A contextual typology for the study of the relationship between political instability and tourism

This paper endeavours to shed some new light onto the political dimensions of tourism, by contributing and enhancing understanding of the institutional dimensions of political instability and tourism. It aims to show, specifically, that tourism often is the result of politics, that it is inextricably intertwined sometimes with national politics, and often with international politics, social and environmental impacts, and thus has a direct and indirect influence, which cannot be ignored. To this end, at a first step a working definition of 'political instability' will be provided so as to facilitate the process of reviewing and critically assessing the extant literature. At a subsequent step, a contextual typology for the study of the relationship between political instability and tourism is developed. This typology has as its major objectives • to assist the categorisation and analysis of the relevant literature • to enable future researchers to empirically apply an analytical approach that it will delineate the basic sources of variation of the various conceptual themes relating political instability and tourism

The impact of political instability on the tourism industries of selected Mediterranean destinations: a neural network approach

This chapter investigates the impact of political instability on the tourist industries of four eastern Mediterranean destinations (Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Israel) during the period 1977-97. It does so by producing a neural network model that enables an evaluation of the relationship between political instability and tourism. The results of the neural network confirm the current opinion that events of political instability can have a strong influence on the tourist industry. The series of experiments revealed further details of the interrelationship between the political instability factors and the number of tourist arrivals. It is concluded that neural networks indeed have the analytical ability to provide accurate predictions and the flexibility to incorporate various forms and types of independent variables that might be present in a tourism demand function

Political public opinion capital

‘‘Public opinion’’ is much more commonly used in political marketing discourse, not with any great precision but nearly always with pragmatic connotations. Nevertheless, public opinion has been defined with rationality or the sureties of empiricism, and it has been studied extensively in political disciplines. Lippmann’s (2004) lengthy defense of affective factors that so frequently distort and determine perception has served as a point of departure to the study of ‘‘opinion’’ in the broadly sociological sense normally deployed in political science, communication, marketing, and media studies. In the political marketing context discussed here, the term political public opinion capital is further distinguishable from two closely connected practices: one, a practice of primary media production of perceptions and, two, systematic public opinion surveys. However, this special issue pays more attention to the mechanisms of transition in the realm of political marketing. As such, it examines the rise of political consumerism, with more and more changes being introduced by political organizations to maximize the ‘‘capital’’ of public opinion, aiming at the positive relationship between branches of the political apparatus and the citizens=consumers

A Global Workforce: The Phenomenon of Labour Mobility in the EU with Special Reference to Cyprus

The present study provides a critical overview and assessment of the phenomenon of labour mobility in the EU with special reference to the microstate of Cyprus. At the same time the study provides a set of policy recommendations for curbing the problems hindering the optimization of mobility levels towards Cyprus in particular and EU in general

PRAXIS: the determining element of innovation behavior in the hospitality industry

Innovation has emerged as an essential component of organizational success in the 21st century. Nonetheless, empirical research around innovation in the hospitality industry remains limited; especially in relation to small island tourist destinations like Cyprus. Responding to this emerging need, the study investigates the role of human capital – managerial employees (n = 425) – as it relates to innovation initiatives in the hospitality workplace. Three hypotheses are postulated and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling, a multivariate statistical analysis technique, to broaden conceptual horizons regarding the relationship between perceived organizational innovation culture and support, and the informed innovation-specific actions of employees, as well as their resultant behavior. The results suggest that praxis, which is defined as action informed by theory and experiences, is a vital element of innovation behavior in the hospitality industry. The resultant findings and implications are of interest to both academic and professional stakeholders in hospitality

Revisiting hospitality internship practices: A holistic investigation

Hospitality internships are integral part of almost all reputable hospitality programs worldwide. Despite their universal recognition as an essential component of hospitality education, their value is often superseded by the challenges facing hospitality stakeholders in providing such an experience for the next generation of hospitality professions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate—with the utilization of structural equation modeling and after a thorough investigation of the existing literature—the causal relationships of the key issues that define modern hospitality internships and the practice's perceived impact on students' intention to pursue a hospitality career upon graduation. Crucial elements before, during, and after the experience were accounted for, as well as students' overall internship perceptions. Findings prove to be of considerable interest to hospitality stakeholders by confirming some theoretical notions pertaining to the efficacy of the practice, as well as by enhancing understanding and opening new research horizons for those wishing to advance our collective knowledge of the experience

A Neural Network model of the impact of political instability on tourism

This paper presents an empirical integration of the dimensions of political instability with traditional exogenous variables, which are usually employed in econometric tourism demand forecasting, within a tourism demand model in order to investigate causal relationships between political instability and tourism. The work uses the POLINST Database, which contains events of political instability from 1977 to 1997 that took place in the Middle East - Mediterranean region. The model is based on a Focused Tapped Delay Line Neural Network (FTDNN) with a sliding time window of 12 months. The evaluation results show that our model can be used to achieve a good estimation of the effects of political instability on tourism. In an extended set of experiments we were able to show the relative importance of the political instability factors on tourism. Finally, our model also allowed to estimated the time lag between a political instability/terrorist event and the reduction of tourist number to the destination

Harming Democracy in Mediolatry Societies: Decoding the Marketing of War and Animosities through Photo Images

History can reveal a continuous stream of conflict, enmity, and violence. A general review of the world political scene presents an amalgam of stable and unstable countries/regions where acts of violence and conflict have been interwoven with the political lifeworld. Photo images are a powerful medium that greatly influences the interpretation of past events and the understanding of history. People often learn about events after they occur and depend either on social imagery (Newman, 1999) or on photography to construct cognitive frameworks about the past (Burke, 2001; Rose, 2001). Through the application of a symbolic interactionism methodological framework (Denzin, 1992), this paper explores how opinion leaders/decision makers perceive, understand, and interpret past political events as they are portrayed by photo images found in the international press. The interviewing and conversational analysis that has been adopted has allowed the comparison of the perspectives/interpretations given by the participants, something that ultimately has led to the extraction of conclusions on how people from different functions of democracy apparatus construct cognitive frameworks of political events according to their professional background. The imposition of mediolatry by “marketing war” or/and “packaging politics” denominators has encouraged the mobilization of democratic participation, while on the other hand, it has cultivated political cynicism about politicians' decisions or actions. The paper, through a qualitative approach and critical analysis, formulates two models that apprehend the generative process of terrorism, war, intervention, and ethnic cleansing, a process that undoubtedly harms modern democracy