Tourism & Management Studies, 12(1) (2016), 120-126 DOI: 10.18089/tms.2016.12112 120 Hotel employees: A systematic literature review Funcionários de hotelaria: Uma revisão sistemática da literatura Sérgio Borralha University of Algarve, Faculty of Economics and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO), Campus de Gambelas, Edifício 9, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, sergio_borralha@hotmail.com Saul Neves de Jesus University of Algarve, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology and Education Sciences and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO), Campus de Gambelas, Edifício 9, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, snjesus@ualg.pt Patrícia Pinto University of Algarve, Faculty of Economics and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO), Campus de Gambelas, Edifício 9, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, pvalle@ualg.pt João Viseu University of Algarve, Faculty of Economics and Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO), Campus de Gambelas, Edifício 9, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, joaonrviseu@gmail.com Abstract With the increase of studies on hospitality professionals over the years, it is essential to perform a review on those works. This review was conducted through the databases Web of Knowledge, Web of Science (Social Sciences Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Medline), and Science Direct. We searched for articles published between 2000 and 2014, crossing the keywords “hospitality”, “tourism”, and “hotel” with the keywords “professionals”, “employees”, and “workers”. Our aim was to identify the most studied variables on hospitality employees. The search process resulted on 3700 initial references, being selected 242. We verified that work satisfaction was studied in 51 articles and stress, burnout, and mental exhaustion in 31. For that reason, this review aggregates and analyses these results. This study has implications for the understanding of the roll of these variables in hospitality and tourism economic profitability, as well as in human resources management policies and individual well-being. Keywords: Systematic review, hospitality, professionals, attitudes. Resumo Com o aumento dos estudos realizados com profissionais de hotelaria nos últimos anos, torna-se importante fazer uma revisão desses trabalhos. Esta revisão foi realizada com recurso às bases de dados Web of Knowledge, Web of Science (Social Sciences Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Medline) e Science Direct. Pesquisámos artigos publicados entre 2000 e 2014, cruzando as palavras-chave “hospitalidade”, “turismo” e “hotel” com as palavras-chave “profissionais”, “empregados” e “trabalhadores”. Objetivámos, desta forma, identificar as variáveis mais estudadas nos profissionais de hotelaria. Da pesquisa resultaram 3700 referências iniciais, tendo sido selecionadas 242. Verificou-se que a satisfação no trabalho foi analisada em 51 estudos e o stresse, burnout e exaustão emocional em 31, pelo que esta revisão incorpora e analisa estes resultados. Este estudo possui implicações para a análise do papel destas variáveis na rentabilidade económica da hotelaria e do turismo, na gestão de recursos humanos e no bem-estar dos colaboradores. Palavras-chave: Revisão sistemática, hospitalidade, profissionais, atitudes. 1. Introduction Tourism is responsible for a high number of trips around the world having a positive impact on the economy of recipient countries (Cunha, 2013; Eurostat, 2013; Santos, Ferreira, & Costa, 2014). From all economic activities, tourism has the highest global growth rate. In 2012, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2012a, 2012b) predicted a drive of 285 million tourists, a 5.4% increase comparatively to 2011. The importance of tourism in the global economic recovery was recognized, implying facilitated travel, demand stimulation, and creation of new jobs. The UNTWO (2013) predicted, for 2012, an income of €837 billion of tourism worldwide, added the cost of travel, this amount would rise to €1 trillion. In 2013 (UNWTO, 2014), 52 million more tourists travelled the world than in previous years, with an increase of 5% for 2014 and 3.8% more each year until 2020. According to the UNWTO (2013), based on the study “Tourism towards 2030”, the growth of tourism worldwide will be 3.3% per year until 2030. In Europe, between 2006 and 2010, the European Commission Statistics (Eurostat, 2012) found an average of one billion travels, this value increased 0.5% in 2011, 5 million holidays more than in 2010. Spending on holidays increased by 7% in 2011, on average €64 per night, €50 in domestic travel, and €82 in trips abroad. In 2013 (Eurostat, 2014), the number of nights spent in tourism establishments rose to 2.6 billion, an increase of 2.6% compared to 2012. The value of arrivals (UNWTO, 2013) was estimated at €356 billion. Europe (UNWTO, 2014) remains the world’s most visited region with 29 million arrivals. In Portugal (Eurostat, 2013a), in 2008, €8.82 million were spent by tourists. In 2009, 444.717 jobs were generated in the tourism sector. In 2011 (Eurostat, 2012), in comparison with 2010, there was an increase of 11096- vacation travel. In 2012, the National Statistics Institute (INE, 2012) stated that tourism revenues showed a balance of €5660 million against €5172 million in 2011, an increase of 9.4%. According to the Eurostat (2014), the number of nights spent in tourism establishments was 47.9 million, 31.1 and