European Journal of Tourism Research

Book review of Assen, H., Cavagnaro, E., Losekoot, E. and Yeoman, I. (Eds.) (2026) The Future of Hotels: Creating What’s Next. Bristol: Channel View Publications. ISBN: 978-1-84541-970-7, pp. 344

Anatoly Lvov — 2026-10-01

How is sustainability integrated in luxury hotel marketing? The case of Swiss hotels

Emanuele Mele — 2026-10-01

Luxury hotel marketing increasingly promotes sustainability, yet how this communication aligns with the experiential and symbolic foundations of luxury remains insufficiently understood. While prior research has often framed luxury and sustainability as conflicting concepts, limited attention has been paid to how sustainability is strategically embedded and communicated in service-based luxury contexts from a managerial perspective. Addressing this gap, the present research examines how sustainability is integrated into the marketing communications of Swiss luxury hotels, with a focus on underlying motivations, practices, and challenges. A qualitative multiple–case study approach is adopted, triangulating semi‑structured interviews with hotel managers, academic literature, industry reports, and online travel reviews. Findings show that sustainability is incorporated through environmental, socio‑cultural, and managerial practices and is communicated mainly via dedicated online channels, destination‑based experiences, and collaborations with local actors. The study identifies implicit versus explicit communication strategies, and key challenges related to measurement, greenwashing concerns, and audience alignment. By mobilizing signaling theory and the Online Communication Model, the research reveals how sustainability communication operates through complementary visible and embedded signals, allowing hotels to convey sustainability while preserving exclusivity and experiential value.

Secular pilgrims on sacred paths: A processual model of modern pilgrimage on the Carian Way

Sedat Degisgel — 2026-10-01

This article contributes to ongoing debates on the relationship between pilgrimage and tourism by examining the lived experiences of walkers on the Carian Way, a secularised heritage trail in Turkey. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews, this phenomenological study identifies a four-stage experiential process involving ritualistic separation, embodied engagement, the emergence of secular communitas, and moments of personal transcendence. The study proposes a process-oriented interpretation of modern pilgrimage, suggesting that its defining characteristic may lie in the experiential sequence of the journey rather than in belief or destination. This perspective contributes to ongoing discussions about authenticity, spirituality, and meaning-making in contemporary travel. Furthermore, the paper contributes to research on cultural and sustainable tourism by exploring how sacred heritage landscapes are reinterpreted as secular pilgrimage experiences.

Beyond commercial platforms: Guest experiences in non- commercial shared accommodation

Erdem Korkmaz — 2026-10-01

This study aims to understand guest experiences within the context of the non-commercial sharing economy in tourism. The research treats the guestbook records kept at Velesbid Bicycle House, a community-based, volunteer- driven example of shared accommodation, as a natural data source and analyses them using a descriptive phenomenological approach. The data were examined using thematic analysis, and it was determined that guest experiences were shaped around four fundamental experience areas: hospitality experiences, community experiences, emotional experiences, and spatial experiences. The findings show that guest experiences are not limited to functional services or host–guest interactions; they are established through volunteering, collective belonging, shared values, and community-based practices. Furthermore, it has been revealed that space is transformed from a physical ‘space’ into a meaningful ‘place’ through collective labour and social relations. The study goes beyond the commercial and market-centred approaches that dominate the sharing economy and shared accommodation literature, offering a contextual and experience-based contribution to how non-commercial sharing practices shape guest experiences.

Cross-cultural adaptation and migrant integration through rural tourism: The role of NGO collaboration in a culturally immersive initiative in Poland

Ehsan Aslani — 2026-10-01

This study examines a culturally immersive integration tour for migrants through the lens of cross-cultural adaptation theory (CCAT). The initiative, as a collaboration among three non-tourism NGOs, was conducted in April 2025 in Czarny Las, a village located on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland. It featured a series of culturally engaging activities, including traditional refreshments, a guided forest walk, a communal village-style lunch, a local folklore choir performance, and participatory community activities. The qualitative methodology included participant observation, a semi-structured interview with the organiser’s representative, and asynchronous written interviews with the tour guide, the choir leader, and voluntary migrant participants. Findings reveal that the initiative relied primarily on informal trust-based collaboration, shared social values, and the flexible mobilisation of limited local resources, rather than on formal institutional arrangements. The tour created low-threshold opportunities for intercultural interaction through nature-based and folklore activities, which participants perceived positively in terms of social bonding and cultural learning. At the same time, the study identified practical and ethical challenges, including language mediation, role ambiguity, and oversights regarding dietary and religious sensitivities. Ultimately, the paper contributes to the growing literature on NGO collaboration, migrant integration, and community-based rural tourism.

Understanding residents’ perceptions of cruise tourism: Perceptual structures from Kotor, Montenegro

Tena Božović — 2026-10-01

The aim of this study is to examine how residents’ perceptions of cruise tourism in a spatially constrained heritage city are structured across multiple domains and which perceptual dimensions most strongly affect support for further cruise tourism growth. Using a resident survey in Kotor, Montenegro (N = 214), this study develops seven standardised composite indices and combines cluster analysis, MANOVA and hierarchical regression to reveal how perceptions cohere and what drives support for cruise tourism growth. Three distinct perceptual profiles are identified, Environmental Skeptics, Pro-economic Enthusiasts and Ambivalent Pragmatists, showing that residents do not align along a simple pro/anti continuum but through coherent configurations of perceived benefits, pressures and governance evaluations. The main contribution is demonstrating that social acceptance is strongly associated with perceived economic benefits and governance quality, while environmental/heritage concerns reduce support and spatial proximity and length of residence play a limited role. Crowding is strongly associated with environmental/heritage impacts but does not independently predict support once broader evaluative dimensions are considered. These findings reposition governance credibility and benefit distribution as central levers for social sustainability in smaller, heritage-sensitive cruise destinations.

Simulated visual attention modelling in digital tourism interfaces: an integrative approach to destination communication

Lucilia Cardoso — 2026-10-01

This paper introduces a simulation-based methodological and conceptual study addressing a critical gap in tourism research: the fragmented treatment of spatial, sequential and temporal dimensions of visual attention. It proposes the Simulated Visual Attention Integrative (SVAI) Model, combining predicted saliency heatmaps, simulated scan paths and saccadic timing within a unified analytical framework. Guided by Visual Attention Theory, Gestalt Theory, Feature Integration Theory and Predictive Coding, the model offers a transparent, theory-driven and cost-effective alternative to empirical eye-tracking for analysing digital tourism interfaces. Applied to ten island pages of an official tourism website, results indicate that simulated attention is initially allocated to functional elements such as call-to-action buttons and branding, followed by a progressive shift towards scenic imagery. Predicted scan paths support this sequence, while temporal analysis reveals a transition from rapid scanning to slower, semantically oriented inspection. The findings demonstrate the analytical potential of simulated visual attention for destination communication research, with direct implications for European DMOs, digital marketers and interface designers seeking to optimise tourism websites prior to empirical testing.

Benchmarking wineries’ digital presence and engagement in wine tourism: A cross-Balkan perspective

Ilinka Terziyska — 2026-10-01

This study aims to benchmark the websites of wineries in three Balkan regions – Naoussa Imathias (Greece), Struma Valley (Bulgaria), and Povardarie (North Macedonia) – by evaluating their digital engagement strategies in the context of wine tourism. The selected regions represent three distinct types of destinations: a more established, a developing, and an emerging one, offering a robust basis for comparisons. The evaluation framework was developed through a two-stage process: first, we conducted a thematic analysis of winery websites featured in the World’s Best Vineyards list, which identified additional indicators for inclusion in existing benchmarking models. Subsequently, a refined set of five key categories was generated, taking into account several communication, quality and performance aspects, namely: informational content; interactivity; transactions; integration; and sustainability. The extended model was applied in comparative content analysis of winery websites across the three regions. Empirical findings reveal not only region-specific strengths, but also common challenges for Balkan wineries, particularly in terms of interactivity, integration, and sustainability communication. The study contributes to the wine tourism literature by incorporating a sustainability perspective into benchmarking approaches and by offering insights into the digital positioning of wine regions at different stages of tourism development, demonstrating that more advanced tourism maturity does not automatically translate into greater digital sophistication across all dimensions.

Work recovery through virtual and real nature experiences: Employee perspectives

Mari Partanen — 2026-10-01

While nature is known to support employee wellbeing, virtual leisure activities can also be utilised for work recovery. The study examines the role of virtual and real nature in employee recovery by using the experience economy framework. In this randomised crossover trial, with a qualitative approach, 57 employees visited real and virtual nature. The virtual visits in different types of nature environments were described as providing escapism, while in real nature, it was more difficult to detach from duties. However, in virtual nature, the breaks in immersion disturbed the recovery experience and most participants preferred real, multi-sensory nature. While virtual nature does not provide a similar sense of place to real nature, its special escapist attributes, such as new and accessible travel experiences, could be further utilised to enable recovery experiences. Therefore, this study calls for further assessment of how comprehensively virtual nature tourism supports recovery from work when compared to the benefits of visiting real nature and, furthermore, how the root causes of recovery needs should be addressed in tourism and experience industry.

A systematic literature review on tourism-related sustainability concepts with emphasis on sustainable transformation

Julia Marie Schiemann — 2026-10-01

In the academic discourse on tourism, the concepts of sustainable transformation and sustainable transition have recently emerged alongside the more established notions of sustainable development, sustainability, and sustainable tourism. However, these terms are often used inconsistently—interchangeably or as distinct constructs—creating conceptual ambiguity and confusion within the literature. The literature has tended to explore these concepts in isolation rather than in an integrative manner. To address this ambiguity, this study builds on existing research and aims to contribute to conceptual clarification. Employing the CAD (collection, analysis, and discussion of data) framework, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyse the contribution of the concept of sustainable transformation to the sustainability discourse in tourism. A total of 437 articles related to sustainability and tourism from 2015 to 2025 were compiled from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The results show an increasing number of tourism-related sustainability papers that employ different sustainability concepts yet share similar underlying principles. Among these concepts, sustainable transformation represents an emerging trend. It denotes radical change and is often used in spatial contexts, highlighting transformation as simultaneously systemic and disruptive.

Dong Thap Muoi regional tourism development in the context of integration

Bao Bui — 2026-10-01

Is there life beyond Airbnb? Dynamics of Peer-to-Peer accommodation platforms in Spain

VIvian C Medina Hernández — 2026-10-01

Behind the silence: A critical exploration of the sexual harassment of women in the hospitality workplace

Hande Turkoglu — 2026-10-01

Fostering Disability Inclusion in Hospitality Organisations: Exploring Co-workers' Role in the Social Integration of Employees with Disabilities (EWDs)

Aziean Jamin — 2026-10-01

Design and development of psychomotor assessment framework in open distance learning for hospitality education

Mohd Zamri — 2026-10-01

Persuasion in tourism promotion texts of Laketoba North Sumatra: Analysis of multimodality

Holmes Rajagukguk — 2026-10-01

Airbnb Insights: User-Generated Content Analysis and Brand Social Media Listening

Julia Marti-Ochoa — 2026-10-01

Incorporating climate change in the management and planning of tourism destinations: behavioural change and decarbonisation strategies

Aitziber Pousa-Unanue — 2026-10-01

Factors affecting tourists’ and tourism enterprises’ intention to adopt virtual reality technology in Ho Chi Minh City

Tuyen Tran — 2026-10-01

Determinants of digital technology adoption in marketing strategy for sustainable tourism destinations

Youssef El Archi — 2026-10-01