Destination image: identifying baseline perceptions of Brazil, Argentina and Chile in the nascent Australian long haul travel market

While the popularity of destination image research has increased exponentially in the literature, there has been relatively little published about perceptions held by international consumers of destinations in South America. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a research project that aimed to identify the baseline market perceptions of Brazil, Argentina and Chile amongst Australian residents, at the time of the emergence of this long haul market. Of interest was the extent to which Australians differentiate the three distinct countries versus perceiving the continent as a gestalt. These baseline perceptions enable the effectiveness of future marketing communications in Australia by the three national tourism offices to be monitored over time. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is used as a practical analytical tool to guide decision makers. In terms of operationalising destination image, a key research finding was the very high ratio or participants using the ‘Don’t know’ (DK) option for each destination performance scale item. This finding has practical implications for the destination marketers, as well as for researchers engaged in destination image research in long haul and/or emerging markets.

Mixed reality stories: How creative writers integrate virtual and physical realities

Mixed reality stories (MRS) unfold simultaneously in the physical and the virtual world. Advancements in digital technologies, which are now able to capture more contextual information about our physical environments, are enabling novel ways of blending the two worlds. To explore the process of creating stories from this perspective, we conducted a study with creative writers, in which we asked them to write a MRS script for outdoor running. While we saw instances of intentional connections between physical and virtual worlds in their work, we also observed the use of ambiguity or even deliberate contradiction with available contextual information. In this paper we discuss how these approaches can be beneficial for MRS and propose directions for future work.

Exploring Iceland through its Viking past

A co-authored article about the Icelandic sagas, and a journey undertaken to tell the saga stories in the places of their setting. "Kári Gislason and Richard Fidler travelled to Iceland with a two-part mission: to tell stories from the Viking sagas written early in the country's history in the places where they actually unfolded a thousand years ago, and to settle a longstanding family mystery."--Publisher website

Saga land: Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason in Iceland

This is a four-part radio documentary produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National. Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason travel to Iceland to tell the stories of the ancient Vikings, and to settle a longstanding family mystery.

Fast forward to the end: Stories of the cassette magazine

Although they made up a significant share of the retail music market from the 60s to the 90s, and were often used as promotional and marketing tools, cassettes became re-configured in the 80s as an integral component of cassette magazines. Binding sound, music, talk, text, visual art and design, they were a truly innovative interdisciplinary form. This paper explores the history of these artefacts with particular emphasis on the Brisbane underground music scene of the late 70s and 80s, and discusses their significance in as a bridge between the music scene and art scenes of this period.

Understanding urban rail travel for improved patronage forecasting

Improved forecasting of urban rail patronage is essential for effective policy development and efficient planning for new rail infrastructure. Past modelling and forecasting of urban rail patronage has been based on legacy modelling approaches and often conducted at the general level of public transport demand, rather than being specific to urban rail. This project canvassed current Australian practice and international best practice to develop and estimate time series and cross-sectional models of rail patronage for Australian mainland state capital cities. This involved the implementation of a large online survey of rail riders and non-riders for each of the state capital cities, thereby resulting in a comprehensive database of respondent socio-economic profiles, travel experience, attitudes to rail and other modes of travel, together with stated preference responses to a wide range of urban travel scenarios. Estimation of the models provided a demonstration of their ability to provide information on the major influences on the urban rail travel decision. Rail fares, congestion and rail service supply all have a strong influence on rail patronage, while a number of less significant factors such as fuel price and access to a motor vehicle are also influential. Of note, too, is the relative homogeneity of rail user profiles across the state capitals. Rail users tended to have higher incomes and education levels. They are also younger and more likely to be in full-time employment than non-rail users. The project analysis reported here represents only a small proportion of what could be accomplished utilising the survey database. More comprehensive investigation was beyond the scope of the project and has been left for future work.