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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the wine tourism experience from the perspective of Generation Z adults in Greece, following an actual winery visit.

Responses were obtained from a total of 306 respondents drawn from student groups visiting a winery in the Achaia region of the Peloponnese, Western Greece, using convenience sampling. A list of winescape attributes was adopted for testing and used to structure self-administered questionnaires. The data collected were analysed using a factor-analytic and importance-performance analysis framework.

Five factors that promote understanding of the desired wine tourism experience of Generation Z adults were identified, namely, cost considerations and wine and entertainment both perceived to be important but the winery’s performance on the same was poor, destination attributes and service staff both perceived to be important with good performance and learning about wine perceived to be unimportant with low performance.

This is the first academic study focusing specifically on the winery experience from the perspective of Generation Z. As such, it has provided new and useful insights for researchers and managers in the wine industry concerning the experience of this under-researched generational cohort.

Regular surveys by the Malta Hotels & Restaurants Association indicate a substantial improvement in the financial performance of five-star hotels in Malta in recent years. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if this positive performance is primarily due to customer centricity by management.

The assessment is based on the findings of a quantitative study that compared the results of a demand side (customer survey) with those of a supply side (management survey). In total, 24 decision-choice criteria were framed within the four perspectives (financial, customer, internal process and employee learning/growth) of the balanced scorecard. Actual and potential customers of five-star hotels and hotel managers were asked to rank the decision-choice criteria and the balanced scorecard perspectives. The multi-criteria decision analysis was carried out by means of the AHP.

The study showed that managers in the five-star hospitality sector in Malta are in harmony with customer expectations given the strong positive correlation between the results of the customer and management surveys.

This research is limited to the island of Malta but can be easily replicated for other touristic destinations.

This study has implication for hospitality customers, hotel managers and policy makers to help them to identify weak areas of hotel performance and improve them.

The paper has developed a Prioritised scorecard, a new hybrid balanced scorecard and AHP. Targets are therefore prioritised, which allow a better allocation of scarce resources.

The purpose of this paper is to take a holistic view of the body of knowledge of the second wave of Chinese outbound tourists so as to develop a strategic framework towards positioning Greece in the China outbound tourism market.

The survey adopted a perspective from knowledge management, investigating a deeper understanding of the knowledge about, from and for the Chinese tourists, and Greece was taken as a case study. An online survey with quantitative aspects was conducted from October 2013 to January 2014.

The knowledge about the Chinese tourists depicts a young, well-educated segment with a predominance of female and western China residents. The knowledge from the Chinese tourists reveals that they prefer: visiting islands and heritage sites; safety while travelling; a faster visa process; a direct flight between China and Greece; and making a trip combined with other Schengen countries. The knowledge for the Chinese tourists indicates that purchasing tourism products/services online provides better price, is enjoyable, convenient and time-saving; and the top five digital platforms often used are Ctrip, Qunar, QQ, Weibo and WeChat, which could be effective tools for the promotion of Greek tourism in China.

This research offers a first step to investigate the knowledge of Chinese tourists for the destination of Greece. The findings help to propose a strategic knowledge framework for the Greek tourism authorities so that Greece can become a more active player in the Chinese outbound tourism market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine visitors’ perceptions and relevant importance of social media when choosing a Mediterranean destination and also to explore the extent in which they believe it is important for them to belong to an online community with shared characteristics among its members.

A stratified, based on nationality and gender, sample of 301 respondents of foreign arrivals of visitors in the Athens airport, Greece was collected in June and July 2014 based on the official Athens Airport Authorities Arrival Research. This is a partially exploratory research.

Differences between age groups as far as the importance attributed to social media as sources of information about a tourism destination were found. The respondents, when using the internet for gathering information about a tourism Mediterranean destination, consider different online channels. Facebook is among the most important sources of information for them associated with the tourism destinations. Official web sites/blogs of the destination are the first source and photo sharing sites are the second most preferred source; sharing aesthetics of photos was found to contribute to the feeling of belonging to an on line travel community.

Further research will contribute to the development of greater understanding of the strategic approaches to social media and their use to promote a destination. Greek diaspora would be interesting to examine and geographical differences among groups.

The paper denotes the importance for destination management organizations and companies, to fully employ the social media in their marketing efforts.

The present study increases our understanding of the adoption of online and traditional communications in the visitor’s process for Athens, Greece, shedding light to the literature existing on the significance attributed to the online travel community belonging from visitors through sharing aesthetics of photos and associations of ideas based on age differences.

The purpose of this paper is to: study the relative efficiency between hotels operating under a brand and hotels operating independently, on the island of Crete, Greece; identify the inefficiency causes; and suggest managerial implications to relevant business experts and managers in order to increase hotel efficiency in Crete and in other tourism destinations with similar characteristics.

The sample is constituted by 50 superior hotels (luxury and class A) operating in Crete in 2008: 25 hotels are operating as totally independent and 25 hotels are operating under a brand. The efficiency for the above hotels is estimated through the data envelopment analysis methodology.

First, nationally branded hotels are relatively the most efficient; internationally branded are the least efficient, while those operating under a local brand and the independent ones lie in between. This efficiency ranking can be explained by the interplay between operating under a brand and being flexible to changes in the local market's conditions. Second, the hotels' inefficiency cause is mainly due to the input/output configuration and not due to their management teams' performance to organize the inputs in the production process.

A direction for future research could be to enrich input and output variables. The paper could also be extended through a larger sample of hotels and an enriched data set covering more variables for more than one year, so as to study the dynamics of hotel efficiency. The larger sample could also contain hotels from other popular tourist destinations in Greece.

The inefficiency causes are identified and, moreover, suggestions are made to hotel owners and managers, at the level of strategic and operational management, so as to increase hotel efficiency.

This is the first study measuring hotel efficiency in Greece. Moreover, it identifies the inefficiency causes of hotels and offers suggestions, at the level of strategic and operational management, so as to increase hotel efficiency, which are applicable to Crete as well as to other tourism destinations with similar characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of golf tourism in a Mediterranean golf resort located in Italy. Based on a systematic literature review, this research develops and tests a context-specific “integrated model” in order to shed further light on the complex discordance in the literature with new empirical data. Furthermore, the present study attempts to establish a framework to provide a better understanding of golf tourism behavior in terms of specific segmentation profiles. This will contribute to a more targeted approach to marketing and promotional activities.

This study applied structural equation modeling to verify the path relationship of golf tourists quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioral intention. The final step was to include the suggested moderator variables (age and playing experience) into the model in order to gain further insights. Furthermore, multiple group analyses were calculated in comparing two sub-samples.

This study provides an improved understanding of the role of quality, perceived value, satisfaction on behavioral intentions in golf tourism. Four out of the six hypotheses of the study were confirmed. Precisely, perceived value did not have a direct significant effect on behavioral intentions and quality was not significantly related to overall satisfaction. The empirical results suggest that all three variables appear to have a direct effect on golf tourists’ behavioral intention. Satisfaction was determined to be the best predictor, followed by quality and perceived value. Furthermore, the moderating variables exert a significant influence on some of the proposed relationships.

First, the current model explores the impact of only two moderator variables of golf tourists such as age and years of playing experience. Second, the study is limited to a Mediterranean destination; the analysis and measurements should thus be replicated in different contexts to test their adaptability to different golf tourism destinations. Another important limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the data.

This research provides important insights the ability to generalize this chain of effects across golf tourists under significantly different conditions. Furthermore, it has important implications for managers of companies that have plans to implement adequate market segmentation strategies in order to expand their business. Based on the finding it is crucial for managers in the golf industry to focus on perceived value for young tourists golfers and on quality for experienced golfers. Managers should customize relationship management programs and develop promotional and pricing strategies for younger golf tourists and exclusive quality services for more experienced golfers.

As urban lifestyle life becomes more prevalent in modern society, golf tourism relaxes and gives back a sense of calm and peace of mind to the players. Escape from everyday demands and duties is another classic travel motive; many want to get away from the stress and boredom of their daily lives and fill their holidays with a range of exciting and new physically challenging experiences. Therefore, it can be seen that the term of environment conservation improve the sustainability of golf sport tourism in a Mediterranean destination.

The inclusion of moderating variables in the proposed model is one of the unique aspects of this research. Dealing with the different groups of golf tourists, the authors put the emphasize on the importance of using two types of appropriate tools: on the one hand, grouping tools which are appropriate to the tourism consumption (demographic variables), and on the other hand, grouping tools which are appropriate to the study of the sports market (years of a plying experience). Combining these two types of criteria will lead marketers to more accurate analysis of golf tourists’ behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine simultaneously all types of ethical tourism and investigate some of the factors able to affect it; and to explore the number and the size of green hotels’ customers segments.

A survey in the urban area Thessaloniki, Greece. Probability, large enough household sample. “Intentions to visit a green hotel”, “Boycotting” and “Discursive Activities” towards unethical hotels were investigated. External (EC)/Internal controls (IC) and past experience served as potential antecedents of behavioural intentions.

Intentions to visit a green hotel were found to correlate strongly both with other people’s impact (EC) and with respondents’ perceptions about their own means (IC); intentions are moderately influenced by previous experience. Clustering indicated that the “Willing” segment (26.6 per cent) gathered consumers, who obtained higher scores than their counterparts in the other two segments, namely “Hesitant” (40.4 per cent) and “Reluctant” (33 per cent).

Incomplete demographical analysis, limited geographical area, social desirability. Future research might consider the employment of Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Communication strategy of green hotels should utilize important people’s suggestions. Targets should be persuaded that green hotels are neither more expensive nor more difficult to find. Travel searching engines should include the green key attribute. Need to create and promote the image of an ethical hotel being a concept beyond a green hotel.

All types of ethical tourism simultaneously examined. EC/IC provided significant evidence of impact on intentions. Cluster analysis of the ethical tourism market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese tourists’ experience of Britain based on a conceptual model of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, and to identify key issues that tourism organisations could address to provide an excellent experience for Chinese tourists.

Data were collected in collaboration with a tour operator; and 275 valid responses were received. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling was used for data analysis.

The key destination attributes of Britain such as heritage sites, natural scenery and customer service provide an excellent experience for Chinese tourists. Other British destination attributes such as shopping facilities, food, accommodation, entertainment and night life are less impressive.

The sample was drawn from Chinese tourists visiting Britain on package tours, which limits the generalisation of results to other Chinese tourists and other European/Mediterranean destinations.

There are two key challenges for British destination tourism managers: first, to maintain the current quality levels in the attributes that generate tourist satisfaction; and second, to concentrate on improving attributes with low performance ratings such as shopping, food and drink, accommodation, entertainment and night life. As the characteristics of Chinese tourists are culture-specific rather than destination-specific, tourism managers in other European destinations may find these recommendations useful too.

This is one of the first studies to examine Chinese tourists’ experience of a European destination. The results reveal unique characteristics of Chinese tourist requirements, which provide useful implications for tourism organisations to adapt their service strategies to better cater to this growing group of travellers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine quality of service experience as reported by tourists in seven northern and southern Mediterranean cities.

A self-report study was used to gather data from 1,362 tourists. Once validity of Otto and Ritchie’s (1996) scale had been confirmed, ANOVA and the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyse the data.

Tourists in all destinations highlighted the importance of the dimension peace of mind. Significant differences between tourists in the northern Mediterranean and those in the southern Mediterranean were observed in two quality of service experience dimensions: hedonics and involvement.

Although the sample was large, this study’s scope was limited to seven Mediterranean tourist cities. Further research is therefore required to generalize findings to other Mediterranean tourist destinations.

Knowledge about quality of service experience dimensions may help tourism managers innovate and improve services. Tourists perceive northern Mediterranean destinations differently from destinations in the southern Mediterranean. Tourists report high tourist involvement in northern destinations, whereas in the south, tourists emphasize destinations’ hedonic features. These implications are also valuable for European policymakers.

The study compared quality of service experience in northern and southern Mediterranean tourist destinations. To do so, it analysed a sample of 1,362 tourists from seven Mediterranean cities. This research is the first to analyse quality of service experience in the Mediterranean.