ARTICLE IN PRESS

doi:10.1016/j.to

Tourism Management 28 (2007) 939

www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman

Book review

The Growth Strategies of Hotel Chains: Best Business

Practices by Leading Companies. O. Cunhill, The Haworth

Hospitality Press, Binghampton, NY (2006) (221pp., $24.95,

Paperback, ISBN: 0789026643).

This book offers great promise if you read the twoendorsements on the back cover. Unfortunately theseendorsements do not bear any resemblance to the contents,structure or value of this book. There is no doubt that thearea of hotel strategy is not well developed in the generictourism and hospitality literature, aside from a range ofcase studies, industry studies published in Travel and

Tourism Analyst and a number of generic hospitalitymanagement books. With this in mind, there is scope toprovide a follow up to Go and Pine’s (1995) study on thesubject (which is not referenced at all in this short book). Inthe four and a half pages of bibliography, only a handful ofrelevant Tourism and Hospitality articles are referred to.My immediate question on reading this book is—didanyone edit this manuscript? It is presented as a series ofunconnected, disjointed chapters with no logic or storylineto link them together. There is no coherent introduction toset the scene: just two and a half pages on the concept ofstrategy. There is also no attempt to contextualise thesubject, situate it in conventional thinking (i.e. why is bestpractice included in the title) and no themeing orexplanation of the book’s contents.

Consequently, it is 13 chapters put together with noexplanation. Each chapter has a common format: theoryand concepts followed by examples focused on different

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competitive strategies (i.e. diversification versus specialisa-tion; vertical, horizontal and diagonal integration; acquisi-tions and mergers; strategic alliances and joint ventures;franchise contracts; management contracts; leasehold andownership; branding and the internationalisation–globali-sation of hotel chains).In summary, this is a compendium of what we already

know about hotel chains in a shortened format. There islittle scholarly debate or analysis, as much of the book isdescription. That is probably as far as any review might goon this book. It is very disappointing, and a strongereditorial hand could have crafted this into a seminalpublication with a more scholarly approach. I am afraid Iwill not be recommending it with the gusto of the endorsersand it is certainly not a detailed review of theory. Manyother good books such as Evans, Campbell, and Stone-house (2003) address this topic in a better manner, basedon strategic management which is seemingly lacking in thisbook.

References

Evans, N., Campbell, D., & Stonehouse, G. (2003). Strategic management

for travel and tourism. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.

Go, F., & Pine, R. (1995). Globalisation strategy in the hotel industry.

London: Routledge.

Stephen PageDepartment of Marketing, University of Stirling,

Stirling, Scotland, FK9 4LA, UK

E-mail address: s.j.page@stir.ac.uk.