tourism grad student network

From a recent AH&LA listserv posting . . .

Indoor water parks attract families to hotels Families are being lured to hotels that offer indoor water parks, which typically include waterslides, water basketball courts and other attractions. The number of indoor water parks in the U.S. has nearly tripled since 2002, according to the Hotel Water Park Resorts Construction Report. The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)/USA TODAY

Somewhere I've seen some data on the geographic distribution of these facilities. If you're interested in new product issues that might serve as the basis for an interesting paper.

A number of national news sources have featured the GPHA's call for hotels to remove a copy of Philadelphia magazine that includes a story about Philly's increasing murder rate.

Cover Story Cover-up: Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association Makes Plea to Hoteliers to Remove 6,000 Copies of Complimentary In Room Magazine go to https://po-b.temple.edu/wm/mail/fetch.html?urlid=57d391ef0bb8b1d375c198251010746be&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotel-online.com%2FNews%2FPR2006_4th%2FOct06_RoomMagazine.html

As you may know the US Gov't has implemented a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that will require secure ID for everyone entering (or re-entering) the country. Currently only about 23% of American's have passports, so the implementation of this policy will impact both foreign visitors and Americans traveling abroad. The domestic travel trade is quite concerned about how well this will work, as are authorities in Canada, Mexico, etc.

Here's an example of the current debate
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/10/19/wilkins-passcard.html.

Travelers' awareness of these regulations and the role they may play in discouraging travel abroad have not been well investigated.

Iceland announced that it will begin commercial whaling. That brings to three the number of nations that are taking whale--Japan, which harvests whales under the guise of "scientific study," Norway, which has refused to join in the international ban on commerical whaling, and now Iceland.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20606419-953,00.html

In the linked story there is an interesting comment about the relative value of whale watching versus whale harvesting.

One may also wonder about the impact, if any, this event has on the image of Iceland as a tourist destination. They are positioning whaling as part of responsible, sustainable resource management--but how will that fit in their efforts to position Iceland as an eco-tourism destination?

See the article at this link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300147_pf.html regarding a new law aimed at ending internet gambling in the USA.

Do events such as the recent U of Miami football game effect place image?

Does a successful sports team help make a destination more attractive? Many claim that there is a positive relationship but there's little documentation to support this claim.

For example Green, Costa, & Fitzgerald deconstructed almost 12 hours of NCAA Women's Final Four coverage to measure the image of the host city (San Antonio). San Antonio pictures or images appeard for a total of 3.5 minutes! Similarly, Steph Ritter's thesis looked at newspaper coverage of the Army-Navy game over the past 25+ years. Most coverage of the game was neutral towards Philly and the most intensive coverage came when the Vet's railing failed in '98. Hardly the type of event to create a positive image.

The latest claim for this relationship is that Rutgers football is helping to give Jersey a good image. See the attached link for an example.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/aditi_kinkhabwala/10/04/rutgers/index.html

Lots of potential for both consumer and media based studies on this topic!

Recent acts of law enforcement and actions in Congress have sent a chill into the (offshore) on-line gaming industry. For example, prices for stocks listed on the London exchange have taken a dive. This is a topic that begs more study--consumer-based, technology-related, legal interpretation, and/or predicting the future.