Resource Guide

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Brand personality of tourist destinations: An application of self-congruity theory

The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas and to examine the relationships among destination personality, self-congruity, and tourist’s behavioral intentions. A convenience sample of 382 visitors to Las Vegas was surveyed, and 368 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study indicate that tourists ascribe personality characteristics to destinations and that the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas is five dimensional: vibrancy, sophistication, competence, contemporary, and sincerity. These dimensions have a positive influence on tourists’ intention to return and intention to recommend. The study also supports the self-congruity theory within the context of tourism destinations, indicating that both actual congruity and ideal congruity have a positive impact on behavioral intentions. The study concludes that self-congruity is a partial mediator on the relationship between destination personality and tourist’s behavioral intentions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed within the contexts of destination branding and the self-congruity theory.     

Conventions and Gaming in Las Vegas: Friends,Enemies, or Strangers?

As cities look at various industries to strengthen their economies, officials have begun to examine conventions and gaming more closely as they have often been considered “recession-proof.” This study utilizes time series regression to analyze the effects of convention attendance and hotel occupancy on monthly gaming revenues for Las Vegas from 2002 to 2013. Three commonly held opposing viewpoints in trade literature are that conventions reduce, augment, or complement gaming. These viewpoints produced the hypotheses for this study. It was found that convention attendance had no significant relationship with gaming revenue; however, citywide hotel occupancy was found to have a significant positive relationship with gaming revenue. This finding rules out the reduction and augmentation hypotheses.     

Casinos and Conventions

ABSTRACT

The casino industry has always relied on the leisure traveler whose primary motivation is to gamble. Thus, one would expect the casino and convention industries to operate in totally different arenas. This was the case until the mid-1990s. Today, the casino industry is embracing the convention industry and constructing facilities to meet the needs of the convention and meeting attendee. This article starts by setting up the framework for this dichotomy between the two industries by tracing the history of casino gaming in the U.S. Discussion leads to a review of how and why there was a lack of conventions/meetings business in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The article then goes on to review specific development of the conventions/meetings business in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and other jurisdictions. It concludes with a prognosis about the future along with opportunities for future research.     

Some Fundamental Truths About Tourism: Understanding Tourism's Social and Environmental Impacts

This paper offers an empirical case study of ecotourism in the island state of Cuba. The paper attempts to gauge the success Cuba has had in establishing eco-tourist practices that could be considered sustainable, and provides analysis of the various political factors that condition this success. Using some well-known benchmarks of sustainable eco-tourist practices, the paper presents the results of numerous interviews with key informants involved with ecological tourism in Cuba, archival research and observations from on-site visits to key ecotourism projects to examine the relative success of ecotourism on the island. Concluding that Cuba has had mixed success in moving to sustainable ecotourism, the paper examines the various political constraints that will likely determine the trajectory of Cuba’s ecotourism in the near and medium term.     

Distribution performance and power sources

Performance is the primary concern of industrial channel members; yet, marketing researchers have focused their attention, not on performance, but on other aspects of channel relations: power, control, and conflict. This study investigates performance and the sources of the power-performance relationship in an industrial distribution channel.     

拉斯维加斯主题酒店特点及其对中国酒店业发展的启示

随着社会经济的不断发展,主题酒店越来越成为我国酒店业的重要发展趋势。本文分析了拉斯维加斯主题酒店的特点,以期为我国酒店业的发展提供良好参考与借鉴。     

Enhancing the Role of Host Communities in the Management of Protected Areas through Effective Two-way Communications: A Case Study

This paper conducts an analysis of Macau's strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) as related to its gaming development strategy in the wake of its issuance of multiple gaming licenses. The analysis shows that copying the Las Vegas style is non-optimal for Macau because it will force Macau to compete with Las Vegas and other Las Vegas-style Asian gaming destinations for casino visitors and fight with Hong Kong for non-gaming tourists in the future. Furthermore, this approach will change Macau's current market position as a gamblers' destination and cut into operation profits. Taking advantage of its cultural heritage and unique market segmentation, Macau may develop Chinese- and/or Portuguese-theme casinos heavily leaning toward gaming activities. By creating its own gaming model, Macau may not only maintain its market niche in the future but also develop its gaming industry in a more profitable way.     

Exploring Casino Special Events: An Empirical Analysis for Determining Which Themed Celebrations and Tournaments Have An Indirect Effect on Increasing Slot Volumes

This empirical study sheds light on the indirect effects of slot-player special events on casino revenues. Slot departments provide the largest gaming percentage profit for U.S. casinos, almost twice that of table-game departments, making it crucial to cultivate robust slot operations. Casino special events, which include culture-, recreation-, and sports-themed experiences as well as slot tournaments, are experiential marketing techniques used to sustain slot-player relationships and/or increase casino gaming volumes. This exploratory study uses multiple regression analysis to identify which special events, including the corresponding complimentary rooms, have significant indirect effects on slot machine wagers, providing a model for casino managers to predict their special events’ indirect effects on slot revenues.     

California Resident Motives for Gambling at Indian Reservations Versus Las Vegas

The casino gaming sector has become a lucrative part of the hospitality industry. California Indian casinos have expanded to now compete with casinos in Las Vegas, but more California residents gamble in Las Vegas casinos. Little research has been conducted to reveal why California residents travel to Las Vegas to gamble at casinos when California Indian casinos are closer. Thus, this study focused on what motivates California residents to gamble at California Indian casinos as opposed to those who gamble at Las Vegas casinos. A total of 300 online surveys were used for data analysis. First, exploratory factor analysis was performed to find the underlying dimensions of casino motivations. Second, independent-samples t-tests were conducted to compare the perceptions the two groups have of casinos. Then, one-way ANOVA tests were implemented to find differences between casino motivation factors and six different demographic variables. This study will help both California Indian and Las Vegas casinos to assess their services and more effectively market to California residents.