Editorial

Citation

McAuley, A. (1998), "Editorial", Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, Vol. 4 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmpams.1998.15504caa.001

Editorial

Recently I sat on a panel which discussed the relative merits of Scottish tourism. One member of the panel produced a file containing the results of a recent survey into all providers of tourism related training in Scotland. It was a substantial document covering all levels from Certificate to specialist Masters degrees. The argument seemed to go that here was ample evidence of industry-related training and therefore there was little need for any further provision. At this point in the discussion I had this vision of an ostrich with its proverbial head in the sand. It seemed to me that had all this training been actually working, by delivering better skills to those employed in the industry who in turn satisfied customers, then we would not be having this discussion in the first place.

A new marketing consortium ­ Cruise Scotland ­ was launched this week. It may surprise readers to know that the cruise business contributes around £10 million annually towards Scotland's tourism revenue. This year approximately 220 ships will call into Cruise Scotland ports which include Kirkwall, Lerwick, Edinburgh, Ayr, Troon and Campbeltown. Cruise Scotland has joined forces with the Scottish Tourist Board, the National Trust for Scotland and Simply the Best to promote all that Scotland has to offer as a cruise destination.

The importance of this attempt to integrate marketing strategies in this sector cannot be underestimated, for example, the press recently reported the comments of a passenger who visited Campbeltown on a German cruise ship last year. The passenger stated that the visit had been pleasant enough but coincided with the curious custom of "early closing". The pretty port was compared to a ghost town with not even a cafe staying open!

It seems that in this scenario the gap between the theory contained in the thick file and the practice as experienced by the German visitor was never more evident. Clearly, for the tourism industry to be successful it requires the coming together of many different organisations and the basis for success is to begin with customer expectations. Once those have been identified any gaps in the provision can be identified and addressed through business development programmes (never call them training!). The potential rewards for dealing with the "trappings versus substance" and creating a "win win" situation in this sector have never been greater.

As if by magic the two papers in this issue fit with some of the issues raised above. The paper by Hill, McGowan and Maclaran discusses the split between theory and practice which has become polarised with academics developing theory and practitioners applying it. The concept of work-based learning places emphasis on experience and practice as a way of developing new knowledge. Many methods can be used to link learning to the work role which ultimately creates an on-going learning cycle of theory/experience/reflection/theory. Perhaps those courses in tourism which followed ideas of work-based learning would assist most in closing the gap between theory and practice.

The second paper by Chan and Lau is useful in reminding us of the importance of testing any theory in a cross-cultural setting. As most Western behavioural theories are based in psychology which are in turn bounded by cultural values the process of applying them in different cultural contexts becomes an important part of assessing their generalisability. It is interesting to note that in the more internationalised sample from Hong Kong the Fishbein-Ajzen Model performed even better than in the People's Republic of China. Another aspect of the study highlighted the influence of the collectivist culture of Chinese consumers. It strikes that in a highly segmented cruise ship market ideas of collective attitudes to consumption intentions might also have a role to play. There, had to get it back to cruise ships somehow!

On a final note the Chan and Lau paper comes from a quantitative perspective but prospective authors should note that this Journal welcomes papers based on all research methodologies. It is unlikely that there is only one way up the mountain but I'm happy to be proved wrong! Young authors and particularly Ph.D. students are encouraged to submit material. So get writing and I hope you find the work in this issue provocative.

Andrew McAuley