荷蘭旅游供應鏈方面留學生碩士畢業dissertation：The Marginal Benefit of Air Charter Service on The Outbound Touristic Products in Chinese Market: A Tourism Supply Chain Management Approach

 

Table of Content 

 

Introduction - 3 -

Set of Aims - 6 -

Review of Relevant Literature - 7 -

Tourism Supply Chain - 7 -

Air Charther Serivce& Transportation in TSC - 8 -

Transportation Factor in Tour Destination Competitiveness Analysis - 10 -

Research Methodology - 12 -

Problem Definition - 12 -

Research Objectives - 12 -

Significance of the Study - 13 -

Introduction of Methods - 13 -

Primary Data - 13 -

Data Collection Procedures - 14 -

Data-Analysis Methods - 14 -

Secondary Data - 15 -

Plan of Action 16

Bibliography of References 18

Appendix 1 – Survey Questionnaire 20

表的內容

 

簡介 - 3 - 

設定目標 - 6 - 

回顧相關文獻 - 7 - 

旅游供應鏈 - 7 - 

空氣Charther檢視服務及交通在TSC - 8 - 

交通旅游目的地競爭力的因素分析 - 10 - 

研究方法 - 12 - 

問題的定義 - 12 - 

研究目標 - 12 - 

該研究的意義 - 13 - 

方法介紹 - 13 - 

主數據 - 13 - 

數據采集程序 - 14 - 

數據分析方法 - 14 - 

輔助數據 - 15 - 

行動計劃16

參考18參考書目

附錄1 - 調查問卷20

 

Introduction 

Travel and tourism is a critical economic activity in most countries around the world. It plays an important role in contributing to the world’s growth in GDP, employment rates, both domestic and international spending on a personal and governmental level, volume of investments and citizens’ living standard (World Travel &Tourism Council, 2012). 

 

China’s tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in its economy. Along with the massive and rapid growth in economy, Chinese travel and tourism market has expanded to a new level. As reported by Statista (2013), the total revenue of Chinese travel and tourism industry has reached 2.57 trillion RMB by 2012, and it gained a 14.2 percent compared to 2011 and contributed 2.6 percent to the nation’s gross domestic product, also known as GDP. Apart from that, the industry provided 22 million jobs and other 62 million related job positions as of 2011. For outbound tourism, the total export of Chinese visitors to foreign countries amounted to 70 million as of 2011. This large group of Chinese visitors also have amazing consumption capabilities as they spent approximately 73 billion U.S. dollars. Hongkong, as the most popular international tourism (due to the special visa requirement, Hongkong is recognized as an international destination among the Chinese population) destination welcomed 12 million visitors within a year. As China has enlarged the total number of permitted tourism destinations to 140, the growth of outbound tourism is expected to be sustainable and of great potential. 

中國旅游業是其經濟增長最快的行業之一。隨著大規模和快速的經濟增長，中國的旅游市場已擴大到一個新的水平。如Statista （ 2013 ）報道，中國旅游和旅游業總收入已達到25700億人民幣，到2012年，它獲得了一個14.2 ％ ，相比2011年和國家的總國內產品，也被稱為國內生產總值貢獻2.6個百分點。此外，該行業提供了22萬個就業機會和其他62萬個相關職位2011年。對于出境旅游的中國游客到國外，出口總額達70億元，為2011年。這一大群中國游客也有驚人的消費能力，因為他們花了約73億美元美元。香港，作為目前最流行的國際旅游（因特殊簽證要求，香港作為一個國際公認的中國人口目標）的目標迎來1200萬游客在一年之內。由于中國已經擴大了允許的旅游目的地總數為140 ，預計出境旅游的增長是可持續的，潛力巨大。

 

The Chinese population is aging, educating, prospering, urbanizing, globalizing, individualizing and demanding. To be successful in China and in the Chinese outbound travel market, it is of great importance to understand precisely how the behaviour and demands of Chinese consumers are changing and correspondingly shaping and wishes of present and future Chinese tourists. For instance, in 1990s, when the outbound travel market was established and developed at its early stage, consumers were fascinated by enriched natural attractions and multiple easy accesses to those big brands of clothes and cosmetic products etc., what they couldn’t find replacements in the domestic market. Therefore, shopping was found as the major motive of buying a outbound touristic product. As the economy boomed up in the past two decades, the orientation of participating in international tours has changed to a more rational and entertainment and relaxation oriented demand, in other words, being more holiday-oriented. On the other hand, the number of Chinese families and individuals who are capable of affording outbound travel products has also increased massively. As a result, the demand in the market has varied features and uniqueness. Besides, as Chinese government is continually increasing the number of permitted travel destinations to its citizens, multiple touristic products are introduced to the market, including European countries, Asian, African and American countries are opening themselves to the Chinese tourists. As the outbound touristic demand is still young, most Chinese tourists are relatively inexperienced in organizing and planning a personal travel, thereby, most consumers still prefer the safety and comfort of the traditional tour group. Tour group has dominated the market, as of 2010, 56 percent of all outbound holidays are tour group type. Reasons are many, such as the visa application, language barriers and price concerns. 

 

Among all these world-known travel destinations, small, distant but beautiful islands such as Sri Lanka, Palau, Mauritius and Phuket Island are becoming more and more popular among the Chinese consumers. It is very different from those well-developed travel destinations, these small islands are often located in developing countries or regions where the capacities of hotels, restaurants and transportation are limited. Among all the difficulties, transportation has already become the most critical challenge to most tour operators. While the demand is growing, the quality of the tourism supply chain remains at a low level. The bottleneck of improving the entire supply chain of outbound touristic products and services seems to be the transportation. Air charter service could be a strong plus to the improvement of outbound touristic supply chain. Some advantages brought by air charter service can be easily seen, for instance, the air charter service in the tourism industry can be tailored to the exact consumer needs, including lower prices, more flexible schedules, time saving and larger capacity. These advantages could benefit not only the consumers but also the tour operators. However, whether air charter service could contribute to the improvement of these distant islands’ competitiveness as a touristic destination, increase the sales volumes of the touristic products and services in these locations and generally level up the quality of the tourism supply chain are yet to be studied in this research. 

 

Set of Aims 

This paper is set to discover what values could air charter service bring to the tourism supply chain of the Chinese outbound island tourism particularly as of the popular, distant but attractive islands as touristic destinations. For instance, can the tourism destinations, the distant and small islands become more competitive and attractive compared with others because the charter flight is selected as the transportation mode? And how would air charter service influence customers’ choice on touristic products in the context of fierce competition in the outbound tourism market, in return, how air charter service makes impacts on tourism companies’ sales volumes?

 

Review of Relevant Literature 

In reviewing the literature on research topic, three main categories were discovered and will be evaluated in this chapter. These include:

1) Tourism Supply Chain 

2) Air Charter Service and Transportation in Tourism Supply Chain 

3) Transportation Factor in Tour Destination Competitiveness Analysis 

 

Tourism Supply Chain 

Tourism as a scientific concept evolved from more specific concepts, for more holistic definitions. The previous, attempted to elucidate the nature of tourism as an activity (Burkhart and Medlik, 1974)  and others attempt to more technical definitions (Schullard in 1910, or Picardin in 1971 quoted by Henriques, 2003 ) tried to incorporate the description of the type of tourists and the characterization of tourism. Among the more holistic definitions, Henriques (2003), refers the definitions of Hunziker and Krapf, for which travel and tourism is considered as a prolonged stay of individuals outside their area of residence, whose motivation involved is not related to any activity directly profitable.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Tourism supply chain is abbreviated as TSC. Richard Tapper and Xavier Font believe that the tourism supply chain includes commodity and service suppliers that meet demands of tourists in the tourist products supply system such as accommodation, traffic, attractor, bar, restaurant, souvenirs, handicrafts, food production, garbage disposal system and infrastructures in the destination, etc. They also incorporate the garbage cyclic utilization, disposal department into the tourism supply chain system, thereby constructing the complete tourism green supply chain (TGSC) system. Richard Tapper and Xavier Font (2004)  in their Final Report of Research project for the travel Foundation identified that the impacts of a tour operator come from the impacts of all components of the products they sell, including use of raw materials and their processing and production, as well as impacts from transport and distribution right back to the raw materials from which they are. Richard Tapper and Xavier Font (2004) further pointed out that the main differences between tourism supply chains and those of other sectors, are that tourists travel to the product, and the product that they buy has a particularly high service component -in other words, it involves a higher proportion of people in the immediate production of the holiday experience. Zhang (2008)  studied further about the basic characteristics of tourism supply chain, Zhang concluded that the tourism service supply chain takes the scenic spots and travel agency as the core and construct a chain including suppliers of food, accommodation, traffic, tour, shopping and entertainment, the suppliers’ supplier, also the dealer, retailer and the end users’ backward user, and establish strategic partnership with each node enterprise in the chain, among each node enterprise is demand and supplier relationship. This network owns the one characteristic which is that each node enterprise on the network chain is closely cooperate, complement each other’s advantages and construct virtual integrity, i.e. community of supply chain.

 

Air Charter Service& Transportation in TSC

Maria & Luisa (2011)  pointed out that tourism sector has particular characteristics, several branches of the tourism industry (e.g. airlines, hotel chains, tour operators or car rental agencies) are highly concentrated and act as global players. Tourism supply chain involves a wide range of services and products which are called as a package, the products and services required to supply a tourism package are displayed below: 

 

Elements of a tourism product/service Tourism activities 

Accommodation Hotel; B&B; campsites; cruise ships

Transport to and from destination #p#分頁標題#e#Public transport, airport, air, charters; coaches; cruises

Catering and Food and Beverage (F&B) Restaurants& bars; grocery stores; local commercial markets

Ground Transport Car rentals; coach rentals

Ground Services Agents; handlers or inbound operators in destination 

Cultural and Social Events Excursion and tours providers; sports and recreation facilities; shops and factories 

Environmental, cultural and heritage resources of destination Public authorities; protected sit managers

 

Source: CELB, TOI, 2004, adapted 

Stephen J. Page (2011)  stated that transport is the most critical element in the promotion of the growth of domestic and international tourism. At a simple level, transport links the tourist from the origin area with the destination area. It enables the tour¬ist (the holidaymaker, business traveller and other categories of traveller) to consume the products and experiences they have purchased, because it links the supply chain together. The development and innovations in transport have contributed immense opportunities and possibilities to the tourism market growth in the past century because modern transport modes extended human’s accessibility to the distant destinations. Keller (2005)  made it clear that innovations in the means of transport have had a revolutionary impact on tourism in ways that no one could have foretold. Trains, planes and the automobile shortened distances, reducing travel time and costs. However, Robbins (2009)  stated that there is a clear relationship between the development of a tourism industry in a destination and the transport links between the main tourism generating areas, both international and domestic, and that destination. The confined environment of an island destination where the majority of visitors arrive by surface modes of transport highlights this interdependence. Baum. T (2009)  further pointed out that the emergence of low cost airlines and their business models have fostered several changes within the tourism and travel industry as well as are having a tremendous impact on travellers’ behaviour. New travel destinations have emergence, airport passenger traffic has increased, more people now travel more often, while others that they could never travel can afford a travel holiday.

 

Charter flight service has been introduced to the tourism industry for decades in many different countries and at many touristic destinations. What are the values that air charter service has brought to the tourism supply chain are yet to be found and evaluated. Besides, the studies about how can the small tour destination where limited number of scheduled flights are presented attract more potential visitors are rare to see. Besides, can charter flight service contribute to improve their attractiveness so that the sales volumes can be enlarged? 

Transportation Factor in Tour Destination Competitiveness Analysis 

Destination competitiveness could be analyzed from many different perspectives. Tour destinations worldwide have to compete with others to attract more visitors by showing its ability of delivering high quality touristic products and better services from the perspective of tourism supply chain management. 

 

According to Ritchie and Crouch (2003) , “what makes a tourism destination truly competitive is: its ability to increase tourism expenditure, its ability to increasingly attract visitors while providing them with satisfying, memorable experiences;  its ability to meet visitors’ expectations in a profitable way, its ability to enhance the well-being of destination residents, and its ability to attract visitors while preserving the natural capital of the destination for future generations”. Among all the factors which affect a tour destination’s competitiveness in the market, the accessibility of destination is one of the most critical indicators, McKercher (1998)  demonstrates the link between market access and destination choice. The accessibility of the destination is governed by a variety of influences including the frequency, ease and quality of automobile, air, bus, train, sea access; aviation regulations, entry permits and visa requirements; route concessions; airport capacities; competition among carriers etc. Besides, Prideaux (2000: 56)  notes that tourist choice between alternative destinations is influenced by inefficiencies in the transport system such as uncompetitive practices, safety concerns, comfort levels and journey time.

 

Air charter service, as a service which has been adopted to the tourism supply chain management, can it be used as a tool which is helpful to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of a tour destinations, especially those small and distant islands in the Chinese market? It is by now, not has been studied comprehensively which is considered as a great value of conducting such a research in this thesis paper. 

 

Research Methodology

Problem Definition

This thesis is expected to discover the efficiency, productivity and profitability of a air charter service featured tourism supply chain by identifying whether air charter service is a plus to the travel destinations’ attractiveness and the increment of products sales volume. To draw attention to this problem, the main research questions this study aims to answer are :

 

i. Can transportation mode (from origin area to touristic destinations) choice affect islands as touristic destinations’ attractiveness and competitiveness in the Chinese outbound island tourism market from the perspective of tourism supply chain, if yes, how?

 

ii. What are the roles air charter service play in improving the quality of the entire tourism supply chain and can it affect outbound island touristic products sales volume? 

Research Objectives 

In response to the questions above, the main objectives of this research study are stated as following:

 

i. To identify whether the selection of transportation mode could affect a tour destination’s attractiveness and competitiveness and increase the touristic products sales volume.

 

ii. To understand what roles does transportation play in the process of tourism supply chain and determine whether air charter service is a strong plus to the improvement of overall tourism supply chain management. 

iii. To make suggestions of how to increase sales volume of touristic products by integrating air charter service to the tourism supply chain. 

Significance of the Study 

 

Air charter service has been introduced in the tourism industry for decades, at the early stage there were plenty of discussion of the impacts on the economy, environment and tourism supply chain. It now has become pretty clear that charter flights could bring benefits to both tour operators, consumers and touristic destinations. However, what are the actual value that air charter service could bring to an outbound touristic product, usually seen as a tour destination, in the modern Chinese tourism market, and how can it affect consumer’s selection of products , behaviour and preferences needs to be discovered. And these are the motives of conducting this research and identifies where the values are laid. 

Introduction of Methods

 

This research study is an exploratory study which aims to discover the marginal benefit of air charter service on the outbound island touristic products in Chinese market from the tourism supply chain perspective. This research study is of great importance since the research in this area is not comprehensive, systematic and attracted few eyeballs in China. In this section of the research project, the survey population and sample, the survey instrument, the main data collection procedures, justification of these methods, as well as data analysis methods are discussed.

Primary Data

 

A quantitative method (survey methodology) would be adopted for collecting the primary data. The population of this research consists of individual tourists who prefer group travelling and the outbound island tourism industry practitioners. The sample consists of 60 above mentioned individuals. Sixty questionnaires will be sent to all candidates by the mean of email. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

A structured, self-completion questionnaire will be used as the instrument for the collection of primary data for this study. According to P. Brunt (1997) , the major advantages of self-completion questionnaires are that a “large number of questionnaires can be distributed quickly and cheaply, respondents can complete questionnaire at leisure, and it removes possibility of interviewer bias”. A combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions was used. Owing to its brevity characteristic, closed-ended questions encourage respondents to reply. In addition, according to Iïjina & Sçrdiene(2004) , open-ended questions produce qualitative responses and help to gather a great amount of information from respondents by allowing them to explain their beliefs about the issues.

Data Collection Procedures 

 

A total of 60 questionnaires would be sent via emails to the targeted group of candidates. The target group consists of two sub groups, on sub group consists of 30 tourism industry practitioners, the other sub group consists of 30 outbound island tourism buyers or potential buyers. Each of the sub group will be answering different versions of survey questions in accordance to the research requests. 

 

In order to administer the survey, recipients of the questionnaire would be asked to print out the papers and answer all the questions within 5 working days, afterwards, respondents will be advised to scan all the papers so that they can be sent back via emails. The low response rate would be expected due to the ignorance of this kind of request by emails, therefore, a second even third attempt would be implemented so that the number of responses would be accumulated to an acceptable level. 

 

Data Analysis Methods 

Most of the survey questions would be multiple-choice questions, therefore, percentages and numbers would be used to reflect the responses. A simple form of quantitative analysis statistical tools such as MS Office based tables and charts should be applied to present the distribution of responses to each question. Due to the fact that the sample size is relatively small, hence, the usage of percentage and exact number will be chosen as necessary in order to present a general idea in the reader’s mind. 

 

Secondary Data 

Secondary data refers to the statistical material which is not generated by the investigator himself but obtained from others’ records, or when Primary data is utilised for any other purpose at some subsequent enquiry it is termed as Secondary data. In this research work, secondary data can be collected from a wide range of resources, such as the existed study results available on database, reports composed by related organizations. And the secondary data would be used to support the information obtained from the survey in this research. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Plan of Action 

Objective Action/Activity Targeted Dates Status 

Background Information 1) General reading materials collection and reading 

2) Problem Definition, research context and research objectives 15/04/2013 Completed 

Literature Review 1) Identifying literature categories 

2) Literature collection, reading and studying 

3) Significance of study 01/05/2013 Completed 

Methodology 1) Study and select research methodology 

2) Determine research population, sample size 

3) Design questionnaire 15/05/2013 Ongoing

Data Collection & Analysis 1) Conducting survey, including delivering questionnaire and administer survey 

2) Collecting response 

3) Input the collected to the data analysis tool and analyze 25/05/2013

Present Survey Results Present the survey result and data analysis in the first draft 25/06/2013

Report Completion Complete report writing 

Preparing for thesis defence 25/07/2013

 

Business Case Study

The Features of Air Charter Service  

Air Charter Service (ACS) is the business of renting an entire aircraft. In real business, the airlines specialize in selling transportation by the seat while charter companies focus on individual private aircraft and itineraries, urgent or time-sensitive cargo, air ambulance or any other forms of hoc air transportation. Air Charter Service is a specialized solution for providing efficient, safe and cost-saving transportation service to various industries including private and group travel, government, entertainment and sport, emergency response, airlines and automotive etc,. The Air Charter Service is categorized into three main aspects, including private charter, group charter and cargo charter. Private charter service specializes in providing private jet, helicopter charters for business or leisure, to and from anywhere in the world with high flexibility and frequency. Group charter service has an emphasis on global capacity and it has a reputation for offering charter solution to group passengers, including multi-national corporations, sports teams, governments and most popularly, the travel groups. And, the cargo charter is favored by trading companies which require the widest range of loads while satisfying their unique requirements, such as urgent “Go-Now”, heavy and outsized cargo, and humanitarian relief etc, . However, compared with the traditional scheduled flight service, Air Charter Service is differentiated from the following four aspects, including, global network without time limitation, high aircraft availability, high level of safety and quality, and outstanding time and cost saving. 

 

Tourism industry requires efficient, safe, flexible and cost saving flight service and most of the times, the flight service should be tailored to tour operators’ exact requirements. However, traditional scheduled flights are the most often seen transportation mean in this industry. As the tourism industry is increasingly expanding its footage in many distant touristic destinations where scheduled flights can hardly reach, the need for innovation in transportation is emerging. Therefore, Air Charter Service was introduced to this industry in early 1970s, and became to play an increasingly critical role in tourism supply chain in recent decades. According to the unique needs of tour operators and tourists, various types of aircrafts are being used for transporting tour groups for both short-haul and long-haul flights. 

 

Air Charter Service in Europe’s Tourism Market  

As the original low-cost carriers, charter airlines have long dominated the European leisure travel market (Buck and Lei, 2003) . In the early 1990s, the Third Package of aviation liberalization measures in Europe was introduced which soon created the world’s first full deregulated air transport market and abolished the distinction between scheduled and charter services. This great change in aviation policy enabled the charter carriers to compete with the scheduled airlines (UK Civil Aviation Authority, 1998) . Since then, the competition between scheduled airlines and charter airlines began. 

 

In Europe, charter airlines predominantly serve leisure routes on a weekly basis, carrying clients for tour operators. The seasonal, vocational and event-specific nature of leisure tourism enables charter air services and travel companies to achieve economics of density and reduce passenger unit costs (Papatheodorou, 2002) . In Eurpean tourism market, package holidays are growing at a high speed. A package holiday is known as a vacation that is sold for a single price. Most of the times, this single prices covers the accommodation fee, the cost of transportation to and from one’s destination and other additional service fees. Therefore, the package holidays are extremely price sensitive, consumers may find so many alternative products on the market. Tour operators should do their best to compete with other players throughout the entire tourism supply chain, including the adaptation of transportation mean. In order to gain as much market share as possible, the big players, the massive tour operators chose to integrate the supply chain vertically as much as possible, so that some of them started acquiring retail travel agencies, airlines, holiday destination service providers etc,. In fact, most of the European’s charter airlines are controlled by mass market tour operators. For instance, UK’s best known tour operator, Thomas Cook owns JMC airline as its own charter airline. For charter airlines, this vertical integration resulted in substantial savings by transferring promotional costs, commission outlays and commercial risks from them to tour operators (Papatheodorou, 2002). Earlier in the year of 2000, Thomas Cook Airline was established to satisfy its dramatically increasing transportation seats. It is based in Manchester, United Kingdom and serves all the main holiday resorts in the Mediterranean and more distant countries from Birmingham, Nottingham East Midlands, Glasgow, London Gatwick and other domestic airports in the UK. Owning its own charter airline ensures Thomas Cook to provide its package holiday products at the extremely competitive price level so that it could remain its market position in the last decade. 

 

Why Air Charter Service Is Needed in Tourism Industry 

Air Charter Service has its unique features which help tourism industry remain sustainable development throughout the entire tourism supply chain. The implementation of Air Charter Service creates marginal benefits for a tour operator to compete in the tourism market since it improves the attractiveness and service quality of a tourism product. On the other hand, traditional scheduled flights are less competitive compared with chartered flights in many aspects. 

 

The benefits of chartering flights for tourism business are more than we could list, including, firstly, Air Charter Service ensures flexibility, in other words, it enables tour operators to choose the most cost-effective mix of charter aircraft for offering the best services to their customers. Secondly, Air Charter Service helps save time since it avoids check-in queues, lengthy security checks, delayed flights and over-night stops. One major trend in tourism industry is the increasing demand of holiday trips to the destinations, touristic usually have limited time for their holidays and they wouldn’t waste any time on the journey to the destinations. Therefore, Air Charter Service is a time cost-effective transportation mean. Another important advantage of implementing Air Charter Service in the tourism products is rapid response. When tour operators are managing a tour group, they often have problems with the urgent itineraries change, such as the change of departure date and time. In fact, the traditional scheduled flight is reluctant for any unexpected changes in operational practice while charter flights are accustomed to operate in any conditions. Furthermore, charter flights offer comfort journeys to the passengers. Most Air Charter Service providers are doing their best to make the cabins more comfortable and quieter so that passengers could arrive at the destinations feeling relaxed and refreshed. Besides, chartered flights wouldn’t bring troubles to the passengers, the most frequent complaints to the scheduled flight service is missing luggage issue. It is definitely one of the biggest challenges to the airliners and the passengers. Chartered flight would have all the luggage delivered together with the passengers to the final destinations without any one missing or broken. Hence, the quality of service is improved considerably and it proves that the implementation of Air Charter Serive can be seen as a strong plus for a travel operator’s branding.  #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Early in the year of 2000, charter airlines carried about 13% of international travel and the percentage is still growing. Except above mentioned advantages that Air Charter Service has, the most important reason why chartered flights are more favored by the tour operators is that chartered flight has the lower cost per seat. Since price is the biggest concern when consumers decide which holiday package to buy, the cost per seat becomes a critical factor that the tour operators should take into account when they make the transportation strategy for their products. There are several reasons why chartered flight’s cost per seat is low (Doganis, 2006) . First of all, charter airline’s aircraft utilization is relatively high compared to scheduled flight. Doganis reports that the daily aircraft utilization is 6.5h/day for British Airways, p.1h/day for BMI, and 11h/day or more for conventional airlines. The reasons is that charter airline is focused on long-haul flight so that it successfully reduces time spent on the ground and it has a flexible time schedule so that they could depart at its favorable time without considering airport night restrictions. Another reason is that charter airlines have relatively low expenditures on passenger services because there are no need for large group of cabin crew. Thirdly, due to the fact that charter airlines do not need to establish its ticketing platform, either build up a large sales team or plan promotional events. Therefore, the expenditures on operation and management are relatively lower in comparison with conventional airlines. Besides, charter airlines usually have a higher seating density, so that the cost per seat is lowered considerably. For instance, British Airways had 149 seats on an Airbus A320 in 2000, whereas charters could have up to 180 seats because there’s a single class layout, a lower seat pitct, and less space for toilets, galleys and cupboards on board. In Doganis’s report (2006), the comparison of conventional airlines and charter airlines in cost index on the route London-Athens was presented. 

 

Table 1

Cost Advantage of Charter Airlines. Source: Doganis (2006)

 

Table 1 explains the main factors why there’s such a big difference in cost index between charter airlines and conventional airlines. 

 

To sum up, Air Charter Service is a necessary transportation mean for tourism industry to maximize its profits and to improve the quality of tourism supply chain. 

 

Air Charter Service in China 

 

Bibliography of References 

1. Burkart, A. &Medlik, S. (1974). Tourism, Past, Present and Future. London, Heinemann.

2. Henriques; C. (2003). Turismo, Cida de e Cultura:Planeamento e GestãoSustentável. , Lisboa, EdiçõesSílabo.
3. Tapper R., Font X.: Tourism Supply Chains, Report of a Desk Research Project for The Travel Foundation, Final Report, Leeds Metropolitan University, Environment Business & Development Group, 2004, Leeds, UK

4.  ZHANG ShuHai: Research on Service Quality Control of Tourism Supply Chain, 2008, Henan, China 

5.  Maria Teresa & Luisa Margarida (2011), TOURISMOS: AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF TOURISM Volume 6, Number 2, Autumn 2011, pp. 393-404

6.  Center of Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB), Tour Operator Initiative for Sustainable Tourism Development (TOI). (2004). Supply Chain Management For Tour Operators – Three Steps toward sustainability.  Accessed the 

7.  Stephen J. Page (2011), Tourism Management, Fourth Edition: An Introduction, Published by: Butterworth- Heinemann, ISBN: 0080969321

8. Peter F. Keller, 2012, Industrial Organization of Tourism, Chapter 2: Enterprenuership, innovation process and cooperation in the field of tourism. Zurich, Swizterland

9.  Robbins. D, 2009, The Relationship between Scheduled Transport Operations and the Development of Tourism Markets , Seminar: Tourism and Transport, Session TT 06iii

10.  BAUM, T, 2009, Low Cost Airlines, Social Inclusion and Impacts on Travel Behaviour, Seminar: Tourism and Transport, Session TT 06i

11. Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2003). The Competitive Destination: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective, Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CABI Publishers.

12. McKercher, B. (1998) The effect of market access on destination choice. Journal of Travel Research 37, 39–47.

13. Prideaux B. (2000) The role of the transport system in destination development. Tourism Management 1, 53–64.

14. Brunt, P. (1997). Market Research in Travel and Tourism. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.

15. Iïjina, M. &Sçrdiene, L. (2004). Analysis of the Current Situation of Inbound Conference Tourism in Latvia and its Future Development Possibilities Retrieved January 31、

 

Appendix 1 – Survey Questionnaire
Section One – The transportation mode (from origin area to touristic destination) selection’s influence on a touristic destination’s attractiveness and competetiveness from the perspective of tourism supply chain.

 

Version A – Only for tourism industry practioners 

 

 

1. Which TWO are the most critical parts within the tourism supply chain of Chinese outbound island tourism products and services?

o Accommodation 

o Catering 

o Culture 

o Environment and weather

o Sightseeing resources 

o Ground service

o Transportation mode (from origin area to travel destination)

o Ground transport (within the travel destination)

 

2. Which TWO are the most urging parts of the tourism supply chain of Chinese outbound tourism that needs to be improved? 

o Accommodation 

o Catering 

o Culture 

o Environment 

o Events and fun places

o Sightseeing resources 

o Ground service

o Transportation from origin area to travel destination

o Ground transport (within the travel destination)

 

3. Which TWO of the following features helps make a distant but beautiful island an attractive touristic destination in the Chinese market?

o Enriched natural resources and historic sites 

o Reasonable price 

o Easy accessibility to the destination and ideal location

o Cozy environment

o Safety society 

o High accommodation and catering qualities

o Sufficient entertainment facilities and leisure events 

 

4. What TWO of the following options make an island differ from the others considering the quality of tourism supply chain?

o Accommodation 

o Catering 

o Culture & environment 

o Sightseeing resources 

o Ground service

o Transportation mode (from origin area to travel destination)

o Ground transport (within the travel destination)

 

5. To what extent do you agree that the selection of transportation mode (from origin area to travel destination) could affect the quality of tourism supply chain in Chinese outbound island tourism market?

1. Extremely disagree

2. Disagree

3. Agree

4. Strongly agree 

 

6. To what extent do you agree that the usage of different transportation mode (from origin area to travel destination) could affect the attractiveness and competitiveness of an island as a touristic destination in the Chinese outbound island tourism market?

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree 

3. Agree

4. Highly agree 

 

7. Which TWO of the characteristics of transportation mode used in the Chinese outbound island tourism products could affect the quality of tourism supply chain the most? 
o Capacity 

o Frequency

o Efficiency 

o Safety

o Flexibility 

o Reliability 

o Others, please specify:

 

8. Which TWO of the following aspects of transportation mode selected for Chinese outbound island tourism products should be improved urgently?

o Reliability 

o Frequency 

o Flexibility 

o Efficiency 

o Safety 

o Price 

o Capacity 

o Others, please specify: 

 

Version B – Only for tourism product and service consumers 

 

9. Which TWO options are/are going to be the most memorable parts of a travel/your next travel to an distant but beautiful island?

o Enriched natural resources and historic sites 

o Flexible, reliable and comfortable journey to the destination 

o Ideal location 

o Exciting shopping experience 

o Nice weather and cozy environment

o Safety 

o Accommodation and catering qualities

 

10. Which TWO of the following reasons motivate you the most to choose one island as your travel destination among all the options presented on the market? 

o Reasonable price and expense in the travel destination 

o Ideal location, cozy environment and wonderful weather 

o Fancy catering 

o Fancy accommodation 

o Plenty of facilities and events for relaxation and fun

o Relaxed but enriched itinerary offered by service provider  

o Longest period of stay according to the vacancy scheme 

 

11. Which TWO of the following descriptions of an island travel experience you concern the most for your next travel/you dissatisfied during your last travel? 

o Accommodation 

o Catering 

o Culture & environment 

o Sightseeing resources 

o Ground service

o Transportation mode selection (from origin area to travel destination)

o Ground transport (within the travel destination)

 

12. To what extent do you agree that the selection of different transportation mode (from origin area to travel destination) could affect your choice on different outbound island tourism products?

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree 

3. Agree

4. Highly agree 

 

13. What are your TWO biggest concerns to have a nice journey to your travel destination?

o Coziness 

o Efficiency 

o Safety

o Reliability 
o Others, please specify: 

 

Section Two - Can air charter service bring value to increase outbound island tourism products in China while increase sales volume? 

 

Version A – Only for tourism industry practioners

 

14. Please identify which ONE is the most popular transportation mode selected for outbound island touristic products?

o Airplane 

o Cruise

o Combination of airplane and cruise 

o Other surface transportation mode, such as trains, buses and etc,. 

o Others, please specify:

 

15. Please indentify which ONE is the most preferable transportation mode that should be selected for outbound island tourism products in Chinese market?

o Scheduled flight 

o Chartered flight 

o Cruise

o Combination of scheduled flight and cruise 

o Combination of chartered flight and cruise 

o Others, please specify:

 

16. www.400190.com Which ONE is the biggest shortage of current scheduled flight services offered for the outbound island tourism products in Chinese market?

o Poor reliability 

o Low flight frequency 

o Few flight options

o Low profit margin  

o Low safety level 

o Poor on-board experience 

o Low capacity 

o #p#分頁標題#e#Others, please specify: 

Please illustrate:

 

17. To what extent do you agree that the chartered flight service could improve consumers’ satisfaction level during the visit to islands as touristic destinations?

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree 

3. Agree

4. Highly agree 

 

18. How likely would you present chartered flight service to the current outbound island tourism products in order to catch eyeballs in the Chinese market?

1. Very unlikely 

2. Likely

3. Fair 

4. Unlikely 

5. Very unlikely  

If your answer is very likely and likely, please continue with question 19, otherwise you have completed with the questionnaire, thank you for participating in this survey. 

 

19. Please identify the reasons why you see feasibilities and values in offering chartered flight service to consumers when they buy outbound island tourism products:

 

Version B – Only for tourism product and service consumers 

 

20. Please identify which ONE is your most wanted transportation mode selection when you go for an outbound island visit?

o Airplane 

o Cruise

o Combination of airplane and cruise 

o Other surface transportation mode, such as trains, buses and etc,. 

o Others, please specify:

 

21. How much do you enjoy the performance of current scheduled flight service presented in outbound island tourism products?

1. Not at all

2. Slightly 

3. Moderately 

4. Quite a bit

5. Almost totally 

 

22. Which one of the following factors motivate you the most when you make a buying decision on outbound island tourism product from the perspective of transportation mode selection?

o Efficiency 

o Safety 

o Reliability 

o On-board experience 

o Others, please specify:

 

23. To what extent do you see chartered flight service included outbound island tourism products as a more convenient and comfortable option compared with scheduled flight service featured outbound island tourism products?

1. Not at all

2. Slightly 

3. Moderately 

4. Quite a bit

5. Almost totally 

 

24. Is chartered flight service an strong encouraging factor to you when you choose travel destinations and decide from which travel agency to buy an outbound island tourism product?

1. Not at all

2. Slightly 

3. Moderately 

4. Quite a bit

5. Almost totally