تجزیه و تحلیل اهمیت عملکرد عوامل انتخاب هتل در صنعت هتلداری هنگ کنگ: یک مقایسه از کسب و کار و اوقات فراغت مسافران

Using an Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA), this paper examined business and leisure travellers’ perceived importance and performance of six hotel selection factors in the Hong Kong hotel industry. The six hotel selection factors identified were: Service Quality, Business Facilities, Value, Room and Front Desk, Food and Recreation, and Security. Both business and leisure travellers held the same perceptions towards all the six hotel selection factors. The IPA grids illustrated that the Value factor fell into the Concentrate Here quadrant; Service Quality, Room and Front Desk and Security in the Keep Up the Good Work quadrant; and Business Facilities and Food and Recreation in the Low Priority quadrant. Room and Front Desk and Security were found to be the determining factors for business and leisure travellers, respectively, in their hotel choice selection. Implications for Hong Kong hoteliers and researchers were discussed.

1.1. The Hong Kong hotel and tourism industry Hong Kong has long been Asia's most popular tourist destination. The total visitor arrivals for 1996 reached a record of 11.7 million, representing a remarkable 14.7 per cent growth over 1995, with HK$84.5 billion (US$10.8 billion) flowing into the Special Administrative Region's economy in foreign exchange earnings. The 14.7 per cent growth rate in 1996 out-performed the world average of 4.5 per cent, as well as the average growth rates for East Asia/Pacific and South Asia, with 7.9 per cent and 4.0 per cent respectively (WTO, 1997). In addition, approximately 8 per cent of Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is attributable to tourism (HKTA, 1998). However, since the beginning of 1997, Hong Kong's inbound tourism industry has experienced an unprecedented decline. As illustrated in Table 1, the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) revealed that the numbers of visitors declined from 11.7 million in 1996 to 10.4 million in 1997, representing a 12 per cent fall (HKTA, 1998). The fall in visitor arrivals has been aggravated by the regional currency turmoil, which has made Hong Kong an expensive destination to travel in comparison with other Southeast Asian regions (Poole, 1997). The depreciation of the Thai baht, the Indonesian rupiah, the Malaysian ringgit, and the Philippine peso has inevitably attracted international travellers who prefer to seek bargain visits to these cheaper destinations. Hong Kong is now considered less `vacation-friendly’ than previously as high inflation has driven up prices. In 1989, 60 per cent of travellers rated shopping in Hong Kong as `above average’ in value for money, but in 1993 the number fell below 45 per cent (HKTA, 1998). In the early 1990s, Hong Kong suffered from a relatively high inflation rate of about 10 per cent per annum as a result of an increase in labour and land costs. Although inflation fell to 8.7 per cent in 1995, Hong Kong is still at a disadvantage when compared with most industrialised countries, where inflation has been running at 3–4 per cent per annum in recent years (Hueng, 1997). The rising cost of accommodation in Hong Kong and the dwindling number of shopping bargains are continuously affecting the Hong Kong tourism industry (Brevetti, 1995). Such price inflation threatens Hong Kong's reputation as a Shopping Paradise. Looking at the visitor profile, in particular at a comparison of business and leisure travellers, there appears to have not much significant change between the two groups. The leisure segment has constituted almost 60 per cent of total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong over the past ten years, while the business segment contributed up to 30 per cent of total visitor arrivals over the same period (see Table 1). Table 1. Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong, 1988–1997 Year Visitor arrivals (1,000,000) Business travellers (%) Leisure travellers (%) Others (%) 1988 5.6 21 62 17 1989 5.4 25 56 19 1990 5.9 25 55 20 1991 6.0 23 59 18 1992 6.9 28 56 16 1993 8.9 31 54 15 1994 9.3 29 58 13 1995 10.2 30 55 15 1996 11.7 29 58 13 1997 10.4 26 61 13 Source: Adapted from A Statistical Review of Tourism, Hong Kong Tourist Association (1998). Table options Regarding the hotel industry in Hong Kong, room rates have long been considered as the prime factor that adds to the cost of a trip, contributing to tourism downturn (Beck, 1997; Schloss, 1997). Schloss (1997) reported that Hong Kong hotels are more expensive to stay in than in Tokyo hotels, even when they offer discounts. Beck (1997) mentioned that Hong Kong hotels are too expensive and that the high cost is the single factor that continues to affect tourism in Hong Kong seriously. Research studies have shown that satisfaction with hotel properties, including services, facilities and price, appears to be one of the major factors leading to the success and repeat patronage of the destination (Shih, 1986; Stevens, 1992). To be successful in business, one must understand how customers perceive the product or service attributes, their importance and performance when compared with other competitors. The importance of `being competitive’ and `offering competitive advantage’ has been recognised for some years. In the hotel environment, where competition dominates, hoteliers must study the strengths and weaknesses of the product or service they provide and accurately define their importance and performance. To maintain Hong Kong's present status as one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations, hoteliers must thoroughly understand which hotel attributes are perceived by travellers, and the level of performance of these attributes. This paper attempts to identify both the importance and performance of hotel selection factors in the Hong Kong hotel industry using the Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) model. More specifically, the paper intends to compare perceptions of business and leisure travellers, in terms of importance and performance of hotel selection factors. By identifying the needs, desires and expectations of different segments, hoteliers will be in a better position to develop tailor-made marketing strategies to cater for their target customers and to achieve competitive advantages.

This study has categorised the 26 hotel attributes into six hotel selection factors: Service Quality, Business Facilities, Value, Room and Front Desk, Food and Recreation, and Security. Using IPA, this study has compared the importance and performance of the hotel selection factors, as perceived by business and leisure travellers. Both business and leisure travellers have the same perceptions towards all the six hotel selection factors. The IPA grids have illustrated that the Value factor fell into the Concentrate Here quadrant; Service Quality, Room and Front Desk and Security in the Keep Up the Good Work quadrant; and Business Facilities and Food and Recreation in the Low Priority quadrant. No attribute has been identified in the Possible Overkill quadrant. Though the results of independent sample t-test did not indicate any significant difference on the perceived importance of hotel selection factors between business and leisure travellers, the two groups did differ from each other in hotel selection. In choosing a hotel, business travellers considered Room and Front Desk to be the most important to them, whereas their leisure counterparts rated Security to be the most important to them. The use of IPA has contributed to the literature and the industry. Academically, the use of IPA to investigate the differences between the importance of hotel selection factors as perceived by travellers, and their perceptions of a hotel's actual performance in relation to these factors, could contribute to further research studies in the area of consumer decision-process theory. For example, several areas regarding possible applications of IPA should be addressed. This includes applying the IPA technique to a comparison of hotel selection criteria for male and female tourists, Asian and Western tourists, and for hotels of different categories. Analysing perceptions of quality in terms of different segments can help hoteliers to develop and formulate marketing strategies to meet the needs of each specific segment (LeBlanc, 1992). By identifying the proper hotel segments, hoteliers can tailor-make their marketing tactics and strategies to best meet tourists’ needs and expectations. In practical terms, the IPA technique has helped to divide the hotel selection factors (services and facilities) into four identifiable quadrants, so that hoteliers are better able to understand how customers perceive their products and services. There are two explicit advantages for hotel managers in applying IPA to their management know-how. First, IPA is a relatively inexpensive and easily understood technique. Using a simple quadratic presentation, one can display the results graphically on a two-dimensional grid that explicitly shows the strengths and weaknesses of the hotel attributes being studied. Second, using the results provided by IPA, hotel managers can tailor-make marketing strategies based on the importance and perception of performance revealed in each quadrant, from the perspective of customers. This is a useful and effective way for management to identify what problems exist, and why. Intensified competition is not unique to the Hong Kong hotel industry — hotels throughout the world must deal with it. How hotels position themselves and differentiate themselves from competitors is critical to their success. By identifying customers’ needs and expectations, hoteliers will be better able to prioritise tasks, allocate their resources, and develop tailor-made marketing strategies for their target segments (Hsu et al., 1997). Once customers’ requirements are clearly identified and understood, hoteliers are likely to be in a better position to anticipate and cater for their customers’ desires and needs, rather than merely reacting to their dissatisfaction (Oberoi & Hales, 1990). To evaluate a hotel's performance from the customer's point of view would improve hotel managers’ understanding of customer satisfaction, and ultimately lead to repeat business. Customers who are satisfied with their hotel stay are more likely to become repeat customers, and to spread favourable word-of-mouth publicity (Fornell, 1992). Knowing how travellers perceive the quality of services and facilities is the means by which hoteliers can achieve a competitive advantage, differentiate themselves from competitors, increase customer loyalty, enhance corporate image, increase business performance, retain existing customers, and attract new ones (Lewis, 1993; Watson, McKenna & McLean, 1992).