Tourism and Travel Commons^™

Thornton's Restaurant : Tasting Menu, Thornton's Restaurant

Menus of the 21st Century

1st Floor, The Fitzwilliam Hotel, 128 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2

Thornton's Restaurant, located in Dublin City Centre overlooking St Stephen's Green is an award winning Michelin starred restaurant.

Kevin Thornton was the first Irish chef to achieve two Michelin stars. His cooking, while contemporary, is informed by the distinctive flavours of local produce, and by his vivid memories of the food of his childhood.

Author Topic Model-Based Collaborative Filtering For Personalized Poi Recommendations, Shuhui Jiang, Xueming Qian, Jialie Shen, Yun Fu, Tao Mei

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

From social media has emerged continuous needs for automatic travel recommendations. Collaborative filtering (CF) is the most well-known approach. However, existing approaches generally suffer from various weaknesses. For example, sparsity can significantly degrade the performance of traditional CF. If a user only visits very few locations, accurate similar user identification becomes very challenging due to lack of sufficient information for effective inference. Moreover, existing recommendation approaches often ignore rich user information like textual descriptions of photos which can reflect users' travel preferences. The topic model (TM) method is an effective way to solve the "sparsity problem," but is still far …

2014 Nonresident Visitation, Expenditures, And Economic Impact Estimates: Estimates By Full Year, Quarters, Trip Purposes, And International Visitors., Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

A collection of 2014 full year and quarterly estimates of nonresident visitation, expenditures by nonresident travelers, and economic impact estimates, including expenditures by purpose of trip, airport of arrival, and international visitors.

Patriarchy, Empire, And Ping Pong Shows: The Political Economy Of Sex Tourism In Thailand, Kristen Kelley

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project provides a postcolonial feminist analysis of the prosperity and reputation of the sex tourism industry in Thailand. It examines the ways in which Western imperialism created the space for the globalization of sex work, as well as providing a postcolonial analysis of the hegemonic structures which have existed throughout Thailand's history that enable the sex tourism industry to thrive today. This project also explores how policy making and enforcement in Thailand affects the sex tourism industry, as well as the ways in which activism works to change or support these policies, and how this affects individuals who are …

An Analysis Of The Changing Competitive Landscape In The Hotel Industry Regarding Airbnb, Dean D. Lehr

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This thesis analyzes the competition between hotels and Airbnb in San Francisco. Airbnb is an internet platform that allows hosts to rent shared space, private rooms or homes to tourists. This study identifies the affect Airbnb has on hotels, workers, renters, neighborhoods, and tax revenue.

Interviews and research was engaged with travel industry professionals. Hoteliers were found to be apathetic about the competition between hotels and Airbnb.

Airbnb can be a meaningful experience between hosts and tourists. Budget travelers might not travel if not for low Airbnb rates. Airbnb rooms supplement hotel inventory during extraordinary events.

This utopian view …

Application Of Heritage Tourism Development Frameworks To Jenkins County, Georgia, Shelby R. Herrin

Honors College Theses

With the decline of traditional agriculture and extraction industries, many small towns in the Southeast US are facing challenges of economic decline and looking for alternative development trajectories. The city of Millen in Jenkins County, Georgia is one of such small towns. With the discovery of a large Civil War heritage resource, Millen’s administration became interested in developing the town’s tourism potential. However, the community possesses neither the resources nor knowledge to develop and promote this potential. In this project, the combination of Gunn’s functioning tourism system model as a conceptual framework and Jamal and Getz’s three-step collaborative community tourism …

Terrorized Tourists: A Study Of The Impact Of Terrorism On Tourism, Caroline M. Depuma

Honors Theses

Tourism is one of the largest sectors in the world; it is also one of the first to take a hit when terrorist attacks happen. Terrorism data has become more important to the tourism and travel industry since the attacks on September 11, 2001. This study looks at the impact that terrorism has on tourism levels, Gross Domestic Product, and Foreign Direct Investment in the countries of Brazil, Egypt, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The results of this study show that terrorism affects the daily operations of these countries, by impacting the amounts of GDP, FDI, and the number …

Too Drunk To Gamble? Dram Shop Liability For Gaming Debts., Jeffery Benson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The service of alcohol to high-end gamblers may hinder your ability to collect unpaid debt. Gamblers have opted to use the legal theory of Dram Shop, to reduce, if not eliminate unpaid debt. Their position is that they were too drunk to gamble and therefore not responsible for their debts. Gamblers have been largely unsuccessfully using Dram Shop laws; however the casino executives should make themselves familiar with the legal precedent to ensure total liability protection.

Transforming For The Future: The New Economic Driver For The Las Vegas Tourism Industry, Kwangbok Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Tourism transformation has recently become a key strategy in today's competitive business environment, as continued rejuvenation is required for a tourism destination to succeed over time. However, transformation can prove problematic for many emerging tourism destinations, which suffer from a lack of long-term decision-making tools and leadership from institutions at a local level. Therefore, this paper aims to use the theoretical framework of transformation theory—particularly the institution dimension— to demonstrate that Las Vegas’ ongoing transformative shift over the last 80 years from a mining town to a gaming destination, and then, to a multi-dimensional tourist attraction, has been largely successful …

Sustainable Promotion In Hospitality, Anette Isabella Nilsen

Honors College Theses

With the ever-increasing need to reduce our carbon foot print, the necessity to innovate for a more sustainable future has become the responsibility of both individuals and corporations. Sustainable development, which is development that “meets our needs today, without compromising the ability meet the needs of future generations” was first brought to light at the Earth Summit in 1987 (Bärlund, n.d.). With the growing numbers of travelers world wide, the hospitality industry was aware that environmental changes and pollution could potentially paralyze their industry and they became among the first to adopt more sustainable practices in their hotels and restaurants. …

Pond Hockey Classic 2015, Megan Tanner Schultz

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This study was conducted for the Kalispell Conventions and Visitor Bureau, to provide insight into the characteristics of attendees of the 2015 Pond Hockey Classic. Paper surveys on site or a post-event web survey were completed by 149 attendees and/or participants of the event. Results show that 60% of respondents were residents of Montana and of those Montana residents, 69% were from Flathead County. Out-of-county respondents spent an average of 2.84 nights in Kalispell and on average less than 1 night in other Flathead Valley locations (not Kalispell). Hotel/motel/b&b purchases received the highest total dollars spent during the event. Respondents …

Bringing Flowers Back To The Cité Des Fleurs: A Geographical Study Of The Sôma Beach Development Project In Mahajanga, Elizabeth Isaac-Herzog

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mahajanga, Madagascar is currently watching one of its biggest development efforts unfold. The Sôma Beach project will transform the previously-bustling Village Touristique, degraded over the past decades by the ocean’s waves, into an accessible hotspot for national and international tourists. This study aimed to answer the overarching questions, “How is the Sôma Beach project being carried out?” and “How is it affecting the local population and spatial organization?” Interviews, spatial observation and analysis, and review of relevant documents were used during a month-long period in order to gather information on this topic. The study concluded that space was an influential …

Determination Of Factors That Influence Passengers’ Airline Selection: A Study Of Low Cost Carriers In Thailand, Thapanat Buaphiban

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This research examined the factors that influenced the airline selection of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) in Thailand. The research was justified based on the rapid growth of LCC travel in Thailand, particularly in domestic and regional travel. There is a relative lack of successful explanation of the choice of LCCs in Thailand, with only a few studies addressing topics like passenger satisfaction and perceptions of service quality. Following an extensive literature review, the author used a theoretical framework based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) in order to explain passenger behavioral intentions. This framework was supplemented by …

Heads In Beds: A Best Practices Examination Of Advertising Platforms For Multi-National Hotel Chains, Erika Segal

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Multi-national hotel chains have thousands of hotels and resorts all over the world. Despite their many differences, one thing they all have in common is the need to advertise. The purpose of this study was to research the advertising techniques of each chain in order to determine the best practices for this business sector. The researcher found that many of the chains were inconsistent with their advertising platforms, rendering their efforts ineffective for acquiring and maintaining customers. Key recommendations were that a company only keeps advertising platforms if they are able to maintain and manage them well, to ensure that …

Bicycle Tourism Plan For Economic Development: A Template For Rural Agricultural Towns And A Case Study For The City Of Winters, California, Marisa Rene Lee

Master's Theses

Bicycling is a method of tourism transportation that is healthy, non-invasive, environmentally responsible, and economically sustainable. It allows freedom, mobility, and sightseeing potential that is not made possible by other modes of transit. Thousands of bicycle tourists travel from all over the globe annually to explore California on touring bikes via established cycling routes and robust determination. Thousands of additional domestic and international visitors take weekend trips, plan family vacations, travel for business, or tour California from abroad, many of whom are excellent candidates for local and regional bicycle touring at a more gentle intensity level.

The increasing popularity and …

Relocation To Montana: Current Residents Who Were Influenced By Previous Vacations Or Seasonal Tourism Jobs To Move To The State, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Montana residents were surveyed during 4th quarter, 2012, and asked several questions regarding experiences that may have influenced them to relocate to Montana if they were not born in the state. Respondents who had relocated to the state were asked about business ownership in the state. The research presented here helps us to understand and quantify the number of Montanans who were influenced to relocate to Montana, likely for many of these same reasons. Furthermore, as illustrated by these survey results, these Montanans who relocated to the state as a result of having an opportunity to vacation or work seasonally …

The Influence Of Others On The Vacation Experience: An Ethnographic Study Of Psychographics, Decision Making, And Group Dynamics Among Young Travelers, Edwin Torres

Rosen Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The vacation experience is often enjoyed in the company of others. Whereas scholars have focused on the consumer behaviors of mature travelers, young travelers have received less attention. The present study explores customer-to-customer interactions among young travelers (in their 20s and 30s) within a European tour-group setting. Furthermore, it attempts to understand the influence such travelers have on one another. The decision-making patterns, role of the tour guide, group dynamics, and psychographic preferences are studied from an ethnographic approach. Results indicate that the young travel segment is not as homogeneous as previously conceived. Notable differences in activities, interests, and opinions …

Tour Guides And The Mediation Of Difficult Memories: The Case Of Dublin Castle, Ireland, Bernadette Quinn, Theresa Ryan

Articles

This research seeks to furthering understandings of how Tour Guides interpret memories at heritage sites when the memories at issue are difficult yet subtle and not always apparent to tourists. Specifically, it explores how Dublin Castle, formerly the seat of British rule in Ireland, is captured in narratives presented to tourists that often include Britons. Representing the site is made challenging because some visitors have little knowledge of the site's history, while others are well informed and hold strong political views. The findings show that Guides select largely depoliticized narratives, strongly influenced by their personal interests and experiences. Some hint …

Multi-Stakeholder Assessment Of A Mobile And Temporarily Interconnected Systems Prototype: People-First Tourism, Fay Cobb Payton, Duarte Morais, Ernie Heath

The African Journal of Information Systems

While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for equitable and sustainable development in developing countries, most destination communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees” who are unable to participate in economic opportunities often controlled by tourism retail monopolies. Guided by information systems (IS) research on mobile and temporarily interconnected systems (MTIS), this work examines the ubiquitous nature of information services for users on the move. That is, users that are largely dependent on mobile telephones and temporary tourism services. Stakeholder interviews included local South African micro-entrepreneurs from under-resourced rural and peri-urban communities and other national and …

Digital Or Printed Textbooks: Which Do Students Prefer And Why?, Michelle Millar, Thomas R. Schrier

Hospitality Management

Despite the fact the many textbook publishers offer several of their titles in digital format, the sale of e-textbooks have been less than stellar. This study investigates factors in the adoption of e-textbooks. Specifically, it examines students’ preferences toward printed versus electronic textbooks, and why they prefer one to the other. In general, students still prefer printed textbooks to electronic textbooks. The primary reason for their preference was because the students simply prefer print to digital. This study helps both textbook publishers and educators to better understand the reasons for e-textbook adoption and help determine ways to communicate the benefits …

Economic Recession As A Catalyst To Increased Collaboration In Rural Tourism, Catherine Gorman, Ziene Mottiar

Books / Book chapters

Purpose: This chapter illustrates the collaborative strategies used by a rural village and community to counteract the rapid decline in economic and social activity in tourism that occurred during and after the recession in Ireland.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of literature focuses on collaborative strategies evident within a rural context, and considers benefits, challenges, inter and intra- relationships including ties, structure and communication. Motivational factors relating to social and economic need are also discussed. The case study is set in context with a brief review of the Irish economic environment, rural policy and rural tourism.

Findings: In a community rich in …

Examining The Impact Of Casinos On Economic Development: A Spatial Analysis Of The Counties In The Mid-Atlantic Region, Andrew J. Economopoulos

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

Few have formally evaluated the economic impact of casinos, and yet most agree that it is crucial in estimating the net benefit to society. A new casino investment should stimulate economic activity in the immediate region, but its operations could potentially reduce employment and incomes within the industry. Grinols outlines the factors that could lead to positive or negative growth from the investment, but what is critical to the empirical validation of the investment is the definition of region. Since data is geographically limited to political boundaries, it is necessary to employ a spatial methodology that captures the impact beyond …

Tourism Potential To Benefit The Poor: A Social Accounting Matrix Model Applied To Ecuador, Robertico Croes, Manuel A. Rivera

Rosen Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The study examines the distributional effects of tourism expansion applying a Social Accounting Matrix model to the case of Ecuador. Specifically the study examines what share of tourism expansion benefits poor people. The study finds that tourism has large multiplier effects on the Ecuadorian economy and has the potential for substantial benefits to the poor. The study also found that distributional effects of tourism development are spread across all household incomes in both urban and rural areas benefiting the lowest and low households the most. Tourism has the potential of reducing inequality and is pro-poor in the case of Ecuador. …

The Internationalization Benefits Of A Music Festival: The Case Of The Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival, Manuel Rivera, Kelly Semrad, Robertico Croes

Rosen Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A longitudinal research design was used to assess the potential internationalization benefits that may occur when hosting a music festival in a small island destination. A macroeconomic analysis was used to assess these benefits. The results reveal that a music festival may make a positive economic impact and provide internationalization benefits for a small economy under the eclectic paradigm and the OLI Framework. The study contributes to the understanding of music festivals as a strategic resource to enhance the competitiveness of small island destinations.

Campagne Restaurant : A La Carte Menu, Campagne Restaurant

Menus of the 21st Century

No abstract provided.

The Phenomenon Of Online Reviews - Digital Headache Or Golden Opportunity For The Tourism Sector?, Jennifer Lawlor, Geraldine A. Gorham, Colin O'Connor

Conference papers

This conceptual paper presents a research agenda for tourism operators by examining the literature pertaining to the phenomenon of online reviews in the tourism sector. The objective is to examine tourist motivations for posting online reviews and their potential impact on the consumer decision making process. Furthermore, this paper seeks to explore how tourism operators may respond to, and act upon, this source of customer word-of-mouth.

L'Ecrivain Restaurant, L'Ecrivain Restaurant

Menus of the 21st Century

No abstract provided.

Cava Bodega, Cava Bodega

Menus of the 21st Century

Owned and operated by Jp McMahon and Drigín Gaffey, who also own Aniar and EAT Gastropub,

Aniar was awarded a Michelin Star for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Part of the EatGalway Restaurant Group

The Medical Tourism Index: Scale Development And Validation, Marc Fetscherin, Renee-Marie Stephano

Faculty Publications

Medical tourism is an estimated $100 billion dollar industry. Despite the increasing number of people, companies and countries involved in medical tourism, we know very little about the key drivers and how countries are perceived as medical tourism destinations. The purpose of this paper is to present the Medical Tourism Index, a new type of country-based performance measure to assess the attractiveness of a country as a medical tourist destination. We followed a rigorous multi-steps scale development procedure by using four empirical studies based on 4995 respondents. The MTI is a multidimensional construct with 4 dimensions (country, tourism, medical costs, …

Students In Action Initiative, Theresa Ryan, Ziene Mottiar, Bernadette Quinn, Catherine Gorman, Kevin Griffin, Ruth Craggs, Deirdre Quinn

Teaching Fellowships

The Students in Action Project in the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism was established in 2012 as a way of engaging students and working with stakeholders in a destination. The overall aim of the project was to immerse students in an active collaborative learning environment within the destination to identify ways in which tourism could be enhanced. In the 2014/2015 academic year the project involved over 300 students from a variety of programmes and modules working with local stakeholders in Wexford Town. To date the project has been successful in its aims to develop staff, student and community engagement …