The Japanese Travel Life Cycle

Summary

This paper offers an alternative way of segmenting a non-western travel market, namely, the Japanese outbound market. The segmentation schema comprises several institutionalised forms of travel likely to be undertaken by a Japanese individual in the course of his or her life. Coined the ‘travel life cycle,' the concept fits Japanese society well due to the highly organized and group-oriented patterns of travel that have emerged over the past one hundred years. While this form of segmentation is unlikely to be usefully applied to western travel markets, its application in the Japanese context may suggest that it has relevance when examining the travel patterns of other tradition-bound and group-oriented Asian travel markets such as Korea, China or Indonesia. The paper's conceptual contribution lies in the implicit suggestion that particular cultures may develop and exhibit unique forms of consumption behavior that lie outside the conceptual framework normally adopted by western academics and marketing practitioners. Manageri-ally, the paper suggests ways by which tourism operators and tourism promotion bodies can more efficiently and effectively target Japanese travellers according to the stage of travel life cycle.     

The Influence of Travel Motives on Visitor Happiness Attending a Wedding Expo

Events are an important motivator in travel and tourism, therefore contributing to related benefits at the tourism destination. This study presents the findings of a structural equation model used to investigate the factors that motivate visitors attending a Wedding Expo and how these travel motives influence their happiness. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to visitors attending the Wedding Expo in Johannesburg, South Africa. The data from 375 (N) eligible questionnaires was captured and analyzed using SPSS. From the study’s findings, managerial recommendations were made with the aim of maximising the happiness of visitors attending the Wedding Expo. The study found that satisfaction with life and happiness of visitors attending a Wedding Expo is enhanced more by the event’s attributes/attractiveness and enhancement of kinship/relationship than by the event’s novelty. The research contributes to the literature related to events management, happiness, and marketing management in tourism.     

旅行社质量保证金制度的重构

旅行社质量保证金是用于保障旅游者权益的专用款项.它对保证旅游质量、减少旅游纠纷、降低交易风险发挥了一定作用,但保证金制度设计的缺陷,致其功能远未充分彰显.本文从保证金制度的性质及功能出发,分析其实施中存在的问题,最后提出具体的重构措施和方法.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Travel Push and Pull Factors

Abstract

Tourism marketers are confronted with the dilemma of whether standardization or the tailoring of services, products and marketing programs for specific markets is more effective and efficient. It remains to be addressed in tourism research whether travelers from varying cultural backgrounds seek different travel benefits and have different preferences for travel products and services, and to what extent they are similar in their travel behaviors. This research study used national household travel surveys conducted by the Canadian Tourism Commission and U.S. Tourism Industries for a cross-cultural comparison of two different countries, the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Japan. Results showed that travelers from these two countries had different travel motives and benefit-seeking patterns. From a marketing perspective, the branding and positioning of a destination for U.K. and Japanese long-haul travel markets will be more effective if the destination marketing organization (DMO) projects different images within its advertising campaigns. These images should reflect the different travel motivations and benefits desired by the two groups of travelers.     

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.     

The Role of Chinese Students as Tourists and Hosts for Overseas Travel

With more visas being granted and application processes streamlined, more Chinese students are studying abroad. These students have an influential and continuing effect on the host country's tourism industry over and above their own education-related activities and expenditures because they attract family members and friends to visit the countries where they study. Unfortunately, the research on the role of Chinese students as hosts for overseas travel is quite limited. Therefore, this paper provides some insights into this issue by looking at the influence of students' satisfaction on their role as hosts for the friends and family sector while also providing some data on the students' own holiday motives and assessments of New Zealand. The data were derived from 504 self-completed surveys by Chinese students from four universities in North Island, New Zealand. Evidence was found of students fulfilling a number of roles as guides, sources of information and acting as hosts, but the relationships between their own holiday experiences and satisfaction and the degree to which they fulfilled these roles was weak at best, indicating, therefore, the importance of other variables.     

A Holistic Approach to Understanding the Use of Travel Guidebooks: Pre-, During,and Post-Trip Behavior

This study proposed a holistic approach to understanding the usage of travel guidebooks. Guidebooks were revealed to outperform other travel information sources in the stages of “during” and “post-travel” but lost their competitiveness in the pre-trip planning to the Internet, especially on the search for information on destination and accommodation. A factor analysis on an 18-item instrument concluded that travelers possess six underlying need dimensions when using guidebooks: reflective, security, confirming, destination, itinerary, and functional needs. Therefore, recommendations were provided for practitioners to reconsider the positioning of travel guidebooks when formulating product development and marketing strategies.     

Travel Personae of American Pleasure Travelers: A Network Analysis

Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this study it is argued that the portfolio of trips (specifically, the portfolio of various trip styles) one takes can be used to describe his/her overall travel persona. Network analysis was used to examine the structural relationships between types of trips based upon the assumption that each travel style may be considered as a “node,” and its association with other travel styles may be represented by the links within the network. Analyses indicate that American travelers take on a wide range of different travel personae which, in turn, are related to their choices of places visited and their response to advertising materials. It was concluded that the framework provided by these findings along with new tools on the Internet offer the potential to develop highly personalized communications with existing and potential visitors.     

Travel motivations and destination choice: A study of British outbound market

Abstract

Knowledge of people's travel motivations and its association with destination selection plays a critical role in predicting future travel patterns. The objectives of this study were to uncover the underlying push and pull factors of motivation associated with British outbound pleasure travelers as well as to identify key motivational factors that have significant effects on destination choice. Six push factors and five pull factors were found. “Knowledge seeking” and “cleanliness & safety” were perceived as the most important push and pull factors respectively. The results of logistic regression analyses snowed that the British tend to visit the U.S. for “fun & excitement” and “outdoor activities,” Oceania for “family & friend togetherness,” and Asia to seek a “novel experience.” The findings of differential motivational factors across seven destinations suggest that a destination can capitalize on its strengths with an optimal combination of push and pull factors to attract and retain the British travelers.     

Mediating Perceived Travel Constraints: The Role of Destination Image

This study assessed the mediating effects of destination image on the relationship between travel constraints and intention to visit. Structural equation modeling identified that destination image mediates between travel constraints and intention to visit, and thereby the negative impact of perceived constraints on intention to visit could be alleviated through the mediating effect of destination image. Thus, travelers can find the means to alleviate travel constraints through a negotiation mechanism. The findings provide practical implications for effective destination marketing programs in that the negative impact from travel constraints can, to a great extent, be mitigated.     

Determinants of Domestic Travel Expenditure in South Korea

Summary

This study examines factors affecting domestic Korean tourist expenditure per person. Independent variables include family size, Per Capita Gross National Product (GNP), number of cars, number of working hours, number of years of education, previous year's domestic travel expenditure, and exchange rate. A 21-year historical data were used in the study. Two estimation methods, principal components regression and ridge regression, were employed in this study to eliminate the problems of multicollinearity caused by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. The empirical results show that number of working hours, family size, and number of years of education turned out to be important factors affecting domestic travel expenditure.     

Quality Selection Criteria of Travel Intermediaries

ABSTRACT

The study explores the selection criteria conducted by travel agencies, evaluating travel intermediaries (destination tour operator) founded on the visionary perspectives of product managers and front-line employees (tour leaders) of Taiwanese travel agencies. Statistically, data accumulated from the 36 product managers and 36 tour leaders by the critical incident technique indicates that local coaches, drivers, and local guides are monumental on group package tour (GPT) service sectors. Meanwhile, another critical issue being scrutinized is the selection scenarios, as to which prices are exponentially executed by product managers, whereas tour leaders tend to be destination tour operator qualities-oriented fundamentally. In order to enhance the destination tour operator service qualities, the research conducts relatively objective selection criteria in selecting the well-qualified and appropriate travel intermediaries as commissioners on the cutting edge travel agencies domain. More substantially, the revealed scenarios of destination tour operators supply the populously rivalous market, China, a relatively credential reference on selecting the well-suited Travel Intermediaries.     

参团游客对旅行社服务质量的期望与感知实绩研究

关于参团游客对旅行社服务质量的预期和感知实绩的研究是改进旅行社服务质量,提高游客满意度的理论依据.本研究通过紧急事件访谈与问卷调查的方法,对参团游客对旅行社服务质量的期望与实际感知进行了研究,并利用IPA方法进行了分析探讨.结论认为,参团游客对旅行社服务质量主要关注产品服务质量、营业点服务质量、导游服务质量和营销服务质量,其中产品设计质量尤为重要;但游客的总体感知实绩并不理想,12个要素均需进一步改进,其中导游导购服务、产品种类多样化、价格公道和导游讲解水平是目前我国旅行社服务质量改进的关键因素,这一结论对旅行社服务质量改进具有现实意义.     

我国旅行社低价竞争后果及对策

旅行社通过低价竞争获取市场份额的同时,造成了对旅游市场、旅行社及其从业人员严重的负面影响。遏制低价竞争必须借助法律、行政、经济的手段,从源头上根治低价格竞争,实现旅行社价格竞争的理性回归。对策包括:建立以服务质量为核心的监管体系,采取堵疏结合的方式,树立旅行社行业的良好的社会形象,给从业人员以信心,引导广大游客理性消费。     

旅行社集团内部业绩评价体系研究

当前旅行社集团蓬勃发展,如何实现集团的系统效应,对所属各个分社进行科学而有效的业绩评价成为十分重要的管理手段.本文在分析目前研究的基础上,从旅行社行业特征角度,提出旅行社集团内部业绩评价体系应综合考虑集团投资者利益、员工和旅游者利益以及旅行社业务流程特征等因素,并在此基础上详细论述了旅行社集团内部业绩评价指标体系.     

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.     

居民出游决策行为与家庭结构的关系探讨--以宁夏回族自治区为例

出游市场是旅游市场的细分市场之一，从家庭结构角度探讨居民出游决策行为的论文在我国目前为数不多。本文以宁夏居民的5000份抽样调查问卷结果为例，分析了居民出游行为与家庭结构的关系。这里的家庭结构包括三代同堂家庭、两代同堂家庭、夫妻二人家庭及单身家庭4种情形。本文从不同家庭的出游时间、出游计划、出游方式、出游心理、对旅游资源的偏好等方面整体性地分析了不同家庭的出游特征，进而通过对宁夏居民区外、区内出游行为空间的分析，得出不同家庭结构出游的行为规律。最后指出这一分析在旅游产品开发、旅游市场营销、旅游市场开发等方面的重要意义。     

家庭旅游决策研究的中国化理论视角与分析思路

家庭作为社会结构的基础单元,一直是社会科学领域的重点研究对象。比较而言,国外旅游研究领域虽长期重视家庭旅游决策研究,但其理论成果的本土化应用仍值得质疑,重要原因之一是不同社会文化背景下消费者行为内涵与表现的独特性。由此,文章在国外相关研究成果的分析上提出了家庭旅游决策研究的本土化理论视角（现象学视角——发现问题;社会学与心理学视角——提炼与解析问题;管理学视角——解决问题）与分析思路（家庭结构;意识形态;内容与结构组成）。以期该命题的中国本土化研究能归于本源,凸显中国本土社会文化下家庭旅游决策行为的基本风貌。     

A Webometric Analysis of Travel Blogs and Review Hosting: The Case of Catalonia

Today, destination-marketing organizations and researchers are increasingly focusing their attention on travel blogs and reviews due to their potential for projecting the image of a specific destination and for influencing travel behavior and decision making. However, the criteria used to select the Web sites hosting travel blogs and reviews for study are unclear, and very few quantitative or demographic studies about users (bloggers and readers) have been conducted. The aim of this study is to propose a method in which a webometric analysis is used to select the most suitable Web sites for a specific case study and to obtain information about users. The proposed webometric analysis consists of an integrated formula including visibility, popularity, and size metrics. This method was used to rank 11 suitable Web sites for studying the case of Catalonia.     

The Impact of the Internet on Travel Agencies in Hong Kong

Abstract

In recent years, the travel and tourism industry has begun to develop Internet applications more extensively. Many travel service suppliers, such as hotels and airline companies, already use the Internet as a direct channel for customer reservations. The integration of the Internet into the travel and tourism industry, however, presents a challenge towards the traditional role of travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to find out what impact the Internet has on travel agencies in Hong Kong. Outcomes of this research indicate that travel agents generally have positive attitudes towards Internet applications, and the potential threat-disintermediation-has not yet affected the travel industry. Travel agents believe that they can take advantage of the Internet technology to provide value-added services for their customers. Outcomes of the present study also indicate that there are significant relationships between company size, age and some Internet attributes. Travel agencies should therefore pay more attention to these attributes when adopting Internet technology.