Multi-Objective Fuzzy Tourist Trip Design Problem with Heterogeneous Preferences and Sustainable Itineraries

Tourism has direct and indirect implications for CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tourism management based on sustainable tourism, mainly in the transport process. Tourist itinerary planning is a complex process that plays a crucial role in tourist management. This type of problem, called the tourist trip design problem, aims to build personalised itineraries. However, planning tends to be biased towards group travel with heterogeneous preferences. Additionally, much of the information needed for planning is vague and imprecise. In this paper, a new model for tourist route planning is developed to minimise CO2 emissions from transportation and generate an equitable profit for tourists. In addition, the model also plans group routes with heterogeneous preferences, selects transport modes, and addresses uncertainty from fuzzy optimisation. A set of numerical tests was carried out with theoretical and real-world instances. The experimentation develops different scenarios to compare the results obtained by the model and analyse the relationship between the objectives. The results demonstrate the influence of the objectives on the solutions, the direct and inverse relationships between objectives, and the fuzzy nature of the problem.

Dissecting the two mechanisms of scramble competition among the Virunga mountain gorillas

Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain why scramble competition can increase the travel requirements of individuals within larger groups. Firstly, individuals in larger groups may be more likely to encounter food sites where other group members have already eaten, leading to greater asynchronous “individual” travel to find fresh sites. Secondly, when food sites are aggregated into patches, larger groups may need to visit more patches to obtain the same amount of food per capita, leading to greater synchronous “group” travel between patches. If the first mechanism can be mitigated by increasing group spread, then we expect the second mechanism to be more sensitive to group size. Here, we examine the individual travel and group travel of the Virunga mountain gorillas, along with potential implications for the two mechanisms of scramble competition. Asynchronous individual travel accounted for 67% of the total travel time, and the remainder arose from group travel. Group spread increased significantly for larger groups, but not enough to prevent an increase in individual travel. Contrary to expectations, group travel decreased with size among most groups, and we found only limited evidence of patch depletion that would cause the second mechanism of scramble competition. Collectively, our results illustrate how the influence of group size can differ for individual travel versus group travel, just as it differs among species for overall travel. Studies that distinguish between the two mechanisms of scramble competition may enhance our understanding of ecological constraints upon group size, including potential differences between frugivores and folivores. Significance statement Feeding competition provides insight into how group size can influence the foraging patterns of social animals, but two key mechanisms are not typically compared. Firstly, larger groups may visit more patches to access the same amount of food per capita (group travel). Secondly, their individuals may also need to move past more spots where another member has already eaten (individual travel). Contrary to expectations, we found that group travel decreased with size for most groups of mountain gorillas, which may reflect extra travel by smaller groups to avoid larger groups. Individual travel increased with size in most groups, even though gorillas in larger groups compensated by spreading out over a broader area. The two mechanisms revealed patterns that were not apparent in our previous study of overall travel. Our approach may help to explain potential differences between folivores and frugivores.

How Do Group Size and Group Familiarity Influence Tourist Satisfaction? The Mediating Role of Perceived Value

This study investigates how group size and group familiarity interactively impact tourists’ perceived value and overall satisfaction with a group travel experience. The study also assesses the mediating role of perceived value in affecting the relationships between tourist satisfaction and both group size and group familiarity. The results revealed that tourists in small (vs. large) groups would have a higher level of perceived value and overall satisfaction toward a group travel experience. However, high group familiarity attenuates the effect of group size on tourists’ perceived value and satisfaction. Perceived value fully mediated the effect of group size on tourist satisfaction, as well as the interaction effect between group size and group familiarity on tourist satisfaction. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study were also discussed.

The Establishment of Rural Tourism Marketing Model Based on Enterprise Economic Perspective

<p>At present, the tourism consumption market is very large and the major attractions are crowded at the beginning of the holidays. However, differences in income, education and hobbies have led to the diversification of traval needs. Some low-income families go sightseeing, some high-income families go on vacation and leisure and some people prefer self-guided tours. Different people have different requirements, so they need to customize different products to diversify tourism marketing to meet their differrent needs. In particular, due to the large number of participants, group travel will reduce the pleasure of passengers and bring them a bad experience. Therefore, a variety of customized travel, free travel, semi-free travel and other diversified travel way emerged. Therefore, it is crucial to construct the tourism marketing model from the perspective of corporate economy.</p>

Divers or Divas? A Market Analysis of the Mature Aged Female Diver: An Australian Perspective

If you ask the average person to describe a scuba diver, you would probably receive comments such as strong, young, athletic, male, and a bit of a daredevil. However, recent research into the highest growth sector of diver training reveals women over 40 are signing on for dive training in unprecedented numbers. Dive service providers and tourist destination promoters may be missing opportunities to market effectively to attract this dynamic group, using a "one size fits all" approach and potentially losing sales opportunities for equipment, courses, dive travel, and more. This study examines the mature aged female diver, revealing new demographic data, information about their dive travel preferences, how much they spend on diving holidays, and other information useful to dive and tourism industry stakeholders. A web-based survey was used to study 111 female divers over age 40. The average age of participants was 51 to 55, and most had logged over 100 dives. The results depicted participants as a vibrant part of the diving community, with money to spend and the desire to travel. Safety in dive operations was identified as a priority as was small-group travel. Spending over $500 a day on international diving trips, they represent an untapped and lucrative market segment. This study aims to contribute new insight into this dynamic and motivated market segment. Findings will assist dive tourism service providers and destination marketers to better understand this segment, to create attractive products and services to tap into this lucrative market.