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This study examines experiences and enjoyment of national parks in the context of Tanzania.

A cross-sectional design with quantitative and qualitative methods is applied. The study area is Nyerere National Park in Tanzania. Data collected from fully completed structured questionnaires by 360 domestic tourists are subjected to descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling analysis. Content analysis is used to analyze qualitative data.

The findings have revealed that there is a significant relationship between direct experiences and enjoyment of southern national parks among domestic tourists.

The suggestion is for future studies to explore a longitudinal approach to determine the patterns of domestic tourists in reference to experiences and enjoyment of national parks so as to improve domestic tourism.

The practical implication is for the government, private sector and tourism stakeholders to improve infrastructure and conduct regular surveys and tour guide training.

This study examines experiences and enjoyment of national parks in the context of Tanzania and, specifically analyzes the relationship between direct experiences and enjoyment of southern national parks among domestic tourists in Tanzania guided by types of tourists’ theory.

The present study aims to examine the moderating impact of governance quality on the tourism poverty nexus using a panel of six South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries during the period 2002 to 2019.

For the soundness of the results, fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) econometric models were applied to determine the long-run relationship.

The findings confirmed the positive and significant impact of tourism development (international tourism arrival) and governance quality (effectiveness of governmental services) on poverty (per capita household consumption) reduction. Interestingly results confirm that governance quality and tourism development have complementary impacts on poverty reduction.

The present study has twofold contributions; First, despite the high potential of SAARC tourism, research remains limited in studies examining the role of tourism and governance quality on poverty reduction within the SAARC region. As a result, the present paper presents critical insights into the impact of tourism inflow and governance quality on poverty reduction in South Asian countries. Second, to the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to conduct an econometric analysis to examine the role of governance quality on the relationship between tourism inflow and poverty reduction in SAARC countries.

This paper analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar’s tourism industry, identifying challenges and innovations, and predicting future trends to foster a resilient and sustainable sector.

The study uses a comprehensive analysis of tourism trends, government and private sector responses and changes in tourist behaviour, employing data, case studies and policy reviews.

The pandemic significantly disrupted Myanmar’s tourism, causing economic losses and shifts towards sustainable, outdoor and cultural experiences. Effective strategies by the government and private sector are aiding recovery and suggesting a more diverse and resilient future.

The research is limited by the availability of data during the pandemic, highlighting the need for ongoing strategy adaptation.

The study recommends digitalization, health protocols, domestic tourism focus and sustainable practices for a robust post-pandemic industry.

The study emphasizes the pandemic’s social impact on tourism-dependent communities and the need for inclusive, sustainable tourism practices.

Itprovides unique insights into COVID-19’s multifaceted impact on Myanmar’s tourism, offering valuable information for future sector strategies.

The current study is designed to investigate the factors that foster the framing of destination competitiveness and establish the factors that drive the contribution of tourism innovations to economic growth in smart tourism destinations.

A four-year panel data were extracted from the World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness index and data were analysed using Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood regression model.

The findings demonstrate that both the enabling environment and airport infrastructure significantly affect tourism's impact on the economy of the selected smart European tourism destinations. Conversely, human resources and general infrastructure display a negative correlation with tourism's contribution to the economy. However, no data in the sample support the idea that tourism policies, government prioritization or readiness of tourism information and communication technologies impact tourism's contribution to the economy. Additionally, the marginal effects indicate that improving the enabling environment and airport infrastructure can generate additional benefits for the economy through tourism.

The uniqueness of this study is the integration of smart tourism destinations with the measure of destination competitiveness to provide an empirical bridge that links tourism competitiveness to economic growth.

This paper attempts to examine drivers of tourism development by affording a framework that sustains economic growth and protects the local environment. It develops evaluative and predictive models to measure city performance. Further, a strategy-based model of low carbon cities (SMLC) is used to demonstrate possible tourism development scenarios. The model was applied to the city of Surakarta to operationalize city's transformation towards sustainability.

The research methodology is constructed on three interrelated components: theoretical framework, analytical methods and SWOT. First, the authors have initiated this study by an understanding of linkages between planning and tourism. Second, the SMLC has been used to test sustainable tourism in the city of Surakarta. Third, Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis was applied to formulize the recommendations.

When evaluated by the static SMLC model, the city of Surakarta was categorized as an unsustainable touristic city. However, when the dynamic SMLC was applied, the city of Surakarta was categorized as a sustainable touristic city under a high economy scenario. By reason of the methodological and analytical frameworks and the dynamic SMLC, the city of Surakarta could be promoted to a sustainable touristic city after applying opportunity-seeking strategy and policies.

The paper concludes with policy implications to realign city plan and support sustainable tourism development in the city of Surakarta.

This paper attempts to develop a framework for sustainable tourism as it operates in the city of Surakarta by (1) introducing the sustainable touristic city concept, (2) definition and characters, (3) evaluative and predictive models using the SMLC to measure city performance of the city of Surakarta and (4) rigorous and relevant insight into the magnitude of the benefits of tourism.

This paper aims to analyze the adoption of social media platforms by tourists in Pakistan. Based on an adaptation of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study assesses the factors that lead users to adopt these platforms.

A survey was administered to a convenience sample of 399 travelers who use social media in Pakistan. A Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using AMOS to evaluate convergent and discriminant validity as well as composite reliability. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the causal relationship among all proposed constructs.

The findings reveal that the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEoU) of a social media platform positively impact the behavioral intention of its users. The proposed constructs of compatibility, enjoyment, user expertise and e-trust all demonstrated their crucial roles in the adoption of a social media platform for tourism-related activities by enhancing the platform's PEoU and usefulness.

This research validates the relationship between PEoU and PU of a social media platform in the hospitality industry. Interestingly, this study has expanded TAM by validating the addition of four more constructs, (1) compatibility, (2) enjoyment, (3) e-trust, and (4) expertise, to add worth to this model regarding the understanding of social media usage in this specific industry. The findings are valuable both for managers and policymakers in the tourism sector in Pakistan, as the latter can utilize the results to entice a larger segment of social media users to the tourism industry.

The vulnerability of the tourism industry to an array of risks, encompassing family-related, small- and medium-sized enterprise-specific, strategic, tourism-specific and external factors, highlights the landscape within which small and medium family enterprises (SMFEs) operate. Although SMFEs are an important stakeholder in the dynamic tourism sector, they are not one homogenous group of firms, but have different strategic orientations. This study aims to investigate the interplay between strategic orientation and risk perception to better understand SMFEs risk perception as it is impacting their decision-making processes, resilience and long-term survival. The authors investigate how different strategic orientations contribute to different perspectives on risk among owner-managers.

Based on a qualitative data corpus of 119 face-to-face interviews, the authors apply various coding rounds to better understand the relationship between strategic orientations and the perceptions of risks. Firstly, the authors analysed the owner–manager interviews and identified three groups of different strategic orientations: proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFE, destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFE and passive SMFE. Secondly, the authors coded the interviews for different risks identified. The authors identified that the three groups show differences in the risk perceptions.

The data unveil that the three groups of SMFEs have several differences in how they perceive risks. Proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs prioritize business risks, demonstrating a penchant for innovation and sustainability. Destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFEs perceive a broader range of risks, tying their investments to destination development, emphasizing family and health risks and navigating competitive pressures. Passive SMFEs, primarily concerned with external risks, exhibit limited awareness of internal and strategic risks, resist change and often defer decision-making to successors. The findings underscore how different strategic orientations influence risk perceptions and decision-making processes within SMFEs in the tourism industry.

The authors contribute to existing knowledge include offering a comprehensive status quo of perceived risks for different strategic orientations, a notably underexplored area. In addition, the differences with respect to risk perception shown in the paper suggest that simplified models ignoring risk perception may be insufficient for policy recommendations and for understanding the dynamics of the tourism sector. For future research, the authors propose to focus on exploring the possible directions in which strategic orientation and risk perception influence one another, which might be a limitation of this study due to its qualitative nature.

Varying strategic orientations and risk perceptions highlight the diversity within the stakeholder group of SMFE. Recognizing differences allows for more targeted interventions that address the unique concerns and opportunities of each group and can thus improve the firm’s resilience (Memili et al., 2023) and therefore leading to sustainability destinations development. The authors suggest practical support for destination management organizations and regional policymakers, aimed especially at enhancing the risk management of passive SMFEs. Proactive SMFE could be encouraged to perceive more family risks.

Viewing tourism destinations as a complex stakeholder network, unveiling distinct risk landscapes for various strategic orientations of one stakeholder has the potential to benefit the overall destination development. The proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs are highly pertinent as they might lead destinations to further development and create competitive advantage through innovative business models. Passive SMFEs might hinder the further development of the destination, e.g. through missing innovation efforts or succession.

Although different studies explore business risks (Forgacs and Dimanche, 2016), risks from climate change (Demiroglu et al., 2019), natural disasters (Zhang et al., 2023) or shocks such as COVID-19 (Teeroovengadum et al., 2021), this study shows that it does not imply that SMFE as active stakeholder perceive such risk. Rather, different strategic orientations are in relation to perceiving risks differently. The authors therefore open up an interesting new field for further studies, as risk perception influences the decision-making of tourism actors, and therefore resilience.

New Space activities offer benefits for human progress and life beyond the Earth. However, there is a risk that the New Space Economy may develop according to an anthropocentric mindset favouring human progress and survival at the expense of all other species and the environment. This mindset raises concerns over the social and environmental impacts of space activities and the accountability of space actors. This research article explores the accountability of space actors by presenting a pluralistic accountability framework to understand, inspire and change accountability in the New Space Economy. This study also identifies future research opportunities.

This paper is a reflective and normative essay. The arguments are developed using contemporary multidisciplinary academic literature, publicly available evidence and examples. Further, the authors use Dillard and Vinnari's accountability framework to examine a pluralistic accountability system for space businesses.

The New Space Economy requires public and private entities to embrace hybrid and pluralistic accountability for their social and environmental impacts. A new way of seeing the relationship between human life, the Earth and celestial space is needed. Accounting language is used to mirror and mobilise broader forms of responsibility in those involved in space.

This paper responds to the AAAJ's special issue call for examining how accountability can be ensured in the New Space Age. The space activities businesses conduct, and the anthropocentric view inspiring their race toward space is concerning. Hence, the authors advocate the need for rethinking accountability between humans and nature. The paper contributes to fostering the debate on social and environmental accounting and the accountability of space actors in the New Space Economy. To this end, the authors use a pluralistic accountability framework to help understand how the New Space Economy can face the risks emanating from its anthropocentric mindset.

This study aims to develop an educational tourism demand model, particularly in respect to dynamic effects, university quality (QU) and competitor countries. Educational tourism has been identified as a new tourism sub-sector with high potential, and is thus expected to boost economic growth and sustainability.

This study reviews the literature on the determinants of educational tourism demand. Even though the existing literature is intensively discussed, mostly focusing on the educational tourism demand from an individual consumer's perspective, this study makes an innovation in line with the aggregate demand view. The study uses data that consist of the enrolment of international students from 47 home countries who studied in Malaysia from 2008 to 2017. The study utilised the dynamic panel method of analysis.

This study affirms that income per capita, educational tourism price, price of competitor countries and quality of universities based on accredited programmes and world university ranking are the determinants of educational tourism demand in both the short and the long term. Also, a dynamic effect exists in educational tourism demand.

The results imply that government should take the quality of services for existing students, price decisions and QU into account to promote the country as a tertiary education hub and achieve sustainable development.

Research on the determinants of the demand for educational tourism is rare in terms of macro data, and this study includes the roles of QU, competitor countries and dynamic effects.

Over recent years, the multi-stakeholder role in sustainable ecotourism within Asia has emerged as a crucial narrative for sustainable ecotourism management across countries on the continent. This trend is perhaps due to the fact that ecotourism is one of the most rapidly growing sectors within the tourism industry. However, to date, no reviews have provided a comprehensive analysis related to the role of multi-stakeholders in the achievement of ecotourism sustainability, particularly in the Asian context. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining the current knowledge regarding multi-stakeholder involvement in sustainable ecotourism within Asia.

A systematic review procedure was followed. 320 articles were finalized, from which 34 related pieces of research were selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Three themes emerged from this paper. Recommendations were highlighted to enhance sustainable ecotourism. The study concluded that a more enabling research environment should be provided to improve discourse and encourage policy interventions.

No previous studies have explored the multi-stakeholder's role in achieving Asian sustainable ecotourism, indicating a critical gap to be fulfilled. This paper uniquely contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive review of the roles and challenges of multiple stakeholders in sustainable ecotourism across Asia and proposing innovative policy solutions tailored to the region's unique socio-economic and cultural context. Moreover, it puts forward potential solutions to bolster sustainable ecotourism within Asia, benefiting both stakeholders and the destination.