bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kooperationen auf dem kur‐ und bädermarkt — der fall Deutschland
Authors: Bleile Georg
Published: March 2008

Concentration and elimination on the suppliers' side are the result of increasing competition on open markets. Co‐operating with the intention “we are stronger in commune” is a strategy of the suppliers to react. On the spas' market more intensive competition does not lead nor to concentration neither to elimination. Following a German survey in 2001 only 20% of the spas co‐operated on the field of marketing. But the degree of co‐operation is very low. Mostly co‐operation is reduced to the marketing tool “communication”. Co‐operating on the entire field of marketing is an exception. The market situation forces the spas to more co‐operation to reduce costs and to realize synergies. Concerning co‐operation there is a big deficiency on the spas' market.
Destinationsbenchmarking am Beispiel alpiner Wintersportorte: Korrektur einer tabelle
Authors: Laesser Christian , Willauer Thomas
Published: March 2008

A missunderstanding by the publishing house has lead to a number of mistakes in table 4 of the article of Matthias Fuchs. For a better understanding of the corresponding article, the corrected table is re‐published in this edition. Please excuse that mistake. Thank you for your understanding.
Introducing learning and adaptivity into web‐based recommender systems for tourism and leisure services
Authors: Mazanec Josef A.
Published: March 2008

Travel counseling and recommender systems on the Internet have not yet become smart enough to fulfill the elementary functions a fastidious consumer may expect. The EU‐funded project named DieToRecs (http://dietorecs.itc.it/) aims at improving recommender system functionality by incorporating relevant findings from tourist behavior research. The computational intelligence needed to optimize the user‐system encounter greatly depends on how far the user has advanced in his travel decision process. This report elaborates the levels of counseling intelligence, explores the basic marketing paradigm of matching the products/services desired and offered, and ponders on the consequences for devising a recommender or counseling system capable of learning.
Customer value management as a determinant of the competitive position of tourism destinations
Authors: Pechlaner Harald , Smeral Egon , Matzier Kurt
Published: March 2008

Destinations are strategic marketing units which consist of territorially delimited, consolidated areas of co‐operation. Options to improve a destination's competitive edge depend on the determinants of competitiveness. A destination's competitive position can be explained by factor conditions and conditions of demand, quality and structure of sectors involved, strategies as well as market and organizational structures. The competitive system depicted above forms the basis for the creation of “customer value” and therefore is a source of future competitive advantages. Customer value is the gap perceived by the customer between the perceived (multidimensional) benefit and the perceived (multidimensional) costs/prices of a destination compared to its competitors. The aim of the article is the explanation of “Customer Value Management” as a key strategy to affect a destination's competitive position by means of supply‐side measures as well as the communicated and achievable relative consumption/cost position.
Swiss travel market — aspects of consumer behaviour in an aging travel market
Authors: Bieger Thomas , Laesser Christian
Published: March 2008

Switzerland with its seven million inhabitants, of which 20,1 % (BfS 2001) are non‐Swiss citizens, ranks among the top seven nations with respect of income per capita. Due to its wealth as well as its small size, the travel intensity of Switzerland is comparably high. Because it always had a tradition of neutrality and liberal political positions, freedom of travel was guaranteed for generations. Since Switzerland hasn't been drawn into World War 2, the emergence of the new dynamic of travel took place early in the fifties. Switzerland therefore is a kind of very developed travel market. According to the WTO statistics, Switzerland ranks among the top tourist buyer countries (cp. WTO 2001). The Institute of Public Services and Tourism at the University of St.Callen (former Institute for Transport and Tourism) has been conducting a survey on the travel behaviour of Swiss customers for more then thirty years (cp. Bieger & Laesser 2002). On a regular base of every second to third year, a representative consumer panels of 2000 households is interviewed by written questionnaires. The Swiss travel market proves a high validity in comparisons with the official Swiss statistical figures for travel, with one small limit: The number of travels intensity is underestimated due to the fact that people tend to undervalue the number of travels to their usual destinations like second homes. The goal of this contribution is to give an overview on the travel behaviour of Swiss customers as example for a well developed country. This will be done in two parts. Part 1 is featuring some descriptive main results, concerning the development and structure of the overall travellers. Part 2 consists of two papers, done by Ph.D students in a seminar taught by the authors of this contribution at the University of St. Gallen. These two articles give a deeper insight into some aspects of travel behaviour.
Review of the concept of travel typologies: The case of Switzerland
Authors: Graf Luca , Ossig Christine
Published: March 2008

The study aims at reviewing the concept of travel typologies. For this purpose the two determination factors explaining travel behavior, motivation and destination choice, are chosen to verify the validity of travel typologies. The study is based on an extensive and representative travel survey covering almost 2,000 households and more than 12,000 trips within Switzerland. Generally, travel typologies seem to be a valuable instrument for the tourism industry to anticipate consumer behavior and to plan marketing activities appropriately. The results reveal that there is no clear and highly significant connection between travel typologies and the selected determination factors. As a conclusion, the concept of travel typologies seems to be not reliable.
Segmentation of the Swiss travel market by holiday activities
Authors: Ammann Paul A , Bischof Lukas , Schalcher Felix
Published: March 2008

This study attempts to segment the Swiss travel market based on holiday activities. It is based on data of the 2001 travel market in Switzerland. Cluster and discriminant analysis have been employed in order to segment the data and to explain the differences between the clusters. Hereby, five activity‐clusters could be defined, each representing a set of holiday activities most likely to be exercised. The analysis of the five clusters revealed that two demographic profile variables “occupation” and “size of household” did explain the affiliation to a certain cluster. The same could be found for the following travel profile variables: “destination and duration of the trip”, “total number of participants from a household and “type of trip”. Further research will be necessary to find out if the clusters identified really do fulfil the needed criteria for market segments in order to be used by companies in the travel industry.
Report on workshop I: The influence of air transport on destination development
Authors: Liebrich Andreas
Published: March 2008

Three case studies about tourism impacts caused by air travel were presented in the first workshop of the 44th AIEST‐conference. The three presenters were discussing the impacts of airtravel in European regions: France (Claude Origet du Cluzeau), Pisa (Harald Pechlaner) and Southern Italy (Andrea Macchiavelli).
Report on workshop IV: Mega leisure travel groups — a new business model in tourism related air transport?
Authors: Frick Gotthard
Published: March 2008

Three papers were presented to launch the debate on the theme:
Internationale dienstleistungskompetenzen der europäischen hotellerie
Authors: Frehse Jörg
Published: March 2008

European hotels, which tend to be individual businesses, have a hard time resisting the continued globalization pressure. In order to survive the fierce international competition, Europe's hotel business needs to offer their potential customers an added value that they do not receive from hotel chains. The author shows how European hotels can prevail by developing international service competencies.
A tourism PhD reflection
Authors: Pike Steven
Published: March 2008

A former tourism industry general manager turned academic provides reflections on aspects of his PhD experience. In particular, two issues are the focus. Firstly, the evolution and maturing of his own thinking during the course of the thesis, from that of a ‘booster’ to the development of a more holistic perspective relating to tourism planning. Secondly, and related to the first issue, he laments the great divide separating tourism practitioners and academics. From his experience as a practitioner he suggests the literature contains a wealth of material that has practical value. However, as an academic, he is left wondering how much of this scholarly work actually reaches the tourism industry.
The old problems of Brazilian tourism
Authors: Gonzaga Godoi Trigo Luiz
Published: March 2008

Brazil is a key tourism receiving country. Based on improvements with regard to infrastructure, supra‐structure (hotels, etc.), professional education and new equipment, international arrivals have reached more than 5 million in 2001. However, Brazil faces a number of old new problems, not only tied to tourism but also with regard to the general business environment. This article describes the very complet phaenomen “tourism in Brazil” on the basis of many examples.
Workstress response perceptions among potential employees: The influence of ethics and trust
Authors: Ross Glenn F.
Published: March 2008

The ethical principles that potential tourism/hospitality employees bring to this industry have, only in the last decade or so, begun to receive research scrutiny. Fundamental ethical beliefs, it is suggested, are likely to have wideranging implications in regard to issues such as management style and workstress problem‐solving, particularly in the face of perceived indifference or injustice among prospective employers and supervisors. Ethical beliefs accompanying prospective employees are likely to be attended by expectations regarding the validity and efficacy of particular workstress problem‐solving strategies perceived to be displayed by tourism industry management. This study has examined four basic ethical principles that are at the core of optimal employee functioning: efficiency, reliability, Initiative and hardwork; the paper has also examined a range of perceived tourism industry management workstress response strategies among a sample of potential tourism industry employees, particularly as those perceptions may be mediated by basic workplace ethical beliefs. Major perceived workstress problem‐solving responses by tourism industry management were found to involve the enhancement of workplace trust, workplace communication, and global management change within the workplace. More highly rated ethical ideals involved showing initiative and responsibility, whereas lower rated ideals were efficiency and hardwork. It was also revealed that ideal ethical ratings for initiative, responsibility and efficiency were higher than perceived ethical expectations among tourism industry management; potential tourism industry employees rated hardwork lower than they believed tourism industry management would so do. The response of trust emerged as the most valued of the workstress alleviation responses, and was found to be associated with most of the ethical principles. The global management change response was also found to be associated with similar ethical principles, though to a lesser degree; the communication workstress response was also found to be a prominent management workstress response expectation, though was not revealed to be predictive of the four workplace ethical principles. Implications of these findings for human resource management operations within the tourism/hospitality industry, and for further research directions, are presented.
Tourist profile research: Antalya region example 2001
Authors: Aktas Ahmet , Akin Aksu A. , çizel Beykan
Published: March 2008

Tourism movements are increasingly of interest as economic, social and cultural events, which annually, and on a country basis make one destination more popular than another. Additionally, tourism is an important factor for establishing international peace, cultural and trade activities between human beings, increasing employment, furthering interaction between communities and bringing financial support to economies. In the tourism sphere, competing countries are trying to cope with each other by mentioning and emphasizing their differences. In this context, using the tourist supply in an efficient and productive way will increase the level of tourism support to countries and to regions on a large scale. In order to reach this aim, analysing and examining the differences in tourist demand in certain periods have key importance. The aim of this research is to examine the profiles and expectations of tourists coming to the Antalya Region of Turkey.
Natur und kultur griechenlands als unerschöpfliche grundlagen des zukunftsfähigen tourismus
Authors: Stephanos Karagiannis
Published: March 2008

Crete, an exquisite island, is located between Europe, Asia and Africa, and in the north, is it surrounded by the Cretan Sea and in the south, by the Libyan Sea. It has become known as one of the most alluring tourist destinations in Europe. This is attributed to its geographical location, extraordinary flora and fauna, a unique natural phenomenon, such as the Gorge of Samaria, and its rich historical monuments. The archaeological sites in Crete (Knossos palace) are worldwide known and can be visited along with the famous Byzantine monuments. As it is understood, such churches and their artifacts mainly appeal to visitors with particular religious interests. At the same time, for the modern tourist who is interested beyond the usual attractions, there are also developed traditional settlements, the Sustainable tourism and Ecotourism, traditional cultural events and feasts, as well as exhibitions of popular art. Regarding the economy, over the last decade, an important growth in agriculture (the climate encourages a lot of bio‐cultures), industry and finally tourism has taken place. However, a more general growth is also to be seen in other economic sectors (manufacture, trade etc.) that benefit from the increase in the number of consumers annually, due to the surge in tourism. This radiograph of the island of Crete demonstrates all the natural and cultural elements that are impressive and rare within one area, and which, if exploited correctly, may create other tourist models based on natural and cultural resources.
Call for papers for workshops
Authors: Keller Peter , Bieger homas
Published: March 2008

As announced earlier, the next AIEST Congress will take place just one year before the Summer Olympics in Athens (Greece). It is primarily for this reason that we have chosen “Sport and Tourism” as the theme of the Congress.
Destination “Deutsche Nationalparke” als touristische marke
Authors: Hannemann T. , Job H.
Published: March 2008

National parks are trademarks for unspoilt landscape and authentic nature experience, a quality which is one of the most important competition factors in tourism and which does comply with today's most popular trends in tourism. But up to now the surrounding tourism regions do not use the attraction value of German national parks for their destination marketing. In 2002, the UN‐Year of Ecotourism and the national tourism campain for Germany's natural heritage, made the tourism sector aware of national parks. The situation analysis carried out in German national park regions revealed, that national parks in traditional destinations only play a secondary role, while they are paramount idea for marketing in underdeveloped regions with still modest tourist infrastructure. On the other hand there are medium or even higher developed destinations where national parks are playing a quite dominant role in tourism. The different types of national park regions require different strategies of destination management. As one strategy a corporate identity and policy for creating and establishing a touristic brand “German National Parks” is proposed.
E‐mail customer service in the Tunisian hotel industry
Authors: Gherissi‐Labben Thouraya , Schegg Roland , Murphy Jamie
Published: March 2008

This research replicates and extends Frey et al. (2003), using a typical e‐mail query to investigate e‐mail customer service by 260 Tunisian hotels. Based on the hotel responses, this study found that guests had one chance in ten of receiving a reply within a day and even less chance that hotels answered the inquiry professionally, promptly, politely and personally. Diffusion of innovations failed to explain differences in responsiveness by Tunisian hoteliers but did help explain the quality of e‐mail replies. The results suggest that reply quality differs across hotel size and hotel affiliation. Hotel affiliation as well as hotel category and website presence showed no significant differences in responsiveness. Differences aside, the results highlight that Tunisian hotels can gain an immediate competitive advantage by analysing common e‐mail queries and implementing basic e‐mail procedures.
Passenger air transport tendencies for the next years
Authors: Carlos Beni Mario
Published: March 2008

Thist contribution focuses on a discussion on air transport tendencies for the years to come. It is based on results and discussion of the AI EST conference on Air transport, held in Brasil in 2002.
There's nothing really new under the sun!
Authors: Callot Philippe
Published: March 2008

The success of the low‐cost airlines is for many a real surprise. Regarding two previous models developed by Michael Porter (3 basics strategies and value chain), we will attempt to show that the success of these different companies is a faithful reflection of strategic models set out and perfectly suited to the given context, here that of the air transport field. To “dissect ” the success of this phenomenon of low‐cost airlines, we will base our study, in the first section, on the case of EasyJet. In a given context, the supposed models of the low‐cost companies are a perfect illustration of the application of precise strategic concepts and models. Proof has been provided that low‐cost companies using sustainable value chains can be profitable and move steadily towards strategies of external growth (Ryanair recently acquired Buzz). In the second section, we will present a brief study covering a services marketing logic for Tours airport (France) with a logical diagram application.
Hotel Development of Cultural Tourism Elements
Authors: Peterson Craig A. , McCarthy Claire
Published: March 2008

One of the major attractions of travel has always been exposure to the various components that make up another culture. Traditions, customs, religion, ceremonies, rituals, the arts, crafts, language, dress, food, architecture and landscaping are all elements of what is now broadly called “cultural tourism.” In this essay we examine hotel development of on‐site cultural tourism elements that serve both to expand opportunities for guests to learn about local culture and traditions and to increase the hotel's attraction to potential guests. In Sections 1–4 we present briefcase studies of three prominent hotels in Southeast Asia (the Grand Hyatt Bali, the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, and the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok) that have developed an array of cultural tourism offerings based on local cultural patterns, the physical setting of the hotel, and its clientele. Based on these three studies, we provide in Section 5 specific guidelines for other hotels to consider in developing their own cultural tourism offerings. In Section 6, we address the role of governments in encouraging or mandating the development of certain types of on‐site cultural tourism elements. In Section 7, we summarize our conclusions.
New perspectives of satisfaction research in tourism destinations
Authors: Fuchs Matthias , Weiermair Klaus
Published: March 2008

The paper presents important measurement approaches in the field of costumer satisfaction with services and applies those empirically for service bundles at the level of the tourism destination. After working out the most prominent characteristics of existing satisfaction concepts according to the American and the Scandinavian school of thought, the latter will be critically evaluated for its potential practical use in measuring guest satisfaction. Based on this preparatory work, the Importance‐Performance Analysis, the Implicit Importance Analysis and the Penalty‐Reward‐Contrast Analysis are implemented and show that differing satisfaction models will lead to varying results and hence, ambiguous implications for destination management. However, due to its model parsimony and methodical stringency the Penalty‐Reward‐Contrast Analysis will be retained as the most valuable instrument for measuring tourist satisfaction. The paper concludes with implications for the management of destinations and a brief outlook for further research.
The “Comparative Analysis of Spas” — An instrument for the re‐positioning of spas in the context of competition in spa and health tourism
Authors: Fontanari Martin , Kern Alexandra
Published: March 2008

No tourist segment is at present marked by such a massive expansion of offers like the ones of spa tourism. Today, only in Germany more than 350 medicinal baths and spas try to position themselves on the market highly demanded “self‐payers” (see Deutscher Heilbäderverband 2002, p. 257–573.). Even outside the spas, the offer of health‐tourism develops dynamically. The demand‐side oft he market for health‐tourism services is very promising and has initiated a world‐wide mobilization health‐conscious tourists. To be actually perceived in this very growing market, suppliers — particularly medicinal baths and spas — which have a rather “traditional” image — must distinguish themselves with a clear profile. Moreover, capital projects or business promotions require clear decisive factors towards specialization and how to position oneself in the long‐term. Last but not least it remains to be answered how medicinal baths and spas should be presented on the market at the level of tourism destinations or countries in order to differ from other spa destinations. Of course, these questions are not only a challenge for medicinal baths and spas in the German‐speaking countries. Particularly in Eastern Europe where today huge amounts of money are invested into the infrastructure of health‐tourism, a basis for long‐term support factors as well as for decision taking factors are required to align the specific offer with the needs of selected target groups. For this complex setting of tasks the European Tourism Institute (ETI) has developed a well‐aligned instrument for data‐collection, data‐evaluation and data‐analysis which makes possible consistent decisions on product development and product positioning for the individual spas well as for marketing on the regional or state level. Therefore, the comparative analysis of spas takes into consideration the needs of the market as well as the specific design of offers and the attractiveness of locations.
Tourism barometer — developing and testing an instrument for monitoring the tourism market in Switzerland
Authors: Mueller Hansruedi , Schmid Fabian
Published: March 2008

Tourism is an area with poor statistical coverage. In most countries, only frequency for the hotel trade are monthly published, while results for self‐catering accommodation, camping etc., as well as for branches of economic activity which are mainly dependent on day visitors, are lacking. No statistics are compiled about demand for special tourist transport, sport/culture/entertainment or gastronomy. Furthermore, there are no data on developments in monetary terms. In some countries and tourist areas, new instruments have therefore been introduced to document tourism developments faster, more comprehensively and taking a broader view. This article is based on a recently concluded study on instruments used in monitoring the tourism market (Schmid 2003). A reporting system was set up using a panel in which businesses in branches of economic activity of relevance to tourism can participate. These businesses report some key indicators each month and can, in return, compare their results anonymously with the average for the corresponding branch. Their data are then used to make projections. In the test phase, monthly physical and monetary indicators were calculated for accommodation, restaurants/catering transport and sport/culture/entertainment. It was proved that a voluntary reporting system can work and provide a positive cost‐benefit ratio for participants. The stock of tourist data can be supplemented and made easily accessible. However, difficulties remain in the holiday home sector. Moreover, the results are approximate projections and not exact, full‐scale surveys.
Agrotourism development in Cyprus — dedicated to a world of heritage…
Authors: Papamichael Yannis
Published: March 2008

One of the striking features of modern tourism has been the spectacular growth in tourism traffic to the Mediterranean coastlines (Beckett, 1997). For many small states, particularly island economies with favorable natural resources, tourism was regarded as an easy low cost/high profit option offering limitless scope for economic and social improvement (OECD, 1996). The participation of Cyprus in this development has been unprecedented.
Air accessibility as a factor of tourism development in Southern Italy
Authors: Macchiavelli Andrea , Vaghi Carlo
Published: March 2008

The paper analyses the tourism supply in Southern Italy with the aim to verify the role played by air transport in promoting tourism in Southern Italy among major European sales market. Thus the following items are taken into account: a. The level of competitiveness and main characteristics of tourism supply in Southern Italy, compared with those of the other countries in the Mediterranean Basin, according to holiday offers presented in several catalogues collected among tour operators placed in some major European capitals; b. The level of air accessibility of Southern Italy, provided by its commercial airports, through a deep analysis of airports schedules of Southern Italian airports and their competitors; c. The evolution of the air accessibility in the last three years, and the causal link with major trends verified in the airborne transport market during the recent years. The results of the study show that new trends in the air transport are favouring the development of tourism in South‐Eastern Mediterranean Basin, but airlines tend to centre flights towards areas already providing a well‐developed tourism supply, and where it is more integrated in European sales markets. Countries such as Italy, where the tourism supply is more fragmented are more damaged; whereas Italy, on the one hand, has difficulty in reaching a sufficient level of demand for specific tourist areas, on the other hand, there is a lack of commercial policies coordinated among operators to penetrate the “richest” foreign markets. The main problem for Southern Italian tourism operators is therefore to develop policies strongly integrated among different areas and regions, both on supply organization and in the field of marketing, with the aim to generate the traffic volumes necessary to attract airlines. The increasing in competitiveness faced at the present time by the air transport market, and the increased easiness for the individual customer to choose and book air flights must stimulate those policies.
Call for papers
Authors: Keller Peter , Bieger Thomas
Published: March 2008

In many tourism country destinations the dominant structure is that of small‐to‐medium enterprises (SMEs). They are prevalent for example in the hotel trade, travel agencies, tourism transport systems and the many tourism‐related attractions. In contrary, in new destinations in emerging economies and developing countries that have strong tourism sectors the big corporations and chains are particularly well represented. Each of these sectors — the big corporations and the chains that operate on an industrial scale on the one hand, and the smaller type of business on the other — has its own characteristic structural advantages and disadvantages.
Linking travel motivations with perceptions of destinations: The case of youth travelers in Alpine summer and winter tourism
Authors: Matzler Kurt , Siller Hubert J.
Published: March 2008

The youth travel market is an important market segment in terms of size and growth rates. Youth travelers, however, differ in their travel motivations from other market segments. Therefore, in order to attract and satisfy youth travelers it is necessary to match their travel motivations with their perceptions of destinations. Based on an empirical study (N=2.128) among German Youth Travelers a methodology is presented which enables tourism managers to link travel motivations with perceptions of the destination. A two‐dimensioned matrix assesses the degree to which motivations and perceptions correlate. This analytical tool then forms the basis for the formulation of marketing strategies. The results of the empirical study presented in this paper show clear differences between travel motivations in summer and winter tourism and between perceptions of the Alps as a summer and winter destination.
Effective destination marketing through market segmentation by travel and leisure activities
Authors: Boksberger Philipp E. , von Bartenwerffer Torsten
Published: March 2008

For tourism, significant research has been conducted in industry‐specific marketing. Basically, the topic of discussion is the effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing of destinations. As marketing segmentation is one of the most critical parts of any marketing strategy, the authors believe that a customer segmentation by motivations via an activity‐based approach will increase the destination's marketing impact. This study aims to backtrack travel motivations from tourist behaviour which can be observed i.e. the activities they performed. The idea is to find out which motivations to target marketingwise that attract tourists who in turn fit the destination's attraction potential, and activity‐offering competencies. In order to test the hypothesis, a contingency analysis was employed using data from the Swiss travel market. By exploiting the linkage between motivations and activities, the authors have found 34 significant activities, 15 of which can be exclusively linked to a traveller motivation.
Influence of an event on a destination's image — The case of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos/Switzerland
Authors: Erfurt Rolf A. , Johnsen Julia
Published: March 2008

Events, conventions and other meetings are one of the fastest growing sectors within the tourism industry. For many destinations events provide a large number of tourists and a high public exposure through an extensive media coverage. This paper draws its focus on the image of an event and its influence on the image of a destination. The results show that an event has an influence on a traveller's image of the destination, most notably for travellers living close to the destination. It is also shown that the image of those travellers who have a prior experience with the destination are less affected by the event. The results can be used by destination managers to improve the image benefit of events through a better selection of events and to improve the competitive position of the destination by a selective communication of the positive aspects of the event to particular target groups.
Is VFR an independent target group? The case of Switzerland
Authors: Müri Fabian , Sägesser Anaïs
Published: March 2008

This paper makes a contribution to the exploration of the travel type “Visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”, which is a relatively new field of research. The demarcation and the differences between VFR and other types of trip are the focus of attention of this study. Thus the research goal is to delineate the linking up of VFR with other travel types. Using data from an extensive and representative travel survey covering 2,000 households and more than 11,000 trips, this study found that about one third of the Swiss VFR travelers use commercial accommodation. Although researchers have found in other studies, that VFR type travelers tend on spending more money on meals and catering this could not be confirmed. It was also found that VFR travelers do not have a higher duration of holidays than other travelers. Besides this study determines that VFR is a truly independent travel type. Therefore it has to be looked at separately and not in connection with other travel types.
Report on workshop I: How can sport activities contribute to sustainable tourism growth?
Authors: Mihalic Tanja
Published: March 2008

Within tourism, the role of sport is taking an increasingly greater role. Professional sports require travelling of athletes and their accompanying teams for competition and training. Similarly recreational sports are carried out in many tourism destinations by visitors. Competitive sports is formal, rational, goal directed and provides or allows little opportunity for fantasy. On the other hand, recreational sport may be amusement and recreation, a pleasant time to play and enjoy (Kurtzman, 2001: 100). Many destinations develop specifically for sport recreational tourism as evidenced by the numerous ski resorts one finds in alpine areas, for example. At the same time they may also offer an infrastructure and base for professional athletic training. In some cases, sports activity (e.g hiking, tennis) may not be the main motive for visiting a destination, but is offered and consumed as additional supply in order to provide more of a the total tourism product and increase tourist spending in the destination.
Report on workshop II: How can sport events contribute to sustainable growth
Authors: de Bruyn Raf
Published: March 2008

Reto Rupf‐Haller presented the case of the environmental planning process adopted by the St‐Moritz region (Suisse) for the organisation of the FIS Alpine World Skiing Championships in 2003. The race slopes of the championships are situated in an ecologically sensitive area above the forest‐line.
Branding mountain destinations: The battle for “placefulness”
Authors: Williams Peter W. , Gill Alison M. , Chura Neil
Published: March 2008

This paper explores the potential influence and consequences of corpora te branding on mountain resort destinations. It examines the extent to which corporations emphasize “placefulness” in the branding of their tourism products and services, as well as the degree to which they intentionally match their brands with values held by other destination stakeholders. “Placefulness” refers to the relative extent to which corporate branding strategies reinforce a destination's “sense of place” The findings suggest that a corporate as opposed to a community approach to branding is emerging in many tourism destinations. This has resulted in some significant redefinition of destination identities to reflect the changing needs of markets and corporations. Probably the most apparent identity shift in mountain communities brought on by corporate influence has involved the repositioning of many areas from being ski resorts to becoming four season destination resorts.
The “Sun and Beach” tourism destination image: An application to the case of Cuba from the Spanish tourist‐origin market
Authors: Calderón García Haydeé , Gil Saura Irene , Carmelo Pons García Roberto , Gallarza Martina G.
Published: March 2008

The research steam on tourism destination image, begun in the late 1960s, has been essentially operational in its approach, and only occasionally strategic. Aspects relating to the image of tourism destinations still constitute a relatively unexplored line of research. This paper, first establishes specific conceptual and methodological approaches, to enable us to rigorously study and evaluate the image of what we understand as a tourism destination characterized by “sun and beach”. It then applies this methodological proposition to a number of destinations in the Caribbean, focusing on the case of Cuba from an important tourist‐origin market for this destination, Spain.
Developing the image of the “Young Tourist”: Details from Swiss festivals
Authors: Gherrissi‐Labben Thouraya , Johnson Colin
Published: March 2008

This paper seeks to increase knowledge of young tourism by presenting the findings of an empirical study of younger tourists attending cultural festivals in Switzerland. Although often neglected by academic research, the young tourism market is nonetheless important in size, furthermore, young tourists are often the trendsetters who establish and build the attractiveness of tourist destinations (Horak and Weber, 2000) The study provides data and analysis on the consumer behaviour of younger tourists, particularly regarding their choice of accommodation, eating out, travel and entertainment. The findings confirms Carr's (1998) view of a separate yet heterogeneous market, different from that of older tourists, yet in some cases sharing certain similarities. As in earlier studies of youth culture, the study finds an emphasis among young tourists on leisure activities and the importance of information — particularly from the Internet. Similarity with more traditional tourists was shown by the high importance given to cleanliness in accommodation and the provision of individual bathroom facilities. Young tourists were also found to be extremely loyal to a particular country, with a very high possibility of repeat business. Given increasing longevity and affluence, this could translate into a high “lifetime‐value of the client,” possibly lasting over half a century.
Tourists values, activities and motivation for travel to third world destinations: Case study of Nigeria
Authors: Awaritefe Onome Daniel
Published: March 2008

The study identifies resources and destinations in Nigeria considered important for tourism and compares foreign with domestic Nigerian tourists in product choice, activity participation and travel motivations. 886 tourists were randomly sampled in 7 destinations in Nigeria. Survey results showed nature/ecotourism and beach/water resorts as most valued by domestic tourists, while foreign tourists attached higher significance to cultural/heritage and historic tourism Chi‐square tests also established significant differences between domestic and foreign tourists in structure of travel motivations and activities. Implications for destination planning and management are also highlighted.
Evaluation of congress tourism development in the world and in Turkey
Authors: Akin Aksu A. , Erdinç Ören V. , Sinan Volkan , Özcan Canan
Published: March 2008

Tourism has become one of the important events in the world with travel taking less time and becoming ever cheaper. Today many people are travelling to see new places or to have new experiences, and these movements result in considerable changes in community life (Do_an, 1987). From the beginning of tourism movements different inputs and mutual interactions have been faced. These emerge in some changes in community structures. When congress tourism and tourism movements are studied together, it can be seen that they have many common parts. In congress tourism, varying types can be seen: conferences, seminars, symposiums. A comprehensive name can be given for all these efforts: a “meeting”. Meetings can be summarized as conversations for information exchange among people gathered in a meetingplace. Sometimes the congress tourism concept can be used instead of meeting. Meeting delegates have high income levels and their spending amounts are generally higher than those of normal tourists. With only limited time, meeting delegates depart quickly after the meeting. Beside the meeting delegates, there are also accompanying people, and these people are also a good potential in meeting efforts (Tekeli, 2001). Since the importance of tourism is increasing day by day, this importance brings strong competition. Countries have to compete for new tourism markets as well as keep existing markets. In this context, congress tourism can be evaluated as one important type of tourism. In this article, congress tourism movements are examined in the world and in Turkey. Developments, the important countries, cities, and efforts related to this subject have been investigated.
Do special events matter? The case of exhibitions
Authors: Nica Mihai , Swaidan Ziad
Published: March 2008

Researchers are showing lately an increased interest toward the special event tourist niche, mostly due to the growth in demand for manifestations such as exhibitions, festivals and other historical and cultural displays. Besides meeting demand, special events are organized having in mind many other outcomes, one of them being their economic impact. Indeed, they may lead to an influx of funds in the area that in turn leads to increased sales, therefore to an increase in income and to the creation of new jobs. It is important that this type of events is analyzed allowing for better allocation of resources as well as for better planning of future similar events. Furthermore, estimating the event's possible economic impact in the planning phase could also lead to a much higher efficiency hence a more successful event. This study analyzes two of the most successful special events organized in Mississippi that attracted over 500,000 and 300,000 visitors. The study presents interesting findings related to patron profile as well as to their potential economic impact suggesting that such events may indeed lead to a significant increase in economic activity.
How tourists decide which heritage site to visit
Authors: Poria Yaniv , Butler Richard , Airey David
Published: March 2008

The relationship between the tourists and the heritage presented has already been identified as important for the understanding of tourist behaviour at the level of a specific heritage site. This study seeks to clarify whether tourists' perception of various spaces in relation to their own heritage could give an insight into tourists' decision which heritage site to visit. The findings of the study are based on a survey that examined tourists' visitation patterns to different heritage sites in Israel located within a relatively short distance of each other. The findings support the idea that the perception of the site in relation to the tourists' own heritage lies at the heart of an understanding of tourists' visitation patterns. The contribution to the management and theoretical understanding of heritage tourism is discussed.
The tendency to outsource hotel operations: Strategic reasons and relationship to activity performance and size
Authors: Espino‐Rodríguez Tomás Fco.
Published: March 2008

The purpose of this study is to find out the tendency to outsource hotel operations, explain the reasons, both strategic, related mainly to quality, improvement of service, concentration on core operations, and tactical or cost reasons. The relationship between the tendency to outsource and performance is also analyzed with regard to quality and cost of hotel services. In addition, the relationship between the size of the hotel and the tendency to outsource is analyzed. The tendency to outsource is defined as the predisposition of the company to leave certain hotel functions or services in the hands of third parties, keeping in mind both degree of present and desired outsourcing by the hotel under the hypotheses that there are suppliers who offer better quality than could be obtained by the hotel if it kept it in‐house. The results of the study make it possible to establish significant differences between present and desired outsourcing indicating that an increase in outsourcing is decided by the possibility that this strategy can improve quality and service and increase flexibility in operations, and not because of a cost reduction as traditionally believed. This study also establishes three groups of hotel activities according to the tendency to outsource (i.e., low, medium and high tendency). It is also observed that the larger the size of the hotel, the more present outsourcing there is. Finally, current demands of businesses with regard to suppliers able to satisfy their needs and the limits that impede a larger number of activities from having been outsourced up to now have been found. Finally, a series of practical and academic conclusions and implications are presented.
Indigenous tourism and bush medicine: Is there a sustainable Nexus?
Authors: Pforr Christof , Locher Connie
Published: March 2008

This discussion paper seeks to explore new opportunities to develop or enhance already established indigenous‐run sustainable tourism operations (e.g. eco‐ and cultural tourism enterprises) in national parks. One aim is to investigate the conditions required for the successful establishment of strategic alliances between indigenous people, land management agencies, research scientists and the pharmaceutical industry — a collaboration which is anticipated to improve the cultural, social, economic and environmental sustainability of the indigenous tourism product. A so‐called ethnobotanical approach is suggested, which comprehends the need to collaborate and cooperate across sectors to address the enhancement of Aboriginal social and economic well‐being.
Le génération et les caractéristiques de l'excursionisme religieux (catholique/dévot de Marie) (ERECAM) à Luján — Province de Buenos Aires, Argentine
Authors: Vasconi Mónica
Published: March 2008

Nuestra Señora de Lujan is situated in Lujan, Province of Buenos Aires. It is visited by about 5.000.000 pilgrims or religious campers (Catholics / Marianists) each year. These particular visitors cause geographical impacts or alterations on different aspects during an important period of the year (September — December). They affect the natural phenomena (by the Lujan River), the historical and cultural heritage, the urban and transportation development, and the religious, economic and social processes. To sum up, we could say that the “senses” of the City are affected.
An integrated concept of financing hallmark sport events
Authors: Beritelli Pietro , Boksberger Philipp E. , Weinert Robert
Published: March 2008

This paper examines the financial aspect of hallmark sport events. It describes the financial requirements and the sources of income. Thereby an integrated concept of financing hallmark sport events has been developed which allows to compare those events independently to situational differentiation. On the basis of literature research the first part shows the mechanisms of action of the event management, the financial requirements and the sources of income. The second part points out the three dimensions of the classification model and the third part illustrates the implications of the model through the case study of the Engadin Ski Marathon 2001 and the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz 2003. The paper concludes with the three major influences on an integrated model and some points for further research.