Estimating airport efficiency of New Zealand airports

New Zealand's airport industry has experienced substantial growth over recent years, but few studies have analysed the operational efficiency of New Zealand airports. This paper aims to extend the study of Francis and Lyon (2007) by exploring the efficiency and productivity changes of New Zealand's major airports between 2010 and 2012, using slacks-based measure (SBM) model and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). The findings suggested that the majority of New Zealand airports increased efficiency and productivity during the period under investigation, but should decrease scale of operations in order to operate at their most productive size. Decomposition of the MPI showed that most New Zealand airports experienced gains in efficiency but, in terms of technology, they have regressed. Four significant factors (i.e. airport hub status, airport operating hours, airport ownership, and the Rugby World Cup 2011) were identified by the Simar–Wilson bootstrapping regression analysis as explaining variations in airport efficiency. Importantly, the significant effect of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (a major sport tournament) on New Zealand's air transport demand and airports' efficiency has been demonstrated in this research.     

Visitors' and locals' experiences of Rotorua,New Zealand: an interpretative study using photographs of landscapes and Q method

This paper reports on an interpretative study of locals' and visitors' experiences in Rotorua, New Zealand and shows how experiences vary among different groups. Photographs were Q sorted by a non‐random sample of locals and both overseas and New Zealand visitors, and the data were factor analysed to identify four factors or types of experience. These include experiences of Sublime Nature, Iconic Tourism, New Zealand Family and the Picturesque Landscape. These findings show that Q sort with photographs is a useful research approach which advances our understanding of destination image and provides results that have implications for the contemporary theoretical debate on the nature of tourist experience in New Zealand. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The issue of translation during thematic analysis in a tourism research context

This research note discusses issues with translation of non-English text during qualitative analysis in tourism research using examples from the newly emergent phenomenon of Chinese working holidaymakers in New Zealand. In particular, this note highlights an additional translation step in the thematic analysis process with non-English interview quotes and excerpts. This note argues the merit of researchers’ dual role as researcher/translator and discusses how researchers can undertake translation in cross-language research to maintain the rigour of qualitative tourism research.     

Metropolitan transportation planning in the 1990s: comparisons and contrasts in New Zealand,Chile and California

This article reviews major events and trends in metropolitan transportation planning and policy during the 1990s in three divergent Pacific rim jurisdictions: New Zealand, Chile, and California. Major metropolitan areas in each country have seen rising motorization, increasing congestion, and privatization of transportation services. Devolution of transportation planning responsibility has occurred; to a lesser degree, funding responsibility has been devolved from central to regional/local government. New Zealand pushed privatization harder in the 1990s than either Chile or California. While no dominant model of transportation planning has emerged, metropolitan-level planning has become more prominent and autonomous in each country studied.     

E-business in the New Zealand Tourism Industry: An Examination of Implementation and Usage

This article presents the findings of a web-based survey examining the extent of e-business uptake in the New Zealand tourism industry. It provides a snapshot of both the implementation and usage of e-business. The survey extends the earlier research on New Zealand e-business by Clark et al. (2001) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2000), focusing specifically on tourism. This study shows that the tourism industry is committed to the establishment of e-business, and recognises the competitive advantages of this. It also appears to be adopting e-business more quickly than other industries, reflecting the industry’s service and information bases. While this sounds positive, concern must be expressed at the superficial level of implementation of e-business, particularly from SMEs which constitute a large portion of the economy. The New Zealand tourism industry respondents seem to be basic users of the technology, rather than ‘champions’ of e-business. Unless the simple adoption of ICT can be developed into a sustained and dynamic acceptance of e-business, the New Zealand tourism industry risks missing the opportunities provided by the global marketplace, and thus, becoming increasingly marginalised.     

Codesharing agreements by low-cost carriers: An explorative analysis

In this paper, we present an explorative analysis related to the involvement of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in codesharing agreements. Our goals are to evaluate the diffusion of the phenomenon across countries, and to identify the determining features of companies with regards to the codesharing propensity of LCCs. We analyzed the worldwide scheduling of LCCs in 2011, revealing that one-third of LCCs were involved in codesharing arrangements in 2011. Yet, only 25% of LCCs are involved in codesharing with carriers to whom they are not hierarchically linked. The spread of this phenomenon varied by geographical area, with LCCs in Europe, Australia–New Zealand, Asia, and North America being most likely to codeshare. The airline size, the hybridization of the carrier's business model and an airline network concentration affect the likelihood to codeshare.     

Managing New Zealand's airports in the face of commercial challenges

This paper explores commercial issues surrounding managing airports in New Zealand. Airport managers face pressures from changing airport–airline relationships, low cost airlines, proposed new airports and the growing importance of non-aeronautical revenues in achieving commercial goals. New Zealand's airports have moved from an operating environment within which all the principal airports were owned and managed by central government to one where airports are run as commercial entities under a variety of ownership structures. New Zealand has a high dependence on air transport and for its size, a very developed regional airport network.     

Public/stakeholder perceptions of airline alliances: The New Zealand experience

The recent proposed alliance between Air New Zealand and Qantas is examined in the context of public opinion within New Zealand. Overall, public support for the alliance was lacking, and several reasons for this are discussed. More than half of respondents were not in favour of the Government of New Zealand having majority ownership in Air New Zealand. In this case, however, the New Zealand public act as both consumers and stakeholders. Thus, the proposed alliance raises issue of national interest as well as consumption-based considerations.     

Comment on “legacy carriers fight back”

The paper offers a comment on an earlier article by Hazledine that argued a business model adopted by Air Canada and Air New Zealand allows them to compete with low cost airlines. Examination of the model, however, indicates that it offers only limited protection from low cost airlines competition that has the option of replicating the model itself if it proves successful in the short-term.     

Commodification and Adventure in New Zealand Tourism

This paper discusses the ways in which the commodification of adventure in tourism has increasingly become implicated in the production and consumption of tourist places. It examines the notion of adventure in tourism and the changing nature of commodification in postmodern and 'post-tourist' times. The rise of adventure tourism in New Zealand is used as an example of how adventure has been commodified. A survey of tourist brochures for adventure tourism attractions in New Zealand reveals some of the particular characteristics of adventure which are being incorporated into commodity form for tourists. These characteristics include place, spectacle, embodied experience and memory. Although aware of the limitations of using textual evidence from brochures, the paper concludes that Best's (1989) society of the commodity and the society of the spectacle are clearly significant in New Zealand. Sign exchange is also important in the commodification of adventure although it is concluded that places and practices are as yet rarely eclipsed by adventure signification.     

Adolescents and bicycling to school: Does behaviour setting/place make a difference?

When discussing bicycling for transport, comparisons are often made with the Dutch, with people in non-bicycling countries often saying, “but we are not the Netherlands”. Such comments imply there is something innately different and unique about the Netherlands and the Dutch that results in the proportion of people bicycling being far greater than in non-bicycling countries like New Zealand. This paper uses qualitative research to compare adolescents who have grown up in non-bicycling countries and subsequently moved to the Netherlands, with adolescents who have spent their lives in New Zealand (a non-bicycling country). Similarities and differences between the two groups are considered using the Ecological Model, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Prototype Willingness Model. Analysis shows key differences between the two places with respect to traffic safety for bicyclists, the appropriation of equipment to carry loads, the compatibility of uniforms and bike types with bicycling, and adolescent driving rates. Attitudes towards bicycling, injunctive norms related to parents, the gendering of bicycling, and cycling confidence also differed. We conclude that adolescents behaviour in relation to bicycling to school varies depending on the behaviour setting, the perceived environment and intrapersonal factors.     

Factors contributing to injury severity in work zone related crashes in New Zealand

Roadworks take place frequently on existing roads in New Zealand. The adverse effects of poor road conditions and reduced road width due to the presence of a work zone on the safety of road users and workers at the work zone have been a matter of concern. Several studies have been conducted to examine the risk factors contributing to the occurrence of road crashes in work zones in different countries. Slow-moving and stopped vehicles near work zones have been found to be the primary cause of crashes and casualties in the work zones. Excessive speed of passing traffic has also been recognized as a crucial factor contributing to work zone related crashes in New Zealand. This study examined the effect of possible risk factors contributing to severe injury and fatality in work zone related crashes in New Zealand. A multinomial logistic regression model was established to determine the association between crash severity and factors such as road environment, vehicle attributes, driver behavior, and crash circumstances, based on the information available on 453 road crashes during the period from 2008 to 2013. The results indicated that the time period, vehicle involvement, and presence of vulnerable road users were the factors that determined the crash severity in work zones. This implies that improvements are required in traffic control and management measures in work zones to enhance road safety in the long run.     

The Maori of Tourist Brochures Representing Indigenousness

This study analyses how Maori operators in the tourist industry portray indigenous culture in their brochures. For close to 150 years, Maori people have been involved as entrepreneurs in New Zealand's tourist industry. Although now integrated into the modern New Zealand nation-state, the representation of their culture in tourism gives an image of a traditional people radically different and set apart from modern New Zealand (Kiwi) culture. Utilising Fabian's ideas regarding the organisation of otherness through cultural constructions of time and space, this article demonstrates how certain spatial arrangements are necessary to sustain the imaginary temporary division between a modern Kiwi culture and the representation of a traditional Maori culture, the latter is a tourist attraction in itself. Auto-ethnography in the discourse of tourism inevitably becomes ‘self-Orientalism’, even if some spaces makes co-presence possible.     

The impact of the minimum driver licensing age on mobility in New Zealand

In the year to August 2002, 15% of the New Zealand road toll was attributed to 15–19 year-old drivers. This is the highest percent of casualties by any five-year age group, with the motor vehicle accident risk peaking at 16 years of age. New Zealand has the highest road accident statistic for this age group in the motorised world. It has been proposed that the driver licensing age be raised from 15 to 17 years of age. A 1998 Parliamentary Select Committee rejected the final proposal of a minimum driver licensing age of 16, on the grounds that such a rise would disadvantage rural youth through less accessible employment, educational facilities, social, and recreational activity, due to inadequate transport alternatives. This paper presents the results of research that examined the impact of the minimum driver licensing age on youth mobility. High school students were surveyed through interviews, questionnaires and travel diaries. It was concluded that the social benefits of raising the minimum driver licensing age to 17 years of age outweighed the social benefits of the status quo, as only minimal number of essential trips were totally dependent on youth acquisition of a driver licence.     

Legacy carriers fight back: Pricing and product differentiation in modern airline marketing

The adoption of the low-cost carrier business model has applied competitive pressure on established network or “legacy” carriers, by offering fares at prices that legacy carriers find it difficult to match and still cover their fixed costs. This paper reports how two medium-sized national airlines-Air New Zealand and Air Canada-have coped with the low-cost threat by, in effect, turning their fixed costs into profit centres. Features such as full regional networks, long-haul connections, frequent flyer programs, membership in global alliances, lounges and business class cabins can be bundled into products which can be marketed and sold profitably to business and even some leisure travellers, and which cannot be easily replicated by low-cost carriers. Although not panaceas, the innovations of Air New Zealand and Air Canada to the competition they face in their domestic and trans-border markets demonstrate the possibility of an effective legacy carrier response to the low-cost carrier business model.     

Effect of air services availability on international visitors to New Zealand

We examine the effects of discrete changes in the availability of direct air services on the number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand. We consider five different countries of origin and control for GDP and exchange rates. The results are mixed, suggesting that regional hubs and robust third-country carriers provide sufficient airlift for many visitors from countries without direct air services to New Zealand. We outline the resulting implications for international air services policy.     

Modelling the volatility of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand

International visitor arrivals are considered to be a major source of foreign exchange, tourism-related employment and other tourism-related activities. This study used SARIMAX/(E)GARCH volatility models to forecast visitor arrivals by air transport to New Zealand from its eight key tourist source markets (Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US)) and control macroeconomic factors together with global and regional structural changes. The empirical models reveal that the macroeconomic factors contributed at various levels to different markets, and the models we provided made accurate and reliable forecasts for visitor arrivals by air transport from all studied markets. The results from the markets for Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK showed that significantly negative tourism demand shocks increased the volatility of tourism arrivals, more than positive tourism demand shocks of equal magnitude. Accordingly, the findings of this study will allow policy-makers in the New Zealand tourism sector and other stakeholders (e.g. airline management) to better understand the impacts on the volatility of visitor arrivals to New Zealand.     

Scoping the Extent of Tourist Road Safety: Motor Vehicle Transport Accidents in New Zealand 1982-1996

There is a growing interest in tourism safety within the travel medicine and safety management literature. From this body of research, motor vehicle traffic accidents (MVTA) are identified as a leading cause of tourist morbidity and mortality. There is, however, a dearth of tourist road safety literature where the tourism context is taken into account. This paper examines the extent of overseas visitor MVTA in New Zealand, based on data collected by the New Zealand Health Information Service for the 15-year period 1982–1996. Some 1604 MVTA cases were recorded in the NZHIS database for non-New Zealand residents, representing 27.4% of all non-resident injuries resulting in hospitalisation during the period of the study. The majority of these incidents involved collisions between vehicles, with 1121 (70% of MVTA cases) involving a car. Highest counts of MVTA were found for males and females in the 20–39 years age range. Largest proportions of MVTA were observed for the Auckland, Otago and Southland regions, although highest incidence rates (based on visitor numbers in each region for the year 1995/6) were found for the Taranaki, Northland, Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Southland regions. The paper discusses possible reasons for patterns and trends in the MVTA data, drawing on comparisons with existing international studies from the travel medicine and safety management literature.     

An exploratory analysis of the effect of numbers of choice sets in designed choice experiments: an airline choice application

Stated choice (SC) experiments are increasingly adopted as the empirical source of information on how individuals respond to current and potential travel contexts. The accumulated experience with SC data has been heavily conditioned on analyst prejudices about the acceptable complexity of the data collection instrument, especially the number of profiles (or treatments) given to each sampled individual (and the number of attributes and alternatives to be processed). It is not uncommon for analysts to impose very stringent limitations on the complexity of an SC experiment. A review of the literature suggests that very little is known about the basis for rejecting complex designs or accepting simple designs. In this paper, we develop a complex design as the basis for an SC study, producing a fractional factorial of 32 rows. However, we then truncate the fraction by administering 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 profiles to a sample of individuals in Australia and New Zealand faced with the decision to fly (or not to fly) between Australia and New Zealand by alternative airlines and fare regimes. Statistical comparisons of elasticities (an appropriate behavioural basis for comparisons) suggest that the empirical gains within the context of a linear specification of the utility expression associated with each alternative in a discrete choice model may be quite marginal.