Enterprise architecture model: an approach proposition. A case study of information systems in the hospitality industry

This paper discusses the role of enterprise architecture representation, in the context of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) information systems, as an instrument for an organization to reflect on itself and develop its business strategies and respective alignment with Information Systems. The paper proposes a representation model of enterprise architecture, as a tool for recommending good practices, and it emerges from a case study undertaken in the context of and investigation on advantages and limitations of ERP systems in the hospitality industry. The proposed approach is also inspired on other academic or market propositions suitable for the objectives of the investigation. It consists on a set of items representing the steps that must be taken by top managers and IS managers.

Competitive destination analysis in Southern European countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the competitiveness of the European Union Member States of Southern Europe (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) as tourist destinations for European Union Member States of Central and Northern Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and the UK). Design/methodology/approach – Application of the market share analysis tool, initially developed by Faulkner, using secondary data from Eurostat – statistical office of the European communities. Findings – The results obtained show that France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain present distinct levels of competitiveness for the various generating countries, with changes having occurred in the period between 1999 and 2007. Originality/value – The paper offers refreshment of Faulkner's tool and an insight into tourist flows in Europe as a tool for tourism and hospitality managers.

Golf destinations' brand personality: the case of the Algarve

The purpose of this research is to develop and validate a measurement scale to assess golf destinations’ brand personality and therefore to perceive the destination personality of the Algarve as a golf destination. Based on literature review on human personality, brand personality, destination brand image and marketing scales validation procedures, an initial 36 unrepeated items were the base for a survey instrument. Those items were generated from the literature, from the results of individual interviews with experts in tourism and golf in the Algarve and from promotional texts in golf- related websites. After content validation, the items were allocated into categories of attributes by a panel of expert judges. A survey was then applied to a convenient sample of 600 golf players in the Algarve, and 545 (valid) questionnaires were analysed to refine the scale. Golf players assessed the components of the relational brand personality (functional, symbolic and experiential) as well as the Algarve as a golf destination. A taxonomy of brand personality was developed and tested in the Algarve as it is recognized as one of the world best golf destination. The developed taxonomy of brand personality was assessed in two ways: 1) through the overall perception of the Algarve as a golf destination and 2) through the perception of specific attributes of the destination grouped into three main categories (functional, symbolic and experiential). Therefore, two multi-dimensional brand personality models were estimated by using structural equation modelling. Findings of this study indicate that golf players ascribe personality characteristics to destinations. The brand personality of the Algarve is translated into three main dimensions enjoyableness, distinctiveness and friendliness when tourists/golf players reveal their overall perception of the destination. The brand personality of golf destination Algarve is reflected in the dimensions reliability, hospitality, uniqueness and attractiveness when tourists assess the components of the relational brand personality. Refined scales consisting of 10 and 12 items were finally derived meeting both reliability and validity requirements. This study does not replicate Aaker’s (1997) personality dimensions and very little parallelism can be drawn with Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale since only three items from her scale were validated in both models: friendly and cheerful, (sincerity), reliable (competence). The same is verified concerning the ‘Big-five’. The human personality traits (HPT) validated to describe golf destinations personality are only four helpful, pleasant (agreeableness), relaxed (emotional stability), and innovative (intellect or openness). As far as destination image descriptors (DID) are concerned, the items appealing, relaxed and safe were validated, while traits suggested by the interviews and website promotional texts such as calm, natural, spectacular, unique, welcoming, and the best (destination-specific traits) appear to be appropriate to describe the personality of a golf destination. The results suggest that the overall perception of the Algarve´s brand personality is described by the dimensions enjoyableness, distinctiveness and friendliness. Moreover, the relational perspective revealed that the functional attributes of the destination are described by the dimension reliablility, while the symbolic attributes are described by the dimensions hospitablility and uniqueness and finally its experiential attributes are described by the dimension attractiveness. These results show that a golf destination´s brand personality should not just be based on good golf practices. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the context of destination brand personality.

Crieff Hydro Hotel: the experience economy and the guest perspective

The purpose of this report is to do a presentation of the hotel where I will be working, characterising the reception department and all the activities that I developed during this placement. On this placement at the CHH (Crieff Hydro Hotel) – family 4 stars resort, my goal is to have an experience in hospitality, in special in reception. This placement is carried out from my Master degree in Direcção e Gestão Hoteleira (Commercial branch) at the University of the Algarve – Campus Penha. For this report it was also intended to do an analysis of the guest experience in hospitality and for that it was necessary to do a literature review adequate for my area of work in the hotel giving importance to the guest experience in the hospitality. For my analysis regarding the guest experience in hospitality, I used data collected from the surveys answered by the guests that stayed with us in the hotel. To analyse the data it was necessary to do a categorial analysis technique. After this year of placement in the hotel and after this analysis, as results I have the opportunity to continue my work in the hotel and also the possibility of a better position in a near future. Last but not least, this report demonstrates my work path and also helps to have a better understanding of the satisfaction perceived by the guest in order to give us tools to improve it. From what we can see, the guests’ satisfaction is highly rated on both surveys.

Framework for the characterization of hotel websites

Nowadays the importance of websites to the tourism and hospitality industries is fundamental. Hotels, for instance, spend a huge amount of money improving their websites to show all the activities and amenities that they can provide. There are studies to evaluate website performance based on functionality, usability and other factors; nevertheless, they are not exhaustive. This paper presents a framework for the characterization of hotel and resort websites, that was applied as a case study to the websites of 5-star hotels and resorts that operate in the tourism region of the Algarve, Portugal. This framework allows us to identify a set of features for the hotel and resort websites characterization. From these features, we propose a set of comprehensive indicators, grouping them into ten fundamental information dimensions, as well as the application of these indicators and information dimensions, which allows obtaining quantitative and qualitative results.

Big data warehouse framework for smart revenue management

Revenue Management’s most cited definitions is probably “to sell the right accommodation to the right customer, at the right time and the right price, with optimal satisfaction for customers and hoteliers”. Smart Revenue Management (SRM) is a project, which aims the development of smart automatic techniques for an efficient optimization of occupancy and rates of hotel accommodations, commonly referred to, as revenue management. One of the objectives of this project is to demonstrate that the collection of Big Data, followed by an appropriate assembly of functionalities, will make possible to generate a Data Warehouse necessary to produce high quality business intelligence and analytics. This will be achieved through the collection of data extracted from a variety of sources, including from the web. This paper proposes a three stage framework to develop the Big Data Warehouse for the SRM. Namely, the compilation of all available information, in the present case, it was focus only the extraction of information from the web by a web crawler – raw data. The storing of that raw data in a primary NoSQL database, and from that data the conception of a set of functionalities, rules, principles and semantics to select, combine and store in a secondary relational database the meaningful information for the Revenue Management (Big Data Warehouse). The last stage will be the principal focus of the paper. In this context, clues will also be giving how to compile information for Business Intelligence. All these functionalities contribute to a holistic framework that, in the future, will make it possible to anticipate customers and competitor’s behavior, fundamental elements to fulfill the Revenue Management

Guest reputation indexes to analyze hotel’s online reputation using data extracted from OTAs

Nowadays many travelers use online travel agency (OTAs) to book flights, hotel rooms, rent-a-cars, cruises or entire vacation packages. Usually OTAs allow their users to give scores and to write reviews about what was used. Each OTA defines the terms and conditions for guest rating or review score and hoteliers are giving increasing importance to the scores and reviews their guests do in OTAs. This paper proposes two guest reputation index to help hoteliers to monitorize their presence in OTAs. The Aggregated Guest Reputation Index (AGRI), which shows the positioning of a hotel in different OTAs and it is calculated from the scores obtained by the hotels in those OTAs. Another one, the Semantic Guest Reputation Index (SGRI), which incorporates the social reputation of a hotel and that can be visualized through the development of word clouds or tag clouds. Examples of usage of these indexes are given with data extracted from 5-stars hotels in the Algarve, south region of Portugal, that are available on Booking and Expedia.