Meeting needs equals enhancing satisfaction? Case study of cableway and lift riding in World Heritage Site , China Zhang, C.Z., Xu, H.G. and Su, B.T.

Abstract – Meeting the needs of tourists to satisfy tourists is the policy basis for many mangers of world heritage sites in China. The paper, based on the case study of lift riding in world heritage site Wulingyuan China, challenge the policy. With tourist survey and online interview methods, the authors argue that lift do meet part of tourists’ needs, but it do not enhance the satisfaction level as the managers supposed, the assertion "meet the needs of tourists, thus enhancing their satisfaction" is not built on solid ground, and catering to the needs of tourists is at least not a valid reason for developments in heritage sites. The results of this study coincide with the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Some factors may not give positive satisfaction, but dissatisfaction results from their absence, such as good service quality and management skills. The improvement of services and management skills may eliminate dissatisfaction, but cannot enhance tourist satisfaction. They are called hygiene factors. Those factors that can provide positive satisfaction are called motivators. Cableway and lift act as motivators that can induce more satisfaction if properly operated.

Keywords – Meeting needs, tourist satisfaction, motivation-hygiene theory —————————— u ——————————

1 Introduction complicated and controversial in the Chinese context. Construction of cableways within here are many issues in the heritage sites is one of them. In Mainland management of heritage tourism that China, the construction of cableways and Tare deemed to be straightforward other modern means of transport into World in western countries but become very Heritage sites is a highly controversial issue. Most supporters are stakeholders and in- ———————————————— terest groups of tourism development, who Zhang Chaozhi, Ph.d & Associate professor of Center tend to view the issue from a market per- for Tourism Planning & Research, Sun Yat-sen Uni- spective and think that cableways have many versity. Current research interests: heritage tourism management and tourism planning. E-mail:zhchzhi@ advantages over roads or trails. Cableways mail.sysu.edu.cn. are more adaptive to the topographic condi- Xu Honggang , Ph.d & professor of Center for Tourism tions and less affected by weather; they re- Planning & Research, Sun Yat-sen University. Current research interests: system dynamic and tourism plan- quire less space to build, therefore they have ning. Center for Tourism Planning & Research, Sun Yat- less negative impact on local topography and sen University. E-mail:[email protected] natural environment. With greater grade abil- Su Botao, Ph.d candidate of Centre of Urban Plan- ity, they shorten distance between two ends ning and Environmental Management, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China and save time for the tourists. They do not

293 Zhang et al.: Meeting needs equals enhancing satisfaction? Case study of cableway and lift riding in World Heritage Site Wulingyuan, China discharge emission of "Three Wastes" (waste the mountain whose natural beauty was de- water, waste gas and solid wastes) and do stroyed significantly, thus caused visual pollu- not cause noise pollution; thereafter they tion to tourists. Besides, a high concentration meet the need for protecting the environment of tourists on top of the mountain has led to and ecology of the place. They are safe and such consequences as over-commercializa- reliable; easy to maintain with automated op- tion, over-urbanization and environment deg- eration. They need less fund for infrastructure radation of that area. Cableways also deprive construction and less expensive to run, so the tourists of the pleasure of climbing and better financial returns are generated. They conquering the mountain. With shorter aver- consume less energy and therefore achieve age time each tourist spent in Tai'an where Tai greater energy conservation. Besides, they Mountain is located, tourist revenue thus be- hold the idea that cableways, as a manifesta- comes less. The beneficiaries are the cable- tion of human achievement and scenery up- way operators only. During the construction grade, can be fully developed under proper process, they failed to follow proper proce- arrangement and in accordance with princi- dures by acting first and reporting afterwards, ples of landscape ecology in order to boost thus violated relevant rules and regulations. tourism development (Jiang, 2000) Fang and Ninggao Xie (2000), another expert for Dong, 2001). the Ministry of Construction (the authority in Meanwhile, tourist cableways can ef- charge of scenic areas and World Heritage fectively meet tourists' needs and enhance Sites), maintains that sightseeing cableways their satisfaction by increasing carrying ability cause irreversible damage to the topography, and thus saving their time on the way. They vegetation, ecology and natural beauty of sce- may become a tourist attraction themselves; nic spots. World Heritage Sites in particular with enlarged environment capacity and im- are among serious victims. Besides, visitors proved construction on the site, more tour- who choose to use cableways to get to the ists will be attracted and thus more revenue top may forget the intrinsic value of mountain will be generated which in turn accumulates climbing, thus undermining the reputation of funds for developing new tourist resorts and this renowned mountain. He also insists that new cableways. Consequently, a virtuous cy- cableways and other tourist facilities cause ir- cle of tourist development will be achieved. retrievable damage to World Heritage Sites Besides, cableways can serve to trans- and that they should be built somewhere out- port people and goods swiftly in case of an side the resorts. He firmly believes that tour- emergency. Therefore, cableways should be ists' needs should not be blindly met at the recognized for their merits in promoting the expense of heritage itself. (Xie, 2000) development of mountainous scenic spots Though heritage experts and the mass and be employed as an effective means in media strongly protest against the building the sustainable development of such spots. of tourist cableways, in many cases, out (Xie, 2000) of their conscience and morality, yet they However, the opponents of building tour- can hardly provide any empirical studies ist cableways are mostly heritage experts or concrete evidence to prove the negative and heritage management departments. For effects of these projects. Due to the lack of example, Renzhi HOU (2000) and other con- practical research and related legislation sultants for the State Cultural Relics Bureau, over this particular issue, such projects who commented on the cableways in Tai have been and are still being launched Mountain, consider a cableway built in 1980, one after another in the country's leading during the construction of which a small but World Natural and Cultural Heritage sites, integral part of the mountain was blasted such as Taishan, Emei Shan away, to be the most serious damage to the and Wudang Shan and so forth, among authenticity and integrity of the topography of which the World Natural Heritage Wul-

294 MMV4 proceedings - Management ingyuan is one of the most typical cases. interviews were carried out when the tour- Since 1992, when Wulingyuan was listed ists were waiting in line for their cableway/lift as a World Natural Heritage, the local ride (both uplink and downlink). The following government has successively built two questions were asked: cableways, one railway and one elevator for sightseeing. Despite the controversy (1) Measurement of motives (in order to check and criticism caused by the construction whether the demand has been met). Ques- of these facilities, the local government tion: Why do you take the cableway/lift? persists to initiate another cableway con- (2) Satisfaction level and perception of serv- struction on the ground of "meeting tour- ice quality. Question 1: What are you content ists' needs, enhancing their satisfaction". with during your visit in Wulingyuan? Ques- In view of the above, this study attempts to tion 2: What are you discontented with during research into the satisfaction level and moti- your visit in Wulingyuan? vations of those cableway passengers, verify The interviewees are 45 tourists (old, mid- the legitimacy of local government's claim of aged and young) from over 10 different prov- "meeting tourists' needs, enhancing their sat- inces and municipalities of China such as Hu- isfaction", discuss whether meeting the needs man, Hubei, Guangdong, Yunnan, Zhejiang, of tourist is equivalent to increasing their sat- Shangdong, Shanghai and many more. They isfaction level, examine tourists' satisfaction are package tourists, provisional groups of based on the Motivation-Hygiene Theory and tourists and individual tourists. provide some insights for the management of In addition, during August 24-27, 2006, in heritage sites. order to take full account of tourists’ percep- tion of Wulingyuan, the authors also searched and collected the comments from tourists on 2 Methods Wulingyuan in several major online tourism forums (such as www.ctrip.com), where peo- Taking into consideration the complexity of ple share and exchange information about the research questions and the inapplicability tourist destinations, as a supplement to the of Western satisfaction measurement scale, interviews. this study conducts in-depth interviews with tourists instead of questionnaire survey,The framework of the outlines is illustrated by the 3 Conclusion and discussion

3.1 Conclusion

The study shows that the cableway/lift can meet the needs of tourists on three levels. The first is their spontaneous need to save following diagram: time and energy and experience something new. The second refers to the need of con- forming to others under peer pressure. The Diagram 1 Logical framework of researching tourist sat- third level is the need forced upon the tourists isfaction by tour guides/travel agents, which some- times is inevitable because of the asymmetry At present, the average waiting time per of information. tourist in the site for cableways, elevators and But on the other hand, scenic quality is other modern means of transport is about recognized as a major factor that can in- three hours, which becomes a favorable crease their satisfaction level. Other factors condition for this interview-based study. The

295 Zhang et al.: Meeting needs equals enhancing satisfaction? Case study of cableway and lift riding in World Heritage Site Wulingyuan, China compromise their satisfaction, such as un- operated. But in this study, there is no satis- ethical conduct of small business operators, faction arising from them because the service poor service quality, unfriendly local people and management accompanying them are so and long hours waiting in line to get on the poor. Further research is required to support cableway/lift. While the cableway and lift can this assumption. facilitate tourists’ movement, they do not nec- The competition among and within herit- essarily contribute to their overall satisfaction. age sites in China to build facilities to attract Instead, their inadequacies dissatisfy tourists more tourists has led to the “tragedy of the directly. This proves that meeting some needs commons” (Zhang, 2006). Neither the le- of the tourists does not always enhance their gitimate operators, local residents and other overall satisfaction and that service quality is stakeholders nor the tourists are the ultimate the key. beneficiaries of this practice. In further reflec- Therefore, the assertion “meet the needs tion of this phenomenon, the question arises of tourists, thus enhancing their satisfaction” as how such highly scarce heritage resources is not built on solid ground. There is no theo- should be managed and developed. Should retical support for it. In many scenic spots and more facilities be provided to cater to vari- heritage sites throughout Mainland China, all ous needs of tourists, or should the demand kinds of facilities are being built to meet the of tourists be channeled to ensure a win-win needs of tourists. But they fail to enhance situation? tourist satisfaction, as shown by this study. In conclusion, catering to the needs of tourists is Acknowledgement at least not a valid reason for tourism devel- opments in heritage sites. The authors would like to express their grati- tude to the National Science Foundation of 3.2 Discussion China for supporting the research (project se- rial number: 70503007). And also the authors As indicated by this study, cableway and would like to thank students and officials who other modern means of transport do not di- had facilitated the research. rectly contribute to the overall satisfaction of heritage tourists. Of course, it can be argued that they can increase tourist satisfaction to References some extent, but the overall satisfaction is [1] Cronin, J. and Taylor, S. (1994). SERVPERF severely compromised by the poor service versus SERVQUAL: reconciling performance quality and management skills. This indicates -based and perceptions-minus-expectations from another perspective that the absence of measurement of service quality. Journal of Mar- good service is more likely to dissatisfy tour- keting, 58:125-131. ists than a lack of facilities. [2] Eitzinger, C. and Wiedemann, P. (2006). Risk perceptions in the alpine tourist destination Ty- The results of this study coincide with the rol—an exploratory analysis of residents’ views. Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Some factors Tourism Management, (4):1-6. may not give positive satisfaction, but dissat- [3] Fishbein, Martilla, and James, J. (1977). Impor- isfaction results from their absence, such as tance-performance analysis. Journal of Market- ing, 41:77-79. good service quality and management skills. [4] Haber, S. and Lerner, M. (1999). Correlates of The improvement of services and manage- tourism satisfaction. Annals of Tourism Research, ment skills may eliminate dissatisfaction, but (26):197–200. cannot enhance tourist satisfaction. They are [5] Hou, R.Z., Wu, L.Y., Xie, N.G.(2000). Protect called hygiene factors. Those factors that can , detach the cableway. Chinese Gar- den, (5):9-11(in Chinese). provide positive satisfaction are called moti- [6] Jiang, N. (2000). The legitimacy of cableways in vators. Cableway and lift act as motivators tourist resorts. Tourism Tribune, (6): 61-63. that can induce more satisfaction if properly [7] Laws, E. (1998). Conceptualizing visitor satisfac-

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