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Existing literature has barely explored the role of tourist experiences in the tourism-led migration process. Focusing on surfing-oriented migrants in a coastal municipality, this paper explores th...

This study examined the effects the presence of Westerners at historic districts in Japan has on Japanese evaluations of the districts. Sixty-three Japanese students rated 18 slide photographs with no people, photographs with mainly Japanese, and photographs with mainly Westerners. The presence of Westerners had positive effects on the subjects’ overall evaluations of the districts regarding a sense of activity and touristic uniqueness. Negative effects were found regarding a sense of calmness and harmony. These results imply the importance of the characteristics of tourist attractions and of the observable characteristics of foreign tourists for tourism promotion in historic districts.

This study elucidates the relationships between the elements that visitors gaze at in a historical district and the objectives perceived to have been achieved. This study differs from previous studies on visitors’ evaluations of historical districts (carried out using the theoretical frameworks and methods of architectural/environmental psychology), because the research focuses on interpersonal differences in tourist gazes. Research was conducted between 09:30 and 14:00 on July 13, 2013 in front of the railway station, near the tourist information center in Sanmachi, and around the entrance to and in the waiting room of Takayama Jinya. One thousand visitors to Takayama city, Japan were asked to complete and return questionnaires, using stamped, pre-addressed envelopes. They were first asked whether they had seen 19 elements, and then asked to rate the impressiveness of those they had seen. Respondents also rated the extent to which seven objectives related to learning and interaction had been achieved during their visits. The findings suggest that visitors who gaze at various elements may strongly perceive opportunities to achieve their objectives, that is, learning about a destination and interacting with other people. For visitors who specifically focus on local elements that do not relate to people, opportunities for learning may not be curtailed, but then again, the chances to interact with others may not necessarily be facilitated. Gazing at the multifaceted aspects of a historical district appears to foster a visitor’s understanding of the district. Drawing upon these findings, future studies should investigate the effects of visitors’ pretravel motives on their gaze.

A historical district is a comprehensive form of historical attractions, and has diverse features that visitors can gaze on. This study proposes the application of the caption evaluation method, participatory research involving photographing by subjects, to a study of visitors’ evaluation of a historical district as a tourism destination. Thirty Japanese undergraduates who majored in commerce and 27 Japanese adults with an interest in architecture and/or town planning photographed settings of their choice in a Japanese historical district and stated how they perceived the captured settings in an open-ended form. Their statements were subjected to analysis using a software package as well as manual analysis. The results indicate relationships between various elements in the district and the subjects’ feelings and desires. Particularly, favourable evaluations of old objects and unfavourable perceptions of modern objects were implied. The results also suggest the types of activities visitors may wish to participate in.

This study explores approaches and methods to investigate visitors' evaluation of historical districts. Personal interviews with use of repertory grid analysis and laddering analysis and slide experiments with photographs were conducted with a sample of students to reveal relationships between various evaluative components. The results of the two sets of methods are examined in a comparative manner to obtain abundant insights into evaluations of historical districts and the efficacy of these methods. The results provide insights into issues raised by past studies. Particularly, they shed light on the complex nature of visitors' evaluation of historical districts, as represented by the mixed effects of the presence of other people, commercialization, and modernity. Personal interviews and slide experiments are found to be mutually complementary in that, while the former illuminate the complex relationships between components of subjects' evaluations, the latter depict these relationships in a more holistic and simple form by uncovering the commonality between the elicited components. The findings of the slide experiments also suggest room for further attempts to elicit evaluative components. Further studies of this kind with different groups of subjects and in different field settings would provide further insights into this complex area.

This study aims to identify the elements that characterise spaces for tourists and those that characterise spaces for locals in a shopping district based on the perspectives of local students. Forty-five local undergraduates took photographs of settings that impressed them in the shopping district in Naha-shi, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and the reasons given by each respondent for photographing a particular setting were recorded. Frequently used nouns and adjectives were extracted for each category. The results suggest the importance of the types of commercial facilities and people on the perspectives of locals. Affordable and mundane products are associated with local spaces, while souvenirs may be regarded as symbols of touristic spaces. The absence of locals and the presence of tourists may be characteristics of touristic spaces whereas the potential attractiveness of encounters with locals for tourists is also implied.

This study investigates how visitors evaluated a historical district that includes both authentic and manipulated elements. Using 13 bipolar scales, 323 visitors to the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter were canvassed regarding their evaluations of the Quarter. The survey results suggest that perceptions of authenticity are a crucial factor affecting the overall evaluations of historical districts. Differences were observed, however, in the evaluative dimensions by which authenticity was assessed between visitors whose overall evaluations were favourable and those whose overall evaluations were unfavourable. It was also found that a sense of the maintenance of historical districts negatively affected the overall evaluations of visitors whose overall evaluations are unfavourable and that the duration of visitors' trips might be a significant determinant of overall favourability.

This study investigates the efficacy of Lew's (1987) “cognitive perspective” in assessing how tourists evaluate destinations. Using 11 bipolar word pairs derived from Sasaki (2000) and Lew, 139 high school students were surveyed about six destinations in and around Tokyo Prefecture, Japan, which they visited on a group tour. Analysis of the survey results suggests that the cognitive perspective, as represented by the 11 word pairs, supports the grouping of destinations into two types: tourist-oriented or non-tourist oriented; that different evaluative components represented by different word pairs are associated with different types of destinations; and that the influence and relative importance of certain evaluative components vary according to destination type.

This chapter presents the potential of exhibition areas operated by consumer goods companies as a method of relationship marketing for corporate branding. Exhibition areas can provide visitors with opportunities to understand corporate brands. In order to clarify the roles of exhibition areas in corporate strategies, we conducted enterprise investigations of three Japanese companies, Sony, Nikka Whisky, and Toyota. Although we would like to propose that operating exhibition areas might be effective for marketing, the results show some differences among the companies in visitors’ data and their purposes. We should first question whether this method is suitable for each company in consideration of their view of corporate branding.

This study aims to illustrate the complex nature of visitors' evaluation of historical districts as tourism destinations and how this complex nature can be understood and investigated. The literature review suggested a theoretical framework based on relationships between visitors' mental states and a district's features. Personal interviews employing Repertory Grid Analysis and Laddering Analysis with use of photographs of a historical district in Takayama-shi, Japan were conducted with a sample of Japanese students. The results illustrate that these methods elucidate issues argued in past studies and may be effective in investigating visitors' evaluation of historical districts.

This study discusses the complex nature of visitors' evaluation of an historical district, and proposes a theoretical framework and qualitative methods to elicit relations between visitors' mental states and the district's features. The combination of Repertory Grid Analysis and Laddering Analysis with the use of photographs as stimuli is discussed and demonstrated. Results show that these methods can shed light on the varied nature of visitors' evaluation. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.