Exploring the hospitality-tourism nexus: Directions and questions for past and future research

Abstract

Hospitality has often been conceived primarily as a supporting component of the tourism product. This commentary synthesises inter and multidisciplinary literature to examine alternative and more complex intersections of hospitality and tourism. It discusses four thematic areas of hospitality research: labour; the transformation of place (experiences); socio-material and socio-technological practice; and human encounters. It argues that applying hospitality as a sensitising concept in these domains of enquiry, and studying hospitality’s abstract and concrete dimensions, enhances our understanding of tourism as socio-economic phenomena and a global system, and helps to appreciate tourism’s implications for multiple stakeholders. Moreover, it proposes a range of questions for future research.

Hospitality

“…Food, drink, or accommodation, supplied to meet basic human needs, may require minimal or no interaction between staff and customers. Therefore, provision may not involve embodied performances of hospitality or hospitableness (Lugosi, 2014).…”

“…The diverse forms and dimensions of hospitality, and the multiple social and commercial contexts in which it emerges, have resulted in it being studied from different perspectives, all of which are relevant to tourism. These can be summarized into three broad groups: applied business and management; the social sciences, particularly from the disciplines of anthropology, geography, and sociology; and humanities, including philosophy, politics and history (Lugosi, 2014).…”

“…Hospitality can be considered as a part of the tourism system, consisting of people and organizations providing accommodation, food and drink-related services, and experiences to tourists at destinations, attractions, and as they move between them and their places of origin (Lugosi, 2021;Page, 2019). Framed this way, hospitality can be thought of as a series of mundane functional supporting activities in tourism.…”

“…Destination marketing may also consider how specific hospitality venues, which may include hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, clubs, or other leisure/entertainment venues, can be used to position and differentiate destinations or generally be used in place promotion. Marketing communications in tourism may also "represent" host populations and landscapes as being welcoming and hospitable, thus creating certain preconceptions and expectations for tourists (Lugosi, 2021).…”

“…This discourse of hospitableness is not limited to frontline employees in hotels or foodservice outlets. Workers in supporting sectors of transportation and retail, and members of the public are also compelled to be helpful, patient, and friendly toward tourists, which often causes tensions (Lugosi, 2014(Lugosi, , 2021.…”