Professional Documents
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Annals of Tourism Research - Volume 36, No.3, 2009
Annals of Tourism Research - Volume 36, No.3, 2009
PUBLICATION EDITOR
Stephen L J Smith*: Recreation, Univ of Waterloo, Canada
THE
ENVIRONMENT-TOURISM NEXUS
Influence of Market Ethics
Andrew Holden
University of Bedfordshire, England
Abstract: Society is at a critical juncture in its relationship with the natural environment, a
relationship in which tourism has growing significance. Yet, twenty years after the Brundtland
Report, environmental policy has to date had little influence upon the workings of the tour-
ism market, the supply and demand elements of which determine the ‘use’ or ‘non-use’ of
nature. Inherent to the market is its environmental ethic, that is, the extent of our recogni-
tion of nature’s rights to existence. The thesis of this article is that whilst environmental
policy may possibly have a greater influence in the future, it is the environmental ethics
of the market that will be deterministic to the balance of the tourism-environment
relationship. Keywords: environmental ethics, environmental economics, sustainable tour-
ism. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
The literature on tourism’s impacts upon the natural environment is
well-established (e.g., Mishan 1969; Mathieson and Wall 1982; Hunter
and Green 1995; Mieczkowski 1995; Holden 2008) and it is not the
intention to reiterate its negative and positive consequences. The rapid
growth in demand for international tourism during the second half of
the last century has lent a global spatial dimension to these impacts.
For example, impacts of tourism on the natural environment of Antarc-
tica have been observed (Hall and Wouters 1994; Hall and Johnston
1995), whilst the contribution of aviation to Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
emissions has become an issue of economic and environmental debate.
In the context of the society-environment relationship, which is at a
critical juncture for deciding the extent that human activity is permit-
ted to alter patterns of nature, our behavior and attitudes towards the
natural environment will subsequently also influence the tourism-envi-
ronment nexus. A lexicon of terms depicting environmental problems,
including global warming, ozone depletion, bio-diversity loss, species
extinction, and ecosystem degradation are now interwoven into the
Andrew Holden is Professor of Environment and Tourism and Director for the Centre for
Research into the Environment and Sustainable Tourism (CREST) at the University of
Bedfordshire (Putteridge Bury, Luton, LU2 8LE, England. Email: <andrew.holden@beds.
ac.uk>). His research interests include environmental ethics; sustainable tourism develop-
ment; poverty alleviation; and the tourist behavior/natural environment interface.
373
374 A. Holden / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 373–389
ural resource usage had been minimized and the treatment of effluent
is common practice; the hundreds of millions of tourists traveling
around the world had an awareness of the impacts of their consump-
tion patterns and behavior, a senior representative of the UNWTO
comments: ‘‘It would certainly be naive to pretend to give a purely po-
sitive answer to all these questions. . . Progress towards sustainable
development of tourism is hardly satisfactory while sustainable prac-
tices are restricted to a few niche markets, with the rest of the tourism
industry keeping its priorities clearly on profit rather than sustainabil-
ity’’ (Younis 2003:13).
It is subsequently argued that environmental and sustainable tourism
policy has had relatively little influence on the workings of the tourism
market, the main mechanism for deciding how the natural environ-
ment and resources will be used for tourism. Subsequently, when con-
sidering the future of the tourism-environment relationship, it is
necessary to observe the dynamics of the market, the workings of which
will be critical in determining the balance of a symbiotic or destructive
tourism-environment relationship.
to other humans whilst in the former it is placed upon duty to all sen-
tient beings.
CONCLUSION
Given the expanding spatial boundaries of tourism and its environ-
mental impacts, it represents a significant agent for change in the con-
text of society’s relationship with nature. Its impacts which have
traditionally been focused upon at a destination and regional level,
are now understood to have consequence on a global scale, notably
as an outcome of aviation’s contribution to GHG emissions. The neg-
ative externalities of the effects of resultant global warming not only
threatens the livelihoods of many people, particularly the poor of
developing countries, but also the well-being of eco-systems and the
continued existence of many species of flora and fauna. It is argued
that there is a strong propensity for tourism and aviation to be a focus
of ethical debate as society seeks to re-evaluate its position relative to
nature.
Accepting capitalism as the dominant economic ideology; the mar-
ket system will have a central role in the representation of the ethical
and economic values of nature. The market is given higher advocacy
through the forces of neo-liberalism, which favor the minimization of
government interference in it. For example, the strong opposition
from the tourism industry to the Balearic government’s attempt to im-
pose an eco-tax, illustrates the challenges governments may face to ac-
tion that is perceived to reduce market competitiveness for the benefit
of the natural environment.
Subsequently, it is suggested that the interaction between the indus-
try and the consumer will be the defining relationship in deciding the
outcomes of the interaction between tourism and the natural environ-
ment. The strength of the market’s environmental ethic; the willing-
ness of stakeholders to trade-off individual benefit for the greater
environmental good, will be instrumental in deciding the extent of
tourism’s impacts upon nature. In a system that encourages individual-
ity, consumption and freedom of choice, symbolized by the right to tra-
vel for recreational purposes, a move towards what may be regarded as
a more ascetic lifestyle will pose a major challenge.
Tensions over the loss of personal benefit or utility as a consequence
of a stronger environmental ethic are evident in the demand for flying.
Whilst there is research (Becken 2007; Energy Saving Trust 2007) that
suggests a reluctance to voluntarily reduce participation in flying, there
is also evidence (Asthana and McKie 2007) of the beginning of a shift
away from its use for recreational purposes. If aviation becomes a major
source of GHG emissions, and the level of public debate over the ethics
of flying increases, it is not inconceivable that the increase of demand
for flying experienced over the last 50 years may begin to reverse. Un-
likely as this may seem at present, using the analogy of the tobacco
industry, the knowledge of the harmful effects of a particular activity
can lead to behavioral changes. Whilst, the tourist who is willing to
A. Holden / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 373–389 385
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A. Holden / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 373–389 387
Submitted 23 November 2007. Resubmitted 1 June 2008. Final Version 26 August 2008.
Accepted 5 October 2008. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Kadir Din
Abstract: The growth in demand for adventure tourism has been significant in recent years.
This study applied an existing marketing framework and empirically examined the relation-
ships between value, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism context.
Four hundred and two respondents provided their perceptions of the value for an adventure
tour in Australia. Customer value was conceptualised as a multidimensional construct and
indeed three value dimensions had strong, positive influences on customer satisfaction and
behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism setting. Value-for-money was prominent,
but also emotional value and novelty value were also significant predictors of satisfaction
and future intentions. The present study suggests that researchers should take a broader,
holistic view of value in a tourism context. Keywords: customer value, satisfaction, intentions,
adventure tourism. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Adventure tourism has grown significantly in recent years, becoming
a major niche within the special interest tourism sector, and is said to
be the fastest growing outdoor tourism market sector, with an esti-
mated annual growth of fifteen percent (Buckley 2007; Travel Industry
Association 2005; Cater 2005; Burak 1998). Indeed, approximately a
half of American adults (98 million) took an adventure vacation in
the last five years of the twentieth century (Tsui 2000) and a quarter
of the European package tour market options have an adventure travel
context (Keeling 2003). While statistics vary due to the diversity of
adventure consumption, it appears adventure travel’s growth is signifi-
cant and likely to continue.
Most adventure research has been undertaken in the leisure sci-
ence, adventure education and adventure recreation fields (see for
example: Hall and Weiler 1992; Ewert and Hollenhorst 1989; Ewert
and Shultis 1997). In recent years, there have also been a number
413
414 P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438
the health and safety of adventure tourists (Page et al 2005; Wilks and
Page 2003; Bentley and Page 2001). While many conclusions can be
drawn from these studies, they have tended to ignore the ‘tourism con-
sumption’ dimension, which includes consumers being away from a
home environment, often paying a commercial operator to guide the
tour and providing specialised equipment (Buckley 2007; Buckley
2006).
Similarly, little empirical research has examined the relationships be-
tween value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in tourism con-
texts (Baker and Crompton 2000). In tourism, like most other
services, the consumption experience is complicated by intangibility,
dynamism and subjectivity (Botterill and Crompton 1996; Jayanti and
Ghosh 1996). Tourism consumption experiences include a complex
mix of functional, objective and tangible components (e.g., travelling,
eating, drinking, and recreating), as well as subjective, hedonic, emo-
tional and symbolic components (e.g., enjoying an experience, laugh-
ing, socialising and having fun). Several studies have researched the
heterogeneous nature of tourism consumption experiences (Ryan
1997; Botterill and Crompton 1996; Urry 1990), but there is a lack of
understanding about the nature of these experiences or their relation-
ship with marketing constructs, such as service quality, customer value
or satisfaction.
Adventure tourism consumers tend to be young, educated, affluent,
active thrill seekers who spend significant sums of money in their pur-
suit of adventure (Swarbrooke et al 2003; Tsui 2000; Christiansen
1990). Adventure travelers are often demanding and discerning con-
sumers while on holiday, and often travel to some of the most re-
mote, extreme environments of the world to satisfy their needs for
emotional highs, risk, challenge, excitement, and novelty (Zuckerman
1994; Christiansen 1990; Bello and Etzel 1985; Crompton 1979). A
better understanding of the socio-psychological dimensions of such
consumption would help marketers target such consumers more
effectively.
From an industry perspective, many new adventure destinations
and tourism products have evolved to serve the discerning needs of
adventure consumers. For example, Bentley Page and Laird (2003)
found there were more than 400 adventure tourism operators in
New Zealand and that 11% of visitors to the country used these
adventure products. For example, Queenstown, New Zealand, mar-
kets itself as the ‘‘Adventure Capital of the World’’ and has a diverse
range of adventure products to tempt travelers (Buckley 2007; Cloke
and Perkins 1998). The area’s most famous adventure product is the
‘‘awesome foursome’’ which includes white-water rafting the rapids
on the Shotover River, jet boating through narrow gorges, a helicop-
ter ride and the Hackett bungee jump into a 134 meter deep canyon
(Cloke and Perkins 1998). Adventure tourists can also go sky-diving,
jet boating, white-water rafting, parasailing, four-wheel driving, scu-
ba-diving and mountain biking in some of the most distant places
on the planet.
416 P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438
Social Value. Social value has been defined as the ‘‘perceived utility
acquired from an alternative’s association with one or more specific so-
cial groups’’ (Sheth et al 1991:161). Choices involving highly visible
products (e.g. clothing, jewelry) and goods or services shared with oth-
ers (e.g. gifts, products used in entertaining) are often driven by social
value. In tourism, factors such as interactions between people on a
tour, the relationship between passengers and the tour guide and
the individual recognition or prestige obtained from undertaking the
trip may create social value. Social value may be strong in small group
tours, similar to the ‘‘communitas’’ and bonding of river rafting partic-
ipants highlighted by Arnould and Price (1993).
Epistemic Value. While epistemic value (novelty value) was not initially
included in the PERVAL framework, it is a key component of the adven-
ture tourism experience as it includes the novelty of the activity and the
destination (Hall and Weiler 1992). Epistemic value is created when a
product arouses curiosity, provides novelty and/or satisfies a desire for
knowledge (Sheth et al 1991). In tourism, novelty and seeking new
knowledge are significant motives for adventure travel (Weber 2001;
Walle 1997; Crompton 1979; Bello and Etzel 1985). Epistemic value is
a key factor in many adventure tourism products due to tourists’
desire for exploratory, novelty seeking and variety seeking behavior
(Zuckerman 1994). Tour operators need to change and adapt their
product to create new and novel experiences for tourists to ensure they
obtain epistemic value. Epistemic value was included in the present study
because of its potential importance in an adventure tourism context.
418 P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438
Each value dimension will have a direct, positive and significant association
with customer satisfaction.
The socio-psychological dimensions of value (emotional value, social value, epi-
stemic value) will have a greater influence on customer satisfaction than the cog-
nitive dimensions of value (function value, value-for money).
Customer satisfaction will have a direct, positive and significant association
with behavioural intentions.
Customer satisfaction will completely mediate the relationship between customer
value and behavioural intentions, and customer value will only indirectly influ-
ence behavioural intentions.
RESEARCH METHODS
As the study’s interest was adventure tourism, data were collected
from customers travelling on four-wheel drive adventure tours to the
Pinnacles in Western Australia, which is a popular adventure destina-
tion. The tours use specialist vehicles to manage a part on-road and
part off-road experience. The tour is marketed as an adventure tour,
and includes a visit to several unique rock formations at the Pinnacles
in Nambung National Park in Western Australia about 240 kilometres
on bitumen road from Perth. After visiting the rock formations, the
tours head back towards Perth, but use rough, off-road tracks for about
80 kilometres. This section of the tour takes about 4 hours and in-
cludes the more adventurous pursuits, such as driving on the beach,
crossing a range of steep sand dunes, and using advanced driving tech-
P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438 421
niques (such as sliding the vehicles sideways down the dune). Some of
the sand dunes are over 100 feet high and this creates an unnatural
steep angle for the vehicles, which many first timers find quite fright-
ening. The vehicles are driven by qualified drivers and are equipped
with safety and recovery gear and satellite communications.
After obtaining support from the peak industry bodies, seven four-
wheel drive tour operators who were running day trips to the Pinnacles
were approached by telephone and in writing and invited to partici-
pate. After follow up telephone calls, two operators agreed to partici-
pate in the study. One of the authors and a research assistant
independently went on a day-tour from each of the participating com-
panies before data collection started and compared the two tours for
consistency and similarity. As part of this preliminary exercise, the four
drivers were interviewed during the tour and were asked to comment
generally about the consistency of the tours on a day-to-day basis and
asked to highlight where differences may occur. Field notes were taken
and the two researchers compared notes to identify any potential dif-
ferences. It was concluded that the tours were very similar in terms
of route taken; vehicles used (all OKA 14 seater vehicles); similar off-
road tracks and sand dune areas (as controlled by government conser-
vation authorities); similar driver commentary; same rest stops for
refreshments, lunch and rest rooms; and similar times taken for the
trip (approximately 9 hours). The interaction of the drivers with the
consumers and the interaction between consumers were noted as po-
tential areas of difference between tours. However, the tours were con-
sidered quite repetitive and, overall, were considered similar in scope
for the sampling strategy and data collection.
Data was collected during the December and January summer holi-
day period in Australia, which is the time when weather and off road
and sand conditions are most consistent. It is traditionally warm sunny
weather, with excellent track conditions for off-road vehicles. The
Christmas and New Year holiday period, combined with the end of
the wildflower season, sees large numbers of tourists on these tours.
This sampling strategy was considered appropriate to collect the
needed data in a relatively short time frame. Feedback from the tour
operators indicated that passengers during this holiday period are sim-
ilar to tourists who take these tours throughout the year, although in
larger numbers. It should be noted, however, that the tour experience
can vary depending on the season when there may be different weather
(colder and wetter in winter), different track conditions (tides can
wash away the tracks in the winter) and different numbers of tourists
(smaller numbers in winter). This may raise some issues for potential
bias from collection of data only in the summer period and the results
may not be generalizable to the whole population of four-wheel drive
consumers on these tours.
Approximately 450 passengers on 41 different tours from the two
companies were approached to participate in the study. While seated
on the bus, customers were asked to fill in a self-completion question-
naire towards the end of a full day adventure tour (approximately 30
minutes from the end of the tour). The questionnaire included 65
422 P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438
questions including the data required for this study and some addi-
tional background questions required by the participating companies.
For all the value, satisfaction and intention questions, customers were
asked to rate their perceptions on a 7-point Likert scale with ‘‘1’’ rep-
resenting ‘‘Strongly Disagree’’ and ‘‘7’’ representing ‘‘Strongly
Agree’’.
Information as to which customers agreed to participate in the study
and which customers refused was not collected. Consequently, no
checks could be made to assess non-response bias. However, the re-
sponse rate was considered very high as a total of 428 questionnaires
were collected and, after checking the quality of responses, 402 usable
questionnaires were obtained, suggesting non-response bias was unli-
kely to be an issue. The tour buses from which data were collected also
had to have a spare seat for the research assistant to administer the
questionnaires and had to have a reasonable number of passengers
to make data collection cost effective (approximately ten passengers
in the four-while drive vehicle used). The research assistant introduced
the purpose of the survey to customers and outlined that it was entirely
voluntary and confidential. The surveys were self-completion and the
research assistant was available to answer questions where necessary.
Respondents were asked about the value of their experience, their sat-
isfaction with the tour and their future intentions. The various con-
structs were adapted from a number of sources, as can be seen in
Table 1, as are the individual items used in each case.
The value dimensions were taken from the PERVAL value scale
developed by Sweeney and Soutar (2001). A novelty (epistemic) value
dimension was added as it is important in a tourism context. Prior re-
search has found doing novel and adventurous things and escaping
from the routine are important for tourists (Crompton 1979; Jeong
and Park 1996; Loundsbury and Hoopes 1985; Hawes 1979; Otto and
Ritchie 1996), as is seeking insight and knowledge (Walle 1997; Weber
2001). The added construct was an attempt to measure these aspects of
the tourism experience.
The data analysis followed a two-stage procedure. In the first stage,
composite constructs for the various constructs of interest were esti-
mated using confirmatory factor analysis procedures that reflected
the relationships between a latent construct and its observed variables
(the items in the questionnaire in this case) (Holmes-Smith and Rowe
1994; McGill, Hobbs and Klobas 2003). Four indicators were used for
each construct (Bollen 1989) and it was assumed loadings of 0.60 or
more were acceptable (Bagozzi and Yi 1988). Composite reliability
was calculated to assess the unidimensionality of the constructs, Aver-
age Variance Extracted (AVE) scores were calculated to assess the con-
structs’ convergent validity and Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) test was
used to assess the discriminant validity between the constructs. The
goodness of fit indices for a congeneric model are also a type of validity
test as, for a model to fit well, the items must represent the same latent
trait (Holmes-Smith and Rowe 1994).
In the second stage of the data analysis, the composite constructs
were used in a series of regressions that explored the relationships be-
P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438 423
tween the various value dimensions and their respective impact on cus-
tomer satisfaction and customer intentions. The variables in the regres-
sion models were assessed for non-normality as required for
multivariate analysis (Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black 1998). The
normal probability plots, skewness tests and kurtosis values did not
indicate any major distortion from a normal distribution. While regres-
sion assumes residuals (predicted minus observed values) are distrib-
uted normally, most tests (and specifically the F-test) are robust to
424 P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438
Frequency Percent
Age 19 or less 9 2
20–29 123 31
30–39 98 25
40–49 51 13
50 or more 116 29
Missing 5 1
Reliability
measures
Composite 0.87 0.92 0.88 0.94 0.87 0.91 0.86
reliability
Average 0.63 0.73 0.66 0.79 0.62 0.72 0.62
variance
extracted
Cronbach’s 0.86 0.91 0.85 0.94 0.84 0.92 0.85
alpha
Goodness of fit
measures
Chi-square 0.84 0.05 6.62 1.21 1.58 1.05 5.96
Probability 0.36 0.82 0.06 0.55 0.45 0.59 0.05
Goodness 0.99 1.00 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99
of fit
index
(GFI)
Adjusted 0.97 0.99 0.96 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.96
goodness
of fit
(AGFI)
Normed fit 0.92 1.00 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99
index
(NFI)
Root mean 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.07
square
error
(RMSEA)
Root mean 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.03
square
residual
(RMR)
Descriptive
Statistics
Mean (1 to 4.8 4.7 5.1 3.0 4.8 4.2 5.4
7 scale)
Standard 0.77 0.90 0.82 1.03 0.84 0.83 0.92
Deviation
Construct Construct Average Functional Value for Emotional Social Novelty Satisfaction Intention
Reliability Variance Value Money Value Value Value
Extracted
Functional Value 0.87 0.63 0.69 0.65 0.71 0.63 0.67 0.63
Value for Money 0.92 0.73 0.63 0.70 0.76 0.68 0.73 0.67
Emotional Value 0.88 0.66 0.31 0.34 0.73 0.64 0.69 0.64
Social Value 0.94 0.79 0.08 0.11 0.12 0.71 0.75 0.71
Novelty Value 0.87 0.62 0.23 0.30 0.47 0.07 0.67 0.62
Satisfaction 0.91 0.72 0.43 0.50 0.41 0.03 0.44 0.67
Intention 0.86 0.62 0.35 0.43 0.34 0.07 0.30 0.49
Note: Values in the bottom-half diagonal are the squared correlation coefficients, while values
in the top-half diagonal are the averages of the relevant variance extracted scores.
P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438 427
DISCUSSION
The present study attempted to clarify a number of the suggested
relationships between value, satisfaction and intentions in an adven-
ture tourism context. The results generally confirmed the findings of
a number of previous studies in which customer value has been found
to be an important antecedent to customer satisfaction and customer
intentions (e.g., Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann 1994; Patterson
and Spreng 1997; Cronin et al 2000). The explanatory power of the var-
ious value dimensions was particularly strong in relation to satisfaction
(explaining 62% of variance). Similarly, the various value dimensions
were found to influence future intentions (explaining 49% of the var-
iance), which confirms the findings of several other researchers (e.g.,
Bolton and Drew 1991; Rust and Oliver 1994; Patterson and Spreng
1997). It seems adventure tour operators who provide value,
particularly value-for-money and novelty value, are likely to have satis-
fied customers who are also likely to have positive future intentions.
While these findings initially confirm the work of other researchers,
the study makes a number of additional contributions.
Firstly, the influence of a multidimensional framework of value is
noteworthy here, as the socio-psychological dimensions (emotional va-
lue and novelty value) added to our understanding of value beyond the
traditional value-for-money paradigm. The use of a multidimensional
value framework enhanced our understanding of two post-consump-
tion constructs with strong explanation of both satisfaction (R square
P. Williams, G.N. Soutar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 413–438 429
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Submitted 2 March 2008. Final Version 12 February 2009. Accepted 23 February 2009.
Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Jorge Zamora
Abstract: This inquiry explores the manner in which tourists endow a former slave plantation
with meaning by promoting or demoting its cultural authority. Drawing on the encoding/
decoding model, this study utilizes interviews to examine the ways in which tourists decode
the plantation by acquiescing or negating the preferred cultural text through the adoption
of dominant, negotiated or oppositional readings. The findings indicate that as active recip-
ients of the preferred reading tourists interpreted/decoded the plantation in dichotomous
polarized ways based on the meaning structures and knowledge frameworks of the interpre-
tive communities within which they are situated. In essence, the decoding process, much like
the encoding process is viewed as constituting an array of dominant ideologies. Keywords:
decoding/encoding model, interpretative communities, slavery. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
INTRODUCTION
Slavery heritage tourism sites function within discourses of authority
wherein memory and illusion coalesce to shape a romanticized recol-
lection of the contentious plantation past; these tourable mnemonic
locales are intricately linked to the history of chattel bondage (Dann
and Seaton 2001). They are not apolitical spatialities, equally hospita-
ble to any form of cultural expression but rather consist of culturally
specific values which utilize discursive lenses to influence how histori-
cal events are understood and interpreted. Like many heritage sites,
they serve as locales of pedagogical power wherein the state disciplines
history, knowledge, and ultimately the populace (Foucault 1977). One
of their key roles has been to preserve history and to educate genera-
tions about the plantation past vis à vis noble tales describing the lives
of the plantation owners and the architectural intricacies of their
homes (Buzinde and Santos 2008). Another role has been to inspire
pride and inculcate nationalistic ideologies, albeit through state engi-
neered amnesia by trivializing or annihilating the institution of slavery
within the heritage metanarratives (Buzinde 2007; Eichstedt and Small
439
440 C.N. Buzinde, C.A. Santos / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 439–458
2002). In essence, they are not innocent edifications but rather repre-
sentations of thoroughly ideological narratives bound up within polit-
ical discourses that tacitly endorse dominant societal values.
As much as slave heritage tourism sites are demonized within aca-
demic discourse for their inescapable authority or their impossible mis-
sion to show the American plantation past through cosmopolitan
representational tactics, one has to acknowledge that there is no uni-
fied power bloc or conspiratorial heritage system to blame or defeat.
It is rather a tangled skein of complicitous human interactions that
promote the cultural authority of these sites. After all, the authority
and meaning of heritage sites is, in part, determined by how other
voices, that is, those of tourists, talk them into being. Slave heritage
sites gain their credibility not from the onsite magically-imbued objects
that are portrayed through carefully crafted metanarratives but rather
by the power vested in them by the visiting populations. Thus, rather
than refer to heritage sites as instruments of institutional oppression,
it is far more beneficial to view them as contested sites wherein mean-
ing is constructed, reconstructed and negotiated.
The symbiotic relationship between slave heritage sites and tourists,
much like most historic sites, is undoubtedly characterized by dialo-
gism whereby, the former constructs a preferred reading of a site while
the latter brings varying socio-cultural experiences to bear on the pro-
cess of interpreting the preferred reading. This symbiotic relationship
calls attention to the polysemous ways of reading/interpreting cultural
texts, in the broadest sense of the term. Describing how individuals
construct meaning through their symbolic interactions with cultural
texts, Stuart Hall (1980) maintains that audiences consume the con-
noted dominant meanings and decode them using the encoder’s hege-
monic belief that the crafted message ought to be society’s point of
view. It follows that the audience accepts the encoding and utilizes it
as a reference point for how they subsequently read the text; the dom-
inant text thus, acts as a benchmark on which their decision to acqui-
esce or contest the message is based. Hall (1980), states that the way in
which the audience reads or views the encoded text manifests in one of
three ways: a dominant-hegemonic view, a negotiated view or an oppo-
sitional view. Audiences who decode a text as a dominant view accept
the connoted meanings, reconstruct the preferred view and conse-
quently, operate within the ‘‘dominant code’’ (Hall 1980:136). Alter-
natively, audiences who decode a text through a negotiated reading
‘‘acknowledge the legitimacy of the hegemonic definition’’ (Hall
1980:137) while operating outside those definitions by concurrently
negating the dominant reading; such decodings are characterized by
significant contradictions. Lastly, audiences who decode a text through
oppositional readings comprehend the preferred reading but oppose
its dominant code due to their espousal of alternate frames of refer-
ence. Therefore, by reading the text, be it in a preferred, negotiated
or oppositional manner, audiences are inevitably developing and utiliz-
ing frameworks that enable them to render the world intelligible.
Within heritage tourism studies, the dialogic meaning making rela-
tionship between producers and consumers has remained relatively
C.N. Buzinde, C.A. Santos / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 439–458 441
Study Methods
Tourists’ interpretations of Hampton were explored through semi-
structured interviews. Twenty-seven on-site exit interviews were con-
ducted with a purposeful sample of tourists during February of 2006.
There are various sampling strategies used for purposefully selecting
information within naturalistic inquiry; the activity focused strategy
was adopted because the goal of the study was to sample individuals
based on their engagement in the activity (i.e., site visitation rather
than geographical origin). Given this directive, the sample resulted
in 27 Caucasian participants, sixteen of whom were American while ele-
ven were internationals—Canadians and 1 Englishman (the site is sel-
dom frequented by ethnic minority). Twelve of the participants were
females and fifteen were males; the number of participants was guided
by the attainment of theoretical saturation (Patton 2002). They ranged
between the ages of 45 and 60 and possessed a high school and above
educational level. Although several of the American participants were
repeat tourists there was no apparent difference in interpretation or
significance attributed to the site in comparison to the new comers.
Tourists were interviewed after touring the site to ensure they had a
holistic view of the produced representations including the masternar-
rative offered by the state officiated docents. Interview questions
encompassed: What does this site represent to you? What significance
does it possess? Why should it be commemorated? Are there other ele-
ments that should be added to the overall narrative? If so, what are
they, and in what ways would these additions be beneficial? To ensure
trustworthiness of the data, measures were taken to seek clarification
during the interview, immediately after the interview and/or after
participants had completed the second sightseeing activity.
Narrative analysis was employed to aid the comprehension of the
interpretive processes entailed within the interview context. This ap-
proach allowed for the revelation of the narrative structures entailed
within social agents’ meaning making processes and the identification
of the narrative devices employed by individuals in recounting their
experiences (Polkinghorne 1988). The analysis commenced with a pro-
longed review of the interview transcripts with the goal of gaining an
understanding of the overall meanings while concurrently preserving
a holistic image (Hall 1975). This stage entailed identifying narrative
structures that aided participants in making sense of their experiences
and it also enabled the documentation of recurrent elements. All the
transcripts were iteratively reviewed from numerous horizontal passes,
which required not only (re)reading the interviews from beginning to
end, but also the assembling of narratives by themes (Coffey and
Atkinson 1996).
The coding procedure described by Miles and Huberman (1994) was
employed to identify emergent themes; within the theme identification
process, words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that were affiliated
with the same theme were clustered together, facilitating the classifica-
tion of the theme. Thus, via a thorough review and coding process, key
emergent themes were identified. Two overarching themes emerged:
446 C.N. Buzinde, C.A. Santos / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 439–458
that the Hampton slaves were better off. He, however, views the ceme-
tery—located at the entrance of the property—as a prime illustration
of the generosity that characterized the relationship between enslaved
and their enslavers.
. . . from what we heard Archibald’s ancestors were nice folk . . . they
were good to their servants, they tried to treat them well. Did ya’all
see the cemetery at the entrance, they gave up the huge prop-
erty . . . gave it to their workers so they could all be buried there. Nice
people like that were hard to come by in those days . . . and Archie
writes a lot about Sue [a former slave] ‘nd how nice she was.
Unlike Charlie, John does not make any reference to written docu-
ments to justify his stance but argues that enslavers on rice plantations
were more pleasant compared to those on cotton plantations. He fur-
ther legitimates slavery as munificent in his allusion that it led to the
creation of a unique black community. In general, the discourse struc-
ture adopted by participants in this category strategically avoided dis-
cussions of the contentions past, subsequently justifying its existence
based on its creation of a key historical artifact—the plantation; as well
as, the development of an African American culture which emerged
from the alleged munificent relationships between enslaved and
enslavers.
These participants articulated the site through narratives of wealth
and benevolence consequently drawing upon cogent images of collec-
tive memory. Furthermore, through nostalgic yearnings, they devised
discursive strategies which defended their American identity and
strengthened their link to the past. Their nostalgic motives can be
attributed to the uncertainty instigated by modernity (particular with
regards to issues of identity politics) which pushes social beings to seek
a certain level of stability, safety and originality from which to base their
sense of self (Halewood and Hannam 2001; Hewison 1987; Lowenthal
1985).
450 C.N. Buzinde, C.A. Santos / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 439–458
Nations people wasn’t the best but it can’t be compared to this with
the plantations and all. We were hoping to find out how the Africans
that were brought from Africa were, you know, treated and how they
helped build the place.
Given her relative lack of knowledge about American slave history,
Eunice sought to augment her awareness through the plantation visit
but was disappointed to discover that the issues she was interested in
and thought relevant were in fact not addressed. Overall, slavery and
race cognizance were not only filters through which participants viewed
the site, but also key motivators for travel. It should be noted that the
ease with which some visitors critiqued the site’s representation can
be attributed to their foreign status, as the following section illustrates.
saga. How can they overcome racism when American history still over-
looks the contribution of the blacks that were enslaved on this soil?
Overall, the findings indicate that foreign tourists, albeit mostly from
a neighboring country, viewed the site as a locale within which a dialog
on race and racial issues in America ought to take place. Furthermore,
they viewed it as a lesson to humanity, a perspective addressed in
Ashworth’s (2002) discussion of the reasons why society commemo-
rates historical events. Notably, the understanding that the plantation
era is a didactic moment in the nation’s history resonates with many
Americans. Such perspectives provide fertile ground on which to sow
cosmopolitan ideals such as the construction of the nation’s first mu-
seum on slavery—the United States National Slavery Museum in Fred-
ericksburg, Virginia. Even politicians, who once veered away from this
taboo topic, are incorporating it in campaign speeches, as was the case
with President Barack Obama. Numerous positive changes have indeed
occurred in America and continue to break ground however, reflecting
on the lapsed time since the abolition of slavery juxtaposed against the
present socio-political order, one is forced to reckon with the fact that
there is still a lot for society to collectively accomplish. Change can
commence within slavery tourism sites wherein open dialog has the
powerful ability to foster national and global healing.
CONCLUSION
This study sought to understand how preferred readings encoded
during production processes were decoded. Within this framework,
decodings were categorized as dominant, negotiated or oppositional
based on the degree of divergence from the original encoding (Hall
1980). The findings revealed evidence in support of the dominant
and oppositional frames. The absence of the negotiated frame is attrib-
uted to the fact that the participants were relatively removed from the
intricate socio-political nexus that defines the Hampton and its sur-
rounding community. Tourists who adopted a dominant frame acqui-
esced to the preferred reading while those who espoused an
oppositional approach opposed the dominant text. The site as a cul-
tural text was decoded by tourists based on the varying meaning struc-
tures and knowledge frameworks within which they were respectively
situated. In this sense, members within each group were viewed as
belonging to the same interpretive community wherein certain ele-
ments of a given cultural object or event were rendered meaningful
(Berkowitz and Terkeurst 1999). Each public was united through
shared mnemonic socialization, discursive strategies and collective
interpretations of the plantation and/or slavery.
In addition to the dominant ideologies promoted by various inter-
pretive communities, the act of interpretation is further complicated
by the notion of identity because, ‘‘to be a member of any human com-
munity is to situate oneself with regard to one’s past, if only by rejecting
it’’ (Olick and Robbins 1998:122). In fact, the articulation of a certain
cultural identity is often a key factor in the consumption of heritage
456 C.N. Buzinde, C.A. Santos / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 439–458
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VACATION AND
FAMILY FUNCTIONING
Xinran Y. Lehto
Purdue University, USA
Soojin Choi
Yong-In University, Korea
Yi-Chin Lin
National Kaohsiung Hospitality College, Taiwan
Shelley M. MacDermid
Purdue University, USA
Abstract: This study explores the unique interplay of family vacation travel, family cohesion,
and family communication through a sample of 265 family travelers. The results reveal that
family vacation contributes positively to family bonding, communication and solidarity. Fam-
ily interaction styles differ during the family leisure travel process. Two types of families are
identified differing on the dimension of cohesion, corresponding to separated and con-
nected families. Three types of families are identified differing on the dimension of adapta-
tion, corresponding to flexible, confused and structured families. This research represents an
attempt to use a unique theoretical framework to empirically assess family functioning in the
leisure travel setting. Keywords: family vacation, family functioning, family well-being, family
leisure, family adaptation and cohesion. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Despite changing family structures and demographics, family life con-
tinues to be important to Americans and family travel is perceived as an
important builder of family well-being (Chesworth 2003). Leisure travel
for families in many ways has become a necessity rather than a luxury.
According to a recent vacation survey conducted by Expedia.com
(2005), when Americans go on vacation, it is all about the family: A third
of respondents indicate that they spend most of their vacation time trav-
eling with their immediate family. The family travel market has grown
about 20% since 2001 according to a Travel Weekly family travel survey
(Travel Weekly 2005) and family vacations are _turning into a lucrative
niche for many travel businesses. Tourism practitioners including
459
460 X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479
hotels, cruise lines and resorts have responded to the growth of this
market by adding amenities, programs and activities designed specifi-
cally for families. Amidst the literature for vacation experience, how-
ever, family tourism has not received the same level of attention from
tourism researchers. The existing literature has mostly focused on
themes such as decision processes and roles (e.g., Seaton and Tagg
1995; Bohlmann and Qualls 2001; Mottiar and Quinn 2004; Decrop
2005), influences of parents and children (e.g., Kang, Hsu and Wolfe
2003), conflict resolution (e.g., Kang and Hsu 2005) and trip satisfac-
tion (e.g., Seaton and Tagg 1995; Gram 2005). While the practicality
of the focus on business or marketing perspectives is apparent, the fam-
ily as a travel consumption unit deserves broader scrutiny and has signif-
icant social implications. According to the Travel Industry Association
of America (2003), 86% of family vacationers believe that family leisure
travel plays an important role in maintaining family health, well-being
and lifestyle. The need to examine the linkages between family well-
being and family vacation has surged as particularly pertinent.
Most recently, the multitude of new technological advances such as mo-
bile technology and other communication services have drawn increasing
research attention to the structural changes in families and influences on
society at large induced by these technological factors (White and White
2007). While family vacation has traditionally been viewed as a unique
small group dynamic, where members in a family to a larger degree have
each other’s exclusive companionship and have minimal interference
from their usual life routines and social networks, the internet, cell phone
and other similar conveniences appear to have had a transforming effect
on how ‘‘home’’ and ‘‘away’’ are defined. White and White (2007) have
discovered that there has been a co-presence of ‘‘home’’ and ‘‘away’’ that
has had mixed consequences on tourists’ well-being. These changes fur-
ther underscore the importance of revisiting the family vacation dynamic,
its meaning, and its impact on family well-being. To date, insufficient
empirical research has been conducted with regard to the outcomes or
impact of family vacation experiences.
The impact of tourism, as a research subject, is not novel. It has
drawn substantial attention since the inception of tourism as a disci-
pline. Various theories and conceptual frameworks have been pro-
posed and empirically verified as to what the outcomes of tourism to
the destination communities and society at large may transpire. A large
quantity of research has focused on the positive and negative impacts
of tourism on destination communities (Cheong and Miller 2000;
McNaughton 2006; McKercher and Fu 2006 as some recent examples).
There has also been a recent surge of interest in examining the conse-
quences of leisure travel on individual tourists. Researchers have
started to assess leisure travel benefits on various tourist segments such
as seniors (e.g., Milman and Wei 2002) and patients (e.g., Hunter-
Jones 2005). The examination of the effects of tourism on the part
of the tourists has been somewhat intertwined with the concepts of
tourism motivations and the benefits sought from travel. This is prob-
ably because what initially motivates an individual to conduct leisure
travel is related to what this person expects to gain from a trip. While
X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479 461
the large body of tourism motivational theories has lent great insights
for understanding the types of benefits tourists seek and experiences
or services tourism organizations need to provide, the current frame-
works are largely contingent upon individuals as consumption units.
Rarely do these models consider the family as a unit. In the case of fam-
ily vacation, while each individual member may seek their own out-
comes, their individual experiences and benefits sought tend to be
intertwined with and influenced by other traveling family members.
Gram has pointed out that ‘‘when considering family holidays it must
be kept in mind that the family is a unit of individuals who seek expe-
riences together. However, criteria of what is relevant content and what
allows for immersion and absorption are not necessarily the same’’
(2005:6). Researchers note that systematic examinations of family as
a small group dynamic in terms of family holiday consumption and
vacation outcomes are relatively neglected. This neglect has been
due, on the one hand, to the emphasis in the field placed on under-
standing of individual tourism consumers. On the other hand, the dif-
ficulties in gathering family consumption data and lack of proven
measurements have also been cited as some of the challenges facing
researchers in this area (Commuri and Gentry 2000).
As such, family interaction, cohesion and well-being in the context of
family vacation are especially pertinent. This research focused on the
relatively neglected socializing and interactivity among family members
in the tourism setting. The purpose of the study was to examine the
interaction and communication dynamics of family members as well
as family bonding and functioning in the vacation context. To be more
specific, this study aimed at providing insights into: 1) how family
members connect with each other in vacation context; 2) how families
interact with the changing environment; and 3) how family members
interact with each other in the family system during vacation. A total
of 265 vacationing families served as the study subjects. It is important
to note that this family sample is purposive and convenient in nature.
These families are mostly two parent families and are relatively affluent
and mostly Caucasian. We acknowledge and address these limitations
in the final section of this paper.
dominant, and joint decision making, but family decision styles vary
depending on family situational dynamics and vacation types. Children,
wives, and past decision experiences seem to exert influences on family
decision making and satisfaction. Decrop (2005) contrasts formal
groups related by blood or marriage (e.g., couples and families) and
informal groups (e.g., friends). He notes that formal groups and infor-
mal groups make decisions in different ways and that children have
influence on what people chose to do on vacation. Seaton and Tagg
(1995) conclude that children’s involvement in the decision making
process can improve family vacation satisfaction. According to Darley
and Lim (1986), children have different levels of influence depending
on the type of leisure activities: family movie-attendance, family outing
(e.g., picnics), and family sports. They have also observed that the chil-
dren’s age has the strongest impact on parental perception of the chil-
dren’s influence. Mottiar and Quinn (2004) have found that although
joint decisions are dominant in the overall consumption process, wives
play a significant role in the early stage of the decision process by col-
lecting information for the household. The authors advocate that the
tourism industry should pay attention to women since they act as a
‘‘gatekeeper’’ for tourism products. Howard and Madrigal (1990) con-
clude that mothers shape the participation decision in the purchase of
public recreation services for their children; children then make their
final decisions about those programs based on their mother’s decision.
Another discussion point rests with group consensus and conflict in
family decision making. Kang and Hsu (2004, 2005) have investigated
spousal interpersonal-conflict and resolution modes in determining a
family vacation destination. The authors discover that information
gathering and family discussion induce higher levels of satisfaction
among couples. Teenage children sometimes play the role of informa-
tion gatherer when a family encounters conflict in selecting a vacation
destination. Bohlmann and Qualls (2001) identify two types of discon-
firmation that impact individual preferences arising from family inter-
action or discussion: informational disconfirmation and preference
disconfirmation. They have found that disconfirmation is a significant
explanatory factor for individual family member preferences and
household preference.
Family as a System
Orthner and Mancini (1991) posit that family system theory offers
potentially useful insights into relationships between leisure and family
variables. This theory assumes that families seek balance between
mutuality and differentiation. Because systems are made up of differ-
ent members, each with their own needs, this leads to a tendency for
systems to spin off differentiated system elements. At the same time,
family systems have boundaries that define the extent to which the sys-
tem will permit members to exit in the system or system products to
merge with those of other systems. In other words, a family bond
accommodates some differentiation between family members,
X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479 465
(1) Investigate how the family system works in the family travel context,
that is, how family members interact and bond with each other dur-
ing family vacation planning and the actual vacation;
(2) Understand the underlying dimensions of family cohesion and
adaptation in the family vacation context and compare those with
the classification schemes of Olson’s Marital and Family Systems;
and
466 X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479
Study Method
In order to understand the interface of leisure travel and family func-
tioning, purposive sampling methods were used. Family travelers were
targeted for the purpose of this study. The family traveler database of
one of the largest travel clubs based in the Midwest region of the Uni-
ted States was used. A travel club is a tourism business that provides
vacation services to its membership based customers. The survey time
frame was between March and July 2005 corresponding to the interval
when most family vacations occurred. A total of 314 families were in-
vited to fill out a self-administered survey by the travel club tour man-
agers. Each family was asked to fill out one questionnaire. A total of 265
valid questionnaires were returned, yielding an 84.4% response rate.
The survey instrument used in this study was composed of two main
sections: demographic information and the scale of Family Function
and Leisure Travel (FFLT), adopted from FACES II (Olson et al
1992). Demographic items included gender, household role (e.g.,
father, mother, daughter, son), age group, annual family income, eth-
nic origin, marital status, occupation, and education. The FFLT was
used to measure the cohesion and adaptation constructs in the family
travel context using a five-point scale (1 = almost never, 2 = once in a
while, 3 = sometimes, 4 = frequently, and 5 = almost always). The origi-
nal FACES II contains 30 items, 16 of which are related to cohesion
and 14 are about adaptation. The cohesion construct has seven dimen-
sions: emotional bonding, family boundaries, coalitions, time, space,
decision-making, and interests and recreation. The adaptation con-
struct possesses six dimensions: assertiveness, leadership, discipline,
negotiation, roles and rules. After some modifications to fit into the
travel context, 16 statement items were retained for assessing family
cohesion during the vacation experience and another 15 statement
items were used for measuring family adaptation. A few examples of
the cohesion measurement statements are: ‘‘Traveling together makes
our family ties stronger’’, ‘‘Family members feel close to each other
while traveling together’’ and ‘‘While traveling, family members share
interests and experiences with each other.’’(Table 1 contains all 16
items used to measure the cohesion construct). A few examples of
the adaptation items are ‘‘When planning a trip, family members say
what they want’’, ‘‘In my family, there is less discipline of children than
usual while on family vacation’’ and ‘‘When planning a trip, family
members are afraid to say what is on their minds’’ (Table 2 contains
all 15 items used to measure the adaptation construct).
The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 for Windows.
Descriptive statistics were used to profile the characteristics of the sam-
pled family travelers. Principle components analyses with varimax rota-
tion were computed to identify the factors underlying the cohesion
and adaptation constructs respectively. Exploratory factor analyses
X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479 467
Factor 2:Assertiveness
When planning a trip, family members .81 4.29
say what they want
It is easy for everyone to express his/her .74 4.32
opinion while traveling together
When planning a trip, family members .71 1.51
are afraid to say what is on their minds
In my family, it is easy for everyone to .64 4.18
express his/her opinion when
planning a trip
Eigen value = 2.71, Variance explained = 16.61%, Cronbach’s a = 0.78
Factor 3:Leadership/Syncretism
In planning a trip, the children’s .76 3.27
suggestions are followed
Each family member has input regarding .75 3.99
major travel decisions
In my family, everyone shares .63 2.97
responsibilities when planning a trip
Eigen value = 1.21, Variance explained = 13.15%, Cronbach’s a = 0. 67
Factor 4:Negotiation
My family tries new ways of dealing with .74 2.66
problems while traveling together
On vacation, family members make .73 3.74
compromises when problems arise
While traveling, family members discuss .57 3.66
problems and feel good about the
solutions
Eigen value = 1.05, Variance explained = 11.67%, Cronbach’s a = 0.57
Eight of the above ten cohesion items are related to the emotional
bonding concept. Traveling with family appears to be perceived as
quality time well spent, strengthening family ties and contributing to
connectedness of family members. In other words, the respondents be-
lieve that leisure travel can play a role in enhancing or sustaining rela-
tionships between family members. This finding is consistent with
previous literature on the role of family leisure on family ties (Davidson
1996). Two other items (#8 and #10) are related to the concept of coa-
lition. It appears that family members tend to form group consensus
and share common experiences during family vacation.
The sampled families ranked the following family adaptation items
more positively:
solving solutions (#5 and #6). Individual and the children’s input ap-
pear to be taken into account for vacation planning and decision mak-
ing (#4 and #8). This result is consistent with previous researchers’
sentiments that joint decision making with input from children is the
more popular decision making style (Kang and Hsu 2004, 2005). Over-
all, family communication is perceived as important for family mem-
bers at the vacation planning stage and during the actual family
vacation. Family communication is perceived as well facilitated through
this shared leisure experience.
With respect to factor analysis of the cohesion construct, its 16
items yielded three factors, which explained about 56% of the vari-
ance (Table 1). After examining the measurement items under each
factor, these three factors were named as: ‘‘emotional bonding
(a = 0.89)’’, ‘‘family boundaries (a = 0.78)’’, ‘‘coalitions and decision
making/functional bonding (a = 0.68)’’ respectively. Comparing the
resulting three factors with the theoretical concepts of cohesion,
items of the family boundaries factor were completely consistent with
the findings of Olson, Russell and Sprenkle (1983). However, two
originally separated concepts with respect to ‘‘emotional bonding’’
and ‘‘time’’ were merged into one factor, emotional bonding. More-
over, while coalition and decision-making were two different concepts
according to Olson, in this study they were merged into one factor as
‘‘coalition and decision-making/functional bonding’’. Results showed
that the total internal consistency of the cohesion construct was an
acceptable 0.80.
Four factors related to the adaptation construct were derived from
15 items, explaining about 60% of variance (Table 2). These four fac-
tors were labeled as ‘‘discipline and rules (a = 0.78)’’, ‘‘assertiveness
(a = 0.78)’’, ‘‘leadership or syncretism (a = 0.67)’’, and ‘‘negotiation
(a = 0.57).’’ Regarding the four resulting factors of adaptation, the
items of the assertiveness and negotiation factors were completely
consistent with the items of the two respective constructs developed
by Olson et al (1983). The factor of ‘‘discipline and rules’’ included
the items originating from three different concepts. Two items were
from the original FASE II ‘‘discipline’’ concept (‘‘We have different
approaches to discipline children while traveling as a family’’ and
‘‘In my family, there is less discipline of children than usual while
on vacation’’). Another two items were from the ‘‘rules’’ concept
(‘‘While traveling, the rules in my family are not clear’’ and ‘‘While
traveling, the rules in my family change’’). The final item was from
the original ‘‘roles’’ concept (‘‘In my family, the roles of family mem-
bers change while on vacation’’). The items of the leadership/syncre-
tism factor contained two items originating from the FASE II
leadership concept (‘‘In planning a trip, the children’s suggestions
are followed’’ and ‘‘Each family member has input regarding major
travel decisions’’) and one item from the original ‘‘roles’’ concept
(‘‘In my family, everyone shares responsibilities when planning a
trip’’). The results showed that the total internal consistency of adap-
tation was an acceptable 071.
472 X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479
decisions with each other both during trip planning as well as during
the actual vacation. There was no significant difference between cluster
1 (Flexible) and 3 (Structured) in the assertiveness and leadership
dimensions. With respect to cluster 2 (Confused), members exhibited
moderate discipline and rules during family vacation, but tended to
feel uneasy about expressing their opinions or make suggestions to
their family members either during trip planning or the actual
vacation.
CONCLUSION
This study has empirically examined the usefulness of family travel as
a means to enhance family functioning. The results indicate that vaca-
tion activities provide unique opportunities for interaction among fam-
ily members, as well as for interaction of the family system with its
changing environment. This interaction offers new input, energy,
and motivation needed for continued family system development
(Orthner and Mancini 1991). Furthermore, it facilitates the flow of
information through the system, creates memorable experiences for
archival comparisons, and provides a context for ongoing monitoring
of its members’ functioning. The vacation-induced exchanges within a
family and between a family and the environment provide useful
empirical validation to Fridgen’s (1984) observation of linkages be-
tween tourism and environmental psychology.
Although a number of scholars have proposed, implicitly or explicitly,
that family holiday making may foster family bonding and relieve stress,
the relationship of vacation and family functioning has been a subject of
relatively insufficient research. A noticeable amount of discussion on
family vacation benefits is speculative and lacks empirical evidence. This
research, while exploratory in nature, offers empirical evidence regard-
ing the unique interplay between the family vacation and family func-
tioning. This research also is a first attempt towards developing and
establishing a measurement scale of Family Function and Leisure Travel
(FFLT). Overall, the results indicate that family vacation contributes
positively to family bonding, communication and solidarity. The find-
ings provide support for the theoretical link between family leisure tra-
vel and family functioning. From the perspective of cohesion, this
research indicates that family leisure travel promotes bonding. With re-
gard to adaptability, family travel plays a role in facilitating family com-
munication. This research further indicates that family functioning
styles and types are varied in the vacation context. To a large extent,
the results confirm the elements of the cohesion and adaptation con-
structs proposed by Olson’s family circumplex model. Although test-ret-
est reliability and content validity studies of the FFLT instrument are
needed for construct validity, this study represents a beginning step to-
wards empirically examining the family communication and bonding
dynamic in light of family vacation.
The role of family holiday making in the research arena of family
time warrants deliberations. American families intensely feel the
474 X.Y. Lehto et al. / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 459–479
Limitations
While the results of this research provide an initial investigation into the
dynamic elements of family functions in the tourism context, it should be
kept in mind, that this sample includes only families with financial re-
sources and interests in taking leisure trips and therefore represents a
selective group of households. A potential pitfall is that this research does
not address the evolution of family structure in recent years such as in-
creases in single parent households and recomposed families. These fac-
tors could have major impact on vacation patterns and family functioning.
A related limitation lies in the fact that the sample includes only relatively
affluent and mostly Caucasian families. All these families were from the
same traveling club. Caution must be excised in generalizing these results
given the nature of our sampled population. A third limitation of this re-
search is that the study is cross-sectional and evaluative rather than longi-
tudinal or observational; the direction of relationship between family
bonds and family leisure travel could be questioned (Holman and Jacqu-
art 1988). Another similar challenge is that the structured survey ap-
proach utilized for this research. While being able to better quantify
family vacation and interaction dynamic, this approach can potentially
risk falling into the trap of not being able to discern between ideals of fam-
ily togetherness and the actual practices of family vacationing. To combat
these uncertainties, future study should and can be designed using a
short-term longitudinal approach. A final limitation of the current study
is our measurement of family functioning dynamics in terms of the family
as a whole on the basis of the perspective of just one family member. Fu-
ture study on this topic, when possible, should adopt an approach to incor-
porate multiple family members’ perspectives.
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM—‘‘INVOLVE
ME AND I WILL LEARN’’?
Harng Luh Sin
National University of Singapore, Singapore
INTRODUCTION
Harng Luh Sin is currently a PhD candidate in Royal Holloway, University of London
(Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. Email:<h.l.sin@rhul.ac.uk>). Her research interests are on
travel and tourism geographies, particularly on pro-poor, responsible, and volunteer tourism.
She has conducted fieldwork in Northern Vietnam, Cambodia and South Africa for her
previous dissertations and research for this paper was conducted during her Masters degree
in the National University of Singapore.
480
H.L. Sin / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 480–501 481
Study Methods
As elaborated on earlier, I had joined the team, Action Africa, as a
full member, and was involved throughout the 26 day expedition to
South Africa no differently from the other members of the team. I
486 H.L. Sin / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 480–501
1. Social issues they observed in South Africa, for example, the high rate
of unemployment, drugs, violence, AIDS, apartheid, racial issues, and
South African youths and their aspirations.
2. How does their volunteering in South Africa help? For example, did
their volunteering actually make a difference to the people in
Melkhoutfontein?
3. Team bonding activities. Games and various activities were conducted
to get to know other participants better.
H.L. Sin / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 480–501 487
To the leader of the team however, the motive ‘‘to travel’’ was re-
lated to his desire to immerse in foreign cultures and to experience
something very novel. He relates,
I initiated the project because I wanted to experience how Africa was
truly like instead of all the simple stereotypes. And after taking the
class on Africa and hearing the experiences of the Professor, I feel
that the only way to truly understand what Africa truly was, was to
see it myself (interview in 2004).
The volunteering activity during the trip was thus seen as a means to
better understand local contexts or to develop personal relationships
with hosts, making the experience a more ‘‘authentic’’ encounter with
what ‘‘Africa truly was’’.
‘‘To travel’’ therefore encapsulates differing motivations and de-
sires even between a small group of 11 volunteer tourists. Common
amongst these desires however, is the notion that travel is a means
in which youths ‘‘stretch out beyond the local to draw in places
from around the globe’’ (Desforges 1998:176). Participants’ motiva-
tions showed that some had viewed volunteer tourism as an oppor-
tunity to perform the desired identities of one who is well-traveled
beyond conventional destinations, and who knows and understands
the world. Indeed, Munt argued that ‘‘traveling has emerged as an
important informal qualification with the passport acting, so to
speak, as professional certification; a record of achievement and
experience’’ (Munt 1994:112). The clear domination of wanting
‘‘to travel’’ among participants thus shows the desire to gain cultural
capital through the collection of knowledge and experience in vol-
unteer tourism, and to perform desired identities that will in turn
secure ‘‘entry to the privileges of work, housing and lifestyle’’
(Desforges 1998:177).
Personally I feel that I’m a bit of both. When I’m doing my community
service, I see myself as a volunteer but after the community service
phase, I would see myself more as a tourist than a volunteer although
I wouldn’t hesitate to tell people that the reason why I am in South Africa is to
volunteer. Because I feel that it is very important when you volunteer to
also understand other aspects of the country and to get a more holistic view of
the country then just simply seeing a part of the country that is in des-
perate need of help, and overlooking all else in the country (interview
in 2004, author’s emphasis).
Volunteering is thus largely seen as an activity that was beneficial to
both host-communities and to the volunteers themselves. At least for
this group of respondents, their motivations to participate in volunteer
tourism are not outwardly centred on contributing to the host-
communities.
who helped him expedite his legal claims for public housing] (Inter-
view in 2004).
While Betsy did not specify if it was the act of volunteering or the in-
depth immersion with working in a local township that brought about
such thoughts, it can be observed that through her volunteer tourism
experiences in South Africa, Betsy was able to connect her impressions
of places and issues with what she was doing back in Singapore. She
outwardly expressed that her experience in South Africa had a pro-
found impact on her attitude towards her studies and future career.
She also conveyed that she was only beginning to grasp the impact
of her experience. Giddens refers to such encounters of anxiety and
opportunity as ‘‘fateful moments’’ (1991), or ‘‘significant points of
transition in people’s lives where reflexivity is heightened because deci-
sions have to be made about the self and self-actualization that will
have repercussions for self-identity and lifestyle for a considerable
number of years ahead’’ (Desforges 2000:935). In this instance, Betsy
was also subtly ‘‘othering’’ her peers back home, insinuating that
through her volunteer tourism experience, she had gained awareness
and perception that cannot be achieved by an individual ‘‘coming
from Singapore’’ and not venturing beyond these ‘‘prim and proper’’
boundaries.
Jacky, on the other hand, took in his new understanding of places by
relating and comparing what he saw in South Africa, with Singapore.
When confronted by ‘‘others’’ who are different from himself, he be-
came more self-critical and began to evaluate his own behaviours in dif-
ferent situations. He shares:
what is more salient to me is perhaps the team dynamics and the
behaviour and the culture that we bring here ourselves, when viewed
in contrast to the locals. . . they were very friendly and as Singaporeans
we are generally very unfriendly, very reserved, and very private but
these South Africans. . . they are very interested in knowing people dif-
ferent from them. . . and it is impressive that they are so interested in
the diversity that the world has to offer, coming from such a history of
oppression. . . I think that is something that is quite lacking in Singap-
oreans who are more apathetic and we do not care much about other
cultures. . . (Discussion with team in 2004).
Here, Jacky questions Singaporeans’ attitude towards diversity and
finds the curiosity displayed by the South Africans to be highly
impressive. He questions the values and behaviours of himself and
other Singaporeans through this encounter with the ‘‘other’’, and
engages in the inward negotiation of his ‘‘self’’ in comparison to
the South African ‘‘other’’ who was seen to be appreciative and
empathetic.
Another volunteer tourist, Jane, shared her personal experience of
an internal self-actualization and change. She reflected that
it’s not something that tangible, it’s changed me in certain ways. It’s
quite hard to say. . . the most important thing is that the way I see life
has changed. In the past I see it as something that you just go
through, but when I come here I see that actually part of life is also
H.L. Sin / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 480–501 493
CONCLUSION
Through an in-depth study of 11 volunteer tourists from Singapore,
this article has highlighted various observations about volunteer tour-
ists’ motivations, performances, as well as the tensions and paradoxes
in volunteer tourism. Interestingly, this study has found that at least
among those interviewed, motivating factors for volunteer tourists were
‘‘to travel’’ rather than ‘‘to contribute’’ or volunteer. Volunteering in
the local community was also but one of the many means of travelling
to different destinations to ‘‘learn about local cultures’’ or to ‘‘go be-
yond superficial tour packages where you don’t see how people really
live’’ (interviews with Betsy, Jacky, and Stephen in 2004). In the section
on performances in volunteer tourism, it was also revealed that volun-
teer tourism was often used as an experience (often reflected in re-
sumes and casual conversations with friends and acquaintances)
which volunteer tourists used to perform a ‘‘self’’ suggesting that he
or she was a conscious and worldly tourist or individual.
This emphasis on the ‘‘self’’ is perhaps already acknowledged in an
understated manner among many involved in organizing volunteer
tourism. However, instead of leaving such emphasis on the ‘‘self’’ in
the background, it is important to realize upfront that many volunteer
tourists are typically more interested in fulfilling objectives relating to
the ‘‘self’’. This puts away the altruistic perception of volunteer tourism
and allows one to critically assess the nature of volunteer tourism much
like any other form of tourism—whether considered as mass or alterna-
tive tourism. Indeed, the section on tensions and paradoxes in volun-
teer tourism highlights the tensions between the differing objectives
between funding bodies, versus those of the volunteer tourists them-
selves. In summary, this paper elucidated that volunteer tourism could
indeed be reinforcing negative stereotypes of aid-recipients as inferior
or less-able through the process of ‘‘othering’’ by volunteer tourists.
Also, if volunteer tourism continues to be organized in an apolitical
manner that neglects critical engagement with issues of democracy
and active citizenship, it could easily fail to achieve its purported inten-
tions of being ‘‘pro-poor’’ or addressing social inequalities.
Continual and critical reviews of volunteer tourism are thus needed
as it emerges with growing popularity. Indeed, tourism forms have
been and will continue to tend towards addressing social and environ-
mental ‘‘responsibilities’’ and it is vital for tourism researchers to dwell
in detail on the complex issues encountered by tourists, locals at host
communities, and businesses or private organizations providing such
responsible tourism options. It is hoped that this study has addressed
one of the many angles in volunteer tourism and have provided inter-
esting insights on the individuals’ experience in volunteer tourism.
This paper, however, is but a starting point for further research and dis-
cussion. Most importantly, more research focusing on the perspectives
of the aid-recipients of volunteer tourism is needed. Further research
could, for example explore the power relations arising from volunteer
tourism within host-communities, especially in terms of the relations
between funding organizations and local partners in host-communi-
498 H.L. Sin / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 480–501
Acknowledgements—The author would like to thank A/P Chang Tou Chuang for his supervi-
sion and support of this research project. This study was funded by the National University
of Singapore.
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INTRODUCTION
International education is a major export industry at university level,
with fierce competition among the key markets of the United King-
dom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia (Ryan and Carroll 2005).
Since 1997, the number of international students studying in the
United Kingdom has soared, and their recruitment by British universi-
ties has steadily grown; within the UK context, international students
constitute 13% of the total student population (318,000), though the
percentage varies across institutions (UKCOSA 2006). In 2006, then-
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the second phase of an
initiative to promote British HE following the success of his 1999 pro-
gram, which set an original target of 75,000 additional international
students and was comfortably exceeded. The second initiative urged
British universities to build overseas partnerships that would help them
502
L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521 503
LITERATURE REVIEW
The impact of tourism on the destination and on residents is well
documented; however there has been much less attention paid to
the process of change undergone by the tourist (Hottola 2004; Fletcher
2005). According to Hampton (2007), this is the neglected dimension
of tourism impact analysis. As Furnham (1984) and Hottola (2004)
point out, the sojourner adjustment literature can be used to under-
stand how tourism can act as a catalyst for change in the tourist’s out-
look and in their behaviour following their time away from the origin
culture, although both authors complain that there is little cross-over
between the two fields. The majority of sojourner adjustment research
has been conducted into an easily accessible international student
population; the theories that have been tested and developed in this
literature have been subsequently applied to other sojourner groups,
504 L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521
betray a desire to distance themselves from the mass tourist: the hall-
marks of the long-stay tourist are openness, flexibility and tolerance
(Muzaini 2006; O’Reilly 2006). The outcome of cultural change in
the tourist/sojourner tends to increase in line with the acceptance
shown towards new cultural norms and practices (Berry 1994;
Gudykunst 1998). Meanwhile, distance from the home culture is
sufficient to promote change in personal self-construal; the longer
the sojourn, the more embedded the new self can become (Kim
2001; Hayes 2007). It should be observed however that the extent
and type of change experienced by the sojourner are a function of
variable cultural, environmental and personal characteristics (see Berry
1994; Kim 2001).
settings and conditions (Daymon and Holloway 2002). The setting for
this research was chosen for the researcher’s ability to transfer the find-
ings to similar settings, that is, Higher Education institutions in the UK
that recruit international postgraduate students, and also to similar ac-
tors, that is, international postgraduates on a one-year intensive Mas-
ters programme. It is possible to infer that such students may well
face a similar experience to participants in this study, with modifica-
tions according to differing external circumstances and personality dif-
ferences. The review of the literature on adjustment reflects many of
this study’s findings, and points to a common experience among inter-
national sojourners. The present paper aims to use the experience of
international students to sensitise readers to the possible experiences
of international tourists, and it adds its voice to calls for dedicated re-
search into the tourist experience.
I believe that this multicultural experience will teach us that people are as
unique and right in their values, beliefs or behaviours as we ourselves are.
Indonesian student
It was understood that their cross-cultural experience could have
long-term consequences for intergroup relations. The dynamic link be-
tween individual and society was appreciated; that cultural learning
influences both sojourner and their immediate social circle was widely
acknowledged. Attitudinal change was irrevocable; it would outlast the
sojourn, and would carry implications for future business and interper-
sonal relationships, its impact extending beyond the individual con-
cerned. Indeed, cross-cultural contact had not only transformed
students into global citizens but the acquisition of culture-specific skills
had also enhanced their employability, equipping them to operate in
an increasingly globalised working environment. Indeed, this is a no-
tion that is shared by international industry experts (Westwood and
Barker 1999; Cushner and Mahon 2002), with reference not only to
international students but also to the growing gap-year market (Inkson
and Myers 2003; O’Reilly 2006).
and rituals associated with home and security, individuals come face to
face with ‘disturbing existential questions’ and the threat of personal
meaninglessness (ibid).
Taiwanese student
Independence, stress and strength were positively linked; the word
strong was frequently used to describe changes in the self that had re-
sulted from the resolution of stress. The sojourn was viewed as a testing
but life-changing event; it was common to hear students say they would
be better wives and mothers because of their improved capacity to bear
stress. This was articulated by the Korean and Iranian students (respec-
tively) who overcame the challenge of balancing motherhood and
academic life:
Yeah, I can do it, first my kids and study! If I get over it, I become stronger.
I am stronger than before. I am better than before.
L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521 511
This study therefore supports the claims made for the mastery of cri-
sis that is inherent in transition to increase resilience and coping capa-
bility (e.g., Kim 1988; Giddens 1991). There is a thin line between an
experience that threatens and strengthens the self, however, and on
the other hand, the Iranian student confessed that the life of a single
parent student was too hard, that it had almost broken her, proving
that the sojourn has the capacity to undermine as well as build
character:
I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to go through these things again. I
have had enough, it was too much to tolerate.
Painful life events might provide the foundation for personal growth,
but she didn’t feel that this justified the personal cost. According to
Giddens (1991), loss and self-actualisation are intertwined; if an indi-
vidual risks entering a transition in life, they will face stress, but they
will develop internal strength as a result. This delicate balance is re-
flected in this study as students veered between debilitation and pride
in their ability to cope, and some would swap a strengthened internal
capacity for a less stressful emotional life. The stressful nature of tran-
sition is possibly irrelevant to tourism in that gappers tend to be youn-
ger and unattached (Muzaini 2006), whilst the other growing market
for long-stay tourism is constituted by older people (Ritchie et al
2003; Hampton 2007) who may be similarly unburdened by domestic
constraints.
in tears. In May, she found out that her father was dying of cancer.
Finding herself far away from home, not being able to support her par-
ents and not knowing whether or not her father would survive until she
returned to Taiwan was agonising:
(Crying.) It hurts his body, so he’s weak now. I feel I am useless because I
can’t do anything for them. If I could just stay with him, I would feel better.
June 12
Her dad has deteriorated badly, the doctors don’t know if it’s treatable. She was
crying as she spoke, streams of tears down her face, had to fetch toilet paper for
her. Said it’s the hardest time of her life, she feels helpless, as her parent don’t
keep her informed, they don’t want her to worry. I feel helpless in front of her
grief.
June 30
Powerlessness and anxiety are common reactions to serious illness in a
loved one (Kritek 1997), but these emotions were understandably mag-
nified by geographical distance. Giving up her course was not an option,
given the financial sacrifices already made in order to study abroad, but
her absence was a heavy burden. Given that the motivation for educa-
tional tourism is to gain a qualification, it is more likely that students will
have no choice but to endure any hardship faced during their stay,
whereas tourists whose plans are less fixed may enjoy more flexibility.
Nevertheless, it is possible that a return home is unfeasible and a similar
endurance test may be faced. Indeed, Inkson and Myers (2003) point to
increased resilience as one of the benefits of long-stay tourism.
those who proposed to change their old life: their evaluation had taken
place under conditions that prevailed in the host not the origin cul-
ture; there might be a mismatch between their expectations and the
receptivity of their home society.
The Slovenian interviewee made a similar critique of her former
work ethic; following a period of reflection afforded by the sojourn,
she made a commitment to achieve a work/life balance upon her
return:
On your year abroad you have to ask yourself what is not right. I think I appre-
ciate this free time, so now I think I can make a perspective on work. When I go
back, I hope I change this so that I will be clever enough not to repeat this mis-
take again of spending hours, unpaid hours, for no-one to really appreciate. I
worked really hard in every job I get. Now I’ve had time to reflect on that.
Breaking a negative pattern of behaviour would be a significant step,
and it would not have occurred without the objective view on her for-
mer life that was provided by distance. Depending on reactions in the
professional community, such transformation could have important
implications for emotional and physical well-being: this study therefore
echoes the call made by Martin and Harrell (2004) for research into
the attitudes of colleagues of returning professionals. Extended tourist
trips may equally lead to feelings of dissatisfaction with pre-departure
work and careers; indeed the successful re-assimilation of returnees
is noted by Martin and Harrell (2004) and Hampton (2007) as a signif-
icant Human Resource Management problem.
A similar change in outlook between the beginning and end of the
sojourn was the Thai interviewee’s rejection of a career choice dictated
by her family, one that she had initially, albeit reluctantly, accepted. To
a home student, the following simple statement might be a common
expression of uncertainty over their future career:
I still keep thinking about what I’m going to do after I finish the course.
This statement was qualified however by reference to a pull between
the individual and the family that would not be so common in individ-
ualist culture:
I know that my family need me to help them but I need to go on my way.
The willingness to prioritise the individual over the group marked a
fundamental shift, representing a break from the norm for obedience
in collectivist society to family (Hofstede 1991). This was reflected in
the contrasting emotional reactions of depression at the start of the so-
journ over a feeling of inescapability to elation in September 2004
when she started to talk about finding my own path:
Making decisions and planning things yourself, deciding yourself what is
going to come next. If I can change, I will. I cannot figure it out right now.
Whereas in September 2003, she felt a prisoner of destiny, a word she
used frequently to refer to a life she had no control over, one year later,
she was using language that reflected an evolution towards autonomy,
thereby calling into question not only family loyalty but also a concept
that is fundamental to eastern religion. According to Giddens (1991),
514 L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521
Separation had acted to return the couple to a time in life when they
viewed and valued the other as separate beings, before routine and
conformity had taken hold. The ability to express long-withheld opin-
ion was empowering, and it restored intimacy. However, the concept of
assertiveness, which Furnham (1979) defines as the proper expression
of any emotion other than anxiety toward another person, is a culture
bound and specifically North American attribute. In many other cul-
tures, asserting oneself in the way that is normative in the US and parts
of Europe is neither encouraged nor tolerated, especially in women
(Martin and Harrell 2004). Therefore, a change in culturally-defined
wifely behaviour would not necessarily meet approval, and this student
was perhaps fortunate in her husband’s positive reception to commu-
nication differences. Indeed, it might be more common that female
sojourners have to lose the mantle of emancipation if marital tension
is to be avoided.
Posing a further challenge to traditional norms was the vow made by
married students to renegotiate their domestic role and the allocation
of tasks upon their return. Reluctance to resume the demanding role
of wife (and mother) was attributed to a change in expectations follow-
ing both observation of the equality in the UK and extended reflection
on their domestic workload before the sojourn started. Indeed, accord-
ing to Martin and Harrell (2004), female returnees tend to experience
more stress upon re-entry than men, especially if the sojourn has been
in a country whose gender roles are less restrictive. As Hofstede (2001)
points out, the masculinity-femininity dimension affects how families
develop role differences between boys and girls, and the gap varies
by country. Nevertheless, students were hopeful that their absence
might have provoked some evolution in attitude towards domestic la-
bour, as the Taiwanese interviewee explained:
In Chinese society, usually women do everything. But I think it’s different here.
I always compare like that. When I come to study here, everything he does alone,
so when I go back, maybe there will be some progress. He says he appreciates
what I have to do for him.
This hope is not naı̈ve; indeed Bamber (2007) has coined the term
transformation by proxy to describe the changes in attitude and behav-
iour effected in or imposed on immediate friends and family in the ori-
gin culture (his study refers to VSO returnees). In this study,
resocialisation had taken place at home, involving the assumption of
the domestic role in their spouse’s absence, and this might lead to will-
ingness to accept shared responsibility, given the link between mun-
dane activities and attitudinal change that has been previously
observed. As Atkins and Bowler (2001) state, gender roles and defini-
tions are flexible and dynamic, and are therefore open to change: a
new approach to domestic life was not out of the question.
Going Home: A New Beginning. The vow that life would be different
upon re-entry was dulled by awareness that realigning students’ new
self with the home culture might be problematic. The final interview
revealed unanimous concern over implementing changes in a freshly
516 L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521
Russian student
Aged 21, this was the first time in her life that this student did not
need to defer to parental authority: the freedom afforded by the so-
journ could therefore be viewed as a product of removal from family
life as well as the immersion in a culture, where individuality is prized
over conformity. Indeed, the cultivation of an individualistic outlook
was commonly observed. As previously noted, independence and self-
reliance are themes of individualism, as is priority of the self. Could
it be that a society high in individualism gave students the freedom
to do as they pleased?
I feel I accept something in your culture, which I didn’t like before, I think the
distance between me and my culture is a bit bigger now, and between me and
English culture a bit more closer. I don’t bother myself now.
Iranian student
I don’t care what people think now. I am reluctant now to please someone.
Chinese student
The elevation of self-direction over public opinion was a new devel-
opment; however, such an attitude would be met with hostility in col-
lectivist society, where expression of individuality is not so widely
accepted (Triandis, Bontempo and Villareal 1988). Perhaps self-
responsibility necessitated a distancing from others, but for students
re-entering the home country, such fundamental change might not
be acceptable. The journey was not over until they had negotiated
the return to their old home world. Evolution in attitudes and behav-
iour may not necessarily be accommodated at home; reluctance to re-
turn to the old self may not be the prelude to life-enhancing change.
The anxiety among returning students over the accommodation of
their new values and behaviours points to conflict between the new
and the home cultures. Unless sojourners become successful in moving
fluidly between different life worlds, they might be compelled to un-
dergo the painful and conflicting process of unlearning the new norms
and values absorbed during their journey through a new culture.
Sojourners are in the unique position that the outcome of the sojourn
is only life-enhancing if positive change can be maintained at home. A
change in attitudes may not be easily tolerated if it implies a threat to
L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521 517
CONCLUSION
This paper has shown that the international sojourn has the power to
effect a growth in intercultural competence, as well as a shift in self-
understanding, with long-term implications for personal and profes-
sional life. Such change is the result of exposure to diversity and of
the geographical and emotional distance from the home environment.
The findings of this study undermine the claim made by Ward et al
(2001) that change is more evident among younger sojourners, includ-
ing gap-year tourists, whose socialisation is incomplete, as all students,
regardless of age, underwent fundamental personal change. It also
contradicts the link made by Sussman (2002) between cultural identi-
fication and change: even those who were highly identified with their
nationality and culture experienced a movement in self-concept. It
can be construed that during transition, sojourners are faced with
the fundamental existential question about what constitutes the self.
Todres (2002) argues that although this existential question is affected
by culture and exposure to cultural differences, it is essentially transcul-
tural. The apparent absence of a link between cultural origin and
change in self indicates that change appeared to result from removal
from routine and transfer to a new role. The self was shown to be devel-
opmental, but there was no clear association between type of change
and nationality or culture. Transition offered the foundation for re-
evaluation, for freedom from cultural and familial expectations and
for self-discovery that routine tends to prohibit. It is therefore logical
to suggest that such change will also be experienced by long-stay tour-
ists who are similarly displaced from both the origin culture and every-
day routine. The transformative power of the international sojourn is
captured in Figure 1. It is shown that, depending on environmental
receptivity, the sojourn has the capacity to produce life-enhancing
change upon re-entry. However, if the home culture environment does
518 L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521
Challenging
stereotypes;
developing
Developing an tolerance and Confronting
international sensitivity the cultural
perspective; aspect of self;
losing the acquiring a
ethnocentric relativist
focus approach
Testing Intercultural
reserves of learning;
strength; becoming
building a new One year marketable;
capacity for later: the becoming
stress peaceable
end of the
sojourn
Becoming Discovering
independent; priorities;
taking control finding the
of life authentic self
not tolerate these changes, frustration may result. There are possible
parallels to be made between the international student and long-stay
tourist markets in that both types of visitor to the new culture are often
motivated to adjust to the local culture for a temporary period and to
learn culture-specific skills. The prolonged absence from the home
environment and exposure to new cultural norms and ways of behaving
and relating can result in profound changes in cultural and personal
outlook that have implications for the future of both the tourist and
society, if we are to accept that a growth in intercultural competence
is beneficial to global relations. It is hoped that research on the impact
of long-stay tourism will encourage greater understanding of this grow-
ing market in the tourism industry: as MINTEL (2008) suggests, the
global gap year market is set to increase significantly in coming years,
with a trend for more flexible working practices allowing professionals
to take extended leave and sabbaticals to embark on Round The
World/backpacking trips. In addition, it will provide multinational
companies with a better understanding of the change which can occur
during the international sojourn, with potential impacts on their
recruitment and selection procedures.
L. Brown / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 502–521 519
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RESEARCH NOTE
Heritage Tourism—Current
Resource for Conflict
Yaniv Poria
Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Gregory Ashworth
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
522
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 523
regards heritage tourism as visits to spaces which are classified, authorized, and
authenticated as heritage. The heritage on show may be part of world or local her-
itage, but it must be a heritage that visitors feel is relevant to them more than to
others. Heritage tourism is approached here as the final stage of the heritagization
process, a social process whose final outcome is the presentation and interpretation
(rather than archiving or sustaining) of heritage or even demolishing. Heritagiza-
tion is at the core of heritage tourism, while conservation and preservation are
the core of cultural tourism. Heritagization is a process in which heritage is used
as a resource to achieve certain social goals. One of its main goals is establishing
solidarity among members of a group (national, religious, social, etc.), by high-
lighting the differences between them and others so that this differentiation will
legitimize a certain social order. This approach is common in studies about collec-
tive memory and its presentation (Smith 2006). However, it differs from Walsh’s
(1992) interpretation of this term in the tourism literature. In tourism, heritagiza-
tion usually refers to the conversion of cultural resources and their mass customiza-
tion into globalized products (Inglis and Holmes 2003). As approached here,
heritagization is not about the past but about the use (and abuse) of the past to
educate—and at times inculcate—the public. While preservation and conservation
is about saving and protecting a ‘‘real objective past,’’ heritagization is at times inten-
tionally based on an invented, hidden, as well as a purposely chosen past. Addition-
ally, heritagization centers on ideas and ideological frameworks in contrast to
preservation and conservation which focus on objects (sustaining, repairing, restor-
ing, and even reconstructing them). In heritagization, history is captured as com-
pleted, something that belongs to the inhabitants of the present who can choose
how to interpret and use it to their advantage. Additionally, in heritagization,
the general public (and not experts or semi-experts) must perceive the visit expe-
rience itself as authentic, and for that reason even fake objects can be used. Thus,
conservation aims at cultural enrichment, while preservation adds aesthetic appre-
ciation. Heritagization, for which heritage tourism is often the means, aims at legit-
imizing a certain social-political order and ideological framework. It does so by
rooting them in the past with the hope that they will continue to bear fruit in
the future.
The role of heritage attractions can be understood by thinking of the site and its
experience as a good/service. Heritage attractions are often located in areas that
are considered prime real estate, and are costly to operate. Additionally, the insur-
ance of the artifacts and site maintenance are very expensive, yet, with all these
costs, the visit to the attraction is often free of charge. Moreover, in certain cases
heritage sites indirectly pay for the visits (offering transport or free guides), and,
unlike other institutions in the tourism industry, often wish to provide their ser-
vices to specific audiences only (e.g., school children). Heritage attractions are
(still) subsidized by contributions and donations from the elite and its representa-
tives, allowing the financiers to present their agenda, without intervention, criti-
cism, or public involvement. The actual price of a heritage artifact can also be
understood in the context of the heritagization process. A one-of-a-kind heritage
artifact is often very valuable because of its symbolic meaning, and not based on
criteria ordinarily used to evaluate cultural artifacts, such as aesthetic appearance.
The elite will invest both effort and money, as the meaning of such artifacts is
important for their current and future social survival. However, as soon as the elite
will loose its legitimacy, the value of the heritage site and its accompanying objects
will crash.
The role of heritage attraction can be exemplified by those sites presenting past
violent conflicts, which resulted in human atrocities (Goulding and Domic 2009).
The literature claims that heritage tourism is about the establishment of peace and
understanding (e.g., Hooper-Greenhill 1992). If so, one would expect that sites
which center on the Holocaust, for example, would highlight the dark side of
524 Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532
war and advocate peace and tolerance. However, studies indicate that the interpre-
tation in such sites follows a heroic, socialist or nationalist approach to interpreta-
tion (Timothy and Boyd 2003). Such sites often aim to inform/remind the visitors
of their social belonging, reinforce their loyalty to a certain group of people, and
legitimize a certain ideological framework. Similarly, in sites that present military
conflicts, usually no call is made for understanding and tolerance. Soldiers—espe-
cially in their death—are admired by the living who are grateful to the dead. Any
other emotion is seen as akin to treason. Such heritage attractions, although only
an example for certain type of heritage attractions, challenge the common thought
that heritage tourism is a social mechanism aiming at promoting peace and under-
standing.
Heritage attractions aim to facilitate the creation of identity (Bandyopadhyay,
Morais and Chick 2008). These spaces aim to endow the present and the future
with a specific value system, cluttering it with selected tangible and intangible ele-
ments. Heritage attractions present ‘‘someone’s heritage and therefore logically
not someone else’s’’ (Tunbridge and Ashworth 1996:21), and as such they pro-
mote solidarity within a certain group by separating it from others. Scholars, prac-
titioners, and visitors should be critical and note that these spaces (and the
organization they are part of) aim to set apart people’s identity and the imperish-
able, up-to-date reasons for that segregation. It is claimed here that most often her-
itage tourist attractions, are a symbol of modernity, serving as walls to prevent
modernity’s deconstruction. Based on part of the title of Tunbridge and Ash-
worth’s (1996) book, it is claimed here that heritage is not only a resource in conflict
but also a resource for conflict, and heritage tourism is one arena to promote it. Addi-
tionally, as heritage attractions play a major role in today’s tourist experience, this
paper challenges the thought that tourism serves as a vehicle for fostering under-
standing and minimizing—and hopefully eradicating—stereotyping. The volume
of the visits to heritage sites may also suggest that visitors seek such heritage expe-
riences for tracing genealogy (genetic or cultural) and for seeking a sense of supe-
riority and uniqueness. To prevent this from happening, heritage tourist
attractions should be managed responsibly, recognizing their possible effects
and realizing that heritage tourism can be a mechanism for social stability.
REFERENCES
Bandyopadhyay, R., D. B. Morais, and G. Chick
2008 Religion and Identity in India’s Heritage Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research
35:790–808.
Inglis, D., and M. Holmes
2003 Highland and Other Haunts: Ghosts in Scottish Tourism. Annals of Tourism
Research 30:50–63.
Hooper-Greenhill, E.
1992 Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Goulding, C., and D. Domic
2009 Heritage, Identity and Ideological Manipulation: The case of Croatia. Annals of
Tourism Research 36:85–102.
Poria, Y., R. Butler, and D. Airey
2003 The Core of Heritage Tourism: Distinguishing Heritage Tourists from Tourists
in Heritage Places. Annals of Tourism Research 30:238–254.
Reisinger, Y., and L. W. Turner
2003 Cross-Cultural Behaviour in Tourism: Concepts and Analysis. Oxford: Butter-
worth-Heinemann.
Smith, L.
2006 Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge.
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 525
Submitted 11 November 2008. Resubmitted 27 January 2009. Final version 1 March 2009. Accepted 26
March 2009. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Juergen Gnoth
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.03.003
Econometric modeling now plays a vital role in tourism research. For example,
forecasting is an essential element in the process of tourism planning. Quantitative
tools are also commonly used to evaluate the economic impacts of tourism. The
last several decades have seen a large increase in the number of published studies
on tourism research using econometric and other quantitative approaches. Among
the various econometric techniques, the most widely used is probably linear regres-
sion by least squares, which attempts to determine how variables of interest, such as
tourism demand, relate to other socioeconomic factors such as economic growth,
exchange rates and so on. While the statistical properties of the least squares tech-
nique are well-documented, the technique does not provide researchers with a
means of specifying the model; there is almost always a list of potential explanatory
variables to consider. Presumably it is safe to ignore university entrance scores in
modeling tourist arrivals, but whether the ultraviolet index has any significant im-
pact cannot be known with certainty before the study is undertaken. In practice, we
often face data with an imperfectly specified model and learn of our imperfection
from the data themselves. While data-based non-parametric modeling and optimi-
zation methods such as the genetic algorithm have gained some popularity among
tourism researchers (e.g., Potter and Coshall 1988; Hurley, Moutinho, and Witt
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 525
Submitted 11 November 2008. Resubmitted 27 January 2009. Final version 1 March 2009. Accepted 26
March 2009. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Juergen Gnoth
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.03.004
Econometric modeling now plays a vital role in tourism research. For example,
forecasting is an essential element in the process of tourism planning. Quantitative
tools are also commonly used to evaluate the economic impacts of tourism. The
last several decades have seen a large increase in the number of published studies
on tourism research using econometric and other quantitative approaches. Among
the various econometric techniques, the most widely used is probably linear regres-
sion by least squares, which attempts to determine how variables of interest, such as
tourism demand, relate to other socioeconomic factors such as economic growth,
exchange rates and so on. While the statistical properties of the least squares tech-
nique are well-documented, the technique does not provide researchers with a
means of specifying the model; there is almost always a list of potential explanatory
variables to consider. Presumably it is safe to ignore university entrance scores in
modeling tourist arrivals, but whether the ultraviolet index has any significant im-
pact cannot be known with certainty before the study is undertaken. In practice, we
often face data with an imperfectly specified model and learn of our imperfection
from the data themselves. While data-based non-parametric modeling and optimi-
zation methods such as the genetic algorithm have gained some popularity among
tourism researchers (e.g., Potter and Coshall 1988; Hurley, Moutinho, and Witt
526 Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532
1998; Chen and Wang 2007; Valdés, Torres and Domı́nguez 2007), it is fair to say
that, due to ease of implementation and the analysis being easy to interpret, linear
least squares regression remains the most widely used modeling method in tourism
research, as it does in other social science disciplines.
When confronted by the problem of variable selection in a linear regression,
one commonly proceeds by pretesting. For example, to determine the significance
of the ultraviolet index in a model that seeks to explain tourist arrivals, a t test is
conducted and the ultraviolet index is either retained or dropped accordingly.
The final specification of the model depends on the outcome of pretesting, as
do the estimates of all other coefficients in the model. The popular ‘‘general-
to-specific’’ econometric modeling approach, which involves the formulation of
a general model and the application of a testing down process, eliminating vari-
ables that are not significant, leading to a simpler specific model, also involves
extensive use of pretest strategies. Specification search by pretesting is widely prac-
ticed in tourism research. Vanegas and Croes (2000), for example, searched for the
preferred specification of a model that seeks to explain U.S. tourist arrivals in Ar-
uba based on t tests of significance of the regressors, Song, Witt and Gang (2003)
examined the demand for Thai tourism using the general-to-specific model selec-
tion approach, and Song and Witt (2003) applied the same approach to estimate a
model that explains inbound tourism to Korea.
An issue often raised in criticism of the general-to-specific approach is the lack
of understanding of the effects of the pretest strategies that come into play. In-
deed, econometricians have known for a long time that pretest estimators, all
being discontinuous functions of the data, possess rather poor sampling properties
and distort the usual properties of the least squares estimator in the sense that the
end results are not what they appear to be. See, for example, Danilov and Magnus
(2004a). In applied studies, however, investigators typically report estimates and
associated precision statistics (e.g., standard errors) as if the estimation had not
been preceded by pretesting. Obviously, the reported precision statistics are incor-
rect. Reporting estimate precision should clearly account for the pretesting that
has been integrated into the procedure.
Recent papers by Danilov and Magnus (2004a,b) attempted to do that, and they
showed that ignoring pretesting in reporting the precision of the least squares esti-
mator can lead to very substantial errors. Another widely practiced method closely
related to common pretesting procedures is model selection by schemes such as
the AIC and BIC (the Akaike and the Bayesian information criteria); these meth-
ods are routinely applied, sometimes along with stepwise regressions. Again, inves-
tigators using these procedures typically proceed as if the final model had been
decided in advance, without acknowledging the additional uncertainty introduced
by model selection. There is also a growing collection of literature that discusses
the effects of model selection on inference. See, for instance, Leeb and Pötscher
(2005).
An alternative approach to pretesting and model selection is model averaging,
where one averages across least squares estimates obtained from different models,
rather than using only one model arrived at by pretesting or a model selection cri-
terion. Model averaging has long been a popular technique among Bayesian statis-
ticians. See Hoeting, Madigan, Raftery and Volinsky (1999) for a non-technical
discussion. In the econometrics literature, several methods for implementing mod-
el averaging in the context of linear regression have recently emerged. Magnus
(2002) and Danilov (2005) advocated a weighted average least squares (WALS) esti-
mator with weights based on a Laplace prior density. The WALS estimator assumes a
set of ‘‘key’’ explanatory variables which the investigator wants in the model on the-
oretical or other grounds irrespective of statistical significance, as well as another set
of ‘‘auxiliary’’ explanatory variables of which the investigator is less certain. The
role of the auxiliary explanatory variables is primarily to improve the estimation
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 527
of the coefficients of the key explanatory variables. Unlike the pretest estimator, the
resultant WALS estimator is a continuous function of the data and is admissible.
More recently, Hansen (2007, 2008) proposed a model average estimator with
weights selected by minimizing the Mallows criterion. One advantage of model aver-
aging over model selection is that it pays due attention to the problem of model
uncertainty. Thus, model averaging reconciles the disparities caused by pretesting
and model selection, and will undoubtedly be used more extensively in the future.
The latest edition of the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, for example, in-
cludes a chapter on model averaging (see, Doppelhofer, 2008).
Model averaging tools have been applied widely in biostatistics, and have recently
found applications in economics, finance and sociology. See, for example, Raftery
(1995), Levin and Williams (2003), Sala-i-Martin, Doppelhofer and Miller (2004),
Bird and Gerlach (2006), Doppelhofer and Weeks (2009) and Magnus, Powell
and Prüfer (2008a). There is considerable appeal for using model averaging in other
social science disciplines, and this technical note is meant to broaden its appeal by
using the application in the context of tourism research. Another purpose of this
note is to alert tourism researchers to the dangers of pretesting and model selection
in terms of underreporting the variability of estimates by way of a practical example.
Our examination of model averaging centers on the WALS estimator. More compu-
tationally intensive methods can be employed but the WALS estimator has the dis-
tinct advantage of being simple and is readily applicable without an undue
computational burden; the calculation of the WALS estimates does not require com-
putationally intensive methods such as the Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques
which are common with Bayesian model averaging. Moreover, appropriate formulae
for computing the standard errors of the WALS estimates are available, while the
practical application of some other model average estimators has been limited to
some degree by the fact that they produce only point estimates.
Our practical example is taken from a recent paper by Reeder and Brown
(2005), who used linear regression to determine the degree to which recreation
and the development of tourism affected a range of socioeconomic indicators
(e.g., earnings per job, income per capita, rent levels, death rate, etc.) in 311 rural
U.S. counties during the 90s and 2000. Corresponding to each of the socioeco-
nomic indicators is a multiple regression model with the socioeconomic indicator
as the dependent variable. The key explanatory variable of the regressions is
dependency on recreation and tourism as measured by a so-called Z-score. The
Z-score, as developed by Johnson and Beale (2002), covers tourism-related employ-
ment and income shares of the local economy, as well as the share of total county
homes dependent on recreational use. The higher the Z-score the more depen-
dent a county is on recreation and tourism. Reeder and Brown (2005) were primar-
ily interested in the coefficient estimate of the Z-score, though they also included
21 other explanatory variables such as dummy variables on county types and regio-
nal subdivisions and a range of demographic variables in each regression. We will
reconsider the regression models formulated by Reeder and Brown (2005), not to
re-evaluate the conclusions reached by the authors, but to analyze the effect of
pretesting, highlighting the merits of model averaging as an alternative to model
selection.
We have performed analyses based on data of both 90s and 2000, but in the
interest of brevity we only present the results for 2000 here. The general conclu-
sions are the same with the data of 90s and the results are available upon request.
Table 1 lists the 16 dependent and 22 explanatory variables used in Reeder and
Brown’s (2005) study. Our analysis treats the intercept term and the Z-score as
the key explanatory variables and all others as auxiliary explanatory variables. In
illustrating the effects of pretesting we adopt a stepwise selection procedure that
begins like backward elimination. However, after two or more variables have been
removed from the model, a forward selection procedure is employed to allow vari-
528 Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532
ables that have been eliminated to be reconsidered for inclusion. The procedure
continues until no additions or deletions of variables are indicated. In our applica-
tion we choose the significance level for adding a variable to be 0.05 and for remov-
ing a variable to be 0.10. Note that the significance level set for entering a variable
should always be smaller than that for removing a variable otherwise cycling is pos-
sible where a variable is continually entered and removed. Stepwise selection is a
popular model selection procedure and automated routines for this procedure
are available in most statistical software packages like SAS or Matlab. The estima-
tion results for the coefficient of the Z-score are shown in Table 2. Column 2 in
Table 2 gives the estimates of the coefficients of the Z-score based on the model
selected by stepwise selection for each of the 16 regressions. The third column
gives the 95% confidence bounds of the coefficients when pretesting is not taken
into account. These are the confidence bounds usually reported in applied work
when the researcher assumes (erroneously) that the model has been chosen in ad-
vance. The numbers in Column 4, on the other hand, are the ‘‘correct’’ 95% con-
fidence bounds when one pays due attention to the effect of stepwise selection on
the variability of the estimates. The formulae for computing the correct confidence
bounds are available from Danilov and Magnus (2004b). We see that in all cases
the commonly reported confidence bounds that ignore pretesting underreport
the true confidence bounds. In some cases the difference between the reported
and the correct confidence bounds can be very large. In the worst case, the true
confidence bounds are 10.87 times as wide as the bounds that ignore pretesting;
on average they are 2.95 times as wide. The correct confidence bounds are typically
much wider than is apparent and the reported bounds are far too optimistic.
The WALS coefficient estimates and the 95% confidence bounds appear in Col-
umns 5 and 6 respectively. The formulae for computing the WALS confidence
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 529
1
Models 1-16 are based on, respectively, dependent variables 1-16 listed in Table 1.
bounds are available in Magnus et al (2008a). In all cases the WALS and pretest
coefficient estimates have the same sign, and the difference in magnitude between
the two estimates is usually not large. However, without exception the WALS esti-
mates produce confidence bounds with a decreased width from the (true) pretest
confidence bounds. On average the WALS confidence bounds are 42.84% as wide
as the correct pretest confidence bounds; thus notable reductions in estimator var-
iability are achievable with the WALS approach. This is expected because model
averaging usually leads to estimates that are of superior precision than those
achieved by selecting a single model, as demonstrated in the theoretical literature.
While these results are, of course, specific to the data example considered here,
the evidence does provide an indication of the performance gains that are possible
over a range of models involving tourism data. The WALS estimator is very easy to
implement—the steps involved in implementing the WALS estimator and the Mat-
lab codes written to produce the estimates are available online at http://fbstaff.
cityu.edu.hk/msawan/research1.htm. Admittedly, one disadvantage of WALS is
that it is not strictly suitable outside the standard linear regression context; also,
the optimality properties established for the WALS estimator do not apply to time
series models such as ARIMA or transfer function models which are also common
tools for tourism research. These issues are currently being addressed; for exam-
ple, work in process by Magnus, Wan and Zhang (2008b) is developing a variant
of the WALS estimator for models with autocorrelated or heteroscedastic errors.
Finally the following illustration sheds some light on the advantage afforded by
model averaging in forecasting with common time series models. This is highly rel-
evant in light of the large (and growing) tourism forecasting literature. Our illus-
tration uses data on the number of long-stay visitor arrivals in Barbados between
1956 and 1992 given in Dharmaratne (1995). The author estimated two Box-Jen-
kins ARIMA models, namely, ARIMA(2,1,1) and ARIMA(2,1,1)(1,1,1)5, with data
from 1956 to 1987, and based on forecasted values generated by these two models
for the remaining years he concluded that the ARIMA(2,1,1) specification is bet-
530 Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532
ter. Our purpose is to demonstrate that substantial gains in forecast accuracy can
be achieved by compromising across the two models. WALS is not applicable here
because the models involved do not fall within the framework of linear regression.
Our subsequent analysis is based on another well-known model weighting scheme,
namely, the Smooth AIC weight introduced in Buckland, Burnham and Augustin
(1997). This weight is proportional to the value of exp(-AICS \0.5), where AICS is
the AIC score for candidate model S. Dharmaratne (1995) reported the coefficient
estimates and AIC scores for both models; for the ARIMA(2,1,1) model, the AIC
score is 430.26 while for ARIMA(2,1,1)(1,1,1)5, it is 436.67. While these two AIC
values are very comparable, they still point to a preference for ARIMA(2,1,1).
We now apply model averaging using the Smooth AIC scheme and generate fore-
casts for 1988 to 1992. Table 3 presents the forecasts and their absolute percentage
errors. The forecast performance of the ARIMA(2,1,1)(1,1,1)5 model is rather
poor—except for 1992 its predictions are always worse, and usually by a large mar-
gin, than those based on the ARIMA(2,1,1) model. The forecast performance of
the averaged model is quite remarkable—in all cases under consideration the fore-
casts obtained from the averaged model are closer to the true values than those
obtained from the better of the two single models. The averaged model yields a
mean absolute percentage forecast error of 8.74%, while the corresponding figures
for the ARIMA(2,1,1) and ARIMA(2,1,1)(1,1,1)5 models are 9.71% and 19.02%
respectively.
The techniques that have been illustrated are just two of the available model
averaging techniques and one can adopt other more complex combining tech-
niques in practice. Nonetheless we view the results presented here as being very
promising. Certainly, further exploration of the model averaging approach in tour-
ism research seems to be justified.
Acknowledgements—The authors thank Richard Reeder and Dennis Brown of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture for supplying the data used in this study, and the referees, editor and
associate editor for comments and suggestions.
REFERENCES
Bird, R., and R. Gerlach
2006 A Bayesian Model Averaging Approach to Enhance Value Investment.
International Journal of Business and Economics 5:93–110.
Buckland, S. T., K. P. Burnham, and N. H. Augustin
1997 Model Selection: An Integral Part of Inference. Biometrics 53:603–618.
Chen, K. Y., and C. H. Wang
2007 Support Vector Regression with Genetic Algorithms in Forecasting Tourist
Demand. Tourism Management 28:215–226.
Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532 531
Danilov, D.
2005 Estimation of the Mean of a Univariate Normal Distribution When the
Variance is Not Known. Econometrics Journal 8:277–291.
Danilov, D., and J. R. Magnus
2004a On the Harm that Ignoring Pretesting Can Cause. Journal of Econometrics
122:27–46.
2004b Forecast Accuracy after Pretesting with an Application to the Stock Market.
Journal of Forecasting 23:251–274.
Dharmaratne, G. S.
1995 Forecasting Tourist Arrivals in Barbados. Annals of Tourism Research
22:804–818.
Doppelhofer, G.
2008 Model Averaging. In The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, L. Blume and
S. Durlauf, eds., (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Doppelhofer, G., and M. Weeks
2009 Jointness of Growth Determinants. Journal of Applied Econometrics
24:209–244.
Hansen, B. E.
2007 Least Squares Model Averaging. Econometrica 75:1175–1189.
2008 Least Squares Forecast Averaging. Journal of Econometrics 146:342–350.
Hoeting, J. A., D. Madigan, A. E. Raftery, and C. T. Volinsky
1999 Bayesian Model Averaging: A Tutorial. Statistical Science 14:382–417.
Hurley, S., L. Moutinho, and S. F. Witt
1998 Genetic Algorithms for Tourism Marketing. Annals of Tourism Research
25:498–514.
Johnson, K. M., and C. L. Beale
2002 Nonmetro Recreation Counties: Their Identification and Rapid Growth. Rural
America 17:12–19.
Leeb, H., and B. M. Pötscher
2005 Model Selection and Inference: Facts and Fiction. Econometric Theory
7:163–185.
Levin, A. T., and J. C. Williams
2003 Robust Monetary Policy with Competing Reference Models. Journal of
Monetary Economics 50:947–975.
Magnus, J. R.
2002 Estimation of the Mean of a Univariate Normal Distribution with Known
Variance. Econometrics Journal 5:225–236.
Magnus, J.R., O. Powell, and P. Prüfer
2008a A Comparison of Two Averaging Techniques with an Application to Growth
Empirics, mimeo, Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Tilburg
University, the Netherlands.
Magnus, J.R., A.T.K. Wan, and X. Zhang
2008b WALS Estimation with Non-Spherical Disturbances and an Application to the
Hong Kong Housing Market, mimeo, Department of Econometrics and Opera-
tions Research, Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
Potter, R. B., and J. Coshall
1988 Sociopsychological Methods for Tourism Research. Annals of Tourism
Research 15:63–75.
Raftery, A. E.
1995 Bayesian Model Selection in Social Research. Sociological Methodology
25:111–163.
Reeder, R.J., and D.M. Brown
2005 Recreation, Tourism and Rural Well-Being. Economic Report Number 7,
Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Paper available
online at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR7/)
Sala-i-Martin, X., G. Doppelhofer, and R. M. Miller
2004 Determinants of Economic Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates
(BACE) Approach. American Economic Review 94:813–835.
Song, H., and S. F. Witt
2003 Tourism Forecasting: The General to Specific Approach. Journal of Travel
Research 42:65–74.
532 Research notes and reports/Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 522–532
Submitted 18 July 2008. Resubmitted 26 November 2008. Resubmitted 11 February 2009. Final version
3 March 2009. Accepted 26 March 2009. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Juergen Gnoth
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.03.004
BOOK REVIEW
www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
Culture on Tour
By Edward M. Bruner. The University of Chicago Press (<www.press.
uchicago.edu>) 2005, ii + 308 pp (notes, references, index). $25.00
Pbk. ISBN 0-226-07763-2
Janet Chang
Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
One word, transnationalism, encapsulates the primary theme that pervades this
book. The concept is developed through a thorough grounding in and long prac-
tice of cultural anthropology. The aim of the book is to apply a reflexive ethnogra-
phy to what other researchers (such as John Urry, Nelson Graburn, Hildred
Geertz, and the author’s own previous works) have written on tourism and culture;
the author is successful in achieving this goal. The volume is designed to inform
well-educated readers who are interested in both tourism and culture, domestically
and internationally. Thus, to get the most out of the volume, the reader probably
needs to be an anthropologist who is familiar with the principles of ethnography
or, at least, who is used to careful reading of reflexive materials. In other words,
this is not an easy book for someone who is just interested in international tourism,
per se, or even for a reader looking for novel insights into cultural tourism. In fact, it
is likely to be difficult reading even for experienced tourism academics.
The work is a compendium of post-tour narratives with cases from East Africa,
USA, and Indonesia. In the introduction, the author declares that the unity of
the book stems from a consistent conceptual perspective based on constructivism.
Mobility, travel, and encounters are inherent to the process of tourism at a variety
of temporal and spatial scales. Stories, narration, and retellings are expressions
that structure and give voice to the tourism experience. Furthermore, various eth-
nographic perspectives are presented throughout the book, such as the reflexivity
of the tourists, the toured (who, in these cases, are indigenous people), and the
author; dissident voices associated with heritage sites; ambiguity and paradox
resulting from the historical specificity of cultural products; and the blurred
533
534 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.02.006
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 535
Erdogan Koc
Dogus University, Turkey
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.03.007
Michael J. Gross
University of South Australia, Australia
Any book calling itself a primer has set itself a grand agenda, establishing expec-
tations that it will encapsulate all the essential aspects of its topic. Authors in any
field undertaking this challenge are to be commended for their ambition. This is
especially true in a field such as tourism, which is in a relatively nascent state of
conceptual development, and around which much debate continues to swirl
regarding the nature, definition, and components of the field. Faced with myriad
options for how to structure such a book, any selection of topics is bound to be dif-
ficult. However, the authors have assembled a collection of issues that deliver a
creditable version of a disparate economic sector.
The structure of the book is complex: two parts, each divided into sections that
are further divided into chapters aimed at different but compatible audiences. Part
One is targeted at undergraduates, with twelve chapters that cover basic elements
of the tourism sector. Part Two has nine chapters that span a variety of more ad-
vanced topics that are intended for postgraduates. This design allows instructors
to use the first part as a basis for a core course curriculum, with sections drawn
536 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.02.004
Michael J. Gross
University of South Australia, Australia
Any book calling itself a primer has set itself a grand agenda, establishing expec-
tations that it will encapsulate all the essential aspects of its topic. Authors in any
field undertaking this challenge are to be commended for their ambition. This is
especially true in a field such as tourism, which is in a relatively nascent state of
conceptual development, and around which much debate continues to swirl
regarding the nature, definition, and components of the field. Faced with myriad
options for how to structure such a book, any selection of topics is bound to be dif-
ficult. However, the authors have assembled a collection of issues that deliver a
creditable version of a disparate economic sector.
The structure of the book is complex: two parts, each divided into sections that
are further divided into chapters aimed at different but compatible audiences. Part
One is targeted at undergraduates, with twelve chapters that cover basic elements
of the tourism sector. Part Two has nine chapters that span a variety of more ad-
vanced topics that are intended for postgraduates. This design allows instructors
to use the first part as a basis for a core course curriculum, with sections drawn
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 537
from the second part to supplement different levels and interests. As a practical
matter, the distinction between under- and postgraduate fitness of any given chap-
ter will be at the discretion of course planners, and, despite the ‘‘advanced’’ adjec-
tive applied to Part Two, the academic level of all chapters is relatively equal.
Part One contains two sections, the first of which contains chapters entitled
‘‘Dimensions of Travel and Tourism’’, ‘‘An Economic Overview of Travel and
Tourism’’, ‘‘The Psychology of Travel’’, and ‘‘Sustainable Tourism Development’’.
This group of topics provides an overview of the sector’s scope, economics, con-
sumer behaviour, and development issues. It provides prelude information upon
which understanding of subsequent topics can be layered. The early placement
of economic considerations sets a tone that is carried through the text. The second
section of Part One, ‘‘The Sectors’’, contains chapters on ‘‘The Airline Industry’’,
‘‘The Rail, Motorcoach, and Rental Car Industries’’, ‘‘The Cruiseline Industry’’,
‘‘Amusement Parks and Other Major Attractions’’, ‘‘The Gaming Industry’’, ‘‘Lod-
ging’’, ‘‘The Food Service Industry’’, and ‘‘Conventions and Meetings’’. This is the
heart of the book, and is a particular strength. It not only includes standard func-
tional areas that would be expected, but also some that would typically be present
only in more specialised texts, such as railroads, rental cars, and theme parks. The
chapter on food service is especially well done, with a sound mix of general and
specific information that leaves the reader with a good understanding of how food
concepts integrate with the other aspects of the tourism experience.
Part Two contains four sections, the first of which is subtitled ‘‘Defining, Pro-
moting, and Selling the Product’’. The chapters in this section are ‘‘Travel Agents
and Tour Operators’’, ‘‘Distribution Channels’’, and ‘‘Destinations: A Psycho-
graphic and Sociological Perspective’’. While these and the other Part Two chap-
ters stand on their own, some also serve to supplement previous chapters. This is
certainly characteristic of ‘‘Destinations: A Psychographic and Sociological Per-
spective’’, which complements the earlier chapter, ‘‘The Psychology of Travel’’,
exploring in more detail the connections among lifestyle, psychographics, venture-
someness, and the positioning and life cycle of destinations.
The second section of Part Two is subtitled ‘‘Conservation and Intervention’’,
with chapters on ‘‘Ecotourism: Tourism’s Green Adventure’’ and ‘‘Government,
Politics, and Tourism’’. A deliberate attempt seems to have been made in the latter
chapter to counter the general US-centric orientation of the book. This chapter
uses a wide array of international settings and examples to illustrate the critical role
of politics in tourism. The third section of Part Two, ‘‘Management Tools’’, con-
tains chapters on ‘‘Revenue Management’’, ‘‘Measuring the Economic Impact’’,
‘‘Forecasting’’. This is a useful inclusion of practical tools that should constitute
a competitive advantage for the book, as the level of detail will provide helpful
examples for both students and managers. The book concludes with ‘‘What’s Next
for the Industry?’’, a subsection containing a single chapter, ‘‘The Future’’. This
chapter takes the unusual approach of examining the industry from a historical
perspective of 2030, looking back on imagined world and industry developments.
Predictions consider such concepts as the aging population, attraction and destina-
tion rationing, space tourism, climate change, and their effects on various industry
sectors.
Some of the text’s facts bear re-checking, such as a photo of Boeing 707 jetliner
(p. 80) claiming it began commercial service in 1953 (it started in 1958), the Man-
darin Oriental group displacing Hyatt and other groups in a table of the ten largest
lodging companies (p. 265), and how astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s name is spelled (p.
572). However these are minor criticisms in a text filled with a voluminous amount
of information on the industry.
Chapters include learning objectives, chapter summaries, margin glossaries, dis-
cussion questions, website listings, interviews with industry leaders, ‘‘Focus on
538 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.03.006
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.02.004
helpful. Most have a short listing of Internet resources that facilitate follow-up
research. The cross-listing of entries through the bolding of entry titles in the text
makes it easy for the researcher to find information and to know quickly which
items are included elsewhere in the encyclopedia. Further, the font and spacing
make the text easy to read. The 20 pages of references and 24 pages of further
reading are impressive.
Despite some of the omissions touched on previously, the coverage is extensive.
It includes general topics such as the physical environment in which tourism and
recreation in the marine environment occur, the flora and fauna found in these
environments as well as the environmental pressures on them, the nature of man’s
interaction and the activities conducted, and the policies and institutional frame-
works that operate and guide the human interactions in these marine environ-
ments. The volume also provides biographical notes on persons who have had
an impact on the marine environment. These range from the explorers like
Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, and Vasco da Gama to inventors such
as Jacques-Yves Cousteau and cruise line entrepreneurs, such as Ted and Micky
Arison.
The style of writing is non-technical, clear, and concise, yet factual and informa-
tive. The entries range in complexity from simple definitions, for example, bays
and islands, to more complex concepts such as the visitor impact management
model/framework. Thematically, the concepts cover the active and passive, from
intrinsic motivation to flow, from whale watching to snuba and surfing. Although
there is an effort to cover the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic, there appears
to be slightly more of a focus on the Pacific and Europe.
The editors and authors have been successful in creating a valuable reference
text. However, a few entries reflect some idiosyncrasies rather than a purely schol-
arly approach. For example, something called the ‘‘laws of tourism’’ is included
under the ‘‘Accessibility’’ entry but without any citation to this concept. The
‘‘Windward Islands’’ entry also refers to the ‘‘Society of Islands’’ [sic] in French
Polynesia and fails to identify the names of islands in this Caribbean subgroup.
Given that ‘‘[t]he economy of most of the islands in this group is heavily depen-
dant on tourism’’ (p. 537) and that the ‘‘Caribbean is often referred to as most
tourism dependant region of the world’’ (Jayawardena 2002:89), a paragraph on
each island would have been desirable.
This is, of course, a highly specialized volume so the market is likely to be lim-
ited. Still, it will be a welcome addition to the reference collections of libraries in
universities, colleges, and planning agencies involved with recreation, tourism, and
marine studies.
Michael M.G. Scantlebury: University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA
32819. Email: <mscantle@mail.ucf.edu>
REFERENCE
Jayawardena, C.
2002 Mastering Caribbean Tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospi-
tality Management 14(2):88–93.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.02.004
540 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
Honggen Xiao
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
The presence of tourists in parks and protected areas often complicates the
management of reserves because of the need to balance protection and use. This
book addresses the links, partnerships, and conflicts between tourism development
and conservation land management from both conceptual and practical perspec-
tives. Selected from presentations to a 2001 conference convened by the Interna-
tional Center for Ecotourism Research (Griffith University, Australia), this
collection offers nineteen chapters on the use of pristine lands for tourism and rec-
reation.
The text has a marked Australian focus, with fifteen chapters by Australian
authors. Only eight authors (out of thirty) are from institutions outside Australia.
The collection contains only two cases about the US and one dealing with South
Africa. Nonetheless, the introductory and concluding chapters add to the value
of this collection as a stand-alone text that will have relevance beyond Australia.
Buckley’s opening chapter presents a review of large-scale trends that trigger the
growth of nature-based tourism and hence places tourism and commercial devel-
opment at the top of the agenda for land management, particularly for public
lands where budgetary resources are often shrinking, and agencies are seeking
alternative strategies to sustain their management functions.
Eugenio Yunis also presents a broad overview of sustainable tourism, in this case,
from an inter-governmental perspective. The conclusion by Robyn Bushell ties to-
gether diverse empirical discussions in a sustainable development framework.
While nature-based tourism is proposed as a mechanism to fund conservation ef-
forts, there remains the challenge for agencies to plan for appropriate use by vis-
itors. Reading through the cases, the extent to which an appropriate level of use of
natural reserves is maintained constitutes the key challenge for managers. As noted
by Bushell, the inadequacy of monitoring and controlling visitor impacts in a pro-
tected area largely results from its systems and mechanisms ‘‘which are not
equipped to predict or monitor the often complex, subtle, and cumulative impacts
[of visitation] on biodiversity or cultural heritage’’ (p. 197). These conceptual
discussions succeed in setting a context for the technical papers and serve as a plat-
form on which the pendulum arguments between conservation and development
make sense.
The main body of the text, fifteen technical papers, explores a breadth of issues
related to the management of natural reserves for tourism and recreation. The is-
sues include financial liability in case of visitor injuries (Jan McDonald), visitor fees
and risk management of park agencies (Ralph Buckley, Natasha Witting, and
Michaela Guest), economic returns from competing uses of forests (e.g., tourism
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 541
and recreation versus forestry as reported by John Ward with examples from New
South Wales Native Forests), and the use of visitor impact data by or for park man-
agements (Ralf Buckley and Narelle King).
Some of the case studies are conducted in different jurisdictions or on diverse
ownership structures. For example, Les Carlisle describes a model of partnership
in private reserves in South Africa that incorporates the private sector, the local
community, and the conservation agency. Jerry Johnson, Bruce Maxwell, and Rich-
ard Aspinall focus on land-use changes in the Greater Yellowstone Region in the
US West, which were accompanied by broader social and economic changes. An-
other chapter with examples from outside Australia is by Alan Watson and William
Borrie, in which a business approach to managing public lands in the US is intro-
duced. The authors outline a proposal to blend marketing activities with protec-
tion of public land resources through a focus on relationships, trust,
commitment, and social responsibility.
A variety of nature-based tourism activities and their associated impacts are
examined in these studies, including wildlife tourism (Karen Higginbottom, An-
drew Tribe, and Rosemary Booth), nature tourism in mountain areas (Catherine
Pickering, Stuart Johnson, Ken Green, and Graeme Enders), water-based recrea-
tion in coastal areas (with two chapters by Troy Byrnes and Jan Warnken), trails
(Jennie Whinam, Nicole Chilcott, Roger Ling, and Phil Wyatt), and snow manage-
ment in winter tourism (Catherine Pickering and Wendy Hill). An issue common
to all these nature-based tourism activities is their impact on the physical environ-
ment. A best practice for environmental management and a method for calculat-
ing environmental sensitivity are also presented among these discussions.
In terms of information on which these reports are based, the majority of the
chapters can be characterized as qualitative descriptions drawing from documen-
tary sources and/or experiences. Hardly any primary data are reported nor do
the analyses presented by most authors involve sophisticated techniques. There
are, some exceptions, though, such as the chapter on economic benefits from rec-
reation versus timber production, and some chapters that introduce methods to
calculate environmental sensitivity, or develop and test a model of tourism poten-
tial in the Grampians National Park in the southeast of Australia. Overall, with tight
editorial and stylistic alignments, the text makes a good read.
As implied in the book’s introduction, the purpose of this collection is to facil-
itate dialog and information exchange among land owners, land management
agencies, and tourism operators. Arguably, the uptake of research information
by practitioners from anthologies such as this remains to be seen because of the
dominance of academic perspectives among the contributors. Readers interested
in this topic could also find an eco-tourism series from CAB International, of which
this is one of seven titles. Pedagogically, the book is not a good choice as a required
undergraduate text, yet facilitators of graduate seminars on this subject could ben-
efit from the controversies and richness of perspectives derived from many of these
case studies.
Honggen Xiao: School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytech-
nic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: <hmhgxiao@polyu.edu.hk>
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.02.005
542 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
Residential Tourism:
(De)Constructing Paradise
Mason R. McWatters. Channel View Publications <www.channelview-
publications.com> 2008, viii + 188 pp (figures, bibliography, index).
Pbk. US$49.95 ISBN 13 9781845410902
Paul F. Wilkinson
York University, Canada
The research is built on both an excellent analysis of the literature and a solid qual-
itative research framework, outlined in detail in an appendix. (In fact, this appen-
dix could be well-used in a course on field research methods.)
The book clearly describes both positive and negative impacts of residential tour-
ism on this particular community and, by extension, potentially on other commu-
nities. The author, however, does not glorify it as progressive development or
condemn it as wrongful destruction. McWatters concludes that ‘‘residential tourism
is what it is: one of the many faces of ubiquitous and nebulous globalizing processes
acting on a variety of levels to create new forms of social, cultural, and economic
interaction, greater interconnectedness, and significant transformations to our
many notions of place and community’’ (p. 160). He argues that, by trying to under-
stand the effects of residential tourism, positive change can be affected by promot-
ing progressive outcomes while simultaneously highlighting and trying to minimize
undesirable outcomes. In particular, he posits two opportunities for promoting
such outcomes: governmental policy that regulates real estate development in these
areas and provides funding and resources for local people faced with the impacts of
such development, and attempts to make residential tourists more aware of the real-
ities of the landscape in which they have come to live and their impacts on it.
In contrast to many studies of tourism development that provide little informa-
tion about the place being researched, this book presents the reader with a more
than adequate geography—in the old-fashioned sense of the term—of the district.
It does, however, essentially fail visually. There is one map of western Panamá, but
it is poorly reproduced (possibly from the Internet), includes no scale, and does
not locate the district with respect to the rest of the country. (One is left wonder-
ing, for example, how the tourists travel to Boquete. If by plane, where is the air-
port? If by road from Panamá City, 500 km away, where is the highway?) There is,
moreover, no map of the district itself, despite frequent references to local fea-
tures, residential developments, roads, and so on. In addition, the author’s photo-
graphs range from extremely interesting (e.g., locally-made signs protesting
residential development) to almost completely useless (e.g., a view of the ‘‘interior
‘hidden valley’’’ that has no recognizable features).
These minor quibbles aside, McWatters has produced an excellent, well-written
book. It appears to be the result of his MA in Latin American Studies at The
University of Texas at Austin where he is currently a doctoral student in Geography.
If this is what he can produce from an MA, the results of his PhD are awaited with
bated breath.
REFERENCE
Kratz, E. F.
2005 Paradise found: where to retire abroad. Fortune <http://money.cnn.com/
magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/07/11/8265242/index.htm> (Retrieved
18 January 2009).
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.01.010
544 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
rationale for specific definitions is consistent with other dictionaries, there are so
many instances where the definition is sufficiently idiosyncratic that one begins to
wonder how the definition was developed.
As a result, this dictionary should not be considered to be an authoritative aca-
demic reference. Overall, though, the book could lead to some excellent pub dis-
cussions among tourism academics arguing about its definitions. Indeed, the text
did lead to some interesting discussions among my colleagues and me. We noted,
for example, an apparent need for tourism academics to develop more terminol-
ogy that begin with the letters X (4 entries), Y (8 entries), and Z (6 entries). More
seriously, while The Tourism Society’s: Dictionary for the Tourism Industry, 3rd Edition is
not appropriate for classroom or scholarly purposes, it is enjoyable to read and has
potential that could yet be realized if some of the entries were based on more
established (and explicit) sources in future editions.
Wayne W. Smith: Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of
Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA 29424, E-mail: <smithww@cofc.edu>
REFERENCES
Merriam-Webster
2008 Ecotourism http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ecotourism (18
December 2008).
The International Ecotourism Society
2008 The International Ecotourism Society—Definitions & Principles—ecotourism
http://www.ecotourism.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/eco_template.
aspx?articleid=95&zoneid=2 (18 December 2008).
Fennell, D. A.
2001 A Content Analysis of Ecotourism Definitions. Current Issues in Tourism
4:403–414.
UNWTO
1994 Recommendations on Tourism Statistics. Madrid: UNWTO.
Assigned 13 November 2008. Submitted 18 January 2009. Accepted 19 January 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.01.008
Wendy Hillman
CQUniversity, Australia
A Narrative Community: The Voices of Israeli Backpackers is part of the Raphael Patai
Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology of the Wayne State University Press. The
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 545
rationale for specific definitions is consistent with other dictionaries, there are so
many instances where the definition is sufficiently idiosyncratic that one begins to
wonder how the definition was developed.
As a result, this dictionary should not be considered to be an authoritative aca-
demic reference. Overall, though, the book could lead to some excellent pub dis-
cussions among tourism academics arguing about its definitions. Indeed, the text
did lead to some interesting discussions among my colleagues and me. We noted,
for example, an apparent need for tourism academics to develop more terminol-
ogy that begin with the letters X (4 entries), Y (8 entries), and Z (6 entries). More
seriously, while The Tourism Society’s: Dictionary for the Tourism Industry, 3rd Edition is
not appropriate for classroom or scholarly purposes, it is enjoyable to read and has
potential that could yet be realized if some of the entries were based on more
established (and explicit) sources in future editions.
Wayne W. Smith: Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of
Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA 29424, E-mail: <smithww@cofc.edu>
REFERENCES
Merriam-Webster
2008 Ecotourism http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ecotourism (18
December 2008).
The International Ecotourism Society
2008 The International Ecotourism Society—Definitions & Principles—ecotourism
http://www.ecotourism.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/eco_template.
aspx?articleid=95&zoneid=2 (18 December 2008).
Fennell, D. A.
2001 A Content Analysis of Ecotourism Definitions. Current Issues in Tourism
4:403–414.
UNWTO
1994 Recommendations on Tourism Statistics. Madrid: UNWTO.
Assigned 13 November 2008. Submitted 18 January 2009. Accepted 19 January 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.07.006
Wendy Hillman
CQUniversity, Australia
A Narrative Community: The Voices of Israeli Backpackers is part of the Raphael Patai
Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology of the Wayne State University Press. The
546 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
book was written about the community of Israeli backpackers and the stories from
their journeys that form a foundation for their narratives. These narratives then
become part of a wider discourse surrounding travel and experiences or events
that changed the backpackers. In this case, the narratives were extracted from,
and formed the basis of, the author’s PhD research, where he realised early in
the research that ‘‘the structure of the travel narratives was related to their con-
tent’’ (p. vii). Therefore, A Narrative Community is about how the performances
of travel stories were socially produced. It examines how the performance of the
narratives produced particular effects on the listeners, the implications of this
for the audiences who heard the narratives with regard to the particular ideologies
that were promoted in the ‘‘specific discursive sociocultural context’’ (p. viii), and
the role the specific travel narratives played in these performances.
Furthermore, as it is widely held that tourism research does not have a ‘‘system-
atic theoretical framework’’ (p. viii), this book seeks to rectify that position and to
provide the reader with a comprehensive contribution to ‘‘the particularities of the
language(s) of tourists’’ (p. viii). Thus, this book focuses on what is unique in
Israeli backpacker’s descriptions of their experiences.
Forty-four Israeli backpackers were interviewed upon their return from overseas
travel. The book links the backpackers’ stories through textual analysis and thus
serves as a form of interpersonal connectors where the voices of others persuasively
weave the individuals into a closely bound tourist community, giving those who
have undertaken the ‘‘great journey’’ (as the author calls it) a sense of with com-
munal authority and a sought-after sense of shared communal experience and
belonging. Within the context of this monograph, the Israeli backpacker experi-
ence is a metaphor for an evangelistic, religious, or born-again rite of passage. It
is also a sociolinguistic journey observed through the lens of metalinguistics. Ulti-
mately, it is also a narration itself.
Enthusiasts of Foucault, Bordieu, Barthes, Derrida, Goffman, Bakhtin, Simmel,
Lucan, and Bauman will benefit from the theoretical linkages utilised throughout
the work. Likewise, admirers of Cohen, Crang, Adler, Riley, Urry, Lash, Pearce,
MacCannell, Dann, and Elsrud will be enthralled by the intricate weave of research
and related issues to backpacking experiences through the employment of connec-
tions to their scholarly work on tourism in general and backpackers in particular.
This book is essentially about the narrative and discursive practices of the Israeli
backpacking community and how this community performs the narratives of their
backpacking journeys after they have returned from their ‘‘great journey’’. The
method used to gain insight into the performances of the narratives is one of meta-
discursive analysis, based on the framing of both the backpackers themselves and
their travel experiences. ‘‘The book brings together knowledge and methods from
the fields of linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis and communication’’ (p.
ix) in which ethnographies of speech and performance are used to deconstruct
the tales of backpacking experiences.
A Narrative Community is divided into nine chapters with an epilogue to conclude
the book. It is also divided into ‘‘Sites’’ where the Introduction (Chapters One and
Two) form the first site. This section addresses how backpackers and others who
hear their narrated travel stories are seduced into trying the journey for them-
selves. Site two is comprised of the quotations of the backpackers who narrate their
tales of physical, mental, and personal growth. This section also provides quota-
tions from their personal narrative journeys and provides an insight into the devel-
opment of a backpacking narrative community. Site Three is the Conclusion,
where the tales of transformation through privation, dedication, and perseverance
are brought to a close. Finally, the Epilogue draws all the narrative threads to-
gether and presents us with a cohesive, self-transformed Israeli backpacking com-
munity.
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 547
Assigned 18 November 2008. Review submitted: 14 January 2009. Accepted: 16 January 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2009.01.009
Edward M. Bruner
University of Illinois, USA
This is the most interesting book on tourism that I have read in years. The aim of
the volume is to trace the early development of tourism studies in anthropology
and sociology. The editor invited thirteen scholars to write personal histories of
how they first got interested in tourism, to describe the institutional contexts in
which their studies developed, to discuss the intellectual currents at the time,
and to tell how their research has changed up to the present. Before the 70s, there
was no discernible anthropology or sociology of tourism, so what we have here is an
account of the beginnings presented by the pioneers in the field, and in their own
words.
The accounts are so fascinating to me not only because of what we learn about
the emergence of tourism studies, but also because of what they tell us about the
interplay of the personal and the conceptual. Life stories intersect with academic
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 547
Assigned 18 November 2008. Review submitted: 14 January 2009. Accepted: 16 January 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.07.006
Edward M. Bruner
University of Illinois, USA
This is the most interesting book on tourism that I have read in years. The aim of
the volume is to trace the early development of tourism studies in anthropology
and sociology. The editor invited thirteen scholars to write personal histories of
how they first got interested in tourism, to describe the institutional contexts in
which their studies developed, to discuss the intellectual currents at the time,
and to tell how their research has changed up to the present. Before the 70s, there
was no discernible anthropology or sociology of tourism, so what we have here is an
account of the beginnings presented by the pioneers in the field, and in their own
words.
The accounts are so fascinating to me not only because of what we learn about
the emergence of tourism studies, but also because of what they tell us about the
interplay of the personal and the conceptual. Life stories intersect with academic
548 Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549
stories. Dennison Nash writes about his personal feeling of being an outsider, and
his intellectual life-long focus as a scholar has been on the stranger, the expatriate,
and the tourist. Dean MacCannell gives us a brilliant and hilarious account of his
teenage years and early development as a scholar, and he includes his dissertation
proposal to study European tourism, from 1966! The proposal was rejected by his
thesis committee at Cornell as too ambitious, which shows how outrageously con-
servative professors can be, but many of the ideas in that proposal are more fully
developed in his 1976 classic, The Tourist. If I may add a side comment in this
review, I say to Dean that yes, you are an anthropologist.
Jeremy Boissevain traces his lifelong love affair with Malta, and his shift from the
positive side of tourism impact back to the more negative side. Erik Cohen
describes how he ‘‘bumped into tourism’’ in his first anthropological fieldwork,
where he at first ignored and even resented the tourists that intruded into his
research site, but later came to recognize their critical importance for his project.
It was a serendipitous event that became a turning point in his professional life.
Graham Dann presents a charming description of what he calls, ‘‘The life and
times of a wandering tourism researcher’’. Nelson Graburn reports on the twists
and turns of his active career, and one comes to understand why Berkeley has be-
come an international center for the anthropology of tourism.
Marie-Françoise Lanfant enlightens us about international tourism as a global
system, and explains the distressing intricacies of politics at her institution, the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Malcolm Crick presents a moving
description of his efforts at Deakin University to teach courses on tourism, to get
time off for research, and to obtain decent funding. Before completing an anthro-
pological monograph on the community of Maldon, he lost his battle with cancer
and passed away in 2006 at the young age of 58. The book is appropriately dedi-
cated to his memory. Pierre L. van den Berghe’s chapter is filled with theoretical
and methodological insights, Michel Picard constructs a most sophisticated analy-
sis of Balinese tourism, and there are also contributions by Jafar Jafari, Valene
Smith, and Margaret Byrne Swain.
The editor calls the contributors ‘‘informants’’, directs them ‘‘to keep explana-
tions and interpretations to a minimum’’, and sees himself as the ethnographer pro-
viding the master synthesis. Fortunately, most participants did not follow his
directive, so we have rich, evocative, and in some cases, brutally honest accounts in
which the contributors interpret themselves. The concluding chapters by the editor
lack an engagement with the interplay of ideas and are thus not an intellectual his-
tory, but this was not the editor’s purpose. The meat of the book is in the personal
accounts.
Many of the contributors write about the shift from ahistorical, positivist, struc-
tural, and quantitative models of social analysis that had been so dominant in the
social sciences at the beginning of their careers, to the more interpretative, quali-
tative, constructivist, reflexive, and postmodern perspectives that came to be main-
stream. Another theme along these lines is the tension between business-oriented
management concerns and more scientific theoretical work.
These thirteen authors should not be thought of as isolated individuals develop-
ing tourism studies in their own fashion. Rather, they know each other, attend the
same meetings and important conferences—Mexico City in 1974, Marly-le-Roi in
1986, Madrid in 1990, Berkeley in 2005—and most importantly, are influenced
by and respond to each other’s work in dialogic interplay.
Some contributors correct misunderstandings of their work, which I appreciated
as I have been guilty of these misunderstandings. Nash makes it clear that although
he wrote about tourism as a form of imperialism, he is not a Marxist and, in fact,
has long fought the Marxists in his department at Connecticut. Graburn empha-
sizes that his work on tourism as a sacred journey was inspired not by Victor Turner
Publications in review / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 533–549 549
but by his Cambridge supervisor, Edmund Leach. MacCannell sets the record
straight that he did not reduce the tourists’ quest to a ‘‘search for authenticity’’.
For me, his clarification was convincing and I now have a better understanding
of his position on authenticity.
In fact, I now have a better appreciation of the academic writings of all these
scholars after having read their narrative histories, as I have come closer to under-
standing them as persons.
In conclusion, I want to present some data that I have gathered from Deborah
Winslow, the Program Director for Cultural Anthropology at the National Science
Foundation, which is a major source of research funding for anthropologists. Dur-
ing the 1980–1986 period, there was no separate category for proposals to NSF for
tourism studies, which means that either no proposals were submitted or they were
so few that no separate category was deemed necessary. Sixteen years later, in the
2006–2007 period, 8.9% of the cultural anthropology submissions to NSF had a
tourism component, as did 7.1% of the awards granted (personal conversation
May 14, 2008). These amazing data point to the recent fluorescence of tourism re-
search that augurs well for the future of the field, and must indeed be encouraging
to the pioneering anthropology-sociology scholars who in the 70s took the first ten-
tative steps to develop a new line of inquiry. We owe an immense debt to Dennison
Nash for bringing this important volume together.
doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.07.006
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 550–553, 2009
Printed in Great Britain
www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(09)00084-X
CALENDAR
This department lists conferences and sessions of interest to the academic
community. All relevant announcements should be sent directly to the Calendar
Editor, Honggen Xiao <hmhgxiao@polyu.edu.hk>. Since the dates or locations
of conferences are subject to change, interested individuals are advised to
consult the listed information sources.
550
Calendar / Annals of Tourism Research 36 (2009) 550–553 551