Tourism and Hospitality Research

This research explored the state of electronic customer service in Switzerland by e-mailing a typical room query to a random and stratified sample of 200 hotels. Based on the hotel responses, this study found that guests had less than a one in ten chance of receiving a prompt, polite and personal reply. Diffusion of innovations helps explain the poor e-mail replies by Swiss hoteliers. The quality of reply differed across hotel size, category, online relationship marketing tools and linguistic region while responsiveness differed across online relationship marketing tools, geographic location and linguistic region. This study suggests that hotels can gain an immediate competitive advantage by implementing basic e-mail procedures.

After years of protracted negotiation the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) was due to come into force at the end of 2002. This agreement, the first multilateral and legally enforceable liberalisation agreement covering trade in services, including tourism services, aims to eliminate obstacles and discriminatory barriers to service trade and increase markets for investment. The agreement, covering a range of sectors, promises to have a significant effect on tourism service provision and perhaps pose a significant challenge to the efforts to develop sustainable forms of tourism. The subject of considerable controversy, the GATS has been criticised by human rights, environmental and developing world activist groups, many of whom see it as nothing more than a front for corporate domination of global markets, accelerating environmental degradation and undermining local governance structures. Supporters, on the other hand, see the GATS potential in overcoming trade disputes and hold out the promise of regional development and employment through increased inward investment. This paper aims to outline the GATS, examine its legal principles and explain the enthusiasm of its supporters and the concerns of the critics. Furthermore, it considers the potential impact of the GATS on sustainability and on issues such as local community participation and tourism governance.

Organisations are increasingly expanding beyond their national borders due to a variety of factors that have created international expansion opportunities. The hospitality industry, in particular, has seized the opportunity to extend its reach internationally. When internationalisation occurs, organisations are confronted with the challenge of managing a culturally diverse workforce. This challenge is especially acute for industries that are as labour intensive as is the hospitality industry. Indeed, the ultimate success of international expansion is largely driven by the effectiveness of a company's human resource management strategy. This paper explores management differences of French and British managers, hypothesising that management styles and beliefs are strongly influenced by managers' educational backgrounds.

Singapore and Hong Kong are two geographically small economic powerhouses in Asia. In recent years both cities have been attempting to develop their tourism economies by communicating their unique cultural heritages to global tourists. While heritage culture-based tourism practice may help conserve a destination's cultural heritage, its development accelerates the change of the local society; and in the process the authenticity of the cultural heritage of the destination may be lost. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the efforts adopted by Singapore and Hong Kong to communicate their cultural heritages through the tourism developments. It focuses on three questions: (1) Do the inherent contradictions between conservation and change associated with tourism development constitute threats or resources for heritage tourism development? (2) What are the major issues in the process of portraying the past in the present for heritage tourism development? (3) What implications may be drawn, by studying these issues, for the tourism industries in their planning, conservation and promotion efforts to develop heritage tourism?

Each year the Tourism and Hospitality Research Practice papers section puts together a panel of distinguished industry practitioners to discuss a topical issue. Following the tragic events in New York and Bali, it seemed appropriate to invite industry colleagues from around the world, representing a range of industry sectors, to reflect and comment on how these events have affected their business. Their responses are recorded verbatim.

This paper presents an analysis of current messages of mid-priced business hotels, using conjoint analysis. The study was run over the Internet in early 2001, with 126 elements derived from the actual language used by different hotel chains. Few elements emerged as distinct ‘losers’ (ie negative utilities) for the total respondent population of 376 individuals (all business travellers). A set of elements emerged as ‘winners’, but the elements dealt with a variety of topics. Segmentation revealed four groups, with homogeneous viewpoints within a group; interested but not responsive to communications; room as office; pamper me; room as vacation. Elements that one segment likes, another segment may dislike. The proper messaging to these four segments can dramatically enhance the impact of the communication.