Editorial

Citation

Teare, R. (2006), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 18 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2006.04118eaa.001

Editorial

This issue contains articles on management accounting and corporate management, recruitment and retention issues, branding, customer loyalty, tour operations and productivity.

Marco Mongiello and Peter Harris examine the role of managerial accounting in monitoring and governing multinational hotel operations. Their research involved scenario analysis with general managers and their findings reveal that value judgements tend to influence the performance indicators used and management accounting choices made at different organizational levels.

Andrew Martin, Deirdre Mactaggart and Jiaolan Bowden examine the barriers to the recruitment and retention of supervisors and managers in the Scottish tourism industry. They found that the biggest challenge is the low image and perceived status of the industry, coupled with its lack of professional career development prospects. The authors conclude that labour demand is set to increase and so new solutions to the recruiting and retaining problems are urgently needed.

Sonja Holverson and Frederic Revaz consider the role of branding in European franchise and hotel membership affiliations. This has been a successful approach in North America for many years, but much less is known about its value in the European context of a more fragmented, small and medium-sized segment. This exploratory study uses purposive sampling to examine the factors that independent European hoteliers consider before they commit to a third party brand relationship. The findings reveal that those who considered this decision carefully tended to report more benefits than drawbacks, with the relative degree of success being contingent on selection of an appropriate branding option. The implications of this interesting study are captured in the form of a a checklist of the potential benefits, risks and key success factors.

Creating customer loyality in an operational context is challenging, but how can this be successfully accomplished for an entire ski resort? Konstantinos Alexandris, Charilaos Kouthouris and Andreas Meligdis explore this question with particular reference to “place attachment” as a possible predictor of customer loyality. A tourist destination theme is also of interest to Mariapina Trunfio, Luca Petruzzellis and Claudio Nigro who examine the ways in which tour operators can exploit niche markets to increase Italy’s international competitiveness.

The final two pieces feature a research in brief article and a book review and profile of Sir Paulias Matane, Governor General of Papua New Guinea. First, Stefan Fraenkel and Arthur Ingram explore managers perceptions of labour productivity in a sample of deluxe Swiss hotels. Their findings are intriguing as their respondents admit that for them, “productivity” enhancement is a vague “attitude of mind” concept that tends to be confused with profit improvement.

As Sir Paulias Matane is the only Head of State that I have met, it is difficult to know whether he is atypical, though he is certainly an extraordinary man with a passion for excellence and a vision for his country. This review features two of his many books and profiles his career and vision for upscale eco-tourism development in Papua New Guinea.

Richard TeareEditor