A qualitative study was conducted to investigate perceptions of environmental practices at hotels among tourists. A quota sample of fifteen mainland Chinese and fifteen English-speaking overseas tourists visiting Hong Kong were recruited for an interview. The results showed that saving energy, use of environmentally friendly materials, and not using single-use consumables were most frequently p...

In this article, we analyze the impact on hotels of the ISO 14001 environmental certification system from the customers’ perspective. Based on a comparison of customer ratings of 6,850 hotels in Spain with and without ISO 14001 certification, overall guests rate the hotels with ISO 14001 certification higher than those without the certification. These results are stronger for hotel comfort and ...

Although IT applications in the hotel industry have largely been devoted to the handling of routine operational problems, it has become increasingly evident for hoteliers that proactively incorporating IT into their services, operations, and strategy is a key element in their quest for service excellence and high profits. Based on a recent survey of IT applications and challenges in fourand fiv...

This study aims to examine the correlation of hotel service quality (i.e. assurance, reliability, responsiveness, tangibles and empathy) with tourists’ satisfaction. Results via correlation analysis, among 200 respondents who have already experienced the tourism product and services in Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia revealed that service quality is significantly correlated with empathy, ...

Most hotels increasingly emphasize direct web bookings, pursuing consumers by promising best rate guarantees. Abundant information has indicated that the proliferation of wireless Internet via mobile device is increasingly important in developing hospitality business. Mobile commerce allows consumers and businesses to build connectivity by transcending time and place. So, we believe that mobile...

The description of tourism products (hotel, aviation, renta-car and holiday packages) is strongly supported by natural language expressions. Due to tourism dynamics and the extent of its offers, manual data management is not a reliable nor scalable solution: descriptions are structured in different ways, possibly comprising different languages, complementing and/or overlapping one another. This...

Indeed, music distribution and consumption is not as it used to be. iTunes, LastFM, or Spotify are just a few keywords that come to our mind when we think about music. The traditional channels have changed; the music industry is reinventing itself. Flight tickets and hotel reservations: another intangible good that can be easily bought online. Tourists need no longer the physical travel agencie...

Wireless technologies are gaining popularity as a “trendy” solution to attract customers; many hospitality-related companies such as Starbuck’s or McDonald’s are trying to offer these services to their patrons (Wrolstad, 2004). While several hotel corporations are trying to jump on the bandwagon, there are a number of factors potentially influencing the decision of whether or not to implement w...