Tag: travel

Back to the Front: Improving Guest Experiences at The Langham, Hong Kong

By Michael Oshins While classroom interactions, readings, group projects and homework can help students develop new insights and understanding, nothing beats experience for the ultimate learning opportunity. With that in mind, Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration developed Tourism in China, a class that strikes a balance, with classroom learning provided for the first seven […]

Roman Ways: The Endurance of Patterns in Travel and Hospitality from Antiquit

By Bradford Hudson A popular cultural narrative suggests that hospitality chains are a product of modern America. Although it seems clear that multi-unit hotel and restaurant brands proliferated in the United States during the twentieth century, historical research demonstrates that the phenomenon is actually much older. The origins of hospitality chains can be traced back […]

The Fall and Rise of the Travel Agent

By Stephen Jermanok In 1990, I left my job as a broker in Manhat­tan, booked an open-ended ticket to the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia, and wrote my first travel story, “Dining with the Descendants of Cannibals on a Fijian Is­land” for the Miami Herald. It would prove to be the start of a […]

The Current State of the New England Lodging Market: New England Falls Short of the Nation in RevPAR Growth in 2013

By Rachel Roginsky and Matthew Arrants Revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the New England region grew 5.2 percent compared to growth of 5.4 percent for the country as a whole. However, there is still plenty of good news: The region was only slightly behind in terms of RevPAR, exceeding the national growth rate for […]

Still Searching for Excellence

By Bradford Hudson Three decades ago, American industry was obsessed with quality management. Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman helped create the enthusiasm during this era with their best-selling book In Search of Excellence. Although the subsequent quality movement was quite successful in the manufacturing sector, it has been less successful in services. Indeed, there is […]

The Ethic of Hospitality

By Christopher Muller Hospitality : n. friendly and generous reception of guests or strangers, or of new ideas. –The Concise Oxford Dictionary The idea of hospitality is evident in several types of human behavior including obligatory duties, commercial activity, and prosocial action. These are intertwined and revolve around the commitment to caring for others whether […]

An Important Arrival: The Anatomy of a Vintage Advertisement

By Bradford Hudson The advertisement for American Airlines that is reproduced on the following pages appeared in national magazines in late 1957. It is a two-page centerfold color spread depicting a couple arriving at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston, after a flight on American Airlines. The discussion below provides a deconstruction and analysis of its […]