Homestay tourism is popular in many destinations; it adds authentic sociocultural richness to the tourist's experience. For a nation that cannot make extensive infrastructural investment a priority but which possesses an abundance of tourism richness in remote communities, homestays are an attractive alternative tourism product. This paper discusses a case study of Barpak, located in the Gorkha District of Western Nepal. The study suggests homestays are congruent with Nepal's destination image. The essence of Nepalese tourism lies in naturally beautiful rural hills and mountains and its indigenous communities with their mystical lifestyle and culture. These natural and cultural attributes can be showcased best through homestays. This paper proposes homestays as a pro-women tourism opportunity that promotes sustainable community development by fostering gender equality. Female ownership of homestay businesses secures women's avenues for income generation and involves them in mainstream development. The study's indicators of development are based on the well-being achieved by the Barpaki community, with a focus on three essential aspects of sustainable development, namely economic, environmental and social. The author's (BPA) own experience of collaboration, on behalf of the nation's tourism authority the Nepal Tourism Board, with the community of Barpak in setting-up the homestay management, was a primary source of information for this case along with related literature reviews. The data was derived through community-based action research and evaluation methodologies. Information was based on first-hand experiences generated through ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews.

The World Heritage (WH) brand signals property so irreplaceable that its values must be sustained intact in perpetuity. A primary function of the WH symbol, one element of the WH brand, is to prompt positive visitor emotions and behaviors favored by management agencies. This paper investigates if the symbol communicates any message to viewers. To determine visitor recognition and recall of the WH symbol tested against a variety of variables, 1827 visitors to five WH sites in Queensland, Australia and 712 visitors to the WH part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, USA were surveyed. Sixty percent of visitors to the Queensland sites and 19% of visitors to the Hawaii site were aware of the site's WH status; 96% of Queensland site visitors, and 99% of Hawaii site visitors could not recall what the WH symbol represented. Park agencies appear to take a laissez-faire attitude to branding, have little interest or capacity to brand properly or have strategically restricted usage of the WH brand to de-clutter their brand landscape. This limits opportunities to transmit to visitors and communities why WH properties should be valued and sustained, with significant implications for the long-term sustainability of WH sites.

Purpose: This study explores the multi-phasic experience of festivals to understand the nature, purpose and degree of social media (SM) use before, during and after festival occurrence and how this may inform better engagement of attendees. Design/methodology/approach: A census of tweets and posts from four festivals’ Twitter handles and Facebook accounts were coded and analyzed across three time points: one week prior, during and one week after the festival. They were coded on nature (e.g. conversational, promotional, informational), purpose (e.g. information-seeking, friendship/relationship) and presence of links, photos, etc. Tests for platform influences on usage were conducted. Findings: In total, 1,169 tweets and 483 posts were captured. Two-thirds of SM activity occurred during the festivals, one-third pre-festival and minimal activity post festival. Temporal analyses found that while the purpose and nature of the message content varied across festival time points, this was often dependent on SM platform. Research limitations/implications: Festivals are not taking advantage of the multi-phase experience model and the utility of SM to maintain contact and encourage visitors to continue processing their experience after the festival. This lost opportunity has implications for re-patronizing behaviour and sponsor relationships. Originality value: Leung et al. (2013a) call for sector specific research to elucidate SM use in tourism. Festivals provide a unique environment of co-created experience. Findings suggest differential usage of SM across festival time frames and platforms that can be used to guide festival organizations’ SM communication to better engage its patrons.

Purpose: Using a cross-cultural perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cultural difference and travel motivation on event participation and how cultural difference may influence the relationship between travel motivation and event participation. The paper highlights the importance of culture in tourism research. Design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted by using a secondary data set (n=24,692) commissioned by Destination Canada (formerly the Canadian Tourism Commission). Both descriptive statistics (e.g. frequency analysis) and inferential statistics (e.g. hierarchical regressions) were calculated. Findings: First of all, the results indicated that travel motivations and cultural difference can impact event participation. For example, those who were more motivated by knowledge and competence (e.g. knowing history and culture) were more likely to participate in art festivals and cultural events. Also, the research recognized that Asian-Canadians were more likely to visit ethnic or religious festivals than Anglo-Canadians, whereas Asian-Canadians were less likely to attend farmers’ market in comparison with Anglo-Canadians. Last, the effect of cultural difference can moderate the relationship between travel motivation and event participation. Originality/value: These findings emphasize that travel motivations and cultural difference are key factors to be considered for festivals’ marketing. Particularly, the moderating effect of cultural difference reinforces that the important role played by culture for effective festival marketing should not be ignored. The research also provides valuable insights for destination managers who are interested in Asian markets. Moreover, using a secondary data set prepared by the Canadian Government largely increased the results’ representativeness, trustworthiness, and generalizability.

This longitudinal study examined Chinese immigrants’ leisure participation and satisfaction. A model where participation predicted satisfaction indicated that: satisfaction at Time 1 affected satisfaction at Time 2, and satisfaction at Times 1 and 2 affected satisfaction at Time 3, while participation at Time 1 directly affected satisfaction at Time 2 and indirectly at Time 3. A model where satisfaction predicted participation indicated that: participation at Time 1 affected participation at Time 2, and participation at Times 1 and 2 influenced participation at Time 3, while satisfaction at Time 1 did not affect participation at either Times 2 or 3.