Liping A. Cai

An analysis of wine festival attendees’ motivations: A synergy of wine, travel and special events?:

As special-interest tourism, wine tourism is becoming increasingly important for wine-growing regions. But wine marketers are faced with a paucity of empirical data when examining wine tourists’ characteristics and behaviour. This issue needs to be addressed if marketers want to implement more effective strategies to target the market. Visiting wine festivals is an important component in the complete construct of wine tourism. What might have motivated the participants to visit such an event has become critical for wine-growing destinations when they attempt to use wine festivals to promote the wineries and regions. This research study used a survey instrument specially designed to test participants’ motivations to attend a regional wine festival in a Midwestern state in the USA. Both festival and wine tourism motivations were integrated in the measurement scale. The findings showed that attendees were motivated by a variety of factors which were associated with the focus on the different elements incorporated in the theme of the festival — a synergy of wine, travel and special event. Wine festivals can be used as a vehicle to attract younger people to become more interested in wine. They create a good venue to tap into future target markets for wine tourism development.

Expectation, Motivation, and Attitude: A Tourist Behavioral Model:

This study focuses on the previsit stage of tourists by modeling the behavioral process incorporating expectation, motivation, and attitude in the context of Chinese outbound travelers. An expectation, motivation, and attitude (EMA) model is proposed based on a comprehensive literature review. An instrument is developed based on previous tourism and marketing studies as well as focus groups to measure the variables in the EMA model. Data are collected from 1,514 Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou residents. Results of the study confirm the proposed relations that expectation of visiting an outbound destination has a direct effect on motivation to visit the destination; motivation has a direct effect on attitude toward visiting the destination; expectation of visiting the outbound destination has a direct effect on attitude toward visiting the destination; and motivation has a mediating effect on the relationship between expectation and attitude. Practical and theoretical contributions are discussed, with future research suggested.

Tourist shopping preferences and expenditure behaviours: The case of the Taiwanese outbound market

Using data from the 1999 Survey of Taiwanese Outbound Travellers, this research quantitatively examined tourists’ shopping preferences and behaviours in relation to their socio-demographic characteristics and trip attributes. Results indicated that travel purpose, travel style, age and gender were significant factors influencing the amount of money travellers spent on shopping and the items that they preferred to buy. Such understanding affords destinations and retail businesses practical knowledge useful for destination marketing, product development, retail merchandising and customer service. Basic questions can be addressed more confidently, such as what the most popular items for a well-defined demographic group are, and what factors can be used to predict the spending level of tourist shoppers.

Predicting usage of the Internet for travel bookings: an exploratory study.

The marketing of travel on the Internet is growing rapidly and with this so is travel e-commerce. Unfortunately, the research information to date on people searching for travel information online and booking travel through the Internet has lacked depth and sophistication. Therefore, this study developed and tested predictive models for the likelihood of booking travel online and for being a repeat booker of travel online. Using an interactive survey method, the respondents were asked to provide information on their sociodemographic characteristics, travel-related behaviors, Internet usage patterns, perceptions of the Internet, and last trips booked online. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was then applied to develop the two predictive models. A conceptual model was suggested depicting the process through which people become Internet travel bookers.

Food as a form of Destination Identity: A Tourism Destination Brand Perspective

The study investigated the identity of food in relation to Taiwan as a tourism destination. Tourism brochures and destination websites were assessed. Thereafter, a comparison on the identity of food was drawn between the materials used in destination marketing and the perspectives of destination stakeholders. The findings illustrated that the structure of food identity in relation to a destination includes a core and extended identity. The core and extended identity of food in Taiwan is inconsistent to some extent, in terms of the type of food that best attracts international tourists. It is suggested that seven identified dimensions of food can be used to specify the aspects of food that can adequately reflect the characteristics of a destination; and, therefore, properly convey this to its intended markets. On the whole, food can be used as a form of destination brand identity and become a powerful means in building a destination brand.

A missing link in understanding revisit intention - the role of motivation and image.

ABSTRACT This study addresses two gaps in the research on tourist revisit intention: the impact of the pre-visit psychological factor of travel motivation and its relationship with destination image. Path analysis is adopted to examine the relationships among destination image, travel motivation, and revisit intention in a rural tourism context. A causal relationship is detected between three motivation dimensions, two image dimensions, and revisit intention. All three motivational constructs (intellectual, escape, and belonging) exert a significant influence on the cognitive dimension of image, whereas only the motivation construct of escape is significantly related to the affective dimension of image. A causal relationship is also identified between the affective dimension of image and revisit intention.

Hotel Labor Productivity Assessment: A Data Envelopment Analysis

SUMMARY The purpose of this study is to propose Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as an effective tool to measure labor productivity of hotels. Using the data collected from the hotels in the State of California, the study applies DEA to calculate the labor productivity score of each sampled hotel. The internal and external determinants of labor productivity are examined. Implications of the studys results are also discussed.

A Profile of the Casino Resort Vacationer

This article provides profiles of casino resort vacationers and oceanside beach resort, ski resort, and summer country resort vacationers. It investigates the differences between the four groups of travelers. These travelers were found to have different sociodemographics, trip planning characteristics, activity participation patterns, and benefits experienced. A discriminant function was developed to predict resort choice based on four demographic characteristics. Two constructs of travel attitudes were developed that displayed significant differences between casino resort vacationers and other resort groups.

Research on China Outbound Market: A Meta-Review

ABSTRACT This article presents a meta-review of 30 academic articles that have been published about Chinas outbound tourism market. The articles have been categorized into three research streams: market overview, destination specific from secondary data, and destination specific from primary consumer data. Implications for future research are included.

The Chinese travelers to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand: A unique Chinese outbound market

The study was designed to examine the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and trip‐related attributes of the outbound Chinese travelers to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand (SMT market) and to compare this particular market with the two groups of Chinese visitors bound for other Asia‐Pacific and outside Asia‐Pacific destinations. The results provide a profile of the SMT Chinese market and identified a number of characteristics and attributes that significantly differentiated the SMT market from the two other markets.