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This paper aims to outline major theoretical concepts relating to the tourism-humour relationship and provide commentary on opportunities for further research in this area.

Papers for this perspective research were sourced by conducting a systematic review which critically appraised relevant research on this topic to provide evidence on humour and its current use in tourism settings.

Humour has received attention from many academic tribes and disciplines; however, investigations in the context of tourism are only in its early stages.

The paper is based on a select number of peer-reviewed literature studies on the topic of tourism and humour.

The paper outlines some of the challenges that tourism operators face regarding authenticity, i.e. when the delivery of scripted humour is performed in such a way that it is considered spontaneous and meaningful.

The paper provides a brief overview of how humour is currently used in tourism settings and recommends future research opportunities to guide further studies into this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to identify dominant scams against domestic tourists in popular tourism cities in China. There are two questions of concern: what types of scams do domestic tourists experience and are the patterns of scams different between the capital and regional cities? The social situation framework was employed to interpret the outcomes.

A content analysis facilitated by Leximancer software was applied to 102 Chinese travel blogs reporting experiences of being scammed in Beijing, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Sanya and Guilin. Clear themes and concepts emerged from the analysis of these travel reviews and differences in scamming patterns between Beijing and regional cities were identified.

The most frequently reported scams in the capital Beijing were linked to the chaotic environment at tourist attractions and the misbehaviours of tour agents. By way of contrast scams involving manipulating the weight and quality of products purchased were more common in regional cities. The differences between Beijing and other locations may lie in the greater monitoring of fraudulent practices in the capital. Additionally, the role of shills (confederates of the scammer) was highlighted in many of the scams studied.

Scams include a slightly less serious but still troublesome set of problems accompanying major crimes and assaults. Rare research specifically focussed on tourist scams despite substantive work discussing crimes against tourists as general. Implications of the present study lie in enriching the literature on scams against tourists. The analysis of scams as a special type of social situation proved to be insightful in directing attention to facets of the interaction thus providing connections to previous work and directions for further study. It is also promising to be developed to inform strategic approaches to creating a safer tourism environment in cities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of older methodologies to contemporary city tourism research.

The paper reviews and identifies categories of methodologies for new uses.

Four methods are considered to advance the toolkit of city tourism researchers – two are projective techniques and two are judgment tasks. More specifically a version of the thematic apperception test and the cognitive mapping approach belong to the first category while the use of the triad judgement tasks and just noticeable differences assessments belong to the latter category.

The techniques are advanced as proposals for further development. They have had only limited tourism city use and testing their usefulness offers creative possibilities for researcher insights.

New techniques are needed for the contemporary times and the suggested proposals fit this requirement.

Non-questionnaire techniques provide better access to the social lives of those less familiar with surveys.

The work revitalizes older ideas and offers approaches which may prove a useful addition to the researcher toolkit.

Over the past 75 years, and even before that time span, some tourists have been identified as behaving destructively, unsafely and unsustainably. Such behaviours disturb other tourists, cost communities, reduce business profitability and impair life across the planet (Gössling, 2018). The attempts to reduce these negative consequences have been varied; they are not always successful and are likely to be creatively modified for the remainder of the twenty-first century. A summary table identifies key actions for limiting the disturbing tourist behaviour.

A short review is the requested style of this piece.

Much remains to be done though some successes are the likely basis for further effort.

This is a new summary, integrating much diverse material and built on very recent work and learning on the author's contributions to appear in Tourist Behaviour The Essential Companion Edward Elgar 2019.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the order in which a set of cities are visited to ascertain the effects of position on group tourists’ recall and evaluations.

Using a questionnaire, the views of highly experienced tour guides were analysed to provide preliminary insights about the likely occurrence of position effects. The topic was studied in Iran where a natural variation in the order of visiting cities on guided tours exists.

Credible and consistent evidence was found for the perceived effects of recency when considering tourists’ recall and evaluations. In particular, the influence was seen as clearly enhancing the recall and positive evaluation for the most high profile cities in the set of visited locations.

Replications of the position effect in other countries and for other kinds of tourism cities needs to be pursued, desirably by direct assessments of tourist’ views to buttress the present views held by guides.

Designing itineraries by making imaginative use of the effects of order on the tourists’ sequence of city visits should facilitate the memorability of destinations for tourists and benefit businesses.

Empirical evidence about order effects in multi-city tour itineraries has never been established. The study provides foundation evidence for such influences through a non-reactive and naturalistic assessment by tour guides who are in contact with varied itineraries and who regularly consider the experiences of diverse and large numbers of tourists.

This study aims to assess international customers’ experiences in the leading hotels of the iconic city of Shanghai.

Leximancer, a qualitative analysis software program, was used to examine over 2,000 reviews appraising Shanghai’s superior hotels. The reviews were posted on Agoda.com.

Overall, the international tourists were actually quite satisfied with the superior Shanghai hotels. This study highlighted the continuing importance of the attentive and professional “staff”, physical attributes of the “hotel”, comfort of the “room”, “location”, proximity to a “shopping” area and co-creation possibilities to deliver some “beautiful” experiences. Segments of the market based on tourists’ origins, travel style and hotel management styles emphasized different expressive and instrumental features. Some strong commonalities were identified. The most satisfied customers, no matter what their backgrounds, were those who were more impressed with the expressive and intangible elements in the hotel, especially their interaction with and the service qualities of the hotels’ professional and attentive staff.

The work offers a potential range of insights and emphases for individual properties in Shanghai and other locations to help market and co-create experiences in their properties in distinctive ways.

The work is framed within the wider theoretical concerns of extending the meaning of co-creation in the experience economy. The work argues that co-creation is not limited to the on-site experience but rather that post-visit appraisals through user-generated contents constitute an extended form of interaction which may assist in understanding the full trajectory of the hotel experience.

The purpose of this paper is to build on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors, and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined. Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

The study builds on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined.

Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

For the present work, it would be desirable to ascertain that the figures reported apply to other night markets in Hong Kong and China. Further, the generalizability of the results for different market types, those that offer food or cater to specific interests needs examination. The possibility exists that the general night market will fold as specific tailored options, such as craft, art, flower and homewares themed spaces replace the basic all-purpose format.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The broad aim of the study can be identified as the desire to examine the compatibility of vendor and tourists’ views, and the more specific aims of this broad agenda will be articulated after reviewing the core conceptual ideas driving the work.