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Four groups of students from the following institutions participated in a study to assess the expectations from their cooperative education placements’ work environment: Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, N = 80; Hotel School, The Hague, N = 107; Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, N = 50; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, N = 50. In all, 287 students responded to a mail questionnaire (Work Environment Scale, Moos, 1994) before their cooperative education placements. Overall, all four samples including the Melbourne students had moderate to high expectations from their organisations’ work environment. Specifically, Melbourne students expected higher involvement, greater peer cohesion, more task orientation, more work pressure and greater control when compared with the The Hague students. They also expected less autonomy on the job as compared with the Strathclyde students. The Hague students had overall lower expectations on most of the social climate dimensions. It is suggested however that the above findings be verified by replication with a greater variety of populations and institutions.

Reports a study of selection techniques used for front‐office staff recruitment in hotels and motels in the state of Victoria, Australia. A survey of 172 establishments with more than 30 rooms indicated that the most frequently used techniques are interview, application forms and references. However, the smaller establishments did not use even these basic procedures to their full advantage. Recommends further studies to ascertain what attributes employers value most as selection criteria of front‐office staff.

This paper identifies the extent to which front‐line managers in the hospitality, retail and banking sectors perceive work activities to be pleasant or unpleasant. General factorial multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess attitudes towards ten activities according to demographic characteristics. The activities were: deskwork, decision making, developing, disciplining, informing, innovating, leading, monitoring, persuading and time pressure. The findings indicate that managers in the service sector generally have a range of perceptions about activities, with some regarded as pleasant and others as unpleasant. The managerial perceptions identified in this study could have useful implications for the introduction of attempts to enhance staff motivation and performance. An improved awareness of managerial activity preferences on the part of senior managers and researchers may help to avoid certain problems and strengthen staff motivation. The present research is exploratory and should be followed up with a thorough assessment of whether there is a relationship between performance and activity preference.

Presents the results of an exploratory study on Japanese tourists′ perceptions of service quality in Australian shops. Eight areas of service were examined: the shop assistants′ friendliness, politeness, information giving, helpfulness, concern about customers, ability to speak Japanese, ability to wrap goods, and financial exploitation. It was found that in four out of eight areas of service – information giving, helpfulness, concern about tourists′ needs and ability to speak the Japanese language‐there were significant differences between tourists′ pre‐travel expectations and post‐travel perceptions of service. Explores the implications of these findings for the retail sector and outlines recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial, exploratory and tentative theoretical construct related to the current consumption of landscape as a key symbolic and physical element in territorial representation and evocation, and for the deployment of place branding strategy. It constructs a line of argument to support what shall be referred to as “landscape branding”, that is, the paradigmatic role of landscape in place branding. It is, therefore, of interest to define the value of landscape as a social and cultural construction, which is why the paper awards importance to the specific analysis of their capacity for visual and/or aesthetic evocation within the context of a general branding strategy for geographical spaces.

To develop a sufficient proposal for sustaining “a theory of landscape branding”, the paper deploys a meta-analysis, that is, an extensive review and interpretation of the literature related to visual landscape and place branding, to propose a tentative initial approach to landscape-infused place branding theory.

The relationship existing between landscape images and texts and their possible situating and subsequent interpreting within the context of the political, cultural and economic logics of contemporary society give rise to a renewed analytical framework for cultural geographies (Wylie, 2007). At this point, place branding becomes a recurring argument for the consumption of carefully staged places, representing, to use Scott’s terms (2014), the arrival of a cognitive-cultural capitalism characteristic of post-Fordism.

From a practical perspective, the landscape branding approach provides several benefits. First of all, regardless of the fact that many commentators have argued that logos, slogans and advertising campaigns are relatively ineffective in place branding, practitioners still seem to be focussed on these visual design and advertising tools. The landscape branding approach facilitates an identity-focussed perspective that reconfirms the importance of linking reality with perception and hence reinforces the need to link place branding to policy-making, infrastructure and events.

Landscapes’ imageability facilitates visual storytelling and the creation of attractive symbolic actions (e.g. outdoor events/arts in attractive landscape and augmented reality or landscaping itself). This is the type of imaginative content that people easily share in social media. And, of course, landscape branding reiterated the importance of experience. If policymakers and publics alike understand this considerable symbolic value of landscape, it might convince them to preserve it and, hence, contribute to sustainability and quality of life.

The novelty lies not in the familiar use of visual landscape resources to promote places, but in the carefully orchestrated construction of gazes, angles, representations, narratives and interpretations characteristic of geographic space, which somehow hijack the spontaneous gaze to take it to a certain place. Everything is perfectly premeditated. According to this, the visual landscape represents a critical point as a way of seeing the essence of places through a place branding strategy. In this sense, that place branding which finds in visual landscape a definitive argument for the projection of aspirational places imposes a new “way of seeing” places and landscape based on a highly visual story with which to make a particular place desirable, not only for tourism promotion purposes but also with the intention of capturing talent, infrastructures and investment, among other objectives.

This paper aims to explore the current situation of career management in China's state‐owned hotels and to delve into employees' perceptions of such activities.

To obtain a comprehensive view of the career management situation, three qualitative research methods were applied in the study, namely, case study, focus groups, and in‐depth interviews. The results were combined to provide a better insight into career management activities in China and employees' perceptions of these activities. Based on the data collected, career management practices in China's hotel industry are grouped into four dimensions: assessment tools, career development information, professional training, and promotion system.

The findings of the study reveal that not all Western career management activities are being practised in China's hotels. The results of the qualitative research methods also reveal several career management techniques with Chinese characteristics. Although career management plays an important role in human resources management, there is a gap between hotel career management and employees' career needs. To obtain the best result, it is necessary to find a match between the requirements of the hotel and the aspirations of the individual employee.

Based on the data collected, recommendations and directions on career management practices are established and given to state‐owned hotels management. By developing the four dimensions of career management activities, the paper generates important references and suggestions for further study in the area of employees' career development.

For both hotel operators and hotel employees, the paper is the first attempt to provide comprehensive information concerning China's hotel career management. The development of the four career management dimensions may serve as a basis for future study.