Martin MacCarthy

Diving into service quality – the dive tour operator perspective

Seeks to investigate the conceptualization and measurement of service quality and its importance to the dive tourism industry. It reports the findings from a recently conducted study of dive tourist perceptions of service quality as they relate to a tour operator running tours on an artificial reef dive experience in Western Australia. The study also assesses the importance assigned by consumers to the various service quality attributes relative to those perceptions. The results are of significance to operators in that they identify clearly the managerial implications of providing a quality service during the dive tourism experience.

Target shooting as a serious leisure pursuit - an exploratory study of the motivations driving participant engagement.

The current study is an attempt to better understand the motivations of consumers that engage in target shooting as a serious leisure activity. The instrument design was based on the Leisure Satisfaction Scale and the Leisure Motivation Scale. A total of 5502 usable surveys were collected utilising the Internet and a website related to gun ownership and target shooting. Exploratory in nature, results indicated that three variables in particular, Escapism, Social Interaction and Self-Actualisation, were primary motivators when it comes to engagement in target shooting as a serious leisure pursuit. These findings have important implications to the target-shooting community, and the industries that rely on these consumers to support their businesses. This study is unique in that very little previous research has investigated why target shooters engage in this activity. More detailed implications as well as ideas for future research are also included.

The business of D-Day: an exploratory study of consumer behaviour.

In this exploratory study the symbolic aspects of heritage tourism are considered from a consumer behaviour perspective. A qualitative study was conducted of key tourist sites in the Normandy D-Day landing region of France. Museums, cemeteries, gun batteries, beaches and plinths comprise the key significant sites of tourist visitation to the region. Using two seminal consumer behaviour models, Holt’s four metaphors of consumption and Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry’s ‘Sacred and Profane’ dichotomy experiences and perceptions of five academics and their interaction with site visitors were compiled, compared and interpreted using key concepts of authenticity and verisimilitude favoured by MacCannell. The result confirms the a priori hypothesis that economic imperatives are at odds with perceptions of quality and sacredness, leading to the commodification of otherwise venerable sites. A number of ‘quality determinants’ used to determine experience were also gleaned, namely historical significance, gravitas, ambience, number of exhibits, quality of exhibits, authenticity of exhibits, aesthetics in display and perceived respect in display. With due consideration to the criteria visitors used to determine experience quality, experience engineering can to some degree counter what appears to be an inversely proportional economic/quality dynamic.

Consuming symbolism: marketing D-Day and Normandy

ABSTRACT This exploratory study examines experience engineering at select tourist sites of the D-Day landing area in Normandy, France. Using Holt’s 1995 typology of symbolic consumption as an interpretive frame, a number of significant museums, cemeteries, gun batteries, beaches and plinths were examined. Interactions with the public at these sites including the introspection of five academics were compiled, compared and interpreted. The experiences of D-Day visitors were then considered in relation to the range of consumption metaphors afforded by Holt’s model. The results are consistent with Holt’s explanation of symbolic consumption. These rich and nuanced examples of experiential consumption are typified by the four consumption metaphors of Holt’s model; namely, Experience, Integration, Play and Classification. By doing this the widespread practise, scale and techniques of experience engineering by site managers/curators is evident. The differing and inconsistent staged authenticity by stakeholders and curators invites implicational consideration.