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- Volume 10, Issue 2, 2020
Hospitality & Society - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2020
Volume 10, Issue 2, 2020
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Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, or 'off the beaten track'? Centripetal demand in Airbnb
More LessAbstractIn the light of the debate on the growth of visitor numbers to city destinations and the sociocultural footprint of urban tourists, the spatial distribution of urban vacation rentals is a key question: does 'sharing', as Airbnb has claimed, spread visitors to peripheral neighbourhoods and contribute to decreasing the congestion in traditional tourist hotspots? Or does it, on the contrary, worsen this congestion problem, with its consequences for the perception of tourism by residents, in traditional tourist centres? This article analyses the spatial concentration of Airbnb listings in 26 European cities in terms of a distance decay from a central point. Besides the concentration of the offer, it studies the decay of business performance according to the distance from the city centre. The study finds an exponential decay for the number of listings. There is a strong effect on financial performance and a more limited effect on rental performance. While several single city studies show that Airbnb, instead of spreading tourism to neighbourhoods, led to greater concentration, these findings show that these were not incidental excesses but a common development pattern for Airbnb. Implications are that the authenticity sought by Airbnb users is not the same as the search for an unspoilt neighbourhood life. Furthermore, it means that benevolent policies towards urban vacation rentals, aimed at spreading tourism, are based on a false assumption.
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Morality in aversion?: Meditations on slum tourism and the politics of sight
By Jacob HenryAbstractDespite fairly widespread popularity, slum tourism is enmeshed in moralizing debate. Supporters acknowledge that slum tourism may sometimes be problematic, but also may potentially be an important pedagogical experience which reveals the horrors of capitalism to westerners. Plus, supporters argue, there is no morality in aversion – we should never turn away from slums and poverty. However, social theory on the politics of sight and opacity suggests that the promise of transparency – showing the real poverty – may lead to a violence of seeing and knowing rooted in western development epistemologies. I argue that morality can be found in aversion and turning away from slum tourism in many instances. I suggest that wealthy, western and usually white bodies of slum tourists represent the violence of the status quo which seeks to make legible a periphery and to partially re-integrate into capital those who have been expelled from it. This paper contributes to a growing literature which deploys social theory to understand and critique slum tourism and its relationship with capitalist society.
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Generation Z and hospitality careers
Authors: Andreas Walmsley, Karen Cripps and Catherine HineAbstractThis article explores youth career decision-making at a time of ongoing concerns surrounding the supply of labour to the hospitality industry. This article is unique in its combination of attitudes of Generation Z with a pre-university-aged sample combined with employer views. A survey of 245 youth provided insights into work values and attitudes towards hospitality careers, which was complemented by interviews with nine hospitality employers. Findings indicate only a small percentage of youth consider hospitality employment an attractive option. However, this insight must be tempered by an acknowledgement of participants' early, exploratory phase of career development, by the fact that other occupations were equally not regarded in particularly high esteem, and the important role capability considerations played in assessing career options. Beyond a focus on personal development, there was little indication of homogeneity regarding work values. Employer interviews supported the notion of an 'ignorance barrier' in relation to youth seeking hospitality employment. The UK hospitality sector is increasingly concerned with addressing the 'image' of the industry as an attractive career choice, and this research underlines the importance of industry working together with education partners to promote the opportunities and address negative perceptions.
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Potential application of template analysis in qualitative hospitality management research1
Authors: Saloomeh Tabari, Nigel King and David EganAbstractThis article is primarily intended for researchers examining hospitality management who are unlikely to be familiar with template analysis (TA) as a form of thematic analysis. It demonstrates the use of TA in a specific setting and how TA contributed to developing a conceptual model and theory of cultural centrism in a hospitality setting. The article offers new perspectives even for those who have prior experience in thematic analysis.
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Developing and publishing interdisciplinary research: Creating dialogue, taking risks
By Peter LugosiAbstractThis article discusses the practicalities of developing interdisciplinary research, identifying associated risks, challenges and opportunities. It reflects on the role of common concepts and contexts for creating intellectual contact zones between disciplinary specialists and colleagues working in applied areas of hospitality and tourism. The article goes on to identify and evaluate different knowledge creation and publication strategies for interdisciplinary research, distinguishing between four types: provocative importation, conservative refinement, provocative exportation and radical pathmaking.
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