Dr Tian Ye

While many retailing businesses have responded to the Covid-19 crisis by instituting various new rules, there is scant research examining how to effectively communicate such preventive measures to customers. This study investigates the joint effect of policy type (mandatory versus voluntary) and message framing (appreciation versus apology) on customers’ compliance and revisit intention. An online experiment was conducted with 201 US participants. Results suggest that when the message is framed with appreciation, a mandatory (vs. voluntary) mask-wearing policy causes less reactance, leading to higher compliance and revisit intention. However, such differences are attenuated with apologetic messaging. Practical implications for retailer-customer communications on crisis policies are discussed.

With the rapid development of China’s hotel industry, international brand hotels have been expanding rapidly in recent years, which has led to a great demand for hotel talents, especially senior managers. This paper presents an up-to-date understanding of talent localization with respect to international luxury hotels in China through in-depth interviews with executives and senior managers, and it aims to explore the current situation and influencing factors. It was found that the executives mostly agreed with the importance of talent localization, but the localization process of executives and senior managers is still very slow in China. There are differences among different hotel brands and also in different departments. The quality of local talents is one of the main factors restricting the localization process since some vital competencies are insufficient, including international vision, overseas work experience, language and communication skills, leadership, and so on. Various stakeholders, the hotel education in China and its unique sociocultural environment also have impacts on the localization process to varying degrees.

Destination image plays a crucial role in tourism, and its dynamic process of formation and change is still being studied. A famous World Heritage site, the old town of Lijiang has obtained an image of ‘the capital of Yanyu’ which has emerged alongside mass tourism development. This does not conform to the officially promoted image and is unique in the Chinese context. Based on field observations, interviews and web data, the study explores this Yanyu image from the perspectives of various relevant actors. The findings show that the formation process of the Yanyu image has been dominated by market forces under the effects of autonomous, induced, and organic agents, and constructed as an image of freedom, leisure and romance. The complex and dynamic characteristics of destination image are discussed, and possible causes of the Yanyu phenomenon are also explored.

While the recent surge of meat-like items on restaurant menus has received considerable attention, little is known how to encourage consumers to choose such novel dishes. To address this gap, we investigate the role of various communication strategies in making plant-based menu items more attractive. The results from Study 1 suggest that using a social appeal in the ad increases consumers’ preference for plant-based menu items via anticipated pleasure, but a health appeal does not. The results from Study 2 demonstrate that information on social costs induces feelings of ambivalence toward meat eating, thus making plant-based menu items more desirable. However, information on health risks of meat consumption does not have such an effect. Practical implications for promoting plant-based menu items are discussed.

Business travel as a form of work-related mobility has been an integrated part of working life in the global economy, generating great impact on individuals. Although prior studies address some relevant health consequences, there is a lack of research considering multiple dimensions of health or providing a deeper contextual analysis. Drawing on the multi-dimensional health concept and the framework of mobilities and health, the present study further demonstrates the complexity and dynamic of this issue. Through in-depth interviews with frequent business travellers, it was found that frequent business trips as a part of work and life bring about a range of physical, psychological and social health impacts, which shows different characteristics and interact with each other. Perceptions of these health consequences vary among respondents with different travel patterns and personal situations. Moreover, the findings indicate that there may exist a paradoxical fact: as business travellers with longer experiences of traveling work tend to become more aware of the potential health cost of highly mobile lifestyles, however, the health impairment has generated and accumulated at the later life stages and can hardly be reversed even they stop traveling. Therefore, it is significant and meaningful to raise the public concern on this issue by stressing the dark side of business travel instead of only glamorizing it. This study contributes to previous literature on mobility and health by demonstrating the characteristics of business travel as a mobile working context and how it affects travellers’ health in multi-dimensions. It also provides managerial implications for individuals and organizations.

Gender relationships play an important role in the tourism experience. Modern leisure tourism offers people a chance to escape from their daily life and seek sexual encounters or intimate relationships while traveling. This paper explores tourist experiences of their encounters through an empirical study on the Old Town of Lijiang, a leisure and romantic destination that has earned the reputation of “the capital of Yanyu”. Data on gender interactions and attitudes were collected through observation, interviews with visitors, and web-based content analysis. It is found that “the capital of Yanyu” has been constructed as a liminal space away from the daily pressure and social norms, and is full of freedom, leisure, and romance, and can promote interpersonal interactions and communication. The patterns of tourists’ gender interactions and attitudes about Yanyu show that gender relationships in Lijiang differ from the everyday life. Most visitors do not deliberately seek love affairs or sexual encounters, but they enjoy being in a romantic state in this ambiguous place. Compared with sex/romance tourism between tourists and local people discussed in the previous literature, Yanyu in Lijiang often refers to relatively free and easy interactions between male and female tourists. It does not necessarily connote sexual relationships but does show a change in social attitudes and behavior toward sexual relationship.

The emerging peer-to-peer platforms enable individual tour guides to market themselves via online profiles. Given the growing societal interest in responsible tourism, tour guides can utilize online profiles to communicate responsible tourism endeavors that showcase positive moral character. However, how consumers respond to such expressions of responsible conduct is unknown. Through four experiments, we find that a moral self-description (vs. social or control) elicited higher elevation, further enhancing trust and enjoyment, leading to more favorable consumer responses (i.e., booking intention, willingness to pay, and likelihood to recommend). Thus, the underlying mechanisms are explained by elevation, trust, and enjoyment. Moreover, consumers' self-esteem and tour guides' motives are two boundary conditions. Specifically, positive reactions to the tour guide's morality expression are more pronounced among high self-esteem individuals and when the guide is intrinsically motivated. This research contributes to the literature on P2P tourism services and offers practical implications for tourism providers.

The pay-what-you-want pricing scheme has been frequently employed by nonprofit and for-profit tourism organizations. While this voluntary payment format can foster inclusivity by making tourism accessible to a larger population, one urgent challenge these institutions face is how to increase consumer payment to sustain both social and economic sustainability. The present work proposes a novel solution, that is, leveraging consumers’ actual or vicarious experience of physical cleanliness. Through two questionnaires and three experiments, this work demonstrates that physical cleanliness significantly boosts payment magnitude under pay-what-you-want. Importantly, this research identifies consumers’ regulatory focus as a vital boundary condition. Specifically, the positive cleanliness effect occurs among promotion-focused people but disappears among prevention-focused individuals. Besides, this study reveals that moral self-regard is the underlying mechanism driving the positive cleanliness effect. Theoretically, the current study presents a new perspective to understanding determinants of tourists’ voluntary payment decisions by investigating their embodied experience of physical cleanliness. It adds new insights to the sustainable tourism literature by addressing both social and economic sustainability through increased payments under pay-what-you-want pricing. Practically, the research findings provide destination managers and tourism providers with valuable guidance on how to boost people’s voluntary payments.

Online travel agencies commonly utilize 5-point and 10 point scales to display hotel ratings. When processing and comparing hotel ratings on different numerical scales (e.g., 4.1/5 vs. 8.4/10), what method(s) do consumers use? Through nine studies, this research shows that consumers tend to employ absolute differences (e.g., 5-4.1 vs. 10- 8.4) or relative differences (e.g., 4.1÷5 vs. 8.4÷10) when making comparative judgments. Notably, the choice of method can lead to preference reversals. We further reveal that higher numeracy leads to greater reliance on relative differences. However, such an impact is attenuated under a utilitarian motive. Additionally, a greater promotion focus leads to greater reliance on absolute differences. The findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how consumers process hotel ratings.

Purpose This study aims to understand consumers' reactions to hospitality corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns under different resource scarcity reminders, an important but overlooked contextual factor, and examine how such scarcity reminders interact with message framing, a widely used technique in CSR communication. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted. Studies 1 and 2 examined the main effect of resource scarcity reminders (environmental vs personal) on consumer engagement via self-other orientation. Study 3 further investigated the interactive effect between resource scarcity reminders (environmental vs personal) and message framing (gain vs loss) with hope as a key mediator. Findings Studies 1 and 2 show that environmental (vs personal) scarcity activates a more salient other orientation, subsequently increasing consumers' donation and word-of-mouth intentions. Study 3 reveals that environmental (vs personal) scarcity makes people more hopeful with gain-framed messages. Moreover, the elevated hope enhances perceived efficacy (attitude toward the company), leading to higher donation (word-of-mouth) intention. Practical implications Hospitality marketers could remind consumers of the harsh environment to elicit other orientation and encourage CSR participation. Using gain-framed messages or other hope-inducing appeals would be particularly advantageous in engaging consumers in CSR campaigns during heightened environmental scarcity. Originality/value Focusing on consumer responses to CSR campaigns, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to reveal reminders of resource scarcity as a novel antecedent factor and further uncover how such reminders interact with message framing to affect CSR engagement.

Purpose With the recent surge of plant-based menu items, it is critical to understand how to effectively communicate such products to consumers. This study aims to examine the impact of various descriptive names on consumers’ responses to novel meat alternatives in China, one of the emerging yet unexplored markets. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were conducted using a single factor ([descriptive name: “Renzao Rou [artificial meat]” vs “Sushi Rou [vegetarian/vegan meat]” vs “Zhiwu Rou” [plant-based meat]) between-subjects experimental design. Findings Study 1 shows that “Sushi Rou” and “Zhiwu Rou,” triggering more positive name associations, led to higher future consumption intention than “Renzao Rou.” A qualitative analysis demonstrates the differences in the name associations. Study 2 replicates the naming effect and examines the role of specific product attributes. Perceived health, naturalness and novelty are the main drivers of favorable responses to “Zhiwu Rou” (vs “Renzao Rou”), whereas perceived health, taste and naturalness mediate the positive effect for “Sushi Rou” (vs “Renzao Rou”). Practical implications Food service operators interested in introducing meat alternatives in China should carefully choose the product name to attract specific segments. International chains should consider cultural norms when expanding to emerging markets. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the product naming effect on meat alternative products from the perspective of marketing communications. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanism driving Chinese consumers’ responses.

Mobility as a primary feature of our society nowadays requires a new perspective on our changing lifestyles and its impact on human wellness. The study extends the scope of the Job Demand-Resource Model which offers a way of thinking about how job characteristics influence employees' health and well-being, to examine business travelers' well-being with hedonic experiences in their travels especially considered. Through 34 qualitative interviews, it was found that business travel can function as demand and resource, affecting well-being in negative and positive ways. The dynamic patterns of these impacts were further discussed, indicating that not only does professional utility count, but also the emotional factor. The study enriches the JD-R model and adds to prior literature on business travel.

With the rapid growth of global business and travel, many international hotel companies have expanded their operations to China. Effective staff strategy becomes a key issue when corporations face a paradox between their strategic mission in the global context and their daily operations in local environments. Through in-depth interviews with executives and senior managers from hotel associations, international hotel groups and hotel owners, this paper explores the current managerial structure of international luxury hotels and how it is shaped by this paradox. The findings indicate that international hotel companies prefer to assign cosmopolitan general managers to run their properties and maintain company policies and standards, while using local medium managers or seconds-in-command to assist the key executives in dealing with local issues. By rethinking this phenomenon under the wider contexts of globalization and cosmopolitanism, we argue that the current managerial structure represents a cosmopolitan elite culture developed in the context of Western modernity. The influences of the hotel industry's features and the outstanding characteristics of the Chinese context on the talent localization process are also discussed, and some implications are provided.

Gender imbalance in academia has received increasing attention all over the world. However, research on this highly important issue with regard to tourism academia is still in its infancy. To address the research agenda on gender, this study explores Chinese women scholars’ perceptions of gender issues in Chinese tourism academia through qualitative interviews. The findings show that Chinese women scholars generally have a low awareness of gender issues, influenced by several factors such as personal experience, family supports, and characteristics of tourism academia. Thirteen gender-related differences in tourism academia were further identified under three themes: the representation of gender gaps, gender factors contributing to these gender gaps, and gender inequality or discrimination. The paper concludes that more research on this issue is needed.

With the rapid increase of international hotels in China, the importance of talent localization has widely been recognized, although empirical research is still limited. This paper explores the current situation of talent localization of international luxury hotels in China and its influencing factors from a cultural perspective through in-depth interviews with executives and senior managers of hotel associations, luxury hotels, and hotel owners. The findings indicate that the localization process of senior managers is still slow. One of the important barriers to the localization process is cultural differences, which are analyzed at the social, organizational, and individual levels. Contradictory pressures between standardization and localization and mistrust issues influenced by culture differences are further discussed. Practical implications are indicated.

The recent surge of plant-based menu items offers new opportunities for individuals who want to join the fight against climate change. However, it is unknown whether environmental awareness will affect consumer responses to these new foods, and if so, what interventions will be more effective in increasing such awareness. We conducted two studies to fill this gap. Study 1 shows that perceived association between meat consumption and climate change influences consumer attitudes toward plant-based meat products as well as their purchase intention. These effects are fully mediated by perceived effectiveness of plant-based meat as a mitigating strategy. Study 2 further examines the role of language style in conveying the environmental impact of meat consumption and promoting plant-based meat alternatives. Findings reveal that figurative (vs. literal) language leads to higher level of visualization, which enhances affective reactions and perceived effectiveness of plant-based meat in combating climate change, thus resulting in more favorable consumer responses.

Solo dining is a growing trend in hospitality, yet little is known about how to improve solo consumers’ experiences. This research identifies feelings of emptiness as a key emotional response that helps explain why solo diners’ experiences tend to be less favorable than those of group diners. Drawing on emotion regulation theory and embodied cognition, we propose that pleasure appeals counteract anticipated emptiness through hedonic framing, while fast-tempo music conveys auditory “fullness” via cross-modal metaphors. Three between-subject experiments with British solo diners by default test and support our hypotheses. Study 1 shows that solo (vs. group) dining lowers satisfaction due to increased feelings of emptiness. Study 2 finds that pleasure-based advertising appeals (vs. challenge-based) increase solo consumers’ purchase intention before consumption. Study 3 reveals that fast-tempo (vs. slow-tempo) ambient music enhances solo diners’ satisfaction by mitigating feelings of emptiness during consumption.

While artificial intelligence (AI) technology offers a variety of potential advantages, the general public has voiced serious concerns that the development of AI could pose threats to human existence. This work explores how AI-induced existential threats shape consumers’ cognitive beliefs about corporate marketing communications in the hospitality and tourism industry (e.g., hotel corporate social responsibility activities and travel package advertisements). Through one survey and four experiments, this research uncovers an important unforeseen dark side of AI. That is, AI-induced existential threats lead to consumer skepticism toward corporate marketing communications. In addition, we find that consumers’ zero-sum mindset is the psychological mechanism explaining the negative AI effect. Moreover, this paper identifies regulatory focus as a critical boundary condition. Specifically, the unintended effect of AI-induced existential threats only occurs among promotion-focused individuals but disappears among prevention-focused individuals.