Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the performance management literature in the hospitality and tourism (H/T) industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is conducted through a critical literature review based on three dimensions: progress on ontological and epistemological issues, on the purpose of performance measurement (PM) and on the emerging contexts.
Findings
The progress on the three topics, namely, ontological and epistemological, purpose and emerging context, is addressed. Based on these three issues, the performance management literature in the H/T industry has not had any concrete structure. Few studies have been conducted reviewing the progress on performance criteria in the hotel industry. A research agenda is recommended to build a concrete structure in the field.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on only leading H/T journals to analyze the progress on the performance management literature in the H/T industry. The findings can help researchers (re)design research agendas to contribute to both mainstream performance management literature and literature related to the H/T industry.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies highlighting the progress on the performance management literature in hospitality and tourism by considering ontological and epistemological issues, the purpose of PM and the emerging contexts.
¶Department of hospitality and tourism management, Virginia tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA Using a large-scale visitors' survey data, this study empirically investigates the question of who is a tourist from the tourist's perspective, and contrasts the findings with elements of more formal definitions. the study contributes to the literature on tourism definition and measurement by demon strating how tripographic and socioeconomic factors affect visitors' propensity to self-categorize as tourists. the results point to a clear distance threshold of around 75 miles and provide support for the technical approach to the definition of tourism. First-time visitors, visitors whose main purpose was pleasure, women, and lower middle class income are more inclined to self-categorize as tourists, while those who visit friends and relatives are not. these findings could be used to further improve the definition and measurement of tourism, as well as enhance destination marketing practices.
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