Cross-cultural partner relationships in the travel trade: A Sino-Australian study

This paper reports on a cross-cultural study that has drawn on business-to-business (B2B) marketing and management theories to explore the nature of the partner relationships in the Sino-Australian travel trade. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Chinese authorized travel agents and Australian inbound tour operators, the paper explores salient aspects of the process of developing such B2B relationships. A three-phase process model is developed to explain these relationships. The relationship starts with a measuring-up phase and then a testing phase characterized by word-of-mouth, negotiation and the need for face-to-face meetings, followed by a commitment phase, which is best explained by using the Chinese terms of ‘mo he’, ‘mo qi’ and ‘mo shi’. The paper presents new findings that are identified as critical to long-term stable partner relationships in this cross-cultural context.