Investigating Antecedents of Customer Loyalty for Web-Based Travel Intermediaries |
Author : Sükrü Firat Çiftçi, Beykan Çizel |
Abstract | Full Text |
Abstract :Information technology has conspicuously influenced and transformed travel and tourism industry. With the advent of different technological developments such as Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) in the 1960s, Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in the 1980s and the Internet in the early 1990s, the travel and tourism industry has faced with new opportunities and challenges. These technologies have also changed customer behavior. There are few studies investigated the relationship among trust, satisfaction and loyalty of customers together in the literature in terms of web-based travel intermediaries. The main aim of this study is to investigate factors such as trust and satisfaction creating customer loyalty in web-based travel intermediaries. It was explored the degree of importance of trust, besides satisfaction, when it is associated with loyalty. Multiple linear regression was used to examine the relationship among web-based travel intermediary loyalty, satisfaction and trust. The research was conducted between February and April 2018 in Istanbul. A total of 362 data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed. The results indicated that participants’ satisfaction and trust predicted web-based travel intermediary loyalty at 68.9% level. Accordingly, satisfaction and trust seem to have a significant and positive effect on web-based travel intermediary loyalty. The results provide evidence that trust is a strong influence on customer loyalty as well as satisfaction. Contributions, recommendations and limitations are also outlined at the conclusion part of this study.
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Tracing Industrial Heritage: The Case of Berlin Bicycle Route |
Author : Evinc Dogan |
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Abstract :This paper aims to investigate how the industrial heritage is represented on a cultural bicycle trail and used as a tool for constructing tourist gaze. A qualitative case study methodology is used, where the analysis is two-fold. A phenomenological approach is adopted at first step. The bicycle route is explored to get first-hand experience and familiarize with the data in the physical urban context. The second step is document analysis. Texts are collected and analysed for interpreting the meaning by digging deeper into socio-cultural context. The cycling route is a form of experience bridging the spatio-temporal gap between tangible heritage (monuments, landmarks) and intangible dimensions (symbols and meanings). The findings reveal shifts in meaning drawing on relations between the physical space and represented space. The cultural routes are of interest as applied tourism products. They provide opportunities for creating a strong destination image. This exploratory research is an initial examination of how cultural routes can shape tourism experience. It presents a framework to tackle with heritage and representation, while offering further avenues for investigating urban tourism where tourists can be co-creators for adding other layers of meaning. This helps increase awareness about urban heritage and offers an alternative tourist gaze and perception.
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English Communication Needs of Tourism Faculty Undergraduates: A Comparative Stakeholder Analysis |
Author : Davut Uysal, Cihan Seçilmis |
Abstract | Full Text |
Abstract :The purpose of this study is to identify the needs of tourism faculty undergraduates to develop their English communication skills with a comprehensive needs analysis and to investigate if the stakeholders’ views about the students’ needs differ from one another. The study is considered to be important because it included all the stakeholders of tourism faculties in Turkey to provide a basis for a well-tailored vocational English curriculum and to increase the qualifications of tourism faculty graduates. In this study, graduates and undergraduates of tourism faculties, tourism lecturers and English language instructors at tourism faculties and executive representatives of the tourism sector were taken as the stakeholders. The population of the study covered all tourism faculties in Turkey. The sample was taken from six different tourism faculties using the simple random sampling method with a questionnaire. The sampling of the graduates and executive sector representatives was taken from an Antalya-based association using the simple random sampling method again. Analysis of the research data helped identify which stakeholders differed from one another in the needs of tourism undergraduates for the development of tourism undergraduates’ English communication skills, especially tourism lecturers were found to have differed from almost all other stakeholders. Relevant suggestions are offered to manage the differences to increase the effectiveness of the English courses currently given at tourism faculties and possible reasons for such differences among stakeholders are discussed in the study.
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Cultural Benefits of Former Military Buildings’ Reuse: Public Room, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia |
Author : Olgica Grcheva |
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Abstract :The reuse of former military buildings is a relatively recent tendency in Skopje. As in different regions and countries around the world, especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall and start of the new political realities in Europe in the late 80s and the beginning of 90s, in the former socialist countries, such as Macedonia, military heritage has become a common part of the society and has been used for various cultural purposes. These former military facilities that have remained in a good physical condition and that have undergone contemporary reuse projects in Skopje have become a part of the new cultural networks and routes, and they have even promoted various values related to smart city concept. The conversion from the rigid and neglected military buildings which have been existing near the former Railway Station into new cultural hubs, centers for design and innovations are offering vast multi-layered benefits to the cultural mainstreams. This paper aims to interpret how the mentioned benefits are achieved through the applied adaptive reuse project and decision- making process within the context of “Public Room”; offering and promoting up-to-date multicultural activities and events to the locals and tourists, without any bias towards political, ethnical or religious orientation.
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Thoughts of Academics on the Use of Mobile Augmented Reality in Tourism Education: The Case of Eskisehir |
Author : Duran Cankül, Batuhan Sönmez |
Abstract | Full Text |
Abstract :Human resource in the tourism sector is critical enough to shape the future of the sector. The opinions of academics are extremely important in the use of any new product, method and process that will lead to the development of human resources. In this sense, the role of academics is particularly important in enhancing the qualifications of students and the education given to them. In line with this, the aim of this research is to reach the views of the tourism academicians who work in tourism faculties regarding the use of mobile augmented reality technology in tourism education. For this purpose, the research was carried out with the use of qualitative methods. In the method part of the research, one-to-one interviews were conducted with 15 academics working in the tourism faculties of Anadolu University and Eskisehir Osmangazi University using a semi-structured interview form. The answers obtained were transcribed by the researcher and interpreted under four themes: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats by applying content and frequency analysis. It has been stated by tourism academics that mobile augmented reality applications offer opportunities for the development of tourism education and therefore the development of the sector.
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