Summary

The hospitality and tourism sector is an increasingly significant contributor to GDP worldwide, as well as a key source of employment in developing regions. Drawing on contemporary research, this Handbook provides a provocative review of the major human resource challenges facing the hospitality and tourism sector today.

Leading international scholars examine how hospitality and tourism businesses succeed through a consistently high level of service, particularly through the attitudes and behaviours of front-line employees to positively impact upon guest satisfaction and improve intention to return. Against this background, chapters analyse the myriad of reasons the industry struggles to attract and retain quality employees, including long and unsocial hours, non-competitive pay and unsophisticated management practices. Offering a thorough review of these human resource challenges through employee focus groups, in-depth interviews and surveys, this Handbook offers evidence-informed recommendations for their resolution. These include; strategies and tactics associated with brand internalisation, talent management, engagement, high-performance practices, learning and leadership development.

Practical and engaging, this Handbook will be of interest to students and scholars researching hospitality and tourism from a business management perspective. Senior hospitality leaders will also benefit from the ideas herein, gaining competitive advantage by creating and supporting highly engaged and effective employees.

Contriibutors include: T. Baum, M.-H. Budworth, R.J. Burke, C. Cheung, J. Christensen-Hughes, A. Jenkins, C.E. Kapoor, D. Kara, L. Lee, J.M. Madera, S. Mann, S. Mooney, W.C. Murray, A. Ogle, W. Pallett, T.-W. Tang, Y.-Y. Tang, M. Uysal, M.C.-H. Wang, T.C. Wang