Tourism & Hospitality books

Advances in Hospitality and Leisure delivers refreshing insights from a host of scientific studies in the domains of hospitality, leisure and tourism. It provides a platform to galvanize thoughts on contemporary issues and merging trends essential to theory advancement as well as professional practices from a global perspective. The focus is to transcend the innovative methods of inquiry so as to inspire new research topics that are vital and have been in large neglected. All volumes are keen to address the needs of the populace having interests in disseminating ideas, concepts and theories derived from scholarly investigations. Potential readers may retrieve useful texts to outline new research agendas, suggest viable topics for a dissertation work, and augment the knowledge of the subjects of interest.

Debates around the concept of authenticity date to the earliest theories of tourism, as scholars attempted to understand motivations for traveling away from 'home' and touristic experiences of places far 'away'. Over time, theories of authenticity have burgeoned from epistemological to ontological notions drawing a broad range of philosophers into tourism research. This edited volume features chapters that engage with key debates about authenticity – its materiality, how it is perceived, and how it is experienced. The book is comprised of four sections thematically organized around popular trends in authenticity research in tourism, making this volume appropriate as both a comprehensive text and as individual investigations. Authenticity & Tourism: Materialities, Perceptions, Experiences includes chapters that engage with the pragmatic and the theoretical, including conversations on marketing and the production of tourism attractions, examinations of the constructive nature of authenticity, and the politics of authentication processes. Also included are contributions that revisit technological trends in tourism and advance debates of authenticity in souvenirs, photographs, and simulated experiences, as well as those more firmly anchored in the theoretical, pushing boundaries and establishing paths for future research. Across these chapters, the authors employ a range of methodologies, from autoethnography to photo and food-elicitation combinations to discourse and content analyses. Set against a backdrop of truly global case studies, this collection exemplifies the multiple facets of authenticity research in tourism.

This portrait of contemporary tourists proposes that these travelers create consumption audio-portraits and self-explanations (identity constructions) through their purchases and use of travel-related services. Their configurations of destinations, accommodations, travel modes, in-route and destination activities, meal choices, sites/attractions visited, and their travel companions inform others and themselves about who they are. These understandings of self through travel are statements of being—where I’ve been and what I’ve done tells me and others who I am. Also, one’s definition of self (being) affects tourists’ future configurations of travel-related buying and consumption. Thus, tourism-related behavior and being represent virtuous and sometimes vicious consumption systems. Consequently, most tourists are identifiable by who they are and what they know about where they have been and what they have done via their summaries of their trips. The chapters in this volume provide tools and evidence useful for deep understanding of tourists’ buying, consumption, and being through examinations of consumers’ self-descriptions of personal markers of their trip configurations. This volume’s core tenet is that thick descriptions and case-based models are essential steps for highly useful research and deep understanding of tourism behavior.

This volume presents twenty updated and new theories of travelers’ decisions and behaviors. It describes the advances in theory construction and practical applications of theory in the disciplines of tourism, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment (THLE) research. The chapters all build on the grand models appearing in these four literature streams during 1965-2015. This approach is comprehensive in both coverage and depth with regard to constructing, testing, and applying theories of travelers’ decisions and behaviors, which includes original work in updating grand theories and micro (algorithm-conscious and non-conscious based) theories of travelers’ decisions and behavior. This volume is the first to fully recognize and construct theories across the THLE discipline. This volume describes the synergies, symbioses, and serendipity occurring in THLE behavior. It tears down researchers' parochial fences of what is and is not tourism, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment. The time has arrived tor tourism to embrace hospitality, hospitality to embrace tourism, and all to embrace leisure and entertainment, and this volume serves as a catalyst to accomplish this embrace.

There have been a number of sporadic and disconnected initiatives to improve knowledge transfer between the tourism academia, government and industry. This volume presents and analyses 17 examples of knowledge transfer from countries around the world to identify future directions for business and government managers and academic researchers. Many of the chapters were presented at the first t-Forum global conference. The chapters emphasise the value from academic leadership in developing cohesion and links amongst small business and government, and the importance of a shared innovative vision beyond individual private and public organization objectives. Successful initiatives rely on the personal characteristics of key stakeholders as well as institutional arrangements, emphasising action learning and challenging traditional academic research processes. Best practice knowledge transfer requires government, industry and academia in partnership engaged in open dialogue and debate for project success. Knowledge transfer provides an opportunity to address unprecedented societal, environmental and technological change and disruption.

This volume presents the latest perspectives and practices on quality services and experiences in hospitality and tourism. It offers conceptual discourse, empirical evidence, application of existing and emerging theories, and considers the implications of practical findings to extend beyond the academic realm of service quality, and examine the quality issues of both services provided and experiences encountered across a wide spectrum of tourism sectors. As such, it provides new intelligence and contributes to the study of new consumers, as well as organizations and destinations that serve and host them. The book continues the series’ tradition of connecting scholarly works and real-world cases, with a unique mix of geographic representations. The majority of its chapters are drawn from the proceedings of the 2016 conference on Service Quality in Hospitality and Tourism: Experiencing Persian Heritage held in Isfahan, Iran. The regional focus of the conference is augmented in this book with contributions from elsewhere, resulting in a more diverse and global context for the treatment of quality services and experiences in hospitality and tourism. The volume will appeal to academic scholars and industry professionals interested in exploring new frontiers of knowledge on the subject. Organized in three parts with distinctive themes, the chapters are appropriate course readings, either collectively or selectively, for undergraduate and graduate students in educational programs focusing on global curricula.

This book is a practical handbook for entrepreneurship in tourism related industries. The book will provide students and prospective entrepreneurs with the knowledge, know-how and best practices in order to assist them in planning, implementing and managing business ventures in the field of tourism. It constitutes a valuable contribution to developing the necessary knowledge, competencies and skills of entrepreneurial decision-making and ventures. It would serve as a guide for those studying entrepreneurship and preparing for entrepreneurial careers as well as a reference for the practical use of entrepreneurs at the planning, implementation, operation and evaluation stages of building a tourism business. Examples from the industry/business world are provided to illustrate real-life practice and give readers a better understanding of entrepreneurship in tourism.

Tourism in Cuba: Casinos, Castros, and Challenges presents an in-depth exploration of the history and development of tourism in Cuba. Beginning with the earliest days of prohibition in the US, Tony L. Henthorne illustrates how Cuba strove to position itself as an uninhibited Caribbean playground for the well-heeled American traveler. This book analyzes the ways in which Cuban tourism reached previously unimagined economic heights through the "new normal" of casinos, nightclubs, and prostitution during Fulgencio Batista's reign, and it examines the forces sustaining his rise to power. Fidel Castro's revolution set out to end Batista's reign of corruption, promising a new beginning for Cuba and the Cuban people. Casinos were shuttered, and the other hedonistic trappings of decadence quickly vanished; relations between the US and Cuba were severed, and the island began a long transformative relationship with the Soviet Union. This book provides an illuminating insight into the impact of these social and economic changes upon tourism in Cuba. Henthorne goes on to explore Barack Obama's significant travel and economic concessions to Cuba, which resulted in a soar in tourism, and he evaluates how Donald Trump has since scaled back on US overtures to Cuba. He also provides an insider's look at the Cuban tourist product - what it was, what it is, and what it may be in the future.

To clarify their own thinking, gain confirmation, and plan, customers tell stories about their interactions with sales and service associates. These stories are told often via blog sites, social-media platforms (e.g. TripAdvisor) as well as informally to friends and family members. Read original first-person stories of problems, opportunities and outcomes with a multiple-choice exercise following each story, as well as a critical review by an independent researcher. This volume describes customers’ reports of their experience of interactions with sales/service associates. Chapters also offer a descriptive theory of storytelling narratives of these encounters. Gain an international view with stories by Asian, European, New Zealand/Pacific Rim, and North American customers. The volume highlights small details that have significant impact on customer satisfaction enhancing the reader’s abilities to detect nuances in multiple international contexts, understand how customers evaluate sales/service reps’ behavior well as providing opportunities to solve real problems. This is a valuable book in the field of customer relationship management that is also interactive.