Hospitality and Service Innovation: Enhancing Guest Experience in an Evolving World

Dear Colleagues,

Contemporary customers have developed increasingly sophisticated expectations regarding their preferences and requirements, showing a strong inclination toward customized and personalized choices (Erdly & Kesterson-Townes, 2003). Today’s guests are more attentive to detail, open to innovation, and better informed than ever before. They actively evaluate experiences across multiple touchpoints and expect all actors involved in their service “journey” to collaborate seamlessly to meet their individual needs and values (Zhang, Jaakkola, & colleagues, 2018). As a result, guest experience has shifted from a standardized service outcome into a complex, co-created process unfolding across digital, physical, social, and cultural dimensions.

In this context, we invite scholars to contribute to this Special Issue, which aims to advance understanding of how hospitality and tourism experiences are being reshaped in an era of rapid technological, social, and environmental change. Thus, its research questions should explore guest experience as a dynamic and co-created phenomenon influenced by digitalization, sustainability imperatives, evolving consumer expectations, and organizational resilience. The goal is to contribute to extending theoretical frameworks while offering actionable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to enhance guest satisfaction, loyalty, well-being, and long-term competitiveness.

While prior research has largely emphasized service encounters and satisfaction outcomes (Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Verhoef et al., 2009), this Special Issue responds to recent calls to examine digital transformation, experience co-creation, and sustainability as integral dimensions of guest experience design (Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019; Neuhofer et al., 2015). By integrating contemporary challenges with empirical and conceptual contributions, the issue bridges established theories with emerging realities in hospitality and tourism.

Special Issue themes include:

(1) Technology-driven transformation of guest experiences;

(2) Sustainability as a core dimension of guest experience;

(3) Re-centering the human touch in hospitality experiences;

(4) Hyper-local and place-based experience design.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors submit a proposed title and a 300–500-word abstract to the Administrative Sciences editorial office (admsci@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for fit with the Special Issue scope. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References

Buhalis, D., & Sinarta, Y. (2019). Real-time co-creation and nowness service: Lessons from tourism and hospitality. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(5), 563–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2019.1592059.

Erdly, M., & Kesterson-Townes, L. (2003). Experience rules: A scenario for the hospitality and leisure industry circa 2010 envisions transformation. Strategy & Leadership, 31(3), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570310698199.

Neuhofer, B., Buhalis, D., & Ladkin, A. (2015). Smart technologies for personalized experiences: A case study in the hospitality domain. Tourism Management, 46, 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.010.

Pine, B. J., II, & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Harvard Business School Press.

Verhoef, P. C., Lemon, K. N., Parasuraman, A., Roggeveen, A., Tsiros, M., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2009). Customer experience creation: Determinants, dynamics and management strategies. Journal of Retailing, 85(1), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2008.11.001.

Zhang, T. C., Jaakkola, E., & colleagues. (2018). Customer experience management in hospitality: A literature synthesis and research agenda. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(1), 21–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2016-0653.

Prof. Dr. Adina Negrușa
Dr. Oana-Ruxandra Bode
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Administrative Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.