Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, and Hospitality

This case study sheds light on leadership in one of Melbourne’s luxury hotels while trying to rapidly transform its operations to meet the Australian quarantine program requirements. The case highlights how leadership emerges as the managers at ‘Hotel QH’ attempt to make sense of what is happening in the broader environment and engage in implementing the new strategy to navigate the pandemic. Developing awareness of leadership in highly disruptive times, the case study lets students identify the various leadership elements, such as transactional and transformational leadership styles, behaviours, capabilities of strategic agility, and leadership traits, to discuss the leadership effectiveness in this unique hotel context. The case study further highlights how managerial decision-making and actions can influence the hotel employees’ emotions and actions, allowing students to reflect on what potentially is effective leadership. Accordingly, students are encouraged to propose new strategies for ‘Hotel QH’ to drive new strategic renewal as the hotel emerges out of the quarantine program service and begins to enter the uncharted waters of the still uncertain hotel industry environment.

This case study introduces and examines three key concepts: (1) apartment hotels, (2) Porter’s generic strategies, and (3) apartment hotel’s external and internal environments. This is done in the context of the fictional Mullaloo Wharf Apartment Hotel. The case study provides an in-depth understanding on the need to review an organization’s strategic position following external disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study overviews the operational aspects of apartment hotels and compares how they differ from running a traditional hotel. Furthermore, the case study sets the basis for the assessment of Mullaloo Wharf Apartment Hotel’s internal and external environments using PESTLE and SWOT analyses. Lastly, the case study illustrates how to develop strategic directions using Porter’s generic strategies as a framework.

Operating in a highly vulnerable context, tourism and hospitality companies should be able to manage crises in effective ways. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has reconfirmed and strengthened this need as well as provided numerous examples and lessons learnt about crisis management and communication. By drawing on various theories (including crisis management, social media and crisis informatics, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility and brand authenticity), this case study provides a theoretical framework for developing knowledge and critical skills in designing and assessing the implementation of crisis communication strategies and practices. The case is based on a fictional hotel, but it is also inspired by true industry facts to make it more realistic and practical. The case study aims to (1) acquaint the students with relevant theoretical frameworks that can be used for developing and assessing crisis communication strategies and practices (2) provoke the students’ critical and analytical skills for understanding the role and impact of social media on crisis communication and (3) highlight the need to use social media for crisis communication but also align and coordinate the former with other business operations, such as customer service, corporate responsibility and branding strategies.

In 2013, at the Contiki global conference, experts were brought in to teach Contiki employees from across the globe about a new way of selling. This change was brought on by the President of Contiki Canada, Sheralyn Berry, after she noticed that Contiki’s target market was changing the way they bought their trips. Since the conference in 2013, their target market of 18–35-year-olds had moved away from purchasing trips through travel agents and were now almost exclusively booking trips through Contiki’s website. Sheralyn and other Contiki executives realised they needed to drastically change the way they were selling to their target market. To help address this concern, Contiki embraced a new selling model called the Consultative Selling Process (CSP). The change to the CSP was slow, but it eventually made its way to the majority of Contiki and is practiced by salespeople every day. The objective of the case is to provide students with an understanding of the importance of top-down integration by leaders who were passionate about the CSP and who took the time to mentor, coach and train their salespeople, thus creating one of Contiki’s competitive advantages. Furthermore, the case attempts to show how much impact the sales department can have on various stakeholders as well as sustainability initiatives especially in an industry as dynamic as tourism. The dilemma lies with how to move forward with the Consultative Sales Process when navigating the post-COVID-19 travel environment.

The post-COVID-19 era of hotel/resort management requires a new attitude to assessing and benchmarking business performance. To survive and compete in the “new normal” environment, hotel/resort businesses need to build on their strategic agility and sensitivity, humanistic and sustainable leadership and resource fluidity. In this view, performance measurement is aligned with the evolving strategic goals, which collectively support people and places—customers, employees, communities and the environment. This case study explores the systems and practices implemented in hotels and resorts to measure business performances during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. We highlight how hotel/resort managers can apply agile leadership and more humanistic approaches in promoting a new way of thinking to innovate around the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework. In this vein, the case also provides an opportunity to think strategically about the implications of static versus dynamic performance measurement systems.

Yoho Bed is a hospitality industry startup based in Sri Lanka. Yoho’s business model is based on the new sharing economy concept whereby it facilitates exchange between tourists and small-sized hotels, mainly from the informal sector. However, unlike a mainstream online travel agency, Yoho goes beyond platform mediation and extends expertise to its partners. Through this collaborative approach, Yoho aspires to develop trust and build a strong relationship with its partners, a source of competitive advantage. Yoho’s target segment is mainly budget-conscious travelers. Positioning itself in this narrow market space allows Yoho to project a unique image and make the competition less relevant. Despite impressive growth, Yoho faces numerous challenges that impede its progress, including the inability to govern partners effectively, the necessity to prioritize the interest of both providers and users simultaneously, scarcity of resources, and challenges in the external environment. The founders are considering three main strategic directions to scale the enterprise and take the startup forward: deepen its strategic position, diversify, or expand internationally.

This case is designed to assess the increased turnover rate at the Fairmont Banff Springs Resort in Banff, Alberta, Canada, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the various turnover-related constructs, particularly that of job embeddedness, students are tasked with reviewing the changes and impacts of turnover within the Rooms and Culinary departments and determine ways in which Fairmont Banff Springs may use the principles of job embeddedness to motivate their employees to remain long-term within the organisation. Students are presented with detailed information about the specific job duties and responsibilities for each position within both departments and a breakdown of the particular reasons provided for departing the organisation. Ultimately, students will piece together this key information to inform what approaches and areas of focus Fairmont Banff Springs will need to consider as they rethink their employee retention strategies.

This case study focuses on revenue management (RM) and RM technology, as it details the implementation of an RM solution at ALH Hotels. The case study follows Brett, the National Accommodation Manager at ALH Hotels, and Murtaza, an RM consultant, as they appraised different RM tools based on ALH Hotels’ specific business requirements. Brett and Murtaza finally selected and implemented an RM solution to automate RM decision-making at ALH Hotels. The case study narrates a chronology of events that show the state of RM decision-making prior to the implementation, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on revenue generation at ALH Hotels, and finally the consequences and results of the implementation of the RM solution.

This case analyses how a large fast-food restaurant chain in Switzerland used Service Design methodologies to improve their customers’ experience. Initially, the scene is set, and the context introduced before the double diamond is introduced as a useful framework for Service Design projects. The case explains analysis methods employed as well as approaches used for idea generation and prototyping. Advantages and shortcomings of the methodology chosen are discussed in the light of the situation. The case is based on a real-life example but had to be anonymised due to confidentiality reasons. Conceptually, the Service Innovation Gap serves as reference, allowing students to contextualise Service Design as a powerful innovation method for scalable services. With this teaching case study, students will be enabled to understand the Service Innovation Gap as a barrier to service innovation and understand how Service Design can allow service organisations to develop and implement service innovations with a customer-centric focus. Students will furthermore be able to identify and evaluate the expectations of various stakeholders in real-life contexts and to appreciate how difficult the interaction and cooperation between different stakeholders can be.

Product development must react to and reflect shifting market demands, new technologies, and changes in the external business environments more broadly, and restaurants are no exception here. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants faced a lack of product development. Dining in restaurants virtually stopped overnight in cities and states as social distancing guidelines took effect. This case study uses a resilience-driven approach to product development that considers delivering customer value, risk management, resource leveraging, and an opportunity-driven paradigm. It applied the financial, resilience, and stakeholders’ perspectives common in the tourism industry and hospitality context as the management baseline and suggested tailoring management to the HAJ restaurant chain in product development. It further offers suggestions for frameworks and tools restaurants may pursue and discuss how resilience, financial, and stakeholder perspectives are complementary approaches to product development. However, students should pay enough attention to restaurant performance, particularly resilience, stakeholders’ perspectives, and financial indicators in product development, to understand the processes throughout the highly uncertain times of the pandemic. The case study business is the HAJ restaurant chain in Iran.

The interest in cultural heritage sites is growing as they are increasingly becoming tourist attractions. Ngorongoro Conservation Area is occupied by the Maasai community, constituting about 1500 individuals, most of whom are self-employed women selling their products to tourists visiting the bomas. Community involvement in cultural heritage plays an important role in promoting tourist visits. Being restricted from moving from place to place during Covid-19 negatively impacted their involvement in cultural heritage, as they derive their income from visitors to cultural heritage sites. However, little is known about the positive impact that Covid-19 had on the community from being involved in heritage sites. This case study reveals that the unexpected outbreak of Covid-19 has greatly contributed to finding alternative ways of attracting tourists, and so stakeholders need to consider how the community continues to be involved in the cultural tourism industry when an unexpected crisis occurs. The case study examines the benefits the community, conservation authorities and investors can derive from heritage sites. Students are encouraged to identify factors that offer the potential for innovation by applying the social exchange theory and the theory of institutional arrangements. The case study helps students understand how community involvement in heritage sites can attract tourists, thus fostering students’ development of innovative ideas against business as usual at cultural heritage sites. Students are encouraged to formulate better strategies to counteract the effects of unexpected crises like Covid-19—on cultural heritage sites. They could explore cultural heritage tourism approaches and practices, focusing on community involvement and the challenges faced by cultural heritage sites in conservation areas.

Outdoor Hub is a store in a tourist destination located in the suburbs of the well-known and popular tourist destination of Åre, Sweden. This study discusses how the store is affected by its status as a shadow destination of Duved (outside the hotspot of Åre). Shadow destination was first mentioned in 2003 by Hudman and Jackson and is a destination located in the ‘shadow’ of another. The other destination is often a famous one that many tourists prefer, which makes it difficult for nearby places to attract tourists. Outdoor Hub’s greatest challenge is attracting customers, as they are located outside the hotspot of the well-known tourist destination; however, it can also benefit from its location in the shadow of a prominent tourist spot. This case gives students a better understanding of how a company located on the outskirts of the main tourist destination can direct its business proposition towards existing and new customers. The study shows the students the company’s strengths and problems. It also discusses how the company can create long-term relationships with other tourist actors at the destination. Furthermore, the issues of segmentation, marketing and the role of tourist information in the store are raised.

Kerala, a state in India, promotes tourism by branding itself as “God’s own country.” It is blessed with unique “backwaters” that run parallel to the Arabian Sea and is located inland from the coast between Kochi and Kollam. Backwaters are common property resources (CPR) that are ecologically fragile, with Vembanad Lake at its heart. These backwaters are integral to the daily life of locals, support livelihood, and function as a sink for waste discharged into it. Backwaters are also famous for their houseboat cruises, attracting thousands of tourists annually. Even though backwaters have been accorded as Ramsar sites since 2002, this CPR faces threats (like overuse, pollution, and reclamation) due to competing interests. The case highlights those unsustainable practices related to tourism, industrialization, and livelihood activities impacting backwater environs. Also, several agencies participate in managing backwaters, however, in an uncoordinated manner. The case describes issues faced by houseboat operators and the non-adoption of sustainable practices. Thus, the case highlights dilemmas in the decision-making of tourism management and protection of CPR from a public policy perspective and aims to sensitize students about the need for responsible tourism.