Economic crisis and tourism competitiveness in Spain: permanent effects or transitory shocks?

This paper considers the influence of business cycles and economic crises on Spain's tourism competitiveness. This competitiveness is measured by its share in world tourism. Analysing the presence of unit roots in the market share series from 1958 to 2010, the permanent effects of economic crises on competitiveness are evaluated. The evidence from standard linear unit root tests indicates that crises on Spanish market shares are highly persistent. When we account for endogenously determined structural breaks, we obtain greater support for stationarity, but breakpoints are identified with major economic crises. Therefore the main conclusion obtained is that the effects of the economic shocks are not neutral on competitiveness, with the negative effects being more persistent in highly intensive crises. These crises reinforce a natural downward trend of the Spanish world tourism market share caused by the natural emergence of new competing destinations and by the maturity of the Spain's principal tourism product.     

Hospitality entrepreneurs managing quality of life and business growth

The hospitality industry is dominated by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).They are often led by entrepreneurs who face the challenge of simultaneously managing business decisions and their own wellbeing. The competitiveness of tourism destinations often depends on these entrepreneurs and therefore understanding their motivations and work patterns is critical. Research on individual wellbeing increasingly builds on the concept of quality of life (QoL). Hospitality and tourism literature so far predominantly focused on investigating QoL for tourists and residents, rather than for entrepreneurs’ QoL, even though being key stakeholders in the hospitality industry. Therefore, this study explores the factors influencing hospitality entrepreneurs’ quality of life (“HE-QoL”) and how these relate to business growth. Results of a 380 hospitality entrepreneurs’ survey identify six distinct factors of HE-QoL. Two groups of HE-QoL are identified with significant differences in fitness level activity, entrepreneurial competencies and business growth. Findings lead to recommendations to reduce stress to improve HE-QoL, and to develop entrepreneurial competencies, which help to cope with entrepreneurial challenges. Tourism destinations and politics can support hospitality entrepreneurs in these actions by creating conditions that foster social exchange in regional communities and trust in political and economic stability.     

Co-evolution in tourism: the case of Albergo Diffuso

An important aspect of competitiveness between destinations concerns the way in which historical and cultural heritage is used. Thus, the relationship between territories and firms grows stronger, shifting the focus on the innovation processes within and across destinations. To increase our understanding of how these processes take place in a tourism destination, more theoretical and empirical research is required. This paper aims to respond to this call by examining the central role played by the Italian phenomenon of Albergo Diffuso (AD) through a co-evolutionary approach, fertilized by the evolutionary economic geography literature. The study focuses on the dynamics of the relationship between this new hospitality model, territories and tourists, by analysing 14 case studies of ADs rooted in historical villages. Findings show that AD can be considered as a new sustainability-oriented hospitality model which, by creating synergies with its territory, positively affects the competitiveness of the destinations where ADs are located. The theoretical implications suggest that the creation and development of these innovative firms are the result of effective multi-level co-evolutionary adaptations, adding new elements to the existing literature on innovation in tourism. Moreover, implications for both entrepreneurs and policy-makers emerge, together with suggestions for future research.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: the case of the hospitality industry

Research increasingly shows interest in the motives and characteristics of entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry. Small and medium-sized family firms dominate this industry. Learning from the concept of entrepreneurial orientation and family business research, this explorative study aims at analysing entrepreneurial behaviours and their effect on performance as perceived by owner-managers of hospitality family businesses. The authors conduct narrative in-depth interviews to understand the managers' meaning of entrepreneurship and performance, and discuss the results in the light of existing entrepreneurship literature. Results indicate that family firms in hospitality and tourism are peculiar, and their embeddedness in the destinations and regions outlines their entrepreneurial behaviour against Schumpeter's definition of growth-oriented entrepreneurship.     

Marketing practice in small tourism and hospitality firms

There has been a paucity of research into the marketing practices and approaches of small tourism and hospitality firms, until the 1990s. This paper goes some way towards improving knowledge in this area by reporting the findings of the first national survey of small tourism and hospitality firms in the UK. Four key areas of marketing practice are highlighted: marketing planning, promotion methods, pricing methods and marketing research. The paper concludes that although a great deal of small hospitality and tourism firm marketing may be characterised as haphazard and unsophisticated, there is much to commend it in the UK. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism and development challenges in the least developed countries: the case of The Gambia

Despite some recognition of the role of destination marketing organisations (DMOs) in crisis management, limited attention has focused on the role of DMOs in crisis events, and in particular their role in managing knowledge across diverse stakeholder groups and domains. This theoretical paper attempts to address this deficiency by synthesising knowledge management and tourism crisis management literature, to outline the potential role of DMOs in managing knowledge across boundaries during crises. Carlile's [(2004). Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15(5), 555–568] work on boundary spanning is used to consider potential organisational and management issues for DMOs dealing with crisis events and how they should be managed. This paper argues that because of the role and nature of DMOs, they should play an important role as knowledge spanners/brokers to transfer, translate and transform knowledge to stakeholders. The paper concludes with future research avenues related to knowledge management, DMOs and crises.     

Seasonality and price behaviour of airlines in the Alicante-London market

This article focuses on airline prices in the Alicante-London market. It analyzes price evolution over short periods to observe the incidence of seasonality, the types of firms involved, timetabling, types of airport, competitiveness, and variables such as the price of jet fuel and the rate of exchange used by airlines to establish prices. The paper shows the relative incidence of these variables and stresses the relevance of seasonality and competitiveness in the price strategies followed by the different types of company.     

How sustainable is sustainable hospitality research? A review of sustainable restaurant literature from 1991 to 2015

This research was designed to evaluate our current state of knowledge by systematically reviewing tourism and hospitality academic literature concerning sustainability in the restaurant sector by undertaking a systematic review and content analysis. The characteristics of 76 articles are listed in a comprehensive table, presenting research design and research variables, and the articles are examined for their approach to the sustainability concept as applied to the restaurant industry (i.e. the range of responsible practices addressed in each work). The findings indicate that the majority of the literature only engages with parts of sustainability, particularly ecological, rather than holistic sustainability. This matters because it may mean we fail in our attempts to achieve more sustainable restaurant operations.

This research suggests that tourism and hospitality studies need to re-engage with the evolving conceptualisation of sustainability to ensure that best practice responses to changing requirements are undertaken. The narrow focus on ecological aspects of sustainability featuring in restaurants does not acknowledge the full meaning of sustainability and therefore may constrain efforts to secure more sustainable futures. Illuminating such gaps in knowledge is important in order to strengthen our conceptual understandings, refine our practices and thereby secure more sustainable futures through tourism and hospitality.     

Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence,bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry

The present work reviews the current knowledge about violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. It indicates the high prevalence of these aggressive behaviours, and identifies structural reasons, insufficient managerial skills and/or common beliefs as their causes. The negative impacts of bullying, violence and sexual harassment on employees include intentions to leave and psychological upset. These personal negative feelings and attitudes contribute to negative organizational performance indicators, such as high staff turnover rate and low profitability. In addition, the high prevalence of violence creates a negative image for the tourism and hospitality industry in general. The review shows that intervention plans are scattered in aims and time frames, focus mainly on managerial policies, and almost completely overlook immediate actions as well as guest violence. Given its importance, the low number of appropriate intervention tools, policies and agendas clearly suggests the urgent need for more research. The final section of the work provides an overview of three core themes that can potentially contribute to the development of an effective intervention agenda, namely, corporate social responsibility, social media and comparisons to other sectors.     

Driving factors of the hospitality industry cycle

This study applies a Markov regime-switching model to examine Taiwan's hospitality industry based on the gross domestic product data of the hospitality industry from 1982Q1 to 2012Q2. On understanding the characteristics of Taiwan's hospitality industry, the study performs Granger causality tests to identify the driving factors of Taiwan's hospitality industry cycle. Two regimes of the hospitality industry cycle – a high-growth regime (HGR) and a low-growth regime (LGR) – are detected. Specifically, the average growth rate of HGR (LGR) is 3.01% (2.17%) and the standard deviation of HGR (LGR) is 0.69% (0.19%). The probability of the hospitality industry staying in HGR (LGR) is 98.25% (97.52%) and the expected duration of HGR (LGR) is about 57 (40) quarters. Further, the inbound tourism market growth is found to be a significant driving factor that can cause the hospitality industry to remain in the HGR. Valuable information and policy implications are provided to guide hospitality business managers and tourism policy-makers.     

The international competitiveness of China’s shipbuilding industry

This paper introduces profit rate as a more relevant measure of international shipbuilding competitiveness. We also develop a model to identify competitiveness factors and their relative importance. Our findings suggest that Chinese competitiveness derives from shipbuilding costs, whereas contract price deviations are the driver for Japan and South Korea. We argue that China became more competitive in building of bulk carriers and tankers than Japan and to a lesser extent than South Korea after year 2000 and that a market trough would further strengthen China’s competitiveness. Our results have broad implications for monitoring industrial performance and formulating competitive strategies for shipyards.     

Analyzing the Performance of the South Tyrolean Hospitality Sector: A Dynamic Approach

This paper analyzes the dynamic efficiency of the hospitality sector in the province of Bolzano (Italy) to identify similar behavior of firms across the period 2002–2008. A data envelopment analysis is run as a basis to analyze the efficiency evolution of the firms by employing two complementary measures of distance (i.e. correlation and average distances). Via a hierarchical clustering approach, results show the existence of homogeneous groups with similar dynamical characteristics. Structural factors (e.g. size, number of stars and sub‐sector of activity) are found to affect the evolution of hotel efficiency over time. Policy and management implications are drawn from the present analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism Competitiveness and the Role of Fractionalization

This study explores the impact of ethno‐linguistic fractionalization on tourism competitiveness. Using the 2009 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, a comprehensive measure of tourism competitiveness developed by the World Economic Forum, this study provides evidence that while ethno‐linguistic fractionalization negatively impacts tourism competitiveness across nations, this effect is mitigated in wealthier countries. The results suggest that policy makers operating in less developed and more fractionalized countries should make a concerted effort to enhance economic development and strengthen the institutions, infrastructure, and overall business and economic environment needed to support and foster a successful tourism industry. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potential cost savings of frequent flyer miles for business travel

The mileage redemption strategy is a procedure used by many business firms to reduce air travel costs, in which the frequent flyer miles of traveling employees accumulated during business trips are applied to their future business trips to obtain “free” air tickets. This paper presents a framework that investigates how the frequent flyer miles can be used in the most effective way to reduce air travel costs by those firms that are either using the mileage redemption strategy or considering the use of the strategy. The framework can be implemented quite easily by a spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel.     

Elite hotels: painting a self‐portrait

Commercial hospitality provision arose from a general process of modernisation, the gradual breakdown of the importance of kinship and social obligation relative to a common duty of care for those travelling away from home, and the process of urbanisation. Consequently market demand evolved for the provision of accommodation, food and beverage for those persons temporarily removed from their domestic environment. What is argued in this paper is that the original function of commercial hospitality bears scant resemblance to sophisticated potentialities for socio‐economic self‐expression, which manifest themselves in the form of the elite hotel sector. The manner in which contemporary consumption of elite hotels revolves around the notion of self, with multiple identities and group affiliations is explored. Conclusions focus on the elite hotel sector as a means of defining self‐identities and the management implications therein for the provision of commercial hospitality in elite hotels. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flows into tourist areas: an econometric approach

The globalisation of the tourism industry has led to a horizontal and vertical penetration of firms, leading to strong competition in all tourist centres. In light of these circumstances there is a need to develop strategies that encourage entrepreneurial actions and help firms to design the most competitive tourism offer possible. For the development of these strategies, the current work attempts to identify the degree of interrelation existing between the different tourist markets. Specifically, the study is based on an analysis of the evolution in the relations between the main tourist‐receiving centres in Spain. It identifies the short‐ and long‐term dynamic relations existing between them, and determines their degree of interdependence and any potential leadership relations between them. The methodology used is the one underlying Cointegration theory and vector autoregressive theory, together with forecast error variance decomposition and the impulse‐response function. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Responding to crisis: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and hotels in Singapore

The sudden outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Singapore in 2003 was a grave crisis for the tourism industry as a whole and highlights the importance of effectively managing and planning for such occurrences. This study looks at the particular consequences of the infectious virus for the hotel sector and reactions to the challenges posed. Further health‐related crises seem inevitable in the modern world and some guidelines for dealing with these are proposed, based on the Singapore experience and an existing framework for tourism crisis management. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism and hospitality internships: influences on student career aspirations

Research shows that students will often change their career choices relating to the tourism and hospitality industries following work experiences. This qualitative study investigates how participation in one specific type of work experience, an internship, impacts on student participants' career choices and goals. While most respondents did indeed change their career aspirations following the internship, these changes reflected a shift within the industry rather than a shift against entering the industry. Many participants indicated they had switched their goals away from pursuing a career in hospitality in favour for developing a career in tourism, while the reverse was not apparent.     

Co-creation with clients of hotel services: the moderating role of top management support

Hotels can strengthen their competitiveness by expanding their innovation process beyond the boundaries of the firm to exploit the valuable knowledge and skills of their customers. This study examines the effects of new service (NS) co-creation with customers in the hotel industry on NS performance, as well as the moderating role of top management support. The research also explores the main barriers faced by hotels to co-create service innovations. Partial least squares structural equation modelling results indicate that Customer co-creation exerts a direct impact on NS market outcomes and NS development (NSD) speed, which in turn favours NS quality. NS quality translates into better NS customer-related outcomes as well as in improved NS market outcomes. Top management support enhances the effect of Customer co-creation on the NSD speed. The main barrier to NS co-creation in hotels is to find customers interested in devoting time to this activity or with the appropriate knowledge and experience.     

Get out of jail! Locked up and detained abroad – when tourists become prisoners

The number of foreigners getting arrested, detained or imprisoned each year is increasing. This can occur at instances throughout the journey from airport, to hotel to local tourist hotspots. The tourist can become both the victim of a crime or the instigator, with either one leading to detention. Arrest and imprisonment can occur out of a wilful criminal act or cultural insensitivity to local culture, norms and rules. Often the tourist is unprepared and can find themselves within a traumatic and incomprehensible experience compounded by several dimensions such as isolation, limited access, poor diet and unawareness of what is happening due to foreign languages, cultures and regulations. As an unwanted product, the travel and hospitality industry rarely informs travellers of possible imprisonment and the consequences of such; the marketing aim is to put the most positivist spin on the travel experience. Within this reluctance to inform travellers, the provision of information and assistance on traveller detention has been assigned chiefly to government agencies and related non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The article discusses expanding the industry's response. Recommendations of greater collaboration with government and being more responsible to their guests and customers by enhancing communication of the issue throughout the travel process are given.