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Purpose This paper aims to explore the reasons why descriptive phenomenology (DP) can provide an improved understanding of hospitality, tourism and event experiences. This is achieved through two objectives: first, by revealing the complexities and philosophical depths of DP; second, by providing a practical, stepped method that offers rigour and transparency. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based upon a study that explored the lived experience of the popular music festival-goer. It generally discusses the phenomenological philosophies of Husserl (1965 [1911]) and the descriptive phenomenological method in psychology of Giorgi (2009). It identifies not only some of the challenges and criticisms of DP but also the strengths of using a scientific approach to phenomenological research. Findings The philosophical strengths underlying DP afford a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being studied. The lived experience music festival study illustrates that the method of data collection and analysis highlights the intricacy of the philosophical debate and research findings. Although the bracketing, or epoché, method of DP has been criticised, the actual application is far more complex than trying to blank out prior knowledge. The aim is to ensure that it is the participants’ experiences that are used to identify the structure that is the phenomenon rather than the personal interpretation of the researcher. Originality/value It is recognised that researching the lifeworld affords a greater depth of understanding of experiences in people’s lives. One of the disappointments has been that one branch of phenomenological research, DP, has been underutilised and at times misunderstood in hospitality, tourism and event research. This paper aims to demonstrate and illustrate why and how DP should be considered in the future research of such experiences.

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The size of the tourism workforce has grown rapidly to the extent that today, travel and tourism is considered to be the world's largest employer. The potential of tourism for generating jobs in areas where there are few other alternatives for employment has resulted in many governments electing to expand their tourism industry. Nevertheless, tourism has been criticised for creating part-time, seasonal, low quality and informal jobs often occupied by migrants and females. This paper sets out the main characteristics of the tourism workforce as reported by academic papers, identifies whether the same characteristicsare evident on the island of Crete (Greece),and discusses the issues surrounding tourism policy formulation in relation to the tourism workforce of Crete. The conclusion is that very often jobs in tourism are judged, and responses formulated, on a normative (value laden) basis (an ideal) without full consideration being given to the actual (technical) underpinnings and implications.

The image, or perception, of destinations is a significant influence on the decision-making process of tourists. To identify whether the images of apparently similar destinations might differ, this paper explores the perceptions of tourists visiting two winter sun destinations: the Algarve in Portugal and Cyprus. The paper examines the primary (the motivations for the visit), the cognitive (attribute-based beliefs describing the destination) and the affective (the emotional reaction) images of each of the destinations. The results presented, based on surveys of visitors to each of the destinations, demonstrate that while the two destinations may have similar brochure images, appealing to similar markets, the images, and in particular the experiential images, held by visitors are probably different: a difference which is important for those responsible for ‘selling’ the destinations.