Tourism and Travel Commons^™

What Makes Them Share: Generation Y, Electronic World Of Mouth And Brand Success, Tingting Zhang, Behzad Abounia Omran, Cihan Cobanoglu

Rosen Research Review

Generation Y has redefined the way customers seek, share and consider information about products and services before purchasing. Proficient users of digital technologies and social media, members of Generation Y are quick to share their experiences with brands and companies and their opinions have a significant influence on brand revenue and reputation. Dr. Tingting (Christina) Zhang from Rosen College of Hospitality Management and collaborators Dr. Behzad Abounia Omran (Ohio State University) and Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee) examined what influences Gen Y's decision to participate in electronic work of mouth (eWOM).

Sweet Home Alabama: A Great Place To Visit?, Jeeyeon (Jeannie) Hahm, Kimberly Severt

Rosen Research Review

How we choose our leisure destinations is a critical insight required by cities and regions that rely on tourism to find their economy. In this study of Alabama as a destination, Dr. Jeeyeon (Jeannie) Hahm of Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, and Dr. Kimberly Severt of Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management, The University of Alabama, consider how destination marketing must focus on factors important to tourists to encourage them to visit, and then ensure they are not disappointed.

How Effective Are Virtual Reality Experiences As Destination Marketing Tools?, Alessandra Marasco, Piera Buonincontri, Mathilda Van Niekerk, Marissa Orlowski, Fevzi Okumus

Rosen Research Review

How did you decide where to go on your last holiday? Did you see a picture-perfect paradise promoted on your social media feed? Once upon a time, planning your perfect holiday was organized with a trip to the local travel agency. In recent years you are more likely to pick your destination based on the most attractive advertisements at the top of an online travel agency website. Dr. Mathilda van Niekerk, Dr. Marissa Orlowski and Dr. Fevzi Okumus from Rosen College of Hospitality Management, along with Allessandra Marasco and Dr. Piera Buonincontri from the National Research Council's Institute for research …

Holiday Research: How Academia Is Informing A Destination Marketing Organization, Misty Johantgen

Rosen Research Review

Destination marketing is a changing industry; the advent of the internet and smartphones has led to an explosion in the number of destination marketing companies looking to be the reason you visit somewhere. So how does one destination marketing organization (DMO) stand out from another? How much has the role of DMOs altered in recent years? Misty Johantgen, Chief Operating Officer of Experience Kissimmee, one of the largest DMOs in Florida, is here to tell us more.

Climate Change And Tourist Destinations: Florida's Case, Alan Fyall, Dr. Asli Tasci, Jill Fjelstul, Roberta Atzori

Rosen Research Review

Aside from the physical impacts of climate change, society's perception of climate change, and the response to it at different decision-making levels, are now critical issues. As public awareness of the consequences of climate change increases, it becomes a consideration in everyday decision-making, including tourism. The research of three colleagues at Rosen college o Hospitality Managment, Dr. Alan Fyall, Dr. Asli D. A. Tasci, and Dr. Jill Fjelstul, along with Dr. Roberta Atzori from California State University, Monterey Bay, examines how social representations of climate change may affect a choice of holiday destination. In particular, they examine how they might …

The Wine Tourist: Motivations, Satisfaction And Behavioral Outcomes, Robin M. Back, Diego Bufquin, Jeong-Yeol Park

Rosen Research Review

What inspires someone to visit a winery? And why do they go back? Three professors from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management have been considering these questions with a particular focus on the world-renowned winery, Marques de Riscal, in Spain. Dr. Robin Beck, Dr. Diego Bufquin, and Dr. Jeon-Yeol Park examined customer revisit intentions, previous visits, motivation to visit, customer satisfaction levels, and the geographic proximity of a destination to their home.

Tourism's Potential To Benefit Ecuador's Poor, Robertico Croes, Manuel A. Rivera

Rosen Research Review

Tourism development has long been discussed as having potential to promote economic growth and alleviate poverty in developing countries. In an award-winning paper, Rosen College researchers Dr. Robertico Croes and Dr. Manuel Rivera use a new model - the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), to assess the impact of tourism development using Ecuador as an example. Their focus? To examine whether the poor, in particular, benefit from increased levels of tourism.

Peregrinatio: Anever-Ending Pilgrimage To An Unspecified End, Bernice Lamb-Senechal

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

To most modern-day thinkers a pilgrimage entails a journey to a sacred place. Thus, the primary purpose of the voyage is to reach a locale that holds special meaning for the pilgrim. Typically, the end destination is a place where a significant familial, historical or religious event has occurred. In contrast to this contemporary understanding of pilgrimage, some Irish Christian monks of late antiquity undertook sacred journeys of an indefinite duration with no express terminus in mind. Furthermore, these monastic sojourners exiled themselves from their homeland vowing never to return to kith and kin. This working paper explores the practice …

Resurrection Of A Heretic Religion Through Pilgrimage: The Cathar Case Study, Pierre Fournie

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Six hundred ninety-eight years have passed since Guilhem Bélibaste, the last known Perfect or Albigensian was burned at stake in Villerouge-Termenès. His execution, in 1321, ended the official presence of the Cathars – who preferred to call themselves Good-Men and Good-Women- in the South of France. The Catholic Church, feeling that the influence of this alleged heretic movement threatened its power, started procedures around 1147 to at first control the Cathars peacefully, but failing to do so, later felt it had to destroy them, by means of crusades and the Inquisition.

For many people, the intangible and tangible remains of …

Pilgrimaging Through Time: The Theoretical Implications Of Continuing Journeys On The Shikoku Henro, John Shultz

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Fantastic growth in the field of pilgrimage studies raises real questions about whether our theories and methods are up to the task of describing increasingly diverse phenomena. Herein, I maintain that the future of the field lies not with articulating some vague generalisations in an attempt to somehow maintain universals, but to consciously ponder the variability found with respect to pilgrimage. I argue that pilgrimage analysis needs to be more ground-up with a methodological focus on how key variables shape the fundamental meaning of pilgrimage. I demonstrate such methods by looking at the relativity of time in the context of …

The Processes, Effects And Therapeutics Of Pilgrimage Walking The St. Olav Way, Nanna Natalia Jørgensen, John Eade, Tor-Johan Ekeland, Catherine A.N. Lorentzen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage walking is increasingly sought as self-therapy for different mental, physical and spiritual ailments, sudden life changes, crossroads or challenges. However, pilgrimage walking as therapy is largely an unexplored ground within health science / care / interventions notwithstanding millennia of human experience. To unfold the nature and add to the knowledge about pilgrimage walking as therapy, this article explores the health-related processes (as experienced mentally, physically, spiritually, socially and in nature), the after-effects (on daily life, behaviour and future actions) and the therapeutic mechanisms (that bring forth these processes and effects) involved in walking the St. Olav Way across Norway. …

Perspectives On Pilgrimage To Folk Deities, Rajshree Dhali

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The title ‘Perspectives on Pilgrimage to folk deities’ has been chosen to underline the pattern of the alternative religious spaces and their transformation over the centuries which is not yet explored much. The evolution and shaping of folk cults, associated religious processes, and their incorporation into high ritual Hinduism forms a very dynamic part of the cultural and the religious history of India. My paper explores the pilgrimage to Ramdevra in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India, where the main shrine of the folk deity Ramdev is located. He is a popular folk deity of the erstwhile untouchable communities and …

Negotiating With The Sacred Other: The Ancient Mechanisms Of The Personal Vow Practice, Mirela Hrovatin

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

By questioning the anthropological definition of vows as instrumental prayers, which has been generally accepted since William Christian (1989) introduced it, the paper will discuss the notion of a vow as a personal prayer in the effort to expand it beyond the mere request for a miracle or fulfilment of a pilgrim’s or believer’s wish. The votive prayer is mentioned already in the Bible (Deut. 23) as a somewhat problematic way of communicating with God due to a promise it contains. Based on the Amir Mashiach’s (2014) interpretation of prayers as performative utterances in the Jewish tradition and Radoslav Katičić's …

Place And Space In Walking Pilgrimage, Ken Wilson

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

What kind of experience of territory is produced by walking pilgrimages? Do they generate experiences of place or space as with the definitions provided by Yi-Fu Tuan in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience? This paper addresses these questions by considering Tuan’s distinction between space and place and various attempts at deconstructing that binary opposition. It looks at three texts about walking that seem to turn space into place--Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Thelma Poirier’s Rock Creek, and Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25--before considering the author's own failure to turn space into place during an …

New Directions In Sacred Journeys Research, Ian S. Mcintosh, Claudia Schlee, Dane Munro

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Volume 8(I) Table Of Contents, Ian S. Mcintosh, Claudia Schlee, Dane Munro, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

A Longitudinal Analysis Of Music Tourism Impacts, Kate Price-Howard, John C. Crossley, Andrew Holdnak Dr.

Journal of Tourism Insights

Music tourism has boomed in recent decades and has been part of the rise in cultural tourism. In recent years, several communities have implemented a concert series to help promote tourism during the shoulder season, or slower months during the off-season. In this study, a longitudinal examination of several concerts of various sizes and genres spanning about three years looks at the economic impacts for the tourist destination of Panama City Beach, FL. This paper will conduct an analysis comparing the tourism development tax, hotel/motel data provided by the industry leading data resource, Smith Travel Research (STR), in order to …

Temple Stay As Transformative Travel: An Experience Of The Buddhist Temple Stay Program In Korea, Susan L. Ross, Jungyun (Christine) Hur, Jamie Hoffman

Journal of Tourism Insights

The burgeoning tourism niche called temple stay, which originated in Korea, has been marketed to Koreans and internationals as a means for travelers to become immersed in cultural heritage, learn about Buddhism, and find one’s “true self” by spending a few days to a week as a guest in a living, operational Buddhist monastery. Although this tourism segment is gaining wide-spread appeal, the temple stay phenomenon has received relatively little scholarly attention outside of Korea. The handful of papers identified on the subject that are written in English, refer to this phenomenon as constituting various segments such as rural tourism, …

Effects Of Climate Change On Tourism In The Mid-Atlantic, Joshua Carroll Ph.D., Allison Brennan, Ashley Huff, Mary Kate Thornburg

Journal of Tourism Insights

Climate change is having significant impacts to many facets of everyday life, and the commercial recreation and tourism fields are many times at the forefront of these impacts as consumers are faced with making difficult decisions with discretionary income. Understanding how these impacts are changing the way people engage in recreation and tourism activities is essential to maintaining successful business and providing satisfying opportunities for consumers.

This paper will provide information from surveys with commercial recreation and tourism providers across the mid-Atlantic region. Summary information will describe their perceptions of how climate change is: affecting their business; having significant impacts; …

Identifying Stabilizing And Destabilizing Factors Of Job Change: A Qualitative Study Of Employee Retention In The Hong Kong Travel Agency Industry, Monica W.C. Choy, Ken Kamoche

Faculty of Management & Hospitality (THEi)

This study aims to investigate and compare the congruent and incongruent perceptions of managers and frontline employees toward employee retention in Hong Kong travel agencies. An integrated model was developed using data from 32 interviews with 16 manager–employee dyads. Findings categorized stabilizing and destabilizing factors of job change into four themes: job nature, industry factors, organizational factors, and personal factors. Key factors influencing employee turnover include high customer contact, anti-social working hours, working environment, office location, supervisor and co-worker relations, remuneration, and career prospect. We conclude by reviewing the theoretical and practical implications for travel trade industry management with regard …