Twan Huybers

Environmental management and the competitiveness of nature-based tourism destinations.

Environmental management at nature-basedtourism destinations includes a private and apublic component. The former refers tovoluntary environmental protection activitiescarried out by individual (and groups of)tourism operators. These activities aremotivated by the dependence of the productprovided by the tourism industry on the qualityof the natural environment. Public sectormanagement, on the other hand, refers to theenvironmental regulations imposed on tourismbusinesses. The overall environmentalmanagement structure has a dual effect on thecompetitiveness of the tourism industry atnature-based tourism destinations. While theindustry may benefit from environmentalmanagement through demand stimulation, thetourism businesses also incur the associatedmanagement related costs. In this paper, theoverall effect of environmental management oncompetitiveness, as measured by aggregatetourism industry profitability, is estimated ina case study of Tropical North Queensland.

Impact of the Environment on Holiday Destination Choices of Prospective UK Tourists: Implications for Tropical North Queensland:

In this article, the findings of a choice modelling study of prospective tourists from the UK are reported. The study is focused on the relative importance of the natural environment on the choices made by prospective UK tourists regarding their overseas holiday destination. The study data are used to analyse the impacts on destination choices of changes in a range of features that describe the holiday locations included in the study. The willingness to pay for changes in the condition of the natural environment – and other destination features – is estimated. The study findings are relevant to the development of the competitive strategy of the nature-based holiday destination of Tropical North Queensland.

Discretionary Expenditure and Tourism Consumption: Insights from a Choice Experiment

Consumers’ decisions to spend money on tourism occur in the context of the other potential uses of their resources and corresponding values or utilities. Although many studies have examined the demand for travel and tourism, there is no known study that reveals how individuals and households make trade-offs when allocating their spending among various potential categories of discretionary expenditure. This study assesses these trade-offs empirically through the conduct of a choice experiment on a random sample of Australian consumers. The results provide insight into how each category of discretionary expenditure is valued and how spending in each category competes for a share of the discretionary expenditure “pie.” We discuss the results with an emphasis on the implications for tourism.

Qualitative evidence of a primary intervention point for elite athlete doping

Anti-doping activities in sport have shifted from secondary prevention (intervening after athletes have used) to educational strategies focused on primary prevention through promoting abstinence. There is no empirical evidence to guide targeting of anti-doping education initiatives. In this paper, a heuristic to guide education initiatives was derived by re-analysing a series of interviews (n=20) with athletes, coaches, sports managers, physiotherapists and sports nutritionists. The findings indicate primary prevention of doping may be enhanced by timing it around periods of career instability where athlete vulnerability to doping may increase as a function of winning or losing sponsorship. Sponsorship is broadly defined as financial (e.g. salary stipend) and non-financial support (e.g. training facilities). This provides a basis for targeting education interventions to promote abstinence. Two options are offered to mitigate the need to time prevention activity around career instability by lessening the effect of sponsorship on athlete doping. The first is liberalising access to legitimate performance enhancing technologies (e.g. training techniques or nutritional supplements). The second is to delay access to financial sponsorship (beyond living expenses) until retirement, with monetary gains (e.g. prize money) deposited into an account where penalties are debited if the athlete is caught doping.

An empirical model of athlete decisions to use performance‐enhancing drugs: qualitative evidence

Models of athlete decisions to use performance‐enhancing substance and method (PESM) lack an empirical base. In this paper, the validity of the content (variables thought to influence use) and process (how the variables come together) of these models is assessed. Reporting the second qualitative stage of a broader choice modelling study, n = 20 interviews (conducted from August 2007 to January 2008) and three follow‐up focus groups (n = 29; June 2008) with athletes, coaches, sports nutritionists, physiotherapists, sports administrators and sports scientists were used to generate a grounded model of athlete PESM use. Ten factors, organised around four themes, emerged (objective of PESM use, about the PESM, the deterrence system and consequences if prosecuted). The model suggested by these factors provides confidence in terms of what variables influence athlete PESM use (content), although questions remain as to whether rationality reflects how the behaviour manifests. This latter point remains to be tested in the third quantitative stage of this research programme.

The effect of international tourism on economic development: an empirical analysis.

The expansion of international tourism in developing countries is generally considered to promote their economic development. In this paper, the impact of international tourism on economic development is modelled using an aggregate production function framework. It specifically investigates intersectoral externalities and marginal factor productivity differences between the international tourism sector and the rest of the economy. The net effect of international tourism on GDP per capita is examined via an empirical analysis of 37 developing economies. The results indicate that international tourism may positively affect economic development in these countries.

Inferring Future Vacation Experience Preference from Past Vacation Choice A Latent Class Analysis

Tourists make two fundamental decisions when they travel: where to go (destination) and what to do (experience/activity). Whereas the modeling of destination choice behavior has a substantial research history, there has been little research that has sought to model and explain the choice behavior of tourists when deciding what type of vacation experience they wish to undertake. To address this gap, this study investigates how experience types are related with regard to actual past tourism consumption and preferred future experience choice. In order to investigate these relationships, the authors employed latent class modeling on survey data from a sample of respondents who had reported their recent and intended future vacation travel choices and preferences. Despite the acknowledged importance of variety seeking in a tourism choice context, the study found strong evidence for the stability of preferred experiences. In addition, it found insightful patterns of association between experience types.

Chinese students and higher education destinations: Findings from a choice experiment

This paper presents a novel application of a discrete choice experiment that seeks to contribute to a more accurate understanding of international education flows. The discrete choice experiment method is employed to identify the key factors underlying students’ international education choices. The specific focus in the study is on China as the largest origin country of international students in the growing global education market. Data are collected from a sample of prospective Chinese outbound students. The findings suggest that university ranking and destination safety are key decision drivers for Chinese students. The results have policy implications for Australia, as one of the key higher education destination countries, for instance, in relation to recently changed student visa systems and the potential effects of planned government budget cuts to higher education on educational quality and reputation.

Different tourists – different perceptions of different places: Accounting for tourists’ perceptual heterogeneity in destination image measurement

We suggest that differences between tourists be evaluated as part of any destination image study. In doing so, one can avoid the potential pitfall of deriving one single destination image by averaging over individuals with possibly very different perceptions. A typology of destination image measurement approaches is presented that provides a framework for the evaluation of past destination image studies and shows directions for future developments of destination image measurement. The perceptions-based market segmentation (PBMS) framework and indices derived from this approach are proposed as one possible way to explore differences in destination images between tourist groups. An empirical data set is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The data consist of perception statements of 575 respondents who evaluated six Australian tourism destinations along four dimensions.

The Significance of the Environment and its Regulation to Australia's Tourism Industry

In this article, the significance of the natural environment to Australias tourism industry from the perspective of tourism operators is established. Features of Australias natural environment are perceived to be the main generators of demand for tourism in Australia. Given this link between the environment and the prosperity of the tourism industry, the protection of the environment can, in principle, be ensured by self-regulation at the firm or industry level. However, there may be cases in which self-regulation alone is insufficient. In these cases, the government can impose regulations to deal with environmental degradation. The cases in which government regulation of the environment may be justified are identified in the article. In addition, the costs and benefits to tourism operators of current Australian environmental regulations are investigated. These costs and benefits are crucial determinants for the industrys willingness to comply with government regulations and hence the effectiveness of ...