The Slow Food Movement and sustainable tourism development: a case study of Mold, Wales

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss stakeholders’ understanding of sustainable tourism development and their experiences regarding the contribution of these movements to sustainable tourism development. The contribution of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements to the success of a tourism destination is evaluated by determining local stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning of these terms and views on their benefits. Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 purposively sampled local stakeholders. The interview questions spanned knowledge, membership and perceived benefits of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements and the contribution of these Movements to sustainable tourism development. The data were analysed using framework analysis. Findings – Varying levels of familiarity with the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements were evident. Clear economic and personal benefits from membership were acknowledged. It was confirmed that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements have contributed to sustainable tourism development and that public–private partnership is key to its success. Research limitations/implications – The specific research context and limited purposive sample suggest great caution in any generalisation of the results. Practical implications – Close and continued involvement of stakeholders plus membership of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements can contribute strongly to promoting sustainable tourism development in rural areas. Social implications – It is recognised that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements make a substantial contribution to local economies and add value to sustainable practices. Originality/value – Involving local stakeholders in public–private partnerships can contribute to the success of rural tourism destinations when the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements are considered as alternative approaches to sustainable tourism development

Online social networking: Relationship marketing in UK hotels

The role and the existing and potential use of online social networking as a relationship marketing (RM) tool is evaluated in the context of luxury hotels. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the persons responsible for the management of social networking in 10 luxury hotels. Constant comparative analysis, applied within a codebook framework, revealed online social networks (OSNs) provided RM opportunities and increased business value. It is acknowledged that the full potential of OSNs has yet to be realised in terms of hotel marketing. Opportunities for extending the utilisation of OSNs are identified alongside recommendations for hotel marketing practitioners with regard to addressing consumers' needs, and areas for further research are outlined. © 2013 Copyright 2013 Westburn Publishers Ltd

The role of stakeholder collaboration in culture-led urban regeneration: A case study of the Gwangju project, Korea

The preliminary stages of a large scale culture-led urban regeneration project initiated by the Korean government in Gwangju were studied. Stakeholders’ perceptions of culture’s contribution to urban regeneration and their views on collaborative partnerships were explored. Qualitative data were gathered via semi-structured interviews from 19 purposively selected stakeholders. This case study determined public–private cooperation in regenerating Gwangju could, simultaneously, generate positive socio-cultural and economic impacts in society. However, stakeholders lacked opportunities for active participation. Hence, closer working relationships between central–municipal government and public–private/voluntary sectors were recommended. The case confirmed that long-term implementation of such projects needs to be anticipated and based on longitudinal and structured strategic planning to promote successful partnership collaborations amongst central/municipal governments, local communities and residents. This paper contributed to the knowledge gap in the area of stakeholder collaboration in building tourism/cultural systems by examining the micro-level interactions amongst stakeholders

Global Change Could Amplify Fire Effects on Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Background: Little is known about the combined impacts of global environmental changes and ecological disturbances on ecosystem functioning, even though such combined impacts might play critical roles in shaping ecosystem processes that can in turn feed back to climate change, such as soil emissions of greenhouse gases.[br/] Methodology/Principal Findings: We took advantage of an accidental, low-severity wildfire that burned part of a long-term global change experiment to investigate the interactive effects of a fire disturbance and increases in CO(2) concentration, precipitation and nitrogen supply on soil nitrous oxide (N(2)O) emissions in a grassland ecosystem. We examined the responses of soil N(2)O emissions, as well as the responses of the two main microbial processes contributing to soil N(2)O production - nitrification and denitrification - and of their main drivers. We show that the fire disturbance greatly increased soil N(2)O emissions over a three-year period, and that elevated CO(2) and enhanced nitrogen supply amplified fire effects on soil N(2)O emissions: emissions increased by a factor of two with fire alone and by a factor of six under the combined influence of fire, elevated CO(2) and nitrogen. We also provide evidence that this response was caused by increased microbial denitrification, resulting from increased soil moisture and soil carbon and nitrogen availability in the burned and fertilized plots. [br/] Conclusions/Significance: Our results indicate that the combined effects of fire and global environmental changes can exceed their effects in isolation, thereby creating unexpected feedbacks to soil greenhouse gas emissions. These findings highlight the need to further explore the impacts of ecological disturbances on ecosystem functioning in the context of global change if we wish to be able to model future soil greenhouse gas emissions with greater confidence

Potential influences on the United Kingdom's floods of winter 2013/14

During the winter of 2013/14, much of the UK experienced repeated intense rainfall events and flooding. This had a considerable impact on property and transport infrastructure. A key question is whether the burning of fossil fuels is changing the frequency of extremes, and if so to what extent. We assess the scale of the winter flooding before reviewing a broad range of Earth system drivers affecting UK rainfall. Some drivers can be potentially disregarded for these specific storms whereas others are likely to have increased their risk of occurrence. We discuss the requirements of hydrological models to transform rainfall into river flows and flooding. To determine any general changing flood risk, we argue that accurate modelling needs to capture evolving understanding of UK rainfall interactions with a broad set of factors. This includes changes to multiscale atmospheric, oceanic, solar and sea-ice features, and land-use and demographics. Ensembles of such model simulations may be needed to build probability distributions of extremes for both pre-industrial and contemporary concentration levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases