environments impact the well-being of diverse demographic groups, both locals and visitors.

The study systematically reviews the literature using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) technique and uses the Scopus database. The search strategy incorporates key terms related to urban tourism, sustainability, quality of life and natural environments.

The findings of the systematic literature review provide insights into the current landscape of urban tourism, sustainability and the role of natural environments. The paper synthesizes existing knowledge, identifying trends, challenges and opportunities in leveraging natural environments for sustainable urban tourism.

Despite offering a thorough synthesis, this study has certain limitations. The scope is limited to articles published in English and available in the Scopus database, following the PRISMA guidelines. The implications of this research are significant, informing future studies and guiding urban tourism planning and policy development.

This research contributes to the existing literature by unraveling complexities in the interplay between natural environments, quality of life and convivial atmospheres in urban tourism. The emphasis on cross-cultural perspectives and the post-COVID-19 era adds originality, providing insights that can guide future research and practical applications in the field.

Nowadays, the tourism industry is considered the largest and most diverse industry in the world, which can play a significant role in the economic growth and development of a country as the main source of income and employment. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to focus on evaluating the competitiveness indicators of Shiraz city tourism destination based on a combined model.

For this purpose, a questionnaire with 78 questions was used to evaluate the indicators, in which a total of 1,432 tourists participated, including 927 domestic tourists and 505 international tourists. The collected data were analyzed to determine the hierarchical relationship between the indicators using equation structural modeling.

The research findings indicate that the most effective and influential indicators in the field of tourism competitiveness are natural and handmade resources, and the most influential factors are demand conditions and cultural and natural resources. In this hierarchy, each factor affects its previous level and influences the next level.

This study offers significant potential for uncovering credible and robust approaches to further investigate the contextualization of tourism competitiveness on both national and international scales, thereby generating valuable new insights. By conceptualizing the diverse dimensions of tourism competitiveness and delving into the variations in its impacts across multiple levels, this research not only challenges existing notions but also aids destinations in maintaining and enhancing their market position and share over time. This study offers valuable insights and practical implications for both researchers and practitioners in the field of urban tourism. It enhances the understanding of destination competitiveness, informs policy decisions, facilitates benchmarking and best practices, guides strategic decision-making and promotes sustainable tourism development.

This paper aims to systematically review the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the tourism industry. By integrating human–computer interaction, machine learning, big data and other relevant technologies, the study establishes a comprehensive research framework that explores the systematic connections between AI and various facets of tourism.

This paper conducts a keyword co-occurrence analysis of 4,048 articles related to AI in tourism. The analysis identifies and classifies dominant topics, which are further refined through thematic literature review and manual coding for detailed discussion.

The analysis reveals five main topics: AI’s impact on tourist experience, AI in tourism marketing and prediction, AI in destination management, AI’s role in tourism enterprises and AI integration in strategic and regulatory framework. Each topic is reviewed to construct an integrated discussion that maps the current landscape and suggests directions for future research.

This paper transcends the fragmented discourse commonly found in the literature by establishing a unified framework that not only enhances understanding of the existing methodologies, theories and applications of AI in tourism but also identifies critical areas for breakthroughs, aiming to inspire a more humane and sustainable integration of AI in the tourism industry.

本文旨在系统回顾人工智能（AI）在旅游业中的应用。通过整合人机交互、机器学习、大数据和其他相关技术, 本研究建立了一个全面的研究框架, 探索人工智能与旅游业各方面之间的系统联系。

本文对4048篇与旅游业人工智能相关的文章进行了关键词共现分析。分析确定了主要议题并对其进行了分类, 然后通过主题文献梳理和手动编码对其进行了进一步完善, 以便进行详细讨论。

分析揭示了五个主要主题：人工智能与旅游体验、人工智能与旅游营销和预测、人工智能与目的地管理、人工智能与旅游企业, 以及人工智能在战略和监管框架中的整合。每个主题都进行了回顾, 以构建一个综合讨论, 勾勒出当前的研究格局, 并提出了未来的研究方向。

研究力图突破目前关于旅游与人工智能的碎片化讨论, 建立了一个统一的框架, 旨在加强对旅游业中人工智能现有方法、理论和应用的理解, 还点明了需要突破的关键领域, 以助力旅游业与人工智能共同创造更加人性化和可持续发展的前景。

Este artículo pretende revisar sistemáticamente la aplicación de la inteligencia artificial (IA) en el sector turístico. Mediante la integración de la interacción humano-ordenador, el aprendizaje automático, big data y otras tecnologías relevantes, el estudio establece un marco de investigación exhaustivo que explora las conexiones sistemáticas entre la IA y diversas facetas del turismo.

Este trabajo realiza un análisis de co-ocurrencia de palabras clave de 4.048 artículos relacionados con la IA en el turismo. El análisis identifica y clasifica los temas dominantes, sobre los que se profundiza mediante una revisión temática de la literatura y una codificación manual para su discusión detallada.

El análisis presenta cinco temas principales: El impacto de la IA en la experiencia turística, la IA en el marketing y la predicción turística, la IA en la gestión de destinos, el papel de la IA en las empresas turísticas y la integración de la IA en el marco estratégico y normativo. Cada tema se revisa para construir un debate integrado que trace el panorama actual y sugiera direcciones para futuras investigaciones.

Este artículo expande el análisis fragmentado que suele encontrarse en la bibliografía al establecer un marco unificado que no sólo mejora la comprensión de las metodologías, teorías y aplicaciones existentes de la IA en el turismo, sino que también identifica las áreas críticas para los avances, con el objetivo de inspirar una integración más humana y sostenible de la IA en la industria turística.

This study aims to examine the factors of the vegan lifestyle on the travel experience. Special emphasis was placed on difficulties during travel and influencing factors for destination choice.

The vegan lifestyle has emerged as a growing market. The dietary reference is well-known, but the impact of the vegan lifestyle on tourism has received less attention. Earlier researchers have cited motivations of ethics, the environment and health as key. An online survey was conducted within the target group of vegans to provide more understanding of vegan tourism.

A few participants stated that they refused to visit countries due to too high meat consumption or due to long flight distances. Nature was named as the most decisive factor for choosing a travel destination among the respondents. Problems that might arise were mainly the general lack of awareness about veganism, as well as the confusion between vegetarianism and veganism in the destinations. Most respondents indicated that these problems were generally prepared for during the pre-planning process.

Research on vegan tourism is a relatively unexplored niche topic, the study used related topics adapted to a vegan tourism context.

Enhanced education about veganism among tourism service providers would be desirable to counteract such problems in the future and make the travel experience more carefree for vegans.

There has been little research in the field of vegan tourism, thus, this study provides valuable information on the needs and challenges of this growing market.

Image change through visit experience with a destination is a common assumption, yet with rare empirical support to date. Thus, this study treats destination image as an interactive system of cognitive and affective components that are dynamic and changing through the course of an experience with a destination.

This longitudinal study tracks the change in images of 162 European visitors to the Gran Canaria Island one month before a two-week trip, on the last day of the trip, one month after the trip, and one year after the trip. A one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc tests was conducted to evaluate the change in visitors’ cognitive, affective, or holistic images of Gran Canaria Island.

The Gran Canaria Island’s one-month post-visit image was more positive than the pre-visit image reflecting an improvement because of visitation. However, this improvement did not last long since the one-year post-visit image was not as positive as the one-month post-visit image. Surprisingly though, principle component analysis revealed more factors with more image items in the pre-visit image, whereas post-visit image factors were fewer in numbers and more generic, reflecting a reduction of details in the image after the visit.

This study is one of the very few efforts that contribute empirical evidence for the role of visitation in destination image evolution. It focuses on the pre and post-visit changes in the cognitive image and pre-, during, and post-visit changes in affective and overall images of a tourist destination in Europe.

This research aims to investigate how emerging destinations cope with digitalization of information, where they are in the process and how digitalization of information takes place in destination marketing organizations (DMOs). As a case for emerging destinations that must deal with the negative consequences of the digital divide, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) will be examined. A new framework, solutions in general, and potential innovative approaches will be presented.

A mixed methods approach was used. Firstly, a content analysis comprising 68 criteria to examine 10 destination websites was conducted to evaluate the performance of provincial destination websites of VMD. Secondly, the authors interviewed five managers from VMD DMOs to reveal the strategy, status quo and their challenges with digitalization.

Some digitalization is evident in VMD DMOs, with the digitization of tourist information provision developing from analog formats to digital modes. The content analysis of the websites shows that provincial destination websites of VMD perform well with regard to communication but need improvements for transaction, and especially relationship aspects. Emerging destinations like VMD DMOs are reaching the second or third level in the digitalization process. Yet they face challenges with human and financial resources.

This research provides recommendations concerning destination website performance, the process of digitalization and how to promote digitalization and apply more digital instruments to move to the next stages of destination digitalization. Also, suggestions on how to overcome existing challenges/barriers in similar areas of the world are provided.

A new, extended more granulated version of the digitalization framework by Karpova et al. (2019) has been developed. The new model acknowledges the continued importance of printed information, provides information about the sequence of steps how to implement website dimensions, and which instruments are realistic to implement in different levels of digitalization considering the challenges and barriers developing destinations face.

Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this paper seeks to identify autonomous motivations driving nostalgia-related cultural tourism among visitors to satisfy their craving to revisit Luxor and re-root their identities. This paper looked at the nexus of destination image and past experience, as well as nostalgic visitors' revisit intention and actual behavior toward Luxor.

Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to quantitatively analyze 354 responses from Luxor's visitors, and 17 interview transcripts were narrated using MAXQDA software.

Autonomous motivations influenced revisit intentions significantly, and revisit intentions acted as a strong mediator between actual visit behavior and autonomous motivations.

Destination marketers need to create nostalgic emotional bonds with people and destinations by planning cultural events that leave visitors with unforgettable memories of these particular moments. They also need to focus more on promotional strategies, develop messages with words that have emotional meaning and highlight crucial characteristics that tourists can quickly identify when visiting a destination.

Cultural tourism has emerged as a dominant niche sector worldwide; nevertheless, nostalgia-related cultural tourism has received less attention. As a result, the primary purpose of this paper is to provide a methodological framework for nostalgia tourism promotion in Luxor, Egypt. Luxor was chosen and has been an excellent subject for this paper, which can further evoke a sense of nostalgia. Hence, this paper prioritizes cultural site preservation and promotion.

This research aims at arriving at a broad scope of the lessons learnt after two years of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak by analysing the catalyst and inhibiting factors within three aspects of the tourism sector: destination crisis management, tourist behaviour and tourism industry trends.

The methodology of this paper involves semi-structured interviews with high-ranking European travel agents as the agents represent the intermediates between the tourism offer and demand.

Data obtained from travel agents disclosed the factors that catalysed and inhibited the destination, the behaviour of tourists and the tourism industry trends. By contrasting data with previous literature, constructing an overview of the positive and negative outcomes of the pandemic in the tourism sector is possible.

Governments, destination marketing and management organisations and tourism and hospitality organisations could learn from the lessons of COVID-19 outbreak to cope better with future disruptive events affecting the tourism industry.

The paper is novel as it is the first overview that attempts to synthesise the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the tourism sector by analysing tourism sector's three dimensions: the destination, the tourists and the industry.