Abstract
Welcome to this special issue where we explore the role of hospitality services in sustaining communities especially in terms of enhancing regional resilience. In this issue, a range of topic areas are covered including service learning, operational risk management, hotel subscription models, staycations, virtual reality, cultural resilience, luxury transportation and Vanaprastha Tourism. With each of the research papers in this issue, the focus is on the provision of hospitality services and in particular the unique relationship between hosts and guests. The studies show that various factors need to come together for quality hospitality services to be delivered and that it is the interplay between hosts and guests that has important implications for organisations and associated communities. The studies highlight that hospitality is about creating spaces where a range of services are experienced, e.g., food, drink, accommodation, transportation, and entertainment. In turn, hospitality spaces are at the intersections of a range of issues such as social interactions, physical spaces, symbolic places, loyalty, transformation, embodiment, inclusivity, and resilience. These papers present insights into the importance of hospitality services to not only travellers and their experiences and memories but also to sustained social and economic activities of communities and their respective regions. They contribute significantly to understanding and knowledge of regional resilience and augment past, present and emerging discourses on the nature and role of hospitality and provision of hospitality services for enhancing regional and community resilience and sustainability. They generate ideas for policies, practices and future research. Individually and collectively, the insights provided by these papers lend opportunities for establishing resilient and sustainable hospitality operations into the future.