Dr Yoo Ri Kim

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are receiving considerable attention in the travel and tourism workplace and the overall sector. At a global level, a wide range of agreements and pledges exist to ensure the advancement towards EDI in the sector (Ferguson, 2018) (i.e., 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). Despite global commitments, there is a substantive disconnection between global policy and practices of equality, and its absence across the tourism sector (Ferguson, 2018). Consequently, progress is primarily gradual and inconsistent across the travel and tourism industry. There are several societal, cultural and industry barriers that contribute to the continued inequality and inequity across the industry. An overarching barrier or challenge is the variation across the travel and tourism sector about how to define the terms and address EDI issues. While there are examples of good industry practices, there has been a general lack of successful and sustainable implementation of EDI initiatives, agendas and programmes. The aim of the ESRC IAA Project was to identify key challenges and barriers inhibiting our understanding of EDI in travel and tourism to foster inclusive organisational cultures, achieve representation and progression of diverse groups (i.e., ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality etc.) across all areas of management in the industry. The EDI impact workshops (co-moderated by the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, & the Travel Foundation) in London held on October 14th and 21st 2022 explored the issues through three tasks (See Fig. 1). Collectively, the tasks contributed to building a greater understanding of different dimensions of EDI and create a flexible and usable toolkit that meets the different contexts and needs of stakeholders. The findings of the workshops contributed to the design of the EDI toolkit of strategies and interventions may be used to support and guide organisations and policy makers toward achieving the EDI agenda across the sector.

The growing interest in intelligent automation adoption and development in tourism presents many potential solutions for sustainable tourism issues. To map the current landscape of research on intelligent automation in sustainable tourism, a systematic review was conducted of 213 scholarly articles. Five major themes were identified: intelligent automation to enhance tourist experience, preserve heritage, promote quality of life, measure tourist experience, and conserve the environment. Scholarly work on this topic has paid more attention to the economic and sociocultural aspects of sustainability but less to addressing environmental issues. To uncover further research gaps, this study outlines sustainability transition pathways using two dimensions: sustainability inclusion and tourist involvement. Twenty-three distinct AI-based innovations were mapped onto the pathways to reveal future research directions. The findings explain the lack of AI-based solutions that offer high levels of sustainability inclusion and tourist involvement. Thus, this study proposes the 'AI4GoodTourism' framework, inferring that intelligent automation with high sustainability inclusion levels can scale up the marginal contributions that tourists provide collectively. This framework serves to guide future research and development for various stakeholders who are progressing sustainable tourism agendas through intelligent automation.

Despite widespread concerns about the effect of the digital economy on productivity, few studies have examined the relationship between the digital economy and tourism demand. Based on 285 China's prefectural-level city statistical data and big data from 2011 to 2019, a comprehensive index of the digital economy is developed and a spatial econometric model is employed to investigate such relationship. The result shows that the growth of the digital economy has positive spatial spillover effects on tourism demand, contributing to extending the impact of the digital economy on tourism demand from the spatial perspective and providing insights for policymakers on regional cooperation in the digitalisation context.

Competitiveness is a well-discussed research topic in various disciplines and fields, amongst which competitiveness in the visitor economy is a prominent research stream. With rapid transformations in the visitor economy, destinations, regions, sectors and businesses have had to adapt – with varying degrees of success – to internal and external changes, significantly affecting their competitiveness. Existing studies are dominantly based on a few pioneering models and indicators and relatively few empirically challenge the assumed causality of competitiveness factors at different scales. This article, therefore, conducts a systematic literature review of competitiveness in the visitor economy post-2005 and examines the intellectual and conceptual structures of the extant literature as a platform to identify knowledge gaps and emerging trends and perspectives for future research.

This paper identifies the key determinants of spatial variability of productivity, focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector across England. Due to the hierarchically structured data, multilevel analysis is applied to distinguish the effects of a firm's internal variables and (sub)regional factors on productivity. Using cross-sectional data for 10,400 SMEs from the UK government's Small Business Survey, 2015, the results show that firm-specific determinants significantly influence productivity. The findings also indicate that location, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and where firms operate play a pivotal role in determining SME productivity. In particular, at the LEP level, increasing labour supply, promoting local funding and improving broadband speed potentially enhance firm productivity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2021.103298.].

This review provides novel and timely insights into research in the field of diaspora tourism. The principal originality of this work lies in capturing the full extent and richness of research on this topic by looking beyond tourism journals and the term “diaspora tourism” to situate the review in a broader social science research domain. It also adds to the small number of systematic syntheses of existing research on diaspora tourism by addressing both the geographical dimensions of diaspora tourism and the superdiversity of diasporas. Uneven research coverage exists between diaspora tourism studies across disciplines and continents, reflecting the superdiversity of diasporas and creating challenges, as well as opportunities for theoretical and methodological discussion and convergence as the topic matures. Future research can address these issues through research on irregular immigrants with diverse immigration histories, cross-continental comparative studies, and longitudinal methods.

With the tourism and hospitality sector reopening post-lockdown of COVID-19, the recovery of customers' purchase intentions is essential to reboot the sector. This study aims to examine the relationship between social distancing measures and purchase intentions in the UK's restaurant and hotel sectors using a propensity score weighting experimental design method. The findings suggest that the impact of social distancing measures on purchase intentions is mediated by the trust in the targeted restaurant and hotel. Risk tolerance significantly moderates the influence of social distancing measures on trust; (non-) cash promotions have an insignificant impact on purchase intentions. The introduction of the propensity score weighting scheme addresses the endogeneity caused by the sampling bias in non-probability sampling experiment studies.

This research investigates the direct and (indirect) spatial spillover effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of the tourism industry. With increasing concerns about the persistence of low (labour) productivity in tourism across many developed economies, there is an urgent need to address this productivity challenge. Using major under-exploited UK microeconomic panel data, spatial econometric modelling is employed to estimate the effects of agglomeration economies on productivity. Findings reveal the significant effects of agglomeration economies on productivity within a specific region, but also significant spatial spillover effects across neighbouring regions, suggesting the possibility of productivity convergences. Competitive and complementary effects of agglomeration economies on productivity are identified.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between being members of social media business networks and SME performance by comparing business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks. Design/methodology/approach The analysis empirically draws on cross-sectional data of 9,292 English and Welsh family-owned SMEs from the UK's Government Small Business Survey 2015. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) is applied to control for selection bias and differences in firm characteristics before comparing business performance, measured in terms of annual turnover, sales-growth intention and innovation between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks. Findings The findings show that family-owned SMEs that are members of social media business networks are more likely to have higher prior turnover and to grow their sales than non-members. Also, they are more likely to report being innovative in products and processes than non-members. The empirical results acknowledge the importance of online business networks and digital social capital on enhanced family-owned business performance. Originality/value This paper is the first to explore the comparative analysis of business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks. This paper is important for the development of family business research by providing a comprehensive evidence-based analysis regarding the importance of online business networks to improve family-owned business performance, given the significant contribution of digital business activities to the UK economy.

This research examines the relationship between geographic, brand, and segment diversification and hotel failure rates based on ownership structure, i.e. franchised and company-operated hotels, in the Texas lodging industry. Literature on diversification strategies is mainly based on financial measures of performance and offers mixed results; only few studies have assessed firm failure rates directly based on distinct diversification strategies at the establishment level. The performance outcomes are significantly heterogeneous not only based on the strategies, but also on the ownership structures, which are yet to be examined. Using data from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts from 2000 to 2018, a semi-parametric Cox proportional hazard model is estimated, and the findings reveal that failure rates are not significantly tied to particular types of diversification and ownership structures. This research provides insights on hotel diversification strategies and their relative dominance on hotel failure rates based on franchised and company-operated hotels.

Ownership structure, a source of firm heterogeneity, can change competitive environments and market structures; the impact on the hospitality industry is unknown. This study investigates the impact of hotel ownership structure changes on the magnitude of localized competition of different quality segment hotels. Two‐level mixed‐effect analyses reveal that hotel ownership structure change from chain‐affiliated to independent increases the number of neighboring economy hotels, whereas the change from independent to chain‐affiliated increases the number of neighboring upper‐upscale hotels. Ownership structure changes in the same market can be a key driver of market dynamics, suggesting that hotels should colocate with caution.

Originality is an important goal of research. However, relatively little is known about the characteristics and motivations of individual researchers or about the facilitating or hindering factors that, in combination, can lead to original research outputs; a gap this study aims to fill. Interviews with twenty highly original academics (identified by their peers) active in the field of tourism identify four shared main traits amongst such researchers – nonconformism, commitment, self-confidence and interdisciplinarity – and the importance of situational factors. The findings also show that there is no single optimum way of “becoming original” and, therefore, efforts to “replicate” originality may constrain rather than enable originality. From a managerial perspective, this suggests that it is easier to remove barriers than to positively facilitate original research

In recent years, travel vlogs are prevalent on social media, they are projected as an important marketing tool to attract tourists to destinations in the post-COVID-19 era. However, the underlying mechanism of how travel vlogs affect prospective tourists’ behaviours remains unclear. To address this gap, this paper discusses the applicability of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model to travel vlog research and proposes a SOR based theoretical framework. Moreover, this paper highlights the increasing trend of the SOR model in both e-tourism and wider tourism and hospitality research.

The large consumption of food travel vlogs during the COVID-19 pandemic shows its potential for destination promotion. However, little research has been done on this video form. This study explores the difference in food travel vlogs, short videos, live videos, and DMO promotion videos (DPVs) and concludes four distinctive characteristics of food travel vlogs (storytelling, authenticity, intimacy, and presence) through 38 semi-structured interviews. A Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model-based conceptual framework is proposed to help understand the mechanism underlying the influence of food travel vlogs on travellers. This study hopes to provide theoretical and practical implications for destination management and vlogging practices.

COVID-19 is substantially reshaping the tourism and hospitality industries but studies on the changes in travel behaviour in response to the pandemic are limited. Using tourism big data, this research applies network science analytics to determine behavioural changes in travel mobility of domestic travellers who visited Jeju Island, Korea, from June 2019 to December 2020. The findings reveal significant reductions in the number of trips to a destination but also limited spatial connectivity and diversity in travel flow during the pandemic. A higher intensity of travel mobility to outdoor and coastal areas and shorter travel distances are evident during COVID-19.

This study investigates the non-linear relationship between brand diversification and hotel owner performance. Using hotel owner level data from 2000 to 2018 in Texas, findings infer a concave relationship between brand diversification and hotel owner performance where the impact of brand diversification on performance is positive until a certain point and then becomes negative. The moderation effects of ownership structure and location are also estimated, showing significant effects on the relationship between brand diversification and hotel owner performance. Specifically, hotel owners who (a) have a portfolio with a higher percent of chain-affiliated hotels, and (b) are located further from the neighbouring hotels are more likely to benefit from brand diversification. We provide practical insights to help hotel entrepreneurs improve performance.

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of attraction demand and shed light on the spillover effects of visitor flows between/across attractions in London using spatial econometric modelling. Both global and local models reveal that income and search queries are significant determinants to attraction demand, while distance from city centre is only significant in the global model. Visitor flow spillovers from neighbouring attractions are found to have significant effects on attraction demand. The intensity and direction of visitor flows’ spillover effects vary by attraction locations. Furthermore, asymmetric spillover effects of visitor flows between a pair of attractions have been identified for the first time in the tourism literature. The adoption of novel spatial estimation methods generates a new dimension to investigate intra-destination demand across attractions. This can provide empirical evidence for decision-makers to optimise visitor flows within a destination.

This study aims to investigate the contribution of aviation related travel restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 in Europe by using quasi-experiment approaches including the regression discontinuity design and a two-stage spatial Durbin model with an instrumental variable. The study provides concrete evidence that the severe curtailing of flights had a spontaneous impact in controlling the spread of COVID-19. The counterfactual analysis encapsulated the spillover effects deduced that a 1% decrease in flight frequency can decrease the number of confirmed cases by 0.908%. The study also reveals that during the lockdown, the aviation industry cancelled over 795,000 flights, which resulted in averting an additional six million people being from being infected and saving 101,309 lives.

Tourism is acknowledged as a contributor to destination economies in many countries. However, COVID-19 has devastated the tourism industry in numerous national economies. Although the economic impact of tourism on destinations has been examined in a large body of tourism literature, most studies have utilized the tourism-led economic growth hypothesis and traditional methods and data rather than cutting-edge economic methods. This study conducts a systematic literature review on tourism economic impact between 1975 and 2020, analyzing the general bibliometrics and examining the key themes and methods of assessing tourism economic impact. It contributes to an accurate assessment of tourism economic impact, works to identify gaps in the literature, highlights emerging trends in the field, and proposes directions for future research. •Assessing the impact of tourism on destinations has long been studied.•Past studies rely on traditional hypotheses, methods and data.•Cutting-edge economic methods to accurately assess tourism impact is lacking.•Assessing dynamic causal relationships between tourism and economic growth is needed.•Spillover effects of tourism impact across space and time is recommended.