Seyhmus Baloglu

University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV · William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration

Purpose This research explores differences in consumer behavior across generational cohorts, particularly focusing on customer loyalty. With Millennials becoming the largest generational cohort, it is crucial to understand loyalty variations, given that many loyalty programs were established during the Baby Boomer era. This study investigates two v...

This research examines how news media portrayal of Covid-19 cases on cruise ships can produce decision biases. Two experiments were conducted in which news stories were varied according to format, base rate, framing and number size. The results demonstrate that prior cruise experience increases travel intentions and cruise image and lowers percepti...

Abstract Purpose This study aimed to identify distinctive characteristics of hotel guests and understand their perception of guestroom technologies (GRTs) in hotels by utilizing the theory of consumer innovativeness and the social influence theory. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 268 hotel guests. The K-means clustering al...

Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to examine the underlying consumer values that drive hotel booking mobile app users to engage more with the app and use the app continuously for hotel booking purposes. Design/methodology/approach By conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) on the data collec...

The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of a country's image as a mediator between cuisine image and intention to visit a country. Data were collected using online and face‐to‐face surveys from 445 participants experiencing Turkish cuisine in the United Kingdom. The results show that the general cuisine image affects overall country ima...

Hotels often use branded amenities to upgrade products. However, given the importance, branded amenities are scarcely studied as a tool to manage hotel brands. Signaling theory explains how branded amenities fit into an ingredient branding strategy for hotels. A series of ANOVA were conducted to analyze the effects of branded amenities on hotels’ c...

The purpose of this study is to offer insights into why restaurant firms issue preferred stock despite the disadvantage of using preferred stock as compared to debt. This disadvantage is due to the fact that debt interest payments but not preferred stock dividends provide tax-deductible savings for the issuing firm. We empirically examine the propo...

Even though the restaurant industry uses vast amounts of resources, a paucity of research exists that discusses restaurant sustainability issues from the supply point of view. This study surveys casual restaurant managers in the South West part of the U.S. about current green practices and motivations for the practices. Overall, most practices were...

This study aims to broaden knowledge about the effects of green (environmentally responsible) advertising images on consumer behavior in the context of the hotel industry. A 5 (ad type: non-green vs. green with text vs. green with logos vs. green with visuals vs. green with the combination of all) × 2 (hotel segment: luxury vs. budget) between-subj...

Grounded in the Theory of Justice, perception of fairness is evaluated as a key element to enhance the effectiveness of loyalty programs. Using a robust sample of casino reward program members, the research examines the mediating roles of brand attachment and loyalty intention between perceptions of fairness and loyalty outcomes. The study introduc...

Community leaders and tourism authorities in Las Vegas have suggested the promotion and development of medical tourism to improve the economy and quality of life for residents. The present study uses social exchange theory with spillover theory as the conceptual framework to examine factors of economic performance of medical tourism, overall commun...

The spa and wellness industry is a growing multi-trillion dollar a year global business. Research is lacking regarding motivations to patronize a spa along with the benefits and outcomes from the service. To address this gap in the literature, a conceptual model was developed and tested based on self-determination theory and broaden and build theor...

Organizations are rapidly adopting new technologies and have justified their return on investment by examining new attendee rates, "click throughs" on links, and company-specific metrics. Despite advances in technology and growing consumer dependence on electronics, the meeting and events industry has been slow to adopt IT advances for fear of cann...

The restaurant industry uses vast amounts of resources, but only a paucity of research discusses sustainability issues from restaurant management point of views. By applying both institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, this study addresses this gap by asking casual restaurant managers what motivates them to adopt and implement sustaina...

This research provides a segmentation of reward program members based on perceptions of fairness (POF) and program benefits. The Theory of Justice provides a theoretical foundation to investigate POF for reward programs. Cluster analysis was used to classify 1108 members of a casino reward program on POF (value and communication-based) and importan...

In the past decade, the positive and memorable tourism experience (MTE) has merged as a critical concept in the hospitality and tourism field. Previous quantitative studies on MTE mainly focus on measurement development and the relationship between MTE and behavioral intention, and they lack the integration of MTE with other core marketing construc...

Seminal marketing studies suggest that the concepts of destination image and meme maps are highly related. Using the Theory of Spreading Activation, this study involves creation, assessment, and comparison of the structure of tourists' destination memes of a mature tourism destination in Turkey. The study reports the findings of two separate studie...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the underlying consumer behavior model of Facebook marketing for hotels, including the determinants, the process and the consequences of hotel Facebook marketing, as Facebook – the most popular social media platform – has become an important marketing tool for hotels. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarize the contribution of the theme issue on the current and future impact of social media on hospitality and tourism. The authors reviewed the papers looking for common themes among the papers. Once identified, the contributions of the papers to the themes were identified and synthesized into an overvi...

The study examines Jamaica’s destination image and brand personality, and how they relate to future tourist behavior. An integrative model of tourist behavior, involving destination image (cognitive, affective, and overall), destination personality, and behavioral outcomes was developed and tested for first-time and repeat visitors separately. In a...

Customer loyalty has become a strategic goal to increase brand value and profitability. This study develops and tests a model of loyalty to understand the relative effects of loyalty program benefits (as positive barriers) and switching costs (as negative barriers) on emotional commitment and loyalty behaviors in the casino context. The findings sh...

The concept of slow tourism is gaining attention, and this study provides new insights into the phenomenon from the perspective of a goal-driven consumption process. The authors conduct primary qualitative research to define slow tourism, build a conceptual model, and develop measurement scales. Based on the data collected from four popular U.S. to...

Energy costs in the lodging industry have been a focus for at least forty years, but the development of energy management programs and the employment of energy management systems have been uneven, at best. A 2011 study of ninety-nine managers of upscale and luxury hotels found that the operators were reticent to implement energy management programs...

The competitiveness of cities as tourist destinations heavily relies upon building unique brand image and identity, providing memorable brand experiences, and developing positive word-of-mouth (WOM) brand advocacy. This study integrates key brand associations (cognitive, affective, and personality) in a city brand advocacy model and examines their...

A well-established loyalty matrix classifies customers into four quadrants based on their frequency of purchase and attitude toward a hospitality business. These quadrants represent four distinct types of loyalty, according to combinations of patronage frequency and attitude favorability: true, latent, spurious, and low. Using a sample of casino re...

Destination competitiveness is a critical concept for countries/destinations to gain a favorable position in the changing world tourism market. Using the data from The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011, the study employed both multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis methods to evaluate the destination competitiveness of 16 Asia Pac...

The mail survey has been the most frequently used research method in hospitality management and marketing research. The content and design of the cover page are very critical in mail surveys to obtain adequate response rate. This paper examines the effect of including student information in cover pages for a business sample. The findings indicated...

Sustainability studies suggest that travelers' decisions to support sustainable production and to consume sustainable hospitality and tourism services are functions of those travelers' values. This study examined the efficacy of the sustainability value (SV) scale in predicting potential travelers' choices for sustainable hospitality businesses usi...

This study assessed the environmental attitudes of business and leisure travelers, their green behavior at home, and the level of importance they place on having different green attributes in a hotel. A sample of 571 business and leisure travelers completed an online survey. Correlation analysis and t-tests were used to test for differences between...

Packaging travel products on the Internet is increasing in prevalence, yet limited research exists on how consumers evaluate and purchase vacation packages online. Research on product bundling is plentiful but has been conducted primarily in non-Internet purchase settings. The current research seeks to fill the void in both areas by investigating c...

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication, such as the online hotel review, is receiving increasing attention from marketing managers in the hotel industry, primarily because consumers are making considerable use of online forums and often do not book without seeking online advice on restaurants, tourist destinations, or hotels. This study of a...

The growing trend of traveling outside of one's country for medical services, commonly known as “medical tourism” is expected to continue to grow exponentially in the next ten years (Keckley, 2008). With multiple destinations from which to select, and available information representing this type of travel being of variable reliability, many prospec...

A study of 571 business and leisure travelers examined the environmentally friendly attributes that guests seek in hotel rooms. Using conjoint analysis of bundles of seven hotel room attributes, the study found that the most influential single attribute on hotel room preference for this sample was green hotel certification (such as LEED). These res...

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether or not there are any significant differences between first-time and repeat visitors in terms of perceived destination brand personality and tourist's behavioral intentions. An empirical study is carried out among 368 visitors to Las Vegas. The results indicate that destination brand personality...

This research evaluated how rate transparency, component bundling, price, and savings of vacation packages influence online purchase decisions. Subjects chose between 12 pairs of Cancun vacation packages, one transparent (individual component pricing displayed) and one opaque (total package price only). The price and savings of the packages were sy...

This study investigates brand personality and destination image of Istanbul, Turkey and compares the perceived image and personality across different nationalities visiting the city. The survey instrument included quantitative and qualitative (open ended) items and questions to better understand the first-time visitors' individual perceptions. Text...

Destination marketing is more challenging than other goods and services. The basis of competitive advantage shifts from tourism resources only (destination marketing) to a location-based or city-wide integrated management (place marketing). In this book, tourism scholars Metin Kozak and Seyhmus Baloglu discuss and synthesize theories, models, techn...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative importance of online travel product selection attributes and examine the variations in their importance due to travel buying behaviour and demographic characteristics. The reliability and validity of the instrument were assessed prior to the study. The data were analysed using descriptive st...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of the TANGSERV (tangible quality) scale by examining the effect of tangible quality constructs on restaurant patrons' affect and behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach A model was proposed based on the literature of tangible quality in service, which posits that tangible...

The study examines brand images and perceptions of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Chicagoland (IL, IN), and Connecticut to reveal their perceived strengths and weaknesses. The brand images are analyzed through a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. Significant differences between the four destinations are found, revealing strengths and...

Over the past few decades, studies on competitiveness have generally focused on examining the exportation success of goods-producing or manufacturing firms rather than the service industry, including tourism. This study develops a practical method for measuring the direct competitive position of one country compared to other similar countries in th...

The purpose of this research is to examine the relative positioning of ten Middle Eastern destinations using six competitiveness indices developed by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). A multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis is utilized to generate a positioning map based on the analysis of both attributes and objects in a joint space. The...

Lack of research regarding destination brand measurement indicates that conceptualizing how tourists evaluate a destination brand is complex. This study examined empirical information to develop a destination brand model by employing customer-based brand equity models through a scale purification process, ensuring its reliability and validity. The...

The Internet has been increasingly viewed by consumers as the preferred channel to search and purchase travel products. The purpose of this study was to identify and examine the antecedents of consumer loyalty toward online travel intermediaries. An integrative model of consumer e‐loyalty was developed, positing that perceived value, perceived qual...

Destination performance, visitor satisfaction, and favorable future behavior of visitors are key determinants of destination competitiveness. Most empirical work, assuming that overall tourist population is homogenous, investigates the relationships among product performance, satisfaction, and/or behavioral intentions in an aggregated manner. This...

Unethical behavior is a significant problem for all members of society. One of the ways workers learn acceptable ethical behavior is by observing successful members of the organization. This paper examines the actions of management and the subsequent affect on the ethical optimism of workers in the restaurant industry. Ethical optimism refers to th...

The physical features of a service business—its “servicescape”—play a significant role in both a consumer's choice and satisfaction. Most hotels use physical features like meeting space, guest rooms, and public areas to market their properties to meeting planners. The study examines how hotel safety and security attributes influence the site-inspec...

The purpose of this research was to develop a path analytical model to test multiple direct and indirect relationships involving tourists' perception of host image, destination personality, and behavioral intentions. Specifically, the study tested hypotheses that host image has a positive impact on destination personality that in return will have a...

Since the emergence of hotel online booking there has been a rapid evolution in the domain available to electronic channels. This study examines industry's perceptions of distribution channels' current status of profitability and short-term survivability. The perceptual map indicates that three distribution channels-direct calls to the hotel, centr...

Research on the visiting friends and relatives market, which has increased over the last decade, has focused on the demand side (tourists), ignoring the supply side (hosts). This study fills an apparent gap in the literature by analyzing local residents’ characteristics and behaviors. A taxonomy of hosts was developed to better understand their rol...

The introduction of self-service technology (SST) into the service sector, specifically the restaurant industry, has significant impact upon customers, employees, and management. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify perceptual/cognitive dimensions of SST. Analysis revealed three dimensions which explained 71% of the variance; usefulness...

Today's hotel salesperson has many technological tools. They are intended to make his/her job easier and more effective with customer relationships and produce better results. This study compares members of a professional organization with a major company's sales force on where they stand relative to technology. It also compares where they place th...

Internet with current and emerging multimedia features provides ample opportunities and particularly useful for dealing with intangible nature of the service, and transforming marketing mix variables to capitalize on the informational and transactional potential of the Internet, and to gain a competitive advantage. This study utilizes content analy...

The introduction of self-service technology (SST) into the casual dining segment is looming upon the horizon. This paper examines the involvement of customers in the service process, SSTs in the retail industry, and finally SSTs in the casual dining segment and the response of customers to an alpha SST location in the casual dining segment. The fin...

Association meeting planners get actively involved in site selection process and influence association decision-makers in terms of determining the consideration set of convention sites as well as the selection of final site(s). This study assesses and compares association meeting planners' structured (cognitive, affective, and global impression) an...

This study investigates relative images and positions of select US convention cities as perceived by association meeting planners. Based on a cognitive-affective framework, it utilizes a perceptual mapping technique and controls direct experiences of the meeting planners with the convention cities. Data were collected from randomly selected members...

This study utilizes a linkage model to examine the relationship between employee turnover rate and perceived restaurant performance over a 10-month period for three different types of restaurants in three regional locations. The nature and strength of relationships showed variations due to restaurant type (steakhouse, coffee shop, and buffet), regi...

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of commitment to hotel casinos targeting local customers. To accomplish this goal, a model of loyalty was developed and tested to understand the behavioral outcomes (benefits) of building relationships with lo- cal customers and what elements contribute to these behavioral outcomes. The results o...

The meeting planner of a particular association is often instrumental in influencing what city will best accommodate the needs of the organization. This study examined how Las Vegas as a convention city meets preferences of association meeting planners by applying Importance-Performance analysis (IPA). Qualitative (open-ended) evaluations were also...

In the context of social exchange theory, this study examines nonhost community residents’ perceptions of the spillover effects of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the antecedents of these perceived impacts, and consequent support for the Olympics. Results show that although some residents perceive that the Olympics will bring opportunities, most do...

Marketers who are interested in determining whether their frequent guests are truly loyal must assess both their guests' attitudes and their actions.

The purpose of this study is to report the pre-test results of a questionnaire designed to examine association meeting planners' site selection criteria and performance of five major convention cities. Pre-testing is necessary to ensure face (content) validity of the instrument by assessing the meaning of questions (ambiguity and bias), continuity...

Senior travelers (those 55 or older) are a substantial and accessible market for motorcoach operators because they represent a major portion of the motorcoach market. This study examined Pennsylvania senior travelers’ motorcoach use and their important considerations in selecting a motorcoach tour. It was found that senior travelers’ taking motorco...

Familiarity in this study is operationalized and measured as a composite of amount of information used (informational familiarity) and previous destination experience (experiential familiarity). A familiarity index was developed based on these two dimensions. The perceptual/cognitive, affective and overall image of Turkey showed variations due to U...

This study emphasized the importance of travel intermediaries’ images for international travel destinations, and examined structured (scale items) and unstructured (open-ended) images of selected Mediterranean destinations (Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy) as perceived by US-based travel intermediaries. The results found significant differences in...

Conceptualization and measurement of loyalty based on behavioral and attitudinal dimensions have resulted in a loyalty typology including four levels: high, latent, spurious, and low. This study investigates the usefulness of this typology for international tourist destination behavior with respect to behavioral (actual visit and intentional loyalt...

This study develops and tests a model to examine the organization of informational, motivational, and mental constructs on visitation intention in a path analytic framework. The findings indicated that variety (amount) and type of information sources used and socio-psychological travel motivations determine travelers' perceptual/cognitive evaluatio...

This study compares U.S. international pleasure travelers’ images of four Mediterranean destinations—Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy—for both visitors and nonvisitors. The image construct was conceptualized as having three components: cognitive, affective, and overall image. MANOVA analysis indicated that significant differences exist in all image...

Image has been shown to be an important influence in the selection of vacation destinations. A model that represents the important determinants of destination image formation was developed based on previous studies in a number of fields. The research reported in this article presents the results of an empirical test of the model using path analysis...

An examination of past research efforts provides an understanding of research direction and boundaries of a field or discipline. This study reports the findings of content analysis performed on 1,073 main articles published in five primary hospitality management journals for a 7-year period (1990-1996) based on both subject areas focused and resear...

This study empirically investigates attitude structure, the relationship between cognition, affect, and behavioral intention, for three Mediterranean destinations. Specifically, the study compares a traditional and extended model of attitude structures between visitor and nonvisitor segments. The findings suggest that some relationships hypothesize...

The main objective of this study is to examine visitor characteristics and travel behavior of European and Turkish travelers visiting North Cyprus. In order to develop an effective marketing strategy, tourism destinations should be aware of the needs, wants, and preferred activities of their target market(s). The analysis of the study data revealed...

Segmenting techniques used in the lodging industry typically assume that individuals fall into mutually exclusive groups, that is, they are assigned to one type of lodging concept by the segmenting method used. In reality, however, travelers often use several types of lodging alternatives. This study utilized a canonical correlation approach to seg...

This study attempts to delineate destination image variations of the USA, based on sociodemographic and trip characteristics of West German travellers. Using factor analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure, this study determines six image factors and finds that the image of the US is significantly influenced by some demographic and trip...

The destination image and positioning studies in tourism have been limited to those dealing with the image's perceptual or cognitive component. This study examined the applicability of Russel and his colleagues' proposed affective space structure to large-scale environments (i.e., tourism destination countries) as well as its potential as a positio...

The destination image and positioning studies in tourism have been limited to those dealing with the image's perceptual or cognitive component. This study examined the applicability of Russel and his colleagues' proposed affective space structure to large-scale environments (i. e., tourism destination countries) as well as its potential as a positi...