Alan Clarke

Coastal development in France: Tourism as a tool for regional development

Abstract The coastal development for tourism, of Languedoc-Roussillon in South West France represents one of the leading examples of State investment in tourism as a means of regional development. Examination is made of the administration, planning and implementation of the tourism project in Languedoc-Roussillon and its success is evaluated in terms of seasonality, its effect on income and employment in the region, the social value of the project and its contribution to the national balance of payments. On the basis of these evaluations it is argued that the tourism project has achieved only moderate success and tourism alone has not solved, and is unlikely to solve, the regions basic problems. The lessons of its use as a tool for regional development in Languedoc-Roussillon are of relevance to national governments everywhere.

Applying the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) model to reveal factors that influence inclusive engagement within local community festivals : The case of UtcaZene 2012

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to debate on community engagement and participation in local community festivals and events by empirically analysing the factors which either inhibit or facilitate engagement. The application of the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) model to the analysis of community festivals is an important contribution. Design/methodology/approach – Recognising the complexity associated with community participation in festivals produced a set of four research questions which are addressed via a mixed methodology research design. The model was then tested using four key data collection methods including the interviews and the questionnaires analysed within this paper. Findings – The MOA model can be seen as an appropriate framework with which to analyse community engagement in a local community festival setting, in the case of “The Utcazene-Fesztival”, a Street Music Festival in Veszprem, Hungary. Community participation is often interpreted quite simply as a way of involving lo...

Investigating the Application of the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability Model to Reveal Factors Which Facilitate or Inhibit Inclusive Engagement Within Local Community Festivals

Abstract Currently there is limited understanding, agreement, and research within the phenomena of community engagement and participation in local community festivals and events. This article aims to contribute to this growing, but limited, debate by justifying the adaption and integration of the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) model, and proposing a combination of primary data collection and analysis methods, to reveal and understand the factors that either inhibit or facilitate local community engagement in festivals and events. The rationale of this conceptual article is to determine how sustainability can be defined and achieved within local community festivals and events, by developing sustainable and inclusive community networks where the local population is actively engaged within the creation of events. The article begins by exploring the literature surrounding communities, community festivals and events, and community engagement. The article then moves on to discuss the MOA model and its adaption and application to event studies. It builds on concepts discussed by Jepson, Clarke, and Ragsdell [(2012, June 13–15). Investigating the use of the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) Model to reveal the factors which facilitate or inhibit inclusive engagement within local community festivals. Global events congress: Conference proceedings, Stavanger, Norway] that support the creation of inclusive community festivals and events through inclusive participation within the planning and decision-making process. The article then moves on to explore the methodological concerns triggered by this model, such as the need to be adaptable and flexible across a multifaceted community event with regard to collecting primary data whilst maintaining integrity and validity during analysis. Finally, the article comments on the overall suitability of the MOA model to capture primary data and draw conclusions about best practice for community engagement in local festivals and events.

Integrating “self-efficacy” theory to the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) model to reveal factors that influence inclusive engagement within local community festivals

Purpose – This study lies within “classical discourse” (Getz, 2010) within festival studies as its context is firmly situated within cultural anthropology and sociology. Unlike previous studies this research is unique in that it integrates social cognitive theory (SCT) which is usually found in psychology discourses. The purpose of this paper is to propose how the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) model would benefit from integrating self and group efficacy theory. It achieves this by building on previous analysis of primary data collected in the field at the Utcazene, Street Music Festival, Veszprem, Hungary, (Jepson et al., 2013) using an adapted MOA model. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyses previous studies which have tested the MOA model through primary data collection. Following this analysis best practice is and similarities are identified through discussion; then a case is then made to adapt the model to integrate and test Banduras (1986) concept of self-efficacy based on the ben...

Tourism to religious sites, case studies from Hungary and England: exploring paradoxical views on tourism, commodification and cost-benefits.

The application of systems theory to tourism development has a pedigree that has largely been derived from econometrics and macro-economic theory (Baggio et al., 2010; Franch et al., 2010; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006; Schianetz and Kavanagh, 2007, 2008; Dwyer et al., 2010). This paper identifi es opportunities and some barriers to developing sites of religious worship for tourism to maximise income and engage appropriate resources allocation strategies. The authors have investigated tourism development that is sympathetic to sacred purposes at these sites over several years. Religious sites are now acknowledging that homogeneous supply responses may no longer be appropriate. Each special site demands a heterogeneous response of site guardians to changeable demand and careful evaluation of how to maximise income generated from very limited resources. This necessitates improved skills in guardians to build appropriate point of sale products and services that fi t with consumption expectations and are congruent with sacred purpose.

Virtual cultural tourism: six pillars of VCT using co-creation, value exchange and exchange value

This paper examines antecedents to the successful use of Virtual Cultural Tourism and the ways in which virtual realities can add value to Cultural Tourism offers. Success can be seen to derive from the deeper understanding of consumers’ preferences and motivations to engage with Virtual Cultural Tourism. It is also necessary to see these initiatives from the perspective of multiple stakeholders: the armchair traveller, the frequent flyer and the service provider at destinations. The latter include public sector providers such as park site managers, museum curators, interpretation and information services for tourism as well as the private sector developers.

An Introduction to Planning and Managing Communities, Festivals and Events

Festivals and events are the lifeblood of society, they are inseparable and crucial to enhance and maintain community well-being or quality of life (QOL). Our edited book brings together planned festivals and events from ten different countries around the world and in doing so, analyses the importance of communities, cultures, and appropriate and inclusive planning and engagement to reveal a multitude of positive and negative impacts that events have within our internationalised communities. Our book is structured into two key sections, the first (Chapters 1–8) explores management philosophies, ideas and principles in the context of festivals, events and communities; and the second (Chapters 9–15) analyses festival and event planning and the resulting impact upon festivals, events and communities in which they take place.

Coach fellas: heritage and tourism in Ireland

It is heartening to see that this book found a publisher and made its way into print. Costa’s analysis of the driver/guides who take people around Ireland offers an insight into a muchneglected part of the tourism and heritage nexus. However, it is not a textbook and it is not a research monograph, which makes it unusual when publishers are looking to their bottom lines and markets. Costa observes that many funding sources did not see the value of this sort of research but it is to all our advantages that she persevered and, in many ways, can use this book to prove how short-sighted those decision-makers were. The cover offers the prospect of an ethnography of the driver/guides, but the book is strangely both more and less than that. What is presented is a series of accounts of the key issues in interpreting cultural and heritage tourism, the context of Irish tourism, the organisation of coach tourism and the history of some of the debates around the construction of the current version of Irish heritage. Then, and only then, do we get to meet the driver/guides at the heart of the research. The context is very interesting and, in some cases, provocative but it is not the heart of the ethnography. When dealing with the people, Costa is very powerful and takes the book to a different level. I would have preferred to see more of the people and less of the context: more ethnoand less -graphy! Costa takes the tourists she has observed to task for not taking the heritage seriously. She is particularly good at pointing out the idiocies of her fellow Americans. There is a further study in reinterpreting her own behaviour when participating in the tours, observing their behaviours which clearly made her cringe. She was far from a passive observer, for instance reporting how she tried to explain the differences in the regional Irish accents or putting Cassandra straight about the state of the Irish economy. However, sometimes there is an elision between these coach tourists and the whole sense of tourists to Ireland. These overgeneralisations mar the interpretation offered. Costa constructs an account of her tourists visiting what is largely an imaginary Ireland, where their expectations are constructed through films, ancestor worship and stereotypes of a rural landscape populated mostly by leprechauns and sheep. From her analysis, this is a believable version of the American coach tourists’ perceptions and their complaints about the modernity of Ireland are very probably heartfelt. However, there is another market segment: the ones who have boosted Dublin’s visitor numbers on the back of the lowcost air carriers and who also have a view of an imaginary Ireland. This construction is filled with modernity, music and mayhem: it is the imaginary Ireland as party capital. The construction of heritage is a constant process and this other market is also engaged in a negotiation with the Irish identity. I would argue that it is developing an imaginary Ireland that is just as far removed from the Irish experience as Costa’s coach tourists.

Concluding Thoughts on Managing and Developing Communities, Festivals and Events

This book has included diverse, critical and interesting accounts of communities, festivals and events from ten different countries. It has drawn upon and further developed key areas of research phenomena within the fields of critical event, and tourism studies. This book builds upon our previous work, which demonstrated the value of the mutual benefit of bringing communities and culture together and the importance of adopting an international perspective to analyse community festivals and events (Jepson & Clarke, 2015). The chapters featured here offer a cross section of the complex lives of individuals, groups and communities all functioning in society to enhance and create community festivals and events, and, as the accounts demonstrate, they are all driven by very different forces. We have been very impressed, as we are sure you have too, with the depth and level of original, empirical research and analysis within each book chapter. The researchers featured here are passionate about their areas of research, which is clearly evident through their writing and in their attempts to deepen our shared understanding of their events and their communities.

Creating Critical Festival Discourse Through Flexible Mixed Methodological Research Design

Our chapter takes readers on a journey through previous published doctoral research which investigates community cultural festivals. Socio-cultural phenomena such as festivals are multifaceted and embrace all walks of life, culture, and ethnic backgrounds. So much so that festivals cannot be separated from a culture or from a community, as they shape, represent, and recreate their histories. It could further be argued that social reality is multiple, divergent, and interrelated, and as a direct result reality becomes the meaning attributed to experience and is not the same for everyone (Cohen & Manion, In D. Remenyi, B. Williams, A. Money, & E. Swartz (Eds.), Doing research in business and management: An introduction to process and method. London: Sage, 1987; Remenyi et al., Doing research in business and management: An introduction to process and method. London: Sage, 1998).