Fashioning tourism future for visiting large cities

Purpose – Large cities are and will continue to become important tourism destinations in foreseeable future. Tourists' motives of the present is the prognosis for their future tourists' behavior. In respond to the longstanding critics in city tourism study, the present research aims to examine the underlying motives of tourists visiting large cities and offer insights into fashioning tourism future for visiting large cities. The identified motives inform three distinct implications fashioning tourism future of large cities. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative investigation was performed by surveying city tourists. Measurements on the survey form were derived from both scholarly and grey literature in relation to tourists' motivations. 326 valid questionnaires were netted to attain the study aim. Three-quarters of respondents were from Europe, Australia and Pacific. Descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis were conducted to achieve the research aims. Findings – Five underlying motives of tourists visiting large cities were revealed: shopping indulgence, urban commons, city icons, cultural and lifestyle and personal advancement. Mapping the findings with a conceptual scheme depicting tourism product in destination, the author revealed a new dimension, urbanity and offered critical reflection on three implications for the tourism future of large cities. Originality/value – Literature examining city tourists' motives neglect the context-specific measurements while administering the investigation. The research design embraces the urban-specific measurements in the data collection tool, contributing to deeper understanding on how tourism functions in cities. A new dimension, urbanity, which illustrates tourists' motives exclusive in large cities, was identified. Furthermore, three implications fashioning tourism future of large cities are revealed with the support of empirical evidence

Residents\u27 perceptions on touristifying Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong

This research aims to examine residents\u27 views on touristifying Cantonese Opera (hereafter CO) in Hong Kong. Developing cultural tourism is an emerging trend for destination marketing organizations across the globe, in which intangible cultural heritage (hereafter ICH) plays a crucial role. ICH represents a person-place bonding, which is important to the continuity and sustainability of ICH. Such bonding continues the affective connection of community members to specific place, giving people a sense of identity and continuity. Featuring the East-meets-West multicultural vibe, Hong Kong exhibits great potentials in employing ICH into tourism product. CO is featured on the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s website as a manifestation of the living culture of Hong Kong, signifying its tourism value to international tourists. Cantonese Opera was thus adopted as the study context. 20 in-depth interviews with Hong Kong citizens were interviewed from June to July 2019. Insights on sustaining Cantonese Opera and adopting it as tourism product were also discussed. Research finding was of significant importance to local destination marketing organization in the process of conserving and touristifying Cantonese Opera

Optimizing Fresh Agricultural Product Distribution Paths Under Demand Uncertainty

Consumers' demand for fresh agricultural products (FAPs) and their quality requirements are increasing in the current agricultural-product consumption market. FAPs' unique perishability and short shelf-life features mean a high level of delivery efficiency is required to ensure their freshness and quality. However, consumers' demand for FAPs is contingent and geographically dispersed. Therefore, the conflicting relationship between the costs associated with the logistics distribution and the level of delivery quality is important to consider. In this paper, the authors consider a fresh agricultural-product distribution path planning problem with time windows (FAPDPPPTW). To address the FAPDPPPTW under demand uncertainty, a mixed-integer linear programming model based on robust optimization is proposed. Moreover, a particle swarm optimization algorithm combined with a variable neighborhood search is designed to solve the proposed mathematical model. The numerical experiment results show the robustness and fast convergence of the algorithm.</p

Weaving the future of Asian city tourism: drivers and implications

The principal aim of this thesis is to explore the future of Asian city tourism. Cities have become popular tourism destinations and have been gaining ground in scholarly research. Limited theoretical grounding about tourism functions in cities sparked this investigation. The aims are two-fold: identifying the major drivers shaping the tourism future of Asian cities; and building a conceptual model steering the future of Asian cities. The pragmatism paradigm best suits this investigation due to the complex nature of cities and the flexibility in research techniques that the paradigm provides. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the research domain. This chapter covers an overview of literature on cities and tourism, the significance of city tourism, shortcomings of existing scholarly literature, and definitions of key terminology. Taking a forward-looking perspective, the key drivers shaping the future of Asian city tourism and the research methods used for futurology study are reported. Research opportunities informed by the knowledge gaps conclude the chapter. Chapter 2 showcases the theoretical background of the thesis. A critical assessment of general tourism destination development models, and contemporary tourism thinking about cities and tourism, set the scene for theoretical discourse. Two conceptual schemes, the time-space theory and quadruple bottom line of sustainability, are adopted to make sense of the future of city tourism. Research methodology is delineated in Chapter 3. Guided by the pragmatism paradigm, mixed methods were utilized to achieve the aims. Case study and grounded theory were chosen as the research strategies. A quantitative study was utilized to strategically select the case study cities. A tourism city similarity matrix was proposed, given the absence of readily available methods for comparing cities. Adopting an approach of building research-informed objective and comprehensive measures, the matrix incorporated five dimensions measuring the performance of key tourism and hospitality sectors in tourism cities. These dimensions included the tourism, hotels, aviation, MICE, and gaming sectors, with a total of 17 attributes. Multidimensional scaling analysis was performed to identify the overall degree of similarity of cities. The Asian cities, Bangkok and Hong Kong were chosen as case study locales after performing three-rounds of analysis. The qualitative study is highlighted in Chapters 4 and 5. In-depth interview and document analysis were the data collection and analysis methods. Twenty-eight interviews with the key informants from public and private sectors across the three case study cities were performed. Document analysis was used to reveal the historical background of the contexts and offer supplementary information to the interviews. Scholarly and grey literatures were both considered as valid and useful information. With reference to the time-space theory, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 considered Asian tourism cities' development from the past to the present, and from the present to the future respectively. Chapter 4 introduced the historical background, city evolution, urbanization and tourism development in the three case study locations. Interviewees' insights on the past drivers that shaped the present landscape of tourism cities were featured. Fifteen major drivers were identified. For the sake of logical presentation, the drivers were subsumed into the STEEP analysis, including social, technological, economic, environmental and political categories. Political and social drivers were seen as the two cardinal drivers according to interviewees. Research findings demonstrated a strong tie to the time-space theory. Following the footprint of time, tourism cities offered geographical centrality in terms of resources and activities. The historical past served as important building block for the development of tourism cities in the present and the future. Chapter 5 explored the present drivers that may shape the future. The interview-informed drivers were framed under the quadruple bottom line of sustainability. Nativism and human resources are anticipated to drive a socially sustainable future. Infrastructure is vital for economic sustainability, while liveability is prominent in achieving environmental sustainability. The interviews also revealed that upholding legitimacy is profoundly important in ensuring governance sustainability. This research reveals a new pattern of tourism cities. Asian tourism cities have gradually emerged as strategic nodes for the new types of operations: the findings note the prominence of cross-border economic dynamics and cities gaining visibility as individual entities. The concluding chapter, Chapter 6, provides a synthesis of the entire thesis. A conceptual model was built to showcase the interplay of the two conceptual schemes in Asian cities' tourism future. This model weaved together the research findings, the conceptual schemes, critical evaluation of destination development models and contemporary thinking on city and tourism. The chapter also underscores the theoretical significance and limitations of this research, and makes recommendations for future studies

A comparison of photo-taking and online-sharing behaviors of mainland Chinese and Western theme park visitors based on generation membership

This research investigates and compares the photo-taking and online photo-sharing behaviors of mainland Chinese and Western theme park visitors using decade length generations. Given the rapid growth in digital photography and growing popularity of online sharing of photos, an enhanced understanding of the photo-taking and photo-sharing behaviors of visitors based on generation membership will assist theme park managers develop new social media marketing strategies. Most previous research has employed Western definitions of generations such as baby boomer, generation X, and generation Y. These definitions do not always apply in non-Western settings indicating the need for an alternative approach. This study uses a decade length definition of generations: the post-70s, post-80s, and post-90s. Results of the survey found that photo taking and online photo sharing are very popular but do vary between generations and cultures. For example, mobile phones were found to be the most popular photographic equipment for mainland Chinese and the least popular for post-90s Western respondents. All generations rated family/friend, landscape, and selfies as the top three areas of photo content. Selfies were twice as popular with mainland Chinese post-90s as their Western counterparts in the same generation. The findings highlight the usefulness of decade length generations and of identifying photo-taking and photo-sharing activities based on cultural groupings. The findings also indicated opportunities for co-creation at least in the area of photo taking in a theme park setting

Service quality research on China's hospitality and tourism industry

Purpose - The study aims to provide an inventory of the existing English and Chinese research on service quality in China's hospitality and tourism industry. The study aims to identify the reasons for the lack of research on service quality in China's hospitality and tourism industry and the ignorance of the Chinese language literature in the field.\ud \ud Design/methodology/approach - A synthesis review is conducted of 31 articles published in 11 leading Chinese and English academic journals from 1998 to 2013.\ud \ud Findings - Popular research themes are service quality management and evaluation in the hotel sector. The majority of the reviewed articles are empirical studies that adopt quantitative methods, and none of the English articles use qualitative methods. Recent studies tend to use sophisticated statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Changes in disciplines, publication trends and statistical techniques are observed. The theoretical and practical contributions of the Chinese and English publications are compared, and recommendations are made for future research.\ud \ud Originality/value - This study is one of the first to review and compare the existing publications in the leading Chinese-and English-language journals. It provides a platform for scholars, especially non-Chinese literate researchers, to understand the research on service quality in the China hospitality and tourism industry

A casino-induced satisfaction of needs: scale development and its relationship with casino customer loyalty

Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, this study develops a five-factor casino-induced satisfaction-of-needs scale and examines its relationship with casino customer loyalty using Macau as a study context. The findings show that the respondents’ most visited casinos had only marginally met the respondents’ various inner needs; there is still ample room for Macau casinos to improve the level of their customers’ satisfaction regarding customers’ inner needs. Among the five types of inner needs, self-actualization appears to be one need that requires more attention than the others because it was rated as the need that was the least satisfied but contributed the second most to measuring satisfaction. Additionally, Macau casinos should continue their efforts to improve and maintain a safe and secure casino environment, coupled with providing a variety of quality foods and beverages, for their customers. Lastly, safety and security, self-actualization and physiological needs were found to positively affect casino customer loyalty