The purpose of this study was to explore the ability of place attachment to predict place-specific and general pro-environment behavioural intentions. The study sample (n = 355) consisted of visitors ...to a Canadian national park, Point Pelee National Park. The place attachment scale utilized in this study was designed to measure three subdimensions: place identity, place dependence, and place affect. Exploratory factor analysis of data measured by these scales revealed two place attachment subdimensions. Place affect, an individual’s emotions and feelings for a place, acted as a more generalized or pervasive phenomenon. Place affect items loaded on both the place identity (an individual’s cognitive assessment of a place) and place dependence (an individual’s functional assessment of a place). Structural equation modeling confirmed the strength of place attachment’s ability to predict place-related pro-environment intentions. It also identified place attachment’s prediction of pro-environment behavioural intensions related to everyday life. Place identity mediated the effects of place dependence in predicting pro-environment intentions. Further research which utilizes in-depth and longitudinal case studies is suggested to explore the role of place-specific emotion and feelings, as well as place identity in fostering environmentally-responsible action as these factors are theorized to play an important role in promoting pro-environmental behaviour. Studies of place attachment to everyday settings rather than iconic national parks are also called for.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
With increased interest in emotions and tourism, 'savoring', a process of attending to, enhancing, or prolonging positive emotions, should receive more scholarly attention. This article offers a ...conceptual look at the issues and perspectives related to the relationship between savoring and place attachment in the tourism context. Drawing from the positive psychology, tourism, and geography literature, we outline 12 propositions to suggest how tourists develop place attachment by savoring their vacation experiences and destinations, supported by the 'broaden-and-build' processes. By directing people's attention to their positive emotions and triggering a broaden-and-build experience, savoring has the potential to foster place attachment to a destination. In brief, we propose that savoring can influence the process of place attachment formation by influencing each phase of a tourism experience (i.e., pre-trip, on-site, post-trip). In particular, savoring, at pre-trip, can facilitate the development of favorable destination image to form place attachment. When on-site, or at post-trip phase, savoring can promote place attachment formation by helping individuals obtain higher level of positive affect and more memorable tourism experiences. The propositions are intended to guide and inspire future empirical examinations related to savoring positive emotions in the tourism context. Savoring's role in fostering place attachment has important potential practical outcomes including development and reinforcement of destination loyalty.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
User-generated content across social media platforms is playing an increasingly important role in tourism. Understanding tourists' experiences and opinions about tourism destinations has led to ...numerous opportunities to provide tourism providers with greater insights. Identifying sentiments, detecting topics of interest, and exploring loyalty behaviors from user-generated content can provide valuable direction for managerial decisions. This paper presents a novel and inclusive approach that uses different analytical techniques such as sentiment analysis and topic modeling to extract sentiments and topics of interest from tourists’ conversational data on TripAdvisor from 2002 to 2019. Sentiment analysis revealed that some touristic locations in Jasper National Park are outperforming others in terms of sentiment scores, despite the fact that tourists less frequently reflect on their experiences at these places on social media. Such higher rankings suggest that average sentiment score can be a more informative measure than simple TripAdvisor rankings. This paper also explores destination loyalty statements using a keyword clustering approach. Previous destination loyalty literature was used to develop a keyword list that was applied to search for expressions of loyalty in online reviews. The robustness of loyalty clusters and optimal number of clusters was also assessed prior to final analysis. Four leading loyalty-focused categories of destination offerings were observed: glaciers, waterfalls, lakes and islands, and hiking and trails. Prioritization of visitor experience enhancements relating to these loyalty-inducing destination components are discussed.
•Innovative vocabulary keyword search is used to capture loyalty-expressed reviews.•Some locations outperform others in sentiment scores despite lower review volume.•Average sentiment score can be more informative measure than TripAdvisor rankings.•Tourism providers should leverage controlled and some partially-controlled factors.•Glaciers, waterfalls, lakes/islands, and hiking/trails lead to destination loyalty.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The World Heritage (WH) brand signals property so irreplaceable that its values must be sustained intact in perpetuity. A primary function of the WH symbol, one element of the WH brand, is to prompt ...positive visitor emotions and behaviors favored by management agencies. This paper investigates if the symbol communicates any message to viewers. To determine visitor recognition and recall of the WH symbol tested against a variety of variables, 1827 visitors to five WH sites in Queensland, Australia and 712 visitors to the WH part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, USA were surveyed. Sixty percent of visitors to the Queensland sites and 19% of visitors to the Hawaii site were aware of the site's WH status; 96% of Queensland site visitors, and 99% of Hawaii site visitors could not recall what the WH symbol represented. Park agencies appear to take a laissez-faire attitude to branding, have little interest or capacity to brand properly or have strategically restricted usage of the WH brand to de-clutter their brand landscape. This limits opportunities to transmit to visitors and communities why WH properties should be valued and sustained, with significant implications for the long-term sustainability of WH sites.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Homestay tourism is popular in many destinations; it adds authentic sociocultural richness to the tourist's experience. For a nation that cannot make extensive infrastructural investment a priority ...but which possesses an abundance of tourism richness in remote communities, homestays are an attractive alternative tourism product. This paper discusses a case study of Barpak, located in the Gorkha District of Western Nepal. The study suggests homestays are congruent with Nepal's destination image. The essence of Nepalese tourism lies in naturally beautiful rural hills and mountains and its indigenous communities with their mystical lifestyle and culture. These natural and cultural attributes can be showcased best through homestays. This paper proposes homestays as a pro-women tourism opportunity that promotes sustainable community development by fostering gender equality. Female ownership of homestay businesses secures women's avenues for income generation and involves them in mainstream development. The study's indicators of development are based on the well-being achieved by the Barpaki community, with a focus on three essential aspects of sustainable development, namely economic, environmental and social. The author's (BPA) own experience of collaboration, on behalf of the nation's tourism authority the Nepal Tourism Board, with the community of Barpak in setting-up the homestay management, was a primary source of information for this case along with related literature reviews. The data was derived through community-based action research and evaluation methodologies. Information was based on first-hand experiences generated through ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been successfully tested in leisure and outdoor recreation studies over the last few decades. However, the inclusion of new predictors to improve the theory's ...predictive power has been encouraged. Utilizing leisure constraints approach, we extended the TPB by adding constraints to the theory. The literature also suggested that individuals employ cognitive and behavioural negotiation strategies to overcome their constraints. Therefore, the influence of negotiation through the constraints was also explored in this study. A sample of 1,009 front-country campers was analyzed to test the proposed extension to the TPB. Results of structural equation modeling confirmed a strong, negative indirect association between constraints and intention. Negotiation was positively and indirectly associated with intention. The proposed extension to the TPB was capable of capturing 84% of variation in intention. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Landscapes and settings are important travel motivators, especially for sport tourism events. Understanding perceptions of sportscapes and travel motivations are essential for sport event organizers ...and destination managers' to create sustainable and successful sport tourism events and destinations. This paper reports findings from a survey of active sport tourists' engaged in Bike Fest, a small-scale competitive cycling tourism event held in Banff National Park, Canada during the shoulder tourism season. Enjoyment of Banff's destination attributes (mountains, nature) ranked second to engagement in competition and physical activity, followed by experiencing excitement and stimulation as reasons for visiting. Views on the destination's appropriateness as a site for racing and leisure travel, attachment to the destination, satisfaction with the destination and race venue, and racers' preferences of other types of race settings were additional variables documented in this study. This paper expands our understanding of the role destination attributes play in active sport tourists' travel decisions, and inform efforts to establish a sustainable sport tourism event. It examines event participants' perspectives on the repurposing of a national park as a race event venue and recommends additional study of the intersection of course attributes, place appeal and attachment, competition, and performance as a valuable research direction which will support event and destination development, and visitor experience enhancement.
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BFBNIB, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Participation in sport and recreation may contribute to various holistic benefits among Indigenous youth in Canada. However, there is a need for a consolidated evidence base to support the ...development of sport and recreation opportunities that could facilitate such holistic benefits. The purpose of this research was to produce a meta-study of qualitative research examining sport and recreation experiences of Indigenous youth in Canada. Following record identification and screening, 20 articles were retained for analysis and synthesis. Strengths and weaknesses of included studies were identified through the meta-method and meta-theory analysis. The meta-data analysis revealed five themes that represent the sport and recreation experiences of Indigenous youth. Working collaboratively with community members, our final meta-synthesis situated these five themes within the integrated Indigenous ecological model. This review consolidates the qualitative evidence base, and provides direction for future research and practice.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Park managers use personal interpretation to achieve a variety of outcomes for park visitors and the natural environment. This project examines whether these outcomes are achieved, the factors ...influencing how the outcomes are achieved, and the overlap among these factors across the outcomes. Based on interviews with visitors in three Alberta provincial parks, respondents indicated clear positive changes in enjoyment and perceived learning, but provided less evidence towards changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. Many factors overlapped across the outcomes. These results will help interpretation practitioners plan, deliver, and evaluate programs for achieving desired outcomes in an efficient manner.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
An important form of economic sustainability for tourism businesses is customer loyalty. Using a sample of 387 active sport tourists, factors that influence destination and event tourism loyalty are ...reported on in this paper. Thirty-six per cent of destination loyalty's variance was explained - operationalized as intentions of active sport tourists to revisit and recommend Banff National Park (NP). Thirty-one per cent of event loyalty's variance was explained - operationalized as participation in future offerings of an annual small-scale running race, Melissa's Road Race, located in the park. Destination loyalty was directly and positively predicted by park attachment and indirectly influenced by event attachment, followed by nature-related travel motives, frequency of visits to the park and history of engagement in the race. Event loyalty was directly and positively predicted by event attachment and racers' views regarding the appropriateness of Banff NP as a race context and indirectly by history of race participation. Running travel motives, perceived value of park entry and event fees failed to predict loyalty intentions. Two models were used to explore the 'correct' conceptualization of relationships between event attachment and park attachment. The model that depicted event attachment as an antecedent to park attachment demonstrated better fit with the data, and thus suggests support for the proposition that attachments which develop for special events may in turn support the development of destination attachment.
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BFBNIB, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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