Formation and Implementation of a Tourist Destination Development Strategy Based on Territorial Marketing Conception

The article examines and estimates the possibility of applying the conception of territorial marketing when planning and managing the development of tourist destination. In real terms, territorial marketing recognizes branding as a key element of territory promotion. Branding of destinations, being well-developed in theory, is widely applied. Since 2003, China has introduced a system of touristic sites classification that ranks destinations from the lowest A-level to the highest 5A. The latter marks a site as world famous landmark, which means a considerable increase in tourist flow. In the run-up to the Winter Olympics, winter sports and tourism are gaining popularity in China. International Tourism Investment Association operates a winter sports center in Heilongjiang Province. Following the increasing demand for winter tourism services, the company has decided to implement a development strategy for Finshuishan Mountain Winter Sports Center to raise the destination to 5A-level. The project involved working out a program of a complex territorial marketing strategy, and operationally, the goal has been achieved. However, due to formal reasons, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Winter Sports Center cannot be classified as 5A.

Geotourism Potential Of Akre Area, Duhok Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Geotourism potential of Akre district in Duhok Governorate, Kurdistan region, northern Iraq is studied in detail. Sixteen geotourism sites were investigated, which are divided into three sub-areas according to their geographical positions. All the tourism sites are located in the northern mountainous part of the High Folded Zone due to their variations from the southern part (Low Folded Zone) in geology, geomorphology, hydrology and tectonic settings. Based on comparison with the Potential Touristic Use (P.T.U) characters, most of the studied geosites have medium correspondence with the P.T.U characters, except three sites i.e. Sipa Akre waterfall, Kani Zark spring and Sipa Bjeel waterfall that have good correspondence. This is because they are reachable by pavement roads and can be easily managed and developed by the local people, in addition to their magical landscapes. The Gali Zenta and Guske resorts have very clear geological elements, particularly the famous massive bitumen seeps within the Zenta valley, and this make their correspondence to the P.T.U characters acceptable despite having bad roads and not progressing very well. The Dinarta sub-area geosite, in spite of its specular view and adaptation for tourism vacancy, has low to medium correspondence to the P.T.U characters due to having the worst roads, and are not developed by any local investors and governments in addition to property problems and remoteness from environmental and cultural sites. H2S rich springs are neglected in the whole Kurdistan region although they have a high economic value by way of balneotherapy. Therefore, the Bekhma and Heshtka hot springs has obtained a very low ratio. The mountainous and caves sites also obtained a low ratio, as the mountain landscapes are neglected particularly for winter tourism, and lack of investment for cave tourism, respectively.

Smart Altitude

This final report summarizes the outcomes of the Smart Altitude project. The Smart Altitude project ran from June 2018 to April 2021 and was carried out by ten partners from six different countries in the Alpine Space (Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland). The project was co-financed by the European Union via Interreg Alpine Space. The aim of the project was to enable and accelerate the implementation of low-carbon policies in winter tourism regions by demonstrating the efficiency of a step-by-step decision support tool for energy transition in four Living Labs. The project targeted policymakers, ski resort operators, investors, tourism, and entrepreneurship organizations. The Smart Altitude approach was designed to ensure suitability across the Alpine Space, thereby fostering its replication and uptake in other winter tourism regions and thus increasing the resilience of mountain areas.

Climate services for winter tourism in Romanian mountains

<p>WeCTOU (http://wectou.meteoromania.ro/) which delivers climate and environmental information tailored for tourism at 160 locations in Romania is a provider of climate services developed and operated by National Meteorological Administration.  European Commission and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) through the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) have provided the financial support. WeCTOU aims to extend its climate services and in this context, we have taken into account the needs of stakeholders interested in winter tourism in Romanian mountains using observations from national meteorological network together with reanalysis and model products extracted from the Climate Data Store developed at the ECMWF. Stakeholders interested in winter tourism in Romanian mountains span a wide range of categories from central and local administration to representatives of hospitality industry and individuals. In 2019, the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, also responsible of tourism certified 195 ski slopes located in 20 Romanian counties. We use the ensemble distribution of number of days with snow depth larger than 30 cm from future projections covering the period 2021-2040 under climate change scenarios to provide a first guess assessment of future profitability of Romanian ski resorts compared with the reference period 1976-2005. This type of indicator together with climate products related to snow making are important for identifying opportunities for future investments in winter tourism. They are also important in general urban planning for localities which have to change their profile from winter resort to one which serve guests year-round.  Especially for tourists and hospitality industry, we use future projections of indicators relative to present conditions (2021-2040 vs. 1976-2005) such as the ensemble distribution of number of days with snow layers having depths larger than 30 cm during winter holidays (22 Dec- 04 Jan). Also, we have shown how testing all these winter climate services with the interested stakeholders has guided us during the incremental developing stages to shape the final design.   </p>

Tailored seasonal snow forecasts for ski centers in Finland

<p>In Finland, the ski industry is facing an increased vulnerability to climate change and variability, especially in southern and central regions. The late start and the early end of snowing season and the difficulties in artificial snow production due to high winter temperatures have significant impacts on winter tourism. As part of INDECIS project, Finnish Meteorological Institute developed and tested seasonal forecasts with Finnish ski centers, providing support in maintenance practices. In the beginning of the pilot, a workshop was organized representatives of the ski resorts, where the most useful indices were selected, uncertainties related to variables used in the development of indices were presented to the users and the visualization and delivery of climate outlooks were agreed. In this presentation, we will assess the quality of snow forecast and present the developed seasonal snow outlooks. </p><p>The ECMWF long-range forecasts (SEAS5) were quality assessed and several bias-adjusted methods analysed. Finally, the raw snow forecast was bias-adjusted using the EMOS method. The forecasts were the monthly mean snow depth, and the probability of ≥1 cm of monthly mean snow depth. The forecasts were evaluated using the CRPSS. The results depend much on the season. For example, Lead month 0 and month 1 forecasts in February showed skill over most of Finland, while Lead month 0 and month 1 forecasts in November were not as skilful. </p><p>The developed seasonal climate outlooks were tested by the users during November 2019-April 2020; following the test period a feedback survey was conducted with the users. How the perceived usefulness of forecasts transfers to the decisions made by the users is not so straight-forward. According to the feedback received only one user of the four repliers changed their plans based on the provided outlooks, and half of the respondents couldn't say if they changed their activities in any way.</p>

Study on Glacial Tourism Exploitation in the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot Based on the AHP–ASEB Method

Due to the impact of COVID-19, people’s demand for non-contact tourism is increasing. The development of Internet technologies such as the Internet of Things, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) can meet this demand. Internet technology makes non-contact tourism grow. However, these new technologies are emerging only within application cases, which cannot provide comprehensive methodological guidance for tourism suppliers. Despite the booming development of winter tourism in China, there are still many problems, especially affecting the tourist experience.rarchy process (AHP) and activity, setting, experience and benefit (ASEB) grid analysis were used to analyze the activities, settings, experiences and benefits of the scenic spot from the tourist perspective taking the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot (DGSS) as an example. The research aims to increase the attraction of the scenic zone, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of business in West China under the goal of improving tourists’ experiences. The results show that: subgoals of experience (E) and benefit (B) are the main directions of the development of ice and snow tourism in the DGSS. Furthermore, the threat of benefits (TB), the threat of setting (TS), the threat of experience (TE), the opportunities of benefits (OB), the opportunities of setting (OS), and the opportunities of experience (OE) are the main concerns.

Global rural value chains and the role of natural disasters in their transformation

Global rural value chains relate to business activities in non-central locations all over the world. They contain almost all global agricultural production, a major part of global tourism, and minor shares of industry and other services than tourism. Their generated value is more dependent on climate and extreme weather events than what is the case with urban value chains. Concepts of disaster vulnerability and disaster resilience to rural value chains are presented and followed by a system view on global rural value according to four income groups of countries. A different meaning of disasters becomes perceivable for each income group. We come up with four cases of successful in some aspects controversial alterations of global rural value chains: palm oil value chain in ASEAN, the sixth industry in Japan, rural tourism in Asia, and winter tourism in Austria and analyze the impacts of natural disasters in case studies. The business disturbances are manifold, complex, and not entirely adverse. The value at risk in a given location widely depends on the susceptibility of people and environment to a natural disaster, the costs to repair, and possibilities to innovate. Along with economic growth, disasters accelerate transformations in rural value chains and the strive to become more global while contracting in their local extensions.