Purpose This study aims to provide researchers in hospitality management with a comprehensive understanding of the experience sampling method (ESM) and to engage them in the use of ESM in their future research. With this critical discussion of the advantages and challenges of the method, researchers can apply it appropriately to deepen and broaden their research findings. Design/methodology/approach This study chooses an empirical example in the context of hotel employees’ surface acting, tiredness and sleep quality to illustrate the application of ESM. Based on the example, this paper conducts a two-level modeling in Mplus, including a cross-level mediation analysis and mean centering. Findings This paper demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of ESM for hospitality research and provides a detailed demonstration of how to use the statistical program Mplus to analyze ESM data. With this paper, researchers will be able to consider how to engage ESM in their future studies. Originality/value To the best of the authors‘ knowledge, this paper is among the first to provide a hands-on demonstration of ESM to hospitality researchers. The authors call for more research in hospitality management to use ESM to answer complex and pressing research questions.

Purpose This research aims to explore the strategies and tactics taken by five-star hotels to create and sustain competitiveness at difficult times, the role of innovation among the initiatives taken and the factors that influence managers’ decision in selection of coping measures. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage focused on textual analysis of online news reports on luxury hotels’ coping strategies taken between 2013 and 2018. At the second stage, expert interviews were carried out with 25 managers of five-star hotels to obtain richer information of hotels’ responsive measures. The qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis. Findings The results revealed that five-star hotels in China made adjustment in physical resource management, human resource management, marketing mix, operation process and external relations to maintain competitiveness during difficult times. A model of hotel resilience was developed based on the findings. Innovation was imbedded in the responsive measures throughout these areas. Managers’ selection of coping measures was affected by the hotel’s organizational culture, location, brand image and competitors. Practical implications The model of hotel resilience serves as a useful reference to plan and select strategies and tactics to respond to similar external challenges. Hotel managers are recommended to embrace a variety of innovations directed at both internal management and customer service during challenging times. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical research that systematically examines the measures taken by hotels during critical times to maintain competitiveness, linking these to contemporary post-Fordist operational trends.

This study investigates the motivation configuration of bluxury tourism behavior. According to complexity theory and push and pull motivation theory, we establish a framework of complex configuration conditions, including push forces, pull forces, and constraints that lead to bluxury tourism. Based on fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we identified seven main motivation configurations of bluxury tourism behavior covering three core factors: physical factors, seeking/exploration in push forces, and intangible factors in pull forces. In addition, combinations of constraints in the configuration demonstrate various paths leading to bluxury tourism behavior. These findings provide unique insight into bluxury tourism participation.

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A large number of symbolic and cultural elements have been included by designers in their photographing and creation of images for tourist destinations. However, the personal visual experiences of those with professional knowledge cannot fully recognize or evaluate ordinary tourists’ identification with tourism rituals. Thus, in this article, potential Chinese tourists will be treated as the research subjects and New Zealand tourism photos as the ritual carriers. In this study, we explore the use of images representing tourism rituals recognized by tourists, and we investigate how the cognitive outcome of those rituals affects the tourists’ intention to travel to the destination. By measuring the participants’ visual parameters, the study shows that images can effectively transfer a solidified sense of ritual. Meanwhile, through a comprehensive classification, the study deepens the theory of ritual tourism. Ultimately, this work explores whether tourists’ perception of rituals can effectively stimulate their motivation to travel.