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The purpose of the paper is to explore innovative solutions to the challenge of creating a family environment without children in luxury lodges in New Zealand.

In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with guests, staff and managers in a luxury lodge that excludes children. An interpretivist analysis of interviewees’ comments was undertaken.

Guests at the childless lodge talked about the serenity and peace they experienced during their stay, and particularly the meal experiences. They thought that not having children on the premises is an advantage for this experience. Lodge managers said that not admitting children is their point of difference for the market that they are targeting.

This research contributes to the emerging research theme of family tourism and extends the concept of family tourism to include family units without children.

There are significant practical implications in terms of industry approaches to creating a family atmosphere in luxury accommodation without children.

That a family atmosphere does not need to include children and enables luxury accommodation to cater to a diverse range of family units. There are also implications for social diversity beyond the traditional assumptions of the nuclear family.

The exclusion of children from luxury lodges is certainly not new, but the concept of maintaining a family environment without children is innovative and worth investigating to consider the wider implications of the paradox of family without children.

Wellness tourism offers opportunities for consumers to explore the self. This paper aims to explore how identity transitions occur in a liminal tourism space – a holistic wellness retreat.

The authors adopt a qualitative methodology, including in-depth semi-structured interviews supplemented by various projective techniques. Following an interpretivist approach, eight consumers were interviewed at the commencement and the completion of a holistic wellness retreat stay. Participant observation was also undertaken during the retreat programme.

The paper shows an identity transition is facilitated by the liminal space of the holistic wellness retreat and further shaped by self-work during the retreat. As participants gain new knowledge on the self and start living “consciously”, they gain a sense of vision, clarity and direction to a new self, wherein identity transition is a starting point and a process of change rather than an end goal.

While much past research views tourism activities as mainly “play”, the findings reveal the holistic wellness retreat experiences as both identity play and identity work. This paper provides theoretical insights into the process from identity play to identity work and what makes this process effective for identity transition.

Given the socialisation of men and women to their gender roles and expression of emotion, this study aims to investigate whether there are gender differences in the use of emotive language in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), specifically in online reviews. The authors propose that female reviewers will use strong emotive terms, such as love, more frequently in online reviews than do male reviewers. The authors further propose that the gender of the reviewer influences audience responses to the reviewer’s use of emotive terms in online reviews.

The authors conducted secondary data analysis of restaurant reviews (Study 1) to provide evidence on whether the gender of the reviewer affects the frequency of use of emotive terms in an online review. In addition, three separate experiments (Studies 2–4) were conducted to test the theoretical arguments.

The results of the secondary data analysis indicated that female online reviewers used the term “love” much more frequently in their reviews than male reviewers, whereas there was no usage difference for the term “like”. The experimental studies further showed that an emotive review by a male reviewer containing the word “love” resulted in a higher evaluation of the restaurant being reviewed than a non-emotive review containing the word “like”. This difference was stronger when the overall rating was less salient and for consumers who believe (vs do not believe) that men and women use emotional language differently.

First, the paper extends our understanding of gender differences in emotional expression within the domain of eWOM and online reviews as well as our understanding of consumer responses to these gender differences. Second, the authors identify a boundary condition for these gender effects, namely, the overall rating score. Third, the authors find that consumer beliefs regarding gender stereotypes in emotional expression provide an explanation for these effects.

The results of the research indicate that the electronic algorithms operating on review sites might be modified in terms of their criteria for selecting the reviews to display to consumers, as consumer decision-makers may find greater utility in reviews written by male reviewers that contain strongly positive emotive terms.

The research extends the knowledge on gender differences in emotional expression in online reviews by demonstrating the actual usage patterns and differing responses to the emotional expressions of each gender.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the luxury accommodation experience is created by investigating the perceptions of the three main participant groups – managers, employees and guests – using case studies from New Zealand.

An interpretivist case-study methodology was used. Eighty-one participants were interviewed (27 managers, 27 employees and 27 guests) from six luxury properties. Thematic analysis was conducted to inform the results.

The key themes identified in creating the luxury accommodation experience are: setting the stage; the ethos of the property; performances of the actors; and co-creation between the participants. Using the themes identified, a conceptual model of the creation of the luxury accommodation experience has been formulated.

The conceptual model can be used to assist managers to deliver a more positive and memorable experience of their properties. Strategies to enhance the luxury accommodation experience include: training; standards of procedure; staff incentives; and the use of effective communication tools.

This study identified the three alternative perspectives of managers, employees and guests regarding how the luxury accommodation experience is created. The luxury accommodation sector contributes to the economies of a number of nations and therefore it is important to highlight how it can be maintained and improved.

This study investigates the role that sports brands play in building group identity within a niche sports subculture, via research from two different trail running events. Participants exhibit some of the characteristics of an activity-based subculture of consumption, and brands play a role in building group identity. A key factor that drives a serious leisure pursuit to become an activity-based subculture of consumption is identified as high levels of socialising among participants.

This paper introduces the seven empirical studies on vacation decision making in this special issue of IJCTHR. The paper compares the findings of these seven studies to traditional models of vacation decision making, and highlights a number of new perspectives for research into vacation decision making.

Five themes appear in these contemporary studies of vacation decision making: the multifaceted nature of the vacation; joint decision making by members of the household; impact of the type of vacation trip on the decision making process; the role of the internet in vacation decision making; and the role of socio‐psychological variables in vacation decision making.

The paper provides recommendations for future research in vacation decision making, in light of contemporary changes in the travel and tourism industry.

The value of this paper lies in its review of traditional approaches to researching vacation decision making, and advice provided for future research on the topic.