Recent Developments
Regional Tourism Governance: The Evaluation of Tourism Governance in the Perception of Its Actors in Two Tourist Regions of the South of Brazil View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pablo Flôres Limberger, Marcos Arnhold Junior
The creation of Brazil's Regional Governance Instances (IGRs) in the 21st century was a pivotal step in enhancing tourism governance. The role of these entities is to allow the application of the governance process in the realities of the Brazilian regions. Although the policy was unified throughout the Brazilian territory, the local realities made the processes perceived differently by their actors. Thus, this study compares the processes related to tourism governance in the perception of its actors, from the concept of governance as a management process related to the collective decision-making processes for the management of social conflicts (Velasco, 2013) and the way of acting in the perception of actors of consolidated destinations, highlighting the presentation of the difficulties and peculiarities of this process of public management. The study was carried out in the tourist regions of the state of Santa Catarina based on a theoretical survey on tourism governance assessment models. The first data collection was carried out with actors from the 10 Regional Governance Instances of Santa Catarina in 2017. The second data collection was conducted in May 2023, with managers from the now 14 tourist regions. The results show that despite varying government actions over six years, the stakeholders' perceptions remain very similar, highlighting the need for equal implementation of public policies across regions. As a practical implication, this work serves as a tool for improving the application of public policies in the development of tourism regionalization in Brazil.
Factors Influencing Locals’ Perceptions about Tourism Development Impacts and the Intention to Support Tourism Development in Riyadh City: A Sustainability Approach View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Moteab Alsaloum
It has been generally understood that tourism development for host communities can be a double-edged sword. Tourism development provides advantages and can generate costs. Tourism strategies must reflect an understanding of sustainable tourism development. This requires governments to be fully knowledgeable about the tourism industry and understand its impacts on society. Locals are the main actors in sustainable tourism development. Studies on locals’ perceptions of tourism growth are increasing due to the link between community support and potential development of tourism. Based on social exchange theory and previous findings, this study proposed a series of hypotheses and developed a theoretical model of residents' support for tourism development in Riyadh city, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. This study is based on a self-administered survey on a sample of 427 Saudi Arabian's locals living in Riyadh city using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data. This study seeks to identify Riyadh residents' perceptions about the impacts of potential tourism development in Riyadh city, and to understand both the negative and positive impacts of tourism development. In addition, this study seeks to examine the effects of (e.g., community attachment, and resident's knowledge of tourism development, and community involvement) on locals' perceived benefit and cost of tourism development. Moreover, this study seeks to identify how the perceived impacts of tourism affect locals' satisfaction and support for tourism development, and in turn how locals’ satisfaction with tourism affect the intention to support tourism development in Riyadh City.
AL-MUSACTRA, a Portal for Accessible Andalusian Heritage Sites View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session María V. Hurtado, María Luisa Rodriguez Almendros, Vicente Bru Garcia, Silvia Toribio Camuñas, Silvia Martínez Martínez, Catalina Jiménez Hurtado
AL-MUSACTRA (https://tracce.ugr.es/almusactra/) is a multidisciplinary research project funded by the Junta de Andalucía and implemented by the research groups TRACCE (Translation and Accessibility) and MYDASS (Modelling & Development of Advanced Software Systems), a group dedicated to the development of socially aware software. The main objective of AL-MUSACTRA is to facilitate the access and distribution of all the accessible resources from Andalusian heritage sites and museums through a single and unifying website. AL-MUSACTRA creates accessible products in museums and heritage sites, translating images into words for blind people (audio description); sounds into words (subtitling for deaf and hard of hearing) or visual information (sign language interpreting) for deaf people, or specialised heritage texts into Easy Language and pictograms for people with cognitive diversity. AL-MUSACTRA hosts and manages the contents of cultural spaces in different languages and formats: sign-guides, audio guides, adaptations of texts into easy language and pictograms. The platform also allows information to be accessed by filters such as city, museum, venue, event or specific resource. Upon registration, users indicate the type of resources they need so that only those materials that meet their needs are shown. Furthermore, AL-MUSACTRA makes it possible to carry out studies on disabilities through content evaluation. For this purpose, questionnaires are provided to enable users to assess the quality of the resources and thus contribute to the platform’s improvement. AL-MUSACTRA follows the guidelines set by UNWTO of promoting sustainable and accessible tourism for all, in pursuit of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
