Managing solid waste in small hotels

Collectively, small hotels constitute a significant solid waste management (SWM) problem. Little research has focused on the SWM practices of small hotels. In the United Kingdom, much of the solid waste generated by small hotels goes to landfill. This study uses a constructionist approach to investigate SWM issues in small hotels in a local authority in Wales and examines the role of the public sector in helping small hotels manage their solid waste effectively. The results revealed that only a minority of small hotels were considering the adoption of sustainable SWM practices, either because hoteliers felt negatively about sustainable SWM alternatives or perceived challenges – an issue which necessitates government intervention. At the time of this study, the public sector provided only very modest services to enhance SWM practices. This study proposes a best practice model for the public sector to encourage small hotels to manage their solid waste effectively, in order to reduce or even eliminate waste for landfill. Local authorities' support is required to make waste management hierarchy options more accessible to small hotels and should incentivise better waste management through increasing the gap between the costs of landfill and recycling waste.     

Watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 in England: the sojourner perspective

Recent years have seen an emergence of a varied academic literature focused on the football fan, with a wealth of studies exploring issues such as hooliganism, fan behaviour and fan identification. No research, however, has documented the experiences and perspectives of the international sojourner, who follows the televised tournament far away from the home country. This paper offers a contribution to the literature on fandom by focusing on the experiences of becoming a temporary fan among a sample of nine international students in England during the period of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It shows the importance of the tournament for students away from their home nation, acting as a point of celebration and as a means of bringing sojourners of the same nationality together to support their team. It reveals how the tournament offered escape from stress, became a focal point for social interaction, provided the opportunity for recreation of home, and for the reinforcement of feelings of national identity.     

A model of serious leisure identification: the case of football fandom

Stebbins (1992) has suggested that the ‘profit hypothesis’, whereby the perceived benefits of taking part in an activity exceed the perceived costs, can be used to explain continued engagement in serious leisure activities. This argument, however, fails to explain the continued participation in such activities where the costs to the individual seem to exceed the rewards. This paper adopts a social identity perspective to identify and demonstrate the role of four compensatory behaviours – in-group favouritism, out-group derogation, unrealistic optimism, and voice – in ensuring continued participation in serious leisure. Such behaviours are described in the context of one particular serious leisure activity – that of football fandom – to explain why engagement in such an apparently unrewarding activity is maintained. A model of serious leisure participation is presented based upon these behaviours     

Partnerships in action: strategies for the development of voluntary community groups in urban parks

This paper examines the managerial implications of establishing and developing Friends groups as a form of community involvement in the management of urban parks. It argues that there is a need within the literature for more research into the micro-management processes of public participation. The paper presents the findings of a longitudinal grounded theory study into the management of Friends groups as a form of public participation in two English local councils that have substantial experience of operating with such community groups. It introduces the concept of the process of Resource Expansioning and elaborates the various stages and phases of this process. The conclusion is that this form of innovative community involvement is unlikely to be successful without substantial two-way commitment on the part of both the local council and the community, and unless parks officers are able to manage the Friends groups through the clearly demarcated development stages of the Resource Expansioning process.     

Conservation finance and sustainable tourism: the acceptability of conservation fees to support the Tambopata National Reserve,Peru

Protected areas are key to the conservation of global biodiversity and ecosystem services; however, their success is contingent upon adequate funding. One possibility to increase funding for park management is to “sell” a wider suite of ecosystem services “produced” by protected areas, such as carbon sequestration. We conducted 420 tourist surveys to analyze willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem service benefits via a conservation fee in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. We also interviewed eight tour operators about their perceptions of the proposed fee. The average stated WTP was 15 USD. Sixty-six percent of tourists stated they would pay 10 USD or more, which, if actually paid, would have resulted in 318,000 USD for park management in 2015. Most respondents stated they would pay an additional fee if it supported biodiversity conservation or local ecosystem services, such as water, but less than 10% of tourists were motivated by carbon sequestration as a reason to pay the fee. Most tour operators supported the additional fee. Our findings suggest that tourists are willing to pay higher fees to support conservation but that interest in paying for additional ecosystem services from parks may not extend to global and intangible benefits such as carbon sequestration.     

Securing graduate commitment: an exploration of the comparative expectations of placement students, graduate recruits and human resource managers within the hospitality, leisure and tourism industries

This research begins the process of mapping out human resource (HR) strategies appropriate to the needs of actual and potential graduate employees. The perceptions and attitudes of placement students, recent graduates working in the sector and managers with responsibility for graduate development were surveyed, looking at the elements that make up the initial psychological contract of students on first encounter with the sector; the types of organisational HR practice that are seen as meeting the needs of employees; the role that universities can play in constructing expectations and bridging gaps between the graduate and the employer. It was found that the nature of the contract shifts from relational to transactional between placement and employment.     

An Empirical Comparison of the Four Channel Flow Model and Adventure Experience Paradigm

The objective of this study was to conduct empirical comparisons between two models of optimal experience within an on-site whitewater kayaking setting using a modification of the Experience Sampling Method. Four concerns are examined: (1) differences in explanatory power between the four channel flow model and the Adventure Experience Paradigm, (2) convergent validity among measures used to determine conditions within these models, (3) differences among measures of perceived challenge and risk between test times of Class I-V river difficulty, and (4) differences among measures of perceived skill and competence between test times of Class I-V river difficulty. Questionnaires were administered in the Cheat River Canyon in West Virginia to 52 whitewater kayakers at eight sites of various levels of river difficulty. Data were analyzed at the experience level, rather than between subjects, using 409 experience sampling observations. Hypothesis testing, performed with statistical analyses (stepwise regression, correlations, and repeated measures ANOVA), suggested that the explanatory powers of the four channel flow model and Adventure Experience Paradigm were similar and indicated support for convergent and ecological validity of measures used to determine conditions within each of the two models.     

Fellow’s opinion corner: Econometric information recovery

The purpose of this paper is to initiate a discussion on the incorrect nature of our economic–econometric models and methods, and to make a plea for information theoretic recovery methods consistent with the data that we must use and with the questions that we need to ask.