Dr Jason Chen


Associate Professor in Tourism and Events Management, Director of Postgraduate Research
BA, MSc, PhD, Certified Hospitality Educator

About

University roles and responsibilities

  • Director of Postgraduate Research - School of Hospitality and Tourism Management

    Research

    Research interests

    Research projects

    Teaching

    Publications

    Highlights

    Chen, J.L., Li, G., Liu, A. and Morgan, N. (2021) Elasticities relevant to tourism in Scotland: evidence review. Available at: http://www.gov.scot/publications/elasticities-relevant-tourism-scotland-evidence-review/

    Chen, J.L., Li, G., Liu, A. and Williams, A. (2021) Landscape of Inbound Tourism Measurement. Available at: https://www.visitbritain.org/sites/default/files/vb-corporate/Documents-Library/documents/litm_final_report_july_2021_updated.pdf

    Jiao, X., Chen, J.L. and Li, G. (2021) ‘Forecasting tourism demand: Developing a general nesting spatiotemporal model’, Annals of Tourism Research, 90, p. 103277. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2021.103277.

    Kim, Y.R., Williams, A.M., Park, S. and Chen, J.L. (2021) ‘Spatial spillovers of agglomeration economies and productivity in the tourism industry: The case of the UK’, Tourism Management, 82, p. 104201. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104201.

    Jiao, X., Li, G. and Chen, J.L. (2020) ‘Forecasting international tourism demand: a local spatiotemporal model’, Annals of Tourism Research, 83, p. 102937. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2020.102937.

    Chen, J.L., Li, G., Wu, D.C. and Shen, S. (2019) ‘Forecasting Seasonal Tourism Demand Using a Multiseries Structural Time Series Method’, Journal of Travel Research, 58(1), pp. 92–103. doi:10.1177/0047287517737191.

    Jiao, E.X. and Chen, J.L. (2019) ‘Tourism forecasting: A review of methodological developments over the last decade’, Tourism Economics, 25(3), pp. 469–492. doi:10.1177/1354816618812588.

    Gabrielle Lin, Jason Li Chen, Gang Li, Haiyan Song (2024)Substitution between sharing accommodation and hotels: A behavioral economic demand curve analysis, In: Annals of tourism research104103726 Elsevier

    Researchers have confirmed the substitution of sharing accommodation for hotels. The existing assessments of the substitution have primarily focused on the inverse relationship between sharing accommodation supply and hotel performance, with a lack of examination based on demand curve analysis. This study utilizes behavioral economic demand models to construct alone-price/own-price demand curves for hotels and cross-price demand curves for sharing accommodation to quantify the substitutive relationship between sharing accommodation and different hotel types. Furthermore, we explore the variations in this substitutive relationship by travel companion and customer group. The analysis is dual-directional, including both the substitutability of sharing accommodation for hotels and the reverse relationship. The findings inform market competition strategies for hotels and sharing accommodation.

    Vladimir Baláž, Li Chen, Allan Morgan Williams, Gang Li (2024)Stability of risk and uncertainty preferences in tourism, In: Annals of tourism research [e-journal]105103726 Elsevier

    This paper provides a novel longitudinal analysis of the stability of risk preferences in the travel domain, and how these are impacted by major life events during a crisis. Analysis of a four-wave survey during COVID-19 demonstrates strong inter-temporal stability of most risk preferences. It also reveals greater stability of generic risk traits and risk and uncertainty tolerance in travel compared to situational risk preferences. An innovative difference-in-differences with multiple time periods analysis is undertaken to examine the oscillating risk preferences of individuals hit hard financially by the pandemic. It reveals they become more tolerant of situational risk and uncertainty over time. Learning that the negative consequences of the pandemic are negotiable plays a key role in changing risk preferences.

    Doris Chenguang Wu, Chenyu Cao, Wei Liu, Jason Li Chen (2022)Impact of domestic tourism on economy under COVID-19: The perspective of tourism satellite accounts, In: Annals of tourism research empirical insights3(2)100055pp. 1-10 Elsevier Ltd

    The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic reversed the ongoing upsurge in the global tourism industry. Yet compared with still-stagnant international tourism, domestic tourism has shown signs of recovery. This study takes Guangdong Province, China as a case for regional domestic tourism and adopts the tourism satellite account (TSA) method to assess domestic tourism's status. A pre- and post-pandemic comparison is conducted to map the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on domestic tourism's economic contribution. The TSA results show that the direct contribution of domestic tourism to Guangdong's economy fell from 2.53% to 1.20% across these timeframes. Findings also reveal changes in visitor composition by places of origin and in industries' proportional contributions to tourism. •The study investigates how COVID-19 affects tourism contribution to economics.•Tourism Satellite Account framework is applied for evaluation.•The economic contribution of domestic tourism is 2.53% in 2019, and 1.20% in 2020.•The composition of economic contribution across industries does not change a lot.

    Ruijuan Hu, Gang Li, Anyu Liu, Jason Li Chen (2022)Emerging Research Trends on Residents’ Quality of Life in the Context of Tourism Development, In: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research SAGE Publications

    Through a systematic review of recent publications on residents’ quality of life (QOL) in relation to tourism development (TD), this study surveys associated dynamics and emerging trends. Several patterns are observed: i) geographic areas of interest have expanded from developed economies to developing economies; ii) an array of theories and concepts have been introduced or merged with classic frameworks; iii) subjective composite approaches have dominated residents’ QOL measurement; and iv) the direct and indirect influences of TD on residents’ QOL constitute a main focus of recent work. Future work can take several directions: i) establishing a conceptual framework to link tourists’ and residents’ perspectives on QOL; ii) combining subjective and objective scales to improve generalizability; iii) employing longitudinal designs with innovative methods to offer insight into the dynamics of the TD–QOL nexus; and iv) investigating QOL/well-being from the eudaimonic tradition to accommodate diversified elements and broader perspectives of QOL.

    Allan M. Williams, Jason Li Chen, Gang Li, Vladimir Baláž (2022)Risk, uncertainty and ambiguity amid Covid-19: A multi-national analysis of international travel intentions, In: Annals of tourism research [e-journal]92103346 Elsevier

    This study analyses how Covid-19 shapes individuals’ international tourism intentions in context of bounded rationality. It provides a novel analysis of risk which is disaggregated into tolerance/aversion of and competence to manage risks across three different aspects: general, domain (tourism) and situational (Covid-19). The impacts of risk are also differentiated from uncertainty and ambiguity. The empirical study is based on large samples (total=8,962) collected from the world’s top five tourism source markets: China, USA, Germany, UK and France. Various risk factors show significant predictive powers of individual’s intentions to defer international tourism plans amid Covid-19. Uncertainty and ambiguity intolerance is shown to lead to intentions to take holidays relatively sooner rather than delaying the holiday plans. 

    Yoo Ri Kim, Sangwon Park, Jason Li Chen, Allan Morgan Williams (2021)Spatial spillovers of agglomeration economies and productivity in the tourism industry: The case of the UK, In: Tourism Management82104201 Elsevier

    This research investigates the direct and (indirect) spatial spillover effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of the tourism industry. With increasing concerns about the persistence of low (labour) productivity in tourism across many developed economies, there is an urgent need to address this productivity challenge. Using major under-exploited UK microeconomic panel data, spatial econometric modelling is employed to estimate the effects of agglomeration economies on productivity. Findings reveal the significant effects of agglomeration economies on productivity within a specific region, but also significant spatial spillover effects across neighbouring regions, suggesting the possibility of productivity convergences. Competitive and complementary effects of agglomeration economies on productivity are identified.

    Gang Li, Jason Li Chen, Xiaoying Jiao (2023)The time-varying parameter model, In: Doris Chenguang Wu, Gang Li, Haiyan Song (eds.), Econometric Modelling and Forecasting of Tourism Demandpp. 76-94 Routledge

    This chapter introduces a general form of the time-varying parameter (TVP) model. Unlike most traditional econometric models, which are based on fixed-parameter estimation, the TVP model can capture the dynamics of parameters over the sample period based on the recursive Kalman filter (KF) algorithm. When applied to tourism demand analysis, this unique technical feature of the TVP model provides insights into the evolution of demand elasticities. Furthermore, the TVP model generally produces accurate and stable tourism demand forecasts across different forecasting horizons. Future research could explore further integration of the TVP technique with more advanced econometric models.

    Haiyan Song, Egon Smeral, Gang Li, Jason L Chen (2019)Tourism Forecasting Using Econometric Models, In: Carlos Costa, Emese Panyik, Dimitrios Buhalis (eds.), Trends in European Tourism Planning and Organisationpp. 289-310 Multilingual Matters
    Sangwon Park, Jason Li Chen (2017)Spill-over Effects of Online Consumer Reviews in the Hotel Industry, In: Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017pp. 115-127 Springer International Publishing

    The purpose of this research is to investigate and estimate the spill-over effects of online consumer reviews as a proxy to reflect hotel performance, focusing on 689 hotels located in London, UK. This study used a series of data mining approach to collect estimated variables from a travel search engine website (i.e., Kayak.com) and made the first attempt to apply spatial econometric modelling at the firm level in the tourism and hospitality field. The findings of this research identified a complementary effect of consumer rating between neighbouring hotels, and showed the spatial dependency of room prices across hotels at the destination. Furthermore, a local estimation using geographically weighted regression approach allows researchers to understand the spatial variations of the spatial effects. Important implications for tourism and hospitality managers to develop regional marketing and promotions are provided.

    GANG LI, CAROLINE ELIZABETH SCARLES, NIGEL J MORGAN, ANYU LIU, LI CHEN, AYEISHA GREEN, XIAOYING JIAO, (2021)The Economic and Social Impact of Arts in Surrey University of Surrey
    Xinyang Liu, Anyu Liu, Li Chen, Gang Li (2023)Impact of decomposition on time series bagging forecasting performance, In: Tourism management97104725 Elsevier

    Time series bagging has been deemed an effective way to improve unstable modelling procedures and subsequent forecasting accuracy. However, the literature has paid little attention to decomposition in time series bagging. This study investigates the impacts of various decomposition methods on bagging forecasting performance. Eight popular decomposition approaches are incorporated into the time series bagging procedure to improve unstable modelling procedures, and the resulting bagging methods' forecasting performance is evaluated. Using the world's top 20 inbound destinations as an empirical case, this study generates one-to eight-step-ahead tourism forecasts and compares them against benchmarks, including non-bagged and seasonal naïve models. For short-term forecasts, bagging constructed via seasonal extraction in autoregressive integrated moving average time series decomposition outperforms other methods. An autocorrelation test shows that efficient decomposition reduces variance in bagging forecasts.

    Li Chen, Gang Li, DC Wu, S Shen (2017)Forecasting Seasonal Tourism Demand Using a Multi-Series Structural Time Series Method, In: Journal of Travel Research58(1)pp. 92-103 Sage

    Multivariate forecasting methods are intuitively appealing since they are able to capture the inter-series dependencies, and therefore may forecast more accurately. This study proposes a multi-series structural time series method based on a novel data restacking technique as an alternative approach to seasonal tourism demand forecasting. The proposed approach is analogous to the multivariate method but only requires one variable. In this study, a quarterly tourism demand series is split into four component series, each component representing the demand in a particular quarter of each year; the component series are then restacked to build a multi-series structural time-series model. Empirical evidence from Hong Kong inbound tourism demand forecasting shows that the newly proposed approach improves the forecast accuracy, compared with traditional univariate models.

    Hengyun Li, Jason Li Chen, Gang Li, Carey Goh (2016)Tourism and regional income inequality: Evidence from China, In: Annals of Tourism Research58pp. 81-99 Elsevier

    This study examines the role of tourism development in reducing regional income inequality in China. First, the theoretical foundation for how tourism affects regional income inequality is discussed. Second, based on the conditional convergence framework, this study proposes a spatiotemporal autoregressive model to capture spatial and temporal dependence as well as spatial heterogeneity. Tourism development is introduced as a conditional convergence factor in an attempt to examine whether the convergence speed is accelerated by regional tourism development. Third, the effects of international and domestic tourism in narrowing regional inequality are compared both globally and locally. The empirical results indicate that tourism development contributes significantly to the reduction of regional inequality, with domestic tourism making a greater contribution than international tourism.

    H Li, C Goh, K Hung, Li Chen (2017)Relative Climate Index and Its Effect on Seasonal Tourism Demand, In: Journal of Travel Research57(2)pp. 178-192 SAGE Publications

    This study proposes a relative climate index based on the push and pull theory to assess the effects of relative climate variability on seasonal tourism demand. The relative climate index measures the climatic comfort of a destination relative to that of the tourist origin. Using the proposed approach, the effects of the relative climate comfort on seasonal tourism demand are empirically tested based on a quarterly panel data set of visitor arrivals from Hong Kong to 13 major Chinese cities. The intra-annual seasonality and interannual variability are both tested in the model. The results indicate that the intra-annual relative climate positively influences tourism demand in Mainland regions, where the climate is significantly different from that of Hong Kong.

    AB Mnaouer, CH Foh, L Chen (2011)A Generic Polymorphic Unicast Routing Protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks, In: Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

    In this work, we present a new generic polymorphic routing protocol tailored for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Similar to the case of mobile ad hoc networks, the routing task in VANETs comes under various constraints that can be environmental, operational, or performance based. The proposed Polymorphic Unicast Routing Protocol (PURP) uses the concept of polymorphic routing as a means to describe dynamic, multi-behavioral, multi-stimuli, adaptive, and hybrid routing, that is applicable in various contexts, which empowers the protocol with great flexibility in coping with the timely requirements of the routing tasks. Polymorphic routing protocols, in general, are equipped with multi-operational modes (e.g., grades of proactive, reactive, and semi-proactive), and they are expected to tune in to the right mode of operation depending on the current conditions (e.g., battery residue, vicinity density, traffic intensity, mobility level of the mobile node, and other user-defined conditions). The objective is commonly maximizing and/or improving certain metrics such as maximizing battery life, reducing communication delays, improving deliverability, and so on. We give a detailed description and analysis of the PURP protocol. Through comparative simulations, we show its superiority in performance to its peers and demonstrate its suitability for routing in VANETs. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

    Caiping Wang, Honggang Xu, Gang Li, Jason Li Chen (2018)Community social responsibility and the performance of small tourism enterprises: Moderating effects of entrepreneurs' demographics, In: International Journal of Tourism Research20(6)pp. 685-697 Wiley

    This study investigated the two main dimensions of STEs’ community social responsibility and their impact on firms’ objective and subjective performance, respectively. It also explored the moderating effects of STE owners’ demographics on the relationships between the two community social responsibility dimensions and firm performance. By the survey data from STEs in the historical towns in southwestern China, the empirical findings suggested that engaging in socially responsible behavior at the community level contributes to STEs’ subjective performance; and the influence of community engagement on STEs’ performance is moderated by the owners’ demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and birthplace.

    L Chen, HW Lim, G Yang (2014)Cross-domain password-based authenticated key exchange revisited. ACM Transactions on Information and System Security, In: ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC)16(4) ACM

    We revisit the problem of secure cross-domain communication between two users belonging to different security domains within an open and distributed environment. Existing approaches presuppose that either the users are in possession of public key certificates issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA), or the associated domain authentication servers share a long-term secret key. In this article, we propose a generic framework for designing four-party password-based authenticated key exchange (4PAKE) protocols. Our framework takes a different approach from previous work. The users are not required to have public key certificates, but they simply reuse their login passwords, which they share with their respective domain authentication servers. On the other hand, the authentication servers, assumed to be part of a standard PKI, act as ephemeral CAs that certify some key materials that the users can subsequently use to exchange and agree on as a session key. Moreover, we adopt a compositional approach. That is, by treating any secure two-party password-based key exchange (2PAKE) protocol and two-party asymmetric-key/symmetric-key-based key exchange (2A/SAKE) protocol as black boxes, we combine them to obtain generic and provably secure 4PAKE protocols.

    JY Hwang, L Chen, HS Cho (2015)Short Dynamic Group Signature Scheme Supporting Controllable Linkability, In: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10(6) IEEE

    The controllable linkability of group signatures introduced by Hwang et al. enables an entity who has a linking key to find whether or not two group signatures were generated by the same signer, while preserving the anonymity. This functionality is very useful in many applications that require the linkability but still need the anonymity, such as sybil attack detection in a vehicular ad hoc network and privacypreserving data mining. In this paper, we present a new group signature scheme supporting the controllable linkability. The major advantage of this scheme is that the signature length is very short, even shorter than this in the best-known group signature scheme without supporting the linkability. We have implemented our scheme in both a Linux machine with an Intel Core2 Quad and an iPhone4. We compare the results with a number of existing group signature schemes. We also prove security features of our scheme, such as anonymity, traceability, nonframeability, and linkability, under a random oracle model.

    Xiaoying Jiao, Gang Li, Jason Li Chen (2020)Forecasting international tourism demand: a local spatiotemporal model, In: Annals of Tourism Research83102937 Elsevier

    This study investigates whether tourism forecasting accuracy is improved by incorporating spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. One- to three-step-ahead forecasts of tourist arrivals were generated using global and local spatiotemporal autoregressive models for 37 European countries and the forecasting performance was compared with that of benchmark models including autoregressive moving average, exponential smoothing and Naïve 1 models. For all forecasting horizons, the two spatial models outperformed the non-spatial models. The superior forecasting performance of the local model suggests that the full reflection of spatial heterogeneity can improve the accuracy of tourism forecasting.

    Eden Xiaoying Jiao, Jason Li Chen (2019)Tourism forecasting: A review of methodological developments over the last decade, In: Tourism economics : the business and finance of tourism and recreation25(3)pp. 469-492 Sage

    This study reviewed 72 studies in tourism demand forecasting during the period from 2008 to 2017. Forecasting models are reviewed in three categories: econometric, time series and artificial intelligence (AI) models. Econometric and time series models that have already been widely used before 2007 remained their popularity and were more often used as benchmark models for forecasting performance evaluation and comparison with respect to new models. AI models are rapidly developed in the past decade and hybrid AI models are becoming a new trend. And some new trends with regard to the three categories of models have been identified, including mixed frequency, spatial regression and combination and hybrid models. Different combination components and combination techniques have been discussed. Results in different studies proved superiority of combination forecasts over average single forecasts performance.

    Lucy Rattrie, Markus G Kittler, Scott Cohen, Jason Li Chen (2022)Does Job Demands-Resources Theory work for international business travel?, In: Journal of Transport & Health26101366 Elsevier

    Background Organisations frequently rely on international business travel when operating in internationalized business environments. Yet, the effectiveness of this mechanism relies on their international business travellers (IBTs) being physically and psychologically well enough to productively perform across different working environments. The salience of this issue has led to increased interest in explaining IBTs’ work-related outcomes and their antecedents. Data and methods This paper tests key assumptions of the job-demands resources theory (JD-R) in the context of international business travel. Based on a sample of 134 IBTs from different national backgrounds, the study analyses the role of prominent job demands and resources for IBTs’ exhaustion and engagement. The study also looks at the presumed moderating role of recovery experiences. Results Support for the JD-R theory when applied to the context of international business travel remains mixed. Results suggest workload as an important predictor of exhaustion. Organisational support predicts engagement. Other typical resources including autonomy and supervisory support do not show a significant relation to work-related outcomes. Apart from recovery relaxation, which significantly weakened the impact of job demands on exhaustion, none of the moderating effects (via coping, buffering or other recovery experiences) are confirmed. Conclusions The findings reflect the unique complexities of international business travel. For professionals working with or as IBTs, this study only suggests workload and support as reliable levers to influence work-related outcomes. For a better understanding of further job demands, resources and moderators within the IBT context, additional JD-R related research and theoretical development is proposed.

    XIAOYING JIAO, Jason Li Chen, Gang LI (2021)Forecasting tourism demand: Developing a general nesting spatiotemporal model, In: Annals of tourism research90103277 Elsevier

    This study proposes a general nesting spatiotemporal (GNST) model in an effort to improve the accuracy of tourism demand forecasts. The proposed GNST model extends the general nesting spatial (GNS) model into a spatiotemporal form to account for the spatial and temporal effects of endogenous and exogenous variables as well as unobserved factors. As a general specifica-tion of spatiotemporal models, the proposed model provides high flexibility in modelling tourism demand. Based on a panel dataset containing quarterly inbound visitor arrivals to 26 European destinations, this empirical study demonstrates that the GNST model outperforms both its non-spatial counterparts and spatiotemporal benchmark models. This finding confirms that spatial and temporal exogenous interaction effects contribute to improved forecasting performance. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Yangguang Tian, Guomin Yang, Yi Mu, Kaitai Liang, Yong Yu (2017)One-Round Attribute-Based Key Exchange in the Multi-party Setting, In: L Chen, J Han (eds.), Provable Security10005pp. 227-243 Springer, Cham

    Attribute-based authenticated key exchange (AB-AKE) is a useful primitive that allows a group of users to establish a shared secret key and at the same time enables fine-grained access control. A straightforward approach to design an AB-AKE protocol is to extend a key exchange protocol using attribute-based authentication technique. However, insider security is a challenge security issue for AB-AKE in the multi-party setting and cannot be solved using the straightforward approach. In addition, many existing key exchange protocols for the multi-party setting (e.g., the well-known Burmester-Desmedt protocol) require multiple broadcast rounds to complete the protocol. In this paper, we propose a novel one-round attribute-based key exchange (OAKE) protocol in the multi-party setting. We define the formal security models, including session key security and insider security, for OAKE, and prove the security of the proposed protocol under some standard assumptions in the random oracle model.

    L Chen, AN Escalante, H Löhr, M Manulis, A-R Sadeghi (2008)A Privacy-Protecting Multi-Coupon Scheme with Stronger Protection against Splitting, In: Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 11th International Conference, FC 20074886pp. 29-44
    L Chen, H Löhr, M Manulis, A-R Sadeghi (2008)Property-Based Attestation without a Trusted Third Party, In: Information Security, 11th International Conference, ISC 20085222pp. 31-46
    Jason Li Chen, Gang Li, ANYU LIU, NIGEL J MORGAN (2021)Review of Evidence of Elasticities Relevant to Tourism in Scotland The Scottish Government

    An overview of estimates of price elasticities of demand (PED) and income elasticities of demand (YED) for tourists to destinations relevant to Scotland; price elasticities of supply (PES) of commercial accommodation relevant to Scotland and other factors influencing the demand and supply of tourism.

    L Chen, G li, L Zhang, R Hu (2015)Market trends and forecast of Chinese outbound tourism, In: X Li (eds.), Chinese Outbound Tourism 2.0(23) Apple Academic Press

    Most tourism programs today have an international component in their curriculum, usually including a global tourism class. This book serves as an excellent supplemental reading for students in these classes.