Personalities of Travel Agents with Strong Sales Records in Taiwan

Studies have shown that a certain personality leads to higher job performance. This finding has led many companies to use personality traits when they hire employees. Despite abundant studies on personality, little is known about suitable personality traits for travel agents, especially in Taiwan. With 230 travel agents working in sales departments for corporate clients and transient travelers in Taiwan, their personalities, actual sales records, and managers’ performance evaluations were used to identify significant personality traits affecting job performance. The results reflect different personality traits for travel agents working with corporate clients and individual transient travelers. The results revealed that travel agents working with corporate contracts have strong commanding and continuative personalities but weak innovative and independent personalities. On the contrary, the agents working with transient travelers showed strong innovative, commending, independent, and sympathy personalities but a weak deliberate personality. Based on the findings, the implications are discussed.     

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.     

Comforts of group tours

Travel can confer high status in American life. As individual travel becomes more complicated, it is time to re-evaluate the potential of the tour group. Although the image is often still of polyester hordes descending on out-of-fashion watering holes and the ever more accessible seven wonders of the ancient world, the actuality is that tour groups come in all sizes and shapes and for purposes that often involve “work” and “study”. This article is an ethnographic account of the role of the group in the travel experience. Americans join tours to meet safe strangers, be guided by experts, meet counterparts, unfold their own personal identities, and learn how to be travelers, as well as to see strange sights and bring back souvenirs, photographs, and tans.     

Information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound travelers‐a comparison of business and leisure travelers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the information search behavior of Hong Kong's inbound tourists, in particular business and leisure travelers. The study clearly shows that business and leisure travelers demonstrate different information search behavior. ‘Personal experience,’ ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Airlines’ and the ‘Internet’ are most frequently relied upon by business travelers in searching for travel information, while leisure travelers prefer ‘Travel agency/tour company,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ The study also reveals that the total number of information sources used and the length of pre‐trip planning lead‐time are significantly different between these two groups of travelers. First time travelers also have a longer pre‐trip planning lead‐time than repeat travelers. Furthermore, business and leisure travelers perceive the levels of influence of several information sources, including ‘Corporate travel departments,’ ‘Friends or relatives,’ ‘Travel guide books,’ and the ‘Internet,’ differently. These information sources were classified into five different dimensions, including ‘Media,’ ‘Neutral,’ ‘Retail,’ ‘Interpersonal,’ and ‘Personal experience.’ Analysis based on travelers' purpose for traveling and demographic information was performed. Leisure travelers perceive the level of influence of ‘Neutral’ sources as significantly higher, and those with lower household incomes perceived the level of influence of ‘Personal experience’ as lower. The results of this study will allow marketers in Hong Kong to better understand travelers’ information search behavior so that they can more effectively tailor their marketing strategies to these two major markets.     

China's Generation Y's Expectation on Outbound Group Package Tour

This paper aims to identify China's Generation Y's (Gen Y) preference toward joining group package tour (GPT) when traveling abroad and explore their expectations on a number of service attributes. Six service attribute dimensions were identified through factor analysis, including: group leader/local guide(s), optional tour and shopping arrangement, safety, cleanness, and comfortableness, accommodation, activities, and shopping length and frequency. This study confirmed the importance of group leader/local guide(s) with a special emphasis on their honesty. It is found that current group and non-group travelers of Gen Y shared similar expectations on six service feature dimensions, while having different expectations on four service attributes: food hygiene, tour leader's emergency handle ability, Chinese food offering, and park as attraction choice. Results also showed that potential group travelers had higher concern over the factor of group leader/local guide(s) than non-group travelers.     

旅游合同解除制度的体系性解释

《旅游法》中的旅游合同解除制度,须结合《合同法》上的解除制度进行体系性解释。旅游合同的一般法定解除权应包括《合同法》第94条的规定。《旅游法》第67条的"不可避免事件",存在解释的空间。《旅游法》虽未明确旅游者的任意解除权,但无论是从合同性质路径还是合同具体内容导出合同义务路径,《旅游法》第65条都应被解释为旅游者任意解除权的依据。而旅游经营者的法定解除权,应秉持立法宗旨及旅游特性,对传染病、危害公共安全的物品、社会公德、违法活动等用语进行限定解释。在旅游合同解除效果上,应考虑到未履行部分费用、返程费用、履行利益及时间浪费赔偿的特殊性。     

Decision making by specialist luxury travel agents

We report an ethnographic study of specialist travel agents in luxury wildlife tourism. Agents consider 30 factors in 5 groups, related to client, destination, attraction, operator and agent. They consider the groups in sequence rapidly and intuitively. They are driven by a powerful regard for the high expectations of wealthy clients, and a sense of responsibility to the clients, but they assume authority over the decision. They rely on personal experience with each particular place and tourism product, and sell only what they know. One of their skills is to project themselves into the client's perspective so as to imagine a trip in great detail. This process contrasts strongly with the explicit deterministic approach used by retail travel agents in high-volume lower-priced subsectors, where earnings are driven by commission and incentive structures. For high-end agents, establishing long-term relationships of mutual trust with individual clients and tour operators is paramount.     

The grand tour: A key phase in the history of tourism

Although the Grand Tour has been examined by various disciplines, it has rarely been examined from the perspective of tourism studies. This paper begins with a review of previous work and concepts about the tour and then outlines some of its principal features based on an analysis of the primary sources of information: the diaries, letters, and journals of the travelers. Four aspects of the Grand Tour are then examined: the tourists, spatial and temporal aspects of the tour, and the gradual development of a tourist industry. The degree of continuity and change in the character of the tour is assessed and major changes are attributed primarily to the changing social class of the tourists. The 1820s and 1830s are identified as an important transition period in the development of a more formalized tourist industry.     

Breaking barriers for Bangladeshi female solo travelers

Asian Muslim women's travel habits are sorely under-researched. In response to various calls for research in this area, this study utilizes Hofstede's five cultural dimensions to determine how Bangladeshi cultural values inhibit and/or enhance travel constraints for solo Muslim female travelers and the subsequent effects on solo travel behavior. We propose solo travel as a strategic tourism development tool to achieve mobility rights and gender equality particularly for destinations that are highly populated with more women than men. Introducing an interpretivist qualitative approach, the study extracted both survey and open-ended responses from 307 frequent Bangladeshi solo travelers that were recruited from a women-only English-speaking Facebook Bangladeshi travel group. The findings reveal that this group is constrained by a unique combination of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural factors. Power-distance, masculinity, and uncertainty-avoidance also play key roles. Sustainable and practical applications are outlined for destination management organizations, travel planners, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and for-profit tour companies that benefit both Bangladeshi solo female travelers and those with whom they interact.     

Tour guide performances as sight sacralization

According to sociologist Dean MacCannell, sights are transformed into tourist attractions through five stages of “sight sacralization”: naming, framing and elevation, enshrinement, mechanical reproduction, and social reproduction. This paper hypothesizes that these stages of sight sacralization should have spoken correlates in the performances of tour guides. Through an ethnographic analysis of tour performances at the Lindheimer Home, this study shows how spoken correlates of these stages ritually transform an unimposing cottage into a valued cultural sight. The enshrinement stage, more than any other, has the potential to accomplish a ritual transformation of liminoid tourists into a state of communitas with the hostess and tour sight. The only sacralization stage without spoken correlates is mechanical reproduction. Yet the printed brochure serves as an analogue to tour performances. The paper suggests ideas for future studies of tour guide sacralization based on an examination of the structural oppositions and symbolic inversions which define types of tour performances.     

Preferences regarding external information sources: a conjoint analysis of visitors to Sardinia,Italy

Utilizing a conjoint analysis approach, this study aims to examine the relative importance of external information sources for female and male international and domestic travelers utilizing data collected from 719 tourists traveling to Sardinia (Italy). Overall, findings reveal that traditional word-of-mouth (i.e. family and friends), online review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor), and the online search engines are the most important external information sources for both domestic and international travelers. However, differences in importance tourists assign to each external source exist based on type of travel (domestic versus international) and gender (male versus female). For example, while traditional word-of-mouth, online review sites, and search engines are the three most important sources for domestic male travelers, the third most important information source for domestic female travelers is found to be printed tour guides. Contributions to the current body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for further research are provided.     

Motivations and perceived value of volunteer tourists from Hong Kong

This study examines the motivational factors and perceived value of Hong Kong volunteer tourists. The results of a focus group and in-depth interviews reveal five main motives for travelers to partake in volunteer trips: cultural immersion and interaction with the local people; desire to give back and show love and concern; a shared experience with family members and an educational opportunity for children; religious involvement; and escape from everyday life. The perceived value of these volunteer travelers includes personal growth and development, relationship enhancement, and change in perspective on life. The factors influencing their future decision to participate in volunteer tourism include time, financial ability, safety and health issues, arrangements and scale of the tour, and reputation of the organizer.     

Sustainability in the tour operator – ground agent supply chain

This research aims to identify, and critically understand, the key opportunities for and barriers against tour operators and their ground handlers sourcing and selling more sustainable tourism products. The study is framed in the literature of organisational culture and buyer–seller collaborations both downstream (sustainable supply chain management) and upstream (business-to-business marketing). Semi-structured interviews help to identify the tour operators’ barriers, opportunities and key decision-making criteria. The findings suggest that a supportive organisational culture is a prerequisite to success for companies that wish to scale up the volume of sustainable products they source and sell. Sustainability only sells when it contributes to an organisation’s ability to meet its requirement of quality of service, especially in relation to suitability of the products to its target markets and reinforcing professional and trustworthy relationships. For services that are keenly priced, and/or that have tight health and safety regulations, buyers and sellers often lack the motivation to consider sustainability requirements unless they are clearly valued and marketed. Business-to-business marketing requires suppliers to understand the relative importance of sustainability to each of their buyers and, in response, to develop appropriate arguments to explain the importance of sustainability within their buyers’ organisational needs.     

Evaluating the Utility of Touristic Information Sources for Planning Midwest Vacation Travel

Researchers in tourism have identified the information sources used most often by travelers in an effort to develop more efficient ways to communicate with potential visitors. The goal of this study was to extend our knowledge in this area by investigating the extent to which travelers actually use various information sources for planning Midwest vacations. The study clearly identified those information sources for planning trips. Furthermore, demographic analyses indicate that segments exist which derives greater utility from particular travel information sources. Simulation analyses were then used to evaluate alternative marketing communication strategies.     

Packaging a Resort: An Analysis of Japanese Ski Holiday Package Tour Brochures

Summary

This paper examines the characteristics of contemporary Japanese package tourism, through an analysis of tour brochures. The brochures are analyzed in terms of functional components of the tours, as well as the visual images that are represented. Drawing on a sample of 15 brochures that contain winter ski package holidays for Japanese travelers in Whistler, British Columbia (Canada), this study identifies several key elements in the promotion of Japanese package tourism. These elements include the lean and flexible nature of the functional components of package tours, and the use of both concrete, and abstract images of tourists and tour experiences in the brochures.     

Understanding tourist preferences for travel packages: a conjoint analysis approach

Tourism is one of the most economically vital sectors in India, contributing around 122 billion USD to the Gross Domestic Product in the recent past. Tour packages are extensively used by travel agencies to attract potential clients and expand their customer base. Hence, the design of tour packages which cater to a wide range of tourists poses to be a challenging problem for travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to identify the important factors while deciding a particular travel package, as recognised by Indian tourists. A comprehensive survey was conducted to collect the data and a conjoint analysis method was used to analyse consumer preferences and marginal willingness to pay depending on their socio-economic backgrounds. The present findings and implications will help tour operators to understand their customers better and thereby design more appealing travel packages.     

Looking for something real: Affective encounters

This paper recounts a “Roots” tour of Ghana that took place in 2014. Roots tours are African tours specifically marketed toward African-American travelers. Tours include stops associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as sites of a more general cultural interest. The paper focuses on the encounters of tourists with Ghana. Specifically, this study uses Benjamin's concept of auras of authenticity to demonstrate that the authentic and affective are inextricably coupled and that both perform as essential constituents in place and memory making. This work relies on readings and interpretations of travelers' aspects (emotional expressions) as well as their sentiments as expressed in their speech and their writings. These manifestations of affect are captured through participant observation, interviews, photographs, and autoethnography. The findings of this study suggest that experiences of authenticity along with affective materials and landscapes work to bind memory to moment and place.     

Long-haul and short-haul outbound all-inclusive package tours

Most long-haul and short-haul outbound travelers in Hong Kong purchase all-inclusive package tours through travel agencies. Thus, it is important for travel agencies to understand the criteria used by travelers to select package tours. This study aims to identify these criteria, and to investigate the differences between these two groups of travelers. The sample size was 200. The results show that personal safety and the guarantee of a promised departure date were the most important selection criteria for the travelers. Prospective long-haul travelers were more concerned with product features and the quality of counseling, and were less sensitive to price than were short-haul travelers.     

The Importance of Food Safety in Travel Planning and Destination Selection

Summary

This study investigates the strength of the relationship between the destination choices of respondents and the perceived risk of food-borne illnesses, as well as respondents' sources of information regarding food safety prior to traveling. Results indicate that food safety was of secondary importance to respondents with frequent travelers more willing to discount the use of food safety in their travel decisions. Female respondents were likely to regard food safety as more important than their male counterparts. Africa was the top region that most respondents would avoid due to food safety concerns. Friends and relatives, travel agents, and magazines and newspapers were the most common sources turned to for health and food safety information. Travel agents were not perceived as a reliable source of food safety information.