JIAHR Issues 1-12 Abstracts

JIAHR 12:
Indochina - Emerging Markets for the Tourism Industry

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the Indochina region has steadily been transformed from a centrally-controlled economy towards a market economy. With this transformation, business opportunities for hotel developers have been increasing steadily. However, due to former isolation from the rest of the world caused by wars and ideology, knowledge about the region is scarce. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of business potential in the Indochina region, comprised of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Data for the study is drawn from interviews with executives of major international hotel chains who have hotel projects being operated or under construction in the region, and from secondary data obtained from public resources. The findings from this study indicate that in developing tourism, all four countries were encountering similar problems, such as poor infrastructure condition, shortage of trained workers, and an inadequate legal system to protect legitimate businesses. Given the current Asian economic crisis, the study also suggests governments in Indochina should review the opportunities of regional integration in tourism development.

JIAHR 11:
Health Awareness and Life-Style Practices of Foodservice Employees

ABSTRACT

Full-time foodservice employees (425) responded to a questionnaire on perceived life-style activities. The majority of respondents seldom missed work, made time for leisure activities, and felt secure in their jobs (p<0.05). The more educated the employee, the greate r the perception of being overweight (r = 0.798; p< 0.05). Skilled and technical employees consumed more coffee or colas in comparison to professional employees (p< 0.05). To improve general health, 68% of the respondents expressed interest in participating in nutrition education and stress management classes rather than participating in physical fitness sessions.

JIAHR 10:
Effective Placement of Reflective Feedback in Computer-aided Instruction for Maintaining Dining Room Standards

ABSTRACT

This research utilized structural communication to teach service quality standards. ive computer-based, multi-media scenarios illustrated discrepancies, or errors, in either the American style of meal service or basic food safety principles found in restaurant dining rooms. One hundred and twenty undergraduate restaurant management students were asked to identify the discrepancies. The inclusion of reflective feedback and the placement of that feedback were examined. Reflective feedback allowed students to select the reasons for their responses. The students were divided into three groups to test the impact of immediate feedback (IFT), delayed feedback (DFT), and no feedback (NFT). Results indicated that the mean scores for each group improved as they progressed through the five scenarios. The participants who received the IFT treatment had the highest mean scores for the five scenarios. The NFT treatment scores were significantly lower than the other two treatments. These results indicate that incorporating the reflective feedback process in instructional lessons is important, not the placement of the reflective feedback.

JIAHR 9:
A Regional Analysis Concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act: Lodging Operator Level of Compliance by Randall S. Upchurch and JunWon Seo

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study centered on measuring lodging opeator compliance in regard to the American with Disabilities Act. The intnent was to meaure lodging operators's (a) current level of physical compliance with the American with Disabilities Act, (b) plans in meeting or exceeding ADA requirements, and (c) perceived barriers leading to non-compliance. The participants in this study were selected from a list of hotels and motels provided by the Minnesota Office of Tourism that represented the nine county metropolitan area of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The number of peropertises in this cluster represented full service, limited service, and economy properties that varierd from 25 to 583 guest rooms per property, the presence of a restaurant, and meeting room facilities. The findings of this study suggested that (a) 100% compliance has not been achieved in certain areas, (b) vagueness of the legislation is not necesssarily a barrier in compliance, and (c) financial impacts resulting from compliance are a main barrier leading to non-compliance. Therefore, the implications of this study are that: (a) assistance is needed in ensuring that compliance in the various catergories are met, otherwise, the disabled traveler's needs will not be totally met, and (b) that lodging operators need to assume their civic responsibilites for meeting the needs of the disabled traveler's needs. Key words: American with Disabilities Act, Lodging, Compliance, Disabled traveler.

JIAHR 8:
Effect of Operating and Financial Leverage on Firm's Risk by Yang H. Huo and Francis Kwansa

ABSTRACT

The recent recession has affected the hospitality industry negatively, especially with regard to raising capital for operations and for capital investment. The purpose of this study is 1) to compare the riskiness of hospitality firms and utility firms during the recessionary period of 1990 to 1991, 2) to identify the effect of hotels' and restaurants' operating and financial leverages on their systematic risk, and 3) to compare this effect with that of utility firms. Findings indicate that although restaurants are riskier relative to the market and hotels are less risky than the market, both are riskier relative to the utility industry during a recession. However, the impact of operating and financing decisions on firm riskiness is relatively less compared utility firms.

JIAHR 7:
Hospitality's Solid Waste Policy Patchwork: A Study of States' Regulatory Environments by Leslie E. Cummings

ABSTRACT

Regulations that are fragmented across municipal borders raise the cost and complexity of regulatory compliance in the hospitality industry. This study is intended to illuminate socioeconomic, political, and bureaucratic forces of the policy environment in which hospitality organizations are embedded. Using the policy indicator systems model, the investigation tests the usefulness of a measure to characterize anticipated solid waste (SW) related regulatory activity in a given context. The hypotheses propose relationships between states' level of government centralization (system inputs), and two measures of SW regulation (outputs). The analysis consists of simple correlation, using the 50 United States as units. Analyses revealed that although state centralization is a useful SW management policy indicator, centralization forces vary inversely with state SW policy activity, contradicting the hypothesized direction. In addition to suggesting alternate explanations for findings, implications for hospitality organizations are discussed.

JIAHR 6:
Hotel Re-positioning: An Illustration by Stowe Shoemaker

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates how to perform a repositioning study. Specifically, using both multidimensional scaling (MDS), property fitting, and discriminant analysis, this article shows how to determine one's present position and then decide the new position to occupy. Data comes from a study conducted upon local residents in Las Vegas, Nevada.

JIAHR 5:
The Americans with Disabilities Act: Perspectives on Reasonable Accommodation by Suzanne K. Murrmann

ABSTRACT

Using the present federal guidelines delineating organizational requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this study examines the influence of work experience, personal attitudes, and employment law knowledge on perceptions of reasonable accommodation. Findings indicate that attitudes toward individuals with disabilities are most highly associated with perceptions of the essentialness of different categories of reasonable accommodation. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

JIAHR 4:
Solid Waste and Degradability: Saving Grace or False Promise? by Leslie E. Cummings

ABSTRACT

Since reportedly 70 percent of landfill waste is capable of natural decomposition, "degradability" and "biodegradability" are terms hospitality operators must understand to: better control solid waste (SW), intelligently select degradable products and alternatives, comply with regulations, and respond to public concerns. Consumer and legislator action for mandatory degradability of disposables, and for bans on nonbiodegradable plastics, appear linked to fundamental misunderstandings; e.g. that landfills are composting facilities, and that plastics have no redeemable qualities. In fact, degradables can interfere with recycling/resource recovery, and do not necessarily result in a net reduction of SW toxic pollution, volume, or litter. This article addresses the question whether using degradable products rather than non-degradable products will help the solid waste crisis.

JIAHR 3:
Functional and Symbolic Congruity Approaches to Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction in Consumerism by Kye-Sung Chon and Michael D. Olsen

ABSTRACT

Using the evaluative congruity theory framework, this study examined the role of destination images in tourism with regard to consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D) from the stand point of: (1) the functional congruity between the tourist's expectations and his/her perceptions of performance outcome on specific functional attributes of a destination; and (2) the symbolic congruity between the tourist's self concept and the destination's personality image. The overall findings indicate that CS/D in tourism is related to both functional and symbolic congruity. Further, the findings indicate that the functional congruity explained CS/D better than the symbolic congruity.

JIAHR 2:
Conjoint Analysis and its Application in the Hospitality Industry by Sophie Ding, Ursula Geschke and Robert Lewis

ABSTRACT

As a relatively new marketing research tool, especially in the hospitality industry, conjoint analysis is a powerful technique for determining the trade-offs that consumers make in making purchase decisions, and in developing pricing strategies for product lines. Conjoint analysis also allows for simulations and price elasticities for any product configuration, that permits analyses of market shares in various benefit bundle alternatives.

The use of conjoint analysis in marketing research has been increasing rapidly in the last 10 years in marketing research. This has led to development of different models for use in different situations and with increasing rigor in producing valid and reliable results. Although academic research journals have reported on these developments, they have been largely constrained to sophisticated statistical analysis that makes conceptualization and application difficult for non-statisticians. This article presents conjoint analysis in two different perspectives. First, it presents conjoint in a largely qualitative framework for ease of understanding the application and the principles under which it operates. With canned programs that are available today, one does not need to be a statistician to use conjoint analysis. On the other hand, as with any quantitative method, one does need to understand the principles and limitations as, like any other quantitative process, abuse and misuse is easily practiced unwittingly. Second, this article uses hospitality examples so as to apply the use of conjoint to this specific industry.

Conjoint analysis is first explained and then elaborated as to the four different models which are in common use today and which are available in canned software. Following this, an application is made in the hospitality industry using one of the models and demonstrating a fairly simple use, the development of weekend packages for a hotel. The explanation and the application should start the interested researcher in the direction of further information and utilization in research projects.

JIAHR 1:
Hotel Yield Management Using Optimal Decision Rules by Ralph D. Badinelli and Michael D. Olsen

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates a particular model for making the pricing decisions associated with hotel booking. Implementing such pricing decisions that are designed to optimize the profitability of the hotel forms part of a policy commonly referred to as yield management. The model utilizes forecasts of demand in individual market segments to capitalize on the willingness of people in one segment to pay more than people in another segment. The procedure for doing this is necessarily time-based since the market segments are differentiated also by the timing of bookings relative to a rental date. The procedure for making the pricing decisions is described and an example is given. Unlike the commonly invoked marginal revenue models, this model is optimal and requires fewer assumptions about the demand process. It is shown that the procedure has rather modest information requirements and is based on data that is typically available through market research. We also show that the procedure demands minimal amounts of CPU time making it applicable even in small hotels.