Description
This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with
hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island’s core tourism product is based on luxury resorts,
tourist-hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory
holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Visitor interactions with hotel employees: the role of nationality
Girish Prayag Chris Ryan
Article information:
To cite this document:
Girish Prayag Chris Ryan, (2012),"Visitor interactions with hotel employees: the role of nationality", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism
and Hospitality Research, Vol. 6 Iss 2 pp. 173 - 185
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Sean Hennessey, Dongkoo Yun, Roberta Macdonald, (2012),"Segmenting the market of first-time visitors to an island destination",
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Visitor interactions with hotel employees:
the role of nationality
Girish Prayag and Chris Ryan
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with
hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island’s core tourism product is based on luxury resorts,
tourist-hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory
holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.
Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 103 visitors is interviewed using a semi-structured
guide comprising open-ended questions. This approach re?ects the lived experiences of guests and
helps to better assess the role played by nationality when reporting visitor-staff interactions. Data are
analyzed using both thematic analysis and textual analysis software.
Findings – Nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken are found to be factors that determine
differences in requirements from hotel staff on the part of tourists. Nationality is the strongest
discriminator of these requirements.
Research limitations/implications – As with many examples of qualitative research, the ?ndings are
time and place speci?c. Yet nonetheless, the concepts of personal construct theory permit some
generalization.
Practical implications – Resort complex staff and management need to note the differences required
by guests of different national groupings, and to appreciate that less than warm responses by some
clients are not indicative of dissatisfaction.
Originality/value – The paper distinguishes between guests not only on the basis of nationality and
ethnicity, but also languages spoken. No similar study relating to resort complexes in Mauritius has been
identi?ed. The study also uses two modes of textual data analysis to support the interpretation offered.
Keywords Service interaction, Hotel employees, Service values, Social constructionism,
Phenomenology, Cross-cultural differences, Tourism, National cultures
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This paper examines the different evaluations that made by tourists of differing nationalities
staying in luxury resort complexes on the island of Mauritius. The research uses
semi-structured interviews comprising open-ended questions designed to elicit guest
responses about the hotels, and in particular to assess the role played by interactions with
hotel staff in their holiday evaluations. This paper is therefore structured around different
themes. The ?rst describes the nature of Mauritius as a holiday destination. The second
comprises a literature review divided into two, past research on tourist-host interaction and
the construction and understanding of such interactions. The third section of the paper
relates to the research method adopted, while the fourth reports the results. Finally, the study
assesses implications from both a conceptual and managerial perspective.
Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, has emerged as one of the better
performing tourist destinations in the last decade in terms of annual growth. In 2006, 788,276
international visitors visited the island (Handbook of Tourism Statistics, 2007). Traditionally,
DOI 10.1108/17506181211233090 VOL. 6 NO. 2 2012, pp. 173-185, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 173
Girish Prayag is an
Assistant Professor
(Marketing) in the Center for
Tourism Management,
SKEMA Business School,
Nice, France. Chris Ryan is
a Professor in Tourismin the
Waikato Management
School, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New
Zealand.
Received: April 2009
Revised: March 2010
Accepted: May 2010
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resort based packaged holidays based on the 3S’s (sun, sand, and sea) form its core
product, but the island is also promoted as an attractive honeymoon and family oriented
destination. The island offers 98 hotels, many of which are resort complexes positioned in the
luxury segment. For these hotels, quality of service is an important differentiator but poor
language and communication ability of staff remain a cause of dissatisfaction among
international visitors (Juwaheer, 2004, 2006). One possible explanation for this is that while
tourists are traditionally from northwestern Europe and South Africa, recent promotions aim
at attracting guests from India, China and Russia, and thus the question arises as to whether
such guests seek some different form of interaction with hotel staff.
Consequently, this study addresses two issues. First, what are visitors’ experiences of
interactions with hotel employees? Second, what are the differences in reported
experiences, based on visitors’ cultural background?
2. Literature review
2.1 Service encounters and interactions with hotel employees
The foundation of a successful hospitality industry is management of the service encounter,
de?ned as the time when the consumer interacts directly with the service provider
(Shostack, 1985). Many refer to this encounter as the Moment of Truth, in which customers
often develop unforgettable impressions of the service provider (Bitner et al., 1990). While
many studies on service encounter experiences exist (Bitner et al., 1990; Farrell et al., 2001;
Grandey et al., 2005), relatively few focus on customers’ evaluation of interactions with
service providers from a cross-cultural perspective (Mattila, 1999a, b; Winsted, 1997; Furrer
et al., 2000; Manzur and Jogaratnam, 2006; Tsang and Ap, 2007).
Different multi-attribute models exist (see Parasuraman et al., 1988; Price et al., 1995; Winsted,
1997, 2000) but these are heavily dependent upon questionnaires adopting the use of Likert
type scales that require responses to researcher identi?ed items. Undoubtedly, such
positivistic approaches to understanding customers’ experiences have merit, but arguably,
they fail to capture the potentially emotionally laden and at times cathartic nature of these
interactions (Ryan, 1995; McIntosh, 1998). In particular, tourismexperiences are different from
those in other service industries because they tend to be longer in duration, involve a higher
level of human interaction and permit tourists as actors to engage in cognitive dissonance and
adaptive behavioral mechanisms (Ryan, 1999). Therefore, an interpretive research approach
can arguably provide a better assessment of the effectiveness of the service encounter in
mediating meaning for the visitors and/or in helping tourists make sense of their experiences in
a way that is relevant to their own lives (Jennings and Weiler, 2006).
The tourism literature uses social interaction (Reisinger and Turner, 1997, 2002a, b) to
describe interactions between hosts and guests. This conceptualization is broader than that
of the services marketing literature, given that hosts are de?ned as service providers and the
general population. Nonetheless, authors draw upon the service encounter literature
(Reisinger and Turner, 2002a) in their conceptualization and place emphasis on the
importance of understanding interactions between hosts and guests due to their impact on
holiday satisfaction, future behavioral intentions and ultimately the competitiveness of a
destination (Pizam and Sussmann, 1995; Reisinger and Turner, 1997, 2002a, b; Butcher,
2005). However, the experiential dimensions of tourism encounters are increasingly
understood with reference to the speci?cs of context in which they are consumed (McIntosh,
1998). Service interactions can create intimacies within a place, which may affect
consumers’ affective responses and emotional attachment to a destination (Trauer and
Ryan, 2005). For example, interpersonal attributes such as attentiveness, politeness,
generosity, care, friendliness, and commitment of service providers impact positively on
encounter experiences (Johnston, 1995; Juwaheer, 2004; Grandey et al., 2005).
Role and script theory also explains social interaction and can serve as theoretical
foundations of the service encounter. The latter becomes the staged setting for the
performance, much as for a theatrical production. The interaction becomes the front stage of
the performance, creating interplay between employees’ performance, the customer and
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the setting (Bitner, 1992; Grove et al., 1998). The service experience therefore is based on
how well an organization can combine actors, audience and setting to sustain a believable
and enjoyable performance (Grove et al., 1992). Script theory suggests that if one
participant deviates from the script the other actors become uncomfortable (Hoffman and
Bateson, 1997). This can result in tension, frustration, dissatisfaction and role con?ict (Khan
et al., 1964). Consequently, scripting service experiences in such a way that the tourists
leave interaction feeling functionally and emotionally ful?lled.
However, this social interaction also embeds the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002). Inherently, tourism
products possess certain structuring strategies aimed at guiding tourists’ interactions with
each other and with employees. All interactions are therefore situated interactions – situated
in space and time (Wickens, 2002). This collective gaze is also ?ltered by visitors through the
lenses of language, gender, social class, race and ethnicity. As a result, few observations
are objective, but rather are observations, socially situated in the worlds of-and between-the
observer and the observed (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003, p. 31).
Given this, the issue of cross-cultural relationships begins to assume importance. Differing
cultural norms and values can create misunderstandings and occasionally con?ict that may
result in an unhappy customer, a frustrated provider and lost business (Cushner and Brislin,
1996; Master and Prideaux, 2000; Reisinger and Turner, 2002a, b; Sizoo et al., 2005). Stauss
and Mang (1999) describe this as culture shocks that occur due to culturally bound
expectations and perceptions.
Existing studies for example, show that French visitors tend to keep to themselves and
interact less with others while on holiday due to dif?culties in communicating in English
(Pizam and Sussmann, 1995). They also perceive competence, listening and dedication
from service employees to contribute more to their evaluation of the service encounter than
does the effectiveness of the service (Chandon et al., 1997). Germans tend to de?ne
customer service chie?y in terms of reliability but also place value on empathy and
responsiveness (Witkowski and Wol?nbarger, 2002). Indian customers, for example, value
functional elements such as competence and security but also how they feel during the
service delivery (Keillor et al., 2004). Other studies (Mattila, 1999b; Radder and Wang, 2006;
Prayag and Dookhony-Ramphul, 2006) show that personalized service is highly valued in
judgments of luxury hotels and differences in service expectations also exist.
Yet measurement of these differences is limited to using nationality as a proxy for cultural
differences. Dann (1993, pp. 108-109) contends that tourism is a global phenomenon . . .
destination societies are no longer uniform . . . and thus makes no sense to speak of national
identi?cation within many societies . . . many tourists possess multiple nationalities, and their
country of birth may be different from their country of nationality. Therefore, obvious
limitations to using nationality only and alternative factors such as personality, lifestyles,
tourists’ roles exist, and social class are often thought important as better predictors of
cultural differences.
However, Pizam and Sussman (1995, p. 905) argue that in the process of globalization and
convergence of cultures, national culture should not be discarded as evidence exists on its
role in explaining differences. Lee and Sparks (2007) also note that due consideration is not
given to ethnicity, social class, lifestyles and subcultures in explaining cultural differences.
Ethnicity speci?cally, remains an aspect of tourism that is poorly understood (Hitchcock,
1999) and may affect tourists’ behavior (Money and Crotts, 2003). Relatively fewer
cross-cultural studies assess the in?uence of ethnicity and languages spoken on
perceptions of service interactions. Consequently, this study also uses ethnicity and
languages spoken besides nationality to assess cultural differences.
3. Research method
3.1 The social constructionist approach
The social constructionist view suggests that meanings come into existence due to
engagement and disengagement with the realities of the world (Crotty, 1998). Meaning
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cannot exist without the mind, which suggests a constructed, not discovered, nature.
Hence, different people may construct meaning in different ways, even in relation to the
same phenomenon (Crotty, 1998, p. 9). This research approach has an implication any
methodology used for researching service interactions. The use of participant observation
and in-depth interviews is suggested to understand the meaning attributed to objects (Burr,
1995; McIntosh, 1998; Jennings and Weiler, 2006). This is because social constructionists
seek explanation within the realm of individual consciousness and subjectivity, within the
frame of reference of the participants as opposed to that of an objective researcher (Burrell
and Morgan, 1979). Hence, this approach does not suggest a separation but rather an
interactive and co-operative relationship between the investigator and the object of
investigation (Decrop, 2004), data collected from an insider’s perspective as opposed to an
outsider’s perspective (Jennings, 2001).
From this perspective, emotions displayed by others are not the private possessions of the
individual mind, but are the property of relationships. As a result, the authenticity of these
emotions will be dependent on the cultural context (Young, 1990). This implies that service
interaction evaluation is complex and highly situational given that the outcome is dependent
on the setting and the people involved. Also, if the self is a product of language and social
interactions, then the self will be constantly in ?ux, constantly changing depending upon
whom the person is with, in what circumstances and to what purpose. The constructive force
of language in social interaction ensures a fragmented, shifting, and temporary identity for all
of us (Burr, 1995, p. 40). This means that both employees and visitors bring elements of
uncertainty and expectations to the service encounter, best understood within the broader
context of the holiday experience.
Within social constructionism as a research approach, ethno methodology, phenomenology
and structuralism are various ontological stances (Gergen, 1999). In this study,
phenomenology is adopted. At the core of phenomenology is the world of lived
experience, for this is where individual belief and action intersect with culture (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2000). The social and linguistic worlds inevitably color the occurrence of holiday
experiences. Only through dialogue can one become aware of the perceptions, feelings,
and attitudes of others and interpret their meanings and intent (Crotty, 1998, p. 76). This
return to lived phenomena, in contrast to beginning with scienti?c preconceptions, is a
methodological procedure and does not imply that such latter knowledge is false; but simply
suspends received science (Crotty, 1996; Wertz, 2005). The role of the researcher is
therefore to aid the holidaymaker to re-construct their experiences and in doing so,
necessarily draw on language and culture (Crotty, 1998, p. 82).
This approach also assumes that individuals of a given social group understand each other
because they share a common stock of knowledge as well as common language, and both
used to make sense of objects and events. Hence, visitors with the same cultural
background can arguably perceive outcome of interactions with others similarly. However,
phenomenology treats culture with a good measure of caution and suspicion. Culture may
be enabling but, paradoxically, is also crippling (Crotty, 1998, p. 71), because visitors’
understanding of a place perhaps employs perceptual ?lters that do not necessarily convey
the true essence of the place. Visitors consciously choose what to gaze upon and they have
preconceived notions of what to expect at the moment-of-truth (Urry, 2002). Therefore,
identifying the in?uence of perceptual ?lters on a phenomenon can help to understand how
knowledge is reframed, reconstructed and reinterpreted (Ryan, 2002).
In this study, data collection uses semi-structured interviews, which rely on the ability of the
tourist to articulate and recall the salient dimensions of their encounters and experiences
during their visit (McIntosh, 1998; Jennings, 2001). These interviews employ broad
questions that relate to visitors’ service experiences in hotels. This study reports responses
to one question, namely: what are your service experiences with hotel employees? The
sample size of 103 can be justi?ed with reference to personal construct theory which
revolves around how the individual sees reality and constructs his or her social world
(Andereck et al., 2006).
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An assumption is that tourist experiences are essentially individualistic but nonetheless
possible to capture the complexity of and the inter-linkages of so-called real experiences, by
discerning consensual realities that embrace these dimensions (Ryan and Cave, 2005).
Consequently, in any series of interviews, a researcher will ?nd repetition of common ideas,
and this is particularly true when the questioning comprises a common structure (Ryan and
Cave, 2005, p. 145). Hence, sample sizes of 20 to 25 are suf?cient for exploratory studies.
Therefore, the convenience sample of 103 comprises of visitors from UK (20), South Africa
(22), India (20), France (20) and Germany (21) given that these are the key generating
markets for Mauritius. English and French are the two languages used for the interviews
which took place at the international airport in Mauritius. This location provides a sample of
visitors whose experiences are complete and visitors are able to recall their experiences, as
they are still fresh in the mind.
Of particular importance in qualitative data analysis is to establish the credibility of
interpretation, achieved by various forms of data analysis and triangulation (Jennings,
2001). In this study, given that common themes are identi?ed based on consensual truths,
data triangulation is used to enhance credibility of these truths. The ?rst author uses thematic
analysis, while the second independently uses textual analysis software, and the results are
compared to ?nally determine a commonality of interpretation. Using Braun and Clarke’s
(2006) stepwise procedure for thematic analysis, categories are devised both inductively
and deductively. That is, by forming categories initially without any reference to the literature.
Thereafter, they are compared to existing literature to identify similarities and differences.
Not surprisingly consensual truths exist in the data set. The themes derived are then
compared to results derived from CATPAC, a neural network software program, to verify
interpretation. CATPAC essentially conducts content analysis and focuses on words that are
strongly reinforced within the text (Lockyer, 2002). The software essentially produces
frequency counts of unique words used in the text and a dendogram that shows close
relationships between a set of words.
4. Research ?ndings
The demographic and traveling characteristics of the sample are as follows. The average
age of respondents is 40.3 years old. More males (56.3 percent) participated and the
nationalities of respondents are as described above. However, the overwhelming majority of
interviewees are of Caucasian ethnicity (70.3 percent) with the remainder being either of
South Asian (26.2 percent) or Black (2.9 percent) ethnicity. These international visitors
stayed on average 11.1 days. Thematic analysis reveals ?ve underlying themes in the
responses. These are integrity and respect, authenticity, learning, safety and mutual
understanding.
4.1 Integrity and respect
Participants are of the opinion that hotel employees deliver service with integrity and
respect. This is indicative of the ability of the host to deliver service professionally, that is,
within a speci?c time frame and a certain level of warmth. These quotes illustrate this service
value:
[. . .] Staff here are very causal compared to hotel employees in SA, it’s a lot more formal there.
They are friendly and not too causal as well. They are ef?cient and service oriented (South African
visitor).
[. . .] They were nice and friendly; they are attentive to your needs and show respect. They always
greet you wherever they see you in the hotel; this is why I said they are professionals (French
visitor).
Role expectation from visitors associates with this value. They bring to the moment-of-truth
an expectation of how the employee will behave towards them and their satisfaction level is
in?uenced accordingly. For example, visitors expect that in luxury resorts, service will be
excellent and that staff will be considerate and helpful. Both integrity and respect are
in?uential in quantitative studies as well (Saleh and Ryan, 1991; de Ruyter et al., 1997).
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4.2 Authenticity
The second service value identi?ed is authenticity of display. As part of role expectations,
international visitors expect hosts to be authentic in their emotional display towards guests.
This value is illustrated by the following two quotes:
The employees do not feel like they are here to treat you as tourists, they are nice because they
want to be nice (British visitor).
They come out as genuine, they are honest and helpful. They don’t pretend unlike in SA, where
sometimes people for their own bene?ts will act in a way that you will think they appreciate you,
when they don’t actually. Here the people are not like that. Everyone smiles at the hotel and they
are ready to please (South African visitor).
Literature reports this value as an important dimension of service interaction (Winsted, 1997;
Mattila, 1999a, b; Grandey et al., 2005).
4.3 Learning
The third value that seems to permeate interactions with host is the need for learning about
the destination. That is, visitors consciously chose to interact with hotel employees to learn
more about different aspects of the destination such as places to visit, things to do, culture,
folklore, the economy and the life of the host. This value is illustrated in the following two
quotes below:
I did not know much about the place and I learnt a few things like recipes and new ways of
cooking food from talking to employees at the hotel. I learnt more about the cultural diversity and
religious diversity of the place by talking to them. I did not realize that there were so many Chinese
people here, and that they drive on the same side of the road as us (British visitor).
[. . .] We enjoyed talking to the employees. It’s an opportunity for us to learn more about the local
life, places to visit and the economy of Mauritius (French visitor).
Surprisingly, the service literature does not mention this value, but happens to be an
important motivator for visitors to choose a holiday destination (Ryan and Glendon, 1998).
That is, interactions with service personnel are an important source of learning about the
destination and its people. This forms part of their expectations and becomes an important
tourist-host interaction for resort based destinations in Mauritius.
4.4 Safety
Given that, holidays incorporate various activities whether land based or water based,
seemingly, getting the right information from hotel employees about these activities and the
accompanying safety measures, especially when children are involved, are of concern to
international visitors. This value can be seen in the following two quotes:
[. . .] They [hotel employees] explained everything about the hotel, activities carefully, the safety
measures for water sports activities, and they made the experience very enjoyable (French
visitor).
We tried parasailing and that was fantastic, the experience and the feelings [. . .] the staff that
helped us were excellent they explained everything, the safety, how to manage, it was good
(German visitor).
The literature reports this value as security (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Chandon et al., 1997)
and relates to perceived risks during the service encounter. Consciously, employees attempt
to reduce customers’ levels of worry and anxiety as well as feelings of intimidation (Chandon
et al., 1997). The same tactics and behavior seem to be also adopted by hotel employees in
tourism encounters.
4.5 Mutual understanding
Successful interaction is dependent on both parties understanding their role and being able
to communicate effectively. The transcript shows that mutual understanding between host
and guest happens as shown by the two quotes below. Mutual understanding seems to be
based on principles of effective communication and training of the host in delivering service:
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The interactions were very good, employees very [very] polite, very good at delivering service,
they are courteous all the time. Everything was exactly like what the brochure about the hotel said.
I did some search on the Internet myself, and everything is the same as mentioned (South African
visitor).
The interactions were great; they could understand English very well, so made it easy to
communicate with them. I think they are well trained as they could deal with guests that spoke
other languages as well (British visitor).
This service value is reported in other studies as well (Price et al., 1995; Johnston, 1995;
Chandon et al., 1997; Mattila, 1999a, b; Cronin et al., 2000).
4.6 CATPAC analysis
Next, the transcripts are entered into CATPAC to provide further support for the themes
described above and to enhance credibility of interpretation. The results indicate seven
clusters of words in the dendogram. Based on proximity of words, cluster one indicates a
strong relationship between nine words: no, bad, employees, nice, experience, good,
people, positive, and hotel. This relationship can be interpreted as visitors having good
service experiences due to hotel employees and people being nice, resulting in a positive
experience, and con?rmed through thematic analysis. Cluster two infers a similar
relationship, given that words such as staff, helpful and friendly cluster together. Cluster
three indicates that visitors enjoyed the Indian food at the hotel. Cluster four suggests that
visitors perceive hotel employees to be always ready to help.
Likewise, cluster ?ve suggests visitors do not have a bad time with service and/or their stay
at the hotel. Cluster six shows a weaker relationship between words such as beach, great,
know, kids and things. These words suggest visitors’ positive experience being related to the
beach and various things for the kids to do. Finally, cluster seven indicates some visitors
perceiving their positive experience of the place to be related to really everything, thereby
indicating a global positive evaluation of their service experiences.
4.7 Nationality and perceptions of service interactions
The analysis examines the in?uence of nationality using frequency counts from CATPAC on
the number of unique words used by visitors to describe their interactions. These ?ndings
are expressible in a diagrammatic format; see Figure 1. While all nationalities tend to use
friendly, nice and helpful to describe interactions with hotel employees, some words such as
kindness and professionalism tend to be nationality speci?c. For example, British visitors
tend to associate words such as courteous, polite, good and attentive to their needs to
describe their perceptions. German visitors are more pragmatic in their perceptions, using
words such as professional and ef?cient. By far, French and South African visitors use the
most variety of words to describe their perceptions. Indian visitors display the same
pragmatic attitude as Germans.
4.8 Ethnicity and perceptions of service interactions
The study assesses in?uence of ethnicity on service interaction by recoding the data into two
categories, Caucasians (73) and Non-Caucasians (30), to allow for meaningful
comparisons. The two dendograms generated from CATPAC show mostly similarities and
only minor differences in clustering of words. In terms of similarities, both Caucasians and
Non-Caucasians perceive hotel employees to be nice, helpful and friendly, contributing to an
overall good experience at the hotel. Also, both groups perceive interactions with kids by
hotel staff as contributing towards a positive experience. The only difference between the
two groups is that Non-Caucasians seem to be more critical of service and hotel staff using
words such as slow service and check out to describe their service experiences.
4.9 Language spoken and perceptions of service interaction
The research explores the in?uence of language spoken on perceptions, by dividing the
sample into two groups. The ?rst group consists of visitors speaking English as their ?rst
language while the other group comprises of visitors whose ?rst language is not English.
This categorization leads to 62 and 41 visitors respectively. A comparison of the
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dendograms generated show that both groups describe positive service interaction
experiences. However, three major differences are evident.
First, visitors speaking English as their ?rst language use more words to describe their
service experiences. Second, ?uent English speakers assess more dimensions of service
such as food, room size, and quality of beach in determining their experience at the hotel.
Third, visitors not speaking English as their ?rst language are more concerned about the
quality of interaction that hotel employees display with their kids. Fourth, the same group
perceives these interactions with employees as an opportunity to learn about people of the
place and the country. Hence, these results seem to suggest that language spoken has an
impact on ability of visitors to articulate their perceptions and to describe their experiences
as the social constructionist approach suggests (Burr, 1995; Ryan, 2002).
5. Discussion of results and implications
The objectives of this study are to identify international visitors’ experiences of service
interaction with hotel employees and to ask whether cultural background mediates
perceptions. The ?ndings clearly indicate that a social constructionist perspective
strengthens understandings of tourist perceptions and the values, considered critical at
the moment of truth. In fact, satisfying interaction experiences appear common for
international visitors to Mauritius. These positive experiences are based on helpful, friendly
and committed staff who at least meet, if not, exceed customer expectations and the use of a
wide variety of emotive words to describe service interactions. This is not uncommon in
resort-based destinations where personalized service is inherent in the product offering and
Figure 1 Nationality and service interaction perceptions
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interpersonal attributes used to differentiate the service from competitors (Johnston, 1995;
Juwaheer, 2004).
In line with other studies (Furrer et al., 2000; Mattila, 1999a, b; Tsang and Ap, 2007; Winsted,
1999), the results indicate visitors’ preferences for certain aspects of service interactions
based on cultural background. In particular, nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken
seem to in?uence perceptions but nationality seems to exert the strongest in?uence as
reported in other studies (Pizam and Sussmann, 1995; Master and Prideaux, 2000; Manzur
and Jogaratnam, 2006). Nationality seems to affect the dimensions visitors consider
important but also reveals certain stereotypes such as the pragmatic attitude of Germans
and Indians. Despite ethnicity and language spoken playing a lesser role in determining
perceptions, use of cultural markers produces a more re?ned segmentation of markets.
In addition, cultural background in?uences not only perceptions but also expectations in line
with the literature (Witkowski and Wol?nbarger, 2002). Visitors seem to bring their own
preconceived scripts to these performances given that expectations seem to be related to
their motives. For example, they expect to learn about the destination, culture, activities and
people through their interactions with employees and local people and thereby ful?ll needs
for socialization. This ?nding suggests a complex relationship between motives for choice,
perceptions and satisfaction with service interaction.
These ?ndings also have implications for emotional labor management at hotels in Mauritius.
Managers of hotel and front-line staff need to pay particular attention to how visitors feel
during the service delivery and how guests’ children are treated. Being well informed about
these can increase the potential for a positive impact on repeat visitation and
recommendation. In particular, the authenticity of emotional display, integrity and respect,
mutual understanding, and safety as service values that front-line staff display in their
interactions with guests may be stronger drivers of service outcomes than policies that
require front-line staff to smile at any cost but do not provide themwith the tools to create and
display seemingly real emotions when they interact with visitors. Such a strategy may require
reviewing recruitment and training policies at hotels.
Not surprisingly, emotions seem to play a critical role in guest-host interaction. For example,
individuals in affective cultures such as France tend to show their emotions, while members
of neutral societies such as Germany tend to keep their emotions carefully controlled and
subdued. This implies different levels of emotional attachment to hotels and destinations. By
understanding these and how visitors perceive verbal and non-verbal cues from hotel
employees and the type of emotional ful?llment they derive from these interactions, hotel
managers can more effectively differentiate and position their hotel experience against
competitors. Information on emotional attachment can also be used for identi?cation of
salient features and customization of services for different markets. Advertising can be
tailored to re?ect the relevant emotional cues to be emphasized in different markets to
facilitate destination and hotel choice. Such information can enable hotels to develop better
communication skills for staff and training techniques that ultimately deliver superior service
quality and greater customer satisfaction.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, the study has several limitations that need to be overcome in future research.
While this study cannot claim generalizable ?ndings, nonetheless, the research provides a
richer understanding of service interaction and the in?uence of cultural background of
visitors within the context of resort complexes in Mauritius. Further research in other settings
such as theme parks and adventure activities, and other service employees from airlines,
tour operators, travel agents and retail can provide valuable insights in service interactions
from a phenomenological approach. Another limitation is the study focuses on a the
selection of individuals on a convenience basis at the airport. As a result, the behaviors
documented may not re?ect all visitors to the island.
Furthermore, despite signi?cant steps to establish rapport with participants, the researcher’s
role may affect the amount of information given by some of the participants. Those feeling
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more comfortable inevitably tend to agree to participate and speak more lengthily about their
experiences, while less ?uent visitors’ are more silent in the sample. The problem of how to
treat the responses of the less articulate respondent is a signi?cant issue in research that
seeks to use textual data derived from interviews as the prime resource for analysis, and in
this instance, intensi?ed by issues of language familiarity. This is perhaps an area for further
research, where multi-lingual interviewers can be used to understand a phenomenon and
the results compared to interviews where the interviewers speak only English.
In addition, participants may have been unable or unwilling to articulate meanings they really
seek from service encounters because they are not able to re?ect deeply on their
experiences within the interviewing environment. Even though adopting a
phenomenological approach, the researcher set the agenda, by choosing the broad
areas of questioning. Thus, the mode of questioning selected does not establish the degrees
of importance to the respondent as to the nature of service interactions, although what does
emerge is that differences explicable by nationality, ethnicity and language spoken do exist.
In short, a need exists for a mixed method of research that utilizes both quantitative and
qualitative methods driven by the pragmatic needs of the research question rather than
simply the resource base and proclivities and comfort zones of the researcher.
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About the authors
Girish Prayag is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at SKEMA Business School, France.
Prior to this appointment, he was a doctoral student in the Department of Tourism and
Hospitality Management at the Waikato Management School. His research interests are
related to destination management, airline marketing and sustainable tourism. Girish Prayag
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Chris Ryan is Founding Professor in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management
at Waikato University (appointed in 1998). He is the editor of Tourism Management and an
elected Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism. In 2005 he was rated
the most in?uential tourismresearcher for the period 1980-2000 in a study undertaken by the
Haskayne Business School in Canada, and was identi?ed in 2009 as the third most cited
author in the ?eld of tourism. His research interests pertain to tourist behaviors and impacts
upon environments. Chris has published in all the leading academic journals and he also is
an Emerald Award winner for research. Chris is also an Honorary Professor of the University
of Wales, a Visiting Professor at Beijing International Studies University and at Hong
Polytechnic University.
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doc_623111489.pdf
This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with
hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island’s core tourism product is based on luxury resorts,
tourist-hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory
holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Visitor interactions with hotel employees: the role of nationality
Girish Prayag Chris Ryan
Article information:
To cite this document:
Girish Prayag Chris Ryan, (2012),"Visitor interactions with hotel employees: the role of nationality", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism
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Visitor interactions with hotel employees:
the role of nationality
Girish Prayag and Chris Ryan
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with
hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island’s core tourism product is based on luxury resorts,
tourist-hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory
holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.
Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 103 visitors is interviewed using a semi-structured
guide comprising open-ended questions. This approach re?ects the lived experiences of guests and
helps to better assess the role played by nationality when reporting visitor-staff interactions. Data are
analyzed using both thematic analysis and textual analysis software.
Findings – Nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken are found to be factors that determine
differences in requirements from hotel staff on the part of tourists. Nationality is the strongest
discriminator of these requirements.
Research limitations/implications – As with many examples of qualitative research, the ?ndings are
time and place speci?c. Yet nonetheless, the concepts of personal construct theory permit some
generalization.
Practical implications – Resort complex staff and management need to note the differences required
by guests of different national groupings, and to appreciate that less than warm responses by some
clients are not indicative of dissatisfaction.
Originality/value – The paper distinguishes between guests not only on the basis of nationality and
ethnicity, but also languages spoken. No similar study relating to resort complexes in Mauritius has been
identi?ed. The study also uses two modes of textual data analysis to support the interpretation offered.
Keywords Service interaction, Hotel employees, Service values, Social constructionism,
Phenomenology, Cross-cultural differences, Tourism, National cultures
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This paper examines the different evaluations that made by tourists of differing nationalities
staying in luxury resort complexes on the island of Mauritius. The research uses
semi-structured interviews comprising open-ended questions designed to elicit guest
responses about the hotels, and in particular to assess the role played by interactions with
hotel staff in their holiday evaluations. This paper is therefore structured around different
themes. The ?rst describes the nature of Mauritius as a holiday destination. The second
comprises a literature review divided into two, past research on tourist-host interaction and
the construction and understanding of such interactions. The third section of the paper
relates to the research method adopted, while the fourth reports the results. Finally, the study
assesses implications from both a conceptual and managerial perspective.
Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, has emerged as one of the better
performing tourist destinations in the last decade in terms of annual growth. In 2006, 788,276
international visitors visited the island (Handbook of Tourism Statistics, 2007). Traditionally,
DOI 10.1108/17506181211233090 VOL. 6 NO. 2 2012, pp. 173-185, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 173
Girish Prayag is an
Assistant Professor
(Marketing) in the Center for
Tourism Management,
SKEMA Business School,
Nice, France. Chris Ryan is
a Professor in Tourismin the
Waikato Management
School, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New
Zealand.
Received: April 2009
Revised: March 2010
Accepted: May 2010
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resort based packaged holidays based on the 3S’s (sun, sand, and sea) form its core
product, but the island is also promoted as an attractive honeymoon and family oriented
destination. The island offers 98 hotels, many of which are resort complexes positioned in the
luxury segment. For these hotels, quality of service is an important differentiator but poor
language and communication ability of staff remain a cause of dissatisfaction among
international visitors (Juwaheer, 2004, 2006). One possible explanation for this is that while
tourists are traditionally from northwestern Europe and South Africa, recent promotions aim
at attracting guests from India, China and Russia, and thus the question arises as to whether
such guests seek some different form of interaction with hotel staff.
Consequently, this study addresses two issues. First, what are visitors’ experiences of
interactions with hotel employees? Second, what are the differences in reported
experiences, based on visitors’ cultural background?
2. Literature review
2.1 Service encounters and interactions with hotel employees
The foundation of a successful hospitality industry is management of the service encounter,
de?ned as the time when the consumer interacts directly with the service provider
(Shostack, 1985). Many refer to this encounter as the Moment of Truth, in which customers
often develop unforgettable impressions of the service provider (Bitner et al., 1990). While
many studies on service encounter experiences exist (Bitner et al., 1990; Farrell et al., 2001;
Grandey et al., 2005), relatively few focus on customers’ evaluation of interactions with
service providers from a cross-cultural perspective (Mattila, 1999a, b; Winsted, 1997; Furrer
et al., 2000; Manzur and Jogaratnam, 2006; Tsang and Ap, 2007).
Different multi-attribute models exist (see Parasuraman et al., 1988; Price et al., 1995; Winsted,
1997, 2000) but these are heavily dependent upon questionnaires adopting the use of Likert
type scales that require responses to researcher identi?ed items. Undoubtedly, such
positivistic approaches to understanding customers’ experiences have merit, but arguably,
they fail to capture the potentially emotionally laden and at times cathartic nature of these
interactions (Ryan, 1995; McIntosh, 1998). In particular, tourismexperiences are different from
those in other service industries because they tend to be longer in duration, involve a higher
level of human interaction and permit tourists as actors to engage in cognitive dissonance and
adaptive behavioral mechanisms (Ryan, 1999). Therefore, an interpretive research approach
can arguably provide a better assessment of the effectiveness of the service encounter in
mediating meaning for the visitors and/or in helping tourists make sense of their experiences in
a way that is relevant to their own lives (Jennings and Weiler, 2006).
The tourism literature uses social interaction (Reisinger and Turner, 1997, 2002a, b) to
describe interactions between hosts and guests. This conceptualization is broader than that
of the services marketing literature, given that hosts are de?ned as service providers and the
general population. Nonetheless, authors draw upon the service encounter literature
(Reisinger and Turner, 2002a) in their conceptualization and place emphasis on the
importance of understanding interactions between hosts and guests due to their impact on
holiday satisfaction, future behavioral intentions and ultimately the competitiveness of a
destination (Pizam and Sussmann, 1995; Reisinger and Turner, 1997, 2002a, b; Butcher,
2005). However, the experiential dimensions of tourism encounters are increasingly
understood with reference to the speci?cs of context in which they are consumed (McIntosh,
1998). Service interactions can create intimacies within a place, which may affect
consumers’ affective responses and emotional attachment to a destination (Trauer and
Ryan, 2005). For example, interpersonal attributes such as attentiveness, politeness,
generosity, care, friendliness, and commitment of service providers impact positively on
encounter experiences (Johnston, 1995; Juwaheer, 2004; Grandey et al., 2005).
Role and script theory also explains social interaction and can serve as theoretical
foundations of the service encounter. The latter becomes the staged setting for the
performance, much as for a theatrical production. The interaction becomes the front stage of
the performance, creating interplay between employees’ performance, the customer and
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the setting (Bitner, 1992; Grove et al., 1998). The service experience therefore is based on
how well an organization can combine actors, audience and setting to sustain a believable
and enjoyable performance (Grove et al., 1992). Script theory suggests that if one
participant deviates from the script the other actors become uncomfortable (Hoffman and
Bateson, 1997). This can result in tension, frustration, dissatisfaction and role con?ict (Khan
et al., 1964). Consequently, scripting service experiences in such a way that the tourists
leave interaction feeling functionally and emotionally ful?lled.
However, this social interaction also embeds the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002). Inherently, tourism
products possess certain structuring strategies aimed at guiding tourists’ interactions with
each other and with employees. All interactions are therefore situated interactions – situated
in space and time (Wickens, 2002). This collective gaze is also ?ltered by visitors through the
lenses of language, gender, social class, race and ethnicity. As a result, few observations
are objective, but rather are observations, socially situated in the worlds of-and between-the
observer and the observed (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003, p. 31).
Given this, the issue of cross-cultural relationships begins to assume importance. Differing
cultural norms and values can create misunderstandings and occasionally con?ict that may
result in an unhappy customer, a frustrated provider and lost business (Cushner and Brislin,
1996; Master and Prideaux, 2000; Reisinger and Turner, 2002a, b; Sizoo et al., 2005). Stauss
and Mang (1999) describe this as culture shocks that occur due to culturally bound
expectations and perceptions.
Existing studies for example, show that French visitors tend to keep to themselves and
interact less with others while on holiday due to dif?culties in communicating in English
(Pizam and Sussmann, 1995). They also perceive competence, listening and dedication
from service employees to contribute more to their evaluation of the service encounter than
does the effectiveness of the service (Chandon et al., 1997). Germans tend to de?ne
customer service chie?y in terms of reliability but also place value on empathy and
responsiveness (Witkowski and Wol?nbarger, 2002). Indian customers, for example, value
functional elements such as competence and security but also how they feel during the
service delivery (Keillor et al., 2004). Other studies (Mattila, 1999b; Radder and Wang, 2006;
Prayag and Dookhony-Ramphul, 2006) show that personalized service is highly valued in
judgments of luxury hotels and differences in service expectations also exist.
Yet measurement of these differences is limited to using nationality as a proxy for cultural
differences. Dann (1993, pp. 108-109) contends that tourism is a global phenomenon . . .
destination societies are no longer uniform . . . and thus makes no sense to speak of national
identi?cation within many societies . . . many tourists possess multiple nationalities, and their
country of birth may be different from their country of nationality. Therefore, obvious
limitations to using nationality only and alternative factors such as personality, lifestyles,
tourists’ roles exist, and social class are often thought important as better predictors of
cultural differences.
However, Pizam and Sussman (1995, p. 905) argue that in the process of globalization and
convergence of cultures, national culture should not be discarded as evidence exists on its
role in explaining differences. Lee and Sparks (2007) also note that due consideration is not
given to ethnicity, social class, lifestyles and subcultures in explaining cultural differences.
Ethnicity speci?cally, remains an aspect of tourism that is poorly understood (Hitchcock,
1999) and may affect tourists’ behavior (Money and Crotts, 2003). Relatively fewer
cross-cultural studies assess the in?uence of ethnicity and languages spoken on
perceptions of service interactions. Consequently, this study also uses ethnicity and
languages spoken besides nationality to assess cultural differences.
3. Research method
3.1 The social constructionist approach
The social constructionist view suggests that meanings come into existence due to
engagement and disengagement with the realities of the world (Crotty, 1998). Meaning
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cannot exist without the mind, which suggests a constructed, not discovered, nature.
Hence, different people may construct meaning in different ways, even in relation to the
same phenomenon (Crotty, 1998, p. 9). This research approach has an implication any
methodology used for researching service interactions. The use of participant observation
and in-depth interviews is suggested to understand the meaning attributed to objects (Burr,
1995; McIntosh, 1998; Jennings and Weiler, 2006). This is because social constructionists
seek explanation within the realm of individual consciousness and subjectivity, within the
frame of reference of the participants as opposed to that of an objective researcher (Burrell
and Morgan, 1979). Hence, this approach does not suggest a separation but rather an
interactive and co-operative relationship between the investigator and the object of
investigation (Decrop, 2004), data collected from an insider’s perspective as opposed to an
outsider’s perspective (Jennings, 2001).
From this perspective, emotions displayed by others are not the private possessions of the
individual mind, but are the property of relationships. As a result, the authenticity of these
emotions will be dependent on the cultural context (Young, 1990). This implies that service
interaction evaluation is complex and highly situational given that the outcome is dependent
on the setting and the people involved. Also, if the self is a product of language and social
interactions, then the self will be constantly in ?ux, constantly changing depending upon
whom the person is with, in what circumstances and to what purpose. The constructive force
of language in social interaction ensures a fragmented, shifting, and temporary identity for all
of us (Burr, 1995, p. 40). This means that both employees and visitors bring elements of
uncertainty and expectations to the service encounter, best understood within the broader
context of the holiday experience.
Within social constructionism as a research approach, ethno methodology, phenomenology
and structuralism are various ontological stances (Gergen, 1999). In this study,
phenomenology is adopted. At the core of phenomenology is the world of lived
experience, for this is where individual belief and action intersect with culture (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2000). The social and linguistic worlds inevitably color the occurrence of holiday
experiences. Only through dialogue can one become aware of the perceptions, feelings,
and attitudes of others and interpret their meanings and intent (Crotty, 1998, p. 76). This
return to lived phenomena, in contrast to beginning with scienti?c preconceptions, is a
methodological procedure and does not imply that such latter knowledge is false; but simply
suspends received science (Crotty, 1996; Wertz, 2005). The role of the researcher is
therefore to aid the holidaymaker to re-construct their experiences and in doing so,
necessarily draw on language and culture (Crotty, 1998, p. 82).
This approach also assumes that individuals of a given social group understand each other
because they share a common stock of knowledge as well as common language, and both
used to make sense of objects and events. Hence, visitors with the same cultural
background can arguably perceive outcome of interactions with others similarly. However,
phenomenology treats culture with a good measure of caution and suspicion. Culture may
be enabling but, paradoxically, is also crippling (Crotty, 1998, p. 71), because visitors’
understanding of a place perhaps employs perceptual ?lters that do not necessarily convey
the true essence of the place. Visitors consciously choose what to gaze upon and they have
preconceived notions of what to expect at the moment-of-truth (Urry, 2002). Therefore,
identifying the in?uence of perceptual ?lters on a phenomenon can help to understand how
knowledge is reframed, reconstructed and reinterpreted (Ryan, 2002).
In this study, data collection uses semi-structured interviews, which rely on the ability of the
tourist to articulate and recall the salient dimensions of their encounters and experiences
during their visit (McIntosh, 1998; Jennings, 2001). These interviews employ broad
questions that relate to visitors’ service experiences in hotels. This study reports responses
to one question, namely: what are your service experiences with hotel employees? The
sample size of 103 can be justi?ed with reference to personal construct theory which
revolves around how the individual sees reality and constructs his or her social world
(Andereck et al., 2006).
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An assumption is that tourist experiences are essentially individualistic but nonetheless
possible to capture the complexity of and the inter-linkages of so-called real experiences, by
discerning consensual realities that embrace these dimensions (Ryan and Cave, 2005).
Consequently, in any series of interviews, a researcher will ?nd repetition of common ideas,
and this is particularly true when the questioning comprises a common structure (Ryan and
Cave, 2005, p. 145). Hence, sample sizes of 20 to 25 are suf?cient for exploratory studies.
Therefore, the convenience sample of 103 comprises of visitors from UK (20), South Africa
(22), India (20), France (20) and Germany (21) given that these are the key generating
markets for Mauritius. English and French are the two languages used for the interviews
which took place at the international airport in Mauritius. This location provides a sample of
visitors whose experiences are complete and visitors are able to recall their experiences, as
they are still fresh in the mind.
Of particular importance in qualitative data analysis is to establish the credibility of
interpretation, achieved by various forms of data analysis and triangulation (Jennings,
2001). In this study, given that common themes are identi?ed based on consensual truths,
data triangulation is used to enhance credibility of these truths. The ?rst author uses thematic
analysis, while the second independently uses textual analysis software, and the results are
compared to ?nally determine a commonality of interpretation. Using Braun and Clarke’s
(2006) stepwise procedure for thematic analysis, categories are devised both inductively
and deductively. That is, by forming categories initially without any reference to the literature.
Thereafter, they are compared to existing literature to identify similarities and differences.
Not surprisingly consensual truths exist in the data set. The themes derived are then
compared to results derived from CATPAC, a neural network software program, to verify
interpretation. CATPAC essentially conducts content analysis and focuses on words that are
strongly reinforced within the text (Lockyer, 2002). The software essentially produces
frequency counts of unique words used in the text and a dendogram that shows close
relationships between a set of words.
4. Research ?ndings
The demographic and traveling characteristics of the sample are as follows. The average
age of respondents is 40.3 years old. More males (56.3 percent) participated and the
nationalities of respondents are as described above. However, the overwhelming majority of
interviewees are of Caucasian ethnicity (70.3 percent) with the remainder being either of
South Asian (26.2 percent) or Black (2.9 percent) ethnicity. These international visitors
stayed on average 11.1 days. Thematic analysis reveals ?ve underlying themes in the
responses. These are integrity and respect, authenticity, learning, safety and mutual
understanding.
4.1 Integrity and respect
Participants are of the opinion that hotel employees deliver service with integrity and
respect. This is indicative of the ability of the host to deliver service professionally, that is,
within a speci?c time frame and a certain level of warmth. These quotes illustrate this service
value:
[. . .] Staff here are very causal compared to hotel employees in SA, it’s a lot more formal there.
They are friendly and not too causal as well. They are ef?cient and service oriented (South African
visitor).
[. . .] They were nice and friendly; they are attentive to your needs and show respect. They always
greet you wherever they see you in the hotel; this is why I said they are professionals (French
visitor).
Role expectation from visitors associates with this value. They bring to the moment-of-truth
an expectation of how the employee will behave towards them and their satisfaction level is
in?uenced accordingly. For example, visitors expect that in luxury resorts, service will be
excellent and that staff will be considerate and helpful. Both integrity and respect are
in?uential in quantitative studies as well (Saleh and Ryan, 1991; de Ruyter et al., 1997).
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4.2 Authenticity
The second service value identi?ed is authenticity of display. As part of role expectations,
international visitors expect hosts to be authentic in their emotional display towards guests.
This value is illustrated by the following two quotes:
The employees do not feel like they are here to treat you as tourists, they are nice because they
want to be nice (British visitor).
They come out as genuine, they are honest and helpful. They don’t pretend unlike in SA, where
sometimes people for their own bene?ts will act in a way that you will think they appreciate you,
when they don’t actually. Here the people are not like that. Everyone smiles at the hotel and they
are ready to please (South African visitor).
Literature reports this value as an important dimension of service interaction (Winsted, 1997;
Mattila, 1999a, b; Grandey et al., 2005).
4.3 Learning
The third value that seems to permeate interactions with host is the need for learning about
the destination. That is, visitors consciously chose to interact with hotel employees to learn
more about different aspects of the destination such as places to visit, things to do, culture,
folklore, the economy and the life of the host. This value is illustrated in the following two
quotes below:
I did not know much about the place and I learnt a few things like recipes and new ways of
cooking food from talking to employees at the hotel. I learnt more about the cultural diversity and
religious diversity of the place by talking to them. I did not realize that there were so many Chinese
people here, and that they drive on the same side of the road as us (British visitor).
[. . .] We enjoyed talking to the employees. It’s an opportunity for us to learn more about the local
life, places to visit and the economy of Mauritius (French visitor).
Surprisingly, the service literature does not mention this value, but happens to be an
important motivator for visitors to choose a holiday destination (Ryan and Glendon, 1998).
That is, interactions with service personnel are an important source of learning about the
destination and its people. This forms part of their expectations and becomes an important
tourist-host interaction for resort based destinations in Mauritius.
4.4 Safety
Given that, holidays incorporate various activities whether land based or water based,
seemingly, getting the right information from hotel employees about these activities and the
accompanying safety measures, especially when children are involved, are of concern to
international visitors. This value can be seen in the following two quotes:
[. . .] They [hotel employees] explained everything about the hotel, activities carefully, the safety
measures for water sports activities, and they made the experience very enjoyable (French
visitor).
We tried parasailing and that was fantastic, the experience and the feelings [. . .] the staff that
helped us were excellent they explained everything, the safety, how to manage, it was good
(German visitor).
The literature reports this value as security (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Chandon et al., 1997)
and relates to perceived risks during the service encounter. Consciously, employees attempt
to reduce customers’ levels of worry and anxiety as well as feelings of intimidation (Chandon
et al., 1997). The same tactics and behavior seem to be also adopted by hotel employees in
tourism encounters.
4.5 Mutual understanding
Successful interaction is dependent on both parties understanding their role and being able
to communicate effectively. The transcript shows that mutual understanding between host
and guest happens as shown by the two quotes below. Mutual understanding seems to be
based on principles of effective communication and training of the host in delivering service:
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The interactions were very good, employees very [very] polite, very good at delivering service,
they are courteous all the time. Everything was exactly like what the brochure about the hotel said.
I did some search on the Internet myself, and everything is the same as mentioned (South African
visitor).
The interactions were great; they could understand English very well, so made it easy to
communicate with them. I think they are well trained as they could deal with guests that spoke
other languages as well (British visitor).
This service value is reported in other studies as well (Price et al., 1995; Johnston, 1995;
Chandon et al., 1997; Mattila, 1999a, b; Cronin et al., 2000).
4.6 CATPAC analysis
Next, the transcripts are entered into CATPAC to provide further support for the themes
described above and to enhance credibility of interpretation. The results indicate seven
clusters of words in the dendogram. Based on proximity of words, cluster one indicates a
strong relationship between nine words: no, bad, employees, nice, experience, good,
people, positive, and hotel. This relationship can be interpreted as visitors having good
service experiences due to hotel employees and people being nice, resulting in a positive
experience, and con?rmed through thematic analysis. Cluster two infers a similar
relationship, given that words such as staff, helpful and friendly cluster together. Cluster
three indicates that visitors enjoyed the Indian food at the hotel. Cluster four suggests that
visitors perceive hotel employees to be always ready to help.
Likewise, cluster ?ve suggests visitors do not have a bad time with service and/or their stay
at the hotel. Cluster six shows a weaker relationship between words such as beach, great,
know, kids and things. These words suggest visitors’ positive experience being related to the
beach and various things for the kids to do. Finally, cluster seven indicates some visitors
perceiving their positive experience of the place to be related to really everything, thereby
indicating a global positive evaluation of their service experiences.
4.7 Nationality and perceptions of service interactions
The analysis examines the in?uence of nationality using frequency counts from CATPAC on
the number of unique words used by visitors to describe their interactions. These ?ndings
are expressible in a diagrammatic format; see Figure 1. While all nationalities tend to use
friendly, nice and helpful to describe interactions with hotel employees, some words such as
kindness and professionalism tend to be nationality speci?c. For example, British visitors
tend to associate words such as courteous, polite, good and attentive to their needs to
describe their perceptions. German visitors are more pragmatic in their perceptions, using
words such as professional and ef?cient. By far, French and South African visitors use the
most variety of words to describe their perceptions. Indian visitors display the same
pragmatic attitude as Germans.
4.8 Ethnicity and perceptions of service interactions
The study assesses in?uence of ethnicity on service interaction by recoding the data into two
categories, Caucasians (73) and Non-Caucasians (30), to allow for meaningful
comparisons. The two dendograms generated from CATPAC show mostly similarities and
only minor differences in clustering of words. In terms of similarities, both Caucasians and
Non-Caucasians perceive hotel employees to be nice, helpful and friendly, contributing to an
overall good experience at the hotel. Also, both groups perceive interactions with kids by
hotel staff as contributing towards a positive experience. The only difference between the
two groups is that Non-Caucasians seem to be more critical of service and hotel staff using
words such as slow service and check out to describe their service experiences.
4.9 Language spoken and perceptions of service interaction
The research explores the in?uence of language spoken on perceptions, by dividing the
sample into two groups. The ?rst group consists of visitors speaking English as their ?rst
language while the other group comprises of visitors whose ?rst language is not English.
This categorization leads to 62 and 41 visitors respectively. A comparison of the
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dendograms generated show that both groups describe positive service interaction
experiences. However, three major differences are evident.
First, visitors speaking English as their ?rst language use more words to describe their
service experiences. Second, ?uent English speakers assess more dimensions of service
such as food, room size, and quality of beach in determining their experience at the hotel.
Third, visitors not speaking English as their ?rst language are more concerned about the
quality of interaction that hotel employees display with their kids. Fourth, the same group
perceives these interactions with employees as an opportunity to learn about people of the
place and the country. Hence, these results seem to suggest that language spoken has an
impact on ability of visitors to articulate their perceptions and to describe their experiences
as the social constructionist approach suggests (Burr, 1995; Ryan, 2002).
5. Discussion of results and implications
The objectives of this study are to identify international visitors’ experiences of service
interaction with hotel employees and to ask whether cultural background mediates
perceptions. The ?ndings clearly indicate that a social constructionist perspective
strengthens understandings of tourist perceptions and the values, considered critical at
the moment of truth. In fact, satisfying interaction experiences appear common for
international visitors to Mauritius. These positive experiences are based on helpful, friendly
and committed staff who at least meet, if not, exceed customer expectations and the use of a
wide variety of emotive words to describe service interactions. This is not uncommon in
resort-based destinations where personalized service is inherent in the product offering and
Figure 1 Nationality and service interaction perceptions
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interpersonal attributes used to differentiate the service from competitors (Johnston, 1995;
Juwaheer, 2004).
In line with other studies (Furrer et al., 2000; Mattila, 1999a, b; Tsang and Ap, 2007; Winsted,
1999), the results indicate visitors’ preferences for certain aspects of service interactions
based on cultural background. In particular, nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken
seem to in?uence perceptions but nationality seems to exert the strongest in?uence as
reported in other studies (Pizam and Sussmann, 1995; Master and Prideaux, 2000; Manzur
and Jogaratnam, 2006). Nationality seems to affect the dimensions visitors consider
important but also reveals certain stereotypes such as the pragmatic attitude of Germans
and Indians. Despite ethnicity and language spoken playing a lesser role in determining
perceptions, use of cultural markers produces a more re?ned segmentation of markets.
In addition, cultural background in?uences not only perceptions but also expectations in line
with the literature (Witkowski and Wol?nbarger, 2002). Visitors seem to bring their own
preconceived scripts to these performances given that expectations seem to be related to
their motives. For example, they expect to learn about the destination, culture, activities and
people through their interactions with employees and local people and thereby ful?ll needs
for socialization. This ?nding suggests a complex relationship between motives for choice,
perceptions and satisfaction with service interaction.
These ?ndings also have implications for emotional labor management at hotels in Mauritius.
Managers of hotel and front-line staff need to pay particular attention to how visitors feel
during the service delivery and how guests’ children are treated. Being well informed about
these can increase the potential for a positive impact on repeat visitation and
recommendation. In particular, the authenticity of emotional display, integrity and respect,
mutual understanding, and safety as service values that front-line staff display in their
interactions with guests may be stronger drivers of service outcomes than policies that
require front-line staff to smile at any cost but do not provide themwith the tools to create and
display seemingly real emotions when they interact with visitors. Such a strategy may require
reviewing recruitment and training policies at hotels.
Not surprisingly, emotions seem to play a critical role in guest-host interaction. For example,
individuals in affective cultures such as France tend to show their emotions, while members
of neutral societies such as Germany tend to keep their emotions carefully controlled and
subdued. This implies different levels of emotional attachment to hotels and destinations. By
understanding these and how visitors perceive verbal and non-verbal cues from hotel
employees and the type of emotional ful?llment they derive from these interactions, hotel
managers can more effectively differentiate and position their hotel experience against
competitors. Information on emotional attachment can also be used for identi?cation of
salient features and customization of services for different markets. Advertising can be
tailored to re?ect the relevant emotional cues to be emphasized in different markets to
facilitate destination and hotel choice. Such information can enable hotels to develop better
communication skills for staff and training techniques that ultimately deliver superior service
quality and greater customer satisfaction.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, the study has several limitations that need to be overcome in future research.
While this study cannot claim generalizable ?ndings, nonetheless, the research provides a
richer understanding of service interaction and the in?uence of cultural background of
visitors within the context of resort complexes in Mauritius. Further research in other settings
such as theme parks and adventure activities, and other service employees from airlines,
tour operators, travel agents and retail can provide valuable insights in service interactions
from a phenomenological approach. Another limitation is the study focuses on a the
selection of individuals on a convenience basis at the airport. As a result, the behaviors
documented may not re?ect all visitors to the island.
Furthermore, despite signi?cant steps to establish rapport with participants, the researcher’s
role may affect the amount of information given by some of the participants. Those feeling
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more comfortable inevitably tend to agree to participate and speak more lengthily about their
experiences, while less ?uent visitors’ are more silent in the sample. The problem of how to
treat the responses of the less articulate respondent is a signi?cant issue in research that
seeks to use textual data derived from interviews as the prime resource for analysis, and in
this instance, intensi?ed by issues of language familiarity. This is perhaps an area for further
research, where multi-lingual interviewers can be used to understand a phenomenon and
the results compared to interviews where the interviewers speak only English.
In addition, participants may have been unable or unwilling to articulate meanings they really
seek from service encounters because they are not able to re?ect deeply on their
experiences within the interviewing environment. Even though adopting a
phenomenological approach, the researcher set the agenda, by choosing the broad
areas of questioning. Thus, the mode of questioning selected does not establish the degrees
of importance to the respondent as to the nature of service interactions, although what does
emerge is that differences explicable by nationality, ethnicity and language spoken do exist.
In short, a need exists for a mixed method of research that utilizes both quantitative and
qualitative methods driven by the pragmatic needs of the research question rather than
simply the resource base and proclivities and comfort zones of the researcher.
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About the authors
Girish Prayag is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at SKEMA Business School, France.
Prior to this appointment, he was a doctoral student in the Department of Tourism and
Hospitality Management at the Waikato Management School. His research interests are
related to destination management, airline marketing and sustainable tourism. Girish Prayag
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Chris Ryan is Founding Professor in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management
at Waikato University (appointed in 1998). He is the editor of Tourism Management and an
elected Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism. In 2005 he was rated
the most in?uential tourismresearcher for the period 1980-2000 in a study undertaken by the
Haskayne Business School in Canada, and was identi?ed in 2009 as the third most cited
author in the ?eld of tourism. His research interests pertain to tourist behaviors and impacts
upon environments. Chris has published in all the leading academic journals and he also is
an Emerald Award winner for research. Chris is also an Honorary Professor of the University
of Wales, a Visiting Professor at Beijing International Studies University and at Hong
Polytechnic University.
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