Search Results (5)

Health and wellness tourism is currently an emerging tourist product in the Portuguese context, as it incorporates a great potential to adapt to the challenges that the present time imposes. Given the emergence of new strategies aimed at more sustainable tourism and community development, Serra da Estrela, a Portuguese mountain region classified as a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2020, has been the subject of studies about its tourism potential. Such studies aim to deconstruct the general perception, which prevailed for decades, of a tourist landscape closely related to snow as the main resource. At the same time, as Serra da Estrela represents a rural region in the interior of the national territory, it benefited from its attractiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, this research aims to study the importance that health and wellness tourism can have for the Estrela UNESCO Global Geopark in its impact on the regional economy. To this end, based on the study case, we analyze the thermal frequency in the resorts of the territory and indicators relating to tourist resorts with a spa component that exist in the region: accommodation capacity, the number of jobs, the number of overnight stays and the difference between TRevPAR and RevPAR. This research allows us to conclude that the thermal frequency has adapted to the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the analyzed tourist resorts show resilience in the face of external demand shocks. Full article

The main goal of this article is to assess the functioning of hotels during the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis was carried out on the basis of selected Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in hotels in Polish cities (Kraków; Poznań; Tri-City: Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot; Warsaw; Wrocław). The time range of the analysis covers the whole period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland (March 2020–February 2022) with data for 2019—before the outbreak of the pandemic. The analysis of the collected results of OCC, ADR, and RevPAR generally indicates instability of the basic economic indicators dependent not only on the demand limited by the pandemic restrictions but also on the type of tourism prevailing in individual cities. There is a difference between the hotel industry in cities, based mainly on foreign guests and business tourism, and the hotel industry in tourist/coastal regions, which are dominated by leisure tourism. During the greatest restrictions, hotels in Poland recorded huge drops in KPIs: a 95% drop in OCC and RevPAR. It was also found that the instability of demand during the pandemic and rapid changes in the values of the indicators prove the need for greater use of KPI benchmarks. Full article

Hotel chains are reported as one of the most energy-intensive sectors and a growing number of international studies on this theme have been developed. This research aims to understand energy use and some of its key factors in hotel chains worldwide. Data were collected on variables related to previous research and those present in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. The sample was composed by 45 international hotel chains, representing more than 54,000 properties and 7,500,000 rooms. Multiple linear regression was employed to assess how the predictor variables (water use, carbon intensity, RevPAR, and NetRoom) are associated with energy use (dependent variable). It was presented that hotel chains can pass on the price of energy consumption to their guests, increasing their revenue per available room (RevPAR), but the returns in profitability are not being generated. The RevPAR variable maintained a positive relationship, +0.244, with energy use in the first regression model, with R² adjusted equal to 0.9506, while the net profit per room (NetRoom) presented a negative relationship in both models, −0.0006 and −0.0010, respectively, with R² adjusted equal to 0.9304 in the second model. Investing in updating their energy systems, hotel chains can contribute to a more sustainable future, build positive marketing, retain guests, and generate a long-run financial return. This research contributes to the scientific literature by confirming relationships and providing evidence among new, and not yet explored, variables. It is expected to create a reference for policies to reduce energy use in hotels and for hotel owners to upgrade their systems. Full article

The main goal of the article is to describe the short-term impacts of reported new cases and deaths of the COVID-19 disease on hotels’ performances in the nine major Polish urban hotel markets: Kraków, Warszawa, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Lublin, Łódź, Katowice, and Sopot. Time range of the analysis covers the period from January 5, 2020 (the beginning of the very first week when the COVID-19 cases were evidenced) to March 14, 2020 (the initial phase of lockdown was introduced by the Polish government). Various geographical contexts of the COVID-19 impacts are considered: national, European, and global. Generalized method of moments was applied to investigate the influence of reported COVID-19 cases (deaths) on both occupancy and revenue per available room. The results show that the most significant, negative impact of the pandemic on hotel performances is confirmed at the European level of the COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, the negative influence of national cases of COVID-19 is more significant in less internationalized (or less-populated) urban destinations. Thus, the hotel industry (especially in the most internationalized, biggest Polish cities) might be recovered only when issues of the COVID-19 epidemic will be solved at the European level. Full article

The research into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been prolific in the last years, although few studies have focused their attention on studying its relationship with economic performance within the hotel industry, even less incorporating marketing variables as a result. This work aims to determine the relationship between the implementation of CSR policies and their influence on the Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) in Spanish hotels, through marketing variables. A quantitative methodology was conducted using an online survey, gathering a sample of 230 hotel managers from Spain. The results of the structural model analyzed reveal that CSR has a discreet but significant role for understanding how marketing variables and RevPAR operate. CSR has a direct impact on RevPAR, but it also influences it indirectly through marketing variables. Therefore, CSR arises as a fundamental strategy to improve the results of the hotel sector in the long term. Full article