Collaboration and Learning Processes in Value Co-Creation: A Destination Perspective

Value co-creation has emerged as an important competitive strategy leading to value innovation. In tourist destinations co-creation results from the participation of multiple actors synchronously and contextually in value realization. Yet value co-creation remains highly theoretical and lacks empirical operationalization, especially in destination contexts. Are tourism destinations able and sufficiently mobilized to exploit the potential offered by co-creation theory? This paper operationalizes two fundamental dimensions of the value co-creation process, collaboration and learning, by developing and testing a measurement scale to evaluate the perceived impact of these dimensions on the market performance of actors at a tourist destination. Contributions to the literature on value co-creation and learning as well as managerial implications are discussed and suggestions for further research are made.

Does Sincere Social Interaction Stimulate Tourist Immersion? A Conservation of Resources Perspective

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines how and when sincere social interaction affects tourist immersion at the destination. We develop a moderated mediation model in which emotional solidarity mediates the relationship between sincere social interaction and tourist immersion, while extraversion moderates the link between sincere social interaction and emotional solidarity. Data were collected from 391 tourists via an online survey and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that sincere social interaction directly influences tourist immersion, and this relationship is mediated by emotional solidarity. Furthermore, extraversion significantly moderates the effects of sincere social interaction on emotional solidarity, and this effect is stronger for tourists with high extraversion scores. Additionally, extraversion strengthens the indirect link between sincere social interaction and tourist immersion, and again, the link is stronger for highly extraverted tourists.

Would Travel Experiences or Possessions Make People Happier?

To inform consumption choices bring people greater happiness, it is necessary to identify the types of consumption with greater happiness-generating potential. Using an experimental design, this research demonstrates that tourism experiences tend to cultivate happiness better than possessions, by empirically testing a potential underlying mechanism of such superiority—tourism’s potential to cultivate eudaimonia (i.e., the more enduring form of happiness that accounts for the bigger picture beyond the self) without explicit eudaimonic motives. The mechanism can aid the identification of forms of consumption that maximize happiness. This research makes multi-faceted contributions to the tourism and consumption literature on eudaimonia and happiness promotion, including how its revealed potential in implicitly cultivating eudaimonia renders tourism a better consumption choice than material possessions for happiness maximization. Practically, the study suggests how tourism experiences can be designed and marketed to capitalize on the eudaimonic potential.

The Matching Effect of Destinations’ Crisis Communication

The match between destinations’ crisis communication sources and crisis types, and their impacts on tourists’ travel intentions, has not yet been investigated. This research explored the effect of destinations’ crisis communication on tourists’ travel intentions based on different crisis types (i.e., victimized and preventable crises) and communication sources (i.e., from the government, businesses, and other tourists). Results showed that crisis type had a matching effect on the impact process of crisis communication sources on tourists’ travel intentions. In addition, the mediation effects of tourists’ heuristic processing and perceived safety on destinations’ crisis communication–tourists’ travel intentions were confirmed. This study uncovered a matching effect of destinations’ crisis communication sources and crisis types. Results offer valuable theoretical and practical implications regarding destinations’ crisis communication agendas, crisis communication systems, and strategies for alleviating negative consequences of crises.

Planning Horizon in International Travel Decision-Making: The Role of Individual and Cultural Determinants

A solid understanding of when travel decisions are made in relation to travelers’ planning horizons is crucial for travel service providers. Despite its importance, there are very few empirical studies investigating the planning horizon and its antecedents in travel research literature. This study contributes to bridging this gap by conceptualizing a two-level model of antecedents of travelers’ planning horizons. In addition to individual traveler- and trip-related aspects, the model provides a cross-cultural perspective on international travelers’ planning horizons by including uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and long-term orientation as cultural-level antecedents. Drawing on a nested dataset of 4,074 international travelers from 17 countries worldwide, the results of a two-level hierarchical regression model show that, in addition to individual-level aspects, cultural antecedents play an important role in determining planning horizons. Based on the empirical results, the paper discusses implications for theory and travel service providers.

Reconceptualizing Tourists’ Extraordinary Experiences

Research that conceptualizes tourist extraordinary experiences both from the structural and anti-structural perspective is limited in the tourism literature. The purpose of this research is to develop a new theoretical perspective that re-conceptualizes our understanding of tourists’ extraordinary experience by taking into consideration both the structural and anti-structural elements of an experience. It draws on phenomenological interviews with 26 food tourists. The study finds that extraordinary experience consists of elements such as profaneness, collaborative interactions and conflict-easing, which represent both the structural and anti-structural elements. The findings of this study allow us to question whether extraordinary experience is purely structural or anti-structural as suggested by previous research. Rather, based on the findings, we argue that extraordinary experience is the positive co-existence of both the ordinary and the non-ordinary. As a result, we use the term “synstructure” to conceptualize the tourist extraordinary experience.

Tourist Perception of the Value of Time on Holidays: Implications for the Time Use Rebound Effect and Sustainable Travel Practice

Technological solutions to achieve energy efficiency and carbon reduction in tourism are unlikely to be sufficient alone. This is partly because of the rebound effect (RE) where consumer behavior can absorb some of or all the energy efficiency gains. Time savings from time-efficient technologies can intensify energy consumption, leading to the time use rebound effect (TRE). Research suggests that the TRE in tourism can be high, especially in relation to tourist travel, but its understanding is limited. This study aims to provide empirical evidence of the TRE by categorizing tourist groups that are most prone to its occurrence. An exploratory sequential mixed methods approach is employed. Key factors that influence the potential TRE occurrence include socio-demographic characteristics, holiday preferences, time/money availability, time perception/attitudes, and time use patterns on holiday. The “Busy explorer” cluster of tourists is most likely to show TREs. Implications and suggestions for future research are outlined.

Perceiving Destination Through Animated GIFs: A Mixed Method Design for Multifaceted Image Assessment

The notion of multifaceted image, composed of cognitive, affective, and sensory dimensions, has attracted growing scholarly interest in recent years. However, general understanding of the roles of the senses (i.e., sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) in image processing remains scarce. Little attention has also been paid to the effects of visual stimuli related to design features on the construction of multifaceted image. This study investigated viewers’ perceived multifaceted destination image upon exposure to different photo formats (i.e., animated vs. static). A mixed method approach was employed to collect data using a between-subjects experimental design. Findings revealed that moving visual presentation exert stronger impacts on three image dimensions in several aspects and associations were also observed between photo contents and sensory arousal. Results enrich the body of knowledge on destination image in terms of image structure and the features of visual stimuli. Practical implications are discussed as well.

Detecting Early Signs of Overtourism: Bringing Together Indicators of Tourism Development With Data Fusion

Tourism is a powerful economic driver for communities, but there are dangers of overtourism in tourism-dependent destinations. The study proposes an approach to detect early signs of overtourism by integrating census and industry data with residents’ perceptions of tourism benefits. The indicators include industry performance, its economic impacts, and indirect measures related to quality of life. The public perceptions are collected through surveying four different tourism-dependent communities in Florida. We found that in general local residents are highly positive about the tourism industry benefits to their communities, yet many respondents would like the tourism levels reduced. Especially concerning are negative sentiments toward tourism among the younger population groups and racial minorities. The findings are interpreted as early signs of overtourism.

“Souvenir Shopping is for Schmucks!”: Exploring Tourists’ Deviant Behavior Through the Items They Bring Back

Tourist misbehavior is well documented in the literature and has predominantly focused on the visible, major, or felonious forms of deviance, such as vandalism, violence, or theft. We argue for the importance of considering a more subtle side of tourist misbehavior often tolerated, ignored, or even enabled by host communities and hospitality employees. Exploring the more subtle side of tourist misbehavior is important, because it is more clandestine and less extreme than obvious misbehaviors, yet its prevalence suggests important business and environmental implications. We undertook in-depth interviews with 47 frequent travelers and employed a criminological lens, that of deviant leisure, to uncover a range of deviant tourist behaviors by focusing on the accumulation of traveling mementos (items that tourists bring back from their travels). Two dimensions of memento accumulation emerged with eight forms of tourist misbehavior, each with unique motives, practices, and implications. Findings point to the importance and mass appeal of these more subtle and elusive deviant practices. Suggestions for practitioners, policy makers, and academics are then discussed.