Smart Tourism in Destinations

Business enterprises have gained leverage through artificial intelligence (AI) in the tourism and hospitality industry. The roots of the concept and its link with big data environment has drawn a lot of interest from researchers. The employment of technology has increased economic viability of tourism enterprises due to the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency it creates for tourism and hospitality organizations. The chapter views the emergence of smart tourism in destination management in accordance with sustainable tourism concept and evaluates the issue both in supply side and demand side of tourism. Moreover, it aims to discuss the use of such a paradigm. If the destinations have a viable ground for motivational change to adapt, this philosophy will also be high lightened. For this reason, value creation will be evaluated in accordance with cost-benefit assessment.

Group diversity and employee service innovative behavior in the hospitality industry: a multilevel model

Purpose Service innovative behavior from employees helps hospitality organizations gain a competitive advantage and sustain business flourishment. Although group diversity has been demonstrated as a predictor of employee outcomes, whether group diversity in terms of extraversion and openness enhances employee service innovative behavior remains a gap. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a multilevel model of the direct relationship between group diversity in terms of extraversion and openness and employee service innovative behavior and also the mediations and moderations behind the relationship. Design/methodology/approach The authors collectd data from 44 Chinese hospitality teams. The research model was validated by multilevel structural equation modeling. Findings Results showed that both group extraversion diversity and group openness diversity fostered employee service innovative behavior via creative self-efficacy. Developmental culture strengthened the effectiveness of group openness diversity on creative self-efficacy and the effectiveness of creative self-efficacy on employee service innovative behavior. Nevertheless, developmental culture did not strengthen the effectiveness of group extraversion diversity on creative self-efficacy. Practical implications Findings suggest that managers and team leaders from hospitality organizations can elicit employee service innovative behavior through increasing group diversity in terms of extraversion and openness. Hospitality practitioners also should understand that employees’ confidence for creativity is able to channel group diversity into employee service innovative endeavors. Moreover, building developmental culture is essential for hospitality teams to strengthen the effect of group diversity on innovating services. Originality/value This study expands the diversity-innovation research through unfolding both the mediations and the moderations behind the link between group diversity in terms of extraversion and openness and employee service innovative behavior.

Globetrotting adventures in digital data governance and ethics

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper formulates a framework for managing data ethically – which incorporates data governance – for tourism and hospitality organizations (THOs). The framework encourages THOs, like Airbnb and Booking.com, to move beyond mere compliance and into ethical trust-building among their customer communities. This creates the social license needed to overcome controversial challenges like data breaches, and the invasion of COVID passports and other civil liberty restrictions that impact the travel sector. A privacy framework balancing customer and THO interests rests on four pillars: Compliance, Privacy and ethics, Equitable exchanges of data, and Social license to operate. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Can human resource flexibility disentangle innovative work behavior among hospitality employees? The roles of harmonious passion and regulatory foci

Purpose The ongoing improvement of hospitality services stems from innovative behavior among employees. This study aims to investigate how and when human resource (HR) flexibility promotes hospitality employees’ innovative work behavior. Design/methodology/approach The data were garnered from 438 employees and 67 managers from 19 hotels operating in Vietnam. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings The positive association was observed between HR flexibility and innovative work behavior. Harmonious passion functioned as a mediator for such a relationship. While promotion focus was found to positively interact with HR flexibility to predict employee harmonious passion, prevention focus demonstrated an attenuating effect on the association between HR flexibility and harmonious passion. Practical implications The findings suggest that hospitality organizations can promote innovative work behavior among employees through building skill and behavioral flexibility, as well as flexibility in HR practices. Hospitality organizations should also realize the role of harmonious passion as a mechanism that can channel HR flexibility into innovative work behavior and the interactive effect of promotion focus and HR flexibility on fostering harmonious passion and, in turn, innovative work behavior. Originality/value This inquiry advances the strand of research on the HR management-innovative behavior linkage by offering insights into how and when HR flexibility promotes innovative work behavior among hotel employees.

Transformation of the hospitality services marketing structure: a chaos theory perspective

Purpose Drawing on chaos theory as an overarching approach, as well as guidelines from effectuation and transformative learning theories, this study aims to evaluate the changing marketing channels in the hospitality industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aims to develop a conceptual framework that demonstrates the transformation of the marketing structure; in particular, the transformation of hospitality organizations, employees and customers. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the hermeneutic method and conceptually evaluates the existing actors of the services marketing structure. It also discusses how to transform this structure into the new normal in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings The findings of the study demonstrated that COVID-19 has resulted in changing marketing channels in the hospitality industry. These include external, internal, interactive and substitutional marketing channels. In response to these changes, the hospitality industry needs to adopt a more transformative marketing structure that requires the transformation of hospitality companies, employees and customers. Research limitations/implications The conceptualized transformation of the services marketing structure could help hospitality practitioners, employees and customers to understand the new normal and acquire new abilities, meanings, awareness and learning accordingly. Originality/value This study uses chaos, effectuation and transformative learning theories to reconceptualize the hospitality services marketing structure. The contribution of this paper lies in the conceptual pathways it suggests for transforming hospitality firms, employees and customers and for demonstrating their transformed roles and positions in the wake of the pandemic.

Service Priority Climate and Service Performance Among Hospitality Employees: The Role of Emotional Labor and Workload Pressure

Frontline hotel employees face a complex organizational environment that constantly makes multiple demands, creating a persistent trade-off between service as a key element of the organization’s strategy and other competing or even conflicting goals. This study proposes an integrated and unique way of discerning the relationship between service climate and service performance through the prism of surface and deep acting emotional labor and suggests a new dimension of the service climate—the service priority climate. Specifically, we examined employees’ use of emotional labor strategies as a mechanism that explains the relationship between service priority climate and service performance. We also investigated whether workload pressure influences this relationship. Using a multilevel, multisource study, we surveyed a sample of 245 hotel employees working in 39 departments and their direct managers. The results demonstrated that when employees regarded service as a priority compared with other competing goals, they used more deep acting emotional labor strategies, resulting in better service performance. However, this was apparent only when workload pressure was low. Implications for hospitality organizations are discussed.

The mediating role of workplace flourishing on the causal link between linguistic ostracism and withdrawal behavior

PurposeWorkplace flourishing and withdrawal behavior are important concepts for human resource practitioners in today’s multicultural and multilingual work atmosphere. Despite the prevalence of linguistic ostracism, only a handful of studies have considered its impact on workplace flourishing and withdrawal behavior. This paper embarks on unveiling the nature of these associations.Design/methodology/approachA sample of n = 395 employee responses was obtained from Jordanian tourism and hospitality organizations. The data were analyzed with the variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM) technique using ADANCO software.FindingsVB-SEM results indicate that linguistic ostracism reduces workplace flourishing and indirectly increases withdrawal behavior through the mediating role of workplace flourishing. Decreased feelings of workplace flourishing resulted in increased withdrawal behavior.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to empirically examine the association between linguistic ostracism, workplace flourishing and withdrawal behavior and the mediating role of workplace flourishing using ethnolinguistic identity and stressor–emotion theories as a theoretical framework. Implications for practice and theory are discussed alongside future research directions.

Tourist Experience and Innovative Hospitality Management in Different Cities

The complexity of modern tourism and hospitality management because of competition in the destination market, and especially in urban tourism destinations, has created a demand for creativity and innovation. To satisfy heightened tourist expectations for a specialized experience, hospitality organizations emphasize local culture characteristics and the urban community. The purpose of this paper is to examine how an urban hospitality organization emphasizes community and social values in its hostels, and how the tourist experience is adapted to each city’s culture and atmosphere (Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv). The theoretical framework is based on the link connecting urban hospitality with the tourist experience, and how tourism innovation and creativity is managed, during this age of competition and specialization. The qualitative methodology includes participant observation, document review, and in-depth interviews. The findings of this study add a new dimension to the existing knowledge, namely the role of creativity and innovation in helping the management of an urban hospitality organization to shape the tourist experience. The study developed a new unique model for “implementing innovation in urban hospitality management” which describes the framework of connections and interactions between the various sustainable community based and social aspects. The novelty of this research model lies in the emphasis on how management uses innovation and creativity to brand the whole chain so as to realize the vision and values it wishes to promote. This also entails a system of sub-positioning that aligns the vision and values with the distinctive culture of each city and with each local community’s nature and traditions.