The Euro-centric nature of dark tourism research is limiting the perspective and restricting the scope of contemporary theory. Hence, this paper aims to explore how dark tourism…
Abstract
Purpose
The Euro-centric nature of dark tourism research is limiting the perspective and restricting the scope of contemporary theory. Hence, this paper aims to explore how dark tourism consumption differs in a society apart from the Anglo/Eurosphere. This is done by testing Stone and Sharpley’s (2008) thanatological framework in Mexico, a country whose residents are renown for having a unique perspective on death, to assess whether Mexican dark tourism consumers undergo a similar, or different, thanatological experience to that proposed in the framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a qualitative approach in the form of a case study. The opinions of Mexican dark tourism consumers were gained by using the technique of semi-structured interviewing in four separate dark tourism sites within Mexico City, with coding serving as the form of analysis.
Findings
The findings show that due to the non-existence of an absent/present death paradox in Mexican society, the research participants experienced a thanatological process that contrasts with those from Western societies, which indicates that the thanatological framework is unsuitable in the context of Mexican dark tourism. At the same time, the study contests the common perception that Mexicans have a jovial familiarity with death, and demonstrates that in this case the thanatological process confirmed an acceptance of death, rather than any kind of intimacy.
Originality/value
The research is valuable in that it is a response to recent calls for research in geographical locations not previously considered in a dark tourism/thanatology context.
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Julie Stubbs, Sophie Russell, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Chris Cunneen and Melanie Schwartz
Julie Stubbs, Sophie Russell, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Chris Cunneen and Melanie Schwartz
Walanchalee Wattanacharoensil and Juerg Stettler
This chapter seeks to elaborate on the concept of complexity theory when applied to destination management, using Mount Rigi (an important recreational and tourism destination in…
Abstract
This chapter seeks to elaborate on the concept of complexity theory when applied to destination management, using Mount Rigi (an important recreational and tourism destination in Lucerne, Switzerland) as the focus of the case study. This study supports an alternative view of complexity theory which can help to explain the dynamic, nonlinear, and nondeterministic relationships within the tourism system. It also supports the theory’s applicability toward explaining the nature of tourism as a complex adaptive system, and reveals that Mount Rigi’s development did not occur in isolation, but involved various interdependent tourism components and external factors at both the macro and micro levels.
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A description of quality circles, their purpose and application isgiven, together with a brief reminder of their background and history.Examples of quality circles in use in…
Abstract
A description of quality circles, their purpose and application is given, together with a brief reminder of their background and history. Examples of quality circles in use in Knowsley Careers Service, Warwickshire Public Libraries and Kodak (Merseyside) are used to illustrate them in working practices. Considerations, criteria and essential factors for success, which organisations should take into account before starting quality circles, are discussed as well as how to maintain commitment in a work situation.
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The present book chapter deals with the problem of dark tourism as well as the resilience forms of consumption in post-disaster context.
Abstract
Purpose
The present book chapter deals with the problem of dark tourism as well as the resilience forms of consumption in post-disaster context.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The turn of the century characterised a radical change in the forms of tourism consumption. New forms of tourism as dark or thana tourism have captivated the attention of scholars and journalists. This book chapter centres efforts in dillucidating what are the key factors that determine the formation of a dark site. The text is inspired in my own ethnographies in Cromañon, Argentina and the Ground Zero, US.
Findings
As Phillip Stone puts it, not all dark shrines or sites welcome tourists. While some sites are reluctant to mass tourism, others are mainly organised around the figure of the tourist. La Republica de Cromañón is a night club where in a fire died 194 young. The site is today refurbished as a sanctuary to remind the victims. At a closer look, there is a tension between stakeholders at the time of promoting dark tourism in Cromañón. In the opposite the ground zero is fully designed to be visited by thousands tourists.
Originality/Value
The originality of this research consists in the contraposition of two study cases which answer the question to what extent dark tourism is desired by locals. The findings lay the foundations towards the specialised literature in dark tourism studies. We discuss critically the nature of thanatopsis.
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The following article is substantially the same as a lecture given to The Institute of Petroleum at Leeds on 9th April, 1959, and is reproduced here by their kind permission.
Mark P. Leach, Rhett T. Epler and Sijun Wang
This paper aims to explore the usage of selling influence tactics across prospective customers with differing information-related needs.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the usage of selling influence tactics across prospective customers with differing information-related needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The research study uses an exploratory critical incident technique (CIT) methodology to identify and examine salesperson influence tactics.
Findings
This study identifies and explores the use of salesperson influence tactics across three information-based conditions often encountered by salespeople (i.e. information seeking customers, informed customers with information inaccuracies and informed customers making sub-optimal decisions). Regardless of condition, salespeople readily used non-coercive information exchange tactics. Whereas, recommendations and ingratiation tactics were applied by more effective salespeople when interacting with informed customers with information deficiencies. Furthermore, salespeople report executing less effectively with prospects with inaccurate preexisting information and with prospects making flawed or sub-optimal decisions.
Research limitations/implications
Findings illustrate the need for a renewed focus on salesperson influence tactics, the conditions under which they are effective, and how salespeople adapt their influence tactics to various situations. The exploratory nature of this study limits the generalizability of findings.
Practical implications
A framework of adaptive selling strategies is proposed to help tackle new challenges faced by B2B salespeople in today’s information intensive market. When interacting with more informed customers, pre-existing information is often inaccurate and incomplete. Thus, salespeople must assess and address these flaws and gaps and can adapt their influence strategies to do so effectively.
Originality/value
Industrial buyers today have virtually unlimited avenues to conduct extensive research and gain supplier information without the aid of interactions with salespeople. Thus, salespeople often enter sales interactions when their prospects have significantly more information than ever before. By examining salesperson influence techniques in selling situations that vary based on prospective customer preexisting knowledge, this research provides guidance on how selling may need to change in a more information intensive era.
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Mutual Investigation. There seems to be a refreshing, open breeze blowing through the ranks of time and motion study technicians these days. Gone are the ponderous exponents of…
Abstract
Mutual Investigation. There seems to be a refreshing, open breeze blowing through the ranks of time and motion study technicians these days. Gone are the ponderous exponents of the mystic art and, instead, we find the experts vying with each other, almost, in telling their audiences how easy time and motion study really is if you only sit down and think about it.
Carlos Sampaio, Luís Farinha, João Renato Sebastião and António Fernandes
The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented global turmoil and a halt on international tourism. This study aims to evaluate the scientific literature about tourism crisis and…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented global turmoil and a halt on international tourism. This study aims to evaluate the scientific literature about tourism crisis and disasters and depicts how this research stream evolved in the face of economic, security, health, environmental or trust crises, further providing insights about a research agenda on this stream.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses bibliometric methods and topic models, specifically latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) methods to evaluate the nature and course of the tourism crises and disasters scientific literature. Data from 2,810 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science database and were used to perform the analysis.
Findings
The results show an increase of tourism crises and disasters scientific literature departing from 2010, and a surge in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, themes such as tourism competitiveness, tourism demand, crisis management, perceived risk, natural disasters and destination recovery are among the most relevant themes in the research line, showing that the effect of economic and financial crises on tourism industry, sustainable tourism and tourism demand are set to be among the most relevant in the upcoming years.
Research limitations/implications
This study fills a void in the tourism literature by providing a roadmap to understand the past, present and future of the tourism crises and disasters research line and the avenues for future research in this field, including methods, in the period post-COVID-19.
Originality/value
Previous studies on tourism crises and disasters were focused on literature review and on the relationship between crises and disasters and the tourism industry. This study uses a set of methods unused before in the research stream, namely, a combination of bibliometric methods and LDA methods, to provide a road map for the present state-of-the-art of tourism crises and disasters research and promising future research lines.