Master of Science / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Jeannie Sneed / Hostels play a significant role in the lodging industry throughout the world and even in some locations in the United States (U.S.). However, in many places in the U.S. hostels have yet to be introduced. They have the potential to offer budget lodging accommodation, but hotels and motels remain the most popular forms of lodging. This study investigated the perceptions of Kansas State University (KSU) students about hostels and their intent to use hostels. A focus group was used to gain insight into students’ perceptions of hostels and aided in the development of a written survey. An online survey was used to gather information from KSU students. It was sent to a randomly selected sample of 5,000 KSU students. There was a response rate of 8% (n=401). Respondents knew about hostels and were willing to stay in them. A factor analysis was conducted on 31 characteristics of hostels that might be important to hostel users and it was determined that these items could be reduced to three factors: Safety and Amenities ([alpha]=.92); Location and Socializing([alpha]=.91); and Accommodations ([alpha]=.60). Safety and Amenities had the highest mean scores for individual items in the factor while Accommodations had the lowest. Multiple linear regression was used to determine if the three factors would predict KSU students’ intent to stay in a hostel. The regression model was significant (p[less than or equal to].000) and all three factors were significant. The model had an R Square of .31. A t-test was used to determine if males and females differed in intent to stay in a hostel, Safety and Amenities, Location and Socializing, and Accommodation. Females had higher mean scores for Safety and Amenities and Location and Socializing than did males. This study showed that college students would stay in a hostel. Hostel owners/operators and hostel organizations can use this information to better market their hostel and it will help them to determine which amenities they will need to have to meet customer demands. Research should be conducted with a larger and more geographically diverse sample to determine if the results can be generalized beyond KSU students. Research with actual hostel users will help to determine characteristics they think are important and to compare results with this study.

Master of Science / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / LaBarbara J. Wigfall / Community Capital Framework often provides a foundation for analyzing community development in cities and neighborhoods (Flora & Flora, 2008). However, the relationship between cultural heritage tourism and individual community capitals has been little studied in southern, Arizona. Therefore the primary objective of this study is to determine the most influential capitals at a renowned cultural heritage site in Arizona, Saguaro National Park. For this case study an assessment system will be established to assess the most influential capitals. Robert Stake’s The Art of Case Study Research was used as the research model to examine the relationships between cultural heritage tourism and the individual community capitals at Saguaro National Park. Results from this case study indicated that natural and cultural capitals appear to be the most influential because much of the monument’s development and community outreach revolve around the protection of the site’s Saguaros and their importance as a cultural heritage resource to the indigenous people of the Sonoran desert.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Stephanie A. Rolley / Much like designing golf courses, designing and building skateboard parks requires very specific knowledge. This knowledge is difficult to obtain without firsthand experience of the sport in question. An understanding of how design details such as alignment, layout, surface, proportion, and radii of the curved surfaces impact the skateboarder's experience is essential and, without it, a poor park will result. Skateboarding is the fastest growing sport in the US, and new skate parks are being finished at a rate of about three per day. Cities and even small towns all across North America are committing themselves to embracing this sport and giving both younger and older participants a positive environment in which to enjoy it. In the interest of both the skateboarders who use them and the people that pay to have them built, it is imperative that these skate parks are built correctly. Landscape architects will increasingly be called upon to help build these public parks in conjunction with skate park design/builders. At present, the relationship between landscape architects and skate park design/builders is often strained due to the gaps in knowledge between the two professions. This does not have to be the case. This thesis synthesizes information about skate parks into design guidelines for landscape architects. This information comes from: 1. A case study of the Kansas City Skate Plaza (a.k.a. Penn Valley Skate Park), involving skating of the park, video/photography, physical measurements, and site analysis. 2. Books, articles, movies, and websites concerning ethnography, landscape architecture, concrete construction methods, skate park and pool construction methods,landscape architecture for public spaces, and skateboarding/ skateboarding culture. 3. Interviews with landscape architects, skate park design/builders, and skateboarders. The intent of this thesis is to help landscape architects familiarize themselves in preparation for working with the skate park design/builders.

Les services aux usagers des bibliothèques représentent un sujet fondamental en bibliothéconomie. Or, les usagers sont un groupe hétérogène à qui l’on doit offrir les mêmes services ou, à tout le moins, la possibilité d’obtenir des services répondant à leurs besoins en matière d’adaptation des lieux et des services. Malheureusement, les bibliothèques publiques ont parfois du mal à rendre un service adapté adéquat et les personnes concernées connaissent souvent mal les services dont elles pourraient bénéficier. Pourtant, les personnes handicapées font partie intégrante des usagers et leur présence augmente, notamment à cause du vieillissement de la population et d’une meilleure capacité d’établir des diagnostics. Notons que ces citoyens revendiquent de plus en plus leur autonomie et le fait de pouvoir profiter des mêmes services que le reste de la population. Ceci est d’autant plus vrai depuis l’apparition d’aides techniques et des outils technologiques tels les ordinateurs, les tablettes, les logiciels, etc. qui leur permettent de vivre leur vie à part entière. Aussi, les bibliothèques et leurs gestionnaires doivent impérativement s’assurer que l’accueil de ces usagers « comme les autres », mais aux besoins particuliers, sera assuré convenablement. Puisqu’il manque d’études concernant les services offerts aux personnes handicapées dans les bibliothèques publiques du Québec, nous avons décidé de procéder à une enquête, par le biais d’un questionnaire électronique administré aux employés de bibliothèques dont les fonctions sont de participer aux services aux usagers. Les réponses obtenues ont permis de dresser un portrait de la situation actuelle en matière de services aux personnes adultes handicapées dans les bibliothèques publiques québécoises et d’avancer certaines recommandations. Les résultats devraient aider les responsables de bibliothèques à déterminer où et comment concentrer leurs efforts pour rendre leurs établissements plus accueillants pour les personnes ayant des incapacités. Plus précisément, les objectifs de la recherche étaient les suivants : 1. Recenser les services offerts par les bibliothèques publiques québécoises aux usagers adultes handicapés. 2. Recenser les éléments d’accessibilité présents dans les infrastructures des bibliothèques publiques québécoises. 3. Évaluer l’impact de certaines caractéristiques des bibliothèques sur l’offre de services aux usagers adultes handicapés et les éléments reliés à l’accessibilité. 4. Comparer les résultats des enquêtes précédentes (Bibliothèque nationale du Canada 1976 ; Bergeron 1987) pour mettre en évidence les recommandations qui ont été appliquées et celles qui ne l’ont pas été. / Services offered to library users are important to librarianship. However, users form an heterogeneous group and the same services should be offered or, at least, be made available to all members of the community. Unfortunately, public libraries sometimes are experiencing difficulties to provide adequate and adapted services to people have disabilities those, often, are not aware of the services they could benefit from. In addition, these individuals are often not aware pf the services that are offered to them. However, people with disabilities are part of the community and their number is increasing due to the aging of the population and better diagnostic capabilities. We should also mention that those people claim their autonomy more than before as well as the right to be able to enjoy the same services as the rest of the population. This has become even more true since the introduction of different technical and technological aids and services that allow them to live their lives to the fullest. For all these reasons, library managers must ensure that the reception of these users with special needs will be adequately insured, thus enabling them to become users “like the others”. As there is a lack of studies on the subject, we have decided to examine the situation through an electronic questionnaire sent to public library employees responsible for user services. The results collected have enabled us to draw a picture of the current state of disability services in public libraries in Quebec and to provide certain recommendations. The results should help library managers to establish where and how to focus their efforts to make their institutions more welcoming to this category of users. Specifically, the research objectives were: 1. Identify services offered by public libraries in Quebec to adult users with disabilities. 2. Identify current accessibility elements present in Quebec public libraries’ infrastructure. 3. Avaluate the impact of the presence or absence of accessibility measures on the supply of services for adult users with disabilities and items related to accessibility. 4. Compare the results with those of previous surveys (Bibliothèque nationale du Canada 1976 ; Bergeron 1987) to highlight the recommendations that have been applied and those that have not.

Master of Science / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional Community Planning / Stephanie A. Rolley / As bicycle tourists seek interesting experiences along low traffic roads, rural communities are poised to embrace bicycle tourism as a community development strategy. Asset based community development provides a methodology for communities to utilize assets that already exist within their communities to meet the needs of these tourists. The community capitals framework then provides a platform for analyzing and discussing the existing assets, as well as helping hone in on ways communities can develop further. The Sunken Lands region of Northeast Arkansas is one such rural region seeking to embrace bicycle tourism. Two case studies of communities that have capitalized on their existing assets to accommodate bicyclists were completed to explore potential for using the community capitals framework to guide pursuit of bicycle tourism. A snowball approach to interviewing community members in Collinwood, Tennessee and Farmington, Missouri was used to discover the details of bicycle accommodations, the processes of pursuing bicycle tourism, the people and groups involved, the types of assets used, and any challenges faced in implementation. Additionally, existing literature was used to substantiate each case and provide a more robust community picture. Emerging from the case studies were commonalities that aligned with the community capitals framework and Emery and Flora’s (2006) theory that community change is driven by social capital. The result is a tool that aligns community assets with the needs of bicycle tourists with the community capitals framework.

Master of Public Health / Department of Kinesiology / Andrew T. Kaczynski / Background: With the dramatic increase in childhood obesity rates over the last three decades, parks can offer an accessible and affordable population-level solution to the important issue of youth physical inactivity. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the association of park proximity and park features with nearby youth achieving recommended levels of physical activity. Methods: This community-based study was conducted in Kansas City, Missouri. Valid physical activity data were obtained for 191 youth via a parent proxy survey with an overall response rate of 27.4%. Geographic information systems (GIS) were used to create three measures of park proximity within 1 mile of children’s homes. Detailed park characteristic information for all parks within 1 mile of the youth (n=146 parks) was obtained via observational audits. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between each park proximity and park characteristic variable and the likelihood of youth meeting physical activity recommendations, while controlling individual and neighborhood level covariates. Results: All youth and female youth who had a park within one-half mile of home were more likely to achieve physical activity recommendations than those with no parks nearby. Likewise, all youth and male youth with three or more parks within 1 mile were significantly more likely to achieve physical activity recommendations than those with only 1 park. Further, youth that had a park with a playground within one-half mile or a baseball field within 1 mile of their home were more likely to achieve physical activity recommendations. Finally, having a park with particular amenities within 1 mile from home (transit stops, traffic signals, picnic tables, grills, trash cans, shade, and roads through the park) was also associated with greater odds of achieving physical activity recommendations. Conclusions: Parks are valuable community resources that can play an important role in the battle against rising rates of obesity and chronic disease in youth across the country. Better understanding the ways in which these settings are associated with physical activity among children can inform future research and environmental and policy changes that can promote the health and well-being of generations to come.

This research examines representations of wilderness, Canadian nationalism and the production of responsible and respectable subjects in commonplace outdoor recreation texts from Mountain Equipment Co-op, the Bruce Trail Conservancy and the Bruce Peninsula National Park. Drawing theoretical insights from Foucault’s genealogy and technologies of the self, post-structural feminism and anti-racist scholarship on whiteness, I pose three broad questions: How is nature understood? How is Canada imagined? How are certain subjects produced through outdoor recreation? In this research, I outline five ways in which wilderness is represented. First, I consider how wilderness is produced as a place that is above all else empty (of human inhabitants and human presence). I then examine four ways in which the empty wilderness is represented: first, as dangerous and inhospitable, second, as threatened, third, as sublime and fourth, as the Canadian nation. I link the meanings invested into wilderness with a set of practices or desired forms of conduct in order to articulate how a specific subject is produced. These subjects draw on the meanings attributed to wilderness. The dangerous wilderness can only be navigated by a Calculating Adventurer. The threatened wilderness desperately needs the assistance of the Conscientious Consumer. The sublime wilderness provides respite for the Transformed Traveler. The Canadian or national wilderness is best suited to and belongs to the Wilderness Citizen. The four subjects I examine in this thesis each draw from particular wilderness representations and specific practices in order to be produced as desirable in the context of outdoor recreation. By examining the relationship between wilderness discourse, subjects and practices in everyday texts, I illustrate how masculine and white respectability operate in outdoor recreation. Pointing to subtle shifts in the meanings and values attributed to masculinity, Canadianness and whiteness, I articulate how outdoor recreation texts produce subject positions which are richly embedded in race and gender privilege and assertions about national belonging. In addition to examining whiteness, nationalism and masculinity, this research examines how individualized practices, such as consumer activism, become understood as the conduct of responsible neoliberal citizens concerned with national and environmental interests.

This research examines representations of wilderness, Canadian nationalism and the production of responsible and respectable subjects in commonplace outdoor recreation texts from Mountain Equipment Co-op, the Bruce Trail Conservancy and the Bruce Peninsula National Park. Drawing theoretical insights from Foucault’s genealogy and technologies of the self, post-structural feminism and anti-racist scholarship on whiteness, I pose three broad questions: How is nature understood? How is Canada imagined? How are certain subjects produced through outdoor recreation? In this research, I outline five ways in which wilderness is represented. First, I consider how wilderness is produced as a place that is above all else empty (of human inhabitants and human presence). I then examine four ways in which the empty wilderness is represented: first, as dangerous and inhospitable, second, as threatened, third, as sublime and fourth, as the Canadian nation. I link the meanings invested into wilderness with a set of practices or desired forms of conduct in order to articulate how a specific subject is produced. These subjects draw on the meanings attributed to wilderness. The dangerous wilderness can only be navigated by a Calculating Adventurer. The threatened wilderness desperately needs the assistance of the Conscientious Consumer. The sublime wilderness provides respite for the Transformed Traveler. The Canadian or national wilderness is best suited to and belongs to the Wilderness Citizen. The four subjects I examine in this thesis each draw from particular wilderness representations and specific practices in order to be produced as desirable in the context of outdoor recreation. By examining the relationship between wilderness discourse, subjects and practices in everyday texts, I illustrate how masculine and white respectability operate in outdoor recreation. Pointing to subtle shifts in the meanings and values attributed to masculinity, Canadianness and whiteness, I articulate how outdoor recreation texts produce subject positions which are richly embedded in race and gender privilege and assertions about national belonging. In addition to examining whiteness, nationalism and masculinity, this research examines how individualized practices, such as consumer activism, become understood as the conduct of responsible neoliberal citizens concerned with national and environmental interests.

Doctor of Philosophy / Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Rebecca A. Gould / Chihyung Ok / The Internet has been one of the primary channels for acquiring information during pre-purchase and actual purchase stages characterized by easy entry and low supplier power. Internet travel businesses find it harder to retain customers, and customer defection to better alternatives is inevitable. Travel website developers and/or managers face problems that make it necessary to understand and identify what makes their customers continue to use websites without switching. To date, much attention has gone to identifying what affects website users’ behavioral intentions. Limited research, however, has been published on the experiential value of using travel websites and what influences travelers to switch to other travel websites, a context that requires more information. The purpose of this study was to explore and test travelers’ loyalty empirically, along with determinants like the value of travel websites and website switching drivers. In particular, Study 1 proposed a theoretical model identifying the effects of a website’s experiential value on satisfaction, and, in turn, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Study 2 aimed to examine website switching factors (i.e., switching costs, attractiveness of alternatives, and perceived network externality) on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. Along with the purpose and objectives of the study, 14 hypotheses were proposed based on the literature review. Data were collected from 384 travel website users in the United States who are 18 years or older and have used travel websites within the last three months. The proposed relationships were examined using structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results showed that customer return on investment, service excellence, and aesthetics were directly associated with satisfaction; satisfaction was directly related to attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty; attitudinal loyalty showed a positive influence on behavioral loyalty; and attitudinal loyalty partially mediated the relationship of satisfaction with behavioral loyalty. Further, the results of this study revealed that switching costs, attractiveness of alternatives, and perceived network externality were significantly and positively associated with loyalty, but their interaction effects with satisfaction on loyalty were not significant. The findings should add to the understanding of travelers’ value perception of travel websites and website switching behaviors. In addition to its contribution to the literature, online travel and tourism businesses or organizations benefit from suggestions of practical applications for retaining customers.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management and Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / This study, based on customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993), sought to identify key brand associations in brand knowledge and investigated attendees’ behaviors as evidenced in a comparison of a professional association’s major and regional conferences. The points of comparison were brand satisfaction, updated expectation of brand value (UEBV), brand trust, and attitudinal brand loyalty (ABL), especially the mediating effect of UEBV on brand trust-ABL link and the moderating effect of behavioral brand loyalty (BBL) within the brand trust-(UEBV)-brand loyalty link. To identify the proposed paths and differential effect of brand knowledge across I-CHRIE annual conference (IC) and regional CHRIE conferences (RC), this study sampled I-CHRIE members attending IC and/ or RC, using an online survey system. The response rate was 20.1% (213 out of 1,036) for IC and 19.4% (201 out of 1,036) for RC. Confirmatory factor analysis and/or structural equation modeling were used to test construct validity and hypotheses. Findings showed that professional education, staff service, site selection, and social networking are positively related to brand satisfaction, whereas brand awareness is negatively associated with it. Because brand satisfaction is a starting point in affecting UEBV, brand trust, and ABL, these four brand associations are presumed to be major sources of the differential effect of brand knowledge between IC and RC. Also, positive relationships existed on each path for brand satisfaction-UEBV, UEBV-brand trust, brand satisfaction-brand trust, and brand trust-ABL. It is especially important to look at the mediating effect of UEBV on brand satisfaction-brand trust path. UEBV was found to serve as a partial mediator on the brand satisfaction-brand trust path across the two groups. This result suggests that brand trust, the firm expectation that the brand will perform according to its promise, builds up through UEBV as well as through brand satisfaction. This study further extended the proposed theoretical model by dividing it into high and low BBL groups designed to unveil the differential characteristics or mechanisms between two groups. Except for the brand trust-ABL path, BBL was found to moderate the direct path (brand satisfaction to brand trust) and the indirect path (brand satisfaction to brand trust via UEBV). These findings support the notion that since high BBL attendees sustain longer relationships with a particular conference than low BBL attendees, high BBL attendees experience more cumulative satisfaction and update favorable expectations of brand value (through the perception of more [relational] benefits), thereby solidifying expectations about confidence in a brand (brand trust). Brand loyalty holds invaluable benefits for associations when associations in similar disciplines compete for potential attendees. Benefits from brand loyal customers lower marketing costs and increase market share and profitability. Thus, associations should build their conference marketing and management on brand loyalty by carefully designing brand associations attendees consider important. Persistent delivery of high-quality education programs, venue selection, and social networking enables associations to obtain cumulative satisfaction, UEBV, brand trust, and consequently brand loyalty. Retention of brand loyal attendees induces deep commitment to the conferences and great resistance to other conferences’ marketing strategies, thereby contributing to high revenue and market share.