Restaurant Advertising and Promotion Strategies of Two Gateway Cities: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This study compares perceived frequency and benefit of selected advertising strategies as reported by 390 restaurateurs in Houston, Texas and Beijing, China. Data analysis consists of quantitative and qualitative measures based on type of service and ownership. While restaurateurs in both cities reported using a variety of advertising and promotion strategies, overall, Beijing restaurants were more likely to benefit from these varied activities. Beijing restaurateurs reported strong benefit in food sampling and coupon use as advertising and promotion tools. Perceived benefit of selected strategies by Houston restaurateurs on average did not directly correlate with its frequency of use.     

Change in Consumer Patronage and Willingness to Pay at Different Levels of Service Attributes in Restaurants: A Study in India

Consumer patronage and consumer willingness to pay are the two most important criteria for business development. The current study investigates the changing preferences of consumers in a developing economy with respect to three major service attributes from the restaurant industry: food quality, service, and ambiance. Results indicated that consumers give greater preference to quality over service in high-end restaurants and prefer service compared with ambiance in quick-service restaurants. Food quality was found to have strong interaction effect with two other variables. When food quality was improved from low to high, consumer preferences for ambiance and service tended to change accordingly in the same direction, but not necessarily at the same level. Thus, restaurateurs have a strategic advantage when they choose high quality food and an appropriate level of service or ambiance. Consumer expectations are significantly different for high-end, full-service restaurants and quick-service restaurants in service attributes.     

The role of frequency of patronage and service quality of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant: A perspective of socio-economic and demographic characteristics of African American consumers

While the sub-cultural group of African American consumers form a large and growing market segment, relatively little study has been done on their attitude and consumption behavior toward the ever popular all-you-can-eat Buffet restaurants. Paper examines the frequency of patronizing all-you-can-eat Buffet restaurants by the African Americans, the criteria that they use to evaluate service quality in those restaurants, as well as, socio-economic and demographic factors that determine their frequency of patronage and service quality evaluation. Results show that “freshness,” “hygiene,” “variety and reliability,” and “value,” are the top four dimensions of service quality most important to this group of consumers. Gender, age, income, and marital status were found to influence their patronage frequency, as well as their service quality evaluation. Managerial implications of findings for targeting and promotional strategies are discussed.     

Cognition and Affect Interplay: A Framework for the Tourist Vacation Decision-Making Process

The article investigates traditional decision-making choice models and offers a new way of thinking about the tourist vacation-making intricacies. Specifically, this article examines the interrelationship between affect and cognition in the tourist vacation decision-making process and argues that consumers, during each vacation decision-making task, use both affect and cognitive processes in varying degrees depending on their valence and intensity. The traditional view of decision making posits that the consumer is a rational decision maker who proceeds through a series of prescribed steps before finding an optimal decision solution. However, with the growing prominence on the role of affect, “hot” aspects of cognition in psychology, and neuroscience investigations, much of the traditional cognitive-dominated theories are being reexamined. A tourist decision-making framework is presented demonstrating the proposed theory and provides understanding to the influences that affect and cognition have on the decision-making process. After delineating these concepts, propositions are presented followed by the Discussion and Conclusions section that summarizes and discusses challenges associated with studying affect.     

Effects of Gender Differences on Perceptions of Destination Attributes,Motivations, and Travel Values: An Examination of a Nature-Based Resort Destination

This study examines the perceptions of the potential tourist market to a nature-based resort destination from the gendered perspective. The research reveals that significant gender differences exist about the perceived importance of destination attributes and travel values when potential nature tourists consider destination choices. After controlling for demographic and travel behaviour variables, such as age, marital status, education, household income, preference of price quote and length of stay, most gender differences remain significant. In addition, more significant distinctions between men and women are demonstrated after controlling for age and income level. The study provides insights into gendered perceptions of nature-based tourism settings. Specific marketing implications are discussed in an attempt to successfully attract nature tourists and provide a high-quality nature destination experience.     

老年旅游者的出游行为决策研究--以江西省老年旅游市场为例

老年旅游市场是一个具有极大潜力的市场，其开发具有重要的社会意义。文章采用2000年7月江西省旅游市场调查的数据，逐一对老年旅游者的客源地结构与特征、人口学特征(性别、年龄、职业、月收入、文化)、行为决策(旅游目的、信息来源、出游喜好、旅游方式)等进行了分析，从而得出了老年旅游者出游行为的一般规律。     

A conflict of choice: How consumers choose where to go for dinner

Studies concerning consumers’ decision-making regarding a restaurant choice commonly cite food quality, service quality, and price as important determinants. Less research has focused on how consumers are willing to trade off gains and losses from respective foodservice attributes. Also, extant literature does not account for consumers who use a non-compensatory decision-making strategy. The present study examined consumers’ choices of casual restaurants using a simulation where trade-offs were inevitable. By utilizing a choice experiment, the researchers found that food quality is the most important attribute in restaurant choice, consistent with the literature reviewed. Good service quality, however, does not increase choice likelihood while poor service quality significantly reduces it. Most importantly, we determined a considerable percentage (24.57%) of respondents do not trade off food quality for better service or a lower price. Findings of the study are discussed with implications for practitioners.     

Prioritizing destination attributes for optimal resource allocation: a study of Chinese tourists visiting Britain

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the importance, performance, and the interrelationships of key destination attributes for marketing managers to prioritize resource allocation. A three-dimensional analysis of importance–performance–impact-analysis (IPIA) factors, based upon a survey sample of 275 Chinese tourists to Britain and an expert panel interview with 10 destination marketing managers is presented. Data analysis was based upon a mix of multi-criteria decision-making methodologies, the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method. The framework can be applied to prioritize resources allocation to improve customer satisfaction in other contexts, such as a sector or a specific business.     

Progress in Hospitality Ethics Research: A Review and Implications for Future Research

This study presents a comprehensive review of recent developments in hospitality ethics research articles published in major hospitality journals as well as in other fields in the period from 2006 to 2015. A total of 62 articles were analyzed and the results were presented with the discussion of research articles by journal and period, geographical locations of study, research method and data analysis, and research subject areas. Conclusions and implications for future research are offered.     

Impact evaluation for tourism development using the fuzzy set model: A case study of Kyongju,Korea

The Community tourism industry is primarily influenced by facilities, traffic systems, capacity, and development of tourism commodities. To develop tourism industry on a local basis, it is unavoidable to make investments on a large scale. Factor analysis for impact evaluation prior to undertaking of development projects, which this study intends to make, is more reasonable when related to the fuzzy numeric analysis of words or sentences than to a quantitative analysis of measured information. In this study the Euclidean distance method and Zadeh's fuzzy extension principle were used as linguistic approximation to establish the validity of decision‐ making in each factor category of impact degree. Therefore, this study introduces a general concept of Fuzzy theory through literature review of linguistic expressions. This study examined availability of the Fuzzy model in analyzing investment priorities for tourist development and applied it to Kyongju area, which unveiled the priorities for Kyongju tourism future in order of traffic system improvement, early construction of horse‐ racing track now under planning, promotion of Kyongju as tourism special zone to visitors and positive tourism events. In terms of methodology, this study disclosed that Fuzzy Model approach is greatly useful to decision‐making processes in tourist development.     

An exploration of actor-network theory and social affordance for the development of a tourist attraction: A case study of a Jimmy-related theme park,Taiwan

Differing from traditional approaches to exploring issues of tourist attractions, this article uses insights from actor-network theory (ANT) and social affordance to conceptually examine how a postmodern tourist attraction, a Jimmy-themed tourist attraction, has been enacted into a relational network composed of multiple and heterogeneous actors/actants. The paper scrutinizes the transformation of figures from Jimmy-related picture books into the social affordances of a postmodern tourist attraction via evolving mechanisms of ordering and valuating attractiveness to connect human and nonhuman actors into a relational web. It is argued that the conceptual application of ANT and social affordance may help provide an alternative approach to the study of tourist attractions.