The implications of hotel employee attitudes for the development of quality tourism: the case of Cyprus

In an increasingly competitive market, the issue of quality has grown in significance for tourism businesses and destinations alike. This has been influenced by a number of factors, such as the expansion of consumer rights and the alleged emergence ‘new’, quality conscious tourists. In particular, it is the need to retain or increase competitive advantage that has underpinned the drive for quality in tourism—certainly, many destinations, especially those operating in the highly competitive summer-sun market, are now adopting quality tourism development strategies. However, little or no attention has been paid to the role of tourism industry employees, particularly those in hotels, in the success of quality management programmes. The purpose of this paper is to address this omission. Based upon a survey of hotel employees in Cyprus, it identifies a number of factors that may support or limit the drive towards quality service provision, with a variety of implications for the destination as a whole as well as individual hotels. In particular, hotel management should implement strategies based on reward systems, empowerment and reducing staff turnover, whilst there is an important co-ordination and guidance role to be played by the national tourism organisation.     

Applicability of the market appeal—robusticity matrix: a case study of heritage tourism

Hong Kong is a city where contemporary global culture coexists with traditional Chinese heritage. One way of promoting Hong Kong's traditional built heritage is to develop a number of linked sites as a heritage trail. For helping the development of such, this study evaluates the applicability of the market appeal—robusticity matrix on heritage tourism development, by assessing the potential for tourism in the single-surname villages of Hong Kong's New Territories. The study techniques include documentary research, questionnaire survey and interviews. The findings indicate the matrix is effective for enabling the assessment of heritage tourism potential because it simultaneously demonstrates the importance of two major considerations for both tourism industry and heritage managers, namely market appeal—an asset's appeal to tourists, and robusticity—its ability to endure visitation. The shortcomings of the model includes the inappropriateness of the technical term “product design needs” in the market appeal subset and lack of community concerns in the robusticity subset of the matrix.     

Crisis Management in Tourism

SUMMARY

Anticipating and preparing to deal with the threat of crises precipitated by disaster from natural and people-made catastrophes is an important challenge facing tourism. As an industry tourism is particularly susceptible to such negative events putting the sector under almost constant threat of a crisis. Before the catastrophes of 9/11 and the Asian Tsunami of 2004 crisis management in tourism was essentially a reactive response, as opposed to a state of proactive anticipation. A review of the emerging literature on crisis management in tourism is given to identify the foci of the current academic discourse. More systematic input by human resource management was identified as a way to assist tourism businesses in preparing for and dealing with crises. By discussing crisis management within a services management context, a contribution is made to the debate on the need for proactive crisis management within the tourism industry. A central plank to this position is that the preparation stage of crisis management in tourism is the actual beginning of any strategic response to recovery. Well conceived and executed human development is promoted as an initiative and key component of crisis preparation and management. Developing the potential of human capital at the industry and enterprise level to deal with crisis management is a way of reducing the vulnerability of tourism enterprises to crises. Measures are suggested that may be taken to prepare tourism businesses for crisis situations.     

Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change

This paper reviews key themes that impact on the role and management of human resources in tourism (primarily relating to work and employment) and assesses whether the past 20 years provides evidence of significant change within the sector. The paper considers the status of work in tourism and reflects upon the impact that key environmental developments have had upon employment—the practice of human resource management in contemporary tourism; the impact of global and social forces on perceptions of work and careers; the impact of ICT on work and employment in tourism; changing interpretations of skills within tourism; and the increasingly diverse nature of the tourism workforce in developed countries. Conclusions are drawn which point to a “hung jury” in considering whether change in the tourism workplace, over the review timeframe, has been ephemeral or more fundamental.     

Tourism and social change reply to Romsa

While most state socialist societies attempt to attract large scale foreign tourism, the Albanians continue to constrain the numbers and movements of foreign tourists permitted onto their soil. Within the framework of three “contexts”—the organizational, the environmental, and the perceptual—this paper briefly looks at the individuality of the Albanian approach to foreign tourism: implicitly, as a possible model for other small, less developed societies. Finally, questions are raised as to the future of tourism in Albania given an imminent change —after forty years—in the country's dogmatic leadership.     

Mission statements of international airlines: a content analysis

A well-designed mission statement is essential for formulating, implementing, and evaluating business strategy. Yet the role of the mission statement in the strategic management of business firms has not been sufficiently highlighted in the research literature. It is not surprising that minimal attention has been paid to the role of mission statements in the strategic management of tourism and hospitality organisations. This paper attempts to remedy this apparent neglect. It focuses on the international airline industry by selecting 50 mission statements from corporate websites.¹ The mission statements are then analysed to determine the extent to which they conform to commonly accepted views of the ‘ideal’ mission statement. Variations from the stated ‘ideal’ are highlighted and discussed. Conclusions are drawn regarding the role of mission statements in the strategic management of tourism and hospitality organisations.     

Aspects of service-dominant logic and its implications for tourism management: Examples from the hotel industry

This paper introduces the concept of service-dominant logic as a research paradigm in marketing management. It does so in the context of tourism management’s need to engage with wider debates within the mainstream management literature. Moreover it demonstrates the importance of service-dominant logic in uncovering the role played by co-production and co-creation in the tourism industry. These ideas are developed in detail through a case study of the UK hotel industry that draws on new empirical research undertaken by the authors.     

Consumerism in Sustainable Tourism: A Survey of UK Consumers

This article presents the results of a survey of tourism consumers from the Destinations Travel Show in the UK in 2000. Four hundred and eleven tourism consumers were interviewed over four days at the show on the type of information that they used in the selection of their holiday destination. This article posits that the power of the consumer can be a major force for progress towards greater sustainability by the tourism industry, acting as a rationale for change, which is often missing from more traditional planning, management or regulatory techniques. The research shows consumers are already making decisions based on environmental, social and economic quality for day-to-day products and are keen to transfer these habits to the purchase of tourism products. Recommendations are made, highlighting the need for the tourism industry to capitalise on this demand for a wider range of product information and so promote moves towards greater levels of sustainability in the industry.     

Crisis Management—

SUMMARY

This paper reviews the crisis preparedness of the Greek passenger shipping industry after two widely publicized crises events (Superfast III and Express Samina). As far as Greece is concerned, the travel and tourism industry is one of the most significant contributors to the country's GDP at a rate of more than 10% and the country's passenger shipping industry contributes fundamentally to this figure. Overall findings suggest that both the State as well as the passenger shipping companies encompass crisis management tools and mechanisms to protect the industry, and the whole Greek tourism sector. This paper also identifies the 'ripple effect,' the wider implications a crisis can have on the business environment. Therefore the Faulkner (2001a,b) model for tourism disaster management framework is adapted to accommodate permanent changes enforced on the whole industry as an outcome of a crisis situation.     

Tourism's external account and the balance of payments

This paper argues that the balance of payments on tourism account is not the best measure of economic tourism activity needed for good policy formulation at the government level. The balance on tourism should be replaced with a broader concept, tourism's external account, which includes expenditures and receipts from tourists together with those other international transactions which follow indirectly from tourism. This concept will provide a broader understanding of the tourism industry so that better policy decisions can be made.     

Sociocultural dimensions of tourism history

This paper explores some of the sociocultural issues that surround tourism history. It is contended that tourist activity is socially differentiated, but that this is by no means solely a product of prevailing class and related structural constraints. Instead, importance must be attached to the cultural setting within which activity is located and to the role of the consumer in creating new opportunities. Two case studies — plotland development and holiday camps — are used to demonstrate the thesis. Conclusions are drawn in respect of the study of tourism history, arguing for interdisciplinarity, for comparative research, and for further work on the inter-relationships between societal constraints and individual opportunities.     

Crisis Management and Tourism

Summary

Undoubtedly, the tourism industry is one of the most susceptible and vulnerable industries to crises. Recent major events that had devastating impacts on the industry ranges from natural disasters to epidemics, and from mismanagement to terrorist attacks. These kinds of episodes are not confined to any geographical region, as crises respect no political or cultural boundaries. Two major recent events illustrate this point: the BSE crisis in the UK in the 1990s, which was followed by the foot and mouth disease in 2000 and 2001, crippled the industry in several regions of England. Most recently, the events of September 11th in New York and Washington changed the way the industry operates forever. Crises are not new to the tourism industry. However, it has been observed that tourism management capability and ability to deal with complex and critical situations are limited.

This paper discusses the concept of crisis management and its relevance to tourism. It presents an overview of the general trends in tourism crises events of the last two decades, assesses the impacts of major man-made crises on the industry, and argues for the importance of crisis management in tourism management. The paper also discusses the complex issue of crisis definition and its implications for organizations, and provides an operational definition of crisis management. Critical issues in crisis management, such as crisis anatomy, crisis incubation, risk perception in tourism and destination image, are discussed. Finally, the paper explores and analyses, in the context of crisis anatomy, the public sector handling of a major resort pollution crisis in Southern Brazil.     

Teaching for critical thinking: preparing hospitality and tourism students for careers in the twenty-first century

Twenty-first century tourism educators and career-seeking graduates are faced with a host of novel challenges. Given the dynamic, complex nature of the contemporary tourism industry, students must be equipped with relevant twenty-first century skills. To address this need, critical thinking is currently being promoted, via university initiatives, as an employable skill. This study assesses the extent to which critical thinking is being transmitted to tourism students at a large southeastern university in the United States. Precourse and postcourse data were collected from students (n = 85) who participated in a tourism management class, that emphasized case study learning, during the fall 2014, spring 2015, and spring 2016 semesters. Uncorrected results indicate significant positive increases in overall critical thinking and two of five sub-domains – inference and deduction; however, in the conservative, corrected results there are no significant effects. Recommendations for improving critical thinking and three sub-domains – analysis, evaluation, and induction – are discussed.     

Tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment beliefs and work values among Australian schools leavers

Five hundred and ninety-four Australian high school students were surveyed so as to investigate basic work values and tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment criteria. The most highly ranked work values were self-development, creativity and management, whereas the most highly ranked tourism and hospitality industry job-attainment criteria were motivation, positive attitudes and personal appearance. Females were found to rank highly criteria such as motivation, positive attitudes and a liking for people, whereas males are found to rank highly the contacts of the applicant. Prospective tourism and hospitality industry employees generally associated the work value-self development with a range of tourism and hospitality job-attainment criteria, though not formal education and contacts. The work value regarding management was, however, associated with personal appearance, practical experience, good references and positive attitudes. Implications of these results for prospective tourism and hospitality industry employees, careers counsellors and the industry are examined.     

Redefining Rural Tourism in Malaysia: A Conceptual Perspective

There is little consensus on the definition for rural tourism. Researchers from different countries have developed their own definitions based on their unique experiences or contexts. In Malaysia, the current definition for rural tourism is rather vague, narrow and focuses on homestay programmes in rural areas. As rural tourism is an important component of the tourism industry in Malaysia, there is a need to redefine what rural tourism is, so that it encompasses the multiple dimensions and complexities. Hence, this paper proposes to redefine rural tourism in Malaysia. The objective was achieved through a content analysis of the different definitions used in selected developed and developing economies that were available in the published literature. With the clear understanding of what rural tourism should ideally encompass, the findings from the study can be used to guide the Malaysian Government in re-positioning rural tourism as a key niche industry and boost the tourism industry higher up the value chain.     

人格特质对旅游管理专业实习生留职意愿影响研究——组织社会化的中介作用

文章以旅游管理专业大学本科实习生为例,实证分析实习生人格特质与其在本行业留职意愿之间的关系,并探讨组织社会化的中介作用.结果显示,外倾性、勤勉正直性人格特质对留职意愿具有显著的正向预测作用,情绪敏感性人格特质对留职意愿具有显著的负向预测作用;工作胜任社会化、组织文化社会化在外倾性人格特质和留职意愿的关系中起完全中介作用;工作胜任社会化、人际关系社会化在勤勉正直性人格特质对留职意愿的影响中起部分中介作用.据此,文章最后提出了相关建议.     

Sustaining the Physical and Social Dimensions of Wilderness Tourism: The Perceptual Approach to Wilderness Management in New Zealand

The dynamics of the tourism industry are well illustrated by the case of New Zealand's tourism development over the last decade. The number of international tourists visiting New Zealand has doubled in the last ten years to approximately 1.5 million annual visitors. Associated with this growth has been a significant shift in patterns of tourist demand. No longer do most tourists simply comply with established tourist routes linking the high profile scenic attractions. Rather tourists have demonstrated a preference for more independent and dispersed patterns of travel, including an increase in demand for settings that offer subjective qualities of wilderness experience. This poses a complex but intriguing management challenge. If wilderness recreation involves pristine natural settings in the complete absence of facility development and visitor management, then these resources are more prone to degradation so than any other natural tourism resources. This paper suggests that an understanding of tourist perceptions of wilderness is crucial to the management of wilderness tourism, and considers the application of the perceptual approach to wilderness tourism as a means of sustaining wilderness values while promoting the satisfaction of visitor expectations.     

Crisis Management Planning to Restore Tourism After Disasters

SUMMARY

The tourism industry is vulnerable to natural and human induced incidents such as terrorist attacks, political instability, flood and earthquakes. On September 21st 1999, a devastating earthquake struck Taiwan which caused severe damage to both local people and the tourism industry. This paper proposes an innovative integrated approach that could be adopted as a crisis management plan for Taiwan to restore its tourism industry. A thorough review of the crisis management literature is introduced and examined to generate an integrated crisis management framework. It is anticipated that this framework could accelerate tourism recovery by showing secure images for tourists, and hence the competitiveness of a tourist nation could be enhanced through sound crisis management practices.     

Tourism and information technologies

The apparent mismatch between tourism and technology can be reconciled by a closer examination of the tourism production system (TPS) and the technologies likely to affect it. It is found that a whole system of information technologies (SIT) is being adopted by all segments of the travel industry. The SIT, however, will not attack the human content of tourism. Rather, it will affect the core information-intensive areas of management, organization, product blending and packaging, marketing, distribution and industry linkages. Factors likely to affect the diffusion of the SIT in tourism are identified. Implications of technology adoption for future organization, management, and distribution of tourism services are drawn out.     

寻求旅游企业管理理念的新突破

在进入21世纪的今天，中国旅游业面临着诸多挑战，因此旅游企业的管理理念应有着新的调整。回顾上个世纪全球有关管理发展，针对旅游企业服务的个性特征，其中的确有着不少值得重新思考的地方。抛弃一些不切实际的旧口号，使旅游企业管理获得更多的新思维必须提到当前管理研究的日程。