Article

An investigation into the segmentation of Japanese traditional ‘Ryokan’ hotels using selection attributes

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Abstract

Characterized as involving ‘Japanese traditionalism elements’, Ryokan-style accommodation includes full food and beverage service, futons and spas (hot springs), and emphasizes local traditional food. Although these Japanese traditional hotels are famous for their excellent service, traditions, and are a unique accommodation experience for overseas visitors, research into the Ryokan market segment remains limited. The aim of the current study is to provide a better understanding of the decision-making of that market segment of travelers from Korea that use Ryokan-style hotels. The data were collected (N = 328) from Korean visitors to Japan during February and March of 2015. Segmentation of tourists by selection attributes resulted in three clusters: ‘personal service seekers’ (36.9%), ‘physical environment seekers’ (21.1%), and ‘spa & gourmet, systematic service and reputation seekers’ (42.0%). There were statistically significant differences between the three clusters with respect to the characteristics of Korean tourists. The implications of this study are discussed relative to possible future Ryokan marketing strategies and to future research on this accommodation type.

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... This situation is similar to the health crisis of the nuclear leak in March 2011. Moreover, ryokans have received more and more attention from tourists, and more and more support from the Japanese government [3,4]. accommodation survey and comprehensive-assessment-system-for-built-environmentefficiency (CASBEE)-based importance-performance analysis (IPA) (study 2) (Figure 1). ...
... Moreover, some previous papers have also studied the sustainable and green hotel evaluation model [32,35,36]. There were some different definitions of ryokans (there is currently no precise definition) in the previous studies [4,[37][38][39]. A guesthouse is an inexpensive type of accommodation for those staying in Japan for one month or longer who want to avoid the hassle and the expense of renting and furnishing a conventional apartment. ...
... Ullah et al. [71] used some selected factors (specifically hotel rating, rental price, location, and quality of services) to study an evaluation model with online hotel booking for customer satisfaction. Some previous studies analyzed the effect of service quality on customer behavioral intentions and customer satisfaction at hotels and ryokans [4,14,37]. However, overall, there have been few evaluation studies on ryokans. ...
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... Travel for health reasons is one of the fastest growing forms of international and domestic tourism, and this growth is predicted to continue [2,[4][5][6][7]. Global aging is thought to be one of the rationales behind this pattern [8,9]. In the South Korean context, the Government wishes to foster the expansion of this new tourism sector to provide services and products for the pursuit of the health and wellness experience [10,11]. ...
... It appears that as far back as before Roman times, people traveled for 'the cure' to hot springs [9,15], as did the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese [15] in East Asia. In Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries, unsanitary living conditions motivated tours by the rich to upscale treatment spas and mineral springs [57]. ...
... Moreover, the effectiveness of health tourism has been mainly described in economic terms (employment, economy, living conditions), socio-cultural impacts (cultural heritage, populations, community), and environmental impacts (vegetation and wildlife, land use) [31]. The effectiveness of specific health tourism activities such as yoga, sports and fitness, beauty treatment, and so on, have been examined, but there is a lack of analysis of general health factors that could be obtained through a variety of experiential activities in the travel realm [9]. Moreover, there has been little effort to date to classify the travel health effect in the overall area of human health, which is not helpful in guiding health and wellness tourism product development. ...
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... In addition, the hotel appeared the most frequently, appearing 417 times in 604 comments. Regarding the decoration style of the hotel, there are adjectives Japanese (51), pastoral (33), idyllic (18), rustic (9), modern simple (36), and the noun style (105), which confirms the customer's attention and inclination to the decoration style.  Cognitive subjective evaluation analysis Through the cluster analysis of the co-occurrence network of the high-frequency words, modular processing is selected, and a total of fourteen groups of relational networks are obtained ( Figure 3). ...
... By combing the results of online texts and analyzing the evaluation dimensions of existing research [36], the questionnaire has 8 dimensions, 29 attributes, and 52 questions. The research mainly adopts Choi, K.'s indoor environmental quality (IEQ) evaluation system to establish the subjective evaluation dimension. ...
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The purpose of this study is to explore the occupants’ subjective evaluation of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of hotels with the same physical environment and different decoration styles, and to reveal the influence of different decoration styles on the subjective evaluation of the indoor environmental quality. The study found a hotel with three mainstream styles of modern simple style, British pastoral style, and modern Japanese style, and adopted standard rooms with the same area, pattern, lighting, orientation, and decoration cost. The only variable controlled was the decoration style, and the subjective feelings of customers on the physical environment were investigated. Based on the literature and 604 online comments, the researchers designed a questionnaire and collected 710 effective questionnaires for empirical analysis. The analysis results of KH coder and SPSS software (Chicago, IL, USA) show that the light environment in the indoor environment (including indoor natural lighting, lighting and other influencing factors) and non-light visual factors (including indoor color matching, plant layout, closeness to nature, decoration texture, space materials, decoration atmosphere and other factors) has the greatest impact on the subjective evaluation of decoration style, especially on the subjective evaluation of modern simple indoor environment. Light environment, air quality and non-light visual factors play a key role in the subjective evaluation of the indoor environment of the British pastoral-style hotels. The light environment, thermal environment and non-light visual factors are the most sensitive to the subjective evaluation of the indoor environment of modern Japanese-style hotels. Thermal environment, light environment, acoustic environment, air quality environment and non-light visual factors have the greatest impact on the subjective evaluation of the hotel indoor environment. Based on the findings, this study puts forward some suggestions to improve the interior environment of the hotel with different decoration styles to improve the quality and attractiveness of the hotel.
... They examined the effect of being a ryokan and the proximity of accommodation facilities to each other on price. Choi et al. (2018) use factor analysis and cluster analysis to categorize the attributes of Korean tourists who used ryokan in Japan and their decisions about staying in ryokan [26]. Shapoval et al. (2018) found that Japanese food and shopping influence the intention of inbound tourists to visit Japan, although the survey was not specifically designed for hot spring tourists [9]. ...
... They examined the effect of being a ryokan and the proximity of accommodation facilities to each other on price. Choi et al. (2018) use factor analysis and cluster analysis to categorize the attributes of Korean tourists who used ryokan in Japan and their decisions about staying in ryokan [26]. Shapoval et al. (2018) found that Japanese food and shopping influence the intention of inbound tourists to visit Japan, although the survey was not specifically designed for hot spring tourists [9]. ...
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... Caratteristiche dell'Albergo Diffuso e profilo degli utenti | L'Albergo Diffuso rappresenta un modello di ospitalità italiano che compare nel 1982 in Friuli con l'intenzione di utilizzare edifici e borghi ristrutturati a seguito del terremoto. Prime sperimentazioni prive di caratteri innovativi che nel tempo si sono evolute a seguito dell'attività di ricerca e codifica di un concept originale da parte di Giancarlo Dall'Ara (Dall'Ara and Esposto, 2005), mirato a rappresentare la storia e le radici culturali dell'ospitalità italiana, prendendo spunti da sperimentazioni internazionali quali le Pousadas portoghesi e i Cluster Inn americani, ma soprattutto dal modello dei Ryokan in Giappone (Choi, Meng and Lee, 2017), tutti diversi l'uno dall'altro ma tutti riconducibili all'essere modelli originali, sia dal punto di vista architettonico/strutturale che come idea, fortemen-te radicati nella cultura e nella storia dell'accoglienza locale. ...
... These were early experimentations, lacking an innovative character, that evolved following the research and definition of an original concept by Giancarlo Dall'Ara (Dall'Ara and Esposto, 2005). This concept aimed at representing the history and the cultural roots of Italian hospitality, draw- ing inspiration from international experiments such as the Portuguese Pousadas, American Cluster Inns, and most of all the Ryokan model in Japan (Choi, Meng and Lee, 2017). These are different models, but they are all original, both from the architectural and structural point of view and as ideas strongly rooted in the culture and history of local hospitality. ...
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... There are a number of studies that have looked at the accommodation sector's marketing activities and strategies in various countries, including their use of visual media such as photographs (Liu, Wang, Shao, & Li, 2018). However, considering its significant position and contribution in terms of the cultural, religious, historical, and traditional perspectives of Japan, the Japanese-style inn (Ryokan) has been overlooked by most researchers (Choi, Meng, & Lee, 2018;Lee, 2017). Given the spectacular increase in inbound tourism to Japan, it is timely and important to examine this relatively unknown topic in the global accommodation industry even though most of the guests of Japanese-style inns are still domestic tourists. ...
... They are distinguished by management style, level of services, facilities and price. Generally, a minshuku is a familyrun accommodation facility and its price is cheaper than that of a ryokan (Choi et al., 2018; 3 This paper examines the impact of the photographs used in on-line tourism marketing through a case study of the approach of Japanese-style inns (Sarkar & George, 2018). In other words, it investigates how photographs provided by Japanese-style inns themselves or their guests influence prospective clients decision-making processes and/or expectations, by using the netnography of e-word of mouth (eWOM) (Mkono & Markwell, 2014). ...
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This paper examines the impact of the use of photographs in on-line marketing for tourism through a case study based in Japanese-style inns. Nowadays, most Japanese-style inns present photographs of what they think are their key appealing elements on their own social networking and/or video/photo-sharing websites, while guests upload their photographs and write comments on travel or social networking websites and/or on the websites of e-travel agents. Through the medium of 'netnography' this research has identified that the photographs presented on-line by Japanese-style inns can affect guests' decision-making processes and/or expectations in both a positive and negative way, and eWOM can work together with the photographs to influence prospective guests.
... Experiencing hot springs for healing purposes has a long history in many countries, including Korea, China, and Japan (Choi et al., 2018;Erfurt-Cooper & Cooper, 2009). Hot spring refers to a spring with water at a temperature substantially higher than the air temperature of the surrounding region (Mahajan & Balachandran, 2017). ...
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... The clustering approach is a powerful method for performing market segmentation because it can effectively categorize the market and analyze both numerical and categorical data [3]. There have been numerous clustering methods proposed for custom segmentation, each with its pros and cons in various fields, such as travel and tourist [4][5][6], banking and finance [7,8], retail market, freight market, food industry, clothing, and fashion [9][10][11]. The most common clustering methods for custom segmentation are k-means [12,13], fuzzy c-means (FCM) [14], self-organizing maps [15], and so on. ...
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... Except for the therapeutic functions of thermal water, consumer-based research that aims to help industry practitioners better understand the potential target market has gradually attracted scholars' attention. These studies have been mainly focused on hot spring tourists' characteristics [49,50], preferences [51,52], and motivations [53], as well as consumers' evaluation of the experiences [54], environment, and the services offered [50]. For instance, according to Kucukusta's research on spa customers [55], the results reflect the trend of youthfulness that those spa-goers are mainly looking for in their escape from obligations, their search for relaxation, and the release of their working stress. ...
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... Although some large-scale ryokan exist, most are small, comprising less than 20 rooms (Japan Travel Bureau Foundation, 2020). Due to such features, which provide a unique travel experience, many international tourists seeking authentic Japanese accommodation services and cultural experiences stay at ryokan (Choi et al., 2018;JTA, 2019), which are a major type of accommodation in many regional destinations in Japan, particularly at onsen destinations (Yagasaki, 2019). In fact, among the 282 commercial accommodations in Beppu, 218 (77%) are ryokan (Beppu City, 2019); therefore, Beppu offers a good case for exploring risk communication among employees at ryokan in regional destinations. ...
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textlessptextgreaterThe attainment of quality in products and services has become a pivotal concern of the 1980s. While quality in tangible goods has been described and measured by marketers, quality in services is largely undefined and unresearched. The authors attempt to rectify this situation by reporting the insights obtained in an extensive exploratory investigation of quality in four service businesses and by developing a model of service quality. Propositions and recommendations to stimulate future research about service quality are offered.
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Posits that, in recent years, a major food consumption trend in the USA and Canada is that more people are eating more meals outside their homes. It is predicted that this trend will accelerate in the future. As a result, fast-food markets will offer greater growth opportunities for marketers. Presents consumers’ perceptions of and preferences for fast-food restaurants in the USA and Canada. The results of this study may have very important implications for developing successful marketing strategies for fast-food restaurants. Findings of the study offer need-oriented marketing strategies for both franchisers and franchisees in the US and Canadian fast-food sectors to enable them to be more competitive in this fast-changing business environment.
Article
This book offers the first comprehensive discussion of tourism in this part of the world. It begins with an overview of the industry and the role of the Caribbean Tourism Organization. It goes on to look at aspects of tourism marketing and management on a region-by-region basis, covering the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Cuba. Detailed analysis follows of sectors within industry, such as heritage and health care, with central issues such as the intense competition between the cruise ship and hotel industries highlighted. Discussion of the impact of US and EC policies on Caribbean tourism provides an important international perspective. Throughout, the focus is on the contribution of the regional tourism industry to Caribbean economic growth and development. The final section assesses the future of Caribbean tourism, and provides recommendations for Caribbean tourism marketing and management strategy. -from Publisher
Article
Purpose – This paper aims to segment spa customers based on their preferences for a set of spa attributes. With the considerable growth rate of the spa market, it is vital for spa professionals to understand spa-goers’ preferences. However, academics and industry professionals have not devised a structured method by which to manage spa customers. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted using a face-to-face survey with visitors to Hong Kong who had visited a spa. By applying conjoint and cluster analysis, customers could be categorized into distinct segments. Findings – Four customer segments were identified: spa enthusiasts, high spenders, value seekers and price-sensitive spa-goers. Spa enthusiasts were the largest segment among the four, followed by value seekers, price-sensitive spa-goers and high spenders. Research limitations/implications – Given the limited academic interest in the area, this study contributes to the literature by providing insights into spa-goers’ preferences and how those preferences can be used to segment spa-goers. Practical implications – Based on the different needs, preferences and socio-demographic characteristics of the four segments – spa enthusiasts, high spenders, value seekers and price-sensitive spa-goers – spa industry managers could customize their strategies and design different spa services and packages to meet the needs of the four segments. Originality/value – The combined use of conjoint and cluster analysis provides a new method of market segmentation in the spa industry. This study could help spa professionals to design customized spa products for the distinct segments, and thus retain and attract more spa visitors.
Article
The purpose of this paper is to present a market segmentation strategy based on messages that produce changes in the consumer's purchase intentions. The Danes and Hunter [9] transfer discrepancy model, an information integration model, is used to identify persuasive advertising messages and the market segments which are most persuaded by a given message. The model is applied to data concerning attributes most frequently mentioned in connection with purchasing an automobile. Suggestions are given for ways to improve the applicability of the model in future studies.
Article
This paper reports the existence of asymmetries in the preference formation of potential guests with regards their perception of hotel attributes. In the same way, using choice experimentation, we can confirm that similar asymmetries exist in their willingness to pay measures based on the valuation of losses or gains. The specification of a reference dependent utility function allows the application of prospect theory to an analysis of choices made by consumers when they evaluate attributes that define hotel service quality. The results show the existence of significant discrepancies between the monetary compensation a customer would accept if a reduction in hotel quality was produced and the amount he/she would be willing to pay if the service quality were improved. The results imply important implications and recommendations for hotel managers and policy makers.
Article
Over the past decade, experiential marketing has been the focus of many hospitality and tourism studies. Yet the existing literature does not provide experimental evidence of the incremental effects of affective and sensory attributes on the choice of hospitality service and destinations. This study attempts to provide some such evidence by using discrete choice modeling to examine the differential effects of cognitive, affective, sensory attributes on hotel choice. Bayesian D-optimal design based on JMP 8.0 was used to create a discrete choice experiment. Consumer hotel choice was predicted using random parameter logit (RPL) models. These results demonstrate that when customers choose a hotel, they consider not only cognitive attributes (e.g., price, service and food quality, and national brand), but also affective (e.g., comfortable feeling and entertaining) and sensory (e.g., room quality, overall atmosphere) attributes. The results also demonstrate the incremental value of adding affective and sensory attributes to a choice model when compared to a model using only traditional cognitive attributes. The data suggest that hotel managers can effectively differentiate their properties by incorporating affective and sensory attributes in their promotions. Moreover, the findings provide hotel managers with important insights into new product development and marketing communications strategy.
Article
Concerning the critical role of customer satisfaction in the success of hospitality enterprises, researchers have long been investigating customers' quality perceptions about hotel attributes and their influence on overall customer satisfaction. However, for any quality improvement efforts, the limited company resources have to be allocated according to the priority of attributes. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and Asymmetric Impact-Performance Analysis (AIPA) are the quantitative techniques used by academics for this purpose. In this study, IPA and AIPA are compared to each other in terms of their abilities for predicting the prior hotel attributes of improvement for achieving higher customer satisfaction. Analyses results of IPA and AIPA offer different managerial implications, although the same data were used. Results presented in the paper suggest that AIPA is a more efficient analysis technique than IPA, by the reasons summarised in discussion section.
Article
Because of its importance in the sustainable development of rural communities, rural tourism has been frequently studied as an alternative form of economic development in rural areas. In the United States, many rural communities rely on tourism for economic growth to compensate for declines in manufacturing, agriculture, extraction of natural resources, and population. Although there is an increased interest in developing rural tourism in many countries, there is little information regarding the motivations of rural tourists in the United States. Therefore, this study aims to understand travel motivations and characteristics of tourists visiting a rural destination to provide a better understanding of rural tourism in the United States. Our study site, Potter County, Pennsylvania, represents a typical American rural area with a population of 18,080, which is currently struggling to pursue economic revitalization by attracting tourists. The findings of this study indicated that visitors to Potter County do not fit a homogenous rural tourist profile due to their broad travel preferences. The findings also suggest that “tourism in rural areas” may be a better descriptor than “rural tourism” in the context of Potter County, Pennsylvania.
Article
Culture has been widely proposed by marketing theorists as one of the underlying determinants of consumer behavior. Empirical inquiries in the field of tourism remain scarce, particularly in the understanding of its behavioral influences. The study reported in this article aims to fill the gap by investigating the effect of cultural values on travel motivation and behavioral intention. The analysis of survey data from outbound Chinese tourists reveals that both internal and external values exert a significantly positive effect on travel motivation. Behavioral intention is affected only by internal values. The novelty dimension of travel motivation directly affects behavioral intention. The findings are examined in the context of the rising significance and uniqueness of Chinese outbound tourism. Pragmatic and theoretical implications are discussed.
Article
This article reports an empirical test of the relationship between sociodemographic variables, benefits sought and subsequent vacation behavior. Thedatawereobtainedusing a questionnaire administered to consumers who requested the 1984 North Carolina Travel Information Packet. The results of the study supported two notions: that a relationship does exist between some sociodemographic variables and the benefits vacation travelers seek and that the benefits sought are in turn related to certain travel behaviors. The findings can be used in developing various segmentation strategies.
Article
The purpose of this study was to determine which hotel characteristics differentiate between mid-priced and luxury properties from the viewpoint of the business traveler. This study is unique in that it uses a longitudinal sample of 1044 business travelers compiled from three independent annual surveys that used the same questions. Budget properties were not included because the sample was primarily composed of respondents who frequented mid-priced and luxury properties. To develop the dependent variables, respondents were assigned to either a group representing business travelers who frequented midpriced properties or a group representing business travelers who frequented luxury properties. The study's independent variables were 56 hotel characteristics. These included a variety of amenities, from personal-use items, to facilities and services, as well as other more subjective hotel characteristics, such as cleanliness, recommendations, and security. A discriminant analysis was performed to determine how these business lodging patrons discriminated between mid-priced and luxury properties based on the hotel characteristics they considered important in their hotel selection process. The findings indicated that low price, family restaurant, and pre-arranged check-in discriminated mid-priced properties from luxury properties. Bellman service, concierge service, gourmet restaurant, bathrobe, and hair dryer discriminated luxury hotel properties from mid-priced properties.
Article
The balanced scorecard approach is an effective technique for performance evaluation. For more accurately reflecting the dependence and feedback problems of each factor in real world situations, here a new model is developed using a balanced scorecard approach for evaluating the performance of hot spring hotel. A DANP hybrid MCDM model is adopted to solve the dependence and feedback problems, while establishing a performance evaluation and relationship model. An empirical case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid MCDM model. Based on this study, the perspective between ‘learning and growth’, ‘enterprise's internal processes’, and ‘customer’, all aim for solid financial performance as the ultimate goal, and report a positive influence. This effective performance evaluation model developed by applying the hybrid MCDM enables business managers to understand the appropriate actions and achieve a competitive advantage.
Article
This research studied the differences between what consumers say they want and what they will actually buy. A segmentation study was conducted based on the benefits derived from travel using a sampling methodology that was not destination-specific. The sampling methodology employed also allows for the findings to be generalizable to the U.S. traveling public. Four market segments are identified — three that are big enough to war rant different marketing strategies — and discussed in detail. Where appropriate, they are compared to the segments identified by previous researchers.
Article
A sample of the business travel market is analyzed to determine whether the importance placed on particular hotel product attributes varies by travel situation. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to see whether certain attributes are able to correctly discriminate among five travel situations.
Article
This study examined the feasibility of segmenting a nonresident tourist market on the basis of vacation benefits sought. Six distinct benefit-based market segments were found using factor and cluster analysis procedures. The resulting segments were compared on the basis of specific dependent variables organized under the following framework: travel party leader characteristics, travel party composition, trip planning and trip characteris tics, and post-trip evaluation. Finally, marketing strategy implications were addressed. The following evaluation criteria were used in target market selection: profitability, accessibility, and reachability. Benefit-based market segmentation studies were found to be a viable means of determining vacation market segments. The importance of the develop ment of objective and quantifiable means of evaluating market segments is stressed.
Article
Data from a visitor survey on the Danish Island of Bornholm were analyzed using multivariate techniques. Factor analysis of visitors’ preferences and behavior patterns indicated three main goals: relaxation, nature, and local culture. Two distinct clusters, “active” and “inactive” vacationers, were derived from the data. Actives tended to be Germans, to plan their vacation carefully to exercise autonomy in their booking of transport and accommodation, and to value the provision of amenities on the island. Inactives were mostly Scandinavians, and though they made fewer plans, they were more likely to visit the island’s most popular attractions. On the basis of logistic regression analysis, it is suggested that the most important differentiating factors between clusters were (1) the importance accorded to amenity provision, (2) nationality, (3) age, (4) activity participation, (5) planning behavior, (6) attraction visiting behavior, (7) autonomy, and (8) gender.
Article
The two aspects of discriminant analysis are briefly reviewed: predictive discriminant analysis (PDA) and descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA). Use of three popular statistical packages (BMDP, SAS, and SPSS) to obtain computational results for a PDA and for a DDA is generally reviewed. Results yielded by two BMDP procedures (7M and SM) are discussed, as are four SAS procedures (DISCRIM, STEPDISC, CANDISC, and GLM), and two SPSS procedures (DISCRIMINANT and MANOVA). It is pointed out which procedures are used to obtain PDAresults and which are used for PDAresults. Examples of printout information are given. Some of these examples pertain to misleading information-one to incorrect information, and some, of course, to very useful information. The need for nonpackage analyses to generate specific PDA and DDA information is also mentioned.
Article
Days Inns has used consumer research to build a profile of its “typical customer.” With this information in hand, the company can measure how well its properties are meeting customer expectations
Article
When asked how his firm derived guest profiles, the senior vice president of marketing for one national hotel chain replied, "We ask the desk clerks." The need for more sophisticated marketing research in the hospitality industry is clear. But, with the exception of firms gathering their information only from desk clerks, most companies can get better management information even from their existing research data. This article launches a six-part series on marketing research, focusing on ways to analyze data for better marketing decisions
Article
Tourism as a rural growth tool has to adapt to current market mechanisms, which are becoming extremely competitive and which are dominated by communication and promotion strategies and techniques. We need to know the causative factors and influences by which tourists in rural areas are motivated to become included in various market segments. The primary purpose of this study is to segment and profile the motivations of tourists, so as to enable a better understanding of rural tourism in Korea. A self-administered survey in four languages was collected from 252 tourists in the study area. A factor-clustering method identified four distinct segments: family togetherness seeker, passive tourist, want-it-all seeker, and learning and excitement seeker.
Article
Many previous research studies have offered alternative approaches to segmenting travel markets, but few have provided any decision rules for selecting target markets. This study used factor-cluster analysis to define three benefit-based segments of the Japanese outbound travel market (novelty/nature seekers, escape/relaxation seekers, and family/outdoor activity seekers). The demographic and trip-related characteristics of these markets were compared. Four criteria were then used (profitability, risk, risk-adjusted profitability index, and relative segment size) to reach a decision on the choice of the optimum target market.
Article
This study highlights some empirical considerations when using service quality as a basis for market segmentation. Past studies have been undertaken using customers’ expectations and service quality attribute importance for deriving segments and then comparing different segments across various behavioural and demographic variables. However, recent literature tends to discredit the incorporation of expectations and attribute importance in measuring service quality. Through an empirical study employing a factor-cluster analytic technique, the findings suggest that an alternative perception-based approach is more empirically sound and easy to be put into practice by both academics and practitioners.
Article
Despite the well-documented benefits which segmentation offers, businesses continue to encounter implementation difficulties. This raises concerns about the cause of these problems and how they might be overcome. These concerns are addressed in this paper in the form of three questions: Is segmentation a good idea? If segmentation is such a good idea, why does it sometimes fail? What can be done to reduce the chance of failure? A mix of published evidence and case examples is used to explore these questions. The paper concludes by suggesting that if marketers are to overcome their segmentation implementation difficulties, they need practical guidance at three stages in the segmentation process. Before the project begins they must understand the role of success factors contributing to a successful result. During the segmentation project the qualities of the emerging segments must be clarified. After segmentation is complete the question of segment attractiveness must be considered. There is currently a gulf between the priorities of academics and practitioners carrying out segmentation. If this is to be bridged, further research is needed to provide guidance on segmentation success factors.
Article
Explores development in market segmentation relating to hospitality and tourism research published between 1990 and 1998. The literature is divided into three sections: segmenting a market; market targeting and marketing positioning. Identifies new areas for research, deeper examination of segments, identification of difference between markets, and more segments.
Article
This study analyzes the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions at hotels and ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). In this empirical research, questionnaires were sent to guests at seven sites: three hotels and four ryokan. Service quality, as perceived by guests, affected customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intention. Results from this empirical study show strong evidence of service quality as perceived by guests being influenced by the type of accommodation. Also, among service quality factors, "physical aspect" had the most powerful impact on customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intention. "Creativeness" ranked second, followed by "unexpected service" and "encounter performance". The prominence of physical aspects probably reflects the distinctiveness of the service of offering a one-night stay. However, as a certain level of physical facilities is taken for granted at lodging facilities above a certain price, "creativeness", the second most powerful factor, becomes decisively important.
Book
The changing patterns of Japanese tourism and the views of the Japanese tourist since the Meiji Restoration, in 1868, are given an in-depth historical, geographical, economic and social analysis in this book. As well as providing a case study for the purpose of investigating the changing face of global tourism from the 19th to the 21st Century, this account of Japanese tourism explores both domestic social relations and international geographical, political and economic relations, especially in the northeast Asian context. Socio-cultural and geographical analysis form the research framework for the book, in three ways: first, there is an emphasis on scale as tourism phenomena and their implications are discussed both in a global context and at the national, regional and local levels; second, the discussion is informed by primary data sources such as censuses and surveys; and third, the incorporation of fieldwork and case studies adds concreteness to the overall picture of Japanese tourism. This book is a significant addition to an area of study currently under-represented in the literature.
Article
The purpose of the paper is to segment Finnish ski resort visitors according to ski destination choice attributes using data-driven segmentation. In addition, segments are compared in order to ascertain possible differences in personal (gender and age) and situation-specific (type of visitor and traveling companion) characteristics between customer segments. The data were collected from visitors to five different ski resorts in Lapland Finland during the years 2006 and 2007 by self-administered questionnaire. Altogether 1827 responses were collected of which 1529 were acceptable for use in this study. Six different customer segments were identified using the factor-cluster method: passive tourists, cross-country skiers, want-it-all, all-but-downhill skiing, sports seekers, and relaxation seekers. At the end of the paper conclusions are drawn and managerial implications discussed.
Article
Using an Importance}Performance Analysis (IPA), this paper examined business and leisure travellers' perceived importance and performance of six hotel selection factors in the Hong Kong hotel industry. The six hotel selection factors identi"ed were: Service Quality, Business Facilities, Value, Room and Front Desk, Food and Recreation, and Security. Both business and leisure travellers held the same perceptions towards all the six hotel selection factors. The IPA grids illustrated that the Value factor fell into the Concentrate Here quadrant; Service Quality, Room and Front Desk and Security in the Keep Up the Good Work quadrant; and Business Facilities and Food and Recreation in the Low Priority quadrant. Room and Front Desk and Security were found to be the determining factors for business and leisure travellers, respectively, in their hotel choice selection. Implications for Hong Kong hoteliers and researchers were discussed.
Article
The management of buyers’ perceptions of waiting time by service businesses may be critical to customer satisfaction. Although reducing actual waiting time is important, what managers view as a short time to wait may feel too long to customers. Relevant literature from architecture, environmental psychology, psychology, physiology, operations management, sociology, and marketing is integrated to build a conceptual model of how the service environment may influence affect and, in turn, waiting time perception. Based on this model, propositions about how specific service environment elements (e.g., lighting, color, temperature) may influence affect and time perception are presented. Finally, a research agenda and implications for service facility design are proposed.