| 1. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(författare)
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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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Ingår i: Tourism Implications and Dilemmas.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)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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| 2. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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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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Ingår i: Tourism. - Zagreb : Institute for Tourism. - 1332-7461 .- 1849-1545. ; 67:3, s. 239-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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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| 3. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Does Over-tourism really exist in Dubrovnik? : A perception study of local tourism employees
- 2019
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Ingår i: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark. ; , s. 48-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)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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| 4. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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How the Iranian Fire Festival in Stockholm is perceived by the visitors?
- 2019
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Ingår i: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark : Roskilde University. ; , s. 45-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)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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| 5. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(författare)
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Participants’ perception of training programmes in the tourism industry : A Swedish pilot study
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2514-9792. ; 1:4, s. 309-324
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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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| 6. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Perspectives of Over-tourism in four Pre-Industrial Historical City Centers : A research idea
- 2019
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Ingår i: 28th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 23rd to 25th October 2019. - Roskilde, Denmark : Roskilde University. ; , s. 46-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)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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| 7. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(författare)
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Political crises and destination choice : An exploratory study of Swedish-Iranian second-home buyers
- 2018
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Ingår i: Tourism, Culture & Communication. - : Cognizant Communication Corporation. - 1098-304X .- 1943-4146. ; 18:3, s. 205-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Political crises, which have a known impact on the choice of tourism destination, can also negatively affect the choice of second-home destination and purchase. The purpose of this study is to investigate why some Swedish-Iranian second-home buyers prefer Spain to Turkey for political reasons. More than 30 short dialogues were conducted with Swedish-Iranian buyers at the exhibition "Buying Properties Abroad" in Kista, September 2015, following the start of a series of political crises in Turkey. A simple question was asked: Why are you choosing Spain rather than Turkey? The most important category of reasons were political factors, followed by cultural reasons. Political anxiety, instability, and insecurity in Turkey, the risk of civil war, a police society, lack of democratic order, the fact that Turkey is not a member of the European Union, the government's negative attitudes towards Kurds, and the emergence of Islamic State were the political reasons most mentioned. One conclusion that can be drawn is that political crises affect second-home tourism/tourists in the same way that they do ordinary tourism/tourists. The research has some important implications for Turkish policymakers, tourism stakeholders at a macrolevel, their competitors, especially in Spain, and potential buyers. Based on this research, some suggestions for future studies are also given.
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| 8. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Second Home purchase in Turkey by Swedish Iranians : An Explorative Study
- 2017
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Ingår i: 26th Nordic Symposium of Tourism and Hospitality Research October 4-6 2017, Falun, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Second home tourism is often discussed in the context of the western world. Other groups and their motivations, in this case people of Iranian background who are a large ethnic group in Sweden, are often neglected, although the group has shown interest in purchase of second home in Turkey.The aim of this study is to get more insight on Swedish Iranians’ purchase of second home in Turkey. 19 e-mail interviews (with Broker companies, owners, and potentially buyers) have been conducted. Also participant observation in Antalya region in June 2015 and at the exhibition of “Buying Properties Abroad” in Kista in September 2015 has been done.The interview results reveal that the Swedish Iranian second home buyers collect information through friends and relatives, various web sites, exhibitions, brokers, and real estate companies before buying apartment. Their motives have been: following other friends/relatives who bought apartments there, cultural proximity including the Turkish language and food, geographic proximity to Iran, relatives living in Iran do not need Turkish visa, economic factors including prices, the climate, and investment for the retirement. They stay in their apartments at least once a year up to 4 times a year and the duration of their stay each time is at least one week. A part of them might choose to live partly or permanently in Turkey after the retirement. Their motives are similar to many other second home owners elsewhere but there are also aspects related to the political context of this mobility.
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| 9. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(författare)
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Solo travellers to city destinations : an exploratory study in Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Tourism Cities. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2056-5607 .- 2056-5615. ; 5:1, s. 35-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into the phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations and attain more knowledge on the topic.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative items. In all, 21 individuals (12 women, 9 men) responded.FindingsThe most important reason for solo travel was their own free choice and in some cases, difficulty finding companions. Their activities at the destinations were mostly visiting attractions followed by visiting friends, shopping, walking, eating at restaurants, learning the language, working, etc. They mostly mentioned advantages but also some disadvantages with solo travelling. Their experiences, especially with the people in the host destinations, have been positive and they show overall satisfaction with their visit. A predominant share of the interviewees showed a kind of loyalty to one or more specific city destinations and wished to revisit them again and again.Practical implicationsThe current study might have some implications for city tourism developers/destination developers, travel agencies, national or regional tourism boards and tour operators in major urban areas and cities. Especially, this study has a practical contribution to the city tourism practitioners and gives them more insight in what values, attitudes, perceptions, expectations and motivations the solo travellers might have before or while they visit their cities. The study also has implications for potential solo travellers seeking more knowledge and information on the issue.Originality/valueThe phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations is an unresearched topic in Sweden. This exploratory study is the first in Sweden to focus on solo travellers visiting city destinations.
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| 10. |
- Abbasian, Saeid, 1961-
(författare)
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Swedish solo travellers to city destinations : an exploratory study
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- People travel solo to a destination due to different push–pull pre-travel motivators (Yoon and Uysal, 2005). Travel to a city destination brings a series of positive or negative experiences (Walls et al., 2011) and creates a sense of overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the destination and the travel itself. Also, several functional and psychosocial characteristics of a destination such as hosts, locals, services, prices (Echtner and Brent Ritchie, 1991; Philip, 2005), contribute to satisfaction with a trip, but also create destination loyalty among visitors (Chi and Qu, 2008; Zhang et al., 2014) and this loyalty in its turn leads to a return to the same destination. The phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations is an un-researched topic in Sweden. This exploratory study is the first in Sweden to focus on solo travellers visiting city destinations. The study aims to gain more insight into the phenomenon and attain more knowledge on the topic. The study employed a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative items. In all, 21 individuals (12 women, 9 men) responded. They were mostly well-educated, the majority were younger than 35, more than half were single and more than half reported travelling alone once or twice a year. The majority had a travel budget of SEK 10–20,000 per trip and the rest had a budget below SEK 10,000. They normally took flights and the majority went away for more than one week up to several weeks. The most important reason for solo travel was own free choice and in some cases difficulty finding companions. This result is coherent with earlier studies (e.g. Heimtun and Morgan, 2012; Mehmetoglu, 2004). Their loneliness gave rise to forced but positive socialization (e.g. Chiang and Jogaratnam, 2006; Laesser et al., 2009). Their activities at the destinations were mostly visiting attractions and they mostly mentioned advantages with solo travelling. They showed overall satisfaction with their travels, destination loyalty to one or several city destinations and wished to revisit them again and again. This finding is also partly or fully coherent with many earlier studies (e.g. Walls et al., 2011; Echtner and Brent Ritchie, 1991; Philip, 2005; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Beerli and Martin, 2004).
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