Steve Pan

Mountain Areas and Visitor Usage–Motivations and Determinants of Satisfaction: The Case of Pirongia Forest Park, New Zealand

This paper reports on visitor motivations and satisfaction at Pirongia Forest Park, New Zealand. The study used a derivative of the Leisure Motivation Scale to assess motives, and a factor analysis confirmed five dimensions of ‘relaxation’, ‘social needs’, ‘a sense of belonging’, ‘mastery skills’, and ‘intellectual needs’. From the scales, five clusters were identified; ‘active social relaxers’, ‘enthusiastic visitors’, ‘nature isolates’, ‘relaxers’, and ‘reluctant visitors’. Using regression analysis, it appears that ‘pull’ factors are better predictors of overall satisfaction than motivational ‘push’ factors, but a key aspect is that among local residents who use the Park there is a high level of repeat usage. Management implications are explored.

The Role of TV Commercial Visuals in Forming Memorable and Impressive Destination Images

Tourism TV commercials (TVCs) are one of the channels (or agents) used to form destination images, yet this channel is rarely researched.The objectives of this article are to identify the relations among visual elements,TVC effects, and destination image formation. University students who have never visited New Zealand nor watched New Zealand’s latest tourism TVCs were recruited to participate in a TVC recall test. The audience found video frames of snow and water, dolphins, and hongi (a traditional Maori greeting) to be most memorable and impressive. Findings suggest that something old (i.e., something familiar to viewers), something new (i.e., something that cannot be seen or done in the viewer’s immediate environment), and something white and something blue (i.e., clean and pristine) should be included when developing promotional tourism videos. Video frames showing people’s interaction among themselves and with the environment were positively related to audience desires to visit the depicted destination.

Using Chinese Travel Blogs to Examine Perceived Destination Image: The Case of New Zealand

This study uses content analysis to identify the perceived destination image held by Chinese tourists to New Zealand. In this study, qualitative content analysis is the primary mode of analysis, but quantitative methods are used as a support. The findings reveal the main components of New Zealand, as perceived by Chinese tourists, as being the possession of a protected ecological environment, a variety of activities, and a highly developed society with a “Pakeha” culture. The study also indicates that Chinese cultural norms play an important role in the process of perception formation and interpretation. These norms include the desire for harmony, Li, and a respect of authorities. It is suggested that blogs are an important resource by which destination marketing organizations can seek to influence potential tourists and by which tourist perceptions of place can be assessed.

Finding Ideal Menu Items Assortments: An Empirical Application of Market Basket Analysis

This article applies a simplified version of market basket analysis (MBA) principles to explore menu items assortments, which are defined as the sets of most frequently ordered menu item pairs of an entrée and each of five side dishes in a prix fixe restaurant. Using the PivotTable in Excel, the authors demonstrate the analysis of 3,727 transactions for meal combinations of 24 entrées and 49 side dishes, resulting in twenty-four association rules, which suggested that guests ordering a given entrée would most likely then choose a particular side dish to go with it. Applying these association rules, guests responded favorably to servers’ menu suggestions in roughly two out of three cases when the guest was “undecided” or “without preference.” This article’s chief purpose is to introduce the application of Excel that would otherwise require tedious computation if a restaurateur were to attempt it.

A Study of Motivations and the Image of Shanghai as Perceived by Foreign Tourists at the Shanghai EXPO

This study examines aspects of perceived motivations and images of foreign attendants at the Shanghai EXPO. Even though significant differences were found on several factors according to socio-demographic variables, there are inconsistent patterns. However, significant differences were found on all image domains between before EXPO and after EXPO. This indicates that the effects of hosting the EXPO were influential in changing image as perceived by foreign tourists. Relationships between motivations and image perceptions were found. For example, those who attended the Shanghai EXPO with motivation to seek novelty and excitement strongly perceived after attending EXPO that Shanghai is a cultural and historic city as well as an important economic center.

Gender, Framing, and Travelogues

This article analyzes gender differences in visiting media reporting of a tourism destination. Based on the concept of frame analysis, a method commonly used in media studies, it combines the analysis of texts and pictures from print media travel reports and assigned rankings to different frames (themes) identified for further statistical analysis. Using an independent-samples t-test and multidimensional scaling, it was found that female journalists pick up subtler and less salient frames more frequently than their male counterparts. However, significant differences were only found in three themes: “cuisine,” “adventure activities,” and “urban vibrancy.” On the other hand, reports by male journalists were more congruent with ranking of themes promoted by national tourism organizations than was the case among their female counterparts. In general, for soft news such as travelogues, gender differences were found in the less salient themes. Managerial implications, suggestions for future research, and limitations are provided and discussed.

The role of relationship marketing investments in customer reciprocity

Purpose – This paper aims to, building on the concept of relational benefits, relationship marketing investments, gratitude, satisfaction and favorable reciprocal behaviors, examine the mechanism of cultivating relationships with valued customers at an upscale restaurant. Design/methodology/approach – To capture the traits of the population (upscale restaurant customers who perceive relationship marketing investments by experiencing relational benefits), upscale restaurant customers with membership cards were contacted in the survey. Structural equation modeling was used to test measurement and structural models. Findings – Empirical findings indicated that confidence and social benefits positively contributed to relationship marketing investments, whereas special treatment benefits were not significantly related to relationship marketing investments. In turn, relationship marketing investments positively affected both gratitude and satisfaction; relationship marketing investments were also more associate...

Inducible or Not—A Telltale from Two Movies

ABSTRACT By content analyzing two movies, Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Australia (2008), this paper empirically examined some arguments found in the extant literature that are related to film-induced tourism. Crocodile Dundee usually received the accolade of inducing tourism, while Australia was copromoted by Tourism Australia to help revive the dwindling tourist arrivals. This paper does not suggest which movie induces more tourism to Australia. Rather, through comparison and identification of differences, it tries to explore the factors that might be associated with tourism-inducible film. After decomposing two films into individual temporal segments, 583 shots of Crocodile Dundee and 2,604 shots from Australia were extracted and analyzed respectively. The findings indicate that Crocodile Dundee had relatively more landscape scenes and longer duration per shot by including less cuts (visual information) than Australia. Suggestions for future research in this area and marketing potential are also briefly examined.

Film-Induced Heritage Site Conservation: The Case of Echoes of the Rainbow

It has been contended that a link exists between films and the creation of tourist locations. A film can have an unintended consequence that leads to community actions and subsequent policy initiatives that are supportive of conservation of potential tourism cultural assets. This article analyses the processes by which one such film created a heightened awareness of the heritage values of a location setting in Hong Kong that led to changes in public policy. This case study highlights media’s role in shaping and changing public opinion. It examines through framing analysis the way in which public debate changed, thereby highlighting the way in which conservation activists and other stakeholders played out competing roles and the manner in which they sought to influence media coverage of the site. The article also points out the need to establish a set of consistent standards of conserving heritage sites rather than relying on a film to be the “savior.”

The Relationships Between Casino Quality, Image, Value, and Loyalty

This research builds on the idea that casino customers’ subjective, global judgments of service quality are shaped by experience of its specific attributes, and examines how casino customers form their evaluative attitudes toward the casino experience in the Macau context. Using the data collected from 525 Macau casino customers, we first identify four casino quality dimensions; namely, supporting facilities, staff service, diversity, and equitableness. We then test and validate a proposed model for the structural relationships between casino image (as a consequence of the four quality dimensions), value, and loyalty. In particular, value is shown to be a mediator of the relationship between image and loyalty from the perspective of casino customers. The results of our study can show Macau casino operators what constitutes customers’ casino experiences and aid them in enhancing their image, perceived value, and customer loyalty toward casinos.