Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This study examines the direct effects of technology acceptance (perceived usefulness and ease of use), trustworthiness, expertise, and the moderating effect of COVID-19 perceived health risk on tourists’ social media User-Generated-Content (UGC) usage intention. The study respondent was 233 Malaysian tourists who travelled domestically for leisure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study hypotheses were examined using multiple regression analysis. The hypotheses testing indicates that perceived usefulness, ease of use, trustworthiness, and expertise significantly affect future usage of social media UGC. In addition, the findings confirm that perceived health risk does not affect the user trustworthiness and future usage of social media UGC. The findings assist tourism stakeholders in understanding tourist behaviour towards social media UGC, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism business and policymakers should continuously improve and monitor their UGC platform, especially since UGC was deemed one of the vital information dissemination channels during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is growing investment in the tourism industry, especially in the countries with potential attractions. All tourism destinations attempt to compete with other opponents and be distinctive. They also try to provide more particular experiences for visitors. The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the tourism brokers’ perspective on Turkey's image as a tourism destination through the mediating role of marketing communications and subjective norms. This study is an applied research based on descriptive correlational studies. The research population includes all the tourism brokers in Iran (travel agencies, tour operators, and travel agents) who provide outgoing Turkey tours. The samples (including 250 tourism brokers) are selected using a convenience sampling method and data were collected by using a questionnaire. To analyze data, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied using the Smart PLS 3 software. Results show that cognitive and affective images have a significant direct effect on tourism destination image while they have a significant indirect effect on destination image through the mediating role of marketing communications and subjective norms. Marketing Communications and Subjective Norms have a significant direct effect on destination image. Previously, there were not adequate information on and attention to the factors affecting tourism brokers in promoting Turkey as a cross-border destination, so this study is conducted to present new ideas for marketers and tourism brokers.

Non-profit sector development is the basis of any modern society. Various approaches, which take into consideration a broad spectrum of factors, are used in measuring the level of non-profit sector development. Previous studies do not identify tourism as a potential factor. It can, however, be assumed that local authorities in better-developed tourism regions are able to allocate more funds to non-profit activities, thus affecting the size of the non-profit sector. It would also be necessary to investigate whether nonprofit organizations (NPOs) recognise the potential that tourism has to provide them with opportunities to generate their own income. To determine the relationship between tourism and the non-profit sector, cluster analysis was conducted for 20 Croatian counties. The results of the study show that the level of tourism development determines the development of the non-profit sector. Namely, results confirm that there are more NPOs in regions with more-developed tourism and there are also more NPOs registered in fields of activity that can have a direct or indirect effect on tourism. On the other hand, the study’s findings indicate that regions with developed tourism tend to allocate more funds to NPO activity, which in turn boosts the level of non-profit sector development in those regions. Although this research focused on only one country and deal with certain challenges in administrative data on registered non-profit organisations, it is promising start for development of new lines of research oriented on connecting non-profit and tourism sector and examining their inter-dependence.

Spice Tourism is an emerging sector in tourism majorly focusing on the impact of spices on tourism choices, growth, and distinctiveness. Because of the fascinating role of spices in tourism growth and diversification in new emerging economies, there is an increased demand for the promotion and growth of spice tourism in many developing economies like India and Sri Lanka. However, a comprehensive investigation is lacking pertaining to spice tourism. In this situation, the present research attempts to bring together and discuss the role of spices as an instrument to entice foreign tourists visiting India. A structured survey instrument in the form of a questionnaire was used for data collection from 400 inbound foreign tourists at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi. This study has provided directions to the practitioners and academicians in uncovering a diversity of perspectives on the emerging spice tourism market. It also suggests the role of spices as a tactical tool to recreate the destination image of India as a spice tourism destination. The research can also be utilized to examine the foreign tourist’s spice preferences in India, which can be used by stakeholders and practitioners to entice and enhance their revisit to India.

Although entertainment can be a pull-factor to attract tourists in their trips, it can be easily duplicated in other jurisdictions. Focused on the non-gaming entertainment by the gaming concessionaires in Macao, this paper examines the entertainment development, and explores how these concessionaires identify the right entertainment for patrons and the challenges associated with such entertainment offerings. Despite Macao’s wealth of East-West culture, this study analyzes the use of such culture in Macao’s entertainment, and the creation of its unique branding. The integration of culture into such entertainment, when coupled with Macao’s smallness, may represent the essential factors to satisfy tourists’ multiple needs for entertainment products, thereby leading to Macao’s renewed branding as a center of tourism and leisure from its strong gaming image. This study is one of a few that focuses on the merger of culture and entertainment, and is exploratory and qualitative in nature. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with executives in Macao’s entertainment segment were utilized. Such interview findings were analyzed using the Miles and Huberman (1994) framework, along with the data from the annual reports of the concessionaires and the Macao Census and Statistics Service. The findings may be useful for gaming destinations planning to alter their branding.

The development of information and communication technologies, specifically the Internet, has changed the way tourists plan their trips, being one of the most important information sources for tourism decision-making. However, a limited number of studies has been developed to analyse the causal relationships between the web interaction and tourism demand. Therefore, this paper intends to shed light on the usefulness of big data analytics to understand the tourism demand of a destination. More specifically,it aims to examine the causal relationship between website’s visitor interactions and the tourism demand of a destination and verify whether there are differences in this relationship according to the visitors' country of origin. In order to achieve the research objectives, the Alentejo region in Portugal was selected as a case study. Monthly data for the period between 2007 and 2017 was used to examine the long-run causalrelationship between the sessions of the users to the official website of the Destination Management Organization of Alentejo (measured through Google Analytics) and tourism demand of this region (measured trough the number of guests in tourism accommodation establishments). To analyse if there are differences in this relationship according to the country of origin of visitors, the most important tourism markets for this destination were selected. Cointegration (Johansen´s maximum-likelihood method), Granger causality test, Vector Autoregression Model, and Vector Error Correction Model were used to examine the relationship. The results reveal a causal relationship between Internet search and the tourism demand. However, this relationship varies among the tourism market analysed.

This paper aims to assess the impact of hard and soft measures on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Additionally, this article examines the impact of tourism destination competitiveness on rural tourism sustainability management. Following that, knowledge sharing is used as a moderator variable to demonstrate its moderating effect on the relationship between tourism destination competitiveness and rural tourism sustainability. A total of 390 respondents, including both domestic and international tourists, who visited the six rural tourism destinations in Sarawak, Malaysia, voluntarily participated in this study. A PLS-SEM approach was used to evaluate the developed model, and WarpPLS software was used to perform the PLS estimate and hypotheses testing. The empirical findings indicated that destination appeal, tourism infrastructure, and service quality all have a significant and positive effect on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Additionally, it was discovered that tourism destination competitiveness has a positive and significant effect on the sustainable management of rural tourism destinations.  

The present research focuses on the impact of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning on Innovation in tourism organization. This study works on a model with Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning as inputs to promote Innovation. The study has used the descriptive research method, for which the data were collected through a questionnaire from 101 employees of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation (JKTDC) by adopting a census approach. Further regression analysis was applied to find the cause and effect relationship between Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, and Innovation. Overall the study found that Knowledge Management has no significant effect on Innovation in the organization. While Organizational Learning significantly affects Innovation. It was also found that there is a significant difference in practicing Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, and Innovation between levels of management. No significant difference was found regarding practicing Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, and Innovation based on gender in the organization.

With the rapid growth of technology, the world is witnessing a change from sustainability valuation towards smart city goals in the 21st century. Cities can play an imperative role in combating and countering climate change by using novel smart technologies which would help in reducing emission of greenhouse gases and will further enhance the energy proficiency of the cities. The current study aims to understand the perception of the local residents of a tourism destination, Jammu in India, towards the effect of dimensions of the smart city on sustainable development. The hypotheses proposed in the study were validated by utilizing the SEM (Structural Equation Modeling), with the assistance of Partial Least Squares (PLS). The study found that all three dimensions (namely, smart economy, smart environment, and smart society) are significant predictors of sustainable development. The findings resulted from the data collected with the help of a questionnaire from the local residents of Jammu city which is being developed as a smart city by the government of India.

This study examines the relationships between residents' perceptions of tourism and their overall personal well-being. In addition, the study aims to find out what differences exist in the perception of personal well-being and the impact of tourism between residents who provide private accommodation for tourists and those who do not. A questionnaire survey is conducted to collect data from residents of the city of Rijeka, Croatia, and 556 usable questionnaires are generated. The analysis of residents' perceptions is done separately for those who provide private accommodation to tourists and those who do not. Respondents in both groups reported relatively high levels of personal well-being. However, those who provide private accommodations for tourists are more satisfied with several areas of life. The results show that overall satisfaction with living conditions, perceived negative impacts of tourism, age, and whether or not residents offer accommodation to tourists are significant predictors of their personal well-being. This study aims to add to the literature on the well-being of residents of tourist destinations by examining the relationship between their perceived well-being and their perceptions of various impacts of tourism in their community.