How do Chinese tourists perceive tranquillity during the tour?

Tranquillity is considered a preferred travel experience for people. Despite there are many researches on the measurement and evaluation of tranquillity, little has explored the perception of tranquillity during the tour. Through the study of Chinese tourists, we try to cover the gap by exploring how tourists perceive tranquillity in different tranquil areas. This study expounds the Chinese understanding of tranquillity and adopts the grounded theory to systematically analyse the real experience of tourists. The study summarizes 3 major categories and 20 types of tranquil areas. The environmental characteristics of tranquil areas are classified into 4 dimensions: quietness, stable society, natural scenery and local culture. We propose a geographical process of perceiving tranquillity in tourist destinations, which includes the relationship between tourists and motivation, environment (landscape and soundscape), behaviour, emotion and psychological activities. These relations are helpful to provide a new perspective on tranquillity outside the post-positivist research paradigm.     

Is satisfaction enough to ensure reciprocity with upscale restaurants? The role of gratitude relative to satisfaction

This study aims to investigate the role of gratitude, relative to satisfaction, that underlies reciprocal behavior in the upscale restaurant industry. The findings showed that gratitude served as a more reliable and stronger predictor of favorable reciprocal behavior compared to satisfaction. Relational benefits, including confidence, social, and special treatment benefits, were found to be the most powerful antecedents to gratitude. Food quality caused the most satisfaction and simultaneously evoked a feeling of gratitude. Employee service quality affected only satisfaction. The physical environment alone did not influence either gratitude or satisfaction. Gratitude prompted favorable reciprocal behavior, whereas satisfaction did not. Examining the differential effects of antecedents on gratitude vs. satisfaction will enable restaurant managers to understand the different consequences and distinct emotional features between gratitude and satisfaction, and thus establish strong reciprocity with customers by evoking feelings of gratitude.     

How do tourists with disabilities respond to service failure? An application of affective events theory

Service failures and complaints have been topics where there is an increasing interest among researchers as well as practitioners and it has been thoroughly examined in relation to the general traveling public.But this is not the case for tourists with disabilities.Therefore, the aim of the current research is to examine the relationship of service failure with complaint behavior based on the Affective Events Theory.An on-site survey was administered to collect data from Koreans with disabilities living in South Korea, and a total of 283 responses were used for data analysis. The findings showed that emotional evaluation had a significant relationship with regard to explaining cognitive evaluation, core service failure, and interpersonal service failure respectively. Emotional evaluation showed a positive relationship with complaint behavior. These findings provide insight regarding ways to provide better services for tourists with disabilities and for strategic planning and marketing purposes.     

Does offering an organic food menu help restaurants excel in competition? An examination of diners’ decision-making

This study aims to examine whether the presence of an organic food menu can positively influence diners’ decision-making. A 3 (restaurant segment: quick service vs. casual dining vs. fine dining) by 2 (price discrepancy between competing restaurants: small vs. large) scenario-based experiment was conducted with 405 U.S. consumers. MANCOVA results indicate that using organic ingredients offers a greater advantage for the quick-service segment regarding perceived food quality, attitudes towards the restaurant, and willingness to select, compared to casual and fine dining segments. The magnitude of a premium price of organic ingredients negatively influences such advantage in the process of consumers’ decision-making. When a large (vs. small) premium price is charged for using organic ingredients, customers’ preferences for the restaurant (over its rival) significantly drops to such an extent that customers are more willing to choose the competitor (i.e., rival restaurant with a conventional menu). Discussions and implications are further elaborated.     

How do monetary and time spend explain cultural tourist satisfaction?

Tourist expenditure is studied from many perspectives, including that of the two primary types of budget—monetary and temporal—that a tourist must manage in a destination. Yet, despite the scholarly interest in tourist expenditure, no studies to date have sought to quantify how spend type affects tourist satisfaction.Since money and time are finite, it is important to understand how they contribute to tourist satisfaction. The aim of the present research is therefore to analyze how tourist behavior in a cultural destination, taking into account the real-time spending of both monetary and time budgets, contributes to satisfaction-formation. A sample of 957 touristic activities conducted in the City of Granada (Spain) was analyzed from a multilevel perspective, measuring tourist satisfaction with the activity in real time.The study identifies several factors of interest for stakeholders of cultural tourism from a new conceptual and methodological approach in tourism satisfaction studies.     

Theme restaurants’ servicescape in developing quality of life: The moderating effect of perceived authenticity

This study was designed to investigate the role of servicescape, customer emotion, satisfaction, and perceived authenticity (PA) in the generation process of theme restaurant customers’ quality of life. We employed a survey methodology that used the data collected from theme restaurant customers, conducted structural analysis, and tested for metric invariance. Results showed that our theoretical model explained a sufficient amount of variance in overall quality of life; the hypothesized relationships in our research framework were generally supported; and customer emotion, satisfaction, and subjective well-being were significant mediators. Moreover, the proposed moderating impact of PA was partially supported. Overall, our empirical findings provide a significant contribution toward advancing the knowledge of how servicescape dimensions, customer emotion, satisfaction, subjective well-being, and quality of life are related. Finally, we share insight into how these relationships are affected by PA in the formation of theme restaurant customers’ quality of life.     

The effects of service climate and internal service quality on frontline hotel employees’ service-oriented behaviors

When employees in a service profit chain receive quality internal services, they provide quality services to external customers, but extant research does not address what connects internal and external services. This study espouses service climate as an integral part of the service profit chain by exploring its role in linking internal service management and external service performance, and the boundary conditions in which it operates. Data collected from 538 employees of 81 department managers in 24 Chinese hotels were examined using hierarchical linear modeling. Results suggest that managers’ commitment to service quality affects service climate through empowering leadership, service climate links empowering leadership and employee service-oriented behaviors, and external departments’ internal service quality strengthens the positive effect of service climate on service-oriented behaviors. This study advances the literature by integrating service climate and internal service quality into the service profit chain, helping hospitality managers understand how to foster service-oriented behaviors.     

How do advertising expenditures influence hotels’ performance?

Existing studies have shown a positive relationship between advertising and hotel room revenue. However, it is not clear through which channel advertising affects hotel revenue. We contribute to the literature by showing that advertising has a significant positive impact on hotel room price, but not on room occupancy. Thus, advertising affects room revenues through room price, not quantity demanded.     

How nutrition information frame affects parents’ perceptions of restaurants: The moderating role of information credibility

Adding easy-to-read information on menus is recommended for customers’ healthy food selections. But what format yields the best outcomes for restaurateurs has not been investigated. We use the emphasis framing effect as a theoretical lens to examine how the credibility of nutrition information affects parents’ perceptions of restaurant healthfulness and trustworthiness when exposed to two nutrition information frames on children's menus: numeric values only and numeric values with low-calorie symbols. The results of the experimental study show that parents who do not perceive nutrition information as being highly credible perceive restaurants providing numerical values only as more healthful and trustworthy. However, parents who do perceive nutrition information as being highly credible perceive restaurants as more healthful and trustworthy when both numeric values and low-calorie symbols are presented and have more positive perceptions overall. We advise restaurateurs to increase nutrition information credibility and provide additional easy-to-read information to elicit more positive perceptions.     

How do hotel employees’ feeling trusted and its differentiation shape service performance: The role of relational energy

Although prior literature has generally shown that feeling trusted plays a crucial role in boosting employee performance, little attention has been paid to exploring how and when feeling trusted promotes service performance. Borrowing from the Pygmalion effect and conservation of resources theory, we craft and scrutinize a cross-level framework elucidating why and when feeling trusted shapes service performance by pinpointing relational energy as a linchpin mechanism, and feeling trusted differentiation as a key contingency. A three-wave survey design is used to examine these assumptions with data culled from 505 hotel employee–leader dyads nested in 97 groups affiliated with 16 hotels in China. As anticipated, we found that feeling trusted can evoke high relational energy, which in turn improves service performance. In addition, these observed effects of feeling trusted become stronger when feeling trusted differentiation is low rather than high. Overall, we conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

How to win the consumer’s heart? Exploring appraisal determinants of consumer pre-consumption emotions

Emotions are key drivers of consumption in the tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, advancing our understanding of the determinants of consumer emotions is critical for tourism and hospitality marketers to effectively influence consumer affect-driven consumption behavior. However, research on the determinants of pre-consumption emotions remains under-explored. This study aims to fill the research gap and proposes a theoretical framework to explain affect-driven behavior. Grounded on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we hypothesize that marketing stimuli are personally appraised based on several dimensions such as novelty and goal relevance. These appraisal dimensions determine the elicitation of positive emotions, leading to behavioral intentions. A total of 655 participants were recruited for an empirical study to test this framework in the context of a tourism event experience. We use an experimental research design to examine consumer appraisals, emotions and behavioral intentions in four conditions: two marketing visual formats (poster vs. video) over two delivery channels (advertising vs. e-word-of-mouth). Research outcomes support the theoretical framework of consumer affect-driven behavior, suggesting that the elicitation of positive emotions beneficially guides consumer behavior in goal striving and novelty seeking. Based on this, emotion-focused marketing implications are recommended, including goal-based segmentation, goal-relevant content development and the use of eWOM as an emotion-enhancing message delivery channel.     

Do employees’ satisfied customers respond with an satisfactory relationship? The effects of employees’ satisfaction on customers’ satisfaction and loyalty in a family restaurant

The purpose of this study is to understand the interrelationships among employees’ satisfaction and customer's satisfaction and loyalty in a family restaurant. The study was administered to 69 employees and 258 customers. The results showed a positive relationship between employees’ satisfaction and customer satisfaction. However, employees’ satisfaction did not have a significant, direct impact on customer loyalty, but showed an indirect influence via customer satisfaction. In addition, customer satisfaction was positively associated with customer loyalty. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

Exploring the impact of personalized management responses on tourists’ satisfaction: A topic matching perspective

As an online reputation management tool, hotel managers increasingly rely on management responses to online reviews to improve the electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Due to the substantial heterogeneity of textual reviews with different topics, it is particularly challenging to personalize the response for customer relationship management. Based on a panel data of 500 hotels in the state of Texas collected from TripAdvisor, this study examines the influence of personalized management responses on rating increase from a topic matching perspective. The empirical results show that (1) a high level of topic matching of management response leads to an increase of hotel online rating; (2) a high valence and a large variation of existing rating weaken the positive influence of such personalized management response; (3) the influence is stronger for economy hotels compared to luxury ones. Lastly, practical implications are provided.     

Why is contemporary China still courting concubines? Exploring the reasons for Chinese audiences’ fascination with concubines’ infighting in television dramas

ABSTRACT

This note reports the results of a systematic exploration and evaluation of the reasons underlying the very high popularity among Chinese audiences of a particular television genre featuring infighting between concubines in ancient imperial courts. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 263 respondents to assess the value they perceived to earn from watching this type of drama. Factor analysis identified five categories of experiential value yielded from watching this genre, covering dimensions related to its exquisite visual and audio effects, intriguing plots, and aroused contemplations. Linear regression showed that experiential value positively predicted audience satisfaction with this type of drama and audience satisfaction affected their choice to make it a future leisure activity, despite the potential ban of this genre by the Chinese authorities. The findings suggest that Chinese audiences’ infatuation with dramas featuring concubine infighting expresses a dichotomy of both reflection and inflection of the realities of contemporary social and cultural dynamics, thereby articulating the unique functions of leisure in facilitating this social process.     

How do authenticity and quality perceptions affect dining experiences and recommendations of food trucks? The moderating role of perceived risk

A growing number of food trucks differentiate themselves in the competitive market by serving ethnic foods. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of customers’ authenticity and quality perceptions of ethnic food trucks on their memorable dining experience (MDE) and, consequently, word of mouth (WOM) while considering customers’ perceived risk. Data were collected from 540 customers who had dined at ethnic food trucks in the U.S. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicated that authenticity perceptions influence quality perceptions and dining satisfaction directly, and MDE indirectly through dining satisfaction. Moreover, dining satisfaction affects WOM directly as well as indirectly through MDE. Among the three dimensions of perceived risk, hygienic risk mitigates both of the relationships between authenticity perceptions and dining satisfaction as well as between quality perceptions and dining satisfaction. Implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.     

How does brand loyalty interact with tourism destination? Exploring the effect of brand loyalty on place attachment

The research examines to what extent emotional place attachment is impacted by people's feelings towards international companies associated with the place, and what mechanism and conditions drive such effects. The research draws on the feelings-as-information perspective and empirically tests the relationships in three international multi-method studies. The results demonstrate that brand loyalty plays a key role in place affective image and emotional place attachment. The study theorizes and empirically shows the importance of affect, authenticity, and cultural distance in such relationships. Critically, it enriches understanding of brand–place relationships and identify key boundary conditions. Tourism marketers need to appropriately manage perceptions of local brands' authenticity and consider cultural distance when designing destination campaigns in their efforts to strengthen place attachment.     

How do consumers’ perceptions differ across dimensions of corporate social responsibility and hotel types?

This study develops three hypotheses regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of the hotel industry. First, the study examines a ranking of consumers’ perceived importance of the four CSR dimensions proposed by Carroll’s hierarchy of CSR in 1991, expecting the following orders: philanthropic, ethical, legal, and economic dimensions, from most to least important. Second, the study investigates the relationship between consumers’ perceived importance of and their overall support for CSR. Third, the study introduces the type of hotel (for example, economy, mid-scale, and upscale) as a moderator to provide a better explanation of the relationship between consumers’ perceived importance of the CSR dimensions and support for CSR. Contributions to the CSR literature in general, and also specifically relating to the hotel context, and managerial implications are discussed.     

Customers’ perceptions of service quality: Do servers’ age stereotypes matter?

This study aims to explore whether various service quality conditions and age stereotypes would affect perceptions of service quality in customers of fine dining restaurants in Taiwan. This research also identifies the moderating effect of servers’ age stereotype, age in-group bias, and respondents’ age on perceived service quality. A total of 406 subjects participated in the study with 2 (scenarios of service quality: favorable vs. unfavorable) × 2 (ages of server: young vs. middle-aged) between-subjects factorial design. The results showed that the respondents’ perceived service quality of server with young appearance was better than the counterpart with middle-aged appearance on tangibles and reliability dimensions under favorable and unfavorable service quality conditions. However, the differences were not significantly affected by servers’ age stereotypes.     

How do Mainland Chinese travelers choose restaurants in Hong Kong?: An exploratory study of individual visit scheme travelers and packaged travelers

The introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), which allows Mainland Chinese travelers (hereafter called Chinese travelers) to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis, has been beneficial to the fast recovery of the local economy in Hong Kong from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The IVS travelers, together with the packaged travelers who visited Hong Kong by joining packaged tours, are presently forming the largest segment of inbound travelers to Hong Kong. Despite the significant economic contributions of Chinese travelers to Hong Kong in general, and to the foodservice sector in particular, there has been an absence of prior studies on IVS travelers’ behavior of selecting restaurants in the existing hospitality and tourism literature. This paper reports on an exploratory study that investigated the perceived importance of attributes that pertain to the selection of restaurants from the perspective of IVS and packaged travelers from Mainland China. Empirical findings of a questionnaire survey with 230 Chinese travelers, including 127 IVS travelers and 103 packaged travelers, showed that the respondents in general viewed the included attributes as relatively important. In addition, only two attributes exhibited significant differences between IVS and packaged travelers. Findings of this research would be useful for hospitality and tourism practitioners to better prepare for receiving the growing number of Chinese travelers.