2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
An Exploratory Investigation of Japanese Inbound Tourism Distribution Channels
| Project/Area Number |
18K01870
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| Research Institution | Otaru University of Commerce |
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Principal Investigator |
王 力勇 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 准教授 (70772466)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
Praet Carolus 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 教授 (40292081)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | TDC structure / Outbound tour operator / DMC / Hotel / channel relationship |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
First, we continually sorted and analyzed the data collected from 8 DMCs and 14 hotels/ryokans on the destination side. Results show that most informants confirmed both the importance and difficulty of managing channel relationships. Most of our informants reported a perceived power shift from tour operators to hoteliers due to the availability of multiple channels based on ICT advancement and hoteliers’ lower level of dependency on the traditional offline distribution channels. Depending on the power in the channel relationships, LTEs and SMTEs perceive their channel relationships differently. LTE hoteliers and inbound tour operators report having well-balanced relationships with their channel counterparts. On the other hand, while SMTE hoteliers perceive their position in relation to their channel counterparts as being more powerful or at least evenly balanced, SMTE inbound tour operators perceive themselves as having less power in their relationships with hoteliers.
Second, we have been coding all the interview transcriptions via NVivo software.
Third, we have been revising the manuscript of tourism distribution channel structure and the influential factors on channel selection from the perspective of outbound tour operators. The draft will be submitted to an international journal soon.
Fourth, we have been summarizing our data on channel relationship from the perspective of hoteliers in Japan and presented the findings at 2 academic conferences and 1 seminar.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
Because of the Covid-19, the inbound tourist business has vanished in Japan. Many companies in the international tourism industry have to close their business in the short term or permanently. Furthermore, we can not see any optimistic prediction of reopening the Japanese border to those inbound tourists in the near future. Consequently, it is challenging to clarify when the business environment will be in a proper condition to conduct a quantitative survey. Under the continuing influence of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have to postpone or even cancel the plan of the quantitative survey.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The tourism industry has been damaged incredibly. In particular, inbound tourism in Japan may not show resilience in years. We have to be prepared for the worst.
In FY 2022, we will continually analyze the data collected from DMCs, hoteliers as well as outbound tour operators and summarize the those findings. We will also present these findings at the international conference and then submit the expanded version of the draft to an international journal.
If the relief of the Covid-19 pandemic shows resilience of the inbound tourism in Japan, we plan to conduct a quantitative survey with DMCs and/or hotels on a small scale. In case that the inbound tourism industry shows no signal of resilience, we will have to cancel the quantitative survey toward DMCs and hoteliers.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to cancel several trips for interviews and international academic conferences, which saved a lot of our travel budget.
We plan to make use of the incurring amount for arranging research data and presenting findings at international academic conferences after the release of travel restrictions. Furthermore, we also plan to conduct a quantitative survey under the condition of the resilience of the Japanese inbound tourism industry.
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Research Products
(4 results)
