David Airey

The core of heritage tourism

Abstract The paper challenges the idea that heritage tourism is simply represented by tourists at heritage attractions and suggests rather that perceptions more properly lie at its core. Relationships among four groups of variables (personal characteristics, site attributes, awareness, perceptions) and behavior (before, during, and after) are investigated. The results indicate that the perception of a place as part of personal heritage is associated with the visitation patterns. In particular those who view a place as bound up with their own heritage are likely to behave significantly differently from others. Understanding this is useful for the study of tourists’ behavior and for the management of sites.

Links between Tourists, Heritage, and Reasons for Visiting Heritage Sites

This article clarifies heritage tourism by identifying and segmenting reasons for visiting heritage sites. In doing so, it shows that the links between a site’s attributes and the tourists themselves are essential to understanding tourists’ motivations to visit heritage places. The sample was composed of English-speaking international tourists leaving Israel through Ben-Gurion airport. The research was implemented by the use of structured questionnaires using face-to-face interviews. Responses were grouped using an interpretability approach to exploratory factor analysis. Reasons for visiting heritage sites were classified into three groups: “heritage experience,” “learning experience,” and “recreational experience.” Reasons for visiting heritage sites were linked to the tourists’ perception of the site in relation to their own heritage and their willingness to be exposed to an emotional experience. The results lead to a better understanding of reasons for visiting heritage places and provide further insight into heritage tourism in general. The findings are relevant to the operational management of spaces presenting history-related artifacts and to the marketing of these sites.

Labor mobility into tourism - attraction and satisfaction.

Abstract The article reports a study of labor mobility into tourism that attempts to replicate the findings of previous research conducted in a different setting. Data was collected from an urban and a rural region of the United Kingdom on mobility patterns, orientations to tourism employment, and the impacts of the change. The study supports the findings of the previous work but found no significant differences between the rural and the urban experience of mobility. Tourism employment as a “way of life” received support from the evidence that people were prepared to surrender education-occupation compatibility in return for a more self-controlled work-life relationship.

An international handbook of tourism education

Introduction. (J. Tribe, D. Airey). Growth and Development. (D. Airey). Overview of Research. (J. Tribe) Curriculum. Tourism, Knowledge and the Curriculum. (J. Tribe). Curriculum Theory and Practice: A Case in On-line Learning. (S. Elliott, G. Smith). Curriculum, Development and Conflict: A Case Study of Moldova. (J. Tribe). Work Experience and Industrial Links. (G. Busby). International Tourism Education. Australasia. (B. King, S. Craig-Smith). Brazil and Latin America. (S. Leal, M. Auxiliadora Padilha). The Caribbean. (A. Lewis). China. (Wen Zhang, Xixia Fan). East Africa. (Mayaka Melphon). Germany. (W. Freyer et al.). India. (Shalini Singh, Tej Vir Singh). The Netherlands. (M. Venema). North America. (S. Hudson). Slovenia. (T. Mihalic). South Africa. (M. Saayman). United Kingdom. (D. Airey). Teaching, Learning and Assessment.Teaching. (D. Stergiou). The Student Experience. (E. Wickens, A. Forbes). Issues in Teaching and Learning. (B. Wheeller). Assessment. (N. Beckett). Undergraduate Dissertations. (K. Smith). Cultural Issues in Learning. (P. Barron). E-Learning and E-Assessment. (M. Sigala). Teaching and Research. (F. Jordan). Community Education. (S. Cole). Resources, Progression and Quality. Teachers. (M. Stuart-Hoyle). Learning Resources. (L. Bibbings). Careers and Employment. (A. Ladkin). Quality Assurance. (D. Robbins). Postgraduate and PhD Education. (D. Botterill, T. Gale). Postscript. Practical Issues for Design, Delivery, Evaluation and Resourcing of Courses. (M. Moir, L. Hodgkins). Issues for the Future. (D. Airey, J. Tribe).

The content of tourism degree courses in the UK.

Abstract The content of tourism degree courses has been considered and debated for as long as tourism has been studied at degree level. In the UK this is nearly 30 years and during this time nearly 100 courses have been introduced. Against the background of the debate about content, the aim of this paper is to examine what these courses are currently offering. Following an outline of the development of the core body of knowledge for tourism the paper reports on the findings of a research study that was carried out in the Summer of 1997 into the aims and content of courses in the UK. The main findings are that the aims of the courses are substantially vocational and business orientated, that most courses include common areas of knowledge and that there is a range of opinion about the need for a common core body of knowledge. These findings contribute to the suggestion that there is a commonality around the tourism courses with a business focus but that there is less agreement about the courses that do not have this focus. This sets an agenda for further research.

ICT Paradox Lost? A Stepwise DEA Methodology to Evaluate Technology Investments in Tourism Settings

Despite the continuous increase of investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the tourism industry, empirical studies have not persuasively established corresponding increases in productivity. Indeed several shortcomings have been identified in past studies. This study proposes a new way of assessing ICT productivity. The methodology is tested in a data set from the three-star hotel sector in the United Kingdom using a nonparametric technique called data envelopment analysis (DEA). Empirical findings reveal that productivity gains accrue not from investments per se, but from the full exploitation of the ICT networking and informationalization capabilities. A model for managing ICT applications and benefits is proposed.

Productivity in hotels: a stepwise data envelopment analysis of hotels' rooms division processes

Low productivity within service industries has been a major concern, but this situation is unlikely to improve without a general change in the way productivity is measured and managed. This paper aims to illustrate the value of stepwise data envelopment analysis (DEA) for measuring and benchmarking productivity. The issues and problems regarding productivity measurement as well as the advantages of using DEA in productivity measurement are analysed. The article extends current DEA applications by developing a stepwise approach to DEA. The latter technique combines correlation and DEA analysis for developing robust models and sound productivity measurement. The advantages of the proposed methodology are illustrated by applying it to a dataset of three-star hotels in the UK. Six inputs and three outputs are identified as the factors affecting rooms division efficiency in three star hotels.

Attitudes to careers in tourism: an Anglo Greek comparison.

Abstract Drawing on findings which form part of a wider study this article presents comparative information on attitudes of young people in Greece and the UK about tourism as a sector for their careers. It sets out the context within which career decisions are formed. It examines perceptions of tourism and attitudes to tourism jobs. It suggests that the UK pupils have a better established careers support system and that they have a less positive attitude toward tourism than their Greek counterparts apparently due to a more realistic view of the nature of the jobs in question. It also points to a variety of perceptions about what constitutes a tourism job, notably that many components of accommodation and catering are not seen as being part of tourism. It also demonstrates a difference between attitudes toward individual tourism jobs and attitudes toward employment in the tourism sector as a whole.

The Multiple Assessment of Interpretation Effectiveness: Promoting Visitors’ Environmental Attitudes and Behavior

Interpretation has been recognized as a useful tool in managing visitor behavior in nature-based tourism areas. This study explores a multiple assessment approach to identify the strengths and weaknesses of site-based interpretation in influencing multidimensional aspects of attitudes and behavioral intentions toward local environmental issues. Visitors to the Lulworth coastal area in England were studied using on-site questionnaire survey data. The results of the research highlight that the effectiveness of interpretation varied in relation to a number of different aspects of responsible environmental behavior and local conservation issues. The findings also reveal that it fostered visitors’ awareness of and their support for management policies but its impacts were limited to site-specific responsible behavior related in this case to geological and environmental conservation.

Growth and Development

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the origins of tourism as a subject of study and to examine and explain the ways in which it has developed over the last 40 years or so. The chapter draws particularly on the experience of the UK, which is where some of the earliest programmes developed and to that extent it provides a national perspective. However, the issues and patterns that it presents are replicated, often with different timescales, in many other parts of the world.