1,721,018 research outputs found
A blueprint for tourist experience and fulfilment research
No full text[Extract] Both in communicating research ideas and in planning further studies it is useful to have succinct rubrics or blueprints to guide action. These summary devices can take many forms. Formal theories are usually considered to be the pinnacle of scientific and social science inquiry because they both integrate and direct action (Smith and Lee, 20 I 0). Models, road maps, frameworks, taxonomies and other analogous summary terms are less powerful but also serve as valuable integrative devices. The construction of these way-finding devices does however require abstracting generalisations from the details of the knowledge base. There are some recurring questions underlying this process. How is it possible to seek generalisations about tourist experiences and fulfilment through the lenses of positive psychology when we know there are one billion diverse tourists and numerous specific ways to seek fulfilment through tourism? Is it possible to seek cohesion in our studies when, for example, the research reported has been approached through positivist as well as non-positivist lenses? By identifying common threads in the available studies in this book, it is argued that some useful steps towards building a blueprint for further work are indeed possible
Introducing tourist experience and fulfilment research
No full text[Extract] Towards the end of 2012 the United Nations World Tourism Organisation provided a press release signifying that one billion tourists had crossed international borders during the year (UNWTO, 2012). Undoubtedly this figure will be quoted and re-quoted by tourism students and scholars as they use it to justify, albeit indirectly, the significance of their work. The attention to the statistic of one billion tourists at the start of this book is much more circumspect. It is difficult to provide coherent generalisations about even one million tourists, let alone one billion, even when they are from the same demographic segments and from the same country. It is therefore appropriate to identify our interests in the topic of tourist experience and fulfilment as consistently localised and specific. Our broad intention in this book is to highlight the way well-defined groups of tourists travelling in particular ways to specific kinds of tourist places develop their sense of well-being.
This sense of purpose is not apologetic or necessarily limiting for the scope of the work. A persistent and mindful appreciation however that each chapter describes a component part of the total tourism jigsaw is important. A prevailing awareness that each study and treatment of tourist experience and fulfilment is specific might prevent the problem of researchers seeing contradictions across studies where none really exist. A focus on the context and an awareness of tourism as a variegated phenomenon is also a healthy reminder that many tourist groups remain to be studied as we apply the concepts of positive psychology to tourists' personal growth and well-being. Couch surfing tourists and those who volunteer their time for altruistic purposes are a part of the jigsaw of fulfilment opportunities but so too and in different ways are the package tourists emerging from the growth tourism markets of India and China
Finding Hope on a Planet in Crisis: Combining Citizen Science and Tourism
Full text linkThis thesis is produced in conjunction with the documentary film Whale Chasers (a copy of this film is included in the back cover of this thesis). The film follows the progress of the annual Cook Strait Whale Project, a New Zealand-based citizen science project for conservation biology. The written thesis explores the origins, popularity and success of the contemporary citizen science movement, and its role in conservation biology and informal science education. It also explores the physical and mental health benefits of participation (a key component of the citizen science movement), and the potential for citizen science to inspire hope in times of ecological crisis. The new fields of hopeful tourism and positive psychology in tourism are then explored for their parallels with citizen science, with discussion of how the movements might be merged to create citizen science tourism experiences. A survey of local travellers and international tourists to New Zealand provides a complementary empirical investigation, assessing current interest and thus practical potential for citizen-science based tourism. This survey showed a strong desire among participants to be part of citizen science-ecotourism activities, and to increase their own wellbeing and that of the planet. With this in mind, and given the popularity of the Cook Strait Whale Project, the author recommends further exploration into how a thriving citizen-science industry might be built and maintained for long-term purpose of helping science, humans and the environment
Finding Hope on a Planet in Crisis: Combining Citizen Science and Tourism
No full textThis thesis is produced in conjunction with the documentary film Whale Chasers (a copy of this film is included in the back cover of this thesis). The film follows the progress of the annual Cook Strait Whale Project, a New Zealand-based citizen science project for conservation biology. The written thesis explores the origins, popularity and success of the contemporary citizen science movement, and its role in conservation biology and informal science education. It also explores the physical and mental health benefits of participation (a key component of the citizen science movement), and the potential for citizen science to inspire hope in times of ecological crisis. The new fields of hopeful tourism and positive psychology in tourism are then explored for their parallels with citizen science, with discussion of how the movements might be merged to create citizen science tourism experiences. A survey of local travellers and international tourists to New Zealand provides a complementary empirical investigation, assessing current interest and thus practical potential for citizen-science based tourism. This survey showed a strong desire among participants to be part of citizen science-ecotourism activities, and to increase their own wellbeing and that of the planet. With this in mind, and given the popularity of the Cook Strait Whale Project, the author recommends further exploration into how a thriving citizen-science industry might be built and maintained for long-term purpose of helping science, humans and the environment
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Relationships Matter: The Role and Impact of Younger International Development Volunteers
Full text linkThe role of international development volunteering (IDV) has evolved from the 1980’s, both in practice and in theory. A body of literature analyses international volunteering through neoliberal and neo-colonial expressions, critiquing the role of volunteering in relation to Western dominance and a lack of state intervention. Very little research exists, however, around the specific relations between volunteers and their host communities, and outputs from the relationships and understandings that are forged during volunteer assignments. Younger volunteers in particular are considered to perpetuate colonial and neoliberal ideals, yet little research has explored their function in detail, nor considered the potential within the relationships they establish. By drawing specifically on New Zealand’s Volunteer Service Abroad and its UniVol programme, which places university students on year-long volunteer assignments, this research will explore examples of the roles and functions that younger volunteers can fulfil.
Using largely qualitative data drawn from key informant interviews, focus groups, and observation, it is the aim of this research to understand the conditions and requirements that allow youth IDV volunteers to make effective contributions in host communities. Within this, the value of relationships will become clear. How such relationships can build social capital, open networks, establish trust and create a mutual and reciprocal volunteering experience will be considered, arguing that the formation of relationships is in essence integral to delivering valued IDV assignments. The key findings of this thesis suggest that when assignments provide appropriate support and working conditions, alongside effective recruitment and briefing processes, the potential to deliver relevant volunteering assignments for hosts increases. Hosts are more likely to benefit from volunteering assignments that aim to develop strong connections between individuals, creating a dynamic that encourages mutual interaction
Tourism, wellness and feeling good: reviewing and studying Asian spa experiences
No full text[Extract] Recent developments in assessing human well-being in general provide some new pathways for understanding the Asian spa experience. Much of this work is implicitly covered by the label positive psychology, which is recognised as a new field of study that focuses on human thriving. Following Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), Pearce (2007) defines positive psychology as a 'scientific study of positive emotions, character strengths and positive institutions concerned with human happiness and well-being' (p. 3). This definition suggests that positive psychology is not just about the individual, but also about communities, institutions, organisations and industries. It is therefore surprising that the relationship between tourism and human thriving remains under-researched (Smith and Kelly, 2006; Gilbert and Abdullah, 2002, 2003; Hunter-Jones and Blackburn, 2007).
The concept of wellness is an indispensable concept in the study of both tourism and positive psychology. Wellness is one of the facets of positive psychology that has received attention recently. Although the wellness-tourism interface has a long heritage (e.g. ancient pilgrimages, travels for health and wellness during the ancient Roman and Greek times), recent studies and the arguable pioneering literature on wellness tourism (for example the wellness issue of Tourism Recreation Research, 2006) tend to approach the topic as an exposition of an ostensibly brand new form of tourism. This chapter seeks to review and study spa tourism and interpret the scheme for spa-goers through the lens of positive psychology
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