Hotel In Town Research Articles

Letter to the Editor

In his review of my book Labor Pioneers: Economy, Labor, and Migration in Filipino-Danish Relations 1950–2015, Frank Caestecker misguides the reader in the first sentence. He states, “Filipino migration to Denmark (and Europe) can be split into two different flows: labor migration and marriage migration” (Labor 18:1). That may be the reviewer's analytical position, but it is not mine. In the book I argue explicitly against this categorization. Those who came in 1960–73 called themselves the Filipino Pioneers, and the majority carried or obtained shortly after arrival work and residence permits tied to their own person—not to an employer or spouse. From 1974, when Danish authorities implemented a so-called immigration stop, it became increasingly difficult for Philippine citizens to migrate in the same way. The easiest way to gain legal access to the Danish labor market became to marry someone with Danish citizenship or permanent residence. Does that make the post-1974 arrivals marriage migrants?In my view, that term obscures realities. Labor Pioneers shows that most post-1974 arrivals, just like the Pioneers, came in the search of a more prosperous and secure life for themselves—and often their (extended) families. Many found work in the same workplaces as the Pioneers. In the 1990s, a new legal opportunity to enter Denmark without having to marry opened to Filipinas/os: the au pair scheme, where young people live and work in a private household doing “chores” in exchange for accommodation and an “allowance.” Many of these migrants continued to move from one temporary permit to another in several European countries, but some married in Denmark, which was one of the few ways they could prolong their legal stay. Does that make them marriage migrants?The reviewer goes on to say that “the marriage migrant is only mentioned when these mostly female partners of Danish citizens become active on the labor market and interact with Filipino labor migrants.” This implies that there are Filipina “marriage migrants” who do not “become active on the labor market.” In my experience—having interviewed dozens of migrants from various arrival periods, having done participant observation and collected vast numbers of empirical materials from individuals and organizations—few, if any, migrants come without a plan to work and earn. What structurally changed over time were not the motivations for migrating (even if every individual has their own story) but the conditions for entering, residing, and working legally in Denmark. The implications of this reconfiguration of labor migration are explored in my book from various perspectives, one of them being life stories—which the reviewer finds much too detailed.The lack of appreciation for details is also reflected in the facts that the reviewer gets wrong. To take but two examples, Caestecker states that forty-nine Filipinas were recruited in 1973 to a Danish hotel “through a state agency.” They were not, for the simple reason that this agency was only established a year later. Most of “the 49ers” had been recommended by Filipina/o workers already residing in Denmark and working at other hotels in town. However, a couple had been referred by Philippine labor officials, and a woman from Department of Labor escorted the group to Copenhagen, leading me to investigate state involvement in labor export prior to the establishment of Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB; precursor to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration). I unravel this part of the story through both oral history and archival studies using materials in the Philippines and Denmark that to my knowledge have not been explored before. This apparently escaped the reviewer, who claims that my “empirical material is mainly based on oral sources.” The reviewer also states that after 1975, “labor migration from the Philippines did not resume until the late 1990s.” This is of course wrong, and an entire chapter describes specifically how migration continued despite the formal ban (including how the OEDB continued to deploy workers to Denmark).The reviewer ends by regretting that I did not make a comparative European study rather than focusing on “the Danish case,” thus ignoring extensive references to other Nordic countries and the European context more broadly. It is not, however, a comparative study, which I do not disagree might be interesting and useful. What I disagree with is the reviewer's idea that a study paying equal attention to all parts of Europe could be completed with “little additional effort.” In 1975, Europe was the destination of one in every four temporary Filipino migrants, and today it is home to around a million Filipinos. Labor Pioneers is a small contribution to this enormous—and largely unexplored—field. May ample future efforts be put into excavating this rich part of labor and migration history.

Differentiation strategy, firm structure and performance of star rated hotels

It is estimated that emerging economies will get over 1 billion international tourists by the year 2030. Strategic management researchers have severally recommended credible research in the area of strategy-structure coalignment in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of differentiation strategy-firm structure coalignment on performance of star rated hotels in Kenya. This study adopted positivism research philosophy and a descriptive-correlative research design. The population consisted of general managers and functional managers from Kenya’s three, four and five star rated vacation and town hotels as at 2018. Multi-stage sampling that included proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling was used. 267 hotel managers were sampled out of which 253 managers responded. The extent to which the hotels were pursuing differentiation strategy was measured by an analysis of the responses to the multi-item Likert scale questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing. The study concluded that differentiation strategy-firm structure coalignment has no significant influence on performance of star rated hotels in Kenya. The study however revealed that differentiation strategy directly and positively affects hotel performance. This study recommends hotel managers to pursue a differentiation strategy that sets their hotel apart from others as this has direct positive effects on the performance of hotels.

Focus strategy-firm structure fit and performance of star rated hotels in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of focus strategy-firm structure fit on the performance of star-rated hotels in Kenya. The study adopted the positivism research philosophy and descriptive-correlative research design. Multi-stage sampling that included proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling was used. The sample consisted of 267 general managers and functional managers from Kenya’s three, four and five star rated vacation and town hotels as in 2018. 253 managers responded out of which 59 respondents were found to represent hotels pursuing a focus strategy. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing. The study concluded that focus strategy-firm structure fit has a significant influence on the performance of star-rated hotels in Kenya. The study recommends that a hotel’s pursuit of focus strategy be internally consistent with its organizational structure.

The impact of work-related risk factors on the development of neck and upper limb pain among low wage hotel housekeepers in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia: institution-based cross-sectional study

BackgroundMusculoskeletal disorders are a major source of disability accounting for considerable economic loss globally. Studies showed that housekeepers suffer from exposure to many high-risk factors for neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. In Ethiopia, little is known and the information is limited in scope about the magnitude of the problem among hotel housekeepers. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of the neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders and identify the associated risk factors among hotel housekeepers.MethodsInstitution-based cross-sectional study design was employed from March 1 to May 20, 2017. Systematic random sampling was used to select 422 study participants among the Gondar town hotels, Ethiopia. The standardized Nordic questionnaire for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms was used to measure the neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. The significance level was obtained at 95% CI and p value ≤ 0.05.ResultsThe overall magnitude of a self-reported neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders among hotel housekeepers in the last 12 months was 62.8% (95% CI 58.3, 67.8). The main body areas of concern were neck pain (50.7%), shoulder pain (54%), elbow/forearm (47.2%), and hand/wrist (45.5%). Age, rest break taken, repetitive movement, reaching/overstretching, organization concern for health and safety, and job satisfaction were the risk factors significantly associated with neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders.ConclusionsA higher proportion of hotel housekeepers were found to be affected by neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in Gondar town. Repetitive movement and reaching/overstretching were strongly associated risk factors with neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore, ergonomic, organizational and personal measures, which focus on minimizing repetitive movement and awkward working position and facilitating rest break with exercise, are important to tackle neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders among hotel housekeepers.

Information Sharing, Cooperative Behaviour and Hotel Performance: A Survey of the Kenyan Hospitality Industry

Information sharing is the life blood of supply chain collaboration. Its role in achieving operational performance of supply chains has been widely acclaimed. However whether information sharing would result in improved performance in the context of the hospitality industry has not been empirically determined. This study sought to find out the role of information sharing on hotel performance when the relationship was mediated by cooperative behaviour. A survey design was employed where proportionate stratified sampling was used to select 50 out of 57 town hotels. Data was collected through the use of questionnaires as well interview guides to the procurement\supply chain departments of these hotels. Logarithmic transformations were used in conjunction with multiple regression analysis to determine the relationship between information sharing, cooperative behaviour and hotel performance. The study concludes that information sharing in the Kenyan hospitality industry does not directly relate to hotel performance. Its relationship is mediated by cooperative behaviour (trust and attitude) with supply chain partners. This suggests that information sharing is essential but insufficient by itself to bring significant performance improvements in hotels in the Kenyan hospitality industry. A possible reason for this is that this collaborative practice is highly dependent on information sharing capability, structure of the information as well as culture. Through quadrant analysis the study identifies and recommends the sharing of information about long term strategic plans and events such as entering new markets and acquiring a new customer base as an area of primary priority for improvement.

Introduction: Milk Lipid Synthesis: Chain Length Determination and Secretory Differentiation

In 1967 Stuart Smith and R. Watts, working with RayDils at the National Institute for Research in Dairying atReading, found that there was very little difference inthe fatty acid composition of the adipose tissue ofdifferent species, while in contrast milk fat had anaverage fatty acid chain length of 11.7 in rabbits, 14.2 inrats,15.3inmice,and17.2inguineapigs[1]. Smithand Dils had previously shown that fatty acids with achain length from 6 to 14 carbons could be synthesized bymammary tissue from lactating rabbits, making it clearthat de novo fatty acid synthesis in the mammary glanddiffered fundamentally from that in other organs [2].Evidence for an independent tissue specific factor in themammary gland that terminated chain elongation earlywas obtained in several laboratories [3]. By 1969 Smithhad moved to the Children’s Hospital Medical Center ofNorthCarolinatoworkwithSandyAbraham;bothheandRay Dils continued to work on this factor, which becameknown as thioesterase II. It was a difficult job, finallysuccessful in 1978 [4]. In the paper reproduced here, thepathway to purification of this factor as well as thegeneral mechanisms of fatty acid synthesis are described[5].Smith describes the circumstances under which hegave the talk at the 74th Annual Meeting of theAmerican Dairy Science in 1979 that resulted in thispublication: “That meeting, held on the campus of UtahStateUniversityinLogan,includedasymposiumonMilk Synthesis. I recall that Nick Kuhn from theUniversity of Birmingham, England, (my alma mater),also gave a talk on lactose synthesis. I don't remembermany details of the meeting except that I arrived at sunseton a small prop plane from Salt Lake City to find that thetiny airport was completely deserted, not a taxi in sight. Iwas rescued by the pilot of our plane who drove me in hiscar directly to my hotel in town. Now that's service youwill not find anywhere these days!”He goes on: “During the five year period leading upto the talk it was established that the animal fatty acidsynthase was a ‘multifunctional polypeptide’ in whichall of the enzymes of that biosynthetic pathway wereintegrated into a single polypeptide. Little did we knowthat it would take another 30 years before the detailedstructure of the complex would be established [6, 7].Nevertheless, at the time of the meeting in Logan, we hadcome to appreciate that all tissues use the same enzymesystem for de novo fatty acid biosynthesis (the fatty acidsynthase), regardless of the products made. In the case ofthe lactating mammary gland, the ability to makemedium-chain saturated fatty acids was dependent onthe presence of a tissue-specific thioesterase (termed‘thioesterase II’) that, remarkably, was able to interruptthe chain elongation process by accessing and hydrolyz-ing the thioester bond linking these intermediates to theprotein. We now know that the resident thioesterase(termed ‘thioesterase I’), which normally terminates chainelongation at 16 carbon atoms, is secured to its neighbor-ing domain by a relatively long flexible tether, whichpresumably allows it to be displaced by the externalthiosterase II thus allowing access to intermediate chainlength intermediates. Nevertheless, the details of how thisis achieved are still to be worked out.”One of the next big questions is how the activity ofthis enzyme is regulated. There is increasing evidence at

Poetry in Theory

When my wife and I went to Guatemala in 1975 for our honeymoon, our eyes were opened to novel states of affairs. Money, for instance, was not continuous, but was kept in place only sporadically and with the broadest hints of violence. In Guatemala City, sixteenyear-old Mayan kids in army camouflage with submachine guns were stationed on every street corner where there was a bank. But the local remained thoroughly distant from any would-be universal. An elderly middle-aged Mayan man at a market outside the capital balked rather indignantly when I gave him a paper bill to pay for the chair we had agreed I would buy; the woman at the stand next to him urged him to accept the money saying. Se sirve! (It-paper money-works! It works!) Nor was geography continuous. Knowledge of the country was both guarded and somewhat fantastic. It was impossible to obtain a map of the interior (guerrilla trouble). We spent one long afternoon negotiating our way into a bureaucratic building where, after signing our names in a notebook, we were allowed a glimpse at some antique maps that, in my memory at least, verged on watercolors. We hooked up with a Chinese archeologist from Iowa State who directed us to Sayache, which we reached after a six-hour busride and a trip across the Uxamachinto River in a mahogany dugout. There was one hotel in town, owned by a man who was also mayor, judge, and, clearly, king. He joined us for dinner. In the dining room we saw an old map that showed Guatemala with a large bulge stretching northeast to the Gulf of Mexico. The longlasting territorial dispute between Guatemala and Britain that resulted in the creation of British Honduras, which then became Belize, had been finally resolved, at least on this framed print which showed Belize as fully dissolved into Guatemala. When I asked the mayor about the map he replied that Belize belonged to Guatemala, had always been part of Guatemala. In response to some tentative question of mine about negotiation or tactics, he said of Belize,

A social impact assessment approach using the reference group as the standard of impact analysis: The case of hana: Hawaiians and the proposed golf course

This article looks at an indigenous rural Hawaiian community's response to the building of a proposed golf course to save the economic viability of the only hotel in town. Two methodologies were used for data analysis. The social resources of the Hawaiian community were identified in order to determine their impacts. The social resources of the community were ascertained employing the social resource unit, a qualitative methodology appropriate for group design. Impacts were determined by the group using the mind-mapping technique. This approach allows for total group participation. These two procedures work together to identify the social resources of the existing community, how the people use the site, and the perceived impacts of the proposed project. The reference group, in this case the Hawaiians, was the standard of impact analysis. The social resources they listed became the standard of evaluation in respect to the impacts they perceived.

The Death of a Railroad Town: Boyhood Memories

The Death of a Railroad Town: Boyhood Memories by Clifford Amyx As one who grew up in a railroad town it has always seemed tragic to me that America has lost nearly all the great trains. The huge steam locomotives , romantic and nearly terrible in power, are gone, and would now be considered polluters and health hazards. The many passenger trains which brought new and colorful people to the small towns were the principal excitement at Livingston, Kentucky, on the Rockcastle River, where I grew up. Very close to the original "Wilderness Road," and to the traces carved out by 48 Daniel Boone and the bare roads established by the early settlers, Livingston was once the terminus of the L&N Railroad , at the end of the Lebanon Branch, originating in Louisville. As capital was available, the work progressed and the railroad crossed the Rockcastle River in 1881 and went on southward. The road divided at Corbin, some 40 miles south of Livingston, one branch forming the Cumberland Valley division into the coalfields and the other going south across the Tennessee line to Knoxville and Atlanta. It was still later than 1881 that the Kentucky Central Railroad came south to join the L&N at Sinks, on Roundstone Creek, some three miles north of Livingston . Livingston then became the junction of what was later to be three principal divisions of the L&N. During the First World War it was a very busy town and in order to handle the interchange traffic the railroad was double-tracked between Sinks and Livingston as early as 1907. At the time there were double coal tipples at Livingston, three water tanks for engines, yards for making up trains, or shunting cars onto already made up trains, car repair shops, a "roundhouse" for engine repair, a wye for turning engines, two railroad hotels, a six-gable hotel in town and one at the wye-where my family lived for a while. In the railroad station the second floor was devoted to dispatchers' offices and railroad business; there were telegraphers at work around the clock, in three 'tricks." I was fascinated by the telegraph and the business of writing out orders for the trains. My friend, Pat Donnelly, a genial Irishman, would tell me what the wires were "saying," and allow me to scratch out orders before I could write. Near the beginning of World War I, when I was only six or seven, my father bought the home of Senator Bond, across the river, and during my first years at school I accompanied my father across the railroad bridge. The bridge was double-tracked and there was always the danger of getting caught between two trains; but we managed, and before too long I was able to cross by myself. The winter of 1918 was the winter of the so-called Spanish influenza epidemic, and my father, the only physician in town, went for months with very little sleep. My whole family was sick in bed at one time. It was a cold winter and when I was again on the way to school, with winds blowing across the bridge, I felt that I would be frozen to death. At our home across the river I could stand in my front yard, especially in summers, to see the trains halt just before the bridge, and the engine go into town for more coal and water. While the lead engine was there, a helper engine would back up to be coupled to the train, and then when the lead engine came back the two would belch black smoke and hiss white steam until they had a full head of steam and full power. I never felt the slightest fear of these huge engines , as William Ellerly Leonard did when he was young. (He later wrote the history of his trauma in The Locomotive God.) I felt that these engines were alive with power, and trains were an endless excitement to me. When I began to draw pictures, they were almost always of trains and engines. I would lie on the floor drawing trains for hours until the light was so dim I could hardly see. It did not occur to me then...

The hotel sector in Tanzania: A comparison of operating performance

A survey of international hotel accounts for 1976 in Tanzania shows considerable revenue and cost differences between town and holiday hotels. These differences are confirmed by comparisons of equivalent occupancy levels which show that higher revenue and profit are associated with higher operating costs. Town hotels generate more employment and value added, than holiday hotels, and as much foreign exchange, but at a greater use per unit of materials and services. There are also significant differences between state sector and non-state sector hotels. Should hotel-investment policy concentrate more on optimizing returns from town-hotel investments, rather than seeking to maximize returns from more risky holiday-hotel investments? These results should be of interest to tourism planners in several African countries.

Operation: Break Even

The last five years have produced a revolution in the traveling habits of the public that has created a crisis.... in some cases disaster.... to the thousands of small city and town hotels throughout the country. Lavish new motels, faster transportation, and in many cases lack of urban renewal (especially in parking) have all been con tributing factors of which we are well aware. Equally responsible, however, are the hotel owners and managers who have not "kept up with the times." Maintenance of physical property has, in many cases, been sadly neglected. And sound business judgment in the cutting of costs, rear rangement of services, and proper promotion and pricing have been definitely lacking. No doubt exists in our minds that we must exer cise extreme daily vigilance in operating the Mark Twain Hotel just to maintain "Operation: Break Even." In the coming years many small hotels will close their doors forever.... the result of lack of astute management and, of course, the ever-changing habits of the traveling public. Certainly it is our feeling that few if any hotels in smaller com munities will ever again be profitable from the standpoint of standard business investment. Yet, as an important adjunct to community living, these hotels should be maintained if they can meet the minimum standards of economic feasibility.