Tourism Commons^™

Medical Travel Facilitator Websites: An Exploratory Study Of Web Page Contents And Services Offered To The Prospective Medical Tourist, Dan Cormany, Seyhmus Baloglu

Faculty Publications

The growing trend of traveling outside of one's country for medical services, commonly known as “medical tourism” is expected to continue to grow exponentially in the next ten years (Keckley, 2008). With multiple destinations from which to select, and available information representing this type of travel being of variable reliability, many prospective medical travelers turn to the use of a “medical tourism facilitator”, who perform a variety of trip coordination responsibilities for the medical traveler. These medical tourism facilitators, themselves a new phenomenon to support travel to various global regions, may operate within the traveler's home country or the destination …

Do Travelers Support Green Practices And Sustainable Development, Patrick Tierney, Mercedes Hunt, Pavlina Latkova

Journal of Tourism Insights

A 2007 survey of managers from RCRA members found strong motivational support for green practices. These and other findings suggest there is broad support for green practices among resort managers. However, it is unclear the level of traveler support for eco-friendly practices. Study objectives were to: Investigate consumers’ attitudes toward environmentally responsible or green practices in the travel industry; identify green practices they’ve undertaken while traveling; explore factors influencing traveler adoption of green practices; and provide implications for the travel industry. In spring 2008 an intercept survey of travelers visiting the California Welcome Center at Pier 39 in San Francisco, …

Examining The Use Of Rv Travel Forums For Campground Searches, Jill Fjelstul, Kimberly Severt

Journal of Tourism Insights

The aim of the present study is to explore how RV travelers use online travel forums in their campground search. The identification of such variables will assist campground owners and operators in their marketing strategies, competitive positioning, and improving the overall experience for the RV traveler at their chosen campground and destination.

Explore The Phenomenon Of Buddhist Temple Stay In South Korea For Tourists, Wei Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Temple Stay program is a newly developed but comparatively mature tourism product in Korea, which is to accommodate and cater tourists in Buddhist temples and have them experience over 1700 years Korean traditions of Buddhism and culture. As a product of compromise between Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the most influential Buddhist organization Jogye Order, Temple Stay program was first launched in 2002 during FIFA World Cup to receive excessive international tourists. Through almost ten-year systematical development, Temple Stay program turns out to be a distinctive phenomenon which successfully establishes a unique identity of Korean culture and tourism, …

Dark Tourism And The Cadaveric Carnival: Mediating Life And Death Narratives At Gunter Von Hagens' Body Worlds, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

Death is universal, yet dying is not. Consequently, within contemporary secularised society, the process of dying has largely been relocated from the familiar environs of the family and community to a back region of medical and death industry professionals. It is argued that this institutional sequestration of death has made modern dying ‘bad’ against a romantic portrayal of a death with dignity, or a ‘good’ death. Moreover, the structural analysis of death reveals issues of ontological security and mortality meaning for the Self. This paper, therefore, adds to that analysis, and specifically examines the construction of mortality meaning within the …

A Longitudinal Study Of Consumer Perceptions Of Travel Websites: The Case Of Hong Kong, Shanshan Qui, Rosanna Leung, Rob Law, Dimitrois Buhalis

Hospitality Review

Knowing how consumers perceive travel websites can help practitioners better understand consumers’ online requirements. This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study that investigated the changes and trends in the profile and behavior of online travel-website users in Hong Kong. The profiles of e-buyers and e-browsers in 2009, when compared with those established by prior studies conducted in 2000 and 2007, point in a new direction for practitioners and researchers investigating online travelwebsite user behavior. The results indicated that more middle-aged consumers have become online travel-website users, and that website security and price are perceived to be the most …

A Case Study Of Health Tourism In The Jeju Province, South Korea, Young Hoon Kim, Changsan Boo, Ilhan Demirer, Mincheol Kim

Hospitality Review

The United States Census Bureau (2006) reported that in 2005 more than 46 million Americans lacked health insurance, and that by 2019 national spending for health care would exceed $4.5 trillion (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2010). Because those numbers are expected to increase, health tourists are seeking better opportunities for low-cost, high-quality treatment in other countries, plus the added benefit of experiencing foreign cultures. Health tourism is a rapidly growing market in both advanced and developing countries. The purpose of this study was to develop an applicable model of health tourism, the Jeju-Style Health Tourism Model, for Jeju …

Supply-Side Evolution Of Caravanning In Australia: An Historical Analysis Of Caravan Manufacturing And Caravan Parks, Rod Caldicott

Rod Caldicott

This exploratory study reviewed internal and external supply-side elements of caravanning in Australia, an area largely overlooked to date in the demand-side focused literature. More specifically, it investigated how caravan parks have developed over the passage of time and what role the caravan manufacturing sector (external element) and the park-based site-mix options (internal element) have had in shaping that development.

In 2011, the caravanning industry is only a mere shadow of its former glory days of the mid seventies, as recognised within its own national peak body, the Caravan, Recreational Vehicle and Accommodation Industry of Australia (CRVA), despite the current …

Welcome To Portland; Now Let’S Eat, Hilary Nangle

Maine Policy Review

This case study describes how nationally-acclaimed chefs and restaurants and the farm-to-table movement have led to Portland, Maine becoming a major culinary tourism destination.

Dark Tourism: Towards A New Post-Disciplinary Research Agenda, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

Abstract: Over the past decade or so, dark tourism research –that is, the social scientific study of tourism and tourists associated with sites of death, disaster or the seemingly macabre – has witnessed a burgeoning of the literature base. Much of this research has a profundity that can and, undoubtedly, will contribute to broader social theories and to our understanding of culturaldynamics. Arguably, however, some dark tourism research has been characterised by a banality that either illustrates deficient conceptual underpinning or provides for limited disciplinary synthesis. Thus, in order to assuage any structural deficiencies in dark tourism as a coherent …

Introduction: Thinking About The Tourist Experience, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

No abstract provided.

Tourist Experience: Contemporary Perspectives, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

Socio-Cultural Impacts Of Events: Meanings, Authorised Transgression And Social Capital, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

No abstract provided.

Dark Tourism Experiences: Mediating Between Life And Death, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

No abstract provided.