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This paper aims to analyze the current state of tourism in Sri Lanka and make practical suggestions for the future.

The paper is written in the context of a strategic question: “how might post-war Sri Lanka develop inbound tourism?” An analytical approach is taken to discuss potential growth of tourism in Sri Lanka from 2013 to 2016.

26 years of war affected tourism in Sri Lanka negatively and a dramatic turnaround came when the war ended in 2009. In 2012 most tourist generating countries indicated significant growth. In 2012 Sri Lanka passed two milestones in its tourism history by emerging as a “Million Tourist Destination” and a “Billion Dollar Export Income Earner”. However, from 1,005,605 tourists in 2012, the number who utilized tourist services and facilities is established as 725,000. Sri Lanka is now aiming to attract 2.5 million tourists by 2016. The paper debates that this target is not realistic.

To further develop tourism, Sri Lanka must develop a practical plan with realistic targets. In conclusion, the authors suggest a ten-point plan.

This paper aims to learn from the present and plan for the future. A former Marketing Director of the national tourism authority of Sri Lanka joined hands with an international hospitality and tourism educator to co-write this paper to advocate for a practical approach in forecasting realistic targets for tourism growth in Sri Lanka.

There is no industry in the world where a crisis caused by terrorism has such a strong impact as in tourism. Providing security for visitors before and during a trip can be a critical success factor for the competitiveness of a particular destination or organization or for business tourism when tourists consider multiple alternatives. Information about political instability, violence, crime or terrorist attacks could cause a substitution effect by tourists. International terrorism and tourism share some characteristics, as both cross national borders, involve citizens from different countries and use the new travel and communications technologies. In recent decades, terrorism organizations have been using tourism targets to gain global visibility. Based on a broad analysis of literature and data, the main goal of this research is to update the work of Seabra (2019) and help to analyse the main connections between terrorism and tourism, specifically by presenting the main terrorist events targeting tourism activity and destinations in the last 35 years and their main consequences for tourism industry.

This paper aims to document the views of a Sri Lankan hotelier/tourism educator on the essential ingredients needed to ensure the future success of tourism in Sri Lanka.

The paper is based on an interview covering eight questions in the context of a strategic overall question: “how might post-war Sri Lanka develop inbound tourism?”

Sri Lanka celebrates two milestones in 2012 – reaching one million tourists and US$ one billion annual income level from tourism. However, it is evident that the key to the future success of tourism in Sri Lanka is simply a “balancing act”. Various important aspects and initiatives should be carefully and strategically balanced now and in the long run so as to ensure that future tourism targets can be attained in a sustainable manner. In conclusion, 12 suggestions are made to reflect where balancing is most needed.

Tourism in Sri Lanka has the potential to emerge as a major export income earner. To further develop tourism, Sri Lanka must balance identified and important aspects and then find innovative and practical solutions.

An international hospitality and tourism educator and a Sri Lankan journalist collaborate in writing this question and answer style paper. The approach taken should be of interest and use to all stakeholders of tourism in Sri Lanka.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the tourism experience of millennials by connecting their value orientations to the meaning that they give to travel. In doing so, it also aims at discovering profiles of young tourists that can be targeted both now and in the future by tourism organisations.

A survey based on validated scales reached 423 Dutch millennials. An integrated multidimensional research strategy has been applied where models that reduce the gathered data to fewer components (principal component analyses) were followed by a cluster analysis.

Ten value orientations (Schwartz, 1994) and four travel meanings have been identified. By combining these ten value orientations and four meanings, nine clusters have been identified representing groups of millennial tourists with different needs. For example, while two clusters fit into the popular description of young travellers seeking only unpretentious enjoyment, millennials represented in two other clusters are strongly motivated by self-transcending values, distance themselves from the travel meaning escapism and relaxation and will therefore not positively respond to a merely hedonic travel offer.

Replication of this research is recommended in other national contexts, possibly using a longitudinal approach.

The nine clusters should be approached with a dedicated travel offer. In particular, at least two clusters of millennials may be successfully approached with a sustainable tourism offer.

The combination of value orientations and travel meanings portrays a detailed and realistic picture of the tourism experience looked for by millennials.

The inbound event tourists drawn to an Australian destination to participate in one of 14 annual international auto racing (AR) events can be sectioned to release each group’s behavioural perspectives around their tourism-related impacts on the destination. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Inbound event tourists attending the destination are surveyed during the three-day major event. Each respondent displays non-uniform, personally driven agendas and varying degrees of local tourism acceptance.

Inbound event tourists self-select into one of six psychologically framed AR sport groupings, and exhibit micro-differences that can then be used to align local tourism around future.

The authors do not consider locals attending this international series AR event, but project their destination tourism and event impacts to be less than those of inbound event tourists. Totally, 90 per cent of inbound AR event tourists each fit one of six motive groups and each group exhibits behaviours, decision-making and spending patterns which can be later optimized in preparation for the destination’s next major event.

AR attendees self-select into just one behavioural attendance motive. Group approaches unlock new understanding of event attendees and their behaviours. Inbound event tourists spend 2 to 1 on the destination’s tourism vs its major event. Destinations targeting inbound event tourists should grow their spend ratio by bundling local tourism offerings into short length-of-stay requirements offering conservatively priced (under $100/activity), adventure focused, tourism options.

This study links inbound event tourist groupings; acquisitions; stay patterns and spending. It captures the economic components and their relative impact on the destination. By combining all the sub-groups of inbound (and local) AR event attendees, a better representation of their economic impact on the destination can be determined.

Smart tourism is a destination management approach that requires the buy-in of a myriad of stakeholders. Its many audiences and complexity demand the creation of meaningful brands to effectively position and communicate smart tourism initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how smart tourism branding strategies have been implemented to communicate relevant values, benefits and attributes to industry stakeholders through institutional websites.

Based on a semiotic analysis of two smart tourism-related sites (destinosinteligentes.es and smarttourismcapital.eu), the research interprets the brand-related visual and verbal signs.

The findings highlight how brand elements embedded in websites communicate a brand identity and facilitate particular interpretations of smart tourism. Both brands use similar signs to promote a techtopian vision of smart destinations but employ different strategies to motivate stakeholder buy-in.

Smart tourism is currently largely embedded in overall smart city initiatives and finding tourism-specific examples online is difficult. However, the two selected websites reflect the brands of multiple destinations and permit a detailed analysis of meaning making. Future research can focus on how brand-related signs are perceived by different stakeholders.

Identifying the strategies and shortcomings of current smart tourism brands informs future smart tourism branding efforts and effective communication with smart tourism stakeholders.

Semiotics is a relevant but underutilized method to understand how smart tourism initiatives conceptualize “smartness.”

This paper aims to review contributions made to the strategic question about the main trends, opportunities, challenges and success factors in the Russian hospitality and tourism market in the experience economy era.

Based on the strategic question, a critical analysis of each contribution was carried out to identify the key themes and the issues, impacts and findings related to each theme.

The findings show nine key themes related to the sustainable development of the Russian hospitality and tourism market.

The findings create a framework to boost discussion between all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry in Russia. There are ways to improve the competitiveness of the country as a tourist destination in spite of a number of impediments, both internal and external. Overall, this theme issue provides a useful framework for discussions with a wider range of stakeholders as the implications arising are of importance to all stakeholder groups.

All nine articles have contributed different perspectives to the topic, and all confirm that networking is critical in the experience economy era to ensure that aspirations and concerns of all key stakeholders are taken into account.

Nearly two decades into South Africa’s democracy, this chapter describes the most recent policy and strategy initiatives to ensure sustainable development and to enhance the country’s tourism competitiveness. It discusses the key national tourism policies, plans, and strategies, which together provide the framework for tourism development and management in the country. The importance of balancing a “top-down” framework with “bottom-up” local engagement is emphasized as a cornerstone of South Africa’s future tourism journey. In line with the philosophy that “structure should follow strategy”, the institutional framework to manage tourism during the next planning period is outlined. The discussion concludes with the critical success factors to enhance South Africa’s future sustainable tourism competitiveness.

This paper aims to examine the initiative of low-price hotels, budget hotels, in Malaysia, to restore the financial sustainability through empowering the digital marketplace strategy in the tourism resilience sector. Giving an open accessibility to customers for achieving their venue with a low price and have a friendly service comes from initiating the digital marketplace arrangement.

This study focuses on what is the importance of the digital marketplace strategy for tourism resilience in the pandemic age and how is it important. The data come from qualitative interview from one couple, husband and wife, regarding the budget hotel operation practice in the city of Sri Iskandar, the Perak state of Malaysia.

The findings revealed the importance of initiating the strategy of digital marketplace in enabling the customers’ personalised decision towards the tourism destination they prefer based on their needs of low-cost and proper service. There are three main points, namely the importance of digital marketplace for tourism market enhancement, readiness of digital marketplace for tourism market enhancement and continued capacity to strategize digital marketplace for tourism market enhancement. The initiative to commit with applying for the resilience for tourism sustainability in the pandemic age is important to ensure they can take a small advantage continually with the frequent customers’ sustainability.

This paper is supposed to contribute in developing the resilience practice through advancing the strategy of digital marketplace in raising the tourism sector, budget hotel operators. The main occupation aims to empower resilience for tourism sustainability in the pandemic age, in order to recover the market in online platform.

The purpose of this paper is to present the Portuguese Tourism Strategy for 2027.

The main political decisions related to tourism are analysed and are related to the sector’s present performance.

Current tourism results show the sector’s capacity in generating more revenue, more employment and the ability to increasingly spread out the activity throughout the year and across the territory.

This article concludes that there remain some challenges that the tourism sector faces, including the need to minimize the effects of seasonality, increase territorial cohesion, capitalize tourism companies, increase innovation and entrepreneurship, among others. All these are part of the main issues for Portuguese tourism in the next decade.