Volume 7 (2016): Issue 3 (December 2016)

Hospitality is a service industry in which team cooperation and assistance among the co-workers is necessary. Scholars have found that salary or benefits by themselves are not sufficient to motivate employees’ internal service intention and attitude. The norm of reciprocity in which the individuals’ intention results in active behaviour that is driven by the desire to obtain rewards has rarely been applied in the field of hotel internal service. In this study, we used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate the effects of leader-member exchange (LMX) and co-worker exchange on internal service behavioural intention and its causes, that is, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. In this study, we chose frontline professional service personnel from 30 international tourist hotels in Taiwan as research subjects and collected 684 valid questionnaires for statistical analysis. The results showed that LMX and co-worker exchange significantly affected the internal service behavioural intention and were significantly correlated with the causes of internal service behaviour intention, that is, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The results of this study should provide practical and theoretical assistance guidance for the rapidly growing domestic hospitality industry, in terms of increasing service competitiveness and facilitating the strategic planning of human resource management.

This paper aims at determining the factors that influence the growth of international business tourism and understanding whether the demand growth of business tourism spreads across neighbouring countries. For the development of the empirical research, data has been collected from a sample of 136 countries worldwide, and spatial econometric techniques have been used. Evidence that supports the idea that the main factors related to the increase in incomes of business tourism are the private investment on tourism assets, the leisure tourism and the trade openness in relation to the outside world is presented. This study also reveals that the demand of business tourism in a country is not contagious, that is, the demand varies neither with the demand of its neighbours nor with their exogenous characteristics. The results have important implications for the choice of tourism policy goals at national levels and the corresponding policy instruments.

The aim of this paper is to explore the causal relationship between the foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in tourism and the number of international tourist arrivals in the Republic of Croatia in the period from 2000 to 2012. The study uses quarterly time series data from 2000(1) to 2012 (4). The augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) test was carried out to test the stationarity of variables. The Johansen co-integration test was used to test a long-term relationship between the variables, and given the absence of the same, the vector autoregression (VAR) model is set up. The Granger and Toda–Yamamoto test was conducted to test a short-run causality between the selected variables. The results indicated a one-way short-run causality relationship running from FDI in tourism to international tourism arrivals at a high significance level of 1%. The research results emphasise the need to establish a favourable macroeconomic environment, as well as a policy of incentive investment measures specifically targeted at the tourism sector. This would enhance the conditions for higher FDI inflow essential for qualitative and quantitative positioning of Croatian tourism compared to competing destinations.

Tourism industry provides an important source of income for many countries; it has been considered the second important industry of the 21st century. This study analyses the effect of destination brand equity on tourists’ intention to revisit. Kish Island was chosen for this case study. Components of destination brand equity include destination awareness, destination image, destination quality, perceived value, destination loyalty, satisfaction and intentions to revisit. This research is a descriptive and survey study. The target population was travelers who visited this island in the first half of 2013. The questionnaire was the research tool. Data were analysed using SPSS and LISREL. The results showed that there is a meaningful relationship between the destination awareness and perceived value, image destination and perceived value and satisfaction, destination quality and perceived value and destination loyalty, perceived value and destination loyalty, satisfaction and destination loyalty and intentions to revisit, and finally destination loyalty and intentions to revisit.

Several are the motivations and natures of the activities undertaken by tourists, leading to the existence of different types of tourism, which, according to the World Tourism Organization, can be divided into major segments (e.g. Sun & Beach Tourism, Ecotourism and etc.); each one with its own subcategories, as the religious tourism, experience tourism and so on. So, would it be possible to talk about drug tourism? Where, the drug itself would present a significant role as a motivation for travelling. Drug tourism could be seen as the journeys undertaken with the purpose of obtaining or using drugs, which are not available or are illegal in the tourist origin places. The purpose of this article was to provide a general discussion on the subject of drug tourism. In this task, some important examples were cited and the positive and negative impacts on the country or region of destination, the relationships between the different types of drug tourism with the major segments defined by the UNWTO, as well as new perspectives in this field were also discussed. As a case study, were presented information about cannabis tourism in Amsterdam, Netherlands (derived from literature searches and questionnaires in field research). This is a topic discussed only superficially but which is an obvious reality in various tourist destinations. Therefore, it is essential the development of a deeper treatment (deprived of prejudices) about the changes occurring in the contemporary world (concerning the drug politics), which may open new frontiers for this type of tourism.

Our paper describes the new potential for tourism e-services (smartphone apps and enhanced Internet platforms) for promoting the intangible cultural heritage in European destinations using the example of Prague’s Jewish heritage. Although quite a few tourism e-services are present in the tourism market in Prague, their full potential has not been exhausted.

The paper shows that one of the ways how the intangible cultural heritage in European destinations can be promoted is through employing the apps for smartphones and tablets involving local myths and legends constituting the backbone of local cultural and religious traditions.

Our research is based on the empirical results of the three stages of our own questionnaire survey conducted in Prague in May–August 2013 for assessing the revealed preferences of Prague’s residents and tourists for such apps and novel IT solutions.

Our results demonstrate that a potential app should feature a narrative, a possibility to upload additional information, as well as interactive online maps. The app should be offered at both App Store and Android Market Play free of charge with embedded in-app purchases that might reach up to 3 EUR in additional payments.

The paper tackles a top-notch field of electronic tourism (or e-tourism) that embeds the mobile technologies and the intangible cultural heritage approach. The results and outcomes might be useful not only for IT developers specialising in digital tourism but also for local stakeholders and residents.

This study is designed to explore the conceptualization of ecotourism in order to expand the concept into ecotourism activities in our daily lives. To this end, the author proposes the ‘periurban ecotourism’ concept and conducts an empirical study with a focus on Nabari City, a small Japanese city with a well-preserved natural environment that has been attracting a number of visitors. In this study, destination image, awareness and uniqueness are presented as key independent variables to set directions for the development as a periurban ecotourism destination and to thereby develop a “theoretical periurban ecotourism model”, and four hypotheses for this study are examined. Findings from the examination reveal that destination image and awareness have a positive impact on overall satisfaction while destination uniqueness generates statistically significant result. In a group of first visitors, however, destination uniqueness appears to have a significant impact of some degree, with less influence than expected. In order to help redefine ecotourism and suggest a variety of research questions for ecotourism markets, it is necessary to conduct an empirical study covering “periurban ecotourism” and its conceptualization, motivation of ecotourists, and lifestyles from a more concrete perspective.

The inscription of an area as World Heritage Site (WHS) is of utmost significance to preserve the historical and artistic heritage and at the same time, to encourage visits to the site. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of the relationship between WHS and tourism by presenting the results of a research conducted in the city of Córdoba (Spain) which analyses the socio-demographic profile and motivations of tourists who visit this City, differentiating between domestic and foreign tourists. The main results of the research show the important educational level of respondent tourists, the significant number of countries of origin, the high motivation to learn about the heritage roots of the city, the importance of gastronomy as a part of its cultural identity and the high satisfaction of tourists. As a point of improvement, the results show the low level of overnight stays in the city.