Richard Prentice

Affirming authenticity. Consuming cultural heritage.

Abstract This paper identifies how British tourists affirm authenticity through visiting socio-industrial cultural heritage attractions. Survey findings of 1,200 interviews with domestic tourists visiting three major British period theme parks highlighted the diversity of perceived authenticity gained by them and, thus, showed the importance of experiential and emotive processes in their interaction with attraction settings. In particular, three distinct thought processes were identified: reinforced assimilation, cognitive perception, and retroactive association. The notion of “insightfulness” is presented as an appropriate characterization of how cultural authenticity is affirmed by individual visitors through the “encoding” of an experience with their own personal meanings.

Tourism as experience: The case of heritage parks.

Abstract The need to consider the experiences and benefits gained by visitors to tourism attractions is addressed, with specific reference to an industrial heritage park. The differing dimensions of experience and the various benefits are examined, as well as factors having influence on them. The consumer groups defined in terms of experiences and benefits derived are described in terms of their motivations for visiting and socioeconomic profile. The study raises questions concerning the usefulness of past emphases on sociodemographic analyses at heritage attractions, as experiential and benefit segmentations appear to be somewhat independent of sociodemographic attributes.

Visitor learning at a heritage attraction: a case study of Discovery as a media product.

Abstract This paper evaluates the extent tourists learn at a visitor attraction; and possible influences on this. An attraction is chosen for a case evaluation which is highly symbolic; historically, in terms of scientific endeavour, and in terms of contemporary imaging. Attentional, affective, cognitive and compensatory processes are evaluated in the context of the media of the attraction studied

Opportunities for endearment to place through electronic ‘visiting’: WWW homepages and the tourism promotion of Scotland

Abstract For the Internet to realise its full marketing potential a communication concept may be needed in the design of Web sites and their management by tourism businesses. This is the transposing of the concept of ‘endearment’ from actual to electronic visiting. This paper appraises tourism Web sites in Scotland to see how far such a concept has been developed. It also considers the drivers to the adoption of information processing by tourism businesses in Scotland, and the constraints emerging on this. The regional diversity of sites across Scotland is identified and the extent of the development of a communication concept is assessed.

Conceptualizing the latent visitor to heritage attractions.

Abstract This paper focuses on the attraction basis of tourism, and addresses the neglected issue of latent demand for visits to museums and other heritage attractions. It considers the existing literature on consumer decision making to be inadequate in its application to museums and other heritage attractions, and especially in terms of latent demand. Indeed, the paper argues that other literatures need to be consulted to construct a model of consumer decision making appropriate to museums and other heritage attractions, focusing on latent demand. Such a model, the ‘columnar’ model, is proposed, and the potential usefulness of the model in segmenting latent demand is outlined as a basis for ‘product’ development and promotion.

Seeking Generic Motivations for Visiting and Not Visiting Museums and Like Cultural Attractions

Overview This paper seeks to demonstrate remedies for two deficiencies in literature on museum visiting. Firstly, it attends to generic rather than situationally-contingent motivations. Secondly, it considers non-visitors as well as visitors. Particular attention is also given to constraints on visiting and how people try to ‘consume’ cultural attractions. The discussion is resourced from a sample survey conducted in Edinburgh, a city which provides many opportunities (of which many are free of charge in terms of admission) for visiting museums and like cultural attractions.

Evoking Ireland: Modeling tourism propensity

Abstract This paper offers a choice model pertinent to familiar destinations. In particular, it demonstrates the importance of familiarity as an explanator of imagery and evoked opportunities, and thus as a direct and indirect determinant of visiting propensity. Imagery is modeled by three inter-dependent dimensions: informality of construction, divisibility of awareness and intensity of association, and the content of imagery as contextualized within the repositioning strategy of a destination for new tourism markets. Ireland is the destination used, and the model and repositioning appraisal is developed in the market for cultural tourism.

Modeling tourists’ multiple values

Abstract This paper supports the use of a contextual value measurement technique for assessing tourism values as an alternative to the more common generic personal ones in everyday life approach. Specifically, a two dimensional model is proposed to integrate the literature and help to better understand tourism values. The two bi-polar dimensions: one, emotion-dominant and cognition-dominant and, two, inner-directed and outer-directed. This model is assessed using hierarchical log linear analysis to examine the effect of multiple, conflicting values on holiday behavior of the tourist.

The endearment behaviour of tourists through their interaction with the host community

Abstract Contemporary research attention in tourism is increasingly focusing on the experiences and benefits tourists gain from being tourists. These experiences and benefits often derive from the activities pursued and may endear the tourist to a destination area. The latter idea is explored using survey data relating to South Wales. For the majority of leisure tourists endearment is effected through generalist activities and generalist interaction with local people. However, segmentation on the bases of whether or not tourists have local contacts in the destination area and whether or not they are repeat visitors is sufficiently important to call into question the validity of generalizing across all leisure tourists. For the segment with local contacts, endearment may be to friends and relatives rather than to the destination area itself. Fundamental issues of marketing in terms of endearment are, in consequence, raised.

Imagery of Denmark among visitors to Danish fine arts exhibitions in Scotland

Abstract Central to destination marketing is the image which potential tourists hold of a destination and its competitors. This paper considers the imagery of Denmark held by visitors to fine arts exhibitions in Scotland. It is argued that images of Denmark held by these visitors may deter visitation for cultural tourism and that, when visiting for other reasons, tourists may not seek out cultural tourism experiences, as these do not form part of the opportunity set traditionally promoted by Denmark to its visitors. The paper argues that destination promotion should consider market segmentation on the basis of experiences to be derived and not to assume implicitly that existing images are those solely appropriate for tourism promotion.