TOURISTS INTRA-DESTINATION VISITS AND TRANSPORT MODE: A BIVARIATE PROBIT MODEL

This paper proposes that movement patterns and transportation mode choices are linked, and then identifies the estimation of a bivariate probit model as an appropriate technique to investigate the two correlated choices. The two variables are described by a mixed combination of independent variables, wherein the transport mode choice can be explained by demographics, whereas movement patterns are influenced by trip characteristics. Moreover, the introduction of activity participation and motivation in the model allows for a better understanding of tourist behavior in relation to the two investigated variables. Finally, marginal effects are derived to quantify the impacts and draw policy implications in destination management and transport planning.     

Gender‐based analysis of leisure constraints

This article develops and tests a conjoint choice model of portfolio choice behavior. It shows how experimental design principles and discrete choice model specifications can be used to model the choice of travel portfolios. Design strategies, model formulations, and estimation methods are discussed and illustrated through use of Dutch tourists’ choices of destination and transportation for short city breaks as an example. Findings support the suggested methodology and indicate that the nested logit model is most appropriate in the tested application.     

Navigating through the complex transport system: A heuristic approach for city tourism recommendation

The fast development of machine learning and artificial intelligence has led to a great improvement of the smart tourism recommendation system, however many problems associated with the choice of transport modes in city tourism have yet to be solved. This research attempts to address this issue by proposing a model of customized day itineraries with consideration of transport mode choice. With improved particle swarm optimization and differential evolution algorithm, a nondominated sorting heuristic approach was devised. A case study was carried out in Chengdu, China to examine the performance of our approach. The results show that compared with extant methods, our approach achieves better performance. In addition, our approach can create more sensible, multifarious, and customized itineraries than previous methods. Tourism organizations and mobile map app providers could integrate our proposed model into their existing smart service systems, as part of their e-business or digital strategy for enhancing tourist experience.     

The moderating role of context in the effects of choice attributes on hotel choice: A discrete choice experiment

This study used discrete choice modeling to identify the moderating role of context in the effects of cognitive, affective, and sensory attributes on hotel choice. To evaluate a hotel consumer's choice for attributes in a different choice context (leisure vs. business), a stated preference experiment based on D-optimal design was conducted using both a multinomial logit (MNL) model and a random parameter logit (RPL) model. The results show that while leisure travelers' choices for family vacation trips were more influenced by price and overall atmosphere than were business travelers', business travelers put an emphasis on room quality and comfort when on a business trip alone. The study demonstrates the trade-offs made by leisure and business travelers when choosing a hotel through discrete choice modeling. The findings provide hotel managers with important insights and implications in terms of target segmentation, product development, and marketing communication strategy.     

Modelling Long Distance Pleasure Travel Mode Using Perceived Modal Attributes

Modelling transport choice behaviour traditionally has been addressed using objective measures of attribute data: price, time, etc. The authors argue that actual brand attributes may not be a good casual influence on consumer choice of long distance tourism travel. Choice is more likely to be a function of brand perceptions or brand image, which in turn is a function of past experience, expectations, promotional influences, family life stage and other personal factors. The authors re-examine data gathered in 1985 on tourist travel between Perth and Sydney or Melbourne, Australia; about 2400 miles. The authors model actual behaviour in terms of market share as a function of respondents' perceptions of travel mode attributes using a customised Multinomial Logit program which develops separate explanatory models for identified market segments. Results demonstrate the improvement in predictability over non-segmented models. Implications for tourism operators in promotions, product design and market targeting are discussed.     

Understanding attributes affecting meal choice decisions in a bundling context

This study examined attributes that contribute to consumer meal choice decisions within a prix fixe menu. Drawing on typologies of consumer purchase behavior, factors potentially influencing consumers’ meal choice are identified and empirically tested. The results showed that consumers consider value for price as the most important consideration for their meal bundle choices. The results also indicated that familiar and healthy foods also contribute to the selection process. However, consumers tend to avoid the risk of choosing new menu items.     

Hotel attributes: Asymmetries in guest payments and gains – A stated preference approach

This paper reports the existence of asymmetries in the preference formation of potential guests with regards their perception of hotel attributes. In the same way, using choice experimentation, we can confirm that similar asymmetries exist in their willingness to pay measures based on the valuation of losses or gains. The specification of a reference dependent utility function allows the application of prospect theory to an analysis of choices made by consumers when they evaluate attributes that define hotel service quality. The results show the existence of significant discrepancies between the monetary compensation a customer would accept if a reduction in hotel quality was produced and the amount he/she would be willing to pay if the service quality were improved. The results imply important implications and recommendations for hotel managers and policy makers.     

The Determinants of Honeymoon Destination Choice—The Case of Taiwan

The purposes of this study were to identify the attributes that determine the attractiveness of a honeymoon destination and to determine the influential variables that affect the destination choice of honeymooners. The results indicated that “safety,” “excellent quality of accommodation,” and “reasonable travel cost” were the three most important attributes determining the attractiveness of a honeymoon destination. Significant differences in perceptions of destination attributes exist across groups of different sociodemographic and traveling characteristics of potential honeymooners. Two sociodemographic variables (i.e., age, monthly income), two traveling characteristics (i.e., length of trip, travel budget), and three destination attributes (i.e., “excellent quality of accommodation,” “nightlife entertainment,” “good place for shopping”) are the significant determinants for classifying Taiwanese potential honeymooners by their destination choices. The findings of this study provide useful information for destination marketers in their efforts to segment the target market precisely and develop promotion campaigns effectively.     

Vacation behaviour under high travel cost conditions – A stated preference of revealed preference approach

This paper investigates vacation behaviour under high travel cost conditions. We estimate discrete portfolio vacation choice models on data obtained in a novel free format Stated Preference of Revealed Preference (SP-off-RP) choice experiment. The substantive contribution of this paper is that we develop new insights into vacation behaviour under high travel cost conditions. We find that vacationers exhibit considerable diminishing marginal disutility of vacation travel costs. Furthermore, we have identified significant interactions effects across the following vacation choice dimensions: destination, length of stay, accommodation type and mode of transport. Therefore, a substantial increase in travel costs is likely to have marked consequences for the tourism industry – reaching beyond the transportation side of tourism. Methodological contributions of this paper are twofold: 1) it proposes a choice experiment in which SP alternatives are constructed by pivoting of late consideration set alternatives, rather than only of a chosen alternative, and 2) it proposes, and illustrates the use of, a generalization of a recently proposed SP-off-RP estimation procedure.     

A revised paradigm of leisure choices

A theory‐based model distinguishing three kinds of leisure from required nonwork activity has been examined through research on adult leisure in three communities. In the research sequence, the defining dimension of relative freedom and constraint is found central to the perceptions of respondents, but the work‐relation dimension does not significantly differentiate types of leisure. The model is revised to replace work‐relation with meaning to the participant that is either intrinsic to doing the activity or primarily social. Further, anticipated satisfactions in building and maintaining relationships are found more salient in leisure choices than in meeting role expectations. The revised typology is employed to classify activities from the New Town phase of the research as (1) unconditional, (2) recuperative, (3) relational, and (4) role‐determined.     

Tradeoffs Among Social,Resource, and Management Attributes of the Denali Wilderness Experience: A Contextual Approach to Normative Research

Wilderness experiences are thought to be comprised of three primary dimensions, including social, resource, and management conditions. Decisions about how to manage wilderness recreation in Denali National Park and Preserve involve potential tradeoffs among these conditions. This study extends the normative approach to wilderness research by developing and applying a decision-making model that considers social, resource, and managerial attributes of the wilderness experience within a more holistic context. Specifically, stated choice analysis is used to evaluate the choices overnight wilderness visitors make when faced with hypothetical tradeoffs among the conditions of social, resource, and management attributes of the Denali wilderness. Study findings offer normative, but contextually informed empirical guidance in formulating indicators and standards of quality for the wilderness experience.     

Evaluating Service Marketing in Airline Industry and Its Influence on Student Passengers' Purchasing Behavior Using Taipei–London Route as an Example

This article reports an empirical study into airline consumer purchase behavior on a major global route between the United Kingdom (UK) and Taipei. It focuses on the factors influencing airline choice for a sample of 60 Taiwanese students based at UK Universities and traveling on five airlines: British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, EVA Airways, and Royal Dutch Airways. Several stages of data gathering were undertaken and a well‐established analytical framework for services marketing was used to identify gaps between the desired and received service. The main findings suggest that service quality, including in‐flight entertainment, cabin crew attitude, and seating comfort, can be as important as, or more important than, price in student purchase decisions for long‐haul flights. Other important factors in carrier choice included student discounts, baggage allowances, and airline safety record.     

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.     

Confused by too many choices? Choice overload in tourism

Traditional economic and psychological theories suggest that having more options is beneficial to decision makers. However, according to the choice overload concept too many choices can sometimes cause contradictory results, such as consumers making ‘no choice’ or experiencing increased perceived regret. Considering that tourism suppliers offer an extensive variety of products, the primary objective of this study was to identify whether the choice overload phenomenon exists for tourism products. Using a scenario method, respondents were randomly assigned to one of ten different scenarios (2_{destination types} × 5_{choice sets}). The results of this study showed that having more than 22 choices increased the likelihood of making ‘no choice,’ regardless of destination type, suggesting that choice overload exists in the tourism industry. This study also demonstrated that when fewer than 22 choices were provided participants who made a choice perceived less regret than those who made ‘no choice’. However, the opposite results were found when tourists were provided with too many choices. Further discussion and implications are provided in the main body of this paper.     

Traveler preferences from online reviews: Role of travel goals,class and culture

Along with being critical performance indicators as well as a rich source of information for potential customers, the overall rating and recommendation behavior also work as a crucial information source for managers of airlines for customer segmentation, service design, and post-purchase evaluation management. In this study, we explore how customer preferences, behavior and post-purchase evaluations differ for travelers depending on their respective travel goals, travel class, and the culture of their native country. Based on the frameworks of the construal level theory and expectation disconfirmation theory, we provide a psychological explanation of why specific service attributes, categorized in process-outcome and tangible—intangible dimensions, get higher importance than others for a particular set of customers. We analyzed consumer review data of 28,341 reviews for 345 airlines by customers from 132 countries. The results yielded critical theoretical contributions to extant literature on airline evaluations and recommendations, construal levels, airline customer segmentation, etc. Moreover, the results also helped managers of an airline to package design, segment customers, enhance targeted communication, and customer relationship management overall. The limitations and future scope of the study have also been discussed.     

The effects of cognitive,affective, and sensory attributes on hotel choice

Over the past decade, experiential marketing has been the focus of many hospitality and tourism studies. Yet the existing literature does not provide experimental evidence of the incremental effects of affective and sensory attributes on the choice of hospitality service and destinations. This study attempts to provide some such evidence by using discrete choice modeling to examine the differential effects of cognitive, affective, sensory attributes on hotel choice. Bayesian D-optimal design based on JMP 8.0 was used to create a discrete choice experiment. Consumer hotel choice was predicted using random parameter logit (RPL) models. These results demonstrate that when customers choose a hotel, they consider not only cognitive attributes (e.g., price, service and food quality, and national brand), but also affective (e.g., comfortable feeling and entertaining) and sensory (e.g., room quality, overall atmosphere) attributes. The results also demonstrate the incremental value of adding affective and sensory attributes to a choice model when compared to a model using only traditional cognitive attributes. The data suggest that hotel managers can effectively differentiate their properties by incorporating affective and sensory attributes in their promotions. Moreover, the findings provide hotel managers with important insights into new product development and marketing communications strategy.     

西方国家旅游合同立法模式选择及其借鉴

本文通过对不同国家旅游合同立法体例模式及其具体内容的比较研究,分析了旅游合同不同立法体例选择的内在根源.探讨了中国旅游合同立法在借鉴国外先进经验基础上可供选择的路径,认为将旅游合同立法置于<合同法>是最佳选择.     

Role of Intangible Assets in Foreign-Market Entry-Mode Decisions: A Longitudinal Study of American Lodging Firms

With the traditional research-based view approach to entry mode that examines the firm's strategies from its resource endowment and deployment (i.e., an inside-out view of the firm), which is different from the earlier paradigms (i.e., an outside-in view of the firm), this article investigates intangibles at the firm level and their impact on the choice of foreign-market entry mode to understand how to create value overseas. From the multinomial logistic regression analyses with data collected from the lodging industry between 1995 and 2005, the results of this study suggest that as marketing capital increases, entry mode seems to move from acquisition to joint venture to greenfield to contractual modes. In the case of employee efficiency, as human capital increases entry mode tends to move from joint venture to acquisition to greenfield to contractual modes, whereas in the case of top managers' efficiency, entry mode tends to move from joint venture to acquisition to contractual mode to greenfield, respectively.     

An analysis of customer room choice model and revenue management practices in the hotel industry

Considering the limitations of existing studies on the customer choice behaviour, this paper tries to use the variable precision rough set (VPRS) approach to establish a customer room choice model (CRCM) based on the logit model, which satisfies the required precision. This model could analyze the data set of customer room choice and directly identify real attributes, which affect customer room choice and the weights of these attributes without prior information; and then the probability of the customer room choice can be conducted by the CRCM. In terms of the results, hotels can predict customer demand of each rate class and improve their precision, in order to increase hotel revenue.     

The role of intrinsic in-flight cues in relationship quality and behavioural intentions: segmentation in less mindful and mindful passengers

The current study quantifies the relationship between intrinsic in-flight cues, passenger satisfaction, affective commitment, trust, and behavioural intentions in passengers travelling in low-cost carriers and legacy airlines. As far as we know, this is the first attempt to employ a multi-group analysis to test (1) if passengers in low-cost carriers and legacy airlines, and also (2) if the group of mindful passengers and the group of less mindful ones, have significantly different perceptions about flights in Europe. A total of 304 cases of legacy airlines and low-cost carriers were used in data analysis. Overall, affective commitment and trust are mainly triggered by in-flight ambience and space/function. Satisfaction and affective commitment play a more important role in behavioural intentions. As expected, the findings do not reveal significant differences associated with the paths between low-cost carriers and legacy airlines in short-haul flights in Europe. Nevertheless, compared with less mindful passengers, mindful ones tend to be more critical about in-flight attributes and do not easily develop a committed relationship.