New research into the satisfaction levels of Asian visitors offers practical marketing advice for the Australian tourism industry.

Dr Yvette Reisinger, who lectures in Monash University's Marketing department, says the rate of return by tourists to Australia is likely to decrease regardless of regional financial issues, because many local tourism providers do not understand the importance of cultural orientation.

"Despite the fact that the Australian tourism industry has matured in the last 10 years and become more aware of international visitors' expectations, it still does not fully recognise the importance of responding to the cultural backgrounds and assumptions of this very important market segment," Dr Reisinger said.

"The result is that many Asian tourists leave Australia with negative perceptions of Australian tourism providers and, importantly, with money still in their pockets."

Dr Reisinger identified five different language groups within the Asian market: Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Thai. She said while it was important to recognise that each group constituted a discrete market, the research identified three common areas -- communication style, display of feelings and social interaction -- where there was a marked discrepancy in what the tourists expected and what was delivered.

Going the extra mile

The qualities most highly valued by Asian tourists in service provision were courtesy and responsiveness, ability of service providers to communicate effectively in the tourists' language, and an awareness of tourists' cultural expectations. While all tourists expect high service standards, Australian providers need to be prepared to "go the extra mile" where Asian tourists are concerned, according to Dr Reisinger.

"Australian service providers need to be aware of the importance of punctuality to Japanese, Korean and Mandarin-speaking tourists. They also need to be aware that Indonesian and Thai tourists are less concerned about this quality and to pay more attention to being more relaxed and flexible," she said.

"And for Japanese tourists, fulfilling the custom of introduction to their satisfaction would involve exchanging meishi (business cards) with English text on one side and Japanese on the other."

According to Dr Reisinger, showing respect to Asian people involves being aware of the hierarchical structure of Asian societies and acknowledging the social status, authority and seniority within the hierarchy.

"Tourism operators should follow prescribed forms of acceptable behaviour towards Asian tourists from different social classes, Dr Reisinger said. "Asians are accustomed to being treated according to their age, social position and ranking."

Dr Reisinger's research did not differentiate between first-time and repeat visitors, but it appears the problems identified by first-time visitors had a very significant negative impact on overall perception of the industry's performance.

For example, she said, more than 75 per cent of all Japanese tourists were first-time visitors and only 25 per cent were repeat visitors.

"Something is definitely wrong in our service equation," she said. "Even some of our very high-profile tourist destinations, such as the Gold Coast, are beginning to lose their appeal to this important market in favour of places like Hawaii."

In the Japanese segment of the tourism market alone, the major factor influencing tourists' evaluation of Australian service was the extremely high, culturally-determined, service expectation.

Meeting expectations

"The Japanese are extremely keen on detail, aesthetics, quality and service," she said. "They are more demanding and have higher service expectations than other international tourists and are driven by a Japanese service philosophy. Japanese cultural traits set very high standards for service, and Australian standards often do not match the Japanese standard."

Dr Reisinger said hotel and food industry employees and shop assistants were perceived by Japanese tourists as being significantly less concerned with tourists' needs, less helpful and less informative than their backgrounds would lead them to expect. Australian tour guides were perceived as being unknowledgeable about Australian history and culture, and the tourists were disappointed in the level of competence among Australian providers to speak the Japanese language.

Year 2000 tourist decline

The Japanese and other Asian tourist markets provide 50 per cent of all tourists to Australia. They are predicted to be the largest sources of international tourists to Australia beyond the year 2000, although total tourist arrivals are expected to drop significantly after that date.

Dr Reisinger said it was very important for a "non-matured" tourist destination like Australia to educate its tourism industry employees about culturally determined needs and expectations of its international visitors.

"Inadequate understanding of the cultural background of Asian tourists can lead to complacency by Australian providers," she said.

"We ignore the culturally determined needs of travellers from those source countries at our peril."