PROMOTING SLOW TOURISM TO WRESTLE THE CHALLENGES OF SHORTER LENGTH OF TOURIST STAY: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Slow tourism is an eminent concept that aims to embolden extended tourist stay within a destination. The current study adopts qualitative research approach and extracts data from purposefully selected tourism professionals. The researcher employed both interview and focus group discussion to collect data required for this study. Findings of the current study unfold that slow tourism as a unique approach augments the overall tourism activities, mainly within emerging destinations. Even though slow tourism has received limited attention in Bahir Dar and its surroundings, it is quite substantive to discourage the negative economic, sociocultural and environmental impacts of tourism. However, absence of developed tourism infrastructures and limited understanding of stakeholders restrain the practice and development of slow tourism in the study area. In terms of policy references, the present study suggests that there is a need to develop a practical guideline to inculcate the fundamental concepts related to the practical applications of slow tourism in emerging destinations.

Promoting Sustainability through Regional Food and Wine Pairing

Sustainable development has been growingly recognized as important in the scope of tourism and hospitality industry practices. Gastronomic tourism associated with regional food-and wine pairing helps the emerging of higher quality services and contributes to the sustainability of tourist destinations. This study presents a pairing model based on three Real-Time Delphi (RTD) questionnaires to allow experts to select and pair regional wines with regional foods. In the first questionnaire, the experts were asked to choose, by category, the most representative regional dishes from the Algarve region (Portugal). In the second questionnaire, for each dish, experts voted on the best regional wines for the dish. In the third questionnaire, experts made quantitative and qualitative analyses for each of the three most voted wines for each dish. The resulting pairing model of regional food and wines will be communicated to tourism professionals and the general public. By promoting the consumption of these pairings, we promote an efficient, socially fair, and ecologically sustainable local economy. At the same time, we stimulate the circular economy in tourism.

“Greening” as a trend in management and HRM development in the service sector (the case Thailand)

The development of theory and methodology of tourism activities greening based on an integrated systematic approach, taking into account its inextricable connection with the process of greening the entire socio-economic space, is relevant in the context of the unprecedented international tourism growth observed until 2020, as well as the growth of its impact on the state of ecological systems, first of all, of ones that actively host international and domestic travelers. The paper, based on the existing theoretical approaches, the author’s methodology for assessing tourism as an environmental factor of territorial development, as well as the results of surveys of representatives of tourism professionals and visitors to Thailand, suggests tools for forming an environmental management system at a tourism enterprise, as well as a concept for developing a state policy for tourism industry greening.

Creating opportunities for temporary disconnection: How tourism professionals provide alternatives to being permanently online

The ongoing normalization of digital connection has also increased the interest in digital disconnection research. The desire to disconnect is typically considered a critical reaction to the peculiar affordances and prerequisites of fully participating in digital society. While social and political potentials of disconnections as well as reasons to turn away from media are explored in various trajectories, we still know relatively little about the “what then” and “what else” of digital disconnection. In this article, we address this gap and investigate what stories are told and which imaginaries are invoked in order to commodify disconnection in an exemplary field of the growing disconnection industry, namely tourism. Drawing from interviews and analysis of online representations, we analyze how tourist marketers and accommodation providers in the Austrian province of Salzburg are communicating why people should use their vacation to disconnect and what they can expect to find once they are disconnected. Following our analysis, we identify three general themes of how disconnection is countered to living in deeply mediatized and highly connective times: (1) nature and authenticity, (2) (re-)connecting with the self, finding balance, and (3) connection to family/friends/local people. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of our analysis and what the identified ambivalences of disconnection suggest for further advancing disconnection research in the future.

Achieving sustainable development goals through agritourism in Algeria

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the concept of agritourism and how its development and promotion can contribute to the achievement of a number of sustainable development objectives, including those related to reducing inequalities, fighting poverty, sustainable consumption and production and ensuring food security. Design/methodology/approach Professionals and experts in the fields of agriculture, aquaculture and tourism were interviewed to better understand the challenges of agritourism and how it could contribute to the achievement of sustainable development objectives in mountainous and arid regions. Findings The results highlight the environmental, economic and social benefits that can be derived from the practice of agritourism and how this can be a distinguishing feature for a country in which conventional tourism is struggling to develop. participation in farm life for various activities is a key element of any agritourism activity. The results also confirmed the various benefits of the practice, both for farmers and tourists and that it contributed directly to the achievement of certain objectives such as poverty alleviation, reduction of inequalities, food security and preservation of water resources. Research limitations/implications This research has certain limitations, the first being the fact that it is a qualitative study and the results cannot be extrapolated; second, it only took into account the point of view of a certain category of people, namely, experts and tourism professionals. Originality/value New elements were also identified, in particular, concerning certain perceived risks related to the practice of agritourism such as bio-piracy or damage to national heritage, as well as the appropriation and use of ancestral practices for commercial purposes by other countries.

Developing a multilingual dictionary of touristic-cultural terms (with Croatian as the source language)

This paper deals with the challenge of developing a multilingual dictionary of touristic-cultural terms with Croatian as the source language, based on the principles of lexicography which include the rigorous metalexicographic methodology and the practical needs of users (tourism professionals, managers, teachers, and students of philological careers, as well as those related to tourism and hospitality). The project, broadly speaking, is divided into three phases. The current, first phase of research includes the elaboration of a corpus comprising a series of terms, simple units, or expressions from different areas with special attention to the realia of the source language, which do not exist in the target languages (German, English, Spanish and others). The second phase will involve the lemmatization of entries, their classification, the elaboration of appendices, and the modeling of parameters and definers that will be used in the lexicographical definition. The third phase covers the elaboration of the microstructure. At this stage, special emphasis will be placed on the type of lexicographic definitions (and their combinations) that will be used in the dictionary. It is expected that the dictionary would have photographic materials under copyright.

Smart City and Smart Tourist Destinations

Digital transformation has been a worldwide reality since the late 1990s. However, the 21st century has promoted its acceleration and scope for its use. Tourism professionals have sought the benefits that digital connections via smartphones bring to the diffusion and negotiation of services and products. However, young people from the internet age seek autonomy in the elaboration of their own travel itineraries, contributing to the emergence of intelligent tourist destinations. Based on the correlation with the principles of smart cities that increasingly become the goal of global managers, this study seeks to demonstrate the potential of the insertion of the tourist segment in this new perspective of social behavior. The results show that the co-creation by the travelers in search of experiences of impact in their lives is here to stay with QR Codes and Apps of cell phones. Information and digital communication technologies bring greater autonomy and creativity to the universe of tourists.

A model for the development of high quality training of tourism professionals through the use of computer 3D-tours

The article is focused on the problem of training future tourism specialists using informational and communication technologies. The educational process of preparation requires changing the educational and methodological support in order to give the students the opportunities to master modern professional tools, technologies, methods of creating high quality tourist products. To solve this problem, the authors propose a model for the development of high quality training of tourism professionals through the use of computer 3D-tours. The development of this model took into account the theoretical and methodological basis regarding the professional training of future specialists in the field of tourism, the results of the analysis of educational programs, curricula for training students of the speciality “Tourism” and the data of the pilot experiment. It consists of the following main blocks. The conceptual-oriented block includes concepts, approaches, principles of participation, information and communication technologies. The content-technological block includes the content of the educational project of developing 3D-tours, levels of professional knowledge and skills, as well as types of familiriazation with ICT tools. The educational content of the model takes into account the practical mastery of the student’s professional skills in the development of various 3D-tours. During this process, the ICT tools are introduced gradually in a certain order. The organization-activity block of the model includes forms of organizing the study and technologies for studying. This model entails the involvement of classroom-based and remote, individual, and group forms of organization of the educational process, organization of project development for a detailed analysis of educational topics. The assessment-resultative block includes criteria, metrics and levels. During the development of the model, the results of the activity of thesubjects of the educational process were analyzed in accordance with two groups of criteria: the criterion of formation of professional theoretical knowledge, practical skills of 3D-tour development and the criterion of the level of using modern software and technical means in creative educational development. The developed model allows for increasing the quality of training of future tourism specialists. During the practical application of the proposed model, virtual 3D-tours were developed. Their development has shown the possibility of implementing the model of development of training of specialists in tourism by using computer 3D-tours with the use of modern ICT tools in the study of special disciplines and the attaining professional skills.

PEDAGOGICAL SYSTEM OF PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE OF TOURISM PROFESSIONALS

The article deals with the essence of the concept Ц «pedagogical system of formation of professional and communicative competence of tourism specialists». It is shown that professional communication is a necessary and primary component in the professional activity of tourism professionals. This necessitates the strengthening of the communicative component of professional training of future specialists in this field, which involves the modernization of the pedagogical system of professional and communicative competence (goals, principles, content, methods and forms of educational activities). Therefore, among the qualities of a graduate of a higher education institution, outlined in the educational and qualification characteristics of a bachelor in the field of «Tourism», are such as: ability to interact effectively in educational, professional and other activities, business ethics communication, ability to communicate at a high cultural level in the state language and at least one of the foreign languages, clearly and logically express their thoughts and beliefs, the ability to choose the most appropriate means of communication, demonstrate the culture of speech, work in a team and more. The purpose of the article is to develop a pedagogical system for the formation of professional and communicative competence of tourism professionals and its elements. Also, a number of concepts that are components of the concept were analyzed, namely: «system», «pedagogical syste» and a pedagogical system of formation of professional and communicative competence (PAC) of tourism professionals was proposed. Analyzing the literature and the interpretations of scientists, we formulated the definition of the elements of the pedagogical system and proposed a pedagogical system for the formation of professional and communicative competence of specialists in the field of tourism.

Professional Training in Tourism for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

At present, the World Tourism Organization indicates that, as a worldwide export category, tourism occupies the third position, behind chemical and fuel products and ahead of the automotive industry. In many developing countries, tourism is the main export sector. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to propose an approach to the training of tourism professionals for the fourth industrial revolution, so this chapter proposes an approach to educational competencies in the training of tourism professionals for Industry 4.0 with a focus in sustainable development; initially, the subject of educational competencies in higher education will be described, since derived from these, professional competencies are achieved. Next, the exploration of the concepts of intellectual capital, tourism, and the fourth industrial revolution will be shown; to conclude the authors show the relation of the thematic axes.