Project Management Techniques and Applications

This assignment delves into the field of project management by examining a range of sources including books and journal articles. It requires students to analyze different project management techniques and their practical applications, highlighting key concepts and trends within the discipline. The provided literature covers topics such as project planning, control, procurement, information systems, and strategic approaches in project management.

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 PROJECT PROPOSAL.....................................................................................................3
1.1 Describing the background and principles of project management.......................................3
1.2 Appraise the viability of projects developing success and failure criteria............................5
1.3 Explain the principles behind project management system and procedure...........................6
1.4 Explain the key elements involved in terminating a project and post project appraisal........7
TASK 2 REPORT............................................................................................................................7
2.1 Planning human resources with the roles and responsibilities and create the most
appropriate organizational structure............................................................................................7
2.2 Controlling and coordinating a project..................................................................................8
2.3 Assessing project leadership requirement and qualities........................................................9
2.4 Plan and specify human resource requirement for a project................................................10
TASK 3 PROJECT EXECUTION PLAN.....................................................................................11
3.1 Preparation of a project plan and establishing the project organization..............................11
3.2 Apply project scheduling & cost-controlling techniques....................................................11
3.3 Analyze the methods to measure project performance........................................................11
3.4 Explaining project change control procedure and evaluation of the completed project......11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Project management refers to the procedure of applying various knowledge and skills in
order to execute a project efficiently and effectively. It focus on five key areas that are initiation,
planning, execution, monitoring & controlling and closing a project. Every project requires
various steps and decisions such as cost estimation, identifying scope, predicting project
completion time, personnel need, risk management and so on. It is a popular holiday destination
because of excellent qualitative services, exceptional landscaped gardens and perfect stay for the
guests. The present project focused on the application of project management tools and
techniques for The Family Life Tropical Resort to create a online reservation system in order to
drive-in more VIP tourists as well as corporate clients. Management Information System (MIS)
implementation will allow prospective clients to book holidays online and also enable them to
communicate with the resort via interactive internet system.
TASK 1 PROJECT PROPOSAL
1.1 Describing the background and principles of project management
Family Life Tropical Resort is a premium resort located in the Sarigerme, Dalaman area
in Turkey. It blended sea, sand and sun to provide the tourists a dream holiday experience to the
consumers. It gained an excellent position in the market by the delivery of exceptional services,
beautiful landscaped gardens and meeting expectation of the clients by providing them perfect
accommodation for stay. However, it is facing competitive pressure due to lack of online
reservation system whilst competitors are using Management Information System (MIS) to
streamline their operating and service delivery system. Therefore, in order to strengthen the
competitiveness, Family Life Tropical Resort has decided to implement MIS for the worldwide
internet map. MIS is a computerized system that produce, organize and integrate various
operational functions and produce regular reports.
Project management refers to the procedure of applying various methods, skills,
knowledge, processes and expertise so as to attain the target objectives. In this way, project has
been defined as a temporary endeavour to produce unique product or services for the growth.
With the stated scenario, The Family Life Tropical Resort has planned to implement a strong
online presence for the e-commerce practices and technological advancement. There are 5 key
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principles of project management that Family Life Tropical Resort needs to follow enumerated
underneath:
Initiation: During the first stage, resort has to create a plan for the new project and get
the authorization from the responsible authority or board of directors to commence the plan.
Planning: It involves steps like setting scope, course of actions or tasks required to carry
out the project and targeting the objectives (de Araújo and et.al., 2017).
Execution: It comprises various processes required to finish the work as per the target
specification.
Monitoring & controlling: Project planner has to continuous track the progress of the
project via monitoring and controlling and measure the performance so as to take corrective
actions on time and thereby reach the goals.
Closure: It comprises various activities that are required to carry out to finalize the
decided activities and for the former closing (Niknazar and Bourgault, 2017).
Other key principles:
 Before the execution of MIS implemenation, it is necessary for the Family Life Tropical
Resort to identify the benefits or growth potential of the project. Here, technological
innovations by the way of MIS and e-reservation will drive millennial consumer base,
greater return and competitive strengthens.
 The new project will follow following stages that are demonstrated here as under:
Learning from the historical experience: Initially, The Family Life Tropical Resort can learn
from the historical technological developments made earlier. Moreover, as competitors
streamlined their operations using MIS, therefore, it can examine their online strategies to
successfully implement the MIS (Arashpour and et.al., 2017).
 Environment suitability: The plan must suit both the internal as well as external
environment. As it will streamline the operations and generate traffic by providing
greater flexibility to the VIP customers and travelers through e-booking facilities.
Further, manager also has to examine technological up gradation, price changes and
others factors as well.
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 Well-defined role and structure: Every stakeholder associated with the project must be
well understood by their roles and responsibilities and execute functions accordingly
(Turner, 2014).
 Clear scope & objectives: It is essential to set clear scope of the project and well-
defined objectives so that everyone can align their activities with the strategic targets and
contribute in achieving the same.
1.2 Appraise the viability of projects developing success and failure criteria
Success criteria:
1. To develop the own website of The Family Life Tropical Resort for delivery of required
information to domestic as well as foreign clients
2. To build an online reservation system to provide greater flexibility to the visitors
3. To create Management Information System for streamliness of routine operations
4. To develop an interactive internet system to establish an effective communication with
the consumers
Failure criteria:
1. Inability to develop an online web portal to provide e-booking services to the clients
2. Inability to create MIS for the purpose of streamline regular business functions
3. Failure to build an effective interactive internet system for ensuring an effective
communication with the clients
Project Scope:
We are targeted to create an online website where consumer can inquire any information
and book the holiday plan to satisfy their expectations and MIS is decided to implement for
streamline corporate functioning.
Appraising the viability of the project
It is important for The Resort's project manager to examine the viability & feasibility of
the project. Here, current project of website and MIS implementation will be viable in the
following respect, described below:
Technical: Undoubtedly, technically the project will be viable because The Family Life
Tropical Resort's competitors are already delivering online booking facilities, MIS and
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interactive internet system. Thus, it will be technically feasible and viable which will drive
benefits to the firm by strong online presence (Burke, 2013).
Financial: Budget will be constructed prior to estimate the expected cost and then
required modifications and alteratives will be made as per the quotations presented by vendors.
Business: Now-a-days, customers prefer to book services online therefore, it will be
beneficial for The Family Life Tropical Resort because of greater audiences, high sales and
return & strengthen competitiveness (Kerzner, 2013).
1.3 Explain the principles behind project management system and procedure
In every project, it is essential for the project manager to ensure effective and optimum
utilization of resources for the successful management of the project. With the stated scenario,
the key principles of project management system that The Family Life Tropical Resort needs to
comply with are stated below:
Adequate knowledge: The most important thing is that every team member who is
involved in the project must be fully aware with the project so that they can execute their
responsibilities accordingly and attain targets (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017).
Procedure & processes: Every member has to follow the procedures and processes
during the execution process to reach the targets. Follow-up with the processes will assist project
manager in optimal and efficient utilization of resources at minimal wastage.
Resource integration: In this process, The Family Life Tropical Resort has to integrate
all the resources like human resources, funds and others. It helps to co-ordinate various functions
at greater efficiency(Lientz and Rea, 2016).
Meeting clients expectations: The web portal must be designed keeping into account the
desires of the clients like booking, inquiries, compliant handling and others.
Risk management: It is obviously that various risks i.e. technical, financial, scope
creeping and other risks can be incur in a project which make it essential to be managed by risk
mitigation strategies for the successful completion of the project.
Quality management: It is the centric approach which is in line with assessing user
requirement, set technological standards and user-testing as well (Leach, 2014).
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1.4 Explain the key elements involved in terminating a project and post project appraisal
Project termination is the final step of every project management which is regarded as the
closure of the project due to completion. Every project is terminated at the last so that it assist
people in gaining better learning experiences from the current one and apply the same for the
prospective projects. There are number of activities involved in the project closure or termination
which will be required to be execute by The Family Life Tropical Resort that are detailed below:
1. It is necessary to complete all the documentation work before closure i.e. cost
performance records, schedule records and others (Meredith, Mantel and Shafer, 2013).
2. All the payments to the vendors must be made as per the agreements or contracts made.
3. Conducting individual meetings with each and every team member & also the group
meetings required to be held.
4. Preparation of checklist for assessing and evaluating test success in specific areas i.e.
website creation, MIS implementation & so on (Guo and et.al., 2013).
5. Post-buying evaluation meetings also required to be conducted so as to examine the
performance & internal efficiency. It can be done by audit trails, reports closure &
comparison between actual & expected targets.
TASK 2 REPORT
2.1 Planning human resources with the roles and responsibilities and create the most appropriate
organizational structure
As per the scenario, every projects requires talented and committed workforce with
having exceptional skills. With the current project, Resort has planned towards strengthening
their competitive position through website development & MIS and Integrated Internet system. It
is essential for the resort to design the well-designed plans & procedures for execution,
administration and timely completion of the project (Steyn and et.al., 2016). With the proposed
project, there are following members and staff will b required who will be assigned with the
following roles & responsibilities that are presented here as under:
Staff requirement Roles and responsibilities
Project sponsor  Defining the vision, mission, project aims and objectives
 Approve the time schedule & resource requirement
 Approving the created project plan
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 Authorize the funding requirement
Project Manager  Ensuring that project is executing in accordance with the
approved plan
 Project monitoring to assess cost, quality management
practices and time duration
 Lead the whole team and encourage them regularly
Technical experts  Manage technical functioning of the system
 Design website as per the specification
 Remove technical errors like networking and other issues
Finance manager  Procure required amount of capital from different sources
 Fund administration to manage cost in line with the target
 Ensure optimum utilization of capital
All project team
members
 Regularly communicate with the project manager and report
them
 Maintain coordination and cooperation with the staff
 Executing their job responsibilities in accordance with the
targets
 Provide suggestions and ideas for the bringing improvements i
the functioning i.e. quality management and assurance
Organizational structure: Structure presents the hierarchy which demonstrates the
authority and responsibilities of every team member and indicates that who will be responsible to
whom and who is authorized for decisions making and strategy formulation.
2.2 Controlling and coordinating a project
Structure of the project plays a great role in coordinating and coordinating a project so as
to execute and finish it successfully. It is essential for The Family Life Tropical Resort's project
manager to track regularly the progress of the project by monitoring the actual performance with
the planned schedule. As already said that the online booking system project requires various
resources such as human resources, hardware & software, technology, funds and others,
therefore, it becomes essential for the business to match the functioning with the planned
resource requirement. In order to minimize the complexities, it has been decided to create a work
breakdown structure (WBS) so as to segregate the online website creation project into simpler
tasks like requirement of web portfolio, website designing, testing the functioning of the website,
database management, synchronization and so on for establishing an effective coordination
(Martinelli and Milosevic, 2016). Further, tracking the project progress by evaluating the actual
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performance with the targets assist The Family Life Tropical Resort's project manager to put
rationalized cost measures for controlling excessive cost & wastage. Further, structure present
that every subordinate or team members must be communicate their performance to the project
manager and sponsor, so that, they can evaluate that whether plans has been executed perfectly
or not. Such deviation analysis helps to identify areas that are responsible for jeopardies the
expectations and target set so that remedial actions can be made on right time. In addition to this,
resort also can implement change control procedure so as to determine the change requirement in
the online booking project (Wang and et.al., 2016). With this, they can implement required
changes and keep their actual performance in line with the created targets so as to finish the
project on right time. Thus, from the analysis, it becomes clear that by effectively coordination of
the project, Resort can ensure the target achievements via smoothening the execution of activities
with the plan made.
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2.3 Assessing project leadership requirement and qualities
In every project, managers and leaders aims at encouraging and motivating their team
members continuously, so that, every team member feel encouraged to put their outstanding and
genuine efforts in completing their targets successfully. With the presented plan of online
reservation & MIS system, it seems essential for the leaders to apply excellent style of leadership
due to the following reasons, mentioned here as under:
Maintain cooperation: The most important reasons why leading people effectively is
necessary is that disputes and conflicts can be resolved which helps to improve cooperation.
Leaders are accountable to combat issues and thereby boost sound relationship among all the
project team (Turner, 2016).
Effective environment: By giving value and respect to the every team member, it creates
an effective and healthier working environment, in which, everyone wish to coordinate and help
others by putting collaborative working practices. Moreover, it promotes team-working practices
which will assist The Family Life Tropical Resort in developing their website for delivering
flexibility to the visitors in the way of online booking. Moreover, MIS implementation will be
drive benefit to the firm by streamline the regular course of operations and provide easier access
to the managers for getting summarized reports (Kivinen and Lammintakanen, 2013).
Effective communication: Sound communication system helps in bringing out
proficiency and efficiency and maintain coordination. Every team member involved in the
project will communicate their progress to the project manager, with this, they can make timely
decisions to overcome difficulties and attain goals.
The Family Life Tropical Resort's website development project head is liable to lead their
personnel effectively and efficiently so as to ensure full utilization of their potential and capacity.
To ensure this, they has to apply unique leadership style so that team members can be lead and
motivated to give exceptional performance for getting the prospective project deliverables.
Project Manager has an accountability to clearly define the roles and responsibilities and deal
with the conflicting situations that take place between website designing and development team
(Heagney, 2016). Effectively handling of the disputes is essential otherwise, it may create a
serious loss. It requires excellent negotiation skills in order to handle the conflicts between
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internal as well as external stakeholders. At the same time, it is also beneficial to contract with
the vendors for buying the hardware and software for the purpose of website creation.
2.4 Plan and specify human resource requirement for a project
In order to build a web portfolio for the delivery of e-booking services to strengthen the
online presence, The Family Life Tropical Resort's project planner will require various personnel
who will be assigned with different roles & responsibilities. Before recruiting any member, it
must be ensured that member perfectly matches the skills requirement, so that, they can perform
accordingly and attain targets in an effective manner (Li and et.al., 2014). With the current
project, resort needs to create a plan for the manpower that is tabulated here below:
Team members Requirement of skills
Web developer  Exceptional knowledge of technical language
 Coding expertise
 Excellent technical skills
Website planner  Assessing the need and functionality aspect
System analysts and administrator  Identifying various functions and features
Database development manager  Assessing database functionality
Testing engineer  System testing
Graphic designer  Ability to create unique and attractive graphics
 Creating visual images to captivate domestic as
well as overseas clients
 Designing website layout (Kivinen and
Lammintakanen, 2013)
Coordinator  Maintain coordination between activities of all the
team members
Interface engineer  Strong technical & innovative skills
 Interpersonal skills
 Problems solving ability
 Detailed design creation for the website
 Interface management
 Monitor functioning and take remedial measures
 Making contracts with the clients
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TASK 3 PROJECT EXECUTION PLAN
3.1 Preparation of a project plan and establishing the project organization
The project plan for the activities that can be conducted for setting up of an improved
MIS and for giving online presence so that the said resort establish itself at a wider level are as
follows:
Task Name Duration Start
Setting up of MIS and preparing for online
presence 47 days Mon 4/3/17
Planning 30 days Mon 4/3/17
Information search 15 days Mon 4/3/17
Listing of available information 7 days Mon 4/24/17
Approval of information available 5 days Wed 5/3/17
Contracts 1 day Mon 4/3/17
Making discussion 1 day Wed 5/10/17
Planning for selection 1 day Thu 5/11/17
Giving specifications 1 day Fri 5/12/17
Development of plan 7 days Fri 5/12/17
Designing the plan 1 day Fri 5/12/17
Review of designed plan 1 day Mon 5/15/17
Reviewing and giving specifications for
required features in system and website 1 day Tue 5/16/17
Giving final plan 1 day Wed 5/17/17
Getting approval for the decided plan 1 day Thu 5/18/17
Approving the designed plan 1 day Fri 5/19/17
Printing of design 1 day Mon 5/22/17
Implementing the plan 6 days Tue 5/23/17
Draw the design of MIS system 1 day Tue 5/23/17
Mock test of the MIS system 1 day Wed 5/24/17
Drawing design of website 1 day Thu 5/25/17
Mock test of website 1 day Fri 5/26/17
Finalizing the system and website 1 day Mon 5/29/17
Installation of the system and finalizing
the website 1 day Tue 5/30/17
Monitoring 4 days Wed 5/31/17
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Inspecting the installed system and
website 1 day Wed 5/31/17
Tallying the actual work as per the
requirements 1 day Thu 6/1/17
Making identification of defects 1 day Fri 6/2/17
Taking corrective measures 1 day Mon 6/5/17
Project closure 3 days Fri 6/2/17
Preparing the report 1 day Fri 6/2/17
Reviewing the project post
implementation 1 day Mon 6/5/17
Submission of the project 1 day Tue 6/6/17
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3.2 Apply project scheduling & cost-controlling techniques
For installation of the project related to developing a new MIS and a well designed
website of resort, the manager has utilized various tools that can help in the required project
accomplishment (Arashpour and et.al., 2017). Thus, the tool of PERT and Gantt chart can be best
tool according to the desired functions:
PERT: The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is an important method that is
helpful in getting all the tasks and activities listed in a comprehensible manner so that the
project can be moved in a right direction. The PERT enlists all the activities with its sub tasks
along with highlighted time duration that will be taken for each task and sub task. It helps in
deciding the milestones for project in a sequential manner. Apart from this, it makes the
allocation of time and resources much easier and understandable. Thus, in the present project of
installing the MIS and conducting the activity of website development, it has been worked out
according to the PERT (Burke, 2013). With the help of this, project manager can easily monitor
each stage of development in a proper manner.
Gantt chart: The Gantt chart is a best method to make activities and plan them against the time
schedule. Through development of Gantt chart, the project manager can plan all the activities as
per the allotted time. Besides this, he can also use a proper control over various activities and
tasks so that there can be a complete cost control. Besides this, the project plan can be
coordinated among the team members in a better way so that all concerned people can also
execute their activities accordingly (de Araújo and et.al., 2017).
The MS project tool has been applied in the present task of website development and
MIS installation according to which the entire plan will be completed within 47 days.
3.3 Analyze the methods to measure project performance
The project manager has developed some key performance indicators that can help in
measuring the performance of project. Thus, the results obtained can be compared to know that
whether the set criteria has been met or not. Several methods based on this aspect are as follows:
Budgeted cost for schedule: As per this schedule, the cost of entire project plan will be
evaluated for developing website and installation of MIS. Thus, the activities set for each task
can be compared with the actual ones so that results can be obtained to check variances (Guo,
and et.al., 2013).
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Budgeted cost for performance: As per this budgeted cost, the performances are measured
against the actual set criteria. This also gives information of the price incurred to undertake the
project. Thus, the results can be obtained about the gaps in performance which will ensure
success or failure of the project.
Value analysis: This analysis aids in making forecast of the time taken for project and cost
incurred for the development of website. Besides this, through this analysis, a manager can
undertake proper monitoring of the plans to ensure the movement in right direction (Heagney,
2016).
Monitoring: The project manager can monitor all activities and tasks so that guidance can be
given for activities to be done in better way. With the help of regular monitoring, the manager
can point out any wrong activity at earlier stages so that entire plan may not get affected from
any error.
3.4 Explaining project change control procedure and evaluation of the completed project
The change control process can be adopted by the project manager so that desired
changes can be implemented in the projects. This is the final activity which is taken up after the
completion of the project (Kerzner, 2013). The steps for this process are as follows:
 At the first stage, entire project will be reviewed so that areas which need alterations can
be identified successfully.
 By identifying the areas requiring changes, a form will be will filled so that request can
be made for changes.
 At the next stage, the form will be sent to change control board who will make an
evaluation of the request. This will help in deciding whether, the change request is fit to
approve or not.
 As per the evaluation done by board, it gives the decision to either accept or reject it. If
the change request for mentioned project is accepted it will be sent to project manager,
while if rejected, it will be given to client (Kivinen and Lammintakanen, 2013).
 After getting the approval, project manager will again develop plan and activities so that
desired changes can be made in the project.
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CONCLUSION
From the above project plan, it became clear that The Family Life Tropical Resort has to
execute various activities i.e. initiation, planning, execution, monitoring & controlling and
closure/termination of the project. The report founded that before making the decisions to
implement online reservation system, resort has to examine its feasibility and the current project
of resort has been founded technically and commercial viable that will drive benefits by the way
of millennial audiences, exceeding sales and return and strong competitive position. Besides this,
the study gained attention that the project will require different kind of human forces that are
technical expert, system analyst, engineer, web developer and others who will be assigned with
the different job responsibilities which is required to be complete on time for the online
reservation system development & MIS implementation. Project planner not just have to set
plans and procedures but also has to monitor it continually to make it sure that work is going on
in line with the targets. Regular tracking off the progress enable project planner to make timely
decisions to overcome issues. Besides this, leading people successfully is essential to motivate
team members for getting their outstanding contribution to achieve the target project aims and
objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arashpour, M. and et.al., 2017. Integrated management of on-site, coordination and off-site
uncertainty: Theorizing risk analysis within a hybrid project setting. International Journal
of Project Management. 35(4). pp.647-655.
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
de Araújo, M.C.B., and et.al., 2017. Project procurement management: A structured literature
review. International Journal of Project Management. 35(3). pp.353-377.
Guo, X. and et.al., 2013. Optimal pricing strategy based on market segmentation for service
products using online reservation systems: An application to hotel rooms. International
Journal of Hospitality Management. 35(12). pp.274-281.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt
Assn.
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kivinen, T. and Lammintakanen, J., 2013. The success of a management information system in
health care–A case study from Finland. International Journal of Medical Informatics.
82(2). pp.90-97.
Leach, L.P., 2014. Critical chain project management. Artech House.
Li, J. and et.al., 2014. Community-based collaborative information system for emergency
management. Computers & operations research. 42(8). pp.116-124.
Lientz, B. and Rea, K., 2016. Breakthrough technology project management. Routledge.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques
for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2013. Project management in practice. Wiley
Global Education.
Niknazar, P. and Bourgault, M., 2017. Theories for classification vs. classification as theory:
Implications of classification and typology for the development of project management
theories. International Journal of Project Management. 35(2). pp.191-203.
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Papke-Shields, K.E. and Boyer-Wright, K.M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied to
project management. International Journal of Project Management. 35(2). pp.169-179.
Steyn, H. and et.al., 2016. Project management: A multi-disciplinary approach.
Turner, J.R., 2014. The handbook of project-based management. New York, NY: McGraw-hill.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Wang, D. and et.al., 2016. Assessing hotel-related smartphone apps using online reviews.
Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. 25(3). pp.291-313.
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