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This research aims to investigate how Chinese leisure travelers value hotel amenities when they book hotel rooms in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate how Chinese leisure travelers value hotel amenities when they book hotel rooms in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method was based on a conjoint analysis approach. Conjoint models were developed to determine how people make decisions and what they really value in products or services.
Findings
Price had the highest average importance value, followed by airport/local area shuttles, wireless internet, breakfast and quality of coffee/tea. Price, airport/local area shuttles and wireless internet were rated as being relatively more important than breakfast and quality of coffee/tea.
Research limitations/implications
This research has some limitations in terms of the generalizability of its findings to all hotels and travelers. First, only four hotel amenities were considered. Second, the research focused on Chinese leisure travelers staying in hotels in Hong Kong. Finally, the sample only consisted of leisure travelers.
Practical implications
This research shows that providing complimentary breakfast and free access to quality coffee/tea when a hotel already provides a shuttle service and free wireless internet does not add much value to the overall hotel product from the customer’s point of view. Moreover, it provides insights into how hotel professionals can customize and select the amenities they provide to impress their customers.
Originality/value
This research has significant implications for hotel managers’ efforts to formulate and implement strategies or tactics in their daily operations or long-term plans through the selection of hotel amenities.
Details
Keywords
Deniz Kucukusta, Mariia Perelygina and Wing Sze Lam
The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotels practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication through social media, including which content type and media…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotels practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication through social media, including which content type and media type receive the highest level of engagement. Two major aspects are considered, namely, CSR communication activity and stakeholder engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is conducted for Forbes four-star to five-star hotels in Hong Kong. Facebook data are extracted from the property pages of the sample hotels by Netvizz, which is a Facebook data extraction application. The data analysis includes three steps and combines qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Findings
The results indicate that the type of information has a significant influence on engagement and has even more of an affect than the message strategy. Although the number of CSR-related posts is significantly lower than marketing-oriented posts, they achieve a comparable level of popularity and engagement. Posts encouraging CSR practices show the highest level of engagement among CSR-related posts. In terms of media and content types, video achieves the highest engagement, and posts related to discounts achieve the highest engagement.
Originality/value
This study fills the gap in the current literature by conducting a comparison between marketing and CSR communication strategies on social media. It also provides insights on how to draft more effective CSR messages.
Details
Keywords
Basak Denizci Guillet and Deniz Kucukusta
This paper aims to segment spa customers based on their preferences for a set of spa attributes. With the considerable growth rate of the spa market, it is vital for spa…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to segment spa customers based on their preferences for a set of spa attributes. With the considerable growth rate of the spa market, it is vital for spa professionals to understand spa-goers’ preferences. However, academics and industry professionals have not devised a structured method by which to manage spa customers.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted using a face-to-face survey with visitors to Hong Kong who had visited a spa. By applying conjoint and cluster analysis, customers could be categorized into distinct segments.
Findings
Four customer segments were identified: spa enthusiasts, high spenders, value seekers and price-sensitive spa-goers. Spa enthusiasts were the largest segment among the four, followed by value seekers, price-sensitive spa-goers and high spenders.
Research limitations/implications
Given the limited academic interest in the area, this study contributes to the literature by providing insights into spa-goers’ preferences and how those preferences can be used to segment spa-goers.
Practical implications
Based on the different needs, preferences and socio-demographic characteristics of the four segments – spa enthusiasts, high spenders, value seekers and price-sensitive spa-goers – spa industry managers could customize their strategies and design different spa services and packages to meet the needs of the four segments.
Originality/value
The combined use of conjoint and cluster analysis provides a new method of market segmentation in the spa industry. This study could help spa professionals to design customized spa products for the distinct segments, and thus retain and attract more spa visitors.
Details
Keywords
Deniz Kucukusta, Rob Law, Alia Besbes and Patrick Legohérel
This paper aims to report the findings of an empirical research focusing on Hong Kong online users’ intention to book online tourism products with latest figures. Focusing on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report the findings of an empirical research focusing on Hong Kong online users’ intention to book online tourism products with latest figures. Focusing on the technology acceptance model (TAM), this case study extends the recent research with providing insight regarding the online users’ perceptions of TAM dimensions and how these dimensions are perceived among different demographic groups and Internet usage characteristics with latest figures in Hong Kong, a major tourism destination in Asia with many world-class hotels.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 213 Hong Kong online users were surveyed in March and April 2013 in Hong Kong business districts.
Findings
Findings reveal that most respondents who use the Internet for booking online travel products are young, and people above a certain age are not likely to favor booking tourism products online. They are more likely to stick to traditional personal service. Perceived usefulness of the Internet is found more influential than its ease of use in forming a usage intention, and ease of use is perceived more important by jobseekers, student and employees than the other profession groups. In addition, respondents who use the Internet every day and did purchase online tourism product perceived usefulness more important than ease of use.
Research limitations/implications
The generalization of this research is limited by its sample size and number of questions.
Originality/value
The study gives a new perspective by linking TAM with intention to book online in Hong Kong. The paper would be of interest to the Web site planners or online tourism practitioners to consider Web site usefulness as much as its ease of its use, as both usefulness and ease of use of tourism Web sites are strong predictors of intention to book online.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have yet to fully utilize social media to promote their CSR initiatives. This means there is huge potential for improved stakeholder engagement, leading to short- and long-term performance gains.
Originality
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Keywords
This study aims to address how the social structure of the hospitality management field has evolved from 1960 to 2016.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address how the social structure of the hospitality management field has evolved from 1960 to 2016.
Design/methodology/approach
The informal social structure of the hospitality management literature was analyzed by collecting authorship data from seven hospitality management journals. Co-authorship analyses via network analysis were conducted.
Findings
According to the findings, throughout the history of hospitality management, international collaboration levels are relatively low. Based on social network analysis, the research community is only loosely connected, and the network of the community does not fit with the small-world network theory. Additional findings indicate that researchers in the hospitality management literature are ranked via degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality. Cliques, which contain at least five researchers, and core researchers are identified.
Practical implications
This study helps both scholars and practitioners improve the informal structure of the field. Scholars must generate strong ties to strengthen cross-fertilization in the field; hence, they collaborate with authors who have strong positions in the field. Specifically, this provides a useful performance analysis. To the extent that institutions and individuals are rewarded for publications, this study demonstrates the performance and connectivity of several key researchers in the field. This finding could be interesting to (post)graduate students. Hospitality managers looking for advisors and consultants could benefit from the findings. Additionally, these are beneficial for journal editors, junior researchers and agencies/institutions.
Originality/value
As one of the first study in the field, this research examines the informal social structure of hospitality management literature in seven journals.
Details
Keywords
Antony King Fung Wong, Mehmet Ali Koseoglu and Seongseop (Sam) Kim
This study aims to examine the current state of the research activities of scholars in the hospitality and tourism field by analyzing the first 20 years of the new millennium.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the current state of the research activities of scholars in the hospitality and tourism field by analyzing the first 20 years of the new millennium.
Design/methodology/approach
Longitudinal analyses using 14,229 journal articles as data source were realized by adopting BibExcel, Gephi and VOSviewer network analysis software packages.
Findings
This study provides a comprehensive overview of the hospitality and tourism research based on authorship and social network analysis, with patterns of prolific authors compared over four distinct periods.
Research limitations/implications
The hospitality and tourism academic society is clearly illustrated by tracing academic publication activities across 20 years in the new millennium. In addition, this study provides a guide for scholars to search for multidisciplinary collaboration opportunities. Government agencies and non-governmental organisations can also benefit from this study by identifying appropriate review panel members when making decisions about hospitality- and tourism-related proposals.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use bibliometric analysis in assessing research published in leading hospitality and tourism journals across the four breakout periods in the new millennium.
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This study aims to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) decision-making.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
Using stakeholder theory, this study is mainly based on business ethics and CSR literature to develop a model depicting social and organizational contextual factors for engagement in the context of CSR decision-making.
Findings
This study identifies nine antecedents for engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making. Based on stakeholder perspective, the author explores how engagement constructs are influenced at both social and organizational levels by the determinants stakeholder pressure, stakeholder roles, stakeholder resources, stakeholder relationships, stakeholder management, two-way communication, procedural justice, interactional justice and stakeholder proactive strategy.
Practical implications
This study provides insights for companies regarding the determinants underlying engagement to reflect its importance in the context of CSR decision-making.
Social implications
A better understanding of the determinants of engagement is critical because engagement contributes to achieving “win-win” solutions that ensure increased stakeholder satisfaction.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is one of the first to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making at both social and organizational levels by referring to stakeholder theory.
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