Online Shopping of Travel Products: A Study of Influence of Each Dimension of travelers' Attitudes and the Impact of travelers' Online Shopping Experiences on Their Purchase Intentions

This study examines the impact of three attributes (perception of convenience, perception of merchandise options, and perception of value) on travelers' attitudes toward different online agencies online shopping for travel products and the impact of online shopping experiences on their online purchase intentions. The collected data arises from an Internet survey of registered members of an online travel service company that caters to leisure travelers. The study finds that perceptions of convenience and value are two valid dimensions that measure travelers' attitudes. Findings also confirm that those two attitudes' attributes and travelers' online shopping experiences exert significant influence on their online purchase intentions. Travelers have a more positive attitude toward travel portal websites than toward companies' branded websites in terms of perception of convenience, perception of merchandise options, and perception of value.     

The Importance of Hotel Attributes in Contributing to Travelers' Satisfaction in the Hong Kong Hotel Industry

Abstract

This study surveyed 402 international travelers to explore their satisfaction levels towards service and facility quality in three Hong Kong hotel market segments, High-Tariff A, High-Tariff B and Medium Tariff. Six perception dimensions were extracted from 33 hotel attributes by a factor analysis. All six dimensions had a significant impact on the overall satisfaction of travelers with service quality and facilities in the three Hong Kong hotel market segments. Quality of Staff Performance was the most influential factor followed by Quality of Room Facilities, Value for Money, Variety and Efficient Services, Business Related Services, and Safety and Security respectively. It was found that travelers had the lowest satisfaction level towards the Medium-Tariff hotel segment. By identifying the most influential hotel dimension in influencing travelers' satisfaction levels, hoteliers will be in an advantageous position to formulate tactics to meet the changing needs and expectations of travelers. Implementing human resources training that emphasizes the fact that service quality is part of each employee's job should have a significant impact on guest re-purchase intention. The importance of value segmentation cannot be overlooked by hoteliers. Travelers will continue to expect hotels to provide more value-for-money services and facilities and they are expected to shift their purchasing decision to an economic value basis.     

Attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience: When East meets West

Many destination marketers have utilized gastronomy as a source of new products and activities to attract tourists. Despite the substantial rise in the Chinese outbound market, very little is known about how Chinese tourists evaluate their travel dining experiences. By using narrative analysis, this study examines attributes that may affect Chinese tourists' evaluation of their travel dining experiences. On-site participant observation and focus group interviews were conducted, respectively, with Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong group tourists, while they were on holiday in Australia. A total of 15 attributes were identified, which were classified under the following six categories: tourists' own food culture, the contextual factor of the dining experience, variety and diversity of food, perception of the destination, service encounter, and tour guide's performance. The respective implications of the attributes on travel dining experience are also discussed.     

Information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound travelers‐a comparison of business and leisure travelers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound tourists, in particular business and leisure travelers. The study clearly shows that business and leisure travelers demonstrate different information search behavior. ‘Personal experience,’ ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Airlines’ and the ‘Internet’ are most frequently relied upon by business travelers in searching for travel information, while leisure travelers prefer ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ The study also reveals that the total number of information sources used and the length of pre‐trip planning lead‐time are significantly different between these two groups of travelers. First time travelers also have a longer pre‐trip planning lead‐time than repeat travelers. Furthermore, business and leisure travelers perceive the levels of influence of several information sources, including ‘Corporate travel departments,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and the ‘Internet,’ differently. These information sources were classified into five different dimensions, including ‘Media,’ ‘Neutral,’ ‘Retail,’ ‘Interpersonal,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ Analysis based on travelers' purpose for traveling and demographic information was performed. Leisure travelers perceive the level of influence of ‘Neutral’ sources as significantly higher, and those with lower household incomes perceived the level of influence of ‘Personal experience’ as lower. The results of this study will allow marketers in Hong Kong to better understand travelers’ information search behavior so that they can more effectively tailor their marketing strategies to these two major markets.     

Non-Asian Tourists' preferred attributes: a choice experiment

This study aims to identify non-Asian tourists' preferred attributes for a one-day Seoul tour package by examining theoretical frameworks of values related to tourists' heterogeneity of choice behaviors. The study applies a choice experiment (CE) to capture the systematic heterogeneity of preferences in a non-Asian tourist group and examines whether different individuals' value orientations relate to heterogeneous preferences regarding the tour packages. The CE derives the preferences as a form of marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), a pecuniary value for additional units of the attributes. Historical/cultural destinations displayed the highest MWTP value of all tour sites in Seoul, which was estimated to be $74.32. The results also show that a respondent who emphasizes “money and enjoyment” and “authenticity” values is more likely to choose a tour package that includes more opportunities to visit shopping and historical/cultural sites, respectively.     

An exploration of foreign tourists’ perceptions of Korean food tour: a factor-cluster segmentation approach

Food tour in Korea has emerged as a popular program for foreign tourists who learn and experience Korean culture through cuisine, restaurants, and dining customs. The main objective of this empirical research is to investigate foreign tourists’ perceptions of Koran food tour and segment the emerging Korean food tour market. A total of 211 usable responses from foreign tourists who experienced Korean food tour were collected through the purposive sampling approach. The results of an exploratory factor analysis showed 7 food service factors delineated from 30 food tour service attributes and 4 segments of Korean food tour market (authenticity seekers, knowledge seekers, guidance seekers, and utmost experience seekers) were identified through the cluster-discriminant analysis. Detailed implications for the operators and marketers of Korean food tour programs are discussed.     

Breaking barriers for Bangladeshi female solo travelers

Asian Muslim women's travel habits are sorely under-researched. In response to various calls for research in this area, this study utilizes Hofstede's five cultural dimensions to determine how Bangladeshi cultural values inhibit and/or enhance travel constraints for solo Muslim female travelers and the subsequent effects on solo travel behavior. We propose solo travel as a strategic tourism development tool to achieve mobility rights and gender equality particularly for destinations that are highly populated with more women than men. Introducing an interpretivist qualitative approach, the study extracted both survey and open-ended responses from 307 frequent Bangladeshi solo travelers that were recruited from a women-only English-speaking Facebook Bangladeshi travel group. The findings reveal that this group is constrained by a unique combination of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural factors. Power-distance, masculinity, and uncertainty-avoidance also play key roles. Sustainable and practical applications are outlined for destination management organizations, travel planners, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and for-profit tour companies that benefit both Bangladeshi solo female travelers and those with whom they interact.     

Tour Leaders' Impression Management and Job Performance: Exploring the Moderating Role of Tourists' Self-Monitoring

A tour leader (TL) is a first-line service provider whose performance shapes a tourist's experience and satisfaction during a journey. We examine the moderating effects of the self-monitoring level of group package tour members on the relationship between the use of impression management (IM) tactics by TLs and tourists' subsequent job performance ratings (PRs) of a TL. Data from 485 responses of tourists from 59 outbound tour groups in Taiwan revealed that TLs' use of positive IM tactics – that is, ingratiation, self-promotion, and exemplification – is positively related to tourists' PRs. In contrast, their use of non-positive IM tactics – that is, supplication and intimidation – is negatively related to tourists' PRs. Furthermore, tourists' self-monitoring appears to weaken the effects of supplication and intimidation on their PRs. We also found that tourists' level of self-monitoring is a stronger moderator when TLs use supplication than when they use other tactics.     

An Investigation of Gen-Y's Online Hotel Information Search: The Case of Hong Kong

The Internet has made searching for hotel room information and making online reservations common practices among hotel guests. Despite constantly changing consumer behavior and widespread application of online hotel information sources, limited studies have been conducted to examine the online sources used frequently by customers and the related attributes of such sources. As such, drawing from an online questionnaire survey with 205 respondents, findings in this study indicate that there are no socio-demographic effects on future purchase intention of Generation (Gen) Y travelers. Moreover, websites of suppliers (e.g. official websites of hotels), travel intermediaries (e.g. Hotels.com), and social media (e.g. TripAdvisor) are the three major types of websites used by Gen Y hotel guests. Travel intermediary websites are often used to search for hotel information, whereas social media websites are used to make reservations. Based on these findings, implications for hotel managers are discussed.     

Factors Influencing Restaurant Selection by Travelers Who Stop at Visitor Information Centers

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study defining expectations for restaurants of travelers who stop at visitor information centers. Using data collected from 2, 712 summer travelers, four factors that explain consumer expectations are discussed: information, restaurant basics, amenities, and health. Travelers rated attributes such as cleanliness, food quality, and friendliness of staff as most important. Suggestions are given for developing promotional materials for attracting travelers to restaurants.     

Guides' handling of multiple roles in interactions with tourists: The prism of impression management

Tour guides undertake multiple roles and may face role conflicts when interacting with tourists. A framework of impression management based on dramaturgical theory provides an insight into the inner mechanisms behind how tour guides deal with multiple role dilemmas. This situation is examined in interactions between local Chinese tour guides and Chinese group tourists in a walking-tour-shopping context in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Through observations and interviews, we find that the interplay of a moving stage and guides' role-shifting between being a Chinese sibling, a local and a cultural interpreter delivers authoritative and reliable impressions to tourists, and thus conceal their conflicting role as a shopping broker. We further refine the inner mechanism, which contributes to existing literature on tour guides' multiple-role practices. Our research also enriches the explanatory power of Goffman's framework by explaining a complex situation with multiple role dilemmas amidst a moving working stage in interactive studies.     

Examining the Effect of Tour Guide Performance,Tourist Trust,Tourist Satisfaction,and Flow Experience on Tourists' Shopping Behavior

This study contributes to a model describing the effect of tour guide performance on tourist shopping behavior by examining the mediating effects of perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of flow experience. Our analysis confirms that tour guide performance has positive effects on perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction. However, only perceived benevolence trust and tourist satisfaction mediate the relationships between tour guide performance and tourist shopping behavior. Nevertheless, tour guide performance, as evaluated through perceived credibility trust and tourist satisfaction, has the strongest effect on tourist shopping behavior when compared to other routes in the model. In addition, the moderating effect of flow experience is confirmed in the perceived benevolence trust and tourist shopping behavior relationship, but it does not have any effects on other links. In light of our findings, managerial implications are discussed as well.     

Tourism expenditure patterns in China

Using China’s urban household survey data for 2002–2009, this study compares the impacts of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of urban household expenditure on tourism in different age cohorts. The life cycle age profiles of group-tour and non-group tour expenditures are obtained by decomposing total household expenditure. The results show that the age profile of total tourism expenditure is hump-shaped, which conforms to consumers’ income discretionary expenditure cycles. The age profile of group-tour expenditure is hump-shaped whereas that of non-group tour expenditure is S-shaped, corresponding to the substitution of group and non-group tours as children grow older. The implications are discussed in the context of tourism marketing with a view to providing useful segmentation information for tourism decision makers.     

Sources of satisfaction with luxury hotels for new,repeat, and frequent travelers: A PLS impact-asymmetry analysis

There are differences in service expectations according to travelers' experiences. This study aims to identify the structure of service quality factors with regard to satisfaction with luxury hotels concerned with new, repeat, and frequent travelers to Macau. The data are analyzed by a partial least squares (PLS) impact-asymmetry analysis in order to explain how the structure of factors can influence the behaviors of three visitor segments. The results of this study explore the transformation of the factor structure of customer satisfaction across different experiences encountered. This study contributes to the knowledge of life cycle theories using three-factor theories that position most of the quality attributes in the introduction stage as excitement factors; they show various types of factors in a growth stage, and they unify to performance factors when the products and services mature. Thus, asymmetrical analyses are highly appropriate for studying customer behavior throughout the customer life cycle.     

Luxury shopping abroad: What do Chinese tourists look for?

Considering rapid economic development, rising household income, and the emergence of middle-class consumers in mainland China, a growing number of Chinese consumers are traveling to other countries and regions for tourism and shopping. Studies have shown that Chinese customers often express intentions to engage in luxury shopping, driven by factors such as brand consciousness, social comparison, and innovative fashion (Zhang & Kim, 2013). Although the trend of Chinese outbound tourism aimed at luxury shopping continues to expand, little is known about Chinese luxury shoppers' behavior when abroad. This study attempts to investigate Chinese luxury shoppers' preferences in shopping destinations, relevant attributes of preferred luxury shopping destinations, and potential underlying dimensions among identified attributes. Results revealed an attribute list comprising 3 dimensions (human touch, prestige, and good value) and 17 items. These findings reflect Chinese luxury shoppers' concerns and preferences about shopping overseas. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Leadership through service: An exploratory study of the leadership styles of tour leaders

The group package tour is one of the main modes of outbound travel in many parts of Asia. Tour leaders are part of the product and are therefore key front-line players in the tourism industry as they service guests during a journey. A tour leader’s style of leadership transforms a tourist visit from a tour into an experience and is a critical factor affecting a tourist’s satisfaction with their tour. This study identifies the various different styles of tour leadership using in-depth interviews to collect data. Three dimensions of leadership style in tour leaders were found: concern for tasks, concern for customers, and concern for controlling the group climate. The authors discuss the implications of their findings and make recommendations for travel agencies.     

Does getting along matter? Tourist-tourist rapport in guided group activities

Guided group activities, where tourists consume with other tourists, are common and important. Although the tourism and services literature suggests customer-employee rapport impacts customer satisfaction, the composition and impact of tourist-tourist rapport in guided group activities have received minimal attention. We use a three-study mixed method approach to conceptualize and examine tourist-tourist rapport in guided group activities. Study 1 identifies two recognized dyadic dimensions of tourist-tourist rapport (enjoyable interaction and personal connection) and two new group-based dimensions (group attentiveness and service congruity). Study 2 (video experiment) and Study 3 (field experiment) find that enjoyable interaction and personal connection mediate the relationship between group attentiveness and service congruity with satisfaction. Thus, tourist-tourist rapport in a group context is more multidimensional and complex than previously conceptualized for customer-employee rapport and non-group contexts. Further, we find tourist-tourist rapport is a critical service factor such that high levels satisfy, while low levels dissatisfy.     

Selling Strategies and Shopping Behavior—An Example of Taiwanese Guided Package Tourists to Mainland China Destinations

China has become the most visited destination in the world for international tourists. The number of Taiwanese tourists going to China on guided tours has increased; “shopping” and “optional tours” are the two most controversial consumption experiences for them due to price competition. This study aims to investigate the Taiwanese guided package tourists’ shopping intentions and behavior when traveling in China and also to examine how their shopping behaviors are influenced by sales representatives, local tour guides, and other tour participants. This study found that benefits sought, perceived sympathy, and social acceptance are often used by service providers to persuade tour participants to buy. It is expected that the study can contribute to tourism industry theory, and help the travel industry to improve the quality of guided package tours to China.     

When east meets west: An exploratory study on Chinese outbound tourists’ travel expectations

The booming Chinese outbound tourism has attracted worldwide attention. This study attempts to examine Chinese tourists’ expectations of outbound travel products. A series of focus groups were conducted in eleven cities in China and various issues, concerns, and problems were identified related to Chinese outbound tourists’ expectations of accommodations, food and restaurants, tour guides and itineraries, entertainment and activities, and transportation. The focus group results showed that, while Chinese outbound tourists share many of the same fundamental needs and desires of all tourists, this group has particular expectations in terms of amenities and service standards. Understanding these expectations may help Western service providers better serve this market.