Food and beverage experiences (FBEs) are an important travel motivator in tourists’ decision-making process. This study determines how food tourism destinations within North Carolina (NC), U.S.A. can optimally market FBEs to different types of food tourists. Using survey data from potential visitors across three NC food tourism destinations, 10 foodie traveler profiles were created based on enjoyment of food/beverage-related activities. Differences in willingness to travel for FBEs and interest in seeking out FBEs at the destination were also examined. Potential visitors to each destination had significantly different food and travel behaviors indicating there are opportunities for destinations to capitalize upon the differences in the foodie travelers. By being strategic about which type of foodie they attract, destinations can build competitive advantage by targeting different segments of the foodie traveler market, thus optimizing the overall number of foodie travelers coming to NC.

Virtual exchange and collaborative online international learning have emerged as a means to internationalize campuses and foster the development of global competencies among students by facilitating connections with people, organizations, and institutions abroad. Based on a virtual exchange between the U.S. and Thai undergraduate students, this qualitative research used written individual reflection, focus group data, and observations to explore whether U.S. students developed global competencies in the form of ability to communicate and collaborate in a global and multicultural context. Additionally, this study explored whether the focus on the “process” of the collaborative project allowed for the development of critical thinking skills and whether virtual exchange created opportunities for transformative learning. The findings suggest that the U.S. students in this study developed cross-cultural communication and critical thinking skills, an increased awareness and mindfulness of global and cultural dynamics, higher levels of perceived proficiency in global collaboration, and experienced transformative learning as a result of participating in the virtual exchange project.

To date, tourism research has primarily explored resident perception and attitude in terms of tourism impact and development. Comparatively, resident perception of tourists themselves has attracted less attention from tourism researchers despite the fact host communities see the benefits of tourism through positive relationships with tourists. Moreover, studies on the resident-tourist relationship have largely been interested in the perspective of tourists, considering tourists as customers who bring economic benefits to a destination, while seeing residents as beneficiaries of the tourists’ expenditures during their trip. The skewed approach has amplified the incomplete understanding of the resident-tourist relationship, disregarding the importance of reciprocity and the merchandized purpose of the exchanges in this relationship. As a starting point to study the residents' perspectives toward the resident-tourist relationship, this study explored and operated the concept of tourist attractiveness through a mixed-methods approach using a case study of Jeju Island, South Korea. As a result, this study found that tourist attractiveness can be measured using five sub-dimensions: tourist compatibility, tourist financial capacity, tourist responsibility, positive tourist influence, and negative tourist influence.

This study explores the relationship between a Cuban organipónico, an urban, organic cooperative farm, and the surrounding community, particularly in regard to increasing agroecotourism. This was examined through the community capitals framework which allows for the use of a systems approach to inventory and analyse assets and wealth stocks within the community. Individual interviews were conducted in the summer of 2013 with members of the farm cooperative to explore the relationship between the farm and the community, and the way tourism to the farm has improved community capitals. Overall, this study demonstrated the ability for agroecotourism to help support goals of food security, beyond acting only as a tool for economic diversification, but also by influencing other community capitals. The study also adds to the literature on agroecotourism, tourism development in socialist contexts, and the way in which tourism can help support and grow sustainable agriculture.

Smartphones have exacerbated the devolution of humans’ ability to maintain presence, or the practice of being aware of what is happening while it is happening in all manners of their lives, especially in their leisure. Further exploration is needed to understand the numerous, diverse, and nuanced ramifications smartphones have on our health and well-being, especially as it relates to our leisure experiences which tap into a sociocognitive system of behaviours that require our full attention. What remains underexplored is how leisure experiences are trivialized, minimalized, disempowered, and adulterated by the omnipresent interloping of the smartphone. Is our pervasive use of smartphones disconnecting us from our leisure? This think-piece examines how the omnipresence of smartphones in our lives leads to a loss of presence and the potential for alienation in our lives and leisure.

As interpretivist-constructivist and critical scholarship has advanced within leisure science, so too does the need for more comprehensive approaches for reflexivity. Reflexivity, which can be described as an act, capacity, or practice to self-critique one’s own biases that may influence the construction of knowledge, is an important means for meeting standards of goodness or quality within qualitative research. This study sought to strengthen leisure research through a conceptual exploration of reflexivity. The authors created a series of vignettes to analyze their past research experiences, employing hermeneutics and feminist epistemologies to guide reflexive practice. Consequently, social and relational context of knowledge, representation and voice, positionality and embodiment, awareness of politico-ideological character, and unconscious/emotional entanglement emerged as dimensions of a reflexive framework. Informed by this process, a collection of questions are offered as a tool to assist others with more holistic reflexive practice within the leisure sciences.