A study of negative customer online reviews and managerial responses on social media— case study of the Marriott Hotel Group in Beijing

Putting customers at the center of business is the priority for the global hospitality and tourism companies. The importance of customer satisfaction and perceived higher quality of service dictate the branding images for global hotels within this era of social media. Managers need to understand the nature of online customers' reviews, which can help hotels to reflect on their operations and improve their service quality. The purpose of this paper is to explore the major reasons for hotel customers’ complaints on social media, and discuss how hotel managers respond to these. Researches have showed that negative online reviews have much greater impacts on customers decision making compared with positive reviews in hospitality industry. Limited negative reviews can influence hotels business performance in a long period of time, while many hospitality organisations ignore this challenging issue or not pay enough attention. This study chooses the Marriott Hotel Group in Beijing as a case study. A quantitative content study of customers' online reviews and hotel managers’ responses to these on TripAdvisor was conducted through a netnographic analysis process. The authors aim to analyze in greater detail the effects of hotel attributes on hotel business performance considering customers’ voice as expressed through their negative reviews. It was found that employees' lack of empathy is the main factor underlying customer complaints, followed by reliability, tangible factors, amenities and availability. The managerial responses were analyzed to identify the patterns and key words. The outcome provides a guidance tool for hotel management regarding which service elements to improve and how to respond appropriately to negative reviews

Attitudes expressed in online comments about environmental factors in the tourism sector: an exploratory study

The object of this exploratory study is to identify the positive, neutral and negative environment factors that affect users who visit Spanish hotels in order to help the hotel managers decide how to improve the quality of the services provided. To carry out the research a Sentiment Analysis was initially performed, grouping the sample of tweets (n = 14459) according to the feelings shown and then a textual analysis was used to identify the key environment factors in these feelings using the qualitative analysis software Nvivo (QSR International, Melbourne, Australia). The results of the exploratory study present the key environment factors that affect the users experience when visiting hotels in Spain, such as actions that support local traditions and products, the maintenance of rural areas respecting the local environment and nature, or respecting air quality in the areas where hotels have facilities and offer services. The conclusions of the research can help hotels improve their services and the impact on the environment, as well as improving the visitors experience based on the positive, neutral and negative environment factors which the visitors themselves identified

The ecomics of ecosystems and biodiversity: scoping the scale

The G8 decided in March 2007 to initiate a “Review on the economics of biodiversity loss”, in the so called Potsdam Initiative: 'In a global study we will initiate the process of analysing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation. The study is being supported by the European Commission (together with the European Environmental Agency and in cooperation with the German Government. “The objective of the current study is to provide a coherent overview of existing scientific knowledge upon which to base the economics of the Review, and to propose a coherent global programme of scientific work, both for Phase 2 (consolidation) and to enable more robust future iterations of the Review beyond 2010.

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Exploring key economic sectors and groups of sectors in Scotland; 1998, 2004, 2007

Different methods and criteria exist for determining ‘key’ economic sectors. The Scottish Government identifies a number of ‘key’ sectors, although it is not clear which metrics it used to choose these. It is likely that these sectors are considered to be ‘key’ in delivering the Scottish Government’s policy priorities. This differs from a more formally defined economic approach to determining key sectors. However, even within the economics literature, there are different ways of thinking about which sectors are ‘key’. This short paper presents one approach to determining individual and groups of ‘key’ sectors. We will explain why these approaches are not necessarily equivalent, and what value is added in moving from considering sectors individually to analysing the impact of sectors in groups. We begin with a non-technical overview of the methods we employ, before discussing the database used in this analysis. We then present the results of applying this method for Scotland for three time periods: 1998, 2004, and 2007. We mainly focus on sectoral output, but we also include one set of results which look at key employment sectors. In the discussion of our results we concentrate on two things. First, we are interested in which sectors are identified as important in Scotland in each time period. Second, we investigate how those sectors have changed between 1998, 2004 and 2007

Knowledge management for disaster resilience: Identification of key success factors

The number of reported disasters has increased steadily over the past century and risen very sharply during the past decade. These bring about the loss of lives, property, employment and damage to the physical infrastructure and the environment. Disaster management efforts aim to reduce or avoid the potential losses from hazards, assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims of disaster, and achieve rapid and effective recovery. While knowledge management can enhance the process of disaster management, there is a perceived gap in information coordination and sharing within the context of disaster management. Identifying key success factors will be an enabler to manage the disasters successfully. In this context, this study aims to identify and map key knowledge success factors for managing disasters successfully through capturing the good practices and lessons learned. The objective of this paper is to present the literature findings on factors which support successful disaster management. Accordingly the identified factors were classified into eight main categories as technological, social, legal, environmental, economical, functional, institutional and political

Human Dimensions of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries: An Overview of Context, Concepts, Tools and Methods

This document aims to provide a better understanding of the role of the economic, institutional and sociocultural components within the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) process and to examine some potential methods and approaches that may facilitate the adoption of EAF management. It explores both the human context for the ecosystem approach to fisheries and the human dimensions involved in implementing the EAF. For the former, the report provides background material essential to understand prior to embarking on EAF initiatives, including an understanding of key concepts and issues, of the valuation of aquatic ecosystems socially, culturally and economically, and of the many policy, legal, institutional, social and economic considerations relevant to the EAF. With respect to facilitating EAF implementation, the report deals with a series of specific aspects: (1) determining the boundaries, scale and scope of the EAF; (2) assessing the various benefits and costs involved, seen from social, economic, ecological and management perspectives; (3) utilizing appropriate decision-making tools in EAF; (4) creating and/or adopting internal incentives and institutional arrangements to promote, facilitate and fund the adoption of EAF management; and (5) finding suitable external (non-fisheries) approaches for financing EAF implementation