Critical terms in future studies

publishedVersio

Exploring the drivers behind experience accumulation – The role of secondary experiences consumed through the eyes of social media influencers

Author's accepted version (postprint).This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management on 04/10/2019.Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1447677019302311?via%3DihubacceptedVersio

National Identity as Driver of Tourism Development — the Study of Norway

The urgent global need to decrease the dependence on natural resource extraction and find solutions for a sustainable future is also reflected in policies prioritized by the Norwegian government. Among others, tourism has been defined as a promising alternative for future economic development. Tourism in Norway has not remained unaffected by the global growth in international tourist arrivals. This growth is often neither geographically nor temporally equally apportioned, which hampers tourism’s transformative power of generating year-round and well-distributed income. Further, tourists are no longer purely driven by hedonic and relaxation needs: they also want to challenge themselves and deeply immerse themselves in foreign nature, culture, and other types of experiences. We argue that better integration of national identity can draw the needs of tourists and hosting communities nearer to each other and, thus, become a driver of tourism development. Based on a comprehensive literature, this conceptual paper explores the core elements of the Norwegian identity, including political and cultural values, national characteristics, interests, and lifestyles, and their integration by the tourism industry. We find that only some of these elements have been used by the industry and have often been commodified for economic gain. We discuss a few examples of how national identity can be translated into unique selling points that could generate sustainable development. This, however, requires strong governance, and coordinated and integrative destination management that involves stakeholders from within tourism and beyond, particularly local communities

Cruise ship dining experiencescape: the perspective of female cruise travelers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

The cruise dining experience is one of the core elements of the overall cruise travel experience as guests fulfill their cognitive and affective needs in this pleasant environment. Nonetheless, the cruise dining experience has been sparsely researched. There is also no holistic model conceptualizing the cruise ship dining experiencescape. This study explores how under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, cruise ship dining environment stimuli dimensions are evaluated by female cruise travelers. Female travelers are the major spenders and travel decision-makers. They are also the dominant customer group in the cruise sector. Their perception of cruise ship dining environment is leading to their positive emotional responses and approach behavior. More precisely, this study demonstrates the potency of the moderating role of a perceived health risk from COVID-19, which strengthens female travelers’ perceptions of the dining atmosphere and interaction with other guests by evoking positive emotions and influencing their approach behavior

Continuum of an Experienced Tourist's Multidimensionality – Explorations of the Experience Levels of German and New Zealand Tourists

The improved global mobility, growing middle class, and sustained importance of travelling for hedonic and eudaemonic reasons contributed to a growth in international tourist arrivals. This has also resulted in tourists becoming increasingly experienced. Although the creation of memorable experiences has remained the central focus in strategic destination management, today’s tourists seek engaging and interactive experiences that go beyond memorability. Instead, today’s tourists want to accumulate experiences that contribute to self-development and act as a catalyst for personal growth. This study proposes a conceptual framework that indicates the continuous progression of tourists towards these desired personal transformations. The ongoing debate around the concept of experience in the tourism literature reveals a duality of the term experience. Most studies focussed on the creation and consumption of immediate experiences (German Erlebnis). The accumulated experiences over time expressed as a level of prior experience (German Erfahrung) functioned as an antecedent to predict decision-making, travel behaviour and motivation. A clear understanding of the process of experience accumulation remains undervalued and past research fails to comprehensively identify the dimensions of an experienced tourist. The aim of this study was to fill research gaps associated with an experienced tourist. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was applied in Germany and New Zealand. The research approach encompasses semi-structured interviews with representatives from 15 destination marketing organisations and an online survey conducted with 500 German and 500 New Zealand tourists. The multi voice and holistic approach adopted to explore the dimensions of an experienced tourist from a macro-micro perspective expands research designs and contributes methodologically to tourism academia. Industry experts suggested eight dimensions of an experienced tourist, yet emphasised that identifying as an experienced tourist is highly subjective. The subjectivity of being experienced was addressed through self-rated scales in the online survey. Multiple linear regression analysis was implemented to explore the statistical predictability of experience levels. The accumulation of experiences is suggested as a complex and multidimensional process deeply imbedded in the tourist’s subjective consciousness and is related to the individual’s country of origin. Despite the identification of country-specific factors to explain the German and New Zealand experienced tourist, overarching themes were explored and previous studies that referred to countable factors were challenged. Predictors of experience levels range from static, mostly retrospective factors related to the general and travel profile of respondents, to more dynamic factors that are related to the stages of the travel journey and expand into future travel intentions. The key results are synthesised in a generally applicable model and the Continuum of the Experienced Tourist’s Multidimensionality (CETM) is proposed. The model depicts factors that positively or negatively contribute to the self-assessed experience level of German and New Zealand tourists. Theoretical contributions are achieved as the CETM model enhances the holistic understanding of transformations that lead to becoming an experienced tourist. In identifying experienced tourists as a promising market segment, the study suggests managerial implications for the tourism industry. The empirical CETM model requires future research and further testing to become a theory

Demarketing strategy as a tool to mitigate over-tourism – an illusion?

Author's accepted version (postprint). This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Emerald in "Overtourism as destination risk" on 13/05/2021. Available online: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-83909-706-520211010/full/htmlacceptedVersio

To Dine, or Not to Dine on a Cruise Ship in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Tripartite Approach towards an Understanding of Behavioral Intentions among Female Passengers

Given that cruise line companies are rushing to restart their operations with modified dining services, the aim of this research is to establish a conceptual framework that precisely outlines female passengers’ behavioral intentions towards dining on cruise ships in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. It does so by extending the theory of reasoned action (TRA) by including the social servicescape of the cruise ship dining experiencescape (stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm) and perceived health risk from COVID-19 (the prospect theory). The developed theoretical framework based on this tripartite approach has predictive power for intentions. Its effectiveness and comprehensiveness are also demonstrated. Despite the positive effect of the social servicescape on attitude and emotions and the positive attitude of female cruise travelers, the negative effect of the perceived health risk from COVID-19 appears to be the dominant factor that ultimately discourages the behavioral intentions of female cruise passengers towards dining on a cruise ship in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research provides a crucial guiding framework that helps cruise academics and operators to maximize existing and potential passengers’ favorable decisions and behaviors for cruise ship dining