Emerging tourism destinations repeatedly face many managerial challenges, often leading to common pitfalls and rookie mistakes. The current study aims to analyze relationships between destination attractiveness factors (Destination Amenities, Tourism Infrastructure and Accessibility, Active Family Destination, Hospitality and Services, and Social–Safety–Economic Values), satisfaction, destination image, and revisit intentions to test a mediating role of satisfaction between destination attractiveness factors and both destination image and revisit choices within so-called rookie destinations. For this purpose, a quantitative study was carried out using a questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. Data were collected from a sample of 2030 visitors to Serbia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) in R was applied to analyze the data. The results revealed the positive direct effects of destination attractiveness factors on satisfaction, destination image, and revisit intentions. Moreover, the research confirmed the mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between destination attractiveness and destination image, and revisit intentions. The results are further discussed from the perspective of emerging tourism destinations to make their management more sustainable for the future and mitigate the repetition of rookie mistakes.

Tour guide performance has been a hotly debated academic topic, owing to the critical role they play in facilitating a variety of tourist experiences. Similarly, museum tour guides are the initial point of contact for tourists and have a substantial impact on the total visitor experience, but their performance is far less investigated. Visitors’ satisfaction and behavior intentions are inextricably linked to museum guide performances in this case. The purpose of this research was to implement and test a well-established scale for assessing tour guide performance in the museum context. Moreover, the aim was also to single out and discuss museum guide types based on their performances. The research was conducted during May and June 2021 on a sample of 255 visitors from five museums in Serbia. The data were processed by SPSS, R and RStudio. The results indicate the existence of five museum guide types: Classic Professional, Agile Empath, Operational Erudite, Trustworthy Caretaker, and Passionate Socializer. The study explores sociodemographic differences in visitors’ evaluations of tour guide performances and gives theoretical and managerial implication for each museum guide type.

Abstract

Individual values shaped in the early years of each individual might be reflected in the perception of the business environment. Therefore, this research explored whether there are significant differences in employees’ perceptions of the established dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), namely philanthropic, legal, economic and ethical, based on differences in the importance of individual values (IV). The research results show that each of the CSR dimensions differs according to the respondents’ IVs. More precisely, there are significant differences in the respondents’ perceptions of the philanthropic dimension of CSR based on differences in the evaluation of sense of belonging, warm relationships, being well respected, fun and enjoyment of life, security, self-respect and sense of accomplishment. Differences in perceptions of the legal dimension of CSR exist only in the case of differences in the evaluation of self-respect. The research results also show that there are significant differences in perceptions of the economic dimension of CSR, based on differences in the evaluation of sense of belonging, warm relationships, fun and enjoyment in life, security, self-respect and sense of accomplishment. Finally, significant differences in the perception of the ethical dimension of CSR exist in the case of differences in sense of belonging, excitement, warm relationships, being well respected, fun and enjoyment of life, security, self-respect and sense of accomplishment. The results could provide the basis of information on how IVs can motivate employees to understand and participate in the proactive management of CSR activities in sensitive environments, such as national parks or other protected areas that become a central meeting place for tourists and employees.

The primary goal of this paper was to investigate the strength of the influence of different types of risk on the travelers’ intention to visit destinations in future, that are, prejudiced due to COVID-19, marked as “stigmatized”, “isolated”, or “risky destinations”. Field interview research was conducted at the “Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport” (Serbia). The results obtained by multiple regression analysis showed that all types of risks influenced the intention of travelers, with financial risk showing a more significant impact. Canonical discriminant analysis indicated that men were most afraid of human induced risk, service quality risk, natural disaster and COVID-19 risk, and they chose safer destinations. Among the women, the biggest fear was financial risk, socio-psychological risk, and food safety risk. Older respondents and those under the influence of external factors decided on safer destinations, while financial status did not play a significant role in predicting the choice of destination. The selection of the destination according to the degree of security was determined by the ordinal regression methodology. The entire research presents a certain novelty, because so far in the numerous studies on the topic of the negative consequences of COVID-19 on tourism, there has been no discussion of stigmatized or risky destinations that received that epithet, and were therefore negatively and unfairly marked in the minds of tourists for future visits.