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PublicationIn what condition is a price increase perceived as fair? : An empirical investigation in the cable car industry(CAUTHE, 2010-02-10)This paper investigates the concept of customers' perceived price fairness in the context of different price increase conditions. Several tourism service industries seem reluctant to systematically vary or occasionally rise prices, mostly because of potential negative consumer responses. Previous studies in behavioral pricing confirm that a price increase may be perceived as highly unfair and, with this, may lead to negative consequences for the firm. However, there is some evidence that not all price increase events are perceived equally and that consumers' fairness perception depends on the situational conditions of the respective price event. Drawing on the principle of dual entitlement and attribution theory, the results of a standardized survey with 1530 cable car customers in Switzerland reveal that cost-based reasons seem to legitimate a price increase, rather than excess demand conditions. Still, within cost conditions, an increase in internally controllable costs is perceived as a less fair reason for raising prices as opposed to an exogenously caused and uncontrollable cost increase. Interestingly, increasing prices without any communicated reason is perceived as the most unfair condition, indicating the crucial role of price communication.
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PublicationPredicting Online Travel Purchases: The Case of Switzerland( 2009-05-28)
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PublicationThe valuation of direct intercontinental flights as opposed to non-direct ones : Insights based on a hedonic apporach( 2007-06-21)This paper is about valuating direct intercontinental flights as opposed to non-direct ones, taking an individual travelers' perspective. The methodology of this study is derived from a hedonic approach which tries to explain actual expenditures (in our case of air transport) by means of a number of non-divisible characteristics (origin and destination, number of stopovers, choice of travel class). The results reveal that direct flights are valued higher than non-direct ones. However, the share of this advantage in relation to other characteristics by which a flight can be valued is limited, ranging from 15 to 20 per cent (in the context of travel in economy class; ceteris paribus) to less than 10 per cent (in the context of travel in business class; ceteris paribus). In contrast, and to put those numbers into perspective, choosing business class (instead of economy) adds 240% to an economy air fare (ceteris paribus).
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PublicationValuation of direct intercontinental flights as opposed to non-direct ones: Insights based on a hedonic approach( 2007-06-21)This paper is about valuating direct intercontinental flights as opposed to non-direct ones, taking an individual travelers' perspective. The methodology of this study is derived from a hedonic approach which tries to explain actual expenditures (in our case of air transport) by means of a number of non-divisible characteristics (origin and destination, number of stopovers, choice of travel class). The results reveal that direct flights are valued higher than non-direct ones. However, the share of this advantage in relation to other characteristics by which a flight can be valued is limited, ranging from 15 to 20 per cent (in the context of travel in economy class; ceteris paribus) to less than 10 per cent (in the context of travel in business class; ceteris paribus). In contrast, and to put those numbers into perspective, choosing business class (instead of economy) adds 240% to an economy air fare (ceteris paribus).
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PublicationTravel expense estimation by hedonic regression - The case of Switzerland( 2006-12-04)
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PublicationImportance of direct flight connections between Switzerland and the Far East: A Logistic Choice Model( 2006-05-28)This paper is about the importance of purchasing criteria in intercontinental air transport as exemplified by origin and destination between Switzerland and selected destinations in the Far East. Passengers waiting to board their flights from Switzerland to Far Eastern destinations were invited to participate in a choice experiment. Subsequently, they were offered choice sets where they had to choose among two different flight tickets from Zurich to one specific destination within each set. To statistically analyse the data a variance decomposition method was performed to learn about the importance of the different purchasing criteria. The results show that for both the business and economy class passengers alike and the business and leisure travellers the most important criteria is the price, even before the direct connection, which is the second most important criteria. In comparison with transatlantic travellers, the Far East travellers value the direct flight more and the price is a somewhat less important.
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PublicationCustomer Value of direct transatlantic flight connections: A logistic choice model in the case of Switzerland(Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA), 2006-06-18)The future of business models for traditional long haul air operators as well as airports depends among other things on the customer value attributed to direct intercontinental flights by customers. This paper contributes to the discussion of future airline business models by evaluating the customer value of direct transatlantic flights considering as example Switzerland and the hub Zurich. Because of the positioning of its main airport as well as its homecarrier Swiss combined with its economic situation and the large number of international headquarters, Switzerland serves as a core example for a market on the brink. The study draws on data from a survey of 514 travellers out of Switzerland. By applying logistic choice modelling, hidden preferences and by this approximately real customer value could be identified. The direct transatlantic flights contribute to customer value generally by punctuality, total travel time, direct connections, travel convenience, security and travel costs, although customer value is slightly different for business travellers and leisure travellers. Conclusions regarding airline business models' effects on hubs but also about the utility of methods are drawn.
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PublicationInformation behaviour of the VFR market - The case of SwitzerlandThe paper studies the information sourcing behaviour of the VFR (visit friends and relatives) market, as compared to all other leisure travel (i.e. not motivated or characterized by the wish to visit friends and relatives), emphasizing on the use of the WWW. The research is based on the case of Switzerland, which is not only a relevant example in terms of its degree of travel market maturity but also in terms of its internationality. Based on hypotheses, tested by means of independent samples t-tests, the study reveals that hosts are traded in as (non-commercial) information sources at disfavour of all other (commercial) sources except the WWW as soon as there is interest in getting to know a destination. Concluding from the results, destinations have to embrace managerial and technical means to include their residents in destination marketing in general and in electronic marketing in particular.
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PublicationThe relevance of revealed preferences in market oriented innovations(Ed. AIEST, 2005-08-28)Most of the traditional destinations and cable car companies in alpine regions oper-ate in mature, stagnating markets. To attract new and bind existing customers, inno-vations are needed. The starting point of innovation can be the company's compe-tencies (push approach) or the customers needs (pull approach). Referring to the market pull approach an increasing emphasis should be put on the issue of stated versus revealed preferences. To go for the right innovations, knowing the real, the revealed preferences is crucial. This paper deals with revealed preferences, examplified by customers of a major Swiss cable car company. The goal is to identify revealed preferences by applying the Kano model of customer satisfaction. In combina-tion with an analysis of the perceived service quality the consequences for innova-tions based on revealed preferences are worked out. By this, a better understanding of methods to guide demand pull innovations is provided. The article concludes with theoretical learnings and practical implications for service and product development.
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PublicationMarket segmentation by reasons and influences to visit a destination: The case of international visitors to Australia( 2005-07-18)This paper is about segmenting international holiday travellers on the basis of their motivations to travel to a certain destination - in this case Australia. For this task, complementary reasons and influences of visitors, whose primal reason to come to Australia was holiday were clustered according to a two step cluster procedure. The results reveal that there are two groups of visitors. Members of cluster 1 (incorporating 62.3 percent) turn out to be comparably older, predominantly coming from Asia, New Zealand, and the US, visiting relatives and staying either at a friend's or relative's home as well as hotels. In contrast, visitors defining cluster 2 (incorporating 37.7 percent of the cases analysed) are comparably younger, they come predominantly from Europe and Japan, they are staying in a variety of types of accommodation, and experiencing a broad panoply of what Australia has to offer, in some cases while working. The results further suggest that (1) immigrants from comparably close markets fuel an increasing demand with regard to interpersonal relations to the home countries (cluster 1); (2) Australia proofs to be an attractive destination especially in long-haul markets with high international travel propensity, such as Europe and Japan (as opposed to the US; cluster 2).
