Contemporary Tourist Behaviour

This fully updated edition responds to themes emerging over the decade since publication of the first edition and transmits the content into the 2020s. The themes include technological change, ethical consumption, and the tourist response to health risk, political instability and other uncertainty. Examples are introduced from all parts of the world, capturing the explosion of research on tourist behaviour, to produce a text that is strong both on theory and practical application. This is the go-to text for students and academics interested in tourist behaviour both from within the tourism field and from other fields and disciplines.

This volume seeks to review and stimulate interest in a number of emerging and fresh topics in contemporary tourist behaviour and experience. Topics explored include the effects of newer technologies on tourists’ behaviour and experience, tourists’ experience of scams, safety and personal responsibility, individual perspectives on sustainability, and some dimensions of tourists’ personal growth, relationships and altruism. The topics are bound together by an integrative approach to conceptualising experience which is seen as an ensemble of orchestrated sensory inputs; affective reactions; cognitive mechanisms used to think about and understand the setting; actions undertaken and the relevant relationships which define the participants’ world. A special emphasis is placed on tourists’ stories as a pathway to access the nature of tourists’ experience. Potential research directions in the field are indicated throughout.

"Providing a cross-disciplinary approach to tourism behaviour, this fully updated edition responds to new emerging themes such as the digital revolution, social media, and tourist-risk resulting from political instability and other uncertainty. With international examples throughout, this new edition reviews both theory and practical application"--

This significant and timely volume aims to provide a focused analysis into tourist experiences that reflect their ever-increasing diversity and complexity, and their significance and meaning to tourists themselves. Written by leading international scholars, it offers new insight into emergent behaviours, motivations and sought meanings on the part of tourists based on five contemporary themes determined by current research activity in tourism experience:conceptualization of tourist experience; dark tourism experiences; the relationship between motivation and the contemporary tourist experience; the manner in which tourist experience can be influenced and enhanced by place; and how managers and suppliers can make a significant contribution to the tourist experience. The book critically explores these experiences from multidisciplinary perspectives and includes case studies from wide range of geographical regions. By analyzing these contemporary tourist experiences, the book will provide further understanding of the consumption of tourism.

Now fully revised and updated, the fourth edition of this bestselling text provides students with a vital understanding of the nature of tourism and contemporary tourist behaviour. It also shows them how this knowledge can be used to manage and market tourism effectively in a variety of sectors of tourism including tour operations, hospitality, visitor attractions, transport, retail travel, cruising and airlines. This fourth edition has been updated to include: new material on the impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) developments in tourism including social media, AR and VR, the links between climate change, sustainability and tourist behaviour, and the impact of crises and natural disasters on tourism and the cruise industry thirty brand new international case studies about topical issues such as Airbnb, travel blogs, overtourism, Covid-19, the flight-shaming movement, wellness tourism, hunting and tourism, terrorism, dark tourism, the solo traveller, volunteer tourism, second home ownership, music festivals, pilgrimage tourism, film- and TV-induced tourism, and tourism in Antarctica new online resources including PowerPoint slides and a case archive. Each chapter features conclusions, discussion points, essay questions and exercises to help tutors direct student-centred learning and allow students to check their understanding of what they have read. This book is an invaluable resource for students studying tourism.

This volume seeks to review and stimulate interest in a number of emerging and fresh topics in contemporary tourist behaviour and experience. Topics explored include the effects of newer technologies on tourists? behaviour and experience, tourists? experience of scams, safety and personal responsibility, individual perspectives on sustainability, and some dimensions of tourists? personal growth, relationships and altruism.

To consume tourism is to consume experiences. An understanding of the ways in which tourists experience the places and people they visit is therefore fundamental to the study of the consumption of tourism. Consequently, it is not surprising that attention has long been paid in the tourism literature to particular perspectives on the tourist experience, including demand factors, tourist motivation, typologies of tourists and issues related to authenticity, commodification, image and perception. However, as tourism has continued to expand in both scale and scope, and as tourists’ needs and expectations have become more diverse and complex in response to transformations in the dynamic socio-cultural world of tourism, so too have tourist experiences. Tourist Experience provides a focused analysis into tourist experiences that reflect their ever-increasing diversity and complexity, and their significance and meaning to tourists themselves. Written by leading international scholars, it offers new insights into emergent behaviours, motivations and sought meanings on the part of tourists based on five contemporary themes determined by current research activity in tourism experience: dark tourism experiences, experiencing poor places, sport tourism experiences, writing the tourist experience and researching tourist experiences: methodological approaches. The book critically explores these experiences from multidisciplinary perspectives and includes case studies from a wide range of geographical regions. By analyzing these contemporary tourist experiences, the book will provide further understanding of the consumption of tourism.