Thomas J. Iverson

Expenditure-based segmentation: Taiwanese tourists to Guam

Abstract Progressive destination marketers try to expand their market share by seeking travelers who will spend money, and not just time, on their tourism products. Marketing researchers have found that heavy users of consumer products account for a large percentage of sales. Tourism researchers report mixed results when using travel expenditures as a segmentation variable. Earlier studies were unable to distinguish heavy users from light users in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics but more recent studies reported very different results. Based on these results, it seems that segmenting visitors based on travel expenditures may be a useful alternative to the more common approach of segmenting on the basis of travel activities. These studies were conducted in the United States and the consumers under study were Americans. There are relatively few reports in the tourism literature about Asian tourists’ spending behavior. In view of the extravagant spending behavior and unique spending patterns of Taiwanese tourists, this paper applied and assessed the potential usefulness of an expenditure-based segmentation technique in marketing Guam to the Taiwanese travelers. Results from this study show that heavy spenders were distinguishable from the other segments in terms of age, party size, length of stay, trip purpose, travel mode, and their spending pattern.

Decision timing: a comparison of Korean and Japanese travelers

Abstract Vacation planning characteristics of Korean and Japanese travelers were compared, using data available from exit surveys conducted in the U.S. territory of Guam. Controls were established for the effects of travel experience, age, gender, marital status, and income. The control variables generally exhibited expected behavior with the dependent variable, decision time. Korean travelers were found to have significantly shorter decision time frames than their Japanese counterparts. This behavior may lead to “locking out” of Korean visitors to some destinations during peak travel periods.

Cultural conflict: tourists versus tourists in Bali, Indonesia.

Purpose – This paper has two main aims: to provide evidence of an often overlooked dimension of cultural conflict: tourist versus tourist conflict; to raise awareness of the dual benefits gained by educating tourists, reducing conflict with hosts as well as with fellow tourists.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents data from a series of self‐administered questionnaires, conducted with tourists in the popular resort island of Bali, over a three‐year period (1999‐2001). Two additional questions asked if the tourists were offended by the behavior of other tourists and if they found behavior of Balinese to be offensive. Content analysis of these questions provides the base data for this study.Findings – Tourists expressed the most concern for loud behavior, drunkenness, and lack of respect for the local Balinese. Many were aware of the modest nature of the Balinese and recognized the importance of appropriate dress, as well as the offensive nature of topless or nude bathing. Australians were targe...

Local heritage, global context: cultural perspectives on a sense of place, edited by John Schofield and Rosy Szymanski

This volume comprises an introductory chapter by the editors and then 12 case studies related to a ‘sense of place’. The case studies were selected from conference papers at two sessions on this theme: one held in 2007 in Swansea and another held in Malta in 2008. The compilation provides an interesting insight, particularly for those outside of the discipline of archaeology, into the varied meanings of this concept. The concept of ‘place’ can mean a hometown, a region, a street or a football field, depending on the observer. This insight might be beneficial to those who are interested in connecting heritage with tourism promotion or with economic development. As one would expect from articles that began as conference papers, there is a sense of the preacher speaking to the choir. At times this borders on a form of paternalism or a rather jaded view of the public. This may be related to the domain of the case studies, which are mostly in the UK. The editors express surprise, for example, when the author of an Estonia case concludes that ‘most members of the local community want to change their surroundings, sell their land in parcels and build new houses. The landscape in itself does not have high emotional value for the local community’ (p. 8). Here one begins to see that the authors, personally committed to heritage preservation, do place high emotional value on the landscape. In describing the ‘Sense of Place Toolkit’ developed by two of the authors, we learn that ‘the aim of the toolkit was to raise awareness . . . and to encourage local people and businesses to develop an affinity and loyalty to the area’ (p. 9, emphasis added). Sometimes this attitude is quite subtle. The editors close their introduction with the positive statement that the cases balance ‘heritage interests with progress and change, all in the name of sustainability’ (p. 10, emphasis added). Clifford argues that experts have the ‘. . . task of informing and awakening ecological consciousness’ (p. 13). To do this, she describes projects that ‘enthuse people’, ‘lure people into adventuring together’ and ‘devise ways of encouraging people’ (p. 15). Hopley and Mahony are more direct, equating ‘sense of place’ with ‘brand identity’ (p. 33). As they describe re-branding, they note that it can add value to products by ‘portraying them as being authentic, traditional and characteristic of a place’ (p. 43, emphasis added). Ironically, the editors and the publisher never really market the text, in the sense of explaining who the audience should be, or how the material might be used, beyond noting on the back jacket that the book ‘. . . adds to the growing literature that critically addresses the meaning of “heritage”’. Yet there are many themes that would be quite useful in university courses relating to tourism marketing, eco-tourism and heritage tourism, economic development, sustainability and research methods in the social sciences. Vedru’s case on Estonia, for example, is more neutral in tone. The nature of the work here is

Tourism and crime: key themes

David Botterill and Trevor Jones, Oxford, Goodfellow Publishers, 2010, 240 pp., ISBN: 978-1-906884-14-7 The editors of this volume have assembled a remarkable collection, written by 12 authors base...