Cultural heritage tourism is still the growing segment of tourism industry. Moreover, many tourists prefer exploring something new, cultural heritage tourism (CHT) has become one of the major "new" segments of tourism demand. Therefore, it is true that cultural heritage tourism has been one of the major sources of both quantitative and qualitative growth of tourism industry in many countries. In regard to the context of cultural heritage tourism industry, by identifying the relationship and impacts between tourist motivations, tourist satisfaction, and overall sense of tourist well-being, tourism marketers and administrators who are engaged in cultural heritage tourism can improve strategies for creating tourist's distinctive experiences, allowing tourists to become more physically and emotionally engaged in cultural heritage tourism destinations. However, there is, if any, very limited work that explores the link between cultural heritage tourism experiences and overall sense of tourist well-being induced by these experiences. Therefore, this study examines what attributes on tourist motivation contribute to the overall sense of well-being of tourists who visit cultural heritage tourism destinations. Therefore, this study examines what attributes on tourist motivations contribute to the satisfaction and the overall sense of well-being of tourists who visit cultural heritage tourism sites. An online survey using panel data from a marketing research company was used to collect 350 completed questionnaires. Tourist motivations (HONs and LONs), tourist satisfaction, and overall sense of tourist well-being were measured using different scales from previous researches discussed in the literature review. This study conducted various analyses including a profile of 350 respondents based on descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis of tourist motivations, correlation analysis of all constructs, and path analysis for the conceptual study model to understand the relationships between tourist motivations and tourist satisfaction, tourist motivations and overall sense of tourist well-being, and tourist satisfaction and overall sense of tourist well-being and identify impacts of each construct on the study model. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge in understanding the link between cultural heritage tourism and overall sense of tourist well-being and identifying the perceived value and critical role of tourist motivations and tourist satisfaction connecting to overall sense of tourist well-being by establishing a theory based on empirical link between tourist motivations and overall sense of tourist well-being via tourist satisfaction in the context of cultural heritage tourism business. / Master of Science

With all the developments in the world today, medical tourism is becoming increasingly more popular. People have discovered that there is a chance to seek medical care elsewhere than in their country of residence, often at a lower price than in that country. The fact is that people are able to travel easily between countries for that purpose nowadays, and people have started to travel for various medical treatments. Dental tourism is a phenomenon that has been growing rapidly along with medical tourism in general. The reasons why people go abroad for dental treatments are various but, in most cases, the fact is that it is possible for them to have a treatment in a country where the costs are lower than in their country of residence. It has been argued whether going abroad is really worth it even with the lower prices at the dental tourism destination and with that said it is interesting to see how the dental tourists’ experience culminates. This research’s aim is to explore how satisfied Icelandic dental tourists are with their dental experience and what effect the dental experience has on other factors of the travel and, the travel experience. This research uses a qualitative research approach where semistructured interviews were conducted in person, through a phone call and through Zoom. The participants for the research are 11 total and they were found using the convenient sampling method and they all volunteered to participate in the research. The results were not identical, but overall, the participants were satisfied with their dental experience and all of the participants were satisfied with their tourism experience. The negative dental experiences were mostly with the after-treatment stage where some participants were experiencing problems with their dental treatment. The participants that traveled to the destination in company of their family all agreed that it made the experience for them more positive to have their family as support. The participants that traveled alone had different perspectives on whether having someone to support them would have made any difference on their experience. Only one participant was not able to say that they would recommend doing dental tourism to others. All of the participants would visit the dental tourism destination again, it did not matter whether the participant had a negative experience with the dental treatment received or a positive one.

The aim of the thesis is to summarize and valorize the offer of tourism products in the region Zlín. The introductory part of the thesis judges the tourism of the region as a whole. It describes the statistical data of the tourism, the main projects of the tourism and the main tourist attractions of the region. The main part of the thesis consists of the analysis of the tourist offer. Tourist attractions and products of tourism are described separately for each tourist area and they are divided into different categories. Accommodation and additional services are rated as well. The conclusion of the thesis includes the comparison of the areas, SWAT analysis of the region as a whole and a draft of new tourism products.

The principal purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationships between film genres and the decision-making process of the tourist. Within the tourism industry, the specific type of tourism-Film Tourism-has recently been recognised and approached in several research projects and case-studies. As a result of these efforts, the researchers agree that, in certain conditions, a film may influence the decision of the viewer to travel to the destination that such film portrays. However, due to the recent recognition of this type of tourism and consequent low number of explanatory research in this area, there is an evident lack of understanding about the underlying reasons why films may have such a stimulating effect on tourist decisions. To develop deeper understanding of this newly emerged type of tourism, it is vital to research different elements of the film and their possible effects on tourism-related decisions of the viewer. This pioneering study focuses on the previously neglected “genre” element of the film and the role of this element in the overall influence of the film on the tourist’s decision making process. Accordingly, an extensive survey (n=241) was conducted, implemented via the Internet and to randomly selected Exeter residents. The survey was followed by a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews (n=10) of randomly selected respondents from Exeter. The results suggest that film genres may affect the motivational factors, such as Exciting and Achievement (Yoon and Uysal, 2005). Moreover, emotions are an important factor in the decisions of Film Tourists (Kim, 2012), and films of specific genres may infuse destination with such emotions, alter the destination image and create an interest in the destination. The major contribution of this study is the discovery that the effect of film genres on the Film Tourist is but a small subconscious part of the overall film influence, which encompasses a wider range of elements such as visual beauty, plot, actors, credibility and the atmosphere. Moreover, it would appear that, for most tourists, film is an additional and not a primary factor which creates a wish to travel. The visual portrayal of the destination is the key element which determines whether the film will affect the decision of the viewer to travel, but the genres of the film may allow the prediction of tourist type and possible travel behaviour.

Published Article / Globally, tourism is increasingly referred to as the world's biggest industry. As tourism increases, so does consumer demand for quality. Superior customer service may be viewed as one of the most effective strategies for tourism destinations to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. The primary goals of this article are to:•Describe the current satisfaction levels of international and domestic tourists to the Sol Plaatje Municipal Area in terms of service quality; •Describe the perceptions and experiences of role-players in the local tourism industry regarding service excellence; and •Make recommendations to improve service quality in the Sol Plaatje area where applicable. The findings of this study revealed the following:•Although the majority of tourists (83.4% of domestic and 93.8% of international tourists) were generally satisfied with the service they received, there are specific areas requiring urgent attention for service levels to improve. •A large number of local role-players (50%+) representing the tourism industry in the region believe that service delivery must improve substantially within accommodation establishments, the transportation sector, restaurants (including coffee shops) and tourist attractions. The major contribution of the research study lies in the fact that the findings and recommendations will be beneficial to tourism stakeholders in their efforts to provide tourists with the best holiday and/or business experience at their respective tourist destinations.

Tourism mitigation is a contentious issue that requires a multifaceted approach to effectively achieve. The need to reduce personal traveling expenditure in order to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions caused by tourism has not suitably been infiltrated within the public consciousness. Furthermore, those travellers who have been exposed to the reality that greenhouse gas emissions from tourism has often disregard that information and continue with their behaviour regardless.  This thesis aimed to investigate the reasons why those who travel the most in society, the hypermobile, choses to travel as much as they do and how this demand for travel could be curbed. It focused on three forms of tourism mitigation; government regulations, increases to the price of air travel and social marketing. The study was conducted with 10 individuals who self-identify as being highly mobile (more than 3 international return trips per year). The results showed that those who no single method of tourism mitigation would be effective in the goal of limiting highly mobile behavioural tendencies. A mixture of all three methods would be required in reaching the goal of lowering the levels of distance air travel consumption.

Based on the survey of Taiwan’s international tourist hotels during 1997 to 2001, this study applies stochastic frontier approach incorporating inefficiency effects to estimate cost inefficiency of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Two hypotheses of no inefficiency and no inefficiency effects are rejected by using likelihood-ratio test. These outcomes indicate that the model and assumptions set up in this study are statistically more appropriate. The empirical evidence shows that the average cost inefficiency score during 1997 to 2001 is 1.1468 which suggests that actual cost expenditure is approximately 1.1468 times of minimum cost with fixed outputs. In empirical findings between inefficiency effects and cost inefficiencies, the factors such as diversification of services, competitive circumstances, various types of travelers, belonging to a international hotel chain, and located in the scenic area would improve cost efficiencies of international tourist hotels. However, it would worsen cost efficiencies for international tourist hotels to setting up a branch or branches.

On pourrait dire que le projet de cette thèse consiste à comprendre l’articulation dans l’espace, du tourisme et de la communication dans des situations qui mettent en tension un sujet individuel, dévoilant toute la singularité de son désir dans des récits ou des pratiques et des acteurs collectifs engagés dans les politiques touristiques, les médias et les institutions du tourisme.Notre réflexion s’organise ainsi en suivant les modalités de l’articulation entre ces dimensions réelle, symbolique et imaginaire du tourisme. Dans le champ des SIC et particulièrement grâce à des modèles permettant de formaliser la médiation touristique, notre approche conceptuelle permet d’appréhender les significations du tourisme. Nous modéliserons les composantes, les liens et interrelations de la médiation touristique pour proposer une approche théorique de ce que l’on peut appeler la signification touristique de l’espace.En premier lieu, nous abordons les définitions, un état de la recherche en tourisme et le lexique du tourisme par l’étymologie et l’analyse lexicale des termes les plus fréquents : « tour », « tourisme », « touriste », « loisir », « villégiature », « vacances » et « voyage ».En second lieu, nous proposons de poser les bases du champ de la médiation touristique et de montrer que la pratique sociale du tourisme est une médiation. Nous présenterons, commenterons et analyserons, en nous fondant sur un schéma de la médiation touristique, les différentes relations de communication en jeu dans la médiation touristique. Puis nous présenterons les structures de la médiation touristique pour fonder « une théorie critique » de la médiation touristique.Par la suite, nous approfondirons le concept en présentant les opérateurs, les acteurs et les politiques de l’organisation du tourisme, en nous fondant sur l’analyse d’exemples et d’études concernant principalement la médiation et les médiateurs dans le cas de la France pour comprendre comment pratiques et scènes de tourisme s’organisent. Par la suite, nous décrirons et analyserons le système d’information touristique en deux points. Le premier concerne l’énonciation de l’espace produit par le touriste, les touristes et les médiateurs du tourisme (énonciation de la parole du guide par exemple) au travers des récits pluri et multimédias. L’autre concerne la mise en œuvre des stratégies par les destinateurs (opérateurs et acteurs de l’organisation du tourisme privés et publics) au travers des médias du tourisme (généralistes, spécifiques du tourisme et guide touristiques). Un travail d’analyse de discours porte sur des exemples de documents textuels et/ou iconiques des guides touristiques et des labels touristiques. / It may be said that this thesis aims at understanding the spatial articulation between tourism and communication in such situations as those in which an individual subject – expressing the whole peculiarity of his or her desire through telling or practices – and collective actors are brought together.My reflection thus organises itself in accordance with the modalities of the articulation between the three dimensions of tourism: the practical dimension, the symbolic dimension and the imaginary dimension.Tourist activity consists in travelling and in visiting a site, a place or a destination; tourist mediation means the range of activities that are organised around tourism or those that are associated to it. Tourist mediation concerns the agents and the practices in the field of tourism. In this context, I wish to show that tourist mediation structures the perceptions, the interpretations and the practises of space.I address the definitions; give an overview of academic research on tourism and address the notions of tourism through the etymology of its main words (tour, tourism, and tourist) and through the differences that exist between tourism and other notions similar to it such as leisure, vacations, holiday and travelling. These notions are necessary to the comprehending of tourist mediation.I intend to lay the foundations of the field of tourist mediation and to demonstrate that the social practise of tourism is a form of mediation. I will present the tourist objects that structure the tourist practises of space. The structures of tourist mediation will then be laid; this will enable me to craft a “critical theory” of tourist mediation. With a view to understanding how the practises and the scenes of tourism organise, I will subsequently widen the concept by presenting the operators, the agents and the policies of the tourist organisation; the examples and the studies of the latter are mainly concerned with mediation and mediators in the case of France. I situate tourist mediation in relation to the experience of otherness and to the relationship to the others, to wanderlust, to the tourist imagination and to cultural imagination too. I then describe and give a two-point analysis of the tourist information system. The first point is concerned with the enunciation of space produced by the tourist, the tourists and by the tourist mediators (the enunciation of the guide’s discourse for instance) through various multimedia telling. The second point is concerned with the enunciation, through the tourist media (non-specialised or tourism media, tourist guides), by the speakers (e.g. operators and private or public agents of the tourist organisation) of the communication strategies and of the tourist descriptive signing. This discourse analysis relates to examples of textual and/or iconic documents.

Magister Artium - MA / My research considers the vessels of select women ceramists in and from rural KwaZulu-Natal and reflects on the changing contexts in which their work is utilized, consumed and displayed. The emphasis of my research is on the significance of ceramics in cultural practices and how this has changed or been maintained due to altered social and political circumstances and the changing dynamics of research. Additionally, when ceramic vessels are purchased by tourists, collectors and patrons they are subjected to a range of dialogues between maker and buyer. Finally, vessels may be selected to be displayed in exhibitions or held in collections of museums and galleries; once again, then they will be spoken about and they will speak to us on different terms. Each one of these movements in the life of a pot is reflected in the artist’s consideration of form, pattern, balance, shape, colour and symmetry of the vessels. Similarly, each one of these steps in the process engages with a different type of audience in a dynamic and significant way. I investigate how the authors of these vessels become involved in and negotiate a dialogue between themselves, their work and an exterior context that always projects its own voice about the artists and their work.

<p>Denna studie undersöker frågan om vem som anses vara turisten, d v s, vem turist subjektet är, hur denna föreställs i turismstudier och turismnäringen, samt varför. Intresse för denna fråga väcktes av personliga erfarenheter. Det har att göra med hur jag inte fick samma uppmärksamhet som andra svenska turister både när jag turistade i mitt eget land (Turkiet) och även när jag turistade i Sverige handlar om varför jag inte ansågs vara turist och behandlades annorlunda. Varför och vad är de bakomliggande aspekter som urskiljer mig från svenskar (västerlänningar) som turist subjekt? Det är detta som föranledde huvudfrågan för denna uppsats: vem är eller anses vara en turist?</p><p>Ytterligare en anledning till varför jag valde att undersöka frågan är att jag ville veta huruvida “invandrare” i Värmland uppfattas som turist subjekt eller inte. Råder samma föreställning om turist subjektet även i Värmland? I anknytning till denna fundering ställde jag också frågor till ”invandrare” i Värmland om de ser sig själva som turister eller inte och vilka faktorer som påverkar det. Vidare ville jag också undersöka huruvida föreställningen om turist subjektet färgar vilka som anses vara målgrupper inom turismnäringen i Värmland, samt hur kommer detta till uttryck i bland annat broschyrer, planeringsdokument och destinationsutveckling av turistorter. Arbetets tonvikt kommer att läggas på vem eller vilka anses vara turister och vem eller vilka som turistar i Värmland.</p>