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Scholars have increasingly researched on how the uprise of Technologies 4.0 will alter the way in which the tourism destinations, the hospitality and tourism sector will operate. Research points out to the fact that the massive digital transformation can lead to a human-centric experience design perspective which is against the principles of tourism sustainable development. In fact, one of today's challenges is predicting how destinations can use immersive digital experiences like metaverse to instill sustainable behaviours. Bearing that in mind, in this chapter, one first explores the concept of metaverse in general and after in the context of tourism destinations management organisations, showing that metaverse that seeks to turn imagination into reality using a panoply of technologies should be seen as the perfect mean for sustainable tourism.

The study proposes a conceptual framework to create an understanding of metaverse experiences envisioning sustainable practices.

Finally, one identifies research gaps and proposes an agenda with the potential of benefiting destination's management organisations. Furthermore, it was our intent to identify opportunities and challenges involving the use of metaverse with sustainable ends by tourism destination management organisations.

This study assumes that metaverse can be used by destination management organisations to educate potential ‘tourists’ by providing to them innovative educational environments where they can ‘live’ all sorts of non-human-centric sustainable experiences. With that intent, a model for the implementation of metaverse was created with its foundations on current experiments happening worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When examining promotion strategies, the study focuses on the change in marketing and public relations strategies based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies and, in particular, the use of the internet.

This study draws on a qualitative analysis of the different strategies used by traditional agencies and online agencies in Spain from the mid-19th century to the present. This analysis shows how traditional communication strategies survived at the beginning of the 21st century, together with other more innovative ones, while some disappeared, being eliminated by the new online travel agencies, which created a particular conception of marketing and communication. This paper is divided into the following parts: the introduction; the beginnings of travel agency promotion in the 20th century; the evolution of promotion in travel agencies since the late 20th century; communication innovation at the beginning of the 21st century; online travel agencies; and conclusions.

This study shows that although online agencies did not manage to position themselves with a large turnover, they generated advantages and sharpened their imagination to create a new, more economical advertising model, eliminating the costs of public relations and advertising campaigns. In addition, they allowed clients to have greater independence when making their reservations, while enabling them to monitor the tastes of potential and real clients and add blogs so that consumers could express their degree of satisfaction with the product or services provided by the agency.

The focus of attention is the travel agency sector in Spain and, more specifically, communication. Studies on travel agencies and their marketing have been very scarce and partial, impeding professionals in the tourism sector from having a broad vision to direct their promotional and public relations actions. The originality of this article lies in its making a comparison between two different visions of tourism marketing and, specifically, of travel agencies, that is, the traditional vision and the innovative one. It thus helps all professionals in the sector to value and improve their marketing and communication strategies.

The metaverse, which is now revolutionizing how brands strategize their business needs, necessitates understanding individual opinions. Sentiment analysis deciphers emotions and uncovers a deeper understanding of user opinions and trends within this digital realm. Further, sentiments signify the underlying factor that triggers one’s intent to use technology like the metaverse. Positive sentiments often correlate with positive user experiences, while negative sentiments may signify issues or frustrations. Brands may consider these sentiments and implement them on their metaverse platforms for a seamless user experience.

The current study adopts machine learning sentiment analysis techniques using Support Vector Machine, Doc2Vec, RNN, and CNN to explore the sentiment of individuals toward metaverse in a user-generated context. The topics were discovered using the topic modeling method, and sentiment analysis was performed subsequently.

The results revealed that the users had a positive notion about the experience and orientation of the metaverse while having a negative attitude towards the economy, data, and cyber security. The accuracy of each model has been analyzed, and it has been concluded that CNN provides better accuracy on an average of 89% compared to the other models.

Analyzing sentiment can reveal how the general public perceives the metaverse. Positive sentiment may suggest enthusiasm and readiness for adoption, while negative sentiment might indicate skepticism or concerns. Given the positive user notions about the metaverse’s experience and orientation, developers should continue to focus on creating innovative and immersive virtual environments. At the same time, users' concerns about data, cybersecurity and the economy are critical. The negative attitude toward the metaverse’s economy suggests a need for innovation in economic models within the metaverse. Also, developers and platform operators should prioritize robust data security measures. Implementing strong encryption and two-factor authentication and educating users about cybersecurity best practices can address these concerns and enhance user trust.

In terms of societal dynamics, the metaverse could revolutionize communication and relationships by altering traditional notions of proximity and the presence of its users. Further, virtual economies might emerge, with virtual assets having real-world value, presenting both opportunities and challenges for industries and regulators.

The current study contributes to research as it is the first of its kind to explore the sentiments of individuals toward the metaverse using deep learning techniques and evaluate the accuracy of these models.

This study aims to understand how female executive travellers should be characterized by inter-winning socio-economic segmentation and leisure travel motivation.

This study identifies push factors as a motivation for leisure travel among female executives in India. Quantitative research methodology was applied based on 892 online responses to a questionnaire. Principal component analysis was applied to identify the underlying dimensions of push motivational items.

The findings disclose five-factor dimensions of self-esteem; knowledge- and novelty-seeking; stimulus; escape; and self-recognition. Among the five identified dimensions, stimulus was the most important factor for motivating female executives to travel for leisure, followed by knowledge and novelty-seeking.

This study was conducted on 1,100 female executive travellers, meaning the results are only valid for this cultural context. All data was collected through a referral chain network survey among female executives via Google survey forms. While segmenting types of travellers amongst females, usage of push motivation framework as a variable remains pervasive in tourism research.

Although literature on female travel motivation is abundant, however, to the authors’ knowledge, empirical studies that focus on female executives leisure travel motivations are still rare. These findings are, therefore, valuable for illuminating tourism stakeholders to cater this potential segment more customisedly.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the potential of data analytics to enhance project delivery. Yet many argue that its application in projects is still lagging behind other disciplines. This paper aims to provide a review of the current use of data analytics in project delivery encompassing both academic research and practice to accelerate current understanding and use this to formulate questions and goals for future research.

We propose to achieve the research aim through the creation of a systematic review of the status of data analytics in project delivery. Fusing the methodology of integrative literature review with a recently established practice to include both white and grey literature amounts to an approach tailored to the state of the domain. It serves to delineate a research agenda informed by current developments in both academic research and industrial practice.

The literature review reveals a dearth of work in both academic research and practice relating to data analytics in project delivery and characterises this situation as having “more gap than knowledge.” Some work does exist in the application of machine learning to predicting project delivery though this is restricted to disparate, single context studies that do not reach extendible findings on algorithm selection or key predictive characteristics. Grey literature addresses the potential benefits of data analytics in project delivery but in a manner reliant on “thought-experiments” and devoid of empirical examples.

Based on the review we articulate a research agenda to create knowledge fundamental to the effective use of data analytics in project delivery. This is structured around the functional framework devised by this investigation and highlights both organisational and data analytic challenges. Specifically, we express this structure in the form of an “onion-skin” model for conceptual structuring of data analytics in projects. We conclude with a discussion about if and how today’s project studies research community can respond to the totality of these challenges. This paper provides a blueprint for a bridge connecting data analytics and project management.

Heritage tourism is an increasingly popular form of tourism that allows individuals to connect with the past and immerse themselves in cultural and historical narratives. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the intricate relationships among vicarious nostalgia (VNOS), memorable tourism experiences (MTEXs) and their collective influence on tourists’ behavioral intentions (BINTs). Additionally, this study examines the moderating effect of social return (SN) in the context of heritage tourism.

Data were gathered using a self-administered questionnaire from 259 tourists visiting heritage sites in Jaipur. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling.

The results confirmed that VNOS had a significant positive impact on BINT in the context of heritage tourism. The causal relationship between VNOS and BINT was fully mediated by MTEX. The results further verified that the presence of SN strengthens the association between MTEXs and BINT.

This research will guide the firms associated with heritage tourism to target specific cohorts interested in heritage tourism. Policymakers may find it easier to create unique offerings and packages that appeal to visitors interested in historical sites and produce memorable travel experiences. One key implication is to create “social media friendly spaces” at different locations of the sites. To increase tourism, managers may use the findings from this research to create plans for the ethical promotion and protection of cultural and natural heritage sites.

Overall, this research advances the understanding of the role of VNOS in heritage tourism by elucidating its cognitive and emotional aspects and their subsequent influence on the memorability of tourist experiences and BINT s. Additionally, by considering the moderating effect of SN, this study provides a comprehensive view of how these factors collectively shape tourists’ decisions and actions in the context of heritage destinations. This research has been conducted in the heritage city of Jaipur (North-Western India), which, surprisingly – despite its popularity as a heritage tourism site – has not been sufficiently explored in the scholarly research.

The close link between fashion and from a historical and sociological point of view is the focus of this chapter. Since the Industrial Revolution, these two industries have been part of the path toward modernity in Western Europe. The new industrial society created a different relationship with leisure time and bodies. On the other hand, fashion tourism accelerated and intensified this process toward unforeseen outcomes: new social relations and the loosening of traditional morality constraints. The swimming costume represents the point of encounter and overlapping between these two spheres: a significant element of novelty despite its ever-shrinking dimensions.

Tourism is considered one of the globe's most prominent sectors, generating considerable forex revenues and employment generation, contributing to world peace and solidarity among many nations. However, it is negatively influenced by different factors like the spread of diseases, terrorist attacks, outbreaks of war, etc. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unforeseen upheavals, resulting in demand and supply uncertainties in nearly every area of the economy (El-Erian, 2020). Thus, it is relevant to study the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry. This chapter explains the journey of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic by portraying the status of global tourism, how it impacted the Indian economy and its revival strategies, with special mention to Kerala tourism. The pandemic also resulted in a considerable change in the travel intentions of tourists, their travel preferences and their attitude towards travel. Hence, this chapter also presents the changed travel intentions of tourists that will help the industry players modify their products per the tourist's expectations. Finally, this chapter presents how the tourism industry recovered from the pandemic from both the supplier and demand perspectives, which will be helpful for all tourism stakeholders.

This study aims to examine the impact of the structural linkages between memorable tourism experiences, destination attachment, tourists’ satisfaction and customer-based destination brand-equity on tourists’ storytelling intentions.

The authors proposed a conceptual model that examines how memorable experiences contribute to tourists’ sense of attachment to a destination, which can lead to their willingness to share their trip stories. Using partial least square estimation, the authors analysed the conceptual model through data generated by a survey of 448 Indian domestic tourists.

Study confirms the validity and usefulness of the conceptualized model, as it shows significant correlations between the key variables. Specifically, the authors found that positive and memorable tourism experiences significantly affect tourists’ attachment and their satisfaction with destinations. As a result, tourists who form a strong customer-based destination brand equity are more likely to develop storytelling intentions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, current study is the earliest to explore the association between memorable tourism experiences, tourist satisfaction, attachment, customer-based brand equity and how they impact storytelling intentions of tourists.

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR, including virtual reality [VR], augmented reality [AR], and mixed reality [MR]) on marketing in Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 is explored with systematic literature review in this chapter. AIXR is becoming a necessary aspect of marketing, driven by efficiency, productivity, and innovation. Despite AI's capabilities, the human touch in marketing is preferred due to superior adaptive, creative, and innovative abilities. The use of fully automated marketing systems is limited to specific tasks. This research will benefit both practitioners and academics focusing on AIXR in marketing and is limited by the number of included literature.