Tourists’ perspectives on hard and soft services toward rural tourism destination competitiveness: Community support as a moderator

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
May-Chiun Lo ◽  
Chee-Hua Chin ◽  
Fung-Yee Law
Keyword(s):  
Community Support ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Path Modeling ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Special Events ◽  
Tourism Product ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Rural Destinations

Rural tourism is an integrated part in the services field, and this industry has long been recognized as a valuable tool for economic development in rural destinations. However, the multiplying growth of rural tourism destinations has led to a stiff competition among the industry. Thus, the identification of tourists’ perspective on the hard and soft services components toward the development of rural tourism is a key element in surviving into the rapid tourism competition. The pivotal role of community support as an integral part of tourism product in ensuring sustainable development of rural tourism destination would also being the key indicator for the development of rural tourism. Hence, this study highlighted the importance of tourists’ perspective on hard services (tourism infrastructure and accommodation) and soft services (range of activities and special events) toward the competitiveness of rural tourism destination’s development with community support who act as a moderator. A total of 314 respondents comprising tourists who visited Kampung Semadang, Kampung Telaga Air, and Kubah National Park ( Kampung Matang), Kuching, Sarawak has voluntarily participated in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modeling and bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that tourists are more concerned about the quality of accommodation, infrastructure, range of activities, and special events for the development of tourism destination competitiveness in rural tourism destination. In addition, tourists also believed that the existence of community support is crucial in moderating the relationship between accommodation quality and tourism destination competitiveness. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future research.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Multi-environmental Constructs on Tourism Destination Competitiveness: Local Residents’ Perceptions

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chee-Hua Chin ◽  
May-Chiun Lo ◽  
Abang Azlan Mohamad ◽  
Vikneswaran Nair
Keyword(s):  
Local Communities ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Sustainable Tourism Development ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Rural Destinations

In the rural tourism industry, the environment has emerged to be of most concern to the local communities, followed by social-cultural and economic issues. Stemming from the awareness, the environment has become one of the main pillars for sustainable tourism development, particularly, rural tourism destination. On the other note, in a competitive tourism market, it is important for rural tourism destinations to create competitive advantage in order to attract visitors. Therefore, competitiveness theory underpins the research framework proposed and attempts to examine the impacts of multi-environmental constructs towards the development of rural tourism destination competitiveness. A total of 278 respondents comprising of local communities from rural destinations in Sarawak, Malaysia took part voluntarily in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modelling and bootstrapping. The findings showed that local residents are in their believed that for a rural tourism destination to enhance its competitiveness, environmental education is the key to increase environmental conservation that lead to better quality of environment. Tourism infrastructure is an added advantage to increase a tourism destination competitiveness. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and direction for future research.

scholarly journals Rural Tourism Sustainable Management and Destination Marketing Efforts: Key Factors from Communities’ Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chee-Hua Chin ◽  
May-Chiun Lo ◽  
T. Ramayah
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Destination Marketing ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Path Modelling

Rural tourism is seen as a potential sector in promoting country to the world and at the same time generates incomes to local communities. However, due to the lucrative economic benefits, tourism destination’s sustainability and quality of services is often being ignored. Thus, this study highlights the importance of sustainable management and destination marketing efforts in rural tourism destinations with identified significant contributively factors from local communities’ perspective. A total of 168 respondents comprising of local communities from <em>Kampung Telaga Air</em> and <em>Kampung Semadang</em>, Kuching, Sarawak took part voluntarily in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modelling and bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that local communities believed factors like climate change, carrying capacity of a destination, and environmental education are significantly affect both tourism destination sustainable management and destination marketing efforts. Furthermore, community support is also found to be important too for tourism destination marketing efforts. Surprisingly, community support was found no relations with destination sustainable management from local communities’ point of view. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and direction for future research.

scholarly journals Booster of Rural Tourism’s Competitiveness: Stakeholders’ Involvement as A Moderator

2018 ◽  
pp. 539-546
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Community Knowledge ◽  
Resource Based View ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Moderating Role

Tourism competitiveness of a destination has been greatly influenced by several factors, two of the factors selected under this study is community support and community knowledge. However, the limelight shines on the moderating role of stakeholders’ involvement on the relationships between the destination competitive advantage and its factors. This is the first study that has adopted the stakeholders’ involvement as a moderating variable to test on the moderating impact on the relationships. The lacking of development has indeed decreased the competitive level to host destination. Past studies have researched on the relationships of community support and community knowledge with destination competitiveness; this study has introduced the stakeholders’ involvement into the framework as moderator, in which it has been modified according to the resource-based view (RBV) theory to test the moderating impact on the former variables.A total of 223 sets of questionnaires were successfully collected for analysis Both Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0 and SmartPLS(version 3.2.7) were used for analysis. Interestingly, the findings revealed that both community support and knowledge impact were statistically proven in significantly related to rural tourism destination competitive advantage. The implications of the study were further discussed.

scholarly journals Tourists’ Perceived Destination Competitiveness in Protected Areas: The Case of Semenggoh Nature Reserve

2019 ◽  
pp. 1600-1608
Author(s):  
Jun-Zhou Thong ◽  
May-Chiun Lo ◽  
Mohamad Kadim Suaidi ◽  
Abang Azlan Mohamad ◽  
Chee-Hua Chin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Natural Areas ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Perceived Values ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Path Modelling

Ecotourism is referred to sustainable tourism, whereby responsible travel is endorsed, especially in natural areas that emphasize on relaxation. In Malaysia, the richness of natural areas leads ecotourism to become one of the rapidly growing industries within the nation. Thus, there is a need for complete understanding of ecotourism practice in planning, developing, and resources management to ensure sustainability without causing environmental degradation. Over the decades, people are progressively pursuing for reconnection with the nature for pukka natural experiences during their travel. This study intends to identify the impacts of natural resources, accessibility, cultural uniqueness, carrying capacity, and perceived values on tourism destination competitiveness from tourists’ perspectives. A total of 157 respondents had participated in completing the questionnaire. WarpPLS (version 6.0) was applied to assess the developed model based on path modelling followed by bootstrapping. The results revealed that accessibility and cultural uniqueness are positively and significantly correlated to tourism destination competitiveness based on tourists’ perspectives. Surprisingly, natural resources, carrying capacity, and perceived values were observed to be no significant relationship with tourism destination competitiveness. The implications, limitations, and directions for future research are further discussed.

THE RURAL TOURISM PRODUCT: STRUCTURE AND FORMATION

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 80-89
Author(s):  
Светлана Андреянова ◽  
Svetlana Andreyanova ◽  
Юлия Елфимова ◽  
Yuliya Elfimova
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Tourism Product ◽  
Relationship Model ◽  
Stavropol Region

The article deals with the existing resource base of the Stavropol region, which could become the basis for the development of rural tourism. The basis of this work is the notion that rural tourism at the global level is able to be the development driver of other activities in rural areas. Rural tourism can be evolved at the regional level in view of natural and cultural heritage of specific areas, and on the local level can change the relationship model &#34;mannature&#34; in a particular territorial point. The methodology of the study involves various types of the analysis of territory tourist potential, among which the leading role belongs to the cartographic analysis. The result of this work is the development of rural tourism routs in the destinations of Stavropol region: &#34;Come to our trust by the call of the heart&#34;, &#34;Abundant Cossack Land&#34; and &#34;In the wake of Cossack faith&#34;. At present, together with the administration of rural settlements and districts of the regions these routes are being tested and revised using public opinion polls of the first tourist groups. The scope of research results application is the activity of domestic tourism tour operators that distribute their services in Stavropol region. Persons involved in regional studies and engaged in the development of new tourist destinations in the region may also be interested in the obtained information. This study is limited by the territory of Stavropol region, but the results can be applied to other regions of the Russian Federation. Such types wine tourism, ethno-tourism, fishing and hunting, and so forth are the promising di- rections of future research.

scholarly journals Development Perspectives of Rural Tourism Policy – a Comparative Study of Rural Tourism Competitiveness Based on Perceptions of Tourism Workers in Slovenia and Serbia

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-154
Author(s):  
Tamara Gajić ◽  
Mirjana Penić ◽  
Aleksandra Vujko ◽  
Marko D. Petrović
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Integrated Model ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Tourism Policy

Abstract This paper deals with the development of rural areas in Slovenia and Serbia. The article identifies the main characteristics of rural tourism competitiveness in Slovenia and Serbia, analysing the main contributions and making a series of proposals to guide a future research agenda. The aim of the paper is simplified and clarified around one clearly defined objective: point out the competitiveness of rural tourism. The data for this study was collected using Dwyer and Kim’s (2003) Integrated Model of Destination Competitiveness to observe Slovenia’s and Vojvodina’s (Serbia) destination competitiveness. Determinants were assessed using a survey evaluating 24 indicators (demand factors and supporting factors), based upon a Likert Scale.

scholarly journals Analysis on Tourists’ Preferences for Rural Tourism Destinations in Romania

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Andra Poruțiu ◽  
Olivia Paula Tirpe ◽  
Camelia Oroian ◽  
Valentin C. Mihai ◽  
Gabriela O. Chiciudean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Tourism Demand ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Tourist Behavior ◽  
Adventure Tourism ◽  
Tourism Destinations

Consumer behavior plays an important role in establishing the marketing strategies of a tourism destination. Analysis of traveling motivation offers valuable information regarding the characteristics and trends of tourism demand. In this context, the aim of this paper is to determine tourists’ preferences regarding rural tourism destinations. To achieve the purpose of the paper, a survey was conducted among tourists from rural areas of Cluj County. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests were applied to determine if there were any significant differences among different groups. The results revealed that the respondents prefer to travel in small groups, especially during summer. They are concerned about the security and safety of the destination, and the price also plays an important role in choosing a tourism destination. Cultural attractions and adventure tourism possibilities are more appreciated by younger respondents. Future research should focus on post-pandemic tourist behavior and new tourist products should be developed to fulfill tourists’ expectations.

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