Sustainable Determinants That Affect Tourist Arrival Forecasting

Forecasting resort hotel tourism demand using deep learning techniques - A systematic literature review

In the hospitality industry, revenue management is vital for the sustainability of the business. Powering this strategic concept is the occupancy rate (OR) forecast. Predicting occupancy of the hotel is essential for managers' decision-making process as it gives an estimate of the future business performance. However, the fast-changing marketing demands in the tourism sector, boosted by the advent of online booking, generating accurate forecast figures is nowadays a tough task - needing personnel with advance technical skills and expensive software. The aim of the Systematic Literature review is to provide an insight of the use of Deep Learning techniques for OR prediction. The latest trends in this field over five years (from 2017 to 2022) are highlighted. Through this SRL, three research questions are answered. The questions are related to the variables, deep learning algorithms for prediction and the evaluation metrics used for evaluating the models developed. The Snowballing methodology was used to carry out the SLR. 50 papers were selected for the final analysis. Five categories of variables were identified. LSTM was found to be the most popular deep learning algorithm used to build prediction models. Seven performance metrics were found and among them MAPE was the most popular. To conclude it was found that the hybrid model, CNN-LSTM, to increase accuracy and required more investigation.

Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework

The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework by integrating the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory with environmental awareness in measuring Chinese university students' environmentally sustainable behavior toward tourism destinations. University students tend to engage in sustainability efforts since their values and beliefs are still being formed. The participants were 301 university students from a university in eastern China. The empirical findings demonstrate that: (1) environmental awareness has positive influences on biospheric value, altruistic value and egoistic value; (2) biospheric value positively predicts the new ecological paradigm (NEP), whereas altruistic and egoistic values do not; (3) the NEP, awareness of consequence and personal norms play an important mediating role. Results indicate that extended VBN can explain students' environmentally sustainable behavior. This research supports the growth of sustainable tourism and has a number of practical implications for universities and the relevant environmental departments to promote university students' involvement in sustainable tourism.

Neue Weintourismusstrategien während der Covid19-Krise – ein Vergleich in fünf verschiedenen Ländern

Um die Geschäftseinbußen während der COVID-19-Krise auszugleichen, mussten die touristischen Weinbaubetriebe neue Strategien anwenden. Diese Strategien wurden in einer länderübergreifenden Studie im Jahr 2021 erfasst und verglichen. Die Studie basiert auf einer qualitativen Befragung von Entscheidungsträgern in 70 Weingütern aus den Ländern USA, Australien, Deutschland, Ungarn und Rumänien. Ziel war es, neue und nachhaltige Initiativen und Resilienz-Strategien zu identifizieren, die zur Bewältigung der durch die COVID-19-Pandemie verursachten Schäden umgesetzt wurden. Ebenso sollten die kulturellen Unterschiede in den Reaktionen der einzelnen Länder festgestellt sowie die Perspektiven des Weintourismus in der Zukunft analysiert werden. Die Ergebnisse machen deutlich, dass die Weingüter auf Kreativität und Flexibilität setzten und zeigen gleichzeitig kulturelle Unterschiede auf. Wir können schlussfolgern, dass die wichtigsten Initiativen in den Bereichen CRM-Datenbankmanagement, Förderung des Direktverkaufs und der Digitalisierung, Durchführung von virtuellen Veranstaltungen und Verkostungen sowie dem Angebot neuer Methoden der Produktlieferung lagen, wenn auch in sehr unterschiedlichem Ausmaß. Die Erkenntnisse liefern erste Vorschläge für Best-Practice-Strategien, die Unternehmen im Weintourismus in ihre zukünftige Geschäftsplanung einbeziehen können.

Did Human Microbes Affect Tourist Arrivals before the COVID-19 Shock? Pre-Effect Forecasting Model for Slovenia

In 2020, with a substantial decline in tourist arrivals slightly before the time of COVID-19, the innovative econometric approach predicted possible responses between the spread of human microbes (bacteria/viruses) and tourist arrivals. The article developed a conceptually tested econometric model for predicting an exogenous shock on tourist arrivals driven by the spread of disease using a time series approach. The reworked study is based on an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to avoid spurious results. The periods of robust empirical study were obtained from the data vectors i) from January 2008 to December 2018 and ii) from January 2008 to December 2020. The data were obtained from the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. The ARIMA model predicted the number of declines in tourist arrivals for the approaching periods due to the spread of viruses. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, pre-pandemic results confirmed a one-fifth drop in tourist arrivals in the medium term. In the short term, the decline could be more than three-quarters. A further shock can be caused by forecasted bacterial infections; less likely to reduce tourist demand in the long term. The results can improve the evidence for public health demand in risk reduction for tourists as possible patients. The data from the NIPH are crucial for monitoring public health and tourism management as a base for predictions of unknown events.

The Effect of Perceptions on Tourism: An Econometric Analysis of the Impacts and Opportunities for Economic and Financial Development in Albania and Kosovo

Today, tourism plays an important role in the economic and financial development of countries, and its impact is greater than ever. Therefore, for sustainable economic and financial growth and well-planned development, public and private investments should be directed to areas of priority tourism development. Research on the effect of perceptions on the behavior of tourists in these two countries has not been carried out before, thus, the purpose of this research is to determine whether the effects of the perception of tourists has an impact on economic and financial development based on factors (F1 (f.1.1 and f.1.2) and F2 (f.2.1 and f. 2.2)). For this study, the data were provided by respondents from several cities in Albania and Kosovo. A total of 1002 questionnaires divided into three sessions were analyzed using factor analysis, data reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 23.0 for Windows. In this case, 23 variables were tested and divided into two factors and five sub-factors. The results showed that special attention should be paid to the following factors: (a) awareness of tourists of facilities in tourist destinations where they would like to visit; (b) greater knowledge of foreign languages for residents of both countries, which could facilitate communication with tourists during purchases or other requests; (c) attracting new investors and the creation by the government bodies of conditions and security for both investors and tourists; (d) supporting the marketing and sale of local products for tourists; (e) the need for infrastructure support from government bodies in both countries in order to increase economic and financial well-being through tourism; (f) the need to implement strategies focusing on the sustainable development of both countries through tourism should be strengthened; (g) in terms of sustainable development and regional competitiveness, Kosovo and Albania should follow development trends and be competitive with other countries in the region. The implications of this paper relate only to certain studied variables, and only in certain cities of Albania and Kosovo. In case of future analysis by different researchers, other variables can be analyzed for different locales by making comparisons with the presented data.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of New Implemented Sustainable Wine Tourism Strategies during the COVID-19 Crisis

To compensate for loss of business during the COVID-19 crisis, wineries in the tourism industry had to apply new strategies. In order to collect and compare these newly developed sustainable strategies, a cross-cultural study has been conducted in 2021. This study is based on a qualitative survey using purposeful sampling with key decision-makers of 70 wineries from the U.S., Australia, Germany, Hungary, and Romania covering wine growing countries both from the Old and New World. The aim was to identify new and sustainable initiatives and resilience strategies implemented to deal with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, noting any cultural differences in each country’s response and to analyse the perspectives of wine tourism in the future. The findings highlight the wineries’ impressive focus on creativity and flexibility while also bringing attention to cultural differences. The insights form a preliminary suggestion for best practice strategies that businesses within wine tourism may consider helpful in their future business planning.

Coupling Coordination of the Regional Economy, Tourism Industry, and the Ecological Environment: Evidence from Western China

The economic–tourism–environment (ETE) is a complex system with extensive connotations and coupling characteristics. The exact understanding of these systems forms the prerequisite and basis for regional development. This study explores the impact of the coupling coordination of the ETE system on the level and influencing factors of sustainable development in western China. An evaluation index system has been developed for assessing the coupling coordination (CC) of the ETE system based on the context of 12 provinces and cities in western China. Entropy and spatial autocorrelation methods have been used to evaluate the comprehensive benefit value and influencing factors of the ETE systems in the region. The spatial Durbin model has been used to assess empirical data from 2010–2019. The coupling coordination degree (CCD) of each subsystem was used as the main explanatory variable to quantify the spatial spillover effect. The research results show that the ETE system of the provinces and cities in western China have a strong correlation. The three subsystems interact, restrict, and promote each other, operating together in contradictory unity. The degree of coupling and coordination of the ETE systems are mainly stable but fluctuate from the time perspective. From the spatial perspective, the level of coupling and coordination have clear spatial correlation and spatial dependence. However, since 2013, the spatial dependence has significantly weakened, indicating that the level of coupling coordination is moving towards a balanced direction. The ETE subsystems not only promote the improvement of the coupling coordination of the region itself, but also optimize the coupling coordination of neighboring areas. The promotion effect of each subsystem on the degree of self-coupling and coordination is greater than the promotion effect on neighboring areas.

Evaluating the Impact of COVID-19 on Society, Environment, Economy, and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused drastic changes across the globe, affecting all areas of life. This paper provides a comprehensive study on the influence of COVID-19 in various fields such as the economy, education, society, the environment, and globalization. In this study, both the positive and negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on education are studied. Modern technologies are combined with conventional teaching to improve the communication between instructors and learners. COVID-19 also greatly affected people with disabilities and those who are older, with these persons experiencing more complications in their normal routine activities. Additionally, COVID-19 provided negative impacts on world economies, greatly affecting the business, agriculture, entertainment, tourism, and service sectors. The impact of COVID-19 on these sectors is also investigated in this study, and this study provides some meaningful insights and suggestions for revitalizing the tourism sector. The association between globalization and travel restrictions is studied. In addition to economic and human health concerns, the influence of a lockdown on environmental health is also investigated. During periods of lockdown, the amount of pollutants in the air, soil, and water was significantly reduced. This study motivates researchers to investigate the positive and negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in various unexplored areas.

Technical Analysis of Tourism Price Process in the Eurozone

This study is a specific contribution to investigating normalities in prices to a well-established cointegrated vector autoregressive model (VAR). While the role of prices in computational economics has been investigated, the real prices vis-à-vis nominal prices in the decision process has been neglected. The paper investigates the transition from nominal to real time-series of prices without losing information in the data set when deflating or de-seasonalizing. The likelihood approach is based on careful specifications of the (co)integration characteristics of tourism prices. The results confirm that the transmission of tourism prices in the Eurozone positively impacts Slovenian tourism prices when the spatial consolidated cointegrated VAR model is used. The theoretical-conceptual and empirical contribution is twofold: first, the study develops and empirically applies bona fide divisor of normality consolidation for time-series in levels instead of routinely utilised inflation integers, and second, the study introduces perfection of prices on a long-run time-series treatment.