nep-tur New Economics Papers
on Tourism Economics
Issue of 2015‒10‒10
ten papers chosen by
Laura Vici
Università di Bologna

  1. What Hikers Wants? The Perspective of Travel Agents By Güney Çetinkaya; Mustafa Y; Pelin Çetinkaya
  2. Tourism Facilitation as part of Transport Policy: Summary of International Experiences By OECD
  3. The Economic Value of Mountain Biking in the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa: A Travel Cost Analysis Using Count Data Models By Mario Du Preez and Deborah Ellen Lee
  4. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS PURPOSES IN TOURISM By ERSEN FAZIL COLLU; MEHMET ERHAN SUMMAK
  5. A Study on Travel Blogs and Word of Mouth Communication By Tugay Arat
  6. The effects of employment profile on travel motivation and destination attributes in South Africa By Sandra Perks; Danie Ferreira; Nadine Oosthuizen
  7. The Impact of Wine Tourism Business: Case Study of Newfoundland Wineries By Roselyne Okech
  8. Capitalising on the Grey-haired Globetrotters: Economic Aspects of Increasing Tourism among Older and Disabled People By Ann Frye
  9. Impact of touristic activities on environment and need's of sustainable tourism development. Shaqlawa City / study area By AZAD KAKASHEKH
  10. THE EFFECTS OF TERROR ACTIVITIES AND POLITICAL INSTABILITIES ON TOURISM SECTOR By AZIZ KAGITCI

  1. By: Güney Çetinkaya (Akdeniz University); Mustafa Y (Akdeniz University); Pelin Çetinkaya (Akdeniz University)
    Abstract: Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries and its total contribution to the global economy in 2014 was US$7.6 trillion, which equates to 9.8% of total economy GDP in 2014. Mountains are important regions for tourism industry and its second most popular tourist destinations after coastal regions. Hiking and trekking are most popular activity in mountains region and it is estimated that more than 50 million people visit mountains each year. So that hiking was come out to individual activity and it’s to be a massive event. Nowadays hiking is commercialized and mostly it’s become organized by travel agency and tour operators. Travel agency which is offering hiking activities to know the demands of the individuals involved in these activities and is required to submit to it for services. The aim of this study to determined hiking participant expectation from hiking by travel agency perspective. 34 travel agency officials participated in the study. Data were collected by questionnaire developed by the researchers. Results show that according to travel agency officials “visual quality” is the most important expectation factor for hikers. And other expectation factors are “safety”, “accessibility”, “existence of pristine local services”, “the difficulty of the trail”, “expert guidance service”, “the popularity of the trail/ well-known”, “the trail crowdedness”, “existence of infrastructure and superstructure (WC, water points etc.)”, “activity costs”, “presence of guidebook” and “appropriate climate conditions”.
    Keywords: Alternative tourism, hikers, travel agency, expectation
    JEL: L83
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2804947&r=all
  2. By: OECD
    Abstract: With over one billion international tourist arrivals per year, forecast to rise to 1.5 billion per year by 2020, transport is an essential component of the tourism system. Transport connects tourism generating regions (both domestic and international) to destinations, and facilitates the internal movement of visitors between attractions, accommodation, and commercial services. The location, capacity, efficiency and connectivity of transport can therefore play a significant role in how a destination develops, significantly influencing the mobility of visitors and the connectivity of tourist experiences within destinations. At the same time the growing number of travellers creates numerous challenges in terms of transport infrastructure and capacity, border crossing, intermodality, information for travellers and inter-operability of technologies with tourism service providers.
    Date: 2015–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2015/15-en&r=all
  3. By: Mario Du Preez and Deborah Ellen Lee
    Abstract: This paper reports the first formal non-market valuation of mountain biking in South Africa by applying the individual travel cost method (TCM). Due to the non-negative, integer nature of the trip data, several count data models were estimated. Mountain biking is fast becoming one of South Africa’s most popular recreational sports and these estimates of economic value may assist policy-makers in managing mountain biking venues in general, and congestion conflicts, specifically. The locus of this study is the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve situated in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, part of which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004. The reserve is a popular site for mountain biking. The economic value estimated, by employing a generalised negative binomial model, for trips taken during 2014 amounted to ZAR1 915 (US$167) per trip.
    Keywords: Travel cost method, recreation demand, mountain biking, non-market valuation, consumer surplus
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:546&r=all
  4. By: ERSEN FAZIL COLLU (SELCUK UNIVERSITY); MEHMET ERHAN SUMMAK (SELCUK UNIVERSITY)
    Abstract: Rapid changes in communication technologies led to important changes in methods and instruments of public relations activities. Institutional communication activities which were carried out by means of web pages of internet media have started gaining importance in the area of social media upon the rise of this phenomenon. Public relations activities such as crisis management, corporate image, and organizational identity, promotion, informing and communicating have been started to be used efficiently in the area of social media. Social media not only changed the areas of communication but also changed the content of messages and the media settings of message senders and receivers. Additionally social media introduced the concepts such as "user generated content" and "customer generated media" and gathered its position in commercial planning by this feature. Social media became an indispensible component of tourism marketing. Traditional communication media have changed significantly upon the introduction and development of social media. Communicating with customers became an easy and low cost process. Creating trademark consciousness, ingathering trademark related groups, determining the target market and the attributes of target market became an easier process by means of social media instruments. It might be said that social media is perceived as a very efficient instrument regarding to the touristic product preferences of people. It provides more reliable information which is produced by the experienced and informed people directly related to the subjects such as tourism agency, destination, accommodation etc. and it provides such information by changing the information gathering methods of users. The rise of social media usage in tourism industry might be associated to the travel related advices made by social media users directly and to the efficient operation of mouth to mouth communication. Use of social media in tourism industry for the purposes of public relations is probed from various perspectives and some applications are to be presented in this study.
    Keywords: Tourism, social media, public relations.
    JEL: M31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805221&r=all
  5. By: Tugay Arat (Selcuk University Faculty of Tourism)
    Abstract: Nowadays, consumers see tourism as an experience and while they are deciding which experience they want to live, they give more importance to past experiences. In addition, past experiences are more comprehensive and reliable. Blogs which are a major contribution to the tourism sector are used by more and more consumers; it is understood from the comments and from the counter. Because consumers want to make the right decision while they are purchasing a product. Moreover blogs have become extremely important for the customers to provide the opportunity for dialogue among themselves. In particular, travel blogs exchange information among tourists; it offers real information about the approach of market places and business destinations. With the perspective of a tourist, blogs; getting ideas from other travel-related consumer products is digitized word of mouth communication. The purpose of this study is type of communication and word of mouth work to examine the effects of these forms of communication. In this study, the best trip blogs is examined with analysis of web pages contents. The scope of content analysis is limited to the first fifty travel blog sites obtained from the google search engine.
    Keywords: Word of mouth communications, Trip blogs, Tourism
    JEL: D83
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2804859&r=all
  6. By: Sandra Perks (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University); Danie Ferreira (Nelson Mandela Metropole University); Nadine Oosthuizen (Nelson Mandela Metropole University)
    Abstract: Purpose of the study: This study investigated the effects of employment profile on travel motivation and destination attributes in the South African outbound travel market. Research design and methodology: The study utilised the quantitative research paradigm. A self-administered structured questionnaire was distributed to travellers who have finished high school and have at least travelled once internationally. A response rate of 302 respondents was obtained. A literature review were carried out on the role of motivational forces and destination attributes in attracting tourists to an outbound destination. From the literature review, twenty seven hypotheses were developed to test the relationships between the nine valid and reliable independent motivational forces, destination attributes and the employment profile (independent classification variables). Employment profile was measured in terms of employment status, position in the organisation and income earned. Multiple Analysis of Variance tests determine whether the employment profile of South Africans are influenced by motivational forces and destination choice attributes when choosing an outbound destination choice. Post-hoc Sheffé tests were conducted to determine where the group differences exist in the statistical significant relationships and Cohen D tests to indicate which relationships were of practical significance. Research findings: The MANOVA results reveal six statistical significant relationships between: employment status and physical motivators, stature motivators, events and political issues; position in organisation and events; and income earned and natural attractions. From the post-hoc Sheffé test results, group differences were noted for employment status with regards to events and natural attractions, position in organisation and events, as well as income earned and natural attractions. Taking into consideration these group differences, the Cohen D tests revealed three practical significant results. Research implications: There may be other travel motivators and destination attributes that influence the South African outbound travel market besides those tested. The results of the study was only limited to Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape.Practical implications: The results provide advice to travel agents on marketing destinations and indicate which tourism products will appeal to them based on employment status, position in organisation and income earned. Contribution of paper: This paper contributes towards the body of knowledge with regards to outbound destination choices based on employment profile of the potential tourist, which have wider implications than just in the South African context.
    Keywords: Travel motivation; destination attributes; outbound travel
    JEL: M00
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805128&r=all
  7. By: Roselyne Okech (Grenfell Campus, Memorial University)
    Abstract: Wine tourism has been defined as the visiting of vineyards and wineries where wine tasting and purchase of the wines are the main purpose of the visit. Over the past quarter-century, Canadian vintners have increased their production of high-quality wines. Although Canada is not a major wine producer by global standards, the industry has evolved into a niche maker of internationally-respected ice wines and late harvest wines due to cool-climate influences. The study of wine tourism and their management offers many opportunities to reflect on the importance of sustainability and the possibilities of implementing new tourism approaches in a new direction in the province. Newfoundland province has only two wineries and could be a major player in this type of tourism. However, literature of wine tourism in the province is lacking even though the results in this study reveal there is sufficient interest and knowledge of wine tourism industry. Hence, this research has attempted to conceptualize the growth of wine tourism products, experiences, impacts and their management in the Newfoundland region. The research which adopts both quantitative (surveys) and qualitative approaches (interviews and participatory approaches) examines the potential impact of wine tourism in Newfoundland and how wine tourism is being managed based on the two distinct case studies in the Province. The findings of this research therefore have implications for wine tourism development and promotion in the Province, in Canada and internationally. As with all research, this study had some limitations which will serve to identify and future research needed. Since the data was collected through purposive sampling approach, it would be suggested that any generalizability beyond this context of study be used with caution.
    Keywords: Canada, Impact, Newfoundland, Tourism, Wine
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2804655&r=all
  8. By: Ann Frye
    Abstract: This paper explores the impact of demographic trends on the market for tourism and considers how the economic power of older tourists is being – or could be – harnessed to maximise the potential both for visitors and domestic populations. The paper also suggests strategies to capitalise more effectively on this significant and growing market for the benefit, not only of the tourism market but also for domestic populations.
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2015/11-en&r=all
  9. By: AZAD KAKASHEKH (Salahaddin University – Erbil / Colleg of Art -Geography Department)
    Abstract: The role of sustainable tourism development to treatment environmental problems caused by tourist activity. Shaqlawa City / study areaThis study aims to:1 - Clarifying the role of sustainable tourism development to treatment environmental problems caused by tourist activity in general.2 - To clarify the role that sustainable tourism development can play to treating the environmental problems caused by tourist activity in the city (Shaqlawa).The foregoing, the paoer will take care of these following points:1 - Definition of sustainable tourism development.2 - Definition of tourism activities and environmental problems resulting from it.3 - Clarifying the role of sustainable tourism development to treatment environmental problems caused by tourist activity.4 - Definition of tourist activity in the city (Shaqlawa) and environmental problems resulting from it.5 - Clarify the role of sustainable tourism development to treating environmental problems caused by tourist activity in the city (Shaqlawa).
    Keywords: sustainable development, environmental problems, tourist activity, Shaqlawa
    JEL: Q56 Q56 Q56
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2804923&r=all
  10. By: AZIZ KAGITCI (SELCUK UNIVERSITY)
    Abstract: All the world countries generate an important income from tourism. The competents of state and private sector carry out a lot of information and publicity activities to attract tourists for their countries. Turkey has an important geography both for being a mediterranean country and having historical substructure for tourism. The tourism sector has first affected fragile structure from wars, terror and political crises when compared with the other sectors.The decisions of domestic and foreign tourists change for this reason.The concepts of terror and terrorism and the relations between tourism and social and political instabilities living in Turkey are gone around in this study. Because the study has a qualitative scope the datum which are had from secondary sources are tried to be compiled with the perspective of Turkey. The terror activities and political problems in tourism sector are gone around with these datum and it is tried to bring forward a proposal to make these negations positive with the least damage.
    Keywords: Terrorism, Tourism, Political Instabilities
    JEL: L80
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:2805215&r=all

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