Greening hotels - building green values into hotel services

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to enhance knowledge about greening hotel services and the possibilities it provides for successful hotel management as well as for enrichment of hotel guest experiences. Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper is based on a summarized review of previous theoretical contributions and an investigative study of three business cases which relies on qualitative methodology. The case studies draw on interviews, archival materials and photographs. A case study approach was adopted to illustrate the differences in the approach used for greening hotel services. Three green hotels that mutually vary in size, categorization, segmentation and targeted market, were analyzed. Findings – The analysis of cases-hotels identifies and describes different and numerous activities of green marketing management. A proactive and trustworthy implementation of those activities enables green hotels to achieve increasing benefits no matter their size, classification and target audience. Originality of the research – The study can help us to understand how environmentally conscious hotel management establishes a suitable setting for greening hotels services. These can serve as a valuable source of information in academic circles and be especially useful to marketing managers in hotels that aim to be green

Brand Experience Research in Hospitality and Tourism – Review and Future Directions

This article aims to present a critical review of brand experience (BE) research in hospitality and tourism brand management literature based on a systematic literature and content analysis of 40 articles published in 25 peer-reviewed journals. The concept of BE is discussed by identifying leading journals, research methodologies, research contexts, country of research distribution, dimensionality approaches, and theoretical perspectives. Quantitative research was applied in most reviewed papers, and structural equation modeling (SEM), together with factor analysis (FA) emerged as preferred data analysis techniques. A steady increase in research papers exploring the construct of BE in an online context has been observed. The study suggests that BE is a critical and substantial ingredient of successful hotel, place, destination, restaurant, coffeehouse, cruise, and casino brand management. Additionally, key insights from previous empirical research were discussed from the perspective of antecedents and consequences of BE to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework. Drawing on the findings, potential themes for future research within six important areas of BE in hospitality and tourism were identified

Strategic Brand Management in Emerging Markets: Consumer Perceptions of Brand Extensions

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ perceptions of the parent brand and their attitudes towards the brand extensions by exploratory researching the topic in the new context of one emerging European market. Theoretical part gives a comprehensive description and analysis of the main features of the brand extension strategy. The purpose of the primary research is to explore and understand Croatian consumers’ perceptions about the global parent brand (Coca-Cola) and their attitudes towards its extensions on the Croatian market. Research results support the assumption that managers should introduce brand extension when they are sure of the position of the parent brand and its former extensions in the consumers’ mind. As such, results corroborate previous findings, showing how it is necessary to know the existing level of brand affect, brand loyalty, and brand trust since they have different impacts on consumers’ perceptions of the brand extension. The main contribution of the paper stems from the replication and extension of the previous research in the new context (in terms of the level of the market development and consumer culture). Research findings add to the existing knowledge with insights and results from the new market (Croatia), and as such might help in increasing understanding of the brand extension phenomena in the field of the strategic brand management in emerging markets

Understanding prevention measures and tourist behavior in Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-method approach

This study investigates the adoption of prevention measures inCroatia during the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship withtourist behavior. The research adopts a mixed-method approachas it examines both practitioners’and tourists’viewpoints. A quali-tative study was conducted with eight destination service pro-viders, while the quantitative study took place among 333international tourists during their stay in the country. Results fromthe qualitative study show that the most frequently employed pre-vention measures are cleaning and disinfection of customer-usespaces, the use of hand sanitizers, mandatory face masks foremployees and guests, and social distancing. Tourism service pro-viders observed that international tourist behavior changed signifi-cantly from 2020 to 2021. Findings from the quantitative studyshow relatively high levels of perception of adoption of preventionmeasures among tourists, low levels of the perceived risk ofCOVID-19, and high levels of tourist satisfaction. Some differencesin tourist behavior related to gender and destination type are alsoobserved. Positive correlations are found between tourists’percep-tions of prevention measures and their satisfaction level, while thecorrelations between perceived risk of COVID-19 and preventionmeasures on one hand and perceived risk of COVID-19 and tou-rists’satisfaction on the other are found to be negative

(In)Distinctive Role of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Common and Rare Ovarian Cancers

Simple Summary:& nbsp;Ovarian cancers (OCs) are the most lethal form of gynecological tumors. The commonest are high-grade serous OCs, while rare OCs originate from many different cell types, such as epithelial, germ cell, sex cord-stromal, or mixed types. Rare OCs have distinct molecular characteristics, prognosis, and therapeutic approaches. However, all ovarian malignancies mostly share the same problem: late diagnosis due to the lack of specific symptoms. Therefore, there is a perpetual need to discover better diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers, as well as new therapeutic approaches. In recent years, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained widespread attention because of their important role in various biological pathways. They have multiple mechanisms of action with an important role in many cellular processes related to OCs development and progression. This review will focus on the different aspects of lncRNAs in OCs and attempt to highlight the distinctive role of lncRNAs in common and rare OCs

Could MicroRNAs be Useful Tools to Improve the Diagnosis and Treatment of Rare Gynecological Cancers? A Brief Overview

Gynecological cancers pose an important public health issue, with a high incidence among women of all ages. Gynecological cancers such as malignant germ-cell tumors, sex-cord-stromal tumors, uterine sarcomas and carcinosarcomas, gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, vulvar carcinoma and melanoma of the female genital tract, are defined as rare with an annual incidence of <6 per 100,000 women. Rare gynecological cancers (RGCs) are associated with poor prognosis, and given the low incidence of each entity, there is the risk of delayed diagnosis due to clinical inexperience and limited therapeutic options. There has been a growing interest in the field of microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs of 22 nucleotides in length, because of their potential to regulate diverse biological processes. miRNAs usually induce mRNA degradation and translational repression by interacting with the 30 untranslated region (30-UTR) of target mRNAs, as well as other regions and gene promoters, as well as activating translation or regulating transcription under certain conditions. Recent research has revealed the enormous promise of miRNAs for improving the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of all major gynecological cancers. However, to date, only a few studies have been performed on RGCs. In this review, we summarize the data currently available regarding RGCs.peer-reviewe

Metabolomics as a Powerful Tool for Molecular Quality Assessment of the Fish Sparus aurata

The molecular profiles of perchloric acid solutions extracted from the flesh of Sparus aurata fish specimens, produced according to different aquaculture systems, have been investigated. The 1H-NMR spectra of aqueous extracts are indicative of differences in the metabolite content of fish reared under different conditions that are already distinguishable at their capture, and substantially maintain the same differences in their molecular profiles after sixteen days of storage under ice. The fish metabolic profiles are studied by top-down chemometric analysis. The results of this exploratory investigation show that the fish metabolome accurately reflects the rearing conditions. The level of many metabolites co-vary with the rearing conditions and a few metabolites are quantified including glycogen (stress indicator), histidine, alanine and glycine which all display significant changes dependent on the aquaculture system and on the storage times