It is possible to observe certain stagnation of the winter tourism which is linked with winter sports. The overall number of participants is not growing any more, however, new ski resorts are being set up and the competition is continuously rising. In order to stay competitive, it is necessary to take into account reasons which leads to the final decision of a tourist to choose certain ski resort. This thesis concentrates on the concepts that influence the process of choosing the destinationThese concepts, which are based on foreign literature are following: destination image, place attachment, loyalty. During the winter season of 2015 there was also a research conducted at the recently developing destination Lipno nad Vltavou, which was based on observations and interviews with the visitors. The above mentioned concepts were applied here. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis deals with Iran as a tourist destination. As is implied in the title, the definite aim of the thesis is to evaluate the potential of tourism in this country and its attractiveness for Czech tourists. Initially, there is a general characterization of Iran of the population and the land from geographical, economic and other facets. The general characterization is followed by an analysis of tourism in Iran -- the current situation and the anticipated development. The very important part of this thesis is represented by the analysis of the tour offers provided by Czech tour operators to this destination and evaluation of the questionnaire research, which was aimed to find out how Iran is perceived by the Czech public and also to examine the interest in travelling to this country among Czech tourists.

Nous postulons que la destination touristique, objet de recherche de ce travail, est un système complexe d’éléments en interaction qui se doit d’être commercialisée et gérée. Ainsi, pour maintenir sa compétitivité et son attractivité dans un environnement concurrentiel fort, les Organismes de Gestion de la Destination (OGD) et les professionnels du secteur se doivent d’adopter des stratégies opérationnelles et des outils d’aide à la décision. Cette recherche consiste à analyser la performance, principalement via l’efficience, de la destination touristique, afin de distinguer les meilleures pratiques observables (« benchmarks » ou points de comparaison) et d’apporter des recommandations managériales aux décideurs. À travers divers acteurs et échelles du territoire touristique français, nous tentons de soulever plusieurs questions de recherche liées à l’optimisation de la performance, problématique centrale en sciences de gestion. Les principaux enjeux de ce travail résident dans la valorisation de méthodes quantitatives d’aide à la décision destinéesau management du tourisme. / We postulate that tourism destination, which is the research subject of this study, is a complex system of interacting elements. Tourism Destination has to be marketed and managed. Thus, to maintain its position and attractiveness in a highly competitive environment, the Destination Management Organization (DMO) and professionals have to adopt operational strategies and tools for decision-making. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the performance, mainly through efficiency, of the tourism destination in order to identify the best practices (benchmarks) and provide managerial recommendations to decision makers. Through various actors and different scales of the French territory, we intend to raise several issues related to performance optimization, a core research problem in management. The main purposes of this thesis lie in the use of decision-making with quantitative methods for tourism management.

Abstract Tourism has developed into an important field of economy in the northern sparsely populated areas of Finland. State bodies of different spatial scales continuously put efforts to foster tourism growth and tourism is viewed as a prosperous economic path for the future. The prevailing tourism development is resort-oriented, which has transformed rural geographies in the North. Critical tourism geography research highlights that such market-driven tourism development has negative social and environmental consequences. Thus, tourism change needs to be examined from a broader perspective than economic benefits alone. It is required that tourism economy serves people and not vice versa. To increase sustainability in destination localities, collective economic agency in destinations is encouraged in tourism research and development. To date, tourism research has tended to draw on multiple, often contradicting, theoretical perspectives in an attempt to clarify how collective agency in tourism destinations should be best organized in order to foster social justice and ecological sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to understand how sustainability can be facilitated through local economic relations in resort-oriented destination development contexts. Sustainability discussions in tourism research are advanced by drawing on economic geography and its critical takes. The thesis consists of three studies that each examine sustainability in tourism destinations from a different viewpoint. The thesis first examines how (un)sustainability currently manifests in local economic relations and then discusses what changes are required to move towards more sustainable tourism futures. Ethnographically oriented case studies and a contemporary variant of the grounded theory method enables approaching tourism economies from the perspective of everyday tourism realities. The empirical part of the research is conducted in the Ruka and Ylläs destinations in the Finnish North. Insights were gathered by semi-structured in-depth interviews with local tourism actors in 2012 and 2015. The study introduces a poststructural political economy approach to sustainability transformations in tourism destinations. The less growth-focused economic thinking that exists in destinations is brought to light. Tourism actors’ motives and aims can differ drastically from the rationales of growth-focused tourism destination development that dominate in networked tourism governance. Many of the tourism actors desire conservation of natural and cultural environment in destinations. This creates conflict between the coexisting tourism paths. In the thesis, it is argued that economic difference in tourism should not be conceptualized merely as a source of diversification of tourism supply and thus as beneficial for destination growth; it should be recognized as political agency in tourism economy. Tourism networking is already now often value-driven, and this needs to be encouraged. That is, transformative agency for tourism change can be gained and new tourism paths created also through incremental changes ‘from below’, not only via policy actions. To contribute to the critical (economic) geography research on social and economic change, this thesis highlights that it is central to understand not only what new economic futures look like but also how to work towards them in everyday politics. Although the alternative and critical voices are valuable as they accurately state a socially just view of how things ought to be, these voices may not be the best way to bring about a change. This is because power hierarchies are not easily recognized in everyday tourism work. Each actor interprets the social from their subjective point of view. Even actors with the most power can have personal experiences of powerlessness. Thus, to foster change, it is necessary to facilitate the transformation of the existing conflictual inter-group relations. Dialogical everyday politics could work as a means to foster understanding of different groups’ tourism realities and their mutual influence. Conflict could be regarded not solely as an innate feature of capitalist economic relations but also as moments where mutual understanding can be facilitated. This is a way to establish local economic relations that enable community building. Destination sustainability touches not only firm-level practices but the mode of economic organization in tourism destinations. The thesis highlights that to advance social justice and environmental sustainability in destinations, destination development and planning should account for the possibility for a less growth-focused destination development path. As alternative tourism paths do not, as a rule, depend on new, large-scale tourism construction, they would likewise not foster growth in international tourist numbers and air travel. This unconventional view on economic path creation is to be encouraged as it is better in line with climate change mitigation needs and critical sustainability theorizing. / Original papers The original publications are not included in the electronic version of the dissertation. Kulusjärvi, O. (2016). Resort-oriented tourism development and local tourism networks – a case study from Northern Finland. Fennia 194: 1, 3–17. https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/41450 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019103136035 Kulusjärvi, O. (2017). Sustainable Destination Development in Northern Peripheries: A Focus on Alternative Tourism Paths. Journal of Rural and Community Development 12:2/3, 41–58. https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/1466 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2018051524148 Kulusjärvi, O. (accepted). Towards just production of tourism space via dialogical everyday politics in destination communities. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:51:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarcioMC_DISSERT.pdf: 2917876 bytes, checksum: 6618176c63435f1be7b0c9123c48f4cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-05 / This dissertation aims to analyze the causal relationship between the quality of tourist services, satisfaction with the attributes and globally, fidelity and image of tourist destinations. Therefore, it was conducted an exploratory, descriptive research with quantitative analytical approach. Data collection was performed by a questionnaire addressed to tourists at the Augusto Severo International Airport and Bus station of Natal, the main points of entry and exit of tourists. The composition was simple random sampling by reaching the final number of 400 tourists interviewed. Among the main results, is an assessment of the quality of the components of the destination. It was noted that nine are the dimensions of perceived quality of tourism products and services of ―Sun and Sand‖ segment, that is, Beaches and Facilities, Public Equipment, Catering Services, Transportation, Hotel Equipment, Hotel Services, Entertainment & Attractions, Access to the Hotel and Hospitality. Moreover, it was concluded that the Preview Tourism Destination Image has little direct influence in the Consumer Satisfaction, and only indirectly in the Post-Purchase Behavior. While the Complex Tourism Destination Image exerts strong and direct influence on both factors, in the Customer Satisfaction Process and Loyalty, the dimensions of quality also claimed to be strongly influences both factors / Esta disserta??o pretendeu analisar a rela??o causal entre a Qualidade dos Servi?os Tur?sticos, a Satisfa??o com os atributos e de forma global, a Fidelidade e a Imagem de Destinos Tur?sticos. Para tanto, se realizou um estudo explorat?rio-descritivo, do tipo Survey, com enfoque anal?tico quantitativo. A coleta de dados foi realizada atrav?s de question?rio aplicado junto aos turistas nacionais no Aeroporto Internacional Augusto Severo e na Rodovi?ria da Cidade do Natal, principais locais de entrada e sa?da de turistas. A composi??o amostral foi aleat?ria simples chegando-se ao n?mero final de 400 turistas entrevistados. Dentre os principais resultados, encontra-se um diagn?stico da qualidade dos componentes do destino tur?stico Natal. Observou-se, tamb?m, que s?o noves as dimens?es da percep??o de qualidade dos produtos e servi?os tur?sticos de Sol e Praia, ou seja, Praias e Facilidades, Equipamentos P?blicos, Restaura??o, Servi?os de Transportes, Equipamentos do Hotel, Servi?os do Hotel, Entretenimento e Atrativos, Acesso ao Hotel e Hospitalidade. Al?m disso, concluiu-se que a Imagem Pr?via do Destino Tur?stico exerce pouca influ?ncia direta junto a Satisfa??o do Consumidor, e apenas indireta no Comportamento P?s-Compra (Fidelidade). Enquanto que a Imagem Complexa exerce influ?ncia forte e direta tanto no processo de Satisfa??o do Consumidor quanto no de Fideliza??o dele, as dimens?es da qualidade encontradas tamb?m se apresentaram como fortes influenciadoras de ambos os fatores

Le tourisme a été généralement défini comme le voyage d'une personne à une destination pour y faire une escale avant de revenir à son milieu d'origine. La perception d'une destination est donc au centre de l’étude lors de l'examen de laproposition du tourisme expliqué dans le cadre de cette thèse. Mais la perception de la destination a aussi des caractéristiques très difficiles. Afin de vérifier cela, nous devons considérer ce que le marketing des professionnels et des chercheurs ont apporté. Metelka (1990, p.46) et Vukonic (1997) ont défini une destination comme “un lieu géographique où les gens peuvent séjourner », tandis que Gunn (1994) explique une destination comme une zone géographique "suffisamment développé pour répondre aux objectifs de voyageurs" (Gunn, 1994, p.27). De ce point de vue, les destinations touristiques peuvent être associées soit à un pays ou soit à un (ou plusieurs) région, une ville ou des sites touristiques ; la destination est une notion géographique ou spatiale qui est d'abord définie par ses propres visiteurs. Dans la condition où le lieu n’est pas familier au touriste, l'endroit ne peut pas être considéré comme destination. Cependant, de nombreuses questions sont abordées dans la présente thèse pour comprendre comment une place peut devenir ensuite une destination, ainsi que les implications de cette transformation. / Firstly, tourism has been defined as a journey of an individual to a destination for a stopover, then return to his/her origin environment. The perception of a destination is therefore at a centre, considering the tourism proposition explained here. Above and beyond this, the perception of a destination also has significantly difficult characteristics. To verify this, we have to consider what marketing professionals and researchers bring to it. Metelka (1990, p.46) describes a destination as "the geographic location to which someone travels." Vukonic (1997) also relates the term to that factor whereas Gunn (1994) explains a destination is recognised by the travel market as a geographical area "sufficiently developed to meet the objectives of travellers" (Gunn, 1994, p.27). From this standpoint, tourist destinations may have the scope of being a country or (one or more) region, city or an exact site. The destination is a geographical or spatial notion that is first definedby its visitors. In the condition that no stranger visits a place, that place cannot be deliberated as a destination. This image gives the impression of asserting the obvious. However, many issues are discussed in this paper for a place tosubsequently become a destination, as well as the implications of this transformation.

The main aim of the dissertation was an identification of the role of a company on the horizontal and vertical level in the tourism management on the basement of analysis of subjects involved in the destination management. The aim of the work was also to propose a system model of tools and measures that will lead to an efficient participation of a destination management company on the management of a tourism destination and to increase of the efficiency of a company in tourism. The simulation model and the scenarios of the future development of the tourism destination, which are presented in the dissertation, create a value added above the main aim of the dissertation. The main methodological approach, which was used in the dissertation, was system dynamics. This method helped to reveal the complexity of a tourism system and to identify the connections among a number of stakeholders in the destination. The partial aim of the dissertation was also a comparison of the regions of South Bohemia and Upper Austria as tourism destinations. Not only the essential tourism indicators and figures, but also the systems of the destination management and a role of a destination management company were compared. The data from the above mentioned comparison were used in the proposed system dynamic model that simulates behaviour of the tourism destination represented by the Region of South Bohemia.

The thesis focuses on analysis of provided services in experience tourism in Šumava region and Bavarian forest. The thesis evaluates services, their width and depth, according to marketing survey. This analysis is followed by analysis of possible options to diversify tourist product offerings.

The main object of this thesis is to analyse the total potential of tourism in Znojmo District and to suggest the main measures and priorities for further tourism development in this region based on the analysis.

The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the attractiveness of cultural tourism of Portuguese city Porto for Czech tourist. The theoretical part describes the approaches to the definition of cultural tourism, its components, offer and the latest trends. The practical part contains quantitative research conducted to determine the attitudes of Czech tourists to the city of Porto as a tourist destination for cultural tourism. The outcome is the evaluation of research and determination of the status of Porto tourism market.