SALES LEADERSHIP IN TOURISM: A REVIEW AND PROPOSITIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Sales and sales leadership are essential business functions and concepts. Research on the extant sales literature is necessary and timely to academics and tourism professionals due to extensive advances in the sales profession resulting from the rapid development of technology and the significant changes brought on by COVID-19 in business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) contexts. This study examines the current state of the sales-related literature in tourism and proposes future research areas on this topic. The authors performed a systematic literature review on sales and sales leadership in tourism to identify research gaps and opportunities. This paper identifies areas from the academic and business sales leadership literature that tourism researchers should address and provides a research call based on seven specific propositions related to human-driven interactions, technology, consolidation, and leadership. KEYWORDS Tourism, hospitality sales; sales leadership; human- driven interactions; systematic literature review
INTRODUCTION Tourism and hospitality leaders agree that a customer-oriented and effective sales unit is essential for a successful business. In addition, providing sales leadership is one of the most critical [...]