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Introduction ››
What are Best Practices? ››
Methodology
Authors ››
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Overview of Study
The objective of this study was to identify best practices in the Asian hotel industry. The study involved three geographical segments and three phases. Asia was segmented as follows:
- South-East Asia
- East Asia
- South Asia
- Phase 1 – Nomination of "Best Practice Champions"
- Phase 2 – Identification and Interview of Potential Best Practice Champions
- Phase 3 – Writing of Case Studies on Selected Best Practice Champions
Phase 1 – Nomination of "Best Practice Champions"
The first part of Phase 1 involved collection and collation of lists of hotels from primary sources, as well as secondary sources. Primary sources included data from the tourism authorities, hotel associations, and available yellow-pages of the Asian countries. Secondary sources included travel search engines, news reports, and magazines. The output for this part of Phase 1 was a comprehensive database of hotels in Asia.
The next part of Phase 1 was designed to elicit the practices of possible champions from managers/operators at both corporate and property levels. An open-ended questionnaire/survey was sent and participants were asked to nominate individuals or companies in the hotel industry whom or which they perceived to have superior practices and processes in specific functional areas at corporate level, property level or both.
Where necessary, the surveys were translated into various Asian languages, including Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Cambodian (Khmer), Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese, using appropriate translation/back-translation processes.
Phase 2 – Identification and Interview of Potential Best Practice Champions
The nominations were carefully reviewed to short-list potential best practice champions for interviews. Specifically, the researchers sought to identify implemented ideas that stretched beyond traditional and common practices or were new/contemporary practices that had emerged, such as environmental and social issues. The researchers also sought to understand the context that drove the development of the practices, which could be country-specific.
After practices were short-listed, the corresponding prospective champions were contacted by phone or e-mail, and asked to describe their best practice(s) in greater detail. The researchers then evaluated each short-listed practice a second time to determine whether to include it as a case.
Phase 3 – Writing of Case Studies on Selected Best Practice Champions
The final analysis and evaluation of the best practices based on information from the selected champions was then employed in writing the related case studies. The case writing frequently incorporated further information and updates from the best practice champions, as well as published secondary sources.
The outcome of the project is the book titled "Exploring Best Practices in the Hospitality Industry in Asia"—featuring short case studies designed to bring out the salient features of each best practice with the aim of fostering knowledge sharing and continuous learning among practitioners in the industry in Asia.
