Tracy Harkison

• Auckland University of Technology

Hospitableness in luxury hospitality is key for guest experience differentiation. Despite increasing attention, limited research has investigated how hospitableness is reciprocated and how such reciprocation extends beyond the guest-host relationship. By employing a multiple-case study design, this study proposes a model of reciprocal hospitablenes...

Authentic learning is a critical pedagogy and curriculum requirement in higher education to better prepare students for future workforce requirements. As such, educators adopt a range of authentic learning tasks such as work-integrated learning, industry reports, and field trips to enable student engagement in current industry issues. Although such...

The hiatus that COVID-19 caused enabled tourism policy makers worldwide to reconsider the luxury tourism experience. They could examine what they were offering and how they could attract luxury tourists after the pandemic. Tourism New Zealand (NZ) conducted a survey to gain a clear understanding of the luxury tourism drivers that high net worth ind...

This paper proposes a model of reciprocal hospitableness that underpins luxury lodge experiences. It explores the occurrence of reciprocal hospitableness when gratitude is elicited and identifies the mechanisms and practices that facilitate reciprocal hospitableness among guests, staff, managers, and external parties. By employing a multiple-case s...

This study aims to provide an insight into the factors that affect workplace experiences and opportunities for career progression of female employees in the Indian hotel industry. It provides a much-needed perspective on the work-life of women in the Indian hotel industry. The study had two phases: a systematic literature review was conducted for t...

Hospitality and tourism education has experienced fundamental disruptions across the global landscape, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic and Open AI (e.g., ChatGPT and other AI tools). These disruptions continue to interrupt the teaching and learning practices across all hospitality and tourism education institutions. Since 2020, students...

This article reports on a wider study determining the provision of accessibility information by New Zealand Luxury Lodges. It presents important insights about the importance and role of the website provision of accessibility information for potential guests with disabilities, and the implications of this for accommodation providers.

This paper focuses on the factors that influence the authentic learning practices in the Tourism, Hospitality, and Events (THE) education context from a teacher’s perspective. To align with emerging industry changes due to the COVID pandemic, and also bridge the gap between industry and education, experiential learning can play a key role in helpin...

The last two years have been incredibly challenging for the domestic and international hospitality industry. To gain insights from New Zealand hospitality professionals who are also AUT alumni, Lizzy Coughlan, Human Resource Manager of the Hotel Britomart, Auckland, was interviewed by AUT’s Associate Professor Tracy Harkison. When Coughlan was aske...

This paper presents practical teaching tips on how to design authentic assessments in THE education. As higher education providers are placing more emphasis on preparing students to be job ready, resulting in pivoting courses to deliver new approaches due to the pandemic. Considering new frameworks that assist in student learning and positive stude...

The paper focuses on the key elements that influence authentic learning in the classroom. With higher education institutions focusing on experiential learning opportunities, it is important to clarify factors that positively influence authentic learning. The additional challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic highlight the need to focus on new...

New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates per capita when compared to the rest of the developed world. People who offend in New Zealand have a 43% chance of reoffending within the first 24 months of their release [1]. It is estimated that approximately 60% of people who offend have literacy and numeracy skills lower than the NCEA Level...

2020 was one of the most challenging years to date for the New Zealand hospitality industry. As part of a wider study, a series of interviews were conducted to gain insights into what New Zealand professionals faced through this challenging time with some of their philosophical and career overviews. In this second interview, conducted in November 2...

This study evaluated customer reviews about The Clink restaurants to understand how they are rated and what experience is gained by fine dining in a prison. The Clink Charity runs training restaurants in four U.K. prisons and aims to change attitudes and transform lives through prisoner rehabilitation. This research used an interpretive case study...

This year has been one of the most challenging to date for the New Zealand and global hospitality industry. To gain an insight into this year and the challenges people working in it face, a series of interviews were conducted in November 2020. In this first interview xxxxxxxxx interviews Eliesa Fifita, GM of the IBIS Budget Auckland Central - Elies...

The following is a reflection from two Auckland University of Technology (AUT) academics seconded as visiting professors to teach events and human resource management at a Vietnamese university. As this may be an ongoing project for AUT, they have provided these insights to guide other academics venturing to teach in Vietnam. It was a humbling expe...

The rapid growth of the global cruise ship industry in tourism has been evident in New Zealand in the southern hemisphere and Iceland in the northern hemisphere, where both countries have experienced a substantial increase in cruise ship arrivals at a growing number of ports. Although the two countries are geographically very far apart, they do sha...

The following is an interview conducted in May 2019 in the U.K. between Dr Tracy Harkison, a senior lecturer at AUT, and Chris Moore, CEO of The Clink Charity. The interview transcript was edited by Prof Alison McIntosh. Tracy Harkison Can you please explain to me how this initiative came to be established? Chris Moore The challenge was that the re...

Noting rising statistics relating to incarceration and reoffending, there has been increased attention given to analysing the delivery, effectiveness and challenges of hospitality training and employment programmes for rehabilitating prisoners. The stigma of having a criminal record and being unreliable and untrustworthy remains a significant barri...

Purpose Explores innovative solutions to the challenge of creating a family environment without children in luxury lodges in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with guests, staff and managers in a luxury lodge that excludes children. An interpretivist analysis of interviewees’ comments was und...

The exclusion of children from hospitality establishments is not new. Not all cultures or properties exclude children, but the cultivation and advertisement of a family environment at properties that do is a topic worthy of further consideration. Some luxury properties are projecting a family environment while excluding children, which proposes a n...

Luxury accommodation is a growing sector in the hospitality industry, but what really sets it apart from standard accommodation? This paper considers what luxury accommodation is by first investigating how luxury accommodation is able to command a premium price, and then identifying the differences in customers’ luxury experiences between luxury ho...

This paper outlines how a Human Resource Management (HRM) module’s assessment structure was transformed to inspire the re-engagement of diverse hospitality undergraduate students. For hospitality educators, maintaining student engagement in subjects with a high theoretical content can be challenging. Therefore, a case study approach was used to red...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the luxury accommodation experience is created by investigating the perceptions of the three main participant groups – managers, employees and guests – using case studies from New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach An interpretivist case-study methodology was used. Eighty-one participants wer...

Co-creation has generated interest since its inception, which is believed to have coincided with the introduction and mass use of the Internet. There are many definitions for co-creation but, in essence, it is an active interaction between a company and a customer to create value, and this value is centred in the customer's experience. It has been...

The co-creation process within the New Zealand luxury accommodation sector has, until recently, been under researched. However, in 2016, a doctoral thesis was completed [1] with the key question, ‘how is the luxury accommodation experience created?’ Following an interpretivist paradigm, data were collected that included 81 interviews (of 27 guests,...

It could be said that all luxury properties offer their guests the same facilities and amenities; therefore, there has to be some other point of difference – their staff. This research paper focuses on staff and their importance for luxury properties. Luxury accommodation is certainly not a new concept as luxury has been closely associated with hos...

Purpose This paper seeks to report on research investigating students' and industry's expectations and assumptions of the desired attributes of hospitality employees. Design/methodology/approach Views on a range of questions about the value of a hospitality degree are analysed, based on a survey of 74 hospitality managers and 137 students. Findin...