Segmenting networking orientation in the hospitality industry: An empirical research on service bundling

This paper focuses on the topic of collaboration in tourism destinations. Collaboration is key to overcome the fragmentation of the tourism industry and to better satisfy the more and more experience-centric tourist. Tourism operators are increasingly involved in various types of collaborative partnerships. One among them is service bundling, which is the creation and the supply of tourism packages. The study analyses the drivers of the development of service bundling and provides a segmentation of the hospitality industry according to operators’ networking orientation. A sample of 164 hoteliers from a tourism-based region in Italy was surveyed. Four clusters of hoteliers were identified and profiled: the Relational/Socials, the Opportunists, the Innovators, and the Marketers. Each shows a specific approach to collaboration and reveals different motivations to be engaged in a partnership. Some managerial implications and directions for policy makers are also provided.