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PurposeThe digital transformation in the banking industry has brought about complexity and competitiveness which has made differentiation challenging for banks. Complemented by consumer empowerment through high accessibility of information on the internet, this has led to a phenomenon known as switching behavior. The purpose of this review is to examine the determinants governing switching behavior among bank customers. This review highlights the importance of research which looks beyond pre-adoption behavior by examining post-adoption behavior; what happens after initial technology acceptance.Design/methodology/approachThis review examines 44 journal articles researching switching behavior published between 1995 and 2022 in top journals. From a synthesis of literature, a conceptual framework for analysis and understanding switching behavior is presented.FindingsAlthough various scholars have investigated switching behavior among bank customers, there are few studies which provide a comprehensive review and research classifications in this area. This review classifies key determinants of switching behavior into socio-demographic factors, situational triggers, influential triggers and reactional triggers. Structural equation modelling is the most common research methodology utilized in reviewed articles. The literature review reveals that mediators and moderators are less commonly deployed compared to determinants. Findings also indicate switching behavior studies still lack theory-driven conceptual frameworks.Originality/valueThis paper is the first systematic literature review on switching behavior research among bank customers spanning across 28 years in top academic journals. It integrates insights from 44 relevant research papers through publication trends. This review identifies key research gaps and provides future research directions.

Over the past 30 years, the Western world has experienced the transition of higher tourism and hospitality education from vocational to a broader social-science orientation. This chapter investigates whether this shift away from a narrow focus on employability towards a personal growth and values orientation has materialised in China as well. A content analysis of undergraduate programmes in Chinese colleges and universities is used to identify the variability and emphasis of curricula within the limited autonomy of higher education institutions in China. It emerged that the transparency of programme designs is low, study programmes lack a clear profile and positioning and teaching volume in classrooms is at least 80% higher than the average of bachelor programmes in Western countries. Personal and social skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork and liberal reflection capacities are neglected components. This supply side perspective is complemented by focus group discussions with the HR managers of internationally branded hotels in China. Participants considered emotional intelligence, an outgoing personality and personal endurance capabilities as more important assets than technical skills. The third empirical study involved the reflections of more than 400 HR managers – mainly from the hospitality industry – on the contribution of broader curricula components to the employability of graduates. These – mainly Chinese – managers most appreciated extended language capabilities and experiences from mindful internships. However, generic personal skills, such as communication, creativity, social responsibility, leadership and reflective, critical thinking, are valued more than specific industry or functional managerial knowledge. Overall, a shift in the perception of the service industry, innovation in new curriculum designs, more transparency and competition as well as higher leadership competencies in the industry will be required to foster a competitive edge for stakeholders, institutions and educational beneficiaries in China.

One of the key factors shaping the future of tourism is climate change (Becken & Hay, 2007; Dwyer et al., 2009; Nordin, 2005). Burns and Bibbings (2009) even predict “the end of tourism” should current consumption patterns prevail. There is an alternative to this future, but to develop “new imaginations for the sustainable development” of tourism we must understand the wicked problem of tourists’ environmental behavior. Tourists’ environmental behavior impacts on sustainable development to varying degrees (Becken et al, 2003; Metz et al., 2007) depending on whether they behave responsibly or irresponsibly. People consider holidays as a break from everyday life (Becken, 2004; Dolnicar & Grün, 2009) which suggests that people may behave differently when they are tour- ists. For this reason, this chapter explores tourists’ uptake of environmental behaviors by examining their propensity to responsible environmental behavior while travelling. A better understanding of tourists’ environmental behavior can lead to strategies that support collaborative actions “towards facilitating tourism development that is inherently sustainable” (Jennings, 2018). Environmental behavior is a very complex field of research (Hergesell, 2017). Such behavior is determined by a range of internal and external factors with the significance of these factors differing dependent on the person, the context and the type of behavior under study. The question is hence how to reduce ‘irresponsible’ behavior.

Tourism development is officially recognized by the Chinese central government as one of the strategic pillars of the country's economy. Hence, regional authorities are responsible for developing positioning strategies for their tourism destinations. This study investigates the following: (1) the variety of planned image positions among sub-provincial prefectures in China; (2) the commonalities of these image propositions across China and (3) the differences within and across the regions and provinces. This research is based on a representative sample of tourism development plans of 77 prefectural administrations. The texts (in Chinese language) were content analyzed and condensed in two steps into semantically similar terms and concepts. The results show that image-positioning objectives are generally lean in the planning documents lacking sophistication and creativity. The variety of used image terms tempts to believe in quite different positioning goals. Yet, from a compound perspective, this d...

Capturing and retaining tourists are the main driving forces behind tourism marketing research. Nevertheless, research on how to retain tourists and why they persist in repeating the same destination is not consensual. Following the early work of Ehrenberg and the recency–frequency–monetary value paradigm, this study applies a Poisson distribution model to estimate the past frequency of revisiting Portugal based on information collected from international repeat visitors surveyed at all airports of Portugal in 2012. Results from estimating the model show mixed effects for recency, country of origin and destination region. Recommendation behaviour could not be identified as an explanatory variable for past visitation frequency.

During the past 20 years destination management has changed substantially towards more professionalism and goal orientation. Organizations such as the OECD and WTO as well as academia contributed with developing frameworks for assessing competitiveness and applying benchmarking processes at national and regional levels. However, continuous and systematic benchmarking for destination management has not been applied on a wider scale. This article reports on the development of an internal monitoring and benchmarking tool for a European destination at NUTS-III level that aims at overcoming prevailing weaknesses of existing instruments (e.g., lack of data, bias towards overnight tourism, limited involvement of appropriate stakeholders). The current system, called Tourism Sensor®, was set up in 2010 and repeated 2 years later. Results show, as expected, changes particularly where strategy implementation steps have been taken. Ratios also highlight sensitive areas where internal tourism management activities should be channeled in the near future.

The authors conceptualize ‘interest in the other’ as cultural tourism's focal issue. Using an involvement level taxonomy, this study stratifies cultural tourism and applies McKercher and DuCros (2002) cultural visitor categories to predict tourist activities. This exploratory study includes 250 tourists from 20 nationalities and focuses on visitor interest to engage with Maori culture in New Zealand. The results demonstrate qualitative trustworthiness and quantitative validity. Both Guttman, 1944 , Guttman, 1950 scale qualities and the factor statistics indicate a successful development of a measurement instrument that bridges the emic/etic divide between cultures.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test and compare different conceptual approaches for perceived value in a service context.Design/methodology/approachPerceived value is an outcome construct that results from various benefits received and sacrifices devoted to achieve a particular exchange of a service. The paper compares three different modeling approaches (Type 1, Type 2, and Type 4) for perceived value using data from an in‐flight survey. The questionnaire covered topics such as perceived service quality and overall satisfaction, price perception, customer value, and customer retention.FindingsThe theoretical discussion repeatedly emphasizes that only the formative modeling of perceived value fits the arguments put forward in the existing literature. This study replicates and extends a study by Lin et al. in the airline service context. The paper reports details about the impact of the proposed seven “get” and “give” components, together with an analysis of the consequences perceived value has on satisfaction, loyalty, and word‐of‐mouth.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings suggest extensions and improvements concerning measurement and conceptual issues.Practical implicationsPerceived value shows a substantial effect on behavioral consequences. Service operations must observe the perception of atmospherics emerging from the main service encounters next to considering functional aspects.Originality/valueMisconceptualizations of multi‐item constructs are well known. However, critical discussions and empirical tests are still scarce in the tourism field. This paper tests and compares different conceptual approaches for perceived value in a service context.

Response style effects due to question items, answer formats, and cultural factors have gained considerable attention in marketing research. However, the published work in this field only addresses effects based on measurements in the realm of Likert-type answer formats. This study sheds light on the variations in estimated response style effects using conventional rating-based agreement/disagreement scales and contrasting them with confirmation/disconfirmation scales typically applied to service quality measurement. An empirical study within the passenger airline industry highlights substantial differences using ANOVA analysis. They are partly due to different item scales used as the basis for calculating response styles, partially due to the scale types, and are almost independent from language (cultural) differences. In general, the results give initial directions for calculating response style effects, which, nevertheless, merits more experimental testing.

This study tests the homogeneity of international visitors from more than 50 countries to Thailand (Phuket) and Vietnam (Hanoi) using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. It addresses the issue whether it is nationality or, instead, cultural values that are related to holiday motivations, and therefore the more important criterion for segmenting the market. Replicating the International Tourist Role Scale succeeded in principle; however, not without some adaptations and critical questions to the scale. Comparing a limited number of countries of origin (11), it could be shown that travelers at the destination share many more cultural values among themselves than with their respective national sample scores, i.e. their counterparts at home. Overall, the proposed hypothesis that cultural orientation affects travel motivations could be confirmed at a weak-to-medium level of strength.

This study tries to give an answer to the question whether the perceived beneficial images of destinations differ across different travel contexts (wellness vs. sun & beach) and wellness and nonwellness travellers respectively. This objective is demonstrated by considering two sets of destinations: European and Asian countries that are specialising, to a varying degree, in wellness tourism. In addition, the conceptualisation of destination image follows the direction of an ‘overall composite and gestalt impression’ summarised by Keaveney and Hunt (1992, p. 166) that also requires an adequate holistic measurement process. For this purpose the procedure outlined by Tapachai and Waryszak (2000) for developing so-called proxy benefit prototypes for describing the product category of a destination is replicated. Meaningful practical results could be elaborated by profiling destination images of ten different countries from the perspective of the abovementioned traveller segments. Plots from multidimensional scaling (MDS) and consecutive property fitting procedures assisted in visualising the results and competitive relations.

Zusammenfassung Die Nützlichkeit von Informationen auf Websites ist ein Erfolgskriterium für Tourismusorganisationen, da diese primär Informationen für potentielle Besucher bereit stellen. Die vorliegende Studie verglich sechs Methoden zur Nutzen- bzw. Wichtigkeitsmessung von Informationselementen auf den Websites von 59 Städtetourismusorganisationen. Folgende Verfahren fanden dabei Anwendung: Gruppenentscheidung, Rating, Partial Ranking, Choice-Based Conjoint Analyse (CBC), Adaptive Conjoint Analyse (ACA) und Maximum Difference (MaxDiff). Die Analyse zeigte, dass einfache, kompositionelle Methoden konsistentere Resultate erzielten als dekompositionelle Verfahren. Einerseits scheinen die Komplexität bzw. das Abstraktionsniveau dafür verantwortlich zu sein, dass die Ergebnisse aus ACA und MaxDiff verzerrt waren. Andererseits unterscheiden sich die einzelnen Websites massiv hinsichtlich der Qualität und der Menge des zur Verfügung gestellten Inhalts. Die Gesamtergebnisse für die Websites der Städtetourismusorganisationen zeigten trotz unterschiedlicher Gewichtungsschemata ein übereinstimmendes Bild.

Previous research focused primarily on discovering factors affecting either the benefits and service quality of traditional travel agencies or those of online booking facilities. This study tries to broaden the scope by investigating multiple distribution channel options. It considers different concepts covered by the SERVQUAL instrument, the technology acceptance model, the e-service quality approach and price perceptions as potential value drivers for different travel distribution channels. 58 different perceptual and attitudinal criteria were finally used and condensed into eleven value driving dimensions. These evaluative dimensions were applied together with a set of personal characteristics to discriminate between five different traveller segments defined a priori by their past booking behaviour. Overall, so-called store characteristics seem to dominate the explanation of differences in channel preferences. More favourable price perceptions are attributed to online agencies which is one of ...

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to help tourism marketers maximize the persuasiveness of their websites toward the objective of increasing visitation to their destination.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a two‐part research project: a content analysis of websites to determine the most frequently used elements; and an experiment wherein respondents view one of ten randomly assigned websites and complete a survey about the credibility, message strength, and persuasiveness of that site.Findings – Results support the importance of message credibility to message strength, and that both may impact on change of propensity to visit a destination. It also points out new information about website elements. While more organic website elements such as testimonials and web cams are expected to affect the most change, they do not. Rather, information on fundamental elements such as accommodations and attractions has the most effect on message credibility, and on respondents' change in propens...

Due to rapid development in technological solutions, location-sensitive information services are spreading into more and more fields and markets. Cruise ship travels are one domain for which geo-spatial and cultural information services play an important role in enriching the passengers' experiences. This paper examines, therefore, the information provided online and analyzes the content provided by river cruise operators offering tours along the river Danube. Additionally, RIVERTALE, a location based on-board information system in the stage of a prototype, is evaluated by both tour operators and passengers. Two system variants are considered: a lean-forward kiosk type information system and a lean-back interactive cabin TV information system. The survey among the passengers reveals that there is a strong willingness to use the information service, primarily determined by the perceived usefulness and entertainment of the system. Industry representatives, in contrast, do not recognize such additio...

This article contributes to the recent literature on tourism destination competitiveness including the gargantuan compilations of competitiveness factors by Ritchie and Crouch (2003), or Dwyer and Kim (2003), and, particularly, the widely known prototype of a Competitiveness Monitor (CM) initiated by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The central question underlying this article is whether an arrangement of data such as the CM can be transformed from a purely definitional system into an explanatory model. A number of criticisms regarding the way of constructing the CM, its epistemological nature, and the absence of any accessibility factors lead to a moderately revised system that is explored by latent variable modeling. The empirical findings support this type of model, which tends to better explain the levels of tourism activity already achieved than sustained tourism growth. A discussion of the detailed results produces several recommendations on how to adjust the future strategy of research on destination competitiveness.

Research explaining host community residents' attitudes towards tourism receives continuous attention and its scope is broadening constantly. This study aims at contributing to the body of knowledge about the systematic variation and change of these attitudes. For this reason, the concept of social distance is introduced into the tourism context. As a first attempt, a Guttman-type scale with Thurstone characteristics was developed and purified in two countries: New Zealand and Austria. In both countries independent surveys were conducted to validate the scale formation. The contribution to explaining residents' attitudes was very fruitful in the Austrian example but less clear in the New Zealand example. Whether or not different stages of tourism development are responsible for these differences cannot be entirely concluded from only two surveys.

Previous research has demonstrated that attribute based evaluations are significant determinants of satisfaction: direct and indirect effects through cognitive evaluation induced emotions. This study argues that in a multiple-encounter service environment like tourism the experience elicited emotions are antecedent to the final cognitive evaluation of the entire consumption episode. Both affective and cognitive responses exercise an almost independent impact on overall satisfaction conceptualized according to Oliver's (1997) multi-domain approach. Considerable differences in the structure of cognitive effects on satisfaction are demonstrated for complaining and non-complaining consumers.

This chapter enhances insights into destination image and competitor assessments by extending the research framework of perception-based market segmentation by two perspectives: allowing generating individual sets of competitors and contrasting two stages of travel experience: pre- and after trip. The empirical study is based on two samples of leisure travelers: a mix of international travelers who just finished their trip to Thailand and a group of European travelers interested in visiting Thailand. Against conventional assumptions though supporting more recent findings on destination decision making the majority of travelers did not identify any direct competitor.

Relationship marketing requires a thorough understanding of the long‐run perspective of the supplier‐customer interaction. The concept of customer loyalty can be applied to emphasize the behavioural and attitudinal aspects of this interaction. This study investigates the antecedents of future customer loyalty in the commercial airline industry by applying structural models under four prototypical past loyalty conditions. These conditions are based on behavioural and situational descriptors and labelled in analogy to Day’s compositional approach. It is shown that the superiority of relative attitudes claimed by Dick and Basu cannot be confirmed. Corporate image of the service provider is, along with service quality and customer satisfaction, a powerful and illustrative component for explaining future customer loyalty. When comparing the a priori defined conditions (low, latent, spurious, and true loyalty) it turns out that the structural evaluative differences can be partially interpreted by the phenomena which are described as affective and calculative commitment in the literature. However, it is claimed to consider situational factors such as the character of the buying and decision‐making process in much more detail.

Three theories, Csikszentmihalyi's flow (1975), static versus dynamic orientation (Wicklund 1986) and mood theory were used to understand and test the impact of emotions as antecedents on motivations to travel. Significant correlations between discreet emotions and mood were found. The state of flow regarding respondents' levels of skill versus the challenges faced at work as a measure of static versus dynamic orientation resulted in explaining motivational tendencies to travel.

Two concepts are discussed in this study: (1) an a posteriori segmentation with psychographic variables and (2) customer loyalty in tourism. It tries to overcome the insufficiency of lifestyle segmentation detected in explaining tourism behaviour by exploiting the advantage of the multivariate nature of combined motivational and behavioural patterns of tourism demand. The segmentation task exercised with the neurocomputing technique of self-organising feature maps (SOM) resulted in a European vacation style typology of nine different prototypes. When merging two samples of vacationers, a travel survey in five generating countries and the National Austrian Guest Survey, by means of the condensed psychographic profiles it is possible to generate synergy in the process of data analysis. Both data sets shed light on Austria as a tourism destination from different perspectives. When exploiting the information that refers to loyalty and destination preferences there is no barrier to break up the corset...

Cultural tourism develops at a considerable speed and diversifies continuously in a multifaceted way. It constitutes not only the base for the booming European city tourism but acts more and more as an instrument for fostering tourism in rural areas. The main objective of this kind of policy is to maintain or improve the quality of life of the local people. The theoretical background for this development is outlined briefly in the introductory section of this article. The empirical part analyzes the impacts of a particular kind of cultural tourism (exhibition tourism) as perceived by local residents in several small rural communities of Styria, Austria. This study examines the psychometric characteristics of the tourism impact and attitude scale (TIAS) developed by Lankford and Howard. The added domain of psychosocial impacts is shown to adhere to a distinct dimension of environmental influences. This extended TIAS model was tested for structural stability over two consecutive measurement moments and shifts in the mean scores of the latent constructs by means of structural equation modeling. In addition, background variables were regressed—first separately then aggregated to community attachment scores—against the two latent dimensions of tourism impacts to find explanations for variations in attitudes. The four-quadrant model of Bjorklund and Philbrick of social impacts was applied for elucidating the perceptual shifts from the initial to the follow-up study period.

A great variety of partial models exist for explaining con sumer behavior. Model selection, specification, and evaluation often lack theory orientation and sufficient criteria. Compared with demographic or socioeconomic variables, psychographic concepts supposedly offer the highest predictive power for consumer behavior. This study examined four psychographic tools in tourism behavior models: personal values, lifestyle, vacation style, and benefits sought. A rank order of predictive superiority was determined for particular theme hotel choice variables. The second research objective aimed to validate the systematic relationships between the four latent constructs. Several concepts of validity are discussed for evaluating the results claiming a consecutive influence from values to lifestyle, to vacation-style attitudes, and to benefits sought. Path analyses for each of the hotel themes try to condense and summarize the entire result.

Are tourism resorts as successful as the average of their adhering hospitality and leisure companies? The following study argues that synergies may take effect which are subject to particular management activities in a tourism resort. Measurement issues and difficulties of comparison between several resorts are discussed. Despite the lack of a proper management-oriented data base for every tourism resort in Austria, the authors try to find significant indicators for success of tourism resorts. Statistical supply-side data are matched with attributes from more than 12,000 tourists, covering 223 resorts. Findings are compared with initial hypotheses and permit only a very cautious interpretation. Nevertheless, many suggestions for further testing and confirmation, more comprehensive and detailed investigations can be derived.

This study investigates day‐trippers’ attitudes toward different types of leisure attractions. The analysis of 15 attraction types generated one common perceptual space whose axes were interpreted as underlying competing dimensions. Data were collected by self‐administering computer‐assisted interviews using the technique of individual grouping which consists of an unconstrained sorting task of the stimuli. Non‐metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedures were employed in order to reveal a three‐dimensional configuration. Besides the direct stimuli comparisons, attribute data were generated for avoiding a completely subjective interpretation of the perceptual map. Individual difference scaling (INDSCAL) procedures were applied for an a priori segmentation approach which resulted in remarkable perceptual differences among the analysed sub‐groups. The MDS configuration suggests that despite the obvious unique character of every leisure attraction the descision process for visiting a particular attractio...

When the first edition of this book appeared in 1997 it contained a chapter on segmenting city tourists by their vacation styles. While the conceptual foundations did not change much the following decade has seen noticeable progress regarding tourist researchers’ command of analytical methodology and computing instruments. This chapter takes account of the recent developments and moulds them into a digestible format for managers and students alike. Its overall purpose is to provide a template of working steps to cope with psychographically and behaviourally heterogeneous city tourists.

The EUROSTYLE system represents a multinational lifestyle approach that has been developed since 1972 by the French enterprise Centre de Communication Avanc) (CCA) of the Havas‐Eurocom group. In 1989 this research system has been established in 15 European countries by the member companies of the EUROPANEL network.

Zum Stellenwert des Reiseveranstalter-Images scheint folgende Empfehlung Krippendorfs (1980, S. 57) als Ansatzpunkt geeignet zu sein: “Alle touristischen Marketing-Masnahmen sind dermasen auszugestalten, das sie langfristig bei den Adressaten ein moglichst groses Mas an Praferenzen zugunsten der jeweiligen Angebote und deren Trager zu schaffen vermogen.” Zur Praferenzbildung tragt der Ruf oder das Image eines Veranstalters genauso bei wie die sorgfaltige Ausgestaltung von Zusatzleistungen (Transfer, Reiseleitung, Versicherung, gunstige Abflugszeiten).