Monastery stay tourism is an emerging niche within spiritual and transformative tourism, offering immersive experiences that facilitate personal and emotional growth. Despite its rising popularity, limited research has explored how such experiences shape tourists' emotional bonds, identity formation, and revisit intention. Drawing on mindfulness theory, this study examines the role of mindfulness cultivated during Buddhist monastery retreats in influencing emotional solidarity, experience self-connection, place identity, and behavioural intention. Data were collected from 430 visitors and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA). The PLS-SEM results underscore the critical role of mindfulness in shaping tourists’ social interactions, emotional attachment to the destination, and self-connection, all of which significantly impact their intention to engage in spiritual retreats. Emotional solidarity and self-connection are found to significantly influence place identity and future behavioural intention. The MGA findings indicate that generational and experiential segmentation reveals that Generation Z is more responsive to mindfulness and experience self-connection, while older cohorts are more influenced by emotional solidarity. Repeat visitors report stronger mindfulness effects across all outcomes, whereas first-time visitors rely more on emotional bonding. These insights underscore the value of tailoring mindful retreat experiences to foster deeper engagement and sustained support for religious tourism destinations.
This study examines how destination brand equity was distributed across the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic period. A matched panel of 502 U.S.-based target-market respondents evaluated South Korea approximately three months before and three months after the Games. The post-event measure intentionally captured evaluations attributed by respondents to hosting the Games and is therefore interpreted as an early event-attributed response rather than a causal Olympic effect. Separate-wave latent profile analyses, supported by focused four-versus-five-state validation, retained five ordered destination-brand-equity states. Average destination brand equity was higher at the post-event observation (mean difference = .340), but this positive net difference coexisted with substantial between-person heterogeneity. A fixed-criterion regression-to-the-mean benchmark reproduced the small residual net direction but not the observed volume of gross bidirectional redistribution, while reliable-change analysis indicated that most respondents did not exceed a conservative change threshold. After baseline adjustment, media consumption and hosting appraisal were positively associated with the post-event score, whereas their interaction was not significant. The findings show why aggregate brand tracking and individual-level diagnostics should be interpreted jointly and distinguish early event-attributed responses from durable mega-event legacy.
Overtourism has become increasingly politicised, particularly in high-intensity destinations where residents contest tourism-related pressures on housing, infrastructure, and quality of life, prompting political actors to consider regulatory responses. The paper considers overtourism as a struggle over agenda-setting in which actors use framing to influence policy outcomes, while questioning the binary opposition between residents and tourists by emphasising hybrid and transnational forms of presence. This study investigates how tourism protests are framed across different communication contexts, how activism shapes these frames, and which frames exhibit the greatest agenda-setting potential, i.e. the greatest potential to resonate across otherwise self-contained communicative logics. Based on media coverage of the 2024 tourism season, the study analyses the agenda-setting potential of frames in different media (communication) contexts in Mallorca. The results reveal a notable disparity in the applied frames, stemming from distinct differences in the respective communicative contexts. Consequently, efforts to establish a unified political agenda across countries and regions face substantial structural constraints, as the communicative logics and underlying interest constellations articulated in these contexts differ substantially. In the absence of integrative framing strategies, public debates tend to revert to boundary-drawing and blame allocation, often reinforcing defensive attitudes rather than fostering innovative policy solutions.
The role of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) has progressively evolved from marketing promotion agencies to governance-oriented platforms. Within this context, well-being has emerged not only as a core value of tourism but also as a key indicator of destination competitiveness. However, existing studies have predominantly emphasized tourist-level well-being, offering limited attention to a holistic, destination-wide perspective and insufficient integration of DMO governance stakeholder viewpoints. This study applies Q methodology to examine how DMO governance stakeholders conceptualize and co-construct destination well-being indicators. The factor analysis revealed four distinct perspectives. The findings suggest that, in promoting destination well-being, DMOs must balance residents' quality of life, tourists’ experiential satisfaction, industrial competitiveness, and governance coordination. This study contributes to tourism governance research by proposing a multidimensional framework of destination well-being indicators grounded in DMO governance stakeholder perspectives, offering practical implications for sustainable destination management and policy formulation.
The rapid growth of the digital economy has rendered its integration with the tourism sector crucial for industrial competitiveness and regional transformation. However, existing studies often emphasize the digital economy's unidirectional impact on tourism, overlooking how tourism itself can challenge and reshape digital development, and neglecting the construction of a synergistic integration ecosystem. Drawing on synergy theory and panel data from 262 Chinese cities (2011-2022), this study constructs a conceptual model of synergistic integration to examine interactions, spatiotemporal dynamics, and key influencing factors between the two systems. Results reveal strong economic inertia in both systems, with impulse responses showing “strong pulse-gradual decay.” The transmission of cross-system shocks displays notable heterogeneity, while mutual integration and positive feedback mechanisms between the two systems continue to intensify. Meanwhile, endogenous contributions from each system exhibit a declining trend. The synergistic integration index follows a “sustained growth-disturbance adjustment” trajectory over time. Regional development diverges: eastern and central-southern regions lead, northern China aligns with the national trend, while southwestern, northwestern, and northeastern regions catch up. Core urban agglomerations' synergy strengthens over time, deepening hierarchical gaps. Spatially, the degree of synergistic integration exhibits strong dependence and path-locking, with notable positive spillovers. Among the influencing factors, foreign direct investment and technological innovation boost integration locally and in neighboring areas. Conversely, tourism market structure, urbanization, and government support enhance local synergy but suppress neighbors. Digital talent reserves positively impact adjacent regions but inhibit local integration. This study provides practical implications for promoting regional tourism development.
Celebrity endorsement and meaning transfer theories have mainly been examined in commercial contexts, in which contemporary celebrities transfer symbolic meanings to products and brands. This study extends these theories to a heritage destination context by examining Confucius as an implicit destination endorser. As a historical-cultural figure, Confucius carries meanings closely associated with place, moral authority, and heritage. Based on an on-site survey of 410 tourists in Qufu, China, the birthplace of Confucius, this study investigated how Confucius-related attributes shaped destination brand equity, destination attachment, and tourists' behavioral intentions. The findings show that Confucius-related celebrity attributes shaped destination brand equity and destination attachment in different ways. Symbolic meaning mainly shaped destination awareness, image, and perceived quality, while trustworthiness played a more important role in destination loyalty and attachment. These findings suggest that, in historical-cultural destination contexts, tourists’ loyalty and attachment depend more on perceived moral credibility and trust in the historical figure than on knowledge or symbolic meaning alone. By shifting the focus from meaning transfer between commercial celebrities and products to meaning transfer between historical figures and destinations, this study offers a broader understanding of how historical and cultural figures can serve as implicit destination endorsers in non-commercial contexts, contributing to destination marketing and branding.
Destination narratives influence not only visitors' perceptions but also tourism governance. This article develops narrative lock-in as a conceptual lens for examining instances in which one or more narratives within a destination portfolio become authorization standards, making some futures appear more legitimate than others. The framework links destination-branding, place-governance, path-dependence, path-development, and tourism-adaptation literatures. It specifies a process through which narrative portfolios become connected to visitor scripts, material and route commitments, brand-authorization routines, legitimacy filters, and partial adaptations, failed exits, or genuine breaks. Santa tourism in Rovaniemi, Finland, is used.as an analytical illustration because a globally recognizable Santa/Christmas anchor intersects with winter expectations, aviation access, seasonal capacity, sustainability communication, diversification efforts, and cultural-authorization concerns. The Rovaniemi illustration shows that diversification, sustainability communication, and year-round positioning already exist alongside the Santa/Christmas anchor. However, publicly visible destination materials suggest that these alternatives remain less central than the iconic narrative. The analysis treats campaign emphasis, route development, seasonal capacity, investment narratives, and success indicators as observable signals of authorization rather than as evidence of internal decision-making. The principal finding is that partial adaptations can become failed exits when alternative futures are added to the narrative portfolio without being made institutionally central.
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is revolutionizing the tourism industry; however, the stakeholder-perceived potential of this technology to support more inclusive service provision and well-being-related benefits for health-vulnerable tourists remains under-explored. Utilizing a qualitative approach involving in-depth interviews with high-level supply-side stakeholders in Macao, this study examines GenAI-driven transformative service mechanisms. By integrating the transformative service research perspective with the technology–organization–environment framework, this research proposes a GenAI-enabled inclusive service ecosystem framework. Findings indicate that stakeholders perceive GenAI's predictive and agentic affordances as potentially shifting the service paradigm from reactive accessibility to predictive enabling while facilitating cross-scene integration. Stakeholders perceive GenAI as having the potential to support conditions associated with transformative well-being, such as perceived cognitive autonomy and nonintrusive safety support for health-vulnerable tourists; however, environmental constraints and organizational frictions pose significant risks of value co-destruction. This study identifies human–AI complementarity as a critical strategic adaptation, suggesting that upskilling frontline staff can help manage adoption risks. Finally, this research extends theoretical discussions on supply-side service innovation for vulnerable tourist groups and provides strategic guidance for socially sustainable tourism development.
This study challenges the prevalent aesthetics bias in tourism research by examining the positive effects of imperfect landscapes in ecotourism. Through three experimental studies, this research investigates how and when imperfect (versus perfect) landscapes influence tourists' visit intentions. Results reveal that imperfect landscapes enhance tourists’ visit intentions through increased perceived authenticity. This effect is strengthened by knowledge motivation while weakened by leisure motivation. This study is the first to empirically validate the positive effects of imperfect landscapes in ecotourism, offering a novel perspective contrasting the dominant perfection bias in tourism aesthetics research and practice.
Culinary tourism drives urban tourism development, yet its spatial organization and competitiveness remain uneven within destinations. Prior research often relies on destination-level aggregates, masking intra-urban heterogeneity and the experiential mechanisms that differentiate competitive areas. To support more targeted micro-district branding and governance, this study examines block-scale culinary tourism competitiveness in Leshan, China. Culinary blocks were identified from the spatial concentration of culinary establishments, and their relative competitive standing was assessed by combining supply capacity with demand perception. Blocks were compared across high-, medium-, and low-tier competitive positions, and experiential strengths and weaknesses were diagnosed through a theme-based matrix that jointly considers online review attention as narrative prominence and sentiment as visitor evaluation. The findings suggest that block-scale competitiveness is shaped not only by supply and demand conditions, but also by platform-mediated attention that may diverge from experienced quality. Positively evaluated attributes may therefore remain competitively latent unless they become narratively visible. Results reveal a pronounced core-periphery pattern: High-tier blocks cluster in urban cores and major tourism areas, while nearly half of the blocks exhibit low competitiveness in peripheral districts. Experiential configurations vary systematically across tiers, with high-tier blocks combining strategic assets and governance pain points, medium-tier blocks showing the clearest salience-evaluation divergence, and low-tier blocks characterized by weak narrative prominence despite some positively evaluated attributes. The study offers a transferable salience-evaluation diagnostic blueprint for micro-district place branding and tier-specific governance and marketing action.
Slow tourism can be just as extractive as the “cult of speed” it claims to oppose, removing temporal, economic, and ecological value from host communities without commensurate return. This provocation argues that deceleration alone guarantees nothing because a tourist traveling slowly still practices temporal colonization when local, worker, and ecological rhythms must bend to accommodate their leisure. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis and Jackson et al.'s (2011) four-register model of collaborative temporality, the paper develops the Rhythmic Alignment Model (RAM), a diagnostic framework that analyses tourism temporalities across organizational, infrastructural, biographical, and phenomenal registers and asks a single orienting question: whose rhythms are adjusted to whose? To move from diagnosis to practice, it proposes a Rhythmic Impact Assessment (RIA) protocol enabling DMOs to score initiatives on whether they distribute or concentrate temporal authority and concludes with a speculative 2035 scenario for rhythmically governed destinations.
The rapid evolution of smart destinations has redefined tourism by integrating digital technologies, real-time data analytics, and hyper-connectivity. However, the next frontier lies in the emergence of Cognitive Destinations, which transcend traditional smart tourism by embedding artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and neuroadaptive systems to create fully responsive, self-optimizing tourism ecosystems.This paper explores the paradigm shift from data-driven automation to context-aware cognition, where destinations dynamically anticipate and adapt to traveler needs, sustainability challenges, and urban resilience. By integrating concepts from cognitive computing, human-centric AI, and behavioral analytics, we propose a Cognitive Destination Model (CDM) that moves beyond passive data processing to proactive decision-making and emotional intelligence in tourism management.Through a comparative analysis of destinations transitioning towards cognitive intelligence, the research identifies key technological enablers, governance challenges, and ethical considerations shaping the future of smart tourism. By 2050, the most competitive destinations are expected to be not merely smart but cognitively enhanced—capable of real-time learning, hyper-personalization, and autonomous sustainability management. The concept of the cognitive tourism destination is presented as an evolutionary extension of the smart destination paradigm, providing a roadmap for policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers navigating the transformation from smart to cognitive tourism ecosystems.
Environmental responsibility is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to destination competitiveness, particularly in coastal tourism contexts where environmental quality is closely linked to visitor experiences. However, limited research has examined how tourists perceive environmental responsibility and how these perceptions can be used for market segmentation. Addressing this gap, this study conceptualizes Destination Environmental Responsibility (DER) as a perception-based construct and operationalizes it as a segmentation criterion.Using survey data from 1909 tourists in the Algarve (Portugal), cluster analysis identified three distinct segments: eco-engaged, eco-friendly, and eco-restrained. The results indicate that tourists generally evaluate environmental responsibility positively, particularly for cleanliness and environmental preservation. Importantly, DER provides a meaningful basis for segmentation, revealing differences in tourism profiles, satisfaction, and loyalty.Tourists with stronger environmental evaluations report higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty, suggesting that perceived environmental responsibility is associated with destination differentiation and competitiveness, as well as more positive tourism experiences and behavioral intentions. The study contributes to the literature by advancing DER as a perception-based, formative construct, extending segmentation research by positioning perceived environmental responsibility as a segmentation criterion, and demonstrating how tourists’ environmental evaluations can inform destination positioning. Heterogeneity in these evaluations is interpreted through the complementary perspectives of VBN, S–O–R, and TPB.From a managerial perspective, the findings emphasize the importance of visible, segment-specific sustainability strategies. By aligning environmental practices with different tourist profiles, destination management organizations may strengthen visitor satisfaction, loyalty, and competitive positioning in coastal tourism markets.
This study investigates the impact of integrating environmental, social, and economic sustainability practices into long-term strategic planning on the demand for winery visits in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco region, where winery reputation and UNESCO recognition play pivotal roles. We analyzed the effects of key sustainability practices, winery reputation, and UNESCO recognition on visitor demand using Difference and System Generalized Method of Moments regressions on data from 150 sparkling wine houses over five years (2015-2019). The findings show that environmental certification significantly boosts winery visits, especially when combined with UNESCO's recognition. Social sustainability, particularly investments in vineyard personnel, also enhances visitor growth with considerably higher elasticities than cellar personnel. Economic sustainability practices such as wine tourism tours emerged as key drivers, while appealing wine shops and tasting were less influential. The analysis revealed that winery reputation amplifies the effectiveness of sustainability practices across all pillars of the Triple Bottom Line. The combined effect of reputation and sustainability initiatives, especially in UNESCO-recognized regions, provides an effective strategy for wineries to attract more visitors, ensuring long-term success while preserving local heritage and enhancing the community value of wineries. The study provides actionable insights for wineries seeking long-term resilience and enhanced competitiveness in a dynamic tourism landscape.
This study investigated how tattoo tourism influences destination brand love through psychological mechanisms. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, the quantitative phase employed SEM and fsQCA to examine links among self-congruity, value expression, self-enhancement, memory-making, emotional well-being, and DBL. The qualitative phase complemented these results through computational analyses of tattoo tourist interviews, adding depth and context. The findings showed that self-congruity was positively associated with value expression and self-enhancement, both of which contributed to DBL. Memory-making acted as a key mediator, while emotional well-being indirectly supported DBL by enhancing memory significance. The fsQCA identified multiple sufficient paths to DBL, highlighting the importance of symbolic and emotional experiences. This study offers a context-specific extension of self-congruity and destination brand love research by examining how tattoo tourism links self-expression, self enhancement, and memory-making with tourists 'affection toward the destination, and it also offers practical insights to aid destination marketers in designing emotionally resonant and self enhancement travel experiences. By aligning tattoo offerings with travelers' self-conceptions and emotional needs, destinations can foster strong, lasting tourist relationships.
Research has already revealed the impact of identity on behavioral intentions, yet how tourists' health selfidentity drives wellness destination advocacy remains unclear. Drawing on data from 329 wellness tourists and employing PLS-SEM and fsQCA, this study identifies key factors that promote tourists' advocacy behavior. The PLS-SEM reveals that health self-identity significantly predicts embodied experiences (including restorative environments, embodied participation in wellness activities, and functional congruity), which subsequently enhance perceived physical and mental health. Only embodied participation, functional congruity, and perceived physical and mental health directly influence destination advocacy; restorative environments do not have a direct effect. Perceived physical and mental health is further validated as a mediator connecting the three embodied experience elements to destination advocacy. The fsQCA analysis establishes a dual-drive typology based on strong versus weak health self-identity, corresponding to intrinsic identity-driven and external benefitdriven pathways. This study advances the theoretical understanding of individual-level identity mechanisms in wellness destination advocacy, moving beyond prior research that largely focused on destination-level factors; it further refines the connotation and dimensions of wellness tourism embodied experiences. In addition, the study provides practical guidance for destination marketing, embodied experience design, and differentiated strategies for diverse tourists.
This study explores how loyalty programs in the tourism and hospitality industry could balance economic incentives with intrinsic rewards such as emotional satisfaction and social engagement while incorporating social media as a tool for customer engagement. Data was collected from 571 participants using the survey method. The findings indicate that loyalty programs addressing both intrinsic needs and financial incentives contribute to stronger customer loyalty. Social media engagement enhanced the effectiveness of these programs, while product involvement served as a moderating factor. The findings suggest that managers can foster stronger customer relationships and mitigate financial risks by integrating experiential and social elements into loyalty program design.
Despite the strong need for a tool that evaluates a city's level of competitiveness as a smart tourism city, there is no universally applicable index. Following a rigorous five-step index-development process, this study developed the Smart Tourism Cities' Competitiveness Index (STCCI), comprising five dimensions (Attractiveness, Accessibility, Digitalization Readiness, Sustainability, and Co-partnership), 14 pillars, and 37 indicators, and applied it to 51 cities as part of an empirical illustration and validation of the index. The STCCI is expected to provide a holistic understanding of smart tourism cities by revealing their constructs and mechanisms. We also expect the STCCI will contribute to diagnosing many cities' competitiveness as smart tourism cities and point to valuable directions for future study.
This study explores the construction of safety spaces in tourism destinations from a social constructivist perspective, using Lefebvre's spatial production theory as the analytical framework. It conceptualizes safety spaces through a tripartite structure: safety spatial practices (safe physical environment production), representations of safety spaces (safety climate production), and safety spaces of representation (psychological safety production). Drawing on interviews and online data from four Chinese destinations, the research reveals how various stakeholders co-construct safe environments through physical design, governance mechanisms, and emotional experiences. The findings extend spatial theory into the domain of tourism safety and offer practical insights for destination managers to enhance safety infrastructure, improve public order, and foster positive visitor experiences.
Plastic waste remains a critical environmental concern, particularly in high-traffic tourist destinations. South Korea launched a nationwide deposit-return system for disposable cups, piloted on Jeju Island. While tourist participation is critical to the program's success, limited research has paid attention to the importance of tourists' collaborative efforts in such initiatives. This study investigates tourists' co-creative pro-environmental behavior by integrating the Value-Identity-Personal norm (VIP) model, the value co-creation framework, and place attachment theory. Based on on-site survey data from 401 tourists, Structural equation modeling confirmed the VIP model's sequential pathway, from biospheric value to environmental self-identity and personal norm, in predicting both participation and citizenship behaviors. Latent moderated structural equation modeling further revealed that place dependence and social bonding, two key dimensions of place attachment, significantly moderated the relationship between personal norm and feedback, a critical form of citizenship behavior. By embedding the VIP model within a collaborative and place-based context, this study broadens its theoretical scope and highlights a conceptual shift from individually driven moral responsibility to collaborative environmental behavior shaped by emotional and social ties to place. The findings suggest destinations to foster collective recycling behaviors by emphasizing value-grounded messaging, collaborative engagement, and emotionally resonant destination experiences.
