Search Results (396)

Although recreational experience segmentation is widely used in coastal tourism research, existing motivational frameworks have been developed primarily in island and protected-area destinations, leaving urban, open-access, developing-country contexts theoretically underexplored. This study addresses that gap by identifying the dimensions of recreational experience and market segments for the city of Salinas, Ecuador—an accessible, family-oriented, urban coastal destination—to advance sustainable tourism management. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional design, data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 385 tourists; 374 cases with complete scale responses were retained for analysis. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified seven motivational dimensions: environment and sustainable recreational resources, learning and knowledge, affective well-being and creative harmony, interest and enjoyment in the experience, aquatic natural resources and wildlife, cognitive stimulation and emotional connection, and hedonic well-being. A K-means cluster analysis, validated through the elbow method (inflection at k = 3) and silhouette coefficient (0.25), revealed three distinct tourist segments: intensive recreational tourists (n = 183; 48.9%), moderate recreational tourists (n = 136; 36.4%), and passive recreational tourists (n = 55; 14.7%). Chi-square tests confirmed significant associations between clusters and sociodemographic variables including gender, marital status, and number of visits. This study offers four theoretical contributions: it reports a more detailed motivational factor structure than previously documented three- and four-factor models for coastal destinations; it proposes recreational amotivation—grounded in self-determination theory—as a candidate visitor profile that merits further theoretical and empirical validation; it advances a destination-type-sensitive motivational framework; and it provides boundary condition evidence clarifying the contextual scope of recreational experience theory. These findings offer actionable segmentation tools for destination managers seeking to differentiate and sustain coastal tourism markets. Full article

The ecological environment of Qinghai Lake is fragile and exhibits a pronounced response to climate change. Its unique natural conditions render its tourism activities particularly sensitive to climatic variations. However, existing studies rarely examine the impacts of climate change on tourism activities in climate-sensitive regions of high-altitude inland lakes, such as Qinghai Lake. Therefore, this paper takes Qinghai Lake as a case study to investigate the effects of climate change on tourist perception and tourism demand, thereby providing a scientific basis for decision-making by scenic area managers. The results are as follows: (1) In recent decades, the warming and humidification trend of Qinghai Lake has been clear, and the number of comfortable days for tourism has increased significantly, which has had a direct positive effect on the experience of tourists. (2) Climate change has caused changes in the natural ecology and landscape quality of Qinghai Lake, which has indirectly affected the tourism experience as follows: the expansion of the lake has increased the willingness of tourists to travel; the inundation of Bird Island and Sand Island has reduced the willingness of tourists to travel; and the increase in the number of animals and plants along with the enrichment of biological diversity has increased the willingness of tourists to travel. (3) Different types of tourists respond to the impact of climate change to varying degrees. Among them, female tourists and tourist groups with a higher level of education respond more strongly to climate change and its impacts. Full article

In Spain, inbound European tourism exhibits marked territorial imbalances whose evolution is difficult to characterize using aggregate indicators. This study analyzes its spatiotemporal patterns at the municipal level between July 2019 and December 2025 based on experimental statistics from the National Institute of Statistics compiled using mobile phone data. The objective is to identify processes of growth, persistence, and spatial intensification using a geospatial methodology based on the Space–Time Cube (STC) and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis (EHSA). The analysis covers the 1000 municipalities with the highest cumulative volume of European tourists, which account for most of the flows recorded during the period. The results show positive and statistically significant temporal trends in 911 municipalities, although the formation of persistent spatial clusters is considerably less widespread. EHSA identified 48 municipalities classified as hot spots when applying a one-month temporal neighborhood and 77 when using a three-month configuration. The two classifications showed an observed agreement of 96.0% and, for the four shared categories, a Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.660. The post-pandemic recovery in tourism did not, therefore, result in a homogeneous territorial consolidation of stable spatial patterns. We identify persistent hubs, areas undergoing intensification, and destinations with episodic behavior, located primarily in metropolitan, coastal, and island areas. The main contribution of the study lies in the development of a reproducible workflow based on the STC–EHSA integration, capable of distinguishing between temporal growth, persistence, intensification, and spatial intermittency, and of evaluating the stability of the results under different temporal neighborhood configurations. Full article

Volcanic caves, commonly referred to as lava tubes, are typically shallow subsurface cavities formed by the cooling of a generally basaltic lava flow under a roof or crust that cools faster and acts as a thermal insulator. These cavities can serve as tourist attractions, in which case their stability must be analyzed and ensured. Empirical rock mass classification systems, in this case we have applied the Q-index have been employed to evaluate the stability of underground excavations: mines and tunnels, including natural caves. We have identified that these approaches have limitations, particularly incorporating key geometric parameters such as roof thickness and cave length. In this study we have analyzed applicability of the Scaled Span Method (SSM) to volcanics caves. This method was originally developed for the stability assessment of crown pillar stability in shallow mines. We have developed a dataset of lava tubes (caves) located in the Canary Islands (Spain), the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), and Jordan. In this research we have conducted geomechanical characterization using the Q-system, and also the Scaled Span to evaluate stability based on cave geometry and rock mass properties. The results indicate that, in general, the SSM yields more conservative stability estimates compared to the Q-system, particularly for shallow caves with limited roof thickness. Nevertheless, discrepancies between the two approaches are observed in several cases, highlighting the limitations of directly transferring empirical methods developed for mining excavations to natural cave systems. These differences underscore the need for careful interpretation and, where appropriate, complementary stability analyses. The Scaled Span Method is useful for preliminary assessment of volcanic cave stability, especially in scenarios where potential interaction with the ground surface is expected: buildings or roads on top. However, its application requires adaptation and critical evaluation due to the fundamental differences between engineered mining excavations and natural subsurface cavities. Full article

Existing self-driving itinerary planning systems rely on single-objective optimization and static cost estimation, limiting their ability to accommodate diverse user preferences and dynamic price fluctuations. Methods: This study presents an interactive itinerary planning system formulated as a Tourist Trip Design Problem (TTDP) with subset selection, integrating an improved NSGA-II algorithm for simultaneous optimization of travel time, cost, and experiential quality, a WPGA-based combined prediction model for dynamic cost forecasting, and a human-in-the-loop interface for real-time preference adjustment. Results: Evaluated on 30 Hainan Island attractions under a 7-day/6-night scenario with 30 independent runs, the improved NSGA-II selects 8.9 ± 1.0 stops with total time 26.2 ± 4.7 h, cost CNY 1526 ± 356, and experience index 36.69 ± 5.60, with backend optimization latency 0.5 ± 0.1 s (end-to-end user-perceived latency including network and frontend rendering: 1.8 s). Compared with standard NSGA-II, the improved version achieves 114.0% higher aggregate experience index while selecting more stops (8.9 vs. 4.2); this improvement is primarily driven by the larger number of selected stops, and normalized indicators (experience per stop: 4.12 vs. 4.08) provide a more balanced interpretation of the trade-offs. The cost model covers three categories (fuel, tickets, and hotel), with the optimization objective f2 capturing route-dependent costs (fuel + tickets) and the hotel treated as a fixed baseline. However, empirical validation is restricted to two geographic corridors. Full article

Sicily is a Mediterranean island region whose economy is based especially on tourism, with tourists being attracted to its beaches. The whole coastline of the island, including its minor islands, is 1745 km. At the moment, considering the whole period analyzed by the Coastal Plan of Sicilian Region (2008–2024), about 115 km of the 683 km of the main island’s sandy coastline present erosion problems that affect 23% of its unprotected coastline (506 km). Some of these problems are threatening Sicily’s economic and important historical assets as well as its cultural heritage; 177 km of protected beaches, using hard structure, have lost their original beauty. In the last fifty years, about 2.5 km² of beaches were lost due to erosion, causing damages worth approximately 5 billion Euros. Current coastal management guidelines identify artificial beach nourishment as the most sustainable strategy for protecting the insular economy against the accelerating impacts of climate change. Successful nourishment, however, hinges on the availability of vast quantities of borrow material that must be granulometrically, compositionally, and chromatically compatible with native beach sediments. While subaerial quarries are being phased out due to their irreversible environmental degradation and logistical inefficiency, as well as local “ephemeral” sources (such as harbor dredging or over-alluvial deposits) providing insufficient volumes, the research has shifted toward Remote/Relict Marine Sediment Deposits (RMSDs). This study evaluates the strategic potential of RMSDs as a high-volume, low-impact resource for coastal defense. By integrating the geological, morphological, and sedimentological characteristics of the Sicilian continental shelf within a GIS framework, we have delineated potential dredging sectors. These areas are bounded by the −30 m isobath (the lower limit of Posidonia oceanica meadows) and the −200 m isobath, which represents the current operational limit of Jumbo Trailer Suction Hopper Dredgers (TSHDs). A multi-criteria constraint analysis was performed, categorizing environmental and infrastructural overlaps into fatal flaws (prohibitive) and non-prohibitive constraints. This subtractive spatial analysis reveals that approximately 6500 km² of the Sicilian shelf may be eligible for resource exploitation concessions, pending site-specific, high-resolution surveys. Full article

Global population growth and numerous anthropogenic activities are putting increasing pressure on island aquifers. This situation is exacerbated in popular tourist destinations where seasonal population fluctuations increase water consumption. Most island aquifers are threatened by overexploitation, contamination, and seawater intrusion (SWI), which threaten these resources’ sustainability. In this study, the vulnerability of the Bozcaada Island (Türkiye) to SWI during peak seasons (summer) was assessed using the GALDIT approach. The GALDIT index takes into account six key hydrogeological characteristics, including groundwater occurrence (G), which represents the type of aquifer (confined, unconfined, or semi-confined) and influences the interface between freshwater and saline water; aquifer hydraulic conductivity (A), where higher conductivity increases the risk of SWI and determines how easily water flows; groundwater level above mean sea level (L), which indicates hydraulic pressure against SWI; distance from the coast (D), which implies higher SWI risk when close to the coast; existing intrusion status (I), which takes into account current SWI detections based on the ratio of chloride ions to bicarbonate ions in a groundwater sample; and aquifer thickness (T). Bozcaada Island hosts a large number of tourists during the summer months, when agricultural production is at its peak, with a high demand for irrigation. This significantly increases the demand for groundwater and leads to saltwater intrusion. Based on the results of the GALDIT index, the island’s groundwater reserves are heavily used throughout the summer. The GALDIT index for the summer shows that this increased groundwater abstraction intensifies the SWI problem. In summer, the island is vulnerable with 6.11 km² of extremely high SWI, 7.88 km² of high SWI, 7.34 km² of moderate SWI, 7.40 km² of low SWI and 8.50 km² of very low SWI. This study emphasizes how urgently Bozcaada Island needs sustainable water management techniques. Full article

This study investigates the relationships among clean energy tourism potential (CETP), sustainable logistics capability (SLC), stakeholder collaboration (SCN), environmental concern (ECN), and sustainable community wellbeing and tourism outcomes (SCWTO) in island tourism destinations. The aim of this study is to examine the direct and indirect relationships among clean energy tourism potential, sustainable logistics capability, stakeholder collaboration, environmental concern, and sustainable community wellbeing and tourism outcomes in island tourism destinations. The study focuses on Koh Larn Island, Thailand, and Jeju Island, South Korea, as representative destinations with strong renewable energy tourism potential and sustainability-oriented tourism development. A quantitative research design was employed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Data were collected from 400 international tourists through an online questionnaire survey. The results reveal that clean energy tourism potential is positively associated with sustainable logistics capability and stakeholder collaboration. Sustainable logistics capability is positively associated with stakeholder collaboration and sustainable community wellbeing and tourism outcomes. Stakeholder collaboration also demonstrates a significant positive relationship with sustainable community wellbeing and tourism outcomes. Furthermore, the mediation analysis indicates that stakeholder collaboration serves as an important mechanism linking clean energy tourism potential and sustainable logistics capability with broader sustainability outcomes. Although the interaction term between environmental concern and sustainable logistics capability yielded a negative coefficient, no statistically significant moderating effect was observed. The findings highlight the strategic importance of renewable energy tourism development, sustainable logistics systems, and collaborative governance in promoting sustainable tourism and long-term community wellbeing in island destinations. This study contributes to the sustainable tourism literature by integrating clean energy tourism potential, sustainable logistics capability, stakeholder collaboration, and environmental concern within a comprehensive sustainability-oriented framework. Full article

Mauritius, as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), depends heavily on tourism and is therefore exposed to external shocks; this study examines how the sector’s performance and value capture evolved from 2010 to 2025, with particular attention to the COVID-19 disruption and subsequent recovery. The analysis uses only secondary data, combining arrivals and source-market breakdowns published by the Ministry of Tourism with the monthly series of gross tourism earnings released by the Bank of Mauritius. Trends and seasonality are described for both arrivals and earnings, and three indicators are derived to support interpretation: revenue per arrival (as a proxy for value capture), the intensity of seasonality, and the concentration of source markets. The results document the magnitude of the pandemic-related break, trace the timing of the rebound, and show how value capture and market concentration shifted between the pre- and post-COVID periods. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for resilience in island destinations, highlighting the need for diversification and higher-value positioning, and proposing a replicable monitoring approach that can be updated as new official data become available. Full article

With the advancement of urbanization, the functions of cities continue to expand and deepen, among which the tourism function plays an increasingly important role in urban and regional economic development. To resolve the challenges in data acquisition for urban function classification and assessment, this study introduces POI data and machine learning methods to construct an employment sector distribution model. This enables the estimation of tourism-related employment data in Pacific Island countries. The tourism function of these cities is quantitatively evaluated based on two dimensions: functional scale and functional intensity. The results show that: (1) The constructed employment sector distribution model demonstrates strong predictive performance. The error rate for the total employed population in each island country is below 10%. The Bootstrap robustness test confirms that predicted values for all countries fall within the 95% confidence interval. The number of tourism employees shows a significant positive correlation with inbound tourist numbers and the count of tourism-related POIs at the 0.01 level. Empirical validation shows tourism-related sector error rates of 4.44% for Ningbo and 9.02% for Wuxi, both of which are under 10%. (2) Tourism in thirteen countries, including Samoa and Tonga, constitutes a fundamental function of the national economy, whereas in Papua New Guinea, tourism is a non-fundamental function, reflecting a lower degree of economic reliance on the tourism sector. (3) A provisional typology of tourism functions is proposed, identifying Fiji and The Cook Islands as robustly specialized, while Papua New Guinea remains characterized by stable low-specialization. The remaining 11 countries occupy transitional positions where classification is sensitive to prediction uncertainty. Subject to this caveat, the PICs are provisionally categorized into three groups: medium-to-large specialized (Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, and Samoa), small specialized (Tuvalu, Palau, Solomon Islands, and Tonga), and low-specialization (Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, and Marshall Islands). The classification results can guide these island nations in enhancing their tourism functions, fostering sound regional development, and enabling more effective participation in global governance. Full article

While the adoption of e-ticketing has been studied in various disciplines, few studies have examined tourists’ intention to adopt e-ticketing for visiting small island and valley tourism sites. This study extends the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior by incorporating security and privacy concerns, price fairness, electronic word-of-mouth, destination management effectiveness, government incentives, and environmental concern to examine the antecedents of tourists’ behavioral intention to adopt e-ticketing. Data were collected from 375 purposively sampled on-street respondents in Sajek Valley and Saint Martin’s Island, Bangladesh. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings show that perceived usefulness, price fairness, subjective norms, perceived ease of use, environmental concern, and destination management effectiveness affect tourists’ attitudes toward e-ticketing adoption. However, security and privacy concerns have a negative but statistically insignificant influence on attitudes. Attitude is a significant determinant of behavioral intention, and government incentives moderate the relationship between attitude and behavioral intention. The study offers implications for policymakers, online marketers, and destination managers. Full article

This manuscript explores a key challenge of sustainability, one of climate change vulnerability across diverse destinations. We propose a cross-pollination approach, examining destinations via a novel, dual framework: the relational perspective of actor-network theory (ANT) and the strategic focus of resource dependence theory (RDT). Applying actor-network theory to compare risks of climate change in a tourism setting, this study broadens academic inquiry, reinforces the legitimacy of trans-destination studies, and offers potential managerial insights to improve management and increased sustainability in the context of uncertainty. We advocate for a cross-pollination approach to research, arguing that insights from one context can enrich understanding and innovation in the other. Examining two types of destinations, ski and islands, this research suggests that sharing can contribute to a deeper understanding of destination resilience, mitigation and adaptation, encouraging more holistic and interdisciplinary strategies to address global vulnerabilities and challenges from a destination management and development lens. Full article

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by spirochetes of the genus Leptospira, primarily transmitted via direct or indirect contact with contaminated rodent urine. Human disease ranges from a mild, flu-like illness to severe, life-threatening Weil’s disease. Although the incidence of leptospirosis in Greece is not high, the Ionian Islands Region, including Corfu Island, presents the highest average frequency of cases in the country. A retrospective study of 11 confirmed cases in Corfu between 2015 and 2025 was conducted. The infections recorded during this period occurred from autumn to spring, exclusively affecting male patients in rural settings; notably, 90.9% of cases were attributed to occupational exposure. No association with urban or tourist areas was found. Although the incidence of the disease decreased by 42.1% compared to the previous decade (2005–2014), the case fatality ratio reached 27.3%, considerably above the average of 2.6% in Europe (during 2010–2022). The study underscores the need for enhanced clinical awareness and targeted preventive measures in Corfu, mainly among patients with at-risk occupations. Timely preparedness is needed especially in the face of ongoing climate change. Full article

This study investigates how social networking service (SNS) tourism information characteristics influence destination image and behavioral intentions in digital tourism communication. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework, SNS information characteristics are conceptualized as vividness, convenience, interactivity, and reliability, and their effects on affective image, cognitive image, and SNS behavioral intentions are examined. Data were collected from 273 Chinese tourists who used SNS platforms to obtain information about Jeju Island, and structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping was employed to test direct and mediating effects. Results indicate that convenience significantly influences cognitive image; vividness, convenience, and interactivity significantly affect affective image; and reliability shows no significant effect. Affective image positively influences behavioral intentions, whereas cognitive image does not. In addition, vividness, interactivity, and reliability directly influence behavioral intentions, while convenience has no direct effect. Mediation analysis shows that affective image partially mediates the effects of vividness and interactivity and fully mediates the effect of convenience, whereas cognitive image does not exhibit a significant mediating role. These findings highlight the importance of affective mechanisms in digital tourism communication and provide practical implications for sustainable destination marketing and digital tourism management. Full article

Small islands in developing countries often face infrastructural limitations, environmental fragility, and heavy economic dependence on tourism, making smart and sustainable innovation crucial. This study investigates what international tourists value in a destination to perceive it as a “smart island,” applying the smart city paradigm to the context of small island developing countries. A structured survey was conducted with 420 international tourists from diverse nationalities, using a five-point Likert scale to assess the importance of smart tourism attributes. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, t-tests, and regression analyses were performed to identify significant predictors of overall satisfaction with smart tourism experiences. This study provides empirical evidence that international tourists primarily perceive destination smartness through core digital and infrastructural features rather than advanced technological sophistication. Real-time information systems emerged as the strongest predictor of perceived smartness, followed by free Wi-Fi access, sustainability-related technologies, and smart transport systems. The findings further reveal that demographic and cultural factors influence technology preferences, while immersive tools such as augmented reality play a secondary role. Overall, the results indicate that, in Small Island Developing Countries, smart tourism should be understood as a strategic approach to improving accessibility, connectivity, sustainability, and destination resilience rather than merely adopting high-end technologies. Full article