Service Quality,Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intention Among Forest Visitors

Abstract

This study explores the interrelationships between service quality and satisfaction, and their influence on behavioral intention among forest visitors. On-site surveys were conducted in a forest through face-to-face interviews (n = 395). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that service quality is an antecedent of satisfaction and satisfaction plays a mediating role between service quality and behavioral intention. Further, service quality has a direct effect on behavioral loyalty, implying that the effect of service quality on behavioral intention is as important as that of satisfaction. The results of the study provide important theoretical implications to nature-based tourism managers.     

Valuation of nature-based tourism resources using dichotomous choice contingent valuation method

The purpose of this paper is to measure the potential revenue from nature-based tourism resources in the environmentally sensitive area of Mt Minju, South Korea. A dichotomous choice contingent valuation method was employed to estimate the mean willingness-to-pay, contingent on a hypothetical market scenario. The empirical results show that the economic value of nature-based tourism resources was estimated at 5905 Won (ca US$ 7) per visitor. This implies that the significant economic value of natural resources will be lost from any large-scale development by degrading natural environments. In addition to the value of natural resources, nature-based tourism also provides the locally owned small tourist businesses with lower leakages than the externally owned large-scale ones. Low leakage implies that local residents gain more direct income from nature-based tourism.     

An Assessment of Quality Consciousness of Service Employees

Abstract

Frontline service staff plays a vital role in the success of firms in the lodging industry. Quality service often determines the competitive edge of businesses in this industry. In this study, data from the questionnaires filled out by hotel managers and employees have been analyzed to assess their service quality consciousness. Although the results point to the existence of an organizational culture and climate that encourage the fostering of quality consciousness, they are not effective enough in the development of satisfactory quality consciousness in employees. A set of guidelines for quality service management is proposed.     

Second-home owners' intention to purchase nature-based tourism activity products – A Norwegian case study

Tourism is acknowledged to be an important business sector in rural areas. This paper argues that second-home owners constitute an important market segment for businesses that offer nature-based tourism activities. Previous research has shown that a number of factors influence tourist behaviour. This study examined how motivation and demographic variables affect second-home owners' intention to purchase three different types of activity products: learning, adventure, and hunting products. We found substantial variations in the purchase intentions for these products among second-home owners. These intentions were influenced by push and pull motivations, age, income and educational level. Second-home owners with a high intention of purchasing nature-based tourism activity products tend to be young, high-income, and socially oriented risk takers. Businesses offering nature-based tourism activity products should use a combination of demographic and psychographic variables when they segment the second-home market.     

The Natural State

ABSTRACT

Australian nature-based tourism and ecotourism have become popular forms of recreational activity. Tasmania attracts twice the Australian national average number of nature-based tourists and ecotourists (thirty per cent). The growth of this tourism sector has prompted measures to ensure that experiences are of high quality, and that environmental impacts are adequately managed. ISO 14000 is an environmental management and certification system often utilised as an environmental management system standard within various industries, but has not been widely applied to the Australian tourism industry. The Nature and Ecotourism Accreditation Program (NEAP) represents the most significant accreditation measure within Australia at present. This paper assesses the relevance of NEAP in the Tasmanian nature-based tourism and ecotourism industry through in-depth interviews with a key informant group and a comparative analysis of interview data. The paper introduces nature-based tourism and ecotourism definitions and discusses the growing relevance of ecotourism accreditation. The paper argues that NEAP is relevant to the Tasmanian nature-based tourism and ecotourism industry, where the quality of the natural environment forms the central focus for such experiences. Furthermore, the paper argues that NEAP can assist in supporting the State's nature-based tourism and ecotourism industry through means such as branding and promotion. However, problems exist in relation to financial issues between NEAP and operators, and the perceived overlap of NEAP with the widely implemented Tourism Council Tasmania Accreditation Program. Thus, financial issues need to be addressed by the Ecotourism Association of Australia in association with Australian Commonwealth Government subsidisation. The degree of overlap between the two programs can be effectively addressed through industry cooperation. The paper also suggests that stronger branding and promotion of NEAP can be achieved through increased industry involvement by Tourism Tasmania.     

Weather Studies in Outdoor Recreation and Nature-Based Tourism: A Research Synthesis and Gap Analysis

ABSTRACT

The impact of weather on outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism has received increasing attention from the research community during the past ten years. This article synthesizes the results of those inquiries, categorizing their predominant themes and identifying knowledge gaps. One hundred eighty-four weather-related articles drawn from a cross-section of international journals served as the foundation for this work. The research synthesis identified three recurring themes: weather-related variables that influence outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism, the importance of geographic research context, and prevailing activity types. A gap analysis indicated an abundance of underinvestigated topics in weather-related studies in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. The article concludes with recommendations for future weather-related studies in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism developed from the predominant themes uncovered in the research synthesis and research needs discovered in the gap analysis.     

A New Tune from an Old Instrument

SUMMARY

The ability to provide high quality customer service and to deliver customer value is critical to attracting customers in the competitive tourism service environment. This research seeks to explore whether the instrument developed by Zeithaml et al. (1990), referred to as SERVQUAL, can be applied to a tourism service business to provide a quantifiable method of measuring service quality. An adaptation of SERVQUAL was applied to a business operating tours through a brewery in Tasmania, Australia. The instrument proved to be adequately internally reliable and provided apparently useful and easily interpretable diagnostic data to the management of the business. It was concluded that SERVQUAL has the potential to be a useful management tool provided care is taken to adapt the instrument to the individual needs of the user while remaining within the underlying theoretical framework. Adaptation and simplification of the complicated instrument provides small tourism businesses with a new way of gaining theory-based diagnostic data that can be self-administered by management on an ongoing basis and is not a burden to the customers.     

Corporate social marketing in tourism: to sleep or not to sleep with the enemy?

ABSTRACT

Social marketing is regarded as an effective consumer-oriented approach to promoting behavioural change and improved well-being for individuals, communities and society. However, its potential for tourism, especially sustainable tourism, remains under-researched. This article examines the utilisation of social marketing by tourism businesses. A search strategy identified 14 behavioural change programmes that involved tourism businesses. Half of these programmes label themselves social marketing; the others tend to be part of corporate social responsibility efforts, using a form of corporate social marketing (CSM). Most programmes seek to encourage pro-environmental behaviours in tourists, tourism businesses and other stakeholders including suppliers. Although tourism businesses can develop social marketing programmes alone, typically they collaborate with public and non-profit agencies as partners and sponsors. The strength of the tie between the promoted behaviour and the sale of a company's product varies considerably. It is suggested that social marketing can make significant contributions to environmentally sustainable tourism. However, this research also suggests that social marketing is not a substitute for, but rather an essential complement to, technological and regulatory approaches to climate change. Changing behaviour is a long process: without a long-term commitment from private sector companies, CSM programmes will fail to achieve behavioural change goals.     

Burnout and Service Employees' Willingness to Deliver Quality Service

ABSTRACT

Employees are vital for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty in service organizations because their proactive involvement is an essential part of delivering the services offered. With the recent rapid growth of tourism in the Macau SAR, service employee workloads are clearly increasing, and consequently one would expect that the incidence of job burnout is rising. This study uses the well-known Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to investigate the relationship between service employees' burnout and their willingness to deliver quality services. Self-administered questionnaires from 110 operational staff in three hotels in Macau have been analyzed. The results indicate that job burnout reduces staff's willingness to deliver quality services and that this effect is moderated by individual staff's level of affective organizational commitment, and their perceptions of the extent of organizational and supervisor support provided by the organization. Based on these results, practical managerial strategies to improve service performance are identified.     

The role of relationship quality in integrated destination marketing

ABSTRACT

This study illustrates the role of the relationship quality perceived by the international public, which is increasingly discussed in public diplomacy research. It leads to the implications for integrated destination marketing of a host country in targeting the international public, where the host country is considered both as a tourism destination and as a place for business and investment. The study proposes a model illustrating the intervention of relationship quality in the way tourism destination image and country image are associated with tourism and business behavioral intentions. Empirical testing shows that image itself cannot assure that the international public would support the host country. Instead, it establishes the critical role of enhancing relationship quality.     

Service Quality

Abstract

A methodology is suggested based on the assumption that quality is perceived in a given situation when the individual consumer determines the attributes that make up service quality rather than the service provider. Results gained from a two-part study (state tourism and commercial lodging facilities) that use the suggested methodology showed differences in attributes between consumers and the service providers when compared to another state tourism study and a guest comment card from a nationwide lodging franchiser.     

Profiling the Strategic Marketing Activities of Small Tourism Businesses

Abstract

This study profiles the strategic marketing activities of small tourism businesses, by examining the extent to which they engage in specified practices which may be broadly described as “strategic.” It was found that city-based enterprises are more strategic in their emphasis than their rural counterparts, and that larger small businesses are more strategic than smaller small businesses. Businesses which engage in product packaging appear to be more strategic than those which do not. Possible explanations for the relatively low incidence of strategic marketing amongst small tourism business generally are a lack of managerial expertise and the absence of staff to whom tasks may be delegated.     

A Comprehensive Cost Analysis on New System Structure for Nature-Based Tourism Destination: Perspective of Front and Back Stage Decoupling

To cope with several common problems in nature-based tourism destinations, including resource inefficiency, environmental pollutions and poor service quality, the paper proposes a new structure of service system for tourism destination in which some of the back-stage functions can be decoupled from the service system of individual tourism organizations and integrated into shared service centers and thus the overall scale of the back-stage functions of the destination can be reduced and equivalence of the front–back structure of the destination can be achieved to facilitate the above problems solving. Based on this understanding, a comprehensive costs analysis is conducted to explain the advantages of the new structure over the traditional one by considering three important factors involved in the above problems: the environment, service quality and operation costs. Finally, a case study on rural tourism in China is undertaken to justify this analysis.     

旅游公共服务质量的提升:游客导向和创新导向的驱动作用

在将旅游业发展成为国民经济的战略性支柱产业和人民群众更加满意的现代服务业的过程中,旅游公共服务发挥着重要作用。对于政府管理部门内部有哪些因素会促进旅游公共服务质量的提升,学术界鲜有实证研究。本文从旅游行政管理部门的角度出发,构建了游客导向、创新导向、跨部门协调对旅游公共服务质量的影响模型。对广东省32个主要客源市场的旅游行政管理部门的309位工作人员进行了问卷调查,探讨旅游公共服务质量提升的驱动因素。结构方程模型结果显示,游客导向、创新导向和跨部门协调都有助于旅游公共服务质量的提升,跨部门协调中介游客导向对旅游公共服务质量的影响。本文在理论上弥补了旅游公共服务质量前因研究的空白,对旅游行政管理部门如何更好地提升旅游公共服务质量具有借鉴意义。     

Natural soundscapes and tourist loyalty to nature-based tourism destinations: the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of natural soundscapes on tourist behaviors in a nature-based tourism destination. A behavioral model depicting the relationship among tourist attitudes to natural soundscapes, natural soundscape image, tourist satisfaction, and loyalty is examined using structural equation model and bootstrapping analysis. Results indicate that tourist attitudes directly affect natural soundscape image but do not affect tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The natural soundscape image directly affects tourist satisfaction and indirectly affects tourist loyalty when mediated by tourist satisfaction. Positioning natural soundscapes as a novel tourism attractor, theoretical and managerial implications are presented.     

Entrepreneurial Characteristics,Motives, and Business Challenges: Exploratory Study of Small- and Medium-Sized Hotel Businesses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to gather information about the determinants and characteristics of the owners/managers of small- and medium-sized hotels (SMSHs) and identify various issues in starting up and operating businesses in the United Arab Emirates. The results of this study reveal that the majority of the owners/managers of SMSHs in the United Arab Emirates are male, young and middle age, and relatively new to the tourism industry. The motivations for the business ventures of the entrepreneurs include wanting to be financially independent, become one’s own boss, involvement in family business and the opportunities of the hotel business. Among the key business challenges highlighted by the owners/managers of SMSHs are stiff competition in the hotel industry, increased operating costs, reduced demand, and lack of skilled employees. Several key strategies have been employed to face these challenges. These include offering competitive pricing, improving the marketing and channels of promotion, enhancing the quality of service and providing superior customer service.     

Greenhushing: the deliberate under communicating of sustainability practices by tourism businesses

ABSTRACT

Greenhushing selectively communicates fewer pro-sustainability actions by businesses than are practiced; based on a perception of customers’ rights to consumerism. We first studied the gap between the communication of sustainability practices in the audits and websites of 31 small rural tourism businesses in the Peak District National Park (UK). The analysis showed that businesses only communicate 30% of all the sustainability actions practiced. Their websites emphasised customer benefits, using explicit, affective, experiential and active language that legitimises the customers’ hedonistic use of the landscape, while downplaying complex issues and normalising sustainability to reduce customer guilt. Just one website mentioned climate change. We found that greenhushing results from a low moral intensity, masking potentially negative consequences of perceived lower competence, whilst protecting business from more cynical consumers who may interpret their statements as hypocritical. Subsequent textual analysis and interviews were used to understand how communication constitutes these organisations. We propose that greenhushing reshapes and constitutes tourism businesses through their communications. Moreover, greenhushing is a form of public moralisation that adopts communication practices similar to greenwashing, reflecting the social norms expected from a business; however, in this case, located in a moral muteness, rather than moral hypocrisy, that businesses accept but resent.     

Service Quality

Abstract

This paper discusses controversial methodological issues in service quality research, particularly in the field of tourism and hospitality. These are illustrated by a review of recent academic discourses and by the lessons of an exploratory study of visitors' quality perceptions of tourism service providers on two European peripheral destinations. Based on the practical, conceptual and methodological lessons of this project, it is argued that service quality research has drifted into a risky territory, by constructing its own reality, rather than describing it. In the light of the discussion, it is suggested to fulfil the long claimed (but never completed) neo-service paradigm shift and to move from provider- to customer-orientation in service research.     

Crisis Management in Small-Scale Tourism

Summary

Since the events of September 2001, many tourism academics, analysts, and corporations have displayed attention toward crises in the tourism industry. Most attention has focussed on how nations and large tourism corporations cope with unforseen crises. However, when crisis strikes, it is indiscriminate, affecting small-scale tourism businesses also. This article analyses some popular crisis management models, and their applicability to smaller scale businesses. The small island of Gili Air in Indonesia is examined, and the crisis management techniques employed by owners and operators of small and micro tourism businesses. The results indicate that while these businesses face similar issues resulting from crises, they are ill equipped to produce long-term solutions.