Transcending the limits of hospitality: The case of Mount Athos and the offering of philoxenia

Abstract

Skandrani and Kamoun (2014) argue that perceptions of hospitality may foster behavioural and aective loyalty and that cultural sensitivity is a critical skill that may help hospitality providers cope with guests’ cultural dierences. They argue that the hospitality conception seems to have a pentagonal structure revolving around personalisation, comfort, relationship of guest/ host, hospitableness and warm welcoming dimensions. Lashley (2015) makes reference to the contemporary use of the word hospitality to describe a variety of sectors initially motivated by a public relations need to cloud over the commercial nature of enterprises (i.e. hotels). Even so, he argues that the nature of ‘genuine hospitality’ and the array of motives for oering hospitality should be at the heart of an understanding of the hospitality experiences and human resource aspects (i.e. recruitment and rewarding) which are the foundation of any competitive advantage. The sector needs also to consider some of the small rm providers (i.e. B&Bs) where the domestic and commercial aspects of hospitality and hospitableness overlap.