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This paper discusses research which has been conducted irregularly over a period of some thirty years on the topic of tourist pressure and how this phenomenon can be portrayed. This is a relatively undeveloped topic which has not received much attention in the tourist literature, and yet it is felt that the concept mad its application hold considerable potential benefit for tourism planning and management. The key issue is to develop a methodology which allows the phenomenon to be adequately described and portrayed in such a manner that the resulting information can be integrated into the appropriate management of tourist numbers.

Previous research has shown that restaurants are an important factor in the choice of a holiday destination for some tourists. Research has also found that the restaurants at a destination can enhance the guests’ overall satisfaction with the destination. This research was sponsored by the Co‐operative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism in Australia and investigates the relationship between the tourist destination, restaurants and tourists. The study is based on the results of interviews with 459 tourists. The findings of the study provide support for the proposition that tourists perceive restaurants as an important attribute of a tourist destination. The study also provides insight into how tourists select restaurants. This information is useful to managers of restaurants in tourist destinations. Both destination marketers and restaurant managers will benefit from this study.

Observing visitors' behaviour in places presenting heritage and reviewing the tourism literature dealing with ‘heritage’ tourism led to this research that is aimed at clarifying the core of heritage tourism. The common approach that heritage tourism consists of tourists in heritage places, is challenged. The relationship between four groups of variables (the tourists' personal characteristics, the tourists' awareness of the history of the site, the tourists' perception of a site in relation to their own heritage and, the site attributes) and the tourists' visitation patterns (before a visit, during a visit, and after a visit) as the outcome variables was investigated. The actual study was conducted in Israel because of its attributes as a space containing a variety of heritage sites in a relatively small area, which relate to different tourists on different grounds. The research looked in detail at two sites: the Wailing Wall and Massada. The results (specifically the tourists' perception of the sites) indicate that the relationship between the tourists and the heritage site attributes is at the core of the phenomenon of heritage tourism. The understanding of this relationship has value for the study of heritage‐related behaviour including heritage tourism. The study suggests a new approach to understanding heritage tourism which could be applicable for other subgroups of tourism, and could have implications for the management of heritage and historic sites.

Leisure‐based tourism constitutes an important part in China’s domestic tourist market. This article reports the findings of a case study of leisure‐based tourist behavior conducted in Changchun, the capital city of Northeast China’s Jilin Province. The composition and demographic profile of the leisure‐based tourist market are presented. Leisure‐based tourists’ preference with regard to destination choice, leisure facilities used, and accommodation is analyzed. It is concluded that in‐depth understanding of leisure‐based tourist behavior will contribute significantly to the enhancement of tourist city images, modification of urban tourist attraction systems, effective exploitation of urban tourism resources and destination management and marketing.

This study comprises Norwegian and foreign tourists’ expenditures from May to September 1995. The results are based on on‐site surveys in selected Norwegian tourist areas, and the consumption figures are weighted according to the relative size of the nationalities and type of accommodation in order to obtain a representative picture of the consumption per guest night. The foreign tourists' expenditures are also registered in the Norwegian Visitor Survey conducted at border crossings, and the two methods are discussed and compared.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for estimating new direct tourism spending resulting from a new event in an existing destination.

Intercept surveys were conducted on site at six of nine festival locations. Of the 308 festival participants approached at random and asked to participate, 264 agreed to participate (86 percent response rate). Upon further inquiry, only 47 percent of those agreeing to participate were found to be from zip codes outside of the Horry/Georgetown County “Grand Strand” tourist area. These 145 festival participants were administered surveys.

Less than 30 percent of total tourist spending at the festival is attributable to new tourists – those who specifically traveled to the destination primarily for the event and have historically attended Myrtle Beach less than one time per year. Consequently, the economic impact of the festival, in terms of new spending, was relatively small compared to the total amount of tourist spending by all tourists at the festival.

The study provides an example of an event for which new tourist spending could have been overestimated if all tourist spending had been considered to be new spending.

During the years that have passed since John Maynard Keynes's “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” appeared—i. e. at a time when a generation of economists set itself the task of fructifying the theoretical theses of the “General Theory” and the analytical apparatus developed—or interpreted afresh—by Keynes, during these years the science represented by those assembled here was only just establishing itself: The science of tourism.

Word of mouth (WOM) is becoming recognized as an important form of promotion and an important source of information influencing consumer's attitudes and purchase behavior. WOM is especially important in the tourism industry, whose intangible products are difficult to evaluate prior to their consumption. The purpose of this paper is to survey the effect of WOM on tourists' decision for travelling to an Islamic destination.

Data were collected through a field research among 224 inbound tourists who have visited Isfahan as an Islamic destination, and the data were analyzed using regression and correlation. Additionally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applicable for the inference relationships between tourist characteristics and using WOM. The survey period was from June 2 to June 29, 2010.

Two findings have been concluded in this survey. First, WOM affects the decision of tourists for travelling to Isfahan. Second, nationality, gender, purpose of trip, and previous experience of travelling were associated with using WOM among prospective tourists.

Managers should develop complete understanding of WOM and try to stimulate WOM about destinations among tourists, because most tourists are influenced by information from informal sources.

The paper shows that customer‐oriented tourism programs improve the numbers of inbound tourists to a particular destination.

As there is still only limited research about expectation formation in destination marketing, the aim of this paper is to enhance this body of knowledge by providing theoretical and empirical evidence about the role of different factors which generate tourist expectations. In particular, since expectations may significantly condition not only the tourist choice process but also the perceptions of experiences, the objective of this paper is to examine the factors contributing to the expectations of a tourist destination. Based on service expectations literature, a theoretical framework postulates the main factors generating tourist expectations.

Empirical research tests the research hypotheses. More specifically, several in‐depth interviews and focus groups (qualitative research) and a survey conducted in a holiday destination (quantitative research) led to data collection.

Tourist expectations are a second‐order factor based on inter‐correlations among several first‐order factors (i.e. past experience, external communication, word‐of‐mouth communication and destination image). In addition, image can be considered as the main factor generating expectations of a destination.

The main limitation of this study is the geographic area (tourist site) of the research process. The tourist destination under investigation significantly influences the characteristics of the sample, of which national tourists are the main constituent.

Managing the destination image and the quality of experience is critical to induce favorable expectations of the destination in the tourist's mind. In addition, the coherence and reliability of destination communication need to be controlled in expectations management.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for estimating new direct tourism spending resulting from a new event in an existing destination.

Intercept surveys were conducted on site at six of nine festival locations. Of the 308 festival participants approached at random and asked to participate, 264 agreed to participate (86 percent response rate). On further inquiry, only 47 percent of those agreeing to participate were found to be from zip codes outside of the Horry/Georgetown County “Grand Strand” tourist area. These 145 festival participants were administered surveys.

Less than 30 percent of total tourist spending at the festival is attributable to new tourists – those who specifically travelled to the destination primarily for the event and have historically attended Myrtle Beach less than one time per year. Consequently, the economic impact of the festival, in terms of new spending, was relatively small compared with the total amount of tourist spending by all tourists at the festival.

The study provides an example of an event for which new tourist spending could have been overestimated if all tourist spending had been considered to be new spending.