Thesis (M.Tech.: Tourism and Hospitality Management)-Durban University of Technology, 2007 xi, 130 leaves / Tourism is one of the world's major industries and is increasing in importance as a source of substantial employment and of great economical and social benefit to many regions around the world. China has the world’s largest population and it has been predicted that China will become one of the world’s major sources of international travellers in the 21st century. Although the outbound travel industry in China has only been developing in recent years, there has been an increasing number of outbound Chinese going all over the world. South Africa is one of the countries that are beginning to be penetrated by the emerging Chinese outbound traveller market. The purpose of this study is to examine the South Africa inbound tourism industry’s readiness for the increasing Chinese tourist market to South Africa and also to examine South Africa as a secondary international destination for the Chinese traveller. The study also aims to explore the Chinese travellers’ interests and major concerns when travelling to South Africa and the expectations of the inbound tour operators in Shanghai. A purposive sample of 118 respondents from Shanghai’s tourism industry participated in the study.

Industrial heritage tourism has been in focus for many academic studies and tourism is an alternative developmental tool for mines and contributes to their economic success. This thesis is about the Falu Mine in Dalarna, Sweden, which has World Heritage status since 2001 and is one of the biggest attractions in the region. Its history and cultural importance are reasons for the importance of preserving the heritage. The Falu Mine is under the management of the Great Copper Mountain Trust and one of their ambitions is to ensure the continuous popularity among domestic and international visitors. In order to gain a better understanding of the visitors and to find strategies to improve performance, a visitor survey has been conducted in the summer of 2011. It is the authors believe that the guides of the Falu Mine have the best available insight and that their perceptions help to add to the understanding about the visitors. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore the perceptions of the guides about their visitors, to investigate how the perceptions correspond to the statistical results and to study if there are any differences between domestic and international visitors. The mixed methods approach will increase the depth and accuracy of the results, by linking qualitative with quantitative data. The results show that differences between domestic and international visitors exist, both proven by interviews with the guides and the visitor survey. These differences occur in the factors, such as level of education of the visitors, group size and number of children in the group, knowledge of the visitors prior to and after the visit, sources of information and the fulfillment of the visitor expectations. The perceptions emphasize how these differences impact the guided tours. The guides of the Falu Mine have to be aware of those differences in order to adjust the tour accordingly, as well as the management of the Falu Mine can use this knowledge in order to identify strategies for improving performance.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Tourism and Hospitality Management)-Durban University of Technology, 2007 xi, 130 leaves / Tourism is one of the world's major industries and is increasing in importance as a source of substantial employment and of great economical and social benefit to many regions around the world. China has the world’s largest population and it has been predicted that China will become one of the world’s major sources of international travellers in the 21st century. Although the outbound travel industry in China has only been developing in recent years, there has been an increasing number of outbound Chinese going all over the world. South Africa is one of the countries that are beginning to be penetrated by the emerging Chinese outbound traveller market. The purpose of this study is to examine the South Africa inbound tourism industry’s readiness for the increasing Chinese tourist market to South Africa and also to examine South Africa as a secondary international destination for the Chinese traveller. The study also aims to explore the Chinese travellers’ interests and major concerns when travelling to South Africa and the expectations of the inbound tour operators in Shanghai. A purposive sample of 118 respondents from Shanghai’s tourism industry participated in the study.

In 2016 Cyprus received 3,2 million international tourists. The island is considered as the 40th most popular destination in the world, while if counted per capita of local population Cyprus has a 6th place worldwide. There are some 200,000 tourists from Sweden travelling to the island annually. Swedish citizens, in a similar fashion with the rest of Nordic countries enjoy a similar consumer behavior and high purchasing power. Understanding how Swedish tourists perceive image of Cyprus helps to nuance the view of visitors coming from Nordic countries onto the destination. The visit experience plays an important role to reduce the destination image stereotyping, which caused by different information sources that may lead to a change in destination image after visitation. Positive destination image leads to satisfaction and revisit intentions. This thesis investigates in detail how Swedish’ tourists perceive the destination images during their visit on Cyprus. The researcher followed semi-structured qualitative research method with the use of in-depth interviews to collect empirical data with respondents who have visited Cyprus. Destination image theory is utilized to support the theoretical ground for the thesis, while a textual content analysis was used as a tool for analyzing the interviews. Adopting the qualitative research approach provided the opportunity to capture the holistic components of Cyprus destination images while Cyprus touristic’ attributes were identified and ranked based on their functionality and psychological dimensions. Conducting this research provided the researcher the chance to test the theoretical destination image formation and the interrelationship among the destination image different components. Cyprus images after visiting the destination differ from the pre-visit stage as images were modified after visiting the destination. Swedish tourists upon their visit perceived the images of Cyprus in positive and negative ways. Cyprus Tourism Organization can benefit Cyprus by considering the negative notions found in this research and try to solve these problems or minimize their effects as possible.

Cultural/heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry because there is a trend toward an increased specialization among tourists. This trend is evident in the rise in the volume of tourists who seek adventure, culture, history, archaeology and interaction with local people (Hollinshead, 1993). Especially, Americans' interest in traveling to cultural/ heritage destinations has increased recently and is expected to continue. For example, cultural/heritage sites are among the most preferred tourism experiences in America. (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 1998) The recent studies about cultural/heritage tourism focused on the characteristics of tourists who visited cultural/heritage destinations. The study attempts to investigate the relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourist satisfaction, and to identify the relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourist satisfaction in terms of selected tourists' demographic characteristics and travel behavior characteristics. The expectancy-disconfirmation theory provided a conceptual framework for this study. The expectancy-disconfirmation theory holds that consumers first form expectations of products or service performance prior to purchasing or use. Subsequently, purchasing and use convey to the consumer beliefs about the actual or perceived performance of the product(s) or service(s). The consumer then compares the perceived performance to prior expectations. Consumer satisfaction is seen as the outcome of this comparison (Clemons & Woodruff, 1992). The study area for this study was Virginia Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown). Virginia Historic Triangle has been called the largest living museum in the world. Furthermore, it is one of America's popular vacation destinations, attracting more than 4 million tourists each year. The data of this study were collected from the on-site survey method. The sample population for this study was composed of tourists who visited Virginia Historic Triangle between June and August in 2001. The survey was conducted at five different sites in the Virginia Historic Triangle. Out of 300 questionnaires, 251 were usable. Therefore, the data from 251 respondents were analyzed in this study. Appropriate statistical analyses such as frequencies, descriptive, factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regressions, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) were used according to respective objectives and descriptors. The factor analysis was conducted to create correlated variable composites from the original 25 attributes. Using factor analysis, 25 destination attributes resulted to four dimensions: General Tour Attraction, Heritage Attraction, Maintenance Factors, and Culture Attraction. These four factors then were related with overall satisfaction. Correlation analysis revealed that four factors were correlated with tourists' overall satisfaction. The multiple regression analysis revealed that there was relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourists' overall satisfaction. MANOVA revealed that there was significant difference between derived factors in relation to only total household income and the length of stay among 10 demographic and travel behavior characteristics. ANOVA revealed that there is a significant difference in the overall satisfaction of tourists by gender, past experience, and decision time to travel. Finally, MANCOVA revealed that only one of the control variables (past experience) controlled the relationship between the overall satisfaction of tourists and derived factors. Based upon the results of this study, several recommendations can be made to increase tourists' satisfaction with the Virginia Historic Triangle. First, comprehending what tourists seek at cultural/heritage attractions will help tourism marketers better understand their customers. Second, identifying which attributes satisfy the tourist who visit cultural/heritage destinations will help tourism planners develop appropriate strategies to attract their customers and serve them effectively. Third, knowing who the satisfied tourists are may help reduce marketing costs and maintain cultural/heritage destinations' sustainability. / Master of Science

This exploratory study initially attempts to generate basic understanding regarding how do Chinese tourists evaluate the importance of Scandinavian gastronomies when holidaying the countries. And it further judge the states could whether implement gastronomical development strategy. Additionally, the study generally explores Chinese tourists’ food behavior, motivation and preference in a culturally different environment when holidaying in Scandinavian countries. The study also provides a detailed investigation regarding Chinese tourists’ food preference, behavior and motivation based upon the general food habits. The study proposes the in-depth research that describes the disparities of Chinese tourists’ dining attitude on Scandinavian gastronomies from varying social groups, such as age and gender. A structured questionnaire adopted in the study as the research tool to collect quantitative data from sampled respondents. This study addressed a number of gaps in current knowledge. Academically, it filled the gap about the relationship between the gastronomy and the destination in Scandinavian states. And this study gains a better understanding about Chinese tourists food attitude towards exotic gastronomies in particular Scandinavian’s. The difference of Chinese tourists’ gastronomies, food preference, motivations and tourists’ food behavior on food while having a trip in Scandinavian countries is specifically indicated in the study. Regarding the business, a key contribution of this study is that it also provides the understanding about Chinese tourists in culinary aspect which can help with making a feasible tourism development plan.

This thesis focuses on an under-researched area of tourism - individualised travel - by examining non-institutionalised solitary travellers. The purpose of the study is to discover precisely why non-institutionalised solitary travellers travel alone. In order to understand the travel behaviour and motivation of solitary travellers, they are contrasted with group tourists. To be able to tackle this research problem, Grounded Theory is chosen as the most appropriate approach, for the following reasons. First, Grounded Theory is a methodology which makes its greatest contribution in areas about which little is known. Second, its aim is to generate rather than to test theory. Based on the computer-assisted content analysis and interpretation of relatively neglected qualitative data obtained from interviews and diaries, sixteen socio-psychological justifications for solo travel are empirically identified. From these responses, a taxonomy of non-institutionalised solitary travellers is inductively constructed. It consists of two basic types. First, there are those who travel alone because they simply have no available travel companion, referred to as "solitary travellers by default". Second, there are those individuals who deliberately travel on their own, and who are regarded as "solitary travellers by choice". The elaboration of such a distinction is the primary contribution made by this research to tourism knowledge. A secondary contribution is realised by confronting the data on solitary travellers and group tourists with the extant literature on tourist typologies - an exercise that raises a number of issues about the mythical status of the former. As a result, an alternative taxonomy is generated that consists of two distinct types of tourists - individualistic and collectivistic. The individualistic tourist is someone for whom internal personal values. (e.g., sense of accomplishment) are the most important principles in life, who has motives stemming from ego-enhancement (e.g., personal development), and for whom travel means the investment of personal cultural capital. The collectivistic tourist, on the other hand, is someone who assigns greater priority to external personal values (e.g., sense of belonging), whose motives originate in the anomic conditions of society, and for whom travel is little more than a short break from routine.

published_or_final_version / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The aim of this research is to explore how Öland could attract Chinese tourists to sustain its development. This study is conducted on the basis of group interviews among 20 respondents selected from Chinese tourists. This research reveals that learning and experiencing, building a social relationship and enjoying natural landscape are the major reason for Chinese tourists traveling abroad, among which, the main motivations for Chinese tourists visiting Öland is the attractive spot. The research finds that not many Chinese tourists have been to Öland before. However, among those who have been, they said that Borgholm Castle was the most attractive tourist spot. The major approaches for Chinese tourists accessing information of Öland are travel agencies, travel apps, TV shows, movies and the internet , whereas little marketing strategies such as advertising (in Chinese) and cooperating with local travel agencies has been utilized by the government. An analysis of the key motivations of Chinese tourist reveals one challenge in attracting Chinese tourists facing the government: Öland is not well recognized as a World Heritage among Chinese tourists compared to other popular travel destinations. The strength and weakness of Öland tourism indicates that Öland need to take more active marketing strategies to brand their tourism targeting Chinese tourists.

Thesis (B. Tech. (Tourism management))--Vaal University of Technology. / In recent years there has been a considerable interest in the cultural aspect of tourism (Reisinger & Turner 2003:1 ). Culture in its various forms and dimensions has a significant impact on tourism planning and development, management and marketing. Unfortunately literature that examines the impact of culture on tourism concentrates mostly on expressions of material forms of culture such as the arts, music, architecture or crafts. Research regarding the variables of national cultures such as values, perceptions, rules of behaviour and satisfaction has been neglected. The importance of cultural variables for tourist holiday experiences is important and affects satisfaction and consequently repeat visitation. Thus the cultural variables which influence the quality of the interpersonal interaction between tourists and hosts, can significantly add to tourist holiday experiences and satisfaction. The past few years has witnessed a dramatic change in the composition and nature of domestic tourism in South Africa (Futter & Wood 1997:1 ). Black tourists are emerging as the largest travelling group within South Africa and it is important to the tourism industry that cultural variables of this group be examined. Tourism has experienced a growing internationalization and considerable attention has been paid to the issue of cultural diversity as a result of this growth in international travel. Tourism is a service industry where people from all nationalities meet and the crossing of different cultures takes place. This cross-cultural interaction leads to socio-cultural impacts which affect both the tourist and the host community. By understanding the cultural characteristics of various travelling groups to and around South Africa, socio cultural impacts will be minimised and the benefits of tourism can be appreciated. The target group for this study was black tourists to Vanderbijlpark. This is a large domestic tourism group and understanding the cultural characteristics of this group will enable the tourism industry to better plan, develop and market specific tourism packages. Research for this study was undertaken at a jazz festival in Vereeniging. Field workers randomly interviewed respondents using a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of five sections, namely demographic particulars, personal values, rules of behaviour, perceptions and satisfaction. The data was analysed to provide information regarding the cultural characteristics of the black tourism market in Vanderbijlpark. Respondents were categorised using the demographic data, the culture sections of the questionnaire were analysed in order to give descriptive results of each of the cultural variables. Each variable was analysed to determine its importance to respondents, thus categorising respondents according to their cultural characteristics. A factor analysis was completed in order to synthesise the large amount of data and for each cultural variable smaller, more descriptive factors were identified and used to describe the black tourism market in Vanderbijlpark.