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Paragliding festivals have become significant events in the global tourism space, attracting tourists to local and international destinations. The purpose of this study was to assess environmental attitudes and rate the performance of the paragliding festival of the Kwahu traditional area in Ghana, from the perspectives of four stakeholder groups.

This study was grounded on the salient stakeholder theory. A quantitative cross-sectional study, with a convenience sampling approach, collected 372 useable questionnaires from four major stakeholders/participants (i.e. Kwahu residents, Kwahu returnees, non-Kwahu Ghanaian tourists and foreigners). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the data.

The findings of the Games-Howell post-hoc test show no significant differences among the four stakeholder groups in the festival performance assessment. However, there is a significant statistical difference between the Kwahu residents and foreign tourists regarding environmental attitudes towards the paragliding festival.

Visitors' perceptions and experiences of the environmental performance could inform the planning and execution of festive events that have a direct impact on the natural environment. Policymakers at the community levels must enact environmental protocols that uphold the value propositions of the stakeholders and that of the community at large.

The study expands the application of the salience stakeholder model within festival tourism by highlighting under-represented stakeholder voices in a single study on paragliding festivals in a developing country context.

This study attempts to segment the Swiss travel market based on holiday activities. It is based on data of the 2001 travel market in Switzerland. Cluster and discriminant analysis have been employed in order to segment the data and to explain the differences between the clusters. Hereby, five activity‐clusters could be defined, each representing a set of holiday activities most likely to be exercised. The analysis of the five clusters revealed that two demographic profile variables “occupation” and “size of household” did explain the affiliation to a certain cluster. The same could be found for the following travel profile variables: “destination and duration of the trip”, “total number of participants from a household and “type of trip”. Further research will be necessary to find out if the clusters identified really do fulfil the needed criteria for market segments in order to be used by companies in the travel industry.

This paper explores entrepreneurs' expectation from the new provincial government to protect sociocultural values for promoting touristic city – Pokhara, Nepal.

The purposive sampling technique was applied to source the information from the respondents resided at Pokhara. Structured questionnaire techniques and cross-sectional descriptive method were used to collect data from 393 tourism entrepreneurs to explore their understanding and existing situations.

About 85.5% of the respondents argue that the new government system has affected their business and 58.27% feel procedural complexities due to new political administrative system. Natural beauty, growing pollution, unmanaged urbanizations, good flow of the tourists and sustainability of the touristic city resulted as main aspects of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. The entrepreneurs expect that newly formed provincial government should provide business security, formulate appropriate tax policy and provision for business insurance scheme for smooth operation, growth and sustainability of their tourism entrepreneurship.

The research was taken in Pokhara, only the entrepreneurs mostly resided at Lakeside were taken and wider research across the whole city would give a more balanced perspective.

Recommendations are made with the aim of uplifting entrepreneurship milieu in the touristic city Pokhara in order to promote tourism business of Pokhara.

This research can help local authority to take local residents' and entrepreneurs' experience into consideration for creating better plan and policies for the well-being of Pokhara.

This is the first paper to provide data from the perspective of entrepreneurs' expectation from newly formed Gandaki provincial government in Pokhara, Nepal.

The popularity of adventure activities in leisure and tourism is escalating, yet little is known about how personality and perceived constraints can prevent consumption of such activities. The aim of this study was to test a model of the mediating role of psychological constraints in explaining the relationship between personality and interest in adventure activity participation. Based on a questionnaire survey of 1,324 respondents, a quantitative analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) was carried out. The results show that personality does influence psychological constraints, which in turn have a significant negative effect on adventure activity participation. Increased knowledge about the constraints to adventure activity participation can contribute to realizing the full development potential that lies in adventure consumption in leisure and tourism. Implications of the research can prove valuable in both leisure and tourism marketing and management.

Brand extension strategies have become widespread since the early 1980s. However, a large proportion of brand extensions still fail, suggesting the need for methodologies that produce better predictions of success or failure of new products launched with a well‐known brand name. Although the symbolic fit between established brand names and brand extensions is considered as one of the most important determinants of brand extension success or failure, managers need more accurate tools to determine, from a symbolic point‐of‐view, which brand extensions are consistent with their brand. This paper proposes to use Kapferer's brand identity prism to define more acceptable brand extensions.

Two studies were conducted. A first study aimed at developing a brand identity inventory (BII). In a second study, the BII's ability to predict brand extensions' success or failure was tested.

The second order structure of Kapferer's brand identity prism is confirmed. The paper then demonstrates that brand identity is useful to better predict acceptance of brand extensions.

In prior research, perceived fit was estimated by mono‐item measures or by few brand associations. Brand identity provides a more accurate estimation of the fit that can rely on attributes related to brand personality and brand values – the personal dimension of brand identity – or associations related to relationships and users' image – the social dimension of brand identity.

The findings can help managers to determine more consistent brand extensions when brands are already stretched.

The place of festivals in national economic development has received increased attention from researchers globally. However, there appears to be a relatively small and disparate literature on the subject especially within the Ghanaian context. The study seeks to contribute to the global recognition of festivals as developmental tools and thus presents the effects of festival tourism on socio-economic capital of the people of Kwahu traditional area (Ghana) and how festival tourism in the region engenders economic benefits to businesses and the community.

This study is guided by the social development theory. A quantitative cross-sectional survey utilizing convenience technique was used to gather data from a sample of 398 residents of the selected towns and the regression model was used to analyse the data.

The findings revealed festival tourism to have a positive effect on community cohesiveness but not statistically significant. Further, the festival brought economic gains but had negative social effects on development of the selected towns.

This research is destination-specific. The application of the findings to other festivals would demand a bigger sample size for generalisation to be made.

The findings suggest that for growth of festival tourism in Ghana to be actualised, the Ghana Tourism Authority needs to ensure festivals do not erode entrenched traditional values and negate efforts at developing social structures and systems by putting measures to reduce the negative effect of commoditisation of festivals on the communities' cultural authenticity. Law enforcement agents should also be massively beefed up to curtail crime and social vices.

The study's findings extend earlier studies to extend the scope in festival tourism literature. This study found that festival tourism has effect on both community cohesion and economic development of the people of Kwahu traditional area.

Aerodynamics of paragliders is very complicated aeroelastic phenomena. The purpose of this work is to quantify the amount of aerodynamic drag related to the flexible nature of a paraglider wing.

The laboratory testing on scaled models can be very difficult because of problems in the elastic similitude of such a structure. Testing of full-scale models in a large facility with a large full-scale test section is very expensive. The degradation of aerodynamic characteristics is evaluated from flight tests of the paraglider speed polar. All aspects of the identification such as pilot and suspension lines drag and aerodynamics of spanwise chambered wings are discussed. The drag of a pilot in a harness was estimated by means of wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver was used to estimating smooth wing lift and drag characteristics.

The drag related to the flexible nature of the modern paraglider wing is within the range of 4-30 per cent of the total aerodynamic drag depending on the flight speed. From the results, it is evident that considering only the cell opening effect is sufficient at a low-speed flight. The stagnation point moves forwards towards the nose during the high speed flight. This causes more pronounced deformation of the leading edge and thus increased drag.

This paper deals with a detailed analysis of specific paraglider wing. Although the results are limited to the specific geometry, the findings help in the better understanding of the paraglider aerodynamics generally.

The data obtained in this paper are not affected by any scaling problems. There are only few experimental results in the field of paragliders on scaled models. Those results were made on simplified models at very low Reynolds number. The aerodynamic drag characteristics of the pilot in the harness with variable angles of incidence and Reynolds numbers have not yet been published.

This study aims to explore the strategies adopted by tourism and hospitality businesses in North Cyprus during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis also points to sustainable tourism approaches that could be adopted in the post-Covid-19 period.

Qualitative methodology was used to collect detailed information from 20 tourism and hospitality business owners operating in North Cyprus.

The findings illustrate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism and hospitality operations in North Cyprus and reveal how businesses have coped and responded to these challenges. Some operators have been able to adapt and their actions provide indicators for a sustainable tourism business model in North Cyprus.

The study draws on the experiences of business owners and reveals how they have sought to sustain their operations during the uncertain conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The findings of this study could assist government agencies in the construction of sector-specific support programs for tourism and hospitality businesses.

The adverse effect of Covid-19 on tourism and hospitality operations is a current topic that needs to be analyzed. This study draws on the experiences of practitioners to analyze the competitive strategies used by tourism and hospitality businesses in North Cyprus.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how experiences, sport careers and biographic variables predict: enjoyment, satisfaction and memories from the unique and spectacular Extreme Sport Week (Ekstremsportveko), Voss, Norway, as reported by the extreme sport athletes.

An electronic questionnaire was distributed to all participants during 2011, and collected responses from 292 athletes (27 per cent response rate). Data were analysed by frequencies, mean values, correlations and multiple regression.

Extreme sport athletes were typically amateurs with serious leisure careers. Social ties between participants and volunteers were found. They had positive experiences at the event, and the realms of education, aesthetics and entertainment were the strongest predictors of enjoyment, satisfaction and memories. Level of excitement augmented the explained variance, especially when predicting memories. Most participants intended to re-visit future Extreme Sport Weeks.

The moderate response rate warrants generalisations from the study. As the study is cross-sectional, cause-effect relationships cannot be established.

For event organisers, the study shows the athletes’ appreciations with its managerial implications.

The Voss area is highly appreciated for its natural beauty and extreme sport resources, and re-visits are likely to occur, hence contributing to its growth as extreme sport venue and to sport tourism.

This study is the first to explore the experiences of athletes who participated in the unique and spectacular event Extreme Sport Week. For researchers and practitioners, it is an example of how to measure experiences and their outcomes of (extreme sport) events.

This paper aims to review two micro-trends influencing the landscape of adventure tourism activities in Nepal. In spite of being a popular adventure tourism destination for more than half a century, the offer of adventure tourism activities in Nepal remained limited until recently.

This study underpinned by interpretive epistemology used netnographic methods of data collection. As such, 15 stakeholderss’ interviews were conducted, and 25 grey literature sources were collected.

The findings suggest that a bottom-up approach to the development of emerging adventure sports and the upsurge of domestic adventure tourism are the micro-trends influencing the adventure tourism landscape in Nepal. This paper discusses skiing and mountain biking as emerging land-based adventure activities. One distinguishing feature is that those initiatives are driven by locals passionate about this sport. Furthermore, skiing and mountain biking are promoted for both international and domestic tourists. Overall, the findings highlight the growth of the domestic adventure tourism market in Nepal.

This study recommends shifting attention from focussing merely on international visitors and to establish domestic adventure tourism market. For practitioners, including tourism agencies and wider industry stakeholders, it might be important to explore the demand in adventure tourism and create products for domestic adventure tourism.

Creating and expanding adventure tourism activities for locals would not only provide economic benefit but also contribute to well-being and recreation opportunities for Nepali.

To date, research on adventure tourism activities in Nepal other than mountaineering remains scant. This paper contributes towards understanding the micro-trends influencing the landscape of adventure tourism activities in Nepal and for the first time, explores the trends of Nepal’s domestic adventure tourism market.