Soyoung Boo

An Analysis of One-Star Online Reviews and Responses in the Washington, D.C., Lodging Market

The hotel industry continues to develop strategies for addressing consumer-generated online reviews, and particularly responding to poor reviews, which can have a damaging effect on a hotel’s reputation. To gain a greater understanding of the dynamics of poor reviews, this study analyzed 1,946 one-star reviews from ten popular online review websites, as well as 225 management responses from eighty-six Washington, D.C., hotels. A comprehensive complaint framework found that the most common complaints related to front desk staff, bathroom issues, room cleanliness, and guestroom noise issues. Complaints were also analyzed by hotel characteristics, including chain-scale segments, and reviewer characteristics, including purpose of travel and geographic location. Examining the reviews, highly rated hotels often respond to online complaints with appreciation, apologies, and explanations for what had gone wrong. Compensation adjustments are rarely mentioned by any hotel. The increasingly prominent role of social media necessitates that hotels use online reviews for market research and service recovery opportunities, regardless of whether they respond publicly.

An assessment of convention tourism's potential contribution to environmentally sustainable growth

The tourism literature contains substantial discussions on how increasing numbers of attendees and conventions at a destination contributes to the local economy, but there is limited research on the environmental impact of the concomitant increases in air and other travel, and other activity increases in energy and other resource use. This research assesses the current environmental position of the convention industry in the United States and formulates suggestions for future direction in regard to “green” concepts by examining and comparing the perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions of three groups of convention stakeholders: convention attendees, meeting planners, and convention suppliers. This empirical study recognizes the critical problem of inadequate understanding of the environmental impact of convention activities and the lack of knowledge regarding ecological convention practices. It shows that the perception of environmental impact among the three groups varies depending on which environmentally friendly practices are available to each group. It discusses the background to – and the implications of – the emotional formation of decisions and self-motivation based on positive attitudes and the strong intention to adopt green management practices agreed to by convention stakeholders.

Factors Influencing the Usability of Mobile Destination Management Organization Websites

Mobile devices, such as smartphones, are fast becoming the primary way for many travelers to access the Internet in search of travel-related information. While mobile devices provide travelers with ubiquitous access to the Internet, they also face limitations, such as small screens and slow loading times, which destination management organizations (DMOs) must consider when designing mobile websites. This study investigates the factors influencing the overall usability of mobile DMO websites. Based on a sample of U.S. travelers with mobile devices, findings indicate that design elements related to Ease of Use and Content contribute most significantly to the overall usability of mobile DMO websites. Also, travelers highly value mobile DMO websites that are well structured and organized, offer convenient services, and have an easy-to-understand appearance. Managerial implications and areas for further research are discussed.

Risk Perception of Mega-events

Risk perception in mega-events has recently received considerable research attention. However, the wisdom of interpreting associations of antecedents and consequences of risk perception in a causal manner is lacking. This study widens the scope of the discussion by examining these relationships in a multivariate model and by employing a comparative approach to add value to cross-sectional findings. Results indicate that the structural relationship among latent variables differs slightly for Domestic and International samples who attended the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. A noteworthy finding is that low risk perception strongly affects event satisfaction, but event satisfaction does not have a mediating role between low risk perception and perceived likelihood of attending the next Olympic Games.

An Exploration of Attractiveness of Convention Cities Based on Visit Behavior

ABSTRACT As more and more cities build convention centers, competition has intensified. Researchers have mainly conducted studies from the perspective of meeting planners. More recently, important attributes of convention attendees at the level of specific convention centers have been examined. This study explored potential convention attendees’ relative attractiveness of six convention cities in California based on visit behaviors. A total of 366 self-administered questionnaires were used for the analysis. Results showed that convention attendees perceived the attractiveness of convention cities according to their visit behavior. The findings provide managerial implications for convention and visitors bureaus and convention center sales and marketing managers to develop more effective marketing strategies.

An examination of green intention: the effect of environmental knowledge and educational experiences on meeting planners’ implementation of green meeting practices

Environmental sustainability has become an important concern in staging meetings and events. This paper introduces the Convention Industry Councils Green Meetings Report and goes on to investigate whether prior knowledge and educational experiences related to environmental sustainability are influential factors in planners’ commitment to engaging in ecologically friendly behavior. Using a nine-point questionnaire, 278 delegates at North Americas largest one-day event for meeting planners were sampled. Regression analysis showed that the intention to implement green meeting practices is positively influenced by both prior knowledge of and educational experience with greening practices. In particular, educational experiences were found to be a strong influential factor contributing to meeting planners’ intention to implement green meeting practices. By providing operational definitions of knowledge and education, it proves that knowledge gained by an unstructured format was less effective than the impact of education on green intention. Accordingly, this study not only highlights academic discussions on environmental knowledge-building through formal education but also derives managerial implications for the meeting and event industry by outlining ways to incorporate continuing professional education in sustainable meetings and events. A range of ideas for the content of that professional education is presented, along with the possibilities for e-learning.

Comparison of Negative eWOM Intention: An Exploratory Study

A growing body of hospitality literature has examined eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth), but there has been a lack of empirical studies employing a comparative approach in a restaurant setting regarding negative eWOM. This study examined the antecedents of negative eWOM intention from customers who visit a restaurant for a variety of different primary purposes. The conceptual model investigated the factors that affect negative eWOM intention and any differences that may exist between event and non-event groups. Findings from a cross-sectional sample of 482 consumers showed that prior eWOM experience and preference for e-mail communication exerted a direct influence on negative eWOM intention for both groups.

The Influence of Convention Center Performance on Hotel Room Nights

The economic contribution of convention centers has received a great deal of attention from past research studies. However, arguments still remain about convention centers’ postexpansion impact on hotel room nights. In addition, there is a lack of research regarding the link between demand for hotel room nights and commonly adopted measurements of a convention center’s performance. This study examines the impact of convention center performance on the demand for hotel room nights through an investigation of a convention center located in a metropolitan city in the middle Atlantic region of the United States. Results show that there is a positive relationship between the quantity of function space and demand for hotel room nights in comparison to other factors of the convention center’s performance. The key findings provide practical implications for local convention and visitors bureaus and convention center managers in terms of marketing strategies and revenue management.

Interrelationships among Korean Outbound Tourism Demand: Granger Causality Analysis

This study investigates Korean outbound tourism demand and its determinants using the Granger causality (GC) analysis. In contrast to previous studies, which deal only with internal factors such as exchange rate and income, this study examines the effects of interactions among countries and, therefore, produces more complete and relevant results. Korean outbound tourism to the USA is causally related to Korean outbound tourism to the other six countries in the study. These results can be used in tourism marketing and strategic planning by industry and government to allocate tourism resources more efficiently.

Dynamic Capabilities and Performance of Meeting Planners

ABSTRACT As a new strategic management approach, dynamic capabilities theory leads meeting planners to adapt to rapidly changing environments in order to generate better performance and gain competitive advantages in the industry. Previous studies in management focused on dynamic capabilities of organizations, but this present study focuses on dynamic capabilities of individual meeting planners. The purpose of this present study is to determine key abilities that lead to dynamic capabilities of meeting planners, and to examine the relationship between the dynamic capabilities and job performance of meeting planners. Findings confirmed that resource reconfigurability and knowledge management were key abilities in dynamic capability, which directly impact job performance. This present study offers insight into how competitive advantage of meeting planners is achieved. Implications of the findings for theory and future research are discussed.