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This chapter presents a research paper with empirical investigation on tourism experiences specific to heritage attractions. It analyses the five principles of experience economy within the context of heritage attractions. The study aims to find out if heritage attractions are using the principles of experience economy to provide a fulfilling experience for visitors. The principles of the experience economy are having consistent theme, using positive cues, eliminating negative cues, offering memorabilia, and engaging the five senses.

The survey method was used to collect data from three separate heritage attractions in Jamaica. Frequency distribution was used to determine the observations in the sample.

Results of the study reveal that majority of visitors either agree or strongly agree that many of the elements comprising the principles of experience economy are in place. One similar drawback among the attractions is that they all use visual and aural messages which can distract or contradict the theme and consequently visitors’ experience.

A limitation of the study is that it did not take into consideration the relationship between visitors’ experience and their expectations as well as visitor satisfaction.

This study will inform management of heritage attractions of the importance of having implementing the principles of experience economy so as to provide a fulfilling experience for visitors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the service quality of Macao's World Heritage (WH) site as perceived by visitors involving both tourists and local residents.

The empirical data was collected via structured questionnaires to obtain views of 1,056 visitors on the 27 world heritage attractions in Macao.

The overall visitor satisfaction level on the service quality of Macao's WH was high but dimensions on “empathy” and “consumables” needed improvements. Significant differences were also found between the tourists and local residents. Tourists rated the level of crowding as more tolerable than local residents but less tolerable in terms of staff availability at attractions. Residents had a relatively low satisfaction score for most items except the availability of staff than the tourists.

To attract more repeated visitors, the results highlighted the importance of satisfying both groups of visitors by taking special care of the needy and children and offering more on‐site information. Managing well with the city's tourism carrying capacity and providing more staff service were also suggested to satisfy the local and tourist markets respectively.

Studies on service quality in heritage especially within the Macao context were scarce. This pioneering study shed light on the service quality of Macao's WH site and provided hints on the differences in the perceived service quality between the tourists and local residents. More specific government efforts can be exerted to satisfy the two niche markets in a more effective manner.

This paper aims to examine the attractiveness of the Tong Ren Tang (TRT) as a Chinese corporate heritage tourism brand and consider the significance of TRT for Chinese national identity. The study considers the saliency of Balmer’s augmented role identity notion vis-à-vis corporate heritage institutions/corporate brands. Insights are made from and for corporate heritage, heritage tourism and national identity literature.

A conceptual model comprising five hypotheses was developed and this informed a survey-based questionnaire administered to domestic tourists/customers visiting Tong Ren Tang’s flagship shop in Beijing.

The attractiveness to domestic Chinese tourists/customers of the TRT corporate heritage tourism brand was found to be attributable to its multiple role identities: national, corporate, temporal, familial and imperial. As such, this study lends credence to Balmer’s augmented role identity notion. Chinese domestic tourists/customers – as members of an ethnic Chinese community – in visiting TRT not only consume an extant corporate heritage by tangible and intangible means but can also be seen to express, and reaffirm, their sense of Chinese national identity.

For TRT’s managers, there should be an appreciation that the attractiveness of TRT as a corporate heritage tourism brand rests not only on what it sells but also in what it symbolises in national and cultural terms. This finding is applicable to the managers of many other corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brands.

Adopting a primordial perspective, the TRT pharmacy was found to be of singular significance to China’s national identity. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Confucian and Daoist religious/philosophical and China’s erstwhile Imperial polity are significant and enduring precepts of Chinese national identity. As such the TRT flagship shop/brand is of singular importance, as China has eviscerated much of its cultural heritage – particularly in relation to its corporate heritage brands.

This is the first empirical study to focus on corporate heritage tourism brands and one of the first studies to examine a Chinese corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brand. Also significant in focussing on the TRT corporate heritage brand. Established in 1669, TRT’s history spans five centuries: a corporate provenance which is exceptional within the People’s Republic of China. The study links the corporate brand notion with the nascent corporate heritage brand domain and the established area of heritage tourism.

The purpose of this study is to explore the hedonic experience and its formation at heritage attractions.

A qualitative and exploratory approach was applied, using data from 21 semi-structured interviews and three in-situ focus groups.

Findings highlight that senses, imagery and emotions are stimulated by the physical landscape and by triggers of memorable experiences.

To further explore this topic, a broader range of heritage attractions and perspectives from the diverse stakeholders involved in the management and consumption of these sites is needed.

Given the scarcity of research dedicated to the hedonic experience at heritage sites, this study provides a contribution by exploring the visitor’s perspective and points out relevant insights. As the hedonic feelings of pleasure, comfort and related affective responses impact the quality of memorable experiences, relevant implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to offer advice to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government regarding the tourist and traffic flow concerning how these contribute to congestion in World Heritage Site (WHS) elements and make recommendations regarding the management of tourist flows and traffic congestion.

The research undertaken in this study is partially longitudinal. The case study is also partially ethnographic in that tourist behaviour at key sites has been observed. Concerning the specific methodology applied, data collection techniques are chosen to provide a multiplicity of data sources: on-site observation and semi-structured telephone interviews.

The study is found that Macao was at a crossroad. All stakeholders needed to take some responsibility for implementing actions recommended that would ensure that Macao SAR’s World Heritage assets would be used responsibly for future, as well as for present generations.

The study has shown that better and long-term understanding of congestion is necessary to inform better visitor management decision-making, enhance tourist experience and discover the factors that influence visitor satisfaction. It is also needed to reveal aspects of stakeholder readiness and barriers to action.

Towns and cities across Canada face rapidly changing economic circumstances and many are turning to a variety of strategies, including tourism, to provide stability in their communities. Community Economic Development (CED) has become an accepted form of economic development, with recognition that such planning benefits from a more holistic approach and community participation. However, much of why particular strategies are chosen, what process the community undertakes to implement those choices and how success is measured is not fully understood. Furthermore, CED lacks a developed theoretical basis from which to examine these questions. By investigating communities that have chosen to develop their tourism potential through the use of murals, these various themes can be explored. There are three purposes to this research: (1) to acquire an understanding of the “how” and the “why” behind the adoption and diffusion of mural-based tourism as a CED strategy in rural communities; (2) to contribute to the emerging theory of CED by linking together theories of rural geography, rural change and sustainability, and rural tourism; and (3) to contribute to the development of a framework for evaluating the potential and success of tourism development within a CED process.

Two levels of data collection and analysis were employed in this research. Initially, a survey of Canadian provincial tourism guides was conducted to determine the number of communities in Canada that market themselves as having a mural-based tourism attraction (N=32). A survey was sent to these communities, resulting in 31 responses suitable for descriptive statistical analysis, using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A case study analysis of the 6 Saskatchewan communities was conducted through in-depth, in person interviews with 40 participants. These interviews were subsequently analyzed utilizing a combined Grounded Theory (GT) and Content Analysis approach.

The surveys indicated that mural development spread within a relatively short time period across Canada from Chemainus, British Columbia. Although tourism is often the reason behind mural development, increasing community spirit and beautification were also cited. This research demonstrates that the reasons this choice is made and the successful outcome of that choice is often dependent upon factors related to community size, proximity to larger populations and the economic (re)stability of existing industry. Analysis also determined that theories of institutional thickness, governance, embeddedness and conceptualizations of leadership provide a body of literature that offers an opportunity to theorize the process and outcomes of CED in rural places while at the same time aiding our understanding of the relationship between tourism and its possible contribution to rural sustainability within a Canadian context. Finally, this research revealed that both the CED process undertaken and the measurement of success are dependent upon the desired outcomes of mural development. Furthermore, particular attributes of rural places play a critical role in how CED is understood, defined and carried out, and how successes, both tangible and intangible, are measured.

This study aimed to explore how the attributes of heritage destinations become constraints on tourists' intention to revisit these destinations and to provide stakeholders with strategies to mitigate travel constraints, thereby increasing tourists' revisit intention.

A quantitative research approach was used, and data collection utilised a convenience sampling method. A total of 1,250 tourists completed self-administered, on-site surveys. To analyse the collected data effectively and to test hypotheses, multilevel analysis models were created.

Heritage-destination attributes are found to mediate the impact of perceived constraints on tourists' intention to revisit heritage destinations. Positive perceptions of heritage and cultural attractions among tourists can mitigate the adverse effects of constraints on their intentions.

This study only focused on examining the downward cross-level impact, i.e. from the macro level to the individual level. This could be beneficial for exploring an upward cross-level impact.

The findings provide strategic guidance for marketing programs to enhance the reputation of heritage destinations. By identifying and establishing attributes specific to heritage destinations that visitors perceive as the most appealing, program designers can effectively target their efforts. Additionally, the findings help stakeholders of heritage destinations develop and provide suitable heritage and cultural attractions and tourism infrastructure in line with tourists' preferences.

This study employed a multilevel approach to examine how heritage-destination attributes and related constraints on travelling on impact individuals' intentions to revisit destinations. The study considered a macro-based perspective to analyse these effects.

The purpose of this paper is to identify young cultural visitors’ perceptions towards culture and cultural heritage destinations.

This study, based on a survey conducted in the archaeological site of Delphi in Greece, examines young cultural visitors’ perceptions by identifying their perceived importance for a series of destination attributes.

Findings reveal the important characteristics of cultural heritage sites for young travelers. Emphasis needs to be given on the following four influential factors of a cultural heritage site: organization and facilities, learning and experience, operation and accessibility, and place and promotion.

Tourism authorities ought to focus upon young people and understand their needs in order to attract them to cultural destinations providing positive experience/s. This study is a unique attempt to analyze the perceptions of young people in cultural destinations and is limited to only one cultural heritage site, Delphi. Further, research in other sites examining younger ages and their differences would provide significant information about this unexplored market in cultural sites.

This paper examines that misconception about culture concerning only older age‐groups needs a new way of thinking that takes into consideration young visitors as important cultural visitors. By ignoring their importance, opportunities to maximize value from the sites as well as to operate them in a more sustainable manner are lost. Knowing exactly the perceptions of young people for culture gives insights into their present and future behavior in cultural heritage destinations.

This paper aims to contribute to urban tourism segmentation studies by examining the role of culture as a motivation for city visits, different preferences for activities and the demographic factors that influence activity choices. This study also compares the memorability of the trip across the segments identified based on their undertaken activities.

This paper draws on questionnaire data that was collected from 614 tourists in Budapest, Hungary. Tourist segmentation was based on a two-step procedure: principal component analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to reveal the effect of different demographic and travel-related characteristics on the segments.

The research revealed that cultural activities are still the most important motivation for urban tourists and that cultural tourists constitute the biggest segment (43%). They show a preference for heritage sites, museums and galleries rather than performing arts and festivals. Multinomial logistic regression showed that party tourists can be differentiated from cultural tourists and city break tourists predominantly by age and travel status. Older age groups and women are more likely to be interested in heritage sites, museums and galleries. Party tourists found their experience significantly more memorable than any other group and were much more likely to re-visit and recommend.

Overall, this study provides useful information for destination management organisations and city agencies about which activities to promote and how to segment and potentially target tourists. This study did not include lifestyle and personality factors, secondary and complementary attractions or cultural proximity and distance.

There have been relatively few recent studies on urban cultural tourism segmentation, especially in whole destinations rather than at individual attractions, it was therefore considered timely to re-visit this area of research. This paper reinforces the importance of segmentation studies in tourism and analyses the changing motivations and activity preferences of urban cultural tourists over time.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore how different stakeholders represent communist and revolution heritage for tourism, with a case-study on Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The research attempts to identify gaps and tensions between representation makers on communist heritage tourism.

The research employs a range of qualitative methods in order to explore communist heritage tourism representation from different perspectives: content analysis of secondary data in the form of government, industry and media destination promotional material; interviews with a range of representation producers (government, industry and media); focus groups with potential tourists; and content analysis of user generated content under the form of blogs by actual visitors to Bucharest.

Findings reveal that there are gaps between the “official” or government representations of communism and revolution heritage and “unofficial” or industry, media and tourists’ representations. The research confirms and builds on Light’s (2000a, b) views that communist heritage is perceived as “problematic” by government officials and that attempts have been made to reinterpret it in a different light. The process of representation is made difficult by recent trends such as the increase in popularity of communism heritage tourism in countries such as Germany or Hungary. The potential of communist and revolution heritage to generate tourism is increasingly being acknowledged. However, reconciliation with “an unwanted” past is made difficult because of the legacy of communism and the difficulties of transition, EU-integration, economic crisis or countless political and social crisis and challenges. The “official” and “unofficial” representations successfully coexist and form part of the communism and revolution heritage product.

The research attempts to look at the representation of communism heritage from different angles, however, it does not exhaust the number of views and perspectives that exist on the topic. The research only records the British and Romanian perspectives on the topic. The topic is still in its infancy and more research is needed on communism heritage tourism and representation.

The research identifies and explores gaps, agreements and disagreements over the representation of communist and revolution heritage in Bucharest, Romania.