Hospitality beyond the commercial domain: A triadic conceptualisation of hospitality in tourism from a host-guest encounter perspective

Abstract

The concept of hospitality and hospitableness in tourism has been predominantly defined from a service encounter perspective, as a dyadic, service provider-receiver relationship in a commercial hospitality setting. However, a critical review of hospitality discourses from a range of disciplinary areas leads to a broader conceptual understanding of hospitality in tourism contexts. This critical review proposes a context-bound and place related understanding of hospitality in tourism, by highlighting the limitations of the commercial service encounter perspective, by offering a conceptual model that seeks a more culturally diversified understanding of hospitality in tourism from an Asian and indigenous perspective. The implications of this approach lie in the positioning of hospitality in a tourism environment to identify the social and cultural nexus between tourism and hospitality, en route to finding ways to enhance hospitable tourism experiences.