Duarte B. Morais

Antecedents of Attachment to a Cultural Tourism Destination: The Case of Hakka and Non-Hakka Taiwanese Visitors to Pei-Pu, Taiwan

This article explores the antecedents of place attachment within the context of cultural tourism destinations. The proposed model is examined on two samples of cultural tourists with different cultural backgrounds. One sample consists of Hakka tourists, the same ethnic group as the hosts, and the other consists of tourists from a variety of non-Hakka ethnic backgrounds. The results indicate that both enduring involvement and destination attractiveness have a direct effect on place attachment, and that there is also an indirect effect of enduring involvement on place attachment mediated by destination attractiveness. Cross-group validation of the proposed model revealed that the structure fit both ethnic categories. A subsequent detailed examination, however, showed meaningful differences in the strengths of path coefficients between the two groups. These findings suggest that the meaning and formation of attachment may differ depending on the ethnic background of the tourists. Implications for theory and practice are provided.

Initial Development and Validation of the Global Citizenship Scale

The purpose of this article is to report on the initial development of a theoretically grounded and empirically validated scale to measure global citizenship. The methodology employed is multi-faceted, including two expert face validity trials, extensive exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with multiple datasets, and a series of three small-group interviews utilizing nominal group technique to verify the scope of the global citizenship construct. The findings provide support for a three-dimensional Global Citizenship Scale that encompasses social responsibility, global competence, and global civic engagement. Global competence and global civic engagement are both strong dimensions of global citizenship, and each has three reliable subdimensions that add further refinement to the construct. Social responsibility proves to be a dimension of global citizenship with a less clearly defined structure. The Global Citizenship Scale and its conceptual framework have important implications for education abroad outcomes research and practice.

Can Tourism Providers Buy their Customers’ Loyalty? Examining the Influence of Customer-Provider Investments on Loyalty

As many segments of the tourism industry reach the maturation stage, marketers have turned their attention to building long-term relationships with their best customers. Despite the importance of customer loyalty for understanding these relationships, there is no consensus as to how loyalty develops. Most loyalty programs currently being used promote repeated purchases but are ineffective in enhancing customers’ psychological attachment. The purpose was to test a conceptual framework of the development of loyalty that is grounded in resource theory, reciprocity, and customer equity. The results indicated that if customers perceived that a provider was making an investment in them, they in turn made a similar investment in the provider, and those investments led to loyalty. The findings revealed that investments of love, status, and information were more closely associated with loyalty than investments of money. These findings support the proposed theoretical model and help explain how well-designed loyalty programs may lead to increased psychological attachment. Recommendations for effective relationship marketing strategies are provided.

Factions and Enclaves: Small Towns and Socially Unsustainable Tourism Development

Pressured by the decline of extractive industries and agriculture, many small towns are trying to acquire a share of the tourism industry. While some communities decide to develop tourism from within their towns, often rural places turn to large-scale privately owned tourism enterprises to act as engines of economic development. While many studies have examined how tourism can have negative social impacts in rural communities, few studies detail how rural communities’ attitudes toward tourism can suffer when locals feel alienated from planning/development decisions. In this study, the authors examined data from participant observation and semistructured interviews in Williams, Arizona, to determine whether changes in community attitudes toward tourism followed patterns suggested by the established theoretical models of social carrying capacity and community adaptation to a social disruption. We found that Williams is a case where the fast pace of tourism development causes community attitudes toward tourism to decline over time.

Building loyal relationships between customers and providers: a focus on resource investments.

Abstract The increasingly competitive tourism industry has led to a paradigm shift in marketing philosophy from a focus on discrete transactions to one of long-term relationships. This paper proposes a conceptual model of the antecedents of customer loyalty; a construct central to relationship marketing. The model proposed draws from Resource Theory, and the notions of reciprocity and customer equity. According to the proposed model, when customers and providers invest specific profiles of resources in each other, the customers tend to develop a bond with the customer and become dedicated to maintaining a stable relationship. The model is used to discuss the mixed results of current loyalty programs and to outline future research efforts.

The Love Triangle: Loyal Relationships among Providers, Customers, and Their Friends

With the increasing maturity of many sectors of the tourism industry, providers have enhanced their efforts to develop loyal relationships with selected customers—a strategy that theoretically results in higher profits and a more stable competitive advantage. There is mounting evidence, however, that most loyalty programs are ineffective in generating psychological attachment to the provider. Therefore, the primary purpose of this article was to document the factors associated with the formation of ongoing, stable, and intimate (i.e., loyal) relationships between individuals and a provider of a cruise package. Data from 20 in-depth interviews with purposefully selected cruisers suggested that loyal relationships between customers and a cruise provider depended on the treatment customers received from the provider, the opportunities customers had to help the provider, and the bond they had with a larger community of cruisers. Implications for the integration and extension of loyalty theory are discussed, and suggestions for the development of effective loyalty programs are offered.

Building Customer Trust and Relationship Commitment to a Nature-Based Tourism Provider: The Role of Information Investments

ABSTRACT With the increased competitiveness of the travel and tourism industry, many providers have become interested in securing long-term committed relationships with their most profitable customers. The customers, however, perceive that travel and tourism products carry a significant degree of uncertainty and risk and are therefore unwilling to commit to providers whom they do not trust. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine the role of information investments made between a nature-based tourism provider and its customers in the development of customer trust and the role of trust in making customers resistant to switching providers. The findings support Agency Theory and Commitment-Trust Theory and suggest that if providers establish good communication with their customers, they tend to develop trust and commitment towards the providers.

The ethnic tourism expansion cycle: the case of Yunnan Province, China.

There is an ever-growing body of literature suggesting that the Butlers Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) model may be a very useful conceptual tool for understanding the development patterns of mass tourism destinations. However, some authors have reported that the TALC model shows limitations in regions like the Asia Pacific and when applied to the development of alternative forms of tourism, such as ethnic tourism. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to examine whether selected ethnic tourism destinations in Yunnan province in the Peoples Republic of China exhibited characteristics consistent with the stages of Butlers TALC model. The findings revealed that Butlers TALC model might be useful in understanding the development of individual ethnic tourism destinations in Yunnan province. However, the findings also revealed that the characteristics of the host culture might influence the way the destination develops and that each destinations cycle of development is influenced significantly by the development of neighboring destinations.

Segmenting the rural tourism market: The case of Potter County, Pennsylvania, USA

Because of its importance in the sustainable development of rural communities, rural tourism has been frequently studied as an alternative form of economic development in rural areas. In the United States, many rural communities rely on tourism for economic growth to compensate for declines in manufacturing, agriculture, extraction of natural resources, and population. Although there is an increased interest in developing rural tourism in many countries, there is little information regarding the motivations of rural tourists in the United States. Therefore, this study aims to understand travel motivations and characteristics of tourists visiting a rural destination to provide a better understanding of rural tourism in the United States. Our study site, Potter County, Pennsylvania, represents a typical American rural area with a population of 18,080, which is currently struggling to pursue economic revitalization by attracting tourists. The findings of this study indicated that visitors to Potter County do not fit a homogenous rural tourist profile due to their broad travel preferences. The findings also suggest that “tourism in rural areas” may be a better descriptor than “rural tourism” in the context of Potter County, Pennsylvania.

Gender Differences in Rural Tourists´ Motivation and Activity Participation

ABSTRACT This study explored gender differences in motivation and activity participation among rural tourists to Potter County, Pennsylvania. Mail survey data from a sample of 343 visitors to the region revealed that females were more motivated by family bonding and natural and rural exploration. Female tourists were also more inclined to shop, eat in local restaurants and attend festivals and events, while male tourists were more inclined to fish and hunt. Social role theory was used to explain the observed gender differences. Contrasts between these and previously reported findings reinforce the importance of considering that gender roles and gendered tourist behavior are relative and ever-evolving.