Visitor Motivation, expectation and Satisfaction of Local Cultural Event in Sabah

ISSN 2005-6133Volume 5 Number 1 December 2012

International Journal of Culture andTourism Research

Editor in Chief

Prof. Jung, Sung-Chae, Ph.D.

World Cultural Tourism Association


Worldwide BureausKOREAWorld Cultural Tourism AssociationProf, Jung, Sung-Chae, Ph.D. PresidentDept. of Tourism Management, Honam University, TEL. 062-940-5582, FAX: 062-940-5582E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]: http://www.kasct.co.kr

JAPANHokkaido Academic Society of Tourism, Japan Chubachi Reiji(004-0844) 4-1 Kiyota Kiyota-gu, Sapporo Hokkaido, Japan

CHINAPresident, Wang Kunxin Tourism College of Zhejiang, China

PHILIPPINESRamon Benedicto A. Alampay, Ph.D.

Asian Institute of Tourism University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, the Philippines

SPAINPresident, Prof. Luis de Borja, Ph.D. CETA University College of Tourism and Hotel ManagementPadua, 11-13, 08023 Barcelnona, Spain E-mail : [email protected]

USAWalter Jamison, Ph.D. Dean, School of Travel Industry Management, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2560 Campus Road, George Hall 345 Honolulu, HI 96822 USA MALAYSIAProf, Hamidah Abd Hamid, School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, 11800

USM, Pulau Pinang Malaysia

TANZANIAProf. Melubo KOKELDept. of Cultural Anthropology and Tourism, Iringa University, Tanzania

SERBIAProf. Snezana BesermenjiDepartment of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics University of Novi Sad, Serbia

TAIWANProf. Shiunn-Der KuoGraduate Institute of Hakka Cultural Industry, National Pingtung University of Science & Technology, Taiwan

TURKEYProf. Sabah BALTA, Dept. of Tourism and Hotel Management, Yasar University, Turkey

AUSTRALIAProf. Abhijit GHOSHDirector of Academic Studies, Australian School of Tourism & Hotel Management, Australia

CANADADean, Shyam Ranganathan, MS,CHA School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culture and the Culture & Heritage Institute, Canada

KAZAKHSTANProf. Abdimanat A. ZholdasbekovSouth Kazakhstan State University

Editorial Board Members

Prof. Nikolay V. SOKOLOVProfessor, Saint Tikhon Orthodox University, Russia

Prof. Melubo KOKELDept. of Cultural Anthropologyand Tourism, Iringa University, Tanzania

Prof. Snezana BesermenjiDepartment of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics University of Novi Sad, Serbia

Prof. Shiunn-Der Kuo Graduate Institute of Hakka Cultural Industry, National Pingtung University of Science & Technology, Taiwan

Prof. T. Keiser TANAHASHI Faculty of Business Administration, Tokyo

Keizai University, Japan

Prof. Chan Ngai WENGGeography Section, University Sains Malaysia, Maysia

Prof. Mohd. Rosli MOHAMAD Dept. of Development Studies, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia

Prof. Gunter SPREITZHOFERDept. of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, Austria

Prof. Kullada PHETVAROONFaculty of Service Industries, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Thailand

Prof. Sabah BALTAProfessor, Yasar University, Dept. of Tourism and Hotel Management, Turkey

Prof. Nikitina OlgaALEXANDROVNADeputy Director, the Branch of the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Engineering in Cheboksary, Russia

Prof. Klodiana GORICADept. of Marketing and Tourism, University of Tirana, Albania

Prof. Chutima TORCHAREONFaculty of Environment and Technology, Prince of Songkla

University, Thailand

Prof. Adman HusseinSchool of communication University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Prof. W.Packiaraja RobinsonFaculty of Management, School of Finance and Banking 1514, Mburabutoro, Rwanda

Prof. Him Lal GhimireCentral Department of Statistics Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu Nepal

Prof. Abhijit GHOSHDirector of Academic Studies, Australian School of Tourism & Hotel Management, Australia

Prof. Ovan StojanoskiOhrid, Univ. Macedonia

Prof. Cheng, Soo MayProfessor, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau SAR

Prof. Contra Fees-OurOur University of Philippines, the Philippines

Prof. Prateep WetprasitFaculty of Service Industries, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Thailand

Prof. Ching-Chi LAM (Cindia Lam), Institute For Tourism Studies, Macau, China

Prof. Xie ZhengVice-president, Associate Professor, Tourism College of Zhejiang, China

Prof. Sarinya La-ong-inAcademic Advisor, Hotel and Tourism Management Major Bangkok University International College, Bangkok, Thailand

Prof. Yasin BOYLUProfessor, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Mugla University, Turkey

Prof. Akmal AHMEDJONOVDept. of Foreign Languages, Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Samarkand Branch, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Prof. Mark EWENDept. of Marketing and Tourism, University of Hertfordshire, U.K.

Prof. S.C. Bagri Sanjay Mahar. I. KATHIRVELCentre for Mountain Tourism and Hospitality Studies, NHB Garhwal University, India

Prof. Zhang YUEHONGSchool of Foreign Languages, South China Agriculture University, China

Prof. Fusun CURAOGLUAss. Prof. Interior Design Department, Fine Arts Faculty, Anadolu University, Turkey

Prof. Ravinder N.BattaAdditional Secretary Tourism, Goverment of Himachal Pradesh, India

Prof. Nur Undey KalpakliogluIstanbul Aydin University, Public Relations and Advertising Department Head, Turkey

Prof. Vivienne Pitter, PhDWest Indies, Mona, Jamaica

Prof. Um, Bahadur TamangProf. Asian Center for Peace and

Development Center, Post Box Number 11843, Lazipat Khathmandu, Nepal

Prof. Reiji ChuubachiSapporo International Univ. Japan

Prof. Keith BrownVice President Development, Cape Breton University, Canada.

Prof. Joldasbekov Abdimanap AbdrazakovichDoctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Head of International Tourism and Service Department, Kazakhstan

Prof. Alexandru NedeleaStefan Cel Mare Univ.Suceava, Romania

Prof. Aswin SangpikulDhurakij Pundit Univ. Bangkok, Thailand

Prof. Adman HusseinSchool of communication, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

All manuscripts published are double–blind peer reviewed by accomplished scholars in the subject area of the manuscript and in the disciplinary or methodological approach used. The standard for publication is that the paper make clear contribution substantively or methodologically to the body of knowledge relating to the relationship between culture

and tourism.

International Journal of Culture and Tourism Research, Vol 5(1) 2012Available on line at http://www.kasct.co.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2012 World Cultural Tourism Association. All Right Reserved

International Journal of

Culture & Tourism ResearchVolume 5 Number 1 December 2012

Articles

Tourism Development Strategy Priangan East Region

···········································································································Dewi Turgarini ····· 1

Managing Cultural Tourism Resources and Authenticity of the Tourist Experience

············································································································Kyungjae Jang ··· 11

Community Based Heritage Tourism (CBHT)

································································································· Jinnapas Pathumporn ··· 25

Visitor Motivation, Expectation and Satisfaction of Local Cultural Event in Sabah

··························································· Juliana LanggatㆍKamarul Mizal Marzukiㆍ

Noor Fzlinda FabeilㆍMohd. Irwan Dahnil ··· 39

Student Travelers: Destination Image and Choice Behavior

·········································································································Sung-Chae Jung ··· 51

Optimal Timing of Purchasing Decisions for Airplane Tickets and Hotels. An Example in the UK.

··························································Hao-Te LUㆍWan-Yu, HSUㆍChih-Yao, YI ··· 59

The Opportunity of Creative Economy Through Agricultural in Tourism Development

······························································································································Oda ··· 71

Maps on Public Display for Tourists in Ayutthaya, Thailand

···············································································································Simon Potter ··· 81

Potentials for Cultural Tourism in Sohbar Village, East Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya

·················································································Bathsheba Goswami Pyngrope ··· 91

The Dilemma of Night Bazaars in Taipei

·······························································Steven M. AndersonㆍC.J. Anderson-Wu ··· 99

The Controversial Heritage of the Early Nazi Built Mass Tourism Resort at Pa in East Germany

····················································································Dieter Semmelroth · 117

The Management of Tourist’s Alimentary Needs by the Tourism Industry.

The Parameter of Religion

············· Polyxeni MoiraㆍDimitrios MylonopoulosㆍAikaterini Kontoudaki-MA · 129

Tourism Development Strategy

Priangan East Region－Exploration Food and Local Cuisine as Tourism Attractions－

Dewi Turgarini*1)

[ABSTRACT]

East Priangan (Land of Gods) is a region in West

Java Province, Indonesia, which stretches east from

the Bandung city. Culinary available in the area are

considered attractive to be presented to tourists.

Unfortunately, this potential has not been well

explored optimally.

Aim of the study is to identify the potential for

tourism that can attract tourists, including culinary.

Furthermore, based on the existing tourism potential,

the strategy for East Priangan tourism development

is drafted. The survey method was used. Local

culinary data was collected from interviewed to

community leader and then processed using descriptive

statistics. The strategy of tourism development is

formulated in several stages i.e. interviews of 200

randomly tourists and processed it using conjoint

analysis, FGD, and expert opinion.

The results show that Galendo, Ladu, etc. is a

uniquely culinary of this area. The key priority of

tourism development was eco culture-based tourist

attraction that combines of the cultural landscape.

Tourism is also directed at the economic based on

ecosystem that environmentally friendly as well as

manage and conserve the biosphere where life.

Therefore, the green tourism development strategy

priority is the implementation of eco-museum concept

on tourism object management, which connects the

cultural landscapes conservation blend with the

revitalization of local culinary, art and culture.

Key Words : Tourism, Strategy, Culinary, Eco-museum,

East Priangan

* Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia

International Journal of Culture and Tourism Research, Vol 5(1) 2012

Available on line at http://www.kasct.co.krⓒ Copyright 2012 World Cultural Tourism Association. All Right Reserved

2 Dewi Turgarini

Introduction

Priangan (land of Gods) is a region in the eastern

province of West Java, which runs to the east of the

city of Bandung. This area includes Garut, Ciamis,

Banjar, Tasikmalaya District, and Municipal Tasikmalaya.

East Priangan has tourism assets, surrounded by

beautiful mountains nature fascinating. Moreover,

from the point of human culture, food and cuisine

available in the area is to be served to attract tourists.

Current tourism development on the one hand

relied upon by the local government to increase local

revenue (revenue), while on the other hand is also

a way to address the rising rate of poverty so it

needs to be well developed. If this happens, will

undoubtedly absorb more labour, and can help

reduce poverty. But it must also be realized that

now is not time anymore only on the development

of tourism-oriented nature alone. Precisely cultural

tour, the orientation of a complex reflection of the

way of life, work and workmanship community, can

be a determining factor tourist attraction destination.

Examines cultural tourism aspects traveling place

people learn about the way of life and thinking of

others so that it becomes a means of promotion in

international cooperation. In many countries, tourism

is now associated with “cultural ties”, knowledge and

also the image of pulling a nation among other nations

in the tourism market (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2003).

Emphasis on ethnic tourism destination to observe

the expression of the culture and lifestyle of the

exotic with a visit to the property that is traditional,

attending dance performances and a traditional ceremony

or participating in religious rituals, including eating

local specialties and so on (Smith, 1977). Channel

elements of this culture originated the hospitality,

architecture design, culinary, handicraft products from

the region, and all the characteristics of a community’s

way of life.

Therefore, in the development of tourism resources

are not only concerned but also it is also necessary

to determine strategies to achieve the expected

goals. Unfortunately, this potential has not been

explored very well, especially developed optimally,

while supporting existing tourism is relatively available.

Society was not much involved in the management

of tourism in the region. The next hope is the

density of tourist attractions in the city of Bandung

can be distributed to the areas of East Priangan.

As disclosed Kozak (2002) and Chen and Hsu

(2000) Further related tourism image that is known

to affect the individual’s subjective perception of

objects to choose a tourist destination, so it is something

that is often more important than tangible resources

(tangible resources) that has. The perception obtained

motivates consumers to buy or not items such

tourism. Therefore, the image is a cultural capital

(cultural capital) to be optimized attraction tourist

destination. Three things support the image of a

attraction tourist destination are: (1) functional-psychological,

(2) uniqueness-general, (3) attribute-holistic (Echter

& Ritchie, 1993).

Such iconic deemed not owned by East Priangan

region. Potential that exists in the area, especially

gastronomic dealing with food and drinks, have not

been explored properly, let alone developed. All of

these policies is still top-down, and the initiative

was always from the government. On the other

hand, the indigenous people had been feeling not

much involved in the management of tourism in the

region so that they are apathetic to help the government.

If this can be a touch more humane mode of travel

then the density had only rested in Bandung, be

distributed to the areas of East Priangan.

Tourism Development Strategy Priangan East Region 3

Therefore, the problems facing the region is the

absence of data on the type of food and typical

dishes that can be seeded to amenitas presented to

tourists, and then how the strategy for tourism

development related to food and drink native in the

area, in order to a national seed.

The purpose of this study is to identify the

potential of tourism to attract tourists, including

food and cuisine available in the area. Furthermore,

based on the identification of the potential of

tourism, tourism development strategy formulated

in the East Priangan.

Literature Review

Gastronomy

Gillesoie and Cousins (2001) stated gastronomy

an art or science of good food (good eating) to eat.

In other words, dealing with all the gastronomic

pleasures of food and drink. Other sources mention

the gastronomic as a study on the relationship

between culture and food. Gastronomy learn various

cultural components with food as its center culinary

arts (Fossali, 2008). Cultural and gastronomic

gastronomy is formed due to the cultivation of

agricultural products so that embodiment of color,

aroma and taste of the food can be traced to its

origin from the environment in which the raw

material is produced (Barrera & Alvaradi, 2008).

Gastronomy basically includes a detailed knowledge

of the national food and drink from many major

countries around the world. Gastronomic role is as

a foundation for understanding how food and

beverages used in certain situations. Through

Gastronomic possible to build up a picture of the

similarities or differences or behavioral approach to

food and beverages that are used in different

countries and cultures (Gillesoie & Cousins, 2001).

If you look at the elements of culture, architecture,

crafts, folklore, regional languages, visual arts,

literature references, and also the way of life in a

region, developed in different ways. All of which

contribute to the character of an area. In the pre-modern

economic structure, prior to the creation of long-distance

transport system and cross-national food trade and

climate; agriculture and food industries more oriented

to local market share. The difference in natural

resources and local expertise produces a unique

local food production (Haukeland & Jacobsen, 2001).

For that reason, in the future, may be considered the

gastronomic elements to show the identity of the

local culture of a region.

From the tourist point of view, foods with local

identity is equivalent to a trip around the museums

and monuments Tourism makes them able to feel

the local identity, on the other hand gives the

tourists an opportunity for the tourism industry to

offer new products.

Indonesia represents a long history of the integration

of our gastronomic culture of oriental (eastern) as

from India and China with accidental culture

(western) of the Dutch, Portuguese and Arabic.

Both cultures are mixed with the natural resources

that exist in the local area.

Good basic vegetable foodstuffs such as rice, sago,

potato, cassava and others, as well as animal sources

such as fish, lamb, beef, chicken and so on, come

along with a wide variety of spice flavours; salty,

sweet, spicy, sour and savoury derived of Cumin,

Coriander, Ginger, Coconut, Peanuts and others

(Freeman, 2010; Van Esteri, 2008; Advameg, 2010;

Gillesoie & Cousins, 2001; Fossali, 2008).

4 Dewi Turgarini

Tourist Attraction

Tourist attraction is something interesting to see,

feel, enjoyed and owned by travelers, made by

humans and require preparation before shown to the

tourists. Places is also a very complex sector of the

tourism industry (Swarbrooke, 1996; Swarbrooke &

Page, 2012), for being something permanent in a

tourist destination. Places addressed provide access

to the general public in the form of entertainment,

for fun, education, and saw something interesting .

It should be open to the public without any

reservation, must be published each year and should

be able to attract tourists and local people. Places

can also be a natural resource that is controlled and

regulated for fun, entertainment, music and education

visit by the public.

In addition, tourist attractions can be classified

into several attributes such as natural beauty,

climate, site and culture. Places can be art, culture,

heritage, tradition, natural resources, or entertainment,

which is a tourist attraction in the tourist destination

(KUBI, 2012). That way, tourist attraction is all

things that make tourists interested; may be an

attraction sites or events, both mutual gravitational

influence affecting. A place is a charm; sometimes

shape the nature and history have intrinsic appeal

and has indivisibility, unique advantages that can

attract tourists.

Potpurri Strategy

The hierarchy of policies, strategies and tactics

is used in the decision making of the management

efforts. Policy synthesized variations of optimization

principles to public policy and the legal process, or

can be interpreted as a decision designed to deal

with the social problems that certain actions can be

taken accordingly (Nagel, 1982; Cappiello, et al.,

1995; Rubin in Bryson & Einsweiller, 1988

Meanwhile, the management strategy is the

attempt to unify plans and resources owned by both

the external and internal environment (Langabeer II,

1998). The goal took the lead and created a safe

position with the efficiency, quality control, innovation

and attention to customer feedback; goal is sustainability

development (Lee and Snepenger, 1992: 48-49). The

tactic is part of a strategy to achieve sustainable

development, namely the existence of culture. At the

tactical level, been a way for the operationalization

of cultural factors in order to have a competitive

edge. In the development of culture, policy, strategy

and tactics are important because this sector should

pay attention to the balance. That the goals and

objectives of management culture that leads to sustainable

creative economy achieved in doing so redefined,

revitalization and repositioning of stakeholder engagement

strategy should be part of the decision making.

Methods

The method used in this study is a survey. Data

collected by the food and cuisine researcher by

observation and interviewing community leaders.

The data obtained in the field is processed using

descriptive statistics.

To formulate the development strategy of tourism

development carried out in several stages: first,

random interviews of 200 tourists visiting East

Priangan. The data was then processed using conjoint

analysis, a technique to measure the psychological

considerations (psychological Judgments) consumer

preferences for attributes of a series combination of


tourism, or depict realistic trade-off decision of

consumers to various tourism product attributes.

Second, to deepen the results of the survey,

stakeholders were invited researchers to discuss the

Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Finally, to determine

the priority of the strategy chosen, the results of

conjoint and FGD synergized with expert opinion,

and then processed using the AHP (analytical

hierarchy process).

Results

Type of Food Featured

From observations and field surveys obtained

excellent food from every region in eastern Priangan

(Table 1). Indicators of special food are ideal, flavor,

aroma and endemic area.

No Name Description Origin region

1 Assorted CilokTapioca flour, spice and water dough made of small round and braised

stuffed with meat or other. Then smothered with peanut sauce or ketchupTasikmalaya

2 Assorted OpakRice flour dough flavoured with a variety of flavours and then formed

roundly roasted in a variety of sizes with sandTasikmalaya

3 Assorted Pepes Steam fish or chicken or mushroom or tofu covered with banana leafTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

4 AwugSteamed grated cassava and coconut shavings and it was given and

brown sugar

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

5 Cikur Rice Steamed rice flavored with Kaempferia Galangal Tasikmalaya

6 Comet Grated cassava and formed small round filled with spicy oncom Tasikmalaya

7 Dodol A variety of sugar-sweetened mashed fruit then heated after thickens formed Garut

8 GalendoShredded coconut and then heated in a pan until the oil is filtered out

and the coconut flavoured and formed Ciamis

9 Ice Cingcau Grass Jelly IceTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

10 Peuyeum Fermented cassavaTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

12 Rangginang Seasoned rice roundly shaped and friedTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

13 Tutug Oncom Steamed brown riceTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

14 Chicken porridgeBoiled rice and spices, after thickens then given condiment fried onion,

chicken, celery, green onions and soy sauce

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

15 BaksoGround beef flavored and formed round boiled in broth and served with

noodles and spicy sauce

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

16 Lontong KariBoiled rice and then after a small cut chewy coconut milk and given

added beef or chicken

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

17 Liwet Rice Marinated steamed rice served with fried chicken, salted fish, and fried tofuTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

<Table 1> Food and Beverage Unique Seed East Priangan

6 Dewi Turgarini

18 SurabiGiven milk rice flour dough then baked roundly given the brown sugar

sauce or spicy oncom

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

19 BajigurGiven boiling water brown sugar and coconut milk and pandan leaves

filtered and drunk when warm

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

20 Rujak Various fruit slices with sauce of brown sugar, mashed beans, tamarind, chilliTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

21 Kerupuk Kulit Fried cow skinTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

22 Abon Ikan Lele Meat roasted catfish Tasikmalaya

23 Mie Ayam Sprinkled chicken stir fry noodlesTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

24Ayam Goreng &

BakarFried and grilled chicken

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

25 Sale Pisang Smoke bananaTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

26 Kolontong Dry cake of rice flour smeared brown sugarTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

27 Kupat TahuSteamed rice sprinkled with bean sprouts and tofu flushing with

coconut milk

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

28 Molen Tahu Tofu rolled by a layer of pastry dough and then fried Tasikmalaya

29 Molen SaleSmoked banana rolled by a layer of pastry dough and then fried

Tasikmalaya

30 SotoChicken meat, flushing with coconut milk and spiced (spring onion

lemongrass, galangal, bay , teaspoon pepper)

Tasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

31 Ikan Fried and grilled fishTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

32 Tahu Bulat Round fried tofuTasikmalaya, Garut,

Ciamis, Banjar

Source: Observation and Survey (2012)

Consumer Preferences

The results of the data processing methods

conjoint analysis (Table 2) show that the sub-file

summary (general assessment) show average

importance of each factor or attribute East Priangan

tourist village. Next, the utility column is a column

that contains 140 respondents overall opinion of the

individual level factors or attributes of the object. In

principle, the utility is the difference between the

value and the constant factor, the score range 1

(strongly preferred) to 5 (very unpopular). The constant,

theoretically (3.1012 in this study) is a number that

became the basis for the search for utility scale

factor of the ticket price, tourist activities, transportation

to attractions, reservation and length of stay.

Further interpretation of these results also show,

first, the ticket price, utility column shows 2 level

has a negative value i.e. A1 (IDR 25,000.00) and A2

(IDR 50,000.00), the general meaning of respondents

considered that both the price level reasonable.

However, the amount of the value of the utility, A1

(IDR 25,000.00 or approximately US$ 2.614) has a

value of-0.233 means that a greater preference of


Factor Average Importance Level Utility

Price (PRICE) 27,6500 A1 Rp. 25.000,00 (US$ 2.164)

A2 Rp. 50.000,00 (US$ 5.227)

A3 Rp. 75.000,00 (US$ 7.841)

A4 Rp.100.000,00 (US$ 10.455)

-0,2335

-0,1180

0,0230

0,0010

Tourism Activity (ACTIVITY) 33,3400 B1 Culinary

B2 Local Art

B3 Trekking

-0,7800

0,3130

-0,0733

Destination Transportation (TRANS) 17,8200 C1 Personal Vehicles

C2 Taxi Vehicle

C3 Mini Bus Vehicle

-0,1755

-0,0652

0,2402

Purchases of goods (BUY) 7,7000 D1 By phone

D2 Via the internet

D3 Came straight to the location

-0,0280

0,3130

-0,0533

Length of Stay (STAY) 13,4200 E1 1 Day

E2 2 Day

E3 >2 Day

-0,0351

0,0201

0.0132

Constant 3,1012

Sources: Primary data (processed)

<Table 2> Conjoint Analysis Results

respondents selecting the ticket price of IDR 25,000.00

to enter the territory East Priangan according to

income level.

Second, the factor of tourist activity has average

value of the greatest importance (33.34) to show

that this factor is the most important for travelers

in choosing East Priangan as a tourist destination.

In the column type activity factor, B1 (culinary

tourism) and B3 (trekking) have a negative utility

value, which indicates a preference of respondents

to the event. In between respondents prefer B1

(culinary tourism).

Third, the factor of transport used towards

sights, two utility levels seen in the column has a

negative value is C1 (personal vehicle) and C2

(taxi), with the value selected in C1 (personal

vehicle) of-0.1755. Fourth, how to buy goods to

have two levels of each consumer likes D1 (using

the phone) and D3 (coming to the object). Both have

a negative utility value (-0.0280 and-0.0533), so the

consumer preference is preferred to come right to

object and buying goods. Finally, the factor of

length of stay (length of stay) only E1 (length of

stay, one day trip), which has a negative utility

value, so in general the respondents would prefer to

live to enjoy travel no more than 1 day.

Furthermore, to determine the attributes of the

most important decisions for travelers in choosing

the East Priangan as with tourist destinations, can

be seen in the column average importance, which

contains a percentage value the importance of each

factor or attribute research respondents overall

opinion. The order of average importance of each

factor or attribute from the largest to the smallest

percentage values: (1) type activity (33.34%), (2)

Food and drink price (27.65%), (3) transportation to

the sights (17.82%), (4) length of stay (13.42%) and

(5) The way to buy product (7.77%).

8 Dewi Turgarini

Factor Correlation Coefficient Signification

Pearson 0,821 0,0000

Kendall 0,652 0,0009

Kendall 0,705 0,0408

Sources: Data Processing (2012)

<Table 3> The Results of Pearson Correlation

and Kendall

Then, to predict the pattern of the businesses

surveyed used estimated path-worth and compare

the results with the opinion of the actual respondents

(actual) of the stimulation process. Measurement

accuracy of prediction (predictive accuracy) is needed

to measure the level of accuracy of predictions

reflected high value and significant correlation

between the estimated (estimates) with the actual

results. Measurement accuracy of predictions by

analyzing Pearson and Kendall correlation values

obtained directly from the conjoint analysis.

The results obtained showed that both Pearson

and Kendall correlation value has a positive value,

significant, and confidence level of 95 percent (Table 3).

This indicates that there is a strong correlation

between the results of the estimation (estimates)

with actual results (actual). In other words, conjoint

analysis conducted has a high predictive accuracy

so that the opinions of 200 respondents sampled in

this study may reflect the will of travelers to the

object of the tourist destination.

Priority Strategies

As a result of brainstorming, expert meetings and

FGDs was acquired policies, strategies and tactics,

or operational actions in East Priangan tourism

development (Table 4).

To determine priorities among the elements,

Expert Choice helps synthesize judgment, examined

the consistency of such consideration and the final

decision based on the results of this process, by utilizing

assessment experts assisted with the processing

software. The results showed that the enrichment

of the typical culinary tourist attraction East Priangan

be a top priority for the iconic flagship attract

tourists followed by the determination of prices of

food and beverages served at an affordable tourist.

No Policy Strategy Operational

1 Tourism Package Price• Culinary Prices are affordable

• Giving special discount on certain days

Marketing

• Intensification of cooperation with travel agents

• Imaging through integrated marketing (word of mouth, leaflets,

e-tourism, etc.)

Increased Length of Stay

• Establish a calendar event scheduled

• Extrusion-existence of traditional local distinctiveness

• Creation amenity using products based on local resources

2 Object Development Tourism Attraction• Control the quantity and quality of tourist

• Enrichment diverse culinary community-based and local resources

Means of Transportation• Improved accessibility of transport

• Additional transport frequency

<Table 4> Tourism Development Strategies for the East Priangan


Conclusion

This study shows that, of the preferences of

consumers and producers, and the key priorities of

tourism development in East Priangan is based on

eco-culture attraction that combines natural scenery

and culture in the form of cultural landscape.

However, in order not to cause degradation, tourism

directed economic system that is friendly to the

environment biosphere ecosystem where the lives of

all living things.

To that end, a sustainable tourism development

strategy that prioritized cultural development that

can quickly attract the interest of tourists typical

foods and beverages such as East Priangan’s

Assorted cilok, Dodoo, Galendo, Ladu, tutug oncom,

chicken porridge and others.

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Submitted: June 06, 2012

Final Revision Submitted: October 02, 2012

Accepted: October 15, 2012

Refereed Anonymously

Managing Cultural Tourism Resources and

Authenticity of the Tourist Experience－In Case of Toyako Manga Anime Festa－

Kyungjae Jang*2)

[ABSTRACT]

Experience of tourists is indispensable element in

cultural tourism. Nowadays, tourists play a role to

create a meaning of place, not only consumption.

Therefore, it is necessary to note the change of

authenticity in tourist experience. On the other

hand, conception to tourism resources and formation

of travel is also changing due to transition of

authenticity. Especially in Japan, a new form of

tourism using subculture as a resource is appearing.

The concept of authenticity has expanded and

diversified by local which purpose of tourism,

tourist, lifestyle, evolution of economic and travel

framework. Began with the analysis of objective

authenticity by MacCannell, nowadays, performative

authenticity theory that tourist can create their own

authenticity by the tourism experience is discussing.

With the changes of authenticity, meaning of

cultural resources and its relationship with the place

has also changed. Relationship between location and

resources has become loosely gradually. In addition,

identity of place has created by various Authentication

that of Cool and Hot. Recently, it became possible

to see identity of place by Information and

Communication tools (ICT). By using ICT, tourists

can easily make value of place of their own, and

Social Network Services (SNS) accelerate it by

eliminate the limitation of physical restrict.

One of the Cases appeared this phenomenon is

Toyako Manga Anime Festa (TMAF) of Hokaido,

Japan. TMAF is a subculture base festival launched

by a young group of Toyako residents in 2010.

Characteristics with multi use of place with ICT

based communication, participants grasp the feature

of place and make their own meaning through the

events, and they write that meaning to Internet

space such as blog. Then they create an image of

* Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Researches, Hokkaido University, Japan



12 Kyungjae Jang

that year of Toyako on the SNS.

Key Words : Cultural Resources, Authenticity,

Media contents, Social media, Place

Introduction

Cultural tourism began to be discussed from the

viewpoint of cultural consumption. However, according

to Smith (2009), not only consumption, experience

and participation became a significant factor, especially

with the advent of economic experience in the

economic field (Pine and Gilmore 1998). Along this,

Smith defined a cultural tourism as follows.

Passive, active and interactive engagement with

culture(s) and communities, whereby the visitor

gains new experience of an educational, creative,

and/or entertaining nature (Smith 2009).

According to this definition, as well as a guest

to visit the region, tourists will affect the region and

even to form the culture of the region through active

interaction with local. Such an expansion of the

definition also affected the debate authenticity in

cultural tourism. Not only discussions on the

authenticity of tourist interest, it is needs to discuss

authenticity which made by tourist.

Authenticity of the tourist experience is one of

the principal themes of tourism studies. Discussion

about the authenticity began with criticism for mass

tourism and the task of finding objective authenticity.

It based on the idea that tourism is an act that has

been lacking authenticity and tourists are the being

which seeking authenticity. However, nowadays,

due to diversification of culture and travel experience,

it is difficult to say objectivity as the only factor of

constructing authenticity. Because it is noticeable

that size of the group that formed the culture

getting smaller. In the past, nation-state was the

only group that formed the culture. Nowadays, role of

the region and small communities (so-called communities

of hobby or Otaku community in Japan) is getting

bigger. In this situation, various criteria such as

objectivity, subjectivity and existential are became

a factor of making authenticity and analyze these

factors are indispensable in order to grasp the

meaning of tourism.

On the other hand, it is necessary to discuss the

change of resources in cultural tourism. Traditionally,

cultural tourism resources created and transmitted

by the hosts which hold the resources physically

such as local community. One of typical example is

cultural heritage. Along with the diversification of

the role of tourists described above, by the internet

and the emergence of communication media, it can

be possible to valuing place their own meaning

personally. In other words, it is now also possible

that those elements do not have the location

becomes the resource of that place.

In addition, with this new value making, new

form of tourism to discover the meaning of place

has appeared. Relationship between tourism and

cultural tourism resources is diversifying gradually.

In this paper, changes of authenticity in tourism

experience, diversification of cultural resources and

changes in the morphology of cultural tourism are

discussed through the case of Toyako Manga

Anime Festa (TMAF), Hokkaido, Japan.

First, briefly reviews theory about the authenticity

of the tourist experience; diversification of authenticity

theory from objective authenticity, subjective authenticity,

existential authenticity to performative authenticity.

Subsequently, focusing on the relationship between

local and the tourist, change of cultural resources

Managing Cultural Tourism Resources and Authenticity of the Tourist Experience 13

and its meaning is examined. Finally, to validate the

theory, the example of TMAF is examined.

Authenticity of Tourism Experience

TMAF xamined. Manga Anime Festa.resources

by state. Therefore, There is any question about

authenticity in the everyday life because every day

experience itself is authentic, and there is not

inauthentic experience which contrast with authentic

experience. Discussion of authenticity began with

the advent of mass tourism as an example of

inauthentic experience. Boorstin (1963) criticized

tourism as pseudo-event which sold cheaply in

mass market. Boorstin (1963:86-87) has strongly

criticized the mass tour which travel agents isolate

tourists from land. In other words, it became

impossible to access objective authenticity by mass

tourism. Following Boorstin, MacCannell (1973)

defined touristic authenticity as staged authenticity.

Based on theory of back region by Erving Goffman,

MacCannell classified front and back structure of

the social system. By MacCannell, tourists always

experience the front side of stage, and they cannot

see the real, objective authenticity in the back side

of the stage, which they always eager to see them.

Boorstin and MacCannell assume that real

authenticity exists. Authenticity theory of Boorstin

and MacCannell tied up with the reality of modernity

which means actual authenticity associated with the

place is presence. Their concept of authenticity is

based on the ideas of the Enlightenment and of the

purposiveness, which are basic principles of modernity.

However, with the advent of post-modern, it

became indispensable to personal and subject value

as a factor of authenticity. Wang (1999) classified

theory of authenticity relative to modernity into two

categories: the theory of objective authenticity and

the theory of constructive authenticity. Authenticity

of Boorstin and MacCannell described above is

positioned in the former objective authenticity. On

the other hand, constructive authenticity theory by

Cohen regards authenticity as flexible and plural

thing created by construction and interpretation of

tourist and local.

According to Cohen (1988:374), authenticity is a

socially constructed concept and its social (as

against philosophical) connotation which not given

but “negotiable”. Influenced by theory of culture as

a process and the ‘invented tradition’ of Hobsbawm,

constructive authenticity theory emphasizes interpretation

and individual viewpoints.

It is a same as objective authenticity theory that

recognizes tourist as being of seeking authenticity.

However, quality of authenticity is different, in terms

of authenticity as a sign and symbol.

Discussion of authenticity described above is the

discussion centered on tourist target. Wang (1999)

classified these as object-related authenticity. Apart

from that, there is a theory that emphasizes tourist

behavior as an important factor of authenticity.

Wang (1999) classified these as activity-related

authenticity, and one of it is existential authenticity.

Based on phenomenological ontology of Heidegger,

existential authenticity theory comprises personal or

intersubjective feelings activated by the liminal

process of tourist behaviors. In Existential authenticity

theory, it can be possible to tourists make their own

authenticity of place.

Factors that affect the authenticity is not only the

factor of social thought, it is also noteworthy factor

of economic changes in consumption patterns. For

example, Cohen has pointed out commoditization of

14 Kyungjae Jang

Boorstin MacCannell E. Cohen Wang Knudsen and Waade

Period 1964 1973 1988 1999 2010

Tourism Pseudo event Stage Interpretation Existential Create of place

TouristExperience pseudo

eventSeek authenticity

Seek

authenticity

Recognition of self as

existential beingCreating place actively

Authenticity Objective Objective Constructive Existential Performative

Focus of study Tourism object Tourism object Tourism object Tourism behavior Tourism behavior

Pattern of tourism Glaze Glaze Glaze Glaze Action

Authentication Cool Cool Cool Hot Hot

<Table 1> Diversification of Authenticity of Tourism Studies

ritual especially in the Third World as one of the

principal factors that affect the formation of

authenticity.

From the beginning of the 1990s, a new concept

began to be presented to the principles of the market

economy. According to Pine and Gilmore (1998), it

has become an era of Experience economy that

influential in economic value than commodity, goods

and service. With the mass production and mass

consumption, worth of goods gradually decreased,

and experience became prominent especially in the

business area.

With such change, arguments of touristic authenticity

in nowadays have changed. It is tourist can generate

their own authenticity by the tourism experience.

Authenticity theory mentioned above-objective,

subjective, existential-regard tourist experience as

“glaze”. Performative authenticity theory has emerged

with its criticism.

Rather than look for those provided by host side,

performative tourist action actively.

According to Knudsen and Waade (2010), performative

authenticity not only signifies that perform places

by actions but that places are something we authenticate

through one’s emotional/ affective/ sensuous to them.

It signifies a shift towards sincerity as a negotiated

value between local and tourist.

The concept of authenticity has expanded and

diversified by local which object of tourism, tourist,

lifestyle, change of economic pattern and travel

pattern (table 1).

Meaning of Cultural Tourism Resources

In discussing tourism resources in cultural

tourism, essential thing is the criteria and share of

values. Cultural tourism resources can be divided

into two categories: valued by public institutions

and valued by nonpublic institutions. Public institutions

can be subdivided into global scale, national scale

and public institution less than the national scale.

Cultural tourism resources by public institutions

associate with modernity. Because it includes that

who certificate the resources, what belongs to and

what the range of. For example, cultural tourism

resources certified by public institutions often include

the purpose of the education of the nation-state

members and national publicity. Therefore, in this

case, authentication of resources is often led by the

nation-state.

One of the examples that help to understand this


concept is ‘cultural resources’ proposed by the

National Park Service (NPS) of USA. NPS defines

cultural resources as follow.

An aspect of a cultural system that is valued by

or significantly representative of a culture or that

contains significant information about a culture. A

cultural resource may be a tangible entity or a

cultural practice. Tangible cultural resources are

categorized as districts, sites, buildings, structures,

and objects for the National Register of Historic

Places and as archeological resources, cultural landscapes,

structures, museum objects, and ethnographic resources

for NPS management purposes. This definition of

cultural resource includes the means of education

and conservation, as well as pursuing active use.

On the other hand, there is greater authentication

system than a national scale. Typical example is a

World Heritage by UNESCO. UNESCO is offering

Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) as a condition

for becoming a World Heritage Site. ‘Outstanding

Universal Value’ to assess the value of the World

Heritage, it can be said that maximized modernity.

Because, it is impossible to defines OUV in this

postmodern world. In fact, even UNESCO could not

define OUV from 1972 until now. There is any

common language of sharing heritage despite it still

work. Thus, i Martí (2006) said cultural heritage

include world heritage is the ‘Zombie of modernity’.

Subsequently is the informal authentication.

Postmodern and critical views about modernity

brought skepticism about the formation of objective

culture. In addition, in the background of 1.Deterritorialized

by globalization and 2.Diversification based on a

various media, it become possible to various groups

form and enjoy culture different way to modernity.

Especially, minority discriminated by culture, religion,

gender, race, age and ethnicity could form a culture

freely. By informal authentication, their culture

could be certificated. Bolz defined this era of small

group ‘era of Otaku tribe (geek)’

Result of these phenomena, two things can be

mentioned that arbitrariness of authenticity and

multi uses of place.

First is arbitrariness of Authenticity. It is a

theory that authenticity is not existing, but something

discovered. Cohen and Cohen (2012) define the

process of discovering and make authenticity

‘Authentication’. According to Cohen and Cohen,

there are two authentication processes of Hot and

Cool authentication. Cool authentication is formed

by formal institutions. Cultural resources by NPS

and World heritage by UNESCO mentioned above

are an example of hot authentication.

On the other hand, Hot Authentication is the

process of authentication by informal level. In this,

even tourist can authenticate their own value to

place. Existential Authenticity by Wang and Performative

Authenticity by Knudsen and Waade mentioned

above are close to hot authentication.

Second is a multi uses of place. Authentication is

a process of interpretation; thus it affects the identity

of the place. In other words, similar to authenticity,

instead of being fixed, identity of place is also

formed in various ways by the Authentication. In

addition, recently, it becomes possible to see identity

of place by Information and Communication tools

(ICT). By using ICT, tourist can easily input their

own value to place. Other tourist or local people can

see that value in that place by ICT with GPS technology,

due to technology so called Augmented Reality (AR).

In means, anyone can easily express their meaning

to place, and it is possible to coexistence of various

meaning in the same place from the meaning of

modernity, indigenous culture, culture of local people

16 Kyungjae Jang

and even new meaning from media contents.

Diversification of the Place and Cultural Tourism

Although the advent of this multi use of place has

passed, one thing that remains unchanged; physical

spaces and communities that are based on physical

space are still unaltered. However, with the advent

of ICTs, changes have occurred in the concept of

community and space.

According to Wellman (2001), the formation of

communities and locality vary per person and

location. Further, the rise of the ICTs and Internet

network developed person-to-person and role-to-role

community. In other words, rather than forming a

community in a space, individuals can select their

own community using ICTs. Through the ICTs and

Internet network, physical constraints of time and

space disappear. Time and space has become a ‘timeless

time’ and ‘space of flow’ gradually (Castells, 2000).

In addition, networks can visualize the unconscious

of humans. Azuma (2011) argues that the theory of

‘The general will 2.0’ is based on ‘The general will’

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. According to Azuma,

networks will lead to a new publicity gathered by

human preference and interpret and analyze it

automatically, which is similar to the recommendation

system of Amazon.com. People’s accumulated unconscious

from a database of networks becomes public opinion

and can even become the basis of political decisions.

Furthermore, ICTs became a tool for new meaning

making of cultural resources according to physical

space, by using a system of social tagging. Tagging

is a system on the network that gives meaning by

cooperative classification (Mathes, 2004). It was

recognized only as a system of computer networks;

however, tagging physical locations by ‘pseudo’

tagging with ICTs became possible; thus it is

considered that tagging physical space or resources

by network.

ICT functions as an acceleration tools of multi

use of space. With ICTs and tagging mentioned

above, form cultural tourism has changed from the

gaze of the modern resources to meaning making to

place by informal, small community. This new

tourism is prominent in Japan, especially in the

sector of subculture of Animation, Cartoon and

game. One example is Anime Pilgrimage.

Anime is a Japanese style of notation Animation.

Anime Pilgrimage is film induced tourism that

popular in Japan especially among the young

generation. Background of Anime Pilgrimage is

concerned with the development of ICT. In the past,

background picture of animation was handwriting.

Nowadays, with the advent of digital photo process

technology, digital photos are used to make

background of the anime. Thus, world in animation

is remarkably similar to the real world because it is

based on real picture.

It is basis of aforementioned Hot Authentication.

Some of the avid animation fans noticed that the

world of animation is similar to real world, and they

began to find the place of animation world. By using

Google Maps and Street View, fans found the place,

and they began travel. That travel called Anime

Pilgrimage in Japan.

A feature of Anime pilgrimage is that fans are

not only guest but make value of place actively.

Almost all Anime Pilgrimage site have a tools that

make value such as Pilgrimage Notebook. Even

shrine, there are many wooden plaque so called

‘Ema’ of animation character is seen. These wooden


plagues are sacred things for pray; however,

animation fans draw the characters of animation for

express their value (Fig 1).

<Figure 1> Tagging of Anime Characters on a

Traditional Shrine (Washimiya, Japan)

Even more, local people respect the value of the

animation fan and they began assist value make of fan.

Famous example is animation “Raki&Suta (Lucky&Star)”

and region “Washimiya”. Produced by famous ☆

Suta (Lucky☆Star)” and region “Washimiya”. Produced

by famous animation production Kyoto Animation,

aired from April 2007 to September 2007. Background

region of Lucky Star is Washimiya town of Kuki

city, Saitama Prefecture, bed town near Tokyo. Fan

of “Lucky☆Star” visits Washimiya shrine which

Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi that main characters

of anime live in and draw characters. With this

process, the shrine has two meanings: the conventional

meaning of the holy shrine and holy place of Anime.

By the resident of Washimiya, Shrine is a holy place

of that God of place live, and it is a cool authentication

of place. By Fan of Anime so called Otaku, Shrine

become a holy place of Anime. In this case, place

is authenticated by performance of fans. Two

authenticities coexist in Washimiya shrine. It is a

one of characteristics of Anime pilgrimage.

Furthermore, relationship between two is not

hostile but cooperative. Washimiya holds Matsuri

(Festival) so called Hajisai every year. Residents of

Washimiya respect value of Anime fan and they

permit anime fan join the festival. From 2008, With

the Traditional palanquin called mikoshi, Anime

palanquin (Fig 2).

<Figure 2> Rakisuta Mikoshi (palanquin) of

Hajisai (From Palanquin of Hajisai Home Page

(http://luckystar.wasimiya.com/img/0809_02.jpg))

It might say that it is a unique feature of Japan,

Anime and Manga contents play a vital role in the

Hot Authentication. However, this example tells

that cool and hot authentication can coexistence in

one place.

Subsequently, new cultural tourism and multi

uses of place by hot and cool authentication is examined

through the case of Toyako Manga Anime Festa.

Toyako Manga Anime Festa (Tmaf) and Multi Use of Place

Toyako (Lake Toya) is a caldera lake in the southern

18 Kyungjae Jang

part of Hokkaido-Nothern Island of Japan-and

famous Onsen (hot spring) area. Because of its

excellent terrain and volcanic landscape, Toyako

area is not only designated as a national park of

Japan but also certified as a global Geopark network-

assisted by UNESCO-in 2009 (The Toya caldera

and Usu Volcano Geopark).

Population of Toyako region is 10,132 people in

2010, trend of decreased from 16,243 people in 1965.

In addition, Toyako is one of the typical aging areas

of Japan. The ratio of old-age population over 65

accounted for 35.2% of the total population

With the Shikotsu-Toya National Park and Toyako

Onsen (Hot Spring), main industry of the area is

tourism. Producing population of 4,682 people, more

than 1,200 people engaged in tourism-related industries.

It is the greatest proportion of the population.

Main cultural resource of Toyako is Hot spring

discovered in 1917. Tourism development of Toyako

began since 1949, after designated a national park.

Number of tourists to the area has been extended

with the National Park designation; however, it has

gradually decreasing from 2000, after the eruption of

Mount USU in 2000.

A number of tourists visiting Toyako are 2.5

million in 2002 and 2.6 million in 2007. This number

dropped to 2.49 million in 2008 and fell sharply to

1.95 million in 2010 (Toyako-Cho, 2011).

For the improvement of this situation, Province

of Hokkaido government devised various tourism

promote plan. One is the G8 summit with central

government. By the slogan “To the world, to the

future tourism-Hokkaido”, government of Hokkaido

made action plan promote tourism in conjunction

with G8 Summit. However, there was no significant

achievement. Rather, residents raised complain to

strict security and closure of the region during the

summit. There was no merit to region held summit.

<Table 2> Number of tourist visiting Toyako

(From Toyako-Cho 2011)

After that, based on “Broad Zone of Tourism”

plan by the ministry of tourism Japan, Province of

Hokkaido government present “Hokkaido Noboribetsu

and Toya Broad Zone of Tourism” plan. It is a

package development plan with geography, volcanic

resources and indigenous culture. However, it is the

old-fashioned plan, so there is no effect of that.

As one of its symbol, KARAKAMI TOYA PARK

HOTEL, one of leading tourist hotel of Toyako

decided to close on 1 year from 2011.

So far as seeing, Toyako appears to progress

aging and declining. However, it is an image of

Toyako evaluated by point of view of Cool authentication.

When evaluated from hot authentication, especially

in the tourism sector, different results can be seen.

In order to see it, analyze tourism resources of

Toyako region is necessary. Major tourism resources

of Toyako can be summarized as follows.


No Resources Characteristic Type of tour Span Certification Of place by Authentication

1 National Park NatureWatching, Canoeing,

Driving, EcotourYearly Nation-State Cool

2 Hot springNature Geology

ResortResort Yearly None None

3 Geo-park Network Geology Trail walking Yearly UNESCO related network Cool

4 Farm AgriculturalDairy product making,

Experience agricultural work

Spring-Au

tumnRegion Tepid

5 Firework Festival Seeing April-October Tourism association Tepid

6 Marathon Sports event Running 1time/year The Public sector Tepid

7Swimming

competitionSports event Swimming 1time/year

Tour company

Outside the regionTepid

8Hot spring festival,

Winter festivalFestival Participating 3 weeks Tourism association Tepid

9Bread of

HappinessFilm (media) Seeing location of movie Yearly

Movie company, Tourism

associationHot

10Toyako Manga

Anime FestaFestival

Participating and Making

festival2days/year

Tourism association, Fans

of Anime& Manga, ParticipantHot

<Table 3> Major Tourism Resources of Toyako

Tourist Association of Toyako Onsen launched

various tourism promotions with using these resources.

Resources of Toyako can be divided as three

patterns; cool authentic resources of modernity, hot

authentic resources of region centered and resources

of none of them. No. 1 and 3, National Park and

Geo-park are the typical cool authentic resources.

Tourist cannot participate and cannot add their

opinion to each site. Thus, travel using these

resources is based on gaze.

Farm of No. 4 is a resource certificated by region;

however there is no hot and cool authentication

because no meaning making of place in it. From

No.5 to 8 are the various festivals. These are

relations with authentication, however, strictly

speaking, neither hot nor cool. Because, there are

any process of meaning making. Here, called it

Tepid for convenience.

It is fascinating of No. 9, Location of film ‘Bread

of Happiness (Shiawase no Pan)’. Starred famous

actor Ohizumi Yo from Hokkaido, the movie was hit

in especially Hokkaido area. Tourism association

promotes Toyako as a location of movie eagerly. In

this case, two certificate processes occurred. First

is hot authentication by regional tourism association.

With time for movie released, tourism association of

Toyako made a location map of movie. It functions

as certificate place. Then, collaboration of tourism

association and regional industry related occurred.

They developed various products and goods related

movie. Second process is authentication by movie

fans. They visit and specify the location. Important

part of their authentication is on computer network.

Fans take a picture and upload picture of movies

and site they visit. It can work as hot authentication.

For the movie fans, accommodations provide

Campagne bread that came out in the movie to fans.

According to the local stakeholders, in 2012, it is the

20 Kyungjae Jang

highest density of tourist visiting the region for

movie. However, he said that tourism boom induced

movie ends with about one year, so it is the time

prepare risk management and following the plan.

No. 10, Toyako Manga Anime Festa (TMAF), is

the brand-new event based on hot authenticity from

2010. Toyako Manga Anime Festa includes strong

factor of hot authentication than No. 9. No. 10,

Toyako Manga Anime Festa (TMAF) includes

strong factor of hot authentication than No. 9. Was

launched by a young group of Toyako residents in

2010, TMAF has the characteristics of an Internet

network and subculture contents.

One of the motivations was Toyako G8 Summit

at 2008 mentioned above. Central Government and

Provincial Government has tried to cool authentication

using the summit but failed. With this lesson, young

group of Toyako region made a new event based on

Manga and Anime contents that popular media

contents in Japan.

Following three events compose TMAF: Cosplay

event, an Itasha event and a staging event. The first

two are the main events of the festival. Cosplay is

a Japanese-English word means costume play. Itasha

means a decorated car with characters of Anime,

Manga or games. These are consumer generated media

(CGM) by subculture fans in Japan (Figure 3). In

Cosplay, fans perform an act or impersonation of the

characters of animation, games or comics. The Itasha

event includes decorating cars with characters.

The number of participants of TMAF is 7,000

participants in 2010, to 13,000 participants in 2011.

In 2012, over 30,000 participants participates

TMAF and become one of the biggest events of

Toyako Area.

<Figure 3> Toyako Manga Anime Festa 2011

The features of TMAF are that the events do not

have fixed themes. Although the organizers prepare

the basic outline, the progression of the overall story

and character of the place is decided by the

participants, such as the costumes, who fits a given

character best and what to do. Thus, the characteristic

of the place (Toyako) is changing each year.

It is outstanding difference to other resources of

Toyako. Even if, it has a characteristic of hot

authenticity in No.9 location tourism, basic meaning

of places is fixed. However, In case of TMAF, fans,

in other words tourists make a meaning of place

every year. It is not fixed but liquid. These

communications lead to the interpretation of place,

which is combined with the character of the place.

At the first TMAF in 2010, there were many

Layars who enacted the anime character Gintama

(Silver Soul), a hero who has a sword with the

Toyako letters written on it. In 2011, there were still

many Layars who enacted Gintama along with

many Layars of other prominent anime characters

from 2011. After all, the meaning of a place on

TMAF is decided with the character of the place

and combined with communication over the Internet

network, which can be it is variable and irregular.


Place can be the basis and source of tagging as a

result of communication over the network.

In other words, TMAF is becoming an event for

authenticate to the region by various performance.

Since 2011, it has become more and more participation

of residents who did not have an interest in the

event raised. Not only external authentication, internal

hot authentication is progressing.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that these types of

performances are based on communication through

an Internet network. For example, Layars (Cosplay

players) participate in a specific net community

about Cosplay and communicate about their TMAF

costumes. Communication between organizers and

participants also occurs using the Internet. Not only

as a communication tools between organizers and

participants, Internet network functions as tying

Toyako and internet world. Similar as movie tourism

mentioned above, it is essential to take a picture of

Layars and upload it to blog or SNS (Figure 3).

SNS is one of the tools that make the nature of

the place in TMAF. Analysis of Twitter associated

with TMAF by the Twit analysis service Topsy is

as follows (Figure 4).

According to the result, hash tag #tmaf is the

most (3,129 tweets), ‘Manga Anime Festa’ (1,638),

‘Toyako’ (1,179), and ‘Toyako Manga Anime Festa’

(819) follow it. Characteristic of tweets related

TMAF is that are temporary especially in the period

of TMAF except the keyword ‘Toyako’. It means

TMAF has a meaning only in a limited period; thus

it is liquid use of place.

<Figure 4> Toyako Manga Anime Festa 2010

TERM Tweets Influential Momentum Acceleration Peak Activity

#tmaf 3,129 (367) 11.7% 2,716 87 Jun, 2012

マンガㆍアニメフェスタ(Ma

nga Anime Festa)2,357 (259) 11.0% 1,638 69 Jun, 2012

洞爺湖(Toyako) 1,763 (106) 6.0% 1,179 67 Aug, 2012

洞爺湖マンガㆍアニメフェスタ(

Toyako Manga Anime Festa)1,142 (157) 13.7% 819 72 Jun, 2012

Overall Activity 8,391 (889) 10.6% 6,360 76 Jun, 2012

<Table 4> Analysis of TMAF Related Twitter (Based on Topsy Labs INC.)

22 Kyungjae Jang

By the participants of TMAF, Toyako is a

transparent area. Participants grasp the feature of

place and make their own meaning through the

TMAF. They write that meang to internet space

such as a blog and create image of that year of

Toyako by TMAF on the SNS

Conclusion

In this paper, characteristics of plural using of

place and new tourism are examined through the

TMAF. The authenticity of the tourist experience is

gradually changed from solid modernity to liquid

postmodern based on media and ICTs. Furthermore,

it became possible multi authentication of one place

and its multi use due to the development of the

media and ICTs. Not only nation-state, small group

can make their own meaning to touristic destination.

TMAF shows the way of multi use of regional

resources from the national park by nation-state to

movie by media, even to a small group culture.

Especially, TMAF emphasizes a role of tourists to

making authenticity of place nowadays and role of

SNS that made it possible to multilayered visualization

of meaning of place.

It is essential themes to discuss cultural tourism

to transformation of modernity and cultural tourism

resources with media and ICTs. However, there is

a little research, so this paper is meaningful propose

experimental form of new cultural tourism. Nevertheless,

this paper has limitations obviously.

First, it needs to analyze fluid certification or hot

authentication of region. Image based on TMAF

formed on the day of the event, and the event ends

and disappear at the same time. What this means

to the region and tourist, and what characteristics

of image that of created by TMAF are need to be

analyzed. Because, it is uncertain that image created

by TMAF is a real image of the region or just a

temporal image of the festival as previously.

Second is a role of residents. From the 2011,

participate of residents which not included in

organize committee have been gradually increasing.

It is necessary to examine because participate of

residents concern with authentication of region.

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Submitted: July 12, 2012

Final Revision Submitted: September 02, 2012



Community Based Heritage Tourism(CBHT)－A Key Success Factor for Cultural Heritage Conservation or Threat?－

－A Case Study of Phuthai Villages in Northeast Thailand－

Jinnapas Pathumporn*3)

[ABSTRACT]

The aim of this study was to explore issues of

the authentic ethnic identity of the Phuthai people

in northeast Thailand and the success of their

tourism management by reference to physical

evidence, historical documents and comparative

study of five Phuthai villages in northeast Thailand

and one Phutai village in Savannakhet, Laos. The

research focused on the Phuthai as a major ethnic

group settled around the Phu Phan mountain range

in northeast Thailand. Their cultural heritage has

been retained and passed down through time,

especially in terms of the Phuthai ethnic identity as

Animist- Buddhist which had become imbued with

the influence of the Buddhism religion and Lan Xang

culture during the time of their sheltering from

Muang Thean or Sip Song Chu Tai in Vietnam to that

of Muang Vang Ang Kam in Laos since 1791. Even

though they had sheltered from Laos to northeast

Siam on many occasions between 1824-1844 as the

largest human migration beyond the Mekong river,

they could still retain their beliefs, culture and

patterns of everyday life as Animist-Buddhist due

to the fact that these significant movements were

based on their ethnic pride and the prestige of their

social status. These became aspects of their interesting

cultural heritage for outsiders and inspired many

organizations to assist them in developing the

community based heritage tourism now found in

many villages of four provinces: Kalasin, Sakon

Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan. Their

tourism programs and the activities offered to visitors

are patterned around products such as Palang

dinners, cultural shows and home-stay accommodation.

Moreover, the existing tourism management has

* Lecturer at Khon Kaen University Ph.D. in Architectural Heritage Management and Tourism (International Program) Silpakorn

University, Thailand



26 Jinnapas Pathumporn

brought them socio-cultural impacts such as economic

conflict, changes to their culture and lifestyle and

diminution in their locality pride. Therefore, a

conclusion is that the current community-based

heritage tourism revealed in the case studies

indicates essential threats to cultural heritage

conservation. However, the best practice for turning

the threat back to a key success factor is to become

concentrated on real cooperation, participation and

integration between the local people and their

supporters for preparing a contextualized and customized

cultural heritage conservation and tourism development

plan particular for each specific place and engaging

the local communities to participate in each development

process. This must start from the knowledge-

providing step, then deal with planning, decision

making, implementation, the gaining of economic

advantage and well-being, and then, finally, evaluating

the outcomes.

Key Words : Community Based Heritage Tourism,

Cultural Tourism, Phuthai, Phu Tai, Key Success

Factor, Cultural Heritage Conservation

Introduction

Heritage tourism or cultural heritage tourism is

an important issue for visitors as an alternative

tourism form for responsible tourists and can be

used as a means for safeguarding heritage significance

and creating socio-economic benefits for the local

communities where heritage occurs. This type of

tourism links tourism and cultural heritage. The

National Trust for Historic Preservation (2008)

provides the following definition:

“Cultural heritage tourism is traveling to

experience the places, artifacts and activities that

authentically represent the stories and people of

the past and present.”

Even though heritage tourism can be a key concept

for protecting cultural heritage, it also affects the

particular life of local residents in the host

communities, especially their society and culture.

This is the case with tourism management in a

Phuthai tourism village in northeastern Thailand

which this study is examining.

Thenceforth, this research aims to study ways to

balance tourism development and cultural heritage

conservation of the Phuthai tourism village of Ban

Pao village, Mukdahan province, using the concept

of sustainable community based heritage tourism

management as a key success factor for preserving

their Phuthai ethnic identity, cultural heritage significance

and authenticity; also for providing long-term economic

benefits to stakeholders; supporting local residents’

quality of life; and being a model of sustainable

tourism management, through appropriate interpretation

and utilization of valuable resources, for other

heritage sites.

Research Methodology

The research is based on relevant historical

documentary and physical evidence together with

comparative analysis of Ban Pao village with five

other case studies within Thailand and Laos, which

have also experienced heritage tourism: Ban Phu,

Ban Renu, Ban Khok Kong, Ban Non Hom in

Thailand and Ban Muang Luang in Laos. The

related documents reviewed are concentrated on the

Community Based Heritage Tourism (CBHT) 27

history of Thailand, Laos, and Thai I-san; the

myths of Muang Thaen and Khun Borom, Muang

Vang Ang Kam, including written and oral histories

about Poo Taa ancestor spirits in those sites.

Primary data were gathered: by fieldtrips; in-depth

interviews with key informants and local residents

in the six villages; and participant observations on

tourism activities, the Phuthai animist-worship, and

Buddhist religious activities. All of the primary and

secondary information collected are compared based

on four criteria, which relate to the Phuthai ethnic

identity, their Animist-Buddhist religion, changes of

the Phuthai ethnic identity, and community uniqueness

and tourism development of each site. These comparisons

are directed to establishing their ethnic authenticity

and heritage values; and finding out whether they

have experienced any socio-cultural impacts from

their tourism development, which can be seen as

either a threat or a key success factor of cultural

heritage conservation and community based heritage

tourism (CBHT) within the sites; thence proposing

key success factor(s) of a sustainable CBHT management

plan for Ban Pao and other heritage sites.

Research Results

1. Who are the Phuthai?

The Phuthai are one of two major ethnic groups,

which are (1) the Tai Kuey or Suay, speaking the

Mon-Khmer language and (2) the Tai Yhor, Tai

Saek, Tai Lao, and Phuthai people speaking the

Tai-Lao language, who settled down in the northeast

region of Thailand. They are of the same lineage

with the Black Tais in Sip Song Chu Tai as well

as the Phu Tai in Muang Vang (currently in

Savannakhet, Laos) and Thai Song Dam in Phet

Buri (Thailand), all of whom are of an ethnic group

in the Tai-Kadai language family, originating at

Dien Bien Phu (in Northwestern Vietnam) which

was the center of Muang Thean or Sip Song Chu

Tai territory or the Twelve Tai Chiefs comprising

Phong Tho, Lai Chau, Dien Bien Phu, Thuan Chau,

Son La, Mai Son, Yen Chau, Moc Chau, Tuan Giao,

Phu Yen, Nghia Lo, and Than Uyen and currently

dispersed in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

According to the study results, it was found that

although they all are of the same lineage, because

of their various migrating routes and the reasons

and conditions affecting their migrations, also different

social statuses and residential environments and the

different religious influences in which they have

been imbued in each historical period during

731-1893, critical differences have emerged between

the various groups.

Source: Jinnapas Pathumporn, 2011

<Figure 1> Historical Time Line of the

Phuthai Ethnic Identity Imbuement

The Black Tai, as the origin of them all, domiciles

at Muang Thean (or Muang Thanh city of Dien Bien

Phu district, Dien Bien province in Northwestern

Vietnam), which was the center of Sip Song Chu

Tai territory, built by Khun Borom in 731 and represented

in the first historical phase in the time line of Figure 1.


The distinctiveness of Black Tai society and

culture has been presented through their own

writing and speaking language, also their unique

dressing style that is always black and has become

a part of their name in the present day. Their settled

locations are on low plains surrounded with mountain

ranges and rivers, which are found wherever they

have inhabited because of their strong relationship

with their hometown, as Sip Song Chu Tai is

located between the Black and the Red Rivers.

Hence sometimes they were called Phu Tai or Hill

Tribes. Rice farming, their original occupation, was

based on those locations.

Besides that, the Black Tai also believe in ghosts

and their ancestor spirits. Therefore, this belief has

had an influence on their way of life for a long time

such as in a feudal social system, spirit ritual and

architectural style. For example, the Black Tai

respect feudalism in their social system and clearly

separate the aristocracies from lower classes even

in death, according to the observations of Frank M.

Lebar et al. (1964), to the effect that:

“the Black Tai believe that each human has

32 souls which leave the body after death. Some

go ‘beyond the sky’, while others remain on the

altar of the ancestors. Black Tai social stratification

extends to their concept of the afterlife.”

The Black Tai in Sip Song Chu Tai have a strong

ethnic sense; however, they have had weak political

power which has been the reason for their status as

a dependency variously of China, Vietnam, Luang

Phrabang, Thailand, and France. Finally, they were

brought together to be a part of Vietnam. Due to the

wars and problems of water-shortage, some of

them decided to move from Sip Song Chu Tai to the

southern region such as to Laos and Thailand (See

Figures 2 and 3), which became significant to their

ethnic identity in the second historical phase.

Since 1699, the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Laos,

a big and strong kingdom of ancient Indochina, had

been disunited to become two lesser kingdoms, Lan

Xang-Luang Phrabang and Lan Xang-Vientiane.

The boundary of the Kingdom of Luang Phrabang

in northern Laos covered Muang Houaphan (or Xam

Nua of Laos) and Sip Song Chu Tai (or Muang Thanh

of Dien Bien Phu of Vietnam), while Vientiane administrated

Muang Phuan (or Muang Xieng Khouang of Laos)

and southern Laos. Until 1713, a third kingdom of

Laos had occurred in the southern region, which

was Champasak. Finally, in 1779, all three kingdoms

of Laos, including their colonies, became dependent

on the Kingdom of Thonburi (Siam or Thailand)

under the control of King Taksin (1767-1782) (See

Figure 2: Map of the Kingdom of Siam after 1767).

In this time the Black Tai’s migrations were

separated into two routes.

1) The first migrating route occurred in 1779,

when the Black Tai people of Sip Song Chu

Tai and populations of Lan Xang and its

colonies were forcibly moved to Siam (Thailand)

as captives and refugees from wars, following

King Taksin’s victory over Lan Xang. The

Black Tai were sent to settle in Phet Buri

Province due to the fact that the geography of

Phet Buri looks like Sip Song Chu Tai and it

was near the Royal Palace. Here, they were

called ‘Thai Song Dam’ by the Siamese,

according to their unique dressing style which

was always in black, and confined to be

laborers of food and weaponry in Tha Rang

area (in Ban Lhaem district), which was their

first settlement in Thailand.


(Source: Simulation, Vongthet, Sujit. Historic Maps

of Thailand (Siam). MathichonPakkred, 2007: 47.)

<Figure 2> (Left): Map of the Kingdom of

Siam after 1767

(Source: Simulation, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

middle_east_and_asia/laos_pol_2003.jpg,)

<Figure 3> (Right): Map of the Phuthais’ Migration Route

2) The second movement, in 1791, was along the

sheltering route from Muang Thean to be

under the rule of the Lao King in Muang Vang

(currently in Vilabuly district, Savannakhet

province, Laos). This movement was from their

own decision, lead by Tao Ka, to escape from

the Yunnanese invasions and the problems of

water-shortage. This Black Tai group was

called Phu Tai or Tai Phu, which mean hill

tribes, related to their hillside settlement location,

whereas they called themselves Phu Tai which

means Tai people. Moreover, their leader (Tao

Ka) also was promoted as the governor and

had an arranged marriage with a Lao lady:

therefore, their social status was different from

the first groups. They have had a positive

relationship with other ethnic groups and

minds were opened to them more easily, especially

with the Lao people. Thenceforth, Lan Xang

culture and Buddhism religion have been slowly

infused into their animist life and changed to

become an Animist-Buddhist worldview, finally.

(Source: Tribal Textiles Info. Black Tai. Available

at http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Black_

Thai.htm,)

<Figure 4> (Left): The Black Tai in

MuangThean or Dien Bien Phu


<Figure 5> (Right): Thai Song Dam

in Phet Buri Province of Thailand

(Photograph 26.12.2007)

<Figure 6> (Left): The Phu Tais in

Muang Vang, Laos (Photograph 28.11.2011)

<Figure 7> (Right): The Phuthai in Ban

Pao, Mukdahan Province, Thailand

(Photograph: 23.02.2009)

Once again, the third movement occurred during

1824-1893 from Muang Vang in Laos to northeast

Siam, while the most significant event was during

1826-1844, which was the largest human movement

beyond the Mekong River in the history of Siam

(Thailand) and Laos and followed the successful

campaign of King Rama III (the Siamese King)

against the rebellion of King Anuvong of Laos. The

Phu Tai (the Black Tai who were settled in Laos)

were persuaded and allowed to establish their own

towns in the northeast region of Siam, dispersing

around the Phu Phan mountain range which covers

the area of four provinces: Nakhon Phanom,

Mukdahan, Kalasin and Sakon Nakhon (See Figure

8). Here, even though they were called Phuthai or

tribal Tais in the Thai meaning, they proudly declared

that, in their meaning, ‘Phuthai’ were Tai or Thai

people, which became the basis of arguments about

the real meaning of the term of ‘Phuthai’. However,

for the Phuthai themselves, they confirmed that

‘Phuthai’ means ‘the Tai people who live in Thailand’.

(Source: Simulation, Vongthet, Sujit. Historic Maps of

Thailand (Siam).NonthaBuri: MathichonPakkred, 2007:

51.)

<Figure 8> Map of the Phuthais’ Settlement in

Northeast Thailand


2. Significant Phuthai Ethnic Identities

1) Hillside Residential Geography

The historical record states that Tao Ka led some

of the Black Tai people of Sip Song Chu Tai to

escape to Lan Xang-Vientiane in 1791 due to the

problems of the Yunnanese invasions and water-shortage.

In that time Tao Ka and the Black Tais were allowed

to settle in Muang Vang where the geography was

similar to that of Sip Song Chu Tai with which they

were familiar, and where a hillside area isv surrounded

with mountains and water sources as in the Figure

9: Geography of Dien Bien Phu.

(Source: Simulation, http://maps.google.com)

<Figure 9> Geography of Dien Bien Phu

After that they needed to move again, to northeast

Siam due to two significant events: the sedition in

Muang Vang around 1824 (some sources stated that

it was from Yunnanese invasions); and the serious

campaign between King Rama III, the Siamese

King, and King Anuvong, the Lao King, during

1826-1844. Even though King Anuvong was arrested

on the 21st December 1828 and was about to be sent

to Bangkok for punishment but died 7-8 days after

his capture (Thongsavangrat, 1986), nevertheless

the human movements from Laos to the northeast

of Siam still went on until 1844. In this migration

period there was both persuasion and offering of

potential habitations. The landscape they selected

was also the same as that of their previous

settlement in Muang Vang and in Sip Song Chu Tai,

namely a hillside landscape near natural water

sources around the Phu Phan mountain range. This

type of their residential landscape is not only

because of familiarity but is also related to their

beliefs and relationship with their origin.

(Source: Simulation, http://maps.google.com)

<Figure 10> Residential Area of the Phu Tais in

Laos and the Phuthais in Thailand

(Source: Lo-hitkhul, Thirapab. Tai in Southeast

Asia. Bangkok: Manager, 1995: 76)

<Figure 11> (Left): Black Tai’s Habitat in

MuangThean or Dien Bien Phu


(Source: Jinnapas Pathumporn, 2011)

<Figure 16> Buddhist Temples in the

Phuthai Villages

<Figure 12> (Right): Vilabuly District, Savannakhet

Province, Laos (Photograph 28.11.2011)

<Figure 13> (Left): Khamcha-I District, Mukdahan

Province, Thailand (Photograph: 14.07.2011)

<Figure 14> (Right): Ban Pao Village, Nong

Sung District, Mukdahan Province

(Photograph: 14.07.2011)

2) Animist-Buddhist

According to the comparative analysis between

Muang Vang-Muang Vay (Renu Nakhon, Nakhon

Phanom province, Thailand) and all other Phuthai

villages found, all of them are Animist-Buddhist as

represented through their beliefs, animist-worship,

and the shrines of Poo Taa spirit in every Phu Tai

and Phuthai village. The new Phuthai generations

still trust and respect their ancestor spirits as

recounted from generation to generation with no

doubt in the fact of their Poo Taa.


<Figure 15> Shrines of Poo Taa

Spirit of the Phuthais

At the same time, all Phu Tai and Phuthai villagers

also display respect in the Lord Buddha and retain

the ‘Heet Sip Song’, the Buddhist twelve-month

ceremonies, the same as Laotian and Thai I-san


people. However, it is also found that their Buddhist

religious activities and other normal activities, such

as praying in temples or making merit and virtue,

differed from Thai I-san people who always cerebrate

as a bigger festival.

3) Peaceful Everyday-life and Ethnic Pride in

their ‘Phuthainess’

Almost all of the Phuthai and the Phu Tai villages

are agricultural and participate as a handicraft

society. Their everyday activities are silk or cotton

weaving and crafting for their personal use and for

sales. Only in Ban Renu (well-known as the capital

of the Phuthai towns), which is a growing community,

has their everyday life changed to become more that

of a commercial community instead of focusing on

farming.

All of the Phu Tai and Phuthai villagers are so

proud in their ethnicity as can be noticed from their

name as ‘Phu Tai’ or ‘Phu Thai’, which they confirmed

to mean ‘Tai or Thai people’. Although, some sources

had argument about the real meaning of the ‘Phu’,

whether it means ‘Hill’ or not, they explained that

it is because of different pronunciations between

them and the Thai I-san. Therefore, other people

can misunderstand the meaning.

All of the Phuthai people are from the same blood

families, which are represented by their family name

such as the family of Nong Sung people which is

Klangprapan (from Chao Chanchompoo Klangprapan’s

family) or Ajvichai (from Chao Chaiyasit Ajvichai’s

family); and the family of Renu Nakhon people is

Kaewmaneechai (from Phra Kaewkomol or Tao

Sai’s family).

The Phuthai communities in northeast Thailand

are open-communities, while the Phu Tai communities

in Savannakhet of Laos are closed-communities due

to the fact that Thailand is more modernized and

easier for social communication than Laos. In the

other hand, this can account for a threat to their

traditional life, culture, and social relationship retention

such as in the case of Renu Nakhon.


<Figure 17> Silk-Weaving Lifestyle

4) Phuthai Language

Due to the history of the Phuthais’ movement

from various towns in Laos, there are different

accents in their Phuthai speaking language. Referring

to the in-depth interviews with local people in the

study sites, it was found that they normally

separate their origins by the groupings from their

residential area such as:

- The Phu Tai people in Muang Vang are called

the Phuthai in Thailand, as Phuthai Muang Vay

(Renu Nakhon) or Phuthai Muang Muk (Mukdahan

province);

- The Phuthai villagers in Ban Non Hom are

called Phuthai Katak (that is, those who moved

from Muang Katak or Phabang, currently in

Khammouan province, Laos) and are called the

Phuthai in other villages such as Phuthai Vang

(who migrated from Muang Vang and its vicinities).


All of these Phu Tai and Phuthai groups use the

same speaking language and have no writing

language. But the accent of the Phuthai Katak is

louder and shorter than Phuthai Vang’s, which is

softer and longer with the voice dragging. However,

it is very hard for other people to separate their

different accents.

(Source: Simulation, ThinkNet Software by Jinnapas

Pathumporn, 2011)

<Figure 18> Various Phuthai Groups Separation

3. Threats from the Existing Tourism Management System

The study results have indicated that the Phuthai

people in Ban Pao and other villages surrounded by

the Phu Phan mountain range are of the same

ethnicity with the Phu Tais in Muang Vang of Laos.

This minority group can be seen as representing a

unique ethnicity which has been imbued by the Lan

Xang culture and Buddhist influence for almost 220

years, as the present Animist-Buddhist Phuthai.

Moreover, the route of their movement is also

historical evidence of great, significant events that

have affected their life in each historical phase,

especially in the ways of their immigrating to Siam

in 1824 which represented the establishing of the

second Phuthai capital called Muang Vang Vay,

with the twin town of Muang Vang in Laos. Especially

significant was their movement at the ‘persuasion’

of the Siamese King during the campaign of King

Anuvong in 1826, by which they could retain their

ethnic pride and social status to stand now as an

indicator of the regional history of the largest

human movement beyond the Mekhong River.

Furthermore, their residential geography is also

representing their strong relationship with their

historical hometown in Sip Song Chu Tai, which is

typically a hillside area surrounded with mountains

and water sources, and also with their original belief

of habitation selecting and worshiping.

As regards to the beginning of this new unique

ethnic identity based on their origin and on their

pride in their myths and their strong relationship

with their historical hometown, it is this potentially

valuable heritage which should be conserved and

passed down to the next generation as well as its

potential for tourism development, which can be an

effective tool for interpreting their cultural significance

and gaining socio-economic benefit under the conditions

of sustainability.

However, at the current stage of the heritage

tourism villages in northeast Thailand, community-

based tourism management is likely to be leading

them to changes and socio-cultural impacts such as

change of culture and lifestyle, diminishing local

pride, causes of future conflict, and social relationships

that are retreating. In Ban Pao Phuthai village, for

example: outside organizations, which are principally

Tourism Authority of Thailand and Mukdahan

Tourism Industry Association, invited the villagers

to promote their community to be a conservation

tourism village. Their tourism village had been

popular for a short time and then declined due to the

fact that they were not ready for the development

without an adequate knowledge base. The second


supporter organisation, which is the Department of

Agricultural Extension, was established the year

after. This department helps them to redevelop their

village and the landscape by changing from conservation

tourism to agro-tourism, including Phuthai culture

and handicrafts, with the budget supporting such

activity, knowledge provision and a training

program. Therefore, the villages pay all attention to

this tourism development.

Tourism activities, which they offered to all types

of tourists, included visiting their sufficiency career

groups, like mushroom planting, a rice mill, a cricket

farm and hand towel doll group, enjoying the

scenery and the natural attractions at Phu Pha Khao

mountain and to have Palang dinners with Phuthai

cultural shows, which are not what cultural tourists

need. Therefore, the type and purpose of visiting

Ban Pao village are changed to field trip visiting.

Due to the fact that their Phuthai culture is not

interpreted in the right way, there are a lot of

change to their cultural heritage, related to tourism

impacts, such as the meaning of their rituals,

change of culture and lifestyle, and loss of pride in

their locale. There are also signs of social relationship

breakdown and the threat of future conflict. The

beginning of all the problems is coming from the

mis-direction of the development plan, which does

not concern itself with the authentic cultural

heritage and its utilization, and from the inconsistent,

poorly directed and discontinuous activity of the

supporting organizations themselves, which are the

significant threats to sustainable tourism development

and conservation.

Similarly, the beginning of tourism development

in the other four tourism villages is quite similar. It

has been started from outside organizations that

planned to utilize the diversity and interesting

aspects of their cultural resources. However, it can

be found that the Phuthai villages are not succeeding

in their tourism development, in part due to their

quiet atmosphere and their same-pattern of cultural

activities offered to tourists. Furthermore, the

support offered to their tourism development is a

considerable issue due to the fact that three of the

five villages were supported by the Community

Development Department (CDD), while Ban Pao

village is supported by the Department of Agricultural

Extention and Phuthai Renu is not promoted as

cultural tourism village although it is well-known

as the central Phutai town.

Referring to the National Trust definition about

‘cultural heritage tourism’, that it is travelling to

experience the places, artifacts and activities that

authentically represent the stories and people of the

past and the present, the question of whether the

current tourism management in the Phuthai cultural

tourism villages in Thailand can reach this goal

needs to be considered.

For the existing tourism management of Ban Pao

and other four tourism villages in northeast Thailand,

it was found that they have adopted a wrong way

of cultural significance interpretation and an inappropriate

tourism management, which are the causes of

socio-cultural impacts from tourism management

such as loss of pride in one’s locale and serious

economic conflict within and outside the community.

Regarding the study results, the problems faced

by tourism development and cultural heritage

conservation in the sites are because of inappropriate

utilization of their valuable authentic heritage

resources; there are wrong ways interpretation of

the cultural significance of the places; there is no

effective tourism development plan; nor is there

readiness for tourism development; knowledge is


lacking in the supporting organizations; there are

different goals and development policies of each

supporting organization; there is wrong target

tourist selecting; no cooperation and participation

from local people is in evidence; and there is

competition rather than cooperation between the

tourism villages.

4. Key Success Factor of a Sustainable CBHT Management Plan

The conclusion from the study is that the present

pattern of management plan and tourism product are

threats to sustainable community based heritage

tourism. Hence, the key solution for sustaining the

CBHT sites and turning back the present threat is

a plan concentrated on the real cooperation, participation

and integration between the six groups of stakeholders:

cultural heritage and natural resources (the people

themselves), local communities, tourists, site managers

or conservationists, the tourism business sector and

the government sector.

As the key players, they should all focus on:

development of tourism products from the potential

authentic identity and culturally significant aspects

of the people; local community participation; targeting

of the right tourism groups; site managers’ or

conservationists’ involvement; sharing of marketing

ideas with the tourism business sector; and working

as an integrated network with the government

sector. Consequently, the stakeholders are needed to

equally weigh three significant P’s: People, Planning

and Process as follow:

1. People: The decision-makers of the tourism

development plan should engage all stakeholders to

participate in the decision-making step and all other

following steps. Moreover, the government sector

also should train and truly empower the local people

in this step of participation. The top level decision-

makers should provide more correct knowledge and

training programs about cultural heritage conservation

and tourism development for the sustainable planning

and implementation of the program. Furthermore,

the government sector should engage the powerful

private sector to become integrated into the community

development plan with economic development as a

goal.

2. Planning: The planning step should be based

on local communities’ participation in creating integrated

plans for cultural heritage protection planning, a

sustainable tourism development plan and a tourism

marketing plan. These will come from networking

and will be developed as contextualized and customized

plans particular for specific sites.

3. Process: The implementation of these three

development plans should be knowledge-based,

appropriate in their utilization and with all stakeholders

participating in their evaluation.

Finally, the research results indicate that the best

practice for turning the threat back to a key success

factor is to concentrate on real cooperation, participation

and integration between the local people and their

supporters for preparing a contextualized and customized

cultural heritage conservation and tourism development

plan particular for each specific place and engaging

the local communities to participate in each

development process, starting from the knowledge-

providing step, thence the planning, decision making,

implementation, the gaining of economic advantage

and well-being and then, lastly, evaluating the

outcomes.


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Submitted: August 13, 2012




Visitor Motivation, Expectation and

Satisfaction of Local Cultural Event in Sabah－A Case Study Of Tamu Besar Kota Belud－

Juliana Langgat, Kamarul Mizal Marzuki, Noor Fzlinda Fabeil, Mohd. Irwan Dahnil*

4)

[ABSTRACT]

Local cultural events have been one of the most

important components of tourism nowadays. This

event seen as an instrument for tourism development

and can be part of tourism destination marketing.

The result of having the events can be seen from

economic, sociocultural, local businesses and political

dimensions. The effectiveness of organising such

event can be evaluated from the perspective of the

visitor and tourist. The purpose of this study is to

investigate various expectations and satisfactory of

visitor of cultural events and activities organised.

Moreover, this study also evaluate the visitors’

satisfactory towards the facilities that was provided

during the event as well as the activities organised.

The analysis utilised a sample collected during

Tamu Besar Kota Belud, Sabah involving 141

respondents with self-administered survey. The

result of the study reveals that the main motivation

of the visitor to participate is to experience the

cultural event. In general, the event has met the

visitor expectation and they are satisfied of the

facilities and activities provided during the event.

The findings of this study will be used to assist the

cultural event organiser to enhance the visitor’s

experiences towards staging the cultural event.

Key Words : Motivation, Expectation, Satisfaction,

Cultural Event

Introduction

In recent years, the number of events has grown

rapidly and an industry around events has evolved

and received increasing attention by researchers.

There is a growing stream of academic research

* School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan Ums, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia



40 Juliana LanggatㆍKamarul Mizal MarzukiㆍNoor Fzlinda FabeilㆍMohd. Irwan Dahnil

focusing on the motivations of participants. Previous

studies has been agreed that understanding motivations,

expectation and satisfaction of visitors will lead for

better planning, marketing and promotion of festivals

or events. Likewise, special events from the visitor’s

perspective provide opportunities for leisure, social

and cultural experiences outside the normal range of

choices or beyond everyday experience (Getz, 1991)

Malaysia has several colourful and attractive

events and festival that attracting participant from

local and international visitors. Recently, events

have become a key element in the tourism development

strategies of many destinations including Malaysia.

In Malaysia, festival or event is one important

strategic area as outlined in the Economic

Transformation Program: A Roadmap for Malaysia

(2010). The plan highlights the need to encourage

and target more international events.

In Sabah (Malaysia) cultural event with a tourism

interest include the Lepa-Lepa Regatta, the Pesta

Kaamatan, Pesta Gabus, the Kota Belud Tamu

Besar and etc. There are also a host of smaller and

more localised exhibitions and shows promoted and

organised by Sabah Tourism Board, Sabah Cultural

Board, District Office and other relevant agencies.

Where possible and appropriate, some festivals and

cultural event have been packaged into tourism

products in order to market Sabah, achieved media

coverage, and increase visitor arrivals. Staging the

event has been primarily successful in attracting

Sabahan visitors and satisfying local and some

domestic tourism needs.

Literature Review

Cultural tourism is described as peoples’ movements

for essentially cultural motivations, which include study

tours, performing arts, cultural tours, travels to

festivals, visits to historic sites and monuments, folk

lore and pilgrimage (World Tourism Organisation,

1985). Events can be defined as experiences that are

unique, as they have the ability to create time and

space to convey specific objectives for a specific

audience (Gonzalez & Morales, 2009).

Globally, tourist destinations are developing and

promoting the cultural event as a means of attracting

and enhancing visitor experience. The cultural event

is being used as a tool or instrument to boost local

economy and has the potential to aid in the seasonal

and geographical spread of tourism (Long and

Perdue, 1990).Festivals and cultural events are

regards as an important element in the marketing

of cultural tourism. The event has capacity to

enhance visitation level ince it offer a concentrated

and often unique experience, provide an additional

reason for visitors to visit a particular location.

Through the event, it can provide enjoyable ‘things

to do’ for visitors, allow informal and rewarding

contact with the local population and allow tourists

to discover new cultural experiences. According to

Getz (1991), festivals and events regards as a new

wave of alternative tourism which significantly

contributes to sustainable development and improves

the relationship between host and guest.

Bachleitner and Zins (1992) reveals that by

organising a cultural event, it can enhance local

community learning, awareness appreciation of

community pride, ethnic identity, tolerance of others

and brings about the opening of small and medium

sized family enterprises. Moreover, cultural events

Visitor Motivation, Expectation and Satisfaction of Local Cultural Event in Sabah 41

also can foster cross-cultural communication that

can promote understanding between the host and

the guest (Sdrali and Chazapi, 2007).

Many researchers concludes that a majority of

the festival and event motivation studies have been

conducted under the theoretical framework of travel

motivation research (Backman, Backman, Uysal, &

Sunshine, 1995; Getz, 1991; Nicholson & Pearce,

2001; Scott, 1996), which has been conceptually grounded

on both the seeking-escape dichotomy (Iso-Ahola,

1980, 1982; Mannell & Iso-Ahola, 1987), and push-pull

model (Dann, 1977; 1981; Crompton, 1979).

A motive identifies as an internal factor that

arouses, directs and integrates a person’s behavior

(Iso-Ahola, 1980). In the context of cultural event

or festival, a decision made to visit in an event is

a directed action which is stimulated by a desire to

meet a need. Motives can be regarded as starting

point that launches the decision process to visit a

destination or participate in an event. Furthermore,

motivation is a state of need, a condition that serves

as a driving force to display different kinds of

behavior toward certain types of activities, developing

preferences, arriving at some expected satisfactory

outcome (Backman et al, 1995). In the context of

event, Getz (1991) concludes that the basic needs

met by events can be categorised into three categories

which are physical, interpersonal or social and

personal. The categories was identified heavily

influence by Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy need.

Crompton & McKay (1997) identifies the three

reasons for better understanding regarding the

motives of cultural event visitors. They believed

that studying festival or event motivation is a key

to designing offerings for event attendees, a way to

monitor satisfaction, and a tool for understanding

attendees’ decision-making processes. Getz (1993)

also outlines the importance of analysing visitors’

motives for attending festivals and events and

understanding of visitor motivation is an approach

that can be used for planning event programs

effectively and marketing them to visitors (Crompton

& McKay, 1997). For the organiser and event

manager, the analysis of visitor can helps them to

better position of their events (Scott, 1996).

Previous study by Lee et al (2004) outlines that

socialization, event novelty, escape, excitement, and

family togetherness are the top five motivators. Them

also concluded that attendee’s motivations to attend

the event can be different according to visitor’s

demographic profiles, types of event, frequency of visit,

resident status as well as nationality. Similar to the

categories outlined by Getz (1991), McDonnell et al.

(1999 proposed the four main groups which are social

motives, organisational motives, physiological motives

and personal motives as shown in Figure 1 below.

Previous research revealed that customer satisfaction

is an important theoretical as well as practical issue

that could be considered by an event organizer.

Customer satisfaction is regarded as a marketing

and promotional tool to attract the most variable

segments of the market. According to Kozak and

Rimmimgton (2000), satisfaction is important consideration

to successful destination marketing (Philip and

Hezlett, 1996) by recognising the fact that customer

satisfaction influence the choice of destination, the

consumption of products and services and the

decision to return (customer loyalty). One of the few

studies on satisfaction in the events was by

Gandhi-Arora and Shaw (2000), focused specifically

on the relationship between loyalty, satisfaction as

well as novelty seeking behaviour in a special

events or festivals context. The findings also indicated

that there was a modest relationship between


satisfaction with special events and their intentions

to attend special events in the future.

Source: Adapted from McDonnell et al. (1999)

<Figure 1> Motives for Attending an Event

Methods

Research Context: Tamu Besar Kota Belud

Kota Belud a small town in Sabah, Malaysia was

chosen as contextual setting as the Tamu Besar

event is a yearly event organised in this particular

district. Once a year, Kota Belud hosts the Tamu

Besar where people flock to this quaint district to

join in the festivities. Tamu Besar-which means

Big Market-is literally the biggest tamu organised

throughout Sabah. Tamu Besar Kota Belud gives

visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in

Kota Belud’s immensely diverse culture. The main

highlights of the event are the Bajau Horsemen

(fondly known as the ‘Cowboys of the East’) parade,

Ratu Sarimpak beauty pageant and water buffalo

race. Moreover, visitors should seize this grand

occasion to stockpile on home wares and food

produce as vendors, farmers, and fishermen will

have their best merchandizes to offer here. The

event also highlights the colourful cultures of Kota

Belud district. Throughout this event, the younger

generation of Bajau will get in touch with their

age-old heritage as horsemen of the east. There will

also be a parade of ponies dressed in gorgeously

ornate costumes as well as an exuberant display of

riding skills by the Bajau horsemen.

<Figure 2> Location Map of Tamu Besar, Kota Belud


Sampling and Instrument

The intention of this study is to investigate

varies expectations and satisfactory of visitor of

Tamu Besar Kota Belud event in Sabah. Convenient

sampling were used by ensuring the information

obtained would based upon the visitors actual

experiences and a self-reported experienced through

questionnaire survey was chosen as mean of information

gathering. Taking into account in difference of

ethnics group’s profile and educational levels, the

questionnaires developed was simple and easy to

understand with minimum reading and writing. To

reduce any possible uncertainty in the questionnaire,

Bahasa Malaysia was used as language of the

instruments as the entire ethnics groups understand

this national language.

A quantitative approached were applied in order

to develop the questionnaire. The questionnaire is

divided into five major sections. Section A was

designed using nominal scales focuses on the

respondents’ demographic profile like gender, ethnicity,

age and hometown. Ten questions were used in

Section B in order to identify the visitors’ motivation

factors to visit the event and ten questions also

created in Section C which identifying the visitor’s

expectation towards the event. In looking on the

visitor’s satisfaction towards the facilities, twenty

questions were designed in Section D. Meanwhile,

ten questions in Section E were probed on how the

visitor’s satisfaction towards the activities that

being organised by the organiser. These four

sections require respondents to indicate their level

of agreement on six types Likert scales ranging

from zero (0) with “not applicable” to five (5) with

“strongly agree”.

Data Collection

The survey was conducted in one day at Tamu

Besar Kota Belud in November. The respondents

were approached conveniently. While answering the

questionnaire, each of the respondents was briefed

about the confidentiality and anonymity through the

information sheet attached with the questionnaire.

With the positive feedback and no obvious problems,

142 questionnaires were able to be collected. The

questionnaires were coded and keyed using Statistical

Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 19. The

reliability test (Cronbach’s Alpha) was undertaken

on Section B, C, D and E separately and result

showed that the instrument and items used was

reliable with coefficient alpha value at 0.63 for

section B, 0.67 for section C, 0.81 for section D and

0.72 for section E.

Result And Discussion

Respondent Profile

Table 1 summarises the socio-demographic and

travelling characteristic of respondents. Out of 141

respondents, 53.9 percent (n=76) were females as

opposed 46.1 percent (n=65) males. 39 percent

(n=55) were Bajau, 14.9 percent (n=21) were Dusun,

12.1 percent (n=17) were Kadazandusun, 5.7 percent

(n=8) were Rungus, 7 percent (n=1) were Murut and

27.7 percent (n=39) were others ethnicity.


Socio-demographic Characteristic Respondent (%) Travelling Characteristics Respondent (%)

Gender Visiting Companions

Male 46.1 Family and relatives 36.9

Female 53.9 Friends 29.8

Ethnicity Group tour 19.9

Bajau 39.0 Alone 5.7

Dusun 14.9 Couple/Spouse 7.1

Kadazandusun 12.1 Source of Information

Rungus 5.7 Banner 42.6

Murut 0.7 Poster 16.3

Others 27.7 Newspaper Advertisement 8.5

Age Tourist Guidebook 2.1

< 20 years old 14.9 Information centre 0.7

21-30 years old 55.3 Website 7.8

31-40 years old 13.5 Brochure 5.7

41-50 years old 11.3 Others 16.3

>50 years old 5.0 Mode of Travelling

Origin (Hometown) Walk 3.5

Kota Belud District 44.7 Car 77.3

Other District of Sabah 42.5 Motorcycle 2.8

Outside Sabah 12.8 Bus 16.3

Time Spent (Event)

Less than 30 minutes 8.5

30 minutes-1 hour 17.7

1 hour-2 hours 27.0

More than 2 hours 46.8

(N = 141)

<Table 1> Profile of Respondents

Samples also showed that 70.2 percent (n=99)

were below 30 years old, 13.6 percent (n=19) who

were between 31 and 40 years old, 11.3 percent

(n=16) were between 41 and 50 years old and 5

percent (n=70) were above 50 years old. The

proportion of the respondents showed that, 44.7

percent (n=63) were came from Kota Belud itself,

42.5 percent (n=60) were from others district of

Sabah and 12.8 percent (n=18) were from others

states in Malaysia.

A total of 43.9 percent (n=53) respondents were

visited this event with their family and relatives,

29.8 percent (n=42) were visited with their friends,

19.9 percent (n=28) were visited as a group tour and

12.8 percent (n=18) were visited with their couple

and alone.

The result also shows 42.6 percent (n=60) of the

respondents were knew about this event from the

banner that hung by the organiser, 16.3 percent

(n=23) were knew from the poster, 8.5 percent


(n=12) were knew from the newspaper advertisement

and 38.9 percent (n=58) were knew from the others

promotion tools such as website, brochure, tourist

guide book and information center. The analyses

showed the conventional promotion tools such as

banner were more effectives in promoting event

compare to the electronic promotion tools.

Majority of the respondents, 77.3 percent (n=109)

were using car to visit the event, 16.3 percent (n=23)

were using bus and 6.3 percent (n=90) were using

motorcycle and walked. During the visit, 46.8

percent (n=66) spent more than 2 hours at the event,

27 percent (n=38) were spent between 1 to 2 hours,

17.7 percent (n=25) were spent between 30 minutes

to 1 hour and 8.5 percent (n=12) were spent less

than 30 minutes.

Motivation Factors

From the descriptive statistics, the higher magnitude

of mean scores indicate the majority of the respondents

agreed that the attractive stalls are the main reason

for visiting the event (M = 4.24, item 1). The respondents

also agreed that the event planned usually are fun

and enjoyable (M = 4.14, items 2) and it is an annual

event that they usually visited (M = 4.14, items 3).

Furthermore, they are also agreed that they are

motivated by the tons of activities held by the

organiser that draw them to revisit the event again

(M = 4.12, items 4) and the event were held on the

weekend (M = 4.12, items 5). The respondents also

agreed that the event was fun and enjoyable (M =

4.10, items 6) and can lead to discovery of different

types of people and their behaviour (M = 4.08, items

7) as shown in Table 2 below.

The event also visited by people all over (M =

3.99, items 8) and the respondents also agreed that

there are several activities that attract their interest

was organise during the event (M = 3.95, items 9).

Thus, they also agreed that the event organiser is

an expert in organising such event (M = 3.62, items

10). Due to this Tamu Besar Kota Belud event was

held yearly, it became one of most looking forward

event by the community in the Kota Belud district.

On top of that, the visitor was attracted to the varieties

of stalls that were opened up during the event.

Motivation Items Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

It is an annual event i usually visit. .00 5.00 4.1489 1.08849

There are tons of activities held by the organiser that draws

me to visit it again this year..00 5.00 4.1277 .86892

Attractive stalls are the main reason for visiting the event. .00 5.00 4.2411 .83581

The events planned usually are fun and enjoyable. .00 5.00 4.1489 .85303

I come to the event because it is held on the weekend .00 5.00 4.1206 1.07222

The event will be visited by people all over. .00 5.00 3.9929 1.02467

The event organiser is an expert in organizing such event. .00 5.00 3.6241 1.22205

This event will lead to discovery of different types of people

and their behaviour..00 5.00 4.0851 .95983

There are several activities that really attract my interest. .00 5.00 3.9504 .97341

This event was fun and enjoyable. .00 5.00 4.1064 .88400

<Table 2> Visitor Motivation Factors


Event Expectation

As shown in Table 3 below, the respondents was

highly expected the participation from the local

communities to visit the event (M = 4.49, item 1)

and gaining some knowledge and experiences while

visiting the event (M = 4.21, items 2). Hence, the

respondents also expected that there are a numbers

of stalls will be operated during the event (M = 4.20,

items 3) whereby it will be interesting to visit (M

= 4.16, items 4) and there are various activities are

expected to be scheduled (M = 4.15, items 5).

Despites those mentioned expectations, the respondents

also expected that the event will be officiated by the

minister or other high rank government officers (M

= 3.97, items 6) and the international tourist also

expected to be visiting the event (M = 3.82, items 7).

The respondents themselves also expected to

participate in the activities during the event (M =

3.45, items 8) and they also expecting there will be

performances from popular artist (M = 3.41, items

9). Nevertheless, the respondents were slightly

agreed about their expectation towards the numbers

of the parking spaces during the event (M = 3.37,

items 10).

These visitors expectations indicates that, majority

of the visitor are expecting the excitements and

experiences during their visit to the event with the

varieties of activities and numbers of stalls will be

opened and the expectation of the performance by

the artist during this local cultural event.

Expectation Items Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Participation from the local community is highly expected. 1.00 44.00 4.4965 3.44264

I expect to gain knowledge and experience while visiting this event. 2.00 5.00 4.2128 .73493

The event is expected to be interesting to visit. 2.00 5.00 4.1631 .73314

A number of stalls are expected to be operated. 2.00 5.00 4.2057 .74179

There are various kind of activities expected to be scheduled. 2.00 5.00 4.1560 .75860

I highly expected that this event will be officiated by the

minister or others high rank government officers..00 5.00 3.9787 .92171

International tourists are expected to be visiting this event. 1.00 5.00 3.8227 .95830

I hope to participate in this event. .00 5.00 3.4539 1.16787

I hope that there will be performances from popular artist. .00 5.00 3.4184 1.20804

Parking spaces are expected to be enough. .00 5.00 3.3759 1.25663

<Table 3> Visitor Expectation Towards the Event

Facilities Satisfaction

Results of the visitor satisfaction towards the

facilities are presented in Table 4. The respondents

were satisfied with the services that provided by

the volunteer committee in organizing the event (M

= 3.67, items 1). They are also satisfied with the

number of restaurant and food stalls that opened

during the event (M=3.60, items 2) and the service

served at the premises were satisfying them (M=

3.51, items 3). However, there are respondents was

not satisfied with the cleanliness at the event


location (M=3.31, items 4). They are also were not

satisfied with the limited menu offered in the

restaurant and food stalls (M=3.31, item 5). Despite

that, the respondents were slightly satisfied with

the parking location provided whereby it was too far

from the event location (M=3.20, items 6). The

respondents also slightly satisfied and dissatisfied

with the existence of the signage (M=3.12, items 7)

and numbers of the signage provided during the

event (M = 3.17, items 8) with the small wording

and it very difficult to read (M=2.90, items 10).

Hence, majority of the respondents were slightly

satisfied with the level of cleanliness of the

restaurant or food stalls (M=3.02, items 9) and

dissatisfied about the cleanliness nearby the business

premises (M=2.87, items 11).

Thus, the respondents were dissatisfied with the

number of parking space provided during the event

(M=2.82, items 12) and the information counter

were not strategically located (M=2.72, items 13).

Besides that, the respondents also was not satisfied

with the number of accommodation and hotel around

(M=2.68, items 14) and the location of these facilities

was not convenient (M=2.67, items 15). In addition,

Facilities Satisfaction Items Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

I am satisfied with the services that provided by the volunteer

committee in organizing this event.1.00 5.00 3.6170 1.01882

I am satisfied with the number of restaurants/food stalls. .00 5.00 3.6099 1.08083

The service that was served in the restaurant/food stall was superb. .00 5.00 3.5177 .96068

I am not satisfied with the cleanliness at the event location. .00 5.00 3.3191 1.17303

I am not satisfied with the limited menu offered in the

restaurant/food stall..00 5.00 3.3121 1.15347

The parking location provided is too far from the event location. .00 5.00 3.2057 1.37590

I am satisfied with the existence of the signage provided

during the event. .00 5.00 3.1702 1.25901

The numbers of the signage provided during the event makes

it easy for the crowd to direct ourselves here and there..00 5.00 3.1206 1.23332

I am satisfied with the level of cleanliness of the restaurant/

food stalls,.00 5.00 3.0284 1.05521

Wording used on the signage are too small and difficult to read. .00 5.00 2.9007 1.41575

I am satisfied with the number of the parking space provided. .00 5.00 2.8227 1.20880

I am satisfied with the cleanliness nearby the business premises. 1.00 5.00 2.8723 1.18232

The information counter was not strategically located. .00 5.00 2.7234 1.67377

I am satisfied with the number of accommodation/hotel. .00 5.00 2.6809 1.44578

The location of accommodation/hotel is convenient. .00 5.00 2.6738 1.49998

I am satisfied with the numbers of rubbish bins provided. .00 5.00 2.6028 1.18249

The information center provided brings ease to the crowd. .00 5.00 2.5319 1.50975

I am satisfied with the number of toilets provided. .00 5.00 2.4823 1.22243

The service provided at the information counter is superb. .00 5.00 2.4752 1.53800

I am satisfied with the cleanliness of the toilets provided. .00 5.00 2.3333 1.18723

<Table 4> Visitor Satisfaction Towards the Facilities


the respondents also was not satisfied with the

numbers of rubbish bins provided during the event

(M=2.60, items 16). The information center provided

was not bring any ease to the visitor (M=2.53, items

17) and the services provided at the counter was

dissatisfied the visitors (M=2.47, items 19). Moreover,

the respondents also dissatisfied with the numbers

(M=2.48, items 18) and the cleanliness of the toilets

provided during the event (M=2.33, items 20). With

that, facilities and services are the main support

while staging an event and it also a factors that

contribute the satisfaction among the visitors. The

event can’t be successful without these supporters.

Activities Satisfaction

Activities are the main concerned while staging

an event especially the local cultural event. As

presented in Table 5, the respondents were satisfied

with the activities organised because it also introduced

the multi ethnics in the Kota Belud district (M=

4.20, item 1) and it can attract the crowd (M=4.11,

items 2). Majority of the respondents were satisfied

with the event (M=4.07, items 3) and there also

satisfied by the activities conducted because it

involved the local communities (M=4.07, items 4).

The respondents were satisfied by the commitment

shown by the organiser (M=4.05, items 5), they also

thought that the event are worth spending (M=3.92,

items 6) and satisfied with the days scheduled for

the event (M=3.92, items 7). Besides that, the respondents

also satisfied with the numbers of staff and

volunteer during the event (M=3.82, items 8). They

also satisfied with the activities arranged during the

event (M=3.80, items 9) but the respondents were

disagreed about delaying activities will bring dissatisfaction

to the visitors (M=2.90, items 10).

These analysis is indicating that, activities

during the event is the main contribution to the

visitor satisfaction as they are getting what they are

expected from the event and even the delaying

activities will not bring dissatisfaction to them.

Activities Satisfaction Items Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

I am satisfied with the activities that being held because it also introduced

the multi ethnics in this district.1.00 5.00 4.2057 .76081

The activities held attract the crowds. 1.00 5.00 4.1135 .84593

The activities conducted were satisfying because it also involve the local people. 2.00 5.00 4.0780 .76598

I am overall satisfied with this event. 1.00 5.00 4.0780 .82869

I am satisfied with the commitment shown by the organiser. .00 5.00 4.0567 .87646

The event is worth spending. 1.00 5.00 3.9291 .82501

I am satisfied with the days scheduled for this event. .00 5.00 3.9291 .85059

I am satisfied with the numbers of staff and volunteers that contribute the

successfulness of the event..00 5.00 3.8298 .94836

I am satisfied with all the activities arranged during the event. 2.00 5.00 3.8085 .79206

Delaying activities bring dissatisfaction. .00 5.00 2.9078 1.42378

<Table 5> Visitor Satisfaction Towards the Activities


Conclusions and Suggestions

The findings of this study clearly indicate that

the Tamu Besar Kota Belud event only able to

attract the interest of the local people especially the

communities nearby. Majority of the visitors were

attracted to visit the Tamu Besar for the purpose

of shopping at the stalls provided as well as to enjoy

the varieties of activities held there. Furthermore,

most of the visitors came to this event because this

is an annually event and they have positioned in

their minds what to expect during Tamu Besar Kota

Belud. Thus, they also expect that there are

something different and special every year. In

contrast, the facilities provided and the cleanliness

during the event were not met their expectations.

Meanwhile, the visitors were satisfied for what the

organiser have done in staging this event.

This local cultural event is given a huge benefit

to the local people especially the local who stayed

in Kota Belud area. The event can developed the

local economic and household income during the

event whereby the community can opened up their

business stalls during the event. Again, by having

this event yearly, it will foster the inbound tourism

pattern amongst the local people especially in

Sabah. Noted that, Sabah Tourism Board itself has

listed this event as one of the local event and jointly

organised it annually with the district office.

In addition, by organising this Tamu Besar Kota

Belud annually, the quality of the event can be

improved and monitored. Instead of promoting it

locally, the Sabah Tourism Board should promoting

it widely with not only targeting the local community

but also the other part of Malaysia as well as the

abroad tourist who want to gain more about the

local culture and heritage. Besides that, the facilities

and the services also would be upgraded and built

to support the successfulness of the event. In a

nutshell, this study hopes to provide information on

current issues about the trend in the local cultural

tourism by considering their motives and expectations

in order to meet their satisfaction. Hence, the

organiser should be more innovative and creative in

organising the local cultural events in order to

maintain their competitive advantage for the benefit

of the local community and Sabah tourism industry.

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Submitted: May 21, 2012

Final Revision Submitted: July 05, 2012

Accepted: September 23, 2012


Student Travelers－Destination Image and Choice Behavior－

Sung-Chae Jung*5)

[ABSTRACT]

This study determines the perception of attraction

preference attitudes and, to investigate selected

destination choice criteria which determine travel

image. This study results that the student travel

were on the basis of active tourist activities such

as sports and adventure. They were more likely to

prefer exciting leisure activities, and less likely to

desire relaxed and quiet activities. They prefer

excitement and adventure in a vacation and are

typically long-term, interested in self-development

and less expensive accommodations. The information

presented in this study will be helpful to the policy

makers and marketing planners formulating public

and private sector tourism business for students. In

marketing implications, this study is to present the

market segmentation which adapts marketing planning

and management to achieve the tourism business for

the students by determining their perceptual

behavior on attraction choice. In political implications,

the study gives a guide to develop student tourist-

oriented tourist attractions and it will be an indicator

of student tourism policy to promote their travel.

Key Words : Destination Image, Choice Behavior,

Student travelers

Introduction

As the demand of student tourism rapidly grows,

marketing strategy and political planning for student

travelers would seem of particular importance in

overall managerial development. In spite of these

attention-getting facts, the importance of student

tourism has not yet been fully recognized. Careful

marketing, regular monitoring and evaluation of the

* Dept. of Tourism Management, Honam University, Korea



52 Sung-Chae Jung

reactions of this segment would seem of particular

importance in the overall management of a student

tourist destination.

Travel destination image can be described as the

overall impression or attribute that an individual

acquires of a specific destination, this overall

impression is considered to be composed of the

tourist’s perceptions concerning the relevant qualities

of the destination. It is important to destination

marketers and operators in tourism complementary

industries to know in which of their target market’s

choice sets what they are positioned and preferred

before they proceed with strategies designed to

enhance their position. The understanding what the

tourists want, their needs, their priorities, and each

one’s relative importance is important to travel

policy makers and marketing planners who have to

effectively establish the marketing and policy

programs to better fit their customer’s needs. It can

be useful to estimate the level of importance of

tourist attractions in the travel destination. The

gathered directional information is helpful to suggest

a managerial direction for increase the effectiveness

of tourism policy.

The study, especially, examines how travelers

choose their travel destination comparing the perceptual

image of destination by travelers who intend to

travel. The gained information will be valuable in

attending more effective and efficient performance

when designing marketing strategies and can serve

as a frame of reference for future research. These

findings can serve the tourist industry as a tool for

decision making regarding tourism policy activities

and measures for determining priority of assignments

aimed at improving elements of the tourist supply.

It will be an efficient indicator of the tourist supply

quality.

Destination Images

Research on the spatial behavior of the tourists,

along with their perceptual preference patterns,

could help tourist departments to identify specific

target market segments whose travel behavior

conforms the most to the goals of their tourism

policies. To accomplish this goal, recent segmentation

studies have incorporated psychological measures

such as attitudes (Walmsley D.J. & Jekins J.M.

1992, Beaman & Vaske, 1995; McDougall & Murno

1987, Ross, G., 1993), psychological benefits (Tinsley

& Johnson 1984, Crompton,J.L. Fakeye, P.C. and

Lue,C.C. 1992), and motivations and preferences

(Calatone & Johar 1984; Yuan, S. & McDonald, C.

1990; Crompton,J.L. & Ankpmh, P.K, 1993, Chang &

Mahoney 1997; Jung, 1996). The findings of the

researches (Yuan & McDonald 1990; Kim et al.

1996; Cha 1997) indicate that the level of importance

that individuals attach to the various factors differs

among the different socio-demographic and travel

characteristics. These studies’ findings give a

theoretical background for us to expect that the

perceptual interest attitudes will be varied according

to the different circumstantial environments such as

different sets of socio-demographic and travel

characteristics.

Travel destination image can be described as the

overall impression or attribute that an individual

acquires of a specific destination, this overall

impression is considered to be composed of the

tourist’s perceptions concerning the relevant qualities

of the destination (Dadgostar & Isotalo 1992). A few

studies (Haati & Yaves 1983; Gartner 1989; Reilly

1990, Mansfield, Y. 1995, O’Leary L. & Morrison.

1997) have pertained to destination image. However,

it is criticized that those studies have alluded to the

Student Travelers: Destination Image and Choice Behavior 53

complex nature of destination image, there really

has been limited effort, up to this point, to carefully

examine and understand the unique characteristics

of this concept. Ethchner & Ritchie (1993) develop

35 attributes on the basis of arrangement along the

functional-psychological continuum.

Attractions are a primary motive for tourist visits

and their success or failure in satisfactory product

has implications for the provision of provided

attributes at destination. The preference will be

made as results of perception on expected attractions.

In the same vein, this is why the information of

tourist perceptual attitudes on choice of tourist

attracting attributes is useful to establish the

strategy and managerial direction towards tourism

development.

Student Traveler’s Behavior

World youth tourism is a dynamic force in the

total tourism phenomenon and the potential market

share and increase rate are of consideration to the

travel market. As Roberts (1983) points out, youth

is a time of recreational taste and skill acquisition,

when individuals build leisure capital that can

extend or limit their life-long opportunities. According

to the literature review, it can be assumed that

youth travel has different characteristics compared

to other older age cohorts’ tourism due to different

travel environments affecting their travel behavior.

This suggests that developing different tourist

products and different marketable approaches will

be effective to target the different groups among

different age cohorts.

A number of studies, which focus on youth

travelers and others that also refer to youth

travelers, identified that differences exist between

youth and other age cohort’s tourist behavior

(Abdel-Ghaffar, A. et al.,1992,Godbey 1980; Roberts

1983; Grauburn 1983; Romsa & Blenman 1989;

Pearce 1990; Bojanic 1992; Ross 1993; Jung 1995a;

1995b; 1996; Kim et al. 1996). The assumptions and

verifications showed that behaviors for taking

vacations vary by age cohorts, and the more

outdoor recreational activities are preferred by the

younger than the older, who have delicate physical

conditions that set constraints on the choice of

vacation destinations. In one side, young people and

leisure are sufficiently free to permit the spread of

democratic youth cultures which enhance the quality

of life, however, on the other hand, the freedom of

leisure is as an illusion, such as young people’s

opportunities are determined by traditional class and

gender divisions, so, leisure does not alleviate so

much as reconcile individuals to unsatisfying existences.

Their tourism behavior is highly explorative in

nature and is very sensitive to trends, especially

with respect to destinations.

Method

The data were computed and analyzed by

statistical analyses such as factor analysis, mean

scores and standard deviation, T-test and analysis

of variances. The representative sample was student

travelers. Data were gathered through a self-

administered questionaire using a Likert five scaling

approach. This study’s method intends to identify

the tourists’ perception as to what they consider

important and how they were interested in traveling

to the area. Information in this category is based on

the concept that an attitude and the performance of

54 Sung-Chae Jung

some behavior is a function of what one is

interested in and how much value is placed on that

interest.

This study’s method intends to identify the

tourists’ perception as to what they consider important

and how they were interested in traveling to the

area. Information in this category is based on the

concept that an attitude and the performance of

some behavior is a function of what one is interested

in and how much value is placed on that interest.

In this study, four demographic and four travel

characteristics explainable variables such as gender,

age, income, travel cost and accommodation, transportation,

travel type and information sources were developed.

Results

The respondents are likely to be female and

younger than 25 years of age(73.6%) and respondents’

income is in generally concentrated in between 2

million and 5 millions of income (71.9%). 58.3 % of

them reported they received their travel cost from

other people and 41.7 % of respondents resolve their

travel cost by themselves.

Respondents choose economic accommodations

such as pension (54.9%) and rather than high cost

hotels (12.5%) and motels (15.5%). Almost of them

traveled by car (46.5%) and tourist bus(31.9%).

Their travel comprises individual travel (57.6%),

group travel (21.5%) and family travel (20.8%).

Their principal information sources was internet

(61.6%), other travel information was friends/

relatives (13.9%) and travel, but TV(10.4%) and

information books are only were 3.5%.

Characteristics %

SexMale

Female

31

76

Age

Under 20

21-24

Up 25

20.1

53.5

26.4

Travel CostBy themselves

From others

41.7

58.3

Income

1 Million

1-1.99 Million

2-2.99 Million

3-3.99 Million

4-4.99 Million

+5 Million

4.2

12.5

25.0

22.9

24.3

11.1

<Table 1> Respondent’s Characteristics(%)

Characteristics %

Accommodations

Hotel

Motel

Pension

Condominium

Guest house

Others

12.5

15.5

54.9

6.9

7.6

2.8

Transportation

Bus

Tourist bus

Car

Airplane

Ship

Others

11.1

31.9

46.5

2.8

7

1.4

Travel type

Group

Individual

Family

21.5

57.6

20.8

Information sources

Television

Internet

Travel agency

Friends/relatives

Travel Guide Books

10.4

61.6

10.4

13.9

3.5

<Table 2> Travel Characteristics(%)

Factor Analysis

The importance of image listed in the questionnaire

is indicated by the 20 attributes. The attributes


obtained a loading above the average which is

represented in Likert type scale. The following

attributes were among those that received the highest

loading scores: shopping (0.85), sports (0.83) and

well-known (0.81). The results of the factor analysis

of the 20 attributes are reported in Table 3.Six

factors, which explained 69.2 %. Of the overall

variance, were identified as dimensions of importance

and labeled (1) Tourism Infrastructure, (2) Recreation,

(3) Natural Attractions, (4) Cultural Attractions, (5)

Service, and (6) Events. Each dimension was

labeled based on the characteristics of the attraction

variables that are part of the different factors.

The first dimension was titled Tourist Infrastructure

because it is composed of 6 variables that stress the

importance of tourist infrastructure such as Safety,

Food, Price, Accessibility, Restful and Fun. The first

dimension explained 18.84% of the total variance.

The eigenvalue was 3.77, and the reliability alpha

was 0.86. The second dimension, Recreation was

included Sports, Social environments, Events, Resort

and Recreation. The eigenvalue of the second dimension

(2.99) explained 14.95% of the total variance,

reliability alpha was 0.82. The third dimension,

named Natural Attractions, contains three attributes.

The eigenvalue (1.90) of this dimension explained

9.52% of the total variance. The reliability alpha was

0.65. The Cultural Attractions dimension obtained

an eigenvalue of 1.85, which explains 9.23% of the

total variance. This fourth dimension comprises two

attributes such as Well-known and Cultural attractions.

The reliability alpha of this dimension was 0.66.

Factor Name Attributes Factor Loadings Communalities Eigen ValuePercent of Variance

ExplainedReliability Alpha

F1 : Tourist

Infrastructure

Safety 0.79 0.74

3.77 18.84 0.86

Food 0.75 0.67

Price 0.73 0.67

Accessibility 0.73 0.70

Restful 0.60 0.68

Fun 0.58 0.64

F2: Recreation

Sports 0.83 0.75

2.99 14.95 0.82

Social Environment 0.72 0.64

Events 0.66 0.65

Resorts 0.58 0.65

Recreation 0.58 0.64

F3: Natural

Attractions

Climate 0.71 0.71

1.90 9.52 0.65Adventure 0.59 0.68

Scenic Beauty 0.59 0.68

F4: Cultural

Attractions

Well-known 0.81 0.761.85 9.23 0.66

Cultural Attractions 0.76 0.72

F5: ServiceKindness 0.72 0.73

1.74 8.71 0.63Quiet 0.62 0.63

F6: EventsShopping 0.85 0.82

1.60 7.67 0.61Remembrance 0.56 0.69

Total variance explained : 69.2

<Table 3> Results of Principal Component Factor Analysis

56 Sung-Chae Jung

The last two dimensions service and events

contain two attributes each such as Kindness, Quiet

and Shopping and Remembrance. The eigenvalues

are 1.74 and 1.60 each. The reliability alphas were

0.63 and 0.61.

Table 4 provides a profile of the 6 factors based

on various demographic and travel characteristic

variables. The Tourist Infrastructure (Factor 1) was

significant difference in age and accommodation and

Recreation (Factor 2) revealed significant difference

Characteristics F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6

Sex Male / Female

T 0.72 2.58 1.19 1.96 2.65 0.11

P 0.47 0.01 0.24 0.05 0.00 0.91

Age Under 20/21-24/ Up 25

F 7.27 0.34 7.15 0.73 7.32 1.86

P 0.00 0.71 0.00 0.48 0.00 0.16

Travel cost By Themselves/ From Others

T 1.62 0.16 2.06 -0.39 1.42 0.64

P 0.10 0.87 0.04 0.70 0.16 0.52

Income1 Million/1-1.99 Million/2-2.99 Million/

3-3.99 Million/4-4.99 Million/+5 Million

F 1,17 1.00 0.43 1.06 0.61 1.36

P 0.32 0.42 0.83 0.38 0.70 0.24

AccommodationsHotel/Motel/Pension/Condominium/Guest

house/Others

F 2.80 0.68 1.72 0.34 1.75 0.34

P 0.01 0.64 0.13 0.89 0.12 0.89

Transportation Bus/Tourist bus/Car/Ship/Others

F 0.98 2.31 0.51 2.31 1.07 0.57

P 0.44 0.03 0.80 0.03 0.39 0.75

Travel Type Group/Individual/Family

F 0.93 5.17 0.19 2.90 2.87 0.66

P 0.40 0.00 0.83 0.05 0.05 0.52

Travel

Information

Television/Internet/Travel agency/Friends/

relatives/Travel Guide Books

F 1.64 0.05 0.95 0.27 1.02 2.08

P 0.15 0.99 0.45 0.93 0.41 0.07

<Table 4> Difference of Destination and

Choice Characteristics

in sex, transportation, travel type and travel information.

Natural Attraction (Factor 3) and Events (Factor 6)

were appeared not significant different.

Sex, transportation and travel type were significant

different in Cultural Attractions (Factor 4) and sex,

age and travel type were appeared as significant

different in Service (Factor5).

Concluding remarks

The findings of this study offer a number of

implications as they may be related to major

evaluated dimensions applied by student travelers.

It is important to remember when marketing

tourism that not all destinations are alike, nor are

all young people alike. Therefore, it is necessary to

segment the market for tourism and determine the

salient attributes on attraction preference characteristics

for student travelers. This will enable the tourism

suppliers to develop effective marketing programs.

A concern of this study’s implication can give a

direction how commit the tourism development to

establish efficient policy planning and marketing

strategy for student tourism. The presented

information help to identify two sets of forces at

work that influence the design of the tourism

planning programs, the first set includes political

implications which can be contribute to effective

policy programs and the second includes marketing

implications to enhance the tourism business for

student travelers.


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Final Revision Submitted: August 22, 2012



Optimal Timing of Purchasing Decisions

for Airplane Tickets and Hotels.

An Example in the UK.

Hao-Te LU Ph,D*6)

Wan-Yu, HSU**

Chih-Yao, YI***

[ABSTRACT]

Customers usually like to make travel plans

weeks or months ahead of the travel schedule.

Therefore, they can take extra time to search

information they need in order to purchase the

products at the lowest possible price. Accordingly,

this study bases on the revenue management (or

yield management) to examine the prices of two

categories, airplane tickets and hotels, over a

period of eight weeks in order to observe how the

prices cycle up and down over time. The aim of this

study is to investigate whether there is an optimal

purchasing time for any of the products.

A structured observation, often also called

systematic observation was conducted by this study

to investigate the two categories of travel products.

The study reveals that prices for the products

assume an increasing trend as the date of the

product consumption approaches. The implication

for consumers is that they could purchase the

products as early as possible to take advantage of

the early prices. Although prices sometimes drop,

they rarely drop lower than those the first day

consumers start their search for tourism products.

At end of this study, we also discuss the price

variation in Taiwan and an avenue for further

research.

Key Words : Revenue management, Optimal decision,

Strategic consumer and fare fluctuations

* Department of Business Administration Tainan University of Technology, Tainan, Taiwan

** Swansea University, UK

*** Department of Business Administration Tainan University of Technology, Tainan, Taiwan



60 Hao-Te LUㆍWan-Yu, HSUㆍChih-Yao, YI

Introduction

Most customers in the UK may have had a

similar experience. That is when they have a period

of time for a break and make travel plans. They

start to search related information of products and

they fix their attention on the computer screen for

a series of days. Before making the decision to

purchase a certain travel product, people spend lots

of time searching the product’s information, types

and prices, in an effort to find a product that meets

their expectations and is cheaper. However, the

prices cycle up and down, customers feel that it is

difficult to make a decision and they wonder when

the optimal time for purchasing this kind of

products is.

No matter the trip is for business or leisure,

customer have asked the same question countless

times that is “When is exactly the best time to book

advance travel products (e.g. airline ticket or hotel)

to get the cheapest fare?” (Doward and Dearlove,

2010). This type of consumer behaviour stems from

the fact that booking too early may meet a risk of

changes to the travel plan, but booking too late

would result in much higher ticket prices, and the

tickets could even be sold out. Otherwise, Möller

and Watanabe (2010) pointed out that eight weeks

ahead of the departure date is the optimal time to

buy the advance plan ticket. It is well-known in the

airline industry that with the approach of the

departure date, the fare goes up. On the other hand,

theatre tickets, for example, are usually cut down at

a discounted price on the day if the tickets have not

sold out. The purpose of these distinct pricing

strategies is the same, namely to maximise revenue

for the firms.

This study therefore employed an empirical

observation method to investigate two categories of

travel products over a period of eight weeks to

observe how the prices changed over time. Each of

them involves several distinct products that are

selected on different websites. For the airline, the

first booking day is prior to the travel day for four

weeks and eight weeks. For the other category,

hotels may have a multiple-day stays, so we need

to set different engaged periods for each. For the

duration of our observation, the prices of each item

will be recorded once every day. Through the

observation, we would discover if the optimal

booking time of eight weeks ahead for airline tickets

and this could be applied to the hotels. In addition,

the shifts in prices of each item are collected from

different suppliers, such as the five airline companies

selected in this survey. These shifts will also

represent their unique pricing strategies. To this

end, the following are the aims of study:

1. To investigate whether there is an optimal

purchasing time for the products.

2. To compare the results with findings in the

literature.

Literature Review

Revenue Management

Before discussing the two travel products, it may

be required to understand how the revenue

management has been utilised in the tourism

industry and how it helps the industry to maximise

revenue.

Revenue management (hereafter referred to as

RM), or yield management, which originates from

Operations Research, is one of the greatly

Optimal Timing of Purchasing Decisions for Airplane Tickets and Hotels. An Example in the UK. 61

successful techniques apply to current management

issues and become a set of widespread new

business practices (McGill and Ryzin, 1999). The

research on RM can be traced back to 1960s when

an operations researcher, Taylor (1962), introduced

this technique in the scientific literature for the first

time. At an earlier stage, Rothsein (1974) presented

the use of overbooking on hotel reservations. More

recently, the concept of RM was introduced to the

service industry and has since become one of the

most successful innovative technologies. Belobaba

and Weatherfore (1996) extended the RM technique

to compare various decision-making rules and

flexible fare classes. RM is used to a large extent

by those who seek profit-oriented firms, providing

the right service to the right customer at the right

time for the right price. Accordingly, RM can be

applied to various industries and has brought

remarkable success in businesses.

RM also represents the setting and managing of

prices for products or services based upon tactical

means, in order to maximise profit. Berman (2005)

described revenue management as being an

effective mechanism which helps service suppliers

to allocate fixed capacity, and to provide broader

scale discounts. Bell (2010) indicated that revenue

management is the art and science provided for

firms to enhance profits through increasing revenue/

units sold, which is different from marketing where

firms increase revenue through expanding the

market share or the number of units sold. For

example, when RM techniques apply to the airline

industry assumed that passengers would not shift

from a higher fare class to a lower one, especially

when the lower fare is available again. As a result,

firms organise the sale of products or services to

different market segments; whilst also considering

other factors which could affect successful marketing,

and making themselves profitable (Chiang et al.,

2007; Guadix et al., 2010). Chiang et al., (2007) also

indicate that RM has become crucial factor of

business success for airlines, hotels and many other

service industries.

Strategic Consumers

It is widely accepted that customer never want

to spend more money on products. According to

numerous researches, strategic consumers basically

result from the prevalence of the Internet (Anderson

and Wilson, 2003; Etzioni et al., 2003; Zhou et al.,

2005). Etzioni et al. (2003) described that when

product prices are obtained easily through the

Internet, it is possible for consumers to become

sophisticated shoppers because they are able to

compare, track, anticipate prices, and rush or postpone

purchasing decisions. When pricing data and information

are no longer difficultly to obtain online, consumers

vary their purchase behaviour and tend to postpone

making decisions. Therefore, when buyers become

strategic, they anticipate the pricing policies made

up by suppliers and determine the time for purchases

(Dasu and Tong, 2010; Su, 2007). As described

above, customers are always searching information

they need in order to purchase the travel products

at the lowest possible price.

Research Method

The aim of this study is to analyse and examine

if a trend in price shift is observable in two

categories of travel products. The rationale is to

investigate whether there is an optimal purchasing


time for any of the products. A structured observation

method was employed for the observation and

recording of behaviour. Therefore, it is necessary to

outline the identification and categorisation of the

products, the methods of data collection and analysis

methods used in meeting the research objectives.

The overall observation period was from 4th

October 2010 to 28th November 2010. The total eight

week period was further divided into two sections.

The first period was from 4th October-31st October,

2010 whilst the second period was from 4th October-

28th November, 2010. This was done in order to

inspect the price changes within each four week

period and within an eight week period of the

product delivery.

Data Analysis

This section was also divided into two parts to

investigate the two different travelling products;

they are airplane tickets and hotels.

The Analysis for Airplane Tickets

Five airline companies were involved for this

survey and they can be classified into two different

types of service suppliers: full-service carriers

(FSCs) and low-cost carriers (LCCs). The three

FSCs are BMI, British Airways, and Lufthansa and

two LCCs are Ryanair and EasyJet. These five

airlines are currently operating their fleets over the

two routes that have been selected for this survey:

London-Glasgow (domestic) and London-Milan

(international).

First Period (4th October-31st October)

The ticket prices for the three routes presented

a trend upward over the period as the travel date

approached. During the final week in particular,

prices underwent a significant increase. Figure 1

and Figure 2 below show the fare fluctuations of the

five airlines which depart on the route from London

to Glasgow, and London to Milan.

<Figure 1> Air Fare Trends of the Route:

London-Glasgow (depart on 31 Oct)

Figure 1 shows the evident that the fare for each

airline went up although some days over the four

weeks the prices dropped. The two LCCs, in this

observation, offered relatively lower fares compared

to the FSCs until the end of the first observation

period. There are also two remarkable shifts

existing in the graph. Firstly, EasyJet was the only

one airline offering tickets, the price of which

increased consistently without dropping once over

the four weeks which means that customers should

book with EasyJet as soon as possible in order to

acquire tickets at the lowest price. Secondly, the

FSCs, in general, listed higher airfares with their

prices steadily rising; however, all of them had their

fares decrease at least twice over the four weeks.

As the travel date approached, Lufthansa and BMI

seemed to adapt the “last-minute sale” strategy to


decrease ticket prices. Other than EasyJet and

Lufthansa, the other three airlines offered a

moderately high ticket prices at the beginning of

this period and decreased their fares on different

days to prices that were below the starting rates.


London-Milan (depart on 31 Oct)

It is remarkable that, on this route, the FSCs

lowered ticket prices on the same day, 13th October,

and the next day the fares went up. In addition, for

this route, there was no airline offering a

last-minute deal, and in Figure 2 British Airways

shows a large increase of £68 in its air fare on 27th

October, which implies that price indeed goes up as

the travel date approaches

Second Period (4th October-28th November)

The second period was observed to determine the

difference in price shift between four weeks before

and eight weeks before the departure day. The

following two illustrations provide no doubt that the

air fares rise with the approach of the travel date;

nevertheless, they undergo more frequent fluctuations

and significant price changes, and notably the

low-cost carriers exceeded full-service carriers in

ticket prices on some particular days.


London-Glasgow (depart on 28 Nov.)

In Figure 3, over the eight weeks, the five airlines

all gradually raised ticket prices. Particularly over

the final week, the prices for Lufthansa and Ryanair

shot up. If the fare on the first booking day of 4th

October is viewed as the “base fare”, then, except

EasyJet, the airlines all cut their ticket prices down

to the levels at which the fares were lower than the

“base fare”. Compared to the base fares, ticket

prices on 16th October for Ryanair and on 27th

October for BMI posted about 30% and 26%

decreases, and Ryanair cuts its fare on 18th

November by over 50% to £26.99 compared to the

previous day.

Looking at Figure 4, it becomes apparent that

lines in this figure intersect more frequently than

the lines in Figure 3, indicating that the five airlines

employed different pricing strategies over eight

weeks on this route from the UK to continental

Europe than from their UK domestic flights. In

Figure 4, the fare for UK-Milan opened at a very

high level. By the end of this period, the ticket prices

offered by the two LCC airlines were higher than

Lufthansa’s, with the highest fare before the

departure day being charged by EasyJet.



London-Milan (depart on 28 Nov.)

Suggestions for customers

Anderson and Wilson (2003) indicate that more

price-sensitive consumers usually book tickets

earlier than less price-sensitive customers, and

most leisure travellers are higher price-sensitive

consumers compared to the less-price-sensitive

business travellers. However, consumers are always

looking for cheaper tickets. As a result, in this

study, we conduct an observation for four weeks

and eight weeks on two routes operated by five

airlines to investigate how the airfares change over

time. Through the observation, we conclude some

findings as suggestions for consumers to book

tickets at lower prices with these airline companies.

1. EasyJet increases its airfares gradually, and

fares increase higher consistently with the

approach of the departure date. As a result,

consumers book tickets with EasyJet as soon

as possible. If your travel date is less than one

month, you have likely missed the lowest fare.

Therefore, as you approach the departure date

within less than one month, do not give up any

opportunity to book immediately when you

find the fare decrease slightly.

2. It is quite difficult to predict future prices for

Ryanair, yet, it is still a good idea to book

early. If your travel day is less than one week

away, you may try to look for other airlines,

even the FSCs which sometimes provide lower

airfares than Ryanair in the final week prior to

departure.

3. These three FSCs airlines, they provide a

relatively higher price levels compared to

LCCs airlines; however, in our survey, the

highest percent increase for prices reveals a

relatively lower rate within four weeks and

eight weeks. As a result, in addition to

booking earlier, book when the price is down

on that day.

The Analysis for Hotels

Hotels play an important role in people’s decision

to make overnight travel plans. This section will

discuss the trend in price shift for the other category

of travel product, hotels. The same empirical

observation methods utilised in airlines was also

applied to the hotels, with the same observation

period over eight weeks from 4th October to 28th

November. The observation period was again divided

into two periods to investigate how prices for the

hotels change over four and eight weeks. Möller and

Watanabe (2010) noted that the best time to book

an airline ticket is eight weeks before the day of

travel. Therefore, we examined whether there is

also an optimal booking time for the hotels. At the

end of this section, this study summarised the

analysis for hotels and make purchasing decision

suggestions for customers.

Guadix et al. (2010) proposed that the hotel


industry varies the vacancies at different room rates

on each day in order to maximise revenues, which

is well-known for experienced customers that hotels’

prices change over time although not as frequently

as in the case of airlines. Hotel room rates are

influenced by brand/label, location, rank, different

room types, and board, which greatly help the hotel

industry to make profits and reduce vacancy rates.

In this survey, two different types of hotels-the

airport hotel and non-airport hotel-ranked as 4-star

were selected at random in order to discover how

these two types of hotels utilise pricing strategies

differently, and to find out whether it is possible for

consumers to forecast the lower room rates. To

investigate the trend in prices shift, we chose one

hotel of each type in the following five cities:

Glasgow, London, and Cardiff of the United Kingdom,

Berlin in Germany, and Milan in Italy. Within these

two observation periods, we set two different check-in

dates with 4-night stay, which are 25th-29th of October

for the first period and 22nd-26th of November for the

second period.

First Period (4th October-31st October)

Figure 5 illustrates the price changes for five

airport hotels over four weeks during the first

period. The prices for the five hotels start at entirely

different levels and reveal a gradual upward trend

with occasional drops. The hotel near Milan Malpensa

Airport (MXP) maintained its room rates without

obvious fluctuations, represented by the horizontal

line in Figure 5. Regarding the hotel located in

Cardiff, the green line shows significant changes on

some days. The hotel near Berlin Schonefeld Airport

(SXF) was the only one offering offering last

minute deal with price decreases for two days.

<Figure 5> Airport Hotels Price Changes

during the First Period

Figure 6 depicts how room rates for five

non-airport hotels shifted during this period. Three

lines are approximately horizontal, indicating that

three start their prices at similar levels; however,

there were no available rooms for the hotels located

in the Berlin and Cardiff city centre by the end of

this period. That is why two lines stop abruptly. The

prices for the hotel in the London city centre follow

an increasing trend; this stands in contrast to Milan,

where the room rate reached a peak of over £2,000

on 20th October. Moreover, this hotel was the only

one with decreasing prices over the last few days.

<Figure 6> Non-airport Hotels Price Changes

during the First Period

From Figures 5 and 6, it can be found that the

airport hotels located in five different cities started

their prices at different levels, which indicates the


hotels’ different characteristics and standards of

expenditure accordingly. As for the five non-airport

hotels, the starting room rates for each were the

lowest prices in this period, although their room

rates began at a relatively higher level than that for

airport hotels.

Second Period (4th October-28th November)

Figures 7 and 8 show the price shift trends over

eight weeks during the second observation period.

Some non-continuous lines appear in these two

figures, which means rooms were sold out on some

days and became available a second time. These

two figures present some more fluctuations as

compared to the first period; nevertheless, there is

no significant increasing price trend, except for the

hotels near Cardiff Airport (Figure 7) and in Milan’s

city centre (Figure 8). Surprisingly, with the

approach of check-in date, the two lines representing

the prices for the hotels near Milan and Berlin

airports decreased slightly, as shown in Figure 7.

<Figure 7> Airport Hotels: Price Shift Trend over

Eight Weeks during the 2nd Period

Unlike the starting prices for the non-airport

hotels, which were the lowest in the first period

(Figure 6), the non-airport hotel in Glasgow’s city

centre reduced its room rates on some days during

the second period to a price that was lower than the

beginning price (Figure 8). Consequently, consumers

may still have the chance to acquire lower prices as

the actual consumption date approaches in Glasgow.

The non-airport hotel in Milan’s city centre

displayed remarkable price changes in this survey,

selling its rooms at the highest prices for both

periods; however, its prices climbed as the check-in

date approached during the second period (Figure

8). This stands in contrast to the last minute sales

(and decreasing prices) of the first period (Figure

7). Also, the hotel near Milan’s city centre had the

largest change of about 450% and 290% in its

highest and lowest prices for the first and second

period respectively.

<Figure 8> Non-airport Hotels: Price Shift

Trends over Eight Weeks during the 2nd Period

The optimal decision points for customers

According to Schwartz (2006), hotel rooms are

advanced booking products that involve a complex

consumer decision process. When consumers look

for hotels online, they usually feel frustrated because

of too much on-screen information, deals, and

unknowns, which makes it difficult for consumers

to determine which hotel is better or can better meet


their needs. This is one characteristic of a travel

product that customers pay for but cannot experience

immediately. Although the conducted survey cannot

precisely determine the optimal booking time for

hotel rooms, advanced booking is suggested.

Consumers could usually obtain better prices when

they book earlier, but how early? If the Web site

charges little or nothing for a refund service, a

consumer may consider booking earlier and then

obtaining a refund if and when room rates decrease;

the consumer could then re-purchase the same

product at a lower price. In addition, hotels provide

many services and often offer them for free as part

of a “deals”; searching for such deals is another

good way to obtain an upgrade or get more services

for the same price.

Suggestions and Conclusion

In this survey, we observed the price changes in

the two categories of tourism products over eight

weeks, and indeed discovered some interesting

results that have been discussed above respectively.

Following is a brief list of suggestions for

consumers to book tourism products in advance.

1. The common rule for consumers to acquire

lower prices in these two categories of tourism

products is to book as soon as possible.

Although prices sometimes drop, they rarely

drop lower than those the first day consumers

start their search for tourism products.

2. EasyJet’s price trends are easier to predict.

They generally to trend up with rare drops; in

comparison with Ryanair, it seems that consumers

can decide when the optimal booking time is.

When consumers book tickets with Ryanair,

they should not doubt that they have obtained

the lower price and just buy the ticket. The

prices will only increase after that.

3. The FSCs usually provide airfares with relatively

stable increases as compared with LCCs; thus,

consumers should generally book earlier but be

on the lookout for prices drops that occur on

particular days.

4. Airport hotels and non-airport hotels located in

the city centre usually possess steady sources

of guests, leading to the prices with no significant

shifts; however, the room rates are high. If

consumers do not want to stay too far from the

airport or the spots, they can try to search for

hotels of lower classification.

5. If consumers make travel plans close to the

actual consumption date, they can look for

some travel product Web sites that provide

last minute deals.

When is the optimal booking time for consumers

to make purchase decision of tourism products?

Researchers provide the statistics of eight weeks in

advance. According to this survey, we observed the

price shifts for travel products over eight weeks,

and found that eight weeks could be a better timing

when consumers plan their tours earlier. When

consumers purchase products with the approach of

the consumption date, the optimal timing of

purchasing decision for tourism products is decided

by the consumers.

Revenue Management in Taiwan

In the end, we suggest that the RM can be

discussed in Taiwan for further research, especial

for service industries. Although low-cost carries or


budget airlines and fluctuations of prices are not

popular in Taiwan, this study provides a good

avenue for further related research. For example,

the acceptance level of customers for price variation,

not just budget tickets for early birds.

References

Anderson, C. K. and Wilson, J. G.(2003). Wait or Buy?

The Strategic Consumer: Pricing and Profit

Implications. Journal of the Operational Research

Society, 54(3), 299-306.

Bell, P. C.(2010). The Concepts of Revenue Management:

A Tutorial. International Transactions in Operational

Research, 19(4), 23-37.

Belobaba, P. and Weaherford, L.(1996). Comparing

Decision Rules that Incorporate Customer Diversion

in Perishable Asset Revenue Management Situations.

Decision Sciences, 27(2), 343-363.

Berman, B.(2005). Applying Yield Management Pricing

to Your Service Business. Business Horizons,

48(2), 169-179.

Chiang, W. C., Chen, J. C. H. and Xu, X.(2007). An

Overview of Research on Revenue Management:

Current Issues and Future Research. International

Journal of Revenue Management, 1(1), 97-128.

Dasu, S. and Tong, C.(2010). Dynamic Pricing When

Consumers are Strategic: Analysis of Posted and

Contingent Pricing Schemes. European Journal of

Operational Research, 204(3), 662-671.

Doward, J. and Dearlove, H.(2010), Why ΠA = gUG +

min(k-g, (1-g)(1-r)) equals low airline fares

[online]. Reviewed June 10, 2012 from

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug

/22/airline-ticket-eight-week-rule

Etzioni, O., Knoblock, C., Tuchinda, R. and Yates, A.

(2003). To Buy or Not to Buy: Mining Airfare

Data to Minimize Ticket Purchase Price, KDD-

2003, 119-128.

Guadix, J., Cortés, P., Onieva, L. and Muñuzuri, J.

(2010). Technology Revenue Management System

for Customer Groups in Hotels. Journal of

Business Research, 63(5), 519-527.

McGill, J. and Ryzin, G. J.(1999). Revenue Management:

Research Overview and Prospects. Transportation

Science, 33(2), 233-256.

Möller, M. and Watanabe, M.(2010). Advance Purchase

Discounts Versus Clearance Sales. The Economic

Journal, 120(547), 1125-1148.

Rothstein, M.(1974). Hotel Overbooking as a Markovian

Sequential Decision Process. Decision Sciences,

5(3), 389-404.

Schwartz, Z.(2006). Advanced Booking and Revenue

Management: Room Rates and the Consumers’

Strategic Zones. Hospitality Management, 25(3),

447-462.

Su, X.(2007). Inter-temporal Pricing with Strategic

Customer Behaviour. Management Science, 53(5),

726-741.

Taylor, C. J.(1962). The Determination of Passenger

Booking Levels. Agifors Symposium Proceeding,

2, 93-116.

Zhou, Y., Fan, M. and Cho, M.(2005). On the Threshold

Purchasing Behavior of Customers Facing

Dynamically Priced Perishable Products [online].

Reviewed May 25, 2012 from

http://faculty.washington.edu/yongpin/StrategicC

ustomer.pdf



Final Revision Submitted: August 21, 2012



The Opportunity of Creative Economy

Through Agricultural in Tourism

Development

Oda*7)

[ABSTRACT]

Agricultural area increasingly narrow, population

and natural resources dwindling mineral. Prolonged

economic crisis in the European countries and the

industries in the face of the economic crisis and

need to think of innovative ideas and strategies to

change the paradigm of thinking, from the era of

economic and IT industry towards a creative economy.

The main capital of the creative economy is not

money and material but creative and innovative

ideas appropriate potential that each country.

Development of agricultural into tourist destinations,

such as diversification agricultural into tourism

products, is the way in creative and innovative ideas

that can be done to solve the problem of world

economic crisis.

Agriculture much more tourist demand destination

by tourists because it provides a natural feel with

a variety of facilities and tourists activities. The

Problems, agricultural has not been utilized optimally

as a destination that developed into a multipurpose.

The purpose of this study is to find business

opportunities to overcome the economic crisis and

increasing income communities. Revenue and income

through diversification agricultural products.

The used method is descriptive method; focused

on data, facts and current information in the field

related to agricultural in developing tourism as a

creative economy. Theories relevant to the problem:

to explain the creative economy is not dependent on

the economy and the IT industry only but the most

important is the ideas. Tourism is one economic

activity that gives a favorable prospect.

Key Words : Creative economy, Agro tourism,

Tourism Development, The community-based

* Hospitality Department, Tourism Academy-Bina Sarana Informatika Bandung, Indonesia



72 Oda

Ⅰ. Introduction

Historically, Indonesia is well-known as agricultural

country, gardening and agricultural sector, has

important role in determining and forming various

economic reality and society in many regions in

Indonesia. Is the sixteenth largest country in the

world, the comparation of land and ocean 7:3 consisting

of 71 % ocean and 29% land. Even though only 29%

(149 million in square) has prosperous land so most

of Indonesian people are farmers. Agriculture

including all activivities cultivating all creatures

(including plantation, animal and microbial), farming

business is specially named depending on plantation.

Forestry is farming business with its trees plantation

managed in wild land semi-wild land. Animal

husbandry using dry land animal (especially all

vertebrata except fish and amphibian and all non-

water vertebrata). Agriculture is specially food plantation,

farming business can involve various subject

simultaneously for the sake of efficiency and profit

increasing and keeping environment (id.wikipedia.

org/wiki/agriculture). In this paper author focuses

on agricultural tourism, various product of agricultural

tourism, activities, facilities and other instruments.

Indonesia has prosperous land to grow various

kinds of plantation such as; tea, coffee, chocolate,

spices like clove, cassia nutmeg and medical plantation

like quinine, asiri oil and tobacco, plantation like

rubber, oil palm and many of fruits, vegetables and

flower. It is grant from above had by Indonesian,

beautiful nature, prosperous land and geographic

situation lead to produce many kinds of varieties in

every region, with its kind and different form. It

causes many European consider Indonesia to run

agricultural business, especially the product of

horticultural like tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar cane

and spices; clove, nutmeg, cassia that is hard to

grow in cold area like Europe. after Indonesian got

independence (1945) population keep on growing

drastically (241.973.879 people: 2005), Indonesia is

the fourth most densely populated country in the

world, the fast growing of population cause many

land of farm changes to be industrial area and

housing. And the region that still have farming land

until today is region out of Java, especially Sumatra,

Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua, while Java, Bali

and Madura is a few farming land.

Tourism development is one of business activity

to increase regional income (PAD) and denoting the

most income for Indonesian Government. Tourism

development is also one of the ways to develop

regions and tourism area. Area potential denoting

culture, historical sites, the beauty of natural forest,

area of farming and horticultural are regional asset

that can be developed as tourism object. To realize

that natural resources denoting mineral like oil, gas,

coal mining, gold and so on will run out, Indonesia

develop tourism instead with various kinds of potent

had by each region, farming land is developed to be

object and tourism area. Agriculture used to be only

agricultural only, today agricultural collaborate with

tourism, on farming area can be diversified to be

some tourism objects, for example strawberry garden

can produce jam, ice cream syrup that can be

factory tour to see the process of producing, tourists

can buy directly jam and syrup as product. Tourists

also can buy fresh strawberry by picking themselves

in the garden, after the tour the tourist can break

to visit many kinds of restaurants selling many

kinds of food made of strawberry such as steak

with strawberry sauce, juice, pancake and many

others that can be developed like hotel for guest to

stay. The problem is until today the farming land

The Opportunity of Creative Economy Through Agricultural in Tourism Development 73

and agricultural have not been able to be empowered

optimally as agricultural tourism business.

Today tourism commodity displays the increasing

for the people of developed country and Indonesian

people have been need as the result of high activity

and the increasing of income, aspiration and prosperity.

Preference and motivation of tourism develop

dynamically, the trend of need in visiting unique

tourism objects far from the city and enjoy beautiful

landscape with its fresh air, so agricultural tourism

is the right destination as area of family recreation,

hobby or educative tourism. Agricultural tourism

open many kinds of work fields for the people living

around farming land to decrease and solve unemployment

problem and increase people economic, as the the

result it will increase regional income (PAD) through

retribution and tax. Tourism can be developed from

one diversified object to become many interesting

tourism objects, to develop it needs creative and

innovative ideas as the generator of economic

creative, and tourism activity can not be separated,

every tourism event means economic activity, to

increase tourism activity and economic needs human

resources with good ideas, creativity and innovation

of tourists and local society.

Ⅱ. Creative Economy, Agricultural Tourism and Tourism Development

1. Creative Economy

Since European countries fall in long-term economic

crisis, some expert of Europe states that economic

creative is more and more important, and especially

on the role of industry, culture and and creativity.

Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIS), even in

Europe especially Hogeschool voor de Kunsten

Utrecht (HKU, 1987), in its development open

cultural entrepreneurship, art and creative economic.

In Creative Economy, How People Make Money

from Ideas written by John Howkins: Creative

Economy is economic activity input and output is

idea, only with ideas, a creative person can have

proportional income. Information and creativity based

on ideas, Stock of Knowledge and Human resources

(HR) as main production factor in economic, this is

a concept in new economic era.

Alvin Toffler (1988) divides economic civilization

waves into four waves. First, agricultural economic

period, second industrial economic period, third, is

information economic period, and fourth is creative

economy. The fourth period denoted as creative

economic period because it is ideas-oriented, creativity

and innovation.

(http://forum.kompas.com/nasional/44777-definisi-ekonomi-

kreatif.html)

Part 1. Civilizations according to Alvin Toffler

Financial time reports the decreasing of Production

Manufacturing Index (PMI) in USA, has decreased

in the last three years in industrial sector, industrial

activity from 53, 5 to 49,7 in June (Survey Institute

for Supply Management). In PMI consensus, if

above 50 means expansion and if under 50 the

economy is in recession phase. The worst

decreasing of PMI in Europe since 2011, while

Indonesia 48,1 to 50,2 and India 54,8 to 55 (Survey

74 Oda

HSBC in Indonesia) tend to grow up. Today the

global economic growth is recession shadow, the

impact is unemployment in productive age happens

everywhere, European countries, USA and Asia

(Kompas July 5th 2012).

At long-term economic crisis in Europe, they

think over strategy of economy in information and

industry period to creative economy, based-ideas

and creativity and innovation. In Indonesia, to run

the business by diversifying small and middle

business of one object can result some or many

products. Creative economy does not rely on investment

and export but it maximize local economic activity

with ideas, creativity and innovation as capital to

maximize local diversification of economic activity

creative economy presents new atmosphere on

European economic activity and Asia especially

Indonesia by maximizing ideas, creativity and

innovation, and individual talent to create product in

economic value. Creative economy as strategic

sector in solving unemployment and motivate youth

to run their own business. According to a reference,

creative industry is:

‘Creatives Industries as those industries

which have their origin in individual creativity,

skill & talent, and which have a potential for

wealth and job creation through the generation

and exploitation of intellectual property. This

includes: advertising, architecture, the art and

antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion,

film and video, interactive leisure software,

music, the performing arts, publishing, software

and computer services, television & radio’.

Other opinion stating that creative economy is

the same as creative industry. Research by New

England Foundation of the Arts (NEFA) states:

“Therefore, our definition of the creative

economy is represented by the ‘cultural core.’ It

includes occupations and industries that focus on

the production and distribution of cultural goods,

services and intellectual property. Excluded are

products or services that are the result of

non-culturallybased innovation or technology.

While a broader notion of the creative economy

is valuable to examine, we concentrate on what

could be considered the cultural component of the

creative economy. The occupations and

industries we include in this cultural component

are listed in the Appendix (document:

http//www.nefa.org/pubs/ducoment).

The center circle, labeled “Cultural Core,”

represents NEFA’s new research definition and

is nested within a broader circle of creative

industries. The band around the core labeled

“Cultural Periphery” represents the occupation

and industry categories that may be added to the

core to customize a particular local creative

economy study being done.

Based on the statements above can be concluded

that basically industry not only focus on material

production or service, but also distribution, exchange

and sales and consumption of product and service,

including diversification of one object to be many

others. But it should be noted that industry is related

to fabrication or manufacture (Second Industry),

because industrialization era is signed by dramatic

development by of manufacture industry. Industry

denoting a part of economic activity, industry is said

the segmentation of Economy.

In economic creative trend of 21st century, fund


is not main capital but the ideas, and innovation

had by someone as main stock holder, the entrepreneur

and the owner of ideas have the main role. The most

important asset is the person having the ideas and

innovation, if the person move to other region, they

would bring the assets and idea, so, the best thing

the company can do is creating environment that

make the owner of idea and innovation keep staying.

There are many ways that can be carried out by

Indonesian to anticipate economic crisis by building

small and middle economic segmentation based-creativity

and innovation, one of them is collaborating with

agriculture to agricultural tourism in tourism activity.

2. The Development of Tourism and Agro Tourism

1) Tourism Development

a. Tourism

Tourism is all activities related to touring in

multidimensional and multidiscipline appaering as

the need of people and country and interaction of

every tourist and local people, government and

enterpreneurship (UURI-no 10 year 2009 on Tourism).

The activities of the tourisn iare supported by

various facilities and in its infrastructure and its

service, to make the tourist get proportional and

interesting service so the tour is satisfying memorable.

World Tourism Organizatio (WTO), states that

tourism is unseparated part of human life especially

relating to social and economic activity, in 15th

century there was a man travelling to want to know

world condition, he has travelled far away, like

Colombus travelling around the world to want to

know the form of earth, after Colombus had tripped

around the world, it has been known that the world

i like ball.

Some countries are facing 1. At a certain time

mineral resources run out 2. long-term global

econimic crisis 3. Biological natural resources is less

and less in worst condition (global watrning) that

needs rearrangement, conservation and revitalization.

Tourism development is long-term development in

continuity that must creatively and innovatively

developed. Countries that have farming land has

chance to develop and diversify alternative tourism

one of them is agrotourism. Natural tourism potential

based-farming as agrotourism to develop optimally,

through tourism development and empowerment of

natural resources with rearrangement of any potential

and natural resources and biology can be cohesive

tourism area. The development of natural tourism

area and agrotourism can create work field, business

opportunity and has contribution on regional income

and it can keep biology in nature. Thebrelation to

tourism, the condition of modern people choose the

nature (back to nature) as natural recreation facility,

refresh and free of polution and the noise og city.

76 Oda

b. Scheme of tourism flow

CREATIVE

ECONOMY

LOCAL TOURIST

ARTIFICIALDOMESTC INTERNATIONALFOREIGNER NATURAL

TOURIST TRANSPORTATION DESTINATION TOURISM

INDUSRTY

1. INFRASTRUCTURE

2. ACCSESIBILITY

3. EASE

4. COMFROTABLE

5. SAFETY

6. SERVICES

7. etc.

1. PLANE

2. SHIP

3. CAR/BUS 1. PLANE

2. SHIP

3. CAR/BUS

1. HOTELS

2. RESTAURANTS

3. TOUR&TRAVEL

4. GUIDES

5. TRANSPORTATION

6. GIFT SHOPS

7. etc

1. MOUTAIN

2. FOREST

3. LAKE

4. WATERFALL

5. BEACH

6. RIVER

7. etc

1. CULTURE

2. SOCIATY

3. TRADITIONAL

CEREMONIES

4. SPORT

5. AGRICULTURE

6. etc

PRIVATE CORPORATION GOVERNMENT COMMUNITY

Source: Gamal Suwanto, Developed by Oda

Figure 1

2) Agro Tourism

The basic of agro tourism is farming denoting

developing of agricultural business, farming sector

is developed by focusing on increasing variety and

plantation production of food especially rice and

commodity of traditional trade like vegetables and

fruits to meet the food need, agro tourism denotes

combination of farming and ecotourism. Ecotourism

is on of the activities of tourism based-environment

insight by focusing on conservation aspects of

nature, aspect of economic cultural socio empowerment

of local people and the aspect of learning and

education (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotourism).

a. Definition of Agro Tourism

Agro tourism has large in meaning, in some

countries, agro tourism and ecotourism are classified

in same meaning and activities, agro tourism is the

part of ecotourism. In Indonesia the meaning of

agrotourism and ecotourism have a little different

meaning, ecotourism is the development of natural

tourism led to natural preservation based-

conservation. Some examples of ecotourism are

national park, natural reservation, protected forest

area, protected coral reefs, camping area and so on.

Agro tourism denotes tourism objects with

purpose to enlarge knowledge, recreation experience,

and the relation of business in farming. Agroturism

is also the development of natural tourism led to

maximizing natural resources, and optimize cultivation


ability either agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery

or forestry. So agro tourism is not only in agriculture,

but also maximizing waterworks both in land or

ocean. As examples, Fruit park, flower garden,

vegetables park, cohesive tourism, water tourism

and so on.

Agro tourism has special quality comparing to

other tourism, first the capital is not so high

because agro tourism does not change the area of

farming too much because the tourist prefer natural

panorama; second agro tourism involves local

people in high amount if it has more visitors can

recruit more people from other villages around, it

can support in developing tourism based-society

economic (based on community). Third this kind of

tourism can offer potential that is not so popular in

other tourism. The potential can be the specialty of

local region or local performance of tourism that can

enrich various kinds of culture. Fourth is service

business offering beautiful scenery and fresh air,

and also can have role as promotion media agriculture

product, fifth educative media for local people and

student, the signal of opportunity of development of

agribusiness product diversification. Sixth the

existence of agro tourism means the area is

developing. So agro tourism can be one of development

sources of a region, agriculture sector and national

economy. Agro tourism is one of business

diversification for it has good prospect, modern

people of today needs natural recreation facilities

more and more, fresher and free from pollution, one

of such tourism area is agro tourism.

In general, agro-tourism is the practice of

attracting travelers or visitors to an area or areas

used primarily for agricultural purposes. Very often,

the idea of tourism stimulates images of mass-

produced travel that attracts a large number of

travelers. (Lobo, R. 2000. Bermanfaat definisi pariwisata

pertanian. Universitas California Pusat Pertanian

Kecil, Cooperative Extension. www.sfc.ucdavis)

b. Agro tourism Development

Natural resources of land ocean, including land

waterworks or ocean waterworks should be preserved.

The preservation of nature and biology natural

resources can be carried out continuously in long-term

is very important, because the preservation of life

in the future depends on the preservation of nature

and environment: first the development based on

ideas and innovation (creative economy), second

the development based-conservation of nature and

environmental revitalization and maximizing agriculture;

keeping natural ecosystem, developing and preserving

natural resources of life, history, culture and recreation.

Third development based-society; posting agro

tourism as the empowerment of farmers (Community

based-tourism development) to get more value

either in farming product or tourism visit. Forth the

placement of agrotourism area as the centre. Fifth

inventory of agro tourism potential for other area,

sixth technical guidance of tourism institution and

agriculture in agro tourism guidance for farmers or

manager.

c. Facilities

The facilities for agro tourism 1. Infrastructure;

good accessibility either road or signs and also

traffic signs, transportation, electric, clean water

and irrigation 2. Facilities; rest area and ritual

facility, bathroom and toilet, restaurant, traditional

café, hotel, cleaning service, comfortability, safety,

cleanness and the excellent service.

78 Oda

d. Agrotourism Products

Many kinds of activities and products of agro

tourism offered; 1. agriculture related festival and

fairs 2. farm tour, Farmer on-farm retail market, 3.

on farm vacations, 4. on-farm educational programs.5.

on-farm bed and breakfasts, 6. U-pick vegetables

and fruit,7 factory tour 8. biking/hiking trails, 9.

Hiring some plantation in a certain time to harvest

and many others.

Agricultural tourism allows farm operators to

increase income through a variety of service initiatives

such as farm demonstrations, harvest festivals,

farm vacations, school group tours, hay rides, pick-

your-own crop harvests, bed and breakfasts,

campgrounds, crop mazes, and a host of other

products and services. These services can be tailored

to specific seasons in order to complement farm

production (Lobo, 2000, Helpful agricultural tourism

definitions. University of California Small Farm

Center, Cooperative Extension. www.sfc.ucdavis.edu)

e. Supplementary Activities of Agro tourism

Other activity that can be held as supplementary

activity of agro tourism; horseback riding, enjoying

to visit animal husbandry and birds in the location,

fishing, hang gliding, rappelling, climbing, canoe,

wad across, gift shop.

f. Other Activities

Getting to know and learn local culture, local

custom, song, and dance. Weaving or drawing batik

in local tradition and spending the night in inhabitants’

housing, having interaction among tourists with the

people.

Ⅲ. Conclusion

1. Tourism is the need and right of all people to

choose, today tourism commodity shows the

increasing for the people of developed countries

and becoming of need as the result of busy

time in increasing income. One of popular

tourism object is agro tourism.

2. Agro tourism denoting development of natural

tourism led to ability of maximizing natural

resources, agro tourism rely on ability of

maximizing agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery

(bream and marine) or forestry. Agro tourism

developed based on concept of conservation,

revitalization, plant cultivation and empower

local people, colaboration with tourism is

creative economy. Agro tourism open various

opportunities; work field for local people,

solving unemployment and increasing society

economic, so it can increase regional income

through tax.

3. Anticipating global economic crisis in experienced

by European Countries, and it spreads to Asian

countries and the impact is productive age-

unemployment. It is necessary to change

paradigm from industrial economy an information

to creative economy with its ideas and innovation

as main capital.

4. One opportunity in tourism sector, by creating

ideas and innovation to develop diversification

of agro tourism becoming many kinds of

product that can be offered and interesting for

domestic or foreign tourists.


References

Alfin Toffler(1988). Kejutan dan Gelombang Jakarta:

Pantja Simpati, Jakarta.

I Gusti Bagus Rai Utama.(2012). Agrowisata Sebagai

Pariwisata Alternatif Di Indonesia, Bali.

John Naisbitt(1994). Global Paradox, Binarupa aksara,

Jakarta.

Lobo, R.(2000). Helpful Agricultural Tourism Definitions.

University of California Small Farm Center,

Cooperative Extension. www.sfc.ucdavis.edu

Naisbitt,. Book Review Global Paradox (Online).

Retrieved July 24, 2012, from

http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/naisbitt.html

Pitana I Gde & Gayatri, Putu G.(2005). Sosiologi

Pariwisata.Andi, Yogyakarta.

Prasetyantoko, A.(2012, July 2). Ancaman dari Jalur

Perdagangan., Indonesia., Kompas, Indonesia

Roso, Argowisata Kebun Teh Pagilaran Keindahan

Alam yang Memukau (Online). Retieved July 21,

2012 from http://duniapertanian.blogspot.com/2007/

10/agrowisata-kebun-teh-pagilaran.html

Santosa, P. Pengembangan Pariwisata Indonesia

(Online). Retrieved July 24, 2012, from

http://kolom.pacific.net.id/ind/setyanto_p._santos

a/artikel_setyanto_p._santosa/pengembangan__pa

riwisata__indonesia.html

Suwantoro Gamal.(1997). Dasar-dasar Pariwisata,

Andi, Yogyakarta.

. Definisi Ekonomi Kreatif (Online).

Retrieved July 22, 2012 from (http://forum.kompas.

com/nasional/44777-definisi-ekonomi-kreatif.html)





Maps on Public Display for Tourists in

Ayutthaya, Thailand

Simon Potter*8)

[ABSTRACT]

This article about publicly displayed maps in

Ayutthaya has five sections of text, six

photographs, and a list of printed references for

further reading. It opens with two one-paragraph

sections to explain how the research project of

which this article is part came about and to provide

a brief about the historical importance of Ayutthaya

and why it might attract tourists. Then comes a

lengthier section which discusses five maps-each of

a different type and shown in a photograph-in

regard to their content, symbolization, and

illustrations of sites, and this in turn is followed by

an analytical section which comments mainly about

the usefulness of the illustrative material for

advertising or explaining selected sites, their

incompleteness in regard to content, and-by using

a temple plan which represents the layout of the

Buddhist universe as an example-how there can be

more to an image than what initially meets the eye.

The concluding comment which wraps up the text

notes that although maps on public display are not

a necessity, they do provide a public service which

can be of help to tourists and thereby suggest that

organizations such as the Tourism Authority of

Thailand and the City of Ayutthaya are keen to

make tourism a reasonably pleasant experience.

Key Words : Tourist maps, Public display, Ayutthaya,

Thailand

Origins and Purpose of This Research Project

Having written over a dozen articles and collated

seven of them into a book about publicly displayed

* Graduate School of Languages and Cultures Nagoya University, Japan



82 Simon Potter

maps in Japan (Potter 2010a), it seemed worthwhile

to prepare some articles about such maps outside

Japan, partly to investigate whether other countries

are now doing what the Japanese have been doing

for at least two decades, and partly to create a

database for analytical comparisons and contrasts in

the future. As a starter, three articles have been

published about illustrated maps on public display

in Ayutthaya, Thailand (Potter 2010b, 2010c, 2011),

and this one essentially synthesizes those published

as 2010c and 2011, although with modifications,

some deletions, and fewer photographs so that this

article is not a copied-and-pasted monograph. That

said, a personal interest in Thai maps which are

displayed in public for the benefit of tourists began

while attending a conference about “The Map and

the World” in Buddhism that was held in Bangkok

in June 2007, when it was obvious that Bangkok at

least was in the business of putting up such maps,

and a variety of them were photographed for future

reference. A specific interest in Ayutthaya developed

while participating in the WCTA conference in

Bangkok in November 2009, when a day trip to the

former capital was taken and informative, publicly

displayed maps were found in relative abundance.

This led to a follow-up research trip in January

2010, when fieldwork was done equally in Bangkok

and Ayutthaya, yielded a sufficiently sized “sample

set” of maps as well as photographs of related sites,

and led to the three aforementioned articles;

subsequent research-oriented trips to Ayutthaya

have been taken in July 2010 and in September 2011,

the latter of which also included visiting Kamphaeng

Phet and Sukhothai for the same purpose. For this

article, which addresses maps only in Ayutthaya,

five different types of map are reproduced and

discussed in the context of their relevance to an

international tourist, with the Buddhist cosmology

which is embedded in the final map being explained

to demonstrate that there can be more in a map than

what the visuals alone reveal.

A Brief about Ayutthaya

The city of Ayutthaya is about seventy five

kilometers north of Bangkok, has many historical

ruins as well as contemporary cultural attractions,

and was designated a World Heritage Site by the

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) in December 1991. It

flourished from 1350 to 1767, when it was the capital

of its namesake kingdom (or of Siam) which was

an absolute monarchy with Theravada Buddhism as

its official religion (see Wyatt 2004, chapters 4 and

5, and Garnier 2004 for detailed accounts). Around

1700 Ayutthaya might have been the largest city in

the world, with its population having been estimated

at one million, but during the first half of the

eighteenth century internal political problems led to

weaknesses in the kingdom. The Burmese, a rival

kingdom in southeast Asia, attacked in the 1750s

and 1760s, finally sacked and razed the city in 1767,

and in the process decapitated the vast majority of

its Buddhist statues presumably in search of hidden

wealth. Having never regained its political importance,

Ayutthaya basically lay in ruins until archeological

and historical work revived its past and paved the

way for the city to become a fascinating destination

for tourists. Among its attractions, which are

mostly found on “the island” or not far from it, are

red-brick walls, stupas, and towers as well as

statues (most beheaded) which are the remains of

temples that no longer function as such, but there

Maps on Public Display for Tourists in Ayutthaya, Thailand 83

are also active temples-some with one foot in the

past and the other in the present-worth visiting and

activities such as riding elephants and tuk-tuks

(motorized tricycles) to do, while on the east side

of the island is a commercial district which caters

to all sorts of requirements for tourists as well as

local people. This so-called “island,” formed by

three rivers (the Chao Phraya, Lopburi, and Pasak)

flowing around it, is clearly visible on Maps 2, 3, and

4 in this article, and it is small enough to bicycle

around and visit several sites within a day. A more

intensive in-the-field study of the city, however,

requires much more time, as the following commentary

on the five maps reproduced here suggests.

Five Sample Maps

Ayutthaya, or more formally Phra Nakhon Si

Ayutthaya, is the name of both a province and a city

today, and Map 1 shows the province in a strictly

diagrammatic fashion which emphasizes transportation

routes. Commissioned by the Tourism Authority of

Thailand (TAT), the seal for which is in the upper

right corner and information about which is given

at the left of the composition, it is bilingual except

for the title and the legend. Although none of the

lines are explained in the legend, it would be within

reason for a person with fundamental map-reading

skills to be able to figure out that the thick black

lines with crossmarks running through the eastern

part of the province are railway lines, the red lines

(numbered or not) are roads, and the blue lines are

rivers. Beyond that, though, knowledge has to kick

in to make sense of what is in the map, notably that

the gray line interrupted by two dots represents the

provincial boundary and the fainter gray lines

interrupted by one dot are boundaries for the sixteen

districts within the province. By looking rather

closely at the map and knowing what at least

Ayutthaya the city has to offer, common reasoning

would dictate that the red dots that are concentrated

linearly just right of center denote sites of interest

to tourists, examples being from top to bottom the

Elephant Kraal Pavilion, Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon,

and Bang Pa In. Whereas the Thai label-translated

as “site to tour”-next to the red dot in the legend

confirms this, the meaning of the other two symbols

need not be clear; they are “district office” and “you

are here,” respectively, for the black circle and the

red star.

<Map 1> “Map of the Province of Phra Nakhon

Si Ayutthaya …” [from the Thai], north to the top.

While Map 1 has been included because it is an

example of entirely abstract cartography that

conveys predetermined important information in a

rather “dry” fashion, the remaining maps in this

article employ forms of artwork that go beyond

graphically locating places and provide visually

qualitative impressions of selected subjects. Map 2

is of greater Ayutthaya, the settlement in this case,

and it has two clear purposes, one being to convey

topographical information and the other being to

84 Simon Potter

advertise businesses. At the left of the composition,

the island which has most of the sites of historical

significance is easily identified, and the railway,

roads, and rivers on the map quickly catch the eye.

A closer look at the map, however, reveals that it

has many individual sites on and off the island

which are pictured through symbols that are

completely abstract in that they do not resemble

what they denote (abstract symbols par excellence)

or are drawings that resemble, at least theoretically,

a generalized type of phenomenon they depict

(symbolic resemblances). Most of these symbols

belong to the set which is listed in the legend below

the photographs on the right side of the composition,

and they are labeled in English as “temple,”

“government sector,” “education institute,” “Tourism

Authority of Thailand,” “hospital,” “bus station,”

“train station,” and “post office.” Those for sites

which are connected to the government sector (a

red circle colored orange inside) or are hospitals (a

red cross resembling a plus sign) are completely

abstract, while those connected to TAT and the

post office use pictorial symbols of those institutions,

the bus station and train station symbols use

pictures of the mode of transport associated with

them (a bus and a train), and that for educational

institutions is a house-like building with a flag in

front. The remaining symbol-that for temples-is

however worth critique because it is used without

distinction for temples that are active and for

temples that are ruins. At first sight, or for viewers

not in the know, there does not appear to be

anything wrong with the symbolic resemblances for

temples-they are the same picture showing the

same sort of phenomenon in the landscape-yet there

is an important difference between such temples as

Wat Phanan Choeng and Wat Mahathat, being that

the former is flourishing today, but the latter is a

ruins from a bygone age, which generally also

means that the architecture is significantly different.

In this context, it might have been better to have

created a symbolic resemblance from images of the

brick towers, stupas, and walls that are the main

archeological attractions of Ayutthaya so that

visitors might be alerted in a visual, symbolic way

to the fact that a temple such as Wat Mahathat

offers a different type of experience than one such

as Wat Phanan Choeng.

<Map 2> “Ayutthaya Municipality” [English title],

north to the top

As its background attests, Map 3 is at a venue

where transportation services for tourists are offered,

but an interesting thing is that it is composed

entirely in the Thai language and, like Map 1, is

connected with TAT. One interpretation of this, of

course, is that domestic tourists are also important

in Ayutthaya and that they might be interested in

taking at least one of the seven color-coded routes-

two by human-powered tricycle (samlor) and five

by motorized tricycle (tuk-tuk)-which are listed in

the legend at bottom center but which seem to have

been made into one combined grayish route on the

map. Still, non-Thai visitors could be just as


interested as Thais in these forms of transportation,

which are illustrated in three corners of the map,

and might be shown a route to take on the map by

a prospective driver (who might, for that matter,

suggest something completely different). Besides

using “idealized portraits” to depict a good number

of historical sites to visit, Map 3 also has two

illustrations of an elephant which essentially advertise

the two riding centers, one due southwest of Wat

Phra Ram near the center of the island, and the

other due east of the island next to the Ayothaya

Water-Market that was built after the map was

made. Although the pictures on the map come

across as somewhat fuzzy, the idealized portraits do

draw out salient features of their subjects without

being too detailed and thereby give a decent idea of

what tourists might see.

<Map 3> “Road Map for a Tour around …

Ayutthaya” [from the Thai], north to the top

Map 4 belongs to a set of maps that are found

throughout the city, and copies from many sites

have been photographed while doing fieldwork, this

one being from near Wat Phra Ram. Dominated by

the rivers and canals in a strong royal blue, and

seemingly complemented by the road network in

black, the diagrammatic part is completely abstract.

Its legend lists the linear symbols as well as those

for the railway line, the Ayutthaya Historical Park

(most of the western two thirds of the island), and

police boxes (a black square with a Thai letter

inside it). To either side of the diagram are

elongated rectangles which include a list of sixty

two sites that are located on the map through black

squares with a number inside and are divided into

three groups: “tourist attractions” (50), “railway

station [and] bus terminal” (2), and “hotel[s]” (10).

Accompanying this list are three grayscale

photographs, two in the lower left and one in the

upper right, which comprise the only illustrative

material in the composition; these show the

Ayutthaya Historical Study Centre and Wat Phra

Ram at the lower left as well as the main stupa at

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, the tallest structure in the

city, at the upper right.

<Map 4> “Ayutthaya Tourist Map” [English

title], north to the top

Photographs capture an actual image of a site and

therefore belong to a category of illustrations that

have been termed “realistic portraits,” which could

also include rather detailed, almost lifelike paintings

or drawings. Although no such paintings or drawings

have been discerned from the Ayutthaya maps

86 Simon Potter

photographed to date, examples of realistic portraits

exist in the form of color photographs such as that

of Wat Chai Watthanaram to the right of the

diagrammatic part on Map 5. This map belongs to

a set of “Clean Ayutthaya” or, as translated from

the Thai, “Ayutthaya: A Clean City” maps that have

similar plans and photographs at various sites

throughout the island. Because the plan showing the

layout of the temple grounds neither is labeled nor

has a legend, the photograph helps make sense of

it. The temple is located beyond the southwest

corner of the island, across the Chao Phraya River

which can be seen in the upper right corner of the

photograph and as the thicker blue line on the plan.

Inside the temple compound is a square formation

with eight small stupas and a tower in the middle,

and these as well as, for instance, the two stupas

near the river, can be easily identified on the plan;

the significance of this layout is discussed in the

next section, which also has a photograph taken at

ground level.

<Map 5> Plan and Aerial View of Wat Chai

Watthanaram, north to the top in the plan

Analysis

It is worth noting that all five examples are

readily identified as maps-diagrams that portray

spatial distributions with at least a relative sense of

distance and direction-and that they emphasize

elements in the cultural landscape. On the “scientific”

side, each map provides topographical information

(science in the sense of knowledge) and has been

organized in an orderly, meaningful way (science as

system), but it is not clear to what extent they have

been compiled according to an internally consistent

scale (science as precision); in regard to the last,

only Map 4 gives a clue by noting below the legend

in the lower right that it is “not to scale,” yet by

comparing them to each other and to other maps

(including those based on satellite imagery via

Google), it is possible to conclude that none of them

is off the mark to the point that the spatial

information is distorted to a confusing or useless

extent. The fact that Maps 2, 3, and 4 can be used

comfortably for getting around the city and that

Map 5 clearly lays out the temple compound attests

to a conscientious attempt to create rather reliable

scientific documents.

On the artistic side, an interesting observation is

that these and other maps in Ayutthaya have

examples from the same categories of illustration

found on Japanese illustrated maps on public display.

Other than the “abstract symbols” which are generally

expected to be on maps, they are the “symbolic

resemblances,” “idealized portraits,” and “realistic

portraits” that have been mentioned in the previous

section, to which can be added “cartoon characters”

since Map 3 includes three pictures (one large, two

small) of what appears to be a boy on a samlor as

well as two of elephants, although the latter might

be better classified as symbolic resemblances on the

grounds that they are identical and locate two sites

for riding elephants. All of the maps include abstract


symbols of one nature or another, and in fact each

map is in itself an abstraction since all of them have

reduced the topography to a collection of (often

colored) lines complemented by symbols and/or

illustrations for selected elements in the landscape.

In regard to illustrations that emphasize a quality of

their subjects and are not strictly devoted to locating

a site, only Map 1 is completely devoid of them,

although the diagrammatic parts of Maps 4 and 5

do not contain any such illustrations either. Still, the

three grayscale photographs within the list of

tourist attractions on Map 4 and the color photograph

of the temple compound next to the plan in Map 5

make these two “illustrated maps,” while Maps 2 and

3 clearly make use of symbolic resemblances, idealized

portraits, and/or realistic portraits within the

diagrammatic part. The significance of this is that

Maps 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been designed to convey

more than just topographical information.

The idealized portraits and photographs on these

maps are obviously useful for advertising or explaining

selected sites, although this need not be true of the

symbolic resemblances as suggested by what was

said about the symbol which is used for temples in

Map 2. It would be within reason to imagine tourists

looking over maps such as Maps 2 and 3 to notice

a particular picture and say “that’s the place we

want to go to,” or something similar, since some

might recall images of sites, but not necessarily

their names, after having read up about Ayutthaya,

or because a picture or photograph catches their

fancy. Photographs such as that in Map 5 can

contribute to a better appreciation of a site than a

simple diagram filled with lines and geometric shapes,

and just labeling the diagram with terms like “tower,”

“stupa,” and “wall” might not be very interesting. The

connection of the illustrations with selected sites

aside, it is important to note that some illustrations

are used to advertise specific businesses and services;

the samlors on Map 3, for example, refer to the

services offered by the adjacent shop, while Map 2

has what appear to be two dozen pictorial advertisements

of a commercial nature on the right side. These

advertisements include such information as business

name, products or types of service, and telephone

numbers in a reasonably appealing way, and although

the language in the advertisements is Thai, they

seem to be targeted at visitors more than local

residents; their venues in the diagrammatic part of

the map, however, have bilingual labels and what

appear to be business logos.

Despite their usefulness, maps such as the five

reproduced here do not reveal everything that

tourists might be interested in. By virtue of being

abstract diagrams that reduce topographical reality,

a lot of detail has to be left out and compiling a map

requires decisions of omission as well as inclusion

having to be made. Maps 2, 3, and 4, which cover

at least the main historical district, can certainly

direct viewers to such “must-see” sites as Wats Rat

Burana, Mahathat, Phra Ram, and Phra Si Sanphet

and the old Royal Palace, and a tour of that set

promises to be a day’s work that would do more

than introduce the day-tripper to the marvels of the

old capital. Added to this, Maps 2, 3, and 4 not only

include other sites on the island but also show

others off the island, and visiting at least some of

these-for example, Wats Lokaya Suttharam, Chai

Watthanaram, Phanan Choeng, and Yai Chai

Mongkhon-would contribute to a better understanding

of the historical city as well as the present one yet,

in conjunction with the other set of sites, take more

than one day to accomplish. As impressive as the

famous sites are, there are however other places

88 Simon Potter

worth visiting both on and off the island, and many

are not located or illustrated on maps such as these.

The best way to explore the city and to come across

smaller, less famous sites such as old temple grounds,

active temples, and religious venues that are not

Buddhist, as well as a wide variety of shops and

views of the natural or quasi-natural landscape, is

to walk or bicycle around it at one’s own pace. As

incomplete in terms of archeological and other sites

that such maps are, it is also worth noting that there

are at least two possible types of illustration which

are absent, but which would seem to attract attention

and enhance attractiveness, decapitated statues and

(as municipal symbols) elephants.

Finally, there is more to Map 5 than what might

catch the eye of an uninformed viewer in that the

prominent square in the diagram of Wat Chai

Watthanaram depicts the traditional Buddhist universe,

which is mainly metaphysical and linked to ethics

and human psychology, rather than a description of

a real cosmos that would fall in the domain of

natural science. The most important parts of this

universe-Mount Sumeru, the four continents or

landmasses, and the perimeter mountain range-can

be seen in the temple grounds of Wat Chai

Watthanaram and other temples in Ayutthaya such

as Wats Rat Burana, Mahathat, and Phra Ram

which were influenced by the architectural style

known as Khmer, the best known example being

the Brahmanist compound of Angkor Wat in

Cambodia. As can be seen in the view of Wat Chai

Watthanaram in the photograph printed here, the

vertical relativity of the structures there and at

other such temples in Ayutthaya captures the

hierarchical sense of size of Mount Sumeru (which

looms over the rest), the continents, and the

perimeter mountains.

A Symmetrical View of the Main Part of the

Grounds of Wat Chai Watthanaram

This universe, long known to specialists in

Buddhism (e.g. Sadakata 1998), received considerable

attention in the comprehensive volume on East and

Southeast Asia in The History of Cartography

(Harley and Woodward 1994, especially the chapter

“Cosmography in Southeast Asia”), where it is

referred to as the “Cakrav la system” and “Cakkav la

system” on the basis of the Sanskrit and Pali words

for “circle,” the proper shape of the range of iron

mountains that serve as its horizontal perimeter,

although the range can appear as a square as it does

in compounds such as those of Angkor Wat and

Wat Chai Watthanaram. Through the center of the

circle or square perpendicularly cuts Mount Sumeru,

which is said to be 160,000 yojanas from base to

peak-80,000 above the sea-level plane and 80,000

below it (converting a yojana into meters, incidentally,

is more or less meaningless)-and to be 80,000

yojanas for the other two dimensions, thereby giving

the impression that it would appear as a cube above

sea level, but it has been described and drawn as

a shape which resembles a chalice above the sea

because of a quasi-symmetrical tapering that makes

its middle 20,000 yojanas in breadth and depth.

Mount Sumeru above sea level comprises two


heavens within the “Realm of Desire,” that at the

very top being the abode of thirty three deities, the

most important being Indra, while that of the lower

half above sea level is the abode of the Four Great

Kings who guard the cardinal directions and three

terraces for their subordinates, all of whom are

given the task of defending the heaven of the thirty

three deities at the top. In architecture, creating a

chalice-shaped Mount Sumeru would have been an

enormous, perhaps impossible challenge, so the

mountain has been stretched into a lofty column

which looms over compounds such as those at Wats

Rat Burana, Phra Ram, and Chai Watthanaram,

although a tapering of its lower half can be seen in

the photograph of the last temple. The horizontal

structure of the universe technically includes a

sequence of seven seas and perimeter mountains,

which are each half the width of its predecessor

closer to Mount Sumeru and the heights and depths

of the mountains above and below sea level match

their widths, and beyond the seventh range of

mountains is a wider sea which contains four continents

(including Jambudv pa, the home of human beings)

and their adjacent islands and which is surrounded

by the range of mountains that delimits the boundary

of the universe. In the photograph of Wat Chai

Watthanaram, the four continents can be seen next

to Mount Sumeru in the center-although the two in

the back are only partly visible-and seven of the

eight conical towers which represent mountains

along the perimeter range can be seen (one of them

is in front of Mount Sumeru and can be made out

by looking closely; the eighth tower is out of the

picture, behind Mount Sumeru).

Concluding Comment

To sum up, these five maps bear evidence of

cartography being applied as a public service. While

they are not strictly necessary since portable maps

can be acquired from different sources, they can be

of some help to tourists in Ayutthaya by providing

topographical information, views and explanations

of sites, and references to commercial establishments.

That the sponsors of such maps include the Tourism

Authority of Thailand and the City of Ayutthaya

suggests that institutions with a vested interest in

encouraging tourists to visit places, and thereby

spend money on auxiliary goods and services, have

made an effort to make touring a bit easier and to

provide some intellectual stimulation. In regard to

the latter, it might be added that there are many

information boards throughout the city which explain,

often in Thai and English, what a particular site is;

these information boards also contribute to a better

understanding of the city, especially when they are

at the smaller, less spectacular, and probably less

visited sites. Still, getting back to the maps, most

of them are not simply “dry” spatial documents with

the sole purpose of conveying information about

distance, direction, and location, but reasonably

attractive specimens of visual art. Although some

maps in Ayutthaya bear the hallmarks of aging,

especially through fading and discoloration because

of exposure to the natural elements, their combinations

of color, line work, and symbolization make them

generally appealing to the eye. This is also a good

advertisement for the city of Ayutthaya and would

seem to demonstrate a commitment to making the

tourist experience there a pleasant one.

90 Simon Potter

References

Garnier, Derick(2004). Ayutthaya: Venice of the East.

Bangkok: River Books.

Harley, J. B., and David Woodward, eds.(1994). The

History of Cartography. Volume 2, Book 2. Cartography

in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian

Societies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Potter, Simon(2010a). Publicly Displayed Illustrated

Maps in Japan: A Collection of Revised Essays.

Nagoya [printed via research funding at Nagoya

University]. 150.

Potter, Simon(2010b). Maps on Public Display for

Tourists in Ayutthaya, Thailand: Analysis of

Their Content and Artwork. Under “Proceedings

2010” at www.ictlconference.com (the website for

the International Colloquium on Tourism and

Leisure). 20.

Potter, Simon(2010c). Maps on Public Display for

Tourists in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Gengo Bunka

Ronshū [Collection of Essays on Language and

Culture] / Studies in Language and Culture 32,

1: 3-20. (published at Nagoya University)

Potter, Simon(2011). The Buddhist Cosmos on Selected

Maps in Ayutthaya: What Is Not Explained to the

Tourist Viewer. Gengo Bunka Ronshū [Collection

of Essays on Language and Culture] / Studies in

Language and Culture 33, 1: 47-59. (published at

Nagoya University)

Sadakata, Akira(1998). Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy

and Origins. Tōkyō: Kōsei.

Worachetwarawat, Chaiwat(2001). Ayutthaya. [This is

a small informative booklet written with tourists

in mind, but with contributions from scholars at

three of the Rajabhat Institutes (now Universities);

it is dated 2544 in the Buddhist Era.]

Wyatt, David K.(2004). Thailand: A Short History.

Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.





Potentials for Cultural Tourism in Sohbar

Village, East Khasi Hills District,

Meghalaya

Bathsheba Goswami Pyngrope*

9)

[ABSTRACT]

Sohbar Village selected for the present study is

an interesting area rich in history and culture,

uniqueness and individuality of its own. This village

has great potential for cultural tourism, a subset of

tourism concerned with showcasing built and living

culture which is identified with the place. In its

broadest definition, cultural tourism is travel directed

towards experiencing a unique place which is of

cultural interests: traditional cultural communities

and their lifestyles; their practices, products,

celebrations (crafts and festivals), rituals, food;

handcrafted dwellings and tools crafted from nature;

and the cultural landscape/land use. The area under

study is known for its rich culture and tradition

which usually have a strong bondage with the

natural environment. Planned cultural and tourism

management of the study area will help conserve

contribute to sustainable cultural tourism. The main

objective of this paper is to identify potential

cultural resources that can be exploited for cultural

tourism in Sohbar village through cultural mapping

Approach and Analysis, which involves inventorying

and tracking elements such as facilities, organizations,

activities, participants, places, etc. and assess how

cultural tourism help towards the development and

sustainability of communities cultural resources.

Hence, in this light, the cultural resources of the

study area will be investigated and assessed and

further develop cultural tourism.

Key Words : Cultural resources, Communities, Sustainable

development, Cultural mapping

* Research Scholar, Department of Geography, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India



92 Bathsheba Goswami Pyngrope

Introduction

Sohbar village is located in the southernmost part

of the Meghalaya Plateau. It lies between 25° 13’N

to 25° 9’N latitudes and 91° 42’E to 91° 47’E

longitude. The region covers approximately 18.98

square kilometers of area. The total population of

Sohbar is 1039 persons which includes 503 males

and 536 females. Sohbar is situated on the lowest

of the southern slopes of East Khasi Hills bordering

on the Sylhet plains of Bangladesh. The area is

drained by Umsohryngkew River and its tributaries

flowing down south to Bangladesh. It is situated at

70 kms distance from Shillong the state capital of

Meghalaya. The area is connected by all season

Shillong-Shella road. Except for a patch of 2kms

towards the village, the rest of the road is metalled

and reasonably good. The village is rich in history

and culture. The village once witnessed war with

the Britisher’s and came under the British rule.

There is a graveyard where British missionaries

and their close relatives lay buried near the village.

A series of giant pillars or megaliths have been

erected in the corner of the village to commemorate

great deeds or to honour dead chieftains. The

Menhirs and Dolmens are an amazing attraction in

the village.

Sohbar village is located in a small hillock on the

other side of the river ‘Sohkhylleng’, from where the

Hima Sohbar slopes down to the Bangladesh plains.

The original people of Sohbar village are believed

to have been inhabited from a place called Um-

Sohbar in Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya. At that

time ‘U-Jawumbar’ was the ‘Syiem’ of Sohbar.

Before the advent of the British Sohbar village

comprised of three villages, namely; ‘Ka Nongskong’,

‘Ka Nongrum’ and ‘Ka Sohbar’. But after the great

Earthquake of 1857, Nongrum village was abandoned

and Nongskong village and Sohbar village were

clubbed together to be as one village called as

Sohbar village.

Database and Methodology

The proposed research is based on the primary

data collected through field work, personal observation

and interaction with tourists that visit the study

area. Apart from this, Secondary data related to the

topic were collected from different sources which

include tourist inflow, existing culture of the area

and the historical background of the area. Information

about the place was collected from promotional

pamphlets, books and articles in magazines and local

newspapers, literatures, journals, Dissertations, PhD.

thesis (published and unpublished) and statistical

Potentials for Cultural Tourism in Sohbar Village, East Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya 93

data from Government offices. The proposed research

work was carried out in the following manner: First

of all a preliminary survey was taken in the study

area to collect information about the physical

features of the landscape having tourist interest.

Base maps were prepared using the survey of India

topographical maps. Field work was carried out in

Sohbar village to collect primary data and information

related to the topic. Data was analyzed and was

presented graphically in the form of Maps and

Charts. At the same time satellite imageries were

consulted and maps were prepared. The cultural

attractions of the area was studied and interpreted

to identify potentials for cultural tourism. Photographs

were also taken to support the research.

Physical Base

Although a part of the Indian Peninsular region,

the topography of the study area is marked by

rugged hilly terrain in the north at 350m above sea

level and low altitudes plains to the south up to 65m

above sea level which is dissected by minor rivulets

of the main Sohryngkew River. To the north, the

land rises abruptly to the higher altitudes of the

plateau whilst to the south, the land slopes gently

to the plains of Bangladesh. To the east, the land

slopes gently forming a gorge through which the

Umiam River flows. To the west, the land rolls with

hills of different elevations. There is an extensive

belt of limestone depicting Karst topography.

Geologically, the rocks of the area form a part of

the cretaceous-tertiary sedimentary sequence that

occupies the southern fringe of the Meghalaya

plateau.

The climate of the study area is sub-tropical type

where seasons can be classified as:

∙Summer (March-April)

∙Pre-Monsoon (May-Mid June)

∙Peak-Monsoon (Mid June-October)

∙Post-Monsoon (October-November)

∙Winter (December-February)

All the climatic features discussed above reveal

one important aspect that the area under study is

under sub-tropical climate where dry and hot season

are followed by a wet and rainy season. The area

has a vast stretch of fairly dense mixed vegetation

and rich in flora and fauna. The area is famous for

its large variety of orchids some of which are

almost endangered like the “king of orchids”, it is

also a home of the insect eating “pitcher plant”-

(Nepthenes Khasiana). The region is also a home of

a large variety of animals like the Hoolock Gibbon,

clouded leopard, civet cat and bats are some of

them. The land use pattern in the north of the study

area is mainly cultivation of betel nut and other

horticultural crops, while to the south people engage

themselves in agriculture and growing paddy.

Socio-Cultural concerns

Majority of the population belong to the Austro-

Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman Linguistic community

of which the two important subfamilies are the

“Monkhmer” and the “Kokborok”. The region is

rich in cultural heritage and ethnological diversity.

The study area composes of three main tribes, the

Khasis, Jaintias and the Garos having their own

traditional political institutions and matrilineal society

in nature. One striking feature of the Khasi-Jaintia

culture is their inclination to erect “mawbynna” or

monoliths/megaliths, dolmens and cromlechs. Some


of those monoliths are said to be commemorative

stones erected as sweet remembrances to the departed

heroes, while some others have some religious

connotations. Some Khasi scholars say that the

upright “Mawbynna” represents manhood and the

flat dolmens signify the womanhood. The Khasis

and the Jaintias are generally short and sturdy.

They are hard working and fun-loving. They also

have a great penchant for gold ornaments.

The British rule brought along with it Christianity,

western culture, education and other forces of modernity

which led to a transformation in the Khasi society

bringing considerable change in the society. The

Khasis have a matrilineal society. Descent is traced

through the mother, but the father plays an important

role in the material and mental life of the family.

While, writing on the Khasi and the Jaintia people,

David Roy observed, ‘a man is the defender of the

woman, but the woman is the keeper of his trust’.

No better description of Meghalaya matrilineal society

could perhaps be possible. In the Khasi society, the

woman looks after home and hearth, the man finds

the means to support the family, and the maternal

uncle settles all social and religious matters. In the

Khasi society the traditional chiefs are the Syiems,

Lyngdohs, Sirdars and Rangbah Shnong or the

village headmen who look after the administration

of the Elaka and villages as per local customs and

traditions. The majority of the Land belongs to the

people and not to the government. The landed

property is classified under ‘Ri-Raid’ or community

or Public land and ‘Ri-Kynti’ or Private land.

Findings

Historical Background of Sohbar

To get a glimpse of the Khasi traditional dance

and attire, one can watch the ‘Shad-phore’, a religious

dance performed to pay respect to the fore-fathers

who have died long time ago. It is a three day

sacred dance festival performed inside the sacred

yard of the village. The festival is held once in two

years in the month of March-April. The Village has

separate market days for varieties of forest products

such as bay leaf market and betel nut market. In

ancient times, Sohbar village was surrounded by a

pitfall or a ditch dug purposely and the floor of the

ditch was planted with pricks which were long and

pointed and covered with weeds to safeguard the

village from any sudden enemy attack. According to

the author E.W. Chyne, in his book “Na Ki Hamsaia

ka Mynnor”, he wrote that there was only one road

from the front which had a ‘Kyrdop’ known as the

‘Kyrdop Sohbar’ meaning “entrance of the village”.

Sohbar has got its own months calculated only after

its religious customs and ceremonies were performed.

It is said that long time ago, in one of those religious

months of ‘Nai-Tohtan’, any person from outside

who came to Sohbar and accidentally touched a

local village man, that man was arrested and taken

to a rock called the “Mawshyti Raja,” where he was

sacrificed after his head cut and body thrown to the

gorge. The whole of this area was governed by ‘U

Lyngskor’ and three Sirdars. They are; U sirdar

Nongskong, U sirdar Sohbar and U Sirdar Nongrum.

Hima Sohbar came in contact with the British with

the construction of the Gauhati-Sylhet road that

passed through this village. From here aroused the

Khasi-Sohbar relationship. When the war between


the Khasis and the British broke up, Sohbar was on

the side of U Tirot Sing the khasi warrior. But,

unfortunately the British won the battle and annexed

Sohbar by an agreement dated 29th October, 1829

under the British area and appointed a Political

agent David Scott in 11the of February in Sohra and

Sohbar came under his supervision. The First school

in Hima Sohbar was set up in 1854 by Rev. William

lewis known as Welsh Mission Lower Primary

School, Sohbar. At the same time the Gospel of

Jesus Christ had also came together. In 1928, Tarani

K. Purkayastha came to Sohbar and started another

school under the name of new India School which

later was taken over by the Ram Krishna Mission

Cherrapunjee. He also set up a dispensary inside the

school compound in 1930. The red cross was set up

in 1973 by Jebon Ryngnga and later in 1996 a public

health centre was set up by the Department of Health

and family Welfare, Government of Meghalaya. In

the field of transport and communication also the

pony road of Gauhati-Shillong started in 1826 via

Sohbar Village. The Cherrapunjee-Companyganj State

railway constructed a 12 kilometers railway line.

The main motive behind the construction of this

railway line was to transport and carry goods and

items in the year 1883-84. Ropeway was also

started from Majai via Sohbar to Sohra for carrying

goods alone but in 1950 this was stopped. Oranges

was the backbone of Sohbars economy but after

1950 everything died out and later people engaged

themselves in betel nut plantations only.

The ‘Shad Phore’:The ‘shad-phore’, is a religious dance performed

to pay respect to the forefathers who have died long

time ago. It is a three day dance festival but the

religious ceremonies starts from the month of

November itself. It is held once in two years by an

agreement between Sohbar village and Nongjri

village. This festival is held every two years

alternately as a mark of friendly relationship with

its neighbouring villages.

Earlier the ‘Shad-Phore’ festival was practiced in

four villages namely; Sohbar, Nongjri, Mawlong and

Wahlong. But now, only Sohbar village and Nongjri

village practice it. The other two villages have

stopped practicing it. The ‘Lyngdoh’ or the priest,

performs the holy rituals. His family prepares food

7 days before the ‘Shad-phore’ to be given to the

ones who had died.

The First day: “shad-ruthang”, it is a religious dance depicting the opening ceremony of the

religious dance festival or practice. This dance is

performed inside the sacred yard. This dance

continues till late in the evening and the residents

of the village tease the guests who have come from

outside the village.

The Second day: “shad Kyn-hei” This dance is performed early in the morning, inside the sacred

yard. This dance sequence is performed by three

boys and three girls. ‘Shad Kynhei’ is followed by

another dance called the “shad-pomwait” which depicts


victory over a war. This dance is again followed by

the ‘shad phore’ in the afternoon. The dance is

performed by the original khasis only and in the

evening the villagers gather for the “shad-Dkhar”.

Here, people from different villages come to participate

in this dance. One will play the harmonium the other

will sing in Khasi local language and the third will

dance to the tune of music and song. Whoever

performs well becomes the winner. This is performed

to trace the “ustad” or genius. This dance continues

till the following morning.

Ka “Noi-Pyrda”-is the month of April and the

beginning of the festival. During this time food

crops like potatoes and yam are grown and followed

by the harvest of the food crops in the month of

June. The harvest is first brought to the Lyngdoh’s

house who is the priest of the village who performs

the sacred rituals. Once the ritual is completed, the

harvest is made public.

‘Beh-Khlam’-meaning ‘wipe off’ the Plague by

sacrificing a piglet. The piglet is cut into four halfs

and placed in four direction of east, west, north and

south. During the ceremony people are allowed to

go outside the village but people from outside the

village are not allowed to enter inside unless the

ceremony is complete. “Mei-ram-ew”-a female pig

is sacrificed and given to the Mother Nature and soil

to bring prosperity and good harvest in the village.

“Ka bam Hu-Leng”-In this goats are sacrificed and

small pieces of its meat are packed in banana leaves

and distributed to every family in the village who

believes in this faith. “Thang ram”-In this rituals

the lyngdoh performs the sacrifice and blesses the

harvested food. On this day, the ‘Lyngdoh’ or the

priest put the sacrificed food in the “Maw-Shieng”or

below the monolith where they have kept their

ancestors bones.

1. Name of cultural

attractions

Historical importance, Khasi culture,

Religious dance festival, Menhirs

and Dolmens, trekking through

the village.

2. Location and timing:March-April after every Two

years

3. Describe potential

activities

Dance, music, religious ceremony,

food

4. Environment fragility: Flora and fauna, waterfalls

5. Socio-cultural

concerns:

Matrilineal society, marriage of

a member inside the same clan

is prohibited and is considered

as a taboo.

6. Choose Potential

market draw:

Visitor can stay up to 2 days

and more

<Table 1> Cultural Attractions

SWOT Analysis of Sohbar

Strengths-

∙nature/beauty and climate

∙unique culture and tradition

∙unexplored destination

Weakness-

∙infrastructure

∙connectivity to / within

∙lack of government initiative

Opportunities

∙marketing unexplored destination

∙financial assistance

∙look east policy

∙employment potentials

∙sustainable tourism

Threats

∙uneven growth

∙non-local participation

<Table 2> Cultural mapping

The Third day: “Shad-sngewbha”, this dance is

performed outside the premises of the sacred yard

of the lyngdoh. This dance is performed by both male

and female who are still unmarried. It is believed that

if anybody lies about their status and performs this

dance bad omens follow them. There are lots more


to know about the place and its culture. And for this,

we have to visit the places and see it ourselves and

get to know more about it and also experience the

scenic beauty of which God has created which

would be possible only through tourism.

Conclusions

Policy makers, tourist boards and cultural attraction

managers around the world continue to view cultural

tourism as an important potential source of tourism

growth. There is a general perception that cultural

tourism is good tourism that attracts high spending

visitors and does little damage to the environment

or local culture while contributing a great deal of the

economy and support of culture. Cultural tourism

may do more harm than good by allowing cultural

tourist to penetrate sensitive cultural environments.

The study area is backward in terms of tourism

facilities. The Government has to take initiative to

develop the infrastructure of these areas as well as

provide incentives to private sectors to set up tourism

facilities of international standards. As outlined in

the state tourism policy, the major role has to be

played by hoteliers, tour operators and travel agencies

and others who provide services in the tourism

sector and bring about integrated and healthy tourism

development.

References

Bathsheba Goswami Pyngrope(2004). Geomorphic Studies

around Shella, east Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya,

Unpublished M.Phil. Thesis, NEHU, Shillong.

Boo, E.(2000), Ecotourism: the Potential and Pitfalls, 2

volume, World Wildlife Fund, Washington.

Ceballos Lascurian, H.(1996). Tourism, Ecotourism and

Protected Areas, ICUN, Gland, Switzerland.

David Weaver, Ecotourism (2001). John Wiley and

Sons Publication ltd. Australia.

G. P. Bhakta(1992). Geography of North-East India,

Akashi Book Depot, Shillong.

Mercado, L. and Lassoie, J. P.(2002). Assessing

Tourists Preferences for Recreational and

Environmental Management Programmes Central

to the Sustainable Development of a Tourism

Area in the Domanican Republic, Environment,

Development and Sustainability, 4:253-278.

Mandira Agarwal(1989). Geomorphological Studies

around Umiam Lake and Adjoining Areas, East

Khasi Hills Meghalaya. M.Phil. Dissertation,

Department of Geography, NEHU.

Man and Forests (A New Dimension in the Himalayas),

Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Shillong

Dehradun, New Delhi and organized by Himalaya

Seva Sangh, Rajghat, New Delhi.

Meghalaya, Land and People(1991). Published by the

Directorate of Information and Public Relation,

Government of Meghlaya.

P.C. Panda(1983). Geomorpholgy and Rural Settlements

in Khasi and Jaintia Hills Meghalaya, Ph.D.

Thesis, Department of Geography, NEHU.

Sangma, C. T.(2006). Meghalaya Yours to Discover,

DVS Publishers, Guwahati.

Spate, O. H. K.(1967). India and Pakistan. (3rd edition)

Methuen and Co. Ltd.

Taher and Ahmed(2007). (eds) Geography of North-

East India, Trishnatur Printers, Guwahati.

Tiwari B. K., Barik, S. K., Tripathi, R. S., Sacred

Forests of Meghalaya, 1999, NEHU, Shillong.

Wall, G.(1994), Ecotourism: Old wine in New Bottles?

Trends 31(2): 4-9.

Wearing, S. and Neil, J.(1999). Ecotourism: Impacts,


Potentials and Possibilities, Reed Elsevier, Oxford,

U.K.

Zeppel, Indigenous Ecotourism, CABI, 2007 International

Journal of Tourism Research, Testing a Cultural

Typology, (Vol 5 Issue 1).

Submitted: August 03, 2012




The Dilemma of Night Bazaars in Taipei－Taking the Disputes over the Shihda Night Bazaar as An Example－

Steven M. Anderson*10)

C.J. Anderson-Wu**

[ABSTRACT]

The fast growth of the Shida Night Bazaar in

recent years brings up a number of issues that

actually have existed in many cities in Taiwan but

never caused serious clashes between the residents

and stall owners. Stalls and stands set up in

residential areas without complete legal status have

been tolerated in Taiwan’s many neighborhoods and

by the local governments, considering they absorb

the increasing population of unemployed. The

“informal spaces” became characteristic cityscapes

throughout Taiwan.

As the city government attempts to promote

tourism and to transform Taipei into a “World

Design Capital”, the resulting shopping and tourism

have led to an intolerable disturbance of the local

people’s daily lives. Along with the sprawl of small

businesses in narrow alleys, the problems of urban

zoning and the absence of law enforcement have

become issues. The discrepancy between the

reality and the image the city government tried to

construct also raised questions about the false

promises of tourism and urban gentrification.

Key Words : Taipei, Night bazaar, World Design

Capital, Cultural tourism, Urban gentrification

Introduction

Historically, a key character of Taiwan’s urban

spaces is irregular roads connected by maze-like

arteries of tiny alleyways twisting between structures

that are often of dubious legal status in terms of

zoning. Such pedestrian scale spaces lend themselves

* Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Chungyu Institute of Technology, Taiwan

** Taiwan Architect Magazine, National Association of Architects, Taiwan



100 Steven M. AndersonㆍC.J. Anderson-Wu

to dense commercial activity when they are located

adjacent to facilities that draw heavy traffic such as

universities.

Traditionally the government has opted to take a

hands-off approach to code enforcement in many

such situations and in cases such as the Shihda

night market the result has been a thriving, dense

area of commercial activity accompanied by intractable

logistical problems for the businesses there, not to

mention the issues of air and water and light pollution,

fire hazards, a total absence of parking spaces even

for motorcycles and a great deal of noise.

Moreover, the commercial success of the area has

made it an attractive target for shops that have

higher profit margins such as clothing boutiques,

eye glass shops and fast-food chain stores. In many

cases, these shops have pushed out many of the

original shops in the original night market area

threatening to reduce its appeal as a tourist venue.

As a result, the lower budget shops including many

food vending stalls and independent street vendors

have moved their wares into the surrounding

neighborhoods that were originally outside the

boundaries of the original night market.

This situation has come to be played out in public

as a kind of battle between the residents of the area

and the businesses that operate there. The following

is an effort to illustrate the underlying complexity

of the issue and how the multiple forces that are

operating are actually much more complex and

involve a variety of different and sometimes contrasting

commercial interests including pressures towards

gentrification and the tourism market in addition to

the multiple identities of the residents of the area.

Background of the Disputes

On this map the purple parts on the map are the

Shida University(National Taiwan Normal University).

The yellow parts are residential areas; the green

parts are parks or greeneries; the red parts are areas

where mixed use-residential buildings and businesses

coexist. The area encompassed by the red line is

where the night bazaar actually is. Clearly it has

grown much beyond the scope of mixed uses and

extended deeply into residential area.

<Map 1> The Red Part in the Center is about 1

Hectare, but the Night Bazaar Sprawled to 18

Hectares Included with the Red Line.(resource:

http://theericel.blogspot.tw/2012/02/blog-post.html)

Night bazaars form spontaneously around populated

areas throughout Taiwan, especially near universities

where students away from home need to find meals

and commodities for their daily use. Stalls and

stands in bazaars provide affordable food and

products, although they are sometimes of relatively

poor quality.

There are about 6,500 households and 700

businesses in this highly dense blocks. The current

The Dilemma of Night Bazaars in Taipei 101

zoning policy allows restaurants and fashion shops

to set up in the residential areas on the alleys wider

than eight meters. Alleys between six meters and

eight meters are zoned for beauty parlors and

bookstores among other businesses with limited

customer flows. And no business should be set up

at all in alleys narrower than six meters. Nevertheless,

in the Shida Night Bazaar, there are only about 150

businesses in the mixed use area that are legal.

Most of the 400 businesses in the alleys narrower

than eight meter alleys are operating contrary to the

zoning regulations. And businesses in alleys narrower

than six meters which are not legal at all number

as many as 150(China Times, 2012).

This table shows that about 350 businesses in the

Shida Bazaar are operating outside the law.

ZoningNumber of

BusinessesLegal Status

Mixed Use(Red) about 150 Legal

Residential Area facing alleys

wider than 8Mabout 100 Legal

Residential Area facing alleys wider

than 6M, narrower than 8Mabout 250

80% against

zoning

Residential Area facing alleys

narrower than 6Mabout 150 Illegal

<Table 1> Distribution of Businesses in the

Shida Bazaar

Noises, sanitary problems and fire hazards caused

by the still growing Shida Bazaar finally irritated

some of the people living in these neighborhoods.

They complained that they had to live with smoke

from the restaurants, noise from peddlers and

shoppers late at night, trash left by tourists, as well

as the safety risks caused by the illegal building

expansions extended by many businesses in the

small alleys. The flashing lights from the plentiful

neon and LED signs disturbed the sleep of some

residents according to their complaints, the stands

occupying their staircases blocked their access and

made exiting the building difficult. Since the end of

2011, local residents began reporting illegal businesses,

and the city government issued tickets to the

businesses that got the most complaints. Some

businesses had to shut down because they no longer

could afford paying the recurring fines. During this

time, local residents established a Self-Rescue

Association to fight against the pollution they

witnessed daily in the area, but the local businesses

set up their own Alliance of Shida Stores to protect

their businesses. The two groups first urged the

government to mediate their conflict but the

government failed to make any progress and, as of

the time of this writing, no active measures have

been taken.

Dispute 1: Zoning Policy Unfitted to Taiwanese Cities

Taiwan’s zoning policy is a continuation from the

Japanese Occupation Period in 1941, and in 1964 the

Nationalist Government mixed the existing framework

with the zoning regulations from the U.S.(Zen-Wei

Lin, 2011). But the separation of residential areas

and commercial areas is never a reality in Taiwanese

cities. Shops on the first floor with shop owners and

their families living upstairs has been the standard

practice for certainly over a century in Taiwan but

also part of a broader tradition that goes back many

centuries. China has a considerably extended history

of urban architecture for which this model has been

a key icon going back long into tradition. It’s also

no surprise that stores set up along streets and

alleys naturally form business clusters. People both


live and work in the same neighborhood(Jui-Mao

Huang, 2012).

Dispute 2: Promotion of Night Bazaars to Meet Middle-Class Taste

The city government began to gentrify night

bazaars in an attempt to promote tourism in Taipei.

The city government wishes to be the 2016 World

Design Capital, an award given by the International

Council of Societies of Industrial Design(ICSID).

The selection of Design Capital started in 2008

(ICSID Webpage), and Torino, Seoul, Helsinki and

Cape Town were Design Capital of 2008, 2010, 2012

and 2014 respectively. Design Capital is awarded to

cities that are able to solve their problems through

design.

Commissioned by Taipei City Department of

Cultural Affairs, cuisine critic Han Liang-Lu established

the South Village in Shida Night Bazaar, an attempt

to create a feel comparable to the East Village in

New York City. The slogan “Culture in Alleys” was

proposed in order to transform the bazaar into a

high cultural neighborhood. In addition to food

promotion, events imitating those in European literature

salons were also staged with the governmental

budgets. These events have been criticized as blind

to the facts that most of the eaters and shoppers

come to this area not because of its cultural flavor,

but because of the cheap foods and products

available here. Artist Mu-Ching Wu pointed out

that, looking back the history of this bazaar, all the

attempts of making over the area through cultural

themes were failures(Mu-Ching Wu, 2012).

Dispute 3: Real Estate Speculation

The governmental promotion did not necessarily

succeed in bringing more cultural flavor to the area,

but it did attract a lot more people to dine or shop

there. The first impact was the soaring rents. In the

busiest alley, a stall selling stewed meats pays

80,000NTD(about 2,700USD) a month for its 9-pin

space(about 30 square meters). A chain cosmetic

store pays 420,000NTD(about 14,000USD) for a

20-pin space(about 66 square meters) a month. In

an interview, the General Secretary of the Organization

of Urban Reforms(Ours) Peng Yang-Kae said, because

the rents are so high, many real estate agents

interested in speculating on the market actually

bought the stores and became landlords. Residents

having garages on the ground floor also were

persuaded by realtors to rent their garages to

businesses. A garage of 6-pin(about 20 square meters)

can earn the owners 30,000NTD(about 1,000USD) a

month. High rents result in fast handovers of

businesses. A very popular discount bookstore was

replaced by a Starbucks, and a spicy beef noodle

stand with an open layout serving cold beer called

“Big Bowl” that had been well-loved by generations

of students was kicked out. Instead of the displaced

local icon the new tenant was an eyeglass chain

store. A small set of cafeterias and eateries moved

away, their former spaces are split by three boutiques.

A very popular basement-level gathering spot for

Rock & Roll music lovers “Underworld” finally

ended its business in July 2012 after operating on

the edge of violating zoning laws for sixteen years.

The Department of Fire decided the narrow staircase

to the underground space did not meet fire protection

requirements. The founder of “Underworld” said:

“We eventually have to surrender to the greed of


middle-class.” (Dizzy Ha, 2012)

On the contrary, the values of the apartments in

these neighborhood dropped because of the

worsening living quality, which further heightened

the tension between businesses and residents.

Dispute 4: Unequal Law Enforcement

The city government seems to sidestep the

problem by issuing tickets to businesses when the

residents file complaints. However, the problem gets

a bit more tricky when you get into the details. It

turns out that some stores against zoning regulations

actually have business licenses. They questioned

why the city government never told them that their

businesses should not set up in the alleys according

to the zoning regulations when they were applying

for the business licenses. Store proprietors in Shida

Night Bazaar keep urging the government to find

solutions, such as lifting or amending the impractical

zoning policy, but the city government never takes

any action. They threaten that if they can’t run their

own businesses in the college area then the same

should be true for stores that don’t meet zoning

regulations throughout the city. If the law was

enforced across-the-board, tens of thousands of

stores in Taipei would easily be affected.

Dispute 5: Impractical Policies of Urban Development and Tourism

Night bazaars are home-grown cityscapes found

in every city in Taiwan. The informal economy

absorbs a significant population of the laborers laid

off from manufacturers or people who want to leave

farming villages to make a living in the cities. There

are more and more people who fall into these groups

as Taiwan’s manufacturing sector has steadily

shrunk over the years. The energy and creativity of

night bazaars attracts tourists from all over the

world. But when tourism became a major focus of

the city government, all the issues regarding living

standards were distorted. The real needs of local

residents were ignored, the authorities only cared

about how many tourists had stopped by and how

much money they had spent.

When the clashes between the residents and

businesses owners get worse and worse, one of the

few actions the city authorities took was to take

down the signs that read “Shida Night Bazaar” from

roads and bus stops. The webpages about Shida

Night Bazaar was also removed from the City

Department of Information and Tourism.

Review of Literature

Over the past decades, has Taiwan’s attempts to

take part in globalized economy brought the entire

society real economic benefits or just illusions of

benefit? It seems that one of the first lessons that

Taiwan meets along that path towards integration

into that globalized economy is the significance of

the politics of spaces(Anderson-Wu, 2010). The

word “tourism” had come to represent a hated idea,

compared to the word “travel” in the twentieth

century(Crick, 1989) because of the fast expansion

of the tourism industry and its broader impacts.

Social Psychologist P. Pearce has pointed out that

tourism mirrors the popular ideas about the subject

and perhaps is only another example of how

sophisticated tourists like to laugh at the inferior

versions of themselves. Tourism involves individual

and collective behaviors and memories; it is about


people’s cultural identity as well as regional economic

status. Thus in many developing societies that are

eager to earn recognition and money, tourism has

become a highly deceptive industry. Tourism

becomes a business of how to lead strangers to find

out or to think about a place or an event that is

assumed to be the reality of a local people.

Dean MacCannell commented in his essay “The

Tourist: A New Theory of Leisure Glass”(1976) that

tourist attractions, as cultural production, must have

“markers” for the sight of tourists(Abbeele, 2009).

Sightseeing can be understood as a process whereby

a tourist moves from one marker after another.

Thus the promotion of tourism is to establish a

typology of markers. And the formation of the sight

is about the different types of “marking”. Once the

tourist markers are picked out, they are proliferated

to produce the sights for tourist attractions. While

an alienated tourist is seeking new experience for

self-fulfillment, she/he instead consumes staged

activities.

Local culture is the main source of such questionable

authenticity. Foods, folk arts and customs unusual

or exotic to tourists are commodified without the

consent of their daily suppliers or participants

(Cohen, 1988), and certain lifestyles are represented

by local people to meet the desired novelty for

tourists(Mamadi, 2004). Following the renaming of

the Shida Night Bazaar was the promotion of

foreign food and drinks such as burritos, pizzas,

Greek cuisines, Indian delicacies and a variety of

coffees. A few Jazz bars also were picked out to

shape an ambiance of foreign leisure in this area.

Book readings only focused on western literature.

The image of this night bazaar created by the

“South Village” was utterly bourgeoisie to people

unfamiliar to this area. To local people, it still is a

crowded place for cheap food(Liberty Times, 2007).

The naming or renaming of places are often

about political and cultural domination(Guo-Chow

Huang, 2007). How can people who have never been

in New York associate the ideas of South Village

to East Village? The attempt of gentrifying a night

bazaar by social elites has confused or annoyed the

public. A city’s marketing campaigns may change

the urban environment. Urban places are re-imaged

or re-invested for the development of tourism, but

the prices of makeovers are often borne by local

communities.

Places of cultural significance play an important

role in today’s urban regeneration. They provide

opportunities for entrepreneurialism and economic

growth, and the images of cities can be shaped

through creative approaches to urban development

(Wirth & Freestone, 2003). Shaping a city’s image

through the so called “cultural strategies” has

become the same mission as stimulating the city’s

economy, and cultural industries have been used as

the initiatives for the growth of a city.

As Sharon Zukin has stated: “In a shopping

street, vision is power”(Ent, 2010). Shaping the

images of a city refers to controlled visual elements

or arranged presentation. In other words, a city of

spectacle is neither a set of geographic sites, nor a

collection of images, but a social relationship mediated

by images(Gotham, 2005). The development of

globalized tourism is about the de-territorialization

of spaces and the replacement of genuine activities

with contrived spectacles(or markers) for tourism

consumption. People’s cultures and lifestyles are

represented with a series of symbols, thus the

promotion of tourism often undermines local traditions

and results in resistance from local communities.

Spectacular urban areas easily become the sites of


struggles where powerful economic and political

interests defend for what they prefer to be taken for

granted. And since the tourism industry has to take

the task of remodeling social-spatial relationships,

local people often feel that their history and culture

have been inaccurately portrayed.

Marketing researcher Philip Kotler has dealt with

marketing southern Asian countries. He examined

how widely held country images affect attitudes

towards a country’s products and services and ability

to attract investment, businesses and tourists(Kotler,

2002). Destination marketing has been compared to

country promotion or city branding. Within encompassing

strategies of branding to mutually reinforce brands

and sub-brands, a city can build up its brand equity

and achieve greater exposure(Donald and Gammack,

2007). A model of destination image is required to

allow multiple interpretations, it means a faraway

destination might be subject to shallow, even distorted

perception. Nevertheless, as destination image is

widely considered to affect market decisions, attempts

at image construction continue.

Kevin Lynch stressed in his work “The Urban

Landscape of San Salvador and Nanjing” the

importance of environmental planning in the cities

of developing countries. He emphasized that the

quality of the environment is not secondary to

economic development and should not be a luxury

reserved for wealthy countries(Lynch, Banerjee,

Southworth, 1996). Lynch admonished San Salvador

not to copy developed countries but to create an

environment suiting its own needs and culture.

Kosan Srisang, a former Executive Director of

Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism,

pointed out that tourism in developing countries

doesn’t benefit the majority of people, instead it

exploits people, pollutes the environment, destroys

the ecosystem, bastardised the culture, robbed people

of their traditional values and ways of life(Mowfort

and Munt, 2003). To Srisang, tourism is only slightly

different from colonialism. Many developing countries

take tourism as a guiding developmental strategy,

and developed countries are more than happy to

encourage such views in developing countries.

The consumption of city tourists is a major force

of urban gentrification. Cultural tourism drives the

changes of neighborhoods and a variety of services

are introduced in order to develop globalized tourism.

However, new businesses or the activities of

tourists might replace the actual cultural elements

of the neighborhoods.

Gentrification as urban strategy weaves global

financial markets together with large and medium-sized

real estate developers, local merchants, property

agents and retailers(Smith, 2002). As real estate

development becomes the centerpiece of a city’s

economy, it is justified by appeals to jobs, taxes and

tourism. Researchers also have noticed the transformed

role of the state in urban gentrification. Since the

1990s, the states have played more active roles in

urban gentrification. The government became a

partner with urban developers instead of playing the

more appropriate role of an urban planner. Gentrification

has become widespread and a not-so-hidden agenda

of many city officials anxious to replace the growing

ranks of vulnerable poor, deviant and anonymous

with outgoing, free-spending, image-making white

collar taxpayers and their upgraded houses and

trendsetting shopping districts(Clay, 1994). With urban

policies as tools, gentrification is fueled by public

planning and private capital. Urban planning no longer

guides or regulates the direction of urban growth,

instead it seeks to fit itself for the pursuit of highest

market returns. Lower income groups are excluded


during the enhancement of tourism(Smith, 2002).

Among a variety of urban renewal processes, the

concepts of “tourism gentrification” has been proposed.

Gotham defined “tourism gentrification” as “the

transformation of a middle-class neighborhood into

a relatively affluent and exclusive enclave marked

by a proliferation of corporate entertainment and

tourism venues”(Bures and Cain, 2008). The commodification

and consumption of urban spaces result in the

change of the balance between the use of the space

for living and the use of the space for economic

purposes. The exchange value becomes predominant

over the use value. The flood of money from real

estate developers/investors/speculators into a neighborhood

pushes up the rents and the value of properties,

resulting in changing combinations of tenants or

property owners. Businesses in this neighborhood

also will alter their service and products, thus the

overall representation of the area shifts.

When local elites use tourism as a strategy of

economic revitalization, tourism services and facilities

are incorporated into redevelopment zones and

gentrifying areas. In these new cityscapes, gentrification

and tourism amalgamate with other consumption-

oriented activities, cultural facilities and entertainment

venues(Ritzer, 2011).

Night Bazaars for Local People or for Tourism?

Older night bazaars formed in the old urban

areas, stands and vendors settled down and ran

business daily. Moving bazaars are a relatively new

phenomena in Taiwan. Night bazaars grew fast

during the 1960s when Taiwan’s economy relied on

labor-intensive manufacturing industries and people

moved to cities from farming villages. In the 1970s,

factories suffered from the shrinkage of overseas

orders due to the energy crisis, overstocked products

flew to night bazaars at discounted prices. Today,

night bazaars are still the major channels for cheap

or defective products from small to medium-sized

manufacturers.

Although night bazaars have a history longer

than half a century, many vendors in night bazaars

don’t possess completely legal status--some don’t

have business permits at all, some are running

business outside the scope listed on their permits.

Since they are not in official records they are

beyond the regulations of the government. Over the

past decades the authorities never bothered to

enforce laws upon them. Unregulated, night bazaars

are usually chaotic and are often called “Urban

Tumors” despite the fact that they are popular. Until

recent years, an anxiety about modernization

overshadowed Taiwan, night bazaars began to be

considered backwards, and some attempts at

improvement had taken but failed.

Chiencheng Circle Food Bazaar in Taipei was

once the largest and the most loved place for local

delicacies. The number of stalls had grown so much

without a correspondent spatial adjustment and no

measures for fire protection had ever been taken. It

was destroyed by fire in 1993 and again in 1999.

Although the building was repaired in 2000, the city

government decided the shabby building should be

remodeled. A reputable architecture firm was engaged

and in 2002, the new building covered in shiny,

durable glass screens was unveiled. Fancy as it

was, the new building did not fit the needs of the

food suppliers and or the eating public. Only twenty

stalls returned and fourteen of them withdrew shortly

because of unavoidable but also unaffordable losses.


Shihlin Night Bazaar was another example. The

remodel did not happen until the stalls sprawled so

much and finally were so out of control that the old

building began to threaten the safety of shoppers

and diners. The makeover kicked off in 2002 and

was completed in 2012. According to a survey of

Pollster, 54.8% of the people who have been to the

new Shihlin Night Bazaar don’t like it, while 45.2%

liked it(Pollster, 2012).

It is a paradox that people like the old style of

night bazaars but at the same time think they are

backwards. Twenty years ago when foreign diplomats

were visiting Shihlin, bazaar vendors without permits

would be banned from this area. When there were

important visitors around, laws and orders were

enforced. On a day-to-day basis though, when there

are conflicts, no effective negotiation could proceed.

That’s why bazaar vendors are expelled every now

and then but the removal is never thorough. Everyone

is clear that bazaars provide opportunities for people

between employment and goods unsold in other

shopping venues. Off season products from department

stores or shopping malls often end up in night

bazaars, people like the bargains.

Nevertheless the business patterns and shopping

behaviors shift when night bazaars are remodeled.

Chiencheng Food Bazaars now is a high-end

restaurant after having been taken over several

times by different managerial bodies. The fate of the

newly reopened Shihlin Night Bazaar still needs a

longer period of observation.

Attempts of gentrifying night bazaars is suspected

of benefiting property speculators. Real estate prices

soared in the gentrified Shida Night Bazaar. A

inexpensive cafeteria sold for 115 million NTD

(about 3.8 million USD), a discount bookstore sold

170 million NTD(about 5.7 million USD), and a

stewed food eatery sold at 5.06 million NTD per

pin(about 50,600USD per square meter). Independent

bookstores, inexpensive eateries and small retailers

had to move to the margins of this area, their

replacements are chain stores, boutiques or thematic

restaurants which students never can afford. As the

sense of a place has disappeared, local communities

wish to recapture the past, but the past had long gone.

Three Ways of Depicting Night Bazaars

Yu Shuenn-Der proposed three ways of depicting

night bazaars in Taiwan(Yu, 1995). First, night

bazaars are the residual left from old Taiwanese

culture. Second, night bazaars constitute marginalized

spaces in cities. Third, night bazaars are where the

informal economy survives.

Night bazaars maintain the disappearing tradition

of Taiwanese society, from how the foods are

cooked to the styles of peddling. In the alienating

cities, night bazaars are the only spaces that provide

the setting for the occasions where people still can

interact in old manners, for example, bargaining

over prices. Stepping into a night bazaar is almost

like stepping into a kind of street theater, one

returns to the old time, a vernacular ambiance is

brought back.

Night bazaars are marginalized when Taiwan is

“making progress” toward a modernized world. A

lot of time night bazaars are ignored on purpose

because they are exactly the opposite of what a

progressive and modernized world that people are

collectively working toward. The products sold in

night bazaars are usually inferior, or copyright/

trademark infringed goods. Most of the stores and

stands are shabby, and foods are always presented


in a vulgar fashion.

Compared to department stores and shopping

centers, night bazaars have more transactions, many

without records. Vendors with permits usually pay

a fixed number of tax, and a lot more vendors

without permits never pay taxes. Night bazaars

have been articulated in the consumption of the

entire society although no official numbers indicating

the real scale of economy they constitute. Nevertheless,

when the rents of a night bazaar like Shihda became

so high, small stalls are kicked out and replaced by

larger retailers or more expensive restaurants, the

informal economy is formalized, and the feel of

grassroots organization is gradually diluted. Interestingly,

the more formal they become, the less popular they are.

Night bazaars reflect the conflicts of values and

interests. Since there is never a more comprehensive

social welfare network in Taiwan, the government

is clear that getting rid of the badly organized,

unpresentable night bazaars will cause big holes in

the mutual social support system which has been

spontaneously built up by people’s own power and

creativity. When a society has relied on such an

informal economy for decades, law enforcement

doesn’t solve any problems, it only worsens the

conflicts. Residents in Pucheng Street protest that

too many restaurants make too much noises and

produce too much smoke, they are no longer able to

stand the pollution and bad quality of life. But

Pucheng Street is 9M wide, all kinds of businesses

are allowed to set up there, only they have to meet

the requirements of Ordinance of Clear Air and

Noise Abatement. People living in this street complain

that there used to be small bookstores, bakeries or

stationery stores in this area, now they are mostly

large restaurants. Without the creativity of dealing

with business in a gray area, the government let the

problems get worse. The paradox results in discrimination

and hatred between people.

Creative Industry, Neighborhood Aesthetics and the Capital of Design

The area around Shihda Night Bazaar has several

historical sites, many of them were the residences

of past scholars who once taught in Shihda(National

Taiwan Normal University) or Taida(National Taiwan

University). These houses were taken over from the

Japanese colonial government, and were designated

to scholars in honor of their academic achievement.

The Japanese style houses with yards and big trees

are hardly seen today, they are the greatest heritage

of this area.

Setting eyes on the literary ambiance in this area,

the central government initiated a program called

“International Spotlight”. Yongkang Street, Qingtien

Street and Longquan Street are packaged for the

foreign audience as the KQL Spotlight with pinyin

letters from the street names forming the acronym.

The webpage of the International Spotlight emphasizes

that business proprietors in this area don’t care

about money, they rather enjoy working here. Their

literature suggests on the contrary that this is untrue

for people in bazaar stalls. The KQL Spotlight

organizer is either too romantic about the reality or

trying to exclude Shihda Night Bazaar from the

KQL Spotlight(Website of International Spotlight, 2011).

Twenty stores along these streets were introduced, half

of them are located in Shihda Bazaar.


<Map 2> (resource: Bureau of Tourism)

<Map 3> (resource: Bureau of Tourism)

In June 2012, the Bureau of Tourism withdrew

KQL from the International Spotlight because of the

insistence of disturbed residents and the unmediated

hostility towards the Shihda Night Bazaar. Deputy

Chief of the Bureau Liu Hsi-Lin said: “Tourism is

about greeting visitors with open arms, if people are

showing their shitty faces instead of friendly smiles,

we should not bring our guests to their neighborhood.”

(China Times, 2012). CEO of the Lovely Taiwan

Foundation Hsu Lu commented that it’s a pity

because KQL presents the neighborhood aesthetics

of Taiwan.

The feelings of outsiders obviously are very

different to those of the people living in the area.

Is “neighborhood aesthetics” about community

empowerment, or, is it actually commodification of

culture? In “Tourism and the Commodification of

Urban Culture”, Susan S. Fainstein pointed out that:

“Urban regimes are pulled between the contradictory

needs to be welcoming travelers and wary that

outsiders may intend harm. They must protect

visitors from the city, and protect the city from

visitors.”(Fainstein, 2007). The overwhelming tides

of globalization has increased travel greatly, for

post-industrial cities, Taipei for example, tourism is

the only way to maintain the economy from decline.

Lifestyle, culture and history, anything characteristic

in a city should be a tourist commodity.

In many cases city promotion is about an enclave

created by tourism industry which is cordoned off

from the existing urban fabric and designed to

cosset the affluent visitors while warding off the

threatening natives(Levine, 2003). The spatial inequality

is exacerbated by skewing civic agenda when a city

invests scarce resources in tourism while slashing

vital services, particularly for low-income people.

When tourism spaces are expanding, it is at the

expense of the living spaces of local people. After

all, the growth of recreational activities attracts real

estate development and results in the privatization

of public realms.

The government had thought to promote

independent designers in the area of Shida together

with several quiet neighborhoods in Taipei where

studios of individual designers like to set up. In


2011, along with the Congress of International

Design Alliance hosted by Taipei City Government,

a project “Outreach of Living Aesthetics” was

launched by the Urban Redevelopment Office(official

website of Urban Redevelopment Office, Taipei City

Government, 2011). And there were tons of festivals

in Taipei using the term “Neighborhood Aesthetics”

in the same year. Eleven maps of “Creative Neighborhoods

in Taipei” have been printed and given away to

tourists by the Department of Cultural Affairs, and

KQL was one of the neighborhoods. The Department

of Cultural Affairs had hoped that through outlining

the independent bookstores, art studios, designers’

workshops and galleries together with public or

private museums or historical sites, clusters of

creative businesses would form spontaneously.

On the website of the Department of Cultural

Affairs, it said: “Whether a city is mature or

whether a city is dynamic, neighborhoods provide

the best clues for your observation. London, Paris,

Tokyo and New York, they all have marvelous

neighborhoods containing exciting lifestyles. These

cities are distinct because of their unique streetscapes

of neighborhoods(Official website of Department of

Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, 2011).

But before any cluster of creative industry has

formed, residents in KQL already suffered. In order

to have an undisturbed life, they’d rather to be

unknown.

Currently the Taipei City Government is applying

to be the host city of 2016 World Design Capital,

four themes have been proposed for the campaign:

Smart Lifestyle, Sustainable Ecology, Healthy Life

and Urban Regeneration((Official website of Department

of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, 2012).

The goal of World Design Capital is to award

cities able to solve their problems through design

and create an environment friendly to the development

of creative industry. The World Design Capital of

2008 was Torino in Italy, 2010 Seoul in South Korea,

2012 Helsinki in Finland and 2014 Cape Town in

South Africa. Over the past years, Seoul has

accomplished many ecological restoration projects

through design, including Namsan Renaissance, the

Hangang Renaissance and the Street Renaissance,

though not without controversies. According to the

Jury of the 2010 World Design Capital, Seoul stood

out because all these projects have been realized

systematically, not piece by piece. Furthermore, the

measures Seoul had taken made individuals and

neighborhoods in the metropolis visible(Design to

Improve, 2011).

Taipei City Government also is campaigning with

several projects, including the restoration of Tamshui

River, the preservation of historic settlement Paozanyen

(Treasure Mountain Community), the management

of household waste and the network of healthcare.

Nevertheless, there are still many crucial urban

issues unsolved. Like the tourism infrastructure

which has become a burden after the events are

over, and there are still more to be built. The

pavilions for the 2010 Floral Expo and the gigantic

stadium among other facilities to be constructed for

the 2017 World University Game are examples.

These constructions are not sustainable, and they

cost tremendously in maintenance.

And when conflicts burst out in Shihda Night

Bazaar, the attitude of the city government shows

it doesn’t possess a systematic strategy for the city

as a whole. The slogan “Neighborhood Aesthetics”

brings nothing but discrimination against rundown

neighborhoods. For vendors making a living in

cities, foreign laborers away from homes, low-income

people and students who have to find affordable


foods and goods in night bazaars, their right to

access the cities does compromise. It has become a

battle between people with property ownership and

people without. But when a place has been

characterized by so many participants without full

rights, why must their case recede because of an

impractically and unfairly implemented laws?

Suggestions

There are some issues for all to face. First, the

authorities of urban planning must take the

responsibility of amending laws, ordinances and

regulations that reflect the reality of Taipei. The

zoning system is useless as it is a pastiche of

European, American and Japanese systems. A more

flexible and realistic zoning system must be

reconsidered.

The urban policy of Taipei was an attempt to

duplicate American cities which followed the mentality

of modernism: Rational, ordered, centralized governance,

and a standardized aesthetics. Although modernism

accentuates highly controlled cities, it never could

be imposed upon Taiwanese cities(Fang, 2012). The

consequence of enforcing regulations that ignore the

local history and cultural characteristics is local

culture kidnapped by globalized tourism. Highly

regulated cities, like the projects proposed by Le

Corbusier, can’t be organic and they never impress

visitors.

Huang Jui-Mao pointed out that urban life is

“unplannable”(Huang, 2012), thus urban planning is

about setting up a mechanism that allows a city to

grow organically, and having a vision about what

kind of city we identify and we want in the future

is the ultimate principle of urban policy. City governance

can’t be exercised piece by piece since a city is not

simply patches of lands or buildings. Lives in

streets, neighborhoods or districts are formed by

diversified people and events, and no neighborhood

should be reserved for certain activities only. Thus

the right to access the city is fundamental as a

democratic issue.

Second, urban regeneration should start from

communities instead of the authorities or real estate

developers. All the efforts of the government trying

to implant western styles of urban spaces have

failed. The attempts of the Taipei City Government

to make Taipei a global city only result in a disconnect

between local communities and the potential tourism

developed based on the factual conditions of each

neighborhood. Hsia Chu-Joe had urged the empowerment

of communities with autonomy, he believes that

grassroots or community-oriented energy is how

we can fight the invasion of globalized capitalism

(Hsia, 1999). He pointed out that gentrifying a

neighborhood had been the measure the government

had taken most frequently over the past few decades,

but neighborhood gentrification kills the communities

through real estate speculation, which leaves no

space for the creative industry to grow. Indeed,

looking back at the history of Taipei, no neighborhood

could be gentrified without excluding diversity.

Community empowerment is about how a

community cultivates its own autonomy in the

complicated web of state power through democratic

procedures. It might have to ward off the political

oppression from the state in order to prevent false

public opinions from being fabricated and violently

imposed upon it. In the conflict over the Shihda

Night Bazaar, many residents only wish to erase all

the stalls and stands without complete legal status.

Were their wish to actually come true however,


they’d live in the most distressed neighborhood in

Taipei.

Third, employing rent control to terminate property

speculation and encourage small creative businesses

is a real possibility. The Taipei City Government

has been too friendly to real estate developers, “we

respect the market mechanism” is a pet phrase of

officials, which is a shameless lie. The current level

of rents in the KQL area can’t be affordable to any

small creative business, and a neighborhood without

creative business won’t be an interesting tourist

destination.

It is not hard to predict rent control will be

strongly opposed by real estate developers and

brokers, but it is one thing that the government is

able to take action immediately to calm down the

disputes in the Shihda Night Bazaar.

Conclusions

It’s all-too-tempting to cast disputes into simple

narratives of the good guys versus the bad guys

and simply look for a place to lay the blame but

when dealing with the complex issue of urban

planning in the context of a tourist destination but

its crucial to see that there are multiple forces at

work that may be both pushing and pulling at the

same time in an interactive manner. Moreover, just

because a party to the dispute sees their interests

in one way, they may not even know what is best

for their own good completely apart from the fact

of whether their case is just or not.

Simply assuming that the interests of the

residents need to be considered above all others and

that we, or anyone else, knows what those interests

are is complicated by the multiple factors we’ve

mentioned in this paper as well as other factors that

may have been overlooked. Certainly a number of

the residents in a famous tourism area choose to

locate there precisely out of a desire to be a part of

the lively atmosphere. One of the writers of this

paper, Steve Anderson, formerly lived in the old

heart of the night market area in the early 1990s and

found the noisy crowds, flashing lights and smoky

stalls enchanting as a young college student. Even

twenty years ago the area was a sea of people on

any night of the week so one would think that these

issues of noise and crowding are not coming out of

nowhere taking the residents of the area by

surprise. This is a traditionally bustling area.

The place in question is, after all a key part of

the wider academic heart of Taipei that encompasses

several square kilometers densely populated by an

unusually skewed population of people in their twenties

and thirties attending the prominent research universities

built there many decades ago. Assuming that the

majority of the people who live in an area of that

nature with such a pronounced youthful demographic

primarily wish for peace and quiet is a rather remote

stretch of the imagination. It is safe to assume there

is a big gap between the interests of the landlords

that own the properties and the tenants that actually

live in the buildings many of whom are young

students.

Nonetheless, this image of peace, quiet, tranquility

and safety is a convenient rhetorical angle to

promote an agenda that facilitates gentrification. We

need to be careful not to assume that a few vocal

proponents of these values can be taken to genuinely

represent the interests of the area as a whole.

Certainly they do not stand for the interests of the

smaller businesses operating either on the edge of

the law or even blatantly illegally that form much


of the attraction of the area for people from all over

Taiwan as well as for foreign tourists looking for

an exotic night market experience. It would hardly

be reasonable to assume that peace and quiet is

what draws tourists to the area either. Moreover,

landowners that push for stricter building code

enforcement thinking that what the area needs is an

“upgrade” may find that overly aggressive enforcement

could ironically end up lowering the value of their

own properties if it results in a more bland character

for the area.

The government is where the dilemma is most

acute and it is where this situation serves as an

excellent illustration of the fault lines within Taiwan’s

developmental history and how they are forced to

the surface under the pressures of gentrification.

The original core of the night market area was

created on the basis of being granted an exemption

from zoning laws. Relaxed enforcement was precisely

what allowed the crowded alleys to bloom with the

many eateries that served the needs of the student

population looking for flavors beyond the university

cafeterias. However, in the well-intentioned efforts

to promote the area the government, perhaps

inadvertently, played a role in stimulating a boom

in real estate prices that forced many of those same

small businesses out to be replaced by more

profitable chain stores. Now the government is

being petitioned to come in and “clean up” the

problem of the spillover of the low-end shops into

the neighborhoods that extend beyond the original

boundaries of loose code enforcement. From the

government perspective it must seem to be a case

of no good deed going unpunished.

The Shihda Night Bazaar is a good example of

an area becoming a victim of its own success. We

can only hope that going forward it does not become

another example of failed urban planning policy.

Sadly, Taiwan’s history shows that bad decisions

have been made with the best intentions in the past.

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臺北居住美學推展計畫





The Controversial Heritage of the Early

Nazi built Mass Tourism Resort at

Pa in East Germany

Dieter Semmelroth*11)

[ABSTRACT]

As a manifestation of the Third Reich’s tourism

and leisure policy, one of the World’s first mass

tourism resorts was developed between 1936 and

1939 on the Island of Rügen at the shores of the

Baltic Sea. Executed by the Nazi Organisation

“Kraft durch Freude”(KdF) (“Strength Through

Joy”), a 4.5 kilometre-long concrete hotel complex

with more than 6,000 rooms was built close to the

sea-side resort of Prora with the objective of

offering cheap package holidays for up to 20,000

people at a time.

The design won an award at the 1937 Paris World

Exhibition for the idea of promoting mass tourism

and its then modern architecture of steel-reinforced

concrete, intended to withstand the rough sea climate.

The project testifies to Hitler’s megalomania. The

hotel complex was to have two piers big enough for

ocean liners, swimming pools and solarium halls,

shops and related infrastructure such as schools,

water and power stations. Due to the outbreak of

the Second World War, the complex was newer fully

completed.

During as well as after the War the set of

buildings was used by refugees and later by the

Soviet and East German military. Following Germany’s

re-unification in 1990, repeated attempts were

made to privatise the building complex, which is

protected by the German “historic monument code”.

Today, only a fraction of the complex is being used

for a small museum and since July 2011 as one of

Germany’s largest youth hotel. The youth hostel

project is controversial due to the buildings past,

with critics saying that such an architectural

monstrosity with its dubious history is the last place

where people should be spending their holidays.

* TUI AG, Germany



118 Dieter Semmelroth

Key Words : Mass tourism, Third Reich, Mega resort,

Privatisation of Historical Monument

1. Introduction

In Germany, the beginning of mass tourism is

commonly linked to the Nazi period. During the

Third Reich all aspects of everyday life were to be

controlled by Nazi organisations. This was also true

for organized tourism, which the Nazis targeted in

the pre War period to raise their standing among the

population and to prepare the people for the

up-coming war efforts.

In accord with the Nazi ideology, holiday resorts

were planned. However, only one of these mega-

resorts was partially realized. On the Baltic Sea

island of Rügen, a monumental building complex

was constructed with length of more than 4.5

kilometres and a capacity to house 20.000 vacationers

at a time. However, this complex was never used

as a hotel but served during the war for various

military purposes and later as a centre for refugees.

After the Second World War the building complex

and the surrounding were still used by the security

forces. Only after the German re-unification efforts

were made to privatise buildings and to find alternative

uses. However, due to this specific past it is difficult

to find adequate commercial applications.

2. Background on the Nazi Resort Concept

After World War I, tourism in Germany was

largely a privilege of the wealthier segments of the

society. Due to difficult economic and political times,

the great majority of the people could not afford

organized holiday trips. Apart from a lack of funds,

workers were entitled only a few days of paid

annual leave, which did not allow much travelling

(Spode, 2004). When the National Socialist Party

took power in 1933, the new rulers introduced

radical changes.

2.1 Ideology of the “Kraft durch Freude” (Strength Through Joy) Organisation

According to Nazi ideology, all mass organisations

had to be “re-aligned” to support the new ruling

party. Old mass organisations like the free trade

unions-which started in the 1920 to offer organised

trips to their members-were dissolved and replaced

by uniform Nazi-run organisation. Both employees

and employers were forced to join the “Deutsche

Arbeits Front” (DAF) (German Labour Front).

In Fascist Italy since 1925, there was a recreational

organization, the national recreation work “Opera

Nazionale Dopolavoro” (De Grazia, 1981). This

inspired the head of the DAF, Robert Ley, to

establish a similar organization in Germany.

As a consequence the organisation “Kraft durch

Freude” (KdF) (Strength through Joy) was formed

to organise and control the ordinary Germans daily

life. The KdF’s involvement was very diverse. In

addition to travel services and sporting activities

such as gymnastics and swimming courses, there

were also events related to education, culture and

even village beautification programmes. One of

KdF’s key objectives was to provide affordable

vacation for all Germans either within their home

country or abroad (Baranowski, 2004; Spode, 1991;

Spode & Steinecke, 1991).

At the same time DAF promoted the extension

The Controversial Heritage of the Early Nazi built Mass Tourism Resort at Pa in East Germany 119

of holiday entitlement for workers to two or three

weeks a year. Indeed, during the “Third Reich” the

holiday entitlement for most workers was extended,

especially for younger ones. The motivation behind

this was not philanthropy, but the desire to achieve

the total control by monitoring the leisure of

Germans thus further strengthening Nazi ideology.

The maintaining of industrial peace through appeasement

of the workers’ was an important aspect of Nazi

policy (Spode, 1991). KdF should therefore primarily

secure the internal peace, by promising the workers

travel and leisure experiences.

For Nazi ideologues, leisure was not conceived as

an end in itself, but had to serve as means for the

state. The official goal of KdF was to support the

creation of “new” German people and a new

“Volksgemeinschaft”(German community) (Frommann

1992, p.106).

Robert Ley’s idea was to offer to the workers in

their spare time ways to recover from long working

hours. However, such a recovery was not be used

for idleness and amusement, but to re-focus the

forces of the working population and to fill it with

energy and “power” for their duties. KdF activities

such as theatre visits, vacations and cruises at

affordable prices were part of the efforts by the Nazi

leadership, to give the Germans the impression that

they live under a “feel good dictatorship”. (Aly, 2005)

Hitler himself is quoted by Ley as saying: “I want

the workers to be granted sufficient leave and that

everything is done to allow them to fully recover in

their space time. This is my wish because I want

a strong people and nation that keeps its nerve.”

(Robert Ley, quoted in Frommann 1992, p. 108).

Cultural objectives included the strengthening of

national pride by boosting the sense of the “German

community”. The German people should spend their

leisure time together in order to generate a strong

community, superior to those of other nations. The

German people should be full of self-confidence

when travelling abroad and compare their home

country with the visited destinations-for the benefit

of Germany, of course. The world should get the

impression of a healthy and peace-loving Germany.

However, the ultimate goal was to raise the

populations’ readiness for war. Nazis considered

healthy and motivated people as particularly fit for

war. Eventually, these targets were announced only

shortly before the Second World War began.

2.2 Financing of KdF

The natural DEF members were at the same time

also subjects of KdF. They paid a monthly DAF

membership fee of at least 0.50 Reichsmark (RM).

The vast majority of the KdF staff did not receive

a salary. In 1937, the “Strength Through Joy”

organization had 106,000 volunteers and 4,400

full-time employees.

In the pre-war period, DAF revenues grew from

281 million RM (1933) to 538 million RM (1939).

Those funds were raised as compulsory membership

fees. Throughout its existence, KdF was subsidized

on an increasing scale by its mother organisation.

In 1934, KdF received eight million RM from DAF,

and in 1938 a total of 32.5 million RM. Early

expectations that KdF would be self-financing by

the income generation from its travel agency and

related commercial activities did never materialise

(Spode 1982; Spode 1991; Frommann 1992).

2.3 Tourism in the Third Reich

KdF was one of the most popular organizations


during the years of National Socialism in Germany,

especially the Department “Travelling, Hiking, Holiday”

responsible for organizing trips. About four-fifths of

all trips were day tours and hikes. Domestic trips

organised by KdF lasted from three to fifteen days.

The total number of participants encompassed

400,000 tourists in 1934 and peaked at 1.4 million in

1937 (Baranowski, 2004,p. 121).

Only a fraction of the KdF tourists were able to

get on the prestigious high-sea voyages to Madeira,

Italy and Norway. Nevertheless, the Nazi regime

succeeded, thanks to massive propaganda efforts, in

creating the impression that normal workers could

enjoy such luxury leisure cruises (Spode, 1982;

Spode, 2004).

2.4 Development of the Resort Concept

In order to promote domestic travel in pre-war

Germany, KdF planned several huge sea-side resorts.

As early as 1935, the KdF travel organization recognized

that there were not enough accommodation capacities

for its far-reaching mass tourism plans. That

year Robert Ley announced at the Reich Party

Rally: “The Führer instructed me to think through

the possibilities of a mass resort for 20.000 people

and if possible to realize it. The first resort is

already being planned … total of three resorts are

to be built.” (Rudolf Ley, quoted in Frommann, 1992,

p. 292).

In order to create adequate facilities to house tens

of thousands of “comrades” on holiday, in 1935 the

idea was refined to construct up to five mega-resorts

on the shores of the North Sea and Baltic Sea with

a capacity of 20,000 beds each. The ultimate objective

was to build sea-side tourism facilities for appr.1.5

million guests per year, based on an average 10-day

stay per guest (Prora, p. 4).

Three locations at the Baltic Sea were identified

namely, one at the island Rügen, one near Kolberg

(Pomerania) and one in the area of Lübeck /

Travemünde. In addition two more sites were

considered for the North Sea region. However, only

Resort Seebad Rügen was designed and partially

built, while the other projects never even reached

the panning stage. According to Ley, the initial

costs for a one-week all-inclusive stay at the KdF

Rügen resort were calculated at 12 RM (equivalent

to 55 EUR) per person. Later the price was raised

to 20 RM (equivalent to 90 EUR), including train

travel from Berlin (Frommann, 1992, p. 293).

However, the planning of the new KdF resort

was met with reservations by other seaside resorts.

Owners of family hotels and guesthouses at the

coasts of North and Baltic Sea expressed their

concerns regarding the “cheap” competition from

the new mass tourism development (Frommann,

1992, p. 294).

At the same time, there early criticism was

voiced about the expected side effects of mass

tourism. Concerns were raised regarding environmental

pollution as well as the insufficient space for the

vacationers. The objections were related to the fact

that total space at the new resort was calculated to

be not more than 2,80 m² per holidaymaker.

3. Architecture and Concept of the “Seebad Rügen”

The gigantism of the “Seebad Rügen” to be

constructed next to the settlement of Prora can be

derived from the National Socialist ideology, but is

also linked to modern trends then existing in


architecture. The Cologne born architect Clemens

Klotz who also designed other Nazi monuments,

linked his Prora design to the most modern concepts

available at the time (Dolff-Bonekämper, 1999;

Wilkens, 1988).

Klotz based his design on the projects Obus and

Fort-l’Empereur developed by the architect Le

Corbusier for Algiers. The French star architect

envisaged endless houses of hundred meters height

and up to 25 km in length, which should frame the

coast of the Mediterranean, as a kind of protective

walls. The massive complex was to create housing

for up to 180,000 people and was to be linked by

motorways on the buildings rooftops. These projects

were never realized but at their time they were

considered to be the “avant-garde” of modern urban

development.

For the “Seebad Rügen” Klotz reduced the height

to six storeys, the length of the building complex of

4.5 km, and the number of inhabitants to 20,000. The

infrastructure facilities included in the Klotz design

were located on the opposite of the beachfront

behind the building complex. The resort complex

was to have two piers big enough for ocean liners,

swimming pools, shops, schools, a power station, a

hospital and even then ultra-modern solarium halls.

In 1937, the design won an award at the Paris

World Exhibition for the idea of promoting mass

tourism and its modern architecture of steel-

reinforced concrete, intended to withstand the rough

sea climate

The overall project included more than 6,000

rooms, a giant festival square of 400,000 m² and a

temple-like festival hall with a seating capacity for

20,000 people. However, only the hotel facilities

were actually built.

The social concept for the guest facilities was

modern and generous by the standards existing at

that time. For KdF-tourists rooms of 2.50 times 4.80

meters with two beds, sofa, table, chairs, a closet

and hand wash basin were foreseen. However, the

well-structured “endless” building complex with

numerous wings, pergolas and glass elements appeared

more modern than other buildings designed and

constructed during the Nazi era.

The architectural concept included unprecedented

tanning halls with glass roofs and indoor pools

artificial wave generation. These amenities as well

as the planned spa facilities were designed to allow

an extension of the regular tourism season even into

fall/winter times.

The concept of repetition, featuring the same

building blocks, in the same intervals with the same

functions gives these houses a place in modern

architectural history.

Many features of mass tourism, eventually developed

after the Second World War, were already envisaged

in the design of the “Seebad Rügen”. However, the

overall architectural concept was more monumental

and monotonous than at any other second location

ever since (Wilkens, 1988).

4. Construction Phase

The necessary land for the seaside resort near

Prora was acquired for the KdF in 1935. The

cornerstone ceremony tool place on May 2nd, 1936,

although at this time the tender for the initial

construction lots was still running. The early date

was chosen deliberately marking third anniversary

of dissolution of the free trade unions by the Nazis.

The actual construction work began only six months

later. (Spde, 1997)


In the three years between 1936 and 1939 eight

hotel blocks and adjacent buildings were built. Nine

renowned construction companies (Philipp

Holzmann, Hochtief, Dyckerhoff & Widmann,

Siemens Bauunion, Boswau & Knauer, DEUBAU,

Sager & Woerner, Polensky & Zöllner, Babock)

were involved in the work. At the peak of the

construction activities, a labour force of more than

9,000 was engaged on site. With the exception of

Sager & Woerner (construction of the wharf) all

other construction companies built one block each.

The intention was to develop a type of competition

for the fastest Works among the companies

involved. The total building materials used for the

project equals quantities required to construct a one

meter high and 20 cm wide wall that runs around

the equator.

Already in 1937 it became clear that the budget

of 50 million RM (40 million constructions and 10

million equipment) set by KdF was significantly

exceeded. The KdF-site management estimated the

construction cost at RM 237.5 million (today’s

equivalent of approximately € 800 million to 1

billion €) (Rathke, 2011).

When the Second World War broke out in 1939,

building activities were largely stopped. With the

exception of one, all “hotel” blocks, the southern

edge of fairground buildings and the wharf were

completed within the building shell. Still outstanding

were the pools, the Festival Hall and much of the

infrastructure. Essential protection works were

quickly carried out on the buildings already erected,

before the construction finally came to a standstill.

The building materials already delivered remained

on site, suggesting a planned resumption of work

after the war.

Source: Ehemaliges Nazi-Hotel……

<Picture 1> Partial View of the

“Seebad Rügen”, 1941

5. Use of the Building Complex

5.1 During the War (1939-1945)

During war times, the unfinished resort was used

for military and training purposes and later as a

shelter. In early war years, parts of the KdF resort

served as a training centre for Air Force nurses and

a police battalion.

Starting in 1943, parts of the southern building

complex were utilized to provide shelter for refugees

after the bombing of Hamburg. Beginning in 1944,

sections of the resort were converted into a German

military hospital.

Towards the end of the war, parts of the building

complex were also used to provide temporary

housing to Germans who fled their eastern homelands

in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army.

5.2 Post War Use (1945-1990)

In May 1945 the Red Army occupied the island


of Rügen. Subsequently, parts of the Prora complex

were used for the internment of estate owners

suspected of having supported the Nazi regime. In

addition, other sections of the complex housed

displaced persons from the German Eastern territories.

Parts of the buildings were dismantled and machinery

and other reusable items were shipped to the Soviet

Union as war reparations.

Between 1948 and 1953 the buildings were used

by the 13th anti-tank brigade of the Red Army. The

Soviet soldiers destroyed one block located at the

southern end and conducted exercises with explosive

at the two northernmost blocks. Later, other buildings

were damaged but remained standing.

After 1949, the East German People’s Police, and

its successor the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)

(National People’s Army) of the German Democratic

Republic (GDR), used some sections of the building

complex as barracks. The Prora area was declared

as a military zone and closed to the public. The

corresponding conversion works to adopt the

buildings to the military utilisation were completed

by 1956.

During the following years, up to 10,000 soldiers

were stationed at the Prora military complex.

Among other service units, the barracks included a

Military Technical School. Since 1981, soldiers from

developing countries maintaining friendly relations

to the GDR such as Angola and Mozambique were

trained at the officer’s high school for foreign

military.

Since 1982, up to 500 so-called “construction

soldiers” were stationed at Prora. Construction

soldiers were drafted by the military but refused to

deal with weapons. Instead they were used to do

civilian construction work in the case of Prora, they

mostly worked on projects in the vicinity of the

ferry harbour of Mukran (Liersch, 2003).

The southernmost part of the Prora building

complex was used as a family resort for members

of NVA troops. In addition, the military operated a

convalescent home (named after the former GDR

Leader Walter Ulbricht), and children camps.

5.3 After Germany’s Re-unification (since 1990)

5.3.1 Early Attempts to Find Alternative Uses

After the German reunification in 1990, the

German army took over the Prora complex. In 1992,

the military use came finally to an end when the

facility was handed over to the Federal Property

Management Corporation. Since early 1993, Germany’s

largest building ensemble is fully accessible by the

public. At the same time the whole complex was

granted the status of a protected building under the

“German Historical Monument Act”. As a listed

building, early privatisations efforts failed. For most

buildings, only the absolutely necessary security

measures were carried out. As a result, the empty

buildings were open for vandalism and decay.

Between 1995 and 2005 various exhibitions and

documentations were presented in Block 3. The

so-called Museum Mile included the KdF Prora

Museum, the Museum of the NVA, the Rügen

museum as well as special exhibitions.

Between 1993 and 1999, Prora was the site of one

of Europe’s largest youth hostel, which provided

reasonable accommodation rates. However, at the

end of this period the Federal Property Management

Corporation did not renew the rental agreement

with the hostel operator as the agency still wanted

to sell parts of the entire complex. Since 2000 the


Documentation Centre Prora is located at the

southern edge of the fairground. This is in addition

to special exhibitions including the permanent collection

showing the history of the “Seebad Rügen” Resort.

The focus is on the background of the project and

its appropriation by the Nazi propaganda.

In 1997 a development concept for the Prora

complex was elaborated (Arras, 1997). Eventually,

the property agency was successful in selling most

building blocks one by one: However, still for most

privatised buildings the final use was not clear. In

September 2004, Block 6 was sold for 625,000 € to

an unknown bidder. In 2005, Block 3, the former

Museum Mile, was acquired by the Island Arc

GmbH, which announced plans to use the building

as a hotel and a local museum.

In October 2006, sections 1 and 2 of the Prora

were sold to the Project Development GmbH. In

September 2010 a German-Austrian investor announced

new plans to build some 400 apartments for elderly

people, a hotel with 300 beds, including tennis courts,

swimming pools and a small shopping centre. The

calculated investments are estimated to € 100 million

(Rügen: Investoren). As the previously announced

development plans for Block 3 failed, this unit was

put up for sale again in 2010.

Other parts of the property were used for new

leisure facilities. Since September 2007, an international

youth campground with 250 spaces has been operating.

In March 2008, on a 3.7 hectare coastal forest plot,

a “high ropes and climbing course” opened. The

related investment costs was said to be € 460,000.

By November 2011 all blocks were reported to be

sold to private investors (Nazi-Ferienanlage…).

For an overview of the contemporary and planned

future use of the Prora complex and see the

following table 1.

BlockYear of

Sale

Selling

PriceAcual/planned Use Investment

EUR EUR

6 2004 0.625 Unknown

20083.7 hectar of coastel

forest used 400.000

as climbing and high

ropes garden

2007 Youth Camping ground

capacity: 250 tents

4 2011 Private Investor

Appartments etc

5 2006 Youth hostel (opening

6/2011)

capacity: (96 rooms,

402 beds)16.360.000

Exhibition Center

3 Unkwin Investor

1 and 2 2010Planned commercial

use100.000.000

Flats (400)

1 2012 Private Investor

Hotel (300 beds),

Leisure facilities

Source: Own compilation

<Table 1> Contemporary Use of the Prora

Complex, Cursive Planned Activity

5.3.2 Use as a Youth Hostel

In November 2006 the Federal Agency for Real

Estate sold Block 5 to County of Rügen. The new

owner built a modern youth hostel and leased the

facility for 40 years to the German Youth Hostel

Association. The County spent €16.4 million for the

complete renovation of a 152 meter long section in

Block 5 (Jugendherberge eröffnet. The youth hostel

consists of 96 rooms and 402 beds and was

constructed in compliance with the requirements of

the preservation act for historic buildings. With the

opening of the hostel in July 2011, a new chapter in


the history of the building has begun.

The hostel is the largest of its kind in the Federal

Sate of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the sixth

largest nationwide. All hostel guest rooms are

overlooking the sea. Two-thirds of the rooms have

a private shower and toilet facilities. The hostel has

a permanent staff of 35 employees. The summer

months 2011 and 2012 were completely booked.

Also, for 2013 there are considerable “early bird”

bookings.

The State’s tourism association hopes that the

hostel will provide a further boost to the children

and youth tourism in the region, which currently

holds a share of ten percent of the total volume of

domestic German tourism. Already, the North East

is among the most popular domestic destinations for

German children and adolescents. In addition, the

hostel is expected to attract foreign visitors to

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. At present, the

proportion of foreign visitors is still below five

percent.

According to the hostel management, the new

facility will market itself as an ideal location for

international youth meetings and exchange programmes.

The hostel manager Dennis Brosseit announced: “Our

credo is: to feature all colours instead only brown

associated with Nazism.” (quoted in Jugendherberge

eröffnet). Plans exist for a separate training and

seminar centre in a building adjacent to the new

hostel, at an additional cost of three million Euros.

The Prora centre, located at the opposite end of the

building complex, already offers tours and seminars

a for guests and visitors.

In the Internet, the political right has praised the

opening of the hostel as a continuation of the

original Nazi idea to promote cheap holidays for

Germans. However, on the occasion of the opening

of the hostel the Minster of Social Affairs of the

Federal Sate of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Manuela Schwesig made it very clear that the

operator of the facility is fully aware of the

buildings troubled past and would not allow any

misuse for political purposes. The Minister stated:

“The Youth Hostel Association is fully aware of the

delicate history of the Prora building complex. This

applies to the part originally planned as a

destination for the Nazi mass tourism as well as for

the time when it accommodated construction soldiers

in the GDR.” (Schlesweig quoted in Jugendherberge

eröffnet).). And the representative of the new hostel

owner, Rügen County administrator Kerstin Kassner

added, “We will do everything to ensure that no

brown ideas can take root here.” (quoted in

Jugendherberge eröffnet).

6. Controversy about the Future Use

The above analysis has demonstrated that one of

roots of modern mass tourism in Germany leads

back to the era of Nazi rule in 1930s. The Nazis used

organized tourism conducted by KdF as an instrument

to mollify and control the masses. A key element in

this effort was the development of seaside mega

resorts. The capacity was set to cater for up to

20,000 vacationers at a time. Only the Seebad Rügen

Resort was constructed on the shores of the Baltic

Sea. Although the project design was modern and

functional in many aspects at the time, the overall

complex was very much inspired by the totalitarian

Nazi ideology and architecture.

After the Second World War this particular history

made an adequate use of the building complex

difficult. In former East Germany the buildings were


partially used by the military. Soon after Germany’s

re-unification in 1990, the Prora complex was

handed over to civil authorities. In order to save the

unique ensemble the whole complex was put under

the historical monument protection code. However,

the authorities did not provide a clear and concise

concept for future utilisation. As a consequence,

many attempts to privatise individual building blocks

failed. Still it is not clear if the present block owners

have the imagination and financial means to develop

their respective buildings. However, innovative utilisation

and commercial development are essential to save

the Prora complex on a medium to long term run

thus avoiding further misuse and decay. Successful

new utilisation concepts would also be the best

protection against the danger that the monuments

could become a rallying point for “Neo Nazis”, who

still belief in the values and ideology of the failed

Nazi past.

References

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und nationaler Sozialismus. Frankfurt am Main.

ISBN 3-10-000420-5.

Arras, H. E.(1997). Entwicklungskonzept Prora für

Rügen: [Bedarfs-und Wirtschaftlichkei-

tsuntersuchung] / [S.T.E.R.N. Gesellschaft der

Behutsamen Stadterneuerung. http://www.stern-berlin.

com/. Berlin: S.T.E.R.N., 1997.

Baranowski, S.(2004). Strength through Joy:

Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third

Reich. Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-83352-3

De Grazia, V.(1981). The Culture of Consent. Mass

Organizing of Leisure in Fascist Italy. Cambridge

et.al..

Dolff-Bonekämper, G.(1999). Das KdF-Bad Prora auf

Rügen. Ein Versuch über Architektur und Moral.

nn: Annette Tietenberg (Ed.). Das Kunstwerk als

Geschichtsdokument. Festschrift für Hans-Ernst

Mittig. Klinkhardt & Biermann, München 1999,

ISBN 3-7814-0419-6, pp. 144-157.

Frommann, B.(1992). Reisen im Dienste Politischer

Zielsetzungen. Arbeiterreisen und „Kraft durch

Freude“ -Fahrten. Stuttgart

Harms, F.(2007). Nazi-Propaganda: Wellness unterm

Hakenkreuz. In: Spiegel online 19. Juli 2007.

Liersch, H.(2003). Ein Freiwilliger Besuch-als

Bausoldat in Prora, 2. Auflage, 2003, Verlag

amBATion / Randlage, ISBN 3-928357-06-9

Rathke, M.(2011). Prora wurde den Nazis zu teuer.

Sächsische Zeitung online, 25. April 201

Rostock, J.(1991/1992). Das KdF-Seebad der

Zwanzigtausend Prora/Rügen. Herausgegeben von

der Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Qualifizierung

und Beschäftigung in Prora mbH.

Spode, H.(1982). Arbeiterurlaub im Dritten Reich. in:

Timothy Mason et.al.: Angst, Belohnung, Zucht

und Ordnung. Herrschaftsmechanismen im

Nationalsozialismus. Opladen

Spode, H.(1991). Die NS-Gemeinschaft „Kraft durch

Freude“-ein Volk auf Reisen? in: Spode, H. (ed.):

Zur Sonne, zur Freiheit! Beiträge zur

Tourismusgeschichte. Berlin. ISBN

3-928077-10-4.

Spode, H.(1997). Ein Seebad für zwanzigtausend

Volksgenossen. Zur Grammatik und Geschichte

des fordistischen Urlaubs. in: Peter J. Brenner

(Ed): Reisekultur in Deutschland. Von der

Weimarer Republik zum ‘Dritten Reich’,

Max-Niemeier-Verlag, Tübingen, ISBN

3-484-10764-2

Spode, H.(2004). Fordism, Mass Tourism and the Third


Reich: the Strength through Joy Seaside Resort as

an Index Fossil. In: Journal of Social History 38,

pp. 127-155.

Spode, H.(2007). Some Quantitative Aspects of Kraft-

durch-Freude-tourism. In: Margarita Dritsas

(ed.): European Tourism and Culture, Athens.

Spode, H. & Steinecke, A.(1991). Die NS-Gemeinschaft

Kraft durch Freude. In: Zur Sonne, zur Freiheit!

Beiträge zur Tourismusgeschichte, Berlin.

Wilkens, R.(1988). Gebaute Utopie der Macht. Das

Beispiel Prora. In: Romana Schneider und Wilfried

Wang (Ed.). Moderne Architektur in Deutschland

1900 bis 2000. Macht und Monument. (Frankfurt

am Main: Deutsches Architekturmuseum 24. Januar-5.

April 1998), ISBN 3-7757-0713-1, p. 117.

Newspaper Articles-Weblinks

Ehemaliges Nazi-Hotel. nun größte Jugendherberge in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, (2011, July 8), in:

Positiv Magazin.de, (visited 22 Janiray 2012).

Jugendherberge eröffnet. im NS-Baukoloss Prora (2011.

July 4), in: focus.de, (http://www.focus.de/ reisen/

reisefuehrer/deutschland/ruegen-jugendherberge

-eroeffnet-im-ns-baukoloss-prora_aid_642

Nazi-Ferienanlage. Prora ist komplett verkauft (2011,

November3), in: welt.de, (visited 22 January 2012).

Rügen: Investoren. bauen Nazi-Koloss um, (2010, June

6), in: Ostsee-Zeitung Edition: Ribnitz-Damgarten,

(visited 22 January 2012).



Accepted: November 10, 2012


The Management of Tourist’s Alimentary

Needs by the Tourism Industry.

The Parameter of Religion

Polyxeni Moira*12)

Dimitrios Mylonopoulos**

Aikaterini Kontoudaki-MA***

[ABSTRACT]

Religion and culture are determinant factors in

influencing food consumption. The food sector plays

an important role in tourism and directly affects the

satisfaction levels of tourists. Food choices made by

tourists are determined, to a lesser or greater

extent, by the religious parameter; consequently,

food constitutes a significant factor concerning the

criteria on the basis of which a destination is

selected. In this respect, the tourism industry should

pay the necessary attention to the aspect of the

relationship between religion and alimentation.

According to the available data, this parameter

has not yet been fully evaluated when planning and

promoting destinations in a way effective enough to

attract tourists from countries with high spending

levels and distinctive alimentary habits which

conform to their religion.

The present study presents the alimentary habits

of tourists on the basis of their religion, explores

the way by which the various tourism companies

meet the specific alimentary requirements of

tourists based on religion, and makes suggestions in

order for the tourism industry to rationally adapt to

this reality with the aim of raising tourism flows.

Key Words : Alimentation, Religion and Tourism,

Halal food, Kosher food, Fast period

* Technological Education Institute of Piraeus/Greece Department of Tourism Industry Management, Greece

** Technological Education Institute of Piraeus/Greece Department of Tourism Industry Management, Greece

*** Greek Ministry of Tourism, Greece



130 Polyxeni MoiraㆍDimitrios MylonopoulosㆍAikaterini Kontoudaki-MA

1. Introduction

Religion and culture are determinant factors in

influencing food consumption. The term “culture”

could be determined as the common set of

characteristics, attitudes, and principles which help

people choose their course of action (Goodenough,

1971). Culture reflects a common way of thinking,

affects the way we perceive the environment as

well as the way by which we adopt or adapt to

changes (Schein, 1983). Culture “guides” group behavior

in all dimensions of human life and indicates

“socially standardized” activities of people. These

social routines equally comprise alimentary habits.

According to Atkins and Bowler (2001) and Logue

(1991), culture significantly determines the food that

humans are allowed to consume. Carmouche and

Kelly (1995) hold that the factors which shape our

choices of food consumption are social class, gender,

culture, race and religion-which also constitutes a

cultural factor. Culture is the factor that encodes

food as “acceptable” and then “permissible to be

consumed”, as “good” or “bad”. Additionally, culture

determines which kind of food and which properties

of food are socially accepted (Prescott et al., 2002).

Thus, for instance, the consumption of the meat of

dog or cat which is accepted in South Korea

(Podberscek, 2009), called Gaegogi as well as in

other cultures of Southeastern Asia (Cambodia,

China, Thailand and Vietnam) (Bartlett & Clifton,

2003; Podberscek, 2007), it is rejected in Western

societies. In these countries, the idea of consuming

this kind of meat is viewed as ghastly and immoral

(Podberscek, 2009: 617).

Religion always played an important role in food

consumption (Khan, 1981). Most religions have

concrete alimentary rules and in parallel provide

clear guidelines for the way of preparing food (Ηalal

or Kosher). For some religions (Islam, Judaism),

these rules are very meticulous, regulating what,

how and when a product can be consumed or when

its consumption must be avoided. Blix (2001) argues

that by the dawn of human civilization, the bonds

between religion and alimentation were very strong.

Generally speaking, as far as food is concerned,

clear distinctions existed and exist between “good

and bad”, “edible and non edible”, “prohibited and

not prohibited” in all civilizations and religions

(Kittler & Sucher, 2004: 13; Lupton, 1996: 29).

As said, in many civilizations we can observe the

voluntary abstinence from some kind of food, mainly

for religious reasons. Practicing this abstinence over

a certain period of time is called a “fast”. Many

religions permanently prohibit meat consumption or

over specific periods of time. Since ancient times,

fasting was imposed in many civilizations; for

instance, for ancient Asian people and for the

Egyptians, fasting was imperative for religious

reasons. The purpose was for the believers to be

prepared to participate in religious rituals, taking

place in order to honor or propitiate their gods.

As an indicative example, Herodotus refers to the

Egyptians who were keeping a fast not only for

religious reasons in the festivities of the goddess

Isis, but also for health reasons (Elder Papadopoulos,

1987: 51-57). This habit was legated to the Greeks

and the Jews by the Egyptians and then, to

Christians and Muslims.

In ancient Greece, fasting was rather limited and

was practiced by the participants in various “mysteries”.

For example, Athenians fasted only during the

celebrations of “Eleusinian” and “Thesmofories”

with a view to achieving catharsis/purgation and

lustration (Foundation of the Hellenic World, 2012).

The Management of Tourist’s Alimentary Needs by the Tourism Industry. The Parameter of Religion. 131

The Lacedaemonians, on their part, commanded a

general fast when they were to participate in battles

of war. In Crete, the priests of Zeus had to strictly

abstain from consuming meat, fish and foods coming

from these animals. Generally speaking, within the

framework of ancient Greece’s religious spirit, keeping

a fast reflected a way of lustration and purgation,

and was viewed as an experience that contributed

to the discarnation of a person, making him capable

to approach gods, that is to say, reaching “theosis”.

Within the circles of religious and philosophical

schools and organizations, such as the Orphics and

Pithagorioi, many peculiar fasts were also kept.

Romans and generally people of the Italian city-

states often fasted. They did so, mainly in adverse

times, when citizens turned to the gods asking for

help. Pompilius Numa, the legendary second king of

Rome (Zoula, 2003) fasted before making sacrifices

to gods. In another case, the inhabitants of Tananta,

beleaguered by the Romans (282 B. C.), turned for

help to the inhabitants of Rigios, who then started

a ten day fast in order to propitiate the gods before

setting out against the enemy. In addition, certain

fasts were kept in Rome to honor the goddess

Demeter and Zeus (Vatalas, 262-263).

2. Religious Restrictions to the Alimentation

The degree of a person’s/believer’s attachment to

the requirements of a religion depends on the religion

it-self, the religious dogma, the local religious community,

and his/her family and social environment.

The majority of religious alimentary advice fall

under two general categories: a) temporary abstinence

from all or some food (fast), b) stable and distinctive

alimentary habits which are differentiated from those

of the rest population. Religious convictions affect

our way of feeding as a part of our daily life or as

a part of a religious ritual. These rules sometimes

are indicative and provide loose guidelines and some

other times constitute strict rules with which the

believers have to comply (Moira, 2009: 76).

Thus, Christians don’t have strict restrictions

placed to their alimentation, namely there is no

prohibited food, a reality we found in Muslims or

Jews, at least not all year long. There are certainly

some restrictions to the consumption of food for

Christians, for instance, at certain times of the year

a fast is kept, abstinence from meat on Wednesday

and Friday, etc. In these cases, the degree of the

prohibition or restriction is differentiated depending

on the dogma (Orthodox, Romeocatholic, Protestants

or Anglican Christians). The sacred books of Orthodox

Christians recommend an abstinence from food for

about 180-200 days per year. The believers have to

abstain from consuming meat, fish, olive oil, milk

and dairy products each Wednesday and Friday

throughout the year. In addition, there are three

main periods of time per year keeping a fast: a) 40

days before Christmas, when it is prohibited to

consume meat, dairy products and eggs, while it is

allowed to eat fish and olive oil, except from

Wednesday and Friday, b) 48 days before Easter

Lent, fish can only be eaten for 2 days, while it is

prohibited consuming meat, dairy products and

eggs. The consumption of olive oil is permitted only

on weekends, and c) 15 days in the month of August

(before the celebration to honor the Holy Mary).

During this period, the fast follows the same rules

as during Lent, except from the 6th of August, where

the consumption of fish is permitted. The consumption

of sea-food (shrimp, calamari, octopus, lobster, crab)


is allowed throughout the year, snails, as well.

Consequently, the practicing of a fast for the

Orthodox Christians could be described as periodically

vegetarian with a parallel consumption of fish and

sea-food (Sarri et al., 2003). Symbolically for Christians,

keeping a fast-for some periods of time or days-is

essentially linked with temperance and abstinence,

which constitute an “exercise” for the body and soul.

Muslims, in turn, follow strict rules of alimentation

that are called halal (legal or permitted by God) and

are based on the Islamic Sharia (Shari’ah). The

Koran prohibits the consumption of pork and its

derivatives, of alcohol, various kinds of jellies (which

are comprised from pork grease) and of products

that have emulsifiers (e.g. canned goods). In addition,

many Muslims abstain from consuming frozen green

vegetables with dips, especially margarines, bread

and pastry prepared with dried barm/ferment as

well as soft drinks with caffeine (RMIT University,

2011). All the above mentioned food is viewed as

haram, that is to say, “impure”, and it is, thus, illegal

and “prohibited” (El Mouelhy, 1997; In Wan &

Awang, 2009). Furthermore, according to the Koran,

the consumption of sarcophagus animals and sea

creatures which do not have scales and fins (e.g.

calamari, shrimps, lobster, etc.) is prohibited. Finally,

even animals that they are permitted to eat, must

be butchered and prepared with a specific ritual,

referred to as the Islamic canons (Koliou, 2005: 64);

during their preparation, they must also be kept

away from other food. During the month of Ramadan,

a clear prohibition is provided (This fast constitutes

one from the five Pillars/obligations of Islam (Kerr,

2009). Muslims must abstain from all type of food,

water and drinking from sunrise to sunset. Exempted

from the fast of Ramadan are infants, the mentally

ill, the elderly, travelers (during their trip and if they

are to keep the fast later), pregnant women, women

who have recently given birth, and those who have

their period-they are to fast later (El-Ashi, 2011).

Moreover, Muslims are obliged to consume only

halal food even when traveling to foreign places

(Bon & Hussain, 2010). For Muslims, keeping the

fast of Ramadan is also essentially linked with

abstinence, an “exercise” of the body and “discipline”

(El-Zindeh, 2009: 56).

The Jews equally follow strict alimentation rules.

It is worth noting indicatively that the word “fast”

is mentioned more than 40 times in the Old and New

Testament. The exact words mentioned are “tsum”,

“innah nephesh”, “afflict soul or self”, i.e, practice

self-denial, nesteia, nesteuein. In addition, the notion

of fast is widely referred to the books of prophets

and in history books (Warren, 2000). Fanatic Jews

follow to the letter the dictates of their religion,

while the liberals casually diverge. The feeding

canons of the Jewish religion are known under the

term “Kashrut”. Accordingly, food that can be

consumed is called “Kosher”, that is to say, “pure/

clean” or “permitted” (Masoudi, 1993: 667). Prohibited

food is pork, the meat of horses, blood sport,

halieutics that do not have scales and fins, while it

is also prohibited to eat meat with dairy products.

According to the Jewish religion, as it is the case

with the Muslim religion as well, animals must be

butchered with a concrete way by a person who has

assumed this duty. Additionally, during specific

fasts (i.e. Yom Kippur), the Jews abstain from

consuming all types of food from one sunrise to the

other. Finally, during its preparation, food must be

kept away from any other food (Moira, 2009: 77-78).

Hinduists are in their majority vegetarians. They

often use to abstain from food prepared in a way

that had caused pain to animals, because something


like this warms their “karma”. Even those who, in

contraversion to the canon, consume meat, they

avoid pork and mainly beef, because for Hindus, the

cow is a sacred entity. Besides, they consume dairy

products. We have to mention here that very often

there are alimentation variations depending on the

area or the country of living (for example, consumption

of duck and crabs could be prohibited or allowed

depending on the area as well as the consumption

of alcohol, onions, mushrooms, etc.).

Buddhists do not have to comply with strict

alimentary restrictions, since Buddhism represents

more a philosophy of life than a religion. Besides,

they avoid consuming meat (mainly pork) because

the Buddha is said to have had metempsychosis into

various animals before taking the human form. In

the West, most Buddhists prefer a vegetarian diet.

Some of them, also avoid dairy products (Moira,

2009: 78).

In at least three Asian faiths, Buddhism, Hinduism

and Jainism, vegetarian cuisine is a popular choice

(Salter, in Partritz, 2006:165). Vegetarian alimentation

in China, Hong-Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan

is known as “zh icài” (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine),

in Vietnam as “ ồ chay’, in Japan as “shōjin ryōri”

(“devotion cuisine”), in Korea as “sachal eumsik”

(“temple food”) and in many other countries it holds

many other names. For Jainists, a vegetarian diet is

obligatory. In Hinduism and in Mahayana Buddhism,

a vegetarian alimentation is proposed by some

categories of these faiths (Walters & Portmess, 2001).

In contrast, a vegetarian dietary is not obligatory for

Jews, Christians, Muslims and Sikh.

3. Religion, Alimentation and Tourism

Feeding represents an important part within the

chain of the tourism product. In recent years, food

consumption during a trip and the stay at a

destination has become an object of inquiry for

many studies. These studies often demonstrate that

tourists’ interest in food may play a central role in

their choice of destination (Hall & Mitchell, 2001;

Hjalager & Richards, 2002; Cohen & Avieli, 2004;

Long, 2004). According to Hall & Sharples (2003),

tourist spending for food represents 1/3 of the total

tourist spending. For Telfer & Wall (2000) too, food

spending constitutes an important part of the total

tourist spending at a destination. The choices and

preferences of tourists are recognized as very

important in the tourism demand and subsequently

significantly affect the tourism offer, such as food

import, local production, etc (Torres, 2002; Torres, 2003).

In the developed and developing countries, the

interconnection of culture, religion and alimentation

is even nowadays very active for large parts of the

population. These influences over the consumption

of food during holidays have been pinpointed and

evaluated by many studies. According to Pizam and

Sussmann (1995), Japanese, French and Italian tourists

usually avoid consuming local food at their selected

destination, searching for their national cuisine.

According to research of March (1997), food consumption

during holidays is deeply affected by cultural or

religions factors. In particular, he found that Muslims

and Indonesians require the food they consume to

be Ηalal (March, 1997: 234), while Koreans have a

strong preference for their national cuisine.

As said, many studies have demonstrated that

religions, depending on the degree of their strictness,

strongly affect human behavior as far as food


consumption is concerned during holidays. According

to Minkus and McKenna (2007, in Lada et al, 2009:

68), 70% of Muslims comply with the canons of

Islam, consequently also with those that concern

alimentation. Hassan and Hall (2003) studying the

attitude of Muslim tourists in New Zealand found

that the largest percentage (82.2%) searches for

Halal food; 39.6% of them declared that they would

prefer to prepare the food by themselves, since they

don’t have much confidence in the locals for the

proper way of preparing it. Furthermore, Ching et

al. (2005 in Zailiani et al, 2011) having made a study

in hotels of Malaysia, extracted the conclusion that

satisfaction levels of Asian tourists and especially

of Muslims heavily depend on the provision of Halal

food. In addition, market research by the Cypriot

Tourism Organisation, which explored the opportunities

of development of the tourism markets of the United

Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, demonstrated

that tourists originating from these countries choose

destinations that offer Halal products conforming to

Islamic traditions (CYMAR Market Research Ltd,

2009: 5).

Moreover, Cohen and Avieli (2004: 760) confirm

that Jews, even if they tend to be more flexible in

the consumption of non Kosher food, are strongly

concerned about hygiene issues and they explicitly

refuse to consume non accepted food, such as meat

of dogs, cats and of serpents.

4. The Management of Religious Alimentary Restrictions

For the above mentioned reasons, the food and

hospitality industry takes many initiatives in order

to manage the particularities that the religious faiths

set as far as the alimentary needs of tourists are

concerned.

Thus, the alimentation issue linked to the religious

convictions of tourists-clients has led to the creation

of new “tourism products”. As an indicative example,

we refer to Halal Tourism (Battour, 2010), since the

tourism market of Muslims approaches 1.57 billion

people (Scott & Jafari, 2011:50). According the World

Tourism Organisation, a new and extremely dynamic

market seems to have emerged since the inhabitants

of the Arab Gulf spend about 12 billion dollars per

year on leisure tourism (SETE, 2010). In particular,

according to the UNWTO and the site Cresentrating,

tourism spending of Muslims in 2010 amounted to

60 billion dollars (in Bahardeen, 2011).

It is also worth noting that the searching of the

phrase “Halal vacations” in the internet (as accessed

in Google on 10/01/2012) gave 341,000 results; the

worlds “Halal holidays” gave 5.440.000 results and

the words “Halal tourism” 4.710.000 results.

Within this framework, in order to attract the

interest of tourists whose daily life is intensively

governed by religious requirements, tourism enterprises

focus on these kinds of services and products

provision in all type of their communication.

Hotels. Nowadays, many hotels promote “Halal

holidays”, such as the “Les Rosiers” in the French

Alps that suggests “Halal skiing holidays”. Turkish

hoteliers on their part, advertise their services

provision based on the triptych “Sea, Sun and Halal”.

The “Τurquhouse Boutique Hotel” in Constantinople

advertises that the food offered is Halal, Islam rules

are followed, little carpets for prayer are available

as well as instructions for where the direction of

Kibla is (The direction to where the believer must

be turned during the prayer-Salah). In the hotel

“Bera”, in Alanya, a separate swimming pool for


women is available and all food is Halal. The

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Australia, the Hilton

in Glasgow and the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague

offer Halal meals to Muslim tourists (Hashim et al.

2003). In addition, in Thailand and the Philippines,

many hotels and restaurants offer Halal food (Bon

& Hussain, 2010).

Tourism Agencies. Some tourism agencies form

“special packages” on the basis of religious convictions

in order to attract more clients. For Muslims who

prefer to spend their holidays in an Islam-friendly

environment, there are the “Islam packages holidays”.

To cite an example, we can refer to the British

“Crescent Tours” and “Islamic Travels”. The General

Director of the Crescent Tours, Mr Enver, stresses

the fact that “the Crescent Tours was established

with a view of offering high quality Halal vacations”.

All accommodation and services offered, fully

comply with the Islamic rules. In the resorts, alcohol

is not served, and facilities, such as pools, leisure

places and spas are distinctive for each gender.

Moreover, in all the private beaches of the resorts,

the Islamic code concerning attire is respected

(Sisters Magazine, 2011).

In Japan, the International Tourism Agency “Miyako

International Tourist Co. Ltd” promotes “Halal friendly

Japan”, highlighting the fact that the personnel is

trained in Halal issues by the Japan Halal Association

(JHA), knowing and respecting the particular

requirements of Islam tourists as far as food, prayer

and generally the fulfillment of their religious duties

are concerned.

In a similar vein, tourism agencies operate and

offer “special packages” for the believers of the Jewish

religion-the so-called “Kosher package holidays”.

These packages address personal travelers, groups

of travelers as well as enterprises not only in Israel

but also abroad. Searching of “Kosher holidays”

online gets 4,080,000 results and “Kosher vacations”

1.150.000 results. As an indicative example, we can

refer to the tourism agency “Kosher Holidays”

which advertises that the hotels with which it

cooperates offer Kosher food, under of the strict

supervision of a rabbi. The agency also suggests

Kosher cruises. To cite an example, we can refer to

a seven day cruise in the Greek islands with the

ships Golden Iris and Royal Iris, where Kosher

meals are served under the supervision of rabbis,

whose names are mentioned in the site. The same

agency offers holidays during the Jewish sacred

celebrations.

Air companies. As far as air companies are

concerned, they are fully adapted to the needs and

exigencies of the travelers, that is to say, according

to their religious convictions. Thus, they offer Halal,

Kosher, Hindu or vegetarian meals for persons who

follow a specific diet. Exploring the websites of 56

air companies that fly outbound (this research was

made by the authors from 01/11 to 30/11/2011 for

the purposes of this essay), we find that, in their

majority, they serve meals corresponding to the

religious needs of the travelers during the flights.

A percentage of 9.52% of the air companies explicitly

refers to religious meals, in particular Ηalal, Κosher

and Hindu meals, and the rest of the companies

refer to them generally as “special meals”. We note

here that the categorization of meals as religious is

not strict, since in some cases these meals also

comprise vegetarian meals of the Hindu type (for

example, Alitalia, Finnair, Philippine Airlines). The

air companies of Arabic or Muslim countries do not

integrate the Halal meals in the category of “religious

meals” or “special meals”, since all of the meals are

prepared in this way (e.g. Saudi Arabian Airlines,


Qatar Airways, Etiad, etc.). Moreover, EL AL airways

serves all Kosher meals, but also serves other kinds

of meals which are integrated in the wide category

of “special meals”. Often, the ingredients of meals

are inscribed with details in the websites of the air

companies, and especially the prohibited ones.

Restaurants. As far as restaurants are concerned,

there are organizations that provide labels which

certify food provision in accordance with the religious

convictions of travelers. To cite an example, the

Muslim Consumer Group (MCG) is a non-profit

organization that offers training for Muslims in

order to search for and recognize Ηalal food. The

organization awards a relevant certificate. Its website

is visited by Muslims in more than 90 countries and

there are 500,000 visitors (Muslim Consumers Group,

2011). The website contains a table of the restaurants

and chains of restaurants that operate worldwide

(for example, KFC, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Burger

King, etc.), and a distinctive coloration is used to

indicate the degree of products’ correspondence to

the Halal specifications.

Within this context, the national tourism organization

of New Zealand took the initiative to promote the

country as a tourism destination friendly to the

Muslim countries of the Middle East (Wan Hassan

and Hall, 2003; Wan Hassan and Awang, 2009).

Thus, in many restaurants of New Zealand, Halal

food for Muslims is served, which is promoted in

the tourism campaign of the country. In order to

attract a larger segment of the Muslim market, the

national tourism organization of Thailand proceeded

to the establishment of a special agency for the

certification of Halal food. This agency grants the

respective certificates to the restaurants that offer

food which meet the requirements of Muslim tourists.

Similar is also the course of action of the Union

of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

(UOJCA)-Orthodox Union (OU), which is one of the

oldest Jewish organizations in the US. The Union

supervises and certifies enterprises that provide

Kosher food. According to the available data, in 2010

the Union supervised more than 400,000 food products

in 8,000 factories in 80 different countries.

5. Conclusion

Religion plays an important role in the alimentary

and tourism choices. Its role is increasingly recognized

by agents of international tourism. It is indicative

that the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, adopted

by the UNWTO, makes a particular reference to the

obligations of the tourism industry in order to boost

tourism. According to the code, the professionals of

the tourism sector have to contribute to the cultural

and spiritual fulfillment of tourists, providing them

with the possibility to carry out their religious

duties during their trip (Moira, 2009: 134).

The food sector plays a significant role in tourism

and directly affects tourist satisfaction. Food choices

of tourists are determined, to a lesser or greater

degree, by the religious parameter and subsequently

food constitutes an important factor shaping the

criteria on the basis of which a destination is

chosen. Consequently, it is necessary that the

tourism industry give more attention to the aspect

of the relationship between religion and alimentation.

According to the available data, this parameter

has not yet been adequately taken into account for

the programming and the promotion of destinations

in order to attract tourists from countries with high

tourism spending and particular alimentary exigencies

which comply with their religious convictions.


Since the existing research seems incomplete, the

authors suggest further exploration of the field at

the national and the global level with an aim to

collecting more information for the choices, desires

and needs of tourists depending on their religion and

the degree that it affects their travelling behavior.

This consideration will lead to more rational and

effective promotion of tourism destinations.

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Accepted: November 10, 2012


14th International Joint World Cultural Tourism Conference Date : October 11-13, 2013

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS

Organized by:

∙ University of Phyao, Thailand

∙ Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia

∙ Tourism College of Zhejiang, China

∙ Philippine Society for Culture and Tourism,

the Philippines

∙ The Hokkaido Academic Society of

Tourism, Japan

∙ Ceta University College of Tourism, Spain

∙ Yasar University, Turkey

∙ University of Novi Sad, Servia

∙ University of Hawaii, USA

∙ Cape Breton University, Canada

∙ National Pungting University of Science

and Technology, Taiwan

∙ Tumaini University at Iringa, Tanzania

∙ South Kazakhstan State University,

Kazakhstan

∙ Australia School of Tourism and Hotel

Management, Australia

∙ School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culture

and the Culture Heritage Institute, Canada

∙ Technical Education Institute of Piraeus,

Greece

∙ The Korean Academic Society of Culture

and Tourism

∙ World Cultural Tourism Association

World Cultural Tourism Association, Hokkaido

Academic Society of Tourism, Japan, the Tourism

College of Zhejiang, China, CETA University College

of Tourism, Spain, Philippine Academic Society of

Culture and Tourism, the Philippines, University, of

Hawaii, USA, Yasar University, Turkey, National

Pingtung University of Science and Technology,

Taiwan, Tumaini University at Irnga, Tanzania,

South Kazakhstan State University, Kazakhstan,

Australian School of Tourism and Hotel Management,

Australia, Cape Breton University, Canada, Technical

Education Institute of Piraeus, Greece and School of

Hospitality, Tourism & Culture and the Culture

heritage Institute, Canada are pleased to announce

the International Cultural Tourism Conference 2010.

The aim of this conference is to provide a forum

for international educators, scholars, researchers,

industry professionals, policy-makers and graduate

students with opportunity to explore and discuss

issues in the topics on cultural tourism promotion.

We are sure that it is clear the findings of this

conference can be an effective and insightful directions

for cultural tourism development and planning.

It is our great pleasure to welcome all of you to

this conference. We welcome you all of VIP guests,

educators, policy-makers and students to this

conference.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION:

All presenters and participants are requested to

register for the conference. Registration fees are

US$350 per person for registration before August 31,

2010 and US$400 thereafter.

Conference registration fee includes participation in

all conference sessions in three days, participation

in all scheduled meal functions and refreshment

breaks, opening reception, and a copy of conference

proceedings.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The Conference will focus on a broad range of topics

related to education and research in cultural tourism

and tourism/hospitality. The Conference organizers

invite papers, abstracts and presentation proposals

relevant to cultural tourism and tourism, hospitality

management. Considering the theme of the conference,

A paper with any of the following or related subjects

would be appropriate for presentation:

Any kind of issues in cultural tourism and

tourism/hospitality/foodservice.

∙ Cross-cultural studies in tourism/hospitality.

∙ Emerging issues in education and training.

∙ Studies and case studies on tourism/

hospitality development.

∙ Studies related to marketing and promotion of

tourism/hospitality.

∙ Studies related to tourism/hospitality forecasting and

economic aspects of industry.

∙ Studies on social, cultural, economic and

environmental impact of tourism/hospitality.

∙ Tourism/hospitality and environmental sus-

tainability.

∙ Human resources development and educational

issues in industry.

∙ Financial models or econometrics of tourism/

hospitality.

∙ Operation of tourism and hospitality

businesses at both macro and micro levels.

∙ The gaming and casino industry.

∙ Community tourism development and rural/

farm tourism.

∙ Post-modern tourism/hospitality and contemporary

issues in tourism/hospitality.

∙ IT and Internet aspects of tourism/

hospitality.

∙ Other papers related to the theme of the

Conference.

Submission Guidelines∙ 300 words of abstract and 10 pages of papers

should be submitted for the final selection

process.

∙ The abstract and paper should be submitted to

the following

email : [email protected] and

[email protected]

∙ Deadline for submitting paper is August 31, 2010

∙ Paper Review Committee will conduct a refereed

screening of papers.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS 143

Format of Presentations:-Paper sessions will have about 4 papers presented

in each 90 minute session, giving each presenter

20 Minutes..

-Panel sessions will provide an opportunity for about

four presenters to speak in a more open and

conversational setting with conference attendees.

Submitting a Proposal:1. Create a title page for your submission. The title

page should include:

a. title of the submission

b. name(s) of the author(s)

c. department(s) and affiliation(s)

d. mailing address(es)

e. e-mail address(es)

f. phone number(s)

g. fax number(s)

2. Email your abstract and paper, along with a title

page, to [email protected] and

[email protected].

Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged via

email within 48 hours.

If you do not wish to email your submission, you

may send it via regular mail or fax to:

Prof, Jung, Sung-chae, Ph.D.

President


Dept. of Tourism Management, Honam University,

59-1 Seobong-dong Gwangsan-gu

Gwang-ju, Korea 506-714

Tel : ＋82-62-940-5582

Fax : ＋82-62-940-5582

3. Submissions will only be published in the conference

proceedings if at least one of the authors registers

and attends the conference.

Final copies of accepted papers will be professionally

published with ISSN number PRIOR To the

Conference.

Please direct paper submissions and enquires to:

Prof, Jung, Sung-chae, Ph.D.

President

World Cultural Tourism Associatiomn

Dept. of Tourism Management, Honam University,

59-1 Seobong-dong Gwangsan-gu

Gwang-ju, Korea 506-714

Tel : 062-940-5582 / Fax : 062-940-5582 /

E-mail : [email protected],

[email protected],

[email protected]

http://www.kasct.co.kr

CONFERENCE ADMINISTRATION

Call for Papers (Journals)

International Journal of Culture and Tourism Research Journal of World Cultural Tourism Association

Journal of Culture and Tourism Research Journal of the Korean Academic Society of

Culture and Tourism

Specifications and Instructions for Submitting Final Papers for Journal

Ⅰ. General Text Requirements:

A. All manuscripts must be prepared in English

and free of grammatical, spelling and/or

punctuation errors. Please make sure your

paper is thoroughly edited and proof read before

submission.

B. All manuscripts must be the original work not

yet submitted to any other journals or

publications prior to the Conference. Following

the Conference, authors are free to submit the

manuscript for publication in any journals.

C. The conference proceedings will be pro-

fessionally reproduced on CD with an

appropriate ISBN/ISSN number. Final copies of

all manuscript prepared based on the following

specifications must be submitted to

[email protected], [email protected]

and [email protected].

D. Page Limitations:

1. Authors are allowed to submit a final paper

of up to 20 single spaced pages, inclusive

of everything (e.g., any tables, figures,

references and appendices) for inclusion in

the Journal.

2. Papers exceeding this page limit can be

accepted with an additional production charge

of US$10 for every additional single spaced

page. Papers exceeding the page limit and

submitted without the additional production

charges will not be included in the journal.

Prepare your paper using Microsoft Word

software on PC only. Submit your paper to the

Director of Paper Review, Dr, Jung, as an email

attachment ([email protected]).

Ⅱ. Paper Format (also see sample below)

The paper should follow the following format:

∙ Up to 20 single-sided pages inclusive of all

tables, figures, references, appendices and so

on. The text should be single- spaced within

each paragraph but double spaced between

paragraphs. Do not number the pages but

make sure the pages are in correct order. Pages

will be numbered by the editor.

∙ Font Type: Times New Roman

∙ Font size 11 point.

∙ The paper must be formatted for A4 size (210mm

x 297mm).

∙ Set the page margins exactly as follows: top,

bottom, left and right for 1 inch.

∙ Indent the first sentence of each paragraph with

½ inch and align text justify.

∙ All manuscripts must be accompanied by a short

Call for Papers (Journals) 145

abstract of about 100 words and a list of no

more than six key words, which define the

subject matter.

∙ Consistency in presentation must be

maintained throughout the paper.

∙ Use tables and simple diagrams which are clearly

presented. Please do NOT use colour graphics.

∙ Please do NOT use footnotes and do NOT

list references as footnotes at the end of each

page.

∙ If the paper does not follow these specifications,

it will be returned!

For other details, please see the example

format below.

<Table 1> Profile of Conference Participants

Profile Frequency Percentage

Male 98 49.00

Female 102 51.00

Total 200 100

TITLE OF YOUR PAPER CENTERED LIKE THIS

* Your Name James Bond

Your Department’s Name

Your Organization (University’s) Name

Your co-author’s name

Your co-author’s Department Name

Your co-author’s Organization (University’s) Name

and

Your co-author’s name

Your co-author’s Department Name

Your co-author’s Organization (University’s) Name

[Mark * in front of the name of the presenting author]

ABSTRACT

Starting with “Abstract,” your paper needs to be

typed in one column as shown in this example. Indent

the first sentences of each paragraph with ½ inch.

Use single space within each paragraph but double

space between paragraphs as shown in this example.

Do not number the pages but make sure the pages

are in the correct order. Pages will be numbered by

the editor. (All papers must be prepared and submitted

in English).

Key Words : identify and list key words (maximum

6) which represent the content of your paper.

Introduction

The paper title, author names (full names and

institution only), titles (e.g., Assistant Professor or

Assistant Dean or Head of School, etc.) and degrees

(e.g., Ph.D., etc.) are not necessary. Title and author

affiliations must be centered as shown above.

Submit your final paper to the Director of Paper

Review as indicated in the accompanying instruction

sheets. All papers need to be prepared in Microsoft

Word and submitted as an email attachment.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must appear within the text

(not at the end of the text). Tables and figures need

to be numbered sequentially (e.g., Table 1, Table

2, Table 3, etc.) and they should bear a title (with

appropriate upper and lower case letters) which

explains their contents. For example:

Title of Your Paper Centered Like This 147

References

References must be listed immediately following the

CONCLUSION or SUMMARY of the paper. Use

APA style (http://www.apastyle.org/). Alphabetize

by author, and for each author list in chronological

sequence. List the author’s names exactly as written

in the source cited. (Please do NOT list references

as footnotes at the end of each page).

See example below:

Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V. and Day, G.S. (1995), Marketing

Research. 5th ed. John Wiley, New York.

Diaz, A. B. C. and Ruiz, F. J. M. (2002), The Consumer’s

Reaction to Delays in Service, International Journal

of Service Industry Management, 13(2), 118-140.

Pritzker, T.J. (n.d.). An Early Fragment from Central

Nepal [Online]. Retrieved June 8, 1995, from

http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzk

er.html

Smith, P.S. (2001, October 23). The Finest Dining Places

in Hong Kong. South China Morning Post, B1, B3.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Acknowledgement is optional and should appear after

the references and before the appendices.

Any “appendices” should appear at the end of the article

after the list of references and acknowledgement(if

applicable).

Website : http:// www.kasct.co.kr

CONFERENCE ADMINISTRATION

Please direct paper submissions and enquires to:

Prof. Jung, Sung-Chae, Ph.D.

PresidentWorld Culural Tourism Association

Dept. of Tourism Management, Honam University,59-1 Seobong-dong Gwangsan-guGwang-ju, Korea 506-714

Tel : +82-62-940-5582 / Fax : +82-62-940-5582 /E-mail : [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

http://www.kasct.co.kr

ISSN 2005-6133

International Journal of Culture & Tourism Research Volume 5 Number 1

PrintedDecember 26, 2012

PublishedDecember 31, 2012

PublisherWorld Cultural Tourism Association

Editor in ChiefProf. Jung, Sung-Chae, Ph.D.World Cultural Tourism Association

Dept. of Tourism Management, Honam University59-1, Seobong-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwang-ju, Korea

The Place of IssueKorean Studies Information Co., Ltd.513-5 Paju Bookcity, Munbal-dong, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea 413-756Tel : +82-31-940-1062

Visitor Motivation, expectation and Satisfaction of Local Cultural Event in Sabah

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