Personalisation–privacy paradox: The effects of personalisation and privacy assurance on customer responses to travel Web sites

Personalisation refers to individualizing products, services, and contents according to customer interests and preferences. In order to deliver appropriate personalised offerings, firms inevitably need to collect rich customer data profiles. Prior research suggests that personalised services lead to positive customer responses such as increased willingness to disclose personal information and make purchases. However, another stream of research emphasizes negative outcomes of personalisation – namely, privacy concerns surrounding the use of personal information and associated negative effects on behaviour. The objectives of this study are twofold: (1) to examine how privacy assurance affects proximal outcomes of personalisation, such as perceived usefulness and privacy concerns; and (2) to identify the role such outcomes play in predicting customer behavioural responses, such as willingness to disclose personal information and make purchases. Our findings show that enhancing privacy assurance increases the perceived usefulness of services and decreases customer privacy concerns. Moreover, customer behavioural responses are positively related to the perceived usefulness of services and negatively associated with privacy concerns. However, despite the positive effects on perceived usefulness and purchase intentions, personalisation has no effect on privacy concerns and intentions to disclose personal information.     

Short-term forecasting of Japanese tourist inflow to South Korea using Google trends data

We utilize the Internet search data from Google Trends to provide short-term forecasts for the inflow of Japanese tourists to South Korea. We construct the Google variable in a systematic way by combining keywords to minimize mean squared or mean absolute forecasting errors. We augment the Google variable to the standard time-series forecasting models and compare their forecasting accuracies. We find that Google-augmented models perform much better than the standard time-series models in terms of short-term forecasting accuracy. In particular, Google models show better out-of-sample forecasting performance than in-sample forecasting.     

The effect of travel purpose and self-image congruency on preference toward airline livery design and perceived service quality

This paper examines travelers’ preference for airline livery design, which is an important component of sensory experience for tourists. Based on surveys of both U.S. and South Korean respondents, this study finds that airline livery preference depends on travel purpose (i.e. business vs. vacation). Designs preferred by the two travel segments differ in terms of color tone, hue, line, and shape. Business traveler-preferred designs signal punctual, efficient, classy, and safe service; while vacation traveler-preferred designs elicit feelings of fun, friendly, and exotic service. It is also shown that travelers prefer airline livery that is congruent with their situational self-image, depending on the travel occasion at hand. In fact, self-image congruency of design is approximately half of the variance in airline livery preference. Finally, results show that self-image congruency also increases perceived service quality.     

Does mandatory food safety training and certification for restaurant employees improve inspection outcomes?

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mandatory food safety training and certification and inspection results of chain restaurants and independent restaurants, using current food safety inspection results of food service establishments in Central Florida. More specifically, this study examines whether there is any statistically significant difference in the violation frequency among chain and independent restaurants. Reducing the risk of any foodborne illness is a critical strategy that industry stakeholders should pursue in an area dominated by tourism such as Orlando, Florida. A one-way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between the two types of restaurants. Findings indicate that there is significant difference between chain and independent restaurants for critical violations. No difference was found when comparing chain verses independent restaurants for non-critical violations.     

Post-SARS tourist arrival recovery patterns: An analysis based on a catastrophe theory

In 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ravaged many Asian countries. The outbreak of SARS caused a crisis in the tourism industry in many parts of Asia in that year. The purpose of this study is to examine and to compare the post-SARS recovery patterns of inbound arrivals from Japan, Hong Kong and USA in Taiwan. Taking the cusp catastrophe model as its foundation, this study proposes a well-grounded approach to understanding the nature of the recovery processes and to explaining the difference between the recovery patterns displayed by arrivals from Japan and those from Hong Kong and USA. Implications regarding tourism promotion policies are drawn from the analysis.