Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, August, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-111).

The Chinese tourists market has become the 4th largest inbound market for New Zealand in 2007; it also ranks 6th in terms of expenditure. Chinese visitors spent a total of NZ $352 million to the year December 2006, an average of NZ $3,340 per person (Ministry of Tourism, 2006). The latest statistics released from New Zealand Tourism Research Council show that 122,045 Chinese visited New Zealand by the year ended January 2008. These crucial statistics – market size, length of stay and average spend – indicate the necessity for the New Zealand tourism industry to understand and provide for Chinese expectations and requirements. Auckland is New Zealand's key gateway, and it is vital that Auckland provides a first good impression for the rest of country. Chinese travellers visit New Zealand with great desire and expectations of experiencing an exotic land. They expect Auckland, as the biggest city in New Zealand, to provide them with a memorable city experience in a developed country. The purpose of this research is to study Chinese tourists' expectations and travel experiences, with a particular focus on investigating whether Auckland can provide suitable services and experiences which match their requirements and expectations. The research will build on the study by Bull (1991) and Ryan (1995), which looked at supply demand relationships and at the tourism industry attempts to balance the supply with the actual demands. It will also build on work by Zhao (2006) and Qu (2006) which explored the dimensions of Chinese demand and distribution channel factors at both origin and destination. The goal is to establish which factors are adequate or inadequate. A synthesis of the demand supply situation will enable the development of recommendations. It is envisage that these recommendations could be adopted by local government and the tourism industry, either as actions or as improvements to policy. With regards to the purpose of this research, a qualitative method was decided as the most relevant approach. Qualitative methods are useful for revealing and understanding what lies are behind any phenomenon about which little is known. Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that was developed for the purpose of studying a social phenomenon, and to generate a theory relating to a particular situation (Strauss & Corbin, 1994). The historical bases of the grounded theory approach matches the aim of this research, namely to reveal the relationships between tourists and the tourism industry and to gain a better understanding of Chinese tourists' expectation and satisfaction, and the level of the service which the Auckland tourism industry provides to Chinese travellers needs to match the Chinese market and requirements of travellers. The interviews were conducted with both Chinese travellers and the Auckland tourism industry, including hotel managers, restaurant managers, gift/souvenirs shop assistants, tour guides, and so on. The research shows Auckland is not ready for Chinese market yet. This result comes from three aspects: firstly, most Chinese tourists do not have clear requirements or expectations of Auckland before they come to New Zealand. This is mainly because of the limited promotional materials available in China about Auckland. Secondly, Chinese tourists do not have many opportunities to get to know Auckland's attractions and activities after they arrive in Auckland. Auckland city is New Zealand's most popular urban tourism destination in terms of population and gateway function provides tourism facilities and services to Chinese tourists. However, the findings highlighted most Chinese tourists found Auckland's tourism attractions to be unattractive to them due to the language barrier and itinerary issues. Thirdly, the research also found Chinese tourists have been driven away due to lack of hotel accommodations in Auckland, especially in the shoulder or high seasons. Auckland's accommodation facilities are facing a challenge. The increasing domestic and international visitors' numbers and insufficient hotel accommodations will be the major problem for Auckland for the next decade. Most of the Chinese tourists who were interviewed expressed their hope of knowing more about Auckland, however, these hopes will go unrealised until the city provides better attractions and more services for them.

Mémoire (M.P.M.O.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1993. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (PhD) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (vi, 276 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 338.47919300688 WES)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oklahoma State University, 2007. / Vita. The full text of the dissertation is also available online as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-221).

Thesis (M.T.M.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

D.Comm. (Leadership in Performance and Change) / The National Department of Tourism (NDT), in the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), highlighted the need for research on tourist service satisfaction. According to the Global Competitiveness Programme (GCP), most of the dissatisfied tourists are business travelers. There are gaps in the literature with reference to the operationalisation of, and relationship between, service quality scores and retention scores in the business tourism industry. The contextualisation and conceptualisation of the proposed SQSC will be supported by a discussion on service quality, the Balanced ScoreCard (BSC), and the relationship between service quality and the BSC. The proposed mediating role of Business Tourist Satisfaction (hereafter mostly referred to as Satisfaction) will be highlighted, while evidence will be provided that Business Tourist Retention (hereafter mostly referred to as Retention) can be a criterion variable in this measurement. It is also apparent that using specific market segmentation variables will enable business tourism managers to build business tourist retention strategies.

South Africa is increasingly becoming a destination for leisure tourists. Many are interested in cultural tourism. There is a need for empirical research into this field of hospitality and tourism, which this study aims to address. Lesedi Cultural Village (Lesedi) is an establishment where tourists can experience five of the ethnic cultures of South Africa. As part of the experience, a meal is served which is advertised as “The greatest African feast”. The actual food served is not necessarily culturally authentic in nature. Consequently expectations of the meal experience might be created which cannot be satisfied. This investigation commences with a literature study to establish the components of a meal experience, namely food, service and atmosphere. Thereafter factors are established through the literature survey that are required for satisfaction of a meal experience. These concepts are set out in an adaptation of an existing model of Kivela, Inbakaran and Reece (1999). The adapted model is used as the basis for a field survey of the opinions of leisure tourists visiting Lesedi. The survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. The results were analysed statistically. Prior to the survey, objectives for the study were set to compare the findings of the literature study with the respondents’ views about the meal experience at Lesedi. The objectives were to determine whether: Objective 1: leisure tourists’ expectations regarding the meal experience and its components were met, and whether they were satisfied with the current meal experience Objective 2: leisure tourists would be willing to return or refer others to Lesedi Objective 3: it is necessary to have a cultural-specific menu to satisfy the leisure tourists’ expectations Objective 4: certain components of the meal experience impressed the leisure tourists the most Objective 5: there is a significant relationship between food, service and atmosphere regarding the meal experience Objective 6: other aspects have significant relationships with the components of the meal experience (food, service and atmosphere) The tourists’ expectations and satisfaction with the meal experience were met to a high degree. The majority of respondents indicated they would return or refer others to Lesedi. While it is not necessary to have a cultural-specific menu to satisfy tourists’ expectations, the current menu could be enhanced by the inclusion of some cultural-specific items. Aspects of the components of the meal experience, which were considered by the respondents to have impressed them the most were also determined. A significant relationship exists between food and service but only a tendency to a relationship exists between food and atmosphere as well as between service and atmosphere. Service appears to play a slightly more important role in satisfying the meal experience than does food. Atmosphere supports the other two components (food and service). Suggestions were made, for consideration by the management of Lesedi, regarding possible improvements to the components of the meal experience. Copyright / Dissertation (M (Consumer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

Destination competitiveness has become a critical issue in today's increasingly challenging tourism market. Many studies have indicated that tourists and their needs stand as the ultimate driving force which influences competition and competitiveness in the tourism destination. Today, destinations eventually compete on the quality of tourism experience offered to visitors. However, limited research has been undertaken to examine destination competitiveness from the tourists' perspective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of quality of tourism experience on tourists' perception of destination competitiveness. A destination competitiveness model based on the perceptions of tourists and a measurement instrument to assess the constructs of the model were developed for this study. The model proposes that tourists' perceived destination competitiveness is affected by the quality of tourism experience, which includes the experience in pre-trip planning, en-route, on-site, and after-trip (reflection) phases. Furthermore, tourist involvement, as an important salient dimension of consumer behavior, is introduced into the model as a moderating factor in the relationship between quality of tourism experience and perceived destination competitiveness. The sample population of this study consists of residents of Virginia who are 18 years old or above and took at least one leisure trip away from home in the past 18 months. Three hundred and fifty-three usable questionnaires were utilized in the data analysis of the study. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis were performed to test the study hypotheses. The results indicated that the quality of tourism experience and tourists' perception of destination competitiveness do relate to each other as substantiated by the existence of shared common variances between these two major constructs. The study also revealed that tourists' perception of destination competitiveness is positively influenced by the quality of tourism experience in terms of different phases (pre-trip planning, en-route experience, on-site instrumental experience, on-site expressive experience, and after-trip reflection). Furthermore, tourist involvement appears to have a moderating effect on the relationship between pre-trip planning experience, en-route experience, on-site expressive experience, and perceived destination competitiveness. The study also provided managerial implications to destination managers and marketers based on the research findings. / Ph. D.