Purpose This study aims to differentiate the brand personality of four basic hotel categories (e.g. limited-service, selected-service, full-service and luxury hotels) to draw an overall landscape of the lodging industry on symbolic attributes. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted to assess the brand personality of eight popular hotel brands competing in the US market (two brands for each price category) by using Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale. The categorical difference in brand personality was compared at both of the dimensional and individual trait level. Findings This study draws a picture of brand personality for four prevailing hotel categories in the US market. It suggests exciting luxury hotels, sincere select-service hotels and rugged limited-service hotels, but no distinctive personality for full-service hotels. This study positions the pros and cons of each hotel category. For instance, it shows at the dimensional level, full-service hotels advance select-service hotels in excitement but fall behind in sincerity. At the individual trait level, full-service hotels strike customers as contemporary, up-to-date and good-looking, but disappoint customers on the features like honest and wholesome. Practical implications This study informs hotel brand companies and hotel investors with the pros and cons of each hotel category to assist them to improve their marketing or investment strategies. Originality/value Although brand personality has been often used to assess hotel brand’s difference, it has been rarely used to capture the categorical difference. This study adds new insights to hotel banding practice by comparing different categories on symbolic attributes.
Boutique and lifestyle hotels constitute a growing segment of the U.S. lodging industry. Despite this growth, there is a consensus among scholars that the terms “boutique hotel” and “lifestyle hotel” are poorly defined; moreover, current research on the sector focuses on lodging industry practitioners’ perceptions of the two types of accommodation, overlooking lodging consumers’ understanding. To elucidate how lodging consumers distinguish between these two types of accommodation, this study examines the drivers of demand for these products within the context of their associated push and pull factors. A survey was administered to a group of hotel users, generating 252 valid responses. It was found, the majority of respondents had little or no knowledge of the terms. However, those respondents who were frequent travelers were aware of both categories and were likely to indicate an intention to use them for future travel. The findings suggest that boutique and lifestyle hotels are not synonymous in consumers’ minds. In fact, consumers have differing expectations for the two styles of accommodation, and these differences are evolving as more consumers experience these products. These findings have implications for hotel developers and marketers.
Purpose Based on persuasion theories, the purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between four types of interactive consumer activities (viewing, liking, sharing and commenting) on hotel brand social networking sites (SNSs) and their cognitive and emotional responses to understand the psychological states underlying such actions and assess their influence on brand attitude and the brand–consumer relationship. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administrated using an online platform. Participants who had been following a hotel brand on any of its SNSs were screened to fill out the questionnaire. Eventually, 226 valid responses were collected and analyzed using structure equation modeling. Findings The findings suggest that although both emotional and cognitive involvement can enhance a consumer’s hotel brand attitude, cognitive involvement is associated with a slightly stronger effect in the context of SNSs. Three of the four interactive actions – viewing, liking and sharing – were found to be positively associated with emotional involvement, but only two actions – viewing and liking – were found to be positively related to cognitive involvement. No connection was identified for commenting. Practical implications The study suggests that practitioners should turn their attention to the emotional and cognitive responses their SNSs provoke in consumers, rather than simply on the number of likes, shares and comments they induce. Originality/value A recent research trend indicates widespread interest in the button functions offered by SNSs (such as “like,” “share” and “comment”) and many studies have tested means of stimulating such physical actions. This study is one of the few to explore the psychological states behind such actions and assess their influence on brand attitude and the self-brand connection.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues. Design/methodology/approach In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on a restaurant menu were manipulated and solo consumers’ sense of power was measured. Findings Low-power individuals exhibited more favorable attitudes toward the menu with a popularity cue at a crowded restaurant. High-power individuals’ attitudes toward the menu were equally favorable across the two promotional cues and crowding levels. Practical implications Restaurant managers might want to leverage popularity cues on the menu during peak hours to appeal to solo diners. After diners indicate their dining type (alone vs with others) in kiosks and tablets, restaurants can tailor promotional cues accordingly. Restaurants can also embed more popularity cues in dinner (vs lunch) menus because dinner is more hedonic and social in nature. Originality/value This study contributes to the crowding literature by examining promotional cues on the menu and sense of power as moderators of consumer responses to crowding. This study further adds to the solo consumption literature by extending the notion of power and social crowding to ethnic dining contexts.
This chapter provides some background information on the development of China's food and wine tourism by analysing both the supply and demand sides. With increasing disposable income, China is facing exponentially growing tourism demand. The China Tourism Academy, affiliated with China National Tourism Administration, has surveyed both the domestic and international Chinese tourism market over a long time period of time. China possesses a tremendous advantage to develop food tourism because of its well-known diversity, flexibility and adaptability of food. However, the food tours offered in China's market, no matter if they incorporate domestic or global routes, are all centred on tasting experiences with little regard given to cooking and learning about local foods. Consumers in China also tend to take recommendations from friends or family for off-premise wine consumption. In light of the fast growing Chinese economy and globalisation, China has fostered the development of wineries to meet increasing demand for red wines.
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