Sunny Ham

Invisible and Intangible, but Undeniable: Role of Ambient Conditions in Building Hotel Guests’ Loyalty

This study was designed to find the critical role of ambient-condition factors in the formation of overall image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty intentions. The dataset was developed by conducting a survey at five-star hotels in a metropolitan city in South Korea. A series of multiple regression analyses were used to test the proposed model. The findings demonstrated the predictive ability of the proposed model to sufficiently explain the role of multidimensional ambience factors in generating the overall image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty intentions. For example, among the five ambient-condition dimensions, temperature was found to influence the overall image the most and odor/aroma appeared to have the most significant effect on satisfaction. In addition, the present study discovered the significant mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between ambient conditions and loyalty intentions. The results of this study will help hotel practitioners develop effective loyalty-enhancement strategies utilizing ambience.

The impact of hotel property size in determining the importance of electronic distribution channels

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of electronic distribution systems (EDS) in Korean hotels and investigate the differences between large and small and medium (S&M) hotels.Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative and explorative study. An in‐depth interview was conducted of seven large hotels and nine S&M hotels.Findings – Regardless of size, the surveyed hotels received, on average, more reservations through offline systems than online. It was found that large hotels showed less variation in the use of EDS than S&M hotels. While there was no distinct difference in the overall use of EDS, in terms of average, the highest percentage of hotel EDS use was demonstrated by S&M hotels. Regarding specific components and distribution flows, large hotels overall employed a variety of distribution channels, often implemented in multi‐faceted systems. S&M hotels, in most cases, adopted simpler distribution flows, i.e. hotel web sites and online travel agencies. This difference seem...

The Effects of Presence Induced by Smartphone Applications on Tourism: Application to Cultural Heritage Attractions

Increased use of mobile devices in the tourism industry enhances tourist satisfaction by improving their overall experience in particular settings. Presence, in this case, is the state of one’s subjective recognition when experiencing in virtual realms beyond realistic physical and tangible spaces. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships between the presence brought upon the use of smartphone applications, the touristic experience, and tourism satisfaction, when smartphone applications are applied to cultural heritage attractions. A survey was employed for the data collection at cultural heritage attractions in Korea from tourists who had used smartphone applications during their travels. The study found a significant relationship between presence of smartphone applications and touristic experience, which also significantly affected overall tourist satisfaction. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on the impact and effects of “presence” when smartphone applications are utilized in tourism.