Travelers’ Intent to Purchase Tourism Products and Services Online

This study develops and tests a model predicting travelers’ intent to purchase tourism products and services online using data collected from travelers to Mauritius. Results from the structural equation modeling analysis indicate a good model fit and support four of the five proposed hypotheses. Findings suggest that travelers’ perceived usefulness, trust and perceived risks are good determinants of their attitude to e-purchasing which in turn significantly influences epurchase intent. Theoretically, our model provides a holistic view of the determinants of travelers’ e-purchase intent by incorporating the effects of perceived risk and truth with the basic variables of the technology acceptance model in an integrated framework. The managerial implications of the research for online tourism and hospitality vendors are discussed, together with the study’s limitations

Assessing the Impact of Digitalization and Technology on Patient Compliance in Healthcare Services

Nowadays, technology is omnipresent and an integral part of everyday life. Because patient compliance is a determinant of the treatment outcome, it is therefore essential for medical staff to know and understand how technology can cause patients to rightly or poorly adhere to their treatment. The objectives of this research were to investigate the major technology-related factors, which affect patient compliance, assess patients` reactions which are associated to poor adherence to treatment and determine the right measures, attitudes and behaviors for healthcare professionals to adopt to optimize patient compliance. The research was undertaken using a mixed methods approach whereby the quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data collected was analyzed using the Grounded Theory method. It was found that the vast amount of information and communication services offered by technology nowadays can adversely influence certain factors such as patients` trust, attitude, comprehension, apprehension, confusion, frustration, and personal emotions, which in turn can affect patient compliance. It was also found that technology could positively affect patient compliance as it offers interesting tools that can, for example, remind patients about their appointments, medications, and routines while they are undergoing treatment. This paper presents major insights on the impact of technology on patient compliance and helps healthcare organizations optimize the patient experience in the digital age. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-06 Full Text: PD

A study of hotel guest perceptions in Mauritius

Hotels in Mauritius have faced difficult times during the 1990s because of changing customer demands and increasing competition from other tourist destinations like the Seychelles, the Pacific and Caribbean islands. The country’s hospitality and tourism sectors are trying to augment and offer more than the traditional “sea, sun and sand” concept which, until recently, has formed the core of the tourism product. Hotels have also not responded satisfactorily to the demands of customers owing to lack of management and staff training in service quality. The purpose of this study was to assess customers’ expectations and perceptions of service provided by hotels of Mauritius and to highlight how the service factors were related to customer satisfaction. The hotel managers’ perceptions of tourists’ expectations and the tourists’ actual expectations were also evaluated. Factor analysis with Varimax rotation was carried out and nine service quality dimensions were derived of 39 service attributes. The results also showed that customers’ perceptions of service quality in the hotel industry for Mauritius fell short of their expectations, with the “empathy” dimension having the largest gap

Understanding the Ecological Adoption of Solar Water Heaters Among Customers of Island Economies

This paper explores the major factors impacting upon the ecological adoption of solar water heaters in Mauritius. The paper applies data reduction technique by using exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 228 respondents and condenses a set of 32 attributes into a list of 8 comprehensible factors impacting upon the sustained adoption of solar water heater in Mauritius. Multiple regression analysis was also conducted to investigate upon the most predictive factor influencing the adoption of solar water heaters in Mauritius. The empirical estimates of the regression analysis have also depicted that the most determining factor pertaining to the ‘government incentives for solar water heaters’ impacts upon the adoption of solar water heaters. These results can be related to sustainable adoption of green energy whereby targeted incentive mechanisms can be formulated with the aim to accelerate and cascade solar energy adoption in emerging economies. A novel conceptual model was also proposed in this paper, whereby, ecological stakeholders in the sustainable arena could use the model as a reference to pave the way to encourage adoption of solar water heating energy. This research represents a different way of understanding ecological customers by developing an expanding on an original scale development for the survey on the ecological adoption of solar water heaters

Non Standard Work Practices and Its Impact on Children Development, Family Functioning and Health and Safety Concerns in a 24/7 Economy

This main purpose of the study is to investigate upon the impact of non-standard work practices on children development, family functioning and employees’ health and safety concerns in a 24/7 Economy. This paper reviews the concept of 24/7 economy and explores the impact of non-standard work practices. A survey instrument is administered to 400 householders of Mauritius and the questionnaires were further processed and analysed with the statistical programme SPSS 20, by using descriptive and inferential analysis. The results of the findings have demonstrated that changes in children development and family functioning and employees’ health and safety concerns highly impact on the householders. The evidence of numerous associations from the present research have shown that 24/7 economy will give rise to pollution. Indeed, children will be affected by lack of parental time and employees might suffer from health issues with the 24/7 culture. The present research fills the significant gaps in the literature review by generating an integrative functioning framework of the 24/7 economy for island economies