Almatourism - Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development
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A Structural Equation Modelling for CRM Development in rural Tourism in the Catalan Pyrenees
Get PDFThis paper investigates the interrelationships between customer relationship management development in rural tourism, information and communication technologies level in the territory, perceived economic impacts and rural tourism development. A total of 76 respondents completed a survey conducted in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains in order to examine the structural effects of these impact factors. The results reveal that the support for customer relationship management development in rural tourism shown by rural tourism workers mainly depends on the level of development of information and communication technologies. A confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling procedure were performed, respectively, using the AMOS software. Este artículo investiga las relaciones existentes entre el desarrollo de la gestión de relaciones de clientes (CRM) en el turismo rural, el nivel de uso de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) en dicho territorio, los impactos económicos percibidos por el uso del CRM y el propio desarrollo del turismo rural. Para ello, se ha realizado una encuesta a 76 entrevistados en las montañas de los Pirineos en Cataluña (España), con el objetivo de analizar los efectos estructurales de estos factores de impacto. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que el soporte para el desarrollo del CRM en el turismo rural muestra que su uso por los trabajadores empleados en este sector depende principalmente del nivel de desarrollo de las TIC en el territorio. Para confirmar esta hipótesis, se ha diseñado un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) y, posteriormente, se ha ejecutado un análisis factorial confirmatorio (CFA) a dicho modelo, mediante el software AMOS 5.
Engaging Communities in their Heritage: Collaboration between Higher Education and the Voluntary Sector in Wales and Ireland
Get PDFThe paper focuses on an Interreg funded pilot project entitled ‘Heritage and Culture for Learning, Empowerment and Sustainable Tourism’. The project was a collaborative development between a Higher Education Institution in Wales and a Voluntary Sector Organisation in Ireland and adopted an innovative approach to engaging communities in their heritage. The central aim of the project was to develop and promote joint opportunities for the creation of sustainable tourism products which build on the natural assets (people and landscape), built assets, culture and heritage of the Wales Ireland cross border region. In practice this was achieved through an innovative approach combining research, lifelong learning, higher level skills development, networking, marketing and business development through active engagement of local communities. The pilot project ended in July 2013, and the focus of this presentation is an evaluation of the project outcomes and experiences.Le document met l'accent sur un projet pilote financé par Interreg intitulé «Patrimoine et Culture pour l'apprentissage, autonomisation et tourisme durable ». Le projet a été l’aboutissement d’un travail collaboratif entre un établissement d'enseignement supérieur au Pays de Galles et un organisme du secteur bénévole en Irlande et a adopté une approche novatrice de l'engagement des communautés dans leur patrimoine. L'objectif central du projet était de développer et de promouvoir les possibilités communes de collaboration pour la création de produits de tourisme durable qui s'appuient sur les ressources naturelles (personnes et paysage), de patrimoine bâti, de la culture et du patrimoine de la région transfrontalière du Pays de Galles-Irlande. Dans la pratique, cela a été réalisé grâce à une approche innovante combinant la recherche, la formation continue, le développement des compétences de plus haut niveau, le réseautage, le marketing et le développement des entreprises grâce à l'engagement actif des communautés locales. Le projet pilote a pris fin en Juillet 2013, et la mise au point de cette présentation est une évaluation des résultats et des expériences du projet.يركز هذا البحث على مشروع تجريبي مموَّل من طرف برنامج التعاون الأوروبي العابر للحدود (Interreg) بعنوان: "التراث والثقافة من أجل التعلم، التمكين و السياحة المستدامة." اعتمد المشروع على عمل تعاوني بين معهد التعليم العالي ببلاد الغال و منظمة تابعة للقطاع التطوُّعي بإيرلندا معتمدين على مقاربة مجددة لإشراك المجتمعات في تراثها.كان الهدف الرئيسي من المشروع هو تطوير وتعزيز الفرص المشتركة لخلق منتجات سياحية مستدامة، والتي تعتمد على الثروات الطبيعية (أشخاص ومناظر طبيعية)، التراث المعماري بالإضافة إلى الثقافة والتراث في المنطقة الحدودية بين بلاد الغال وإيرلندا. عمليا، تحقق ذلك من خلال مقاربة مبتكرة جمعت بين البحث، والتعلم المتواصل، وتنمية المهارات على أعلى مستوى، والربط الشبكي، والتسويق وتطوير الأعمال من خلال المشاركة الفعالة للمجتمعات المحلية. انتهى المشروع التجريبي في جويلية2013، ويركز هذا العرض على تقييم نتائجه والخبرات المستفادة منه
A Measuring Tourism Specialization: a Composite Indicator for the Spanish Regions
Get PDFTourism sector is playing a key role in the development of a region, therefore tourism activities continue to growth in the last year despite the actual crisis (UNWTO 2011). Also, Spain maintains in the better positions of the world ranking. Furthermore, Tourism activities generate around 10% of GPD and represents 11.5% of total workers of the Spanish Economy in 2011. Nevertheless, this is not true for all the Spanish Regions. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the tourism specialization in the Spanish Provinces. In general previous literature supports the idea that tourism enhances economic growth (Neves & Maças 2008). Given that we are able to define Tourism specialization from very different perspectives, it is essential to review the previous literature and clarify which indicators are the best ones to measure tourism specialization. In order to measure tourism specialization from a wide point of view, we account for both demand and supply side variables for tourism sector, and amenities. We developed principal component analysis (PCA) in order to summarize the information provided by the different measures. It is essential to understand the relationship between tourism characteristics, amenities and its economic impacts for public policies and tourism managing. Tourism sector is playing a key role in the development of a region, therefore tourism activities continue to growth in the last year despite the actual crisis (UNWTO 2011). Also, Spain maintains in the better positions of the world ranking. Furthermore, Tourism activities generate around 10% of GPD and represents 11.5% of total workers of the Spanish Economy in 2011. Nevertheless, this is not true for all the Spanish Regions. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the tourism specialization in the Spanish Provinces. In general previous literature supports the idea that tourism enhances economic growth (Neves & Maças 2008). Given that we are able to define Tourism specialization from very different perspectives, it is essential to review the previous literature and clarify which indicators are the best ones to measure tourism specialization. In order to measure tourism specialization from a wide point of view, we account for both demand and supply side variables for tourism sector, and amenities. We developed principal component analysis (PCA) in order to summarize the information provided by the different measures. It is essential to understand the relationship between tourism characteristics, amenities and its economic impacts for public policies and tourism managing
Evaluating Mobile Applications for Urban Tourism
Get PDFWith the spread of mobile communication, destinations have to decide whether, and in case how, to inform and drive their guests through smartphones.Three groups of issues must be addressed.a. Mobile content and its usability differ from those designed for desktop.b. Smartphones use web pages as well as proprietary applications.c. Smartphones connect both through telecoms and hotspots, posing specific cost problems.With a view to understanding how these issues have been addressed by urban destinations, a reasonably representative sample of forty-four European destinations was identified.To compare the quality of the mobile applications available in the sample destinations, the 7Loci meta-model – already well established for destination websites – was used.More discursively, some critical points were finally identified, and the mobile services available on-site were compared with those offered for the same cities by four global platforms: TripAdvisor, Foursquare, TripWolf and Google.With the spread of mobile communication, destinations have to decide whether, and in case how, to inform and drive their guests through smartphones.Three groups of issues must be addressed.a. Mobile content and its usability differ from those designed for desktop.b. Smartphones use web pages as well as proprietary applications.c. Smartphones connect both through telecoms and hotspots, posing specific cost problems.With a view to understanding how these issues have been addressed by urban destinations, a reasonably representative sample of forty-four European destinations was identified.To compare the quality of the mobile applications available in the sample destinations, the 7Loci meta-model – already well established for destination websites – was used.More discursively, some critical points were finally identified, and the mobile services available on-site were compared with those offered for the same cities by four global platforms: TripAdvisor, Foursquare, TripWolf and Google
Tourism and Cultural Heritage: Higher Education and Entrepreneurship Development in Transition Phase. The Tunisian Experience
Get PDFThis is to lay down an approach to develop tourism and cultural heritage through higher education and entrepreneurship development for economies in transition: The case of Tunisia. There is a need to provide incentives to people to have favorable preferences toward a tourism based in part on cultural heritage in a phase where everything is being under construction institutions, legislations, and relationships alike. Cultural heritage and tourism development may be enhanced by a diversification strategy to enrich the image of local touristic destinations (diversification of site visits, purchases of new products, new circuits, and discovery of monumental heritage, museum, park and gardens, natural sites). Moreover, it is of great importance to invest in youth entrepreneurship development to orient toward business creation and development in the domain of tourism and cultural heritage.Il s’agit d’établir une approche capable de développer le tourisme et le patrimoine culturel dans l'enseignement supérieur et le développement de l'entrepreneuriat pour les économies en transition : sas de la Tunisie. Il est nécessaire de fournir des incitations aux gens afin d’identifier les stratégies favorables à un tourisme basé en partie sur le patrimoine culturel dans une phase où toutes les institutions sont en phases de constructions, ainsi que la législation. Le patrimoine culturel et le développement du tourisme peuvent être améliorés par une stratégie de diversification pour enrichir l'image des destinations touristiques locales (diversification des visites de sites, achats de nouveaux produits, nouveaux circuits, et découverte du patrimoine monumental, musée, parc et jardins, sites naturels). En outre, il est d'une grande importance capitale d'investir dans le développement de l'entreprenariat des jeunes et les orienter vers la création et le développement des affaires dans le domaine du tourisme et du patrimoine culturel. La promotion de la coopération entre les institutions de l’enseignement supérieur en Europe et en Afrique du Nord, sur la question du patrimoine culturel et le développement du tourisme est considérée comme faisant partie d'une stratégie nationale.هذا لوضع منهاج لتطوير السياحة و التراث الثقافي من خلال التعليم العالي و تنمية روح المبادرة للاقتصادات التي تمر بمرحلة انتقالية: حالة تونس. هنالك حاجة لتوفير حوافز للناس ليكون لديهم تفضيلات مواتيه للسياحة و التي هي قائمة في جزء منها على التراث الثقافي في مرحلة حيث كل شيء يجري تحت البناء من مؤسسات و تشريعات و علاقات على حد سواء. يمكن تعزيز التراث الثقافي و التنمية السياحية من خلال استراتيجية التنويع لإثراء الوجهات السياحية المحلية (تنويع الزيارات الميدانية, المشتريات من المنتوجات الجديدة, الدوائر الجديدة, و اكتشاف التراث الأثري, المتحف, المتنزهات و الحدائق, و المواقع الطبيعية). و بالإضافة الى ذلك, انه لذو أهمية بالغة أن يستثمر في تنمية روح المبادرة لدى الشباب لتوجيهه نحو انشاء الاعمال التجارية و التنمية في مجال السياحة و التراث الثقافي
Students’ Expectations from Graduate Studies in Heritage (Tourism) Management
Get PDFThis article provides certain key aspects that might help to further develop academic heritage education. These have been discussed within brainstorming and round-table sessions carried out by World Heritage students at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. Important aspects regarding expectations, current issues and prospective career opportunities were selected after these sessions. With the idea of our International Master Programme in mind, the results of this work have been summarized to identify what makes a good focus to Heritage Studies and further strategies to improve this discipline. It was concluded that international and interdisciplinary approaches should serve as the basis to facilitate personal research interests, critical thinking, a sense of student community and how all these can be applied to a future professional career. External students, faculty members and heritage professionals are invited to join this debate.La présentation fournit certains aspects clés qui pourraient aider à développer davantage la formation académique en patrimoine culturel. Ils ont été abordés lors des ateliers et discussions animés par les étudiants du patrimoine mondial à BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg. Des aspects importants concernant les attentes, les enjeux actuels et les perspectives de carrière potentielles ont été sélectionnés après ces séances. Avec le Programme de Master international à l'esprit, les résultats de ce travail ont été résumés en vue d’identifier ce qui serait utile aux études du patrimoine et aux stratégies visant à améliorer cette discipline. Il a été conclu que les approches internationales et interdisciplinaires devraient servir de base pour faciliter l’intérêt pour la recherche personnelle, la pensée critique, le sens d’une communauté estudiantine et comment tous ces facteurs pourraient être implémentés à la future carrière professionnelle. Les étudiants externes, des membres du corps professoral et les professionnels du patrimoine sont invités à participer à ce débat.يوفر هذا العرض بعض الجوانب الرئيسية التي قد تساعد على تطوير التدريب الأكاديمي في التراث الثقافي. وقد نوقشت هذه الجوانب في ورش العمل والمناقشات التي يقودها الطلاب من التراث العالمي BTU كوتبوس - Senftenberg. وقد تم اختيار الجوانب الهامة المتعلقة بالتوقعات، القضايا الراهنة والآفاق الوظيفية المحتملة بعد هذه الجلسات. مع اخذ برنامج ماستر الدولي في عين الاعتبار، وقد لخصت نتائج هذا العمل لتحديد ما يمكن أن يكون مفيدا للدراسات واستراتيجيات لتحسين نظام التراث. استنتج أن النهج الدولية متعددة التخصصات وينبغي أن تشكل الأساس لتسهيل مصلحة شخصية في البحث والتفكير النقدي، والإحساس بالانتماء للمجتمع الطلابي وكيف يمكن تنفيذ كل هذه العوامل في مهنة المستقبل. الدعوة موجهة إلى المهنيين الطلاب الخارجيين وأعضاء هيئة التدريس والتراث للمشاركة في هذا النقا
Tourism as Possible Opportunity to Address the Crisis in Italy
Get PDFTourism today represents one of the world’s leading export commodity, accounting for global earnings of more than 200 billion Euro, about 25 per cent of total world GNP (Poirier 2000, p30, cited in Dieke, 2000). In the last 20 years, tourism has made a very important contribution to the global economy, being the fastest growing sector in terms of external revenue and new jobs. The economic and financial crisis that has affected the world economy in 2008, has led to decreasing the flow of tourists, but the tourism sector seems to be save by the new tourist that arrives from the emerging countries. In this context Italy face with a decrease in the number of tourists and a soft negative trend. The huge cultural heritage that characterize Italy and its beauty, should represent an important incentive of both, policy makers and private sector, for the relaunch of this important sector.Tourism today represents one of the world’s leading export commodity, accounting for global earnings of more than 200 billion Euro, about 25 per cent of total world GNP (Poirier 2000, p30, cited in Dieke, 2000). In the last 20 years, tourism has made a very important contribution to the global economy, being the fastest growing sector in terms of external revenue and new jobs. The economic and financial crisis that has affected the world economy in 2008, has led to decreasing the flow of tourists, but the tourism sector seems to be save by the new tourist that arrives from the emerging countries. In this context Italy face with a decrease in the number of tourists and a soft negative trend. The huge cultural heritage that characterize Italy and its beauty, should represent an important incentive of both, policy makers and private sector, for the relaunch of this important sector
The Erasmus Mundus Project Her.cul.es - Strengthening the attractiveness of European higher education in Heritage and Cultural Tourism. Activities and Results
Get PDFThe Erasmus Mundus Project Her.cul.es - Strengthening the attractiveness of European higher education in Heritage and Cultural Tourism presents activityes and results. The opening presentation gives an overview of the project Her.cul.es- Strengthening the attractiveness of European higher education in Heritage and Cultural Tourism. It briefly describes its main objectives, the activities that were carried out during its two years of life and the main results achieved.Le projet Erasmus Mundus Her.cul.es - Renforcement de l'attractivité de l'enseignement supérieur européen dans le patrimoine et le tourisme culturel présente les Activités et résultats du travail. La présentation d'ouverture donne un aperçu global du projet Her.cul.es - Ren-forcement de l'attractivité de l'enseignement supérieur européen dans le patri-moine et le tourisme culturel. Elle décrit brièvement les principaux objectifs, les activités qui ont été menées au cours de ses deux années d’existence et les principaux résultats obtenus. العرض الافتتاحي يعطي لمحة عامة عن المشروع -تعزيز جاذبية التعليم العالي الأوروبي في التراث والسياحة الثقافية. فهو يصف بإيجاز أهدافها الرئيسية، الأنشطة التي نفذت خلال سنتين والنتائج الرئيسية التي تحققت
Rural Tourism and Local Development: Typical Productions of Lazio
Get PDFThe local development is based on the integration of the tourism sector with the whole economy. The rural tourism seems to be a good occasion to analyse the local development: consumption of "tourist products" located in specific local contexts. Starting from the food and wine supply chain and the localization of typical productions, the aim of the present work will be analyse the relationship with local development, rural tourism sustainability and accommodation system, referring to Lazio. Which are the findings to create tourism local system based on the relationship with touristic and food and wine supply chain? Italian tourism is based on accommodation system, so the whole consideration of the Italian cultural tourism: tourism made in Italy. The touristic added value to specific local context takes advantage from the synergy with food and wine supply chain: made in Italy of typical productions. Agritourism could be better accommodation typology to rural tourism and to exclusivity of consumption typical productions. The reciprocity among food and wine supply chain and tourism provides new insights on the key topics related to tourism development and to the organization of geographical space as well and considering its important contribution nowadays to the economic competitiveness.Lo sviluppo locale dipende dall’integrazione del settore turistico con il resto dell’economia. Il turismo enogastronomico è turismo culturale in quanto si riferisce alla conoscenza del territorio e alle sue risorse materiali ed immateriali. L’enogastronomia ha un ruolo centrale, in quanto strumento di comunicazione di un’esperienza di tradizioni e sapori, per attrarre i viaggiatori. E non solo. Essa genera ricchezza e valore per il territorio. L’Italia ha un patrimonio rurale unico e non del tutto conosciuto. Il turismo può essere il veicolo di valorizzazione di questo “giacimento”, che si basa su artigianato, conoscenze e saper fare: il patrimonio dei prodotti tipici. L’Italia gode di una immagine enogastronomica mondiale che, al tempo stesso, può rappresentare una leva importante per la crescita del turismo. Il turismo rurale sembra offrire una ottima occasione di analisi in termini di sviluppo locale: la fruizione di “prodotti turistici” ubicati in determinati contesti territoriali. Tuttavia, la valorizzazione di un prodotto tipico è un processo complesso che interessa molteplici fattori, che vanno al di là della dimensione economica del sistema delle imprese. Il prodotto tipico è radicato nella cultura e nelle tradizioni e, molto spesso, è strettamente collegato ad ambiente, paesaggio, biodiversità. Il processo di valorizzazione di un prodotto tipico deve dunque essere osservato da varie angolature: a livello territoriale, la polarizzazione del tessuto imprenditoriale della filiera agroalimentare con caratteristiche strutturali ed economiche diversificate e gradi differenti di efficienza produttiva e organizzativa.Partendo, quindi, dallo studio della filiera agroalimentare e dalla localizzazione delle produzioni tipiche, l’obiettivo del presente contributo è analizzare la relazione fra sviluppo locale, sostenibilità del turismo rurale e sistema dell’accoglienza nel territorio della regione Lazio: quali sono gli elementi per la creazione di sistemi locali turistici basati sul legame fra la filiera dell’offerta turistica (accommodation e ristorazione) e la filiera produttiva (produzioni tipiche e tradizionali)? E quali sono le determinanti per l’individuazione di itinerari enogastronomici? La specificità del turismo italiano si basa tradizionalmente su aspetti legati alla cultura dell’accoglienza ed al ruolo dell’ospitalità. Da qui discende la valorizzazione del prodotto culturale nella sua più ampia accezione (arte, storia, natura, mare, montagna, terme): turismo made in Italy. Il valore aggiunto turistico di determinati contesti territoriali può trarre beneficio dalla sinergia con la filiera agroalimentare: made in Italy dei prodotti tipici. La relazione fra accommodation e valorizzazione e tutela del paniere dei prodotti tipici si configura nel territorio che rappresenta la sintesi in termini di immagine del made in Italy.La valorizzazione della filiera enogastronomica, il sistema di accoglienza e le specifiche località turistiche dovrebbero essere alla base della promozione turistica in termini di politiche nazionali e locali: ruolo degli attori locali e nazionali (pubblici e privati), profilo organizzativo del sistema paese, offerta infrastrutturale e servizi del territorio e per le imprese che direttamente ed indirettamente sono legate al processo (a monte, a valle e trasversalmente). In particolare, l’agriturismo rappresenta la forma di offerta ricettiva adatta al turismo rurale e che garantisce l’esclusività del prodotto tipico. La reciprocità fra filiera agroalimentare e turismo è un fattore strategico del modello di sviluppo per rendere distintiva l’immagine del territorio, la sua individuazione ed il suo riconoscimento. Il processo di aggregazione di un territorio partendo da queste caratteristiche è uno strumento di competitività dell’economia locale