'The tourism labour conundrum' extended: Historical perspectives on hospitality workers

Abstract

the tourism labour conundrum' extended: historical perspectives on hospitality workers abstract The article by Zampoukos and Ioannides on 'The tourism labour conundrum' in the first issue of Hospitality and Society opened out important, and seldom investigated, issues in the understanding of the hospitality labour force. This applies at least as much to historical as to geographical studies, and this article opens out a largely hidden literature on the experience of labour in the hospitality trades, with particular emphasis on labour relations, social conflict, gender, 'race' and ethnicity, migration and identities. It takes a broad view of the hospitality trades, and emphasizes that hospitality and tourism are overlapping but far from identical concepts. It covers four centuries and many parts of the world, while accepting the constraints imposed by the nature and range of the existing literature, and by uneven access to work in languages other than English, Spanish and French. It aims at encouraging the opening out of this neglected field of study to new research by historians and others who are interested in using the past to further the better understanding of the present.

Too close to servility? Why is hospitality in New Zealand still a ‘Cinderella’ industry?

“…In the case of New Zealand, much can be learned from looking to the history of employment in the hospitality sector. A historical and critical perspective on hospitality employment answers long held calls for a greater focus on this type of research (Baum, 2015;Baum, Kralj, Robinson, & Solnet, 2016;Ladkin, 2011;Lashley, Lynch, & Morrison, 2006;Lashley & Morrison, 2000;McIntosh & Harris, 2012;Solnet, Baum, Robinson, & Lockstone-Binney, 2015;Walton, 2012). This paper aims to provide a partial answer to the critique that "the body of [hospitality research] work fails to position itself within the wider social, political and economic context" (Baum et al, 2016, p. 2).…”

Hospitality & Society: Critical reflections on the theorizing of hospitality

“…Given the significance of the hospitality industry as a global employer, it is unsurprising that labourrelated studies feature highly. Two important contributions are those from a geographical and historical perspective respectively of Zampoukos and Ioannides (2011) and Walton (2012), both based on state-of-the-art literature reviews and both agenda-setting papers. Zampoukos and Ioannides (2011) are critical of the superficial treatment of tourism and hospitality labour geography and argue for a rigorous political economy approach focusing upon 'socio-spatial labour mobility and the division of labour from an intersectional perspective' (25).…”

“…The association of hospitality with building a nation on the one hand engenders feelings of entitlement, community, national identity; on the other hand, it leads to violent and implied hostility of the host directed against perceived external threats to the idea and geographical boundaries of home. Walton (2012) reviews hidden literature on the experience of labour in hospitality trades focusing upon labour relations, social conflict, gender, 'race' and ethnicity, migration, and identities. He strongly encourages research by historians in this neglected area of labour studies if we are to have a better understanding of the present.…”

The big bang: the birth of human resource management in New Zealand hotel sector

“…Woods (1991) reviewed the contemporary state of hospitality historiography and declared, “Despite the importance of the hospitality industry, virtually no scholarly work has been completed about its history” (Woods, 1991, p. 89). Walton (2012) concludes that the history of the hospitality labour force is “important, and seldom investigated and […] a neglected field of study” (Walton, 2012, p. 49). Walton (2012) suggests that tourism and hospitality literature has failed to pursue labour history for the following key reasons: the hospitality labour force has been hard to quantify and classify due to historically poor statistical and census data; and the work is often seasonal, migratory and made up of multi-ethnic, part-time and casualised labour (Baum, 2008, 2007; Walton, 2012; Zampoukos and Ioannides, 2011).…”

“…Walton (2012) offers several suggestions for why hospitality work has remained “hidden”. Hospitality work often “disappears” into the un-recorded black economy; hospitality work sites are hard to organise for unions [and] thus are less likely to be part of the traditional employment relations focus and data sets; and the distractions of the “cultural turn” in tourism and hospitality research have resulted in a general “failure to engage with critiques of neo- liberalism” (Walton, 2012, p. 52); all of which provides a “perfect combination of characteristics for hiding a workforce from historians” (Walton, 2012, p. 55).…”