Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how small‐ and medium‐sized hotels use search engine marketing (SEM) to make their hotels (services and products) more visible and easier to find for existing and potential customers.

A qualitative, exploratory approach is taken and eight case studies of small, independent hotels are conducted via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews.

These interviews reveal that though all hotels have a web site they do not exploit SEM, which may be attributable to poor marketing planning and lack of control of their web site through outsourcing key web development and optimisation activities.

The practical implications are that small hotels risk being marginalized, losing contact with their customers and fail to maximise their return on investment on their web site.

This research highlights the critical issues and explores the potential to re‐orient the small operator towards the opportunities of successful SEM and fully utilise their web site as a tactical and strategic marketing tool.

This paper aims to investigate whether students adopt a “deep” approach to learning, i.e. “seeking meaning”, in the context of the subject of information systems (IS) and hospitality management degree programmes.

A questionnaire that covers the key constructs, i.e. teaching, feedback, assessment, student autonomy and deep learning, is administered to two samples of final year students. Statistical tests indicate the significant differences between the two samples and the relationship between students' perception of their learning environment and “deep” learning in IS.

Results show that, even though there are some significant differences between the two groups, particularly in items of teaching methods, feedback and assessment, “deep learning” is acquired in both contexts.

This research is limited to a comparative study of two institutions and further research is recommended to discover constructs and contexts particular to the hospitality sector.

These results reveal that “constructive alignment” of teaching and learning priorities is needed with resource and training implications for both teachers and educational establishments.

This research investigates information systems subject learning in hospitality management programmes (and the need to see an information system as an integrated, social system). It examines “contexts” as part of the learning environments: this is new. It also marries two different learning measurements (those of ETL and Cope) to quantitatively examine the phenomenon of “deep learning” in the hospitality IS subject context.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

In 1967, Robert N. Bellah famously argued that there existed an “American Civil Religion,” which was distinct from churchly religion and captured the “transcendental” dimension of the American project. In this chapter, I revisit the civil religion concept and reconstruct it along more Weberian lines. Specifically, I argue that the civil religion tradition is one of three competing traditions for thinking about the proper relationship between religion and politics in America; the other two are religious nationalism and liberal secularism. Whereas liberal secularism envisions a complete separation of the religious and political value spheres, and religious nationalism longs for their (re)unification, civil religion aims for a mediating position of partial separation and productive tension. Following Bellah, I argue that the two central strands of the civil religion tradition have been covenant theology and civic republicanism. The body of the chapter sketches out the development of the tradition across a series of national foundings and refoundings, focusing on the writings of leading civil theologians from John Winthrop and John Adams through Abraham Lincoln and John Dewey to Martin King and Barack Obama. The conclusion advances a normative argument for American civil religion – and against liberal secularism and religious nationalism. I contend that liberalism is highly inclusive but insufficiently solidaristic; that religious nationalism is highly solidaristic but insufficiently inclusive; and that only civil religion strikes a proper balance between individual autonomy and the common good.