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As restaurants are the primary hospitality business represented on flash-sale sites, this study examined motivations of restaurant managers when choosing whether to utilize the promotional mediums of flash-sales. Interviews were administered as a measurement instrument. Results demonstrated restaurants which have employed flash-sales are weary of the likelihood of success and believe the flash-sales brought in established customers. Non-users indicated hesitation towards adoption of flash-sales related to low profit margins per item in their operation and the percentage split of the sale price between the firm and flash-sale provider. Findings provide keen foundational insight into the flashsale phenomenon.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence travelers’ decision-making process while searching and booking hotel deals. This study indicated that consumers’ cognition directly and significantly influenced their intent to book hotel deals. Although consumers’ affection did not have a positive and significant influence on booking intentions in general, consumers’ tendency toward being a market maven moderated the effect in consumers’ emotions of deal-searching. The findings suggested that hospitality marketers should develop promotional messages that are tailored to evoke consumers’ cognitive and affective states in terms of their tendency to be a market maven.

Hospitality management programs, similar to other fields within higher education, are faced with numerous challenges including decreased funding and competition for students.In an effort to boost enrollment, researchers suggest a transformation of higher education, placing students at the center of these initiatives.With a focus on service, particularly student-staff interactions, knowledgeable and experienced faculty have been shown to increase perceived service quality. This research sought to quantify students’ perspectives regarding the importance of faculty members’ hospitality industry experience in an effort to meet expectations, which may translate into greater undergraduate enrollment, retention and graduation rates. A large sample (n = 1130) of undergraduates from the U.S. participated in the study from hospitality programs ranging under 500 to over 1000 students.

Exponential growth in the Chinese hospitality industry has fueled an overabundance of hotel job opportunities. The unintended consequences of an untrained workforce have posed a serious challenge to hospitality managers. Western hotel managers are hired for their special knowledge and expertise, and due to a lack of preparation and cultural training, they experience high assignment failure rates. Using the leveraging leader–member exchange theory, this qualitative study collected data from primary sources and revealed key emergent issues facing Western expatriate hotel managers working in China today. Productive culture-specific tactics for Western expatriate managers were offered to enhance team performance.

A substantial body of empirical research exists on the topic of online teaching and learning; however, few qualitative studies have been conducted examining the deeper reasons for teaching online and no studies of this type have been performed in the hospitality discipline. This research sought to understand the subjective norms influencing hospitality faculty to teach online. Data were coded according to TAM2 constructs and sub-coded revealing emergent themes. Findings demonstrated hospitality faculty’s propensity for blended learning as well as other strategies for improved online instruction.

Despite the popularity and growth of online courses in hospitality higher education, there still exists ambivalence toward this form of course delivery. Greater scheduling flexibility and accommodation of an ever-growing population of nontraditional students are presented as sup-porting online course adoption in programs still apprehensive toward this form of instruction.Given the pervasive nature and accessibility of Internet-based learning, this study utilized the technology acceptance model to determine the academic referent group influences on students’intentions to enroll in an online course. Findings revealed plausible referent group influences that could be leveraged to encourage students to enroll in an online course, which would ultimately facilitate a positive learning experience.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify whether travel and tourism related web sites derive a certain personality type.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed the ten‐item personality inventory (TIPI) measure to assess personality dimensions of 188 tourism web sites including airlines, hotels, cruise lines, casinos, restaurants, and government funded travel web sites. Data analysis of 413 cases was conducted through mean comparisons and ANOVA.FindingsData identified web sites representing different segments of the hospitality and tourism industries do vary in relation to online personalities. More specifically, web sites for venues such as casinos were represented as extraverted while lodging web sites were deemed more conscientious.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study aimed to identify web site personalities of businesses within the tourism segment, not all categories were represented. Furthermore, response choices were limited only 20 of the personality objectives from the TIPI personality scale were examined.Practical implicationsThis study demonstrated different personality characteristics are represented through tourism web sites, indicating providers may need to focus their web presence in a manner which engages potential travellers based on such features.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the body of scholarly research related to TIPI and further demonstrates consumer awareness and preference for web sites which augment their personality.

It is estimated almost half of the current hospitality educators in the United States will be retiring within the next 10 years. In their place, the junior faculty who remain, as well as new hires, will have substantially less industry experience than their predecessors. This research sought to determine the perceptions of both hospitality students and faculty regarding the importance of faculty industry experience. The findings of this study are valuable to administrators who wish to maintain rigor within their academic programs and thus may serve as a benchmark for future hiring purposes.

The rapid growth of online learning in higher education has been met with varying degrees of acceptance among faculty and administrators. Although hospitality management instructors recognize the prominence of online learning as the future of higher education, their current apprehensions may hinder institutional strategic objectives. This study examined hospitality instructors' intentions to teach an online course, using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), deconstructing subjective norms into student, colleague, and department chair influences. The findings from this research will be useful to program administrators who seek to encourage hospitality faculty to teach online courses.

In an effort to keep abreast of convention industry demands for a more qualified workforce, some hospitality and tourism undergraduate programs have implemented courses to prepare students for employment in the business. However, limited information exists regarding the content and quality of these programs and whether they are designed to adequately meet the needs of the industry. This current study evaluates the convention course offerings at the top 25 ranked hospitality and tourism undergraduate schools (Brizek & Khan, 2002). Course objectives, assessment and teaching methods, topics of instruction, and textbooks were analyzed using nonparametric statistics and CATPAC software to determine the similarities and differences among the various course offerings. Results revealed statistically significant differences among courses characterized as General MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions, Events) Industry, Convention and Meeting Planning, and Event Management. Limitations and suggestions for fu...