Bridging the education–profession gap: The Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD) program

This paper provides a detailed discussion of an annual (and cost-effective) professional-development event we call the Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD). This program brings together, for a single day, students, accounting faculty, and accounting professionals in a conference-like setting. The conference format provides a unique, and formal, link between the classroom environment and the professional world students will be entering. The program is attended by accounting and non-accounting students from our university, senior students from area high schools, and undergraduate students from other universities in the area. Specific objectives of the program are to help students learn what it takes to become an accounting professional, to provide students with information that facilitates their career-choice decision, and to encourage networking and community-building activities. Assessment data indicate that the ASPD program is successful in terms of its stated objectives. The relatively low cost of operating the program makes it attractive for other accounting programs. The paper includes a set of recommendations for those faculty interested in implementing an ASPD program at their own institution.     

Internet and Tourism—Part XXIV: PinpointTravel

This study examines the moderating impact of consumers' time styles on their emotional reactions and evaluations of waiting time in crowded and non-crowded environments. A quasi-experimental design was used to test our hypotheses. Our results indicate that waiting in a crowded environment results in negative emotions. In addition, people who scored high on economic time style reported significantly less satisfaction with their choice of airlines when they waited in crowded conditions. These results extend the literature on crowding and waiting time, and add to our understanding of consumer emotions in service environments.     

Measuring E-Service Quality for Online Travel Agencies

Online travel agencies face intense competition, and thus have a great need to evaluate the e-service quality of their websites to succeed or even just to survive. The present study explores the underlying dimensions used by online customers to evaluate the e-service quality of online travel agencies, as well as the relationship of these dimensions to customer satisfaction and the repurchase intention, using both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Six underlying dimensions of e-service quality are identified from the results of factor analysis; namely, Website Functionality, Information Quality and Content, Fulfillment and Responsiveness, Safety and Security, Appearance and Presentation, and Customer Relationship. Furthermore, four dimensions—Website Functionality, Information Quality and Content, Safety and Security, and Customer Relationship—are found to significantly influence online customers' evaluation of overall satisfaction and their repurchase intention. The results of multiple regression analysis show Website Functionality to be the most powerful factor in predicting customer satisfaction and the repurchase intention. Implications of the study findings are discussed, and important guidelines for the development of online travel agencies are provided.     

The Methodological Progress of Tourism Demand Forecasting: A Review of Related Literature

Research on modeling the estimation and forecasting of tourism demand has evolved with increasing sophistication and improved quality. In this study, 155 research papers published between 1995 and 2009 were identified and were classified into three main groups according to the methods and techniques adopted—an econometric-based approach, time series techniques, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods. It appears that the more advanced methods such as cointegration, error correction model, time varying parameter model, and their combinations with systems of equations produce better results in terms of forecasting accuracy. We also discuss the implications and suggest future directions of tourism research techniques and methods.     

An Analysis of The Lowest Fares and Shortest Durations for Air-Tickets on Travel Agency Websites

Despite the existence of numerous published articles on website evaluations, the present tourism literature has no prior studies that examined the topics of lowest fares and shortest durations for air-tickets that are offered by travel websites. This study reports the findings of a study that investigated the practices of five online travel agency (OTA) websites. In terms of lowest airfares and the shortest in-flight durations (hereafter known as shortest durations) in four destinations for travelers who originated from Hong Kong, empirical findings showed the regional OTA outperformed other global leaders in airfares. Likewise, a smaller scale OTA offered lowest-fare air-tickets with the shortest durations. Practical implications are offered at the end of the article.     

A Formative Approach to Modeling Residents’ Perceived Impacts of Casino Development

This study uses a formative modeling approach rather than the more common reflective modeling approach to operationalize residents’ perceived benefits/costs. Partial least square structural equation modeling was adopted to model the predicting effects of perceived benefits/costs on residents’ support for casino development. Additionally, the mediating role of satisfaction with life was examined. Drawing from a survey administered to 1047 Macao residents, this study reveals that only perceived economic and environmental benefits affect support for casino development. The mediating effect is not confirmed. Meaningful implications are provided for policymakers and casino operators.     

A Modified Model for Hotel Website Functionality Evaluation

Harnessing a mathematical computation approach to analyze data solicited from 354 website stakeholders (including 200 hotel customers, 83 hotel managers, and 71 hotel website designers), this study presents an up-to-date and robust evaluation model for assessing the functionality of hotel websites. The modified model was also empirically used to assess the functionality performance of the websites of all the hotels in Hong Kong. Results from the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests revealed a difference in performance, with higher star rating hotels performing better than those with a lower star rating. As one of the first attempts to incorporate the perceptions of multiple website stakeholders into hotel website evaluation, this study provides hoteliers with practical advice on website development.     

The Impact of Visitor Behavior on the Environmental Protection of Tourist Farms in Guangdong

Some tourist farms established in the Chinese province of Guangdong suffer from a dearth of farm management and a lack of awareness of environmental protection issues among visitors, leading to pollution problems in farm tourism. The study reported in this paper examined how the managers of two farms protect the natural environment using the setting factors of physical orientation, interactive exhibits and the presence of tour guides, following the mindfulness and mindlessness model. The findings of the study revealed that the quality of the natural environment in both farms was acceptable, indicating the effectiveness of the setting factors. However, it was found that some signs were discolored and broken, there were insufficient interactive exhibits, and no tour guide service was available for individual visitors. Based on these findings, some recommendations are offered for farm managers on how to protect the natural environment.