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The study reported in this paper explores consumers' experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier's paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as distribution channel in tourism scenario. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore consumers' experiences when using social media distribution services and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. The findings are similar, suggesting that when consumers adopt online technology like social media, they can simultaneously develop positive and negative attitudes. The findings of this study also suggest that the nature of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the industry (tourism in this study) and the technology (social media in this study) being investigated.

The element of training is taken into account seriously by universities providing tourism education degrees, hence the development of "sandwich" undergraduate courses that incorporate a period of industrial placement aiming at the blending of theory with practical experience through experiential learning. The survey presented here was conducted in Greece and is objective was to evaluate the outcome of the supervised work experience by examining the views of undergraduate tourism and hospitality management students who completed their industrial placement period. Data were obtained through personal interviews and were of both qualitative and quantitative nature. The tentative results of the research, as described in this exploratory study, indicate some areas for concern and allows for conclusions to be drawn in relation to further improving and enhancing experiential learning.

The continuous monitoring of market trends is one of the most important roles that marketing scientists and practitioners should fulfill. Tourism is significantly affected by major demographic, cultural and economic trends. In the last few years there is considerable debate on the radical demographic changes taking place around the globe and one of the main issues arousing in many developed and developing countries is this of ageing population.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Contributors -- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Introduction -- PART 1 WEB 2.0: STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL BUSINESS MODELS -- 1 Introduction to Part 1 -- 2 Web 2.0 and Networks in Wine Tourism: The Case Studies of greatwinecapitals.com and wineandhospitalitynetwork.com -- 3 Web 2.0 and Customer Involvement in New Service Development: A Framework, Cases and Implications in Tourism -- 4 'Creating the Buzz': Merchant City (Glasgow) Case Study -- 5 Examining Hotel Managers' Acceptance of Web 2.0 in Website Development: A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong -- PART 2 WEB 2.0: APPLICATIONS FOR MARKETING -- 6 Introduction to Part 2 -- 7 Theoretical Models of Social Media, Marketing Implications, and Future Research Directions -- 8 Riding the Social Media Wave: Strategies of DMOs Who Successfully Engage in Social Media Marketing -- 9 National DMOs and Web 2.0 -- 10 Arizona Meeting Planners' Use of Social Networking Media -- 11 Web 2.0 and Pricing Transparency in Hotel Services -- 12 Blogs: "Re-inventing" Tourism Communication -- PART 3 WEB 2.0: TRAVELLERS' BEHAVIOUR -- 13 Introduction to Part 3 -- 14 Travellers 2.0: Motivation, Opportunity and Ability to Use Social Media -- 15 Use and Creation of Social Media by Travellers -- 16 Users' Attitudes Toward Online Social Networks in Travel -- 17 An Exploration of Wine Blog Communication Patterns -- 18 The Effect of E-Reviews on Consumer Behaviour: An Exploratory Study on Agro-Tourism -- PART 4 WEB 2.0: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND MARKET RESEARCH -- 19 Introduction to Part 4 -- 20 Knowledge Management and Web 2.0: Preliminary Findings from the Greek Tourism Industry -- 21 Blog Content for Competitive Advantage: Lessons Learned in the Application of Software Aided Linguistics Analysis

It has been established that strong brands are important in the agrotourism industry. Agrotourism brands provide the link between visitors and the agrotourism firms and tourists may or may not develop a degree of loyalty to relevant brands. The present study suggests that confidence in an agrotourism brand has high influence in development of brand loyalty. Based on hypotheses developed, confidence in an agrotourism brand is influenced by brand characteristics, agrotourism company characteristics and visitor characteristics. The present survey took place in Greece and examined the attitudes of visitors in agrotourism firms at the island of Lesvos. Survey results demonstrate that agrotourism firm brand characteristics appear more important in their impact on a visitor's confidence in a brand. It was also established that confidence in a brand is positively influencing loyalty. Recommendations are developed for agrotourism marketers in relation to building and maintaining visitor confidence in a brand.