Background of the Research

Recently the tourist industry has focused training on creating employees with an excellent ability to complete work and enhance the value of the organization (Yang, 2006). To meet the increasingly complex needs of international tourists, human resource/human capital departments have become a necessary component of most hotels operations. In 2007 Taiwan’s High Speed Rail began operating, allowing for the quick and convenient transportation of people from north to south; making it more convenient for tourists to see more of the country in a shorter period of time. The High Speed Rail has helped to increase interest of potential tourists considering a visit to Taiwan and since direct transportation links were established with China in 2008, Taiwan’s tourism business has grown rapidly. The tourism ministry statistics for March, 2009 show that 395, 201 people visited Taiwan, which represents a 15.53% growth rate when compared with the previous year. Out of the total number of visitors 207,998 came for tourism, a growth rate of 30.52% when compared to the previous year (Ministry of Tourism, 2009). In an attempt to ensure continued growth the government continues to promote tourism in all areas of Taiwan by asking each location to create a tourist attraction. For example, the Ministry of Tourism has asked counties to have activities related to the arts and culture to promote tourism; the concept is to promote the unique features of each location to increase tourism in Taiwan. Also, the Executive Yuan issued a policy in 2008, which was one out of ten initiatives to emphasize the tourism development plan (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). There are three purposes for the plan; first, to increase the name recognition of Taiwan in the international tourist market; second, to increase the focus of other countries on Taiwan as a viable tourist destination and increase Taiwan’s chances of becoming the chosen tourist destination in the vacation planning stage;

and finally, to increase the number of international travelers coming to Taiwan. The increased amount of tourism from foreign countries creates a need to explore the language training of hotel employees, conducted by hotels.

If this plan is successful, Taiwan’s tourism industry will continue to experience rapid growth which will impact all areas of the tourism industry – especially hotels. Based on the difference of room numbers and facilities, hotels in Taiwan can be classified as international tourist hotels, standard tourist hotels and standard hotels (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). In Taiwan there are 94 tourist hotels; 63 are international tourist hotels and 31 are standard tourist hotels and 2602 standard hotels (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). According to the Ministry of Tourism’s (2008) information, there were 11 new hotels planned for completion in 2009; 8 were international tourist hotels and 3 were standard tourist hotels. In 2010 twenty-three hotels are planned for completion; 14 international tourist hotels and 9 standard tourist hotels; in 2011 ten new hotels are planned for completion; 8 international tourist hotels and 2 standard tourist hotels. In 2012 it is expected that 5 international tourist hotels will be completed. While in 2013 it is anticipated that 2 international tourist hotels will be completed and 2 standard tourist hotels will be completed for a total of 4 new tourist hotels. This information is representative of the anticipated growth of the tourism industry within Taiwan, as well as the increase in competition within the hotel industry.

According to the Ministry of Tourism’s (2008) survey of trends of tourists visiting Taiwan in 2007, most tourists that come to Taiwan stay in hotels (88%). Of the visitors that stay in hotels 54.35% said that they chose international tourist hotels, while 35.74% said that standard tourist hotels were chosen and 9.91% said that standard hotels were chosen (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). It is clear that most inbound tourists prefer to stay in international tourist hotels. In addition, given that Taiwan’s major tourist markets are Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, China, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Europe, New Zealand and Australia

(Ministry of Tourism, 2010), hotel management need to address the challenge of their customers’ multi-lingual needs in the increasingly competitive market place.

In 1998, Time magazine interviewed business leaders to determine the priorities of business, and the challenges that business faced (Time Magazine, 1998). The results showed that training of talent was the first priority; both the government and the business site felt that educational training needed to be a focus for the tourist industry (Luo, Tsai & Hung, 2003).

However, businesses are aware of the cost of training; which represents a significant investment for most enterprises. Owners and managers expect that the training will be effective and that the employees will be able to apply the training in the workplace. Indeed, the goals of training are that employees will contribute to the improvement of the organization, and there shall be a positive return on any investment in training (Erickson & Wentling, 1976).

In light of the facts that tourism is increasing in importance and increasing in competitiveness, the training of employees in the hospitality industry is critical and organizations and staff have to recognize the importance of training and service to ensure the viability and profitability of the organizations.

Prior to 2004 the government of Taiwan provided funds for the education and training of employees from medium and small sized businesses, focusing on the manufacturing industry. After 2004, the Executive Yuan and the department of labor began to allocate funds for training in other industries, including the tourist industry. As there was a shift in the economy toward service industries the government provided resources to individual business to improve their business plan (Department of Labor, Executive Yuan, 2004).

1.2 Motivation for the Research

Chen (2008) suggested that there are two kinds of education and training in the hospitality management industry, i.e., general training and language training. The general training will be focused on understanding the customer, management quality in the service

industry, training sales skills, dealing with customer complaints and emergency situations such as using a fire extinguisher. The focus of language training should be on conversational ability in English and Japanese because these two languages represent the most significant proportion of tourists (Chen, 2008).

Due to the importance of education and training in the tourism and hotel industries, there is an increasing amount of research into this area. Kirkpatrick (1998) proposed a model for evaluation of training. There are four levels; reaction, learning, behavior and results.

Bushnell (1990) proposed a different training evaluation model of input, process, output and outcomes (IPO). Chen and Wang (2006) built up training input, provisions and procedures to increase value. Wang, Da and Chang (2008) proposed modified training elements which influenced research on transfer of training. In Taiwan, the research into training in international tourist hotels focuses on what the employees need to complete their tasks effectively (Chen, 1997; Dzu, 1992). The relationship between international tourist hotel training and employee attrition has been investigated by Ling (1999). Research has been conducted into the effectiveness of training of employees in many different industries to develop a deeper understanding that the training results impact performance (Yu, 2002).

Finally, Lo (1999) has conducted an evaluation of the impact of business training.

In consideration of the above there are a number of areas for discussion of training needs, the value of training and the models of evaluation in Taiwan. In Taiwan the application of training evaluation models occurs very infrequently in hotels.

This research will use the training measurement process developed by Bushnell (1990) to evaluate international tourist hotels training methods. Given the high proportion of human resources in the tourism industry, the high cost of training and the focus of government on increasing the tourist industry in Taiwan, improving the understanding of the effectiveness of training programs in the most popular hotels for tourists is an important step to ensure value in the hotel industry.

1.3 Purpose and Objectives of the Research

The purpose of the study was to investigate the training input, training process and training output of the international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Many hotels have set a professional training unit to improve employees’ working quality and skills; however, one might question the training input of the hotels, the effectiveness of the training courses, the trainers’ abilities and the trainees’ satisfaction and knowledge and skills gained after the training. Therefore, there are four specific research objectives:

1. To explore the training input from the human resource managers’ view in international tourist hotels in Taiwan.

2. To explore the training process from the trainers’ view in international tourist hotels in Taiwan.

3. To explore the training output from the trainees’ and department managers’ view in international tourist hotels in Taiwan.

4. To identify the language training needs from the trainees’ view in international tourist hotels in Taiwan.

1.4 Significance of the Research

This research could provide the industry and people who research the effectiveness of training with the means to analyze the effectiveness of training and further illuminate the effectiveness of the models being used. Therefore, this research will contribute to the literature on training and evaluation by (1) evaluating training in the environment of international tourist hotels in Taiwan (2) providing hospitality management educators and researchers with a deeper understanding of what is needed to be successful in this industry (3) enhancing the understanding of the importance and effectiveness of training in the hotel industry.

The practical applications of the research are (1) the ability of the hotel industry to understand the impact of the training (2) the ability of the hotel industry to see the training reaction and skills and knowledge gained by the trainees (3) to provide the personnel departments with foundations for future training courses arrangement (4) the ability to identify the needs and learning methods to help focus on training effectively.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the topic by providing; the purpose, motivation, objectives and significance of the thesis were also provided in chapter one. Chapter two, the literature review, explores the literature on the development, classification systems, and educational training in the hotel industry and describes the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model. The methodology; a description of the research setting and the participants, questionnaire design and measurement, pilot testing, data collection and statistical analysis are discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter four reports the research results. The conclusion, discussion, implications and limitations of the study are discussed in Chapter 5.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a review of previous research on six key characteristics of hotel management in general, and training in particular, which are related to this study. Section 2.1 is an overview of the development of the hotel industry in Taiwan. Section 2.2 describes the classification system of tourist hotels in Taiwan which provides construction and equipment differences between standard tourist hotels and international tourist hotels. Section 2.3 presents the definition of education and training. Section 2.4 provides the related research on educational training. Section 2.5 describes the “Input-Process-Output” (IPO) model. Finally, the studies of IPO model are discussed in Section 2.6. Section 2.7 provides the summary of this chapter.

2.1 Development of the Hotel Industry in Taiwan

According to Yang (2004), the development of the hotel industry started in 1956 in Taiwan. At the time, any hotel that had more than twenty rooms was called a “tourist hotel.”

In 1968, the government of Taiwan raised the number of rooms to be classified as a tourist hotel to 40 and created a category of international tourist hotels which required more than 80 rooms. In 1973, Hilton Hotels opened which lead the hotel industry into the era of internationalization with the first international chain hotel in Taiwan. Then, due to the energy crisis, the government raised taxes and electrical fees in 1977 which caused a severe “hotel shortage” and the appearance of a large number of “underground hotels”. On the other hand, in the same year, Ministry of Transportation and Communication and Ministry of the Interior announced the construction, equipment and standards of tourist hotels. In 1983, tourist hotels implemented the class distinction system which divided hotels into four grades; two-star, three-star, four-star, and five-star tourist hotels. The Landis Taipei Hotel became one of the

“Leading Hotels of the World” in 1983; the Sherwood Taipei Hotel became one of the

“Preferred Hotels” in 1992. In 1996, The Imperial Taipei Hotel and Inter-Continental Hotels signed a consultancy contract whereby the Imperial Hotel became a member of Inter-Continental management systems. The Westin Taipei Hotel and Resort became one of the

“Westin Hotels and Resorts” in 1999. Due to the technology and personnel management systems brought from Europe and the United States, these international chain hotels internationalized the hotel industry in Taiwan to the benefit of both local and international consumers.

2.2 Classification System of Tourist Hotels in Taiwan

Yang (2004) stated that the construction of tourist hotels should be based on the content of the construction and equipment standards. These requirements are minimum standards for the threshold in Taiwan. The building and equipment standards of tourist hotels can be divided into standard tourist hotels and international tourist hotels. However, there is no organization or institution to evaluate and classify those hotels as standard tourist hotels or international tourist hotels in Taiwan (Yang, 2004).

There are many institutions to evaluate and grade hotels in other countries, such as the relevant government department, a tourist bureau or a hotel association. The standards of evaluating hotels are diverse and various, but usually related to equipment, facilities, atmosphere, environment and services. The World Tourism Organization (W.T.O) criterion for the classification level of hotels includes rooms, equipment and facilities, service, service quality and staff quality.

In Europe there are many countries which generally have different classification systems, unfortunately they are often inconsistent. Hotels may be classified by a governmental authority as in the case of Italy, or by a hotel or tourist association, as in the cases of Greece and Switzerland. There are four degrees of hotels in Italy; luxurious degree

and first to third degrees. Greece divides its hotels into five grades; A1, A, B, C and D. Also, there are six degrees of hotels in Switzerland (Yang, 2004).

The current U.S. evaluation of hotels is handled by non-government organizations.

The most famous evaluation systems are American Automobile Association (AAA) and Mobil Travel Guide (Yang, 2004). AAA hotel evaluation takes place every year and the evaluation method which evaluates hotels without a fee. Any hotel could join in the program;

however, if the hotels want to hang the AAA’s diamond logo after evaluation, they need to pay a fee. According to AAA hotel evaluation, there are five levels from one-diamond to five-diamond. The highest level is five-diamond hotel which have the luxury construction equipment and high quality service. To achieve the five-diamond level, the hotels must be able to meet the requirements of any travelers, and perfectly able to maintain the quality of service (Yang, 2004).

In Taiwan, standard tourist hotels are recognized as internationally rated two-star to three-star hotels; international tourist hotels are recognized as four-star to five-star hotels (Tourism Bureau of Taiwan, 2003). According to the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan (2009), due to the changes of market and development trend of hotels, the government will conduct hotel evaluation from 2009 to 2111 on a five star rating scale, which will encourage hotels to develop their own brand names and characteristics to assist in the hotel industry in achieving international standards, while segmenting the market and reducing travel disputes. There are five degrees from one-star to five-star. The evaluation items will include construction, equipment and service quality.

To conclude, countries have the different standards to evaluate and rate hotels. The government has not set up rules to distinguish the different levels for hotels in Taiwan until recently. However, the government has begun the process of evaluation which is expect to last from 2009 to 2111, in order to provide correct information for all guests and especially tourists about hotels in Taiwan (Tourism Bureau of Taiwan, 2009). Therefore, according to

the ratings provided by the government, tourists and guests could make sure the environment and safety of hotels.

2.3 Education and Training

The quality of service has become the most important and competitive factor in the hotel industry which also effects profitability and success of each hotel (Saibang & Schwindt, 1998). Hence, employees are like the heart, wisdom and soul in the organization and they are the only drive for the actions in the organization (Edvinsson & Malone, 1997). Sabiang and Schwindt (1998) suggested that when a hotel wants to have high quality of customer service, they need to focus on employees first. Coultron (1991) argued that “you could have the best destination, the best décor or the best resort, but if you don’t have the best employees, you don’t have anything” (p.67). As employees are the key factor for the success of the organization, training has become one of the most important activities in the business environment (Wu, 2002). Therefore, many industries that focus on educational training thus, they may invest a significant amount of their budget in educational training, or otherwise provide suitable courses and training for employees to improve their skills and knowledge.

On the other hand, if the business does not use the budget for educational training well, the investment is wasted.

Luo (1999) stated that training has three benefits for an enterprise: to improve operational efficiency to generate higher economic benefits, to enhance interpersonal relationships in order to reduce the turnover, and to enrich the scope and level of employees to improve corporate response capabilities. However, more than 95% of industries are of small and medium scale in Taiwan and those industries only have limited resources for educational training (Farh, 1995). Therefore, Schmidt (2009) argued that due to the different job duties, backgrounds, skills, abilities, and learning styles of each learner, a given industry must provide suitable training courses, and training resources to meet learners needs

effectively and efficiently. Overall, according to a survey by Management Magazine (2004), the areas most in need of training courses in business are teamwork, foreign language skills, leadership skills, customer satisfaction and competent management ability.

2.3.1 Definition of Education and Training

The definition of training and education are different for scholars and enterprise.

Also, the goal and functions are different in training and education. Miller (1987) distinguishes training, education and development in time order that is present, future and both present and future. This means that the purpose of training is to satisfy current needs and to complete the current task. Education is used to predict and meet future needs, which enhances the knowledge and ability for future. According to Chen and Wang (2006) training is to improve the performance of employees which could improve current job performance.

The function of training activities is to develop the skills of workers. Education is to train a specific ability of employees; thus, employees have the ability to cope with unexpected work in the future. The function of the education activity is to improve basic and extensive capabilities. Luo (1999) stated that training is to teach employees about the necessary knowledge, technology, principles, methods and procedures of the job; education is to teach employees about the related concepts and knowledge to improve their capacity in analysis, reasoning, planning decision-making. Chang (2005) argued that training is to impact

The function of training activities is to develop the skills of workers. Education is to train a specific ability of employees; thus, employees have the ability to cope with unexpected work in the future. The function of the education activity is to improve basic and extensive capabilities. Luo (1999) stated that training is to teach employees about the necessary knowledge, technology, principles, methods and procedures of the job; education is to teach employees about the related concepts and knowledge to improve their capacity in analysis, reasoning, planning decision-making. Chang (2005) argued that training is to impact