Gastro-Tourism Well-Being: The Interplays Of Salient And Enduring Determinants, Muhammet Kesgin, Irfan Onal, Ihsan Kazkondu, Muzaffer Uysal

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Purpose-This research developed and tested an integrated structural gastro-tourism well-being model consisting of food-related lifestyle and leisure attitude as precursor of the consumption enjoyment of the gastro-tourism experience with satisfaction, life domain outcomes, tourism autobiographical memory and life satisfaction as outcomes of the consumption enjoyment. Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model was assessed with quantitative data collected from tourists based on their deliberate and incidental gastro-tourism experiences (N=617). Findings – Findings indicated that enjoyment of gastro-tourism consumption experience significantly influences satisfaction, life domain outcomes, life satisfaction, and tourism autobiographical memory. Life domain outcomes and tourism autobiographical memory have enduring influence on …

Digital Business Model Configurations In The Travel Industry, Mariia Perelygina, Deniz Kucukusta, Rob Law

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This study is amongst the first applications of digital business models (BMs) research to the travel industry. A systematic and comprehensive taxonomy of digital BM configurations in the travel industry is developed, supported by examples of real-world companies. Based on qualitative research, 53 digital BMs are identified and classified based on primary value drivers, including 10 novel configurations that are absent from previous studies. The paper contributes to framing digital BM configurations in the travel industry and supports establishing a common understanding among scholars. From the practical side, this study offers templates for building or transforming BMs and could serve …

Profiling Food Festivals By Type, Name And Descriptive Content: A Population Level Study, Muhammet Kesgin, Rajendran S. Murthy, Rick Lagiewski

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Purpose: This research aims to classify and describe food festivals and examine the patterns in food festival naming and festival descriptions in online media. Design: This research represents the first population-level empirical examination of food festivals in the United States using a purpose-built dataset (N=2626). Methodology includes text mining to examine food festival communications. Findings: Food festival size varies across local and regional spheres within the country. Food festivals employ geographical (place-, destination-based) associations in their names. Food festivals’ descriptions and online communications showcase a welcoming environment predominantly emphasizing family-oriented and live entertainment experiences. Food festivals across the country show …

Making Memories: A Consumer-Based Model Of Authenticity Applied To Living History Sites, Muhammet Kesgin, Babak Taheri, Rajendran S. Murthy, Juilee Decker, Martin Joseph Gannon

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Purpose: Underpinned by the consumer-based model of authenticity (CBA), this study investigated whether leisure involvement, object-based and existential authenticity, host sincerity, and engagement stimulate positive memorable visitor experiences in a distinctive commercial hospitality setting: a living history site. Methodology: Quantitative data were gathered from living history site visitors (n=1004), with partial least squares structural equation modelling used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings: The results confirm the inclusion of the hypothesized relationships between leisure involvement, sincerity, and authenticity, relative to engagement and subsequent memorability. The findings suggest that engagement can be a predictor of positive memorable experience, contingent on CBA …

The Wild Atlantic Way: A Tourism Journey, Kevin A. Griffin, Gerard Dunne

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The Wild Atlantic Way is possibly the most celebrated, high profile tourism initiative to be launched in Ireland in recent years. It consists of a defined touring route along the western seaboard, one of the most scenic, remote, and sensitive stretches of Irish landscape. This paper presents the principal findings from a survey of 341 tourism and hospitality product providers along the Wild Atlantic Way. The main aim of the research was to investigate the perceived impacts (economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) of this new tourism initiative on the local areas through which it passes. The results paint a generally positive …

School Of Culinary Arts & Food Technology, Technological University Dublin Newsletter: Autumn, 2019, James Murphy

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The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, TU Dublin, Autumn Newsletter captured the many events, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed up to the Autumn period of 2019. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' friends of Culinary Arts (school supporters) and our school's industry association supporters.

School Of Culinary Arts & Food Technology, Technological University Dublin Newsletter: Summer, 2019, James Murphy

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The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, TU Dublin, Summer Newsletter captured the many events, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed up to the Summer period of 2019. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' friends of Culinary Arts (school supporters) and our school's industry association supporters.

Residents As Destination Advocates: The Role Of Attraction Familiarity On Destination Image, Muhammet Kesgin, Rajendran S. Murthy, Linden Pohland

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Purpose – Emphasizing the role of residents as destination advocates, this study investigates the influence of residents’ familiarity with, and, favorability of attractions on destination image. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods research strategy was employed using fifteen individual in-depth interviews and a survey questionnaire with a sample of N=364. The study utilizes an attraction familiarity index to classify respondents into four groups based on high, average, and low familiarity and examines the characteristics of each in the relationship between informational familiarity, experiential familiarity, and favorability and destination image. Findings – The study reveals resident perceptions of attractions within the tourism …

School Of Culinary Arts & Food Technology, Technological University Dublin Newsletter: Spring, 2019 -Spring Newsletter 2019, James Murphy

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The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, TU Dublin, Spring Newsletter captured the many events, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed up to the Spring period of 2019. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' friends of Culinary Arts (school supporters) and our school's industry association supporters.

From Dreaming To Believing: A Review Of Consumer Engagement Behaviours With Brands’ Social Media Content Across The Holiday Travel Process, Dean Creevey, Etain Kidney, Glenn Mehta

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This paper reviews social media user engagement behaviours with brands and proposes a new stage within the travel process. Specifically, the pre-trip stage is examined and investigation into a two sub-stage split is proposed; pre-purchase and post-purchase. Dubbed the Believing phase, this paper calls for research into the patterns of engagement behaviour towards hotel brands’ content at this currently under-researched stage. Current social media-focussed research examines influence on purchasing decisions of users, social media usage on-site, and post-trip evaluation. There remains a conceptual gap highlighting the behavioural patterns of users during the period between initial purchase and subsequent departure.

Conceptualising Talent In Multinational Hotel Corporations, Stefan Jooss, Anthony Mcdonnell, Ralf Burbach, Vlad Vaiman

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Purpose – To identify, develop and retain talent, an important first step is to ensure that key stakeholders in the talent management (TM) process have a shared view of what is meant by talent within the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how talent is defined in the context of the hospitality industry and to examine the degree of (mis)alignment among corporate and business unit leaders.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative approach consisting of 73 interviews with stakeholders at corporate and business unit levels in three multinational hotel corporations. In addition, documents were collected and …

Dignity Transacted, Lu-In Wang, Zachary W. Brewster

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In interactive customer service encounters, the dignity of the parties becomes the currency of a commercial transaction. Service firms that profit from customer satisfaction place great emphasis on emotional labor, the work that service providers do to make customers feel cared for and esteemed. But performing emotional labor can deny dignity to workers, by highlighting their subservience and requiring them to suppress their own emotions in an effort to elevate the status and experiences of their customers. Paradoxically, the burden of performing emotional labor may also impose transactional costs on some customers by facilitating discrimination in service delivery. Drawing on …

Exploring The Motivations Of Tourism Social Entrepreneurs: The Role Of A National Tourism Policy As A Motivator For Social Entrepreneurial Activity In Ireland, Ziene Mottiar

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations of social entrepreneurs. It explores the case of the Gathering in Ireland in 2013, when against a backdrop of recession, the national Government encouraged individuals and communities to organize events and invite the Diaspora to visit Ireland as a way of helping the country to revitalize. Some 5,000 events took place across the country during the year, and this paper examines this in the context of social entrepreneurship. Three research questions are posed: Who were these tourism and social entrepreneurs who organized events as a result of the …

When The Customer Is King: Employment Discrimination As Customer Service, Lu-In Wang

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Employers profit from giving customers opportunities to discriminate against service workers. Employment discrimination law should not, but in many ways does, allow them to get away with it. Employers are driven by self-interest to please customers, whose satisfaction is critical to business success and survival. Pleasing customers often involves cultivating and catering to their discriminatory expectations with respect to customer service — including facilitating customers’ direct discrimination against workers.

Current doctrine allows employers to escape responsibility for customers’ discrimination against workers because it takes an overly narrow view of the employment relationship. The doctrine focuses on the formal lines of …

Work-Life Balance Practices Among Irish Hotel Employees:Implications For Hrm, Kathleen Farrell

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The aim of this paper is to examine work-life balance in the Irish hotel sector from an employee perspective with implications for HRM. 246 questionnaires from employees were returned which was a 22% response rate. Company benefits were not associated with numerical flexibility, but company benefits were associated with functional flexibility and work-life balance supports. This would suggest an integrated approach to human resource management (HRM), whereby some companies engage in a contemporary employee-focused approach, whereas other companies tend to be more traditional. The study advances the literature on the link between work-life balance programmes and other HRM practices such …

Tour Guides And The Mediation Of Difficult Memories: The Case Of Dublin Castle, Ireland, Bernadette Quinn, Theresa Ryan

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This research seeks to furthering understandings of how Tour Guides interpret memories at heritage sites when the memories at issue are difficult yet subtle and not always apparent to tourists. Specifically, it explores how Dublin Castle, formerly the seat of British rule in Ireland, is captured in narratives presented to tourists that often include Britons. Representing the site is made challenging because some visitors have little knowledge of the site's history, while others are well informed and hold strong political views. The findings show that Guides select largely depoliticized narratives, strongly influenced by their personal interests and experiences. Some hint …

At The Tipping Point: Race And Gender Discrimination In A Common Economic Transaction, Lu-In Wang

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This Article examines the ubiquitous, multibillion dollar practice of tipping as a vehicle for race and gender discrimination by both customers and servers and as a case study of the role that organizations play in producing and promoting unequal treatment. The unique structure of tipped service encounters provides plenty of opportunities and incentives for the two parties to discriminate against one another. Neither customers nor servers are likely to find legal redress for the kinds of discrimination that are most likely to occur in tipped service transactions, however, because many of the same features of the transaction that promote discrimination …

Restaurant Selection In Dublin, Frank Cullen

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The primary objective of this research was to investigate the selection process used by consumers when choosing a restaurant to dine. This study examined literature on consumer behaviour, restaurant selection, and decision-making, underpinning the contention that service quality is linked to the consumer’s selection of a restaurant. It supports the utility theories that consumers buy bundles of attributes that simultaneously combined represent a certain level of service quality at a certain price. The findings of the research displayed a preference by Dublin consumers for Italian and Chinese styled restaurants and identified quality of the food, type of food, cleanliness of …

Towards A Decision Making Model For City Break Travel, Gerard Dunne, Sheila Flanagan, Joan Buckley

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Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the city break travel decision and in particular to develop a decision making model that reflects the characteristics of this type of trip taking.

Method

The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach consisting of two phases. Phase One involves a quantitative survey of 1,000 visitors to Dublin, from which city break and non city break visitor cohorts are separated and compared. Phase Two entails a qualitative analysis (involving 40 in-depth interviews) that specifically examines the decision making behaviour of city break visitors.

Findings

City break trips were shown to be …

Expenditure-Based Segmentation And Visitor Profiling At The Quays In Salford, Uk, Ruth Craggs, Peter Schofield

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There is a substantial body of literature relating to tourism’s economic impact at the macro level, but less is known about tourist expenditure at a micro scale. This paper reports findings from a survey of day-visitor expenditure by category at The Quays in Salford, UK. Expenditure is influenced strongly by the visitor’s age, frequency of visitation and visit motivation. Heavy, medium and light expenditure segments and associated profiles are identified. ‘Heavy spenders’ are more likely to be female, in a family group and have shopping as the main motivation for the visit. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Motivation And Decision Making In City Break Travel, Gerard Dunne

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The demand for city breaks has been one of the major growth areas in travel and tourism in recent years. The city break product is generally considered to be different from other holiday products, particularly in a spatial and temporal context. However marketing strategies targeting this important tourism niche continue to be based on data that is often anecdotal and frequently inaccurate. This book explores the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel and in particular the motivations and decision making involved in taking such trips. The book presents a decision making continuum that highlights the variation that exists between …

Understanding The Heat - Mentoring: A Model For Nurturing Culinary Talent, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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Should time be invested in nurturing the next generation of Culinarians in order to improve the profession? Is fear and intimidation acceptable in a professional kitchen? Can we identify the reasons behind the high levels of staff turnover? In this paper I hope to address these questions, and to discuss mentoring as a model for nurturing culinary talent.

City Break Motivation: The Case Of Dublin, A Successful National Capital, Gerard Dunne, Sheila Flanagan, Joan Buckley

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This paper investigates why people take city break trips. The main objective of the study was to reveal the underlying push and pull motivational factors associated with taking a city break holiday to Dublin. In-depth interviews with 40 city break visitors uncovered six push factors and eight pull factors. The main push motives involved were, ‘escape,’ ‘socialising,’ and ‘self esteem (gift giving).’ City breaks were generally viewed as active or ‘doing’ holidays, with the ‘relaxation’ motive hardly featuring at all as a reason to visit. Pull factors were found to be particularly important in terms of the travel decision. Factors …

An Application Of Desktop Virtual Reality To The Hospitality Industry, Patrick Horan, Ciaran Mcdonnell

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This paper discusses research being carried out to produce real-time interactive Virtual Reality (VR) models of some areas of Tourism interest in Ireland. In particular, issues concerning the development of prototype VR models of an ancient Irish monastic village are described.

Productivity In The Hotel Industry, Frank Mcmahon

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No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Labor Turnover In Hotels, Frank Mcmahon

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No abstract provided.

Labour Turnover In London Hotels And The Cost Effectiveness Of Preventative Measures, Frank Mcmahon, Ann Denvir

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No abstract provided.