Meaningful travel: Women, independent travel and the search for self and meaning

It is increasingly recognised by researchers that tourism experiences incorporate more than just physical travel to a place, as they can also involve spiritual elements, psychological and physical benefits, altruism, self-development, and life-change. Building on this recognition, this paper puts forward the idea that independent travel plays an important and meaningful part in the course of people\u27s lives. The concept of \u27meaningful travel\u27 is defined and explored, using women\u27s experiences of independent leisure and business travel as a context. Conceptualising travel as meaningful and relevant to everyday life reveals the complex, fluid and dynamic nature of the tourist experience, and calls for an effort to transgress simplistic and uni-dimensional interpretations of tourism, business travel and holiday-taking. Analysis of the women\u27s stories and words revealed that \u27meaningful travel\u27 centred around three key themes: a search for self and identity; self-empowerment; and connectedness with others/ \u27global citizenship\u27. Essentially, what the findings demonstrate is that meaningful travel is not about a mere search for authenticity and a collection of \u27cultural capital\u27. Rather, meaningful travel involves women searching for an increased sense of self and reconsidering their perspectives of life, society and their relationships with others. Furthermore, the results also demonstrate how women are able to transfer the meaning and benefits from their travel experiences upon their return home, within their everyday lives and contexts

Media images and the gendered representation of chefs

Images portrayed in online media may influence societal perceptions of chefs, with the potential to perpetuate gender segregation in the  professional kitchen. Little scholarly attention in previous research has been given to the examination of gender and images in hospitality media. This article aims to fill that gap through an exploration of how online hospitality media may socially construct the gendered nature of the chef  profession. The visual research method — the use of images to learn about the social world — was used to analyse 315 images collected from lifestyle magazines accessed online, food event websites, hospitality and restaurant industry-related websites, cookbooks and cooking equipment websites in New Zealand. Specifically, images depicting male and female chefs were sourced and analysed in relation to their gender  representation. The findings revealed a marked difference between the portrayed images of male and female chefs. Not only did female chefs feature less frequently in the images, they were also predominantly portrayed in more domestic settings, with feminine aspects emphasised. Thepotential implications of these results are discussed, including the reinforcement of gender stereotypes underpinning segregation in the chef profession. Keywords: female chefs, gender segregation, magazines, male chefs, metaphors, visual researc

The commercial home enterprise: Labour with love

Within the wider context of critical discourse, this paper examines the personal experiences of commercial home hosts in New Zealand, focusing on issues of copreneurship and work-life balance. When the home has a commercial domain, the impact of hosting on a host’s life can be immense; hence the commercial home provides a unique context in which to examine the issue of work-life balance. This paper presents the findings of a study of 12 commercial home hosts conducted to explore the strategies commercial home hosts employ to meet their objectives and maintain a sense of home and a balanced lifestyle. The study employed an interpretive and inductive approach to data collection and analysis. Key themes to emerge from the data elucidate the unique nature of the commercial home as a business, strategies for managing ‘work’ and ‘life’ in the commercial home effectively, and the dominant role of women taken in the operation of the commercial home; a role the women enjoy as ‘labour with love’. Although gender roles have been widely discussed in the commercial homes literature, the nature and impact of copreneurial activity, and the personal perspective of how life and business is balanced specifically within a commercial home accommodation enterprise remain relatively unexplored. The paper concludes with the authors questioning whether current copreneurship theory is adequate for understanding the commercial home enterprise, given the skewed division of roles and the motivations and life stage of operators. This leads the authors to call for further research on gendered roles in commercial home enterprises

Improving Productivity Through Enhancing Employee Wellbeing and Participation

This paper outlines the rationale and methodology for an international comparative project investigating the links between workplace productivity and employee wellness and well being via the operation of representative employee participation structures in Denmark and New Zealand. It will define and discuss the often contentious terms of productivity, wellbeing and participation and how employee participation and wellbeing and the work environment impact on productivity. This paper employs a multi-dimensional theoretical framework and will assess the significance of the issues examined: analyse the impact of employment practices and quality of the work environment on productivity: and as a result present the methodology developed for the project

Ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death in adults after a Mustard operation for transposition of the great arteries

Aims To examine the prevalence of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) and sudden death (SD) in adults with atrial repair of transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and to determine associated risk factors. Methods and results In a single-centre review, we studied the outcome of 149 adults (mean age 28 ± 7 years) who had undergone a Mustard operation for TGA. During a mean follow-up of 9 ± 6 years, sustained VT and/or SD occurred in 9% (13/149) of the cohort. Sustained VT/SD was more likely to occur in patients with associated anatomic lesions [hazard ratio (HR) 4.9, 95% CI 1.5-16.0], with NYHA class ≥III (HR 9.8, 95% CI 3.0-31.6) and with an impaired subaortic right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction (EF) (HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-4.0 per 10% decrease in EF). There was an inverse correlation between the RV-EF and both age and QRS duration. Patients with a QRS duration ≥140 ms were at highest risk of sustained VT/SD (HR 13.6, 95% CI 2.9-63.4). Atrial tachyarrhythmia was detected in 66 (44%) patients, but was not a statistically significant predictor of sustained VT/SD in our adult population (HR 2.7, 95% CI 0.6-13.0). Conclusion Sustained VT/SD in adults after a Mustard operation for TGA are more common than previously described. Age, systemic ventricular function, and QRS duration are interrelated and are associated with VT/SD. A QRS duration ≥140 ms helps to identify the high risk patien