Environmental Sustainability and the Hospitality Customer Experience: A Study in Tourist Accommodation

Academic research on sustainability in the hospitality industry is scarce and fragmented, and requires a general structure to lend coherence to its approach. There is a need for empirical research to fathom the question of environmental sustainability and customer experience in the hospitality industry and to study the interaction between the two concepts. This paper aims to close these gaps by establishing the nature of the relationship between customers’ perceptions of the environmental practices in tourism accommodation and their customer experiences and levels of satisfaction. The working hypotheses, based on a review of the literature on environmental sustainability and customer experience in the hospitality industry, are tested in an empirical study of 412 Spanish customers who stayed in various types of tourist accommodation. The main conclusion is that the relationship between environmental sustainability and customer experience in the hospitality industry can be demonstrated. This paper also validates a measurement scale based on the most accepted dimensionality of the construct: cognitive (think), affective (feel), behavioral (act), sensory (sense) and social (relate)

El proceso de adaptación de las empresas de transporte internacional por carretera al transporte marítimo de corta distancia

Las empresas de transporte internacional por carretera se configuran como uno de los actores clave en el desarrollo del transporte marítimo de corta distancia. Si su deseo es operar de manera estable, utilizando la opción más eficiente –el transpor- te no acompañado– deben modificar su perfil con el propósito de obtener la máxima rentabilidad. El objetivo de este trabajo reside en analizar este proceso de cambio a partir del estudio de cinco empresas de transporte internacional por carretera que han desarrollado dicha adaptación para convertirse en operadores logísticos multi- modales. Los resultados de la investigación muestran cuatro áreas de cambio clave: reestructuración de la flota, reestructuración de la plantilla de conductores, cambios en el modelo de negocio y establecimiento de una estructura en el país de destinoInternational road haulage companies are seen to be one of the key players in the development of short-distance maritime transport. If they wish to operate in a stable manner, by using the most efficient option – unaccompanied transport – they must modify their profile with the aim of obtaining the greatest cost-effectiveness. The aim of this work is to analyse this process of change by studying five international road haulage companies that have undertaken such an adaptation in order to become multimodal logistics operators. The findings of the research show four key areas of change: restructuring of the fleet, restructuring of the workforce of drivers, changes in the business model, and setting up a structure in the destination countr

Transporte marítimo de corta distancia entre España e Italia: perfil de las empresas usuarias

El Transporte Marítimo de Corta Distancia (TMCD) ha sido catalogado por la Comisión Europea como el único modo de transporte que ofrece posibilidades reales de lograr un transvase de carga desde la carretera, mejorando además la competitividad y reduciendo los costes ambientales. En los últimos años se han llevado a cabo diversos estudios donde se han tratado de identificar líneas de TMCD con un potencial de futuro importante. Sin embargo, no se han abordado trabajos donde se evalúe el perfil de las empresas de transporte internacional por carretera que hacen uso de esta modalidad de transporte. Con el propósito de cubrir este déficit, en el presente trabajo se procede, sobre una muestra de 81 empresas de transporte internacional por carretera (41 españolas, 3 portuguesas y 37 italianas) que hacen uso de las líneas de TMCD entre España e Italia, a delimitar el perfil de dichas empresas, a la vez que a analizar ciertos elementos inherentes a la relación que mantienen con las navieras con las que trabaja

The antecedent role of personal environmental values in the relationships among trust in companies, information processing and risk perception

Trust and risk perception are important issues for industries such as petrochemical companies, typically considered ‘less trustworthy’ because of the hazards associated with their activities. In this context, individual’s trust in companies may have influence on information processing mode that individual adopts to reach a judgement such as risk perception associated with industrial hazards. We take the heuristic-systematic theory (HSM) as the model for processing information about industrial risk, with trust in companies as its antecedent and risk perception as its consequence. However, this process may be influenced by factors such as personal specific values. This paper analyses, to our knowledge for the first time, the antecedent role of personal values towards environmental issues in the HSM of information processing. The model was tested using data from interviews with 992 residents in an area of the province of Castelló (Spain) close to a petrochemical complex. Structured equation models were used to analyse the data. The results demonstrate the proposed relationships. The main contribution of this paper is the corroboration of the direct and indirect effects of personal environmental values on the variables that make up the trust in companies-HSM of information processing-risk perception sequence. Finally, we recommend that the companies of the petrochemical complex consider the frank, open and bidirectional communication with the residents as the key element to break the association among pro-environmental values, distrust in the companies and perception of the risk

Destination Sustainability and Memorable Tourism Experiences

The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between memorable tourism experiences and destination sustainability. Three hypotheses that relate dimensions of sustainability (economic, socio-cultural, and environmental) to memorable tourism experience are considered, based on a review of the literature. A questionnaire designed for that purpose was administered to 1034 tourists who stayed at five rural and sun and beach destinations in Spain. A multigroup analysis with a structural equation model was conducted to establish the differences between both destination types. The results show that destination environmental sustainability influences the memorable tourism experience, though significant differences between rural and sun and beach destinations have been detected. Age plays a moderating role: the younger the tourist the greater the influence of sustainability on memorable tourism experiences

Entrepreneurship innovation using social robots in tourism: a social listening study

The tourism sector has been one of the most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to restrictions on mobility and fear of social contact. In this context, business innovation through digital transformation is presented as a great opportunity for the tourism industry and the inclusion of social robots in service tasks is an example. This transformation requires new methodologies, skills and talent that must be promoted to improve the innovative tourism ecosystem. With this research, we try to determine how the inclusion of social or service robots in hotels can improve the image and perception held by clients or guests. For that, we frst analyse the degree of knowledge and sentiment generated by social robots through a social listening study in social networks. In addition, we determine whether these perceptions on the subject are in tune with other more formal felds, such as scientifc research, or with the strategies followed at a national or international level by companies, agencies and organisations related to the technology and innovation of social robotics. For both objectives, we use the Simbiu social listening tool, a software-based program on Talkwalker, and we obtain interesting results. Basically, people on Twitter have a neutral or positive feeling about the use of social robots, and people who write in English have a more positive attitude towards social robots than Spanish speakers. After COVID-19, are necessary changes in strategic decisions of the hospitality and it is essential to continue investigating the role of social robots in this new context.Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Jaume

The Made In Effect on the Perception of a Spanish Industrial Product in Foreign Markets

With globalization, organizations must be able to look for their own differentiation with the aim to obtain sustainable competitive advantages. Differentiation across the products can be a key factor if it is also associated with their place of origin. More and more, if we consider that the nowadays economical crisis is affecting several of the most representative sectors and industries. In this respect, this paper has as aim to analyze the perception that professionals of the construction industry of some of the main European markets, exactly, France, Poland and United Kingdom, have on different types of ceramic tiles having into account their place of origin.Ante la globalización, las empresas deben ser capaces de buscar sus propios parámetros de diferenciación con el fin de obtener ventajas competitivas sostenibles. La diferenciación a través de los productos puede ser un factor clave si además va asociada a su lugar de origen. Además la crisis de las principales economías mundiales afecta a varios de sus sectores más representativos. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la percepción que profesionales del sector de la construcción de algunos de los principales mercados europeos, concretamente, Francia, Polonia y Reino Unido, tienen sobre diferentes tipos de recubrimiento para suelos en función de su lugar de origen

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Accompanied versus Unaccompanied Transport in Short Sea Shipping betweer Spain and Italy: An Analysis from Transport Road Firms Perpective

Short sea shipping (SSS) is called to play a key role in ensuring sustainable mobility in the European context. In the past years several studies tried to define the SSS requirements and also to identify the SSS lines that were economically viable. However, no studies approach the profile of their users—the road transport firms—and the organizational patterns adopted by them, in order to gain a better understanding of this transport modality. This research, on the basis of a sample of 81 international road transport firms that use SSS between Spain and Italy, analyses the profile of these firms and certain elements inherent to their relationship with the shipping firms, according to the two modalities of organizing their SSS transport operations: accompanied versus unaccompanied

The influence of social media in creating expectations. An empirical study for a tourist destination

Social media are transforming the tourism industry from its traditional pattern into an intense informational pattern. Our study aims to investigate the causes underlying the use of user-generated contents (UGC) to receive tourist information and its effect on tourists’ expectations. Our empirical work was analysed by means of a multiple indicators multiple causes model (MIMIC) and a structural equation model (SEM). The main finding showed that when users receive UGC related to tourist destinations, they will create expectations about the destination by placing their trust in the contents received. It is recommended that tourism organizations should maintain the quality level in order to allow more UGC, and then further trust in the contents of social media and expectations will occur