Cross-cultural Customer Service in Recreation Management. Multi-ethnic Comparison of Service Quality and Satisfaction

It has potential cross-cultural validity, for it may explain not just phenomena of the Western world but also some otherwise mystifying customs elsewhere, such as kerosene drinking by Indonesian kung-fu experts. I will also reach into the past and apply the theory to the seemingly bizarre practice of ceremonial enemas in ancient Mayan civilization. Let me begin by relating how I arrived at this idea. One day, I was abruptly struck by the puzzle that companies manufacturing toxic chemicals for human use advertise their use explicitly. This business practice would seem a sure route to bankruptcy. Yet, while we do not tolerate advertisements for cocaine, advertisements for tobacco and alcohol are so widespread that we cease to regard their existence as puzzling. It hit me only after I had been living with New Guinea hunters in the jungle for many months, far from any advertising. Day after day, my New Guinea friends had been asking me about Western customs, and I had come to realize through their astonished responses how senseless many of our customs are ...»