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This paper seeks to provide empirical evidence showing how bank users of audited financial statements perceive and interpret various dimensions associated with financial reporting in Hong Kong. Employing a survey instrument, we asked bank loan officers to rank the importance of thirty‐five reporting dimensions for lending decisions and to ascertain their expected level of information on each exploratory dimension, as well as their perceptions of the level of information actually provided by audited financial statements. Reliance on principal‐component analysis to extract a set of important dimensions shows that nine reporting dimensions are significantly associated with lending decisions. When bank loan officers' levels of expectations on important reporting dimensions were compared with the corresponding levels of perceived reporting performance, the statistical results reflect the existence of an expectations‐performance gap. Finally, when bank loan officers' perceived levels of reporting performance were hierarchically positioned, audited financial statements were found to provide the most information on a firm's liquidity and profitability, moderate information on reliability‐related dimensions, and the least information on relevance‐related dimensions pertaining to the future prospects of a firm. This empirical evidence signifies the need for future corrective actions in closing the expectations‐performance gap.

Considerations for time, cost, and audit comfort in completing audit engagements have gradually led to extensive use of analytical review (AR) in external audits by large accounting firms in Hong Kong. AR is now being used by auditors as “attention‐directing” at the planning stage, “test‐reducing” at the fieldwork stage, and an overall reasonableness check in arriving at the true‐and‐fair decision at the final review stage. Greater reliance on AR has long been predicted in the auditing literature as an inevitable future trend. Empirical findings on auditors attesting to the extensive use of AR in Hong Kong are simply visible manifestations of the profession’s adjustment to the global movement.

Tests whether professional experience and training can mitigate recency effects in an auditor’s belief revision while evaluating internal control. In the experiment, each of the 57 auditor‐subjects was asked to complete a questionnaire on an internal control case. Four pieces of audit evidence (two positive and two negatives) were presented to the subjects in two different orders (++‐ ‐,‐ ‐++). After reading each piece of evidence, the subjects were asked to revise their degree of belief that the internal control system can prevent material errors. ANOVA tests of significance indicated that when auditors were asked to evaluate a short series of complex, mixed evidence, recency effect existed in the auditors’ judgement; however, the recency effect in the case of experienced auditors did not seem to be smaller than their less‐experienced counterparts. This tends to refute the generally accepted notion that the level of substantive testing is influenced by the number of years of audit experience in belief‐revision.

‘We find’, remarked a District Magistrate of the Kericho district of Kenya to a New Statesman correspondent, ‘that quite a lew of these children are capable of benefiting from further education.’ When asked for a definition of further education he replied, ‘Beyond the age of nine.’ The same correspondent spent a summer in Albert County, Colorado. There the entire leaving class of the High School was going on to the University. ‘They'll all get something out of it’, said a member of the School Board, ‘and we have quite a few capable of graduating and going on to MA work.’

The reflections in this chapter explore the genesis of tourism geography in the Netherlands and Belgium marked by political and linguistic constraints, plus historical, political, and cultural factors, as well as the footprints of some pioneers. The dual language use of French and Dutch/Flemish has often been offered as an excuse for the low profile of the region’s universities in international knowledge networks. However, thanks to the involvement in thematic networks and a growing pressure for researchers to publish internationally in peer-reviewed journals, the research landscape in tourism has definitely changed. Geographical and spatial approaches to tourism have led to a colorful research landscape today.

The aims of this Editorial are twofold: (i) synthesise emergent themes from the special issue (ii) tender four theoretical frameworks toward examination of crises in tourism.

The thematic analysis of papers highlights a diversity of COVID-19 related crises contexts and research approaches. The need for robust theoretical interventions is highlighted through the four proposed conceptual frameworks.

Crises provides a valuable seam from which to draw new empirical and theoretical insights. Papers in this special issue address the unfolding of crises in tourism and demonstrate how its theorization demands multi and cross-disciplinary entreaties. This special issue is an invitation to examine how global crises in tourism can be more clearly appraised and theorised. The nature of crisis, and the extent to which the global tourism community can continue to adapt remains in question, as dialogues juxtapose the contradictions between tourism growth and tourism sustainability, and between building back better and returning to normal.

The appraisal of four conceptual frameworks, little used in tourism research provides markers of the theoretical rigour and novelty so often sought. Beck’s risk society reconceptualises risk and the extent to which risk is manmade. Biopolitics refers to the power over the production and reproduction of life itself, where the political stake corresponds to power over society. The political ecology of crisis denaturalises “natural” disasters and their subsequent crises. Justice complements an ethic of care and values like conative empathy to advance social justice and well-being.

In tourism, it is a challenge to connect the commercial (economic) interests of the industry with the creation of social and environmental values along the principles of sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that can inspire businesses to use sustainability as a leading principle for their commercial activities, by means of expert consultation.

A study was conducted in which sustainability, foresight and business identity featured as the guiding concepts. Data were collected by means of expert consultation.

The study resulted in four scenarios for a sustainable tourism industry in 2040 which were framed by the key uncertainties driving this 2040 future. These scenarios offer a source of inspiration for tourism businesses to develop a proactive attitude and robust strategies for a sustainable yet competitive future. Subsequently, for each of the four business types (based on their identity or DNA) strategic questions were listed together with actionable strategic propositions with reference to sustainable development.

Data were collected with a sample of partners in the European Tourism Futures Research Network (convenience sample).

The key strategic questions and actionable strategic propositions are presented for four different business styles that allow them to implement sustainability in a commercial way.

The connection between the core concepts of sustainability, foresight and business identity offers a novel approach to the field of sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the planned urban renewal and re-scripting of Riyadh’s downtown as part of the capital’s aim to become a globally recognized city. Specifically, this paper examines in how far internationally established values and narratives are leveraged in the creation of an urban mega-destination that seeks to attract a transnational class of knowledge workers and tourists. The question is explored, in how far and to what extent urban heritage sites and iconic architectural projects are used as strategic tools to promote a process of cultural and economic transformation and in how far the resulting symbolic capital is leveraged to create a status of singularization that appeals to a national and international audience. This study investigates several neighborhoods in the area, analyzing how these will be transformed by Riyadh’s plan to turn the downtown into a commercially viable mixed-use destination by means of designated heritage destinations and iconic architecture.

This paper examines the views and experiences of governmental agencies, architects, developers and residents who are directly or indirectly involved with the planned restructuring of Riyadh’s historical downtown. In total, 40 semi-structured interviews were drawn from this stakeholder group to investigate their current understanding of the downtown associated with the effort to convert Riyadh’s historical downtown into a profitable urban destination. Five of these interviews were conducted with involved planning offices, and 35 with current residents in the area. In addition, a detailed site survey was conducted through a series of maps to reveal existing land uses, building typologies, states of disrepair, activity levels, pedestrian and car circulation patterns, as well as landmarks, and public spaces in each of the areas.

The subsequent data show that despite many positive outcomes in terms of commercial redevelopment, the adaptive reuse of the existing urban fabric is not considered, nor the preservation of underutilized or abandoned buildings along with its resident diverse communities, activities and milieus, many of which carry on evolving traditions.

This is significant because this paper presents a massive case study that ties into a larger debate on cultural globalization where similar practices around the world entail a spatial reorientation of urban districts to attract a transnational cosmopolitan middle class along with a simultaneous displacement of diverse and migrant communities, albeit on a much larger scale. While highlighting the rationale and effectiveness of this approach to create a well-packaged commodity, this paper also underscores the ambiguous consequences of this strategy, which entails the loss of a layered urban fabric that documents the city’s evolution through different economic periods, along with the dispersal of migrant communities and their vernacular practices.

Within this context, the current cultural value of the downtown as a heterogeneous, dynamic and multilayered fabric is debated, which documents the socio-economic conditions of the times in which these layers were formed. Departing from the UNESCO’s 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and globally accepted sustainability standards, this study contrasts the proposed top-down tabula rasa approach proposed by the local authorities with an inclusive bottom-up approach, which would focus on the adaptive reuse of existing structures by taking into consideration the social meanings of belonging that heritage has for contemporary communities while fostering a more inclusive understanding of heritage as an ongoing cultural process.

The implications of the planned conversion of Riyadh’s historical downtown into an urban destination have not been previously explored and as a result, there is a conflict of interest between the creation of a marketable image, the preservation of heritage values, sustainable urban practices, social inclusion and Riyadh’s aim to become a globally recognized city.

This paper explores the employment of urban renewal and city branding within the context of Riyadh’s aim to become a world city. Within this framework, the paper examines the capital’s plan to convert the historic downtown into a mega-destination for the country’s middle class and national and international tourists.