Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Dr. Jalayer (Jolly) Khalilzadeh earned his Ph.D. in Hospitality Management. He has a passion for applications of network and [complex] system science in tourism and hospitality research, and is involved in projects related to the applications of network science in destination management and tourism consumption. Currently, he serves as an Assistant Professor of Tourism at East Carolina University (ECU).

Abstract (150 Words)

This study specifies some shortcomings of common tourism motivation models and theories, and suggests a complex system approach to address the existing weaknesses. The proposed conceptualization depicts the tourism motivation system as a bipartite network of destinations with their respective reasons (i.e., (de)motives). (De)motivation is postulated as a force, which emerges from the system’s networked structure. Assuming that both reasons and destinations are unbounded, and the system is mainly governed by the two mechanisms of preferential attachment and node fitness, a power-law distribution is expected from the tourism motivation system in three levels of the entire system, reasons vertices type, and destination vertices type. Furthermore, using the relevant literature of thermodynamics and information theory in coordination with seven existing centralities and measures, seven new centrality measures are developed/proposed to evaluate the system’s components’ state/organization. For demonstration purposes, the proposed conceptualization is examined using a preliminary study.

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Tourism Motivation: A System’s Perspective

This study specifies some shortcomings of common tourism motivation models and theories, and suggests a complex system approach to address the existing weaknesses. The proposed conceptualization depicts the tourism motivation system as a bipartite network of destinations with their respective reasons (i.e., (de)motives). (De)motivation is postulated as a force, which emerges from the system’s networked structure. Assuming that both reasons and destinations are unbounded, and the system is mainly governed by the two mechanisms of preferential attachment and node fitness, a power-law distribution is expected from the tourism motivation system in three levels of the entire system, reasons vertices type, and destination vertices type. Furthermore, using the relevant literature of thermodynamics and information theory in coordination with seven existing centralities and measures, seven new centrality measures are developed/proposed to evaluate the system’s components’ state/organization. For demonstration purposes, the proposed conceptualization is examined using a preliminary study.