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This study aims to examine nature-based tourists’ experiences in tree houses using user-generated content in Web reviews. The research objectives were to identify the main dimensions of tree house experiences and test whether these dimensions vary according to different traveller-type market segments.

A sample of 722 Web reviews was analysed using mixed content analysis methods. Leximancer software provided computer-assisted qualitative data analysis that identified the main themes, after which further qualitative analysis identified the key narratives associated with experiences.

The results reveal that tourists are extremely satisfied with their stays in tree houses. The main themes that encompass the dominant narratives are tree house, Costa Rica, staff, morning, walk, wildlife, rainforest, opportunity to learn, trip, experience and recommendation. The narratives vary according to type of traveller.

The valuable insights gained emphasise the advantages of using user-generated content in tourism studies. The results also offer a better understanding of the key dimensions of this type of nature-based tourism, including a graphic representation of the main themes and concepts in guests’ narratives. In addition, the findings emphasise that nature-based tourists are not a homogeneous group and that they can be segmented according to type of traveller.

Tourism and hospitality have experienced strong diversification during the past few years. One of the latest trends in the field of nature-based tourism is the phenomenon of tree house hotels. The unique character of these hotels appeals not only to childhood memories but fulfills desires of adventure and novelty, romanticism, and uniqueness. The restorative power of nature is examined in this setting and the evidence suggests there are physiological and psychological benefits from forest recreation and sleeping in treetops. Surveys of potential clients, actual guests, and tree house hoteliers gave new insights into the perception of tree house accommodation and an understanding in the choice and provision of tree house hotels. The findings suggest that tree house hotels respond to a human need in urbanized societies to reconnect with nature and gain relaxation, restored health, and well-being. Environmentally friendly and noninvasive, this new form of hospitality may well stimulate sustainable tourism policymaking based on increasing human interaction with the forest ecosystem services that nature provides.

This paper focuses on the potential applications of eco-features in Vietnamese traditional folk houses to contemporary high-rise housing. One of the main characteristics of traditional folk houses is that they are designed with a deep understanding of and respect for nature. This type of housing also expresses the way of life of its users, having evolved over generations while adapting to their needs, culture, and environment. Whereas the traditional Vietnamese houses can be an important source in the creation of a Vietnamese architectural identity, the design-with-nature approach and its unique characteristics are, however, scarcely found in the contemporary high-rise housing in Vietnam.

The objective of this research is to investigate the potential applications of eco-features in Vietnamese traditional folk houses to contemporary high-rise urban housing. Initially, this study examines the unique spatial characteristics of the traditional folk houses typical in northern Vietnam. In particular, four houses at the Duong Lam Village in northern Vietnam are reviewed. Some of the ecological design elements are extracted from the spatial composition of the typical Vietnamese folk houses in relation to the local climate conditions and the Vietnamese lifestyle (vernacular culture). Finally, this paper attempts to develop new housing models in urban Vietnam, employing the ecological elements learned from the preceding assessment.

The December 2004 tsunami was one of the largest natural disasters in the recent history of Southeast Asia. This paper aims to unfold the experiences of tsunami victims in a highly affected region of Thailand and to examine their post‐tsunami health.

Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in Khao Lak and Thi Muang, two major tsunami affected towns in southern Thailand in May 2007. Detailed informal interviews and participant observation were employed to obtain narratives of tsunami victims.

The research reveals that the health of the tsunami survivors has deteriorated, and that they are still experiencing psychological suffering two and a half years after the tsunami.

The long‐term health condition and care should be prioritized in post‐disaster management.

This paper argues that inner healing, which is not usually considered a priority in the development discourse, is essential to relieve the mental pain of tsunami survivors and to aid their post‐disaster recovery. It highlights that culturally pertinent inner healing is invaluable.

SEPTEMBER, as always, sees us contemplating our activities for the winter months. Exigencies of publishing compel us to write these notes a short time before that month begins, and our contemplation of things this year is coloured by the now rather remote possibility that September may bring the invasion that has been the shadow ahead for a year or more. To plan in a twilight time, as it were, is more than ordinarily difficult, and yet it is a commonsense and correct course to go on, not as if nothing could happen, but to the full extent of our means as they exist. Otherwise general paralysis would occur every time our statesmen warned us of possible attacks. There is no fear of such premature paralysis, however, as our people only want to be up and doing “with a heart for any date.”

The purpose of this paper is to devise Uttaranchal's disaster management mechanism for reduction of effects of disaster, i.e. damage to property and loss of life and the rapid and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

Uttaranchal's location and geographical features render it vulnerable to minor changes. Hence any activity disapproved by mountain ecosystem triggers a disaster. One cannot stop disaster happening but can certainly take some steps to reduce its effects. If disasters cannot be averted, then reduction of losses of any type caused by disaster becomes a focal point of the policy for disaster management.

The study reveals that 83 villages in Uttaranchal need rehabilitation but, to date, Uttaranchal has no resettlement and rehabilitation policy. In India only three States, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, have state‐wide resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policies. Other States have issued Government Orders or Resolutions, sometimes sector‐wide but more often for specific projects.

The study is based on secondary data; however, sufficient care has been taken to consider all important factors while suggesting Rehabilitation Policy for Uttaranchal State.

A disaster of rare severity requires a high level of resettlement and rehabilitation assistance from the State. Sound Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy helps the Government to tackle the problem immediately and efficiently.

The study suggests a Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy for Uttaranchal State.

Mapping the intrinsic value of the art of architecture and the art of nature within the context of Kakunodate and the preservation of its samurai manors and Sakura heritage trees, this paper proposes that from the perception of tourists, the preservation of both items is important. Extending the psychology of pricing that is subject to consumers’ preference and expectation to the context of valuation of cultural heritage assets, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that including the art of nature and the aesthetic of Sakura to the art of architecture (Samurai manors) will add more value to the cultural heritage of Kakunodate than when only the art of architecture is mentioned.

This paper uses Contingency Valuation Method to solicit tourists willingness-to-pay to preserve the architecture and the nature in Kakunodate. The survey uses a double bounded dichotomous choice model to elicit the various levels of tourists preference in various scenarios. Response from more than 1,000 tourists in three scenarios were collected. Through a maximum likelihood method and a subsequent truncated calculation, results are reported.

The results support the conceptual argument that the art of nature adds value to the art of architecture only. Tourists are found to be willing to pay more to support both the architecture (samurai houses) and nature (cherry trees) than the samurai houses alone.

The research findings add to the inventory of research on prior works in heritage trees, conservation of trees and heritage tourism, and cultural heritage assets in general. The empirical findings support prior theoretical works that examined the relationship of nature and art, art and architecture, and architecture as visual consumption.

The findings have managerial implications for policy makers relative to a possible increase of revenue by adding accompanying-nature component to focal architectural assets when soliciting funding support.

The originality and this piece stems from extending trees as an art form in nature and its added value to architecture within the context of cultural heritage assets. The empirical findings add to the much discussed relationships among art, nature, and architecture.

The purpose of this paper is to model housing price temporal variations and to predict price trends within the context of land use–transportation interactions using machine learning methods based on longitudinal observation of housing transaction prices.

This paper examines three machine learning algorithms (linear regression machine learning (ML), random forest and decision trees) applied to housing price trends from 2001 to 2016 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, with particular interests in the role of accessibility in modelling housing price. It compares the performance of the ML algorithms with traditional temporal lagged regression models.

The empirical results show that the ML algorithms achieve good accuracy (R² of 0.873 after cross-validation), and the temporal regression produces competitive results (R² of 0.876). Temporal lag effects are found to play a key role in housing price modelling, along with physical conditions and socio-economic factors. Differences in accessibility effects on housing prices differ by mode and activity type.

Housing prices have been extensively modelled through hedonic-based spatio-temporal regression and ML approaches. However, the mutually dependent relationship between transportation and land use makes price determination a complex process, and the comparison of different longitudinal analysis methods is rarely considered. The finding presents the longitudinal dynamics of housing market variation to housing planners.

The concept of a “visual commons” ties together two key dimensions of how people live together: the expression and pursuit of individual and collective interests, and the expression and development of how residents see and visualize where they live. This concept has helped me think more critically about the relative contributions of cognitive maps, collective perspectives, and symbolic interaction to community studies. It's also been useful in revealing the visual ground against which residents figure the process of becoming neighbors and the disconnects that follow in how residents see where they're living and the natural environments they live within.