Search results

Tourism literature tends to focus on passive tourists, who constitute the majority of tourists today. However, there is a growing number of individuals who overlap their study, work, and business with tourism activities. These independent tourists have created a new segment in the tourism industry, where tourists develop and experience their own tourism activities. However, there is a lack of current research on these independent tourists, especially in terms of how they function in the experience management process and how this can be translated into various new types of offers.

This study investigates the functions, experiences, and behaviors of this type of tourists. Accordingly, this study makes use of purposive sampling, employing direct observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of personal social media (e.g., blogs). The findings show that while some independent tourists function in a multitude of ways, from searching for ideas to composing, creating, and experiencing their own products, others are less active and tend to piggyback their efforts on those of more active tourists. The study finds that the motivational matrix is highly important for individuals who combine work and tourism. Working persons with a strong motivation for tourism relative to work maintain high levels of commitment, activity, and creativity in the tourism sphere, especially when they face problems with their work. Highly satisfied independent tourists initiate future actions by either revisiting the same destination or leading others to have similar experiences at the same location. Finally, the chapter discusses some methodological lessons learned from direct observation and in-depth interviews and studying social media.

Tourists must possess technological competence, as technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous in travel. However, few studies have investigated tourists’ technological competence (TTC). Thus, this study aims to develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring TTC.

In the development of the scale, the authors first reviewed the literature and consulted experts to formulate an initial set of items. The items were then reduced using exploratory factor analysis, and the measures were validated through confirmatory factor analysis. Two distinct sets of data were collected to develop and validate the TTC scale.

The final scale has 21 items and five factors: searching and booking for travel information online, using self-service systems, operating VR/AR technologies, using apps for travel and using technology at tourist destination. After analyzing the reliability, construct validity, criterion-related validity and known-group validity, the TTC scale has been established as a measurement tool with acceptable reliability and validity.

The authors proposed the concept of technological competence in tourists and developed a scale to measure it. In addition to filling research gaps, understanding the items relating to TTC can help promote tourism education in the digital and technological age and provide reference for those developing technological services at tourist destinations.

随着科技在旅行中的应用普及, 游客必须具备科技使用能力。然而, 关于游客科技使用能力（TTC）的研究很少。因此, 本研究开发了一个有效可靠的量表来衡量TTC。

在量表的开发中, 我们首先回顾了文献, 并咨询专家, 制定了一组初始测量项目。然后通过探索性因素分析缩减项目, 并通过验证性因素分析验证了测量。我们收集了两组不同的数据来开发和验证TTC量表。

最终的量表包含21个项目和5个因子：在线搜索和预订旅行信息, 使用自助服务系统, 操作虚拟现实/增强现实技术, 使用旅行应用程序, 以及在旅游目的地使用科技。在分析可靠性、构造效度、标准相关效度和已知群体效度后, TTC量表已被确定为具有可接受的可靠性和效度的测量工具。

我们提出了游客的科技使用能力概念, 并开发了一个用于衡量的量表。除了填补研究空白外, 了解与游客科技使用能力相关的项目可以帮助推动数字化和技术时代的旅游教育, 并为那些开发旅游目的地科技服务的人提供参考。

This qualitative study explores how Chinese senior outbound tourists perceive support from their adult children and what kinds of support they desire.

Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 26 participants. Transcribed interviews were analysed via thematic analysis.

This study captured the contradictory feelings of different types of Chinese senior outbound tourists (i.e. independent, neutral, and dependent) according to the degree of desire for support from their adult children. The results further identified the real desires among Chinese senior outbound tourists for children's attitudinal support, caring support, appropriate financial support, companionship, and timing support.

Since this qualitative research is based on small samples with typical social and cultural characteristics, our research results only describe an existence. Our findings provide insight into the existence of the phenomenon, rather than allowing the results to be generalized to the wider population (Gram et al., 2019).

The tourism industry could develop products to alleviate such feelings. Integrating the concept of filial piety into adult children's support for their parents' overseas travel can not only meet parents' expectations but also relieve parents' ambivalence. Destination operators and travel agencies could thus design mixed products targeting Chinese elderly parents and their adult children by providing activities for both generations. Purchasing behaviour represents a type of emotional and instrumental support for the elderly. Destination operators and travel agencies can also launch products suitable for in-depth outbound travel that cater to adult children's leisure travel while meeting the elderly's travel needs.

This study also extends both intergenerational support theory and intergenerational ambivalence theory regarding Chinese senior outbound tourists.

Significant heritage buildings in Europe, and most especially cathedrals and churches in Western Europe, are sites of considerable international tourism appeal. A developing analytical approach termed the orchestra model of experience was used to structure the collection of empirical data about Chinese tourists’ reactions to major cathedral sites in Florence and Milan. These results are used to identify the challenges of meeting not just the needs of Asian tourists but also simultaneously deriving commercial benefits and maintaining the Christian values of the settings. Emphases are placed on the roles of interpretation and the management of protected spaces to meet these goals.

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.

The final chapter of this volume seeks to interpret and explain key dimensions of Asian outbound tourism. Initially the challenge of employing culturally sensitive theoretical lenses is tackled. Cautious and at times sceptical assessments of the mobilities paradigm, critical pragamatism and specific micro approaches are offered. A selection of key lenses for future study is made. Major forces affecting Asian outbound tourism such as the digital world and low-cost air carriers are reviewed. The strategic issues facing destination managers and communities are highlighted. Managing the adjustments for mutual well-being between tourists and the communities they visit are stressed and extracted from the chapters in this book.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the process of emotional work undertaken by Chinese Americans who independently visit their ancestral land without joining organized tours to define who they are and where they belong.

A qualitative approach was chosen, as few studies have investigated the experiences of individual roots tourists. Face-to-face, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with 25 Chinese American roots tourists. To analyze the data, a cross-case approach was used.

The interview narratives revealed that the interviewees have mixed feelings about being identified as Americans while they also made negative remarks about being identified as local Chinese. The close interaction with the locals emphasized, rather than blurred, the differences in language, political loyalty and economic status between the diaspora and local residents. The results show that Chinese Americans draw a clear boundary between themselves as “we” and locals as “they”.

This study explores the experiences of roots tourists who visit their ancestral land without joining an organized tour. This is a focus that has been lacking in the literature because past studies of roots tourism, particularly among second- and later-generation of immigrants, have predominantly focused on the experiences of those who join group tours to visit their ancestral country. The findings showed that similar to organized roots tourists, independent roots tourists experienced intense “emotional labor” in negotiating and making sense of competing identities, indicating that the social boundaries between the diaspora and local residents are enmeshed in their daily lives. This finding adds important knowledge to the literature on the tourism experiences of the diaspora, a growing segment of visiting friends and relatives market.

Most existing recommendation systems or technologies are functional-oriented. Recommending services, nevertheless, requires the consideration of service experiences perceived by customers being individually unique and emphasizing the emotional experiences and the co-created value-in-use. This paper aims to present a new recommender system to capture customer emotional needs and address social interactions among service stakeholders.

This paper presents a color imagery-based recommender system (CIRS) capable of capturing customer emotional needs and addressing social interactions among service stakeholders that can collectively co-create the individual value-in-use and beneficial outcomes for customers. Based on the Color Image Scale, the recommender system uses the color imagery format as the uniform representation of customers’ psychological expectations, service providers and the service system, to facilitate the scoring and ranking of recommendations.

This study uses an application context of destination tourism to demonstrate and justify the recommender system’s attempted contributions preliminarily. That is, CIRS can recommend destinations and tour services that meet tourists’ emotional needs with a satisfactory precision of 70 per cent. CIRS can also make stakeholders’ image models evolve over time considering the dynamic interactions among stakeholders. CIRS can also help lesser-known tourism destinations be discovered by tourists who can be emotionally satisfied.

CIRS uses the color imagery as the uniform representation for customers’ expectations, service providers (e.g. small and medium enterprises) and service system (e.g. tourism destinations), considering the continued interactions among the service stakeholders that collectively co-create the individual value-in-use and beneficial outcomes for each customer.

The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the management of the rural tourist experience in Cyprus. In doing so, it specifically attempts to examine rural tourists’ experiences in relation to travel motives and activities performed in rural areas in Cyprus, explore overall satisfaction with the rural tourist experience with regard to several physical, social, and symbolic attributes derived from the literature review and elicit recommendations that can improve the tourist experience in rural areas.

An exploratory research approach was utilized, whereby 70 open-ended casual interviews were conducted with domestic and international tourists visiting rural areas in Cyprus.

Main findings derived from this study include the realization that the rural tourism experience is fragmented and largely shaped by travel motives, regional characteristics, support services, and service provision.

A refined segmentation strategy is proposed as well as the development of synergistic, innovative linkages among rural tourism stakeholders and across sectors in the industry, with thematic clusters representing a favorable proposed strategy.

Although the study is centered on a single case, theoretical and practical implications may be derived with regard to the demand aspects of rural tourist experiences. In turn, such insights may be transferrable to other rural destination contexts.