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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.

Travel interests of tourists during pandemics and outbreaks are reduced due to the prevalence of fear. It induces lifestyle changes, which may hinder efforts to recover the tourism value chain during post-COVID-19 lockdowns. Subscribing to domestic travel and domestic tourism is deemed to mitigate fear and gradually reopen the tourism industry. Although a crucial initiative, evaluating the perceived degree of exposure of tourists to COVID-19 in tourist sites operating under domestic tourism has not been fully explored in the emerging literature, which forms the main departure of this work.

The problem domain is addressed by adopting multiple criteria sorting method – the VIKORSORT. To demonstrate such application, with 221 survey participants, 35 tourist sites in a province in the central Philippines struggling to revive the tourism industry are evaluated under six attributes that characterize tourists' exposure to COVID-19. To assess its efficacy, the performance of the VIKORSORT is compared to other distance-based multiple criteria sorting methods (i.e. TOPSIS-Sort and CODAS-SORT).

Results show that proximity and volume of tourist arrivals are considered on top of the priority list of attributes. The use of VIKORSORT yields the assignment of 27 sites to the “moderate exposure” class, and eight under the “high exposure” class, with no tourist site assigned to the “low exposure” class. Sorting the tourist sites reveals some observations that tourists prefer sites (1) with open spaces, (2) with activities having limited group dynamics, (3) that are nature-based, and (4) with tourist arrivals that are not relatively high, with enough land area to practice social distancing. In addition, the assignments of the VIKORSORT with TOPSIS-Sort and CODAS-SORT are consistent at least 90% of the time, demonstrating its efficacy in addressing multiple criteria sorting problems.

This work provides an integrative approach in evaluating tourist sites in view of tourism recovery during pandemics. The findings offer crucial insights for the primary stakeholders (i.e. government, tourist operators, and tourists) in planning, resource allocation decisions, and policy formulation. Policy insights are offered, as well as avenues for future works.

Heritage tourism is recognized as one of the major factors for influencing national identities to the tourists through highlighting the connection between built and live heritages. Bangladesh is a country of treasure for heritage attractions. Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil are two famous Muslim heritage sites in Dhaka city. This study aims to measure the tourists’ satisfaction with these two attractions.

The study uses a non-probability convenience sampling technique to collect the primary data. A total of 100 tourists have been selected from both study areas, and primary data are collected through a structured questionnaire. A summated Likert Scale is used to obtain the tourists’ perception of five dimensions – attraction, information, staff and access, environment and facilities and satisfaction levels. Later, multiple regression analysis is used to identify the tourists’ satisfaction-related dimensions of the study sites.

The results reveal that four dimensions, namely, attraction, information, staff and access and environment are statistically significantly related to tourists’ satisfaction. Whereas, beta value for facilities dimension was found statistically insignificant. It implies that tourists’ are not satisfied with the information regarding the study sites, and observed facilities seem to be insufficient to meet the perception of the tourists.

The study suggests that recruitment of trained staffs, undertake programs to preserve and maintain the quality of attractions, proper promotional activities, well-kept and cleaning arrangements and improved facilities and services are essential to increase the tourists’ satisfaction in Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil heritage sites.

Dhaka city is famous for mosques and other Muslim heritages. Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil are two famous Muslim heritages sites in Dhaka city attracting huge tourists from home and abroad. In this paper, an investigation is carried out to measure the tourists’ satisfaction with these two attractions based on their perceptions.

Significant heritage buildings in Europe, and most especially cathedrals and churches in Western Europe, are sites of considerable international tourism appeal. A developing analytical approach termed the orchestra model of experience was used to structure the collection of empirical data about Chinese tourists’ reactions to major cathedral sites in Florence and Milan. These results are used to identify the challenges of meeting not just the needs of Asian tourists but also simultaneously deriving commercial benefits and maintaining the Christian values of the settings. Emphases are placed on the roles of interpretation and the management of protected spaces to meet these goals.

The tourist experience has matured in its body of literature, but researchers still debate the best way to measure and define the concept. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare memorable and on-site tourist experiences from theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives. A review of the literature is used to identify and describe the next evolutionary research step which is the quality-of-life (QOL) aspect of tourism experiences. It is argued that the evolving focus on QOL attributes is fueled by the theories and concepts of service-dominant logic. The paper argues that value (co)created on all sides of the equation (e.g., customer or company) must be considered when carrying out research. The paper also finds that different value outcomes for the individual customer occur in both on-site and memorable experience contexts. The findings contest an earlier theoretical argument, suggesting that memorable tourist experiences provide more value than on-site tourist experience.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the conceptualisation of dark tourism by evaluating both the supply‐side drivers for dark tourism development and the demand‐side motivations for visiting two dark heritage sites in Cyprus.

An exploratory research approach was adopted whereby 12 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with supply‐side stakeholders and two focus groups were conducted with local and foreign visitors.

Production and consumption of dark tourism is continuous and interrelated as demand appears to be supply‐driven and attraction‐based. Tourist interpretations of dark tourism are influenced by tourists' personal factors, the passage of “time” and the way the dark site is projected by the supply‐side. A refined marketing segmentation strategy is proposed taking into consideration the purpose of visit, the relevance of the dark heritage site to the tourist and the depth of the dark element.

The study's focus is narrow but the findings provide theoretical and practical insights into the conceptualisation dark tourism by considering supply and demand aspects and the related influencing factors. In doing so understanding of the phenomenon is enhanced.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the World Heritage Site (WHS) status as a label plays an important role in branding, creating awareness among the tourists and promoting a specific place – be it natural or cultural.

The study is based on qualitative research and utilised interviews and explanatory case study method, taking Maritime Greenwich WHS as a case.

It is found that the status of WHS motivates the tourists in general and heritage tourists in particular to visit the case study site. Also, the status helps in boosting the level of confidence of the tourists while selecting the site. Overall, it helps to reinforce the identity of a place. However, sustainability and conservation should not take a back seat when the very purpose of branding a site as WHS is this.

It is ideal to have a balance in managing the demand and supply side of place management and marketing making sure that the heritage value and trust is kept intact.

This paper seeks to revisit the interrelationship among tourists’ perceived value of the destination, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty in the heritage tourism site of Hoi An. In addition, the moderating role of tourists’ perceived crowding, which has become remarkably common at the site, in such a triangle relationship will also be explored. In other words, this study aims to validate an extended model of perceived value – tourist satisfaction – destination loyalty – perceived crowding.

The study collects data from 403 tourists who visited Hoi An during peak season through an online questionnaire. The data were later analysed using AMOS and Warp partial least squares.

The results validate the significant and positive correlation among perceived value, customer satisfaction and destination loyalty. Also, perceived crowding was confirmed to affect the relationship among these three variables negatively. In terms of academic contributions, this paper empirically proved that low levels of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among tourists who highly value their visiting experience at World Heritage Sites (WHS) can be caused by perceived crowding.

So far, current literature has investigated the direct (either positive or negative) relationship between perceived crowding and post-visit behaviours of tourists (Nie et al., 2022; Papadopoulou, Ribeiro, & Prayag, 2023; Stemmer, Gjerald, & Øgaard, 2022). Broadening this area of research, the authors of this paper used the social interference theory and the stimulus-overload theory to explain the low level of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among tourists who highly value their visiting experience at WHS.

This study aims to reveal the empirical linkage between tourists’ perspectives and attitudes towards disaster ruins and dark tourism by attesting influence relationships between disaster memorials perception, dark tourism evaluation, as well as heritage protection and tourism development intention.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis was used on a sample of 413 valid visitor questionnaires collected at the 5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial Museum, Sichuan Province, China.

Disaster memorials perception positively influences positive evaluation of dark tourism, heritage protection intention and tourism development intention, while negatively influencing negative evaluation of dark tourism. Furthermore, positive evaluation of dark tourism and heritage protection intention positively affect tourism development intention. In addition, prior knowledge is a significant moderator in the research model.

This study applied the stimulus-organism-response framework and social exchange theory to predict tourists’ behavioral intention toward disaster memorials, providing valuable insights to dark tourism research. It illuminates tourists’ psychological and behavioral characteristics at natural disaster sites and deepens research on the human–nature relationship from the disaster perspective.

本研究试图通过验证自然灾难遗址地游客感知、旅游评价、遗产保护意愿与旅游开发意愿之间的影响关系, 以揭示游客对灾难遗址和黑色旅游的感知及态度之间的隐秘逻辑。

采用偏最小二乘法结构方程模型, 对在中国四川省5·12汶川特大地震纪念馆收集的413份有效游客问卷进行分析。

灾难遗址感知正向影响黑色旅游积极评价、遗产保护意愿和旅游开发意愿, 而负向影响黑色旅游消极评价。同时, 黑色旅游积极评价和遗产保护意愿均显著正向影响旅游开发意愿。此外, 游客的先验知识在研究模型中起着重要的调节作用。

本研究运用“刺激-机体-反应”研究框架预测了旅游者对自然灾难遗址地的行为意向, 深化了黑色旅游研究, 拓宽了S-O-R理论的适用范围。

Este estudio revela el vínculo empírico entre las perspectivas y las actitudes de los turistas hacia las ruinas de catástrofes y el Turismo oscuro, mostrando las relaciones de influencia entre la percepción de los monumentos conmemorativos de catástrofes, la evaluación del turismo oscuro, así como la protección del patrimonio y la intención de desarrollo turístico.

Se empleó un análisis de modelización de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales en una muestra de 413 cuestionarios válidos de visitantes recogidos en el 5·12 Museo Conmemorativo del Terremoto de Wenchuan, Sichuan, China.

La percepción de los monumentos conmemorativos de las catástrofes influye positivamente en las evaluaciones positivas del turismo oscuro, la intención de protección del patrimonio y la intención de desarrollo turístico, mientras que influye negativamente en las evaluaciones negativas del turismo oscuro. Además, las evaluaciones positivas del turismo oscuro y la intención de protección del patrimonio influyen positivamente en la intención de desarrollo turístico. Además, el conocimiento previo moderadora significativamente el modelo de investigación.

Este estudio aplica el marco teórico estímulo-organismo-respuesta (E-O-R) y la teoría del intercambio social para predecir las intenciones de comportamiento de los turistas hacia los monumentos conmemorativos de catástrofes, proporcionando valiosas ideas para el estudio del turismo oscuro. Clarifica las características psicológicas y conductuales de los turistas en los lugares de catástrofes naturales y profundiza en el estudio de la relación entre el ser humano y la naturaleza desde la perspectiva de las catástrofes.

Sculpted by the elements and inhabited by an established corpus of local families, Kandovan Village is a rare example of functioning cultural heritage largely overlooked by international tourists. Within this context, this chapter demonstrates how heritage sites can use their inherent sociocultural characteristics to stimulate tourism. Leveraging this encourages site managers to draw upon less tangible elements, such as the sincerity of local inhabitants and the potential for their site to serve as a platform for social interaction, in order to engage tourists, stimulate memorable experiences, and encourage repeated visits and recommendations to others. In doing so, this chapter highlights the importance of prior knowledge, word of mouth, and co-creation in crafting cultural heritage tourism experiences.