Social interactions between digital nomads and local residents reflect the embeddedness of digital nomads into a destination and what impacts they bring to the destination. In this study, we qualitatively examined the first digital nomad community in China, Digital Nomad Anji (DNA), and evaluated how domestic digital nomads in the community interact with the locality. We identified the characteristics of transient interactions between digital nomads and local residents. Such interactions manifest through daily communication, commercial exchanges, cultural engagement, and co-presence. Based on these interactions, we proposed five core dimensions of (dis)embeddedness: physical, emotional, cultural, economic, and relational. Digital nomads' local interactions served as an experience enhancer. We also identified the heterogeneity and territoriality of the digital nomad group and their processes of social characterization and comparison. This study contributes to the understanding of digital nomadism in a domestic context and extends the literature on transient interactions in the context of tourism and lifestyle mobility.

This chapter revisits the concept of fair work as outlined in Chapter 1, taking each of the five dimensions as a framework for a comparative analysis. This chapter presents a cross-country comparison of fair work practices within the hospitality industry, drawing on data collected from Hospitality Worker Experience Surveys in six countries: Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Greece, New Zealand and Australia. Through an examination of these diverse contexts, the chapter identifies overarching trends and examined areas of divergence, contributing to the ongoing discussion surrounding the Fair Work framework. Advocating for change, the chapter examines the implications of the Fair Work framework for policy makers, employers and employees. Future research directions are considered.

Purpose This purpose of this perspective paper is to argue that a consideration of climate change and tourism work is an important research line of enquiry. It highlights aspects of tourism work that need to be considered in relation to the climate effects on work and health, offering a potential future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach This perspective commentary draws from secondary literature sources primarily on climate change and health, and climate change and tourism. It points towards an omission in research specifically regarding tourism work and climate change, leading to this viewpoint. Findings The findings show that indicators of climate change along with adaptative measures of climate change should be considered in relation to the specific conditions and contexts of tourism work. Originality/value The climate change effects on tourism workers is an underrepresented area within the discourse of climate change and tourism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this perspective is the first to point out this omission. As the first steps to move forward in this area, a research agenda is proposed.

Purpose - This study aims to investigate Vietnamese hotel workers' use of national stereotypes in cross-cultural service encounters. The study extends the existing knowledge on service failures and recovery attempts by illustrating how national stereotypes could inform these decisions through the lens of the script theory. Design/methodology/approach - In this qualitative study, 34 service providers were interviewed about their experience in dealing with guests from different countries in Vietnamese hotels. Findings - Service providers categorised guests based on their countries of origin to predict their behaviour prior to guest arrivals. When the guest's behaviour matches the expectations, the service encounters went smoothly by following existing scripts. If there is a discrepancy between the guest behaviours and expectations, it could lead to service failure and the need for new scripts. Appropriate interventions in this process could turn anecdotes into accumulated understanding of guest behaviour for better service and guest experience as a new application of national stereotypes. Originality/value - This study advances cross-cultural service encounter research by integrating national stereotypes and script theory. It sheds new light on how national stereotypes could inform service delivery and recovery attempts in service organisations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly advanced digital technology adoption, transforming the knowledge work market and mainstreaming digital nomadism. While digital nomads often enjoy autonomy in choosing when, where, and how they perform their work, they face unique challenges in managing the intersection of work and leisure. Yet, literature on the practices digital nomads use to manage the boundaries between work and leisure is limited. This study combines the sociomaterial lens within practice theory and border theory to explore digital nomads' work-leisure management practices, analyzing 224 digital diary entries and 32 semi-structured in-depth online interviews to identify 25 practices. This study offers insights into digitally mediated work-leisure practices of digital nomads, highlighting key aspects and implications for the tourism sector.

Purpose -This paper introduces digital praxiography as a qualitative digital research approach that extends netnographic and praxiographic principles to provide a framework for studying practices in digital service environments. The study explains the foundational aspects of digital praxiography, emphasizing means of data collection and analysis for digital and digitally mediated service settings. Design/methodology/approach This study follows a conceptual review methodology. The review process was iterative and interpretive, enabling the synthesis of diverse theoretical perspectives. This approach facilitated the development of a novel methodological toolkit tailored for studying service-related practices, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of digital praxiography. Findings - The study reveals the potential of digital praxiography for researching digital service contexts. The paper discusses various data-collection modalities and their nuances, offering a detailed discussion of the application of digital praxiography and an agenda for future research. Originality/value - This paper contributes to service research by offering a novel and advanced guide for applying digital praxiography. It breaks new ground by integrating and expanding praxiographic and netnographic approaches. The paper's unique contribution lies in its detailed guidance on method adaptation that can be transferred to any digital and digitally mediated service setting.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the consequences of Covid-19 for the migrants and the tourism industry following the emergence of the new business models and operational practices in the following three areas: i) Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 labour shortages, ii) the development of migrant gig jobs and iii) future trends. Design/methodology/approach Covid-19 posed challenges for labour retention and has given rise to new outsourced and precarious forms of employment. The growth of various tourism-related apps and establishments, such as “ghost kitchens” or pop-up restaurants, has transformed the landscape of tourism work and opportunities. This short paper provides an overview of the labour consequences of Covid-19, focusing on migrant tourism workers. Findings Despite growing attention towards promoting sustainable, just and decent employment, global trends and changing industrial relations in the sector have led to heightened levels of precariousness and uncertainty in migrants’ work. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on tourism employment by examining the forms of new business models and operational practices that affect migrant labour.

Digital nomadism, as a new form of tourist mobility, brings opportunities and challenges for destination management. To attract this new market, smart destinations need to innovate to develop readiness and competitiveness. This research examines 225 digital nomad destination web articles, from multiple sources and different continents. The study aims to identify innovative strategies and practices using semantic content analysis and hierarchical network analysis. It explores relevant stakeholders and their importance, and pinpoints digital nomad trends. Findings suggest that smart destinations cater for the work, travel, social, financial and basic-living needs of digital nomads. These are different from those of short-term leisure and business tourists. Destinations tend to portray digital nomads as a homogenous group, although different segments have been identified. The long-term impacts of digital nomads on local economies and societies have yet to be fully explored. The theoretical significance of this study lies in the provision of an agency-structural perspective of destination innovation and competitiveness. Practically, the study contributes to digital nomad management and marketing within smart tourist destinations.

PurposeThe emergence of dark kitchens in the restaurant industry is a contemporary phenomenon, arising most recently in the context of the so-called gig economy. This new business model flourished during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on a global scale. Despite dark kitchens' popularity, considerable negative publicity exists in the news related to poor working conditions. To highlight this new phenomenon, this paper explores the existing literature on worker exploitation in dark kitchens in the context of the gig economy.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review of hospitality and tourism databases generated 1,430 articles, of which 18 met the authors' inclusion criteria for the final analysis, and 1,030 anecdotal sources, of which 47 were included. Thematic analysis was used to identify the key themes and summarise the findings to be used for further studies.FindingsThe popularity of dark kitchens as a business model is premised on the fact that dark kitchens' dramatically reduces the operational cost and increases productivity. On the other hand, the working conditions and contractual agreements of the gig workers in dark kitchens raise several questions from operational, legal and ethical perspective. These poor working conditions create the conditions for worker exploitation and further damage the sector's image.Practical implicationsThis study advocates that companies and managers are responsible for implementing and monitoring fair working conditions in dark kitchens. The existence of poor working conditions increases employee turnover and, overall, affects the industry's reputation.Originality/valueThis explorative study provides insights into the working conditions and contractual agreements in dark kitchens. Currently, there is no other study (empirical or conceptual) to shed light on the working practices. The authors hope this study will trigger further discussion and empirical research in this field.

Work performed by digital means is one of many societal transformations caused by the prevalence and continuous adoption of digital technologies. Free of the constraints of location and time, digital work has the potential to disrupt the mental and physical separation of work from leisure. Using an exploratory qualitative approach based on narrative futuring, work and leisure orientations of future digital workers are imagined in relation to digital technologies. Insights were obtained from twenty-five digital workers who were asked to imagine their digital worker selves in 2030. Borrowing from aspects of the Serious Leisure Perspective supported by the Mobility and Connectivity paradigms, future types of digital workers are proposed. Findings indicate a trend towards increased dissolution of the distinction between work and leisure. Implications for the organizations managing this type of worker are discussed, along with reflections on the changing nature and meaning of work and leisure.

BACKGROUND: Research has long shown that there is a need for better tourism education. Previous research has mainly focused on management's perceptions of the need for future competencies in tourism, while employees' perceptions in general have not been properly investigated. OBJECTIVE: This paper identifies tourism employees' perceptions of the competencies needed in the tourism industry in the future. METHODS: Based on a survey questionnaire, we analysed the attitudes of 226 tourism employees regarding the competencies they estimate they will need in the future. RESULTS: According to the employees, the most important competencies are a high level of hospitality, the ability to work with people, cooperation with stakeholders and emotional intelligence. In contrast, digital literacy is rated as less important, indicating that employees expect tourism to continue to be primarily a 'human contact' industry. We found statistically significant differences in respondents' assessments in relation to their education, hierarchical position, age and area of work in tourism, but not in relation to their gender. CONCLUSIONS: The findings have practical value for tourism curriculum and training developers at all levels of education, and also provide important details with regard to the need for future research.

Work and employment are a significant constituent part of tourism and are gaining ground as an area of research. This review paper offers a critical reflection on the field of tourism work and employment. Drawing from two historical review papers and new empirical analysis, themes within the literature are identified, providing an overview of the current focus and scope of research. This is followed by an exploration of traditions of work published within Annals of Tourism Research, from 1973 to 2020. Driven by the imperative to better understand the tourism workforce, the review offers observations on the current body of work and a consideration of future research foci. Conclusions focus on assessing evidence for the maturity of the field of tourism work and employment research.

The aim of this chapter is to provide insights into the future development of HRM in the post pandemic tourism contexts, focusing on the concept of algorithmic management. The chapter explores how algorithms are used in performance monitoring and rewards in the case of Airbnb and the implications of this for its hosts. This is used as a basis to reflect on the trend towards quantifying human performance and the issues that management raised by algorithms and platform work. The research uses qualitative discourse analysis as its methodological approach. Textual, photographic, and video material from Airbnb homepages and documents are examined. The authors analyse the Airbnb algorithmic management from the perspective of the classical HRM functions and identify the defining features of Airbnb algorithmic management. This discussion considers the future directions of algorithmic management whereby we postulate that algorithmic management will become further embedded in the operations of traditional hospitality and services industries, beyond the current digital platform work.

Influenced by Chinese culture, educators are highly respected in Chinese communities. However, the work of hospitality educators is not a highly regarded position in society because Chinese people commonly perceive hospitality management studies as unnecessary. These conditions place hospitality educators in a contradictory position, in that society respects them as educators but does not value their subject. On this basis, this paper investigates the influence of perceived occupational prestige on the occupational commitment of hospitality educators and the moderating effects of their industrial and education work experiences. The findings show that perceived occupational prestige is strongly related to the occupational commitment of hospitality educators. It is also found that work experience does not always have positive moderating effects on their occupational commitment. This study provides essential information on how hospitality educators' occupational commitment is influenced by perceived occupational prestige and the work experiences of hospitality educators in Hong Kong.

This article explores front-line cruise employees' interaction with LGBT passengers. Covert data were gathered with 70 staff, many of whom were from developing countries where attitudes to LGBT people can be less accepting. Encounters are illuminated using Allport's (1954) intergroup contact theory. Interactions between staff and gay passengers were largely positive, helping normalise homosexuality and diminish negative attitudes. Staff interactions were moderated by factors such as prior knowledge of gay people, their previous service experience on gay charters, gender, the influence of working for gratuities and the sense of fun onboard. The gay cruise provides the context that gives rise to moderating conditions, which then facilitate the mediating processes such as reduced intergroup anxiety and increased cultural learning of gay lifestyles. Suggestions for future research between cruise companies and their employees explore how other variables may positively influence staff service-gay customer interactions. Managerial implications are offered for the cruise sector.

Those participating in migration have been thought of as rational individuals who are prepared to take risks to improve their livelihoods and can sometimes take advantage of being outsiders. Whilst much is understood about migrant workers employed formally, or informally, within tourism and hospitality services, the self-employment of immigrants has received scant attention. This is surprising, given the general tendency in the labour market more broadly towards self-employment rather than paid employment. Evidence from other studies has shown self-employment in tourism, particularly within the hotel and restaurant sector amongst the foreign-born populations, is growing rapidly. In Europe in 2016 self-employment constituted 9% of the workforce in accommodation and food services, compared with 5% in the wider economy. This lack of research can be partly explained by a limited amount of data regarding self-employment and ethnicity more broadly, compounded by the challenges of the distinction between registered self-employment, and that which occurs in the informal sector. Whilst some have argued that culture plays an important role in the self-employment of migrants, others suggest it is a response to blocked mobility through labour market disadvantage and discrimination and is therefore a matter of strategic survival.

Purpose This paper aims to present the feasibility study findings from a four-year project funded by the European Union Commission (the SAIL project, Staying Active and Independent for Longer). The funding stream was Interreg 2Seas which offers opportunities for coastal areas on both sides of the English Channel to work together on complex practical issues. The project focused on enabling older people to stay active and independent for longer using social innovation (co-production) approaches. Design/methodology/approach Ten pilot projects were developed, and each of the pilots worked with an academic partner to undertake a feasibility study that included 10 pilots across the four countries involved, France, Belgium, Holland and England. Findings This paper presents barriers and facilitators (using logic models) to the social innovation process with older people, which has wider relevance in terms of social innovation and its application. Research limitations/implications The findings which inform this paper are extensive, and this is a longitudinal qualitative study with much of the data collection being done using an online wiki (complemented by interviews and documentary analysis) which is a relatively new method for data collection. However, the consistency of the findings when analysed by three researchers was clear and pragmatically this complex method was required to examine complexity in the process of implementing social innovation in practice. Practical implications This project has enabled greater understanding of how social innovation can be applied and has highlighted contextual issues that can undermine or enable attempts to adopt the approach. Social implications For the 10 pilot projects generated, there were obviously important cultural and geographical differences in terms of engagement and practical implementation of social innovation. Some of which, as mentioned in this paper, are very important for the successful implementation of social innovation in a particular setting and indeed may be a strength or a barrier in terms of engaging with local people and agencies. Originality/value The development of logic models is a useful approach when the topic under study is complex and likely to produce a diverse set of process outcomes. The logic model focuses upon the relationships between the resources that are used to create the intervention and what is produced in terms of outcomes. Ultimately, this enables the identification of the factors that contribute to a successful intervention. Thus, in relation to this study, logic models have helped to provide an evidence-based framework that can support decision-making regarding the most effective use of limited resources to support successful social innovation processes in the future. The logic model for each area of the findings presented here can in the future be used to help implement social innovation; also, to consider how it can be improved in future research.

PurposeDrawing from emotional labour (EL) and emotion regulation (ER) theories, this paper aims to identifiy what helps and what hinders the emotional intelligence (EI) practice of Vietnamese hotel workers. Researching EI qualitatively from a novel context highlights the influence of culture on EI.Design/methodology/approachThe critical incident technique (CIT) was adopted as the qualitative methodological approach using a self-administered form and semi-structured interviews to collect empirical data from a sample of 34 Vietnamese hotel workers in 19 different hotels.FindingsThe findings show that following Joseph and Newman’s (2010) cascading model of EI would help hotel workers in their practice. The research also found different factors hindering the EI practice from the individual and organisational levels. Vietnamese culture was believed to guide deep-acting and meditation. Language barrier and manager support emerged as significant factors that could help or hinder their EI practice.Research limitations/implicationsThe research proposes a conceptual framework addressing the factors that could help or hinder the EI practice and provides implications for HR practices and management. Caution could be taken when applying the research implications because of the small sample as a nature of qualitative research.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to appraise the EI practice adopting the CIT as a qualitative methodological approach in an under-research context and add evidence to the theoretical links between EI, EL and ER.