The effect of personality traits and knowledge-sharing on employees' innovative performance: A comparative study of Egypt and Jordan

Employees' positive personality traits are one main enabler of tourism organisations to develop knowledge-sharing culture and promote innovative performance. To achieve the principle of personality-job fit, this study aims to measure the influence of employees' personality traits on their knowledge-sharing behaviour and innovative performance. It also measures the mediation of knowledge-sharing between employees' personality traits – innovative performance relationships. The study employs the quantitative method based on an e-survey to gather data from employees working in travel agencies in Egypt and Jordan. Structural equation modelling was used for testing research causal relationships. Findings revealed that positive personality traits significantly improve employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour and contribute to their innovative performance advancement. The findings of the study provide significant implications for human resources managers in tourism organisations and tourism education policymakers to improve their recruitment procedures of employees and new education entrants (future graduates) to fit tourism career jobs and marketplace duties.     

Effects of Distribution Channel Level on Tour Purchasing Attributes and Information Sources

Attributes important to escorted tour participants were used to explore the differences between clients of tour operators and clients of travel agents. Customers purchasing directly form operator's valued experience with the tour company and personal recommendations. Agency clients valued the ease of booking through agents along with information form guidebooks and tourist bureaus. Domestic travelers were more often operator clients, and foreign travelers were more often agency clients. Differences are discussed in terms of different segments of customers within the channel of distribution.     

The repeat travel market for Taiwan: A multi-stage segmentation approach

Despite the importance of market segmentation, the growth of the travel and tourism industry in Taiwan, and the repeat travel phenomenon in tourism, relatively few studies have examined the behavior of repeat travelers in the East Asia region. The present study was designed to fill this gap. This exploratory study applied multistage segmentation in the context of repeat travel behavior to Taiwan. It examined the socio-demographic profile, trip characteristics and expenditures of Taiwan inbound repeat travelers. The results indicated that nationality, income, type of travel arrangements and information search behavior significantly affected repeat travel behavior. In terms of travel expenditures, males spent significantly more than females. Those travelers between 40 and 60 years old tended to spend the most when they visited Taiwan compared to other groups. Chinese travelers were most likely to have traveled to Taiwan more than once among all nationalities compared in this study. Those from Korea and Japan spent the most money among all nationality groups. This study provided several significant implications for the marketers of tourism in Taiwan.     

Move fast,travel slow: the influence of high-speed rail on tourism in Taiwan

High-speed rail (HSR) and tourism are closely related economic activities because improved mobility is perceived to facilitate tourist behavioral changes. This study examines the influence of HSR on the travel patterns of individual tourists in Taiwan in relation to time, space and carbon emissions. A framework is first provided to discuss how changes in the speed of intercity transportation will affect visitors’ choice of the journey, behavior at destinations and trip quality. In addition, HSR is expected to influence five general aspects of travel decisions relating to mobility and trip emissions, including mode selection, travel distance, length of stay per trip, annual travel frequency and total travel days. In the example of Taiwan, information by onsite sampling of 400 domestic travelers found that HSR had a weak influence on travel distance and length of stay per trip, but was observed to facilitate extended time at each stop, a deeper engagement with the locality, and an approximate 10% reduction in transport carbon emissions through intermodal substitution. These phenomena are in line with the slow travel concept of sustainable tourism consumption.     

The Influence of Innovativeness on On-Site Smartphone Use Among American Travelers: Implications for Context-Based Push Marketing

This study investigates the relationships between traveler innovativeness traits and the patterns of smartphone use during the experiential stage of travel. Using data collected from 1126 travelers residing in the United States (US), it was identified that tourism and technology innovativeness have significant positive effects on on-site use of smartphones for trip management, social networking, and searching deals, online reviews, and push recommendations. Technology innovativeness also influences smartphone use for navigation within destinations. The results suggest that highly innovative travelers are open to recommendations and influences when making on-site decisions, making them an effective target for context-based marketing.     

The Situational Influence of Travel Group Composition

Abstract

A substantial amount of statistics and articles in travel magazines indicated that family vacation travel is one of the major worldwide trends. However, very limited empirical research has been dedicated to this special market segment. This study examined Japanese family travelers to Taiwan by comparing and contrasting them with other travel companionship groups including traveling with friends and traveling alone. The importance of travel group composition segmentation was explained and conceptualized through the understanding of the value of social groups from sociology perspective. The results indicated that Japanese family travelers exhibited unique characteristics when traveling. Family travelers tended to be more motivated by learning oriented themes and participated enthusiastically in activities that facilitated experiential learning as well as total physical relaxation. The “traveling with friends” and “traveling solo” segments tended to be seeking more of activities that had strong entertaining and socializing undertones. The traveling solo group appeared to be the most evasive or the least understood in what their needs and preferences were. Marketing implications were discussed.     

Burnout and engagement: A comparative analysis using the Big Five personality dimensions

This study focuses on job burnout, job engagement, and their relationships with the Big Five personality dimensions: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The data were collected from employees (managerial/supervisory positions and non-supervisory positions) working for quick-service restaurants. Engagement, the emerging new concept, is perceived to be situated at the opposite end of the continuum of burnout, but the results of this study indicate they may be, rather, two distinctive concepts driven by different personality dimensions. The most critical personality trait affecting burnout is neuroticism and the most eminent traits predicting engagement are conscientiousness and neuroticism. This study does not validate the effects of positive personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness on burnout and they are found to be weakly related to employees’ work engagement, as well.     

Attitude Towards Green Hotel by Hoteliers and Travel Agency Managers in Taiwan

Analysis is performed by green hotel features: energy conservation, water conservation, waste management, green purchasing, and corporate social responsibility. Questionnaires were distributed to managers of hotels and travel agencies via snowball-sampling. Findings show that hoteliers have higher green hotel attitudes than travel agency managers. By gender, female managers have higher green hotel attitudes. Managers with less work experience have higher green hotel attitudes. Managers who work for upscale hotels have higher green hotel attitudes than managers of typical hotels and travel agencies. Managers working in south or east Taiwan have higher green hotel attitudes than those in north or central Taiwan.     

The Image of Taiwan as a Travel Destination: Perspectives from Mainland China

This study presents the perceived and projected image of Taiwan as a travel destination from perspectives from Mainland China. The perceived image of Taiwan was examined by interviewing 28 Mainland Chinese; the projected image of Taiwan was investigated by analyzing articles in China's most popular travel magazines. The different types of images of Taiwan among visitors, nonvisitors, and travel magazines were compared. The projected image changed notably after the opening of Taiwan's tourism to travelers from Mainland China. The results of this study could help destination marketing organizations to assess their marketing strategies for the Mainland Chinese travel market.     

Tipping Perceptions: Taiwanese Tour Leaders' Perspectives

This study aims to investigate how tour leaders (TLs) in Taiwan perceive the issue of tipping, and to identify the factors which influence TLs to solicit tips. It also examines the impact of tipping in relation to the job performance of TLs. Data collection involved participant observations and interviews with travel agencies' managerial staff and TLs. This study found that TLs see tips as a significant source of income if they are not well-paid by their employers. This study suggested that selfish economic behavior has a significant impact on tips received. The consequences are mainly caused by travel agencies' operating policies regarding the price competition and low payment of TLs. TLs have a tendency to perceive tips as a service charge rather than a voluntary payment. Slowly, but not unanimously, including tips in the price of the tour might be an alternative for the future practice of travel agencies in Taiwan. It is expected that the results of the study can help travel agencies in Taiwan to draw up an appropriate tipping policy and to extend literature on service performance in the travel industry.     

Innovation in hotel services: Culture and personality

The growing competition arising from burgeoning global markets exacerbates the demand for hotels to innovate their services and processes to continuously ensure success. To identify the processes that ensure excellent service and innovative performance, this work employs a literature review and series of questionnaire surveys of 185 employees working at international tourist hotels in Taiwan, to examine the relationships among service innovation culture, proactive personality, charged behavior and innovation. This work contributes to the service innovation literature by demonstrating that environmental forces outweigh individual forces in shaping innovation behaviors.     

Tour Booking: Do Travelers Respond to Tourism Accreditation and Codes of Ethics Initiatives?

Tourism and hospitality organizations are spending more time and money on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, but at the same time not fully understanding how such initiatives enhance travelers’ responses. This study investigates the impact of two CSR initiatives that have been widely adopted by many travel organizations: tourism accreditation and codes of ethics. A large-scale survey collected data on how potential travelers responded to an online tour brochure. The results showed that both accreditation and code of ethics information in a brochure have significant but varying impacts on perceived tour value, trust, and tour booking intention.     

Development and validation of a destination personality scale for mainland Chinese travelers

This study aims to develop a destination personality scale utilizing a sample of mainland Chinese travelers and examine the impact of this new scale on tourists' travel attitudes and behaviors using a two-step mixed method approach. Results yield an 18-item five-dimensional destination personality scale (competence, sacredness, vibrancy, femininity, and excitement) with desirable reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity. Except for “vibrancy”, the other four dimensions are found to be significant determinants of travelers’ actual self-congruity, ideal self-congruity, and destination loyalty. Results suggest that “competence” and “femininity” are the primary determinants of three criterion variables when all other dimensions are controlled for. This study provides empirical evidence for the necessity of developing a culture-specific destination personality scale under the Chinese cultural context. Destination managers could use this scale to evaluate and identify their primary destination personality characteristics, and adjust their current promotion strategies to target travelers from mainland China more effectively.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Turnover Intention Among Thai Hotel Employees

This study hypothesized that the Big Five personality traits predicted turnover intention, and that hospitality competency and job satisfaction mediated the relationship of the Big Five personality traits to turnover intention among 183 Thai hotel employees. Regression analysis with bootstrapping was used to test the direct and mediation effects. Results supported two hypotheses: the Big Five personality traits negatively predicted turnover intention and job satisfaction mediated the relationship of the Big Five personality traits to turnover intention while hospitality competency did not. Thai hotel employees’ Big Five personality traits were related to their job satisfaction to predict their turnover intention.     

Strategic alignment leverage between hotels and companies: The buyer–supplier relationship perspective

Hoteliers are seeking ways to increase their revenue by working with travel agencies to costeffectively expand sales. In addition, they are simultaneously turning to hotel bookings to bolster their revenue in the face of decreasing airline commissions. The research objectives of the present study included determining how the strategic decisions of cooperating contract companies and travel agencies of the hotels are influenced by the service vision and standard service communication. Data were obtained via a mailed questionnaire survey from a sample of travel agencies and contract companies in Taiwan. Of the 300 questionnaires sent, 201 responses (67%) were received, yielding a usable response of 192 fully completed questionnaires. The use of the structural equation model to test the theoretical model of collaboration relationship could lead to a greater understanding of the nature and determinants of choice and decisions related to cooperation between firms. From the perspective of buyer–supplier relationships, hotels are seeking ways to develop long-term relationships and to increase their revenue by collaborating with travel agencies and contract companies, and through the firm's service vision and service-standard communication, hotels can develop services to align with their needs. Moreover, service trends affecting hoteliers may include adapting customer demands, increased expectations of value and quality, and an increasingly highly competitive environment. Hotels would therefore need to be able to make these changes in order to continue this alignment relationship, with substitution possibly being an option for these firms when hotels cannot do this. That is, hotels generally face fierce competition, and to be able to compete they must make continuous efforts to maintain product and service quality; they also need to be innovative to be the leading performers.     

Food-related personality traits and the moderating role of novelty-seeking in food satisfaction and travel outcomes

Previous research on tourist food consumption acknowledges that food-related personality traits, including neophilic and neophobic tendencies, can impede or encourage tourists to try novel food at a destination. However, the travel motivation literature advocates that tourists tend to be in a general condition of seeking novel experiences, including sampling a destination's novel food. How food-related personality traits interact with novelty pursuits to influence tourists' food consumption and subsequent satisfaction and travel outcomes remains unknown. The study proposes a framework of tourist food experience that leads from food-related personality traits, novel food consumption, and satisfaction to travel outcomes. While the results support the baseline model, the moderating effect of novelty seeking demonstrates that novelty seeking does not moderate the relationship between personality traits and consumption of novel food. It does, however, moderate satisfaction with food.     

Travel Arrangements and the Distribution Behaviour of New Zealand Outbound Travelers

This paper contributes to the literature on tourism distribution by examining the distribution behavior of 547 New Zealand outbound travelers segmented by the way in which they have made their travel arrangements: package tourists, independent travelers, and an intermediate group, package plus. The results reveal differences among the three segments in terms of travel characteristics, information search, booking, and purchase, but not profile attributes or the influence of distribution on destination or product choice. Variations are also found in channel behavior across the four different sectors examined: transport to and at the destination, accommodation, and attractions, and activities.     

Personality profiles for hospitality employees: Impact on job performance and satisfaction

Prevailing hospitality research has demonstrated the impact of personality traits on various human resource outcomes. However, most studies on employee personality applied a construct-centered approach and treated each personality dimension as a separate construct. Although some psychologists have begun to study the combinations of various personality dimensions as overall individual profiles, much remains unknown about the generalizability of these personality profiles in hotel employees and how these profiles might affect individual work outcomes, including job performance and satisfaction. To address this literature gap and cross-validate the results, data from 1035 respondents was collected from two five-star hotels of Hong Kong with different backgrounds. Drawing on self-regulation theory and using the Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), we identified two major personality profiles from the respondents. Results showed that the personality profiles led to varying levels of job performance and satisfaction, depending on the employees’ frequency of contact with the hotel guests. Conceptual, methodological, and practical implications were discussed.     

The Effects of Travel Agent Characteristics on the Development of Trust: A Contingency View

Abstract

Trust is a key factor in the establishment of long-term relationships between travel agents and their customers. Prior research across service industries has documented that both “person-related” (e.g., empathy, politeness, and customer/service representative similarity) and “offer-related” (e.g., customization, competence, reliability, and promptness) service representative characteristics have an impact upon trust. However, the relative importance of these characteristics, and in some cases the direction of their relationships with trust has varied across studies. In this paper, we posit a contingency model of trust, suggesting that within the travel agency industry, the effects of the above variables on trust will be moderated by length of customer/service provider relationship. Our model is tested in a business-to-business context by means of a mail survey involving 487 small business owners. The small business owners provided data about their relationships with their travel industry service providers (i.e., agents). Our results demonstrate how corporate travel agencies can work toward the establishment of trust with their clients under varying market conditions.