tourism grad student network

The imminent opening racinos in PA should have some interesting impacts on the gaming industry in neighboring states. Understanding and predicting what will happen, both short term and longer term in equalibrium would make an important contribution to our field and to public policy in general.

PA gaming brings crunch time to W VA
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=14557&catid=164

De slots get closer competition
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060928/BUSINESS/609280340/1003

Budgeting for a Robust Internet Marketing Strategy in 2007

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2006_3rd/Sep06_InternetStrategy.html

From TIA . . .

"WINE AND CULINARY TOURISM STUDY TO BE RELEASED THIS MONTH"Seventeen percent of American leisure travelers (27.3 million) have participated in one or more culinary activities while traveling over the past three years", according to TIA's new Wine and Culinary Tourism Study. Learn more about wine and culinary tourists in this month's release of the study. Travel behaviors, preferences, and rankings of destinations are included in this comprehensive report of leisure travelers. Contact Valerie Hutchinson at 202-408-8422 to place your order for this report."

If you're looking for a topic, and you are interested in destination marketing, government tourism policy, impacts of advertising, etc., the following story may be of interest.

Louisiana Receives $28.5 Million In Tourism Aid From Federal Government….The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved $28.5 million to be given to the Louisiana Tourism Marketing Program, with New Orleans area tourism agencies at the forefront of the aid.

If you're looking for an interesting topic you may want to learn more about . . .

"Louisiana Receives $28.5 Million In Tourism Aid From Federal Government….The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved $28.5 million to be given to the Louisiana Tourism Marketing Program, with New Orleans area tourism agencies at the forefront of the aid."

Understanding how this money will be used, setting up a system to try to measure its impact, and / or running simulations to try and predict its impact would all be interesting studies.

I just received this post.

Are you planning to gather your own data? The Social Science Data Library (SSDL) presents its fall seminar series: How to Collect Your Own Data: Surveys, Interviews and Focus Groups. These hands-on seminars will take place on September 29, October 27, and November 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. On Friday, September 29th, we will discuss the practical issues of survey development and implementation, including:

sample selection,

data collection methods (paper surveys, web surveys, phone surveys, etc),

survey instrument development,

pre-testing,

data collection,

hiring and training interviewers,

integration of data collection with planned analysis, and

analytical techniques and reporting results.

Peter Mulcahy, Manager of Institute Operations for Temples Institute for Survey Research will conduct these workshops together with SSDL staff. To register or to request more information, send an email to ssdl@temple.edu. Those registering should include name and affiliation with Temple (educational status, department, college or school, email address, and phone number). Registrants planning to develop surveys should also include a short description of the topic of the survey. Once you register, we will let you know where the seminar will take place.Social Science Data LibraryTemple University(215) 204-5002 ssdl@temple.edu

Welcome to a new semester at TU. I'm inviting a new crop of students to participate in our discussion. Please feel free to post your questions related to research and the broader graduate experience.