CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Clay suggests that the responses and feelings of all individuals’ towards aesthetic beauty is a vital part of the lived experience where art is the natural outcome of their love and desire for beauty (Clay, 1908). Design, “art with a purpose” (West & Purvis, 1992:15), can be used as a way to differentiate products and services (Reimann et al., 2010). Esslinger (2009) recommends that designers and business leaders should join forces to build strategies that will offer a more sustainable, aesthetically pleasing and, whether directly or indirectly, a more profitable future.

To bring together notions of design, aesthetics and consumption, we deploy a phenomenological lens to extrapolate the moment of consumption where these concepts come together. Lin and Lin (2016:693) suggest that little is known about what accounts for an individual’s comprehension, appreciation or relationship with a specific servicescape in the moment of consumption. Focusing on the phenomenological experiences of cosmopolitan individuals we introduce and append a concept of the hotelscape to work considering servicescapes and move to better position of this as a holistic conceptualization gained from the perspective of individual consumers. In line with Orth, Wirtz and McKinney (2016) we regard the perception of a consumer of a holistic servicescape as entropic. We offer the hotelscape concept as a distinctive development of the servicescape that embeds both the design and individual consumption in an aesthetically pleasing service atmosphere.

"The main entrance... should be regarded as of great importance, as it is the heart of the building from which all life springs and to which it returns". Henry Janeway Hardenberg (Berens, 1997: 8) Lobbies amaze, welcome, and disperse arrivals. Most entries that may be named as anterooms to the major event beyond, are used solely to be passed through. Lobbies express something about the building and direct people to their intended destination. For instance, an office building lobby can be designed with rich materials, and become an active space, however they remain to be used for transition. Even the apartment building lobby, although providing usual living room seating, is a space that people do not spend time. The hotel lobby is different.

We propose that academics and managers should respond to Esslinger’s call. However, the position of work on art, design and aesthetics in the marketing discipline is not immediately apparent to those wishing to engage with it. At best, the work discussing these elements is limited in scope, fragmented and mostly conceptual. One perspective would be to place this discussion under product design - the “P” of product. The tangible product or rendered service is one part of the total consumption experience, as customers respond to the total, holistic offering when making purchase decisions (Kotler, 1973). However, in the “4Ps” context, place as a physical environment is seen as an influential feature of the total consumption experience (Bitner, 1992; Kotler, 1973). Within these two intertwined streams of research, first “atmospherics” (Kotler, 1973) and second, “servicescape” (Bitner, 1992) provide an understanding of the various effects of designed environments on consumption behavior. Both offer scope for deeper research exploring aesthetics.

Customers perceive servicescape differently from service designers and creators, which embeds the importance of understanding phenomena from a customer’s point of view when designing aesthetically pleasing servicescapes (Torres & Kline, 2013). Servicescape is a concept which forms the nexus of the aesthetic design, and aesthetics as experienced in the moment of consumption - the subjective consumption response to perceived beauty.

We focus on hotels as one of the most globalized business sectors (Yu et al., 2013). They are highly competitive and constantly seeking ways to differentiate their products and services (McNeill, 2008). At the luxury end of the hotel sector, consumption patterns are more hedonistic rather than utilitarian, with aesthetically pleasing design increasing in significance (Wang et al., 2013). An area conceptually underexplored is the role that design and aesthetics plays in creating competitive advantage. We focus this paper on cosmopolitan consumers in Saudi Arabia. Cosmopolitan consumers rely on imagery, are highly conscious of global trends and are discriminating consumers looking for what is “cool” and distinctive (Funk & Oly Ndubisi, 2006).

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 Among the many public areas, the hotel lobby has the only greatest impact on guests and visitors (Rutes, Penner, & Adams, 2001). Hotel lobbies are public living rooms where guests can attend friends or business acquaintance for a drink or for an evening's activity (Berens, 1997). Therefore, understanding the influence of the physical environment, in case of the lobby, is very significant hence, little attention should be given to exploring how physical environment of interior space affects customers' opinions toward hotel as a whole, their emotional states and their behavioral intentions. Although numerous studies have been carried in restaurants, museums, or shopping malls based on environmental psychology and marketing disciplines, less number of studies are conducted on the hotel lobby environments.

In spite of the abundance of natural and cultural tourism endowments Nigeria enjoy, the acceptance and participation of the general populace in the industry is still at infancy (Ikprukpo, 1993). The non-committal attitude of Nigerians to tourism industry spanned across all aspects of the industry- as a provider/seller of tourism products, buyers or patrons of tourists sites/experience or even in the aspect of government regulations.

Based on the foregoing it is apparent that there is a misconstrue in the perception of an average Nigerian on real and perceived benefits derivable from tourism. It is an incontrovertible fact that there is a perceptible increase in the number of Nigerians engaged in tourism industry in recent times – particularly in the supply of tourism products and services (Bankole,2002). Same cannot be however said on the patronage of tourism services. Studies detailing the participation of Nigerians in the demand of tourism products over time and space are scanty. This present research intends to fill such a gap in the body of existing knowledge by investigating the relationship between aesthetic floral on hotel patronage. It will also examine the effect of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage. The factors affecting aesthetic floral on hotel patronage, to examine level of awareness of hotel patronage customers on aesthetic floral and the way forward to effective management of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage.

1. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study is aim at investigate the relationship that exist between aesthetic floral and hotel patronage.

The specific objectives will be:

1. To examine the effect of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage.
2.  To assess the factors affecting aesthetic floral on hotel patronage.
3. To examine the level of awareness of hotel patronage customers on aesthetic floral
4. To find out way forward to effective management of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Arising from the research objectives, the following research questions will be address in the study:

1. What are the effects of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage?
2. What are the factors affecting aesthetic floral on hotel patronage?
3. What is the level of awareness of hotel patronage customers on aesthetic floral?
4. To find out way forward to effective management of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage?

1.5 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

H0 there is no significant relationship between aesthetic floral and hotel patronage.

H1 there is significant relationship between aesthetic floral and hotel patronage.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is of great importance as it studies the effectiveness of aesthetic floral on the level of hotel patronage. It will bring out the role of aesthetic flora on hotel patronage.

The findings of this study may be beneficial for interior designers, hotel owners, and those who are interested in emotions and behavioral intentions in service environments.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is limited to flora managers, interior designers, hotel owners. It will only look at the effects of aesthetic floral on hotel patronage and the factors affecting aesthetic flora on hotel patronage.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

TIME CONSTRAINTS: One the challenges experienced by the researcher is the issue of time; the research will simultaneously engage in departmental activities like seminars and attendance to lectures. But the researcher was able to meet up with the deadline for the submission of the project.

FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: Every research work needs funding; however lack of adequate funds might affect the speed of the researcher in getting materials for completion of the project.

1. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Floral

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) resulting from cross pollination or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower) when self pollination occurs.

Aesthetic

Aesthetics covers both natural and artificial sources of aesthetic experience and judgment. It considers what happens in our minds when we engage with aesthetic objects or environments such as in viewing visual art, listening to music, reading poetry, experiencing a play, exploring nature, and so on. The philosophy of art specifically studies how artists imagine, create, and perform works of art, as well as how people use, enjoy, and criticize their art. It deals with how one feels about art in general, why they like some works of art and not others, and how art can affect our moods or even our beliefs.

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given to a store by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints. The word "patron" derives from the Latin: patronus ("patron"), one who gives benefits to his clients

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat screen television, and en-suite bathrooms.