Search Results (130)

‘Wellness-at-sea’ is an integral part of the cruise holiday service bundle. Marketed within an image of experiential diversity within a safe, controlled environment, it features medical centers, spa facilities and restoration-focused itineraries. Nevertheless, epidemiologically speaking, cruise ships rank amongst the riskiest transmission environments in tourism. This perspective paper proposes a typology of wellness cruising along two axes (i.e., offer scope: themed voyages versus onboard amenities and promotion focus: borrowed credibility versus narrative ‘storyscaping’) and uses it to develop the ‘wellness-risk paradox’, a boundary case for health-tourism literature. Three testable propositions emerge: reputational risk exposure increases with the offer’s wellness centrality; narrative-based promotion is more susceptible than credibility-based promotion and a quadrant-adjusted health-assurance scheme is more effective than current inspection standards. The argument draws on the 2026 Andes hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius (three deaths among thirteen cases), the 2020 Diamond Princess outbreak, and a decade of official outbreak surveillance, reporting an increase in gastrointestinal outbreaks from 0.34 to 0.62 per million passengers between 2019 and 2025 (rate ratio 1.84, 95% CI 0.87–3.86), which reverses the pre-pandemic downward trend although annual counts remain too small for the change to reach conventional statistical significance. Sanitation-inspection compliance cannot reliably predict outbreaks, nor does it facilitate trust. Four domains of action are proposed: continuous air-quality monitoring, wastewater surveillance, behavioral risk modeling and jurisdictional coordination. Full article

Long-standing studies of historical cultural spaces have primarily focused on the preservation of heritage objects and landscapes, while insufficient attention has been paid to the structural relationships, land-use transformations, and cultural–ecological processes that sustain their long-term continuity. Taking the World Heritage site of Lijiang as a case, this study develops a three-dimensional structural decoding framework composed of spatial base, spatial network, and spatial entity, together with an analytical pathway of “Identification–Interpretation–Evaluation–Synthesis–Practice.” By integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches with multi-source data, the study establishes an evidence chain linking historical processes and contemporary conditions to examine the formation mechanisms, continuity, and contemporary deviations of Lijiang’s historical cultural space. The results show that terrain–habitat adaptability, water system coupling, and environmental risk avoidance shaped environmental adaptation; historical corridors, landscape perception, and core node associations organized spatial networks; and functional diversity, cultural capital agglomeration, and spatial-scale compatibility supported entity-based spatial practices. Although tourism development, urban expansion, and land-use transformation have not completely dismantled these historical relationships, they have caused localized deviations in ecological boundaries, path continuity, visual connections, functional vitality, and spatial scale. This study argues that the governance of historical cultural spaces should shift from preserving isolated heritage objects to sustaining cultural–ecological relationships that support memory, identity, spatial practice, and adaptive land governance. Full article

Adventure tourism businesses operate in environments characterized by substantial physical risk, highly dynamic natural conditions, and rising customer expectations. As demand for adventure tourism grows, operators must continuously balance experiential delivery with effective risk management and operational control. This study investigates safety management practices among adventure tourism operators in Norway. Data were collected via an online survey of 89 commercial adventure tourism businesses. Results show that environmental conditions—particularly rapidly changing weather—represent the most commonly perceived risk factor, followed by client behaviour, including failure to follow instructions. Slips, trips, and falls constitute the most frequently reported injury type. Tour guide competence emerges as a central safety management strategy. Collectively, the findings underscore the crucial role of tour guides as frontline safety managers and illustrate how small adventure tourism operators in Norway maintain robust safety systems within the constraints of limited resources. The study contributes to the literature on business management in high-risk service sectors and provides practical insights for strengthening safety management practices in adventure tourism. Full article

Inbound tourism has become an important indicator of destination openness, service capacity, cultural communication, and sustainable governance. However, existing evaluations often separate visitor experience, destination competitiveness, and sustainability, making it difficult to diagnose how service quality supports long-term competitiveness. This study develops a sustainability-oriented framework for evaluating inbound tourism service quality in 10 representative Chinese cities. Nineteen indicators are organized into four dimensions: basic service provision, cultural and experiential perception, safety and emergency response, and sustainable and resilient development. A TIFN-AHP-TOPSIS model is used to integrate official statistics, public tourism information, online-review evidence, and expert judgments while retaining uncertainty and hesitation in qualitative assessments. The results show that Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou form the leading tier; Shenzhen, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Sanya, and Xiamen form the balanced tier; and Xi’an and Chongqing form the potential tier. Robustness checks based on risk-preference adjustment, entropy-weighted TOPSIS, grey relational TOPSIS, and perception-indicator perturbation confirm the stability of the tier classification. The findings suggest that inbound tourism competitiveness depends not only on transport access and reception capacity but also on cultural interpretation, digital convenience, safety governance, ecological quality, and resilience. The framework provides a diagnostic tool for improving sustainable destination competitiveness. Full article

Underground heritage represents a hidden urban resource for cultural regeneration and sustainable tourism, preserving historical layers, wartime memory, and local identity. Positioning the shelters as a form of Underground Built Heritage (UBH), this study examines how concealed civil-defense spaces can be reinterpreted as local cultural heritage resources before systematic reuse. However, enclosed and unfamiliar spaces are often perceived as risky, making adaptive reuse socially sensitive. This study investigates Jingdezhen’s underground air-raid shelters through a scenario-based survey and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Using an extended Value-Attitude-Behavior (VAB) framework incorporating perceived authenticity, anticipated affective identification, safety assurance, and perceived risk, this study identifies factors influencing pre-development public acceptance. Results show that public acceptance is shaped by cognitive evaluation of value and anticipated affective identification, while perceived risk constrains behavioral intentions. Perceived authenticity enhances value perception and anticipated affective identification; perceived value strengthens attitudes; safety assurance shows a small but statistically significant negative association with perceived risk, although most variance in perceived risk remains unexplained; and an exploratory moderation analysis further suggested that perceived risk may weaken the attitude–visit intention relationship. Although the estimated model showed a relatively high SRMR, the results are interpreted as prediction-oriented ex ante evidence rather than as a covariance-based model with strong global fit. These findings provide prediction-oriented ex ante evidence for the sustainable reuse of underground heritage, supporting heritage interpretation, risk management, and urban regeneration aligned with SDG 11. Full article

Seasonal workers in the tourism sector are exposed to significant psychosocial risks, such as work overload, emotional exhaustion, and precarious employment conditions. Despite growing interest in positive organizational psychology, little is known about how organizational culture impacts perceptions and experiences of seasonal workers in Italy. This study explores the role of positive organizational culture in promoting well-being among seasonal workers in the tourism sector, examining their direct perspectives on organizational climate, work challenges, and individual and organizational resources. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with seasonal workers employed in the hospitality industry in Italy. Data were analyzed through an integrated mixed-method approach combining Grounded Theory methodology with quantitative lexical analysis using T-LAB software, ensuring both analytical rigor and interpretive depth. Five macro-categories emerged inductively from the data: trust and relations, coping strategies and emotions, perceived justice, teamwork, and meaning of work. These were integrated into a core category defined as flourishing at work, interpreted through the lens of Seligman’s PERMA model. These findings suggest that well-being in seasonal work is an active and relational achievement, sustained by emotional self-regulation, perceived fairness, and collective identity. The results carry direct implications for organizational policies and psychosocial risk prevention strategies in precarious work contexts. In particular, positive organizational culture and environments can act as protective factors against psychosocial risks, with direct implications for organizational policies, psychosocial risk prevention, and evidence-based workplace interventions. The specificity of the analysis method offers an original contribution by integrating qualitative and quantitative textual analysis to investigate psychosocial well-being in an under-explored population: Italian seasonal workers. Full article

This study presents a data-driven framework for analyzing the relationship between geopolitical risk and tourism demand using the Saudi Arabia Tourism Dataset (2015–2024). Due to the absence of explicit geopolitical indicators, the research constructs a tourism-instability proxy index derived from tourism volatility, spending fluctuations, and disruption periods to represent uncertainty conditions affecting tourism demand, including volatility in tourist arrivals, spending fluctuations, and shock indicators such as disruption periods. A two-stage machine learning pipeline is implemented to (i) predict the engineered GRI and (ii) evaluate its impact on tourism demand, measured by tourist numbers. Five algorithms—Extra Trees, Gradient Boosting, AdaBoost, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Ridge Regression—are applied and evaluated using MAE, RMSE, and R². In Stage 1, predicting the GRI remains challenging, with the best model (Extra Trees) achieving R² = 0.184, MAE = 0.168, and RMSE = 0.209, reflecting the complexity of modeling indirectly constructed risk. In Stage 2, performance improves significantly, with Extra Trees achieving R² = 0.577, MAE = 1120.57, and RMSE = 2749.10, demonstrating strong predictive capability. The findings suggest that instability-sensitive tourism indicators may contain predictive information associated with tourism demand variations. Compared to existing studies that rely on external risk indices or normalized datasets, this research contributes a novel approach by engineering risk directly from tourism data and validating its predictive influence. The proposed framework provides practical insights for policymakers and tourism planners in managing uncertainty and supporting sustainable tourism development under dynamic geopolitical conditions. Full article

Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) is a global challenge that negatively affects marine ecosystems and fishers’ livelihoods. Survey results from 1864 capture fishers in Vietnam show that the total mass of ALDFG is 82,720 kg/year, with an average loss rate of 0.24% of the total plastic used. The average ALDFG mass from gillnet fisheries is 26.0 ± 1.2 kg/vessel/year, trap fisheries 16.1 ± 2.6 kg/vessel/year, hook and line fisheries 13.8 ± 1.4 kg/vessel/year, trawl fisheries 8.8 ± 1.1 kg/vessel/year, stick-held falling net fisheries 5.1 ± 2.1 kg/vessel/year, and purse seine fisheries 4.2 ± 1.4 kg/vessel/year. Polyethylene (PE) accounts for 47.4%, polyamide (PA) 29.5% and polypropylene (PP) 17.2% of the total ALDFG mass. Results from the selected partial proportional odds model show that fishers’ concern about ALDFG increases with education, fishing experience, vessel length, and stronger awareness of environmental and economic impacts, whereas age, days at sea, perceived navigation hazards, and perceived impacts on fish stocks are negatively associated with concern; perceived tourism impacts show a statistically significant threshold-varying effect across concern levels. These findings provide a scientific basis for developing sustainable fishing-gear management policies, aiming to reduce marine plastic pollution in Vietnam. These findings provide evidence for conservation-oriented fishing-gear management in Vietnam by identifying the gear types and fisher perceptions most relevant to reducing ghost fishing, marine plastic leakage, and risks to marine biodiversity and coastal ecosystems. Full article

Background: Epidemiological alerts about the possible spread of different pathogens have highlighted the risk of international travelers contracting infectious diseases when visiting endemic areas. The role of travelers in disease transmission underscores the importance of pre-travel consultations, which provide critical information on health risks, vaccinations, and preventive measures. Understanding travelers’ risk perceptions and behaviors is essential for enhancing global health security in the post-pandemic era. Methods: A cross-sectional study (June 2023–January 2024) was conducted by administering an anonymous questionnaire at the Rome-Fiumicino Airport International Prophylaxis Clinic (USMAF-SASN). The questionnaire explored demographics, travel patterns, risk perceptions, vaccination behaviors, and sources of health information. Descriptive statistics and a multivariable logistic regression analysis were performed to identify low-risk perception predictors. Results: Among 217 participants, 89.8% were Italian, with a balanced representation of genders. The primary purpose of travel was tourism (61.6%), followed by work-related trip (23.1%). While 77.1% rated preventive measures as effective, 23.2% evaluated infection risk as low. Being male (aOR 3.63, 95% CI 1.37–9.61), and being a hotel user (aOR 6.27, 95% CI 2.43–16.15), was significantly associated with a lower risk perception. As expected, healthcare professionals and individuals using institutional healthcare sources showed a higher risk awareness. Vaccination uptake at the Airport Clinic was motivated by self-protection, vaccine confidence, and poor time flexibility to access local vaccination services, and last-minute plans, making the airport a more convenient option. Conclusions: Travelers’ risk perception is influenced by gender, profession, accommodation type, and information sources. Public health strategies should enhance health literacy, promote pre-travel consultations, and improve access to preventive services. Strengthening collaborations between health authorities, educational institutions, and the travel sector is key to mitigating health risks and ensuring global health security. Future interventions should address structural vaccination barriers and improve outreach to under-informed travelers. Full article

The development of sustainable tourism in rural areas brings new challenges in terms of innovation and social inclusion. In this context, this study examines the adoption of social innovation by managers of rural guesthouses in Morocco. The objective is to identify the factors that influence their intention to adopt such practices, which may strengthen local cohesion, enhance cultural resources, and meet visitors’ expectations regarding sustainability. The analysis draws on the conceptual framework of the diffusion of innovation, which allows for the exploration of perceptions related to the relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, visibility, and trialability of innovative practices. The research is based on a questionnaire survey conducted with a sample of 174 managers. The data collected underwent confirmatory factor analysis to validate the theoretical dimensions of the model, and were then analyzed using an ordered Logit model to account for the ordinal nature of the dependent variable measuring the intention to adopt. The empirical results indicate that several perceived factors—namely the superiority of the innovation, its economic or symbolic benefits, its cultural compatibility, its simplicity of understanding and use, and the visibility of its effects—have a significant influence. Other dimensions, such as technical compatibility or risk perception, do not show a notable effect. The study also highlights the role of education level and gender in the propensity to adopt social innovation. Full article

This research addresses the latent disconnect between citizens and World Heritage sites, analysing how intensive tourism and declarations focused on monuments (1980s–1990s) have created a distance that makes managing these heritage sites very difficult. The main objective is to propose and validate participatory methodologies that restore social bonds and strengthen urban governance. The identified knowledge gap lies in the lack of operational tools that allow the theory of participation to be put into actual practice, overcoming the current methodological void in assessing social and economic impacts. Under the methodology of the WHATS-UP project, an action-research approach is employed that combines ethnographic work, mapping of key actors, and participatory workshops with shared walking tours in the Alhambra and the Alcázar. This data is integrated into Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) to map social perceptions of values and risks. The results show that, although tourism has led to alienation and gentrification, the participatory process succeeds in rescuing “invisible values”, such as memories and traditional trades, that are absent from official narratives. In conclusion, the study proposes a consensus-based co-management model between institutions and the community, transforming heritage into a resource for urban cohesion and resilience. This integration of methodologies, which combines collective mapping with safeguarding plans, enables progress toward protection strategies that are more effective and better reflect contemporary social realities. Full article

Tourism is highly exposed to external shocks such as pandemics, geopolitical instability, and security-related disruptions, which particularly affect small and rural enterprises. Although digital tools are frequently discussed as mechanisms supporting tourism competitiveness under conditions of tourism disruption, consumer-centred evidence remains limited. This study examines how consumers in Latvia evaluate digital tools and which factors they associate with rural tourism competitiveness and improvement priorities. The study is guided by a conceptual framework in which digital tools function as intermediary mechanisms linking conditions of tourism disruption to rural tourism competitiveness through consumer perceptions of accessibility, convenience, and trust. A mixed-methods CATI survey (N = 1004) was conducted in February–April 2025, combining statistical analysis of closed-ended responses with thematic analysis of consumer-defined competitiveness and improvement priorities derived from open-ended questions. The results show that age is the main factor differentiating evaluations of digital tools, while regional and settlement-type differences remain weak. Online booking and digital payments are valued across all age groups, whereas tools such as virtual tours show stronger age-related variation. When discussing competitiveness, respondents most frequently refer to institutional conditions, promotion, pricing, and digital tools as key competitiveness dimensions. However, when identifying improvements, priorities shift toward diversification of tourism offers and physical accessibility. Digital tools remain important and are primarily associated with practical functions such as booking, payments, information access, and online visibility that make rural tourism offers easier to find and use. The findings highlight the growing role of digital accessibility and information transparency as foundational conditions for rural tourism competitiveness under conditions of tourism disruption and uncertainty. Full article

Although tourism is increasingly seen as a key component of sustainable regional development and economic diversification, its extraordinary expansion raises governance and environmental issues at the local level. The current study assesses the influencing factors of inbound tourism demand to Saudi Arabia, a strategic empirical study due to its rapid and ambitious transformation under Vision 2030. This national strategy is designed to cultivate diverse tourist destinations, including coastal eco-resorts, mountain nature escapes, and urban cultural hubs. The unique sustainability hurdles in each area make the Kingdom a prime location for analyzing the development of regional tourism. This research focuses on the vibrant interfaces among sustainable practices, logistical efficiency, perceptions of safety and uncertainty, and macroeconomic environments that shape the Kingdom’s competitiveness as a tourism region. The study draws several beneficial findings using balanced panel data of 16 origin countries during the period of 2009–2023 and is assessed using a dynamic panel Generalized Method of Moments model. The findings state extensive perseverance within tourism flows, such that past arrivals significantly enable simultaneous inflows. Inbound tourism is strongly and favourably influenced by destination-side factors, particularly logistical performance, human rights conditions, and Saudi Arabia’s socioeconomic prosperity. In a similar vein, the demand for outward travel is strongly reinforced by origin-country prosperity. But travel expenses attenuate, environmental pressures and political risk reduce arrivals, and relative prices and pandemic uncertainty play a negligible role. The findings highlight the need to upgrade the country’s logistics infrastructure, enhance rights protection and governance, integrate sustainable practices, and capitalise on prosperity to make Saudi Arabia a desirable travel destination by Vision 2030. A key contribution of this study is to demonstrate how infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and institutional quality shape a region’s tourism attractiveness. The study illustrates how sustainability must be incorporated into regional-specific strategies to balance economic goals with ecological and social imperatives, providing a framework for other countries interested in sustainable tourism. Full article

This exploratory study explores the preparedness and response strategies of tourism businesses to climate change through an in-depth qualitative analysis. Using open-ended questionnaires, we collected detailed narratives from a diverse range of tourism businesses, allowing respondents to express their perceptions, strategies and challenges in their own words. Thematic analysis of the data revealed a wide variation in how businesses understand and respond to climate risks. While most participants acknowledged climate change as a critical issue, many reported significant barriers, such as financial constraints and lack of expertise, which hindered their ability to implement meaningful strategies. Key themes that emerged from the data include the role of external support in overcoming financial and technical challenges, the diversity of mitigation strategies adopted and the gap between climate awareness and practical action. This study pinpoints the need for tailored interventions to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector, highlighting the complexity of translating climate change awareness into tangible business practices. The findings contribute to the growing discourse on sustainable tourism by offering an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that businesses face in addressing climate change. Full article

Tourism destinations exposed to chronic natural hazards require robust analytical frameworks to understand and prioritize the factors that sustain post-disaster resilience. This study examines Baños de Agua Santa (Ecuador), a volcano-exposed destination whose long recovery trajectory illustrates the complexity of socio-ecological adaptation. Using a multidimensional FAHP model grounded in expert judgments, eight dimensions and fifty-six criteria were evaluated through fuzzy triangular numbers and the extended analysis method of Chang to capture uncertainty and ambiguity in decision-making. Results show a consistent and hierarchical structure of resilience, with experiential, economic-entrepreneurial, and socio-community dimensions emerging as the most influential drivers of post-disaster adaptability. Fifteen criteria—primarily perceptual, community-based, and endogenous—achieved “very high impact” status, including risk perception, basic education, individual resilience capacities, institutional coordination, and entrepreneurial environment. Conversely, limited healthcare infrastructure, low economic diversification, and national-level vulnerabilities were identified as critical weaknesses. The study concludes that post-disaster recovery in Baños is shaped by a bottom-up dynamic that emphasizes agency, learning and socio-ecological memory. It also proposes an evidence-based Action Matrix for adaptive governance to guide prioritized, time-phased interventions. The FAHP model proves effective for transparent, context-sensitive prioritization in highly uncertain tourism environments. Full article