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In these times of globalisation, distances are getting smaller, enhancing the interactions between people of different cultural backgrounds. This is especially true in the area of tourism, a field that is shaped by manifold communication activities. The enormous increases in the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Europe and other Western destinations require building up intercultural competencies to minimise conflicts and promote mutual understanding. It is therefore necessary to question one’s own cultural view, which is why the debate surrounding de-Westernisation is of crucial importance. The metaphor of the atmosphere – in Chinese qifen – offers a helpful access point to strengthen mutual understanding, because it creates a bridge between eastern and western thinking. Paul Watzlawick (1967) developed his well-known five axioms of communication, the second of which states that every communication has both content and a relational aspect, and the latter classifies the former. This chapter shows why the atmospheric dimension of communication should be established as the third axiom in order to understand communication holistically.

This introduction to the volume Atmospheric Turn in Culture and Tourism: Place, Design and Process Impacts on Customer Behaviour, Marketing and Branding (Emerald) positions the atmospheric turn in the context of recent paradigmatic turns such as the linguistic turn, iconic turn, cultural turn, spatial turn, mobility turn and design turn. The specific contribution of the atmospheric turn is its profoundly holistic interest in overarching connections which are perceived with all senses and include both matter and idea. With its 22 chapters, this volume sets out to sharpen the atmospheric gaze and perception in research and beyond.

This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

This paper aims to fill a research gap on whether cultural background (Eastern or Western) influences tourist flow experiences and outcomes with Chinese-speaking tourists.

The authors conducted flow-aware, guided cultural tours in Kyoto, Japan, from March 2019 to February 2020. Tourists visited the same spots on the same route with the same guide to avoid discrepancies stemming from experiencing different tours with different guides. Professional photoshoots were conducted to study the flow experience under high challenges. Participants were Chinese-speaking tourists worldwide. The guide spoke in Chinese to minimise language bias. Participants were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire within one week of the tours.

The authors received 191 valid responses. Those from the Eastern regions showed significantly lower flow states and outcomes than their counterparts from the Western regions under high challenges, whereas this phenomenon was not observed under low challenges. A positive correlation between the flow state and outcomes was observed in both regional groups.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply flow theory to guided cultural tours with Chinese-speaking tourists from different cultural backgrounds. It was found that those from the Eastern regions can have flow experience and good outcomes in guided tours, although they may require a lower level of challenge. A managerial implication is that cultural tours should be designed considering the balance between challenges and tourists’ cultural background to optimise their flow experiences and outcomes.

The concept of touristic space is continually evolving, due to the advent of new technologies. Today, physical space and virtual space are interwoven, creating a phenomenon that can be described using the term ‘phygital’. The perception of touristic space as well as the interaction with it has been altered by phygital appearances and changing travel behaviour. While interaction with the touristic space previously only occupied a physical dimension, virtual information now enriches all stages of the customer journey (CJ). Hence, this chapter deals with new technologies, analysing their impact on the perception of touristic space for the traveller throughout the whole CJ. Thereby Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are cited as examples of state-of-the-art technologies, which wield a direct perceptional impact, as they have the power to blend together one’s perception of real and virtual space.

This study attempts to answer how values and holiday preferences were shaped by the pandemic, how travellers view the future of tourism and how they are willing to contribute to potential changes. Furthermore, it examines the impact of socio-structural background factors, basic values and holiday preferences, and pandemic-related factors on the views of post-pandemic tourism.

A longitudinal online survey was conducted in which 155 frequent travellers were interviewed both before and during the pandemic about their values and holiday preferences, attitudes towards travelling during the pandemic, and their prospective views regarding tourism.

The findings revealed that values remained rather stable, but nature experiences, heritage tourism and beach offers gained more relevance when it came to holiday preferences. Concerning travellers’ expectations of future tourism, environmental concern was ranked higher than economic profit. However, those striving for self-direction, stimulation and city tourism offers stated to be less willing to restrict their travel behaviour in the future.

Although our study is just based on a convenience sample, the authors were still able to address notable research gaps. First, because a longitudinal design was selected, it was possible to investigate any potential transitions in basic values and travel style and trace these changes back to the pandemic. Second, thanks to a sophisticated online survey, all concepts could be measured with well-developed scales, which increased the quality of the measurements and led to stable results. Third, young travellers can be considered proponents of future travel styles. Their way of acting and thinking about future tourism could significantly impact the prospective direction of tourism.

This study makes a valuable contribution to changing holiday preferences and provides useful insights for the tourism industry about travellers’ willingness to change their travel behaviour.

Since this study primarily considers human values and socio-structural factors, the findings are of particular interest from a sociological perspective and are also interpreted from this viewpoint.

This study is one of only a few longitudinal studies focusing on holiday preferences and shifting values during COVID-19 and attempting to detect crucial drivers of potential tourism transformations in terms of perceptions from the demand side.