Ben Haobin Ye

Wine tourism phenomena in China: an emerging market.

Purpose – The aims of this study were to investigate the influencing factors of wine tourism development in China, assess the marketing efforts made by the wine-tourism stakeholders, and provide constructive suggestions for the development of Chinas wine tourism. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was adopted for the purposes of this research. The study site is the Bohai Bay wine region in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Chinas modern wine industry and the largest wine-producing area in China. Chateau Changyu-Castel and Chateau Junding were visited in June 2010. Qualitative data were collected in the forms of observations of the wineries, interviews with wine tourists, focus groups with tourism practitioners, and analyses of travel blogs, document excerpts, and official web sites. Content analysis produced a thematic framework on people, promotion, and place. Findings – A number of facilitating and detrimental factors were revealed pertaining to Chinas wine tourism development on...

Does social identity affect residents’ attitude toward tourism development?: An evidence from the relaxation of the individual visit scheme

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine the roles of social identity and perceived cultural distance in forming the attitude of Hong Kong residents toward the relaxation of the individual visit scheme (IVS). Design/methodology/approach – Face-to-face interviews with local Hong Kong residents were conducted. A total of 24 respondents’ interviews were qualified for qualitative analysis using the snowball sampling technique. Findings – The perceived positive and negative impacts, social identity and perceived cultural distance of Hong Kong residents were important in explaining their attitude toward tourism development. Perceived cultural distance influenced both the perceived negative impacts and social identity of residents, which, in turn, affected their attitude toward mainland Chinese tourists and tourism development. Research limitations/implications – The sample size for the interviews was relatively small; however, it was acceptable for qualitative studies. Practical implications – First, the Hong Kong Government should enhance civic education among mainland Chinese tourists to reduce their cultural conflicts with Hong Kong residents. Second, the Hong Kong Government should enhance national education among Hong Kong residents to mitigate the negative influence of the relaxation of the IVS. Originality/value – This study sheds light on the roles of perceived cultural distance and social identity in the attitude of residents toward tourism development, thus narrowing research gaps. Moreover, the current study applies an intercultural-interaction perspective, social identity theory, common in-group identity theory and social distance theory to understand resident attitude toward tourism development.

Exploring Antecedents of Employee Turnover Intention – Evidence of China’s Hotel Industry

The current study explores the antecedents of hotel employee turnover in China and determines new antecedents in the hospitality industry. Three focus group interviews were conducted with 13 supervisory employees from a hotel in Shenzhen, China. The findings replicate and extend the extant hospitality literature. Several themes emerged to explain hotel employee turnover intention, such as promotional/advancement opportunity, work-life balance, community fit, work-group cohesion, leader-related factors, and pay, which have been found to be the antecedents of employee turnover intention. Most importantly, we found that community fit is a new category for explaining the turnover intention of hotel employees. Employees were more likely to stay in a city with good environmental quality, and to pursue their career goals in a city that fits their values or lifestyles well. By contrast, employees may leave a city where they do not find an appropriate fit. Finally, the practical implications of reducing employee turnover are discussed.

Intentions to Participate in Wine Tourism in an Emerging Market: Theorization and Implications

With the rapid economic growth that has occurred in recent decades in China, engaging in wine tourism has emerged as a new phenomenon. This study aims to examine factors that may influence Chinese people’s intentions to visit local wineries. We have employed a theoretical model based on the self-determination theory to holistically explore the effects of travel motivation, attitudes toward domestic wine, subjective norm, past experiences, and perceived travel barriers. An online questionnaire was conducted in three tier-one cities, resulting in 500 respondents in the sample. The survey revealed that subjective norm influences visit intentions through the mediating role of travel motivation and so do attitudes toward domestic wine when mediated by the wine-specific travel motivation. Past experiences positively affected visit intentions. A lack of wine knowledge and low confidence in domestic wine inhibited visit intentions. We have discussed practical implications of effective measures to enhance marketing efforts by wine/tourism practitioners in China.

Understanding Customer Satisfaction With Budget Hotels Through Online Comments: Evidence From Home Inns in China

Increasingly, customers rely on online comments for information on hotels to make sound decisions on where to stay. The recently established budget hotel sector is developing rapidly in China, and these hotels currently comprise nearly 40% of all the hotel rooms in the country. This study explores the factors that lead to customer satisfactory or dissatisfactory accommodation experience with budget hotels in China. Data were gathered from nearly 3,000 online comments on Home Inns, the biggest budget hotel chain in China. The comments were initially categorized manually by three researchers on 200 randomly selected comments. NVivo 9 was used for the coding and the content analysis of the comments. We found that customers were mostly concerned with the guest rooms, location, and service quality of the hotels. The perceptions of the previous guests of Home Inns were further analyzed by sub-categorizing their comments. Contextual factors were found to be unique.

Assessing the Impacts of the High-Speed Train on Tourism Demand in China

The high-speed railway has been an appropriate embodiment both of Chinas phenomenal rise and of its inherent economic and social dilemmas, which are assuming growing regional and international relevance. This study develops an econometric model to investigate the impacts of the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway on domestic tourism receipts in three Chinese provinces. The auto regressive and moving average (ARMA) model is integrated into a time series approximation and analysis. The results indicate that, while the provinces of Guangdong and Hunan have benefited from the high-speed railway, it has limited influence on Hubei province. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the study are also elaborated.

Evaluating museum visitor experiences based on user-generated travel photos

ABSTRACT This research introduces online travel photos published on social media platforms as a complementary data resource to examine the behavior and experience of museum visitors. The practical value of online travel photos is demonstrated through a case study of popular Hong Kong museums, particularly by using the photo content and metadata available from the Flickr platform. The proposed approach is a generic method for understanding museum visitor behavior and preferences, and supports museum practitioners in developing improved products for visitors. The case study findings are particularly beneficial for tourism managers, especially those in Hong Kong, in promoting and attracting tourists to visit local museums.

Research note: Why gold is so stronghold, revealing the mechanism of China’s golden week holiday system

Abstract This research note employs discourse analysis to investigate the mechanism of China’s golden week holiday system, a unique policy regimen impacting the leisure lives of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens five times a year. It was revealed by the research results that the ideological paradigms of state control over leisure and emphasis on productivity derived from orthodox Marist articulations, as well as centralised policy planning and integration of traditional Chinese cultural values of naturalised Marxist theories in China, have been underpinning this holiday system. The authors make the cautionary prediction of the stability of this system in the near future, in the light of the satisfactory policy outcomes it has yielded for the Chinese authorities. Implications of this note for leisure researchers and practitioners are also addressed.