TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

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  • Publication
    New perspectives on family tourism: Motivations, travel behavior and experiences of single-parent families
    (2021-10-01) Camargo, Blanca; Iberri, Luisa; Llano, Raquel; Lozano, Mariana
    The abstract is attached. Please consider it as a submission for the Refereed academic paper.
  • Publication
    Reflections on Research Relationship-Building and Partnerships in Arctic Tourism
    (2021-01-01) Hurst, Chris E.; Grimwood, Bryan S.R.; Lemelin, R. Harvey
    “Culturally Sensitive Tourism in the Arctic” (ARCTISEN) is a three-year, collaborative partnership involving tourism stakeholders from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark/Greenland, and Canada. The aims of the ARCTISEN project are to co-create knowledge about cultural sensitivity and build relationships that support businesses and communities in developing tourism products and services that are respectful of the Arctic’s rich natural and cultural resources (ARCTISEN, 2020). Between 2018 and 2021, project activities focused on management and communications, and three thematic work packages: 1) building understanding of culturally sensitive tourism practices, 2) enhancement of entrepreneurial capacities for culturally sensitive tourism; and 3) development of a culturally sensitive tourism business cluster. The purpose of this presentation is to synthesize and critically reflect on the Canadian ARCTISEN team experiences of co-creating knowledge and relationship-building within this international tourism partnership. Our objectives are to: Describe Canadian ARCTISEN activities and lessons learned, focusing primarily on how the partnership supported relationship-building; Explain opportunities, challenges, and failures of working within the partnership, including how COVID-19 has required project priorities and activities to be adapted; Identify potential strategies and limitations of cultural sensitivity as concept and practice to integrate in Arctic and Indigenous tourism in Canada and future tourism research.
  • Publication
    One step back, two steps forward, one destination’s path to tourism recovery.
    (2021-07-22) Anderson, Eleanor
    One step back, two steps forward, one destination’s path to tourism recovery. 2021 TTRA Canada Virtual Conference. October 13-15, 2021 Submitted July 21, 2021 Virtual Presentation Length 15 minutes Keywords: Tourism, Covid-19, Recovery, Destination, Sustainability, Cape Breton Introduction Cape Breton Island, on Canada's east coast, has long been lauded by travel media as a tourist destination of choice, including being recently named as the #1 Island in North America by Conde Nast Traveler and the #1 Island in Canada during the 2020 and 2021Travel & Leisure World’s Best Awards. Cape Breton’s economy is heavily dependent on the employment and revenue generated by the tourism sector. In 2016, the tourism sector in Cape Breton reported 5,675 employees representing 10.56% of the total employment on the Island which almost exactly mirrors the percentage of the Canadian labour force (Statistics Canada, 2016 Census). The Province of Nova Scotia estimates the annual value of the sector on Cape Breton Island in 2017 as $330,000,000 with provincial tourism receipts approximately $2.5 billion (DCBA, 2020). Tourism is an area of both established and emerging strength for the economy of Cape Breton Island (Brown and Connell, 2021). Like many destinations, the tourism sector has been devastated by Covid-19 related travel disruptions. Cruise ship visitation was lost for 2020 and 2021 (Port of Sydney, 2021), air traffic into Sydney, Nova Scotia's second-largest city, decreased by 88% and, like many destinations across the country, the Island faced strict travel restrictions entering a second year (Ayers, 2020). As planners attempt their annual alignment of resources to meet tourism demand, the future is difficult to map. What will the tourism landscape, and indeed the world, look like after the pandemic (Lew et al, 2020)? The tourism planning environment in Cape Breton is complicated and crowded, with tourism operators, the DMO, Parks Canada, Indigenous communities, federal, provincial, and municipal governments each formulating plans in silos. Destination Cape Breton Association, the Island’s destination marketing organization, launched a ten-year tourism destination management strategy early in 2021, calling for unprecedented levels of collaboration (Cape Breton Island Tourism Strategy 2030, 2021). This research examines the approach of tourism planners and isolates key factors underpinning their recovery plans. Special attention is given to identifying and examining these variables through the dual lens of sustainability and collaboration. Literature Literature supporting an industry rethink concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic can act as a catalytic event in which existing economic and political structures will be challenged and reshaped, and this is an opportunity to redefine the ecological burdens our activities create (Wells et al, 2020). Studying and understanding dramatic changes in how businesses act in the Covid-19 response, recovery, and reset phases is important and useful since pandemics, like other rarely occurring catastrophes, have happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future. (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). Scholarly work published pre-pandemic addressed a future of tourism that has now been significantly altered or, at best, delayed. Untapped potential exists for research related to comparisons of pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 tourism research. (Kock et al, 2020). These authors examine the Covid-19 psyche, developing an Evolutionary Tourism Paradigm, using an oceans and islands model. Faced with a plethora of research study options under the category of tourism impacts of Covid-19, and with the awareness that sustainability has been studied across a wide range of sectors including tourism, this work concentrates on the gap of research focused on the role of sustainability in tourism recovery planning. Method The role of sustainability in tourism recovery planning is applied to Cape Breton Island as a case study. Tourism is an industry of storytellers and shared experiences. Choosing a case study approach can be proven to have validity when attempts to understand complex relationships and interactions are involved, such as represented in tourism and related sectors (Beeton,2005). A research framework was designed and applied to understand the perceptions and behaviours by industry operators, Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA), and the four levels of government – Municipal. Provincial, Federal, and Indigenous. The attitudes, intentions, and barriers, of the supply side of tourism were explored with a sustainability lens. A qualitative research style was implemented which included two research instruments, developed to garner the information required in the delivery of a credible and relevant analysis: A comprehensive scholarly research review and a series of interviews with key tourism industry stakeholders. Findings/Results This research identified both gaps and opportunities related to sustainability planning for the Cape Breton Island tourism sector during its recovery from Covid-19 impacts. Government, business, and community stakeholders acknowledged implications from the pandemic on both short and longer-term developments in the tourism sector. Opportunities focused on increased collaboration for activities such as newly curated visitor experiences and capital investments, while the shifting public health policies made market forecasting challenging, if not impossible. The research showed that as tourism industry actors were forced to decrease or eliminate offerings in 2020, some adopted scenario-based planning as a route to plotting the way back to pre-pandemic revenue levels. By using the industry disruption as an opportunity to rethink strategies with a longer-term view, and by banking on pent up demand, effective target marketing and refocusing on the domestic market, the tourism industry in Cape Breton is poised to step forward with a renewed and positive outlook. Findings included examples of a creative and collaborative decision-making approach. Conclusion The typical consumption models of tourists have shifted due to Covid-19 and the production model also continues to shift with tourist characteristics and tourist product features witnessing major changes (Afifi, 2020). Like destinations world-wide, Cape Breton Island tourism operators are faced with an unprecedented disruption. This work helps establish an understanding of the resilience of Cape Breton Island’s tourism sector through economic, human, and environmental responses to tourism sector recovery. Sharing lessons learned from the Cape Breton planning landscape may be helpful to other destinations as they build and implement their recovery plans. Further research will aid in the understanding of how the concept of sustainability is re-thought by tourism stakeholders on Cape Breton Island post-Covid-19. References Afifi, Galal. (2020). Geological Sites as a Safe Resort for Post-COVID-19 Tourism: The Case of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, Oman. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism. (Volume XI, Fall), 6. 1520 - 1336. Ayers, Tom (2020). Sydney Airport Looks for Lifeline after Significant Traffic Drop, CBC News [Online] Available from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sydney-airport-looks-for-lifeline-after-significant-traffic-drop-1.5730066 [Accessed 1 October 2020] Beeton, Sue. (2005). The case study in tourism research: A multi-method case study approach. Tourism Research Methods: Integrating Theory with Practice. 37-48. Brown, K. and Connell, J. (2021). Cape Breton Island Tourism Development: The Cape Breton Development Corporation as a catalyst for community-based development. (In Development). Unpublished. Cape Breton Island Tourism Strategy 2030, (2021). Destination and Tourism Cluster Development Strategy, Destination Cape Breton Association, Sydney, NS. Conde Nast Traveler, 2020 [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cntraveler.com/the-bests [Accessed Feb 1, 2021]. Lew, A and Cheer, J. and Haywood, M. and Brouder, P. and Salazar, N. (2020). Visions of travel and tourism after the global COVID-19 transformation of 2020, Tourism Geographies, 22:3, pp.455-466 Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA) Strategy 2020. [ONLINE] Available at: DCBA Industry Information | Destination Cape Breton (cbisland.com) [Accessed Jan 12, 2021]. Donthi, N. and Gustafsson, A. (2020). Effects of Covid-19 on business and research, Journal of Business Research, Volume 117. Kock, Florian & Norfelt, Astrid & Josiassen, Alexander & Assaf, A & Tsionas, Efthymios. (2020). Understanding the COVID-19 tourist psyche: The Evolutionary Tourism Paradigm. Annals of tourism research. Port of Sydney, (2021). [ONLINE] Available from:www.sydneyport.ca [Accessed 18 March 2021]. Statistics Canada, 2016 Census, Tourism HR Canada. Travel + Leisure Magazine. 2020. Reid, S. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/islands-in-canada [Accessed 24 October 2020]. Wells, P. and Abouarghoub, W. and Pettit, S., and Beresford, A. (2020). A socio-technical transitions perspective for assessing future sustainability following the COVID-19 pandemic, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, Volume 16:1, pp.29-36.
  • Publication
    Future Proofing: Changing Tourism Education to Change Business Practices
    (2021-07-23) Della Lucia, Maria; Dimanche, Frederic
    Introduction: This paper addresses the TTRA Canada conference sub-theme “Future-Proofing: Learning from Today to Build Back Tomorrow.” The pandemic has accelerated discussion about the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of tourism, social equity, workers’ dignity, as well as the long-term climate crisis. Tourism and the pandemic have led to a series of discussions about whether tourism can indeed be sustainable (e.g., Benjamin et al., 2020). The fact that the tourism industry has been the economic activity that was the most affected by the pandemic feeds this discussion (Della Lucia, Giudici, & Dimanche, 2021) . The sector has shown that it was vulnerable, not only with respect to the pandemic resulting in border closings and numerous, often changing travel restrictions, but also, more recently, with respect to the difficulties experienced by businesses in bringing back employees and hiring new ones. On the other hand, the pandemic has given pause for people to reflect on the status of tourism and to imagine a better or different tourism future, one that will be more respectful of nature and community stakeholders, and one that will address other critical challenges such as climate change. The purpose of this paper is to argue that tourism cannot change for the better if tourism management education does not change. We take humanistic management as a conceptual framework to explain how tourism higher education should evolve to prepare future leaders to be able to regenerate and manage tourism towards a better future. Two educational cases serve to illustrate what humanistic tourism management education could do to positively affect business practice. Literature: The COVID-19 international health crisis has led to significant debates about the future of tourism. The industry associations (e.g., UNWTO, WTTC, as well as national tourism associations) are calling for action from governments to restart tourism and to provide support for the travel sector and its recovery and (re)growth towards pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, many academics are calling for a change in the way we manage tourism, asking for humanistic tourism, regenerative tourism, social tourism, and de-growth (e.g., Della Lucia and Giudici, 2021a; Gössling et al., 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles et al., 2021; Lew et al. 2020). Those two perspectives are discussed by Butcher (2021) and Higgins-Desbiolles (2020) who don’t hesitate to call this debate a “war on tourism.” Few scholars have addressed the need for change from an educational perspective because higher (university) education is at the heart of management practices. However the current neoliberalism perspectives in universities endangers the ability to change and reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (Slocum et al., 2019). To empower students to lead change towards sustainable tourism in the post-pandemic era (Mínguez et al. 2021), a different educational approach is needed. Some authors have started to address tourism challenges from an education perspective relying on a values-based approach (e.g., Della Lucia & Giudici, 2021b; Della Lucia, Giudici, & Secchi, 2021; Sheldon et al. 2008). This paper proposes a humanistic management approach to change tourism education (Della Lucia et al., 2021), by putting human beings and their dignity at the core of the transformation of the current paradigm towards humanizing business, the economy, and society (Melé 2016). Method: The paper discusses the humanistic management perspective as a conceptual basis for change in tourism higher education through two university courses that are used as illustrative and descriptive cases (Yin, 2009): (1) Field Studies in Hospitality and Tourism of the Bachelor in Hospitality and Tourism Management in a Canadian university. This course takes place in a third place (e.g., Cuba, Jamaica, or indigenous communities in the Northwest Territories). (2) Economy of Culture and Tourism of a Master program in a European University. The courses are investigated to address learning objectives, content, and pedagogy. Findings: The cases illustrate new pathways on how to prepare future tourism leaders to innovate tourism management practices by changing the learning outcomes, the related contents, and the pedagogical strategies. The development of an understanding of the pillars of humanistic management in the context of tourism and culture management needs to blend traditional tourism topics with humanistic management values (dignity, ethics) and combine theoretical, practical, and contextualized knowledge. To pursue these outcomes, education strategies must be based on diverse dialogue-based methodology, engaging tools, and be experienced both in the classroom and third places to allow the co-creation of knowledge and the activation of diverse facets of our humanity. Through these teaching-learning experiences students improve the relevance of the knowledge required to manage humanistically and responsibly, and acquire the reflective capacity to be agents of positive change and to make an impact on society. Conclusion: The cases demonstrate how universities in different countries are beginning to change their tourism programs leveraging on a values-based perspective inspired by humanistic management values (dignity, ethics, and legitimacy). These cases represent early attempts by individual faculty members to find new experiential-learning educational pathways and it is hoped that those initiatives will infiltrate curricula to become foundations for tourism management education, at a time when tourism needs, more than ever, to be managed differently. References Benjamin, S., Dillette, A., & Alderman, D. H. (2020). “We can’t return to normal”: committing to tourism equity in the post-pandemic age. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 476-483. Butcher, J. (2021). Covid-19, tourism and the advocacy of degrowth. Tourism Recreation Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2021.1953306 Della Lucia, M., & Giudici, E. (2021a). Humanistic tourism: valued, norms and dignity. New York: Routledge. Della Lucia, M., & Giudici, E. (2021b). Humanistic management and sustainable tourism: Human, social and environmental challenges. New York: Routledge. Della Lucia, M., Dimanche, F., Giudici, E., Camargo, B., & Winchenbach, A. (2021). Enhancing tourism education: The contribution of humanistic management. Manuscript submitted for publication. Della Lucia, M., Giudici, E., & Secchi, D. (2021). Re-shaping tourism: Advances and open issues. In M. Della Lucia & E. Giudici (Eds.) Humanistic tourism: Values, norms and dignity (pp. 231-244). New York: Routledge. Della Lucia, M., Giudici, E., & Dimanche, F. (2021). Lessons for shared value creation in tourism: The pandemic challenge. In M. Della Lucia & E. Giudici (Eds.) Humanistic management and sustainable tourism: Human, social and environmental challenges (pp. 255-268). New York: Routledge. Gössling, S., Scott, D., & Hall, C. M. (2020). Pandemics, tourism and global change: A rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1758708 Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2020). The “war over tourism”: challenges to sustainable tourism in the tourism academy after COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(4), 551-569. Higgins-Desbiolles, F., Bigby, B. C., & Doering, A. (2021). Socialising tourism after COVID-19: reclaiming tourism as a social force? Journal of Tourism Futures. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-03-2021-0058 Lew, A., Cheer, J. M., Haywood, M., Brouder, P., & Salazar, N. B. (2020). Visions of travel and tourism after the global COVID-19 transformation of 2020. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1770326 Melé, D. (2016). Understanding humanistic management. Humanistic Management Journal, 1, 33-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0011-5 Mínguez, C., Martínez-Hernández, C., & Yubero, C. (2021). Higher education and the sustainable tourism pedagogy: Are tourism students ready to lead change in the post pandemic era? Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2021.100329 Sheldon, P., Fesenmaier, D., Woeber, K., Cooper, C., & Antonioli, M. (2008). Tourism education futures 2010-2030: Building the capacity to lead. Journal of Teaching in Tourism & Travel, 7(3), 61-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220801909445 Slocum, S. L., Dimitrov, D. Y., & Webb, K. (2019). The impact of neoliberalism on higher education tourism programs: Meeting the 2030 sustainable development goals with the next generation. Tourism Management Perspectives, 30, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.01.004 Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Publication
    An Examination of the Travel Behaviors and Site Preferences of Canadian and US Mountain Bike Tourists
    (2021-10-13) Abernethy, Brian; Dixon, Anthony W; Holladay, Patrick J; Koo, Win G-Y
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    Visitors’ willingness to pay for interpretive services in Alberta parks
    (2021-10-01) Halpenny, Elizabeth A; He, Mu
    Interpretive services provided at protected areas can add value to visitors’ experiences. They can also serve as conservation management tool in mitigating negative behaviours and inspiring pro-environmental action through educational and entertaining content and delivery. With shrinking investment in conservation from public coffers, protected area managers are increasingly forced to charge for specific services such as interpretation. While some research has examined visitor’s willingness to pay park fees, far fewer have examined WTP for interpretation. A sample of 730 visitors to four Alberta, Canada World Heritage sites was used to investigate visitors’ willingness to pay for park interpretation services. In-person delivery and specialized content garnered higher levels of WTP for park interpretation services. Wealthier visitors were more willing to pay fees, as were those who had already invested time (i.e., involvement) to learn about cultural and natural heritage (i.e., WH experts). Unexpectedly, education, travel with kids, and travel motives related to learning about cultural and natural heritage, were not significantly related to WTP for park interpretation services.
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    Becoming A Second Home: The Role Of A Host Destination In The ISM Experience. Case Study: Girona.
    (2021-10-11) Quintero, Karla Romina; Zerva, Konstantina
    International student mobility is considered among young travelers an opportunity to acquire a one-of-a-kind experience, making the host destination the perfect scenario where such experiences can take place. Since travelling is strongly associated with students’ mobility, and it is well documented that this concept is related to shaping travelers’ perceptions of self through experiences with other people and places, this case study explores the role of a host destination in the international students’ mobility experience. Thirty-three in-depth semi-structured interviews were performed to international students from different nationalities who have finished a tourism master’s degree program at the University of Girona, Spain. This investigation reveals the ability for a host destination to create emotional attachment and to become another home when it comes to represent evolution; enlightenment; and belongingness.
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    International Student’s Mobility and Tourism: Relations, Opportunities, and Insights for Canadian University Cities
    (2021-10-13) Gullace, Maria Teresa; Griffin, Tom
    The increase in student enrollment and mobility in Canadian universities every year generates a continuous flow of people that move, study, work, and live in university cities across the country. The presence of international students contributes to the prosperity of Canada, positively impacting its socio-cultural and economic development. The multiplicity of needs and services related to this segment of the urban population also makes their way through to the travel and hospitality sectors. Indeed, students visit and travel in the country, contributing to urban tourism and the local economy. In addition, the uncertainty related to the post-pandemic period and the hybridization of academic activities provided by several Canadian universities in response to the conditions created by the pandemic, will continue to impact the use of space, places, and services and increase the level of the temporary and flexible hospitality demands. This study investigates the relations and the opportunities between the mobility of university students and urban tourism, with implications for partnerships between destinations and their higher education institutions, a topic rarely explored in the tourism field and its literature.
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    Exploring the Effects of Non-traditional Narrative Video Ads on Tourism Intentions Among Viewers with and without Previous Destination Experience.
    (2021-07-08) Smith, Wayne W; Shah, Esta D; Pitts, Robert E
    Tourism is a storying and narrative experience that weaves multiple accounts about travel destinations, sites, and people into consumer expectations and perceptions of what is authentic in a travel experience (Chronis 2012a, Moscardo 2010, Bruner 2005). Story-telling narratives use the natural link of human experience often shared with others (Zhong et al. 2017, Mossberg 2008, McCabe and Foster 2006) and have become a helpful communication tool for understanding and promoting tourism (Zhong, Yun, Busser, and Baloglu 2017). Story-telling narration provides a valuable framework in which the destination is portrayed as believable and authentic to potential tourists (Kim and Yuon 2017). Our research has two main objectives: 1.) to explore the influence of narrative video advertisements on perceptions of authenticity, and 2.) to determine the role of individual differences and their effects on perceptions of authenticity. Our study's two ads were specifically designed to feature attributes not commonly part of the City's authentic historical appeal. As such, the focus of the ads could be perceived as less authentic by the viewer. We examine the role of narrative story-telling in shaping positive perceptions of authenticity for advertisements that explore non-traditional tourism appeals. We further explore how the viewer's prior visits to the Cityinfluence perceptions of authenticity and subsequent ad effectiveness. The promotion of non-historic features was designed to influence repeat visits with something new to experience and potential visitors who might be more interested in non-historic experiences. Previous visitors might not be open to stories related to activities that were not necessarily related to their previous visits and find the ad less authentic but still respond to new experiences' potential.
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    The cautious nature of Canadians: Different market segments’ perceptions during COVID-19
    (2021-07-09) Shen, Ye (Sandy); Joppe, Marion; Jo, WooMi
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    Tourism-related Climate Change Perspectives: Social Media Conversations about Canada’s Rocky Mountain National Parks
    (2021-07-08) Mirzaalian, Farshid; Halpenny, Elizabeth
    This study employed quantitative social media big data analysis in conjunction with qualitative analysis of postings to better comprehend online lay discourse of climatic change issues in a nature-based tourism destination, Jasper National Park, Canada. Such mixed methodological approaches to big data enable tourism researchers to not only study unstructured social media big data for future-proofing purposes but to address some methodological concerns often raised about solely using corpus linguistic or thematic analyzes. This study unearthed divergent themes regarding tourists’ perceptions of climate change upon visiting JNP, with the most significant discourses on climate grief, education and interpretation, pro- environmental behaviors, and last-chance tourism. It was also observed that despite scientific links between increasingly intense and extended wildfire seasons and climate change, visitors failed to connect wildfire’s negative impacts on visitors’ experiences in Canada’s Rocky Mountain national parks with climate change.
  • Publication
    Text mining approach to explore dimensions of national parks visitors’ experience and satisfaction using online customer reviews
    (2021-07-09) Zolfaghari, Alireza; Choi, HS Chris
    Natural parks are gaining global popularity with millions of visits per year. However, studies evaluating park visitors' experiences, satisfaction, and motivations are limited to traditional methods, such as direct observations, spatial analysis using global positioning system (GPS) trackers, interviews, surveys, and focus groups. As an alternative to these conventional methods, user-generated content (UGC) provides available, easily accessible, and consumers' reliable recent experiences with services. This study investigated visitors' reviews of selected Canadian national parks to explore the dimensions of the visitors' quality of experience and the drivers of satisfaction based on online ratings on the Trip Advisor website. The analysis yielded various topics ranging from visitors' pleasant feelings about trails, mountain views, and water activities to their unpleasant experiences regarding food, crowds, lineups, and parking lots. Besides, analysis of the reviews based on the reviewers' start ratings highlighted the most important drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction between them. Findings suggest that topics related to schedule and weather-related hassles; food, tickets, and shopping experiences; and visitor information center and exhibitions were among the most distinguishes dissatisfied visitors (1- and 2-star) from others. On the other hand, positive vibes, expressiveness, photography opportunities, and daytime and weather experience were the principal determinants of visitors' satisfaction (4- and 5-star).
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    Understanding the Impacts of Festivals on Resident Attendees Before and During COVID-19: A First Look at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival
    (2021-01-01) Bachman, Jarrett R; Hull, John S
    Although festivals and events have been identified as a growth segment within tourism, smaller cultural festivals have received much less attention. These smaller cultural festivals aim to bring cultural contributions and increased well-being to attendees and the host community in addition to their economic value. More specifically, queer film festivals have increased in number and size within the last decade and have an important history and purpose within the LGBT2Q+ community. As such, the current study investigated the attendees of the 2019 & 2020 Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF), Western Canada’s largest queer film festival. The survey instrument asked attendees questions about subjective well-being, cultural/educational impacts, community benefits, future programming, and demographics. Preliminary results comparing demographic, behavioural, perceived benefit, and outcome characteristics between the 2019 in-person version and the 2020 virtual pandemic version of VQFF are discussed. Industry and academic implications and areas for future study are also considered.
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    Moderating Effect of C0VID-19 pandemic on the Relationship between Tourists’ Happiness and Intention to Revisit and Overall Image
    (2021-08-10) YILMAZ, FATIMA ZEHRA
    Abstract This study aims to develop a cross-cultural universal framework, examining two different aspects of tourists’ experience. This paper set out the elements of hedonia (positive emotions) and eudaimonia (meaning and engagement) as tourists’ experience measurable states of tourist happiness. A proposed conceptual model considers tourists’ happiness as an antecedent of tourist behavioural intentions and overall image, moderated by situational animosity (refers to the COVID-19 pandemic in this study) across different countries (USA and China). The integrative model was tested using data generated from a convenient sample of 460 tourists from USA and 440 tourists from China visited to London. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), a powerful multivariate statistical analysis technique, the results statistically confirm that tourists’ happiness influences tourist intention to revisit. Further, the findings substantiate that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively influences the relationship between tourist happiness and revisit intention. Finally, several invariance analyses were performed to examine whether the proposed model can be generalized across different samples (China and USA) and the results support factor structure equivalence (configural invariance), partial loadings equivalence (partial metric invariance) and measurement (scalar) equivalence). Based on these results, discussions and implications for destination marketers, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also provided.