Search Results (31)

This paper proposes a method for recommending parent–child travel destinations and planning travel routes tailored to children of different ages. The method inputs basic information about the attractions (such as ticket prices, geographical locations, opening hours, etc.) into the system database and intelligently recommends suitable attractions based on user-provided data, including the children’s age, travel time, and trip theme. The paper transforms the route planning problem into a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) to optimize the travel route further. It presents an improved single-parent genetic algorithm based on sine chaos mapping (SCM-SPGA) to solve and optimize the shortest path for parent–child trips. Experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm has significant advantages in path planning accuracy and efficiency. The method is applied to a tourism dataset of Hainan, providing more personalized and age-appropriate attraction recommendations for tourists planning a parent–child trip to Hainan and optimizing the travel route. The research shows that the proposed method can effectively meet the personalized needs of parent–child travelers, significantly improving the overall travel experience by offering more tailored, efficient, and enjoyable trip-planning solutions. Full article

The objective of ensuring equal access to and enjoyment of tourism for the broadest spectrum of individuals, regardless of age or ability, is a fundamental right for all, as explicitly outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the initiatives aimed at actualizing the aims and objectives of the Convention, the discrepancy between the supply and demand for accessibility remains considerably high in Italy. In fact, numerous accessibility issues persist in information, services, transportation, tourist destinations, accommodations, and various types of facilities and attractions. The inadequacy of long-term planning and the lack of a comprehensive perspective on accessibility further exacerbate the situation in Italy. In light of these considerations, this paper aims to examine, via a survey conducted on a sample of potential users, the challenges and opportunities for the development of inclusive forms of accessible tourism and to recommend a reference framework for best practices that encompasses, in addition to barriers, the elements that enhance accessibility and usability of cultural activities for individuals with disabilities, serving as a reference point to assist in the planning and governance of sustainable tourism policies. This paper aims to answer three fundamental research questions to improve the conditions of the Italian tourism system: What is the perception of people with disabilities regarding their ability to travel in Italy? What needs to be improved to achieve a good tourism experience for people with disabilities in Italy? Which parameters should be considered for proper planning of accessible and inclusive tourism in Italy? Full article

This study investigates how virtual reality (VR) experiences influence tourists’ intentions to visit Da Lat, Vietnam, as a botanical destination, emphasizing the mediating roles of enjoyment and immersion. By integrating flow theory with the Information Systems Success model, this research develops a comprehensive framework explaining how content quality, system quality, and VR vividness shape user engagement and travel intentions. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the study analyzes survey data from 231 valid responses out of 240 participants. The findings reveal that content quality, system quality, and vividness significantly enhance enjoyment and immersion, which subsequently have a positive impact on travel intentions. The study contributes to the tourism and consumer experience literature by demonstrating how multisensory engagement in VR fosters decision-making. Theoretical implications include extending flow theory within virtual tourism and highlighting the joint influence of technological and perceptual factors on user behavior. Practically, these insights inform tourism marketers on optimizing VR environments to evoke emotional engagement and enhance destination appeal through immersive technology. Full article

The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the experience of searching for tourism information through ChatGPT and discover the meaning of it. In order to achieve this purpose, data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews, and data analysis was conducted according to Giorgi. As a result, eight themes, 27 meaning units, and 226 meaningful statements were derived. First, the participants were found to partially trust tourism information searched through it and perceive it as a personal AI travel agent. In addition, they were found to be satisfied with it as their primary tool of searching for tourism information and perceived it as an AI travel mate in all processes of tourism. On the one hand, they were found to be disappointed that it still felt like a machine. Second, they were found to feel ambivalent about it and experience better moments with it than with humans. Moreover, they were found to feel enjoyment in the process of learning about it. This study discovered the meaning of experience in searching for tourism information through it, laid the foundation for follow-up research related to it, and presented the possibility of expanding the application of it in the tourism industry. Full article

Throughout the last decade, chatbots have gained widespread adoption across various industries, including healthcare, education, business, e-commerce, and entertainment. These types of artificial, usually cloud-based, agents have also been used in airport customer service, although there has been limited research concerning travelers’ perspectives on this rather techno-centric approach to handling inquiries. Consequently, the goal of the presented study was to tackle this research gap and explore potential use cases for chatbots at airports, as well as investigate travelers’ acceptance of said technology. We employed an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model considering Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Trust, and Perceived Enjoyment as predictors of Behavioral Intention, with Affinity for Technology as a potential moderator. A total of $n=191$ travelers completed our survey. The results show that Perceived Usefulness, Trust, Perceived Ease of Use, and Perceived Enjoyment positively correlate with the Behavioral Intention to use a chatbot for airport customer service inquiries, with Perceived Usefulness showing the highest impact. Travelers’ Affinity for Technology, on the other hand, does not seem to have any significant effect. Full article

Understanding pedestrian perceptions and attitudes is crucial for promoting walking as a daily transportation mode for sustainable mobility and the effective development of smart cities. Pedestrian preferences, shaped by factors such as age, gender, and urban infrastructure, play a pivotal role in travel behaviors. Based on a survey study, this paper examines the impact of individual and urban factors on pedestrian perceptions and attitudes towards walking in the cities of Bologna and Porto. Results reveal that individuals generally value short, safe, and green walking routes, appreciating walking for physical activity, cost savings, and time efficiency. Disliked aspects include adverse weather conditions and walking on inadequate sidewalks. Through carrying out Chi-square statistical analysis tests, a variety of significant correlations between individual and urban variables have been revealed on what people like or dislike about walking. For instance, males, young individuals, and students were more likely to prefer short pedestrian routes, while adults and seniors favored safe and green routes. These findings can assist urban planners in identifying factors that make walking both convenient and enjoyable and in supporting sustainable urban mobility policies. Full article

The connotation and measurement standard of “fairness” in parkland planning is closely related to the level of urban development and residents’ needs, with solid realism and dynamics, and it is still a complex problem to control accurately in planning. Therefore, to conduct a more comprehensive study, taking the main urban area of Harbin as an example, this paper combined urban development background and practical problems at different stages and, based on POI and AOI data, divided the connotation of “equity” in park green space planning into two levels: “spatial equity” and “social equity”. Based on these two levels of fairness, the research framework of urban park green space layout is constructed. Kernel density estimation and GIS-based network analysis were used to study the spatial layout and accessibility of urban parkland. The ability to match supply and demand for parkland in the study area as a whole was analyzed using a gridded two-step moving search method, as well as the degree of equity in the enjoyment of urban parkland by vulnerable groups including the elderly and children using the Lorenz curve with the Gini coefficient, the share index, and the entropy of the locality. The results show that: (1) the parkland is concentrated in the seven main urban areas of the two–two junctions, and the cohesion distribution trend is outside the distribution. (2) Motorized vehicles have the best 15-min accessibility for travel, but it still does not cover all the parkland. (3) Supply and demand within the region are unsatisfactory, with the area with the strongest supply and demand capacity for parkland accounting for only 3.19% of the total area. (4) The Gini coefficient of parkland enjoyed by the residents of Harbin city center is 0.407, with a massive gap in the overall distribution. In addition, the share index of vulnerable groups of the elderly and children all have share indices below 1, and the results of the analysis of locational entropy indicate that the level of street park green space resources enjoyed by these two groups belongs to the low socio-spatial equity pattern, which is not balanced. This study investigates the spatial layout of urban parkland from two equity levels, which can provide new ideas for the equity study of urban green space planning. Full article

Public health service facilities are the fundamental component of urban medical and health services, and they are critical for realizing urban residents’ enjoyment of equitable and convenient medical services in sustainable smart cities. Spatial accessibility is an important indicator for evaluating the rationality of the layout of medical facilities from the perspective of sustainability. This study introduces a community-oriented accessibility (CA) index of public health service facilities, which considers a weighted average time model and the 15 min living circle standard for constraint, and even the service capacity of medical facilities. This study uses the proposed index to investigate the spatial accessibility of public health service facilities in the study area of Wuchang, Wuhan, China. Compared with the E2SFCA model, the proposed CA model joins the construction concept of an urban living circle, which is consistent with the domestic urban construction goals. The main findings include the following: (1) The community-oriented accessibility index of public health service facilities in the study area showed a gradual decline in the middle to sides under the walking mode and a high index in the north and low index in the south under the vehicle travel mode. (2) The calculated CA accessibility results are quite different between the walking and vehicular modes, and they are mainly affected by the allocation of the number of facilities and the distribution of the population. (3) Compared to the previous method, the calculated CA index results are more reflective of the actual situation and could be useful in guiding the spatial layout of the facilities more finely. This research explores the sustainable utilization of land resources in the planning of medical facilities and promotes the healthy and sustainable development of cities. In future studies, the population’s actual traffic conditions, weather, and holidays will be considered to further research on the accessibility of different groups and the specific impact of these factors on accessibility so as to promote people-friendly accessibility for sustainable smart cities. Full article

In response to the increasingly severe climate crisis, the tourism industry has been implementing ESG management and carbon-neutral policies, and sustainability has become the top priority. In this reality, slow tourism is expected to be a sustainable alternative. This study proposes a model of self-expressiveness for slow tourism using the example of Trans-Siberian Railway travel. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the process of the formation of self-expressiveness with the Trans-Siberian Railway experience, its relationship with hedonic enjoyment, and its impact on the life satisfaction of tourists. This research delves into the effects of eudaimonistic identity on life satisfaction via SEM. Moreover, the moderating role that self-expressiveness plays between hedonic enjoyment and life satisfaction is noteworthy, which was assessed based on the bias-corrected (BC) bootstrap method procedure. The data were gathered through an online survey on Instagram and Facebook using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 210 respondents who had traveled by train in Siberia were used for the analysis. The results indicate that the more Siberian train tourists encountered the flow experience, self-realization, perceived authenticity, and hedonic enjoyment, the greater their self-expression, which had a favorable effect on life satisfaction. In addition, self-expression fully mediated the relationship between hedonic enjoyment and life satisfaction. This research makes a contribution in that it applies eudaimonistic identity theory, which has previously only been applied in the context of leisure, to tourism. Theoretical and practical implications and suggested avenues for future research are also presented. Full article

Hyperloop technology is a transport mode designed to move passengers anywhere in the world, using electric propulsion to carry passengers through a vacuum/near-vacuum tube for a maximum speed of 1200 km/h. Given this, governments, engineers, researchers, and billionaires have been racing over the past years to obtain the first operational system in the world off the ground and bring it from concept to reality. The paper aimed to maximize the capacity of the Hyperloop’s capsule and identify a suitable design of Hyperloop technology based on the different capacities and speeds of the capsules as well as the assumptions of the initial annual demand. Additionally, significant attention will be paid to the interior design of the capsules in which people travel to make the journey more comfortable and enjoyable. The design will be conducted in AutoCAD and Autodesk Revit models based on the allocation of different components such as capacity, compressor fan, batteries, compressor motor, etc. The Hyperloop is powered by solar panels located on the top of the tube, which will allow the capsule to generate more energy based on its capacity than it needs to run. The optimizing cost of each design of the Hyperloop’s capsule will be considered using an MS Excel sheet. As a result, the Hyperloop capsule with a lower capacity (28 seats) has the highest value of optimizing cost due to the number of acquired capsules (38) compared to 25 capsules and 16 capsules for medium- and high-capacity capsules, respectively. The total annual cost of the Hyperloop’s capsules with different capacities of 28, 40, and 50 seats is EUR 5.6 million, EUR 5.5 million, and EUR 6.2 million, respectively, which is determined through the sum of the purchasing cost, operating cost and maintenance cost of capsules. Full article

After a stroke incident, physical inactivity is common. People with stroke may perceive several barriers to performing physical activity (PA). This study aimed to document the PA level and understand the barriers and facilitators to engaging in PA for community-dwelling stroke survivors in Benin, a lower middle-income country. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three hospitals in Benin. Levels of PA were recorded by means of the Benin version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire long form (IPAQ-LF-Benin), which is validated for stroke survivors in Benin. The perceived exercise facilitators and barriers were assessed by the Stroke Exercise Preference Inventory-13 (SEPI-13). A descriptive analysis and associations were performed with a Confidence Interval of 95% and <0.05 level of significance. A total of 87 participants (52 men, mean age of 53 ± 10 years, mean time after a stroke of 11 (IQR: 15) months and an average of 264.5 ± 178.9 m as distance on the 6 min walking test (6MWT) were included. Overall, stroke survivors in Benin reached a total PA of 985.5 (IQR: 2520) metabolic equivalent (METs)-minutes per week and were least active at work, domestic, and leisure domains with 0 MET-minutes per week. The overview of PA level showed that 52.9% of participants performed low PA intensity. However, 41.4% performed moderate PA or walking per day for at least five days per week. Important perceived barriers were lack of information (45.3%), hard-to-start exercise (39.5%), and travelling to places to exercise (29.9%). The preference for exercise was with family or friends, outdoors, for relaxation or enjoyment (90.2%), and receiving feedback (78.3%). Several socio-demographic, clinical, and community factors were significantly associated with moderate or intense PA (p < 0.05) in stroke survivors in this study. Our findings show that the PA level among chronic stroke survivors in Benin is overall too low relative to their walking capacity. Cultural factors in terms of the overprotection of the patients by their entourage and/or the low health literacy of populations to understand the effect of PA on their health may play a role. There is a need for new approaches that consider the individual barriers and facilitators to exercise. Full article

The aim of this hermeneutic-phenomenological study was to explore the perspectives of 12 patients, 17 nurses, and 4 musicians on patient-tailored live music interventions in a hemodialysis setting. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were collected—17 with patients, 9 with nurses. Furthermore, 18 moderate participation observations, whilst 1 semi-structured group interview with 3 nurses and 3 musicians, and 13 reflective journals from musicians were collected. Within the analysis—based on Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation—two overall themes emerged: (1) the inner space and (2) the participating space, followed by five subthemes: (1a) Entering a calm and enjoyable pause bubble; (1b) Resting in a thought-free state of mind; (1c) Traveling in the past and catching the moment through heartfelt music; (2a) Bringing positive changes into life; (2b) The artistic quality mediating a magnificent and beautiful experience. We found that patient-tailored live music was a meaningful break, influencing mental and physical well-being, time perception, community, work environment, and artistic approach. The artistic quality of the music was essential—together with the musicians’ social awareness, empathy, and ability to interact with the patients—in creating meaningful moments for patients and staff. Overall, the music interventions were a welcome change in a predictable world of stressful routines and repetitive treatments. Full article

Women and men often do not experience equal mobility opportunities in their societies. Increasingly, gender is being recognized to play a significant role in transport planning, particularly for addressing individual mobility needs in urban and rural areas. By understanding the link between male and female travelers’ preferences, perceived values, and travel behavior, as well as experienced barriers, transport systems could be better tailored to women’s activities and mobility needs by putting the women’s perspective on center stage. Therefore, the objective of this paper is twofold: (1) to perform an in-depth analysis of women’s and men’s travel behavior to scrutinize the difference in perception of the value of travel time derived from travel experience using various transport modes and (2) to identify the significant factors influencing men and women’s travel behavior in terms of transport mode choice. The empirical analysis is based on a multinomial regression model of 1406 female travelers and 1486 male travelers in eight European countries. In regard to the subjective values associated with users’ perception of travel time worthwhileness, this research implies that the perception of enjoyable travel time and the perceived mood from the travel experience would increase the tendency of ridesharing and using private motorized modes of transport as a passenger among women. Results also demonstrate that women have a higher perception of the worthwhileness of travel time for walking compared to men using bicycle and micro-mobility systems and private motorized vehicles as a driver. Regarding public transport, a significant difference in the perceived worthwhileness of travel time between female and male users of public transport in the European urban areas was also discovered. Full article

Verbal encouragement (VE) can be used by physical education (PE) practitioners for boosting motivation during exercise engagement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of VE on psychophysiological aspects and physical performance in a PE context. Twenty secondary school male students (age: 17.68 ± 0.51 yrs; height: 175.7 ± 6.2 cm; body mass: 67.3 ± 5.1 kg, %fat: 11.9 ± 3.1%; PE experience: 10.9 ± 1.0 yrs) completed, in a randomized order, two test sessions that comprised a soccer dribbling circuit exercise (the Hoff circuit) either with VE (CVE) or without VE (CNVE), with one-week apart between the tests. Heart rate (HR) responses were recorded throughout the circuit exercise sessions. Additionally, the profile of mood-state (POMS) was assessed pre and post the circuit exercises. Furthermore, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), traveled distance, and physical activity enjoyment (PACES) were assessed after the testing sessions. Furthermore, the CVE trial resulted in higher covered distance, %HRmax, RPE, PACES score, (Cohen’s coefficient d = 1.08, d = 1.86, d = 1.37, respectively; all, p < 0.01). The CNVE trial also showed lower vigor and higher total mood disturbance (TMD) (d = 0.67, d = 0.87, respectively, p < 0.05) and was associated with higher tension and fatigue, compared to the CVE trial (d = 0.77, d = 1.23, respectively, p < 0.01). The findings suggest that PE teachers may use verbal cues during soccer dribbling circuits for improving physical and psychophysiological responses within secondary school students. Full article

Urban parks provide essential outdoor recreation space, especially for high-density cities. This study evaluated the park-visiting activity profiles of residents to inform the planning and design of community-relevant parks. The visiting and activity patterns of 465 Hong Kong adult residents were collected using a structured questionnaire. The correlations of visiting and activity patterns of the different socio-demographic groups were analyzed. Varying features of visiting and activity patterns were observed for different socio-demographic groups. Older patrons visited parks intensively for nature-enjoyment activities and had shorter travel if intended for social and physical-exercise activities. The middle-aged respondents with children mainly conducted family based recreation, visited parks more frequently, and traveled farther. The young adults reported lower patronage, but the visit frequency increased with the engagement level in outdoor and physical-exercise activities. The homemakers reported a high visit frequency and enthusiastic participation in social activities. They tended to visit more frequently and stay longer in parks for physical-exercise activities. Our study revealed the urban parks’ divergent patronage behavior and unique roles to disparate user groups. They furnished evidence to apply continually precision park planning, design, and promotion to achieve socially responsive and age-friendly parks. Full article