Converging Services Marketing and Tourism Approaches in Satisfaction and Service Quality Research

ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to converge the utilitarian or provider-based concept of service quality and the experiential or customer-based concept of satisfaction. It presents two empirical projects which examined visitor's service quality and satisfaction judgements by alternative methodological approaches. The first is a quantitative study of visitor's assessment of historic houses, illustrating that quality and satisfaction concepts can be successfully combined into a model of the means-end chain type. The second is a qualitative study of visitor's narrative assessment of successive service experiences, highlighting the various functions of service quality aspects during the entire holiday stay. Finally, the authors argue that these kinds of approaches may contribute to the academic debate on satisfaction and service quality constructs, and will equally open up new opportunities for service and destination marketers in tourism.     

Customer Satisfaction with Korean Restaurants in Australia and Their Role as Ambassadors for Tourism Marketing

This is the first study to explore the connection between Australian residents’ satisfaction with Korean cuisine, the various characteristics of the restaurant experience, and Australians’ intention to visit Korea. Data was collected from customers of 16 Korean restaurants in the state of Queensland, Australia. While four factors (facility, menu, service, and food) were derived as selection attributes, menu factors had the most positive effect on customer satisfaction. The study found a positive correlation between satisfaction with local Korean food and the propensity of diners to think about visiting Korea. The results of this study can be used to enhance competitiveness and tourist marketing for Korea. The results reported here may have a broader application to provide effective managerial and marketing information to many other ethnic restaurants in Australia and beyond.     

Malaysia's Tourism Development and Marketing

Abstract

Malaysia has proven itself as one of the most successful and fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. Being one of the world's greatest undiscovered and unexplored countries, there exists a vast tourism development potential in Malaysia. The Malaysian government in recent years has placed unprecedented importance on the role of tourism in its economic development process. This article reviews recent developments in tourism development and marketing efforts in Malaysia.     

Destination Marketing: Measuring the Effectiveness of Brochures

Abstract

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study defining effectiveness for assessing impacts of brochures. Using data collected from 2,400 information-inquirers of a destination, five major variables are identified to be important for measuring effectiveness: readership, on-site consultation of brochure, influence on decision-making, influence on spending, prior experience of the destination. Implications and recommendations are discussed for developing quality brochures and marketing strategies.     

The Marketing Planning Index: A Tool for Measuring Strategic Marketing Effectiveness

Abstract

Managers practice in a consistently changing environment necessitating the need for an effective strategic marketing process. Nevertheless, measurement of marketing effectiveness has tended to be ignored in the literature. This study proposes a new managerial tool called the marketing planning index, which measures the effectiveness of marketing. The tool is tested on the service industry-in this case the hotel sector. Our findings indicate that the marketing planning index is a simple but powerful managerial tool that helps develop the diagnostic information needed to generate corporate and business level initiatives designed to improve strategic marketing effectiveness.     

Tourism Crises and Marketing Recovery Strategies

SUMMARY

The recent frequency and intensity of crises and disasters affecting the tourism industry has resulted in a growing body of research into their causes, effects and management, as the bibliographies of the ensuing papers catalogue. To date, most papers and collections of research have taken a broad approach, describing the origins of a particular event which triggered a tourism crises, followed by an examination of the differential effects of the crisis on local residents, staff, tourists and tourism organizations or the environment and infrastructure. They have also discussed rescue efforts and the complexity of management tasks in the immediate aftermath of an event, often pointing to the need for preplanning to mitigate the consequences of any future disaster. Other researchers have contributed directly to the academic debate about how to theorise tourism crisis management, often by drawing on the wider crisis management literature.

The present collection of research differs in that it focuses on one phase of the tasks which managers face after the immediate consequences of a crisis have been dealt with. This phase addresses the question of how to rebuild the market for a tourism service or a destination which has experienced a significant catastrophe, and how to learn from the experience in planning for future crisis response strategies. It is suggested in this paper that the challenges are actually more varied and complex than is implied by the suggestion, found in much of the literature, that the task is about ‘restoring normality.’ The chaos and complexity experienced in the aftermath of a crisis raise general issues of how organizations learn and adapt to change.     

旅游的基本属性及其对旅游社会关系和旅游立法的影响

本文从关于旅游的AIEST定义以及学者和政府旅游主管机构对该定义的理解入手,分析了旅游的基本属性、旅游基本属性所决定的旅游社会关系的特点以及旅游基本属性对旅游立法的影响.旅游的基本属性体现为旅游是市场经济的产物、旅游是综合性的社会现象、旅游的本质是文化、旅游具有非实体性、旅游因运动而存在、旅游是一种多元系统网络结构.这些基本属性对旅游立法的影响主要有4个方面,即对旅游立法调整范围的影响、对旅游法律法规基本原则确定的影响、对旅游法权利义务实现效果认定的影响和对旅游法律责任承担形式的影响.     

国外旅游企业战略联盟的现状及对我国的启示

战略联盟已经成为一种十分普遍的企业组织形式.在旅游行业,旅游企业之间组建战略联盟在国外已屡见不鲜,在我国也呈现出良好态势.文章从企业间战略联盟的形式、动机及稳定型几个方面分析了国外旅游企业战略联盟的现状,认为建立混业同盟是一大趋势,低成功率是国外旅游企业战略联盟的一大特征.文章最后对我国旅游企业组建战略联盟提出了两点启示,即在供应链管理思维下组建混业联盟和千方百计提高联盟的稳定性.     

Marketing Strategies for Last-Minute Travel and Tourism

Abstract

Travel and tourism arranged at the “last minute” has become a growing trend among consumers today. Responding to this trend, more and more travel/tourism firms are offering services catering to consumers seeking last-minute travel and tourism opportunities. Yet, clearly, not all last-minute travellers are alike. Variability in last-minute consumer characteristics such as motivations, lifestyles, and benefits sought suggests opportunities for astute marketers and revenue managers to collaborate in further segmenting the last-minute market and developing more effective marketing and revenue management strategies to potentially increase the firms' revenues, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Toward this end, this article evaluates and discusses marketing strategies, marketing mix elements, and segmentation approaches that may be most appropriate for more effective marketing and revenue management in the last-minute travel and tourism market.     

Satisfaction Measurement of Small Tourism Sector (Museum): Samoa

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of the Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) museum in Samoa in the measurement of tourist satisfaction. A correlation model was performed to determine the relationship of the satisfaction and attributes of the museum and visitors' intention to recommend the museum. In addition, an analysis of variance was employed to determine any significant differences among different demographic or trip characteristics groups. The results show that the visitor who has a high satisfaction intends to recommend the RLS museum to others. The implications of the study's findings concerned initiatives to expand its market to international tourists, especially Americans and Asians.     

Using a Choice Experiment (CE) to Value the Attributes of Cruise Tourism

Recently, cruise tourism has drawn public interest in the Republic of Korea. In this study, we attempt to analyze people’s preferences regarding the attributes of cruise tourism, such as duration, accommodation, services, and cost. Thus, we applied a choice experiment (CE) to measure the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for each attribute. The results show that the coefficients of the attributes of onboard activities are positive and statistically significant. MWTPs for increasing the cabin level from an inside to an ocean view and for increasing the level of onboard services from 4-star to 6-star are South Korean Won (KRW) 1,095,760 (USD 954.8) and KRW 671,264 (USD 584.9) respectively. Comparison of all the MWTP estimates indicates that people prefer onboard activities rather than visiting foreign ports of call above all other attributes. This study is expected to provide tourism managers with useful information for designing cruise tourism products that meet travelers’ needs.     

An Investigation into the Perceived Importance of Service and Facility Attributes to Hotel Satisfaction

SUMMARY

In a complex service environment such as the hotel sector, assessing the perceived importance of services and facility attributes provides management with information not only to benchmark their service level provision, but also to retain and increase their customer base. The present study examines the perceived importance of the service and facilities attributes provided by a 3-star hotel. Results of the self-administered survey of 101 guests of three 3-star hotel properties in Perth (Western Australia) indicated that 13 of the 18 attributes were perceived as important. The 18 services and facility attributes were factor-analysed and three components emerged: physical facilities service experienced and services provision. These three components were found to significantly contribute to the overall importance rating of the hotel attributes. Statistically significant differences were noted for age and residence on the physical facilities and services provided components. Results were discussed and implications with further research opportunities were suggested.     

How Cultural Differences Cause Dimensions of Tourism Satisfaction

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual model of the relationship between different cultural values and how they influence consumer satisfaction in the tourism industry. It is hypothesized that cultural differences manifest themselves in different levels of importance being placed upon different aspects of service, and the differences between the levels of importance and the actual service received cause differences in the levels of satisfaction. These hypotheses are tested using 269 independent samples of levels of importance and 411 independent samples of satisfaction of tourists from four cultural groups (Australian, USA/Canadian, Japanese, Mandarin speakers) who visited Melbourne, Australia in the period May-September, 1996. The analysis develops dimensions of importance and satisfaction separately for each cultural grouping, and uses structural equation modeling (Amos 3.6) to develop the causal model measuring the way in which importance of service dimensions cause dimensions of satisfaction. Conclusions from the analysis show little evidence of a causal relationship between importance of service quality attributes and satisfaction. However, significant differences are found between cultures for different levels of satisfaction resulting indirectly from differences in the importance and actual levels of service received.

The implications for cultural differences affecting tourism satisfaction are discussed.     

Tourism Markets and Marketing in Sarawak,Malaysia

Abstract

A multi-scale approachs is used to analyze issues of markets and marketing with regard to the emerging destination of Sarawak in Malaysia. In particular, an analysis of market profiles and travel patterns reveals marked differences in the demand for tourism in Sarawak and in peninsular Malaysia and suggests different strategies might be needed for marketing the state. Issues of state marketing within a federal system are then explored.     

The Power of Images: Marketing Tourism in the 1990s

This conference was held at The Roehampton Institute, London on 2–3 September 1992 with its main aim being to bring together those involved in tourism education and those from the industry to discuss the future of tourism marketing. Organised jointly by Tina Bryant (University of Hertfordshire) and John Eade (Roehampton Institute), the event attracted delegates mainly from the academic community, with members of the tourism industry conspicuous by their absence! Ray Youell of Sheffield Hallam University describes the somelime contrasting perspectives evident at the conference.     

Twenty five years of the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing: a bibliometric ranking

ABSTRACT

The Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing (JTTM) is a leading international journal in “Marketing” and “Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management.” JTTM published its first issue in 1992. In 2017, the journal has celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. For that reason, this study analyzes all the publications in the journal since its creation by using a bibliometric approach. The objective is to provide a complete overview of the main factors that affect the journal. This analysis includes key issues such as the distribution of annual publications and citations, the most cited papers, the h-index, citations per paper, the keywords that are mostly used, the influence on the publishing industry and authors, universities, and the countries that have the most publications. The paper uses the Scopus database to analyze the bibliometric data. Additionally, the paper also uses the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer software to map graphically the bibliographic material. The graphical analysis uses bibliographic coupling, co-citation, citation, and co-occurrence of keywords. These results indicate that JTTM is one of the leading journals in the areas where the journal is indexed, with publications from a wide range of authors, institutions, and countries around the world.     

市场化改革、政府干预与区域旅游业发展:从宏观视角来解读困境

随着我国经济体制改革不断深化,宏观制度环境对于区域旅游产业增长的影响日益凸显.文章从市场化改革和政府干预两个层面,系统分析了区域宏观制度环境因素对于旅游业发展的可能影响以及作用机理,并采用1997-2009年我国省际层面旅游业相关数据,对此进行了实证检验.研究结果表明,中国区域旅游业的快速发展主要源于市场化改革推动,然而,目前尚不完善的要素市场并没有给地区旅游业发展带来积极效应;同时,政府干预导致政策执行过程中可能存在的误区弱化了其积极作用的发挥.在此基础上,提出应该“跳出旅游看旅游”,完善区域宏观制度环境,进一步促进地区旅游业发展的政策建议.     

区域旅游开发研究的深化与实践导向——第十一届全国区域旅游开发学术研讨会综述

2006年9月23日-25日,由中国区域科学协会区域旅游开发专业委员会、沈阳师范大学、沈阳市旅游局主办,《旅游学刊》编辑部、北京旅游学会、北京大学旅游研究与规划中心、青岛大学旅游学院协办,沈阳师范大学旅游学院、棋盘山国际旅游开发区承办的"第十一届全国区域旅游开发学术研讨会"在沈阳召开.来自全国各地40多家高等院校、科研机构的90余名专家学者参加了会议,提交论文58篇,从多学科、多角度对区域旅游开发的理论与实践进行了广泛、深入的探讨.     

区域旅游合作中的制度分析

我国旅游业近年来出现了区域合作的热潮,有效的制度在其中起到了很大的作用.区域旅游合作实际上是制度变迁的结果.在合作过程中,中央政府与地方政府及各旅游企业应发挥各自的作用,共同打破原有效率低下制度的锁定,推动合作向前发展.     

成都国际旅游营销的市场细分与定位研究

城市国际旅游市场营销必须建立在科学的需求分析预测基础上,才能确保后续管理活动的正确和高效.本文基于对海外10个国家和旅居国内4城市的外籍人士的问卷调研,聚类分析出成都市国际旅游客源的5大细分市场,阐明了各目标市场的类型特征及其相应的产品结构性开发,并就成都实际提出了整合旅游营销传播的市场定位体系.