This study reviewed eight hospitality and tourism journals for the period of 2002–2003 in an effort to summarize significant trends in marketing research. The review included clas- sifications of 223 reported studies based on research topics, industry applications, and design and analysis methods employed. Selected significant research trends were reviewed in further detail, followed by succinct comments on the general aspect of the topical progress. Significant industry trends that either appeared or not appeared in the reviewed journals were additionally summarized specifically into three industry groups and they
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Table 1.4: Industry trends and current research issues.
Hospitalitya Tourismb Foodservicec
● Technology and new business methods ● Technology for travel planning and buying ● Healthier lifestyle (obesity,
● Branding and brand extensions ● Website evaluations blood alcohol level, low
● Public safety and security ● Destination branding carbohydrate, low fat, and
● Pricing, bundles, and promotions ● Safety and security, risk, terrorism, and health care)
● Growth, innovation, and new products personal comfort ● Multibranding/brand styles
● Managing customer relationships ● Building sustainable travel demand
and loyalty ● Barriers to travel ● Food Safety; general and
● Finding, training, motivating, and ● Travel motivation special (e.g., Mad Cow) retaining capable employees ● Vacation choice/decision making process ● Technology (integrated food
● Understanding customers ● Customer relationship marketing production information systems)
● Management employees' service ● Factors affecting international travels ● Nutrition and menu labeling
● Assessing marketing productivity and Image/awareness Customer satisfaction and marketingManagement and conservation Special events in destination branding relationship
of natural resources metrics/ development ● Minority traveler ● Food power (dining out and of better key indicators and analysis tools ● Heritage and cultural tourism market growth)
● Distribution channels and channel conflicts ● Experiential tourism Menu planning and menu evolution
Introduction:Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Research19
● Current economic situation and impacts ● Culinary tourism ● Impacts of child nutrition
● Value drivers programs on eating behavior and
● Quality and satisfaction educational performance
● Human resources (turnover,
● Marketing information system: training, workforce diversity, etc.)
collecting, interpreting, and ● Competition and food sales
using information ● Food quality program
● Consolidation and alliances ● Natural/fresh foods/locally
grown foods
● Ethnic splintering in market bases
● Benchmarking
● Entertainment (e.g., fun foods and interactive restaurants)
● Affluenza (luxury foods, driven boomers)
Sources (in the alphabetical order; some information was obtained through the authors’ direct contact with the cited organizations and the Website homepage of the organizations are provided in the reference list).
aAmerican Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation; Benchmark Hospitality; Earnst & Young’s Hospitality Advisory Services; Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI); International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC); Marketing Science Institute (MSI); and Matovic & McCleary (2003).
bTravel Industry Association of America (TIA); Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA); and Randal travel marketing, Inc.
cAmerican School FoodService Association (ASFSA); Food Marketing Institute (FMI); National Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI); National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF); and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
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were compared to the research topics covered by the journals. In conclusion, while hospi- tality and tourism research is growing in its scope and rigor, it still does not seem to fully meet the industry’s research demands with regard to topical diversity.
While specific comments and suggestions for different research topics were already provided, there still are several fundamental issues for hospitality and tourism research that were detected during our review. We briefly discuss them below in a critical manner for the sake of stimulating additional scientific marketing research on diverse hospitality and tourism topics and improving general research practices toward a sounder tradition of domain research.
(a) Not only applications but also theory development. The reviewed journals generally lack reports on theory development efforts. The majority of the reviewed studies were exploratory or application-minded simply “trying out” some research questions or test- ing some borrowed theories in a different segment of the hospitality and tourism indus- try. These studies were typically absent of testable formal hypotheses and they tended to be driven by data or methods; frequented market segmentation studies are good examples. While it is hardly arguable that the hospitality and tourism discipline is an applied science, the discipline still needs its own domain-specific theories as its knowl- edge infrastructure to strengthen its scientific identity and status. Applications are not a wrong effort to make; what is needed is stronger conceptual rigor and meanaingful contribution back to the mainstream theoretical thought through creative applications and domain-specific theory development activities.
(b) Lack of ground theories and substantive knowledge accumulation. Few research topics are tightly hinged upon one or two central theories in a pedagogical structure showing con- spicuous progresses in knowledge generation. As mentioned above, perhaps theory devel- opment efforts are tepid in this discipline, which is believed to have hampered subsequent accumulation of knowledge about domain theories. Most exploratory studies produced fragmentary local knowledge without embodying a sustained connectedness to existing theories. What are topically representative theories and what significant progresses have we seen over time for the theories? Hospitality and tourism transactions, which usually involve exchanges of both products and services simultaneously, offer ample processing and evaluation cues and, thus, can serve as excellent breeding grounds for theory building.
(c) Let’s experiment more. Primary cross-sectional field surveys were the dominant study design for data gathering. While such field surveys could provide valuable reality information, they are seriously limited for testing various marketing phenomena that are often structured in dynamic processes or causal relationships between two or more variables. Experiment has been the major vehicle for developing and testing theories in other disciplines such as psychology. The tourism and hospitality discipline has under- utilized experiments, which reflects in a way the application-dominant research tradi- tion as discussed above. Qualitative research methods, which are also infrequently employed in hospitality and tourism research, are likely to advance along with the progress in experimental sophistication as well.
(d) Methods are just means. Many studies give an impression that the data were gathered to serve application of chosen statistical analysis techniques. Such method-driven studies typically lacked both compelling problem statements and strong conceptual 20 Haemoon Oh et al.
20 Haemoon Oh et al.
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footholds. Data and methods are just selected ways or means to achieve the (concep- tual) goals of a study. Only with solid conceptual research goals can competent analy- ses merit generation of meaningful knowledge and substantive contributions to the literature.
(e) What’s new? Valuable resources are invested in conducting a study. However, findings often grossly fail to justify the investments, because they often end up confirming what is already known and reported in the cited studies. In contrast, some findings are new, but highly case-specific as well as incoherent with the mainstream background theory used for the study. In such cases, a substantive contribution to the literature has not occurred and valuable resources wasted. Mere application studies contribute little to the scientific progress. At the end of every study, we must ask a question, what’s new to the theory as well as the key stakeholders?
No single study is without flaws, to a certain degree. No one will argue about the impor- tance of understanding limitations, and their implications for the results, inherent in pub- lished studies. Hence, it has become a norm for a manuscript to include a section to discuss study limitations. Anecdotal editorial evidence is that many gatekeepers (i.e., editors and reviewers) require such a discussion. However, this section often records the researcher’s most uncommitted efforts, aimed primarily to defend or excuse the study. What is neces- sary is the view that each study is a building block of the research tradition for the specific theory examined and for the discipline as a whole. Thus, discussions on limitations should be directed to seeding new ideas and bettering thoughts and ways in future inquiries. This is one-way science progresses.
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