The Effect of Tourism Experience on Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behavior at Cultural Heritage Sites: The Mediating Role of Cultural Attachment

With the rapid development of tourism and the explosive growth of tourist arrivals, the destructive effects of tourist activities on the ecological environment of tourist destinations are becoming increasingly severe, seriously restricting the sustainable development of these destinations. As one of the most important types of current tourist destinations, cultural heritage sites are in urgent need of a well-protected ecological environment. Environmental protection has already become an important task for their sustainable development. The behavior of tourists during visits, which plays a central role in tourist activities, has gradually become a key factor affecting the environment of tourist destinations. Therefore, approaches to effectively identify the mechanisms underpinning tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior have become a focus of both theoretical and practical domains. Based on a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theoretical framework, our study established a mediation model based on cultural attachments, and explored the mechanisms affecting how cognitive, emotional, and cultural experiences influence tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior. The experience-attachment-behavior transmission mechanism was also considered. A structural equation model was applied to empirically test the 588 pieces of data collected from tourists involved in heritage tourism. The test results show that the cognitive, emotional, and cultural experiences delivered from tourist destinations of cultural heritage, positively affected tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior. Cultural attachment plays a partially mediating role between cognitive, emotional, cultural experiences and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior. These study results not only support theoretical research on the relationship between tourism experiences and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior, but also indicate the effective driving pathways of tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior at the practical level. As such, this research provides both theoretical reference and practical guidance for the sustainable development of tourist destinations with diverse cultural heritages.

The entrepreneurial advantages of experiencing foreignness: leveraging shocks for capability clusters

Purpose Drawing on the “shocks to the system” concept in image theory, a mid-range theoretical model is developed to illuminate understanding on why cross-cultural experience is so conducive to stimulating entrepreneurship yet has remained largely unexplained at the individual level.Design/methodology/approach The novel idea is put forth that experience of foreignness, in itself, can be harnessed as a powerful cognitive resource for entrepreneurship – particularly the nascent stages of new venture development. Providing cross-cultural exposures arouse “self-image shocks”, they manifest over time as skill clusters that reflect the sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities at the heart of entrepreneurship. This paper's pivot helps delineate a common mechanism to explain how a diverse range of seemingly disparate cross-cultural experiences can be processed in a way that enhances entrepreneurial pursuits.Findings The insights of this paper reinforce the need for educators and policymakers to encourage and provide opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to engage in cross-cultural and overseas exposures as they are influential for stimulating each of the core sets of entrepreneurial capabilities. The model and synthesis table also help to practically unpack how to design and plan such cultural experiences to optimize the enduring entrepreneurial advantages.Originality/value The author turns a long-standing assumption surrounding cultural differences in entrepreneurship on its head. The shocks and tensions arising from intercultural interactions are not always inevitable liabilities to be “managed away” or attenuated. Rather, cross-cultural experience can be explicitly leveraged as an asset for nascent venturing as the juxtapositions they evoke provide both proximal and distal enhancements to ways in which entrepreneurs think and develop skills at the core of venturing.

An Approach to Diversity and Cultural Competence Curriculum in Public Administration

There are a variety of approaches that can be utilized to facilitate public administration students and practitioners using culturally responsive approaches in their professional lives. The importance of understanding cultural diversity extends not only to individual interactions but also the structure of organizations and organizational decision making. The chapter presents one approach to providing students with a diversity-focused curriculum in a graduate-level public administration program. This approach includes an overview of the historical legacy of diversity in public administration, legally required and voluntary approaches to organizational diversity, models that can be used to assess the diverse cultural experiences of individuals for more personalized practice, and activities that can be utilized and adapted to educate public administration students and practitioners on issues of diversity and cultural competency.

Using New Tools to Attract Visitors to Museums and Heritage Sites

This chapter discusses the ways in which museums and heritage sites have adapted to the need to create technology-based experiences in recent decades culminating in the intensive online provision during the COVID period. The aim of both online and live visits should be as inclusive as possible of different audiences, stimulating interesting, rich, multi-cultural experiences that encourage re-visitation or at least recommendation to others. Ideally, sites should create meaningful as well as memorable experiences. This process includes several aspects and is very complex requiring the combination and harmonisation of education, heritage interpretation, marketing skills, and local initiatives. This chapter uses case studies to analyse the extent to which museums are rising to these challenges above, including the principles of the so-called ‘new museology', the need for more innovative technology to create visitor experiences, and COVID-19.

Crossing Borders, Writing Texts, Being Evaluated

This book examines both writing norms and assessment, and proficiency development, and suggests that scholars need to critically examine testing regimes and develop research-based perspectives on tests and testing practices, so that educational institutions can prepare learners with differing cultural experiences for tests and assessments.

Place Branding through Resource Integration and Gastro-Cultural Experiences: A Transnational Perspective

Place branding often builds upon gastro-cultural features. Yet, the convergence point between gastro-cultural place identity and the experience on offer could (and should) further benefit from contemporary studies in emerging fields, such as value co-creation and the identity-based approach to place branding. This study contributes towards this direction by examining the practices of relevant actors with main place branding authority. Drawing from their online information and presence, a thematic analysis of relevant brands in Greece and Turkey illustrates that operand and operant resource integration reflect the synergies developed between the gastronomic culture in, for, of the place. Further, actors’ intention to co-create the brand influences and is influenced by the brand. Theoretical and practical insights are derived from this study, which may direct future research and inform policymakers about sustainable, inclusive approaches.

The Influence of Cultural Experiences on the Associations between Socio-Economic Status and Motor Performance as Well as Body Fat Percentage of Grade One Learners in Cape Town, South Africa

Fundamental movement skills (FMS), physical fitness (PF) and body fat percentage (BF%) are significantly related to socio-economic status (SES). However, it remains unclear why previous studies have had different findings regarding the direction of the association between SES and FMS, PF and BF%. A suggested explanation is that the direction of the link can be influenced by cultural experiences and traditions. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate links between SES and FMS, PF, BF% of Grade One learners from two different ethno-geographic areas in Cape Town, South Africa. Grade One children (n = 191) (n = 106 boys and n = 85 girls; age (6.7 ± 0.33)) from different socio-economic areas in Cape Town, South Africa, were selected to participate in the study. South African schools are classified into five different quintiles (1 = poorest and 5 = least poor public schools). For this study, two schools were selected, one from quintile 2 and the other from quintile 5. BF% was assessed according to Slaughter’s equation. FMS were measured using the Gross Motor Development Test-2 (TGMD-2) and PF via five tests: 1. dynamic strength of lower limb (broad jump); 2. dynamic strength of upper limb and trunk (throwing a tennis ball); 3. speed agility (4 × 10 m shuttle running); 4. cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle run endurance test (Leger test)) and 5. flexibility (sit and reach test). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) found that BF% and WHtR were significantly greater in children with higher SES (Z = 6.04 p < 0.001; Hedg = 0.54), (Z = 3.89 p < 0.001; Hedg = 0.32). Children with lower SES achieved significantly better TGMD-2 standard scores in the locomotor subtest, compared to their peers with higher SES. In the object control subtest, no significant SES-related difference was found. However, ANCOVA showed that girls performed better in FMS than boys. In PF, the main effect of SES was observed in dynamic strength of trunk and upper limb (throwing) and flexibility, where children with lower SES performed significantly better. No significant difference was found in cardiorespiratory performance (CRP) (Beep test), even though children with lower SES achieved better results. Results from the current study suggest that links between SES, PF, FMS and body fat percentage in children seem to be dependent on cultural and traditional experiences. These experiences should therefore be included as an important factor for the development of programmes and interventions to enhance children’s lifelong motor behaviour and health strategies.

Semantic Trajectory Analytics and Recommender Systems in Cultural Spaces

Semantic trajectory analytics and personalised recommender systems that enhance user experience are modern research topics that are increasingly getting attention. Semantic trajectories can efficiently model human movement for further analysis and pattern recognition, while personalised recommender systems can adapt to constantly changing user needs and provide meaningful and optimised suggestions. This paper focuses on the investigation of open issues and challenges at the intersection of these two topics, emphasising semantic technologies and machine learning techniques. The goal of this paper is twofold: (a) to critically review related work on semantic trajectories and knowledge-based interactive recommender systems, and (b) to propose a high-level framework, by describing its requirements. The paper presents a system architecture design for the recognition of semantic trajectory patterns and for the inferencing of possible synthesis of visitor trajectories in cultural spaces, such as museums, making suggestions for new trajectories that optimise cultural experiences.

Multicultural Classrooms: Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy among A Sample of Canadian Preservice Teachers

Many teachers enter classrooms with limited cross-cultural awareness and low levels of confidence to accommodate cultural diversity. Therefore, teaching a heterogeneous body of students requires teachers to have culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE). The investigation of factors impacting teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching diverse students has produced mixed results. The purpose of the current study was to explore the determinants of CRTSE in a sample of Canadian preservice teachers. One hundred and ten preservice teachers from a medium-sized public Canadian University completed measures of political orientation, CRTSE, cross-cultural experiences, and teacher burnout. Higher levels of preservice teachers’ CRTSE were predicted by lower levels of Emotional Exhaustion (i.e., a key aspect of burnout syndrome) and more frequent cross-cultural experiences in their childhood and adolescence. Implications for training preservice teachers are discussed.

Negotiating Mobility: Royal Dockyard Workers as Railway Excursion Agents and Social Entrepreneurs, 1880–1918

From their creation in the mid-nineteenth century in Britain railway excursions provided working people with the means to expand their horizons and create new opportunities for identity- and money-making. This article explores the role of the social entrepreneur and their affect on social mobility. It also re-evaluates working-class leisure in the south of England and challenges the notion that the working-classes were not proactive in establishing their own unique commercial leisure cultures. Using a case study of two dockyard excursion enterprises, which were operated as sideline ventures by skilled artisans of the Royal Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, the article will demonstrate how local working-class access to travel and cultural experiences were broadened and transformed through their initiatives and analyse the role and influence of these men on their co-workers and in wider society.