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Extant literature informs that expatriates develop a natural inclination towards host country food with increased acculturation. However, this study argues that expatriates might have divergent goals in different domains of food adaptation (private vs public), which eventually sheds new light on their acculturation process. This paper aims to investigate how expatriate's adaptation in private vis-a-vis public domain influences their food consumption behavior.

This study draws on the optimal distinctiveness theory and domain-specific view of adaptation and tests the food adaptation outcomes of expatriates’ acculturation through social interactions with the local community. A survey was conducted among 120 expatriate newcomers currently living and working in the Middle East.

The findings show that acculturation positively influences food adaptation in the private (local food consumption), whereas its relationship with food adaptation in the public domain (local restaurant visits) assumes an inverted U-shape. Furthermore, the authors find that the latter relationship is negatively moderated by expatriate’s overall experience and positively moderated by uncertainty avoidance, which also unfolds situations when an expatriate follows social identification vis-à-vis differentiation pattern.

This work goes beyond the traditional focus on acculturation through social identification and provides evidence that differentiation effects must also be accounted for. The authors argue and provide empirical evidence that expatriates’ greater social interactions with the local community result in different food adaptation outcomes when private vs public consumption domains are considered. In addition, by analyzing the moderating effects of expatriate experience and uncertainty avoidance, the authors further provide evidence on when social identification vis-à-vis differentiation prevails.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the social interaction between international students and the local community in the small university town of Famagusta, North Cyprus. The objectives of the study are, firstly, to investigate the nature of interaction between two communities; secondly, to ascertain the main factors impacting social interaction and, finally, to identify the impact of this interaction on cultural exchange.

Using a qualitative approach, the researchers conducted 39 semi-structured interviews with international students and members of the local community to gain depth and detail.

The results showed that there was a lack of interaction between the international students and locals due mainly to language barriers.

This study addresses a gap in the literature on educational tourism by focusing on the social interaction between foreign students and the host community in a nontraditional destination. It also provides guidelines for universities, local and national governments on how to build a better quality of life for the community and for international students.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate tourists’ experiences of local hospitality and offer a typology of Turkish hospitality based on perspectives of international tourists.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with tourists visiting Istanbul, Turkey. Interview transcripts were content-analyzed and -coded under different themes that characterize local hospitality.

The research findings revealed 64 items describing local Turkish hospitality. These were grouped under four distinct themes: sociability, care, helpfulness and generosity.

Using the factors of local Turkish hospitality identified in this paper, future studies might measure the impacts of these antecedents of local hospitality on tourist satisfaction and positive behaviors such as loyalty and word of mouth in a quantitative study. Exploring local hospitality in different destinations with different characteristics might also reveal valuable insight into variance and intensity of local hospitality.

The research findings have implications for both commercial hospitality and destination management. By leveraging the local hospitality elements in their operations and human resources management practices, the commercial hospitality firms might create strong emotional bonds with their guests and create loyalty through these relationships. Destination planning and management might also adopt the findings to facilitate interactions between the hosts and tourists for more positive experiences for both sides to emerge.

Destinations exposed to heavy visitation may not have the same level of hospitableness toward visitors. Hence, impact of tourism activity on local quality of life should be monitored and managed.

Despite hospitality having been researched in numerous previous studies, local hospitality has not yet been fully explored in tourism. This study presents and discusses empirical findings and offers a typology of local Turkish hospitality.

This paper aims to provide an overview of how trends encompassing SOLOMO (social, local, mobile) factors impact marketing activities in small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs). It explores the relevancy of these factors and their application in the industry and synthesizes them in the context of Dubai’s path toward Expo 2020 by collecting practitioner input.

This paper provides continuity with the author’s previous WHATT article exploring SME website implementation by expanding its scope by analyzing literature on SOLOMO adoption in the hospitality industry, drawing from a range of journals and applicable industry sources. It collects informal commentary from practitioners with relevant local experience to contextualize the findings within Dubai’s digital roadmap.

Several aspects of SOLOMO in the context of hospitality have been examined by researchers; however, their successful applicability to the SME sector (which is still struggling with the fundamentals of website implementation) lacks comprehensive consideration. There is a dearth of academic and governmental guidance for industry executives. At the same time, trends beyond SOLOMO, particularly around data analytics, are emerging and require incorporation into a digital SME roadmap.

Executives in the hospitality SME domain are encouraged to continue focusing on the fundamentals of website implementation while they take into consideration the trends around SOLOMO identified in the study. A holistic, result-driven view of digital marketing is required to ensure focused resource usage. Closer collaboration between private sector, policymakers and academia will support Dubai’s initiatives to leverage its high degree of technological readiness for marketing innovation in the SME sector.

This manuscript provides a practically oriented and engaging overview of the applicability of SOLOMO concepts for hospitality SMEs, with a local focus on the Dubai ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how residents in Qatar, the host country of the 2022 World Cup, interact, socialize and acculturate in order to create a more harmonic society, a critical factor for the event delivery and preparations.

Data were collected from Qatari nationals and expatriates residing in the country of Qatar using a survey. A stratified random sampling approach was applied using as sampling framework all households having a mailing address with the country’s electric company. In total, 2,398 Qataris were contacted and 1,020 completed the survey. From the expatriate population, 1,852 were contacted and 1,134 completed the survey.

The results showed Qatari nationals were favorable toward Arab and Asian expatriates but not as favorable as Arab and Asian expatriates were toward them. Both groups of residents showed high quality of life (QOL) perceptions, with the locals having slightly higher QOL. Finally, Asian expatriates were more open to socializing with the locals and Arab expatriates.

The results of the study shed light into the acculturation process in host societies of mega sport events such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

This is the first study that examined a mega event’s host country resident’s cultural interactions to identify potential issues that can arise and interfere with the event experience of the 2022 World Cup in a very diverse society.

This study aims to focus on peer-to-peer accommodation services in the sharing economy. Adopting construal level theory as the theoretical foundation, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of social and spatial distances on guest loyalty toward peer-to-peer accommodation.

This study uses a secondary source of online observational data archived on Xiaozhu, a leading peer-to-peer accommodation sharing platform in China. It consists of 2,612 observations of 1,304 unique travelers who stayed at 559 listings managed by 281 hosts in four major metropolitan areas of China over four years from August 2012 to August 2016. Non-linear binary choice panel models of probability regressions were used to estimate the effects of psychological distances (social and spatial) between hosts and guests on the likelihood of repeat purchase. The software used for the econometric analyses is STATA 14.

The results indicate that social distance negatively affects guest loyalty toward the listing hosts, while spatial distance has a positive influence on guest loyalty. The results also show significant interactions between the two psychological distance dimensions in influencing loyalty. The findings provide important insight into the influences of psychological distances on travelers’ repeat purchase behavior toward peer-to-peer accommodation providers.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that supports the importance of psychological distances in forming a loyal relationship between hosts and guests in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector of the sharing economy.

Hotels conducting international business are acknowledging the importance of an expatriate general manager (GM), to increase the effectiveness of their knowledge management system through the sharing of knowledge between expatriates and local employees. In the aspect of comparative leadership studies, this study attempts to compare and analyze the effects of knowledge sharing (KS) efforts, which are competencies of expatriate GMs and local GMs, on employee trust, organizational KS and employee loyalty.

Data were collected from employees of 7 hotels managed by expatriate GMs among 16 franchising luxury (5-star) hotels, and from employees of 6 hotels operated by local GMs among 9 local luxury hotels located in Korea. Structural equation modeling method using SmartPLS 3.3.3 was used to analyze the data.

Expatriate GM’s two-way KS influences affective trust but does not influence cognitive trust. Affective trust influences cognitive and organizational KS but does not influence employee loyalty. Cognitive trust does not influence organizational KS but influences employee loyalty. Finally, organizational KS significantly affects employee loyalty. In addition, in the analysis comparing the estimates between expatriate and local GM group, significant differences in groups were found for the impact of GM’s two-way KS on cognitive trust, for the impact of affective trust on organizational KS, for the impact of affective trust on employee loyalty and for the impact of cognitive trust on organizational KS.

This study shows that knowledge management designs need to consider different effects of expatriate GMs’ and local GMs’ capabilities on employee attitudes and behavior considering cultural impacts. Expatriate GMs will greatly benefit their effort for KS by assuring employees that they are attentive to their needs, interests and problems.

This study not only contributes to the existing social capital theory but also provides managerial implications for human resources management in the hospitality field through a comparative study of KS efforts of expatriate and local GMs.

This paper aims to examine country-of-origin (COO) effects from the theoretical angle of extended self and “otherness”. Traditional COO perspectives view COO as an important quality-related, informational cue used to form product evaluations, develop preferences and make purchase decisions.

An experiment was conducted with the COO of a fresh milk product manipulated to examine these predictions. Data were collected from four samples, Americans living in the USA, Americans living in China, Chinese living in China and Chinese living in the USA.

Results found that COO effects were stronger when consumers felt greater animosity toward the foreign country, were more ethnocentric and were less acculturated (i.e. conceptualized as a less expanded self). Additionally, negative product events were interpreted in light of self, in that reactions to an adverse act were stronger when “others” committed the act. American consumers living abroad were more heavily influenced by COO effects, and evidence suggests that this effect occurred because these Americans had a less expanded self than their Chinese counterparts.

This study provides a unique angle which leads to a deeper understanding of COO effects which augments the traditional match hypothesis. Specifically, COO effects are stronger, the smaller one’s extended self (greater animosity and ethnocentrism, less acculturation), and that wrongdoings are interpreted in light of self (i.e. reaction to an adverse act is stronger when “others” commit the act). Few studies to date have focused on these factors as layers of armor that consumers use to protect their self and extended self-image in a cross-cultural context.

The present study aims to synthesize and conceptualize, through a systematic literature review (SLR), the current state of gamification knowledge in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector, providing a roadmap for future research recommendations for service research and practice.

The research is based on a systematic literature review and adopts a systematic quantitative approach to summarize existing evidence on gamification usage in the T&H sector, focusing on relevant service literature on gamification. The authors analyze 36 papers published between 2011 and 2019.

The authors synthesize existing knowledge into five themes describing gamification's role in T&H (Edutainment, Sustainable behavior, Engagement factors, Service provider-generated content and User-generated reviews). Then, a cross-analysis of the five themes reveals the pivotal elements (affordances, behavioral and psychological outcomes, and benefits) generated by gamification mechanics in T&H, simultaneously highlighting potential implications and relevant insights for service literature. The review identifies critical issues affecting gamification research and provides a future research agenda, considering opportunities for T&H and service research.

The study provides the first SLR investigating gamification in T&H. The findings present potential implications and relevant insights for T&H contributing to the construction of a more holistic understanding of gamification adoption in service research.