Social media friending in building coworker guanxi: A study in the hotel industry

An omnipresent ingredient in personal and professional lives, social media has changed interpersonal relationships in numerous ways. Using the case of Facebook, this paper explores the role of social media use with coworkers in hotels through a mixed method approach. The purpose of the study is twofold. First, in-depth interviews are conducted to develop scales of key factors that influence coworker social media friending. Second, a survey is employed to investigate the consequences of such work-life-crossing behaviors. A framework is tested leading from the motivational/de-motivational factors to workplace guanxi via interaction intensity, workplace fun, and stress. The results indicate that motivations for relationship reinforcement, career advancement, and compliance with peers lead to increasing coworker social media interactions, while negatively-valenced factors do not have a salient impact. Furthermore, while social media interactions induce both workplace fun and stress, the overall impact on coworker guanxi is positive.     

Insights from images posted on social media: Examining the motivations of volunteer tourists

Extensive research has been conducted on the motivations of volunteer tourists; however, the scope has not included how motivation is expressed through the posting of images on social media. This study examines the relationship between volunteer tourists’ motivations and social media use through the identification of picture publishing behavior based on motivations. An online survey yielding 260 complete responses is used and statistical tests investigate the relationship between demographic factors, motivations and social sharing of photos. The results show that demographics have little impact; however, there is a relationship between motivation and photo sharing and between motivation and volume of photos.     

An Exploratory Study of Convention Specific Social Media Usage by Attendees: Motivations and Effect of Generations on Choice of Convention Information Source and Intention to Use Mobile Application

While social media and mobile devices have grown as important tools of communication and marketing in the meeting industry, limited research has explored convention attendees’ perception of convention specific social networking media and what the motivations are for attendees’ adoption of using convention specific social media. This study aims to identify convention attendees’ motivations of using convention specific social media and demands of convention specific mobile applications. This study also investigated how attendees’ generation affects their selection of convention information sources and attitude toward mobile applications. Based on the identified key motivations of using convention specific social media, convention organizers need to build social media that provide up-to-dated convention information as well as a functionality of building community among attendees. The findings also show that generation affects the choice of convention information source and intention of mobile applications usage. This study identified the most demanded convention mobile applications including, exhibitor directory search, convention floor plan, and convention itinerary planner. This study can be used as a basis for more extensive examinations of the use of social media in conventions and for empirical testing of convention attendees’ attitudes toward convention social media and mobile applications.     

Hotel attribute performance,eWOM motivations,and media choice

The objectives of this study are to match the motivations for posting about hotel experiences with the online media chosen and to identify the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) motivations that are affected by hotel attribute performance. The results show that altruism and platform assistance motivations were positively correlated with consumer opinion sites. Extraversion, social benefits, and dissonance reduction were positively correlated with social network sites. Economic incentives did not improve the likelihood of posting eWOM on consumer opinion sites but reduced the likelihood of posting on social network sites. Finally, hotel attribute performance had a significant effect only on extraversion and dissonance reduction motivations.     

The Study of Post-disaster Tourism Recovery and Reconstruction Based on Tourist Motivations: The Case of Jiuzhaigou after “5·12” Wenchuan Earthquake

旅游业灾后恢复重建是灾区经济社会恢复重建的重要“突破口”,尤其在旅游业作为主导产业或支柱产业的地区;而理解灾区游客旅游动机有利于旅游业灾后恢复重建管理战略的制定.该研究以遭受“5·12”汶川地震影响的九寨沟为例,运用结构方程模型,引入“灾害事件引发的旅游动机”,对灾区国内游客的多种旅游动机交互作用关系进行分析,证实了灾区旅游业恢复重建管理中:①恢复重建的关键内容是“核心旅游吸引物与安全”;②恢复重建的重点区域是灾区内已有高知名度的旅游地或在灾害事件中成为全球关注焦点的地区;③对目的地优质旅游接待服务意象的修复或构建能够恢复和提升灾区的旅游市场竞争力;④灾后旅游业市场营销需要重新区分客源市场并进行定位;⑤国民对灾区的爱国情怀可能会为目的地带来更多的国内旅游流,但需要营造“到灾区旅游是对灾区恢复重建最大援助”的社会氛围.     

游客对解说媒体的需求研究——以西汉南越王博物馆为例

了解游客对解说媒体的需求,对于解说系统的规划和设计有很强的指导意义.本文从游客的角度,以西汉南越王博物馆为例,通过问卷调查研究了游客对解说的需求,并探讨了游客属性、出游动机与其对解说需求之间的关系.研究发现,游客对解说媒体的需求很高.由于社会特征和出游动机不同,游客对于南越王博物馆解说服务的需求有显著差异.     

强关系网络移动社交平台旅游分享行为研究——基于微信与QQ用户的资料分析

在移动社交媒体时代,旅游分享已成为当下旅游者的行为偏好,越来越多的旅游者选择微信、QQ这类强关系移动社交平台进行分享。国内学界对移动社交平台旅游分享行为的研究随之日增,但少有文章从理论上系统地揭示旅游分享行为的过程与动因。文章采用扎根理论研究方法,构建反映强关系网络移动社交平台的旅游分享动态过程理论模型。将旅游分享行为动态过程划分为分享前因、分享实现与分享结果3个阶段,总结每个阶段的行为特征、表现方式及阶段之间的演替规律,并探讨这类旅游分享行为的特点与动因。研究发现,在旅游分享动机上,强关系移动社交平台强调情感联结与互动,从而旅游者受到与个体相关动机的影响更为显著;分享内容上,平台的强关系特性与熟人社交促使旅游者尽量避免分享负面信息;分享结果上,强关系移动社交平台的旅游分享能调节旅游者行中、行后的体验水平,并形成兼具网络时空拓展性与熟人圈规模局限性的口碑传播。     

The effects of generational work values on employee brand attitude and behavior: A multi-group analysis

The competitive hospitality industry requires effective external and internal brand management. Since service employees bring the brand to life, insight regarding their motivational drivers is important. Given a multigenerational hospitality workforce, individual motivations will likely differ and therefore inform attitudes and behavior differently. Adopting work values as a motivational lens, and drawing on generational theory, this study surveys 303 hospitality employees to understand how generational collective memories (i.e., formative referents) inform individuals’ work values. Further, it examines how generational work values differentially influence employees’ perceived brand fit and brand citizenship behavior. The results suggest that an individual’s collective memories from their formative years influence their work values, with altruistic, social and intrinsic work values having a positive impact on employee brand attitude and behavior, while extrinsic and leisure work values have no significant impact. Generational differences are evident, but not always in a manner that is consistent with previous literature.     

Backpacker tourism: sustainable and purposeful? Investigating the overlap between backpacker tourism and volunteer tourism motivations

Alternative tourism, particularly backpacker and volunteer tourism, has developed significantly in recent times. This rapid development has contributed to criticism of potential negative effects, notably of the environmental, cultural, economic and social impacts associated with backpacker tourism. Volunteer tourism, by contrast, has been seen in positive terms as more sustainable, combining altruistic motivations with the travel concept. This paper explores backpacker interest in volunteer tourism and identifies overlaps in motivations between the two forms of tourism; 249 self-administered questionnaires were collected from backpackers within backpacker hostels in central Melbourne, Australia. The findings of this study suggest that a motivational overlap exists between backpacker and volunteer tourists, indicating potential for the creation of volunteer tourism products catering specifically for the backpacker market. This may encourage more sustainable tourism experiences within the burgeoning backpacker market, thus addressing some of the negative criticism of the latter. This paper also discusses the implications of these findings for the marketing and development of volunteer tourism products for both the backpacker and volunteer tourism markets.     

Organic farm volunteer tourism as social movement participation: a Polanyian political economy analysis of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) in Hawai‘i

In recent years, Karl Polanyi's concept of the “double movement” has been resurrected to describe growing international resistance to neoliberal global capitalism. The double movement originally referred to counter-movements for social protection against the 19th and early 20th century laissez-faire market. Today, it describes the growth of new social movements which often resist neoliberal economic practices and ideologies. Drawing on Polanyi's concept of the double movement and on recent work on neoliberalism and new social movements, this article examines farm hosts' motivations for participation in World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). It argues that farm hosts tend to articulate their motivations as an attempt to proclaim solidarity with organic, spiritual, and educational new social movement agendas. It describes how a loosely articulated organic identity converges around three corollary protective counter-movements: organic food production and consumption, spirituality, and alternative education, exploring the creative ways people are resisting neoliberal capitalism at the intersection of alternative tourism and organic agriculture. Yet, despite hosts' intentions, the article illustrates how new social movement participation through WWOOF is in constant tension with the neoliberal agrarian and tourism marketplace in which it operates, as well as the perhaps unforeseen limits of its radical horizon.     

Tourists' motives for gamified technology use

Game-related technologies have been discussed as a promising means for tourists' co-creation of meaningful experiences. However, little is known about tourists' underlying motivations for using gamified technologies. This study explores tourists' motives for engaging with gamified technology during a pleasure vacation. By employing a qualitative laddering technique based on the rationale of the means-end chain analysis, this study explores tourists' desired end values in using gamified features on a destination-related mobile app. The results show that gamified features help tourists to achieve several superior motivational goals and foster their interactions within the vacation destination. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of motivational affordances of gamified technology and the underlying causality of why people use gamified technology.     

Exploring bad faith in tourism

Previous applications of existential philosophy to tourism have focused on the work of Martin Heidegger but have neglected the contribution of Jean-Paul Sartre. This paper examines the relevance of Sartre's concept of ‘bad faith’ to tourism. Bad faith is a way of living based on inauthenticity, self-deception, and disregard for the Other. The paper explores the manifestation of bad faith in three contemporary scenarios: flying and its implications for climate change; conforming to the expectations of other people through social media engagements; and sex tourism. It argues that bad faith - compromising and denying individual freedom – underpins many tourism practices. The paper ends by considering future opportunities for using Sartre's philosophy to understand tourist experiences.     

A Cross-National Study of Motivational Determinants among Non-Resident Indian Visitors to Religious Centers in India

The purpose of this study was to make a comparison of religious motivations among NRI visiting at Sacred Sites in India, where millions of devotees visit every year. Twenty-six motivational items were factor analyzed, resulting in five underlying dimensions. The results show that no significant differences were found in motivations among NRI visitors from four countries, whereas significant differences were found between domestic and NRI tourists. Further, the results indicate that both visitors placed high ratings on the motivation factors of cultural immersion, novelty, and religious attraction, while they placed low ratings on seeking camaraderie and family togetherness. As a result, it is apparent that motivational bases differences will have a range of implications for marketing of religious tourism.     

Recreation,cultivation and environmental concerns: exploring the materiality and leisure experience of contemporary allotment gardening

ABSTRACT

Allotment gardening has been identified as eco-leisure and associated with an ideological commitment to nature. Drawing on ten semi-structured interviews and observations of the materiality of allotments, this study explores the enactment of allotment gardening as leisure. Findings demonstrate tensions and complexities in this leisure experience. Firstly, it shows that allotment gardening entails both the experience of freedom and enjoyment and a contrasting sense of duty. Secondly, the study suggests that the freely exercised activity of the individual plotter is negotiated within a dependency on the social structures of the allotment community. Thirdly, the study indicates that ecological orientations amongst plotters are expressed through gardening practices rather than articulated as ideologies. Finally, it demonstrates the potential of a material and consumption perspective in explorations of how both environmental concerns and/or materialism is practised through everyday leisure. Overall, the study contributes to multi-faceted understandings of motivations for allotment gardening and dynamics in the garden as a project of self-fulfilment and care for nature.     

Motivation and segmentation of the demand for coastal and marine destinations

Coastal and marine destinations offer a variety of activities for their visitors. The objective of this empirical study was, considering the above assertation, analyzing the segmentation of the demand for this kind of destination in terms of customer motivations. This project was an on-site investigation conducted in the city of Salinas, an important coastal and marine destination in Ecuador. The researchers used 385 questionnaires and analyzed them with multivariate statistical techniques. The results show six motivational factors: “Authentic coastal experience,” “Heritage and nature,” “Learning,” “Novelty and social interaction,” “Physical activities” and “Sun and beach.” The study also shows the existence of two different segments of visitors. The first group labeled “Beach lovers” formed by tourists who have high motivation in such aspects related to the sun and the beach, this group refers to the motivational dimension “sun and beach.” The second group, labeled “Multiple coastal motives,” grouped tourists who have high values in all the motivational dimensions. The findings of this research suggest the need for a more refined and complete brand that could attract not only beach lovers but also other segments of tourists motivated by the different activities and features that this coastal and marine destination can offer.     

An Analysis of Push and Pull Motivational Factors of International Tourists to Penang,Malaysia

This study identifies the travel motivations of international tourists to Penang, Malaysia, using the theory of push and pull motivations as a conceptual framework. The methodology was comprised of quantitative research based on 400 self-completed questionnaires. A principal component factor analysis was used to identify the underlying dimensions of push and pull motivational items. The results revealed three push and three pull factor dimensions. Among the identified motivation factors, Novelty and Knowledge-Seeking and Cultural and Historical Attractions were regarded as the most important push and pull factors, respectively. Based on the study’s findings, practical implications for tourism marketers are suggested and future research recommendations are provided.     

Understanding the Motivation and Travel Behavior of Cycle Tourists Using Involvement Profiles

Bicycle tourism is a growing niche tourism market which has potential economic, social, and environmental outcomes for individual participants and host communities. However, there has been a lack of research into heterogeneity of this market and their respective motivations and behavior. This article applies the concept of enduring involvement, in conjunction with tourist motivational theory, to segment and better understand cycle tourist behavior and intentions. A total of 564 completed questionnaires was collected from an online survey of bicycle club members in Australia. Respondents were segmented into five initial clusters by their level of enduring involvement. A number of significant differences were found on their travel motivations, travel behavior, and behavioral intentions, as well as their sociodemographics and cycling behavior. The results lend support to the application of enduring involvement in a tourism context to better understand the behavior of niche markets which include popular leisure pursuits. Recommendations as a result of the findings are made for product development and marketing communication, while future research opportunities are also outlined.     

Ecotourism social media initiatives in China

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of social media by ecotourism management agencies and how this potentially changes the relationship between the ecotourist and the natural environment. It examines the meaning of ecotourism and the way that social media shapes visitor perceptions and meaning through an examination of the content of 775 Sina microblog postings from five leading ecotourism site management agencies in China. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the social media postings, a series of semi-structured interviews was also conducted with followers and management agencies. The findings provide an enhanced understanding of ecotourism marketing and its impacts on the ecotourist while also creating a framework for the use of social media to market ecotourism. The framework outlines the importance of the meanings associated with this form of communication through its promotional appeal to tourists and the outcomes for both the ecotourist and site management.     

"Doing it for the 'gram"? The representational politics of popular humanitarianism

This paper explores how digital photography – the practice of taking pictures and sharing them via social media – can give rise to representational politics. These politics are pronounced when disadvantaged people and places are the objects of digital representation, as they become (dis)empowered by being implicated in the affective economy of difference. Empirically, we examine the representational practices that Singaporean voluntourists, and companies that organise overseas humanitarian projects, engage in. We highlight how their motivations for engaging with these projects can be obfuscated by the opportunity to generate influence on Instagram, which can then shape the practice of popular humanitarianism. In particular, it can cause encounters with difference to be (cu)rated, influence to be (re)produced, and representation to therefore be (de)valued.