WorldWideScience

Sample records for derived source-destination models

  1. Destination and source memory in Huntington's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Caillaud, Marie; Verny, Christophe; Fasotti, Luciano; Allain, Philippe

    2016-03-01

    Destination memory refers to the recall of the destination of previously relayed information, and source memory refers to the recollection of the origin of received information. We compared both memory systems in Huntington's disease (HD) participants. For this, HD participants and healthy adults had to put 12 items in a black or a white box (destination task), and to extract another 12 items from a blue or a red box (source task). Afterwards, they had to decide in which box each item had previously been deposited (destination memory), and from which box each item had previously been extracted (source memory). HD participants showed poorer source as well as destination recall performance than healthy adults in the proposed tasks. Correlation analysis showed that destination recall was significantly correlated with episodic recall in HD participants. Destination memory impairment in HD participants seems to be considerably influenced by their episodic memory performance. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  2. Source and destination memory: two sides of the same coin?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindner, Isabel; Drouin, Héloïse; Tanguay, Annick F N; Stamenova, Vessela; Davidson, Patrick S R

    2015-01-01

    Whereas source memory involves remembering from whom you have heard something, destination memory involves remembering to whom you have told something. Despite its practical relevance, destination memory has been studied little. Recently, two reports suggested that generally destination memory should be poorer than source memory, and that it should be particularly difficult for older people. We tested these predictions by having young and older participants read sentences to two examiners (destination encoding) and listen to sentences read by two examiners (source encoding), under intentional (Experiment 1) or incidental encoding (Experiments 2 and 3). Only in Experiment 3 (in which cognitive demands during destination encoding were increased) was destination memory significantly poorer than source memory. In none of the experiments were older adults inferior to the young on destination or source memory. Destination- and source-memory scores were significantly correlated. Item memory was consistently superior for sentences that had been read out loud (during destination encoding) versus those that had been heard (during source encoding). Destination memory needs not always be poorer than source memory, appears not to be particularly impaired by normal ageing and may depend on similar processes to those supporting source memory.

  3. Destination and source memory in Huntington's disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Caillaud, M.; Verny, C.; Fasotti, L.; Allain, P.

    2016-01-01

    Destination memory refers to the recall of the destination of previously relayed information, and source memory refers to the recollection of the origin of received information. We compared both memory systems in Huntington's disease (HD) participants. For this, HD participants and healthy adults

  4. Integrated model of destination competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Armenski Tanja

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to determine the weakest point of Serbian destination competitiveness as a tourist destination in comparation with its main competitors. The paper is organized as follows. The short introduction of the previous research on the destination competitiveness is followed by description of the Integrated model of destination competitiveness (Dwyer et al, 2003 that was used as the main reference framework. Section three is devoted to the description of the previous studies on competitiveness of Serbian tourism, while section four outlines the statistical methodology employed in this study and presents and interprets the empirical results. The results showed that Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and created resources than in destination management while, according to the Integrated model, Serbia is less competitive in demand conditions that refer to the image and awareness of the destination itself.

  5. Impact of Tourist Perceptions, Destination Image and Tourist Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Conceptual Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R Rajesh

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The objective this research paper is develops a destination loyalty theoretical model by using tourist perception, destination image and tourist satisfaction. These study analysis components, attributes, factor influencing the destination image and examine the tourist satisfaction and determinants of destination loyalty. This is a conceptual paper attempts at evaluating recent empirical on destination image, tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The conceptual framework model is developed on the basis of existing theoretical and empirical research in the field of destination marketing. The models include four constructs. Tourist Perception constructs has been influenced by factors like Historical and Cultural Attractions, Destination Affordability, Travel Environment, Natural Attractions, Entertainments and Infrastructure. Destination image construct has been influenced by factors like Infrastructure & Facilities, Heritage Attractions, Natural Made Attractions, Destination Safety & Cleanness, Friendly Local Community & Clam Atmosphere, Rejuvenation and Service Price and Affordability. The satisfaction construct has been influenced by factors like Entertainments, Destination Attractions and Atmosphere, Accommodation, Food, Transportation Services and Shopping. The destination loyalty construct has influenced by intentions to revisit, word of mouth promotion and recommending to others . The earlier study result reveals that tourist perception, destination image and tourist satisfaction directly influence destination loyalty. The outcomes of the study have significant managerial implications for destination marketing managers.

  6. A Model of Tourism Destination Competitiveness: The case of the Italian Destinations of Excellence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianluca Goffi

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Tourism worldwide is becoming increasingly competitive. Competitiveness has been associated in the tourism literature as a critical element for the success of tourism destinations. Particular emphasis is placed on identifying and analyzing the various factors that influence the competitiveness of tourism destinations. The paper extends the Richie & Crouch (2000 model and develops a set of indicators that considers the different issues concerning tourism competitiveness. The indicators are focused on the various dimensions of sustainability. The paper offers insights into the model, each determinant has been extensively described. The aim of the paper is to test whether and to what extent the current set of indicators integrated into the present model can help explaining the competitiveness of a tourism destination. The model is tested on a unique dataset of 610 Italian Destinations of Excellence. Principal Component Analysis is applied on the responses to the items measuring destination competitiveness.

  7. Multi-Destination Cognitive Radio Relay Network with SWIPT and Multiple Primary Receivers

    KAUST Repository

    Al-Habob, Ahmed A.

    2017-05-12

    In this paper, we study the performance of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) technique in a multi-destination dual-hop underlay cognitive relay network with multiple primary receivers. Information transmission from the secondary source to destinations is performed entirely via a decode- and-forward (DF) relay. The relay is assumed to have no embedded power source and to harvest energy from the source signal using a power splitting (PS) protocol and employing opportunistic scheduling to forward the information to the selected destination. We derive analytical expressions for the outage probability assuming Rayleigh fading channels and considering the energy harvesting efficiency at relay, the source maximum transmit power and primary receivers interference constraints. The system performance is also studied at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values where approximate expressions for the outage probability are provided and analyzed in terms of diversity order and coding gain. Monte-Carlo simulations and some numerical examples are provided to validate the derived expressions and to illustrate the effect of various system parameters on the system performance. In contrast to their conventional counterparts where a multi- destination diversity is usually achieved, the results show that the multi-destination cognitive radio relay networks with the SWIPT technique achieve a constant diversity order of one.

  8. Modelling the Image Research of a Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolae Teodorescu

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The problematic area of the tourism destination image has a high expansion in marketing, the efforts of its conceptualization and phenomenalism being remarkable among specialists. In this context, the authors propose a systemic approach, the result of which refers to a model regarding the image research of a tourism destination, whose validation has been attained using Transalpina destination. The model created by the authors envisages morphological features and specific functional relationships, which are consistent with the marketing theory, and, in context, with the consumer behaviour theory. The conceptualmethodological solutions are magnified by applicative-experimental validations, which enhance the theoretical and practical valences of the created model. The main direction of developing the elaborated model consists in efforts of formalization and abstracting, in the perspective offered by several scientific disciplines.

  9. Revisiting the destination ranking procedure in development of an Intervening Opportunities Model for public transit trip distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nazem, Mohsen; Trépanier, Martin; Morency, Catherine

    2015-01-01

    An Enhanced Intervening Opportunities Model (EIOM) is developed for Public Transit (PT). This is a distribution supply dependent model, with single constraints on trip production for work trips during morning peak hours (6:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.) within the Island of Montreal, Canada. Different data sets, including the 2008 Origin-Destination (OD) survey of the Greater Montreal Area, the 2006 Census of Canada, GTFS network data, along with the geographical data of the study area, are used. EIOM is a nonlinear model composed of socio-demographics, PT supply data and work location attributes. An enhanced destination ranking procedure is used to calculate the number of spatially cumulative opportunities, the basic variable of EIOM. For comparison, a Basic Intervening Opportunities Model (BIOM) is developed by using the basic destination ranking procedure. The main difference between EIOM and BIOM is in the destination ranking procedure: EIOM considers the maximization of a utility function composed of PT Level Of Service and number of opportunities at the destination, along with the OD trip duration, whereas BIOM is based on a destination ranking derived only from OD trip durations. Analysis confirmed that EIOM is more accurate than BIOM. This study presents a new tool for PT analysts, planners and policy makers to study the potential changes in PT trip patterns due to changes in socio-demographic characteristics, PT supply, and other factors. Also it opens new opportunities for the development of more accurate PT demand models with new emergent data such as smart card validations.

  10. MANET Performance for Source and Destination Moving Scenarios Considering OLSR and AODV protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elis Kulla

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Recently, a great interest is shown in MANETs potential usage and applications in several fields such as military activities, rescue operations and time-critical applications. In this work, we implement and analyse a MANET testbed considering AODV and OLSR protocols for wireless multi-hop networking. We investigate the effect of mobility and topology changing in MANET and evaluate the performance of the network through experiments in a real environment. The performance assessment of our testbed is done considering throughput, number of dropped packets and delay. We designed four scenarios: Static, Source Moving, Destination Moving and Source-Destination Moving. From our experimental results, we concluded that when the communicating nodes are moving and the routes change quickly, OLSR (as a proactive protocol performs better than AODV, which is a reactive protocol.

  11. Promoting tourism destination image

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R. Govers (Robert); F.M. Go (Frank); K. Kumar (Kuldeep)

    2007-01-01

    textabstractThis article examines the role of tourism promotion as a component of destination image formation. It reports the findings of a study in which 1,100 respondents from around the globe described their previsit perceived image of seven sample destinations, as well as the information sources

  12. Advancing Destination Image

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kock, Florian; Josiassen, Alexander; Assaf, A. George

    2016-01-01

    Knowledge of the mental representations that individuals hold about tourist destinations are important to understand their intentions. These mental destination representations have often been investigated by applying the concept of destination image. This study argues that the extant literature...... is often rather atheoretical and lacks operational rigor. These are major shortcomings which undoubtedly hinder the development of academic and managerial insights. In response, this study draws on contemporary psychology to develop the destination content model, comprising three informational components...... held in individuals‘ minds about destinations. The present study further outlines preferable methods and measures for each component, thus aiding researchers to investigate mental destination representations...

  13. Destination Marketing through a Utility Business Model: The Case of Cyprus

    OpenAIRE

    Machlouzarides, Haris

    2009-01-01

    Traditional business models that used to govern the operations of travel and tourism businesses defined in a rigid way their functional areas and the relationships among them. The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has driven the transformation of these business models into novel destination marketing models. The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) recognising the need of establishing an explicit model for managing the process of destination marketing has developed an in...

  14. Resource allocation for two source-destination pairs sharing a single relay with a buffer

    KAUST Repository

    Zafar, Ammar; Shaqfeh, Mohammad; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Alnuweiri, Hussein M.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we obtain the optimal resource allocation scheme in order to maximize the achievable rate region in a dual-hop system that consists of two independent source-destination pairs sharing a single half-duplex relay. The relay decodes

  15. Resource allocation for two source-destination pairs sharing a single relay with a buffer

    KAUST Repository

    Zafar, Ammar

    2014-05-01

    In this paper, we obtain the optimal resource allocation scheme in order to maximize the achievable rate region in a dual-hop system that consists of two independent source-destination pairs sharing a single half-duplex relay. The relay decodes the received information and possesses buffers to enable storing the information temporarily before forwarding it to the respective destination. We consider both non-orthogonal transmission with successive interference cancellation at the receivers and orthogonal transmission. Also, we consider Gaussian block-fading channels and we assume that the channel state information is known and that no delay constraints are required. We show that, with the aid of buffering at the relay, joint user-and-hop scheduling is optimal and can enhance the achievable rate significantly. This is due to the joint exploitation of multiuser diversity and multihop diversity in the system. We provide closed-form expressions to characterize the average achievable rates in a generic form as functions of the statistical model of the channels. Furthermore, we consider sub-optimal schemes that exploit the diversity in the system partially and we provide numerical results to compare the different schemes and demonstrate the gains of the optimal one. © 2014 IEEE.

  16. A Model of Market Positioning of Destinations Based on Online Customer Reviews of Lodgings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuel Rodríguez-Díaz

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to develop a methodology to determine the competitive online positioning of lodging companies in different tourist destinations. The rise of the digital age has allowed many customers to share their opinions through specialized websites, providing a dynamic and constantly updated evaluation of the market. In this context, competitiveness is an essential factor in the economic sustainability of destinations. The competitive positioning of destinations is determined by the scale of variables used by Booking.com. The price and lodging category variables are also used, as well as three new variables derived from the initial scale: the quality average, value and added value. This methodology provides a tool to determine the level of competitiveness of the lodging offered in tourist destinations, based on which, actions can be taken to improve destinations’ positioning.

  17. Development of a Structural Model for Tourism Destination Competitiveness from Stakeholders' Perspectives

    OpenAIRE

    Yoon, Yooshik

    2002-01-01

    This study was conducted to theoretically develop and empirically test a structural equation model of tourism destination competitiveness from the tourism stakeholders'perspective. The proposed hypotheses that attempted to identify the structural relationships among the five constructs in the model were examined through a series of analyses in LISREL: 1) perceived tourism development impacts, 2) environmental attitudes, 3) place attachment, 4) development preferences about destination attract...

  18. Tweets and Facebook Posts, the Novelty Techniques in the Creation of Origin-Destination Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malema, H. K.; Musakwa, W.

    2016-06-01

    Social media and big data have emerged to be a useful source of information that can be used for planning purposes, particularly transportation planning and trip-distribution studies. Cities in developing countries such as South Africa often struggle with out-dated, unreliable and cumbersome techniques such as traffic counts and household surveys to conduct origin and destination studies. The emergence of ubiquitous crowd sourced data, big data, social media and geolocation based services has shown huge potential in providing useful information for origin and destination studies. Perhaps such information can be utilised to determine the origin and destination of commuters using the Gautrain, a high-speed railway in Gauteng province South Africa. To date little is known about the origins and destinations of Gautrain commuters. Accordingly, this study assesses the viability of using geolocation-based services namely Facebook and Twitter in mapping out the network movements of Gautrain commuters. Explorative Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), Echo-social and ArcGis software were used to extract social media data, i.e. tweets and Facebook posts as well as to visualize the concentration of Gautrain commuters. The results demonstrate that big data and geolocation based services have the significant potential to predict movement network patterns of commuters and this information can thus, be used to inform and improve transportation planning. Nevertheless use of crowd sourced data and big data has privacy concerns that still need to be addressed.

  19. TWEETS AND FACEBOOK POSTS, THE NOVELTY TECHNIQUES IN THE CREATION OF ORIGIN-DESTINATION MODELS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. K. Malema

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Social media and big data have emerged to be a useful source of information that can be used for planning purposes, particularly transportation planning and trip-distribution studies. Cities in developing countries such as South Africa often struggle with out-dated, unreliable and cumbersome techniques such as traffic counts and household surveys to conduct origin and destination studies. The emergence of ubiquitous crowd sourced data, big data, social media and geolocation based services has shown huge potential in providing useful information for origin and destination studies. Perhaps such information can be utilised to determine the origin and destination of commuters using the Gautrain, a high-speed railway in Gauteng province South Africa. To date little is known about the origins and destinations of Gautrain commuters. Accordingly, this study assesses the viability of using geolocation-based services namely Facebook and Twitter in mapping out the network movements of Gautrain commuters. Explorative Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA, Echo-social and ArcGis software were used to extract social media data, i.e. tweets and Facebook posts as well as to visualize the concentration of Gautrain commuters. The results demonstrate that big data and geolocation based services have the significant potential to predict movement network patterns of commuters and this information can thus, be used to inform and improve transportation planning. Nevertheless use of crowd sourced data and big data has privacy concerns that still need to be addressed.

  20. ANALISIS DAYA SAING DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS MODEL (Studi pada Heritage Tourism di Jawa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edriana Pangestuti

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This study sought to understand the relationship between destination competitiveness factors (such as the tourist’s image, service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention. Little empirical research has explored these relationships from the heritage tourist’s perspective. A mixed method was used to achieve the study’s objectives and test the conceptual model. Twelve in-depth interviews and 400 questionnaire surveys (international and domestic were conducted using purposive technique sampling. A structural equation modeling (SEM technique was applied to identify, evaluate and develop the dimensions and test the relationship between these dimensions simultaneously. The final model showed that service quality has a significant relationship with satisfaction but an insignificant relationship with behavioral intention. In addition, this study provided new insights, determining that destination image and service quality factors influence destination competitiveness via the mediating of tourists’ satisfaction in a heritage tourism context. This shows the importance of destination image and service quality for measuring competitiveness. This present model will be useful as a guide for future research for measuring destination competitiveness in the heritage tourism context. Understanding destination competitiveness factors will help marketers predict future travel behavior and develop effective strategies in order to compete with other destinations. Keywords: destination image, satisfaction, service quality, behavioral intention and destination competitiveness ABSTRAK Penelitian ini berusaha memahami hubungan antara faktor daya saing destinasi (seperti citra destinasi, kualitas layanan, kepuasan dan niat perilaku. Beberapa penelitian serupa telah dilakukan dengan melihat dari perspektif wisatawan. Metode kualitatif dan kuantitatif (Mix method digunakan untuk menguji model konseptual. Dua belas narasumber dan 400 kuesioner (wisatawan

  1. A Research for Determining the Relationship between Destination Image and Destination Personality

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    Savaş Artuğer

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between destination image and destination personality. The sample group of the study consisted of tourists visiting Alanya district of Antalya province between June and August 2013. A brand personality scale developed by Aaker (1997 and a survey used for grading the destination image were used as tools for collecting data which were obtained from a total of 395 tourists for the application. Descriptive analyses such percentage, frequency, factor analysis (confirmatory and explanatory as well as statistical tests such as the reliability analysis were used for analyzing the obtained data. In addition the relationship between destination image and destination personality was analyzed with the Structural Equation Modeling (SEMAt the conclusion of the study there appeared to be negative and very weak relationship between affective image and destination personality while the relationship between cognitive image and destination personality appeared to be positive and strong. In addition Aaker’s (1997 5 dimensional brand personality grading turned out to be 4 dimensions. These dimensions were determined as excitement, ruggedness, competence and sincerity

  2. Generating Multi-Destination Maps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Junsong; Fan, Jiepeng; Luo, Zhenshan

    2017-08-01

    Multi-destination maps are a kind of navigation maps aimed to guide visitors to multiple destinations within a region, which can be of great help to urban visitors. However, they have not been developed in the current online map service. To address this issue, we introduce a novel layout model designed especially for generating multi-destination maps, which considers the global and local layout of a multi-destination map. We model the layout problem as a graph drawing that satisfies a set of hard and soft constraints. In the global layout phase, we balance the scale factor between ROIs. In the local layout phase, we make all edges have good visibility and optimize the map layout to preserve the relative length and angle of roads. We also propose a perturbation-based optimization method to find an optimal layout in the complex solution space. The multi-destination maps generated by our system are potential feasible on the modern mobile devices and our result can show an overview and a detail view of the whole map at the same time. In addition, we perform a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of our method, and the results prove that the multi-destination maps achieve our goals well.

  3. Statistical analysis of tourism destination competitiveness

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    Attilio Gardini

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available The growing relevance of tourism industry for modern advanced economies has increased the interest among researchers and policy makers in the statistical analysis of destination competitiveness. In this paper we outline a new model of destination competitiveness based on sound theoretical grounds and we develop a statistical test of the model on sample data based on Italian tourist destination decisions and choices. Our model focuses on the tourism decision process which starts from the demand schedule for holidays and ends with the choice of a specific holiday destination. The demand schedule is a function of individual preferences and of destination positioning, while the final decision is a function of the initial demand schedule and the information concerning services for accommodation and recreation in the selected destinations. Moreover, we extend previous studies that focused on image or attributes (such as climate and scenery by paying more attention to the services for accommodation and recreation in the holiday destinations. We test the proposed model using empirical data collected from a sample of 1.200 Italian tourists interviewed in 2007 (October - December. Data analysis shows that the selection probability for the destination included in the consideration set is not proportional to the share of inclusion because the share of inclusion is determined by the brand image, while the selection of the effective holiday destination is influenced by the real supply conditions. The analysis of Italian tourists preferences underline the existence of a latent demand for foreign holidays which points out a risk of market share reduction for Italian tourism system in the global market. We also find a snow ball effect which helps the most popular destinations, mainly in the northern Italian regions.

  4. Tourist destination image

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    Korićanin Maja

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available In taking an advantages in tourism seems that image of specific tourist destination play an important role. This is very complex process but also a target for a wide list of potential stakeholders - not only organizations in this industry. Paper discuss a few relevant issues in connection to importance as well as development process of creating an image of tourist destination including well known Anhold model.

  5. Destination competitivenes: A challenging process for Serbia

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    Tanja Armenski

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The degree to which a country can benefit from its tourism industry depends largely on this competitive position on the international tourist market. Therefore, it is very important for one destination to realise its real competitive position on the tourism market as well as to address its weaknesses comparing them to its major competitors. There are different models for measuring the competitiveness. Among all, we follow the framework of authors Dwyer, Livaic and Mellor (2003, so called Integrated model of destination competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to present the model of destination competitiveness and results of the survey, based on indicators associated with the model. The results showed that Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and created resources than in destination management while, according to the Integrated model, Serbia is less competitive in demand conditions, which refer to the image and awareness of the destination itself.

  6. Predicting Tourist Loyalty to a Small Emerging Destination – The Importance of Destination Image

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    Bình Nghiêm-Phú

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In the Southeast Asia region, Vietnam is a developing country and also a developing tourism destination. The number of international tourists to Vietnam has been increasing in recent years. However, the post-trip issues (e.g., not returning, bad word-of-mouth have become the focal points of many arguments. Based on the existing literature, this study devel- oped and tested a theoretical model to predict international tourists’ loyalty to Vietnam from a combination of destination image, tourist motivation, and overall trip satisfaction. The findings revealed that destination image significantly and positively predicted tourists’ overall satisfaction with the trip and their loyalty to the country in the future. Tourist motiva- tion had some weak but significant effects on both overall trip satisfaction and destination loyalty when tested separately; however, the effect on overall trip satisfaction could not be observed when controlled by destination image. Implications were discussed for Vietnam and other small emerging destinations.

  7. Destination memory impairment in older people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gopie, Nigel; Craik, Fergus I M; Hasher, Lynn

    2010-12-01

    Older adults are assumed to have poor destination memory-knowing to whom they tell particular information-and anecdotes about them repeating stories to the same people are cited as informal evidence for this claim. Experiment 1 assessed young and older adults' destination memory by having participants tell facts (e.g., "A dime has 118 ridges around its edge") to pictures of famous people (e.g., Oprah Winfrey). Surprise recognition memory tests, which also assessed confidence, revealed that older adults, compared to young adults, were disproportionately impaired on destination memory relative to spared memory for the individual components (i.e., facts, faces) of the episode. Older adults also were more confident that they had not told a fact to a particular person when they actually had (i.e., a miss); this presumably causes them to repeat information more often than young adults. When the direction of information transfer was reversed in Experiment 2, such that the famous people shared information with the participants (i.e., a source memory experiment), age-related memory differences disappeared. In contrast to the destination memory experiment, older adults in the source memory experiment were more confident than young adults that someone had shared a fact with them when a different person actually had shared the fact (i.e., a false alarm). Overall, accuracy and confidence jointly influence age-related changes to destination memory, a fundamental component of successful communication. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

  8. Destination Personality: An Application of Brand Personality to Tourism Destinations

    OpenAIRE

    Ekinci, Yuksel; Hosany, Sameer

    2006-01-01

    In an increasingly competitive tourism market place, destination marketers face the challenge of attracting tourists through destination branding and destination personality building practices. As places become substitutable, destination personality, defined as the set of human characteristics associated with a destination, is seen as a viable metaphor for crafting a destination’s unique identity. At the conceptual level, the importance of destination personality has been widely acknowledged,...

  9. Tourist Information Search and Destination Choice in a Digital Age

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristian Steen Jacobsen, Jens; Munar, Ana Maria

    2012-01-01

    word-of-mouth, Web 1.0 sources and own experience are highly resilient and influential when tourists to a well-known destination area decide where to spend their summer holiday. Moreover, results indicate a complementary nature of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. In this context of destination decision......This study provides empirical evidence of self-reported impacts of selected electronic and other information sources on international tourists' destination choices regarding a popular, mature and mainstream summer holiday location. It is shown that traditional information provisions such as direct...

  10. Emerging Australian Education Markets: A Discrete Choice Model of Taiwanese and Indonesian Student Intended Study Destination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemp, Steven; Madden, Gary; Simpson, Michael

    1998-01-01

    Isolates factors influencing choice of Australia as a preferred destination for international students in emerging regional markets. Uses data obtained from a survey of students in Indonesia and Taiwan to estimate a U.S./Australia and rest-of-world/Australia discrete destination-choice model. This model identifies key factors determining country…

  11. EXPLORING DESTINATION IDENTITY AND DESTINATION IMAGE IN THE NEW AGE OF TOURISM: A CASE STUDY OF BALI BRAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ni Made - Asti Aksari

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Bali's economy has grown rapidly since a decade ago. This is possible because tourism is growing continuously. However, tourism growth is not optimal because of insufficient promotion and tourism destination identity is unclear.  The growth of Web 2.0 as a platform to share travel information has prompted tourism bodies to pay closer attention to how their destinations are perceived by target markets. Set within the context of the emergence of Web 2.0, a platform designed to enable users to generate and share information on the Internet, this paper evaluates the relationship between destination identity and destination image and adopts the view that a successful destination brand relies on the congruence between destination identity and destination image. The elements of destination identity are composed from the supply side and the elements of destination image are composed from the consumer side. The objective of exploring the alignment between these two perspectives is to propose a model to encourage the alignment of these two perspectives and evaluate the effectiveness of a destination branding strategy.

  12. A Joint Modeling Analysis of Passengers’ Intercity Travel Destination and Mode Choices in Yangtze River Delta Megaregion of China

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    Yanli Wang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Joint destination-mode travel choice models are developed for intercity long-distance travel among sixteen cities in Yangtze River Delta Megaregion of China. The model is developed for all the trips in the sample and also by two different trip purposes, work-related business and personal business trips, to accommodate different time values and attraction factors. A nested logit modeling framework is applied to model trip destination and mode choices in two different levels, where the lower level is a mode choice model and the upper level is a destination choice model. The utility values from various travel modes in the lower level are summarized into a composite utility, which is then specified into the destination choice model as an intercity impedance factor. The model is then applied to predict the change in passenger number from Shanghai to Yangzhou between scenarios with and without high-speed rail service to demonstrate the applicability. It is helpful for understanding and modeling megaregional travel destination and mode choice behaviors in the context of developing country.

  13. A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL: GREECE’S TOURISM DEMAND FOR TOURIST DESTINATION

    OpenAIRE

    Chaitip, Prasert; Chaiboonsri, Chukiat; Kovacs, Sandor; Balogh, Peter

    2010-01-01

    Structural equation model (LISREL 8) was applied to test the causal relationships between tourist travel motivations and tourist destination. A survey containing Likert scale questions was conducted to collect data from 100 tourists who had travelled to Greece’s tourist destination. With the help of factor analysis, four dimensions were identified for scales used in the study: travel cost satisfaction, tourism product, tourism product attributes, and tourism product management. Results indi...

  14. The impact of e-WOM on destination image, attitude toward destination and travel intention

    OpenAIRE

    RAMDAN MUHAMAD RIZKY; RAHARDJO KUSDI; ABDILLAH YUSRI

    2017-01-01

    Electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) is a new development of word of mouth by using social media platform to interact in the internet. Current studies only examine the model on its own basis by using theory planned behavior (TPB). Based on this idea, this research is trying to examine the model of e-WOM, Destination Image, Attitude Toward Destination together to reveal which factor that give the greater effects against travel intention both direct effect, indirect effects and total effects. The s...

  15. Online information Impact in the virtual destination image formation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Célia Maria Conceição Salmim Rafael

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The influence of the destination image in the decision process and choice of destination by tourists is transverse to its intangible nature. Recent studies expand and modify the conventional image constructs specifying information sources transmitted through the internet. The scenario resulting from the literature review allows us to understand the importance of experience for touristic activity and theoretical proposition of virtual tourism as "virtual tourist experience", its determinants and its implications for the overall image destination formation. This study presents a literature review base to the empiric research proposal whose general objective comprises the analysis of the influence of factors, such as interactivity, in online communication and contact with virtual tourism experiences online in image destination formation and image destination.

  16. A model of multidestination travel

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Morisugi, H.; Tussyadiah, Iis; Kono, T.

    2006-01-01

    Because tourists derive utility from the enjoyment of destination characteristics, Lancaster's approach is putatively appropriate to address the particular structure of the tourism industry. Most research efforts regarding tourism destination, including those applying Lancaster's model, specifica......Because tourists derive utility from the enjoyment of destination characteristics, Lancaster's approach is putatively appropriate to address the particular structure of the tourism industry. Most research efforts regarding tourism destination, including those applying Lancaster's model......, specifically address the choice of a single destination. This article is intended to explain multiple destination choice using Lancaster's characteristics model and a discussion of model implications of some marketing strategies for destinations as well as for tour operators. The model developed herein...

  17. DESTINATION IMAGE OF BALI BASED ON THE PUSH MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS, IDENTITY AND DESTINATION CREATIONS IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF FOREIGN SENIOR TOURIST*

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I Gusti Bagus Rai Utama

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The strength of the senior traveler segment is the high purchasing power the length of stay in a destination, making this market segment increasingly important in present and future. Consequently, this research aims to establish a model of motivation and its relationship with the image of Bali as an international tourism destination, especially from the perspective of senior tourists. This research employed survey method and utilized a combination of quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques. Factor analysis condensed various indicators into several key indicators to form a model with goodness of fit. Indicators representing push motivation variable include the improvement of health/fitness and the drive to perform physical exercise. Indicators representing destination identity variable include the culture and nature of Bali. Indicators representing destination creation variable include the service quality of travel agencies and service quality of travel guides. Indicators representing destination image variable include the image of cultural uniqueness and holiday atmosphere of Bali. The survey in this study involved 400 respondents of senior tourists, exclusively only foreign nationals. Goodness of fit is affirmed on the results of the analysis model, which answered the hypothesis that push motivation and destination creation affect destination images.

  18. An empirical survey on perceived value from tourism destination based on brand equity model: A case study of Qeshm Island

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahid Qaemi

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Tourism destination brand equity is defined as all assets (or debts of brands provided with name and symbol of tourism destination to make changes in value services of experiences. In many cases, brand equity is more than physical assets. This survey performs an investigation to identify effective factors in tourism destination equity, cause and affects relationships, and proposes a model for perceived value of tourism destination. The proposed study is performed in one of free islands named Gheshm. The preliminary results indicate that there is a positive relationship between tourism destination brand awareness and destination brand equity, tourism destination brand image, destination brand equity and tourism destination brand loyalty.

  19. A model of destination image promotion with a case study of Nanjing, P. R. China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang Li; Hans Vogelsong

    2003-01-01

    Destination image has long been a popular research topic in tourism studies. However, methods used to integrate image in real marketing practice and evaluating the market performance in a systematic way are still puzzling to practitioners. A destination image promotion model is proposed in this paper as an effort to solve the problem. The roles of some major factors...

  20. Tourist destination choice: A bibliometric study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudio Sunao Saito

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This bibliometric study aims to understand the main subjects, approaches, and theoretical references related to travel destination choice. The Scopus database, statistical software, and citation analysis defined the relevance and prestige of the articles, authors, models, and theoretical foundations, based on the number of citations in later articles. The results demonstrate that there are a diversity of perspectives and approaches related to the topic and the articles can be grouped into studies related to decision models or destination choice, motivating factors for tourism, personal characteristics or factors, destination characteristics and attractiveness, scope of the intended trip (holiday, size, distance, duration of the trip, etc., travel experiences (humor, feelings during the trip, post-purchase evaluations, etc., influence of the destination’s image, and influence of information/communication on the travel destination choice. The results also indicate a difference regarding the origin of the articles (countries/institution, authors, and theoretical references used in research related to the topic.

  1. Modeling hurricane evacuation traffic : testing the gravity and intervening opportunity models as models of destination choice in hurricane evacuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-09-01

    The test was conducted by estimating the models on a portion of evacuation data from South Carolina following Hurricane Floyd, and then observing how well the models reproduced destination choice at the county level on the remaining data. The tests s...

  2. Tourist destination image and consumer behaviour: The case of the Azores

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena Maria Pascoal Melo

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Destinations are currently seeking to become more distinctive in an increasingly competitive market in which image is a decisive element in tourists’ destination selection. This study sought to understand the Azores’ overall image as a tourist destination in major source markets and to ascertain these markets’ level of satisfaction and behavioural intentions concerning the archipelago. The literature review in this paper addresses the definition of tourist destination image and the issue of satisfaction, since these influence intention to return and/or intention to recommend tourist destinations. The results indicate that (1 overall image influences satisfaction and intention to recommend and/or return to tourist destinations and (2 satisfaction influences intention to recommend and/or return to tourist destinations. This study also verified that most tourists are very satisfied with the Azores, as well as having a quite positive overall image of this destination.

  3. Modeling Perceived Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Probability of Guest Returning to the Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olivera Blagojevic Popovic

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In the hotel industry, it is a well-known fact that, despite of quality and variety of services provided, there is a low probability that the guests will return. This research is focused on identifying the basic factors of the hotel offer, which could determine the influence on the correlation between the guests’ satisfaction and the probability of their return. The objective of the article is to explore the relationship between the guests’ satisfaction with the quality hotel services in total (including the tourist offer of the place and the probability of his return to the same destination. The questionnaire method was applied in the survey, and the data were analysed based on factor analysis. Thereafter, the model for forecasting the probability of the guests returning to the destination was established, by using the example of Montenegrin tourism. The model represents a defined framework for the guest’s decision-making process. It identifies two main characteristics of guest experiences: satisfaction and rated quality (of the destination’s overall hotel service and tourist offer. The same model evaluates the impact of the above factors on the probability of the guests’ returning to the same destination. The starting hypothesis was the existence of a high degree of correlation between the guests’ satisfaction (with the destination’s hotel services and tourist offer and the probability of returning to the selected Montenegrin destinations. The research confirmed the above-mentioned hypothesis. The results have revealed that there are significant differences in perceived quality, i.e. satisfaction between the target groups of Eastern and Western European tourists

  4. Computing Pathways in Bio-Models Derived from Bio-Science Text Sources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andreasen, Troels; Bulskov, Henrik; Nilsson, Jørgen Fischer

    2015-01-01

    This paper outlines a system, OntoScape, serving to accomplish complex inference tasks on knowledge bases and bio-models derived from life-science text corpora. The system applies so-called natural logic, a form of logic which is readable for humans. This logic affords ontological representations...... of complex terms appearing in the text sources. Along with logical propositions, the system applies a semantic graph representation facilitating calculation of bio-pathways. More generally, the system aords means of query answering appealing to general and domain specic inference rules....

  5. Smart Card Data Mining of Public Transport Destination: A Literature Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tian Li

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Smart card data is increasingly used to investigate passenger behavior and the demand characteristics of public transport. The destination estimation of public transport is one of the major concerns for the implementation of smart card data. In recent years, numerous studies concerning destination estimation have been carried out—most automatic fare collection (AFC systems only record boarding information but not passenger alighting information. This study provides a comprehensive review of the practice of using smart card data for destination estimation. The results show that the land use factor is not discussed in more than three quarters of papers and sensitivity analysis is not applied in two thirds of papers. In addition, the results are not validated in half the relevant studies. In the future, more research should be done to improve the current model, such as considering additional factors or making sensitivity analysis of parameters as well as validating the results with multi-source data and new methods.

  6. eWOM, Revisit Intention, Destination Trust and Gender

    OpenAIRE

    Abubakar, Abubakar Mohammed; Ilkan, Mustafa; Al-Tal, Raad Meshall; Eluwole, Kayode

    2017-01-01

    This article investigates the impact of eWOM on intention to revisit and destination trust, and the moderating role of gender in medical tourism industry. Result from structural equation modeling (n=240) suggests the following: (1) that eWOM influences intention to revisit and destination trust; (2) that destination trust influences intention to revisit; (3) that the impact of eWOM on intention to revisit is about 1.3 times higher in men; (4) that the impact of eWOM on destination trust is ab...

  7. Measuring Tourism Risk Impacts on Destination Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wen-Qi Ruan

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available This study develops and tests an integrated model of the moderated mediation of risks (man-made and natural disasters that explains the associations between the benefits of tourism and the destination image. The study also considers how tourists are influenced by natural disasters and provides empirical evidence to predict the hypothesis models. The results of a study of 635 foreign tourists indicate that the tourism risks of man-made disasters positively influence the tourists’ experienced benefits and feeling experience. Foreign tourists’ risk evaluation may have a positive effect on their benefit and feeling experience and, thus, may link to the destination image. Somewhat as expected, the moderating effect of tourist benefit is found to strengthen the relationship between feeling experience and the destination image. Alternatively, foreign tourists’ feeling experiences foster a positive link between tourism risk and destination image. The implications of the moderated mediation results are discussed.

  8. Destination Marketing and Management

    OpenAIRE

    Kocková, Jitka

    2009-01-01

    Work presents the theoretical aspects of destination management and marketing. It defines the destination management and sustainable development of tourism. The work is applied to destination management and destination marketing in region Sokolovsko. For this destiaci is proposed marketing strategy and marketing mix.

  9. Rethinking Destination Image

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Josiassen, Alexander; Kock, Florian; Assaf, Albert G.

    A central research question in tourism management concerns tourist’s choice of specific destinations. The present article reviews the extant literature on destination image. From this review we suggest that individuals have a multitude of destination associations – the total imagery which relates....... The article further provides an extensive review of the literature with regard to the definitions, dimensionality, antecedents, and outcomes of the focal concepts as well as geographical scope of destination imagery and image studies and methodologies. This review has led to a novel understanding...

  10. Stakeholder Involvement in Tourism Destination Development: A Case of Dunga Beach and Wetland, Kisumu County, Kenya

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joshua Otieno Wanga

    2014-09-01

    In Kenya, Tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue following agriculture; it however, faces numerous challenges sustainability due the complex nature of tourism destinations. Tourism destinations are complex and dynamic systems that involve various stakeholders each with different understanding of same tourism system. These different perceptions can be tapped to develop a common tourism model that helps achieve the overall sustainable tourism development objective of a given destination. This paper describes participatory systems approach to develop a shared understanding amongst stakeholders of the tourism system in Dunga Beach and Wetland, in Kisumu County, Kenya. The process includes the development of a systems model that represents a holistic understanding of the interconnectedness and relationships between the various components that impact on sustainable development of tourism in Dunga. The model is intended for use as a framework for enhancing ecotourism experiences by stakeholders who are ecotourism experience providers in Dunga for the satisfaction of tourists in Dunga beach and wetland.

  11. Long Journey Travel to Tourist Destination: A Review Paper

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shahrin Norkamaliah

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Tourists are now more open in selecting tourist destination. The number of holiday trips were growing rapidly. There were various promotions available to attract tourists to travel either within or outside the country. Travel distance is not an obstacle for tourists to travel, regardless of local and foreign destination. This study will be conducted to identify the motivation of long journey travel that involves push and pull factors. The long journey involves distance, cost and the type of transportation used to get to the destination. For this purpose a comprehensive review and discussion on previous sources which involved a variety of secondary data sources will be used to meet every need of the study objectives. The finding showed that the travel distance was dependent on the motivation for tourists to travel and the type of transport they want to use. Mode of transport used has advantages and disadvantages for long journey travel depending on traveller choice.

  12. Categorization of Destinations and Formation of Mental Destination Representations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kano Glückstad, Fumiko; Kock, Florian; Josiassen, Alexander

    2017-01-01

    , a disruptive biclustering approach advanced by recent developments of Bayesian relational modeling. This new approach, for the first time in tourism research, allows to design and conduct a segmentation analysis by simultaneously biclustering multiple datasets consisting of cases and variables in a parallel...... format. We demonstrate how the new analytical framework can be applied to analyze and compare patterns of associations which individuals have of multiple destinations. Subsequently, this paper elaborates potential contributions the Bayesian relational modeling framework makes to the tourism research...

  13. Destination image and key drivers of perceived destination attractiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josip Mikulić

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available In this exploratory study authors combine several approaches to explore the images of two highly attractive tourist destinations: Hawai’i and Croatia. Two convenience samples were used: the image of Hawai’i was measured among Croatian undergraduate business students, and the image of Croatia was measured among Hawaiian tourism students. Functional and psychological image components were assessed at both a holistic and the attribute level. In addition, an importance-perception analysis was performed to assess the degree to which the destination image at the attribute level coincides with the students’ perception of an optimal destination. Finally, the authors conduct an importance grid analysis to explore the key drivers of the overall perceived destination attractiveness. The results provide a detailed insight into the images of Croatia and Hawaii, and reveal several interesting differences between the two student samples.

  14. The Influence of Destination Image on Medical Tourist’s Intention for Future Destination Choice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norhaslin Abu Hassan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study proposed to explore how the image of a destination could influence medical tourists in choosing a destination as their future medical and tourism destination choice. Scholars argued that destination image had a significant relationship with behavioral intentions. Destination image influence not only the decision-making process but also conditions after-decision-making behaviors of tourists. In the current study context, the future destination choice behavior referred to the intention to revisit the previous destination and the intention to spread the positive word-of-mouth to others. For this study, inbound medical tourists from private hospitals registered with Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC in Penang, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor in Malaysia will be approached quantitatively by survey questionnaires. This study will contribute to an understanding of the significant factors influencing medical tourists’ intention for future destination choice.

  15. Destination image, image at destination. Methodological aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pablo Díaz-Rodríguez

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Today, the part played by the image in the development of tourism, and, specially, as a diffe- rentiation element of a destination area is widely acknowledged. This is reflected to a great extent in the literature that focuses its interest on identifying the variables that motivate the purchase or stimulate the decision process. However, the reference to feedback processes or image control mechanisms as well as their creation, is surprising. An approach model to these processes will be exposed in this article.

  16. An evolving model for the lodging-service network in a tourism destination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández, Juan M.; González-Martel, Christian

    2017-09-01

    Tourism is a complex dynamic system including multiple actors which are related each other composing an evolving social network. This paper presents a growing model that explains how part of the supply components in a tourism system forms a social network. Specifically, the lodgings and services in a destination are the network nodes and a link between them appears if a representative tourist hosted in the lodging visits/consumes the service during his/her stay. The specific link between both categories are determined by a random and preferential attachment rule. The analytic results show that the long-term degree distribution of services follows a shifted power-law distribution. The numerical simulations show slight disagreements with the theoretical results in the case of the one-mode degree distribution of services, due to the low order of convergence to zero of X-motifs. The model predictions are compared with real data coming from a popular tourist destination in Gran Canaria, Spain, showing a good agreement between analytical and empirical data for the degree distribution of services. The theoretical model was validated assuming four type of perturbations in the real data.

  17. The Impact of Destination Exposure in Reality Shows on Destination Image, Familiarity, and Travel Intention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stacia Reviany Mege

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The increasing popularity of reality shows renders them as potential media for tourism promotion. However, there is limited research regarding the impact of destination exposure in reality shows. This study aimed to investigate the impact of destination exposure in television reality shows on destination image, familiarity, and travel intention. To test the hypotheses, a within subject experiment was conducted. A worldwide popular reality show, The Amazing Race, was used as a stimulus for the participants. The results revealed that, in general, both cognitive and affective destination im- ages were rated higher after watching the reality show. Furthermore, familiarity with the destination and travel intention to the destination increased after watching the destination in the reality show. The result of this study will be useful for destination marketing organization and the government to explore alternative promotional media and aid the promotion of tourism destination.

  18. A Semiotic Model of Destination Representations Applied to Cultural and Heritage Tourism Marketing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pennington, Jody; Thomsen, Robert Chr.

    2010-01-01

    , and symbolic qualities, each of which destination marketers should consider in choosing representations because of the influence those qualities exert on reception. It is argued that the semiotic model can help marketers make informed decisions about the relevance and probable impact of the iconicity...

  19. Holiday Destination Choice Behavior Analysis Based on AFC Data of Urban Rail Transit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chang-jun Cai

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available For urban rail transit, the spatial distribution of passenger flow in holiday usually differs from weekdays. Holiday destination choice behavior analysis is the key to analyze passengers’ destination choice preference and then obtain the OD (origin-destination distribution of passenger flow. This paper aims to propose a holiday destination choice model based on AFC (automatic fare collection data of urban rail transit system, which is highly expected to provide theoretic support to holiday travel demand analysis for urban rail transit. First, based on Guangzhou Metro AFC data collected on New Year’s day, the characteristics of holiday destination choice behavior for urban rail transit passengers is analyzed. Second, holiday destination choice models based on MNL (Multinomial Logit structure are established for each New Year’s days respectively, which takes into account some novel explanatory variables (such as attractiveness of destination. Then, the proposed models are calibrated with AFC data from Guangzhou Metro using WESML (weighted exogenous sample maximum likelihood estimation and compared with the base models in which attractiveness of destination is not considered. The results show that the ρ2 values are improved by 0.060, 0.045, and 0.040 for January 1, January 2, and January 3, respectively, with the consideration of destination attractiveness.

  20. VARIABLES OF THE IMAGE OF TOURIST DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ban Olimpia

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available The image of a destination is more than a distinguishing element; it is a component of the supply and brings more value to it. The image of a destination can be the decisive component, while the other elements re relatively alike (1. The image of a tourist destination is strongly connected to the image of a country, the image of a nation and the image of a place. The image of a place is formed for a receiver naturally by accumulating experiences with that place, the use of the sources of personal and impersonal information. For the transmitter, the image is the result of some direct and indirect actions. The branding of the place is the conscientious and coordinated process of an image achievement. In the paper there are presented some examples of actions of image research, an essential step having in view the branding or re-branding It is presented a study of the citizens of Oradea regarding their perception of tourist Romania.

  1. Relationship model among sport event image, destination image, and tourist satisfaction of Tour de Singkarak in West Sumatera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ratni Prima Lita

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Sport events Tour de Singkarak (TDS can increase tourist arrivals to West Sumatera. At least at the time of execution, the majority of participants and team supporters (sports tourist brings the families. Although there are claims about the arrival of tourists, it requires to see the impact of sports events TDS and comprehensive long-term basis to the West Sumatera image as a tourist destination (destination image and its impact on tourist satisfaction. This study re-conceptualizes the interconnec-tedness among sport event image, tourist destination image, perception and the effect on tourists satisfaction. The investigation on this interconnection is expected to reveal empirically tested model. As an explanatory in nature, this study uses explanatory survey and cross sectional data. In total of 100 spectators of Tour de Singkarak in West Sumatera, they got involved in survey and they were taken by convenience sam-pling technique. Analysis of this data was done by using variance based structural equation modeling. It was found that sport event image and destination image signifi-cantly affect the satisfaction of spectators of Tour de Singkarak.

  2. Making Strategies in Destination Branding

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    da Silva Oliveira, Eduardo

    2013-01-01

    The need for strategic thinking in destination branding has been demanded regarding the challenges tourism destinations are facing nowadays, such as at the digital level. The utilization of Information Communication Technology by tourism destinations, when well-articulated with a destination

  3. Evaluating Tourist Destination Performance: Expanding the Sustainability Concept

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wenbin Luo

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Performance evaluations are a critical tool in promoting the sustainability of tourist destinations. The literature shows a lack of consensus on basic terminology and definitions of destination performance. While research focuses on business efficiency, areas such as development effectiveness, social equality, and environmental integrity are still not well understood, even though these are salient elements of sustainable development. This paper provides a framework for evaluating destination performance under the 4E rubric of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and environmental quality, which reflects a more holistic and effective destination performance. The information entropy weight method and a multi-factor comprehensive evaluation model are developed and applied to an international destination, Zhangjiajie, China, which was selected as a case study to test the framework developed. Results show that the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and environmental quality aspects should be considered when evaluating tourism development performance. The empirical analysis shows that based on these criteria, Zhangjiajie’s destination performance improved measurably during the test period from 2005 to 2009. The results indicate that significant events, natural disasters, and financial crises influence performance most.

  4. MARKETING TRENDS AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svetlana Mihić

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the concept of the destination in strategic tourism develop- ment. It will then look at international best practice and how the SVP/ Hudson Model can be used as a tool to shape the planning, management and marketing of tourism destinations. This analysis will include a review of the critical success factors from lea- ding destinations and in particular, the role of and need for innovation. The concept ofinnovation in tourism will be examined and examples of how innovation has been used in a range of European destinations will be considered in detail. This will include evi- dence from key stakeholders, as well as analysis of the PR and media interest generated by an innovative approach to tourism destination development. The paper will examine key issues such as branding and positioning, along with the importance of clear strate- gic planning, having an effective destination management organisation and delivering benefits to the host community. In an increasingly competitive marketplace the need for destinations to ‘’stand out in a crowd” is essential. International benchmarking is vital to understand how well you are doing compa- red with your competitors whilst innovation ensures that the competitive edge is always maintained. The paper will include detailed case studies, consideration of the concepts of in- novation and benchmarking and focus on the main lessons for destinations in emerging tourism economies

  5. Predicting Individual Trip Destinations With Artificial Potential Fields.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zonta, A.; Smit, S.K.; Haasdijk, Evert

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a method to model the intended destination of a subject in real time, based on a trace of position information and prior knowledge of possible destinations. In contrast to most work in this field, it does so without the need for prior analysis of habitual travel patterns. The

  6. Research on Psychological Carrying Capacity of Tourism Destination

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Fan Zhiyong; Zhong Sheng

    2009-01-01

    As a part of the carrying capacity system of tourism destination,tourism psychological carrying capacity and its makeup are very important indexes which reflect the harmonious development of tourism destination develops harmoniously,but the academy has not paid enough attention to them.Based on the concept and connotation of psychological carrying capacity,this paper explains the influencing factors which affect the psychological capacity of the tourist and the resident after the acknowledged concept,and then designs a harmonious development model of tourism destination.Finally,it offers some countermeasures against the overloading psychological capacity.

  7. The role of brand destination experience in determining revisit intention

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mattsson, Jan; Barnes, Stuart; Sørensen, Flemming

    Destination branding has developed considerably as a topic area in the last decade with numerous conceptualizations focusing on different aspects of the brand. However, a unified view has not yet emerged. This paper examines destination branding via a new conceptualization, brand destination...... experience, which provides a more holistic and unified view of the brand destination. The research uses a logistic regression model to determine the role of satisfaction and brand experience in determining revisit intentions. The study also examines differences among subgroups and four brand experience sub...

  8. APPROACHES IN INVESTIGATING ROMANIA’S IMAGE AS A TOURIST DESTINATION AMONG THE TURKISH STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olimpia BAN

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The image of the tourist destination plays an essential role in the decision making process regarding the choice of a holiday. Image has a crucial role in the success of the destination because it influences the consumers’ satisfaction and helps in drawing up a promotion strategy for the positioning/repositioning on a certain market, branding/rebranding the tourist destination. Information from different sources contribute to the formation of the image of a certain destination, information which can be distributed into: the promotion performed by the destination; the other’s opinions (direct or indirect; mass-media and the popular culture. We intended to investigate Romania’s image a a tourist destination among the Turkish students. The results showed that the students had very poor knowledge of our country.

  9. The Process of Managing a Destination in Lower and Upper Austria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bobková Markéta

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The focus of the submitted article is to introduce the findings of author’s research in the area of destination management process conducted in the developed (Alpine tourist destinations in the year of 2014. The theoretical part based on a literature review summarizes current knowledge dealing with the destination management process in terms of approaches and research findings. Problems influencing either positively or negatively this process, e.g. financing, legislation or cooperation among stakeholders are also defined. The practical application part includes an analysis of model destinations in Lower Austria and Upper Austria and presents the results of qualitative research conducted in these destinations. The collected information can be used to design methods leading to the improvement of the destination management process in tourist less developed destinations.

  10. Sami tourism in destination development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Lise Smed

    2016-01-01

    through stakeholder collaboration in Jokkmokk, Sweden and Kautokeino, Norway. The study indicates that collaboration between destination marketing organisations and Sami stakeholders has been initiated and has improved destination marketing. Conflicts relating to indigenous identity and land use are more......Indigenous tourism has become an important component of the tourism industry. Previous indigenous tourism research has indicated three conflict areas that can have an impact on destination development - internal conflicts over indigenous identity, the use of indigenous culture in destination...... marketing, and land-use conflicts. To varying degrees these areas of conflict have been found to impact local and regional destination development in northern Europe. This paper draws on case studies to understand how conflicts in Sami tourism in local and regional destination development are addressed...

  11. THE ONLINE COMMUNICATION MIX FOR TOURISM DESTINATIONS STUDY CASE ON ROMANIAN TOURISM DESTINATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adina CONSTANTINESCU

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The present research aims at contributing to the field of Online Communication for tourism destinations. It provides a study on online communication of Romanian main tourism destinations, focusing on DMOs’ websites completeness in terms of contents and on their capability to respond to users’ needs. The results of the current research show that the Romanian Destination Websites offer a poor online experience for users, in terms of content, functionalities and fail to fully satisfy the needs and wants of potential tourists. This study is important for establishing the strategies for developing the tourism destination management in Romania.

  12. TOURIST DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karmen Andrea MEZEI

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Tourism development has environmental and social consequences upon local and global communities. The impact of tourism must be kept within certain limits which are set up by sustainable tourism. Meanwhile the viability of the investment must be assured. Tourism development matrix is the tourist destination. Destination management must ensure the balance between economic, social, cultural, and environmental activities. Competitive destination management organization means a harmonious combination between planning, lobby, coordination and marketing (promotion. The recommendation of an integrated meta plan for Romanian balneal spa could be the choice for a successful tourism development.

  13. A Research for Determining the Relationship between Destination Image and Destination Personality

    OpenAIRE

    Savaş Artuğer; Burçin Cevdet Çetinsöz

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between destination image and destination personality. The sample group of the study consisted of tourists visiting Alanya district of Antalya province between June and August 2013. A brand personality scale developed by Aaker (1997) and a survey used for grading the destination image were used as tools for collecting data which were obtained from a total of 395 tourists for the application. Descriptive analyses such percentage, frequenc...

  14. Evaluating Bloemfontein’s image as a tourist destination: A tour operator’s perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AJ Strydom

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Tour operators have been identified as vital information sources influencing the images and decision-making processes of tourists. Bloemfontein is situated in Central South Africa.  Tourism marketers believe that the city is an ideal stopover destination for national tour operators  en route to other destinations.  Research was conducted among national tour operators in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town to determine their perceptions of Bloemfontein and whether they regard the city as a tourist or stopover destination.  The research indicates that the city is not regarded as a tourist destination, but is seen as an ideal stopover destination which could be included in future tour itineraries.  It is currently excluded because operators are unfamiliar with the tourism offering(s of Bloemfontein due to insufficient marketing by the tourism officials of the city.

  15. Identifying factors affecting destination choice of medical tourists: a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    medical tourism”, has emerged as a new source of competitive advantage all over the world. The present study seeks to identify the factors that affect destination choice of medical tourists. Methods: We systematically searched relevant databases ...

  16. A Structural Equation Model: India’s International Tourism Demand for Tourist Destination

    OpenAIRE

    N. Rangaswamy; Chukiat Chaiboonsri; Prasert Chaitip

    2008-01-01

    Structural equation modeling (LISREL 8) was used to test the causal relationships between tourist travel motivations (travel cost satisfaction) and tourist destination (tourism product, tourism product attributes, and tourism product management). A survey containing Likert-type scales was used in collecting data from 100 international tourists who had traveled to India. Using factor analysis, dimensions were identified for scales used in the study: travel cost satisfaction, tourism product, t...

  17. Ages of origin and destination for a difference in life expectancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elwood Carlson

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Decomposition of a difference in life expectancies may identify ages at which the difference originates in mortality differences, or may identify age at which the difference results in different values of person-years lived (life table population. This study shows that the two approaches are orthogonally related to each other, and derives an origin-destination decomposition matrix in which summing in one direction produces Andreev's origin-decomposition results, while summing in the other direction produces destination-decomposition corresponding to directly-observed differences in nLx values.

  18. Landscape Optimization in a Highly Urbanized Tourism Destination: An Integrated Approach in Nanjing, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lingling Chen

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Planning and developing urban tourism destinations must encompass landscape optimization to achieve healthy urban ecosystems, as well as for evolution sustainability. This study explored sustainable landscape planning by examining the optimization of landscape spatial distribution in an urban tourism destination–Nanjing, China—using an integrated approach that included remote sensing (RS, geographic information system (GIS, and landscape metrics in the context of an urban tourism destination evolution model. Least-cost modeling in GIS was also used to optimize decision-making from an ecological perspective. The results indicated that landscapes were more homogenous, fragmented, and less connected. Except for the eastern area, the landscape evolution showed characteristics of both degeneration and growth. A complete greenway network including sources, greenways, and nodes were constructed, and an increase in natural landscapes was strongly recommended. The findings provide geographic insights for sustainable urban tourism planning and development via comprehensive methodological applications.

  19. Modeling the Joint Choice Decisions on Urban Shopping Destination and Travel-to-Shop Mode: A Comparative Study of Different Structures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuan Ding

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The joint choice of shopping destination and travel-to-shop mode in downtown area is described by making use of the cross-nested logit (CNL model structure that allows for potential interalternative correlation along the both choice dimensions. Meanwhile, the traditional multinomial logit (MNL model and nested logit (NL model are also formulated, respectively. This study uses the data collected in the downtown areas of Maryland-Washington, D.C. region, for shopping trips, considering household, individual, land use, and travel related characteristics. The results of the model reveal the significant influencing factors on joint choice travel behavior between shopping destination and travel mode. A comparison of the different models shows that the proposed CNL model structure offers significant improvements in capturing unobserved correlations between alternatives over MNL model and NL model. Moreover, a Monte Carlo simulation for a group of scenarios assuming that there is an increase in parking fees in downtown area is undertaken to examine the impact of a change in car travel cost on the joint choice of shopping destination and travel mode switching. The results are expected to give a better understanding on the shopping travel behavior.

  20. Destination memory in social interaction: better memory for older than for younger destinations in normal aging?

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Raffard, Stéphane; Fasotti, Luciano; Allain, Philippe

    2018-05-01

    Destination memory, a memory component allowing the attribution of information to its appropriate receiver (e.g., to whom did I lend my pen?), is compromised in normal aging. The present paper investigated whether older adults might show better memory for older destinations than for younger destinations. This hypothesis is based on empirical research showing better memory for older faces than for younger faces in older adults. Forty-one older adults and 44 younger adults were asked to tell proverbs to older and younger destinations (i.e., coloured faces). On a later recognition test, participants had to decide whether they had previously told some proverb to an older/younger destination or not. Prior to this task, participants reported their frequency of contact with other-age groups. The results showed lower destination memory in older adults than in younger adults. Interestingly, older adults displayed better memory for older than for younger destinations. The opposite pattern was seen in younger adults. The low memory for younger destinations, as observed in older adults, was significantly correlated with limited exposure to younger individuals. These findings suggest that for older adults, the social experience can play a crucial role in the destination memory, at least as far as exposure to other-age groups is concerned.

  1. Diversity, Flexibility And Identity Mechanisms For Recycling Mature Tourist Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Biel Horrach Estarellas

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Globalizing dynamic sources are making of tourist destinations, spaces each time more homogeneous, unable to respond to the tourist’s new motivation and to the specific characteristics of the territory and the local landscape. Tourist space has gone through changes, resulting in conurbations without urban structure that require new planning patterns. Despite predictions, which determine a declining process or a post-stagnation, there is a high potential of reconversion of obsolete tourist destinations based on its typological characteristics and its interaction with the territory. The new challenges faced by tourist activity: diversity of tourist resources, travel flexibility and the differentiation of the destination from the rest by enhancing its identity, are methodologically tackled by testing regional tourist dynamics experimented in one of the most paradigmatic cases of tourist coastline development, Majorca Island.

  2. Destination image and crime in Mexico: An analysis of foreign government travel advice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Carlos Monterrubio

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Destination image has been recognised as an influential component of travel decision processes. Although organic sources of information play an important role in shaping destination image, researchers have often ignored the types of sources and the information they deliver. In particular, official websites where government travel advice is given, especially in relation to crime, have been widely excluded from scholarly research. This paper analyses the relationship between crime-related travel advice given by foreign governments and Mexico’s destination image. Qualitative content analysis of official websites from the US, Canada, the UK and Spain reveals that the travel advice given relates largely to the violence and insecurity that Mexico is currently experiencing. “No advisory in effect”, “Exercise caution” and “Defer non-essential travel” are messages commonly found in the governments’ travel advice about Mexico.

  3. A model of analysis for the euroregion Galicia-Northern Portugal as a single tourism destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xulio X.Pardellas de Blas

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The new configuration of the territory in the Euroregion Galicia-Northern Portugal is in neeed of a debate on the problems related to its development,such as organization and planning of common tourist destinations.In this paper important and value cientific literature on this topic and data from a study carried out by the authors for the Eixo Atlántico in 2001 are used to implement some instruments for their application to this territory.The model presented here is a systemic design construct of this Euroregion as a common tourist destination and provides a formal structure of its elements that may be useful to administrators and planners in their analyses and decision-taking process.

  4. Network Analysis of Cooperation in Tourism Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gajdošík Tomáš

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Globalisation on the tourism market causes that the competition is not formed only between stakeholders in a destination, but more and more it is created among destinations. Therefore tourism stakeholders in a destination have to act together and cooperate. The cooperative behaviour of destination stakeholders is seen as a main prerequisite of applying the cooperative destination management, which influences the competitiveness of destination on tourism market.

  5. Built environmental factors and adults' travel behaviors: Role of street layout and local destinations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koohsari, Mohammad Javad; Owen, Neville; Cole, Rachel; Mavoa, Suzanne; Oka, Koichiro; Hanibuchi, Tomoya; Sugiyama, Takemi

    2017-03-01

    Street layout is consistently associated with adults' travel behaviors, however factors influencing this association are unclear. We examined associations of street layout with travel behaviors: walking for transport (WT) and car use; and, the extent to which these relationships may be accounted for by availability of local destinations. A 24-h travel diary was completed in 2009 by 16,345 adult participants of the South-East Queensland Household Travel Survey, Australia. Three travel-behavior outcomes were derived: any home-based WT; over 30min of home-based WT; and, over 60min of car use. For street layout, a space syntax measure of street integration was calculated for each Statistical Area 1 (SA1, the smallest geographic unit in Australia). An objective measure of availability of destinations - Walk Score - was also derived for each SA1. Logistic regression examined associations of street layout with travel behaviors. Mediation analyses examined to what extent availability of destinations explained the associations. Street integration was significantly associated with travel behaviors. Each one-decile increment in street integration was associated with an 18% (95%CI: 1.15, 1.21) higher odds of any home-based WT; a 10% (95%CI: 1.06, 1.15) higher odds of over 30min of home-based WT; and a 5% (95%CI: 0.94, 0.96) lower odds of using a car over 60min. Local destinations partially mediated the effects of street layout on travel behaviors. Well-connected street layout contributes to active travel partially through availability of more local destinations. Urban design strategies need to address street layout and destinations to promote active travel among residents. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Partners and innovation in American destination marketing organizations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zach, Florian

    2012-01-01

    Innovation and interorganizational collaboration have been identified as important elements of competitive tourism strategies. This study proposes a model that relates aspects of organizational settings and collaboration to the success of innovation within the organization. In particular, this st......Innovation and interorganizational collaboration have been identified as important elements of competitive tourism strategies. This study proposes a model that relates aspects of organizational settings and collaboration to the success of innovation within the organization. In particular......, this study focuses on destination marketing organizations (DMOs) as they collaborate with destination businesses to assist in the development of new services in marketing the destination. A national survey among American DMOs indicates that partner collaboration is a significant driver of visitor......-orientated innovation. Specifically, innovation success was found to be driven solely by the development of market-oriented rather than strategyoriented new services, indicating that many of the American DMOs respond to visitor changes at the expense of providing new services that somehow do not fit within current...

  7. Destination Networks as a Tool for Minimizing the Risk and Improving the Performance of a Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Holešinská Andrea

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The management of a tourist destination in the form of networks is considered to be one of the possible approaches to destination governance structures. The concept of destination governance is based on the cooperation between actors from the public and private sectors. It is known that public–private relationships built on trust, joint risk taking and based on informal structures have a positive impact on the level of growth at a tourist destination. The aim of this paper is to quantify to what extent each of the determinants of the DMO success participate in the total destination performance, and thus point out the factors of a potential risk.

  8. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EU’S BORDER AREAS: CROATIA AS A REGIONAL MODEL FOR DESTINATION BRANDING STRATEGY IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maja PULIC

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The newest member joined the European Union (EU with a well-conceived destination branding strategy. Croatia is becoming more and more identifiable world-wide by creating a distinctive brand in order to maintain a solid positioning as a destination place. As competition is becoming more intense, an increasing number of countries struggle to make themselves visible in the global tourism market. Tourism dominates the Croatian service sector, where the bulk of the tourist industry is concentrated along the Adriatic Sea coast. Although not very successful in public diplomacy, a complex system of coordinated activities that Croatia implemented resulted in strengthening the perception and image of the overall destination brand. This research aims at exploring the Croatian destination branding strategy as a potential model for its closest neighboring country, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH. Sharing a common history, borders and people, BIH and Croatia represent a unique comparative case study for regional spill-over development between the EU and non-EU countries. Therefore, this study takes into account what has been done so far on both sides regarding destination branding strategy, thus exploring what lessons could be learned from Croatia and what is the best future regional approach for creating a BIH’s destination brand.

  9. Internal Brand Management of Destination Brands

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cox, Natasha; Gyrd-Jones, Richard; Gardiner, Sarah

    2014-01-01

    Achieving a consistent brand experience across a destination and all brand-touch points is a major challenge in destination branding efforts. Strategies to manage the complexity of coordination across multiple network stakeholders are therefore critical for destination management organisations....... However, theories to inform these strategies are limited. This paper proposes that internal brand management theory provides a framework to explore strategies that may increase operator buy-in to the destination brand, thus creating a more consistent brand experience for visitors. Semi......-structured interviews with members of a destination brand network indicate that highly centralised networks hinder operator buy-in to the destination brand. Informal communication via more personalised sub-networks rather than directive leadership appear to facilitate knowledge sharing and create support mechanisms...

  10. THE ANALYSIS OF THE WASTE PROBLEM IN TOURIST DESTINATIONS ON THE EXAMPLE OF CARPATHIAN REGION IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iuliia Murava

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study is to identify waste generated within the territories of tourist destinations in Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine and to classify it for the use of effective waste management methods. The dynamics of municipal waste generation in tourist destinations in Carpathian region has been analyzed. The sources of waste generation in tourist activities have been identified and classified by the criterion of their further use. The methods of waste management within the tourist destinations in Carpathian region have been proposed. The problem of tourist destinations waste has been identified as one of the significant environmental aspects of tourism industry. Recommendations for implementation of the waste management methods can form the basis of waste management programs within the tourist destinations in the Carpathians. To achieve the goal and to solve the identified tasks a range of research methods have been used in the study: praximetric method (analysis of research experience and summarizing the information of printed sources on environmental aspects of the tourism industry and the problems of waste management within tourist destinations; comparative analysis has been used for identification of quantitative indicators and dynamics of municipal waste generation; specific search method has been used for identifying, selecting, theoretical analysis, classification of the waste generated in tourist destinations and calculation of their generated amount.

  11. BRAND EQUITY OF LAHORE FORT AS A TOURISM DESTINATION BRAND

    OpenAIRE

    KASHIF, MUHAMMAD; SAMSI, SITI ZAKIAH MELATU; SARIFUDDIN, SYAMSULANG

    2015-01-01

    ABSTRACTStudies that measure the brand equity of destination brands by using the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model in a developing country context are scarce. The present study investigates the destination brand equity of the Lahore Fort by employing the CBBE model in a developing country context of Pakistan. Following the positivist tradition, we adopted a survey-based approach to collect data from 237 tourists visiting the Lahore Fort. Data were collected through a questionnaire deve...

  12. BUCOVINA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION AND THE IMPACT OF THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A MODERN DESTINATION MANAGEMENT APPROACH IN INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION MARKETING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heike BÄHRE

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Bucovina is a cultural landscape in the triangle bordered between the Ukraine, Romania and Moldova. Based on a theoretical planning approach in destination marketing management, Bucovina is to be regarded as a destination situated at the end of the involvement stage of the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC. Literature, internet research, qualitative interviews, and on site-observations depict Bucovina as a travel destination. The authors explore the impact of the financial crisis on Bucovina and forecast the destination trend for the next few years. Finally, they give recommendations for development of the Bucovina region in a sustainable, rapid and regulated manner.

  13. Destination brand experience and visitor behavior

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mattsson, Jan; Sørensen, Flemming; Barnes, Stuart

    2014-01-01

    Destination branding has developed considerably as a topic area in the last decade with numerous conceptualizations focusing on different aspects of the brand. However, a unified view has not yet emerged. This paper examines destination branding via a new conceptualization, destination brand expe...

  14. Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty intention: A Structural and Categorical Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guerreiro, M.

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This study explores the relationship between travel satisfaction and destination loyalty intention. The research was conducted with 486 tourists visiting Arade, a Portuguese tourist destination. Taking as the basis the use of structural equation modelling (SEM, the results substantiate the importance of tourism satisfaction as a determinant of destination loyalty. Also, a categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA provides a detailed analysis of this cause-effect relationship by establishing that greater levels of satisfaction (measured by overall satisfaction in terms of holiday experience, destination ttributes and met expectations result in increased likelihood of future repeat visits and a keen willingness to recommend the destination to others. Clusters of tourists were also identified and characterized in relation to satisfaction levels and loyalty intentions. These analyses provide a useful background in the planning of future tourist marketing strategies.

  15. Destination memory in traumatic brain injuries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wili Wilu, Amina; Coello, Yann; El Haj, Mohamad

    2018-06-01

    Destination memory, which is socially driven, refers to the ability to remember to whom one has sent information. Our study investigated destination memory in patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Patients and control participants were invited to tell proverbs (e.g., "the pen is mightier than the sword") to pictures of celebrities (e.g., Barack Obama). Then they were asked to indicate to which celebrity they had previously told the proverbs. Besides the assessment of destination memory, participants performed a binding task in which they were required to associate letters with their corresponding location. Analysis demonstrated less destination memory and binding in patients with TBIs than in controls. In both populations, significant correlations were observed between destination memory and performances on the binding task. These findings demonstrate difficulty in the ability to attribute information to its appropriate destination in TBI patients, perhaps owing to difficulties in binding separate information together to form a coherent representation of an event in memory.

  16. TOURIST DESTINATION MARKETING RADAUTI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liliana HÎNCU

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Tourism is a dynamic phenomenon, which is in continuous change. The tourism market is in constant transformation due to competition and growing. Tourist destinations, is facing many challenges in order to enter and remain on the market. Thus tourist destination is a well-defined service which is an assembly designed to meet tourists. The marketing mix includes the following elements: product, price, distribution, promotion. Tourists come to this area because of monasteries, some of which are included in UNESCO and are recognized nationally and internationally. Thus Romanian tourists choose this tourist destination just for a weekend. To prolong the stay of both foreigners and Romanians, as well as to attract a large number of tourists is necessary to develop tourism products type tours: 5-6 days for visiting the tourist area of Radauti. These products must contain an offer as varied and diverse, so every day contain different activities and be adjusted, for example by age segments. Linked pricing policy usually access tariffs are differentiated between Romanian and foreign tourists, being lower in the first category. Travel agencies prefer to organize package tours on request only devise some that distribute them internally and externally. There are initiatives to promote tourism area Radauti, due to the high attractiveness among destinations in Romania. Thus, this must be considered a tourist destination tourism brand renowned nationally and internationally.

  17. Grief Tourism on Destination Image Formation: Afyonkarahisar and Başkomutan National Historical Park

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Burhan KILIÇ

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The diversification of supply sources owned causes differences between destinations and special interest which is shaped for demand leads to become tourism widespread. In Turkey, there are many destinations where different features exist together. By means of alternative tourism types, various destinations and tourism types emerge. When all the events happened during the Independence War are considered in terms of national heritage, Afyonkarahisar is an important centre among grief tourism destinations. In research related to image components of Afyonkarahisar, confectionery, food products, and thermal tourism are the values of this destination that come to mind first. When the city is considered in terms of tourism, by highlighting the thermal tourism, the slogan “The Capital of Thermal Tourism” has been used. However it is hard to say that thermal tourism has a success taking the research into consideration. Therefore either other tourism values will be used to support the slogan available or with the work of a new image, a new image destination image will be created. The aim of this study is to eliminate the current negativity of Afyonkarahisar province’s destination image, strengthen the image and examine the availability of grief tourism which is one of the heritage tourism types so as to increase its market share

  18. Destination bonding: Hybrid cognition using Instagram

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arup Kumar Baksi

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Empirical research has identified the phenomenon of destination bonding as a result of summated physical and emotional values associated with the destination. Physical values, namely natural landscape & other physical settings and emotional values, namely the enculturation processes, have a significant role to play in portraying visitors’ cognitive framework for destination preference. The physical values seemed to be the stimulator for bonding that embodies action or behavior tendencies in imagery. The emotional values were the conditions that lead to affective bonding and are reflected in attitudes for a place which were evident in text narratives. Social networking on virtual platforms offers the scope for hybrid cognitive expression using imagery and text to the visitors. Instagram has emerged as an application-window to capture these hybrid cognitions of visitors. This study focuses on assessing the relationship between hybrid cognition of visitors expressed via Instagram and their bond with the destination. Further to this, the study attempts to examine the impact of hybrid cognition of visitors on the behavioral pattern of prospective visitors to the destination. The study revealed that sharing of visual imageries and related text by the visitors is an expression of the physico-emotional bonding with the destination. It was further established that hybrid cognition strongly asserts destination bonding and has been also found to have moderating impact on the link between destination bonding and electronic-word-of-mouth.

  19. Modeling tourists joint choices of transportation and destination : towards an analytical tool to support the marketing of complex tourism services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dellaert, B.G.C.; Borgers, A.W.J.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    1993-01-01

    This paper introduces a model to describe tourists’ joint choices of transportation and destination. The proposed modeling approach is based on the principles and methodology of decompositional choice modeling. It represents an extension of the models that have traditionally been applied to single

  20. Building Customer Loyalty in Rural Destinations as a Pre-Condition of Sustainable Competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kateřina Ryglová

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper is dedicated to the issues of rural tourism with regard to the visitor’s loyalty towards the destination in a sustainable development context. Particularly, the findings of the research focused on exploring mutual relations among quality dimensions of the rural destination, overall satisfaction of the visitor, and his or her loyalty towards the destination are presented. A structural model was used to explore the relations among quality dimensions, overall satisfaction, and loyalty in the specific environment of the Czech Republic (inland European country, EU member, until 1989 a socialist country, nearly 93% municipalities with fewer than 3000 inhabitants. The research results allow deeper understanding of the visitor’s behavior and the factors influencing the loyalty towards the destination. The significance order of the dimensions according to their direct influence on the required loyalty towards the destination, i.e., coming back to the destination and spreading positive references to the destination, is as follows: 1. well-being, 2. image, 3. services. We conclude that overall satisfaction directly influences loyalty towards the destination.

  1. Social Media Strategies and Destination Management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Munar, Ana Maria

    2012-01-01

    This study provides insights into social media practices and strategic considerations used by destination management organizations (DMOs). It examines a theoretical model of generic social media strategies for destination management and applies qualitative methods to analyze the social media...... initiatives of DMOs of Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Scandinavian Tourist Board Asia/Pacific in the Nordic European Region. The study provides empirical evidence of emerging social media strategies among DMOs and confirms the growing importance of these new media. The findings point...... to the conflicting relationship between corporate culture and social media culture, the challenges innovative communication tools present for traditional management structures, poor levels of formalization and the lack of a knowledge base which results in ad-hoc decision making. Overall, the paper discusses...

  2. Complexity in built environment, health, and destination walking: a neighborhood-scale analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, Cynthia; Aytur, Semra; Gardner, Kevin; Rogers, Shannon

    2012-04-01

    This study investigates the relationships between the built environment, the physical attributes of the neighborhood, and the residents' perceptions of those attributes. It focuses on destination walking and self-reported health, and does so at the neighborhood scale. The built environment, in particular sidewalks, road connectivity, and proximity of local destinations, correlates with destination walking, and similarly destination walking correlates with physical health. It was found, however, that the built environment and health metrics may not be simply, directly correlated but rather may be correlated through a series of feedback loops that may regulate risk in different ways in different contexts. In particular, evidence for a feedback loop between physical health and destination walking is observed, as well as separate feedback loops between destination walking and objective metrics of the built environment, and destination walking and perception of the built environment. These feedback loops affect the ability to observe how the built environment correlates with residents' physical health. Previous studies have investigated pieces of these associations, but are potentially missing the more complex relationships present. This study proposes a conceptual model describing complex feedback relationships between destination walking and public health, with the built environment expected to increase or decrease the strength of the feedback loop. Evidence supporting these feedback relationships is presented.

  3. Factors Affecting the Attractiveness of Medical Tourism Destination: An Empirical Study on India- Review Article

    Science.gov (United States)

    SULTANA, Seyama; HAQUE, Ahasanul; MOMEN, Abdul; YASMIN, Farzana

    2014-01-01

    Abstract Background In this edge, medical tourism is not a new idea. Medical treatment is one of the essential demands of human beings and it requires high quality and intensive care. Beside western world, few developing countries are playing key roles as medical tourism destinations. India is one of the leading names among these countries. The purpose of the paper is to find the factors influencing the attractiveness of India as a health tourism destination. Methods The study has found the major contributing factors and their relative importance in the attractiveness of the health tourism destination that is India from consumers’ perspectives by conducting survey with an application of structural equation modelling approach. Results In Indian context, medical tourists consider service quality and cost mostly to select any medical destination. In addition they also give value to the destination competitiveness but tourist attitude is less important in comparison with other factors affecting their destination choice. Since the study has used structural equation modelling approach to test the hypothesis and figure out the relative importance of the factors, the fundamental indices such as Normed Chi square(less than 3), RMSEA (less than 0.08) and CFI (more than 0.90) values show the overall model fit of the proposed model. Conclusion In order to transform a country such as India as an attractive and competitive medical tourist destination in this time of globalization, a step should be taken to control cost ensuring the quality of services. PMID:25909055

  4. Factors affecting the attractiveness of medical tourism destination: an empirical study on India- review article.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sultana, Seyama; Haque, Ahasanul; Momen, Abdul; Yasmin, Farzana

    2014-07-01

    In this edge, medical tourism is not a new idea. Medical treatment is one of the essential demands of human beings and it requires high quality and intensive care. Beside western world, few developing countries are playing key roles as medical tourism destinations. India is one of the leading names among these countries. The purpose of the paper is to find the factors influencing the attractiveness of India as a health tourism destination. The study has found the major contributing factors and their relative importance in the attractiveness of the health tourism destination that is India from consumers' perspectives by conducting survey with an application of structural equation modelling approach. In Indian context, medical tourists consider service quality and cost mostly to select any medical destination. In addition they also give value to the destination competitiveness but tourist attitude is less important in comparison with other factors affecting their destination choice. Since the study has used structural equation modelling approach to test the hypothesis and figure out the relative importance of the factors, the fundamental indices such as Normed Chi square(less than 3), RMSEA (less than 0.08) and CFI (more than 0.90) values show the overall model fit of the proposed model. In order to transform a country such as India as an attractive and competitive medical tourist destination in this time of globalization, a step should be taken to control cost ensuring the quality of services.

  5. Revisiting tourist behavior via destination brand worldness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Murat Kayak

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Taking tourists’ perspective rather than destination offerings as its core concept, this study introduces “perceived destination brand worldness” as a variable. Perceived destination brand worldness is defined as the positive perception that a tourist has of a country that is visited by tourists from all over the world. Then, the relationship between perceived destination brand worldness and intention to revisit is analyzed using partial least squares regression. This empirical study selects Taiwanese tourists as its sample, and the results show that perceived destination brand worldness is a direct predictor of intention to revisit. In light of these empirical findings and observations, practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

  6. Medical Tourist's Perception in Selecting their Destination: A Global Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarwar, Abdullah Am; Manaf, Noorhazilah A; Omar, Azura

    2012-01-01

    The need for better healthcare has grown significantly in recent years. In addition, the rising healthcare costs in the U.S. and in many European countries have forced many patients to seek medical treatment abroad, which has created the demand for medical tourism. With little yet known as to the perception of a medical tourist's destination selection, this study aims to explore medical tourist's perception in selecting their destination while going for medical treatment. Realizing the current need to examine closely the perception of medical tourists, this study had conducted a secondary study to collect data for assessing and identification of the key factors on patient's perception and destination selection criteria. The result confirms the existence of a very strong relationship between cost, service quality, treatment types and availability and marketing impact on the perception of the medical tourists' in selecting their medical tourism destination. This study offers support for the proposed conceptual model and an empirical basis for comparison in future research.

  7. Destination Memory in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease

    OpenAIRE

    El Haj, Mohamad; Postal, Virginie; Le Gall, Didier; Allain, Philippe

    2013-01-01

    In order to assess their destination memory, sixteen patients with probable mild Alzheimer Disease (AD), sixteen older adults and 16 young adults were asked to tell facts to pictures. On a subsequent task, they were asked to remember whether they had previously told that fact to that face or not. AD patients showed poorer destination recall than the older adults, and the older adults showed poorer destination recall than the young adults. Our results suggest that destination memory is highly ...

  8. Forging Hispanic communities in new destinations: A case study of Durham, NC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flippen, Chenoa A; Parrado, Emilio A

    2012-03-01

    The Chicago School of urban sociology and its extension in the spatial assimilation model have provided the dominant framework for understanding the interplay between immigrant social and spatial mobility. However, the main tenets of the theory were derived from the experience of pre-war, centralized cities; scholars falling under the umbrella of the Los Angeles school have recently challenged the extent to which they are applicable to the contemporary urban form, which is characterized by sprawling, decentralized, and multi-nucleated development. Indeed, new immigrant destinations, such as those scattered throughout the American Southeast, are both decentralized and lack prior experience with large scale immigration. Informed by this debate this paper traces the formation and early evolution of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham, NC, a new immigrant destination. Using qualitative data we construct a social history of immigrant neighborhoods and apply survey and census information to examine the spatial pattern of neighborhood succession. We also model the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods according to personal characteristics. Despite the many differences in urban form and experience with immigration, the main processes forging the early development of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham are remarkably consistent with the spatial expectations from the Chicago School, though the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods is more closely connected to family dynamics and political economy considerations than purely human capital attributes.

  9. Modelling of H.264 MPEG2 TS Traffic Source

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanislav Klucik

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with IPTV traffic source modelling. Traffic sources are used for simulation, emulation and real network testing. This model is made as a derivation of known recorded traffic sources that are analysed and statistically processed. As the results show the proposed model causes in comparison to the known traffic source very similar network traffic parameters when used in a simulated network.

  10. Vacation Behaviour: Frequency, Destination Choice and Expenditures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rouwendal, J.; van Loon, R.R.

    2013-01-01

    The authors study the probability of taking a vacation, foreign or domestic, and the expenditures of Dutch households on vacations. The paper first provides a brief review of Dutch vacation behaviour over the past 30 years. It then presents the results of statistical models for destination choice

  11. Quasi-homogeneous partial coherent source modeling of multimode optical fiber output using the elementary source method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fathy, Alaa; Sabry, Yasser M.; Khalil, Diaa A.

    2017-10-01

    Multimode fibers (MMF) have many applications in illumination, spectroscopy, sensing and even in optical communication systems. In this work, we present a model for the MMF output field assuming the fiber end as a quasi-homogenous source. The fiber end is modeled by a group of partially coherent elementary sources, spatially shifted and uncorrelated with each other. The elementary source distribution is derived from the far field intensity measurement, while the weighting function of the sources is derived from the fiber end intensity measurement. The model is compared with practical measurements for fibers with different core/cladding diameters at different propagation distances and for different input excitations: laser, white light and LED. The obtained results show normalized root mean square error less than 8% in the intensity profile in most cases, even when the fiber end surface is not perfectly cleaved. Also, the comparison with the Gaussian-Schell model results shows a better agreement with the measurement. In addition, the complex degree of coherence, derived from the model results, is compared with the theoretical predictions of the modified Van Zernike equation showing very good agreement, which strongly supports the assumption that the large core MMF could be considered as a quasi-homogenous source.

  12. Managements and marketing in Korca tourist destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esmeralda Shkira

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Tourism is characterized as being a sector that stands out as one of the business activities with the greatest potential for worldwide expansion and as an engine for economic growth. If at the national level, the appeal of tourism is significant, on the local level this sector presents itself as an essential tool in regional development, as a means to avoid regional desertification and stagnation, stimulating the potential of more undeveloped regions. In such a competitive sector as tourism, companies should develop synergies and achieve competitive advantage. This paper reports on experiences and activities that are taken in destination management and marketing in Korça tourist region. Primarily it is told about importance of management and the role of marketing in the development of tourist destination and how to be combined them to grow up competitive advantages. Then are described all main problems of destination management and marketing in Korça region and all problems that are viewed in tourist villages of this region. In the end is suggested a model that can be used to develop sustainable tourism, to grow up profits and to reduce negative impacts that would come from this industry.

  13. Personal values, subjective well-being and destination-loyalty intention of international students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamaludin, N L; Sam, D L; Sandal, G M; Adam, A A

    2016-01-01

    What are the factors that predict international students' destination-loyalty intention? This is the main question this paper addresses, using an online survey among 396 (short-term, N = 182) and (long-term, N = 214) international students at a Norwegian university. Structural equation model-AMOS was conducted to examine relationships among personal values, subjective well-being and destination-loyalty intentions. The results showed that: (1) universalism was positively related to subjective well-being for short-term students; and (2) subjective well-being was positively related to destination-loyalty intention for all groups. We found that relatively stable and happy individuals might be important for ensuring destination-loyalty intentions. Results also indicated that personal values that emphasize justice and equity are also important for short-term international students' well-being.

  14. Destination image: Origins, Developments and Implications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sérgio Dominique Ferreira Lopes

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Over the last few decades, tourism has become one of the main sectors of the global economy, not only because of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP of different countries, but also because of the employment it generates. Since 2009, however, the results of tourism have been severely affected by the economic and financial crisis and it is now essential to analyze the key elements of tourist consumer behavior. In this context, the image that a destination transmits to the market becomes one of the elements which influence tourists the most when choosing a tourist destination. The authors therefore aim to identify the main elements that characterize the image of a tourist destination, as well as their implications for the management of tourist destinations.

  15. FACTORS INFLUENCING BRAND EQUITY OF BALI AS A TOURISM DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I Ketut Surya Diarta

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Globally, competition among tourism destinations is more stringent in getting foreign tourists, including Bali. One effort to win the competition is increasing destination brand equity through maintaining its influencing factors and gaining tourist positive behavior toward destination. This effort, in long run, will increase and stabilize destination revenue and sustainability. This research aims to analyze factors influencing brand equity of Bali as a tourism destination. This research was conducted in Bali’s five major tourism objects. The 240 foreign tourists were chosen as respondents through convenience sampling technique. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. The results showed that factors that significantly influenced Bali brand equity were: symbolic and experiential benefit factor, direct and indirect destinations attributes, destination reliability and tangibility, assurance and empathy, brand destinations recognition and recall, destinations common psychological attributes, destination common functional attributes, unique functional attributes, behavioral loyalty, destination awareness, and attitudinal loyalty. Given the fluctuative nature of brand equity, Bali needs a consistent effort to maintain or to enhance brand equity of Bali as a tourism destination. Maintaining the dominant factors that influence the strength of brand equity can be used as a basis to develop destination branding strategy to expand market segment,  choose the right target market, and anchoring destination position in world market competition.

  16. Pathway computation in models derived from bio-science text sources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andreasen, Troels; Bulskov, Henrik; Jensen, Per Anker

    2017-01-01

    This paper outlines a system, OntoScape, serving to accomplish complex inference tasks on knowledge bases and bio-models derived from life-science text corpora. The system applies so-called natural logic, a form of logic which is readable for humans. This logic affords ontological representations...

  17. The Impact of the Hotel Industry on the Competitiveness of Tourism Destinations in Hungary

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albert Tóth Attila

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on a complex question from the perspective of the hotel industry. It tries to draw attention to the importance of hotels, enhancing it on the basis of the tourism destination competitiveness models and introducing the role and place of the hotel industry in the most important models. The hotel industry research evaluates the most important tourism destinations of Hungary on the micro-regional level that justifies the importance and contribution of the hotels and accommodations to competitiveness and success of tourism destinations with exact results. As a result of the research, the micro-regional destinations can be ranged within three groups in Hungary. In the first group of the most developed and most competitive tourism destinations, the hotel industry plays a very important role. In these regions, the hotel industry has a significant effect not only on competitiveness of tourism but also on general development of the regions. In the second group, which can be still called tourism destination, tourism and the hotel industry both play a significant role, but only the competitiveness of tourism can be considered good, the effects of the tourism on general development of the region can be proved only to a lesser extent. In the third group, the effects of tourism and the hotel industry can only be experienced to a lesser extent. The majority of these regions are not considered to be attractive tourism destinations for tourists any more.

  18. Role of specific geographic landscapes in city break destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Štetić Snežana

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Urban tourist destinations or City Break destinations are representing one of main destination products on tourist market. City Break destinations are big cities, administrative, economic and political centers of states and regions. These cities are 'open' 24 hours per day, seven days in week. Inside these tourist destination we can find different range of products (culture, entertainment, recreation, leisure, history, modern infrastructure. In these destinations season is not present and it lasts trough out the year. Promotional campaigns in City Break destinations are truing to create distinguished images in tourists mind as also as on investors, consumers and future residents. They emphasize advantages that those cities are delivering to their consumers, but often we forget that all these cities are having specific geographic landscapes. In the era of limiting of mass tourism to preserve resources for future generations and emphasizing the importance of sustainable development for tourism perspectives, the importance of specific geographic landscapes inside urban destinations for their further development as tourist destinations an their overall development is slightly neglected.

  19. Destination memory in social interaction: Better memory for older than for younger destinations in normal aging?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Raffard, S.; Fasotti, L.; Allain, P.

    2018-01-01

    Destination memory, a memory component allowing the attribution of information to its appropriate receiver (e.g., to whom did I lend my pen?), is compromised in normal aging. The present paper investigated whether older adults might show better memory for older destinations than for younger

  20. Destination Brand Equity, Satisfaction And Revisit Intention: An Application In TRNC As a Tourism Destination

    OpenAIRE

    Sarvari, Neda Gholizadeh

    2012-01-01

    ABSTRACT: This study revisits the previous studies carried out by several researchers on Customer – Based Brand Equity with an intension to further investigate the applications and testing of the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model in relation to destination branding. The study specifically examines the effects of Brand Equity Dimensions (Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, Brand Value, Brand Quality and Brand Image) on Tourists Satisfaction and ultimately on Future Behaviours that result i...

  1. Nepal as a destination for Finnish travelers - Service Design

    OpenAIRE

    Rayamajhi, Subash; Nepali, Manoj

    2016-01-01

    Destination marketing is an important tool to attract travellers to the destination in this fast growing economic sector of tourism industry. The main factor which should be considered during destination marketing is customer environment where the customer experience, product and prices act as the value cluster for the traveller. The second factor includes competitor environment where destination should keep itself most popular among its competitor destinations to attract a significant share ...

  2. BRAND EQUITY OF LAHORE FORT AS A TOURISM DESTINATION BRAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Kashif

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Studies that measure the brand equity of destination brands by using the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE model in a developing country context are scarce. The present study investigates the destination brand equity of the Lahore Fort by employing the CBBE model in a developing country context of Pakistan. Following the positivist tradition, we adopted a survey-based approach to collect data from 237 tourists visiting the Lahore Fort. Data were collected through a questionnaire developed to explain the relationship of brand awareness, brand image, brand association, and brand loyalty with Lahore Fort’s overall brand equity. We used various robust statistical techniques such as correlation, regression and confirmatory factor analysis (using PLS method to reach meaningful conclusions and found that brand image and brand associations positively contribute to brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand loyalty significantly contributes towards overall brand equity. Pragmatically, this study measures the customer based brand equity of the Lahore Fort, a destination brand. The results are useful as they suggest a few strategies that can help policy makers to enhance Lahore Fort’s brand performance.

  3. A Critical Analysis on Evolution of Branding Destination in Langkawi Island

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohd Yusof Mohd Fadil

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to highlight the branding efforts by Langkawi Island based on various slogans and taglines used from 1974 until present. Secondary sources such as government reports, destination marketing organization websites, brochures and previous studies were referred to identify those slogans. This paper argues that destination branding process is not as easy as most destination marketing thought. The process is complex and it may need involvement from various stakeholders such as local population and tourism operators. Based on the various slogans identified, this paper argues that too many slogans and taglines are used and thus they may create confusion among host population, tourism operators as well as the tourists in terms of what are the actual core values of the island. The paper concludes with a suggestion that an empirical research is needed to confirm whether all these slogans or brands used are endorsed and supported by the internal stakeholders (e.g. host community, tourism operators as well as in agreement with what as being perceived by the tourists.

  4. Forging Hispanic communities in new destinations: A case study of Durham, NC1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flippen, Chenoa A.; Parrado, Emilio A.

    2013-01-01

    The Chicago School of urban sociology and its extension in the spatial assimilation model have provided the dominant framework for understanding the interplay between immigrant social and spatial mobility. However, the main tenets of the theory were derived from the experience of pre-war, centralized cities; scholars falling under the umbrella of the Los Angeles school have recently challenged the extent to which they are applicable to the contemporary urban form, which is characterized by sprawling, decentralized, and multi-nucleated development. Indeed, new immigrant destinations, such as those scattered throughout the American Southeast, are both decentralized and lack prior experience with large scale immigration. Informed by this debate this paper traces the formation and early evolution of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham, NC, a new immigrant destination. Using qualitative data we construct a social history of immigrant neighborhoods and apply survey and census information to examine the spatial pattern of neighborhood succession. We also model the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods according to personal characteristics. Despite the many differences in urban form and experience with immigration, the main processes forging the early development of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham are remarkably consistent with the spatial expectations from the Chicago School, though the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods is more closely connected to family dynamics and political economy considerations than purely human capital attributes. PMID:24482612

  5. Review of Literature of the Rural Heritage Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kadi Alaa J.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Rural heritage tourism destination management is an essential knowledge area that should be investigated to achieve sustainable destination, especially for an emerging destination. The goal of this process is to ensure that these elements are thoroughly inspected and rigidly organized due to the main concepts, theories, methods and approaches mentioning different perspectives to tackle these certain elements. In order to cope with the complexity of the relation between the destination elements and its characteristics and sequence of the maturity of the selected destination, all that needs in-depth knowledge to assist the researchers in developing and improving different types of approaches and tools, and in structuring and assessing the destination. We develop a neat backbone literature review concerning the all aspects of the sustainable rural heritage tourism destination. We review the existing methods, approaches and theories applied on the relative field, and further study the relevant challenges that have been the target of investigation in the academic literature. The paper is intended to be the newest and the most important existing study on the topic of rural heritage emerging tourism destination. The results are particularly relevant to practitioners seeking a better grasp on managing tourism destination as well as achieving sustainability in tourism destinations. As a major finding of the review, the results strongly suggest the need for more practitioner-oriented and industry-driven empirical studies in the area of flexible managerial framework to cope with special and dynamic characteristics of different tourism destinations.

  6. The Determinants of Tourist Use of Public Transport at the Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aaron Gutiérrez

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Of all the activities associated with tourism, transport is the one that creates most pollution. However, the mobility of tourists at their destination is an activity that has so far received very little attention from researchers in comparison with that afforded to the transport mode used to travel from their point of origin to their destination. This paper provides new evidence about the use of public transport by tourists at their final destination. The study is based on data obtained from a survey conducted with tourists (N = 4336 on the Costa Daurada (Catalonia, a Mediterranean sun and beach resort. The empirical analysis is based on estimations made using a multinomial model of the transport mode chosen by tourists to travel to the Costa Daurada combined with another model that estimated the probability of them using public transport during their stay. The results show that the tourists who arrived by private car were the ones who least used public transport at the destination. This was despite the fact that these tourists had the profile that made them most likely to use this type of transportation. On the other hand, although the tourists who arrived by plane had the profile that made them least likely to use public transport, they were the ones who used it most. It is, therefore, possible to conclude that, in addition to tourist profile, another key factor in deciding whether tourists will use public transport at their destination is whether they will take their own car.

  7. Destination Memory for Emotional Information in Older Adults

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Fasotti, L.; Allain, P.

    2015-01-01

    Background/Study Context: Destination memory, remembering the destination of the information that one tells, shows significant age-related decline. In the present paper, the authors sought to determine whether destination memory can be improved in older adults using emotional stimuli. This aim was

  8. The influence of social media in destination choice

    OpenAIRE

    Tham, Min-En Aaron

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of social media in destination choice. The evolution of social media within tourism has provided further impetus towards destination information search and image formation. To this end, existing studies have presented the influence of social media at destination micro-levels, such as accommodation and restaurants. At a macro-level, some studies have investigated the influence of social media on a destination. However, current scope is l...

  9. A Dual Process Approach to Understand Tourists’ Destination Choice Processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kock, Florian; Josiassen, Alexander; Assaf, Albert

    2017-01-01

    Most studies that investigate tourists' choices of destinations apply the concept of mental destination representations, also referred to as destination image. The present study investigates tourists’ destination choice processes by conceptualizing how different components of destination image...... are mentally processed in tourists' minds. Specifically, the seminal dual processing approach is applied to the destination image literature. By doing this, we argue that some components of mental destination representations are processed systematically while others serve as inputs for heuristics...... that individuals apply to inform their decision making. Understanding how individuals make use of their mental destination representations and how they color their decision-making is essential in order to better explain tourist behavior....

  10. A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL: THAILAND’S INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DEMAND FOR TOURIST DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHUKIAT CHAIBOONSRI

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Structural equation modelling (LISREL 8 was used to test the causal relationships between tourist travel motivations (travel cost satisfaction and tourist demographics and tourist destination (tourism product, tourism product attributes, and tourism product management. A survey containing Likert-type scales was used in collecting data from 203 international tourists who had travelled to Thailand. Using factor analysis, dimensions were identified for scales used in the study: travel cost satisfaction, tourist demographics, tourism product, tourism product attributes, and tourism product management. Results indicated that the travel cost satisfaction of international tourists had a positive influenced on tourism product attributes at 0.07 (t=1.96 with statistics significant at the level of 0.05. Also the travel cost satisfaction had a positive influence on tourism product management at 0.13 (t=4.02 with statistics significant at the level of 0.05. And the tourist demographics had a positive influenced on tourism product at 0.11(t=3.47 with statistic significant at the level of 0.05. As well as tourist demographics, which had a positive influenced on tourism management at 0.11 (t=3.57 with statistics significant at the level of 0.05. The results of the research suggested that if the tourist destinations in Thailand are improved in quality then not only will international tourist revisit Thailand but also the numbers of tourists travelling to Thailand will increase.

  11. Cosmopolitanism Influence on Destination Image: An Analysis of São Paulo City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felipe Nasrallah Bedran

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to find out how cosmopolitanism influences the destination image building. To accomplish this objective we interviewed foreign people, who know São Paulo, a city with national and international importance, due to its structure, economy, size, population and by its intense cultural and business life. This work reviewed cosmopolitanism that is the desire to know other cultures, besides his native one. This leads to an intention to travel through different regions, countries, to deepen in other societies and try to blend into it. Thus, one has particular characteristics, which influence the way one lives and consume products. The destination image can be defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person has about a destination. To understand how cosmopolitanism influences the destination image, two approaches were used. A qualitative approach used interviews with professionals from SPTuris, as well as personal interviews with foreign tourists at the airport., This data was analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative approach included a survey with 205 foreigners. Data was analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistics, ANOVA and structural equation modeling. The result showed that cosmopolitanism and income influences the affective aspect in the destination image formation. It also showed that the stay purpose influenced the cognitive aspect, and that the length of stay influenced both aspects of the destination image. The research result showed that the cosmopolitanism influences mainly the affective aspect of São Paulo destination image. 

  12. Cross-border shopping and tourism destination marketing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Makkonen, Teemu

    2016-01-01

    This article addresses the economic impact that cross-border shopping has on the local tourism industry and the ways that cross-border shopping is taken advantage of in tourism destination marketing. Southern Jutland–situated in Denmark just north of the German border, where border shops situated......-border shopping into tourism destination marketing strategies. The results have wider relevance for other border regions.......This article addresses the economic impact that cross-border shopping has on the local tourism industry and the ways that cross-border shopping is taken advantage of in tourism destination marketing. Southern Jutland–situated in Denmark just north of the German border, where border shops situated...... just south of the same border enable Danes to capitalize on the lower value added tax levels in Germany–is utilized as an illustrative case example. The data was collected by analysing the relevant tourism destination marketing material and via interviews with local destination marketing organizations...

  13. Destination Competitiveness: a Framework for Future Research

    OpenAIRE

    Gruescu, Ramona; Nanu, Roxana; Pirvu, Gheorghe

    2009-01-01

    We identify the competitive advantage of a tourist destination from a double perspective: the critical contribution of the employees and the ICT impact on promoting and selling the destination. Research methodology includes "bottom to top" analysis of the mentioned indicators. Thus, results include the eficientisation of tourist businesses and destinations due to both human element development and ICT. Two essential basis of the competitive advantage are isolated: differentiation and cost adv...

  14. Destination Competitiviness: A Framework for Future Research

    OpenAIRE

    Gruescu, Ramona; Nanu, Roxana; Pirvu, Gheorghe

    2009-01-01

    The paper envisages aspects concerning identification of the competitive advantage of a tourist destination from a double perspective: the critical contribution of the employees and the ICT impact on promoting and selling the destination. Research methodology includes ‘bottom to top’ analysis of the mentioned indicators. Thus, results include the eficientisation of tourist businesses and destinations due to both human element development and ICT technologies. Two essential basis of the compet...

  15. Repairing business process models as retrieved from source code

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fernández-Ropero, M.; Reijers, H.A.; Pérez-Castillo, R.; Piattini, M.; Nurcan, S.; Proper, H.A.; Soffer, P.; Krogstie, J.; Schmidt, R.; Halpin, T.; Bider, I.

    2013-01-01

    The static analysis of source code has become a feasible solution to obtain underlying business process models from existing information systems. Due to the fact that not all information can be automatically derived from source code (e.g., consider manual activities), such business process models

  16. Cultural Centre, Destination Cultural Offer and Visitor Satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benxiang Zeng

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to establish the link between tourists’ perceptions on cultural offers and their overall satisfaction, and explore the implication of this link for sustainable tourist destination management. Assessing online customers’ reviews, this study identifies a positive correlation between visitors’ perspectives and experiences at the on-site cultural centre and visitors’ destination satisfaction. It suggests that the on-site cultural centre plays a critical role in building up visitors’ perception on cultural attributes of the destination, and its impact on visitor satisfaction is a double-edged sword. Visitors’ positive perspectives on the cultural centre enhance visitors’ experiences and contribute to their destination satisfaction; however, not only does a negative perspective on their cultural and spiritual experience compromise visitors’ satisfaction, but also subsequent negative online reviews damage the destination image and discourage visitor return/visit. The findings help destination management organisations to better understand visitors’ preference for cultural centres and therefore to improve visitors’ cultural experience. This paper appeals for further study of on-site cultural centres’ role in forming destination cultural attributes, and of social media’s potential in enriching cultural experience.

  17. Destination Strategy Marketing Analysis for Seaside Tourism

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    HUO Jiaying

    2009-01-01

    Seaside tourism has become one of the popular tourism destinations to the tourists. It is necessary for manager to study the strategy marketing of seaside tourism destination to promote the seaside tourism. This paper examines the characteristics of seaside tourism and uses the SWOT to analyze the strengths, weakness, opportunities and treats of seaside tourism. Then, the challenges of seaside tourism destination are introduced and should be noticed by the marketing managers.

  18. Social media monitoring model to guide decision making of destination management organization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guilherme Mendes Thomaz

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The widespread adoption of social media by users and organizations has generated an exponential increase in data and content that offer opportunities to be processed into information and knowledge. However, dealing with such data is considered a challenge and requires the use of adequate resources. Considering this scenario, the aim of this study was to present a social media monitoring model to support decision making by DMOs. The model proposed has been tested before and during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, using Curitiba and Foz do Iguaçu (Paraná State as destinations, having a structured of seven stages. The results of the period were composed of about 50,000 messages, tours and associated ontology application. A large part of the frequency relations, between attractions or between host cities, have been com-patible with their reality in the tourist trade.

  19. USING CROWDSOURCED DATA (TWITTER & FACEBOOK TO DELINEATE THE ORIGIN AND DESTINATION OF COMMUTERS OF THE GAUTRAIN PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Moyo

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The study of commuters’ origins and destinations (O_D promises to assist transportation planners with prediction models to inform decision making. Conventionally O_D surveys are undertaken through travel surveys and traffic counts, however data collection for these surveys has historically proven to be time consuming and having a strain on human resources, thus a need for an alternative data source arises. This study combines the use social media data and geographic information systems in the creation of a model for origin and destination surveys. The model tests the potential of using big data from Echo echo software which contains Twitter and Facebook data obtained from social media users in Gauteng. This data contains geo-location and it is used to determine origin and destination as well as concentration levels of Gautrain commuters. A kriging analysis was performed on the data to determine the O-D and concentration levels of Gautrain users. The results reveal the concentration of Gautrain commuters at various points of interest that is where they work, live or socialise. The results from the study highlight which nodes attract the most commuters and also possible locations for the expansion for Gautrain. Lastly, the study also highlights some weakness of crowdsourced data for informing transportation planning.

  20. Using Crowdsourced Data (twitter & Facebook) to Delineate the Origin and Destination of Commuters of the Gautrain Public Transit System in South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moyo, T.; Musakwa, W.

    2016-06-01

    The study of commuters' origins and destinations (O_D) promises to assist transportation planners with prediction models to inform decision making. Conventionally OD surveys are undertaken through travel surveys and traffic counts, however data collection for these surveys has historically proven to be time consuming and having a strain on human resources, thus a need for an alternative data source arises. This study combines the use social media data and geographic information systems in the creation of a model for origin and destination surveys. The model tests the potential of using big data from Echo echo software which contains Twitter and Facebook data obtained from social media users in Gauteng. This data contains geo-location and it is used to determine origin and destination as well as concentration levels of Gautrain commuters. A kriging analysis was performed on the data to determine the O-D and concentration levels of Gautrain users. The results reveal the concentration of Gautrain commuters at various points of interest that is where they work, live or socialise. The results from the study highlight which nodes attract the most commuters and also possible locations for the expansion for Gautrain. Lastly, the study also highlights some weakness of crowdsourced data for informing transportation planning.

  1. Management of sustainable tourism destination through stakeholder cooperation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Božena Krce Miočić

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Destination presents a set of different organizations and individuals who can work towards realising the same objectives or their objectives can be diametrically opposed. Harmonisation of such objectives in a unique strategic development of the entire destination is usually taken over by destination management organization (DMO established to accomplish the mentioned objective. The opposed interests in such a system as complex as tourism result in the degradation of space and society in which tourism takes place. Therefore sustainable development in tourism represents a primary concept of development today. Tourism is a fast growing phenomenon and its sustainable development represents a necessity. Besides the positive economic outputs of tourism, we should also mention its negative impact on the particular destination, the environmental degradation to some extent, as well as socio-economic elements of local community. Accordingly, multi-stakeholder concept in destination management should include all interest and influential groups in tourism development planning. Such integrated destination management connects all stakeholders independent from influence or interest powers to participate directly or indirectly in creating and implementing the quality tourism development. This concept’s basic function is connecting and coordinating stakeholders with different interests within a tourism destination, in order to create quality product and a recognizable destination image, and to achieve a long-term sustainable competitiveness on the market. However, based on the stakeholder approach, the most emphasized issue in sustainable tourism development concept is the government that holds a key role in socio-economic development. In this paper, we analysed current involvement of stakeholders in Zadar County tourism development and examined their interest in future involvement in sustainable destination development. Based on the analysis of focus group

  2. Challenges and solutions for applying the travel cost demand model to geographically remote visitor destinations: A case study of bear viewing at Katmai National Park and Preserve

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, Leslie; Huber, Christopher; Loomis, John

    2017-01-01

    Remote and unique destinations present difficulties when attempting to construct traditional travel cost models to value recreation demand. The biggest limitation comes from the lack of variation in the dependent variable, defined as the number of trips taken over a set time frame. There are various approaches that can be used for overcoming limitations of the traditional travel cost model in the context of remote destinations. This study applies an adaptation of the standard model to estimate recreation benefits of bear viewing at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which represents a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many visitors. Results demonstrate that visitors to this park’s Brooks Camp area are willing to pay an average of US$287 per day of bear viewing. Implications of these findings for valuing recreation at other remote destinations are discussed.

  3. DESTINATION BRANDING THROUGH BUSINESS TOURISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Doriana, MORAR

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Considering the fat that a rate of up to 70% of tourists visiting Romania have a professional motivation, the present papers intends to provide an overview of the advantages held by Romania for offering tourists the proper conditions for spending quality time in this emerging country. Within the present article, the authors provide to readers an overview regarding destination branding, business travel and the critical elements in achieving economic advantages over competing regions/countries; the article emphasizes the fact that -intelligently exploited-, business tourism can be an element of prosperity within the tumultuous period of time through which Romania and other emerging states are crossing nowadays. The results of this paper work are focused on the identifying, analysing and correlating the main factors that can influence a destination' development through its propulsion as a brand destination for business tourism. Generally speaking, the paper approaches aspects regarding business tourism. The methodology used in order to write the present article is limited to the collection and processing empirical data and information. In this regard, the literature in the field has been reviewed, so that the authors could identify and expose the importance of destination branding through business travel for sustainable development in Romania.

  4. Personal values, subjective well-being and destination-loyalty intention of international students

    OpenAIRE

    Jamaludin, N. L.; Sam, D. L.; Sandal, G. M.; Adam, A. A.

    2016-01-01

    What are the factors that predict international students? destination-loyalty intention? This is the main question this paper addresses, using an online survey among 396 (short-term, N?=?182) and (long-term, N?=?214) international students at a Norwegian university. Structural equation model-AMOS was conducted to examine relationships among personal values, subjective well-being and destination-loyalty intentions. The results showed that: (1) universalism was positively related to subjective ...

  5. Medical Tourist’s Perception in Selecting their Destination: A Global Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarwar, Abdullah AM; Manaf, Noorhazilah A; Omar, Azura

    2012-01-01

    Background: The need for better healthcare has grown significantly in recent years. In addition, the rising healthcare costs in the U.S. and in many European countries have forced many patients to seek medical treatment abroad, which has created the demand for medical tourism. With little yet known as to the perception of a medical tourist’s destination selection, this study aims to explore medical tourist’s perception in selecting their destination while going for medical treatment. Methods: Realizing the current need to examine closely the perception of medical tourists, this study had conducted a secondary study to collect data for assessing and identification of the key factors on patient’s perception and destination selection criteria. Results: The result confirms the existence of a very strong relationship between cost, service quality, treatment types and availability and marketing impact on the perception of the medical tourists’ in selecting their medical tourism destination. Conclusion: This study offers support for the proposed conceptual model and an empirical basis for comparison in future research. PMID:23113218

  6. Portfolio analysis of a destination's tourism "product line"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harold Daniel

    2007-01-01

    If we think of a tourist destination as a platform from which a variety of tourist experiences can be delivered, we could conceptualize these experiences as the "product line" offered by or associated with the tourist destination. That conceptualization enables the manager of the destination to employ the logic and discipline associated with product line...

  7. A plasmid toolkit for cloning chimeric cDNAs encoding customized fusion proteins into any Gateway destination expression vector

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background Valuable clone collections encoding the complete ORFeomes for some model organisms have been constructed following the completion of their genome sequencing projects. These libraries are based on Gateway cloning technology, which facilitates the study of protein function by simplifying the subcloning of open reading frames (ORF) into any suitable destination vector. The expression of proteins of interest as fusions with functional modules is a frequent approach in their initial functional characterization. A limited number of Gateway destination expression vectors allow the construction of fusion proteins from ORFeome-derived sequences, but they are restricted to the possibilities offered by their inbuilt functional modules and their pre-defined model organism-specificity. Thus, the availability of cloning systems that overcome these limitations would be highly advantageous. Results We present a versatile cloning toolkit for constructing fully-customizable three-part fusion proteins based on the MultiSite Gateway cloning system. The fusion protein components are encoded in the three plasmids integral to the kit. These can recombine with any purposely-engineered destination vector that uses a heterologous promoter external to the Gateway cassette, leading to the in-frame cloning of an ORF of interest flanked by two functional modules. In contrast to previous systems, a third part becomes available for peptide-encoding as it no longer needs to contain a promoter, resulting in an increased number of possible fusion combinations. We have constructed the kit’s component plasmids and demonstrate its functionality by providing proof-of-principle data on the expression of prototype fluorescent fusions in transiently-transfected cells. Conclusions We have developed a toolkit for creating fusion proteins with customized N- and C-term modules from Gateway entry clones encoding ORFs of interest. Importantly, our method allows entry clones obtained from ORFeome

  8. Destination Development for Rural Tourism Area in Wanayasa, Puwakarta, West Java, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jajang Gunawijaya

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This purpose of this paper is to elaborate the understanding of destination development of rural tourism in Wanayasa, Purwakarta, Jawa Barat. It has a rich potential for the rural tourism prosperity. Then author incorporates destination development through Butler‘s Area Life Cycle. Research was conducted in August 2015 with qualitative approaches i.e. interview and focus group discussion to 120 respondents which comprises representation from several different group. In addition, some of data also produced from secondary sources such as government regulation and official website. Findings show that Wanayasa possessed their ability in developing aspect of internal factors, attractions and accommodation facilities. Apart from that quality, it is obvious that their rural tourism development is lack of destination management and chaotic strategy marketing formulation as a result of disorganized planning processes. With those conditions, it will be tough for them to formulate the true competitive advantage as a basic foundation of their tourism development. This paper illustrates a detailed analysis of the destination‘s strengths and weaknesses, and a more distinctive understanding of what facilitates a destination‘s competitive position.

  9. Medical Tourism Destination SWOT Analysis: A Case Study of Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wong Kee Mun

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The growth of global medical tourism in the recent years had spurred the interest of many governments to join in the bandwagon, particularly from Asia. Using the SWOT analytical model, this paper provides pertinent comparative analysis of the medical tourism destinations here being Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India. Each destination possesses its own value propositions to convince the demands of medical tourists. Malaysia and Thailand have a good mixture of elements (medical, tourism and wellness to be an excellent medical tourism destination while Singapore and India need further development in some of these elements. Meeting or exceeding the medical tourists’ expectations and requirements are the priority of medical tourism destination marketers in ensuring a successful medical tourism industry development.

  10. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLACE BRANDING AND DESTINATION BRANDING FOR LOCAL BRAND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Victor-Alexandru BRICIU

    2013-01-01

    To highlight the principles used in the design and development of a regional brand strategy we need to identify the disciplinary and the theoretical referential that would best fit the branding approach. This paper will address the main forms of branding: place branding, location branding and destination branding, as a specialized form of destination marketing. From the theoretical point of view, by identifying the fundamental and the management brand model, the regional tourism brand conc...

  11. Destination Memory and Cognitive Theory of Mind in Alzheimer's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Gély-Nargeot, Marie-Christine; Raffard, Stéphane

    2015-01-01

    Destination memory, or the ability to remember the destination to whom a piece of information was addressed, is found to be compromised in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our paper investigated the relationship between destination memory and theory of mind in AD since both destination memory and theory of mind are social abilities that require processing attributes of interlocutors. Mild AD participants and controls were administered tasks tapping destination memory, affective theory of mind, and 1st and 2nd order cognitive theory of mind. Relative to controls, AD participants showed compromise in destination memory and 2nd order cognitive theory of mind, but preserved performance on affective and 1st order cognitive theory of mind. Significant correlations were observed between destination memory, and 1st and 2nd order cognitive theory of mind in AD participants and controls. By demonstrating a relationship between compromises in 2nd order theory of mind and in destination memory, our work highlights links between social cognition and memory functioning in AD.

  12. Diverging fortunes? Economic well-being of Latinos and African Americans in new rural destinations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowley, Martha; Lichter, Daniel T; Turner, Richard N

    2015-05-01

    The geographic diffusion of Latinos from immigrant gateways to newly-emerging rural destinations is one of the most significant recent trends in U.S. population redistribution. Yet, few studies have explored how Latinos have fared in new destinations, and even fewer have examined economic implications for other minority workers and their families. We use county-level data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey to compare the changing economic circumstances (e.g., employment and unemployment, poverty, income, and homeownership) of Latinos and African Americans in new Latino boomtowns. We also evaluate the comparative economic trajectories of Latinos in new destinations and established gateways. During the 1990s, new rural destinations provided clear economic benefits to Latinos, even surpassing African Americans on some economic indicators. The 2000s, however, ushered in higher rates of Latino poverty; the economic circumstances of Latinos also deteriorated more rapidly in new vis-à-vis traditional destinations. By 2010, individual and family poverty rates in new destinations were significantly higher among Latinos than African Americans, despite higher labor force participation and lower levels of unemployment. Difference-in-difference models demonstrate that in both the 1990s and 2000s, economic trajectories of African Americans in new Latino destinations largely mirrored those observed in places without large Latino influxes. Any economic benefits for Latinos in new rural destinations thus have not come at the expense of African Americans. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Measuring the Quality of the Lakeside Tourist Destinations: Case Study of Lake Palić and Lake Srebrno (Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jelica J. MARKOVIĆ

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to determine the dimensions of the lakeside tourist destinations quality through the cases of Lake Palić and Lake Srebrno (Serbia, by interviewing daily visitors and tourists and to determine which dimensions of quality have a crucial impact on the overall satisfaction of daily visitors and tourists. Various models have been developed to measure quality. In this paper, the quality is measured by the model that is appropriate for lakeside tourist destinations, developed by Ryan, Huimin, and Chon (2010. Five dimensions of quality were identified and named as: additional tourist infrastructure, lake water quality, natural environment, hospitality and cleanness of the place. The results showed that the measured quality model largely predicts overall satisfaction of daily visitors and tourists on the destination. The dimension lake water quality has the most effects on the overall satisfaction. Further research could use this research by adding some other quality dimensions into consideration (e.g. quality of service, situational conditions, destination management in examining the effect of destination’s quality on satisfaction of daily visitors and tourists. The research is important to managers of lakeside tourist destinations who tend to have highly satisfied guests and who work on promotion and improvement of destination quality.

  14. Dark Tourism and Destination Marketing

    OpenAIRE

    Jahnke, Daniela

    2013-01-01

    This thesis is about the dark tourism and destination marketing. The aim of the thesis is to display how these two terms can be combined. The term dark tourism is a relatively new research area; therefore the thesis will provide an outlook of the current situation of dark tourism. It starts with the beginning of dark tourism and continuous to the managerial aspects of dark tourism sites. The second part of the theoretical background is about destination marketing. It provides an overvie...

  15. MARKETING URBAN DESTINATIONS THROUGH FESTIVALS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina Georgieva ANASTASSOVA

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Within the context of enormous competition on the international tourist market, destination branding is getting an increasing importance as a way to attract more tourists and visitors. There is an overall trend away from product features towards lifestyle or value systems which reveals that the consumer of today makes choices based on whether or not a product fits into her or his lifestyle and whether a destination represents  a desirable tourist experience. After theoretical literature review on brand identity, the results of a festival visitors’ opinion survey about “Include the city” festival’s contribution to the brand identity of Burgas city are discussed. The survey methodology includes descriptive statistics, Z-score method in order to classify in groups visitor’s opinion as well as content analysis of visitors’ opinion. Three research hypotheses are checked and suggestions about the festival’s marketing contribution in three aspects to the brand identity extension of urban destination Burgas are presented.

  16. THE DESTINATION IMAGE OF BUCOVINA AMONG ROMANIAN TOURISTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariadna Ioana JURAVLE (GAVRA

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to identify the destination image of Bucovina among Romanian tourists. Bucovina is one of the most important tourist destinations of Romania, it is located in the North Eastern region of Romania and tourism has the potential to provide significant support for economic development of this region. This economic development may occur if the elements of tourism are well-managed. One of the factors influencing the success of a destination is its image. Earlier studies showed the importance of destination image, even though no studies have been conducted for Bucovina to identify the image of this destination. To implement this study, we used survey as the research method and the questionnaire as our research tool. We conducted the content analysis of responses to open questions. The items were included into a broader questionnaire although this article comprises just the qualitative research in which we included emergent coding.

  17. Dynamic Competition and Cooperation of Road Infrastructure Investment of Multiple Tourism Destinations: A Case Study of Xidi and Hongcun World Cultural Heritage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The transportation infrastructure always plays an important role in the development of the local tourism. A system dynamics method incorporated with a destination choice model is proposed in this paper to analyze the dynamic impacts of transportation infrastructure on the tourism development, where multiple tourism destinations share a common market. Tourists’ destination choice behaviors are characterized by a multinomial logit choice model based on the utility of destinations, which depends heavily on the accessibility of destinations that the local administration has strong willingness to improve. The system dynamics method is used to model dynamic interactions among destinations and to simulate the dynamic evolution of the competition on the tourism market. A case study of the World Cultural Heritage Sites, Xidi and Hongcun villages, shows the competition for road infrastructure investment can produce a win-win situation and bring the cooperation on investment due to the positive externality of transport infrastructure and two villages show a tendency to merge into one bigger destination. Finally, the tourism development strategies for two villages are discussed based on the scenario analysis.

  18. Rural Tourism – Evaluating the Quality of Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryglová Kateřina

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper concerns the topic of rural destination quality from the viewpoint of tourism development. The research exploring crucial quality factors from the viewpoint of demand is presented. Rural tourism participants attribute the highest significance to Destination cleanliness and Sense of security. The evaluation of the importance of most research quality factors is not dependent on gender and on the contrary, the importance of 16 quality factors depends on the visitor´s age. In the case of the factor of “Friendly acceptance by the locals”, the most significant influence on the visitor´s return to the destination was confirmed. On the contrary, this impact was not proven for the factor of “Level of prices of services and goods in the destination”. The research and the successive factor analysis revealed 6 dimensions representing the rural destination quality: Services, Image, Transportation, Well-being, Information/Communication and Attractions/ Experiences; Well-being was identified as the most important. This was consecutively confirmed by the analysis of the quality factors’ impact on the visitor´s overall satisfaction and loyalty to the destination. The research findings provide the theory with topical destination quality dimensions as well as contribute to better understanding of visitor´s behavioural mechanisms in rural areas.

  19. Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Walking, Cycling, Public Transport and Passive Transport to Various Destinations in Flemish Older Adolescents.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hannah Verhoeven

    Full Text Available Active transport is a convenient way to incorporate physical activity in adolescents' daily life. The present study aimed to investigate which psychosocial and environmental factors are associated with walking, cycling, public transport (train, tram, bus, metro and passive transport (car, motorcycle, moped over short distances (maximum eight kilometres among older adolescents (17-18 years, to school and to other destinations.562 older adolescents completed an online questionnaire assessing socio-demographic variables, psychosocial variables, environmental variables and transport to school/other destinations. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were performed.More social modelling and a higher residential density were positively associated with walking to school and walking to other destinations, respectively. Regarding cycling, higher self-efficacy and a higher social norm were positively associated with cycling to school and to other destinations. Regarding public transport, a higher social norm, more social modelling of siblings and/or friends, more social support and a higher land use mix access were positively related to public transport to school and to other destinations, whereas a greater distance to school only related positively to public transport to school. Regarding passive transport, more social support and more perceived benefits were positively associated with passive transport to school and to other destinations. Perceiving less walking and cycling facilities at school was positively related to passive transport to school only, and more social modelling was positively related to passive transport to other destinations.Overall, psychosocial variables seemed to be more important than environmental variables across the four transport modes. Social norm, social modelling and social support were the most consistent psychosocial factors which indicates that it is important to target both older adolescents and their social

  20. New HOLIDAY Destination Decision Making; a Singapore perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Bhagchandani, Neeraj Vishindas

    2015-01-01

    Singaporeans are known to have high disposable incomes and come from one of the more influential economies in Asia. Singaporeans have a sizeable impact on the world’s tourism industry. Thus, it is not surprising that they are the target of many tourism destination marketing organizations. Influencing this segment bears great international interest. Existing research identifies the many methods new destinations enter the holiday maker’s mind and move along the destination decision making p...

  1. Promotion as a Tool in Sustaining the Destination Marketing Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivo Mulec

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Promoting the tourism destination in the right and best possible way is today one of vital marketing activities of all Destination Management Organizations. Only successful promotion can entice and attract potential travelers to visit the destination. The number of new destinations is increasing every year and some of them are quite similar. Market segmentation is one of the starting points for devising marketing strategy. Only by presenting the destination to the right segment of potential clients in the right way will a destination maximize the effectiveness of its marketing and promotion. Tourism destination marketers will continue to face considerable challenges in the future: they will have to take account of the needs, wants and expectations of more mature and knowledgeable customers, and the corresponding need for more up-to-date and reliable information upon which to base decision-making. In the future only marketing which includes collaborative dimensions will meet its objectives fully.

  2. Monitoring System of Sustainable Development in Cultural and Mountain Tourism Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jurigova Zuzana

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Tourism destinations are vulnerable to negative impacts of tourism development and thus require a sustainable approach. It is significant mainly in destinations with fragile environments such as cultural destinations with their historical value and mountain destinations with specific natural conditions. The aim of this paper is to propose the monitoring system for sustainable development of cultural and mountain destinations based on the critical scientific literature review. The added value of this work resides in defining specific indicators (creating monitoring system for measurement of sustainability in cultural routes and mountain destinations.

  3. Assessing the effectiveness of consumer narratives for destination marketing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tussyadiah, Iis; Park, S.; Fesenmaier, D.R.

    2011-01-01

    Using tourists' stories to promote destinations is believed to be an innovative approach in destination marketing. This study conceptualizes and investigates the effectiveness of such an approach. This study supports the underlying premise of introducing narrative in marketing, that is......, the narrative reasoning that human beings possess with which they can retrieve information better through a story. Furthermore, it is argued that the increased knowledge of a destination will have a stronger effect on the intention to visit a destination if the audiences can identify themselves with the story...

  4. Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Urban Destinations: Does Space Matter?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ibon Aranburu

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Policy makers and tourism developers must understand visitors’ mobility behavior and how they consume space and tourism resources in order to set up sustainable cultural tourism destinations. With this in mind, it should also be pointed out that the mobility patterns of tourists in urban destinations are mainly located in the city center (spatial centrality, the analysis of which enables us to define “how central” the resources (museums, monuments, etc. are and what the interactions between them are. Comprehending which factors influence visitors’ urban mobility behavior is key to understanding tourists’ consumption of space and their connections with the tourism assets of the city. Furthermore, when tourists visit a destination, they make a mental representation of the destination, constructing a mental map of it. Thus, tourists consume not only spaces but also the image of a city/destination. Moreover, the latter influences the former. The quality of surrounding architecture and urbanism plays a crucial role in enhancing the experiential value of a destination and influencing space consumption preferences. Clearly, visitors are more likely to use/consume environments that are easily navigated and mentally legible. In order to explore these patterns, a real experiment was performed based on visitor behavior in the city of Bilbao. In addition, the central places of Bilbao were determined and an analysis of the spatial interaction between cultural sites was performed, making use of a new methodology based on GPS technologies, network analysis, and surveys. This methodology is the main contribution of this work. The results suggest that (1 easy mobility (walkability, accessibility, different transport modes of the visited space facilitates the tourist experience; (2 simple and eligible mental maps of the city that are easily perceived by visitors facilitate the rapid consumption of the tourist destination; and (3 the centrality of the

  5. A statistical model for deriving probability distributions of contamination for accidental releases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    ApSimon, H.M.; Davison, A.C.

    1986-01-01

    Results generated from a detailed long-range transport model, MESOS, simulating dispersal of a large number of hypothetical releases of radionuclides in a variety of meteorological situations over Western Europe have been used to derive a simpler statistical model, MESOSTAT. This model may be used to generate probability distributions of different levels of contamination at a receptor point 100-1000 km or so from the source (for example, across a frontier in another country) without considering individual release and dispersal scenarios. The model is embodied in a series of equations involving parameters which are determined from such factors as distance between source and receptor, nuclide decay and deposition characteristics, release duration, and geostrophic windrose at the source. Suitable geostrophic windrose data have been derived for source locations covering Western Europe. Special attention has been paid to the relatively improbable extreme values of contamination at the top end of the distribution. The MESOSTAT model and its development are described, with illustrations of its use and comparison with the original more detailed modelling techniques. (author)

  6. Car Tourism in Xinjiang: The Mediation Effect of Perceived Value and Tourist Satisfaction on the Relationship between Destination Image and Loyalty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin Wang

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to test a model linking destination image, perceived value, tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty. Based on a sample of 300 tourists travelling by car from the World Natural Heritage Site of Tianchi, China, a new model of destination image was explored and data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM. The results show that perceived value and satisfaction are direct antecedents of destination loyalty. Above all, perceived value and tourist satisfaction mediate the relationship between destination image and loyalty. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical and management implications of the findings in order to boost the tourism industry in the context of car trips.

  7. Destination Quality Perception in the Context of Different Behavioural Characteristics of Visitors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryglová Kateřina

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Visitors’ perceptions of the quality of a tourism destination are fundamental for effective destination management and marketing. This paper deals with the topic of destination quality from the viewpoint of demand, i.e. from the viewpoint of a destination visitor. The results of perceiving the destination quality partial factors in the context of different behavioural characteristics of a visitor are presented, particularly, the way how spending and organizing a holiday influences the perception of destination quality factors (Kruskal-Wallis test. The research nineteen factors were designed on the basis of contemporary theories and on qualitative research. Some important quality aspects related to tourism were identified and assessed for the Czech population. The primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey with quota sampling (n = 1097. The dependence of destination quality perception on the way of spending the holiday was revealed in the case of 8 factors (e.g., Availability of transportation to the destination, Availability and quality of information; Additional infrastructure, Sense of security, Destination cleanliness, Uniqueness of destination, Price level in the destination, Cultural monuments. The significant differences identified among various groups of respondents are described in detail in this study. The research findings contribute to better understanding of the behavioural mechanism and can be used by destination managers to design communication strategies for different segments of consumers for individual destinations to improve their competiveness.

  8. Branding Serbia as a Tourist Destination on the Global Market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Paunović

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Destination branding has become one of the most popular contemporary topics, both among tourism practitioners and politicians, because there is strong evidence that strong national destination brand supports commercial brands in industries related to tourism. Therefore, factors that influence destination brand loyalty are of crucial importance for understanding and promoting the brand. Building brand loyalty is not just about repeat buying, but also about building customers emotional attachment to the brand. Global growth and diversification of tourist markets has transformed destinations from “vacation industry” concept, to “industry of experience” concept.The study performed statistical tests with a goal to analyze the factors influencing brand loyalty in Serbia: age, length of stay and daily spending. Additionally, sub-brand loyalty levels are presented (by major destinations inside Serbia, markets of origin and by major themes for travel in order to identify groups of tourists that are more loyal, and the ones that are less loyal to the destination brand of Serbia. The study results and recommendations should be used as a contribution towards designing national and regional destination marketing strategies.

  9. The idea of destination brand licensing and the question of its effectiveness

    OpenAIRE

    Michal Zemla

    2012-01-01

    Purpose – Destination branding is one of the most popular topics among tourism destinations researchers and practitioners however recent research revealed that it doesn’t have a clear concept. The purpose of presented paper is to enhance the destination branding theory by introducing some new elements taken from other popular concepts used in destination management into destination branding theory. The concept of destination brand licensing was undertaken as a response to several critical arg...

  10. The quality of tourism destination – integrated quality management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ida Vajčnerová

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the quality of tourism services. It mentions various ways of approaching quality management, such as the standards of quality, systems based on ISO standards and systems of complex quality management. It describes approaches applied in the Czech Republic and points out the difficulty keeping the quality in tourism. Tourism services are not offered individually, which is why it is necessary to assess the quality of a whole complex of services within the frame of a tourism product or a tourist destination. The level of tourists' satisfaction is not based on the quality of individual tou­rism services or a destination product but it arises from their overall impression which is formed from the hospitality of local inhabitants, the willingness of employees, the cleanness of the environment, security and so on. The presumption of maintaining the quality of a destination is a unified approach of all participants in tourism development that can be reached by various forms of cooperation. Crea­ting a strategic alliance is one of such possibilities. The main objective of the article is to introduce the European system of Integrated Quality Management (IQM and the tool for assessing the qua­li­ty in a destination “Qualitest”. The Integrated Quality Management is an approach based on the cooperation of all areas taking part in tourism development in a destination. The qua­li­ty is assessed in a complex way with respect to tourism development impacts on local inhabitants and the environment. “Qualitest” is made of 16 indexes that are focused on the quality of a destination and the quality of a product. Each index is evaluated by three indicators that asses the quality of conditions (QPCI, the quality of management (QMI and the quality of a destination performance (QPI. These indicators combine qualitative as well as quantitative values. The precondition for using “Qualitest” in our destinations is the existence of a

  11. Destination Information Management System for Tourist

    OpenAIRE

    Abdulhamid, Shafii Muhammad; Usman, Gana

    2014-01-01

    The use of information and communication technology in our day to day activities is now unavoidable. In tourism developments, destination information and management systems are used to guide visitors and provide information to both visitors and management of the tour sites. In this paper, information and navigation system was designed for tourists, taking some Niger state of Nigeria tourism destinations into account. The information management system was designed using Java Applet (NetBeans I...

  12. Destination Brand: Membangun Keunggulan Bersaing Daerah

    OpenAIRE

    Situmorang, Syafrizal Helmi

    2010-01-01

    All successful brands have social, emotional and identity value to users: they have personalities and enhance the perceived utility, desirability and quality of a product. Every country, regional or state should build destination brand for competitive advantage. A destination brand can be developed in a variety of ways, most obviously in advertising, through direct marketing, personal selling, on websites and in brochures, but also through public and media relations, and through the co-operat...

  13. Destinations matter: The association between where older adults live and their travel behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chudyk, Anna M; Winters, Meghan; Moniruzzaman, Md; Ashe, Maureen C; Gould, Joanie Sims; McKay, Heather

    2015-03-01

    also assessed participants' sociodemographic characteristics and mobility (physical function, car access, confidence walking). We used a negative binomial model to determine the association between Street Smart Walk Score and number of transportation walking trips (average per day). Our sample was comprised of 150 participants (median age 74 years; 51 men) from who we acquired at least one day of travel diary data (range = 1-7 days). Participants made three trips per day (2, 5; median P 25 , P 75 ) and travelled to six different destination types per week (5, 9; median P 25 , P 75 ). Destinations most relevant to older adults were grocery stores, malls, and restaurants/cafés. Each 10-point increase in Street Smart Walk Score was associated with a 20% increase in the number of transportation walking trips (average per day, incidence rate ratio = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.29). Our findings provide preliminary evidence regarding destinations that may be most relevant to older adults. They also suggest that the prevalence of these neighborhood destinations may encourage walking. As we approach a new era of healthy city benchmarks, our findings guide policy makers and developers to retrofit and develop communities that support the mobility, health, and independence of older adults.

  14. Youth destinations associated with objective measures of physical activity in adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cradock, Angie L; Melly, Steven J; Allen, Joseph G; Morris, Jeffrey S; Gortmaker, Steven L

    2009-09-01

    Limited availability of desirable destinations within walkable distances and unsuitable weather may adversely affect physical activity among adolescents on weekends. This study examines evidence for associations between objective measures of local environment and physical activity levels of adolescents. Students (n=152, 59% male; mean age, 13.7 years) from 10 neighborhoods with schools in four communities wore TriTrac-R3D accelerometers recording physical movements on weekends. Minute-by-minute data were summed over 15-minute intervals providing estimates of proportion of time spent in moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and (log) mean physical activity levels on weekends (n=7,506 intervals). Objective measures of neighborhood characteristics were calculated using geographic information systems including average daily traffic, housing density, open space, and density of employees per square kilometer in youth destinations. Linear mixed models were fit examining associations between neighborhood environmental variables and accelerometer measures of physical activity, controlling for time, day, age, body mass index, gender of respondent, race/ethnicity, precipitation, and temperature deviation. On weekends, the presence of greater densities of employees in neighborhood destinations serving youth (beta=3.96, p=0.050) was directly associated with MVPA, independent of student characteristics. Young people attending schools in neighborhoods characterized by greater densities of employees in destinations for youth are more physically active on weekends. Compared with neighborhoods with lower densities, attending a school in neighborhoods with higher densities of employees in potential destinations for youth may contribute to participation in an additional 30 minutes of MVPA per day on weekends.

  15. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLACE BRANDING AND DESTINATION BRANDING FOR LOCAL BRAND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor-Alexandru BRICIU

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available To highlight the principles used in the design and development of a regional brand strategy we need to identify the disciplinary and the theoretical referential that would best fit the branding approach. This paper will address the main forms of branding: place branding, location branding and destination branding, as a specialized form of destination marketing. From the theoretical point of view, by identifying the fundamental and the management brand model, the regional tourism brand concept is regarded by positioning it in the category (the most general one of place branding.

  16. Destination website quality, users’ attitudes and the willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jano Jiménez-Barreto

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose - An official destination website (ODW is a key component for tourist’s decision-making processes. ODW acts as a direct channel where users may share experiences and opinions about previous or future travels. At the same time, it drives user participation in destination branding activities. In this context, it is crucial to identify how the destination website, using Web 2.0 technologies, could motivate user’s participation with the brand. The purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate a model that posits the destination website quality as a determinant factor to predict users’ attitudes toward the website and their willingness to participate in co-creation experiences. Design/methodology/approach - Using a combined qualitative and quantitative method, this paper provides an exploratory research that examines the role of destination website quality on attitudes toward the website and the willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences. Findings - Findings confirm that there is a direct and significant relationship between website quality, attitudes toward the website and willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences. Moreover, attitudes toward the website partially mediate relationships between destination website quality and willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences. Originality/value - The literature of value co-creation is trying to identify which factors drive consumer’s participation with brands across different consumption contexts. This study provides evidence that confirms, from a tourism destination website point of view, that website quality is one of these key factors that motives user’s co-creation with a destination.

  17. Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems for tourism destination competitiveness

    OpenAIRE

    Boes, Kim; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Inversini, Alessandro

    2016-01-01

    Purpose\\ud – Grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic, the purpose of this paper is to explore the core components of smartness to present a framework for the development of the smart tourism destination.\\ud \\ud Design/methodology/approach\\ud – The paper explores the core components of smartness through case study analysis of well-established smart cities.\\ud \\ud Findings\\ud – The paper conceptualises smartness and argues ICT, leadership, innovation and social capital supported by human capit...

  18. Moderating Effects of Craftourism on Place Attachment and Destination Loyalty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arup Kumar Baksi

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Practice of traditional handicrafts play a significant role in enhancing destination attractiveness. Visitors assign considerable weightage to local craft practices to satisfy their desire to participate in the learning and production process, a case of role-reversal. Promoting this scope of role-reversal has been used by the Destination Marketing Organizations as differentiators. Craftourism has gained considerable momentum. This paper focuses on examining the moderating effects of craftourism on place attachment and destination loyalty. Dimensions of craftourism were identified by applying suitable statistical procedure. The results revealed craftourism, with option for visitors to enact role-reversal, improves the chances of destination loyalty following antecedent effects of place attachment. Keywords: craftourism, place attachment, destination loyalty, visitor, moderating

  19. Destination Memory Impairment in Older People

    OpenAIRE

    Gopie, Nigel; Craik, Fergus I. M.; Hasher, Lynn

    2010-01-01

    Older adults are assumed to have poor destination memory— knowing to whom they tell particular information—and anecdotes about them repeating stories to the same people are cited as informal evidence for this claim. Experiment 1 assessed young and older adults’ destination memory by having participants tell facts (e.g., “A dime has 118 ridges around its edge”) to pictures of famous people (e.g., Oprah Winfrey). Surprise recognition memory tests, which also assessed confidence, revealed that o...

  20. What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? A scoping review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Background Medical tourism involves patients intentionally leaving their home country to access non-emergency health care services abroad. Growth in the popularity of this practice has resulted in a significant amount of attention being given to it from researchers, policy-makers, and the media. Yet, there has been little effort to systematically synthesize what is known about the effects of this phenomenon. This article presents the findings of a scoping review examining what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. Methods Drawing on academic articles, grey literature, and media sources extracted from18 databases, we follow a widely used scoping review protocol to synthesize what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. The review design has three main stages: (1) identifying the question and relevant literature; (2) selecting the literature; and (3) charting, collating, and summarizing the data. Results The large majority of the 203 sources accepted into the review offer a perspective of medical tourism from the Global North, focusing on the flow of patients from high income nations to lower and middle income countries. This greatly shapes any discussion of the effects of medical tourism on destination and departure countries. Five interrelated themes that characterize existing discussion of the effects of this practice were extracted from the reviewed sources. These themes frame medical tourism as a: (1) user of public resources; (2) solution to health system problems; (3) revenue generating industry; (4) standard of care; and (5) source of inequity. It is observed that what is currently known about the effects of medical tourism is minimal, unreliable, geographically restricted and mostly based on speculation. Conclusions Given its positive and negative effects on the health care systems of departure and destination countries, medical tourism is a highly significant and

  1. What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? A scoping review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Snyder Jeremy

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Medical tourism involves patients intentionally leaving their home country to access non-emergency health care services abroad. Growth in the popularity of this practice has resulted in a significant amount of attention being given to it from researchers, policy-makers, and the media. Yet, there has been little effort to systematically synthesize what is known about the effects of this phenomenon. This article presents the findings of a scoping review examining what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. Methods Drawing on academic articles, grey literature, and media sources extracted from18 databases, we follow a widely used scoping review protocol to synthesize what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. The review design has three main stages: (1 identifying the question and relevant literature; (2 selecting the literature; and (3 charting, collating, and summarizing the data. Results The large majority of the 203 sources accepted into the review offer a perspective of medical tourism from the Global North, focusing on the flow of patients from high income nations to lower and middle income countries. This greatly shapes any discussion of the effects of medical tourism on destination and departure countries. Five interrelated themes that characterize existing discussion of the effects of this practice were extracted from the reviewed sources. These themes frame medical tourism as a: (1 user of public resources; (2 solution to health system problems; (3 revenue generating industry; (4 standard of care; and (5 source of inequity. It is observed that what is currently known about the effects of medical tourism is minimal, unreliable, geographically restricted and mostly based on speculation. Conclusions Given its positive and negative effects on the health care systems of departure and destination countries, medical tourism is a

  2. What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? A scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, Rory; Crooks, Valorie A; Snyder, Jeremy; Kingsbury, Paul

    2010-11-03

    Medical tourism involves patients intentionally leaving their home country to access non-emergency health care services abroad. Growth in the popularity of this practice has resulted in a significant amount of attention being given to it from researchers, policy-makers, and the media. Yet, there has been little effort to systematically synthesize what is known about the effects of this phenomenon. This article presents the findings of a scoping review examining what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. Drawing on academic articles, grey literature, and media sources extracted from18 databases, we follow a widely used scoping review protocol to synthesize what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. The review design has three main stages: (1) identifying the question and relevant literature; (2) selecting the literature; and (3) charting, collating, and summarizing the data. The large majority of the 203 sources accepted into the review offer a perspective of medical tourism from the Global North, focusing on the flow of patients from high income nations to lower and middle income countries. This greatly shapes any discussion of the effects of medical tourism on destination and departure countries. Five interrelated themes that characterize existing discussion of the effects of this practice were extracted from the reviewed sources. These themes frame medical tourism as a: (1) user of public resources; (2) solution to health system problems; (3) revenue generating industry; (4) standard of care; and (5) source of inequity. It is observed that what is currently known about the effects of medical tourism is minimal, unreliable, geographically restricted and mostly based on speculation. Given its positive and negative effects on the health care systems of departure and destination countries, medical tourism is a highly significant and contested phenomenon. This is especially

  3. Coupling mode-destination accessibility with seismic risk assessment to identify at-risk communities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, Mahalia; Baker, Jack W.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we develop a framework for coupling mode-destination accessibility with quantitative seismic risk assessment to identify communities at high risk for travel disruptions after an earthquake. Mode-destination accessibility measures the ability of people to reach destinations they desire. We use a probabilistic seismic risk assessment procedure, including a stochastic set of earthquake events, ground-motion intensity maps, damage maps, and realizations of traffic and accessibility impacts. For a case study of the San Francisco Bay Area, we couple our seismic risk framework with a practical activity-based traffic model. As a result, we quantify accessibility risk probabilistically by community and household type. We find that accessibility varies more strongly as a function of travelers' geographic location than as a function of their income class, and we identify particularly at-risk communities. We also observe that communities more conducive to local trips by foot or bike are predicted to be less impacted by losses in accessibility. This work shows the potential to link quantitative risk assessment methodologies with high-resolution travel models used by transportation planners. Quantitative risk metrics of this type should have great utility for planners working to reduce risk to a region's infrastructure systems. - Highlights: • We couple mode-destination accessibility with probabilistic seismic risk assessment. • Results identify communities at high risk for post-earthquake travel disruptions. • Accessibility varies more as a function of home location than by income. • Our model predicts reduced accessibility risk for more walking-friendly communities.

  4. Destination: Alumni Relations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scully, Maura King

    2010-01-01

    Increasingly today, with the growing and sophisticated skill set alumni professionals need to get the job done, alumni relations has become a destination career rather than a stop along the way. Modern alumni relations is "so much more than homecoming and punch-and-cookie receptions." It's marketing, volunteer management, and social networking. To…

  5. Destination memory and cognitive theory of mind in normal ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Raffard, Stéphane; Gély-Nargeot, Marie-Christine

    2016-01-01

    Destination memory is the ability to remember the destination to which a piece of information has been addressed (e.g., "Did I tell you about the promotion?"). This ability is found to be impaired in normal ageing. Our work aimed to link this deterioration to the decline in theory of mind. Forty younger adults (M age = 23.13 years, SD = 4.00) and 36 older adults (M age = 69.53 years, SD = 8.93) performed a destination memory task. They also performed the False-belief test addressing cognitive theory of mind and the Reading the mind in the eyes test addressing affective theory of mind. Results showed significant deterioration in destination memory, cognitive theory of mind and affective theory of mind in the older adults. The older adults' performance on destination memory was significantly correlated with and predicted by their performance on cognitive theory of mind. Difficulties in the ability to interpret and predict others' mental states are related to destination memory decline in older adults.

  6. Innovations and networking fostering tourist destination development in Slovakia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gajdošík Tomáš

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper focuses on the implementation of innovations and networking in the sector of tourism in two Slovak mountain destinations of international significance. The main objective of the paper is to identify and evaluate how innovations and networking contribute to tourist destination development in Slovakia. The implementation of institutional innovation resulted in the establishment of formal and informal networks. The developed networks consist of representatives of all sectors co-ordinating all relevant stakeholders. Formal and informal networks and the collaboration among stakeholders have launched other types of innovations in the tourism sector. The interactions and intensity of relations among stakeholders are analysed by network analysis. Destinations are compared with the network of the same size and density through quantitative network characteristics. Based on empirical research we investigate the impact of networks and innovations on tourist destination development. Due to the synergy effect of networking and implementation of multiple innovations, tourist destination development is observed.

  7. Interactive visual exploration and analysis of origin-destination data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Linfang; Meng, Liqiu; Yang, Jian; Krisp, Jukka M.

    2018-05-01

    In this paper, we propose a visual analytics approach for the exploration of spatiotemporal interaction patterns of massive origin-destination data. Firstly, we visually query the movement database for data at certain time windows. Secondly, we conduct interactive clustering to allow the users to select input variables/features (e.g., origins, destinations, distance, and duration) and to adjust clustering parameters (e.g. distance threshold). The agglomerative hierarchical clustering method is applied for the multivariate clustering of the origin-destination data. Thirdly, we design a parallel coordinates plot for visualizing the precomputed clusters and for further exploration of interesting clusters. Finally, we propose a gradient line rendering technique to show the spatial and directional distribution of origin-destination clusters on a map view. We implement the visual analytics approach in a web-based interactive environment and apply it to real-world floating car data from Shanghai. The experiment results show the origin/destination hotspots and their spatial interaction patterns. They also demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

  8. Effects of Films and Television Dramas on Destination Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pars Şahbaz

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is bring up the effects of films and television dramas on destination image. Image is a picture and a imagery which ia about destination and also image affects the purchase decision making. The population of the study contains domestic tourists who visited Mardin. The result of the study suggests that there is a substantive relationship between destination images and films and television dramas.

  9. Transformations in destination texture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gyimóthy, Szilvia

    2018-01-01

    This article takes heterogeographical approaches to understand Bollywood-induced destination transformations in Switzerland. Positioned within the theoretical field of mediatized mobility, the study contextualizes Bollywood-induced tourism in Europe the concept of texture. Textural analysis (base...

  10. Day-to-day origin-destination tuple estimation and prediction with hierarchical bayesian networks using multiple data sources

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ma, Y.; Kuik, R.; Van Zuylen, H.J.

    2013-01-01

    Prediction of traffic demand is essential, either for an understanding of the future traffic state or so necessary measures can be taken to alleviate congestion. Usually, an origin-destination (O-D) matrix is used to represent traffic demand between two zones in transportation planning. Vehicles are

  11. Medical Tourism Destination SWOT Analysis: A Case Study of Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India

    OpenAIRE

    Wong Kee Mun; Velasamy Peramarajan; Tengku Arshad Tengku Nuraina

    2014-01-01

    The growth of global medical tourism in the recent years had spurred the interest of many governments to join in the bandwagon, particularly from Asia. Using the SWOT analytical model, this paper provides pertinent comparative analysis of the medical tourism destinations here being Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India. Each destination possesses its own value propositions to convince the demands of medical tourists. Malaysia and Thailand have a good mixture of elements (medical, tourism an...

  12. The Commercial Open Source Business Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riehle, Dirk

    Commercial open source software projects are open source software projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software. Commercial open source at first glance represents an economic paradox: How can a firm earn money if it is making its product available for free as open source? This paper presents the core properties of com mercial open source business models and discusses how they work. Using a commercial open source approach, firms can get to market faster with a superior product at lower cost than possible for traditional competitors. The paper shows how these benefits accrue from an engaged and self-supporting user community. Lacking any prior comprehensive reference, this paper is based on an analysis of public statements by practitioners of commercial open source. It forges the various anecdotes into a coherent description of revenue generation strategies and relevant business functions.

  13. Barriers and Facilitators in the Maturity Process for Web Promotion of Italian Tourist Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Fabi

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Despite the growing importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs in the tourism domain, the opportunities offered by the web to promote tourist destinations seem to be not yet fully exploited by destination marketing organizations. This study seeks to extend the eTourism Communication Maturity Model (eTcoMM, which is based on stage models of online communication in tourism. The model focuses on identifying processes involved in tourism web marketing activities, from awareness by tourism boards to implementation. The study aims to contribute to the definition of maturity in online promotion by Italian tourism boards, identifying and discussing factors that aid and limit the transition, from awareness to implementation of strategic web marketing.

  14. What marketing strategy for destinations with a negative image?

    OpenAIRE

    Seraphin, Hugues; Gowreesunkar, Vanessa; Hugues Seraphin

    2017-01-01

    Purpose\\ud This concluding article filters out meaningful marketing strategies that aim at re-positioning and re-establishing struggling tourism destinations with negative image. Drawing from a collection of case studies around the world, the article provides evidences from post-colonial, post-conflict and post-disaster destinations to finally anchor the overall conclusion of the theme issue.\\ud \\ud Design\\ud The article summarizes key issues faced by destinations plagued with a negative imag...

  15. A NEW APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF VISITOR PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS A TOURISM DESTINATION: THE ROLE OF FOOD AND WINE EXPERIENCES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberta CAPITELLO

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The study aims to propose a new approach to analyse visitor perceptions and experiences in a tourism destination. The purpose is to discuss how the discrete choice models can contribute to the analysis of the tourism destination in the visitor experience perspective. The study pays particular attention to the role of food and wine supply in thetourism experience and the destination perception. This research deepens the theoretical approach to the analysis of visitor perceptions for a tourist urban destination. The proposed framework has been applied to the city of Verona. The findings concern an exploratory survey and the subsequent building of the causal analysis. The discrete choice model application and the development of the experimental design are discussed, in order to take the role of food and wine attractions into account. The exploratory survey identified seven relevant themes for visitors. Among them, food and wine specialties may play a relevant role in the assessment of a tourist destination. Attributes and levels have been outlined to apply the discrete choice models. A survey questionnaire has been developed to be submitted to a large sample of visitors or potential visitors of Verona. The methodological contribution of this study is the application of the discrete choice models to the study of tourism experiences. The empirical innovation consists in a different marketing perspective for an urban tourist destination, whose competitiveness is strengthened by the agrofood industry.

  16. Exploring Familiarity and Destination Choice in International Tourism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lee, G.; Tussyadiah, Iis

    2012-01-01

    tourists' characteristics and the destination choices. The results indicate that (1) teens and people in their 50s and above were interested in visiting more popular places, (2) tourists who are more familiar with Japan tended to visit less popular destinations, and (3) tourists with more travel...

  17. Critical success factors of a business tourism destination: Supply side analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Milandrie Marais; Engelina du Plessis; Melville Saayman

    2017-01-01

    Orientation: Globally, destinations offer various products and services to visitors featuring different attributes and characteristics, making each destination unique. The critical success factors (CSFs) of each of these destinations may differ, making the management process more complex. Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify the CSFs for business tourism destinations in South Africa from a supply viewpoint. Motivation for the study: Because of the importance of...

  18. Competitiveness Benchmarking of Tourist Destinations in the Czech Republic and Slovenia

    OpenAIRE

    Ricková, Karla

    2011-01-01

    This diploma thesis deals with the benchmarking method and its practical use in continuous process of destinations' competitiveness enhancement. It describes the importance of tourism for destination's development and increasing need of its management, in order to become more competitive. Revealing the key factors of success that are created by destinations' competitive advantages enables destinations to keep or even to strengthen their position on the international tourism market. The main g...

  19. PROMOTION: BRANDING TOOL FOR MACEDONIA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Violeta Milenkovska

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In times when competition between countries in the world is stronger, in order to attract as many tourists as possible, and strengthening their brand as a tourist destination, Republic of Macedonia started to build and strengthen its tourism brand. Due to the enormous competition, traditional destinations maintain and improve their brand through new innovative tourist attractions. On the contrary, the new tourist destinations strongly attack potential tourists with intention of gaining a better position on the tourist market. The subject of this paper is Macedonia as a tourist destination seen through the prism of promotional activities that Agency for promotion and support tourism in Republic of Macedonia realized in period 2009– 2012. This paper presents an action research conducted on a sample of 65 tourist stockholders (travel agencies and hotels in Macedonia in 2012. In this study it will be analyzed what other countries have undertaken regarding the aspect of promotion of their tourist product, concerning promotion of their tourist destination and what Macedonia has undertaken and should undertake regarding that aspect.

  20. The impact of factors influencing destination quality on overall customer satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ida Vajčnerová

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with problems concerning tourist destination quality and the impact of individual factors on the overall satisfaction of a customer – a visitor to a destination. The methodology is based on the evaluation of individual factors that were identified on the basis of previously conducted researches and that consider all attributes of a destination which visitors are able to evaluate on the basis of their experience and consequent satisfaction. The used data were obtained by a questionnaire surveys, the evaluation is qualitative, and the ten-degree Likert scale is used. The practical part of the paper will focus on creating a multidimensional regression model for overall customer satisfaction for evaluating individual quality factors. The objective of the paper is to identify factors that influence overall customer satisfaction the most; this will be done on the basis of the statistical importance of individual regression parameters. The analysis will be conducted for the data from the regions of Lednice-Valtice Area and Znojemsko and Podyjí; subsequently these two regions will be compared.

  1. The evolution of destination branding: A review of branding literature in tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Almeyda-Ibáñez

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Tourism is a promise and destinations communicate the credibility of that promise by means of destination brands. Branding has become a key tool for tourism destinations to make explicit the complexity of experiences to be expected by tourists visiting a destination. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of various issues associated with tourism destination branding. It brings together a wide range of debates in the generic marketing literature, places them alongside the nuances of tourism, and thereby identifies unique challenges of branding in tourism destination contexts. Finally, a case study of USP based national tourism branding campaigns in the Caribbean is presented.

  2. Tourist destination branding on social networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radenković-Šošić Bojana

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Social networks have become the modern means of communication. Intensive electronic word of mouth to mouth (eWOM leads to faster sharing of experiences, and the creation of positive and negative attitudes. On the other hand, branding of tourist destinations has become one of the most powerful resources in the implementation of marketing strategies in tourism. The aim of this study, which is based on primary research, is to examine the concept of electronic word of mouth, as well as the role of social networks in the process of branding tourist destinations.

  3. Clarifications regarding medical tourism destinations marketing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    STANCIOIU Aurelia-Felicia

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The development of new types of tourism (stand-alone, connected or components, from marketing experience, implies a broad spectrum of challenges, which, placed in a planned background, has the purpose the creation and then, the development of tourism products that correspond, at least, to consumers’ expectations. In order to optimize the new type of tourism, it is necessary to be correlated with the relevant resources of the destination, which, harmonized, can lead to the elaboration of destination marketing strategies, in this situation being the medical tourism, component of health tourism.

  4. Tourists' Transformation Experience: From Destination Architecture to Identity Formation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ye, Helen Yi; Tussyadiah, Iis

    2010-01-01

    Today’s tourists seek unique destinations that could associate with their self identity in a profound way. It is meaningful for destinations to design unique physical elements that offer transformational travel experiences. This study aims at identifying how tourists encounter architecture...... in a destination and if architecture facilitates tourists’ self transformation. Based on narrative structure analysis by deconstruction of travel blog posts, the results suggest that tourists perceive architectural landscape as an important feature that reflects destinations’ identity. Four different interaction...

  5. Gas and LNG trading hubs, hub indexation and destination flexibility in East Asia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shi, Xunpeng; Padinjare Variam, Hari Malamakkavu

    2016-01-01

    In the East Asian gas markets, issues like gas trading hubs, hub indexed pricing, and destination flexibility are being debated. This paper examines the impact of a change in East Asia's pricing benchmark and contract flexibility on the regional and global gas markets. The paper uses the Nexant World Gas Model, a linear program with global cost minimization as the objective. To our knowledge, this study on hub competition, price benchmark change and contract flexibility improvement in East Asia will be the first in the literature and have real policy relevance. The results show that both price benchmark change and contract flexibility improvements will create an overall benefit for the world and East Asia importers, but the impacts are different among exporters and importers. However, there is no evidence of competition among different benchmark hubs and no evidence that destination restrictions cause the “Asia Premium”. It implies that removal of destination clauses has higher priority than the change to hub indexation for Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei, but both should be treated equally in China. The study also suggests that East Asian importers should cooperate among themselves and with exporters to facilitate the hub creation and contract changes in East Asia. - Highlights: •Gas trading hubs in Japan and China are not mutually exclusive. •Both price benchmark changes and contract flexibility improvements are beneficial. •The “Asian Premium” is not caused by destination restriction. •Destination flexibility is much more important than hub indexation in East Asia except China. •Hub indexation is as important as destination flexibility in China due to pipeline imports.

  6. Analysis of the Competitive Environment of Tourist Destinations Aiming at Attracting FDI by Applying Porter's Five Forces Model

    OpenAIRE

    Dobrivojević, Gordana

    2013-01-01

    Aims: The aim of this article is to come to the conclusion whether Porter’s five forces model can be adjusted for the purpose of assessing competitive environment of the tourist destination, in order to attract Tourism Foreign Direct Investments (TFDI), and use it as such as an alternative method for comprehension and enhancement of competitive advantage. Study design: Research paper. Methodology: The research relies on the well-known Porter’s five forces, which the author adjusted and applie...

  7. Changing Destinations: Ideal Attraction and Actual Movement of Cross-Border Tertiary Students from Mainland China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghazarian, Peter G.

    2014-01-01

    Globalization has driven growth in the market for cross-border students. Mainland China, with a burgeoning economy and the largest national population, has become an important source of cross-border students. This study identifies ideal attraction in mainland China to destinations for cross-border tertiary education, as expressed by ideal first…

  8. [Role of context recall in destination memory decline in normal aging].

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Allain, Philippe

    2014-12-01

    Until recently, little was known about destination memory, or memory for the destination of outputted information. In the present work, this memory was evaluated in 32 older adults and 36 younger adults, who had to associate proverbs to pictures of famous people and decide, on a subsequent recognition task, whether they had previously told that proverb to that face or not. When deciding about the destination, participants had to provide contextual judgment, that is, whether each picture had been previously exposed in color or in black and white. Participants also performed a neuropsychological battery tapping episodic memory and executive functions. Findings showed poor destination recall in older participants. Destination recall in older adults was reliably predicted by with their context recall. Destination memory seems to be particularly affected by aging, a deterioration that can be related to deficits in processing contextual features during encoding.

  9. Pseudo-dynamic source modelling with 1-point and 2-point statistics of earthquake source parameters

    KAUST Repository

    Song, S. G.

    2013-12-24

    Ground motion prediction is an essential element in seismic hazard and risk analysis. Empirical ground motion prediction approaches have been widely used in the community, but efficient simulation-based ground motion prediction methods are needed to complement empirical approaches, especially in the regions with limited data constraints. Recently, dynamic rupture modelling has been successfully adopted in physics-based source and ground motion modelling, but it is still computationally demanding and many input parameters are not well constrained by observational data. Pseudo-dynamic source modelling keeps the form of kinematic modelling with its computational efficiency, but also tries to emulate the physics of source process. In this paper, we develop a statistical framework that governs the finite-fault rupture process with 1-point and 2-point statistics of source parameters in order to quantify the variability of finite source models for future scenario events. We test this method by extracting 1-point and 2-point statistics from dynamically derived source models and simulating a number of rupture scenarios, given target 1-point and 2-point statistics. We propose a new rupture model generator for stochastic source modelling with the covariance matrix constructed from target 2-point statistics, that is, auto- and cross-correlations. Our sensitivity analysis of near-source ground motions to 1-point and 2-point statistics of source parameters provides insights into relations between statistical rupture properties and ground motions. We observe that larger standard deviation and stronger correlation produce stronger peak ground motions in general. The proposed new source modelling approach will contribute to understanding the effect of earthquake source on near-source ground motion characteristics in a more quantitative and systematic way.

  10. The Effect of the Cultural Values on the Destination Image: A Search in Eskisehir 2013 Turkish World Capital of Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Özlem Köroğlu

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available As the destination images being dynamic and changeable, continuous researches should be conducted in order to measure and progress the images in the context of tourism marketing. The aim of this study is to analyze the tourists’ characters and behaviors who direct through the cultural destinations and to determine the relationship between the visitors’ perceptions of cultural values and destination image. Based on this purpose, a questionnaire was held on the foreign cullture tourist who visited Eskisehir, chosen as the 2013 Turkish World Capital of Culture. The data obtained were evaluated using analysis methods such as frequency, arithmetic mean, reliability, regression, independent samples t-test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA. The results obtain from these analysis have shown that many of the participants have used internet as a source of information and travelled to explore new cultures. On the one hand the most affecting cultural values of the destination image was emotional values.

  11. Derivative interactions and perturbative UV contributions in N Higgs doublet models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kikuta, Yohei [KEK Theory Center, KEK, Tsukuba (Japan); The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Department of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Tsukuba (Japan); Yamamoto, Yasuhiro [Universidad de Granada, Deportamento de Fisica Teorica y del Cosmos, Facultad de Ciencias and CAFPE, Granada (Spain)

    2016-05-15

    We study the Higgs derivative interactions on models including arbitrary number of the Higgs doublets. These interactions are generated by two ways. One is higher order corrections of composite Higgs models, and the other is integration of heavy scalars and vectors. In the latter case, three point couplings between the Higgs doublets and these heavy states are the sources of the derivative interactions. Their representations are constrained to couple with the doublets. We explicitly calculate all derivative interactions generated by integrating out. Their degrees of freedom and conditions to impose the custodial symmetry are discussed. We also study the vector boson scattering processes with a couple of two Higgs doublet models to see experimental signals of the derivative interactions. They are differently affected by each heavy field. (orig.)

  12. Designing Promotion Strategy of Malang Raya’s Tourism Destination Branding through Audio Visual Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chanira Nuansa

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the suitability concept of destination branding with existing models of Malang tourism promotion. This research is qualitative by taking the data directly in the form of existing promotional models of Malang, namely: information portal sites, blogs, social networking, and video via the Internet. This study used SWOT analysis to find strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on existing models of the tourism promotion. The data is analyzed based on destination branding’s concept indicators. Results of analysis are used as a basis in designing solutions for Malang tourism promotion through a new integrated tourism advertising model. Through the analysis we found that video is the most suitable media that used to promote Malang tourism in the form of advertisements. Videos are able to show the objectivity of the fact that intact better through audio-visual form, making it easier to associate the viewer thoughts on the phenomenon of destination. Moreover, video creation of Malang tourism as well as conceptualized ad is still rare. This is an opportunity, because later models of audio-visual advertisements made of this study is expected to be an example for concerned parties to conceptualize the next Malang tourism advertising.Keywords: Advertise, SWOT Analysis, Malang City, tourism promotion

  13. Promoting tourism destinations: A strategic marketing approach

    OpenAIRE

    Soteriades, Marios D.; Avgeli, Vasiliki A.

    2007-01-01

    This paper provides an outline of principal marketing strategy issues and their application in promoting tourism destinations. It provides an overview of a report prepared for the Tourism Promotion Committee (T.P.C.) of Heraklion District, Crete. In the context of the tourist industry, the ‘product’ is an experience achieved through the combination of a diverse range of products and services. Nowadays tourism destinations face new and increasing marketing challenges arising from changing tour...

  14. Marketing of adventure tourism destination in Nepal

    OpenAIRE

    Baral, Nirajan

    2016-01-01

    Adventure tourism is one of the key factors of the Nepalese tourism industry. The main aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to clarify the current situation and challenges for developing adventure tourism in Nepal and to evaluate the importance of appropriate marketing strategies. The thesis also focuses on promoting adventure tourism activities and rural tourism destinations. The objective of the thesis was to explore Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve as an adventure tourism destination at internationa...

  15. The perception of destination competitiveness by tourists

    OpenAIRE

    Amaya-Molinar, Carlos Mario; Sosa-Ferreira, Ana Pricila; Ochoa-Llamas, Ileana; Moncada-Jiménez, Pedro

    2017-01-01

    Based on a review of the academic literature this study identifies some of the most frequently mentioned factors and indicators in the field of a tourist destination competitiveness to design a survey subsequently conducted among tourists in Cancun, México. An exploratory factor analysis was performed with the collected data; the result was the reduction from twelve competitiveness factors most commonly mentioned in academic literature to five: Destination marketing and attractions, Destinati...

  16. Going Round in Circles: Mobility, Destination and Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan Clarke

    2011-10-01

    how their uniqueness derives from what the ‘Service-dominant (S-D logic’ (Vargo and Lush, 2004; Vargo and Morgan, 2005; Vargo and Lush 2006 would call value co-creation. Hyde and Laesser (2008 emphasised the important role of transport in the tourist decision-making process associated with destination choice behaviour but it is necessary to move beyond this construction of the interconnections (Andersson, 2007. These elements of transport were generally considered to be “goods” or “products” including both tangible and intangible factors. Physical goods become one element among others in a total service offering, from an exhibition to a living performance or a concert and transportation has become an integral part of that experience if not of the offer.

  17. Going round in circles: mobility, destination and experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan Clarke

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the changing approaches to transport in urban tourism as seen through the move from functional sectoral accounts towards a perspective informed by the experience economy. By reviewing the traditional service offers, it is possible to unpack what lies within the service dominant logics that lead to co-creation of value and the realisation of quality tourism experiences. The paper then considers the adoption and adaptation of traditional forms of transport within the value proposition in urban tourism. Mobility in tourism is a strangely new focus of attention, strangely because without it there would be no tourism to speak of. However mobility requires a framework of civil and legal entitlements that allow people to move and a transport infrastructure that allows those rights to be realised in both working and leisure time situations. This article will address the construction of the tourism transport infrastructure by examining the ways in which the transportation elements in mobility have been re-thought within tourism. The first part of the paper will re-construct an account of transport and mobility which deals with it in terms of the functions and logistics of delivery, both between points of origin and destinations, and within destinations. These perspectives can be seen in the texts which shape the basic tourism curriculum and explain how tourism and transport have developed over the years by integrating the opportunities provided by the new technologies – motorised vehicles (both cars and coaches, trains, ships and aeroplanes – to allow for the development of a range of destinations. Lumsdon and Page (2004 introduced a new approach to transport and tourism by distinguishing between transport for tourism and transport as tourism, which provides a linkage between the first and second parts of this article. The second part will develop an account of mobility in tourism that demonstrates how their uniqueness derives

  18. Weather is not significantly correlated with destination-specific transport-related physical activity among adults: A large-scale temporally matched analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durand, Casey P; Zhang, Kai; Salvo, Deborah

    2017-08-01

    Weather is an element of the natural environment that could have a significant effect on physical activity. Existing research, however, indicates only modest correlations between measures of weather and physical activity. This prior work has been limited by a failure to use time-matched weather and physical activity data, or has not adequately examined the different domains of physical activity (transport, leisure, occupational, etc.). Our objective was to identify the correlation between weather variables and destination-specific transport-related physical activity in adults. Data were sourced from the California Household Travel Survey, collected in 2012-3. Weather variables included: relative humidity, temperature, wind speed, and precipitation. Transport-related physical activity (walking) was sourced from participant-recorded travel diaries. Three-part hurdle models were used to analyze the data. Results indicate statistically or substantively insignificant correlations between the weather variables and transport-related physical activity for all destination types. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that transport-related physical activity may occur relatively independently of weather conditions. The knowledge that weather conditions do not seem to be a significant barrier to this domain of activity may potentially expand the universe of geographic locations that are amenable to environmental and programmatic interventions to increase transport-related walking. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Destination Motivation, Cultural Orientation, and Adaptation: International Students' Destination-Loyalty Intention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamaludin, Nor Lelawati; Sam, David Lackland; Sandal, Gro Mjeldheim

    2018-01-01

    This study aims to understand factors predicting destination-loyalty intention in international education. A sample of 378 long-term (n = 195) and short-term (n = 183) international students participated in the study carried out in 2014 through an on-line survey at the University of Bergen, Norway. Using a series of hierarchical regression…

  20. Virtual Community Based Destination Marketing with YouTube

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sambhanthan, Arunasalam; Thelijjagoda, Samantha; Good, Alice

    2016-01-01

    YouTube has now evolved into a powerful medium for social interaction. Utilizing YouTube for enhancing marketing endeavours is a strategy practiced by marketing professionals across several industries. This paper rationalizes on the different strategies of leveraging YouTube-based platforms...... for effective destination marketing by the hospitality industry (hotels) and provides insights on the critical drivers and challenges embedded within YouTube-based community interactions for destination marketing. The comments made by YouTube users have been subjected to a content analysis and the results...... are reported under the five broad clusters of virtual communities. More broadly, the typology of virtual communities is adapted to evaluate the YouTube platform for effective destination marketing....

  1. Hotel water consumption at a seasonal mass tourist destination. The case of the island of Mallorca.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deyà Tortella, Bartolomé; Tirado, Dolores

    2011-10-01

    While it is true that tourism is one of the main driving forces behind economic growth in several world regions, it is also true that tourism can have serious negative environmental impacts, especially with regard to water resources. The tourist water demand can generate big problems of sustainability, mainly in those regions where water is scarce, as occurs in most coastal and small island destinations where a large part of world tourism is concentrated. Given the shortage of literature on the subject, further research into the tourist water demand is required, with particular attention to the hotel sector, since hotels are the most popular option for tourists, displaying higher levels of water consumption. The main purpose of this study is to develop a model to analyse hotel water consumption at a mature sun and sand destination with a strong seasonal pattern and scarcity of water; characteristics shared by some of the world's main tourist destinations. Our model includes a set of different hotel variables associated with physical, seasonal and management-related factors and it improves on the capacity to explain water consumption at such destinations. Following a hierarchical regression methodology, the model is empirically tested through a survey distributed to managers of a representative sample of hotels on the island of Mallorca. From the obtained results, interesting recommendations can be made for both hotel managers and policy makers. Among these, it should be highlighted that the strategic move contemplated by many mature destinations towards a higher quality, low-season model could have significant negative effects in terms of the sustainability of water resources. Our results also conclude that managerial decisions, like the system of accommodation that is offered (i.e. the proliferation of the "all-inclusive" formula, both at mature and new destinations), could give rise to the same negative effect. Development of water saving initiatives (usually

  2. Drivers of the formation of e-loyalty towards tourism destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Parra-Lopez

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the drivers of the formation of e-loyalty in a tourist destination, providing a model composed of variables that are under the control of the firm along with others that are not fully controllable by professionals. Design/methodology/approach - The study was carried out with a sample of 497 subjects, university students and online consumers, and with the use of structural equations (partial least squares. Findings - Results show that young people give a high valuation to all the variables used in the research. These results contribute to the literature on e-loyalty in tourism destinations and improve tourism loyalty in this population segment. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of this research has been related to the number of variables and measurement indicators that, according to the literature review, influence e-loyalty. Finally, a balanced and statistically significant model has been developed that has practical utility and analyzes online purchase of tourism products from a process perspective that includes variables that are internal and external to the firm. Practical implications - The study suggests that young people have a favourable attitude and predisposition towards e-commerce, which, in turn, favours firms’ efforts to promote consumption and loyalty within the framework of the model’s variables. Originality/value - This research paper has important value by analysing the initiating variables to determine how e-loyalty can be managed in tourist destinations, in addition to analysing an important segment for future tourism development.

  3. Real option valuation of free destination in long-term liquefied natural gas supplies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yepes Rodriguez, Ramon

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents a real option model for the valuation of destination flexibility in long-term LNG supplies. Stochastic price dynamics in the different markets is modelled through geometric Brownian motion processes. Mean reversion is considered as well as correlation between markets, but instead of the usual correlation in return shocks, a price convergence term is introduced representing the arbitrage streams between markets. Model parameters are estimated from market data on LNG prices by maximum log-likelihood. The goodness of the fit for the proposed model is tested as well as for two alternative models. Confidence intervals for the parameters are given. Results for the model are calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. Frequency distributions for the main results are plotted. The effect of the main parameters of the model is studied (i.e. price volatilities, price convergence, initial prices in the markets, mean reversion, extra transportation costs, number of alternative markets). The value of destination flexibility is found to be an important share of the value of LNG

  4. Predictors of trips to food destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kerr Jacqueline

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Food environment studies have focused on ethnic and income disparities in food access. Few studies have investigated distance travelled for food and did not aim to inform the geographic scales at which to study the relationship between food environments and obesity. Further, studies have not considered neighborhood design as a predictor of food purchasing behavior. Methods Atlanta residents (N = 4800 who completed a travel diary and reported purchasing or consuming food at one of five food locations were included in the analyses. A total of 11,995 food-related trips were reported. Using mixed modeling to adjust for clustering of trips by participants and households, person-level variables (e.g. demographics, neighborhood-level urban form measures, created in GIS, and trip characteristics (e.g. time of day, origin and destination were investigated as correlates of distance travelled for food and frequency of grocery store and fast food outlet trips. Results Mean travel distance for food ranged from 4.5 miles for coffee shops to 6.3 miles for superstores. Type of store, urban form, type of tour, day of the week and ethnicity were all significantly related to distance travelled for food. Origin and destination environment, type of tour, day of week, age, gender, income, ethnicity, vehicle access and obesity status were all significantly related to visiting a grocery store. Home neighborhood environment, day of week, type of tour, gender, income, education level, age, and obesity status were all significantly related to likelihood of visiting a fastfood outlet. Conclusions The present study demonstrated that people travel sizeable distances for food and this distance is related to urban. Results suggest that researchers need to employ different methods to characterize food environments than have been used to assess urban form in studies of physical activity. Food is most often purchased while traveling from locations other

  5. Competitiveness of Serbia as a tourist destination: Analysis of selected key indicators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Popesku Jovan

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available To achieve the favourable competitiveness position, tourist destination has to offer quality experiences to tourists that can make the destination more attractive compared to other tourist destinations. The role of destination management is to exploit and develop existing resources by using clear and effective strategies for developing tourism products and creating additional value of tourist experience. The first step of analysis is to define destination competitiveness by using the indicators which will review and give the guidelines for improvement of competitive position. This paper discusses the tourist destinations' competitiveness and indicators for its measurement with a special reference to Serbia. Tourism development of Serbia is a big chance for overall economic development of the country. Current competitive position of Serbian tourism on international market is not satisfactory and this paper is trying to analyze and to point out the reasons of Serbia's tourism low competitiveness. Conclusions about the competitive positioning of Serbia as a tourist destination are drawn out firstly based on the relevant studies as well as on the Serbian Tourism Development Strategy. The results of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (WEF TTCI reports for Serbia are also presented. Based on own research, this paper is also showing the results related to competitiveness of Serbia as a tourist destination in terms of two groups of indicators: natural, cultural and historical resources as well as destination management. According to the results, Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and historical resources comparing to the role of destination management.

  6. PROMOTING TOURIST DESTINATIONS THROUGH SPORT EVENTS. THE CASE OF BRAŞOV

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adina Nicoleta CANDREA

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Sport event tourism is a huge and growing global industry with important economic implications for both the sport, the event and the impact of travel and tourism related benefits on host destinations. A primary function of a sport event is to provide the host community with an opportunity to secure high prominence in the tourism market place. However, international or regional prominence may be gained with significant social and environmental costs. Hosting sport events has been a focus of destination marketers as a strategy to enhance its destination image and differentiate its tourism products. Communities are attracted to hosting sport events to draw marketing benefits that will contribute to the success of the destination in the long run by creating awareness, improving their image with visitors and attracting tourism business to generate future inbound travel. As such, destination images can be influenced by the hosting of a sport event and the attributes associated with this event. The purpose of this paper is to outline the role of sport event tourism in the promotion of tourist destinations. A case study has been chosen in order to illustrate the interdependence between event and destination marketing: Braşov, hosting the winter edition of The European Youth Olympic Festival in 2013. The paper includes a series of recommendations for destination managers in order to maximise the benefits of this event and take this opportunity to promote Braşov on the international market.

  7. Komparasi Destination Branding dalam Official Website Negara Singapura-Malaysia-Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryan Pratama Sutanto

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available High profit income has attracted South Asian countries to compete in the fields of tourism marketing. Destination branding as a differentiating factor is an alternative approach in marketing communication. The purpose of this research is to make a comparison study of destination branding application in Singapore's, Malaysia's and Indonesia's tourism official websites. Destination branding in websites as part of promotion campaigns is a strategy used by each country to promote tourism to consumers worldwide. This research uses qualitative method, and involves experts in the fields of Information Technology (IT and Visual Communication Design. Each website's elements contributes in the success of a country's destination branding and influences its brand image.

  8. Taking stock of the New Nordic Cuisine at Danish coastal destinations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Therkelsen, Anette

    2016-01-01

    This paper deals with coastal tourists’ food experiences and focuses on the potentials and challenges the New Nordic Cuisine (NNC) concept holds in relation to German tourists visiting Danish coastal destinations. By means of a conceptual model, the characteristics of the NNC are related to schol...

  9. THE BRAND EQUITY OF TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS - THE MEANING OF THE VALUE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silaghi Simona

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available In today's global economy, each place competes with other places for economic benefits. Destination has become a product that has to be promoted and sold in the most advantageous terms. The work bellow is an analysis of "brand equity" concept for touristic destinations, as found in the specific literature. Destination brands differ from product brands, major distinction being given by their stability/ instability. Brands of products are stable; this constant is maintained by the use of quality standards. Even in case of services, situation can be controlled, as quality standards could be perpetuated by a franchise system. Destinations are not depending on a single person, who decides, but a variety of them, economic agents, businesses, institutions and local population that can create/print form and structure changes of the destination. The concept de brand equity applied for touristic destinations, is something relatively recent. The dimensions of a brand for touristic destinations are: awareness, image, loyalty, quality and value. All these dimensions build the branding equity of a destination. There is interdependency, between quality, image, loyalty and value. In order to determine the perception in regards to the quality of tourism services in Romania, in 2010 a comprehensive study was done among the inhabitants of Oradea city. Through this study we have pursued several objectives: to assess the importance of service characteristics, performance evaluation of tourism services in Romania, tourism personnel evaluation, in terms of evaluation and performance, perception of the quality-price ratio for Romania, compared with other tourist destinations. We call on the exploratory study conducted, as the value of the dimension- destination of the brand equity is given by the price-quality ratio. Using an explorative study on the market of Oradea city, it was highlighted the connection between perception of touristic services, estimation price

  10. Komparasi Destination Branding dalam Official Website Negara Singapura-Malaysia-Indonesia

    OpenAIRE

    Ryan Pratama Sutanto; Listia Natadjaja; Erandaru .

    2010-01-01

    High profit income has attracted South Asian countries to compete in the fields of tourism marketing. Destination branding as a differentiating factor is an alternative approach in marketing communication. The purpose of this research is to make a comparison study of destination branding application in Singapore's, Malaysia's and Indonesia's tourism official websites. Destination branding in websites as part of promotion campaigns is a strategy used by each country to promote tourism to consu...

  11. Sochi Market Analysis as a Health Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadezhda K. Serdyukova

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The article considers major characteristics of Sochi market as a health tourism destination, analyses the structure of resort collective accommodation facilities, dynamics of tourist flows and their structure, prevailing kinds of tourism and estimates tourist flows of health tourism in Sochi in 2008-2012. The authors indicate major characteristics and trends of Sochi tourist market development and the prospects of Sochi development as a health tourism destination. The percent of health tourist flow in the general tourist flow of Sochi and the percent of domestic tourist flow in the sector of collective accommodation facilities are estimated. The authors came to the conclusion that to develop tourism in Sochi in post-Games period, it is necessary to promote Sochi as a health tourism destination.

  12. WASTES: a waste management logistics/economics model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McNair, G.W.; Shay, M.R.; Fletcher, J.F.; Cashwell, J.W.

    1985-02-01

    The WASTES model simulates a user defined system for nuclear waste transportation and storage at both temporary and long-term storage facilities. The model is written in FORTRAN 77 as an extension to the SLAM commercial simulation package (Pritsker and Pegden 1979). SLAM (Simulation Language for Alternative Modeling) is utilized in a discrete event mode to model the passage of spent fuel through the system. The system is initiated with individual reactor discharges of spent fuel as described in the reactor discharge data file or as supplied by the user. The reactor discharge file contains deterministic information on the date (year/month) and quantity of spent fuel discharges. From this point, the model is controlled by a combination of source originated and destination originated transfers. Source driven transfers occur when a reactor pool violates the full core reserve (FCR) storage margin or when the reactor is decommissioned. At these times, the source reactor checks destination facilities to see if they can accept material. A dry storage facility is assumed to exist for each reactor and is allowed to grow as necessary to contain spent fuel which cannot be shipped to any other facility. In this way the FCR margin is always maintained. Destination driven transfers occur when the annual capacity of a facility will not be met by full core reserve or decommissioning shipments. An attempt is made at the end of each calendar year to schedule enough shipments of spent fuel from facilities with non-critical storage capacity to fill the annual capacity of each destination facility. Allowable facility types are reprocessing plants, federal interim storage (FIS), monitored retrievable storage (MRS), and repositories. The number, capacities, location and priority for receipt of spent fuel is user specified. This report describes in detail the waste generating model, the waste facilities model, the transportation model and the basic transportation scheme

  13. Measuring the Quality of the Lakeside Tourist Destinations: Case Study of Lake Palić and Lake Srebrno (Serbia)

    OpenAIRE

    Jelica J. MARKOVIĆ; Dragoslav J. PAVIĆ; Minucsér M. MÉSZAROS; Marko D. PETROVIĆ

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to determine the dimensions of the lakeside tourist destinations quality through the cases of Lake Palić and Lake Srebrno (Serbia), by interviewing daily visitors and tourists and to determine which dimensions of quality have a crucial impact on the overall satisfaction of daily visitors and tourists. Various models have been developed to measure quality. In this paper, the quality is measured by the model that is appropriate for lakeside tourist destinations, dev...

  14. The Branding of Kharkov City as a Tourist Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danko Nataliya I.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available On the basis of analyzing publications and documents of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, the authors clarified the concept of «tourist destination»; considered and clarified the concept of «brand of the tourist destination»; suggested the mechanism for development of the brand of the tourist destination. The existing brand of Kharkiv – «Kharkiv – smart city» – has been analyzed and it was concluded that this brand is promising and successful for educational tourism, for attracting foreign students and scholars – connoisseurs of new technologies and science fiction. The direction of further work on the brand of Kharkiv city as a tourist destination is to enhance the already existing brand «Kharkiv – smart city» by introducing a set of marketing communications, aggressive advertising campaign in Ukrainian and international media and travel exhibitions. Besides, it is considered to be promising to design brands intended for other target segments of consumers – «Kharkiv – historic city», «Kharkiv – sport city», etc., which will lead to a synergistic effect in the tourism industry of Kharkiv. Prospects for further research in this direction are studying new strategic directions of development of Kharkiv city as a tourist destination

  15. DIFFERENT PERCEPTIONS ABOUT TOURIST IDENTITY IN THE DANUBE GATE DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    SABINA GHEORGHECI

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Thus, uncontrollable elements such as nice weather, nature/scenery, accessibility, transformed into controllable elements such as pleasant environment, relaxing atmosphere, infrastructure, can create a favourable artistic image that would determine the tourist to pick the destination. Uncontrollable elements such as local culture, diversity of sport activities, of restaurant, cafes etc. that can increase the value of a destination, transformed into controllable elements such as historical sites, events (cultural activities, festivals etc. form an environment where “there are plenty of things to do” and can create a favourable psychological image that will make the tourist return to this destination. The transformation of these attributes into advantages for the tourist, so that a destination can be differentiated, takes places within a positioning strategy.

  16. A Common Probe Design for Multiple Planetary Destinations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, H. H.; Allen, G. A., Jr.; Alunni, A. I.; Amato, M. J.; Atkinson, D. H.; Bienstock, B. J.; Cruz, J. R.; Dillman, R. A.; Cianciolo, A. D.; Elliott, J. O.; hide

    2018-01-01

    vectors from the interplanetary trajectories. Aeroheating correlations were used to generate stagnation point convective and radiative heat flux profiles for several aeroshell shapes and entry masses. High fidelity thermal response models for various Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials were used to size stagnation-point thicknesses, with margins based on previous studies. Backshell TPS masses were assumed based on scaled heat fluxes from the heatshield and also from previous mission concepts. Presentation: We will present an overview of the study scope, highlights of the trade studies and design driver analyses, and the final recommendations of a common probe design and assembly. We will also indicate limitations that the common probe design may have for the different destinations. Finally, recommended qualification approaches for missions will be presented.

  17. Lower Bounds on the Capacity of the Relay Channel with States at the Source

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdellatif Zaidi

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider a state-dependent three-terminal full-duplex relay channel with the channel states noncausally available at only the source, that is, neither at the relay nor at the destination. This model has application to cooperation over certain wireless channels with asymmetric cognition capabilities and cognitive interference relay channels. We establish lower bounds on the channel capacity for both discrete memoryless (DM and Gaussian cases. For the DM case, the coding scheme for the lower bound uses techniques of rate-splitting at the source, decode-and-forward (DF relaying, and a Gel'fand-Pinsker-like binning scheme. In this coding scheme, the relay decodes only partially the information sent by the source. Due to the rate-splitting, this lower bound is better than the one obtained by assuming that the relay decodes all the information from the source, that is, full-DF. For the Gaussian case, we consider channel models in which each of the relay node and the destination node experiences on its link an additive Gaussian outside interference. We first focus on the case in which the links to the relay and to the destination are corrupted by the same interference; and then we focus on the case of independent interferences. We also discuss a model with correlated interferences. For each of the first two models, we establish a lower bound on the channel capacity. The coding schemes for the lower bounds use techniques of dirty paper coding or carbon copying onto dirty paper, interference reduction at the source and decode-and-forward relaying. The results reveal that, by opposition to carbon copying onto dirty paper and its root Costa's initial dirty paper coding (DPC, it may be beneficial in our setup that the informed source uses a part of its power to partially cancel the effect of the interference so that the uninformed relay benefits from this cancellation, and so the source benefits in turn.

  18. Destination Characteristics that Drive Hotel Performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Assaf, A. George; Josiassen, Alexander; Woo, Linda

    2017-01-01

    , government support, disposable income, and number of international arrivals within a tourism destination. Results indicate that the most important barriers to hotel performance are the competition among accommodation providers, tax rate and fuel price. We argue for the need for hotel providers to develop......The increased market saturation and competition in both domestic and international tourism destinations have renewed interest among hotel operators in identifying the key drivers of hotel performance. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of hotel performance...... strategies that take cognisance of the key drivers and barriers to enhancing hotel performance in an ever-changing global tourism sector....

  19. Destination memory in Alzheimer's Disease: when I imagine telling Ronald Reagan about Paris.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Postal, Virginie; Allain, Philippe

    2013-01-01

    Destination memory refers to remembering the destination of information that people output. This present paper establishes a new distinction between external and internal processes within this memory system for both normal aging and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Young adults, older adults, and mild AD patients were asked either to tell facts (i.e., external destination memory condition) or to imagine telling facts (i.e., internal destination memory condition) to pictures of famous people. The experiment established three major findings. First, the destination memory performance of the AD patients was significantly poorer than that of older adults, which in turn was poorer than that of the young adults. Furthermore, internal destination processes were more prone to being forgotten than external destination memory processes. In other words, participants had more difficulty in remembering whether they had previously imagined telling the facts to the pictures or not (i.e., imagined condition) than in remembering whether they had previously told the facts to the pictures or not (i.e., enacted condition). Second, significant correlations were detected between performances on destination memory and several executive measures such as the Stroop, the Plus-Minus and the Binding tasks. Third, among the executive measures, regression analyses showed that performance on the Stroop task was a main factor in explaining variance in destination memory performance. Our findings reflect the difficulty in remembering the destination of internally generated information. They also demonstrate the involvement of inhibitory processes in destination memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Fecal-orally transmitted diseases among travelers are decreasing due to better hygienic standards at travel destination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baaten, Gijs G; Sonder, Gerard J B; Van Der Loeff, Maarten F Schim; Coutinho, Roel A; Van Den Hoek, Anneke

    2010-01-01

    To evaluate whether changes in attack rates of fecal-orally transmitted diseases among travelers are related to changes in pretravel vaccination practices or better hygienic standards at travel destination. National surveillance data on all laboratory-confirmed cases of travel-related hepatitis A, shigellosis, and typhoid fever diagnosed in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2006 were matched with the number of Dutch travelers to developing countries to calculate region-specific annual attack rates. Trends in attack rates of non-vaccine-preventable shigellosis were compared with those of vaccine-preventable hepatitis A and typhoid fever. Trends were also compared with three markers for hygienic standards of the local population at travel destinations, drawn from the United Nations Development Programme database: the human development index, the sanitation index, and the water source index. Attack rates among Dutch travelers to developing regions declined for hepatitis A, shigellosis, and typhoid fever. Region-specific trends in attack rates of shigellosis resembled trends of hepatitis A and typhoid fever. Declining attack rates of the three fecal-orally transmitted diseases correlated with improvements in socioeconomic, sanitary, and water supply conditions of the local population at travel destination. These findings suggest that improved hygienic standards at travel destination strongly contributed to the overall decline in attack rates of fecal-orally transmitted diseases among visiting travelers. © 2010 International Society of Travel Medicine.

  1. Re-motivation in tourist destinations, redistribution and power

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Díaz Domínguez

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Tourist destinations are constantly required to renew their products, services and projected image. This is possible, among other processes, through business innovation and co-management between tour operators and administrations in order to reach markets. This paper focusses on case studies of two specialised agrotourism businesses located in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, and shows how innovation in products is limited when tour operators also come to control the supply of small and medium-sized companies, at least in destinations where mass tourism predominate. Here remotivation is presented as a means of providing the tourist with local supply in the destination in a way that allows it to stand out, aid the creation of local businesses and products, enrich the tourist experience and redistribute the profits of tourism across the area.

  2. YouTube's Role in Destination Image Creation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hrvoje Jakopović

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Contemporary promotion of tourist destinations represents a challenge and gives rise to many questions in a regard to numerous ways of communicating and transferring information. With concern to modern communication practices in society and due to fast-paced lifestyle, individuals are looking for information online and are making decisions based on available Internet data. Attracting tourists through traditional promotional techniques such as brochures, leaflets, printed guidebooks, fairs and festivals are unsufficient with a respect to the rising number of online users. Promotion of tourism is based on destination image which is created through direct or mediated experience and projected on the minds of individuals. It is greatly dependent on available information mostly visual. YouTube is a popular video sharing site that counts over one billion users. It gives open access to a great number of videos and therefore could have an important role in promoting tourist destinations. The website was firstly used for non-commercial purposes but today it is very attractive for advertisers. The author examines phenomena of YouTube and its potential for destination image creation. The aim of this article is to give an insight on characteristics of promotional videos used for tourism and to explore how various national and local tourist boards can use them on YouTube. The author identifies the public relations profession’s role in creation of promotional audio-visual material.

  3. Xiphoid Process-Derived Chondrocytes: A Novel Cell Source for Elastic Cartilage Regeneration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nam, Seungwoo; Cho, Wheemoon; Cho, Hyunji; Lee, Jungsun

    2014-01-01

    Reconstruction of elastic cartilage requires a source of chondrocytes that display a reliable differentiation tendency. Predetermined tissue progenitor cells are ideal candidates for meeting this need; however, it is difficult to obtain donor elastic cartilage tissue because most elastic cartilage serves important functions or forms external structures, making these tissues indispensable. We found vestigial cartilage tissue in xiphoid processes and characterized it as hyaline cartilage in the proximal region and elastic cartilage in the distal region. Xiphoid process-derived chondrocytes (XCs) showed superb in vitro expansion ability based on colony-forming unit fibroblast assays, cell yield, and cumulative cell growth. On induction of differentiation into mesenchymal lineages, XCs showed a strong tendency toward chondrogenic differentiation. An examination of the tissue-specific regeneration capacity of XCs in a subcutaneous-transplantation model and autologous chondrocyte implantation model confirmed reliable regeneration of elastic cartilage regardless of the implantation environment. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that xiphoid process cartilage, the only elastic cartilage tissue source that can be obtained without destroying external shape or function, is a source of elastic chondrocytes that show superb in vitro expansion and reliable differentiation capacity. These findings indicate that XCs could be a valuable cell source for reconstruction of elastic cartilage. PMID:25205841

  4. Bridging knowledge capital with tourism destination stakeholders

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    d'Ambrosio, Luigi; Madsen, Jan Halberg; Wejrum, Lone Møller

    2015-01-01

    Backgorund: - The background of this paper is a student initiated study trip to the area of Campi Flegrei (Italy) in April 2014. The authors of this paper participated as lecturers and arranged meetings with a variety of tourism- and hospitality organizations operating in the destination. Through...... with their own research including data collection under the supervision of the lecturers. Methods/data: - The methodology of this study is based on a qualitative investigation of local tourism and hospitality stakeholders that operate in the destination collected by lecturers/researchers and students through...

  5. Destination visual image and expectation of experiences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ye, H.; Tussyadiah, Iis

    2011-01-01

    A unique experience is the essence of tourism sought by tourists. The most effective way to communicate the notion of a tourism experience at a destination is to provide visual cues that stimulate the imagination and connect with potential tourists in a personal way. This study aims...... at understanding how a visual image is relevant to the expectation of experiences by deconstructing images of a destination and interpreting visitors' perceptions of these images and the experiences associated with them. The results suggest that tourists with different understandings of desirable experiences found...

  6. Tourism destination development in Thailand

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pongajarn, Chalermpat

    2017-01-01

    Informed by actor-network theory (ANT), this research aims at improving understanding of the nature of tourism destinations in Thailand and their development by investigating through three main notions: ordering, materiality and multiplicity. These notions enabled to study how tourism

  7. Density, Destinations or Both? A Comparison of Measures of Walkability in Relation to Transportation Behaviors, Obesity and Diabetes in Toronto, Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glazier, Richard H.; Creatore, Maria I.; Weyman, Jonathan T.; Fazli, Ghazal; Matheson, Flora I.; Gozdyra, Peter; Moineddin, Rahim; Shriqui, Vered Kaufman; Booth, Gillian L.

    2014-01-01

    The design of suburban communities encourages car dependency and discourages walking, characteristics that have been implicated in the rise of obesity. Walkability measures have been developed to capture these features of urban built environments. Our objective was to examine the individual and combined associations of residential density and the presence of walkable destinations, two of the most commonly used and potentially modifiable components of walkability measures, with transportation, overweight, obesity, and diabetes. We examined associations between a previously published walkability measure and transportation behaviors and health outcomes in Toronto, Canada, a city of 2.6 million people in 2011. Data sources included the Canada census, a transportation survey, a national health survey and a validated administrative diabetes database. We depicted interactions between residential density and the availability of walkable destinations graphically and examined them statistically using general linear modeling. Individuals living in more walkable areas were more than twice as likely to walk, bicycle or use public transit and were significantly less likely to drive or own a vehicle compared with those living in less walkable areas. Individuals in less walkable areas were up to one-third more likely to be obese or to have diabetes. Residential density and the availability of walkable destinations were each significantly associated with transportation and health outcomes. The combination of high levels of both measures was associated with the highest levels of walking or bicycling (pwalkable destinations are good measures of urban walkability and can be recommended for use by policy-makers, planners and public health officials. In our setting, the combination of both factors provided additional explanatory power. PMID:24454837

  8. Exploration Space Suit Architecture and Destination Environmental-Based Technology Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Terry R.; McFarland, Shane M.; Korona, F. Adam

    2013-01-01

    This paper continues forward where EVA Space Suit Architecture: Low Earth Orbit Vs. Moon Vs. Mars left off in the development of a space suit architecture that is modular in design and could be reconfigured prior to launch or during any given mission depending on the tasks or destination. This space suit system architecture and technologies required based on human exploration (EVA) destinations will be discussed, and how these systems should evolve to meet the future exploration EVA needs of the US human space flight program. A series of exercises and analyses provided a strong indication that the Constellation Program space suit architecture, with its maximum reuse of technology and functionality across a range of mission profiles and destinations, is postured to provide a viable solution for future space exploration missions. The destination environmental analysis demonstrates that the modular architecture approach could provide the lowest mass and mission cost for the protection of the crew, given any human mission outside of low-Earth orbit. Additionally, some of the high-level trades presented here provide a review of the environmental and nonenvironmental design drivers that will become increasingly important as humans venture farther from Earth. The presentation of destination environmental data demonstrates a logical clustering of destination design environments that allows a focused approach to technology prioritization, development, and design that will maximize the return on investment, largely independent of any particular design reference mission.

  9. Moderating impact of tourism relationship management dimensions on tourism service quality, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arup Kumar Baksi

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This study attempts to assess the moderating impact of recently introduced tourist relationship management (TRM framework on service quality perception-tourist satisfaction-destination loyalty link. Tourist relationship management framework draws inspiration from customer relationship management (CRM model with validated addition of dimensions compatible to tourism dynamics. The study, carried out in Santiniketan, India, confirmed moderating impact of dimensional performance of tourist relationship management on perceived tourism service quality-tourist satisfaction-destination loyalty link.

  10. How to optimize tourism destination supply: A case in Shanghai from perspective of supplier and demand side perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xue, Huaju; Fang, Chengjiang

    2018-02-01

    It is vital to assess the regional tourist supply capability by suppliers and demand groups. The supply side’s evaluation of the regional supply capacity determines the direction of the supply investment in future, the demand side’s evaluation indicates their satisfaction degree of the destination supply and also effects their revisit the tourism destination. Therefore, the assessment of the supply and demand sides is an important reference for the reform of destination supply side, which helps us find the shortage of the destination supply factors and optimize tourism destination supply promptly. This paper through investigating tourism supply and demand groups in Shanghai, used the survey data and constructed tourism supply optimization model, analyzed the current situation of tourism supply factors in Shanghai. Results showed that the environment of Shanghai should be improved first, including improving urban air and water quality, up-grading public sanitation and increasing urban green coverage. Other supply factors improved priority were information and marketing, we should improve the information consultation of scenic spots, increase the intensity of tourism promotion and provide more free travel publicity brochures.

  11. Destination brands and website evaluation: a research methodology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Fernández-Cavia

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction:The World Wide Web has become the primary instrument used by tourists in order to search for information. As a result, tourism websites pertaining to destinations need to be appealing and must convey their brand image in an appropriate, effective manner. However, there is no methodology in place to assess the quality and communicative effectiveness of destination websites that is scientifically sound and universally accepted. The development of such a methodology is one of the tasks we have proposed within the framework of the research project: “New strategies for advertising and promoting Spanish tourism brands online” (CSO2008-02627, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Method: The project team have developed an interdisciplinary, all-embracing analysis template combining certain automated analyses with other qualitative and quantitative ones. The template comprises a total of 12 subject areas and 154 indicators prepared on the basis of contributions from prominent experts in each of the fields of work. This article sets out the analysis methodology drawn up and possible applications are given. Results: The primary aim of the project is to provide an assessment methodology that would make it possible to optimise destination brand websites, thus providing a tool to support the work of public tourism destination managers.

  12. Human Resources Development and ICT Contribution to the Tourist Destination Competitiveness

    OpenAIRE

    Ramona Gruescu; Roxana Nanu; Anca Tanasie

    2009-01-01

    The paper envisages aspects concerning identification of the competitive advantage of a tourist destination from a double perspective: the critical contribution of the employees and the ICT impact on promoting and selling the destination. Research methodology includes „bottom to top” analysis of the mentioned indicators. Thus, results include the eficientisation of tourist businesses and destinations due to both human element development and ICT technologies. Two essential basis of the compet...

  13. Destination Attributes and Chinese Outbound Tourism to Europe

    OpenAIRE

    Andreu, Rosario; Claver-Cortés, Enrique; Quer, Diego

    2014-01-01

    China is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets. Europe is an attractive destination for Chinese tourists. However, Europe still accounts for a small percentage of Chinese outbound tourism. If European countries want to benefit from this market, they should pay attention to Chinese tourists’ preferences. This article contributes to the understanding of Chinese outbound tourism by analyzing those destination attributes that can influence the number of Chinese tourists received. Fr...

  14. Development of Diversified Tourism Destination Products – A Case Study of Tourism Destination, Municipality of Sofia, Bulgaria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena PETKOVA

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, it is argued that there is a variety of products and accordingly a diversity of types of tourism in the municipality of Sofia, Bulgaria: urban and "non-urban", mass and specialized, tourism based on natural and anthropogenic, on tangible and intangible resources. In this regard, diverse tourism products of the destination may be offered to its visitors, which to a greater extent meets their various needs and contributes to the sustainable tourism development. Thus, the aim of the paper is to reveal whether tourism professionals in Sofia are aware of the possibilities for combining various types of tourism and promoting the diversified destination tourism product among local and foreign visitors.

  15. WEBSITES AS A PROMOTING TOOL FOR THE IDENTITY OF TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco Vicente Sales Melo

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Since its advent, the Internet has become an important tool for tourism. Furthermore, some studies tend to indicate that this may contribute directly to the process of identity formation of a tourism destination. Thus, this paper investigates how websites can help in promoting the identity of tourist destinations on the Internet. The study is characterized as exploratory qualitative in nature, which is constituted from a desk research. It was possible to verify that the website is a key means for managing the identity of a tourist destination, as this can help visitors to form a positive image of the place being visited from the information that makes up the identity of the destination.

  16. Tourism destination image of Russia in the perspective of the portuguese market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liliya Arslanova

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In recent decades the importance of destination image has been increasingly analyzed and it is generally considered to be vital in the marketing of destinations. It can be noted that the tourism industry in Russia has not been the subject of a great deal of research with regard to its destination image. Therefore the purpose of this work is to assess Russia’s destination image in the perspective of Portuguese people. The research instrument was an online questionnaire, comprised of open-ended and closed questions. A combination of two software programs, NVivo and IBM SPSS Statistics 21, was employed to analyze the data. This exploratory study suggests that Portuguese peoples’ perceptions of Russia are mostly favorable and they have a high awareness about Russia’s destination features.

  17. Destination Information System for Bandung City Using Location-Based Services (LBS) on Android

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurniawan, B.; Pranoto, H.

    2018-02-01

    Bandung is a city in West Java, Indonesia with many interesting locations to visit. For most favourite destinations, we can easily look for it on Google and we will find some blogs there discussing about related content. The problem is we can not guarantee that the destination is frequented by visitor. In this research, we utilizes an application to help everyone choosing destination frequented by visitor. The use of information technology in the form of picture, maps, and textual on Android application makes it possible for user to have information about destination with its visitor in a period of time. If destination has visit history, selection of proper destination will be given with fresh informations. This application can run well on Android Lollipop (API Level 21) or above with a minimum RAM of 2 GB since it will compare two coordinates for every data. The use of this app make it possible to access information about location with its visitor history and could help choosing proper destinations for the users.

  18. Comparing Destination Image and Loyalty between First-time and Repeat-visit Tourists

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamad M.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to investigate the difference between destination image and loyalty among first-time and repeat-visit tourists. The study was undertaken to examine aspects of underlying factors of destination image that influenced tourists’ willingness to recommend Malaysia to their friends and relatives as well as spread positive word-of-mouth to others. In addition, it was to ascertain the relationship between destination image and loyalty among first-time and repeat-visit tourists. The data was collected at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at the departure hall using self-administered questionnaires. 248 usable questionnaires were returned and analysed. The findings of the study revealed that both groups of tourists perceived Malaysia as providing a nature-based destination. The study also empirically proved that both first-time and repeat-visit tourists were willing to disseminate positive word-of-mouth and recommend Malaysia to their friends and relatives as a vacation destination to visit. However, there was a significant difference in destination loyalty between first-visit and repeat-visit tourists.

  19. Smart tourism destination triggers consumer experience: the case of Porto

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro Liberato

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the increasing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs in smart tourism destinations, in their integration in the activity of the tourism companies, and in their interaction with visitors/tourists. In summary, it is intended to evaluate in the city of Porto how the use of technology before, during and after the visit influences the tourist experience. Design/methodology/approach - The authors empirically investigate the importance of using ICTs during tourism experience, assess the access/availability of ICT at the destination and its importance in tourist’s decisions. It is analyzed if the applications and/or information available on the internet are important and positively influence the tourism experience in Porto, that is, the degree of tourist satisfaction. The empirical evidence is based on a quantitative analysis, using a data set involving 423 tourists in the city of Porto. Findings - The importance of the internet access at the destination, especially in places like airports and hotels, since most tourists are primarily using their mobile devices and computers during the trip, and the existing information technologies available in the destination (internet, smartphones or other mobile devices and applications are considered very important in explaining tourists’ experience. Originality/value - This study identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the technological strategies, providing useful information for destination management, discussing innovation in tourism, and proposing a framework that empirically evaluates how technological components used in smart tourism destinations can improve tourists’ experiences.

  20. Moldovan Perception of Greece as a Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stela Cazacu

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: This research study analyzes Moldovans' intentions to visit Greece, and their perceptions of Greece's image as a tourism destination, according to the following dimensions: (1 environmental beauty and convenience, (2 country's citizens, (3 place and architectural structure, (4 shopping and tourist accommodation and (5 similarity of the local culture and cuisine with the Moldovan one. The goal is split into four objectives. Design/methodology/approach: For attaining the goal, a self-administered questionnaire was delivered. The empirical study was conducted in the capital of Moldova. The findings are based upon a sample of 139 respondents. Findings: The findings reveal that, overall, Greece's image as a tourist destination among Moldovan consumers is partially positive. The perceptions of the tourism dimensions were evaluated in the descending order as follows: place and architectural structure, shopping and tourist accommodation, environmental beauty and convenience, country's citizens and similarity of the local culture and cuisine with the Moldovan one. Research limitations/implications: As it was undertaken only in the capital of Republic of Moldova and because most respondents are young people and females, the findings of this investigation do not absolutely reflect the perceptions of all Moldovans. Also, because the number of respondents is small, it is not representative of the whole Moldovan population. Hence, the results might not be very realistic and accurate. Originality/value: This study provides insightful theoretical implications and practical recommendations in creating marketing strategies that would help in managing and improving Greece's image as a destination among Moldovan tourists. Also, no study, at least to the researcher's knowledge, has evaluated Greece's image as a destination among Moldovan consumers. Finally, due to the increasing number of Moldovan tourists in Greece, it is important that Greece grasps this

  1. Distinct transmissibility features of TSE sources derived from ruminant prion diseases by the oral route in a transgenic mouse model (TgOvPrP4 overexpressing the ovine prion protein.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-Noël Arsac

    Full Text Available Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs are a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases associated with a misfolded form of host-encoded prion protein (PrP. Some of them, such as classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle (BSE, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME, kuru and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, are acquired by the oral route exposure to infected tissues. We investigated the possible transmission by the oral route of a panel of strains derived from ruminant prion diseases in a transgenic mouse model (TgOvPrP4 overexpressing the ovine prion protein (A136R154Q171 under the control of the neuron-specific enolase promoter. Sources derived from Nor98, CH1641 or 87V scrapie sources, as well as sources derived from L-type BSE or cattle-passaged TME, failed to transmit by the oral route, whereas those derived from classical BSE and classical scrapie were successfully transmitted. Apart from a possible effect of passage history of the TSE agent in the inocula, this implied the occurrence of subtle molecular changes in the protease-resistant prion protein (PrPres following oral transmission that can raises concerns about our ability to correctly identify sheep that might be orally infected by the BSE agent in the field. Our results provide proof of principle that transgenic mouse models can be used to examine the transmissibility of TSE agents by the oral route, providing novel insights regarding the pathogenesis of prion diseases.

  2. Coda-derived source spectra, moment magnitudes and energy-moment scaling in the western Alps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morasca, P.; Mayeda, K.; Malagnini, L.; Walter, William R.

    2005-01-01

    A stable estimate of the earthquake source spectra in the western Alps is obtained using an empirical method based on coda envelope amplitude measurements described by Mayeda et al. for events ranging between MW~ 1.0 and ~5.0. Path corrections for consecutive narrow frequency bands ranging between 0.3 and 25.0 Hz were included using a simple 1-D model for five three-component stations of the Regional Seismic network of Northwestern Italy (RSNI). The 1-D assumption performs well, even though the region is characterized by a complex structural setting involving strong lateral variations in the Moho depth. For frequencies less than 1.0 Hz, we tied our dimensionless, distance-corrected coda amplitudes to an absolute scale in units of dyne cm by using independent moment magnitudes from long-period waveform modelling for three moderate magnitude events in the region. For the higher frequencies, we used small events as empirical Green's functions, with corner frequencies above 25.0 Hz. For each station, the procedure yields frequency-dependent corrections that account for site effects, including those related to fmax, as well as to S-to-coda transfer function effects. After the calibration was completed, the corrections were applied to the entire data set composed of 957 events. Our findings using the coda-derived source spectra are summarized as follows: (i) we derived stable estimates of seismic moment, M0, (and hence MW) as well as radiated S-wave energy, (ES), from waveforms recorded by as few as one station, for events that were too small to be waveform modelled (i.e. events less than MW~ 3.5); (ii) the source spectra were used to derive an equivalent local magnitude, ML(coda), that is in excellent agreement with the network averaged values using direct S waves; (iii) scaled energy, , where ER, the radiated seismic energy, is comparable to results from other tectonically active regions (e.g. western USA, Japan) and supports the idea that there is a fundamental

  3. The 6-chromanol derivate SUL-109 enables prolonged hypothermic storage of adipose tissue-derived stem cells

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hajmousa, Ghazaleh; Vogelaar, Pieter; Brouwer, Linda A.; Graaf, Adrianus Cornelis van der; Henning, Robert H.; Krenning, Guido

    Encouraging advances in cell therapy research with adipose derived stem cells (ASC) require an effective short-term preservation method that provides time for quality control and transport of cells from their manufacturing facility to their clinical destination. Hypothermic storage of cells in their

  4. Study of behavior, preferences and attitudes visitors tourist destinations Tara

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rakić Mirjana

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the strategic development of the Serbian economy is tourism. Tourist destinations Tara has great tourism potential. The starting assumption for the development of tourism and creating a tourist destination brand of Tara is the analysis of image of tourism, and this is exactly the subject of the current paper. The image analysis includes the examination of preferences, attitudes and behavior of visitors to this tourist destination. This research is exploratory, but may be a useful starting point for further, more comprehensive research on which the results would be based upon serious analysis and making relevant decisions.

  5. Effects of the intensity of use of social media on brand equity: An empirical study in a tourist destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igor Stojanovic

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive research of the effects of the intensity of use of social media on destination brand equity. The authors use the schema theory and a multidimensional approach of brand equity to analyse how social media communication affects brand awareness, brand image, customer value, brand quality and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach - The authors carried out a quantitative study through a personal survey with structured questionnaire. The study population were international tourists, over 18 years of age, who were visiting the city of Valencia, Spain. Respondents were asked to take the questionnaire upon arrival in Valencia, that is, before they had any direct experience of the tourist destination and when their knowledge of the city came only from the sources of social media information they have used. The final sample size was 249 interviewees. Findings - Findings confirm a positive effect of the intensity of social media use on brand awareness. Results also suggest that brand awareness influences other dimensions of brand equity and highlight the influence of the destination affective image on the intention to make WOM communication. Originality/value - Its originality lies in a unique approach for data collecting and using the schema theory of cognitive psychology to understand the phenomenon of social media influence on tourist perception of destination brands. The findings contribute to the development of better social media marketing in order to manage destination brands online.

  6. Heuristic derivation of the Rossi-alpha formula for a pulsed neutron source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baeten, P.

    2004-01-01

    Expressions for the Rossi-alpha distribution for a pulsed neutron source were derived using a heuristic derivation based on the method of joint detection probability. This heuristic technique was chosen over the more rigorous master equation method due to its simplicity and the complementary of both techniques. The derived equations also take into account the presence of delayed neutrons and intrinsic neutron sources which often cannot be neglected in source-driven subcritical cores. The obtained expressions showed that the ratio of the correlated to the uncorrelated signal in the Rossi-Alpha distribution for a Pulsed Source (RAPS) was strongly increased compared to the case for a standard Rossi-alpha distribution for a continuous source. It was also demonstrated that by using this RAPS technique four independent measurement quantities, instead of three with the standard Rossi-alpha technique, can be determined. Hence, it is no longer necessary to combine the Rossi-alpha technique with another method to measure the reactivity expressed in dollars. Both properties, the increased signal-to-noise ratio of the correlated signal and the measurement of a fourth measurement quantity, make that the RAPS technique is an excellent candidate for the measurement of kinetic parameters in source-driven subcritical assemblies

  7. A single-source photon source model of a linear accelerator for Monte Carlo dose calculation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nwankwo, Obioma; Glatting, Gerhard; Wenz, Frederik; Fleckenstein, Jens

    2017-01-01

    To introduce a new method of deriving a virtual source model (VSM) of a linear accelerator photon beam from a phase space file (PSF) for Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculation. A PSF of a 6 MV photon beam was generated by simulating the interactions of primary electrons with the relevant geometries of a Synergy linear accelerator (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) and recording the particles that reach a plane 16 cm downstream the electron source. Probability distribution functions (PDFs) for particle positions and energies were derived from the analysis of the PSF. These PDFs were implemented in the VSM using inverse transform sampling. To model particle directions, the phase space plane was divided into a regular square grid. Each element of the grid corresponds to an area of 1 mm2 in the phase space plane. The average direction cosines, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between photon energies and their direction cosines, as well as the PCC between the direction cosines were calculated for each grid element. Weighted polynomial surfaces were then fitted to these 2D data. The weights are used to correct for heteroscedasticity across the phase space bins. The directions of the particles created by the VSM were calculated from these fitted functions. The VSM was validated against the PSF by comparing the doses calculated by the two methods for different square field sizes. The comparisons were performed with profile and gamma analyses. The doses calculated with the PSF and VSM agree to within 3% /1 mm (>95% pixel pass rate) for the evaluated fields. A new method of deriving a virtual photon source model of a linear accelerator from a PSF file for MC dose calculation was developed. Validation results show that the doses calculated with the VSM and the PSF agree to within 3% /1 mm.

  8. A single-source photon source model of a linear accelerator for Monte Carlo dose calculation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Obioma Nwankwo

    Full Text Available To introduce a new method of deriving a virtual source model (VSM of a linear accelerator photon beam from a phase space file (PSF for Monte Carlo (MC dose calculation.A PSF of a 6 MV photon beam was generated by simulating the interactions of primary electrons with the relevant geometries of a Synergy linear accelerator (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden and recording the particles that reach a plane 16 cm downstream the electron source. Probability distribution functions (PDFs for particle positions and energies were derived from the analysis of the PSF. These PDFs were implemented in the VSM using inverse transform sampling. To model particle directions, the phase space plane was divided into a regular square grid. Each element of the grid corresponds to an area of 1 mm2 in the phase space plane. The average direction cosines, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC between photon energies and their direction cosines, as well as the PCC between the direction cosines were calculated for each grid element. Weighted polynomial surfaces were then fitted to these 2D data. The weights are used to correct for heteroscedasticity across the phase space bins. The directions of the particles created by the VSM were calculated from these fitted functions. The VSM was validated against the PSF by comparing the doses calculated by the two methods for different square field sizes. The comparisons were performed with profile and gamma analyses.The doses calculated with the PSF and VSM agree to within 3% /1 mm (>95% pixel pass rate for the evaluated fields.A new method of deriving a virtual photon source model of a linear accelerator from a PSF file for MC dose calculation was developed. Validation results show that the doses calculated with the VSM and the PSF agree to within 3% /1 mm.

  9. Students in Action: Engaging Students with Destination Stakeholders

    OpenAIRE

    Craggs, Ruth; Gorman, Catherine; Griffin, Kevin; mottiar, ziene; Quinn, Deirdre; Quinn, Bernadette; Ryan, Theresa

    2015-01-01

    The Students in Action Project in the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism was established in 2012 as a way of engaging students and working with stakeholders in a destination. The overall aim of the project was to immerse students in an active collaborative learning environment within the destination to identify ways in which tourism could be enhanced. In the 2014/2015 academic year the project involved over 300 students from a variety of programmes and modules working with local sta...

  10. Amenity migration: the migratory phenomenon in mountain tourism destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lía Domínguez de Nakayama

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Since long time ago population dynamics in Argentina has been linked to migration. Nevertheless, scientists have concluded that no research has found migration to be due to positive attractors. Almost every research presents migration as the unavoidable outcome of constraining environmental conditions. Recently a new type of migration has come to be, linked with tourism, which has received the denomination of amenity migration, and has as its subjects people who, after being tourist in a certain destination, decide to come back to it as dwellers. They can stay either for the season or the whole year. This movement produces important effects in the collective profile of tourism destinations. This article intends to study demographic and social processes quickened in mountain tourism destinations by this peculiar kind of migration, with a case study in two Argentinean cities San Martín de los Andes (Neuquén y Villa General Belgrano (Córdoba. Documental research and in-depth interviews with migrants as well as natives enables an preliminary understanding of the way this kind of migration affects socio cultural configuration in destination places as well as relationship amongst residents and newcomers and sustainability policies for local development.

  11. Tradition as an initiator of rural tourism destinations development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antić Aleksandar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Rural tourism is a form of tourism that best illustrates the importance of tradition in the development of tourist destinations. Music, dance, clothing, culinary specialties of local cuisine, unique natural beauty and the very mentality and hospitality of people in rural areas, represent some of the factors that influence the tourist's consciousness when choosing this type of holiday. The research is focused on the main hypothesis that the tradition is an initiator of rural tourism destinations development. Furthermore, this would imply positive effects in the field of tourism and economy in general and the economy of the region. The goal of the paper is to show the importance of tradition in the cultural identity of rural areas and potentials of tradition in the role of initiating rural tourism destinations development. The interview with staff members in Pozarevac Tourism Organization has helped in the SWOT analysis of the observed rural destination. An empirical research is conducted on a random sample of 232 participants in order to highlight the benefits of rural tourism development in Pozarevac and its surrounding area. The data were processed in SPSS program (version 17.0.

  12. Quantification of source-term profiles from near-field geochemical models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKinley, I.G.

    1985-01-01

    A geochemical model of the near-field is described which quantitatively treats the processes of engineered barrier degradation, buffering of aqueous chemistry by solid phases, nuclide solubilization and transport through the near-field and release to the far-field. The radionuclide source-terms derived from this model are compared with those from a simpler model used for repository safety analysis. 10 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs

  13. Heat source reconstruction from noisy temperature fields using an optimised derivative Gaussian filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delpueyo, D.; Balandraud, X.; Grédiac, M.

    2013-09-01

    The aim of this paper is to present a post-processing technique based on a derivative Gaussian filter to reconstruct heat source fields from temperature fields measured by infrared thermography. Heat sources can be deduced from temperature variations thanks to the heat diffusion equation. Filtering and differentiating are key-issues which are closely related here because the temperature fields which are processed are unavoidably noisy. We focus here only on the diffusion term because it is the most difficult term to estimate in the procedure, the reason being that it involves spatial second derivatives (a Laplacian for isotropic materials). This quantity can be reasonably estimated using a convolution of the temperature variation fields with second derivatives of a Gaussian function. The study is first based on synthetic temperature variation fields corrupted by added noise. The filter is optimised in order to reconstruct at best the heat source fields. The influence of both the dimension and the level of a localised heat source is discussed. Obtained results are also compared with another type of processing based on an averaging filter. The second part of this study presents an application to experimental temperature fields measured with an infrared camera on a thin plate in aluminium alloy. Heat sources are generated with an electric heating patch glued on the specimen surface. Heat source fields reconstructed from measured temperature fields are compared with the imposed heat sources. Obtained results illustrate the relevancy of the derivative Gaussian filter to reliably extract heat sources from noisy temperature fields for the experimental thermomechanics of materials.

  14. DeNASA: Destination-Naive AS-Awareness in Anonymous Communications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barton Armon

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Prior approaches to AS-aware path selection in Tor do not consider node bandwidth or the other characteristics that Tor uses to ensure load balancing and quality of service. Further, since the AS path from the client’s exit to her destination can only be inferred once the destination is known, the prior approaches may have problems constructing circuits in advance, which is important for Tor performance. In this paper, we propose and evaluate DeNASA, a new approach to AS-aware path selection that is destination-naive, in that it does not need to know the client’s destination to pick paths, and that takes advantage of Tor’s circuit selection algorithm. To this end, we first identify the most probable ASes to be traversed by Tor streams. We call this set of ASes the Suspect AS list and find that it consists of eight highest ranking Tier 1 ASes. Then, we test the accuracy of Qiu and Gao AS-level path inference on identifying the presence of these ASes in the path, and we show that inference accuracy is 90%. We develop an AS-aware algorithm called DeNASA that uses Qiu and Gao inference to avoid Suspect ASes. DeNASA reduces Tor stream vulnerability by 74%. We also show that DeNASA has performance similar to Tor. Due to the destination-naive property, time to first byte (TTFB is close to Tor’s, and due to leveraging Tor’s bandwidth-weighted relay selection, time to last byte (TTLB is also similar to Tor’s.

  15. Impact of autochthonous music on the creation of tourist destination image

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    Željko Blagus

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper tries to determine to what extent autochthonous music may contribute to the creation of the image of a tourist destination. In other words, it aims at demostrating how the Croatian Međimurje County may become recognizable as a tourist destination on the basis of its ethnographic heritage, which exists even today in different ways. The first part of the paper deals with the role of image in the choice of destination and defines the term “destination image”. A particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the impact of autochthonous music on the image of the Međimurje County. It proves the thesis that autochthonous music plays an important role in the presentation and dissemination of the recognizable image of Međimurje. As shown in this paper, the music of Međimurje is a resource characterized by dynamism, change and adaptability. It is also a source of inspiration of numerous musicians and, thanks to its uniqueness in terms of authenticity, representativeness or rarity, it becomes a quality symbol of the environment in which it came to be. In this sense, the paper offers an insight into the way in which the music of Međimurje might be used to improve the understanding and acceptance of certain communication content by making the message clearer and easier to understand. It is evident that the market evaluated the autochthonous music of Međimurje in the past and will continue to evaluate it to an increasing extent in the future, so claims about its incompatibility with commercialism and utilitarianism may only be accepted conditionally. The second part of the paper includes a description of the methodological frame of the field research that has been conducted as well as a report on its results. In this way, the analysis of the role which the music of Međimurje plays in the creation of image acquires its concrete meaning, since the results of the research can be interpreted with regard to their assumptions and their

  16. Stakeholder cooperation in implementation of the sustainable development concept: Montenegrin tourist destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ljiljana Pjerotic

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The importance of involving diverse stakeholders in tourism planning is receiving growing recognition. Tourism destination planning is a complex process, due to the existence of a wide variety of stakeholders with a wide range of opinions, multiple problem visions and different interests. Despite the complexity of the planning process one feature acknowledged for successful destination management planning is high level of stakeholder cooperation. The paper examines the level of stakeholder cooperation on the specific example of the sustainable development concept implementation in Montenegrin tourism. It starts with two hypotheses: first, the development level of instruments for managing tourist destination depends on stakeholder cooperation level in a particular destination, and second, implementation of the sustainable development concept is positively correlated with the development of instruments for managing tourist destination. The results have indicated poor implementation of tourism development plans and low level of stakeholder cooperation.

  17. Destination Memory in Korsakoff's Syndrome

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Kessels, R.P.C.; Matton, C.; Bacquet, J.E.; Urso, L.; Cool, G.; Guidez, F.; Potier, S.; Nandrino, J.L.; Antoine, P.

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Context memory, or the ability to remember the context in which an episodic event has occurred (e.g., where and when an event took place), has been found to be compromised in Korsakoff's syndrome. This study examined whether a similar deficit would be observed for destination memory,

  18. Destination memory in Korsakoff's syndrome

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Kessels, R.P.C.; Matton, C.; Bacquet, J.E.; Urso, L.; Cool, G.; Guidez, F.; Potier, S.; Nandrino, J.L.; Antoine, P.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Context memory, or the ability to remember the context in which an episodic event has occurred (e.g., where and when an event took place), has been found to be compromised in Korsakoff's syndrome. This study examined whether a similar deficit would be observed for destination memory,

  19. How to develop sustainable tourism in rural destinations in Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Štetić Snežana

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The classical distinction between countries of tourist offer and countries of tourist demand has already been surpassed considering that many countries of tourist demand (USA, Germany, Great Britain … earn much more from tourism than the countries of tourist offer (Italy, Greece, Portugal …. The changes in customers' behaviour are reflected through restructuring of tourist movements towards new destinations. What is essential in creating, promoting and marketing tourist destinations for the specific tourism forms development is the identification of all the positive and negative factors that influence the development of these destinations. Converting a potential into a tourist destination depends on many factors both in qualitative and in quantitative sense. Discovering an area of preserved environment that also possesses attractive motifs presents the beginning of the possible tourist destination creating. Further 'destiny' of a tourist destination depends on its planning and development intensity. Rural tourism is a significant component of integral and sustainable development and revitalization of the village, as well as a component that is missing in stimulating the local market development for agricultural and non-agricultural activities in the country, along with a special stimulation to employment. Serbia possesses remarkable natural resources and other potentials for the development of all forms of rural tourism. However, rural tourism in Serbia is an insufficiently organized field that is not being developed adequately to the possibilities available to it. That is why this paper wants to point out the potential opportunities for the development of rural tourism in Serbia through sustainable development and correct performance policy on both national and international tourist market.

  20. Invariant models in the inversion of gravity and magnetic fields and their derivatives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ialongo, Simone; Fedi, Maurizio; Florio, Giovanni

    2014-11-01

    In potential field inversion problems we usually solve underdetermined systems and realistic solutions may be obtained by introducing a depth-weighting function in the objective function. The choice of the exponent of such power-law is crucial. It was suggested to determine it from the field-decay due to a single source-block; alternatively it has been defined as the structural index of the investigated source distribution. In both cases, when k-order derivatives of the potential field are considered, the depth-weighting exponent has to be increased by k with respect that of the potential field itself, in order to obtain consistent source model distributions. We show instead that invariant and realistic source-distribution models are obtained using the same depth-weighting exponent for the magnetic field and for its k-order derivatives. A similar behavior also occurs in the gravity case. In practice we found that the depth weighting-exponent is invariant for a given source-model and equal to that of the corresponding magnetic field, in the magnetic case, and of the 1st derivative of the gravity field, in the gravity case. In the case of the regularized inverse problem, with depth-weighting and general constraints, the mathematical demonstration of such invariance is difficult, because of its non-linearity, and of its variable form, due to the different constraints used. However, tests performed on a variety of synthetic cases seem to confirm the invariance of the depth-weighting exponent. A final consideration regards the role of the regularization parameter; we show that the regularization can severely affect the depth to the source because the estimated depth tends to increase proportionally with the size of the regularization parameter. Hence, some care is needed in handling the combined effect of the regularization parameter and depth weighting.

  1. Density, destinations or both? A comparison of measures of walkability in relation to transportation behaviors, obesity and diabetes in Toronto, Canada.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard H Glazier

    Full Text Available The design of suburban communities encourages car dependency and discourages walking, characteristics that have been implicated in the rise of obesity. Walkability measures have been developed to capture these features of urban built environments. Our objective was to examine the individual and combined associations of residential density and the presence of walkable destinations, two of the most commonly used and potentially modifiable components of walkability measures, with transportation, overweight, obesity, and diabetes. We examined associations between a previously published walkability measure and transportation behaviors and health outcomes in Toronto, Canada, a city of 2.6 million people in 2011. Data sources included the Canada census, a transportation survey, a national health survey and a validated administrative diabetes database. We depicted interactions between residential density and the availability of walkable destinations graphically and examined them statistically using general linear modeling. Individuals living in more walkable areas were more than twice as likely to walk, bicycle or use public transit and were significantly less likely to drive or own a vehicle compared with those living in less walkable areas. Individuals in less walkable areas were up to one-third more likely to be obese or to have diabetes. Residential density and the availability of walkable destinations were each significantly associated with transportation and health outcomes. The combination of high levels of both measures was associated with the highest levels of walking or bicycling (p<0.0001 and public transit use (p<0.0026 and the lowest levels of automobile trips (p<0.0001, and diabetes prevalence (p<0.0001. We conclude that both residential density and the availability of walkable destinations are good measures of urban walkability and can be recommended for use by policy-makers, planners and public health officials. In our setting, the

  2. RESEARCH ON TOURISM DESTINATIONS MARKETING FROM THE PUBLIC RELATIONS’ PERSPECTIVE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela ARIONESEI

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, tourism destinations are more and more determined to build a unique and competitive identity and image in consumers’ minds. Even though the marketing of tourism destinations has been awarded an intended purpose, in practice there is a lack of steadiness, sometimes an unexplained deficiency of empirical academic research. In some countries, many without "a tradition in tourism", building a marketing strategy for travel destinations is based on artificial and without substance images/perceptions of real and potential tourists. The paper describes the role of marketing in the domain of tourism, emphasizing the importance of public relations in the promotion process of the region of Bucovina.

  3. A visual analysis of a cultural tourism destination | Eringa | Research ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... can help to frame the experience in all three stages. For that reason it is advisable for destinations to employ some kind of visual identity system management to package the city image into a clear brand. Keywords: European Capital of Culture, Leeuwarden 2018, Chinese visitors, destination branding, flanking research ...

  4. Analysis of tourism destination image influence on satisfaction e loyalty to sun and sea tourism destinations: A study in Natal/RN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Márcio Marreiro das Chagas

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper analysis tourism destination image influences on satisfaction and loyalty to Sun and Sea tourism destinations, investigating Natal/RN as a case. Quality dimensions were control variables. Therefore, it was conducted an exploratory and descriptive research with quantitative analytical approach. Data collection was performed by a questionnaire addressed to International tourists at the Augusto Severo International Airport. The composition was a simple random sampling by reaching the final number of 300 international tourists interviewed. Among the main results, it was noted that nine are the dimensions of perceived Quality of Sun and Sea segment, it means, Beaches, Public Equipment, Restaurants, Transportation, Information and Finance Services, Hotel Equipment, Diversity of Restaurants and Food, Complementary Services and Access to the hotel and Tourism Attractions, Urban and Natural Scenery. From the results, it was concluded that tourism destination image influences satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, quality seems to be other important dimension for the satisfaction and loyalty process.

  5. Stakeholder Colaboration in Tourism Destination Planning – The Case of Montenegro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pjerotić Ljiljana

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The importance of involving diverse stakeholders in tourism planning is receiving growing recognition. Effective tourism destination planning is a complex process, due to the existence of a wide variety of stakeholders with a wide range of opinions, multiple problem visions and different interests. Despite the complexity of the planning process one feature acknowledged for successful destination management planning is a high level of stakeholder engagement and cooperation. The implementation and success of a tourism plan often relies on the support of destination stakeholders.

  6. The destinal question of language

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    Saitya Brata Das

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available How can we think the destinal place of language in the essentially historical condition of our existence if such historicity cannot be understood on the basis of the labor of negativity alone? The attempt is made here to think language in a more originary manner, as non-negative finitude, that affirms what is outside dialectical-speculative closure, what is to come. The notion of 'destinal' itself is thus transformed. No longer being merely a categorical grasp of "entities presently given", language is an originary exposure to the event of arrival in its lightning flash. Destiny appears as that of the messianic arrival of the 'not yet' which is not a telos that the immanent movement of historical reason reaches by an irresistible force of the negative. This essay reads Schelling, Heidegger and Kierkegaard to think language as a "place" of exposure to the non-teleological destiny that may erupt even today, here and now, without any given conditionality.Como nós podemos pensar o lugar destinal da linguagem na condição essencialmente histórica de nossa existência se tal historicidade não pode ser entendida com base apenas no trabalho da negatividade? Faz-se aqui a tentativa de pensar a linguagem de um modo mais originário, como finitude não negativa, que afirma o que se encontra fora do fechamento dialético-especulativo, o que está por vir. A própria noção de 'destinal' é então transformada. Não sendo mais apenas uma apreensão categorial de "entidades presentemente dadas", a linguagem é uma exposição originária ao evento da chegada em seu instante iluminador. O destino aparece como o da chegada messiânica do 'ainda não' que não é um telos que o movimento imanente da razão histórica atinge por meio de uma irresistível força do negativo. Este ensaio lê Schelling, Heidegger e Kierkegaard para pensar a linguagem como um "lugar" de exposição ao destino não teológico que pode irromper mesmo hoje, aqui e agora, sem

  7. Delay Bounded Multi-Source Multicast in Software-Defined Networking

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    Thabo Semong

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Software-Defined Networking (SDN is the next generation network architecture with exciting application prospects. The control function in SDN is decoupled from the data forwarding plane, hence it provides a new centralized architecture with flexible network resource management. Although SDN is attracting much attention from both industry and research, its advantage over the traditional networks has not been fully utilized. Multicast is designed to deliver content to multiple destinations. The current traffic engineering in SDN focuses mainly on unicast, however, multicast can effectively reduce network resource consumption by serving multiple clients. This paper studies a novel delay-bounded multi-source multicast SDN problem, in which among the set of potential sources, we select a source to build the multicast-tree, under the constraint that the transmission delay for every destination is bounded. This problem is more difficult than the traditional Steiner minimum tree (SMT problem, since it needs to find a source from the set of all potential sources. We model the problem as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP and prove its NP-Hardness. To solve the problem, a delay bounded multi-source (DBMS scheme is proposed, which includes a DBMS algorithm to build a minimum delay cost DBMS-Forest. Through a MATLAB experiment, we demonstrate that DBMS is significantly more efficient and outperforms other existing algorithms in the literature.

  8. Tourism Destination Management (Case Study in Department of Culture and Tourism Pasuruan Regency

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    Sony Manggala Putra

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The tourism sector as one of the leading sectors in Pasuruan still faces many obstacles. The constraints associated with conditions that require improvement on tourist destination related to the presence of infrastructure, zoning, the gap between the tourism destination in the West and the East area, up to the level of visitation which has decreased from year to year. The aims of the studi were to describe and analyze Tourism Destination Management conducted by Department of Culture and Tourism Pasuruan at Banyu Biru and Ranu Grati object to become competitive and sustainable tourism destination. This study used a qualitative approach with a case study method locus in the Department of Culture and Tourism Pasuruan. The results of this study indicate that the tourism destination management of Banyu Biru and Ranu Grati when reviewed in terms of competitiveness, still needs a lot of improvement related to the presence of tourism facilities and the quality of employees as service providers. In terms of sustainability, it shows that the synergy between the regional government and tourism stakeholders need to be improved. The need for the establishment of cooperation with third parties in management of tourism destination in Banyu Biru and Ranu Grati, can be used to optimize the carrying capacity and tourist destination marketing system at Banyu Biru and Ranu Grati in order to compete in a competitive and sustainable way Keywords: tourism destination management, competitiveness, sustainability

  9. Destination Personality, Satisfaction, And Tourist Future Behavior: The Case Of North Cyprus

    OpenAIRE

    Rostampour, Mehrnoush

    2013-01-01

    ABSTRACT: Going through application of destination personality in North Cyprus and finding about the essence of its relation to tourist satisfaction, and tourist behavior, considering the moderating effect of tourist motivation on relation between destination personality and tourist satisfaction as the main aim of this study. This study focused on two aims: 1) the relationship between destination personality adopted from Aaker (1997) personality scale in tourism realm _ North Cyprus_ due ...

  10. Brand Equity of a Tourist Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hwa-Kyung Kim

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In the current climate of severe competition among tourist destinations, the importance of brand equity in tourism marketing is increasing. This study looks at the impact of branding in relation to the largest group of inbound overseas tourists to South Korea, the Chinese. Data for the current study were obtained from a survey of tourists visiting Seoul from the Greater China region, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and the Chinese living in Southeast Asia. The survey was conducted in popular sightseeing spots, four and five-star hotels in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, and the Incheon International Airport. The respondents were selected randomly, with effort expended to avoid any potential bias in the composition of the sample. Out of a total of 385 distributed questionnaires, 350 (China 191, Hong Kong 71, Taiwan 68, others 20 were selected as valid and finally used in the analysis. The results of this study suggest that price and word of mouth have beneficial effects on perceived quality, publicity, and brand awareness, and advertisement has beneficial effects on brand image. We also found that brand awareness and perceived quality have impacts on brand image, and brand image is related to brand loyalty. This is a pioneering study on the relationships between influencing factors, destination brand equity and its elements, and brand loyalty, with respect to Seoul, South Korea, as a tourism destination for tourists from China.

  11. Tourism experience, destination and event management

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    Vitić Andriela

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper tend to show some of the challenges of matured and world-known tourism destination, as well some of the modalities in keeping and increasing a level of Honolulu cluster's competitiveness. Accordingly, specific tourism experience as socio-cultural dimension of destination competitiveness was evaluated. A core of the paper is primary research of tourism event "Brunch on the Beach" Honolulu, Hawaii, that was done in 2004. Data for analysis were collected during the internship that author did in the City and Country - Honolulu. Internship was a part of JFDP scholarship received by the American Councils for International Educations (ACIE. George Washington University was the institution where the author completed the most of specialization and which gave a support for the internship organization. Questionnaire method was used for the research, while SPSS software was used for data analyses.

  12. Linkages at Tourism Destinations: Challenges in Zanzibar

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    Wineaster Anderson

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This study explores challenges facing the linkages between the tourism industry and local suppliers at the destinations. During 2010 surveys involving hotel and restaurant operators, local suppliers and tourists were conducted in Zanzibar. Qualitative analysis of the perspectives of the respondents reveals the multitude of constraints. From operators, the main constraints include poor quality of the locally supplied products, business informalities, high transaction costs and violation of agreements by local suppliers. Low production levels, low prices offered by hotels and restaurants coupled with late payments for the products delivered were the most serious problems cited by local suppliers. There is also a certain degree of mistrust between the local suppliers and the operators. However, the source of the tourism products consumed in the hotels or restaurants was not a point of concern, at least from the tourists’ perspective. Strategies to bridge the demandsupply gaps in order to maximize the benefits of tourism, among the tools for fighting the rampant poverty, have been recommended.

  13. The power of social media storytelling in destination branding.

    OpenAIRE

    Lund, Niels Frederik; Cohen, S.A.; Scarles, C.

    2017-01-01

    A large part of the global population is now connected in online social networks in social media where they share experiences and stories and consequently influence each other’s perceptions and buying behaviour. This poses a distinct challenge for destination management organisations, who must cope with a new reality where destination brands are increasingly the product of people’s shared tourism experiences and storytelling in social networks, rather than marketing strategies. This article s...

  14. Tourism Tax: Public Spending and Taxation in Tourism Destinations

    OpenAIRE

    Candela Guido; Castellani Massimiliano; Mussoni Maurizio

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we investigate the effects of a Keynesian policy in tourists destinations where tourism products are mainly sold through «direct sales» (decentralized solution) and the tourism market equilibrium is characterized by sticky prices and unemployment (coordination failure). A Keynesian demand policy is a Pareto improving solution with respect to the organization of sales by Tour operators or Destination managers (centralized solution), since tourism firms are not worse-off in terms ...

  15. On the derivation of approximations to cellular automata models and the assumption of independence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, K J; Green, J E F; Bean, N G; Binder, B J; Ross, J V

    2014-07-01

    Cellular automata are discrete agent-based models, generally used in cell-based applications. There is much interest in obtaining continuum models that describe the mean behaviour of the agents in these models. Previously, continuum models have been derived for agents undergoing motility and proliferation processes, however, these models only hold under restricted conditions. In order to narrow down the reason for these restrictions, we explore three possible sources of error in deriving the model. These sources are the choice of limiting arguments, the use of a discrete-time model as opposed to a continuous-time model and the assumption of independence between the state of sites. We present a rigorous analysis in order to gain a greater understanding of the significance of these three issues. By finding a limiting regime that accurately approximates the conservation equation for the cellular automata, we are able to conclude that the inaccuracy between our approximation and the cellular automata is completely based on the assumption of independence. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Marketing everything and theming sameness: Urban destination marketing in contemporary Europe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heeley John

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews the academic and practitioner literature on urban destination marketing, suggesting that it contains within it a dominant paradigm which the author characterises as 'the theory of marketing competitive advantage'. As such, this theory requires towns and cities to differentiate themselves through the provision of unique products, based on which they subsequently undertake branding, market positioning, distribution and other activities through bespoke destination marketing organisations (DMOs. Practice is then contrasted with theory by reference to a discordant strad of the literature as well as the actual destination marketing currently being undertaken in 60 European towns and cities. The theory of marketing competitive advantage is shown to be an ideal which rarely translates into practice. Irrespective of whether or not a town or city possesses competitive advantage, DMO destination marketing gravitates almost inexorably towards a 'marketing of everything'. Such an approach, in turn, reduces to a bland and monolithic 'theming of urban sameness', all of which is diametrically opposite to what one would expect to be the case as per the theory of marketing competitive advantage. The author contends that this gap between theory and practice matters, necessitating a rethinking of how academics and practitioners should in future seek to explain or otherwise account for urban destination marketing.

  17. Creation of the competition's profile of Serbia as a tourism destination

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    Ubavić Predrag

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available During the last several decades tourism has more and more significant role in economic and social development of other countries, as well as in everyday life of a contemporary man. The Republic of Serbia, also, tends to use valorization of its touristic potentials to realize numerous objectives of its economic and general social development. Number of destinations that offer their tourist products on the tourist market increases, leading to intensified competition. Competitiveness is emphasized as a crucial issue in contemporary tourism, as destinations strive to be better than competitors. Observed from today's perspective we can come to a general conclusion that Serbia as a touristic destination, still hasn't taken adequate competitive position regarding other tourist destinations in the region. The aim of this paper is to point out the necessity of repositioning the present competitive position of Serbia to make it, within as short time period as possible, an attractive tourist destination on the regional and international tourist market. With adequate implementation of theoretical concepts and chosen research methods this paper is expected to enrich domestic professional literature from this field, also to point out new possibilities of Serbian tourism development to creators and those who carry out such economic and touristic politics.

  18. Consuming post-disaster destinations: The case of Sichuan, China

    OpenAIRE

    Biran, Avital; Liu, W.; Li, G.; Eichhorn, V.

    2014-01-01

    Addressing the call for a better understanding of tourist behavior in relation to post-disaster destinations, this study explores the motivations and intentions of potential domestic tourists (from non-hit areas) to visit Sichuan, China in the aftermath of an earthquake. Drawing on dark tourism theories, this study offers a more comprehensive insight into the consumption of post-disaster destinations, aiming to capture the impact of the changes to the destination’s attributes on tourist behav...

  19. Role of Travel Motivations, Perceived Risks and Travel Constraints on Destination Image and Visit Intention in Medical Tourism: Theoretical model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Mohammad J; Chelliah, Shankar; Haron, Mahmod S; Ahmed, Sahrish

    2017-02-01

    Travel motivations, perceived risks and travel constraints, along with the attributes and characteristics of medical tourism destinations, are important issues in medical tourism. Although the importance of these factors is already known, a comprehensive theoretical model of the decision-making process of medical tourists has yet to be established, analysing the intricate relationships between the different variables involved. This article examines a large body of literature on both medical and conventional tourism in order to propose a comprehensive theoretical framework of medical tourism decision-making. Many facets of this complex phenomenon require further empirical investigation.

  20. Exploring the Personality Traits of Portugal as a Tourist Destination: Perspective of the Czech Market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Guerreiro

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The personality of a destination is vital to build a coherent destination brand and strengthen the place identity. Furthermore, brand personality appears in literature as a strategic axis that can be explored by tourist destinations in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. Since a brand encompasses not only functional but also symbolic elements, its image, as perceived by consumers, can be assessed with respect to both its functional and psychological components. Hence, this exploratory study investigates the brand personality of Portugal as a tourist destination, from the perspective of the Czech market, through a destination image approach. The online survey instrument included open-ended items to depict functional and psychological destination features and additional questions to characterize the profile of a sample of Czech university students. The main findings of this research highlight positive personality traits that are related to the brand of Portugal, which suggest its potential as a vacation destination for the Czech market under study.

  1. Good, Better, Best Practise – A Comparative Analysis of Official Destination Websites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Candice Louw

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The uplifting financial impact that tourism may have on local and global economies of scale has resulted in tourists becoming a highly sought-after commodity capable of turning almost any tourism destination and its attractions into thriving exports. With the rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs and the introduction of smart technologies in particular, however, tourism has become not only more accessible, but arguably also more competitive with an online, try-before-youbuy tourism experience now becoming a reality. Subsequently, the battle is no longer for top offline destination only, but also for online destination of choice. An opportunity thus exists for Official Destination Websites (ODWs to take advantage of these, and additional opportunities, to enhance a prospective tourist’s online, pre-tourism experience. By analysing seven of the world’s most popular destinations’ capital city ODWs, one comes to realise that ODWs have become an integrated, rather than independent, part of facilitating tourism. As such, the importance of developing, implementing and maintaining an ODW to increase the likelihood of a possible tourist conversion from mere browser to buyer is highlighted. Finally, the similarities and differences between the analysed ODWs are also listed in an attempt to guide prospective tourism destinations in their endeavour to establish a new ODW, as well as allowing destinations with an existing ODW to possibly implement improvements.

  2. Good, Better, Best Practise – A Comparative Analysis of Official Destination Websites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Candice Louw

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The uplifting financial impact that tourism may have on local and global economies of scale has resulted in tourists becoming a highly sought-after commodity capable of turning almost any tourism destination and its attractions into thriving exports. With the rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs and the introduction of smart technologies in particular, however, tourism has become not only more accessible, but arguably also more competitive with an online, try-before-you-buy tourism experience now becoming a reality. Subsequently, the battle is no longer for top offline destination only, but also for online destination of choice. An opportunity thus exists for Official Destination Websites (ODWs to take advantage of these, and additional opportunities, to enhance a prospective tourist’s online, pre-tourism experience. By analysing seven of the world’s most popular destinations’ capital city ODWs, one comes to realise that ODWs have become an integrated, rather than independent, part of facilitating tourism. As such, the importance of developing, implementing and maintaining an ODW to increase the likelihood of a possible tourist conversion from mere browser to buyer is highlighted. Finally, the similarities and differences between the analysed ODWs are also listed in an attempt to guide prospective tourism destinations in their endeavour to establish a new ODW, as well as allowing destinations with an existing ODW to possibly implement improvements.

  3. New Trends in Tourism Destination Branding by Means of Digital Marketing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Parlov Natalija

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Contemporary business is largely based on digital information. Traditional media forms lose battle in a new global surrounding. Therefore, knowing specific terminology and postulates of new conditions in the digital information market is essential. Globalization is an inevitable process overtaking all economic activities, including tourism sector intertwined with various advertising activities in order to place and sell its products and services. Digital marketing is thus more and more used. In that context, world tourism organizations and national tourist agencies play a role of communicator, trying to create desired mental image of a specific country as a tourism destination in the minds of final consumers. They use branding to make one country uniquely recognizable in the market. The aim of this paper is to present new trends in tourism destination branding process by using the means of digital marketing. The main purpose of this research was to analyse marketing activities and communication strategies of European countries, perceived as the largest tourism market, and compare them with the tourism promotion of Croatia in various markets. The results of the analysis of Croatian activities in promoting its tourism destinations imply there is still a large potential to improve implementation of digital marketing means by preparing the strategy of integrated market communication. The analysis of marketing activities of tourism developed countries shows trends in digital marketing that can serve as a model for development of Croatian tourism brand in global digital surrounding.

  4. Improving the profile of the European tourist destinations through the European tourism indicators system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura CISMARU

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Within the most recent European Policy for Tourism, the competitiveness of the European tourism industry is directly linked to the image of Europe and to its perception, as a collection of sustainable and high-quality tourist destinations. In such context, improving the profile of the European tourist destinations has become a main target. During the last years, the European Commission focused on the sustainable development of tourist destinations. Several projects were developed, the most recent one introducing a practical tool - the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS for the sustainable development of destinations. The present paper advances the idea that such tool can be successfully used in order to achieve the goal of improving the profile of the European tourist destinations.

  5. Development Strategies for Tourism Destinations: Tourism Sophistication vs. Resource Investments

    OpenAIRE

    Rainer Andergassen; Guido Candela

    2010-01-01

    This paper investigates the effectiveness of development strategies for tourism destinations. We argue that resource investments unambiguously increase tourism revenues and that increasing the degree of tourism sophistication, that is increasing the variety of tourism related goods and services, increases tourism activity and decreases the perceived quality of the destination's resource endowment, leading to an ambiguous effect on tourism revenues. We disentangle these two effects and charact...

  6. CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE DESIGN OF SPECIFIC TOURISM PRODUCTS FOR THE TOURISM DESTINATION ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MONICA PAULA RAŢIU

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Romania, as tourism destination with its component micro-destinations (Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat - Crişana, Transylvania, Bucovina, Maramureş, Moldavia and Dobrogea, possesses many tourism attractions and at the same time has a real tourism potential. The fact that it is not included among the Europe’s „valuable” destinations represents a loss both for its inhabitants and for Europeans in general, too. One of the reasons is the lack of an image consolidated by identity elements or / and simply the lack of image that would represent the starting point for development of appropriate tourism products (developing a strategy. This paper proposes, starting from the image perceived by the inhabitants about their own destination – based on the example of Transylvania – to emphasize the importance and also the role of the destination image in developing the main directions of actions and, especially, in developing the strategy for the specific tourism products.

  7. Tourists’ Satisfaction at Trijuginarayan: An Emerging Spiritual and Adventure Tourist Destination in Garhwal Himalaya India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S.C. Bagri

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Tourists’ satisfaction has been acknowledged as one of the most important elements of competitive advantage and formulating effective destination management strategies because it is a reliable standard to evaluate performance of tangible and intangible elements of tourism products and services. The purpose of this study is to investigate tourists’ satisfaction by examining the relationship between destination attribute importance and performance in a tourist destination. Trijuginarayan, an emerging spiritual and adventure tourist destination located in Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand state of India was selected as the study area for this research. Importance-Performance Analysis was employed to examine the relationship between importance and performance of various destination attributes. Results revealed that attributes related to tourism product of spiritual and cultural nature, atmosphere and climate, a variety of tourist activities, hospitality and safety are significant factors in determining tourist satisfaction, whereas basic facilities such as accommodation, transportation, tourism infrastructure and hygiene and sanitation at destination are of significant importance in satisfaction evaluation. Findings also reveal that tourists were satisfied with the core products, but were dissatisfied with basic tourist facilities offered at the destination. The findings alert concerned tourism stakeholders for outlining effective strategies for holistic development and improving performance of attributes in a given destination.

  8. Migrant pupils’ scientific performance: the influence of educational system features of origin and destination countries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dronkers, J.; Levels, M.; de Heus, M.

    2014-01-01

    Background Earlier studies using a double perspective (destination & origin) indicate that several macro-characteristics of both destination and origin countries affect the educational performance of migrant children. This paper explores the extent to which educational system features of destination

  9. "Forget to whom you have told this proverb": directed forgetting of destination memory in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Gandolphe, Marie-Charlotte; Allain, Philippe; Fasotti, Luciano; Antoine, Pascal

    2015-01-01

    Destination memory is the ability to remember the receiver of transmitted information. By means of a destination memory directed forgetting task, we investigated whether participants with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were able to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. Twenty-six AD participants and 30 healthy elderly subjects were asked to tell 10 different proverbs to 10 different celebrities (List 1). Afterwards, half of the participants were instructed to forget the destinations (i.e., the celebrities) whereas the other half were asked to keep them in mind. After telling 10 other proverbs to 10 other celebrities (List 2), participants were asked to read numbers aloud. Subsequently, all the participants were asked to remember the destinations of List 1 and List 2, regardless of the forget or remember instructions. The results show similar destination memory in AD participants who were asked to forget the destinations of List 1 and those who were asked to retain them. These findings are attributed to inhibitory deficits, by which AD participants have difficulties to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory.

  10. City Image – As Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanciulescu Gabriela Cecilia

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Tourism is a competitive industry, even on a global scale. If access to a destination or attraction is too complicated, time consuming, expensive or not providing adequate capacity, even the most spectacular attraction will remain a secret to most tourists, as they will prefer competitive alternatives” (Smiths, 2003. And to continue this, it is considered that „that cultural differences and uniqueness are important if one wants cultural products to become a commercial success” (Lindenberg, 2004. When cultural tourists are looking to experiment or to improve their knowledge, the question is: “Which are the best strategies and practices to market that experience and knowledge for the cultural tourists” (Kantanen, 2005. This paper will be dedicated to presenting city tourist destinations, their marketing and market positioning, also to analyze the way in which potential customers’ perception is built and how the process can be influenced, and to analyze the way the tourist product is assembled.

  11. Tourists and Local Stakeholders Attitudes Towards Offer and Market Position of Tourist Destination Budva

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marković Ana Tripković

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available There are various definitions of tourist destination. All of them define tourist destination as an area with specific tourist facilities and attractions, (primary and secondary elements which tourists choose as their journey goal. Budva individually represents the largest tourist destination due to number of arrivals and overnight stays. During its life cycle Budva has gone through different phases as a tourist destination. This thesis implies that it is not enough to use only common quantitative indicator of visitor number to define proper the position of tourist destination and predict further development. This text is based on a comparative analysis of the attitudes of tourists and local stakeholders in the three field researches, conducted in the period between 2015 and 2016. The thesis comes to the conclusion that the actual growth is based on meeting the needs of existing markets and tourists. On the other side, aspect of desired market position disagrees with scores of tourist offer elements- which should be input for improvement and preparation for the next stage in the destination development.

  12. Competitiveness as an Indicator of Sustainable Development of Tourism: Applying Destination Competitiveness Indicators to Ethiopia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wondowossen, T.A.; Nakagoshi, N.; Yukio, Y.; Jongman, R.H.G.; Dawit, A.Z.

    2014-01-01

    Competitiveness can be applied to predict the economic sustainability of tourism in destinations which has been measured in terms of leakages and linkage related to employment and income generation opportunities to the destinations. This article examines destination competitiveness of Ethiopia based

  13. Does eWOM influence destination trust and travel intention: a medical tourism perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Abubakar, Abubakar Mohammed

    2016-01-01

    Virtual community membership has a strong influence on a tourist’s behaviours and the way information is transmitted. Drawing on trust transfer theory as a theoretical framework, this study tests an empirical model that investigates the influence of electronic wordof- mouth (eWOM) on destination trust and travel intention. The study also diagnoses gender differences in the proposed model. Data were obtained from a sample of 216 tourists in Cyprus. The findings from regressio...

  14. Events as a Framework for Tourist Destination Branding – Case Studies of Two Cultural Events in Croatia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klara Trošt

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Events have become an increasingly significant component of destination branding. Many destinations throughout the world have developed events portfolios as a strategic initiative to attract tourists and to reinforce their brand. In this paper, the focus of research will be on tourist destination branding by means of events. The relationship between events and destination branding is examined through six phases of the process of building a destination brand identity with the use of events. When it comes to destination branding, a need for an analysis of strategic documents of destination development imposes because event tourism strategies help destinations plan how to use events in a tourism role. The purpose of this study is to examine which factors are of the top priorities when using events as a marketing approach. The method of case study will be used, by which two cultural events which take place in the Republic of Croatia will be analyzed, namely, “Špancirfest” in Varaždin and “Trka na prstenac” in Barban. Varaždin and Barban are on different levels in their branding work. The different sizes and locations of the destinations naturally affect the operating procedures. This article may be of interest to destination marketers and event organizers, especially in developing destinations which intend to differentiate themselves from the competitive market.

  15. Tour guides developing urban ecotourism destinations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meged, Jane Widtfeldt; Lasa-Gonzalez, Anne Cecilie

    is “controlled by other stakeholder and largely beyond the influence of tour guides” (ibid). In fact Weiler and Black (2015) argue that pathways and extend have never been investigated on how interpretative guiding improves the economic viability and competitiveness of business, and social and cultural benefits...... to local communities and destinations. In this paper, we want to propose a research agenda where guides have a central role in cooperation with public and private key stakeholder in development of a scalable participatory model for sustainable urban ecotourism. Wang & Wang (2013) define urban ecotourism...... as an “activity system to satisfy needs of the locals and visitors for using local natural scenery, culture and folk customs, and also to maintain ecological balance of urban environment and establish environment-friendly concepts” (2013:1). Drawing on Iterative Participatory Design, where “the concept is defined...

  16. Branding Prince Edward County as a Gastronomic Niche Tourism Destination: A Case Study

    OpenAIRE

    Geneviève Brisson; Rocci Luppicini

    2015-01-01

    Increasingly, gastronomy is playing a role in people's motivation for travel, and destinations are making food and beverages their main attraction. This study explored the growing field of gastronomic tourism, a type of niche tourism, through the theoretical framework of destination branding theory. Using a qualitative case study research design, this research examined the branding of the emergent region of Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada as a gastronomic niche tourism destination from ...

  17. A personal tourism navigation system to support traveling multiple destinations with time restrictions

    OpenAIRE

    Maruyama, Atsushi; Shibata, Naoki; Murata, Yoshihiro; Yasumoto, Keiichi; Ito, Minoru

    2004-01-01

    We propose a personal navigation system (called PNS) which navigates a tourist through multiple destinations efficiently. In our PNS, a tourist can specify multiple destinations with desired arrival/stay time and preference degree. The system calculates the route including part of the destinations satisfying tourist's requirements and navigates him/her. For the above route search problem, we have developed an efficient route search algorithm using a genetic algorithm. We have designed and imp...

  18. Innovative Governance Strategies in Meetings Destination Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gyimóthy, Szilvia; Larson, Mia

    2013-01-01

    Innovative Governance Strategies in Meetings Destination Networks Introduction, problem statement and aims of the study Collaborative regional networks has been long considered as a must in successful tourism development (Dredge & Jenkins 2003) owing to benefits such as scale and scope economics......, as well as joint planning and coordination of supply facilities. However, the setting up and governance of destination networks is paved with managerial challenges, including, among others: the balancing of conflicting stakeholder interest (Wilkinson & March 2008), and bridging over the gap between...... the bureaucratic culture of public administration and the marketing culture adopted by private tourism firms (Palmer 1996). This regional coordinating role must be undertaken in spite of limited ownership, budget or power to control how individual firms deliver (D’Angella & Go 2007). Furthermore, various actors...

  19. Cognitive components of rural tourism destination images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kokkali, Panagiota; Koutsouris, Alex; Chrysochou, Polymeros

    This paper aims at exploring issues related to rural tourism destination image focusing on TDI cognitive components. By means of empirical research addressing tourists visiting the Lake Plastiras area, Central Greece, the cognitive components of the area's TDI were identified along with their eff......This paper aims at exploring issues related to rural tourism destination image focusing on TDI cognitive components. By means of empirical research addressing tourists visiting the Lake Plastiras area, Central Greece, the cognitive components of the area's TDI were identified along......; (3) visitors can be classified in four clusters according the cognitive factors; (4) tourists' clusters differ in terms of age, education and income as well as number of visits and perception of the area's attractiveness. Such findings point towards the need of both a new strategy for the area...

  20. Role of Travel Motivations, Perceived Risks and Travel Constraints on Destination Image and Visit Intention in Medical Tourism; Theoretical model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad J. Khan

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Travel motivations, perceived risks and travel constraints, along with the attributes and characteristics of medical tourism destinations, are important issues in medical tourism. Although the importance of these factors is already known, a comprehensive theoretical model of the decision-making process of medical tourists has yet to be established, analysing the intricate relationships between the different variables involved. This article examines a large body of literature on both medical and conventional tourism in order to propose a comprehensive theoretical framework of medical tourism decision-making. Many facets of this complex phenomenon require further empirical investigation.

  1. Analysis on Variables Affecting the Creation of Tourist Destination Image: Case Study on Domestic Tourists Visiting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khairani

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the variables that affect the image creation of tourism destinations. This research is a case study on domestic tourists visiting Yogyakarta from 2007 to 2009. This research uses an exploratory and descriptive design, conducted once in one period (cross-sectional. A number of 105 domestic tourists were selected as samples by means of non-probability sampling method and snowball sampling technique. The data were analyzed using reliability and validity tests, frequency distributions, and regression analyses. Results showed that overall image was significantly constructed and affected by cognitive and affective evaluations. Cognitive evaluation was significantly affected by the types of information source from books and movies, while affective evaluation was affected significantly by social-psychological motivations. The research also proves that Yogyakarta has fulfilled the requirements to become a tourist destination; respondents showed positive feelings towards the town and also perceived the town positively.

  2. The Sustainable Management of a Tourism Destination in Ireland: A Focus on County Clare

    OpenAIRE

    CONAGHAN, Aíne; HANRAHAN, James; McLOUGHLIN, Emmet

    2015-01-01

    Tourism destination management has significant importance in controlling many impacts of tourism, thus insuring its sustainability. Destination management requires the integration of different planning tools, approaches and concepts that help shape the management and daily operation of tourism related activities. This study examines the sustainable management of a tourism destination, focusing on County Clare, Ireland. Qualitative interviews were conducted with tourism stake...

  3. STARTING POINT FOR BRANDING SLAVONIA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Berislav Bolfek

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Branding in tourism is a process that selects a particular destination by its characteristics, thus creating destination identity. The greatest success in this process is achieved by emphasizing authenticity, where Slavonia has great potential. By creating international recognisability of the region, a brand attracts investments and a skilled labour force, thus indirectly having a positive effect on export growth. Values that should draw the attention of both domestic and foreign tourists, i.e. values that are sufficiently attractive to bring tourists, are embedded in the brand. These values should be realistically based. Although Slavonia is an underdeveloped region in terms of tourism, it has a realistic perspective to become a desirable tourist destination. The paper provides analysis of the results of the conducted primary research about the perception that tourists have about Slavonia as a tourist destination. One of the goals was to determine the key components and areas that would be used in the future as a foundation for the definition of a unique brand identity of Slavonia and creation of a desirable tourist environment in this area. Based on the conducted research, clear indicators reflect the opinion of tourists which makes Slavonia unique and attractive, being at the same time elements of its unique brand identity. The results showed that the possible strong driving force of tourism development in Slavonia may include products such as rural tourism, thematic events, special interests (cycling, hiking, fishing and hunting, religious tourism, health and nautical tourism. Another conclusion that was made during the research is that Slavonia should aim at the target population. Thus, segmentation results in several target groups such as tourists with special interests, tourists preferring cultural heritage and other traditional values, nature lovers, recreational athletes and athletes. The aim was to gather data that could be used in the

  4. Deriving profiles of incident and scattered neutrons for TOF experiments with the spallation sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Hidehiro

    1993-01-01

    A formula that closely matches the incident profile of epi-thermal and thermal neutrons for time of flight experiments carried out with a spallation neutron source and moderator scheme is derived based on the slowing-down and diffusing-out processes in a moderator. This analytical description also enables us to predict burst-function profiles; these profiles are verified by a comparison with a diffraction pattern. The limits of the analytical model are discussed through the predictable peak position shift brought about by the slowing-down process. (orig.)

  5. Public-Private Partnerships For A Sustainable Tourism Development of Urban Destinations. The Case of Braşov, Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adina CANDREA

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Considering that there are few success chances for isolated businesses, public-private partnerships represent the basis of tourism businesses’ sustainable development, aiming to attract increasing numbers of visitors in tourism destinations. Within this context, the main aim of the present paper is to identify tourism stakeholders’ intentions to participate in public-private partnerships for a sustainable tourism development of urban destinations. Focused on the increased importance of partnerships between tourism stakeholders, with the common goal of sustainable tourism development, a survey was conducted among the tourism service providers from the Romanian urban destination, Braşov. The research results outline the defi ciencies in the analyzed destination, which lead to a low notoriety of the destination’s management and marketing organization among local tourism stakeholders. In addition, the results show a low level of involvement of tourism operators in supporting the collaboration efforts of this organization. Based on the research results, a theoretical model was proposed for the identifi cation of the signifi cant factors which infl uence local stakeholders’ intentions to participate in public-private partnerships for a sustainable tourism development.

  6. Novel coherent receivers for AF distributed STBC using disintegrated channel estimation

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Fahd Ahmed; Chen, Yunfei; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2011-01-01

    For a single relay network, disintegrated channel estimation (DCE), where the source-relay channel is estimated at the relay and the relay-destination channel is estimated at the destination, gives better performance than the cascaded channel estimation. We derive novel receivers for the relay network with disintegrated channel estimation. The derived receivers do not require channel estimation at the destination, as they use the received pilot signals and the source-relay channel estimate for decoding directly. We also consider the effect of quantized source-relay channel estimate on the performance of the designed receivers. Simulation results show that a performance gain of up to 2.2 dB can be achieved by the new receivers, compared with the conventional mismatched coherent receiver with DCE. © 2011 IEEE.

  7. Novel coherent receivers for AF distributed STBC using disintegrated channel estimation

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Fahd Ahmed

    2011-05-01

    For a single relay network, disintegrated channel estimation (DCE), where the source-relay channel is estimated at the relay and the relay-destination channel is estimated at the destination, gives better performance than the cascaded channel estimation. We derive novel receivers for the relay network with disintegrated channel estimation. The derived receivers do not require channel estimation at the destination, as they use the received pilot signals and the source-relay channel estimate for decoding directly. We also consider the effect of quantized source-relay channel estimate on the performance of the designed receivers. Simulation results show that a performance gain of up to 2.2 dB can be achieved by the new receivers, compared with the conventional mismatched coherent receiver with DCE. © 2011 IEEE.

  8. AN EXAMINATION OF COMPETITIVENESS OF RURAL DESTINATIONS FROM THE SUPPLY SIDE PERSPECTIVE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dunja Demirović

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Tourist destinations are now faced with increased competition at the market and holders of tourist policy and offers have realized that understanding the factors that contribute to a better positioning in the market place, and therefore the competitiveness, is of crucial importance for further development. The aim of this paper is to determine how much Vojvodina is competitive as a rural tourism destination, and to assess the current state of all the factors that affect/could affect the competitiveness of rural tourism destinations in Vojvodina Province (Northern Serbia. The total of 136 tourism experts were interviewed, and we concluded that the key resources and attraction of rural areas in Vojvodina are rated better than the macro and industry-related factors. This suggests that a rural development strategy should have a special bond with resources and attractions of the destination, that priority should be given to maintaining all aspects of safety and security, continuous improvement of services, diversity of culinary products, as well as the application of the principles of sustainability in environmental management. The work of national and provincial institutions should have the aim to ensure that the destination has a clear idea of where it is going and what it takes to become successful in the long term.

  9. THE QUALITY OF THE TOURIST DESTINATIONS A KEY FACTOR FOR INCREASING THEIR ATTRACTIVENESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daliborka Blazeska

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Taking into consideration that the tourism is extremely important for any country including Republic of Macedonia, it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of the tourist destinations and increasing of their attractiveness. So winners in the field of tourism will be those countries that have attractive tourist destination that will attract a lot of visitors. In this paper is defined the relationship between the factors of attractiveness of the destination and the achieving of competitiveness. In order to become competitive in the global market, the tourist destination has to be innovative and to continually search for new competitive advantages. Those kind of competitive advantages enable stable and long-term sustainable development of the tourist destination. In this paper special emphasis is put to the monitoring of the quality of the tourist destination with constant inquiries of the tourists (domestic and foreign regarding the most important segments of the quality of the tourist product which they are using, in order to perceive the satisfaction or the eventual dissatisfaction in order to be taken concrete strategies for the following period. The obtained results clearly confirm the dissatisfaction with the road infrastructure and signalization, the price of the services and the conditions for the stay, as well as the additional attractions that were expected to get.

  10. On the jamming power allocation for secure amplify-and-forward relaying via cooperative jamming

    KAUST Repository

    Park, Kihong

    2013-09-01

    In this paper, we investigate secure communications in two-hop wireless relaying networks with one eavesdropper. To prevent the eavesdropper from intercepting the source message, the destination sends an intended jamming noise to the relay, which is referred to as cooperative jamming. This jamming noise helps protecting the source message from being captured reliably at the eavesdropper, while the destination cancels its self-intended noise. According to the channel information available at the destination, we derive three jamming power allocation strategies to minimize the outage probability of the secrecy rate. In addition, we derive analytic results quantifying the jamming power consumption of the proposed allocation methods. © 1983-2012 IEEE.

  11. On the performance of hybrid ARQ with incremental redundancy over amplify-and-forward dual-hop relay networks

    KAUST Repository

    Hadjtaieb, Amir

    2014-09-01

    In this paper, we consider a three node relay network comprising a source, a relay, and a destination. The source transmits the message to the destination using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) with incremental redundancy (IR). The relay overhears the transmitted message, amplifies it using a variable gain amplifier, and then forwards the message to the destination. This latter combines both the source and the relay message and tries to decode the information. In case of decoding failure, the destination sends a negative acknowledgement. A new replica of the message containing new parity bits is then transmitted in the subsequent HARQ round. This process continues until successful decoding occurs at the destination or a maximum number M of rounds is reached. We study the performance of HARQ-IR over the considered relay channel from an information theoretic perspective. We derive for instance exact expressions and bounds for the information outage probability, the average number of transmissions, and the average transmission rate. The derived exact expressions are validated by Monte Carlo simulations.

  12. A Novel Evaluation Approach for Tourist Choice of Destination Based on Grey Relation Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xudong Guo

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The decision-making process of choosing an ideal tourism destination is influenced by a number of psychological and nonpsychological variables. Tourists need a method to quickly and easily select a suitable destination. Driven by this practical decision issue, a novel approach of tourist destination evaluation, grey relation analysis (GRA, is developed and applied to the ranking evaluation of Taiwan tourism destinations in China. In the evaluating process, we apply entropy to calculate the weight of each index, which is a more objective method of calculating weights. The results of the study indicate that although the same size is small and the distribution of data is unknown, GRA can still be successfully used in evaluating tourist destinations. In addition, we compare the GRA results with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS and show that more accurate ranking results can be obtained.

  13. 78 FR 48046 - Safety Zone; Kuoni Destination Management Fireworks; San Diego, CA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-08-07

    ...-AA00 Safety Zone; Kuoni Destination Management Fireworks; San Diego, CA AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... waters of the San Diego Bay in support of the Kuoni Destination Management Fireworks Display on August 6... Guard's ability to protect the public from the potential hazards associated with fireworks displays...

  14. Destination memory in schizophrenia: "Did I told Elvis Presley about the thief?"

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Altman, Rosalie; Bortolon, Catherine; Capdevielle, Delphine; Raffard, Stéphane

    2017-02-01

    Destination memory refers to the ability to remember to whom a piece of information was previously transmitted. Our paper assessed this ability in schizophrenia. Twenty-five patients with schizophrenia and 25 control participants told proverbs (e.g., "send a thief to catch a thief") to pictures of celebrities (e.g., Elvis Presley). Afterward, participants had to indicate to which celebrity they had previously said the proverbs. Participants also completed a binding task in which they were required to associate letters with their corresponding context (i.e., location). Analysis revealed worse destination memory and binding in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. In both populations, destination memory was significantly correlated with performances on the binding task. Our findings suggest difficulty in the ability to attribute information to its appropriate destination in schizophrenia. This difficulty may be related to compromise in binding separate cues together to form a coherent representation of an event in memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. The allure of new immigrant destinations and the Great Recession in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Mark; Wright, Richard; Townley, Matthew

    2014-01-01

    In the 1990s, the immigrant population in the United States dispersed to non-traditional settlement locations (what have become known as "new immigrant destinations"). This paper examines whether the allure of new destinations persisted in the 2000s with a particular focus on the internal migration of the foreign born during the recent deep recessionary period and its aftermath. Three specific questions motivate the analysis. First, are immigrants, much like the US-born population, becoming less migratory within the country over time? Second, is immigrant dispersal from traditional gateways via internal migration continuing despite considerable economic contraction in many new destination metropolitan areas? Third, is immigration from aboard a substitute for what appears to be declining immigrant internal migration to new destinations? The findings reveal a close correlation between the declining internal migration propensity of the US-born and immigrants in the last two decades. We also observe parallels between the geographies of migration of native- and foreign-born populations with both groups moving to similar metropolitan areas in the 1990s. This redistributive association, however, weakened in the subsequent decade as new destination metropolitan areas lost their appeal for both groups, especially immigrants. There is no evidence to suggest that immigration from abroad is substituting for the decline in immigrant redistribution through internal migration to new destinations. Across destination types the relationship between immigration from abroad and the internal migration of the foreign born remained the same before, during, and after the Great Recession.

  16. Tourists’ Risk Perception and the Use of Mobile Devices in Beach Tourism Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesc González-Reverté

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The perceived risk of tourists’ use of smartphones is a key issue in shaping the tourist experience in terms of sustainability, as it can affect the behaviour of tourists and influence their satisfaction with that experience. However, little empirical research exists on the relationship between tourists’ risk perception and the perceived value of mobile device usage. This paper measures the association between tourists’ perceived risk of mobile device usage and several variables that demonstrate the perceived usefulness of mobile devices: utility, hedonic value and future intention of use. A survey on tourists’ use of smartphones was conducted in 2016 and, by means of a cluster analysis, four groups of tourists were identified with significant differences in their perception of the risk and use value of smartphones. Differences between tourists suggest that a single digital tourist profile does not exist and that tourism destinations and smart tourism DMOs (destination marketing organisations should include risk perception in their management agenda. This will allow them to achieve a better understanding of tourist behaviour and to adapt the commercialisation of tourism products and services to a wide range of tourism needs. In addition, four regression models were applied to measure the association between the risk and perceived usefulness of mobile devices. On the one hand, dependence on mobile devices was associated positively with the perceived usefulness of mobile devices. On the other hand, the tourists surveyed saw privacy risk as having a major negative impact on the tourist experience, although it did not affect their perceived utility value and future use of mobile devices. Smart tourism destination managers should bear in mind that privacy risk issues related to the use of mobile devices must be integrated into an ethical perspective when marketing a destination.

  17. “Forget to Whom You Have Told This Proverb”: Directed Forgetting of Destination Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Gandolphe, Marie-Charlotte; Allain, Philippe; Fasotti, Luciano; Antoine, Pascal

    2015-01-01

    Destination memory is the ability to remember the receiver of transmitted information. By means of a destination memory directed forgetting task, we investigated whether participants with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were able to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. Twenty-six AD participants and 30 healthy elderly subjects were asked to tell 10 different proverbs to 10 different celebrities (List 1). Afterwards, half of the participants were instructed to forget the destinations (i.e., the celebrities) whereas the other half were asked to keep them in mind. After telling 10 other proverbs to 10 other celebrities (List 2), participants were asked to read numbers aloud. Subsequently, all the participants were asked to remember the destinations of List 1 and List 2, regardless of the forget or remember instructions. The results show similar destination memory in AD participants who were asked to forget the destinations of List 1 and those who were asked to retain them. These findings are attributed to inhibitory deficits, by which AD participants have difficulties to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. PMID:25918456

  18. Branding Sicily as Gastronomically Attractive Destination, viewed by Kempinski Hotel Giardino di Costanza

    OpenAIRE

    Kalinina, Anastasia

    2013-01-01

    The object of the study was to investigate the opportunity of destination brand-ing through the tool of its gastronomy. In order to render concrete to the topic I chose a popular destination – Sicily and Sicilian gastronomy. It is a fact that the theme of gastronomic direction in tourism and the role of gastronomy in des-tination branding is not developed at all. Besides, personally I have been always attracted by gastronomic experiences in tourism. So it was a challenge for my-self to explor...

  19. The Sustainable Management of a Tourism Destination in Ireland: A Focus on County Clare

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aine CONAGHAN

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Tourism destination management has significant importance in controlling many impacts of tourism, thus insuring its sustainability. Destination management requires the integration of different planning tools, approaches and concepts that help shape the management and daily operation of tourism related activities. This study examines the sustainable management of a tourism destination, focusing on County Clare, Ireland. Qualitative interviews were conducted with tourism stakeholders. Additionally a theoretical framework incorporating the various elements that emerged from the theory was also utilised to examine existing tourism strategies and plans. Stakeholders all agreed it would be an advantage to have a Destination Management Office (DMO lead that would coordinate destination management. However, it was found many tourism visions lack consistency and a timeframe with only a few addressing sustainability itself. Also the multiple regulations and guidelines identified by the framework were not communicated effectively to both stakeholders and policy makers when managing tourism in County Clare.

  20. Sustainability as an Identity Factor of Tourist Destinations at Websites:Does the Consumer Care?

    OpenAIRE

    Francisco Vicente Sales Melo; Salomão Alencar de Farias

    2014-01-01

    When choosing a vacation destination, consumers consider various factors, such as culture, natural attractions, history and points of interest, among others. In this article we analyze whether the question of sustainability is a determining factor in the choice of tourist destinations. Therefore, the article investigates the relationship of the identity of tourist destinations, as presented at their official websites, according to sustainability characteristics, the evaluation of the destinat...

  1. TOURIST MOTIVATION FOR RURAL DESTINATIONS

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    Angela BOTEZATU

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available City daily overexertion impels tourists wish to travel. Rural tourism behavior is determined by a set of motivational factors that makes him appreciate favorable tourist destinations. In order to analyze and assess the opinions and attitudes of tourists in rural areas we realized a market survey, the results being presented in the article below. Future trends, the growth rate of market depend largely on the wishes and intentions of goods or services consumers. This study involves the engagement of a number of 658 respondents, which were interviewed to determine the basic motivations in choosing countryside. The working methods used were analysis, synthesis and questionnaire survey as a research method. Results refer to the following: about 59 percent, spend up to 10% of annual income for vacations and travel, for rural tourism this amount is much lower; the association of the term „rural tourism” in the local tourist mind, oscillates among „a villa” in rural areas or „active vacation” (biking, hiking, riding, swimming or hunting; customer loyalty is one of the goals of marketing activities undertaken in hostels or other travel service providers. In conclusion, we mention that the variety of motivational factors in choosing tourist destinations in rural areas drive this type of tourism.

  2. "Forget to whom you have told this proverb'': Directed forgetting of destination memory in Alzheimer's disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Haj, M.; Gandolphe, M.C.; Allain, P.; Fasotti, L.; Antoine, P.

    2015-01-01

    Destination memory is the ability to remember the receiver of transmitted information. By means of a destination memory directed forgetting task, we investigated whether participants with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were able to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. Twenty-six AD

  3. CAPITAL FLOWS AND THEIR SECTORAL DESTINATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petris Sorina

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Since 2003, New European Union Member States have made large capital inflows, which led to a credit crunch and recession. Whether they are foreign direct investment, or banking flows, capital inflows ultimately affect GDP, depending on how they are invested. In the specialty literature, analysis of capital flows was done especially in terms of their structure, with a lack of analysis in terms of final destination of capital inflows. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of capital inflows on GDP in the New Member States of the European Union (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia over the last economic cycle. Based on experiences of the new Member States during the recent boom and crisis, the paper studies the impact of capital inflows on GDP growth, inflows channeled to economic sectors, such as real estate and corporate investment sector. The results of this research tries to highlight the extent to which the final destination of capital flows is important for the evolution of GDP.

  4. Gastronomy as an element of attraction in a tourist destination: the case of Lima, Peru

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jesús Claudio Pérez Gálvez

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, gastronomy has become one of the main sources of attraction in the tourist destinations. The objective of this study is to present the results of a research conducted on the foreign tourists in the city of Lima, a World Heritage Site, which is considered as one of the main gastronomic leaders of the world.. The principal results indicate that foreign tourists have different attitudes toward the local gastronomy. Therefore, the foreign tourists were arranged, following the model developed by Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen (2016, in three different groups: survivors, enjoyers, and experiencers. Furthermore, it shows that the foreign tourists have different motivations regarding gastronomy, which we have grouped into three dimensions: new food experience, culture, and socialization. The results show that the dimensions new food experience and socialization contribute to a greater degree to gastronomic satisfaction.

  5. Destination memory and familiarity: better memory for conversations with Elvis Presley than with unknown people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Haj, Mohamad; Omigie, Diana; Samson, Séverine

    2015-06-01

    Familiarity is assumed to exert a beneficial effect on memory in older adults. Our paper investigated this issue specifically for destination memory, that is, memory of the destination of previously relayed information. Young and older adults were told familiar (Experiment 1) and unfamiliar (Experiment 2) proverbs associated with pictures depicting faces of celebrities (e.g., Elvis Presley) or unknown people, with a specific proverb assigned to each face. In a later recognition task, participants were presented with the previously exposed proverb-face pairs and for each pair had to decide whether they had previously relayed the given proverb to the given face. In general, destination performance was found to be higher for familiar than for unfamiliar faces. However while there was no difference between the two groups when the proverbs being relayed were unfamiliar, the advantage of face familiarity on destination memory was present only for older adults when the proverbs being relayed were familiar. Our results show that destination memory in older adults is sensitive to familiarity of both destination and output information.

  6. Tourist Profile and Destination Brand Perception: The Case of Cape Town, South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ikechukwu O. Ezeuduji

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Tourists pay for destination brands. This study checked for the relationships between tourists’ profile and how they perceived the destination brand of Cape Town. A questionnaire survey of 220 tourists visiting Cape Town was done. This study found that repeat visit, age of tourist, length of stay, and tourist origin, have significant influences on how tourists visiting Cape Town perceived the destination. The top three destination attributes of Cape Town (cognitive images, which enhance visitor experience satisfaction are (1 the overall level of service quality at facilities in Cape Town, (2 the city being one of the best places the tourists have visited, and (3 the destination’s good value for money. The top three emotional valuations of destination attributes (affective images which enhance visitor experience satisfaction in Cape Town include (1 memorable visit, (2 valuable visit, and (3 friendly and hospitable population. It is therefore recommended that tourism businesses in Cape Town develop relationship marketing tools to attract and retain its tourists segments of loyal, advanced in age, long-staying and domestic tourists. Results from this research could be compared with related findings in the international arena and have related implications, especially for developing economies

  7. Destination memory and deception: when I lie to Barack Obama about the moon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haj, Mohamad El; Saloppé, Xavier; Nandrino, Jean Louis

    2018-05-01

    This study investigates whether deceivers demonstrate high memory of the person to whom lies have been told (i.e., high destination memory). Participants were asked to tell true information (e.g., the heart is a vital organ) and false information (e.g., the moon is bigger than the sun) to pictures of famous people (e.g., Barack Obama) and, in a subsequent recognition test, they had to remember to whom each type of information had previously been told. Participants were also assessed on a deception scale to divide them into two populations (i.e., those with high vs. those with low deception). Participants with high tendency to deceive demonstrated similar destination memory for both false and true information, whereas those with low deception demonstrated higher destination memory for lies than for true information. Individuals with a high tendency to deceive seem to keep track of the destination of both true information and lies to be consistent in their future social interactions, and thus to avoid discovery of their deception. However, the inconsistency between deceiving and the moral standard of individuals with a low tendency to deceive may result in high destination memory in these individuals.

  8. Bucharest: Analysis of an ‘old’ destination with a new tourism identity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aurelia-Felicia Stăncioiu

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available To be able to promote itself efficiently on the market, a destination, given the marketing perspective – has to be aware about the authentic and crucial elements of its own identity as being the only way to transfer, virtually and materially, of what it has best – the social-cultural and artistic identity (which, from a tourist perspective, represents its perceived image, along with psychological and artistic image of the destination. Hence without a detailed knowledge of this aspect, the promotion leads to a presentation of a distorted image of the destination which, in time, can distort the socio-cultural identity of the inhabitants of that region. To build the image of a destination (a notoriously long and complex process, begins with the need to profoundly understand tourists’ complexity of expectations (both functional and psychological and, on their basis, to use these as attributes of the destination in order to improve attractiveness. In Romania’s case such an aspect gains more importance due to the fact that, after the 1989, young generation, an important population segment, seem to register a continuous and dangerous process of “identity erosion”, which over time could result into disconnecting from the essence of the Romanian spirit, not being able to understand or even ignoring sense of belonging, sense of identity, heritage and “tourism heritage”.

  9. Good, Better, Best Practise – A Comparative Analysis of Official Destination Websites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Candice Louw

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The uplifting financial impact that tourism may have on local and global economies of scale has resulted in tourists becoming a highly sought-after commodity capable of turning almost any tourism destination and its attractions into thriving exports. With the rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs and the introduction of smart technologies in particular, however, tourism has become not only more accessible, but arguably also more competitive with an online, try-before-you-buy tourism experience now becoming a reality. Subsequently, the battle is no longer for top offline\tdestination only, but also for online destination of choice. An opportunity thus exists for Official Destination Websites (ODWs to take advantage of these, and additional opportunities, to enhance a\tprospective tourist’s online, pre-tourism experience. By analysing seven of the world’s most popular destinations’ capital city ODWs, one comes to realise that ODWs have become an integrated, rather than independent, part of facilitating tourism. As such, the importance of developing, implementing and maintaining an ODW to increase the likelihood of a possible tourist conversion from mere browser to buyer is highlighted. Finally, the similarities and differences between the analysed ODWs are also listed in an attempt to guide prospective tourism destinations in their endeavour to establish a new ODW, as well as allowing destinations with an existing ODW to possibly implement improvements.

  10. Effects of source shape on the numerical aperture factor with a geometrical-optics model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Der-Shen; Schmit, Joanna; Novak, Erik

    2004-04-01

    We study the effects of an extended light source on the calibration of an interference microscope, also referred to as an optical profiler. Theoretical and experimental numerical aperture (NA) factors for circular and linear light sources along with collimated laser illumination demonstrate that the shape of the light source or effective aperture cone is critical for a correct NA factor calculation. In practice, more-accurate results for the NA factor are obtained when a linear approximation to the filament light source shape is used in a geometric model. We show that previously measured and derived NA factors show some discrepancies because a circular rather than linear approximation to the filament source was used in the modeling.

  11. FACTORS AFFECTING CITY DESTINATION CHOICE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERBIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nemanja Tomić

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The main goal of this study is to explore factors which influence city destination choice among young people in Serbia. In order to achieve this we conducted a survey consisting of 20 different items influencing the choice of city destination. Afterwards the principal component exploratory factor analysis (EFA was carried out in order to extract factors. T-test and ANOVA test were also used to determine if there is a difference between different gender and age groups in terms of which factors influence their choice of a city destination. The results indicate four motivating factors extracted by factor analysis, from which Good hospitality and restaurant service seems to be the major motivating factor. The results also show that respondents belonging to the age group of under 25 give more importance to Information and promotion as well as to Good hospitality and restaurant service than those belonging to older age groups. The same two factors are also more important to females than males.

  12. A comparison of cross-country mountain destination importance performance as perceived by international and domestic tourists: a cast study of Mt. Huang (China and Mt. Seorak (South Korea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renuka Newpaney

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we examine visitor’s importance and destination performance with respect to tourist attractions such as the environment, adventure, social culture, accessibility and relaxation of participants at Mt. Huang and Mt. Seorak respectively. This study identified the demographic characteristics of visitors to both mountain destinations. The researchers used the Importance Performed Analysis (IPA method to identify the importance and satisfaction levels of various attributes of both Mt. Huang and Mt. Seorak. They identified that the most important attributes sought after related to the natural environment, mountaineering, knowledge and information sharing, value of money and escape from a mundane daily job routine, while the least important would relate to mountain sports and the localities' inviting ambience for both mountain destinations. Using a simple questionnaire sample procedure, 247 visitors were considered in order to determine what the visitor’s deemed to be important, and what was satisfying from a destination performance perspective. SPSS 17 was used to analyze the data in different stages and pilot testing was conducted. The finding of this study can be helpful for tourist decision-makers in the public and private sectors. It is also useful to improve tourism services and to develop strategies for greater tourism promotion to the two destinations. Furthermore, this study can be a powerful source of input for destination promotion and positioning activities.

  13. Continuous Time Dynamic Contraflow Models and Algorithms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Urmila Pyakurel

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The research on evacuation planning problem is promoted by the very challenging emergency issues due to large scale natural or man-created disasters. It is the process of shifting the maximum number of evacuees from the disastrous areas to the safe destinations as quickly and efficiently as possible. Contraflow is a widely accepted model for good solution of evacuation planning problem. It increases the outbound road capacity by reversing the direction of roads towards the safe destination. The continuous dynamic contraflow problem sends the maximum number of flow as a flow rate from the source to the sink in every moment of time unit. We propose the mathematical model for the continuous dynamic contraflow problem. We present efficient algorithms to solve the maximum continuous dynamic contraflow and quickest continuous contraflow problems on single source single sink arbitrary networks and continuous earliest arrival contraflow problem on single source single sink series-parallel networks with undefined supply and demand. We also introduce an approximation solution for continuous earliest arrival contraflow problem on two-terminal arbitrary networks.

  14. A measurement-based generalized source model for Monte Carlo dose simulations of CT scans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ming, Xin; Feng, Yuanming; Liu, Ransheng; Yang, Chengwen; Zhou, Li; Zhai, Hezheng; Deng, Jun

    2017-03-07

    The goal of this study is to develop a generalized source model for accurate Monte Carlo dose simulations of CT scans based solely on the measurement data without a priori knowledge of scanner specifications. The proposed generalized source model consists of an extended circular source located at x-ray target level with its energy spectrum, source distribution and fluence distribution derived from a set of measurement data conveniently available in the clinic. Specifically, the central axis percent depth dose (PDD) curves measured in water and the cone output factors measured in air were used to derive the energy spectrum and the source distribution respectively with a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The in-air film measurement of fan-beam dose profiles at fixed gantry was back-projected to generate the fluence distribution of the source model. A benchmarked Monte Carlo user code was used to simulate the dose distributions in water with the developed source model as beam input. The feasibility and accuracy of the proposed source model was tested on a GE LightSpeed and a Philips Brilliance Big Bore multi-detector CT (MDCT) scanners available in our clinic. In general, the Monte Carlo simulations of the PDDs in water and dose profiles along lateral and longitudinal directions agreed with the measurements within 4%/1 mm for both CT scanners. The absolute dose comparison using two CTDI phantoms (16 cm and 32 cm in diameters) indicated a better than 5% agreement between the Monte Carlo-simulated and the ion chamber-measured doses at a variety of locations for the two scanners. Overall, this study demonstrated that a generalized source model can be constructed based only on a set of measurement data and used for accurate Monte Carlo dose simulations of patients' CT scans, which would facilitate patient-specific CT organ dose estimation and cancer risk management in the diagnostic and therapeutic radiology.

  15. A measurement-based generalized source model for Monte Carlo dose simulations of CT scans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ming, Xin; Feng, Yuanming; Liu, Ransheng; Yang, Chengwen; Zhou, Li; Zhai, Hezheng; Deng, Jun

    2017-03-01

    The goal of this study is to develop a generalized source model for accurate Monte Carlo dose simulations of CT scans based solely on the measurement data without a priori knowledge of scanner specifications. The proposed generalized source model consists of an extended circular source located at x-ray target level with its energy spectrum, source distribution and fluence distribution derived from a set of measurement data conveniently available in the clinic. Specifically, the central axis percent depth dose (PDD) curves measured in water and the cone output factors measured in air were used to derive the energy spectrum and the source distribution respectively with a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The in-air film measurement of fan-beam dose profiles at fixed gantry was back-projected to generate the fluence distribution of the source model. A benchmarked Monte Carlo user code was used to simulate the dose distributions in water with the developed source model as beam input. The feasibility and accuracy of the proposed source model was tested on a GE LightSpeed and a Philips Brilliance Big Bore multi-detector CT (MDCT) scanners available in our clinic. In general, the Monte Carlo simulations of the PDDs in water and dose profiles along lateral and longitudinal directions agreed with the measurements within 4%/1 mm for both CT scanners. The absolute dose comparison using two CTDI phantoms (16 cm and 32 cm in diameters) indicated a better than 5% agreement between the Monte Carlo-simulated and the ion chamber-measured doses at a variety of locations for the two scanners. Overall, this study demonstrated that a generalized source model can be constructed based only on a set of measurement data and used for accurate Monte Carlo dose simulations of patients’ CT scans, which would facilitate patient-specific CT organ dose estimation and cancer risk management in the diagnostic and therapeutic radiology.

  16. Modeling Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation From Emissions of Combustion Sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jathar, Shantanu Hemant

    Atmospheric aerosols exert a large influence on the Earth's climate and cause adverse public health effects, reduced visibility and material degradation. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA), defined as the aerosol mass arising from the oxidation products of gas-phase organic species, accounts for a significant fraction of the submicron atmospheric aerosol mass. Yet, there are large uncertainties surrounding the sources, atmospheric evolution and properties of SOA. This thesis combines laboratory experiments, extensive data analysis and global modeling to investigate the contribution of semi-volatile and intermediate volatility organic compounds (SVOC and IVOC) from combustion sources to SOA formation. The goals are to quantify the contribution of these emissions to ambient PM and to evaluate and improve models to simulate its formation. To create a database for model development and evaluation, a series of smog chamber experiments were conducted on evaporated fuel, which served as surrogates for real-world combustion emissions. Diesel formed the most SOA followed by conventional jet fuel / jet fuel derived from natural gas, gasoline and jet fuel derived from coal. The variability in SOA formation from actual combustion emissions can be partially explained by the composition of the fuel. Several models were developed and tested along with existing models using SOA data from smog chamber experiments conducted using evaporated fuel (this work, gasoline, fischertropschs, jet fuel, diesels) and published data on dilute combustion emissions (aircraft, on- and off-road gasoline, on- and off-road diesel, wood burning, biomass burning). For all of the SOA data, existing models under-predicted SOA formation if SVOC/IVOC were not included. For the evaporated fuel experiments, when SVOC/IVOC were included predictions using the existing SOA model were brought to within a factor of two of measurements with minor adjustments to model parameterizations. Further, a volatility

  17. Understanding Family Migration in Rural South Africa: Exploring Children's Inclusion in the Destination Households of Migrant Parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennett, Rachel; Hosegood, Victoria; Newell, Marie-Louise; McGrath, Nuala

    2015-05-01

    Despite the removal of restrictions on movement and increasing female participation in migration, only a minority of migrant parents in South Africa include their children in their destination household. Quantitative analyses of the circumstances in which children accompany a migrant parent have been limited by the lack of available data that document family arrangements from the perspective of more than one household. This paper uses data about members of rural households in a demographic surveillance population in KwaZulu-Natal and a linked sample survey of adult migrants to examine factors associated with children's inclusion in the destination household of migrant parents, analyse the timing and sequence of children's moves to parental destination households, and describe the composition of parental origin and destination households. The findings confirm that in contemporary South Africa, only a small percentage (14%) of migrants' children who are members of the parental origin household are also members of the parental destination household. Membership of the parental destination household is associated with parental characteristics and the child's age, but not measures of socio-economic status, and children most commonly migrate several years after their migrant parent. Children included in the destination household of migrant fathers frequently live in small households, which also include their mother, whereas children included in the destination household of migrant mothers live in larger households. This study contributes to understanding the contexts of children's inclusion in parental destination households in South Africa and demonstrates the potential of data collected in migrants' origin and destination households.

  18. The relation between personality traits and psychographic positions of travel destinations

    OpenAIRE

    Ismailov, Amet

    2017-01-01

    Master's thesis in International hotel and tourism management Understanding potential visitors is one of the fundamental tasks for researchers and businesses, destination marketing organizations as well as many other stakeholders in tourism domain. Despite the fact that Internet has become one of the major marketing channels for hospitality and tourism, researchers indicate that there is a notable gap in understanding how to effectively use social media in travel destination marketing. The...

  19. EVALUATING THE IMAGE OF TOURISM DESTINATIONS. THE CASE OF THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF THE CANARY ISLANDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roxana - Andreea SARAGEA

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available In the context of increased competition on the international tourism market, the assessment of destination image has become a research subject for both managers aiming to improve destination positioning and academic researchers. In order to obtain a competitive advantage, every tourist destination must identify, maintain and reinforce, through appropriate marketing policies, unique items that form and build over time "the destination' s image". Accordingly, the ultimate target of the tourist destinations' promoters should be to achieve a high level of coincidence between the promoted or projected image and the perceived image of the destination, held by potential and actual tourists. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to illustrate promotional techniques and methods used by the authorities of the Canary Islands over the years (projected image, and to identify, through a survey among the citizens of Braşov, the image that they have of the Canary Islands (perceived image.

  20. Retrieving global aerosol sources from satellites using inverse modeling

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    O. Dubovik

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Understanding aerosol effects on global climate requires knowing the global distribution of tropospheric aerosols. By accounting for aerosol sources, transports, and removal processes, chemical transport models simulate the global aerosol distribution using archived meteorological fields. We develop an algorithm for retrieving global aerosol sources from satellite observations of aerosol distribution by inverting the GOCART aerosol transport model.

    The inversion is based on a generalized, multi-term least-squares-type fitting, allowing flexible selection and refinement of a priori algorithm constraints. For example, limitations can be placed on retrieved quantity partial derivatives, to constrain global aerosol emission space and time variability in the results. Similarities and differences between commonly used inverse modeling and remote sensing techniques are analyzed. To retain the high space and time resolution of long-period, global observational records, the algorithm is expressed using adjoint operators.

    Successful global aerosol emission retrievals at 2°×2.5 resolution were obtained by inverting GOCART aerosol transport model output, assuming constant emissions over the diurnal cycle, and neglecting aerosol compositional differences. In addition, fine and coarse mode aerosol emission sources were inverted separately from MODIS fine and coarse mode aerosol optical thickness data, respectively. These assumptions are justified, based on observational coverage and accuracy limitations, producing valuable aerosol source locations and emission strengths. From two weeks of daily MODIS observations during August 2000, the global placement of fine mode aerosol sources agreed with available independent knowledge, even though the inverse method did not use any a priori information about aerosol sources, and was initialized with a "zero aerosol emission" assumption. Retrieving coarse mode aerosol emissions was less successful

  1. Implementing existing theories in developing a gastronomic tourism destination : case Kyrö Distillery Company

    OpenAIRE

    Ala-Lahti, Erkka

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this bachelor's thesis was to provide points of development for the subject company Kyrö Distillery Company in the developing of a gastronomic tourism destination. The subject company mainly operates as a distillery, but it has promising tourism potential in the field of gastronomic tourism. The company and the restaurant located in the destination, Kyrönmaan matkailunedistämiskeskus, also operate as a tourism destination providing tours and tastings of the company. The objecti...

  2. "The Social Destination": How Social Media Influences the Organisational Structure and Leadership of DMOs

    OpenAIRE

    Mihaela Jucan; Cornel Jucan; Ilie Rotariu

    2013-01-01

    The paper deals with the most important changes that have occurred in business because of social media and its impact on organisations and leadership in recent years. It seeks to synthesize existing research, theories and concepts, in order to understand "social destinations", and to provide a bridge from past research to future success. Becoming a "social destination" is a strategic and tactical leadership and management issue and the paper will present the importance of destination leadersh...

  3. Ecotourism Destinations in Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iuliana Ioana Merce

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Romania has about 800 protected areas, which now covers about 5% of the country. Most ecotourism destinations are located within or adjacent to these protected areas such as Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, northern communities National Park, Yosemite National Park, Apuseni Natural Park. In Romania there are still non-fragmented forest, and over a third of the population of bears, wolves and lynx in Europe, unique paradise of birds in the Danube Delta, more than 12 000 caves and, not least, full of authentic local traditions. Ecotourism allows recovery and conservation of the country's natural capital.

  4. BRIEF COMMENTS REGARDING THE INDIRECT (OR DERIVED) SOURCES OF LABOR LAW

    OpenAIRE

    Brîndușa Vartolomei

    2015-01-01

    In the field of the law governing the legal work relations one of the features that also contributes to defining the autonomy of labor law is that of the existence of the specific sources of law consisting in regulation on the functioning of the employer, internal regulation, collective labor agreement, and instructions regarding the security and labor health. In addition, in the practical field of the labor relationssome indirect (or derived) sources of law were also pointed out ...

  5. An architectural model for software reliability quantification: sources of data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smidts, C.; Sova, D.

    1999-01-01

    Software reliability assessment models in use today treat software as a monolithic block. An aversion towards 'atomic' models seems to exist. These models appear to add complexity to the modeling, to the data collection and seem intrinsically difficult to generalize. In 1997, we introduced an architecturally based software reliability model called FASRE. The model is based on an architecture derived from the requirements which captures both functional and nonfunctional requirements and on a generic classification of functions, attributes and failure modes. The model focuses on evaluation of failure mode probabilities and uses a Bayesian quantification framework. Failure mode probabilities of functions and attributes are propagated to the system level using fault trees. It can incorporate any type of prior information such as results of developers' testing, historical information on a specific functionality and its attributes, and, is ideally suited for reusable software. By building an architecture and deriving its potential failure modes, the model forces early appraisal and understanding of the weaknesses of the software, allows reliability analysis of the structure of the system, provides assessments at a functional level as well as at a systems' level. In order to quantify the probability of failure (or the probability of success) of a specific element of our architecture, data are needed. The term element of the architecture is used here in its broadest sense to mean a single failure mode or a higher level of abstraction such as a function. The paper surveys the potential sources of software reliability data available during software development. Next the mechanisms for incorporating these sources of relevant data to the FASRE model are identified

  6. THE FESTIVALS AS A TOOL ON OHRID TOURISM DESTINATION BRANDING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zoran Strezovski

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of the paper is about festivals in the southern west city in the Republic of Macedonia – Ohrid, empirical research of influence of the Ohrid summer festival on Ohrid tourism destination branding. Its strength to attract foreign tourist and the role of Ohrid municipality and tourism stockholders to use festival as a tool to attract more foreign tourist and branding Ohrid as a tourism destination. Nowadays, many tourist organization develop strategy for creating or support festivals on their destination. The festivals have strong influence of the destination attracting many foreign tourist. Some cities are branding as a festival cities, attract over million visitors per year. Ohrid summer festival as a member of European festival association, is the most important festival in Ohrid city but also in the country. The festival has the role to promote and present culture achievements from the country but also it is attractive factor for foreign tourist to visit Ohrid city and the region in the summer period. It is held from 12 of July until 20 of August each year. Ohrid municipality should incorporate Ohrid summer festival and other festivals in general promotion on Ohrid city. It should support and create new festivals.This paper presents an action research conducted on a sample of 150 foreign visitors on Ohrid summer festival during the festival from 12 July till 20 august 2010.

  7. Role of destination management in strengthening the competitiveness of Croatian tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irena Bosnić

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Tourism today is marked by various social-economic trends. Croatia as a tourist destination is present on the networked international tourism market, which imposes daily adjustments to varying conditions on the market, primarily through improvement of the competitiveness of its own tourism offer. An important precondition for forming such an offer is an effective system for managing a tourist destination or destination management. With its accession to the European Union, Croatia has become a part of the European tourist market, which is a boost for tourism but also challenging, as it needs to stay true to its identity and maintain its uniqueness. Due to Croatia’s new macroenvironment, conditions and rapidly changing consumer requirements on the global tourism market, as well as global economic and political instability, which has not left the European Union unscathed, strategic operational planning and clear guidance for the future development of tourism in Croatia are essential. Thus, the goal of this paper is to emphasize the importance and functionality of destination management for the development of competitiveness of Croatian tourism, with emphasis on strategic managing of its development and review the challenges and adaptations to the conditions on the European tourism market.

  8. Factors Influencing Perceived Crowding of Tourists and Sustainable Tourism Destination Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qian Jin

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Studies on tourists crowding are developed to explore the perception of crowding, and these studies indicate crowding influence on sustainable development of tourist destinations. This study aims to reveal the influential factors of tourists’ perceived crowding. We obtained data from interviewing over 400 tourists and five senior tourism officials in Xi’an, China. This study firstly applies factor analysis to identify the constructed variables of tourists’ motivations from the principle component analysis. It then examines the correlation between nationality and perceived crowding. Consequently, a multiple regression is used to identify the connection between motivations and perceived crowding. The results of the study indicate nationality and motivation as two significant influential factors to perceived crowding management. This study also shows that management in tourist destinations would benefit from provision of the authentic travel experience integrated with zoning the travel destination.

  9. Modeling Volcanic Eruption Parameters by Near-Source Internal Gravity Waves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ripepe, M; Barfucci, G; De Angelis, S; Delle Donne, D; Lacanna, G; Marchetti, E

    2016-11-10

    Volcanic explosions release large amounts of hot gas and ash into the atmosphere to form plumes rising several kilometers above eruptive vents, which can pose serious risk on human health and aviation also at several thousands of kilometers from the volcanic source. However the most sophisticate atmospheric models and eruptive plume dynamics require input parameters such as duration of the ejection phase and total mass erupted to constrain the quantity of ash dispersed in the atmosphere and to efficiently evaluate the related hazard. The sudden ejection of this large quantity of ash can perturb the equilibrium of the whole atmosphere triggering oscillations well below the frequencies of acoustic waves, down to much longer periods typical of gravity waves. We show that atmospheric gravity oscillations induced by volcanic eruptions and recorded by pressure sensors can be modeled as a compact source representing the rate of erupted volcanic mass. We demonstrate the feasibility of using gravity waves to derive eruption source parameters such as duration of the injection and total erupted mass with direct application in constraining plume and ash dispersal models.

  10. Marine-derived fungi as a source of proteases

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Kamat, T.; Rodrigues, C.; Naik, C.G.

    , of marine-derived fungi in order to identify the potential sources. Sponge and corals were collected by SCUBA diving, from a depth of 8 to 10 m from the coastal waters of Mandapam, Tamil Nadu (9"16' N; 79"liE). The samples comprised of a soft coral Sinularia... pieces of approximately 2x2 cm were cut out aseptically. These fourteen pieces of each organism were subjected to two different treatments 23 • In the first case seven pieces were vortexed four times, for 20 seconds each, with sterile seawater while...

  11. How did Malaysia Manage its Position as Top 10 World Tourist Destinations in UNWTO Ranking in 2012?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nor’Ain Othman

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available There are many reasons contributing to the achievement of Malaysia for being rank as top 10 most visited destinations in the world for the last four years. Among the factors are structures, resources, strategy, policy and leadership. In order to identify how Malaysia manage to be at this rank, a study was carried out on destination branding of Malaysian tourism from destination marketers’ perspectives. The objectives are to identify tourism marketing messages that influence international tourists desire to visit Malaysia and to examine destination marketing agencies attitude towards building “Brand Malaysia” in tourism products. The subject of this research is the most recent promotion involving a new brand entitled “Malaysia Truly Asia” and examines the initiative within the framework of the country’s destination branding and destination image development strategies. An assessment of the part played by destination branding in Malaysian tourism industry at large forms the wider context for the study and conclusions of more general relevance are drawn from the particularities of the case. A quantitative research method is used to examine the attitude of destination marketers towards the awareness on marketing mix used in creating “Brand Malaysia” tourism branding. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to travel agencies based on purposive convenient sampling.

  12. ROMANIA AS TOURISM DESTINATION – AN EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Emilia CHASOVSCHI

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Only few steps have already been pointed towards bringing Romania at its proper place on the European tourism market. And big challenges are still there, outside, waiting to be settled. Tourism is indeed a very nice sector, but, if we all consider ourselves tourists, it doesn’t, necessary, mean that we all know tourism is done. The present paper offers an outside perspective of Romanian tourism; a perspective based on a research done among the German tour operators and reveals some strengths and weaknesses of Romania, as a tourism destination. These points are delivering an original view, through the eyes of foreign tour operators or tourists that visited the country or the destinations within.

  13. Destination: Geology?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Louise

    2016-04-01

    "While we teach, we learn" (Roman philosopher Seneca) One of the most beneficial ways to remember a theory or concept is to explain it to someone else. The offer of fieldwork and visits to exciting destinations is arguably the easiest way to spark a students' interest in any subject. Geology at A-Level (age 16-18) in the United Kingdom incorporates significant elements of field studies into the curriculum with many students choosing the subject on this basis and it being a key factor in consolidating student knowledge and understanding. Geology maintains a healthy annual enrollment with interest in the subject increasing in recent years. However, it is important for educators not to loose sight of the importance of recruitment and retention of students. Recent flexibility in the subject content of the UK curriculum in secondary schools has provided an opportunity to teach the basic principles of the subject to our younger students and fieldwork provides a valuable opportunity to engage with these students in the promotion of the subject. Promotion of the subject is typically devolved to senior students at Hessle High School and Sixth Form College, drawing on their personal experiences to engage younger students. Prospective students are excited to learn from a guest speaker, so why not use our most senior students to engage and promote the subject rather than their normal subject teacher? A-Level geology students embarking on fieldwork abroad, understand their additional responsibility to promote the subject and share their understanding of the field visit. They will typically produce a series of lessons and activities for younger students using their newly acquired knowledge. Senior students also present to whole year groups in seminars, sharing knowledge of the location's geology and raising awareness of the exciting destinations offered by geology. Geology fieldwork is always planned, organised and led by the member of staff to keep costs low, with recent visits

  14. Examining Relationships of Destination Image, Service Quality, e-WOM, and Revisit Intention to Sabang Island, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rangga Restu Prayogo

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to study the relationship among destination image, service quality, e-WOM, and revisit intentions in the tourism industry. A questionnaire given to tourists who visit one of the farrest island in western part of Indonesia, Sabang Island and using sampling through the convenience sampling. A structural equation model (SEM test with WarpPLS 3.0 was used to test the relationship between research variables. This research gathered from 150 respondents. The empirical results from PLS-SEM showed that; the destination image positive affect e-WOM and revisit intention; service quality affect e-WOM and revisit intention; e-WOM positive affect to revisit intention tourists. The implications and future research issues were discussed.

  15. The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children's Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christian, Hayley E; Klinker, Charlotte D; Villanueva, Karen; Knuiman, Matthew W; Foster, Sarah A; Zubrick, Stephan R; Divitini, Mark; Wood, Lisa; Giles-Corti, Billie

    2015-06-16

    Relationships between context-specific measures of the physical and social environment and children's independent mobility to neighborhood destination types were examined. Parents in RESIDE's fourth survey reported whether their child (8-15 years; n = 181) was allowed to travel without an adult to school, friend's house, park and local shop. Objective physical environment measures were matched to each of these destinations. Social environment measures included neighborhood perceptions and items specific to local independent mobility. Independent mobility to local destinations ranged from 30% to 48%. Independent mobility to a local park was less likely as the distance to the closest park (small and large size) increased and less likely with additional school grounds (P dependent upon the specific destination being visited and the impact of neighborhood features varies according to the destination examined. Findings highlight the importance of access to different types and sizes of urban green space for children's independent mobility to parks.

  16. Modeling of negative ion extraction from a magnetized plasma source: Derivation of scaling laws and description of the origins of aberrations in the ion beam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fubiani, G.; Garrigues, L.; Boeuf, J. P.

    2018-02-01

    We model the extraction of negative ions from a high brightness high power magnetized negative ion source. The model is a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) algorithm with Monte-Carlo Collisions. The negative ions are generated only on the plasma grid surface (which separates the plasma from the electrostatic accelerator downstream). The scope of this work is to derive scaling laws for the negative ion beam properties versus the extraction voltage (potential of the first grid of the accelerator) and plasma density and investigate the origins of aberrations on the ion beam. We show that a given value of the negative ion beam perveance correlates rather well with the beam profile on the extraction grid independent of the simulated plasma density. Furthermore, the extracted beam current may be scaled to any value of the plasma density. The scaling factor must be derived numerically but the overall gain of computational cost compared to performing a PIC simulation at the real plasma density is significant. Aberrations appear for a meniscus curvature radius of the order of the radius of the grid aperture. These aberrations cannot be cancelled out by switching to a chamfered grid aperture (as in the case of positive ions).

  17. THE PERCEPTION OF ROMANIA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION INTO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MAZILU MIRELA

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Motto: "Ecological and economic deficits are now shaping not only our future, but our present. The future is here." Lester R. Brown (World on the Edge After 50 years of communism, of values destruction, of chaotic real estate evolution, of a kitsch tourist image perceived by those visiting our country, of values reversal, of values dilution, all of us who love our country and tourism wonder what and how to do to transform Romania into an attractive destination. We all know that we have marvelous places, we know that they are not promoted, but why those authorized to do so, don't do it, we don't know! Recently, the ones from National Geographic Traveler (the travelling publication with the widest audience, having over 8.5 million readers have given us a ball of oxygen, have shown us a ray of hope by classifying Maramures in the Top 20 mandatory tourist destinations for 2015, summing up a series of criteria: authenticity, sustainability, cultural richness, etc. Maramures has all these qualities. But it remains a micro region, and the rest of the country (with small exceptions has not attracted attention or tourists... The perception of Romania as a tourist destination is unclear; it has not got a good reputation as a bona fide destination for occasional tourists. This is caused partly by: deficiencies in the destination marketing, the absence of governmental support in tourism, the unprofessional practices in the business tourism sector, the low standards of the services for the visitors, the deficient infrastructure, improper facilities and pass-time activities, etc. The re-launching of tourism from Romania, of the tourist destinations and the attraction of a larger number of foreign tourists could bring supplementary benefits, but with many necessary changes, in the tourism managers’ opinion. “Two elements are essential in the tourism industry system: how to make use environmentally, sustainably of the tourism potential of the landscape and

  18. Sci—Thur AM: YIS - 09: Validation of a General Empirically-Based Beam Model for kV X-ray Sources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poirier, Y. [CancerCare Manitoba (Canada); University of Calgary (Canada); Sommerville, M.; Johnstone, C.D. [San Diego State University (United States); Gräfe, J.; Nygren, I.; Jacso, F. [Tom Baker Cancer Centre (Canada); Khan, R.; Villareal-Barajas, J.E. [University of Calgary (Canada); Tom Baker Cancer Centre (Canada); Tambasco, M. [University of Calgary (Canada); San Diego State University (United States)

    2014-08-15

    Purpose: To present an empirically-based beam model for computing dose deposited by kilovoltage (kV) x-rays and validate it for radiographic, CT, CBCT, superficial, and orthovoltage kV sources. Method and Materials: We modeled a wide variety of imaging (radiographic, CT, CBCT) and therapeutic (superficial, orthovoltage) kV x-ray sources. The model characterizes spatial variations of the fluence and spectrum independently. The spectrum is derived by matching measured values of the half value layer (HVL) and nominal peak potential (kVp) to computationally-derived spectra while the fluence is derived from in-air relative dose measurements. This model relies only on empirical values and requires no knowledge of proprietary source specifications or other theoretical aspects of the kV x-ray source. To validate the model, we compared measured doses to values computed using our previously validated in-house kV dose computation software, kVDoseCalc. The dose was measured in homogeneous and anthropomorphic phantoms using ionization chambers and LiF thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs), respectively. Results: The maximum difference between measured and computed dose measurements was within 2.6%, 3.6%, 2.0%, 4.8%, and 4.0% for the modeled radiographic, CT, CBCT, superficial, and the orthovoltage sources, respectively. In the anthropomorphic phantom, the computed CBCT dose generally agreed with TLD measurements, with an average difference and standard deviation ranging from 2.4 ± 6.0% to 5.7 ± 10.3% depending on the imaging technique. Most (42/62) measured TLD doses were within 10% of computed values. Conclusions: The proposed model can be used to accurately characterize a wide variety of kV x-ray sources using only empirical values.

  19. Using destination image to predict visitors' intention to revisit three Hudson River Valley, New York, communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudy M. Schuster; Laura Sullivan; Duarte Morais; Diane Kuehn

    2009-01-01

    This analysis explores the differences in Affective and Cognitive Destination Image among three Hudson River Valley (New York) tourism communities. Multiple regressions were used with six dimensions of visitors' images to predict future intention to revisit. Two of the three regression models were significant. The only significantly contributing independent...

  20. Derivation of the source term, dose results and associated radiological consequences for the Greek Research Reactor – 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pappas, Charalampos, E-mail: chpappas@ipta.demokritos.gr; Ikonomopoulos, Andreas; Sfetsos, Athanasios; Andronopoulos, Spyros; Varvayanni, Melpomeni; Catsaros, Nicolas

    2014-07-01

    Highlights: • Source term derivation of postulated accident sequences in a research reactor. • Various containment ventilation scenarios considered for source term calculations. • Source term parametric analysis performed in case of lack of ventilation. • JRODOS employed for dose calculations under eighteen modeled scenarios. • Estimation of radiological consequences during typical and adverse weather scenarios. - Abstract: The estimated source term, dose results and radiological consequences of selected accident sequences in the Greek Research Reactor – 1 are presented and discussed. A systematic approach has been adopted to perform the necessary calculations in accordance with the latest computational developments and IAEA recommendations. Loss-of-coolant, reactivity insertion and fuel channel blockage accident sequences have been selected to derive the associated source terms under three distinct containment ventilation scenarios. Core damage has been conservatively assessed for each accident sequence while the ventilation has been assumed to function within the efficiency limits defined at the Safety Analysis Report. In case of lack of ventilation a parametric analysis is also performed to examine the dependency of the source term on the containment leakage rate. A typical as well as an adverse meteorological scenario have been defined in the JRODOS computational platform in order to predict the effective, lung and thyroid doses within a region defined by a 15 km radius downwind from the reactor building. The radiological consequences of the eighteen scenarios associated with the accident sequences are presented and discussed.

  1. Sustainable Coastal Destination Development: Fostering Green Practices of Restaurateurs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Timo Derriks

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Coastal tourism destinations are reinventing themselves, concentrating on product improvement and image enhancement. Reinventing sustainably is key and restaurants are an important factor. Research upon the processes of change in the industry seems to be fragmented and undefined in its conclusions. Knowledge is lacking on what specifically drives innovation in the hospitality industry. Since restaurants seem to be focusing more than ever on implementing green strategies, incorporating sustainability into restaurant practices is not an unexplored area. However, the how and why it is incorporated or not, can be different per restaurant. The objective of this study is to identify possibilities of change in restaurateur practices, which can lead to interventions that will foster sustainable destination development in Vrouwenpolder; a coastal destination within the Netherlands. For the identification of interventions that could advance the sustainability enacted in restaurateur practices, a qualitative research was conducted. Practices of restaurateurs in Vrouwenpolder are identified and compared to perceived-to-be ideal practices. Analysis of data collection draws on practice theory, and resulted into recommendations for advancing the sustainability enacted in restaurateur practices. It seems to be that primarily the meaning within a practice is decisive in whether sustainability is integrated or not.

  2. Promoting Tourism Destination through Film-Induced Tourism: The Case of Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wadim Strielkowski

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – This paper describes the marketing potential of film-induced tourism in marketing Japan, as a popular tourism destination for non-Asian visitors. In particular, it focuses on the popular culture and on engaging young people from Europe, America, and Australia in discovering and promoting its cultural heritage. Design/Methodology/Approach – The number of Western tourists to Japan rose by 50 % between 2010 and 2015. Many of these tourists are attracted by the films associated with Japan in one way or another. We assume that, even though the majority of incoming tourists in Japan are Chinese visitors, the marketing potential of film-induced tourism in Japan represents a source of untapped potential. One can trace the increase in the popularity of Japan as the tourism destination to a number of new Western films taking place in Japan. Findings and implications – We employ the monthly data on the combined box office revenues of recent films set in Japan, as well as the monthly statistics on the number of visitors from Australia, Europe, and North America. We find causality between the popularity of the films and the number of tourists from the destinations that are mostly impacted by those films. Limitations – The research is limited by the issue of popularity of Western culture and films in Asia. One should remember that just 3 million out of 19 million foreign tourists that visited Japan in 2015 were non-Asian. Originality – The popularity of films either related to or taking place in Japan is enormous in the Western world. Headed by the recent 2015 Hungarian dark comedy “Liza, the Fox-Fairy”, there is a whole array of films drawing from both exotic and cosmopolitan Japanese culture. The Japanese setting offers a picturesque scenery for melodramas, such as “Lost in translation” (USD 119.7 million in box office revenues or “Memories of a Geisha” (USD 162 million, horrors and thrillers, including “The Grudge” (USD

  3. Does tourism destination competitiveness lead to performance? A case of ASEAN region

    OpenAIRE

    Hafiz Hanafiah, Mohd; Hemdi, Mohamad Abdullah; Ahmad, Ismail

    2016-01-01

    The main purpose of this paper is to identify the causes of ASEAN tourism performance. This paper empirically examines the role of tourism destination competitiveness on tourism performance among the ASEAN countries. This study employed the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) to assess tourism performance of the ASEAN countries. More specifically, this paper explores whether tourism's core resources, complementary resources, destination management, tourism prices and globalisation...

  4. Consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in tourism as related to destination image perception

    OpenAIRE

    Chon, Kye-Sung

    1990-01-01

    The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between travel destination image and the tourist satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Using the evaluative congruity theory framework, this study focused on the role of destination images in tourism with regard to consumer satisfaction/ dissatisfaction (CS/D) from the stand point of: (1) the functional congruency between the tourist's expectations and his/her perceptions of specific utilitarian (functional) ...

  5. Assessing the Level of Popularity of European Stag Tourism Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iwanicki Grzegorz

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The primary objective of this article is to determine the degree of popularity of stag tourism destinations in Europe. Research was based on the search engine method, involving an analysis of the highest positioned offers of travel agencies in the most commonly used search engines in Europe (Google, Bing, Yahoo. The analysis divided the studied cities into four categories in terms of popularity. Conducting the said analysis is strongly justified, because academic publications have so far not provided studies which have determined the degree of popularity of stag destinations on a continental scale.

  6. DESTINATION MARKETING STRATEGY IN BALI THROUGH OPTIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF LOCAL PRODUCTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I Gusti Ayu Oka Suryawardani

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available This study was designed to study destination marketing strategy in Bali through optimizing the potential of local products. Seventy nine of hotel managers were interviewed based on cluster sampling method to gain their point of view. The results show that destination must build their images around unique attributes that provide them sustainable competitive advantage including its attraction which should be designed to meet the needs of the target market and should be served by local products. The results also show that hotel managers thought that foreign tourists always preferred imported products, meanwhile previous statistical results indicate that foreign tourists significantly look for local products. There is a need to encourage hotel managers to change their perception and attitude about local and imported products. In fact, hoteliers expressed willingness to use local products as long as these meet the quality standard. As tourism involves four types of activities, namely something to see, something to do, something to buy, something to learn, destination product development could be focused in the above activities through offering foreign tourist, such as to stay in hotels, homestays or villas owned by Balinese; to eat in restaurants owned by Balinese by choosing the authentic local foods that are using local meat, seafood and vegetables, exotic local fruits and beverages; and to buy products that are produced by the Balinese. By promoting vacation on the real Balinese atmosphere such as stay in accommodations owned by the Balinese supported by the authenticity of local Balinese foods, fruits and beverages, these will strengthen the local economy, so the benefit of tourism development can be more beneficial to the local Balinese. The results suggests that destination management related to improvement of service and hospitality are really important through improvement of human resource by giving training to their employees, educate

  7. Image of Finland as a Destination for the Mainland Chinese Tourist

    OpenAIRE

    Aihaiti, Maierhaba

    2014-01-01

    China is one of the biggest countries in the world which has a population of nearly 1.4 million people. With help of a steady growth economy, the outbound tourism of China has dramatically increased. Finland as gateway for Chinese tourists to Europe has become a unique destination for them. However, Finland is still relatively unknown and mysterious for most of the Chinese tourists. The aims of this study were to examing how the destination image affects the decision making of mainland Chines...

  8. Baking Dalarna's biking cake : Collaboration as a means for destination competitiveness, a case study of “Biking Dalarna"

    OpenAIRE

    Yachin, Jonathan Moshe

    2013-01-01

    In the contemporary tourism industry, the competitive game is between destinations. Tourism operations struggle to remain competitive on the international market and their success depends to a large extent on other complementary and competing tourism organizations at the destination. It is the sum of the total tourism offerings at the destination which determines its attractiveness. This research explores tourism collaboration process as a means of generating destination competitiveness. The ...

  9. Urban tourism destinations in South Africa: Divergent trajectories 2001–2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian M. Rogerson

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Cities are growing tourism destinations in both developed and developing countries. For policymakers in many cities the promotion of tourism is a vital issue. The phenomenon of urban tourism has emerged as a significant research topic in tourism and urban studies. The South African experience has been one of the most well documented cases in urban tourism in the developing world. Most existing research is focussed on supply-side issues of the establishment of new tourism products in cities or of the impacts of growing urban tourism. This article examines urban tourism from a demand-side perspective and interrogates the performance of South Africa’s eight metropolitan areas as tourism destinations over the period 2001-2012.The analysis reveals that the metropolitan areas as a group are expanding in significance as tourism destinations. Divergent pathways or trajectories of development are apparent in terms of unpacking the performance of the eight different areas.

  10. Modeling a Spatio-Temporal Individual Travel Behavior Using Geotagged Social Network Data: a Case Study of Greater Cincinnati

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saeedimoghaddam, M.; Kim, C.

    2017-10-01

    Understanding individual travel behavior is vital in travel demand management as well as in urban and transportation planning. New data sources including mobile phone data and location-based social media (LBSM) data allow us to understand mobility behavior on an unprecedented level of details. Recent studies of trip purpose prediction tend to use machine learning (ML) methods, since they generally produce high levels of predictive accuracy. Few studies used LSBM as a large data source to extend its potential in predicting individual travel destination using ML techniques. In the presented research, we created a spatio-temporal probabilistic model based on an ensemble ML framework named "Random Forests" utilizing the travel extracted from geotagged Tweets in 419 census tracts of Greater Cincinnati area for predicting the tract ID of an individual's travel destination at any time using the information of its origin. We evaluated the model accuracy using the travels extracted from the Tweets themselves as well as the travels from household travel survey. The Tweets and survey based travels that start from same tract in the south western parts of the study area is more likely to select same destination compare to the other parts. Also, both Tweets and survey based travels were affected by the attraction points in the downtown of Cincinnati and the tracts in the north eastern part of the area. Finally, both evaluations show that the model predictions are acceptable, but it cannot predict destination using inputs from other data sources as precise as the Tweets based data.

  11. Assessing Model Characterization of Single Source ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aircraft measurements made downwind from specific coal fired power plants during the 2013 Southeast Nexus field campaign provide a unique opportunity to evaluate single source photochemical model predictions of both O3 and secondary PM2.5 species. The model did well at predicting downwind plume placement. The model shows similar patterns of an increasing fraction of PM2.5 sulfate ion to the sum of SO2 and PM2.5 sulfate ion by distance from the source compared with ambient based estimates. The model was less consistent in capturing downwind ambient based trends in conversion of NOX to NOY from these sources. Source sensitivity approaches capture near-source O3 titration by fresh NO emissions, in particular subgrid plume treatment. However, capturing this near-source chemical feature did not translate into better downwind peak estimates of single source O3 impacts. The model estimated O3 production from these sources but often was lower than ambient based source production. The downwind transect ambient measurements, in particular secondary PM2.5 and O3, have some level of contribution from other sources which makes direct comparison with model source contribution challenging. Model source attribution results suggest contribution to secondary pollutants from multiple sources even where primary pollutants indicate the presence of a single source. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, deci

  12. Facilitating open global data use in earthquake source modelling to improve geodetic and seismological approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sudhaus, Henriette; Heimann, Sebastian; Steinberg, Andreas; Isken, Marius; Vasyura-Bathke, Hannes

    2017-04-01

    In the last few years impressive achievements have been made in improving inferences about earthquake sources by using InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) data. Several factors aided these developments. The open data basis of earthquake observations has expanded vastly with the two powerful Sentinel-1 SAR sensors up in space. Increasing computer power allows processing of large data sets for more detailed source models. Moreover, data inversion approaches for earthquake source inferences are becoming more advanced. By now data error propagation is widely implemented and the estimation of model uncertainties is a regular feature of reported optimum earthquake source models. Also, more regularly InSAR-derived surface displacements and seismological waveforms are combined, which requires finite rupture models instead of point-source approximations and layered medium models instead of homogeneous half-spaces. In other words the disciplinary differences in geodetic and seismological earthquake source modelling shrink towards common source-medium descriptions and a source near-field/far-field data point of view. We explore and facilitate the combination of InSAR-derived near-field static surface displacement maps and dynamic far-field seismological waveform data for global earthquake source inferences. We join in the community efforts with the particular goal to improve crustal earthquake source inferences in generally not well instrumented areas, where often only the global backbone observations of earthquakes are available provided by seismological broadband sensor networks and, since recently, by Sentinel-1 SAR acquisitions. We present our work on modelling standards for the combination of static and dynamic surface displacements in the source's near-field and far-field, e.g. on data and prediction error estimations as well as model uncertainty estimation. Rectangular dislocations and moment-tensor point sources are exchanged by simple planar finite

  13. Bone marrow-derived stromal cells are more beneficial cell sources for tooth regeneration compared with adipose-derived stromal cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Lanfeng; Chen, Lin; Feng, Fan; Cui, Junhui; Li, Kaide; Li, Zhiyong; Liu, Lei

    2015-10-01

    Tooth loss is presently a global epidemic and tooth regeneration is thought to be a feasible and ideal treatment approach. Choice of cell source is a primary concern in tooth regeneration. In this study, the odontogenic differentiation potential of two non-dental-derived stem cells, adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) and bone marrow-derived stromal cells (BMSCs), were evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. ADSCs and BMSCs were induced in vitro in the presence of tooth germ cell-conditioned medium (TGC-CM) prior to implantation into the omentum majus of rats, in combination with inactivated dentin matrix (IDM). Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of odontogenic-related genes. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical assays were used to detect the protein levels of odontogenic-specific genes, such as DSP and DMP-1 both in vitro and in vivo. The results suggest that both ADSCs and BMSCs have odontogenic differentiation potential. However, the odontogenic potential of BMSCs was greater compared with ADSCs, showing that BMSCs are a more appropriate cell source for tooth regeneration. © 2015 International Federation for Cell Biology.

  14. The allure of new immigrant destinations and the Great Recession in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Mark; Wright, Richard; Townley, Matthew

    2013-01-01

    In the 1990s, the immigrant population in the United States dispersed to non-traditional settlement locations (what have become known as “new immigrant destinations”). This paper examines whether the allure of new destinations persisted in the 2000s with a particular focus on the internal migration of the foreign born during the recent deep recessionary period and its aftermath. Three specific questions motivate the analysis. First, are immigrants, much like the US-born population, becoming less migratory within the country over time? Second, is immigrant dispersal from traditional gateways via internal migration continuing despite considerable economic contraction in many new destination metropolitan areas? Third, is immigration from aboard a substitute for what appears to be declining immigrant internal migration to new destinations? The findings reveal a close correlation between the declining internal migration propensity of the US-born and immigrants in the last two decades. We also observe parallels between the geographies of migration of native- and foreign-born populations with both groups moving to similar metropolitan areas in the 1990s. This redistributive association, however, weakened in the subsequent decade as new destination metropolitan areas lost their appeal for both groups, especially immigrants. There is no evidence to suggest that immigration from abroad is substituting for the decline in immigrant redistribution through internal migration to new destinations. Across destination types the relationship between immigration from abroad and the internal migration of the foreign born remained the same before, during, and after the Great Recession. PMID:24791036

  15. Sediment delivery estimates in water quality models altered by resolution and source of topographic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beeson, Peter C; Sadeghi, Ali M; Lang, Megan W; Tomer, Mark D; Daughtry, Craig S T

    2014-01-01

    Moderate-resolution (30-m) digital elevation models (DEMs) are normally used to estimate slope for the parameterization of non-point source, process-based water quality models. These models, such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), use the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and Modified USLE to estimate sediment loss. The slope length and steepness factor, a critical parameter in USLE, significantly affects sediment loss estimates. Depending on slope range, a twofold difference in slope estimation potentially results in as little as 50% change or as much as 250% change in the LS factor and subsequent sediment estimation. Recently, the availability of much finer-resolution (∼3 m) DEMs derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data has increased. However, the use of these data may not always be appropriate because slope values derived from fine spatial resolution DEMs are usually significantly higher than slopes derived from coarser DEMs. This increased slope results in considerable variability in modeled sediment output. This paper addresses the implications of parameterizing models using slope values calculated from DEMs with different spatial resolutions (90, 30, 10, and 3 m) and sources. Overall, we observed over a 2.5-fold increase in slope when using a 3-m instead of a 90-m DEM, which increased modeled soil loss using the USLE calculation by 130%. Care should be taken when using LiDAR-derived DEMs to parameterize water quality models because doing so can result in significantly higher slopes, which considerably alter modeled sediment loss. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  16. QUALITY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF TOURISM DESTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liliana ELMAZI

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Service quality initiatives are high priorities in many tourist destinations, with expenditure seen as long-term investment for future growth and profitability. My study’s goal is to explain the quality dimensions from the viewpoint of tourism destination. When we start to discuss about tourism quality supply, the main problem we have to consider is the structure of tourism supply as a complex of tangible and intangible elements. Analysis of the quality problem, their measuring and monitoring and marketing strategies based on quality, needs to be built on the specificity of tourist offer, regarding the level of goods and services. Because of this, the level of quality and customer satisfaction of quality is very hard to measure and to control. The first major feature of quality programs development is typically, to identify the key components or dimensions of quality from customer and employee research, i.e. their needs and expectations.

  17. The sense, landscape and image. How the tourist destination is replicated in postmodernist times

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maximiliano E. Korstanje

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Policy makers, practitioners and analysts have focused on the psychology to induce consumers to new products. These new eye-catching packaging products in tourism and hospitality industries and beyond are commercialized to thousands of home thanks to the media. We are living in times, digital times where organic image plays a pivotal role in arousing emotions and experiences, although these experiences were not authentic. Following this discussion, initialized some time ago by D. Maccannell and other sociologists, the present paper explores the philosophical roots of image to expand the current understanding about our ocular-centrism. At time, tourists select a destination, they are moved by “the wish of majority”, but once destination is maturated, its attractiveness declines. What seems to be inter- esting to discuss here is the connection between perceived safety (risk and attraction (organic image. Following I. Kant’s contributions, we present a conceptual model to understand how the dilemma of safety leads consumers to visual pollution.

  18. Comparison of analytic source models for head scatter factor calculation and planar dose calculation for IMRT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yan Guanghua; Liu, Chihray; Lu Bo; Palta, Jatinder R; Li, Jonathan G

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to choose an appropriate head scatter source model for the fast and accurate independent planar dose calculation for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with MLC. The performance of three different head scatter source models regarding their ability to model head scatter and facilitate planar dose calculation was evaluated. A three-source model, a two-source model and a single-source model were compared in this study. In the planar dose calculation algorithm, in-air fluence distribution was derived from each of the head scatter source models while considering the combination of Jaw and MLC opening. Fluence perturbations due to tongue-and-groove effect, rounded leaf end and leaf transmission were taken into account explicitly. The dose distribution was calculated by convolving the in-air fluence distribution with an experimentally determined pencil-beam kernel. The results were compared with measurements using a diode array and passing rates with 2%/2 mm and 3%/3 mm criteria were reported. It was found that the two-source model achieved the best agreement on head scatter factor calculation. The three-source model and single-source model underestimated head scatter factors for certain symmetric rectangular fields and asymmetric fields, but similar good agreement could be achieved when monitor back scatter effect was incorporated explicitly. All the three source models resulted in comparable average passing rates (>97%) when the 3%/3 mm criterion was selected. The calculation with the single-source model and two-source model was slightly faster than the three-source model due to their simplicity

  19. Comparison of analytic source models for head scatter factor calculation and planar dose calculation for IMRT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yan Guanghua [Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States); Liu, Chihray; Lu Bo; Palta, Jatinder R; Li, Jonathan G [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0385 (United States)

    2008-04-21

    The purpose of this study was to choose an appropriate head scatter source model for the fast and accurate independent planar dose calculation for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with MLC. The performance of three different head scatter source models regarding their ability to model head scatter and facilitate planar dose calculation was evaluated. A three-source model, a two-source model and a single-source model were compared in this study. In the planar dose calculation algorithm, in-air fluence distribution was derived from each of the head scatter source models while considering the combination of Jaw and MLC opening. Fluence perturbations due to tongue-and-groove effect, rounded leaf end and leaf transmission were taken into account explicitly. The dose distribution was calculated by convolving the in-air fluence distribution with an experimentally determined pencil-beam kernel. The results were compared with measurements using a diode array and passing rates with 2%/2 mm and 3%/3 mm criteria were reported. It was found that the two-source model achieved the best agreement on head scatter factor calculation. The three-source model and single-source model underestimated head scatter factors for certain symmetric rectangular fields and asymmetric fields, but similar good agreement could be achieved when monitor back scatter effect was incorporated explicitly. All the three source models resulted in comparable average passing rates (>97%) when the 3%/3 mm criterion was selected. The calculation with the single-source model and two-source model was slightly faster than the three-source model due to their simplicity.

  20. IPTV inter-destination synchronization: A network-based approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stokking, H.M.; Deventer, M.O. van; Niamut, O.A.; Walraven, F.A.; Mekuria, R.N.

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces a novel network-based approach to inter-destination media synchronization. The approach meets the need for synchronization in advanced TV concepts like social TV and offers high scalability, unlike conventional end-point based approaches. The solution for interdestination media

  1. The role of the film as a media communications instrument for the tourist destination promotion strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pavković Vladimir

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyses different film genres and their role as a media communications instrument for the tourist destination promotion strategy. The general objective of the paper is to point to the significance of film for the tourist destination recognisability as well as its perception in the public eye. The specific objectives of the paper are directed at the analysis of individual roles that different film genres have in the tourist destination promotion strategy. The research methods employed in the paper entail film identification and its role in media communications, the identification both of different film genres and their specific features, then, the observation of their application in the tourist destination promotion strategy, and eventually, the identification of their significance in the process of raising the public's awareness of the destination itself as well as the creation of positive perception of the destination with the targeted audience. In this regard, the paper focuses on the following: feature films, documentary films, tourist-related report, promotional tourist films, messages conveyed through films to the targeted audience as well as the strategies and methods employed in the film as a promotional tool. One of the key findings of the paper is to highlight the significance of each film genre in the process of tourist destination promotion, whereas their combination represents an important segment of media strategies in the field of tourism, and is a prerequisite for the desired positioning in the contemporary tourism market.

  2. Source modelling in seismic risk analysis for nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yucemen, M.S.

    1978-12-01

    The proposed probabilistic procedure provides a consistent method for the modelling, analysis and updating of uncertainties that are involved in the seismic risk analysis for nuclear power plants. The potential earthquake activity zones are idealized as point, line or area sources. For these seismic source types, expressions to evaluate their contribution to seismic risk are derived, considering all the possible site-source configurations. The seismic risk at a site is found to depend not only on the inherent randomness of the earthquake occurrences with respect to magnitude, time and space, but also on the uncertainties associated with the predicted values of the seismic and geometric parameters, as well as the uncertainty in the attenuation model. The uncertainty due to the attenuation equation is incorporated into the analysis through the use of random correction factors. The influence of the uncertainty resulting from the insufficient information on the seismic parameters and source geometry is introduced into the analysis by computing a mean risk curve averaged over the various alternative assumptions on the parameters and source geometry. Seismic risk analysis is carried for the city of Denizli, which is located in the seismically most active zone of Turkey. The second analysis is for Akkuyu

  3. Destination Brand Personality of Portugal for the Russian-Speaking Market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taisiya Chaykina

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays brand personality is admitted to be one of the essential parts of brand strategy. It has also become a popular aspect of destination branding due to the fact that destinations are constantly competing for visitors attention in various ways. The term of branding has been first applied to marketing of services or places since the 1990’s. Later on it was broadened and utilized by specialists in the field of tourism marketing. Tourism brand personality is a relatively new one and there are only few works devoted to brand personality of countries as tourism destinations. Keeping in mind the novelty of the research area, this study was planned as exploratory in nature. The stated goal of the research is: to identify the brand personality attributes ascribed to Portugal by the Russian-speaking market and compare the possible existing differences of attributes among the subgroups of the study (actual visitors and possible future visitors. The results of this research might be interesting to the local officials and to business representatives as it highlights the main attributes of Portugal brand personality from the Russian speaking people’s point of view.

  4. The Role of Marketing Mix Components in Destination Choices of Visitors and the Case of Dalyan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Özgür ÖZER

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated the impact of the eight components of the marketing mix, as being product, price, distribution, promotion, person, partnership, program and package, upon choice of a destination.For this research purpose, data was collected by face-to-face interviews and survey from 260 foreign tourists visiting the region of Dalyan. First, the marketing mix components were classified according to their importance determined by the arithmetic averages. Then, multiple regression analysis was performed to determine whether the marketing mix components had an effect on the destination choice. The analysis found that the variables of ‘product’ and ‘person’ had an effect on the Dalyan destination choice. This result shows that the ’product’ is an influencial factor, as expected, on the choice of the Dalyan destination, within the scope of ecotourism, visited by the tourists. In addition, ‘person’ is also important factor on the destination choice for the Dalyan region.

  5. Car drivers’ characteristics and the maximum walking distance between parking facilities and final destination

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Waerden, P.J.H.J.; Timmermans, H.J.P.; de Bruin - Verhoeven, M.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper the relationship between car drivers’ personal and trip characteristics and the maximum distance car drivers are willing to walk between a parking facility and the final destination(s) will be discussed. The willingness to walk is investigated in the context of four different trip

  6. Application of hierarchical Bayesian unmixing models in river sediment source apportionment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blake, Will; Smith, Hugh; Navas, Ana; Bodé, Samuel; Goddard, Rupert; Zou Kuzyk, Zou; Lennard, Amy; Lobb, David; Owens, Phil; Palazon, Leticia; Petticrew, Ellen; Gaspar, Leticia; Stock, Brian; Boeckx, Pacsal; Semmens, Brice

    2016-04-01

    Fingerprinting and unmixing concepts are used widely across environmental disciplines for forensic evaluation of pollutant sources. In aquatic and marine systems, this includes tracking the source of organic and inorganic pollutants in water and linking problem sediment to soil erosion and land use sources. It is, however, the particular complexity of ecological systems that has driven creation of the most sophisticated mixing models, primarily to (i) evaluate diet composition in complex ecological food webs, (ii) inform population structure and (iii) explore animal movement. In the context of the new hierarchical Bayesian unmixing model, MIXSIAR, developed to characterise intra-population niche variation in ecological systems, we evaluate the linkage between ecological 'prey' and 'consumer' concepts and river basin sediment 'source' and sediment 'mixtures' to exemplify the value of ecological modelling tools to river basin science. Recent studies have outlined advantages presented by Bayesian unmixing approaches in handling complex source and mixture datasets while dealing appropriately with uncertainty in parameter probability distributions. MixSIAR is unique in that it allows individual fixed and random effects associated with mixture hierarchy, i.e. factors that might exert an influence on model outcome for mixture groups, to be explored within the source-receptor framework. This offers new and powerful ways of interpreting river basin apportionment data. In this contribution, key components of the model are evaluated in the context of common experimental designs for sediment fingerprinting studies namely simple, nested and distributed catchment sampling programmes. Illustrative examples using geochemical and compound specific stable isotope datasets are presented and used to discuss best practice with specific attention to (1) the tracer selection process, (2) incorporation of fixed effects relating to sample timeframe and sediment type in the modelling

  7. Flux and permanence of risk perceptions: Tourists' perception of the relative and absolute risk for various destinations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolff, Katharina; Larsen, Svein

    2016-12-01

    The present investigation is a cross-sectional, multi-national, quantitative, and quasi-experimental comparison of tourists' risk perceptions regarding different destinations throughout the past decade. Over 10,000 tourists to Norway from 89 different countries filled in a questionnaire rating the perceived risk for various destinations. Data were collected during 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 and allow for a comparison of perceived risk across time, place and nationality. Results show that while absolute risk judgments for different destinations fluctuate somewhat over the years, relative risk judgments remain constant. Findings also reveal a "home-is-safer-then-abroad-bias" with tourists consistently perceiving their home country among the safest destinations. The current investigation is rare because it looks at more than one destination at a time. Insights gained from the present findings diverge from what would have been concluded from employing case studies, that is, looking at one destination at a time. © 2016 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. THE INFLUENCE OF DESTINATION IMAGE AND TOURIST SATISFACTION TOWARD REVISIT INTENTION OF SETU BABAKAN BETAWI CULTURAL VILLAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Setyo Ferry Wibowo

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research are: 1 To find out the description of destination image, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 2 test empirically the influence of destination image toward revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 3 test empirically the influence of tourist satisfaction toward revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 4 test empirically the influence of destination image toward revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan. The object of this research was 200 respondents who have ever visit to Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan at one time. The results of descriptive test explained that the destination image provided is good according to the tourist, so that the tourist is satisfied and want to revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan. The hypothesis test shows: 1 the influence of destination image toward revisit intention by -30%, 2 the influence of tourist satisfaction toward revisit intention by 118%, 3 the influence of destination image toward tourist satisfaction by 92%.

  9. The Role of Entrepreneurship and Longlife Learning in Branding of Tourism Destination

    OpenAIRE

    Gregorić, Marina; Skendrović, Ljiljana

    2012-01-01

    Branding of tourism destination can’t be seen without cooperation between private and public sector, entrepreneurship and government. Lifelong learning is an important element of increased awareness about the market and advantages of tourism destination as well as its market value. Definition of brand which starts from the needs of consumers is one that should lead in contemporary market environment where customers and market determine the value of the product or services. To achieve successf...

  10. Conference communication. Managing change in tourism destinations: Key issues and current trends.

    OpenAIRE

    Mariani, M.M.; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Longhi, C.; Vitouladiti, O.

    2013-01-01

    This conference communication illustrates the major outcomes emerging from the EIASM Conference on Tourism Management and Tourism Related Issues held in Nice (France), September 20-21, 2012. While a number of managerial issues pertaining to the tourism field were dealt with, this communication covers three specific areas of interest for destination management and marketing: (1) the increasing competition among tourism destinations and the rise and consolidation of BRIC countries as outbound t...

  11. Challenges Facing Customer Patronage of Tourism Destinations in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Prof

    Although there are two categories of tourism destination - recreation/attractions and hospitality, this study ... The first Property Management Systems (Fidelio and Hogatex) appear in the tourism market. ..... In most cases, foreigners are hired to manage and offer consultancy ..... Marketing concepts and strategies in tourism.

  12. Inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Nan; Fei, Qin; Gong, Yungui; Gao, Qing

    2016-01-01

    We derive the general formulae for the scalar and tensor spectral tilts to the second order for the inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling without taking the high friction limit. The non-minimally kinetic coupling to Einstein tensor brings the energy scale in the inflationary models down to be sub-Planckian. In the high friction limit, the Lyth bound is modified with an extra suppression factor, so that the field excursion of the inflaton is sub-Planckian. The inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling are more consistent with observations in the high friction limit. In particular, with the help of the non-minimally derivative coupling, the quartic power law potential is consistent with the observational constraint at 95% CL. (paper)

  13. An investigation of dematerialization planning options at tourism destinations: Technical and behavioural dimensions

    OpenAIRE

    Kelly, Joseph

    2006-01-01

    The goal of this dissertation is to develop a conceptual framework and associated methods for evaluating alternative tourism planning strategies in terms of dematerialization and acceptability amongst tourists. Its objectives are to (1) examine the technical potential of dematerialization planning options in tourism destinations, (2) investigate tourist perspectives concerning destination planning alternatives that promote dematerialization, (3) assess the travel market responses and demateri...

  14. Evaluation of Stem Cell-Derived Red Blood Cells as a Transfusion Product Using a Novel Animal Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shah, Sandeep N; Gelderman, Monique P; Lewis, Emily M A; Farrel, John; Wood, Francine; Strader, Michael Brad; Alayash, Abdu I; Vostal, Jaroslav G

    2016-01-01

    Reliance on volunteer blood donors can lead to transfusion product shortages, and current liquid storage of red blood cells (RBCs) is associated with biochemical changes over time, known as 'the storage lesion'. Thus, there is a need for alternative sources of transfusable RBCs to supplement conventional blood donations. Extracorporeal production of stem cell-derived RBCs (stemRBCs) is a potential and yet untapped source of fresh, transfusable RBCs. A number of groups have attempted RBC differentiation from CD34+ cells. However, it is still unclear whether these stemRBCs could eventually be effective substitutes for traditional RBCs due to potential differences in oxygen carrying capacity, viability, deformability, and other critical parameters. We have generated ex vivo stemRBCs from primary human cord blood CD34+ cells and compared them to donor-derived RBCs based on a number of in vitro parameters. In vivo, we assessed stemRBC circulation kinetics in an animal model of transfusion and oxygen delivery in a mouse model of exercise performance. Our novel, chronically anemic, SCID mouse model can evaluate the potential of stemRBCs to deliver oxygen to tissues (muscle) under resting and exercise-induced hypoxic conditions. Based on our data, stem cell-derived RBCs have a similar biochemical profile compared to donor-derived RBCs. While certain key differences remain between donor-derived RBCs and stemRBCs, the ability of stemRBCs to deliver oxygen in a living organism provides support for further development as a transfusion product.

  15. Evaluation of Stem Cell-Derived Red Blood Cells as a Transfusion Product Using a Novel Animal Model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandeep N Shah

    Full Text Available Reliance on volunteer blood donors can lead to transfusion product shortages, and current liquid storage of red blood cells (RBCs is associated with biochemical changes over time, known as 'the storage lesion'. Thus, there is a need for alternative sources of transfusable RBCs to supplement conventional blood donations. Extracorporeal production of stem cell-derived RBCs (stemRBCs is a potential and yet untapped source of fresh, transfusable RBCs. A number of groups have attempted RBC differentiation from CD34+ cells. However, it is still unclear whether these stemRBCs could eventually be effective substitutes for traditional RBCs due to potential differences in oxygen carrying capacity, viability, deformability, and other critical parameters. We have generated ex vivo stemRBCs from primary human cord blood CD34+ cells and compared them to donor-derived RBCs based on a number of in vitro parameters. In vivo, we assessed stemRBC circulation kinetics in an animal model of transfusion and oxygen delivery in a mouse model of exercise performance. Our novel, chronically anemic, SCID mouse model can evaluate the potential of stemRBCs to deliver oxygen to tissues (muscle under resting and exercise-induced hypoxic conditions. Based on our data, stem cell-derived RBCs have a similar biochemical profile compared to donor-derived RBCs. While certain key differences remain between donor-derived RBCs and stemRBCs, the ability of stemRBCs to deliver oxygen in a living organism provides support for further development as a transfusion product.

  16. Destination Branding Kota Jember Pada Pemberitaan Jember Fashion Carnaval 2016 di Media Online

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muntadliroh Muntadliroh

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Jember Fashion Carnaval (JFC 2016 telah banyak diberitakan di media online selama bulan Agustus – September 2016. Karnaval tahunan ini memberikan implikasi pada upaya destination branding Kota Jember. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis isi pemberitaan JFC 2016 di media online selama bulan Agustus – September 2016. Fokus penelitian ini adalah pemaknaan teks/pesan pemberitaan JFC 2016 yang membentuk destination branding Kota Jember. Metode yang digunakan adalah content analysis dengan pendekatan kuantitatif deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pemberitaan JFC 2016 merepresentasikan tahapan pembangunan destination branding Kota Jember dengan sumber informasi terbanyak dari birokrat (39%, konten berita terbesar berisi topik review JFC 2016 dan penyelenggaraan JFC 2016 masing-masing sebanyak (20%, kategori berita terbanyak bertema lifestyle (40%, dan didominasi tone berita positif (70%.

  17. NASA Technology Area 07: Human Exploration Destination Systems Roadmap

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennedy, Kriss J.; Alexander, Leslie; Landis, Rob; Linne, Diane; Mclemore, Carole; Santiago-Maldonado, Edgardo; Brown, David L.

    2011-01-01

    This paper gives an overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Chief Technologist (OCT) led Space Technology Roadmap definition efforts. This paper will given an executive summary of the technology area 07 (TA07) Human Exploration Destination Systems (HEDS). These are draft roadmaps being reviewed and updated by the National Research Council. Deep-space human exploration missions will require many game changing technologies to enable safe missions, become more independent, and enable intelligent autonomous operations and take advantage of the local resources to become self-sufficient thereby meeting the goal of sustained human presence in space. Taking advantage of in-situ resources enhances and enables revolutionary robotic and human missions beyond the traditional mission architectures and launch vehicle capabilities. Mobility systems will include in-space flying, surface roving, and Extra-vehicular Activity/Extravehicular Robotics (EVA/EVR) mobility. These push missions will take advantage of sustainability and supportability technologies that will allow mission independence to conduct human mission operations either on or near the Earth, in deep space, in the vicinity of Mars, or on the Martian surface while opening up commercialization opportunities in low Earth orbit (LEO) for research, industrial development, academia, and entertainment space industries. The Human Exploration Destination Systems (HEDS) Technology Area (TA) 7 Team has been chartered by the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) to strategically roadmap technology investments that will enable sustained human exploration and support NASA s missions and goals for at least the next 25 years. HEDS technologies will enable a sustained human presence for exploring destinations such as remote sites on Earth and beyond including, but not limited to, LaGrange points, low Earth orbit (LEO), high Earth orbit (HEO), geosynchronous orbit (GEO), the Moon, near

  18. Titan: a distant but enticing destination for human visitors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nott, Julian

    2009-10-01

    Until recently, very little was known about Saturn's largest satellite, Titan. But that has changed dramatically since the Cassini spacecraft started orbiting in the Saturn system in 2004. Larger than Mercury and with a dense atmosphere, Titan has many of the characteristics of a planet. Indeed, many scientists now see it as the most interesting place in the Solar System for robotic exploration, with many unique features and even the possibility of exotic forms of life. This paper points out that Titan is also a potential destination for humans. With its predominantly nitrogen atmosphere, moderate gravity, and available water and oxygen, it also appears that, once it becomes possible to travel there, it will prove to be much more hospitable for human visitors than any other destination in the Solar System.

  19. From smart city to smart destination. The case of three Canadian cities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    François Bédard

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Several cities around the world are self-proclaimed "smart" by integrating, in varying degrees, new technologies in the different spheres of the city. Nevertheless, despite this effervescence around the smart city, the concept requires more conceptualization from the researchers. This is even more important when it comes time to distinguishing between smart city and smart destination. The relationship between these two concepts is blurred and the transition from the smart city to the smart destination is not automatic. This situation is explained by the fact that the intrinsic characteristics of their respective target populations, being the citizens and the tourists, are different. This article compares three Canadian cities in the province of Quebec with the aim of demonstrating that the realization of a smart destination project requires the adaptation of governance structure and the involvement of all the stakeholders and more particularly in tourism.

  20. Modeling the contribution of point sources and non-point sources to Thachin River water pollution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaffner, Monika; Bader, Hans-Peter; Scheidegger, Ruth

    2009-08-15

    Major rivers in developing and emerging countries suffer increasingly of severe degradation of water quality. The current study uses a mathematical Material Flow Analysis (MMFA) as a complementary approach to address the degradation of river water quality due to nutrient pollution in the Thachin River Basin in Central Thailand. This paper gives an overview of the origins and flow paths of the various point- and non-point pollution sources in the Thachin River Basin (in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus) and quantifies their relative importance within the system. The key parameters influencing the main nutrient flows are determined and possible mitigation measures discussed. The results show that aquaculture (as a point source) and rice farming (as a non-point source) are the key nutrient sources in the Thachin River Basin. Other point sources such as pig farms, households and industries, which were previously cited as the most relevant pollution sources in terms of organic pollution, play less significant roles in comparison. This order of importance shifts when considering the model results for the provincial level. Crosschecks with secondary data and field studies confirm the plausibility of our simulations. Specific nutrient loads for the pollution sources are derived; these can be used for a first broad quantification of nutrient pollution in comparable river basins. Based on an identification of the sensitive model parameters, possible mitigation scenarios are determined and their potential to reduce the nutrient load evaluated. A comparison of simulated nutrient loads with measured nutrient concentrations shows that nutrient retention in the river system may be significant. Sedimentation in the slow flowing surface water network as well as nitrogen emission to the air from the warm oxygen deficient waters are certainly partly responsible, but also wetlands along the river banks could play an important role as nutrient sinks.

  1. Source model for the 1997 Zirkuh earthquake (MW= 7.2) in Iran derived from JERS and ERS InSAR observations

    KAUST Repository

    Sudhaus, Henriette

    2011-05-01

    We present the first detailed source model of the 1997 M7.2 Zirkuh earthquake that ruptured the entire Abiz fault in East Iran producing a 125 km long, bended and segmented fault trace. Using SAR data from the ERS and JERS-1 satellites we first determined a multisegment fault model for this predominately strike-slip earthquake by estimating fault-segment dip, slip, and rake values using an evolutionary optimization algorithm. We then inverted the InSAR data for variable slip and rake in more detail along the multisegment fault plane. We complement our optimization with importance sampling of the model parameter space to ensure that the derived optimum model has a high likelihood, to detect correlations or trade-offs between model parameters, and to image the model resolution. Our results are in an agreement with field observations showing that this predominantly strike-slip earthquake had a clear change in style of faulting along its rupture. In the north we find that thrust faulting on a westerly dipping fault is accompanied with the strike-slip that changes to thrust faulting on an eastward dipping fault plane in the south. The centre part of the fault is vertical and has almost pure dextral strike-slip. The heterogeneous fault slip distribution shows two regions of low slip near significant fault step-overs of the Abiz fault and therefore these fault complexities appear to reduce the fault slip. Furthermore, shallow fault slip is generally reduced with respect to slip at depth. This shallow slip deficit varies along the Zirkuh fault from a small deficit in the North to a much larger deficit along the central part of the fault, a variation that is possibly related to different interseismic repose times.

  2. Novel half-coherent receivers for amplify-and-forward relaying

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Fahd Ahmed

    2012-06-01

    Consider a system in which the signal is transmitted from the source to the destination via an amplify-and-forward relay. For such a system, we derive in this paper, novel receivers that have complete knowledge of either the source-relay link or the relay-destination link. These receivers are termed as, \\'half-coherent receivers\\' as they have channel-state-information (CSI) of only one of two links. These receivers can be very useful in a system in which only the relay can afford high complexity by having a channel estimation module and the destination is unable to support channel estimation or a system in which only the destination can afford higher complexity and includes the channel estimation module. The analytical bit-error-rate (BER) performances of the proposed receivers are derived for Rician fading. Numerical results show considerable performance gains of the new receivers, especially at low signal-to-noise ratio. © 2012 IEEE.

  3. Describing the Relationship between Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty in a Segmented and Digitalized Market

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Neuts, B.; Romao, J.; van Leeuwen, E.S.; Nijkamp, P.

    2013-01-01

    As a result of advances in ICT services, transportation and local development, among others, more destinations are competing to attract both national and international visitors. Globalization requires destinations to increase their competitiveness or risk losing out on tourist revenues. While the

  4. The role of the film as a media communications instrument for the tourist destination promotion strategy

    OpenAIRE

    Pavković Vladimir; Filipović Vinka; Vlastelica-Bakić Tamara

    2015-01-01

    This paper analyses different film genres and their role as a media communications instrument for the tourist destination promotion strategy. The general objective of the paper is to point to the significance of film for the tourist destination recognisability as well as its perception in the public eye. The specific objectives of the paper are directed at the analysis of individual roles that different film genres have in the tourist destination promotion strategy. The research methods emplo...

  5. Evaluation of bias associated with capture maps derived from nonlinear groundwater flow models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nadler, Cara; Allander, Kip K.; Pohll, Greg; Morway, Eric D.; Naranjo, Ramon C.; Huntington, Justin

    2018-01-01

    The impact of groundwater withdrawal on surface water is a concern of water users and water managers, particularly in the arid western United States. Capture maps are useful tools to spatially assess the impact of groundwater pumping on water sources (e.g., streamflow depletion) and are being used more frequently for conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater. Capture maps have been derived using linear groundwater flow models and rely on the principle of superposition to demonstrate the effects of pumping in various locations on resources of interest. However, nonlinear models are often necessary to simulate head-dependent boundary conditions and unconfined aquifers. Capture maps developed using nonlinear models with the principle of superposition may over- or underestimate capture magnitude and spatial extent. This paper presents new methods for generating capture difference maps, which assess spatial effects of model nonlinearity on capture fraction sensitivity to pumping rate, and for calculating the bias associated with capture maps. The sensitivity of capture map bias to selected parameters related to model design and conceptualization for the arid western United States is explored. This study finds that the simulation of stream continuity, pumping rates, stream incision, well proximity to capture sources, aquifer hydraulic conductivity, and groundwater evapotranspiration extinction depth substantially affect capture map bias. Capture difference maps demonstrate that regions with large capture fraction differences are indicative of greater potential capture map bias. Understanding both spatial and temporal bias in capture maps derived from nonlinear groundwater flow models improves their utility and defensibility as conjunctive-use management tools.

  6. Criteria for the Selection of Tourism Destinations by Students from Different Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dębski Maciej

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to identify selected aspects of the management of information about prospective tourist destinations by young people (students from Canada, Poland, and Trinidad and Tobago. On the basis of a questionnaire study, the ranking of preferences of respondents (i.e., the main criteria of destination choice has been presented. Students were selected as respondents - as a “convenient sample” - in this privately funded study. A variety of aspects related to comfort (and convenience and attractiveness have been identified as most important to the choice of destination. These are also leading motives that may form a platform for advertising campaigns and suggestions for regional development. This examination has been done mainly with the use of analysis of averages, Spearman correlation coefficients, and various approaches to factor analysis. It turns out that despite very different characteristics of respondents from the three countries, both their preferences and motives for promotion of the destination are very similar. Conclusions can be helpful for travel agencies and those responsible for the development of tourism infrastructure, as well as for the organization of further studies on the subject. The combination of various statistical tools used when examining the subject and the finding - that is, the similarity of preferences between travelers - can be regarded as new value when examining the subject.

  7. Automatic landslide detection from LiDAR DTM derivatives by geographic-object-based image analysis based on open-source software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knevels, Raphael; Leopold, Philip; Petschko, Helene

    2017-04-01

    With high-resolution airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data more commonly available, many studies have been performed to facilitate the detailed information on the earth surface and to analyse its limitation. Specifically in the field of natural hazards, digital terrain models (DTM) have been used to map hazardous processes such as landslides mainly by visual interpretation of LiDAR DTM derivatives. However, new approaches are striving towards automatic detection of landslides to speed up the process of generating landslide inventories. These studies usually use a combination of optical imagery and terrain data, and are designed in commercial software packages such as ESRI ArcGIS, Definiens eCognition, or MathWorks MATLAB. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of open-source software for automatic landslide detection based only on high-resolution LiDAR DTM derivatives in a study area within the federal state of Burgenland, Austria. The study area is very prone to landslides which have been mapped with different methodologies in recent years. The free development environment R was used to integrate open-source geographic information system (GIS) software, such as SAGA (System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses), GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), or TauDEM (Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models). The implemented geographic-object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) consisted of (1) derivation of land surface parameters, such as slope, surface roughness, curvature, or flow direction, (2) finding optimal scale parameter by the use of an objective function, (3) multi-scale segmentation, (4) classification of landslide parts (main scarp, body, flanks) by k-mean thresholding, (5) assessment of the classification performance using a pre-existing landslide inventory, and (6) post-processing analysis for the further use in landslide inventories. The results of the developed open-source approach demonstrated good

  8. Destination discount : A sensible road for national brands?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Deleersnyder, B.; Koll, O.

    2012-01-01

    Purpose – This paper aims to study the consequences of listing national brands in discounters. Is the discount channel a promising outlet for manufacturer brands? Is it an effective means to attract new buyers? Which combination of brand and discount destination at which price is best suited for

  9. Policy measure for creating an integrated and brand-focused regional innovation system in tourism in a shadow destination:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brambini, Annalisa; Vang, Jan

    2013-01-01

    -located places. Based on regional innovation systems and place branding research the paper develops policy measures adapted to the specific challenges a shadow destination faces. Empirically, the appropriateness of the policy measures is demonstrated through applying it to a paradigmatic shadow destination......Tourism has often been hyped as an engine of regional growth and development but often failed to deliver the expected results. This is especially the case in shadow destinations. The concept of a shadow destination refers to a region whose relative attractioness is significantly lower than co...

  10. Google it! Using the Google Trends tool to understand the Algarve Tourist destination public interest

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Dinis

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In a sector strongly dependent on information as is the case of tourism, the timely knowledge of consumer behaviour enables making well-considered decisions and less uncertainty. Nowadays, the act of searching on the Internet about a particular subject before decision-making is part of the individuals’ daily lives. The Google Trends tool provides real time aggregated data on the online individuals’ interest based on the carried out search queries on Google. The objective of this paper is to show that Google Trends can provide comparative information about the individuals’ interest in relation to Portugal tourism regional areas and in particular, on the tourist destination "Algarve", and also between its competing tourist destinations. The results show that the tool can contribute to the knowledge of the individuals’ interests in relation to regional tourist destinations, information considered of great interest for Destination Management Organizations.

  11. Detection of Botnet Command and Control Traffic by the Multistage Trust Evaluation of Destination Identifiers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pieter Burghouwt

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Network-based detection of botnet Command and Control communication is a difficult task if the traffic has a relatively low volume and if popular protocols, such as HTTP, are used to resemble normal traffic. We present a new network-based detection approach that is capable of detecting this type of Command and Control traffic in an enterprise network by estimating the trustworthiness of the traffic destinations. If the destination identifier of a traffic flow origins directly from: human input, prior traffic from a trusted destination, or a defined set of legitimate applications, the destination is trusted and its associated traffic is classified as normal. Advantages of this approach are: the ability of zero day malicious traffic detection, low exposure to malware by passive host-external traffic monitoring, and the applicability for real-time filtering. Experimental evaluation demonstrates successful detection of diverse types of Command and Control Traffic.

  12. Human mobility and time spent at destination: impact on spatial epidemic spreading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poletto, Chiara; Tizzoni, Michele; Colizza, Vittoria

    2013-12-07

    Host mobility plays a fundamental role in the spatial spread of infectious diseases. Previous theoretical works based on the integration of network theory into the metapopulation framework have shown that the heterogeneities that characterize real mobility networks favor the propagation of epidemics. Nevertheless, the studies conducted so far assumed the mobility process to be either Markovian (in which the memory of the origin of each traveler is lost) or non-Markovian with a fixed traveling time scale (in which individuals travel to a destination and come back at a constant rate). Available statistics however show that the time spent by travelers at destination is characterized by wide fluctuations, ranging from a single day up to several months. Such varying length of stay crucially affects the chance and duration of mixing events among hosts and may therefore have a strong impact on the spread of an emerging disease. Here, we present an analytical and a computational study of epidemic processes on a complex subpopulation network where travelers have memory of their origin and spend a heterogeneously distributed time interval at their destination. Through analytical calculations and numerical simulations we show that the heterogeneity of the length of stay alters the expression of the threshold between local outbreak and global invasion, and, moreover, it changes the epidemic behavior of the system in case of a global outbreak. Additionally, our theoretical framework allows us to study the effect of changes in the traveling behavior in response to the infection, by considering a scenario in which sick individuals do not leave their home location. Finally, we compare the results of our non-Markovian framework with those obtained with a classic Markovian approach and find relevant differences between the two, in the estimate of the epidemic invasion potential, as well as of the timing and the pattern of its spatial spread. These results highlight the importance of

  13. PESTEL analysis of tourism destinations in the perspective of business tourism (MICE)

    OpenAIRE

    Marina Gregorić

    2014-01-01

    Purpose of this research is to apply PESTEL analysis on two different destinations (Croatia and Qatar) in order to find our their specific attributes as well as to analyse weather we can learn from their advantages and disadvantages due to the fact that one is rich on natural attractions while other one is mostly characterised by humand made attractions. Design is done by using the core of PESTEL analysis where each destination is analysed according to political, economical, socio-cultural, t...

  14. Walking for transportation in Hong Kong Chinese urban elders: a cross-sectional study on what destinations matter and when.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerin, Ester; Lee, Ka-yiu; Barnett, Anthony; Sit, Cindy H P; Cheung, Man-chin; Chan, Wai-man; Johnston, Janice M

    2013-06-20

    Walking for transport can contribute to the accrual of health-enhancing levels of physical activity in elders. Identifying destinations and environmental conditions that facilitate this type of walking has public health significance. However, most findings are limited to Western, low-density locations, while a larger proportion of the global population resides in ultra-dense Asian metropolises. We investigated relationships of within-neighborhood objectively-measured destination categories and environmental attributes with walking for transport in 484 elders from an ultra-dense metropolis (Hong Kong). We estimated relationships of diversity (number of different types) and prevalence of within-neighborhood destination categories (environmental audits of 400 m buffers surrounding residential addresses) with transport-related walking (interviewer-administered questionnaire) in 484 Chinese-speaking elders able to walk unassisted and living in 32 neighborhoods stratified by socio-economic status and transport-related walkability. We examined the moderating effects of safety and pedestrian infrastructure-related neighborhood attributes on destination-walking associations. Participants reported on average 569 and 254 min/week of overall and within-neighborhood walking for transport, respectively. The prevalence of public transit points and diversity of recreational destinations were positively related to overall walking for transport. The presence of a health clinic/service and place of worship, higher diversity in recreational destinations, and greater prevalence of non-food retails and services, food/grocery stores, and restaurants in the neighborhood were predictive of more within-neighborhood walking for transport. Neighborhood safety-related aspects moderated the relationship of overall walking for transport with the prevalence of public transit points, this being positive only in safe locations. Similar moderating effects of safety-related attributes were observed

  15. Computations on metric maps in mammals: getting oriented and choosing a multi-destination route.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallistel, C R; Cramer, A E

    1996-01-01

    The capacity to construct a cognitive map is hypothesized to rest on two foundations: (1) dead reckoning (path integration); (2) the perception of the direction and distance of terrain features relative to the animal. A map may be constructed by combining these two sources of positional information, with the result that the positions of all terrain features are represented in the coordinate framework used for dead reckoning. When animals need to become reoriented in a mapped space, results from rats and human toddlers indicate that they focus exclusively on the shape of the perceived environment, ignoring non-geometric features such as surface colors. As a result, in a rectangular space, they are misoriented half the time even when the two ends of the space differ strikingly in their appearance. In searching for a hidden object after becoming reoriented, both kinds of subjects search on the basis of the object's mapped position in the space rather than on the basis of its relationship to a goal sign (e.g. a distinctive container or nearby marker), even though they have demonstrably noted the relationship between the goal and the goal sign. When choosing a multidestination foraging route, vervet monkeys look at least three destinations ahead, even though they are only capable of keeping a maximum of six destinations in mind at once.

  16. The Sleeper and the Spindle de Neil Gaiman : quand les reines prennent leur destin en main

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stéphanie Schneider

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Dans le recueilintitulé "Rags and Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales", chaque auteur choisissait un conte qui l’avait particulièrement touché (soit inspiré, émerveillé ou profondément agacé, le désossait et le reconstruisait à l’attention des jeunes lecteurs actuels. Ainsi, réécrit d’un point de vue contemporain, chacun des contes du recueil se propose, tout en rendant hommage aux textes sources, de soulever un débat particulier. Nous axerons le nôtre autour du destin des personnages féminins.

  17. Evaluation of model-simulated source contributions to tropospheric ozone with aircraft observations in the factor-projected space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Yoshida

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available Trace gas measurements of TOPSE and TRACE-P experiments and corresponding global GEOS-Chem model simulations are analyzed with the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF method for model evaluation purposes. Specially, we evaluate the model simulated contributions to O3 variability from stratospheric transport, intercontinental transport, and production from urban/industry and biomass burning/biogenic sources. We select a suite of relatively long-lived tracers, including 7 chemicals (O3, NOy, PAN, CO, C3H8, CH3Cl, and 7Be and 1 dynamic tracer (potential temperature. The largest discrepancy is found in the stratospheric contribution to 7Be. The model underestimates this contribution by a factor of 2–3, corresponding well to a reduction of 7Be source by the same magnitude in the default setup of the standard GEOS-Chem model. In contrast, we find that the simulated O3 contributions from stratospheric transport are in reasonable agreement with those derived from the measurements. However, the springtime increasing trend over North America derived from the measurements are largely underestimated in the model, indicating that the magnitude of simulated stratospheric O3 source is reasonable but the temporal distribution needs improvement. The simulated O3 contributions from long-range transport and production from urban/industry and biomass burning/biogenic emissions are also in reasonable agreement with those derived from the measurements, although significant discrepancies are found for some regions.

  18. Positioning of Serbia as a tourism destination on the international tourist market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ubavić Predrag

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper an analysis was conducted of the existing touristic position of Serbia as a destination on the international toursitic market. Almost all countries worldwide tend to valorise their touristic potentials by offering various touristic products/services on touristic markets in order to realize numerous objectives of its economic and general social development. The Republic of Serbia also classified the development of touristic activity into priorities of its actual economic politics and developing strategy. Observing from today's perspective one can conclude that Serbia still hasn't taken an adequate competing position regarding other toursitic destinations, not only in the region but in the world as well. The aim of this paper is to point out the main causes of the present market position of Serbia and the necessity of its repositioning, so that it can become attractive and respectable touristic destination as soon as possible both in regional and international touristic market.

  19. The influence of education level on choosing coastal regions as tourist destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đeri Lukrecija

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of the paper is to investigate the influence of formal education level on decision-making process when choosing a tourist destination based on multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA. The survey was conducted on the sample of 252 respondents from Bačka region (Vojvodina/Serbia. Also, this study strives to examine the influence of education level on decision-making process including all five phases of decision-making process: need awareness, information search, alternatives estimation, purchase and purchase evaluation, applied to the process of choosing coastal regions as tourist destinations. The study shows that education level is related to four out of five phases of decision-making process (only in case of need awareness there is no statistically significant difference. This is especially important for creation of a marketing platform with promotional activities adjusted to different market segments differentiated by education level. Moreover, the study discusses differences in behaviour of different educational groups while choosing travel destinations.

  20. Modeling, analysis, and design of stationary reference frame droop controlled parallel three-phase voltage source inverters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vasquez, Juan Carlos; Guerrero, Josep M.; Savaghebi, Mehdi

    2013-01-01

    Power electronics based MicroGrids consist of a number of voltage source inverters (VSIs) operating in parallel. In this paper, the modeling, control design, and stability analysis of parallel connected three-phase VSIs are derived. The proposed voltage and current inner control loops and the mat......Power electronics based MicroGrids consist of a number of voltage source inverters (VSIs) operating in parallel. In this paper, the modeling, control design, and stability analysis of parallel connected three-phase VSIs are derived. The proposed voltage and current inner control loops...... control restores the frequency and amplitude deviations produced by the primary control. Also, a synchronization algorithm is presented in order to connect the MicroGrid to the grid. Experimental results are provided to validate the performance and robustness of the parallel VSI system control...

  1. marketing destination information in a tourism driven economy

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    PROF. BARTH EKWEME

    This paper studies the destination information marketing as an aid to the Cross River Tourism bid. A questionnaire was designed to elicit responses from the stakeholders in the tourism industry. Out of 69 ... State were tourist guide books, internet and the Tourism Bureau. ... beauty are appreciated by all normal human.

  2. Social Trust, Safety and the Choice of Tourist Destination

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Susanne; Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

    2016-01-01

    Does social trust influence safety and tourists’ destination choice? Our claim is that the roots of safety may take two forms: either formal institutions or informal institutions. Formal institutions concern how society can build up control mechanisms through the legal system, police authority...... and military. The problem is that high visibility of police and military in public spaces may give the tourist the impression of an unsafe and insecure destination. Instead, social trust through self-enforcements of social norms for behaviour may be important because the informal institutions guarantee...... the safety of tourists (and locals) without signalling a problem with safety. Building social trust may further enhance the feeling of safety and thereby attract even more tourists. Thus, our trust-safety theory may guide the active use of social trust by tourist officials and policy makers....

  3. Research of consumer motives and attitudes about tourist destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanković Ljiljana

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The research on consumer behavior and the consumption system is one of the crucial tasks for destination marketing. The information on consumers' needs, priorities in satisfying them, motives, their solvency and the degree of realized satisfaction represent the basis for the development of marketing strategies and value creation. It is of special importance to identify and clarify the factors that determine consumers' preferences in the process of different options evaluation and the choice of a tourist destination. Consumer behavior and the consumption system are determined by the influence of a large number of factors: geographical, economic, demographic, social, psychological, etc. Only through simultaneous interaction of these factors, the complex processes of translating stimuli in the minds of consumers into their certain reactions in the process of purchasing and using the products could be understood.

  4. Differences of Perceived Image Generated through the Web Site: Empirical Evidence Obtained in Spanish Destinations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blazquez-Resino, Juan J.; Muro-Rodriguez, Ana I.; Perez-Jimenez, Israel R.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, a study of the perceived destination image created by promotional Web Pages is expounded in an attempt to identify their differences as generators of destination image in the consumers' mind. Specifically, it seeks to analyse whether the web sites of different Spanish regions improve the image that consumers have of the destination, identifying their main dimensions and analysing its effect on satisfaction and intentions of the future behavior of potential visitors. To achieve these objectives and verify the hypotheses, a laboratory experiment was performed, where it was determined what changes are produced in the tourist's previous image after browsing the tourist webs of three different regions. Moreover, it analyses the differences in the effect of the perceived image on satisfaction and potential visitors' future behavioral intentions. The results obtained enable us to identify differences in the composition of the perceived image according to the destination, while confirming the significant effect of different perceived image dimensions regarding satisfaction. The results allow managers to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of their sites from a consumer perspective as well as suggestions to follow in order to achieve greater efficiency in their communication actions in order to improve the motivation of visitors to go to the destination. PMID:27933027

  5. Differences of perceived image generated through the Web site: Empirical Evidence Obtained in Spanish Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Jose Blazquez-Resino

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a study of the perceived destination image created by promotional Web Pages is expounded in an attempt to identify their differences as generators of destination image in the consumers’ mind. Specifically, it seeks to analyse whether the web sites of different Spanish regions improve the image that consumers have of the destination, identifying their main dimensions and analysing its effect on satisfaction and intentions of the future behaviour of potential visitors. To achieve these objectives and verify the hypotheses, a laboratory experiment was performed, where it was determined what changes are produced in the tourist´s previous image after browsing the tourist webs of three different regions. Moreover, it analyses the differences in the effect of the perceived image on satisfaction and potential visitors´ future behavioural intentions. The results obtained enable us to identify differences in the composition of the perceived image according to the destination, while confirming the significant effect of different perceived image dimensions regarding satisfaction. The results allow managers to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of their sites from a consumer perspective as well as suggestions to follow in order to achieve greater efficiency in their communication actions in order to improve the motivation of visitors to go to the destination.

  6. Modelling ocean-colour-derived chlorophyll a

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Dutkiewicz

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This article provides a proof of concept for using a biogeochemical/ecosystem/optical model with a radiative transfer component as a laboratory to explore aspects of ocean colour. We focus here on the satellite ocean colour chlorophyll a (Chl a product provided by the often-used blue/green reflectance ratio algorithm. The model produces output that can be compared directly to the real-world ocean colour remotely sensed reflectance. This model output can then be used to produce an ocean colour satellite-like Chl a product using an algorithm linking the blue versus green reflectance similar to that used for the real world. Given that the model includes complete knowledge of the (model water constituents, optics and reflectance, we can explore uncertainties and their causes in this proxy for Chl a (called derived Chl a in this paper. We compare the derived Chl a to the actual model Chl a field. In the model we find that the mean absolute bias due to the algorithm is 22 % between derived and actual Chl a. The real-world algorithm is found using concurrent in situ measurement of Chl a and radiometry. We ask whether increased in situ measurements to train the algorithm would improve the algorithm, and find a mixed result. There is a global overall improvement, but at the expense of some regions, especially in lower latitudes where the biases increase. Not surprisingly, we find that region-specific algorithms provide a significant improvement, at least in the annual mean. However, in the model, we find that no matter how the algorithm coefficients are found there can be a temporal mismatch between the derived Chl a and the actual Chl a. These mismatches stem from temporal decoupling between Chl a and other optically important water constituents (such as coloured dissolved organic matter and detrital matter. The degree of decoupling differs regionally and over time. For example, in many highly seasonal regions, the timing of initiation

  7. STRATEGY FOR THE DESTINATIONAL E-MARKETING & SALES

    OpenAIRE

    Zlatko Sehanovic; Giorgio Cadum; Igor Sehanovic

    2010-01-01

    Every tourist destination should make and implement a destination’s marketing and sales strategy. A very important part of destination’s sales and marketing strategy is the e-marketing and sales strategy. The cooperation of specialized regional development agencies, regional tourist board, local (city and county) tourist boards, hoteliers, tourist agencies, conservators, entertainment and cultural program developers, private accommodation owners and others involved in creation of destination’...

  8. THE INFLUENCE OF DESTINATION IMAGE AND TOURIST SATISFACTION TOWARD REVISIT INTENTION OF SETU BABAKAN BETAWI CULTURAL VILLAGE

    OpenAIRE

    Wibowo, Setyo Ferry; Sazali, Adnan; Kresnamurti R. P., Agung

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this research are: 1) To find out the description of destination image, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 2) test empirically the influence of destination image toward revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 3) test empirically the influence of tourist satisfaction toward revisit intention of Betawi cultural village Setu Babakan, 4) test empirically the influence of destination image toward revisit intention ...

  9. Computational model of Amersham I-125 source model 6711 and Prosper Pd-103 source model MED3633 using MCNP

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Menezes, Artur F.; Reis Junior, Juraci P.; Silva, Ademir X., E-mail: ademir@con.ufrj.b [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Rosa, Luiz A.R. da, E-mail: lrosa@ird.gov.b [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria (IRD/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Facure, Alessandro [Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Cardoso, Simone C., E-mail: Simone@if.ufrj.b [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IF/UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Inst. de Fisica. Dept. de Fisica Nuclear

    2011-07-01

    Brachytherapy is used in cancer treatment at shorter distances through the use of small encapsulated source of ionizing radiation. In such treatment, a radiation source is positioned directly into or near the target volume to be treated. In this study the Monte Carlo based MCNP code was used to model and simulate the I-125 Amersham Health source model 6711 and the Pd-103 Prospera source model MED3633 in order to obtain the dosimetric parameter dose rate constant ({Lambda}) . The sources geometries were modeled and implemented in MCNPX code. The dose rate constant is an important parameter prostate LDR brachytherapy's treatments planning. This study was based on American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) recommendations which were produced by its Task Group 43. The results obtained were 0.941 and 0.65 for the dose rate constants of I-125 and Pd-103 sources, respectively. They present good agreement with the literature values based on different Monte Carlo codes. (author)

  10. How does trade-mediated technology transfer affect interregional and intersectoral competition? Exploring multi-sectoral effects in a global trade model

    OpenAIRE

    Das, Gouranga

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, all technology transfers are embodied in trade flows within a three-region, six-tradedcommodity version of the GTAP model. 4% Hicks-Neutral technical progress in heavy manufacturing in one region has uneven impacts on productivity elsewhere. Why? Destination regions’ ability to harness new technology depends on their absorptive capacity and on the structural congruence of the source and destination. Together with trade volume, these two factors determine the recipi...

  11. An intense plane-beam ion source (1963); Source d'ions intense a faisceau plan (1963)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deicas, R; Valckx, F P.O. [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Fontenay-aux-Roses (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1963-07-01

    Experiments are described carried out on the cross-section of a Penning type ion source which is a prototype of the annular ion source intended for the M.M.I.I. device at the Fontenay-aux-Roses Nuclear Research Centre. It is shown that the existence or absence of a very strong concentration depends in particular on the magnetic geometry. With a suitable magnetic and electrical geometry it is possible to concentrate the discharge towards the slit and thus to increase considerably the electrical yield and the gas yield. In pulsed conditions, the current derived from this source can exceed 100 mA with a slit 20 cm long and 0.2 mm wide. The gas yield can attain 20 per cent. The main characteristics of the discharge and of the beam are examined. (authors) [French] On decrit les experiences faites sur une section droite d'une source d'ions type Penning, qui est un prototype pour une source d'ions annulaire, destine au dispositif M.M.I.I. au Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Fontenay-aux-Roses. On montre que l'existence ou non d'un regime intense depend surtout de la geometrie magnetique. Avec une geometrie magnetique et electrique convenables on peut concentrer la decharge vers les levres et ainsi augmenter considerablement le rendement electrique et le rendement en gaz. En regime pulse le courant extrait de cette source peut depasser 100 mA avec une fente de 20 cm de long et 0. 2 mm de largeur. Le rendement en gaz peut atteindre 20 pour cent. On etudie les principales caracteristiques de la decharge et du faisceau. (auteurs)

  12. Physics Model-Based Scatter Correction in Multi-Source Interior Computed Tomography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Hao; Li, Bin; Jia, Xun; Cao, Guohua

    2018-02-01

    Multi-source interior computed tomography (CT) has a great potential to provide ultra-fast and organ-oriented imaging at low radiation dose. However, X-ray cross scattering from multiple simultaneously activated X-ray imaging chains compromises imaging quality. Previously, we published two hardware-based scatter correction methods for multi-source interior CT. Here, we propose a software-based scatter correction method, with the benefit of no need for hardware modifications. The new method is based on a physics model and an iterative framework. The physics model was derived analytically, and was used to calculate X-ray scattering signals in both forward direction and cross directions in multi-source interior CT. The physics model was integrated to an iterative scatter correction framework to reduce scatter artifacts. The method was applied to phantom data from both Monte Carlo simulations and physical experimentation that were designed to emulate the image acquisition in a multi-source interior CT architecture recently proposed by our team. The proposed scatter correction method reduced scatter artifacts significantly, even with only one iteration. Within a few iterations, the reconstructed images fast converged toward the "scatter-free" reference images. After applying the scatter correction method, the maximum CT number error at the region-of-interests (ROIs) was reduced to 46 HU in numerical phantom dataset and 48 HU in physical phantom dataset respectively, and the contrast-noise-ratio at those ROIs increased by up to 44.3% and up to 19.7%, respectively. The proposed physics model-based iterative scatter correction method could be useful for scatter correction in dual-source or multi-source CT.

  13. INCREDIBLE !NDIA  CAMPAIGN : Destination Marketing and the role of Social Media

    OpenAIRE

    Bafna, Sanjana

    2015-01-01

    Tourism is an important aspect of a country's domestic economy and helps in generating  valuable  employment  and  foreign  exchange.  Tourists  get  attracted  to  a particular  destination  because  they  are  excited  about  the  destination  and because there are no safety concerns about the destination. Destination branding is a concept that  encompasses  the  enhancement  of  the  'image'  tourists  have  about  a  particular destination.  This  research  explores  the  destination  bra...

  14. Inter-Destination Media Synchronization, now standardized by ETSI TISPAN

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Deventer, M.O. van; Stokking, H.M.; Niamut, O.M.; Walraven, F.A.

    2010-01-01

    nter-Destination Media Synchronization (IDMS) is een reeks van technologieën voor de synchronisatie van mediacontent op meerdere televisies. Sociale televisie is een belangrijke toepassing van IDMS. Sociale televisie stelt vrienden in staat om een televisieprogramma samen te bekijken vanaf

  15. Parity-Check Network Coding for Multiple Access Relay Channel in Wireless Sensor Cooperative Communications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Du Bing

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available A recently developed theory suggests that network coding is a generalization of source coding and channel coding and thus yields a significant performance improvement in terms of throughput and spatial diversity. This paper proposes a cooperative design of a parity-check network coding scheme in the context of a two-source multiple access relay channel (MARC model, a common compact model in hierarchical wireless sensor networks (WSNs. The scheme uses Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC as the surrogate to build up a layered structure which encapsulates the multiple constituent LDPC codes in the source and relay nodes. Specifically, the relay node decodes the messages from two sources, which are used to generate extra parity-check bits by a random network coding procedure to fill up the rate gap between Source-Relay and Source-Destination transmissions. Then, we derived the key algebraic relationships among multidimensional LDPC constituent codes as one of the constraints for code profile optimization. These extra check bits are sent to the destination to realize a cooperative diversity as well as to approach MARC decode-and-forward (DF capacity.

  16. COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH SUSTAINABILITY AND FINANCIAL EFFICIENCY OF SPA TOURIST DESTINATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anis Cecilia

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available In the specific literature, success may be achieved by two important attributes: competitiveness and sustainability. Competitive advantage represents an essential criterion for surviving on the tourist market and defines the ability of one destination to use these resources effectively and in the long term. The paper work continue a study begun last year by the same authors about tourist perception of attractiveness of the two tourist SPA destinations (Buziaş and Băile Felix on a different market segment (18-35 years old people. This time, we undertake an analysis on SC Turism Felix SA in order to determine and underline the tourist competitiveness through sustainability and financial efficiency (tourism performance indicators evolution, market share, turnover, investment volume, financial returns and costs.

  17. Destination India: Investigating the impact of Goa's attributes on families' leisure travel experience

    OpenAIRE

    Ekiz, Erdogan H.; Khoo-Lattimore, Catheryn

    2014-01-01

    The recent discourse of tourism development among officials within the Government of India has included the state of Goa, mainly because it has consistently witnessed positive economic impacts from tourism. However, in view of competition from other destinations, Goan tourism planners will need to identify important attributes of Goa that will positively affect tourists' destination loyalty. This study examines the correlation between five attributes of Goa and tourists' loyalty to Goa. Famil...

  18. The algorithms for calculating synthetic seismograms from a dipole source using the derivatives of Green's function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavlov, V. M.

    2017-07-01

    The problem of calculating complete synthetic seismograms from a point dipole with an arbitrary seismic moment tensor in a plane parallel medium composed of homogeneous elastic isotropic layers is considered. It is established that the solutions of the system of ordinary differential equations for the motion-stress vector have a reciprocity property, which allows obtaining a compact formula for the derivative of the motion vector with respect to the source depth. The reciprocity theorem for Green's functions with respect to the interchange of the source and receiver is obtained for a medium with cylindrical boundary. The differentiation of Green's functions with respect to the coordinates of the source leads to the same calculation formulas as the algorithm developed in the previous work (Pavlov, 2013). A new algorithm appears when the derivatives with respect to the horizontal coordinates of the source is replaced by the derivatives with respect to the horizontal coordinates of the receiver (with the minus sign). This algorithm is more transparent, compact, and economic than the previous one. It requires calculating the wavenumbers associated with Bessel function's roots of order 0 and order 1, whereas the previous algorithm additionally requires the second order roots.

  19. Automatic Measurement of Play‐out Differences for Social TV, InteractiveTV, Gaming and Inter‐destination Synchronization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R.N. Mekuria (Rufael); H.M. Stokking (Hans); M.O. van Deventer (Oskar)

    2011-01-01

    htmlabstractInter-destination media (play-out) synchronization for social TV has gained attention from research and industry in recent years.Applications include social TV and interactive game shows. To motivate further research of inter-destination synchronization technologies, pilot

  20. Potential of Congress Tourism in the Republic of Croatia in Comparison to Neighboring Destinations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gregorić Marina

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The phenomenon of globalization has led to the development of various selective forms of tourism. One of them is MICE tourism known in Croatia as a business form of tourism. Business tourism is still a relatively new concept and covers all aspects of business travel. The development of business travel has led to the development of congress tourism as a separate form of business tourism which is the focus of this paper. Congress tourism is a lucrative segment of the tourist offer that often takes place out of the tourist season. It requires quality congress facilities which can meet the needs of the participants and organizers of the congress. The main role of congress tourism is to gather participants from different countries and promote different products, services, training, education and many other fields of business while at the same time it promotes the hosting destination and its tourism attractions. The aim of this paper is to research and determine the current situation, supply and demand of the Croatian meetings and congress industry in comparison with the neighbouring destinations, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Serbia. The study and comparison between three destinations imply changes that need to take place to improve the congress offer, to detect what the competitive position of the Republic of Croatia is, which marketing activities to improve so that the Republic of Croatia can become a competitive destination in the region and Europe. Congress tourism as a form of business tourism in Croatia is growing. The most prominent cities in this form of tourism are Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Opatija. The objectives pursued in Croatian congress offer are: the number of participants in congresses, strengthening the quality of congress offer and infrastructure, ensuring coordinated actions of stakeholders and increasing the recognition and awareness of Croatia as a congress destination. Since joining the EU, Slovenia has become an

  1. Open source molecular modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pirhadi, Somayeh; Sunseri, Jocelyn; Koes, David Ryan

    2016-09-01

    The success of molecular modeling and computational chemistry efforts are, by definition, dependent on quality software applications. Open source software development provides many advantages to users of modeling applications, not the least of which is that the software is free and completely extendable. In this review we categorize, enumerate, and describe available open source software packages for molecular modeling and computational chemistry. An updated online version of this catalog can be found at https://opensourcemolecularmodeling.github.io. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Architecture as a Tool for Branding in Rural Istrian Tourism Destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivana Medica

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Natural and protected environments with authentic widespread traditional construction have become one of the fundamental touristic resources. Traditional architecture is a very crucial part of collective cultural heritage. Although it is ample and widespread, only since recent times it has been given its economical value as well as it has been included in tourism. According to the context above, authors have come up with a hypothesis stating that with implying branding of traditional architectural heritage, a positive influence on enrichment of touristic offerings of certain destination will be achieved. The authors defend and fulfill their hypothesis by analyzing different research on the example of rural destinations in Istria.

  3. Social media storytelling alliances and destination branding.

    OpenAIRE

    Lund, Niels Frederik

    2018-01-01

    The emergence of social media necessitates a fundamental rethink of marketing practises as brands are now co-created with social media users. Destination management organisations (DMOs) therefore need to develop new social media strategies. This thesis suggests that DMOs ought to strengthen their storytelling capabilities as it is an essential tool in increasing social media engagement. A conceptual framework is therefore developed drawing on four particular sociological concepts: storytellin...

  4. Novel sources of Flavor Changed Neutral Currents in the 331RHN model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cogollo, D.; Vital de Andrade, A.; Queiroz, F.S.; Teles, P.R.

    2012-01-01

    Sources of Flavor Changed Neutral Currents (FCNC) emerge naturally from a well motivated framework called 3-3-1 with right-handed neutrinos model, 331 RHN for short, mediated by an extra neutral gauge boson Z '. Following previous work we calculate these sources and in addition we derive new ones coming from CP-even and -odd neutral scalars which appear due to their non-diagonal interactions with the physical standard quarks. Furthermore, by using 4 texture zeros for the quark mass matrices, we derive the mass difference terms for the neutral mesons systems K 0 - anti K 0 , D 0 - anti D 0 and B 0 - anti B 0 and show that, though one can discern that the Z' contribution is the most relevant one for mesons oscillations purposes, scalar contributions play a role also in this processes and hence it is worthwhile to investigate them and derive new bounds on space of parameters. In particular, studying the B 0 - anti B 0 system we set the bounds M Z' >or similar 4.2 TeV and M S 2 ,M I 3 >or similar 7.5 TeV in order to be consistent with the current measurements. (orig.)

  5. Automatic Measurement of Play-out Differences for Social TV, Interactive TV, Gaming and Inter-destination Synchronization,

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mekuria, R.N.; Stokking, H.M.; Deventer, M.O. van

    2011-01-01

    Inter-destination media (play-out) synchronization for social TV has gained attention from research and industry in recent years. Applications include social TV and interactive game shows. To motivate further research of inter-destination synchronization technologies, pilot measurements of play-out

  6. Destination branding by residents : The role of perceived responsibility in positive and negative word-of-mouth

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jeuring, Jelmer; Haartsen, Tialda

    2017-01-01

    The importance of residents’ communication about their home region as tourist destination is increasingly acknowledged in the place branding process. However, the extent to which residents feel responsible for communicating Destination Images (DIs), and how these attributions affect word-of-mouth

  7. Tourism Destination Benchmarking: Evaluation and Selection of the Benchmarking Partners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luštický Martin

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Tourism development has an irreplaceable role in regional policy of almost all countries. This is due to its undeniable benefits for the local population with regards to the economic, social and environmental sphere. Tourist destinations compete for visitors at tourism market and subsequently get into a relatively sharp competitive struggle. The main goal of regional governments and destination management institutions is to succeed in this struggle by increasing the competitiveness of their destination. The quality of strategic planning and final strategies is a key factor of competitiveness. Even though the tourism sector is not the typical field where the benchmarking methods are widely used, such approaches could be successfully applied. The paper focuses on key phases of the benchmarking process which lies in the search for suitable referencing partners. The partners are consequently selected to meet general requirements to ensure the quality if strategies. Following from this, some specific characteristics are developed according to the SMART approach. The paper tests this procedure with an expert evaluation of eight selected regional tourism strategies of regions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Great Britain. In this way it validates the selected criteria in the frame of the international environment. Hence, it makes it possible to find strengths and weaknesses of selected strategies and at the same time facilitates the discovery of suitable benchmarking partners.

  8. Conceptual model for deriving the repository source term

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexander, D.H.; Apted, M.J.; Liebetrau, A.M.; Doctor, P.G.; Williford, R.E.; Van Luik, A.E.

    1984-11-01

    Part of a strategy for evaluating the compliance of geologic repositories with federal regulations is a modeling approach that would provide realistic release estimates for a particular configuration of the engineered-barrier system. The objective is to avoid worst-case bounding assumptions that are physically impossible or excessively conservative and to obtain probabilistic estimates of (1) the penetration time for metal barriers and (2) radionuclide-release rates for individually simulated waste packages after penetration has occurred. The conceptual model described in this paper will assume that release rates are explicitly related to such time-dependent processes as mass transfer, dissolution and precipitation, radionuclide decay, and variations in the geochemical environment. The conceptual model will take into account the reduction in the rates of waste-form dissolution and metal corrosion due to a buildup of chemical reaction products. The sorptive properties of the metal-barrier corrosion products in proximity to the waste form surface will also be included. Cumulative releases from the engineered-barrier system will be calculated by summing the releases from a probabilistically generated population of individual waste packages. 14 refs., 7 figs

  9. Conceptual model for deriving the repository source term

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexander, D.H.; Apted, M.J.; Liebetrau, A.M.; Van Luik, A.E.; Williford, R.E.; Doctor, P.G.; Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA; Roy F. Weston, Inc./Rogers and Assoc. Engineering Corp., Rockville, MD)

    1984-01-01

    Part of a strategy for evaluating the compliance of geologic repositories with Federal regulations is a modeling approach that would provide realistic release estimates for a particular configuration of the engineered-barrier system. The objective is to avoid worst-case bounding assumptions that are physically impossible or excessively conservative and to obtain probabilitistic estimates of (1) the penetration time for metal barriers and (2) radionuclide-release rates for individually simulated waste packages after penetration has occurred. The conceptual model described in this paper will assume that release rates are explicitly related to such time-dependent processes as mass transfer, dissolution and precipitation, radionuclide decay, and variations in the geochemical environment. The conceptual model will take into account the reduction in the rates of waste-form dissolution and metal corrosion due to a buildup of chemical reaction products. The sorptive properties of the metal-barrier corrosion products in proximity to the waste form surface will also be included. Cumulative released from the engineered-barrier system will be calculated by summing the releases from a probabilistically generated population of individual waste packages. 14 refs., 7 figs

  10. Community crosstalk: An exploratory analysis of destination and festival eWOM on Twitter

    OpenAIRE

    Williams, Nigel; Inversini, Alessandro; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Ferdinand, Nicole

    2015-01-01

    Research suggests that festivals can promote a destination via online word-of-mouth (eWOM) on socialmedia, even though the nature of this effect is not yet fully understood. Using a combination of Social Network Analysis and text analysis (qualitative and quantitative), this article examines eWOM at a tourism destination (Bournemouth) when a festival (Bournemouth Air Show 2013) is staged. The Communities of Interest of eWOM interactions on Twitter were captured and analysed to understand the ...

  11. Community crosstalk: an exploratory analysis of destination and festival eWOM on Twitter

    OpenAIRE

    Williams, Nigel L.; Inversini, Alessandro; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Ferdinand, Nicole

    2015-01-01

    Research suggests that festivals can promote a destination via online word-of-mouth (eWOM) on social media, even though the nature of this effect is not yet fully understood. Using a combination of Social Network Analysis and text analysis (qualitative and quantitative), this article examines eWOM at a tourism destination (Bournemouth) when a festival (Bournemouth Air Show 2013) is staged. The Communities of Interest of eWOM interactions on Twitter were captured and analysed to understand the...

  12. A spatial structural derivative model for ultraslow diffusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Wei

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the ultraslow diffusion by a spatial structural derivative, in which the exponential function ex is selected as the structural function to construct the local structural derivative diffusion equation model. The analytical solution of the diffusion equation is a form of Biexponential distribution. Its corresponding mean squared displacement is numerically calculated, and increases more slowly than the logarithmic function of time. The local structural derivative diffusion equation with the structural function ex in space is an alternative physical and mathematical modeling model to characterize a kind of ultraslow diffusion.

  13. Frailty and outcomes after implantation of left ventricular assist device as destination therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunlay, Shannon M; Park, Soon J; Joyce, Lyle D; Daly, Richard C; Stulak, John M; McNallan, Sheila M; Roger, Véronique L; Kushwaha, Sudhir S

    2014-04-01

    Frailty is recognized as a major prognostic indicator in heart failure. There has been interest in understanding whether pre-operative frailty is associated with worse outcomes after implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as destination therapy. Patients undergoing LVAD implantation as destination therapy at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, from February 2007 to June 2012, were included in this study. Frailty was assessed using the deficit index (31 impairments, disabilities and comorbidities) and defined as the proportion of deficits present. We divided patients based on tertiles of the deficit index (>0.32 = frail, 0.23 to 0.32 = intermediate frail, <0.23 = not frail). Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to examine the association between frailty and death. Patients were censored at death or last follow-up through October 2013. Among 99 patients (mean age 65 years, 18% female, 55% with ischemic heart failure), the deficit index ranged from 0.10 to 0.65 (mean 0.29). After a mean follow-up of 1.9 ± 1.6 years, 79% of the patients had been rehospitalized (range 0 to 17 hospitalizations, median 1 per person) and 45% had died. Compared with those who were not frail, patients who were intermediate frail (adjusted HR 1.70, 95% CI 0.71 to 4.31) and frail (HR 3.08, 95% CI 1.40 to 7.48) were at increased risk for death (p for trend = 0.004). The mean (SD) number of days alive out of hospital the first year after LVAD was 293 (107) for not frail, 266 (134) for intermediate frail and 250 (132) for frail patients. Frailty before destination LVAD implantation is associated with increased risk of death and may represent a significant patient selection consideration. Copyright © 2014 International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Linguistic Multi-Attribute Group Decision Making with Risk Preferences and Its Use in Low-Carbon Tourism Destination Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Hui; Wang, Zhou-Jing

    2017-01-01

    Low-carbon tourism plays an important role in carbon emission reduction and environmental protection. Low-carbon tourism destination selection often involves multiple conflicting and incommensurate attributes or criteria and can be modelled as a multi-attribute decision-making problem. This paper develops a framework to solve multi-attribute group decision-making problems, where attribute evaluation values are provided as linguistic terms and the attribute weight information is incomplete. In order to obtain a group risk preference captured by a linguistic term set with triangular fuzzy semantic information, a nonlinear programming model is established on the basis of individual risk preferences. We first convert individual linguistic-term-based decision matrices to their respective triangular fuzzy decision matrices, which are then aggregated into a group triangular fuzzy decision matrix. Based on this group decision matrix and the incomplete attribute weight information, a linear program is developed to find an optimal attribute weight vector. A detailed procedure is devised for tackling linguistic multi-attribute group decision making problems. A low-carbon tourism destination selection case study is offered to illustrate how to use the developed group decision-making model in practice. PMID:28926985

  15. Linguistic Multi-Attribute Group Decision Making with Risk Preferences and Its Use in Low-Carbon Tourism Destination Selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Hui; Wang, Zhou-Jing

    2017-09-17

    Low-carbon tourism plays an important role in carbon emission reduction and environmental protection. Low-carbon tourism destination selection often involves multiple conflicting and incommensurate attributes or criteria and can be modelled as a multi-attribute decision-making problem. This paper develops a framework to solve multi-attribute group decision-making problems, where attribute evaluation values are provided as linguistic terms and the attribute weight information is incomplete. In order to obtain a group risk preference captured by a linguistic term set with triangular fuzzy semantic information, a nonlinear programming model is established on the basis of individual risk preferences. We first convert individual linguistic-term-based decision matrices to their respective triangular fuzzy decision matrices, which are then aggregated into a group triangular fuzzy decision matrix. Based on this group decision matrix and the incomplete attribute weight information, a linear program is developed to find an optimal attribute weight vector. A detailed procedure is devised for tackling linguistic multi-attribute group decision making problems. A low-carbon tourism destination selection case study is offered to illustrate how to use the developed group decision-making model in practice.

  16. Performance of hybrid-ARQ with incremental redundancy over relay channels

    KAUST Repository

    Chelli, Ali

    2012-12-01

    In this paper, we consider a relay network consisting of a source, a relay, and a destination. The source transmits a message to the destination using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) with incremental redundancy (IR). The relay overhears the transmitted messages over the different HARQ rounds and tries to decode the data packet. In case of successful decoding at the relay, both the relay and the source cooperate to transmit the message to the destination. A maximum number M of HARQ rounds is considered. The channel realizations are independent for different HARQ rounds. We assume Rayleigh fading channels for the links source-relay, source-destination, and relay-destination. We investigate the performance of HARQ-IR over relay channel from an information theoretic perspective. Analytical expressions are derived for the information outage probability, the average number of transmissions, and the average transmission rate. We illustrate through our investigation the benefit of relaying. We also show the impact of the target outage probability and the maximum number M of HARQ rounds on the outage probability, the average number of transmissions, and the average transmission rate. © 2012 IEEE.

  17. Approach to identification and development of mountain tourism regions and destinations in Serbia with special reference to the Stara Planina mountain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milijić Saša

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with theoretical-methodological issues of tourism offer planning and regulation of settlements in mountain destinations. The basic determinants of the development of mountain tourist regions destinations in EU countries, in which respectable development results have been achieved, first of all in terms of income, together with appropriately adjusted development and environmental management system, have been emphasized. The ongoing transition and structural processes in Serbia will have an impact on application of these experiences. At the same time, a basis for competitiveness of mountain regions will not be determined only by spatial capacity and geological location, but also by creative-innovative developing environment. Taking into account the spatial-functional criteria and criteria for the development and protection, the possible spatial definition of mountain tourist regions/destinations in Serbia are presented. The justifiability and positioning of tourism development projects are analyzed aiming at uniform regional development, where two segments of demand are of particularly importance, i.e. demand for mountain tourism services and for real estates in mountain centers. Furthermore, holders of tourism offer will be analyzed through a contemporary approach which may be defined as the development and noncommercial and market and commercial one. International criteria which are evaluated while selecting city/mountain destination for Winter Olympic Games are particularly analyzed. Considering experience of countries with higher level of development of mountain regions, the main starting point for positioning projects for sustainable development of tourist destinations are defined by specifying them according to specific local and regional conditions. A rational model for spatial organization of tourism offer is shown on the example of the Stara Planina tourist region.

  18. Parameterized source term in the diffusion approximation for enhanced near-field modeling of collimated light

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Mengyu; Wang, Shuang; Chen, Xueying; Gao, Feng; Zhao, Huijuan

    2016-03-01

    Most analytical methods for describing light propagation in turbid medium exhibit low effectiveness in the near-field of a collimated source. Motivated by the Charge Simulation Method in electromagnetic theory as well as the established discrete source based modeling, we have reported on an improved explicit model, referred to as "Virtual Source" (VS) diffuse approximation (DA), to inherit the mathematical simplicity of the DA while considerably extend its validity in modeling the near-field photon migration in low-albedo medium. In this model, the collimated light in the standard DA is analogously approximated as multiple isotropic point sources (VS) distributed along the incident direction. For performance enhancement, a fitting procedure between the calculated and realistic reflectances is adopted in the nearfield to optimize the VS parameters (intensities and locations). To be practically applicable, an explicit 2VS-DA model is established based on close-form derivations of the VS parameters for the typical ranges of the optical parameters. The proposed VS-DA model is validated by comparing with the Monte Carlo simulations, and further introduced in the image reconstruction of the Laminar Optical Tomography system.

  19. Connecting the Members of Generation Y to Destination Brands: A Case Study of the CUBIS Project

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ralf Bochert

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available There is direct correlation between building powerful destination brands and the degree to which tourists and locals share the brands values. The massive penetration of the active population by Generation Y has generated a major shift in tourism marketing, based on the profile of this cohort. The members of Generation Y are very different from previous generations. The so-called “digital natives” share high technological proficiency; they like to share their skills; they are disloyal consumers; and they are affected by trends. In order to connect with members of Generation Y and to actively involve them into the life of tourist destinations, viral, participative, interactive, networked and versatile marketing techniques should be employed. This article introduces the Intelligent Solution for Brand Culturalization (CUBIS Project, which is a collaborative research initiative that offers to Destination Management Organizations an innovative idea of how to connect the members of Generation Y with destination brands using information and communication technologies (ICT. The CUBIS Project aims to create emotional attachment with the brand values and supports the adoption of the brand by young locals and tourists. The CUBIS idea is flexible and highly adaptable to other destinations. The article uses exploratory qualitative research in the form of a case study.

  20. Analyzing Korean consumers’ latent preferences for electricity generation sources with a hierarchical Bayesian logit model in a discrete choice experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Byun, Hyunsuk; Lee, Chul-Yong

    2017-01-01

    Generally, consumers use electricity without considering the source the electricity was generated from. Since different energy sources exert varying effects on society, it is necessary to analyze consumers’ latent preference for electricity generation sources. The present study estimates Korean consumers’ marginal utility and an appropriate generation mix is derived using the hierarchical Bayesian logit model in a discrete choice experiment. The results show that consumers consider the danger posed by the source of electricity as the most important factor among the effects of electricity generation sources. Additionally, Korean consumers wish to reduce the contribution of nuclear power from the existing 32–11%, and increase that of renewable energy from the existing 4–32%. - Highlights: • We derive an electricity mix reflecting Korean consumers’ latent preferences. • We use the discrete choice experiment and hierarchical Bayesian logit model. • The danger posed by the generation source is the most important attribute. • The consumers wish to increase the renewable energy proportion from 4.3% to 32.8%. • Korea's cost-oriented energy supply policy and consumers’ preference differ markedly.

  1. Optimum load distribution between heat sources based on the Cournot model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penkovskii, A. V.; Stennikov, V. A.; Khamisov, O. V.

    2015-08-01

    One of the widespread models of the heat supply of consumers, which is represented in the "Single buyer" format, is considered. The methodological base proposed for its description and investigation presents the use of principles of the theory of games, basic propositions of microeconomics, and models and methods of the theory of hydraulic circuits. The original mathematical model of the heat supply system operating under conditions of the "Single buyer" organizational structure provides the derivation of a solution satisfying the market Nash equilibrium. The distinctive feature of the developed mathematical model is that, along with problems solved traditionally within the bounds of bilateral relations of heat energy sources-heat consumer, it considers a network component with its inherent physicotechnical properties of the heat network and business factors connected with costs of the production and transportation of heat energy. This approach gives the possibility to determine optimum levels of load of heat energy sources. These levels provide the given heat energy demand of consumers subject to the maximum profit earning of heat energy sources and the fulfillment of conditions for formation of minimum heat network costs for a specified time. The practical realization of the search of market equilibrium is considered by the example of a heat supply system with two heat energy sources operating on integrated heat networks. The mathematical approach to the solution search is represented in the graphical form and illustrates computations based on the stepwise iteration procedure for optimization of levels of loading of heat energy sources (groping procedure by Cournot) with the corresponding computation of the heat energy price for consumers.

  2. Renewable Energy Sources in the Function of Sustainable Business in Tourism and Hospitality Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ljerka Cerović

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Trends on the international tourist market are recording numerous changes almost on a daily basis, regarding the development of ecological tourist offer. Modern tourists are becoming more and more aware of the necessity of applying the principles of sustainable development in everyday life, so the same preferences are being expressed during their stay in their chosen tourist destination. The management of ecologically oriented tourist destination must pay special attention to the use of renewable energy sources, and in its micro-environment encourage an approach to business according to modern ecological standards. The implementation of renewable energy sources in tourism and hospitality industry aims at ensuring the improvement of business, profiling of an ecologically responsible tourist destination, repositioning of the current tourist offer on the international tourist market and achieving competitive advantages and conquest of a specific tourist segment of ecologically-oriented consumers. The aim of the research is to point out the advantages which sustainable development and application of renewable energy sources has on business development in tourism and hospitality industry, with a goal of improving competitive advantages and positive effect on the environment

  3. Context-aware recommender system based on ontology for recommending tourist destinations at Bandung

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rizaldy Hafid Arigi, L.; Abdurahman Baizal, Z. K.; Herdiani, Anisa

    2018-03-01

    Recommender System is software that is able to provide personalized recommendation suits users’ needs. Recommender System has been widely implemented in various domains, including tourism. One approach that can be done for more personalized recommendations is the use of contextual information. This paper proposes a context aware recommender based ontology system in the tourism domain. The system is capable of recommending tourist destinations by using user preferences of the categories of tourism and contextual information such as user locations, weather around tourist destinations and close time of destination. Based on the evaluation, the system has accuracy of of 0.94 (item recommendation precision evaluated by expert) and 0.58 (implicitly from system-end user interaction). Based on the evaluation of user satisfaction, the system provides a satisfaction level of more than 0.7 (scale 0 to 1) for speed factors for providing liked recommendations (PE), informative description of recommendations (INF) and user trust (TR).

  4. Source-based neurofeedback methods using EEG recordings: training altered brain activity in a functional brain source derived from blind source separation

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, David J.; Congedo, Marco; Ciorciari, Joseph

    2014-01-01

    A developing literature explores the use of neurofeedback in the treatment of a range of clinical conditions, particularly ADHD and epilepsy, whilst neurofeedback also provides an experimental tool for studying the functional significance of endogenous brain activity. A critical component of any neurofeedback method is the underlying physiological signal which forms the basis for the feedback. While the past decade has seen the emergence of fMRI-based protocols training spatially confined BOLD activity, traditional neurofeedback has utilized a small number of electrode sites on the scalp. As scalp EEG at a given electrode site reflects a linear mixture of activity from multiple brain sources and artifacts, efforts to successfully acquire some level of control over the signal may be confounded by these extraneous sources. Further, in the event of successful training, these traditional neurofeedback methods are likely influencing multiple brain regions and processes. The present work describes the use of source-based signal processing methods in EEG neurofeedback. The feasibility and potential utility of such methods were explored in an experiment training increased theta oscillatory activity in a source derived from Blind Source Separation (BSS) of EEG data obtained during completion of a complex cognitive task (spatial navigation). Learned increases in theta activity were observed in two of the four participants to complete 20 sessions of neurofeedback targeting this individually defined functional brain source. Source-based EEG neurofeedback methods using BSS may offer important advantages over traditional neurofeedback, by targeting the desired physiological signal in a more functionally and spatially specific manner. Having provided preliminary evidence of the feasibility of these methods, future work may study a range of clinically and experimentally relevant brain processes where individual brain sources may be targeted by source-based EEG neurofeedback. PMID

  5. Structure activity relationships of quinoxalin-2-one derivatives as platelet-derived growth factor-beta receptor (PDGFbeta R) inhibitors, derived from molecular modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mori, Yoshikazu; Hirokawa, Takatsugu; Aoki, Katsuyuki; Satomi, Hisanori; Takeda, Shuichi; Aburada, Masaki; Miyamoto, Ken-ichi

    2008-05-01

    We previously reported a quinoxalin-2-one compound (Compound 1) that had inhibitory activity equivalent to existing platelet-derived growth factor-beta receptor (PDGFbeta R) inhibitors. Lead optimization of Compound 1 to increase its activity and selectivity, using structural information regarding PDGFbeta R-ligand interactions, is urgently needed. Here we present models of the PDGFbeta R kinase domain complexed with quinoxalin-2-one derivatives. The models were constructed using comparative modeling, molecular dynamics (MD) and ligand docking. In particular, conformations derived from MD, and ligand binding site information presented by alpha-spheres in the pre-docking processing, allowed us to identify optimal protein structures for docking of target ligands. By carrying out molecular modeling and MD of PDGFbeta R in its inactive state, we obtained two structural models having good Compound 1 binding potentials. In order to distinguish the optimal candidate, we evaluated the structural activity relationships (SAR) between the ligand-binding free energies and inhibitory activity values (IC50 values) for available quinoxalin-2-one derivatives. Consequently, a final model with a high SAR was identified. This model included a molecular interaction between the hydrophobic pocket behind the ATP binding site and the substitution region of the quinoxalin-2-one derivatives. These findings should prove useful in lead optimization of quinoxalin-2-one derivatives as PDGFb R inhibitors.

  6. Spatial differentiation of China's summer tourist destinations based on climatic suitability using the Universal Thermal Climate Index

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jun; Zhang, Zhenchao; Li, Xueming; Xi, Jianchao; Feng, Zhangxian

    2017-11-01

    As a result of global warming and the gradual exacerbation of the urban heat island effect, vacationing in the summer to escape the heat has become a compelling tourism demand. This study examines the spatial differentiation of China's summer tourist destinations based on meteorological observations and tourism resources data from 1960 to 2014. The Universal Thermal Climate Index and analytic hierarchy process model were used to analyze climatic suitability. The findings are as follows. First, the spatial distribution of China's summer tourism resources exhibits a double-peak characteristic, with concentrations in the mid- and high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Second, the most influential destinations in China based on the composite index were Guiyang, Qingdao, Harbin, and Dalian. These findings can helpful for people who are planning their summer vacations, as well as tourism managers who benefit from such increases in the number of tourists.

  7. A variable-order fractal derivative model for anomalous diffusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Xiaoting

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper pays attention to develop a variable-order fractal derivative model for anomalous diffusion. Previous investigations have indicated that the medium structure, fractal dimension or porosity may change with time or space during solute transport processes, results in time or spatial dependent anomalous diffusion phenomena. Hereby, this study makes an attempt to introduce a variable-order fractal derivative diffusion model, in which the index of fractal derivative depends on temporal moment or spatial position, to characterize the above mentioned anomalous diffusion (or transport processes. Compared with other models, the main advantages in description and the physical explanation of new model are explored by numerical simulation. Further discussions on the dissimilitude such as computational efficiency, diffusion behavior and heavy tail phenomena of the new model and variable-order fractional derivative model are also offered.

  8. Developing seismogenic source models based on geologic fault data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haller, Kathleen M.; Basili, Roberto

    2011-01-01

    Calculating seismic hazard usually requires input that includes seismicity associated with known faults, historical earthquake catalogs, geodesy, and models of ground shaking. This paper will address the input generally derived from geologic studies that augment the short historical catalog to predict ground shaking at time scales of tens, hundreds, or thousands of years (e.g., SSHAC 1997). A seismogenic source model, terminology we adopt here for a fault source model, includes explicit three-dimensional faults deemed capable of generating ground motions of engineering significance within a specified time frame of interest. In tectonically active regions of the world, such as near plate boundaries, multiple seismic cycles span a few hundred to a few thousand years. In contrast, in less active regions hundreds of kilometers from the nearest plate boundary, seismic cycles generally are thousands to tens of thousands of years long. Therefore, one should include sources having both longer recurrence intervals and possibly older times of most recent rupture in less active regions of the world rather than restricting the model to include only Holocene faults (i.e., those with evidence of large-magnitude earthquakes in the past 11,500 years) as is the practice in tectonically active regions with high deformation rates. During the past 15 years, our institutions independently developed databases to characterize seismogenic sources based on geologic data at a national scale. Our goal here is to compare the content of these two publicly available seismogenic source models compiled for the primary purpose of supporting seismic hazard calculations by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); hereinafter we refer to the two seismogenic source models as INGV and USGS, respectively. This comparison is timely because new initiatives are emerging to characterize seismogenic sources at the continental scale (e.g., SHARE in the

  9. The Role of Imagery and Experiences in the Construction of a Tourism Destination Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nelson Matos

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the role of imagery and tourism experiences (TEs in the construction of tourism destination image (TDI. It highlights the importance of the construct imagery at all stages of consumption, because of the intangibility that characterizes tourism and services in general. This aspect gains importance since it is impossible for tourists to experience the desired holidays prior to visitation, leading the way for imagery to become an essential element to inspire and to influence them during the decision-making process, and consumption before, during and after the experience. A conceptual model resulting from the literature review and the potential theoretical contribution of the model are discussed.

  10. Language, Colonial Attitude and War in Emecheta's Destination Biafra

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study aims at examining the relevance of Sociolinguistic Functional Stylistics (SFS) in supplying a methodical structure upon which Emecheta's Destination Biafra can be appreciated. Much of the critical attention on Emecheta has been centred on issues of gender and sexuality to the extent that ideological implications ...

  11. Concept of perceptual carrying capacity and its use in the creation of promotional materials of tourist destination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanislav Mokrý

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to introduce results of research of perceptual carrying capacity of selected area. Concept of perceptual tourist carrying capacity aims to find the number of visitors of tourist destination that the visitor is willing to accept before deciding to prefer travelling to another tourist destination. In order to determine the perceptual carrying capacity the visual method is used. The photos of destination that depict different level of visitors are presented to respondents when using this method. The primary research method used in this investigation was the questionnaire survey which was conducted via online questionnaires. The questionnaire used computer-generated images that depict different number of visitors of the particular destination – nature trail around the church of St. John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou (UNESCO monument. The questionnaire also contained samples of photos taken from photo gallery section of CzechTourism agency (photo.czechtourism.com, which were used to determine the preferred destination for recreation. The survey was conducted within the period from May 2012 to July 2012 on a sample of 736 respondents from The Czech Republic.

  12. A 'simple' hybrid model for power derivatives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lyle, Matthew R.; Elliott, Robert J.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a method for valuing power derivatives using a supply-demand approach. Our method extends work in the field by incorporating randomness into the base load portion of the supply stack function and equating it with a noisy demand process. We obtain closed form solutions for European option prices written on average spot prices considering two different supply models: a mean-reverting model and a Markov chain model. The results are extensions of the classic Black-Scholes equation. The model provides a relatively simple approach to describe the complicated price behaviour observed in electricity spot markets and also allows for computationally efficient derivatives pricing. (author)

  13. Local Community Involvement and Quality of Life in Tourism Destination Development: Case of Coastal Tourism in West Java, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fitri Abdillah

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The community in the tourism destination is one of the key elements to ensure the sustainability of the tourism destination itself. The objective of this study was to determine if the development of tourism contributes to the involvement and the level of quality of life of the local community in Pangandaran and Palabuhanratu. A total of 279 samples were obtained from two locations. Data were analyzed by using descriptive methods to determine the phase of the development of destinations, the community involvement, and the level of quality of life  The results showed that (1 Pangandaran has a better destination performance than Palabuhanratu, (2 Pangandaran is in the growth phase and Palabuhanratu is in the consolidation phase, (3 Increase in the number of tourist arrivals in destinations within the growth phase is more influential than that in the consolidation phase, and (4 Among the four components of quality of life, the material aspect has the highest value, followed by the spiritual, social and personal aspects. The development of tourism destinations significantly affected the level of community involvement and the level of quality of life.

  14. Virtual-source diffusion approximation for enhanced near-field modeling of photon-migration in low-albedo medium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Mengyu; Chen, Xueying; Zhao, Huijuan; Cui, Shanshan; Liu, Ming; Liu, Lingling; Gao, Feng

    2015-01-26

    Most analytical methods for describing light propagation in turbid medium exhibit low effectiveness in the near-field of a collimated source. Motivated by the Charge Simulation Method in electromagnetic theory as well as the established discrete source based modeling, we herein report on an improved explicit model for a semi-infinite geometry, referred to as "Virtual Source" (VS) diffuse approximation (DA), to fit for low-albedo medium and short source-detector separation. In this model, the collimated light in the standard DA is analogously approximated as multiple isotropic point sources (VS) distributed along the incident direction. For performance enhancement, a fitting procedure between the calculated and realistic reflectances is adopted in the near-field to optimize the VS parameters (intensities and locations). To be practically applicable, an explicit 2VS-DA model is established based on close-form derivations of the VS parameters for the typical ranges of the optical parameters. This parameterized scheme is proved to inherit the mathematical simplicity of the DA approximation while considerably extending its validity in modeling the near-field photon migration in low-albedo medium. The superiority of the proposed VS-DA method to the established ones is demonstrated in comparison with Monte-Carlo simulations over wide ranges of the source-detector separation and the medium optical properties.

  15. Study and characterization of a phosphorous ion source and development of a emittancemeter suited to multi-beam ion sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoang Gia Tuong.

    1982-12-01

    The ionization process which is used is the electronic bombardment. Phosphorus choice for the source experimentation is motivated by its principal destination: ionic implantation. Heavy ion applications are also quoted. Operating conditions allowing good results to be obtained are determined after a study of different parameters such as the electron current, the neutron pressure and the extraction voltage: the ion current obtained is of the order of mA. The source emittance, representing the quality of the ionic beam, is measured by a method suited to multibeam sources [fr

  16. Novel family of quasi-Z-source DC/DC converters derived from current-fed push-pull converters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chub, Andrii; Husev, Oleksandr; Vinnikov, Dmitri

    2014-01-01

    This paper is devoted to the step-up quasi-Z-source dc/dc push-pull converter family. The topologies in the family are derived from the isolated boost converter family by replacing input inductors with the quasi-Z-source network. Two new topologies are proposed, analyzed and compared. Theoretical...

  17. Destination Marketing Organizations and Climate Change—The Need for Leadership and Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel Dodds

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs operate at many levels ranging from the national to the municipal and have evolved over the years to respond to the geographical and political realities that are associated with tourism supply. Alongside providing information to potential visitors, DMOs work to make a destination attractive by showcasing its unique aspects and attractions. As the appeal of destinations, cost of doing business and the destination brand may be affected by the possible effects of climate change, this study aims to identify opportunities and threats to municipal and provincial/territorial DMOs and their members as well as identify measures they are undertaking to address the potential impacts. A study conducted of Canada’s provincial and municipal large DMOs was conducted in 2009. This research found that awareness of climate change in Canada’s tourism industry is increasing, but more efforts must be undertaken to mitigate climate change. To address climate change and tourism, this paper suggests doing three things: (a DMOs need to demonstrate leadership about climate change education and mitigation to all their members; (b government policy and action are needed to provide incentives for industry to address climate change; and (c industry members require further education to take the steps necessary mitigate risk and to adapt. The internet has changed the DMOs’ roles and how they provide information to the consumer; as such, they have been presented with an opportunity to take on new roles as educational and marketing providers. This paper will outline in the current shifts among Canadian DMOs and will discuss the key issues that are applicable to DMOs worldwide.

  18. Diaspora engagement of African migrant health workers - examples from five destination countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wojczewski, Silvia; Poppe, Annelien; Hoffmann, Kathryn; Peersman, Wim; Nkomazana, Oathokwa; Pentz, Stephen; Kutalek, Ruth

    2015-01-01

    Migrant health workers fill care gaps in their destination countries, but they also actively engage in improving living conditions for people of their countries of origin through expatriate professional networks. This paper aims to explore the professional links that migrant health workers from sub-Saharan African countries living in five African and European destinations (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, and the United Kingdom) have to their countries of origin. Qualitative interviews were conducted with migrant doctors, nurses, and midwives from sub-Saharan Africa (N=66). A qualitative content analysis of the material was performed using the software ATLAS.ti. Almost all migrant health workers have professional ties with their countries of origin supporting health, education, and social structures. They work with non-governmental organizations, universities, or hospitals and travel back and forth between their destination country and country of origin. For a few respondents, professional engagement or even maintaining private contacts in their country of origin is difficult due to the political situation at home. The results show that African migrant health workers are actively engaged in improving living conditions not only for their family members but also for the population in general in their countries of origin. Our respondents are mediators and active networkers in a globalized and transnationally connected world. The research suggests that the governments of these countries of origin could strategically use their migrant health workforce for improving education and population health in sub-Saharan Africa. Destination countries should be reminded of their need to comply with the WHO Global Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health professionals.

  19. Analysis, Reconstruction and Establishment Tourist Destination in Toba Samosir, North Sumatera, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Menara Simanjuntak

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to provide inputs for local government of Toba Samosir (Tobasa in preparing strategic development plan of tourist destinations in District Tobasa. This study is a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews and feedback from forum discussion groups with participants representing community leaders, indigenous peoples, governments and travel business. Total participants are 15 people collected on June 1, 2012 at Balige government office. Discussion forums formulated nine locations of tourist destination spread in Toba Samosir. As result this research, we formulated four strategic plans with tactical plans; (1 specifying and establish the location of tourist destinations in the District Tobasa; (2 submitting plans to the government budget or through the budget of Tobasa district in five years starting in 2014 to follow; (3 conducting government financing for infrastructure development and tourism industry participation; (4 doing tourism and cultural promotion. We found limitations for the plan. Some of them were: the low budget provided by the District government so that we expected supports from domestic investors to accelerate tourism development in the area. Most activities were proposed under the action plan of both Tobasa District government and North Sumatra Government.

  20. Destination brand equity research from 2001 to 2012

    OpenAIRE

    Kladou, Stella; Giannopoulos, Antonios A.; Mavragani, Eleni

    2015-01-01

    The present study delves into a review of the destination brand equity literature published since 2001, aiming to offer tourism researchers a reference guide to the general context, corresponding methods,and focus of previous works. A multisource search resulted in the identification of 64 relevant papers. Content analysis using multiple classifier variables provides further insights into specific geographical, conceptual, and methodological aspects. Conclusions pertain to the multidimensiona...