Building A Resilient Event Industry: Lessons Learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Guided by the theoretical framework of organizational resilience, this study interviewed twenty-six event planners regarding their risk and crisis management related practices and their experiences with the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study conducted thematic analyses to analyze the data. The results showed that organizational resilience was approached through planned and adaptive resilience. Their crisis management practices are influenced by event planners’ personal knowledge, experiences, and expertise as well as their organization’s policy and leadership. When it comes to the case of COVID-19, the concept of organizational residence is mainly reflected through adaptive resilience. It also seems that most resilient organizations have been excellent in communicating and managing customer relationships and creating innovative strategies to generate revenue. Further theoretical and practical implications were provided based on the findings

Exploring Residents’ Roles as Risk Insiders in Tourism Crisis Management

The purpose of this study is to explore residents’ roles as risk insiders in tourism crisis management. Particularly, this study used the recent event of Red Tides in Florida as the context and surveyed 969 potential visitors and 460 Florida residents. The preliminary findings indicated that visitors tend to rely on residents for risk related information. Guided by the social identity theory, this study further investigated the main drivers of Florida residents’ information-sharing behavior. The results indicated that both subjective knowledge and social identity influenced residents’ willingness to share risk information with visitors and their actual behavior. Based on the findings, this study further discussed a new research direction that involves residents in tourism crisis management. This study also offers practical implications on how to encourage residents to participate in the information-exchange process in tourism crisis management

Learning from past crises: Evaluating hotels’ online crisis responses to health crises

Organizational learning is an important function of tourism crisis management. By examining and evaluating hotels’ responses to the 2010 bed bug crisis on social media, the purpose of this study was to provide insights into how to establish effective crisis responses. Situational crisis communication theory was used as the theoretical framework and a total of 136 management responses were included in the sample. Content analysis and co-occurrence analysis were conducted. The results revealed a learning curve of crisis management for hotels. Enhancing and Bolstering were the most commonly used strategies within the sample. Further analysis showed the inconsistencies between hotels’ crisis response strategies and the situational crisis communication theory guidelines, where instructing information were seldom included. Based on the findings, this study discussed the importance of creating effective crisis responses and future research directions

Exploring inbound tourists experience in Beijing, China: an online deductive approach

Purpose Beijing is becoming one of the top global destinations but the number of international tourists to the city has been declining recently. By analyzing inbound tourists experience in Beijing and identifying the relationship between the destination attributes and satisfaction, the purpose of this paper is to provide important insights into city tourism research and city destination development. Design/methodology/approach This study used an online deductive approach and collected 1,254 reviews on TripAdvisor referencing major attractions in Beijing. This study used the Leximancer software to analyze the content of the reviews and to identify the underlying relationships. Findings The results showed that international tourists’ experience in Beijing can be reflected via five aspects: attractions, city, transportation, service and people. The results further indicated that the major concern of international tourists visiting Beijing related to the service quality on site. Originality/value This study explored inbound tourists experience in Beijing using an online deductive approach. Practical implications were provided with respect to improving international tourists experience in Beijing and enhancing their satisfaction and revisiting intentions

Industry convergence in rural tourism development: a China-featured term or a new initiative?

Industry convergence is a popular term that has been widely referenced in the context of rural tourism development in China. All levels of government (local, regional, national) in China have repeatedly addressed the significance of industry convergence in their tourism plans and related policies. Despite its popularity, limited studies at present have explored this concept in-depth. Using Huai’an as a case, this study applied a path analysis and reported the industry convergence process in a destination. The findings of this study can provide both theoretical and practical implications that are useful for tourism planners and policy makers

Does robotic service improve restaurant consumer experiences? An application of the value-co-creation framework

One recent application of technology In the foodservice industry involves robotic services in restaurants, mainly because it reduces labor costs and increases efficiencies. Driven by the value co-creation framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of robot service on restaurant customer experiences and satisfaction. The sample includes a total of 1381 reviews posted from January 2015 to January 2020. This study used the software Leximancer to analyze the data and identified the following themes: Food, Robot, Quality, Ordering and Delivery Serivces. The findings further indicated that robotic services play an essential role in creating positive dining experiences and are more likely to lead to higher satisfaction levels. Based on the results, this study discussed how robotic services might contribute to customers’ value co-creating process and affect their evaluation of the dining experiences. This study, however, is delimited to English reviews and North American restaurants

Can post-disaster tourism development improve destination livelihoods? A case study of Aceh, Indonesia

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or be any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.Destinations are vulnerable to natural disasters, which can result in damage to infrastructure and built facilities, negative destination images, and a difficult time of recovery. Recently, a growing number of destinations have incorporated tourism development in their disaster relief efforts and used post-disaster tourism as a strategy to enhance local livelihoods and build community resilience. Guided by the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (SLFT), this study analyzed the case of Aceh, Indonesia, a destination that had been struck by a severe natural disaster and developed tsunami tourism as a strategy to recover. The data were collected through focus group interviews among local stakeholders. Based on the SLFT, this study employed a deductive approach to analyze the data and identified six themes. The findings not only validated the applicability of the SLFT to a post-disaster tourism development context, but also revealed how tourism could contribute to various community assets and a resilient destination in the aftermath of a crisis. The study also underscored the importance of local culture and religion during the recovery process. Based on the findings, further discussions are provided regarding the dynamics involving sustainable development, post-disaster tourism, and resilient destinations

Examining the impact of psychological capital on workplace outcomes of ethnic minority foodservice employees

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of psychological capital on workplace outcomes of ethnic minority employees in the foodservice industry. Guided by the social exchange theory and the equity theory, this study developed and tested a survey instrument and collected 407 valid responses through an online survey. Results of the structural equation model analysis confirmed the positive impact of psychological capital on work engagement and workplace happiness, and their further impacts on job satisfaction and commitment. The results of multi-group comparisons showed differences between salaried and hourly employees. For individuals holding salaried positions, it was work engagement, rather than psychological capital, that affected their workplace happiness. For hourly employees, although psychological capital influenced their work engagement and workplace happiness, their work engagement and work happiness remain unrelated. Based on the findings, this study offered practical implications on how to enhance psychological capital for ethnic minority employees

Are we missing the boat? Examining managers’ perspectives on employee wellbeing in the foodservice industry

The purpose of this research note was to examine managers’ perspectives on employee wellbeing in the foodservice industry. Particularly, this study conducted 14 semi-structured individual interviews with upper-level managers of various organizations within the foodservice industry. Thematic analyses were employed to analyze the data. The overall findings addressed the essence of considering employee wellbeing in the industry. Particularly, this study revealed managers’ interpretation of employee wellbeing, identified major influences on employee wellbeing, reported the current measures, and presented the major challenges facing most organizations regarding improving employee wellbeing. From a theoretical point of view, this study used a qualitative approach and reflected managers’ perspectives on the concept of employee wellbeing. Building on those findings, this study provides practical implications, which mainly involves using a forward-thinking, top-down approach to enhance employee wellbeing, and highlights the roles of organizational support and organizational culture. Based on the findings, this study also discusses future research directions and limitations

Exploring Ethnic Minority Workers’ Perceptions of Employee Well-Being in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to examine ethnic minority workers’ perceptions of employee well-being in tourism and hospitality. Based on tourism and human resource management literature, this study adopted a mixed-methods research design. Particularly, fourteen interviews were conducted, and a total of 414 employees in the tourism industry were surveyed. A series of statistical analyses, including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, were performed using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 26.0. The results confirmed the multi-dimensional nature of employee well-being, which is constituted of four dimensions, namely, professional/personal development, work-life balance, workplace happiness, and work benefits. The findings also revealed that the participation in corporate-sponsored wellness programs might affect how employees perceive their well-being at work. Based on the findings, this study further discussed both theoretical and practical implications