Visitors to two types of museums: Do expenditure patterns differ?

The authors study the determinants of the expenditure behaviour of visitors to two types of museums. Ad hoc surveys were conducted between June and September 2011 of visitors to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). These are the two principal museums in the Italian provinces of Bolzano and Trento. The double-hurdle model is used via the Heien and Wessels two-step estimator. This procedure splits the process of spending decision into the stages of 'selection' and 'outcome', and also results in consistent estimates. The findings highlight two distinct profiles. The spending of visitors to the modern art museum is positively related to its cultural interest, whereas the expenditure profile of the archaeological museum visitors is more 'generalist'

The visitors' perception of authenticity at the museums: Archaeology versus modern art

The aim of this paper is to analyse quantitatively the visitors' perception of authenticity in two different types of museums: archaeology versus modern and contemporary art. The research is based on 1288 questionnaires collected from June to September 2011 among the visitors of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (ÖTZI) in Bolzano and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) in Trento-Rovereto. Logit models were used in order to estimate the set of independent variables that significantly influence both the perception of the authenticity and the 'virtual' choice between the two types of museums considered. The results suggested that the authenticity perception was related to peculiar authenticity-related factors and by specific socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewee, although some common elements emerge. In particular, ÖTZI authenticity is linked to its uniqueness in the world, whereas MART visitors relate authenticity to the museum's building and the perception that it was not just a tourist attraction. The empirical evidence confirms the well-known concept that authenticity perception is a dynamic experience, depending on the peculiar characteristics of the attraction analysed. © 2012 © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and attitudes towards tourism policies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and how they affect attitudes towards local tourism policies. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of community attachment and employment sector of residents. This study presents the results of a quantitative survey among residing families of a small mountain community located in the North-East of Italy. The findings reveal that residents perceptions on economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts affect their support to local tourism policies. Residents who perceive positively tourism impacts are more willing to support future tourism development policies. The analysis has also demonstrated that native-born residents generally perceive negatively tourism impacts and are less willing to support any increase in the overall number of tourists, supporting the well know social exchange theory. Some implications for the tourism planning and management of the destination are also discussed

A multivariate analysis of tourists’ spending behaviour

According to the micro-economic theories regarding consumption behaviour, the determinants affecting the joint propensity of purchasing different goods and services are investigated. For this purpose, a copula-based model is suggested. This is in fact a suitable model to understand whether and how different expenditure categories are dependent with each other. A real application drawn from the tourism field is used to illustrate how the proposed approach works and to demonstrate its flexibility. The findings could guide local practitioners and managers in creating new promotional campaigns able to attract visitors willing to pay on a bundle of goods and services correlated with each other

Portfolio frontier analysis: Applying mean-variance analysis to health technology assessment for health systems under pressure.

The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging how healthcare technologies are evaluated, as new, more dynamic methods are required to test the cost effectiveness of alternative interventions during use rather than before initial adoption. Currently, health technology assessment (HTA) tends to be static and a priori: alternatives are compared before launch, and little evaluation occurs after implementation. We suggest a method that builds upon the current pre-launch HTA procedures by conceptualizing a mean-variance approach to the continuous evaluation of attainable portfolios of interventions in health systems. Our framework uses frontier analysis to identify the desirability of available health interventions so decision makers can choose diverse portfolios based upon information about expected returns and risks. This approach facilitates the extension of existing methods and assessments beyond the traditional concern with pre-adoption data, a much-needed innovation given the challenges posed by COVID-19

Satisfaction and Tourism Expenditure Behaviour

In the literature, the quantification of the effect of satisfaction on tourists’ expenditure behaviour has not been extensively studied. This research aims to fill in this gap, providing additional information about this crucial relation by analysing it from a microdata perspective. In particular, the Fuzzy Double-Hurdle model, a new model which combines the well-known Double-Hurdle model and the fuzzy set theory, is suggested and presented, both technically and by means of a real case study. The proposed model gathers the advantages of the Double-Hurdle model and the fuzzy set theory together producing a suitable model for the analysis of censored observations in presence of imprecise data. Specifically, the Double-Hurdle model allows to efficiently estimate the average values of a non-negative, non-normally distributed variable characterised by high frequency of zero values, as tourists’ expenditure can be, considering the two-stages nature of the decision process. On the other end, the inclusion of the fuzzy set theory in the regression model allows to cope with the imprecision of both collected information (i.e. levels of satisfaction) and kind of measurement used (i.e. Liker-type scale). The results will help tourism managers to more accurately evaluate the efficacy of their policies and marketing strategies in enhancing tourists’ satisfaction and, consequently, in increasing the level of spending at the destination

The challenge of publishing research about a never-ending subject for marketing scholars: The country of origin

The Country of Origin (COO) represents one of the main topics in the marketing literature and a large body of knowledge about it has already been published. This commentary essay tries to explain why it seems to be a never-ending subject for marketing scholars and the reason why the paper we published in this Journal few years ago contributed to the literature and has achieved the Google i-10 high citation-impact ranking. Analysing the effect of COO on a specific factor such as brand associations, the use of a methodology that cope with the critics of some scholars about the overstressed of COO in the past research, and the selection of an emerging market - the Chinese one - as country in which testing the COO have helped our paper to be cited. Based on these elements, some future research topics are also suggested

Do satisfied cellar door visitors want to revisit? Linking past knowledge and consumption behaviors to satisfaction and intention to return

This study evaluates the main determinants of wine tourists' intention to revisit the winery cellar door. The proposed tourist behavior model suggests that past wine-related knowledge and behaviors as well as motivation affect satisfaction with the cellar door visit. The model suggests that actual behavior at the cellar door (number of bottles bought and amount of money spent) is dependent on the previously mentioned factors. A survey of wine tourists in the Barossa Valley, Australia, led to 676 useable questionnaires. The results of a binary logistic model show that only monthly household expenditure on wine consumption and the motive of tasting wine predict satisfaction with the cellar door visit. A negative binomial model shows that the probability to buy more bottles at the winery increases if the visitor is from Australia, satisfied with the visit, has tasted wine at the cellar door, is younger, spends more on monthly household consumption of wine, and was primarily visiting to buy wine. However, intention to revisit is predicted only by satisfaction, awareness of the winery before the visit, motives of buying and tasting wine, and some sociodemographic characteristics. Implications for the management of visitor behavior and the cellar door experience are also discussed

Visitors of two types of museums: do expenditure patterns differ?

This study aims at estimating and comparing the determinants of expenditure behaviour of visitors in two types of museums. An ad-hoc survey was conducted between June and September 2011 among the visitors of the principal museums of the two provinces of Bolzano and Trento: the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology (Bolzano), hosting the permanent exhibition of the “Iceman” Ötzi, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). The double-hurdle procedure of Heien and Wessels (1999) is used in order to obtain consistent estimates and split the process of spending decision into the stages of ‘activation’ and ‘outcome’. Results highlight two distinct profiles of visitors. Spending of the modern art museum visitor was positively related to her cultural interest, whereas the expenditure profile of the archaeological museum guest was more ‘generalist’