Description
The purpose of this paper is to assess Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the UK hotel service
quality, and to analyze the role of Chinese culture in influencing their expectations and perceptions
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Cultural perspectives: Chinese perceptions of UK hotel service quality
Yi Wang Marcelo Royo Vela Katherine Tyler
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Yi Wang Marcelo Royo Vela Katherine Tyler, (2008),"Cultural perspectives: Chinese perceptions of UK
hotel service quality", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 Iss 4 pp.
312 - 329
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Nelson Tsang, Hailin Qu, (2000),"Service quality in China’s hotel industry: a perspective from tourists and
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An-Tien Hsieh, Chien-Wen Tsai, (2009),"Does national culture really matter? Hotel service perceptions by
Taiwan and American tourists", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 3
Iss 1 pp. 54-69http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180910940342
Ibrahim Taylan Dortyol, Inci Varinli, Olgun Kitapci, (2014),"How do international tourists perceive
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of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 26 Iss 3 pp. 470-495http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/
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Cultural perspectives: Chinese
perceptions of UK hotel
service quality
Yi Wang
Faculty of English Language and Culture,
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies,
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
Marcelo Royo Vela
Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, and
Katherine Tyler
Harrow Business School, University of Westminster, Harrow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the UK hotel service
quality, and to analyze the role of Chinese culture in in?uencing their expectations and perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach – An adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire for measuring hotel
service quality attributes, and paired t-test and the Mann-Whitney test for data analysis were used in
the study.
Findings – The main ?ndings fully support the hypotheses developed, and reveal a number of
shortfalls, particularly on the empathy, reliability and tangible dimensions, in UKhotel services, which
have led to negative consumers’ experiences.
Research limitations/implications – Future study requires a larger sample size with more
sophisticated statistical analysis, and also additional emphasis on the price/value relationship for
hotels themselves, and the hotel category.
Practical implications – These are implications for the UK hotel marketers, managers, and
employees, who may use the ?ndings to adapt services to capitalize on the potential of Chinese
outbound travel to the UK.
Originality/value – This exploratory study provides fresh insights on the interrelationships of
cultural in?uences and customers’ evaluations of service quality.
Keywords Customer services quality, Customer satisfaction, Tourism, China, Hotels, United Kingdom
Paper type Case study
Introduction
China’s outbound tourism has seen rapid growth in the past decade due to its political,
economic, cultural, and social development. As a result, the prospected rapid increase in
the number of Chinese tourists visiting the UK will have a signi?cant impact on the UK
hotel industry. Customer satisfaction, which in?uences their repurchase behavior and
retention, directly affects a hotel’s reputation, pro?ts, and performance. Even though
many hotels recognize that satisfying customers’ needs is critical to their success,
developing the strategies to achieve that goal is becoming increasingly dif?cult in
today’s global environment due to challenges of various cultures and values. Regardless
of the increasing argument of a global consumer culture, some researchers argue that
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
IJCTHR
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Received August 2007
Revised October 2007
Accepted January 2008
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 2 No. 4, 2008
pp. 312-329
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180810908970
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consumers from different cultural backgrounds still have distinct consumer behavior
and value perceptions (Laroche et al., 2004). Different cultures undeniably represent a
“metaphorical lens through which people perceive the world, and exhibits its greatest
in?uence on perception, information processing strategies, cognitive structures, and the
intensity of wants and needs” (Overby et al., 2005). Therefore, the cultural complexity
and various manifestations of individual national cultures, diluted, reshaped and
enriched by different cultures have become all the more important for researchers
(Craig and Douglas, 2006). Woodside (2007) discusses causal mapping of the stories
tourists tell about their trips. Such mapping illustrates how antecedent factors ?t
together, and hotel service quality is likely to have an important bearing amongst the
multiple routes leading to behavior and future outcomes.
This paper attempts to contribute to the present researches in the relationship
between cultural in?uences and customers’ perceptions of service quality in at least
two ways. First, the study uses the UK hospitality industry as a context to ascertain
Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the hotel service quality, and then to analyze the gaps
between tourists’ expectations and perceptions from the Chinese cultural perspective.
Second, the study provides important managerial insights for potential changes in UK
hotel service quality which in itself may lead to win-win situations whereby both
customer satisfaction and hotel’s pro?tability will see improvement.
Conceptual model
Seth et al. (2005) give a reviewof 19 service quality models covering conventional services
towebinteractive. Nevertheless, SERVQUAL, developedbyZeithaml et al. (1990), remains
as aneffective andwidelyusedinstrument for measuringservice qualitybyexaminingthe
existence of various service gaps. The study uses an adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire
to measure the expected and perceived service quality dimensions of Chinese tourists
visiting the UK, thus focusing on the customer gap which is generally the most critical of
the ?ve gaps in SERVQUAL. The questionnaire utilises the ?ve generic quality
dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
Literature review
The relationship between culture and service quality perception has received increasing
attention. Studies by Furrer et al. (2000), Laroche et al. (2004), Mattila (1999) and Overby
et al. (2005), explore the impact of cultural factors on customer value beliefs and
perceived service quality. These authors argue that perceptions of service quality vary
across cultural groups, in relation to each culture’s position on Hofstede’s cultural
dimensions index, and Hall’s high- and low-communication context. Affective,
cognitive components as well as emotional components of consumers’ satisfaction
(Bigne´ et al., 2004) need particular attention from service organizations when
considering their strategic marketing planning, in order to compete successfully in the
present increasingly competitive environment. At the same time, a number of authors
such as Antony et al. (2004), Choi and Chu (2000), Gabbie and O’Neill (1996, 1997),
Gilbert and Tsao (2000), Heung (2000), Juwaheer (2004), Poon and Low(2005) and Tsang
and Qu (2000), concentrate on hotel service quality issues, including service attributes.
Whilst Heung (2000) uses the discon?rmation model, most employ an adapted
SERVQUAL scale to measure hotel services in terms of service quality attributes and
also discuss how to administer the questionnaires. Antony et al. (2004) use a modi?ed
Cultural
perspectives
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questionnaire that has fewer questions and guests can ?ll in either during or at the end
of their stay. The questionnaire is convenient for the guests and thus can ensure the
validity of the data collected. Tsang and Qu (2000) add two additional gaps, which are
the difference between consumer perceptions of service delivery and what management
believes they deliver; and the difference between management’s perception of consumer
expectations and management’s perception of its service delivery. In all, the increasing
global tourism of the past decade has brought tourism studies to the forefront, with
increasing research investigating tourist behavior and service provisions.
Chinese culture and values
Hofstede’s cultural value scale (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005), although developed some
15 years ago based on IBM employees, still provides useful insights into analyzing
Chinese culture. Nevertheless, this study incorporates other studies of Chinese values,
for example, Fan (2000) and Lin (2004).
Graham and Lam (2003), in exploring the cultural context of Chinese business style,
consider that the four threads of culture that have bound the Chinese people together
for some ?ve thousand years are agrarianism, morality, pictographic language, and the
Chinese people’s wariness of foreigners. However, Chinese culture has been changing
and evolving due to the political, economic, and social changes, especially since China
opens up to the outside world.
Some prominent changes have taken place. Fan (2000) explains that the
contemporary Chinese culture in the People’s Republic of China consists of three
major elements: traditional culture, communist ideology and, more recently Western
values. This study argues that the three major Chinese cultural elements comprise the
following aspects: traditional culture (Confucianism and Buddhism), communist
ideology (Mao Zhedong’s thoughts, Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the current
“Construction of Harmonious Society” advocated by the party), and the global
cultural interpenetration. Globalisation and Western culture have played a signi?cant
role in changing Chinese ways of thinking and values, though some may exert a stronger
impact than others. For example, Western individualistic thoughts have exerted a great
impact on Chinese society, which used to emphasize collectivismor group harmony and
commitment. Furthermore, Western ideology is reshaping social values and norms
amongst the younger generation. Also, China has evolved from an impoverished but
largely egalitarian society into one with distinct income classes as a result of rapid
economic growth. Generally speaking, ?ve different classes by annual income exist:
“global af?uent” with an annual income of more than e20,000; “mass af?uent” with
e10,000 to under e20,000; “upper middle class” with e4,000 to under e10,000; “lower
middle class” with e2,500 to under e4,000; and “poor” with less than e2,500 (Farrell et al.,
2006). This evolution is already creating a widening gap between rich and poor. As a
result, more complex consumer segments and spending patterns emerge.
Consumers from different cultural backgrounds may have different tastes and
assessment of hotel quality attributes. For example, they may differ in the desired
attributes such as the colors of the beddings and furniture; music; design, smell
and freshness of room; temperature; view of surrounding environment; employees’
appearance, gestures and verbal communication. Therefore, consumers’ cultural
background has an impact on their expectations and perceptions of the hotel quality
(Figure 1).
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Research hypotheses
A great deal of evidence demonstrates that cultural values shape customer perceptions
of service quality and customer behavior. Furrer et al. (2000) consider that cultural
aspects in?uence every SERVQUAL dimension. By analysing data fromretail banking
services, they propose a conceptual link between the ?ve cultural dimensions by
Hofstede and variations in the relative importance of all ?ve service quality dimensions
by Zeithaml et al. (1990) and Malhotra et al. (2005) state that perception of service
quality dimensions differ between developed and developing economies. For example,
regarding service reliability, the former emphasizes a high-tech approach, whilst the
latter attaches great importance to a high-touch approach, that is, social interaction and
personal connectivity, with which they are more traditionally familiar. This study
proposes the following six hypotheses, based on the understanding of Chinese culture.
Chinese people, with disposable incomes rising and more public holidays, have
experienced altering leisure styles and spending patterns, with the mass af?uent and
upper middle classes keen on outbound tourism. These tourists share some similar
characteristics such as having traveled quite a lot both inside China and, to a lesser
extent, abroad. Most of them have traveled to Hong Kong, and other Asian countries.
Heung (2000) investigates the Hong Kong hotel attributes that the mainland Chinese
tourists are satis?ed or dissatis?ed with. He ?nds that the mainland Chinese tourists
are generally satis?ed with Hong Kong hotel service quality. Hong Kong, a former
British colony, bears its own distinct culture, although its cultural roots rest with
mainland China. This study takes, as far as possible, a consistent approach in terms of
Figure 1.
Impact of culture
on perception
Hotel
Quality
Attributes
view
location
cleanliness
order
sound
smell/freshness
temperature
colour Expectation Perception
appearance
gestures
words
Design
Environment
Sensory
perception
Employees
space
furniture
facilities
Cultural
Lens
Cultural
perspectives
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the homogeneity of hotel star ratings in China and the UK. Nevertheless, hotels in
China tend to be either new or newly renovated. According to Pine et al. (2000) China
has become a fertile land for the hotel industry since its rapid economic growth and
tourism development. Among the world’s top 300 corporate chains ranked by Hotels
Magazine in 1999, about 10 percent of them have entered China. The Chinese tourists’
expectations tend to be high for the UK, a highly developed country, based on their
past experience in China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. Therefore:
H1. Gaps occur between Chinese tourists’ expectations and perceptions of the UK
hotel service quality due to Chinese high expectation of services within
developed countries.
Researches ?nd that Western and Asian consumers’ perceptions of service quality are
different. For example, Poon and Low (2005) ?nd that Asian travelers and Western
travelers differ in their evaluations of Malaysian hotel service quality. Whilst the pricing
factor leads to Asian travelers’ overall satisfaction, security and safety factor are most
important for Western travelers. Other researchers attempt to analyze the differences in
service quality evaluations from a cultural perspective. For example, Reisinger and
Turner (1999) examine Japanese tourist expectations of Australian service providers from
a Japanese cultural orientation, and the potential dif?culties that the Japanese tourists
experience with Western standards of service. Mattila (1999) ?nds that Asians expect a
relatively high level of service because of their more people-oriented service styles, while
Westerners prefer ef?ciency of the service delivery. Moreover, Asian cultures attach great
importance to interpersonal relationships, andtherefore interactionbetweencustomer and
service provider becomes a key factor in customers’ evaluation of service quality. Further,
leisure travelers have affective expectations regarding service encounters. Chinese
cultures place high emphasis on personalized services or personal attention. Thus:
H2. Chinese tourists prefer customised and personalized service (empathy
dimension).
According to Hofstede’s cultural value scale (2005), China has the highest long-term
orientation index of 118. This indicates that Chinese attach great importance to the
establishment of long-term relationships and commitments in the business world. The
personal connection practice known as “guanxi” is a major characteristic of
relationship marketing in China. Many researchers, for example, Gilbert and Tsao
(2000), Lee et al. (2001) and Leung and Wong (2001) have explored its pervasive role in
doing business in China. Leung and Wong (2001) suggest that “guanxi” is an ethical
practice, and is an essential strategy to achieve business goals in the Chinese market.
Lee et al. (2001) claim that “guanxi”, based on reciprocal exchange of personalized care
and favours, is especially important in the early stages of business development in
China. Gilbert and Tsao (2000) state that the concept of “guanxi” goes beyond the
Western concept of network, and long-term relationships add more value for customers
than the core product could provide alone. They consider cultural differences to be an
important in?uence on the successful outcomes of business and discuss the sensitivity
of the Chinese people to face, renqing (human obligations) and guanxi. In China, to
retain current customers, service providers should be consistently courteous, protect
customers’ face by making them feel important, and try to establish friendly personal
connections. Therefore:
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H3. Chinese tourists expect employees to be consistently courteous and have the
ability and knowledge to help the customers (assurance dimension).
China has a very high power distance index of 80 (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005), ranking
amongst the world’s highest. This implies that the members within a society expect and
accept unequally distributed power. The power distance cultural differences between the
consumers andservice providers in?uence the judgement of service qualitystandards. For
example, Reisinger and Turner (1999) suggest that Australian marketers, who are
members of a low-power distance culture valuing equality, should segment their Japanese
customers on the basis of social position and age, and develop distinct promotional
messages to the individual segments. In Chinese culture, hotel employees are in a
less-powerful position, and thus are supposed to pay high respect to the hotel guests and
respond to their requests wholeheartedly. This is indicative of the customers’ high
expectation of error free service fromemployees who are in a weak power position. Thus:
H4. Chinese tourists expect reliable services from employees who should be ready
to help with enthusiasm (reliability and responsiveness dimension).
Chinese people have low tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and unstructured
situations. The Index value of 30 (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005) is amongst the lowest
in the world. Consumers from a culture that is high on uncertainty avoidance would be
more likely to experience higher levels of perceived risk, more brand loyal and less
likely to seek innovativeness (Jung and Kau, 2004). Yeniyurt and Townsend (2003)
argue that even in the age of globalization, there is an increased divergence in the
acceptance of new products due to the existence of different cultures. Their empirical
results show that uncertainty avoidance has a signi?cant negative relationship with
the acceptance of new products, whilst individualism and masculinity have a
signi?cant positive relationship. The same is likely true with service encounters.
Chinese people try to avoid risks, and adhere to norms. They prefer the hotel
environment and services that are familiar to them. For example, they expect that the
UK hotels, like the Chinese hotels, are in city centers, close to amenities, and have
restaurants and other leisure facilities for guests to entertain themselves. Thus:
H5. Chinese tourists expect UK hotels to have similar and adequate facilities
(tangible dimension).
Mattila (1999) ?nds that purchase motivation may in?uence how people feel in service
encounters. Different service-speci?c goals affect consumers’ pre-consumption
expectations. Leisure travelers look for emotionally-laden service encounters with
the hotel staff whereas business travelers pay more attention to a good service-delivery
outcome. Basically, they travel for different purposes. Therefore:
H6. Some discrepancy occurs between expectations and perceptions of Chinese
leisure tourists and business travelers.
Method
Instrument
The questionnaire has three sections “Expectations”, “Perceptions” and the “Pro?le of
customers”, and contains 33 hotel service attributes, with views rated on a Likert scale.
First, the tourists complete the “expectation” section before they stay at the UK hotel.
Cultural
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Then, they complete the “perception” section, with similar questions, after their stay.
The study uses SPSS software to measure the gaps in the scores for the various
dimensions. The “perception” section has two additional questions on overall
satisfaction with regard to willingness to make a return visit and to recommend the
hotel to colleagues. Pilot testing ensures the understandability, validity and reliability
of the questionnaires. The ?nal part is to gather respondents’ demographic data such
as age, sex, education level, profession, and income.
Ideally a large random sample of Chinese tourists visiting the UK should complete
the questionnaires over a period of time. This, however, has not been possible due ?rst
to a lack of a sampling frame, and second to the limitation of the time factor for the
study. Additionally, participants have to complete two questionnaires, one before and
one after traveling. Of the two practical alternatives, visiting hotels in the UK and
identifying Chinese visitors, and using travel agents in both China and the UK, who
organize such visits, the latter is simpler, and the one adopted. Two tourist agents
participate, one from the city of Guangzhou, and the second a Chinese agent operating
in London. The sample, which is a convenience sample, is thus limited. Nevertheless,
on analysis, the sample is representative since the overall respondents come from
different income and age groups, and professions, thus incorporating different
segments of the population. In total, 51 visitors take part in the survey during the
months of June and July, 2006. After discarding “spoilt” or “non-answered”
questionnaires, the ?nal sample comprises of 46 respondents. A total of
19 respondents also have some business interests for their visit, enabling further
analysis of different expectations and perceptions for pure tourists and those, at least
partially, on business (Table I).
Adaptation of SERVQUAL
The present study uses a questionnaire based on the key underlying constructs of
SERVQUAL, with some important adaptations:
.
The SERVQUAL Scale includes ?ve dimensions covering 21 items, four or ?ve
items for each dimension. The ?rst important change is to extend the tangible
dimension, and then to paraphrase the other four dimensions to ?t in better with
the hotel situation.
.
The questionnaires themselves are not without problems. One reason is that the
Chinese language is precise and one short phrase can sometimes cover the
meaning of a long English sentence or even two English sentences. Therefore,
the Chinese version is not a word for word translation of the English version,
though the basic information and message are the same. Further, Chinese terms
for professions may be different from that of English in coverage of job
descriptions.
.
For simplicity, the questionnaires omit the ?ve dimension headings.
Pilot test of questionnaires
The pilot test of the questionnaires takes place in China amongst ?ve managers of
China Merchants International Travel Corporation. Whilst the participants come from
the same company, the interviews occur independently. Subsequent modi?cation takes
their opinions into consideration. For example, the original questionnaires are in
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English, suitable for a native audience, but when translated into Chinese, some of the
questions appear to be asking for the same, or similar, response. After consolidation,
the earlier designed questionnaires, each having 40 items, turn into the present ones
with 33 items on “Expectations” and 35 on “Perceptions”. The pilot test also shows up
certain ambiguities in the translation from English to Chinese. For example, “personal
attention” may have a different interpretation in Chinese. As a result, the study tries to
make the questions in Chinese clear and easily understandable, and also as precise and
concise as possible.
Data analysis
The study uses a standard paired t-test for the main SERVQUAL analysis. With a
limited sample size, the study adopts a non-parametric test when comparing leisure
against business travelers.
Results and discussion
Discussion of results
The results themselves are rather surprising for in virtually all the attributes, the
t-value exceeds 2.7 showing a highly signi?cant difference, and giving the ?rm
conclusion that Chinese tourists’ expectations are higher than their perceptions, thus
Number
Gender 46
Male 25
Female 21
Age
20-35 10
35-55 31
55 and above 5
Profession
Government employees 10
Professionals 26
Managerial 2
Retired 6
Others 2
Monthly income
3,000-5,000 Yuan
a
17
5,001-7,000 Yuan 18
Above 7,000 Yuan 11
Education
Tertiary 1
Diploma/degree 11
Higher degree or professional quali?cation 34
Purpose of visiting UK
Business 19
Tourism 27
Others 0
Notes:
a
The Chinese currency is the Renminbi (RMB), commonly called the Yuan (¥). Approximately
¥10.6 to e1 (September, 2007)
Table I.
Demographic pro?le
of Chinese tourists
visiting the UK
Cultural
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supporting H1. With regard to the ?ve SERVQUAL dimensions themselves, the
largest gap is on the Empathy dimension (mean gap ¼ 1.1, t ¼ 7.70, p ¼ 0.0000),
supporting H2. The data for the Assurance dimension (mean gap ¼ 0.9, t ¼ 4.97,
p , 0.0001) fully supports H3. The reliability dimension (mean gap ¼ 1.0, t ¼ 7.02,
p ¼ 0.000) con?rms H4, expectation of reliable services, whilst the Tangible dimension
(mean gap ¼ 0.9, t ¼ 5.75, p ¼ 0.0000) supports H5, relating to similar and adequate
facilities. In China, service-oriented management has seen rapid development,
especially in the highly developed cities and areas. Customers expect a people-oriented
service style from service providers in all types of industry. Consequently, signi?cant
gaps occur, showing rich cultural differences. The following is an analysis of why
Chinese tourists have such expectations and perceptions from the Chinese cultural
perspective, particularly the evolving values of the past decade (Table II).
First, the changing Chinese “consumer-centered culture” which treats consumers as
all important requires service providers to possess not only the ability in handling
problems but also the appropriate ritualistic behavior when dealing with the guests.
The Chinese tourists coming from a high-context society attach great importance to
such ritualistic behavior as smiling, greetings, and hand shaking. They not only show
employees’ respect for guests, but also make guests feel more important and con?dent.
For example, “giving customers personal attention” implies customised services,
which are more than helping guests to solve problems. The Chinese tourists consider
both explicit words and implicit hints in service encounters crucial. In UK hotels, ritual
greetings are uncommon, and sometimes guests cannot meet any employees at the
reception desk. In terms of verbal communications, in UK hotels, employees seldom
exchange conversations with guests, other than greetings, which are often short.
Language may be a very serious barrier for communications. Only through effective
communication can guests express fully their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
Second, the Chinese “working culture” which emphasizes long hours and hard
working makes the tourists believe that English service style is too “laid back.” In the
UK, facilities tend to close early, whereas in China shops are open till late, seven days a
week. Leisure facilities in hotels also tend to close early by Chinese standards. Hard
work and diligence have always been a prevailing value in China, although “absolute
equalitarianism” in the 1960s and 1970s badly discouraged Chinese people’s
enthusiasm for hard working. However, since the implementation of the economic
reform policy, prosperity has taken an overriding importance in every aspect of
Chinese people’s life, with high expectations of others’ work ethic.
Third, different “eating and drinking culture” leads to the tourists’ poor evaluation
of service quality of the hotel’s restaurant. Eating, for the Chinese, is a form of art, and
one of the joys of human life. For example, the most common greeting in China is
“Chi Fan Le Ma” literally “Have you eaten”, whilst most English people greet each
other by commenting on the weather, or other aspects of life. Lin (2004, pp. 328-37)
humorously and precisely elaborates on how seriously Chinese regard eating, and also
how different the Chinese and European cooking principles are. Lin writes: “The
French eat enthusiastically, while the English eat apologetically. The Chinese national
genius decidedly leans towards the French in the matter of feeding ourselves.” Further
he states that the Chinese not only eat happily, but also discuss and exchange opinions
on eating. Whilst no great English poet or writer would condescend to write a
cook book, a lot of great Chinese poets and scholars write about cooking. Vivid
IJCTHR
2,4
320
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(
c
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Table II.
Gap analysis of
expectations/perceptions
Cultural
perspectives
321
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descriptions of cuisine appear in a number of great Chinese literature works, for
example, the Red Chamber Dream. Chinese people spend a lot of time at a dinner table
enjoying food in their homes and in restaurants, at social gatherings and at business
meetings. The majority of tourists, who complete the questionnaires, come from
Guangdong province, with worldwide fame for its Cantonese cuisine, which is light in
taste and ?avor, emphasizing freshness. Guangdong has also a highly developed
service quality in the tertiary industry including hospitality and tourism. For example,
Chinese going to a restaurant in Guangdong province often expect a waitress or waiter
standing next to the table, and providing services such as ordering, ?lling guests’
glasses with tea, serving soup, changing dishes or bowls, etc. As a result, Chinese
tourists’ past experience in Chinese restaurants greatly in?uences their expectations of
desired service at UK restaurants. The higher the expectations, the more disappointed
they are when they benchmark UK restaurant service against what they often receive
back at home. Another reason is that these tourists are not used to Western style food.
For example, they prefer hot food, and are not used to eating raw vegetables, which
they consider “unhygienic.”
Next, due to the evolving “shopping culture” of the Chinese tourists, they expect to
stay at a hotel closer to city center where they can do shopping in the evening after
dinner. Apart from loving food, Chinese tourists also like shopping wherever they visit.
Shopping is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole trip. Qian et al. (2007) ?nd that
components of Chinese cultural values such as renqing, reciprocity, guanxi, and yuan
(destiny) exert in?uence on gift selection efforts and brand orientation. Chinese tourists
often buy gifts for their relatives and friends due to their traditional culture of human
relations – loyalty, duty, faithfulness and friend trust. Gift-giving is one of the best ways
to express emotions, love, gratitude, and friendship. This traditional ideological factor,
together with Chinese tourists’ relatively af?uent middle-class background, makes them
one of the most enthusiastic shoppers in the world. In fact, after opening to the outside
world, China has seen an economic boom, and Chinese people have become better off
with more disposable income. This has contributed to China’s rapidly developing
consumption culture. However, when visiting the UK, the hotels at which they stay are
often too far away fromshopping malls. With no other leisure activities available around
the hotel, they feel bored in the evening. To make matters worse, they do not understand
the English TV programmes, since most of them do not understand English.
Modernisation is taking place at a fast pace in China not only at political and macro
economic levels but also in city construction, home building, and leisure style. As
disposable incomes rise, spending patterns of the Chinese people change too, andthe share
of the household budget going to basic necessities, like food and clothing, decreases. Since
the implementationof private ownershipof housing, manyChinese families have allocated
a large percentage of their income to buying apartments. Investing in a second apartment
has become popular in many well developed cities amongst mass af?uent and upper
middle classes. The home-improvement market has likewise been developing very fast
due to the fact that many Chinese people are keen on redecorating their homes in modern
style. The same modernisation process is also happening to hotels in China. They are
usually nicely renovated inside with a spacious lobby, bedroom, bathroom, modern style
furniture and other furnishings. Pine et al. (2000) state that the hotel industry in China is
one of the most important parts of tourism and a symbol of “opening and reform,”
generating not only tourist revenue, but also employment. From1986 to 1991, the Chinese
Cultural
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Government invested a total of RMB6 billion in the hotel industry and at the same time
adopted favorable policies to attract more capital investment in the hospitality industry.
From 1978 to 1997, hotels in China increased from merely 203 to 5,201, one of the fastest
growing hotel industries in the world over the same period. As a result, disappointment
appears on Chinese tourists’ faces when they enter a small lobby, greeted by one
receptionist, andthentogoupa narrowstaircase intoa tinybedroom. The Chinese tourists
consider provision of toothpaste, toothbrush, shower cap, slippers, and hair dryer as
adequate service. However, UK 3 star hotels do not provide guests with most of the
personal items, which are so common in 3 star Chinese hotels. As to other room facilities,
Chinese tourists regard as essential to have a kettle or a thermo-bottle with hot water to
brewtea. Tea-drinking to Chinese people is what coffee drinking is to Europeans. Chinese
tourists coming from service-oriented Chinese culture appear to have higher service
expectations in terms of tangible services than their Western counterparts. Generally
speaking, Chinese tourists prefer modern renovation to antique-looking furniture; and
prefer a spacious room with a lot of light.
To sum up the Chinese people’s own changing lifestyle in?uences their assessments
of service quality. The Chinese tourists who can afford e2 000 for traveling in Europe
for 12 days share some common characteristics. First, they generally have a good and
rising income. Second, when they travel in China, most of themjoin luxury tour groups,
which usually stay at either 4 or 5 star hotels. Last, but not least, is the co-existence of
conservatism and progressiveness in modern Chinese people’s character. On the one
hand, the Chinese are a proud nation, which pay high respect to traditional culture and
norms. They are content with the Chinese way of life and reluctant to take “risks”,
especially with their eating and drinking traditions. Further, after years of struggles
and turmoil, the Chinese people treasure the present social stability and solidarity. On
the other hand, China and the Chinese show great enthusiasm for changes, and are
changing dramatically. During the process of building a well-off society in an all-round
way and building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chinese people’s living
standards and ways of life together with their customs and outlook have also seen
great changes. They eagerly grasp the opening of opportunities to go outside China to
see the rest of the world. They show interest and curiosity about the West, and have
become more ?exible and tolerant of different cultures.
The following ?shbone chart summarizes the causes that lead to Chinese tourists’
dissatisfaction (Figure 2).
The discrepancy between business travelers and tourists
Chinese culture has not only its common parts shared by the whole nation, but also
different subcultures. Members of different social classes have their own characteristic
behavioral forms and values, in?uenced by many factors such as education, income,
profession, and personality. The ?ndings show that leisure tourists’ expectations are
signi?cantly different from those of business travelers, verifying the H6. Leisure
tourists attach more importance to attributes such as location, bathroom facilities,
quality of personal items, service at restaurant, employees being helpful and courteous.
Business travelers care more about price, internet, communication facilities, ef?cient
services, and employees’ being able to provide useful information, for example, a
restaurant where they can entertain their guests in the evening (Table III).
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Likewise, many attributes are signi?cantly different, where the business travelers’
perceptions are higher than tourists’, thus verifying H6 (Table IV).
Managerial implications
The results indicate a statistically signi?cant difference between Chinese tourists’
expectations and perceptions of the UK hotel service quality. Based on the results and
from the interviews with the experienced Chinese tourist managers, the paper makes
Figure 2.
Unsatisfactory
perceptions of UK hotel
service quality
Unsatisfactory
UK hotel
service quality
Inconvenient location
far away from shopping
centre & in outlying areas
surrounding
environment is poor
Inadequate supply of
personal items
toothpaste,
toothbrush,
shower cap, slippers
Inconvenient operating
hours
tend to close early
Employees
cannot solve problems
efficiently & provide
information
Unsatisfactory restaurant
service
poor taste of meals
menus are all in English
Inadequate facilities
hot water,
Chinese TV
programs & newspapers
Hotel attributes N Mean Rank z-value p-value
Higher
expectation
1. Close to the city and amenities – transport 19 27 15.9 28.9 3.46 0.001 Tourists
3. For the style of hotel, the price is
reasonable
19 27 29.7 19.2 2.81 0.005 Business
5. Communication facilities are suitable and
adequate 19 27 31.4 18.0 3.52 0.000 Business
13. The bathroom has good facilities 19 27 16.7 28.3 3.51 0.000 Tourists
15. The quality of personal items is good 19 27 19.0 26.7 2.08 0.038 Tourists
17. Restaurant service is prompt and ef?cient 19 27 18.8 26.8 2.19 0.028 Tourists
22. Services are provided ef?ciently and on
time 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.31 0.021 Business
24. Employees are helpful 19 27 19.1 26.6 2.15 0.032 Tourists
26. Customers are well informed about
services and other facilities 19 27 29.0 19.6 2.49 0.013 Business
29. Employees are consistently courteous
with customers 19 27 18.8 26.8 2.27 0.023 Tourists
Notes: Results of the Mann-Whitney test comparing business travelers (n ¼ 19) and tourists (n ¼ 27).
Only those results where a signi?cant difference has been found (at least at the 5 percent level) are
included in the table. The group with the higher mean rank has the higher expectation
Table III.
Differences between
expectations of business
travelers and tourists
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the following key recommendations for those hotels which are having, or which plan to
have, a number of Chinese tourists.
With respect to the management, the hotel managers should have more
communication with tour operators and tourist guides of Chinese travel services to
understand Chinese customers’ needs and expectations.
With respect to the service delivery, hotels should take some corrective measures to
adapt services to cater to Chinese tourists’ needs. These measures include adding some
Chinese dishes tothe menu; providingmenus inChinese; givingChinese translations of the
important instructions in the hotel; showing video programmes in Chinese, and providing
Chinese newspapers, magazines, and tour maps. Most Chinese tourists prefer hotels with
modern decoration and furnishings. They even associate hotels with a small main gate
with zero star rating hotels in China. In the eyes of Chinese tourists, many hotels in the UK
are too old styled to be appealing. These tangible attributes obviously have affected
Chinese tourists’ consumption experience and caused negative consumer emotions.
Hotel attributes N Mean Rank z-value p-value
Higher
perception
1. Close to the city and amenities – transport 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.23 0.026 Business
5. Communication facilities are suitable and
adequate 19 27 28.9 19.7 2.45 0.014 Business
7. The bedroom is welcoming and gives a
relaxed atmosphere 19 27 29.1 19.6 2.57 0.010 Business
9. The decoration and layout of the bedroom are
good 19 27 27.8 20.4 2.03 0.043 Business
10. The bedroom is clean 19 27 30.5 18.6 3.17 0.002 Business
12. The bathroom is clean 19 27 28.7 19.8 2.35 0.019 Business
16. The restaurant has a relaxed and comfortable
environment 19 27 27.9 20.4 2.12 0.034 Business
17. Restaurant service is prompt and ef?cient 19 27 28.4 20.1 2.31 0.021 Business
18. All items in the restaurant are clean and well
presented 19 27 30.6 18.5 3.22 0.001 Business
20. When there is a problem, the hotel shows
sincere interest in solving it 19 27 27.8 20.5 2.00 0.046 Business
21. Services are performed correctly the ?rst time 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.39 0.017 Business
22. Services are provided ef?ciently and on time 19 27 32.4 17.3 4.35 0.000 Business
23. Check-in/out and other services are error free 19 27 30.0 19.0 3.02 0.003 Business
24. Employees are helpful 19 27 28.3 20.1 2.25 0.025 Business
25. Employees are never too busy to respond to
customers’ requests 19 27 28.4 20.1 2.35 0.019 Business
27. Behavior of employees gives con?dence to
customers (e.g. makes them feel important) 19 27 28.6 19.9 2.37 0.018 Business
28. The employees are suitably attired 19 27 29.9 19.0 2.91 0.004 Business
29. Employees are consistently courteous with
customers 19 27 28.7 19.8 2.43 0.015 Business
32. Operating hours of the facilities are
convenient to customers 19 27 29.5 19.3 2.75 0.006 Business
33. The hotel has customers’ best interests at
heart 19 27 28.6 19.9 2.47 0.013 Business
35. I would happily recommend the hotel to my
colleagues 19 27 27.6 20.6 1.97 0.049 Business
Table IV.
Differences between
perceptions of business
travelers and tourists
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Therefore, they deserve hotels’ improvement efforts. These improvements are visible and
can have immediate impact on the customer’s service experience. As long as the quality
efforts are ?nancially accountable and giving “return on quality,” hotels should invest
more on the improvements of customers’ service experience, which in turn will help the
hotels gain competitive advantages, maintain customer loyalty, add value and thus
increase pro?ts in the long run.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, the sample size of Chinese tourists is small,
re?ecting the features of an exploratory study. Their opinions might not represent that of
other Chinese tourists who have visitedthe UK. Furthermore, the sample of business guests
is also very small. Second, the study only identi?es the tourists’ expectations and
perceptions of four 3 and 4 star hotels in the UK. Whilst representative, clearly the hotel
sample size is small. As a result, the ?ndings might not represent the hotel service qualityin
the whole country. Further studies would need to consider more hotels, both in Central
Londonandoutlyingareas, andtoconsider whether tourists’ expectations of ?ve star hotels
bear similar results. Finally, amongst the 51questionnaires received, the studydiscards ?ve
spoilt ones. The respondents only ?ll Parts I and II, assuming Part III to be exactly the same
as Part I, althoughthe instructions at the beginningof the questionnaire explainclearlythat
Part I is tourists’ overall expectations, and Part III is evaluations after staying at the hotel.
The implications are that gap measuring is not so easy for respondents to understand, and
that data collection through e-mail has some disadvantages. For example, if respondents
fail to complete the questionnaires according to the requirements, the investigator would
have to contact them again to give more detailed explanations, and await reply.
Future research
The paper offers insights into Chinese tourists to the UK and their expectations and
perceptions of the hotel industry, with the analysis making reference to their cultural
heritage. Further research will examine the following areas.
First, increase and segment the sample. With more data, a factor analysis will
determine the impact of underlying dimensions of service quality. Initial exploratory
runs suggest some underlying factors such as assurance, reliability, staff
communication empathy and hotel surroundings and environmental issues. A further
question arises as to whether different cultural groups may have different
expectations. Whilst differences occur between business and purely leisure travelers,
further differences may arise between the young and the elderly, and between groups
with different income and job status, etc. Furthermore, expectations from those who
travel independently may be different from those who book an organized tour.
Second, the study only really concerns itself with the customer gap. Whilst this is all
important, the four provider gaps, for example, management understanding of the
expectations customers are anticipating, require both studying and analyzing.
Third, more emphasis will be on the price/value relationship for hotels themselves,
and more consideration on the hotel category. The hotel grading system in the UK is
such that a 3 star hotel may equal a 2 (or even 1) star in China. Respondents need to
know this in order to accurately identify their views in the questionnaires.
Finally, a causal map of Chinese thinking about leisure travel to the UK has
implications for both tourist and hotel managers.
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Corresponding author
Yi Wang can be contacted at: [email protected]
Cultural
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doc_270767099.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to assess Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the UK hotel service
quality, and to analyze the role of Chinese culture in influencing their expectations and perceptions
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Cultural perspectives: Chinese perceptions of UK hotel service quality
Yi Wang Marcelo Royo Vela Katherine Tyler
Article information:
To cite this document:
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hotel service quality", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 Iss 4 pp.
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An-Tien Hsieh, Chien-Wen Tsai, (2009),"Does national culture really matter? Hotel service perceptions by
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Cultural perspectives: Chinese
perceptions of UK hotel
service quality
Yi Wang
Faculty of English Language and Culture,
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies,
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
Marcelo Royo Vela
Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, and
Katherine Tyler
Harrow Business School, University of Westminster, Harrow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the UK hotel service
quality, and to analyze the role of Chinese culture in in?uencing their expectations and perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach – An adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire for measuring hotel
service quality attributes, and paired t-test and the Mann-Whitney test for data analysis were used in
the study.
Findings – The main ?ndings fully support the hypotheses developed, and reveal a number of
shortfalls, particularly on the empathy, reliability and tangible dimensions, in UKhotel services, which
have led to negative consumers’ experiences.
Research limitations/implications – Future study requires a larger sample size with more
sophisticated statistical analysis, and also additional emphasis on the price/value relationship for
hotels themselves, and the hotel category.
Practical implications – These are implications for the UK hotel marketers, managers, and
employees, who may use the ?ndings to adapt services to capitalize on the potential of Chinese
outbound travel to the UK.
Originality/value – This exploratory study provides fresh insights on the interrelationships of
cultural in?uences and customers’ evaluations of service quality.
Keywords Customer services quality, Customer satisfaction, Tourism, China, Hotels, United Kingdom
Paper type Case study
Introduction
China’s outbound tourism has seen rapid growth in the past decade due to its political,
economic, cultural, and social development. As a result, the prospected rapid increase in
the number of Chinese tourists visiting the UK will have a signi?cant impact on the UK
hotel industry. Customer satisfaction, which in?uences their repurchase behavior and
retention, directly affects a hotel’s reputation, pro?ts, and performance. Even though
many hotels recognize that satisfying customers’ needs is critical to their success,
developing the strategies to achieve that goal is becoming increasingly dif?cult in
today’s global environment due to challenges of various cultures and values. Regardless
of the increasing argument of a global consumer culture, some researchers argue that
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
IJCTHR
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Received August 2007
Revised October 2007
Accepted January 2008
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 2 No. 4, 2008
pp. 312-329
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180810908970
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consumers from different cultural backgrounds still have distinct consumer behavior
and value perceptions (Laroche et al., 2004). Different cultures undeniably represent a
“metaphorical lens through which people perceive the world, and exhibits its greatest
in?uence on perception, information processing strategies, cognitive structures, and the
intensity of wants and needs” (Overby et al., 2005). Therefore, the cultural complexity
and various manifestations of individual national cultures, diluted, reshaped and
enriched by different cultures have become all the more important for researchers
(Craig and Douglas, 2006). Woodside (2007) discusses causal mapping of the stories
tourists tell about their trips. Such mapping illustrates how antecedent factors ?t
together, and hotel service quality is likely to have an important bearing amongst the
multiple routes leading to behavior and future outcomes.
This paper attempts to contribute to the present researches in the relationship
between cultural in?uences and customers’ perceptions of service quality in at least
two ways. First, the study uses the UK hospitality industry as a context to ascertain
Chinese tourists’ perceptions of the hotel service quality, and then to analyze the gaps
between tourists’ expectations and perceptions from the Chinese cultural perspective.
Second, the study provides important managerial insights for potential changes in UK
hotel service quality which in itself may lead to win-win situations whereby both
customer satisfaction and hotel’s pro?tability will see improvement.
Conceptual model
Seth et al. (2005) give a reviewof 19 service quality models covering conventional services
towebinteractive. Nevertheless, SERVQUAL, developedbyZeithaml et al. (1990), remains
as aneffective andwidelyusedinstrument for measuringservice qualitybyexaminingthe
existence of various service gaps. The study uses an adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire
to measure the expected and perceived service quality dimensions of Chinese tourists
visiting the UK, thus focusing on the customer gap which is generally the most critical of
the ?ve gaps in SERVQUAL. The questionnaire utilises the ?ve generic quality
dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
Literature review
The relationship between culture and service quality perception has received increasing
attention. Studies by Furrer et al. (2000), Laroche et al. (2004), Mattila (1999) and Overby
et al. (2005), explore the impact of cultural factors on customer value beliefs and
perceived service quality. These authors argue that perceptions of service quality vary
across cultural groups, in relation to each culture’s position on Hofstede’s cultural
dimensions index, and Hall’s high- and low-communication context. Affective,
cognitive components as well as emotional components of consumers’ satisfaction
(Bigne´ et al., 2004) need particular attention from service organizations when
considering their strategic marketing planning, in order to compete successfully in the
present increasingly competitive environment. At the same time, a number of authors
such as Antony et al. (2004), Choi and Chu (2000), Gabbie and O’Neill (1996, 1997),
Gilbert and Tsao (2000), Heung (2000), Juwaheer (2004), Poon and Low(2005) and Tsang
and Qu (2000), concentrate on hotel service quality issues, including service attributes.
Whilst Heung (2000) uses the discon?rmation model, most employ an adapted
SERVQUAL scale to measure hotel services in terms of service quality attributes and
also discuss how to administer the questionnaires. Antony et al. (2004) use a modi?ed
Cultural
perspectives
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questionnaire that has fewer questions and guests can ?ll in either during or at the end
of their stay. The questionnaire is convenient for the guests and thus can ensure the
validity of the data collected. Tsang and Qu (2000) add two additional gaps, which are
the difference between consumer perceptions of service delivery and what management
believes they deliver; and the difference between management’s perception of consumer
expectations and management’s perception of its service delivery. In all, the increasing
global tourism of the past decade has brought tourism studies to the forefront, with
increasing research investigating tourist behavior and service provisions.
Chinese culture and values
Hofstede’s cultural value scale (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005), although developed some
15 years ago based on IBM employees, still provides useful insights into analyzing
Chinese culture. Nevertheless, this study incorporates other studies of Chinese values,
for example, Fan (2000) and Lin (2004).
Graham and Lam (2003), in exploring the cultural context of Chinese business style,
consider that the four threads of culture that have bound the Chinese people together
for some ?ve thousand years are agrarianism, morality, pictographic language, and the
Chinese people’s wariness of foreigners. However, Chinese culture has been changing
and evolving due to the political, economic, and social changes, especially since China
opens up to the outside world.
Some prominent changes have taken place. Fan (2000) explains that the
contemporary Chinese culture in the People’s Republic of China consists of three
major elements: traditional culture, communist ideology and, more recently Western
values. This study argues that the three major Chinese cultural elements comprise the
following aspects: traditional culture (Confucianism and Buddhism), communist
ideology (Mao Zhedong’s thoughts, Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the current
“Construction of Harmonious Society” advocated by the party), and the global
cultural interpenetration. Globalisation and Western culture have played a signi?cant
role in changing Chinese ways of thinking and values, though some may exert a stronger
impact than others. For example, Western individualistic thoughts have exerted a great
impact on Chinese society, which used to emphasize collectivismor group harmony and
commitment. Furthermore, Western ideology is reshaping social values and norms
amongst the younger generation. Also, China has evolved from an impoverished but
largely egalitarian society into one with distinct income classes as a result of rapid
economic growth. Generally speaking, ?ve different classes by annual income exist:
“global af?uent” with an annual income of more than e20,000; “mass af?uent” with
e10,000 to under e20,000; “upper middle class” with e4,000 to under e10,000; “lower
middle class” with e2,500 to under e4,000; and “poor” with less than e2,500 (Farrell et al.,
2006). This evolution is already creating a widening gap between rich and poor. As a
result, more complex consumer segments and spending patterns emerge.
Consumers from different cultural backgrounds may have different tastes and
assessment of hotel quality attributes. For example, they may differ in the desired
attributes such as the colors of the beddings and furniture; music; design, smell
and freshness of room; temperature; view of surrounding environment; employees’
appearance, gestures and verbal communication. Therefore, consumers’ cultural
background has an impact on their expectations and perceptions of the hotel quality
(Figure 1).
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Research hypotheses
A great deal of evidence demonstrates that cultural values shape customer perceptions
of service quality and customer behavior. Furrer et al. (2000) consider that cultural
aspects in?uence every SERVQUAL dimension. By analysing data fromretail banking
services, they propose a conceptual link between the ?ve cultural dimensions by
Hofstede and variations in the relative importance of all ?ve service quality dimensions
by Zeithaml et al. (1990) and Malhotra et al. (2005) state that perception of service
quality dimensions differ between developed and developing economies. For example,
regarding service reliability, the former emphasizes a high-tech approach, whilst the
latter attaches great importance to a high-touch approach, that is, social interaction and
personal connectivity, with which they are more traditionally familiar. This study
proposes the following six hypotheses, based on the understanding of Chinese culture.
Chinese people, with disposable incomes rising and more public holidays, have
experienced altering leisure styles and spending patterns, with the mass af?uent and
upper middle classes keen on outbound tourism. These tourists share some similar
characteristics such as having traveled quite a lot both inside China and, to a lesser
extent, abroad. Most of them have traveled to Hong Kong, and other Asian countries.
Heung (2000) investigates the Hong Kong hotel attributes that the mainland Chinese
tourists are satis?ed or dissatis?ed with. He ?nds that the mainland Chinese tourists
are generally satis?ed with Hong Kong hotel service quality. Hong Kong, a former
British colony, bears its own distinct culture, although its cultural roots rest with
mainland China. This study takes, as far as possible, a consistent approach in terms of
Figure 1.
Impact of culture
on perception
Hotel
Quality
Attributes
view
location
cleanliness
order
sound
smell/freshness
temperature
colour Expectation Perception
appearance
gestures
words
Design
Environment
Sensory
perception
Employees
space
furniture
facilities
Cultural
Lens
Cultural
perspectives
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the homogeneity of hotel star ratings in China and the UK. Nevertheless, hotels in
China tend to be either new or newly renovated. According to Pine et al. (2000) China
has become a fertile land for the hotel industry since its rapid economic growth and
tourism development. Among the world’s top 300 corporate chains ranked by Hotels
Magazine in 1999, about 10 percent of them have entered China. The Chinese tourists’
expectations tend to be high for the UK, a highly developed country, based on their
past experience in China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. Therefore:
H1. Gaps occur between Chinese tourists’ expectations and perceptions of the UK
hotel service quality due to Chinese high expectation of services within
developed countries.
Researches ?nd that Western and Asian consumers’ perceptions of service quality are
different. For example, Poon and Low (2005) ?nd that Asian travelers and Western
travelers differ in their evaluations of Malaysian hotel service quality. Whilst the pricing
factor leads to Asian travelers’ overall satisfaction, security and safety factor are most
important for Western travelers. Other researchers attempt to analyze the differences in
service quality evaluations from a cultural perspective. For example, Reisinger and
Turner (1999) examine Japanese tourist expectations of Australian service providers from
a Japanese cultural orientation, and the potential dif?culties that the Japanese tourists
experience with Western standards of service. Mattila (1999) ?nds that Asians expect a
relatively high level of service because of their more people-oriented service styles, while
Westerners prefer ef?ciency of the service delivery. Moreover, Asian cultures attach great
importance to interpersonal relationships, andtherefore interactionbetweencustomer and
service provider becomes a key factor in customers’ evaluation of service quality. Further,
leisure travelers have affective expectations regarding service encounters. Chinese
cultures place high emphasis on personalized services or personal attention. Thus:
H2. Chinese tourists prefer customised and personalized service (empathy
dimension).
According to Hofstede’s cultural value scale (2005), China has the highest long-term
orientation index of 118. This indicates that Chinese attach great importance to the
establishment of long-term relationships and commitments in the business world. The
personal connection practice known as “guanxi” is a major characteristic of
relationship marketing in China. Many researchers, for example, Gilbert and Tsao
(2000), Lee et al. (2001) and Leung and Wong (2001) have explored its pervasive role in
doing business in China. Leung and Wong (2001) suggest that “guanxi” is an ethical
practice, and is an essential strategy to achieve business goals in the Chinese market.
Lee et al. (2001) claim that “guanxi”, based on reciprocal exchange of personalized care
and favours, is especially important in the early stages of business development in
China. Gilbert and Tsao (2000) state that the concept of “guanxi” goes beyond the
Western concept of network, and long-term relationships add more value for customers
than the core product could provide alone. They consider cultural differences to be an
important in?uence on the successful outcomes of business and discuss the sensitivity
of the Chinese people to face, renqing (human obligations) and guanxi. In China, to
retain current customers, service providers should be consistently courteous, protect
customers’ face by making them feel important, and try to establish friendly personal
connections. Therefore:
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H3. Chinese tourists expect employees to be consistently courteous and have the
ability and knowledge to help the customers (assurance dimension).
China has a very high power distance index of 80 (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005), ranking
amongst the world’s highest. This implies that the members within a society expect and
accept unequally distributed power. The power distance cultural differences between the
consumers andservice providers in?uence the judgement of service qualitystandards. For
example, Reisinger and Turner (1999) suggest that Australian marketers, who are
members of a low-power distance culture valuing equality, should segment their Japanese
customers on the basis of social position and age, and develop distinct promotional
messages to the individual segments. In Chinese culture, hotel employees are in a
less-powerful position, and thus are supposed to pay high respect to the hotel guests and
respond to their requests wholeheartedly. This is indicative of the customers’ high
expectation of error free service fromemployees who are in a weak power position. Thus:
H4. Chinese tourists expect reliable services from employees who should be ready
to help with enthusiasm (reliability and responsiveness dimension).
Chinese people have low tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and unstructured
situations. The Index value of 30 (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005) is amongst the lowest
in the world. Consumers from a culture that is high on uncertainty avoidance would be
more likely to experience higher levels of perceived risk, more brand loyal and less
likely to seek innovativeness (Jung and Kau, 2004). Yeniyurt and Townsend (2003)
argue that even in the age of globalization, there is an increased divergence in the
acceptance of new products due to the existence of different cultures. Their empirical
results show that uncertainty avoidance has a signi?cant negative relationship with
the acceptance of new products, whilst individualism and masculinity have a
signi?cant positive relationship. The same is likely true with service encounters.
Chinese people try to avoid risks, and adhere to norms. They prefer the hotel
environment and services that are familiar to them. For example, they expect that the
UK hotels, like the Chinese hotels, are in city centers, close to amenities, and have
restaurants and other leisure facilities for guests to entertain themselves. Thus:
H5. Chinese tourists expect UK hotels to have similar and adequate facilities
(tangible dimension).
Mattila (1999) ?nds that purchase motivation may in?uence how people feel in service
encounters. Different service-speci?c goals affect consumers’ pre-consumption
expectations. Leisure travelers look for emotionally-laden service encounters with
the hotel staff whereas business travelers pay more attention to a good service-delivery
outcome. Basically, they travel for different purposes. Therefore:
H6. Some discrepancy occurs between expectations and perceptions of Chinese
leisure tourists and business travelers.
Method
Instrument
The questionnaire has three sections “Expectations”, “Perceptions” and the “Pro?le of
customers”, and contains 33 hotel service attributes, with views rated on a Likert scale.
First, the tourists complete the “expectation” section before they stay at the UK hotel.
Cultural
perspectives
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Then, they complete the “perception” section, with similar questions, after their stay.
The study uses SPSS software to measure the gaps in the scores for the various
dimensions. The “perception” section has two additional questions on overall
satisfaction with regard to willingness to make a return visit and to recommend the
hotel to colleagues. Pilot testing ensures the understandability, validity and reliability
of the questionnaires. The ?nal part is to gather respondents’ demographic data such
as age, sex, education level, profession, and income.
Ideally a large random sample of Chinese tourists visiting the UK should complete
the questionnaires over a period of time. This, however, has not been possible due ?rst
to a lack of a sampling frame, and second to the limitation of the time factor for the
study. Additionally, participants have to complete two questionnaires, one before and
one after traveling. Of the two practical alternatives, visiting hotels in the UK and
identifying Chinese visitors, and using travel agents in both China and the UK, who
organize such visits, the latter is simpler, and the one adopted. Two tourist agents
participate, one from the city of Guangzhou, and the second a Chinese agent operating
in London. The sample, which is a convenience sample, is thus limited. Nevertheless,
on analysis, the sample is representative since the overall respondents come from
different income and age groups, and professions, thus incorporating different
segments of the population. In total, 51 visitors take part in the survey during the
months of June and July, 2006. After discarding “spoilt” or “non-answered”
questionnaires, the ?nal sample comprises of 46 respondents. A total of
19 respondents also have some business interests for their visit, enabling further
analysis of different expectations and perceptions for pure tourists and those, at least
partially, on business (Table I).
Adaptation of SERVQUAL
The present study uses a questionnaire based on the key underlying constructs of
SERVQUAL, with some important adaptations:
.
The SERVQUAL Scale includes ?ve dimensions covering 21 items, four or ?ve
items for each dimension. The ?rst important change is to extend the tangible
dimension, and then to paraphrase the other four dimensions to ?t in better with
the hotel situation.
.
The questionnaires themselves are not without problems. One reason is that the
Chinese language is precise and one short phrase can sometimes cover the
meaning of a long English sentence or even two English sentences. Therefore,
the Chinese version is not a word for word translation of the English version,
though the basic information and message are the same. Further, Chinese terms
for professions may be different from that of English in coverage of job
descriptions.
.
For simplicity, the questionnaires omit the ?ve dimension headings.
Pilot test of questionnaires
The pilot test of the questionnaires takes place in China amongst ?ve managers of
China Merchants International Travel Corporation. Whilst the participants come from
the same company, the interviews occur independently. Subsequent modi?cation takes
their opinions into consideration. For example, the original questionnaires are in
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English, suitable for a native audience, but when translated into Chinese, some of the
questions appear to be asking for the same, or similar, response. After consolidation,
the earlier designed questionnaires, each having 40 items, turn into the present ones
with 33 items on “Expectations” and 35 on “Perceptions”. The pilot test also shows up
certain ambiguities in the translation from English to Chinese. For example, “personal
attention” may have a different interpretation in Chinese. As a result, the study tries to
make the questions in Chinese clear and easily understandable, and also as precise and
concise as possible.
Data analysis
The study uses a standard paired t-test for the main SERVQUAL analysis. With a
limited sample size, the study adopts a non-parametric test when comparing leisure
against business travelers.
Results and discussion
Discussion of results
The results themselves are rather surprising for in virtually all the attributes, the
t-value exceeds 2.7 showing a highly signi?cant difference, and giving the ?rm
conclusion that Chinese tourists’ expectations are higher than their perceptions, thus
Number
Gender 46
Male 25
Female 21
Age
20-35 10
35-55 31
55 and above 5
Profession
Government employees 10
Professionals 26
Managerial 2
Retired 6
Others 2
Monthly income
3,000-5,000 Yuan
a
17
5,001-7,000 Yuan 18
Above 7,000 Yuan 11
Education
Tertiary 1
Diploma/degree 11
Higher degree or professional quali?cation 34
Purpose of visiting UK
Business 19
Tourism 27
Others 0
Notes:
a
The Chinese currency is the Renminbi (RMB), commonly called the Yuan (¥). Approximately
¥10.6 to e1 (September, 2007)
Table I.
Demographic pro?le
of Chinese tourists
visiting the UK
Cultural
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supporting H1. With regard to the ?ve SERVQUAL dimensions themselves, the
largest gap is on the Empathy dimension (mean gap ¼ 1.1, t ¼ 7.70, p ¼ 0.0000),
supporting H2. The data for the Assurance dimension (mean gap ¼ 0.9, t ¼ 4.97,
p , 0.0001) fully supports H3. The reliability dimension (mean gap ¼ 1.0, t ¼ 7.02,
p ¼ 0.000) con?rms H4, expectation of reliable services, whilst the Tangible dimension
(mean gap ¼ 0.9, t ¼ 5.75, p ¼ 0.0000) supports H5, relating to similar and adequate
facilities. In China, service-oriented management has seen rapid development,
especially in the highly developed cities and areas. Customers expect a people-oriented
service style from service providers in all types of industry. Consequently, signi?cant
gaps occur, showing rich cultural differences. The following is an analysis of why
Chinese tourists have such expectations and perceptions from the Chinese cultural
perspective, particularly the evolving values of the past decade (Table II).
First, the changing Chinese “consumer-centered culture” which treats consumers as
all important requires service providers to possess not only the ability in handling
problems but also the appropriate ritualistic behavior when dealing with the guests.
The Chinese tourists coming from a high-context society attach great importance to
such ritualistic behavior as smiling, greetings, and hand shaking. They not only show
employees’ respect for guests, but also make guests feel more important and con?dent.
For example, “giving customers personal attention” implies customised services,
which are more than helping guests to solve problems. The Chinese tourists consider
both explicit words and implicit hints in service encounters crucial. In UK hotels, ritual
greetings are uncommon, and sometimes guests cannot meet any employees at the
reception desk. In terms of verbal communications, in UK hotels, employees seldom
exchange conversations with guests, other than greetings, which are often short.
Language may be a very serious barrier for communications. Only through effective
communication can guests express fully their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
Second, the Chinese “working culture” which emphasizes long hours and hard
working makes the tourists believe that English service style is too “laid back.” In the
UK, facilities tend to close early, whereas in China shops are open till late, seven days a
week. Leisure facilities in hotels also tend to close early by Chinese standards. Hard
work and diligence have always been a prevailing value in China, although “absolute
equalitarianism” in the 1960s and 1970s badly discouraged Chinese people’s
enthusiasm for hard working. However, since the implementation of the economic
reform policy, prosperity has taken an overriding importance in every aspect of
Chinese people’s life, with high expectations of others’ work ethic.
Third, different “eating and drinking culture” leads to the tourists’ poor evaluation
of service quality of the hotel’s restaurant. Eating, for the Chinese, is a form of art, and
one of the joys of human life. For example, the most common greeting in China is
“Chi Fan Le Ma” literally “Have you eaten”, whilst most English people greet each
other by commenting on the weather, or other aspects of life. Lin (2004, pp. 328-37)
humorously and precisely elaborates on how seriously Chinese regard eating, and also
how different the Chinese and European cooking principles are. Lin writes: “The
French eat enthusiastically, while the English eat apologetically. The Chinese national
genius decidedly leans towards the French in the matter of feeding ourselves.” Further
he states that the Chinese not only eat happily, but also discuss and exchange opinions
on eating. Whilst no great English poet or writer would condescend to write a
cook book, a lot of great Chinese poets and scholars write about cooking. Vivid
IJCTHR
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Table II.
Gap analysis of
expectations/perceptions
Cultural
perspectives
321
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Table II.
IJCTHR
2,4
322
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descriptions of cuisine appear in a number of great Chinese literature works, for
example, the Red Chamber Dream. Chinese people spend a lot of time at a dinner table
enjoying food in their homes and in restaurants, at social gatherings and at business
meetings. The majority of tourists, who complete the questionnaires, come from
Guangdong province, with worldwide fame for its Cantonese cuisine, which is light in
taste and ?avor, emphasizing freshness. Guangdong has also a highly developed
service quality in the tertiary industry including hospitality and tourism. For example,
Chinese going to a restaurant in Guangdong province often expect a waitress or waiter
standing next to the table, and providing services such as ordering, ?lling guests’
glasses with tea, serving soup, changing dishes or bowls, etc. As a result, Chinese
tourists’ past experience in Chinese restaurants greatly in?uences their expectations of
desired service at UK restaurants. The higher the expectations, the more disappointed
they are when they benchmark UK restaurant service against what they often receive
back at home. Another reason is that these tourists are not used to Western style food.
For example, they prefer hot food, and are not used to eating raw vegetables, which
they consider “unhygienic.”
Next, due to the evolving “shopping culture” of the Chinese tourists, they expect to
stay at a hotel closer to city center where they can do shopping in the evening after
dinner. Apart from loving food, Chinese tourists also like shopping wherever they visit.
Shopping is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole trip. Qian et al. (2007) ?nd that
components of Chinese cultural values such as renqing, reciprocity, guanxi, and yuan
(destiny) exert in?uence on gift selection efforts and brand orientation. Chinese tourists
often buy gifts for their relatives and friends due to their traditional culture of human
relations – loyalty, duty, faithfulness and friend trust. Gift-giving is one of the best ways
to express emotions, love, gratitude, and friendship. This traditional ideological factor,
together with Chinese tourists’ relatively af?uent middle-class background, makes them
one of the most enthusiastic shoppers in the world. In fact, after opening to the outside
world, China has seen an economic boom, and Chinese people have become better off
with more disposable income. This has contributed to China’s rapidly developing
consumption culture. However, when visiting the UK, the hotels at which they stay are
often too far away fromshopping malls. With no other leisure activities available around
the hotel, they feel bored in the evening. To make matters worse, they do not understand
the English TV programmes, since most of them do not understand English.
Modernisation is taking place at a fast pace in China not only at political and macro
economic levels but also in city construction, home building, and leisure style. As
disposable incomes rise, spending patterns of the Chinese people change too, andthe share
of the household budget going to basic necessities, like food and clothing, decreases. Since
the implementationof private ownershipof housing, manyChinese families have allocated
a large percentage of their income to buying apartments. Investing in a second apartment
has become popular in many well developed cities amongst mass af?uent and upper
middle classes. The home-improvement market has likewise been developing very fast
due to the fact that many Chinese people are keen on redecorating their homes in modern
style. The same modernisation process is also happening to hotels in China. They are
usually nicely renovated inside with a spacious lobby, bedroom, bathroom, modern style
furniture and other furnishings. Pine et al. (2000) state that the hotel industry in China is
one of the most important parts of tourism and a symbol of “opening and reform,”
generating not only tourist revenue, but also employment. From1986 to 1991, the Chinese
Cultural
perspectives
323
D
o
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n
l
o
a
d
e
d
b
y
P
O
N
D
I
C
H
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R
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4
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a
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2
0
1
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(
P
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)
Government invested a total of RMB6 billion in the hotel industry and at the same time
adopted favorable policies to attract more capital investment in the hospitality industry.
From 1978 to 1997, hotels in China increased from merely 203 to 5,201, one of the fastest
growing hotel industries in the world over the same period. As a result, disappointment
appears on Chinese tourists’ faces when they enter a small lobby, greeted by one
receptionist, andthentogoupa narrowstaircase intoa tinybedroom. The Chinese tourists
consider provision of toothpaste, toothbrush, shower cap, slippers, and hair dryer as
adequate service. However, UK 3 star hotels do not provide guests with most of the
personal items, which are so common in 3 star Chinese hotels. As to other room facilities,
Chinese tourists regard as essential to have a kettle or a thermo-bottle with hot water to
brewtea. Tea-drinking to Chinese people is what coffee drinking is to Europeans. Chinese
tourists coming from service-oriented Chinese culture appear to have higher service
expectations in terms of tangible services than their Western counterparts. Generally
speaking, Chinese tourists prefer modern renovation to antique-looking furniture; and
prefer a spacious room with a lot of light.
To sum up the Chinese people’s own changing lifestyle in?uences their assessments
of service quality. The Chinese tourists who can afford e2 000 for traveling in Europe
for 12 days share some common characteristics. First, they generally have a good and
rising income. Second, when they travel in China, most of themjoin luxury tour groups,
which usually stay at either 4 or 5 star hotels. Last, but not least, is the co-existence of
conservatism and progressiveness in modern Chinese people’s character. On the one
hand, the Chinese are a proud nation, which pay high respect to traditional culture and
norms. They are content with the Chinese way of life and reluctant to take “risks”,
especially with their eating and drinking traditions. Further, after years of struggles
and turmoil, the Chinese people treasure the present social stability and solidarity. On
the other hand, China and the Chinese show great enthusiasm for changes, and are
changing dramatically. During the process of building a well-off society in an all-round
way and building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chinese people’s living
standards and ways of life together with their customs and outlook have also seen
great changes. They eagerly grasp the opening of opportunities to go outside China to
see the rest of the world. They show interest and curiosity about the West, and have
become more ?exible and tolerant of different cultures.
The following ?shbone chart summarizes the causes that lead to Chinese tourists’
dissatisfaction (Figure 2).
The discrepancy between business travelers and tourists
Chinese culture has not only its common parts shared by the whole nation, but also
different subcultures. Members of different social classes have their own characteristic
behavioral forms and values, in?uenced by many factors such as education, income,
profession, and personality. The ?ndings show that leisure tourists’ expectations are
signi?cantly different from those of business travelers, verifying the H6. Leisure
tourists attach more importance to attributes such as location, bathroom facilities,
quality of personal items, service at restaurant, employees being helpful and courteous.
Business travelers care more about price, internet, communication facilities, ef?cient
services, and employees’ being able to provide useful information, for example, a
restaurant where they can entertain their guests in the evening (Table III).
IJCTHR
2,4
324
D
o
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l
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a
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d
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P
O
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D
I
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R
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a
r
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(
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)
Likewise, many attributes are signi?cantly different, where the business travelers’
perceptions are higher than tourists’, thus verifying H6 (Table IV).
Managerial implications
The results indicate a statistically signi?cant difference between Chinese tourists’
expectations and perceptions of the UK hotel service quality. Based on the results and
from the interviews with the experienced Chinese tourist managers, the paper makes
Figure 2.
Unsatisfactory
perceptions of UK hotel
service quality
Unsatisfactory
UK hotel
service quality
Inconvenient location
far away from shopping
centre & in outlying areas
surrounding
environment is poor
Inadequate supply of
personal items
toothpaste,
toothbrush,
shower cap, slippers
Inconvenient operating
hours
tend to close early
Employees
cannot solve problems
efficiently & provide
information
Unsatisfactory restaurant
service
poor taste of meals
menus are all in English
Inadequate facilities
hot water,
Chinese TV
programs & newspapers
Hotel attributes N Mean Rank z-value p-value
Higher
expectation
1. Close to the city and amenities – transport 19 27 15.9 28.9 3.46 0.001 Tourists
3. For the style of hotel, the price is
reasonable
19 27 29.7 19.2 2.81 0.005 Business
5. Communication facilities are suitable and
adequate 19 27 31.4 18.0 3.52 0.000 Business
13. The bathroom has good facilities 19 27 16.7 28.3 3.51 0.000 Tourists
15. The quality of personal items is good 19 27 19.0 26.7 2.08 0.038 Tourists
17. Restaurant service is prompt and ef?cient 19 27 18.8 26.8 2.19 0.028 Tourists
22. Services are provided ef?ciently and on
time 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.31 0.021 Business
24. Employees are helpful 19 27 19.1 26.6 2.15 0.032 Tourists
26. Customers are well informed about
services and other facilities 19 27 29.0 19.6 2.49 0.013 Business
29. Employees are consistently courteous
with customers 19 27 18.8 26.8 2.27 0.023 Tourists
Notes: Results of the Mann-Whitney test comparing business travelers (n ¼ 19) and tourists (n ¼ 27).
Only those results where a signi?cant difference has been found (at least at the 5 percent level) are
included in the table. The group with the higher mean rank has the higher expectation
Table III.
Differences between
expectations of business
travelers and tourists
Cultural
perspectives
325
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d
b
y
P
O
N
D
I
C
H
E
R
R
Y
U
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I
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E
R
S
I
T
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A
t
2
2
:
0
6
2
4
J
a
n
u
a
r
y
2
0
1
6
(
P
T
)
the following key recommendations for those hotels which are having, or which plan to
have, a number of Chinese tourists.
With respect to the management, the hotel managers should have more
communication with tour operators and tourist guides of Chinese travel services to
understand Chinese customers’ needs and expectations.
With respect to the service delivery, hotels should take some corrective measures to
adapt services to cater to Chinese tourists’ needs. These measures include adding some
Chinese dishes tothe menu; providingmenus inChinese; givingChinese translations of the
important instructions in the hotel; showing video programmes in Chinese, and providing
Chinese newspapers, magazines, and tour maps. Most Chinese tourists prefer hotels with
modern decoration and furnishings. They even associate hotels with a small main gate
with zero star rating hotels in China. In the eyes of Chinese tourists, many hotels in the UK
are too old styled to be appealing. These tangible attributes obviously have affected
Chinese tourists’ consumption experience and caused negative consumer emotions.
Hotel attributes N Mean Rank z-value p-value
Higher
perception
1. Close to the city and amenities – transport 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.23 0.026 Business
5. Communication facilities are suitable and
adequate 19 27 28.9 19.7 2.45 0.014 Business
7. The bedroom is welcoming and gives a
relaxed atmosphere 19 27 29.1 19.6 2.57 0.010 Business
9. The decoration and layout of the bedroom are
good 19 27 27.8 20.4 2.03 0.043 Business
10. The bedroom is clean 19 27 30.5 18.6 3.17 0.002 Business
12. The bathroom is clean 19 27 28.7 19.8 2.35 0.019 Business
16. The restaurant has a relaxed and comfortable
environment 19 27 27.9 20.4 2.12 0.034 Business
17. Restaurant service is prompt and ef?cient 19 27 28.4 20.1 2.31 0.021 Business
18. All items in the restaurant are clean and well
presented 19 27 30.6 18.5 3.22 0.001 Business
20. When there is a problem, the hotel shows
sincere interest in solving it 19 27 27.8 20.5 2.00 0.046 Business
21. Services are performed correctly the ?rst time 19 27 28.5 20.0 2.39 0.017 Business
22. Services are provided ef?ciently and on time 19 27 32.4 17.3 4.35 0.000 Business
23. Check-in/out and other services are error free 19 27 30.0 19.0 3.02 0.003 Business
24. Employees are helpful 19 27 28.3 20.1 2.25 0.025 Business
25. Employees are never too busy to respond to
customers’ requests 19 27 28.4 20.1 2.35 0.019 Business
27. Behavior of employees gives con?dence to
customers (e.g. makes them feel important) 19 27 28.6 19.9 2.37 0.018 Business
28. The employees are suitably attired 19 27 29.9 19.0 2.91 0.004 Business
29. Employees are consistently courteous with
customers 19 27 28.7 19.8 2.43 0.015 Business
32. Operating hours of the facilities are
convenient to customers 19 27 29.5 19.3 2.75 0.006 Business
33. The hotel has customers’ best interests at
heart 19 27 28.6 19.9 2.47 0.013 Business
35. I would happily recommend the hotel to my
colleagues 19 27 27.6 20.6 1.97 0.049 Business
Table IV.
Differences between
perceptions of business
travelers and tourists
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Therefore, they deserve hotels’ improvement efforts. These improvements are visible and
can have immediate impact on the customer’s service experience. As long as the quality
efforts are ?nancially accountable and giving “return on quality,” hotels should invest
more on the improvements of customers’ service experience, which in turn will help the
hotels gain competitive advantages, maintain customer loyalty, add value and thus
increase pro?ts in the long run.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, the sample size of Chinese tourists is small,
re?ecting the features of an exploratory study. Their opinions might not represent that of
other Chinese tourists who have visitedthe UK. Furthermore, the sample of business guests
is also very small. Second, the study only identi?es the tourists’ expectations and
perceptions of four 3 and 4 star hotels in the UK. Whilst representative, clearly the hotel
sample size is small. As a result, the ?ndings might not represent the hotel service qualityin
the whole country. Further studies would need to consider more hotels, both in Central
Londonandoutlyingareas, andtoconsider whether tourists’ expectations of ?ve star hotels
bear similar results. Finally, amongst the 51questionnaires received, the studydiscards ?ve
spoilt ones. The respondents only ?ll Parts I and II, assuming Part III to be exactly the same
as Part I, althoughthe instructions at the beginningof the questionnaire explainclearlythat
Part I is tourists’ overall expectations, and Part III is evaluations after staying at the hotel.
The implications are that gap measuring is not so easy for respondents to understand, and
that data collection through e-mail has some disadvantages. For example, if respondents
fail to complete the questionnaires according to the requirements, the investigator would
have to contact them again to give more detailed explanations, and await reply.
Future research
The paper offers insights into Chinese tourists to the UK and their expectations and
perceptions of the hotel industry, with the analysis making reference to their cultural
heritage. Further research will examine the following areas.
First, increase and segment the sample. With more data, a factor analysis will
determine the impact of underlying dimensions of service quality. Initial exploratory
runs suggest some underlying factors such as assurance, reliability, staff
communication empathy and hotel surroundings and environmental issues. A further
question arises as to whether different cultural groups may have different
expectations. Whilst differences occur between business and purely leisure travelers,
further differences may arise between the young and the elderly, and between groups
with different income and job status, etc. Furthermore, expectations from those who
travel independently may be different from those who book an organized tour.
Second, the study only really concerns itself with the customer gap. Whilst this is all
important, the four provider gaps, for example, management understanding of the
expectations customers are anticipating, require both studying and analyzing.
Third, more emphasis will be on the price/value relationship for hotels themselves,
and more consideration on the hotel category. The hotel grading system in the UK is
such that a 3 star hotel may equal a 2 (or even 1) star in China. Respondents need to
know this in order to accurately identify their views in the questionnaires.
Finally, a causal map of Chinese thinking about leisure travel to the UK has
implications for both tourist and hotel managers.
Cultural
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327
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Corresponding author
Yi Wang can be contacted at: [email protected]
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