Barry Mak

ISO certification in the tour operator sector

Purpose – The objectives of this study are to find out why tour operators implement quality assurance, and what problems and challenges they face in doing so.Design/methodology/approach – This study utilized a multiple‐case study approach, interviewing the senior managers of three accredited tour operators using formally structured questions.Findings – The purposes for which the tour operators attained ISO 9000 certification were image building, promotion and advertising; to rectify the varying standards amongst different departments; to build an understanding of the operations; to review the operation procedures and system, and the management of the tour operators; as well as to legitimize the senior managements action to make changes. A number of negative aspects to the ISO 9000 certification were found, including the high cost of implementation, lukewarm reception by staff, reduced effectiveness over time and that consistency of procedures did not equate to good or improving quality.Research limitatio...

“Zero-Fare” Group Tours in China: An Analytic Framework

This study addresses the problem of the so-called “zero-fare” group tours, a terminology that is believed to be originated in Chinese media to denote a sort of inferior quality in Chinas outbound package tours. Previous research on this problem failed, on the one hand, to define “zero-fare” group tours in a scholarly and systematical way and, on the other, to draw a line between the cause of “zero-fare” group tours and their factual matters—in short, a distinction between what they are and why they are. In this regard, this study presents the factual matters of “zero-fare” group tours derived from a content analysis of news reports pertaining to “zero-fare” group tours over the period 2003–2010 in China. Drawing upon these factual matters, this study proposes an analytic framework to portray the problem of “zero-fare” group tours to incorporate three fundamental elements, namely, low price in the source market, inferior quality at the destination, and the “zero-fare” relationship between outbound tour operators and inbound tour operators that jointly operate group package tours. Explanatory research based on this framework can therefore proceed to inquire into the mechanism by which this framework is manifested.

Do Travel Agency Jobs Appeal to University Students? A Case of Tourism Management Students in Hong Kong

This study identifies the job characteristics that tourism management students consider as important, thus affect their job selection upon graduation. It further identifies student perceptions on how well travel agency jobs possess such characteristics. An empirical study involving 184 tourism management undergraduate students in Hong Kong reveals that the five most important job characteristics affecting their job selection are as follows. (1) The job should be one that they like. (2) The job should allow them to have a harmonious relationship with colleagues. (3) The job should have a reasonable workload. (4) The job should offer good promotion opportunity and a good starting salary. This study also reveals that the travel agency sector may not possess the job characteristics that students consider as important. Students perceive that a good starting salary, reasonable workload, and good promotion opportunity are the worst performing characteristics for jobs in the travel agency sector. The importance-performance analysis indicates that the travel agency sector needs to concentrate on improving the delivery of job characteristics important to students by providing more opportunities for promotion, making the job more dignified, reducing workload, maintaining work–life balance, and increasing the starting salary. Students with different personal, contextual, and experiential characteristics are found to have significantly different perceptions regarding job characteristics, which are important in influencing their respective career choices and those associated with jobs in travel agencies. Lastly, taking courses related to travel agencies is determined to be correlated with the willingness of students to work in a travel agency.

Matching global competition: Cooperation among Asian airlines

Abstract The sluggish airline industry in America and Europe has pushed major international carriers to offer bargain fares and concessions in order to survive. Though Asian airlines are performing well and are profitable, the global competition has increased pressures considerably and led to reforms in the regional market. After reviewing the drivers that are causing change and affecting airline performance, the discussions shifts to the emerging strategic alliances between carriers. The introduction of frequent-flyer programmes in Asia serves as an illustration of how regional airlines are attempting to cope with the challenge of global competition.

Does climate change matter to the travel trade

This study evaluated the awareness of, attitudes toward and opinions about the ability of travel agencies in Hong Kong to help address tourisms contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The retail travel agent sector is a major player in the tourism distribution system, accounting for about 25% of travel activity, and is the primary distributor of package tours. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers and owners/operators of a sample of travel agencies in Hong Kong, followed by a survey of 485 front line staff. The study revealed senior managers adopted a range of neutralisation techniques to abrogate themselves from any personal or corporate responsibility in this issue. Front line staff were largely unaware and ill-informed, and mainly see their role as simply pushing products. Cluster analysis revealed five groups with diverse views: Cluster 1, the “Deeply concerned” group (11%); Cluster 2, the “Deep knowledge” group (6%); Cluster 3, the “Moderate knowledge and awareness” group (18%); Cluster 4, the “Concerned but unaware” group (31%); and Cluster 5, the “Neither concerned nor aware” group (34%). The combination of lack of leadership among managers and ignorance among front line staff means that neither feels responsible for, nor able to, address this issue.

What Drives People to Travel: Integrating the Tourist Motivation Paradigms

Peoples motivation to travel has long been discussed on a multidisciplinary basis characterized by three distinct motivation paradigms, namely, Plogs (1974) “travel personality,” P. L. Pearces (1988) “travel career ladder,” and Cohens (1972) concept of “strangeness–familiarity.” This study uncovers the underlying consistence of these paradigms by proposing an integrated motivation framework and justifies it by applying this framework to tourist behavior research. This study concludes by arguing that a comprehensive perspective should be taken for conceiving a more accurate pattern or image of tourists, in the sense that tourist behavior patterns can be interpreted on an individual level by applying the travel personality, in a diachronic dimension by the travel career ladder, and from a holistic perspective by the concept of strangeness–familiarity.

The Influence of Political Ideology on the Outbound Tourism in China

Outbound tourism in China began to flourish in the late 1990s, albeit in a very modest manner. Since 1949, the role played by the Chinese socialist ideology in tourism development has not been fully understood. However, on the heels of ideological change resulting from economic reform and formulation of the open policy, Chinese outbound tourism has transitioned from being a nonpriority industry before the turn of the century into one that continues to generate supportive development. This study, which adopts the chronological framework approach, aims to examine how political ideology is intertwined with Chinese outbound tourism development. Ideology appears to assume a significant role in shaping outbound tourism development, though its weighting may not finally determine such development in China. The relationship between political ideology and outbound tourism development becomes less obvious when the latter moves further to a more open and relaxed condition, with external and internal factors playing a more significant role.

Home visit and community-based tourism: Hong Kong's Family Insight Tour.

Formal and informal visitor welcome programmes have been identified as providing a positive step in promoting cross‐sociocultural relations and communication. Several countries now operate such programmes. Since 1990, Hong Kong has successfully operated a formal community visitor welcome programme, known as the Family Insight Tour’. This tour programme is a joint initiative offered by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) and the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It offers tourists the chance to visit the public housing estates in Hong Kong where approximately 55% of the population lives. The tourists are able not only to visit the homes and social services provided for residents, but also afforded the chance to meet and interact with a local family. The tour has become so successful that demand from tourists now far outstrips the limited number of places the HKTA is able to offer. The paper examines the rationale behind such tours, looks at the HKTA tour in detail, and presents limitations and issues relat...

Effects of experiential learning on students: an ecotourism service-learning course

ABSTRACT Experiential learning is used to address the abstractness of classroom discussion and motivate long-lasting learning. The aims of this study were to measure the effects of a tourism service-learning course on the development of students’ generic competencies and to evaluate the influence of experiential learning on hospitality and tourism education. Preproject and postproject self-administered surveys and postproject reflective journals were completed by students enrolled on a service-learning course entitled Ecotourism in Rural and Developing Regions. The majority of the students were found to value the service-learning course, particularly a service project conducted outside the classroom setting, which made them aware of the needs of the underprivileged within the service community. The students also showed significant improvements in their generic competencies, specifically their teamwork and sense of social responsibility.

TESTING FOR MORAL HAZARD AT THE TOURIST DESTINATION

Abstract The business of package tours has seen a wide range of inferior quality, including tour operators’ misrepresentation of product information, default on contracted services as well as misguided consumptions and deceitful dealings at the destination. Among the most prominent of these would be the so- called “zero-fare” group tours, a terminology that is believed to have it origins in the Chinese context to portray a complex of inferior quality in China’s outbound tourism market. Drawing upon the Lemons problem that regards asymmetric information as the fundamental cause of inferior quality, this study presented a model of moral hazard in package tours to conceptualize the broad range of inferior quality supplied at the destination. Empirical investigation of the model was carried out in China’s outbound tourism market, in which data were collected by administering a cross-sectional survey to Chinese package tourists. Results have shown that asymmetric information measured by tourists’ knowledge of inbound tour operators’ effort resulted in quality deterioration of travel services at the destination, indicating the occurrence of moral hazard.