The virtual cultural tourist: Film-induced tourism and Kubo and the Two Strings

Over the past two decades, there has been growing research in film-induced tourism. Much of this research is focused on how film influences tourist destination choices. There has been less emphasis, however, on the nature and types of movies that may induce this attraction to such locations. By examining Kubo and the Two Strings (Knight, 2016), a stop-motion animation produced by Laika Studios, this paper aims to apply film studies to explore current understandings of film-induced tourism. This paper argues that Kubo is itself a form of film-induced tourism by positioning the viewer as a virtual cultural tourist whose cinematic experience may be likened to a veritable media pilgrimage through Japanese culture, history and aesthetics. The movie introduces the viewer into an imagined world that borrows from origami, Nō theatre, shamisen music, obon rituals and Japanese symbolism, philosophy and mythology. The resulting pastiche is a constructed diorama that is as transnational and postmodern as it is authentic and indigenous.

Impact of the COVID-19 on the Destination Choices of Hungarian Tourists: A Comparative Analysis

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) has transformed the tourism sector to an unprecedented extent, creating new challenges and new development paths. Although the recovery of tourism is fraught with uncertainties, the changes in tourists’ travel habits offer a unique opportunity for tourism to recover in a way that respects the principles of sustainable development. Several international studies suggest that the pandemic has significantly transformed tourists’ travel habits and destination choices, making them more environmentally conscious and shifting their preferences towards inland destinations close to nature. To test these claims, we examined tourists’ destination choices and the factors influencing them in a sample of 500 respondents in Hungary before the pandemic and after the restrictions on travel, businesses, gatherings, and mask requirements were lifted in the summer of 2021. Our results show that there was no significant change in the destination choices of the tourists surveyed. The main influences were the aspects of safety and comfort; the consideration of environmental concerns, despite our assumptions, did not play a significant role.

The impact of climate change on visitor destination selection: A case study of the Central Drakensberg Region in KwaZulu-Natal

Many variables influence visitors’ destination choices, for example, affordability, attractions, health and safety, and expectancies. Amongst the indirect influences in destination choice by tourists, climate change is perhaps the greatest factor because of its negative impact on the ecological landscape of tourist destinations. Using the Central Drakensberg Region (CDR) as a case study, this article seeks to investigate the influence of climate change on visitors’ destination choices. A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted on a sample of n347 participants who were selected using purposive and convenience sampling procedures under the auspices of non-probability. The statistical analyses were performed using the latest edition of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 25.0). Based on the study’s results, climate change was found to be a key influence on tourists’ decision-making, behaviour and spending habits at tourist destination like the Central Drakensberg Area. The most significant climatic parameter for tourists was determined to be pleasant and warm temperatures, as well as the summer season. Furthermore, owing to the current climate change circumstances, visitors were found to be less likely to return or recommend future visits to the region. To that end, tourism officials in the CDR should swiftly implement adaptation measures to counter the effects, and explore alternatives such as soft tourism and non-climate-dependent activities to accommodate visitors year-around. Further research is recommended to establish the extent to which socio-demographic characteristics influence destination choice in the area, as well as to ascertain the current state of climate change impacts.

Investigating Tourists’ Willingness to Walk (WTW) to Attractions within Scenic Areas: A Case Study of Tongli Ancient Town, China

This paper aims to quantify tourists’ willingness to walk (WTW) in the intra-destination choice in pedestrian scenic areas. The case study presented is the Tongli Ancient Town (Jiangsu Province, China), which has a significant number of heritage sites, but tourism management has been weak. The main objective was achieved by surveying sequential destination choices in the site, with a total of 272 interviewed tourists. A Multi-Stop Behavior Model (MBM) was constructed to identify the factors that influence tourists’ intra-destination choice and willingness to walk (WTW). On the whole, the evidence showed that tourists prefer core-area attractions to peripheral attractions. Walking distance is the most important variable in tourists’ attraction choice. Moreover, WTWs of tourist segments showed both similarities and disparities, inspiring more pertinent strategies in line with tourists’ preferences. Policy and management implications are drawn based on the empirical findings and their effects are predicted using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation.

High-resolution human mobility data reveal race and wealth disparities in disaster evacuation patterns

Major disasters such as extreme weather events can magnify and exacerbate pre-existing social disparities, with disadvantaged populations bearing disproportionate costs. Despite the implications for equity and emergency planning, we lack a quantitative understanding of how these social fault lines translate to different behaviours in large-scale emergency contexts. Here we investigate this problem in the context of Hurricane Harvey, using over 30 million anonymized GPS records from over 150,000 opted-in users in the Greater Houston Area to quantify patterns of disaster-inflicted relocation activities before, during, and after the shock. We show that evacuation distance is highly homogenous across individuals from different types of neighbourhoods classified by race and wealth, obeying a truncated power-law distribution. Yet here the similarities end: we find that both race and wealth strongly impact evacuation patterns, with disadvantaged minority populations less likely to evacuate than wealthier white residents. Finally, there are considerable discrepancies in terms of departure and return times by race and wealth, with strong social cohesion among evacuees from advantaged neighbourhoods in their destination choices. These empirical findings bring new insights into mobility and evacuations, providing policy recommendations for residents, decision-makers, and disaster managers alike.

Bibliometrix analysis of medical tourism

Medical tourism is an expanding phenomenon. Scientific studies address the changes and challenges of the present and future trend. However, no research considers the study of bibliometric variables and area of business, management and accounting. This bibliometric analysis discovered the following elements: (1) The main articles are based on guest services, management, leadership principles applied, hotel services associated with healthcare, marketing variables and elements that guide the choice in medical tourism; (2) The main authors do not deal with tourism but are involved in various ways in the national health system of the countries of origin or in WHO; (3)cost-efficiency and analytical accounting linked to medical tourism structures and destination choices are not yet developed topics.

Similarity-Attraction Cluster of Outbound Chinese Tourists: Who Belongs There?

China has become the number one source market for tourists. This article seeks to understand whether cultural/lifestyle similarity is an important pull factor for Chinese tourists when selecting a destination. Specifically, 205 Chinese tourists were surveyed about their destination choices in relation to the seven most visited outbound destinations. The results from a latent class regression analysis found a similarity-driven segment to exist for all seven destinations, with segment sizes ranging from 22% to 62% of the sample. These results suggest that a substantial segment of Chinese tourists are motivated by perceived cultural/lifestyle similarity. Generally, those with high ethnocentrism, high uncertainty avoidance, low novelty seeking or less travel experience are more likely to belong to the similarity-driven segment. Further research is needed to examine the size of this segment in larger, more inclusive cities of the Chinese population, as the current study only concentrated on tourists from three major cities.