‘How's the Service?’ A Study of Service Quality Perceptions across Sectors and Source Markets

This study assessed the performance of the hotel, retail and travel agency sectors in Hong Kong. The importance–performance analysis (IPA) model and various statistical techniques were employed to examine visitors’ cognition of the importance and performance of pertinent service quality attributes and to better understand the factors that may influence their overall satisfaction across different sectors and source markets. Whereas the multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance tests suggest no significant differences in service quality perceptions across the three sectors, the IPA revealed that these sectors differ qualitatively in terms of which service quality attributes are most critical. The findings further suggest a negative relationship between cultural distance and satisfaction with Asian tourists being less satisfied than their non‐Asian counterparts. The results hold important managerial implications for resource allocation and service quality improvement in specific areas. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism demand in Hong Kong: income,prices, and visa restrictions

This paper examines the determinants of Hong Kong tourism demand for the top-three major tourist arrival countries, namely Mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan, with an error correction model. Specifically, this paper will examine the effects of relaxing the visa requirement, the launch of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), for Mainland Chinese tourists in 2003. Empirical results show that tourists are income-elastic and consider international tourism to be a luxury good. Tourists are more sensitive to changes in the nominal exchange rate than to changes in the foreign pricing level. The positive effect of the launch of the IVS for Mainland Chinese tourists outweighs the adverse impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on tourism demand for Hong Kong.     

Assessing mainland Chinese tourists' satisfaction with Hong Kong using tourist satisfaction index

The purpose of this study is to test a two‐step tourist satisfaction index framework empirically. The first step estimates sectoral‐level satisfaction indexes based on a structural equation model, and the second obtains an overall tourist satisfaction index by conducting second‐order confirmatory factor analysis. This study is a pilot test of the theoretical framework based on three tourism‐related service sectors in Hong Kong. The results indicate that mainland Chinese tourists are most satisfied with the hotel sector in Hong Kong, followed by the retail sector, and least satisfied with local tour operators. The aggregate tourist satisfaction index is 74.04 out of 100. The results of this study have important practical implications for long‐term destination management. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparative study of hospitality and tourism graduates in Australia and Hong Kong

This paper evaluates the career experiences and perceptions of graduates from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia towards the programmes that they undertook. The two cohorts of graduates exhibited broadly similar career histories and expressed similar attitudes towards the quality, strengths and weaknesses of their respective programmes. In both cases, female students dominate the graduate cohort and about half of the respondents were found to have left the tourism or hospitality field within 3–5 years after graduation. Graduates believe that their general business and general education subjects play a stronger role in acquiring their first and current jobs than specialist tourism, hotel management and food service subjects. The findings highlight the challenge facing the university sector in attempting to balance the desire to provide a broadly grounded liberal education with the student desire for practical training. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural comparison of tourists' safety perception in relation to trip satisfaction

Although safety and security are seen as a priori for a prosperous tourism industry in any destination, safety and security perception and its influence on tourist behaviour have received limited empirical attention from researchers. This study investigated tourists' perception of the safety and security of a destination in relation to the level of satisfaction with their trip, using Turkey and its visitors as a case in point. The stepwise regression analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between trip satisfaction, safety and security‐related variables, existence of product or service failure, and selected demographic variables. Results showed that positive perception of Turkey's hygiene and health, and safety and security helped visitors to have greater trip satisfaction, especially if they stayed longer and enjoyed their trip without any product or service failure; however, German tourists and tourists with a secondary school degree are more likely to have less trip satisfaction. Practical implications and future research suggestions are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The perceived destination image of Hong Kong on Ctrip.com

This study examines the perceived destination image of Hong Kong among visitors from mainland China, as revealed on the travel blog of Ctrip.com. Textual analysis and the overall evaluation scores of 2247 blog entries indicate that this image is positive in all aspects among these visitors. They are particularly impressed by the shopping experience, as both product quality and prices are considered competitive in Hong Kong. These visitors also evaluate overall food quality highly, although the high price of food and accommodation leads to the perception that Hong Kong is an expensive tourist destination. Managerial implications are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Medical tourism: Chinese maternity tourism to Hong Kong

This paper provides a quantitative approach to investigate the determinants of Chinese maternity tourism (birth tourism) to Hong Kong with an Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) cointegration methodology with bounds testing of Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001) over the period from 1991 to 2011. Specifically, this paper examines the joint effects of the right of abode of Chinese babies born in Hong Kong and the launch of Individual Visit Scheme for Mainland Chinese tourists on maternity tourism to Hong Kong. Empirical results show that persistent growth in income and appreciation of the Chinese yuan lead to a higher demand for maternity tourism.     

Preferred shopping destination: Hong Kong versus Singapore

Visitor shopping is an important contributor to the economy of Hong Kong as it accounts for more than half the total visitors' expenditure. Owing to its significance, and strong competition from Singapore, Hong Kong must re‐examine the city's attraction to shoppers. The tourism and retail industries of Hong Kong must formulate effective strategies to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the shopping environment in both cities. This study surveys 309 international visitors about their shopping expectations and perceptions of Hong Kong and Singapore in 15 attributes. Results were analysed by SPSS software (Statistical Package for Social Science) using the techniques of frequencies and paired t‐tests. Singapore outperforms Hong Kong notably in many areas, such as language ability, attitude and efficiency of service staff. The findings indicate an urgency for Hong Kong to strive harder. In conclusion, the article provides some recommendations for the city to re‐establish its reputation as the ‘shopping paradise’ of the Asia Pacific region and to meet the challenge of Singapore as the preferred shopping destination. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Taiwan's international tourism: a time series analysis with calendar effects and joint outlier adjustments

In this paper, we examine monthly tourist arrivals from Japan, Hong Kong and the USA between January 1971 and December 2008. Our purpose is to find events or variables that affect Taiwan's international tourism. We find that the Chinese New Year has a positive effect on tourist arrivals from Hong Kong, but negative effects for other countries. Through outlier detection, we obtain a better understanding of the effects of non‐recurring events that have impacted Taiwan's international tourism. Using transfer function model with automatic outlier detection and adjustment, we find that the exchange rate influences tourist arrivals from Japan and Hong Kong. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Segmenting mainland Chinese residents based on experience,intention and desire to visit Hong Kong

The general consensus among marketers is that the People's Republic of China will have an enormous impact on the world's economy. However, much of this discussion is centred on China's strength as a centre of manufacturing and exports. The increase in affluence in pockets of China's 1.3 billion residents has also been the focus of firms interested in this large and virtually untapped consumer market. However, relatively little attention has been given to this market as potential sources of tourists. The purpose of this study was to profile the important visitor segments from mainland China who had previously visited, had the intention to visit or desired to visit Hong Kong—a destination traditionally priced and positioned for Western markets. Based on a sample of 470 Chinese from three cities in the mainland, the distinctive characteristics of tourists who had previously visited Hong Kong and who had strong intentions or interest to visit in the future were identified. It is hoped that this information will help tourism marketing professionals not only gain insights as to the potential of China as a source of visitors, but also highlight a useful approach to the market segmentation process. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Gay’ tourists and host community attitudes

Despite the growing interest in tourism by gay men, there is little evidence (other than journalistic) of host communities' views towards such tourists. This paper describes a study of such views in a small Mexican beach destination popular with gay tourists. The village is also popular with heterosexual visitors and is known for nude bathing and drug consumption. Interviews were undertaken with a number of residents and revealed disapproval of the gay tourists. This was attributed by residents to overt sexual behaviour, and although there was no evident homophobia, it is postulated that this underlay the attitudes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are tourists satisfied with the map at hand?

Tourist maps of a given destination offer information to tourists on its geographical environment and tourist sites of interest. This sort of information service is important for tourists unless they are very familiar with their destinations. This study mainly concerns with tourists' satisfaction with this geographical and touristic information service which has been neglected in the existing literature. The study, using Macau as a case, was designed to explore tourists' evaluation of tourist maps and the determining factors of the overall satisfaction, which were mainly involved in the content and design of tourist maps. The control variables including demographics and trip features were also examined. It was found that respondents were, in general, satisfied with the tourist map they used for sightseeing; however, their attitudes towards various elements of map content and design differed. These attitudes reflected by the data have implications for tourist map design and distribution in the future.     

Service Quality Perception and Satisfaction: Buying Behaviour Prediction in an Australian Festivalscape

The study was conducted on 358 attendees at a major wine festival in Australia. A positive relationship between quality perception and overall satisfaction constructs exists. New insight to festivalscape knowledge is provided through the first‐time and repeat visitor dynamic as predictor of actual buying behaviour. Higher percentage of repeat visitors correlates with higher likelihood of (wine) buying. Overall satisfaction is a stronger predictor of buying behaviour than any individual service quality dimension and of these quality dimensions overall. Repeat visitors, 35 years and older, are the highest yielding visitor group from a financial viewpoint. First‐time visitors are more short‐term oriented in their planning when making the final decision to attend the event. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

To Gamble or Not? Perceptions of Macau Among Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Visitors

Macau's casino sector has been expanding rapidly, particularly targeting mainland Chinese gamblers. The novelty and under‐researched nature of this market is a challenge for Macau's casino and destination marketers. This study explores the characteristics of the mainland market and compares this with the second placed and more mature Hong Kong market. The profiling of visitors from Macau's main source markets including demographic, region of origin, trip behaviour and motivation characteristics provides insights into the future success of the destination. Adaption theory is used to explain the implications of differences between Gambling and Non‐Gambling visitors from the two source markets. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception,its antecedents,and coping behaviours: A study of an urban heritage site in Taiwan

Due to the significant increase in international tourism arrivals, academic attention that addresses the heterogeneity among nationals with respect to the congestion impact at attraction sites is called for. This study evaluates the moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception, its antecedents, and coping behaviours in order to identify the sensitivity of user groups towards crowding issues. A Taiwanese urban historical site was selected as a case study to assess the differences among domestic Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, and foreign visitors in response to an increase in use pressure. Results supported the moderating effect of nationality on all crowding relationships, and indicated that Taiwanese and foreign visitors were more crowd intolerant and had a higher tendency to engage in coping behaviours than those from mainland China. Good crowding perception, social norms for acceptable behaviours, travel format, and bilateral sociopolitical relationships are suggested as explanations for user differences.     

An Application of the Capability Maturity Model for Evaluating Attraction Websites in Mainland China

This paper extends the applicability of the Capability Maturity Model to attraction website evaluation. Based on input by 120 respondents from four groups, including tourists, tourism academics, attraction managers, and IT professionals in Mainland China, an attraction website maturity model (AWMM) with six key performance areas and 48 key criteria was developed. To validate the applicability of the model, the AWMM was used to evaluate 357 websites of 4A‐level attractions in Mainland China. Empirical findings revealed that the development of the China's attraction websites was at an infancy stage, while eCommerce in China has been adopted rapidly. Major improvements are required in relation to the interaction and commerce functions of these websites. Implications of the results of such improvements, as well as future research, are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influencing factors and mechanisms on consumers' behavior: A case of tea tourism in China

This study explores the factors affecting tea tourism, including the action mechanisms and the impact level of each factor influencing consumer behavior intentions, to contribute to predicting tea tourism consumer behavior. This study surveyed 377 potential tea tourists and constructed a theoretical model of tea tourism consumers' planned behavior using SPSS and AMOS. The results show that: (a) The experiential perception and opportunity perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their attitudes, (b) The self-efficacy perception and convenience perception of tea tourists can significantly affect their perceptual control, and (c) The attitude of tea tourists can significantly positively influence their behavioral intention. This study not only broadens the applications boundary of the theory of planned behavior, but it also provides a new perspective for research on the behavioral awareness of tea tourism consumers. The findings have implications for predicting and promoting future tea tourism in China and beyond.     

Hoofing It – On Four or Two Feet? Managing Multi-use Trails and Sites

Horseback tourism in Australia has developed in response to the needs of a predominantly urban-based society, providing tourists with a nature-based experience that is in less contact with the physical environment than those who elect to walk or hike. Such differing modes of transport have created some problems in areas where multiple use of transport forms is permitted, such as the Alpine National Park in Victoria, Australia. Recognising that there is potentially a difference between groups in the parks and their motivations and relationships with the natural environment, research was undertaken to ascertain levels of attitudinal conflict between walkers to horseback tour groups. While social conflict was not as great as anticipated, there were high levels of misinformation regarding the operating permit requirements placed on horseback tours. Also, many of the survey respondents who had negative attitudes towards horseback groups had not actually encountered any themselves. The management implications for the land management agencies include a greater need for planning and operational staff to have an improved understanding of the psychological needs and motivations of visitors to national parks. Education of both land managers and visitors is the key to developing mutually beneficial and effective land management plans.