Tourists' experiences of recreation spaces in Australia's Wet Tropics

Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.People are increasingly engaging in recreational activities in nature. However, preferences for recreation opportunities are changing over time and among different people. Furthermore, different settings offer unique combinations of attributes; these attributes generate occasions for tourists to achieve particular recreation experiences, albeit tourists create experiences differently. The current study investigated tourists' travel reviews of recreation opportunities in Australia's Wet Tropics. Drawing on two land and activity categorization systems, the research explored tourists' reported experiences and interests across different natural environment leisure settings. The overall objective of the article was to explore the setting–experience relationship by identifying differences in tourists' reported experiences according to setting attributes and personal characteristics. Leximancer analysis of over 2,000 TripAdvisor reviews (posted 2010–2012) was conducted on 11 tourist attractions in far north Queensland. Overall, tourists describe their experiences of different Wet Tropics' leisure settings in a relatively similar manner, with some distinctive features highlighted for each attraction. In particular, tourists commented about a variety of visit components including natural elements, supporting infrastructure, experiential aspects, as well as their feelings/impressions. Furthermore, differences were noticed when the attraction visits were explored according to various personal characteristics. Findings from the study offer useful directions in further developing, promoting, and managing Wet Tropics attractions that offer diverse experiences in different recreation settings.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Fun or Fear? On-Site Versus On-Screen Experiences in Paranormal Tourism: A Case Study of Hashima Island, Japan

© 2023 Cognizant, LLC. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. The article(s) and/or figure(s) cannot be used for resale. Published in final form at https://doi.org/10.3727/154427223X16819417821705, Tourism Review International, Vol. 27, pp. 217–234.Paranormal tourism has seen increased demand, particularly from those tourists who seek unusual or unique experiences. Various paranormal phenomena offer multidimensional experiences for tourists in different physical contexts. Similarly, the advancement of technology has extended the ability to offer more authentic on-screen paranormal experiences. This study aims to explore and compare tourists’ on-site and on-screen experiences at Hashima Island, Japan, with an interest in identifying paranormal-related emotions. Tourist reviews and comments from Tripadvisor and YouTube were collected, with data analysis conducted using grounded theory and Leximancer. Key findings indicate that besides core paranormal encounters, some inviolate features also contribute to paranormal experiences, with tour guide services impacting the on-site experience and video filming techniques influencing the on-screen experience. Furthermore, this work revealed several emotional dimensions, with “fear” and “surprise” positively related to paranormal experiences. By comparing on-site and on-screen experiences, this study offers marketing and planning suggestions for destinations seeking to develop and promote paranormal tourism encounters.Peer reviewe

Chinese tourists and the sun: implications for designing experiences

Consistent exposure to sunshine with high ultraviolet values has significant negative effects on human skin. Key risks include melanoma and the rapid onset of signs of ageing. For Chinese, these are viewed as undesirable, because their genetic legacy predisposes them to greater numbers of skin blemishes and because darker shades are culturally and socially viewed as less attractive. Properties in sunshine locations may need to modify aspects of their infrastructure and service delivery to meet the needs of the globally influential Chinese market. Shaded spaces, new activities, scheduling of experiences in the early morning, evening and at night, are all a part of the required innovations in experience design

Seeing coffee tourism through the lens of coffee consumption: A critical review

One of the world’s most popular beverages, coffee is used to satisfy a wide range of consumptions, including tourism. In this article, we examined the existing concepts of coffee consumption and identified additional consumption domains that may contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding coffee tourism. The paper used a scoping review approach and Critical Media Discourse Analysis (CMDA). The scoping review examined 152 articles on coffee consumption and coffee tourism published up to 2020. Subsequently, CMDA enabled a more in-depth textual and contextual analysis of the literature. In addition, Leximancer was used to illuminate the prominent scopes of the literature. Three prominent scopes of the literature are identified in the textual analysis: consumer behaviour, place consumption,and ethical consumption. In addition, the contextual findings indicate that coffee tourism studies have increased in recent decades. Furthermore, the social context highlights the dynamic nature of the coffee market landscape in the global North and the global South. Future research directions were suggested, and the managerial implications of these findings were discussed

The Problem and Countermeasures of Cross-border E-commerce Logistics

With the development of free trade zone, strategy of One Belt and One Road and the policy of cross-border e-commerce, many domestic electric business platforms enter into industry of cross-border electricity. Cross-border e-commerce which is a new business model has advantages, such as, fewer links, short processing cycle and low cost. It can powerfully develop today. However, cross-border logistics which is short slab of cross-border e-commerce restricts the development of cross-border e-commerce. Cross-border e-commerce that has multi-function, multiple frequency operation and comprehensive characteristics require logistics service has the characteristics of agility, high efficiency, low cost and visualization. The model of cross-border logistics in our country has many problems. For example, high cost, long time, incomplete logistics information system, lack of large-scale logistics service enterprises. This factors seriously restrict the development of cross-border e-commerce. In this paper, cross-border electricity development present in our country and its existing problems have been discussed, and we put forward relevant countermeasures. And the goal of the paper is to provide electric commercial enterprises some reference and experience

Let's listen: the voices of ethnic villagers in identifying host-tourist interaction issues in the Central Highlands, Vietnam

Host-tourist interaction is a core attraction of ethnic tourism. Yet both parties may confront challenges in such interactions because of different cultural backgrounds. This study aims to investigate host-tourist interaction issues in Vietnam’s Central Highlands by adopting a qualitative approach wherein 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with villagers. Results find that villagers interacted with domestic tourists mostly in private houses, tourist attractions and facilities, and on tours. In such settings, the content of interactions varied from low to high intensity. Derived from the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory [Pearce, W. B., & Cronen, V. E. (1980). Communication action and meaning. Praeger], verbal (language) and non-verbal behaviour and cultural patterns were the greatest interaction difficulties. While interaction difficulties occurred across different settings, higher intensity interactions resulted in more positive outcomes. This study enriches the existing knowledge on interaction between ethnic hosts and domestic tourists in the intra-national context. The interpretive theoretical and methodological utility of CMM provided insight into interaction difficulties, and opportunities to facilitate positive interactions in ethnic tourism development. Further implications for villagers, tourists, local policymakers, and tour operators were suggested to build long-term sustainability of the host-tourist relationship in the Central Highlands