2026-01-31
Mehmet Bahri Saydm
This study investigates how hospitality employees perceive and experience organizational ingratiation, a subtle and underexplored aspect of workplace behaviour that can shape professional dynamics and outcomes. Addressing a notable gap in organizational behaviour literature, the research focuses specifically on the hospitality sector—a highly interpersonal and service-driven industry where ingratiation may be especially prevalent. The study adopts a qualitative design, utilizing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 26 hotel employees in North Cyprus. Interview data were thematically analyzed and further triangulated using Leximancer software to enhance validity and reduce researcher bias. The analysis revealed seven major themes related to ingratiation: Networking, Performance Rating, Self-Promotion, Career, Work Environment, Manipulation as well as Inequality. While some themes such as networking and career advancement—were associated with perceived benefits, others like manipulation, inequality, and negative impacts on the work environment highlighted critical drawbacks. By capturing the dual nature of ingratiation through employee narratives, this study provides practical insights for hospitality management and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of organizational behaviour in service-oriented industries.
2026-01-31
Georges El Hajal, Rodney Westerlaken, Erwin Losekoot
This paper introduces humanitarian hospitality as a conceptual framework for understanding relational ethics and care practices in crisis-affected tourism. While volunteer tourism, disaster recovery travel, and solidarity-based travel bring individuals into crisis-affected destinations, the hospitality that unfolds in these non-commercial encounters remains under-theorised. Drawing on philosophical perspectives and exploratory qualitative insights from 145 Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and aid workers, the study examines how emotional labour, ethical care, and informal hosting are enacted in contexts of conflict and displacement. The findings both parallel and complicate conventional host–guest dynamics, highlighting the ethical and emotional complexities of providing care under conditions of scarcity and trauma. The proposed Humanitarian Hospitality Framework (HHF) positions humanitarian encounters as an underexplored domain of tourism and hospitality research. It extends hospitality theory by integrating principles of dignity, neutrality, and relational accountability into crisis-driven encounters. While not claiming empirical validation, the paper conceptually grounds the HHF as a starting point for future tourism scholarship, with implications for post-crisis recovery, volunteer mobilisation, and ethical engagement in vulnerable destinations.
2026-01-31
Sanna-Mari Renfors
The COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in the business environment, such as technological developments, have transformed tourism employment. Simultaneously, the complexities of tourism employment and workforce input have been overlooked in tourism research. This study aims to increase overall understanding of how tourism companies and their workforce see the present main discourses of employment together with its challenges and solutions. The context of the study is a niche tourism destination in Northern Europe, Finland where micro-size companies dominate the sector. In this qualitative research, data consisted of ten semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis was performed to capture the attached patterned meanings. The findings confirm that tourism employment has different nuances in different contexts with attracting and retaining a skilled workforce as the major concern. Employing people with specialist skills and upskilling are the key issues strongly interlinked with business growth, competitiveness, and renewal. Business and product development, establishing work ecosystems, innovative means of promoting vacancies in collaboration with authorities, and developing an inclusive organisational culture are suggested as the main solutions to approach employment challenges.
2026-01-31
Ana M. Lucia-Casademunt, Antonia M. García-Cabrera
This study examines the role of small-scale tourism hubs in boosting entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation in the tourism sector through acceleration programmes and explores the qualities that make these hubs successful. Based on a qualitative case study design, the research draws on data collected through direct observation and in- depth interviews with eight key informants (the project coordinator and seven startup founders) at the Costa del Sol Tourism Hub in Spain between February and June 2025. The sample was selected purposively to include core stakeholders of the acceleration programme. Data was analysed using a thematic analysis approach to identify emerging barriers and success factors. Findings reveal key challenges, including the immaturity of early-stage projects, weak integration with regional innovation networks, and limited post-acceleration funding. Success enablers include institutional legitimacy, sectoral focus, integrated mentoring and matchmaking, and sustainability-oriented selection criteria. In conclusion, the study highlights that small tourism hubs, when strategically embedded within institutional frameworks, can act as catalysts for sustainable tourism innovation and regional transformation.