Suggests that, despite hundreds of publications on consumer satisfaction and service quality, little work has been done to clarify the conceptual basis of these constructs; theorists in the area of service quality argue that the popular press does not differentiate between these two constructs. Clarifies the relationship between consumer satisfaction and perceived service quality using a scenario specific to higher education. Also suggests a model of perceived service quality that could be used in higher education institutions. Discusses conceptual and managerial implications of the findings.
It is recognised in marketing that the study of buyer behaviour includes analysis of instrumental acts: that is, acts necessary in obtaining the goal object and the acts involved in consuming it. A technology that eases the difficulty level of instrumental acts such as visiting a purchase outlet to purchase a product is the Internet. Technically, the Internet minimises customer’s transaction costs such as time spent travelling to a store to purchase a product. Yet, in spite of its benefits, only one‐in‐four Internet users shop online. An empirical analysis of surveyed beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding Internet purchase of air tickets revealed that security concerns about the Internet make consumers avoid online purchase of air tickets. It is suggested that Internet marketers focus on modifying the attitudinal structure of consumers.
Planning, both “operational” and
“strategic”, relies on accurate forecasting. Planning in
tourism is no less dependent on accurate forecasts. However, tourism
demand forecasting has been dominated by the application of
regression/econometric techniques. Past studies on the forecasting
accuracy of econometric/regression models suggest that forecasts
generated by these models are not necessarily superior to forecasts
generated by simple time series techniques. Seven time series
forecasting techniques were used to generate forecasts of international
tourist arrivals from Thailand to Hong Kong. The results confirm that
simple techniques may be just as accurate and often more time‐and
cost‐effective than more complex ones. Practitioners in the tourism
industry may confidently use any of the forecasting techniques
demonstrated here for their short‐term planning activities.
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