Hotels and Oil/Gas Development Booms, Busts, and the Future of Hotels in Oil/Gas Development Areas

The development of new production methodologies for oil and gas wells has revolutionized energy production in the United States, shifting the country from a net importer to a net exporter of oil and natural gas (United States Energy Information Administration, 2015). The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has allowed development of previously known but inaccessible energy reserves, spurring intensive energy development in varied locations across the country. With this new development has come a rapid expansion in housing needs for workers. Historically, developments such as this are prone to boom/bust cycles. This paper studies the effect of the housing needs in various drilling locations through a study of hotel performance over a 12-year period. This study finds that drilling activity has significantly increased hotel revenues in the drilling areas, but because of falling prices and oversupply, individual hotels are struggling to maintain break-even occupancies. Based on forecasts for oil and gas prices, with additional new supply, this bust cycle will continue through 2018

The Impact of Marcellus Shale Development on Hotel Revenues in Pennsylvania

New technologies have allowed for new drilling in oil and gas deposits throughout the world. In the Northeast United States, the Marcellus Shale formation has been one of the most active regions for new wells. This new drilling activity has created a visible economic impact to communities in and around the drilling sites. The increase in hotel activity metrics such as occupancy percentage and average daily rate has been noted but there has been no research that determines the total revenue impact of the drilling activity. This research does not attempt to factor in the social and environmental costs that have been discussed with the new drilling activities. This research studied the total revenue impact of the Marcellus Shale regions in the state of Pennsylvania. The state of Pennsylvania was chosen for this study as the state maintains detailed records on well development by county, while other states do not provide such data. Based on determinations made by a leading Marcellus Outreach Center, five distinct drilling “regions” were identified. Smith Travel Research provided hotel performance data. The performance indicators (demand, average daily rate, total revenue) of the hotels in the five drilling regions were tracked against the U.S. hotel industry performance indicators for comparable time periods. It was determined that approximately $685 million of hotel revenue has been generated by Marcellus Shale drilling activities. The incremental revenue was generated by both demand and average daily rate increases. This is a significant economic benefit to the drilling regions with increased tax collections for the taxing agencies and consumer spending by those visiting the region for drilling related activity. Approximately 65 new hotels were added in the drilling regions beyond what could have been expected with no drilling based on U.S. hotel industry supply trends. These new hotels are, almost exclusively, select-service, branded hotels. The average room size was 82 rooms, with an average employee count of 25 employees, the drilling has accounted for approximately 1,600 new hotel jobs plus whatever new jobs were added based on the increased occupancy levels of existing hotels. The cautionary note in the findings is that the 2012 data suggests that the demand may be stabilizing or decreasing. Demand in 2012 was flat at 0.0 but occupancy was down by 4.1% due to the increased supply. While the regions are still experiencing increased hotel revenues compared to a “non-Marcellus” scenario, the increase in hotel supply is making for a more challenging competitive environment for individual hotels. The finding suggest that new hotel development should begin early in a drilling environment and that hotels should have a long-term viability strategy as the long-term demand may stabilize or decrease. Sixty-two of the 65 new hotels are branded, 60 of those are select- service. Existing older and non-branded hotels will face a tougher operating environment and should have an exit strategy. Of the 14 hotels that closed in the drilling regions between 2006- 2012, 9 were independents and the average age of all 14 hotels was over 38 years old

The Future of Agriculture in Our Community: A Pilot Program to Increase Community Dialogue About Agricultural Sustainability

The Future of Agriculture in Our Community is a program developed to allow Pennsylvania communities to assess and address the needs of local agriculture. This article describes the program in detail and provides results from an evaluation conducted of the pilot program. Findings (n=55) suggest that the program was received very well among participants and seemed to increase community organization skills, knowledge of local agriculture, interest in agriculture and in community life, and intentions to participate in future volunteer efforts. Based on these results, recommendations are offered for those interested in pursuing similar programs

Women Farmers: Pulling Up Their Own Educational Boot Straps with Extension

Women comprise a rapidly growing segment in agriculture. In this article, we examine how a network of women farmers, Extension educators, and researchers responded to the significant increase in women farmers in one state by creating a membership organization that draws on the expertise and resources of the land-grant university and Extension in Pennsylvania to create educational events with networking opportunities. We report 4 years of evaluation data for 37 events indicating educational impact, expansion and enhancement of the network, and marketing strategies for Extension to improve participation of women

Residents\u27 Perceptions of Community and Environmental Impacts From Development of Natural Gas in the Marcellus Shale: A Comparison of Pennsylvania and New York Cases

Communities experiencing rapid growth due to energy development (‘boomtowns’) have reported positive and negative impacts on community and individual well-being. The perceptions of impacts vary according to stage of energy development as well as experience with extractive industries. Development of the Marcellus Shale provides an opportunity to examine these impacts over time and across geographic and historical contexts. This paper describes case study research in Pennsylvania and New York to document preliminary impacts of development occurring there. Cases vary by level of development and previous extractive history. The study finds that, in areas with low population density, higher levels of development lead to a broader awareness of natural gas impacts, both positive and negative. Participants draw from the regional history of extraction to express environmental concern despite direct, local experience. Our findings suggest the need to track these perceptions during development, and as individuals and communities react and adapt to the impacts

Third-Party Effects in Stakeholder Interviews

This paper examines the effect of having a third-party scientific expert present in stakeholder interviews. The study was conducted as part of a larger project on stakeholder engagement for natural resource management in the Verde Valley region of Arizona. We employed an experimental design, conducting stakeholder interviews both with and without an identified scientific expert present. Our sample consisted of 12 pairs of interviewees (24 total participants) who we matched based on their occupation, sex, and spatial proximity. For each pair, the scientific expert was present as a third party in one interview and absent in the other. We used a word-based coding strategy to code all interview responses for three known areas of sensitivity among the study population (risk, gatekeeping, and competence). We then performed both quantitative and qualitative analyses to compare responses across the two interview groups. We found that the presence of a scientific expert did not have a statistically significant effect on the mention of sensitive topics among stakeholders. However, our qualitative results show that the presence of a scientific expert had subtle influences on the ways that stakeholders discussed sensitive topics, particularly in placing emphasis on their own credibility and knowledge. Our findings indicate that researchers may be able to pursue collaborative, interdisciplinary research designs with multiple researchers present during interviews without concerns of strongly influencing data elicitation on sensitive topics. However, researchers should be cognizant of the subtle ways in which the presence of a third-party expert may influence the credibility claims and knowledge assertions made by respondents when a third-party expert is present during stakeholder interviews

An Inventory and Assessment of Sample Sources for Survey Research with Agricultural Producers in the U.S.

Researchers need probability samples to collect representative survey data about the behaviors and attitudes of agricultural producers they study in relation to the natural resources that they manage, yet obtaining accurate and complete sampling frames is challenging. We extract data from a publication database to identify the most commonly used sampling frame sources in survey research of agricultural producers in the U.S., finding that government program participant lists are used most often, while private vendor samples are increasingly being purchased. Based on our research experience, we find that for many projects, private vendors can provide the most rigorous samples. Given that survey methods remain a useful and popular method for studying the behaviors and attitudes of producers on a variety of topics, such an assessment and guide is needed for researchers and practitioners

A Conceptual Framework for Social, Behavioral, and Environmental Change through Stakeholder Engagement in Water Resource Management

Incorporating stakeholder engagement into environmental management may help in the pursuit of novel approaches for addressing complex water resource problems. However, evidence about how and under what circumstances stakeholder engagement enables desirable changes remains elusive. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for studying social and environmental changes possible through stakeholder engagement in water resource management, from inception to outcomes. We synthesize concepts from multiple literatures to provide a framework for tracing linkages from contextual conditions, through engagement process design features, to social learning, community capacity building, and behavioral change at individual, group, and group network levels, and ultimately to environmental change. We discuss opportunities to enhance the framework including through empirical applications to delineate scalar and temporal dimensions of social, behavioral, and environmental changes resulting from stakeholder engagement, and the potential for negative outcomes thus far glossed over in research on change through engagement

The Potential Pro-Environmental Behavior Spillover Effects of Specialization in Environmentally Responsible Outdoor Recreation

Outdoor recreationists represent a key population to educate for pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Given that previous research has found a mixed relationship between outdoor recreation and PEB, this research merges several concepts to better understand the social psychological nuances of this relationship. Specifically, this study explores how specialization regarding environmentally responsible outdoor recreation is related to other PEBs through a behavioral spillover framework. A correlational structural equation model was utilized to test this framework within a merged population of individuals from the Leave No Trace organization and general United States citizens. The results suggested that traditional behavioral spillover dynamics held for private PEBs but not public PEBs. However, recreation specialization was significantly related to both PEB types. These results suggest that the current behavioral spillover theory may only explain the relationship between some PEBs. Furthermore, environmentally responsible outdoor recreation specialization may be a promising pathway toward a spillover into encouraging private and public PEBs