Ada Lo

The relevance of profiling travel activities for improving destination marketing strategies.

Recent economic progress has led to most Hong Kong residents having a high disposable income, and hence the high propensity to travel. Although there are many published articles studying the inbound tourism industry in Hong Kong, the examination of Hong Kongs recent outbound tourism industry has largely been overlooked by tourism researchers. This paper examines Hong Kong travellers’ perceptions of the importance of travel activities. Using a descriptive statistical approach, experimental results indicate that Hong Kong travellers perceived visiting friends/relatives and dining as the most important activities, whereas outdoor sports was perceived as the least important activity. Also discusses the destination marketing issues, and suggests that destinations should concentrate their efforts on the right marketing strategies.

Distribution channel in hospitality and tourism: Revisiting disintermediation from the perspectives of hotels and travel agencies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reexamine several issues about disintermediation from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers (hotels) and traditional intermediaries (travel agencies), considering the move of the current distribution landscape toward disintermediation. Internet and mobile technologies offer various tools for consumers to search and purchase products/services from suppliers directly. Consequently, the necessity and role of traditional intermediaries in the industry become questionable. Design/methodology/approach – In all, six focus group interviews were conducted to collect primary data from ten managers of three traditional travel agencies and 11 managers from three business hotels in Hong Kong, which is a major travel destination in Asia with many world-class hotels and tourism facilities. Findings – Despite their different business backgrounds, the interviewees agreed on the increasing importance of Internet technology in the distribution of tourism products. Th...

Current state of China tourism research

Along with the tremendous growth of tourism development in China after its successful hosting of two international mega-events (i.e. the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games), a modest body of academic research on tourism in China has been developed since the start of the second decade of the new millennium. To supplement the continuous development of Chinas tourism industry, this study presents a review of 147 research articles from tourism journals during the period 2010–2012. Through content analysis, the empirical findings indicate that tourist behaviour and experience was the most researched theme, followed by culture and heritage studies. The trend of research collaboration, particularly international collaboration, was evident among the analysed studies. This study also presents the diversity in recent research in the realm of tourism in China in terms of research context, geographical coverage, data collection and analysis method, and institutional contribution.

The survival of hotels during disaster: A case study of Hong Kong in 2003

The mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome made Hong Kong a key travel destination in Asia, world famous in 2003 but for the worst reasons. As a major sector of the local tourism industry, hotels in Hong Kong went through an unprecedented and traumatic time during the SARS infection period. While a few published articles in hospitality and tourism research journals have initially discussed the impact of SARS on hotels, these articles were predominantly the collection and compilation of secondary reported news. In other words, the existing hospitality and tourism literature has no published research that investigates the influence of SARS on specific hotels in Hong Kong and the responses of hotels to the crisis. This paper offers an overview of the emergence of SARS in Hong Kong and, more importantly, reports on the practices employed by hotels to survive during this harsh period. Through in-depth interviews with senior executives in six hotels in Hong Kong, empirical results showed that hotels were adopting various strategies during different stages of the crisis in order to survive. Industry-wide recovery effort and mutual support are also essential recovery strategies. This paper presents feasible management strategies and operational procedures for hoteliers to refer to in the eventuality of a future or potential crises.

Measuring Customer-Based Casino Brand Equity and its Consequences

ABSTRACT Based on the brand equity and behavioral theories, this study measures customer-based casino brand equity and its relationship with three consequences (i.e., perceived value, brand preference, and revisit intention) using 525 customers from six Macau casinos as the sample. The study confirms that customer-based casino brand equity is a higher order factorial structure measuring the four first-order constructs identified a priori. The strongest association was found to be with brand image, followed by perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand awareness. Perceived value and revisit intention were found to be the two direct consequences of customer-based casino brand equity. Customer-based casino brand equity also affects revisit intention indirectly through perceived value and brand preference. To increase customers’ revisit intention, casinos should not only work on uplifting their casino brand equity, but also allocate resources to elevate perceived value and brand preference to indirectly help mediating the relationship between casino brand equity and the revisit intention of customers. More managerial implications are discussed in the present article.

A study of Hospitality and Travel-Related Deals on Hong Kong Group-buying Websites

This study investigates the impact of the features of hospitality and travel-related group-buying deals and the group-buying websites on the sales of the deals. Empirical results reveal that the number of Facebook fans of the group-buying site is the most important factor in contributing to the sales. The special offer price for the deal has an inverse relationship with the sales. The numbers of aggregation group-buying sites featuring the deal and the length of coupon redemption period also have a significantly positive relationship with sales. If the deal belongs to the category of Chinese quick service restaurant, hotel/accommodation, travel package, and spa/beauty, this will have a negative impact to the sales of the deal.

Service Quality of Casinos in Macau: From the Mainland Chinese Perspective

A majority of earlier studies on customers’ perception of casino service quality and customers’ repeat visitation factors were mainly conducted in Western countries. With significant growth of the casino gaming industry in Asia, particularly in the case of Macau far surpassing the gaming revenue generated by the traditional gaming mecca of Las Vegas, it is important for the industry to understand customers’ perceived service quality of the casinos in Macau and to identify the factors that make them return. In this study, Mainland Chinese visitors were asked to rate their perception of the service quality attributes of the casinos they visited most recently in Macau. Three hundred and ninety-nine usable samples were obtained. The service quality dimensions for casinos derived from this study include tangibles, fairness, responsiveness, professionalism, and variety. Three of these five factors, namely, professionalism, variety, and fairness, significantly contributed to the Mainland Chinese visitors’ intentions to revisit the casinos.