Noel Scott

Improving tourism destination governance: a complexity science approach

Purpose – The growing interest in complexity science as a framework for understanding social and economic systems has had, in recent times, an influence on the study of tourism destinations. This paper aims to describe this approach and discuss its theoretical and methodological implications in terms of destination governance.Design/methodology/approach – Traditional research has adopted a reductionist approach to modelling tourist destinations: variables and relationships are embedded in simplified linear models that explain observed phenomena and allow implications for management or forecasting of future behaviours. In comparison, this paper adopts an adaptive management approach. Rather than imposing lines of action to force the evolutionary path of a system, the effect of different management actions are modelled, producing experimental results that provide information about the system that is being managed, and used to refine strategies and governance styles. Complex systems provide a theoretical fra...

Governance: a review and synthesis of the literature

Purpose – Despite the proliferation of the governance concept in the broader academic literature, there is little agreement on definitions, scope and what actually constitutes governance. This is arguably due to the fact that empirical research on the topic, with some exceptions, is generally limited to case studies without use of any common conceptual framework. This is certainly the case in other fields of study and is becoming increasingly obvious in tourism research also. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to explore and synthesize the governance literature with the objective of identifying the key elements and dimensions of governance.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the two “parent” bodies of literature originating in the political sciences and corporate management fields of study, the paper provides a review and synthesis of the governance concept with the objective of identifying the primary elements and factors that have been employed in studies of governance to date.Findings – A revi...

The Marketing of Hospitality and Leisure Experiences

In this article the authors introduce the concept of the experience economy and examine areas of debate in the tourism literature concerning the concept of experience.

Network Position and Perceptions of Destination Stakeholder Importance

ABSTRACT This paper examines the organization and governance of the inter-organizational networks of key tourism organizations within the Gold Coast, Australia and how the position of individual stakeholders in a destination network is related to their perceived salience. In this study 22 key organizations identified using a reputation method were interviewed and asked about the skills and power of the 21 other organizations. Based on this data three analyses were conducted. Firstly, an analysis identified the order of the perceived salience of the organizations studied. Secondly, a k-core clustering analysis identified the organizational network as having a core- periphery structure. Thirdly, the network salience of each stakeholders was correlated with their perceived salience resulting in a correlation coefficient of 0.51. Together these analyses indicate that the key stakeholders on the Gold Coast are located in the core of the network and form an elite that is seen as more salient while peripheral stakeholders are seen as less important and suggest that destination management is controlled by a limited number of stakeholders.

Use of Automated Content Analysis Techniques for Event Image Assessment

This department is devoted to research reports, notes, conference résumés and other significant research events. Two copies of write-ups, not exceeding 3,000 words, may be mailed to the Section Editor, Professor David A. Fennell, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1; e-mail: dfennell@arnie.pec.brocku.ca. In all cases, one copy of the report should be mailed to the Chief Editor, TRR.

Tourism Crises and Marketing Recovery Strategies

SUMMARY The recent frequency and intensity of crises and disasters affecting the tourism industry has resulted in a growing body of research into their causes, effects and management, as the bibliographies of the ensuing papers catalogue. To date, most papers and collections of research have taken a broad approach, describing the origins of a particular event which triggered a tourism crises, followed by an examination of the differential effects of the crisis on local residents, staff, tourists and tourism organizations or the environment and infrastructure. They have also discussed rescue efforts and the complexity of management tasks in the immediate aftermath of an event, often pointing to the need for preplanning to mitigate the consequences of any future disaster. Other researchers have contributed directly to the academic debate about how to theorise tourism crisis management, often by drawing on the wider crisis management literature. The present collection of research differs in that it focuses on one phase of the tasks which managers face after the immediate consequences of a crisis have been dealt with. This phase addresses the question of how to rebuild the market for a tourism service or a destination which has experienced a significant catastrophe, and how to learn from the experience in planning for future crisis response strategies. It is suggested in this paper that the challenges are actually more varied and complex than is implied by the suggestion, found in much of the literature, that the task is about ‘restoring normality.’ The chaos and complexity experienced in the aftermath of a crisis raise general issues of how organizations learn and adapt to change.

Tourism crises and disasters: Enhancing understanding of system effects

SUMMARY This paper examines the definitions and conceptual foundations of crises and distinguishes between crises and disasters. It takes a systems view of these concepts and uses the perspective of systems as organizational networks to examine implications for tourism managers. A tourism destination is perceived as consisting of a network of interacting organizations. This perspective questions the boundaries that should be used to study crisis and disasters. The paper also discusses the possibility of a crisis having a positive outcome for a destination.

Motivations and satisfactions of Taiwanese tourists who visit Australia: an exploratory study.

Abstract This study explores the motivations of Taiwanese visitors to Australia and investigates the satisfactions they received from their visit. The study uses a push and pull approach to find 17 push motivations and 18 pull motivations for travel. ‘Travelling around the world’ was found to be the most important push factor, while ‘sunshine and scenery’ was regarded as the most important pull factor. An importance and performance analysis (IPA) using factors of motivations was applied to investigate the differences between the importance and performance of these motivations. Most motivation factors were delivered before and after the visit. Among the negative satisfactions, Taiwanese visitors felt that the price of goods was high, the destination did not provide good value for money, and the food was not varied enough. Several recommendations were provided for both Australian and Taiwanese tourism managers and authorities.

Knowledge Sharing in Tourism and Hospitality

[Extract] What does it mean for an industry to adopt a ‘knowledge-based’ platform? While the concept appears logical, the actual path to better creation and utilization of knowledge is less clear. Prior authors have discussed developing a knowledge approach as a necessity for tourism organizations to be competitive (Cooper, 2005; Jafari, 1990). This is because the context for individual companies and the industry includes operating in conditions of increasing uncertainty, shorter product life cycles, rapidly developing technologies and more intrusive regulatory constraints. Knowledge management (KM) is seen to be an important response. “To adapt to continuously changing business conditions and to generate innovations, companies need to acquire new market knowledge, administer and exploit their knowledge stock and share knowledge across organisational entities. . . In short, companies need to engage in knowledge management” (Schlegelmilch & Penz, 2002). Knowledge is considered a company’s most valuable resource (Buckley & Carter, 2002; Zack, 1999b) and also an individual’s source of employment opportunities (Kodama, 2005). Tourism destinations have been enjoined to develop knowledge infrastructure (Cooper, 2002). The seminal economist Alfred Marshall characterised knowledge as the most powerful engine of production (Marshall, 1890).

Hotel restaurant dining: the relationship between perceived value and intention to purchase.

Restaurants affiliated with the hotel industry play an important role in increasing revenue and responding effectively to customer expectations. This paper examines how perceived value relates to intention to purchase (ITP) in the context of hotel restaurant dining using a quantitative approach involving multiple regression analysis. In addition, the findings indicate that there are three significant key variables that positively contribute to ITP: perceived brand image, perceived quality and perceived sacrifice (both monetary and non-monetary price).