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Cross-cultural research constitutes a pivotal topic for marketing; however, the literature indicates that there are a few studies analyzing social media reviews from a cross-cultural perspective using cultural proximity (supra-national level) as a proxy of culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify cross-cultural differences in service evaluations and specifically, in hotel appraisals among tourists from Central, Eastern (including Post-Soviet States), Northern and Southern Europe.

A quantitative approach has been taken by studying online user-generated ratings of hotels on Trip Advisor. In total, 1,055 reviews of five hotels in Greece were used for the study.

Multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variances results confirm cultural differences in overall service evaluations and attributes (value, location, sleeping quality, rooms, cleanliness and service) of tourists from various European regions. Specifically, Eastern Europeans uploaded more reviews than any other European group, whereas Northern Europeans were more generous in their appraisals than Eastern, Southern and Central Europeans.

The results of the study could be used for segmentation purposes of the European tourism market and for recognizing, which aspects of their services need to be improved based on the segments they serve. Moreover, managers should encourage Northern and Eastern Europeans to upload their reviews as both groups are more generous in their evaluations. Moreover, the findings are useful to marketers of other services.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines cross-cultural differences in hotel appraisals from a supra-national perspective including developed (Northern and Western Europe), developing (Southern Europe) and emerging tourism markets (Eastern Europe).

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the different factors of destination quality in explaining European tourist satisfaction in Nha Trang city, which has one of the 29 most beautiful bays in the world and more than one million international tourists per year. The authors will also make some recommendations to attract more European visitors to Nha Trang and to increase satisfaction, as measured by their intention to return in the future.

A sample of 356 European visitors participated in this study. A structural equation modelling was applied in order to test the relationship between the constructs, and to evaluate their reliability and validity.

The results indicate satisfactory reliability and validity of the constructs and support the five hypotheses within a structural equation modelling. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating the roles of different factors in explaining tourists’ satisfaction. Specially, in some previous studies, the composition of the destination quality such as accommodation, food services, the retail and souvenir shops and destination attractions has a great impact on domestic tourist’s satisfaction. While the study found that the biggest factor affecting European tourist’s satisfaction was the friendliness and hospitality of the local people in Nha Trang city.

Future studies should test the difference in satisfaction with the quality of destinations of European tourists to Nha Trang city. Research sample surveys should be collected in order to the magnitude and priority of key European tourist markets such as Russia, England, France, Spain and Germany. In addition, future studies should include more representative samples in other cities and include both domestic and international visitors. The proposed model intends to combine some components of tourism behaviour dimensions (value, involvement, knowledge, ambivalence, certainty, preference, trust, etc.) to test the satisfaction and destination intentional loyalty within this multidimensional perspective in a tourist destination context. The study has not considered the relationship between the increase of Russian tourists to the Nha Trang city in recent years and the decline of the European tourists (England, France, Spain, and so on). Thus, future studies should extend the model to have a more comprehensive picture about the cultural differences and cultural conflict in explaining the loyalty destination of European tourists.

Based on the research findings, the paper strongly recommends the city government to build an image of Nha Trang with friendly and hospitable people. Schools, tourism companies, and local authorities should pay attention to education and training to raise public awareness for tourism development and respect for tourists. The local government needs to develop activities to help the city residents become the typical citizen in the eyes of European tourists, contributing to the sustainable development of tourism in the city.

This study explores and tests the different factors of destination quality in explaining European tourists’ satisfaction. The research findings confirm that different dimensions of perceived destination quality are important variables to explain European tourist satisfaction.

The aim of the research was to analyse the image of Vojvodina's cuisine and tourist satisfaction with food experience as part of a rural tourism offer in Vojvodina province (Serbia). This chapter is based on research carried out among 891 foreign tourists who visited villages in Vojvodina. The obtained results were examined via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) and T-test. The obtained results indicated that factors like food uniqueness and cultural heritage, food quality and price, nutrition and health benefits of food and affective image of food influence the image of local cuisine. The results showed that local cuisine (food) can serve as a tool for building destination's brand identity. The study pointed out the role and significance of the image of local cuisine on rural tourist attractions but also on tourist satisfaction with food experience. Also, the contribution of the research is reflected in three aspects: theoretical implication, methodological and practical contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying dimensions of local cuisine image by identifying the key cuisine attributes tourists rely on in their evaluations of local cuisine; and to identify those dimensions of local cuisine image which have the strongest influence of tourist satisfaction with food experience. These issues are addressed within the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an emergent tourism market in Western Balkans.

The research is exploratory. The city of Sarajevo was chosen as a study setting. Image of local cuisine was measured by using a multi-attribute approach in which several food attributes are specified and incorporated into the measurement instrument. Data from convenience sample of foreign tourists (n=402) were quantitatively analyzed using multivariate and descriptive statistics.

Results suggest that the local cuisine image compromises four components (dimensions): “food uniqueness and cultural heritage”, “food quality and price”, “nutrition and health benefits of food” and “affective image of food”. Furthermore, findings show that these dimensions differ in terms of their relative importance in explaining the overall tourist satisfaction with food experience.

The main limitation of this study is related to the geographical area (tourist site) where the research process was carried out. Thus, future research with greater geographical scope is required.

This study provides valuable insight to practitioners who are seeking to integrate local food (cuisine) into the tourism product.

This paper is the one of the first study that tries to identify perceived image of local cuisine held by visitors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese tourists’ experience of Britain based on a conceptual model of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, and to identify key issues that tourism organisations could address to provide an excellent experience for Chinese tourists.

Data were collected in collaboration with a tour operator; and 275 valid responses were received. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling was used for data analysis.

The key destination attributes of Britain such as heritage sites, natural scenery and customer service provide an excellent experience for Chinese tourists. Other British destination attributes such as shopping facilities, food, accommodation, entertainment and night life are less impressive.

The sample was drawn from Chinese tourists visiting Britain on package tours, which limits the generalisation of results to other Chinese tourists and other European/Mediterranean destinations.

There are two key challenges for British destination tourism managers: first, to maintain the current quality levels in the attributes that generate tourist satisfaction; and second, to concentrate on improving attributes with low performance ratings such as shopping, food and drink, accommodation, entertainment and night life. As the characteristics of Chinese tourists are culture-specific rather than destination-specific, tourism managers in other European destinations may find these recommendations useful too.

This is one of the first studies to examine Chinese tourists’ experience of a European destination. The results reveal unique characteristics of Chinese tourist requirements, which provide useful implications for tourism organisations to adapt their service strategies to better cater to this growing group of travellers.

The purpose of the study is to identify critical value-creating elements of luxury services expressed in ratings and reviews posted on third-party sites and examine cross-cultural differences. To this end, the research analyzed online ratings and reviews of luxury hotels posted on TripAdvisor from customers of four European regions (East, North, South and West).

Eight hundred thirty-eight online user-generated ratings and reviews of luxury hotels were analyzed quantitatively using MANOVA and qualitatively using text analysis.

The study findings support (a) that product and physical evidence are the most critical experiential elements of luxury hotels' offerings and (b) cultural differences among tourists from various regions of Europe in their hotel ratings and reviews. Specifically, Eastern and Northern Europeans are more generous in their review ratings than western and southern Europeans. Moreover, eastern Europeans value the hotel's physical evidence/environment whereas western Europeans prioritize the core product (room and food) followed by the physical environment/servicescape. Southern Europeans and Northern Europeans value most the personnel, followed by the physical environment and the core product, respectively.

Cultural differences provide several implications with regard to luxury services segmentation, social media management, service marketing mix development and hotel promotion.

The value of this study originates from studying post–purchase customer behavior in luxury services from a cross-cultural perspective. Moreover, identifying critical aspects of value-creating customer experience in a luxury context adds to the available literature.

Identifies and discusses modes of collective consumer pressure that might affect tourism quality in a comprehensive way. Organised tourists are empowered tourists, and as such can provide a needed incentive to improve standards. Discusses: intermediating tour operators; consumer organisations; controlled certification systems; public regulation; and anarchic Internet‐based consumer networks. Suggests that only transnational organisations are able to take full advantage of the potential benefits to the industry of consumer empowerment. Finally, puts forward possible policy actions in the European Union, as well as issues for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing Sabah’s indigenous food consumption, namely Kadazan-Dusun food, among tourists from China, Europe and Malaysia (non-Sabahans).

Survey forms were distributed to tourists from China, Europe and Malaysia using purposive sampling at tourist spots in Sabah, Malaysia. In total, 254 responses were collected, and the data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings demonstrate that tourists from China and Europe possess some similarities in consuming indigenous food in Sabah. They enjoy trying indigenous food even they are not familiar with the food. Additionally, our findings also show that tourists from China regard sensory appeal as an important aspect of food choice. Meanwhile, it is found that convenience and mood influence Malaysian’s choice of indigenous food.

This study provides insights regarding Sabah’s Kadazan-Dusun food consumption from foreign and domestic tourists’ perspectives. As such, it also provides direction to the local eateries and relevant tourism authorities to better promote indigenous food to foreign and domestic tourists.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: measure the differences in importance of cultural values between Turkish hosts and European guests; measure perceived cultural difference (distance) to see if importance of cultural values are commensurate with cultural distance perception; and identify potential influence of perceived cultural distance on job satisfaction for Turkish service providers (hosts) and trip satisfaction for European consumers (guests).

A survey research was conducted in tourist towns in the Southwest part of Turkey to gather data from Turkish hosts (service providers) and European tourists. Two stepwise regression analyses were conducted to assess the magnitude of the relative impact of several variables on job satisfaction for hosts and trip satisfaction for guests.

Although results revealed differences in cultural values, cultural distance perception and satisfaction, the stepwise regression analyses did not reveal any influence of perceived cultural distance on satisfaction for either hosts or guests.

The findings of this study may not apply to all tourism consumption settings since respondents were surveyed in a general tourism setting context rather than limiting them to a certain consumption setting such as a restaurant, a hotel or a cruise ship.

By shedding light on cultural distance and its influence on both demand and supply side aspects, this study addresses a long‐neglected aspect in literature. Although several studies provide discussions on the impact of culture on both service providers' and consumers' attitude and behavior, there is a lack of empirical studies on the relationship between cultural distance and satisfaction.