Advances in Hospitality and Leisure: Volume 5

Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (AHL), a peer-review publication, aims to promote seminal and innovative research outputs pertaining to hospitality, leisure, tourism, and lifestyle. Specifically, the series will encourage researchers to investigate new research issues and problems that are critical but have been largely ignored while providing a forum that will disseminate singular thoughts advancing empirical undertakings both theoretically and methodologically.

This investigation studied a sample of 900 prospective international tourists to Norway with respect to their attitudes towards environmental sustainability on holiday. Sustainability was measured using a single item according to which the sample was first divided into highly sustainable tourists and low-sustainable tourists. Later, using a CHAID analysis, predictors of sustainability were identified. These included gender, nationality, being a nature-based tourist or not, and being interested in authenticity or not. The results showed that people who considered authenticity as important on holiday had a higher probability of being highly sustainable tourists. Further, different segments were identified. For instance, the segment that had the greatest likelihood of being highly sustainable tourists was represented by German tourists who were highly interested in authenticity on holiday.

This empirical study investigated the relationships among leisure behaviors and life satisfaction of Thai labors in Taiwan. Convenience sampling and several statistical techniques were adopted. The key findings were (1) Leisure preference, participation, constraint, satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction are influenced by one's socioeconomic background. (2) Because of living in a new country, Thai labors' past and current leisure participations although are strongly related, they are different. In addition, the relation between their leisure preference and participation was found significant when living in Thailand but not when living in Taiwan. (3) The constraints preventing Thai labors from participating in leisure activities in Taiwan were found. They significantly reduced one's leisure participation and satisfaction. (4) A positive relationship between Thai labors' leisure participation and leisure satisfaction in Taiwan was found along with the finding that their leisure satisfaction was also positively related to their life satisfaction.

This paper reports on the initial results of a case study on management-level turnover in the hospitality industry and on factors influencing the career decisions of highly educated employees to stay or leave the industry. This issue is considered using an interpretative paradigm and the conclusion drawn is that retaining these employees cannot be ensured by HRM policy alone. Both personal and general career factors are important, strongly influenced by social aspects. Furthermore, perceptions (deserved or undeserved) of the actual job, as well as characteristics of the industry, are important when deciding to pursue a career either within or outside the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this article is to explore the three types of water-based recreationists' (nonmotorized, motorized, and dual participants) perception on recreation conflict as well as their use of coping mechanisms and further understand the influence of specialization level on their choice of coping mechanism. Recreationists were divided into three groups based on the concept of experience use history. Data were collected between June and September 2007 at entry of five intra-site water recreation areas with every five individuals selected. Study findings partly supported the predictive relationships. Among all three groups (motorized, nonmotorized, and dual participants), less conflict was reported for nonmotorized participants than motored participants. Moreover, the data also suggest that coping mechanisms are widely employed in outdoor recreation. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.

It is widely recognised that hotels, as important members of the global tourism value chain, have negative impacts on the environment. Many hoteliers feel the adoption of environmental measures is expensive, with little commercial benefit. A further obstacle to improving hotels' green credentials is the perception that adapting staff attitudes and management operations to become more environmentally friendly is too complicated and produces only negligible results. The present study aims to create a snapshot of best practices in sustainability in the hospitality industry adopted by eleven hotels in Germany and Estonia. It also aims to contrast the development of sustainable management systems in these two European countries with different economies and cultures.

Researcher defined health tourism as part of a tourist facility or destination to attract tourists by promoting its health-care services and facilities besides its regular tourist amenities. This study aims to find out how tourists perceive Singapore as a choice of destination for health-care treatment. Our findings reveal that “medical facilities” is the most important factor to consider when they seek for overseas treatment. While both the Asia and non-Asia groups of respondents perceive Singapore having good medical facilities, the Asia group considers “communication” as a problem they may encounter in Singapore whereas the non-Asia group is more concerned with “cost.” The implication of the results is also discussed.

Prior research suggests that hospitality firms behave differently than other firms in terms of financing and investment issues. Such behavior may be attributable in part to agency problems and corporate governance structures in hospitality firms. This paper contains a report of an investigation into whether corporate governance mechanisms differ in hospitality firms relative to other industries. Our findings suggest that hospitality firms are more likely to experience agency problems than are nonhospitality firms. Hospitality firms have lower governance control mechanisms, better financial performance and higher-quality earnings than nonhospitality firms. An understanding of corporate governance control mechanisms helps to reduce agency problems and improves the hospitality firm's performance in the hospitality corporation.

This study identified differences of work values between two types of hospitality workforce members: hospitality industry practitioners and hospitality student/practitioners. A total of 398 nonstudent practitioners were randomly selected from various hospitality organizations to participate in this study. There were 828 student practitioners included in the data collected from a hospitality management college. Fifteen values were identified along with their hierarchical order. Three-dimensional work value structure shared by hospitality-major student/practitioners and industry practitioners were revealed. They are: General Work Values, Management Work Values, and Hospitality Work Values. The differences of the three dimensions among the four categories of student practitioners and industry practitioners were identified. Furthermore, work values were found to differ by gender. Implications are drawn for industry managers as well as educators.

This paper tests the potential for the food and wine tourism model developed by Hall and Sharples to be used as a tool for identifying specific food and wine segments in a destination. Using Cairns, Australia, as a case study a survey of tourists identified three food and wine segments and confirmed the ability of the model to be used to classify the destination's position as a food and wine destination based on the categories developed by Hall and Sharples. Results of the survey indicate that while almost all participants experienced the destination's food and wine products, only one group of respondents (45%) self-identified as food and wine tourists. A second group participated in food and wine experiences but did not select specific destinations on the basis of the destination's food and wine sector. A third group expressed no interest in food and wine as a tourist experience but did consume unique food and wine as part of the overall tourist experience. The research found that the food and wine tourism model developed by Hall and Sharples was a useful tool for both identifying the stage of development of the food and wine industry and planning strategies to develop the sector. The paper concludes by outlining a number of implications for marketing food and wine tourism.

German tourists have accounted for the largest international arrivals on Majorca Island, Spain, for decades. This research intends to understand the trip patterns of German outbound tourists to Majorca. The study takes two different types of surveys at two different consumption stages. The first is to use self-administrated questionnaires to collect the general travel data from those who are taking their trip on Majorca. The second is to deploy a face-to-face interview to measure the current use patterns of those who were returning back to Germany. Results of this research show that more than 84% of German tourists using a rental car regarded renting a car as important or very important for discovering the island and making excursions around the island. Moreover, tourists spend more money in places that are not directly located at the beaches and notably, support the economy of less frequently visited places on Majorca.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the perceptions of local tourists concerning the importance and performance of their dining experience and restaurant selection factors at tourist destinations. Five hundred forty-one questionnaires collected from a series of on-site surveys at popular tourist destinations were analyzed. The results of importance–performance analysis (IPA) illustrate that no attribute fell in the Concentrate Here quadrant; staff service, service speed, food quality, interior design, comfort, cleanliness, restaurant scent, food scent attributes, and the “food service” factor fell under the Keep up the Good Work quadrants; noise, music, new experience, price attributes, and the “servicescape” factor fell in the Low Priority quadrant; servicescape lighting fell in the Possible Overkill quadrant. In conclusion, restaurants at popular tourist destinations have done very well in most service items and seem to have reached the professional standards expected by mass tourists.

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire-based exploratory survey among hoteliers in Switzerland, measuring their perception of the senior clientele. These hoteliers were also asked about the specific arrangements they have made in the past for the senior customers, as well as the investments they have undertaken. The main finding is that, even though the senior segment is recognised by most hoteliers as being potentially profitable, a less than flattering image of this customer category seems to have dissuaded a great number of Swiss hoteliers from concentrating a lot of effort and resources on adapting their products and services to this customer segment. This bad image (serious physical handicaps, problems in cohabitation with other clients) deserves to be corrected. Besides, the wish of senior tourists for a personalised product and service should be taken into account by Swiss hoteliers in their future investments and offers aimed at the senior guests.