1,721,046 research outputs found
Developing Health Tourism in Healthier Rural Areas: the Role of Matrix-resources
Full text linkIn the last 15 years, environmental medicine research has highlighted the negative effects of urban pollution on human health. Despite this, no review of the medical literature has emerged to examine the different forms of pollution and to assist in the development of tourism innovation in rural areas. The main objective of this paper is to understand if the presence of safety, clean air, silence, dark at night, and other (matrix) resources
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defined as opposites of various forms of pollutants
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may act as additional resources for companies and rural tourist destinations that wish to innovate their supply through the development of health and wellness tourism. This paper analyses the results of environmental medicine
through the lens of a “resource
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based view” of the firm
(R-BV). It was thus possible to identify a range of 7 matrix-resources with the required characteristics. A wide series of health and wellness tourism experiences
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lasting from 1 to 8 weeks
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can be proposed as a tool for sustainable economic development of firms operating in those rural areas that have the right resources, whether or not they are already endowed with wellness infrastructures
“Salus per loca amoena”: An analysis of rural landscape for health and wellness tourism
Full text linkThe phenomenon of Health & Wellness (H&W) tourism requires the presence of dedicated infrastructures. The main objective of this study is to analyse rural landscape as a strategic resource useful in the development of a type of H&W tourism that is not connected
to the presence of dedicated infrastructures. For the purposes of this study we introduce the concept of "salus per loca amoena" indicating a range of experiences/holidays based on the medical and therapeutic use of rural landscape. This type of health and wellness tourism is
ecologically sustainable, lasts between 1 and 30 nights, is able to produce both psychological and physical recoveries verified through scientific literature, and acts as a defensible competitive advantage for the destination. In this paper a review of biomedical literature on
the relationship between landscape and health is conducted through the theoretical lens of the resource-based view (R-BV) of the firm. By doing so, it was possible to identify the characteristics that allow a resource such as rural landscape to evolve and become a source of sustained competitive advantage
Tourists' expenditure behaviour: The influence of satisfaction and the dependence of spending categories
No full textA review of the literature shows that the relationship between satisfaction and tourism expenditure, as well as the dependence among different tourist expenditure categories, are under-researched topics. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to investigate the influence on tourism expenditure of tourists' satisfaction with the destination, correcting for the effect of some socio-demographic and trip-related variables; second, to study the dependence among tourist expenditure on the different tourist categories that create the overall expenditure for the trip. This study focuses on an analysis of the expenditure behaviour of a sample of international visitors who travelled in an area around the Dolomites in Northern Italy, adopting the doublehurdle model with the Heien and Wessells estimator. In discussing the results, policy implications and managerial issues for tourism destinations are presented
Arthroscopic capsular shrinkage for multidirectional instability [I1 trattamento dell'instabilità multidirezionale di spalla mediante capsulorrafia termica (capsular shrinkage)]
No full textA group of 43 patients who underwent arthroscopic capsular shrinkage for MDI at the UCLA Medical Center between September 1996 and October 1998 was reviewed. Thirty-six patients, 15 males and 21 females, with an average age of 27 years, were available for follow-up at an average of 25 months. All patients were evaluated according to the modified ROWE score. 32 patients were rated as excellent/good and 25 of the 28 athletes were able to return to sports at an average time of 6 months. No technical complication was observed in this series. Three patients had adhesive capsulitis. Arthroscopic thermal capsular shrinkage for MDI is a minimal invasive technique which can provide shoulder stabilization with minimal morbidity and early function
Segmenting visitors of cultural events by motivation: A sequential non-linear clustering analysis of Italian Christmas market visitors
No full textConsidering the importance of market segmentation as a marketing tool to determine promotional policies, this paper aims to contribute to the tourism literature using the two-level approach proposed by Vesanto and Alhoniemi (2000) as an alternative and effective method to conduct cluster analyses. For this purpose, an empirical study was conducted interviewing tourists who visited three different Christmas Markets in Northern Italy. The two-level approach is based on two clustering techniques used in sequence: a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) followed by a clustering algorithm. The Silhouette index (Rousseeuw, 1987) is used as a guideline during the second level in the selection process of both the best clustering techniques (between hierarchical and non-hierarchical) and the best partition. The analysis identified three cluster segments and this paper demonstrates the suitability of the clustering method adopted. In the discussion of the results, marketing and managerial implications are also highlighted. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Repeat visits and intentions to revisit a sporting event and its nearby destinations
No full textThis article investigates the effect that loyalty and tourist satisfaction with a sporting event have on visitors' behavioural intention not only to revisit and recommend the event but also to revisit and recommend its nearby tourist destinations. The quantitative analysis is based on 343 self-administered questionnaires collected among the visitors of the Biathlon World Cup 2009 in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. The satisfaction variables were reduced to three factors: Services, Price, and Accessibility. Through the computation of numerous Logit models, this study shows that there is a positive relationship between the three satisfaction factors and the behavioural intention to revisit and recommend the event and its nearby tourist destinations to friends and relatives. Furthermore, loyalty to the event is strongly and positively related with the intention to revisit the event in the near future but not to revisit the destination or to recommend it to friends and relatives. © SAGE Publications 2011
Soft Power Narrative in Contemporary China: Official Discourse and the Media
No full textIn recent years, the topic of China’s soft power has been widely debated by both Chinese and foreign observers. In the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the discussion started in the early 1990s when the theory, originally put forward by the American scholar Joseph S. Nye, Jr., made its first appearance in intellectual circles and gradually penetrated the policy-making and leadership levels. In 2007, reference to China’s soft power in the report to the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) marked the theory’s official inclusion within the country’s national strategy, formally incorporating the wording wenhua ruan shili 文化软实 力 (cultural soft power) into the PRC’s political and media jargon. The chapter, which is based on the doctoral thesis “From Soft Power to ‘wenhua ruan shili’: Theory and Practice in the Chinese Discourse on Soft Power” discussed by the author in March 2016 at the University of Cagliari (Italy), focuses on three areas of analysis: the main features of China’s soft power strategy in terms of its fundamental elements, connotations, and narrative but also purposes and targets; the Chinese official discourse on soft power in terms of the leadership’s commitment to actively promoting a national discussion on identity and culture-building, while at the same time implementing a practice that requires a collective effort involving society as a whole; the participation of state media outlets in popularizing the mainstream narrative on cultural soft power, embodying its contents and projecting its force at home and abroad
Visitors' expenditure behaviour at cultural events: The case of Christmas markets
No full textThis paper examines the determinants of visitors' expenditure behaviour at cultural events. The authors analyse visitors' expenditure at the micro-level, dividing it into expenditure on accommodation and expenditure on food and beverages. The explicative variables taken into account are socio-demographic, economic, psychological and trip-related attributes. An ad hoc survey was conducted on the three most famous Christmas markets in the north of Italy in December 2008 and 2009. To achieve their aims, the authors use the robust double-hurdle model. The results indicate that travel purpose, region of origin, perception of the event, length of stay and age are significant factors influencing both the propensity to spend and the amount of money actually spent during visits. The findings will provide destination managers and tourism businesses with practical knowledge useful for destination marketing, event development and customer service
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