Inflation and its impact on investment decisions in the hospitality industry

The impact of inflation is more severe in the hospitality industry than in some others because of its high level of capital investment. Proper evaluation of investment returns can only be made if inflation is considered in the evaluation process. This article presents an approach based on the net present value method of investment evaluation which incorporates the anticipated level of inflation and provides for the uncertainties of future cash flows.     

Changing tourism patterns,capital accumulation,and urban water consumption in Mallorca,Spain: a sustainability fix?

This paper presents interdisciplinary research based on in-depth, comparative analysis of water consumption and land use patterns over a range of urban-tourist forms in Mallorca. The changing tourism patterns towards residential and quality tourism are studied, on the basis that capital investment for capital accumulation and increasing gains are its main drivers. Social awareness about overcrowding and resource limitations has moved the regulatory planning framework toward allowing further urban sprawl, based on the alibi of quality tourism. The rhetoric of this framework represents a first sustainability fix, a fix that hides the higher water demand and climate change issues. The socio-metabolic dimension of this process is analyzed in relation to how it has resulted in an uneven socio-spatial urban landscape of water consumption. This urban-tourist landscape is vulnerable to changes in climate, because it is sustained by an excessive use of water. Water supply is a serious constraint which has been resolved through its commodification and supply privatization, which are considered as a second sustainability fix. This tourism development process worsens rather than solves the metabolic rift, resulting in the second contradiction of capital accumulation between the imperative of continual growth and finite natural resources.     

浅谈建设高素质的旅游企业家队伍

加入世界贸易组织对中国旅游业将产生积极而又深远的影响：外资的更多进入，竞争的加剧、服务水平的提升，旅游者享更多的好处．．．等等，但最根本的变化则是ＷＴＯ要求其进入的成员必须手持市场经济的入场券，这就要求中国旅游业必须通过基于市场的一系列变革来铸造自己的核心竞争能力。     

Global culture,local politics

A number of local authorities have, in the last ten years, built or subsidized venues for rock and pop concerts. Previously, such ventures were left to the private sector. This article explores the reasons for this local state involvement, and draws attention to its importance for the study of leisure in general, and popular music in particular. It argues that local authorities have moved into popular music provision to meet new political and economic goals, but that such moves can only be explained fully by changes in popular culture itself. Accounting for direct political support of ‘commercial’ entertainment highlights a key fact about leisure: that its politics are located in both its organization and its enjoyment.     

Strategy,training and performance fit

The importance of human resource qualification for the tourism industry in general and for hotel firms in particular has been a recurrent theme for several years now. The present paper deals with training policy in hotels and has as its aim to know the extent to which their strategic orientation influences: (1) the investment that firms make in training; (2) the preparation of formal plans; and (3) the type of training developed. It is also our intention to check whether this strategy-training link has an impact on hotel performance. With that aim in mind, an attempt will be made to see whether the effect of training on business results is direct or materializes through a number of intermediate variables such as client satisfaction or changes in the behavior of employees (indirect effect). A comprehensive analysis of the literature was conducted to identify the main research and establishing the hypotheses to be tested. Our paper used a sample of Spanish companies with the partial least squares (PLS) method being applied for the analysis. The results show that the development of a training policy oriented to human capital development in the case of hotels following a differentiation strategy leads to improved business results both directly and indirectly, while simultaneously influencing investment as well as formality in training activities.     

Australian tourism : Effects of foreign investment

Throughout the 1980s the Australian tourism industry has received an increasingly large proportion of its financing from abroad. This article explores existing theories of overseas investment in manufacturing in relation to the tourism industry. Where the factors of production are provided by the local economy and it is mainly the capital which is supplied from abroad, then the profits are substantially retained and encouragement of overseas investment can be a successful strategy in increasing net foreign revenue. A policy model is presented which indicates that Australian tourism must compete aggressively if it is to reap the benefits from overseas investment.     

“Heritage” as alternative place and space: old-time music and roots- and routes-based tourism in Southern Appalachia

After a decades-long exodus of industry and capital from Southern Appalachia, heritage tourism attempts to generate revenue by representing cultural authenticity in an area historically occupying the place of cultural backwater in American popular imaginations. This paper analyzes the representational terrain that such a tourism project traverses to present viable narratives of cultural authenticity. I suggest that valuations of authenticity in these representations, while exhibiting ambivalences about the values of the past and present, foreground iconic and indexical relationships among music, musicians, and Appalachian history and landscape, in turn drawing on the appeal of a different orientation to space and place. This appeal of and for a cultural and affective alternate route – an alternative to a high-speed, rootless, globalized landscape of mass consumption – is both opposed to and dependent on that landscape for its value and viability.     

Constructionism and culture in research: Understandings of the fourth Buddhist Festival,Wutaishan, China

This paper offers an interpretation of competing legitimacies at the 2007 4th Annual Wutaishan Buddhist Festival in Taihua, Shanxi Province. It suggests how spectacle, entertainment and performance spaces are condoned arenas of challenge and usage by mainstream and peripheral groups. The paper also discusses the methods employed in the framing and nature of interpretation, and possesses its own tension as the different cultural perspectives and voices are heeded. It concludes that the festival exists as a multi-layered event involving economics, politics, faith, entertainment and prestige – each of which creates its own set of interpretations contextualised in the evolving state of Chinese tourism. The paper is partially a response to the work of Hollinshead, Phillimore & Goodson and O'Dell that claim a need for a more reflexive voice in the tourism literature as a means of understanding the tourist experience. Its premises are based on thinking derived from multiple sources including symbolic interaction and Buddhist thought.     

Institutional investor preferences for lodging stocks

Although investments from institutions such as banks, insurance companies and pension funds in the lodging industry increased enormously in the 1990s, there has been no empirical research that has examined institutional preferences for lodging stocks. Understanding institutional investment patterns can help provide easier access to the capital markets for hoteliers who make large capital expenditures. This study identifies the characteristics preferred by institutional investors and also assesses whether the different institutions have heterogeneous preferences. Our results show that, in general, institutions prefer the stock of large lodging firms. They also prefer lodging firms with high capital expenditure-to-asset ratios and high debt ratios.     

我国旅游业投资价值评价：基于资本市场角度的研究

文章借助于金融学的风险一收益理论及其经典的市场绩效评价指标，利用10年期的大样本数据，首次比较系统地分析了我国旅游业上市公司的投资价值，得出比较稳健的研究结论。研究结果表明，旅游业整体上获得了相对于市场平均水平的超额收益，旅游业的投资价值得到了投资者的肯定；从行业细分来看，市场表现最好的是景点类公司，其次是酒店类，综合类公司的市场表现一般；旅游企业的投资价值与公司质地、特别是盈利能力密切相关。     

从宗教景区上市透视宗教文化资本化

旅游市场竞争日趋激烈,上市成为提升景区发展力和竞争力的重要途径。在资本前景的诱惑下,诸多宗教型景区萌发上市冲动,而引发突破社会伦理的热议。文章围绕宗教景区上市背后的宗教文化资本化的话题,以宗教社会学、马克斯·韦伯的现代性等为理论基础,从宗教存在逻辑与资本逻辑间张力角度,分析旅游语境下的宗教文化资本化现象。结论认为,包括旅游资本在内的现代资本为宗教的发展提供支撑资源,但资本的理性、世俗性与宗教的感性、神圣性间存在不可调和的张力。单纯市场化的宗教旅游发展模式会消解宗教赖以存在的根基,因此不是宗教旅游发展的最佳选择。鉴于宗教旅游的准公共物品属性,现代非营利性组织的运营模式为宗教旅游的发展提供有益借鉴。     

旅游经济增长及其溢出效应的空间面板计量经济分析

文章首次基于空间面板计量经济学模型,在检验我国省域旅游经济增长是否存在空间依赖性的基础上,估计了资本和劳动对旅游经济增长的贡献,检验了旅游经济增长过程中的空间溢出效应。研究结果显示:2001~2009年间,中国省域旅游经济增长的空间依赖性和集群趋势加强,邻近省域的经济增长及旅游资本投入的空间溢出效应明显;资本和劳动的旅游产出弹性系数均为正,前者对旅游经济增长的贡献大于后者,我国省域尺度的旅游经济增长主要依赖于资本要素投入驱动,呈现出资本密集型特征,劳动力要素的贡献尚未充分发挥出来。政府在制定旅游产业政策和发展规划时,必须致力于加强邻近地区旅游资本和劳动投入的合作与交流,促进旅游经济增长中的资本空间溢出效应,改革旅游业国民收入初次分配及再次分配体制,激活邻近省域旅游劳动力投入与旅游经济增长的空间互动性,以便提高邻近地区及本地区劳动力对旅游经济增长的协同贡献。     

Glastonbury: managing the mystification of festivity

The realm of music festivity has grown into a global circuit that responds to the demand for emotive experiential products and taps into postmodern themes that celebrate a lifestyle attitude of extended youth. This paper investigates the phenomenon of festival culture through a case study of Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. It highlights how modern music festivals have become sites of mediated brand management where commodified hyper-experiences are considered as new forms of contested cultural capital. Through a critical conceptual matrix that combines the work of Bourdieu, Pine and Gilmore, and Jensen the authors critically explore the interplay between the experiential dimension, mystical and fantasy narratives and the political contestation of festivity. Focusing on Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2010 the study presents an innovative interpretation of festivity through multi and social media. The authors argue that, while promoted as an ethical festival that celebrates its anti-commercial countercultural cool, Glastonbury reflects a modern cathedral of consumption where experiences are the mediated and managerially puppeteered capital of the field. However, festivity is moving beyond management as it is increasingly dependant on the co-creative social media activity of consumers to perpetuate the fantasy and capital of festivity.     

Determining factors in entry choice for international expansion. The case of the Spanish hotel industry

The hotel sector, as a service industry where it is possible to separate capital investment from management skills, is a clear example of how internationalisation can be modelled without shareholding involvement through foreign direct investment. This paper is an empirical examination of the key factors influencing the decision process carried out by Spanish hotel companies in choosing an entry mode for international expansion. The main objective is to verify whether the concepts derived from the transaction-cost, agency and the strategic theories of organisational capability and knowledge in companies can really explain the mode of foreign expansion employed by the Spanish hotel sector. This study will allow comparison of findings on holiday resort hotel chains with other analyses on the international hotel industry.     

专用性人力资本投资与饭店业基层员工低薪酬现象成因解释

我国饭店业正逐步演变为典型的低薪酬行业，主要表现为固定工资合约逐渐成为主导性薪酬契约，且固定工资基数水平不断下降。文章运用专用性人力资本理论，解释了在隐性知识管理机制缺失的条件下，饭店业主为什么会放弃对专用性人力资本投资收益的追求而选择固定工资合约，并进一步分析了固定工资合约的实际支付水平为什么会逐步下降，直至最终形成接近法定最低工资标准的全行业统一价格。     

Capital structure in the hospitality industry: The role of the asset-light and fee-oriented strategy

An asset-light and fee-oriented strategy (ALFO), which reduces risk and facilitates firm growth with minimum capital investment, has increasingly gained attention from industry practitioners and academic scholars alike, especially in the service sector like the hospitality industry. We empirically examine how ALFO is employed and how it is related to the capital structure, i.e. the proportion of debt and equity financing, in hospitality firms. Using a sample of 982 firm-year observations over the period 2002–2016, we find that ALFO is widely used by the hospitality industry, and as expected, the fee-income ratio and the degree of franchising have increased, while asset tangibility and capital intensity have decreased. Interestingly, although ALFO is positively related to long-term debt ratios of hospitality firms, our sub-sector analyses indicate that the relationship is only significant in the restaurant sector and not in the hotel sector. Our study contributes to the literature by identifying an important industry-specific variable that affects the capital structure of hospitality firms.     

Toward a resolution of the cost of equity conundrum in the lodging industry: a conceptual framework

The firm value estimate is derived from accounting and finance practices that focus on physical assets as opposed to intangible assets (Arthur Andersen Hospitality Leisure Executive Rep. 5 (1998) 2). The cost of equity estimation models used in firm valuation and capital investment decisions fall short of tapping important constructs to firm value, especially the intangible ones. The purpose of this study is to assess the present cost of equity capital determination models and provide a view of their relevancy for the lodging industry while simultaneously attempting to propose new options to meet the valuation and capital budgeting needs of the lodging industry.     

Tourism and employment in the Gambia

In addition to providing formal wage labor in hotels, airports, and the service infrastructure, tourism is said to provide possibilities for independent indigenous enterprise in handicrafts, entertainment, transport, through which the Gambians may, in effect, economically “lift themselves up by their bootstraps.” Such is the theory. This paper analyzes the actual employment possibilities in The Gambia provided by its recent tourism investment. From the findings of an economic survey the author concludes that hopes of economic development being catalyzed by tourism are unfounded and misleading. This conclusion is supported by a structural analysis and a characterization of the tourist industry in The Gambia by an investigation into the economic forces at work in the country, and by direct observations made by informants and the author concerning the impact tourism has made in spheres non-economic: the moral, the social, and the family.     

Asset-light business model: An examination of investment-cash flow sensitivities and return on invested capital

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the asset-light business model on investment-cash flow sensitivities and return on invested capital in the lodging industry. Little research has explored the link between investment and asset ownership structure. The current study provides an alternative approach to examining investment behavior and return on invested capital, focusing on the unique characteristics of asset ownership among lodging firms. The findings of this study provide important implications for lodging investors and shareholders regarding the strategic use of the asset-light business model for aiding lodging firms’ efficient investments and delivering high return on invested capital.     

Tourism in the Gambia: problems and proposals

This paper analyses the development constraints which confine The Gambia to being one of the poorest countries in the world. The programmes designed to reduce these constraints are outlined. In particular, tourism is identified as an appropriate development strategy. Using primary data, tourism in The Gambia, its development and administration are described in some detail. Althoiugh a prima facie case can be made extolling the virtues of tourism in that country, the industry is beset by a range of problems. The juxtaposition of the country's growing reliance on tourism against increasing stagnation in the sector is a focus of particular concern. Constraints in the tourism sector are identified in the spheres of policy formulation and implementation, capital investment, human resource endowment, existing and potential tourist markets, seasonality issues and product resource base. For each constraint identified, a management strategy is proposed. In essence, the article is an advocation of sustainable tourism development for The Gambia based on long-term holistic planning, including appropriate resource development, community involvement, education and training.