Rising car ownership and use has been associated with: pollution, resource depletion, waste of land, social exclusion and health problems. Carfree development is a relatively recent response to these problems in urban areas. There are several examples in continental Europe, but examples in the UK have been few and small in scale. This study aims to explore the feasibility of carfree development in the UK, focussing on the following research questions: 1. What types of existing developments can be defined as ‘carfree’? 2. Amongst which groups (if any) is potential demand for housing in carfree developments likely to be found? 3. What are the distinguishing characteristics of these groups? 4. What circumstances would promote or discourage potential demand? The first question was addressed through a review of the literature and five study visits to European carfree developments. Three types of carfree development were identified and three defining characteristics: traffic-free environments, design for non-car travel and limited separated parking. To address the remaining questions, from the literature, two target groups were hypothesised to be most likely to move to a carfree development: Carfree Choosers, who live without a car by choice, and Carfree Possibles, car owners willing to give up car ownership under certain circumstances. This hypothesis was tested through: an online survey of members of environmental and cycling organisations, a random postal survey in Camden, London, and a household survey of Poole Quarter, a ‘low car’ development in Dorset. A subsample of 35 respondents were interviewed by telephone later. The questionnaire analysis broadly supported the hypothesis for both target groups. The interviews cast doubt on some of the declarations of the Carfree Possibles but supported those of the Carfree Choosers who were judged most likely to provide the early adopters of carfree housing. The Carfree Choosers were the ‘most urban’ group in locations, behaviour and preferences. The findings confirm that potential demand exists for carfree developments, mainly concentrated in the inner areas of larger cities, where the most suitable sites can also be found. The thesis concludes with recommendations for Government policy to encourage carfree developments.

The effective strategic management of heritage tourism is vital to the economic, environmental and social health of a region. This is even more pronounced in heritage based regions where the resource is ultimately finite and where development cannot be separated from its local residents, communities and businesses. Given this scenario, the effective marketing of heritage tourism must take both a strategic approach and be underpinned by effective stakeholder engagement, which includes processes of coordination and integration in order to achieve a holistic approach to marketing management. The research sought to establish the nature and scope of stakeholders involved in strategic marketing planning within heritage regions, to investigate the coordination and management of strategic marketing functions, and to examine the process of strategic implementation. The empirical study took a qualitative approach guided by the case study methodology, which used a range of data collection techniques including content analysis and in-depth interviews. A range of data sources reflecting the structure of the tourism industry were used, including key strategic documents, public sector key informants and tourist product service providers operating in both the private and community sectors, representing the regions. Key contributions made by the research relate to the identification of four key issues including Strategic Direction, Marketing Communications, Consultation and Aggravated Fragmentation. Overall, it was found that there is no central strategic direction for tourism management, with the result that tourism delivery is unclearly and ambiguously assigned between myriad bodies and agencies. At strategic level, marketing communications between such bodies is endemically poor, resulting in a disintegrated approach to tourism marketing management. The implications of these weaknesses are evident across several strategic marketing functions, including Strategic Orientation, Resource Allocation, Product Service Development and Destination Promotion, and are significant across the levels of management and administration for tourism, from government level planning to individual tourism providers.

This study provides a unique insight into the impact and experience of maltreatment in elite adult sport, which to date has had limited consideration within the sporting literature. The evidence suggests that elite adult athletes can experience maltreatment in high performance environments and such treatment has the potential to have long-term negative effects on athlete wellbeing and continued participation in sport. However, to date, much of the guidance on protecting and supporting athletes has been directed toward child athletes or those under the age of 18. There remains much to be understood about the experience of maltreatment into adulthood if adult safeguarding and protection in sport are to be enhanced. The aim of this study is to explore elite adult athletes’ experiences of maltreatment in high performance sport. In order to meet the aim of this research, athlete narratives of maltreatment gained through in-depth interviews were completed in order to capture the experiences of both male and female elite athletes. The participants of this study were 12 elite athletes between the ages of 19 and 35 years (mean = 27 years), who had competed in the United Kingdom and had represented England, Wales and/or Great Britain within their chosen sport. A variety of sports and sports types were included within the sample with participants from eleven different sports (hockey, volleyball, archery, rugby, cricket, football, eventing, handball, beach volleyball, taekwondo and tennis), and both team and individual sports were represented. Five main themes were identified: becoming an athlete, being an athlete, being maltreated, the perceived impact of maltreatment and coping with maltreatment. The findings suggest that maltreatment in sport is complex and multifaceted, and has the potential to pose a significant threat to athlete wellbeing. Prior to this study, existing research had failed to explore maltreatment as an overarching phenomenon and instead sought to examine individual types of maltreatment. While this has increased understanding, the complexity of experience is lost when individual maltreatment types are explored in isolation. This study underlines the co-occurring nature of maltreatment as well as the diverse nature of the experience of maltreatment. In addition, taking a broader approach has enabled an understanding of maltreatment types that have not previously been systematically explored. This study therefore extends knowledge about and understanding of the experience of maltreatment in high performance environments. A conceptual framework is presented to demonstrate how athletes experience maltreatment in sport. This study supports the need to further explore the impact on and consequences of maltreatment for athletic experience. Implications for practice and future research directions are outlined in order to identify the scope of work yet to be explored in this area. This study makes an important contribution to knowledge as the first piece of research that seeks to illuminate the experience of maltreatment in high performance sport.

The perceptions people hold of destinations are of critical importance in the world of tourism as they influence individuals’ travel choices. In this sense, tourists’ negative awareness concerning safety and security present at a destination can prove disastrous for its ability to attract visitors (George, 2003; Reisinger and Mavondo, 2005). Among a multitude of factors which may amplify tourists perceived risk associated with consuming tourism products, man-made disasters of political instability and terrorism are particularly intimidating (Cavlek, 2002; Heng, 2006). Central to these issues is the role of the media in providing consumers with risk information, either directly through the exposure to news coverage of hazardous events, or indirectly through ‘word of mouth’ information (Kitzinger, 1999; Wahlberg and Sjorberg, 2000; Hughes et al., 2006; Breakwell, 2007; Renn, 2008). Despite a common agreement concerning the influence of the media on tourists’ perceptions of risk (Sonmez and Graefe, 1998a; Hall, 2002; Beirmann, 2003; Tasci et al., 2007), the relationship is under-researched. This thesis enhances the understanding of the effects of news media reports concerning terrorism and political instability on leisure tourists’ perceived risk and willingness to travel. To reach this aim a sequential mixed method approach consisting of three stages of data collection is adopted. The questionnaire survey determines the influence of tourists’ holiday preferences and demographic factors on perceived destination risk and willingness to travel. In order to evaluate the link between the media and tourists’ perceived risk, the framing theory of media effects is adopted. This involves a survey-embedded experiment which manipulates potential elements of a news report concerning the risk of terrorism and political instability events in order to understand their influence on tourists’ perceived risk and willingness to travel. To gain a depth of understanding and expand on the patterns which emerged in phase one and two of data collection follow-up semi-structured interviews have been conducted. This study makes a contribution to the body of perceived destination risk research by applying framing theory and an experimental research method to the investigation of the relationship between news media, tourists’ perceived risk and willingness to travel. The findings indicate that the media effects of risk communication are difficult to control and depend upon the content of messages, the characteristics of the audiences and the characteristics of the jeopardised object. Moreover, the in-depth account of the interaction between audiences and media messages allows insights into the psychological processes that underpin media effects. The results concerning the role that the characteristics of tourists and destinations play in moderating the strength of the effects that coverage of hazards has on perceived risk and willingness to travel have practical implications for destination managers and marketers.

The aim of this research is to explore the Masters swimming culture and to bring meaning to the lived experience of the Masters swimmer. The research is of particular relevance since the county of Dorset, where the exploration takes place, has an ageing population which is well above the national average. Furthermore, the National Governing Body for swimming is endeavouring to increase sport participation by ensuring that more people swim regularly. Masters athletes are viewed as being unique as they continue to take part well into old age. The principal challenge of the research was to make sense of the Masters swimming culture in order that a more informed dialogue of “active” sport participation, ageing and sport-related customs could be composed. A key consideration for the research design arose from the nature of the study which centred on leisure experiences and active participation of older swimmers. In order to explore both the structures and interactions within their cultural context an ethnographic design was applied. This allowed for the collection of extremely rich data. A sample of thirteen informants were interviewed and observed over a two year period along with other older group members who enjoyed swimming as a leisure activity. Five significant themes were explored in the research which included: the meeting point or “Third place”, active lifestyles, ageing, serious leisure and exercising to excess. The key message emerging from the data highlighted the complexities of a relatively small locale. The findings concluded that older swimmers benefitted from being part of a social world, where they could enjoy participation with like-minded people. More importantly, the significance of having a meeting point or “Third place” in which to socialise and interact was paramount. It was evident too that participants were able to escape from the pressures of home and work which underlined the importance of the social world. Swimmers played an important role in the swimming community as each individual had a personal tale to tell as they aspired to achieve their individual challenges and goals. The challenges faced were wide-ranging and diverse. For some participants, their interest in swimming was so important that it was described as: “a way of life”. With regard to ageing, there was a sense of undesirability towards growing old evidenced in feelings of resistance and personal empowerment. Other themes emerging from the data analysis related to the advantages of adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The research also exposed the multi-faceted relationship between ageing and the serious aspect of leisure as older athletes were looked upon as being role models. The findings concluded that older participants were minded to resist their ageing bodies and live satisfying and personally empowering lives. In addition to the positive aspects of physical activity, a negative side of exercise was uncovered which related to obsessive exercise behaviour and deviant leisure lifestyles. Participants expressed feelings of suffering and pain in their determination to live life to the full and to keep going. Furthermore, the management of identity amongst older athletes hinged on the tensions between expressing one’s competitive nature, negotiating the norms and performance standards of the older swimmer and resisting the ageing process in the desire to stay young. In addition, once swimming was learnt it was never lost and so they were dedicated to swimming “for life”. Telling the stories of highly active older participants allows for the talk and practices of a group of people to be examined. Also, the experiences and actions of the group have the potential to influence dominant cultural discourses. The study emphasises the value of attaching to a “Third place” or “great good place”. As a consequence, this study extends knowledge. As swimming providers look to increasing participation, a theoretical framework for Masters swimming is offered. The framework has the capability of guiding leisure organisations, policy makers and National Governing Bodies in making both adequate and appropriate provision for the needs of older clients. In particular, it highlights the need to provide adult sports programmes which are varied, challenging and inspirational.

The notion of creating unique and memorable experiences for consumers has become of primary importance for tourism research and practice. The way contemporary tourist experiences are created has however undergone a fundamental change. Experiences are transforming as consumers are increasingly empowered to co-create their own experiences. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have represented a catalyst of change that has opened unprecedented possibilities for tourist experience creation and enhancement. While the literature has recognised these paradigm shifts within the service-dominant logic and the services marketing and management discipline, a holistic understanding of this phenomenon is still missing to date. This doctoral study therefore aims to explore how the tourist experience can be enhanced by ICTs through company-consumer experience co-creation, throughout all stages of the travel process, i.e. pre/during/post travel. This thesis integrates the three theoretical streams of tourist experience, co-creation and ICTs to explore, conceptualise and develop the Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience concept. A comprehensive qualitative mixed methods strategy comprising three main research phases was adopted, consisting of a) a qualitative content analysis, b) a multiple case study and c) semi-structured consumer in-depth interviews to triangulate the findings and allow for a holistic knowledge development. The most significant findings contribute to knowledge by offering a) a comprehensive understanding of the granular elements of the tourist experience, b) both a company and consumer actor perspective on experience co-creation, c) a detailed enhancement process of the tourist experience through ICTs and d) a holistic model depicting the twelve distinct factors of the Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience. This study makes an original contribution to the services marketing and management discipline on a wider level and the three theoretical streams in specific. This thesis is significant and original in that it is the first study to explore the Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience and to create a theoretical foundation of this concept. The strength of this work thus lies in developing several conceptualisations and models that advance the service-dominant logic and provide critical strategic implications for services marketing and management practice. This knowledge has also wider implications and makes an impact on a global business, societal, technological and policy level beyond.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of people that attended a popular music festival in the UK. The research is grounded in the philosophical roots of both experience and descriptive phenomenology. Phenomenological research is about “going back to people’s specific experiences and letting the concepts come from there” (Todres and Holloway 2010, p183). The research used Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method (1985, 2009). Giorgi’s method is based on the early twentieth century philosopher Husserl’s scientific approach to developing phenomenology. Giorgi (2009) offers a robust process for analysing situated experiences that gives a clear insight into a phenomenon. Ten interviews with festival-goers who went to the Isle of Wight Festival in June 2011 were conducted. Using Giorgi’s method, the participants’ words were transformed into meaning units, which then underwent a process of descriptive analysis. This involved scientific phenomenological reduction using free imaginative variation. The constituent parts of the experience were identified and used to set out, what Husserl (1982 [1925]) defines as the morphological essence of the experience. This was achieved by formulating an invariant structure that eidetically captured the phenomenon of the popular music festival experience. The constituents discovered to form the structure of the phenomenon, that is the lived popular music festival experience, can be drawn as polar opposites. However the nature of the experience is more about the mixed valence of emotions rather than the bipolar explanation of concepts such as reversal theory. This resonates with the critical theories of leisure, especially that of freedom and constraint and the need to accept negative as well as positive emotions in a holistic view of the experience. Stebbins (2006, 2011) may refer to leisure studies as the 'happy science', but the research not only identified the highs experienced by the participants but also their depths of despair. The social aspect was found to be important, as festival-goers experienced both a sense of communitas and of personal angst and enmity in relation to others. Finally, whilst hedonistic behaviour led to a sense of heightened excitement and euphoria, it also engendered shock and concern over the extent of some deviant behaviour.

Exposure to new and unfamiliar environments is a necessary part of nearly everyone’s life. Effective communication of location-based information through various locationbased service interfaces (LBSIs) became a key concern for cartographers, geographers, human-computer interaction (HCI) and professional designers alike. Much attention is directed towards Augmented Reality (AR) interfaces. Smartphone AR browsers deliver information about physical objects through spatially registered virtual annotations and can function as an interface to (geo)spatial and attribute data. Such applications have considerable potential for tourism. Recently, the number of studies discussing the optimal placement and layout of AR content increased. Results, however, do not scale well to the domain of urban tourism, because: 1) in any urban destination, many objects can be augmented with information; 2) each object can be a source of a substantial amount of information; 3) the incoming video feed is visually heterogeneous and complex; 4) the target user group is in an unfamiliar environment; 5) tourists have different information needs from urban residents. Adopting a User-Centred Design (UCD) approach, the main aim of this research project was to make a theoretical contribution to design knowledge relevant to effective support for (geo)spatial knowledge acquisition in unfamiliar urban environments. The research activities were divided in four (iterative) stages: (1) theoretical, (2) requirements analysis, (3) design and (4) evaluation. After critical analysis of existing literature on design of AR, the theoretical stage involved development of a theoretical user-centred design framework, capturing current knowledge in several relevant disciplines. In the second stage, user requirements gathering was carried out through a field quasi experiment where tourists were asked to use AR browsers in an unfamiliar for them environment. Qualitative and quantitative data were used to identify key relationships, extend the user-centred design framework and generate hypotheses about effective and efficient design. In the third stage, several design alternatives were developed and used to test the hypotheses through a laboratory-based quantitative study with 90 users. The results indicate that information acquisition through AR browsers is more effective and efficient if at least one element within the AR annotation matches the perceived visual characteristics or inferred non-visual attributes of target physical objects. Finally, in order to ensure that all major constructs and relationships are identified, qualitative evaluation of AR annotations was carried out by HCI and GIS domain-expert users in an unfamiliar urban tourism context. The results show that effective information acquisition in urban tourism context will depend on the visual design and delivered content through AR annotations for both visible and non-visible points of interest. All results were later positioned within existing theory in order to develop a final conceptual user-centred design framework that shifts the perspective towards a more thorough understanding of the overall design space for mobile AR interfaces. The dissertation has theoretical, methodological and practical implications. The main theoretical contribution of this thesis is to Information Systems Design Theory. The developed framework provides knowledge regarding the design of mobile AR. It can be used for hypotheses generation and further empirical evaluations of AR interfaces that facilitate knowledge acquisition in different types of environments and for different user groups. From a methodological point of view, the described userbased studies showcase how a UCD approach could be applied to design and evaluation of novel smartphone interfaces within the travel and tourism domain. Within industry the proposed framework could be used as a frame of reference by designers and developers who are not familiar with knowledge acquisition in urban environments and/or mobile AR interfaces.

Nation branding is an emerging and contested discourse at the convergence of diverse fields such as business management, tourism, social and political sciences. Sport mega-events have previously been associated with some degree of brand-related benefits for the host nation. However, there have been no studies that have clearly revealed these opportunities or investigated their impact on the development of brand equity for a nation. Furthermore, no studies have examined the inherent characteristics of a sport mega-event that create such opportunities. The contemporary emphasis on the ability of sport mega-events to deliver legacies also raised the question of how nation branding benefits can be sustained post an event. While sport mega-event leveraging studies have begun to emerge, none of these has focused on the manner in which brand stakeholders can leverage and sustain nation branding opportunities specifically. This study therefore aimed to identify the strategic branding opportunities created by a sport mega-event for a host nation and to indicate how brand stakeholders could leverage and sustain these opportunities. The study used a mixed methods, sequential, qualitative-dominant status design (quan → QUAL). The case of South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup was selected as the study context, as it represented an emerging nation that specifically stated its aim of using the sport mega-event to develop its brand. In order to assess brand image perceptions and the degree to which these were impacted by the mega-event, a quantitative study investigated international visitors’ nation brand perceptions during the event (n=561). Informed by the results, a qualitative study was designed to elicit the experiences, lessons and insights of selected, definitive nation brand stakeholders and experts (n=27), with whom in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted, two to three years post the event. This study clearly identifies the strategic manner in which a sport mega-event creates equity for a nation brand. Furthermore, it reveals the inherent characteristics of a sport mega-event that create such opportunities. It also challenges the conceptualisation of legacy, rather promoting the strategic activities of stakeholders in order to sustain event benefits. The findings will assist policy makers and stakeholders to leverage the opportunities created by an event more effectively and make more informed policy decisions regarding the bidding and hosting of events.

Social media enjoy a phenomenal success in terms of adoption and usage levels. They cause paradigm shifts on how people connect and communicate with each other, on how they express and share ideas, and even on how they engage with products, brands, and organizations. Moreover, social media became significant networks of consumer knowledge. In travel and tourism, the impacts of social media have already been described as tremendous, primarily due to the experiential nature of tourism products, and especially of holiday trips: purchases are considered risky and therefore decision making processes are information intensive. An adequate number of studies attempt to reveal the role and impact of social media on aspects of consumer behaviour during the travel process that is before, during, and after the trip. However, almost all employ a micro approach, focusing either on a specific type of social medium (e.g. consumer review and rating websites), or on a specific application (e.g. TripAdvisor), or on a specific stage of the decision making process (e.g. information search), or on a specific stage of the travel process (e.g. before travel). Despite the advantages of such micro approaches, still the overall picture on how consumers use social media and their impact as a whole, during all phases of the travel process and throughout all stages of the decision making process remains unclear. To address this gap, this study aims to explore use and impacts of social media on consumer behaviour with particular focus on holiday travel. To meet this aim, a qualitative methodology was designed to provide an insider’s perspective on how consumers use social media throughout the holiday travel process and the impacts of such use on consumer behaviour. Seven focus groups were carried out with fifty-one active social media users who have been on a holiday trip during the last twelve months. It was revealed that social media are used during all stages of the travel process, and also during all stages of holiday related decision making processes. Through thematic analysis six themes have been constructed that provide a range of insights on how social media are used and their impacts. This study makes four contributions to knowledge. First, to consumer behaviour theory by proposing information exchange as an enlarged consumer behaviour construct consisting of nine components. Second, to the theory of technology fluidity. Fluidity, from being a characteristic of a specific technology, is now proposed as a characteristic of the sets of behaviours and cognitive functions associated with the use of the specific technology or medium. Third, to social media related research in the context of holiday travel by identifying six functional spaces that enclose active users’ specific behaviours and cognitive functions: inspiration, collaboration, decision making, self-expression, communication, and entertainment. Fourth, by proposing the social media enabled travel process model as a framework for understanding use and impact of social media throughout the holiday travel process. A number of implications for practice, as well as emerging areas for future research, are drawn.