United States

TOUR 2021

Workforce Development in Hospitality and Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities

Dear Delegates, 

On behalf of the organizing committee at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and Elsevier, I have the greatest pleasure to welcome you to the **6th World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality: Resilience, Adaptability, and Innovation.** 

Though we cannot host you this year owing to Covid-19 at our beautiful resort-like campus in Orlando, Florida, we believe this virtual and live-streamed conference will provide an interactive, dynamic, and shared international platform for global academics and practitioners to discuss how to enhance research applications and knowledge management through resilience, adaptability, digital intelligence, innovation, and smart knowledge in bringing our industry and research back to normal. This summit particularly offers unique opportunities to unfold and embrace various repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic with various stakeholders, including academic researchers, industry professionals, and government officials, through dialogues on how to better utilize research outputs for the benefits of the industry, in a resilient, intelligent and innovative way. 

I hope you will agree that we have put together a wonderful program including keynote speeches, panel discussions, concurrent presentations, poster sessions, and best paper recognition and award ceremony. We hope you will take advantage of these activities and engage yourself with great learning and sharing opportunities during the two days of the Summit. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to our discussions! 

Sincerely, 
Dr. Youcheng Wang 
Dean and Preeminent Chair Professor

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This conference provides an interactive, dynamic, and shared international platform for global academics and practitioners to discuss how to enhance research applications and knowledge management through resilience, adaptability, digital intelligence, innovation, and smart knowledge in bringing our industry and research back to normal. This summit particularly offers unique opportunities to unfold and embrace various repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic with various stakeholders, including academic researchers, industry professionals, and government officials, through dialogues on how to better utilize research outputs for the benefits of the industry, in a resilient, intelligent and innovative way.

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Intramuros is hailed as UNESCO World Heritage Site owing to its historical wealth. A must-visit area, there is a tourist influx amidst the COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions. With the vaccine roll-out, the Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) allowed the resumption of tourism with 30% capacity in establishments among other guidelines to guard against the spread of the virus.




This study incorporates the requirements of the IATF, including physical distancing as the health and safety of the visitors, are prioritized in the re-opening of tourism. It hopes to illustrate how the modified Potential Physical Carrying Capacity (PPCC) can further be used for other destinations to promote sustainable tourism in the country amidst the pandemic.




Anchored on the work of Boullon (1985) in which the average individual standard of psychological comfort of tourists was considered, the formulae were modified to incorporate physical distancing and the maximum tourist capacity guidelines set by the IATF. The datasets used were downloaded from Openstreet Map, which in turn were computed so that only polygons that represent tourist attractions within Intramuros are left in the analysis. Based on land use and areas, tourist sites represented by polygons were highlighted using GIS software.




The study shows that PPCC within Intramuros ranges from 7-350 people per hour with the Fort Santiago complex having the largest of three hundred fifty (350) and Plazuela Madre Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes having the smallest with seven (7).




Notwithstanding that the tourism industry was hardest hit by the pandemic, it is critical to have the modified PPCC in the computation of the physical carrying capacity of the destination sites. Proper planning and good governance are made more efficient as the industry adapts to the new normal if this model will be used as the basis.

"Intra-muros”: An assessment of the physical carrying capacity of Intramuros in the time of COVID-19

Alternative tourism contributes to the sustainable development of tourism and, among other things, to the active participation of communities in the management of tourism development in their territories, for which it is considered necessary to study the concept, characteristics and benefits of alternative tourism, as well as its relationship with sustainable development and tourist competitiveness, which lead to a methodology to evaluate the potential of a territory as an alternative tourism destination. The main objective of this study is to design an Index of Sustainable Development in Alternative Tourism (IDSTA) based on the indicators of tourist competitiveness that are focused on the dimensions of sustainable development, as a tool for identifying the capacities of an associated territory to the development of alternative tourism. This index was validated in a country considered an emerging destination and its different regions (departments or states). The main findings indicate that at the country level, the territory is suitable for the development of alternative tourism, while the analysis by grouping of departments (cluster analysis) shows three large groups, the first with optimal conditions for the development of alternative tourism , the second has a medium level and, the last group must strengthen its characteristics for alternative tourism.

Alternative tourism development index: Review and implications

Despite the fact that researchers agree that AI technologies offer a huge opportunities for firms to analyze data and identify patterns for decision making, many firms utilize these technologies for operational purposes and limit their uses for employee productivity and cost saving (Ivanov, 2019; R. Leung, 2019). The utilization of AI technologies in the systems of the firms is an ongoing process (Law et al., 2019). Compared to other leading industries in AI adoption, tourism and hospitality industry found to have low adoption rates (Bughin et al., 2017). The study of Bughin et al. (2017) indicated that among 14 industries across ten countries around the globe, tourism and hospitality industry was ranked as the lowest in terms of assets (depth of AI technologies, AI spends, and supporting digital assets), usage (product development, operations, supply chain and distribution, customer experience, financial and general management), and labor (exposure to AI in workplace and AI resources per worker. Tourism and hospitality industry is a massive industry that comprises a number of key stakeholders (government, tourism and hospitality organizations and operators, SMEs, NGOs, suppliers, employees, tourists, utilities and infrastructure, education, communities, and transport) who involve with the industry (Stainton, 2021). Hence, the aim of the current study is to investigate the perception of tourism and hospitality stakeholders on motivators, enablers and barriers of the implementation of AI technologies in the tourism and hospitality firms in the UAE. This study will adopt mixed method. It will start with qualitative approach (focus group) followed by a quantitative approach (questionnaire).

Strategic implementation of artificial intelligence in the UAE tourism and hospitality industry

As there is scarce research on how hotels are building capacity for supporting a smart destination, this study aims at uncovering current efforts of the hotel sector in joining and building the smart destination challenge, by answering the questions: are hotels prepared to be part of a smart destination? And how can technology support hotel engagement with customers adopting a co-creation approach? To address these questions, the following objectives were defined: i) to analyze adoption of enabling technologies by hotels, ii) to explore how technologies are helping hotels to enhance co-creation with guests; and iii) to classify hotel innovation adoption in the near future. A survey will be conducted to managers of Iberian hotels. Madrid ranks 25th and Lisbon 52th in the IESE Cities in Motion Index (IESE, 2020). And according to UNWTO’s (2019) ranking of countries with the largest surplus in the travel balance ranking, Spain ranks 2nd and Portugal 9th. These data indicate an unbalanced performance of the two Iberian countries in terms of city socio-economic dynamics and tourism. Accordingly, the study will focus on Lisbon and Madrid as capital cities of Portugal and Spain and examine hotel capacity to support their transition to the smart city paradigm. Results will allow identification of hotels  integration of new technologies and orientation to smartness and insights on best practices for enhancement of Lisbon and Madrid as smart destinations will also be provided.

Boosting smart destinations through adoption of new technologies: An Iberian perspective

Study Propose:

Senior living communities (SLC) promote a sense of community for their residents as seniors’ supportive arrangements. Sense of community is positively related to residents’ successful aging when they reside in these communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of the four sense of community dimensions— reinforcement of needs, membership/sense of belonging, influence, and social and emotional connections—on SLC residents’ satisfaction with the community. Additionally, the study examined the impacts of residents’ satisfaction with the SLC on satisfaction with life, word-of-mouth (WOM) for the SLC (where seniors currently reside), and WOM for moving to a SLC in general.

Study Method:

243 senior citizens who were living in SLCs in the United States were surveyed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the study hypotheses.

Study Findings:

The study results indicated that all four of the sense of community dimensions significantly impacted residents’ satisfaction with the SLC. The results also indicated that social and emotional connections had the strongest impact on residents’ satisfaction with the SLC, followed by membership, reinforcement, and influence. The study results further showed that residents’ satisfaction with the SLC positively impacted satisfaction with life, WOM for the SLC (where seniors currently reside), and WOM for moving to a SLC in general.

Theoretical Implications:

The findings of this study demonstrated the applicability of the sense of community in the senior living domain. In addition, the study results confirmed the positive impact of residents’ satisfaction on satisfaction with life, WOM for the SLC, and WOM for moving to SLC by providing valuable insights for researchers in the context of aging.

Practical Implications:

This study offers significant practical contributions for SLC owners and practitioners to enhance their residents’ sense of community level.

Sense of community among residents in senior living communities

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented furloughs and layoffs throughout the global hospitality industry. As a result, new policies in the hospitality industry altered the way employees interact with their work environment (Huang et al., 2020). This study examined laid-off and furloughed workers’ intention to return to their organization and to the hospitality industry. The literature has not yet investigated the effects of anticipated workplace changes on return intent. The purpose of this study was to determine which changes were the most impactful in shaping hospitality workers’ return to their organization and to the industry.




Participants were recruited through Prolific.com targeting those who were laid off or furloughed from their hospitality job due to COVID-19 at the time of data collection. In total, the analyses included 219 laid-off or furloughed hospitality workers from various industry sub-sectors (56.4% food service, 14.1% lodging, 28.7% other). A summary of our measures is provided in Table 1.




Descriptive statistics and correlations among study variables are located in Table 2. Stepwise regression analysis with forward selection was used to identify the worries that predicted intention to return to their job and intention to return to industry. Regression analysis revealed that (a) worry about sick leave policies (b= -.17,p< .001) and (b) worry about workload intensification (b= -.15,p< .001) were the strongest predictors of intent to return to the hospitality organization. The only significant predictor of intent to return to the hospitality industry was worry about enforcing COVID-19 policies (b= .20,p< .001). Detailed regression results are in Table 3 and 4.




Implications of this study highlight a greater responsibility that hospitality industry stakeholders must acknowledge for implementing systems and policies that take returning employee perspectives into consideration, addressing their concerns around sick leave, workload intensification, and worry about enforcement policies.




Tables [https://drive.google.com/file/d/15TReEod5TBApEk9K7nk4oTuCravX8spY/view?usp=sharing]

Predictors of return intent in the hospitality industry in the age of COVID-19

The covid-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented crisis that has challenged the restaurants and hotels industry. In Brazil, these sectors are still overcoming the challenges through competitive advantage strategies. In this regard, this research intends to answer the following problem: What's the perception of restaurant and hotels employees about the competitive advantage strategies applied by organizations during the pandemic crisis? The main objective of the research is to analyze through the application of online surveys the perception of employees about the aspects that provide competitive advantage and survival of the businesses in the previously mentioned sectors during the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The propositions are: (P1) Considering the COVID-19 pandemic crisis scenario, stakeholders in the hotel and restaurant sector presented competitive advantage factors; (P2) the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the survival of businesses operating in the restaurant and hotel sector. This study uses a mixed-methods approach. In the first stage, the authors used relevant bibliography about hospitality to do the literature review, afterward semi-structured interviews were employed using the snowball technique to contemplate professional aspects and the services routines of these organizations. The interviews with hotel and restaurants managers showed aspects such as the influence of the pandemic on the services routine and the relationship with their stakeholders. The results showed that both sectors tried to apply innovative measures to deal with the crisis. The moment brought the businesses closer to their stakeholders, forming partnerships. The interviews express similarities between the sectors regarding the challenges experienced concerning sales reduction, employee dismissal, and strict safety and hygiene protocols to demonstrate credibility to customers. The research shows a gap in knowledge from the employee's point of view, justifying this research follow up to a quantitative stage applied to employees of hotels and restaurants.

In search of survival: The impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the hotel and restaurant sector

The present study offers a bibliometric review of the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) research in hospitality and tourism with a specific focus on the progress and applications of AI in various facets of the industry. To that end, this study aims to present the prevailing state of research on AI to highlight the emerging themes and issues, while providing valuable insights and novel opportunities for hospitality decision-makers by drawing a clear picture of the current state of affairs of the industry as it relates to AI applications. This study employed a bibliometric approach and analyzed the relevant articles that were published in hospitality and tourism journals. Theoretically, this study’s findings contribute to the discourse on AI in hospitality and tourism research by providing an overview of the bibliometric methodology and utilizing bibliometric techniques to offer insights into the interdisciplinary structure of hospitality and tourism research.

A critical review of artificial intelligence research in hospitality and tourism

The contemporary era is experiencing a paradigm shift through the use of digital technologies when most travelers are millennials and tech-savvy. In this vein, augmented reality (AR) provides an enriched travel experience through the 3D real environment in real-time by giving useful information, comprehensive guides and navigation for travelers. Such scenarios are providing avenues for the achievement of sustainable development of tourism through addressing environmental, social and economic aspects. Therefore, the present study aims to illuminate the current state of knowledge related to the nexus of augmented reality (AR) and sustainable development of tourism by integrative literature review. Methodologically, the integrative literature review included peer-reviewed studies from the web of science (WoS) and used ATLAS.ti 9.1 qualitative data analysis software. The findings of the study based on word cloud, identified codes, and future research agenda based on the identified gaps are of great worth to address the areas of concern related to the enhanced use of augmented reality in the vein of sustainable development of tourism. The findings will inform the relevant stakeholders about the current status and use of augmented reality (AR) in the context of sustainable development of tourism by highlighting the avenues for fostering tourism sustainability. The end part of the study also discusses the limitation of the research.

Augmented reality and sustainable development of tourism: An integrative literature review

In recent years positive tourism has become an emerging trend, which has not yet been sufficiently examined. Positive tourism as such is grounded in positive psychology, that primarily studies human well-being, or more precisely what makes one's life worth living. However, as of now there are only a few studies that are focusing on happiness in the tourism context. Even though tourism is one of the crucial determinants of overall life satisfaction and happiness. Furthermore, recent studies found that visitors' happiness has a substantial influence on their satisfaction, behavior in the particular destination and even their loyalty perception.

Therefore, the main focus of this study lies in the examination of visitors' happiness in the loyalty context among domestic visitors of the Moravian wine region (the largest wine region in the Czech Republic). Hence, the influence of 17 loyalty factors on two happiness indicators (the stay in destination made visitors happy and the stay in the destination contributed to visitors' happiness) was examined.

Based on the multiple regression analysis, there are seven loyalty factors that have an influence on happiness indicators. Namely, these factors are: relaxation, quality of wine, natural attractions, information about wine, friendly acceptance by the locals, wine culture and traditions as well as vineyard excursion. Furthermore, based on Kruskal-Wallis test, gender and income have a substantial impact on both happiness indicators.

In conclusion, what made visitors mostly happy were some of the key features of the Moravian wine region, which might consequently lead to the higher level of perceived happiness in this particular destination. That might also potentially add to a stronger emotional tie with that destination. Consequently, it could help the destination to distinguish itself from other competitors as well as the visitors might be more inclined to recommend it to their acquaintances.

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