Are you for real? An evaluation of the relationship between emotional labour and visitor outcomes

Emotional labour is the management of emotional display to satisfy organisational expectations and can be performed by faking emotions (surface acting) or by managing felt emotion to be ‘authentic’ (deep acting). Despite an assumed positive relationship between deep acting and a range of organisationally-desired visitor outcomes, no previous research has examined the relationship between the types of acting and those outcomes. The present study assessed this relationship in contrast to the effectiveness of surface acting. Drawing upon a sample of 688 visitors and 66 guided tours, the results of hierarchical linear modelling found no statistically significant relationship between guide-reported acting and visitor perceptions of acting. Visitor perceptions of deep and surface acting were related to visitor outcomes in the expected direction. Implications of the findings suggest tourism organisations should focus on managing perceptions of emotional authenticity to enhance visitor outcomes.     

Humanising migrant women’s work

Female migrants make an important contribution to the global tourism industry yet their employment experiences and histories are poorly understood. This paper draws on a phenomenological position to explore the life-world and ten-year employment trajectory of one highly skilled Polish immigrant to the UK as told through her own voice and artwork. It challenges prevailing de-personalised and gender-blind accounts of tourism migrant workers, and demonstrates the methodological potential of one-voice research to humanise the female migrant experience, document long-term employment trajectories and foreground complex working lives. The paper provides nuanced understanding of intersectional gendered and ethnic marginalisation in the labour market and explores the ways in which employment creates spaces for both oppression and self-determination for precarious workers.     

Antecedents and outcomes of emotional labour in hospitality and tourism: A meta-analysis

This paper meta-analytically investigates a theoretical framework of emotional labour and its antecedents and outcomes in the hospitality and tourism literature with 57 correlation matrices from published journal papers. Adopting the psychometric meta-analytical methods and meta-structural equation modelling (meta-SEM) methods, the study finds that emotional labour is related to antecedents including personality, emotional intelligence, customer orientation, social support and display rules, as well as related to attitudinal, behavioural, and customer-related outcomes. In addition, strain mediates the relations between emotional labour and its outcomes. This paper is the first meta-analysis on the relations between emotional labour and the antecedents and outcomes in hospitality and tourism management.     

台湾旅游人力资源发展政策转变之探讨

旅游产业由于政策推动及内部旅游需求增加而成长快速,从而提供了大量的就业机会,因此人力资源培养的问题也迫在眉睫.本研究以台湾地区为例,检视台湾当局旅游发展政策的转变及其对旅游人力资源发展的影响.研究显示:(1)台湾旅游政策已从20世纪50年代的政治教化转为经济功能、劳动力再生产及产业升级为取向;(2)台湾旅游产业的人力资本培养是由20世纪90年代以后才逐渐成形,以市场规范和国际服务品质为主要考量.建议未来台湾的旅游人力资本发展策略不应只局限于高品质的旅游人力培育,而应重视辅导一级产业人员转型及对小型企业的扶植.     

Relationship between HEXACO personality factors and emotional labour of service providers in the tourism industry

This study aimed to 1) explore to what extent service providers’ emotional labour is affected by personality as measured using HEXACO personality factors, 2) analyze the affect of emotional labour on the performance of required emotional display rules, and 3) investigate differences in emotional labour depending on service providers’ demographic characteristics. From a questionnaire survey of employees in different service sectors in Korea, four HEXACO personality factors, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness were found to have a positive influence on emotional labour. Deep acting has a positive influence on the requirement to display positive emotions and a negative influence on the requirement to hide negative emotions. Demographic variables generally do not affect emotional labour. This study provides practical information about employees to managers in the service industry. It could help in recruitment, the management of human resources, and enhance a company’s service assessment.     

INDUSTRY RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Emotional intelligence, a type of social and personal intelligence, is important in managing interpersonal relationships and interactions, especially in the business sphere. Businesses that involve frequent customer contact and interaction, such as those in the field of tourism, can benefit from the application of multiple intelligences. This study examines how, and to what extent, emotional intelligence can benefit the travel and tourism industry. Seven tour operators were interviewed to assess their attitudes, opinions and observations about emotional intelligence and its application to the relationship between tourists and residents of a community. Results showed that all tour operators, to a certain degree, utilized emotional intelligence to offer more personalized travel solutions for tourists. It was found that understanding the cultural values and social etiquette particular to each travel destination was essential for healthy tourist-resident relations.     

Some social and historical perspectives on unionization in the U.K. hotel industry

The subject here is the relationship between hotel workers and trade unionism in Great Britain. The essay uses a historical and sociological perspective to explore three principal themes; these are, that historically hotel workers have been isolated from the mainstream of the labour movement; that the hotel work situation deters unionism by engendering close proximity with guests and management and finally that established unionism itself has a production orientation which is not easily compatible with the hotel worker's ethos or self-identity. The background to these arguments is the development of the British hotel industry with particular emphasis on evolution of hotel work from domestic service during the period 1890–1911. The conclusion drawn is that these themes are an explanation in part for the low union density in the U.K. hotel industry.     

User experience model for augmented reality applications in urban heritage tourism

While Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly being implemented across a number of industry sectors, an open issue remains over the emotional as well as experiential impacts of this new technology within urban cultural heritage tourism. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to create a tourist experience model for AR tourism applications in the context of urban heritage tourism. The data were collected through five focus groups with a total of 49 participants. A theoretical tourist experience model was generated using Hassenzahl’s [(2003). The thing and I: understanding the relationship between user and product. In M. A. Blythe, K. Overbeeke, A. F. Monk & P. C. Wright (Eds.), Funology (pp. 31–42). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers] model of user experience. Hassenzahl's (2003) model relies on the basic idea that product characteristics and features have an effect on the actual consequences. The data were analysed using thematic analysis in order to examine the alignment of themes according to previously identified themes from the literature as well as investigate new emergent themes from the focus groups. This study extends the theoretical aspect of the user experience model by Hassenzahl (2003) through empirical confirmation. The findings reveal that the user experience is formed by the correlation of product features and the perceptions and experiences of tourists. Due to the fact that successful implementation use cases of mobile AR applications is still limited, particularly within the tourism industry, the establishment of a comprehensive set of factors has been considered to be crucial for successful implementation.     

Employee performance outcomes and burnout following the presentation-of-self in customer-service contexts

This study examines how emotional intelligence and occupational commitment have a moderating effect on the relationship between emotional labour and its potential outcomes. Two acting strategies reflect emotional labour, namely surface and deep acting, with burnout and performance as the prospective outcomes. Burnout is operationalized into emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and diminished personal achievement; whereas performance is operationalized into task performance and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The study investigates employee responses from several tourism and hospitality organizations in Florida, USA. The results show that emotional labour relates most positively to task performance and to burnout in the case of surface acting. Tests of moderation show that occupational commitment enhances performance outcomes by facilitating emotional labour strategies, and the prevalence of higher emotional intelligence amongst employees reduces burnout. These findings contribute to the literature on emotional labour by incorporating emotional intelligence and occupational commitment as moderators and by incorporating OCBs within performance analyses.     

Demand fluctuations,labour flexibility and productivity

There is a dearth of studies analysing the relationship between demand variations, productivity and flexible working in the face of variable demand challenges confronting the tourism industry. This investigation seeks to inform important firm and industry specific labour management strategies for improving productivity. Using data for 43 medium sized hotels owned by two chains in the UK, this paper analyses productivity in relation to external (demand variations) and internal (labour management) conditions over an 8 year period from 2005 to 2013. The paper’s findings show that demand variation is the principal determinant of productivity. Numerical, functional and zero-contract hour flexible labour management also contributes to labour productivity. Significant differences in findings between establishments and departments indicate the importance of disaggregated analyses.     

Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives on challenges and learnings from India

COVID-19 outbreak has presented unprecedented circumstances before the fragile tourism and hospitality industry. The highly infectious novel coronavirus continues to thwart the sector and raises serious questions about the present and future survival of the sector. The research addresses two important concerns, first, pertains to the major challenges that hospitality and tourism industry faces amid current conditions; and second relates to the vital learnings for the industry. The study draws on the interviews with 15 participants in senior positions in hospitality industry, and tourism and hospitality education services. Responses to the interviews were content analysed, which resulted in 27 sub-themes that were further condensed into 4 major themes. The dominant sub-themes that emerged out of the qualitative enquiry included need of multiskilling and professional development of the employees, increased sense of hygiene, sanitation and related SOPs, optimism toward revival of the industry, media roles, and need of better crisis preparedness. Subsequent overarching themes included “Human Resource Management”, “Health and Hygiene”, “Continuity” and “Concerns”. The study critically discusses prominent themes in the light of the existing arguments from the literature and reflects on implications for the decision makers. The major implications of the study are in the form of determined themes adding to the evolving theory on COVID-19 pandemic and tourism & hospitality industry; and managerial recommendations to address host of issues while taking essential learnings stemming from the current circumstances. Limitations and scope of future research are also discussed.     

A thematic analysis of crisis management in tourism: A theoretical perspective

The hospitality and tourism industry for a variety of reasons is vulnerable to crises of various origins and scope. Thereby, research regarding crises in this industry has received significant attention among scholars. This study presents the results of a qualitative thematic analysis (TA) of the literature concerning crisis management in hospitality and tourism. A total of 207 research publications from 1986 to 2019 were analyzed. The findings revealed eight major themes that emerged in the literature over time. We critically discuss these themes with suggestions and directions for future research in this area. The study also identifies a shortage of scholarly attempt to conceptualize crisis management and thus explores the sensemaking perspective to shed further light on explaining the themes that emerged in the analysis.     

COVID-19 impacts of inbound tourism on Australian economy

The pandemic COVID-19 has severely impacted upon the world economy, devastating the tourism industry globally. This paper estimates the short-run economic impacts of the inbound tourism industry on the Australian economy during the pandemic. The analysis covers effects both at the macroeconomic as well as at the industry and occupation level, from direct contribution (using tourism satellite accounts) to economy-wide effects (using the computable general equilibrium modelling technique). Findings show that the pandemic affects a range of industries and occupations that are beyond the tourism sector. The paper calls for strong support from the government on tourism as the recovery of tourism can deliver spillover benefits for other sectors and across the whole spectrum of occupations in the labour market.     

导游情绪劳动策略对游客目的地形象感知的跨层影响

文章试图应用情绪感染理论,探讨导游情绪劳动策略对游客目的地形象感知的作用过程,尤其是积极情绪在导游情绪劳动与游客目的地形象感知之间的中介机制,以及情绪易感性对情绪劳动策略与积极情绪关系之间的调节作用。研究通过对52个旅游团队888份调查问卷的分析发现:导游情绪劳动策略对游客认知产生着差异化影响,当导游浅层表演时,情绪劳动与游客目的地形象感知呈现负向关系,而深层表演呈现正向关系;浅层表演负向影响积极情绪,而深层表演正向影响积极情绪,积极情绪中介了情绪劳动策略与目的地形象感知的关系;情绪易感性对情绪劳动和积极情绪的关系具有调节作用。该研究从理论上丰富了情绪劳动策略、积极情绪及其情绪易感性与形象感知的关系研究,从情绪劳动策略视角为旅行社经理、目的地管理者在导游服务、目的地形象建设和品牌营销等方面提供了一定的实践指导。     

旅游专业本科生择业标准及其对旅行社的就业认知

旅游专业学生在本行业就业率低的问题一直困扰着旅游学术界、教育界和旅游行业,不少学者从不同角度研究并试图解决这一问题,但却很少从学生择业标准的角度去考虑.文章运用并检验里查得森(Richardson)择业影响因素量表,测量旅游专业本科生的择业标准及其对旅行社的就业认知,结果表明:学生认为旅行社不具备其择业时最看重的因素(“融洽的同事关系”、“喜欢的工作”、“良好的晋升机会”);并且学生认为旅行社具备的主要就业因素是其择业时最不看重的(“出国旅行的机会”、“专业对口”、“职业流动性”);学生认为旅行社存在超工作时间、超工作量、晋升机制不合理、起薪不理想等行业不规范现状,但学生也认为旅行社具有锻造高技能、有责任感人才的就业优势.根据学生择业标准与旅行社的就业认知IPA分析结果,文章提出了相应的对策来改善旅游本科生行业就业率低的问题.     

The gap between male and female pay in the Spanish tourism industry

This paper analyzes wage differentials between male and female workers in the Spanish tourism industry, using a large, administratively matched employer–employee data set obtained from a representative sample of companies. This allows us to control for unobserved firm-specific factors likely to affect the magnitude of the gender wage gap. Our findings indicate that male workers earn on average 6.7% higher monthly wages than their socially comparable female counterparts. In particular, the type of contract held, the qualifications required for the job and the specific sub-sector of employment are very important variables in explaining this gender wage difference. We also find that only around 12% of the mean wage difference in the tourism industry cannot be explained by differences in observable characteristics, which is well below the average for the rest of the industries in Spain (87%). Our interpretation is that minimum wage legislation provides a particularly effective protection to women in the tourism industry, which is characterized by a large number of low-wage earners.     

Gushing about black gold: oil and natural gas tourism in Texas

Coal mines, factories, and many other forms of industrial heritage have been well documented in terms of tourist motivations, economic impacts, and community attitudes, but little attention has been given to tourism associated with oil and natural gas, among the world’s most significant and controversial natural resources. Texas is arguably the US state most widely associated with the resource, economically, politically, and culturally. As the site of several historic oil booms, extensive onshore and offshore oilfields, and important contemporary oil and natural gas hubs, Texas has a strong associated heritage dating back over 100 years. This article is a discussion of the major discourses found in the interpretative material and site design at nine prominent oil and natural gas tourism sites in Texas. Major interpretive themes found across five or more of the tourism sites are analyzed in terms of similarities and differences in how they represent the heritage and influences of oil and natural gas. Discourses identified at the tourism sites include: an emphasis on boomtowns and the contemporary industry, a focus on wildcatters and influential oilmen, the science and technology of production, positive impacts of oil and natural gas, essential oil and natural gas products, and industry recruitment.     

Role interpretation during service encounters: A critical review of modern approaches to service quality management

This paper tries to place the notion of employee role interpretation within concerns for service quality. More specifically, it argues a case that dyadic analysis reveals that role reinterpretation is a process that can adversely affect service encounters when it takes place within the encounter. The paper addresses the issue of how relationships in personal service encounters deteriorate and explores this issue in the context of tourism and hospitality. The rationale for such an approach is acceptance of the limits of emotional labour and the lack of explanation in the literature for the variable results of normative managerial approaches to service quality. Role interpretation is seen as being distinctive form of coping outside the acting solutions of emotional labour and the purview of organisational culture as it is currently conceived. One consequence of arguing for the salience of role interpretation is a view of job satisfaction that places the concept of ‘job’ as being as important as that of satisfaction with it.     

中国旅游地理研究：成果应用转化和研究技术革新

旅游的产业属性决定了旅游地理研究的实践性,在服务国家战略和产业实践需求的过程中,中国旅游地理学科呈现出研究领域、方法和应用的新特征。本文围绕旅游规划、旅游资源、旅游大数据和旅游实验方法等进行总结与展望,认为：（1）旅游规划是透视旅游地理研究发展的重要视角,旅游规划的知识域主要包括旅游开发战略与对策、旅游业与旅游企业、乡村旅游与乡村振兴等12个方面;（2）新时代文化和旅游资源普查面临文旅资源保护和整合利用的重大现实需求,为旅游地理研究带来了文旅资源的内涵与分类评价、普查信息集成与应用、普查技术与组织方式等新命题;（3）大数据背景下要求旅游地理探寻新科学问题,重点要关注大数据旅游统计测量模型和指标规则的规范,数据伦理与信息茧房,大数据旅游现象的地理效应和相关空间格局等研究;（4）实验研究方法在认识论层面从描述走向解释预测,在方法论层面从调查走向直接测量,为认识和理解旅游情境下人地关系的核心科学问题提供了“科学化”的研究路径。因此,面对新时代战略要求和旅游业发展趋势,旅游地理学应加强产业实践、研究方法和学科交叉研究,提升学科服务国家战略和社会经济发展的支撑能力。     

Residents' Perceptions Towards Sociocultural Impacts Induced by Internal Migration

The economic development brought about by tourism often induces migration to an emerging tourism region. A constructivist paradigm with semi-structured interviews was employed. This paper aims to interpret residents' social constructions towards the sociocultural impacts of tourism-induced internal labour migration in a Thai context. Western studies assume there are clear negative and positive impacts of tourism development. These sociocultural impacts of tourism in the Western literature are applicable in a Thai context. However, most previous studies on sociocultural impacts of tourism look from the outside but it is significant that nobody has looked from an inside Thai perspective. Local residents in Koh Samui attribute the majority of sociocultural impacts to labour migration from the Isan region of Thailand. This paper starts with an analysis of labour forces in Thailand, and how tourism and labour migration are interrelated. In addition, the ethnic identity of the Isan people is examined.