Showing papers in "Tourism & Management Studies in 2021"

COVID 19: The catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry?

Abstract: Until the outbreak of COVID-19, digital transformation was not on many hotels' strategic plan, despite its efficiency-related benefits for saving time, creating better customer experiences, increasing revenue, and supporting decision-making. However, like in many other industries, the COVID-19 physical distancing good practices and governments' restrictions acted as a catalyst and promoted hotels' digitalization. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 51 hotel managers to verify if that happened in Portuguese hotels and what processes were most impacted. Results showed that 92% of the hotel managers agreed that COVID-19 promoted the digitalization of processes, with most organizations considering that online meetings and technology productivity tools are here to stay. Hotels’ digitalization has the potential to generate high-efficiency gains both in public-facing operations as well as in back-office operations. This study highlights these implications and intends to spur researchers to investigate the practical impact of these implications on business efficiency and social theory.

Understanding tourist mobile hotel booking behaviour: Incorporating perceived enjoyment and perceived price value in the modified Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract: This study examines how mobile technology adoption influences customers' intention to book hotel rooms via smartphone. This study empirically incorporated perceived enjoyment and perceived value in the modified Technology Acceptance Model (m-TAM) and tested it as a unified model. Partial Least Square-Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to estimate the proposed research framework based on the survey data collected from 386 travellers who booked hotels via their smartphones. The structural model confirms perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived price value significantly influence consumers' behavioural intentions toward mobile hotel booking. This study confirms that TAM can be extended and employed to predict and explain the acceptance of the new technologies in service industries. This study also provides valuable theoretical contributions in developing and testing related theories and practical implications to hotel operators, online travel agencies (OTAs), and hospitality technology suppliers.

The relationship between creative tourism and local development: a bibliometric approach for the period 2009-2019

Abstract: More and more people want to travel to destinations expecting to live unique and active tourist experiences, linked to the culture and traditions of the host communities, and interact with local people. In the concept of creative tourism, these dimensions of proximity to residents, of tourists’ participation in the configuration of their own experience and the expression of creativity based on cultural references and attributes of the destination, are present. It is in this context that multiple researchers have been looking to the creative tourism segment as an opportunity for the development of various territories. The aim of this investigation is to identify the relationship which can be found in the literature between creative tourism and local development, using as research method a bibliometric inventory made in scientific databases (Academia. edu, Econlit, Google Scholar, CAPES Journals, Redalyc, Scielo.org, SCOPUS, and Web of Science, among others). In general, it was possible to verify that there is a concern of the authors of the papers analysed in establishing a link between creative tourism and local/regional development, without however going far on this dimension, or at least identifying impact of economic, cultural, social and environmental nature. This way, it seems to be important that future research goes far in the inventory of the hypothesized relationship between the proposals of creative tourism and the benefits it can bring to local communities.

The effect of role ambiguity and role conflict on job performance in the hotel industry: The mediating effect of job satisfaction

Abstract: Accommodation businesses are stressful workplaces due to their dynamic and demanding work environment. Role ambiguity and role conflict are major stress factors for hotel emplyees causing low levels of satisfaction, performance and high levels of turnover. The main purpose of this study was to explore the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between role conflict, role ambiguity and job performance. The data was collected by fully structured questionnaires from the employees who work in 4 and 5 star hotels in Alanya, one of the leading tourism destinations in Turkey. The data was analyzed via structural equation modeling. The results revealed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between role ambiguity & role conflict and job performance. In line with the findings, managerial implications of findings, contributions, limitations, and future research directions were discussed.

Tourism planning in the Azores and feedback from visitors

Abstract: Tourism planning is increasingly a fundamental process for qualifying and increasing the competitiveness of tourist destinations, especially when it is required to take into account the new needs of tourists and the global trend towards meeting the principles of sustainable tourism. This study aims to analyse the improvements that, in the opinion of visitors, should be implemented in Ponta Delgada, the largest hub of tourism activity in the Azores (Portugal), detecting differences between specific groups of visitors, in order to contribute to territorial organisation and the optimisation of tourism experiences. 400 answers to a survey distributed among tourists who visited this Azorean municipality were analysed, using several statistical methods, such as the chi-square test of independence and some Hierarchical Cluster Analysis algorithms. The main conclusions refer to the statistically significant associations between the mean of transport used to travel and views of some aspects to be improved, with signs of patterns in visits and critical attitude. Resumo O planeamento turistico e cada vez mais um processo fundamental para a qualificacao e aumento de competitividade dos destinos turisticos, principalmente quando ha que ter em conta as novas necessidades dos turistas e a tendencia global de atender aos principios do turismo sustentavel. Este estudo pretende analisar as melhorias que, na opiniao dos visitantes, devem ser implementadas em Ponta Delgada, o maior polo dinamizador da atividade turistica dos Acores, contribuindo, assim, para a organizacao territorial e para a valorizacao das experiencias turisticas. Foram analisadas as respostas de 400 questionarios administrados a turistas que visitaram este concelho, utilizando diversos metodos estatisticos, de onde se destacam o teste de independencia do qui-quadrado e alguns algoritmos de Analise Classificatoria Hierarquica Ascendente. As principais conclusoes referem-se a existencia de associacoes estatisticamente significativas entre o meio de transporte utilizado para viajar e as percecoes acerca de alguns aspetos que podem ser melhorados.

Tourists' perceptions of beach quality improvement during the off-peak season: a segmentation approach

Abstract: Recently coastal tourism has increased dashingly, however, it has negatively affected environmental, social and cultural sustainability. Algarve is the most touristic place in Portugal with a large number of beautiful beaches. Due to negative tourism impacts and climate change, coastal tourism management tools need to be assessed and implemented. Most beach areas have the dual mandate of conserving natural resources as well as providing opportunities for recreation and tourism. This paper aims identify off-peak season beach user profiles and segment them according to their priorities for sustainable beach management in the face of climate change and seasonality balance. An urban, rural, resort and remote beach types were chosen at Albufeira municipality as case studies. A cluster analysis was applied to survey data collected through 200 face-to-face interviews. The survey aimed to get beach visitor’s opinion of beach environment, services and quality attributes´ importance. Cluster analyses have resulted in four beach user profiles: passive nature-lovers, senior consumerists, outliers and young and active environmentalists. The results provide valuable information and insights both for academics and for beach managers, who can adjust management according to the clustered markets and their preferences.

The effect of the cyberloafing behaviors of tourism business employees on business motivations and organizational identification

Abstract: With the development of communication technologies, “Cyberloafing”, which means the use of tools such as telephone, tablet, internet for business purposes or individual purposes, has become a subject of debate. From this point of view, the cyberloafing behavior of the employees in tourism enterprises was examined. In the study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of cyberloafing behavior of employees on business motivations and organizational identification in tourism businesses. For this purpose, field research was conducted on 8 hotel management employees in Sinop and Samsun provinces. The data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed by factor analysis and partial least squares structural modeling (PLS). Findings indicate that cyberloafing is partially and relatively low impact on job motivation and organizational identification. The results of the study contribute to the organizational behavior literature in the context of cyberloafing, and offer suggestions for hotel managers.

Factors Influencing Conative Loyalty in Anthropology Museum Tourism

Abstract: Although the concepts of loyalty, service quality and customer satisfaction have frequently been discussed by scholars, their connections with emotional factors have rarely been investigated in the field of museum tourism. The Anthropology Museum of Guangxi focuses on unique ethnic minorities, which is used as a case study in this paper. The key question is whether visitors are driven by certain emotional factors. This paper examines the relationships among the factors that influence visitors ’ emotional attachment, satisfaction, conative loyalty and perceived quality. Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to model the relations among these four constructs, which include formative and reflective constructs. The structural model was tested on a sample of 184 visitors to the Anthropology Museum of Guangxi, and empirical study of the conceptual model supports all of the paper ’ s hypotheses. The results show positive influences among emotional attachment, visitor satisfaction and perceived quality, which may indeed affect visitors ’ conative loyalty to a specific museum. The practical applications are suggested based on the finding that emotional attachment plays an important role in predicting visitor loyalty.