Search results

This paper seeks to increase knowledge of young tourism by presenting the findings of an empirical study of younger tourists attending cultural festivals in Switzerland. Although often neglected by academic research, the young tourism market is nonetheless important in size, furthermore, young tourists are often the trendsetters who establish and build the attractiveness of tourist destinations (Horak and Weber, 2000) The study provides data and analysis on the consumer behaviour of younger tourists, particularly regarding their choice of accommodation, eating out, travel and entertainment. The findings confirms Carr's (1998) view of a separate yet heterogeneous market, different from that of older tourists, yet in some cases sharing certain similarities. As in earlier studies of youth culture, the study finds an emphasis among young tourists on leisure activities and the importance of information — particularly from the Internet. Similarity with more traditional tourists was shown by the high importance given to cleanliness in accommodation and the provision of individual bathroom facilities. Young tourists were also found to be extremely loyal to a particular country, with a very high possibility of repeat business. Given increasing longevity and affluence, this could translate into a high “lifetime‐value of the client,” possibly lasting over half a century.

Image has been found to be one of the important influences in the selection of consumers' choice for visiting and investing in a destination leading to sustainable development. Important determinants of tourism namely, knowledge of destination attractions and image association were employed in this research based on previous studies in a number of fields. The research reported in this paper presents the results of an empirical test of the determinants related to tourism using Liverpool as a case study because of its selection as the European Capital of Culture (CoC) for 2008. European Capital of Culture scheme has among its many objectives the idea of sustainable development for the chosen CoC. Combination of data collection methods was used for the research. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on destination image association by providing empirical evidence through the case study or Liverpool as well as how consumers relate to a destination and especially a CoC. One of the major findings of the study was the identification of image association clusters with regard to Liverpool as a CoC. We brand this clusters as the ‘tangible attractions cluster’ and ‘intangible attractions cluster’. The results of this research provide important implications for strategic image management and can aid in designing and implementing sustainable marketing programs for creating and enhancing tourism destination images.