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Despite the advancement of technology, hospitality education has made limited use of the virtual field trip. This study examined students' expectations and perceptions of quality features of a virtual field trip website in a second-year course within a hospitality degree. A quantitative research design was used and data were collected from 182 hospitality students at an Australian university. Descriptive analysis and Importance-Performance analysis were performed to analyze the data. The results revealed that overall students were satisfied with the quality of the learning experience they gained from using the website. Through Importance-Performance Analysis, the study also identified aspects of the website that need to be further improved. The study enriches the literature in electronic-learning and confirms the virtual field trip as an effective tool for supporting the practical components of hospitality education and improving students learning experience. To allow a similar approach to be applied to other courses within hospitality degrees, additional research is required to assess its effectiveness in terms of students' learning experience and educational outcomes.

Tourism entrepreneurs are recognised as instigators of much tourism development and consequently have a role to play in contributing to sustainable tourism. In particular, entrepreneurial engagement with sustainability has the potential to alleviate negative impacts of tourism on a micro scale, particularly socio-cultural consequences, environmental degradation, and economic inequalities. This study used a grounded theory approach to determine sustainable tourism meanings and practices undertaken by tourism entrepreneurs operating on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. The study is significant as the grounded theory of pursuing, which emerged, highlights connectivity between the entrepreneurial self, the actions of entrepreneurs, their use of ethics and their praxes of sustainable tourism. The significance of this study is threefold. First, it contributes to the body of qualitatively informed holistically-focused tourism studies. Second, it contributes to the literature related to entrepreneurs, sustainable tourism and ethics. Third, the study highlights the lived experiences of tourism entrepreneurs pursuing the provision of sustainable tourism enterprises. In particular, the tourism entrepreneurs identified the factors, which served to circumvent their pursuit of sustainable tourism.

This article highlights women room attendants' experiences of the consequences of distinction work in five five-star hotels located in the Gold Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia. Those consequences are demonstrations of deference, reification of lower social class standing and social ostracism. 'Distinction work' requires attendants to recognize the guest's superior class position as a key part of service interactions. An ontologically intertwined research stance was used with socialist feminism and critical theory epistemologies and a qualitative constructionist grounded theory methodology. Interviews were conducted with 46 room attendants working at five five-star hotels. This research contributes to hospitality literature by focusing on the influence of broader socioeconomic hierarchies functioning within hotels, an arena not usually encompassed within hospitality studies. We argue that 'distinction work' involves a process wherein the causal aspects of demonstration of deference to guests during interactions, and the conditional aspects of the lower social standing of room attendants within the broader socioeconomic arena, result in embedded ostracism. This article presents a new perspective on the low social value currently placed on room attendant employment. distinction work ostracism room attendants 3 Some people treat you like dirt you know, but I know which rooms and I do them when they are out.

Action research informed a curriculum change process as well as the research approach used to enhance "education about and for sustainability" in a tourism studies enterprise management course. The course was substantially changed from previous offerings. Such changes included removal of the end of semester final examination, introduction of a critical, reflexive journal activity, use of critical scorecards, and the inclusion of regular industry guest lecturers, all of which specifically addressed sustainability principles and issues for tourism enterprise management.The change process enhanced student learning regarding sustainability principles with respect to their future professional careers. Students' critical thinking abilities were further developed as a result of the changed learning engagements. Additionally, the changed learning engagements and teaching approach engendered student responsibility for learning outcomes.