Tamara Jovanović

What Demotivates the Tourist? Constraining Factors of Nautical Tourism

ABSTRACT This article examines issues related to the constraining factors of nautical tourism based on a three-dimensional structure of constraints. With a higher level of respondents’ education, the significance of the intrapersonal and structural dimensions decreases. However, with the rise of monthly income, the significance of structural constraints decreases and the significance of interpersonal constraints marginally increases. For respondents who travel once a year, the interpersonal dimension of constraints is the most significant, while it is less significant for respondents that rarely travel or travel several times a year. Results of this research can be of use to nautical tourism-based managers and to all other stakeholders involved.

Why should gender differences in hospitality really matter? A study of personnel’s service orientation and job satisfaction in hotels

In this article we examine the gender differences among hotel employees in service orientation and job satisfaction. To determine these differences, we used a service orientation scale (SOS), developed by Dienhart, Gregoire, Downey and Knight and a job satisfaction scale developed by Lytle. Our assumptions were that there would be significant gender differences in service orientation and job satisfaction. Our research proved factor structures of the two scales we used. Specifically, we showed gender differences in two of three factors, concerning service orientation (organisational support and customer focus), and no gender differences in job satisfaction. Our study revealed that organisational support is more important to men because they value more structured labour and service procedures than women (t = 2.21, df = 110, p = 0.03). In contrast, customer focus is more relevant to a women because it is more crucial to see satisfied guests, as well as having a good relationship with them (t = 2.07, df = 110, p = 0.04). It is of great importance for hotel management to have in mind that male and female employees respond and behave differently depending on the stimuli in the work environment and their satisfaction varies because of it.

Gender, Age, and Education Effects on Travel-Related Behavior: Reports on Facebook

This study examines how travel-related patterns of behavior on Facebook (FB) differ among users of different gender, age, and education. The authors assumed that females, young, and more educated people are more active in using FB for travel-related purposes and that the results will show a significant difference in their travel-related behavior patterns. Data about respondent’s travel-related behavior on FB were collected through an online survey (Google Docs) through the FB page named “The research on behaviors of FB users.” The study applies the multivariate general linear model (GLM) on the data collected from the total of 793 respondents. The results show that travel-related statuses respondents post on FB are generally about their travel destination. The main findings indicate that women, more educated, and older people are the ones who are the most active in sharing their travel-related information and are therefore target groups for promoting travel destinations via electronic word of mouth (eWOM). The study suggests target groups for promoting travel destinations via eWOM and it is the first research of this type done on a Serbian sample.

Urban tourist motivations: why visit Ljubljana?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a new perspective on urban tourist motivations by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to help to understand how tourists make decisions about which destinations to visit. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on 30 one-hour-long structured interviews with visitors to Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. Respondents were asked to express their preferences between different pull-factor motives for their visit, using Saaty’s scale, and further qualitative data were collected to examine these preferences in more depth. Findings The results of this study indicate that the most relevant criteria and thus predominant factors in motivation for visits to Ljubljana are the Cultural and Nightlife pull factors, while religious and business motives are the lowest ranked factors. The paper argues that the results show the value of applying the AHP model to understand the role of pull factors in urban tourism destination choice. Research limitations/implications As a single-destination case study, it is important that the findings of this research are evaluated against similar studies in other cities. A limitation of this research is the fact that sub motives within major groups of pull-factor motives have not been explored in this study and this should be the subject of future, more detailed research. Originality/value This research shows the value of applying an under-used methodology to understand urban tourist motivations and knowledge gained through applying this method will be of value to destination marketing organisations as well as to researchers conducting future studies.

THE PERCEPTION OF UNETHICAL ISSUES IN SELECTED THAILAND TOURIST AREAS: MEASURING THE ATTITUDES OF FOREIGN TOURISM STUDENTS

The principal aim of the paper was to examine what kind of experience international exchange students, as future professionals in tourism industry, gained during their study at the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism in Phuket, Thailand. Thus, the paper deals with how often they encountered the unethical issues in the tourism industry, and how these issues affect their perception of the image of Thailand as a tourist destination. The paper also explores how formal education in Tourism ethics affects the perception of Thailand tourism unethical practices, and as such, it is one of the first studies in this field. In addition, the paper intends to show if there is a relationship between formal education in Ethics in tourism and the respondents’ experience and perception of unethical issues. The results show that these unethical issues have the significant and very strong influence on tourism perception of Thailand with a special emphasis on exploitation of women and children in sex tourism. Also, the study indicates that respondents who have a formal education in Ethics were more aware and had a clearer picture of the negative effect of these unethical issues on the image of Thailand as a destination.

Influence of users’ psychosocial traits on Facebook travel–related behavior patterns

The principal aim of the article was to explore the psychological aspects of Facebook (FB) users’ travel-related behavior on FB. This especially refers to the time they post their travel-related information, the type of information they post (photos, videos, comments, etc.), when they watch the photos of other people, are they keen to post the information when their impressions are positive or negative, and what level of privacy they keep (with whom they are sharing travel-related information). A total of 804 general FB users from Serbia were included in the study. Analysis of the relationship between travel-related behavior on FB and the different psychosocial aspects of FB use (PSAFU) can be of great importance for online destination marketing. This could help in identifying the patterns of tourists’ FB behavior that result in sharing their travel experiences via electronic word-of-mouth as well as in predicting the FB behavior of future tourists. The study revealed that all analyzed dimensions of PSAFU are related to certain travel-related behavior on FB, explained from 1.9% to 13.7% of these behaviors. The strongest and most consistent predictor of travel-related FB behaviors was ‘Virtual self’ dimension. On contrary, the study showed that Compensatory use of FB is not related to travel-related behavior on FB to a great extent, thus is not of much interest to destination marketers. The further implications are discussed in the article.

The effect of natural and human-induced habitat conditions on number of roe deer: case study of Vojvodina, Serbia

Roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus L.) have greatly expanded in both distribution and abundance during the last few decades, and are the most abundant cervids in Europe today. The aim of this paper is to determine the factors that have the most considerable impact on roe deer numbers in the Vojvodina region (North Serbia). Environmental (area in ha, total area of forest and total area of meadows and pastures in hunting ground) and anthropogenic (number of registered hunters, number of hunting sections, number of gamekeepers and roads in km on 1,000 ha) factors had been shown to influence the number of roe deer in Vojvodina region. A multiple regression analysis was carried out as the main statistical approach. The mapping of certain parameters was done using ArcGIS 9.2 software in order to establish the relation between the roe deer population and the different environmental and anthropogenic conditions. The results signify that the roe deer number dependency in the Vojvodina region is a very complex and multi-factorial phenomenon, strongly influenced by human induced modifications.