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This study seeks to address the convergence of boundaries in Tourism, Hospitality, Events, and Leisure (THEL) fields and shared objects of study. We offer a synthesized definition of THEL and discuss a set of meta-concepts that defines the core and boundaries of THEL. We argue that hospitality, experience, and place are three unifying constructs upon which all THEL scholarship activities and practice fields are established. This paper invites a system-wide conversation to stimulate prescient thinking regarding academic discipline reassessment and progress at a time when technological and societal forces are transforming work, life, and education. This research will engender new perspectives to structure research and scholarship. In the context of learning, this paper will impact the reassessment of curricular structures to provide a curriculum that is relevant and adaptive to the changing needs of contemporary society.

This study empirically examines the impact of food sharing on tourists’ interpersonal relationship development, sense of authenticity, and subjective wellbeing using two experimental studies. The two experiments showed that tourist food sharing improves interpersonal relationships, tourist perceptions of experience authenticity, and wellbeing. Two culturally divergent tourist groups were compared: US tourists and Chinese tourists. The results show that U.S. tourists evaluated food sharing higher regarding its impact on authenticity and wellbeing than their Chinese counterparts. this study contributes to the theoretical delineation of conviviality as a phenomenon, with specific reference to the identification of its impacts on tourist experiences.

The tourism recovery in the post-pandemic era has attracted major attention from scholars, focusing on people’s potential travel intentions and behaviors to visit destinations physically. However, people’s behaviors of engaging in virtual tourism post-pandemic have received little attention, and its value as a substitute for direct traveling has been ignored. By treating the substitutability of virtual tourism as a subjective receptivity of consumers, this research aims to examine consumers’ perception of virtual tourism as a substitute for direct traveling and its relationship with their intention to travel physically or virtually post-pandemic. A positive relationship is hypothesized, and the moderation role of past adoption of virtual tourism is also examined. A sample of 331 responses was collected through MTurk and analyzed using linear regression models. The results showed that consumers’ higher perception of virtual tourism as a substitute would increase their intention to travel physically or virtually post-pandemic, with the intention to travel virtually much higher than the intention to travel physically. The moderation role of past adoption of virtual tourism is also validated, with people who adopted virtual tourism during the pandemic having reduced intention to travel physically and virtually post-pandemic. The results of this research lend both theoretical as well as practical implications to academia and the practitioners as to how to plan and market destination experience-based products.

The listening experience is particularly important for a road-trip audio guide, because audio guides heavily rely on the auditory channel without the support of a visual channel. Playing a key role in influencing listening experience, sound design is especially important in an audio guide. This study evaluates the effect of three different sound design factors --- sound effects, music, and voice gender --- on respondent emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide, by conducting a 2x2x3 full factorial experimental design. Additionally, four variables --- mental imagery, attention, comfortableness, and familiarity --- are suggested to be mediators of the effectiveness of sound design on the emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide. The research is in line with the call for increased research effort to better understand how tourism can contribute to the enhancement of visitors’ experience in city tourism, and the call for studies on technology-integrated products in smart tourism. In addition to the theoretical interest of this topic, it has practical relevance because it aids audio program developers in understanding what helps to create to a good auditory experience.

Purpose: Indoor thermal comfort is an important factor in designing high-quality buildings. This paper aims to explore its potential impact on business travelers’ wellness and work productivity in conference hotels. This study further examines the relationship between the antecedents and customers’ overall satisfaction. Methodology: Data will be collected online by surveying business travelers who attended the conferences in hotels in the U.S and semi-structured interviews. The between-subjects experimental design was employed to examine how different thermal conditions created by two factors (temperature and humidity) for thermal comfort influence business travelers’ wellness and work productivity while staying at a conference hotel. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) will be used to analyze the data. Expected findings: Results are expected to suggest the most thermal discomfort combination of indoor air temperature, humidity, and air velocity for business travelers who attend a conference in hotels. In addition, thermal comfort is expected to have a positive correlation with business travelers’ wellness and work productivity. Business travelers’ wellness and work productivity are likely to be positively associated with overall satisfaction. Implications: This is an interdisciplinary study that combines hospitality and public health, which initially connects thermal comfort with business travelers’ wellness and work productivity in hotels to fill a gap in the literature. The study findings can benefit conference hotels by suggesting how to improve indoor air quality/thermal condition and its relationships with customers’ physical and mental wellness, work productivity, and overall satisfaction while participating in a conference at the hotel.

The listening experience is particularly important for a road-trip audio guide, because audio guides heavily rely on the auditory channel without the support of a visual channel. Playing a key role in influencing listening experience, sound design is especially important in an audio guide. This study evaluates the effect of three different sound design factors --- sound effects, music, and voice gender --- on respondent emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide, by conducting a 2x2x3 full factorial experimental design. Additionally, four variables --- mental imagery, attention, comfortableness, and familiarity --- are suggested to be mediators of the effectiveness of sound design on the emotional and cognitive experience of an audio guide. The research is in line with the call for increased research effort to better understand how tourism can contribute to the enhancement of visitors’ experience in city tourism, and the call for studies on technology-integrated products in smart tourism. In addition to the theoretical interest of this topic, it has practical relevance because it aids audio program developers in understanding what helps to create to a good auditory experience.

This study seeks to address the convergence of boundaries in Tourism, Hospitality, Events, and Leisure (THEL) fields and shared objects of study. We offer a synthesized definition of THEL and discuss a set of meta-concepts that defines the core and boundaries of THEL. We argue that hospitality, experience, and place are three unifying constructs upon which all THEL scholarship activities and practice fields are established. This paper invites a system-wide conversation to stimulate prescient thinking regarding academic discipline reassessment and progress at a time when technological and societal forces are transforming work, life, and education. This research will engender new perspectives to structure research and scholarship. In the context of learning, this paper will impact the reassessment of curricular structures to provide a curriculum that is relevant and adaptive to the changing needs of contemporary society.

The tourism recovery in the post-pandemic era has attracted major attention from scholars, focusing on people’s potential travel intentions and behaviors to visit destinations physically. However, people’s behaviors of engaging in virtual tourism post-pandemic have received little attention, and its value as a substitute for direct traveling has been ignored. By treating the substitutability of virtual tourism as a subjective receptivity of consumers, this research aims to examine consumers’ perception of virtual tourism as a substitute for direct traveling and its relationship with their intention to travel physically or virtually post-pandemic. A positive relationship is hypothesized, and the moderation role of past adoption of virtual tourism is also examined. A sample of 331 responses was collected through MTurk and analyzed using linear regression models. The results showed that consumers’ higher perception of virtual tourism as a substitute would increase their intention to travel physically or virtually post-pandemic, with the intention to travel virtually much higher than the intention to travel physically. The moderation role of past adoption of virtual tourism is also validated, with people who adopted virtual tourism during the pandemic having reduced intention to travel physically and virtually post-pandemic. The results of this research lend both theoretical as well as practical implications to academia and the practitioners as to how to plan and market destination experience-based products.

This study empirically examines the impact of food sharing on tourists’ interpersonal relationship development, sense of authenticity, and subjective wellbeing using two experimental studies. The two experiments showed that tourist food sharing improves interpersonal relationships, tourist perceptions of experience authenticity, and wellbeing. Two culturally divergent tourist groups were compared: US tourists and Chinese tourists. The results show that U.S. tourists evaluated food sharing higher regarding its impact on authenticity and wellbeing than their Chinese counterparts. this study contributes to the theoretical delineation of conviviality as a phenomenon, with specific reference to the identification of its impacts on tourist experiences.

Purpose: Indoor thermal comfort is an important factor in designing high-quality buildings. This paper aims to explore its potential impact on business travelers’ wellness and work productivity in conference hotels. This study further examines the relationship between the antecedents and customers’ overall satisfaction. Methodology: Data will be collected online by surveying business travelers who attended the conferences in hotels in the U.S and semi-structured interviews. The between-subjects experimental design was employed to examine how different thermal conditions created by two factors (temperature and humidity) for thermal comfort influence business travelers’ wellness and work productivity while staying at a conference hotel. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) will be used to analyze the data. Expected findings: Results are expected to suggest the most thermal discomfort combination of indoor air temperature, humidity, and air velocity for business travelers who attend a conference in hotels. In addition, thermal comfort is expected to have a positive correlation with business travelers’ wellness and work productivity. Business travelers’ wellness and work productivity are likely to be positively associated with overall satisfaction. Implications: This is an interdisciplinary study that combines hospitality and public health, which initially connects thermal comfort with business travelers’ wellness and work productivity in hotels to fill a gap in the literature. The study findings can benefit conference hotels by suggesting how to improve indoor air quality/thermal condition and its relationships with customers’ physical and mental wellness, work productivity, and overall satisfaction while participating in a conference at the hotel.

Wellness has come to the forefront of people’s lives whether it be in personal lives or professional lives, which spill over into each. A lack of well-being due to work can negatively impact an employee’s personal life. Thus, wellness encompassed in the work domain is of importance to sustain effects that may either spill over into or be gained in the personal domain. Using the Health Resource Framework (Lehto & Lehto, 2019), this study aims to uncover which wellness program components employees are currently participating in, and the employees’ perception of the impact of these components on their well-being. We propose that these same components can be extended to the workplace where wellness programs at work can benefit these four components, which would also spill into employees’ personal lives. Employing a case study approach through interviews with corporate benefits managers, operations managers, and line-level employees with one hotel organization, the study will be one of the first to extend the Health Resource Framework from tourists to hospitality employees. Practically, this study will provide insights as to which wellness program components employees value and of those, which contribute to their overall sense of wellness.

Wellness has come to the forefront of people’s lives whether it be in personal lives or professional lives, which spill over into each. A lack of well-being due to work can negatively impact an employee’s personal life. Thus, wellness encompassed in the work domain is of importance to sustain effects that may either spill over into or be gained in the personal domain. Using the Health Resource Framework (Lehto & Lehto, 2019), this study aims to uncover which wellness program components employees are currently participating in, and the employees’ perception of the impact of these components on their well-being. We propose that these same components can be extended to the workplace where wellness programs at work can benefit these four components, which would also spill into employees’ personal lives. Employing a case study approach through interviews with corporate benefits managers, operations managers, and line-level employees with one hotel organization, the study will be one of the first to extend the Health Resource Framework from tourists to hospitality employees. Practically, this study will provide insights as to which wellness program components employees value and of those, which contribute to their overall sense of wellness.