Plenty of academic research work is carried out in tourism and E-Tourism research applying structural equation models to gain insights about relationships in the tourism domain.
However, I would be interested to what extend the tourism industry (tourism associations and intermediaries, destinations, accommodation facilities etc.) are exploiting the obtained academic results?
SEM findings need to be presented in a simple way to become popular with tourism industry and destinations (findings, not SEM). It can be done. (Just working on one such presentation for a publication in a community journal).
However, I am interested in how useful these results (obtained by SEMs) are for the industry. (Another (complicated) research needed, I guess.)
The research papers using SEM need to be presented in a "practitioner version" in trade journals and magazines. Obviously, SEM is of great help for multi-item variables, and many other statistical procedures are great, but their results need to be "translated" for practitioners. We can see this happening, for example, with many articles in Harvard Business Review, which are actually syntheses of research publications.
I would not put much hope in business practitioners or policy makers actively reading or even browsing the latest academic literature. I think that the accumulated knowledge from the plethora of structural equation models attempting to gain insights about relationships in the tourism domain could enter practical relevance (either for business application or policy making) most effectively through education and consultation projects. By education, I mean either masters degree or short courses targeted for practitioners.
I also agree with Maria that SEM results should be "translated" into meaningful recommendations. Saying only that "X influences Y if Z" or "A influenced B through C" to practitioners , does not necessarily give much practical insight for them.
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