Develops a specific benchmarking methodology relevant to international tourism destinations. This book evaluates different approaches to benchmarking, and their application within tourism destinations. The book considers organization benchmarking - performance evaluation of a particular organization and its departments - and destination benchmarking, which involves all elements such as transport services, airport services, accommodation, leisure and sport, hospitality and local attitudes.

offers methodological framework for answering key benchmarking questionsonly substantial work covering this topicworld-wide coverage and usageBenchmarking is a buzzword of the last decade that describes a method for comparing different companies, by measuring various data, performance and goals. This book focuses on the methodological aspects of the right selection of benchmarking partners.

This pioneering book will familiarize you with benchmarking techniques that can be used to gauge and improve the performance of hospitality and tourism businesses anywhere! With compelling case studies drawn from hotel management, environmental systems, and destination practices, it examines important aspects of benchmarking, including satisfaction barometers, indicator development, and finding/networking with benchmarking partners.

The papers presented in this volume advance the state-of-the-art research on social media and Web 2.0, electronic tourism marketing, website development and evaluation, search engine marketing and optimization, IT adoption and diffusion, virtual travel communities, mobile technologies, management information systems in tourism, eLearning, recommender systems for tourism businesses and destinations and electronic distribution for hospitality and travel products. This book covers the most significant topics contributed by prominent scholars from around the world and is suitable for both academics and practitioners who are interested in the latest developments in e-Tourism.

Destination marketing is more challenging than other goods and services. The basis of competitive advantage shifts from tourism resources only (destination marketing) to a location-based or city-wide integrated management (place marketing). In this book, tourism scholars Metin Kozak and Seyhmus Baloglu discuss and synthesize theories, models, techniques, and principles for strategic marketing and management of tourist destinations, and demonstrate ways in which to further develop the concept of destination competitiveness for application within these destinations. The authors highlight the need for managing brand equity, tourist experience, and information systems, as well as involving internal and external stakeholders in strategic planning and implementation. This book offers practical information directly related to the tourism industry, using the examples of real-world cases to bridge marketing theory with practice. With its international focus and applications for developing a competitive advantage in today's global marketplace, this research will be indispensable to students and scholars of tourism, hospitality, and leisure and recreation programs, as well as practitioners within these industries.

Improve your hospitality and tourism research abilities with this impressive collection of research methods! The Practice of Graduate Research in Hospitality and Tourism assists you in gaining insight into different facets of research design, conceptual development, research methods, and conclusions drawn from research in hospitality and tourism. As a professional, researcher, or graduate student in the hospitality and tourism field, you will benefit from this collection of chapters that represent examples of research trials conducted by graduate students in hospitality and tourism and are selected on the basis of the originality of the students’concepts, research methods, and interest of the work to graduate students. This informative volume will provide you and your students with up-to-date and effective ideas for researching topics within the field of hospitality. The Practice of Graduate Research in Hospitality and Tourism is an excellent supplemental textbook for research methods classes in graduate hospitality and tourism programs. The wide variety of chapters will stimulate discussions on research in hospitality and tourism from conceptual, secondary data, and primary data approaches. Some of the research articles you will explore in The Practice of Graduate Research in Hospitality and Tourism are based on different statistical techniques, research designs, and trends of subjects. Topics include: selecting service-oriented employees based on person-organization fit measuring the effectiveness of advertising on the Internet examining factors that affect food expenditures of U.S. tourists when they are away from home explaining the competitive structure of Japanese travelers’overseas destination plans determining the motivational needs of managers in the on-site foodservice segment providing adequate education on HIV and AIDS in the workplace for hospitality managers identifying influential variables of employee turnover in the food and beverage industry The Practice of Graduate Research in Hospitality and Tourism serves as an important forum for initiating research and new ideas internationally. The carefully selected chapters of this essential text will provide you and your students with suggestions that will improve research competency as well as hospitality services to patrons.

Exploring the importance of destination branding and destination marketing as well as their implications on sustainability in tourism, this book approaches the topic through the lens of destination image, taking into account the large influence of appearance on tourist attraction. With consideration to various stakeholders in sustainable tourism development, this book incorporates ideas for new techniques in destination branding and marketing in order to maximize economic impact. The book also discusses the rising influence of social media on tourists’ interest. Emphasizing sustainability in tourism development, the chapters address a number of important issues, such as post-disaster tourism marketing, culture and heritage tourism, eco-tourism, community-based nature tourism, community involvement in destination development, benchmarking for destination performance evaluation, sustainable food practices in tourism, and more. Each chapter of this book incorporates a quantifiable trend in tourism development, including various paradigms and studies that relay different statistics about certain areas of tourism. The book makes use of case studies for specific destinations and integrates strategies, evidence, and analyses to offer a holistic understanding of the myriad factors involved in sustainable tourism development.