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

Even after almost three decades of introduction of competitiveness into tourism sector, there is still a rising trend in literature on Tourism Destination Competitiveness (TDC). Though there are a few systematic and traditional reviews in the domain, there has been no study of the bibliometric variables. This study utilises Web of Science (WoS) database to conduct a bibliometric analysis of 166 documents on TDC, revealing the domain's research trend in terms of authors, sources, and publications. The science mapping tool bibliometrix R-package is used to analyse the trend of scientific publications in the area, untapped knowledge, possible future trends, and implications. The analysis is undertaken on three levels: source, author, and document, as well as three types of knowledge structures: conceptual, intellectual, and social. The bibliometric data analysis consists of a descriptive analysis of the bibliographic data frame and network analyses and its graphical visualization. As per the analysis, competitiveness of natural/cultural destinations is rarely assessed in the global scenario. Maximum number of studies in the domain are carried out in European countries. The findings can guide researchers to focus on less developed themes/areas.

This research investigates the hotel response strategies of businesses being responsive online to stimulate customers purchase intention in eWOM communications. Specifically, this study explores the online managerial responses in terms of length, speed, and relevance of management response to customer negative reviews and how customer personality moderates the purchase intention of the hotel. A non-probability convenience sampling technique was applied to collect 441 responses from Chinese residents who have made online hotel reservations and selected the hotel only after checking the online reviews and the hotel responses. The findings confirm that hotel response to negative reviews has an essential impact on 'consumers' purchase intention and consumer personality traits. Further, the research includes the practical implications for hotels to set up the reply format and carry out effective service recovery through different expression ways of negative reviews response.

Popular culture (pop culture) events have the potential to promote tourist destinations and to generate tourism income. Travel motivation is a critical consideration for reaping these benefits since it serves as a stepping stone for event attendance and it initiates a desire to act. The purpose of this paper therefore is to determine the travel motivations of pop culture fans. Data was gathered from 576 pop culture fans attending a pop culture event in Gauteng, South Africa, using a structured questionnaire.  The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis. The findings revealed nine travel motivations which were labelled brand visibility, event participation, acquire pop culture knowledge, escapism, celebrity fandom, value for money, exclusive merchandise, social enjoyment and novelty. The paper highlights novelty as the most important travel motivation for attending the specific pop culture event and it is therefore argued that pop culture fans attend these events to experience something new and different. In line with the findings of this research, it is recommended that pop culture event marketers pay close attention to all nine identified travel motivations to retain their current fans and to remain competitive.

This research aims to determine the differences and similarities in perceptions, experiences, satisfaction, and behaviour intention of travellers who engage with, and appreciate Intangible Cultural Heritage, according to the sociodemographic profile of these travellers. Literature concerning Intangible Cultural Heritage tourists’ profile is still scarce, being important for World Heritage Site destinations or places with Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition to identify the tourists attracted by culture and heritage. Thus, the work presented intend to cover the gap identified in this sense, taking as reference the results obtained from fieldwork consisting of a structured questionnaire which was administered to a representative sample of tourists who participated in the Fiesta de los Patios event in Cordoba (Spain), which is recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage asset. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests are used to compare groups of the sample according to the sociodemographic profile of the tourists, revealing statistical differences among these groups. The results enable us to analyse the post-COVID tourist, and determine to what extent they are satisfied with the new worldwide situation. This research could be useful both to public agents of tourism promotion and private businesses, whose target audience are tourists attending this type of event. The research unpacks the profile of the visitor, relating their gender, age, educational level, and income to their experiences, perceptions, satisfaction, and behaviour intention. This enables the tourist offer to be adapted, making it more attractive to the potential client.

The aim of this study was to assess the risk perception of domestic tourists visiting volatile destinations such as the Kashmir valley (India) and reveal the impact of various types of perceived risk on destination loyalty formulation. A quantitative research/deductive approach has been adopted for two reasons: (1) to ensure the objectivity, generalisability, and reliability of research findings; and (2) to develop hypotheses based on an existing theory and then collect data to determine whether empirical evidence to support those hypotheses exists. The current study used a convenience sampling method for collecting data from 413 domestic tourists using a self-administered questionnaire. Furthermore, the two-step approach for structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the psychometric properties of the measurement model and test the proposed structural model. The results revealed that all the five types of perceived risks (socio-psychological, political, performance, financial, and physical) negatively affect tourists' destination loyalty, with socio-psychological risk and political risk emerging as major determinants of loyalty intention of domestic tourists. Moreover, the descriptive analysis revealed that the mean perception of domestic tourists on various risk dimensions was low, and they disagreed that Kashmir is a risky place to visit.

Western Balkans (WB) is emerging from an unfortunate recent past which destroyed social structures and the uniform identity of the region. WBs is, historically, known as a region of diversity and impeccable natural beauty. Despite a visible need to take a holistic approach for WBs tourism marketing, a research-based strategy has yet to be defined and implemented for future action in the region. There are few current studies dealing with regional branding, brand identity and sustainable tourism in WB, and most of them do not offer a holistic approach in integrating the identification of tourism (through destination brand identity) and the promotion of tourism (through destination brand positioning). This research, therefore, aims to reach a framework for a holistic tourism marketing effort for the region by focusing on how WBs should create a regional destination image for a stronger destination marketing in the future. As one of the pioneering research studies on the subject, the research holds an exploratory approach, and the research question is answered based on qualitative SWOT analysis data from experts in the region. Findings from the qualitative research point to strong tourism potential in the region, which supports a strong argument for a sustainable tourism agenda of the WBs. Interviewed experts considered the lack of big-branded hotels as a weakness, due to the low levels of accommodation capacities, while confirming a weak strategic positioning of the region as a unified whole. Other results demonstrate that the region can also offer unique agrotourism products. This study concludes with a proposed “Sustainability–SWOT-based Destination Branding Model” as a guide for future tourism development and promotion efforts.

MICE Tourism is a segment of the tourism industry that deals with the organisation of Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions, which are experiencing a major process of disintermediation. This article applies the principal-agent problem in the theory of agency to analyse MICE disintermediation. It uses a dominant/sequential qual-QUAN mixed methods approach. Firstly, through interviews with MICE professionals to validate the research variables, test sample and questionnaire. Then, quantitative research using a survey sent to 365 MICE stakeholders in Europe. The opinions of hoteliers were compared with those of other MICE stakeholders to analyse disintermediation and determine the role of hoteliers in this new scenario. Our findings confirm a trend of partial disintermediation in which hotel bookings are the most disintermediated service and hoteliers are the stakeholders that pose a more proactive and aggressive attitude towards disintermediation. This paper is of interest for MICE stakeholders to better understand their position in the value chain and interpret the process of disintermediation. Its originality is based on the fact that it gathers the opinions of all MICE agents with a special focus on the perspective of its most dominant actor: the hotel.

Gastro-cultural tours, which are prevalent as part of today’s experience-based travel, generate memorable gastronomy encounters for tourists. Gastronomically designed cultural tours also shed light on the past's heritage and cultural identity through the local tastes of the regions by promising distinct stories and experiences to travelers. Regions with gastronomic affluence arouse gastro tourists’ interest with their cultural and tourist attractions. One of the critical factors contributing to the awareness of visitors towards a particular destination is the creation of a gastronomy brand image in their minds. A region with a gastronomy brand can also affect the emotional value tourists attribute to the region. From different perspectives, this cuisine-based brand image appears to have the potential to influence tourists' satisfaction with the tour. The Southeastern Anatolia Region, one of Turkey's most prominent culinary centers, is a diverse region with both indigenous gastronomic value and deep-rooted cultural history. From this point of view, the effects of gastronomy brand image on perceived emotional value and tour satisfaction of tourists taking part in gastro-cultural tours were examined in this study. According to the data obtained from the participants, gastronomy brand image has a significant effect on tour satisfaction and the perceived emotional value of the tourists.

Service innovation has become increasingly important in recent years due to the competitive advantage it provides to companies operating in the service industry. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect service innovation. In the few studies conducted on different sectors, the relationship between co-production and IT and service innovation has been tried to be tested separately. In this study, the mediating role of coproduction in the effect of information technologies on service innovation in the tourism sector has been investigated. In this way, it will contribute to the literature by investigating the effect of IT (directly and indirectly) and co-production (directly) on service innovation in the tourism sector. In the study data collected from 222 hotel managers were firstly subjected to validity and reliability analysis. Then, mediation analysis was applied within the scope of hypothesis tests. According to the results obtained, coproduction has a mediating role in this relationship. In the study, it was concluded that the IT capabilities of the hotels enable them to create service innovations through production together with online travel agencies.

The purpose of this research is to explore the concept of dark tourism, focusing on the conceptual approach of dark tourism, the different terms stated for its nature, the review of its historical background as well as its main categories. Emphasis is placed on the identification of the tourists’ general beliefs regarding the concept of dark tourism, their emotions related to visits to specific dark tourism monuments and the internal motives that serve as driving forces for visits to dark tourism spots of interest. The study investigates whether the contemporary representation of dark tourism monuments in Greece accurately reflects the historical background and the horrific events that took place in the past. The research aims to investigate whether there is a statistically significant correlation between the variables of dissonance in the representation of the sites, the motives and emotions of the tourists, and whether there is a statistical difference in the dissonance, emotions and motives based on the demographic results. The type of the research implemented is the primary quantitative research and the outcomes reveal that the overall picture of emotions is at an average level, with dark tourism eliciting both positive and negative emotions from the tourism audience.