Segmenting hotel clients by pricing variables and value for money

The main objectives of this study are to answer the following important research questions: (a) Are pricing and value-for-money variables good segmentation bases for clustering hotel clients? (b) What type of tourists can be identified through pricing and value-for-money bases? The main conclusion of this paper is that marketers who apply yield management in their firms should take into account price perceptions of clients and that pricing decisions should be made by properly communicating changes in prices and the reasons behind them. Furthermore, two segments of hotel clients are revealed and analysed in the study: ‘price-elastic’ and ‘price-rigid’ segments.     

Post-2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup: oversupply and location of luxury hotel rooms in Cape Town

An excess of hotel rooms in cities preparing to host a mega-event such as the FIFA Soccer World Cup is not a new occurrence. Between 2007 and 2010 the number of five-star hotel rooms in Cape Town increased by 50% and four-star hotel rooms by 20%. A spatial database of three-, four- and five-star hotels was compiled for the hotel sector of Cape Town. This paper reveals the global–local nexus of luxury hotel development in Cape Town (South Africa) and three different contexts in which the oversupply of hotel rooms must be understood. First is South Africa as a developing country engaged in hosting a hallmark event and engrossed in concomitant inflated tourism-related expectations. Second is the vulnerability of Cape Town's hotel sector with its overdependence on long-haul holiday tourists from a narrow northern-hemisphere market experiencing the worst economic recession since the 1930s. Third is the favourable economic trends in South Africa from 1999 to 2007 that have trapped hotel developers in a ‘fallacy of composition’.     

Seasonal hotel jobs: an occupation and a way of life

Research for the present study was undertaken in the summer of 1995. This paper seeks to identify whether Salaman's notion of ‘occupational communities’ exists in a sample of six British seasonal seaside hotels, a relatively unexplored sector of the hotel industry. Briefly, occupational communities have as their major focus the job itself and they are also characterised by a fusing of work and leisure activities. Interviews with 30 hotel workers indicate that seasonal, and particularly live-in workers, tend to form distinct ‘occupational communities’. These communities, however, are different to ‘traditional’ occupational communities in a number of respects. Most importantly, instead of the job itself being the focus for community formation, job importance is replaced by work situations characterised by hedonism and close social bonding. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The self‐presentation and self‐development of serious wildlife tourists

The notion of self‐concept and choice of tourism products has yet to be applied to wildlife tourism. The question of how consumers perceive themselves is considered fundamental to understanding purchase and consumption behaviours. This ethnographic study is based upon ‘serious’ wildlife tourism participants, for whom studying fauna and flora is the primary motivation for travel. The findings demonstrate how the ‘culture’ of ‘serious’ wildlife tourism is made up of individuals who differentiate themselves from other tourists in terms of dress, behaviour, development of skills, equipment and intellectual capital, illustrated by their desire to scope, identify and photograph wildlife. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multivariate models of hotel occupancy performance and their implications for hotel marketing

Multivariate models are developed to explain the differential occupancy performance of a sample of 279 English hotels. Following a procedure established in an earlier paper, hotels are first differentiated on the basis of their overall occupancy performance, seasonality, long‐term trend and length of season. Regression models are specified and calibrated to relate each of these dimensions of occupancy performance to the location and other characteristics of the hotels. The four models produce the expected positions of hotels in ‘occupancy performance space’, against which their observed positions can be compared. The application of the models in hotel marketing is discussed and demonstrated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meeting the on‐line needs of disabled tourists: an assessment of UK‐based hotel websites

The easy exchange of rich information between often geographically dispersed parties is an important precursor of successful tourism transactions. Internet‐based technologies, in particular the World Wide Web, offer possibilities to both buyers and sellers to exchange information without the constraints of geography and time diminishing its richness. The disabled, representing a significant part of any marketplace, may, however, have difficulties accessing the content of the Web and therefore sharing the benefits of rich information exchange. This is the principal concern of ‘Web content accessibility’. Focusing on the tourism sector, in particular UK‐based hotels, this paper examines the accessibility of their websites. However, recognising that it is not just access to information that is important for the disabled, but also the quality of that information, the paper also examines the extent to which the information contained on websites serves their particular needs. Utilising the accessibility testing software ‘Bobby’, disappointingly low levels of Web content accessibility were found amongst the sample of websites. Against a framework of information needs developed from criteria provided by disability organisations, the sample also revealed disappointingly low levels of specific (relevant) information for the disabled. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency and productivity growth in hotel industry

This paper analyses the relative efficiency and productivity of a representative sample of Portuguese hotels by using the directional distance function and the Luenberger productivity indicator. The key advantage of this approach is that both input contraction and output expansion are considered. The model generates hotel efficiency scores, ranking the hotels in the sample. We conclude that both inputs and outputs play a major role in hotel efficiency. Therefore, we suggest an alteration of management procedures in order to enable efficiency to be increased, based on an effective enhanced‐incentive policy and taking into account the small hotel characteristics of the sample. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Examination of the Determinants of In‐Flight Duty‐Free Shopping: Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations

This research note presents the findings of a study that empirically examined air passengers' in‐flight duty‐free shopping behaviors in the perspectives of utilitarian and hedonic motivations. On the basis of the primary data collected from 212 air passengers in Taiwan, empirical findings revealed that both utilitarian and hedonic motivations affect air passengers' intentions to browse in‐flight duty‐free shopping catalogues. Findings also showed that hedonic motivation does not directly influence air passengers' in‐flight purchase intentions. Instead, a higher utilitarian motivation can directly enhance passengers' in‐flight purchase intentions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coping and co‐creating in tourist experiences

This research explores how a tourist copes and co‐creates experiences in various situations and with various people during a vacation. Tourist experiences are explored in social (service provider and other consumers) and physical encounters (‘servicescape’). The study reveals examples of coping and co‐creation strategies and the subsequent effects on tourist evaluations. The present work provides personal experiences and a diary as methods. The study proposes ways of dealing with tourist coping and co‐creating strategies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

e‐Participation Model for Sustainable Cultural Tourism Management: a Bottom‐Up Approach

The paper presents a ‘bottom‐up approach’ for cultural tourism management, based on the development of an e‐participation website for an Italian city, where the stakeholders are placed at the centre of the decisional process. The analysis provides an indication on how to personalize and differentiate the cultural tourism offer according to the stakeholders’ perspectives and to specific territorial characteristics. Innovative techniques of stakeholders’ engagement are offered by information and communication technologies tools that can play a vital role in today's cultural destinations. However, the study shows that the Web is yet to be utilized as an effective tool in stakeholders’ participation processes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perception and attitude of Hong Kong hotel guest‐contact employees towards tourists from Mainland China

In recent years, the majority of arrivals to Hong Kong, which were once dominated by the Western and Japanese markets, were replaced by arrivals from Mainland China. The number of tourists from Mainland China has overtaken others to become the largest single market for the territory. With its increasing significance, providing quality service to these visitors becomes crucial to the success of the tourism industry and of the hotel industry in particular. Unfortunately, the satisfaction rating of the Mainland visitors on hotel services in Hong Kong is reported to be relatively low when compared to those given by other major markets. It is suspected that the perception and attitudes of the service staff may influence their behaviour in serving customers. As such, this study conducted a survey questionnaire with 228 guest‐contact employees of hotels in Hong Kong. Results indicate that most respondents have a fairly positive perception towards the Mainland tourists in relation to the economic and financial benefits that they bring to Hong Kong. However, a majority of the respondents express negative perception and attitudes towards these tourists in respect to their appearance, personalities and behaviour. Despite some respondents indicating that they exhibit different service behaviour towards visitors from Mainland China and other countries, no major significant differences in their perception and attitudes were found in this study. It is recommended that various types of cross‐cultural training, such as sensitivity training and role playing, would be helpful to guest‐contact employees in enhancing their ability to be more objective and more tolerant of other people's behaviour. This study concludes that hotel employees, especially those who work as front‐line staff, must remain aware of their subjective judgments when dealing with guests and be more accepting of others. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating the efficiency of a small hotel chain with a Malmquist productivity index

By applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) a two‐stage procedure is followed to evaluate the determinants of efficiency of a Portuguese public‐owned hotel chain, Enatur for the period 1999 to 2001. In the first stage the paper estimates the Malmquist index and breaks it down into technical efficiency and technological change. In the second stage, a Tobit econometric model, designed to relate efficiency scores, along with other managerial and contextual variables, is used to identify the efficiency drivers. The implications of this study for managerial purposes are then discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decline and turnaround: a literature review and proposed research agenda for the hotel sector

Tourism systems are composed of an inter-related and inter-dependent set of individual businesses, organisations and servicescapes. The hospitality industry, and more specifically the hotel sector, comprises many businesses that contribute significantly to the tourism system. Yet, the industry is renowned for business failures and poor financial returns. Increasing competition, globalisation, technology, social change and internal weaknesses are some of the reasons why tourism and hospitality businesses fail or perform significantly below expectations. When in a state of decline or poor performance, many businesses attempt a ‘turnaround’. Declining performance can have wide-ranging impacts not only on hotel businesses directly, but also upon those communities where local economies rely on tourism for jobs and economic prosperity. Consequently, an improved understanding of the processes of declining performance and turnarounds is particularly important to both researchers and practitioners. However, there has been limited research focused on turnarounds in the tourism industry, in general, and in the hotel industry, in particular. In this study we assess the literature on decline and turnarounds and propose an agenda for future research that will enhance our knowledge and inform ongoing debate on the process and impact of turnarounds in the hotel industry.     

Domestic midscale chain hotel brands' effectiveness in research and development: An exploratory study

While many midscale chain hotel brands in China's domestic market have developed rapidly since 2010, it is still unclear how a new midscale chain hotel brand can be most effectively researched and developed. Drawing from resource-advantage theory, this study aimed to understand the effectiveness of six key attributes of new domestic midscale chain hotel brands and map them onto a research and development (R&D) competitive position matrix. The results show that the actual R&D process lasts beyond the opening of the first hotel of the new brand and requires a further 2-year maturation period. This study contributes to the literature by creating a maturation system that could play a key role in the effectiveness of the R&D underlying a chain hotel's brand development. It also provides a compelling tool for monitoring the effectiveness of domestic midscale chain hotel brands' R&D.     

The Incorporation of Consumer Experience into the Branding Process: An Investigation of Name‐Brand Hotels

Given the growing number of hotel brands, improving consumer experience has become an increasingly important area of interest to industry practitioners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between hotel guests' brand experience, knowledge and loyalty to name‐brand hotels. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the incorporation of a second‐order factor analysis were employed to achieve the research goals. The findings indicate that brand experience was represented as a holistic concept with sensory, affective, behavioral and intellectual aspects. While brand experience influences brand loyalty, its impact is partially mediated by brand knowledge. This is a pioneer study that combines consumer experience with branding in the hospitality industry and offers practical suggestions to facilitate hotel managers in their development of effective branding strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Far does Overall Service Quality of a Destination Affect Customers' Post‐Purchase Behaviours?

In tourism management literature, there are numerous research papers focusing on the determinants of the customers' destination evaluations and how they affect each other. The chief variables to be examined in the literature have been customer satisfaction, perceived value, behavioural intention and service quality. In this study, the authors were inspired by the ‘indirect model’ by Cronin et al. (2000) and generated a conceptual model to determine the overall service quality of a destination and its effect on perceived value, customer satisfaction and behavioural intention by structural equation modelling technique. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitoring hotel performance using occupancy time‐series analysis: the concept of occupancy performance space

Time series factor analysis is used to identify four temporal dimensions of occupancy performance in 279 English hotels over the period January 1992 to December 1994. These dimensions referred to as reference curves differentiate hotels on the basis of overall occupancy level (RC1), seasonality (RC2), long‐term trend (RC3) and length of season (RC4). The reference curves are used to define the dimensions of occupancy performance space in which the 279 hotels are positioned, with the hotels differentiated by hotel situation type. It is shown that the positioning of a hotel in occupancy performance space can provide a precise and effective basis for hotel marketing.     

Examining hotel salespeople's new membership programme sales performance

Promoting new membership programmes can be a rewarding, yet challenging task for hotels. However, high-performance sales teams can improve consumer perceptions of new membership programmes in the market and allow hotels to remain competitive. Few studies have explored how hotel sales personnel approach the task of selling new membership programmes, and studies examining the moderating influence of market orientation are also rare. The current study contributes to the hospitality sales management literature by using the goal orientation theory to examine the new membership programmes sales performance of 168 salespeople. ‘Market orientation' was included as a variable that could moderate salespeople's performance. The results show that learning goal orientation and performance-prove goal orientation positively influence salespeople's performance, but performance-avoid goal orientation negatively influences sales performance. Furthermore, hotels' levels of market orientation (high or low) can moderate the relationship between goal orientation and sales performance.     

Exploring the Implications of Virtual Reality Technology in Tourism Marketing: An Integrated Research Framework

The proliferation of the Internet and other technological innovations has transformed the structure of the tourism industry as well as affected how tourism destinations are perceived and consumed. The 3D virtual world provides opportunities for destination marketing organizations to communicate with targeted markets by offering a rich environment for potential visitors to explore tourism destinations. However, as of yet, there is little understanding about how to effectively market tourism destinations to virtual world participants who are technology users as well as potential consumers. The purpose of the present study is to develop a research framework that integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and self‐determination theory to understand how tourists use a 3D virtual world. Primary data were obtained for this study through self‐administered Web questionnaires. The data were conducted in a laboratory setting with 186 participants. This study contributes to the empirical TAM literature by applying the model to a 3D virtual tourism site. Additionally, this study provides a research framework to capture the entertainment nature of a 3D virtual world by extending the TAM to incorporate psychological elements of self‐determination theory to understand consumer experience. From the perspective of tourism professionals, this study contributes to an understanding of how best to construct informative and interactive tourist destinations in 3D virtual worlds to attract potential online and real‐world tourists. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beyond the Work‐to‐Leisure Conflict: A High Road through Social Support for Tourism Employees

The purpose of this study was to test the direct and moderating effects of job strain variables on the Job Demand–Control–Support model. A total of 422 tourism employees completed a questionnaire. Hierarchical and moderated regression models were employed to test the proposed relationships between job strain variables and work‐to‐leisure conflict. Results indicated that job demands had a positive relationship with work‐to‐leisure conflict, whereas the schedule flexibility and the time‐off flexibility were negatively related to work‐to‐leisure conflict. Results also found that supervisor support could moderate the influence of tourism employees' job demands on work‐to‐leisure conflict. Implications of stress management and job design for human resource department are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.