A travel demand model for Mainland Chinese tourists to Hong Kong

The purpose of the study was to determine what exogenous variables best explained the travel demand for Mainland Chinese tourists to Hong Kong. The 12 years (1984–1995) annual time series data of ‘number of Mainland Chinese tourist arrivals’, ‘China disposable income per capita’, ‘consumer price indices in Hong Kong and China’ and ‘exchange rates’ was used to develop a travel demand model. Seven exogenous variables were selected for the model through a literature review. An OLS multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the ‘best’ subset of seven exogenous variables to determine the demand model. The results showed that travel demand for Mainland Chinese tourists to Hong Kong could be explained by ‘disposable income per capita’ and ‘relaxation of visa requirements’.     

The service economy, de-industrialisation and the hospitality industry

This paper examines the popular view that the growth of services (and in particular, hospitality services) is both inevitable and desirable. It considers the terminological confusion surrounding the term ‘services’ and examines whether there is sufficient evidence to justify the continuing emergence of the ‘service’ as opposed to manufacturing-based economy. The view that the prosperity of the U.K. depends more on manufacturing than it does on services is considered, and conclusions are drawn for the hospitality industry.     

A strategic framework for terrorism prevention and mitigation in tourism destinations

Tourism destinations and tourists have always been ‘soft targets’ for terrorist activities. Although it is widely acknowledged that it is no longer a question of ‘if’ terrorists will strike but rather a question of ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘how prepared’ the destination is to deal with them, the crisis management frameworks proposed by the literature appear to offer little help to tourism authorities in the development and implementation of a strategy aiming at the prevention and mitigation of terrorist attacks. This paper first discusses the premise that Destination Management Organizations can and should play an active role in the co-ordination of tourism stakeholders in addressing the threat of terrorism. Then, based on the analysis of interviews with 16 experts on terrorism and tourism, it offers a framework for the development and implementation of a destination-specific anti-terrorism strategy.     

Shopping experience evaluation: a case of domestic and international visitors

Understanding domestic and international visitors and delivering service quality that meets the expectations and needs of these markets should be among the key objectives of retail and commercial sector in tourist resorts. Shopping is an important tourist activity and its contribution to the economy is significant. For many visitors no trip is complete without having spent time shopping and tourists often feel they cannot return home without buying ‘something’. Shopping on vacation goes beyond functional utility and task orientation and provides other experiential benefits. This research examined domestic and international visitors’ perceptions of service provided in shops and attempted to understand whether domestic and international visitors differed in their service evaluation and shopping item preferences. The analysis was based on Kusadasi Chamber of Commerce database. Mann–Whitney U-tests indicated significant differences between domestic and international visitors’ evaluation of service delivered in shops. Domestic visitors were more negative in their service evaluations than their international counterparts. Chi-square tests revealed that these two groups also differed significantly in their shopping preferences. Management implications of the study are discussed and recommendations are provided.     

Attractiveness of cultural activities in European cities: A latent class approach

Cultural tourism behaviour and destination preference was analysed for 19 European capital cities, utilising the level of participation in cultural activities (participation) and the level of enjoyment of those cultural activities (attractiveness). A latent class model with three classes described the association in the data satisfactorily. Class 1 was labeled “low participation and high attractiveness”, Class 2 was labeled “high participation and high attractiveness”, and Class 3 was labeled “high participation and low attractiveness”. The Class 2 respondents with high participation and attractiveness had the highest cultural capital, and could be considered ‘specific cultural tourists’, whereas the Class 3 respondents could be considered ‘general cultural tourists’. Class 1 respondents, with relatively infrequent participation but high enjoyment, are potentially most interesting in marketing terms.     

Advertising and farm-based accommodation: a British case study

Research into farm diversification typically considers aspects of marketing at a generalized level. This exploratory article focuses specifically on farm-based accommodation to provide a detailed exploration of advertising strategies employed by farm businesses in the promotion of this enterprise. Drawing upon evidence from a survey of over 200 farm businesses in three English counties, types of advertising media are considered and their relative benefits evaluated. Results show that from the complex range of available options, holiday accommodation ‘guidebooks’ produced by private companies and organizations represent the most popular methods of advertising used by farm businesses. However, the success of individual guidebooks in generating custom was highly variable between the different study areas. Cooperative marketing groups provide important advertising alternatives to guidebooks, mainly for bed and breakfast and self-catering operators. Overall, the need to advertise accommodation enterprises actively means that many farm family businesses develop closer interactions with external agents from the nonagricultural sector.     

Tourism image, evaluation variables and after purchase behaviour: inter-relationship

Numerous authors have pointed out the influence of tourism image on consumer behaviour. Tourism image will also exercise some influence on the quality perceived by tourists and on the satisfaction obtained from the holiday experience. This paper focuses on the relationship between the image of a destination as perceived by tourists and their behavioural intentions, and between that same image and the post-purchase evaluation of the stay. We will also examine the relationship between quality and satisfaction and between these variables and the tourist's behaviour variables. We place the accent on a joint analysis of these relationships, using a structural equation model. The results of the empirical study show that tourism image is a direct antecedent of perceived quality, satisfaction, intention to return and willingness to recommend the destination. The role of image as a key factor in destination marketing is thus confirmed. With reference to the other relationships, on the one hand, it is confirmed that quality has a positive influence on satisfaction and intention to return and that satisfaction determines the willingness to recommend the destination. However, the influence of quality on ‘willingness to recommend’ and the influence of satisfaction on ‘intention to return’ cannot be corroborated. In this sense, further research could be necessary.     

Antecedents and consequences of relationship quality in hotel industry

This study investigated the antecedents and consequences of relationship quality. This study will help hotel managers to develop and implement effective relationship marketing strategies. Effective usage of relationship marketing strategies will be able to improve hotel performance such as share of purchases, relationship continuity, and word of mouth. To analyze data collected from 12 five-star hotels in Seoul, the linear structural relationship (LISREL) model was used to identify structural characteristics of relationship management between service providers and guests. The empirical results of this study were threefold. First, greater service providers’ relational and customer orientation resulted in higher relationship quality. Second, better service providers’ attributes resulted in higher relationship quality. Third, higher relationship quality resulted in higher share of purchases and better relationship continuity and share of purchases.     

Information technology: changes in the travel trade

The travel trade, as a major service industry of the new ‘information age’, is an eager user of information technology. This article considers what happens when information technology is adopted by the travel industry. Certain impacts are identified including changes in working practices, recruitment policies, the level of employment, an increase in the rationalization and centralization of the communications and distribution networks and the emergence of electronic funds transfer.     

Hotel controllers in the 21st century—a Hong Kong perspective on desired attributes

This empirical study carried out in Hong Kong set out to discover how aware are practicing on-property hotel controllers (OPHCs) and hospitality management graduates of desired attributes for the job of a hotel financial controller. It identified profiles of 21st century OPHCs ‘painted’ by practising OPHCs (practitioners) and graduates and matched these with profiles from recruitment specialists (recruiters) and studies reported in the literature on unit controllers in business generally and hotels specifically. The approach to the research, consisted of a quantitative analysis of secondary data that identified interviewees (practitioners, graduates and recruiters) and themes that were then investigated in primary data collection by qualitative methods (content analysis of discourse). The study found that graduates needed to better inform themselves of desired attributes (qualifications, skills and personality). However, practitioners and recruiters formed a consensus on profiles, both perceiving a distinction in profile between OPHCs in ‘international’ type hotels and ‘other’ types of hotel. Perceived attributes of OPHCs in ‘international’ hotels showed many similarities with their counterparts in business generally.     

Customer acceptance of four types of hospitality value propositions

Although how successful hospitality companies create value propositions has received some interest, how and why customers accept value propositions remains largely unknown. Grounded in theory of acceptance and service-dominant logic, this study examined consumers’ psychological mechanism of acceptance of value propositions at different points of exchange, and investigated the impact of value propositions acceptance on customers’ well-being and perceptions of service advantage. Online respondents (N = 180) assessed four hospitality value propositions: innovation, marketing, production, and recovery. Repeated-measures ANOVA and PROCESS Model analyses revealed that customers accepted value propositions cognitively, emotionally, normatively, and behaviorally, positively influencing subjective well-being and perceptions of firm’s service advantage. Service production and recovery value propositions had higher acceptance compared to innovation and marketing. This study is the first to empirically illustrate the complex process of customer value proposition acceptance and the effects on personal and organizational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.     

Determinants of demand for international tourist flows to Turkey

This article describes the development and findings of a set of models used to identify the most important of the following selected variables influencing international tourist flows to Turkey: per capita income; relative prices; relative exchange rate; promotional expenditure (the Turkish Government has invested a substantial amount in promoting foreign tourism) and ‘special events’, eg political unrest. The demand for travel was measured both by the number of tourists, and by the total tourist expenditure. Data were obtained from secondary sources, and analysis was by least squares multiple regression. Income, price and exchange rate were found to be important factors but the impact of promotional expenditure was minimal     

Language representation of restaurants: Implications for developing online recommender systems

As a marketing tool recommender systems have the potential to provide relevant and highly personalized information to consumers. However, developing effective recommender systems requires a substantive understanding of consumers’ preferences as well as meaningful ways to represent hospitality and travel products. This paper argues that language holds the key to understanding consumer preferences and therefore developing effective online recommender systems. Specifically, it explores the nature of the language used by consumers to describe their dining experiences in contrast to the language used by restaurant websites. The findings indicate that consumers use substantially different vocabularies from restaurant websites to describe dining experiences. This study provides implications for developing online recommender systems for restaurants as well as general hospitality and travel products.     

The role of contingent self-esteem and trust in consumer satisfaction: Examining perceived control and fairness as predictors

The paper proposes contingent self-esteem (CSE) as an important mediator between service encounter attributes and consumers’ satisfaction. The main thesis is that consumers’ perceptions of control and fairness in the exchange influence their CSE and trust evaluations which in turn effect their satisfaction evaluations. The study expands and clarifies our understanding of the psychological processes that guide consumers’ satisfaction evaluations. The paper employed a 2 × 2 repeated measures experiment to collect data. The experimental manipulations were induced using video clips and the data were analyzed using a repeated measures MANOVA procedure. Results indicate that consumers’ CSE and trust evaluations depend on their perceptions of fairness and control of the exchange. Furthermore, CSE and trust influence consumers’ satisfaction evaluations and behavioral intentions. The results of this research suggest that service providers should consider designing service interactions that affirm consumers’ self-image and thereby improves satisfaction evaluations.     

Identification of the reactions of hotel managers to new competition

This paper arises out of research carried out recently on the impact of a new hotel on the other hotel businesses which are operating in the same market. To ascertain the possible reactions of hotel managers to new competition and the relative importance of alternative price and non-price strategies a postal survey of 250 three-and four-star graded hotels across the U.K. was undertaken. It was found that a change in published tariff rates is regarded as being relatively unimportant whilst sales promotion is given the highest priority. Disaggregation of the sample by hotel size and occupancy rates does not reveal any significant changes in the relative importance of possible strategies. While the survey indicates that both non-price and price competitive strategies are seen by managers as essentially complementary, nevertheless, price competition in the form of secret discounting of published room rates to mass market intermediaries (tour operators and travel agents) and corporations is particularly important. While price discounting is the ‘private’ face of hotel competition much more research is needed on both the ‘public’ and ‘private’ nature of competition in the hotel industry and how these inter-link.     

Hotel characteristics and occupancy trends: Yorkshire and Humberside hotels, UK, April 1982–March 1984

This study extends the analysis of hotel occupancy in Yorkshire and Humberside, UK, hotels reported in the March 1985 issue of this journal, and confirms the ‘stability’ of the three previously identified dimensions of occupancy performance which reflect differences in overall occupancy levels, intensity of seasonal fluctuations, and length of season. The focus shifts to the identification and interpretation of longer term trends in occupancy performance. The results of a questionnaire survey of hotels are used in a stepwise regression model to relate occupancy trends to a range of ‘predictor’ variables measuring different aspects of the hotels and their management.     

‘Scientific identity’ of scholarly journals in hospitality and tourism research: Review and evaluation

The objective of this study is to describe the ‘scientific identity’ of scholarly journals in hospitality and tourism research by reviewing and evaluating the approaches and the geographical affiliations of authors published in selected journals. The compiled results are analysed for patterns that appear to reveal the ‘scientific identity’ of each of the selected journals. In particular, scholars can note the particular features of individual journals while acknowledging the width and variety of research designs that are published in these scholarly journals.     

A franchise by any other name? Tenancy arrangements in the pub sector

Recent changes in ownership and consumption patterns within the market have brought many operators to follow strategies that are more concerned with a retailing orientation. Many of the companies operating pubs are aiming to grow sales, and respond quickly to changes in consumer tastes and fashions. They no longer own brewing facilities and frequently control whole estates of the pubs that are marginal, and where the actions, skills and motivations of local unit managers are crucial for the success or failure of the property. The exploration of different forms of indirect control via tenancy and lease arrangements is recognition of the need to provide more entrepreneurial incentives for those managing these more marginal properties. In many ways, it is possible to view pubs owned by chains operated through both tenancies and leasing as a form of franchising. Certainly the literature and research of franchising hospitality services can help inform a study of leasehold and tenanted relationships in licensed retailing. Franchising in licensed retailing is almost wholly based on the tenanted/leased agreements, which stem from the ‘tie’. This paper argues that in the more retailing and service quality competitive environment pub operating companies will need to use more traditional franchising approaches than have been practised in the past.     

Food choice and school meals: primary schoolchildren's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and the nutritional implications of food choices

Since the 1980 Education Act, school caterers have been operating within a commercial context and therefore can only provide the foods that they know that children will eat. At the same time, nutritionists have been concerned that the greater degree of choice that children now have at lunchtime is resulting in the more frequent consumption of meals of poor nutritional quality. A knowledge of children's food preferences, the factors influencing them, and their perceptions of the healthiness of foods is needed if school caterers and those involved in nutrition education are to work together to help children choose a nutritionally balanced meal. This paper reports on children's perceptions of the healthiness or otherwise of foods commonly served at school lunches and the reasons for these perceptions. Children's knowledge of the sources of nutrients, their understanding of the relationship between food and health, and how their perceptions of healthiness relate to their preferences for the foods are also explored. The nutritional implications of food choices made by primary school children on the basis of preference rather than healthiness are examined. One hundred and twenty three children aged between nine and eleven from 14 different primary schools in SouthEast England took part. Using photographs of foods commonly served at school lunches, the children were asked to rank the foods in order of preference and then according to their perceptions of the healthiness of the foods and give their reasons in each case. The rankings were analysed numerically and the Wilcoxon's pairs signed rank test was used to determine the significance of the difference. The qualitative data on the reasons given for the rankings were analysed by assigning them to categories. The children were also asked which foods they would choose for the meal that they would be most likely to eat, and which ones for the meal that they thought would be the most healthy. The nutritional value of the two sets of meals were determined and compared. A student T- test was used to determine the significance of any difference between the two sets of meals.It was found that the children had a clear perception of the healthiness or otherwise of the foods. However, understanding of the relationship between foods or nutrients and health was only occasionally evident, as was the idea of moderation or balance. Some children perceived healthiness as the absence of fat while others saw it in terms of the presence of vitamins. It was also found that there was a strongly inverse relationship between children's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and their preferences for them. It was found that while the foods chosen for the ‘healthy’ meal were chosen least frequently for the ‘preferred’ meal, there was no significant difference between the percentage of energy provided by fat in the two sets of meals. However the ‘preferred’ meals did in fact provide a significantly higher percentage of the energy as starch, as well as containing greater amounts of some micronutrients. In other respects the ‘healthy’ meals were indeed ‘healthier’, in that they provided greater amounts per megajoule of some important nutrients.It was concluded that teaching about food in primary schools needs to focus on helping children of this age make balanced food choices. It was suggested that the ‘tilted plate’ model, adapted to use foods that children frequently eat and enjoy, could be the basis of such teaching. Such a model could also be used to help caterers plan menus and as the basis of co-operation between nutrition educators and caterers.