Improving the Dependability of Destination Recommendations using Information on Social Aspects, by Olawande J. Daramola, Mathew O. Adigun, Charles K. Ayo & Oludayo O. Olugbara

Prior knowledge of the social aspects of prospective destinations can be very influential in making travel destination decisions, especially in instances where social concerns do exist about specific destinations. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an ontology-enabled Hybrid Destination Recommender System (HDRS) that leverages an ontological description of five specific social attributes of major Nigerian cities, and hybrid architecture of content-based and case-based filtering techniques to generate personalised top-n destination recommendations. An empirical usability test was conducted on the system, which revealed that the dependability of recommendations from Destination Recommender Systems (DRS) could be improved if the semantic representation of social attributes information of destinations is made a factor in the destination recommendation process.

BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM POLICY IN MASS TOURISM DESTINATIONS, by Rachel Dodds & Richard Butler

The focus of this paper is on identifying the barriers to successful implementation of sustainable tourism policy. The research used exploratory and descriptive approaches to identify barriers from the literature as well as field research to determine perceived barriers from key respondents in two specific locations in the Mediterranean- Malta and Calvia. The research found that although respondents were aware of sustainable tourism, the individual advantage from exploiting shared pooled or shared resources is often perceived as being greater than the potential long-term shared losses that result from the deterioration of such resources, which means that there is little motivation for individual actors (whether governments, elected officials, or individual operators), to invest or engage in protection or conservation for more sustainable tourism.

FOOD SAFETY TRAINING: A MODEL HACCP INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUE, by Vassilis Georgakopoulos

This research project reports the findings of an original study with regards to a new Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) instructional technique to be used for training purposes. The study investigated the effectiveness of a model HACCP instructional technique, the main characteristics of which are the adoption of a new methodology when teaching HACCP and the use of the emerging computer-based technology of Virtual Reality (VR). The findings highlight the advantages offered by the HACCP-VR instructional technique. This approach takes into account the environmental influences on food safety, thus, ensuring that food safety training is seen as part of an overall infrastructure for effective food safety control.

Determining the Factors that Affect the Satisfaction of Students Having Undergraduate Tourism Education with the Department by means of the Method of Classification Tree, by Lutfi Atay & Hac? Mehmet Yildirim

When it is considered that the students, who receive tourism education at universities, are also consumers of the education service provided at the departments, it is necessary to determine the factors that affect student satisfaction. The aim of this study is to determine the factors that affect the satisfaction of students who receive undergraduate tourism education, with the tourism undergraduate programs where they are registered. With this purpose, a questionnaire was performed on 1734 students. The method of classification tree was used in determining the factors affecting students’ satisfaction. As a result of the classification tree analysis, it was observed that the variable, which affected students’ satisfaction most, was the job considered to be done after graduation and that this was followed by sufficiency of job opportunities after graduation, whether the department was chosen after researching or not, whether one can be a good manager with the education received from the department or not, and whether the courses included current subjects or not, respectively.

THE USE OF ETHNOGRAPHY TO EXPLORE TOURIST SATISFACTION ANTECEDENTS, by Prokopis Christou & Alexis Saveriades

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights concerning the use of ethnographic techniques to explore the antecedents of tourist satisfaction; otherwise referred to as the needs and expectations which precede tourist satisfaction. By revealing the relevance of both needs and expectations in the tourist satisfaction process, the authors proceed in justifying the use of this approach for such exploration. This is based on a thorough review of the global literature as well as on a prolonged ethnographic study undertaken in Cyprus which aimed to investigate holistically the rural tourist satisfaction process. Based on the results of the study, the authors encourage future researchers in the respective tourism field to adopt and make use of the aforementioned approach for similar investigations.