Tourists engage in mountain adventure activities (such as hiking, trekking, and climbing) through sensory immersion. Although there is a great deal of research in this area, there is still a lack of a solid conceptual synthesis of existing studies and an explanation of how sensory experiences contribute to tourists' eudaimonic well-being. Without a doubt, adventure tourism in the mountains can promote eudaimonic well-being by engaging tourists in meaningful physical and mental experiences. Hence, the main objective of this study is to explain why tourists engage in mountain adventure activities such as hiking, trekking, or climbing, and how these experiences contribute to eudaimonic well-being precisely through sensory immersion. The result of this work is a conceptual framework that integrates sensory experiences, mountain tourism, and eudaimonic well-being. Through a systematic literature review of 111 articles using the PRISMA standard, the analysis identified two categories of mountain adventure tourism—soft and hard—that reflect the relationship with sensory immersion. Research shows that participation in mountain activities, such as hiking, contributes to key dimensions of eudaimonic well-being, including self-acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationships, meaning in life, and personal growth. Sensory immersion in the mountain environment—through visual landscapes, natural sounds, physical exertion, and weather conditions—acts as a catalyst, transforming outdoor activities into experiences conducive to self-actualization and psychological flourishing. The study partly explains (but also raises new challenges) how multisensory engagement in a mountain environment fosters significant psychological effects and supports human development.

Automatically localizing bugs is implemented to maximize the speed of the bug localizing process and minimize the developer’s burdens. However, the existing automatic bug localization approaches have not fully used the inter-relations and the intra-relations of the source files and bug reports. In this paper, we present a CDNN-based software localization model, an automatic bug localization model enabled by a Meta-heuristic-based Convolutional Neural Network, and an improved Deep Neural Network, to enhance the effectiveness of the bug localization. First, the bug features are extracted by using word embedding technologies. The hybrid Meta heuristic-based Convolutional Neural Network (HM-CNN) is developed for feature optimization, as it can guarantee reliable localization by selecting the most significant features. The hybrid Meta heuristic-based Deep Neural Network (HM-DNN) is implemented for bug localization by considering objective functions related to the error difference between the actual score and the predicted score. Here, a new combined Grey Wolf-Sun Flower Optimization (HGW-SFO) is adopted for improving the efficiency of the system. Both the CNN in feature extraction (weighted CNN optimization) and DNN in localization phases (hidden neuron optimization) are improved by Hybrid HGW-SFO. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CDNN-based software bug localization model is significantly superior to the other conventional methods over several benchmark datasets in locating the bug source files. From the result analysis, while considering the accuracy value of the proposed HGW-SFO-CDNN, the proposed HGW-SFO-CDNN method secures 5.8%, 5.8%, and 9.75% more advanced performance than CNN, DNN, and CDNN at the number of retrieved files as 20.

Wellness lifestyle trends have entered our everyday thoughts, especially since the Covid 19 pandemic. This paper explores how the slow food concept has a vital role in making tourist trips more fun and healthier at the same time. It shows how to develop a slow food destination image. A qualitative approach using in-depth interviews was employed, and Chiang Mai, Thailand was selected as the study area. A total of 29 tourists were interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyze data. The findings revealed three components for developing a slow food destination image: (a) functional attributes, referring to five aspects: environment, authentic food, slow food community, local facilitators, and service quality; (b) psychological attributes, comprising slow food logo and signs, and value perception; and (c) unique attributes, seeking uniqueness and creating events/festivals related to the slow food concept, especially the concept of a good, clean, and fair event.

Wellness adventure tourism is one attractive activity for tourists to gain a sense of self-achievement, ultimately leading to health and well-being. In recent years, mountain adventure tourism has made greater demands for the experience and sensation of such activities. The main aim of this paper is to seek an answer to the question of to what extent mountain-based adventure is the realization of eudaimonic well-being development. Qualitative research methods were employed in this study and a content analysis technique adopted to analyze data. The data were collected through 40 face-to-face interviews conducted at a mountain national park in Thailand. The results revealed that the motives driving tourists to participate in mountain hiking through eudaimonic expe-rience could more easily achieve sustainable development of mountain-based tourism. It also helps to provide a greater marketing competitiveness advantage for a destination, helps to maintain and/or improve the physical and mental well-being of tourists, increases tourist numbers, and generates income to the community.Management implications: It was found that the participants gave insight into the six components of the eudai-monic experience to generate well-being in life by participating in a wellness adventure tourism activity. The adventure activity helped the tourists to enhance their self-acceptance, purpose in life, autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationship, and personal growth.

Purpose - This paper aims to critically evaluate the evolution of Assurance of Learning (AoL) in business education and identify gaps and responsibilities in higher institution landscapes moving into the future. This comes amidst increasing structural reforms, an increasingly digitalised world, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and wider scrutiny of graduate competencies for job readiness. Design/methodology/approach - A systematic literature review comprising 27 journal articles published between 2018 and 2022 is the methodology used in this research. This approach is justified as it provides a recent synopsis of current trends on AoL and encompasses the changes over the course of the COVID-19-induced higher education landscapes.Findings - The systematic literature review revealed a strong flavour for AoL measurement through the students' perspectives, with little emerging from faculty insights. Only six out of the 27 articles were framed in a non-English speaking background, revealing that most studies were still concentrated in a US or English environment. Also, while papers on AoL have increased in numbers from 2018 to 2022, there remains scant literature on AoL measurements related to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent digital technologies, and how these would have changed given the rapid shift to online or hybrid environments.Originality/value - A comprehensive review of AoL literature from 2018 to 2022 is undertaken through Leximancer, which reveals conceptual and relational ties between core themes and concepts of interest. The findings inform business school leaders of the current state of AoL processes, by combining the views of students, faculty and managers.

Purpose This study aims to extend the use of psychology in the field of tourism crisis and disaster management using coping theory. It examines how resident emotions change in the extended prodromal stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and how residents used humour to cope with stress from not being able to travel. Design/methodology/approach Early COVID-19 (March–April 2020) was characterised by negative media reports, lockdowns and travel restrictions but for Indonesia, no direct effects in terms of loss of life. This unusual context has led to phenomena not previously studied – humour as a coping strategy. This research consists of two studies: Study 1 used thematic analysis of interviews before and during the early lockdown period with a panel of 245 quarantined residents who had travelled in the prior two years. Study 2 followed up using a #hasthtag analysis of travel-related videos content posted on Instagram and TikTok. Findings The COVID-19 global pandemic is an unusual crisis which has resulted in high levels of stress and uncertainty. This study identified the unusual characteristics of the COVID-19 crises and changes of quarantined resident’s emotions during the pre-event and prodromal stages. In addition, this study found the use of humour as a coping mechanism during the lockdown period and the use of social media as the vehicle for humour. Research limitations/implications These findings may be generalisable only to a crises and disasters with an extended prodromal stage. Interestingly, climate change has some similar characteristics where warning signs are available, but the personal implications have not yet become apparent. Practical implications The emotions associated with crisis are dynamic and crisis managers may tailor communication to help deal with stress. Social implications This research provides an insight into how humorous content can be used to reduce negative emotions in the early stage of a stressful event associated with travel restrictions. This study may be suitable for use in integrated marketing communication in post-recovery messaging for the tourism industry and destination management organisation in the digital platform. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate “dark humour” during the early stages of COVID-19 and also the use of coping strategies to explain how humour can reduce stress.

ABSTR A C T Contemporary tourists increasingly rely on social media platforms to inform their consumption choices. Increasingly more travellers rely on social media to make their travel choices; however, scant research explored the impacts of sudden destination popularity through social media. The current study reveals how TikTok made two off-the-beaten-track destinations in Hainan (China) famous overnight. Using participant observation and interviews, this paper explores how a destination suddenly had to cope not only with overtourism but also with all the issues it generates. The findings revealed that the local community struggles to seize the opportunities offered by tourism while forced to manage the tourist's flow. We propose a management framework for desti-nations in protected areas that suddenly became 'hot' on social media and Web 2.0. Finally, we discuss the implications for tourism policies and management and highlight the importance of links between user-generated content and the promotion as crucial for future tourism planning in protected areas.Management implications: The study results highlight how (off-the-beaten track) destination was impacted by unintentional promotion through TikTok. The findings revealed management gaps related to accessibility and amenities that resulted in negative environmental impacts when suddenly tourism numbers increased in a short time. These findings provide important implications for tourism policies, management, and marketing of des-tinations when their popularity depends on being 'hot' on social media and Web 2.0. The authors propose a Rapid Response Plan framework for handling future cases of sudden destination popularity.

This study's aim is to propose a strategic approach for spiritual tourism destination branding development. The main topics covered include: an analysis of tourism destination; identifying new trends; and the tourist behaviour motivation of travellers among the Millennial tourist market segment. Spiritual tourism is an important area under the umbrella of wellness tourism. It is in a challenging position nowadays as many tourist groups are more sophisticated and care about selecting tourism products and services to get greater experience, fulfilling their quality of life for wellness living. The Millennial tourist belongs to one of the big spending groups, has unique characteristics, and likes to explore new things to gain great experience. Developing a new product at a destination, especially spiritual tourism, will offer new experience activity to the Millennial tourist group. A qualitative approach was adopted using face-to-face interviews for the data collection process, and a meditation place in Thailand was chosen as the study area. Then a content analysis technique was used to analyse data. As a result, it was found that there are three components for a strategic approach towards spiritual tourism destination branding development: firstly, spiritual functional attributes; secondly, spiritual psychology attributes; and finally, a unique spiritual experience. The implication of the study is also provided in this chapter.

Background: Research on the theoretical integration of attributes of wellness tourism in the form of the physical, mental, spiritual, and environmental (PMSE) attribute framework and the effect of cultural differences on the framework validation has not been conducted before. Objectives: This study developed and validated the key underlying attributes of the wellness tourism experience framework within the Thailand context. Methods: From reviewing the related literature to identify potential sub attributes under the four dimensions of the PMSE framework, themes were developed using a theory- and prior research-driven method within different cultural contexts. The fitness of the PMSE attribute framework model within the context of Thailand wellness tourism was confirmed through a survey design with a quantitative approach from the generalities of the sample groups. The entire dataset was statistically tested with descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results and Conclusions: After adjustments, the four-factors with a 28-item model substantiated the data. The results validated that the mental experience dimension accounted for the most variance, with an indicator value of 0.99 in the framework, predicting the effective wellness tourism experience better than the other attributes. Experience design should involve the participation of all stakeholders in the wellness tourism system in terms of managerial contribution. Recommendations for the planning of wellness experiences concerning each four-factor will be investigated in future studies.

This chapter presents the results of interviews with people involved in the elephant camp business in Thailand regarding how elephant camps can be better managed and what makes for success. Interview questions included: How have elephant camp managers responded to the changes in animal welfare perceptions? How have managers responded to travel agencies and tourists opposed to using elephants for tourism entertainment activity? Are these animal welfare rules effective? How do they organize elephant tours in a sustainable way? How are mahouts recruited and trained? Finally, what are their thoughts on elephant tourism innovations such as coffee beans collected from elephant dung and elephant volunteer tourism?

This study aims to examine the emotional tourist-experience model, constructs, and their relationships towards health-wellbeing for the active 50-plus tourists. With the opportunity involving health activities while traveling, the active 50-plus have motivated themselves by setting goals of their own choices to gain the preferred meaningful experiences. The experiences that give value to their later-life well-being can drive them to continue traveling with health reasons. Five underpinned experience factors are sequentially formulated for the study model to understand tourist experience process. The model of which includes goal-driven motivation, positive emotional tourist-experience, tourist satisfaction, memorable experience and intention behaviour. To test the model, the study employed survey questionnaire for data collection and structural equation modelling for data analysis. The findings supported the causal relationships and the effect directions of those factors. The collected experience value has resulted in the individual health benefits and lifestyles of four fundamental PMSE dimensions: physical, mental, social, and emotional. The study offers the results of new mindset changing healthactivity behaviour for their later life well-being and contributes to the extended theories of motivation concerning health and well-being.

Wellness tourism has become significantly popular around the Globe, especially in many Asian countries, such as Thailand, India, Malaysia and Bali. This study aim is to investigate the relationship between marketing mixed and intention to re-purchase the wellness activity. A quantitative approach was employed and tourists who use spa service in four/five star hotels located in Southern Thailand were selected as the samples. Data were collected in May and September 2019 and multiple regression technique was used for data analysis, with a total of 413 samples having been received. It was found that place to provide wellness activity were the most influential factors for tourists to re-purchase. The price was a medium influence, and information channels had also influence on tourists to re-purchase. The study provides theoretical and managerial contributions.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the decision-making processes of international retirement migrants. The development of a place in response to the high demand for international retirement migration has become an important strategy for stakeholders within host destinations; of particular interest is international retirement migrant behaviour and intention to stay and retire in a foreign country.Design/methodology/approachThis research presents the results of a qualitative study using face-to-face interview techniques. Content analysis technique was used to analyse data from interviews with 33 international retirees in Thailand.FindingsDestination stakeholders must consider creating awareness of the destination through WOM, trustworthy websites and government channels, which migrants evaluate a destination based on pre-retirement visits that create attachment and emotional feelings for the place, and finally, the decision-making processes of short stay, semi-permanent and permanent migrants.Research limitations/implicationsThis qualitative study investigated migrants from Europe, Australia and the USA. An understanding of IR migrants from Asia needs further research.Practical implicationsThe results can be used as guidelines for government, hospitality and tourism stakeholders. IR migrants want different destination attributes to mainstream tourists, especially a peaceful environment, mild weather (not too cold or hot), and to live among locals.Originality/valueThis study examines migrant decision-making processes. The results provide a theoretical foundation for how IR migrants decide to retire overseas. This comprises three components: destination awareness, secondly, evaluation of the destination’s resources, and finally, the decision and implementation of their plans.

The aim of this research is to examine the factors that influence employee engagement and how it impacts organization innovative work behavior. The quantitative approach was designed for this research with 320 samples of Thai Airways International staff in the positions of Check-in, Boarding Gate, Baggage Service, and Lounge Attendant. The data was collected from various ways by sent a survey questionnaire form both offline and online, e.g., email, Facebook, Line chat. The data analyses process for this study was employed Structural Equation Modelling technique by using AMOS program. The findings revealed that engagement and innovation reinforce each other, especially an innovative work behavior influenced by an engaged employee, and an engaged employee are more likely act innovatively. Each employee interacts with the customers that have more chance to create innovative work behavior. The paper contributes to both academic and management perspective.

The aim of this research is to investigate how spiritual retreat tourism influences tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit a destination. A quantitative approach was employed and a self-administered survey was used to collect data. A multiple regression analysis was used to analyze data. The results revealed that push factors including novelty, relaxation, transcendence, self-esteem, physical appearance and escape influence spiritual retreat tourist satisfaction; while pull factors, especially authentic experiences, natural settings, peaceful atmosphere, far from the usual places and historical significance, influence spiritual retreat tourist satisfaction, in turn leading to intention to revisit the same destination.

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate Thai stakeholders' perceptions of developing a destination for international retirement migration (IRM). Increasingly, residents of developed nations such as Japan who retire from work are choosing to live in Thailand or other less-developed countries.Design/methodology/approach - Qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through focus groups and in-depth interviews in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Content analysis technique was used to analyze data after completing the interviews of 35 industry participants.Findings - It was found from the participants that considerable new real estate development and services specifically for these retirees has been created in recent years, but that there is a lack of stakeholder collaboration in catering to this market. Moreover, local resident knowledge of the retirees' culture and language is lacking, along with a need for policy and planning support from government.Research limitations/implications - Alimitation of this study is that it explored only the perception of business stakeholders involved with Japanese IRM, a group of importance to the Thai Government due to their increasing numbers. Further study could look at local community attitudes toward IRM and how a community adapts to this new phenomenon.Practical implications - This study provides guidelines for stakeholders, government and local communities. Especially, the role of government is to provide support with clear information about the visa process and legal documents.Originality/value - This study contributes to the body of knowledge of destination development strategy for a specific international retirement tourist group.

Human resources management (HRM) practices are hotel management tools that contribute to organizational success. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how soft HRM practices in the Thai hotel industry affect job satisfaction and job retention. This study focuses on soft HRM practices, which draws on theories of commitment and motivation. Soft HRM refers to human relations between staff and the hotel organization. A quantitative approach was employed using multiple regression technique with a stepwise method for data analysis. It was found that employee satisfaction is not fostered by increasing remuneration, but is more related to the quality of working life, good leadership style, regular training, employment security, the hotel's brand image, and employees' personal traits, a most important aspect. The findings from this study provide a comprehensive framework for both academic and managerial responses to resolve the labor and skill shortage crises. Equally important is the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and personal attitude theory that underpins employee job satisfaction in this study.

The international retirement migration market has developed rapidly in the past decade, especially in South East Asia. The purpose of this paper is to find out - What is the perception of international retirement migration (IRM) toward a tourist destination? A qualitative approach was adopted and face-to-face interview used for data collecting. A total of fifteen participants were interviewed and most were male from western countries, including Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany and the USA. A theory of planned behaviour and a risk perception model has been proposed for IRM tourist study. It was found that the risk perception of most concern for IRM tourists when staying abroad was physical risk, especially safety/security and petty crime. On the other hand, post-disasters like terrorism or threat did not significantly influence the perception of risk toward intention to travel. The theoretical and managerial contributions and future of research have been stated.

Many countries advertise their natural resources or other attractions, but differentiating one destination from others is also important. Destination brand value has been acknowledged as a crucial component tool for competitive advantage in tourist destination development. This paper investigates this issue in Southland, New Zealand. The methodology for this study employs a qualitative approach using face-to-face interview technique and a content analysis was used to analyse data. Results revealed that the key components to be considered for destination brand value development are a variety of products: services with high quality at the best price, convenience of consumption, interaction with ethnic groups and locals giving an insight into the destination's history and culture, and unique activities with memorable life-time experiences. The findings of this study provide the theoretical and managerial contributions of a destination brand value development.