Propositions for Use in Comparing Consumer Images of Private and Public Recreation Facilities

Increasing competition between private sector and public sector recreation facilities dictates that managers must be more sensitive to the needs and wants of their patrons. There appears to be evidence that the image of a recreation facility may be at least partially determined by its private or public sector status. Eight researchable propositions are developed to guide further research in this area

A study of Chinese single children\u27s family vacation and wellbeing

This research is proposed to examine Chinese family vacations in the single child policy context. Family vacations are considered to play a beneficial role in strengthening family functioning as well as improving individual’s wellbeing. However, extant understandings of family vacations are limited due to the absence of voices from non-Western cultures. Based on a post-positivist orientation, this study will conduct an empirical study in three major cities in Mainland China. Using middle school students as the sample of Chinese single children, this study intends to describe representations of Chinese single children’s family vacations; to evaluate single children’s perceptions of the quality of their family vacation experiences; and to examine the influence of family vacation (i.e., family interaction, quality of experiences) on Chinese single children’s subjective wellbeing

Sub-Dimensions of Destination Brand Love and Their Influences on Destination Brand Loyalty: A Study of First-timers and Repeat Visitors

Brand loyalty requires close emotional bonds between consumers and brands. Few attempts have addressed the significance of destination brand love’s sub-dimensions in constituting destination brand loyalty. Considering that first-time and repeat visitors behave differently, this study investigated the impacts of destination brand love’s sub-dimensions on destination brand loyalty (cognitive, attitudinal, conative, and behavioral loyalty) among first-time and repeat visitors. Consistent with Batra et al. (2012), destination brand love contains six sub-dimensions: self-brand integration, passion-driven behaviors, long-term relationship, positive emotional connection, attitude valence, and attitude strength. We define destination brand love as the degree of intense affection a tourist holds for a particular branded destination (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006). Based on survey data from over 500 visitors at Shanghai Disney Resort, we found that first-time visitors’long-term relationship with branded destinations was insignificant in predicting destination brand loyalty. Repeat visitors’ attitude valence and attitude strength are significant contributors to destination brand loyalty

"I Decided to Invest in My Kids' Memories": Family Vacations, Memories, and the Social Construction of the Family

This article explores the cultural significance of family vacations and the role that these vacations play in the social construction of the family. Based on a series of semistructured interviews with members of families living in Ontario, Canada, the article examines the meanings and experiences associated with family vacations for parents of school aged children. Family vacations were seen as a form of escape from the pressures of everyday life, even though they involved organizational and emotional work, especially for mothers. Family vacations were valued as an opportunity for family togetherness and for improving patterns of family communication. Of particular importance was the long-term goal of creating memories that would enhance family cohesion and construct and support a positive sense of family. The findings indicate that the cultural meanings associated with family vacations, at least for these Canadian families, may be different in some important ways from other forms of tourism

Developing young people's sense of self and place through sport

Previous research has recognized positive health implications, both physical and mental, as an outcome of participation in leisure pursuits. They provide opportunities for self-expression and stress reduction, as well as an environment in which people can socialize. Leisure activities, specifically sport activities, can play a significant role in young people's identity development. This paper explores the leisure activities in which young people in Adelaide, Australia participate. It examines the role of leisure activities in terms of young people's identity and feelings towards their hometown. This study consisted of semi-structured focus groups conducted with 24 senior high school students, followed by a survey resulting in 226 useable responses. Respondents were aged between 16 and 18 years of age. From the range of activities identified and explored, the results revealed sports activities to have the greatest impact on young people's lives. The results demonstrated that frequency of participation has a significant effect on young people's involvement levels and how they identify with the activity

Lifestyle travellers: Backpacking as a way of life

Scholarship on backpackers speculates some individuals may extend backpacking to a way of life. This article empirically explores this proposition using lifestyle consumption as its framing concept and conceptualises individuals who style their lives around the enduring practice of backpacking as ‘lifestyle travellers’. Ethnographic interviews with lifestyle travellers in India and Thailand offer an emic account of the practices, ideologies and social identity that characterise lifestyle travel as a distinctive subtype within backpacking. Departing from the drifter construct, which (re)constitutes this identity as socially deviant, the concept of lifestyle allows for a contemporary appraisal of these individuals’ patterns of meaningful consumption and wider insights into how ongoing mobility can lead to different ways of understanding identities and relating to place. Keywords: lifestyle consumption; backpacker; mobility; drifter; identit

Progress and prospects for event tourism research

This paper examines event tourism as a field of study and area of professional practice updating the previous review article published in 2008. In this substantially extended review, a deeper analysis of the field’s evolution and development is presented, charting the growth of the literature, focusing both chronologically and thematically. A framework for understanding and creating knowledge about events and tourism is presented, forming the basis which signposts established research themes and concepts and outlines future directions for research. In addition, the review article focuses on constraining and propelling forces, ontological advances, contributions from key journals, and emerging themes and issues. It also presents a roadmap for research activity in event tourism

A backpacker habitus: the body and dress, embodiment and the self

As all cultures ‘dress’ the body through clothing, tattooing and other forms of body adornment such as cosmetics, dress offers a useful lens through which to explore the ways in which identities are constituted in modern leisure and tourism cultures. An analysis of the dress and embodied subjectivity of western backpackers in Nepal finds that dress is constitutive of self-identity and the ways backpackers imagine themselves. This study argues that dress remains an important aspect of a secondary socialization that, in an evolving process, leads to specific (western) backpacker habitus. The use of Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical resource unravels the relationship between body and dress, embodiment and the self and shows how dress embellishes the body by adding an array of meanings within backpacking culture