The Contribution of Special and Alternative Forms of Tourism to the Sustainable Development of Tourist Destinations:Case Studies

This paper aims to investigate the impact of special and alternative forms of tourism on the sustainable development of tourism destinations,revising the traditional position of tourism development and establishing sustainable development as the only solution to tourism progress of travel destinations.The study includes conceptual approaches to the term tourism,sustainable development and specific and alternative forms of tourism and delves into theoretical approaches that are the bridging of these three central research questions.This is followed by in-depth research through policy analysis of central institutions and regional development stakeholders,as well as further analysis of sustainable development through special and alternative forms of tourism.Key tourism models and theories offer a further understanding of the natural“enemies”and“allies”of sustainable development and how they contribute to its necessity or development.Through a survey and a case study of travel destinations,we conclude the need to couple the term tourism development with sustainable development which is rooted in the healthy coexistence of residents and visitors with respect to the environment,local culture and productive-controlled economic growth.

COMPETITION AMONG DESTINATIONS IN SPATIAL INTERACTION MODELS: A NEW POINT OF VIEW

This paper presents a new perspective on the nature of destination competition in spatial interaction models. The concept of destinations competing with one another on the basis of their spatial proximity to each other is compared with an alternative point of view which argues that competition takes place on the basis of similarities in the spatial influences of competing destinations on decision makers at origins. Potential movers at an origin are facing a set of destinations which compete for their attention. This paper argues that the movers' choices are conditioned by the relative size and number of influences they see (where influence is directly proportional to destination size and inversely proportional to distance). A small amount of supporting empirical evidence concerning recreational day trips, and population migration, is presented.

Application of Sustainable Development Theories in Ecotourism Destinations—With Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area as a Study Case

By taking Jiuzhaizhou Scenic Area for an example, this study proposed that ecotourism destinations should value the application of science and technology as well as the capital investment, devote more efforts in improving the system construction of the scenic area, especially in the aspects of talent training and management, thoroughly carry out the guideline of "protective development", in this way, to achieve rapid economic growth and environmental protection and bring benefits to local residents.

Construction of Ecological Tourist Destinations for Health Preservation

The approaches of constructing ecological tourist destinations for health preservation are introduced from 8 aspects,that is,resources,environment,cultures,services,facilities,management,marketing and education.Meanwhile,this study states that the key of building such tourist destinations is the health-preservation environment system,including ecological environment,cultural environment and social environment.

Comprehensive Effects of Eco-tourism Development on Tourism Destinations in South Shaanxi Province

Eco-tourism theories were taken as the instruction in this study,qualitative and quantitative research methods were also combined to investigate and conduct questionnaire processing to nearby residents of 10 eco-tourism scenic areas in south Shaanxi Province,so as to quantify and evaluate the various effects at different levels of eco-tourism development on tourism destinations in this region.Particularly,the quantitative value and weight value of economic,social and environmental effects were utilized to quantify,analyze and evaluate the comprehensive effects generated by eco-tourism development in south Shaanxi Province.It was found that the comprehensive effects were 'good',however,these 3 kinds of effects have not been coordinated well,thus the characteristics and requirements of eco-tourism have not been well demonstrated.

The Impact of Promoting Tourist Destinations after Earthquake in Lombok

Lombok Island has been rocked by multiple powerful earthquakes since July 2018 and it remained hundreds of aftershocks.Statistically by August 2018 more than 400 people have lost their lives.This tremendous disaster not only affected to damage infrastructures and trauma,but also affected tourism market of Lombok as one of the priority areas for the development of tourism market in Indonesia.It is reported that tourism market in Lombok has decreased dramatically after the earthquake from 1.3 million to 250 thousands tourists.The reduction of tourists visiting Lombok was not only in the affected destinations but also in unaffected destinations.To improve the number of tourists visiting Lombok,promoting several unaffected tourist destinations was carried out after 4 months of earthquake through sales missions and fam trip.Sales missions were conducted in Philippine,Singapore,UK,Thailand,and several main cities in Indonesia,while fam trips were conducted in several affected destinations in Lombok.The results showed that the buyer from sales missions reached 475 pax and potential transaction for fam trip reached up to 108 billion rupiah within a month after the program.Promotion of tourist destinations in Lombok after disaster is then continued with promoting affected destination in 2019,such as Gili islands and Senggigi and Mataram.This resulted in improvement of numbers of hotel occupation for around 10%within six months.Promotion of tourist destinations was not only proposed to improve the number of tourists visiting Lombok but also to improve and promote safety procedures during visiting affected destinations.It was proved by existence of resemble points,safety briefing during event in all hotels and convention halls in Lombok,as well as insurance cover in several tour package on the travel agencies.However,in order to optimize tourism market,government should also contribute to providing better infrastructures and workshop for appropriate safety procedures to people involving in tourism industries.

The Role of Cooperative Strategies in Destinations＇ Competitiveness in a Turbulent Environment

Destination management is a key issue of all overall models of destinations＇ competitiveness and seems to be a ＂panacea＂ in those countries, which introduces the tool-system in the near past, so as to support the destinations （national/regional or local level） to keep up with keen competition, mainly in the Central-Eastern and Balkan region. The culture of cooperation holds difficulties in this region. The lack of trust as well as cooperation in bigger groups can be drawn back to the distrust business culture typical in these countries, and the so-called group collectivism （a phenomenon of building trust in small groups based on personal contacts）. The main focus of this paper is to summarize the theoretical approaches to destinations＇ competitiveness and destination management and to summarize the results of two case studies concerning a destination facing keen competition or escaping from a decline. The main research question is： ＂What kind of role can （could） destination management play in destinations＇ competitiveness in a turbulent environment？＂. As a result of this research, the differentiated analysis of management-oriented view of destinations＇ competitiveness was carried out, as well as crystallizing the key success/failure factors of destination management.

A Study on Brand Personality of Coastal Tourism Destinations:Text Mining Approach

As the core element of the brand,brand personality is closely related to the personality of tourists.Unique and distinctive brand personality has become an important means for tourism destinations to enhance their core competitiveness.Through text analysis,the content of the online review content of three coastal tourist destinations in Yalong Bay,Silver Beach,and Gulangyu Islet were analyzed.The brand personality of coastal tourist destinations was identified from the perspective of tourist perception,and the selected 3 coastal tourist destinations were identified by correspondence analysis.Comparative analysis on a case-by-case basis.The research results show that the brand personality of coastal tourism destinations perceived by tourists is mainly concentrated in the two dimensions of“elegance”and“benevolence”,but different coastal tourism destinations have their own distinct and unique brand personalities.On this basis,directional suggestions for the development of brand personality in coastal tourism destinations are given.

Seeking New Destinations

OVER the past 15 years, China＇s commercial engagement with Africa has seen rapid growth in the trade. aid and investment sectors. Overshadowed by the constant focus on these sectors, tourism trade between the Asian nation and Africa has been quietly expanding,

Influence of Tourists′ Environmental Tropisms on Their Attitudes to Tourism and Nature Conservation in Natural Tourist Destinations: A Case Study of Jiuzhaigou National Park in China

People′s environmental tropism has an effect on their understanding of tourism-nature relationship,and also influences their attitudes to natural resources utilization and environmental protection.Taking Jiuzhaigou National Park of China as a study case,the authors conducted some quantitative analyses with the tools of SPSS 16.0 and LISREL 8.7,to explore the influence of tourists′ environmental tropism on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in the natural tourist destination.Three hypotheses and the theoretic model of influences of tourists′ environmental tropism on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation have been tested and accepted based on the Structural Equation Model analysis on survey data collected in Jiuzhaigou National Park of China.Some conclusions were drawn as follows: 1) tourists′ human-prioritized concept influences their cognition to tourism-nature relationship.This concept has a positive influence on their supportive attitudes to tourism,but a negative influence on their attitudes to nature conservation;2) tourists′ human-nature coordination concept has a positive influence on their supportive attitudes to both tourism and nature conservation,especially to the latter.This paper generally proves that human′s environmental tropism does have an influence on their attitudes to tourism and nature conservation in natural tourist destinations.

Distance decay of place attachment and perceived authenticity of mountain tourism destinations in China

Place attachment has been a research focus in the fields of park and recreation management.Place attachment plays an important role in promoting sustainable development of parks and mountain tourism destination,however,there are limited studies that identified the spatial patterns of place attachment,especially in the context of mountain tourism destinations in China.Also,the geospatial spectrum of visitors is usually broad,examining the multivariate relationships among spatial proximity,perceived authenticity,and place attachment are essential for mountain tourism destinations to promote destination image and strengthen emotional bonding with targeted visitor groups.In this study,we selected an iconic and highly visited park,Jiuzhai Valley National Park in China,as our study site and conducted an on-site visitor survey to collect 557 samples.Study uses factor analysis and the structure equation model to analyze the relationship among spatial proximity,perceived authenticity,and place attachment.Results validate the two-dimension structure of place attachment and perceived authenticity.Study findings suggest that spatial proximity has significant impacts on existential authenticity and place identity,but has no significant impacts on place dependence.Perceived authenticity has a positive impact on place attachment.Study results advance the theories of place attachment and provide effective strategies to enhance emotional attachment between visitors and mountain tourism destinations.

Tourism Waste Management in the European Union: Lessons Learned from Four Popular EU Tourist Destinations

From a sustainability perspective, achieving greater efficiencies in environmental waste management is at the heart of current academic discussion on climate change science. Over the last few decades the tourism industry has developed exponentially and is now considered one of the most dynamic economic activities worldwide. Solid waste is a commonly identified and ever increasing aspect of tourism;the improper management of which can lead to substantial and irreversible direct and indirect environmental, economic and social impacts. However, the management of solid waste in tourism dominated island communities is particularly problematic due to climatic conditions, topography, financial restraints, planning issues, changing consumption patterns, transient population, and seasonal variations in solid waste quantity and composition. In addition, there is often a lack of momentum to implement new initiatives and programs as stakeholders involved in the design, construction and operation of tourist resorts have conflicts of interest. Using information gathered from key informant interviews, participation observations and literature reviews, this article appraises current waste management practices in four European tourist destinations, namely: Mallorca, Tenerife, Kefalonia and Rhodes. Findings indicate that, although there are signs of compliance with global best practice, a variety of locally-based measures need to be implemented to enhance sustainability.

Image Perception and Emotional Evaluation of Tourists for Desert Tourism Destinations in Inner Mongolia——Content Analyses Based on Network Travel Notes

Recent years have witnessed the popularity of desert tourism as a fashion tourism product in the 21^(st) century along with the increasing demand for personalized tourism for tourists. The academic community is paying growing attention to desert tourism research, but there is little research on the perception of tourists about the image of desert tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia. With Inner Mongolia as the object of the study, this paper analyzed the image perception and evaluation of tourists for Inner Mongolia desert tourism destinations from three aspects of cognitive image perception, emotional image perception, and overall image perception according to the "cognitive-emotional" model, with the help of relevant network text analysis methods, and proposed some suggestions for the future development of desert tourism destinations in Inner Mongolia from the aspects of increasing desert humanities tourism resources and product development, improving scenic spot management ability, improving tourism service quality, improving tourism infrastructure construction and strengthening environmental protection. It is hoped that this paper can provide a reference for improving the image of Inner Mongolia desert tourism destinations and improving the tourist experience.

The role of a national park in classifying mountain tourism destinations: An exploratory study of the Italian Western Alps

Together with the main aim of preserving nature,national parks are also expected to play an important role for the local communities,driving economic activities toward the lens of sustainable development.This contribution aims to present an exploratory study on the relationship between the presence of a protected mountain area,the Gran Paradiso National Park(GPNP),in the North West of the Italian Alps,and the classification of tourism destinations,according to Weaver model of destination management.Starting from the model,the authors provide a quantitative analysis using a set of variables and indicators to comprehensively assess the differing patterns assumed by the municipalities within the borders of the GPNP and those that are not.The provisional results illustrate that the municipalities within the border of a protected area are more likely to be grouped alongside the sustainable mountain destinations.Meanwhile,research outcomes confirm that a protected area does not necessarily contrast the tourism industry but instead may boost local development by driving it within the borders of the sustainable development,switching from the area’s only preservation function to a flywheel for the local communities.

Analysis on Behavior Characteristics of Tourists under Perspective of Sustainable Development of Tourism Destinations: A Case Study of Mugecuo Scenic Area in Kangding City of Sichuan Province

Tourists are the subject of tourism activity,and it is conducive to promoting sustainable development of tourism destination by studying their behavior characteristics and tourism perception.Mugecuo Scenic Area in Kangding City,Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,Sichuan Province is taken as research case,and visitors and managers in the scenic area are surveyed by using semi-structured interview method.Based on survey data,the research aims to put forward corresponding policy suggestions for sustainable development of Mugecuo Scenic Area by deeply analyzing tourists’ access to information of scenic area,tourists’ travel purpose,tourists’ satisfaction with services of scenic area and willingness to revisit.

The Spatial Structure of Rural Recreational Tourism Destinations

We select 149 rural recreational tourism destinations in Liaoning Province as the samples, and use geographical mathematical method to analyze the travel spatial structure of rural recreational tourism destinations from aggregation degree of spatial distribution, the balance of spatial distribution, spatial connection and spatial accessibility. The results show that the spatial distribution of tourism destinations shows the gathering distribution pattern, and the evenness of the distribution is very low, displaying strong neighboring positive effect; the accessibility of traffic network is high, and basically the dense tourist traffic network is formed; the nodes with the best accessibility are mainly concentrated in the city groups of central Liaoning and the southern regions of Liaoning, while the nodes with poor accessibility are mainly concentrated in the city groups of western Liaoning and the eastern regions of Liaoning.

Study on the Distribution of Migrant Workers＇ Employment Destinations A Case Study of Henan Province, China

The choice of employment destination is the basis of migrant workers＇ spatial flow, the study on the choice of employment destination is helpful to understand the spatial law of migrant workers＇ flow from a micro perspective. Through the case study on 11 sample villages generated by the random stratified sampling in Henan Province, authors of this paper find that the distribution of destinations is dispersed in a large area while concentrated in certain places. Most of the destinations are in counties and outside Henan Province. Migrant workers are mainly concentrated in the economically more developed eastern provinces. The central, though a big source of migrant workers, has not formed a core employment area for migrant workers. The main factors influencing migrant workers＇ choice of employment distances include age, family size, per capita arable land, the village＇s economic development level, the village terrain, transportation, its distance from the nearest city, and workers＇ relationship networks. From the perspective of employment destinations, on a provincial scale, the employment attraction coefficient based on the destination＇s level of economic development and the employment distance, efficiently explains farmers＇ choice of destinations, that is, destinations with a more developed economy and a shorter employment distance are the top choice for migrant workers.

The 2.0 Marketing Strategies for Wine Tourism Destinations of Excellence

The aim of this paper is to empirically research the use of Web 2.0 applications in the communication strategies of wine tourism destinations of excellence; main attention will be focused on the integration of these tools within the ＂official＂ destination websites. The main research questions are： （1） Do wine tourism destinations of excellence worldwide make use of Web 2.0 tools in their official websites？ （2） Is it possible to estimate the degree of intensity of use of such tools？ The method used for the purpose of this research is inductive： starting from the observation of some specific cases we wanted to implement a scoring model that, taking into account the presence and intensity of the use of Web 2.0 tools selected by the wine tourism destinations of excellence, could be replicated in different contexts from the one analyzed here. The study reveals the interest in the tools of Web 2.0 by the institutional bodies responsible for management of destinations; however it also shows that there is not a full awareness of the scope of strategic and organizational development in the web 2.0 applications resulting in the relationship with potential visitors and those who have already experienced a tourist territory.

Virtual Visitor＇s Behavior in Tourism Destinations＇ Online Portals： Analysis of Spain.info Website

The incorporation of information technologies （ITs） in the tourism sector has enabled marketing actions to be enhanced through websites. In this context, destinations＇ online portals have become a key tool to promote territories. Vast amount of money is invested in developing these virtual sites and lately, also increasing interest has been put towards their performance analysis. This study has been applied to Spain.info website in order to track virtual visitors＇ digital footprint. The analysis conducted through the Destination Web Monitor （DWM） system has allowed taking into consideration the behavior of visitors in the website in order to obtain results on their interests when visiting the portal. The article mainly focuses on Brazil, Russia, India, and China （BRIC）, considered as markets of opportunity for the tourism sector in Spain. Results provided insights on to whom, when, and how to develop potential e-marketing campaigns.

Comparative Analysis of DMO Website Features:A Case Study of Three Asian Tourism Destinations

In the digital era,more and more people tend to look for travel-related information on the Internet.Hence,destination marketing organization(DMO)websites can play a decisive role in affecting people’s destination choices.Based on the study of Pai,Xia,and Wang,Macao’s DMO website received the lowest score in the effectiveness when compared to the other four tourism destinations:Japan,Korea,Hong Kong,and Thailand.This paper aimed to carry out a comparative analysis on the functionality among three DMO websites in Asia.Each website was examined in great detail,and the features were categorized according to a well-established conceptual framework pioneered by Li and Wang.Consequently,the results of this study gave useful information and new insights to destination marketing managers in terms of gap analysis and the development of new features for their websites.The results of this research could be used as benchmarking purposes in regards to website functionality.In addition,DMO websites in western countries,such as Canada,were also examined for a better understanding of the comprehensiveness of the available website functionality aimed for prospective visitors.Business and managerial implications were also discussed.