Marketing Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism: Strategies and Tactics for Competitive Advantage (4th edition)

Citation

Marzano, G. (2008), "Marketing Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism: Strategies and Tactics for Competitive Advantage (4th edition)", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 238-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810852230

This book is the fourth edition of a well‐regarded hospitality marketing text, but represents a very significant rewrite and will look very different from earlier editions to those who have used the text in the past. It is a fresher looking text from a new publisher and with a different set of authors. While the instructor who has previously used the text will need to invest significant energies to incorporate the new text in his/her teaching, doing so will certainly be a worthwhile effort.

The purpose of the book is to address and explore the unique challenges that marketing students and practitioners face within the hospitality industry. The book is organized in six parts and 21 chapters that provide a logical flow of the topics. The richness of examples and the constant use of real case studies throughout the book is a useful contribution to enhancing students learning opportunities and provide evidence that strengthen the strong theoretical underpinnings of the text. Graphs and figures are well designed and supportive of the arguments. Exhibits provide readers with a wealth of templates that are useful for practical application.

Throughout the book, the centrality of human relationships and a commitment to service orientation to the creation of value in hospitality is evident. The importance of personal selling is emphasized as a determining aspect of success in the hospitality business and this importance is well supported by a series of practical and useful examples and exercises. While the focus of the book is mainly hospitality, it is remarkable, and novel, that the authors have devoted a full chapter to the critical explanation of how and why hospitality managers should position their business not just versus their competition, but also as an integral part within the broader context of their tourism destination.

The systematic organization of topics makes this text one that I would recommend for hospitality students. The CD containing case studies, sold together with the book, is a superb teaching tool, and one that allows academics to enrich their class discussions with more than 60 practical examples. Instructors also benefit from the availability of an on‐line resource centre that provides access to materials that ranges from an instructor's manual to PowerPoint slides for each chapter. In addition to the book's value in the classroom or tourism academic library, it would also represent a useful resource for those practitioners involved in the running of hospitality businesses.