Virtual reality (VR) as a communication tool is increasingly gaining attention in various contexts, including the promotion of fundraising and donation‐based activities. Recent academic literature ...tends to focus on VR as a valuable tool for human‐human donation, with little consideration of the human‐animal donation context. Furthermore, the use of key flagship species can encourage donations for the specific animal and provide broader conservation and economic benefits, including encouraging tourism and visitor spending. However, work needs to explore VR as a tool for flagship species donation versus other forms of communication tools and the impact this could have on broader conservation goals. Two studies were conducted to investigate VR in a human‐animal donation context using two modalities (VR and static advertisement). Study 1 investigates the mediating role of psychological elements: empathy and enjoyment, while Study 2 examines the mediating role of technological elements of VR: usability and telepresence. We found that VR increases enjoyment and engagement with the flagship species, increasing the likelihood of donating. VR also increases telepresence, and the usability of the VR tool positively affects donors' likelihood to donate. Our findings inform a future research agenda to consider VR in a donation context further.
Robot use in the service industry has been gaining momentum, not only for potential cost reduction reasons, but to allow establishments to improve their service quality. However, little work has been ...conducted on customers’ intention to dine at a restaurant based on the congruency of the robots and the establishments, the task complexity and the likeability of the robots. Three studies were conducted through an experimental design. We investigated the mediating role of anthropomorphism on customers’ intention to dine (Study 1), and the role of service establishment type (Study 2). We also considered task complexity to be delivered by robots (Study 3ab). We find that customers prefer human-delivered services but are willing to dine at a casual service establishment that uses robots. Furthermore, customers favor the use of robots as an opportunity for human employees to level up their job rather than as a substitute.
•Anthropomorphism mediates between human versus robots and customers’ intention to dine.•Robots are more acceptable in casual dining establishments than in fine dining establishments.•Customers prefer robots to support the growth of employees rather than as a substitute for human employees.
Customer relationship marketing (CRM) initiatives are increasingly being adopted by businesses in the attempt to enhance brand loyalty and stimulate repeat purchases. The purpose of this study was to ...examine the extent to which destination marketing organisations (DMOs) around the world have developed a visitor relationship marketing (VRM) orientation. The proposition underpinning the study is that maintaining meaningful dialogue with previous visitors in some markets would represent a more efficient use of resources than above the line advertising to attract new visitors. Importance-performance analysis was utilised to measure destination marketers’ perceptions of the efficacy of CRM initiatives, and then rate their own organisation’s performance across the same range of initiatives. A key finding was that mean importance was higher than perceived performance for every item. While the small sample limits generalisability, in general there are appears to be a lack of strategic intent by DMOs to invest in VRM.
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and using Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the authors trace the interactions of a primary actor and other agents within the context of the volunteer tourist experience ...at a children's home in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This paper has two key objectives; first to sketch the volunteer tourism reality as it is shaped by the actions of different actors, and second to showcase how this sensitively balanced ecosystem was significantly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Staying true to the ANT approach and ‘following the actor’ (Latour, 1993), the authors demonstrate how the volunteer tourist setting is relationally reproduced through the incessant alignment of different human and non-human actors and their sometimes conflicting interests and actions. By taking this radical approach, we reveal the need to reconsider the narrative that views all children in orphanages in the global South as victims and pawns of the ‘orphan industrial complex’ and how the children's home in the study offers much-needed support to children and people that have no safety net. The study shows that these actors sometimes unknowingly become part of the network and serve a good cause while acting in pursuit of their own interests.
Ancestry has received limited attention within the tourism literature but is shown to play a crucial role in heritage tourism, especially for countries with extended diasporas such as Ireland, Italy ...India, China, and Scotland. The purpose of this study is to explore ancestral tourist motivations, and attain a broader understanding of this market. A survey of 282 ancestral tourists allowed the identification of three key factors: ancestral tourist motivation; heritage tourist motivations; and mass tourist motivation. These themes enabled a detailed analysis of clusters, identifying four ancestral segments: full heritage immersion; the ancestral enthusiast; general interest; and heritage focused. Given the lack of funding and resources currently available to ancestral tourism providers, the identification of these factors goes some way to highlighting productive areas of focus for promotional efforts and resources.
•Three key ancestral motivations are identified: ancestral, heritage, and mass.•Four ancestral tourist clusters identified using motivations.•Personal ancestry is confirmed as the main reason of travel for ancestral tourists.•However, without other elements there is a strong risk of under providing.
Diaspora, authenticity and the imagined past Bryce, Derek; Murdy, Samantha; Alexander, Matthew
Annals of tourism research,
September 2017, 2017-09-00, 20170901, Letnik:
66
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
•Explores authentication through the phenomenon of ancestral tourism in Scotland.•Reveals authenticity as a process of co-creation driven by tourists and heritage professionals.•Proposes that ...‘authentically imagined pasts’ in the diaspora are part of this process.•Understands authentication as a historically contingent process.•Explores professional heritage practice responds to the ancestral market.
Ancestral tourism in Scotland, a sector of the heritage tourism market sensitive to consumer personalisation, has particular propensities towards process-driven co-created experiences. These experiences occur within existing categories of object-based and existential notions of authenticity alongside an emergent category of the ‘authentically imagined past’. The latter of these modes reveals a complex interplay between professionally endorsed validation of the empirical veracity of objects, documents and places and deeply held, authentically imagined, narratives of ‘home’. These narratives, built up in the Diaspora over centuries, drive new processes towards authenticity in tourism. We conducted 31 interviews across 27 sites throughout Scotland with curators, archivists, and volunteers to explore these notions of authenticity within the ancestral tourism context.
Using data collected from 9,508 volunteer tourists, we employ Critical Incident Technique to identify and explore the volunteers' experience and how this affects the liminality of their journeys. ...What becomes apparent is that the liminality of the experience can have uncertain outcomes as volunteer tourists have to navigate living conditions, culture, operational differences, and feelings of marginalisation and vulnerability, all while feeling powerless to make meaningful change. As such, volunteer-sending organisations should be mindful of the use of transformation within the marketing of their programmes, given the highly individualised experiences of volunteers. The use of transformation should be fine-tuned to the individual, their expectations, and the contribution they wish to make.
Delivering the Past Alexander, Matthew; Bryce, Derek; Murdy, Samantha
Journal of travel research,
04/2017, Letnik:
56, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Heritage tourism is increasingly viewed as both an individual and experiential phenomenon as well as being related to specific attributes of a destination. Ancestral tourism fits the former ...perspective and centers on tourists traveling to sites which they perceive to be a “homeland” where, during the visit, they attempt to discover more about their own heritage. This study explores ancestral tourism from a provider perspective focusing on the delivery of tourist experiences and relationships between tourists and the place visited. The research is based on a qualitative study of tourist and nontourist specific providers across Scotland with data collected using in-depth interviews. This study reveals a phenomenon that delivers deeply personal experiences to visitors and where encounters involve intense, often lengthy, interactions between visitors and providers. Ancestral tourism experiences are also often centered on tourism provision within local communities, which can present challenges to both provider and tourist alike.
This research provides the first examination of the effectiveness of cryptocurrencies as an innovative recovery tool. Through four experiments, we assess the effects of crypto-compensation against ...traditional compensation types (voucher/cash) on customer recovery satisfaction. Study 1 findings indicate that crypto-compensation is more effective than voucher and cash in improving customer recovery satisfaction. Further, it shows that consumer innovativeness moderates the effectiveness of crypto-compensation. After establishing the effectiveness of crypto-compensation, Study 2 finds a moderating effect of consumer choice in influencing crypto-compensation effectiveness. Study 3 reveals the differential effect of communicating different crypto-compensation benefits on customer recovery satisfaction. Finally, Study 4 concludes that familiar cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin vs. EOS) best restore satisfaction after a failure and that compensation message framing (i.e., cryptocurrency monetary value vs. real nominal value) moderates this relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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