Robert Inbakaran

Consumer research in the restaurant environment, Part 1: a conceptual model of dining satisfaction and return patronage.

This article proposes a conceptual model that explains dining satisfaction and predicts post‐dining behavioural intentions. The model provides a reference framework for conceptualising and describing the effects of disconfirmation on individuals’ dining and post‐dining experience processes, and within which dining satisfaction research findings can be related, organised, and integrated to form a systematic body of knowledge. The resulting discussion reviews consumer satisfaction research to date and evaluates applications of the approach in customer feedback. The article concludes that disconfirmation theory has sufficient comprehensiveness by suggesting that dining satisfaction is a consequence of disconfirmation and that satisfaction with the dining event does lead to repeat patronage. Subsequent articles (Part 2) will report and explain the research design and analytical methods used in this study, and (Part 3) will report on data analysis and findings of the study.

Consumer research in the restaurant environment. Part 3: analysis, findings and conclusions

In the preceding article “Consumer research in the restaurant environment, Part 2”, the operationalisation of the theoretical model of dining satisfaction and return patronage (IJCHM, Vol. 11 No. 6), was developed and described. This was preceded by Part 1 (IJCHM, Vol. 11 No. 5), in which a model of dining satisfaction and return patronage was proposed and conceptualised. Based on an extensive review of the relevant consumer behaviour literature, proposed model (Part 1), the development of the research instrument, sampling frame and procedures (Part 2), and the analytical analysis used in the study, this paper is the final contribution to the three‐part series and it reports on the findings of the study. Overall, the encouraging results of this study can be summarised as having provided: a clearer understanding of customers’ dining satisfaction perceptions; a clearer understanding of restaurants attribute performance that determine satisfaction as a consequence of dining experience; and a robust predictio...

Understanding community attitudes towards tourism and host-guest interaction in the urban-rural border region.

Abstract An improved understanding of both community attitudes toward tourism and host–guest interaction is vital for the sustainable development of tourism. However, there are significant research deficiencies and gaps in these two related research areas. This conceptual paper looks into these glaring research gaps through a review of literature and attempts to provide solutions suggested by an ongoing research project being conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In particular, while this paper addresses the impacts of personality and ethnicity on community attitudes toward tourism and points to the urgent need for a well-established theoretical framework in order to understand and predict host–guest interaction, it also highlights the above issues in the context of the urban–rural fringe, the bordering region connecting neat ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ areas.

Consumer research in the restaurant environment. Part 2: Research design and analytical methods

In Part 1, a model of dining satisfaction and return patronage was developed and described. Based on extensive review of the relevant consumer behaviour literature the model was developed and underpinned by the disconfirmation and expectancy theory. As noted in the article, disconfirmation theory is widely accepted as an account of the process by which customers develop feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, that is, when customers compare new dining experiences with some basis that they have developed from prior experiences. On the other hand, the assumption that a customer will weigh various restaurant attributes is based on expectancy theory. In the majority of studies using disconfirmation theory, expectations are formed according to customers’ pre‐experience beliefs and standards that they use to measure their purchase experience. These theories bring together the social, psychological and cultural concepts into four distinct groups of variables: input variables both internal and external, process variables and output variables (Lowenberg et al., 1979; Finkelstein, 1989). This paper is a continuation and explains: how the model of dining satisfaction and return patronage was operationalised, that is, how the research instrument was developed; how the sample size and survey procedures were developed and conducted; and how the selection of analytical procedures was conceived.

Estimating environmental resiliency for the Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia: a quantitative approach

Abstract Without a comprehensive understanding of the tourist–environment relationship, unregulated visitation from tourists to fragile mountain environments can result in adverse environmental damage. Impacts from direct trampling can be exacerbated through the natural processes of chemical and physical weathering. Many studies (Mieczkowski, Environmental Issues of Tourism and Recreation, University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland, USA, 1995; Price, People and Tourism in Fragile Environments, Wiley, Chichester, 1996) show that with increasing elevation, susceptibility to human interference becomes greater. This paper presents a study in which the susceptibility to environmental damage has been found to decrease with increasing elevation. Relationships between biophysical variables were determined using principal components analysis for a well-patronised tourist destination in Western Victoria in Australia called the Grampians National Park. The first factor termed “probable tourist impact resilience” shows that with increasing distance from walking track starting points, and with increasing elevation, there is a corresponding increase in resiliency. Due to the geomorphology of the region, extensive weathering has resulted in erodable soils, weathered from the elevated rocky outcrops at high elevation, washing downhill. Tourist walking tracks have then been cut through these lower reaches and subsequent trampling from tourists has resulted in gully erosion. The results from this study will enable park managers to plan for expected tourist growth to the region, by enabling those areas found to be more resilient to impact to be targeted for tourism.

Marketing regional tourism: How better to target and address community attitudes to tourism

In the past two decades there have been more than 70 published articles that have segmented tourist samples into clusters. The principal aims of such research are to understand tourist characteristics better; to identify key variables that predict tourist behaviour; to assess the value of tourism to an area; to provide knowledge to help develop facilities in designated areas; and to allow tourism marketing to plan strategies such as promotion and product development. In contrast, researchers have appeared to assume that the host population is homogeneous and has a uniform response to an increase in tourist numbers and to future sustainable tourism within the community. This research study used multivariate analyses such as factor analysis and cluster analysis to segment the host community into four distinct cluster groups on the basis of their positive and negative attitudes. Demographic variables constituted the cluster base. These four cluster groups differed from each other on gender ratio, age, life-cycle stage, education, migration status, occupation and current involvement with tourism. This research highlights differing attitudes present in various community groups, and explores implications for the tourist industry.

Food safety in school catering in the People’s Republic of China

As a result of inadequate safe food handling and food safety procedures, school catering organisations take tremendous risks with people who are arguably more vulnerable to food poisoning than adults. Food poisoning can be a serious affliction, the symptoms of which usually start between one and 36 hours after ingestion of food and can last for days. As noted, some segments of the population face a greater risk and have a higher incidence of food‐borne illness. These are identified as the “vulnerable groups”, and include: children and infants; senior citizens; pregnant women; and people with diabetes, AIDS sufferers, and chemotherapy patients. This study was undertaken in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and it examined the extent of food safety gaps in the provision of school meals. Findings of the study suggest that considerable food safety gaps exist, and specific managerial recommendations about how to narrow some of these gaps is given.

City design and its relationship with tourism crimes: a behaviour analysis of the urban environment

This study explores city level design and its relationship to crime. We perform a comparative analysis between three tourist towns and three non-tourist control towns. The results found that tourist towns had a higher percentage of arterial roads to all roads (good prospect, quick escape) and that the percentage of streets with public space was four times as high (good prospect, good refuge, good escape). The implication for this is that tourist environments were designed for ready access of strangers and an increased tolerance of strangers in the community by hosts: both predictors of criminal behaviour. Future research should focus on designing out tourist crime victimisation by applying crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED).

Promoting Indigenous Food to Foreign Visitors: An Australian Study

In 2006, over half a million international tourists experienced Indigenous tourist activities in Australia, spending more than

Evaluating residents' attitudes and intentions to act towards tourism development in regional Victoria, Australia.

450 million Australian Dollars and contributing valuable income to economically depressed regional and remote areas. Indigenous Tourism Australia, under the Tourism Australia website (http://www.indigenoustourism.australia.com) indicates a growing demand for high quality and authentic Indigenous experiences. Tourists from the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan are particularly drawn to genuine Indigenous experiences, from visiting Indigenous sites to eating Indigenous food, observing Indigenous dance performances and participating in, producing and/or purchasing Indigenous arts and crafts (TRA 2007a: 1). However, the role of food in authentic Indigenous experience has not yet been evaluated. Tourism Australia has identified wine and food as one of the five iconic experiences that act as a major drawcard for visitors. The activities and experiences relating to wine and food include wine tasting, visiting vineyards, wine education, and indulgence/romantic escapes complemented by fine food. While this wine and food is produced from fresh, local ingredients and served in natural settings, it is harvested