Hospitality & Society - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2019

This article explores the emerging phenomenon of ‘staged kidnapping’, a consumer-oriented experience in which individuals voluntarily subject themselves to abduction and associated experiences of detention, deprivation, interrogation and degradation. We explore the staging, presentation and consumption of voluntary abduction through an analysis of the online marketing and reporting of the phenomenon, to consider the ways new consumerist trends alter traditional notions of hospitality. We analyse the phenomenon’s emergence within the twin theoretical frames of Beck’s ‘risk society’ thesis and Lyng’s account of ‘voluntary risk-taking’ as a form of ‘edgework’. We argue that the framing and appeal of such experiences can be fruitfully located as an element in the reflexive production of the post-traditional self, a process that requires subjects to confront and manage (materially or symbolically) the conditions of risk and uncertainty that characterize contemporary inhospitable lifeworlds.

The nature of Chinese consumption and hospitality has evolved rapidly since the post-1980s middle class adopted new lifestyles and consumption choices after the opening up of the economy and society. This study explores the logics underpinning conspicuous consumption of wine in China by way of an exploratory factor analysis of 253 respondents at a wine festival. The study found that conspicuous tendencies manifest themselves with wine consumption, but are affected by culture and traditional values. The study found that social and personal influences mediate how individuals perceive and experience consumption in ways that do not wholly follow western practices. This article contributes to the existing hospitality literature by conceptualizing from a consumer perspective, how a product or brand has the potential to become conspicuous within the Chinese hospitality context and explores implications for hospitality research by generating a thorough understanding of links between conspicuous consumption and hospitality.

Lebanese food, as a cultural tradition, and in the context of Lebanese migration, mobility and diasporic identity, is the focus of this article. We use ethnographic methods in the form of participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with restaurant owners, workers and members of the Lebanese diaspora to critically examine the connections between diasporic identity and Lebanese food in London. The analysis revealed that Lebanese migrants living in London are highly affected and influenced by their homeland and its traditions. Analysis also revealed how the Lebanese hospitality industry has grown and adapted, becoming embedded, hybridized and contested by members of the Lebanese diaspora. We argue that this contestation revolves around a mobile sense of place and belonging.

The concept of the tourism imaginary can be employed to illuminate representational histories of the inn and the innkeeper in the nineteenth-century Scottish Highlands. In evaluations of Scottish hospitality, the innkeeper’s relationship to modern tourism culture was appraised in tandem with the wider role of the inn and its local social, cultural and commercial functions. Some commentators critiqued Highland tourism practices as inhospitable, often through caricatures of the miserly innkeeper. Other writers treated Highland inns as indices of local economic prosperity, and the innkeeper as either an upholder of local morality or a victim of economic structures and even climatic conditions. As the tourism sector expanded, a variety of texts positioned inns and innkeepers at the heart of debates over the relationship between Highland culture and practices of commercial hospitality.

This research seeks to clarify the staff value commitments that underlie hospitality ventures that choose to organize themselves as worker cooperatives. Although some studies have focused on organizational and economic aspects of such participatory, cooperative businesses, less is known about the staff values. This study examines the shared ‘social values’ and ‘business culture’ at Riverside Café, a small business established to bring additional revenues in support of Riverside Community – a 78-year-old rural pacifist community located near Motueka, New Zealand. To elaborate the values and associated business culture, and how the two interact in everyday life at Riverside Café, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with staff. Based on the transcribed recordings, dominant themes and subthemes were identified and classified. Salient clusters of ‘values’ emerging from the interviews were Harmony (peaceful living, tolerance, compassion, non-harming, balance), Social Justice (equality, freedom, sharing, creative craftsmanship), Interconnectedness (cooperation, community, right livelihood, sustainability), Trust (social bonds, reliability) and Post-materialism (‘people over things’, unselfishness, spirituality). Salient clusters of ‘business culture’ norms identified were Non-hierarchical Management and Service, and Commercial Imperatives. The discovered value categories highlight both the advantages and limitations of operating cafes as worker cooperatives.

This article provides new insights on what makes hospitality professionals by proposing a new framework: the personology of a hospitality professional. This framework is based on an in-depth analysis of the literature on self-efficacy, career inheritance and career commitment. Understanding the key characteristics of people who choose hospitality as their profession is of great importance to an industry that provides one in ten jobs worldwide, and in the United Kingdom alone employs 4.49 million people. The need for quality employees who consider hospitality a long-term career is of paramount importance. Stakeholders often perceive the hospitality industry as a hardworking and low-paying one. If employers wish to retain existing talent and also attract new talent, they need to have a better understanding of their employees’ key characteristics. The proposed personology will enable hospitality stakeholders to identify key indicators that aid in a deeper understanding of what constitutes a hospitality professional. This can facilitate the interview process and yield better recruitment and selection outcomes whilst contributing to the scarcity of knowledge on what being a hospitality professional entails.

Virtual reality (VR) has enjoyed a steep growth in awareness in society in recent years and is considered a promising tool for the design and enhancement of experiences. However, as research and use cases in the hospitality context are expanding rapidly, it is crucial to define a clearer research direction that aligns the number of scattered studies across various fields. It is time to overcome the boundaries of the technological dimension and explore methods for purposeful VR design. This research note calls for more user-centric VR studies and developments to define the future direction of VR implementations in the hospitality and tourism industry. To achieve this, the authors recommend the use of design methodology with a focus on the first steps in the design process to clearly identify and understand customers’ needs and desires independent of VR technology.

Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife, Candi K. Cann (ed.) (2017) Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 208 pp., ISBN 978-0-81317-471-6, h/bk, $65.00

Royal Events: Rituals. Innovations, Meanings Jennifer Laing and Warwick Frost (2018) Abingdon: Routledge, xi + 250 pp., ISBN 978-1-13811-981-9, h/bk, £105

An Anthropological Study of Hospitality: The Innkeeper and the Guest, Amitai Touval (2017) New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 88 pp., ISBN 978-3-31942-049-3, h/bk, £49.00