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By Bernd-Niklas Bierbaum, on December 22nd, 2011
 Literature review This literature review is written by Bernd-Niklas Bierbaum as part of his NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
In their paper, Hesket et al. (1994) introduce the concept of the service profit chain. “The S-PC postulates that operations contribute to the profits of a service firm via the following chain of logical deduction (Yee et al. 2009, p.617):”
- Profitability and growth are primarily stimulated by customer loyalty.
- Loyalty is influenced by customer satisfaction.
- Satisfaction is influenced by the service values provided.
- Value is created by loyal productive and satisfied employees.
- Employee satisfaction results from support services and policies that enable employees to deliver high quality services. (Heskett et al. 1994)
This paper will focus on the question whether it is enough for a company to simply „satisfy“ their customers in order to achieve loyalty and finally profitability. In the following, the question will be raised and discussed whether there might be more to the concept of profitability than simply being able to satisfy a customer. Therefore, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, the relationship between loyalty and profitability and finally the importance of the “moment of truth” and the service encounter will be evaluated and highlighted from different standpoints.
Continue reading Customer satisfaction – a big step towards company profitability?
By Ruta Dambyte, on November 25th, 2011
Literature review This literature review is written by Ruta Dambyte as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
The implementation of sustainable practices in tourism related companies is an object of discussions by many academics. There are various researches made about incentives and obstacles while switching towards sustainable business model (Le & Hollenhorst, 2005; La Lopa & Day, 2011). The scholars question if sustainability is a trend, a way to gain more profit (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2009) or moral duty (Jarvis, Simcock, Weeden, 2010). Moreover, the doubts are being expressed towards the existence of sustainability in tourism while being a very complex industry (Vukonovic, n.d.). Therefore, this literature review reefers to the main reasons limiting tourism related companies to implement sustainability, as well as the incentives to switch towards different business approach.
Continue reading Limitations and incentives for sustainable tourism development
By Claire Bougot, on November 25th, 2011
Literature review
This literature review is written by Claire Bougot as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
The issues ofauthenticity in relation to the commodification of culture are present in many sectors of the tourism industry (e.g. heritage tourism, ethnic tourism) and are relevant to most destinations worldwide, in the developing as well as the Western world (Chhabra et al., 2003; Gjerald, 2005; McIntosh and Prentice, 1999; Silver, 1993; Van den Berghe, 1995). This review will however focus on developing world destinations in order to highlight the power imbalance created by western defined criteria of authenticity in tourism and its subsequent staging. Since cross-cultural encounters have been designated as one of the drivers of the commodification of culture in host societies (Shepherd, 2002),the global context in which such encounters take place highlights the relevance of the debate on authenticity for tourism studies. Indeed, many host-guest encounters occur as a result of the tourists’ quest for authenticity as described by MacCannell (1973). Many authors have contributed to the debate on authenticity and the commodification of culture in the academic literature since MacCannell’s (1973) work. The debate starts around the definition of authenticity, a wide and complex concept used by academic writers with different meanings. This review will start by clarifying some of the uses of the term in the academic literature with regard to object, staged and emergent authenticity, but will be centredon the concept of the quest for authenticity. Once the concepts of authenticity used in this context have been clarified, the review will move on to consider the positive and negative impacts of culture commodification and staging authenticity, as well as the use of staged authenticity as a resistance tool by host communities. It will attempt to highlight the shortcomings of the literature in considering the impacts of culture commodification on locals existing outside the tourism industry and the need to update the debate on authenticity and culture commodification in the light of new tourism trends such as poverty tourism. The review will focus mainly on the perspective of the host (including both locals existing within and outside the tourism industry) to consider these impacts.
Continue reading Authenticity and commodification in changing tourism trends
By Akshara Walia, on November 25th, 2011
Literature review This literature review is written by Akshara Walia as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Dark tourism- also known as ‘Thanatourism’- is a thriving phenomenon which has generated considerable interest within the tourism industry. The term was first coined by Foley and Lennon (Stone Sharpley, 2008), and has been generally described as “tourism involving locations associated with death and great suffering” (Gibson, 2006: pg. 47). This literature review will attempt to understand and analyse the various motivations and perceptions of tourists visiting these dark sites.
The fundamental motive for visiting dark sites is being explored in modern research. According to Stone and Sharpley, “visitors are seen to be driven by differing intensities of interest or fascination in death” (Stone Sharpley, 2008: pg 6). Hence, it can be perceived that visitor motivations are not homogenous.
The motivations of visitors can be further explored through the differentiation in degrees of dark tourism. Due to the varied and uniquely different nature of dark tourism products, the term dark tourism itself is vague and ambiguous (Stone, 2006).
The existing literature on the motivations for dark tourism is fragmented (Stone, 2011). To bridge the gaps in existing literature, a deeper insight is required relating to the definition of dark tourism itself.
Relating to this perspective, seven suppliers of dark tourism have been identified ranging from ‘light’ to ‘dark’ dark tourism (Stone, 2006). These were described as a “spectrum of supply outlined with a subsequent seven type categorisation of dark tourism suppliers” (Stone, 2006: Pg. 157). They include dark fun factories, dark exhibitions, dark dungeons, dark resting places, dark shrines, dark conflict sites and dark genocide camps. Thus a range of tourist experiences has been created from the lightest shades (haunted houses at amusement parks) to the darkest (Auschwitz). This sub categorization of dark tourism enables a broader perspective into the motivations of visitors depending on the ‘degree of darkness’. For example, the motivations of a tourist on a Jack the Ripper tour in London will differ from those of a tourist at the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
Continue reading Thanatourism and Dark Tourists: Why they Walk in the Shadows
By Jay Khounlabvisaed Akhom, on November 25th, 2011
This literature review is written by Soutchay Khounlabvisaed Akhom as part of his NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.
Tourism is a global phenomenon with its characteristic as a large and complex business industry. Therefore, planning, developing and managing the tourism industry for a long-term success is a very difficult task. In order to achieve long-term success of tourism development, however, sustainable principles are required and necessary applied to strategic planning of tourism development processes. This involves various participations of all kinds of stakeholders from global to national and local levels respectively. To encourage the best practices of sustainable tourism development, voluntary initiative and codes of conduct are considerably as an effective tool on preventing or reducing negative impacts caused by tourists. This aims to influent tourists’ behavior in a more responsible way.
Based on this, the article focused mainly on the implementation of voluntary initiatives and codes of conduct in the process of achieving sustainable tourism development in ecotourism context. The introduction of these measures aims to protect tourism resources in terms of natural, cultural, historical and other resources from the increasing numbers of tourists in a tourist destination. Consequently, the negative impacts of tourists on the destination can be minimized by the way of educating and changing their behavior with sustainable approach. To carry out these tasks more effectively in the planning tourism development, among all parties actively involved in tourism such as investors, local authorities and tourists, marketing plays a significant role of not only attracting tourists to the destination, but also delivering a appropriate message to potential tourists on raising their awareness of sustainability before, during and after their visits in a tourist destination. The creation of the rules of conduct is particularly for tour operators, hotels and tourists who are directly participated in tourism industry. As the result, tourism industry can be kept as a main driver for economic growth of a country, the destination competitiveness is enhanced and other positive benefits are maximized while the negative impacts are minimized. The article also exemplified Croatia as an empirical case study in which these rules of conduct are existing and using as an integrated part in the process of the tourist destination management of Croatia to protect national parks and other nature protected areas such as ‘Regulation on Compensation for Damages Caused by Unlawful Actions on Protected Animal Species’ as a regulated legal document and codes of conduct for tourists.
Continue reading Code of conduct in tourism and their impact on sustainable tourism
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