Ahmad Azmi M. Ariffin

Understanding novelty-seeking behavior in meeting tourism: A measurement development approach

The main purpose of this article is to define the construct of novelty in the corporate meeting tourism perspective and to develop a preliminary instrument to measure novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. This article discusses in great detail literature relevant to novelty-seeking behavior in the context of marketing and tourism. Based on the literature and protocol analysis technique, the construct of novelty preference was found to comprise of three overlapping dimensions, namely destination familiarity, destination uniqueness, and destination excitement. Thus, novelty preference in this article is defined as the extent to which a corporate meeting planner prefers a destination setting that creates an unusual, unique, and exciting meeting travel experience. It was measured by calculating the mean responses to 19 items along a 6-point scale, where 6 depicted a very strong novelty preference for meeting destination while 1 depicted a very weak novelty preference. The initial scale was demonstrated to have content validity by panel of experts.

Corporate Meeting Destination Choice: The Influences of Consumption Value, Organizational Structure and Personality

ABSTRACT This study attempts to explore the relationships among novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice, consumption value, organizational structure, and personality. A total of 75 corporate meeting planners from public listed service organizations were involved. The data was collected through questionnaire survey which was then analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that consumption value and personality contributed significantly to the prediction of novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. Interestingly, there was no statistical support found on the effect of organization structure on meeting destination choice. Finally, this study relates the importance of segmentation and targeting in the corporate meeting market. The study also helps bridge the gap between tourism marketing and organizational research.

The Effects of Local Hospitality, Commercial Hospitality and Experience Quality on Behavioral Intention in Cultural Heritage Tourism

ABSTRACT The main aim of this study is to examine the influence of the two domains of hospitality—local hospitality and commercial hospitality—on behavioral intention in the cultural heritage tourism context. This study anticipated that the above relationships were mediated by the tourism experience quality. A total of 500 foreign tourists visiting the Malaysia’s first World Heritage City, Malacca City were surveyed using structured questionnaire. The results revealed that both local and commercial hospitality have positive relationships with experience quality, and experience quality fully mediated the relationships between each of the two domains of hospitality and behavioral intention.

Exploring Perceived Risk and Risk Reduction Strategies in the Pursuit of Higher Education Abroad A Case of International Students in Malaysia

While past studies have merely focused on perceived risks that influence how students select the destination of international education best suited to their needs, research on perceived risk regarding post-purchase behavior remains limited. This study attempts to extend and redefine the perceived risk paradigm by uncovering the underlying elements of perceived risk among international students who are studying in Malaysian universities. Furthermore, it seeks to explore how demographic factors and risk reduction strategies can be applied to the perception of risk. Results for a sample group of 515 international students reveal that there are seven dimensions of perceived risk. Of all demographic factors tested, only place of residence (while studying in Malaysia) was found to influence perceived risk. Seeking information from the relevant authorities, proper savings plans, well organized study schedules, and advice from family members or peers are considered important to reduce students’ perceptions of risk. This implies that perceived risk theory could also be applied to the higher education context in the post-purchase behavior.

The Relationships between National Identity, Hospitality, and Satisfaction among Foreign Hotel Guests

ABSTRACT The main objectives of this paper are to examine the effect of hotel hospitality on the satisfaction level of foreign guests in the context of the hotel industry, as well as to explore the moderating effect of national identity (country-specific hospitality) on the relationship between hospitality and guests’ level of satisfaction. In this study, “national identity” refers to the distinctive cultural elements of a specific country that are incorporated into the hotel’s service design. This study, involving 315 foreign guests at Malaysian hotels, used survey administration as the main data collection method. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was performed and statistical support for the effect of hospitality on the patrons’ satisfaction with their hotel stays, as well as the moderating effect of national identity on satisfaction levels, were found. This study also proposes a new scale to measure “country-specific hospitality”.

Corporate Meeting Destination Choice: The Effects of Organizational Structure

Abstract This study attempted to determine the influence of organizational structure on the novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. The three dimensions of structure incorporated were formalization, centralization and complexity. A total of 75 corporate meeting planners drawn from public listed services organizations were involved. The main method of data collection was questionnaire survey and multiple regression analysis was employed as the main statistical technique. The results revealed that both formalization and centralization were negatively correlated with novelty preference while complexity was positively correlated. However, only complexity contributed significantly to the prediction of novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. The main implication of this study is pertaining to the segmentation and targeting of the corporate meeting market. This study helped in bridging the gap between tourism marketing and organizational research. lt also contributed by developing the measurement for novelty preference from the context of experiential marketing.

Value as a medical tourism driver interacted by experience quality

ABSTRACT This study contends that inherent negative effects of medical tourism’ perceived sacrifices such as perceived risk and perceived fee could be lessen by the interaction role of experience quality. The findings indicate that the moderating role of experience quality on the relationship of perceived risk and perceived value was significant. Similarly, the experience quality also had a significant role in weakening the influence of perceived fee on perceived value. In this view, hospitals as well as other medical tourism service providers must make an effort to offer memorable experience and services to patients in order to minimize the negative effects of perceived risk and perceived fee.