Exploring the market appeal of Indigenous tourism: A netnographic perspective

Abstract

Indigenous tourism in Australia continues to decline in spite of the global marketing efforts of the country’s national tourism organization. One suggestion is that social desirability bias in previous visitor demand studies has been masking the underlying causes for this low market appeal. A netnographic approach was adopted in this exploratory study that utilized 4684 online reviews from international visitors to elicit qualitative insights into visitor’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their Indigenous tourism experiences in Australia, with the aim of uncovering the underlying factors which may account for declining visitor demand. The netnographic approach provided a wealth of insights into the aspects of the experience that visitors viewed both favourably and unfavourably. In fact, it is demonstrated that international visitors are overwhelmingly positive about their experiences, a finding not typically supported in the existing research. As such, this study has highlighted that there is a dissonance between those who actually participate in an Indigenous experience and non-visitors; a number of potential reasons for this are discussed, as are the marketing implications.

Turismo indígena maya: usos de redes sociales y sitios web para preservar el patrimonio biocultural

“…En investigaciones sobre turismo indígena se han realizado distintos estudios utilizando la netnografía. Entre otras, investigaciones relativas al turismo indígena y sustentabilidad en las redes sociales (Mkono, 2016); sobre la importancia de la cultura en las experiencias de turismo indígena (Holder y Ruhanen, 2017) y para realizar un estudio de mercado sobre el turismo indígena (Holder y Ruhanen, 2018). Ninguno de los anteriores estudios netnográficos empleó la teoría del control cultural, lo cual da un carácter innovador a la investigación que ahora se presenta.…”

Complexity and the Ecological Impacts of Tourism on Wetlands Ecosystem and Rural Sustainability: A Case Study of Zrebar Wetlands

“…Consequently, one of the areas of interest for researchers with a strong perspective on the relationship between humans and the environment is the environmental dimension of tourism (Mitchell and Murphy, 1991;Saarinen et al, 2017). In this regard, Holder believes that tourism and the environment are inextricably linked and that the relationship between socio-cultural characteristics, natural resources, and the environment is one of the essential elements for the transformation of the growth and development of tourism in the regions (Holder and Ruhanen, 2019;Hall and Page, 2014). However, the negative environmental effects of tourism in a tourism target area are determined by the environment's capacity and flexibility, the intensity of tourism activities, and the sociological characteristics of the host society ().…”