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This study aims to explore university students' push and pull motivational factors towards their study tour destination choices and to investigate the differences between experienced and non-experienced students concerning their push and pull motivational factors.

The study collected surveys from Hong Kong university students. In total, 248 usable responses were gathered. Among the 248 respondents, 148 university students from various universities did not have experience on a study tour in their university lives while 100 students did. The study also conducted interviews and collected qualitative data to supplement the survey findings.

Top push and pull motivational factors were highlighted in the study tour context. This study also indicated that non-experienced students relatively have more concerns about geographic location, political stability and financial budget as pull factors and education as the push factor than experienced students. Education, as a high-level human need and push motivational factor, becomes less important for experienced students.

A large number of Asian university students participated in study tour programmes each year. Nevertheless, there are few research papers relevant to exploring university students’ motivation to choose study tour destinations. This study provides useful insight for the universities to design and implement appropriate study tours according to students’ motivation.

Tour guides often use humor to entertain tourists, but the process of tour guide humor (TGH) affecting tourists’ positive word of mouth (PWOM) remains unclear. To fill the gap, this study aims to investigate how TGH enhances tourists’ PWOM through perceived relationship investment, perceived wellness value and trust in tour guides.

A comprehensive mediation model was proposed based on social exchange theory (SET). Data were obtained from 335 tour group tourists and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results present that TGH positively predicts tourists’ PWOM. Perceived relationship investment, perceived wellness value and trust in tour guides not only play mediating roles between TGH and tourists’ PWOM, respectively, but also jointly provide two sequential mediation paths (TGH → perceived relationship investment → trust in tour guides → tourists’ PWOM and TGH → perceived wellness value → trust in tour guides → tourists’ PWOM).

The findings have practical value for tour guides and travel agencies to use TGH to improve tourists’ PWOM.

The major contribution is that a reciprocity-based framework rooted in SET was proposed to parse the complex process of TGH promoting tourists’ PWOM. Furthermore, this study enriches current knowledge by confirming that perceived wellness value is not only available in wellness tourism but can be experienced from TGH in mass tourism.

This study aims to examine the evolution of the tourism supply chain (TSC) and its future development factors. To this end, a quantitative bibliometric analysis was conducted to provide insights from a statistical perspective, including the evolution of the TSC and an outlook on current characteristics and future research trends.

This paper presents a quantitative bibliometric study of selected papers on the Web of Science. The study of the evolution of the TSC is based on analyses of bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keywords.

Bibliographic coupling analysis identified 10 clusters defined by coherent groups of theoretical perspectives. The keyword analysis explains the occurrences in the TSC concept. It also helps to determine the future main drivers of TSC research. In the post-COVID-19 era, the tourism industry needs to focus on green transformation and new technologies to transform TSC, supply chain management and B2B relationships. It also needs to ensure employee retention and policies to attract new talent.

This study provides a comprehensive, objective and integrative overview of the evolution of TSC. It is one of the few original works on supply chain development and will be helpful for scholars and practitioners alike to understand the subject.

Based on the mentoring literature, this study aims to explore the mentoring functions developed by the travel industry and develop a multiple mentoring function scale (MMFS) for tour leaders.

Study One of this research involved in-depth interviews with 23 tour leaders for establishing the initial question bank and pilot test scale. In Study Two, the initial scale was pilot tested by 225 tour leaders for identifying the factor structure through exploratory factor analysis. In Study Three, the model was verified through confirmatory factor analyses of 251 calibration samples. In Study Four, cross-validation was verified by 227 validation samples.

In Study One, through the content analyses, an initial question bank of 51 questions was established. The question bank was reviewed by 15 experts, resulting in the development of a pilot test scale of 36 questions. In Study Two, 16 questions were retained after the initial scale was pilot tested, and four dimensions were identified, including career competency, reverse mentoring, career development and psychosocial functions. In Study Three, the model was verified through confirmatory factor analyses and confirmed to have good reliability and construct validity. Finally, a first-order, four-factor scale that consisted of 16 questions was established. In Study Four, cross-validation was verified.

MMFS establishment underwent a rigorous development process, and the scale’s reliability and validity are supported. It is suggested that future research should develop and construct a multifunctional model for tour-leading professionals based on the MMFS to evaluate the long-term impact of the MMFS.

Previous studies have mainly focused on typical mentoring functions. Multiple mentoring functions derived from the characteristics of tour leaders and guides have rarely been discussed. This research can fill the gap in the application of mentoring system to human resource management research in the tourism industry. As a result, this four-dimensional multiple mentoring functions scale provides a progressive perspective and be regarded as the first version of the scale development in the tourism industry.

基于师徒文献, 本研究探讨了旅游业的师徒功能, 并为旅游领队发展多元师徒功能量表（MMFS）。

研究一, 涉及与 23 位领队的深度访谈, 以建立初始题库和预试量表。研究二, 初始量表由225名领队进行试测, 通过探索性因素分析确定因素结构。研究三, 通过验证性因素分析251个校准样本以验证模型。研究四, 由 227 个验证样本进行复合效化。

研究一, 经过内容分析, 建立了51道题的初始题库。初始题库由 15 位专家审阅, 最终形成36 个问题的预试量表。研究二, 预试量表进行预试后, 保留了16个问题, 确定了四个构面, 包括职业能力、反向师徒、职业发展和社会心理功能。研究三, 通过验证性因素分析对模型进行验证, 证实具有良好的信度和建构效度。建立了一个由 16 个题项所组成的一阶四因素量表。研究四, 复合效化获得验证。

过往的研究主要集中在典型的师徒功能上。很少有人讨论基于领队和导游的特点而衍生出的多元师徒功能。本研究填补了师徒制在旅游行业人力资源管理研究中的应用空白。因此, 这四个构面的多元师徒功能量表提供了一个渐进的视角, 被视为量表发展的旅游业第一版。

MMFS的建立经历了严格的开发过程, 量表的信度和效度得到支持。建议未来的研究应基于 MMFS开发和建构旅游领队专业人士的多元功能模型, 以评估MMFS 的后续影响。

Basándose en la bibliografía sobre la mentoría, este estudio exploró las funciones de mentoría desarrolladas por el sector de los viajes y elaboró una escala de funciones de mentoría múltiple (MMFS) para guías y jefes de grupo turísticos.

En el Estudio Uno de esta investigación se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad a 23 guías turísticos para establecer el banco de preguntas inicial y la escala de prueba piloto. Estudio Dos, la escala inicial fue sometida a una prueba piloto por 225 guías de tours para identificar la estructura factorial mediante un análisis factorial exploratorio. Estudio Tres, el modelo se verificó mediante análisis factoriales confirmatorios 251 muestras de calibración. En el Estudio Cuatro, la validación cruzada se verificó mediante 227 muestras de validación.

Estudio Uno: a través de los análisis de contenido, se estableció un banco de preguntas inicial de 51 preguntas. El banco de preguntas fue revisado por 15 expertos, lo que dio lugar a la elaboración de una escala de prueba piloto de 36 preguntas. Estudio Dos, se retuvieron 16 preguntas, tras la prueba piloto de la escala inicial, y se identificaron cuatro dimensiones, que incluían la competencia profesional, la mentoría inversa, el desarrollo profesional y las funciones psicosociales. Estudio Tres, el modelo se verificó mediante análisis factoriales confirmatorios y se confirmó que tenía una buena fiabilidad y validez de constructo. Por último, se estableció una escala de primer orden y cuatro factores que constaba de 16 preguntas. En el Estudio Cuatro, se verificó la validación cruzada.

Los estudios anteriores se han centrado principalmente en las funciones típicas de la mentoría. Rara vez se han tratado las funciones múltiples de mentoría derivadas de las características de los guías y jefes de grupo turísticos. Esta investigación puede llenar el vacío existente en la aplicación del sistema de mentoría a la investigación de la gestión de recursos humanos en la industria turística. Como resultado, esta escala de funciones de mentoría múltiple de cuatro dimensiones proporciona una perspectiva progresista y puede considerarse como la primera versión del desarrollo de la escala en la industria turística.

El establecimiento de la MMFS se sometió a un riguroso proceso de desarrollo, y la fiabilidad y validez de la escala están respaldadas. Se sugiere que en futuras investigaciones se desarrolle y construya un modelo multifuncional para guías profesionales de turismo basado en la MMFS para evaluar el impacto a largo plazo de la MMFS.

“Idol pilgrimage tour” is a popular trend among young Chinese fans who travel for idol-related purposes, engage in interactive events and have co-created experiences at destinations. With the growing market size of fan economy, fan tourists generate significant revenue for the local. However, many destinations have not fully utilised this opportunity, and there is a lack of research on this niche form of tourism. This research was undertaken to address this research gap.

This study adopted an idol worship–motivation–co-created experience–tour satisfaction–destination loyalty framework in the context of idol pilgrimage tours. In addition, this study investigated the direct influence of idol worship on the other four constructs. Data were collected from 354 Chinese fans who had such experience through online questionnaires. The partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique was used to examine the research model.

It was demonstrated that idol worship has a direct influence on motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty and that there is a positive relationship between motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty. The results advance the brand sacralisation literature by studying worship in a tourism context and contribute to interactive marketing literature by clarifying the interactive mechanism between relationships among the idol, fans and destinations. The study suggests some practical implications for destination management organisations attempting to target tourist fans.

This is the first study introducing the concept of the idol pilgrimage tour. Empirical results of this study reveal the underlying mechanism of how idols influence fans' travel-related psychology and behaviour.

The purpose of this study is to demystify the authenticity dimensions of wine experience with the locally guided tour in the meal-sharing economy, drawing on travellers' online reviews at Withlocals for French locally guided wine tours.

The qualitative research approach was performed through the thematic analysis of 940 online reviews from Withlocals. The coding phase was completed based on a three-step coding process (i.e. open, axial and selective coding), as all reviews that were gathered were related to locally guided wine tours rather than only wine-sharing activities.

The findings of this study demonstrated four interrelated authenticity dimensions: the taste of terroir, local atmosphere, oenological knowledge and local insight. The results of this study also notably showed that all reviews were primarily positive; travellers expressed their satisfaction with wine tours at Withlocals and often mentioned their re-purchase intentions as well as advising wine tours in the meal-sharing economy.

Several worthy theoretical and practical implications were discussed for local tour guides to improve their tour quality more authentically. The results also demonstrate that locally guided wine tours in the meal-sharing economy were regarded as a multidimensional activity that provides a better discovery of a wine destination.

Despite the large volume of generic meal-sharing economy experience studies, the authenticity experience of the locally guided wine tours has been surprisingly omitted by scholars. Therefore, this study contributes to the sharing economy literature through wine experience by addressing the authenticity dimensions of the locally guided wine tours in the meal-sharing economy.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has a profound effect on the performance of tour guides, though past studies on the subject have neglected to examine the effects of EI on neither the overall nor specific pattern of tour guides' performance. This study examines the overall link between four dimensions of EI (self-emotion appraisal [SEA], others' emotion appraisal [OEA], use of emotions [UOEs] and regulation of emotions [ROEs]) and five dimensions of citizenship performance (helping, self-development, initiative, compliance and adaptability), ultimately identifying the relationship between EI factors and each dimension of tour guides' citizenship performance.

The data from 244 Jordanian tour guides were gathered through a quantitative survey. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multiple regression analysis were performed to analyze the data.

The results reveal that emotionally intelligent tour guides are more likely to have higher levels of citizenship performance. The most significant factors in determining extra-role behaviors by tour guides are “UOEs” and “others’ emotion appraisal (OEA)”.

This study equips different professional entities in the tour guide industry with useful, contextualized links between EI and citizenship performance. This assists in developing new accreditation policies and business practices to augment tour guides' citizenship professionalism, thereby maximizing their valuable contributions to tourism growth.

This study advances the tourism studies by establishing a new theoretical link between tour guides' EI and citizenship performance. The study also uncovers unique factors of EI that significantly determine tour guides' citizenship behaviors.

This study explores the role of international tour operators as the agents assuming the governance and the upgrading of the tourism global value chains (TGVCs), with a special focus on their influence on the development of technological capabilities (TCs) in the hotel industry.

The data used in this article originates from a survey carried out in 2016 on Spanish small and medium-sized hotel companies. An ordinal regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses proposed in this research.

This study finds that tour operators exert a positive effect on the technological upgrading process in the hotel industry by stimulating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in TCs. The causal mechanisms through which these effects take place differ across the various stages of the relationship between hotel companies and tour operators.

The results have implications both for hotel management in terms of how hotels take advantage of technological upgrading to become more competitive, and for public administrations in terms of what measures can boost the development of hotel TCs in order to increase their added value.

To date, very few studies have analysed the tourism sector based on the influence on the development of TCs of SME hotels by combining GVC concepts and the resource-based view. It is also the first time that the causal mechanisms are shown to explain such influences.

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of female tour guides’ lower and top levels of management in travel agencies about how misunderstanding Islam and its culture may engender the poor representation of women in the tour guide profession.

A qualitative research method is used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 full-time female tour guides working at several travel agencies in Egypt. Thematic analysis helped extract main ideas from the transcripts.

The representation of female tour guides in travel agencies is shaped by the following three determinants: religious (familial obligations and marital status), contextual (nature of tour guide activities, poor representation of women in senior tourism-related jobs, cronyism, sexual harassment and spread of foreign female tour guides) and media influence. Understanding these three factors may enable a more comprehensive representation of female tour guides.

Female tour guides could work closely with tourism policymakers in Egypt to shape the media messages about them. This might include elaborating on the main challenges faced by female tour guides. Social support from families and friends may allow female tour guides more freedom and empowerment.

This study contributes by filling a gap in tourism, human resources management and gender studies in which empirical studies on the representation of females in travel agencies have been limited so far.

The purpose of this study is to describe an educational virtual reality (VR) photo-based tour used in an online course and investigate the influence of immersive capability on the dimensions of spatial presence and their relationship with learning-related variables.

The study employs a descriptive and an experimental methodological approach. The research objectives were achieved using a two-group (n1 = 29 and n2 = 30) experiment, employing descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation analysis.

The t-test revealed that the immersive capability had a significant effect on the sense of physical space (SP) , Engagement (EN) and negative effects (NE) dimensions. Correlations between the dimensions of spatial presence were found to confirm reports from the literature. Furthermore, some of the dimensions were found to be correlated with motivational and learning variables.

The study reported the results of a one-off experiment among 59 participants. While the results were promising, a longitudinal qualitative study could confirm the results in an actual distance learning context.

The study confirmed that adding VR photo-based tours as learning activities may enhance the learning experience of distance learners.

The study shared a case of a learning activity that can be employed for flexible education. Virtual tours can support the need for context-based learning that the geographical or political constraints may limit.

While the paper confirms previous reports on the benefits of using VR photo-based tours as learning activities, this paper has empirically shown the relationship between the dimensions of spatial presence and immersive capability in this specialized context.