ABSTRACT. This study explores the influence of wine festivals and online engagement on South African wine consumers' behavioural intentions and awareness. The study integrates the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Technology Acceptance Model, Consumer Brand Engagement, Brand Equity, and Market Segmentation Theory. A comprehensive survey conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown gathered responses from over 20,000 participants, providing insights into South African wine consumers' preferences, consumption behaviour, engagement with wine-related content, and awareness of wine routes. Two distinct wine consumer segments were identified, displaying variations in wine-tasting experience attendance, behavioural intentions, wine region awareness, and content engagement. The study underscores the role of wine festivals and digital platforms in raising awareness and influencing future behavioural intentions. Despite its South Africa-specific context, the study contributes to a broader understanding of wine tourism and can inform tailored marketing strategies in the wine industry.

ABSTRACT. The study explores the impacts of economic recession, wine price inflation, and the COVID-19 pandemic on European wine consumption. Results suggest that economic growth and an increase in the total population are positively associated with increasing wine consumption in the EU. Besides, the pandemic and 2008 financial crisis negatively influenced EU wine consumption, while wine price inflation positively impacted wine consumption in estimated models. However, wine consumption and wine price inflation are negatively correlated, but the price effect may have been blinded by other factors (decreasing demand for wine, broadening the range of substitutes, and stable market share of high-spender consumers). Finally, leading EU wine traders stimulated wine demand in the EU. In turn, in Eastern Europe, a positive demand pattern was not observed compared to other regions of the EU.

ABSTRACT. Abstract: This study explored the distinctions among South African wine consumer segments considering their demographic profile, wine preferences, and consumption behaviour. Utilising the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, and the Market Segmentation Theory, an online survey was conducted among 20,995 respondents during the COVID-19 lockdown. Two consumer segments were identified with significant preferences, attitudes, and behaviours differences. Segment 1, mostly mature and adventurous wine consumers, prioritised wine characteristics like grape variety, vineyard, awards, and region in their purchase decisions. Segment 2, younger and more cautious, was influenced by price, packaging, and social cues. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring marketing strategies to match consumer segments and suggest the potential to increase domestic wine consumption through education and awareness campaigns, especially targeting younger demographics. These insights may aid South Africa's wine industry in boosting domestic consumption.

ABSTRACT. While smart mobile technology often enhances the tourism experiences it can also be a major obstacle if such technology is inaccessible for users. Therefore, this paper focuses on the experiences of travellers with vision impairments and their experiences of booking using a mainstream travel booking app. Findings illustrate that whilst travellers with disabilities have similar motivations and wishes as others. Unfortunately, they are both unable and, in some cases, limited in making an informed choice due to the inaccessible nature of the app and its existing technology. As such this paper highlights that travellers are unable to engage in multisensory travel branding messages, with the apps failing to provide equitable booking experience to all.

ABSTRACT. This communication explores the degustation experiences of tourists with mobility disabilities in the Czech Republic, investigating how the quality of these experiences impacts their satisfaction and return intentions. Guided by the Expectation-Disconfirmation Model, the study also employs five dimensions of experience quality: sensory appeal, aesthetics, customization, engagement, and escapism. These tools are used to scrutinize whether the quality of degustation experiences perceived by physically disabled tourists influences their satisfaction and leads to return intentions. The paper focuses on the unique needs, perspectives, and challenges of this demographic during degustation activities in wineries and gastronomic establishments. Through application of the Expectation-Disconfirmation Theory and the Five Dimensions of Service Quality, the research uncovers the antecedents of return intention using a PLS-based Structural Equation Modelling analysis. The findings will enrich the understanding of accessible tourism and provide insights for practitioners and policymakers to design inclusive and accessible degustation experiences, while also serving as a reference for similar studies in other destinations.

ABSTRACT. The proliferation of community-based tourism projects in developing countries is meant to promote community participation in tourism. Using Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe as a case study, in-depth interviews, observations, and informal conversations were used to collect data in the four districts of the province where there were functional community-based tourism projects to determine the level of local people’s participation. The results show that local people participated in the decision-making process, in the execution of the project, and in the sharing of tourism revenues. The study concludes by providing recommendations.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates the motivations of tourists who frequent thermal spaces to help spa managers tailor their offerings to evolving market demands. Recognizing a rising trend among certain urban groups toward holidays that promote physical and mental wellness, thermal spaces have emerged as ideal environments offering health, beauty, and anti-stress programs amidst natural and cultural settings. Through an extensive literature review and an online survey (with 306 responses), the study identifies the key motivations for spa visits: Physical and mental relaxation, peace, thermal treatment benefits, water's medicinal quality, and tranquility of the location. Lesser motivations include socializing and family tradition. The data revealed five major motivational factors, emphasizing physical and mental relaxation, local heritage, social life, thermal benefits, and recommendations from friends or family. In conclusion, as modern life fuels the demand for such wellness-focused services, there's a pressing need for spa organizations to refine their offerings to align with these specific motivations, ensuring their products resonate with the diverse needs of their clientele.

ABSTRACT. Community-based theatre is a popular choice for presenting children’s live theatre productions. However, attracting and selling live theatre tickets to children’s productions is much more complex compared to adult audiences. Although the child is the target audience, the parent makes the actual purchase decision. Therefore, it is important to better understand the unique aspects influencing the parent’s decision to purchase live theatre tickets for their children. Using a qualitative research method, various aspects within five themes were identified. The results of this study can aid live theatre marketers in better planning their marketing campaigns and producers in planning their future children’s live theatre production offerings.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the motivations of workers in the music festival industry using a model developed by Getz (2007) that considers the cognitive, conative, and affective dimensions of motivation. While studies on the demand side of music festivals have been conducted, there is a lack of understanding of the motivations on the supply side, which is essential for a holistic perspective. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from music festival organizers, and the resulting data was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). Qualitative analysis was also conducted to supplement the findings. The study found that cognitive motivations, such as the opportunity to showcase new artists, and conative motivations, such as being detail-oriented, were strong drivers for music festival organizers. Affective motivations, such as the emotional satisfaction derived from their work, were also important to them. The study provides valuable insights into what motivates music festival organizers to pursue this career and organize successful events.

ABSTRACT. This research addresses a gap in existing literature, focusing on the availability and characteristics of vegetarian food options in four- and five-star hotel restaurants, specifically in Barcelona. Recent years have seen an increase in vegetarianism, flexitarianism, and veganism. However, these populations often face dietary restrictions when dining out, particularly during travel, which the restaurant industry frequently fails to accommodate. This paper analyzes 74 hotel restaurant menus, a total of 1,865 dishes, aiming to understand the proportion and types of vegetarian dishes on offer. Preliminary findings reveal a low proportion of vegetarian options, primarily consisting of appetizers and cold dishes. Moreover, menus often lack clear identification of vegetarian options, and fully vegetarian menus are rare. Interestingly, four-star hotels tend to offer more vegetarian options than five-star establishments. This study concludes that current options for vegetarian diners in hotel restaurants are limited, impacting their gourmet experience. The findings have significant managerial implications, underscoring the potential for hotels to adapt their food offerings to meet increasing demand, thereby gaining a competitive advantage.

ABSTRACT. As a part of the Northern Aegean island group of Greece, Chios’ history starting from Neolithic Age and including adventures with Saracene pirates. Alongside its mild Mediterranean climate, Chios provide a range of flavors and tastes as the savory mandarins, homemade liquors, ouzo production and the famous mastiha underlying the gastronomy importance of the island and enrich the experiences in the food and beverage, increasing the value of tourism in general. This study offers a significant contribution in the literature introducing the growth in Ouzo tourism, both in Greece and beyond, highlighting the formulation of the Ouzo trail: both for the benefit of local tourist organizations –with the aim of raising the profile of an Ouzo destination and to shape a tourist trail that an official guide can recommend as unique tourist product or as a supplementary part of the gastronomy and other forms of tourism (i.e. health, cultural and luxury tourism). It provides a SWOT analysis from the point view of local ouzo producers in order to examine the opportunities of the region associated with the new model of alternative form of tourism, that of ouzo tourism.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to discuss the role of the fish and seafood gastronomy (and other activities related to maritime tourism) as coastal recreational cultural ecosystem services. The concept “from nature to plate” captures the idea of a casual chain that links natural structures and processes within the resource system, on the one hand, and elements of human well-being, on the other. An online questionnaire obtained a sample of 200 respondents that assessed the use and non-use value of recreational CES provided by gastronomy and maritime tourism experiences, using the contingent valuation method (CVM) based on the willingness to pay (WTP). Regarding the gastronomy-related experiences, 58,5% of respondents were willing to pay 39,21 euros for attending a “show cooking of local seafood dishes”, but only 31% show interest in “collecting the seafood”.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to explore the motives to visit Old Phuket Town and identify satisfied and dissatisfied motives expressed by visitors. The importance of acknowledging such motives are based on the notion that Old Phuket Town has been promoted as a must-see attraction by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. However, the heritage site offers tourism products which differ from first-ranked attractions, such as beach attractions. Thus, exploring Old Phuket Town and identifying motives that stimulate international and domestic tourists to visit this heritage site standing among numerous top-ranked beach attractions. Satisfied and dissatisfied motives from foreign and local visitors are extracted from online comments. The implications are given to the Tourism Authority to enhance the promotional policy for Old Phuket Town.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the role of authenticity in the cultural heritage tourism sector, with a specific focus on South Africa's Liberation Cultural Heritage Sites (LCHS). The research builds upon prior work by segmenting visitors to these sites based on factors including socio-demographic variables, visitation behaviour, motivations, and perceived authenticity indicators. A quantitative approach was used, with data collected via an online survey from June to August 2021. Results indicated two distinct visitor segments: those valuing tangible and diverse interpretation attributes showing higher loyalty, and a majority South African group with lower ratings on all factors. Both object-based and existential authenticity, along with supporting facilities and services, proved critical for providing satisfying experiences. These experiences, in turn, influenced visitor loyalty and the likelihood of recommending the sites to others. The study underscores the importance of creating authentic experiences in cultural heritage tourism to ensure long-term sustainability. Future research could further explore the concept of authenticity and examine evidence of its role at political/iconic cultural heritage sites.

ABSTRACT. Official tourism statistics are notorious for being over-aggregated, lacking information about the tourist, available with a lag, and often provided only at the annual level. In response to this, we suggest a unique approach that is computer-science driven and relies on big data collected from a leading travel portal. The novel approach enables us to obtain a systematic, consistent, and reliable approximation for tourism flows, and this with unprecedented precision, frequency, and depth of information. Our approach delivers also an unprecedented list of all tourist attractions in a country, along with data on the popularity and quality of these attractions. We provide validity tests of the approach pursued and present one application of the data by illuminating the patterns and changes in travel flows in selected European destinations during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. This project opens a range of new research questions and possibilities for cultural economics, in particular related to cultural heritage and tourism.

ABSTRACT. The objective of this research is to study a concept that is not yet well developed in the scientific literature, namely the Service Palace. Through a literature review based on the framework of Geerts and Veg-Sala (2021) about the experience in the luxury sector and through a qualitive analysis, we classified the componants of the Palace experience according to the three dimensions of the experience in the luxury sector : sensory dimension, social dimension and emotional dimension. The results show that the social dimension is much important for customers in a Palace rather than in a classical 5-star hotel.

ABSTRACT. The Internet has become a key player notably in the luxury and tourism sectors. In this context, private sales travel websites have emerged for a few years now. But luxury consumption through such websites is an intrinsically paradox because of the antagonism between luxury and discounts. This research aims at better understanding and studying the motivations of luxury consumers to consume or not luxury hotels through such websites. We use a twofold methodological approach, that is, qualitative and quantitative. First, we interviewed 37 consumers of 5-star hotels and palaces. Emerging from our data analysis and interpretation, we highlighted different profiles of luxury consumers according to their luxury motivations and the importance of price perception as an indicator of prestige. Second, to further investigate these profiles, we used a quantitative approach with a structured questionnaire administrated online to luxury consumers through a non-probabilistic sampling method. After running a cluster analysis relying on both luxury motivations and price as an indicator of prestige on our 140 respondents, results identified four clusters of luxury consumers: “The Quality Seekers”; “The Snobs”; “The Nonchalants”; “The Perplexed Hedonists”.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates the determinants of guest satisfaction and loyalty in the all-inclusive hotel sector, focusing on sun-and-sand destinations. The study aims to address the existing gap in the literature concerning the unique dynamics of all-inclusive hotels and understand the impact of multi-typed hotels on these destinations. The research employs a multi-method approach, including fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and content analysis of online reviews, to uncover the complex relationships between various factors and guest satisfaction. The findings reveal the significance of electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM), staff performance, service quality, pricing, ambiance, and experience-related factors in determining guest satisfaction and loyalty. The study contributes to the hospitality literature by comprehensively understanding the factors shaping guest experiences in the all-inclusive hotel sector and offering valuable insights for hotel operators and destination marketers. The research also emphasizes the need for continuous adaptation and innovation in the face of evolving consumer preferences and market dynamics.

ABSTRACT. The restaurant industry is fragile during a prolonged crisis. Mandatory shutdowns, social distancing, and other pandemic control measures during COVID-19 affected the restaurants negatively. This study aimed to investigate entrepreneurial Decision-Making Logic (DML) during a prolonged crisis. The authors conducted quantitative research in Hong Kong to examine the effects of DML on restaurant resilience and the mediator effects of resourcefulness and agility in this relationship. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to test the study model and hypotheses. This study contributes to the managerial decision-making literature in general and literature on crisis decision-making in particular in the context of restaurants by investigating both the effectuation and causation DMLs. Therefore, this study advances the contextual understanding of DML.

ABSTRACT. This research focuses on the effect of host professionalization in short-term rentals (STRs) on revenue management capability, particularly in the context of Airbnb, using qualitative interviews with hosts in Milan. The study operationalizes professionalization degree by the number of managed listings and categorizes hosts into three groups: single hosts, hosts managing 3-5 listings, and hosts managing more than 10 listings. The results show that increased professionalization degree enhances hosts' revenue management capabilities. Key areas of impact include information and data analysis skills, pricing and revenue management decisions, and guest communication and interaction. A clear shift from price maximization to revenue maximization is observed with increased professionalization, as well as improved multi-channel ability, and effective use of reviews for service improvement. The four theoretical blocks of revenue management capability—identifying necessary information, making strategic and tactical decisions, managing guest communication, and utilizing revenue management software—emerge as central to explaining how professionalization degree influences the pricing process. The research thus offers valuable insights for STR hosts and informs future academic exploration in this domain.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, the importance of SCRM as a social media marketing in the hospitality industry is analyzed. Globalization enables hotels to interact their guests via internet platforms. Therefore, SCRM (social customer relation management) has become an essential tool for gaining a competitive advantage to expand hotel’s market share. In this study, qualitative research is conducted from hotel managers and asked 4 open-ended questions to them. The collected data were analyzed by content analysis method. The main aim of this study is to explain the factors of influencing SCRM on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry in Turkey. Social customer relationship management practices are carried out and conceptual analyses of social media marketing from participants’ points of view are examined.