A review and evaluation of China's quality assurance system for tour guiding

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of China's tour guiding quality assurance system as an instrument for sustainable tourism. It notes the importance of China's 131,000 tour guides for inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. China's tour guiding quality assurance and regulatory mechanisms are then reviewed, including qualification examination, licensing, professional certification, training, awards for excellence, professional associations and codes of conduct. Structurally, China's comprehensive and comparatively regulated system may be recommendable to other countries, particularly its certification and licensing systems. However, the findings suggest that tour guide quality assurance in China may be constrained by an over-reliance on government and the absence of industry-driven mechanisms for some elements such as monitoring, enforcement and rewarding excellence. Most importantly, the focus of China's quality assurance system is on a limited number of tour guiding roles and tends to overlook those most critical to harnessing the guide as a vehicle for sustainable tourism. Key future development areas could extend recognition and reward for the guide's performance as a role model, advocate, mentor, interpreter, cultural broker and environmental monitor.     

Intensive tour guide training in regional Australia: an analysis of the Savannah Guides organisation and professional development schools

A number of authors believe that tour guide training may hold a key to passing on the concept of sustainable tourism to tourists. Savannah Guides Limited (SGL) is an organisation for tour guides interpreting and protecting the tropical savannahs of northern Australia. This paper examines the provision of intensive professional development schools, which the SGL organisation provides, to raise standards of professionalism for nature-based tour guides in remote regions. Its framework is based on Schein's three levels of organisational culture model, and Black and Ham's 10-element performance-based tour guide certification programme. Active participant observation of the development school process and a self-administered questionnaire to SGL members were used to understand the organisation's success. The main motivations for tour guiding are explored, as are the ways in which tour guides acquire knowledge. It is suggested that the provision of professional development schools in nature-based tourism regions benefits the guide and the tour guiding industry, and contributes to the protection of the natural environment. It is proposed that the SGL training model of professional development schools and certification be adopted by tour guiding organisations in other regional destinations as a way of nurturing and advancing quality tour guiding and professionalism.     

Investigating the Structural Relationships among Authenticity,Loyalty, Involvement,and Attitude toward World Cultural Heritage Sites: An Empirical Study of Nanjing Xiaoling Tomb,China

This study examined the relationships among authenticity, loyalty, involvement, and attitude toward world cultural heritage sites (WCHS), as well as the relevance between two basic authenticity concepts in cultural heritage tourism, that is, constructive authenticity and existential authenticity. A structural model was proposed, in which authenticity is regarded as a key mediating construct between attitude and loyalty. The data were collected by a self-administrated questionnaire survey at one of the WCHS in China – Nanjing Xiaoling Tomb Scenic Area. The structural equation modeling method was employed to test the research model and the hypotheses with the sample data. The results indicate that involvement, attitude, and existential authenticity have significant effects on tourists' loyalty to the world cultural heritage visitation and that constructive authenticity and existential authenticity are significantly related. The theoretical and management implications of authenticity are also discussed in this paper.     

Buyer Decision-Making Behavior in International Tourism Channels

Summary

Despite the development and maintenance of effective channel relationships in international tourism markets being critical to a firm's success, little research has been undertaken in business-to-business relationships in cross-national markets (March 1997a; Crotts, Aziz & Raschid 1998). This research paper offers insights into the decision-making behavior of a critical intermediary in international tourism channels, the inbound tour operator (ITO). In an exploratory study, the purchasing attitudes of ITOs, in their functions as purchasers of tourism products on behalf of overseas clients, are examined. Respondents were asked to assess the importance of a number of supplier attributes for three types of tourism products: hotels, coach companies and restaurants. Twenty-six inbound tour operators specialising in the Asian or Japanese inbound markets into Australia were surveyed; though small in number these firms handled over 800,000 visitors to Australia in 1998 (including 82% of the entire Japanese market). The results from a 43-item questionnaire, designed after preliminary discussions with ITOs, reveal differences between the attitudes of Japanese-market and Asian-market ITOs in their purchase decision-making behavior and in buyer attitudes toward different product types. The findings offer useful lessons for suppliers in the management of their relationships with inbound tour operators.     

Tour leaders’ job crafting: Scale development

Job crafting is an emerging construct that has been applied in various disciplines but remains largely unexplored in the tourism industry. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring tour leaders' job crafting. First, focus group interviews and content analysis were conducted to generate the initial items. Second, two surveys involving respective sample sizes of 268 and 253 were conducted. Through a rigorous development process, the 30-item four-dimensional tour leaders' job crafting scale was proven to have reliability and validity. This study extends current knowledge of the field of job crafting in the tourism industry and provides a foundation for further investigation of tour leaders’ job crafting and the relationships between the related constructs. The scale provides a useful tool for tour leaders to understand their own job crafting level. Furthermore, the results can serve as a reference for managers in recruiting and training tour leaders.     

Relationship between the arrangement of shopping activities and consumer prepurchase perceptions of group package tours

Shopping is an indispensable part of a group package tour and an activity that substantially affects the travel experience and quality. However, few studies have focused on shopping-spot types and arrangements. This study examined the effects of shopping-spot types and arrangements in trip itineraries on consumer prepurchase perceptions. Survey data were collected from 282 outbound tourists in Taiwan. A 2?×?2 mixed factorial design was employed to test the hypotheses. Our main results demonstrate that a process-oriented shopping spot combined with an official tour itinerary was preferred by consumers. By contrast, a product-oriented shopping spot combined with a tourist shopping habitat was less preferred by consumers. The findings suggest strategic directions for travel managers to design package tour itineraries and conduct marketing planning. Managerial implications of this study and future research directions are discussed.     

关于旅游开发与城市建设一体化初探

旅游开发与城市建设一体化,就是要从城市社会经济整体发展的高度考虑旅游发展的要求,把旅游作为现代城市的一项基本职能,把旅游开发溶于城市整体建设之中。在硬件建设上,要求将旅游意识融入城市景观与市政建设之中,努力营造城市环境,实现旅游开发与城市硬件建设的一体化;在软件配套上,要致力于培育城市文化,造就一个社会安定、经济规范、市民文明的旅游发展大环境,实现旅游开发与城市精神文明建设的一体化     

中国假日经济可持续发展思路探析

在概述中国假日经济的基本特点和发展轨迹的基础上,针对其存在问题,进一步着重探析了中国假日经济可持续发展思路,包括健全卖方市场、提高服务质量、完善“旅游信息统计预报系统”、适当调整“黄金周”假期时段、逐步实行国民带薪休假制度和拓展假日经济多元化格局六个方面。     

IPA在导游服务质量评价中的实证研究

以云南省昆明市为例对重要性一绩效分析（IPA）在导游服务质量评价中的具体应用进行了初步探索。首先对IPA的基本思想和应用要素进行了扼要介绍，随后详细探讨了研究方法和数据收集等相关问题，最后运用IPA对数据进行了系统分析，并在此基础上提出了进一步提升昆明市导游服务质量的合理化建议。     

浅析文化旅游新时期导游员的知识准备

伴随着我国富裕型社会的逐步形成，旅游业将进入“文化旅游新时期”。首先分析了文化型导游员在旅游过程中的重要作用，然后概述总结了中国自然与人文结合型景区的特点，继而浅析了导游员应作何种知识准备。