Muzaffer Uysal

Tourism Impact and Stakeholders’ Quality of Life:

This article reports a study testing the hypothesis that, compared with community residents who are not affiliated with the tourism industry, residents affiliated with tourism are likely to perceive tourism impact more positively, and the more positive their perceptions of tourism development, the more likely they feel satisfied with their lives. The study involved a survey of community residents of four tourist destinations in the United States. A total of 407 responses were used for data analysis. The results provided support for the notion that the influence of community residents’ perceptions of tourism impact and their life satisfaction is dependent on whether the residents are affiliated or not affiliated with the tourism sector.

Social involvement and park citizenship as moderators for quality-of-life in a national park

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the advancement of quality-of-life research in tourism by examining complex relationships involving direct, mediated, moderated and moderated mediation relationships among the antecedents to quality-of-life. Using a sample of 222 repeat visitors in an Australian national park, the findings indicate positive significant effects of (1) place satisfaction on quality-of-life; (2) place satisfaction on place attachment; (3) place attachment on quality-of-life; (4) park citizenship on place attachment. The findings further support that (5) place attachment mediates the relationship between place satisfaction and quality-of-life; (6) social involvement moderates the relationship between place satisfaction and place attachment; (7) park citizenship moderates the relationship between place satisfaction and place attachment; (8) social involvement moderates the relationship between place attachment and quality-of-life; (9) social involvement moderates the indirect effect of place satisfaction on quality-of-life. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Park managers, for example, need to promote on-site marketing and post-visit communication/interpretation, encouraging repeat visits and behavioural change. Message delivery needs to promote a sense of belonging to the park with personal meaning, creating place distinctiveness. Personal actions to promote include signing petitions supporting the parks biodiversity, and other resources, and volunteering to participate in meetings and other direct actions.

Network analysis of the Caucasus’ image

Destination image is influenced by many factors, including destination promotion materials, the mass media as a general familiarity agent, the perceivers’ own characteristics and even researchers’ methodological choices. To isolate and minimize the impact of research on destination image, different qualitative and quantitative designs and analysis techniques have been utilized. However, no previous study utilized the network analysis technique, which may be useful to reveal a picture of destination image with the interconnections and hidden dynamisms of dimensions as well as its correlates. The present study applies this technique on qualitative data from an online sample of Americans on their perceptions of a relatively remote and unfamiliar destination, the Caucasus region, in order to hone in on the dramatic impact of mass media on destination image. Results revealed networks of meanings with residue of mass media messages about Boston bombing, with some differences among different genders and education levels.

The effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee well-being in the hospitality industry

The purpose of this study is to examine hotel industry employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the influence of these perceptions on their quality of working life (QWL), job satisfaction and overall quality of life. By applying need satisfaction theory and bottom–up spillover theory, the study hypothesizes that employees’ overall quality of life is affected by QWL and job satisfaction. CSR serves as an antecedent to the hypothesis.,The target population for this study consisted of hotel industry employees working for companies in which CSR practices are conducted. The data collection method involved distributing a survey questionnaire. Using a sample drawn from employees in upscale hotels in South Korea, 442 usable responses were analyzed using a SEM approach.,The results revealed that philanthropic and economic CSR positively affected QWL, while legal and ethical CSR did not affect QWL. The study also confirms the need satisfaction theory, which suggests that employees’ QWL and job satisfaction affect their overall quality of life.,Despite the importance of CSR perception, most of the previous studies in this area have examined company and customer perspectives, while only limited research has examined employees’ CSR perceptions. The results of this research enrich knowledge of the outcome of CSR from the employee perspective. Information about employees’ perceptions of CSR activities is valuable for hotel management as it is the employees who turn CSR statements to actions.

Revenue Management Outsourcing: A Hybrid Model of Transaction Cost Economics and Organizational Capability

Hotel revenue management is an activity domain that is uniquely technical, complex, and dynamic, and as such, it is often outsourced. This study explores the motivation of hotels to outsource their revenue management function to an outside entity. The major theoretical contribution is in being first to suggest, and empirically test, the notion that in complex environments, such as revenue management, the firm’s capabilities are moderating the impact of assets specificity on managers’ inclination to outsource. From a practical perspective, this study is the first to empirically explore the contextual determinants of the decision to outsource in the hotel-specific domain of revenue management.

What Is the Nature of the Relationship Between Tourism Development and the Quality of Life of Host Communities

This chapter addresses an important question: Do tourist communities with higher levels of quality of life (QOL) contribute to tourism development, and vice versa? Based on the research literature, the answer to this question is “yes, but it depends.” Yes, tourism communities with higher levels of QOL do contribute to tourism development through a pull (rather than push) process (a concept well-known in the tourism literature). Such communities are attractive to tourists because they have good leisure facilities (rated high on food/beverage establishments, shopping malls, and other sports and recreation facilities), good lodging facilities (nice hotels and other lodging accommodations), good transportation facilities (good subways, trains, buses, taxis, etc.), reasonable cost of living (affordable goods and services), safe from crime (rated high on safety indicators such as low crime and high law enforcement), safe from environmental toxins (rated high on environmental well-being measures such as low water/air/land pollution), access to medical facilities (rated high on healthcare), etc. Based on the research literature, we make an attempt to explain the study findings by arguing that there is a reciprocal link between tourism development and QOL of host communities. We also demonstrate that the QOL effect is not always as strong and positive, which can be explained by a number of moderator effects. One important moderator is the carrying capacity of the community (the extent to which a community can accommodate large number of tourists with no adverse consequences). Other moderators are identified and discussed. Public policy implications of these relationships are also discussed.

Seniors: Quality of Life and Travel/Tourism

The senior segment in travel and tourism is increasing in both size and profitability. Travel/tourism scholars have done much research in relation to quality of life and senior tourists. Determining what aspects of travel impacts the well-being of seniors should be valuable to program coordinators of retirement communities and tourism officials. In addition, destination promoters and service providers should benefit by knowing which aspect of travel is most conducive to enriching the physical and emotional well-being of senior travelers. With this regard, this chapter is designed to review the literature relevant to senior tourist behaviors, measures of seniors’ quality of life and its relation to tourism, and how participating in leisure while traveling may enhance their well-being. Another goal of the chapter is to suggest future research directions that can be useful for tourism providers and professional associations (as well as government agencies) that deal with seniors, travel, and tourism.

A Benefits Theory of Leisure Well-Being

Leisure well-being is satisfaction in leisure life in a manner that contributes to subjective well-being. We develop a theory of leisure well-being that explains how leisure activities contribute to leisure well-being and ultimately quality of life. Leisure activity contributes to leisure well-being by satisfying a set of basic needs (benefits related to safety, health, economic, sensory, escape, and/or sensation/stimulation needs) and growth needs (benefits related to symbolic, aesthetic, moral, mastery, relatedness, and/or distinctiveness needs). These effects are further amplified when the benefits of leisure activities match corresponding personal characteristics, namely safety consciousness, health consciousness, price sensitivity, hedonism, escapism, sensation seeking, status consciousness, aestheticism, moral sensitivity, competitiveness, sociability, and need for distinctiveness, respectively (This chapter is adapted and modified from a forthcoming publication: Sirgy, M. J., Uysal, M., & Kruger, S. (2017). Towards a benefits theory of leisure well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life 12(1), 205–228 ( https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-016-9482-7))

The moderating effects of gender and income between leadership and quality of work life (QWL)

Purpose The purpose of the present study is to explore the moderating effects of gender and income on the relationship between leadership style and quality of work life. This study provides meaningful implications for the hospitality industry in terms of gender and income between leadership and quality of work life. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 5-star hotel employees (n=443) in Turkey. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear regression. The independent and dependent variables used to test the hypotheses involving the dependent variable of quality of work life were centered prior to the empirical analysis to avoid potential multicollinearity. Findings Transformational and transactional leadership styles were significant predictors of quality of work life (QWL), controlling for the demographic variables (i.e. age, employment statistics and education level), but gender and income were not significant antecedents of QWL. When it comes to the interaction effect of leadershi...

Market Intelligence: Social Media Analytics and Hotel Online Reviews

In order to demonstrate the usefulness of social media analytics, this chapter applies text analytics to classify hotel properties based upon dimensions of guest experiences in association with satisfaction ratings in hotel online reviews. The findings of the study reveal the market structure of the industry; that is, hotel properties can be distinguished based upon words consumers use to describe their experience in combination with the level of satisfaction and to a better understanding of the competitive landscape of the hotel industry. This study contributes to the development of new approaches to identify competitive sets for hotels which, in turn, can help hotels better position themselves based upon eWOM.