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Globalization has intensified marketing pressures for tourism destinations in their operations at a national, regional, and international level. The dynamics of the twenty-first century have resulted in immense competition, causing organizations in the tourism and hospitality business to adopt new strategic management and operational marketing processes. Branding has become one of the important marketing strategies in withstanding the competitive nature of the tourism industry when offering products and services to tourists. Zimbabwe as a tourism destination has also experienced various changes due to globalization, induced by its socioeconomic and political state of affairs. In order to survive and adhere to the changing market demands, Zimbabwe as a tourism destination has also adopted branding as a marketing strategy, with the aim of holding a high-valued global market position through an extensive brand identity.

Zimbabwean tourism, whose draw-card is wildlife, has been on the decline since land invasions that occurred in 2000. Due to the farm invasions, wildlife-based tourism is no longer a viable option. In cases where traditional industries are declining, cultural tourism has been found to be an effective alternative source of revenue. Cultural and heritage tourism represents a growing special interest market whose demand is very high; however, this sector is yet to be sufficiently explored in the empirical context of Northern Zimbabwe. The purpose of this paper is to explore the development potential of the sector.

A quantitative methodology was applied in this study. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to 500 international tourists who visited Northern Zimbabwe’s cultural and heritage attractions between October 2013 and February 2014. Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 19.0 was employed in data coding and analysis. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and one way analysis of variance were used in this study.

On the whole, the study found that there is potential to develop cultural tourism as an alternative for tourism growth in Northern Zimbabwe. Results showed that there exists a certain demand for cultural and heritage tourism in Northern Zimbabwe and should be developed. Cultural and heritage tourists’ spending is high per visit, despite the fact that Zimbabwe is an expensive destination. The intention to repeat visitation was found to be significant with the age, level of qualification and nationality of respondents.

The findings provides insights for cultural and heritage tourism managers in Northern Zimbabwe and similar places around the country to invest in this special interest tourism. The development of cultural and heritage tourism will contribute towards the diversification of the seasonal and threatened nature-based tourism in Zimbabwe. With a better understanding of the motivations, trip behaviour characteristics and perceptions of Northern region, this paper presents insights that are important in developing the cultural and heritage tourism sector. Research on tourism growth in Zimbabwe has predominantly focused on nature-based tourism, suggesting a clear relegation of the contribution that cultural and heritage resources can make towards tourism growth; thus, this study provides a significant contribution in the Zimbabwean context with regards to literature.

This book is essential for anyone in destination management in the tourism industry or government. The book includes both theoretical and practical writings for stakeholders. In all chapters, we provide titles including pandemic and disaster descriptions, crises during and after disasters and the motivation and safety of tourists, the regeneration of the tourism industry only after the global epidemic, the revamp of the tourism industry as well as the existence of a reshaping, crisis planning and control upon crises as well as pandemic after the restoration of the tourism sector of the tourism industry, and tourism issues are discussed in the management plans of the centralization. This book provides cases and empirical studies that deal in depth with the current situation, challenges, solutions and future strategies after the outbreaks and natural disasters from a sustainable perspective, for readers with an equitable interest or involvement with the organizations in inquiry.

The study aims to examine the mediating effects of escapism (ESC) and ethnic food experience (EFE) in the relationship between diversity (DIV) and behavioral intentions (BI) of visitors attending Hoi An International Food Festival held in Vietnam.

The research takes a predictive and explanatory approach rather than theory confirmation. Partial least squares (PLS) algorithm was used to analyze multiple mediation. The data were collected from 323 attendees through a self-administered questionnaire.

The research highlights that escapism and EFE have positive and significant mediating effects on the relationship between DIV and BI. Furthermore, while EFE is the most important predictor of BI, escapism has emerged as an antecedent variable that deserves to be given the highest importance. Finally, visitors who are participating in their first international food festival do not seem to consider the nexus between DIV and ESC as much as repeaters.

The study's limitations include the collection of data from a single festival and the fact that the analyses are only quantitative. The results contribute to festival organizers by revealing the importance of multiple mediation roles.

This study contributes novel insights to the literature on festival and event management, extending previous studies and filling a gap by proposing ESC and EFE as multiple mediators in the nexus between DIV and BI. The present study provides a comprehensive examination of the influence of individual variables previously analyzed separately on festival-goers' experiences. This facilitated the identification of crucial aspects of the circumstance, thereby reducing any ambiguity.

Customer experience (CX) has become a major concern of business managers around the world and is considered a determinant factor of continuing corporate success. Despite the growing number of research studies focusing on the topic, knowledge remains underexamined in general, and specifically in terms of online users. Understanding how online platforms inspire travel experience is increasingly pertinent as visual contents acquire insignificance. This is especially relevant when travel is restricted such as during the COVID-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, there is a gap in the literature research on online CX in online visitor attractions. The study aimed to investigate the visitors' reviews of online visits during the lockdown. The research has followed the Netnography approach as modern qualitative research to understand the online CX of visiting virtually the attractions.

The results revealed three dimensions of cyber-tourist experiences related to the tourism-driven with its four subdimensions, the emotional reaction and expectation, and satisfaction and behavior intentions. The study adds to the better knowledge of the modern research methods dealing with the cyber-customer experience (CCX) by examining the Netnography method.

This research is a pioneering attempt to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on tourists' experience and to highlight the opportunities for tourism practitioners to profit from the online presence, to be more accessible, and to increase their traffic to guaranty their online visibility.

This chapter delineates the conditions, challenges and opportunities for the sustainability of small entrepreneurial firms involved in local food tourism. It raises awareness on how these businesses can enhance their competitiveness in this market. It puts forward an analytical framework that is based on the economic, social, environmental and cultural sustainability of small local food tourism entrepreneurs in Swedish, Italian and Spanish contexts. This research implies that the financial sustainability of these small enterprises is contributing to local economic growth and employment in their country. From the social sustainability aspect these tourism businesses are intrinsically linked to local communities. Their responsible practices are meant to safeguard the environmental sustainability as well as the preservation of their local culture and heritage. At the same time, they enable them to add value to their destination’s cultural sustainability.

Given the increased importance of food in tourists’ travel experience, the purpose of this paper is to explore the current and future potential of local food and foodways in marketing Egyptian destinations online.

The content of 20 Egyptian destination marketing organization (DMO) websites was subject to a content analysis. A checklist was developed based on literature analysis. The frequencies of information related to food culture and cuisine marketing were tallied, followed by a qualitative assessment of contents from the various websites. The results were further discussed with DMO representatives to provide contextualized insights as to the future potential of utilizing local food and food tourism initiatives as a component of DMOs website marketing in Egypt.

The study noted some initial efforts for Egyptian DMO websites to market food culture and gastronomic practices; however, the results suggest that the usage of food culture on Egyptian DMOs websites is still in its infancy. The study also highlights the challenges that need to be tackled as well as the resources required for food tourism development.

This study illustrates the need and potential capacity of Egyptian DMO websites to market food culture and local cuisines (including traditional foods and table manners). These results are expected to help Egyptian DMOs to strategically embrace local cuisine and food culture as a vehicle for destination marketing.

This case study provides insights for African and other developing economies in their destination marketing. The proposed framework and guidelines are intended to potentially serve as a framework for destination marketers and entrepreneurs to optimize the tourism potential of food culture.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an opportunity to reflect on government-led initiatives for addressing human capital development (HCD) in Cross River State (CRS), the widely acknowledged number one tourism destination in Nigeria.

A descriptive case study of the CRS government’s initiative to build and consolidate the human capital base for an emerging tourism destination is presented.

The findings show that HCD initiatives emerged as a result of a public–private collaboration between CRS and the Citizens Development Corps (CDC).

Using a real-life example, this paper demonstrates how the government in an emerging nation can initiate positive policies to advance HCD in tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to test the value of experientiality as a determining factor for destination loyalty (LOYD) in the context of culinary tourism. The present research sees in memorability (MEM), Quality of Life (QoL) and place attachment (PA) experiential variables driving future loyal intentions to revisit a certain place.

The causal relationships between the concepts have been analysed using structural equation modelling and the partial least squares technique.

Results achieved confirmed that new concepts should be considered in order to reach a better understanding of the current experiential phenomenon and to provide destinations and practitioners with new strategies in line with the requirements of the sector and the modern consumers’ expectations.

Due to the application of a convenience sample, results should be understood within the context of this case study.

The conclusion of this research highlights the importance of delivering food-based experiences to travellers with the aim of generating a positive impact in individuals’ lives, beyond the holiday time. This can result in QoL and PA which are strong antecedent of future loyal intentions towards a destination.

This work represent one the first attempts to measure the experiential value of food-based experiences lived on holidays and its effect on marketing results. This research outlines useful strategies for enhancing the competitiveness of destinations in the new experiential scenario.