2007 TTRA International Conference
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Publication AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALITY OF TOURISM EXPERIENCE AND PERCEIVED DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS: THE TOURISTS: PERSPECTIVE(2007) Meng, Fang; Uysal, MuzafferDestination competitiveness has been seen as a critical issue in today’s increasingly challenging tourism market. The study develops a destination competitiveness model based on tourists’ perception and attempted to investigate how different phases of tourism/vacation experience affect tourists’ perception of the destination competitiveness. The proposed theoretical model addresses the tourism experience from the chronological and temporal aspects, i.e., tourist pre-trip planning experience, en-route experience, on-site experience, and after-trip reflection. Tourist involvement is proposed to have a moderating effect on the relationship between tourism experience dimensions and destination competitive domains. The results indicate that tourists’ perception of destination competitiveness is positively influenced by the quality of tourism experience in terms of all phases (pre-trip planning, enroute experience, on-site instrumental experience, on-site expressive experience, and aftertrip reflection). Findings also indicate that tourist involvement has a moderating effect on the relationship between tourist pre-trip planning experience, en-route experience, on-site expressive experience, and perceived destination competitiveness.Publication STRATEGY CHOICE IN TOURISM SUPPLY CHAINS FOR PACKAGE HOLIDAYS: A GAME-THEORETIC APPROACH(2007) Yang, Shu; Huang, George Q.; Liang, LiangEnterprises in a tourism supply chain usually adopt and operate two business strategies: maximizing their profits or their revenues. This paper investigates the conditions on which these strategies allow enterprises to achieve the maximum benefits in the context of entire supply chain. Several managerial implications have been derived from this theoretical research. Firstly, theme park operator, tour operators and hotel & accommodation providers obtain larger market shares and profits if they select the revenue maximization (R) strategy. Secondly, the profit maximization (P) strategy is a better strategy for both sectors when all the tour operators and all hotel & accommodation providers choose the same strategy. Finally, if both sectors could freely choose their strategies, there is market equilibrium where P-strategy and R-strategy could coexist.Publication VISITOR'S PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR OWN IMPACTS AT A SPECIAL EVENT(2007) Van Winkle, Christine M.; Backman, Kenneth F.Within the special events literature limited research exists exploring the impacts that result from special event visitation. No studies exist that examine special event attendees’ perception of their contribution to impacts. This needed perspective is valuable because management may want to develop communication material to minimize the negative outcomes of the festival and maximize the benefits. Attribution theory was used as the theoretical framework to better understand festival visitors’ perceptions of their own contribution to impacts (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Tetlock, 1981). During a two-week period in July 2005, self-administered surveys were distributed to Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival visitors in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Two questions were designed to better understand visitors’ perceptions of their own impacts. In total 307 visitors returned a completed survey resulting in a 53% response rate. Simple regression was used to examine the relationship between the direction of the impact (positive or negative) and visitors’ perceptions of their contribution to the impact item. The results indicated a positive significant relationship between direction of the impact and perception of contribution to impact item for each of the 8 impact items included in this study. Specifically, the more positively visitors rated an item the more they felt they contributed to an impact item. The results of this study provide support for the existence of self-serving biases in visitors’ attributions.Publication USING VALUES TO PREDICT TOURIST MOTIVATION: AN APPLICATION TO SPECIAL EVENTS IN CULTURAL TOURISM AT THE WINNIPEG FRINGE THEATRE FESTIVAL(2007) Woosnam, Kyle M.; McElroy, Kerry E.; Van Winkle, Christine M.Using the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in Manitoba, Canada as the context, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between personal values and motivations for attending a festival. More specifically the work had two primary research questions. First, what are the dominant tourist values and tourist motivations for visitors to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival? Second, what is the relationship between visitors’ values and their motivations for attending the festival? Visitors rated self-respect (M = 6.30), fun and enjoyment in life (M = 6.26), warm relationship with others (M = 6.19), and self-fulfillment (M = 6.15) as the top personal values based on Kahle’s (1983) LOV scale. Strongest motivations for attending the festival were: to be entertained (M = 6.45), to learn something new (M = 5.31), to go to the Fringe to be with others who enjoy the same thing (M = 5.19), to spend time with friends (M = 5.03), and to attend a cultural event not normally having an opportunity to go to (M = 4.93). Treating the top five motivation items as separate dependent variables, a series of stepwise regression analyses were conducted. The nine personal value items explained between 8% and 13% of the variance in the five motivation items. Belonging explained the most variance across the five regression analyses. Implications for the festival as well as future research endeavors are highlighted in the closing of the paper.Publication ONLINE REPRESENTATION OF TOURISM: AN ANALYSIS OF SEARCH RESULTS FROM A MAJOR SEARCH ENGINE(2007) Xiang, Zheng; Fesenmaier, Daniel R.; Hyun, Martin Yongho; Wober, KarlThe goal of this study is to provide a preliminary assessment of the representation of tourism destinations through a major search engine. A three-step analysis was conducted with the focus on assessing: 1) the visibility of tourism-related information regarding 30 tourist destinations within the United States; 2) the visibility of various industry sectors within 3 selected destinations; and, 3) a comparison of domain URLs of search results on a major destination. The findings show that, although there is huge amount of information indexed travelers can only access a tiny fraction of this information. Also, there are a number of dominant players among the Web pages suggested by the search engine. This study provides insights into the challenges the tourism industry is faced with when promoting a destination. It also offers several implications for developing tools and marketing strategies for the tourism industry.