| 1. |
- Abbasian, Saeid
(author)
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Attitudes and Factual Considerations of Regional Actors Towards Experience Industries and The Tourism Industry : A Swedish Case Study
- 2016
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1502-2250 .- 1502-2269. ; 16:3, s. 225-242
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper examines the attitudes towards experience industries and tourism in the Gnosjö region of Sweden. The investigation is based on a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with politicians and chief executive officers (CEOs) within manufacturing industries. The results show that the politicians have more knowledge of experience industries and a more positive attitude towards these new types of industries than the CEOs. Both groups consider both these industries of significance for the region's future. While the politicians believe in experience industries as a whole, and particularly suggest more active work in favour of tourism and design, the second group just welcomes directly and indirectly a possible cooperation with design companies. A minor share of the CEOs is interested in either running businesses with features of experience industries or having a sense of it in their businesses. Despite differences, these attitudes facilitate cross-fertilisation between the manufacturing industry and experience industries in the future. The study suggests that the region needs to develop more knowledge and competence directed towards the experience industries, in particular tourism and design, and a cooperation between the manufacturing industry, local political parties, and enterprises within tourism, design and culture in this respect.
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| 2. |
- Abbasian, Saeid
(author)
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Attitudes towards competence development among employees in Tourism Industry : A Swedish pilot study
- 2016
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In: Book of Abstracts. ; , s. 14-14
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study aims to investigate empirically what attitudes employees in tourism industry have towards participation in publicly funded competence development programmes. Such investigations are lacking in the research on Tourism industry. By competence development here means participation in personal competence development programmes that might have a positive impact on the staff’s learning and on their work places. This impact will be found out through the employees’ subjective perceptions. In this study the terms “competence development programmes” “training programmes” and “skills development programmes” are used as synonyms. Also in accordance with Statistics Sweden terms of “business” and “work place” are used as synonym. The methodological approach used in this study is email-interviews with 12 employees (four women, eight men) that have participated in these programmes during recent years. This includes CEOs, owners, employees and one instructor that also is a business owner himself. A majority of them have academic education and their average working years in the industry is 17. They represent various sub-industries. Their average age is 46 and they mostly come from small sized firms. They participated in different courses that were offered by public organizations for employees and employers, or by private organizations. The courses were paid either by public means, by the firm or by a combination of both. The courses were mostly organized by public organizations but in some cases also by private organizations or a mix of private and public. They expressed that their participation in general had a positive or very positive impact on their workplace, and among others resulted to better knowledge, to acquire a wider network, new ideas, new experiences and opportunities and gave more inspiration, motivation and self-confidence. Concerning effectiveness of courses offered by the public organization the opinions are different; some had no comments about it, some found them very effective, some believed that these courses are effective in some but not in all cases, and finally some believed that courses organized by private organizations are more effective. The largest problems for competence development in the industry are lack of time and money and lack of tailored courses.
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| 3. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, et al.
(author)
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Attitudes towards participation in business development programmes : An ethnic comparison in Sweden
- 2015
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In: European Journal of Training and Development. - UK : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2046-9012 .- 2046-9020. ; 39:1, s. 59-75
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose – The aim of the study is to investigate whether there are any differences between the attitudes towards participation in development programmes of entrepreneurs who are immigrants and those who are native-born. Design/methodology/approach – Several statistical methods, including a binary logistic regression model, were used to analyse a unique, firm-level dataset collected by the Swedish Small Business Forum in October and November 2012. The dataset was based on a questionnaire composed of 60 closed questions that was completed by 531 participants representing 395 companies. Findings – Based on the analysis of 15 different attitude variables, the empirical findings are that immigrant managers/owners are more likely to show a positive attitude to participation in development programmes, in terms of nine of those attitude variables, than their native counterparts. Because there are no data about second generation of immigrants in the sample, thus, this category may have had an impact on the results. However, there is no possibility to identify any impact on the results. Originality/value – There is no prior research focusing specifically on this question, and to the authors' knowledge, this study is the first that has attempted to deal with the issue. This study is based on a recent and unique database, and provides new evidence on the relationship between ethnicity and attitude towards participation in development programmes among entrepreneurs. Its context is different from that of prior research.
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| 4. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(author)
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City, Ethnicity, Diversity and the origin of Fire Festival in Swedish major cities : A research idea
- 2018
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In: Tourism Implications and Dilemmas.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Urban Ethnic festivals have positive impacts on the image of cities and countries (McClinchey, 2008) and create a sense of belonging among immigrant groups (Chacko, 2013). Every year, a Tuesday in the middle of March and after 17:00, Iranian Fire Festival is held outdoors in the center of Stockholm and Göteborg. It is financed and organized by Riksteatern (The Swedish National Theatre). In Stockholm it is held in the King’s Garden park, 500 meters from the parliament, and it is used to be opened either by some Swedish ministers or by the Prime minister. This is not a big event in international comparison; it can be classified as local event and it is held when it is still very cold in Sweden. The event lasts in 4-5 hours but draws thousands of audiences (mostly from the same city region) to these two simultaneous arrangements. The audiences as well as the artists are mostly of Middle Eastern background (mostly Iranians, Kurds, Afghans) and there has been no report on ethnic Swedes among them over the years. This event, however, gets a huge attention from the Swedish media but also from some international media (Like Voice of America, Persian section) and Iranian diaspora media worldwide. In accordance with Getz et al (2007), many stakeholders are involved in this event; the Swedish governments, the event organization, municipality offices, many ethnic associations in Sweden, media, invited artists from Sweden and other countries, participants, sellers and volunteers.The aim of this research is to get insight into this event, incentives behind it and the expected outcome of it from different stakeholders. Especially it is important to find out what interest different Swedish governments have since they support the event financially regardless of ideological belonging while the event’s own preconditions are not the best one.
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| 5. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(author)
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Displaced diaspora second-home tourism : an explorative study of Swedish-Iranians and their second-home purchases in Turkey
- 2019
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In: Tourism. - Zagreb : Institute for Tourism. - 1332-7461 .- 1849-1545. ; 67:3, s. 239-252
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This explorative study aims to gain more insight into Swedish-Iranians' purchase of second homes in Turkey. The study is based on 22 questionnaires (19 of them from owners and buyers), field observation, and participant observation. Motives behind owners' and buyers' purchases are: other Swedish-Iranian friends/relatives bought there; cultural proximity; absence of visa restriction for Iranian citizens; geographical proximity to Iran and relatives living in Iran; economic factors, including the low prices and costs and investment for retirement; and the climate. The respondents are well-integrated into Swedish society and have access to different types of resources which facilitate the purchase, but they also show the potential to partially become integrated socioculturally into their Turkish communities. A meaningful proportion of them are seriously planning to live permanently in Turkey after retirement, but the majority stay there for longer periods or semi-permanently. Despite some limitations, this study makes an important contribution to the area of diaspora second-home tourism and to the field of diaspora studies.
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| 6. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(author)
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Does Over-tourism really exist in Dubrovnik? : A perception study of local tourism employees
- 2019
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In: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark. ; , s. 48-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over-tourism has become a frequently used term in Urban Tourism research, during last years. By it means over-saturation of tourists (e.g. Stanchev, 2017) i.e. when the number of tourists at a certain time and at a certain place exceeds powerfully the number of locals in the place (see e.g. Artal-Tur et al, 2018). Such situation creates a series of problems for the host destinations (Postma and Schmuecker, 2017) because of the limited service facilities available (Butler, 2018). The pressure on the host destination results in conflict and tension among hosts and tourists, and in long term antagonism, and tourism phobia among locals (Alexis, 2017). The overall aim of this research is to get a deeper understanding of Dubrovnik’s tourism employees’ perception of Over-tourism in their town. The chosen method has been field observation during peak season (July 2018) and 18 email- interviews with local tourism employees between 2018-2019. Results The employees who answered to 14 questions have positions such as manager, receptionist, owner, and represent different tourism and hospitality sectors like hotels and restaurants, tourist bureaus, etc. They have been working within tourism industry between 3 and 30 years. They show small difference in their views on low- respectively high season of tourism in the town. They define Over- tourism in general, believe it exists in Dubrovnik in some short periods, and describe in detail how and when it happens there. The reason behind Over-tourism in Dubrovnik is summarized by them in big demand that exceeds the supply side i.e. too many tourists by ships, aircrafts, cars and buses arriving at the same time in peak season. They claim that the Over-tourism creates a series of problems such as traffic, damage and pollution, and confirm that the local authorities are aware of the problems. A powerful reduction of number of cruisers, better management, organization and schedule of arrivals, better information to tourists, reduction of taxis from rest of the country, forbid foreigners come by car to the city, etc. are among their own suggestions to solutions for the problems. Some of them talk about attracting quality/luxury/elite tourists instead of mass tourists. Several of them also confirm that the local tourism industry firstly tries to reduce the number of cruisers and partly flights, and then find a better coordination of activities, and other regulations for people coming by cars. The interviewees prefer mostly tourists coming by charter flights, then cruise tourists specially luxury such, and they believe that Dubrovnik and its surrounding region is not at all suitable for car transport and cartourists.
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| 7. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, et al.
(author)
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Gender as a determinant of informal capital in the financing of small firms’ start-up : Swedish data
- 2015
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In: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. - Switzerland : InderScience Publishers. - 1476-1297 .- 1741-8054. ; 24:2, s. 249-267
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This research explores the differences in informal capital acquisition between female- and male-owned firms in the start-up stage in Sweden. A binary logistic regression model is used to analyse a sample including 836 female- and 1928 male-owned firms in 2008, providing 47,022 observations. The results indicate that the main explanatory variable, gender, is significant in distinguishing between female- and male-owned firms with regards to the use of informal capital in terms of loans from family members. Thus, female-owned firms tend to rely more on loans from family members than male-owned firms. The findings also indicate that one control variable, namely owners previous experience of starting up a company, negatively influences the use of loans from family members as a financing source in the start-up stage. This study is based on a unique and large sample including many different variables compared with previous research. Knowledge on the differences between Swedish female- and male-owned firms in using informal capital in the start-up stage is limited and ambiguous. The presented results contribute to research into small firm financing by adding insight into the relationships between informal capital acquisition, gender, and other relevant variables.
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| 8. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(author)
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How the Iranian Fire Festival in Stockholm is perceived by the visitors?
- 2019
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In: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark : Roskilde University. ; , s. 45-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Every year, a Tuesday in the middle of March and after 5:00 pm the Iranian Fire Festival (Eldfesten in Swedish, Chaharshanbe Suri in Persian) is celebrated outdoors in the center of Stockholm and ends before 10:00 pm. This event has its roots in ancient Persia, but now it is celebrated by several nations in the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The Stockholm festival is arranged and financed by The Swedish National Theatre and several times earlier it has been opened by Swedish ministers. The event visitors are mostly of Middle Eastern background coming from Stockholm area. Since 2016 it can also be watched live through Swedish and foreign TV stations and through Social media. During the earlier years the event was held in Kungsträdgården (The Royal Garden) but this year it was arranged in the amusement park of Skansen. Ethnic cultural events in major urban areas create good images for cities and countries but also for immigrants and their neighborhoods in the city of issue (McClinchey, 2008; Loukaitou-Sideris and Soureli, 2012), and a sense of belonging among immigrants (Chacko, 2013). Many stakeholders are involved in such events (Getz et al 2007; Getz And Andersson, 2010) but perhaps the most important stakeholder is the visitors of the event. Therefore, it is of high relevance to study the visitors’ visit motivations, their perceived experience in terms of satisfaction level and their level of loyalty i.e. if they intend to visit the event next year (Savinovic et al, 2012). The aim of this research is to get insights on the visitors of the Fire Festival, their motives behind participation and how they perceive their participation afterwards. The main methods chosen in this research is participant observation and 257 completed surveys online until April 11th, 2019. Preliminary results The respondents are 63% men and 37% women, and they are mostly older than 40 (44% are older than 50). More than half of them have been living in Sweden less than 21 years of which 17% less than 5 years. 83% of the respondents call themselves Swedish-Iranians. More than 80% of the respondents have academic education (of which 7% with PhD education) and most of them are employed either by public or private sector. A considerable number of them are also either self- employed, students or retirees. They have come from different districts of Greater Stockholm while a minor part has come from municipalities outside the county. A pre-dominant majority of them have come there with friends and family members, and most of them have been participating in the festival for third times or more. Also, more than half of them have visited the Skansen park three or more times earlier. The main reasons why they celebrate the festival is to keep the old tradition and culture alive. The celebration creates feelings like happiness, pride, community, belonging, nostalgia, childhood, the Spring. Concerning the question what the place or arena means to you they either like Skansen or prefer other places in Greater Stockholm or do not care about the place but the festival and other issues such as security and safety. To the question “what do you think about celebrating the festival at Skansen” they give positive answers and to the question “are your expectations on the festival fulfilled” the majority are totally or partly agreed. They also believe that this event must be celebrated every year and give many improvement suggestions and additional critical comments such as more food trucks, better and cheaper food, more professional artists and happy songs and music.
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| 9. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(author)
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Participants’ perception of training programmes in the tourism industry : A Swedish pilot study
- 2018
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In: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2514-9792. ; 1:4, s. 309-324
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to deal mainly with the participants’ perception of their attendance in publicly funded training programmes in the tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation is based on e-mail interviews with 12 employees in the Swedish tourism industry who have actively participated in such courses as well as some courses offered by private organisations.FindingsThe results show that the interviewees have a positive perception of their participation and they believe that their attendance has had an overall positive impact on them or on their businesses. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether their participation has had an extraordinarily positive impact on business outcomes in terms of subsequent increased turnover, greater productivity or sales, or an expanded customer base. Lack of time and money and the prevalence of unsuitable courses prevent business owners and their employees from attending such courses.Originality/valueThis research is the first Swedish qualitative investigation on the issue.
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| 10. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(author)
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Perspectives of Over-tourism in four Pre-Industrial Historical City Centers : A research idea
- 2019
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In: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark : Roskilde University. ; , s. 46-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over-tourism has become a new subject for research, particularly on urban sustainable tourism, during recent years (Novy, 2018). The term refers to when the number of tourists at a certain time in an extreme way exceeds the number of locals in the destination (Goodwin, 2017). This phenomenon creates a series of problems for the host destinations and puts pressure on them and their attractions, on the local service facilities and the genuine urban culture (Postma and Schmuecker, 2017; Trancoso Gonzalez, 2018; Weber et al, 2017; Montanari & Staniscias, 2010). Earlier research has shown how this phenomenon results in tension/conflict between locals and tourists and creates phobia among host people towards tourists(Postma and Schmuecker,2017; Martins, 2018; Milano et al, 2018). Recent research (Koens et al, 2018) shows that tourism stakeholders in many European cities show great awareness on the issue in their cities. Earlier research has mostly focused on locals while a focus on the visitors has beenlacking. The purpose of the research is to get more empirical insights in over-tourism in four European city centers, Dubrovnik, Visby, Stockholm, and Riga, from both perspectives of locals and visitors/tourists, and thereby get knowledge through the challenges to, and opportunities for, both constituencies that are created in this learning process. This is in consistence with earlier research with same purpose (Costa et al, 2018). The research is justified by the fact that the topic is still new, and there are not too many studies published as of now. The first common characteristic between these four cities is that they all are cruising ports. The two first cities are rather towns than cities, almost of same size and natural preconditions, while the latters are much larger, capital cities in the Baltic Sea region with almost similar preconditions i.e. Over-tourism in the downtown area during peakseason. The overall methodological approach in this project will be qualitative consisting of triangulation (mixed methods) based on comparative case studies. The data collection methods will consist of: field observations during the peak season in July-August in the four cities, face to face interviews and email interviews
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