Patrick L’Espoir Decosta

The Lingering Effect of Colonialism on Tourism Movements

This short study examines the lasting effects of colonial ties on tourist movements between nations and their current and former possessions. The study examines 56 jurisdictions in six geographical regions that were once colonies of or remain the possessions of eight nations. Residents of Europe and America show a preference for travel to destinations with strong historical/political ties and an equally strong aversion to travel to jurisdictions where no such connection exists. Likewise, destinations rely heavily on former colonizers as a key source of visitors, especially from long-haul markets. Such a pattern is not evident among either source European markets without a strong colonial history or destination countries without a colonial past. The lingering effects of colonialism are especially noticeable among French and Dutch tourists. The study suggests that ‘colonialism’ may need to be included as a variable in models of tourist movements. colonialism tourism movements

The variable nature of country-to-brand association and its impact on the strength of the country-of-origin effect

Purpose Recent research has shown that the country-of-origin (COO) effect – the influence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior derived from a brand’s perceived association with a country – is inextricably linked to consumer perception. The purpose of this paper is to examine this shift by considering origin as a characteristic derived from perceived association and also by proposing that this association varies by degree, rather than simply acting as a binary attribute in its effect on consumer attitudes. Design/methodology/approach Data from a test series in which respondents (n=100) rated 38 brand-country pairs were put to split-half multi-group analysis tests to capture the moderating influence of association strength (AS) on several facets of country image (CI) simultaneously. Findings AS is a variable that exerts a moderating influence on how different dimensions of CI influence consumers’ evaluation of brands. Research limitations/implications The findings indicate that origin, as a characteristic, should be considered an association that is variable by degree and not as dichotomous. The implications of such a shift are broad, not only for the theoretical understanding of the COO effect but also for marketing and brand management practice. Accounting for AS allows for more accurate prediction of how consumers will react to COO. Originality/value The paper explicitly demonstrates that the strength of country-brand association moderates COO’s influence on brand equity. Such a relationship had previously only been theoretically implied but had not been empirically tested across multiple categories of products on multiple levels of CI.

A clash of modernities: Developing a new value-based framework to understand the mismatch between production and consumption

This study addresses the enduring problem of the mismatch between firms’ offerings and consumers’ desires. It combines the general framework of modernity theory with the concept of regimes and uses the food area as the empirical context. Our cultural analytical study of consumers’ and firms’ articulation of values of food and meal demonstrates that firms are largely entrenched in the modern era, characterized by rationality, resource efficiency, and progress as means to improve human lives by providing more and better products. The consumers, on the other hand, have shifted to the late modern era, identified by risk aversion, local production, naturalism, hedonism, and a focus on identity and everyday life. The study concludes that the dichotomy in values and the structural constraints inherent within the contemporary food system explain much of the mismatch between firms and consumers in the Swedish food market. Another reason is that firms have difficulties to respond to new consumer demands. Our results are summarized in a conceptual model of differences in values between firms and consumers. They provide guidelines on how firms can rethink the present structure and better understand consumers.

A Review of "Sex, Tourism and the Postcolonial Encounter: Landscapes of Longing in Egypt”

Let it be clear at the outset: this book is not about sex tourism but rather a reflexive account of ethno-sexual relationships that develop between Western female tourists and Bedouin/Egyptian men in encounters within the tourist spaces of the Sinai in Egypt. The role of the place cannot be underestimated, as it acts together with modernity as a potent vehicle capable of reconciling two distinct longings: female tourists’ strong desire for a reality outside of Western modernities, within the spatial and temporal diversity of the Sinai desert landscape, with the ultimate goal of realizing their long-standing images of a tropical paradise with sex (and romance) as both catalyst and existential bonus; and the longing of Egyptian men (both Arabic and Bedouin) for a version of modernity that includes the carnal pleasure of easy sex with lone white women, not only to escape their own sexually restrictive cultural space and time (Bowman 1996), but also to reassert their masculinity and power, using sex as a form of revenge against Western men for their past colonial abuse. Though the author unsuccessfully avoids the latter insinuation by evoking a local (ethnocentric) cultural belief that women are the possession of men, the very structure she adopts for the book can barely conceal this allusion. Indeed, right at the beginning of Chapter 1, the colonial legacy in travel is emphasized at different levels of explanation, which is not surprising given the goal of analysing the ethno-sexual encounter within the postcolonial framework. In the first place, images in popular travel literature are seen as replicating, if not perpetuating, nostalgic colonial dichotomies of place, race, ethnicity and gender expressed in contemporary travel. Jacobs relies on a comparison of Gregory’s (1999; 2005) analysis of Victorian writers in Egypt and discourses of modern-day adventure tourists to support her claim that ‘vacationscapes’ originating in colonial times ‘ . . . continue to be informed and validated by the paths created by colonial travelling’ (p. 2). Thus, through the process of scripting (and later also through movies) and routine travel to the sites of colonial encounters and accounts, Western travel writers visiting Egypt have helped build and reinforce the imaginations of tourist landscapes for consumption through clear accounts of what happened on the ground. Re-enacting a boat trip

Book Review: New Perspectives in Caribbean Tourism by Marcella Daye, Donna Chambers and Sherma Roberts

New Perspectives in Caribbean Tourism by Marcella Daye, Donna Chambers and Sherma Roberts. Routledge, 2008. 265 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-95838-7