Gabby Walters’s research while affiliated with The University of Queensland and other places

While the cruise industry is expected to rebound from the pandemic, the features of the cruise value offering that once appealed to the market and cruise specific consumer behaviour have changed. This project employs a choice experiment to determine how COVID-19 has influenced 808 consumers' preferences for and trade-offs between specific aspects of the cruise experience across four different COVID-19 scenarios. Such insight is highly valuable for cruise organisations seeking to better understand the evaluative criteria by which their consumer segments are now guiding their decisions. Theoretically, we test how Protection Motivation Theory affects preferences under different risk scenarios. Practical contributions include a need to revise marketing communications, promotions, and service to emphasise COVID-19 safe measures, outdoor cabins and cancellation refunds, and that adjustments to targeted cruise packages are needed based on age and cruise experience among segments. Our research is the first to examine preferences of cruise consumers adopting choice modelling method. We find that overall, while the way people travel has changed, the underlying preferences of travellers in this market is largely unaffected by a simulated evolving risk profile presented.

As the hospitality academy matures it has worked towards bespoke theory development. Emerging literature has attempted to quantify, and develop measurements for, the intangible and situationally variable dimensions of hospitality and/or hospitableness. This paper aims to explore whether the importance tourists place on various aspects of ‘hospitality’ differs according to their culture, using country/region of origin as a proxy. A cross-national survey was conducted across multiple destinations in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. Data captured the importance 2248 tourists placed on 12 facets of hospitality. Results indicate that tourists’ nationality influences the importance they place on all facets of the hospitality experience. The study contributes to theory by advancing our understanding of how different cultures evaluate the importance of the multiple aspects of commercial hospitality. Practically, the study challenges hospitality industry conventions, which standardize rather than personalize guest-host interactions.

Consumers performing the role of value-creators in experience co-creation introduces idiosyncrasies that challenge experiential consistency. Taking ‘pop-up’ dining events as its empirical focus, and drawing on semi-structured interviews with participants, this study examines how organisations and consumers interact to negotiate ambiguity, variability and consistency. The paper questions how organisers try to prescribe normative rules governing events. It considers how consumers invest in preparing for events, and engage in socialised performances to create unique experiences. The data are also used to show how peer surveillance shapes consumer expectations, behaviours and interpretations. Consequently, this study contributes to knowledge on the practical management of co-creation by conceptualising different pathways through which organisations and consumers attempt to orchestrate behaviours. Moreover, in theorising from the data, this paper distinguishes between direct and indirect modes of inducement used to achieve experiential outcomes, identifying how ‘value-signalling’ practices engage event stakeholders and shape their co-creation.