The tourism and hospitality industry started to adopt Revenue Management (RM) practices in the 1980s, with academics fully participating in the process. Various disciplines have since contributed to the development of RM concepts, models, and methods. They include diverse areas such as management science, economics, marketing, information technology, human resource, finance, and computer science to name but a few. As RM practices extend from transportation and hospitality to other retail sectors such as restaurants, cruises, golf, spa, and camp grounds, academic research on the topic has increased significantly, addressing new concerns and emerging issues.
Recognizing the growing importance of RM, the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing (JTTM) published its first special issue on the topic (referred to as “yield management” at that time) in the early 1990 s. A decade later, RM remains a central issue of interest to industry and academia, and a dynamic and fast growing area of activity, innovation, and prospects. Key new foci areas include the move from a “specific” pricing and inventory management orientation to a more global marketing and strategic management approach, the consideration of the consumer’s total and long-term contribution, the shift from revenue to profit management optimization, and the inclusion of big data analytics.
A considerable amount of RM research has been published in the past decade. The objective of this second special issue of JTTM is to reflect on traditional and new issues, and to highlight new research perspectives and progress in RM practices.
The first paper, authored by the co-guest editors of this special issue, with a contribution from industry executives, is an overview of recent emerging “hot” RM topics. It discusses the RM areas of total hotel RM, modeling forecasting and big data analytics, distribution channels, revenue integrity, information systems, social media, financial issues, human resources, and non-traditional areas of application.
The second and third articles deal with strategy and segmentation. Sigala suggests a market approach for developing RM strategies, while Guillet, Law, and Guo demonstrate the relevance of a hotel customers segmentation based on rates fences. The fourth and fifth papers look at forecasting and models issues. Tse’s investigation demonstrates a more in-depth understanding of advance booking modeling at the property level, and the study by Tang, King, and Kulendran explores forecasting hotel occupancies, aiming to build a comprehensive RM system that considers factors beyond seasonal movements. In the sixth paper, Parsa, Smith, Bujisic, and van der Rest study the relation between hotel cancelation policies, distributive and procedural fairness, and consumer patronage. Finally, the seventh and eights articles focus on pricing issues: Chung offers a conceptualization of price fairness in tourism, whilst Haynes provides readers with an overview of the sensitive issue of rate parity.
This special issue came together with the help of many people. First and foremost, we wish to thank the reviewers who provided thoughtful feedback on each paper. The reviewers, in alphabetical order, were Jeff Beck (Michigan State, USA), Cathy Burgess (Oxford Brookes University, UK), Alan Fyall (University of Central Florida, USA), Amy Gregory (University of Central Florida, USA), Peter Harris (retired) (Oxford Brookes University, UK), Sean Sunghyup Hyun (Hanyang University, South Korea), Rob Law (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR), Anna Leask (Edinburgh Napier University, UK), Seoki Lee (Pennsylvania State University, USA), Alex Paraskevas (University of West London, UK), Manisha Singal (Virginia Tech, USA), Ercan Sirakaya Turk (University of South Carolina, USA), Haiyan Song (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR), Timothy Tyrrell (Arizona State University, USA), Muzaffer (Muzzo) Uysal (Virginia Tech, USA), Kate Varini (Haute Ecole Suisse, Section Tourisme, Switzerland), and Liang (Larry) Yu (The George Washington University, USA).
We wish to thank Kaye Chon, Editor-in-Chief, for providing us with the opportunity of a second special issue.
We also want to extend our sincerest gratitude to Gemma Davies (Granem, University of Angers) and Carol Chan (School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) for their helpful support.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Patrick Legohérel
Patrick Legohérel is Professor, GRANEM-ESTHUA (Tourism Studies), University of Angers, 7 allée François Mitterrand, B.P. 40455, 49004 Angers cedex 01, France (E-mail: [email protected]).
Zvi Schwartz
Zvi Schwartz is Professor, Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Management, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware, 14 W. Main Street, Raub Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA (E-mail: [email protected]).
Cindy Yoonjoung Heo
Cindy Yoonjoung Heo is Assistant Professor, Revenue Management, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne/HES-SO, Route de Cojonnex 18, 1000 Lausanne 25, Switzerland (E-mail: [email protected]).
Xuan Lorna Wang
Xuan Lorna Wang is Associate Professor, London School of Hospitality and Tourism, University of West London, St. Mary’s Road, Ealing, London W5 5RF, UK (E-mail: [email protected]).