21 research outputs found
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Lesson Learned in the Use of Mixed Methods to Gain Multiple Perspective in Tourism Leadership Research
Using tourism to build social capital in communities: new pathways to sustainable tourism futures
Despite considerable discussion about how tourism could or should contribute to sustainable destination development, there is little evidence that the practice of tourism planning or development has altered in any significant way in the last 30 years. This paper will report on an action research project aimed at identifying and applying new approaches to using tourism effectively as a strategy for sustainable development in destination communities. The research reported in this paper adopted a community capitals approach to sustainable destination development and explored the links between features of tourism development and impacts on the social capital available to destination communities. The study was based on a workshop conducted with sixteen regional tourism development officers that used a variety of techniques, including a futures wheel exercise, to identify the relationships between aspects of tourism development and both positive and negative impacts on social capital. The results of the workshop highlighted the importance of effective local resident engagement in tourism planning and activity and suggested several new dimensions of tourism planning for further exploration and development. These included the need for tourism leaders to take on a broader responsibility for community development, the need for tourism take a more social entrepreneurial role in destination communities and the need to find different models for local and regional tourism organisations
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What Makes a Political Leader? Identifying the attributes of tourism industry advocates
This study explored the characteristics of tourism advocates who serve as the vital link between policymakers and tourism industry members. These individuals seek to gain political influence for the industry, yet there is only a limited understanding of what influences their participation in leadership and how they create relationships with industry members. Through the use of in-depth interviews and secondary data analysis this study focused on understanding what attributes are common among the advocates who help gain political influence for the tourism industry in Virginia, USA. The findings offer information that may be useful in cultivating future advocates for the industry
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Potential Volunteer Tourists’ Expectations of Transformative Learning Opportunities
This study utilizes a factor-cluster analysis to determine segments of potential volunteer tourists based on their motivations for participating in volunteer tourism experiences. Three segments emerged, Volunteers, Voluntourists, and Tourists, and were subsequently compared across their expectations for transformative learning opportunities in volunteer tourism experiences. Three components of transformative learning are considered: self-reflection, engaging in dialogue, and intercultural experiences (Taylor, 2008). Each segment was found to hold different expectations of the components of a transformative learning experience, suggesting that in order to fully engage in such an experience and gain its benefits each segment requires a customized volunteer tourism program. The study offers implications for future research and managerial action
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Tourism and Community Well-Being: An Applied Approach
This study utilized a grounded, inductive framework to explore the relationship between tourism and the well-being of communities through the integration of three complimentary planning and strategy exercises. Attendees of a regional tourism development conference in Queensland, Australia participated in a “Futures Wheel, Appreciative Inquiry, and Make It Fail” exercise. This was part of a workshop hosted by researchers interested in understanding the current and future relationship between tourism and community well-being. In order to provide parameters for the three-step exercise, Flora’s community capitals framework was applied as a means of identifying components of a community that contribute to its well-being. These exercises benefitted both practitioners and researchers seeking to understand how stakeholders perceive tourism’s impacts on community well-being. This paper demonstrates how the exercises were applied in a workshop setting and presents limited findings based on the analysis of a portion of the data
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“To Plan or ot to Plan:” Serendipitous vs. Organized Travel
The recent invention and popularity of mobile navigation devices have increased the possibility of unplanned, serendipitous travel. To better understand the independent travel market, this study developed a scale for the construct “Style of Independent Travel” (SIT) in order to explore the serendipitous and organized dimensions of travel and their relationship to relevant travel behavior. The scale was included in a survey of visitors to the Rocky Knob area of southwest Virginia. Findings revealed that tourists had a higher preference for travelling spontaneously than following a fixed and organized itinerary and that serendipity and organization in travel was related to travel planning and visitor activities. However, there was no significant relationship between SIT, past visitation, and role of the destination as primary destination or stopover
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“If You Build It, They Will Come”: Relationship between Attraction Features and Intention to Visit
The purpose of this study is to find out what themes and features of a tourist attraction are considered important by tourists, and whether or not these features influence their likelihood of visiting different types of attractions. First, for potential travelers to a rural destination, their likelihood of visiting different types of built tourist attractions was measured. Second, five attraction features (i.e., Experience, Cultural Value, Site Accessibility, Marketing, Leadership) were used to identify potential travelers’ preference. Finally, this study explored whether attraction features influenced potential travelers’ likelihood to visit different types of built attractions. The findings of this study can provide direction for the planning of cultural and heritage tourism
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide the data to support detailed
investigations of the distribution of luminous and non- luminous matter in the
Universe: a photometrically and astrometrically calibrated digital imaging
survey of pi steradians above about Galactic latitude 30 degrees in five broad
optical bands to a depth of g' about 23 magnitudes, and a spectroscopic survey
of the approximately one million brightest galaxies and 10^5 brightest quasars
found in the photometric object catalog produced by the imaging survey. This
paper summarizes the observational parameters and data products of the SDSS,
and serves as an introduction to extensive technical on-line documentation.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, AAS Latex. To appear in AJ, Sept 200
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Race and Legitimacy: A Historical Analysis of the Black Travel Market in Black Press, 1920-2020
Recent interest in the Black travel market comes after persistent questions related to the equity and inclusion of this demographic in the tourism industry. This study examines the historical and contemporary interactions between legislation and the representation of travel in Black press, specifically The Crisis, The Negro Motorist Green Book, and Ebony Magazine. This study offers theoretical implications for critical race theory by linking the legislation and minority voices to better understand the social systems in place that interact with and impact travel representation within the Black community. Additionally, the study adds to legitimacy theory by identifying ways in which legislation and social norms impacted legitimacy of the Black consumer market. The findings also give clues to ways destination leaders can authentically engage the Black traveler market