The Development of Social and Cultural Capitals for Immigrant Hosts of VFR Travellers

Griffin, Tom; Glover, Troy D.

doi:10.1080/01490400.2020.1817201

“…These researchers called for a comparative analysis of hosts from different origins for both theoretical, management and marketing implications. Griffin and Glover (2020) and Griffin and Guttentag (2020) revealed that hosting VFR visitors creates an experiential and relational context of personal refreshment, resource exchange and capital generation that enhance hosts’ habitus. Hosts would have a changing impact on their personal identity, sense of accomplishments, level of familiarity with the new culture and destinations that may contribute to further integration.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The connection between VFR experience based and sociocultural dimensions of international students and mainland Chinese students

Chan

¹

,

Pikkemaat

²

,

Agapito

³

et al. 2021

IJCTHR

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Purpose This paper aims to present the host experience of student hosts in Hong Kong, a popular educational destination for international students from mainland China and other countries. This study examines the interconnection between the experience-based and sociocultural dimensions of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel, considering the overall host experience, the host–guest relationship and post-hosting changes in perception of both the VFR experience and destination. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts a qualitative approach to compare the experience-based and sociocultural dimensions of VFR travel considering international university students as VFR hosts in Hong Kong, taking a student sample from both mainland Chinese and overseas students. Based on a voluntary sampling approach, the research team had face-to-face interviews with the students that agreed to participate. The interviews were conducted voluntarily and anonymously and included those students who had hosted any friends or relatives in the past 12 months. A total of 26 interviews were successfully completed, including 10 mainland Chinese and 16 non-mainland Chinese students. Findings The results confirm that the VFR host experience is generally shaped by an integration of internal characteristics (sociocultural characteristics of both hosts and visitors) and external environment (urban infrastructure and tourism resources). The two groups distinctively express their host experience that shows some areas of cultural barriers and geographical proximity. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this research mainly lie on its relatively small sample size because of constraints in accessing the contact information of international students across universities. These shortcomings should be improved by adopting a research design that uses other sampling approaches, such as snowball sampling, to include a wider scope of students from different local universities, or convenience sampling, to interview and compare responses of international students from various educational destinations. Alternative data sources may be considered, for example, through user-generated contents from online and social media platforms that contain sharing of students as hosts. Practical implications The geographical and cultural proximities influence VFR tourism development and social construction of values and the consequent hosting behaviour. The unique role of international students should be further explored, especially in the Asian context. The outcome of VFR travel must be evaluated and studied more from cultural and personal dimensions than economic gain, which should be relevant to host perspective such as improved quality of life, social ties and place attachment and psychological benefits. The changing risk perception caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may be examined through some forms of travel intention. Social implications Firstly, the destination marketing organisations of the educational destination should address the difficulty faced by student hosts in terms of external attributes such as local culture, urban infrastructure, tourism resources and information accessibility. Secondly, to target the hosts, some specific VFR-related products and services may be developed for international students through local tertiary institutions such that the role of hosts as ambassadors can be facilitated and enhanced. Thirdly, the functional role of international students can be distinctive based on their unique network, activities and knowledge constructed upon learning during the period of education. Originality/value The studentification of many educational destination cities, the dynamism of the role of international students as VFR hosts and their cultural differences between places of origin have provided an opportunity for deepening the understanding of VFR tourism.

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“…According to the discussion with the respondents, it has been found that before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic these Bangladeshi immigrants in GTA used to host friends and relatives every weekend or twice a week as they claimed that hosting was an integral part of their life (Griffin & Glover, 2020). Visitors came from the GTA or other parts of Canada regularly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) Tourism From the Hosts’ Perspectives in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

Mallika

2024

Preprint

0

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<p>This qualitative research explores the experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) relating to the hosting of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) especially with the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. As VFR tourism is prominent in communities with growing immigrant populations, data have been collected from Bangladeshi adult immigrant communities living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to get in-depth ideas about their hosting experiences. The study relied on primary data which is collected through online semi-structured interviews. The result shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrants frequently hosted the local and international visitors to lessen their loneliness, to show their lifestyle and achievement to the visitors, and to assist new immigrants to settle but due to the pandemic, the immigrant hosts have changed their hosting style to ensure the safety of their visitors and themselves. They hosted only their domestic VFRs when the government allowed them to socialize with a limited number of people, and they did not provide any accommodation. They invited a small group of people for a few hours in an outdoor location. The immigrant hosts have mixed opinions regarding their future hosting. A larger portion of the respondents expressed their intention to go back to their earlier way of hosting whereas the other group found inviting small groups for a few hours was comfortable and less burdensome. The findings of the study suggested both practical and academic implications. Although some studies have shown that VFR tourism contributes to the tourism industry during disasters or crises in a particular region, while other forms of tourism decreased, the role of VFR tourism in the recovery of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has not been investigated. Further studies on different communities may provide a bigger picture of hosting experience to contribute to the tourism industry by providing strategic direction and also to the academia by extending the existing knowledge in the field of tourism study.</p>

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“…It has been evident that the interconnection between tourism-migration includes tourismrelated experiences that involve prior personal relationships (Griffin, 2013b(Griffin, , 2017Palovic et al, 2014) between hosts and guests. Most of the past research in VFR travel that analyzed the relationship between tourism and migration addressed macro-level flows (Dwyer et al, 2014;Etzo et al, 2014;King & Dwyer, 2015;Massidda et al, 2015) and ignored the interpersonal relationships as a cause for shaping the ties among people (Griffin & Glover, 2020). Considering such influence of the immigrants, travel agencies are suggested to maintain a strong connection with the ethnic communities to understand their culture and language to promote local activities and other facilities (Shani & Uriely, 2012).…”

Section: Migration and Vfr Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A VFR host can be defined as a resident who engages in some face-to-face interaction with a visitor within his or her home community, with whom the host has an existing relationship (Griffin & Glover, 2020). Yousuf and Backer (2017) defined a VFR host as someone who has had friends and/or relatives visited and stayed at least one night in the destination.…”

Section: Definition Of Hostingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the increase in global migration, communities across the world have become home to a growing number of newcomers (Griffin & Glover, 2020) that have increased the diversity of the immigrant-receiving communities (UNDESA, 2016). After leaving their home countries these immigrants tend to connect with their distant friends and relatives through communications technology (Gafter & Tchetchik, 2017;Gössling et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) Tourism From the Hosts’ Perspectives in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

Mallika

2024

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

<p>This qualitative research explores the experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) relating to the hosting of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) especially with the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. As VFR tourism is prominent in communities with growing immigrant populations, data have been collected from Bangladeshi adult immigrant communities living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to get in-depth ideas about their hosting experiences. The study relied on primary data which is collected through online semi-structured interviews. The result shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrants frequently hosted the local and international visitors to lessen their loneliness, to show their lifestyle and achievement to the visitors, and to assist new immigrants to settle but due to the pandemic, the immigrant hosts have changed their hosting style to ensure the safety of their visitors and themselves. They hosted only their domestic VFRs when the government allowed them to socialize with a limited number of people, and they did not provide any accommodation. They invited a small group of people for a few hours in an outdoor location. The immigrant hosts have mixed opinions regarding their future hosting. A larger portion of the respondents expressed their intention to go back to their earlier way of hosting whereas the other group found inviting small groups for a few hours was comfortable and less burdensome. The findings of the study suggested both practical and academic implications. Although some studies have shown that VFR tourism contributes to the tourism industry during disasters or crises in a particular region, while other forms of tourism decreased, the role of VFR tourism in the recovery of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has not been investigated. Further studies on different communities may provide a bigger picture of hosting experience to contribute to the tourism industry by providing strategic direction and also to the academia by extending the existing knowledge in the field of tourism study.</p>

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The Development of Social and Cultural Capitals for Immigrant Hosts of VFR Travellers

Cited by 12 publications

References 105 publications

The connection between VFR experience based and sociocultural dimensions of international students and mainland Chinese students

The connection between VFR experience based and sociocultural dimensions of international students and mainland Chinese students

Exploring the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) Tourism From the Hosts’ Perspectives in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

Exploring the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) Tourism From the Hosts’ Perspectives in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

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