The precinct experience: a phenomenological approach

An examination of the extant literature relating to urban tourism in general, and historic precincts in particular, highlights the predominantly structural and functional nature of existing research. Issues such as spatial form, land-use mix, developmen

Sydney: Beyond iconicity

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A Scoping Study of Business Events: Beyond Tourism Benefits

The purpose of this study is to provide an empirically-based assessment of the range and impact of contributions made by business events to host communities beyond the tourism dimension. This project is classified as a scoping study, delivering baseline data on which future stages of research could be built. Future stages of the project could be designed to deliver quantitative data on the contributions made by business events to complement the more qualitative focus of this study. It is well established that business events make a substantial contribution to the Australian economy from a tourism perspective. However, the Business Events Council of Australia (2009a) argues that impacts from business events in areas such as innovation, education, networking, trade, research and practice are likely to far outweigh the financial returns of the tourism spend. They have called for evidence-based research to be undertaken in this area (Business Events Council of Australia 2009b

Understanding Tourism Experiences and Behaviour in Cities: An Australian Case Study

This study aims to enhance the understanding of tourist experiences and behaviour in urban destinations by analysing the spatial movements of tourists, identifying the key attributes they are seeking in urban destinations, determining how important these attributes are to their experiences, evaluating how two urban destinations performed in relation to these attributes, and assessing whether there are key differences between different types of visitors to urban destinations. The ultimate aim of this project is to inform and guide the future governance and improved functioning of urban tourism destinations by developing a better understanding of the tourist in such settings

A tale of two caravan parks: friendship, community and the freedom thing

This paper presents the findings of a research project that explored notions of friendship and community in the context of caravan park holidays for repeat visitors to two caravan parks. The study was conducted by way of in-depth interview with 22 visitors to a caravan park on the south coast of News South Wales (Australia) in 2006 and 20 visitors to a caravan park in far north Queensland (Australia) in 2007. For both parks the findings indicate that the major attractions of caravan park holidays for long term repeat visitors are the friendships that build up over years of repeat visitation, and the relaxing lifestyle that the holiday affords. For the older and smaller of the parks the respondents also reported that a strong sense of community existed among the visitors and that this was a very satisfying feature of their holiday experience. There was less mention of a sense of community from respondents at the larger and more recently established park. Theoretical implications: there is an emerging literature documenting the possibilities of serious leisure and focal leisure activities as significant investment channels in the accumulation of social capital. This paper supports the theory that focal leisure activities can foster the development of a sense of community, however, our findings indicate that factors influencing this growth may include the age of the group and also the size of the group. Management and marketing implications: caravan park (and other tourist service) organisations may benefit from including notions of friendship and community in their marketing campaigns rather than the usual narrow focus upon facilities From a management perspective it may be useful to consider programming activities and providing amenities that facilitate social engagement and communal activity