Technology enabled information services use in tourism: an ethnographic study of Chinese backpackers

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the previously unexplored theoretical relationship between technology enabled information services (TEIS) and the value created by the use of such services. This paper presents a mixed virtual and multi-sited ethnography to provide a thick description of Chinese backpackers (CBs) use of TEIS. Participant observations and interviews of CBs in three different journeys within Europe were undertaken. Our findings illustrate that additional usage values occur when TEIS are used in a tourism context. Social influences and technical infrastructure play a stronger role than previous research presented. The study contributes to the literature by 1) providing a theoretical understanding of tourists’ TEIS use; 2) documenting a study of a complete package of technologies used by CBs, and 3) proposing a research model which can be used for studying different TEIS use behaviour/patterns, and also in the design of TEIS for specific contexts

Understanding Chinese tourist shopping in Australia: a social practice perspective

Chinese outbound tourism has become a significant phenomenon in world tourism development. Shopping makes up the highest proportion of the travel expenditure of Chinese outbound tourists. However, despite its importance to many destinations, Chinese outbound tourist shopping (COTS) remains underexplored in the tourism literature. A critical review of the existing published research on COTS reveals that most studies are quantitative and focused on explaining satisfaction, motivation and perception from a consumer behaviour perspective. Also, academic interest in COTS has primarily focused on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, leaving COTS in Western countries poorly understood. To fill these research gaps, the thesis employed a mixed methods approach to systematically examine COTS in Australia from a sociological perspective. The overall aim of this thesis was to use social practice theory (SPT) as a theoretical foundation to understand Chinese tourist shopping in Australia. COTS as a social practice is the basic unit of analysis, while Chinese outbound tourists are decentralised as the carriers of this practice. Inspired by a zooming in and out approach, the overall aim was broken down into three research questions: 1. What are the key features of Chinese tourist shopping practices in Australia? 2. How do Chinese tourists carry out shopping practices on site? 3. Why are the shopping practices of Chinese tourists dominant in their travel? Three studies were conducted to answer these three research questions. The first study used a social practice framework to explore the key features of Chinese tourist shopping practices in Australia. Netnography was employed to collect and analyse shopping-related texts and images in 40 travel blogs from two Chinese online travel communities – Qyer.com and Mafengwo.cn. The findings show that Chinese tourist shopping practices consist of four interconnected elements: materials, competences, meanings and settings. Chinese tourists purchase a variety of utilitarian products in Australia, ranging from clothing, accessories and cosmetics, to healthcare products, food and drinks (materials). They not only shop in tourist attractions for souvenirs, but also expand into pharmacies, supermarkets, department stores and local markets (settings). Although language is an obstacle for many Chinese tourists shopping in Australia (competences), a range of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as shopping websites and mobile apps are used by Chinese tourists to facilitate their shopping (materials and competences). The significance of their participation in shopping practices is multifaceted, including hunting for mementos, seeking brand value, pursuing product quality and authenticity, and maintaining guanxi (meanings). The second study drew upon the notion of practice as performance to examine how the shopping practices of Chinese tourists unfold in Australia. The study focused on the embodied actions within Chinese tourist shopping performances. At a major tourist destination in north-eastern Australia, 110 participant observations conducted, then the field notes were analysed in a content analysis software, Leximancer 4.5. Chinese tourist shopping practices were found to be performed on site through a range of intra-personal and interpersonal embodied actions. Also, the shopping performances of Chinese tourists differ across shopping settings and categories of products. For example, the research found that while in markets, Chinese tourists often browse and leave without purchase, a pattern of activities not seen in other settings. When Chinese tourists buy clothing and accessories, they try on the items at the shop, but when selecting healthcare products, they rely very much on the images stored on their smartphones. Smartphones are commonly used by Chinese tourists, especially in supermarkets, to store product images, search information online and communicate with family and friends not present in the shopping setting through social media during product selection and purchase. The first two studies zoomed in on Chinese tourist shopping practices to obtain detailed insights, while the third and final study zoomed out to uncover how these practices are connected to, and embedded in extensive networks of practices. In this study, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the major social and consumption practices that affect Chinese tourist shopping in Australia, and reveal how the identified practices lead to the dominance of Chinese tourists' shopping practices in their travel. It concludes that Chinese tourist shopping practices in Australia result from a combination of Chinese consumerism and guanxi maintenance under the condition of outbound travel. Chinese tourist demand for consumerism, mainly featuring a desire for Western brands and the pursuit of high quality, is not matched by relevant supply in China, but can be met and further stimulated through outbound travel. Chinese tourists shop not only for themselves, but also to maintain guanxi via gift buying and purchasing products requested by others. Although outbound travel means temporary absence from guanxi networks at home, their emphasis on guanxi maintenance continues. Further, the low frequency of outbound travel, especially to long-haul destinations like Australia, means that Chinese tourists shop not just for their current needs but also for future use. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of Chinese tourist shopping in Australia from a social practice perspective. The application of SPT to COTS research enriches and extends tourist shopping knowledge by offering new insights into what COTS is, how it unfolds and why it is the way it is. More broadly, this thesis also contributes to rectifying the dominance of investigations on motivational and perceptual aspects of tourist shopping, broadening the spectrum of this activity and how to research it. From a practical perspective, the findings of this thesis provide guidelines for retail businesses in the tourism industry to develop policies tailored to the valuable Chinese market

Development of a structural model for quality cultural heritage tourism

The aim of this research is to develop and test a theoretical model of quality cultural heritage tourism. It offers an integrated approach to understanding cultural heritage development and management of tourist destinations, and attempts to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence regarding causal relationships including quality of experience, perceived quality, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The previous literature has already presented the relationship among perceived quality, quality of experience, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in cultural heritage tourism. However, there is a relative lack of academic interest, particularly in Macao. Thus, this research tries to investigate the quality and related constructs in cultural heritage tourism. It seeks to understand the major constructs considered by local stakeholders and visitors in evaluating the quality in cultural heritage tourism, the importance of the availability of quality in the overall experience, visitors‘ behaviour toward quality cultural heritage tourism and also the constructs related to quality. The methodological approach of this research includes qualitative and quantitative methods in the field research in Macao, China. Semi-structured interviews with Macao stakeholders and a questionnaire survey with Macao visitors were used for data collection. A structural model of the relationships between perceived quality, quality of experience, satisfaction and behavioural intentions was tested SEM used in quantitative study tested the validity, reliability and potential of the quality models developed from literature reviews and grounded theory

The Economic Impact of the Arts, Film, History and Tourism Industries in Connecticut

This report contains four ecnomic impact studies corresponding to the four divisions (arts, film, historic preservation, and tourism) of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism that commissioned them. There is an Executive Summar, the four industry studies, and a methodological overview that includes a discussion of the overall approach, economic impact multipliers, data sources, and an explanation of the conservative nature of the studies.Arts, Film, Historic preservation, heritage, Tourism, travel, impact, Connecticut,