Heritage Image and Attitudes toward a Heritage Site: Do They Really Mediate the Relationship between User-Generated Content and Travel Intentions toward a Heritage Site?

Traveling to heritage sites represents a growing sector with great potential in the context of heritage tourism, which is a relevant topic but has received little scholarly attention. The present study tries to bridge this gap by investigating the mediating role of heritage image and attitudes toward a heritage site in the relationship between user-generated content (UGC) and travel intention toward a heritage site. In particular, we applied partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), which is a relatively popular new method, instead of the traditionally used covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) method. The rise in popularity of PLS-SEM has been particularly noticeable since 2013, but in the area of heritage tourism, research is still in an early stage of development because the heritage discipline has hardly exploited the benefits of this approach. We proposed a multimediation model for heritage tourism to address this relatively new research avenue. It was discovered that exogenous variables directly and indirectly influenced travel intentions toward a heritage site through their mediators (i.e., heritage image and attitudes toward a heritage site). The findings provide an appropriate empirical and theoretical conclusion as well as valuable insights for heritage management organizations (HMOs) into the performance of heritage tourism, both for local professionals and the host communities that assist in increasing the development of heritage tourism

Does Comparative Advantage Affect Economic Growth: A Case of Pakistan with Asian, OECD and Latin American Economies 1982-2011

Present study endeavours to assess the comparative advantage of Pakistan’s exports to selected regional economies around the world namely Asian, OECD, and Latin American economies. Revealed comparative advantage Balassa Index (1965) and trade complementary indices of Pakistan over the sample of 70 economies have been checked at aggregated and disaggregated level classification of UN-Com Traderevision-2. Results revealed that Pakistan has a comparative advantage in 57 sectors on average per year, coefficient of variation is 0.68, standard deviation is 0.57 at the aggregated and disaggregated level over the period of time, and trade complementary indices reported that exports of Pakistan and imports of sample economies having the positive and strong relationship. Long-term relationship has been tested using co-integration mechanism; speed of adjustment has been gauged through vector error correction model and feedback relationship has been measured using granger causality on total exports and economic growth. Results revealed that there is positive and significant relationship between total exports and economic growth and there is a feedback causal relationship

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CELEBRITY AND NON-CELEBRITY ADVERTISEMENT

This study is undertaken to make a comparative analysis of celebrity advertisement and non-celebrity advertisement with respect to attitude toward advertisement, attitude toward brand, purchase intentions, and advertising attributes. For this purpose, a simple random sample of 200 students studying four different disciplines was taken from the Private University in Lahore. For econometric proof, reliability analysis, descriptive analysis, and independent sample T-test was used to interpret the results. Our findings show that there is no significant difference between celebrity and non-celebrity advertisement with respect to attitude toward advertisement, attitude toward brand, purchasing intentions, and advertising attributes. The limitations and recommendations of this research are also given

Investigation Of Export-Led Growth And Growth-Led Export Hypotheses: A Study On Pakistan Exports To USA, UAE and UK

his article is about investigation of export-led growth and growth-led export hypotheses in case of Pakistan exports to top three exports partners namely: USA, UAE and UK. Time series data over the period of 1975 to 2012 has been used. Augmented dickey- fuller test has been used to check unit root within data. Co-integration among the variables has been explored by employing the Johansen's co integration technique. Granger causality test has been used to investigate nature causality among variables under investigation. Johansen's co-integration test revealed the presence of co-integration among variables. As major portion of Pakistani exports approximately 30 percent is towards the top three exports partners, so the investigation of export-led growth and growth-led export hypotheses in case of Pakistan's exports to USA, UAE and UK can helpful for policy makers to adopt a suitable policy prescriptions which finally could lead to enhancement and improvement of exports relations with USA, UAE, and UK. This research can lead towards understanding about the dependency of exports and economic growth on each other

The Effect of Cultural Heritage Tourism on Tourist Word of Mouth: The Case of Lok Versa Festival, Pakistan

Festivals are the most viable source of tourism promotion and provide recognition to different cultures and communities. This paper proposed and examined a holistic model of festival word of mouth (WOM), which is influenced by authenticity, promotion, loyalty, quality, and satisfaction. Accordingly, the current paper investigated the effect of the proposed model with reference to Lok Virsa handicrafts, the most famous festival of the Islamabad region in Pakistan. The findings revealed that the festival quality has direct impact on WOM and promotion. Promotion has a positive influence on loyalty, satisfaction, and WOM. Festival authenticity strongly influences promotion, quality, satisfaction, and WOM. Festival satisfaction is positively related to WOM and loyalty. Whereas, festival loyalty and WOM are significantly associated. The results suggest that festival organizers should deliver the claims and promises in the festival that they have made with tourists. This technique will harvest positive WOM and increase tourist re-visitation to upcoming festivals

Strain selection, growth productivity and biomass characterization of novel microalgae isolated from fresh and wastewaters of upper Punjab, Pakistan

<p>The present study was focussed on selection of fast-growing microalgae with higher lipid content using cheaper growth media, aimed to reduce the cost of algal biomass production. Samples were collected from 40 different sites from fresh and wastewater bodies. Based on morphological differences, two microalgae (SSG and SA) from wastewater and three (OP, DFM and JRC) from fresh water habitat were selected for further characterization. The specific growth rates (g Day ⁻¹ L⁻¹) of the OP, DFM, JRC, SA and SSG were found to be 0.614, 0.638, 0.734, 1.06 and 1.02, respectively, whereas the doubling time (<i>T_d</i>) was shown to be as 39.30, 36.48, 22.08, 12.24 and 12.98 h, respectively, when cultured without controlled temperature and CO₂ supply, in a locally designed photobioreactor. All five microalgae shown considerable growth at a range of pH 6.0–9.0 with a peak activity within pH range 7.5–8.5. The OP, DFM and JRC contained 27%, whereas SSG and SA shown 39% lipid content. The phylogenetic analyses based on the 18S rRNA gene sequence have shown that studied microalgal strains may be novel species.</p