Scientific And Theoretical Foundations Of The Concepts Of Tourism, Geography And Geographical Tourism

In the article, the idea of forming a new direction in the tourism industry – geographic tourism is put forward on the basis of international experience, national practice and long-term research. It substantiates in detail the scientific and theoretical foundations of the concepts of tourism, tourist, geography and geographical tourism.

Decoding escape rooms from a tourism perspective: A global scale analysis

There has been a spectacular growth in the escape game sector over the past decade. The extraordinary global impact of escape rooms, their implications for tourism, and the limited literature provide grounds for this research. This paper examines such phenomena using an empirical methodology based on a geographic analysis of business repositories and a global survey. Tourism plays a significant role in the escape room industry: approximately one of every three customers is a tourist. Escape roomer-tourists have even been detected: people who essentially plan their trips with the sole intention of playing these games. A significant contrast exists between business-owners and countries, however, as to the role given to foreign customers and the opportunities that all the above implies. Indeed, the connection between escape room narratives and the local culture has been shown to be weak in a majority of cases. Thus, this contribution seeks to feed into an emerging and increasingly relevant debate that has been little addressed in tourism geography: linking experiences, creative economies, authenticity and cultural heritage, etc. – through escape rooms.

Geography of inbound tourism and transboundary tourism-and-recreation region-building in Sweden

Sweden’s tourism industry stands out for its large contribution to the development of the national economy. The vast size of the country makes it possible to trace differences in incoming tourist flows from neighbouring countries. This circumstance accounts for the novelty of this study, which lies in viewing national tourism geography from the perspective of the theory of transboundary tourism-and-recreation region building. Interregional differences in the structure of incoming tourist flows help identify the country’s cross-border tourism-and-recreation regions and delineate their borders. This research employs statistical and cartographic methods. The incoming tourist flow to Sweden grew steadily until 2020. However, the Covid-19 crisis has led to a drastic reduction in the number of incoming tourists. Based on the 2019 statistics, the findings confirm the existence of a developed transboundary tourism-and-recreation mesoregion that brings together Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. The formation boasts strong tourist links. There are another five cross-border tourism-and-recreation mesoregions: Sweden-Norway-Denmark, Middle Sweden-Norway, Sweden-Norway-Finland, Middle Sweden-Finland, and South Sweden-Finland. The number of tourists visiting cross-border mesoregions indicates the degree of development of the latter.

The Rise of Digitalization in the Tourism Industry During COVID-19

Undoubtedly, tourism is one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, it is one of the most important issues in tourism research. The strategies implemented in combating the pandemic caused a significant increase in the use of digital technologies in tourism. In this context, in this chapter, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism on digitalization are examined in the context of transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, and tourist experience. Research findings indicate that the traditional concept of space in tourism geography is in a transformation towards cyberspace. The pandemic has proven our need for digital strategies and planning tools in tourism. The future will be a time when smart and cyber tourism is increasingly discussed.

DIRECTIONS AND AREAS OF TOURISM RESEARCH IN KAZAKHSTAN

The aim of the article is to analyze research directions in tourism and the geography of Kazakhstan's tourism in order to identify those areas of research that are most often and underrepresented and cited in the literature, which will allow to identify potential, poorly recognized problems and research directions. The research material includes articles from journals indexed in Scopus. Research methods include statistical and bibliometric analysis of the number of authors, articles, journals and citations. In defining the research fields, classical classifications of research in tourism geography were used. Over the last five years, there has been a clear increase in the number of publications indexed in the Scopus database by over 450% in 2020 compared to 2015. Kazakhstan, tourism and tourism is the most frequently used key words. The articles with key words: ecocultural, marketing, sustainability, development and natural values have the highest number of citations, whose citations exceed the average value for the analyzed set of articles. The conducted research has indicated the most frequently chosen directions and areas of research in the field of tourism geography in Kazakhstan. These include articles in the field of development management and marketing. However, the texts from the ecocultural field have the highest impact factor defined by the number of those cited. Marketing, sustainability, development and natural values are on the next positions.

Understanding the Heterogeneity of Tourists’ Choices under Climate Change Risks: A Segmentation Analysis

This paper undertakes a data-driven segmentation analysis on tourists’ choice of island destinations in the context of a changing climate. To this end, 2528 tourists visiting ten European islands in the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Atlantic regions were posed hypothetical situations in which diverse impacts caused by CC (i.e., beach loss, heatwaves, storm intensification, etc.) were affecting the islands being visited. In each scenario, tourists’ responses ranged from stay on the island to change to an alternative destination. Cluster analysis allowed the identification of four segments: (1) LO-loyal oriented—tourists willing to stay on the island despite any climatic event (in this group, tourists would often change the travel date); (2) RA-risk-averse—tourists who would always avoid islands affected by CC; (3) WIL-risk-specific—a segment of tourists with a special aversion to the risks associated with wildlife disappearance and damage to infrastructure, and (4) 3S-sun, sea and sand seekers—tourists who would always avoid visiting islands where CC induced effects are related to beach loss or extreme events. Further analysis is dedicated to comparing segments in regard to their sociodemographic characteristics, the image of the island, and the importance given to the protection of environmental attributes when choosing an island destination. The results alert us about the climate-specific risks and tourist profiles that are relevant to explaining changes in the tourism geography and seasonality of islands. The findings are useful for providing operational marketing recommendations for destination managers, especially for taking competitive advantage of climate services, and for prevention and responsiveness management strategies.