Th rough their multiple roles in tourism, residents of destination communities interact with tourists at destinations. Th e consequences of these host-guest interactions are bi-directional. Much research has been done on impacts of host-guest interactions on the local community. On the other hand, few studies have evaluated how tourists' on-site behaviour and experiences are aff ected by such i...

In Lugano (Switzerland), the OECD Tourism Committee was the first intergovernmental body to examine in-depth the relationship between growth and innovation in the area of tourism. This paper examines the main issues raised during the Lugano Conference: ! Why does tourism in the developed OECD countries urgently need to innovate? ! What factors are preventing the much needed restructuring of the...

Environment both endowed and built are essential for tourism. However tourism and environment maintains a complex relationship, where in most cases environment is at the receiving end. Many tourism development activities have adverse environmental effects, mainly emanating from construction of general infrastructure and tourism facilities. These negative impacts of tourism can lead to the destr...

Tourism is an important part of national economy. On the other hand it can also be a source of some negative externalities. These are mainly environmental externalities, resulting in increased pollution, aesthetic or architectural damages. High concentration of visitors may also lead to increased crime, or aggressiveness. These may have negative effects on quality of life of residents and negat...

The presence of customer community in tourism websites is an added value service that enable customers to read about other tourists’ experience. This knowledge sharing of other people’s experience is perceived as more neutral and trustworthy and help to reduce tourist’s perceived risk. However, the deployment of tourist knowledge sharing through the Internet has yet to be measured. This paper p...

We were interested to read Priya Shetty’s World Report examining the booming medical tourism industry in India (Aug 28, p 671). The Lancet is to be commended for bringing attention to this issue. It is of the utmost importance that trends in medical tourism be watched closely given the implications for patients’ health and safety and for health systems more broadly. Shetty places significant fo...

This article is a commentary of an overview on "medical tourism" submitted by Lunt and Marrion, which describes a framework for the study of the issues related to medical tourism. The commentary attempts to differentiate between the current interest in medical tourism and the time-honored and well-established treatment abroad from countries with underdeveloped health systems. The commentary als...

This essay explores how concepts of value and cheapness circulate around the bodies of clients of the Johannesburg-based cosmetic surgery tourism company Surgeon and Safari. I show how the production of a luxurious experience and the mitigation of risk take place within a transnational network enabled by the presence of medical tourism in multiple locales. By placing Surgeon and Safari's activi...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to appraisal the prose and cone of Shiraz City in terms of its potential in the context of health tourism. METHODS The statistical sample included medical and health tourism sector in the city of Shiraz in the northwest of Fars Province, south of Iran. The efficient authorities on the topic were identified through the hospitals engaging in medical t...

Within the concept of cultural tourism, this article defines relatively new concepts of creative and hobby tourism, which are detected as recent niche markets. Cultural tourism is a narrow specialized market, while creative and hobby tourism relate to even more specialized segments. Even these specialized forms of tourism have their market whose growth is very probable taking into account chang...