Hyounggon Kim

Bridging the interdisciplinary divide Towards an integrated framework for heritage tourism research

This study draws upon recent learnings of the dynamic context of travel, tourism and touristic practices to propose an interdisciplinary framework for heritage tourism research. Interdisciplinary barriers and intradisciplinary ‘prejudices’ have instilled fragmented, dualistic either/or approaches to heritage tourism research that perpetuate a micro-macro divide. Studies that decontextualize the individual (micro-level) from social structures (macro-level) belie the complexity of heritage and tourism. Production-consumption, local-global and economic supply-demand binaries are pointed out in the article, and theoretical attempts to bridge the binaries are discussed. It is argued that viewing heritage and tourism as performative practices involving relational forms of power, agency and dialogue helps bridge the micro-macro divide. The research challenges are illustrated using the example of a festival representing a medieval heritage: the Texas Renaissance Festival, USA. This case illustrates the importance of identifying the global, historical and postcolonial context in which the local festival and the individual tourist are situated. Directions are offered for developing an integrated knowledge base of the sociopolitical context, structures and practices that constitute heritage tourism.

Positioning USA in the Chinese Outbound Travel Market

This study attempts to understand the position of the United States against its major non-Asian competitors in Mainland Chinese tourists’ minds. A multistep procedure of destination positioning analysis was designed, which involved a combination of multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, and logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, this study connects positioning analysis with market segmentation research, as the perceptual mapping analyses were performed at both aggregate and segment levels. Overall, it was found that the United States holds a unique position that is isolated from all other five destinations. The authors discussed the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

Applying the Theory of Recreation Specialization to Better Understand Recreationists’ Preferences for Value-Added Service Development

This study examined recreationists’ preferences for the development of value-added recreation products and services using the theory of recreation specialization. A choice modeling method was employed to evaluate the value-added products and services in the for-hire fishing boat industry. Data were collected through a mail survey using Florida saltwater fishing license holders as a study population. Study results indicated that anglers were interested in experiencing new attributes of boat fishing trips besides traditionally fishing-oriented aspects. Further, the results also provided evidence that heterogeneous preferences existed by level of recreation specialization. Study findings generally supported the proposition that as anglers become more involved in fishing activity, their focus expands from activity-specific to activity-general fishing experiences; thus, high specialization anglers likely attach high importance to nonfishing attributes. Managerial implications pertaining to the development of effective recreation products and services are discussed.

Impacts of Familiarity on Preference, Perceived Risks, and Tourist Activities

This study examines Korean tourists visiting China as to their perceived familiarity, and its impacts on the degree of preference toward China as a tourism destination, perceived risk, and the preferred tourist activities. A survey was conducted to the Korean tourists departing to China at the In-Cheon international airport, which results in collecting 305 usable questionnaires. The results show that the perceived familiarity toward China positively affects the degree of preference to China as a tourism destination. As to the impacts of familarity on the perceived risks, the results reveal that the degree of familarity is negatively associated with several risk perceptions. Lastly, the degree of perceived familiarity is positively related to the one type of preferred tourist activity, visiting nature historical sites. The results of this study support the role of familiarity as a significant factor in understanding other tourist perceptions.

Stakeholder differences in economic benefits of heritage tourism development

From a perspective of the tourism production system, two basic stakeholders can be identified in terms of demand and supply. Understanding the gap between these two groups is important for securing the long-term success of development. The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic values of heritage tourism resources and compare whether there is a significant difference in the economic values between these two groups. Using the contingent valuation method, study results showed that service providers assess the economic values of heritage tourism resources significantly higher than consumers. This article suggests the concept of power as an important theoretical linkage that explains the difference between the groups.

Period Theme Parks, Tourism, and Postmodernism

Abstract Over the last decades, Renaissance themed-festivals have become a popular tourism attraction in the U.S. This paper attempts to interpret the meaning of Renaissance Festival as a tourism product in reference to contemporary sociocultural characteristics and function of ‘culture industry’. Postmodern conditions that characterize the contemporary consumer society are diagnosed as apathy, superficiality, and emotional detachment. Nostalgia is proposed as a way to deal with the postmodern social conditions that permeate through every facet of human relationships. Renaissance themed-festival, as a combined outcome of contemporaries’ nostalgic mental states, and reconstructed past by culture industry, was interpreted as the collective sharing of simulacra that have finally become an inescapable trap of consumer society.