Search Results (121)

Based on a literature review, the present article aims to present ecotourism as a transformative factor in the economic, social, cultural, and environmental contexts, revealing key elements for the sustainable development of ecotourism. To ensure that this objective is met, the review combines the insights of classical authors and many recent authors who have best addressed the subject. The review carefully selected consensual and contradictory arguments, reflecting on the relevance of each group, particularly in aspects such as the influence of emotional experience on behaviour and satisfaction, strategy and competitive advantage, cooperation and sustainability, and the influence of resilience on ecotourism. The impact of each perspective was presented without ignoring the major constraints that ecotourism faces in its search for a position in the tourism industry. This led the study to accept the fact that the active participation of the community is indispensable in the formula for the success of ecotourism. Some statistical data were consulted and analysed, which enabled the study to determine the quantitative impact of ecotourism on economic, social, and environmental life. In terms of benefits to communities, the review clarifies the fact that ecotourism serves as an instrument that mobilizes not only the additional value of products and services traded in the process, but also the return on investments and job creation. The combination of visiting activities with the involvement of tour guides contributes to maximizing profits in the destinations, thus supporting solid economic, social, and environmental development for the benefit of both ecotourism promoters and local communities. However, the analysis makes it clear that the economic, social, and environmental benefit depends on the degree of involvement of the local population. In terms of usability, for other studies, this review can contribute to the understanding and positioning of ecotourism in the search for a balance between satisfying socioeconomic and environmental interests. Additionally, it can serve as an aid to policy makers in their decisions related to ecotourism. Full article

Background: Lung ultrasound (LUS) can be used at follow-up for patients with stable interstitial lung disease (ILD). LUS could also help guide the diagnosis of etiology for acute respiratory episodes. Methods: We conducted a prospective, one-center, observational study including patients with ILD hospitalized in the pulmonology unit or in the intensive care unit of the Tours University Hospital for acute dyspnea. LUS was performed at admission and then at a follow-up visit in the six months following discharge. We compared the number of B-lines between the two LUSs. We also compared the features of the first LUS between the different etiologies responsible for increased dyspnea. Results: Of 24 patients, 16 had acute ILD exacerbation (67%), 6 had pulmonary infections (25%) and 2 had acute heart failure (8%). LUS was feasible in all patients and always showed lung sliding, pleural irregularities and B-lines. There were pleural effusions in four cases (17%) and pulmonary consolidations in two cases (8%). Seven patients had A-lines in at least one thoracic space on the initial LUS. We found a significant decrease in the number of B-lines at follow-up (76; IQR, [59–86.75]) compared to admission (86.5; IQR, [71.5–94.5]) (p-value = 0.02). There was a trend of more A-lines in patients with infection (1 [0.25–1.75]) compared to AE-ILD (0 [0–0]). Conclusions: Following an episode of acute dyspnea in patients with ILD, LUS shows a decrease in the number of B-lines. Patients with ILD and concurrent pulmonary infection may have more A-lines than patients with AE-ILD. Full article

Students who enter higher education as independent students do not bring with them the financial and familial support that their dependent counterparts experience. When these needs are not met, their likelihood of graduating is decreased. One method that has shown promise for addressing support that promotes belonging and well-being is peer mentorship. The following study presents data collected from students at a western, urban, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) who participated in a program designed for supporting financial, academic, and emotional needs of independent students. A community based participatory research (CBPR) framework was implemented to design the peer mentorship model, develop the evaluation plan, complete data collection and analysis, and guide dissemination. We used a mixed methods design collecting both survey and listening tour data simultaneously regarding students’ support networks, sense of belonging, and perspectives of the peer mentoring model. While the evidence for the efficacy of peer mentorship is abundant, the inclusion of a CBPR framework in higher education has not been well explored. Key findings demonstrated that the use of a CBPR framework for development and evaluation of peer mentoring increased the mentor’s sense of belonging and increased engagement with their community. Similarly, mentees identified that peer mentorship increased their sense of belonging, particularly when their mentor had a shared identity, beyond that of student, that allowed for an unspoken understanding of lived experience. Recommendations for higher education to support the emotional well-being and sense of belonging among independent students will be presented. Full article

This study addresses the critical need for an evaluation framework for tour guides within the rapidly expanding tourism sector of Saudi Arabia. Employing the best–worst method, a robust multi-criteria decision-making technique, this study identifies and prioritizes key criteria for tour guide performance. Experts ranked local cultural and historical background as the most significant attribute, demonstrating its importance in delivering authentic and enriching visitor experiences. Results revealed the relative weights of other criteria, highlighting the significance of several factors such as language proficiency, time management, and environmental and ethical awareness. Notably, technology adaption criterion received the lowest weighting, indicating a potential area for future focus within the Saudi tourism sector. The study’s findings provide a foundational framework for developing a comprehensive tour guide evaluation system. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on tour guide evaluation and offers practical implications for training and development initiatives within the Saudi Arabian tourism industry. Full article

Wine tourism is a key segment of the global tourism industry, offering visitors opportunities to explore vineyards, taste wines, and experience cultural heritage. This study examines online reviews to identify positive and negative themes of wine tourism experiences and explores how perceptions vary among traveler types. Data were collected from 2850 TripAdvisor reviews of wineries in Bordeaux, Champagne, and Burgundy, France, and analyzed using Leximancer software. The findings reveal seven key themes, including Wine Quality, Tasting Experiences, Tour Guides, Vineyard Views, and Cultural Charm, alongside Dissatisfaction with Time Management and Value for Money. Variations among traveler types highlight distinct preferences, with solo travelers valuing education, couples prioritizing romance, groups focusing on culture, and families concerned with organization. This study contributes to research on experiential tourism by addressing diverse visitor expectations and enhancing service quality. Full article

In the digital era, user-generated online reviews serve as a valuable resource for understanding visitor experiences in cultural institutions. This study analyses sentiments and thematic trends in TripAdvisor reviews of mountain museums, using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling and sentiment analysis. A dataset of 2157 reviews from ten museums was classified into local and non-local perspectives, revealing significant differences in visitor expectations. Findings indicate that local visitors prioritize historical authenticity and educational value, whereas non-local visitors emphasize aesthetic appeal, interactivity, and cultural immersion. Sentiment analysis highlights generally positive perceptions, with business travellers and groups of friends reporting the highest satisfaction levels. Comparative analysis across visitor types reveals distinct engagement patterns, with families valuing child-friendly exhibits, couples seeking cultural enrichment, and solo travellers focusing on intellectual depth. These insights inform strategic recommendations for museum management, including multilingual content, interactive elements, and guided tours dedicated to specific visitor profiles. Despite limitations related to lack of real-time feedback, this research demonstrates the potential of sentiment analysis in enhancing museum experiences. Future studies should integrate multimodal analysis and real-time tracking to further refine visitor experience evaluation. Full article

The research contributes to developing and implementing four tourist hubs in Salamanca, León, and Zamora (Spain) territories and the District of Guarda (Portugal). These hubs will act as innovation pivots promoting innovative, sustainable, and inclusive rural tourism and creating specific territorial ecosystems in each region. The main objective is to boost new economic activities and generate employment, especially for priority groups, through smart specialisation and strengthening local economies. The research also focuses on strengthening tourism value chains, making them more competitive and resilient, emphasising accessibility and inclusion. Within a focus group methodology, a SOAR analysis was undertaken. Three stakeholder groups from Portugal and Spain participated in this study: consumers, distributors/marketing professionals (tour operators, tourist offices), and producers (hotels, restaurants, and museums). They participated in collaborative activities within the SOAR framework to understand the needs of tourists, especially those with reduced mobility, and to identify barriers and opportunities for innovation in the sector. The results offer a framework for tourism providers to develop Accessible and Inclusive Rural Tourism Ecosystems by enhancing understanding and improving accessibility for groups with specific needs. It outlines actionable methods for creating inclusive tourism hubs as “innovation pivots,” establishing performance metrics, and fostering stakeholder collaboration to guide evidence-based policies. Full article

Geoparks, via the ABC geotourism concept, represent ideal places to effectively combine natural and cultural heritage, allowing visitors to better understand the country’s history and development. In this way, the sustainable development of local communities is promoted and contributes to the protection of the unique natural and cultural values of the region. Proper presentation of natural and cultural heritage in a geopark is key to developing soft forms of tourism, e.g., geotourism or ecotourism. The paper focuses on Slovak geoparks with a special emphasis on analysing the information availability and presentation of both natural and cultural heritage in these areas from the perspective of potential geopark visitors. Based on the analysis and evaluation of defined categories, including websites, social media platforms, mobile applications, information centres, brochures, educational trails, information panels, and guided tours, results show that, in general, existing geoparks’ promotional materials can be considered the best source of information on heritage and its presentation. On the other hand, the most significant identified shortcomings include insufficient use of mobile applications, a lack of educational activities, and the relatively low quality of existing educational trails. However, considerable differences exist in information access and heritage presentation in Slovak geoparks. Based on the findings, specific measures are suggested as potential solutions to enable the appropriate and correct presentation of heritage in the territories of Slovak geoparks. Their practical application will contribute to the development of Slovak geoparks, increase awareness of heritage located in the areas of individual geoparks, and provide a better understanding of the values of this heritage by the wider public. Full article

Children are the future of society, and their well-being is vital for sustainable urban development. Chengdu, as the birthplace of the “Park City” concept, has actively integrated child-friendly principles into its urban model. In 2022, the “Implementation Plan for Building a Child-Friendly City in Chengdu” was launched, aiming to establish Chengdu as a leading national model. Since 2023, the city has leveraged its ecological strengths to promote “child-friendly happiness spaces”, providing children with ample recreational and developmental opportunities within its “Park City” framework. Analyzing urban park construction in Chengdu from a child-friendly perspective is significant not only for promoting children’s growth and urban development but also for providing valuable references for the development of child-friendly urban parks. Guided by the concept of “Tour–Art–Learning”, which focuses on creating outdoor recreational spaces suitable for children, this study establishes a quality assessment framework for urban parks from a child-friendly perspective. Based on survey data collected from Chengdu’s Shaheyuan Park using the Photo Elicitation Interview (PEI) method and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, the analytic hierarchy process–fuzzy comprehensive assessment (AHP-FCE) model is applied to evaluate the park’s Tour–Art–Learning quality. The results show that while the park demonstrates high overall quality, there are deficiencies in cultural aesthetics and learning activity carrying capacity and significant room for improvement in site accessibility. This study systematically evaluates the child friendliness of Shaheyuan Park and proposes strategies for improving its Tour–Art–Learning quality, offering new theoretical perspectives and practical pathways for urban park construction and the development of child-friendly cities. Full article

Botanic gardens have an important role in educating people about plants. Direct contact with plants has a positive effect on the perception and understanding of plants and prevents plant blindness. In botanic gardens, pupils can learn about plants through practical work. At the Ljubljana University Botanic Gardens, educational programmes for schools have existed since 1986. Every year the Ljubljana University Botanic Gardens is visited by many different groups, from the youngest to oldest (kindergarten, primary school, graduate and professional school students, and faculties). We run around 350 guided tours for groups per year. Groups can choose either a guided tour with work sheets and workshops or they can visit the botanic gardens on their own. Most of groups are children from primary school. Ljubljana University Botanic Gardens offers programmes related to the valid school curriculum in Slovenia. Our programmes include guided tours based on level of pupils and/or practical work. The most popular time to visit is spring. But, we still have visitors in winter due to our tropical greenhouse. The most popular programme at our botanic gardens is the general tour. With our pedagogical programmes we contribute to plant knowledge, since we teach our pupils about nature. Full article

With the increasing public awareness and strength of industrial heritage protection, industrial heritage plays an increasingly important role in tourism after transformation and upgrading. The influence of built environment factors and visitors’ participation on satisfaction has been fully confirmed, but the primary and secondary relationships between the two variables remain unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between the built environment, tourist participation, and tourism satisfaction, and compare the actual loads of different routes to find the dominant variable. The data of this study came from three industrial heritage renovation projects in Shanghai with remarkable transformation results. Field investigations and questionnaire surveys were conducted on them, and a total of 362 valid samples were received. Descriptive statistical analysis and structural equation models were used to analyze the data. Two paths of “built environment–tourism satisfaction” and “tourist participation–tourism satisfaction” are compared and demonstrated. The path coefficient of the former is 0.63, while that of the latter is 0.77, and the influence of the latter is more significant than that of the former. The study creatively found the audience orientation of both sexes for different types of experience activities, confirmed the mediating effect of subjective perception, and provided the following suggestions for managers of built industrial cultural heritage. Interactive experiences and guided tours deepen visitors’ understanding of the historical and cultural value of industrial heritage. Virtual reality and augmented reality technologies can be introduced to provide an immersive visit experience and attract a wider audience to participate, effectively enhancing the attractiveness of and satisfaction with industrial heritage tourism. Full article

Recreation and nature-based tourism targeting forests are important cultural services provided by forests, and are also considered non-productive social functions of forests. Many factors influence the demand for forest recreation and tourism that are worth exploring for each forest area. The main aim of our study was to compare the results of visitor surveys related to two mountainous forested areas (Börzsöny and Cserhát) that are both located near to the capital city of Budapest but have different characteristics regarding the forests, accessibility, and the level of tourism infrastructure and services. The questionnaires focused on the characteristics of the visits, perceptions of visitors regarding the values of the areas, and the development needs besides the characteristics of the respondents. In addition to basic statistics, Chi² and Fisher’s exact tests were used to detect the differences between the two sites. Despite the different characteristics of the study areas, the main results were quite similar at both sites. Most respondents came from Budapest or within a 60 km distance of the sites by car with family and friends, mainly for hiking and nature walks, and spent less than a day in the areas. The state of forests was perceived as good in both areas. Landscape and fresh air were the most attracting factors for visiting both sites. There was a demand for more guided tours, and regarding tourism infrastructure development needs, benches and toilets ranked high at both sites. However, there were also some slight differences between the sites. For example, Börzsöny was visited more frequently, and railway and bicycle were more often used to access this site. Pleasant climate, easy access and fresh air were more important reasons to visit Börzsöny, and it was more associated with wilderness. In Cserhát, low prices and cultural values seemed more important reasons to visit; Hollókő as a world heritage site was highlighted, and more nature-related and other tourism development needs were mentioned regarding this site. These differences were probably due to the different characteristics of the forests (more mosaic forests in Cserhát), the level of the public transportation network, tourist infrastructure and services (higher in Börzsöny), and cultural heritage (more important in Cserhát). Based on our results, Cserhát needs more development in tourism infrastructure and services, while in Börzsöny, the development of a visitor management plan would be useful to harmonize the different uses of the forest. Full article

Tourism has become one of the world’s largest service industries. Due to the rapid development of social media, more people like self-guided tours than package itineraries planned by travel agencies. Therefore, how to develop itinerary recommendation systems that can provide practical tour suggestions for tourists has become an important research topic. This study proposes a novel tour recommendation system that considers the implicit and dynamic information of Point-of-Interest (POI). Our approach is based on users’ photo information uploaded to social media in various tourist attractions. For each check-in record, we will find the POI closest to the user’s check-in Global Positioning System (GPS) location and consider the POI as the one they want to visit. Instead of using explicit information such as categories to represent POIs, this research uses the implicit feature extracted from the textual descriptions of POIs. Textual description for a POI contains rich and potential information describing the POI’s type, facilities, or activities, which makes it more suitable to represent a POI. In addition, this study considers visiting sequences when evaluating user similarity during clustering so that tourists in each sub-group hold higher behavior similarity. Next, the Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) dynamically derives the staying time for different users, time slots, and POIs. Finally, a personalized itinerary algorithm is developed that considers user preference and dynamic staying time. The system will recommend the itinerary with the highest score and the longest remaining time. A set of experiments indicates that the proposed recommendation system outperforms state-of-the-art next POI recommendation methods regarding four commonly used evaluation metrics. Full article

The transition towards nature-based cities has increasingly become a central focus in political–environmental agendas and urban design practices, aiming to enhance climate adaptation, urban biodiversity, spatial equilibrium, and social well-being as part of the ongoing socio-ecological urban transition process. Climate adaptation in cities is a complex problem and one of the main collective challenges for society, but the relationships between city managers and citizens as to urban green care still face many challenges. Parks design guided by technical-expert and globalised criteria; inflexibility from bureaucratic inertia; and citizens’ demands to participate in the urban green transition, sometimes without the necessary knowledge or time, are some of the challenges that require further research. In this study, we examine four long-lasting approaches to green-space management in four cities in the Netherlands, ranging from municipality-driven to community-driven management forms, and encompassing diverse spatial configurations of greenery within the urban fabric. Utilising the theoretical lens of the Social–Ecological Systems Framework, we employ a multiple-case-study approach and ethnographic fieldwork analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of the norms, collective-choice rules, and social conventions embodied in each urban green management arrangement. The purpose of this research is applied, that is, to provide urban managers and decision-makers with a deeper understanding of drivers to promote effective collaborative management approaches, focusing on specific organisational rules that may contribute to more sustained planning and maintenance pathways for urban green spaces, regardless of changes in political leadership or significant external funding sources. The results of the investigated cases show that long-lasting collaborative management of forests and parks has established a set of collective-choice rules for resource transfer between municipalities and citizens, including non-monetary resources (such as pruning-training courses or guided tours that attract tourists and researchers). Additionally, these arrangements have been favoured by the existence of legal norms that enable co-ownership of the land, and monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms that offer a slightly different interpretation from the evidence identified so far in the scientific literature on collective resource management and organisational studies. Full article

In recent years, there has been a surge in interest towards innovative methods of landscape presentation across various tourism sectors, including natural heritage. Geotourism exemplifies this trend, emerging as a distinct form of tourism primarily centered on inanimate elements of nature, accentuating the aesthetic value of landscapes. Presently, geotourism serves as a platform for showcasing landscape along with its historical narrative, contemporary attributes, and, inherently, its evolutionary trajectory. This paper delves into novel avenues within geotourism, introducing the concept of nostalgic geotourism. This concept involves the portrayal of geological heritage through the lens of historical inquiry. The authors employ a multidimensional analysis to forge a robust theoretical framework underpinning the emergence of this unconventional form of tourism dedicated to landscape presentation. Additionally, the paper furnishes a case study conducted in the High Tatras region, featuring a 19th-century guided tour (lecture) on non-living nature. Through this illustration, the theoretical construct of nostalgic geotourism is applied to the locale. This heralds a fresh dimension of tourism reminiscent of traditional nostalgia-based tourism, with a pronounced cultural focus. The innovative concept fosters an increased interest in exploring geological heritage and natural landscapes, while emphasizing their sentimental value. Full article