This article examines the concept of a whole-of-life approach to tourism through presenting the case for ‘accessible tourism’. The importance of this approach is that it has been estimated that 30% of a population will have access requirements at any point in time, and most people will have a disability at some stage during their life. This article presents the case for proactively developing a strategic accessible tourism approach by presenting a brief background to the area. First, the article outlines the relationship between access, disability, ageing and tourism. Second, it reviews the development of easy access markets and accessible tourism, and places these in context to universal design. Third, the article overviews pertinent legislation that shapes the accessible tourism environment in Australia. Fourth, accessible environments are placed within context to destination management and accessible destination experiences. The article concludes by presenting four contemporary Australian examples of accessible destination experiences within broader destination management approaches.

Cruise tourism is the fastest growing segment of leisure tourism. With its growth has come concern about the impact of cruise tourism on coastal and marine environments, local economies, and on the sociocultural nature of port communities. These three areas are key elements in analyses focused on responsible tourism, and form a critical base from which to consider strategies to ensure the sustainable development of cruise tourism. The goal of this article is to illustrate how a responsible tourism lens measures the impact of cruise tourism and, with its focus on the perceptions of host communities, more effectively addresses grassroots concerns. Case examples are used to identify and describe challenges faced by governments, communities, and the cruise industry. Analysis of these issues and challenges gives direction for how cruise tourism can grow in ways that are both sustainable and responsible.

This study identified and analysed current corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and benefits gained from implementing these activities in the United States (US) lodging industry. A survey of the US-based hotel executives showed that the most important and highest performing initiatives tended to be popular environmental practices focused on energy, waste and water management. Hotel executives reported that cost savings and branding-related outcomes were the greatest benefits from CSR implementation. It is argued that increased consumer and managerial learning of CSR activities from a holistic perspective is critical to moving the CSR program forward in the lodging industry.

Assessments and rankings of the contribution and influence of scholars, institutions and journals in tourism are becoming increasingly common. This article extends the existing literature by providing a finer grained understanding of key influences in tourism research. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the tourism literature by examining papers authored by Australian and New Zealand researchers in Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management between 1994 and 2007. A general picture of the field is drawn by examining keywords, the most-cited authors and works, as well as co-citation patterns. The analysis is extended by the use of social network analysis to explore the links between keywords and influential works in the field. The article also addresses the conference theme by identifying emerging themes and influences. Results indicate that tourism research in Australia and New Zealand has been strongly influenced by sociology and anthropology, geography and behavioural psychology. Emerging themes have focused on the health and safety of tourists, risk, wine tourism and segmentation.

This article is founded on Broadbridge, Maxwell and Ogden's (2006) work on the job experiences and career expectations of Generation Y undergraduates who are soon to embark on their full-time careers. The industrial context under examination is the UK hospitality industry where research on management careers has been called for (Lakin & Riley, 1996). In addition, Generation Y's distinctive characteristics (Amar, 2004) and the changing structures of careers (Baruch, 2004) underline the relevance of this research. The key inference from the primary work covered in the article is that the hospitality industry needs to understand and respond to the characteristics of Generation Ys so as to enable them to develop their management careers in a way that is attractive to them.

The goals of this article are twofold: first, to investigate if rural tourism could be seen as a form of wellbeing tourism by comparing motivations; and second, to use motivation segmentation to find out how the wellbeing segment differs from other segments. A questionnaire was developed based on literature on wellness and rural tourism motivations. Data were collected on a Finnish rural tourism website during the summer of 2009. A total of 727 responses were analysed using k-mean cluster analysis to create segments. The results show that among Finnish rural tourists a segment of rural wellbeing can be distinguished. The segment members want to relax away from the ordinary, escape from a busy everyday life, have a hassle-free vacation, get refreshed, have a sense of comfort and have an opportunity for physical rest more than members of other segments. A typical rural wellbeing tourist is a 45- to 54-year-old female who has lived her childhood in the countryside. She travels with her spouse less than once a year to a rural destination. The wellbeing segment wants to feel relaxed. It values privacy, does not want schedules, likes a calm atmosphere and wants to spend time outside in nature more than other segments.

Tertiary providers of hospitality management degree programs must fulfil the needs of student, industry and academic stakeholder groups. The students attracted to this type of program tend to be motivated primarily by the anticipated vocational outcomes. As a result, hospitality management curriculum needs to meet both industry and student expectations by delivering the skill sets needed in the workplace and the institutional demands for academic rigour. This article reports on research that aimed to compare hospitality managers' expectations of graduate skills with student perceptions of the skills that hospitality managers valued. In contrast to previous research on this topic, this study adopted a generic skills framework and managers rated skills associated with interpersonal, problem-solving, and self-management skill domains as most important. Although students tended to rate conceptual and analytical skills more highly than did managers, overall their perceptions of the skills that hospitality managers valued when recruiting graduates were realistic. The results of this, and similar studies, can contribute to curriculum design and the internal and external communications strategies adopted by faculty offering hospitality management programs.

Celebrity endorsement for consumer products is widely used in advertising, taking advantage of the public's fascination with celebrities and the belief in a personal connection with them. Tourism Australia and other destination marketing organisations (DMOs) have used celebrities in the past to promote destinations to domestic and international tourists. Through the example of the Australia — A Different Light campaign (2004) this article examines the potential influences of celebrity endorsement on destination image. The application of Gallarza, Gil Saura and Calderón García's (2002) framework of image characteristics suggests that celebrities may affect many aspects of destination image, some of which are under the advertiser's control. A conceptual framework for the analysis of celebrities' potential influence on destination image, and the consequences for destination awareness and choice, was established. Three areas of further research are highlighted that are critical in understanding the role of celebrities: links between celebrity exposure in different media; the fit between destination, celebrity and consumer; and the celebrity's effect on destination awareness and purchase decisions.

This article discusses the perceived benefits and challenges associated with membership of the Green Tourism Business Scheme, a sustainable certification initiative. The literature reveals sustainable business continues to be the focus of considerable academic interest, as well as practical importance. Interviews with seven local hospitality and tourism enterprises in the West of England provided valuable insights into the benefits of the scheme. These were related to environmental impacts, financial considerations, marketing opportunities, brand recognition and company image, and other issues such as public relations, personal moral responsibility, and political considerations. Challenges included several internal and external factors potentially preventing businesses from joining the GTBS, such as a lack of respondent knowledge of the sustainable tourism concept, the perceived expense of applying for and/or membership, a lack of time to complete the application process, and the amount of work involved in compliance. Recommendations to facilitate and encourage future membership included more information about the scheme and its marketing advantages, the need for regional organisations to spend more money on promoting the GTBS brand, and the necessity of educating consumers on the importance of sustainability.

As worldwide cruise passenger numbers demonstrated a trend towards a maturing industry in recent years (passenger numbers still increasing but at a declining rate), this study was undertaken to investigate the motivations influencing cruise tourists' decision to cruise. Motivation data are vital for cruise companies to plan for the future. The study provides a valuable and timely insight into the motivations of 306 North American cruise tourists. A structured questionnaire was conducted on board a cruise ship operated by a major cruise company serving ports-of-call along the Eastern Atlantic Seaboard and the Caribbean. Data were collected on 6 cruise itineraries for a 6-week period from May 31 to July 6, 2008. Three aspects of potential tourist motivation were explored using 7-point Likert scales, including, information sources, vacation attributes, and motives derived from the Leisure Motivation Scale. The analysis is structured in relation to the respondents' cruise itinerary and cruise experience. The influence of tested motivations varied with cruise experience but not cruise itinerary. For cruise tourists, personal- and Internet-based information sources are deemed most influential, and their desire to cruise is primarily driven by the need for stimulus-avoidance. Some significant implications for cruise companies have emerged.

Tourism has been increasingly used for, and directly linked with, rural poverty reduction in developing countries. However, the application, and to an extent the principles, of the widely used organising framework for considering poverty reduction, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), may not fit fully the tourism situation, and vice versa. Based on a review of the literature we first suggest that sustainable livelihoods for tourism should be viewed in a broader tourism context, rather than merely taking tourism as a development tool. Second, the SLA seeks household livelihood sustainability at the individual or household level, while tourism sustainability is often applied to the industry and destinations at wider, more macro level scales. Thus, a reconciliation of the tensions and opportunities between the SLA and tourism needs to be found. Third, tourism research has demonstrated local residents' increasing concern about participation in political governance associated with tourism development, with less participation jeopardising local people's assets from a livelihood perspective. Therefore, an additional concept of institutional asset (mainly community participation) needs to be incorporated within the SLA. Given the above understandings, a sustainable tourism livelihood was defined and a Sustainable Tourism Livelihoods Approach (STLA) is proposed. The potential applications of the STLA are discussed and future research is recommended.

This article applies a critical, deconstructive lens to examine the assumptions underpinning research in Indigenous tourism. The authors propose a conceptual typology to explore the presence, role and voice of Indigenous people within this body of research. The typology consists of four main positions, namely: invisible, identified, stakeholder, and Indigenous-driven. Examples of Indigenous tourism literature are then used to illustrate this paper's main argument, which is that although Indigenous tourism has been a topic of academic interest for over three decades, it is still predominantly driven by the needs and priorities of non-Indigenous people. Ultimately, it appears that Indigenous voice and presence as scholars and researchers within the Indigenous tourism literature remain elusive.

Being reflexive about the conditions and claims underpinning academic knowledge is a defining aspect of critical tourism and hospitality studies. In this article we explore how criticality has been conceptualised and consider the implications for addressing a major challenge in the field: that is, surfacing the power–knowledge relations that underpin mainstream or normalised ways of thinking. We aim to be reflexive about some of the dangers that exist in relation to the oppositional stance of critical perspectives. By drawing on examples from our own and others’ critical research and teaching practices we examine how a reflexive approach can enable different types of dialogue, spaces and relationships. We draw on related work in critical management studies and debates within tourism and hospitality to argue for a critical pedagogy that embraces reflexivity as a ‘practice’ — a way of doing, thinking and transforming knowledge as we live it.

Given the increasing arrivals of international tourists to Malaysia, this research assessed the expectations and perceptions of service quality in Malaysia's hotels by applying a modified version of the SERVQUAL model. Comparisons among Malaysian hotel guests, hotel guests from other Asian countries, and non-Asian hotel guests were undertaken. The findings indicated, as a whole, that the hotel guests' perceptions of service quality provided by the hotel industry were lower than their expectations. The lowest expectations and perceptions were given by Malaysian hotel guests towards the hotels in Malaysia. Between Malaysian hotel guests and hotel guests from other Asian countries, there was no significant difference in the overall satisfaction levels for the sample as a whole. However, between Malaysian hotel guests and non-Asian hotel guests, the results showed that the overall customer satisfaction levels towards the hotel stay was significantly different for the sample as a whole.

The aim of this article is to explore the linkage between Generation Y's career expectations and aspirations on the one hand and employee engagement on the other. The article includes primary work on the views of Generation Y undergraduate students with work experience in the hospitality industry. The questionnaire was developed by the authors to focus expressly on identified aspects of Generation Y's views on their careers. Across two universities in Scotland, the views of 122 respondents with work experience mainly in the hospitality industry are analysed. The Generation Y respondents in this study signal that their early experiences in the hospitality industry act to discourage them from pursuing careers in this sector. This is a generation that is apparently self-centred and demanding. It seems to have high initial career expectations and higher aspirations still for long-term careers that the hospitality industry can do more to meet. Expectations and aspirations centre mainly on their personal career development, or employability factors. They involve both employee and employer inputs, notably determination to succeed and good pay respectively. While based on a relatively modest sample size, the article suggests pointers to hospitality industry employers on how to engage Generation Y in order to support business performance. Above all, graduate recruitment and career development that is clear, structured, fair and equal is sought by Generation Y, especially for females. By responding to Generation Y and with further research, hospitality organisations may be better placed to attract and retain Generation Y graduates. More, they may encourage employee engagement.

This article addresses the nature of skills in international hospitality. Frequently characterised as ‘low skills’, it is increasingly recognised that skills bundling in services such as hospitality cannot be solely seen in terms of the technical attributes of work. Emotional and aesthetic dimensions have been added to the services skills bundle. The added dimension of Pine and Gilmore's ‘experience economy’ suggest a further component within this bundle, namely that of experience skills. This article explores the role of experiential factors in helping to equip those entering work in the international hospitality industry. The learning demands of the sector for those brought up in a western, developed world environment are relatively small, primarily reflecting the strongly Americanised operating culture of hospitality. In addition, those working in hospitality in most developed countries have experience of the sector as both consumers and employees. By contrast, employees in international hospitality in less developed countries do not have similar benefits of experience, either though general acculturation or as consumers of hospitality services. This divergent experience profile has significant implications for the skills demands of hospitality work and leads to the proposition that experience is an important factor in determining the skills demands of hospitality work. This, in turn, leads to this article's proposal that Experiential Intelligence (ExQ) is an indicator of this difference in terms of workplace skills

The aim of this article is to focus on developing an understanding of wellness tourism provision. A brief contextualisation is offered, along with a discussion of definitions and classifications. Subsequently, in order to offer a more in-depth analysis, one market category — that of the holistic or wellness ‘retreat’ — is assessed in greater detail. This research attempts to unpick some of the generalisations made about the wellness tourism sector by providing detailed research on one under-represented part of this market provision. An operator database was created of retreat centres globally, based on the author's definitional classification criteria. Over 500 centres' data were collated and reviewed. From this a more in-depth survey took place, whereby 50 retreat providers were interviewed to research a range of motivational, experiential and management issues related to wellness tourism. The research shows that retreat operators are a relatively unique group of wellness tourism providers insofar as they are poorly organised collectively (compared, for example, to the spa sector); the vast majority can be classified as ‘lifestyle entrepreneurs’ in terms of their business motivations and aspirations; many own, manage and teach at their centres, and their views on and engagement with training, regulation and the tourism sector itself are very much place-specific. The product focus of many retreats is what sets them apart from other aspects of wellness tourism.

This article presents an investigation of the embodied air travel experiences of people with disability. The study was informed by human rights frameworks, social approaches to disability and critical tourism. The research design included a review of newspaper articles, human rights complaint cases, open-ended responses to a survey on the tourism experiences of people with disabilities and semistructured in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that the air travel practices routinely contravened disability discrimination legislation and identified a series of socially constructed constraints across the air travel chain from the preplanning of trips through to disembarking after a flight. What emerged from these experiences was that the embodied individuals became (dis)embodied at each stage of the air travel chain. The inequitable, inaccessible, undignified and dependent practices resulted in heightened anxiety, increased helplessness and, in some cases, humiliation to which they were not subjected in their everyday lives.