Purpose: This study, a conceptual paper, analyses the growth of curation in tourism and hospitality and the curator role in selecting and framing products and experiences. It considers the growth of expert, algorithmic, social and co-creative curation modes and their effects. Design/methodology/approach: Narrative and integrative reviews of literature on curation and tourism and hospitality are used to develop a typology of curation and identify different curation modes. Findings: Curational techniques are increasingly used to organise experience supply and distribution in mainstream fields, including media, retailing and fashion. In tourism and hospitality, curated tourism, curated hospitality brands and food offerings and place curation by destination marketing organisations are growing. Curation is undertaken by experts, algorithms and social groups and involves many of destination-related actors, producing a trend towards “hybrid curation” of places. Research limitations/implications: Research is needed on different forms of curation, their differential effects and the power roles of different curational modes. Practical implications: Curation is a widespread intermediary function in tourism and hospitality, supporting better consumer choice. New curators influence experience supply and the distribution of consumer attention, shaping markets and co-creative activities. Increased curatorial activity should stimulate aesthetic and stylistic innovation and provide the basis for storytelling and narrative in tourism and hospitality. Originality/value: This is the first study of curational strategies in tourism and hospitality, providing a definition and typology of curation, and linking micro and macro levels of analysis. It suggests the growth of choice-based logic alongside service-dominant logic in tourism and hospitality.
MULTIFILE
The promotor was Prof. Erik Jan Hultink and copromotors Dr Ellis van den Hende en Dr R. van der Lugt. The title of this dissertation is Armchair travelling the innovation journey. ‘Armchair travelling’ is an expression for travelling to another place, in the comfort of one’s own place. ‘The innovation journey’ is the metaphor Van de Ven and colleagues (1999) have used for travelling the uncharted river of innovation, the highly unpredictable and uncontrollable process of innovation. This research study began with a brief remark from an innovation project leader who sighed after a long and rough journey: ‘had I known this ahead of time…’. From wondering ‘what could he have known ahead of time?’ the immediate question arose: how do such innovation journeys develop? How do other innovation project leaders lead the innovation journey? And could I find examples of studies about these experiences from an innovation project leader’s perspective that could have helped the sighing innovation project leader to have known at least some of the challenges ahead of time? This dissertation is the result of that quest, as we do know relatively little how this process of the innovation project leader unfolds over time. The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of how innovation project leaders lead their innovation journeys over time, and to capture those experiences that could be a source for others to learn from and to be better prepared. This research project takes a process approach. Such an approach is different from a variance study. Process thinking takes into account how and why things – people, organizations, strategies, environments – change, act and evolve over time, expressed by Andrew Pettigrew (1992, p.10) as catching “reality in flight”.
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Augmented reality (AR) mobile app advertising offers new opportunities for interactiveconsumer engagement to boost advertising effectiveness and elicit positive consumerresponses. In this study, we investigate the role of escapism by analyzing itsantecedents and consequences. We aim to shed light on how AR mobile app adver-tising can be used to enhance escapism experiences by considering two psychologicalmechanisms of mental imagery: narrative transportation (in response to ad storytelling)and spatial immersion. The consequences of escapism experiences include positivesocial media sharing, purchase intentions through brand attitudes, and new brandengagement via AR mobile app advertising. Prior brand preference does not affect therelationship between escapism and consumer responses after exposure to immersiveAR advertising. Our findings have meaningful implications for how industrypractitioners can enhance escapism in the context of AR mobile app advertising.
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In view of the 75th commemoration of the liberation of World War II, Visit Brabant asked BUas to connect the main heritage locations in the province through storytelling in order to attract more visitors.In 2015, we developed a narrative concept entitled “Crossroads. Life changing stories 40-45”. In 2016, we developed a brand guide which explains storytelling guidelines. In collaboration with Brabant Heritage and Brabant Remembers, in 2017-208, 15 meetings were organized all over the province to collect personal WWII narratives. From over 600 narratives, together with a group of historians, we selected 75 narratives. Under our guidance, these 75 narratives have been rewritten into Crossroads stories by some 20 different authors. Brabant Remembers has launched a marketing campaign and (digital and physical) experiences based on these stories. The aim is to touch visitors and local people emotionally with personal stories from the past, and to offer new ways of interacting with these stories, especially for young people.WhenThe project has been running since 2015. We currently play an advisory role in the development of the Brabant Remembers app (for example augmented reality videos), and in physical products such as the Dilemma Maze and the Stilllevens of Studio Verdult.Partners: Visit Brabant, Brabant Remembers, Erfgoed Brabant, Stichting Crossroads
Despite Dutch Hospitality industry’s significant economic value, employers struggle to attract and retain early career professionals at a time when tourism is forecasted to grow exponentially (Ruël, 2018). Universally, hospitality management graduates are shunning hospitality careers preferring other career paths; stimulating the Dutch Hospitality to find innovative ways of attracting and retaining early career professionals. Following calls from the Human Resource Management (HRM) community (Ehnert, 2009), we attribute this trend to personnel being depicted as rentable resources, driving profit’’ often at personal expense. For example, hotels primarily employ immigrants and students for a minimum wage suppressing salaries of local talent (Kusluvan, et al 2010, O’Relly and Pfeffer, 2010). Similarly, flattening organizational structures have eliminated management positions, placing responsibility on inexperienced shoulders, with vacancies commonly filled by pressured employees accepting unpaid overtime jeopardizing their work life balance (Davidson, et al 2010,). These HRM practices fuel attrition by exposing early career professionals to burnout (Baum et al, 2016, Goh et al, 2015, Deery and Jog, 2009). Collectively this has eroded the industry’s employer brand, now characterized by unsocial working hours, poor compensation, limited career opportunities, low professional standing, high turnover and substance abuse (Mooney et al, 2016, Gehrels and de Looij, 2011). In contrast, Sustainable HRM “enables an organizational goal achievement while simultaneously reproducing the human resource base over a long-lasting calendar time (Ehnert, 2009, p. 74).” Hence, to overcome this barrier we suggest embracing the ROC framework (Prins et al, 2014), which (R)espects internal stakeholders, embraces an (O)pen HRM approach while ensuring (C)ontinuity of economic and societal sustainability which could overcome this barrier. Accordingly, we will employ field research, narrative discourse, survey analysis and quarterly workshops with industry partners, employees, union representatives, hotel school students to develop sustainable HRM practices attracting and retaining career professionals to pursue Dutch hospitality careers.
