Social media affordances: Enabling customer engagement

Despite the acknowledged importance of social media for customer engagement, our understanding of this phenomenon is limited and new theories can help shed further light on the unique features of social media in the tourism context. Our work contributes to the literature by adopting an affordance perspective that leads us to identify three distinctive social media affordances for customer engagement in tourism: persistent engagement, customized engagement, and triggered engagement. Our work also extends prior research on customer engagement by examining the process of recognition (proprioception, exteroception and coperception) through which organizations engage customers in social media.     

Determinants of customer loyalty and purchasing behavior for full-service and limited-service hotels

This study investigated factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions for two hotel segments: full-service and limited-service. Results from an online survey indicated that full-service hotel guests were more likely to be reward program members and be emotionally attached to their preferred brand. Price was the most important factor for limited-service guests’ purchase decisions, while both price and utility were important for full-service guests. Limited-service guests had lower switching costs, that is, they required less of a discount to switch to a non-preferred brand than full-service guests. The findings have implications for hotel pricing and marketing strategies.     

Social differences in leisure behavior: Measurement and interpretation

This article examines how three major dimensions of leisure behavior, i.e., rates of leisure participation, money expenditure for leisure goods and services and discretionary time available for leisure pursuits, are distributed across various socio‐demographic and socio‐occupational groups. The money expenditures for leisure, it is argued, follow traditional class lines most closely; the rates of leisure participation are characterized by a more egalitarian distribution; and the amounts of leisure time are often inversely related to social centrality and social status. The article interprets these varying patterns of leisure inequalities as a function of the cumulative nature of leisure participation as opposed to the “finite” nature of leisure time, and as a reflection of the complex relationship between leisure, work, income, leisure class, and leisure status.     

Restaurant purchasing skills and the impacts upon strategic purchasing and performance: The roles of supplier integration

This study was designed to 1) identify essential purchasing skills for restaurant management; 2) investigate how specific purchasing skills impact a more strategic approach to purchasing affecting restaurant performance; 3) examine if supplier integration directly affects restaurant strategic purchasing; 4) investigate if supplier integration moderates the effects of purchasing skills upon restaurant purchasing. Results demonstrated that interpersonal skills and managerial skills had significant and positive effects upon strategic purchasing, but not technical knowledge. In particular, managerial skills were a more significant contributor to the development of strategic purchasing than were interpersonal skills. Results also supported the significant and positive effect of strategic purchasing upon restaurant performance. The relationship between purchasing skills and strategic purchasing were found to be significantly different between those having higher supplier integration, technical skills and process skills when compared to those having lower scores in these areas. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.     

Some Fundamental Truths About Tourism: Understanding Tourism's Social and Environmental Impacts

This paper offers an empirical case study of ecotourism in the island state of Cuba. The paper attempts to gauge the success Cuba has had in establishing eco-tourist practices that could be considered sustainable, and provides analysis of the various political factors that condition this success. Using some well-known benchmarks of sustainable eco-tourist practices, the paper presents the results of numerous interviews with key informants involved with ecological tourism in Cuba, archival research and observations from on-site visits to key ecotourism projects to examine the relative success of ecotourism on the island. Concluding that Cuba has had mixed success in moving to sustainable ecotourism, the paper examines the various political constraints that will likely determine the trajectory of Cuba’s ecotourism in the near and medium term.     

Social media micro-film marketing by Chinese destinations: The case of Shaoxing

Marketing destinations by micro-films via social media is becoming more popular among Chinese destinations. Little has been published about this phenomenon in the tourism literature. Using a netnographic case study from the city of Shaoxing, this research revealed the success factors for micro-film marketing by destinations. The research results showed that during the micro-film diffusion process, destination marketers were continuously and actively engaging with followers and online and offline marketing efforts were well planned and integrated. Attractions without uniqueness were impressive to viewers by being embodied in a romantic theme. Suggestions and implications for destination marketing are given.     

Social media friending in building coworker guanxi: A study in the hotel industry

An omnipresent ingredient in personal and professional lives, social media has changed interpersonal relationships in numerous ways. Using the case of Facebook, this paper explores the role of social media use with coworkers in hotels through a mixed method approach. The purpose of the study is twofold. First, in-depth interviews are conducted to develop scales of key factors that influence coworker social media friending. Second, a survey is employed to investigate the consequences of such work-life-crossing behaviors. A framework is tested leading from the motivational/de-motivational factors to workplace guanxi via interaction intensity, workplace fun, and stress. The results indicate that motivations for relationship reinforcement, career advancement, and compliance with peers lead to increasing coworker social media interactions, while negatively-valenced factors do not have a salient impact. Furthermore, while social media interactions induce both workplace fun and stress, the overall impact on coworker guanxi is positive.     

The effect of distance on tourist behavior: A study based on social media data

Previous studies have mostly used government statistics and survey data to examine the effect of travel distance on tourist behavior. In this study, we used data obtained from Sina Weibo to analyze the travel patterns of tourists who visited Suzhou, China from April 2012 to October 2013. We divided tourists into three groups according to their origin: long-haul, short-haul, and local. A comparison of the three groups' spatial patterns, preferred attractions, restaurants, and hotels, and expenditure levels showed diverse behavioral and consumption patterns of the three groups. We further found a divergent effect of distance on hotel and restaurant expenditure, and the effect of distance on expenditure is less salient than income level and the sites they visited.     

Social media constraints and destination images: The potential of barrier-free internet access for foreign tourists in an internet-restricted destination

This study explores the effects of social media use constraints on destination image under the internet restrictions in China. The empirical results indicate that information search constraints have a significant effect on the affective image of destinations through emotional experience. Not allowing certain social media use has negative implications for tourists’ image of a destination through their emotional responses. Furthermore, there is a moderating effect of information search constraints on the relationships between emotion and affective image. The key findings appeal for policy breakthroughs on barrier-free internet access for foreign tourists in Hainan, China’s largest emerging free trade zone and one of its top tourist destinations. This has clear management implications for regions with internet restrictions.     

Tourism and wildlife photography codes of ethics: Developing a clearer picture

The global wildlife tourism industry's sustained growth has placed significant degrees of pressure on wildlife attractions, even though there is a push to make the industry more responsible. Photography, ethics, and wildlife are all important aspects of the wildlife tourism experience. While research exists on all three of these elements, there is a paucity of research that intersects all three. The aim of this study was to investigate wildlife photography codes of ethics based on a global search of all web sources based on content analysis. Codes were found to be primarily deontological over teleological, and cosmopolitan over local in origin.     

Social media influencers as endorsers to promote travel destinations: an application of self-congruence theory to the Chinese Generation Y

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of online social networks has given rise to the emergence of social media influencers (SMIs), so-called “Internet celebrities”. Celebrity endorsement, which can be an effective marketing strategy, is also popular in the tourism field. This study uses self-congruity theory, which originally refers to the congruence between consumers and brands or products, to the congruence between endorsers and potential tourists to evaluate endorsement effectiveness. Results indicate that SMI endorser–consumer congruence positively contributes to visit intentions toward the endorsed destinations as does endorser–destination congruence. Tourism marketers are advised to use SMIs when the destination images and target markets align.     

Proactive behaviour in unemployment: findings and implications

The widely accepted but little scrutinized explanatory framework for documented effects of unemployment, the deprivation hypothesis, is based on the claim that unemployment deprives one of, and employment imposes on one, experience within five crucial categories, quite apart from financial impoverishment. In this study we describe a qualitative empirical examination of 11 unemployed people who are experiencing material but not psychological deprivation and who have adopted a very proactive stance towards unemployment. Proactivity is characterized by a person choosing to initiate, intervene in or reperceive situations in a way which allows the person (agent) to act in valued directions rather than respond passively to imposed change. The deprivation framework is discussed in the light of this study, and an alternative framework based on the assumption of personal agency as characterizing both employed and unemployed people is commended. Implications for research on unemployment and leisure are drawn.     

Social exchanges as motivators of hotel employees’ organizational citizenship behavior: The proposition and application of a new three-dimensional framework

This study developed and empirically tested a three-dimensional framework of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the hotel industry. Using a social exchange perspective, the study expanded social exchange theory's emphasis on leader–member exchange to include coworker exchange and customer–employee exchange. The three types of social exchanges were tested as motivators for three types of OCB; organizational, interpersonal and customer. The findings support the distinctiveness of the three types of OCB and the importance of social exchanges as motivators for OCBs. This study contributes to the literature on OCB dimensionality in service organizations, as well as social exchange theory's application to discretionary performance in the hotel industry.     

Wandering: Youth and travel behavior

Vogt, Jay, “Wandering: Youth and Travel Behavior,” Annals of Tourism Research, Volume IV, No. 1, September/October 1976, pp. 25–41 ----The phenomenon of wandering youth, their travel experiences and resulting impact on the visited culture, is explored. The primary motivation is the quest for personal growth, which is achieved through autonomy in decision-making stimulation in daily life, learning through exposure and detachment, and transient yet intense interpersonal relationships. The impact of wanderers is felt mainly at centers of congregation, identified as gathering and resting places. Some suggestions are made as to areas of application and further research.     

Some stay and some quit: Understanding P2P accommodation providers’ continuous sharing behavior from the perspective of feedback theory

Building on feedback theory, this study aims to understand providers' continuous sharing behavior (CSB) by integrating subjective and objective feedback in the context of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations. In Study 1, we test a mediation model by using survey data collected from 289 hosts of P2P accommodations. The results show that providers' positive feedback perception (PFP) is positively related to CSB and that intrinsic motivation mediates this effect. In Study 2, we collect 169 multisource data to explore the effect of objective online feedback on providers' PFP and subsequent effects in further detail. This study reveals that online ratings positively influence providers' PFP and that this effect is strengthened by the volume of online reviews. Further, we find sequential positive effects among providers’ PFP, intrinsic motivation, and CSB, which is consistent with Study 1. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Improving carbon offsetting appeals in online airplane ticket purchasing: testing new messages,and using new test methods

ABSTRACT

Voluntary carbon offsetting by air passengers could help counteract environmental damage caused by air travel. But adoption rates among air travellers are low. This study (1) develops new communication messages which counteract barriers to carbon offsetting identified in prior studies, and (2) tests their effectiveness using psychophysiological and attitudinal measures, a technique new to sustainable tourism research methodologies. Results point to low levels of traveller awareness of carbon offsetting schemes, the primary need for any message to attract the air passengers’ attention, the superiority of pictorial and short textual information as well as the identification of particularly effective content. The study makes three key contributions: (1) it highlights the critical importance of awareness raising as a precursor of behavioural change, (2) it offers tangible recommendations for improving carbon offsetting messages, and (3) it demonstrates the usefulness of psychophysiological measures for pre-testing alternative social marketing messages aimed at increasing environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour across a range of applications. Findings of considerable practical importance include refinements of current messages to increase both attention levels and emotional arousal, and the positive impact of promoting additional social co-benefits alongside environmental benefits. Future valuable research themes using psychophysiological and attitudinal measures are suggested.     

Social Servicescape: The Impact of Social Factors on Restaurant Image and Behavioral Intentions

While most previous research has focused on the physical service environment, research on the social aspect in the service environment is scant. This study examined how social factors (employees, other customers, social crowding, and rapport) in the service environment influence restaurant image and customers’ behavioral intentions. Based on past research, a theoretical framework was developed and the data collected from online surveys was analyzed through structural equation modeling. Our findings, based on a survey of 500 participants, suggest that social factors influence restaurant image and, consequently, behavioral intentions.     

Mindset matters in purchasing online food deliveries during the pandemic: The application of construal level and regulatory focus theories

Online delivery providers (ODPs), representing a growing hospitality industry sector, are playing an unprecedented role in the coronavirus pandemic. Applying construal level theory and regulatory focus theory, this research investigates how the interplay of construal mindsets and message frames affects consumers’ purchase intention regarding online food deliveries during the pandemic. Two 2 × 2 experiments were conducted in severe and mild pandemic regions and revealed different results in consumers’ responses. Specifically, promotion-framed messages are more effective when matching a “how” construal mindset in severe regions. In contrast, promotion-framed messages are more persuasive in conjecture with a “why” construal mindset in mild pandemic areas. Besides, the persuasion process is mediated through self-efficacy in severe regions but through perceived benefit in mild regions. The study also reveals different moderating effects of risk propensity in the two regions. The findings provide guidelines for ODPs in engaging consumers with online food delivery services.     

Collectors and Collecting: A Social Psychological Perspective

Collecting is a pervasive behavior in our culture, yet it has received little attention in the psychological literature. We examine eight aspects of the collecting process, drawing on existing ideas and research in social psychology as well as existing research on collectors and collecting to describe the motivations that underlie collecting behavior. We suggest that collectors are drawn to collecting as a means of bolstering the self by setting up goals that are tangible and attainable and provide the collector with concrete feedback of progress.