Search Results (8)

In successful scenarios of missions to the Moon and Mars, humans develop multi-factorial systems through adapted behaviors to build cohesive multi-national crews with their individual features. We assume that frequencies of social interactions, social orientations, and facial vs. collateral expressions change according to mixed-culture and mixed-gender crew characteristics and as a function of the crewmember’s grouping at the same time and in the same place. The ethological method, with the phases of observation, description, and quantification of behavioral manifestations, was applied to the SIRIUS program and MARS-500 program. This involved simulating a 120-day confinement, a 240-day confinement, and a 520-day confinement in a multi-module facility. Focus was made on the meal area, sports area, and leisure area. We investigated the full nationality–gender-varied crew and the crewmember’s attendance and localization for distractive or festive activities during their free time. Social optimization declined and then grew in a temporal dynamic. Global behavioral distribution showed differences according to the duration of experiments during collective time. As a result, a system based on crew diversity, crew distraction, and crewmembers’ inter-dependence should be considered as a positive human factor in the process of adaptation with the goal of enhancing the well-being of future interplanetary crews. Full article

This study identifies the destination attributes of sustainable urban waterfronts that are frequently mentioned in tourists’ online reviews. We analyzed the influence of these attributes on tourists’ ratings based on stimuli–organism–response theory, and the associations between these destination attributes. The online reviews (both text reviews and star ratings) from TripAdvisor and Google Maps of the sustainable waterfront destinations of the Liuchuan and Luchuan rivers in Taichung city (Taiwan) were collected and analyzed through text and data mining. Destination attributes were grouped into two types: sustainable landscapes (aesthetics, water resource rehabilitation, sustainable lighting, emotional experiences, and low-impact development waterfronts) and sustainable recreational spaces (leisure activities, festivals, inclusive destinations, photography, and tourist experiences). Two destination attributes common to-- both types were identified: nightscapes and waterfronts. These attributes predicted tourists’ ratings through support vector machine analysis. Sensitivity analysis revealed that sustainable landscape-type attributes had a greater impact on tourists’ ratings than the sustainable recreational space type. In addition, three important association rules between twelve attributes were identified and these helped provide information pattern combination attributes from tourists’ comments with support and confidence for the destination attributes. These findings will contribute to urban planning and design in relation to sustainable waterfront destinations. They highlight the need for planners to consider both tourists’ landscapes and recreational needs in order to achieve economic and ecological sustainability. Full article

The purpose of this research is that through festival participants’ subjective views get a better understanding of how their participation results in positive feelings and well-being. The paper has a qualitative approach based on a delimited part of a larger survey and the content analysis method has been employed. A total of 280 participants, mainly of immigrant origin, answered one of the open-ended questions in the survey: What emotions does celebrating the Fire Festival evoke in you? Please justify your answer. The most common meaning in the answers has been good feelings followed by feelings of integration and community, the return of spring, and nostalgia. The results show that the festival has significance for these peoples’ good feelings and well-being, even though it lasts five hours. This study contributes to increased knowledge of festivals’ positive impacts on individuals, especially on immigrants living in Western countries. Full article

In recent years, tourism products and services have been oriented to offer more experiences than those of classical leisure activities for tourists. More, the COVID-19 pandemic drew a new trend in travel: the tourists are now oriented to internal offers rather than the external ones, to rural regions instead of urban ones. Romania and Moldova are two well-known international countries that are both producers and exporters of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) wine. The aim of the paper is to analyze (qualitative and quantitative) the motivation of tourists from Romania and Moldova for wine tourism, to model the motivation according to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists and the specific elements for travel (accommodation, frequencies of visit, average stay). For quantitative analysis, an online questionnaire by convenience sampling was used to collect the data, and statistical methods were used for analysis. Even if these countries have cultural similarities, our results indicate statistically significant different motivations and different profiles of wine tourists. By using a co-occurrence link between the terms from WoS and Scopus scientific articles with VOSviewer software, our results indicate a link between wine tourism, rural and festivals tourism, and cultural heritage. Our research fills a gap in the literature, being the first comparative research on wine tourism in Romania and Moldova. Full article

The main challenge for sustainable events is to attract residents to participate and to continue participating. Motivation can be used to explain a place and the intention to revisit a place. The main purpose of this study was to explore residents’ place meanings at Peony Culture Festival Luoyang China (PCFLC) and the impact of residents’ motivation on place meaning and place satisfaction with respect to PCFLC. A sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data. The thematic analysis yielded four themes of residents’ place meanings in PCFLC. Structural equation modeling via the bootstrap approach was used to examine the role of residents’ motivation in place making in PCLFC. The results indicated that residents’ place meanings in PCFLC consisted of self-identification, self-development, economic dependence, and leisure, which enriched the types of place meanings. In addition, place meaning had a mediating role in the relationship between autonomous motivation and place satisfaction and a masking role in the relationship between controlled motivation and place satisfaction from the perspective of the self-determination theory. The paper provides a theoretical perspective to explain the effects of motivation on place making and puts forward a practical proposal for the products and marketing of events. Full article

Festive leisure provides experiences that can generate intergenerational well-being. The study aimed to examine the festive leisure activities shared by grandparents and grandchildren, and the link with times, spaces, motives, and well-being that these activities bring to both generations. A cross-sectional telematic survey was carried out with 357 grandparents living in the northern part of Spain, who had grandchildren aged between 6 and 12 years. Both a descriptive and inferential analysis was performed. A high proportion of grandparents and grandchildren share festive activities, which occur on weekends and holiday periods. Private spaces, such as bars, cafeterias, and restaurants are the ones chosen for going out to eat or drink, and open public spaces like parks, squares, and streets are dedicated to traditional festivals, and are excellent scenarios for coexistence and intergenerational social interaction. The reasons that drive this practice are associated with the strengthening of emotional ties and family intimacy. Grandparents consider the practice of shared festive leisure to be beneficial for their personal development because they perceive that, thanks to this leisure, they improve their creativity, physical condition, their happiness and fun, the relationship with their grandchildren, and develop new manual and technical skills. Full article

The aim of this study was to analyze the main leisure habits of students at the University of Huelva and the relationship with perceived health by grouping the various activities into components whilst also evaluating possible gender differences. The sample was selected through random cluster sampling and was composed of 903 students from various courses and degrees. Of the sample, 73.8% were female and 26.2% were male, with a mean age of 20.82 years. The participants responded to items measuring perceived health and the inventory of leisure activities extracted from the INJUVE (Spanish Youth Observatory) survey. The results obtained offered a solution of four components, grouping the activities into passive leisure, festive leisure, sports–competitive leisure and cultural leisure. Passive leisure was the most practiced and cultural leisure the least practiced. Statistically significant differences were observed between men and women in terms of the sports–competitive component and in the perception of health. In addition, a direct relationship was found between the sports–competitive dimension and health perception. These results support the existence of a “techno-active” profile in males and should be considered in the creation of university policies linked to health promotion or the prevention of risk behaviors. Full article

Many cities organize annual local festivals for the positive effects on urban development, although success is far from straightforward. This article reviews a case study of the World Port Days in Rotterdam in order to demonstrate how annual city festivals can contribute to sustainable competitiveness, despite limitations as well. We show how this maritime event—that is jointly organized by the business community, the Port Authority and the City Government—offers benefits for citizens as well as for firms. Our empirical results unveil that the business value of the event includes generation of societal support, image improvement, labor market development and networking, while the value for society refers to education, leisure and to a certain degree to social inclusion. The direct value of the event for business in terms of sales and recruitment is limited, while the long-term effects of educational function deserve further attention. Finally, we provide policy lessons that, when properly contextualized, other cities may help to use annual local festivals as tools for sustainable competitiveness. Full article