Tourism, Convention and Event Management Department Theses and Dissertations

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Traditional Versus Immersive Video-Based Referee Training Methods and How They Affect Situational Confidence Levels in Intramural College Basketball Officials
(2022-09) Feller, Kevin Arthur; Krohn, Brian; Pierce, David; Sherman, Geoffre
The number of sports officials around the United States and world has been slowly declining. The average age of sports officials keeps rising year over year, meaning younger officials are leaving their jobs at a high rate. The goal of this study was to compare training methods, traditional and immersive video-based, specifically RefReps training, to see how this training method affects officials’ confidence level at performing their duty as college intramural basketball officials. The study included college level intramural basketball officials from different universities in the United States (N = 34). A pre-test survey asking about confidence level was administered to each participating official prior to training for the upcoming intramural season. A control group (N = 13) used the university’s traditional training as their only form of training, while the test group (N = 21) trained using RefReps immersive video-based training. A post-test survey was given with the same confidence level questions for the participants to answer. The results showed that the RefReps group showed a greater increase in confidence in their ability to possess the most extensive knowledge of the rules compared to anyone else at the game and an increase in confidence in their ability to determine if a foul or violation had been committed.
Post Pandemic Reflection: The Changing Role of the Event Designer/Planner
(2022-05) Kramer, Savannah Kay; Cecil, Amanda; Liu-Lastres, Bingjie; Shonkwiler, Erica
This study is to assess the potential changes COVID-19 has had on the event, tourism, and hospitality industry; specifically, how the skillsets of event professional have changed. While the event, tourism, and hospitality industry is ever changing, COVID-19 vastly shifted roles, responsibilities, and jobs for event professionals. So far, few studies have been conducted to identify the potential changes in skillsets that current and future event planners need to be prepared for their job. Using data from event professionals via focus groups and a survey, this study identifies these new or heightened skillsets. The findings provide useful information for current event professionals in addition to educational programs who can adapt their curricula to best prepare future event professionals.
Examining the Impacts of Robot Service on Hotel Guest Experience
(2021-05) Jain, Namrata Rajendra Kumar; Liu-Lastres, Bingjie; Fu, Yao-Yi; Mirehie, Mona
The aim of the study is to assess the impact of robot service on hotel guest experiences. Application of technology in tourism and hospitality services is growing each day. Using robots in hospitality establishment is becoming more and more popular, mainly because it can help cut down the labor costs, increase efficiency and reduce human contacts. Very few studies, however, have been done on examining customer experience regarding robots used in the hotel. Social media sites such as TripAdvisor are popular platforms where people share their first-hand experiences. Hence, this study focuses on studying the reviews of robotic hotels. Using the software Leximancer, reviews were studied and categorized in different themes to understand if the presence of the robot would create positive or negative experience for customers. The sample of the study included total of 2383 reviews related to robotic hotels from TripAdvisor from January 2011 to October 2020. The findings highlighted the major themes as Room, Robot, Hotel and Staff and their relationship with the ratings. It also provided insights into the contribution of robot service to consumer’s hotel experiences.
Millennials’ perception of destination attractiveness
(2017-12-18) Johnson, Cori Lee; Ogbeide, Godwin-Charles; Bahamonde, Rafael E.; Cecil, Amanda
Past studies are focused on measuring competitiveness factors that are significant to a destination, while lesser focus is provided to capturing specific tourists’ attractiveness factors. The purpose of this study was to explore Millennials’ perception of destination attractiveness (DA) and their propensity to visit a destination. The objectives of this research include 1) To explore the perceptions of the millennial tourist when deciding on visiting a destination, 2) To determine which destination attractiveness factors are significant to the millennial tourist, 3) To identify Millennials propensity to visit a destination and 4) To explore other preferences that affect propensity to visit a destination. To accomplish the purpose and objectives, millennial college students and recent graduates from multiple universities in the USA were surveyed. A total of 103 Millennials participated in the study. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of this study will contribute to the existing knowledge in the areas of Millennials’ propensity to visit a destination and their perception of destination attractiveness.
The Influence of the Indy International Festival on Visitors' Attitudes Toward Diverse Cultures
(2016-04) Chu, Yung-Tsen; Wang, Suosheng; Fu, Yao-Yi; King, Carina Chern Chern
In this era of globalization, people have more opportunities to meet many ethnic groups in their daily lives whether it is in schools, in the workplace, or even in the private sector or in government. Interacting with people from other countries can enhance our knowledge of cultural diversity and provide us with an international perspective. There are many ways of enhancing cultural understanding such as attending international festivals. While research on festivals is fast growing, study on visitors’ attitudes toward diverse cultures is relatively unexplored. This paper used a visitor attitude scale, a modified M-GUDS-S, to investigate visitors’ behavioral, cognitive, and/or affective components of diversity attitudes. The research was conducted at the 2014 Indy International Festival and focused on measuring visitation frequency, stay-time at the event, similar event participation, cultural interest, and overseas travel experience contributing to any observed differences on visitors’ attitudes. Also, the visitors’ intention to travel overseas after attending this festival was investigated. A total of 195 visitors was surveyed on site with 176 providing usable data. The findings suggest that international festivals play an important role in improving visitors’ awareness, appreciation, and acceptance of diverse cultures. Specifically, visitation frequency, the time spent at the event, and personal interest in cultures have significant influence on attitudes.
Foundations of youth sport complex development: commonly identified critical components for successful economic development
(2015-05) Jinkins, Larry E.; Gladden, James M.; Cecil, Amanda K.; Pierce, David A.
Indianapolis created a whole new city identity using sports development and sports tourism as the primary drivers of change in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Since then, other cities have adopted the philosophy of using sport as a catalyst to improve the economic conditions of the city. This same philosophy has seemingly trickled down to small cities across the United States in the form of youth travel sport complex development. The size of the youth travel sport segment has reportedly reached $7 billion by the National Association of Sports Commissions, resulting in the rapid development of youth sports complexes in small cities and towns. The size and scope of these facilities entering the segment range from 50 acres to as many as 400 contiguous acres costing millions of dollars. Additionally, the perceived economic impact accompanying the development of such facilities are often overinflated due to the diversity of methods used in market analyses, feasibility studies, economic impact analyses, cost-benefit analyses, and Turco’s triple-bottom-line analysis. A more systematic process is needed to assign key performance indicators and identify the critical components that will assist in the decision to enter the segment and at what capacity. This study is designed to identify the necessary critical components to reach the desired economic impacts associated with youth sport complex development. Qualitative constant comparative method of data analysis was utilized in identifying commonly identified critical components (CICC) believed to contribute to the success and sustainability of a youth sports complex.
Common city attributes and contact employees : a case study of Indianapolis, Indiana
(2014-01-03) McBride, Jordan Ray; Heo, Jinmoo; King, Carina; Culp, Brian O.
Indianapolis is considered by many a competitive, large population city with incredible resources for business conferences and event tourism. The city’s flagship event, The Indianapolis 500, has paved the way for the city’s success. With initiative, planning, construction, and implementation the city’s tourism prowess has grown over the past three decades. Indianapolis has become host to a plethora of mid-size and large conferences every year, a regular on the host circuit for the NCAA Final Four, host of the annual Big Ten basketball tournament and most recently the host of the 2012 Super Bowl. Indianapolis continuously attempts to bring in more events every year. Not many residents get to see, or are even aware of, the associates busy at work attempting to fill hotel rooms, conference centers and stadiums. The Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) of the city are constantly working and tweaking strategies to increase exposure and get tourists excited about visiting Indianapolis. However, it is difficult to identify what truly separates Indianapolis as a tourist destination from any other competitive, second-tier population, landlocked city. Centrality within the country and the tourism infrastructure may be argued, but a representative from nearly any city in competition with Indianapolis may make a counterpoint to most resources. Instead of running in circles with this argument, this thesis looks to probe into a resource for Indianapolis that could be turned into a strong marketing tool for tourism: its employees. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of resident contact employees in the food service and lodging industries concerning Indianapolis’ tourism attributes, and their relation to Indianapolis’ destination marketing and managerial strategies.
Cultural tourism investment and resident quality of life : a case study of Indianapolis, Indiana
(2013-12-10) Gullion, Christopher Scott; Hji-Avgoustis, Sotiris; Fu, Yao-Yi; Lee, Soonhwan
This thesis will explore issues concerning cultural tourism investment and resident quality of life in the Midwestern city of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is important to understand from a cultural tourism perspective how further attempts to grow and invest in tourism will affect resident perception of quality of life and future cultural tourism investment. To achieve this goal, data from the 2012 Indianapolis Quality of Life survey was statistically analyzed to specifically examine how residents' perceived quality of life affects cultural tourism investment. This allows for the study of what city-service attributes (i.e. safety, attractions, transportation, et cetera) identify as potential indicators of whether residents' perception of quality of life affects cultural tourism investment and if there were any correlations between demographic factors of age, gender, ethnicity, and household income with the perception that investing in cultural events and attractions for tourists is good for residents. Results indicated that several key city-service attributes identify as potential indicators of whether residents' perception of quality of life in Indianapolis affects residents' perceptions that investing in cultural tourism for tourists is good for residents. In addition, several key city-service attributes identified as potential indicators of residents' perception of quality of life in Indianapolis excluding perceptions of cultural tourism investment. Finally, results indicated that demographic factors of gender, age, ethnicity, and income were not significant when it came to affecting the perception that investing in cultural events and attractions for tourists is good for residents.

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