Iscontour 2017 E-Book

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• Sprache: Englisch

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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Proceedings of the ISCONTOUR The aim of the International Student Conference in Tourism Research (ISCONTOUR) is thus to offer students a unique platform to present their research and to establish a mutual knowledge transfer forum for attendees from academia, industry, government and other organisations. The annual conference, which is jointly organized by the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, will take place alternatively at the locations Salzburg and Krems. The conference research chairs are Prof. (FH) Dr. Roman Egger (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. (FH) Mag. Christian Maurer (University of Applied Sciences Krems). The target audience include international students (also PhDs), graduates, teachers and lecturers from the field of tourism and leisure management as well as companies and anyone interested in the conference topic areas.

Leseprobe

Preface & Acknowledgements

The 5th International Student Conference in Tourism Research (ISCONTOUR) was held at the campus of the University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg, Austria, on May 15-16, 2017. The annual ISCONTOUR was collaboratively founded by Christian Maurer, Professor at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria, and Roman Egger, Professor at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria. Therefore, the conference is alternately held at both venues.

The aim of ISCONTOUR is to provide international students and graduates of Bachelor and Master Programmes with a platform where they can submit and present tourism related research papers based on their approved Bachelor and Master Theses. In particular, ISCONTOUR strives to encourage students and graduates to engage in academic research and foster the knowledge transfer between academic education institutions and the tourism industry. The first day of the ISCONTOUR 2017 starts with the IFITT Doctoral Summer School, which is a part of the ISCONTOUR this year and aims for early-career researchers, both at Master’s and Doctoral level who can familiarize themselves with various research methodologies and are introduced to the world of academic publishing. The first day continuous with the Research Methodology Workshop, the submitted research papers will be presented on the second conference day. In total 45 full research papers and additional 12 extended abstracts for the IFITT Doctoral Summer School by more than 60 authors were submitted to the ISCONTOUR 2017. Each submission went through a thorough double blind review process with at least two members of the ISCONTOUR 2017 Research Programme Committee assigned as reviewers. The authors then received the comments of the reviewers and had to revise the papers accordingly. Only papers of authors who adhered to this process were accepted for the conference. As a result, 30 full research papers were accepted for presentation at the conference and are included in these proceedings. The conference covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from consumer behavior, experience, augmented and virtual reality, marketing, information and communication technologies, and destination management. This does not only indicate the variety of the tourism system, but also how relevant and impactful applied research projects conducted by students and graduates can be for the further developments in tourism in particular and the society in general. We hope these proceedings will serve as a valuable source of information on applied tourism research for students, scholars and practitioners.

Above all, we want to thank all authors who submitted their papers for the conference. We further appreciate the considerable time put in by all members of the ISCONTOUR 2017 Research Programme Committee who helped us to ensure that the content of the research papers was of high quality. We are also grateful for the support we receive from the management board, rectorate and colleagues of both the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems as well as the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences. We are also indebted to the conference keynote speakers, Anita Zehrer and Clemens Költringer and to the research workshop presenters Mattia Rainoldi, Valentini Kalargyrou and Martin Waiguny. Thank you also to our Doctoral Summer School Chair Barbara Neuhofer and Lidija Lalicic (Director of IFITT Next Generation). Last but not least, we want to express our gratitude to the sponsors and supporters of ISCONTOUR 2017, namely International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT), Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg GmbH, Semantic Technology Institute Innsbruck (STI), TSG Tourismus Salzburg GmbH, Springer Verlag and Wirtschaftskammer Salzburg.

We hope that ISCONTOUR will continue to establish an international community that motivates more students and graduates to engage in applied research and submit papers to ISCONTOUR 2018.

Roman Egger & Christian Maurer

ISCONTOUR 2017 Conference Chairs

Salzburg / Krems, May 2017

Table of Contents

Service with a Smile: Enhancement on Customer Satisfaction

John Ka Po, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Pictures with a new meaning - How photography affects the travel experience of generation Y

Magdalena Patz, Sabine Sarlay, Sandra Hettegger, Elisabeth Puschan and Johanna Röck, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Experiential Marketing in Services – Designing Multisensory Customer Experiences

Svenja König, Hochschule Kempten, Germany

Gamification as a tool to enhance the experience of museum visitors

Teresa de Pablo and Akwasi Boadi, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Virtual Reality: Triggering Emotions in Tourism Marketing

Julia Beck, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Virtual Reality: An Innovative Sneak Preview for Destinations

Veronika Driescher, Alina Lisnevska, Jennifer Relota, Anna Stavinska and Daria Zvereva, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Augmented Reality as a tool to improve the experience of customers at Dark Tourism Sites

Larissa Neuburger, Daniel Kovacs-Zimboras, Anuj Pandey and Erdi Göküseyin, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Pilgrimage Routes in the Alps – A Case Study of Mariazell

Lisa Streng, IMC Krems, Austria

Boiling Summers – A Threat for Alpine Regions?

Marcella Manzl, IMC Krems, Austria

Tracking visitors´ spatial- temporal behavior through GPS Technology at Salzburg Open- Air Museum (A Case Study)

Niloufar Rouzbeh, Stefanie Kappler, Marieta Parleva, Kalliopi Margari, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Qualitative Approach to Understanding Macao Residents’ Attitude Toward the Macao Grand Prix

Qiqing Huang, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Consumer Travel Motivators in a Cannabis Tourism Context

Maik Gevers, IMC Krems, Austria

A demand-side analysis of visitors to a video gaming event in South Africa

Zacharias Johannes Bosch, North-West University, South Africa

Exploring Green Hotel’s Communication and Environmental Education Methods and Guest- Involvement in Macau

Jing Li, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Work Related Pressures of Front-Office Employees and their effects on Job Performance – A case study

Roberta Belotti, Bournemouth University, UK

Front Office and Food & Beverage Employees’ Optimistic Bias on Promotion Perception and Its Negative Association with Turnover Intention

Maria Joela Ison, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Do online travel agents deceive customers?

Sandra Metz, Emina Velic, Yen Nguyen, Christian Furtner, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Success of Boutique Hotels – Development in the German-speaking area

Melanie Fraiss, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Effects of Online Customers’ Reviews on Tourists’ Attitudes and Intentions of Festival: The Case of Lusofonia Festival in Macau

Chi Ian Ma, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Promoting cooperation in destinations through ICT: The case of Rovaniemi

Hannes Thees, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany

Study of visitors' perception of a Beacon-based museum guide: case of Salzburg Museum

Maria Maslova, Volha Famina, Mamadou Faye, Abdul Karim El Naja, Samir Shrestha, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Difference of comments perception between men and women on destination picture promoted on Facebook

Damyan Kanchev, Jing Ou, Irisha Pak, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

The Design Factors Influencing the Perceived Quality of Hotel Website

Winnie Sin, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Why Do People Buy Luxury Products?

Yinyi Huang, Institute for Tourism Studien, Macao

The influence of lifestyle, travel behaviour and event attributes on the commitment of endurance athletes

Esmarie Myburgh, North-West University, South Africa

Drink, Love, Pay: Influence of extrinsic factors on wine quality perception and purchase intention

Yue Shi, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Food Choice Values at Home and on Holiday: a Value-Based Comparison

Verena Beer, IMC Krems, Austria

Are there any different motivational reasons between visitors and residents in attending a festival: A case study in Macau

Ceci Ng, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

The Overseas Summer Internship by Chinese Students - Motivations and perceived value

Xiao Hu, Plymouth University, UK

How Consumer Perceptions of Customization Be Affected by the Consumption Behaviours and the Levels of Customization

Yuan Mo, Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

Research Programme Review Committee

ARIKAN Irfan, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

AUBKE Florian, Modul University Vienna, Austria

BAGGIO Rodolfo, Bocconi University Milan, Italy

BAUER-KRÖSBACHER Claudia, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

BAUMGARTNER Christian, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

BRUCKER Eva, University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Austria

BUHALIS Dimitrios, University of Bournemouth, UK

BUSBY Graham, Plymouth University, UK

CANTONI Lorenzo, Universitá dell Svizzera italiana Lugano, Switzerland

EBSTER Claus, University of Vienna, Austria

EGGER Roman, University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Austria

FENSEL Dieter, University of Innsbruck, Austria

FUCHS Matthias, Mid-Sweden University, Sweden

FURTMÜLLER Elfi, University of Innsbruck, Austria

GRETZEL Ulrike, University of Wollongong, Australia

HATAK Isabella, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

JOOSS Mario, University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Austria

KASTNER Margit, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

LASSNIG Markus, Salzburg Research, Austria

LIEBRICH Andreas, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland

MAURER Christian, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

MURPHY Jamie, Murdoch Business School, Australia

NEUHOFER Barbara, Bournemouth University, UK

PETERS Mike, MCI Management Center Innsbruck, Austria

PIKKEMAAT Birgit, Institute for Innovative Tourism, Austria

PRISKIN Julianna, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland

PÜHRETMAIR Franz, Kompetenznetzwerk IT zur Förderung der Integration von Menschen mit Behinderungen, Austria

REINO Sofia, Cooperative Research Center in Tourism, Spain

ROMERO Alberto, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain

SCHACHNER Max, IMC University of Applied Sciences

SCHEGG Roland, HES-SO Valais, Switzerland

SOMMER Guido, Cologne Business School (CBS), Germany

STANGL Brigitte, University of Surrey, UK

STECKENBAUER Georg Christian, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

TEICHMANN Karin, University of Innsbruck, Austria

TISCHLER Stephanie, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

TUSSYADIAH Iis, Washington State University, USA

VOLO Serena, Free University of Bolzano, Italy

ZEHRER Anita, MCI Management Center Innsbruck, Austria

Service with a Smile: Enhancement on Customer Satisfaction

Chan Ka Po

Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao

[email protected]

Abstract

Service with a smile is a service strategy commonly used by the hotel industry as it is believed to be able to enhance the perception of customer satisfaction on hotel service quality. However, there are few clear guidelines for employees to present an authentic smile to the customer. The present research aims to study the definition of the authenticity of a smile and thus indicate its impact on the perception of customer satisfaction. Hence, the purpose is to provide a better insight for hotel service trainers to implement clear instructions for presenting authentic smiles in service encounters. Eight types of smile are set to measure the perception of hotel customers of the authenticity of different types of smile. Furthermore, customer perception of hotel service quality and their intention to return are indicated according to the different types of smile. Lastly, the impact of the demographic information of customers on the perception of smile authenticity is demonstrated to study if the authentic smile can be purposely applied to a specific group of customer purposely. Quantitative data are collected through street intercept survey of the potential customers of Macau’s five-star hotels.

Keywords: service with a smile, customer perception, service quality, authenticity of smile

INTRODUCTION

A genuine smile from hotel service providers may be the first message of welcome provided to their guests. It is welcomed by all consumers, enhances their satisfaction and loyalty to an organization (Andrzejewski and Mooney, 2016; Pugh, 2001; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010) and is becoming a key success factor for sustainable competitive advantage (Yozgat, Çalişkan and Ürü, 2012). However, compared with other elements that may also influence consumer satisfaction such as food quality, environment, location and price, there are very few studies indicating the individual role of smiling in hotel service encounters. Moreover, it is difficult to find a clear guideline for presenting a genuine smile in the hospitality industry. Therefore, by utilizing a quantitative research method with survey questions to potential customers of Macau’s hotels, the present research aims to extend existing studies of the relationship between “service with a smile” and customer satisfaction. Moreover, it aims to provide service training insights to hotel service trainers by testing the effects of eight types of smile on customer satisfaction and highlighting the effectiveness and the mechanism of presenting a genuine smile. Last but not least, the study is purposely indicating the elements that might mediate the effect of service with a smile.

For constructing a model for the present research, we firstly hypothesize that the customer’s perception of the authenticity of a smile is able to be enhanced by H1.1: Smile with appearance changes of the muscles around eyes; H1.2: Smile with showing teeth; and H1.3: Smile with head canting is able to enhance the customer’s perception of smile authenticity. Meanwhile, we believe that H2: The smile with higher authenticity is more preferred by hotel guests. Moreover, according to various studies concerned with the effect of service with a smile, we assume that H3: Authentic smile will positively affect the satisfaction of hotel customers. We tested the result by a modified model of unweighted SERVPERF scales (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) Furthermore, in order to support the importance of smile authenticity in service encounters, we hypothesize that H4.1: Customer intention to return is positively influenced by authenticity of smile. However, some studies showed that the smiling behaviour does not make an impact on consumer satisfaction if a hotel’s physical condition is not acceptable (Grandey, Fisk, Mattila, Jansen and Sideman, 2005; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010). Hence, we set another assumption: H4.2: If the quality of a hotel’s physical condition is not acceptable for customers, customer intention to return is not significantly influenced by the authenticity of a smile; and H4.3: If the quality of a hotel’s physical condition is acceptable for customers, customer intention to return is positively influenced by the authenticity of a smile. We hope to prove the null hypothesis of H4.2 in order to support that smile authenticity has a significant impact on customer perception of service quality in hotels with an unacceptable physical condition. Last but not least, the present study is concerned about the impact of customer demographic background on their perception of smile authenticity. Studies found that age and education level did have a significant impact on it but gender did not (Ganesan, Russelland and Dagger, 2008; Pooja and Kumar, 2016). Therefore, we hypothesize that H5.1 Age does have a significant impact on the customer’s perception of smile authenticity; H5.2: Gender does not have a significant impact on customer’s perception of smile authenticity; and H5.3: Education level does have a significant impact on customer’s perception of the authenticity of a smile. The finding is valuable for the application of “service with a smile” to customers.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Affective expression - Smiling

Krumhuber et al. (2007) found that humans are sensitive to facial expressions when they are judging other’s trustworthiness. Although some studies showed that smiling behaviour did not make an impact on consumer satisfaction if the required elements, such as technical service quality, were not acceptable (Grandey, Fisk, Mattila, Jansen and Sideman, 2005; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010), Gountas, Ewing and Gountas (2007) found a strong relationship between sincere smiles and the perception of genuine care for the customers. This relationship can also be interpreted as the influence of sincere smiles on customer perception of service satisfaction. Furthermore, improvement of customer satisfaction can possibly be achieved by a simulated authentic smile from a well-trained service provider (Zhao, Costa and Badler, 2000). However, in some situations, the smile expresser may just follow a display rule or norm rather than smiling with their actual emotion. The inconsistency between an expresser’s actual emotion and their expression may be sensed by careful observers, and result in a negative impact on customer satisfaction (Andrzejewski and Mooney; Ekman, Friesen and O'Sullivan, 1988). Several reasons influence customer satisfaction through the enhancement of smile.

Smile with appearance changes of the muscles around eyes

There are two types of smile in service management, genuine (Duchenne: A widely-accepted definition of the authenticity of a smile) smile and non-genuine (non-Duchenne) smile (Ekman, Davidson and Friesen, 1990). Ekman, Friesen and O'Sullivan (1988) stated that a Duchenne smile is the smile obtained by the appearance changes of the muscles around the eyes. Different to other smiles, one’s Duchenne smile was found to be more likely caused by experiencing enjoyment. Moreover, when someone tried to express a Duchenne smile with negative emotion, the smile was more often recognized as a feigned smile.

Smile with teeth showing

The effect of smiling with teeth showing has been studied in past research about “service with a smile” and the smiles with and without teeth have been named as minimal smile: smile with upturned mouth but without showing teeth; maximal smile: smile with upturned mouth and showing teeth (Barger and Grandey, 2006; Tidd and Lockard, 1978). Moreover, according to the result of Barger and Grandey’s research, customers are more likely to recognize desired services from service providers who serve with maximal smile rather than serve with minimal or no smile. Furthermore, smiling with teeth displayed is able to enhance the beauty of the smile, thus, improving the self-satisfaction and self-perception of the smile. (Van der Geld, Oosterveld, Van Heck and Kuijpers-Jagtman, 2007).

Smile with head canting

Head movement is the most distinct form of body language during an emotional expression process. It is also the easiest action to be recognized for emotion receivers in communication interaction (Allison, Puce and McCarthy, 2000). Head canting is one of the widely studied head movements that has been found to be associated with human perceptions of emotion (Otta et al., 1994), the study also found that female smiles with head canting result in less reliable expressions to the observer. Moreover, Costa and Bitti (2000) found that head canting with a bigger angle affects more attributes than the one with a smaller angle. They also found that an individual with right head-tilt has a significantly higher average mean on the perception of trustworthiness than those with left head-tilt or without head-tilt. However, attractiveness has an opposite result in the research.

Emotional labour

Hochschild (2003) identified emotional labour: “This labour requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others.” (p.7). Emotional labour can be identified as surface acting and deep acting. For service with a smile, surface acting means an employee smiles with inconsistent emotion; deep acting means an employee smiles with correlated emotion (Hochschild). Employees are believed to smile more authentically if the organization can encourage them to have more deep acting. Furthermore, emotional labour (EL) has a significant relationship with employee’s emotional intelligence (EI), which is the sense of perceived emotions (Mayer and Geher, 1996). Moreover, the higher EI employees have, the more sensitive to EL they are (Petrides and Furnham, 2003). A previous study showed that EL had an important impact on the development of job attitudes and behaviours among job satisfaction, and service performance (Lee and Hwang, 2016). Besides this, “job burnout” (Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010), “working environment” (Pugh, 2001) and “personality” (Andrzejewski and Mooney, 2016) are other elements that might influence smile authenticity but they will not be indicated in this research because of the limitation of the research such as time and resources.

Consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is composed of service quality, the focused factor in this research, and customer value (Cronin, Brady and Hult 2000; Kim, Park and Jeong 2004; Oh, 1999). The expectancy-disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1981) pointed out that consumer satisfaction is influenced by their subjective comparisons with their expectations and feelings of the services. The comparison of consumer expectations and perceptions is called “subjective disconfirmation”. From the result of Oliver’s study, we know that the scale and direction of subjective disconfirmation affects the level of consumer satisfaction. Therefore, SERVPERF, a model developed on the foundation of SERVQUAL, is adopted in this research to indicate the impact of service with smile on hotel service quality.

Service quality

Service quality is the key strategy for improving the performance of service providers (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). However, it is difficult to identify and measure service quality because of its inherent feature (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Jain and Gupta, 2004; Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985). Hence, SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are the two measurement scales that are widely adopted in the industry. SERVQUAL is a quality basis measurement scale (Jain and Gupta, 2004). 22 items are categorized and indicated in five dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy (Oh, 1999). SERVPERF is a performance-only measurement scale based on the foundation of SERVQUAL. Cronin and Taylor showed that expectation of customer (E) measured in SERVQUAL may not be the significant variable affecting customer perception of service quality. Therefore, SERVPERF scale takes away (E) in the measurement and the equation of unweighted SERVQUAL scales (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985) and unweighted SERVPERF scales (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) are shown as below:

SERVQUAL: SERVPERF:

In general, an unweighted SERVPERF scale is more efficient than an unweighted SERVQUAL scale because of the 50 percent reduction of the number of items that need to be indicated. Moreover, it is able to explain a greater variance of each item scale (Jain and Gupta, 2004).

Demographic information

Although McCarty and Shrum (1993) stated that human behaviour is too complex to explain the perception of customer satisfaction by their model, various other findings have studied the impact of an individual’s demographic background on their perception of service quality. For example, Ganesan, Russelland and Dagger (2008) found that among age, income and gender, only age has a significant relationship with customer perception of service quality. Pooja and Kumar (2016) found that age, gender and education level are associated with the level of an individual’s emotional intelligence and thus influences the customer perception of the authenticity of smile. Nevertheless, Williams et al. (2006) found a linear tendency in that young people have less sensitivity to happiness expressions than older people.

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

A quasi-experimental design was used in the study to indicate the relationship between hotel service providers’ authentic smiles and guest satisfaction with the hotel industry in Macau. The study utilized a quantitative research method with right non-equivalent groups of respondents to generate considerable data to support the hypothesis of the present study.

Data Collection

Primary data were collected through questionnaires to the potential hotel guests in Macau by purposive sampling. According to Hair et al. (1998), the rule of thumb, supported by Wilson Van Voorhis and Morgan, (2007) is that 30 respondents are needed for each version of the questionnaire, which is 240 surveys in total to be done for all eight versions of the questionnaire in this research. The survey was done at the bus station near the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal in Macau, which is one of the places in Macau where many tourists gather. Moreover, tourists are more likely to accept doing a survey while they are waiting for transportation. Therefore, it could enhance the rate of success of the survey. These surveys were conducted by a team of two students from the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) including the researcher of this study.

Question Design

A screening question (HE1) and a warm-up question (HE2) were set at the beginning of the questionnaire, part A, to identify whether the interviewee was a repeated hotel guest in Macau. Then part B of the questionnaire included eight types of smiles in pictures, which were taken from a professional hotel service provider, who had agreed and been well informed that her pictures were going to be exposed to public respondents, were shown to the respondents. In order to indicate if hotel service providers were able to present effective genuine smiles to hotel customers by surface acting (Hochschild, 2003), the professional hotel service provider, who had taken sample pictures of a smile, was presenting each smile slightly differently by receiving the instructions based on 3 factors of facial expression:

smile with/without the appearance changes of the muscles around the eye;

smile with/without showing teeth;

smile with/without head canting.

Table 1. Eight types of smiles by the combinations of 3 factors

Factor “T”

Factor “H”

Factor “E”

Smile no. (code)

Smile without “T”

Smile without “H”

Smile with “E”

Smile 1 (Smile_E)

Smile without “E”

Smile 2 (Smile_None)

Smile with “H”

Smile with “E”

Smile 3 (Smile_EH)

Smile without “E”

Smile 4 (Smile_H)

Smile with “T”

Smile without “H”

Smile with “E”

Smile 5 (Smile_ET)

Smile without “E”

Smile 6 (Smile_T)

Smile with “H”

Smile with “E”

Smile 7 (Smile_ETH)

Smile without “E”

Smile 8 (Smile_TH)

Respondents were asked to indicate the authenticity of each smile as shown in Table 1. They were required to identify the most authentic smile (AS1) and the most preferred smile in the hotel industry (AS2) in order to indicate the relationship between the authenticity of a smile and how a smile was preferred in the hotel industry. Hence, respondents were asked to rate the service quality of the hotels in part C according to the provided smile (C1 to C8).

The questions of service quality were based on the model of unweighted SERVPERF scales (Cronin and Taylor, 1992), which has shown alpha to be above 0.7 in past studies, because it was more efficient and it performed better than SERVQUAL in terms of the variance of single-item scale (Jain and Gupta, 2004). The scales were modified to a more simple design in order to suit this research. Only Responsiveness: “Employees willing to help”; Assurance: “Employees are trustworthy”, “Customers feel safe in dealings”, “Employees are polite”, “Employees have support to do their job well”; Empathy: “Employees provide individualized attention”, “Employees understand customer needs” and “Employees have the best interests of the customer in mind” were used to indicate the impact of a smile on the service quality of hotels in Macau. By filtering the questions from SERVPERF, the research was able to focus on the factors that might be affected by service with a smile. Question C9 was asked to indicate the relationship between the overall result of the modified SERVPERF questions and the overall customer satisfaction with the hotel experience. Questions C10 to C12 were indicating the impact of smiles with different authenticity on the customer’s intention to return. Questions C11 and C12 assumed different physical conditions of a hotel, not good and good, and respondents were asked to adjudge whether they would like to return to the hotel with the provided service smile under these situations. Demographic information was asked at the end of the questionnaire (DE1 to DE4). The response format of the scales employed in the present study was a Five-point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5).

Data Analysis

8 types of smile are tested by a paired-sample t-test to compare the average means of smiles with and without the three factors “E”, “T” and “H”. Meanwhile, descriptive and frequency statistics were used to find out the most authentic and preferable smile for respondents. Moreover, ANOVA Test was applied to indicate the impact of smile authenticity on a customer’s satisfaction and their intention to return. It is also used to find out the influence of respondent’s gender, age and education level on their perception of the authenticity of a smile.

RESULT

Overview of the collected data

The surveys were done by 240 respondents over 18 years old, 90 (37.5%) were male and 150 (62.5%) were female. 83 (34.6%) respondents were aged 18 to 24 years old; 80 (33.3%) were 25 to 34 years old; 41 (17.1%) were 35 to 44 years old; 11 (4.6%) were 45 to 54 years old; 25 (10.1%) were 55 years old or above. Moreover, over 70% of the respondents were undergraduates. Furthermore, over 40% of the respondents came from Mainland China, over one quarter of them came from Hong Kong and the other quarters were local residents.

H1: How customers identify the authenticity of smile?

H2: Does the most authentic smile equal the most preferred smile of hotel guests?

H3: Does the authenticity of a smile affect the satisfaction of hotel customers?

H4: If authentic smiles can enhance the satisfaction of hotel customers, can it lead to higher customer intention to return?

Does demographic background affect the hotel customer perception of the authenticity of a smile?

DISCUSSION

Introduction of the chapter

This chapter aims to discuss whether the statistical finding supports hypotheses 1 to 5. In general, it is going to discuss how factors “E”, “T” and “H” influence the customer perception of the authenticity of smiles, thus, the impact of authenticity of smiles on a customer’s satisfaction and their intention to return. Nevertheless, the relationship between customer perception of authenticity of smiles and their demographic background in terms of age, gender and education level will be discussed as well. To summarize the present findings, hypothesis 1.1, 1.2 and 2 are valid; hypothesis 3 and 4.1 are partly valid as only factor “E” and “T” showed significant positive results but factor “H” showed no significant results on it; hypothesis 1.3, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 are void.

The relationship between authenticity of smile and hotel customer satisfaction

A smile is known as one of the most important emotional expressions in human social interaction for presenting various positive characters such as happiness, enjoyment (Ekman, Davidson and Friesen, 1990; Ekman, 1992; Maringer et al. (2011), attractiveness, generosity, care and support (Lemay, Clark and Greenberg, 2010). Hence, it is able to make a person more likeable and approachable by providing a positive impression to others (Lau, 1982; Lemay, Clark and Greenberg). The present findings support the idea that smiles with factor “E” (the smiles with the appearance changes by orbicularis oculi muscle, the muscle around the eyes and control the facial expression around eye), factor “T” (the smiles with showing teeth), and factor “H” (the smiles with head turning sideways) are able to influence customer perception of the authenticity of the smile. It is important to note that the authenticity of a smile is a significant factor for humans to sense and judge the level of those positive emotions (Maringer et al.). Interestingly, the effect of service with a smile is able to be improved by mimicry of authentic smiles (Kim and Yoon, 2012). Furthermore, the effect of presenting an authentic smile is possibly enhanced by the halo effect (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Thorndike, 1920), which is a cognitive bias in psychology where an individual tends to use global evaluation to judge another individual’s general image by their specific attractive signature. In other words, by training (Thibault, Levesque, Gosselin and Hess, 2012) and displaying the most or more authentic and preferable smile to customers, it is believed to improve the effectiveness of delighting customers in a service encounter and thus enhancing the satisfaction of hotel customers.

Although it is arguable that the perception of authenticity of a smile and the impact of the halo effect might be influenced by a customer’s personality and their typical concept based on their past experience with smiles, this research showed that, in general, the smiles with factor “E” and “T” possibly emphasize the positive impressions of service providers, and then enhance customer satisfaction. For factor “E”, it coincided with the theory of the Duchenne smile. Moreover, a smile displaying teeth is able to enhance the facial attractiveness and self-confidence of the smile presenter (Van der Geld, Oosterveld, van Heck and Kuijpers-Jagtman 2007). However, the result of head canting contradicted the results of Costa and Bitti,(2000) which is an individual with left or right head canting has more positive impact on both attractiveness and trustworthiness than without head canting. This contradiction could be explained by the finding of Otta et al. (1994). As the sample smiles were presented by a female hotel professional, the reliability of the smiles with “E” is possibly decreased by the gender of the smile presenter. As a result, less authenticity of the smile is felt by the customer.

Relationship between authenticity of smile and customer intention to return

The present finding is shown as expected that, compared to smiles without factors “E” and “T”, smiles with those two factors have a significant improvement on the customer’s intention to return in general and when the physical condition of hotel is acceptable. However, smiles with factor “H”, as a negative factor for customer perception on the authenticity of a smile, significantly lower the customer return intention in general and even in the hotel with an acceptable physical condition. However interestingly, smiles with factor “E”, more precisely the smile with factor “ET”, made a significant difference to customer intention to return when the physical condition of hotel is not acceptable. It is another contradiction to some of the past studies (Grandey et al., 2005; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010). Although the present result is not likely to explain the reason for the improvement of customer return intention by the smile with factor “ET”, it could be reasonably demonstrated by other research. Robinson and Clore (2002) have mentioned an Accessibility Model of Emotion Self-report that studying people’s judgement on whether a smile is presented by genuine emotion. They found that people are more likely to judge the emotion by their conceptual imagination if they are not able to apply their past experience on the judgement. Therefore, a smile with factor “ET” is possibly the most successful expression of a smile to match with the most authentic and preferable smile according to customer experience or the best smile they have imagined by using their conceptual knowledge. Hence, a smile with factor “ET” is good enough to break the barrier and become the most influential smile.

Relationship between demographic background of customers and their perception of the authenticity of a smile

Discussion on future research

Customer perspective is used in this research to study the effect of authenticity of the smile on their satisfaction of hotel quality. Therefore, future research may aim to study the impact of emotional intelligence and the personality of a smile presenter on the presentation of an authentic smile. As a result, it is able to complete the study about the authenticity of smiles on the enhancement of hotel customer satisfaction from the perspective of the service providers.

Recommendations for hotel service trainers

It is suggested that hotel service providers should be trained to present the smile type 5 (Smile_ET) to customers. It is the smile presenting the most authentic perception to customers which is also the most preferred smile for customers. Smile 5 can be a kind of surface acting presentation which means it does not require employees to have consistent facial expression and emotion. In general, it is the smile that employees can learn and present to customers in order to enhance customer satisfaction most significantly even if employees are suffering from negative emotional issues, which may be due to the effect of job burnout, employee personality or an unsatisfying working environment.

Limitation of the research

First of all, authenticity of smiles is a comparatively subjective topic to study. Hence, a number of factors that were not indicated in this research may also affect the final result. For example, the model chosen to present an authentic smile and shown to respondents may affect the result in terms of gender, appearance, age and the model’s own emotional intelligence, these factors may affect the ability of the model to present the level of authenticity of the smile. Moreover, the perception of respondents on the authenticity of a smile may be influenced by their own personality. Moreover, the modified satisfaction model was not proven by authoritative studies. Although it is modified according to the SERVPERF model, the overall effect of the modified model, compared to the original SERVPERF model, cannot be guaranteed. Furthermore, the scope of the research survey is limited in terms of time, budget and human resources. As mentioned, the personality of the smile presenter and customers are critical to the results of the research, and it is too complex to indicate in the simple model of research with limited time. Moreover, the scope of the collected data is not equally distributed in terms of demographic information. It is difficult for a street intercept survey to collect an equally distributed amount of data in terms of demographic information. For example, tourists from mainland China are more difficult to approach for survey purposes.

CONCLUSION

Serving with an authentic smile is commonly applied by the hotel industry. However it is always arguable what kind of smile is authentic, more importantly, what kind of smile is the most preferred by hotel customers? This study has indicated a significant relationship between the authenticity of a smile and the most preferred smile in the Macau hotel industry. Moreover, eight smiles with a combination of three factors are set to test the customer perception of authenticity of smiles. The most authentic smile and the less authentic smile stand out from those eight types of smile. The most authentic smile is the smile with appearance changes of the muscles around the eye (E) and showing teeth (T) but without head canting (H); the less authentic smile is the smile only with factor “H”. Moreover, the three factors indicated their significant impact on the customer perception of the authenticity of smiles. Furthermore, smiles with factors “ET” are tested to be authentic and able to significantly benefit hotel customer satisfaction. Non-authentic smiles are well-identified by respondents and decrease hotel customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the customers return intention varies with the authenticity of the smile, the most authentic smile can even improve a customer’s intention to return significantly in a hotel with an unacceptable physical condition. In other words, a well-trained hotel service provider with an authentic smile carrying factor “ET” is able to enhance the general customer satisfaction and their intention to return. Last but not least, customer age and gender might influence the effect of service with a smile. However, if hotel service providers are able to serve with the most authentic smile in a service encounter, it is believed to significantly improve customer satisfaction in general compared to other types of smile.

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Pictures with a new meaning - How photography affects the travel experience of generation Y

Sandra Hettegger

Magdalena Patz

Elisabeth Puschan

Johanna Röck

Sabine Sarlay

Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Abstract

Tourism and photography have ever been interrelated. While photographs were initially used by tourists as an object of lasting memory, it is nowadays increasingly becoming a tool for an individual´s identity formation and communication. New technology, especially digital cameras, smartphones and social media platforms have triggered a shift to ‘timelessness’ and ‘ubiquity’. One of the most significant changes for tourists is the resulting centrality of photography to the tourist experience. Travel photography allows tourists to transform an intangible experience on-site into something tangible and it gives them the chance to take ownership of certain experiences. There is a gap in theory concerning how tourists’ experiences are different for tourists who take photographs primarily for themselves versus those who intend to share them with others which is where this paper aims to fill in. It draws attention to the already existent literature about digital photography in tourism and outlines how the travel experience is different for members of generation Y based on their intentions when taking a photograph. While those, who are taking a photograph in order to share it with others are more engaged in the experience, most people still take photographs for themselves. Nonetheless, members of generation Y are more self-focused and therefore constantly form an idea of their self. This study serves as a basis for further research in this field to better understand and adapt to current and future generation customers.

Keywords: digital photography, tourist experience, photography experience, tourism, photography, memory, social self, self-staging, tourism setting, social media, sharing, generation Y

INTRODUCTION

The development of photography in the early 19th century revolutionized culture and communication in the West forever. For the first time in history, images of ‘real’ life could be captured for posterity and sent all over the globe. Portraits of royalty and other public figures (which were far more accurate than paintings) allowed people the feeling of viewing these people ‘in the flesh’. The dead could be remembered, moments could be retained (British Library Board, 2016). Ever since its beginnings, this discipline has also been used to explore society. Another kind of social exploration came up a little later in using photography as a part of reporting the news or to record important social events (Becker, 1974).

Long before cameras existed, people travelled to different places for different purposes. Nevertheless, traveling to spas, seaside resorts, as well as the Thomas cook tours in the nineteenth century marked the start of recreational, scenic, and cultural mass tourism in the west (Belk & Yeh, 2011). This development shows that there were no large amounts of tourists before there were cameras, since photography began in 1839 with the daguerreotype (Sontag, 2005). Furthermore, Lo, McKercher, Lo, Cheung, & Law (2011) noted that “as soon as there was photography, there was also travel photography”.

Accordingly, there has always been a close connection between tourists and photography. The link was fostered with the help of digital cameras, which made it easier to capture holiday experiences and share them afterwards. Photography nowadays plays an important role in tourism settings. First of all, photographs serve as evidence that the tourist has been to a certain destination and has experienced some authentic moments. Second, when focusing on a deeper meaning, photographs help to create travel memories and stories that can be easily stored and shared. This action of story formation also leads, beside creating deep memory, to maintaining social relationships as photographs mostly capture people, different places or other cultures (Lo et al., 2011)

The focus of tourist photography over time has changed from simply capturing moments or experiences to incorporating the production of social relations. In today’s fast changing environment, tourists like to exchange images with those who stayed home, which then results in a digital immediacy (Dinhopl & Gretzel, 2016). Instead of living the moment and experiencing the event, a scenery or an object itself, now, what counts is the formation of an experience that is carried out through photography and capturing what one wishes to see. This pattern especially has arisen through the development of digital photography and the interlinked usage of photo shopping software, which helps to create an ideal image out of the original image (Lo & McKercher, 2015).

While analogue photography focused on a future audience, digital photography emphasizes its immediate audience. John Tomlinson therefore refers to a certain ‘culture of instantaneity’, which aims at fast delivery of experiences and a gratification of desires (Robinson & Picard, 2009).

Studies on digital photography as such are nothing new. However, there is still a lack in theory concerning how the tourists’ photography behavior and the related experience are different for tourists who take photographs for themselves versus the experience of those who intentionally take photographs to share them with others. In their research about how photo-taking increases the enjoyment of experiences, Diehl, Zauberman, & Barasch (2016) point out that the motivation for the traveler taking pictures might have an effect on their enjoyment, memory and the photos themselves. Therefore, this study analyses the following:

How does the motivation whether tourists take photos to capture the experience for themselves versus to share them with others affect the travel experience of generation Y?

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Travel is the process when people leave their common environment to go to different places. The main objectives of traveling are to interact with the objects and people at those places. In addition, special moments and experiences during traveling are then documented by photographs or videos (Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012). Photography began with photographs of the notable and has ended up making notable whatever is photographed. It gives shape to much travel as people also stop somewhere for taking a photograph or even take some extra mile to not miss a photo-opportunity.

Though photographs represent reflections or distortions of the pre-existing world, they can also be understood as a technology of world making. Images are part of practices through which people work to establish realities. Rather than just mirroring geographies, photographs partly create them, culturally, socially and materially (Urry & Larsen, 2014). Travel photography is commonly used to share the individual travel experience. On the one hand it can be a representation of experience and on the other hand it is considered to be a social experience itself. Therefore, the travel photograph combines what tourists see and experience in foreign cultures, the perceptions and expectations of those certain places and cultures as well as what they wish to remember from their travel experience (Sheung, Lo, & Mckercher, 2009). When taking photographs tourists mainly focus on subjects which are unique to them. Therefore, the scope ranges from landscapes, portraits, architecture, culture, food and wildlife to macro subjects (Gogoi, 2014).