Search Results (490)

The urgency of research into innovation and digital marketing is driven by growing competition within the tourism industry, which demands greater destination visibility (DV) and tourist engagement (TE). At the same time, Areia Branca Beach, a prominent destination in Timor-Leste, has not been managed optimally to support sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the utilisation of governance innovation and digital marketing—particularly the integration of content marketing (CM), immersive technology (IT), and digital data analytics (DDA)—remains limited and has yet to be substantiated by robust empirical evidence at the scale of a developing destination. This study aims to investigate the role of DDA in the causality between CM and IT in influencing DV and TE. A quantitative approach was employed, using moderated regression analysis (MRA) to test the empirical relationships between the variables. Primary data were collected through face-to-face field surveys of tourists who had visited Areia Branca Beach, located northeast of Dili, Timor-Leste, on at least two occasions. The study adopted simple random sampling (SRS) with a finite population correction (FPC). A total of 364 tourists were selected to assess their perceptions using a structured questionnaire. The study reveals four main findings. First, CM significantly affects DDA and DV. Second, IT influences DDA, but not TE. Third, DDA significantly affects both DV and TE. Fourth, DDA moderates the effect of CM on DV and the effect of IT on TE. The findings underscore that the collaborative governance concept, through governance and marketing innovations, is not yet optimal for shaping sustainable tourism. Finally, future academic and practical policy implications require more in-depth exploration to emphasise the enhancement of resource management capacity genuinely needed in the subjects studied, beyond governance and digital marketing innovations within the sustainable tourism framework. Full article

In the digital tourism marketplace, online reviews have become a decisive source of information for travelers who cannot directly assess the quality of hospitality services before purchase. However, it remains unclear how service-related and sustainability-related cues interact to shape guest perceptions in sustainable hotel contexts. This study investigates how intrinsic and extrinsic cues are reflected in online user reviews of sustainable hotels. Drawing on Cue Utilization Theory, a longitudinal content analysis was conducted on a worldwide online travel platform’s (OTP) reviews of hotels certified for their sustainability practices (2004–2024) by user selection. A coding framework was developed deductively based on prior studies on hotel service quality and sustainability practices, and data were analyzed using MAXQDA, Leximancer, and VADER sentiment analysis. Findings indicated that reviews primarily emphasize service quality attributes—particularly staff efficiency, food quality, and accommodation facilities—while sustainability themes appear less frequently, often in nature-related contexts. Sentiment analysis revealed a predominantly positive emotional tone shaped by service quality experiences. Overall, intrinsic cues play a central role in forming guest perceptions, highlighting the need for emotionally engaging sustainability communication strategies. Full article

Artificial intelligence is reshaping approaches to architectural heritage conservation by enabling a deeper understanding of how people perceive and experience historic built environments. This study employs deep learning and large language models (LLMs) to explore public perceptions of the Qinghefang Historical and Cultural District in Hangzhou, illustrating how AI-driven analytics can inform intelligent heritage management and architectural revitalization. Large-scale public online reviews were processed through BERTopic-based clustering to extract thematic structures of experience, while interpretive synthesis was refined using an LLM to identify core perceptual dimensions including Hangzhou Housing & Residential Choice, Hangzhou Urban Tourism & Culture, Hangzhou Food & Dining, and Qinghefang Culture & Creative. Sentiment polarity and emotional intensity were quantified using a fine-tuned BERT model, revealing distinct affective and perceptual patterns across the district’s architectural and cultural spaces. The results demonstrate that AI-based textual analytics can effectively decode human–heritage interactions, offering actionable insights for data-informed conservation, visitors’ experience optimization, and sustainable management of historic districts. This research contributes to the emerging field of AI-driven innovation in architectural heritage by bridging computational intelligence and heritage conservation practice. Full article

This study explores the development potential of thematic tourism in the Municipality of Pella, Northern Greece. It examines local residents’ perceptions regarding tourism as a growth strategy, evaluates current informational and promotional efforts by the local government, and assesses the public’s willingness to participate in tourism activities. A structured questionnaire was distributed to a representative sample of residents that was given both in person and via the internet. Quantitative analysis revealed that while respondents generally support the idea of tourism development and feel moderately informed, there is a strong perception that the municipality’s efforts to promote tourism are insufficient. Key factors influencing residents’ attitudes include age, level of education, and personal involvement with tourism. The findings suggest that thematic tourism could serve as a viable development path, provided that local authorities implement targeted education, infrastructure, and promotion strategies. This study recommends enhanced cooperation between public institutions and local stakeholders to support sustainable tourism growth. It is suggested, therefore, to increase the depth of focus given in the development of an innovative agricultural area development model that will combine traditional agriculture with agritourism and the remaining types according to each place’s capabilities. Full article

This study examines the determinants of talent retention in the hotel sector of Extremadura, a peripheral European region facing depopulation, labour scarcity and structural limitations that threaten the sustainability of its human capital base. Grounded in the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory, the research analyses how a set of key labour resources, specifically professional training, organisational trust, job satisfaction and sustainability commitment, influence employees’ intention to remain in their organisations. These resources are conceptualised as organisational and motivational mechanisms that enhance employees’ capacity to cope with job demands and reinforce their attachment to the organisation. A quantitative survey was conducted with hotel-sector employees in Extremadura; 255 questionnaires were validated, and the proposed structural model was tested using SEM. The findings show that organisational trust is the strongest predictor of retention, followed by professional training and sustainability commitment, while job satisfaction also exerts a significant, though more moderate, effect. These results indicate that enhancing fairness perceptions, strengthening continuous training pathways and integrating sustainability-oriented values are essential strategies for retaining qualified personnel in territories with limited external opportunities. Rather than measuring human capital sustainability directly, the study shows that talent retention operates as a central empirical mechanism through which the sustainability of human capital can be supported in peripheral tourism economies. It concludes by highlighting the need for managerial practices that support transparent leadership, structured professional development and participatory sustainability initiatives, and encourages future research to incorporate longitudinal designs and direct measures of human capital sustainability. Full article

This study specifies and validates a three-layer Structural Equation Model (SEM) that accounts for how tourists’ evaluations of destination attributes translate into loyalty; the model is based on UN Tourism’s sustainability pillars. Guided by service-science and Customer Experience (CX) logics, and adopting a Tourist Experience (TX) framework that treats Tourist Experience as a domain-specific case of CX, we define five first-order antecedents—Emotions (EMS), Local Culture (CTL), Authenticity (AUT), Entertainment (ENT), and Servicescape (SVS)—that load onto a higher-order appraisal, Global Perception (GEN), which in turn drives Destination Loyalty (LOY). Using ordinal indicators and a robust diagonally weighted least squares estimator (WLSMV), the model exhibits a good global fit (CFI/TLI = 0.970/0.968; SRMR = 0.049; RMSEA = 0.073 [90% CI = 0.070–0.076]). Standardized effects indicate that GEN is primarily explained by Emotions (β = 0.445, p < 0.001), Authenticity (β = 0.271, p < 0.001), and Servicescape (β = 0.241, p < 0.001), whereas CTL and ENT are not significant when competing with these other predictors. GEN strongly predicts LOY (β = 0.967, p < 0.001), mediating sizable indirect effects from EMS, AUT, and SVS to LOY. The findings corroborate a parsimonious mediational chain in which affective, meaning-related, and infrastructural inputs cohere into a single global appraisal that is proximal to loyalty. Our study provides a decision-focused blueprint for designing emotion-rich, authenticity-protecting, and well-orchestrated servicescapes to enhance GEN and, consequently, LOY; it adheres to established SEM reporting standards and articulates a holistic transactional conceptualization grounded in recent tourism literature. Improvements in GEN reflect not only better experiences but also designs consistent with long-run destination sustainability. Full article

In recent years, many locales featuring therapeutic landscapes have seen a rise in health tourism. Existing scholarship tends to either concentrate on specific types of landscape or analyze human emotional experiences separately, often overlooking how therapeutic landscape experiences arise from interactions among human and non-human actors. This study focuses on the relationship between tourists and non-human actors (plants such as rice and lotus leaves, etc.) through immersive interaction. This research is built on critical plant theory and draws on a case study of Xixiang Rural Garden, Erlang Town, China, to examine the co-evolution of therapeutic landscape experience and health tourism and its inherent dynamism. Utilizing qualitative methods, data were collected between October 2024 and September 2025 through participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and policy document analysis, involving diverse stakeholders, including local government officials, project designers, villagers, and tourists. From a micro-level empirical perspective, the study examines the co-evolution of therapeutic landscape experiences and health tourism and its underlying dynamics. The results show that visitors’ therapeutic experiences deepen through a cyclical process of “therapeutic spatial practices–relational negotiations–experiential transformation.” Key mechanisms driving this process include plant agency, cross-cultural dialogue, and multisensory engagement, which collectively facilitate the transition from initial sensory perceptions to deeper ecological awareness and multispecies relations. Based on micro-level empirical analysis, this study offers concrete policy insights for local governments seeking to promote the sustainable development of therapeutic tourism. In response to practical challenges, specific pathways are proposed: constructing plant-led symbiotic environments, establishing multisensory activity mechanisms, and adopting community-driven management models. These recommendations provide practical guidance for enhancing therapeutic landscape experiences and promoting the sustainable advancement of rural health tourism. Full article

Historic religious cities are living examples of cultural landscapes where spiritual traditions, heritage, and visitor experiences combine to demonstrate a timeless experience. It is very challenging to achieve balance among the demands of mass pilgrimage, heritage preservation, and urbanization. Govardhan, India is a Hindu religious town with historical significance. Millions of pilgrims travel to Govardhan every year to perform parikrama and take a holy dip in kunds. The quality of the visitor experience, spatial coherence, and heritage conservation are all at risk due to increasing urbanization and tourism. The study intends to create a paradigm for the sustainable management of religious heritage towns by evaluating the factors involving visitor perception, historical significance, and spatial visibility, employing a combination of computational methods and cognitive assessments. The study employed space syntax tools (visibility graph analysis and isovist area analysis) to quantify spatial significance (SS) and identify patterns of openness, congestion, and visibility along the parikrama route of Govardhan. By examining pilgrims’ cognitive surveys for openness, orientation, congestion, and spiritual impression, a cognitive index (CI) and heritage importance scores (HIS) have been developed. The computed spatial significance (SS) has been correlated with cognitive index (CI) and heritage importance (HIS) scores to create an experiential priority index (EPI). The study employs a mixed-method approach that incorporates heritage significance scoring, cognitive surveys, and spatial analytics, including methods such as the isovist area analysis and visibility graph analysis. In order to assess how spatial arrangement and intangible perceptions together influence visitor experience, these statistics are further combined using a composite experiential priority index (EPI). The findings show a strong correlation between spiritual orientation, visual connectivity, and spatial openness; locations such as ‘punchari ka lota temple’ and ‘kusum sarovar’ are high-priority nodes. In accordance with United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (11, 9, 12, 4.7, and 8.9), this research proposes a heritage impact assessment (HIA) framework that provides workable solutions for ecological restoration, heritage-sensitive zoning, sustainable pilgrimage management, and enhanced tourism. Full article

The cross-fertilization of video games and tourism has expanded in recent years, with digital narratives increasingly shaping real-world travel behavior, yet the mechanisms linking mythological video games to pre-trip travel intention remain underexplored. Using the Chinese mythological game Black Myth: Wukong as a case, this study examines how digital myth narratives relate to overseas audiences’ perceptions of, and travel intentions towards, Chinese tourist destinations in a cross-cultural context. Based on a large corpus of YouTube comments, we integrate topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and interpretable machine learning to identify semantic cues associated with travel intention. The results indicate that multidimensional perceptions elicited by digital myth narratives are associated with a gradual evolution of destination image from cognitive to affective and then intentional. Cultural symbol perception, cross-cultural understanding, aesthetic appreciation, and emotional resonance show positive relationships with travel intention and appear as important predictors in the model. SHAP analysis further suggests a nonlinear threshold effect, whereby the probability that a comment is classified as expressing travel intention increases when overall perception reaches a relatively high level. Embedding the cognition–emotion–intention path within a digital game context, this study provides empirical evidence on destination image and behavioral intention in digital narrative settings and offers implications for cross-cultural communication and sustainable tourism planning. Full article

This paper explores the attitudes and involvement of tourism development in rural and remote cross-border areas in Croatia and Slovenia. These locations were selected due to their valuable cultural, historical, and natural resources. The purpose of this study was to identify how tourism can contribute to the sustainable development of these areas through the identification of positive and negative impacts based on perceptions obtained through a survey of residents and visitors. Results found that the local population positively assessed employment and quality of life as benefits generated by tourism, while identifying negative consequences such as price increases and crowds. Visitors highlighted negative aspects (environmental impact, availability of services), while recognizing the contribution of tourism to the preservation of space. The results emphasize the importance of harmonizing the interests of local communities and visitors in the planning of sustainable tourism, through continuous involvement of local stakeholders, periodic monitoring of attitudes, and preservation of natural and cultural resources as the basis of tourism development. Because tourism can change the area and culture of any destination, it is important to measure key stakeholder attitudes specific to tourism development in cross-border rural areas. Full article

Tourism, although a key driving force for the flourishing of local/regional and national economies, is also a source of distinct negative repercussions, e.g., the intense use of scarce resources, environmental deterioration, social marginalization, and the degradation of the quality of life of host communities, to name but a few. These repercussions appear to be further exacerbated under overtourism conditions in a number of highly rated tourist destinations around the globe. Identifying host communities’ perceptions of the tourism footprint/burden is essential in contemporary policy research, which seeks to realize local perspectives, values, and expectations regarding the acceptable type/level of tourism development of their land and to highlight potential policy directions for future action that ensure sustainability and resilience objectives. Grounded in an assessment of overtourism impacts in a highly rated insular destination (Santorini Island, Greece), this work aims to gather community perceptions as to the drawbacks of the current tourism trajectory through a questionnaire survey. Results demonstrate that, although respondents recognize the crucial role that tourism plays in the island’s economic profile, they also acknowledge that the rapidly escalating expansion of the sector is unsustainable in the long run, with severe repercussions for both the environment and the quality of the community’s everyday life. Full article

Public spaces in peri-urban towns are becoming key focal points of urban regeneration in China due to their geographic advantages, resource endowments, and diverse populations. Substantial investments have been made to improve residents’ living environments and well-being. As over-commercialized urban centers increasingly face congestion and homogenization, the distinctive landscapes and authentic everyday life of peri-urban towns are attracting growing attention from tourists. Understanding both residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of these public spaces is therefore essential for successful regeneration. This study examines Nanquan Street, which lies ina peri-urban heritage town in Wuxi, Jiangnan region, China. Drawing on user-generated content from major Chinese social media platforms (Xiaohongshu and Dianping) and field observations guided by the AEIOU framework, a three-stage grounded theory approach was employed to identify the key factors influencing user satisfaction. The analysis identified twelve sub-dimensions grouped into three overarching categories: foundational preconditions, social developmental factors, and spatial-operational factors, which collectively shape sustained satisfaction in Peri-urban heritage towns. By translating the satisfaction model into sustainable design strategies, this study proposes a set of renewal pathways applicable not only to Nanquan Street but also to similar peri-urban towns facing comparable challenges. Emphasizing multi-user experience, low-intervention strategies, and contextual adaptability, this research contributes to theoretical understandings of sustainable renewal in peri-urban towns. It provides actionable guidance for balancing everyday life, cultural heritage, and sustainable tourism development. Full article

Understanding destination image perceptions is critical for tourism destinations seeking to maintain competitive advantage and foster visitor loyalty. While the traditional literature suggests that first-time and repeat visitors differ significantly in their cognitive and affective destination image perceptions due to experiential differences, emerging evidence from destinations with established branding challenges these conventional assumptions. Thailand, as a globally prominent destination with sustained branding initiatives since 1998, provides an ideal context for examining whether visitor experience moderates destination image formation and loyalty outcomes. This study investigates differences in cognitive and affective destination image perceptions and destination loyalty between first-time and repeat international travellers to Thailand, applying the cognitive–affective–behavioural (CAB) model to examine how these constructs influence revisit and recommendation intentions across visitor segments. Data were collected from 392 international tourists visiting three major southern coastal destinations in Thailand (Phuket, Krabi, and Phang-Nga) through face-to-face surveys using purposive sampling. The sample comprised 185 first-time travellers and 207 repeat visitors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with multigroup analysis was employed to examine structural relationships and test for significant differences between visitor cohorts using parametric, Welch–Satterthwaite, and permutations tests. Contrary to theoretical expectations, multigroup analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between first-time and repeat travellers across all examined pathways (all permutation p-values > 0.05). Both groups demonstrated equivalent perceptions regarding how cognitive image influences affective image, and how these dimensions affect revisit and recommendation intentions. Affective image emerged as the dominant predictor of destination loyalty for both segments, while cognitive image primarily served as an enabler of emotional responses. These findings challenge traditional assumptions about experiential differences between visitor types suggesting that mature destinations with consistent long-term branding may achieve perceptual uniformity that transcends direct experience. Destination marketing organizations should implement unified rather than segmented strategies, prioritizing emotional engagement mechanisms over rational attribute promotion to cultivate destination loyalty across all visitor segments. However, these findings are specific to coastal leisure destination and may not fully generalize to other destination types. Full article

Abandoned mines, as emblematic heritage spaces in the process of deindustrialization, preserve collective production memory and serve as vital symbols of local identity. However, current redevelopment practices primarily emphasize physical restoration while overlooking the visual expression and interactive communication of regional culture. This study introduces an augmented reality (AR)–based visual narrative framework that integrates regional culture to bridge the gap between spatial renewal and cultural regeneration. Drawing on semiotics and spatial narrative theory, a multidimensional “space–symbol–memory” translation mechanism is constructed, and a coupling model linking tangible material elements with intangible cultural connotations is established. Supported by technologies such as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), semantic segmentation, and level of detail (LOD) rendering, a multilayer “position–perception–presentation” module system is designed to achieve stable anchoring of virtual and physical spaces and enable multilevel narrative interaction. Through task-oriented mechanisms and user co-creation, the system effectively enhances immersion, cultural identity, and learning outcomes. Experimental validation in a representative mine site confirms the feasibility of the proposed framework. While the study focuses on a single case, the modular and mechanism-based design indicates that the framework can be adapted to cultural tourism, educational communication, and community engagement applications. The key innovation lies in introducing an iterative “evidence–experience–co-creation” model, providing a new methodological reference for the digital reuse of abandoned mines and the sustainable preservation of industrial heritage. Full article

Crisis situations highlight the need for timely planning to mitigate their impacts on the economy and society. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of prevention, preparedness, and effective communication in tourism crises. As tourism involves numerous stakeholders, transparent communication and cooperation are essential for coordinated crisis responses. The aim of this work is to examine management’s perception of the relationship between crisis planning, communication, and cooperation with the achievement of sustainable destination management, and to identify key factors in the preparatory and reactive phases of a crisis. The questionnaire was distributed online to 533 directors of Croatian tourist boards, of which 165 responses were valid and analyzed using regression analysis. The results confirmed a statistically significant connection between planning for crisis situations, communication, cooperation with effective tourist destination crisis management, and the contribution of these factors to resilience and long-term sustainability. Crisis management in tourism contributes to the preservation of the social, economic, and ecological values necessary for sustainable development. To align economic growth with environmental and social concerns, coordinated action by governments, the private sector, and local communities is required. Enhanced education, trust, and systematic cooperation help build resilient destinations that are prepared to respond effectively to short-term shocks and long-term challenges. Full article