Tourism Motivation: A System’s Perspective

This study specifies some shortcomings of common tourism motivation models and theories, and suggests a complex system approach to address the existing weaknesses. The proposed conceptualization depicts the tourism motivation system as a bipartite network of destinations with their respective reasons (i.e., (de)motives). (De)motivation is postulated as a force, which emerges from the system’s networked structure. Assuming that both reasons and destinations are unbounded, and the system is mainly governed by the two mechanisms of preferential attachment and node fitness, a power-law distribution is expected from the tourism motivation system in three levels of the entire system, reasons vertices type, and destination vertices type. Furthermore, using the relevant literature of thermodynamics and information theory in coordination with seven existing centralities and measures, seven new centrality measures are developed/proposed to evaluate the system’s components’ state/organization. For demonstration purposes, the proposed conceptualization is examined using a preliminary study

How Is the Premium Calibrated for the Speculative Risk in Lodging Firms?

The overarching themes of our paper are to calibrate the risk premium relative to the speculative risk parameters in capital markets and to analyze the pre-and post-recession patterns in the U.S. lodging portfolios from 2000 to 2016. We decompose several risk parameters speculated by the markets and risk-adjusted proxies to make solid judgments about the anomalies in excess return patterns and risk-reward trade-off calibration in our annualized heterogeneous portfolio sorts. Our primary findings reveal that our portfolio sorts did not return the efficient premium to the investors, as they should have been based on the speculative risk levels before the recession. However, after the recession, there was a correction in this pattern. Lastly, speculative risk-adjusted proxies and risk parameters generally co-move with the value-weighted benchmark

Destination Image and Tourist\u27s Imagination: The Forgotten Component

The objectives of this dissertation was to 1) develop a comprehensive scale to measure visitors\u27 imagination, 2) investigate the structural relationship between imagination and tourism destination image (TDI) components of cognitive, affective, and conative, 3) compare and contrast the various qualities of vividness, richness, saliency, control, and spatial between imagination and prospection, and 4) study the impact of different information sources on the evolving process of prospection to imagination. By conducting four different studies and seven data collection phases, the imagination scale was developed, validated, and utilized to test the proposed structural and differential hypotheses. In study 1, the phenomenology approach was employed and through a series of interviews, the internal experience of the imagination process was extracted. In study 2, which is composed of two focus groups, the potential manifest variables to measure imagination/prospection were developed and the structure of the questionnaire was designed. In study 3, through 3 data collection phases, two versions of long and short imagination scale questionnaire were validated and the structural relationships between imagination and destination image was investigated. In the final study, utilizing experimental design, hypotheses related to five qualities of imagination were compared to those of prospection. Finally, by adopting an exploratory approach, the impact of different information sources on imagination was investigated. The results of this dissertation indicated that the imagination scale is a reliable and valid scale to be used in various hospitality and tourism consumption contexts. It shows a high discriminant validity with TDI and structurally moderates the inter-relationships of the TDI components. In addition, findings of this dissertation support the theoretical discussions on the differences between imagination and prospection. Finally, the results revealed significant distinctions among image, video, and textual information sources regarding their impact on the quality of the mental image

Demonstration Of Exponential Random Graph Models In Tourism Studies: Is Tourism A Means Of Global Peace Or The Bottom Line?

Most social network analyses conducted in hospitality and tourism studies are merely descriptive. Despite the recent popularity of exponential-family of random graph models (ERGMs) in various scientific investigations, no studies have utilized these inferential methods of network analysis in hospitality and tourism studies. In some contexts, the power of these methods is undeniably superior to those of conventional statistical tests. Accordingly, in the current study, by using the controversial subject of tourism-peace, I demonstrated how ERGMs can be used in hypotheses testing and statistical modeling in hospitality and tourism context. The results of this study suggest that a change of perspective in tourism-peace discourse from tourism as a peacemaker to tourism as a peacekeeper can be a valid approach concerning the long-lasting debates on the relationship between tourism and peace

The Economics Of Attitudes: A Different Approach To Utility Functions Of Players In Tourism Marketing Coalitional Networks

The foundation of destination collaboration is based on the interdependency of the organizations involved in producing destination products. The high rate of destination collaboration failure underscores the need for conflict studies. Unlike previous studies, which depend solely on the collaboration monetary values, this study proposes a new approach to define its utility functions based on the attitudinal and motivational values. We employ the network theory to define the utility function of four major players and the game theory to examine three distribution solutions of coalitional activities\u27 values. The results support the notion of “free riders” mentioned in collaboration studies and explains why free riding is a natural phenomenon in tourism destinations’ marketing activities. The findings suggest that individual entities and hospitality are the two players with the highest admission fee and the least contribution. We suggest the concepts of fairness and stability to be considered in incentive policies to encourage collaboration among higher admission players

Workplace Romance Across Different Industries With a Focus on Hospitality and Leisure

Workplace romance is not a new phenomenon; yet, not many studies have investigated this matter in organizational behavior research. Leisure and hospitality industry holds the highest rate of workplace romance (57%) among different industries. In this study, following the theory of love, we have defined workplace romance as a romantic relationship among organization employees that is hypothesized to be determined by interpersonal solidarity, interpersonal attraction, physical attraction, motivation, perceived value, and attitude towards workplace romance. Using a sample of 603 employees from 13 industry categories, the proposed hypotheses were tested by employing both variance- and covariance-based structural equation modeling. Furthermore, the moderation impacts of organizational factors of injustice perception, culture and policies, organization size, and autonomy, as well as individual factors of previous experience, gender, and marital status along with the industry factor were tested. The results supported all the hypotheses except the hypothesis concerning the impact of attitude towards workplace romance. Findings also provide some interesting differences among moderating variables

The Complex System of Destination Image: Attack, Failure, and Control

Destination image is among the most investigated subjects in tourism literature. Previous studies have predominantly adopted a reductionist approach in investigating components of destination image. Reductionist approach, however, does not provide any knowledge on a complex system behavior (i.e., destination image). By using complex system approach and network science, the current study investigates the structure of Curaçao tourism destination image as a scale-free network of businesses and their related attitudinal constructs from TripAdvisor. Results showed that Curaçao’s destination image is categorized as a complex system with the least controllability. Furthermore, the major hubs of Curaçao Island’s image that are susceptible to deliberate attacks of nearby competitors were identified. Our findings call for a need of more unique hubs in Curaçao image network to consolidate the system in handling deliberate attack

From “Hypercritics” To “Happy Campers”: Who Complains The Most In Fine Dining Restaurants?

This article describes a cluster analysis of the complaining behavior of customers in fine dining restaurants using past visit frequency, public actions against the restaurants, recovery action requests, negative marketing actions, and satisfaction from previous experiences as the criteria variables. Four customer groups were recognized, termed hypercritics, silent killers, friendly complainers, and happy campers. Characteristics of the customer groups based on all criteria variables differed according to service delivery failure reactions. Overall, hypercritics and friendly complainers informed a restaurant and gave it the opportunity to make corrective actions; silent killers resorted to negative marketing actions rather than complaining on site; and happy campers did not complain. The analysis indicates several ways to turn silent killers into more favorable consumer groups. The results suggest that service stages should be treated uniquely while designing the best recovery response strategies for different customer groups

Tour Guides’ Communication Ecosystems: An Inferential Social Network Analysis Approach

Successful performance by tour guides depends highly on their networking activities and interpersonal skills. Membership in related associations can provide opportunities for establishing and expanding a supportive network in the tour guiding profession. This study explores communication ecosystems used among the members of the largest professional tour guides organization, the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA). Using the data collected from the 17th WFTGA convention in Tehran, Iran, we investigated five types of tour guides’ communications ecosystems (i.e. in-person, online-call, text-message, e-mail, and social networks) and compared them to tour guides’ networks of colleagues (i.e., the network that shows how people know one another and how they are linked). Moreover, we included the complementary no-contact network to enhance the internal validity of the study. Using exponential random graph modeling, all seven networks have been modeled using demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education, marital status, and tenure along with the history of participation in previous WFTGA conventions and WFTGA membership status. The analyses of virtual/digital (i.e., online-call, text-message, e-mail, and online social networks) and natural/traditional (i.e., in-person) communication ecosystems showed interesting similarities and differences among the seven networks, providing valuable insights for practitioners as well as academicians. Findings revealed the formation of networks based on homophily as well as heterophily effects is a function of types of communication ecosystem