Chayanon Phucharoen, Tatiyaporn Jarumaneerat and Nichapat Sangkaew
Based on big data analytical and statistical techniques, this study aims to examine tourists’ shopping experiences at department stores and street markets in Phuket.
Abstract
Purpose
Based on big data analytical and statistical techniques, this study aims to examine tourists’ shopping experiences at department stores and street markets in Phuket.
Design/methodology/approach
A Naïve Bayes machine learning algorithm was used to identify the most frequently used terms in TripAdvisor reviews of both department stores and street markets contributed by the same pool of 729 tourists.
Findings
A total of 18 out of 62 terms used were common in reviews of both shopping settings. However, the study found significant differences in the mean use of the 18 common terms and the likelihood of those terms being used in overall positive reviews.
Practical implications
The study’s findings indicate differences in tourist shopping experiences at department stores and street markets. Several concrete recommendations are made, including a greater focus on the linkage to the national characteristic of street markets, and particularly the quality of local fruit, to enhance the tourist shopping experience.
Originality/value
Understanding the differences between shopping malls and street markets from the tourist’s perspective would further enhance the coexistence of shopping malls and street markets in tourism-led growth cities. As such, using reviews of both shopping malls and street markets from an identical pool of tourists, the present study will analyse and compare tourists’ actual shopping experiences, thereby addressing this gap in the research canon via integrated statistical and big data analysis techniques.
Details
Keywords
Chayanon Phucharoen, Surarak Wichupankul, Nichapat Sangkaew and Kristina Stosic
This paper aims to investigate the effect of tourists’ social media usage when planning trips on the probability of tourists consuming nightlife activities and their spending on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effect of tourists’ social media usage when planning trips on the probability of tourists consuming nightlife activities and their spending on nightlife consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Two thousand questionnaires comprising questions about social media usage, consumption of nightlife entertainment and decisions to consume nightlife activities are distributed to international visitors at the departure hall of Phuket International Airport. A series of regressions are estimated. A Heckman two-step correction model is conducted to avoid the potential of selection bias.
Findings
Results show that the information available on Facebook positively links with the probability of tourists consuming nightlife activities. Furthermore, findings indicate that the usage of YouTube in tourist trip planning could statistically influence tourists to spend more on their nightlife consumption. Therefore, the results suggest that entrepreneurs could use Facebook to stimulate tourists’ nightlife consumption, while YouTube could be used to elevate tourists’ spending on nightlife consumption. The influence of these two social media sites on tourists’ decisions aids the authorities in the mitigation of the negative impacts of nightlife tourism.
Originality/value
Given the increasing role of social media in tourists’ consumption choices, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to quantitatively explore the relationship between tourists’ social media usage and nightlife consumption in Thailand. The revealed relationship between the use of specific social media sites (Facebook and YouTube) and tourists’ decisions to consume and the amount spent on nightlife consumption could be used by nightlife tourism entrepreneurs and destination marketers in their marketing campaigns, yielding competitive advantages. Meanwhile, related authorities and non-profit organisations could apply this study’s findings to demarket tourists’ consumption of nightlife activities in areas affected by the negative impacts of tourists’ nightlife consumption.
Details
Keywords
Chayanon Phucharoen and Nichapat Sangkaew
A leading characteristic of international tourists at every tourist destination is their role as foreign–income disseminator, and a large number of papers have been dedicated to…
Abstract
Purpose
A leading characteristic of international tourists at every tourist destination is their role as foreign–income disseminator, and a large number of papers have been dedicated to exploring their behavior. In contrast, this paper aims to shed light on the supply-side of tourism through the study of a hotels’ ability to internationalize their businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on each hotel’s input data, its efficiency was estimated by a data envelopment analysis approach. Then, the hotel’s intensity of demand from foreign guests was regressed against hotel efficiency along with firm’ control variables.
Findings
Results from Heckman correction model indicate that ordinary least squares regression would be subject to selection bias, and the results from the correction model strongly indicate a positive linkage between the hotel’s efficiency level and its foreign to total guest ratio, especially in the sub-sample of hotels located in non-tourist destinations. In addition, the results also reveal that the availability of certain services and facilities at hotels are positively related to the number of foreign guests, namely, a spa service and swimming pools.
Originality/value
Therefore, the main implications from this study are twofold. First, if a hotel’s target market is international travelers, a swimming pool and the availability of a spa service are essential features for hotels in Thailand. Second, policies to improve productivity in hotels should be simultaneously implemented along with tourist-destination-promotion campaigns to optimize the economic impact of international tourist arrivals.