Network governance and regional resilience to climate change: empirical evidence from mountain tourism communities in the Swiss Gotthard region

Mountain regions and peripheral communities, which often depend on few economic sectors, are among the most exposed and sensitive to climate change. Governance of such socio-economic-ecological networks plays a strong role in determining their resilience. Social processes of governance, such as collaboration between communities, can be systematically assessed through the existence and strength of connections between actors and their embeddedness in the broader socio-economic network by social network analysis (SNA). This paper examines how network governance of the tourism industry-dependent Swiss Gotthard region relates to resilience to climate change by SNA. The paper argues that economic diversification and a network structure supporting stability, flexibility, and innovation increase regional resilience to climate change. The Gotthard network has a high diversification capability due to high cohesion and close collaboration, limited innovative capacity by the existence of only two subgroups, and considerable flexibility through the centralized structure. Main weaknesses are a low density, uneven distribution of power, and a lack of integration of some supply chain sectors into the overall networ

Haute couture-to-table? A study of luxury fashion-brand restaurants/Cafés

The significant rise in luxury shopping has recently gained much attention. This paper seeks to better understand the factors involved in luxury consumption. Specifically, a list of 10 luxury fashion-brand restaurants/cafés are identified and used to survey customers’ motivations, perceptions, demographics, and purchase behavior. This study finds that brand equity drivers significantly influence individual’s intention to visit other luxury fashion-brand restaurants/cafés, and purchase products that are associate with the luxury fashion-brand restaurants/cafés where he/she has previously patronized. Female customers show loyalty to luxury fashion brand products and revisit that specific fashion brand restaurants/cafés. These findings enrich and update the existing body of knowledge on luxury-branded restaurants/cafés in relation to customers’ decision making. This study also provides practical implications for luxury fashion-brand F&B owners

Success factors of theme parks – An exploration study

Theme parks are important products for the leisure and tourism industry but the analysis of their critical success factors seems to be a neglected area in leisure and tourism research. Most authors agree that authenticity as well as the staging of experiences is a main factor influencing consumer’s decision to buy a leisure or tourism product. Thus, this paper discusses authenticity and the staging of experiences as critical success factors for the management of theme parks. Empirical data gathered from personal interviews with theme park managers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland reveal the assumption that the literature is not in line with the critical success factors of theme park management. The paper concludes by outlining future research on success factors of theme parks as well as implications for their management

Investigating Local Students’ Support for Inbound Tourism and its Relationship with Place Attachment in Hue City/Vietnam

This study, situated in the touristy city of Huế in Central Vietnam, takes the case of the young Vietnamese, particularly University students, in order to investigate the locals’ support for inbound tourism. It also measured a multidimensional construct of place attachment and determined the influence of this concept on their support levels. Findings have shown that the overall level of support is relatively high, wherein indicators related to pride and identity have generally scored higher than the ones related to economic factors. Female respondents have been indicated to show higher support for tourism inbound to Vietnam and students majoring in tourism have been found to be more supportive of inbound tourism than their counterparts from other faculties. In addition, place attachment was specified to have a significant impact on the respondents’ levels of support for inbound tourism