This study examines how LGBT service employees perceive and cope with customer-based discrimination by focusing on three individual psychological factors (self-esteem, collective self-esteem, and stigma consciousness) and two identity management strategies (passing and revealing). An online survey was conducted with 135 LGBT employees working in customer-facing roles across service industries, including hospitality, healthcare, and retail, all recruited through a consumer panel firm. The results indicate that LGBT employees’ self-esteem is negatively associated with perceived customer discrimination, whereas stigma consciousness is positively associated with perceived customer discrimination. In addition, although perceived customer discrimination is positively related to passing, no significant negative relationship is observed with revealing. Together, these findings underscore the importance of identity-related psychological factors in understanding how LGBT employees perceive and navigate customer discrimination. By integrating minority stress, social identity, and identity management theories, this research offers a more nuanced understanding of LGBT employees’ perceptions of customer discrimination in service contexts. Specifically, the findings highlight a dual mechanism of self-esteem and stigma consciousness in relation to perceived discrimination, suggest potential countervailing functions of collective self-esteem, and demonstrate an asymmetric pattern of passing and revealing as identity management response to perceived customer discrimination. This study also provides practical insights for service organizations, emphasizing supportive systems including anti-discrimination policies that explicitly extend to customer behavior to help LGBT employees mitigate interpersonal discrimination from customers in service settings.

Food waste is a significant concern in the events industry. Grounded in construal level theory (CLT) and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study examines how message color (red, green, or blue) and message focus (why vs. how) jointly influence attendees’ intentions to reduce food waste. A 3×2×2 experimental design was conducted with 443 U.S.-based event attendees. Results reveal that specific color–focus combinations (e.g., red–why and blue–how) enhance message credibility and behavioral intention, particularly among attendees with lower environmental concern. Conversely, those with higher concern are less affected by these peripheral cues. Perceived credibility of the message mediates the relationship between message design and food-waste-reduction intention. These findings offer theoretical insights into the interplay of visual and cognitive message features in sustainability communication and practical guidance for event professionals aiming to reduce food waste. Tailoring messages to audience traits can improve sustainability efforts at events.

Gay bars are traditionally where members of the gay/LGBTQ+ community gather to socialize, entertain, and relax in a safe and hospitable environment. Often, gay bars focus on creating an environment specifically for a subsection of the overall LGBTQ+ community, such as the bear, lesbian, leather, and other microcommunities. However, many gay bars have been closing at historic rates for numerous reasons such as a competitive marketplace, the impact of COVID-19, and urban gentrification. Drawing on servicescape and neotribal theory, this case study examines how DENVER SWEET, a “bear-inspired LGBTQ friendly” bar located in Denver, Colorado, stays relevant among fierce competition with changing consumer preferences. This case study contributes to the bar servicescape literature by drawing recognition on the physical spaces utilized by the LGBTQ+ community. This case study further sheds light on an underserved community in the hospitality literature by focusing on the importance of gay space to the LGBTQ+ community.

LGBTQ+ healthcare clinics have been created in the past several years to provide healthcare in a safe and welcoming environment for the LGBTQ+ community. This case study examines how hospitable servicescape can be used to create a LGBTQ+ health clinic for a regional healthcare organization in a post-COVID environment. Utilizing a framework for creating a LGBTQ+ health clinic, learners will discuss key issues and challenges in the intersection of hospitable service design and theoretical frameworks at the health care, hospitality, and service design for an underserved community.

We examined trans individual's enactments of gender authenticity negotiations with a unique perspective considering the intersections of dress and travel. We drew upon the concepts of power, agency of the body, and dress and ambivalence to examine relationships between embodied practices, traveling, and society by conducting 15 semi-structured interviews with trans individuals. Through our work we argue that dress and appearance-related practices while traveling play an integral part of negotiating gender identities in ways that feel authentic to the self for trans individuals. Part of these authenticity negotiations sometimes involve moments of lacking authenticity through self-surveillance in order to manage liveable and safer lives in unknown or even familiar spaces.

The DSM Book Festival, produced by the Greater Des Moines Partnership (GDMP), is a regional literary event that connects book lovers with enhanced content involving interactions with authors, keynote speeches, and other events. Although the festival was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, it occurred in 2021 in an alternative format. To mitigate the financial impact of the 2020 festival, the Downtown Events Director wants to diversity revenue streams for this festival for the long-term. This case study examines diversification of festival revenue streams to offset some of the challenges in executing the event in a post-COVID environment.

Foodservice industry professionals have implemented various green practices (i.e., minimizing spoilage) aimed at reducing food waste since customers generate 34% of the total food waste in restaurants. However, customers often become skeptical toward restaurants’ green initiatives which can hinder customers’ engagement in plate waste-reduction activities. This case study explores effective communication tactics that can help overcome consumers’ skepticism and promote their engagement to reduce food waste using the case of the Joan Bice Underwood Tearoom at Iowa State University. Learners will acquire knowledge about food waste reduction practices and communication framing skills about reducing food waste.

Systemic shifts in consumer preferences and expectations are not new, and can often be accelerated by major environmental events. Early evidence suggests that the events of 2020 to 2021 may have created that acceleration to fundamentally alter future consumer preferences. In this study, we argue that consumer expectations are on the path to being essentially transformed. If so, such transformations will require a renewed focus on consumer preferences in the context of an ecosystem comprised of the macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors impacting these changes. Changing consumer expectations will also need to be articulated and incorporated more comprehensively to include physical, mental, and social wellbeing. In this study, we argue that consumer behavior research will need to incorporate these fundamental shifts in factors impacting consumer preferences. We present a conceptual framework that incorporates the changing landscape of factors influencing this transformation along with suggestions for future research, and theoretical and practical implications.

The aim of this review is to provide insight into Expo 2020 held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Message framing is a persuasive tool for promoting sustainable behaviors across various contexts. This experimental study examined a three-way interaction between framed messages and festival goers' self-efficacy: the belief in one's ability to perform a course of action, and commitment toward a recycling goal program. Goal specificity and construal level provide the theoretical basis for the framing manipulation of the messages: abstract (vs. specific) goal and why (vs. how to) recycle. A significant three-way interaction was found, suggesting that the effect of perceived self-efficacy on commitment was moderated by the matching of the framed messages. Participants with a high level of self-efficacy reported a significant increase in commitment when the specific goal and how to recycle prompts were both presented. This finding confirms the interactive nature of festival goers' engaging in recycling in the festival setting. Implications for future research and practical implications are discussed.

As restaurants are resuming normal operations, COVID-19 mitigation strategies are still in place. An effective COVID-19 mitigation protocol may facilitate a more successful rebound since consumers may perceive a lowered risk to purchase food from the restaurant with protocols in place. However, little is known regarding how consumers evaluate restaurants' present efforts to contain the transmission of COVID-19. By using a rigorous scale development procedure, this study creates a scale to measure restaurant consumers' perceptions of COVID-19 mitigation strategies (acronym: PHASE): Protective equipment/technology (P); Health and hygiene (H); Access of purchase/serving (A); Safety measure for customers (S); and Employee safety measure (E). The study further identifies the areas that need to be improved by using importance-performance analysis. Findings of this study provide guidelines for restaurant professionals to potentially reallocate their existing resources to refine their COVID-19 mitigation strategies and to better prepare for the future.

Since event attendees produce significant amounts of food waste, it is important to promote the reduction of food waste among attendees. However, studies that have investigated attendees' intentions to participate in food waste reduction (FWR) practices are scant. This study aims to identify the antecedents of attendees' FWR intentions and predicts that perceived event companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) value and usefulness of FWR practices will influence attendees' intentions to participate in FWR practices. The results showed that perceived CSR value significantly influenced attendees' intentions to participate in FWR practices. Perceived usefulness of FWR practices mediates the effect of perceived CSR value on intentions. Furthermore, age was found to moderate the proposed relationships. The findings of this study suggest that attendees' perceptions of the event organizers' CSR value are crucial for attendees to participate in FWR practices, especially when the majority of the attendees are in the younger age group.

aDepartment of apparel, events, and Hospitality management, College of Human sciences, iowa state university, ames, ia, usa; bHospitality, restaurant, and tourism management, College of education and Human sciences, university of nebraska – lincoln, lincoln, ne, usa; cWhite lodgingJ.W. marriott, Jr. school of Hospitality and tourism management, College of Health and Human sciences, Purdue university, West lafayette, in, usa; drita & navin Dimond Department of Hotel management, school of Hospitality, metropolitan state university of Denver, Denver, Co, usa; eschool of Hospitality leadership, Driehaus College of Business, DePaul university, Chicago, il, usa; f rita & navin Dimond Department of Hotel management, school of Hospitality, metropolitan state university of Denver, Denver, Co, usa

Given negative consequences that result from human trafficking occurring in lodging operations, it is paramount that hotel employees know how to recognize signs of human trafficking and how to respond. The purpose of this study was to identify hotel employees’ knowledge, attitudes, and training regarding human trafficking. A mixed methods approach was used to collect data from a convenience sample of 118 hotel employees in the Midwest. Based on responses, there appears to be misconceptions about human trafficking. Additionally, differences were noted based on employee age and position. Implications are provided for owners and managers. Future research directions are proposed.

Festivals attract diverse visitors to tourism sites and contribute significant solid wastes every year. One way to help customers engage in recycling at tourist attractions is to adopt an effective communication tactic using product transformation salience (PTS). To better understand the influence of PTS, the current study investigated the roles of visitors' characteristics, such as gender and age, by using PTS messages to promote recycling behavior by presenting moderation models. This study further examined the underlying psychological mechanisms to explain the effect of PTS on recycling intention by proposing a serial mediation model. The results indicated that the effects of PTS on visitors' feedback toward green messages varied when considering visitors' age and gender. In particular, women and older attendees perceive the higher green value of recycling and develop higher intentions toward engaging in recycling practices at events. The serial mediation effects of PTS -> perceived green value -> attitudes -> intentions were also confirmed. The findings of this study contribute to the green advertising literature and provide practical suggestions to industry practitioners.

Des Moines, Iowa, hosts a variety of diverse events and festivals, reaping quite an event portfolio. A balanced portfolio of events is shaped by long term strategy: “a full portfolio will consist of various types of events, for different target markets, held in different places, and at different times of the year, in pursuit of multiple goals” (Getz, 2013, p. 23). Diversified and multiple events can bring more profits to the event organizers and the stakeholders by identifying overall risk-reward characteristics and minimizing the risk of not attracting the target audiences (Ziakas, 2014). Portfolio management of events also involves multiple stakeholders with distinct needs, priorities, and expectations (Reid, 2011). Thus, stakeholder theory is also considered a strategic tool within the events sector (Niekerk & Getz, 2019) which emphasizes the engagements between the events or the event portfolio and its stakeholders, hence putting the event at the core of the evaluation. This chapter utilizes the festival and event sector in Des Moines, Iowa as a case study to highlight the challenges of recovery and response to the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how Des Moines’s portfolio management of festivals and events will position the city for a strong recovery in the festival and event sector. This chapter is organized as follows. First, we highlight key festivals and events in Des Moines. Next, we discuss how festivals and events in Des Moines have been responding to the impact of COVD-19. We then present four propositions, based on stakeholder interviews, how Des Moines can mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on its event portfolio.