Search

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of movies and TV dramas on Chinese tourists' choice of international travel destinations. An online survey instrument was developed and distributed to Chinese consumers through an online survey panel company. Findings indicated many Chinese are highly involved with international travel and were ardent about movies and/or TV dramas. There was a high level of agreement that these media outlets have a significant impact on travel motivations. Foods, fashion, and other elements featured in movies and TV dramas were motivators for the Chinese market. Thailand and Korea were the two top favorite destinations based upon movie and TV drama consumption. Implications for the tourism industry and the movie and TV drama industries are discussed.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of Bollywood movies on destination image, tourist activity, and purchasing behaviors of Indian viewers. Surveys were administered in a face-to-face format in New Delhi, India, to a convenience sample of over 600 respondents. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to test the hypotheses and explore causal relationships. Findings identified a profile of Bollywood movies viewers, sources of information used to determine destination choice, and the level of involvement among viewers in foreign travel. Additionally, this study explored the relationships between Bollywood movies and tourist motivations and the propensity to participate in activities featured. Findings indicated that engagement in Bollywood movies has a positive impact on both hedonic and utilitarian involvement factors and that utilitarian involvement positively impacts destination awareness. Furthermore, destination awareness has a positive impact on tourist activity but not consumption behaviors at a destination. However, activity behavior does positively influence tourist consumption behavior.

The cruise industry is the fastest growing category within the leisure market. Asia is a large market and a potential growth area for the cruise industry. Within Asia, the Taiwanese cruise market has grown substantially since 1997. The involvement construct is an important psychographic facet of consumer behavior. Involvement is defined as a person's perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests. Past research has linked the level of involvement to travel motivation for leisure choices, including travel. Cluster analysis is a classic market segmentation approach that has been extensively used in the tourism literature. The cluster approach has been used to understand travel motivations, satisfaction, dining choices, etc. However, no studies have presented a comparison of the two methods. There are only a few research studies on cruise vacations. Furthermore, no studies have identified the involvement levels of Taiwanese cruisers and segmented the Taiwanese cruise market ...

There is great interest in understanding the complex behaviors of consumers. One facet of consumer behavior is the ‘involvement’ construct. Involvement is a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests.There is a plethora of shopping malls all over the US. Major metropolitan cities are over-malled! Despite the abundance of malls close to their residence, American travelers shop at comparable malls while tourists in another city. There exists a gap in the literature about this phenomenon.This study surveyed 485 tourist shoppers residing in metropolitan areas to address this gap. It examined the interplay of their shopping involvement with demographics, push motivators, pull motivators, shopper-tourist cluster typologies, and the amount of time and money spent shopping while on a trip. This study created a profile of tourists based on their level of shopping involvement. It segmented them into high-, medium-, or low-involvement tourist shoppers.The more highly involved tourist shoppers were female and had limited formal education. Further, they indicated they were more interested in shopping than in many other activities. Involvement levels were consistently associated with both push and pull factors in a hierarchical manner. Respondents strongly motivated to shop by push and pull factors were consistently found to be highly involved tourist shoppers. Involvement was a significant predictor of overall satisfaction with a shopping center. Involvement levels were significantly linked to tourist-shopper cluster typologies. High-involvement tourist shoppers were significantly more likely to have saved for shopping on their trip. However, involvement was not found to be a predictor of time or money spent on shopping while on a trip.

People traveling away from home have to eat! Restaurants play an important role in tourism. They provide not just food and beverages, but experiences. Some function as attractions. Often referred to as “Eatertainment”, some examples are “Hard Rock Cafe”, “Planet Hollywood”, and “Rain Forest Cafe”. Heritage is a significant part of the travel and tourism industry. Heritage attractions and restaurants have been studied independently. Yet there is no academic literature on restaurants as historic tourist attractions. For these, we coin a new term—“Historaunt”. The purpose of the study was to obtain an understanding of the restaurant as a heritage attraction. A questionnaire was used to gather data. The survey was given to customers at Mickey's Dining Car and Mickey's Restaurant, two similar operations, owned and operated by Mickey's Diner Inc. in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul in the USA. The important difference between the establishments is the historical designation of Mickey's Dining Car (The Historaunt). The response rate was 93%. Respondents from both establishments had comparable demographics. All were interested in “good food”, and “value for money”. Behavioral and motivational differences were found between patrons of The Restaurant and The Historaunt. It attracted more customers, and more tourists. Historaunt patrons used magazines, movies, and tour guides as informational sources. They attached more importance to souvenirs, tourism/heritage issues, and to having “new eating experiences”. Implications for operators of “Historaunt” and “Eatertainment” venues are suggested. Suggestions for additional research are provided.

(1998). Hospitality and Tourism Student Recruitment: Strategies Based on the Decisionmaking Process. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 18-22.

SUMMARY The hospitality and tourism industry in the USA is increasingly operating in a changing international business environment. Its customers and guests are international tourists and business travellers, its major employers are often multi-national corporations, and its employees are of multi-ethnic heritage. This paper examines the need for universities to take a coordinated approach in internationalizing their hospitality and tourism curriculum. Such an approach is needed to prepare students for the global work environment of the future. It presents and evaluates the various approaches that have been taken by institutions from around the world, in their efforts to internationalize their programs. The paper then examines the case of The Hotel Management School Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, which has taken an integrated approach to curriculum internationalization. Information in this paper is drawn from examples in the literature, as well as from the international experiences of the authors. Finally, ...

Multinational corporations (MNCs) in the hospitality and tourism sector have traditionally concentrated their global business operations on the more open and rewarding economies of the developed world. However, the contemporary global business environment has been fast changing in the post-Cold-War era. Asia's fast developing countries, such as India, are now offering enormous opportunities to MNCs. This paper offers a vision of what MNCs can do in order to incorporate India into their global expansion and diversification strategies. The paper gives an overview of the liberalized economic environment in India. It then identifies opportunities in the hospitality and tourism sector. It goes on to analyse the socio-economic factors that favour the entry of multinational corporations into the Indian hospitality and tourism sector.

Spring break travel is a unique North American youth tourism phenomenon, generating millions of dollars for the tourism industry. This longitudinal study surveyed students at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA, over a four-year period. It examines the changes that have occurred in spring break travel patterns over the years of 1991 to 1994. Implications for marketers, tour operators and destinations are presented.

The decoy effect, a model of consumer behavior, hypothesizes that the introduction of a carefully constructed "decoy" into a choice set will result in a segment of consumers shifting their choice to a higher priced targeted item. The decoy is a high-price, low-value product compared to other items in the choice set. This study tested the decoy effect, using choices of tour packages to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Disney World, Florida. The introduc tion of decoy packages resulted in some consumers shifting their preferences to higher priced packages. Implications for travel marketers are suggested.

As the tourism industry grows, the need to predict travel behaviours increases. This study analysed the travel decision of college students who vacationed during the spring break. The involvement construct, borrowed from consumer behaviour literature, was utilised to evaluate the role of involvement in travel decision making. Demographics and their rela tionship to level of involvement were also evaluated. The data supported the hypothesis that there was a significant relationship between the level of involvement and the decision to go on a spring break. A relationship between involvement and destination selection was also found.

The college spring break tourism phenomenon conjures up images of outrageous student behavior on hot sandy beaches. This study begins to examine the reality of what students actually do over spring break as opposed to the popular myths. The exploratory study reports on the characteristics and travel patterns of the spring break travel market at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Social impacts of tourism and local attitudes have been primarily explored through quantitative methods and without the intention to test existing theory. Although some studies have adopted qualitative approaches, the potential value of interpretative methods in the analysis of local attitudes still remains largely unknown. This study aims to test the applicability of extant theory (Doxey's model) on the basis of qualitative methods for the study of tourism impacts and local attitudes. It adopts a qualitative perspective and analyses the perceived social effects and local residents' attitudes of Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico. In addition, it adopts Doxey's index for tourist irritation as a theoretical framework. It was found that spring break's economic benefits only accrue to very specific organisations; that there is a local feeling of discrimination due to differentiated treatment of spring breakers and locals; and that levels of alcohol consumption among locals increase during the spring break season. Methodologically speaking, the main contribution of this study lies in the way in which qualitative methods combine with theoretical models on tourism social impacts to uncover the cognitive, affective and conative components of residents' attitudes, something that would have been difficult to capture using quantitative methods.

Recognising the importance of the convention industry in terms of its economic and social impact, nations and cities strive to develop strategies to obtain a more competitive position in the world market and to host more international conferences. However, unfortunately, no integrative framework existed that addresses the mechanism of the factors that constitute a nation's competitiveness in the convention industry, managing subtle facets of meetings and convention tourism. This study presents a model for evaluating the competitiveness of a nation as a convention destination.