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Health tourism is a booming billion-dollar business, which has attracted the attention of academia and industry. Most of the research conducted on health tourism has been conceptual or has mainly focused on health tourism activities from developed to developing countries. This study investigates the impact of tourism demand on health-related tourism spending in a developed country (Canada) with a dominant tourism market (United States (U.S.)). The study considers both volume and price effects of health tourism during the period of 1986–2016, by applying time-series analysis, including unit root and cointegration testing and application of autoregressive distribution lag modelling. The results show a positive long-term effect of U.S. tourism demand on overall health-related tourism spending in Canada, but varying results when considering the volume and price dimensions. The findings provide further insights for managing the niche business of health tourism in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between Millennials' perceived stress and their external and emotional eating behaviors. Furthermore, the moderating effect of nutritional knowledge on the relationship between perceived stress and emotional eating and perceived stress and external eating of US Millennials was tested. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 649 Millennials between the ages of 18 and 35 in the United States, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to test the study hypotheses. Findings: This study extends the literature and provides further insights into the relationship between US Millennials' eating behavior and stress factors. Perceived stress positively influenced Millennials' emotional and external eating behavior, and nutritional knowledge significantly moderated the relationships between perceived stress and emotional eating and perceived stress and external eating. Research limitations/implications: First, data was collected from Millennials living in the United States. Second, not all of the predictors, save one (perceived stress), were selected and hypothesized as predictors of Millennials' eating behavior. The paper provides the essential psychological elements of US Millennials' eating behavior. Originality/value: If unbalanced eating and obesity are the result of negative psychological factors, the recommended diet models or physical exercise by themselves may be less effective at combating obesity and related health issues. This is because stress was found to be a highly significant reason for unbalanced eating, new and more practical stress coping strategies are needed to moderate unbalanced eating behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This study aims to examine factors affecting restaurant customers’ intention to use near field communication (NFC)-based mobile payment (MP) technology. More specifically, based on the valence theory, this paper examined the impacts of users’ negative valence (perceived risk and privacy concern) and positive valence (utilitarian value and convenience) perceptions toward their NFC-MP technology acceptance. Furthermore, the impacts of individual difference variables (smartphone affinity and compatibility) on users’ negative and positive valences and on their behavioral intentions were analyzed.Design/methodology/approach A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect the data of the study from 412 restaurant customers. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the measurement model. To test the hypothesized model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used.Findings The study findings demonstrated that privacy concern, utilitarian value and convenience significantly affected individuals’ NFC-MP technology acceptance. In addition, compatibility significantly influenced negative and positive valance constructs and smartphone affinity had a positive impact on positive valance constructs only.Practical implications This study provides valuable practical implications for restaurant operators and hospitality technology vendors in the context of mobile payment systems.Originality/value This study successfully extended the valence framework by adding individual difference constructs to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigated factors affecting customers’ intention to use smartphone diet applications (apps) when ordering food and bev- erages at foodservice businesses. An online questionnaire was designed and empirical data was collected from 395 respondents.Study participants were asked to interact with a smartphone diet app simulation prior to responding the survey questions. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Study results indicate that individuals are more likely to adopt smartphone dietapps if they are perceived to be useful and enjoyable. Social norms appear to play a significant role in adopting smartphone apps. Individuals with higher personal innovativeness tend to use such apps more often. Study results can assist restaurant operators in developing specific marketing strategies to target particular segments by designing such diet apps and developing menus for niche segments. This is one of the first studies looking at whether smartphone apps can assist individuals in ordering healthier and specific diet menu items at restaurants. This study offers specific theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of hotel property characteristics and information technology (IT) decision-maker characteristics on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology adoption in the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach – The data of the study were collected using the subscription list of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). A Web survey was used to collect the data of the study. An email invitation was sent out to invite the entire list of HFTP subscribers (3,080) to participate in the survey. Approximately 3,000 emails were delivered and 154 questionnaires were returned. Of 154 questionnaires, 125 were used in the study for further analyses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether hotel property characteristics (property size and chain affiliation) and IT decision-maker characteristics (age, education level and job tenure) differed on intention to adopt RFID technology. Findings – ANOVA results indicated that there were significant differences on intention to adopt RFID technology by property size and chain affiliation, IT decision-makers’ age, education level and job tenure. The results indicated that larger hotels and hotels that are part of a franchise are more likely to adopt RFID technology. In addition, IT decision-makers who are young, with high level of education and with shorter job tenure are more likely to adopt RFID technology. Originality/value – RFID technology is one of the recent technologies that gained great attention from the hotel operators in recent years. This study is one of the first studies in the hotel industry that provides valuable information to technology vendors for identifying potential RFID technology adopters in the hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]