| Author: | Tang, Sau-mei May |
| Title: | To compare Hong Kong luxury hotel sales & marketing management perceptions of high-tariff a hotel mainland China market with the expectations of that market |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Hotels -- China -- Hong Kong -- Marketing |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | x, 125 leaves ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This study aims to meet the challenges of satisfying emerging Mainland China market in Hong Kong, which has grown particularly fast in the last two years. It focuses the similarities and/or differences between Hong Kong luxury hotel Sales and Marketing management perceptions of the Mainland China market and the expectations of that market as well as to provide some implications and recommendations. A self-administered, semi-structured qualitative questionnaire was used to assess how a sample of 9 luxury hotel sales and marketing managers thought of expectations of that market towards 5 main factors: 1) Price and value, 2) Staff service quality attributes with a focus on attributes of SERVQUAL, 3) Extra amenities, 4) Atmosphere and 5) Reputation. The author used the results of qualitative interviews to develop another set of quantitative questionnaire in order to conduct a survey of both a sample of 165 Mainland Chinese visitors who rented cars to Hong Kong and stayed in the High-Tariff A hotels as well as 9 luxury hotel sales managers. The author adopted the Count test, Mann-Whitney U test and cross-tabulation comparison (in SPSS). The author concludes that the needs and expectations of Mainland Chinese visitors are to some extents quite similar to other western tourists. The study also reveals the differences or understanding gaps occurred between two groups. In fact, the sales staff does not understand the Mainland China market. They either have no clear idea or misperceptions towards the Chinese visitors. The aspects of no clear understandings occur in: 1) Expectation levels of price and value, 2) service quality, 3) extra facilities, 4) reputation, 5) in-room amenities. Also, the PRC market has a clear understanding of their expectations while the sales managers have a wrong perception towards them. The aspects of misunderstandings occur in: 1) Expectation level of Atmosphere, 2) expected food and beverage services, 3) staff service attributes, 4) important attributes for choices of Hong Kong luxury hotels; and 5) expected room category, in-room amenities and facilities. The study provides some recommendations for future studies to define clearly of the "product and service" to reflect exactly their expectations. It provides some suggestions to obtain knowledge for the emerging Mainland China market. The author also suggests to fully apply the finding of PRC market into the marketing strategies and marketing mix of product, packaging, promotion, price, partnership and people in order to close the gaps between the two groups. Besides, the study has implications for importance of assessing customer expectations. More effort should be put on gathering comments from both the external and internal customers and transferred the exact customer expectations and unique characteristics into the service standards and firms' operations system. Staff selection, extensive training and education involving all level of staff through some cross-cultural communication programs; Mandarin language courses and improved selling techniques specifically for that market are suggested. In addition, the sales staff needs to educate their Mainland Chinese customers to have more realistic price expectations. Penetration pricing strategy is not sustainable in long term. As the prices increase, the hotels need to add value that is relevant to the Mainland Chinese consumers. For instances: functional room layout, "western-style" services, no-smoking floors, personal cinema, free mini-bar and fridge items. They are the valued potential customers for luxury hotels in Hong Kong. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b17106618.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.36 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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