Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights最新文献

This study examined netizen attitudes toward space tourism. A content analysis was performed on 260 memes collected in response to the first tourist-focused suborbital spaceflight of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. While findings indicate a variety of perspectives toward both historic moments for the new commercial space industry, the overall sentiment was negative. Using cultural references and humor, this critical response focused on the billionaire founders Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, downplayed their achievement, and questioned their environmental, financial, and social/ethical practices. This discursive contention is sharply opposed to dominant narratives which typically frame space tourism as a net positive for humankind. Findings offer insight into emerging attitudes toward present-day space tourism and potential challenges to the industry's future development.

Despite limited empirical support, vacations are marketed as beneficial for romantic partners. Using the self-expansion model as a foundation, we tested how self-expanding (e.g., novel, interesting, challenging) vacation experiences are associated with passion, physical intimacy, and relationship satisfaction. Study 1 (n = 238 partners) found that higher individual self-expanding experiences on vacations predicted higher post-vacation romantic passion and relationship satisfaction for couples traveling with their partners, but not those that did not travel together. Study 2 examined 102 romantic dyads that traveled together and found that higher self-expanding experiences on vacations predicted more post-vacation physical intimacy. Our findings advance self-expansion research and provide evidence for the tourism industry to design and promote self-expanding vacation experiences for couples seeking improved relationships and meaningful vacations.

Suborbital space tourism is a catalyst for space industry revenue that could reach $1.1 billion by 2032. This study evaluated the influence of the four dimensions of Iso-Ahola's (1982) theory of tourism motivation on willingness to fly as a point-to-point suborbital space tourist. 870 participants responded to an online survey. The survey results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The tourism dimensions of interpersonal seeking and personal seeking had the greatest influence on willingness to fly. The model explains 40% of the variance in willingness to fly. The results provide validated data for targeted marketing to potential point-to-point space tourists. The results of this study are a catalyst for future space tourism research.

This article explores the relationship between useable pasts and tourism to show how towns reinvented themselves using their local and unique histories throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To achieve this, the article focuses its attention on the growing influence and importance that tourism had on Colchester's development. It shows how important visible landmarks and mythical stories are in ensuring a past's usability. Alongside this it highlights the importance of local stakeholders and businesses in owning the past and marketing the town as a historic location. In doing so it demonstrates the ways in which Colchester reinvented itself from an old Market town to become an Historic town. Focusing on the controversial history of the Siege of 1648, it will show how towns dealt with tragic narratives as they began using the past to sell themselves to the nation.

This study investigates alma mater tourists' motivation and experience through semi-structured interviews. We propose that one's tertiary educational institution serves as a Home of Exploration between one's Home of Origin and Home of Procreation. This Home of Exploration occupies a liminal stage in life when one can be truly free. Alma mater tourists revisit their places of higher education to reminisce about the days when they were authentic to themselves and experience a unique blend of happiness, nostalgia, and other emotions. This experience is explained herein with sociological concepts including authenticity, spiritual center, push and pull factors, and life course theory.

The effects of precarious jobs on young people's well-being could be enduring. Research into the causes of harmful working behaviours among young people in the ride-hailing economy is limited. We used qualitative data from 40 ethnographic in-depth interviews with drivers in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa to explore the root causes of workaholism among them and, in turn, proposed a typology. The framing of the typology was guided by the three-tiered tourism workforce taxonomy, which resulted in seven workaholic types. Beyond technology mediation, the reasons for their workaholism included demanding contractual structures, dependency, limited mandatory breaks, culminating into their reliance on energy drinks. Among other actions, deploying catalytic capital to support car loans, reforming regulations and, implementing universal breaks can help address the casues of overworking among ride-hail drivers.

This study examines bleisure travel across pre-trip, during, and post-trip phases. After interviewing 23 bleisure travelers, the study found that in the pre-travel phase, bleisure travelers had more complex planning and needed more coordination. Therefore, they were well-organized, futuristic, and competent in travel arrangements. During the travel, they sought ‘educational experiences’, ‘short-squeezed leisure plans’, ‘family and kids-oriented activities’, and preferred ‘not trying one-time events’. They used strategies such as ‘flexibility in travel arrangement’, ‘clarification of travel companions’, ‘mixing business and leisure activity’, and ‘remote work’ to balance the two travel purposes. Finally, in the post-trip phase, bleisure travelers described feeling ‘physically tired but mentally rejuvenated’ with a sense of being ‘free of the guilt’ of their absence from home.

This article identifies factors influencing hotel and guesthouse workers' coping strategies during COVID-19 in Cambodia's premier tourist destination, Siem Reap. Drawing on qualitative data including 135 semi-structured interviews conducted between March 2022 and March 2023, we found that individual characteristics, dense community networks and government interventions did strengthen hotel and guesthouse workers' capacity to cope with the economic shock caused by the pandemic. Importantly, however, a series of deeper structural issues – most notably the structure of the labour market, the unevenness of social security coverage and pre-existing debt – greatly undermined their capacity to exercise resilience. As these findings suggest, it is necessary to look beyond individual traits and behaviours, and even community-level structures, if we are to truly understand community resilience.

This paper examines formal power and its influence on the policy roles of tourism actors in four Caribbean countries. The power of policy actors was calculated with a beta centrality measure, and hypotheses of power, policy roles, and policy actor types were tested using the Quadratic Assignment Procedure and Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure features of Social Network Analysis software. Power differentials of the tourism policy actors were statistically significant in the Barbados policy network, while policy roles were statistically significant in the Jamaica policy network. Power struggles are a concern as these affect the rate and pace of tourism development and change tourism development outcomes.