Trinidad Domínguez Vila

Activity of older tourists Understanding their participation in social tourism programs

A global demographic shift is leading to an increasing number of older citizens, particularly in the most developed regions, and social tourism is becoming growingly relevant throughout Europe, especially in Spain, where it has been successfully developed by the Institute for Elderly and Social Services (IMSERSO) programs. The aim of this study is to create a profile of older tourists according to the types of trips they make. It uses a multinomial logistic regression to rate older citizens according to their motivation, travel, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results show that older tourists prefer organized trips regardless of whether they travel on IMSERSO trips or any other type of package tour.

Website accessibility in the tourism industry: an analysis of official national tourism organization websites around the world

Abstract Purpose: To analyze the accessibility of official national tourism organization websites of countries around the world, in order to establish possible common patterns and rankings of those with exemplary practice through to those with the highest number of issues. The purpose for undertaking such an analysis is to provide a quasi-indicator of inclusive organizational practice for online accessibility for both destination managers and their accessible tourism consumers – domestic and overseas people with disability visiting the websites. Method: The official tourism websites of 210 countries included in the latest World Tourism Organization report were analyzed. A website accessibility evaluation tool (website accessible test) was used in the analysis, according to AA and AAA levels of conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements. Results: Different patterns compliance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 were established for the clusters, which were rather similar for both AA and AAA conformance levels. The main issues in the least accessible websites were also identified, mainly focused on the following guidelines: navigable, compatible, adaptability, text alternatives and also referred to other assistive technologies. Conclusions: Once the main issues were established several alternatives are suggested to address them, such as implementing more prescriptive laws and regulations, complying with mandatory benchmark standards and/or having external agencies audit website designs. However, in addition to using benchmark standards, efforts to improve this situation should also be made by programmers, who should also rely on preexistent experiences and develop more dynamic knowledge. This knowledge may include text alternatives for any nontext content; creation of content that can be presented in different ways without losing information; provide ways to help users navigate, find content, determine where they are and navigate websites to maximize compatibility with assistive technologies and user agents. Implications for rehabilitation Access to information – in this case, online information – is an important factor in the process of rehabilitation for people with disability and those supporting them. Failure to apply homogeneous criteria for website accessibility around the world can hamper access to information by people with disabilities. Travel planning requires access to mainstream tourist distribution networks where online inclusive practice is a precursor to information searching. Documents for destination managers and programmers the main problems of accessibility to websites and examples of models or solutions to follow and not. Establish the main inclusive website design criteria on which to focus on improving the access of people with disabilities to websites (e.g., text alternatives, content presented in different ways, navigating and improving compatibility with assistive technologies etc.).

Juegos Olímpicos y Paralímpicos en Brasil: aprendiendo de Barcelona y Sidney

Between 2014 and 2016, Brazil will host a number of large events, where the Olympics of Rio de Janeiro are the most noteworthy. The tourism industry will be one of the beneficiaries. It has established an objective to bring 10 million tourists in 2016, doubling overseas arrivals. This can create many business opportunities for the industry. This paper analyzes this goal by examining two key factors linked to the Olympics, legacy and new tourism segments, in particular, seniors and accessible tourism. A study using content analysis of the bibliography about Rio 2016 will be applied to determine the current body of knowledge. Following this, a case study will be drawn upon the Barcelona and Sydney Games to establish the key elements of the legacy and their tourist outcomes. The findings will establish the main factors required to meet Brazils tourist objectives.

Accessible tourism online resources: a Northern European perspective

ABSTRACT Increasing market opportunities have been identified for accessible tourism as a result of improved quality of life. Disabled tourists tend to be loyal, spend more and enjoy longer stays in their destinations, although their behaviour obviously differs from one country to another. This situation is strongly influenced by the welfare policies that determine the disability model implemented and affect the extent to which disabled people are integrated into day-to-day. Northern European countries are regarded as champions in this respect. When disabled people travel, access to information is important. Information is present throughout the tourism process, not only as a communication and marketing channel, but also as a transmitter of experiences. This study seeks to establish whether the policies and regulations that govern disabled people’s access to online tourist information are applied correctly. The official tourism websites of northern European countries were analysed to this end; whereby different patterns were identified regarding their compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The atypical features of Norway’s official tourism website were found to be particularly noteworthy, as were the official tourism websites for Germany and the United Kingdom, two of the countries with the largest market share of accessible tourism.

The Role of the Internet as a Tool to Search for Tourist Information

The internet has become the main tool to search for information. This is particularly the case for the tourism industry, where online searches are becoming increasingly popular. The ongoing growth of e-commerce has ruptured the existing relationship with the old management information systems and products. Given the vast range of available information, search and meta-search engines have become key elements in gaining a competitive advantage and establishing differentiation strategies within the sector. This paper aims to compare tourism e-commerce search engines and meta-search engines based on website structure and content. It analyses the main attributes and categories found to create clusters and a ranking from which to compare the position of search and meta-search engines from the perspective of the supplier, as opposed to that of the traditional consumer market preference. This paper will contribute to the industry by providing valuable information for best management practices about the tourism websites structure and offering, and determining factor in implementing successful strategies.

Olympic and paralympic games in Brazil: Learning from barcelona and sydney

Between 2014 and 2016, Brazil will host a number of large events, where the Olympics of Rio de Janeiro are the most noteworthy. The tourism industry will be one of the beneficiaries. It has established an objective to bring 10 million tourists in 2016, doubling overseas arrivals. This can create many business opportunities for the industry. This paper analyzes this goal by examining two key factors linked to the Olympics, legacy and new tourism segments, in particular, seniors and accessible tourism. A study using content analysis of the bibliography about Rio 2016 will be applied to determine the current body of knowledge. Following this, a case study will be drawn upon the Barcelona and Sydney Games to establish the key elements of the legacy and their tourist outcomes. The findings will establish the main factors required to meet Brazils tourist objectives.

Jogos olímpicos e paraolímpicos no Brasil: aprendendo com Barcelona e Sidney

Between 2014 and 2016, Brazil will host a number of large events, where the Olympics of Rio de Janeiro are the most noteworthy. The tourism industry will be one of the beneficiaries. It has established an objective to bring 10 million tourists in 2016, doubling overseas arrivals. This can create many business opportunities for the industry. This paper analyzes this goal by examining two key factors linked to the Olympics, legacy and new tourism segments, in particular, seniors and accessible tourism. A study using content analysis of the bibliography about Rio 2016 will be applied to determine the current body of knowledge. Following this, a case study will be drawn upon the Barcelona and Sydney Games to establish the key elements of the legacy and their tourist outcomes. The findings will establish the main factors required to meet Brazils tourist objectives.

LA ACCESIBILIDAD COMO OPORTUNIDAD DE MERCADO EN EL MANAGEMENT DE PRODUCTOS TURÍSTICOS

En Espana el sector turistico ha desempenado un rol importante, desde la crisis financiera e inmobiliaria de 2008 es uno de los sectores que ha mostrado mejor comportamiento, es por ello que se ha de incidir en mejorar la competitividad turistica de las provincias espanolas y aprovechar asi la contribucion del turismo. Hemos seleccionado para este analisis las provincias del Mediterraneo por ser las que mayor cuota turistica acumulan respecto al conjunto nacional, y por sus caracteristicas comunes en el ambito turistico. La manera de analizar y posteriormente sugerir propuestas para mejorar la competitividad de los destinos turisticos del Mediterraneo, analizar a continuacion las valores de los indicadores que representan la competitividad de los destinos, para luego valorar mediante un panel de expertos la importancia de los factores en cada destino, y finalmente, sugerir actuaciones para aumentar la competitividad. ABSTRACT In Spain tourism sector has had a relevant role since financial and real state crisis in 2008, tourism is one of the few sectors that has helped to economic recovery and it is improving it performance year a year, so tourism competitiveness in the Spanish provinces must be enhanced taking advantage of the tourism good behavior. We have selected the Mediterranean area provinces because of their mayor acummulated tourism share above national, and because of their similar characteristics. The way of improving competitiveness, then to analyze the provinces which have worst performance on the indicators that form the factors, next to asses the factor importance through and expert panel, and finally to recommend actions for improving competitivenessNumerosos estudios han demostrado que las redes sociales influyen en las intenciones de los viajeros de visitar un destino. Sin embargo, la literatura ha prestado poca atencion a la relacion entre el comportamiento de busqueda de informacion y el desarrollo de la fidelidad a los destinos. En este sentido, este estudio analiza este fenomeno, considerando como los turistas no solo comparten su tiempo entre varias fuentes de informacion, sino que estas estan tambien influyendo en el tiempo que los turistas estan compartiendo entre varios destinos, no solo repitiendo la visita a un unico destino, sino tambien haciendose mas fieles a multiples destinos al mismo tiempo (fidelidad horizontal). Sin embargo, este tema no se ha destacado adecuadamente en el contexto turistico. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es doble: 1) comprender mejor el comportamiento del turista con respecto al uso de las redes sociales, considerando las diferencias por nacionalidades, genero y edad; y 2) explorar la relacion entre el uso de las diferentes fuentes de informacion de los turistas (tradicionales y digitales) y su influencia en la posterior fidelidad (tanto a un solo destino como en la fidelidad horizontal), y considerando tanto la fidelidad conductual como la actitudinal. Estos resultados son utiles para tomar decisiones sobre estrategias de comunicacion digital y la gestion de los programas de fidelizacion por parte de los destinos turisticos. Palabras clave : Fidelidad Horizontal, Marketing Relacional, Fuentes de Informacion, Redes Sociales, Imagen ABSTRACT The visit to a tourist destination is influenced by the tourists use of social media. However, the literature has not focused its efforts on trying to understand the relationship between the use of social media and destinations loyalty. This study analyzes this phenomenon, considering how tourists not only share their time between several sources of information, but these are also influencing the time that the tourists are sharing between several destinations, not only repeating the visit to a single destination, but also becoming more loyal to multiple destinations at the same time (horizontal loyalty). However, this topic has not been adequately highlighted in the tourism context. This study tries to analyze the differences in the use of social media by nationalities, gender, age and income; and to shed light on their relationship with loyalty. These results are useful for making decisions about digital communication strategies and the management of loyalty programs by tourist destinations. Keywords : Horizontal Loyalty, Relationship Marketing, Information Sources, Social Media, ImageActualmente, los destinos de sol y playa afrontan la necesidad de renovacion y, en el Partido de Necochea, Argentina, se elaboro el Plan Estrategico de Turismo Sustentable de Necochea para responder a esta necesidad. La implementacion requiere analizar y evaluar de modo pragmatico y programatico las intervenciones territoriales para alcanzar las estrategias definidas de reposicionamiento. El articulo propone identificar las unidades de gestion del espacio, los modelos de intervencion para un escenario estrategico que contribuya a la gestion sustentable y reorientacion turistica y proporcionar bases para la reestructuracion territorial como eje transversal de politica publica ambiental y turistica. Para ello, respecto de la unidades se delimita el espacio turistico en funcion de las particularidades fisico-espaciales, los recursos turisticos y oportunidades recreativas y las disfuncionalidades o problematicas detectadas. Luego, se definen los contenidos concretos de los tipos de intervencion propuestos que reorienten la renovacion. Y por ultimo, se enuncian las bases para las actuaciones de reestructuracion territorial en funcion de un escenario estrategico. La renovacion ambiental de Necochea debe basarse en estrategias conducentes a la cualificacion del espacio turistico, la diferenciacion basada en la naturaleza, la potenciacion del entorno urbano y la inclusion de lo ambiental en la gestion turistica.