Griffith Institute for Tourism

🎉 🎉🎉Congratulations to GIFT member Minh Nhan on an outstanding achievement, placing second in the Griffith University 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Final!

Representing Griffith Business School, Department of Tourism and Marketing, and GIFT, Minh delivered an impressive presentation that showcased not only the quality of his doctoral research but also his exceptional ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and impact.

Please join us in congratulating Minh on this fantastic achievement! 👏🎓

What does "research impact" means in practice? Who holds responsibility for translating research into change? How can researchers better connect with the people and organisations positioned to implement findings?

These questions were explored at the CAUTHE Workforce & Employment SIG's Open Conversation About Research Impact. GIFT Director Professor Sarah Gardiner shared practical insights on how researchers can maximise real-world impact through early stakeholder engagement, strong partnerships, and research designed with implementation in mind.

Key takeaways from the discussion:

💡 Get industry involved early. Research impact starts before a project begins. Attend industry events and listen to their challenges, have coffee with industry people to discuss and develop your research idea, and build relationships. Listening and conversations will help shape relevant and meaningful research.

💡 Know your audience. Impact is about more than explaining your findings. Consider who needs the information and choose the most effective channels to reach them. That might be presenting at an industry conference, submitting responses to policy and strategy consultation or through videos, podcasts, or social media.

💡 Be patient. Meaningful impact often develops over time rather than happening immediately.

💡 Build strong networks. Develop trusted partnerships, co-design research with stakeholders, and work together to share findings more broadly. Recruit industry to be champions in their organisation to disseminate and implement your research findings in practice.

💡 Give back. Research is not only about collecting data. Look for opportunities to share knowledge and insights that benefit industry and the wider community.

Great to see GIFT Director Professor Sarah Gardiner representing Australian Regional Tourism (ART) as a panel speaker at the City Nation Place Australasia x Mainstreet Australia Conference on the Gold Coast.

Sarah shared insights from ART's work on measuring and understanding tourism's social impacts, highlighting how tourism can contribute to stronger communities, greater wellbeing, and more sustainable destinations.

🌿💡 Can green training really improve service quality, or does it take more than training alone?

How green training works in mid-scale hotels: A mixed-methods approach

Published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (JHTM), the official journal of CAUTHE, new research by Nhung Trinh, Dr Mai Nguyen, Phuong Duong, Associate Professor Ba Phong Le, and Yanzhe Yuan explores how green training translates into better employee and service outcomes in mid-scale hotels. 📚✨

Using a mixed-methods approach combining survey data from 312 hotel employees and in-depth interviews, the research shows that green training encourages active learning, which strengthens both organisational commitment and environmental commitment. These, in turn, lead to higher service quality, greater job satisfaction, and more environmentally responsible behaviour. 🌱🏨

The paper also finds that employees' environmental values and management support amplify the impact of green training, highlighting when training can be more effective. 🤝💚

Implications for hospitality practice:
🔹 Design green training around employees' day-to-day roles and encourage active learning, not just knowledge transfer.
🔹 Reinforce training with strong managerial support through feedback, recognition, and opportunities for peer learning.
🔹 Align sustainability initiatives with employees' environmental values to build long-term commitment.
🔹 Integrate sustainability into performance management to sustain employee engagement and service excellence.

Read more: https://ow.ly/vIWo50ZyOlM

📢 New Publication Alert!

Twelve years ago, Dr Antonia Canosa and Professor Brent Moyle began exploring a simple but important question: Are young people being heard in tourism policy and planning? 👧🧒🌏

Today, that long-term research journey has culminated in a publication in Tourism Review, where they are joined by emerging research leaders Dr. Mona Yang and Dr Emily Siqi Lu with the manuscript, “Is Anybody Listening? Children and Young People’s Participation in Tourism Policy.” 📚✨

The article provides the first comprehensive analysis of how children and young people are represented within Australian tourism policy, drawing attention to whose voices are heard, and whose remain overlooked, in shaping the future of tourism.

Drawing on an analysis of 233 tourism policy and planning documents from across Australia, the research found that children and young people are rarely recognised as active stakeholders in tourism governance. Instead, they are most often viewed as consumers, visitors, or future workers rather than citizens with valuable insights into the places where they live and travel.

The findings highlight how engaging youth can strengthen destination governance, support community wellbeing, and help build tourism futures that reflect the needs and aspirations of all community members. 🌱🤝

📖 Download your copy here: https://ow.ly/lCQp50Zz8ht

Why do gender equality initiatives stall in global hotel chains? ♀️🏨

The latest research published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism by GIFT members Associate Professor Elaine Yang and Professor Leonie Lockstone-Binney, along with Dr Jess Je and Professor Catheryn Khoo, explores the gap between corporate commitments and actual workplace outcomes. 📚✨

Key Takeaways:
• Multiple, intersecting institutional logics shape how leaders interpret and enact gender equality initiatives. 🔍
• These coexisting logics are not only competing, but often internally fragmented. ⚖️
• Organisational leaders selectively draw on different aspects of these logics to justify both action and inaction in their subsidiaries. 🏢

Understanding these underlying cognitive schemas is key to closing the implementation gap and moving beyond rhetoric toward meaningful change in global hospitality management. 🌍💡

Read the full open-access article here: https://ow.ly/A40750ZvFqj

🌏📖

Gender equality initiatives in global hospitality organisations: an institutional logics theory perspective Multinational hotel chains continue to struggle to implement gender equality initiatives across their diverse subsidiaries. Drawing on institutional logics theory and a critical realist perspective...

Associate Professor Elaine C. L. Yang recently delivered a presentation on "Applying Gender × Cultural Perspectives in Tourism Research" as an invited speaker at the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS) Tourism Online Forum hosted by Hokkaido University. 🌏🎓✨

The Chinese visitor market is evolving.
Here is what you need to know 👇

Cathy, Associate Professor Xin Jin, shares 5 key insights to help you understand the changing expectations and behaviours of Chinese travellers.

Read in our latest short 4 minute Tourism Research News update.

https://bit.ly/4pM1myR

Griffith Business School

The Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT) is pleased to share our latest publication:
Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered personalisation in service industries: An integrative review and future research directions

Authors: Truc H. Le, Nguyen An Ngoc Nguyen, Dung (Jenny) Le, and Sara Thaichon.

Published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM)—one of the world's leading hospitality journals (ABDC: A* | CABS: 3 | JCR: Q1 | Impact Factor: 8.3)—this open-access article provides one of the most comprehensive syntheses of AI-powered personalisation research in service industries to date.

Drawing on a systematic review of 201 journal articles (2006–2024), the study develops an updated conceptualisation of AI-powered personalisation, proposes a new typology ranging from mass personalisation to anthropomorphic personalisation, maps the field using the Theory–Context–Method–Characteristic (TCMC) framework, and identifies key research gaps and future directions for AI-enabled services. The review also highlights the importance of responsible AI, transparent data governance, human-centred design, and emotion-aware AI in shaping the future of customer experiences.

This publication is another research outcome from the multi-year international research project funded by the VinIF, titled "SMART CEM: Applying artificial intelligence (AI) and eye-tracking in designing and managing delightful customer experiences in the hospitality sector."

📖 Read the open-access article here:
https://ow.ly/Vm7l50ZuwQF

Technology is usually seen as a threat to authenticity. What if it isn't? What makes augmented reality (AR) authentic – and why does that matter for sustainable cultural heritage tourism?

Drawing on 348 visitor surveys and 35 stakeholder interviews at the Hue Imperial Citadel, our new infographic sets out what authentic AR innovation looks like in practice, and why it matters for sustainable tourism within heritage settings.

When AR innovation gets ‘authenticity’ right, it can:
✨ Deepen visitor satisfaction and engagement
🛡️ Strengthen stewardship and heritage conservation
🌱 Ease physical pressure on fragile sites
💡 Unlock economic, socio-cultural, and ecological value

Finally, 6 practical recommendations are proposed for AR developers and heritage managers.

👇 Explore the full infographic below.

Hue Imperial Citadel Wearable AR Research Project by Ngoc Yen Nhi (Nicole) Nguyen, Dr Margarida Abreu Novais, Dr Truc Le, Dr Ryan Yung.