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Open Access Article

1 - Exploring the Souvenir purchasing behaviour (Case study: Mashhad Pilgrims)

Souvenir purchasing is not only a memento of travel experience, but also a tourist attraction. Furthermore, souvenir shopping is an integral component of one’s travel experience which has a significant proportion of overall travel expenditure in tourism industry turnove More

Souvenir purchasing is not only a memento of travel experience, but also a tourist attraction. Furthermore, souvenir shopping is an integral component of one’s travel experience which has a significant proportion of overall travel expenditure in tourism industry turnover. As a result, market identification is of critical importance to producers, marketers, wholesaler and retailers. However, regarding the souvenir purchasing behaviour not much research has been conducted and this subject is still under study in Iran. With a great number of tourist arrivals and various types of souvenir, Mashhad has a great potential to be considered as a case study. So, the aim of this paper is to explore; what will pilgrims buy and what factors will drive their purchasing behaviour? Accordingly, secondary data analysis has been conducted on the gathered data from Mashhad pilgrims 2010 and 2011 survey. Based on the pilgrims' dominant purchasing choices, four different behaviour was identified: purchasing of cultural symbols, purchasing of local foods, mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs, and non-purchase behaviour. The most common observed, purchasing behaviour was "mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs". In addition, the logistic regression test showed that purchasing behaviour was determined by age, place of residence (city), tourist's dominant behaviour in travel (pilgrimage), travel style (travelling in a group or alone) and frequency of travel. Those variables predicted 23% of variance of souvenir purchasing behaviour. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - Prioritizing Motivations of Iraqi Tourists Visiting the Holy City of Mashhad

Though discussions about tourists’ motivations have witnessed many investigations in recent years, research regarding motivations for religious tourism is in its infancy. Researchers have not reached an exact consensus in distinguishing religious and pilgrimage tourism. More

Though discussions about tourists’ motivations have witnessed many investigations in recent years, research regarding motivations for religious tourism is in its infancy. Researchers have not reached an exact consensus in distinguishing religious and pilgrimage tourism. Success in destination marketing requires a thorough analysis of tourists’ motivations. Therefore, the current study surveyed and prioritized motivations of Iraqi tourists. The study is based on library research, and the use of a questionnaire. In this study, 385 questionnaires were distributed among Iraqi tourists entering the city of Mashhad. 10 hidden variable and 38 items or questions were analyzed. After the final review, 247 questionnaires were accepted. Demographic variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Confirmatory factor analysis was used in analyzing the main variables. Data validity, reliability, and goodness of fit were approved and the Friedman test was used to rank the factors. The results showed that spirituality and self-actualization motives were of the highest priority. Other motivations were: visiting historic-cultural attractions; gaining respect and prestige; family reasons; searching for safety and relaxation; enjoying recreation and leisure; and learning and curiosity motivations. Pull factors were religio-cultural motivations, leisure attractions, and structural features, respectivesly. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - The Effect of Young Children on Impulsive Decisions of Families in Fun Traveling
Mohesn Akbari Esmaeel Ramezanpour Parmis Moaf

An important dimension of consumer behavior is making impulsive decisions. These decisions are shaped by a quick decision process, resulting from excitement and emotion. Impulsive traveling is one of the immediate behaviors in which a tourist travels to somewhere for wh More

An important dimension of consumer behavior is making impulsive decisions. These decisions are shaped by a quick decision process, resulting from excitement and emotion. Impulsive traveling is one of the immediate behaviors in which a tourist travels to somewhere for which he or she has not carefully planned. There are many reasons behind this kind of behavior in tourism, including going to see somewhere for fun; pressures from friends, peers and family members; undeclared internal motivations; or even encouragement from destinations with different marketing tools. This paper examined the impact of children’s participation, in family decision-making, on the emotions of the decision maker in the family and the impulsive travel plans they made. The conceptual model is based on literature and research background, which showed relationship between variables (youth insistence, decision makers’ emotions and intention to travel impulsively). For sampling and data collection, a questionnaire was distributed among 384 families that had traveled impulsively to different locations of the province of Guilan. This is an applied study, and data collection followed descriptive-correlation based on structural equation modeling. SPSS 19 was used to analyze the descriptive data. For statistical inference, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) and Smart PLS2 software. Results showed that children’s participation in decisions affects impulsive family planning to travel. In addition, the mediating role of emotions was also confirmed showing that children that take part in family decision-making, not only increased the impulsive traveling of family members but also affected their emotions. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - The Effect of the Perceived Value of a Brand Image on Purchase Intention Case: Bojnord Candy Souvenir
narges ahanchian zahra nori

The perceived value of a brand is a basic concept for brand purchase and is considered as a valuable and necessary asset. Marketers need to identify the effective factors on brand purchase intention to promote their products and aim for improving the perceived value of More

The perceived value of a brand is a basic concept for brand purchase and is considered as a valuable and necessary asset. Marketers need to identify the effective factors on brand purchase intention to promote their products and aim for improving the perceived value of the brand. This study tried to test the concept in tourism and test the effect of the perceived value of tourists on purchase intention (candy) and brand image. The statistical population was all the tourists who visited the city of Bojnord. Based on Krejcie and Morgan sampling table, 384 tourists were selected randomly. A localized questionnaire was used to collect data. Using structural equation modeling and LISREL, the study investigated the conceptual model and the research hypotheses. The results showed that the perceived value of tourists had a positive and significant effect on the brand image and purchase intention toward the candy. Tourists’ mental image had also a positive and significant effect on the purchase intention. The results showed that the tourism marketers could increase the tendency of tourists to purchase Bojnord candy by improving the index of the perceived value of the candy and by making efforts to brand these local souvenirs, which could lead to developing the tourism industry. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - Bibliometric Analysis, Tourism Experience, Computational Literature Review, Co-occurrence Network, Co-authorship Network
leila ilchi mesbah seivandian amir salar vanaki

10.61186/journalitor.36036.11.24.139

This study set out to investigate the trend of studies conducted on tourist experience using bibliometric analysis. To this end, the study analyzed 2683 articles published in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2020 using the VOS Viewer software to visualize and an More

This study set out to investigate the trend of studies conducted on tourist experience using bibliometric analysis. To this end, the study analyzed 2683 articles published in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2020 using the VOS Viewer software to visualize and analyze the results. In this regard, two analysis levels were considered. At the first level, the publication trend and the impact factor of authors, journals, and articles were examined. At the second level, the structure of the co-occurrence network of keywords and the co-authorship network of authors, institutions, and countries were analyzed. The findings of the study indicated a significantly growing trend of studies (most of which were published in 2019) conducted on tourism experience in recent years, which is expected to continue to grow in the future. On the other hand, hospitality and leisure, management, and environmental studies were found as the highly researched areas, with most articles being published on tourism experience. Moreover, social media, trust, user opinions, and competitiveness are among the emerging research areas in the relevant literature. In this regard, health tourism, culinary tourism, social experience, shared value creation, authenticity, cultural experience, destination experience, backpackers, information technology, cultural differences, cultural heritage, students’ experiences, sustainable management, and transportation are among the main topics addressed in the literature. On the other hand, the analysis of the authors' co-authorship network revealed that thirty-five research groups are currently working in this field worldwide, with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University exerting the highest influence on the international collaboration network. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - Investigating the Influence of Human Resources Management Activities on Customer Loyalty in the Hoteling Industry Using a Multilevel Approach
zahra Nikkhah-Farkhani Mohammad shaykhzade

10.52547/journalitor.36121.11.21.1

Considering the fact that customer loyalty is regarded as one of the most important concerns of hotel managers, this study sought to investigate the influence of human resources management activities on customer loyalty using a multi-level approach. The statistical popu More

Considering the fact that customer loyalty is regarded as one of the most important concerns of hotel managers, this study sought to investigate the influence of human resources management activities on customer loyalty using a multi-level approach. The statistical population of the study comprised of managers, staff, and customers of four-star and five-star hotels in Mashhad. Moreover, the statistical sample size of the research at the organization level consisted of thirty-four, one-hundred and forty, two-hundred and forty managers, staff, and customers at organizational, staff, and customer levels, respectively. On the other hand, Sam’s 12-item questionnaire (2008) and the 17-item questionnaire developed by Al-Rafiei et al. (2013) were used to measure the human resources management activities and the staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, respectively, whose validity and reliability was tested using the Content validity method and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. Finally, HLM 7.02 and the SPSS software were used to analyse the collected data. The results proved the positive influence of human resources management activities on the staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, and in turn, on the satisfaction and loyalty of the customers. Therefore, it could be argued that hotel managers can increase the loyalty of their customers by emphasizing human resource management activities and improving their staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, which would increase the profitability of hotels in the long term by reducing marketing costs. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

7 - Tourism, Public Policy, Tourism Policy, Policy Implementation, Gilan Province
Ezzatollah Abbasian shabnam zarjou seyyed Hamed Hashemi

10.61186/journalitor.36230.11.24.35

The current study set out to identify the influential factors involved in implementing public tourism policies in Gilan province, Iran. To this end, this developmental qualitative research applies an inductive approach and follows the interpretive-constructivist philoso More

The current study set out to identify the influential factors involved in implementing public tourism policies in Gilan province, Iran. To this end, this developmental qualitative research applies an inductive approach and follows the interpretive-constructivist philosophy. The study’s population consisted of experts in the field of tourism, public policy, Gilan studies, and geography, out of whom some twenty experts were selected and interviewed using purposive snowball sampling. According to the findings of the study, technological, cultural, social, economic, and political-administrative factors were found to have contributed to the implementation of the public tourism policy in Gilan province. In this regard, the political-administrative factor was found to comprise bureaucracy reduction, education, and human resources development and improvement. Moreover, it was revealed that the social factors included strengthening social responsibility, increasing public and non-governmental organizations' participation, proper communication of the executive department with residents, and enjoying social capital. On the other hand, the results showed that the cultural factor consisted of utilizing cultural symbols, developing localized policies, and emphasizing the cultural structure of each region and that the technological factor included the emphasis on media advertisement and strengthening technological infrastructure. Finally, the economic factor was found to comprise participatory governance, proper financial planning, and proper budgeting. The main achievement of this research is its focus on the implementation aspect of policy-making and the recognition of various cultural, technological, social, economic, and political-administrative factors in the successful implementation of tourism policies, suggesting that in addition to economic factors, some other factors also contribute to the effective policy implementation, a fact which has been neglected in many similar studies. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

8 - Identifying Effective Factors in Tourists' Satisfaction of and Tendency to Purchase from Mashhad's Shopping Centers
sara parsapour Hadi Rafiei Darani

10.52547/journalitor.36275.10.19.166

Purchasing is a new type of tourism that is considered as one of the main activities of tourists. This study sought to investigate the effect of shopping centers' features, traveling options, and the tourist destination's economic and social characteristics on tourists’ More

Purchasing is a new type of tourism that is considered as one of the main activities of tourists. This study sought to investigate the effect of shopping centers' features, traveling options, and the tourist destination's economic and social characteristics on tourists’ satisfaction of and tendency to purchase from shopping centers with an emphasis on comparing tourists and pilgrims visiting Mashhad's traditional and modern shopping centers (Bazaar Reza and Almas-e-Sharq). To this end, 404 questionnaires were administered during the summer of 2019, using multiple logit analyses to identify the relevant factors. The study's results indicated that variables such as background information concerning the shopping center, the number of family members accompanying a person in travel, seller`s appropriate treatment, the existence of parking lots, quality of the product, marital status, geographical location, income, and product variety had a significant effect on tourists' tendency to purchase from shopping centers. Therefore, to increase the tourists' satisfaction of and willingness to purchase from shopping centers, the following steps are recommended to be taken: constructing shopping centers in places that are easier to access for the tourists; Exercising stricter supervision on prices of different products and services; equipping the shopping centers with parking lots that are capacious enough, and providing the shopping centers with diverse various goods and services. Manuscript profile

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