Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

Phenomenology has become a popular approach in studying tourism experiences, rising to the forefront of methodological practice in the field. While phenomenological research numbered only in the dozens before the millennium, its application has since expanded to hundreds of studies. This rapid growth not only calls for a meta-analytical examination but also provides an opportunity to assess the suitability of various methodological tools and software for data construction, analysis, and visualization. This study is the first to critically examine the veracity of potential knowledge claims arising from the use of bibliographic data and VOSviewer by conducting a meta-analysis of phenomenological research in tourism. The results reveal that, despite VOSviewer’s visually appealing imagery, notable epistemological pitfalls exist. The critical insights offered are valuable for navigating the evolving technological and methodological landscape in the field, particularly in understanding tourism experiences.

Despite increased interest in experience and experience design in hospitality, tourism, and leisure, the field remains emergent. For experience design to mature in research and practice, clear consensus conceptualization of key constructs, like memorable, meaningful, and transformative experiences, is needed. While existing research identifies emotions as the key to memorable experiences, more conceptual work is needed to understand the unique impact and process behind meaningful experiences. This paper proposes an expanded conceptualization of the impact and process associated with meaningful experiences. We suggest that as individuals reflect on existing experiential (i.e., autobiographical) memories, they can extract insight from those memories. If any of the extracted insights connect with core sources of meaning, then the individuals perceive their experience as meaningful. Suggestions for potential strategies to design for meaningful experiences are also shared.

This study examines the relationships between the variables “trust,” “participation,” “citizenship behaviors,” and “loyalty.” It also identifies the moderating effect of “exhibitor frequency at exhibitions.” Analyzing data from 240 exhibitors at major business-to-business (B2B) exhibitions in Seoul, Korea, the study found that “trust” positively influenced “participation,” “citizenship behaviors,” and “loyalty,” with “citizenship behavior” being the only significant predictor of “loyalty,” supporting four of six proposed hypotheses derived from social exchange theory. Additionally, exhibitors who attended more than twice demonstrated more proactive behavior and greater loyalty based on trust, thereby reinforcing exhibitor frequency as a moderating variable. These findings provide a theoretical basis and practical recommendations for exhibition promotion in the MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) context.

Transformative experiences are increasingly the focus of festival and event designers. In business event contexts, attendees often redefine their mindset, attitudes, and practices following a transformative event experience. Current research primarily examines the factors that trigger transformation and highlights the principles of intentional design for change. However, there is much less focus on the marketing of transformative events. Using a two-step method that involves free-hand image drawing and sentence completion conducted both pre- and post-event, this study explores how transformation is represented in the symbols and words associated with brand archetypes in transformative events. The analysis reveals dominant associations with three of the eight brand archetypes: Sage, Explorer, and Magician. Implications for research and event marketing practice are provided. Using archetype association narratives and transformative imagery represents a novel approach to marketing the unique nature of transformative events.

This study explores the concept of mythmaking and iconic brands in heritage tourist destinations. Because iconic brands may contain ambiguities, it is important to examine their complexities. Iconic brands also carry symbolic meanings that may vary according to consumers’ personal experiences with the brand. The study offers qualitative insights based on the personal experiences of heritage tourists at a heritage tourist destination. This study proposes a framework for mythmaking related to a heritage tourist brand that is considered to be iconic. Listening to individual stories and allowing visitors to share their own connections with the brand also contribute to the co-created heritage experience. Subsequently, symbols attached to the myth can form part of consumer beliefs and, in turn, strengthen personal identity.

Previous research has primarily focused on individual determinants to promote consumer pro-environmental behavior in the hospitality industry, overlooking the potential influence of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) services. This study delves into uncharted territory, exploring whether, how, and when AI services impact consumer pro-environmental behavior. Drawing on social facilitation theory, we conducted four experiments involving 748 participants from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. The results revealed a novel and unexpected finding: AI services significantly reduced consumer social arousal, consequently diminishing consumer pro-environmental behavior when compared to human services, with social arousal mediating this effect. Moreover, we discovered that individuals’ philosophical stance significantly influenced this mediating effect, revealing a mitigated linkage among consumers with computational philosophical stances. This research not only uncovers a previously unexplored negative impact of AI services on consumer environmental practices but also contributes to the growing body of knowledge in this domain.

While tourism researchers devote large efforts to justify and test the theoretical relationships between constructs, the links between items and their respective constructs receive very little deliberate attention. This is because the relationship between construct and item is, often incorrectly, assumed to be reflective, meaning that the measurement items reflect the construct. In contrast to reflective constructs, for formative constructs, measurement items form the construct. In Study 1, we show empirically that 43.7% of the employed measures in the leading tourism journals are misspecified, and thus incorrectly conceptualized and operationalized: Formative constructs are frequently being mistaken for reflective constructs. In Study 2, we empirically demonstrate the threats and consequences of misspecification. In response, this research addresses the neglect of formative constructs, fosters their understanding, and explains how to conceptualize, operationalize, and estimate formative constructs in future research.

Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results about the impact of CEO duality on corporate performance in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry. To further delve into this relationship, we investigated the causal relationship between CEO duality and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance under various board characteristics and financial indicators. The data from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database were evaluated using a machine learning technique that included targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE), augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW), and neural network analysis, all of which are doubly robust estimators with cross-fitting. The findings suggest that CEO duality negatively impacts environmental pillar scores but not other outcomes (i.e., governance and social pillar scores). Among the governance practices and financial indicators, policy executive compensation performance, policy executive compensation ESG performance, and return on invested capital (ROIC) have positive relations with total ESG scores. The results have important ramifications for helping H&T companies develop effective boards of directors and governance systems, as well as achieve targeted ESG performance objectives.

Extant research in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry has largely ignored the influence of contextual factors like institutional environment and board characteristics on the financial slack and CSR relationship. Our study combines the institutional differences hypothesis, slack resource theory, and agency theory to provide a nuanced understanding of this relationship in the context of the H&T industry in India. Using a panel of 464 firms from three H&T sectors between 2011 and 2019, our analyses indicate a U-shaped relationship between financial slack and CSR intensity, and a positive moderating effect of board gender diversity and board independence. We show how resource-constrained H&T firms in emerging markets with underdeveloped institutions deploy slack resources towards CSR and, rather than setting a minimum threshold, we posit that governmental policies should strengthen capital markets so that H&T firms can voluntarily invest in strategic CSR. Further, strengthening board diversity policies enables H&T firms to invest in CSR organically.

Globalization and digitalization raise questions about the contemporary role of national culture. Investigating digital business models (BMs) in the travel industry, this study clarifies the effects of national cultures on them. Thirty-nine impactful aspects of national cultures— 25 institutional and 14 ideational—are identified based on qualitative research. These aspects are derived from various cross-cultural frameworks and include three newly suggested cultural dimensions. The proposed model clarifies the mechanism of the impact. The study restates the significance of national cultures in the digital era and places emphasis on the importance of both institutional and ideational sides of national cultures. The study would be helpful to practitioners in deciding on suitable places for a business opening and localizing BMs across international borders.

This study represents a systematic review and analysis of the research landscape concerning the mental health and psychological well-being (MHPW) of employees in the hospitality and tourism sector. Comprehensive bibliometric analysis, intellectual network mapping, and critical qualitative content analysis were performed utilizing a dataset of 184 relevant articles. From these analyses, eight critical reflections were derived, and a future research agenda was outlined. This agenda includes exploring positive enhancers of MHPW, advocating for holistic conceptualizations of MHPW, encouraging cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations, assessing the impacts of technology on mental health, developing industry-specific assessments, diversifying research methodologies with multidisciplinary theories, conducting multi-level analyses of influencing factors, and investigating the pandemic’s long-term impact on career perceptions and mental health reforms within the industry. Findings offer pivotal directions for future research and aim to advance the understanding and enhancement of MHPW in the global hospitality and tourism workforce through impactful scholarship.