Education

The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today (28 April) announced the findings of a study on “A Decision Support System for Post-COVID Tourism Policy Formation and Monitoring”. The study developed a cloud-based social listening platform, TOUROMETER, to measure Hong Kong residents’ sentiment towards visitors and tourism development as well as visitors’ sentiment towards Hong Kong tourism.

Instead of using traditional measures such as classification of attitudes as either positive or negative to estimate support for tourism, this project introduces a more refined concept, ambivalence, that can capture individuals’ simultaneously held positive and negative views. The platform offers a tool for policymakers to monitor the ambivalence of relevant stakeholders towards tourists and tourism development, as well as an effective channel for public engagement to help achieve collaborative planning.

Spearheaded by Prof. Cathy HSU, Principal Investigator and SHTM Chair Professor, the project was funded by the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme, Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office. The project employed rigorous research methodologies, including the analysis of longitudinal news and social media big data through meta machine learning, and statistical modeling using economy, environment, tourism and census data.

Over the past four years, social unrest and COVID-19 have imposed unprecedented setbacks on Hong Kong tourism. The challenges, however, signify opportunities for reviewing past experience in order to shed light on more effective policymaking in the future. In particular, policies to attract Mainland Chinese tourists, the dominant source market representing 78% of arrivals to Hong Kong in 2018, and to spearhead a healthy post-COVID tourism recovery deserve holistic consideration. “Since the launch of the Individual Visit Scheme in 2003, the huge influx of Mainland Chinese tourists has facilitated exponential tourism growth but simultaneously imposed a heavy burden on local lives, which has intensified tensions between Hong Kong residents and tourists from the Mainland,” Prof. Hsu said. “A lesson to be learned is that understanding and monitoring residents’ and visitors’ sentiments is critical for effective policy formation and timely amendments to avoid detrimental and irreversible conflicts.”

Developed by the project team, the TOUROMETER serves as a public policy decision support system to understand public voices in a timely and ongoing manner. The project has collected sentiment data from Hong Kong residents and Mainland Chinese tourists on popular social media platforms (e.g., Twitter and Ctrip) and 19 major newspapers in Hong Kong from 2003 onward. The results show that:

1. Hong Kong residents’ dispositions based on news stories and those on social media posts are significantly different. Positive news stories do not necessarily mean positive social media postings. In general, resident disposition on social media is less positive and more ambivalent to Mainland Chinese tourists and tourism development than that found in the news.
2. Hong Kong residents’ disposition to Hong Kong tourism development is significantly correlated with their disposition towards Mainland Chinese tourists. The more ambivalent residents are to Mainland Chinese tourists, the more ambivalent they are to tourism development.
3. The economy, environment and quality of life have significant influences on Hong Kong residents’ dispositions towards Mainland Chinese tourists and tourism development. Specifically, the higher the GDP per capita and the worse air pollution experienced, the less positive and more ambivalent residents are to Mainland Chinese tourists; on the other hand, the higher the unemployment rate, the more positive and less ambivalent are views of Mainland Chinese tourists and tourism development.
4. Mainland Chinese tourists’ perception of Hong Kong tourism is significantly correlated with the Hong Kong economy, environment and resident sentiment. The better the economy and environment, the more positive the tourist perception of Hong Kong; however, the more negative the resident sentiment, the less positive the Mainland Chinese tourists’ perception is of Hong Kong tourism.

It is, therefore, important to balance the interests of residents and tourists to achieve social sustainability. As a useful tool for various tourism stakeholders, the TOUROMETER allows individuals’ opinions to be heard in a timely manner so that they can be used to inform public policymaking; industry practitioners to recognise social issues, and manage risks and opportunities effectively; and government to monitor public opinions holistically, and formulate or amend policies timely. When the sentiment trends below an acceptable level, policies can be devised or revised to address the issue. The factors identified as influencing residents’ and tourists’ perceptions of Hong Kong tourism should also be monitored. Appropriate policy measures can then be taken to cultivate positive and reduce negative sentiments.

With the re-opening of the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China, the Hong Kong tourism industry is ushering in spring after a long winter. It is an opportune time to balance various stakeholders’ interests for long-term competitiveness, as only where there are happy hosts, are there happy guests. “This study provides important information to better enable the Hong Kong government to effectively support the sustainable development of Hong Kong’s tourism industry” Prof. Hsu remarked. “The SHTM is proud to be able to support the development of the tourism industry in this significant way.”

About PolyU School of Hotel and Tourism Management

For over 40 years, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has refined a distinctive vision of hospitality and tourism education and become a world-leading hotel and tourism school. Ranked No. 1 in the world in the “Hospitality and Tourism Management” category in ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022 for the sixth consecutive year; placed No. 1 globally in the “Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services” category in the University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2021/2022 for five years in a row; rated No. 1 in the world in the “Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism” subject area by the CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017; and ranked No. 2 in the world among university based programmes in the “Hospitality and Leisure Management” subject area in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 for the seventh consecutive year, the SHTM is a symbol of excellence in the field, exemplifying its motto of Leading Hospitality and Tourism.

The School is driven by the need to serve its industry and academic communities through the advancement of education and dissemination of knowledge. With a strong international team of over 90 faculty members from diverse cultural backgrounds, the SHTM offers programmes at levels ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees. Through Hotel ICON, the School’s groundbreaking teaching and research hotel and a vital aspect of its paradigm-shifting approach to hospitality and tourism education, the SHTM is advancing teaching, learning and research, and inspiring a new generation of passionate, pioneering professionals to take their positions as leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Many organisations take pride in their ability to offer a rich variety of supportive programmes for employees with families. However, the growing number of single childless people in the workforce, especially members of Generations Y and Z, rarely benefit from equivalent perks or policies. Does the hospitality industry care about single childless employees? Curious as to whether organisational support can benefit hotels and their employees, Dr Xiaolin (Crystal) Shi of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and her co-author quizzed hotel employees in China about their experiences. The fruits of their comprehensive analysis will help organisations to create more supportive environments for employees, whilst also boosting hotel outcomes.

Now more than ever, single employees without children dominate the labour-intensive hotel industry. Perhaps thanks to the false assumption that they have more free time and fewer responsibilities, “members of this group are often expected to shoulder heavier workloads, work longer hours, and travel more for work to support the family demands of their married colleagues”, say the researchers. They have also been found to engage in more emotional labour, to have less decision-making latitude, and to face more negative work–nonwork spillover than employees who are in a couple and/or have children. This highlights the emerging need to ascertain the workplace challenges faced by single childless employees in the hotel industry.

Common to all employees is the challenge of achieving a “work–life balance”, which is the harmony between a individual’s different roles, responsibilities and personal values. Whilst the concept of a work–family balance has been examined in great depth, it is not necessarily relevant to single childless people, whose “personal” roles are less likely to be family-related. “The commonly used terms ‘work–family conflict’ and ‘family-supportive organisational culture’ do not apply to all”, explain the researchers.

They therefore inspected the experiences of “personal-to-work conflict”, which occurs when personal activities infringe on professional ones, and “work-to-personal conflict”, which occurs when job demands require a sacrifice of personal time and energy. A potential way to minimise these kinds of conflicts and strike a healthy work–life balance is through the provision of “organisational support”.

Family-supportive work cultures can increase job satisfaction and performance—similar benefits might reasonably be expected by providing organisational support to single people without children. A singles-friendly organisational culture is one that nurtures a work-life balance equally among employees, and not just in those who are married or with children. For this, it is crucial to acknowledge that family life and personal life are not one and the same. “Previous work has suggested that the work domain, family domain, and personal domain should be treated separately”, explain the authors.

Social inclusion is a key dimension of a singles-friendly work culture, and especially relevant to single childless employees, who are known to suffer more from social isolation and loneliness. “A high level of organisational support is typically linked with positive organisational outcomes”, say the authors, “and social inclusion has been associated with both affective organisational commitment and perceived organisational support.” The researchers therefore predicted that a strong socially inclusive organisational culture would reduce personal-to-work and work-to-personal conflicts.

Dissatisfaction and apathy can ensue when there is a discrepancy between desired and actual work-life balance. In addition, employees who feel that the available support is simply not enough to overcome work-life conflicts have heightened stress levels. “For single childless employees, the incongruence between their perceptions of work–personal conflicts and relevant support from their organisations may result in negative consequences, such as lower job performance”, say the researchers. Accordingly, they predicted that an organisational-level social inclusion of a singles-friendly culture would yield better job performance.

Social inclusion of a singles-friendly culture might also have the power to boost the enjoyment got from leisure activities. Leisure activities contribute to psychological well-being and life satisfaction, and the loss of the freedom to engage in them can sour attitudes towards one’s own personal life. “Hospitality employees in particular may have less time and energy for leisure activities after work, preventing them from satisfying their need for relaxation or resulting in lower levels of leisure satisfaction”, say the researchers. An organisational culture geared towards improving employees’ work-life balance could therefore boost leisure satisfaction.

The researchers gathered rich data from total of 639 full-time employees, who were recruited from 29 full-service hotels in China. Participants completed a pre-developed questionnaires that measured personal-to-work and work-to-personal conflicts, leisure satisfaction, and their perception of the degree of social inclusion of a singles-friendly culture. Job performance was assessed using a survey completed by participants’ direct supervisors, who rated items such as “this employee performs tasks that are expected of him/her.” Hierarchical linear modelling was then applied to examine the relationships between variables, whilst controlling for potential confounding variables, such as whether participants were men or women.

The results were unambiguous. Single childless employees who worked in hotels with a socially inclusive culture had notably less conflict between their work and personal domains, a more impressive job performance, and more satisfaction from leisure activities. “These findings highlight the significance of the social inclusion of a singles-friendly culture for both employees and organisations”, say the researchers. As a second intriguing finding, the effect of an inclusive organisational culture on employees’ job performance and leisure satisfaction were shaped by their degree of work-to-personal conflict. This, clarify the authors, could be explained by the important role of personal domain variables in influencing employees’ perceptions.

Such clear-cut findings should easily persuade managers to embrace a singles-friendly culture to enable a balance between the work and personal roles of single childless employees. Hotels could establish programs and policies to eliminate negative stereotyping, and should not solely focus on the needs of married and parent employees. “Although single childless employees do not require support for family responsibilities, they do require support for personal and social matters”, reiterate the authors. Hotels could also facilitate an enhanced mutual understanding between single and married employees through team-building activities, which would inspire more harmonious and productive relationships in the workplace.

The nature of social inclusion of a singles-friendly culture varied from hotel to hotel. “As such”, explain the researchers, “hotels should take their unique organisational cultures and characteristics into consideration when developing socially inclusive programs.” Hotel chains could, for instance infuse their mission and core values into inclusive policies and programs, and make sure that the same support is provided across all of their hotels. This would mean that employees who are transferred from one hotel to another of the same chain can more rapidly assimilate into their new working environment and immediately feel a sense of belonging.

With fewer people than ever in their 30s and 40s choosing to get married or have children, the hospitality workforce is increasingly home to single childless workers. This pioneering new work shows that the time has come to address their needs. “The study can assist hotel industry managers in recognising single childless employees as an important, distinct, and growing segment of the labour force”, conclude the authors. As well as several managerial implications, this investigation also paves the way for more exciting research. For example, future work could additionally consider how a supportive culture affects other workers who also have a “non-traditional” family structure, such as those in a same-sex relationship.

Shi, Xiaolin (Crystal), and Shi, Jieyu (Jade) (2022). Who Cares about Single Childless Employees in the Hotel Industry? Creating a Workplace Culture Beyond Family-Friendly. Tourism Management, Vol. 90, 104477

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

In today’s travel and events industries, multiple service providers work together to shape unique, complex and multidimensional customer experiences. However, such connectedness can come at a cost. Within a network or ecosystem of service providers, a single service failure can have cascading effects on all stakeholders. Yet we still know little about the optimal strategies for service recovery in such networked contexts. Filling this gap in the literature, Dr Karin Weber and Professor Cathy Hsu of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University shed light on how customers perceive and react to service failure and recovery measures in today’s complexly interlinked business environments. Their findings offer crucial guidance for travel and events practitioners on ensuring that customers are as satisfied as possible following service failure.

Whilst the customer–firm dyad was central to service scenarios in the early 2000s, the situation today is very different, with increasingly interconnected service providers, environments and dynamics. Service quality now depends on complex networks and ecosystems of interacting partners that share resources, tools and goals and whose failures can have far-reaching effects. Surprisingly, however, research has thus far failed to consider service failure (SF) and recovery measures in networked contexts. As a result, strategies for optimising service encounters in the modern world remain suboptimal. “The time has come to expand service research”, say the researchers, “to understand the development of service systems, networks, and ecosystems”.

Travel experiences are a good example of networked service provision, as they involve a range of stakeholders – such as airlines, hotels and destinations – that collaboratively create value for travellers. Similarly, customer experiences in the rapidly growing events industry are shaped by multiple “loosely connected” entities, such as event organisers, venues, sponsors and destinations. SF is fairly common in the events industry. “Music festivals in particular are prone to failure,” say the authors, “with wide-ranging implications for the various stakeholders”. To date, however, no consensus has been reached on how to respond to SF in the networked environments of today’s travel and events industries.

Imagine the following scenario. A theatre company partners with a nearby restaurant and taxi firm in return for meal discounts and reliable transportation after performances. However, their collaboration is disrupted by an SF caused by the taxi firm. When a service experience is coordinated in this way, how do network members determine which party or parties should undertake SF recovery and how to protect their respective reputations?

Customers care about the source of SF recovery. They may even expect non-responsible entities to implement recovery, the authors tell us, “despite their potentially limited ability to do so”. Research has shown that firms can benefit from implementing external recovery efforts, but only when they are unaffiliated with the party responsible for the SF. “An SF by one firm actually creates an opportunity to enhance customer evaluations of a different firm in a contiguous service experience”, the authors deduce. To explore this issue in more depth, they compared customers’ responses to SF recovery implemented by different parties: the firm responsible for the SF, a firm affiliated with the responsible firm, a firm unaffiliated with the responsible firm, and multiple affiliated firms.

Customers’ responses to SF recovery may also hinge on their assessment of how fairly the SF has been dealt with. In general, customers who have experienced failure are looking for justice. This, say the researchers, “relates to customers’ perceptions of the fairness of actual outcomes or consequences”, such as the provision of monetary or non-monetary compensation. The researchers compared the effectiveness of compensation versus a sincere apology in limiting customer dissatisfaction following SF. They also filled a gap in research by exploring whether and how customer responses to recovery efforts were affected by the severity of the SF.

To empirically examine customer responses to SF and recovery measures, the researchers carefully designed and administered two online script-based surveys. In Study 1, 207 participants were asked to imagine that they had arranged to attend an international music festival but subsequently encountered an SF in the form of an airline overbooking, a delayed flight or a missed flight connection. They were then presented with one of four external recovery scenarios, in which the recovery was implemented by either an airline alliance partner (affiliated recovery firm) or a hotel (unaffiliated recovery firm) and the recovery outcome was either compensation, in the form of an upgrade, or an apology. The participants rated their satisfaction with, intention to recommend via word of mouth and repeat purchase intention regarding the recovery firm.

Study 2 extended this consecutive two-firm context to an event experience created by several service providers. Seasoned festival-goers were asked to imagine that they had purchased tickets for a music festival, along with transportation to and accommodation at the festival site, before encountering an SF. Splitting the participants into six groups, the authors measured the effect of SF severity (minor problems encountered at the festival versus a cancelled flight) on the participants’ evaluation of the event organiser, venue, sponsor and destination.

In Study 2, the researchers also compared the participants’ responses to recovery implemented by the responsible party, namely the event organiser (which provided compensation in the form of a partial ticket refund/donation to a national charity), versus recovery implemented jointly by all four entities (which provided either compensation, i.e., a free concert ticket, or an apology). Again, the participants’ satisfaction, word of mouth recommendation intention and repeat purchase intention were recorded.

As expected, Study 1 revealed higher customer ratings for satisfaction, word of mouth intention and repeat purchase intention for the recovery firm that was unaffiliated (versus affiliated) with the firm responsible for the SF. In general, customers preferred to be compensated than to receive an apology, but affiliated firms had the most to gain from offering compensation. “A tangible goodwill gesture is more effective than a simple apology if a firm wants to take advantage of an SF by another service provider”, add the researchers. For example, hotels could extend checkout times for guests with delayed flights to minimise negative customer responses.

Study 2 confirmed that SF severity also impacted consumer evaluations. In the high-severity scenario, the event organiser (responsible for the SF) received particularly low ratings relative to the other three entities involved in the experience creation. Surprisingly, however, consumer evaluations and behaviours were not more positive following external recovery by affiliated entities than following internal recovery by the entity to blame for the SF, the event organiser. According to the researchers, this suggests that costly efforts made by affiliated firms to appease frustrated customers may not result in “more favourable consumer evaluations of and behaviour toward the entities implementing such external recovery measures”.

The results also showed that the kind of compensation offered should be carefully considered. Study 2 revealed that offering a free ticket to a concert in the future actually increased the frustration of non-local festival-goers, who had already made travel and accommodation arrangements. In contrast, Study 1 showcased the advantages of immediate and/or flexible compensation offered by airlines and hotels. “In a festival context,” conclude the authors, “any external recovery offered by affiliated stakeholders should not only be of similar value but also be immediate and flexible in nature”.

Moving beyond the dyadic business–consumer interactions of the past, this study breaks new ground by examining SF and recovery measures in a networked world. Its results provide much-needed guidance for modern travel and events practitioners seeking to limit customer dissatisfaction following SFs caused by various stakeholders. To optimise their recovery strategies, network members should carefully consider SF severity, choose the right party or parties to implement recovery and determine the most appropriate type of compensation. As the researchers note, these insights may be particularly relevant in “extraordinarily challenging business environments” such as those created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weber, Karin, and Hsu, Cathy H. C. (2022). Beyond a Single Firm and Internal Focus Service Failure/Recovery: Multiple Providers and External Service Recoveries. Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 61, Issue 1, pp. 50-63.

First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Trees, potted plants and “green walls” may not be conventional forms of interior design, but with growing demand for sustainable, eco-friendly hospitality, hotels are upping their efforts to incorporate “green atmospherics” into their indoor spaces. Whilst people’s behaviour is known to be shaped by their physical surroundings, the specific effects of living plants, scent, air quality, natural light and green spaces are not yet known. Focusing on the luxury hotel sector, Professor Jin-Soo Lee of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and co-researchers explored the influence of various dimensions of green atmospherics on the well-being and behavioural intentions of hotel guests and employees. Their findings could help luxury hotel managers deliver a more enjoyable experience for guests and take better care of their employees while also reducing their environmental impact.

The hotel sector is a major contributor to pollution, waste and environmental damage. Hotels not only generate large volumes of greenhouse gases, grey water and food waste but also consume substantial natural resources. As the tourism industry continues to grow, so does the need to provide more eco-friendly lodging for travellers. Rising to this challenge, many hotels are making moves to minimise their environmental impact by implementing green initiatives, which simultaneously meet the growing customer demand for sustainable hospitality. Increasingly, the researchers note, “individuals embrace sustainability as not only a design preference, but also a moral code”.

“Green atmospherics” describes a healthy, eco-friendly physical environment. Hotels keen to foster green atmospherics might furnish their indoor spaces with living trees, potted plants, green rest areas, fresh air, natural light and good ventilation. “Visitors and employees in a hotel are therefore interacting with various elements of its green indoor atmospherics”, say the researchers. According to previous studies, interacting with green and healthy atmospherics can boost guests’ positive experiences of hotels. Indoor atmospherics may influence cognitive, emotional and physical responses as well as behaviours such as retention, loyalty and word-of-mouth intention.

According to the researchers, the beneficial effects of green atmospherics can be explained by the “stimulus organism response theory”, which formed the backdrop of this research. This theory holds that environmental attributes act as stimuli that influence a person’s mental state, which in turn affects their behaviour. “In particular,” say the authors, “environmental psychologists argue that positive behaviours derive from individuals’ well-being and happiness through positive experiences”. Accordingly, green indoor atmospherics are likely to foster positive responses and behaviours in hotel guests.

In modern society, the chance to connect with nature is usually joyfully welcomed, with intuitive links to mental well-being. In hotels, green atmospherics are conducive to a positive state of mind that results in a greater sense of well-being. Mental well-being is “a crucial concept for both patrons and workers”, emphasise the authors. For instance, employees are more willing to work in places that promote their well-being. The authors hypothesised that green atmospherics in hotels enhance the mental well-being of both hotel guests and employees.

In turn, mental well-being is known to affect decision making and behaviour. Research has found that mental well-being significantly predicts hotel employees’ green behaviour. “Mental well-being brings diverse outcomes that are beneficial to the company”, say the authors. These outcomes can include an enhanced sense of belonging, loyalty and purchase/recommendation intentions and behaviours. Building on these findings, the researchers aimed to determine how mental well-being affects the behavioural intentions of hotel guests and employees.

Finally, the researchers considered the role of “place dependence”, defined as a sense of deep connection with spaces that meet one’s functional and emotional needs. “Travellers who feel comfortable and familiar with a place are likely to have strong place dependence or attachment and to revisit the place”, explain the authors. Mental well-being has been found to determine place dependence, which can in turn affect customers’ purchase intentions, loyalty, and other behaviours. To explore these connections in greater depth, the researchers investigated the influence of mental well-being on place dependence and how place dependence can in turn affect behavioural intentions in the context of green atmospherics in hotels.

In an elegant two-phase experiment, the researchers explored the nuanced relationships between elements of green atmospherics and the well-being, place dependence and behavioural intentions of hotel employees and guests. In Phase 1, focus group discussions with five hotel guests, five hotel employees and three hospitality management professors revealed seven important attributes of green indoor atmospherics, which were assigned to three major categories: green ambient conditions (air quality, scent, natural light), green items (e.g. living plants) and green spaces/areas (e.g. green rest areas).

Phase 2 was a field survey conducted at luxury hotels in South Korean cities. Over 10 days, 253 hotel guests with a mean age of 35 were recruited from different indoor spaces in their hotels to complete a questionnaire. Data from 247 employees, aged 32.5 on average, were also collected on site from the same luxury hotels. All of the participants completed a questionnaire that measured their mental well-being, place dependence and behavioural intentions.

A key novel contribution of this study lies in its categorisation of the attributes of green indoor atmospherics in luxury hotels into green ambient conditions, green items and green spaces/areas. The researchers found that these constructs influenced the formation of mental well-being, place dependence and behavioural intentions among hotel guests and hotel employees. Supporting stimulus organism response theory, this finding highlights “the role of green indoor atmospherics in inducing guests’ and employees’ mental well-being perception”, say the researchers, “which leads to increased place dependence and behavioural intentions”.

Mental well-being and place dependence not only directly triggered behavioural intentions but also indirectly influenced behavioural intentions by maximising the influence of green indoor atmospherics. Through targeted efforts to enhance mental well-being and place dependence, say the authors, hotels could optimise their use of green ambient conditions, green items and green spaces/areas. “This will fortify the effect of these concepts in building guest and employee intentions to remain with the hotel, say positive things about the hotel, and have loyalty to the hotel.”

The power of green atmospherics to make guests feel healthy and happy, and the pivotal role of mental well-being, highlights a unique opportunity for hotels. “Offering mental well-being to hotel guests and hotel employees is a vital step for the increased intentions to remain with the hotel, say positive things about the hotel, and be loyal to the hotel”, clarify the authors. Managers could diversify their efforts to enhance guests’ and employees’ well-being by, for example, improving social interactions for guests through leisure facility discounts and strengthening social relationships between colleagues through team building activities.

The final noteworthy finding is that of the three dimensions of green atmospherics, green ambient conditions most strongly influenced guests’ well-being, whereas these three dimensions had more or less equal effects on the mental well-being of employees. “It is thus essential for luxury hotel proprietors to focus more on fortifying the ambient conditions within the hotel and its performance in order to attain a stronger level of mental well-being among their guests”, note the researchers. Additionally, at a similar level of mental well-being, guests more actively built behavioural intentions than employees did.

This insightful study identifies mental well-being as a key driver of the influence of green atmospherics in hotels on behavioural intentions, particularly those of guests. The findings also indicate a clear need to tailor strategies for promoting green atmospherics to different groups. “To effectively enhance mental well-being and behavioural intentions”, conclude the authors, “luxury hotel proprietors should develop and use tactics that are different for guests and for employees”. The insights afforded by this study also have exciting implications for creating green atmospherics in other indoor service settings, such as restaurants and cruise ships.

Han, Heesup, Lee, Jin-Soo, and Koo, Bonhak (2021). Impact of Green Atmospherics on Guest and Employee Well-Being Response, Place Dependence, and Behavior in the Luxury Hotel Sector. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 29, Issue 10, pp. 1613-1634.

First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Contactless technology is transforming hospitality in China and beyond. Research by Dr Fei Hao and Professor Kaye Chon of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University shows that travellers have varying levels of readiness for contactless hotels. Hospitality firms are advised to be mindful of this variation when designing strategies to boost customer equity. For guests who are still sceptical about contactless technology, services that evoke delight may be the best way to retain their custom. Those with concerns around COVID-19 may be particularly reassured by positive experiences in a contactless hotel.

The pandemic has spurred a contactless trend that was already underway, with services like smartphone payment and Hong Kong’s Octopus travel card firmly established. The hotel sector is introducing a suite of high-tech contactless systems to protect guests and workers against infection. As the researchers note, “hospitality firms around the world have widely adopted voice control (e.g., smart speaker TVs), motion sensing (e.g., touchless elevators), and mobile control (e.g., mobile check-in and check-out).” In mainland China, many hotels offer technologies once considered futuristic, such as robotic room services and facial recognition at check-in.

Although they are still far from universal, these features add to the hotel experience in several ways. Touch-free systems not only provided peace of mind during the pandemic but also improve the convenience and perhaps even sensory experience of a stay. Guests who feel safer and more comfortable feel more satisfied and are more likely to share their positive experiences via word-of-mouth. For hotels, these benefits directly increase “customer equity”, which the researchers define as “the sum of the discounted stream of cash flows generated from a company’s pool of customers.”

However, from a business view, going contactless is not without risks. A hotel is a place that guests call home for days or even weeks. Are such visitors happy with a new mode of customer service that minimises touch? “Traditionally,” say the researchers, “the hospitality industry is based on the warmth of ‘human contact’, and misgivings have thus been raised about the efficacy of contactless service”. Customer equity may thus be damaged rather than increased by the contactless transformation, as guests who miss the traditional, tactile, personalised ways of hotel service may be on balance less satisfied with their stay, even if they appreciate the efforts to fight infection.

Contactless technology is expensive, especially when implemented at every step of a guest’s stay. A pandemic is no time for hotels to take reckless risks; the decision to make such a costly investment can only be justified if it gives a healthy return. However, the return on investment (ROI) of contactless hospitality has been neglected in the tourism marketing literature. Also understudied is the relationship between contactless service and customer experience, which has a major influence on the key metric of customer equity. To fill these gaps, the researchers decided to “explore the ROI of contactless hospitality from the perspective of customer equity” – that is, to pay attention to the factors promoting and threatening customer equity in contactless hotels.

Hotel guests are a diverse slice of humanity; they cannot all be expected to all react in the same way to the contactless trend. The researchers identified technology readiness as a key personal characteristic that influences consumer experience of contactless service. A person’s technology readiness is a persistent psychological disposition to feel a particular emotion – such as excitement, curiosity or unease – when interacting with new technology. Given its importance, the authors note that “the hospitality industry should integrate customers’ technology readiness into service design and marketing programs”.

In 2000, the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) was developed to gauge people’s optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity around new technology and thus measure their willingness to embrace technological change. The authors remind us that contactless technology “requires customers to engage more with the technology-based service ecosystem”. As people with higher technology readiness should be more comfortable in such an ecosystem, the researchers looked at whether TRI scores affected the relationship between customer experience and equity in contactless hotels.

Customer equity has three key components: “value”, “brand” and “relationship”. The researchers surveyed around 1,500 mainland Chinese residents who had stayed in contactless hotels to test how their personal characteristics and experiences influenced their customer equity. Innovatively, the researchers singled out customer delight – a guest’s unexpectedly high levels of joy and excitement – as an emotional reaction that may be just as decisive as a satisfaction rating when it comes to securing customer equity.

In addition to the survey on their contactless hotel experience, the participants took the TRI test to find out their level of technology readiness. Dividing the respondents into high and low TRI groups, the researchers hypothesised that technology readiness influences the relationship between customer experience, delight and equity. They also tested whether customer equity determined another crucial marketing outcome – brand trust. Did higher-equity customers place more trust in hotel brands, and was this affected by their level of concern around health issues in the pandemic?

The survey results showed that, as predicted, both customer experience and customer delight were strongly associated with customer equity. This serves as a reminder for hotel managers in the pandemic era not to forget the basics – satisfying and pleasing guests – when installing contactless systems to protect customers and staff. Indeed, the researchers recommend that “managers should form an organizational culture that engenders customer equity by creating a more satisfactory and delightful experience”. The findings confirmed the importance of customer equity not just for the financial bottom line but also for lasting customer relationships, as it was shown to greatly influence brand trust.

With particular relevance in the emerging post-pandemic era, the results also confirmed the role of health concerns. The trust-building effect of customer equity was strongest for contactless hotel guests who paid the most attention to COVID-19 issues. The hospitality and tourism industry face an uncertain future, and this finding underscores the need for hotels to ensure the happiness and safety of guests with health concerns as we adjust to the “new normal”. As the researcher points out, “the current situation in China may present a future scenario for many parts of the world in the coming years”.

What about guests’ readiness for contactless systems? It turned out that delightful experiences had a particularly great positive effect on equity for the low TRI group – the very guests who were most sceptical about new technology. This suggests that it is crucial to offer surprise treats to those who might be wary of even staying in a contactless hotel. With today’s technology, a whole menu of joyful surprises can be imagined. The researchers suggest a few themselves: “the moment customers enter their room, the smart room could have already set their favorite temperature, lighting, and even music”.

Hotels have responded to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing contactless technology wherever possible. This has increased safety, but potentially at the cost of warmth in customer service. To retain guests, hotel managers need to think creatively about how to optimise their experience in a contactless era. Guests with the lowest technology readiness actually respond best to the unexpected delights that a contactless hotel can offer. Touch-free services are also a promising way to reassure those with strong concerns around infection.

Hao, Fei and Chon, Kaye (2021). Are You Ready for a Contactless Future? A Multi-group Analysis of Experience, Delight, Customer Equity, and Trust Based on the Technology Readiness Index 2.0. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Vol. 38, Issue 9, pp. 900-916.

First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News