New Article: Vyas et al, Differences in Travel Behavior Across Population Sectors in Jerusalem

Vyas, Gaurav, Christina Bernardo, Peter Vovsha, Danny Givon, Yehoshua Birotker, Eitan Bluer, and Amir Mossek. “Differences in Travel Behavior Across Population Sectors in Jerusalem, Israel.” Transportation Research Record 2495(2016).

 

URL: http://trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/abs/10.3141/2495-07

 

Abstract

The population of Jerusalem, Israel, can be divided into three distinct ethnic sectors: secular Jewish, ultra-Orthodox Jewish, and Arab. Not only do these population sectors tend to inhabit and work in different areas of the city, but they each have unique household structures, activity patterns, mobility tendencies, and, ultimately, travel behavior. These substantial variations in behavior, largely driven by differences in culture and lifestyle that are not captured by other personal characteristics, are essential to representing travel behavior in the Jerusalem travel model. In this paper, sector differences were traced through the activity-based travel demand model framework by using the 2010 Jerusalem Household Travel Survey. Significant variations in behavior were seen both in direct relation to the population sector and in interactions with other socioeconomic and demographic characteristics such as income and gender. This is the first known travel demand model in practice to incorporate ethnic differences so extensively in its application.

 

 

 

New Article: Collins-Kreiner and Kliot, Particularism vs. Universalism in Hiking Tourism

Collins-Kreiner, Noga, and Nurit Kliot. “Particularism vs. Universalism in Hiking Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 56 (2016): 132-137.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.10.007

 

Highlights

• “Particularism vs. universalism” adds a useful dimension to the tourism and leisure of hiking.
• Hiking is composed of two different systems: universalistic and particularistic.
• The dominant features of hiking the Israel National Trail are ‘communitas’, and ‘place attachment’.
• The varied multi-dimensional aspects of hiking could be located on a scale.

 

 

 

New Article: Alon-Mozes, National Parks for a Multicultural Society

Alon-Mozes, Tal. “National Parks for a Multicultural Society: Planning Israel’s Past and Present National Parks.” In Landscape Culture – Culturing Landscapes: The Differentiated Construction of Landscapes (ed. Diedrich Burns et al; Wiesbaden: Springer, 2015): 173-83.

 

 

Extract

Both case studies demonstrate the power of the landscape as an agent fostering first national and later communal identity. Early planning of Gan HaShlosha and Zippori national parks emphasized the role of the biblical/Hellenistic pastoral landscape in reinforcing a common national identity among the Jewish settlers of Israel. Consequently, the Palestinians’ past was erased from Zippori grounds, as in other places in Israel, and their narrative was silenced.

Due to the failure of the melting pot policy and the emergence of Israel as a multicultural society, contemporary Israeli national parks are designed and managed in order to address the needs of various communities of visitors, and not solely the hegemonic ones. The new clientele includes veteran Jews and new immigrants, various Jewish ethnic groups, ultra-orthodox Jews, Christian pilgrims, and the Palestinians Currently, panning strives to increase the profitability of the parks by recruiting new communities, by enabling mass gatherings and communal cultural events, and by mitigating conflicts among participants. Various stakeholders promote parallel narratives within and surrounding the parks, advancing the parcelization of the area based on time or space zones. Within this relatively enabling system, even the Palestinian narrative of Zippori is marked on the land, in spite of objections based on nationalistic considerations.

 

 

New Article: Schnell et al, Entrepreneurship in the Periphery and Local Growth: The Case of Northern Israel

Schnell, Izhak, Zeev Greenberg, Sara Arnon, and Shmuel Shamai. “Entrepreneurship in the Periphery and Local Growth: The Case of Northern Israel.” GeoJournal (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9676-9

 

Abstract

Entrepreneurship in the northern periphery in Israel should be viewed as a response to the crisis in rural agriculture during the 1980’s. Most entrepreneurs left their farms for salaried employment for a few years and they took professional courses in order to learn necessary skills before they opened their enterprises. They have developed new small entreprizes using local resources at times informally as means to reduce risks and they specialize mainly in internal tourism and construction related branches. While Jewish entrepreneurs develop mainly tourism activities oriented toward the national market, Arab entrepreneurs develop mainly construction related branches to local and home regional markets. Both represent two styles of peripheral activities. It seems that both styles has only limited potential to overcome their marginality.

 

 

New Article: Ghermandi et al, Jellyfish Impacts on Recreation in the Mediterranean: A Socioeconomic Pilot Survey in Israel

Ghermandi, Andrea, Bella Galil, John Gowdy, and Paulo A.L.D. Nunes. “Jellyfish Outbreak Impacts on Recreation in the Mediterranean Sea: Welfare Estimates from a Socioeconomic Pilot Survey in Israel.” Ecosystem Services 11 (2015): 140-147.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.004

 

Abstract

Jellyfish outbreaks in the Mediterranean Sea are part of an anthropogenic alteration of the marine ecosystem and have been documented as health hazards and threats to tourism. Their impacts on human welfare have, however, been poorly quantified. A socioeconomic survey, carried out in summer 2013, captures the impacts of an outbreak of Rhopilema nomadica on seaside recreation in Israel. Welfare losses are estimated based on per-visit value and expected change in visits patterns. We estimate that an outbreak reduces the number of seaside visits by 3–10.5%, with an annual monetary loss of €1.8–6.2 million. An additional 41% of the respondents state that their recreational activities on the beach are affected by the outbreak. Through a contingent valuation, we find that 56% of the respondents state a willingness to contribute to a national environmental protection program with an estimated annual benefit of €14.8 million. These figures signal an opportunity to invest in public information systems. A pilot study for adaptation was conducted in Barcelona, whose results confirm the importance of the welfare benefits of real-time public information systems. This study provides a benchmark against which the economic impacts of jellyfish outbreaks on coastal recreation and potential adaptation policies can be evaluated.

New Article: Mansfeld and Korman, Conflict Heritage Tourism along Three Israeli Border Areas

Mansfeld, Yoel and Tally Korman. “Between War and peace: Conflict Heritage Tourism along Three Israeli Border Areas.” Tourism Geographies 17.3 (2015): 437-60.
 
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2015.1036916
 
 
Abstract

The construction and evolutionary processes of conflict-heritage tourism sites in border areas in transition between war and peace can be understood through a comprehensive study of the functional, spatial, political and tourism processes along three border areas between Israel and its neighbors. Using a qualitative approach, conflict-heritage sites are shown to represent a relatively large component within the overall tourism supply in the studied border areas. The essence of this type of tourism site is an outcome of equilibrium between actual historical locations of conflicts along the border, their cultural-national importance, their perceived level of security, and their proximity to the borderline. The pace of development of such sites is relatively slow and incorporates their tourism opportunities as well as the physical-social-security challenges faced by tourism stakeholders in those areas. The developmental character of such sites depends primarily on security, economic and planning factors. Based on the Israeli study, it can be concluded that the development of a larger variety of conflict-heritage sites in border areas requires a distance from the frontier, as a result of the security-political situation. In addition, the more time passes since the last conflict in that area, the more sites will be developed, offering complementary tourism activities, often functionally connected to other types of tourism in such areas. Lastly, the study supported the postulate that conflict-heritage attractions do not disappear – but they change only slightly in terms of function when the security situation in those areas calms down. Based on the above insights, the paper proposes further research to better understand processes of heritage tourism development in dynamic border areas.

 

New Article: Singh and Krakover, Israeli Domestic Tourism

Singh, Shalini and Shaul Krakover, “Tourist Experience at Home – Israeli Domestic Tourism.” Tourism Management 46 (2015): 59-61.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.007

 

Abstract

Having engaged with domestic tourism, scholars have reported resident’s reluctance in admitting to being tourists in their home country. This research note is intended to report an exploratory study on Israeli holidaymakers, which was undertaken to understand citizens’ sense of being a tourist in Israel. The findings reveal that while the participants did not perceive themselves as tourists in their ‘own’ country, they admitted to feeling like tourists in specific circumstances encountered during their domestic travels.