No abstract

This article identifies, through a retrospective study of literature, the transitional dynamics of traditional crafts of South and South East Asia. It aims to explain the various factors that necessitate commercialization of crafts, the most important element in transitional dynamics. The review of literature functions at two levels: on the one hand, it reiterates the relationship between commercialization and transition of crafts, whereas, on the other hand, it reveals the changes which accrue to the crafts of the region. A significant number of researchers have documented the reasons behind commercialization and subsequent modification of crafts, which take place either through tourism or through the expansion of export markets. Some countries go into commercial production mode for the betterment of the extremely poor craft-making communities, whereas others try to revive decaying traditions. In such instances of commercialization, it is important to understand the extent of the producer–customer interface that acts as a catalyst in the commoditization and modification of crafts. In regions where tourism flourishes, producers often commercialize their crafts spontaneously, whereas in regions where direct tourists as customers are not adequate in number, organizations, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs), play a vital role in the process of sponsored commercialization by linking producers with customers.

This paper aims at identifying the influence of different information sources in image management of Indian destinations. Six different information sources namely, word-of-mouth, tourism department publications like travel brochure, PR effort in print and electronic media, professional sources (like tour operators, etc.) and cognitive wisdom of the tourists are examined. The influences of these information sources are tested for a few segments of tourists based on certain common segmentation variables like origin, age, benefits sought and exposure of the travellers. It is observed that cognitive wisdom (of the tourists), the often-neglected source of information, plays the most prominent role in shaping the image about a destination. On the other hand, it is seen that one of the most debated communication media in services marketing–the referral affects image formation process the least. The influences of almost all the information sources across various segments are found to be significantly different. It is concluded that the influence of the tourism department publications are highly correlated with the other information sources (except for word-of-mouth).

Guest delight involves providing unexpected benefits along with the basic services to the guests in hotels. However, as the hotels continue to delight guests by providing delighter features along with the basic service, their expectations continue to increase. In every successive stay, they become inclined to expect the earlier delighter features. These may affect hotels’ profitability. Literature review has pointed out that reenacted and transitory delight may play an important role in the management of guest delight in hotels. The present study has attempted to explore these roles played by these two forms of delight in hotels. A survey was conducted by interviewing 500 repeat guests of 65 hotels in the 5 star deluxe, 4 star, 3 star, Heritage Grand and unclassified categories in India. This study has established the possible role of reenacted and transitory delight in management (continuation) of guest delight in hotels. Reenacted delight in hotels is connected with guests’ anticipation of similar value addition in their subsequent visits. Transitory delight in hotels is linked with guests’ expectation of changes in value addition in their consequent visits. This study has also determined certain categories of guests who could be targeted for delight through staggered delivery of pleasant surprises in order to create reenacted and transitory delights among them.

Digital innovations are happening all over the globe with the advent of technology. The digital platforms are not only introducing the traditional services online but are also continuously engaged in making frequent modifications to them in the form of incremental innovations. In our quest of creating a time horizon for innovation adoption, and determining levels of adopters of incremental innovations 837 participants from India were asked about their level of adoption of digital innovations. While most of the respondents did not seem affected by the digital transition, amongst the ones adopting these innovations are mostly Early Adopters and Early Majority. The study arrived at an adoption score for the respondents based on the time from the introduction of the innovation and their adoption. The time horizon suggests the increase in adoption of innovation with each new digital innovation introduced. In the case of incremental innovations, ten levels of adoption, and three categories consisting of the ten levels of adoption are formulated based on the LoA model. The users in India fall majorly on the Beginner category in which maximum is aware of the incremental innovations but are skeptical about using them. The study further suggests certain measures for the digital platform providers for each category of users to make them accustomed to the process of incremental innovations.