Tourism demand in Hong Kong: income,prices, and visa restrictions

This paper examines the determinants of Hong Kong tourism demand for the top-three major tourist arrival countries, namely Mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan, with an error correction model. Specifically, this paper will examine the effects of relaxing the visa requirement, the launch of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), for Mainland Chinese tourists in 2003. Empirical results show that tourists are income-elastic and consider international tourism to be a luxury good. Tourists are more sensitive to changes in the nominal exchange rate than to changes in the foreign pricing level. The positive effect of the launch of the IVS for Mainland Chinese tourists outweighs the adverse impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on tourism demand for Hong Kong.     

Australian consumer attitudes to health claim – food product compatibility for functional foods

This study with Australian consumers investigated how appealing different health claims combined with particular food carriers were to Australian consumers, and compared the results of a similar study with Dutch consumers. 149 shoppers considered up to 30 different food concepts, rating how ‘attractive’, ‘believable’, and ‘new and different’ they found each concept and their ‘intention to try’. Each variable was significantly related to intention to try (p < 0.001) and together explained 56% of the intention score. Claims and carriers independently had a significant effect on ratings of attractiveness and intention to try but, unlike the Dutch study, the carrier was a more important predictor of intention to purchase than the claim. Implications for regulation of health claims for food are discussed.     

Is there really an Asian connection? Professional service quality perceptions and customer satisfaction

Scenarios involving dental services investigate whether Asian cultures are similar enough to allow standardization of service offerings. The authors control and manipulate levels of service quality and performance to yield a 2 × 2 experimental design, with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean subjects (N = 637) selected to test the invariance of the measures. The findings yield significant cultural differences with the Chinese respondents perceiving significantly higher service quality and expressing greater customer satisfaction when performance is high and expressing less customer satisfaction when performance is low than do the Japanese and Korean respondents. Thus, even though all three countries are considered high-context cultures, having their roots in Confucianism, differences in national culture lead to the conclusion that “one size does not fit all” in terms of service offerings.     

旗袍之美

大约每一个绮丽的中国女子,在花样年华,都曾经怀想,着一袭婉约的旗袍,在香风细细的红尘里,在人影幢幢的灯火中,邂逅一段光阴的故事。那份含蓄娇美,那份温婉细致,把女人的妩媚柔情映衬到美丽极致。     

北京老年人健康纵向（1992—1997）观察

利用1992年和1997年对北京市城区、近、远郊县数千名55岁以上居民的调查资料,对比分析了他们的躯体和心理健康状况,以及不同健康状况与死亡发生的关系.     

农民工返乡创业发展规律、制约瓶颈与对策思考——基于湖北省15县67名返乡创业者的纪实调查

返乡创业是农民工对输出地与输入地的投资成本与效益比较后的理性选择。农民工返乡创业主要以中小企业或个体的多行业经营分布为主。农民工返乡“创业潮”形成的两个阶段在兴办企业的资金来源、产业结构和销售渠道等方面差异较大。由于农民工自身素质和条件以及外在环境制约着民工的创业发展,因此应从农民工自身素质的提高和创业环境的优化两方面着手促进农民工返乡创业。     

大型散粮储运项目控制系统扩建和性能提升

随着粮食储运规模的不断扩大,大型散粮储运新建或扩建工程日益增多.技术人员在开发和设计自动控制系统时,常面临工艺复杂、流程控制繁琐、控制点多、控制网络节点分散、扩建工程与前期工程存在不同程度工艺交互、各期控制系统数据交互和系统融和以及为后期工程预留扩展接口等问题.本文主要总结大型散粮储运项目新建和扩建的实践经验,在流程作...     

基于就业导向的国际贸易专业英语课堂教学模式探讨

随着改革开放的深入和中国加入WTO,社会越来需要要既具备国贸专业知识,又能运用流利的英语与外界交往的高素质人才。在当前就业形势日趋严峻的情况下,提高国际贸易专业毕业生的专业英语素质,不但能提高其就业竞争力,而且能为我国经济与社会发展提供强有力的人才支持和智力保证。要应对挑战,当前国际贸易专业英语教育改革就应当与市场需求接轨、以就业为导向,并在此基础上提出国际贸易专业英语课堂教学模式的构想。     

石家庄市冬季典型重污染过程分析

为研究石家庄市冬季重污染天气过程的成因及影响因素,对2015-01-07至2015-01-10这一时间段的重污染过程从PM2.5浓度变化、气象条件演变及其对PM2.5浓度的影响、PM2.5与主要气态污染物的相关性、区域性污染传输等方面进行分析。结果表明:此次石家庄市重污染过程是在区域性大气静稳态背景下形成的,地面压力及风场对PM2.5浓度影响较大;石家庄NO2浓度与PM2.5浓度相关性很高,机动车尾气对城市的污染逐渐加剧;SO2浓度与PM2.5浓度相关性高说明燃煤仍是石家庄市重要污染来源;该时间段河北南部城市区间存在污染物区域性传输。     

农村学校布局调整政策中地方政府行为动机分析

城镇化加速带来的人口聚集程度以及城乡教育事业发展水平的明显差异,对以往依据行政区划对农村教育资源进行布局的方式提出了新的挑战。2001年起实施的以 “适当合并”、“整合资源”为主要施政意图的农村小学 “布局调整”政策,却在实际执行中引发了优质教育资源在城镇 “过度集中”的新问题,由此引起了农村地区所面临的种种农村内部和城乡之间,因资源配置不均衡而导致的 “不公平”现象的讨论。该文以上述基础教育资源布局调整政策为背景,首先运用统计数据和实地调研相关案例,描述了自 2001年政策实施以来,城乡学校以及校均学生数量的变化、农村地区的 “点校”运转状况以及地方财政资金在城乡学校之间基础建设上的分配情况;并通过建立全国30个省1998~2010年农村小学学校数量变化影响因素的面板模型,对地方政府撤并农村小学的行为动机进行了验证,结果证实了 “效率优先”的行为动机。文章在最后分析了这种以通过 “学校进城”迫使学生进城,推动城镇化的效率导向,是源自利益相关者的缺位,另一方面也提出了从根本上解决城乡基础教育资源配置问题的思路与进一步研究的方向。