Lorn Sheehan

The Destination Promotion Triad: Understanding Asymmetric Stakeholder Interdependencies Among the City, Hotels, and DMO

At the heart of urban tourism promotion lies a triad of powerful players—the city, the hotels, and the destination marketing/management organization (DMO). This article explores the relationships between the DMO, charged with crafting and executing destination promotion, and its two most powerful stakeholders—the city (or urban government) and hotels (or accommodation sector). Empirical insights are derived from an examination of three major North American city destinations. In each setting, in-depth key informant interviews were conducted with leaders of each member of the triad (the city, the hotels, and the DMO). The triad is found to be asymmetrical with each member bringing a unique and complementary resource. The extent to which members of the triad can effectively relate to one another and combine their complementary resources is posited to be an important determinant of success in destination promotion.

Planning tourism through sporting events

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build on the concept of using a population or portfolio of events to help rejuvenate or redefine the strategic position of a destination. The aim is to gain a general understanding of the local community outlook towards a process of repositioning the tourism product based on a portfolio of sporting events.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative research design using a case study approach examined resident attitudes in a beach community of south Italy. In total, 740 questionnaires were received and a cluster analysis was used to study the 11 statements about residents’ perceptions of tourism development and sport events.Findings – The findings reveal that resident attitudes towards tourism development are strongly related to their perceptions of their degree of involvement in the setting of strategy and the direction of development. The results also support previous beliefs about increasing interest in the sport tourism product and that sporting events are vie...

Mediated Discourse in Higher Ed Classrooms Using Text Messaging

Mediated communication can be thought of as a mediated discourse, involving the knowledge of language, symbols, metaphors, and shared meaning. We describe here a funded study where we investigate the effectiveness of text messaging as a learning tool for higher level courses and provide insight into the use of texting as a supplemental, yet critical learning tool in the teaching and learning process. The design, based on the Vygotskian constructivist paradigm, where learning can happen in social and collaborative interactions, assesses three types of communication within student groups, (1) face-to-face (FTF), (2) using only Instant Messenger (IM), and (3) using only cell phone texting. For analyzing the IM and text exchanges we follow the recommendations of Thurlow (2003) using thematic referential coding schemes. Using the concept of Grice (1975), we detect the presence of conversational maxims and implicature and also the presence of adjacency pairs (Sacks, Schegloff, Jefferson, 1974), indicating turn-taking in IM and texting conversations. Results from content and conversational analyses indicate that while there is an innate preference for FTF discussions among participants, participants felt that IM and texting would be useful if used intermittently and as a supplementary learning tool in classrooms to mediate discussions. Participants also felt that IM and texting focused them on tasks and despite any frustrations with the technology they did gain a shared understanding of the subject matter and gained new and conceptual knowledge. The findings from this research can be used to explore the use of an additional dimension of learning in school and university classrooms.

Contractual Conditions, Organizational Level, Dimension of Organization, and Work Conflict as Potential Predictors of Job Stress in Public Administration

Job stress is a pervasive problem for employers in the 21st century economy, making it a timely and important topic in organizational settings. The variables influencing job stress are numerous and consequently it may be analyzed from different perspectives, but the root is primarily physical and psychosocial. This study specifically explores three physical sources of job stress—contractual condition of work, organizational position, and dimension of organization—and of one psychosocial source—work conflict. A survey instrument was used to collect information from regional Public Administration employees of South Italy. Data from 1,130 respondents were analyzed. Statistical correlations and hierarchical regression showed that contractual condition of work, organizational position, organizational dimension, and work conflict were all predictive aspects of job stress.

Influencing Group Decisions by Gaining Respect of Group Members in E-Learning and Blended Learning Environments

Computer-mediated communication (CMC), consisting of highly interactive communication tools, including electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards, asynchronous multimedia notebooks, remote screen-sharing, and desktop video teleconferencing, is becoming increasingly common in modern classrooms, in addition to face-to-face time between the instructor and the students.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Field Study in the Italian Hospitality Industry

This chapter analyzes organizational citizenship behavior of permanent versus contingent employees in the Italian hospitality industry. The empirical data were derived from a questionnaire survey conducted in three regions of Southern Italy. Survey respondents were 848 frontline employees from 63 hotels. Findings show that contingent employees exhibited less helping behavior than permanent employees but no difference in their voice behavior. In addition, work status was found to make more of a difference in both helping and voice in less work centrality organizations. Hotel managers are encouraged to focus attention on individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization. Particularly in Italy, it would be advantageous to develop retention strategies for talented people that exhibit a high degree of organizational citizenship behavior.

Inter-Enterprise Destination Competitiveness

This paper describes an application and analysis of the destination competitiveness concept to inter-enterprise tourism competitiveness in the marine-based tourism sector. In this context, it specifically illustrates the tourism potential of small craft harbours in the marine-based tourism sector by investigating the competitive potential of tourism in five small craft harbours. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews of key informants and used to estimate the economic impact of tourism at each harbour. Comparisons are made between the harbours and economic activities revealing characteristics that might explain the differences in the relative success that each has had in generating marine-based tourism. Varying success is found to be most related to two factors: 1) the number of services provided at these harbours; and 2) the existence of tourism product. A 2 × 2 destination competitiveness matrix based on these two factors is offered as an effective way to categorize small craft harbours from a tourism potential perspective.