‘Last hospitality’ as an overlooked dimension in contemporary hospitality theory and practice.

Abstract

This paper contributes to the on-going debate on how hospitality should be defined and what constitutes hospitality as a social and commercial phenomenon. The paper takes a conceptual approach, reviewing the literature relevant to hospitality and funeral care provision, and proposing a reclassification of hospitality. The paper reveals that funeral care holds a number of core attributes that have long been associated with (more) conventional hospitality services. The paper articulates these similarities and introduces the notion of ‘last hospitality’, which is conceptualised as the hospitality services provided by funeral directors to the deceased and their families and friends. The paper argues that ‘last hospitality’ alongside the related services of funeral directors should be subsumed into traditional notions of hospitality. The paper discusses the implications of this inclusion for hospitality research, theory and practice.