Asian and Western Cultural Differences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical structural equation model using LISREL to determine whether cultural differences between international Asian tourists and their Australian hosts are predictors of tourist satisfaction. The study examines the way in which cultural values, rules of social behavior and perceptions of service providers influence tourist preferences for social interaction and satisfaction with tourist-host contact.

The comparison of the cultural differences goes beyond merely helping to answer the question of whether there are cultural differences and to what extent these differences vary. The paper determines the dimensions of cultural differences between these two populations. A LISREL model is used to identify the strength of the relationships between the cultural dimensions and their key indicators. Further, the study identifies the nature of the causal relationships between the cultural dimensions. The results indicate that differences in cultural values and rules of social behavior between Asian tourists and Australian hosts directly influence tourist satisfaction, and differences in perceptions of service providers directly influence tourist social interaction. Perceptions of service providers only indirectly determine satisfaction, through the mediating effect of interaction. Implications of the study results for marketers and directions for future research are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Differences in Tourism: A Strategy for Tourism Marketers

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of understanding cultural differences for developing positive tourist-host contact and, consequently, enhancing tourist holiday satisfaction and repeat visitation. The cultural differences between Korean tourists and Australian service providers are identified and dimensions of these differences are determined by principal components analysis. The strength of the relationships between the cultural dimensions and their critical indicators is measured by using structural equation modeling Submodel 1. The results indicate that the most critical dimensions of cultural difference between Australian hosts and Korean tourists are: communication and understanding the tourist, display of feelings, interaction and idealism. Their critical indicators are identified. The implications of the results for tourism industry marketers are presented.     

Impacts of exported Turkish soap operas and visa-free entry on inbound tourism to Turkey

We examine the main determinants of the recent boost in the number of tourist inflows to Turkey, focussing on the indirect marketing effect of the Turkish soap operas exported abroad and recent changes in the Turkish government's foreign policies. Applying a traditional tourist demand gravity model, we explore that the recent increase in the popularity of the Turkish soap operas in the Middle East and Eastern Europe has boosted the number of inbound tourists to Turkey from those countries, and as the number of hours of Turkish soap operas aired in a particular country increases, the tourist flows from that country to Turkey increase as well. We also consider the Turkish government's recent bilateral agreements with other countries to waive the visa requirements for ordinary foreign visitors, and indicate that the termination of visa requirements has increased the tourist flows from those countries to Turkey.     

The Impact of a Sport Mega-Event on Destination Image

Abstract

There is intense competition to host sports mega-events as cities and countries perceive that doing so will enhance their global image and make the destination more attractive to future tourists. Is there empirical evidence to prove that hosting a mega sport event really does stimulate international visitation and enhance the destination's image? In this paper we investigate this question in relation to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. To this end, 412 foreign tourists were surveyed during the World Cup about their image of South Korea. Differences in demographics, motive and perceptions between tourists travelling specifically for the World Cup, and those coming to South Korea for non-World Cup-related reasons, are noted. The study provides a baseline dataset from which future research on megasports events can build.     

Strategies for minimising tourism leakages in Indo‐Chinese development countries

For developing countries in Indo‐China embarking on tourism for economic growth, their success hinges on minimizing three types of tourism leakages, namely financial, structural, and operational leakages. This paper proposes financing and market strategies for those countries to reduce tourism leakages. The strategies suggest that Indo‐Chinese developing countries should target fairly‐developed countries in Asia as their main capital markets and tourist feeders at the early stage of tourism development. In later phases of tourism growth and expansion, they may seek tourism capital and tourists from both fairly‐developed and well‐developed countries. The recent Asian financial crisis has presented new challenges to Asia Pacific tourism. It may, however, create opportunities for developing countries in Indo‐China to attract more regional tourists and investors and reduce tourism leakages.     

Latin American Tourism

Summary

Blessed with a great diversity of natural and cultural assets, the countries of Latin America should be thriving as international tourist destinations. The reality is, however, that the region is a long way from reaching its full potential. This paper reports the findings of a survey that investigated the reasons why Australian travel agents and tour operators thought that Latin America was receiving so few tourists from Australia. The main finding of the study was that there is a lack of knowledge among travel agents about the Latin American region. Many of them could only identify a limited number of tourist attractions in the region. While the study has an Australian focus, the authors suggest that the barriers underlying the lack of international demand for Latin American tourism products are similar to those that exist in other potential source markets.     

Understanding the Relationship of Service Fairness,Emotions, Trust,and Tourist Behavioral Intentions at a City Destination in China

This study presents a cognitive appraisal model that identifies consumption emotions and trust as key mediators in the relationship between perceived service fairness and behavioral intentions (i.e., revisit intentions and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals). The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed to examine empirically a conceptual tourist behavior model using questionnaires answered by 541 tourists in Xiamen, a “garden city” in China. The findings confirmed the mediating role of emotions and trust, which imply that the travel behavioral intentions formation process is both an emotional experience process and a relationship building process between tourists and the destination service providers. By understanding the relationship and linkages between perceived service fairness and behavioral intentions, city managers, urban tourism managers, and service providers can formulate more effective marketing strategies to strengthen tourists’ loyalty, revisit and WOM referral intentions.     

The moderating role of nationality on destination experience

ABSTRACT

Differences in tourists’ cultural values are significant factors in their product and service choices, yet they have generally been neglected in the literature. Therefore, this study examined how tourists’ nationalities influence their perceptions of service quality, affective image perceptions, and revisiting intentions. Activities were found to be more determinant on a destination’s affective image for Russian tourists, whereas accommodation, hospitality, and language communication services had a larger effect on German tourists.     

Servicescape and shopping value: the role of negotiation intention,social orientation,and recreational identity at the Istanbul Grand Bazaar,Turkey

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the influence of negotiation intention, recreational shopper identity, and social shopping orientation on both servicescape and visitors’ overall shopping value in the Istanbul Grand Bazaar, Turkey. We developed and tested a conceptual model using a sample of 300 international visitors to the Bazaar. The results demonstrate that bargaining intention, recreational functions, and social interactions influence servicescape. This implies that, when tourists are motivated by bargain hunting, recreation, and socialisation, their attitude towards the shopping environment is more positive, which subsequently results in increased overall shopping value. Implications for managerial practice are also presented alongside suggestions for future research.     

The role of travel agents’ ethical concerns when brokering information in the marketing and sale of sustainable tourism

ABSTRACT

Using conservation tourism as a test case, this study explores the role high-end travel agents play in selling sustainable tourism. It examines a niche marketing activity in that process. The study focuses on agents’ consideration of ethics as they act as information brokers between tourists and operators. Data were collected from interviews with agents and analysed using a deductive content analysis based on six overarching concepts and theories on ethical decision-making. The findings emphasize the implicit influence within conservation tourism of tourism's ethical dimensions, whilst identifying many constraints that prevent a full consideration and/or disclosure of ethical concerns in the sales process. Most importantly, agents made assumptions using a false consensus bias about clients' preferences for service over concerns for the environment, and were not prepared to discuss the more sensitive issues surrounding conservation with their clients. A number of recommendations are proposed regarding the need to unpack conservation information, overcome the false consensus bias, and agents’ reluctance to discuss ethics in the sales process. Finally, the findings have broader implications for the development of sustainable tourism, which ultimately will depend on a dialogue of ethical concerns and values within the tourism supply chain between suppliers, brokers and tourists.     

Destination brand experience and visitor behavior: the mediating role of destination brand identification

ABSTRACT

Destination branding has emerged as a critical tool for achieving competitive advantage through various conceptualizations, focusing on various aspects of branding. This research examines the role of destination brand experience (DBE), a new conceptualization, in assessing the holistic and unified view of tourism destinations. The conceptual model proposed in this research has been validated using structural equation modeling, based on the primary responses collected from 312 and 262 foreign visitors for study 1 and study 2 respectively, conducted at two different tourism destinations in India. Findings of both the studies suggest that various dimensions of DBE have a varied influence on destination brand identification (DBI), which subsequently affects both tourists’ trust and loyalty toward tourism destinations. In addition, DBI emerges as an important mediator for the relationship between DBE and destination trust (DT) as well as DBE and destination loyalty (DL). The study provides several implications for destination marketers about building trust and loyalty among tourists using DBE and DBI.     

Employees' Perceptions of Performance Appraisal

ABSTRACT

In spite of the importance of performance appraisal for hotels to evaluate their employees, the existing hospitality literature largely covers studies in Western countries only. Prior studies have rarely investigated the issue of performance appraisal in the context of China, the world's largest potential market for generating tourists and receiving tourists. This paper reports on a study that used focus group interviews with employees in an upscale hotel in Hong Kong, a special administrative region in China, on their views of the appraisal system that has been used. Research findings reveal that the system could be further improved.     

Shopping destination competitiveness: scale development and validation

ABSTRACT

As shopping becomes ever more important to tourists, this interest increasingly drives their destination choices. That is, shopping tourists tend to consider destinations to be more attractive and competitive if they offer key shopping resources. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a measurement scale for shopping destination competitiveness, which can provide an identification of shopping- and destination-specific attributes and dimensions. In theoretical terms, this study contributes to the literature by integrating a model of destination competitiveness with a servicescape model and with the current Globe Shopping Index, to investigate shopping destinations at a macro-level. Five hundred and twenty-three usable samples were obtained for data analysis. The findings suggest that shopping destination competitiveness has nine key dimensions: shopping atmosphere, merchandise, store service orientation, affordability, Korean pop culture, safety climate, accessibility, government promotion, and attractiveness.     

Service robots or human staff: How social crowding shapes tourist preferences

Service providers in tourism and hospitality are beginning to welcome robots as a customer service option. Given this trend, it is important to explore the factors driving tourists' willingness to adopt such new technology. This study focuses on the role of crowding, an environmental factor widely observed in destinations susceptible to over-tourism, in shaping tourists' willingness to adopt service robots. Based on one survey and two experiments, the present research demonstrates that a destination which is more (vs. less) crowded generally motivates tourists to favor robot-provided services rather than those from human staff. Furthermore, findings reveal that this pattern manifests because more (vs. less) social crowding reduces tourists’ motivation to interact with others, as evidenced by social withdrawal tendency.     

The Role of Family Members in the Family Holiday Purchase Decision-Making Process

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the role of family members in the purchase decision-making process of domestic tourists in Turkey.

In addition to a literature review in the field, a number of research methods, including initial exploratory interviews with tourists, observations at travel agencies, focus group studies and final interviews with consumers, have been carried out to find out various roles played by family members in the purchase of family holidays. The findings of the research indicate that in the purchase of family holidays in the Turkish domestic market, wives have a significant role in a number of purchase tasks.

Women appear to be particularly influential in the purchase tasks such as information search, information processing and determination of a specific package holiday to be purchased in the purchase of family holidays. This means that marketers need to take these significant roles played by women in the purchase of holidays into account in designing holiday products and marketing communications messages.     

Service robots and perceived discrimination in tourism and hospitality

This study explores the influences of the incorporation of service robots in the service delivery systems of tourism and hospitality companies on the perceived discrimination of tourists and tourism employees. In doing so, a conceptual framework is proposed to explain the relationships between robots-based service delivery systems in tourism and hospitality (e.g., fully robotised and mixed service delivery systems) and discrimination. This paper demonstrates that although service robots may be advantageous in eliminating/mitigating perceived discrimination (from employees to tourists, tourists to tourists, tourists to employees, employer/employee to employee), using robots can also create or aggravate perceived discrimination. Though this study is the first attempt on the subject and presents beneficial knowledge for tourism and hospitality service providers and service robot designers, future empirical studies could shed more light on the relationship between robots-based service delivery systems and discrimination in the tourism and hospitality context.     

Using Performance Measurements to Explore the Influence of Service Quality Dimensions on Customer's Perception of Overall Value of a Nature Based Tourism Outfitter

ABSTRACT

Customers of leisure services have increased their expectations of experience providers in recentyears. As the competition among service providers has increased for customers, service providers have begun to focus efforts on assessing the quality of the experiences they provide for their guests. Using the findings from their investigations, leisure service providers seek to modify current program offerings, add new experiences that enhance the perceived quality of their experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of using service performance measurements to determine if customer's perception's of service performance significantly predicts their perception of trip value, likeliness to recommend, and likeliness to repurchase from the same outfitter, and overall quality in the context of white water rafting. A total of 309 guests of an outfitter were surveyed for this study. Service performance was measured within the context of four company-specific dimensions (Reservation, Transportation. Facilities, and Guides). MANOVA and discriminant analyses were used to test each of the four hypotheses. Results of the MANOVA revealed that reservations, facilities, transportation and guides do significantly predict, overall perceived value, the likelihood to recommend the experience next year, and overall quality. However, only transportation and facilities were significant when asked about repurchasing the trip from the same outfitter next year. The strongest predictor resulting from the discriminant analyses for three variables (overall perceived value, the likelihood to recommend these outfitters and overall quality) was reservations. In contrast the strongest predictor of repurchasing the experience from the same outfitter was transportation.     

Tourist Motives and Destination Competitiveness: A Gap Analysis Perspective

This study explores the use of gap analysis in examining the demand-side and supply-side perceptions of international tourists’ motives for visiting Botswana, along with Botswana’s competitiveness as a tourist destination. Statistically significant negative gaps between tourists and tourism providers’ perceptions mean that further understanding of tourists by providers is necessary to enhance the destination’s competitiveness. The analysis of findings was based on 14 “pull” motivations adapted from Kozak (2002) and 104 destination competitiveness measures, some of which were adapted from Omerzel (2006). Factor analysis, reliability analysis, and a series of independent t-tests were used to analyze the data. Study results indicate that tourists visit Botswana mainly for pleasure seeking rather than culture. The study further reveals that Botswana’s competitiveness as a destination is average. Furthermore, the study found statistically significant differences between tourists and tourism providers on all of the “push” factors and nine of the 15 destination competitiveness factors. In order for Botswana to be globally competitive, there is need for further improvement with a view to match international tourists’ expectations. Particular attention should be directed at improving the way the destination is managed. Further developments should be made on created resources, safety, demand conditions, historical and cultural heritage resources, organized excursions, and cleanliness.     

Explaining tourists´ attitudes to environmental support: a multilevel approach

This article contributes to a better understanding of tourists’ attitudes to environmental support when they make their holiday plans. Modelling these decisions is a challenge because although environmental concerns are heterogeneous across countries, they also depend on the individual characteristics of the tourists from each country. This article uses a multilevel approach, using a two-level structure, in which individuals are nested into countries. This approach may be helpful for understanding the contextual and compositional effects simultaneously. The estimates from a two-level random intercept logistic model and the post-estimation analysis, based on non-parametric techniques, demonstrate that the effects of country vary randomly, and that there is significant variance in the level of tourists´ environmental support within and between countries. Regarding the contextual effect, the post-materialist hypothesis explained most of the heterogeneity between the EU-27 countries. The affluence hypothesis was rejected and the challenge response hypothesis was only partially supported. The results from the compositional effect support the attribution hypothesis, demonstrating that the environmental concern of tourists is higher when travelling domestically than abroad.