Aims

The aims of this chapter are to:

• analyse the role of human resource management (HRM) in visitor attractions

• highlight contextual influences which visitor attractions have to address in relation to managing people

• examine the role of HRM in improving competitive advantage

• discuss key issues, including labour intensity, service quality and competitive environments influencing HRM practices

• identify the philosophy and underlying attitudes pertinent to an HRM approach, through analysing Storey s (1995) model of HRM

• examine people-management skills required by visitor attraction managers and look at how these can be implemented by studying a case study of good practice.

Introduction

Delivering tourism products and services to increasingly discerning customers, in highly competitive and dynamic market conditions, presents a range of organizational challenges. Given the increasing dependence on high service quality in the tourism industry, ensuring that there is a systematically selected, properly trained and highly committed workforce in place is now essential for all visitor attractions. The overriding objective of this chapter is to illustrate how the adoption of an HRM approach may represent a valuable means for meeting many of the fundamental challenges, especially those related to service quality where a visitor attraction s people are paramount to ensuring success. However, prior to exploring the nature of HRM in visitor attractions, it is pertinent to discuss briefly some environmental factors, which are influencing how human resources may be managed more generally.

The contextual arena of visitor attractions

This section of the chapter provides a brief overview...