Journal of Vacation Marketing

As the year 2000 draws closer, increasing media attention is being given to the Year 2000 problem or Millennium bug. Consumers are likely to be bombarded by media reports of doom and gloom about the problem. Media sensationalism may reach new heights with ‘what if’ stories of non-compliant planes falling from the sky and ticketing systems going haywire. And who is to say that three might not be more than a grain of truth in such stories? This article discusses possible impacts of the problem and identifies strategies that tourism marketers may implement to counter the Y2K bug.

Competitive analysis of destinations is rapidly gaining in importance in the strategic positioning and marketing planning of destinations. Thus far, relatively few tourism studies have utilised competitiveness as an assessment tool. This paper uses a qualitative approach toward evaluating South Australia’s competitiveness in the Australian domestic tourism context. Based on interviews with travel agents, who are traditionally information gatekeepers and a crucial component of the distribution channel, this paper reveals that South Australia is only in a strong position with respect to two out of eight core attractions emphasised in that state’s tourism promotion material. Apart from the wine industry and the ‘big river’ theme associated with the Murray River, none of the state’s other tourism features is recognised within the market.

The recent emphasis on retention marketing and its impact on more traditional market segmentation methods is considered. In this context, the value of hotel guest history systems as a basis for database marketing is explained and a number of examples of applications in several industries, including hospitality, are cited. The methodology of a pilot study of UK hotels is presented together with a descriptive discussion of the results. The paper concludes that database marketing applications are increasing and will continue to grow, although hotels often fail to make full use of valuable data retained in their guest history files.

The relationship between parks and tourism at a destination is not well formed, but the collateral materials produced by convention and visitors’ bureaux and state travel offices for promotion of their respective city or state (ie, travel guides, event calendars) provide an avenue for uncovering this relationship. This study used these materials and content analysis techniques to investigate the park scope, park role and process used to access more information about parks. The park scope was generally seen as ‘minimal’, however, the involvement was higher among parks at the national level, and decreased to minor involvement with city or municipal parks. This was substantiated by investigation of the park role in that parks were seen to (1) act as infrastructure to an event, (2) enhance the city’s/state’s image, (3) provide something extra, and (4) show quality of life and ambience. In order to obtain more information about park facilities and activities, visitors in most cases would have to access the parks through the visitors’ bureaux or state travel offices. Park agencies and organisations must become more visible and concrete players in the tourism industry. It seemed that parks contribute to the overall image of the destination, but need a more explicit presence in the literature in order to substantiate their place. Photos, contents, information and access are important features of these materials that must not be overlooked.

Researchers and marketers are interested in understanding and predicting the complex behaviours of consumers. One important facet of consumer behaviour is the ‘involvement’ construct. Involvement is ‘a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests’. ¹ This study examined the interplay between the involvement construct and push/pull factors as motivators in destination selection.

Clements and Josiam ² found that college students who had travelled during the Spring Break vacation had significantly higher levels of involvement than non-travellers. This study surveyed 795 college students during their Spring Break vacation at the beach in Panama City Beach, Florida. Vacationers were found to be highly involved with the concept of travelling on Spring Break. As hypothesised, high levels of involvement were significantly associated with push factors relevant to travel to beachfront destinations on Spring Break. High levels of involvement were also significanlty associated with the pull factors of Panama City Beach, Florida, as a popular beachfront destination for Spring Breakers.

This paper identified travellers’ perceptions of quality of hotel services and facilities among three hotel categories in Hong Kong: High-Tariff A, High-Tariff B and Medium-Tariff hotels. Using a factor analysis technique, the study generated seven hotel factors from 33 hotel attributes identified by the hotel guests. The seven hotel factors were ‘Staff Service Quality’, ‘Room Quality’, ‘General Amenities’, ‘Business Service’, ‘Value’, ‘Security’ and ‘IDD Facilities’. Results of ANOVA indicated that the ranking of the seven hotel factors was significantly different in the three hotel categories. Travellers’ mean ratings of their perceptions of hotel factors increased positively, according to the higher hotel category. The finding is typical, in the sense that when people pay more, they expect to get better quality services. The two most important hotel factors perceived by guests of High-Tariff A and High-Tariff B hotels were ‘Room Quality’ and ‘Staff Service Quality’, while the top priority for hotel guests staying at Medium-Tariff hotels was ‘Security’. Discussions and implications for future studies are also included in the study.

Hong Kong has been renowned as a ‘shoppers’ paradise’ for more than a decade. Visitor shopping accounted for more than half of the total visitor expenditure and it is obvious that visitor shopping is an important component of the Hong Kong economy. Taiwanese are one of the most important sources of visitor arrivals and shopping revenue. A survey of 100 Taiwanese visitors to Hong Kong about their shopping experience in Hong Kong and in Singapore was conducted. Results indicated that Hong Kong has an advantage with a wider selection of merchandise but there are not many differences between Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of product and service quality. However, Taiwanese tourists felt that retailers in Hong Kong are not as honest as those in Singapore.