Modeling the impacts of hospitality and tourism enterprises on community quality of life

The present research examined the impacts of hospitality and tourism businesses on community quality of life using existing public domain databases. In the tourism literature, various methodological approaches have been proposed to investigate the impacts of tourism on a host community and its residents. However, these approaches are limited because of innate methodological constraints such as the bias of the survey respondents\u27 perceptions. To overcome such a limitation, alternative research constructs have been proposed. Among them, Quality of Life (QOL) has become a good alternative for measuring tourism impacts. Accordingly, the present researcher introduced QOL as a research tool for analyzing tourism impacts at the community level.^ Based on tourism impact theories and quality of life theories, the present researcher conceptualized a tourism-related QOL, constructing QOL indices and analyzing the impacts of hospitality and tourism on community quality of life. To construct QOL indices, ten objective and perception-based QOL indicators were utilized. After conducting a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on QOL indicators, five QOL domains were identified: material QOL, social QOL1 (i.e. overall social QOL), social QOL2 (i.e. subjective social QOL), social QOL3 (i.e. safety-related QOL), and environmental QOL domain.^ To estimate a tourism impact model, 775 American counties were selected as sample counties, and five statistical models were proposed. According to model diagnostic test results, it turned out that the Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model (SURE) with Maximum Likelihood estimation (ML) is the most suitable estimation method because it overcomes the common obstacles of simultaneous estimation models.^ The results of the SURE model indicated that the sub-domains of community QOL are interrelated, showing that such interrelationships should be considered when the parameters are estimated. The major findings are as follows: 1) the hospitality and tourism industry positively affects material QOL, 2) overall social QOL is positively affected by the hospitality and tourism industry, 3) the hospitality and tourism industry does not affect subjective social QOL, 4) the hospitality and tourism industry affects safety-related QOL in mixed ways, 5) the tourism industry positively affects environmental QOL, 6) natural factors are a significant determinant of environmental QOL, and 7) community characteristics affect community QOL.^ Research results suggest crucial implications for rural and coastal communities. For example, rural communities have suffered from a low level of community QOL. However, tourism can improve material and social QOL, alleviating such a disadvantage for rural areas and implying that the tourism industry could be a strategic industry for rural areas to improve community QOL. Practically, the present research demonstrated how to simulate tourism impacts using estimation results of the research model. In simulation, three different scenarios of tourism development were used, clarifying that rural counties in coastal and non-coastal areas can benefit from tourism development. Especially, when policy makers and tourism practitioners want to know expected consequences of tourism development on their communities, simulation results would provide straightforward information about tourism impacts.^ The present research contributed to tourism academia and local communities in three ways. Theoretically, the present research reconciled tourism impact theory and QOL theory in a community QOL framework. It suggested a new way to examine tourism impacts on local communities. Previous research investigated tourism-related QOL from the QOL research framework, attempting to analyze tourism phenomena using QOL theories. However, the present research proposed that it is easier to understand tourism phenomena after reconciling tourism and QOL theories. Methodologically, the present research demonstrated how to build community-level QOL indices in a systematic way using public domains data sets. The researcher also showed how to use an equation system for estimating multidimensional impacts of tourism on community QOL domains. Such an approach is an innovative way to investigate tourism impacts on local communities; the present research is the first to consider multidimensional aspects simultaneously and to reconcile objective and subjective indicators of QOL research at the community level. Practically, one of the research outputs is a community-level QOL database. It should be helpful when policy makers and community leaders consider tourism as a community economic development tool and evaluate tourism impacts on their communities. The database is also a basis for simulation of QOL changes by tourism development, providing information about potential consequences of tourism development. This is one of the main contributions of the present research

A new paradigm for tourism development in North Korea

The cooperative tourism project between South Korea and North had been an icon of the promotion of peace. However, the North Korean soldier’s shooting on a female Korean tourist in 2008 suspended the project that shuttled Korean tourists to Mt. Kumgang resort in North. After such an incident, Kim Jong-un has taken his office, attempting attacks on South Korean territories and conducting nuclear weapon experiments. Consequently, all cooperative projects have been suspended. However, some scholars said that tourism is still a very powerful mean to promote peace between divided nations. The aim of this research is to provide a theoretical framework for facilitating tourism development in North Korea and difficulties by conducting an in-depth interview with visitors to North Korea

Drive Tourists’ Lodging Demand Determinants for Highway Hotels and Motels in U.S.

The current research explores drive tourists’ lodging demand determinants and effects of external environment (e.g. fuel price and seasonality) on tourism. The authors assumed economic, socio-demographic and trip-related variables influence highway hotels and motels visitors’ lodging demand. Though 2SLS model, the effects were statistically tested, resulting in the identification of the drive tourism market’s characteristics and lodging demand determinants in highway hotel and motel industry. On the contrary to OLS estimation, 2SLS model showed good performance to deal with endogeneity problem and accurate results. The model verified economic variable’s effects on lodging demand. According to the descriptive analysis, typical profile of drive tourists take approximately 400 miles round trip and stay two nights at the hotel. It was revealed that gas price was highly influenced by seasonality. Gas price has played as instrument variable to reflect seasonal effect and travel cost. It was showed that fuel price/travel cost and income are most influential determinants for lodging demand in highway hotel and motel industry

Moderate Effects of Brand Awareness on eWOM Intention: Perspectives in Community-based Festival Tourism

This study aim to understand how tourists’ festival experience influence destination/place brand equity building as well as moderate effect of brand awareness on eWOM intention. A web-based survey is prepared and is supposed to be performed in order to explore how tourists response eWOM dissemination. Based on customer-based brand equity (CBBE), moderate effect of brand awareness on eWOM intention is examined through second order structural equation modeling. Expected results provide insightful information about the importance of brand awareness in consumers\u27 brand knowledge transaction and marketing performance. Expected results will clarify festival tourists’ psychological characteristics in destination branding setting

Determinants of Consumers’ Purchasing Behavior for Certified Aquaculture Products in South Korea

This study aims to investigate consumers’ decision-making process for purchasing certified aquaculture products using the theory of the planned behavior (TPB) model. Based on the TPB model, this study empirically examines the relationship among TPB constructs, namely; attitude, social norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention to purchase sustainably produced products (i.e., Aquaculture Stewardship Council-certified products). Data from a web-based survey conducted through an online survey company (960 usable response samples) are analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that all latent variables (i.e., attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control) positively affect consumers’ behavioral intention. More importantly, environmental awareness moderates the relationships between TPB constructs and behavioral intention. In the case of the high awareness group in this study, attitude influences behavioral intention more than social norm does. On the contrary, in the case of the low awareness group, social norm influences behavioral intention more than attitude does

Lodging demand for drive tourism in rural areas

Abstract not availabl

Willingness-to-Pay for Sustainable Aquaculture Products: Evidence from Korean Red Seabream Aquaculture

A New Ecological Paradigm scale was used as a measurement tool to determine consumer perception of the environment through the context of red seabream (Pagrus major) aquaculture and the use of copper-alloy nets. To identify the underlying dimension of consumer perception, exploratory factor analysis was conducted, which showed that consumer perception comprised two dimensions—nature and balance, and human dominance—yielding two indicators as independent variables for a contingent valuation method estimation. The estimation results indicate that demographic variables and one consumer perception variable (i.e., the human dominance indicator) are insignificant. However, the economic variable, one consumer perception variable (i.e., nature and balance), and seafood preference are significant. Finally, willingness-to-pay was estimated for sustainable aquaculture products by comparing the mean willingness-to-pay within New Ecological Paradigm-level groups

Exploring Asian Cruise Travelers’ Travel Experience and Perceptions

This study aims to explore Asian cruise travelers’ cruise experience and its multidimensional perceptions of cruising as well as the effect of travelers’ perceptions on satisfaction and behavioral intention. In order to measure Asian travelers’ multidimensional perceptions, survey items were adapted from SERVQUAL and SERV-PERVAL. An on-board survey was conducted on eight separate 4-days voyages of the Far East Asia in 2007. Exploratory factor analysis was performed first to identify travelers’ multidimensional perceptions on travel experience. Subsequently, regression was conducted so that researchers examine how the travelers’ perceptions affect tourists’ satisfaction and behavioral intention. Statistical results showed that Asian cruise travelers have two dimensional perceptions and each perception can be named as “perceived quality” and “perceived value”. The perceived quality has four components. They are “Facility”, “F&B”, “Entertainment”, and “Staff”, and the perceived value consists of three components including “Emotional response”, “Perceived price”, and “Behavioral price and reputation”. According to the statistical results, travelers’ perceptions on cruise experiencing affect travel satisfaction and travelers’ behavioral intention. One of most influential components of perceptions is travelers’ emotional response and the physical facility of cruise ship. This finding suggests that cruise marketers should emphasize the emotional aspect of cruise travel in a cruise promotion and invest in modern cruise ship acquisition so that cruise lines achieve a dominant position in the emerging cruise market, Asian cruise market