In a study seeking to understand destination choice, focus group participants consisting of travellers, mentioned the importance of ‘bragging rights’. Additionally, tourism marketers when interviewed about destination choice also referred to bragging rights. An online search of ‘travel’, ‘tourism’ and ‘bragging rights’ revealed thousands of links. Despite this, bragging rights has received limited attention in tourism research. This paper defines bragging rights, discusses its relevance to tourism and proposes a conceptual model suggesting how bragging rights can be managed by destination marketers to enhance destination image and consequently increase visitation.

In the past two decades, there have been 76 published articles that have segmented tourist samples into clusters (Jackson, Inbakaran, & Schmierer, 2003). The principal aims of such research are to better understand tourist characteristics, to identify key variables that predict tourist behaviours, to assess the value of tourism to an area, to provide knowledge to help develop facilities in designated areas, and to allow tourism marketing to plan strategies such as promotion and product development. In contrast, researchers have appeared to assume that the host population is homogeneous and has a uniform response to an increase in tourist numbers and to future sustainable tourism within the community. This research study used a cluster analysis to segment the host community into four cluster groups. Demographic variables constituted the cluster base. These four cluster groups differed from each other on gender ratio, age, life cycle stage, education, migration status, occupation and current involvement with tourism. A further analysis demonstrated that these cluster groups significantly differed from each other in terms of both attitude towards current tourist numbers and future tourism development. The results of this study are discussed in terms of exploring the underlying causes of both positive and negative attitudes of hosts toward tourism. This research highlights differing attitudes present in various community groups and explores implications for the tourist industry.

Interest in all aspects of health and wellness tourism has been growing in every part of the world. Businesses have responded with aggressive growth in the quantity and diversity of supply offered, especially in North America. Yet few countries have systematically assessed their supply and linked it to the changes in motivation and behaviour towards spas, health and wellness in their own population. This article brings together a number of secondary sources as well as research conducted by the author with the leading spa association in Ontario, Canada, in an effort to present an overview of the characteristics of the supply of and demand for spa, and the forces that continue to shape both aspects in that country.

A thorough understanding of tourists' concerns about traditional foods and the factors that influence this understanding are necessary for the promotion and development of successful food tourism in Ghana. The data about tourists' concerns on traditional foods in Ghana were obtained from a random sample of 675 outbound international tourists at the departure lounge of the Kotoka International Airport between February and March, 2010. Sanitation emerged as the major gray area of attitudes to Ghana's traditional foods with the concerns being more expressed among elderly, women, and Muslim tourists. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Food and Drugs Board and the Ghana Tourist Board, the two agencies charged with the responsibility of regulating and controlling standards in the food industry, be well resourced to perform their expected roles effectively.

This paper estimates the potential economic effects on the Australian tourism industry from the introduction of an economy wide carbon tax to be introduced in July 2012. The manner in which the tax is expected to work is examined together with a discussion of some concerns that have been raised by the tourism industry regarding its impacts on Australia's destination competitiveness, industry profitability and employment. Dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling projects that the tax will lead to changes in key macroeconomic variables, reducing growth in real GDP, real consumption and employment. The simulation results also indicate that while some tourism industries in Australia will gain from the tax, most will experience contractions in output relative to baseline values in line with a general shrinkage of the tourism sector as a whole. In the light of the modelling simulations, the paper concludes with an assessment of the validity of the main stakeholder concerns regarding the implications of the tax for the Australian tourism industry.

This article investigates how in-flight service, reservation and ticketing, airport service, reliability, employee service, flight availability, passenger satisfaction, pricing (value), and airline image determine passengers' future behavioural intentions. For this testing, structural equation modelling was applied to data collected from Australian domestic air passengers. It was found that there were significant relationships between the variables, except in four paths. In-flight service and employee service were found as significant drivers of passenger satisfaction, which was directly related to pricing (value), airline image, and passengers' future behavioural intentions.

This article considers the impact of the new generation of employees entering the hospitality workforce and the changes in management paradigms that will be required to successfully recruit, select, train and motivate Generation Y (Gen Y) to achieve the goals of the organisation, given the strategic importance of human resource management in creating competitive and sustainable service organizations. This article also analyses the current state of thinking on Gen Y's work-related values, attitudes and behaviours and reviews the research that has been conducted to date on Gen Y in the workplace. A discussion is provided on how these values and attitudes will potentially interact with prevailing hospitality management paradigms, before presenting a research framework that depicts the potential relationships between the key variables and identified themes. Following this, six propositions are presented regarding Gen Y's work-related values and attitudes in relation to hospitality employment. The article concludes with an outline of the intended direction for future research.

This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that investigates whether customer orientation acts as a mediator of the relationship between job resourcefulness and hotel employee outcomes. The results from a survey of 145 frontline hotel employees in Iran suggest that customer orientation has a full mediating role in the relationship between job resourcefulness and role-prescribed customer service. Contrary to the hypothesised relationships, there is no empirical support for customer orientation as a mediator of the impact of job resourcefulness on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

This article examines ‘encounters’, or interactions between tourists. The focus is on how social life is established and maintained, specifically the meaning of inter-tourist social interactions in the remote regions of Australia. The ways in which perceptions of the landscape frame these interactions are also considered. The meaning and significance of these interactions was found to be filtered through the prism of the tourists' occupation of a physically demanding, sometimes threatening and culturally unfamiliar landscape. Because of the rigours of the travel environment, tourists were keen to be in the company of others, but in encounters or relationships free of the obligation of ongoing attachment, without specific function, content or outcome. Their interactions with other tourists and the local populations enriched their understanding of the social and physical environment. Those interactions offered comfort and companionship in what they perceived to be a hostile and alien environment.

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in initial status and growth trajectories of college students who did and did not participate in a voluntourism experience. A key objective of the study was to explore the backgrounds of the participants, comparing them to similar nonvoluntourists, to better understand what compelled them to spend their spring break engaged in community service in a distant location. The participants were 617 students at a university in the Midwestern United States, half of whom participated in a voluntour. Voluntourists reported higher levels of yearly civic engagement, civic attitude, openness, compassion, cognitive drive and reflectivity. The developmental disparities evident before the tour continued to grow over the course of five weeks. Implications for marketing, program design and education are discussed within the context of the burgeoning voluntourism industry.

This article addresses the concept of employee–customer linkage research and proposes the addition of social identity theory as an important consideration in managing employee–customer interactions and customer satisfaction. Following the creation of a conceptual model, this study used an employee questionnaire based on the incorporation of service climate (SERV*OR) and employee identification factors. A total of 314 individual surveys were collected from four hotels in Australia. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine the effects that demographic factors, service climate and different levels of employee identification would have on predictions of customer satisfaction. Service climate factors most closely linked to customer-centric organisational practices were the significant predictors of customer satisfaction perceptions, as was employee identification at the superordinate (company) level. The framework proposed and the findings of this study provide management with useful information about the important role of service climate and the way in which managers can capitalise on employee identification to enhance organisational practices.

Cruise tourism is undoubtedly a high growth segment of the tourism industry, averaging an annual passenger growth of 7.4% since 1990. Behind this growth is a significant shift in the profile of the cruise passenger. What used to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience reserved for an older generation, now attracts repeat passengers, with as high as 85% having cruised before. Remarkably, the average age of cruisers has dropped from 65 years in the early 1970s, to 46 years in 2008, calling for a deeper understanding of the new generations of cruisers.

The notion of the student experience has risen in prominence in response to changing student cohorts, reforms to the higher education system and broader societal and technological trends. Indeed, contemporary notions of the student experience extend well beyond the traditional focus on curriculum, assessment and pedagogy to include the extracurricular activities of students and how universities respond to help students manage their external commitments. Yet, while the term is frequently used, definitions remain elusive. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to deconstruct the student experience by considering the various factors that influence the experience of students in the higher education system. Based on a review of the wide-ranging literature in the field, this article presents a conceptual framework of dimensions that impact on the student experience. The identified dimensions include: institutional factors, student factors, sectoral factors and external factors, each encapsulating a variety of dimensions. The objective of the article is to provide educators in tourism, hospitality and related fields with a contemporary understanding of the key debates and themes related to the student experience in the higher education field.

Located on the east coast of Australia, Byron Bay is well recognised as a popular tourism and wellness destination that offers an eclectic mix of ‘alternate’ services and businesses that provide health and wellbeing experiences including alternative ‘new-age’ shops, ‘spiritual’ services such as meditation and yoga classes, alternative medicine and holistic healing centres. This article traces the development of wellness tourism products and experiences in the destination and explores the implicit link to wellness and spiritual values that underpin the local community. This case study research forms part of a Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre project undertaken in 2009 that investigates the demand and supply of wellness and medical tourism in Australia. A key outcome of this research was to identify factors that have contributed to establishing Byron Bay as an ‘alternate’ wellness tourism destination for domestic and international visitors. In addition, barriers and opportunities for further development in health and well tourism are identified.

This article examines the relationships between heritage tourism and shopping. It considers two towns — Castlemaine and Maldon — which were established in the Australian Gold Rushes of the 1850s. Both towns feature relatively intact 19th century streetscapes and mining areas. They are also vibrant tourist shopping areas, including restaurants, cafes, antiques shops, galleries and craft shops. Drawing on evidence from a 2-year study of visitors, it is argued the combination of shopping and heritage is attractive to tourists and that many tourists engage in both. Furthermore, it is argued that while heritage attracts visitors, the economic benefits are captured by restaurants, cafes and shops.

There have been numerous studies on employee motivation and satisfaction in the hospitality industry but there appears to be a lack of research regarding employment on cruise ships. Cruise ship employees are expected to provide high-quality services that could influence the quality of the tourist experience and the competitiveness of the organisation. Therefore, the level of employee motivation is a critical success factor for this industry. This research aims to contribute to this relatively under-researched area by evaluating the motivational factors for customer-facing service employees on cruise ships. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 past and present employees from various cruise ships. The data gathered were analysed using template analysis. The study revealed employees were mainly motivated to work for the money saving opportunities, the desire to travel and meet new people, as well as learning aspirations and the attractive lifestyle the employment offered. The study has found that the unique environment of working is important on cruise ships and has been worthy of close attention due to its influences on employee motivation.

Hospitality management degree programs have changed significantly since they were first introduced in Australia over 30 years ago. This article reviews the development of these undergraduate degree programs in hospitality using a combined macro and micro approach. First, at the national level, this study reviews the provision of degrees in hospitality, identifying the macro-level changes that have occurred in the hospitality program landscape since the mid 1970s. Second, at the program level, this study analyses the evolution of one of the longest running hospitality management programs, offered by The University of Queensland. This review identifies the underlying reasons for micro-level hospitality program changes in Australia, and relates these changes to the broader context of higher education evolution, hospitality industry development, and student expectations.

The objective of this study was to contribute to the understanding of small tourism businesses (STBs) through an analysis of selected aspects in an urban setting, namely Akçakoca, Turkey. Particular attention was given to the characteristics of businesses, finance, marketing, human resource management, involvement of residents in the industry and management of STBs. The study employed a comparative research methodology using a survey instrument similar to those used by Thomas et al. (1997) for a study of tourism and small business development in the United Kingdom in 1996, and by Page et al. (1999) for a similar study in New Zealand in 1997. A sample of 87 businesses in Akçakoca was examined and their role in tourism evaluated. The findings of this study reveal that STBs carry significant deficiencies and inadequacies and face a common set of problems. The contribution to comparative research methodologies to tourism studies was also considered.

The purpose of this study was to investigate job resourcefulness as a moderator of the effects of work–family conflict and family–work conflict on job satisfaction. Data were collected from a sample of frontline hotel employees in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was employed to test the aforementioned relationships. Results demonstrated that the detrimental impacts of work–family conflict and family–work conflict on job satisfaction were weaker among frontline employees with higher job resourcefulness. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are offered.

The rapid growth of China's outbound tourism market has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the academic literature is still sparse in this area. Using a theoretical framework that synthesises the key processes related to destination choice, the authors undertake a systematic review of the academic literature on outbound tourism from China. Stemming from this review, the article provides some direction for future empirical research on this important topic. The authors also suggest that a new model for travel planning could be developed, suggesting that traditional destination choice models may inadequately capture the nuances of destination choice in the Chinese context.