Mineral springs were a popular aspect of American culture prior to World War II. In conjunction with the rest of the United States, Texas offered visitors numerous locations for people to “take the waters.” Unfortunately, for various reasons, the springs fell out of favor and the buildings associated with them were largely abandoned. I briefly discuss the history of the springs through the ages and then move onto a discussion of the different styles of architecture associated with the springs in the United States and how these styles differed in Texas. Due to the loss of architecture associated with the mineral springs in Texas, this paper uses Heath, Oc, and Tiesdell’s five forms of obsolescence to analyze the reasons for failures in adaptive reuse, discusses the successes, and presents some extant buildings where futures are undetermined. In order to answer these questions, I gathered a collection of case studies, focusing on locations in Texas, but including several from the United States and Europe. I analyzed these case studies and gathered information from the result of the studies to deduce why the forms of obsolescence could not be overcome, and how some sites differed and successfully surmounted these difficulties. / text

This study investigates what three large, multinational hospitality companies do in practice when evaluating and making IT investment decisions. This study was launched in an attempt to 1) learn more about how multinational hospitality companies evaluate, prioritize, and select IT investments in the context of hotel GDS; 2) call attention to an important and costly topic in hopes of improving current practices; and 3) fill a noticeable literary void so that future researchers on IT and hotel GDS would have a foundation and starting point. The perennial question of any business is "How does an organization add value?" Value can be defined from many different perspectives and may result from tangible and intangible factors. Principal stakeholders include shareholders (investors), customers, and employees. Shareholders typically measure value in terms of economic return on their investment based upon some level of perceived risk. For customers, value is assessed in terms of a price-value relationship; that is, how much they received in terms of product and services for the price they paid. For employees, value is measured by salary and by the intrinsic rewards of the job. Yet, one of the most elusive questions with respect to information technology is "How can value be measured?" Hospitality executives are being pressured daily to invest more in information technology (IT) - especially in the area of hotel global distribution systems (GDS), which have become the cornerstone of a hotel firm's IT infrastructure and portfolio. There are a number of sweeping changes on the horizon impacting hotel GDSs and requiring the development of a well-crafted strategy for global distribution systems. These broad changes include bypass theories to remove airline GDSs and travel agents, the introduction of new and emerging player, and innovative approaches to pricing and promotion. Many of these developments offer promise to hoteliers, but they also threaten their control over their customer relationships and their inventory and add to the complexity and cost of distribution. Selecting the appropriate distribution channels is paramount to success and important if hotel firms are to grow top-line revenue and control overhead; yet the number of choices facing hotel executives is overwhelming. They are also at a loss for measuring value derived from IT. One of the greatest issues plaguing the advancement of technology in the hospitality industry is the difficulty in calculating return on investment. Until recently, most technology investment decisions have been considered using a support or utility mentality that stems from a manufacturing paradigm. Under such thinking, business cases could be built around an application or technology's ability to reduce costs or create labor savings. However, management's attitudes towards technology have been shifting in recent years. The more technologically savvy hospitality companies are looking to IT to build strategic and competitive advantages. These types of investments yield results over time, and seldom in the short-run. This is problematic among owners and investors who demand more immediate results. Moreover, it is difficult to quantify and calculate the tangible benefits of technology when it is used for strategic purposes. Today's financial models are inadequate for estimating the financial benefits for most of the technology projects under consideration today. While the hospitality industry has disciplined models and sufficient history to determine the financial gains or success of opening a new property in a given city, it lacks the same rigorous models and historical data for technology, especially since each technology project is unique. Although this problem is not specific to the hospitality industry, it is particularly problematic since the industry tends to be technologically conservative and unwilling to adopt new technology applications based on the promises of its long-term merits if it cannot quantify the results and calculate a defined payback period. When uncertainty surrounds the investment, when the timing of the cash flows is unpredictable, and when the investment is perceived as risky, owners and investors will most likely channel their investment capital to projects with more certain returns and minimal risk. Thus, under this thinking, technology will always take a back seat to other organizational priorities and initiatives. Efforts must be made to change this thinking and to develop financial models that can accurately predict and capture the financial benefits derived from technology. Given the present predicament and difficulties surrounding the current tools, techniques, and measures, executives are faced with an important choice. They can 1) continue to use the present methods despite their shortcomings, 2) dispense with ROI, cost-benefit, and discounted cash flow analyses altogether for IT projects, or 3) develop new methods, tools, and measures that can accommodate the complexities of IT and quantify the intangibles. This study is a call to action in favor of the latter because the measures determine not only which projects will be accepted but also how their success will be evaluated. Having a rigid evaluation process forces executives to identify a project's potential contribution and align the project's objectives with the firm's strategic goals and objectives. Using the co-alignment principle as its theoretical underpinning, this study employs a multiple-case design to investigate the resource allocation processes used with respect to information technology and global distribution systems. It looks at how three leading, multinational hospitality firms address IT project/investment evaluation and decision-making, the measures they use, and the frustrations they encounter. These frustrations include problems that arise from a hotel firm's fragmented ownership as well as from hotel executives' inability to measure the results of IT through definitive cause-and-effect relationships. The results of the study provide affirmation of the co-alignment principle and document linkages and co-alignment between strategy and IT. Clearly, decisions involving IT and hotel GDSs require multivariate measures, multidimensional perspectives, and multidisciplinary involvement. However, research from the marketing discipline is noticeably absent in this area. This study concludes that because IT plays an important enabling role for marketing initiatives and is redefining the supply chain of a hotel firm, marketing researchers can no longer stand on the sidelines. This study also identifies three important constructs, or classes of variables (context, process, and project), the variables comprising each, and their influences on the evaluation and decision-making processes. These findings add to the understanding of IT evaluation, measurement, and decision-making in the context of hotel GDS. This study clarifies the intangible aspects in hopes that useful measures can be developed in subsequent research to quantify and evaluate these costs and benefits. Finally, this study provides a series of prescriptions or recommendations gleaned from the three companies that were the focus of this study in hopes that they will lead to the development of best practices in the hospitality industry. / Ph. D.

The architectural intentions may best be described in the phrases: "symbolic meaning of the environment" - "the spirit of place" - and the need to assure the "historical continuity". The main points of the program are the following: 1.- to create a service unit corresponding to the needs of the overall development of the micro-region as regards to tourism, 2.- to favor contact between the tourists and the local population, 3.- to express this aim by means of an open type of structure, 4.- to offer a wide range of activities corresponding to the needs and desires of the occupants, 5.- not to destroy the natural and existing environment. / Master of Architecture

This thesis describes the design and processing of the convention center. The proposed house is located at the top of the square of Humpolec in the area designated for the construction of public facilities. The building consists of a basement, where there is a garage for the car owner and stores food for the kitchen. On the first floor there is a reception, restaurant and facilities for the kitchen. On the second floor are conference halls. In the third and fourth floor is accommodation for guests. The restaurant is designed for 55 people inside + outdoor terrace can seat about 30 people. Conference halls are designed for 90 people. Accommodation is for 28 guests. Outdoor parking is for 40 cars. Perimeter bearing walls are made of reinforced concrete + insulation. Interior bearing walls are made of reinforced concrete, interior non-bearing brick walls HELUZ. The ceilings are made of overstretched Spiroll panels and boards reinforced cross. For ceiling is plasterboard ceilings. The roof home is designed as a single-layer flat. Heating is effected by the heat pump. Wooden windows are six-chamber, aluminum doors. There is a staircase and an elevator. The proposed facility is designed wheelchair.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / 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.

Au-delà des perspectives offertes par les premières études historiques dans le domaine de l’hôtellerie, nous avons voulu souligner au travers de cette thèse combien l’hébergement temporaire payant dans la ville ne pouvait clairement pas se concevoir de manière unidimensionnelle. L’hôtellerie ne doit pas être considérée comme une industrie tournée exclusivement vers les habitudes touristiques des plus fortunés, ni être cantonnée aux chambrées ouvrières misérables. Entre ces deux extrêmes, quantité de maisons se sont adaptées à une multitude de demandes. A cet égard, Bruxelles, ville capitale, constitue entre 1880 et 1940 un terrain de recherche idéal qui permet d’adopter un angle d’approche très large pour étudier l’industrie de l’accueil temporaire urbain.<p>Notre étude s’articule autour de trois points principaux.<p>Tout d’abord, préalable indispensable, nous avons analysé de manière extensive la nature de notre objet d’étude afin de dépasser les simplifications arbitraires posées antérieurement entre hôtellerie de tourisme et autres établissements d’accueil. Notre première partie s’attache donc à donner sens aux différentes matérialisations de l’hébergement payant dans la ville (hôtels, pensions, palaces, garnis, meublés…) à travers leurs définitions lexicologique, littéraire, corporative, officielle et législative. Quelles sont les caractéristiques de l’hôtellerie de tourisme et quand cesse-t-elle de l’être ?Quel regard portent les autorités publiques sur ce monde protéiforme, fondamentalement hétérogène et par conséquent insaisissable ?<p>Dans la seconde partie, nous donnons un visage et une voix à cette hôtellerie bruxelloise en identifiant plus précisément les acteurs du milieu, notamment par le biais de ses associations professionnelles et de ses dirigeants. Nœud central de notre exposé, l’image négative traditionnelle véhiculée par le métier pèse encore de manière significative au XIXe mais aussi au XXe siècle dans les jugements portés sur la profession. La perception identitaire propre des hôteliers de leur métier en est profondément influencée. Ces opinions nourrissent un besoin fondamental de la grande hôtellerie de se différencier des petites maisons familiales amateures par le biais notamment du développement à cette période d’une formation professionnelle nouvelle et rationalisée et d’une position ambiguë par rapport aux revendications des organisations de classes moyennes. <p>Enfin, la troisième partie de la thèse s’attache à adjoindre corps à notre travail en replaçant l’hôtellerie dans sa réalité physique au sein de la ville de Bruxelles. Cette question essentielle est développée grâce à la réalisation systématique de plusieurs cartes de localisation basées sur des sources variées telles que des annuaires de commerces, des guides, des cartes postales etc. Au terme de cette analyse, c’est une nouvelle carte des usages de la ville aux logiques spécifiques qui se dessine, celle de ses consommateurs migrants, mobiles ou étrangers.<p>Notre thèse se veut donc d’abord un témoignage de la nature complexe de l’industrie de l’accueil à Bruxelles et de ses transformations incessantes au cours d’une phase décisive de son évolution. Par ce portrait humain et spatial, il s’agit de souligner l’empreinte originale indéniable que le secteur a laissée dans la vie de la capitale. L’hôtellerie, même si elle se tourne prioritairement vers les voyageurs, appartient fondamentalement au passé de la capitale. Ses pensions, ses meublés comme les maisons de plus grande importance, ont tous participé directement au développement de la cité et ont permis que cette dernière puisse réguler efficacement les flux démographiques et migratoires qu’elle a de tout temps suscités. Elle ne constitue donc pas un corps étranger, extérieur ou anecdotique à la ville qui justifierait un trop long silence académique.<p><p>------------<p><p>Beyond the prospects offered by the first historical studies in the field of hospitality, we wanted to show through this thesis how temporary accommodation in the city could not be seen as a one-dimensional sector. Hotel should not be considered as an industry exclusively focused on wealthy tourists habits, or be confined to the wretched workers pensions. Between these two extremes, different houses offered specific services to a multitude of clients. Brussels, as a capital city, allows adopting a broad angle for studying the urban temporary hospitality industry between 1880 and 1940.Our study focuses on three main points.<p>First of all, we have extensively analyzed our subject’s nature to exceed the arbitrary simplifications previously done between tourism hotel and other forms of inns. Therefore, first chapter attaches to give meaning to accommodations’ different implementations in the city (as hotels, boarding houses, palaces…) by studying their definitions in dictionaries, literature, professional press, legislative texts, etc. <p>In the second part, we gave a face and a voice to this Brussels hotel industry by specifically identifying its hoteliers, its professional associations and its leaders. Central point of our presentation, the ancient and traditional negative image of the hotel industry still exists in the 19th and 20th c. Hoteliers’ self perception is profoundly influenced by this negative reputation. These opinions feed luxury hotels’ desperate need to differentiate themselves from small family boarding houses.<p>Finally, third chapter attaches to add body to our study by analyzing Brussels’ hotel industry in its physical reality. This essential question is developed through several location maps which are based on varied archives such as almanacs, travel guides, postcards etc. This way, a new map of the uses of the city emerges: a map of migrants and foreign consumers’mobilities.<p>This thesis shows the complex nature of hospitality industry in Brussels and its transformations in a decisive historical phase. Pensions as palaces are deeply involved in Brussels’ urban development. They have regulated demographic and migratory flows to the capital. Therefore they cannot anymore be considered as superficial and anecdotic actors in urban life.<p> / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished