This study explores how tourism experiences can cultivate inner peace through the interaction of environmental, emotional, and cognitive factors. Using qualitative data from 30 solo tourists in Da Lat, Vietnam, the research integrates the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model with Attention Restoration Theory (ART), flow theory, and mindfulness to explain the psychological process behind eudaimonic well-being in tourism. The findings indicate that inner peace emerges through the resonant interaction of four experiential conditions: the restorative qualities of natural environments, the calming influence of cool climates, the mindful rhythm fostered by slow tourism, and the self-reflective capacity enabled by conscious solitude. Together, these conditions constitute a therapeutic experiential context that facilitates emotional restoration, sustained presence, and heightened self-awareness. Building on these insights, the study advances the Resonant Inner Peace Pathway framework, conceptualizing inner peace as a multilayered and processual psychological phenomenon rather than as a transient or purely affective state. Practically, it provides insights for developing nature-based, mindful, and slow-paced tourism models that enhance tourists' mental well-being and promote sustainable destination design. This study therefore reframes tourism not as an escape from reality, but as a conscious process oriented towards inner harmony and existential balance.
Tourism is frequently portrayed as a catalyst for intercultural understanding and peace, yet empirical evidence remains inconclusive. While some studies highlight tourism’s potential to reduce prejudice and foster harmony through interpersonal contact, others question whether tourism actively promotes peace or merely benefits from its presence. This study examines the role of personal contact in advancing intercultural understanding within the peace-through-tourism framework. Data were collected from 1,300 visitors to the Canary Islands through a two-wave longitudinal design: pretrip and posttrip surveys. Bayesian mixed effects models were employed to capture temporal changes in satisfaction and attitudes while accounting for individual heterogeneity. Results reveal that both the type and quality of contact significantly influence tourist satisfaction and attitude change, with negative encounters exerting disproportionately stronger effects than positive ones. These findings offer theoretical insights into contact-mediated mechanisms and practical implications for leveraging tourism as a tool for promoting positive peace.
This study investigates the transformative role of stakeholder education in conflict-affected tourism landscapes, focusing on Nagaland, Northeast India. Utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, this research draws on in-depth interviews with local tourism stakeholders, including guides, homestay operators, and cultural facilitators, to explore how education reshapes narratives, fosters intercultural understanding, and promotes peacebuilding in regions historically misrepresented as remote or unsafe. The findings reveal that education enables tourism professionals to act as cultural ambassadors, dismantling entrenched stereotypes and bridging communication barriers through storytelling, digital platforms, and experiential encounters. Festivals such as the Hornbill Festival serve as living classrooms, where shared learning and identity negotiation build mutual respect and resilience. Respondents consistently highlighted education not merely as a tool for skill development but as a vehicle for cultural diplomacy and bottom-up peacebuilding, culminating in the idea of education-as-andragogy in tourism. By positioning tourism as a relational and educational process, this study contributes to the discourse on sustainable tourism and the narrative justice. This aligns closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), affirming that inclusive education and stakeholder empowerment are pivotal in fostering sustainable development and long-term peace in conflict-affected regions. The insights from this study offer valuable guidance to destination management organizations and policymakers in addressing gaps in tourism planning and policy formulation in conflict-prone areas.
Different studies have asserted that tourism can contribute to peacebuilding in areas affected by armed conflict. However, it is essential to identify the role of community empowerment in this contribution, since these populations suffer from fractures in social capital and consequently experience difficulties in rebuilding trust, particularly in vulnerable communities that have been classified as victims of conflict. The objective of this research was to identify community empowerment within tourism projects in two community councils that are victims of armed conflict in Colombia. This study employs a qualitative, multiple-case study approach in the Rinc & oacute;n del Mar and Badillo community councils, integrating the RETS 2.0 community tourism participation model to analyze empowerment dimensions in Afro-Colombian territories. The results indicate that both community councils exhibit strong levels of environmental, social, economic, and psychological empowerment; however, they display weaknesses in political empowerment and conflict resolution, demonstrating a lack of participatory planning and local governance, which in one of the cases leads to the emergence of new local conflicts. Moreover, in one case tourism has developed in amass and disorganized manner, resulting in gentrification and cultural erosion.
This conceptual article reviews and critiques the mainstream traditions of research and scholarship on the theme of peace and tourism. It examines the primary tenets that suggest travel can wrought peace between peoples and nations, as well as that peace must prevail in situ for tourism to flourish. This article goes beyond this normative binary perspective to examine other types and scales of peace (e.g., inner peace, interpersonal peace, social peace, economic peace, environmental peace, and geopolitical peace), which tourism affects or which affect tourism. We then discuss the importance of peace in sustainable tourism development and argue that researchers need to move beyond the main traditions of academic commentary on peace and tourism and seek alternative paradigms and approaches to understanding peace more deeply and holistically.
Tourism is frequently promoted as a "force for peace," grounded in the assumption that cross-cultural contact and mobility foster mutual understanding and reduce prejudice. Yet this idealism becomes increasingly unstable when examined through the lens of Islamophobia and the securitization of Arab and Muslim mobility, particularly in the post-9/11 era and more sharply following October 7, 2023. This article critically reexamines the tourism-peace nexus by demonstrating how contemporary travel regimes simultaneously position Arab and Muslim travelers as desirable consumers and suspect subjects. As a result, tourism encounters are often structured by surveillance, profiling, moral boundary making, and conditional forms of hospitality rather than egalitarian contact. Drawing on securitization theory, critical mobility studies, and critical tourism scholarship, the article argues that peace-throughtourism narratives are conceptually overextended in contexts where mobility is asymmetrical, governed by security logics, and embedded within service hierarchies. In such settings, "contact" does not operate as a neutral or equalizing mechanism but is mediated by power, risk management, and affective regulation. Rather than framing tourism as a pathway to peace, the article advances a conceptual reorientation toward harmony: understood as the managed production of civility, affective smoothness, and nondisruption that allows tourism to function without addressing structural inequality, political antagonism, or injustice. The article makes three contributions. First, it specifies Islamophobia and securitization as critical boundary conditions that destabilize peace tourism claims. Second, it maps how Arab and Muslim travelers navigate conditional hospitality through adaptive strategies of visibility management, self-regulation, and destination choice. Third, it reframes tourism's social significance away from peace outcomes toward harmonizing practices that may stabilize coexistence while simultaneously silencing conflict. In doing so, the article offers a more analytically precise and ethically attentive framework for understanding tourism's role in an era of politicized mobility and unequal belonging.
Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) increasingly rely on social media to construct place narratives, yet little is known about how these practices shape territorial visibility and governance in unequal, Global South contexts. This study examines how the Santa Catarina DMO (Brazil) constructs symbolic representations of place through its official Instagram account (@descubrasc), focusing on editorial strategy, regional representation, and engagement practices. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative design, the analysis examines 545 posts published between 2024 and 2025, selected through an adapted PRISMA-based sampling protocol and analyzed using thematic, visual—symbolic, and textual coding in NVivo. The findings reveal a visually coherent and emotionally resonant brand narrative that privileges already consolidated regions, while underrepresenting peripheral areas and constraining participatory engagement within bounded narrative frames. The study contributes a Global South-oriented perspective on digital place branding by reframing institutional Instagram communication as a form of symbolic governance and offers a transparent, replicable methodological framework, alongside managerial insights for DMOs seeking to balance brand coherence with territorial equity and inclusive destination governance.
Previous research has evaluated how one’s Hofstede Uncertainty Avoidance score may have affected one’s travel experience, as reflected in their TripAdvisor consumer-generated media hotel ratings and review comments. While the existing research has provided valuable information for the international hotel community, a significant limitation of much of this work is that it has been based solely on reviews posted in English, regardless of the language of the poster’s home nation. The current study reviews postings written in one’s native language, with results that closely mirrored those done testing English language only postings, helping to further generalize our understanding of the relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and traveler satisfaction.
This study explores the emerging trend of multiday food tours by surveying US international travelers ( N = 517); 57% of travelers were very interested in multiday food tours. Most desired activities include eating with locals, market visits, and fine dining, with high value placed on local, authentic, and unique experiences which are educational and sensory. Travelers place a higher importance on sociocultural (e.g., interacting with the local culture) and economic sustainability (e.g., financial benefits remain local) than environmental sustainability. A key finding is the desire to connect with locals, as eating with locals was prioritized above all other suggested food activities. Travelers are willing to pay more for high-quality experiences, and interest is highest for younger generations (especially Millennials and Gen Z) and high-involvement food travelers. This study identifies opportunities for tour operators, travel agencies, and destinations, particularly in undervisited regions, to develop multiday food tours.
The impact of work—family policies (WFP) on the motivation and satisfaction of employees in the tourism sector has been little studied in the literature. The objective of this research is to study the impact of WFP, specifically, their existence and accessibility on the satisfaction of employees in the tourism sector, mediated by the motivation that these policies could generate. The research is based on data collected through questionnaires administered to 157 employees and analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach (PLS-SEM). The results show that the existence of WFP has a direct and significant effect on both employee motivation and satisfaction. However, contrary to expectations, the perception of accessibility to these policies does not appear to influence motivation. Furthermore, the findings confirm that motivation acts as a mediating variable in the relationship between the existence of WFP and job satisfaction, whereas no such mediating effect is observed in the case of accessibility. Additionally, motivation acts as a mediator between the existence of WFP and satisfaction, while gender moderates this effect, intensifying it particularly among women.
This study investigates the dual impact of international tourism on entrepreneurship development and environmental sustainability across 18 countries over a 20-year period. Using panel data estimation techniques—including fixed effects and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)—the analysis explores how international tourist arrivals influence 11 key entrepreneurship indicators and CO 2 emissions per capita. The results reveal that tourism has a consistently positive and statistically significant effect on various dimensions of entrepreneurship, such as government support, entrepreneurial education, market openness, and cultural norms. At the same time, tourism is found to contribute significantly to rising CO 2 emissions, highlighting its environmental cost. These findings underscore the importance of adopting a balanced policy approach that leverages tourism as a catalyst for entrepreneurial growth while minimizing its ecological footprint. The study recommends a sustainable tourism development strategy that includes investments in green infrastructure, promotion of ecotourism and digital entrepreneurship, implementation of carbon regulations, and integration of smart urban planning. Aligning tourism growth with climate goals and entrepreneurship policies is essential for achieving long-term sustainable development.
Tourism e-commerce livestreaming (TEcLS) involves the real-time online broadcasting of travel products or services to engage potential customers, facilitating virtual shopping experiences and promoting tourism offerings. While previous studies have mainly examined the advantages of TEcLS over conventional marketing and its impacts on customer intentions, little attention has been paid to how tourists perceive value at different stages of the tourism e-commerce livestreaming process. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring tourists’ perceived value of tourism livestreaming, particularly among those who have actually purchased and experienced tourism products in Hainan, China, through tourism livestreaming. A phenomenological qualitative approach was adopted in this study to explore tourists’ perceived value across the pretrip, on-site, and posttrip stages. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted to understand tourists’ motivations, experiences, meanings, and desirable outcomes of this platform. Three main themes emerged: (a) key drivers for purchasing TEcLS, (b) tourist engagement with TEcLS, and (c) future trends and challenges for TEcLS. Findings suggest that price discounts, flexible returns, livestreamers’ charisma, information sharing, and impulse buying enhance consumers’ intentions to purchase travel products through tourism livestreaming. Participants also reported more enjoyable on-site travel experiences, including hassle-free redemption of travel products, deeper local immersion, and the benefit of efficient algorithmic targeting that helped them locate relevant information at their destination. However, some reported discrepancies between the livestreamed content and their actual experiences. The study highlights that the future of tourism livestreaming will be shaped by trends in personalization, streamer expertise, and visual appeal while addressing challenges related to AI and order manipulation. These findings offer valuable insights for tourism livestreaming-based marketing strategies and product development.
Tourism destinations attract visitors through a mix of attributes-accommodations, transportation, food and beverages, attractions, and safety-that collectively shape travel experiences. These attributes are not only functional but also critical resources influencing emotional bonds with places, known as place attachment. Emotions are central to tourism, underscoring the need to examine factors shaping such bonds. This study investigates how destination attributes affect tourists' place attachment and behavioral intentions. Data from 416 past visitors to Florence, Italy were analyzed using the PLS algorithm. Results show that accommodation, transportation, culinary offerings, and attractions significantly influence both place attachment and behavioral intentions, while safety affects recommendation but not revisit intention. The study contributes to the tourism literature by emphasizing the dual importance of destination attributes and place attachment in shaping behavioral intentions and offers a comprehensive framework that integrates the resource-based view with place attachment theory. It also offers practical insights for destination managers and policymakers on how to leverage destination attributes to foster stronger emotional connections and encourage sustainable visitation behaviors and adopt a holistic approach to destination planning and development. Regular monitoring of tourist feedback is recommended to enhance competitiveness.
Understanding tourists' awareness of responsible tourism is important because visitors are active stakeholders whose actions directly influence environmental, sociocultural, and economic sustainability at destinations. This study adopts coffee tourism as the research context, focusing on coffee tourist attractions, which are defined as tourism settings where visitors participate in experiential activities within coffee plantations. Many such destinations integrate responsible farming methods and community engagement into their operations. These embedded practices make coffee tourism an especially pertinent context for investigating how immersive exposure to sustainable production shapes visitors' awareness, attitudes, and understanding of responsible tourism. Hence, this research aims to: (1) identify who coffee tourists are through motivation-based segmentation; (2) examine the experiences they gain at coffee tourism attractions; and (3) explore whether responsible tourism awareness can be detected after their visits. A survey of 366 Indonesian tourists was analyzed using factor-cluster analysis to identify the segment. Next, ANOVA was used to analyze the experience among segments. Finally, content analysis of openended responses was used to detect the responsible tourism awareness from the tourist comments. Findings classify three distinct segments of coffee tourists: Relaxers, Enthusiasts, and Ambassadors. Relaxers are more passive and convenience oriented compared to the other segments. Enthusiasts reported the richest experiences across most dimensions, suggesting that active participation. Ambassadors scored higher on cognitive dimensions. Responsible tourism awareness varied across segments. Relaxers emphasized environmental stewardship, advocating for improved waste management and cleanliness. The Enthusiasts linked sustainability awareness to experiential learning and firsthand understanding of environmental and social issues. Last, the Ambassadors focused on knowledge sharing and interpretation of responsible practices. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.
This study investigates the mechanisms shaping residents' perceptions toward tourism development in traditional villages, focusing on the roles of community attachment, perceived tourism impacts, and government support. While tourism contributes to local prosperity and supports China's rural revitalization strategy, understanding how residents' attitudes toward tourism are essential for sustainable development. Grounded in social exchange theory, this study proposes a research framework that includes perceived tourism impacts as mediating variables and government support as a moderating variable. Data were gathered through a structured questionnaire survey using a convenience sampling method, targeting 486 residents from several traditional villages in Guizhou Province, China. The Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) is used to analyze how community attachment indirectly affects residents' attitudes toward tourism development through their perceptions of tourism impacts, and how this relationship is further moderated by the level of government support. The findings emphasize that community attachment and government support are key to fostering favorable attitudes toward tourism. The study offers practical policy implications for achieving a balanced approach to tourism development that promotes both community prosperity and sustainable development.
Cycling tourism has emerged as a sustainable and health-promoting form of travel, gaining increasing popularity. Taking cyclists on the Sichuan-Tibet route as the research subject, this study constructs a moderated chain mediation model based on restorative environment theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory to investigate the mechanism by which psychological benefits influence behavioral intentions. Data were collected through an online questionnaire distributed to cyclists along the Sichuan-Tibet route, yielding 306 valid responses, and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed mediation and moderation effects. The results show that psychological benefits directly and indirectly influence behavioral intentions through destination image and experiential quality, with the latter having a stronger mediating effect. Psychological openness moderates the effects of psychological benefits on destination image and behavioral intentions, but not on experiential quality. This study enriches the theoretical framework of psychological benefits, deepens the understanding of the psychological and behavioral mechanisms of cycling tourists, and provides new perspectives for the sustainable development of outdoor sports tourism.
We explore how nonreligious tourists cocreate meaningful experiences at religious heritage sites, focusing on the Royal Mosque of Isfahan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Iran. Adopting a tourist-centered and constructivist approach, this research investigates how individuals who do not engage in institutional religious practice nevertheless experience cognitive, emotional, and spiritual engagement within sacred spaces. Using a qualitative design and grounded theory methodology, data were collected through semistructured interviews and direct observations. The analysis identified seven experiential dimensions that shape visitors' cocreated experiences: (1) pull-push motivations, (2) prior knowledge and planning, (3) interaction with physical settings, (4) presence of people, (5) self-directed cocreation, (6) personal activity and participation, and (7) peace and place attachment. The findings suggest that visitors actively personalize experiences through introspection, solitude, and aesthetic-spiritual immersion, rather than religious devotion or ritual practice. The study offers practical recommendations for tourism managers and heritage site planners, advocating for visitor-centered design that supports autonomy, emotional resonance, and reflective engagement. By examining the experiential agency of nonreligious tourists this research contributes to a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of contemporary religious tourism.
Shopping is a key element of urban tourists' consumer behavior. Today, social media and travel-specific online platforms provide plentiful information on urban retail opportunities, enhancing tourists' shopping experiences. TripAdvisor, one of the most popular online travel platforms, enables tourist shoppers to gather information about the quality of retail experiences, shopping locations, and merchandise, thereby helping them identify "good places." Despite the theoretical and managerial potential of the "good place" concept derived from Oldenburg's third place theory, it remains underutilized in both retail and tourism research. This exploratory study addresses this gap by examining the occurrence of the term "good place" in the context of retail consumption on TripAdvisor, offering insights into how urban shopping tourists interpret this concept. A qualitative content analysis was carried out using tourist-generated communications on the TripAdvisor forum platform concerning 18 European cities. The findings reveal that shopping tourists on this platform interpret a "good place" as a retail environment where their needs are met in alignment with their expectations. The study contributes to extending Ray Oldenburg's third place theory into the realm of tourism, promoting its conceptual integration into tourism studies.
While there are ample studies examining the cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of tourism from the destinations’ perspective, such as residents’ attitudes, there is a dearth of research that examines how tourists’ own cultural, economic, and environmental experiences of tourism impact their travel decisions. In the current era where the world economy is experiencing a slow growth, and sustainability is an important issue, how travelers make their decisions presents new opportunities for research. Using the theory of case-based planning, this study examines if travelers’ perceptions of their own cultural, economic, and environmental travel experiences impact their decision to travel domestically and internationally. In addition, the lifting of travel restrictions is used as a moderator, while the leisure constraint theory serves as the backdrop in the use of household income and job security as travel constraints. The results indicate travelers understand their impact on destinations and want to experience other cultures and contribute to destinations’ economies. The only significant interaction between the three impact perceptions and travel since the lifting of travel restrictions is with environmental impacts for international travel. Although tourists are concerned about their environmental impacts when traveling, their concerns are more domestically, not internationally. Household income and job security also partially mediate all models. Important theoretical implications include examining perspectives of tourism impacts from travelers’ viewpoint and if job security is viewed as a travel constraint. As travelers want to experience other cultures and contribute to destinations’ economies, this provides destinations opportunities for target marketing and positively shape the travel experience for tourists.
