Competitiveness Of Tourism Industry Research Articles

‘What better excuse for a real adventure’: History, Memory and Tourism on the Kokoda Track

Rapidly growing numbers of Australian tourists visiting overseas battle sites associated with Australian military history have been met with enthusiastic academic interest by historians, yet the vast majority of studies focus on Gallipoli, rather than the Kokoda Track. Prior to 2001, few tourists had undertaken a journey along the narrow jungle pathway, which winds 96km through the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea. Just over a decade later, the track supports a competitive tourism industry, dominated by Australian companies, and attracts thousands of trekkers each year. This paper applies an interdisciplinary methodology to better understand the duality of locations of battlefield tourism as sites of commemoration and, unavoidably, sites of commerce. A survey of 107 trekkers suggests that, in addition to an expression of national identity, the mythology associated with the Kokoda Track has been appropriated by Australian tourists to represent individualistic goals of personal development and transformation: meanings that originate from the site’s history but extend beyond it.

An Analysis on International Competitiveness of Medical Tourism Industry in S.Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia

An Analysis on International Competitiveness of Medical Tourism Industry in S.Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia

Service Quality, Tourist Satisfaction and Future Behavioral Intentions on Culture Heritage Tourism: An Empirical Study of Domestic Local Tourist at Borobudur Temple

In the highly competitive tourism industry, improving service quality to gain competitive advantages is one of the keys to sustainable management of tourism destination. Tourist satisfaction is recognized as one of the key judgments that tourists use to measure tourism service, while future behavior intentions are very closely connected with satisfaction. The expression of satisfaction will result in behavioral responses to recommend, say positive things about and revisit the destinations. Research is conducted by examined the influence of service quality and tourist satisfaction on the future behavioral intentions of domestic local tourists in Borobudur Temple, Magelang using SERVQUAL model and analyzed with multiple regression analysis. The model was successfully tested using data collected from 200 local tourists from 28-31 May 2012. It is expected that such studies would eventually revealed the level of tourist satisfaction on service quality as well as the predicted future behavioral intentions such as recommend, say positive things and revisit the destination on local domestic tourist perspective. The results also expected to provide a guideline for Borobudur Temple Management to be able to retain the quality of service that is considered very satisfactory by the tourists and will improve the quality of services that are deemed unsatisfactory by the tourists, in relation to the development of Indonesia culture heritage destination.

Study on the Tourism Industry Competitiveness of Nanyue Economic Zone

This paper analyzed the subjects of tourism development of Nanyue economic zone, such as production elements, demand status, related and supporting industries, enterprise, government and opportunities, and points out that the Nanyue economic zone tourism industry competitiveness support elements and restricting factors, and puts forward some countermeasures on how to improve the competitiveness of the industry of tourism Nanyue economic zone. Key words: Nanyue economic zone; Tourism industry; Competitiveness model

Development of an Evaluation Scale for Inter-Country Tourism Industry Competitiveness using the Delphi Technique and Analytic Hierarchy Process

AbstractThis study aims to develop a model and a scale for evaluating the intercountry competitiveness of tourism destinations. Three-round Delphi surveys and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach were used to ensure research objectivity. In two rounds of the Delphi surveys, the questionnaire items were reduced from the initial 196 items to 139, and finally to 61. The relative importance of the items, key domains, and sub-domains were established through AHP analysis. Among the key domains, “sustainability management” and “demand” were perceived to have the highest relative importance. Among the items, “level of service quality” was found to show the highest relative weight.

Competition In Tourism In Terms of Changing Environment

There is a vast body of literature about competition, competitive advantage and competitive identity in tourism industry. Competitiveness is grounded in the strategic and operational advantages businesses have been able to achieve and through the application of these concerns to tourism, the competitive advantage of destinations. Globalization is creating trends and expectations but there is also evidence to suggest that the strong sense of the local community is a vital part of the destination competitive advantage. Tourism competitiveness is rarely examined at the single business level as the complexity of the tourism system is based on interaction and interdependency. Therefore the concerns with strategy, structure and rivalry seems a little different within tourism – hence the growing concerns with network partnerships, clusters and co-operations within the tourism literature. Management of tourist services should satisfy the needs of the customer (tourist) and contributes to tourist well-being as well as it should contribute to well being of local community. This is the part of sustainable competitiveness concept.

From Liquor to Leisure: The Changing South African Hotel Industry 1928–1968

Historical scholarship in tourism studies is relatively limited, mainly focused on North America and Western Europe. The aim in this article is to examine one neglected facet of the historical development of urban tourism in South Africa. Specifically, the focus is on the changing nature of South African hotels and of the hotel industry during the period of 1928–1968. During this period, a transformation occurred in the nature of the hotel sector ‘from liquor to leisure’. This change shifted the trajectory of hotel developments in South Africa and laid the essential foundations for the beginnings of an internationally competitive tourism industry. An understanding of developments taking place in the hotel industry through this formative period of 1928–1968 is essential for interpreting the evolution of the modern South African hotel industry.

The destination competitiveness of Kinmen's tourism industry: exploring the interrelationships between tourist perceptions, service performance, customer satisfaction and sustainable tourism

Based upon an empirical investigation, the study draws upon the responses of 1623 tourists in Kinmen to explore the notion of destination competitiveness and how it is related to customer satisfaction with tourists’ perceptions, service performance and destination competitiveness. It also considers the question of destination competitiveness and sustainable tourism development. Variables such as tourists’ pre-visit perceptions, post-visit satisfaction toward destination attractions and resources, willingness to recommend and revisit, and competitiveness with foreign destinations are tested. The results of the study suggest that there is no correlation between tourists’ overall satisfaction and destination competitiveness. Implications of the study outcome illustrate that a destination's unique tourism characteristics can be the most important variables for destination competitiveness. In Kinmen's case, battlefields, historic relics, beautiful scenery and travel security gave it a competitive edge, despite high prices. In addition, developing the destination's brand image was found to be critical for tourism marketers and authorities in the context of increasingly global tourism competition.

Co-creation and the new marketing mix as an innovative approach for enhancing tourism industry competitiveness in Egypt

To investigate the extent to which co-creation and 4Cs are extant in the Egyptian tourism industry policies, the paper tries to examine the attitudes of tourism industry’s managers towards co-creative and 4Cs network principles and their indicators. Data of the study was collected through questionnaire forms and statistical tests such as t- test and ANOVA were used to validate the research outcomes. The research outcomes indicate that tourism business sector companies in Egypt do not have sufficient policies to be more oriented by market and they still use the traditional market mix policies (4Ps policies) for achieving their marketing objectives.

Service Labor and Symbolic Power

The subfield that is the sociology of service labor continues to generate vibrant internal dialogue. It was the author’s original intent to push forward the frontier of theory within this field, by performing an ethnography of service work in a non-American context (that of post-apartheid South Africa). Once in the field, however, he found himself moving backward as he was forced to problematize basic assumptions concerning the very category of service. In brief, the author discovered that managers in a competitive tourism industry refused to label their employees’ interactive labor as “service,” whereas workers themselves actively advocated for such a designation. To document the interplay between material and symbolic politics of production, the author turned to the work of Pierre Bourdieu—especially his theory of political representation and the accompanying concept of nomination struggles.

A Tourist Attraction’s Members: Their Motivations, Relations and Roles

Active participating consumers are present as members at tourist attractions. This explorative case study aims to deepen the understanding of the consumer’s perspective of active membership by focusing on member motivations, relations, and roles at a tourist attraction. A marketing approach is applied that originated in the mutual relational benefits of memberships. Findings indicate that individual multiple member motivations and relations are reflected as different membership roles. Active committed members fill in the roles of supporters and advocates promoting the attraction as well as co‐producers performing volunteer work in the interface between visitors, fellow members and paid staff. Active members are present as one vital element in the tourist attraction system. It is of importance to academics and managers in the competitive tourism industry to understand not only what motivates consumers to become active members/volunteers but also what keeps them volunteering.

Service experience and service design: concepts and application in tourism SMEs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the pertinent issues in the relationship between service experience and service design among small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual paper undertakes a thorough review of the relevant literature before developing propositions regarding service experience and service design for SMEs in the tourism industry.FindingsService experience must be appropriately managed by SME operators by collecting and evaluating relevant data on customer experience. Service design must be undertaken in a holistic manner that is embedded in the organisational culture of the service provider using tools such as “blueprinting”. Synergistic cooperation and learning regions among traditionally fragmented tourism providers are essential for achieving long‐term competitiveness.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should undertake empirical studies to validate and/or modify the propositions presented in this conceptual paper.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies to have addressed the relationship between experience management and service design for SMEs in the highly competitive tourism industry.

E-collaboration: A Universal Key to Solve Fierce Competition in Tourism Industry?

E-collaboration is a new strategy to compete in today’s business world. Cooperation, collaboration, alliance and etc are the words companies are now focusing on. These companies are looking towards friendliness instead of hostility. This paper analyzes the previous literature on Internet, e-business, and collaboration, looking at the emergency of e-collaboration in the tourism industry. The applications of e-collaboration are often mentioned in the fields of international trading and e-business. The paper aims to apply those theories of collaboration, internet and e-business from other industries to tourism and hospitality industry. It also analyzes the e-collaboration situation in this particular area and tries to find a way to help today’s tourism industry players to create and guide thriving e-collaboration strategies. E-collaboration provides a very efficient strategic option with low cost, easy access, large market, reputation and resources sharing. It brings geographically dispersed teams together, supporting communication, coordination and cooperation. But problems like unbalanced management and power between collaborators, unequal resource commitments, quality maintenance, culture differences exist in e-collaboration. In the end of the paper, the author highlights the advantages of e-collaboration and suggests the way to e-collaborate properly to contribute to strategic management.

With the Two Integrated Resorts (IRs) in Singapore Due for Completion in the Next Few Years, How Should the IRs Align Their Strategies to Attract the Increasingly Affluent and Outbound Tourists and Businessmen from China?

The rising affluence of Chinese tourists and the concomitant rise in the budget airline industry has made the cost of air travel more affordable and convenient. This has resulted in a booming and highly competitive tourism industry as countries embark on mega projects to attract the tourist dollar. Singapore is no exception as it embarks on the development of two Integrated Resorts (IRs) with gaming components which is due for completion in the next few years. Regional developments such as the liberalization of the gaming industry in Macau in 2002 and coupled with the relaxation of Chinese visitors to come to Macau are some examples of how the competition is heating up. Regardless of the size and scale of the IRs, the key consideration for their success will be their abilities to attract new customers and how to retain them in the face of increasing competition from neighbouring and regional developments. Hence, it is important for the IRs in Singapore to have a comprehensive strategy on how to attract the increasingly affluent and outbound tourists and businessmen from China. In addition, the positioning of the IRs and its unique comparative advantages must be easily distinguishable and identifiable from its competition. This paper will address the important question of how to attract and retain customers, specifically the Chinese tourist and businessmen, and the strategies required to achieve Singapore's goal of transforming itself into a world-class destination that appeals to tourists and businessmen regionally and internationally. This paper will also highlight the positioning strategies that Singapore IRs can utilize in order to attract more Chinese to visit Singapore.

Building Loyal Relationships Between Customers and Providers

The increasingly competitive tourism industry has led to a paradigm shift in marketing philosophy from a focus on discrete transactions to one of long-term relationships. This paper proposes a conceptual model of the antecedents of customer loyalty; a construct central to relationship marketing. The model proposed draws from Resource Theory, and the notions of reciprocity and customer equity. According to the proposed model, when customers and providers invest specific profiles of resources in each other, the customers tend to develop a bond with the customer and become dedicated to maintaining a stable relationship. The model is used to discuss the mixed results of current loyalty programs and to outline future research efforts.

The future of hospitality education in Grenada

The quality of hospitality education is a topical issue. It is being increasingly realised that the education level of tourism employees impacts on the quality of a country’s tourism industry. As the most tourism‐oriented region globally, the Caribbean is slowly awakening to the realisation that, unless its tourism employees are highly educated and skilled, the region will continue to account for an insignificant percentage of world tourism arrivals. In Grenada, hospitality education courses are limited, given the small tourism plant and comparatively low visitor arrivals. Research was undertaken by one of the authors, to explore the opinions of the accommodation sector about current education provisions and the future direction that courses should take. Integration of all stakeholders in the implementation of the broad education policy outlined by the government is crucial to improving hospitality education in Grenada to ensure a competitive tourism industry.

International price competitiveness of Australia's MICE industry

AbstractA special‐interest tourist market that holds out great promise for continued growth well into the next century is that of MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions). At the same time, changing prices in particular destinations relative to others are regarded as one of the most important economic influences on destination shares of total international tourism flows. The question arises as to the price competitiveness of major competing MICE destinations. Although earlier research has recognised that a destination's price competitiveness differs according to a visitor's country of origin there has been relatively little attention paid to tourism price competitiveness from the perspective of those having different motives for travel. This paper has four major aims: first, to provide a method by which price competitiveness of tourism by journey purpose can be estimated; second, to construct price competitiveness indices that measure, absolutely and relative to major competitors world‐wide, the price competitiveness of Australia's MICE tourism industry; third, to compare Australia's price competitiveness as a MICE destination with its price competitiveness for total inbound tourism; fourth, to discuss the implications of the results for travel and tourism decision‐makers in both the private and public sectors. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.