Cross-cultural negotiations in the hospitality industry: the Japanese market

The growing importance of travel and tourism to the economy of the United Kingdom is widely acknowledged. The increasing contribution made by travellers from Japan to the income of this industry has also been acknowledged. The authors review the guidance given in the literature to those responsible for negotiations with representatives of the Japanese market and compare this with their own findings obtained from interviews at senior management level in London hotels for which the Japanese market represents a significant proportion of their business. It emerges that certain guidelines can be identified which will help managers in the hospitality industry prepare themselves for negotiations with the greater probability of a successful outcome.     

Re-examining the market structure effects on hotel performance using market share inequality

Previous studies have suggested that the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) does not adequately account for market structure. To remedy this problem, this article further decomposes the HHI into two components: the number of competitors and market share inequality. Using the metropolitan-level data of tourist hotels in Taiwan, this article estimates the effect of these variables on hotels’ profits. This article shows that while a single measure of the HHI does not have a significant effect on hotels’ profits, decomposing HHI leads to different results. It shows that increasing the number of competitors may improve hotels’ profitability, and by contrast, greater inequalities in market shares may be detrimental to the profit in the room market.     

Multi-dimensional segmentation of the Canadian pleasure travel market

The Canadian Tourism Attitude and Motivation Study was set up in 1982 with the objective of developing an understanding of the Canadian travel market. This article describes how the population was sampled and the data classified according to three broad criteria relating to the types of pleasure trip chosen by individuals. From the resultant three-dimensional matrix 42 valid segments were isolated permitting a detailed breakdown of the Canadian tourist population. The data may now be used as an aid to marketing either by selecting appropriate segments for a particular product, or by extracting for further analysis a subsample showing a common characteristic vital to the user.     

Emerging leisure market among the South African black population

Tourism plays an increasingly important role in the South African economy. Steady, gradual improvement in the socioeconomic position of the Black population has led to an increase in holiday activity and this sector of society is expected to account for the majority (55.3%) of the domestic tourism market by the turn of the century. Poor perception by the White population of the widening leisure interests of the Black sector means that the tourist industry is making insufficient planning provision for the forthcoming rapid expansion of this market area and the Black population is still faced with limited recreational choice.     

European market for African destinations

Tourism marketing is problematic in African countries where, in addition to the usual problems faced by developing countries, there is a negative African image to be overcome. S. Nyaruwata, Research and Planning Manager of the Zimbabwe Tourist Development Corporation, has examined the views of European tour operators with the aim of evaluating the competitiveness of Zimbabwe relative to some other African destinations. He reports here on the results of his survey which seem to indicate that were Zimbabwe to overcome its problems of political instability then Zimbabwe would have a high potential for tourism development.     

Understanding the Unique Consumer Behavior of Japanese Tourists

Japan is the largest market for U.S. inbound overseas tourism, and international tourism is the largest source of earning foreign exchange for the U.S. economy. Japan has registered the highest growth in the world in the development of its outbound international tourism during the 1980Æs and is expected to continue its rapid growth in the foreseeable future. This paper examines the unique characteristics of the consumer behavior of Japanese tourist who are or will be vacationing I the U.S. Recommendations have been offered to marketers of tourism firms who can benefit by understanding the unique characteristics of a Japanese touristÆs consumer behavior and by changing their marketing strategies accordingly.     

Validation of a market orientation adoption scale in rural tourism enterprises. Relationship between the characteristics of the enterprise and extent of market orientation adoption

Market orientation (MO) is considered as a competitive strategy for the rural tourism sector. A MO adoption scale is proposed and validated for the rural tourism sector. Given the importance of MO, it is important to know the relationship between a firm's characteristics and MO adoption. This study makes a hierarchical segmentation to predict the behaviour of these firms when adopting the MO. Activity and category are the two characteristics that most effectively predict a firm's behaviour. The contribution made by this work is of interest given the new field of application achieved and which have implications for the professional sector.     

Assessing the viability of university alumni as a repeat visitor market

Both student and repeat visitor markets have been recognised by tourism academics and destination marketing agencies, but the alumni repeat visitor market has been neglected. The paper examines alumni propensity to return as tourists to their university city using a sample of graduates from a university in the North West of England. The large majority returned to the destination as tourists within six months of graduation, although visitation declined sharply after the first return visit. A cluster analysis using both motivation and constraint dimensions identified six a posteriori segments. Three of these were found to have significant potential because of their strong emotional attachment to the destination rather than the university. The accessibility of segments for targeting, through the development of links between the DMO and the educational institution, also supports their commercial viability.     

The influence of dance music on the UK youth tourism market

Today's young people are influenced by a variety of factors when considering a holiday. During the late 1980s and 1990s we have witnessed a rise in recreational drug use and the move in music taste towards repetitive rhythms of re-mix DJs creating their music from synthesized tunes on records and CDs. The ‘Big Name’ DJs such as Sasha, Pete Tong, Danny Rampling, etc. are superstars within today's youth culture and receive wages to match their status. During the past 5–10 years, we have also witnessed a move towards young people taking holidays to pursue their interest in Dance Music and to follow their favourite DJ to wherever in Europe, or the world, they may be playing. Often the established night-clubs within countries will seek to attract these DJs, but sometimes special holidays are packaged by tour operators with a distinct Dance Music theme, highlighting famous ‘superclubs’ such as Cream and Ministry of Sound. Radio stations are also becoming involved, especially London's well known Dance Music station ‘Kiss FM’ who, in conjunction with a tour operator, offer a distinct Dance Music tourism experience.     

独具特色的日本风味小吃

在日本,有许多独具特色,脍炙人口的风味小吃,食之令人终生难忘. 东京的野猪肉 在东京隅田川有家300年历史的老字号野猪锅老店,店里所卖的猪肉,都是猎自深山的野猪,以肥瘦相间的五花野猪肉为上品.由于野猪以山羊和栗子为食,因此肉质精美而又有弹性,特别是猪形似米袋者更佳.烹饪时,野猪肉放入锅中,佐以爱知县冈崎市生产的色浓、味咸的味糟和砂糖、酒等调料,以文火慢慢炖1小时.因锅中野猪肉排成牡丹花形,故又称牡丹锅.炖得越久,则味道越鲜美.     

The language of Japanese tourism

This paper discusses the way in which language is used in contemporary Japanese travel brochures. What concepts do travel agencies use to attract tourists? What themes continually recur in the advertising literature? Many of these concepts and themes are the same as those important to tourism in the Western world, but there are certain cultural themes or ways of treating tourist attractions which are peculiar to Japanese tourism. A second aim is to consider the “keywords” of Japanese tourism: those stressed in the advertising for domestic tourism and those stressed for international tourism. The relation between these two possibly antagonistic sets of keywords is discussed in terms of the ideological principles around which Japanese society is organized, and it is hypothesized that keywords for international tourism portend great and long-term changes in the fabric of Japanese society.     

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 intervention policies on the hospitality labor market

Using new high-frequency data that covers a representative sample of small businesses in the United States, this study investigates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting state policies on the hospitality industry. First, business closure policies are associated with a 20–30% reduction of non-salaried workers in the food/drink and leisure/entertainment sectors during March-April of 2020. Second, business reopening policies play a statistically significant role in slowly reviving the labor market. Third, considerable differences exist in the impact of policies on the labor market by state. Fourth, the rise of new COVID-19 cases on a daily basis is associated with the continued deterioration of the labor market. Lastly, managerial, practical, and economic implications are described.     

Managing the service brand value of the hotel industry in an emerging market

This study integrates the resource-based view (RBV) of a firm and institutional theory to investigate how top management team (TMT) leaders promote the quality of employees’ service by leveraging the resource-based advantages (e.g., service brand value, TMT leadership, human capital (HC) management, and service culture) of their hotel brands to compensate for institutional influences at the global, regional, and local levels in an emerging market. The results show that a hotel develops its resource-based advantages by creating service brand value, which is cultivated by the TMT's transformational leadership through HC investment and the creation of a service culture to improve the quality of service behaviors. At the same time, resource-based and institutional advantages are applied in a complementary fashion to achieve successful market expansion in China as an emerging market.     

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.     

日语汉字趣谈

本文主要从日语汉字的读音、字形、词汇的意思等三个方面简单阐述了日语汉字的容易之处和难点所在,列举了很容易写错的两国汉字及"八百屋"、"床屋"、"屋"、"判子屋"等日语汉字在汉语中的意思等。     

Estimating the size of the Chinese outbound travel market: A demand-side approach

The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets over the past decade. However, estimating the size and identifying key tourist-generating areas for the Chinese travel market remain a significant challenge for international marketers. This empirical study employs an incidental target-market approach and presents updated research findings concerning this burgeoning market. Primary and secondary tourist-generating cities of Mainland China were identified based on population size and level of socioeconomic development, and their market potential for outbound travel was assessed through a large-scale telephone survey. This study estimated that the current Chinese outbound travel market comprises approximately 22 million city residents, among whom 11.5 million have traveled or plan to travel to destinations outside Asia. In addition to estimating market size and making recommendations on target cities, the study also introduces an effective research design for identifying target markets and customers.     

日本节庆活动对我国旅游节庆开发的启示

节庆活动是市民对城市历史的年复一年的认同,是挖掘地方历史文化、创造城市特色的一个有显著成效的手段。日本的节庆活动有着全社会的影响,不仅促进了传统文化的保存和传播,而且促进了社区的形成和传统文化的认同,甚至塑造了当代的日本基层社会——社区的人际关系。本文开篇概括了我国各地建设正从“标准化”走向个性化发展的时代背景,阐述了日本旅游节庆的重要性,不仅在于经济效益重大(约占日本GDP的1％),曼在于保护传统文化,塑造城市特色。进而论述了旅游节庆和传统文化保护、社区建设的相互关系,挖掘出节庆活动开发的一些成功因素。即必须摒弃“政府主导、企业参与”、“旅游搭台、经贸唱戏”等陈腐思路,只有通过政府主导、企业营销、民众参与,进行有独创性的策划,节庆活动才能真正得到市民和市场的认同,城市也才能挖掘出自身的个性,树立自身的城市形象。     

Harlem—tourism market assessment and potential

With the growth of alternative and special interest tourism the New York Uptown Chamber of Commerce with local community and business groups have begun to explore ways in which tourism may contribute to the economy and vitality of Harlem. Bert Highet and Walter Johnson of Quadrant Marketing report here on their commissioned research into an assessment of the tourism potential of the area.     

Share repurchases and stock market reactions: Messages from the restaurant industry

It is generally accepted that investors tend to react favorably to share repurchases. However, it is actually not uncommon for investors to underreact to some share repurchases. Recently, a number of restaurant firms have spent huge amounts of internal cash on share repurchases but little is known regarding the market’s underreaction to share repurchases in the restaurant industry. Hence, this study attempted to identify factors that could mitigate market reactions to share repurchases. Analyzing U.S. restaurant firms, this study revealed that growth opportunities, franchising, dividend payments, and spending excessive free cash flows on share repurchases negatively impacted market reactions. However, the negative impact of growth opportunities was weaker for franchise restaurants than for non-franchise restaurants. This study provides useful managerial information regarding the timing of and the amount that can be spent on restaurant firms’ share repurchases.