Fevzi Okumus

Corporate social responsibility: what are top hotel companies reporting?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the level of socially responsible behavior of the top ten hotel companies.Design/methodology/approach – This study used content analysis method to identify and describe social responsibility (SR) patterns in web sites, annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports for the top ten hotel companies as listed in Hotels magazine.Findings – The findings reveal that 80 percent of the hotel companies analyzed reported socially responsible activities relating to some form of charitable donations. A diversity policy was reported by 60 percent of the hotel companies, while 40 percent provided some mention of SR in their vision or mission statements. Some companies were highly focused on providing a balanced approach to SR while other hotel companies were less focused in their efforts. The areas of SR that seemed to be lacking with regards to reporting were environmental, and vision and values.Research limitations/implications – Future studies sho...

Food Tourism as a Viable Market Segment: It's All How You Cook the Numbers!

This study examines whether food is a special interest or mainstream tourism product. Much of the research on special interest tourism examines the activity in isolation of the broader suite of products available in the destination mix. Such a myopic approach may produce impressive looking numbers, but may not define viable market segments. Instead, based on their research findings, the authors argue that a more holistic approach is required to examine food tourism within the context of other products in the destination to determine its value. Overall, this study suggests that consuming food may be a ubiquitous activity for most visitors to sophisticated urban destinations and may not be representative of a specialist segment.

Understanding the Consumer Experience: An Exploratory Study of Luxury Hotels

This study explores the consumer experience by examining empirical data collected via a series of in-depth, semistructured interviews with luxury hotel guests. The study findings indicate that hotel guest experiences constitute both physical environment and human interaction dimensions. The research findings suggest that luxury hotel experiences are affected by trip-related factors and personal characteristics of consumers, which impact perceived experience dimensions. The research findings provide specific implications for hotel executives looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors through using experience marketing strategies. In particular, the proposed framework in this study can help practicing managers understand how different factors play a role in consumer experiences. This article contributes to the overall understanding of consumer experience by illuminating the experience perceptions of consumers within the luxury hotel segment.

Understanding Satisfied and Dissatisfied Hotel Customers: Text Mining of Online Hotel Reviews

This article aims to examine the underpinnings of satisfied and unsatisfied hotel customers. A text-mining approach was followed and online reviews by satisfied and dissatisfied customers were compared. Online reviews of 2,510 hotel guests were collected from TripAdvisor.com for Sarasota, Florida. The research findings revealed some common categories that are used in both positive and negative reviews, including place of business (e.g., hotel, restaurant, and club), room, furnishing, members, and sports. Study results further indicate that satisfied customers who are willing to recommend a hotel to others refer to intangible aspects of their hotel stay, such as staff members, more often than unsatisfied customers. On the other hand, dissatisfied customers mention more frequently the tangible aspects of the hotel stay, such as furnishing and finances. The study offers clear theoretical and managerial implications pertaining to understanding of satisfied and dissatisfied customers through the use of text mining and hotel ratings via review websites, social media, blogs, and other online platforms.

Information technology applications and competitive advantage in hotel companies

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework that illustrates how information technology (IT) applications may lead to competitive advantage in hotel companies.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is written based on a synthesis of previous literature in this area.Findings – Multiple areas need to be carefully evaluated in developing and implementing IT projects so that they can lead to competitive advantage in hotel companies. There are four closely related areas when analyzing IT decisions in hotels, which include coherence between the business strategy and IT decision, types of IT applications, intended benefits of IT decisions, and decision‐making style. Technology sophistication, management skills, and integration of resources are key issues when implementing IT decisions. Investments into IT applications in hotel companies can lead to superior IT competencies and IT capabilities, which can subsequently result in lower cost, agility, innovation, added value for customers, and better...

What keeps the mobile hotel booking users loyal? Investigating the roles of self-efficacy, compatibility, perceived ease of use, and perceived convenience

Convenience, compatibility, and PEOU are positively associated with MHB loyalty.Compatibility significantly influences PEOU and perceived convenience.PEOU has a significant impact on perceived convenience. With the advancements in mobile technologies, mobile hotel booking (MHB) has become an important distribution channel for hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs). Understanding MHB users loyalty intentions toward this technology has become equally important for MHB service providers, as it is essential for them to retain their customers. However, existing literature in the context of mobile booking has mainly focused on the adoption and acceptance of this technology. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a research model that incorporates antecedents of mobile shopping loyalty in a hotel booking context. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modeling (SEM) by using empirical data collected from 396 MHB users. Study results revealed that convenience, compatibility, and perceived ease of use (PEOU) had a significant impact on the users loyalty intentions toward MHB technology. In addition, compatibility significantly influenced PEOU and convenience and PEOU had a significant impact on loyalty and convenience. Study results provide valuable theoretical and practical implications for various players in the hotel and travel industry including hoteliers, OTAs, mobile app developers and hospitality technology vendors.

The Importance of Water Management in Hotels: A Framework for Sustainability Through Innovation

This paper highlights the global phenomenon of the crisis in the quality and quantity of water supplies and how tourism generally and hotels specifically may have contributed to the situation. The major internal and external barriers for Small Medium Enterprises adopting Environmental Management Systems, including water, are listed. The paper proposes a water management framework for hotels and other types of accommodation that leverages on the concept of innovation. Taking into account the various levels of knowledge and technological capabilities in water management, the framework is developed based on the commonly known 3R approach in environmental management, with the addition of another R (Reaching). It is proposed that hotels can innovate and enhance their water management approaches under these 4Rs: Innovative Reducing, Innovative Reusing, Innovative Reaching and Innovative Recycling. The framework offers examples and strategies about how hotels of different sizes, with differing financial, technical, knowledge and managerial capacities could address the challenge of implementing water management and obtain commercial benefit. A detailed case study is provided of a gray and black water recycling system in a Malaysian resort. Other examples of a range of water management methods are also discussed.

REGIONAL DESTINATION MARKETING: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

This article explores how small neighboring destinations with limited tourism products and resources can collaborate in marketing their destinations. Based on a critical literature review, a conceptual framework was developed and empirical data was collected via document analysis, a focus group interview as well as in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with senior executives of three convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) in Ohio. The research findings suggest that forming partnerships among neighboring destinations is beneficial for all participating CVBs in terms of enhancing product portfolio, cost reduction, and efficiency. However, there can be major challenges in developing and sustaining such long‐term partnerships which include differing priorities, different marketing directions, and limited resources. The research findings further suggest that achieving results from such a partnership may take a considerable amount of effort and time. The research findings imply that executives of CVBs need to be informed and educated not only about advantages of forming such partnerships and how they can form such partnerships but also how they can overcome potential challenges together in this endeavor. The research results also suggest that informal working relationships and trust among executives of neighboring CVBs are crucial in forming and maintaining such a partnership. Discussions and implications based on the study results are also provided.

Online experiences: flow theory, measuring online customer experience in e-commerce and managerial implications for the lodging industry

The past decade has perceived a significant development of various Internet technologies including HTML5, Ajax, landing pages, CSS3, social media and SEO to name a few. New web technologies provide opportunities for e-commerce companies to enhance the shopping experiences of their customers. This article focuses the phenomenon of online experiences from a services marketing aspect by concentrating online hotel booking. Successful lodging management strategies have been associated with the creation of experience, which in turn leads to fruitful performance outcomes such as superior financial performance, enhanced brand image, customer loyalty, positive word of mouth and customer satisfaction. E-commerce researchers and practitioners also focus on the phenomenon of online customer experiences. Plentiful of previous studies investigated the precursors and consequences of positive online customer experiences by utilizing various marketing and Information Systems theories, and it was found that online customer experience has numerous positive outcomes for e-commerce companies. This study analyses the previous studies on customer experiences by utilizing flow theory and develops a conceptual framework of customer experiences. Later it proposes and tests a measurement model for online customer experiences. Our findings indicate that for successful e-commerce practices, online shoppers need to reach a state of mind where they engage with the website with total involvement, concentration and enjoyment. The traditional approaches to attract customers in brick-and-mortar commerce are not applicable in online contexts. Therefore, interaction, participation, co-creation, immersion, engagement and emotional hooks are important in e-commerce. Managerial and theoretical implications of positive online customer experiences were discussed.

Facilitating knowledge management through information technology in hospitality organizations.

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss how hospitality organizations can facilitate knowledge management (KM) better through information technology (IT) tools.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is developed based on a synthesis of previous literature.Findings – Knowledge can be seen as one of the key assets for hospitality organizations. Therefore, KM can help hospitality organizations create and sustain a competitive advantage. Use of IT applications can assist in creating, storing, transferring and using tacit and explicit knowledge. Hospitality organizations can use numerous IT tools in their KM practices, which include competency databases, decision support systems, online search systems, expert networks, e‐mail, groupware, teleconference, intranet, WWW, document management systems, video conferences, data warehousing, and workflow software.Research limitations/implications – Rather than looking at IT applications from a tactical and operational point of view, this article suggests that hospitality...