Slimmed May Day Holiday

Last November the State Council of China decided to renew its holiday system by reducing the seven-day May Day holiday to three days and introducing three new one-day public holidays, namely the Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival. By doing so, the three golden-week holidays that were introduced in 1999, namely the Spring Festival, May Day and National Day, could be better distributed.     

Calendar trading of Taiwan stock market: A study of holidays on trading detachment and interruptions

We analyze the influence of the Chinese lunar calendar and superstitions on holiday preferences using theories on time and mood to identify investor sentiment. Trading interruptions caused by Thursday holidays negative significantly influence investor sentiment for trust companies and individual investors. Trading detachment derived from cultural holidays in June positive significantly influences investor sentiment for dealers and individual investors. Trust companies and the market exhibit significantly positive sentiments toward winter holidays. The stock exchange indicates negative and positive sentiments toward winter holidays and holidays in January. Cultural holidays and superstition in Taiwan indicate strong support for holiday preferences in Asia.     

Der Reformationstag als gesetzlicher Feiertag und seine fiskalischen Effekte

In the German system of fiscal equalisation, Länder (states) with below-average tax revenue receive above average payments. The difference between the average and the own tax revenue per capita is compensated up to 63%. To prevent states from getting payments from other states by lowering their own tax rates, tax revenue with taxing autonomy is standardised. States can also influence their tax revenues by changing the number of holidays because each state decides on its own. In 2018, the Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein introduced designated Reformation Day as a holiday (Berlin also plans to add a holiday). A state with numerous holidays will have lower tax revenues and higher payments in the fiscal equalisation system than the same state with no extra holidays. To consider each state’s real ability to pay the fiscal equalisation system, it is necessary to eliminate the effect of differing holidays. This paper shows the fiscal consequence of the new holiday and a way to neutralise this effect and calculates the impact to the states’ payments in the fiscal equalisation system.     

Experimental analysis of consumer channel-mix use

Today's consumers have access to multiple consumer distribution channels. To remain competitive, retailers must offer different contact points to consumers. This empirical study examines channel-mix use decisions for 352 online customers' holiday booking preparations. A scenario based experimental approach studies consumer channel-mix use by channel and decision context attributes. The study models effects of time pressure, expected expenditure, channel quality, and access costs on the use of eight channel options, including traditional and online options. Over one-half of respondents use multiple channels to decide trip booking; however, most travelers book trips using the channel they initially investigated for information. Results show expected expenditure does not influence channel use; however, overall cost affects the booking's timing. Time pressures force respondents to visit a travel agent or collect additional brochures to quickly complete the purchase. Results suggest brochures fulfill an important support role.     

大连节庆旅游的SWOT分析及发展建议

大连市的节庆旅游发展较早、项目繁多,但发展中仍存在一些问题。依据SWOT分析法剖析,可以发现大连节庆旅游项目:既有其独特的城市形象、良好的旅游业发展空间、得天独到的自然环境等良好优势,也存在着建城历史短、文化底蕴薄;缺少专业策划人才等劣势。同时,也发现具有很好地发展机遇。为全面提升大连节庆旅游水平,在发展对策方面应注重依托城市形象,充分体现"浪漫之都";主打独特的沙滩文化,开拓市民空间;培养专业节庆人才,形成动态空间辐射;开发旅游淡季产品;提高大连节庆旅游知名度。     

Christmas on the Web: 1998 vs. 1999

The 1998 Christmas season established the Internet as a viable consumer sales channel; a year later, the holiday season brought increasing numbers of shoppers to the Web. By relating the insights of the Diffusion of Innovation model and of Expectancy-Disconfirmation theory to the results of a number of surveys of Web shoppers, the present paper considers why 1999 online shoppers may have been harder to satisfy than were their cyber counterparts in 1998. The paper also discusses the efforts e-tailers made to deal with the more mainstream consumers of 1999, and how the appearance of the sites evolved during the period between the two holidays.     

Whiteness,ethnic minorities and advertising in travel brochures

Whiteness theory is used in this paper as an additional way to analyse ethnic minority portrayal in advertising, specifically, the extent to which images of ethnic minorities are dominated by whiteness in travel brochures. A sample of 37 brochures are examined from British tour operators. Culture-based differences in advertising are discussed with a specific focus on how advertising constructs the image of ethnic minorities of peoples of South Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Mixed Race as tourists, workers and local people. We consider the frequency of portrayals of the different racial groups, together with observations about gender, family and social contexts and interaction with whites. The findings show that the portrayal of non-white people is relatively rare and highly constrained.     

对上海市高星级酒店市场定位的比较研究——基于酒店宣传手册的分析

宣传手册作为向消费者传递酒店市场定位信息的一种渠道和表明酒店服务质量的一种有形证据,其作用在酒店的营销活动中不可忽视。通过对比上海市20家四星、五星级酒店的宣传手册,文章着重从三个方面比较分析了这些酒店在市场定位上的差异,即在酒店产品和服务组合、市场形象和消费者购买酒店产品和服务后所获得的利益等的差异,并指出了上海市高星级酒店在市场定位中存在的问题,在此基础上提出了进行市场定位的建议。     

Accountants' Attitudes Toward Advertising and Their Use of Marketing Tools

This paper reports the results of a national study of accountants' attitudes toward advertising and heir use of various marketing tools. A mail survey was used to collect the data from a randomly selected sample of accountants. Analysis of the results using percentages and means revealed overall negative attitudes toward advertising. However, younger accountants were more favorable toward the use of advertising. This indicates that in the future there will be increased emphasis on marketing and advertising of accounting services. Seminars, yellow page ads, and brochures were ranked as the three most effective marketing tools. The major reasons respondents did not engage in more marketing activities were concerns over the costbenefits of their use.     

Mediatized Humanitarianism: Trust and Legitimacy in the Age of Suspicion

The article investigates the implications of mediatization for the legitimation strategies of humanitarian organizations. Based on a (full population) corpus of ~400 pages of brochure material from 1970 to 2007, the micro-textual processes involved in humanitarian organizations’ efforts to legitimate themselves and their moral claim were examined. A time trend analysis of the prioritization of actors in the material indicates that marked shifts in legitimation loci have taken place during the past 40 years. A discourse analysis unfolds the three dominant discourses behind these shifts, namely legitimation by accountancy, legitimation by institutionalization, and legitimation by compensation. The analysis relates these changes to a problem of trust associated with mediatization through processes of mediation.     

Store environment,emotions and approach behaviour: applying environmental aesthetics to retailing

This exploratory study examines the influence of store environment on emotions and behaviour tendencies. The study brings insights from research on external environments to the study of store environment. We combined the idea of three distinct dimensions of emotions (pleasantness, arousal and dominance) and the role of mediating approach-avoidance behaviours with two variables taken from the field of environmental aesthetics – complexity and order. Twenty-four colour photographs of four sections of two grocery stores were rated by a sample of 43 subjects on their degree of complexity and order. A second sample of 87 subjects rated the same photographs on emotions and approach-avoidance tendencies. The relationship between complexity and order and reported pleasantness and arousal was consistent with findings regarding external environments. The three emotional dimensions mediated an inverted ‘U’ relationship between complexity and approach behaviour tendencies, as expected. Order had a positive correlation with approach behaviour tendencies. The study suggests the importance of examining general variables (such as complexity and order) in the context of retail environments and provides ideas for extensive research.     

The portrayal of women in Canadian corporate annual reports

We assess the inclusion of women in Canadian corporate annual report (CAR) photographs and on boards of directors at TSX100 firms and evaluate whether either is related to financial performance. We find that women are underrepresented in CAR photographs and on boards. In CAR photographs women are frequently portrayed as outsiders or less powerful organizational members than men. Higher return on equity (ROE) was found at companies that more frequently depicted women in their CAR photographs. However, no association was observed between the inclusion of women on the board and the ROE of the firm. The applied and theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determinants of the Use of the Internet as a Tourist Information Source

The modelling of usage behaviour of New Information Technologies is of great utility to managers who need to evaluate the probability of success in the introduction of these technologies. The present study empirically contrasts the capacity of Davis's Technology Acceptance Model 1989 to help understand the determinants of the intention to use the Internet to search for holiday information. The findings show that the above theory does explain the intention to use the Internet on the part of the tourist, but it should be expanded to take account of the tourist's satisfaction with previous experiences of searching for holiday information.     

Evaluating a County-Sponsored Social Marketing Campaign to Increase Mothers' Initiation of HPV Vaccine for their Pre-teen Daughters in a Primarily Rural Area

Routine vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV), the main cause of cervical cancer, is recommended for 11-12 year old girls, yet vaccine uptake is low. This study evaluates a social marketing campaign initiated by 13 North Carolina counties to raise awareness among parents and reduce barriers to accessing the vaccine in a primarily rural area. The 3-month campaign targeted mothers of girls ages 11-12 and healthcare practices serving pre-teen girls in four counties. Principles of social marketing were: product (recommended vaccine against HPV), price (cost, perception of safety and efficacy, and access), promotion (posters, brochures, website, news releases, doctor's recommendation), and place (doctors' offices, retail outlets). We analyzed (1) website traffic, hotline calls, and media placement; (2) cross-sectional surveys of mothers and providers; and (3) HPV immunization rates in intervention versus non-intervention counties. Of respondent mothers (n=225), 82% heard or saw campaign messages or materials. Of respondent providers (n=35), 94% used campaign brochures regularly or occasionally in conversations with parents. HPV vaccination rates within six months of campaign launch were 2% higher for 9-13 year old girls in two of the four intervention counties compared to 96 non-intervention counties. This evaluation supports campaign use in other primarily rural and underserved areas.     

关于我国企业职工带薪年休假制度的一些思考

国务院颁布的《职工带薪年休假条例》已于2008年1月1日开始实施。对我国企业职工而言,能实际享受带薪年休假无疑是一个好消息。这不仅有利于保护职工的休息权,维护职工的健康,也有利于促进劳动关系的稳定、和谐,极大地提高用人单位利润,并促进整个社会经济的发展。然而,对企业职工来讲,这一条例所体现的带薪年休假制度仍然存在诸多不足之处,如年休假时间短;对于年休假的决定权规定得不够明确;年休假与其他假期的折抵规定得不够细化。为进一步完善我国企业职工带薪年休假制度,文章提出,应适当延长带薪年休假的时间;明确赋予用人单位特殊情况下对于带薪年休假的决定权;合理规定年休假与其他假期的折抵内容。     

“假日经济”的思考

目前我国每年的公休假日达１１４天,几乎占全年总天数的１／３,假日消费可谓举足轻重。但假日消费高潮的背后,存在着一些亟待解决的问题,要从政府、服务行业、消费者等几方面着手,引导消费,促进经济。     

The Brexit Dynamics: British and EU27 Challenges After the EU Referendum

Prior to the Brexit referendum, the UK government sent an information brochure to households across the country. Surprisingly, key findings of a study by the UK Treasury — including an expected per capita income loss of £1800 — were not included in the brochure. Calculations indicate that if this information had been included, the outcome of the referendum would have been 52.1% for Remain. Instead, the pro-Brexit campaign utilised anti-immigrant rhetoric to create a scapegoat for the under-provision of local public services, when actually this was due to massive cuts in budget transfers to local communities after the financial crisis. Looking ahead, major reforms are now necessary if the EU is not to disintegrate. Given the fresh support in the UK and US for banking deregulation, the EU must stand firm in support of prudential supervision and banking regulation to prevent a new international banking crisis.     

Christmas in Japan: Globalization Versus Localization

Products and services promoted on a global scale raise issues of globalism that are more superficial than the issues raised by the globalization of world holidays. It is one thing to have an Ikea and a KFC in the city, and conceivably quite another thing to have Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Halloween. Holidays like these have more complex cultural ideologies behind them. They threaten to displace traditional local holidays. And they offer a significant context in which to examine the interplay of global and local forces in the contemporary marketplace. We ask to what degree Christmas in Japan represents Western cultural imperialism, global homogenization, and a Westernization of Japan, versus local cultural adaptation, hybridization, and appropriation.     

Auto and Property Market in the New Golden Week

The concept of ＂Golden Week＂ has emerged in response to the development of China holiday economy. As it is the first ＂NewGolden Week＂ since the implementation of the new vacation system, the 3-day May Day holiday has affected many aspects.     

Limits to tourism growth in LDCs

The following is an attempt by the author to analyse tourist relations between industrial nations and LDCs and to describe predictable conflict situations which may arise if these relations are subjected to excessive physical and psychological strains or if the international division of labour in the field of “holiday production” becomes unbalanced.