RCAAP Repository

The current paper aims to provide a theoretical and conceptual analysis of wine tourism in Lubuskie, Poland, to relate the experiences underlying the current state of the art and to formulate some guidelines for directions for future enotourism development. Lubuskie winemaking was reborn at the beginning of the present century, after half a century of the tradition remaining dormant. The redevelopment of Lubuskie winemaking has been accompanied by numerous manifestations of the development of enotourism and is noticeable in each of the examined cases below. The article is based on the author’s research, which includes quality interviews with vineyard owners who state that, in addition to wine production, wine tourism is an equally important trend in their professional lives. Lubuskie’senotourism promotion is consistent with the patterns developed in countries with well-established wine traditions, although it is not as diverse. An important component of Lubuskie’s tourism promotion is the reference to its pre-war tradition, combined with an exposition of its material wine heritage. The recommendations for further activities in the field of enotourism are related, on the one hand, to the expansion of the vineyards’ enotourism packages and, on the other hand, to the implementation of new concepts for the popularization of Zielona Góra’s wine heritage, including the development of the wine route in the city.

The purpose of this article is to characterise the concept and discuss the possibilities of applying exploratory walking as a method of research in urban tourism spaces. In the article, the original concept of the method is characterised and discussed based on a pilot study. The place chosen for the pilot study is Charles Bridge in Prague. The conclusions about further work on improving the method and adapting it to the research needs related to the use of urban spaces by tourists are confirmed. Such walks can be a useful research method and a potential tool for recognising and introducing social and spatial changes. The exploratory walks help to obtain more material than sedentary interviews. Despite the positive functions of the walks, the pilot study also showed that the method could not function alone. Other methods and techniques should complement it. The analyses in the article method can contribute to a better understanding of the phenomena and processes observed in urban tourist spaces, as well as to the design and implementation of changes serving improving tourist services.

The tourism cluster is certainly a key sector study for any mainland or island economy. The paper reviews the extent and emerging perspectives on and approaches to tourism cluster and island economy. We adopted a systematic literature review using a bibliometric approach, focusing on the creation of maps and networks of visualization of intellectual structure in the period of 30 years (1987-2017), through the Web of Science database. The authors identify and classify the various theoretical lenses in the domain of cluster tourism and insular economy and suggest the future research agenda. The paper contributes by conceptually categorizing and mapping the extant research into five groups of clusters or approaches to the tourism cluster and insular economy: i) impacts; ii) islands; iii) satisfaction; iv) insularity, and v) tourism. The authors argue that tourism is undoubtedly the sector linked to island regions and that is an engine of the economy of an island.

The hotel industry is certainly a key sector study for any regional competitiveness. The aim of this study is to review the extent and emerging perspectives and approaches to the hotel industry and regional competitiveness. We adopted a systematic literature review using a bibliometric approach, focusing on the creation of maps and networks of visualization of intellectual structure in the period of 18 years (2000-2018), through the Web of Science database. The author argues that the hotel industry is undoubtedly the sector linked to regional competitiveness and that is an engine of the regional economy.

Historically, the Caribbean tourism destinations have competed based on their largely undifferentiated marketing mix. More recent evidence from the Caribbean tourism promotional practice, however, indicates the realization in the practitioner community that developing a distinct brand equity is critical for success. This paper aims to identify and measure elements of brand equity for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, compare the brand equity of the two destinations, and provide branding recommendations. In this study, these destinations were subjected to a customer-based brand equity for tourism destinations (CBBETD) model comprising the five dimensions of brand equity – i.e., social image, price/ value, trustworthiness, identification/attachment, and brand performance. The CBBETD scores were then compared in order to understand better the differences in brand equity between these two similarly placed US territories in the Caribbean.

The development of adventure tourism destinations through good service quality brought a new perspective for the perceptions of foreign tourists. This study analysed the impact of the attributes of tourism service quality (TSQ) - monetary advantages, convenience advantages, and safety and security - and tourists’ behavioural intention to engage in mountaineering in Pakistan. The study also analysed the moderating role of the destination’s image in creating the tourists’ intentions. A conceptual model was developed after the literature review. The research model was validated through exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha values. The findings show that international tourists focus on the monetary and convenience advantages in their intentions to visit Pakistan. Personal safety and security had no significant impact on attitude, because tourists focused on mountaineering perceive “there is no way to avoid all risks”, although these risks can be minimized by taking courses and training in mountain climbing. Physical and environmental risks may occur because of travellers are unaware of the natural characteristics of the destination and their effects, just as personal risks may occur due to dangerous practices in leisure activities. The destination’s mountaineering image has a role in creating positive intentions to visit Pakistan in the near future.

In recent decades, the Internet, evolving technologies, and social media have led to the evolution of consumer behavior. The changes in customer behavior driven by digital developments provide many opportunities and challenges that businesses also need to deal with online. The better companies know about the behavior of their customers, the easier they can engage with them using strategies such as content marketing, User Experience (UX), influencers marketing, User-Generated Content (UGC), or Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM). These strategies are essential to get more sales and to develop businesses online, as such strategies increase the engagement with users and influence their behavior. This Special Edition of JOSD focuses on the analysis of consumer behavior in the digital age and, by doing so, contributes to extant knowledge about digital marketing strategies, online consumer behavior, and new digital business models such as mobile applications or shared economy.

Over the years, the dynamic advancement of technology has shaped the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Today, the huge shift in the industry has resulted in consumers seeking readily accessible information. As such, various platforms, mostly social media, have influenced consumers’ pre-purchase opinions before purchasing. Nevertheless, limited studies have been conducted in Malaysia, focusing on consumers’ purchasing behaviour, specifically in the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Thus, this study examines the impacts of social media on consumers’ purchasing behaviour in Malaysian restaurants. Therefore, this study has incorporated recently proposed factors including E-WOM, social media and online community marketing, higher accessibility of information, and online ordering system, which stimulate the consumers’ purchasing behaviour in Malaysia. This study utilised the critical review process of secondary sources to identify the determinants and measurements used in the surveying instrument. Purposive sampling was applied to select the restaurants, whereas the non-convenience random sampling technique was employed to collect data from 270 consumers over three months. Later, PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. The results proved that the electronic word of mouth (E-WOM), social media advertisement and online ordering system significantly determined consumers’ purchasing behaviour. However, highly accessible information via social media does not have a positive implication on consumers’ purchasing behaviour. The study is contributing much to the food and beverage industry.

In recent years, the emergence of new digital platforms of sharing economy has given rise to considerable changes in consumer behavior. These new ways of consumption in online environment have to be driven by specific digital strategies adapted to sharing economy. This Systematic Literature Review aims to cover an existing gap in the literature and to organize the main digital marketing strategies, techniques, or tactics that can be implemented on these platforms in accordance with the objectives and core values of this business model. First, we outline a framework of the sharing economy, including a discussion of the definition of the concept of SE, objectives, importance, and implications for consumer behavior. Then, a methodology of the literature review is developed based on previous literature on the two key terms—“sharing economy” and “digital marketing”—retrieved from databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. The interpretation and analysis of the results allow for the identification of the main digital marketing strategies and techniques to apply on collaborative platforms. Finally, the conclusion outlines the importance of digital marketing in the online environment, as well as of enhancing the user-generated content and e-word-of-mouth on these platforms.

The fashion industry, the world’s economic engine ahead of prominent sectors such as the automobile and energy sectors, has found an effective communication strategy on the Internet. Fashion brands reinvent themselves in their marketing and business strategies to adapt and approach emerging markets eager to consume fashion, which is why digital marketing becomes an essential tool for the communication of these leading brands in the market with its younger audiences. Digitization, a saturated market, consumer 2.0, influencers and a new way of communicating fashion that is more social and interactive are some of the challenges that companies in a sector in constant change and evolution, whose own visual nature, have had to overcome makes the social medium the most effective for its dissemination. The following work aims to offer an in-depth study of the new scenario that arises after the appearance of Web 2.0 and the Social Media phenomenon, which have modified the basic pillars of business communication in the Fashion sector.

This research analyzes the discrepancies respecting parents’ and their children’s perspectives on adolescents’ risky online behaviors and parental mediation. Rather than focus solely on youth outcomes, this study explores dyadic data, by comparing reports from adolescents attending 7th to 12th grades in Portuguese schools and those of their parents (N=1016). Moreover, this research considers the existence of defense mechanisms influencing adolescents’ reports, a factor that has been neglected in previous studies. Differences regarding adolescents’ gender, parents’ gender, and adolescents’ school year are considered and tested using One-way ANOVA. Within the family unit, the only members considered by adolescents to have the same or more online and computer skills than the teenagers themselves are their older siblings. Practical implications aiming to mitigate the risk involved in adolescents’ online experiences, and theoretical contributions to the field of prevention and youth well-being in the context of consumer behavior in the digital age are discussed.

The housing market is an important industry not only in a country’s economy but also for the living conditions of the population. Several studies explain how real estate is related to the main economic indicators of a country. Using the Engle-Granger cointegration methodology, this research studies the main drivers of the housing prices of a European country that suffered a financial crisis. Analysing the Portuguese housing market with quarterly data between 1998 and 2019, it is possible to show that in the long term, unemployment and interest rates are negatively related and that population, inflation and money supply are positively associated with housing prices. With this study, it is possible to conclude that economic issues are relevant to the housing market and mainly to home prices.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Information Technology in the development of sustainable competitive advantage in organizations through implementing knowledge management. This research is applied research in terms of purpose and correlational research in terms of data analysis. the statistical population of this study was 45 Companies active in the electronic insurance industry of Iran. Questionnaires were used for data collection. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results showed that IT has a positive and significant association with a sustainable competitive advantage and knowledge management of the companies under study. The results of this study showed that companies operating in the electronics insurance industry can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by using the appropriate tools of IT and implementing knowledge management.

This study seeks to ascertain whether the risk factors in the asset evaluation models proposed by Fama and French (1993, 2015) contain information that help in forecasting regional economic growth. To this end, based upon samples of Gross Domestic Product for three regions, North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, covering the period between 1991 and 2018, we applied the quantile regression analysis technique. The empirical results suggest that the performance of regional risk factors contains information that helps in forecasting the regional level of economic growth. This furthermore concludes that the regional risk factors help in forecasting the economic growth of countries with developed and large-scale share markets.

Nautical tourism revolves around alternative aspects such as leisure activities related to water, sports, and navigation. In recent decades, it has positioned itself as one of the most developed segments within the global tourism market. This article analyses the main contributions in this area, understanding the complexity of finding an approximate definition of its concept. The objective is to analyse from 1989 to 2019 the scientific production of the term “nautical tourism” in addition to identifying which keywords and trends related to nautical tourism are currently being developed through the VOSviewer programme. For this, a bibliometric study of the documents inscribed in the WoS and Scopus databases has been carried out. Future trends in research include terms such as security, management risk, and Mediterranean.

Productivity measurement in the tourism sector has been raising increasing interest among researchers and is recognised as an important indicator for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and for enhancing its spillover effects on the economy. However, studies for Portugal and the particular activities included in the set of nature tourism activities are scarce. To overcome this research gap, this paper calculates the labour productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) measures of nature tourism firms to compare firms’ productivity performance across NUTS II regions in mainland Portugal during 2014–2017. Using data from SABI, Quadros do Pessoal, INE and the National Tourism Registry, the sample consists of 369 firms, representing 55% of firms operating in nature tourism in the mainland. Results show that the levels of TFP, unlike to labour productivity, are uneven over time and space. In 2015, a year of change in the business cycle, all regions experienced a negative increase in TFP except the Metropolitan Region of Lisbon, which seems to indicate that nature tourism in most of the country is less resilient to external economic shocks, performing better in periods of prosperity. Labour productivity growth does not present, in general, consistently positive results.

Studies indicate that 80 % of all Tourism in Europe is held in coastal areas. In Portugal the number grows to 90 %, a fact that raises two distinct but equally relevant types of concerns: on one side the pressure for maintaining the shorelines and beaches clean and aesthetically appraisable for visitors, and on the other side, the potential massification of tourism that stands on the opposite end towards preserving the environment of tourism locations. This study focuses on the relevance of the oceans’ preservation for the tourism sector in Portugal, specifically in the Algarve, and on how sustainability is being addressed regarding plastic use and its negative outcome, particularly marine litter and the damages it inflicts on coastal areas. The methodology adopted was literature review and case studies analysis of a set of governmental, non-governmental and private tourism sector stakeholder’s actions and programmes. Findings suggest that the promotion of circular economy is a path several organizations are already undertaking in order to address plastic use towards a more sustainable planet and Tourism development. Results also indicate that Design is an important facilitator for the change of the tourism sector towards this new circular economy model.

This paper aims at analysing the way institutions, under the approach of New Institutional Economics, incentivize or restrict the development of a wine tourism destination. This is a case study conducted in Vale dos Vinhedos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which is the main wine tourism destination in the country. A documental analysis was held along with interviews with 13 representative organizations (public and private) of wine and tourism sectors in the region. In the study, it was observed that wine tourism in Vale dos Vinhedos, lacks formal institutions, being solidly based on informal institutions, in other words, cultural region’s patterns. Additionally, the entry of new tourism players, with a different mindset, creates conflicts and institutional pressure, especially related to land usage. It can be observed that leadership structures connected to these sectors have put effort to promote the destination. However, there is little formal institutional incentive. Thus, to solve these bottlenecks, it is recommended that the formulation of incentive policies be coherent with the informal institutional structure of the region, that they support local entrepreneurship, aiming at wine tourism dynamization in small properties, the definition of a shared destiny view and the roles of different segments of governance.

Bibliotourism is a recent concept and an emergent segment of cultural tourism. Considering both the phenomena of tourism increase and the passage from the information society on to the knowledge society, the role of public and heritage library faces new challenges and priorities. The building’s architecture, the artistic bookshelves display, and the value of the collection may be offered as cultural values, determining the library as a tourist attraction. Furthermore, libraries may also assist in all the travel phases, from the preparation to the place experience and its memory preservation. Considering that the cultural tourism motivations are related to learning, experiencing and understanding the place’s history, culture and heritage in both intangible and tangible components, libraries, as documental repositories, are crucial to support the tourist’s information needs and demands. While traditional libraries are reinventing cultural mediation strategies to spread knowledge about those issues, namely by organising exhibitions and performative events, digital libraries, over the past two decades, have become crucial channels in obtaining information. By providing access to data through a range of resources and services in a very inclusive and ubiquitous manner, digital libraries are an essential tool to the tourism planners and consumers, and play a strategic role for the newest tourist generations, and mainly for the Generation Z tourists. Bibliotourism and tourism activities focused on libraries create mutual benefits and development opportunities, as the available knowledge enhances the sense of place and more immersive experiences. The research in this field is at a very early stage, and the theoretical framework is underdeveloped, even if some case studies have been presented in the last years. The main objectives of this paper, conceived as a descriptive study, are to provide critical analysis of the bibliotourism concept and to provide an overview of how to approach the public libraries functions from a touristic perspective. The methods used to achieve these objectives are based on bibliographic research, by confronting the term citations in the general and specialised press with its references in scientific journals, followed by the direct observation of the use of libraries by tourists, in the framework of a theoretical and empirical research model. The expected results are the creation of a new perspective about integrating libraries, cultural mediation and entertainment in leisure tourism and a contribution to the definition and description of a bibliotourism concept.

The article discusses the development of industrial tourism as a way of country-of-origin promotion. The paper presents a study which focuses on determining the current situation of industrial tourism, and the peculiarities of international communication strategies in promoting industrial tourism in China. The methods of online international communication in promoting industrial tourism in China were analyzed in this study, specifically Shanghai’s strategy of promotion was chosen where 17 industrial tourism examples received additional governmental support and advocacy. As a result, it was found that the mechanism of international promotion is largely related to existing standards, new communication technologies are used in limited ways, and all the provided information is mostly not adopted for international target audiences. The analysis is made on the basis of theoretical and empirical data, both available by free access and the author’s data. The methods of data collection are analysis of scientific literature and content analysis of Internet sources.