Tourism and Hospitality

Turismul în România a suferit schimbări considerabile în procesul de tranziţie spre economia de piaţă. Aceste modificări, însoţite de soluţiile neadecvate adoptate de autorităţi, au determinat o situaţie discordantă între ceea ce prezintă şi promovează Ministerul Turismului şi situaţia reală a industriei turismului şi a industriei hoteliere româneşti. Această situaţie a fost întreţinută şi de centralizarea precară sau eronată către Ministerul Turismului (MT)/ Autoritatea Naţională pentru Turism (ANT) a informaţiilor hotelierilor cu privire la hotelurile administrate, dar şi de slaba prelucrare a informaţiilor primite de către MT/ ANT, conducând la generarea unor informaţii eronate. Aceste date sunt practic inutile pentru oricare dintre categoriile de persoane interesate să afle mai multe cu privire la industria hotelieră românească şi cu atât mai mult pentru cei care doresc să le utilizeze ca punct de referinţă, în special în vederea deschiderii unor noi afaceri în domeniul ospitali...

Based on these results, Sasa and Dezful for wheat, barley and rice on irrigated land, respectively, in grades 22, 27
and 21 and on dry land (wheat and barley) has been ranked 28 Which indicates the low efficiency of this activity in the
province is compared to other provinces. Some of the causes of this problem, as follows: Salinity and poor soil, more than 60
percent of land in the province (mountainous desert lands) for agricultural activities.Low rate of rainfall. High temperature,
resulting in a high rate of evaporation of soil moisture. Poor vegetation cover. Low percentage of literate farmers (based on
the results of the General Census of Agriculture., 6/55 percent From illiterate farmers in Khuzestan province and education
9/28 percent of them, the elementary school has been) and as a result of insufficient acquaintance with scientific methods
activities of agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry.

The recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 has led to a global panic due to its fatal nature. Malaysia is currently being aware of this pandemic disease and the government has imposed Movement Control Order (MCO) for preventing the spread of this disease. The ongoing Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign has been cancelled and all the guests who are currently staying in Malaysia have been told to remain in their room during the MCO. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the future impact of tourism and hospitality industry due to restricted movement control order for novel COVID-19. The conceptual methodology technique is used for this study to imply secondary information from various government published sources. The major findings are indicated about the flight operations as minimized and employees from different hotels as well as resorts were asked for unpaid leave. Moreover, results is also highlighted about negatively impact on Malaysian tourism and hospitality industry due to seriously pandemic disease spreading worldwide. Although, this sector is considered as the world's fastest-growing economy. In conclusion, this conceptual study will further help the authority to take precautions and best policy to be implemented in future.

The hospitality industry is highly service-oriented with a low degree of tangibility. Almost all of the operations concerning a hotel or restaurant involve human interaction in the form of employee customer communication and interaction (Nadiri and Hussain, 2005). Moreover the customer has to use the services and products provided by the hotel or restaurant at the place and cannot be taken home. Due to the lack of a tangible product which is offered by the hotel or restaurant, the analyses of satisfaction of the customer needs to be based on the service provided by the hotel or restaurant. The quality of service is associated with the feeling developed in the minds of the customer based on the product of the service and whether the expectations of the customer have been met. Moreover the hotels and restaurant highly value repeat customers which can only be developed based on customer satisfaction.

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The not so long ago traditional way of organizing a holiday by choosing a destination seen in an album or in various brochures at a travel agency, together with the use of a travel guide and a folding map has been steadily taken over in the last years by the tourists who conduct by themselves online complex researches regarding destinations, hotels and means of transportation in order to find the best combination of solutions and rates. Nowadays, these researches are done using smartphones, tablets and other devices. At the same time, much trust is granted to peer reviews and social media. The question that arises is: Are the Romanian hoteliers spectators to these changes or are they also taking action? The present paper will try to identify the main issues Romanian hotels face currently in what concerns digital media. A special focus regards international trends and how Romanian hotels are responding to them.

As successful tourism firms invest heavily in marketing to defend or improve their competitive position, they increasingly need to measure their marketing performance. Previous studies related to tourism have largely focused on financial and operational performance, but the marketing perspective has been largely overlooked. Drawing on an in-depth investigation involving 12 hotel chains, 8 travel agencies and 8 tour operators, this study provides an overview of the state-of-the-art marketing performance measurements among some of the leading tourism firms in Italy. Several issues and unanswered questions are also identified.

This article examines the growth of Community-Based Tourism within the broader discipline of tourism. New topics in the field have emerged such as responsible tourism, pro-poor tourism, sports tourism and moral impacts of tourism. This phenomenon also reflects the multi-disciplinarity of tourism. In this article, using the Title, Abstract and Keywords (TAK) for instances in which the words (Community-based Tourism, Community Tourism and Community-Based Eco-Tourism) to subsume Community-Based Tourism (CBT), a search was made in various databases and found that CBT as a sub-specialty of tourism started to emerge in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The number of articles published specifically on CBT has been growing phenomenally. The major contribution of this article is that we now know the evolution of CBT and we also now know its trajectory of growth which has been upward. While the number of articles on CBT is growing, there is no journal dedicated solely to CBT.

Tourism has been a major source of intercultural and societal ties among hosts and guests. As many research findings on many touristic countries suggests that socio cultural structures have been changing dramatically as a result of tourism. These changes, both positive and negative, have varied from country to country. The reactions of the hosts in the face of negative changes have been quite diverse, ranging from an active resistance to a complete adoption of the guests " culture. The choice of strategies to cope with changes wrought by tourism depends on the socio cultural characteristics of the host community and the level of change affected by tourism. Studies on the impacts of tourism have so far done neither in economic analysis nor in socio-cultural in Ethiopia as a result has it not been clear whether the benefits outweigh the costs. This study, therefore, aimed at evaluating the impacts of tourism on the socio-cultural spheres of the local communities. Methodologically, the research used descriptive research design with both qualitative and quantitative research approach. This study revealed that there has been tremendous contributions of the tourism industry in terms of social cohesion, new language, and inter-cultural fusion. On the contrary, a lot has been counted as negative consequences. This paper strongly recommends that the community should be involved and empowered in planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation stages oftourism development and management.

The goal of this paper is to analyze the effects of ICT on firms’ competitiveness, as well as on their level of innovation, productivity and on the market share depending on the
tourism area: Accommodation, Gastronomy and Travel Agencies. On the whole, it has been proved that the use of diverse ICTs has little effect on the level of competition as well as on increasing productivity, while in general, they have a positive effect on increasing the market share of the firms.

The recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 has led to a global panic due to its fatal nature. Malaysia is currently being aware of this pandemic disease and the government has imposed Movement Control Order (MCO) for preventing the spread of this disease. The ongoing Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign has been cancelled and all the guests who are currently staying in Malaysia have been told to remain in their room during the MCO. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the future impact of tourism and hospitality industry due to restricted movement control order for novel COVID-19. The conceptual methodology technique is used for this study to imply secondary information from various government published sources. The major findings are indicated about the flight operations as minimized and employees from different hotels as well as resorts were asked for unpaid leave. Moreover, results is also highlighted about negatively impact on Malaysian tourism and hospitality industry due to seriously pandemic disease spreading worldwide. Although, this sector is considered as the world's fastest-growing economy. In conclusion, this conceptual study will further help the authority to take precautions and best policy to be implemented in future.

Purpose
Despite its volume, the academic research on the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on tourism and hospitality consumer behaviour is fragmented and largely limited to investigating a small scope of its impact. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap by synthesising the existing literature, providing a conceptual framework for the various dimensions of this impact.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the meta-synthesis and a critical conceptual analysis of relevant academic literature identified using a keyword search of papers via the Web of Science and Scopus databases, followed by a snowballing process comprising tracking the citations to the resources referred to in the identified papers.

Findings
This conceptual analysis illustrates how the full spectrum of the impact of eWOM on tourist behaviour spans well beyond the limited scope traditionally focussed on by tourism and hospitality researchers. This scope, encompassing multiple cognitive, normative and affective dimensions, is illustrated in an evidence-based conceptual framework proposed in this paper, providing a systematic tool to identify the less-studied aspects of this important phenomenon.

Originality/value
This paper synthesises the large and fragmented body of literature on eWOM and proposes a novel conceptual framework, illustrating the vast scope of the various cognitive, affective and normative mechanisms through which eWOM affects consumers’ choice of tourism and hospitality products. Furthermore, this paper provides a synthesis of the state-of-the-art of research in this field, highlights the existing gaps and provides researchers with a systematic tool to identify pathways towards breaking the status-quo in progressing beyond the current boundaries of academic research in this field.

People in the mountainous regions of Georgia have embraced new development pathways in recent years. Residents are taking advantage of the area’s rapid increase in tourism, as settlements on the Caucasus
Mountain slopes constitute some of the most visited tourist destinations in the country. The specific objective of this study was to determine whether the long-standing tradition of Georgian hospitality has sustained its cultural identity or has been commodified under accelerated tourism development. A grounded theory approach was used as a theoretical basis to explore primary findings. Empirical data were collected through interviews,
Introduction
Culture and tourism have a synergistic relationship that can make a location more attractive and competitive on both regional and national levels. The demonstration of indigenous customs can be a means of sustaining traditions (Godde et al 2000; Besculides et al 2002; OECD 2009; Williams and Lew 2015). Conversely, tourism can be an agent for negative cultural change or loss of indigenous identity and values, as its growth leads to cultural commodification (Shepherd 2002; Macleod 2006; Mbaiwa 2011; Williams and Lew 2015). One dynamic in the midst of such cultural erosion and loss of authenticity is the tradition of hospitality and the guest-host relationship. Investigations from the perspective of the social sciences go beyond their commercialized basis and look at the depth of both human and social phenomena (Robinson and Smith 2006; Causevic and Lynch 2009).
The tradition of hospitality has received much attention in Caucasian studies (Curro 2017). In particular, anthropological and cultural studies have widely investigated the practices of welcoming guests in Georgia (Kotthoff 1995; Chatwin 1997; Dragadze 2003; Tuite 2005; Khutsishvili 2010; Ram 2014). Curro (2014) traced the history of the abovementioned studies and pointed out that paradigmatic expressions of hospitality, particularly the tradition of the
Mountain Research and Development Vol 39 No 4 Nov 2019: R20–R26
participant observation, and guest reviews from the website booking.com. Texts were processed using qualitative data analysis software. The open-coded narratives revealed new forms of Georgian hospitality in guesthouse services amid waves of the commodification of guest-host relationships. Maintenance of deeply rooted traditional behaviour of the host communities under rapidly increasing tourism constitutes a firm foundation for sustainable development.

The paper discusses Derrida's concept of hospitality which perfectly describes the experience of loosing the sense of feeling at home and reveals the disintegrating entrance of the Otherness into a coherent home space. Jacques Derrida's theory makes it possible to deconstruct the familiar home space, which, however, does not constitute in any case its destruction. Revealing a complex and ambiguous nature of the challenge of hospitality, he perceives the sense of feeling at home as one of the necessary conditions of a stable subject. This is the subject that most fears the Otherness which could disrupt, unsettle their permanent structure and a sense of certainty. Therefore, the Author follows closely the fear of strangeness and the nostalgic longing for the sense of feeling at home as depicted by David Lynch and Michael Haneke in their films. Then he passes on to the field of contemporary art which not only reveals the fact that something has happened to the house we have known so far, but it also allows for creative deconstruction of the feeling at home. The artistic works selected by the Author break the binary oppositions: one’s own/someone else’s, familiar/strange (Jessica Sue Layton), close/distant (Shizuka Yokomizo) and finally the most important one: interior/exterior (Marja Pirilä, Eve Dent).

Community-based tourism (CBT) offers both opportunities and challenges in the quest
for holistic community development. The evolution and development of CBT projects
can follow different trajectories. This conceptual paper’s main contribution is the
formulation of a comprehensive model of the development of CBT. The model
suggests that CBT projects can be initiated from within and outside the community by
the private, public and non-governmental sectors or a combination of these using a topdown
or bottom-up approach. It also posits that CBT projects can take a formal or
informal character depending on the conditions leading to their initiation. The paper
highlights the benefits and constraints to the scaling up or down of operations linked to
informality. It supports further research in analyzing the various aspects associated
with the shift from formality to the informality of CBT projects and vice versa

Examining data from over 500 private club employees who were terminated from employment over the past 15 years, the purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which individual variables explain retention rates in the small, private-club sector of the hospitality industry. Given the disparity in employee turnover rates in the leisure and hospitality industry as compared to all industry averages, this report specifically analyzes the influence of gender, age, length of tenure, and departmental affiliation as related to continued employment with the organization. Findings show that while gender was not necessarily a significant predictor of retention, employees' age, the department in which employees primarily were assigned, as well as exempt versus hourly status all had a significant effect on their corresponding rates of retention. This study not only expounds upon the current literature in the field, it adds a very distinct addition to the body of research, insofar as small, private clubs are underrepresented in the available literature.

Purpose-This paper attempts to propose an integrated model for measuring the knowledge transfer effectiveness in university-industry alliances. The so-called "RDCE" model is thereby proposed as an integrated model for measuring the knowledge transfer effectiveness. By combining inter-organizational relations (IORs), knowledge-based view (KBV) and resource-based view (RBV) of firms, this paper aims to focus on the influence of determinant factors such as partner complementarities, partner attributes, the characteristics of the coordination and relationship quality between industrial companies and universities that may lead to the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. Design/methodology/approach-This framework thereby clarifies how mediating variables influenced the paths that constitute the direct, indirect and total effects of mediated models by integrating moderated regression analysis together with bootstrap resampling methods to ensure the precision in estimating confidence intervals of indirect effects and path analysis using structural equation models to test all the hypotheses simultaneously for the robustness of the results and conclusions. Findings-The statistical results reveal that the proposed model has a significant mediating effect that contributes to knowledge transfer effectiveness. Only partner attributes and relationship factors have a direct impact on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. This appears plausible since mere complementarities and coordination between partners may not lead to learning or knowledge transfer, which requires a certain depth of the partner interaction in terms of the specific attributes of partners, coordination and relationship quality. Research limitations/implications-The authors assumed that the alliance constitutes partnerships between firms of roughly equal size and market power. Therefore, this study provided only broad perspectives of collaboration among alliance partners, and did not capitalize on different degree of alliance integration and different types of collaboration. Practical implications-Managerial suggestions on how to improve their knowledge transfer effectiveness are also provided at the end of the text. Originality/value-There are numerous studies examining alliance network performance. Very few studies, however, have examined detailed collaborative activities in dyadic university-industry partnerships and potential constructs for measuring knowledge transfer and commercialization in the research and development alliance between industrial firms and university context.

To cite this article: Oliver Mtapuri & Andrea Giampiccoli (2013) Interrogating the role of the state and nonstate actors in community-based tourism ventures: toward a model for spreading the benefits to the wider community, South African Geographical Journal, 95:1, 1-15,

Community-based tourism (CBT) is a model of community development which places the community at the centre of that development. It attempts to harness the effort of communities through their empowerment for the benefit of the community. This article develops a Community-based Visitors Affinity Index (CBTVAI) based on perusal of extant literature in which only secondary was used in terms of research methodology. The key contribution of this article is the development of a CBTVAI which is an instrument useful to owners/managers of CBT entities in evaluating their CBT businesses from a visitor perspective. The index does not include all possible items because CBT ventures exist in different contexts with different requirements. This index merely provides sample items related various basic aspects linkedto the attractiveness of CBT to visitors. As such, the index represents a flexible framework which can continuously evolve and be reformulated based on specific needs of a CBT entity. The CBTVAI has some strengths and weaknesses. Some of its strengths include the provision a visitor perspective grounded in real life experience; a framework for profiling CBT ventures; a platform for receiving visitor feedback in the form of immediate " post-trip " feedback; and a tool for assessing broad visitor/customer (dis)satisfaction with CBT offerings. The weaknesses include: failing to take into account the visitor " s demographics and psychographics; ignores prices per item; places an extra burden on communities to undertake technical data analysis which skills could be deficient in communities.

Food is one of the most important biological human needs and as such it is an inseparable part of tourism. It also represents one of the basic services during a touristic trip. The goal of this paper is to determine the role of food beyond this basic role it plays in tourism, to see how it contributes in increasing the number of tourist and their satisfaction with the tourist product and if food can elevate the quality of the tourist demand toward meeting the needs of the tourists. To achieve these goals different aspects of tourism will be analyzed, such as the motives for joining a tourist trip, the tourist needs and the different functions of tourism. The results of the study will describe and stress essential aspects on how to improve the quality of tourism.

A quiet and underdeveloped town, in the last quarter of 19th century, Eskişehir in Turkey began to liven up with the arrival of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway. Since train rides took two days and the passengers had to stop and stay overnight in Eskişehir, the city became in need of a hotel, and the visitors began to stay at hotels, along with inns and public houses. Upon this need, Madame Tadia, a Bohemian lady, turned a large house near the station into a hotel. Within this context, Hotel Tadia has an important place in the tourism history of Eskişehir. The purpose of this study is to create a microhistory of Hotel Tadia, which paved the way for the concept of modern hotel business in Eskişehir, and to reveal the sense of modern hotel business that it brought to Anatolia between 1892 and 1922.

With the aim of enhancing their online reputation, several hospitality businesses have started soliciting their guests to write online reviews. Available studies have not yet evaluated the effects of this strategy. To fill this knowledge gap, this study draws on the Theory of Psychological Reactance and investigates guests' attitudinal and behavioral reactions to received solicitations. Evidence collected from a sample of Italian travelers indicates that soliciting reviews has both benefits and drawbacks: it increases the number of reviews for the business, but it also irritates a significant share of guests. Particularly high levels of irritation arise when a business explicitly asks its guests to write positive reviews. The implications of these findings for the reputation management strategy of hospitality businesses are discussed.

Il contributo ruota attorno all’esperienza del pellegrinaggio quale ricerca ed opportunità di benessere nella sua contestuale dimensione geografica, includendo la prospettiva degli attori locali coinvolti e le ricadute sulle comunità attraversate.
Così facendo, si tende ad andare oltre alle logiche di natura turistica del viaggio: se da un lato il fenomeno del pellegrinaggio comprende parte dell’esperienza turistica, allo stesso tempo può costituire un nuovo paradigma  sia dal punto di vista della fruizione che dell’ospitalità.
Lo studio si sviluppa intorno a due aree di indagine lungo la Via Francigena all’ingresso e all’uscita della Toscana: a nord, quella che attraversa l’Appennino Tosco-Emiliano; a sud, quella contraddistinta dalla Val d’Orcia, Val di Paglia ed il massiccio del Monte Amiata. Entrambe accomunate dalla dimensione rurale, dove la presenza di un flusso di pellegrinaggio è maggiormente evidente.
Da una solida base di indagini storico geografiche sull’articolazione dell’itinerario medievale, il focus è sul popolare sviluppo dell’itinerario, avvenuto negli ultimi due decenni, quale prodotto turistico sia dal punto di vista di chi lo attraversa (outsiders) che di chi lo vive e supporta localmente (insiders).
Inoltre, il fatto che l’indagine sia stata svolta precedentemente e durante la pandemia di Covid-19, è d’interesse esaminare il collegamento tra il cammino come opportunità di estraniazione e benessere interiore in risposta ad eventi traumatici collettivi ma anche individuali.

Tourism is important for its growing potential to create jobs and new businesses, generate foreign currency and contribute to the GDP of the country. The aim of this article is to unpack how tourism could be transformative in creating jobs for the youth and to develop a model for youth empowerment. The capacity of tourism to create jobs for the less and unskilled as well as part-timers as opposed to full timers is being recognized. The problem of youth unemployment is untenable and calls for a paradigm shift in the manner in which the issue should be addressed. Based on extant literature and primarily a desktop review, this article was compiled. This article posits a model whose aim is to craft an overarching pathway towards the empowerment of blacks and the transformation of the tourism sector through education and training, professional development and support to entrepreneurship development through a multi-sector collaboration in South Africa. The model suggests the creation of a collaborative structure, the national youth empowerment forum (with decentralized offices) to champion its implementation. The model suggests pathways for being 'employees' and pathways for 'entrepreneurs' based on individual aspirations. This model is a tool upon which deliberative policies which aim at uplifting the educational status and employability chances of the youth can be developed and importantly to traverse a path towards total empowerment and transformation.

This article is conceptual based on a perusal of academic journal articles and books on matters related to Community-based Tourism (CBT). It contends that CBT is a very important tool for local economic development, community development, empowerment and the attainment of social justice. It observes disparities between rich and poor countries in terms of endowments and how the multiple dimensions of poverty can confound how tourism can be experienced in different contexts. It posits an eight Es model which represents the fundamental pillars upon which to judge a CBT for purposes of support, monitoring and evaluation. The eight E are Endogenous (emphasising a reliance on local resources); Environment – (reflecting the importance of caring for the environment, and broader environmental conditions and infrastructure); Education – (to advance skills and education); Empowerment – (which embraces economic, psychological, social and political empowerment); Equity – (for equitable distribution and redistribution of both benefits and resources); Evolving – (always improving and changing to take advantage of dynamic opportunities); Enduring – (for long term sustainability) and supporting Entrepreneurship – (for innovation, creativity and viability). The framework/model is also significant as it provides a common ground upon which the understanding of CBT could be carried at international and national level. The model can be customised to take into account local conditions; it is flexible and all-encompassing with potential to be used for rating facilities.

Using a time-lagged field survey, the current study examined the psycho-economic effects of job insecurity among hospitality workers during the recent pandemic of COVID-19. The study also examined social support as a buffering agent against the harmful effects of job insecurity. Data were collected from employees (N = 272) working in numerous hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies across Pakistan. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the study’s hypotheses. The results suggested that job insecurity was negatively related to self-esteem and positively related to economic deprivation. In addition, social support significantly moderated the effects of job insecurity on mental health, self-esteem, economic self-efficacy and life satisfaction such that the negative effects of job insecurity were stronger when social support was low. The results for economic deprivation, however, were contrary to the expectations, whereby job insecurity had a strong positive effect on economic deprivation in case of high social support.

Brown seaweed known as one of the source of the hydrocolloid (alginate) that is useful as thickener in food processing. Moreover, it also contains many beneficial compounds such as sulphated polysaccharides, phlorotannins, peptides, natural pigments, polyphenols, vitaminswhich can be developed as antioxidant, anticervix-tumor, hepatoprotector, and anti-diabetes. The use of wild brown seaweed which obtained from the coast of Nirwana in West Sumatera as an additive ingredient for jelly candy as a functional food was studied. Water extract of brown seaweed was added with various concentrations as much as 5%, 10%, and 15%. Sensory analysis was conducted for evaluating the product acceptance. Total phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity, the content in carbohydrate, fat, protein, ash, moisture were measure for determined the quality of most acceptable jelly candy. The most acceptable jelly candy was the product with 15 % addition of brown seaweed extract. The addition of brown seaweed extract improved the functionality of candy jelly that indicated by increasing of total phenolic compound, antioxidant activity, the content of carbohydrate, fat, protein and ash. The utilization of wild brown seaweed at the coast of Nirwana in West Sumatera is promising in developing of diversity functional food such as jelly candy and others product.

RESUMEN Los adversos efectos socioeconómicos, psicológicos y ambientales del turismo convencional, o de masas, provocaron la aparición de nuevas formas de turismo como el turismo comunitario. Esta forma de turismo presenta características prometedoras y alternativas como el empoderamiento de la comunidad y la sensibilidad medioambiental que podrían aplicarse a los sistemas de clasificación (rating/grading) turísticos. Este artículo presenta un nuevo e innovador sistema de clasificación turística inspirado por estos principios del turismo comunitario. El artículo se basa en trabajos previos de los autores y en ideas provenientes de la literatura especializada y su contribución principal es una propuesta de modelo de clasificación turística que, inspirada en el turismo comunitario, incorpora aspectos como la equidad, la educación, el empoderamiento, el carácter endógeno y la sensibilidad ambiental como pilares y criterios para la clasificación turística. La aplicación de este sistema de clasificación requeriría de incentivos oficiales ya que la mayor parte de estos sistemas son de carácter voluntario.

ABSTRACT The adverse socioeconomic , psychological and environmental impacts of conventional/mass tourism prompted the emergence of new forms of tourism such as community-based tourism. This form of tourism manifests promising and progressive characteristics such as community empowerment and care for the environment with potential of these characteristics to be harnessed for rating/grading of facilities. This article presents a novel and innovative rating/grading system which leverages these CBT principles. The article is based on previous work and insights on grading systems from the extant literature. The major contribution of this article is the E-based model of facility classification system. The proposed classification system incorporates aspects such as Equity; Education; Empowerment; Endogenous; and the Environment as pillars/criteria for grading facilities. The operationalisation of this grading system has policy implications in that it requires incentives from the government given that most grading systems are voluntary. PALABRAS CLAVE sistemas de clasificación turística | turismo comunitario KEYWORDS classification | grading | rating system | community-based tourism

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of social couponing campaigns for hotels. In particular, the perceived effectiveness related to four specific objectives is explored (acquiring and retaining new customers, building brand awareness, balancing seasonality and stimulating demand among existing customers).

Design/methodology/approach
– A questionnaire-based survey was conducted that involved 108 hotels, each of which has run at least one social couponing campaign through Groupon in Italy. The importance-performance approach was applied to analyze the data.

Findings
– Overall, the perceived effectiveness of social couponing for hotels is quite low. Social couponing is useful to increase brand awareness but does not encourage customer behavioral loyalty. Larger hotels can successfully use this marketing tool to balance demand seasonality.

Research limitations/implications
– The sample size is limited but includes approximately one-fourth of all Italian hotels that have run social coupon campaigns through Groupon. Only social couponing campaigns run through one daily deal site (Groupon) in one country (Italy) were considered.

Practical implications
– Social couponing is not perceived as equally effective for all hotels. This study provides hotel managers with suggestions for deciding whether to allocate a share of their marketing resources to social couponing.

Originality/value
– To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to present field data to complement the available theoretical knowledge on social couponing for hotels.

Hotel booking decisions are increasingly influenced by consumer feedback available on social media sites. Using data submitted by customers on TripAdvisor, this study analyzes the customer satisfaction ratings posted for 2,211 hotels. The study provides four key contributions to our knowledge on this subject. Firstly, a comparative analysis was conducted of customer ratings for hotels located on the Spanish coast and Portugal's southern coast. Secondly, significant differences were found in the number of comments and average online review ratings, which showed a correlation to the tourism destinations' geographical locations. Thirdly, the study found that customers tend to rate their hotel experiences positively. Fourthly, the customers' overall level of satisfaction with a hotel tends to increase proportionately based on the number of customer feedback comments posted for that hotel. Consequently, one of this study's findings is that hotels should encourage their customers to post comments on customer review websites to balance out any negative feedback.

In the last years an increasing number of hotels have decided to run social coupon campaigns through Groupon and other daily deal sites. Available evidence suggests that several hotel managers have overlooked the “social” component of social couponing. In fact they have mainly considered the short-term effects (i.e. increased sales) of this marketing tool, underestimating its potential benefits in terms of e-word-of mouth (eWOM) and referrals.
The aim of this study is therefore to shed light on the potential of social couponing to stimulate positive eWOM and referrals. For this purpose, the paper presents the results of a content analysis of 564 TripAdvisor reviews posted by guests that have stayed at 76 Italian hotels using a Groupon’s coupon. In addition, this study identifies the most important coupon-related factors which are able to explain the positive vs. negative eWOM.
Beyond enriching theoretical knowledge on social couponing, this paper highlights that the decision of guests to engage in either positive or negative eWOM about the hotel is influenced by some coupon-related factors which can be managed by the hotels.

Location is a dominant factor affecting the success of hospitality businesses. However, when that location is not blessed with the footfall of a busy high street or cannot rely on the proximity of a nearby major visitor attraction, a more creative approach is required. Indeed, offering an attractive façade, attentive staff and excellent service may not be enough for a hospitality business to succeed unless it already enjoys a well-established reputation. Even then, research suggests that the brand of a place can still have a bigger influence on customer decisions and satisfaction than a business brand on its own, no matter how established. Hospitality professionals can have a big impact on the attractiveness of a place brand by adopting a partnership approach to managing and marketing places that deliver memorable experiences to local residents and visitors alike.

This paper identifies some of the current and future trends affecting the tourism and hospitality industry, including globalisation, guests' safety and security, the importance of offering outstanding services, the new technologies that enhance competitiveness, the population ageing that impacts directly on tourist demand and the correlation between price and value. Reference is also made to the trends in the development of tourism lodgings. Furthermore, the paper attempts to analyse the Greek tourism performance indicators for the last 10 years and suggest ways out of the recession for the tourism entrepreneurs. The suggestions to the hoteliers include careful analysis of the current and future trends and application of the proper adaptations, investing in exceptional services and sustainability of their lodging, as well as utilizing the new technologies and the social networks. Moreover, the hotel owners should consider the retirees as their potential guests and, finally, they must seek ways to retain effective, diverse and competent staff.

Tourism has emerged as the number one industry in the world. In 2014 more than 1133 million tourists visited internationally. International tourism receipts reached US$ 1245 billion worldwide in 2014. India is also moving fast forward in international tourism. In 2010, around 5.8 million tourists visited India which shoot up to a level of 7.68 million in 2014. However, in comparison to the performance of Indian other states in the field of tourism, the Seven Sisters are much lagging behind. Only around 70 thousand foreign tourists visited these seven sisters in 2014 against 7.68 million foreign tourists visiting India in the same year. Many times the Seven sisters are referred to as 'Paradise unexplored' or 'Undiscovered Gem'. Despite the geographical proximity, Bangladeshi travelers also found not to be much interested to visit the seven virgin sisters. There were many reasons for not opening up these seven sisters to tourists which include the Indian government policy of controlling easy access due to political conflicts resulting in the insurgency problems which widely prevailed in that area. However, the situation has been changed now due to unconditional and unequivocal support to Indian government by the present government of Bangladesh in fighting terrorism in that region. Consequently there has opened up a huge scope and opportunity for developing the tourism sector in between Bangladesh and the Seven sisters. Tourism, in the long run, will help the people of both the regions in terms of social and cultural bondages. Beside, some specialized type of tourism like medical tourism, educational tourism etc. may open up a broader horizon of collaboration with each other. This study examines the tourism possibilities between these two nearest and friendly regions.

Employee Job satisfaction is the outcome of individual response or feelings towards his or her job, culture, policies and environment. The level of satisfaction is closely correlated with the motivation provided in organization which measures. In this paper the employee satisfaction has been studied by comparing the motivational theory namely Maslow's Hierarchy need and Herzberg two factor theory. As measurement of employee satisfaction is a behavioral study depending on the state of mind and situation in which employees work. The results derived from research will help to understand the employee's perception and redesign the HR Polices for improving the work relations, communication, motivation and career planning.

Marketing is important for the survival of any business. Based on a review of the literature, this article observes that marketing is both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of Community-based Tourism (CBT) ventures. Marketing is crucially important for promoting and advertising such ventures as well as a way to gain competitive advantage. The adoption of Information Technologies opens possibilities for CBT ventures in isolated localities to connect in real time with the rest of the world via internet connectivity and to embrace e-commerce, e-marketing and e-CBT. Linkages across space are important. The article proposes a model which argues that marketing should pursue three main routes/pathways, firstly, an independent pathway, in which direct marketing to the source market is either done by a CBT umbrella organization or by CBT ventures themselves; secondly, the dependent partnership route in which marketing is done in partnership with the a CBT umbrella organization and/or CBT ventures including external entities (private sector, and government entities; industry groups/associations; and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)) individually or with a number of them; and thirdly, the fully dependent route in which marketing is directly done by private sector and government entities; industry groups/associations and NGOs (alone or with a number of them). The strengths and weaknesses of each strand/pathway are assessed. A strong CBT sector is good for community empowerment, community development and overall self-determination.

The current world economy under the background of internationalization, enterprises need to take the initiative to seek further development to accelerate the process of growing the international competitiveness of its own, and in which the government plays a very important role, such as "The Belt and Road" "going out" policy. Based on the RCA index, this paper analyzes the international competitiveness of the Chinese and German auto parts industry in the diamond model, and discusses the role of the government in promoting the international competitiveness of the enterprises. A case study of BOSCH group and China Wanxiang Group helps us understand the role of the government.

Using a time-lagged field survey, the current study examined the psycho-economic effects of job insecurity among hospitality workers during the recent pandemic of COVID-19. The study also examined social support as a buffering agent against the harmful effects of job insecurity. Data were collected from employees (N = 272) working in numerous hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies across Pakistan. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the study’s hypotheses. The results suggested that job insecurity was negatively related to self-esteem and positively related to economic deprivation. In addition, social support significantly moderated the effects of job insecurity on mental health, self-esteem, economic self-efficacy and life satisfaction such that the negative effects of job insecurity were stronger when social support was low. The results for economic deprivation, however, were contrary to the expectations, whereby job insecurity had a strong positive effect on economic deprivation in case of high social support.

This study, which draws upon specialized literature and empirical evidence, aims to characterize the underlying structure of the construct ‘Internal Marketing Orientation’ (IMO). As a consequence six underlying factors are identified: exchange of values, segmentation of the internal market, internal communication, management concern, implementation of management concern and training. It also evaluates the degree of Spanish hotels’ IMO, classifying them into three different groups according to their level of IMO. Findings indicate that a higher degree of IMO is found when the company belongs to a hotel chain, while no other variables such as hotel size or category have proven to be significant

Social media has changed the way tourists seek and exchange information, resulting in changes in the management of tourism businesses including hospitality facilities. Guest reviews and comments have had an impact on the reputation of organisations, both positive and negative. Websites with user-generated content spread this information to other tourists through the evaluation of service provided and thereby influence the decision of new visitors. Accordingly, this research sought to identify the correlation between overall satisfaction and the evaluation criteria used on a website. For this, we analysed 660 reviews (236 of three-star hotels, 125 of four-star hotels and 299 of five-star hotels) on TripAdvisor, containing independent reviews including overall satisfaction, value (cost-benefit), location, sleep quality, rooms, cleanliness and service. Results showed a strong correlation of overall satisfaction with the criteria of room, service provided and cost-benefit

Location is a dominant factor affecting the success of hospitality businesses. However, when that location is not blessed with the footfall of a busy high street or cannot rely on the proximity of a nearby major visitor attraction, a more creative approach is required. Indeed, offering an attractive facade, attentive staff and excellent service may not be enough for a hospitality business to succeed unless it already enjoys a well-established reputation. Even then, research suggests that the brand of a place can still have a bigger influence on customer decisions and satisfaction than a business brand on its own, no matter how established. Hospitality professionals can have a big impact on the attractiveness of a place brand by adopting a partnership approach to managing and marketing places that deliver memorable experiences to local residents and visitors alike.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess whether travel agencies that implement comprehensive marketing performance assessment systems (MPASs) enjoy superior overall performance. Drawing on the Knowledge-Based View, we propose and test a model demonstrating that the relationship between MPASs and overall performance is fully mediated by the depth of market-related knowledge absorbed by the travel agency.

Design/methodology/approach
A survey was administered to a sample of Italian travel agencies; 171 complete questionnaires were received. The suggested relationships were assessed using a covariance-based structural equation modeling approach, including the estimation of both the measurement model and the structural model. 

Findings
The findings indicate that the implementation of sophisticated MPASs has a significant and positive effect on performance and that this relationship is fully mediated by the depth of market-related knowledge absorbed by the travel agency. In addition, the results highlight that the number of marketing metrics monitored by the travel agency has no effect on its performance.

Research limitations/implications
The specific features of the travel agency sector in Italy include a remarkable level of fragmentation. The cross-sectional design does not permit an assessment of the medium-term effects of the adoption of an MPAS.

Practical implications
Travel agencies selecting proactive marketing strategies can particularly benefit from the adoption of sophisticated MPASs. Suggestions are provided to assist managers in designing their MPAS.

Originality/value
This study enriches the field’s knowledge about marketing performance measurement and proactive marketing strategies and indicates that the implementation of well-designed marketing performance assessment systems improves a firm’s overall performance. It also explains the knowledge-related processes that produce this positive effect.

Social media has changed the way tourists seek and exchange information, resulting in changes in the management of tourism businesses including hospitality facilities. Guest reviews and comments have had an impact on the reputation of organisations, both positive and negative. Websites with user-generated content spread this information to other tourists through the evaluation of service provided and thereby influence the decision of new visitors. Accordingly, this research sought to identify the correlation between overall satisfaction and the evaluation criteria used on a website. For this, we analysed 660 reviews (236 of three-star hotels, 125 of four-star hotels and 299 of five-star hotels) on TripAdvisor, containing independent reviews including overall satisfaction, value (costbenefit), location, sleep quality, rooms, cleanliness and service. Results showed a strong correlation of overall satisfaction with the criteria of room, service provided and cost-benefit.

Social media has changed the way tourists seek and exchange information, resulting in changes in the management of tourism businesses including hospitality facilities. Guest reviews and comments have had an impact on the reputation of organisations, both positive and negative. Websites with user-generated content spread this information to other tourists through the evaluation of service provided and thereby influence the decision of new visitors. Accordingly, this research sought to identify the correlation between overall satisfaction and the evaluation criteria used on a website. For this, we analysed 660 reviews (236 of three-star hotels, 125 of four-star hotels and 299 of five-star hotels) on TripAdvisor, containing independent reviews including overall satisfaction, value (costbenefit), location, sleep quality, rooms, cleanliness and service. Results showed a strong correlation of overall satisfaction with the criteria of room, service provided and cost-benefit.

Food is one of the most important biological human needs and as such it is an inseparable part of tourism. It also represents one of the basic services during a touristic trip. The goal of this paper is to determine the role of food beyond this basic role it plays in tourism, to see how it contributes in increasing the number of tourist and their satisfaction with the tourist product and if food can elevate the quality of the tourist demand toward meeting the needs of the tourists. To achieve these goals different aspects of tourism will be analyzed, such as the motives for joining a tourist trip, the tourist needs and the different functions of tourism. The results of the study will describe and stress essential aspects on how to improve the quality of tourism.

This study sought to examine the relationship between work environment, service quality and customer retention in guesthouses. The study was cross sectional in that both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used. Factor analysis was carried out and five service quality dimensions were derived. Stratified sampling and later simple random sampling were employed so that good results could be got. The observation method was used to complement on the applied study tools. The results revealed that customers’ perception of the service quality in Kampala Guesthouses fell short of their expectations hence most of them were dissatisfied. The reasons for the above were failure by guesthouses to empower their staff in terms of quality delivery; unfavorable working environment characterized by long hours of work, low pay, job insecurity unfair treat, employment of untrained staff and relatives and a lot of intimidation by managers yet these are the very people who handle customers and pr...