The Demarcated Douro Region is one of the oldest demarcated wine regions, and the largest and the most heterogeneous mountainous wine region in the world. Viticulture covers 44,000ha, and since 2001 ...an area covering 24,600ha has been designated as the most representative territory of the Demarcated Douro Region, the Alto Douro Wine Region. This region is included in the list of World Heritage Sites as an evolving and living cultural landscape. The Demarcated Douro Region fits the terroir model, as its economy is based on wine (Porto wine and Douro still wines), supplemented by tourism. During recent decades, both activities have witnessed deep and structural changes, with consequences for the maintenance of the traditional characteristics of the cultural landscape that drove the UNESCO classification. With this issue in mind, the goal of this paper is to describe the recent evolution of the main economic activities of the Demarcated Douro Region. In particular, we aim to deepen the knowledge about the preferences of Portuguese visitors towards the Alto Douro Wine Region and its attributes, thus determining those that deserve preservation and, consequently, public attention. The results of a mixed logit model show that visitors assign highest utility to the preservation of vineyards supported by schist walls, followed by the agglomerations and the characteristic mosaic nature of the landscape. Additionally, respondents who are richer, employed, better educated, better informed regarding the culture of the site and more influenced by the listing are more willing to participate in preserving the cultural heritage of the region.
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The coronavirus has caused an economic crisis not only directly in the tourism sector, but also in areas directly and indirectly related to it. Capital turnover decreased from 2089.1 million to 690.1 ...million compared to the previous 2019. In February 2020 alone, the number of international tourists decreased by 0.7% compared to the same period last year. The decrease in tourists was reflected in the restaurant business, the turnover of shopping facilities, etc. Compared to 2019, the number of employees in hotels and restaurants alone has decreased by more than 18 thousand people. A significant decrease was also observed in the Imereti region. Corona virus COVID-19 poses a significant threat to both the global and regional economies. Today, the negative impact of the pandemic on the world economy has become irreversible. It is impossible to make an accurate forecast in today’s rapidly changing environment. The first case of kovidivirus in Georgia was detected on February 26, 2020, and already in March the visible effects of the pandemic began to be detected: Increased demands on products; The inevitable rise in unemployment; Reduction of international remittances; A sharp decrease in the flow of foreign tourists, etc. Recently, tourism has become one of the leading sectors of our country's economy, accounting for 11% of Georgia's GDP. The number of visitors in 2019 exceeded 9.3 million, which was 7.8% more than in the previous 2018, the increase was visible every year. With this in mind, the number of visitors was expected to increase to 10 million by 2020. The coronavirus has dealt one of the biggest blows to world tourism and caused an economic crisis. Georgia is no exception. The aim of our paper is to determine based on a comparative analysis of statistical materials provided by Geostat, the Agency of Protected Areas and the National Tourism Administration how much the Covid virus has changed the expected results in the tourism sector as a whole in the country and in the Imereti region. COVID-19 has had the most negative impact on the tourism industry precisely because of closed borders and fears of travel. According to the analysis of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which considers the SARS scenario of the pandemic in 2003 as a potential model, world tourism should expect a 1-3% decrease in visitors, while according to the forecast made in 2019, the number of visitors in 2020 is 3-4% Should increase global tourism to a total loss of $ 30-50 billion (UNCTAD, 2020: 9.03). The global tourism crisis has had a big impact on Georgia as well, already in February 2020 the number of international tourists decreased by 0.7% compared to the same period last year. However, during the same period, there was a certain increase in some countries, in particular, a 161.5% increase was observed in tourists from Estonia in February. Significant increase in tourist flow was also observed from other EU countries: Poland - 84.8%. Italy - 81.2%, France - 52.4% and Germany - 38%. Since travel restrictions have already been extended to virtually all countries, including neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia, the impact on the tourism sector has clearly increased. Closed borders and travel restrictions will hurt Georgia's tourism sector and likely slow down the market diversification process. To assess the scale of the economic impact, it should be noted that according to official data for 2018, 44,663 people were employed in hotels and restaurants alone; In 2019, there were 48,634, the same data as 38,661 people in the first quarter of 2020, which decreased to 30,215 people in the second quarter. That is, compared to 2019, the number of employees in hotels and restaurants alone has decreased by more than 18 thousand people. And capital turnover decreased from 2089.1 million to 690.1 million compared to the previous 2019 (data for 2 quarters of 2020). The same data in the Imereti region in 2019 amounted to 2536 people. There is also a significant decrease in the number of visitors to protected areas. Analyzing the statistical materials of the Agency of Protected Areas, we find that 112612 visitors (including 21176 foreigners) visited the Protected Areas of Georgia during the first 7 months of 2020, the same figure was 1,199,011 for 2019, ie only 11.6 % of the total number of visitors in the previous year. If we take into account the fact that in previous years the number of visitors in the first five included 3 protected areas from Imereti - Prometheus Cave, Sataplia and Okatse Canyon this year only Prometheus Cave entered the top five and it is in the third place with 10,581 visitors. In 2019, it was visited by 184,264 visitors. The situation is the same in Okatse Canyon last year it hosted more than 92 thousand visitors, this year only 52 96 (instead of the projected 100 000 visitors), Sataplia visited 6002 visitors in 7 months in 7 months, the same figure in 2019 was 741988 visitors. The number of visits to the above facilities alone shows how big the difference is in the number of visitors of the past and present years. Added to this are the indirectly related sectors of tourism, which clearly shows the economic crisis in the tourism sector of Imereti. It is hoped that the corona virus COVID-19 will soon be overcome in the world, including Georgia, and will start economic progress, including in the tourism sector. It is also encouraging that National Geographic, one of the most influential travel publications in the world, has named Georgia, Svaneti region, among the top 25 destinations in the world in 2021, which tourists should visit in the post-pandemic period. The American travel magazine "Thrillist" describes the 13 best countries, where it advises American citizens to live, in which it names Georgia among the popular tourist countries. The journalist of the publication recommends using the project "Work from Georgia" to come to Georgia. The Georgian government has eased visa requirements for participants in the project, and with the new "Work from Georgia" program, foreigners can work remotely from Georgia and spend a full year in the country, earning at least $ 2,000 a month. - The author of the article writes and notes that Georgia attracts travelers to the Caucasus Mountains, Georgian cuisine, wine and affordable prices (nationalgeographic, 2020). According to the National Tourism Administration, up to 1,100 citizens from different countries were registered within the framework of the project "Work from Georgia" from August 27 to October 25. Hopefully, more travelers will be interested in this project, they will come to Georgia, including the Imereti region, which will at least partially improve the economic situation in the country's tourism sector.
This study aimed to investigate the experiences of long-distance visitors of major trauma patients admitted to intensive care units at a regional major trauma centre.
Postal survey.
Survey ...participants (n = 103) at a regional major trauma centre in England, United Kingdom, were identified from hospital records. Included were adult visitors (next of kin) of major trauma patients admitted to intensive care at the study site between January 2016 and July 2018, with ordinary residence located more than one hour’s drive from the major trauma centre.
Response rate was 45.6%. Median (range) driving distance between respondents’ residence and the major trauma centre was 57.8 km (28.8–331.5). Median (range) number of days respondents visited at the major trauma centre was 18 (1–200). The quality of care at the centre was rated highly. Visitors described their often-challenging circumstances, negotiating the emotional, psychological, physical and financial impact of the situation. Suggested areas for improvement included car parking, signposting on and around the site, information provision, waiting areas and accommodation at or nearby the major trauma centre.
This study has described experiences of long-distance visitors at one regional major trauma centre in England and identified opportunities to ameliorate visitors’ stress points locally. Replication at other regional centres may be warranted.
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This article explores the potential of geotagged data from social networks to analyse visitors' behaviour in national parks, taking the Teide National Park as a study area. Given its unique landscape ...and characteristics, plus the fact that it is the most visited national park in Spain, Teide National Park presents itself as a suitable candidate to explore new sources of data for studying visitors' behaviour in national parks. Through data from a social photo-sharing website (Flickr) and GPS tracks from a web platform (Wikiloc), we outline several visitors' characteristics such as the spatial distribution of visitors, the points of interest with the most visits, itinerary network, temporal distribution and visitors' country of origin. Additionally, we propose a practical use of geotagged data for determining optimal locations for new facilities such as information stands. Results show that data from social networks is suitable to analyse visitor behaviour in protected areas.
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•Visitors who follow an ordered route as well as those who anticipate the content become more satiated.•Longer visit and anticipating the content diminish visitors’ emotional response.•Visitors ...follow a self-regulatory process and adapt the time spent to their level of satiation.•The level of attention might be low if the visit is too short or if the content is not anticipated.
Museums seek to provide visitors with memorable experiences. However, some visitors experience a hedonic decline and satiation after their visit. The present research aims to evaluate how the time spent, the route, and the anticipation of the visit might either prevent or further visitor satiation. A field study and a field experiment are performed. Findings reveal that spending more time in the museum and anticipating the content can increase the perceived satiation and diminish visitors' emotional response, although the attention level diminishes for short visits and when the content is not anticipated. In a real context, following a free route reduces perceived satiation, with visitors following a self-regulatory process and adapting the time spent to the level of satiation.
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Victorian commentators identified visitors' books with mass tourism and disparaged their contents as banal and absurd. However, a historicised approach shows that inscription conventions and ...commentators' expectations were influenced by the print mediation of earlier practices centred on blank books, notably poetry composed for British country house albums. This article demonstrates how album poetry published in the late eighteenth century shaped later practice in, and reception of, visitors' books. An artform which could elevate the album beyond recording fleeting encounters with places and persons, album poetry shows writers deploying literary strategies to construct a guest-host dynamic which navigates between the familiar and formal, and between hospitality and payment. Album poetry establishes a complimentary rhetoric and fantasy of hospitality and belonging that sets an unrealistic model for Victorian contributions to visitors' books in public and commercial settings.
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Over the last 20 years, there has been a growing interest in the analysis of museum experiences. Different authors have approached this subject from various perspectives, but only a few have focused ...on the idea of satisfactory experiences. This study sheds light on this field of knowledge, exploring the factors involved in satisfactory museum experiences. It clarifies how subjective factors (experience dimensions) and the museum environment (contextual components) are related and play a role in shaping those visitor experiences. For this purpose, a quantitative methodology was selected. In 2019 a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 685 visitors to 16 Spanish museums, which confirmed that their museum experience was the result of their interaction with the museum, its characteristics, and its contents. The visitor experience was satisfactory when their interaction had an impact on some dimensions of their experience. This varied according to each visitor's profile and what they valued most. The results showed that, despite the subjective nature of the experience, museums play an essential role as facilitators of satisfactory experiences. They can modulate the role played by the various components of the museum context in their visits, depending on the profiles of their visitors and their orientation toward one type of experience or another.
One of the most compelling, yet little known stories of race relations in the twentieth century is the account of blacks who chose to leave the United States to be involved in the Soviet Experiment ...in the 1920s and 1930s. Frustrated by the limitations imposed by racism in their home country, African Americans were lured by the promise of opportunity abroad. A number of them settled there, raised families, and became integrated into society. The Soviet economy likewise reaped enormous benefits from the talent and expertise that these individuals brought, and the all around success story became a platform for political leaders to boast their party goals of creating a society where all members were equal.In Blacks, Reds, and Russians, Joy Gleason Carew offers insight into the political strategies that often underlie relationships between different peoples and countries. She draws on the autobiographies of key sojourners, including Harry Haywood and Robert Robinson, in addition to the writings of Claude McKay, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. Interviews with the descendents of figures such as Paul Robeson and Oliver Golden offer rare personal insights into the story of a group of emigrants who, confronted by the daunting challenges of making a life for themselves in a racist United States, found unprecedented opportunities in communist Russia.
Theme parks face stiff competition in local and international markets. Theme parks tend to create competitive advantages in the market by investing in different factors which influence visitors' ...selection of a theme park. Theme parks attract visitors from all nationalities. The purpose of this study was to explore six influencing factors on U.S. theme park visitors' choice that can be applicable in different geographic positioning parks. A choice-based conjoint (CBC) model was designed with respective levels for six considered influencing factors: type of park, price, distance from accommodation, children friendly, and online reviews. The findings revealed that online reviews were the most important relative factor followed closely by price and type of theme park. The other factors shared a lower relative importance. CBC analysis results generated the best and the worst profile for theme parks, which can serve as a guide theme park managers as they invest and plan strategically for success. Results of this study of U.S. parks but as theme parks are targeted toward similar populations the results could have implications internationally.
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