Global trends in hospitality

Abstract

The disruptions to the global hospitality industry have been accelerated, particularly after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, it is even more important for scholars to focus on future research that addresses the most relevant and important industry-specific challenges. In this paper, we analyze the recent hospitality research and industry trends to identify the topics that have received the most attention, and then compare these trends to the survey results from two key industry stakeholders – academics (N = 67) and practitioners (N = 235) – regarding the most important short- and longer-terms research priorities. Overall, the findings suggest that both stakeholder groups have placed supply and demand characteristics, as well as technology, as the industry’s most pressing priorities in both the short- and longer-term future. The relative importance of safety and cleanliness is expected to decline over time while environmental sustainability will gain increasing attention in the future.

1. Introduction

The global hospitality industry, which includes hotels and other types of accommodations, as well as restaurants, bars, casinos, cruise ships, travel agencies, tour operators, and similar organizations, accounted for roughly $4.5 trillion in consumer spending during 2020 (Hospitality Global Market Report, 2020). More broadly, the travel and tourism segments accounted for 10.3% of the global GDP in 2019, totaling $8.9 trillion (WTTC, 2020b). Unfortunately, it is not surprising that many of the firms that operate within service- and labor-intensive industries have suffered immensely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the extensive scope of this global crisis, pre-pandemic industry trend projections alone are unlikely to be helpful in guiding future academic research and managerial actions. The overarching aim of this research is to provide needed insight into the most important short- and long-term trends from the perspectives of hospitality academics and practitioners by combining historic trends with prognostications from both such stakeholders.

This investigation is conducted in three parts: (1) a review of articles in the leading academic hospitality journals; (2) a review of articles in hospitality trade journals; and (3) a survey of hospitality academics and practitioners. By doing so, we identify critical gaps in the literature and significant differences in the perspectives of academics and practitioners—both in terms of established areas of interest and their future expectations.

As might be expected, the findings point to a short-term focus on disease prevention and related issues, which subsequently declines in importance over the longer term. Nonetheless, technology and supply and demand issues stand out amongst both academics and practitioners alike as key trends in both the short- and long-term. In general, however, when significant differences exist between academics and practitioners (e.g., sustainability, branding), practitioners tend to place greater importance on more immediate financial well-being needs, while academics focus on broader, longer-term trends. By identifying the gaps in the literature and differences in the perceived importance of various trends, this investigation offers insight for rigorous and relevant academic research agendas to help guide the recovery of the hospitality industry through the extreme turbulence caused by COVID-19.

2. Literature review

2.1. Scope: Global hospitality industry

The travel and tourism sector is recognized as an important driver for job creation and a dynamic engine of employment opportunities (Dogru and Bulut, 2018, Wttc, 2020a). In 2019, one in 10 jobs (total 330 million jobs) were supported by the global travel and tourism sector, and one quarter of all net new jobs were created by this sector over the last five years (WTTC, 2020b).

In 2020, however, this industry faced unprecedented challenges and threats from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (WTTC, 2020b). Community lockdowns, social distancing requirements, stay-at-home orders, travel and mobility restrictions, and dining limitations have resulted in a temporary suspension of many hospitality businesses and significantly decreased the demand for businesses that were allowed to continue to operate (Bartik et al., 2020, Gursoy and Chi, 2020). While the optimistic scenario projects a 30% reduction in jobs and GDP compared with 2019, the pessimistic scenario projects a 60% reduction in jobs and a 62% reduction in GDP compared with 2019 (WTTC, 2020b).

Of all industries, the global hospitality industry is among the hardest hit, while facing reductions of >90% of activities in some markets (Fernandes, 2020). An above average representation of SMEs in sectors such as accommodation and food services have been particularly affected by the crisis (OECD, 2020). As of 22 June 2020, 513 companies in the restaurant segment filed for bankruptcy (WTTC, 2020c). Large firms have also suffered from the downturn (WTTC, 2020c). For example, Marriott International, which has 174,000 employees globally, placed tens of thousands of workers on furlough, and Hilton Worldwide notified lenders in March 2020 that they would be borrowing a precautionary $1.75 billion under a revolving loan to preserve money and to maintain flexibility (Nicola et al., 2020).

In contrast, it has been suggested that the travel and tourism sector is poised to be the key sector in driving the recovery of the global economy post COVID-19 by generating new jobs, driving visitors back to destinations, and having a positive economic domino effect on suppliers across the entire supply chain (Dogru and Bulut, 2018, Wttc, 2020a). Projected recovery plans involve rebuilding traveler confidence, developing innovative and digital technologies, and offering more affordable products (WTTC, 2020d). Transitioning from crisis management to recovery, hospitality is preparing for the “new normal” by ensuring operational excellence; assuring a safe experience for staff and guests through enhanced cleanliness and hygiene best practices; rebuilding trust and confidence through transparency and communication; and implementing new enabling policies (WTTC, 2020e).

Having discussed the scope, importance, and disciplinary range of the industry as well as the status and future outlook, the next section explores the academic and practitioner literatures to compare – across disciplines – trends that may influence the current and future developments in the hospitality industry. The goals are to derive important insights about the state of the respective literatures, as well as to identify discrepancies between academics and practitioners in an effort to promote research that is more aligned with the industry’s challenges and that helps stimulate timely and actionable solutions. This is particularly important in the time of COVID-19 as traditional ways of doing business have been hampered, and innovative solutions are desperately needed.

3. Study 1: Review & categorization of academic literature

The goal of Study 1 is to gauge what hospitality researchers believe to be the most important industry trends based upon the topics published in some of the leading academic hospitality journals. This effort is intended to provide a broad overview of the current state of the literature, with the expectation that the topics represent what academic researchers perceive to be of current or future importance in the hospitality industry.

3.1. Procedure & samples

To review and categorize the literature comprehensively, we deviated from the traditional literature approach and instead used a systematic review. First, the research team decided to examine the articles that were published in the following five hospitality research journals: Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, and International Journal of Hospitality Management. These journals were selected because they publish research that is directly aligned with industry-specific challenges and priorities, and they are considered leading journals in the hospitality field (e.g., listed as “A” outlets by the Australian Business Deans Council on journal quality). The period of January 2018 to the end of the year 2020 was chosen to reflect the most recent trends, and we examined all articles including the ones published online but not yet in press.

Following the selection of the journals, two coders (both with advanced degrees and conduct hospitality-specific research) independently reviewed all articles (N = 1,459) and coded them based on disciplinary domain (e.g., consumer behavior, human resources, operations management, etc.) and main focus (e.g., use and utility of social media, employee engagement, efficiency, etc.) to identify the academic origin and primary research themes. The number of articles for each of the journals and interrater agreement indices are list in Table 1 .

Table 1.

Articles by journal and interrater agreements.

Journal	# Articles reviewed	IRA Disciplinary Focus	IRA Main Focus
Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research	157	90.4%	91.7%
Cornell Hospitality Quarterly	92	95.6%	82.6%
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	457	96.7%	90.4%
Tourism Management	2311	90.5%	91.8%
International Journal of Hospitality Management	522	>90 %2	>90%
Total and Averages	1,459	93.9%	89.3%

¹As not all the academic papers in Tourism Management pertained to hospitality research per se, we conducted a 2-stage process. First, the two coders went through all the 569 articles published in the respective time-frame and first coded them by overarching area, hospitality or tourism. After resolving any conflict, the coders continued with the 231 articles specific to hospitality for further coding and interrater agreement calculations.

²The inter-rater agreement indices for disciplinary and main focus for the International Journal of Hospitality Management are not actuals; they are estimates based on a comparison of a random sample of entries.

3.2. Results

The analysis identified five main disciplinary domains: consumer behavior/marketing, organizational behavior/human resource management, strategic management, operations management, and finance/economic/law/accounting. Articles of topics that did not fit any main discipline (e.g., research methodology, education, tourism, literature reviews, food and beverage, and entrepreneurship) were sorted into the category “others”. Of 1,459 articles reviewed, the majority fell into the consumer behavior/marketing discipline (652 articles; 44.69%), followed by organizational behavior/human resource management (280 articles; 19.19%), and strategic management (191 articles; 13.09%). To a lesser extent, articles could be placed into finance/economics/law/accounting (102 articles; 6.99%), or operations management (86 articles; 5.89%). 145 articles were summarized in the “others” category (9.94%). Within each of the disciplines, counts of the key words associated with the main focus of the studies were used to identify the primary trends and research themes. We will discuss the most prominent ones in the following paragraphs. Table 2 provides a complete overview of all trends by discipline, the distribution and count, as well as exemplary citations.

Table 2.

Overview of research trends per discipline.

Discipline: Consumer Research/ Marketing (N = 652 articles, 44.7% of total)
Trend Categories	Description of Trends	Sample article	# Articles
Customer experience	Servicescape, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, service quality, social influence, eWOM, customer-to-customer interaction, customer values, customer relationship management, memorable experience, authentic experience	Sukhu, A., Choi, H., Bujisic, M., & Bilgihan, A. (2019). Satisfaction and positive emotions: A comparison of the influence of hotel guests’ beliefs and attitudes on their satisfaction and emotions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 51–63.	189 (28.99%)
Pricing/ selling	Price promotions, pricing strategy, price competition, discount, menu labeling	Choi, C., Joe, S. J., & Mattila, A. S. (2018). Reference price and its asymmetric effects on price evaluations: The moderating role of gender. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(2), 189–194.	26 (3.99%)
Culture	Culture difference, history, politics, ethic, endorsement, celebrity, cultural experience, discrimination	Su, N., Min, H., Chen, M. H., & Swanger, N. (2018). Cultural characteristics and tourist shopping spending. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(8), 1210–1231.	26 (3.99%)
Branding/ brand influence	Brand loyalty, brand love, brand management, brand storytelling, brand personality, brand attitude, brand value, brand equity, brand attachment, social media branding, competitiveness, engagement, authenticity	Foroudi, P. (2019). Influence of brand signature, brand awareness, brand attitude, brand reputation on hotel industry’s brand performance. International journal of hospitality management, 76, 271–285.	43 (6.60%)
Health/ wellness/well-being	Sanitation, healthcare, wellness, health, well-being, happiness	Thal, K. I., & Hudson, S. (2019). A conceptual model of wellness destination characteristics that contribute to psychological well-being. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 43(1), 41–57.	19 (2.91%)
Online	Online rating, online reviews, online booking, social media, SNS, trust, customer engagement	Baker, M. A., & Kim, K. (2019). Value destruction in exaggerated online reviews. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.	94 (14.41%)
Green	Climate change, sustainability, policies, attitudes and practices, waste, water conservation	Merli, R., Preziosi, M., Acampora, A., & Ali, F. (2019). Why should hotels go green? Insights from guests experience in green hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 81, 169–179.	19 (2.91%)
Co-creation	Value co-creation, customer engagement, user-generated content, customer-centricity	Roy, S. K., Balaji, M. S., Soutar, G., & Jiang, Y. (2020). The antecedents and consequences of value co-creation behaviors in a hotel setting: a two-country study. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 61(3), 353–368.	42 (6.44%)
Service context	Themed tourism, cruise industry, casino management	Lyu, S. O., & Lee, Y. (2018). How do golf tourists manage golfing constraints? A choice modeling approach. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(2), 295–318.	23 (3.52%)
P2P	Sharing economy, Airbnb, guest–host interaction, home-sharing experience,	Liu, J., Park, J., Xie, K., Song, H., & Chen, W. (2020). Effect of Commercial Neighbors on The Online Popularity of Peer-To-Peer Accommodation-Sharing Properties. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 1096348020909855.	32 (4.91%)
Others	Technology, marketing, destination, service failure, CSR, advertising, customer decisions	Ho, T. H., Tojib, D., & Tsarenko, Y. (2020). Human staff vs. service robot vs. fellow customer: Does it matter who helps your customer following a service failure incident?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 87, 102501.	139 (21.32%)

Discipline: HR and OB (N=280 articles, 19.2% of total)
Trend Categories	Description of Trends	Sample article	# Articles
Diversity and Diversity Management	Diversity climate, employee diversity, gender diversity, generational diversity	Madera, J. M. (2018). What’s in it for me? Perspective taking as an intervention for improving attitudes toward diversity management. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(2), 100–111	9 (3.21%)
Employee Job Attitudes and Participation	Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation, engagement, innovative and creative behaviors, OCB, influences of perceived CSR	Joung, H. W., Choi, E. K. C., & Taylor, J. J. (2018). Investigating differences in job-related attitudes between full-time and part-time employees in the foodservice industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.	81 (28.93%)
Employee Well-being	Work-family conflict, burnout, work-life balance, sexual harassment, bullying, emotional labor	O’Neill, J. W., & Follmer, K. (2020). A Multilevel Review of Hospitality Industry Work–Family Conflict Research and a Strategy for Future Research. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 44(1), 3–44.	45 (16.07%)
Leadership	Ethical leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, authentic leadership, cultural differences in leadership	Qiu, S., Dooley, L. M., & Xie, L. (2020). How servant leadership and self-efficacy interact to affect service quality in the hospitality industry: A polynomial regression with response surface analysis. Tourism Management, 78, 104051.	45 (16.07%)
Performance Management	High performance work practices, performance appraisal	Safavi, H. P., & Karatepe, O. M. (2018). High-performance work practices and hotel employee outcomes. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.	9 (3.21%)
Talent, Recruiting, and Retention Management	Career development, training, job crafting, mentoring, career mobility, selection	Frye, W. D., Kang, S., Huh, C., & Lee, M. J. M. (2020). What factors influence Generation Y’s employee retention in the hospitality industry?: An internal marketing approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 85, 102,352	49 (17.5%)
Others	Industrial relations, workforce composition, organizational learning, green HR, team collaborations, HR branding, employee brand perceptions	Jung, I. N., Sharma, A., & Mattila, A. S. (2020). Exploring employees’ perceptions of costs and benefits of unionization in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 87, 102465.	42 (15.00%)

Discipline: Strategic Management (N=191 articles, 13.1% of total)
Trend Categories	Description of Trends	Sample article	# Articles
CSR	Influence of CSR on brand, reputation, brand equity, consumer perceptions	Kang, J. W., & Namkung, Y. (2018). The effect of corporate social responsibility on brand equity and the moderating role of ethical consumerism: The case of Starbucks. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(7), 1130–1151.	21 (10.99%)
Technology	Digital transformations, big data usages, social media, environmental technologies	Lam, C., & Law, R. (2019). Readiness of upscale and luxury-branded hotels for digital transformation. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 79, 60–69.	6 (3.14%)
Competitive Forces/ Landscape	Competitive intelligence, competitor identification, competitive sets, different competitive environments	Hesford, J., Hoffmann, K., Mangin, N., & Turner, M. J. (2020). Financial consequences of competitive set choice. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, 102453.	11 (5.76%)
Policy, Strategy and Practices	green practices, sustainability, transparency, accountability, pricing, product, and management strategies, waste management	Mak, A. H., & Chang, R. C. (2019). The driving and restraining forces for environmental strategy adoption in the hotel industry: A force field analysis approach. Tourism Management, 73, 48–60.	34 (17.80%)
Innovation/Intellectual Capital/Knowledge	Knowledge sharing, risks, new service development, customer co-creation, diversity, collaboration, flexibility, eco-innovation, product and process innovation	Li, Y. Q., & Liu, C. H. S. (2018). The role of problem identification and intellectual capital in the management of hotels’ competitive advantage-an integrated framework. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 75, 160–170.	32 (16.75%)
Performance Management	Performance, efficiency, profitability, profit chain, financial performance, survival, productivity	González-Rodríguez, M. R., Jiménez-Caballero, J. L., Martín-Samper, R. C., Köseoglu, M. A., & Okumus, F. (2018). Revisiting the link between business strategy and performance: Evidence from hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 72, 21–31.	32 (16.75%)
Franchising	Franchisee-franchisor relationships, risks, partnerships, international activities, diversifications, advantages & disadvantages of market entry form	Sun, K. A., & Lee, S. (2019). Competitive advantages of franchising firms and the moderating role of organizational characteristics: Evidence from the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 281–289.	14 (7.33%)
Corporate governance/Leadership Team	CEO characteristics, BoD influence, stakeholders, ownership structure and provisions	Seo, K., & Sharma, A. (2018). CEO overconfidence and the effects of equity-based compensation on strategic risk-taking in the US restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(2), 224–259.	10 (5.24%)
Others	Internationalization, business models, social structures, social networks, specializations, crisis management	Vaughan, Y., & Koh, Y. (2019). Role of resource slack in rapid international expansion of restaurant companies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31(1), 2–20.	31 (16.23%)

Discipline: Finance/Accounting/Economics/Law (N=102 articles, 7.0% of total)
Trend Categories	Description of Trends	Sample article	# Articles
Governance	Ownership, M&A, leadership, crowdfunding, investment, corporate governance	Dogru, T. (2018). Corporate Investment and Hotel Firm Value: Does Corporate Governance Matter in Financially Constrained Firms?. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(4), 339–351.	23 (22.54%)
Risk	Risk management, financial risk, economic policy uncertainty, weather risk, credit risk, socioeconomic disadvantage	Vivel-Búa, M., Lado-Sestayo, R., & Otero-González, L. (2018). Risk determinants in the hotel sector: Risk credit in MSMEs. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 70, 110–119.	10 (9.80%)
Performance	Economic growth, financial performance, revenue, efficiency, employment, productivity	Sainaghi, R., Phillips, P., Baggio, R., & Mauri, A. (2019). Hotel performance: Rigor and relevant research topics. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 78, 13–26.	33 (32.35%)
Local/community impact	Local environment, market structure, diversification, discrimination	Falk, M., & Hagsten, E. (2018). Influence of local environment on exit of accommodation establishments. Tourism Management, 68, 401–411.	10 (9.80%)
Regional development	Sustainable development, event impact, climate change impact, CSR	Steiger, R., & Scott, D. (2020). Ski tourism in a warmer world: Increased adaptation and regional economic impacts in Austria. Tourism Management, 77, 104032.	4 (3.92%)
Others	Taxation, compensation, loan, segmentation, rate parity	McLeod, B., Litvin, S. W., Heriot, K. C., Jauregui, A., & Dempsey, E. (2018). Goodbye Columbus: Accommodation Taxes and OTAs. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(1), 61–66.	22 (21.57%)

Discipline: Operations Management (N=86 articles, 5.9% of total)
Trend Categories	Description of Trends	Sample article	# Articles
Supply Chain/ Distribution/ Procurement	Lean techniques, transparency, supplier relationships	Al-Aomar, R., & Hussain, M. (2018). An assessment of adopting lean techniques in the construct of hotel supply chain. Tourism Management, 69, 553–565.	9 (10.47%)
Revenue Management	Pricing, discounting, upselling, forecasting, cancelation, rate conditions	Arenoe B, van der Rest J-PI. (2020). Does willingness to pay for rate conditions depend on the booking window? A novel time-dependent conjoint analysis approach. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 61, 213–222.	29 (33.72%)
Technology	Robotics, logistic robots, blockchain, big data management, keyless technology, mobile apps, data based value creation	Lee, W. J., Kwag, S. I., & Ko, Y. D. (2020). Optimal capacity and operation design of a robot logistics system for the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 76, 103971.	11 (12.79%)
Sustainability	Waste management, water management carbon footprint, packaging, green service encounter process,	Han, H., Lee, J. S., Trang, H. L. T., & Kim, W. (2018). Water conservation and waste reduction management for increasing guest loyalty and green hotel practices. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 75, 58–66.	8 (9.30%)
Others	Food safety, sanitation, menu engineering, efficiency, alternative lodging (privacy, third-party operators, multi-unit hosts), location choices	Ranzini, G., Etter, M., & Vermeulen, I. (2020). My home on the platform: Exploring the physical privacy concerns of home-sharing providers. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, 102433.	29 (33.72%)

The major research trends within the consumer behavior/marketing discipline focused on the customer experience (e.g., eWOM, social influences, emotions, and customer satisfaction; 29%), followed by online content (e.g., online reviews, online ratings, social media; 14%), brand and branding issues (e.g., brand love, brand personality, authenticity; 7%), and co-creation (e.g., customer-centricity, user generated content; 7%).

Research in the organizational behavior/ human resource management discipline focused on employee job attitudes and participation (e.g., engagement, innovative and creative behaviors, OCB; 29%), talent, recruiting, and retention management (e.g., job crafting, mentoring, training, selection; 18%), employee well-being (e.g., work-family conflict, work-life balance, burnout, bullying; 16%), and leadership (e.g., ethical, transformational, authentic leadership; 16%).

Strategic management articles examined the impact of firm-level policies, strategies, and practices (e.g., green practices, management strategies, transparency, and accountability; 18%), innovation, intellectual capital, and knowledge (e.g., knowledge sharing, collaboration, product, service, process innovations; 17%), performance management (e.g., profitability, survival, profit chain; 17%), and CSR (e.g., different strategies, influences of CSR on brand equity and reputation; 11%).

Finance/Economics/Law/Accounting articles centered on performance (e.g., efficiency, financial performance matrices and assessments, economic growth, revenue; 32%), governance (e.g., M&A, investments, ownership; 23%), risk (e.g., policy uncertainty, credit risk, risk management; 10%), and local and community impact (e.g., market structure, local environment, discrimination; 10%).

Finally, operations management articles highlighted trends such as revenue management (e.g., pricing, forecasting, modeling, rate conditions, discounting; 34%), technology (e.g., robotics, logistic robots, blockchain, key-less technology; 13%), supply chain, distribution, and procurement (e.g., lean techniques, supplier relationships, transparency; 11%), and sustainability (e.g., waste and water management, carbon footprint, packaging; 9%).

4. Study 2: Review & categorization of trade literature

The goal of Study 2 was to gauge the sentiment of hospitality practitioners and identify what they believe to be the most important topics related to the industry. In general, the expectation is that the topics covered in the hospitality trade literature represent either current needs or expected future needs within the industry. Given the fast turnaround for publication, in comparison to the academic literature, discussed topics may be more time-sensitive and driven by recent development.

4.1. Procedure & samples

To assess topic areas of interest to practitioners, we followed the same process described in the academic literature review and conducted a systematic review of three of the most widely circulated trade publications: Hotel Magazine, Hotels, and Hotel Business. As with the academic literature review, we examined the time period from January 2018 to September 2020, the most recently available issues at the time of writing. It should be noted that while hotels are the featured focus of these outlets, they include content that considers many other industry segments (e.g., food and beverage, OTAs, cruise, etc.).

As before, two coders independently evaluated 1,365 articles and classified each according to content areas discussed. It is important to note that content areas used to code these trade publications were not mutually exclusive, as articles regularly discussed multiple topics (average of 2.06 topics per article). Interrater reliability was calculated using Cohen’s Kappa (k = 0.75, p < .001), indicating substantial agreement between coders (Landis & Koch, 1977).

4.2. Results

Analysis of the text allowed us to define a set of overarching trend categories (see Table 3 for complete overview). Of these 34 trend categories, five (each > 10%), namely technology (e.g., AI, mobile applications, and blockchain; 22%), consumer segments/preferences (e.g. segmentation, guest expectations and experiences; 14%), corporate portfolios (e.g., diversification, expansion; 12%), employee management (e.g., training, education, compensation; 12%) as well as travel and tourism (e.g. travel habits, regional analysis; 11%) accounted for the majority of topics (>70%). Our analysis was based on trade publications with a largely set format, containing designated sections for topics such as food and beverage and design. As such, these categories may be overrepresented in this analysis.

Table 3.

Overview of trade publication trends.

Trend categories	Description of trends	# Articles
1. Technology	Artificial intelligence, 5G, mobile applications, payment solutions, biometric, voice-activation, data analytics, blockchain, cloud-based solutions, automation and robotics, data protection, chatbots, RFID technology, room entry, CRM, Wi-Fi	294 (21.54%)
2. Consumer Segments/ Consumer Preferences	Customer segmentation, guest expectations and experience, changing consumer preferences, guest entertainment, localization, customer engagement	196 (14.36%)
3. Corporate Portfolio	Managing hotel portfolio, diversification, expansion, strategy	165 (12.09%)
4. Employee Management/ Training/ Labor Market	Employee education, training programs, scholarships, mentorship programs, internships, e-Learning, employee loyalty, employee compensation, HR management, employee engagement, employee protection, equity and equal opportunity, team building, work environment, empowerment, work-life balance, talent acquisition and hiring, retaining employees, and turnover	157 (11.50%)
5. Travel/ Tourism	Airline industry, travel habits, over-tourism, regional analysis	153 (11.21%)
6. Design/ Architecture	Interior design and décor, architectural styles, hotel themes, art, landscaping	123 (9.01%)
7. Finance Management	Budgeting, forecasting, (re)financing, costs, pricing, revenue, lending, capital	122 (8.94%)
8. Branding	Brand management, brand strategy, leveraging branding, rebranding, brand elements, brand proliferation, luxury branding	114 (8.35%)
9. F&B	Dietary trends and changing consumer preferences for local, organic, vegan and vegetarian, and healthy cuisine	103 (7.55%)
10. Sustainability	Energy efficiency, waste management, waste reduction, alternative power, water conservation	100 (7.33%)
11. Mergers & Acquisitions/ Partnerships	Mergers and acquisitions, partnerships	97 (7.11%)
12. Guestroom Amenities	Bedding and linens, minibar, in-room entertainment, toiletries	94 (6.89%)
13. Hotel Development	Renovations, construction, opening and closing of properties	88 (6.45%)
14. Business Model/ Strategy	Strategic planning, timeshare, business models to compete with hostels and home-sharing, co-working, membership models	86 (6.30%)
15. Hotel/ Hotelier Profiles	Profiles of hotels and hoteliers	83 (6.08%)
16. Marketing	Email marketing, market research, storytelling, (re)positioning, mobile marketing, marketing strategy, digital marketing, programmatic advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, reviews, customer engagement	79 (5.79%)
17. COVID-19	Impact on hotel industry, dealing with COVID-19, recovery from COVID-19	73 (5.35%)
18. Health/ Wellness	Fitness programs and equipment, holistic wellness, wellness tourism, spa	62 (4.54%)
19. Legal Issues/ Policies	Sexual harassment and misconduct policies, GDPR, liability, local regulations, scheduling laws, legal implications of mass shootings, fee disclosure practices, human-trafficking, discrimination, compliance	55 (4.03%)
20. Sanitation/ Cleanliness	Air quality, pest control, laundry, housekeeping	53 (3.88%)
21. CRM/ Loyalty	CRM, customer retention, customer analytics, loyalty programs, consumer insights	51 (3.74%)
22. Investment	Hotel investment, regional investment for expansion, management-only and company-owned properties, investing in surrounding community, ROI	44 (3.22%)
23. Security	Cyber-security, preparing for mass shootings, privacy protection, safety protocols and equipment	43 (3.15%)
24. Economy	Economic outlook, impact on hotels, interest rates	41 (3.00%)
25. Franchising	Franchising process, franchise agreements, franchisor/ franchisee relationships, franchise development	32 (2.34%)
26. Booking	Direct Booking, OTA, mobile booking, third-party and intermediated bookings	31 (2.27%)
27. Government Influence	Government regulations and programs, taxation, geopolitical climate	31 (2.27%)
28. Crisis Management	Responding to crises, disaster recovery	30 (2.20%)
29. Leadership	Women in leadership, leadership development, effective leadership	29 (2.12%)
30. P2P	Airbnb, home-sharing	26 (1.90%)
31. Diversity	Gender and racial diversity in customers, employees, and leadership	24 (1.76%)
32. Insurance	Insurance market, coverage, recovery	17 (1.25%)
33. Meetings/ Events	Meeting-focused hotels, cancellations and postponements, event booking	12 (0.88%)
34. Other		108 (7.91%)

In comparing the results of the academic literature review and the review of trade publications, we see that most interests between academics and practitioners do align. Both groups place considerable emphasis on each of the disciplinary foci, namely, consumer behavior/marketing, organizational behavior/human resource management, strategic management, finance/economics/law/accounting, and operations management. However, and most notably, practitioners seem to place a much greater emphasis on technology than academics, as this is by far the most discussed topic in trade publications.

5. Study 3: Assessment of short- & long-term trends by academics and hospitality industry professionals

The goals of Study 3 were to: (a) gauge what hospitality academics and practitioners believe to be the major trends impacting the industry in both the short-term (1 to 3 years) and long-term (4–10 years); (b) identify any significant differences between these perspectives; and (c) assess the general level of economic optimism regarding the hospitality industry over both the short- and long-term. The need to distinguish one to three year trends from longer term trends in part reflects a desire to mitigate respondents’ expected emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic; it is hoped that this distinction will allow for the separation of long-term trends from those that may be pandemic-specific. Furthermore, perceptions about economic outlook may differ based on stakeholder status and if so, may offer some explanation for any differences that may be identified.

5.1. Data and measures

Sample: Data for this study was collected via an online survey. As the survey was designed to reach both academic researchers and hospitality practitioners, respondents were drawn from several sources. To gain insight into academia’s perceptions of hospitality industry trends, a survey was sent to the editorial review board members of seven journals: Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, and Journal of Sustainable Tourism. The latter two journals were included to broaden the sample of hospitality scholars and include those who conduct tourism research that informs hospitality management practice. In total, 67 completed responses were received. To gain insight into hospitality practitioners’ perceptions of industry trends, a survey was sent to hospitality school alumni from ESSEC Business School in Paris, France, Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration (and members of the Advisory Boards of the School’s Centers and Institutes), and Florida State University. In total, 235 completed responses were received. Respondents fell into one of three primary groups: (1) academic (22.2%), (2) current or former hospitality industry practitioner (51.0%), and (3) other (26.8%); the “other” category was largely made up of individuals who supply services to the hospitality industry (e.g., consultant). Overall, the respondents were 62.7% male; 15.2% age 18–34, 44.9% age 35–54, 39.9% age 55 and older; 72.6% White, 14.2% Asian or Pacific Islander, 6.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.0%% Black or African American, 4.6% Other Racial/Ethnic Identification.

Academic respondents were 36.5% Full Professor (tenured/tenure track), 22.2% Associate Professor (tenured/tenure track), 4.8% Assistant Professor (tenured/tenure track), 1.6% Clinical Professor (non-tenure track), 4.8% Adjunct Professor (non-tenure track), 12.7% Senior Lecturer, 11.1% Lecturer, 6.3% Emeritus Professor (retired). Hospitality practitioner respondents were 27.9% Executive/C-Level Management, 30.5% Administrative (e.g. GM, Restaurant Manager, Department Manager, Assistant Manager, etc.), 12.3% Sales and Marketing, 8.4% Data Analytics, 7.1% Revenue Management, 5.8% Hospitality Operations (e.g. Front Desk Agent, Guest Room Attendant, Guest Service Agent, etc.), 4.5% Human Resources, 3.2% Technology (e.g. System Operator, IT Specialist, etc.). See Fig. 1 for the respective details.

Fig. 1.

Academic and practitioner positions held by respondents.

In total, respondents were from 42 countries (plus Hong Kong), with 64.5% from the United States. See Fig. 2 for the respective details.

Fig. 2.

Top 20 countries of respondents.

Measures: The overriding aim of the survey was to identify both short-term (1–3 years) and long-term (4–10 years) trends in the hospitality industry. To help ensure that respondents were prepared to think about these issues separately, the survey began with the following text:

“For the first few questions, we ask that you think about what are the most important 1) short-term trends (current environment through the next 3 years) and 2) long-term trends (4 to 10 years into the future) impacting the hospitality industry separately.”

Respondents were first asked to list “the five most important trends impacting the hospitality industry in the current environment through the next 3 years”, and their “prediction for the economic health of the hospitality industry in the current environment through the next 3 years”. Respondents were then asked to list “the five most important trends impacting the hospitality industry over the longer term (i.e. 4 to 10 years in the future)”, and their “prediction for the economic health of the hospitality industry over the longer term (i.e. 4 to 10 years in the future)”. 1 Additionally, we included two measures that in the context of the pandemic may influence an individual’s disposition and perceptions about what may be important. The first measure included two questions that asked about the economic impact that COVID-19 may have had on respondents: (a) “How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your employment status in 2020”, and (b) “How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your total household income in 2020?” Response choice alternatives for the first item ranged were: temporarily furloughed, job eliminated, pay reduced without reduction in hours, pay reduced with deduction in hours, accepted buyout package/early retirement, and no change to employment status. Response choice alternatives for the second item were: increased significantly, decreased significantly, and no change in household income related to COVID-19 pandemic.

The second measure assessed the respondents’ general level of optimism and pessimism using the 10-item Life Orientation Test, developed and validated by Scheier, Carver, and Bridges (1994). A principle components analysis (Varimax rotation, Eigenvalues > 1) revealed three significant factors. Reliability analysis, however, found that only one component achieved a Cronbach’s Alpha level of 0.7 or higher (i.e., 0.717). Specifically, this factor was comprised of three items associated with pessimism: (a) I hardly ever expect things to go my way; (b) If something can go wrong for me, it will; and (c) I rarely count on good things happening to me. Further analyses using median-based groupings on the expected trends and industry economic health indicators, however, revealed very few statistically significant differences (and as a result, very little additional insight). As a result, it appears that respondents’ general level of pessimism has little impact on their perceptions of hospitality trends.

5.2. Analyses and results

Personal Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: In contrast to the non-significant findings associated with an individual’s pessimism, there were significant differences in the personal economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the two industry stakeholder groups. Specifically, academic respondents were much less likely to be negatively impacted economically as a result of COVID-19 than were hospitality industry practitioners. Almost 80% of academic respondents (79.7%) indicated that they experienced no change to their employment status as a result of the pandemic. That number dropped to 35.1% for hospitality practitioner respondents (see Fig. 3 ). Similarly, 25% of academic respondents indicated that their household income had dropped significantly because of the pandemic, whereas 61% of hospitality practitioners saw a significant drop in household income (see Fig. 4 ). As such, any differences across the stakeholder groups may be explained in part by the personal economic impact of COVID-19.

Fig. 3.

Impact of COVID-19 on employment status.

Fig. 4.

Impact of COVID-19 on 2020 household income.

Expected Industry Health Over the Short- and Long-term: Despite differing levels of economic harm caused by COVID-19 on academics and practitioners, the projected health of the industry in the short- and long-term was remarkably similar among the groups (see Fig. 5). That, however, does not mean that there was general agreement in the outlook. Regarding their short-term outlook, both groups of respondents were almost evenly divided as to whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future (see Fig. 5).

Fig. 5.

Level of economic optimism for the hospitality industry over the next 3 years Fig. 5 (continued): Level of economic optimism for the hospitality industry over the next 3 years.

Regarding their long-term outlook, however, 75% or more of respondents (regardless of group) were somewhat or very optimistic about the economic health of the hospitality industry (see Fig. 6 ). Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences between the mean levels of economic optimism for any group.

Fig. 6.

Level of economic optimism for the hospitality industry over the next 4 to 10 years Fig. 6 (continued): Level of economic optimism for the hospitality industry over the next 4 to 10 years.

In sum, we did not observe any salient differences across the industry stakeholder groups regarding perceptions about pessimism and expected industry health. However, the personal economic impact of COVID-19 may explain, at least in part, differences across the stakeholder groups regarding the nature and perceived importance of future industry trends (although we do not make any major claims about the theoretical relevance of this finding).

Most Important Trends Impacting the Hospitality Industry: Respondents were asked to list the five most important trends impacting the hospitality over the short-term (i.e., “current environment through the next 3 years”) and the longer-term (i.e., “4 to 10 years in the future”). To assess the trends proposed by respondents, two independent coders read through all trends collected, and based upon this review developed a mutually agreed upon coding structure. Each coder, working separately, assigned codes to each trend. Codes were then compared for consistency, resulting in an initial agreement rate of 85%. Discrepancies were discussed and resolved for all divergent codes.

Respondents’ perceptions of the most important short- and long-term trends for both hospitality academics and practitioners combined are displayed in Fig. 7 . For the short-term, the most cited topics included: 1) sanitation, cleanliness, and health; 2) demand, supply, and revenue; 3) technology; 4) COVID-19; 5) travel policies and issues, 6) economic and competitive issues; 7) employee well-being; and 8) consumer confidence/sentiment. A similar list emerged for the longer-term priorities, though the relative importance of some topics changed: 1) demand, supply, and revenue; 2) technology; 3) economic and competitive issues; 4) travel policies and issues; 5) sanitation, cleanliness, and health; 6) environmental and sustainability issues; 7) employee well-being; and 8) customer and guest issues.

Fig. 7.

Expected hospitality trends (all respondents).

The most obvious initial takeaway from examining differences in anticipated short- and long-term trends is the significant and expected decline in pandemic related issues in the longer term. In fact, all significant declining trends have an obvious relationship to concerns over health, safety, and disease prevention. Another major takeaway is the comparatively low perceived importance of environmental and sustainability concerns in the short- versus the long-term (where these concerns rose significantly).

To examine differences by type of respondent, short- and long-term trends were distinguished by academic, hospitality industry, and other employment groups (see Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10 , respectively). Fig. 8 shows the expected short- and long-term trends for academic respondents. Unlike the aggregate trends shown in Fig. 7, the pandemic did not alter the top two expected trends; they are the same for both the short- and long-term: (a) technology and (b) demand, supply, and revenue. Moreover, environmental and sustainability mentions rise significantly over the long-term, becoming the third most important expected trend. Pandemic related issues become much less prominent in the longer term, with the highest ranked issue being sanitation (ranked number nine).

Fig. 8.

Expected hospitality trends (academic).

Fig. 9.

Expected hospitality trends (hotel industry practitioner).

Fig. 10.

Expected hospitality trends (other).

Fig. 9 shows the expected short- and long-term trends for hospitality industry respondents. The pattern of responses was similar to those of the academic respondents. The most important trend for hospitality industry respondents is supply and demand/revenue in both the short- and long-term. Technology is similarly important, ranking third in the short-term and second in the long-term. Unlike academic respondents, however, while environmental/sustainability rises significantly over the long-term, it did not reach the top five trends (rising to number seven). Additionally, branding rises significantly in importance over the longer term, becoming the tenth most mentioned long-term trend; by contrast, only 4.3% of academics mentioned branding, making it the twenty-third most mentioned long-term trend.

Fig. 10 shows the expected short- and long-term trends for respondents in the other category (primarily industry supplier) respondents. After examining both the academic and hospitality industry data, it is evident that respondents in this group tend to see trends in the industry differently. For example, technology never rises to the top three trends in either the short- or long-term. Moreover, no trends showed statistically significant increases in importance over the longer term, whereas numerous trends showed significant declines from the short to the long-term. It is possible that these differences are in part, impacted by the diverse nature of respondents’ involvement with and stakeholder position associated with the hospitality industry (e.g., supplier, consultant).

Because one aim of this investigation is to gauge the differences in perspectives between academics and hospitality industry practitioners, Fig. 11, Fig. 12 provide direct comparisons between expected hospitality trends for these two groups. Examining both the short-term trends (Fig. 11) and long-term trends (Fig. 12) reveals that academics are much more likely to believe that technology related trends are important; this occurs despite technology being a top three trend for both academics and hospitality practitioners. Similarly, academic respondents are much more likely to believe that environmental/sustainability issues represent an important trend; in this case, however, this represents a large difference in the relative perception of this issue as an important trend by the two groups. Environmental/sustainability issues are the ninth most mentioned short-term trend for academics whereas they are the eighteenth most mentioned trend for hospitality industry practitioners. While the perception of this issue becomes significantly more important in the long-term for both groups, it is much more frequently mentioned by academics. Specifically, it is the third most mentioned long-term trend for academics, and the seventh most mentioned trend for hospitality industry practitioners. Another often mentioned trend where academics and practitioners differed significantly is food and beverage in the short-term. In terms of most mentioned short-term trends, the issue is similar for both academics and practitioners (seventh vs. tenth respectively). But in terms of percentage of respondents, almost twice as many academic respondents mentioned the issue compared to hospitality industry practitioners (28.4% vs. 14.3% respectively).

Fig. 11.

Expected hospitality trends current to 3 years (academic vs practitioner).

Fig. 12.

Expected hospitality trends 4 to 10 years (academic vs practitioner).

Additionally, academic researchers were more likely to mention innovation as a short-term trend (11.9%) while only 3.0% of hospitality industry practitioners did. By contrast, 13.6% of hospitality industry practitioners mentioned cost control as a short-term industry trend, while only 4.5% of academic respondents mentioned this issue as a priority.

6. Conclusions

Taken together, the results from studies 1, 2, and 3 provide important insights for both academic researchers and practitioners in the hospitality industry. Perhaps the most obvious and expected finding is that COVID-19 has pushed safety, and disease prevention issues to the forefront in the short-term. Moreover, although the importance of these issues appears to decrease over the longer term, given the significant and yet-to-be discovered implications of the current pandemic, we expect continued attention will be given to sanitation, cleanliness, and related issues.

However, our findings also suggest that future research should continue to focus on the topics that were important prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, and perhaps reinforced by the pandemic, technology-related issues remain at or near the top for both academics and practitioners in both the short- and long-term. Interestingly, despite technology being much more widely discussed in hospitality trade publications than in the hospitality academic literature prior to the pandemic, academic respondents were significantly more likely to mention technology as an important short- and long-term issue than were hospitality practitioner respondents, making it the most mentioned trend for both time frames. Why trade journals focus more on technology yet academics mention technology more is not possible to determine from this study (particularly given the structured formats and editorial calendars of trade publications), but it does point to a general alignment on the importance of technology between academics and practitioners.

Our review of the recently published hospitality research indicates several opportunities to extend the current body of knowledge about the roles and relevance of technology. For example, several studies have demonstrated positive effects associated with interactive- (e.g., Morosan & DeFranco, 2019) and AI-based technologies (e.g., Pillai & Sivathanu, 2020) that have been introduced to enhance or improve the consumer experience. These findings point to the need to consider the relative and/or differential influence of emerging technologies for customer satisfaction, loyalty, engagement, and related outcomes. Moreover, Cho, Bonn, Susskind, and Giunipero’s (2018) study on the supplier relationships in the independent restaurant segment demonstrated that information technology may be an important moderator of the relationship between a restaurant’s supplier dependence and market responsiveness. The results from this study suggests that further consideration is needed to examine the multi-level influences associated with technology (e.g. individual/customer versus unit/restaurant), as well as the extent to which technology may be an antecedent, mediator, and/or moderator within technology-embedded frameworks.

Another topic in which hospitality academics and practitioners agreed was the importance of supply, demand, and revenue issues for both the short- and long-term. Interestingly, while the academic literature provides some coverage of these topics (typically under disciplines related to finance/economics/law/accounting and operations management), the total number of studies in this area was relatively small given its recognized importance by both academics and practitioners. Similarly, the trade literature devoted little space to supply and demand issues (see Table 3). However, given the significant economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for additional research into issues related to supply, demand, and revenue optimization, at least for the foreseeable future, appears well-justified. For example, studies in this domain have examined the use and applicability of predictive forecasting (e.g., Arbelo, Arbelo-Pérez, & Pérez-Gómez, 2018) and revenue management practices (e.g., Noone, Enz, & Canina, 2019) within and across industry segments. In addition, studies have demonstrated support for a wide array of individual (e.g., gender; Choi, Joe, & Mattila, 2018) and contextual (e.g., rate conditions; Arenoe & van der Rest, 2020) factors that may influence both individual- (e.g., consumer price evaluations) and aggregate-level outcomes (e.g., hotel pricing strategies). Thus, and similar to research on technology, we encourage future studies to examine the relative importance of key demand characteristics (e.g., customers’ willingness to pay), as well as explore the relevance of contingencies that may influence the efficacy and utility of demand, supply, and revenue management practices (e.g., distribution channel management).

Another noteworthy finding was the perceived relevance of environmental/sustainability. This issue is widely considered to be important across all industries (unglobalcompact.org 2020), which is consistent with our finding that 41.8% of academic researchers mentioned environmental/sustainability issues as important over the longer term (making it the third most mentioned trend). However, our findings also indicated that this topic has received comparably much lower attention in the academic literature (i.e., 3.7% of all published articles), which is reflected by the dispersed treatment of this topic across multiple disciplines and stakeholder groups (e.g., strategic management, operations management, consumer behavior, etc.) By contrast, 6.4% of trade industry articles covered sustainability issues pre-pandemic. Yet while 19.5% of hospitality practitioners mentioned this issue as an important longer-term trend, it falls to seventh place behind financial and operational issues. Based on these findings, it appears there is a need for multi- and cross-disciplinary studies to extend our understanding about the roles and relevance of environmental and sustainability issues, especially policies, programs, and systems that can be linked to business outcomes that resonate with priorities expressed by industry practitioners (e.g. demand, supply, and revenue).

One noteworthy point of divergence between academics and practitioners is the perceived importance of trends and priorities associated with branding. While branding topics have been widely addressed in both the academic and trade literatures, this topic was seldom mentioned by academic respondents as a short- or longer-term priority. In contrast, 16.9% of hospitality industry practitioners mentioned branding as an important long-term trend. This difference may reflect the general tendency of internal stakeholders (i.e. industry practitioners) to focus more on immediate and tangible concerns versus external stakeholders (i.e., industry-focused academics) who may focus more on more longer-term and broader priorities (Khan, 2019, King et al., 2011, Vong, 2017, Wenzel et al., 2020). We see similar divergence—with likely similar causes—with several other less mentioned trends, such as innovation, differentiation, and cost control.

These findings point to additional opportunities for hospitality academic researchers to address gaps in the literature on topics believed to be important by both academia and practitioners. Moreover, the findings reinforce the need for academic researchers to carefully consider and integrate managerial relevance with academic rigor to their investigations. In this way, academic researchers can better assist the hospitality industry—which has suffered greatly from the pandemic—to recover more quickly and thrive in the long term.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Lerzan Aksoy: Data curation, Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Sunmee Choi: Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft. Tarik Dogru: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Timothy Keiningham: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Melanie Lorenz: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Dan Rubin: Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Software. J. Bruce Tracey: .

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Biographies

Lerzan Aksoy's research interests are in service research, including customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, innovation and social innovation, its relationship to loyalty, firm performance and societal wellbeing. A prolific writer, Professor Aksoy has co-authored or edited five books. Her most recent book, The Wallet Allocation Rule, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. Professor Aksoy's research has received more than a dozen prestigious scientific awards, including the Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award from the Journal of Marketing, Citations of Excellence “Top 50” Award and Robert Johnston Outstanding Paper Award (3 times) from the Journal of Service Management. Her articles have been published in top tier journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Service Research and Journal of Service Management. She is associate editor for the Journal of Service Research and was selected “Best Reviewer of the Year” among the editorial review board members of both the Journal of Service Research and Journal of Service Management. Dr. Aksoy served as co-chair of AMA SERVSIG (American Marketing Association - Service Special Interest Group) and worked with Filene Research Institute doing research with credit unions. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Marketing Edge, is a member of the Academic Council of the AMA and serves as the academic partner for the American Innovation Index. She has also been featured in media including CNN, CNBC and publications such as The Wall Street Journal, BrandWeek and Harvard Business Online. Professor Aksoy is a keynote speaker at academic and industry conferences. She has provided executive training and consulting to credit unions and companies including Sony, Ford, Pfizer, Nielsen and L'Oreal.

Sunmee Choi is Dean of College of Business and Management at VinUniversity in Hanoi, Vietnam, while taking a three-year leave of absence from School of Business at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. The areas of her research interest include service operations management, revenue management, demand-forecasting methods, distribution channel management, and customer experience management. Her work has been published in journals such as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Marketing. Sunmee received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.

Tarik Dogru earned his doctorate in hospitality management from the University of South Carolina and MBA from Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Turkey. Prior to joining the faculty of the FSU Dedman College of Hospitality, Dr. Dogru served as an assistant professor at Boston University (2016-18), an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Carolina (2013-16), and a research assistant at Ahi Evran University, Turkey (2009-12). He has taught a variety of courses in business and hospitality schools at undergraduate and graduate levels. The range of Dr. Dogru’s research interests spans topics in hospitality finance, corporate finance, behavioral finance, real estate investment, hotel investments, sharing economy, tourism economics, climate change, and block chain technology. Dr. Dogru is a highly productive researcher who publishes in many prestigious hospitality and tourism journals — Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Tourism Analysis, International Journal of Tourism Research, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. He serves on the editorial board of Tourism Economics and Tourism Analysis and as a reviewer for several academic journals.

Timothy Keiningham, is the J. Donald Kennedy Endowed Chair in E-Commerce. He received the American Marketing Association’s Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award for teaching, research, and service that has had the greatest long-term impact on the development of the services discipline. This is the highest award presented in the field of service marketing. Dr. Keiningham was named one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors by Poets & Quants. He is author of the NY Times bestseller The Wallet Allocation Rule and author/editor of eight other books on customer loyalty. His research has been accepted in top-tier journals in marketing (e.g., Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science), strategy (e.g., Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review) and service management (e.g., Journal of Service Research, and Journal of Service Management). His research has received several awards. Dr. Keiningham’s work aims to bridge the gap between leading scientific research and management best practices. To advance management practice and inform his scientific research, he serves as chief strategy and client officer at Rockbridge Associates. Prior to joining Rockbridge, he worked for seventeen years in senior officer positions at Ipsos (the world’s 3rd largest market research firm); the last seven years he served as Global Chief Strategy Officer and EVP at Ipsos Loyalty. Dr. Keiningham received a BA from Kentucky Wesleyan College, an MBA from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD from Staffordshire University (UK).

Melanie Lorenz is an experienced Assistant Professor. A native of Germany, she has worked in banking and consulting. She then decided to become an academic, and earned her PhD in Marketing from the University of Alabama in 2016. She has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo. Her focus is in International Business and Marketing; her research has been published in the Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review, and Academy of Management Learning and Education, among others.

Dan Rubin is assistant professor of marketing at St. John’s University, Peter J. Tobin School of Business. His research focusing on consumer behavior has been published in top-tier journals including the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Consumer Marketing. Dr. Rubin received his PhD from Baruch College.

J. Bruce Tracey is the Kenneth and Marjorie Blanchard Professor of Human Resource Management at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, where he has taught courses in human resources and organizational management for undergraduate, graduate, and professional audiences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Professor Tracey's research considers a wide range of topics that examine the effectiveness of HR policies, practices, and systems. His work has been published in diverse outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, where he is currently serving in his second term as Editor. Sponsors for Professor Tracey's research and consulting include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, and Marriott International, and he has been cited in the New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, USA Today, Fast Company, among other popular press outlets.