Ana María Campón-Cerro

Quality of Life (QOL) in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management: An Approach to the Research Published in High Impact Journals

According to the importance that quality of life (QOL) in tourism research is acquiring, we propose a literature review on QOL in hospitality and tourism marketing and management by considering the published works in top journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) in the category of “Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism” in 2016. We developed a literature review based on a content analysis, in which 20 articles were identified as an illustrative sample of the state-of-the-art and the level of development of this topic. The results show a synthesis of what is being published, who are the authors dedicated to this topic and their affiliations, in which journals these works received major acceptance, among other issues. The current body of knowledge existing is the result of diverse contributions dealing with the topic from multiples points of view, going from tourists perceived impacts of tourism on their personal QOL, to the evaluations by host communities about QOL enhancements caused by tourism development. Moreover, important contributions made by theoretical works were identified.

The Relationship Between Revenue and Environmental Responsibility: A Causal Study Using Reputation in the Hotel Industry

The tourism sector and, in particular, the hotel industry are aware of the environmental problems generated by their activities. This industry now must take into account the progressively deeper sensitisation of stakeholders to the environment and the exigencies that result from implementing responsible strategies when managing hotel activities’ settings. Hotels thus need to remain alert to their stakeholders’ demands in order to offer products and services compatible with these requirements. The long-term benefit of this awareness is more competitive and profitable companies. This study focused on determining to what extent hotels’ consciousness of environmental responsibility generates a positive impact on profitability, as represented by RevPAR, a performance metric specific to the hotel industry. The research also included examining to what extent hotels’ reputation has a mediating effect in this relationship. The proposed model was tested with a sample of 230 hotels located in Spain, using the partial least squares method of assessing structural equation models. The results reveal that environmental sustainability has a significant positive impact on RevPAR and that reputation acts a mediating factor in this context. Thus, hotel companies need to bear in mind that corporate social responsibility policies regarding the environment are not an undesirable cost but rather an investment that ensures long-term, sustainable financial returns.