This study examines the role of social distance in the relationships between people of different faiths visiting the sacred sites of others, with Lumbini, Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, as a case ...study. The findings of this study suggest that Hindus and Christians visited Lumbini because they considered Buddhists more closely aligned to their own faith than other groups were. Further, this paper examines how people view themselves as tourists, pilgrims, tourists and pilgrims, or none of these labels. The self-identified visitor type varies in terms of motivations. In common with extant religious tourism literature, the study shows that those who identify themselves as pilgrims have higher religious motivations, and those who identify themselves as tourists have higher recreational or cultural motivations. In this study, social distance determined the relational structures, similarities and dissimilarities between travelers of different faiths consuming the same tourism spaces.
•Relationships between people of different faiths visiting the sacred sites of others are complex.•Social distance is useful to explain why people of different faiths visit the sacred sites of others.•Four motivational domains of tourists visiting a Buddhist site are identified.•Tourist-pilgrim is explained adding a cultural/societal dimension on how the terms are defined.
Heritage tourism has attracted attention academically and in the industry. We study how preference for heritage tourism is motivated by individuals' need to belong, which varies as a result of ...differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In two studies, we measure this natural manipulation of need to belong and study its impact in a quasi-experimental manner. We find that need to belong affects preference for heritage tourism through its effect on nostalgic feeling. Individuals with higher need to belong have higher state nostalgia and prefer heritage tourism that may help satisfy their nostalgic yearning. In addition, we identify the moderating role of trait nostalgia proneness. Individuals who are more nostalgia-prone are more susceptible to this need-to-belong effect.
•Need to belong varies with the degree of social isolation resulting from COVID-19.•Increased need to belong enhances preference for heritage tourism.•Nostalgia mediates the effect of need to belong on preference for heritage tourism.•Trait nostalgia proneness moderates the effect of need to belong on nostalgia state.
The popularity of media sharing platforms in recent decades has provided an abundance of open source data that remains underutilized by heritage scholars. By pairing geotagged internet photographs ...with machine learning and computer vision algorithms, we build upon the current theoretical discourse of anthropology associated with visuality and heritage tourism to identify travel patterns across a known archaeological heritage circuit, and quantify visual culture and experiences in Cuzco, Peru. Leveraging large-scale in-the-wild tourist photos, our goals are to (1) understand how the intensification of tourism intersects with heritage regulations and social media, aiding in the articulation of travel patterns across Cuzco's heritage landscape; and to (2) assess how aesthetic preferences and visuality become entangled with the rapidly evolving expectations of tourists, whose travel narratives are curated on social media and grounded in historic site representations.
•First study to quantify visual culture of heritage tourism in Cuzco, Peru.•Tourist movements are attributable to changes in available BTC ticket packages.•Homogeneity of image clusters high at large heritage sites, diverse at small sites.•Common image themes: ruins, mountains, terracing, indigenous peoples, markets.•Affinity propagation, t-sne, scene labeling as tools for future heritage studies.
This study aims to investigate the interplay of visitor engagement, authenticity, and destination image in driving revisit and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) intentions of heritage tourists through ...the mediating role of Memorable Tourism Experiences (MTE). The data for this research were collected from tourists in the UNESCO-listed heritage city of Kashan, Iran. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, the study's findings highlighted the importance of MTE as a mediator of these interrelationships. The results also identified the positive direct and indirect effects of visitor engagement on revisit and eWOM intentions. The indirect effects of authenticity on revisit and eWOM intentions through MTE were also significant. The findings also showed the positive direct and indirect effects of destination image on eWOM intention, with the indirect effect on revisit intention being significant. The practical implications of the study and potential future directions for research are also discussed in the conclusion section.
•The potential influencers of MTE in the backdrop of heritage tourism was investigated.•Visitor engagement, authenticity, and destination image positively affect MTE.•MTE was identified as a mediator in enhancing behavioural intentions of heritage tourists.•The study provides a broader understanding of heritage tourists' experiences.
Fantasy fiction inspires many tourists to seek out and explore sites associated with the originality and inspiration of the production of texts. This paper investigates how both tourists and tourism ...providers infuse their authentication of urban legends about the inspiration for Harry Potter locations with imagination and (dis)belief. The study extends the theory of hot authentication and assesses author inspiration as an object of tourist desire. Data analysis includes TripAdvisor reviews of the Shambles in York and semi-structured interviews with fantasy tourism providers. We identify four categories of belief in urban legends: heightened belief, uncertainty, disbelief, and the suspension of disbelief. Our findings demonstrate how hot authentication involves off-centred universe-building which transforms historic streets and simulacra into magical loci.
•The research expands hot authentication into the imaginative.•Inspiration is examined as an original object of tourist desire.•Tourists show heightened belief, uncertainty and disbelief in urban legends.•The suspension of disbelief augments hot authentication.
Understanding spatial patterns of visitation and benefits accrued to different types of natural and cultural heritage tourists may have important implications for the sustainable management of their ...destinations. We investigate cultural services accrued to local, domestic and international visitors to the Usumacinta floodplain, a coastal region with one of the highest biological and cultural diversities in Mexico. We combine analysis of social media photographs and high-resolution land cover mapping to identify different cultural services and their association with specific ecosystem and land cover types. Hotspots for international tourists are spatially restricted to well-known and accessible sites. Locals are 2.2–2.5 times more likely than international visitors to be associated with aesthetic appreciation and birdwatching. Locals upload more photographs of coastal lagoons, mangroves, beach and sea. Results are analyzed in light of land cover changes in the region and provide valuable information to decision makers for improved tourism management and conservation strategies.
•We investigate benefits of visitors to the Usumacinta floodplain with high-res land cover maps and geotagged photographs.•Hotspots for international tourists are spatially restricted to well--known and accessible sites.•Locals are more likely than international visitors to be associated with aesthetic appreciation and birdwatching.•Coastal lagoons and riverine wetlands being more highly photographed by locals than by international tourists.•Local residents may be more substantially affected by recent land cover changes than international tourists.
Virtual reality (VR) plays a relevant role in the tourism sector, specifically in experiences of remote attractions. The influence of VR experiences on tourist experiential factors such as ...authenticity and satisfaction has attracted limited attention. This paper investigates the role of object‐based and existential authenticity in non‐immersive virtual heritage tours. A theoretically driven model was tested on data from 2085 individuals who visited “Su Nuraxi” UNESCO site (Italy). Findings indicate that object‐based authenticity influences affective response, which predicts satisfaction, attachment to VR and visit intention. Existential authenticity influences both cognitive and affective dimensions, which affect attachment to VR, satisfaction and visit intention.
Viewpoints on AR and VR in heritage tourism Shafiee Roodposhti, Maysam; Esmaeelbeigi, Faezeh
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage,
June 2024, 2024-06-00, Volume:
33
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In recent years, the emerging digital technologies of VR and AR have had practical applications for visitors in the tourism sector. The purpose of this study was to identify the usage of VR and AR in ...heritage tourism based on the experience of tourists. Twenty-two thousand user reviews about AR and VR from websites in the field of tourism were extracted by Python and analyzed with text mining techniques. The usages are classified into six main categories: Introducing the heritage, helping to recognize the heritage, encouraging the desire to visit and facilitating the possibility of visiting the heritage, the effectiveness of managing the costs of the visit, and the possibility of sensory experience. These six categories, in the form of “heritage identification” and “heritage experience,” enhance visitors' information about heritage destinations, increase the quality of the visit experience, and ultimately improve visitor satisfaction. The results of this study can inform tourism marketing and future technology integration. Therefore, this area should be paid attention to by tourism professionals, and the advantages can be harnessed to create sustainable virtual experiences.
This paper examines the visitor experience of heritage tourism and investigates the relationships between the quality of those experiences, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. A ...total of 447 respondents completed a survey conducted at four main heritage sites in Tainan, Taiwan. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, the results reveal the direct effects of the quality of experience on perceived value and satisfaction. However, it is the indirect and not direct effects of the quality of experience that impact on behavioral intentions when mediated by perceived value and satisfaction. Overall, the relationship “experience quality
→
perceived value
→
satisfaction
→
behavioral intentions” appears to be evident.
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