National culture and tourist destination choice in the UK and Venezuela: an exploratory and preliminary study

National culture determines consumer attitudes and behaviour. While this holds true for tourism consumption, little research has sought to better understand the effect of culture on tourist destination choice. The geographical scope of analysis has also been restricted. This study employs the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions framework to conduct an exploratory, qualitative evaluation of the influence of the tourist cultural background on destination choice. It focuses on the UK and Venezuela, the two countries with significant cultural differences and forecast growth in outbound tourism. The study shows the distinct role of culture in tourist preferences for destination choice and structure of travel groups. The effect of culture is also recorded in how tourists research destinations prior to visit and perceive travel risks, thus ultimately influencing their motivation to travel. Recommendations are developed on how to integrate knowledge on the cultural background of tourists into tourism management and policy-making practices

In search of tools for the use of Country-Image (CI) in the brand

Existing country image (CI) literature tends to focus on consumer behaviour. In contrast, this paper approaches CI from the point of view of the firm. In doing so, it seeks to identify the means by which international companies associate a brand with a specific country of origin in order to build brand values. In particular, it looks at the use of CI cues in brand strategies. The paper is based on exploratory research comprising a case study of two contrasting companies from the cosmetics industry, Natura, a domestic company, and the French-owned L’Occitane, both of which draw on images of Brazil to build their brands. Specific elements of CI used in branding are identified, and the extent to which the use of these differs depending on the origin of the owning company is explored. The cases suggest that CI can be exploited in different contexts. Through analysis of the elements used by both companies to build strong brands associated with the Brazilian CI—Natura Cosméticos and L’Occitane au Brésil—six tools are identified that can be combined by firms to deliver brand values, derived from any country, through the use of CI

Power in praise: Exploring online compliments on luxury hotels in Malaysia

Compliments are not only an indication of satisfaction but a broader range of motives relating to consumer behavior. They represent a potent form of feedback to businesses and their potential for helping to shape both organizational and individual behaviors may be greater than that of customer complaints. Despite the constantly increasing number of published work on the use of internet in hospitality literature, relatively little has been written on how guests use the internet to share their positive experiences. Keeping this in mind, this present research seeks to examine the compliments posted by guests who have stayed at five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This paper identifies, through a qualitative analysis of 220 scripts, the kinds of compliments given and provides important implications to hoteliers. The results show "rooms," "staff," "food," "services," and "location" are the top five factors that guests applause. Discussion of these findings and implications of the results are also provided.Griffith Business School, Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel ManagementNo Full Tex