Misunderstanding Generation Y: Risks for tourism managers

Generation Y has become more than simply a label used to describe people born between 1980 and 1994, it has become a symbol of a proposed new culture said to be unlike any before it, with a unique set of values, skills and behaviors that transcend geography and ethnicity. The consequences of this emerging culture are only just beginning to be discussed in higher education as these individuals become the core group of college students and in human relations as they enter the workforce. But Generation Y also represents a significant market for tourist operations. So are the claims made about this group true? And what are the implications of these claims for tourism managers? Both longitudinal and cross-sectional research is needed to reduce the risks that tourism managers face in dealing with this new generational cohort. This paper demonstrates the value of such research by describing a specific study that utilised time series data to examine the emergence of Generation Y in a major tourist destination in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef. The overall pattern of results suggested that the use of generational cohorts as a market segmentation tool was valid and that Generation Y was indeed emerging as a group of travellers with a unique pattern of characteristics, motivations and expectations. The data in the study showed that emerging youth markets are not like those in the past and this has implications for the provision, marketing and sustainability of current tourism activities

A social indicators monitoring system for tourist and recreational use of the Great Barrier Reef

The goals of this project were to: • Identify potential social indicators to monitor aspects of tourist and recreational use and impacts on human use of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) and World Heritage Area (WHA); and • Design a broad monitoring program for these social indicators

Contrasting online and onsite sampling methods: Results of visitor responses to a destination survey

The spectacular growth and adoption of the Internet has created a myriad of opportunities in the field of marketing. These opportunities include not only promotion and customer relationship management but also market research. Tourism academics have been slow in following tourism operators and consultants in using the Internet as a research tool. This reluctance is partly due to\ud concerns about the reliability and validity of Internet samples. This paper contrasts an onsite sampling method with a self-selected online sample. Both samples responded to the same questions about a popular tourist destination in Australia. The findings indicate significant\ud differences between the onsite and online samples. The online sample had significantly more female respondents. There were also major differences in travel motives, perceptions of destination attributes and information sources used. The online survey appeared to be affected\ud quite substantially by coverage error and non-response bias. This suggests that researchers and tourism operators should be cautious about the temptation to use self-selected online surveys instead of onsite surveys, particularly for destination or location specific studies

Contrasting high-tech and high touch experiences in tourist attractions

The increasing use of a variety of new and developing technologies presents a number of challenges and opportunities for both tourism management and research. One area that has been given little research attention is the role of technology in creating and enhancing tourist experiences. This paper reports on a study of this aspect of tourism and technology which had the dual aims of providing practical advice for the design of technology-based experiences at tourist attractions, and of exploring the potential role of mindfulness as a construct to explain and predict tourist behaviour. The study involved a grounded theory analysis of positive critical incidents related to memorable technology and non technology based experiences. The results suggested that mindfulness was a useful explanatory construct for both types of tourist experiences, although the pathways to mindfulness differed between the technology and non technology-based options. For the technology-based examples mindfulness appeared to be based on the ability of the attraction to offer new and multiple perspectives on a topic, the stimulation of multiple senses and ability of the technology to create a complete illusion. For the non-technology based examples mindfulness was associated with living things, authenticity and closeness. In both cases the concept of immersion appears to be important, although that perception is supported by different characteristics. Implications are drawn for both tourist attraction design and the use of mindfulness in tourism research

Do destination brands really have a personality? A comparison of two coastal tourism destinations in Australia

According to Morgan et al (2003), the need for destinations to portray a unique identity is more critical than ever yet much of destination advertising remains blue seas, cloudless skies and endless golden beaches with less than memorable tag lines. They also emphasise that, in marketing terms, brands are meant to differentiate by inciting belief, evoking emotions and prompting behaviours, and that brands have social, emotional and identity value to the users. According to Ekinci (2003), the words 'brand', 'branding' and 'destination image' have appeared in many academic references, with no apparent effort made to distinguish between destination image and destination branding. As a result he proposes a model which states that the process of destination branding begins when the evaluation of destination image includes a strong emotional attachment. Accordingly, only branded destinations are purported to be able establish an instant emotional link with their customers. He elaborates that successful destination branding involves establishing a mutual relationship between destinations and tourists by satisfying tourists' emotional and basic needs. In establishing this link between destination image and consumer self-image an important factor is Brand Personality - emphasising the human side of the brand image

A review of research into tourist and recreational uses of protected natural areas

This report focuses on tourist and recreational use of protected natural areas in order to provide insights into social indicators and monitoring for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

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

Exploring the future of tourism and quality of life

Few studies to date have examined the impact of tourism on quality of life (QoL) as conventional research has tended to focus, instead, on resident attitudes towards tourism and tourism ’s impacts in particular (Smith, 1977; 1989). Even less research has addressed whether tourism can drive or facilitate sustainable development (Miller and Twining-Ward, 2005) or whether tourism can contribute to the subjective wellbeing of those involved in travel and tourism. Impact studies generally ask residents to agree or disagree with statements regarding perceived impacts from tourism on their community. By contrast, QoL research aims to understand how these impacts are internalised and influence an individual’s overall life satisfaction (Andereck et al, 2007). With terms used interchangeably QoL, happiness and well-being refer to one’s satisfaction with life, and feelings of contentment or fulfilment with one’s experiences in the world (ibid.). Whether tourism as phenomena and practice may support the growing body of evidence that demonstrates a positive relationship between existential factors such as life purpose / meaning, personal growth and wellbeing (Vella-Brodrick, 2007) was the topic of intense debate during the 2008 Business Enterprises for Sustainable Travel Education Network (BEST EN) Think Tank VIII

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