Korea: Domestic, inbound and outbound tourism

This study investigate the perceptions of the tourist industry in Northeast Asia regarding outbound tourist demand. The purpose of doing so is to provide insights into, and analysis of, the main characteristics of the demand and their implications for the Australian tourist industry.

Libya is a country with a rich heritage in terms of culture, archaeological and historical sites, and a long Mediterranean coastline of sandy beaches. Tourism has recently emerged as an important economic development option in Libya. Advertisers have long been interested in isolating stimulus factors and associated receiver reactions that affect advertising effectiveaess. Advertising obviously depends on both the quality of the product being advertised and the quality of the ad itself. There is an unresolved debate about the relative merits of recall and recognition, two commonly used measures of ad effectiveness in tourism sector.

Consumer trust in online transactions remains a challenge for online vendors. The limited research studies undertaken thus far, focuses on the experiences of consumers in the more advanced Western economies and is often not industry specific. This study contributes to redressing this research gap in the context of the travel and tourism industry environment. It utilizes a sample of 120 residents of Saudi Arabia to examine the key indicators critical to the development of consumer trust in online transactions. Analysis results suggest four factor dimensions i.e. secure customer- centered order processing, prior knowledge of vendor operations, website presentation and navigation and customer information exchange, as being of critical importance in enhancing consumer trust in online travel transactions. The managerial and future research implications of these findings for tourism SMEs in particular, are discussed.

In the market age of luxury the significant expansion of purchasing powers in numerous emergent countries (China, Brazil, India, etc.) and their always greater weight in developed countries allow to offer increasing outlets for luxury producers. The 2008 report of Merril Lynch and Capgemini estimates that more than 10 millions of people around the world hold more than one million dollars of financial assets (they are the High Net Worth Individuals – HNWI) and for 103,000 of people their financial assets exceed 30 millions dollars (they are the Ultra High Net Worth Individuals -UHNWI). In this context, demand for luxury goods and services is potentially considerable (even if the current crisis would limit activity of luxury groups). This paper focuses on the relation between tourism and gastronomy. Being a leisure activity and implying important financing resources, consuming gastronomy requires traveling and is besides most of the time called gastronomic tourism. Gastronomic tourists go to the Restaurant El Bulli of Ferran Adria in Spain, visit the Restaurant of Pierre Gagnaire in Paris or the Fat Duck of Heston Blumenthal in England for instance. Chefs seem to attach importance to gastronomic globetrotters and are interested in tourism in big cities when opening restaurants in several countries (ex. Joel Robuchon, one of the most famous French chef, opened restaurants in Paris, Macao, London, Tokyo, Las Vegas, etc.). Considering this context one can notice that for several years now, not only French but also worldwide gastronomy encounters numerous mutations. One of the most important consists in evolving to luxury supply: prices increased significantly. For the case of gastronomic restaurants located in Paris for instance an original statistic analysis shows that the increase of prices is at least about 130 % between 1960 and 2000 (in constant euros). The demand for luxury gastronomic services being very dynamic luxury groups began to invest in gastronomy not only by owing luxurious hotels (that was already the case) but also by joining to their luxurious rooms supply prestigious restaurants. This means that luxury hotels begin to attract first class chefs who are very well ranked by gastronomic guidebooks (ex. Michelin) and who are contractually compelled to get especially Michelin stars (for the case of France) to remain in their luxurious kitchen. This paper aims to analyse the current relation between tourism and gastronomy in the market age of luxury and to understand the strategies of actors (chefs, luxury groups, public actors...) which give a lift to the market for gastronomy and luxury tourism. α Christian Barrere, OMI, University of Reims, France. E-mail: christian.barrere@gmail.com β Quentin Bonnard, OMI, University of Reims, France. E-mail: quentin_bonnard@hotmail.com χ Veronique Chossat, OMI, University of Reims, France. E-mail: veronique.chossat@univ-reims.fr (referent author)