David C. Bojanic

A Structural Analysis of Value, Quality, and Price Perceptions of Business and Leisure Travelers

Customer value has become the focus of firm strategies in recent years. This study investigates the relationships between travelers’ perceptions of value, quality, and price and their influence on travelers’ ratings of similar hotels and revisit intentions in two segments, business and leisure travelers. The findings suggest that value plays a pivotal role in travelers’ decision schema, emphasizing the need to shift efforts from managing quality alone to managing customer value. Differences in the value perceptions of business and leisure travelers emphasize the need to develop segment-based strategies for managing price and quality.

Multiple Multinational Tourism Positioning Using Correspondence Analysis

Multinational tourism research involves analysis of multiple origins, multiple tourist destinations, and multiple attributes for destination selection . For example, tourist perceptions of a destination may vary across countries of origin. This can have important implications for which countries to target with tourism promotion, or which of the destinations attributes should be stressed in the promotion. Correspondence analysis is a technique which can handle problems of this complexity where other multiattribute analytical methods cannot. This technique is applied to empirical tourist perception data on Singapore and other Pacific Rim countries. A discussion of how the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board can use the resulting output to improve Singapores positioning in the tourism market is presented.

Measuring service quality in restaurants: an application of the SERVQUAL instrument.

Can SERVQUAL-traditionally an instrument for measuring service quality- be proven as an effective tool in assessing customer perceptions of service quality in restaurants? The research presented in this article is an examination of the nature of the association between service quality as perceived byconsumers and its service determinants. The SERVQUAL instrument itself is discussed, and a demonstration of how it can be used by restaurants in assessing quality service is included. The managerial implications of using SERVQUAL as an assessment tool include meeting and managing customer expectations, managing the physical design of the product, educating service customers, developing a total quality management program, achieving continuous quality through automation, and engaging in periodic review of the procedures, personnel, and property of the operation. With the assessment knowledge generated by such a review, restaurants may then begin to manage their strengths and weaknesses productively.

Price Bundling and Travel Product Pricing Practices Used by Online Channels of Distribution

Price bundling is one of the most prevalent marketing practices in many industries, including hospitality and travel. Virtually all types of firms in the hospitality and travel industry, from suppliers such as hotels and airlines to intermediaries such as travel agents, are encouraging customers to purchase travel “packages” rather than a single component of travel to save money and streamline the purchasing process. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the practice of price bundling by online travel agents results in actual monetary savings for consumers (i.e., lower prices) relative to the prices charged by individual service providers (i.e., hotels and airlines) through their own online Web sites. The results indicate that there are monetary savings in the form of lower prices realized by consumers who purchase bundled offerings from online travel agents, and there is an interaction effect between channel and hotel class.

Tourism area life cycle extensions

This paper investigates the effect of both strategic and environmental factors on the tourist area life cycle for Cypress Gardens. It is hypothesized that both types of factors can have a revitalization effect on the tourist area life cycle. A step-logarithmic function is used to model the attendance for the tourist attraction. Strategic and environmental factors are both found to have a significant effect on the life cycle and the step-logarithmic function demonstrates a very good model fit for the life cycle. The implications for tourist areas are discussed.

An Examination of the Differences in Restaurant Brand Personality Across Cultures

ABSTRACT This study examines the differences in perceptions of brand personalities of three quick-service restaurants, McDonalds, Wendys, and KFC, across two cultures, U.S. and Japan. A brand personality scale developed by Aaker (1997) was used in the self-administered survey. T-tests and analysis of variance were performed to examine the differences between brands and countries. Findings show little cultural differences in the perception of brand personalities of the three brands, but significant differences across brands. Further differences were found between brands across countries. Brand personalities of KFC and McDonalds are viewed more positive in Japan, and Wendys is viewed more positive in the U.S.

Customer profile of the "carryout" segment for restaurants

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to identify the customer profile for the “carryout” segment at all types of restaurants.Design/methodology/approach – Customers at two casual dining restaurants in the suburbs of a second‐tier city in Western Massachusetts were surveyed regarding their dining out habits, including carryout service.Findings – The carryout segment tends to be married with children, below the age of 55, and has slightly higher incomes than dine‐out only customers.Research limitations/implications – This study was exploratory and similar studies need to be performed covering more geographic locations at various times throughout the year. In addition, a probability sampling technique could be used with a good sampling frame.Practical implications – Casual dining restaurants need to determine whether they want to target the “carryout” segment. If so, the restaurant needs to focus more of its marketing efforts on reaching these customers and creating demand for the carryout product. Also, th...

A Modified Brand Personality Scale for the Restaurant Industry

ABSTRACT In the study, a brand personality scale for use in the restaurant industry is developed and tested. As part of our analysis we propose a modified version of the original Brand Personality Scale (BPS) developed by Aaker (1997). Our objective was to modify the Aaker scale to possess greater relevance for the restaurant industry. In order to test the modified scale, six brands from both the quick service and casual dining segments were assessed utilizing an 18 item scale. The results indicated that the modified scale was efficient in that it was able to explain as much variance between restaurants as the larger scale. In the analysis we highlight managerial implications of the findings, and note areas for future research.

The Role of Purchase Decision Involvement in a Special Event

The concept of purchase decision involvement (PDI) in a special event setting (regional air show) is explored here. PDI is a type of involvement that has not received as much attention in the event management or tourism literature as other types of involvement, thereby leaving a gap that is addressed in this study. A regression analysis was used to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationships among two psychological constructs (i.e., PDI and satisfaction), two objective measures (i.e., prior attendance and travel distance), and the likelihood of returning to the event. Based on the results of the regression analysis, the metric independent variables (i.e., PDI, prior attendance, and travel distance) were recoded into categories for use in an ANCOVA model to further examine the relationships. The level of satisfaction was used as a covariate based on its linear relationship with the dependent variable (i.e., likelihood of returning to the event).

Exploring Hospitality Program Rankings

An increasing number of people in both the public and private sector are demanding that institutions of higher education ought to be held to higher levels of accountability and delivery of services. One of the most popular tools used to meet these demands have been the ranking of academic programs. This study explored the ranking of undergraduate hospitality programs as perceived by industry recruiters. The implications of utilizing rankings as decision-making tools were also researched. Based on the data gathered by surveying more than 100 hospitality industry recruiters, there are clear indications that program rankings would be more beneficial if used as ratings, not rankings, and tailored more to specific attributes of the program being rated. Other studies have demonstrated that results may vary by respondent. Future research should be conducted which tests the “ratings” approach with other industry stakeholders (e.g. academics, hospitality executives, etc).