Destination image, satisfaction and destination and loyalty in cruise tourism: the case of Málaga (Spain)

Over the past decades cruise tourism is a sector that has experienced a tremendous growth around the globe. The relations that are established between the different agents that interact in this industry, passengers, crew and residents are crucial for visitor satisfaction and the success of the tourist destination. The study has analyzed the different types of cruise passengers who landed at the port of Malaga and their perception of the city through destination image, satisfaction and destination loyalty. A cluster analysis identified the existence of four different groups of passengers whose opinions can give a specific answer to the consolidation of Malaga as a quality tourist destination. From a practical point of view, recommendations about the adequate management of the destination´s attractions for the cruise industry are discussed in the conclusions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Application of an opinion consensus aggregation model based on OWA operators to the recommendation of tourist sites

Given the growth in tourism online data as a result of a large number of users posting their personal opinions in social networks and other online platforms with the idea to help other visitants, many authors have proposed a huge variety of ways to classify the sentiments contained in these opinions in order to recommend services (hotels, restaurants, etc.) and destinations to the users with the intention of facilitating their trip planning. In this paper, the authors propose a model to rank tourist sites of a city, based on OWA operators, with the objective of being used as a recommender system.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the EU project H2020-MSCA-IF-2016- DeciTrustNET-746398. This paper has been elaborated with the financing of FEDER funds in the Spanish National research project TIN2016-75850-R

Travelling for Umrah:destination attributes, destination image, and post-travel intentions

This paper examines the links between cosmopolitanism, self-identity, and a desire for social interaction perceived destination image and behavioural intentions. A model tested using a sample of 538 Iranian visitors to Mecca for the purpose of Umrah. The result from the structural model suggests that destination attributes influence perceived destination image. Further, such tourists are likely to revisit or recommend Islamic destinations if their experience matches their perceived image of the destination. This implies that, while the religious characteristics of the destination remain important, destination managers cannot disregard the tangential, non-religious attributes of a destination which are crucial in order to satisfy more conventional tourist desires. As such, this study suggests that those managing religious travel destinations should endeavour to foster a welcoming image, where experience, interaction and tolerance are at the forefront of the destination’s offering

CITY IMAGE – AS TOURISM DESTINATION

Tourism is a competitive industry, even on a global scale. If access to a destination or attraction is too complicated, time consuming, expensive or not providing adequate capacity, even the most spectacular attraction will remain a secret to most tourists, as they will prefer competitive alternatives” (Smiths, 2003). And to continue this, it is considered that „that cultural differences and uniqueness are important if one wants cultural products to become a commercial success” (Lindenberg, 2004). When cultural tourists are looking to experiment or to improve their knowledge, the question is: “Which are the best strategies and practices to market that experience and knowledge for the cultural tourists” (Kantanen, 2005). This paper will be dedicated to presenting city tourist destinations, their marketing and market positioning, also to analyze the way in which potential customers’ perception is built and how the process can be influenced, and to analyze the way the tourist product is assembled.City, Tourism destination, Competitive advantage

Understanding tourist citizenship behavior at the destination level

Tourist citizenship behavior (TCB) is crucial for tourist destination management because of the benefits it provides to destinations. Despite the importance of this discretionary and altruistic behavior, however, scant research has analyzed TCB at the destination level. The present study addresses this gap. It examines the relationships between destination identification, perceived value, and TCB. It also explores the relationship between TCB and willingness to sacrifice to visit a destination. Data on a sample of 629 tourists (aged 18 years or older) were collected to test the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling. TCB is a reflective second-order construct (dimensions: recommendation, helping, and feedback). The results show that both destination identification and perceived value are positively related to TCB, which positively affects willingness to sacrifice. Thus, the findings provide evidence that both destination identification and perceived value are important factors in understanding tourists’ citizenship behavior in destinations. Furthermore, the study shows that tourists who are willing to help others by giving feedback and recommending a certain destination (i.e., performing TCB) are also willing to make additional sacrifices to travel to that destination. The theoretical and practical implications for researchers and tourism managers at the destination level are discussed.This research was funded by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University (RTI2018-099467-B-I00) and Research Support Plan, Facultad de Economía y Negocios, Universidad de Chile (Res. Ex. 270.19; July 07, 2019)

Advanced recommendations in a mobile tourist information system

An advanced tourist information provider system delivers information regarding sights and events on their users' travel route. In order to give sophisticated personalized information about tourist attractions to their users, the system is required to consider base data which are user preferences defined in their user profiles, user context, sights context, user travel history as well as their feedback given to the sighs they have visited. In addition to sights information, recommendation on sights to the user could also be provided. This project concentrates on combinations of knowledge on recommendation systems and base information given by the users to build a recommendation component in the Tourist Information Provider or TIP system. To accomplish our goal, we not only examine several tourist information systems but also conduct the investigation on recommendation systems. We propose a number of approaches for advanced recommendation models in a tourist information system and select a subset of these for implementation to prove the concept

The impact of tourism service quality on satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between tourism service quality with overall satisfaction, intention to revisit and willingness to recommend to relatives and friends. This study is significant in at least two ways. First, it extends the work of Rimmington and Yuksel (1998) who included transport as a general component. This study includes taxis as a separate component since taxis are a popular transportation mode. Second, it provides information to multiple government agencies on ways to improve satisfaction among tourists. Data is collected from foreign tourists who visited Kuala Lumpur. A total of 199 completed questionnaires were received. There are three notable findings; first, there is a significant relationship between accommodation service quality, hospitality, entertainment, transportation, taxi service quality and overall satisfaction. Second, there is a significant relationship between overall satisfaction and intention to revisit Kuala Lumpur. Third, there is a significant relationship between overall satisfaction and willingness to recommend Kuala Lumpur to friends and relatives

Factors Affecting Tourist Satisfaction with Theatrical Performances: A Case Study of 'The Romance of the Song Dynasty' in Hangzhou, China

This study, for the first time, attempts to explore the factors affecting tourist satisfaction with a theatrical performance, The Romance of the Song Dynasty in Hangzhou, China. Four factors are identified to have affected tourist satisfaction: “Performance,” “Venue Environment,” “Service,” and “Stage Facilities”. These theatrical performance factors are examined to assess the relative influence on tourist overall satisfaction. Tourists have the highest satisfaction with “Stage Facilities” among all factors, however, “Service” is the most influential predictor of tourist overall satisfaction. Tourist demographic and travel characteristics towards these four theatrical performance factors reveal several significant differences. Discussions and implications are provided to theatre operators to improve tourist satisfaction with theatrical performance not only in Hangzhou, but also in the whole China

Hoodsquare: Modeling and Recommending Neighborhoods in Location-based Social Networks

Information garnered from activity on location-based social networks can be harnessed to characterize urban spaces and organize them into neighborhoods. In this work, we adopt a data-driven approach to the identification and modeling of urban neighborhoods using location-based social networks. We represent geographic points in the city using spatio-temporal information about Foursquare user check-ins and semantic information about places, with the goal of developing features to input into a novel neighborhood detection algorithm. The algorithm first employs a similarity metric that assesses the homogeneity of a geographic area, and then with a simple mechanism of geographic navigation, it detects the boundaries of a city's neighborhoods. The models and algorithms devised are subsequently integrated into a publicly available, map-based tool named Hoodsquare that allows users to explore activities and neighborhoods in cities around the world. Finally, we evaluate Hoodsquare in the context of a recommendation application where user profiles are matched to urban neighborhoods. By comparing with a number of baselines, we demonstrate how Hoodsquare can be used to accurately predict the home neighborhood of Twitter users. We also show that we are able to suggest neighborhoods geographically constrained in size, a desirable property in mobile recommendation scenarios for which geographical precision is key.Comment: ASE/IEEE SocialCom 201