This paper explores whether the psychological construct of flow plays an important role in shaping motorcycle tourism behavior and examines the relative success of methodologies previously used to model flow, in general. The systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) method was applied. It is concluded that flow, the mental state, is likely a meaningful intrinsic motivator of motorcycle tourism. Limitations related to previous efforts to model this phenomenon are identified. Suggestions for future research on the role of flow in the motorcycle tourism context are provided with domain-specific methodological strategies outlined.

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions and attitudes of South Carolina independent full-service restaurant operators in relation to the operational and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach that first partnered with local administrative and governmental bodies to disseminate a short survey. The survey was open to respondents for a 5-week period, beginning May 4th, 2020, which was when restaurants were permitted to reopen indoor dining, but with seating capacity restrictions to ensure social distancing. The second qualitative stage employed semi-structured post-survey interviews with selected independent restaurant operators from across the state. The results indicated that 25% of the restaurants polled did not survive the nearly two-month closure. Less than a quarter of respondents were unable to bring back their company’s employees to pre-pandemic levels. The CARES Act financial relief programs were favored by most (81%) of the surveyed restaurant operators. Approximately 65% of the respondents did not feel they could keep their restaurants open if the pandemic restrictions remained in place until 2021. The respondents were split as to the future viability of the hospitality and tourism industry. The study offers guidance and managerial strategies for other independent full-service restaurant operators, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve.

The current study uses structural equation modelling to examine the relationships between serious leisure, the flow state, and travel intentions among motorcycle tourists. Serious leisure contrasts with casual leisure in that its participants are more committed to their pursuit, which can result in a more sustained benefit, achievement of a flow state, and enhance intention toward future travel. The findings reveal one's serious leisure orientation predicted their durable benefits, which then produced a positive relationship with flow and travel intentions. However, flow did not mediate the relationship between durable benefits and travel intentions, as hypothesised. This research provides empirical evidence of the value of using the serious leisure construct to capture the multi-faceted and complex experience that is motorcycle tourism and can augment comprehension of other high involvement tourism markets.

This study advances a multidisciplinary marketing profile of US motorcycle tourists. The research analyses theoretical motivation measures from leisure, psychological and sociological sciences and descriptive attributes of motorcycle tourists' travel preferences. Findings suggest that motorcycle tourists are motivated by their desire for personal escape, experiencing the flow state while riding, and transit routes congruent with their noninstitutionalised explorer self-image. Tourism marketing managers are advised to promote services that fulfil motorcyclists' trip-related desires to escape their methodical routines and experience the flow state. Regional tourism organisations publicising transit routes that inspire an explorer imagery should attract more motorcycle tourists.

This study examined the relative perceived importance of the various dimensions of the restaurant experience, as captured by DinEX. Over 1,000 U.S. restaurant patrons provided perceived importance ratings of six DinEX dimensions as they related to their most recent dining experience across a variety of meal periods and restaurant categories. To make comparisons, an innovative approach to analyzing top box data was utilized. The results indicate significant differences exist across each of the DinEX dimensions, with food quality emerging as the top concern of restaurant patrons. The results of the study offer valuable guidance to the restaurateur in terms of the distinct ordering of experience dimensions that were observed, as well as the straightforward methodology demonstrated for monitoring and evaluating customers' importance perceptions.

Executive Summary: Happiness is a quality that nearly all people naturally desire. Happiness has been shown to have a host of positive features, including enhanced mental and physical health, more satisfactory relationships, increased earning potential, and even longer life. Park and recreation facilities have been normatively associated with happiness for over a century, yet research on the relationship of parks with happiness is scant—particularly from a social-psychological perspective. The literature has primarily dealt with the topic tangentially through investigations of leisure and subjective well-being. Given that park activities and happiness are aspects of leisure and subjective well-being, respectively, this study explored whether applicable relationships were also true for parks and happiness. Four hypotheses were investigated: a) park visitation will stimulate happiness; b) across park activity types, fitness activities will have the greatest impact on happiness; c) the diversity of park activities will be more positively associated with patron happiness than the quantity of time spent; and d) there will be a positive relationship between park satisfaction and happiness. Field research was conducted with the cooperation of a county park system. Park patrons in three demographically diverse municipalities in a southeast U.S. coastal region were sampled over a seven-month period. Three out of the four hypotheses were supported by the findings, which suggested that leisure’s relationship with subjective well-being largely holds for parks and happiness. This study’s findings indicate that humans’ innate desire for happiness may be fulfilled when visiting a park. Patrons indicated that they were happy during their park visit and even happier at the end of it. No particular park activity promoted more happiness than another. Study results propose that happiness is not necessarily augmented as much through additional time spent but, instead, by engaging in a greater diversity of park activities during a visit. Patrons generally reported being satisfied with the county parks. Also, patrons left the park happier when they were more pleased with its operation. This has positive implications for park management because happiness is a key component of quality of life, the improvement of which is central to the mission of many urban parks. Park management can leverage this mission success to cultivate greater public trust and support, which is instrumental to securing funding—a critical issue for park and recreation departments across the nation.

Purpose - This paper aims to review existing restaurant classifications within the literature in the restaurant management field. The authors discuss intra-industry ramifications of the limited use of recognized typologies and the need to prescriptively guide the description of restaurant context in the literature to communicate the internal and external validity of findings.Design/methodology/approach - Restaurant categories from accepted typologies are used as keywords to collect 345 empirical studies from ten relevant journals serving the global restaurant management discipline. Content analysis of titles, abstracts and methodology sections is used to examine three propositions regarding the standardization, rationalization and efficiency of restaurant classification in imparting restaurant context in published works.Findings - Findings show inconsistent use of existing typologies and limited use of effective restaurant descriptors to inform users about the situational context in which data were gathered or hypotheses were tested. There is a general preference for categories commonly associated with those of the National Restaurant Association.Research limitations/implications - Researchers should standardize descriptions of restaurants in manuscript titles, abstracts and methods sections, thereby enhancing integration of international research, the ability to conduct macro-level industry studies, and communication of findings to practitioners for operational use.Originality/value - Recommendations are offered to optimize the use of restaurant classification so that the content of empirical studies may be more effectively accessed, digested and compared, thereby enhancing the communication of advances in the restaurant management body of knowledge to practitioners and other researchers.

Literature regarding the effectiveness of various practices for nurturing student learning typically focuses on the different outcomes of passive versus active approaches and suggests that active teaching, including exposing students to real-world learning experiences, facilitates a richer and more authentic understanding. Limited investigation of the impacts of instructional scaffolding-implementing a progression of methods that supplements passive procedures with active learning initiatives-has been undertaken in hospitality and tourism education. This study measures learning among 59 students enrolled in an introductory hospitality and tourism course after they were exposed to passive, situated, and authentic instruction in an effort to determine the degree of under standing at each stage. Our findings revealed that incorporating real-world learning opportunities through situated and authentic teaching strategies helps students build upon theoretical knowledge gained passively to reach praxis.

The current study assessed guest perceptions regarding the use of local foods in U.S. chain or multiunit restaurants. The study analyzed diners' willingness to pay for local food, as well as perceived local food attributes that motivate the conduct. The attributes examined included food safety, environment, nutrition, community support, social responsibility, freshness, and taste. The study data indicated that chain restaurant patrons are willing to pay more for menu items made with local foods. Social/community and fresh/taste were the two strongest motivators of consumers' willingness to pay more for local foods in chain restaurants. Market and scholarly implications are discussed.

This exploratory study sought to empirically confirm anecdotal observations by local area full-service restaurant servers, who reported that their tip income was nearly always better when customers purchased alcoholic beverages. Analysis of unambiguous point of sale guest check and credit card receipt data confirmed a positive relationship between alcoholic beverage purchases and servers' tip percentages. This is encouraging news for the restaurant industry, especially during the current economic downturn, because increased tip levels should motivate servers to sell more alcoholic beverages, which are highly profitable. Managerial implications are discussed.

Atmospherics are an underresearched, yet important aspect of restaurant performance. This study takes an exploratory approach to measurement development, by conceptualizing a social capital scale to measure homophily in five different restaurant settings, and all three traditional meal periods. A national sample of 1,220 restaurant-goers was obtained, and a unidimensional construct reflecting homophily was found overall; for breakfast and lunch periods, and within three of the five restaurant types. We offer insight into these findings, and discuss the use of the scale in future research.

This exploratory case study hypothesized that improvements in food safety transfer of training were linked to employees' outlooks on key behavioral factors. Employee perceptions of 6 theorized, latent behavioral variables were analyzed to see if they had a relationship with health inspection outcomes of a casual-theme restaurant concept in the Southeastern U.S. A total of 15 restaurants were sampled, yielding 210 observations, which represented a 40% response rate. The results advocate that the employees' outlook played a significant role in the transfer of food safety knowledge and skills gained in training. There was also evidence that the employee's self-efficacy and sense of social responsibility had positive relationships with restaurant inspection scores.

This field study examines factors influencing hotel employees' ability to transfer the concepts that they learned in job training when they return to work. The study was conducted during a major hotel company's training program. The training objective was to ready front-desk associates to operate a new property management system (PMS). Past business research suggests that trainee characteristics, training design, and work environment factors can positively impact an employee's transfer of training. Role-play exercises and surveys were used to explore the validity of this research in a hospitality setting. This study's findings suggest that proper management of these impact factors can foster enhanced transfer of training in hotels. Strategies are offered to help hospitality human resource professionals improve training transfer in hotels.

Over the years, those studying the restaurant industry have attempted to accurately assess what expectations are most important to restaurant patrons. The results have been centered on the domains of food, service, and atmosphere. This research adds the domain of social connectedness and homophily to the model. A scale to accurately and efficiently measure these concepts was created utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research techniques and engaging 5 samples numbering 2,500 respondents. Five stages were employed to provide validity, reliability, stability, and homogeneity. A 20-item sale—DinEX—was created using a two-step confirmatory analysis approach.

ABSTRACT Upwards of $200 billion in training investments are made annually by companies across North America. When evaluation of that training is conducted, many companies employ some feature of Kirkpatrick's multi-level training evaluation framework to assess participants' reactions, learning outcomes, and transfer of training. However, some scholars caution that assumptions about a hierarchical relationship among the evaluation levels are unfounded, which could render the training evaluation method suspect. This study field tested the multi-level hierarchy assumption in the context of an international lodging company's training intervention. Unambiguous evidence supported that the levels are positively correlated, suggesting a hierarchical relationship. Such a relationship might allow companies to improve efficiencies of future training evaluation.

ABSTRACT As U.S. families continue to allocate more of their food dollar to the foodservice industry, it becomes increasingly important to explore market segmentation strategies. Family life cycle (FLC) modeling, which examines the implications of lifestyle and expenditure patterns brought about by family role transitions, has demonstrated prior utility in hospitality and tourism. This exploratory research was the first to see if FLC staging was also related to consumers' specific dining preferences (e.g., reservations and food type). The data revealed, however, only a weak association between FLC staging and dining preferences. Nonetheless, when examined singularly, age, marital status, and children, which are FLC component variables, some were found to have potentially important roles in suggesting particular guest preferences. These findings should help foodservice operators better understand the most efficient methods for gauging their patrons' particular dining preferences.

• CONTENT: Foodservice 411 is a comprehensive business information site for foodservice professionals. The site features content from Restaurants & Institutions (R&I), Chain Leader, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies (FE&S), and Reed Research Group. Content includes foodservice trends, strategic management analysis, insight on equipment and supplies’ applications, research on purchasing, consumers, operations, marketing, and economic forecasting, as well as annual rankings and lists. • PEDAGOGY: Excellent web site for bridging academia with industry. The site links to a variety of useful foodservice directories. Online courses are available for a diverse range of classes in menu

"Internet Sites of Current Interest to Culinarians and Culinary Instructors." Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, 4(4), pp. 67–68