Purpose This study aims to test the effect of system quality, information quality and service quality on user engagement and its effect on smartphone travel apps’ satisfaction, love and behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach Using the self-selection sampling technique, data was collected from 417 respondents recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data was subjected to partial least squares based structural equation modeling. Findings Results indicate that system quality, information quality and service quality have a significantly positive impact on user engagement with smartphone travel apps. Moreover, user engagement has a positive and significant impact on smartphone app satisfaction, smartphone app love and behavioral intentions. Originality/value This is the first study to integrate DeLone and McLean (2003) updated information system success model and stimulus-organism-response model to propose a holistic model of user’s engagement with smartphone travel apps.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the characteristics of good hospitality managers and the core causes that lead to developing such characteristics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative inquiry approach, 93 line-level hospitality employees were surveyed online regarding their experiences about the characteristics of good managers.FindingsThe research findings revealed five key themes of good managerial characteristics, including interpersonal skills, communication skills, supervisory skills, leadership skills, and positive personality and professionalism. Additionally, the root causes of these managerial characteristics were also analyzed. The good managerial characteristics were perceived to have developed from having worked under either a great manager or a terrible manager.Research limitations/implicationsThis study advanced the literature on managerial characteristics by confirming several existing categories from the viewpoint of hospitality industry employees.Practical implicationsHuman resource managers should be considerate of these findings in terms of recruitment, hiring, and training, development, and promotion of employees in their companies.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to analyze the perceived reasons behind the development of these characteristics.

The tourism industry strongly contributes to the gross domestic product of many countries. An important aspect of the tourism industry is the security of tourists and its connection to the overall tourism security of a country or tourist location. It is essential to identify vulnerable areas and require security improvements within the tourism industry. This study aims to identify security gaps in the Mediterranean city of Antalya from a tourist perspective. Tourists have been classified in this study as leisure tourists, business tourists, and special event tourists. The research identified expectations and perceptions gaps in the transportation sector, accommodation sector, airports, and public places of Antalya. Data was collected from a sample size of 551 tourists residing in 34 different countries in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Findings show gaps exist specifically in the levels of security of buses, hotels, airports, shopping malls, restaurants, tourist sites, and beaches of Antalya. The research also assessed the influence of tourists’ purpose of travel and country of residence on their expectations and perceptions of security in Antalya. The study ultimately identified gaps concerning the security of tourists visiting Antalya, and future studies can explore the issues related to these tourism industry’s components in which gaps exist.

PurposeThis empirical study uses the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework to examine the interrelationships amongst hotel websites and app quality, flow, telepresence, user engagement and booking intentions.Design/methodology/approachData from two different datasets, including users of hotel websites (N sample 1 = 257) and hotel mobile apps (N sample 2 = 292), were collected. Partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was used to test the research model.FindingsFindings indicate that the quality of the hotel websites and mobile apps positively influences telepresence, flow and engagement. Telepresence and flow positively affect the users booking intentions for both the samples. However, for hotel website users, engagement has a no-significant effect on booking intentions. Finally, telepresence has a non-significant effect on flow, and flow has a non-significant effect on engagement for both the users of hotel websites and mobile apps.Originality/valueThis study uses two datasets to understand how hotel booking channel (hotel website and mobile app) quality leads to booking intentions by tapping into telepresence, flow and engagement.

Customer delight is a concept that has recently gained momentum in consumer behavior, marketing, and hospitality literature. This study investigated the antecedents and subsequent of delight in a hospitality context. A meta-analysis was conducted, including 22 articles and producing 141 independent effect sizes. Results revealed a strong relationship between experiential context (service quality, physical environment, and authenticity), positive emotions, and surprise as antecedents of delight, with behavioral intentions, satisfaction, and loyalty as consequences of delight. Furthermore, gender was tested as a moderator, yielding a strong relationship between surprise and loyalty. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed as well as future research perspectives.