Asean Journal on Hospitality and Tourism

Volume 7 , Number 1

 Ainin Sulaeman

Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University Malaya, Malaysia

 Ghazali Musa

Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University Malaya, Malaysia

 Norzalita Abd Aziz

Faculty of Economic and Business, University Kebangsaan Malaysia

There is growing reliance on the websites for promotion of tourism and travel related product/services. Thus, identification of travel web site effectiveness attributes based on potential travellers/ internet users’ expectation is necessary. This paper explores the web travel effectiveness attributes and their relationships with the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of Malaysian travellers. Here an attempt is made in the context of explaining internet users’ beliefs using Technology Acceptance Model with data collected from 679 internet users/travellers. Factor analysis results indicate three dimensions of travel web effectiveness were derived, namely: i) technical adequacy & customization, ii) system quality & specific content and iii) web appearance. In testing the model, multiple regression results show that the above dimensions have positive influence on individual extrinsic motivation (perceived usefulness). Meanwhile, web appearance and technical adequacy & customization have positive influence on intrinsic motivation (perceived ease of use and enjoyment) of travel websites.

Key words: Travel Website Effectiveness, extrinsic motivation & intrinsic motivation, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

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 Christopher Lim

Management Development Institute of Singapore

 Keith Ng

Graduate College of Management, Southern Cross University, Australia

Advances in the development of internet technologies have created new avenues for the hotel industry; however embracing internet technologies does not necessitate the success of any hoteliers. From a customer perspective, ability to access more information meant that service providers such as hoteliers need to meet increasing demands to fulfill expectations. It is imperative that the hotel industry must constantly adapt to environment changes such as meeting the demands of customers utilizing innovative technology. While most hoteliers would agree that using the Internet creates benefits for the customers, little is known about the mechanisms in generating customer satisfaction on the Internet. This study will explore the reasons that influenced Internet users’ satisfaction in the hotel industry and identify new directions of the Internet for the hotel industry.

Key words: Customer satisfaction, internet usage, hotel, Singapore

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 Amran Hamzah

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

 Hairul Nizam Ismail

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

This paper highlights aspects of urban tourism in developing countries and the nature of its existence. The discussion gives a focus to the context of urban tourism in Southeast Asia, specifically, perspectives on tourism development in the cities of Malaysia. Tourism development in the cities of Malaysia can be viewed in two stages, which are after independence (after 1957) and after tourism came of age (post 1990). Both of the stages influenced on how tourism has been perceived in Malaysian cities. The discussion concludes with the implications of tourism in Malaysia cities within the context of Southeast Asia as a means to provide insights into urban tourism in developing countries. Therefore, the question of how the concept of urban tourism applies to the cities of developing countries can be considered.

Key words: Urban tourism, developing countries, Malaysia, Southeast Asia.

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 Ahmad Azmi M. Ariffin

School of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

 Nor Khomar Ishak

Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia

This study attempted to determine the influence of consumption value on the novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. The theory of consumption value as proposed by Sheth et al. (1991) was employed as the internal motivating drive to explain the choice between conventional and novel meeting destinations. The consumption value theory by Sheth et al. (1991) was the best typology to be employed in this study because of its multidimensional properties composed of both objective value (functional) and perceptual values (epistemic, emotional, social and conditional) attributes. A total of 75 corporate meeting planners drawn from public listed services organizations were involved. The main method of data collection was questionnaire survey and multiple regression analysis was employed as the main statistical technique. The results revealed that functional value exerted a negative effect on novelty preference while epistemic value was positively related to novelty preference for corporate meetings.

Key words: Corporate meeting destination, novelty preference, consumption value

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 Chen Jian Hao

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University

 Joan C. Henderson

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University

 Lee Wei Lin

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University

 Yvonne Ng

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University

Crises in the tourism and hospitality industry are a topic of some concern in view of their increasing prevalence in the modern world. Planning for and handling such situations has thus become essential and this paper discusses issues of organisational crises and their management with specific reference to hotels in Singapore. Case studies of selected properties based on interviews with general managers are analysed and overall conclusions are presented about perceptions, origins and impacts of crises. Insights are also afforded into strategies for dealing with crises and the importance of planning and learning lessons from previous experiences are highlighted.

Key words: Crisis management, hotels, organisational crises, Singapore

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 M.S. Mohd Zahari

Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management , MARA University of Technology, Malaysia

 R.A Fraser

Commerce Division, Lincoln University

 S. Radzi

Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management , MARA University of Technology, Malaysia

 Z. Othman

Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, MARA University of Technology, Malaysia

One of the many challenges facing the Malaysian hospitality industry is the attraction and retention of young people in highly competitive employment market. Beside other issues, the low numbers and poor transfer rate of graduates into the industry were found to be the most critical problems in the country. One of the causes of poor transition of hospitality students into careers in the industry is that new student have an unrealistic image of working life in the industry. This might stem from a number of factors influencing students’ interest and attitudes towards hospitality careers. While a number of previous studies have focused on the students’ attitudes and perception of careers in the hospitality industry in general, none investigated pre-tertiary education influences on career attitudes. This study investigated the relationships between geographical location of upbringing, type of secondary schools attended and attitudes and motivation of Malaysian hospitality students towards hospitality career. A sample of students (year1, 2 and 3) of diploma Culinary Arts, Hotel Management and Food Service Management from Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, MARA University of Technology , Malaysia (Shah Alam, Dungun and Penang campuses) were used in this study. A total 469 useable questionnaire were collected comprises of 173 of year -one, 161 of year- two and 135 of year-three. Despite no sustained impact on the perceptions or expectations of hospitality students through the programme, there are some distinct differences at the start of their tertiary programme between students from different types of secondary schooling and areas of upbringing. Students from rural areas identify themselves of having unclear idea and less knowledgeable about the programme and industry at the time of making their career choice as compared to those from towns and cities. Similarly, students from normal secondary schools backgrounds also classify themselves as less informed, having more unrealistic perceptions and views about the industry than those from vocational schools. It is recommended that career guidance and orientation should be made more effective especially at the normal secondary schools to ensure students are informed realistically and sufficiently about careers and working conditions in the hospitality industry. Developing more realistic and lower expectations about working in the industry will allow young people to choose to study in a hospitality programme based on a considered career decision rather than by a chance matching of personal needs with what the industry has to offer. In addition, there is a need to educate parents, as well as young people, in the rural areas about these career options and vocational education should be more highly promoted to the rural youth.

Key words: Hospitality industry careers, students, attitudes and perception

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 Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah

Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Some environmentalists argue that the process of globalisation which has resulted in trade liberalisation, accelerates economic growth and development, and that this promotes polluting activities and speeds the depletion of nonrenewable resources (A. Y Seita, 1999). Since Malaysia is one of the signatories of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) which provides equal investment opportunities to foreign investors as domestic service providers including ecotourism, this article explores the legal issues that arise in the globalization of ecotourism.

Key words: Globalisation, legal issues, ecotourism

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 Abel D. Alonso

Hospitality Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

 David A. Cohen

Commerce Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

 Rick A. Fraser

Commerce Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

Recent published information suggests that New Zealand’s wine industry continues to grow rapidly. An activity related to the wine industry, wine tourism, is developing in wineries that provide cellar door sales, tasting rooms, restaurants, tours to their vineyards, and even accommodation. These developments demonstrate the potential of wine tourism as an alternative activity for travellers to rural areas, and as a business concept for wineries. However, still today research on wine tourism in New Zealand has been limited, including the way in which winery visitors are presented in the wine tourism literature. This paper reports the results of an exploratory study that investigated potential relationships between different winery visitor groups in New Zealand, including their commercial contribution in the form of winery expenditures. The results confirm significant differences among various visitor groups when comparing their age, income, or whether they are domestic or international. These findings could have significant implications for the wine and wine tourism industries.

Key words: Wine tourism, winery visitors, New Zealand

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 Evrim Çeltek

School of Tourism and Hotel Managementm Anadolu University, Eskiºehir, Turkey

 Juan Gabriel Brida

School of Economics and Management, Free University of Bolzano, Italy

In this paper, following the seminal paper of Robinson and Torvik (2005), we analyze the effects for a sustainable tourism of the construction of white elephants. We present a formal definition and the main characteristics of white elephants. In particular, we introduce this concept in the framework of tourist activities and describe some examples in this economic sector. We show that white elephants are a particular type of investments projects with negative surplus and that it is the very inefficiency that makes them politically attractive. Finally, we analyze the rationality of this kind of investment on the tourism sector showing the existence of a double rationality in the construction of a white elephant: the rationality of politicians that use these investments to obtain electoral benefits and the social rationality based on economic efficiency.

Key words: White elephants, sustainable tourism, tourism policy, public goods

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 Chang Lee

School of Restaurant, Hotel and Meetings Management, College of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Alabama

Reggae music is more than a popular music style. It has been an essential part of tourism development in Jamaica. The way in which reggae music has been interpreted since its inception is critical to understanding the music’s effect on Jamaica’s touristic culture. This touristic culture describes the established social atmosphere of the community and attitude of local residents and visitors toward tourism within the region. The Jamaican government’s effort to control the social movement and the role of reggae music in relation to tourism are viewed by understanding reggae music with respect to the Rastafarian movement. Governmental approaches played an important part in allowing the development of touristic culture with reggae music and the Rastafarian movement. The purpose of this study was to view the role of reggae music in Jamaican tourism development along with a social movement, the Rastafarian movement. This study was important because it served as a vehicle to understand the interplay of social movement and touristic culture. Such an understanding of touristic culture could be useful in tourism dependent regions. This study used an extensive review and analysis of the literature to make observations and conclusions.

Key words: Reggae, touristic culture, tourism, social movement, music

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  Sung-Chae Jung

Faculty of Tourism Management, Honam University , Republic of Korea

This study examines the factors that determine where Korean seniors choose to travel. Using iterated principal factor analysis with a varimax rotation analysis technique, five preference factors in choice of travel destination were revealed: tourism environment, events, feeling, differentiation, and culture. Duncan’s multiple range test was then applied to examine the relative preference level of each of these factors in determining destination choice. The results indicate that Korean seniors’ choice of travel destination varies between different sets of sociodemographic and travel characteristics. This information can be used by the tourist industry as a tool to aid decision making about tourism policy and marketing activities and to help determine priority of assignments aimed at improving tourist supply.

Key words: Korean senior travelers, destination choice attitudes, policy and marketing strategy

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