Editorial

Citation

Teare, R. (2006), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 18 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2006.04118gaa.001

Editorial

This issue contains articles on consumer behaviour, ethics, internet useage, customer service, operations and a special focus on managing tourism in the Caribbean. I should like to thank May Hinds and Ernest Boger for compiling the special focus, which addresses the service leadership challenge in Barbados, the growing tensions between economic and ecological sustainability of Caribbean tourism and the prospects for sports tourism, especially golf and cricket.

In the opening article, Cary Countryman and SooCheong Jang report on their study of five atmospheric elements (colour, lighting, layout, style and furnishings) that influence guest impressions of the hotel lobby environment. They found that colour, lighting and style are especially influential in the formation of an overall impression, with colour being the most significant of these three elements.

The subject of business ethics is relatively under-represented in the Journal’s archive and the article by Robert Brymer, LaChelle Wilborn and Raymond Schmidgall provides an interesting and thought-provoking contribution. They explore the ethical beliefs of hospitality management students in the USA and in Europe, using a questionnaire containing ten scenarios relating to study and work issues. For each scenario, the respondents indicated whether the action in the scenario was ethical, not ethical or not a question of ethics.

Next, Laetitia Radder and Yi Wang present the findings of their study of guest house service in South Africa. The objective was to identify the similarities and differences in business travellers’ expectations and managers’ perceptions of service and they found notable differences between the two groups. For example, business travellers cited secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important factors, while guest house managers thought that the friendliness of front desk staff and efficient complaint handling would be most salient.

The three articles contained in the special focus on the Caribbean, address topical, strategic issues that are influencing the development and sustainability of its tourism industry. First, May Hinds, an expert and influential voice on customer service issues in the Caribbean, argues that Barbados has failed to create an effective service culture in its transition from economic reliance on agriculture to tourism. In recognition of the scale of the task, a national initiative for service excellence (NISE) was launch in 2004 and the author examines this and the ongoing implications for service leadership. Second, Leonard Jackson explores the tensions between economic and ecological sustainability and presents a conceptual framework to assist tourism planners and managers to assess and respond to the negative consequences of tourism development. Finally, Donald Sinclair and Ernest Boger consider the growing importance of sports tourism to the Caribbean region and in particular, the role of golf and cricket.

In the “Research in brief” section, Jeff Papis reports on a study of a 4-star equivalent hostel over a four week period. His findings focus on the interplay between empowerment, multi-task roles and trust and on the implications for creating and sustaining an effective workplace environment for employees. Finally, Vasiliki Vrana and Costas Zafiropoulos report on a study of internet useage by tourism and travel agents in Greece in which they identify the gaps in professional practice that currently mitigate against wider adoption.

Richard Teare