Annmarie Nicely

Navigating through tourism options: an island perspective

Purpose – Sustainable tourism demands a positivistic and holistic look at the true costs and benefits of the industry to host communities. To aid leaders in starting the process, the article proposes a tourism options navigation model looking at varying number of visitors, their average daily spend and leakages, on the socio‐economic, cultural and environmental landscape of island communities. The article aims to identify various tourism options, their expected effects and potential strategies to mitigating negative outcomes and to later apply the model to the case of the rural parish of St Thomas, Jamaica.Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objectives outlined a comprehensive review of related literature was conducted. The researcher interviewed six of Jamaicas national tourism leaders and analyzed their responses.Findings – It was posited that by employing strategies that impact the number of visitors to the area, their average daily spend and industry‐related economic import leakages, leaders...

Employee Engagement in Jamaican Hotels: Do Demographic and Organizational Characteristics Matter?

The intent of the present study was to determine the importance of demographic and organizational factors on hotel line employees’ level of engagement. Line employees (n = 290) from hotels in Jamaica participated in the study. Findings indicate significant differences between line employees’ demographic and organizational characteristics, in particular their age and department, and their level of engagement. Employees between 18 and 25 years and those 42 years and older were more engaged than those between 26 and 41 years. Employees in the accounting department were some of the least engaged when compared to employees from other departments. The findings have implications for engagement programs in Caribbean hotels, in particular when it comes to the focus and funding of these programs.

Rural Tourism Development Tackling a Culture of Local Nonparticipation in a Postslavery Society

Cultural characteristics that make rural destinations appealing to visitors could limit local engagement in rural tourism development as well. So, the paper looked at St. Thomas in Jamaica to determine the elements of their culture on which a strong rural tourism product could be built but could also limit local participation in the development of their rural tourism industry. St. Thomas is a rural island community with a rich history steeped in colonialism. Interviews and radio program transcripts as well as notes from a town hall meeting of residents were analyzed. Fifteen elements were identified in this community’s culture that explain their traditional, conservative, close to nature, and spiritual way of life; five were identified as possible drivers of community members’ nonengagement behaviors. A holistic approach to resolving cultural dichotomies in rural tourism communities that would preserve cultural characteristics treasured locally and improve local engagement behaviors was proposed.

Effects of cooperative learning on Chinese students performing a formal table setting for American style service

ABSTRACT This study examined the effectiveness and self-efficacy of employees following a training session employing a cooperative learning (CL) model with Chinese students hired as foodservice employees for university dining services. More specifically, the study examined the effect of such a learning technique on potential foodservice employees’ accuracy, speed, and perceived self-efficacy when performing a foodservice task of table setting, as well as on their level of satisfaction with the overall training. It was found that speed and accuracy did improve significantly with the cooperative learning technique. Additional measures indicated higher perceptions of both self-efficacy and quality of the learning environment. The findings could have implications for how workers from Chinese cultures are trained in the North American hospitality sector.

Organizational Culture Requirements for High Levels of Knowledge Usage From Learning Activities Among Hotel Managers

ABSTRACT The goal of the present study was to determine the learning culture factors important to high levels of knowledge usage at work among hotel managers. Hence, 121 managers from 41 hotels on the island of Jamaica were surveyed and the data analyzed using correlational analysis. The researchers found that as learning culture at work strengthened, so did the extent to which the hotel managers used knowledge acquired from their education, training, experience, and networking to solve problems and innovate on the job. The researchers also found six learning culture characteristics important to high levels of knowledge usage among the managers, with the most noteworthy being interdepartmental collaborations.

Sympathy and loyalty intention after visitor harassment

The purpose of this study was to, first, determine the demographic predictors of the extent a visitor would feel sympathetic after a visitor harassment (VH) episode and, second, to ascertain whether there were any significant connections between a visitor feeling sympathetic after such an episode and his or her loyalty intentions toward the destination.,A survey research was conducted. Snowballing was used for the online survey and accidental sampling for the paper survey. The data were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression analyses. A total of 634 surveys were analyzed.,The following were found. First, sympathy was not a common emotion visitors experienced after being harassed by a trader at a tourist destination. Second, the demographic factors age, gender, income and educational levels were not significant predictors of the extent to which visitors would be sympathetic after a VH episode. Sympathy was a significant predictor of visitors’ intention to recommend the destination and support the traders in the future but not of visitors’ intention to return to the destination.,The study was exploratory, and hence, the findings were preliminary.,The findings could lead to “new” local responses to the problem of VH at tourist destinations.,The study was the first known to look at visitor sympathy after a VH episode.

Type of repeat visitors most sensitive to micro-trader harassment

ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to ascertain the types of repeat visitors most sensitive to micro-trader harassment at tourist destinations. To accomplish this, data for 143 respondents from 17 countries were analysed using multiple regression and independent t-test analyses. It was found of the four demographic profile constructs examined (ie the visitors’ gender, age, income and educational level) gender was the only significant predictor of the intensity of emotional response the repeat visitors’ experienced after a trader harassment (TH) episode, when the strength of the TH reported was statistically controlled. More specifically, female repeat visitors were found to be significantly more sensitive to TH than their male counterparts were. As a result, protection, isolation and empowerment measures were suggested to reduce the intense negative emotions this important group of visitors would likely experience after a TH incident.

Type of Work Experience Important for Hotel Managers’ Success: Focus versus Variety

ABSTRACT The goal of the present study was to determine the experience background factors that could predict the extent to which hotel managers would use knowledge from their job experiences to solve problems and innovate at work. Four work experience factors were examined, the number of years the hotel manager worked in the hospitality sector as well as in his or her current job (depth of experience) and the number of sectors as well as entities the hotel manager worked throughout his or her professional career (breadth of experience). One hundred and sixty hotel managers in Jamaica were surveyed and the data analyzed using stepwise regression analysis. A key finding of the study was the number of entities a hotel manager worked was a significant predictor of the extent he or she used knowledge from his or her work experience to solve problems and innovate. The higher the number of entities the hotel manager worked, the greater the extent to which the manager used knowledge from his or her work experience to solve problems and innovate at work and this is after the manager’s hotel culture, attitude to learning, management level and department has been controlled.

Mitigating Aggressive Small Trade at Tourist Destinations Through Cognitive Restructuring

ABSTRACT The goal of the article was to use established theories of individual, organizational, and community learning to hypothesize ways tourism leaders could facilitate their small independent traders that harass visitors’ unlearning of aggressive selling behaviors. Nine hypotheses were posited. For example by tourism leaders: placing greater emphasis on traders’ engagement in the desired nonaggressive selling behaviors than on stopping their engagement in aggressive ones; not supporting traders’ engagement in aggressive selling behaviors but instead openly supporting their engagement in nonaggressive trading; and taking steps to strengthen the traders’ role in their community’s tourism sector. The discussion has implications for how small traders’ selling behaviors are managed at tourist destinations.

Networking Choices: How Hotel Managers can Boost their Learning from Networking

The goal of the present study was to ascertain what was important for hotel managers to experience high levels of learning from networking. That is, whether it was the depth, variety, or type of network. One hundred and sixty one hotel managers in Jamaica were surveyed. The data Generated Were subjected to regression and independent t-test analyses. The study found network variety to be a significant predictor the hotel managers’ use of knowledge from networking to solve problems and innovate at work, not the frequency with which they networked. However, relatedness of such network was important. Therefore, for hotel managers to experience improved levels of learning from networking they should connect more with individuals in the area of hospitality business both within and outside their companies. Hence they should focus focus to a lesser extent on creating networks with individuals outside the area of hospitality business. The study could have implications on how networking is perceived and treated in the lodging sector. In particular, it could result in more effective learning from networking across all levels of managers in the lodging sector.