Sustainable Destination Marketing Ecosystem through Smartphone-Based Social Media: The Consumers’ Acceptance Perspective

The Role of Managerial and Technological Innovations in the Tourism Industry: A Review of the Empirical Literature

The constant changes typically present in the market along with intense competition force companies to be flexible and adaptable. Firms that operate in the tourism industry need to be well prepared and ready to face challenges that arise on different levels. Managerial and technological innovations can play a significant role in the profitability, sustainable development and longevity of a company. In this respect, this paper aims to analyze the role of innovation, as well as the key elements that affect the capability of a firm to manage innovation (as corporate strategy, organizational structure, management style, employee management, innovation process and knowledge management). To this end, it highlights the importance of the way that a firm is directed in order to enhance its performance and maintain its competitive advantage in the market. Some of the results show that the proper style of management, appropriate personnel and a pleasant working environment characterized by collaboration among employees and managers enhance the possibilities of a firm to increase innovation. Moreover, some managerial implications are also proposed to assist managers of firms in the tourist industry to create appropriate strategies. Since managers are positive and support innovation in all aspects of the firm, this may also enhance the use of technology, which will give tourism firms increased opportunity to enlarge their market share. In addition, our study accentuates the roles of ICT, social media, mobile phones and smartphones, websites, as well as multimedia, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and several other technological advances in the tourism industry, which have helped to develop operations and transform the process of travelling to a much more pleasant and efficient experience. Within this framework of the essential role of managerial and technological innovations in tourism, our study aims to provide an extensive review of the empirical studies that have been conducted to investigate these issues.

What Is the Role of Tourism Management and Marketing toward Sustainable Tourism? A Bibliometric Analysis Approach

Sustainability is one of the current much-discussed issues in the world, including in tourism sectors. However, there are few studies on tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism. This study aims to analyze the literature on tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism by using a bibliometric analysis approach based on the Web of Science (WOS) database. A sample of 528 articles was analyzed in this study. The data were processed and the results were graphically presented by using the R program. The results found the occurrence of publications by year, publication source information and authors, journals, countries, institutions, thematic maps, and current trends of topics in tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the role of tourism management and marketing toward sustainable tourism were discussed in this study. The bibliometric analysis helps to identify a future research agenda in sustainable tourism.

A text mining approach for CSR communication: an explorative analysis of energy firms on Twitter in the post-pandemic era

The rapid diffusion of the Covid-19 worldwide has accelerated the need for companies to address the sustainability issue at different levels, as nowadays the attention of stakeholders with respect to this theme has grown considerably. As a result, companies had to set up CSR communication strategies to build and strengthen their legitimacy and reputation. Among the communication channels to convey messages of firms’ CSR initiatives, social media are becoming increasingly important and, particularly, Twitter is the social media platform where more CSR-related content is generated. By adopting the theoretical lens of constitutive communication of organization, the aim of this paper is to investigate with a textual approach how the CSR communication in the energy sector has evolved in the post Covid-19 scenario. Specifically, our attention will be focus on: (1) the exploratory analysis based on the hashtags; (2) the identification of CSR communication topics and (3) the proposal of topics network in order to discover subgroups of topics. Findings of this research show that the CSR communication on Twitter has undergone changes compared to the pre Covid-19 era. Particularly, we identified 11 CSR related-topics which, as the proposed topic network demonstrates, are interconnected. On the one hand, our results corroborate previous research regarding some CSR-related issues; on the other hand, we identified some topics such as safety, people and work which have exploded in Twitter conversations in the post Covid-19 scenario. Finally, this study provides managerial implications for professionals dealing with CSR communication, digital communication and social media marketing activities.

Mobile perceived trust mediation on the intention and adoption of FinTech innovations using mobile technology: A systematic literature review

The banking and financial sectors have witnessed a significant development recently due to financial technology (FinTech), and it has become an essential part of the financial system. Many factors helped the development of this sector, including the pandemics such as Covid-19, the considerable increasing market value of the FinTech sector worldwide, and new technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and mobile technology. Moreover, changes in consumer's preferences, especially the Z-generation (digital generation). FinTech shifted the traditional business models to mobile platforms characterized by ease of access and swift transactions. Mobile technology became the main backbone for FinTech innovations and acts as a channel to deliver FinTech services that overcome all geographical and timing barriers, thus enhancing financial inclusion. Mobile perceived Trust (MPT), or the trust in using financial business models via mobile technology, is a crucial factor in the FinTech context that has mediation effects on the intention and adoption of different FinTech business models. Unfortunately, few studies have explored MPT mediations on consumers' intention to adopt FinTech innovations using mobile technology. Typically, many studies examined trust/MPT as an independent and unidirectional variable and investigated its effects on behaviour intention without predicting its mediation effects. This study aimed to develop a systematic literature review on MPT mediation in FinTech, focusing on the period from 2016 and 2021, in journals ranked Q1 and Q2, and known-based theories such as the technology acceptance model, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, and the mobile technology acceptance model. This study found that only four articles were published in Q1 and Q2 journals. In these articles, the MPT was used as a mediator, and its effects were measured on the intention and adoption of the behaviour.

Exploring the Role of Norms and Habit in Explaining Pro-Environmental Behavior Intentions in Situations of Use Robots and AI Agents as Providers in Tourism Sector

In a pandemic situation, with climate change around the world, studies analyzing changes in travel patterns are welcome. This study combines three theories to propose a model on pro-environmental behavior intentions, namely, the theory of planned behavior, value–belief–norm theory and habit theory. This study aims to examine the role of social norms, personal norms and habit strength to explain pro-environmental behavior intentions. The authors collected 316 usable questionnaires from tourists in the well-known touristic Belem location in Lisbon. Personal norms were revealed to have the strongest association with pro-environmental behavior intentions, followed by habit strength. The study also identified different broad challenges to encouraging sustainable behaviors and use these to develop novel theoretical propositions and directions for future research. Finally, the authors outlined how practitioners aiming to encourage sustainable consumer behaviors can use this framework to achieve better results.

Shaping a View on the Influence of Technologies on Sustainable Tourism

To date, tourism is the fastest growing industry globally, but one of the least developed in terms of environmentally sustainable practices. However, only a small portion of documents elaborate on how the introduction of new technologies can impact a more sustainable development route for tourism. This study’s objective is to provide an overview on literature state-of-the-art related to sustainable tourism and technological innovations, offering insights for further advancing this domain. We employ a bibliometric analysis and a comprehensive review of 139 articles, collected from Web of Science and Scopus databases, for the purpose of: (i) exploring and discussing the most relevant contributions in the publication network: (ii) highlighting key issues and emerging topics; (iii) uncovering open questions for the future. Our findings reveal contradictory views on the risks and benefits of technology adoption. Artificial intelligence, internet of things, circular economy, big data, augmented and virtual reality emerge as major trends. Five work streams are identified and described, leading to a broader perspective on how technology can shape the future of sustainable tourism. Relevant theoretical and managerial implications are derived. Finally, a research agenda is proposed as guidance for future studies addressing the outcomes of digital disruption on sustainable tourism.

Microbiological, Health and Comfort Aspects of Indoor Air Quality in a Romanian Historical Wooden Church

Monitoring the indoor microclimate in old buildings of cultural heritage and significance is a practice of great importance because of the importance of their identity for local communities and national consciousness. Most aged heritage buildings, especially those made of wood, develop an indoor microclimate conducive to the development of microorganisms. This study aims to analyze one wooden church dating back to the 1710s in Romania from the microclimatic perspective, i.e., temperature and relative humidity and the fungal load of the air and surfaces. One further aim was to determine if the internal microclimate of the monument is favorable for the health of parishioners and visitors, as well as for the integrity of the church itself. The research methodology involved monitoring of the microclimate for a period of nine weeks (November 2020–January 2021) and evaluating the fungal load in indoor air as well as on the surfaces. The results show a very high contamination of air and surfaces (>2000 CFU/m³). In terms of fungal contamination, Aspergillus spp. (two different species), Alternaria spp., Cladosporium spp., Mucor spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Trichopyton spp. were the genera of fungi identified in the indoor wooden church air and Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Botrytis spp. on the surfaces (church walls and iconostasis). The results obtained reveal that the internal microclimate not only imposes a potential risk factor for the parishioners and visitors, but also for the preservation of the wooden church as a historical monument, which is facing a crisis of biodeterioration of its artwork.

Sustainable Tourism Product Development: An Application of Product Design Concepts

This study examines sustainable tourism products in tourism destinations. Based on concepts of sustainable product design, our study proposes a framework for sustainable tourism products by adapting an existing Design for Sustainability Framework to consider and analyze the characteristics and themes of sustainable (tourism) products as well as their impact and scope. Using a pragmatic qualitative approach, 15 semi-structured interviews with destination managers from the German-speaking Alpine region formed the empirical basis of the study. The results emphasize key themes and multiple characteristics associated with sustainable tourism products in tourist destinations, addressing all sustainability components and design innovation levels. This study is the first to apply existing sustainable product design concepts to destination contexts and discuss their applicability for sustainable tourism products. For practitioners, this study provides support for the development of sustainable tourism products and contributes to a better understanding of the effects and levels of these products as well as sustainability marketing.

The Impact of Social Media Use on Consumers’ Restaurant Consumption Experiences: A Qualitative Study

Travellers have high standards and regard restaurants as important travel attributes. In the tourism and hospitality industry, the use of developed tools (e.g., smartphones and location-based tablets) has been popularised as a way for travellers to easily search for information and to book venues. Qualitative research using semi-structured interviews based on the face-to-face approach was adopted for this study to examine how consumers’ restaurant selection processes are performed with the utilisation of social media on smartphones. Then, thematic analysis was adopted. The findings of this research show that the adoption of social media on smartphones is positively related with consumers’ gratification. More specifically, when consumers regard that process, content and social gratification are satisfied, their intention to adopt social media is fulfilled. It is suggested by this study that consumers’ restaurant decision-making process needs to be understood, as each stage of the decision-making process is not independent; all the stages of the restaurant selection process are organically connected and influence one another.

Research on the Impact of Popular Tourism Program Involvement on Rural Tourism Image, Familiarity, Motivation and Willingness

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of people’s involvement in tourism programs on the imagination and familiarity of rural tourism destinations, as well as the motivation and desire to visit them. The results were validated by using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical software to calculate and analyze the samples and to explore and infer the causal relationships. The results showed that: the degree of travel program involvement significantly correlated with familiarity and imagery of the destination (p < 0.000), and the degrees of familiarity and imagery of the destination also significantly correlated with motivation to travel (p < 0.000), and, lastly, the higher the motivation to travel in the last village, the greater the desire to travel (p < 0.000).

Tourism Economic Network Structural Characteristics of National Parks in the Central Region of China

The social network analysis has been actively applied in various tourist destinations, with a few studies on the tourism economic network structure of national parks. Taking the national parks in the Central Region of China as research objects, this study applies the modified gravity model to measure the strength of tourism economic connection. The social network analysis method (SNA) is used to analyze the network structure of tourism economic connection among national parks from the perspectives of overall network density, network centrality, and cohesive subgroups. The results show that the intensity of the tourism relationships among national parks in Central China is unbalanced in spatial distribution. The structure of tourism economic network presents a multi-core model. Lushan Mountain, Shaoshan, Wudang Mountain, and other national parks play a necessary role in the transmission of regional tourism economic elements. There are cohesive subgroups of connections among national parks, which are closely related to administrative divisions and regional cultural background. The subgroups of interior scenes in the same province are more closely related, and the degree of tourism integration still needs to be improved. The study advances the understanding of tourism economic network relationships among tourist attractions in a destination.

Social Media-Based Content towards Image Formation: A New Approach to the Selection of Sustainable Destinations

When addressing the ever-increasing role that social media plays in generating a clear image of the travel destination chosen by tourists, the research and specialty literature tends to be rather limited. Despite an increase in social media-generated content, the process is not yet fully understood, although research suggests the importance of two different factors (i.e., tour-operator-generated content and user-generated content) in influencing destination image formation. In this regard, the present paper aims to examine the most significant factors currently affecting the potential behavior of travelers towards the selection of sustainable destinations. What is more, another purpose of this paper is to explore the effects that tour-operator-generated content and user-generated content have upon the formation of the overall mediating destination image through cognitive and affective destination images. For the current analysis, a structural equation modeling (SEM) method was used in order to test the conceptual model. Data from Shanghai, China (n = 425) were used. The results demonstrate and establish that travel information sources (i.e., tour-operator-generated content and user-generated content) have a positive effect on destination image formation. The analytical results also revealed that in order to select a sustainable destination, travelers are influenced by tour-operator-generated content, as well as by user-generated content, with the effect of the latter being more important and influential. Travelers’ use of social media content has played a key role in the formation of the overall destination image through the mediating effect of cognitive and affective destination images. This research thus provides valuable theoretical and practical implications for academics and practitioners alike, implications which are valuable for the fields of destination marketing and management. Furthermore, practitioners of the management of sustainable destinations can thus make use of the results throughout the entire decision-making process.