Resource commitment in destination management: The case of Abingdon, Virginia

In this paper, the concepts of economic cycles and tourism area life cycle (Butler, 1980, 2004) are combined to study the impact of institutional support for a destination management, development and rejuvenation strategy. Using case-based qualitative methodology and focus group interviews with key informants like town development officials, tourism directors and other salient supply side stakeholders, like recreation products providers and local theater representatives, the effect of cooperation among local institutions is examined for Abingdon, a small historic town located in the southwestern part of the state of Virginia, USA. In addition, secondary sources like documents related to comprehensive planning are studied to understand demand and supply side systems and future competitive advantage investment and resource commitment for town and tourism development. Findings indicate that collaborative and concerted efforts among local institutions can mitigate some of the effects of economic downturn cycles. Implications of cooperation and coordination efforts by development agencies are discussed and suggestions for tourism development in small towns are offered

CEO Attributes and Firm Performance in the Hospitality Industry

Drawing on upper echelons theory, we explore demographic and other attributes of CEOs in the hospitality industry and their impact on firm performance. Our results, based on a sample of 1,427 CEO firm-years of publicly traded companies over a period of 24 years, show that a typical CEO in the hospitality industry is male, in his mid-50s, with no graduate degree and no prior CEO experience, but has worked in operations and has an average tenure of approximately 9 years. Our analyses show that while there is some relationship between CEO attributes and firm performance, the sign and significance of this relationship depends on the specific firm performance measure used. Our study contributes to the literature in corporate governance and hospitality by systematically examining the effect of CEO demographics and other attributes on firm performance in the hospitality industry. We draw implications for CEO search committees of hospitality firms and outline avenues for future research

Intangible Assets Valuation in the Hospitality Industry

In publicly traded firms, there is usually a discrepancy between the market value and the book value of the firm, often due to the valuation of intangible assets. Understanding this discrepancy is import- ant for investors, especially in the service industries like hospitality, where there is considerable industry disruption and consolidation. In this study we examine the effect of four intangible asset investments—research and development (R&D), training, advertising, and pension—on the market premium of restaurant firms. Using a longitudinal sample of 1,421 firm-year observations, the results of our analyses show that R&D, training, advertising, and pension are all important valuation con- structs in the hospitality industry, and their effects on market premium vary by restaurant type. This study fills the gap in the current literature by providing a quantitative method to value intangible assets in the hospitality industry. The practical implications of this study will provide managers in the hospitality industry with helpful insights for strategic decision making, specifically regarding R&D, advertising, and employee compensation

Boston Hospitality Review: Winter 2017

Table of contents: Family, Team or Something Else? by John Murtha -- Kitchen Organization in Full-Service Restaurants: Reducing Heat and Stress by Peter Szende and Justin Cipriano -- Rules of Engagement: Building Brand Relationships by Alex Friedman -- Corporate Social Responsibility in the Hospitality Sector by Manisha Singal and Yinyoung Rhou -- “Hold on, I have to post this on Instagram”: Trends, Talk, and Transactions of the Experiential Consumer by Steve Kent -- C-corporation Hotels vs. Hotel-REITs: A Theoretical and Practical Comparison by Tarik Dogru -- Sisters in Restaurant Success: A History of The Maramor by Jan WhitakerFamily, Team or Something Else? by John Murtha -- Kitchen Organization in Full-Service Restaurants: Reducing Heat and Stress by Peter Szende and Justin Cipriano -- Rules of Engagement: Building Brand Relationships by Alex Friedman -- Corporate Social Responsibility in the Hospitality Sector by Manisha Singal and Yinyoung Rhou -- “Hold on, I have to post this on Instagram”: Trends, Talk, and Transactions of the Experiential Consumer by Steve Kent -- C-corporation Hotels vs. Hotel-REITs: A Theoretical and Practical Comparison by Tarik Dogru -- Sisters in Restaurant Success: A History of The Maramor by Jan Whitake

Evaluating quality of life tools in North American patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria.

BackgroundErythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and X-linked Protoporphyria (XLP) are rare photodermatoses presenting with severe phototoxicity. Although anecdotally, providers who treat EPP patients acknowledge their life-altering effects, tools that fully capture their impact on quality of life (QoL) are lacking.MethodsAdult patients with EPP/XLP were given four validated QoL tools: the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 57 (PROMIS-57), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Illness Perception Questionnaire Revised (IPQR), and an EPP-Specific tool. All patients received the PROMIS-57 while the HADS, IPQR, and EPP-Specific tools were introduced at a later date. Associations between responses and clinical phenotypes were explored.ResultsTwo hundred and two patients were included; 193 completed PROMIS-57, 104 completed IPQR, 103 completed HADS, and 107 completed the EPP-Specific tool. The IPQR showed that patients strongly believed EPP/XLP had a negative impact on their lives. Mean scores in anxiety and depression domains of both HADS and PROMIS-57 were normal; however, anxiety scores from HADS were borderline/abnormal in 20% of patients. The EPP-Specific tool revealed a decreased QoL in most patients. The PROMIS-57 showed that 21.8% of patients have clinically significant pain interference. Several tool domains correlated with measures of disease severity, most being from the PROMIS-57.ConclusionsImpaired QoL is an important consequence of EPP/XLP. PROMIS-57 was most sensitive in evaluating impaired QoL in EPP/XLP. Further research is needed to compare the effectiveness of it for assessing response to treatment

Consumer Decision Components for Medical Tourism: A Stakeholder Approach

In this paper we discuss the demand triggers and the components of consumer decision making to undertake medical tourism i.e. travel to a foreign destination for the purpose of availing medical treatment and engaging in a vacation experience together. We develop a model that describes the macro facilitating factors, the pre-decision propensities, and the role of the different entities involved in the tourism experience that impact the decision from a stakeholder perspective. Our conceptual model provides several propositions for empirical testing as well as directions for future research on medical tourism, a rich context for tourism scholars

Fee-oriented strategies, ownership structure and analyst forecast accuracy in the hospitality industry

This study analyzed the impact of the interplay between fee-oriented strategies and ownership structure on analyst forecast accuracy using a sample of international publicly-listed hospitality firms. Based on 29,019 earnings forecasts made by financial analysts, using Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS), entropy balancing, and Heckman two-stage models, we documented that, on average, forecasts were more accurate for firms pursuing a fee-oriented strategy. Moreover, the positive effect of fee-oriented strategies on forecast accuracy was stronger for companies with concentrated ownership. We explain our results by the fact that fee-oriented firms enjoyed more stable cash flows and revenue, reducing information asymmetries between a firm’s outsiders and insiders, thus enabling analysts to make more accurate forecasts. This effect was more important for firms with concentrated ownership in particular, as they generally disclosed less information to the capital markets. Our findings should be of great interest to hospitality firms’ owners, managers, and boards of directors

Efficient Lane Detection Algorithm using Different Filtering Techniques

Today, one of the largest areas of research and development in the automobile industry is road safety. Many deaths and injuries occur every year on public roads from accidents. However, the most dramatic fact is that, nearly all of the accidents are caused by driver mistakes. The main goal of the lane detection system is to reduce the number of these accidents. Remarkable amount of the current researches in this field focus on building autonomous driving systems. This research work presents an approach for improving the performance of lane detection algorithm by using different filtering techniques. This paper deals with an efficient ways of noise reduction in the images by using different filtering techniques. The main objective is to design, develop, implement and subsequently simulate an efficient lane detection algorithm which will provide high quality results in the case when noise is present in the signal. The scope of the dissertation is to implement lane detection algorithm without using any filter, to implement lane detection algorithm using median, wiener, and hybrid median filters. And to compare the performance on the basis of accuracy, specificity, BER, PSNR, without and with filters (Median, Wiener, Hybrid median filters). By giving some selected road images, experiments will be taken, that will be useful for performance comparison. A variety of tests will be performed using improved algorithm to test various aspects of the road images. Comparisons will be drawn among proposes strategy with well-known existing algorithms

Performance measures for strategic revenue management: RevPAR vs. GOPPAR

A recent paradigm shift toward total strategic revenue management prompted calls for a re-evaluation of some of the practice’s fundamentals, including the question of what should be measured: revenues or profits? This study is the first to explore the theoretical downsides of revenue rather than profit-based optimization by providing proof of suboptimality and bidirectionality attributes. We empirically demonstrate how hotels can assess the adequacy of RevPAR, the lodging industry’s de facto standard measure, as a proxy for profitability, by measuring the correlation between the RevPAR and GOPPAR. Finally, the study evaluates the conditions that might affect RevPAR’s suitability in lieu of the profit measures. The empirical results indicate that overall RevPAR is strongly correlated with GOPPAR, but at the same time suggest that lower-scale properties with substantial non-room rents and food and beverage revenue are instances where GOPPAR than RevPAR may be a more appropriate measure

Tourism growth through Corporate Entrepreneurship and Franchising: a bibliometric study

The success of tourism destinations depends on the services provided by destination businesses. It is thus important to understand the business models employed by supplier firms and how these models may contribute to destination success. This study investigates the connection between franchising and corporate entrepreneurship using a bibliometric analysis in order to better understand how these two concepts are connected in tourism and hospitality literature. This analysis combined with co-citation and bibliometric coupling analysis found that these two bodies of literature are not connected directly, but are linked by the topic of innovation. This suggests that innovation research bridges the gap in the literature between franchising and corporate entrepreneurship. This research has both theoretical and practical implication