Determining the Critical Factors Affecting Tour Operator Reputation Based on Stakeholders' Perceptions: Reputation Quotient Approach

Abstract

In today's highly competitive, dynamic and turbulent business environment, tour operators strive to search for ways to differentiate their offerings and build favorable relationships with company's stakeholder groups. Reputation is an important mean by which tour operators can maintain a sustainable competitive advantage and ensure a long term relationship with multiple stakeholder groups. A good feeling about a tour operator, its activities, workplace, past performance and future prospects by key stakeholders can lead to a positive stakeholder's decision about the tour operators. More favorable reputation increase organization performance and attract investors, customers and high-performance employees. Moreover, it enhances customer and employee's loyalty. Thus, in order to manage corporate reputation, it is necessary to establish sound reputation measurement mechanisms, which inform tour operators of the reputation perceptions which limit or enhance their ability to attract a particular form of support from their stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to explore the most important factors that determine the link between tour operators' corporate reputation and stakeholders' decisions regarding cooperation in services providing or supporting the operations of a company. In this context, hotels are chosen as the most important stakeholder in tour operator business. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a model is developed based on the Corporate Reputation Quotient (CRQ) approach. This model is transformed into a questionnaire and 197 hotels' managers have been asked through this questionnaire to identify the most important factors that lead to the creation of the tour operators' corporate reputation. The results determine that the "Financial Performance‖ factor leads to a more favorable reputation. Moreover, concentrating on the "Vision and Leadership" factor can result in a positive perception of the company. On the other hand, the "Emotional Appeal" and "Social Responsibility‖ factors do not increase the diagnostic value of the corporate reputation. The results also show that there is a significant difference between hotels' categories (four or five stars) in their perception of the importance of the corporate reputation factors with respect only to the -Products and Services‖, -Vision and Leadership‖, and -Workplace Environment‖. Finally, there is a significant difference between hotels' gross revenue with respect only to the factors -Products and Services‖ and -Vision and Leadership‖ of tour operator reputation.

Assessment of Sustainable Practices in the tourism Businesses in Northern area of Pakistan

“…The "Tour Operators Initiative (TOI)" was established in 2000 through a collaboration between the "United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)", the "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)", and the "United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)", with a specific focus on TOs on a global scale (Font, 2005). TOI operates on a worldwide level, aiming to encourage TOs to incorporate environmental, ethnic, and social considerations when creating tourism packages and managing their operations (Khairat & Maher, 2010). While sustainable tourism has been explored by scholars such as Mannings (1992) concerning legal, policy, and regulatory aspects, less attention has been given to intermediaries like TOs or travel agents (Manning, 1992).…”