Measuring Birding Specialization: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The purpose of this study was to empirically test the construct validity of Gómez' Ethnicity and Public Recreation Participation (EPRP) Model. The EPRP Model was tested in the field on 311 Puerto Ricans in Massachusetts. Confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and fit indices were employed to test the model. The results indicated that all scales possessed good validity and reliability, and that the model met various goodness of fit criteria. Theoretical and practical implications of the EPRP Model are discussed.     

Measuring Serious Leisure in Chess: Model Confirmation and Method Bias

The serious leisure inventory and measure (SLIM) was tested with 348 chess players to confirm the factors, assess the effects of method bias, and propose a set of the best-performing items for the 18 factor SLIM. The 54-item SLIM demonstrated acceptable fit and reliability values. The effect of method bias was evidenced in the sample and explained one-third of the variance. Inspection of factor loadings, when controlling for method bias, yielded one best-performing item per factor. Findings indicate method bias continues to be problematic for self-report measures such as the SLIM.     

Exploratory Study of the Measurement Scales for the Perceived Image and Advertising Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsers in a Tourism Context

This article presents an exploratory study of the scales used to measure the perceived image and advertising effectiveness of celebrity endorsers in a tourism context. The respondents are tourists from mainland China who were exposed to manipulated tourism destination advertisements. The results indicate that the dimension of trustworthiness is not as distinct as has been proposed, and the framework was modified accordingly. The revised model achieved an acceptable fit and is deemed appropriate for follow-up studies.     

Attitudes toward outdoor recreation development: An application of social exchange theory

A research project was undertaken within a multi‐county region in southeastern Ohio to ascertain the attitudes of local residents toward future outdoor recreation development within the area. A systematic random sample of 1493 respondents was drawn from a five‐county region to test a theoretical perspective developed from selected components of social exchange theory. The findings demonstrated that the respondents held very favorable attitudes toward outdoor recreation development. Multivariate analysis of the data revealed that the theoretical model was basically supported. The findings are discussed from both applied and theoretical perspectives.     

宁夏旅游业综合竞争力评价及预测分析

旅游业日益成为各国和地区重点扶持的战略产业。旅游业的综合竞争力评价与预测分析对于各地科学、有序地发展旅游业,合理规划、整合旅游资源具有重要意义。本文根据相关研究成果及研究区特征,构建了由政府管理水平与公共服务设施、经济实力、旅游业及第三产业效益、科技实力、开放程度等5个子系统共45个评价指标构成的评价指标体系,基于SPSS12．0大型统计软件和运用因子分析法,定量评价了宁夏旅游业在整个西部地区的综合竞争力,研究得出宁夏旅游业综合竞争力处于有序样本第3类型区。进一步运用趋势外推法,预测了宁夏旅游业近期的发展趋势及走向。最后,提出了宁夏旅游业持续发展的对策建议。     

Assessing the temporal stability of the ecotourism evaluation scale: testing the role and value of replication studies as a reliable management tool

Developing scales is a critical step in monitoring and evaluating ecotourism to ensure sustainability. Replicating studies to test if scales are enduring in evaluating visitors’ assessments of ecotourism is also essential to ensure reliability and credibility, and to track changes. This paper reports on a sample of 404 international visitors in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area, undertaken in 2012, to test for scale stability and change from a 2006 survey. The original scale was cross-validated by confirmatory factor analysis, and then mean-level change and rank-order stability of scale items were reported. There was strong support for the original factor model in the new sample; all items were loaded on a single construct; their loadings were statistically significant, the root-mean-square error of approximation was .076, the comparative fit index was .993, and the non-normed fit index was .987. Although a statistically significant decrease in the mean of scale items was found, the items’ rank-ordering remained similar. The Spearman's rank-order correlation between factor loadings of 2006 and 2012 was .714 and statistically significant. Cronbach's alpha was .845, comparable to the previous alpha of .910. The ecotourism evaluation scale showed temporal consistency but also detected changes in visitors’ attitudes requiring management attention.     

An Expectancy Theory Model for Hotel Employee Motivation: Examining the Moderating Role of Communication Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the role of communication satisfaction as a moderator strengthening the effect of three components of the expectancy theory (expectancy, instrumentality, valence) on work motivation in a hotel setting. High and low communication satisfaction groups respond differently to expectancy, instrumentality, valence, and work motivation. Employees who are highly satisfied with communication respond more positively toward motivation components, and they are more likely to perform well in their job when they are motivated. However, a series of confirmatory factor analyses of metric invariance indicated that there is no significant difference in the moderating effect between high and low communication satisfaction groups. Communication should be managed collectively to motivate employees. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided to better explain the process of decision-making when hotel employees are motivated.     

星级饭店内部服务质量模型、测度的实证研究

服务质量研究是最近几年饭店管理研究中的热点,其中提高饭店服务质量有了很多的研究,但星级饭店内部服务质量的研究甚少。本文首先回顾了内部服务质量的相关研究,然后从分析内部服务质量的影响因素入手,构建一个评价星级饭店内部服务质量的多层次指标体系,并利用因子分析法对指标体系进行定量分析,建立相应的综合评价模型。     

旅游者感知价值模型、测度与实证研究

感知价值是竞争优势的新源泉.本文通过剖析顾客感知价值理论及研究进展,致力于构建旅游者感知价值的结构模型,探讨旅游者如何形成对旅游经历价值的感知.实证研究以内地居民"香港游"为例,验证理论模型及其假设,开发出旅游者感知价值测评量表,为旅游地管理实践提供了一个实用测量工具.     

Empowerment and resident support for tourism in rural Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): the case of Pomerania,Poland

Despite empowerment being a crucial component of sustainable tourism, few scholars have quantitatively operationalized empowerment and looked at how it applies to rural societies within the post-communist European Union (EU) member states. Knowing the high priority of sustainable rural development goals within the EU, empowering residents within these post-communist societies has become a pertinent issue especially where those societies appear more reluctant to engaging in democratic ways of decision-making. In response to this gap, this study tests the cross-cultural validity of the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale, and then evaluates how empowerment predicts residents’ support for tourism within the municipality of Choczewo, Pomerania, Poland. Using a theoretical perspective that blends Social Exchange Theory with Weber's Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality, these non-economic empowerment dimensions are coupled with a measure of resident perceptions of economically benefiting from tourism to see if rural residents in Choczewo, Poland, are more swayed by the economic or non-economic benefits of tourism. Results show that residents within this Central and Eastern Europe setting are more influenced by the pride and self-esteem boost associated with psychological empowerment and the perceptions of increased community cohesion (i.e. social empowerment) than the economic promises of tourism.     

An Integration of Constraints and Benefits Within an Older Women's Social Club: An Examination,Extension and Critique

ABSTRACT

The serious leisure perspective (SLP), which divides leisure activities into three distinct forms (serious, casual, and project-based), has been developed by Robert Stebbins over the last 40 years. This article evaluates the perspective as theory and as a typology. The theory associated with the SLP concerning social worlds, identification, and optimal leisure lifestyles is found to be generally untested because it has been developed in relation to the serious leisure form only. The validity of the typology is questioned on the grounds that “seriousness” is a continuum, rather than discrete categories, and that most leisure activities can be engaged in with varying degrees of seriousness. It is proposed that the SLP be replaced by a more flexible, open research approach, the Leisure Experience Perspective, which consolidates features of the SLP and other research traditions and theoretical perspectives.     

Measuring empowerment: Developing and validating the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS)

Despite empowerment playing a crucial role in sustainable tourism development, there have yet to be scales developed to measure whether residents perceive themselves as being psychologically, socially, or politically empowered from tourism. To address this gap, the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS) was developed following Churchill's (1979) criteria for scale development. The RETS was purified through a pilot and pretest study before being tested in a three county region of western Virginia, USA. The data were initially analyzed using multiple exploratory factor analyses before being validated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results of the CFA demonstrated that the RETS displayed construct validity with standardized factor loadings ranging from 0.65 to 0.92 for the three subscales and construct reliability scores ranging from 0.85 to 0.92. The RETS is presented as a scale ready for use to measure the extent to which residents perceive themselves as being empowered or disempowered by tourism.     

Attitudes and perceptions toward affirmative action programs: An application of institutional theory

Due to the continuing controversy surrounding the use of affirmative action programs in organizational hiring and promotion practices, we conducted a study to model individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions toward affirmative action (AA) programs considering social influences and an institutional theory framework. To conduct the study we surveyed 413 managers and supervisors from three large hotel companies in the pacific western and southeastern United States. Results indicate that institutional and social forces positively influenced participants’ general perceptions of AA in the workplace. Influences from social interaction exhibited a negative relationship upon attitudes toward the experience and practice of AA, specifically related to AA hires and organizational issues stemming from AA rather than the legislation itself.     

Prediction of leisure participation from behavioral,normative, and control beliefs: An application of the theory of planned behavior

Abstract

The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen 1985, 1987) is offered as a comprehensive framework for understanding of leisure participation. Salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, theoretically the basic determinants of behavior, were assessed with respect to five leisure activities: spending time at the beach, jogging or running, mountain climbing, boating, and biking. College students completed a questionnaire containing measures of these beliefs and of global expressions of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. One year later the participants reported how often they had performed each behavior in the preceding 12 months. Behavioral beliefs were found to partition into beliefs about affective reactions and beliefs about costs and benefits. Participation in leisure activities was influenced by these affective and instrumental beliefs, as well as by normative beliefs about the expectations of important others and by control beliefs about required resources and other factors that impede or facilitate leisure participation.     

城市商务旅游竞争力:评价体系及方法的创新研究

目前,商务旅游竞争力的研究相对较少,而已有的旅游竞争力评价体系研究方法又存在亟须改进之处。为此,本文创新性地通过专家访谈及商务游客调查确定城市商务旅游特征,并以商务游客认知趋势这一客观信息为基础,借助因子分析法构建了城市商务旅游竞争力评价的量化模型。随后,以香港、澳门、上海、广州4个城市的商务旅游竞争力为例,对该模型的普适性及准确性进行了检验。通过检验得知,该评价体系的构建过程体现了一定的客观性,在具体使用方面拥有较高的准确性及可行性,具有较好的应用价值。由于本研究的抽样调查仅在澳门进行,如能在更广泛的区域内对商务旅客取样,则所构建的评价指标体系会更为完善。     

An exploratory analysis of hotel selection factors: A comprehensive survey of Tehran hotels

The selection of residence location in different countries is of high priority and significance for tourists. The selection of the most appropriate hotel entails a rather complicated decision-making process. A comprehensive hotel selection model can empower the hotel managers, the tourists, and the tourism industry to make decisions based on more effective indicators of high quality services for a higher rate of satisfaction. The purpose of this research is to deeply explore the broad literature and to identify the most significant hotel selection indicators and factors in Tehran hotels and to present a comprehensive model through an exploratory factor analysis of the extracted indicators so as to provide the managers and tourists with a firm ground for making better decisions regarding the indicators of hotel selection. Promenade and comfort, security and protection, network services, pleasure, staff and their services, news and recreational information, cleanliness and room comfort, expenditure, room facilities and car parking were identified as the main hotel selection factors of Tehran hotels. Afterwards, another factor analysis has been done in order to extract the next hidden set of factors within the aforementioned factors which return two main factors of “Hotel Comfort Factors” and “Hotel Compensatory Factors”. Following the creation of the final model and based on the intrinsic vagueness of decision making in the process of selection, a set of fuzzy membership functions for the extracted factors has been provided. The intention has been to provide the expert system and decision support system developers and users with a set of practical indicators in order to help them design and implement realistic systems based on the deeply studied indicators and factors of hotel selection. Such supportive systems can be directly presented to the tourists requesting a mechanism for selecting the most appropriate hotel but lacking enough information about the important indicators and factors and also to the managers of hotels who are trying to make strategic decisions regarding the most optimized investments on the indicators of selecting a hotel. Considering the priorities of tourists, hotel managers, entrepreneurs and investors in the hotel industry require deep investigations and studies for which this paper provides a firm basis.     

The effect of international tourism on economic development: An empirical analysis

The expansion of international tourism in developing countries is generally considered to promote their economic development. In this paper, the impact of international tourism on economic development is modelled using an aggregate production function framework. It specifically investigates intersectoral externalities and marginal factor productivity differences between the international tourism sector and the rest of the economy. The net effect of international tourism on GDP per capita is examined via an empirical analysis of 37 developing economies. The results indicate that international tourism may positively affect economic development in these countries.     

国内客源市场旅游目的地花费模型的构建——以西安"五一"黄金周为例

影响游客旅游目的地花费水平的因子有游客个体因子及与每次出游相关的因子.本文以西安地区"五一"黄金周国内市场的抽样调查数据为基础,利用SPSS12.0对旅游花费影响因子进行了虚拟回归分析,寻找出国内游客旅游目的地花费的显著影响因子,并构建了旅游花费模型.通过分析得出以下结论:旅游花费影响因子的作用机制不尽相同;不同旅游方式的花费水平差异明显;拓展旅游产品谱系、完善旅游目的地营销系统是提高西安国内游客旅游花费水平的主要手段.     

中国旅游上市公司经营效率的测度与评价 ——基于混合DEA模型的实证分析

经营效率是衡量企业经营管理状况的重要财务指标,基于数据包络技术中的DEA-BCC模型和Malmquist指数法对我国26家旅游上市公司2011—2015年经营效率进行静态和动态测度,从旅游上市公司经营模式的自身特点、全要素生产率变动的影响因素和不同类型旅游上市公司经营效率水平等方面探讨中国旅游上市公司经营效率的发展空间.研究发现:旅游上市公司经营效率的发展状况因主营业务和管理理念的差异而不尽相同;我国旅游上市公司的全要素生产率主要得益于技术效率水平的提高;景区类、综合类和酒店类旅游上市公司的经营效率具有差异性特征;国有制旅游上市公司的经营效率还有很大提升空间.最后,依据研究结论得到若干启示.     

Spatial and temporal patterns of demand for hotel accomodation: Time series analysis in Yorkshire and Humberside,UK

This article is concerned with the identification and interpretation of spatial-temporal patterns of demand for hotel accomodation. Time-series factor analysis is applied to a set of monthly hotel-occupancy series recorded by the Yorkshire and Humberside Tourist Board (YHTB) for 101 hotels in Yorkshire and Humberside, UK, from April 1982 to March 1983. Three major temporal components of expressed demand for hotel accomodation (reference curves) are identified, reflecting differences in occupancy level, the intensity of seasonal fluctuations, and the length of season. The hotels are differentiated, and then grouped, on the basis of their individual parameters on the three reference curves. The spatial-temporal patterns identified form the basis of continuing research which aims to aid the formulation of appropriate marketing and development policies for the hotel industry.