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1 – 10 of over 4000The purpose of this paper is to identify the perception of tourists towards positive and negative landscape features. Its objective is to classify rural tourists into homogenous…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the perception of tourists towards positive and negative landscape features. Its objective is to classify rural tourists into homogenous groups according to their sensitivity towards specific landscape characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
The work is based on quantitative data collection among tourists spending a vacation at agritourism farms. Altogether, 378 valid questionnaires were collected. A K-mean cluster analysis is conducted to group respondents into homogenous groups.
Findings
The research revealed that tourists particularly enjoy the presence of a landscape comprising orchards, flowery/grassy meadows and vineyards. In contrast, tourists find landscapes that reflects a neglected environment, views of factories and congested roads to be particularly unpleasant. This work has also identified the presence of three different clusters with distinct sensitivity towards landscape attributes: there are tourists who are highly sensitive to both positive and negative attributes, tourists who are highly sensitive to positive attributes but less sensitive to the negative attributes and tourists who are less sensitive to both the positive and the negative attributes.
Originality/value
When discussing issues related to the landscape, the question arises as to how and who should preserve and enhance the landscape for tourism reasons. The results of this research demonstrate that preserving and caring for the environment is imperative to the success of rural tourism.
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Alexandra Georgescu Paquin and Aurélie Cerdan Schwitzguébel
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the tourist landscape as represented in Turisme de Barcelona’s YouTube tourism promotional videos, looking at the landscape’s tangible…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the tourist landscape as represented in Turisme de Barcelona’s YouTube tourism promotional videos, looking at the landscape’s tangible locations, symbolic and tourist assets and the protagonists in an effort to interpret its storytelling in an overtourism context.
Design/methodology/approach
The mixed methodology is based on a visual content analysis of promotional videos posted on the official Barcelona tourism YouTube channel. Quantitative data analysis about the assets and their localization was completed with a qualitative assessment of the way these assets are displayed to unveil the narrative they convey.
Findings
The results highlight that Barcelona’s projected image is mainly based on tangible heritage (especially monuments), its recognizable cityscape and its eno-gastronomic assets. This rather conventional image is geographically concentrated on the neighborhoods perceived as tourist neighborhoods.
Practical implications
This analysis provides a critical reflection of the actual strategy of destination management organizations and the storytelling they transmit. The findings can help to orientate their future actions and provide a method of analysis that can be repeated for other destinations.
Originality/value
This paper sheds new light on the use of urban landscapes in nonstatic images both as a narrative subject and as a tangible tourist space in promotional discourse.
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Steven Rhoden and Maarja Kaaristo
This study aims to analyze the visual aspects of transport tourists’ experience of mobility focusing on British cruise and coach tourists’ international travel experiences.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the visual aspects of transport tourists’ experience of mobility focusing on British cruise and coach tourists’ international travel experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative data was collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with coach and cruise tourists and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Findings
The visual experience of mobility (demonstrated in the paper by the example of cruises and coach tours) is critical in the formation of transport tourism experiences. The mobile tourist landscapes emerge from the interplay of the subjective experiences of particular modes of mobility (vehicle or vessel) and routes, whereby the two key visual elements are the changing scenery and views of everyday local life as experienced whilst traveling.
Research limitations/implications
The present study focuses particularly on the visual elements of passive transport tourism experiences. It does not account for other tourist activities nor does it study the experiences associated with active transport tourism. Future research could perform a holistic analysis of tourists’ experiences of transport in all its forms.
Practical implications
The findings point to the centrality of the experience of mobility in transport tourism experience. The following two key aspects of the experience emerged: the importance of variation of the scenery that the tourist consumes during their tour and a desire to observe mundane, everyday life elements of the destination, which should be taken into account by the tour operators and service providers in the route design and marketing.
Originality/value
Coach and cruise tourism are rarely analyzed together; this study demonstrates considerable parallels between the two in considering them as transport tourism, a mode of recreational activity where mobility is the central part of the tourist experience and should, therefore, be considered a tourist attraction in and of itself.
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This paper will examine the importance of seeing, reading, evaluating and better appreciating the built environment. Creative observation of built environment is fundamental to…
Abstract
This paper will examine the importance of seeing, reading, evaluating and better appreciating the built environment. Creative observation of built environment is fundamental to our day‐to‐day lives as well as to cultural tourism development. As we want to break away from the routine and lack of stimuli of our home work and environment, we travel to foreign places. Our cities are tourist destinations for others. Being aware of one's environment, and being able to read it should be a skill mastered by all. As many become a tourist at some point in their life, cultural tourism is judged essential to society's enrichment and to the personal enhancement of the tourist. Through methods of awareness, this process allows everyone to appreciate the built environment. None of the tourist charters, educational or initiatives adequately training cover these areas of concern. In response, this paper will explore the matters of perception, place and landscape reading, as well as visual or contextual appreciation as the basis for promotion of heritage conservation, cultural identity and sensitization to place specificities and uniqueness of landscapes. How to see and better appreciate these elements is what will progressively promote a conservation ethic in search of promising relationships between visitors and the built environment.
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Eva McGrath, Nichola Harmer and Richard Yarwood
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of small river ferries as an under-researched but novel mode of travel which enhances and brings new dimensions to tourist…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of small river ferries as an under-researched but novel mode of travel which enhances and brings new dimensions to tourist experiences of travelling landscapes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a mixed methods approach including participant observation, a survey and interviews with ferry users and staff at one river crossing in South West England.
Findings
The ferry attracts tourists as a different and practical mode of transport. The river crossing provides an experience of being on water, and the material structure of the ferry significantly shapes on-board interactions whilst providing new perspectives of place.
Research limitations/implications
This article draws on data collected for a study of ferry crossings conducted at three sites in Devon and Cornwall, England, using multiple methods. The material presented in this article focuses on one site and draws on four interviews, twelve reflection cards and observations.
Social implications
The research highlighted the extent to which the ferry is dependent on tourist use. At the same time, it reveals the extent to which the crossing enriches the tourist experience and celebrates a ferry’s contribution to local place-making.
Originality/value
The majority of research on ferry crossings focuses on commuter experiences, marine crossings and larger passenger vessels. This article makes an original contribution to literature on ferries, as it offers a perspective on tourist experiences of river ferry crossings, reveals how the ferry structure influences interrelations on-board and provides distinctive insights into place through a focus on movement across water.
Ivan Alvarez Leon, Anais Cavallin and Nuria Louzao
This research aims to reveal that accessibility of hotels to major points of attraction in the urban–territorial continuum of Catalonia, with its urban and coastal landscapes, has…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to reveal that accessibility of hotels to major points of attraction in the urban–territorial continuum of Catalonia, with its urban and coastal landscapes, has a direct impact on the dependent variables of customer satisfaction and average room rate.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected data from 84 of 4-star hotel establishments, divided into urban and coastal hotels. Both coastal and urban hotels were differentiated depending on their distance to, the beach and the urban city center, respectively. Customer satisfaction and average room rate data were retrieved from online review platforms.
Findings
The study proves that hotels located in the urban–territorial continuum of Catalonia have different behaviors in terms of customer satisfaction and hotel pricing according to the variables of distance and landscape. The study shows that room rate and customer satisfaction are both higher in urban landscapes than in coastal landscapes. Urban hotels present significant differences in their levels of customer satisfaction and room rates depending on their location in the city of Barcelona. However, coastal hotels do not represent significant differences in room rates depending on their location, although they do represent significant differences in terms of customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is based on how a dynamic urban–territorial model consisting of Barcelona and the Maresme coast, the hotel location and distances to main interest points impact in the variables of customer satisfaction and average room rate.
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Sílvia Quinteiro, Vivina Carreira and Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of developing literary tourism in Coimbra.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of developing literary tourism in Coimbra.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory qualitative research identifies existent resources and development potential of literary tourism. The instruments of data collection were bibliographic research, questionnaires, interviews and participant observation.
Findings
There are few literary tourism products in Coimbra, which contrasts with the number of literary places identified, namely, on the left bank of the River Mondego. Tourism development stakeholders in Coimbra have not paid enough attention to the emergence of literary tourism and the opportunities for the development of new sustainable cultural products related with it.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by the size and continual renewal of the corpus, which implies a constant updating of data regarding authors and texts.
Practical implications
This study will lead to the production of a database of Coimbra’s literary resources and a digital literary map, allowing any citizen or entity to design and implement literary tourism products.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study reviewing the potential of Coimbra as a literary tourism destination. Moreover, it discusses literary heritage as a source of products and experiences to foster more balanced tourist flows throughout the city.
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This paper discusses how vinyl records become souvenirs of musical tourism. The record-as-souvenir dynamic is particularly relevant in the discussion about punk culture in cities…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses how vinyl records become souvenirs of musical tourism. The record-as-souvenir dynamic is particularly relevant in the discussion about punk culture in cities like Washington, DC, and other scenes which defy encapsulation as touristic landscapes. Arguing a fluid perspective on musical tourism, the purpose of this paper is to present the argument that vinyl functions as de facto souvenirs of underground musical landscapes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper incorporates literature on souvenirs within tourism studies, market research, and empirical data. It also builds upon research on emotional geographies and the resurgence of the vinyl record industry.
Findings
In many cases, musical recordings (particularly those on vinyl, for tactile and fetishist reasons), while not designed for the function of being souvenirs, come to signify counter-narrative definitions of place.
Research limitations/implications
This work focuses on the context of vinyl as souvenirs with findings derived from the intersection of tourism, critical geography, and music marketing. In offering this contextual account, there is no claim toward generalization but rather the work is put forward as a depth of insight on a phenomenon long in the making yet neglected by researchers. However, a more comprehensive approach to provide further insight on vinyl as souvenirs might include consumer interviews.
Practical implications
This paper expands the conversation about souvenirs further into the era of modern, underground tourism. It argues for the inclusion of music consumption, especially vinyl, as prototypical and unintentional souvenirs as decided by the consumer rather than the producer. It also expands the discourse on counter-narratives of places like Washington, DC, in conversations about place-based music marketing and tourism.
Social implications
This paper frames musical souvenirs in terms of the consumer deciding their value and role in the cultivation of sense of place, rather than the producer. Additionally, music retailers provide a valuable role in their city’s cultivated image, but even this is a collaboration between the retailers and consumers.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the function of vinyl records within the purview of tourism studies and positions as an original contribution connecting music consumption and tourism practices.
Rodanthi Tzanelli and Dimitris Koutoulas
Drawing on the discursive properties of placemaking theory, this paper discusses the development of film tourism in Crete from the release of the award-winning Zorba the Greek…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the discursive properties of placemaking theory, this paper discusses the development of film tourism in Crete from the release of the award-winning Zorba the Greek (dir. Michael Cacoyannis, ZG) to date. The approach is “genealogical,” seeking to explain how ZG-inspired tourism on Crete ended up being more than about the film itself owing to historical contingency.
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Kang-Lin Peng and Pearl M.C. Lin
This study aims to construct an integrated social entrepreneur system in the rural area of Hengshan, Taiwan, that could benefit four stakeholders, namely, tourists, business…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to construct an integrated social entrepreneur system in the rural area of Hengshan, Taiwan, that could benefit four stakeholders, namely, tourists, business, community and government. Two social entrepreneur cases demonstrate a mutually beneficial situation of lowering the structural unemployment rate, returning young human capital to villages and innovating rural tourism through the activism of service science.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative approach was applied to data obtained from 12 research projects spanning three years. Service experience engineering (SEE) methods were used to conduct a service design for social entrepreneurs in an integrated service system. The service system aimed to innovate rural tourism through the activism of service science.
Findings
SEE methods explain a series of service design processes that helped our research team start up two social entrepreneur projects as service prototypes to offer service innovation based on cultural creativity to innovate rural tourism. These two social entrepreneurs in rural tourism offer job opportunities to young people and senior citizens alike. In addition, an integrated service system of interdisciplinary knowledge, multi-stakeholders and local resources fulfills various requirements of stakeholders to promote sustainable rural tourism.
Research limitations/implications
Real action studies are limited in the research on social entrepreneurs. This case study provides research insights into service science and calls for action in practice to change the future of a local village. The results provide the philosophy and knowledge of service science that social entrepreneurs of rural tourism can use in the village. Designing service innovation for rural tourism has shaped its vision toward a sustainable tourism system.
Originality/value
Few studies have shown that social entrepreneurs could innovate rural tourism. The present study presents an action case through the activism of service science.
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