Drivers of Productivity Improvement in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: practice, research evidence and implications for teaching

Abstract

In this article, I seek to explain why the issue of productivity is so important to the tourism and hospitality industry, what research has contributed to our understanding of this, and what the implications of this are for management teaching. I argue that despite productivity’s importance and an increasing wealth of data, it seems we continue to know very little about how to manage productivity. I then explore two major ways in which productivity could be improved – through functional flexibility and the introduction of information technology – and what we have learned from research about these. And then look at labour scheduling and the potential of research in this area. The article concludes with some thoughts about how tourism and hospitality management should be taught in relation to the issue of productivity.

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