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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 39727

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Choong-Ki Lee

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Guest Editor

College of Hotel & Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea
Interests: sustainable tourism; contingent valuation method; corporate social responsibility; destination social responsibility

Dr. Sung-Eun Kang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Interests: event management; destination marketing; hospitality management; tourism development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is emerging as an important issue not only in tourism but also in other fields. Following the proposal of sustainable tourism development as a major agenda in the field of tourism, various concepts were recently proposed for its realization. For example, destination social responsibility has been proposed for sustainable tourism development, along with prosocial behavior and sustainable intelligence related to tourist behavior. In addition, non-pharmaceutical intervention activities and travel bubble were proposed as sustainable tourism activities during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this Special Issue is to present a new theoretical framework or model for these various sustainability-related concepts through collaborations. These studies will theoretically contribute not only to new academic development but also in providing practical implications for the tourism industry. For this Special Issue, we invite innovative papers that contribute to achieving sustainability in tourism. We welcome empirical research, case studies, cross-cultural studies, qualitative studies, and applications of the Q-method. Accounts of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research are encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Choong-Ki Lee
Dr. Sung-Eun Kang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

tourism
sustainability
tourist satisfaction
sustainable development
preservation value
pro-social behavior
destination social responsibility
sustainable intelligence

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 2631 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Customer-Oriented Strategic Planning for Hotel Competitiveness Improvement Based on Online Reviews

by Yuan Yuan, Tianhui You, Tian’ai Xu and Xun Yu

Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15299; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142215299 - 17 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1765

Abstract

The hotel industry has been facing fierce competition in recent years. It is important for hotels to conduct effective strategic planning for competitiveness improvement to achieve sustainable development. Prior studies on hotel strategic planning mainly use questionnaire data or hotel internal data, which have the problems of insufficient data or neglecting customer perspectives. The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated method for customer-oriented strategic planning for hotel competitiveness improvement based on text mining of online reviews. First, text mining of online reviews was conducted to extract customer-concerned service attributes and evaluate customer concern level and the performance of the service attributes through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and sentiment analysis. Second, the competitive structures of the hotels were analyzed and the main competitors were identified from the competitive hotels through correspondence analysis. Third, SWOT analysis of the target hotel toward the main competitors was conducted, and the priorities of factors in each SWOT category were determined. An empirical study on a five-star hotel is given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method can help managers in strategic planning to obtain more specific strategies for hotel competitiveness improvement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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14 pages, 532 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Tourism Industry Development Affects Residents’ Well-Being: An Empirical Study Based on CGSS and Provincial-Level Matched Data

by Chunmei Zhou, Liqi Tian and Yujun Shan

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12367; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141912367 - 28 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1409

Abstract

Happiness is not only for the pursuit of individuals but also the common goal of society as a whole. The tourism industry can promote social well-being by stimulating consumption, narrowing the income gap and improving infrastructure. However, overemphasizing the economic benefits of tourism industry development will produce a series of social problems, including environmental damage, forced consumption, and vicious price hikes. When the negative impact of industry development exceeds the positive impact of economic benefits, the happiness enhancement effect of tourism will decline significantly, resulting in the “well-being paradox” of tourism. Based on Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data and provincial-level matched data, this study finds that the development of China’s tourism industry has a negative impact on residents’ well-being; however, there is a masking effect that disguises the actual income gap among residents. Tourism industry development can reduce the negative effect on residents’ well-being by narrowing the income gap. At the same time, the empirical results show that gender can significantly moderate the masking effect and that this income gap effect impacts women less than men. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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18 pages, 4319 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tourism Sustainability Index: Measuring Tourism Sustainability Based on the ETIS Toolkit, by Exploring Tourist Satisfaction via Sentiment Analysis

by Damiano De Marchi, Rudy Becarelli and Leonardo Di Sarli

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8049; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14138049 - 01 Jul 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4472

Abstract

Interest in measuring the sustainability of tourism has been significantly advancing in recent years, together with the need to manage the impact of tourism on territories and hosting communities. This interest was further boosted by the pandemic, with sustainability being identified as one of the central elements in restarting global tourism. The European Tourism Indicator System (ETIS), developed by the European Commission, is a point of reference based on self-assessment, data collection, and analysis by tourist destinations themselves. The application of the ETIS toolkit has faced many challenges, especially at the subnational level, most of which are related to the lack of available and updated data to feed into the model. In this article, we explore the implementation issues, develop a synthetic indicator based on the use of the sentiment analysis technique to frame e-reputation and tourism satisfaction, and combine that analysis with other open data sources. The Tourism Sustainability Index (TSI) can provide a scalable and georeferenced evaluation of tourism sustainability, measured according the ETIS criteria and complementing them. The TSI, its pillars and sub-components are all applicable to any tourism destination. The results show that the TSI can be a consistent and valid tool for tourist destinations to use in analyzing sustainability, monitoring the evolution of sustainability through time periods and subareas, and comparing the findings with those of other benchmarks and/or other competitive areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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23 pages, 848 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Nature-Based Tourism Destination Attractiveness with a Fuzzy-AHP Approach

by Xiaoping Gu, Carter A. Hunt, Xiang Jia and Lijun Niu

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7584; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14137584 - 22 Jun 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3683

Abstract

Nature-based tourism attractiveness (NBTA) has yet to be assessed by coupling empirical measurement of supply and demand indicators with simultaneous assessment of tourist and tourism expert perspectives. Based on a guiding principle that the overall attractiveness of a tourism destination should combine the evaluation of existing resources or attractions and their perceived attractiveness, the purpose of this study is to develop and apply a novel methodological approach for assessing tourism attractiveness of nature-based destinations. This approach developed here combines an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with a Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method (FCEM). The resulting Fuzzy-AHP approach to NBTA was tested at the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve, a popular nature-based tourism destination in China. The findings confirm that this Fuzzy-AHP approach is a more reliable and comprehensive method for evaluating the destination attractiveness than pre-existing approaches. In addition to theoretical contributions related to the merging of various approaches to assessing destination attractiveness and the development of a tool specific to nature-based tourism destinations, this work will be of interest to decision makers seeking more effective tools for planning, marketing, and developing nature-based tourism destinations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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22 pages, 3321 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Spatial Relationship between Nighttime Light and Tourism Economy: Evidence from 31 Provinces in China

by Pengpeng Chang, Xueru Pang, Xiong He, Yiting Zhu and Chunshan Zhou

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7350; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127350 - 16 Jun 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2031

Abstract

Nighttime light (NTL) data have become increasingly practical and are now widely used in studies on urbanization, energy consumption, population estimation, socio-economic evaluation, etc. Based on NTL data and the basic tourism economy (TE) data from 31 provinces of China in 2019, this paper adopted a geographic concentration index, inconsistency index, spatial agglomeration coupling index, global and Local Moran’s index and geographical detector to explore the spatial relationship between NTL and TE. The results of the study were as follows. Firstly, there is a high spatial correlation between NTL and TE. Secondly, the concentration degree, as well as the concentrated distribution area of NTL and TE, are very similar, roughly showing a higher concentration in East and South-Central China. Thirdly, NTL and TE show a type of coordinated development in East and North China, and a TE surpassing NTL in Southwest and South-Central China. The spatial agglomeration coupling index is higher in North China, South-Central China and the coastal regions of East China, and relatively lower in Southwest and Northwest China. Furthermore, in the spatial agglomeration distribution of NTL and TE, there is an obvious high–high and low–low agglomeration. Finally, the geographical detector analysis showed that the driving factor of tourism economy level (TEL) also has a great influence on NTL. The spatial distribution of NTL and TE is integrated to reasonably allocate tourism resources for different areas and promote the sustainable development of NTL and TE among regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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14 pages, 1631 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hotel Service Analysis by Penalty-Reward Contrast Technique for Online Review Data

by Wen Tu Zhang, Il Young Choi, Yun Joo Hyun and Jae Kyeong Kim

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7340; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127340 - 15 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1613

Abstract

Hotel reviews play an important role in the selection of hotels by travelers. Online travel platforms (e.g., Tripadvisor, Expedia) provide multi-criteria (e.g., room, service, location, sleep quality, etc.) ratings to make it easier for travelers to choose a hotel from reviews. Through penalty-reward contrast analysis (PRCA), this study aims to explore the asymmetric effects of attribute performance (Value, Cleanliness, Location, Rooms, Service, and Sleep Quality) on customer satisfaction with different geographic and cultural backgrounds using review data from hotels in Shanghai, Seoul, and New York. This study compares the asymmetric effects of attribute performance on customer satisfaction of hotels in different cities. At the same time, this study compares the asymmetric effects of attribute performance on customer satisfaction of reviews that are written in English and reviews that are written in the domestic language of hotels in the same city. The findings of this study help hotel managers serve customers from different cultural backgrounds and improve hotel services by identifying the criteria that affect customer satisfaction. As a result, it will be possible to improve the service and profitability of the hotel. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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18 pages, 809 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Employee Satisfaction, Talent Management Practices and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Northern Cyprus Hotel Industry

by Ibrahim Almahdi Jibril and Mehmet Yeşiltaş

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7082; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127082 - 09 Jun 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4813

Abstract

In this study, we have examined talent management practices’ impact on achieving sustainable competitive advantage in five-star hotels located in the TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) as well as the mediating effect of employee satisfaction. After the questionnaire was tested for validity and reliability, we used bootstrapping, Mplus and SPSS to conduct an analysis using data from 368 employees from 14 five-star hotels located in North Cyprus. The study’s hypotheses were verified through SEM (structural equation modelling). Our results revealed that talent development practices had no effect on the hotels’ SCA, whereas talent practices (identify, engage, manage performance and retain) had a significant and beneficial influence on the hotels’ SCA. Although in most hotels, talent management practices are the responsibility of the human resource management. The measured constructs specifically were employee responses. The findings of this study provide benefits for numerous stakeholders, including hotel and hospitality service industries and the government. Results can be used as a guideline for building more appealing workplaces for employees and to inform the management on how to encourage employees to be committed to a sustainable service in the hotel business. To acquire a better grasp of the organisational limits of talent management policies, it is crucial to further examine the perspectives of employers who may include hotel owners or top managers. Furthermore, future research may expand the sample and include three- and four-star hotels as well. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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18 pages, 4153 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Customer Experience and Satisfaction of Casino Hotels in Busan through Online User-Generated Content

by Wei Fu, Shengnan Wei, Jue Wang and Hak-Seon Kim

Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 5846; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14105846 - 11 May 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3917

Abstract

Casinos contribute huge sums of tax revenues to local government, and influence the local economy greatly. Customer satisfaction of casino hotels is a key factor that affects overnight customers, when evaluating the casino as a whole. To find out the determinants of customer satisfaction, along with the relationship between the key factors, this study is based on 2897 reviews, focusing on casino hotels in the Busan area, and performs a series analysis. First, text mining techniques are utilized, in order to elucidate which words were mentioned most often in online reviews. Furthermore, the semantic network method as well as factor and regression analysis were conducted. According to the findings, the top 70 ranked keywords are grouped into four clusters: “Entertainment”, “Service”, “Facilities”, and “Atmosphere”. The results of exploratory factor analysis are grouped in five factors: “Location”, “Outdoor Facilities”, ”Indoor Facilities”, “Services”, and “Entertainment”. Within these five factors, “Location” and “Outdoor Facilities” showed significantly positive impact on customer satisfaction, while “Indoor Facilities” and “Entertainment” have a significant negative influence on customer satisfaction. As a result of these findings, theoretical suggestions and practical recommendations have been made, for helping to launch the future marketing strategies of Busan casino hotels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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21 pages, 1569 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tracing the Impact Pathways of COVID-19 on Tourism and Developing Strategies for Resilience and Adaptation in Iran

by Parvaneh Sobhani, Hadi Veisi, Hassan Esmaeilzadeh, Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi, Marina Viorela Marcu and Isabelle D. Wolf

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5508; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095508 - 04 May 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2088

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic has caused unprecedented impacts on the travel and tourism industry. The current study traced the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism in Iran using an “Impact Pathway (IP)” approach to identify impacts and possible mitigation strategies. The results illustrate two main impact pathways: negative impacts along the economic-institutional and socio-cultural dimensions, and positive impacts along the physical-environmental dimension. Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and ANP (analytic network process) models, we identified defensive and review strategies as optimal for increasing resilience against the impacts of COVID-19. These strategies control the threats and weaknesses of negative impacts and enhance the opportunities and strengths emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic for tourism. We use this information to identify optimal strategies for dealing with the impacts of this crisis on tourism. Most prominently among them is the development of an integrated management system that improves the coordination of the response of local government to crisis and that better orchestrates the combined efforts and integration of non-governmental organizations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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17 pages, 960 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tourism Using Virtual Reality: Media Richness and Information System Successes

by Un-Kon Lee

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3975; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073975 - 28 Mar 2022

Cited by 36 | Viewed by 6234

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, borders were closed, cities were blocked, and individuals went into quarantine. The market size of the tourism industry in 2020 declined by more than 70% compared to the previous year, regressing to the size it was 30 years ago. This does not mean that people’s needs for tourism have decreased. People started to use virtual reality technologies to get the experience of sightseeing even if they could not go directly to tourist attractions. Prior studies found that virtual reality technology is effective for online shopping and gaming contexts. However, there are insufficient studies investigating the effect of using virtual reality for tourism content. Therefore, this study attempts to verify how the media richness of virtual reality tourism content elicits various reactions from potential tourists in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, destination visit intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention. The purpose of this study is to verify how virtual reality tourism content increases the destination visit intention after the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on media richness theory and the information system success model, a hypothesis was developed. One hundred and eighty-two data were gathered from potential tourists who were in quarantine by performing an online scenario survey that used quasi-experiment methods. Data were analyzed with a PLS algorithm. The results indicate that media richness of tourism content using virtual reality significantly increased perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. It could significantly increase satisfaction, destination visit intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention. The results of this study explain how information technology can be used in the tourism industry, and they provide suggestions on why tourism content using virtual reality can be useful for attracting tourists, and what experiences it can provide tourists. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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15 pages, 273 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Who Walks the Walk and Talks the Talk? Understanding What Influences Sustainability Behaviour in Business and Leisure Travellers

by Rachel Dodds and Mark Robert Holmes

Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 883; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14020883 - 13 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1914

Abstract

While there is considerable research into what drives tourists to travel sustainably, little has been done to examine business travellers and how they differ from leisure travellers. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by looking to understand these differences and what drives them. Specifically, this paper looked to understand the influence that demographics, travel characteristics, and everyday behaviour (pro-ecological actions, frugal consumption patterns, and altruistic behaviours) have on sustainable travel behaviour, and if these influences held true for both business and leisure travellers. To facilitate this investigation, a quantitative study of 869 Canadian travellers in March of 2020 was undertaken. This research found that demographics and travel characteristics to contribute to the prediction of sustainable travel behaviour, but the greatest prediction power came from everyday behaviour. Beyond confirming that everyday behaviour is still the greatest indicator of sustainable travel domestically or abroad, this research found that this influence does not change whether the travel is for business or leisure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

17 pages, 613 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of CSR on Organizational Behavior during a Pandemic: Highlighting Public Health and Safety in the Airline Industry

by Sung-Eun Kang, Choong-Ki Lee, Young-Joo Moon, Yae-Na Park and Courtney Suess

Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9704; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13179704 - 30 Aug 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3986

Abstract

This study expands Carroll’s CSR typology with the public health and safety dimension to examine how the airline industry’s CSR and public health and safety activities influence flight attendants’ organizational identification, self-esteem, and commitment to the company during COVID-19. A total of 342 South Korean flight attendants participated in online surveys. Based on social identity theory and using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study reveals that ethical-, economic-, and philanthropic-CSR and public health and safety are positively related to organizational identification and that all are linked to the self-esteem and organizational commitment of flight attendants. However, legal-CSR did not affect their organizational identification. The results suggest that “public health and safety” should be applied when initiatives aim to enhance flight attendants’ organizational behavior. The study’s findings contribute to the literature by extending the original CSR model and providing theoretical and practical implications for academic researchers and airlines during a pandemic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Satisfaction)

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