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The Library will look into your claim and consider taking remedial action upon receipt of the written requests. Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk USE OF LANGUAGE STRATEGIES FOR HOTEL WEBSITE EVALUATION IN CHINA JIANWEI QIAN PhD The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2019 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management Use of Language Strategies for Hotel Website Evaluation in China Jianwei Qian A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2018 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it reproduces no material previously published or written, nor material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. Jianwei Qian i ABSTRACT With the advancement of information technology, people tend to get information online and to shop online. This trend has also been spread to hotel booking, implying the critically importance on improving the application of information technology in hospitality. Therefore, to timely present the hotel image and attract customers worldwide, the establishment of hotels’ own websites has been widely adopted by hoteliers to enhance the competitiveness of a hotel in the current fierce global market. China, among the world’s fastest growing economies, is promoting the development of her tourism industry earnestly, because tourism is always regarded as a relatively eco-friendly and promising industry. As an important section of a travel process, living and eating in a hotel plays a vital role not only in engaging visitors but also in forming a decent image towards a destination. Hence, enough attention should be given to hospitality, especially those high star hotels, in order to ensure the service quality and boost visitors’ satisfaction. Numerous studies have been conducted in hospitality to evaluate the effectiveness of hotel websites in order to help hotels improve their service level, including mainly the evaluation of hotel website functionality and usability. One important attribute, the language, though has been pointed out by different scholars as a crucial section of a website, has not been explored fully yet. ii Thus, one important aim of the research is to bridge this gap. Based on the Appraisal Theory, which aims to reveal the hidden mechanism in building up interpersonal relationship, an analytical framework was proposed and was used for the subsequent coding and analysis for the language strategy used by five-star hotels of China on their websites. After a careful search and identification of the official hotel websites, all hotels’ introductory texts were extracted to help construct a corpus for the presentation of the use of language strategies in hotel websites generally and the comparison between different types of hotels in terms of language strategies. The current profiles of five-star hotels in China, the status quo of English website construction, the genre of hotels’ introduction in their websites, and the finalized coding scheme for the study were found out first, followed by the aforementioned analyses of the general language strategy and the respective preference in the use of the language strategy among hotels with different natures. Similarities and differences were both identified throughout the five-star hotels together with the reasons why these phenomena are existent and the contrast of this study from the previous literature. Hence, both theoretical contributions and the managerial implications are generated based on what have been found and discussed. It is hoped that this study can enrich the theoretical development of Appraisal Theory in tourism and hospitality, and enhance the hotel website quality from the language strategy perspective. Keywords: Appraisal Theory; China’s five-star hotels; Corpus Approach; hotel website; language strategies iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For me, the Ph.D. journal was very tough in the beginning because of the insufficient knowledge in the traditional tourism discipline but through my supervisor’s guidance and my own exploration, the journal gradually becomes smooth. Now upon finishing the thesis, it is the time to thank all the people who have helped me during the whole process. First of all, I would like to express my warmest and sincere gratitude to my chief supervisor and the only supervisor Prof. Rob Law when I study in our school for his continuous support throughout my whole Ph.D. study. Without his patient guidance and inspiring instruction, this thesis would not have been possible. I have met many problems in the early stage of my study because of the lack of experience, but my supervisor shows great tolerance and always encourages me to go ahead until problems are addressed successfully. These supports help me generate this thesis and many other research publications. My next thanks go to our school, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) which has the first-class faculty members as well as the most updated research resources. Hence, an excellent research atmosphere is cultivated among all of the Ph.D. students and the faculty. I want to offer special thanks to Prof. Bob McKercher, Prof. Hanqin Qiu, Dr. Lorenzo Masiero, and Dr. Honggen Xiao for their insightful lectures, constant encouragement, good research opportunities, and innovative support in research design. I gain a lot from these scholars and I iv believe what I have obtained will guide my whole academic life. Also, the software developer O’ Donnell from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid merits special appreciation as well since he is so nice in assisting me identify and solve problems during the data coding process. I also like to thank another two important fellows, Prof. Jiewen Wei (Zhejiang Business College) and Dr. Eason Ye (Zhejiang University). They are both my teachers and friends who discuss with me in most of my research work, including the thesis and other publications. Their effort helps me improve the research quality greatly and increases the possibility for journal publications. Meanwhile, my appreciation extends to my teachers for their support while I was teaching tutorials and support to handle study related issues, including Dr. Deniz Kucukusta, Dr. Peter Kim, Dr. Loretta Pan, Ms. Yuki Liu, Ms. Anita Chan, and Mr. Jason Chau. Lastly, my deepest appreciation goes to my parents for their spiritual support and understanding during my study life from Bachelor’s degree to the final doctoral degree. Reality proves that family care can help senior students like me to win the academic achievement. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................................................. i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... xiii ABBREVIATION...................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Chapter Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Background ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 6 1.5 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................................