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This paper aims to examine the environmental awareness, initiatives and performance in the Macau hotel industry.

A mixed research method was adopted involving quantitative surveys with 31 hotels in Macau and 11 face-to-face interviews with the hotel managers, facilities managers and engineers.

Response from surveys and interviews with 31 hoteliers show that hotels in Macau have a high level of environmental awareness. Most hoteliers actively introduce initiatives that contribute to cost savings. Initiatives including using energy conservation light bulbs, having an active system to detect/repair leaking facilities and installing water conserving fixtures are widely implemented, while programs involving using solar lawn light, recycling leftover food and reusing wastewater are not. Major barriers for going green include the lack of government regulations on environmental management (EM), financial constraints, the lack of employees to handle EM and the fear that environmental initiatives may negatively impact the guest’s experience, especially those VIP and hardcore gamblers and customers who expect enjoying the luxuries services in Macau hotels. Lower star hotels experience more difficulties in adopting green approaches.

This paper presents a single case study of Macau; therefore, the results in this research may have limited generalizability.

This paper is one of the very few attempts that investigate EM in Macau – a renowned world tourism and gambling destination, where the vast majority of hotels have their casino facilities. Results show that apart from the financial consideration and the lack of government enforcement to adopt green measures similar to hotels in other destinations, EM practices of Macau’s hotels are also constrained by its customer base and the acute shortage of human resources that is caused by the tourism boom.

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 aim of this paper is to examine the perceptions female casino dealers have toward gender disparity at work. In particular, the question of whether gender disparity exists, the nature and magnitude of differential treatment, and the effects of the perceived disparity on dealers' work attitudes are investigated.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 40 female casino dealers recruited from the six major casinos in Macao. The data were subjected to thematic content analysis.

The results indicate that female casino dealers have more advantages at work than their male counterparts. These advantages do, however, have some negative effects on the work attitudes of female casino dealers.

The sample is limited to Macao participants and the sample size is small. Also, only female casino dealers were interviewed.

This study offers insights to casino operators and academics regarding the perceptions of female casino dealers toward gender disparity at work. It provides recommendations to help offset the disparity and improve female dealers' work attitudes and performance.

This study fills a research void in the literature. The results challenge the traditional assumption that females face more disadvantages at work than males. The study advocates the need to explore whether gender disparity differs in different work settings in order to avoid the problems of generalization and simplification.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the service quality of Macao's World Heritage (WH) site as perceived by visitors involving both tourists and local residents.

The empirical data was collected via structured questionnaires to obtain views of 1,056 visitors on the 27 world heritage attractions in Macao.

The overall visitor satisfaction level on the service quality of Macao's WH was high but dimensions on “empathy” and “consumables” needed improvements. Significant differences were also found between the tourists and local residents. Tourists rated the level of crowding as more tolerable than local residents but less tolerable in terms of staff availability at attractions. Residents had a relatively low satisfaction score for most items except the availability of staff than the tourists.

To attract more repeated visitors, the results highlighted the importance of satisfying both groups of visitors by taking special care of the needy and children and offering more on‐site information. Managing well with the city's tourism carrying capacity and providing more staff service were also suggested to satisfy the local and tourist markets respectively.

Studies on service quality in heritage especially within the Macao context were scarce. This pioneering study shed light on the service quality of Macao's WH site and provided hints on the differences in the perceived service quality between the tourists and local residents. More specific government efforts can be exerted to satisfy the two niche markets in a more effective manner.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which environmental management (EM) has been used as a facilities management (FM) tool amongst hotels in Macao, China. It also seeks to assess the relative priorities of hotel facilities managers in relation to the environment.

The empirical data was collected via structured questionnaires distributed to facilities/general managers of hotels in Macao.

The research findings reveal that although low customer demand, poor environmental knowledge and the lack of governmental regulations enforcing environmental practices are the reasons hindering hoteliers in Macao from practicing green, the major barrier is that hotel managers do not recognize the importance of environmental management to hotel effectiveness and competitiveness. Consequently, hotels are only interested in improving areas where there are direct financial gains and where there is a fiscal/legislative requirement. A fragmented approach to managing their environmental performance is also resulted.

This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the roles played by environmental management in improving a hotel's productivity and competitiveness and recommends ways to increase hoteliers' understanding of those roles.

There is a scarcity of literature linking hotel FM and environmental management within the Asian context, especially within Macao. This study sheds light on the extent to which environmental management has been used as a FM tool amongst hotels in Macao. It also contributes to our understanding of the importance of improving a hotel's environmental performance for organizational effectiveness and competitiveness. This paper provides a good background and framework for future studies.

This paper seeks to examine changing plan‐making governance processes in Hong Kong and identifies factors leading to the changes.

Both primary and secondary sources of data were collected. Various stakeholders were interviewed and analysis of Hong Kong planning policies, ordinances and guidelines was undertaken.

Since the late 1990s, plan‐making in Hong Kong has undergone a major shift in governance from that of an elitist‐led pro‐growth mode to one with more community engagement, environmental consciousness and sustainability. The Southeast Kowloon development scheme played a crucial role in triggering this shift.

The paper focuses solely on one of the three planning systems in Hong Kong, plan‐making.

This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the changing governing processes of Hong Kong's plan‐making and will be useful for policy‐makers when examining whether ruling strategies are responding well to changing circumstances. It also contributes to the existing governance literature by offering some insights into the nature of governance and the methodologies for studying it.

There is little literature linking governance and urban planning in Hong Kong. The paper offers a useful background and a framework for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers identified by people with disabilities in visiting casinos.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 people with disabilities recruited from the investigator's clinical and community networks and personal referrals, and 18 casino supervisors and dealers who attended a casino diploma course offered by a university. The data were subjected to thematic content analysis.

The results indicated that customers with disabilities faced physical, human and financial barriers during their visit to casinos. The six barriers that were commonly identified by all participants included: the physical barriers in game playing; insufficient facilities and accessibility; insufficient space; entrance blockage; poor staff service; and insufficient information and communication. There were two other barriers reported only by the participants with disabilities – social exclusion and financial barriers. Differences in comparison to the barriers that this market segment had encountered in other tourism contexts are also discussed.

The sample is limited to Macao participants and the sample size is small.

This study offers recommendations for casino operators and government authorities with regard to specific physical, financial and interpersonal means to alleviate apparent difficulties faced by people with disabilities when visiting a casino.

This study fills the research void in the literature regarding the barriers encountered by people with disabilities in visiting a casino. It also broadcasts the genuine voice of this market segment.