7i,lrrism Murlupwlrnr 1904 15 (6) 407-4 10

Current issues

Matching products and markets: to smoke or not to smoke?

Paul Morrison Depurtment of Hospitality and Tourism Manrqement, University of Queen,slund, Gutton, Q 4343, Austruliu

Bronwyn Sutton Queenslund Deprtment of He&h, Brisbane, Q 4000. Austrulia

This paper argues that the availability of a smoke-free environment is perceived by many tourists emanating from the major English-speaking countries to be an important facet of the hospitality product. In many non-English speaking countries, there is a propensity to have few restrictions on smoking. There is potential conflict in simultaneously meeting the needs of both groups of tourists as well as hospitality staff because of the pervasive nature of tobacco smoke. The case of Japanese tourists on Australia’s Gold Coast is examined. Findings indicate that not only was the lack of tobacco smoking restrictions in hotels potentially damaging for the domestic tourist market but was in fact contrary to what many Japanese desired. The paper concludes that it is important for tourism planners to be sensitive to the changing needs of inbound tourists and hospitality staff. This has implications for training and information systems.

Keeping abreast of the wants of the modern tourist is a tough business. Tourists buy their products in a highly competitive market-place. Today they have the pick of the stall. Tourism providers struggle to keep abreast of changing tastes, redesigning or mod- ifying their products to offer optimum benefits to the consumer within their specified price range.

Peon’ highlights the inexorable shift from ‘old’ tourism, characterized by a mass, standardized and ridigly packaged product to ‘new’ tourism, where competitive success is based on putting consumers first. This means weaving flexibility into the product, offering choice to niche markets. Tourism products are therefore highly dynamic, moving to compensate for the vagaries of tastes and fashion. Keeping in tune with the changing demands of domestic con- sumers is challenging. The domestic market is nor- mally large and stable enough to justify serious market research. Being sensitive to the needs of different groups of overseas visitors is daunting.

When interpreting the needs of overseas visitors. management in the hotel sector have to generalize as to the requirements of different ethnic and national groups. It is easy to propagate conventional wisdoms regarding the behavioural characteristics of particu- lar nationalities. The physical and cultural divisions between tourism providers and overseas customers foster a tendency to suggest that all people of a particular genus have the same customer characteris- tics: that is, that all Norwegians, Poles, Malays, Japanese or whoever, think and behave in like fashion. Some examples of how hospitality staff might typecast various nationalities could include: l Germans enjoy sunbathing; l US citizens want high standard facilities at moder-

ate prices; l the English enjoy warm beer; l Indonesians love karaoke; l Italians like food in large quantities; l Japanese smoke.

t12hl-5177/~4/060407-04 0 1994 Butterworth-Hcincmann Ltd 407

Of course most experienced tourism providers real- United Kingdom and Australia has been steadily ize that rigid stereotypes are misleading but for the declining since the 1950s. This has been more than sake of expediency they tend to accept that, for very offset by an increase in tobacco consumption in small markets, offering any product choice beyond Africa, Eastern Europe, South America and Asia. take it or leave it is simply impractical. What is becoming a national pastime in some coun-

tries is becoming a closet hobbv in others. It is this

Potential conflicts between markets

Large inbound markets, as befitting their size and economic signific~~nce, are given much more consid- eration regarding their preferences. Japanese visi- tors present such a market for the Australian tourist industry, accounting for over 30% of all internation- al visitors to Australia. A favourite destination is the Gold Coast in Queensland, which has resulted in the Gold Coast tourism product being designed to meet the perceived needs of Japanese visitors. The Gold Coast strip is relatively small with a high concentra- tion of the quality accommodation favoured by the Japanese concentrated in the Surfer’s Paradise and adjacent areas.

Japanese tourists prefer the security of group travel. Being an insular nation where overseas travel is uncommon among their residents, they are ner- vous about doing the wrong thing and causing embarrassment. Tour operators find it better work- ing with accommodation and restaurants which are tuned in to the standards and expectations of the Japanese. This hinders the introduction of new products. Complaints are saved for the tour operator back in Japan thus avoiding any embarrassment overseas. This can mislead foreign suppliers into believing that their service is fine and to being unappreciative of client expectations.’

Tailoring the tourism product to meet the needs of a particular market is all well and good as long as the move to cater for one market does not alienate another. Being all things to all people is a marketing impossibility and tourism product planners have long grappled with the difficulty of determining the most appropriate product development strategy. P~~rticularly sensitive areas concern products which precipitate behaviour that impacts on the satisfac- tion level of others. An example of market/product conflicts is when loud music or the boisterous be-

dichotomy that presents yet another dilemma for the tourist provider: to cater for the growing economic significance of nations where the conventional wis- dom suggests that tobacco smoking in public is the norm or follow the rapidly growing demand for smoke-free public areas within traditional markets.

Offering consumers a choice of smoke-free res- taurants and hotel rooms is supported by a growing body of evidence. In Australia,J the United States’ and the IJnited Kingdom, ” studies have demons- trated that a large proabortion of consumers prefer a smoke-free environment. The importance of a smoke-free dining arca as opposed to other attributes has been studied. A 1990 study P

roduct found

that on a 17-point attribute scale of features encoun- tered in a university food service operation, the provision of n~~ll-srn~)king facilities was ranked 12th at breakfast, 8th at lunch and 7th at dinner. Suffice it to say that in 1994, there is now an expectation among consumers that they be offered the choice of smoking or non-smoking facilities and, having been illlocated smoke-free facilities. that the atmosphere will remain smoke free. Should these expectations not be met then a level of dissatisfaction will result.

Japanese smoking preferences

To many western hospitality staff, the Japancsc are heavy smokers. It is a c~~llvention~~l wisdom. This ~Issumption results in Japanese tourists being allo- cated to smoking rooms and smoking sections in restaurants. Tour companies block book smoking rooms to ensure that the needs of their Japanese guests are met fully. Given the high usage by Japanese visitors in certain key properties, this has caused conflict between meeting the perceived needs of the Japanese and meeting the needs of staff and other guests. It is felt that a smoking culture is being imposed on a society which is in the process of

haviour of young people can encroach on the peacc- moving towards a non-smoking culture. ful environment so important to older groups. An Australia is also one of the pioneers regarding issue that currently presents increasing conflict be- passive smoking litigation in the workplace” and tween markets is the issue of smoking preferences in hotel management has been put in the unenviable restaurants and hotel rooms. position of meeting the needs of different groups of

customers as well as staff. This dilemma was illus-

Tobacco smoking trated in 1993 when the fine dining restaurant of a premier hotel/casino changed its smoking policy

Tobacco smoking in global terms appears to be from designated noun-sIn<~king areas to completely going in two directions. World-wide consumpti<~n non-smocking. This was in response to local lobbying. has continued increasing at a rate of l-2% each year Following negative responses from influential over the past 10 years.- Asian guests, the restaurant scrapped all smoking

Consumption in many so-called economically de- restrictions to the dismay of certain groups of staff veloped countries such as the llnited States, the and customers. It is no wonder that the current

position of the professional association representing the Australian restaurant industry favours a com- plete smoking ban imposed by legislation. At feast then they cannot be accused of making the wrong decision.

Given the conflict between the perceived smoking needs of Japanese visitors and provision of non- smoking facilities for domestic tourists, a study was conducted between September and November 1993 to measure the extent to which Japanese visitors preferred smoking or non-smoking facilities. The Queensland Department of Health, in conjunction with the Japanese Visitors Bureau, surveyed over 1000 Japanese visitors. The research instrument was a sell-administered questionnaire in Japanese.

The findings of the survey were quite unexpected: 92% of respondents felt that it was appropriate to offer non-smoking facilities in restaurants and 59% of respondents indicated that they would prefer to sit in a non-smoking section of a restaurant. This pre- ference for non-smoking facilities displays simifar- ities to studies undertaken to ascertain the prefer- ence of non-smoking facilities among Australian, British and US consumers.

Japanese smoking habits were examined to offer a possible explanation for this paradox. There appeared to be similarities between the current Japanese situation and the situation in the major English-speaking nations 20 years ago:

There was a very powerful tobacco lobby. The Japanese Tobacco Corporation is owned totally by the ministry of Finance; thus the Government has a strong pecuniary interest in encouraging tobacco consumption. Tobacco products were promoted on television. There were few restrictions on smoking in public places.

There have, however, been recent changes in re- sponse to consumer and health lobbyists:

l Tokyo metropolitan Government buildings have banned smoking in all areas apart from those specially designated for smokers.

* Subways, airlines, taxis and bullet trains are in- creasingly becoming non-smoking.

l There is a growing awareness of the health dan- gers of smoking.

0 Tobacco advertising on television is now res- tricted to later evening.” *. -

There has been a steady decline in smoking among the Japanese over the past 40 years with an adult rate now of 36% compared with 28% in Australia and the United Kingdom and 26% in the United States.

While tobacco smoke stiff hovers like rain clouds over most restaurants in Japan, there may be other explanations regarding the preference for non- smoking facilities among visitors from a nation where there are few restrictions on tobacco smoking:

The demographic profile of Japanese visitors to the Gold Coast, together with their associated values, is distinct from those of the average Japanese citizen. Certainly the high percentage of Japanese honeymooners among Australian visi- tors lowers the median age. It may be that the effect of being recently married makes the views of Japanese women (only 14% of Japanese women smoke) much more influential in what is traditionally a very patriarchal society in which over 50% of Japanese men smoke.

The lack of availability of non-smoking areas in Japan may not reflect consumer demand. Consider- ing that studies in the United Kingdom and Austra- lia demonstrate that the demand for non-smoking hotel rooms and non-smoking restaurant areas con- sistently exceeds supply, there is every likelihood that the smoke-free preferences of many Japanese are ignored within Japan.

It is probable that, in time, Japan’s smoking protocols will move towards those of the main English-speaking countries. In an effort to deliver the most acceptable product to the Japanese visitor by allowing the freedom to smoke tobacco in public areas, Gold Coast hotels may have been suboptimiz- ing the product to domestic consumers and also giving some Japanese exactly what they did not want.

Conclusions

What are the lessons to be learned? First, it must be recognized that conventional wisdoms regarding the behaviouraf characteristics of a particular ethnic or national group should be questioned continually. In a past age of mass tourism and relatively unsophisti- cated travelfers, such assumptions may have had value. In today’s tourism market, they may be dangerous. Although they may not be held by experienced tourism strategists they are beliefs wide- ly held by h~~spitaiity staff and many in the travel and tourism industries. If a head waiter believes that guests of Asian appearance prefer to smoke then they will be allocated a table in a smoking area. To change that way of thinking requires:

l greater research into the changing needs of diffe- rent national and ethnic groups;

l a realization that within each society there is a rich and complex structure. Significant overseas markets will require a similar level of stratifica- tion to that of the domestic market;

0 offering choice. Allowing consumers to choose what they want greatly facilitates the design of the most appropriate tourism product.

Choice incurs two potential disadvantages:

(1) Choice means that an infornlation system needs to be established to permit the tourist to choose. Communication - face to face, by telephone,

409

(2)

facsimile or e-mail - requires language skills which are often absent among hospitality staff. However, computerized reservation systems and other wide-area networks offer enormous opportunities to customize the product. The technology to allow computers to translate docu- ments into several languages is now available. Choice is also associated with a higher price. Increased product features require a larger selection to be made available and a greater possibility of under-utilized capacity, be it hotel rooms, restaurant furniture, transport seats or tourist attractions. There is no easy solution here. Yield management models can help as can better projections as to tourism growth and shifting consumer preferences. One thing is for sure: in a competitive environment, tourism providers who best address this challenge will be the ones who survive and prosper.

410