Claudia Sima

This chapter set out to understand the key characteristics of the Baby Boom, Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z and Generation α as chain hotel customers and also to identify how the chain hotel industry is adapting to them. All five generations have interesting and complex profiles. Expressions such as latest technology, a stylish product, affordable, and a special customer experience seem to dominate the narratives of these generations. However, each generation appears to understand these aspects in different ways as the chapter explored. With each new generation the focus seems to be more on individualised, personalised hotel experiences, stylish, yet affordable, technologically advanced but with a human touch. This is a challenge as most existing chain hotels provide a standardised, globalised product and originality and style come at a considerable cost to build and maintain. Product adaptation as well as product innovation appears to be the strategies employed by many ma...

The paper examines current debates on the impacts of Brexit on tourism in Britain. Brexit is a source of much concern and anxiety for British government, industry and tourists alike. The paper outlines and analyses some of the major impacts expected from the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on the British inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. The methodology used is content analysis of secondary data in the form of government and industry surveys and reports and media articles on the expected and projected short and long-term impacts of Brexit. Results argue that although reducing EU-based regulations could have some positive implications for the British tourism industry, major areas of concern exit. Reduced access to EU programmes and funding is likely to impact domestic tourism heavily and limit participation and collaboration in international projects. Withdrawal of the UK from EU travel agreements is expected to have major consequences especially in terms of ...

Through the analysis of Street Feast, a commercial street food event concept in London, the chapter explores the symbiotic relationship between street food, immersive eating and unusual locations and venues. Street food has always been associated with public spaces such as streets, plazas or public squares, marketplaces or car parks. A deeper investigation, however, reveals that street food event companies and vendors may use unusual locations and venues such as abandoned warehouses, builders’ yards, power stations, and car parks to embody their unusual and quirky nature and generate interest; promote off-the-beaten-track city areas; encourage alternative forms of consumption; support local communities; and encourage local traders. As part of the alternative events and slow food movement, street food commercial events offer a chance for visitors to reinterpret, rethink and reimagine abandoned places and spaces. Unusual locations are actively used to facilitate and amplify immersive ...

Purpose–Thepurposeofthispaperistoidentifyandexplorehowdifferentstakeholdersrepresentcommunist and revolution heritage for tourism, with a case-study on Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The research attempts to identify gaps and tensions between representation makers on communist heritage tourism. Design/methodology/approach – Theresearchemploysarangeofqualitativemethodsinordertoexplore communistheritagetourismrepresentationfromdifferentperspectives:contentanalysisofsecondarydatain the form of government, industry and media destination promotional material; interviews with a range of representation producers (government, industry and media); focus groups with potential tourists; and content analysis of user generated content under the form of blogs by actual visitors to Bucharest. Findings – Findings reveal that there are gaps between the “official” or government representations of communism and revolution heritage and “unofficial” or industry, media and tourists’ representations. The research confirms and builds on Light’s (2000a, b) views that communist heritage is perceived as “problematic” by government officials and that attempts have been made to reinterpret it in a different light. Theprocessofrepresentationismadedifficultbyrecenttrendssuchastheincreaseinpopularityofcommunism heritagetourismincountriessuchasGermanyorHungary.Thepotentialofcommunistandrevolutionheritageto generate tourism is increasingly being acknowledged. However, reconciliation with “an unwanted” past is made difficult because of the legacy of communism and the difficulties of transition, EU-integration, economic crisis or countless political and social crisis and challenges. The “official” and “unofficial” representations successfully coexist and form part of the communism and revolution heritage product. Research limitations/implications – The research attempts to look at the representation of communism heritage from different angles, however, it does not exhaust the number of views and perspectives that exist onthetopic.TheresearchonlyrecordstheBritishandRomanianperspectivesonthetopic.Thetopicisstillin its infancy and more research is needed on communism heritage tourism and representation. Originality/value – The research identifies and explores gaps, agreements and disagreements over the representation of communist and revolution heritage in Bucharest, Romania. Keywords Representation, Communist heritage tourism, Destination promotion, Red tourism, Revolution heritage tourism, User generated contents

Reference:
Sima, C. (2017) "Communist heritage representation gaps and disputes", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp.210-226.

The paper examines current debates on the impacts of Brexit on tourism in Britain. Brexit is a source of much concern and anxiety for British government, industry and tourists alike. The paper outlines and analyses some of the major impacts expected from the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on the British inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. The methodology used is content analysis of secondary data in the form of government and industry surveys and reports and media articles on the expected and projected short and long-term impacts of Brexit. Results argue that although reducing EU-based regulations could have some positive implications for the British tourism industry, major areas of concern exit. Reduced access to EU programmes and funding is likely to impact domestic tourism heavily and limit participation and collaboration in international projects. Withdrawal of the UK from EU travel agreements is expected to have major consequences especially in terms of freedom of movement and security. As UK British hospitality and catering industries employ a considerable amount of EU nationals, a potential staff shortage is likely to impact service quality. Britain’s tourism destination image is also likely to be negatively impacted requiring increased marketing efforts.

Reference:
Sima, C. (2017) "Brexit impacts on tourism", Management Strategies, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp.297-303.

Through the analysis of Street Feast, a commercial street food event concept in London, the chapter explores the symbiotic relationship between street food, immersive eating and unusual locations and venues. Street food has always been associated with public spaces such as streets, plazas or public squares, marketplaces or car parks. A deeper investigation, however, reveals that street food event companies and vendors may use unusual locations and venues such as abandoned warehouses, builders’ yards, power stations, and car parks to embody their unusual and quirky nature and generate interest; promote off-the-beaten-track city areas; encourage alternative forms of consumption; support local communities; and encourage local traders. As part of the alternative events and slow food movement, street food commercial events offer a chance for visitors to reinterpret, rethink and reimagine abandoned places and spaces. Unusual locations are actively used to facilitate and amplify immersive experiences. Therefore, the production and consumption of street food events and festivals is directly influenced by the choice of alternative and non-traditional consumption
areas. Commercial street food events concepts such as Street Feast offer a counterbalance to the globalised food society and encourage a different form of event experience production and consumption, one personalised to users and local communities.

A challenge for any competitive business is adapting to the fast changing needs of its customers. Chain hotels, in particular, are trying to anticipate and adapt to their current and future customer types and their personalities. A popular segmentation method for chain hotels is by generation: ‘From the Builders Generation who literally and metaphorically built this nation after the austerity years post-depression and World War 2, to the Baby Boomers who redefined the cultural landscape, to Generation X who ushered in new technologies and work styles, and now to Generations Y and Z who in this 21st Century are redefining life stages and lifestyles’ (McCrindle, 2014). As a result, new services and even new chain hotels are starting to emerge specifically targeting Baby Boomers (BB), Generation X (Gen-X), Generation Y (Gen-Y), Generation Z (Gen-Z), or most recently Generation α (Gen-α). Marriott, for example, is attempting to target the leisure Generation Y traveler with a new budget hotel (MOXY), and the business Gen-Y with a new design-focused hotel brand (AC Hotels). This is because research shows there are fundamental differences between generations in terms of how they think about travel and accommodation, how they purchase, how they use technology, what they look for in a hotel, how they think and react in general. The focus here is to identify some of the key characteristics and needs of the five generations as chain hotel customers and how the chain hotel industry is adapting to them.

Reference
Sima, C. (2016) "Generations BB, X, Y, Z, a – the changing consumer in the hospitality industry", In Ivanova, M., Ivanov, S., Magnini, V. P. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Hotel Chain Management, London: Routledge, pp. 471-479.