How satisfying are Shanghai's superior hotels? The views of international tourists

Wu, Mao-Ying, Pearce, Philip, and Dong, Wang (2017) How satisfying are Shanghai's superior hotels? The views of international tourists. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29 (4). pp. 1096-1115.

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Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to assess international customers' experiences in the leading hotels of the iconic city of Shanghai.

Design/methodology/approach: Leximancer, a qualitative analysis software program, was used to examine over 2,000 reviews appraising Shanghai's superior hotels. The reviews were posted on Agoda.com.

Findings: Overall, the international tourists were actually quite satisfied with the superior Shanghai hotels. This study highlighted the continuing importance of the attentive and professional "staff", physical attributes of the "hotel", comfort of the "room", "location", proximity to a "shopping" area and co-creation possibilities to deliver some "beautiful" experiences. Segments of the market based on tourists' origins, travel style and hotel management styles emphasized different expressive and instrumental features. Some strong commonalities were identified. The most satisfied customers, no matter what their backgrounds, were those who were more impressed with the expressive and intangible elements in the hotel, especially their interaction with and the service qualities of the hotels' professional and attentive staff.

Originality/value: The work is framed within the wider theoretical concerns of extending the meaning of co-creation in the experience economy. The work argues that co-creation is not limited to the on-site experience but rather that post-visit appraisals through user-generated contents constitute an extended form of interaction which may assist in understanding the full trajectory of the hotel experience.

Item ID: 50756
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1757-1049
Keywords: co-creation, customer satisfaction, experience, international tourists, online reviews, Shanghai's superior hotels
Funders: National Social Science Foundation of China (NSSFC), Zhejiang Province (ZP)
Projects and Grants: NSSFC No. 13BJY148, ZP Public Projects Funding No.2015C33004
Date Deposited: 20 Sep 2017 11:40
FoR Codes: 35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3508 Tourism > 350806 Tourist behaviour and visitor experience @ 100%
SEO Codes: 90 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 9003 Tourism > 900399 Tourism not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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