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This paper aims to investigate the perceptions by owners and staff working in causal full-service restaurants in Macao of their two major subcultures of customers: Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwan Chinese in terms of their dining behavior and preferences.

Face-to-face interviews with 36 service staff of casual dining restaurants in Macao were conducted through the purposive convenience sampling method. Thematic content analysis was conducted in the data analysis.

The results reveal that although the customers from the two Chinese subcultures have a similar appearance, use the same Chinese characters and share common cultural inheritances; their dining behavior and preferences are perceived as being different.

Practical implications are given on how to better design the products and services to meet each subgroup’s needs for enhancing customers’ experience and service quality in restaurant settings.

This study focuses on examining if there are any sub-cultural differences in food behaviors and preferences among Hong Kong and Taiwan visitors, who are the major tourist sources in the world market. It contributes to the scarce literature on intracultural dining variances of sub-groups within Chinese.

The purpose of this paper is to build on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors, and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined. Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

The study builds on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined.

Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

For the present work, it would be desirable to ascertain that the figures reported apply to other night markets in Hong Kong and China. Further, the generalizability of the results for different market types, those that offer food or cater to specific interests needs examination. The possibility exists that the general night market will fold as specific tailored options, such as craft, art, flower and homewares themed spaces replace the basic all-purpose format.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The broad aim of the study can be identified as the desire to examine the compatibility of vendor and tourists’ views, and the more specific aims of this broad agenda will be articulated after reviewing the core conceptual ideas driving the work.

A new wave of anti-mainland protests has emerged in Hong Kong since 2012. The purpose of this paper is threefold: to delineate its unique characteristics; to trace its historical origins; and to speculate on the political implications of this new wave of anti-mainland protests.

A historical approach has been adopted to trace the origins of the anti-mainland protests. Since this new wave of anti-mainland protests only began in 2012, this paper is based mostly on documentary analysis of mass media reports.

This paper finds that this new wave of anti-mainland protests has been characterized by its targeting of mainland tourists/immigrants, its militancy, its concentration in the New Territories, its constituent membership of people from society’s grassroots, its dependence on e-mobilization and its poor image in Hong Kong’s mass media. In addition, this paper has identified the complex interplay between the influx of tourists/immigrants, the increase of social inequality, the emergence of a localist discourse, the formation of localist organizations and the setbacks to the democracy movement that are the underlying socio-political factors that have sparked this new wave of anti-mainland protests.

Anti-mainland protests have profound implications for Hong Kong politics since they deepen socio-political polarization, have transformed the mode of protesting in Hong Kong society and threaten the prospects for the national reunification of Greater China.

This paper may be one of the first academic papers to examine the anti-mainland protests. Instead of taking a pro-Beijing or anti-mainland approach, this paper takes a neutral position and offers an objective analysis of the anti-mainland protests.

Taiwanese inbound tourism to Australia has experienced a rapid increase in the 1990s. Summarizes this recent growth in Taiwanese tourism and examines a range of issues which must be addressed if growth is to be sustained. Issues addressed include promotion, language training, culinary requirements and air services. Concludes that, unless changes are implemented, Australia may forfeit some of the potential Taiwanese market to competitors such as New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is a cross‐cultural analysis to compare the profiles of international screen‐tourists by nationalities. Also it investigates the screen‐tourism concept as associated with the Hallyu phenomenon. Owing to the nature of the topic being examined, an instrument with study‐specific items was created.

The objectives of this paper were achieved through the critical review of previous screen‐tourism literature combined with a structured on‐site survey which included both open‐ and close‐ended questions with inbound tourists who were visiting the Daejanggeum Theme Park in South Korea.

The principal value of this study can be seen in its offering of a general overview of the characteristics of screen‐tourists induced by the television drama Daejanggeum. The outcomes of this study concurred with the findings of some previous research which indicated the powerful impact of consuming popular media products including television dramas on destination choice and increase in tourist numbers. Therefore, the findings present a considerable amount of insight into the screen‐tourism phenomenon.

Despite the overall success of the research methodology, a number of limitations were identified. Probably, the most significant of these relates to the generalisability of the results. Whilst this research has contributed to the existing knowledge of screen‐tourism, it would undoubtedly be beneficial to build on it through further research. In particular, research that would examine whether the main findings identified here are more widely representative would be useful. A multi‐destination paper could be undertaken in which would provide rich, comparative data on the nature and characteristics of the phenomenon in other such destinations.

This paper will be of value to academics and industry practitioners interested in screen‐tourism and indeed tourism in general as well as students studying the screen‐tourism phenomenon. The results of this study could benefit destination managers, academics, film and television stakeholders who have an interest in screen‐tourism destination development.

This paper offers a general overview of socio‐demographic characteristics of international screen‐tourists induced by a television drama and it explores the differences in screen‐tourists' profiles including travel patterns and screen product preference in the inter‐Asian dimension. The paper addresses a gap in the literature on the area of cross‐cultural analysis and the screen‐tourist.

The development of tourism in Taiwan is described in terms of the life cycle concept.

This paper aims to study the shopping preferences of the mainland Chinese travelers who visit Hong Kong under the solo travel policy (STP), and identify the differences between their expected and actual satisfactory levels towards fashion retailers in Hong Kong.

An empirical research method with surveys was employed. Statistical methods, such as the paired t‐test, were used to analyze the data.

A significant difference between the respondents' actual shopping satisfactions and their expectations was found for several factors. Some shopping preferences and spending patterns of the STP travelers were identified.

Owing to resource constraints, the data were collected at a few locations only. This is a major research limitation of this study.

The research findings can help fashion retailers to understand better the needs of STP travelers from mainland China. Some specific recommendations are given and managerial insights are generated.

This paper undertakes empirical research to study mainland tourists' shopping behavior towards Hong Kong fashion retailers under the STP. This study is one of the first research works exploring this area.

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of a blue ocean strategy (BOS) in selected hotels in Taiwan.

Semi‐structured interviews and the grounded theory approach were applied in this study. A total of 32 senior and top managers working in the corporate executive office and the divisions of rooms and marketing were selected from international tourist chain hotels and resorts for semi‐structured interviews.

The results show that the features of BOS are identifying guest value perceptions, innovating distinctive added‐value offerings, developing new market segments, branding and re‐branding, creating a unique hotel ambience, adjusting distribution channels, and establishing strategic alliances.

The study suggests that in the sampled hotels, hoteliers should integrate a demand‐based pricing strategy with a supply‐based product‐development strategy. Organizational effectiveness could be further advanced in those hotels by the introduction of revenue management based on the determination of variations in guest demand, making it possible to offer different pricing strategies to diverse market segments.

The results show that the sampled hotels should be able to create unique products and services for customers that strengthen their competitive positions in the marketplace of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. This study advances academic knowledge in the field of organizational effectiveness, particularly with respect to managing customer demand and capacity in the hotel industry.

This study aims to understand the normative expectations of travelers on the services and experiences provided by Buddhism-themed hotels as well as how service providers perceive such expectations. The growth of religion-themed hotels in China follows a larger and more generalized global marketing trend in terms of providing tourists and consumers with “themed” experiences.

Using the service quality model, this study investigates these expectations of Buddhism-themed hotels in China. The Delphi method was used with two expert panels, namely, travelers and tourism/hotel practitioners. Preliminary interviews revealed 98 normative expectations from Buddhism-themed hotels. Two sets of Delphi questionnaires were used to compare tourist expectations with practitioner perceptions.

Results show a wide range of expectations of travelers staying in Buddhism-themed hotels. They also reveal how the expectations of the two groups aligned as well as differed.

This study extends the application of the service quality model to the context of religion-themed hotels. As this study adopted the Delphi technique through criterion sampling, future studies should use a larger random sample to verify the results of this study.

The results help religion-themed hoteliers to understand their customer expectations better.

Given the lack of studies on religion-themed hotels, especially on the gap between tourist expectations and service providers’ perceptions, this study is a timely contribution to improve the understanding on the needs and expectations of customers when visiting religion-themed hotels.

The purpose of this empirical study is to find out the similarities and differences between first and multiple time Hong Kong holiday makers in their selection of foreign holiday destinations and the type of activities they are engaged in while spending their vacations away from home. Study results indicate that there are demographic, socio‐economic and behavioral differences between first and multiple time Hong Kong overseas visitors. These pronounced differences between the two segments can be used in the development of appropriate marketing strategies to attract higher numbers of tourists to the same destination.