Innovation Management in the Tourism Industry

This chapter examines innovation and innovation management in the tourism industry. To this end, the chapter first defines innovation for businesses in the tourism industry and investigates the importance of innovation, characteristics of innovation in tourism businesses, and types of innovation. In addition, the stages of the innovation development process for successful innovation management in tourism businesses, the factors that prevent the development of innovation, and the success factors for the development of innovation are discussed. This chapter will contribute to the development of an insight into the importance of innovation in the tourism industry, which is highly dynamic, variable, and risky, and reveal the factors necessary for the creation and implementation of successful innovation programs.

Assessing the Core Competence of the Tourism Enterprise in Nigeria

Tourism, like other sectors of a country's economy, influences its global competitiveness. Several countries have recorded successes in socio-economic diversification, quick penetration, and transitioning in foreign direct investments. However, in Nigeria, the numerous socio-economic potentials, human capital, and natural resources are evident. The capsuled elements that accord it that gigantic status include its geographical location, heterogeneous culture/heritage, land mass, and population. This chapter examines the extent to which these resources can be effectively explored to achieve competitive advantage. Taking into consideration the internal strengths and opportunities, this chapter adopts the framework of Prahlad and Hamel's core competence model to proffer practical managerial solutions for the tourism enterprise in Nigeria. The findings suggest that the key drivers in the growth of the tourism enterprise in Nigeria are managerial skills, phenomena, and environment.

Empowerment in Tourism

Empowerment is an approach that provides employees to participate in the management, control the processes, and decide about the problems by taking initiatives. Employee empowerment is important to develop service quality, respond faster to customer needs, ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty, and provide competitive advantage to the organization. In this context in the tourism sector where service presentation and consumption take place in a direct relationship with the customer, employees should be empowered. In this chapter, definition and importance of employee empowerment, employee empowerment approaches, concepts about the employee empowerment, employee empowerment elements, methods that enable employee empowerment, employee empowerment in tourism organizations, and the benefits of employee empowerment are explained by literature review.

Leadership and Innovation on Business Tourism

This chapter analyses the impact of innovation on business tourism success and the relationship between leader and employee to develop the hotel's ability to become competitive. Recent developments in the hospitality industry are a challenge not only for leader, but also for employees, and then they are forced to perform innovations activities. Today, the most visible innovation in tourism is that brought by new technologies, which modify behavior and facilitate and enrich travel experiences in multiple ways. So, the leaders of this industry must always be very close to their employees and must really encourage participation and innovative ideas within the organization.

Information Security Awareness in Tourism Enterprises

With the increase in information technology use, problems related to the security of these technologies have become significant. Businesses are required to acquire information, use information technologies, and rely on the information they collected to continue their presence. The requirement of information technology use and related security problems cannot be ignored by both individuals and businesses. One of the industries with large data pools is the tourism industry. Thus, the protection of personal or corporate information is a process that should be managed especially for businesses. In order for this management process to be successful, it is necessary for the corporations to have security policies that are supported by the senior management, possible to implement and understand, and accepted at all corporate levels. Thus, the present study aimed to explain the significance of information security, especially the security of the information in the tourism industry, which is as an important part of the service industry.

Diversity Management and Organizational Socialization

In the current study, it is aimed to determine the effect of diversity management on organizational socialization in tourism enterprises. For this purpose, a questionnaire was conducted with 215 employees who work in hotel enterprises with tourism operation certificate. Regression and correlation analysis were performed using the data obtained from the survey. Analysis results reveal that the diversity management practices in hotel enterprises positively affect the dimensions of organizational socialization, and organizational socialization dimensions are significantly explained by the diversity management dimensions. In addition, according to the correlation analysis results, there is a high positive correlation between diversity management and organizational socialization. In this context, the positive management of employee differences within the organization and non-discriminative approach positively affects the relationships of the employees with other and can increase their level of organizational socialization through job adaptation.

Essential Financial Management Skills for Tourism Enterprises

Financial management is crucial for tourism enterprises as well as the other enterprises that focus on obtaining and effectively utilizing the funds necessary for efficient business operations. The primary objective of an enterprise is to generate profit that is the revenues must exceed the expenses. The indisputable fact is that financial managers require the skills to make the best decision for profit maximization. Otherwise, the resources are wasted, poor decisions get made, and the financial performance of the organization suffers, as a result. The aim of this chapter is to determine the essential financial management skills for owners/managers of tourism enterprises to improve their financial performance. Therefore, essential financial management skills are identified according to the financial characteristics of tourism enterprises for financial managers to improve and develop the financial performance of the enterprise.

The Restaurant Industry in the New Era

Food production and consumption have shown significant changes in the recent past. These phenomena reflect on the restaurant industry, which is a major setting for food consumption. Restaurant customers now are more concerned about their health, more value conscious, digitally involved, demanding for more convenient and individualized service, and above all not only expect a meal but a “unique experience” from a restaurant. All these factors present challenges for businesses and oblige them to adapt their strategies and policies accordingly. Restaurant characteristics affecting customer choice is an extensively researched subject. The current trends shaping customers' lifestyles and preferences have made it necessary to update and make modifications to the restaurant choice criteria used in prior research. Restaurant managers also must identify the new customer needs and expectations. Up-to-date research will provide valuable information to businesses in this area to adapt their strategies accordingly and ensure the sustainability of their business.

Equal Opportunities and Managing Diversity in Tourism Management

All the changes are based on the ability to make the most of the human resources they possess, rather than the material elements, in order to survive in an environment of increasing creativity and competition. According to the businesspeople, physical, mental, and emotional dimensions are different from each other. Although it is difficult to manage the human resources that have these differences, the capacity and success level of the enterprise will increase when it is managed effectively. Management of differences in tourism enterprises, in addition to respecting and not discriminating between individuals and groups in accommodation, food and beverage, recreation establishments, and travel agencies, are evaluated and utilized for individual and organizational purposes. The aim of managing differences in the tourism sector is to create an appropriate working environment for all tourism staff, to increase the potential advantage of differences and to reduce their potential drawbacks.

Resource Orchestration

This chapter investigates the role of diligence-based strategies for the better development of resource orchestration practices in restaurant enterprises. Considering restaurant operations as a unit of analysis, the researchers identify twelve diligence-based strategies behind the formation of the resource orchestration process of the case restaurants. The findings develop the literature on strategy as practice by building theory on how resource orchestration across a bundle of diligence-based strategies stimulates the synergies during the exploration and exploitation of business model. Managers can gain insights for determining the strategies from the research technique the researchers propose; the technique enables managers to be aware of how diligence-based strategies can create synergy during the resource orchestration. Therefore, restaurant enterprises that strive to develop strategic activities in their resource orchestration process are more likely to develop core capabilities and competitive advantage over their rivalry.