Hospitality Management

Turismul în România a suferit schimbări considerabile în procesul de tranziţie spre economia de piaţă. Aceste modificări, însoţite de soluţiile neadecvate adoptate de autorităţi, au determinat o situaţie discordantă între ceea ce prezintă şi promovează Ministerul Turismului şi situaţia reală a industriei turismului şi a industriei hoteliere româneşti. Această situaţie a fost întreţinută şi de centralizarea precară sau eronată către Ministerul Turismului (MT)/ Autoritatea Naţională pentru Turism (ANT) a informaţiilor hotelierilor cu privire la hotelurile administrate, dar şi de slaba prelucrare a informaţiilor primite de către MT/ ANT, conducând la generarea unor informaţii eronate. Aceste date sunt practic inutile pentru oricare dintre categoriile de persoane interesate să afle mai multe cu privire la industria hotelieră românească şi cu atât mai mult pentru cei care doresc să le utilizeze ca punct de referinţă, în special în vederea deschiderii unor noi afaceri în domeniul ospitali...

This chapter extends the emerging literature on luxury services (Holmqvist et al. 2020; Wirtz et al. 2020) by developing the key concepts of hedonic escapism as well as multifaceted exclusivity. We first developed the role of hedonic escapism in rendering luxury services enjoyable and extraordinary. This represents a key implication for managers of luxury services: customers engaging in a luxury service usually have high expectations and demands that the service needs to satisfy. Even though the service quality may be very high, this may not be enough in itself and would rather fall into the ‘good service’ category. While this may often be enough for most services, it is less likely to meet the demands of customers expecting an extraordinary experience. This challenge to deliver the extraordinary, even to customers who become used to the very best service quality, represents a crucial challenge for managers in luxury services.
In addition to hedonic escapism, we also contribute to research on luxury services by extending the role of exclusivity and detail four different manifestations of exclusivity in luxury service contexts. For practitioners in luxury services, we believe that appeal of exclusivity as well as the role of exclusivity in keeping luxury services attractive are best understood through the lens of customer value in social contexts (Edvardsson et al. 2011). Building on this value in social context, we find conspicuous consumption and exclusivity of particular importance for luxury service managers. First, managers should explore how they can manage exclusivity to increase the appeal of the service for conspicuous consumers. Given the risk of hedonic adaptation reducing the appeal of luxury over time (Wiesing 2015), we believe that service managers could employ all the four forms of exclusivity in order to keep the service feeling special for the customers. For example, conspicuous consumption can be enhanced by tangible cues, such as branded souvenirs and giveaways, and materialized through stories and photos. Special attention should be placed on social media which can help enhancing conspicuousness of services. Customers can ‘post‘ and ‘share‘ luxury experiences, for example, related to dining and the arts, and signal their affluence and sophistication. Service firms should encourage this, for example, by offering ‘instagrammable’ cues (Wirtz et al., 2020).
Not every luxury customers is interested in conspicuous consumption. As luxury services are consumed and experienced at the same time, luxury service providers have to proactively manage conspicuousness. For example, a celebrity dining out may want to sit at a quiet table in order not to be disturbed by fans. Many top-end travelers value privacy and Singapore Airlines therefore has private first class check-in lounges in Singapore that even comes with a private link directly to immigration, after which passengers can proceed to Singapore Airlines’ first class lounges. Even on board, privacy is provided in its suites with a sliding door that screens the outside world away (Wirtz et al. 2020)
Second, managers should explore using the gamut of the different types of exclusivity to enhance the luxury experience. Monetary exclusivity is obvious and simply means luxury service firms need to be extremely careful with price promotions. Social exclusivity combines with the constructed exclusivity of luxury goods to allow service providers to limit and to control access to the service in order to enhance its appeal. Upscale clubs screen at the entrance, exclusive social events can be made ‘by-invitation-only,’ and luxury servicescapes can even be designed to intimidate non-target consumers (Dion and Borraz, 2017). Hedonic exclusivity can be used to target a service only at the initiated whereby a certain degree of expertise serves as a barrier for the less initiated to fully appreciating a service.

This article presents a new perspective on the design of a hospitality management curriculum in Ecuador that not only addresses the needs of incoming students but also meets the needs of the hospitality industry of the future. The article contends that, as Ecuadorian society undergoes massive and rapid changes and the needs of the hospitality industry are changing with it, future management talent needs to exhibit solid technical abilities, analytical and critical thinking skills and a global awareness, qualities that are not always present in today’s graduates. The article states that students need structure and clarity as they progress through their programs of study and as they move from the applied, hands-on experiences in the first two years of their studies to theory and critical thinking exercises in the latter part of their studies. Ecuador’s hospitality management programs should adjust their thinking about what an ideal graduate looks like and modify their programs of study accordingly, and professors should act as role models to future generations of students who will then be motivated to take on leadership roles in the country’s rapidly changing hospitality and tourism industries.

3rd Edition Release: October 2016
The need for sustainable development has risen to the forefront of the global community with the signing of the Paris Agreement, and it is clearly necessary for everyone, including the business world, to be thoroughly prepared to tackle the ensuing challenges. While a myriad of companies are quick to embrace ‘sustainability’ and boast their environmental and social performances, the concept of sustainability in business management requires a non-traditional approach to business. Why?
• Sustainability involves issues that are about competing interests and values and requires all stakeholders to work together towards a common goal.
• Sustainability is holistic by nature and does not focus on short term gains.
• Sustainability requires a long term and broader approach to profit that recognises overexploitation of resources will limit future economic viability and create irreparable damage to host destinations (and mankind!) in the process.
It is understood that education is critical for promoting sustainability and improving the capacity of managers to address business issues in the context of the environment and society. Learning does not stop after leaving high school, college or university. For everyone involved closely or remotely with the hospitality industry, this third edition of Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations is a must-read. In other words, present and future hospitality executives need to know how sustainable management systems can be integrated into their  businesses while maintaining and improving the three bottom lines.

There have been many important developments in the field of sustainability and hospitality management since the first and second editions of this book. Therefore, the third edition has been updated accordingly:

• Updated content to reflect recent issues and trends (e.g. energy, water & waste management, food sourcing, carbon mitigation strategies).
• A complete new chapter on managing accessibility in hospitality
• A new chapter on environmental accounting and internalisation of externalities
• Expanded chapters on environmental management systems, key performance sustainability indicators and auditing
• Updated chapter on certification systems and ecolabelling
• Expanded chapter on hospitality corporate social responsibility strategies and social entrepreneurship
• Inclusion of new international industry case studies
• New practical exercises, discussion questions, and research project ideas throughout the book based on real-life sustainability scenarios.

The third edition of Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations, is the reference book introducing the economic, environmental and social sustainability issues specifically facing the industry as well as exploring ideas, solutions and strategies on how to manage operations in a sustainable way. This accessible and comprehensive account of sustainability in the hospitality industry is essential reading for all students and future managers.

El Sistema de Seguridad Social en Salud en Colombia ha
sido, desde sus inicios, objeto de profundos debates sobre
su estructura y su funcionamiento. Con el paso del tiempo,
se ha planteado la existencia de una crisis estructural desde
escenarios judiciales, políticos, académicos, sociales o, por
lo menos, la necesidad de reformas profundas que modifiquen
instituciones básicas del modelo. Como desarrollo de
las políticas del sistema, o como respuesta a los problemas
que presenta, se han expedido múltiples normas con la pretensión
de ajustarlo y subsanar las fallas de la atención en
salud, o bien como medio para aplicar un sistema complejo
y denso. En consecuencia, el sistema se ha caracterizado por
tener una regulación dispersa en gran cantidad de decretos,
resoluciones y circulares (y no tanto por instrumentos de nivel
legal), que hacen difícil la comprensión para la mayoría
de personas interesadas.
Este libro orienta sobre las principales normas que regulan
algunas de las instituciones y procedimientos del Sistema de
Seguridad Social en Salud en Colombia, con el objetivo de
que los pacientes, afiliados, organizaciones sociales, funcionarios
y en general los ciudadanos tengan claridad acerca de
sus derechos, deberes y relaciones jurídicas respecto a los
agentes que prestan y administran los servicios de salud.

W ith hospital reimbursement increasingly being linked to patient satisfaction, 1 about half of United States hospitals have embraced arts programs as a means of humanizing clinical environments and improving the patient experience. 2,3 There is emerging evidence that integrating such programs into clinical settings is associated with less pain, stress, and anxiety 4-10 as well as improved mood, 11 greater levels of interaction, 12 and feeling less institutionalized. 13 However, it has been observed that existing studies have been undertaken with variable meth-odological rigor, 14 and few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have linked specific design features or interventions directly to healthcare outcomes. We designed a RCT to test the hypotheses that (1) placing a painting by a local artist in the line of vision of hospitalized patients would improve psychological and clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction and (2) letting patients choose their own painting would offer even greater benefit in these areas. METHODS From 2014 to 2016, our research team recruited inpatients who were being treated in the Pennsylvania State University Her-shey Cancer Institute in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Patients were eligible if they were English speaking, over the age of 19, not cognitively impaired, and had been admitted for cancer-related treatments that required at least a 3-day inpatient stay. During recruitment, patients were told that the study was on patient care and room décor, and thus those who were not being given artwork did not know about the artwork option. By using a permuted block design with mixed block size, we randomly assigned consenting patients to one of the following three groups: (1) those who chose the painting displayed in their rooms, (2) those whose painting was randomly selected , and (3) those with no painting in their rooms, only white boards in their line of vision (see Figure 1). All paintings were created by artists in central Pennsylvania and reproduced as high-quality digital prints for the study, costing approximately $90 apiece. Members of the research team visited patients in the designated rooms three times during their stay-within 24 hours of being admitted, within 24 to 48 hours of the first visit, and within 24 to 48 hours of the second visit-with each visit lasting from 5 to 10 minutes. Patients who were given the opportunity to select art for their rooms were shown a catalogue of approximately 20 available paintings from which to choose a desired print; as with the group whose paintings were randomly selected for them, patients who made a choice had a print immediately hung in their room by members of the research team for the entirety of their inpatient stay. Outcomes and Measures The primary outcomes were psychological and included the following: anxiety, mood, depression, and sense of control and/or influence. These were measured using the validated