2015 – 2016 projects

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on island economies by developing a conceptual framework proposing theoretical links between authenticity, place satisfaction, the four dimensions of place attachment and cultural behavioural intentions for African island states hosting distinctive cultural and natural assets. Borrowing from existing theories in the consumer behaviour and environmental psychology literature, this study offers researchers a framework that is grounded in theory and past research to deliver valuable theoretical and practical implications for promoting cultural tourism for islands of the African continent.

TRC Researcher: A/Prof Haywantee Ramkissoon

This study focuses on tourists’ self-interpretive meanings of their ‘authentic’ cultural heritage experience to construct their own definitions of the term enhancing the value of consumption experience.  It deals with tourists’ co-created experiences at cultural sites and landscape in island destinations highlighting future opportunities for the tourism industry. This is essential for the development of appropriate cultural heritage marketing strategies and opens doors for additional research avenues exploring authenticity as a value co-creator of tourism experiences.

TRC Researcher: A/Prof Haywantee Ramkissoon, Prof Muzaffer Uysal (University of Massachusetts, USA)
Other researchers: Prof Nina Prebensen (The Arctic University of Norway, Norway), Prof Joseph Chen (Indiana University, USA)

This study sought to examine how Olympic and Paralympic Games’ have transformed volunteering within host cities before, during and after the events. Two study used two case studies: the recent case of London 2012 and the longer term case of Sydney 2000. The study identified how Olympic volunteer programs can lead to post-Games volunteering legacies for host cities through engagement with the established volunteer management infrastructure and in doing so, it provided new insights into best practice Games volunteer management that may inform future host city bids and Games planning for sustainable positive volunteering legacies.

TRC Researcher: A/Prof Kirsten Holmes
Other researchers: A/Prof. Leonie Lockstone-Binney (William Angliss Institute), Professor Karen Smith (Victoria University of Wellington), Dr Richard Shipway (Bournemouth University)
Funding: Advanced International Olympic Research Grant, $24,500

The tourism, management and marketing literature debates the meaning of consumer satisfaction with a product or service, including methods for identifying factors influencing satisfaction. This methodological paper adds to this literature by re-conceptualising overall satisfaction with a product or service as a weighted average of the satisfaction with its attributes or components. Existing models are re-conceptualised in this way, new models introduced, and an equality F test proposed as a goodness-of-fit test. This re-conceptualisation is shown to have considerable merit, while the equality F test provides a previously unavailable test of whether important determinants of satisfaction have been omitted.

TRC Researcher: Prof Ross Taplin
Further information: Taplin, R.H. (2016). Reconceptualizing overall visitor satisfaction as an average of satisfaction with attributes. Tourism Analysis, 21(5): 529-540.