The Impacts of Tour Guide Performance
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THE IMPACTS OF TOUR GUIDE PERFORMANCE ON FOREIGN TOURIST SATISFACTION AND DESTINATION LOYALTY IN VIETNAM by Hoang Le Nguyen A thesis submitted in satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration University of Western Sydney 2015 Approved by _____________________________________________________ Chairperson of Supervisory Committee _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Program Authorised to Offer Degree ____________________________________________________ Date _____________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the contributions of many people. Firstly I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my principal supervisor, Associate Professor Terry Sloan – Human Resources and Management (SoBus), for his enormous help, valuable advice and recommendations. Especially, he has also taught me much more than just finishing the thesis. Again, I would like to say “Thank you very much” for all you have done for me. Secondly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Colin Sheringham – my co-supervisor – fo r guiding me in the stages of my academic research, especially his comments on Chapter 2 - Literature review. My thanks also go to Dr. Charles Edward O’Mara for his assistance with English expression from the early drafts of my thesis. I also acknowledge Associate Professor Tho Nguyen at the School of Management of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics for his guidance in the early stage of my academic research in Vietnam, as well as his encouragement in the whole process of my study. Moreover, I would like to thank two of my colleagues, Dr Duy Luong and Dr Duy Nguyen, who were always with me during my doctoral study. Their experiences on research and comments helped me to carry out the study. I also would like to thank the following organizations which supported the conduct of my thesis, including Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training project for granting me the scholarship, and Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics. Finally, to my mother Professor Chinh Hoang, I wish to express all my thanks to her for all things she has done for me. My thesis could not be finished without her encouragement and support. i Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. --------------------------------------------- Hoang Le Nguyen ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Statement of Authentication ii Table of Contents iii List of Tables vii List of Figures ix Abbreviations x Abstract xii Chapter 1: Introduction to the study 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The tourism industry in Vietnam 1 1.3 Human resource management and the role of tour guide in a package tour in Vietnam 3 1.4 Objectives of the study and research questions 5 1.5 Scope of the research 7 1.6 Organization of the thesis 7 1.7 Conclusion 8 Chapter 2: Literature review 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Tourism research development 10 2.3 The role of human resource management in tourism industry 14 2.4 Tour guide, service performance, tourist satisfaction, and destination loyalty 21 2.4.1 The role of tour guide 21 iii 2.4.2 Service quality and customer satisfaction 28 2.4.3 Tour guide performance and tourist satisfaction 32 2.4.4 Destination loyalty 34 2.5 Research model, research questions and hypotheses 37 2.6 Conclusion 39 Chapter 3: Research methodology 40 3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 Design of the research 40 3.2.1 Qualitative research, quantitative research or combination of both 40 3.2.2 Exploratory research, confirmatory research or combination of both 42 3.2.3 The use of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling 43 3.3 Design of measures 46 3.3.1 Intrapersonal servability of tour guide 47 3.3.2 Interpersonal servability and organizational skills of tour guide 49 3.3.3 Tourist satisfaction 55 3.3.4 Destination loyalty of tourist 56 3.4 Pilot study 57 3.5 Main survey 57 3.5.1 Sampling 57 3.5.2 Sample size 60 3.5.3 Survey method 60 3.5.4 Data analysis techniques 62 3.6 Ethical considerations 65 3.7 Conclusion 66 iv Chapter 4: Results and findings 67 4.1 Introduction 67 4.2 Focus group interviews 67 4.3 Quantitative data analysis 70 4.3.1 Descriptive statistics 71 4.3.1.1 Demographic profile of tourists and their satisfaction in a package tour 71 4.3.1.2 Intrapersonal servability attributes of tour guides 84 4.3.1.3 Interpersonal servability and organizational skills attributes of tour guides 85 4.3.1.4 Tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty 88 4.3.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis 89 4.3.2.1 Tourist satisfaction 89 4.3.2.2 Destination loyalty of tourists 89 4.3.2.3 Intrapersonal servability of tour guide 90 4.3.2.4 Interpersonal servability and organizational skills of tour guide 91 4.3.3 Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling 93 4.3.4 Hypotheses testing 95 4.4 Summary and conclusion 98 Chapter 5: Conclusions and implications 101 5.1 Introduction 101 5.2 Conclusions from the research questions 102 5.2.1 Question 1: What are factors influencing tour guide performance in tourism industry in Vietnam? 102 5.2.2 Question 2: What is the relationship between tour guide performance and tourist satisfaction in tourism industry in Vietnam? 104 v 5.2.3 Question 3: What is the relationship between tourist satisfaction on tour guide performance and destination loyalty? 108 5.3 Contributions of the research findings 110 5.3.1 Theoretical contribution 110 5.3.2 Methodological contribution 111 5.4 Implications of the research 112 5.5 Limitations of the research and further research 113 5.6 Conclusion 115 List of References 116 Appendices 139 Appendix 1: Participant consent form 139 Appendix 2: Participant information sheet 140 Appendix 3: Focus group interview proforma 144 Appendix 4: Questionnaire 146 Appendix 5: Research documentation 151 vi List of Tables Table 2.1: Development stages of human resource management 15 Table 2.2: Key roles of tour guide identified by selected authors 25 Table 3.1: Measures of appearance 48 Table 3.2: Measures of work attitude 48 Table 3.3: Measures of communication skill 49 Table 3.4: Measures of empathy 50 Table 3.5: Measures of professional competence 51 Table 3.6: Measures of connecting customers 51 Table 3.7: Measures of solving problems 52 Table 3.8: Measures of organizational skill 53 Table 3.9: Measures of environmental protection skill 54 Table 3.10: Measures of entertainment introduction skill 55 Table 3.11: Measures of tourist satisfaction 56 Table 3.12: Measures of destination loyalty of tourist 56 Table 3.13: Absolute fit indices 64 Table 3.14: Incremental fit indices 65 Table 4.1: Factor loading from Pattern Matrix of ‘intrapersonal servability’ 90 Table 4.2: Factor loading from Pattern Matrix of ‘interpersonal servability and organizational skills’ 92 Table 4.3: Regression weights of SEM 94 Table 4.4: Regression weights of SEM after deleting four factors of tour guide performance 95 vii Table 4.5: Standardized regression weights of SEM after deleting four factors of tour guide performance 95 Table 4.6: Direct and indirect effect of tour guide performance on tourists’ satisfaction and their loyalty 95 Table 4.7: Summary of the results of the hypotheses testing 99 viii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Study location of empirical research on tour guides and tour guiding in the period 1979-2013 (n=191) 22 Figure 2.2: Trends in publication of tour guide and guiding services research 23 Figure 2.3: Research model of the study 38 Figure 4.1: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of nationality 72 Figure 4.2: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of gender 73 Figure 4.3: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of marital status 74 Figure 4.4: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of age 75 Figure 4.5: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of education level 76 Figure 4.6: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of occupation 78 Figure 4.7: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of income 79 Figure 4.8: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of the times of visit 80 Figure 4.9: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of purpose 81 Figure 4.10: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of companion 82 Figure 4.11: Foreign tourists to Vietnam in terms of intention to stay 83 Figure 4.12: Intrapersonal servability attributes of tour guides assessed by tourists 85 Figure 4.13: Interpersonal servability and organizational skills attributes of tour guide assessed by tourists 86 Figure 4.14: Tourist satisfaction on guiding service, tour services and overall tour experience 88 Figure 4.15: Destination loyalty of tourists 89 Figure 5.1: The effect of tour guide performance on tourist satisfaction 107 Figure 5.2: The effect of tour guide performance and tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty of foreign tourists 109 ix Abbreviations AGFI Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFI Comparative Fit Index ECVI Expected Cross Validation Index EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis GDP Gross Domestic Product GFI Goodness-of-Fit Index HOLSAT Holiday Satisfaction IFI Incremental Fit Index MICE Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions ML Maximum Likelihood NCP Non-Centrality Parameter NFI Normed-Fit Index RFI Relative-Fit Index RMR Root Mean square Residual RMSEA Root Mean Square Error of Approximation SEM Structural Equation Modeling SERVPERF Service Performance x SERVQUAL Service Quality TLI Tucker-Lewis Index TTCI Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index UK United Kingdom USA United States of America USD United States Dollar VNAT Vietnam National Administration of Tourism xi ABSTRACT This research was generated through my previous career as a tour guide in Vietnam.