Concluding commentary on the contemporary human resource issues for talent management in hospitality and tourism

This commentary provides some discussion on emergent points from the articles presented in this thematic edition and re-visits our strategic question posed at the beginning of this theme issue, “what does the highly contemporary, human resource topic of talent management mean for the hospitality and tourism industry”? The articles included here reveal that talent management has significant meaning and importance for the hospitality and tourism sector, and emerges as being a multi-faceted and multi-layered concept. This is reflected in Table I which provides a summary of key themes relating to definitions, key challenges and practical actions drawn from each of the submissions. The definitions in Table I indicates a variety of meanings and definitions around the concept and illustrates that talent management amounts to a broad way of contemporary thinking about people working in the industry that links business strategy to human resource strategy and incorporates a wide range of human resource policies and practices