3 Review(s)

The use of benchmarking in the tourism industry has been very limited and is still in its infancy. It has been restricted to the study of operational units and businesses, rather than destinations. The limited number of benchmarking studies carried out within the tourism industry, and almost all of the benchmarking studies, have been conducted by external third parties. It is apparent that the benchmarking model needs further development. To date, there have been far more conceptual works on why benchmarking is important and how to operationalize it than empirical research focusing on methodological issues such as how to measure performance gaps. Most empirical studies are based upon the supply side but avoiding the demand side. This collection fills some of the gap. Eight studies are included in this book. One paper is about overview of the benchmarking literature, and one paper deals with tourism. Others are concentrated in the hospitality business. Two studies deal with the environmental perspectives.