Through a study of a set of restaurant reviews, this article examines forms of knowledge constructed within such reviews and considers their potential effects. It examines 200 restaurant reviews published by Cuisine Magazine over a 5-year period from 2003 to 2007. We find that the reviews narrowly focus on food, wine and ambience over other categories such as service, chefs, cost/value, and owner/operator. We note that through such focus and the language used, the reviews demonstrate an extreme level of exclusion, ignoring a vast field of possible criteria for judging an establishment and experience. Furthermore, through focusing on areas that both allows and creates specialist knowledge and mutual elevation (i.e., food, wine and chef/owner worship) we argue that restaurant reviews are engaging in an escalating discourse of class distinction. Potential effects of this discourse noted include the identification that the celebration of distinction and exclusion perpetuated in the restaurant reviews analysed here stands in contrast to understandings of hospitality as inclusive practice. We suggest, and note concern that, in the attempt to create new levels of refinement and distinction, the core idea of hospitality is becoming lost.

The hotel industry utilises the concept of human resource practices system differentiation (HRPSD) by focusing resources on managerial level jobs as a technique of strategic human resource management (SHRM). Despite its use in both practice and the academic literature, research focusing on HRPSD is scarce and detailed analyses of the effects of this practice on employees cannot be found in the academic literature. The objective of this article is to develop a conceptual framework facilitating the examination of how human resource practices systems are differentiated within 5-star hotels, and to identify some direct effects of such systems on employees. The article provides a conceptual framework of SHRM with HRPSD, including the link to human resource intermediate outcomes that have not previously been included in previous research in a hotel industry context.

This study examines five important beneficial factors of cross-functional training for frontline supervisors in front office, restaurant and housekeeping departments in a sample of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. The research initially involved a Delphi technique with a panel of industrial experts and scholars to identify industrial domain skills and define multiskilled employees in the Taiwanese hotel context. A survey was then constructed and t test was used to explore any significant differences between multiskilled line supervisors and nonmultiskilled line supervisors. Five beneficial factors, namely service quality, retention, job satisfaction, higher payment and promotion, were examined in the study. Findings reveal that four of these factors are significant for front office and restaurant line supervisors, and two factors are significant for housekeeping line supervisors. These findings provide some useful ideas for attracting and retaining staff in Taiwanese hotels.

The research reported in this article explores why consumers choose to book their travel arrangements with travel agencies in regional settings. Consumers can now access online bookings for airlines, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing tours and other related products, so why do they still go to travel agencies for reservations? This article identifies the attributes consumers seek in a travel agency or consultant and determines the relative importance of these in their selection process. The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage was a series of in-depth interviews with 10 travel agency users and three travel consultants. The second stage was a mail-out survey of 400 users of travel agencies in the Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia. Despite its regionality, the region is a significant consumer of travel with approximately eight agencies in the city of Toowoomba alone. The in-depth interviews highlighted the need to de-emphasise two particular agency attributes, agency promotion and adequate brochure provision, from the research questions and replace these with parking and travel reward programs as factors worthy of investigation. Survey results revealed that there were 12 significant attributes impacting on consumer selection and, of these, the most important were the knowledge and experience of consultants, and the helpfulness and friendliness of consultants. Of particular note was that these attributes related to the consultant and not the agency per se. Travel reward programs were seen as the least influential in this research.

With the liberalisation of the gambling industry by 2002, the gambling revenue of Macao has increased tremendously, and even outstripped that of Las Vegas by 2006. This has resulted in floods of foreign investment and rocked the market of Macau. This study aimed to investigate the market condition where fierce competition was brought in by overseas investors. Longitudinal analyses on the monthly occupancy rate, average room rate and total available rooms of all 3- to 5-star Macao hotels with casino facilities over a 48-month period were carried out. Seasonality has no significant effect on occupancy rate. Tourist arrival numbers and total available rooms demonstrate positive correlation, while both average room rate and casino facility have shown a negative correlation with hotel occupancy. The negative correlation between a casino facility and occupancy rate sorts out the market potential of a casino hotel and a commercial hotel in the city of Macao. An econometric model, comprising five micro- and macro-economic factors is described. The current study is the first to examine the market condition of the Macao hotel industry. It not only explains business implications for the Macao hotel industry, but also contributes to the field of hospitality literature.

Focusing on the concept of international hotel manager, the overall aim of this article is to build up a connection between issues in the generic literature of expatriate management and the notion of international hotel manager. In this sense, the study begins with a review of expatriate management literature in order to illustrate emerging issues. Interpretation of findings of literature search suggests that it is possible to identify four distinct groups of articles referring to (a) adaptation to different cultures, (b) human resource management (HRM) in the context of expatriate managers, (c) women expatriate managers, and (d) other related issues. The review of hospitality management literature, on the other hand, reveals that studies focus particularly on the definition of the international hotel manager concept and identification of skills and competencies of effective international hotel managers. Following this theoretical foundation, a process-based model for international hotel managers is proposed. This model is constituted by 4 main stages, including recruitment and selection, predeparture preparation, foreign assignment, and repatriation. Consequently, it can be suggested that this article highlights the crucial importance of the international hotel manager as an emerging concept, and reveals future research opportunities.

Drawing upon the organisational socialisation and sensemaking literatures, this article examines the implications of potential mismatches between prospective cruise workers' perceptions and their subjectively defined reality of working on board. The study reveals how individuals make sense of this mismatch and how they define their onboard experiences. Participants, who were former cruise ship workers, were asked about their perceptions and expectations relating to working on board — before joining the ship, while on board and after returning home. Though claiming to have few prior expectations, direct questions about surprises when joining the ship highlighted that participants had tacit expectations. Participants differentiated between working and living on board, and although their expectations of work were realistic, their expectations of life on board proved unrealistic. Their awareness of being in an unusual working environment led them to describe the cruise ship as another world, which was described as impossible for people who had not lived in that world to understand. The liminality of their situation, betwixt and between two social worlds, appeared an important feature of their sensemaking, although in many cases it was not until they returned home that they fully recognised this. This revealed a mismatch not only between their tacit expectations and experienced reality, but also between the cruise ship workers and their peers and family back on land. Reflecting on their return home, participants displayed a degree of nostalgia for working on board, and romanticised about cruise ship life which was portrayed as carefree and secure, involving both freedom and captivity.

Competition in the higher education sector has led to an increase in studies examining student motivations for study and satisfaction with their overall education experience. While there is a growing body of literature focused on undergraduate students, few studies have addressed postgraduate student motivations for studying tourism. To address this gap, a study of tourism postgraduate students studying at the School of Tourism, The University of Queensland (UQSoT) was implemented. This article explores the relative importance of location, institution and program focus as motivators for undertaking postgraduate studies in tourism.

The adoption of sustainable tourism practices requires tourism organisations to change existing practices. Despite the expected benefits of such new practices, implementing change in organisations is challenging (Caldwell, 2003; Dent & Goldberg, 1999; Kotter & Schelsinger, 2008). An important factor in the implementation of these change programs is the ‘readiness to change’ of the individuals involved in the process (Diclemente & Prochaska, 1998; Tabor & Lopez, 2004; Zimmerman, Olsen, & Bosworth, 2000). As the value of sustainability principles in the tourism industry has gained prominence, Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) have been charged with implementing sustainable tourism practices within their destinations. Often lacking formal authority to mandate change, these DMOs rely on internal marketing and education to stimulate the adoption of sustainable tourism within organisations in their destinations. The current study examines the readiness of managers within the Welsh tourism industry to change behaviour and adopt sustainable tourism practices. One hundred and twenty-nine responses were received from managers within the Welsh tourism industry. The current study utilises ‘readiness to change’ scales based on the five stages of change to show readiness of the managers in the industry to adopt sustainable tourism practices. A cluster analysis was also undertaken that indicates members of a tourism destination system can be segmented by ‘readiness to change’ enabling targeted marketing communication to destination members. The present study also provides practical applications for DMOs to implement change based on the ‘readiness to change’ model.

This study was conducted to explore leisure motivations with regard to tourist attractions. A survey of a convenience sample of residents of Melbourne, Australia, was conducted. The sample was then segmented based on the likelihood of visiting a cross-section of Melbourne's tourist attractions in the next 6 months. Analysis using Unger and Kernan's (1983) Subjective Leisure Scale (SLS) was then undertaken to explore whether there were differences across the segments in terms of their leisure motivations. The results highlight that, within this context, intrinsic satisfaction, perceived freedom and arousal emerged as stronger underlying dimensions of motivations to visit tourist attractions, rather than mastery, spontaneity and involvement. This information provides insights for marketers of tourist attractions with regard to what residents are seeking when they visit local tourist attractions. The information can be used to develop more positive experiences at tourist attractions for this important sector of the market.

This special issue expands discussion on the role and relevance of critical approaches in tourism and hospitality studies. The goal of the issue was to reflect upon the opportunities, ambiguities and struggles related to researching and teaching in the critical tourism and hospitality field. The complexities and entanglements of working within ‘new’ and critical tourism knowledges have previously been noted (Ateljevic, Harris, Wilson, & Collins, 2005; Tribe, 2005; Wilson, Harris, & Small, 2008).

International students have, for many years, sought higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) and other major English-speaking destinations (MESDs). Recently, a combination of government initiatives, development of the higher education sector and the changes in funding of higher education in the UK have encouraged universities to give greater focus to attracting overseas students. This article presents initial findings of a longitudinal study based on the experiences of a group of international students studying 1-year master's degrees in the area of hospitality management and tourism at a Scottish university. Conducted during students' orientation period, this research aimed to identify students' initial expectations and concerns regarding their forthcoming academic experience. It was found that students were expecting the period of study to be academically challenging yet ultimately rewarding, with many students expressing concerns regarding their level of English language proficiency. Additionally, this research attempted to identify this cohort of students' concerns and issues regarding their domestic or living situation and, while many students professed to having or expecting no living issues, the concepts of being homesick and financially stretched were raised. Finally, this research examined students' plans regarding becoming involved in part-time employment while studying and it was found that almost three quarters of this cohort planed to get a part-time job during their educational experience. This article presents an initial perspective of a period of study held by one group of international master's students studying hospitality and tourism management at a Scottish university and provides the basis for ongoing research in this area.

Many successful organisations consider Internet recruitment to be an important element of their recruitment strategy, in order to promote, attract, manage and inform applicants in what is seen to be a cost and time effective manner (Anderson, 2003; Bartram, 2000; Parry & Tyson, 2008). This article contributes to the understanding of this subject by considering the content and characteristics of online recruitment resources within the cruise industry with reference to the resultant attitudes and behaviours of prospective employees. This study sought to critically analyse the effectiveness of online resources to attract and inform future employees within the hotel sector of the cruise industry and make recommendations to employers in relation to developing practice. A research plan was formulated that aimed to take a multimethod approach to revealing practice and potential client perceptions. This approach included conducting a comparative analysis of cruise websites using a modified version of a conceptual e-recruiting model, as defined by Young and Foot (2005). In addition, a cruise industry recruitment specialist was interviewed to capture key contextual and strategic data. Thereafter, data from a focus group involving final year Cruise Management students from the University of Plymouth, were collected to highlight perceptions of online recruitment resources from the potential employees' perspective. The investigation reveals that many elements such as content usefulness, web site attractiveness and usability have a major influence on prospective employees' perceptions and opinions of a company or cruise brand and that cruise brands have yet to harness the full capability of the medium to best effect.

The aim of this concept article is twofold: (1) to explore the issue of quality gaps in relation to the design, delivery and value of a university-level tourism and hospitality management qualification and (2) to provide examples of how industry/academic partnership initiatives can enhance students' learning experience. Applying a services management framework, strategies for creating meaningful industry partnerships are explored using the School of Hotel, Resort and Tourism Management at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia as a case study.

As many hotels have started implementing wireless networks to support a wide variety of business processes, others have followed suit in order to match the competitor's service offerings. Thus, although the adoption of wireless technologies is in many instances based on a bandwagon effect (Wolff, 2003), there are a number of factors potentially influencing the decision of whether or not to implement wireless technologies in hotel properties. This article provides an overview of the use of this technology in the hotel industry, identifies social, technical, and organisational factors influencing adoption decisions, and establishes a cost-theoretic model to analyse adoption decisions. The cost-analytic framework extends the theoretical underpinnings by creating a decision schedule to map the direct and indirect (non-linear) effects surrounding the evolving trend towards introducing wireless Internet access in hotels. The framework allows managers to objectively trace the economic net-present-value of their technology investment decisions. The cost-analytic model implicates adoption thresholds related to technology costs and setup-indirect effects that can mar direct positive effects of technical, organisational, and social antecedents.

In recognition that they largely control the context in which legalised gambling is operated, state governments in Australia have taken an increasingly active role in encouraging the gambling industry to implement responsible gambling practices. In the state of Queensland, the government introduced the voluntary Queensland Responsible Gambling Code of Practice in May 2002. This article reports part of a larger study investigating gambling providers' awareness of this Code, their implementation of its provisions and their views on its likely effectiveness in hotels, casinos and clubs in certain case study areas in remote, regional and urban Queensland. This article draws only on data for the selected regional area, Townsville. Semistructured interviews with managers and staff in 12 venues revealed mixed awareness of the Code, limited implementation of its component elements and variable support for its likely effectiveness. However, a committed group of five venue managers was much more proactive in implementing the Code than those in the remaining venues and much more supportive of its potential effectiveness. These five venues — two clubs, two hotels and the casino — subsequently formed a responsible gambling consultative committee, a regional network initiated by the local Centacare welfare agency. The experience of this committee points to numerous benefits that such a network can provide in addressing regional challenges regarding responsible conduct of gambling. As such, this study highlights some of the possible facilitators and challenges in implementing responsible gambling practices in regional areas, particularly those with similar characteristics to Townsville.

Cruising in Australasia is undergoing rapid growth far outstripping the increases in the United States (US) or United Kingdom (UK). In 2008 cruising grew by 5% in the US, 12% in the UK and 26% in Australia. Although this growth is off a much smaller base than that of the US or UK, nevertheless, cruising's growth ‘down under’ is making the industry sit up and take notice, and as a consequence more ships are being positioned in Australia and now New Zealand during the southern summer season. Little research has been undertaken in regard to the growth and the data that is available is largely confined to industry reports. This research note summarises the current information and highlights the growth of this niche form of tourism.

This study tries to give an answer to the question whether the perceived beneficial images of destinations differ across different travel contexts (wellness vs. sun & beach) and wellness and nonwellness travellers respectively. This objective is demonstrated by considering two sets of destinations: European and Asian countries that are specialising, to a varying degree, in wellness tourism. In addition, the conceptualisation of destination image follows the direction of an ‘overall composite and gestalt impression’ summarised by Keaveney and Hunt (1992, p. 166) that also requires an adequate holistic measurement process. For this purpose the procedure outlined by Tapachai and Waryszak (2000) for developing so-called proxy benefit prototypes for describing the product category of a destination is replicated. Meaningful practical results could be elaborated by profiling destination images of ten different countries from the perspective of the abovementioned traveller segments. Plots from multidimensional scaling (MDS) and consecutive property fitting procedures assisted in visualising the results and competitive relations.

Until 2004, Portuguese spas were traditionally thought of as establishments in which noninvasive therapies based on naturally occurring sources of mineral water are provided under professional supervision. With the publication of the Decree-Law No. 142/2004, Portuguese legislation regulating spas changed quite dramatically: from that moment on, spa-owners, numbering some 40 establishments countrywide, were allowed to open up what had hitherto been a strictly health-orientated sector. Since then much has changed in the Portuguese mineral springs spa market: one of the main innovations has been the introduction of a large variety of services that may be termed ‘wellness treatments’ — therapies not strictly related to pre-existing health conditions. These are now being offered as a product range in their own right, along with traditional medical treatments, thus diversifying the services provided, with all based on the same highly therapeutic naturally occurring mineral water. Thus spa services are no longer just a health product but have also become a tourist attraction, thereby legally formalising something that, to a limited extent, had always been the case. With the change in the services offered, the typical customer profile has also modified significantly: users of today's spa facilities are younger (between 25 and 45 years of age) than in the past, from the middle- to middle-upper socioeconomic stratum, live in large urban centres, have a reasonably high level of education, and could be either male or female. Such clients often prefer making various short trips over the year to test out different destinations, and choose registered hotels with three or more stars for their stays. The changing client profile has forced firms to adapt the means they employ to establish a growing and loyal client base. Indeed, over the past five years, a large majority of Portuguese spa service providers have significantly upgraded not only their services and infrastructures, but also their use of internet sites. With these changes in mind, the study reported on here aimed to analyse the way such firms currently communicate with prospective clients using the web. The results of this study may offer both Portuguese spas and those in other locations the opportunity to further improve their dialogue with current and potential spa-goers.

Mass customisation (MC) is a well-established paradigm in many sectors of industry. The reason for this study was that flight catering appeared to be the first sector of the hospitality industry to be adopting MC. There was a prima facie case that it was introducing many of the features of mass customised products and services — agile manufacturing, lean production, just-in-time inventory, modularity, and flexible labour practices. In particular, the specific MC mode (MacCarthy, Brabazon, & Bramham, 2003) adopted by this industry is identified as ‘flexible resource call-off MC’ and is established as a model of the operational process with the flight catering industry. The research concludes that although most elements of mass customisation are evident in flight catering, the MC paradigm has not been fully adopted.