Rethinking Westernization in Destination: Tourists’ Perception of a Touristic City

The impacts of westernization are increasing globally in the tourism entrepreneurship practices. Understanding it contributes to the growth and sustainability of the business even in local touristic cities. This paper aims to judge tourists’ perception of westernization about one of the most important touristic cities – Pokhara, Nepal. Purposive sampling was used to collect responses from 248 tourists in Pokhara, which included both open and closed-ended questionnaires. In order to understand the perception of tourists and check the determinants about the prevalence of westernization among tourists, the cross-sectional descriptive study has been used, and Logit Regression Model is applied. The study reveals that 78.22% of the respondents find westernization has influenced tourism entrepreneurship up to a certain extent in Pokhara. Similarly, a majority (89.11%) of tourists reveal that they expect and enjoy local culture than their own culture in tourism destinations, where 95.56% of the tourists suggest preserving the local culture for the sustainability of tourism business in Pokhara. Results from the Ordered Logistic model show that westernization, problems faced in destination, the similarity of destination as per their expectation and level of tourists’ existence at destination play significant roles in their preferences to visit touristic destinations. This study indicates that the first two reduce tourists’ preferences while the latter two stimulate their preferences to visit Pokhara, Nepal. Therefore, entrepreneurs in Pokhara should identify, conserve, encourage, and maintain local socio-cultural traditions to have long-term tourism prosperity and development.

The Moderator Role of Environmental Interpretations in the Relationship between Planned Behavior Level and Environmental Awareness Perception of Hotel Employees

Environmental problems, environmental awareness, and efforts to protect the environment are among the issues that concern the whole world and that need to be acted upon. Environmental concerns, which have come to the fore, especially in recent years, are closely related to the tourism sector. The main purpose of this research is to determine the moderator role of environmental interpretations in the relationship between planned behavior levels and environmental awareness perceptions of hotel employees. The sample of the research consists of 697 employees, who worked in five-star hotels in the Alanya region between the months of August and September 2020. As the data collection method in the research, the questionnaire technique has been preferred. As a result of the data obtained from the research, the Amos program was used to test the structural model. Respectively, these analyzes are reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant analysis, and regression analysis. As a consequence of the regression analysis conducted within the context of the study, it has been determined that the level of attitude, which is considered to be one of the planned behavior factors of the employees in the hotel enterprises, has a positive and significant effect on their environmental awareness. In addition, it has been determined that environmental interpretations have a moderating role in the relationship between the attitude levels and environmental awareness of the employees, participated in the research.

Promotion of Domestic Tourism by Enhancing the Practice of Alternative Tourism as a Quality Measure to Satisfy and Retain National Tourists

This study aims to study the satisfaction of national tourists with the tourism experience in the Sahara. It also seeks to examine the influence this has on the intention to return and spread positive word-of-mouth about this destination, work on its improvement to capitalize on the internal mobilities induced by COVID-19, and build a long-term relationship with them to strengthen regional attachment. Data were collected from 123 national tourists in Algeria using convenience sampling. Two analyses were carried out to process the data: a structural equation modeling approach to test and validate the hypotheses and textual analysis. The results show that among the five factors determining the quality of the Sahara experience, four factors significantly influence the satisfaction of domestic tourists: The scenic environment, the personal environment, entertainment, and reliability. It is deduced that the niche and responsible character of Saharan tourism is the main thing that satisfies tourists and ensures the success of tourism in the Sahara.

Fiscal Decentralisation of Services: The Case of the Local Public Sector in European Countries

Services are a dynamically developing economic sector in all countries. The paper focuses on public services, evaluated from the perspective of fiscal decentralization. It aims to evaluate the level of fiscal decentralization of expenditures in selected categories of public services in European countries. For this purpose, government expenditures by the local government sector are analyzed in the set of the selected 28 European countries in the period 2010-2018. Cluster analysis has been carried out in order to determine four clusters of countries based on their level of decentralization of expenditures on services. The results show differences in the extent of decentralization between the European countries in the provision of specific public services and reflect the form of financing of local public needs. A low level of fiscal decentralization of expenditures on services (public order and safety; housing and community amenities; recreation, culture, and religion) was observed in the majority of the countries. However, the majority of the countries failed to prove a high level of fiscal decentralization of expenditures on services (social protection, health, education) and a medium level of decentralization of expenditures in terms of general public services and services of economic affairs. These findings demonstrate that the degree of decentralization of public services is determined, to a certain degree, determined by country history and its geographical location, as well as by the different roles of sector-specific public policies. The findings can be helpful for creators of local public policies, strategic plans, and financial concepts.

The Role of the Destination Image in Creating Memorable Tourism Experience

This study aims to investigate the impact of destination image on memorable tourism experience (MTE). We also analyzed the effect of memorable tourism experience on revisit intention. Since there is a limited number of studies on the relationship between destination image and MTE, this study will contribute to the literature. Non-probability convenience sampling method was used to select the sample. The research was conducted with a total of 707 tourists who visited Antalya, Turkey. The data obtained from the study were analyzed using SPSS 20 and LISREL 8.7 package programs. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze the data in the study. Our results indicate that the dimensions of the destination image, namely natural attractions, cultural attractions, tourism infrastructure, and general infrastructure, significantly influence hedonism and local culture. However, dimensions of destination image partly affect novelty, involvement, meaningfulness, and knowledge. Regarding the second objective, the results revealed that MTE dimensions explained 21.9% of the variance in revisit intention. Since novelty is an important antecedent of MTE and revisits intention, novelty and initiatives related to the tourism sector should be constantly monitored. Destination management organizations could be contributed to the formation of MTE by increasing the activities such as festivals, competitions, exhibitions and encouraging tourists to participate in these activities. Other managerial implications are discussed based on the study results, and directions for future research are provided.

Cointegration between Economic, Ecological and Tourism Development

The well-developed countries have more options to attract tourists and generate profit from the tourism development. At the same time, the high volume of CO2 emissions, ecological risks, polluted nature restrict the tourism development in the country. The reorientation of global development to green growth provokes transformations in all policies of the country’s development. It allows green countries to attract more tourists. In this case, the paper aims to analyze the relationships between economic growth, ecological indicators, and tourism development. Ukraine has chosen the EU vector of development. In this case, it is necessary to identify the targets for synchronizing the Ukrainian policies (economic, ecological, social, tourism, etc.) with the EU. The objects of the investigation were Ukraine and Visegrad countries for 2000-2020 years. The panel data was generated from World Data Bank, Eurostat, European Environmental Agency, and Ukrstat. The dependent variable – GDP (as an indicator of economic growth), independent – greenhouse gas emissions and share of renewable energy in the total energy consumption (ecological indicators), the volume of tourists (indicators of tourism development). At the first stage, the study used bibliometric analysis to identify publication activities’ general tendency on the analyzed issues. The following methods were applied to check the hypothesis on cointegration between variables: panel unit root test, Pedroni panel cointegration tests, and the fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares panel cointegration techniques. The findings confirmed the relationships between economic, ecological, and tourism development. Thus, the decline of greenhouse gas emissions leads to increasing tourists, and as a consequence, it provokes GDP growth.

Sustainability, Competitive Advantages and Performance in the Hotel Industry: A Synergistic Relationship

The relationship between sustainability, competitive advantages, and performance is a topic with no conclusive results in the tourism industry. To contribute to the debate, the purpose of this study is i) to analyze the influence of sustainability on cost and differentiation competitive advantages and ii) to examine the possible synergistic relationship between sustainability and performance. Perceptual as well as hotel-specific objective performance measurements are used, such as occupancy rate, average daily rate (ADR), and revenues per available room (RevPAR), to examine all the relationships. Structural equation models based on Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM) are applied to test all the hypotheses. Data is collected from 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels in Spain. The results show that sustainability positively and significantly influences cost and differentiation advantages, perceptual performance, ADR, and RevPAR. In addition, those hotels with these three performance variables whose values are above the median obtain a significant relationship between sustainability and performance. Consequently, there is evidence of a synergistic sustainability-performance relationship in the hotel industry. Therefore, this study offers academic evidence on the strong relationships that exist between these variables in the hotel industry. This research work analyses all three sustainability pillars (economic, environmental, and social sustainability), and the practices that best explain each of the three sustainability pillars are indicated so that hotel managers can optimize their sustainable management.

The Role of Accommodation Enterprises in the Development of Sustainable Tourism

One of the obstacles to the success of sustainable tourism development is that the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders in the destination are not clearly defined. This research aims to determine sustainable business practices, corporate social responsibility activities, the obstacles encountered while performing these activities, and the provided benefits within the roles and responsibilities of accommodation enterprises. The study used a phenomenology research design, a qualitative study method. A semi-structured interview form was implemented to 19 senior managers of 22 accommodation enterprises in Alanya that have environmentally friendly certificates. The results showed that the managers of the accommodation enterprises considered themselves responsible for the protection and development of the environment and that the sustainable business practices they performed were mostly ecological. It was also revealed that managers of accommodation enterprises should pay more attention to planning, which is one of the basic principles of sustainable tourism. The study’s main contribution is that it discusses sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility activities together to determine the roles of accommodation enterprises in sustainable tourism development. Besides that, it also examines the factors that prevent sustainable business practices and their benefits. Considering that few empirical studies holistically discuss the role of accommodation enterprises in the sustainable development of tourism, this study is expected to provide a significant contribution to the literature. Deficiency of planning, mainly performing ecologically sustainable business practices, and the necessity of an effective governance system are among the implications of the research.

Artistic Endorsers are Catalysts for Airlines to Attract Passengers

The purpose of the study is to use the advertisements of four real airline artistic endorsers to analyze the contribution of the artistic endorser to discuss possible marketing strategies through an empirical questionnaire survey approach. Data were collected from the airport. Among them, 411 valid questionnaires were finally recovered. The hypothesis of the research model was tested by the SEM approach. The artistic endorser of the airline plays the role of catalyst in the marketing process to improve the airline's operational performance; this leads to our finding that the celebrity artistic endorsement should be carefully chosen in the airlines so that the image in advertising strategies and passengers' believing in celebrity endorsement would be matched; Airline companies are searching for strategies to develop stable connecting relationships with their passengers and to increase their company revenue by strengthening marketing strategy to deliver messages by utilizing the celebrity endorsement concept of passenger preferred airline based on their trust in celebrity endorser. This study contributes celebrity endorsement to the predictability of recommendation of airlines following artistic endorser sense-making of passengers' paradigm. As expected, the recommendation of airlines is most dominantly influenced by celebrity endorsement. Through empirical research, we supplement the significance of the artistic endorser sense-making perspective.

Economic Basis of Digital Banking Services Produced by FinTech Company in Smart City

The accelerated urbanization rate results in the birth of the Smart City concept, presupposing the more efficient use of digital technologies for the benefit of inhabitants and businesses. The idea of digital banking is one of the key issues in a smart city concept. The research should demonstrate that the efficient and effective way to produce such kind of services is to use the fintech companies’ facilities. Many researchers study fintech from a technological point of view, the contribution of fintech to general banking, the level of satisfaction of customers with fintech products. However, there is a gap in studying the economic basis of these companies. The research aims to determine the economic basis for the projects implemented by the fintech company and to determine the source of the efficiency of these companies in financial operations compared to the conventional bank. It has additional importance since the analysis of research devoted to technological solutions demonstrates a certain lacuna in the economic substantiation of such smart solutions. The results of this study are based on the implementation of traditional Cost-Benefit and Total Cost of Ownership analyses and include the developed cost and income functions, calculated Benefit/Cost ratio, and demonstrated the source of efficiency of fintech company compared to a traditional bank. Therefore, the activities of a fintech company in the area of digital banking received the economic ground, and this fact decreases the gap between intuitive comprehension of the necessity of the introduction of smart solutions in practice and the economic substantiation of this process.