The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for greater responsibility and sustainability efforts within the hotel industry. A number of calls have been made for destinations to build resilience and ensure that policy agendas align to the sustainability needs of the industry. However, the current implementation of sustainable practices in the Portuguese hotel industry has been called into question. Through the application of a quantitative content analysis approach, this research presents a comparative examination of the sustainable practices implemented by the hotel industry in Portugal, utilising industry recognised GSTC baseline criteria. Findings report low levels of compliance with the sustainability criteria and highlight the need to address a number of operational challenges and future needs in the short and long term. The results may present implications for other destinations when it comes to the effective implementation of sustainable practices in hotels in the future.
The image of a destination makes or breaks the tourist count where tourists visit to experience its location, culture and lifestyle. Rebranding a destination in times of COVID-19 when the tourism industry is suffering has become an utmost priority, with a need to find alternative ways to upgrade its quality. Wellness tourism has emerged as one of the tourism sectors that could enhance the trust in destinations. The improvement in destination quality through wellness tourism can bring new life to the destination and its resources by implementing responsive promotional strategies and offering various safe wellness treatments as touristic activities. The article studies the struggle of global tourist destinations from COVID-19 and how it affected its products and service quality. It deals with the question of how and what are the ways through which the destinations could gain their significance in the tourism market. The paper is a case study on South Korea, where collaboration among various stakeholders and the medical sector led to maintaining the tourism quality of the destination. The study is based on secondary data and proposes a theoretical framework of branding with wellness tourism for regaining the pull factor quality of COVID-19 affected destinations.
Weddings are not only among the most important milestones of individuals, but also demonstrate the process of social value construction. Through a survey of a total of 359 residents from two major cities in China, this study found that friends and relatives are the primary source of information for choices of wedding service providers, followed by the internet. The provision of one-stop services is the main reason to hire one. The majority of the respondents select lucky days and legal holidays for their wedding ceremonies. Star hotels are the most preferred wedding venue. Creative wedding style is the most popular, followed by Chinese and western mixed style, traditional Chinese style, and western style. Results also reveal the influences of various factors on wedding consumption preferences and the impact of traditional wedding culture such as the role of parents. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
This exploratory study provides an examination of the importance of MICE services to the hotel industry of the City of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. This paper uses a qualitative research design to interview eight senior hotel managers (four with MICE services; four without MICE services) to determine the importance of MICE tourism to their hotels as a means of increasing their operational revenue on a yearly basis. Very little has been written on MICE tourism in Uzbekistan as it is a new and emerging special interest tourism market. This study highlights some of the shortcomings in the provision of MICE services in Bukhara, and offers several recommendations to encourage hotels to increase their financial income, so as they are able to conduct their operational activities on an all-year round basis.
Exhibition attachment is a burgeoning yet still under-examined concept. However, the internal mechanism of the black box of whether and how attendees' on-site experience influences exhibition loyalty through exhibition attachment remains unexplored. Specifically, this study divides the attendees' experience into on-site activity and on-site service. Based on stimuli-organism-response (SOR) theory, the dynamics between on-site experience, exhibition attachment, and exhibition loyalty are examined. Data were collected at a major annual exhibition in China. The results show that: 1) on-site activity and on-site service are positively correlated; 2) on-site activity positively influences both exhibition dependence and exhibition identity, with a greater effect on exhibition identity than exhibition dependence; 3) on-site service positively influences exhibition dependence but not exhibition identity; 4) exhibition dependence positively influences exhibition identity; 5) both exhibition dependence and exhibition identity positively influence exhibition loyalty, while exhibition identity has a greater effect. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
The need to make profit affects the overall ability of a festival to operate. Merchandise sales are one way to increase revenue and also promote a festival. This study conducted a field experiment to test willingness to pay theory at the Canadian Mariposa Folk Festival. Results indicated that personal sales efforts, Canadian and sustainability branded merchandise increased sales and profitability. Implications from this study demonstrate that brands that match the market sell best but festival managers need to understand their market and their margins if they wish to capitalise on increased revenues.
Sport mega-events (SMEs) are highly complex undertakings that have important social, political, and economic ramifications. The purpose of this paper is to propose a three-dimensional model that examines the inherent complexity unique to SMEs. Complexity theory is used as a lens to further explain three important types of complexity (i.e., structural, behavioural, and cognitive) which are embedded within three divisions (algorithmic, deterministic, aggregate) of complexity. Taking into account classifications (e.g., first, second, and third order) of SMEs, the model suggests that higher order (e.g., first-order) SMEs will exhibit greater complexity and higher level of reputation than lower level (e.g., third-order) SMEs based on the types and divisions of complexity.
Japanese culture values hospitality, and fragrance is supposed to be a part of that hospitality. In the present study, seasonal experiments were used to examine whether various aromas evoke feelings of hospitality differently from season to season, as Japan has four seasons. Therefore, in this experiment, fragrances were examined in summer (August), in autumn (September), in winter (December) and in spring (April). A questionnaire survey was conducted about the impressions made by a number of fragrances based on the SD method, and analysed by factor analysis to determine which fragrances elicited a feeling of hospitality in different seasonal settings.
The scope of food wastage is wide. This research paper discusses the aspect of avoidable food wastage in hospitality industries in Qatar. The study seeks to find if the hotels can avoid food wastage through considering their food transportation infrastructure or by considering their food portioning while serving the food to the customers. It even seeks to find if the problem of food wastage in hotels can be trimmed if the consumers change their behaviour in terms of buying, preparing and storing food. Three prominently used concept of food waste management were used in hotel industries have been considered. The research methodology uses interpretivist paradigm using SEM to test the six hypotheses with a sample size of 210 managers chosen from 21 five star hotels. Implications have been drawn to benefit the strategic managers to enhance food waste reduction.
This study examines single commercial exchanges in a tourism destination. Using the restaurant industry in Budapest, Hungary as the study context, the goal of this study was to identify the key variables affecting transactional trust forming in tourist-service provider interfaces. The qualitative analysis is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 local restaurant operators. This study contributes to tourism service marketing literature in multiple ways. First, this study argues that transactional trust is a more salient notion than relational trust in the context of an unfamiliar tourism destination. Second, trustee- and trustor-induced factors that may trigger tourists' lack of trust are identified. Thirdly, the study shows that various macro- and micro-level environmental factors are linked to the formation of transactional trust and thus reduce the vulnerability and uncertainty tourist experience. Implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
The purpose of the paper is to examine athletes' assessments of risk at local CrossFit competitions. An 18-item open-ended questionnaire grounded in Fuller and Drawer's (2004) risk management framework surveyed 26 participants about risk factors at local CrossFit competitions. The findings suggested that participants held expectations for equipment and the facility. Additionally, respondents appeared to be at ease when they felt a familiarity with the equipment and the set-up of the facility. There was, however, concern with limited spacing of equipment and people, but it was accepted when the event appeared to be organised. The paper moves beyond reviewing the organiser's role in event and risk management and sought out to understand participants' assessments of risk factors. The study provides further understanding about expectations of athletes. It is recommended to develop guidelines for best practices for hosts of local CrossFit events.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter-relationships among customer satisfaction (CS), knowledge about customer relationship management (CRM) program, customer attitude and their effect on relationship share. The study also attempts to find if the moderating role of age exists among these constructs. The findings indicate that customer willingness to engage (CWER) in the relationship are significant predictors of relationship share (RS). The results of the study also show that customer willingness to participate in the relationship is dependent on the attitude of customer toward firm which is further dependent on knowledge about CRM program. One more notable finding of the study states that age plays a moderating role in CS and customer willingness to engage in the relationship. In addition to contributing towards academic knowledge, the findings of the present study will help the practitioners to design CRM program better and reap its maximum benefits.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical issues and concerns of the organisers of BDSM non-play events. Previous research has shown that these events are critical elements in their lifestyle/community. While something is known about the events and their centrality in BDSM culture, no research has yet investigated munch events from the perspective of the organiser of munches and similar events. This article investigates munch events to show how organisers deal with the challenges of organising munches throughout the world, based upon data from a global survey of munch organisers. The findings indicate that the organisers are largely self-selected individuals who organise munches to fulfil a community need. The findings not only show us what munch organisers face in terms of challenges but suggest models for a collaborative economy and the need for further investigations into the motivations of volunteer organisers of events.
