Adam Weaver

Spaces of containment and revenue capture: 'super-sized' cruise ships as mobile tourism enclaves.

This paper explores the notion that cruise ships can be conceptualized as spaces of containment. The cruise ships that perhaps best exemplify containment are ‘super-sized’ cruise ships. In this paper, super-sized cruise ships are defined as vessels that can accommodate more than 2,000 tourists. These ships are built for the purpose of revenue capture. In fact, they could be viewed as travel destinations since they have become places where many tourists are inclined to spend their time and money. Tourists on board a super-sized cruise ship may also have the opportunity to spend time and money at a private island or beach operated by the cruise-ship company. There are several cruise-ship companies that have rented or purchased private islands and beaches in the Caribbean that serve as port destinations for cruise ships. These islands and beaches, similar to super-sized cruise ships, are spaces of containment. Tourists, it should be noted, are not the only individuals who experience containment. There are also cruise-ship employees to consider; cruise ships and private islands are contained and confined workplaces that operate in accordance with strict rules and restrictions. Perhaps the ultimate contained environment that is seaborne and built for pleasure travel is The World of ResidenSea, a recently constructed condominium cruise ship. That this ship represents an extreme mode of containment is discussed in this paper.

Tourism Distribution Channels in Peripheral Regions: The Case of Southland, New Zealand

Abstract This study examines the structure and functioning of tourism distribution channels in Southland, a temperate, peripheral region of the South Island of New Zealand, with a high degree of independent travel based mainly on natural features. It takes a regional perspective, adopts a supply-side approach and is based largely on the collection and analysis of information from in-depth interviews. Consideration of the distribution strategies aimed at each of five major segments – tour groups, special interest visitors, semi-independent travellers, independent travellers and business travellers – provides a focal point for synthesizing the analysis and discussion of channel structures. Businesses serving the group, special interest and semi-independent segments make greater use of inbound operators, wholesalers and retail travel agents and have their products pre-purchased in the market, generally either as part of a group or personalized package. Businesses catering to independent travellers tend to rely on a mix of ‘en route’ and ‘at destination’ strategies, involving information dissemination and sales through other intermediaries, especially information centres and formal or informal networks of other providers. The channel mix is influenced by regional supply and demand characteristics as well as by the prominence of circuit tourism in New Zealand.

Family Holidays: A Research Review and Application to New Zealand

Abstract Holidays with children have largely been marginalised in research that examines leisure travel. This paper is a critical review of the available literature and presents a summary of themes relevant for the study of family holidays. Most tourism work is market-driven and from an adult perspective, with children treated as passive members of the family. Neglected areas include the social and cultural dimensions of the family holiday experience, such as social interactions and relationships, and the tangible and intangible benefits of holidays for family members. This discussion is contextualised within the current trends and issues relating to families in New Zealand. A research agenda is proposed that seeks to address the gaps in the tourism and travel literature, and particularly the need to lend a voice to children themselves, and recognise the experiences of all family members.

When tourists become data: consumption, surveillance and commerce.

This paper addresses the way in which data obtained from tourists are used by corporations. These data are typically captured and recorded when tourists make purchases. As consumption practices are more closely analysed, they become part of the production process and also shape the way in which products are marketed. The synthesis of data collection and surveillance – or ‘dataveillance’ – makes customisation possible; it enables corporations to identify niche markets and reduce uncertainty. Reward schemes enable mass dataveillance to occur. They provide consumers with reward points each time a purchase is made. The provision of reward points not only promotes more consumption, it also makes dataveillance more acceptable and attractive to consumers. A study that examines private sector data collection provides an opportunity to explore the power relationships that underwrite the connection between observers and the observed. The way in which dataveillance is deployed by corporations also speaks to the relationship between rationalisation and enchantment. Procedures and systems that are a manifestation of the rationalisation process shape the manner in which enchantment is produced for consumers. Without the systematised exercise of dataveillance, corporations could not be as responsive to tastes and preferences exhibited by consumers. Their ability to produce enchanted experiences would be impaired.

Tourism and aesthetic design: enchantment, style, and commerce

In an era of intense global competition, companies are searching for ways to achieve competitive advantage. The development of visually attractive products and physical settings can aid in the creation of brand differentiation and influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers. Image and style are important within consumer culture, as can be observed in everything from automobiles and home furnishings to clothes and Internet sites. Design appears to have transformed an ever expanding range of goods and spaces into attractive and enchanting commodities and commercial environments. In this paper, it is argued that the appearance of hotels is increasingly characterized by a form of commodified enchantment, the product of an aestheticization process that aims to create novelty, surprise, and excitement. Aesthetic ennoblement has become a reflection of capitalisms drive to produce appealing and fashionable environments that turn pleasure and comfort into profit. In a world increasingly shaped by consumption and commerce, the place of aesthetics is more complex than mere decoration.

Serious about leisure, serious about destinations: mountain bikers and destination attractiveness

ABSTRACT Despite the relevance of the concept of serious leisure to the study of certain types of sports participants, little is known about the relevance of the serious leisure framework to the study of destination preferences. This paper outlines the findings of a qualitative study of “serious” mountain bikers in New Zealand. In-depth interviews were used to determine the attractiveness of certain destinations to mountain bikers whose devotion to the sport conforms to the notion of serious leisure. Travel to tourism destinations helps mountains bikers pursue serious participation in mountain biking. Reciprocally, destinations are assessed by serious mountain bikers on the basis of their ability to advance participants’ degree of seriousness. Therefore, this study suggests that the serious leisure framework can enhance understanding of destination preferences in sport tourism as well as provide management and marketing professionals with insight regarding destination development and promotional strategies. Implications for practitioners are discussed. This paper aims to make a scholarly contribution by exploring specific connections amongst serious leisure, sport tourist behaviour and destination preference.

Target markets as working archetypes Classifying consumers at Tourism New Zealand

This article addresses target markets developed by Tourism New Zealand as part of the country’s efforts to attract international tourists. Studies of market segmentation and target markets undertaken by tourism researchers have typically involved the analysis of data obtained from tourists. Through such research, scholars identify a series of market segments and potential target markets. Attention, in this article, is directed at marketer-generated target markets used to promote a destination rather than segments or target markets identified by tourism scholars. Marketer-generated target markets are conceptualized as ‘working archetypes’ that direct the marketing activities of an organization. Such archetypes shape the work of Tourism New Zealand with regard to marketing; in addition, they are a form of working knowledge that is periodically subject to reconsideration and serious revision. An organization periodically replaces the working archetypes that inform its marketing efforts. Circumstances can change, and visualizing a different ideal consumer is sometimes seen to be necessary in order to ensure that marketing initiatives remain successful. This article explains the reasons for Tourism New Zealand changing its target market from the Interactive Traveller to the Active Considerer, demonstrating that this reworking of the country’s ideal visitor reflected both turbulent and uncertain economic times and the interpretation of new data collected by the organization.

Pursuing Jobs and Promotions: University Graduates in Tourism as Enterprising Self-Marketers

This paper examines job-search and promotion-seeking strategies recommended and used by recent graduates of a universitys tourism management program. Graduates behave as enterprising individuals whose advice and actions reflect the view that recognizing opportunities and taking initiative are important to achieving success. Interviews conducted with 21 graduates indicate that their recommendations and exploits are consistent with, and perhaps a response to, the emergence of an “enterprise culture.” Graduates believe that they exercise considerable control over their career trajectories, and current students and other graduates are encouraged to be resourceful managers and marketers of their own labor power.

Statistics, publicity and industry intervention: Changing depictions of the Chinese outbound travel market in New Zealand newspapers:

Recent socio-economic gains made by China have transformed the country into an enormous outbound travel market for destinations such as New Zealand. Various official statistics that pertain to this market are produced for the purposes of evaluating its behaviour and affirming its commercial value. An analysis of articles published in New Zealand newspapers demonstrates that media-disseminated statistics are used to assess the capabilities of the Chinese outbound travel market, reflect a desire for objective measures and can be broadly associated with a series of managerial interventions. Connecting publically available statistics with certain actions taken by tourism organizations must proceed cautiously. However, the correspondence between official statistics that quantify dimensions of particular issues and certain industry actions can be mapped, to some extent, in proximate terms. Statistics help to make problems and opportunities connected with a phenomenon – in this case, the Chinese travel market – discernible and thus more compatible with management intervention. Enumeration and industry action are intertwined in a manner that merits study by tourism researchers. To chart the connections between data-based depictions of a travel market and industry responses, this paper marshals evidence from New Zealand newspapers – publications that chronicle important dimensions of the country’s tourism industry and are a significant means of public communication. A sequence of statistically based episodic portraits of the Chinese market produces a changing object of scrutiny and intervention for a variety of interested parties.

Scandals, the mass media, and the politics of extreme visibility: conflict and controversy at the Niagara Parks Commission

This paper explores the political and media scrutiny of management-related activities at the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) in Niagara Falls, Canada. This commission is the quasi-autonomous body responsible for the operation of tourism-oriented amenities around the Canadian Horseshoe Falls and along the Niagara River. Between 2009 and 2011, the management of the NPC became politically contentious and certain incidents were publicised by the media. There were accusations of impropriety with respect to the use of an expense account, disputes about untendered contracts, and complaints about conflicts of interest. These incidents could be described as scandals, breaches of accepted rules of conduct that are communicated to a wider audience via the mass media. Three dialectical tensions were identified when these scandals were analysed. The tensions, it is argued, are expressions of a wider trend: a politics of extreme visibility. Scandal-related visibility is different from the forms of visibility that have been previously addressed by tourism scholars. Publicity related to alleged misconduct is typically unwanted by tourism managers. Controversies about the management of the NPC demonstrate that practitioners must be alert to the damaging potential of extreme visibility. Fear of scandal, however, may simultaneously stifle enterprise. Managers must strike a careful balance.