This paper presents four Destination Stewardship scenarios based on different levels of engagement from the public and private sector. The scenarios serve to support destination stakeholders in assessing their current context and the pathway towards greater stewardship. A Destination Stewardship Governance Diagnostic framework is built on the scenarios to support its stakeholders in considering how to move along that pathway, identifying the key aspects of governance that are either facilitating or frustrating a destination stewardship approach, and the required actions and resources to achieve an improved scenario. Moreover, the scenarios and diagnostic framework support stakeholders to come together to debate and scrutinise how tourism is managed in a way that meets the needs of the destination, casting new light on the barriers and opportunities for greater destination stewardship.
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The general aim of this research project has been to examine this phenomenon of tourism flow switching and consider the factors driving the geopolitical instability that can compromise destination security. On a more practical level the research has also examined what the reactions of Dutch tourists are to security threats affecting their tourism decisions and looked at the development of preventive measures against attacks by destinations and travel organisations. Finally, the research on the regional geopolitics of the MENA and European areas have together with the attitudes of Dutch tourists towards destination security been used as inputs into a scenario planning process involving the steering group of tour operators who originally commissioned this research, as participants. This process has focussed on macro environmental analysis, identification of key uncertainties, and the development of resilient strategies for the future.
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This study begins to fill the gap in tourism literature in examining the tourism structures from the perspective of a socialist-market economy with a single-party political system like Vietnam. At present, Central Vietnam (CV) has three different types of administrative layers and existing different tourism structures of destination management organisations (DMOs), like co-operations of public and private stakeholders in juxtaposition with each other, which do not achieve an effective target-oriented co-operation for enhancing the destination's competitiveness. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the existing organisational tourism structures in CV under the aspect of tourism stakeholder co-operation in order to find out which structures and types of co-operation appear as the most efficient ones in CV and which structures would add most value to the region, with the goal for enhancing tourism management in CV. The research process involved a field research as well as in-depth interviews with public and private stakeholders in CV. The findings revealed that all stakeholders perceive CV as one destination. It is recommended to establish one single “DMO CV” as Public Private Partnership, which shall be responsible for CV, with the tasks including sustainable tourism development and to position CV as a strongly competitive destination.
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This conceptual paper develops and justifies a pro-active, design-driven approach to sustainable destination development. Using insights from design science, it helps explain the limited practical usability of concepts such as the Tourism Area Life Cycle, by noting that these often focus on an aggregated ‘topological’ level of destination design, while a focus on experiences and product development on a ‘typological’ and ‘morphological’ level is key to constitute change. The ‘Tourism Destination Design Roadmap’ is introduced, its potential to scrutinise ‘visitor flows’ is explored as well as ways in which it can contribute to developing desirable qualities in a destination, while minimising negative impacts. The paper concludes by highlighting its conceptual contribution and identifying directions for future research.
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Vast empirical evidence underscores that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. As governments accordingly pursue export-promoting policies we are interested in the firmness of these conclusions with respect to African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the influence of the destination of export trade. Using a micro-panel dataset from five African countries we confirm the self-selection. We apply propensity scores to match exporters and use a difference-in-difference methodology to test if African SMEs experience productivity gains because of export participation. Results indicate that African firms significantly learn-by-exporting. Manufacturers obtain significant performance improvements due to internationalization although this effect is moderated by export destination. Firms that export outside Africa become more capital intensive and at the same time hire more workers. In contrast we find evidence that exporters within the African region significantly downsize in capital intensity. Results regarding skill-bias of internationally active firms are mixed, where exporters within the region expand in size and hire more relatively unskilled workers.
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In the era of social media, online reviews have become a crucial factor influencing the exposure of tourist destinations and the decision-making of potential tourists, exerting a profound impact on the sustainable development of these destinations. However, the influence of review valence on visit intention, especially the role of affective commitment and reputation (ability vs. responsibility), remains unclear. Drawing on emotion as a social information theory, this paper aims to elucidate the direct impact of different review valences on tourists’ visit intentions, as well as mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. Three experiments indicate that positive (vs. negative) reviews can activate stronger affective commitment and visit intention, with affective commitment also playing a mediating role. Additionally, destination reputation significantly moderates the after-effects of review valences. More specifically, a responsibility reputation (compared with an ability reputation) weakens the effect of negative valence on affective commitment and visit intention. This study provides valuable theoretical insights into how emotional elements in online reviews influence the emotions and attitudes of potential tourists. Particularly for tourism managers, review valence and responsibility reputation hold practical significance in destination marketing.
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The organizing theme of the 7th International Coastal and Marine Tourism Congress was "Planning, Designing, and Managing the Destination." This editorial begins with a commentary on how "destination" has been conceptualized and defined over the last several decades in the multidisciplinary tourism literature. Six articles presented at CMT '12 are introduced in this special double issue. Taken together they illustrate a variety of research questions and results bearing on the condition and future of coastal and marine tourism destinations.
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This paper introduces the Smart City Hospitality Framework, which could serve as the foundation for a destination-design-driven approach to urban tourism governance and dealing with overtourism issues. This conceptual framework is purposely designed to stimulate collaborative (informed) reflections on overtourism and urban tourism development that could support system analyses, problem structuring and development of transition agendas and pathways within the context of turning urban tourism into a transition arena that contributes to setting in motion a sustainability transition at city level. It merges the dimensions of sustainable development (environmentally responsible and equitable economic development) and city hospitality (the extent to which the city acts as a good ‘host’ to all its ‘guests’, including residents and businesses). Resilience resides at its centre to highlight the temporal aspects of these dimensions, and their interdependencies. To show how this framework can serve as the foundation for destination design efforts in practice, a short description of (experiences with) serious game-playing sessions that employ its logic in six European cities is provided.
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