Incorporating both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound tourism in Hong Kong

This article presents a novel approach to data mining that incorporates both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound travelers. Using datasets collected from three large-scale domestic tourism surveys on Hong Kong residents' outbound pleasure travel, different sets of targeted rules were generated to provide promising information that will allow practitioners and policy makers to better understand the important relationship between condition attributes and target attributes. This article will be of interest to readers who want to understand methods for integrating the latest data mining techniques into tourism research. It will also be of use to marketing managers in destinations to better formulate strategies for receiving outbound travelers from Hong Kong, and possibly elsewhere.

Identifying changes and trends in Hong Kong outbound tourism

Despite the numerous research endeavors aimed at investigating tourists' preferences and motivations, it remains very difficult for practitioners to utilize the results of traditional association rule mining methods in tourism management. This research presents a new approach that extends the capability of the association rules technique to contrast targeted association rules with the aim of capturing the changes and trends in outbound tourism. Using datasets collected from five large-scale domestic tourism surveys of Hong Kong residents on outbound pleasure travel, both positive and negative contrasts are identified, thus enabling practitioners and policymakers to make appropriate decisions and develop more appropriate tourism products.

Tourism, trade and domestic welfare

Tourism has been regarded as a major source of economic growth and a source of foreign exchange. It has also been viewed as an activity that imposes costs on the host country. Such costs include increased pollution, congestion and despoliation of fragile environments, and intra-generational inequity aggravation. One aspect that has been ignored is the general equilibrium effects of tourism on other sectors in the economy. This paper presents a model that captures the interdependence between tourism and the rest of the economy, in particular agriculture and manufacturing. An important result obtained is that the tourist boom may 'immiserize' the residents.

Tourism, globalization, social externalities, and domestic welfare

One of the impacts of globalisation has been the growth in tourism and mobility of capital. This paper examines the welfare effect of tourism on the host economy with imperfect competition. Three channels that affects domestic welfare by tourism are: social externalities accompanied with tourists, the terms of trade effect via rises in the non-tradable prices, and the resource movement effect to the manufacturing sector. Owing to the positive terms-of-trade effect and/or the beneficial resource movement effect, the optimal levels of tourism occur at the situations that tourists bring negative social externalities to the economy.

Tourism, taxes and immiserization: A trade theoretic analysis

Many countries promote tourism as a device for earning foreign exchange and promoting domestic welfare and growth. In all these countries the non-traded goods (internationally not traded) are consumed by both domestic residents and tourists. It is well known that the relative price of non-traded goods and services is determined in the local market – hence the tourist demand results in monopoly power in trade for the host country. We use a very simple two-country model to demonstrate the specific nature of the offer curve and the trade equilibrium and the difficulties of taxation.

Does tourism Granger causes economic growth in Fiji?

Tourism is Fiji's largest industry in terms of export earnings and employment. In this paper we investigate the nexus between tourism receipts and real gross domestic product (GDP) in Fiji. Specifically, we test whether the two variables are cointegrated and using Granger causality tests we establish the direction of causation between the two. We find that there is a cointegration relationship when real GDP is the dependent variable. On the direction of causation we find that in the short-run real GDP Granger causes tourism receipts while in the long-run tourism receipts Granger cause real GDP.

Foreign aid, wage inequality and welfare for a small open economy with tourism

While the welfare effect of foreign aid has been extensively analyzed, the impact on the distribution of income has received less attention. At the same time, there has been recent work on tourism where it is complementary to aid in improving welfare.By combining these two strands, this paper concentrates on wage inequality in developing countries.We find that an increase in aid in the form of tied aid can lower the relative price of nontraded goods. The rent extracted from tourists declines, reducing welfare of domestic residents. In addition, the fall in the nontradable price can widen the wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers.Thus, increased foreign aid may have detrimental effects on national welfare and the distribution of income. Rising wage inequality is confirmed by numerical simulations.

Medical tourism and health worker migration in developing countries

In developing countries of tourist destinations, an increase in medical tourism raises the wages in the medical tourism sector, thereby retaining skilled medical workers who otherwise leave the country. However, the expansion of medical tourism contracts the domestic healthcare services sector, causing lower labor productivity in the economy. Medical tourism can increase domestic welfare if the benefits from migration retention and tourism exports outweigh the losses in revenue and productivity declines.

Risky business: stories from the field of rural community nurses' work in domestic violence.

This paper reports on a descriptive study into family violence in rural Victoria. Focus groups were held in a number of areas across rural Victoria with a total of 24 community nurse participants. The focus groups were audio-taped and the tapes transcribed to enable the clustering of themes. The dominant themes were: picking up cues, helping and helplessness, holding secrets and quiet resistance. Underpinning all these themes however, was the notion of 'risky business'. All nurses in the study gave examples of situations that they encountered; their ways of helping; of working sensitively; of working around a system that is unhelpful; and the ways in which their work while skilled, thoughtful and wise, is also costly in terms of the emotional wounds they carry. Rural nurses work with considerable risk and courage as they engage in the care and support of women experiencing family violence.

Visitor loyalty in sport tourism: an empirical investigation

This paper reports research regarding the relationship between consumer loyalty, satisfaction,and novelty seeking, including an analysis of these constructs as reflected in the published literature. A telephone survey was conducted of 500 city residents, focusing on their visitation of special events, including sporting events. It was found that satisfaction was somewhat positively related to interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event again. However, novelty seeking was virtually unrelated to both interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event, and unrelated to satisfaction. Novelty seeking in general, or in relation to special events particularly,performed similarly as a predictor. Further research is needed to clarify the role of other moderating variables, such as the feeling of involvement in sporting events, and to investigate segmentation aspects which might be operating in relation to specific sporting events and tourists.

Is domestic violence learned? The contribution of five forms of child maltreatment to men's violence and adjustment

On the basis of a learning-theory approach to the intergenerational transmission of violence, researchers have focused almost exclusively on violent men's childhood experiences of physical abuse and witnessing family violence. Little consideration has been given to the coexistence of other forms of child maltreatment or the role of family dysfunction in contributing to violence. This study shows the relationships between the level of child maltreatment (physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, sexual abuse, neglect, and witnessing family violence), childhood family characteristics, current alcohol abuse, trauma symptomatology, and the level of physical and psychological spouse abuse perpetrated by 36 men with a history of perpetrating domestic violence who had attended counseling. As hypothesized, a high degree of overlap between risk factors was found. Child maltreatment, low family cohesion and adaptability, and alcohol abuse was significantly associated with frequency of physical spouse abuse and trauma symptomatology scores, but not psychological spouse abuse. Rather than physical abuse or witnessing family violence, childhood neglect uniquely predicted the level of physical spouse abuse. Witnessing family violence (but not physical abuse) was found to have a unique association with psychological spouse abuse and trauma symptomatology. These results present a challenge to the understanding of domestic violence obtained from learning theory.

Comparative greenhouse emissions anayalsis of domestic solar hot water systems

It is commonly assumed that solar hot water systems save energy and reduce greenhouse emissions relative to conventional fossil fuel-powered systems. Very rarely has the life-cycle greenhouse emissions (including the embodied greenhouse emissions of manufacture) of solar hot water systems been analysed. The extent to which solar hot water systems can reduce emissions compared with conventional systems can be shown through a comparative life-cycle greenhouse emissions analysis. This method determined the time it takes for these net greenhouse emissions savings to occur, or the 'emissions payback period'. This paper presents the results of a life-cycle greenhouse emissions analysis of solar hot water systems in comparison with conventional hot water systems for a southern (Melbourne) and a northern (Brisbane) Australian city.

Tourism and regional immiserization

This paper analyzes the consequences of tourism in rural and urban areas on regional incomes, welfare and urban unemployment using a generalized Harris Todaro model. In this model two urban and two rural goods are produced. A distinguishing characteristic of this model is that the urban non-traded good is not consumed in the rural region and, similarly, the rural non-traded good is not consumed in the urban region. The most important result we obtain is that a tourist boom in the urban region may immiserize the rural area. Hence the welfare interests of rural and urban consumers may be in conflict as a result of tourist expansion in the urban region.

Tourism, guest workers, and resident immiserization

This paper analyses the impact of a boom in tourism on the welfare of the residents in the presence of guest workers. Guest workers are employed in the tourism industry and they consume non-traded goods and services. This consumption by guest workers converts non-traded goods into
exportables and creates guest worker generated monopoly power in trade in the home country. It is established that under certain plausible conditions a tourist boom (in the presence of guest workers) results in the immiserization of the resident population. This result arises due to an adverse movement in the terms-of-trade, specifically those associated with the guest workers consumption of non-traded goods. These results are based on a static model of trade and may not be necessarily
valid in a growth model with guest workers, tourism and labor shortages. It is not the object of the paper to be either anti-tourism or anti-guest worker, but only to show a possible source of resident immiserization that is associated with guest workers. This possibility may require correction via a suitable policy both in static and dynamic models.