A state's image as perceived by its actual and potential tourists plays a significant role in determining its competitiveness as a tourist destination. A state's image influences a tourist's vacation destination decisions. A tourist's image of a given state is influenced by numerous factors including his amount of touring experience within that state, geographical affiliation, demographic profile, vacation characteristics, and the amount and source of tourist information used. Utah was used as a case study to test the viability of the proposed research model. A mail questionnaire requested information concerning 1) attributes of Utah's tourist image considered when choosing a vacation destination, 2) amount of Utah touring experience in Utah, 3) geographical affiliation, 4) demographic profile, 5) characteristics of the vacation and 6) amounts/sources of tourist information used. A sample of 6,000 people was contacted in six geographical regions across the country. A total of 1917 (32%) useable surveys were returned. This research study to identified the components of Utah's tourist image. The study concluded that touring experience in Utah affects their perceptions of Utah's tourist image. Additionally, the study determined that geographical affiliation does influence perceptions of Utah. Finally, it found that age differences and modes of transportation influence perceptions of Utah.

Price bundling, offering two or more separate products/services together in a single package at a different price from the sum of the components’ prices, is one of the most prevalent marketing practices in many industries, including hospitality and travel. Virtually all types of firms in the hospitality and travel industry, from suppliers such as hotels and airlines to intermediaries such as travel agents, are encouraging customers to purchase travel “packages” rather than a single component of travel. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the practice of price bundling by online travel agents is associated with actual monetary savings to consumers. Conventional economics theories generally assume that price bundling results in consumer savings in comparison with purchasing the same component products separately, and this is what travel agents are highlighting in their advertisements for selling travel packages. This study also investigated whether the magnitude of bundle discounts vary by four relevant variables such as travel agent, destination city, hotel class, and the timing of purchase. The results show that purchasing a travel bundle results in significantly lower consumer prices than purchasing the component products separately. However, the magnitude of the bundle savings is inconsistent across the relevant variables. In particular, Travelocity tends to offer significantly greater bundle savings than Expedia; bundles including upper-class hotels appear to provide greater absolute discounts than lower-class-hotel bundles, but those two are not significantly different in terms of percentage discounts. Some important implications of the results are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

Immigrants employed in hospitality organizations experience various psychological challenges as they adapt to the cultures of their organizations and the society at large. This dissertation aims to investigate how acculturation and workplace inclusion of immigrant restaurant workers affect their levels of job satisfactions, subjective well-being, work engagement, organizational attachment, and turnover intention. This study followed a cross-sectional research design to explore immigrant restaurant employees' attitudes towards their acculturation process and perceptions of their work experiences in the United States. This study was developed by using scales from the existing literature and a back-to-back translation method by native speakers of Spanish and Haitian Creole languages. The participants of this study were 279 immigrants, who are restaurants employees in the United States. Data were simultaneously collected in three different ways. The questionnaire adopted for this study was distributed at multiple restaurants, including stand-alone and hotel foodservice outlets, in the Southeastern region of the USA. Also, a link to the survey questionnaire was forwarded to other participants via email and social media to individuals who qualify as immigrant restaurant workers. In addition, the data collection the process involved using Amazon Turk, until the required sample size for this study was met. Both SPSS version 24 and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) were utilized to analyze the collected data for this study. This study's results indicate that acculturation and workplace inclusion positively influence subjective well-being and job satisfaction amongst immigrant restaurant workers. Meanwhile, work engagement, organizational, and turnover intention are directly influenced by job satisfaction. The findings of this study advance the knowledge of acculturation and workplace inclusion in both the hospitality discipline and the mainstream human resources literature. While there are very few studies on acculturation and workplace inclusion in the hospitality and tourism literature, no prior research was conducted on immigrants working in the food and beverage sector. Also, no previous studies investigated both the effect of acculturation and workplace inclusion on immigrant employees in a simultaneous manner. Hence this study adds to both the hospitality and organizational behavior body of knowledge. It also provides new insights on how to improve these employees' subjective well-being, job satisfaction, work engagement, organizational attachment, and reduce the chances of quitting their hospitality jobs.

My thesis ethnographically examines the changing nature of backpacking for Westerners in Latin America amid a proliferation of mobile computing and social networking. While anthropological and sociocultural research on tourism is extensive, the social scientific literature on backpacking has, thus far, been largely unconcerned with Western Hemisphere countries and the effects of digital technology on this mode of travel. Recent findings suggest, however, that backpacking has currently moved beyond its niche roots as a subculture of independent traveling into a full-fledged tourist industry. My thesis investigates the Latin American backpacking scene to better understand if this is a global trend. The available literature further suggests that today’s backpackers are represented by various subgroups including older and less budget-constrained travelers known as “flashpackers.” Despite using the backpacker infrastructure, flashpackers’ disposable income and relatively expensive equipment places them somewhat beyond traditional backpacker categories. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over two separate multi-sited field sessions in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Colombia, I document the recent experiences of backpackers and flashpackers and evaluate how digital technologies inform and affect their travels.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze guest/customer satisfaction surveys of a casual dining restaurant in the Orlando, Florida area; specifically, to analyze if there is a difference between satisfaction levels of tourist and non-tourist guests. The guest satisfaction surveys were analyzed on eight dimensions of satisfaction; Pace of Service, Service Overall, Server Communication & Accuracy, Food (Taste & Quality), Food Preparation, Bar (Beer, Wine, & Cocktail), Gratefulness, and Atmosphere in whole (including atmosphere and cleanliness).The eight dimensions were evaluated in the GPS (guest pulse survey) based on a Net Promoter Score, or NPS® system, and were compared by guest type: tourist versus non-tourist. Multiple linear regression analyses results concluded that the dimensions of Pace, Service Overall, Food, Food Preparation, and Atmosphere were predicators of Overall Satisfaction for tourist respondents. Service Overall, Server Communication, and Gratefulness were predictors of Overall Satisfaction for nontourist respondents

Entertainment, being such a lucrative market, receives fewer academic endeavors than most other types of tourism provision. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the entertainment destination experience via conceptualization, scale development, and empirical testing. Entertainment has been acknowledged as one of the driving forces of the global economy and received increasing scholarly interest in hospitality and tourism research. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to achieve the study purpose, consisting of three studies. Study 1 examined the concept manifestation of the entertainment destination experience. Visual and textual analytical techniques were employed to analyze 318 online reviews from TripAdvisor. Following the well-established scale development procedures, Study 2 included three phases to develop a scale for the entertainment destination experience by conducting 21 in-depth interviews and collecting 602 usable surveys. With a total of 373 valid responses, Study 3 examined the impact of the entertainment destination experience on emotions, memorability, destination satisfaction, and behavioral intention by employing the partial least squares structural equation modeling. This dissertation identified the core attributes of the entertainment destination experience. The multi-dimensional and formative nature of the entertainment destination experience was revealed. The current research identified six dimensions of the entertainment destination experience, consisting of hospitality, affective, cognitive, sensory, intellectual, and social entertainment. The study results uncovered the positive impacts of entertainment destination experience on emotions, memorability, destination satisfaction, and behavioral intention. Emotions and memorability were found to mediate the relationship between entertainment destination experience, destination satisfaction, and behavioral intention. This dissertation makes pioneering efforts to investigate the entertainment destination experience. The current study is one of the first attempts to manifest the conceptual attributes of the entertainment destination experience. Also, it is one of the first to go beyond a unidimensional perspective by exploring the multi-faceted nature of the entertainment destination experience. The findings shed light on the entertainment research in hospitality and tourism and advance the understanding of tourist experience by establishing a scale for entertainment destination experience. In addition, this dissertation adds new knowledge to entertainment literature and tourism and hospitality research by uncovering the impact of the entertainment destination experience on emotions, memorability, destination satisfaction, and behavioral intention. From a managerial perspective, the present study offers important practical implications for industry practitioners who aim to tap into the entertainment market. The findings highlight the core attributes and dimensions of the entertainment destination experience for destination policies and regulations. Employing the entertainment destination experience scale as a toolkit, destination managers are recommended to evaluate entertainment products and services to shape the tourist experience and improve the destination image.

Tourism consumption is a systematic aesthetic appreciation experience that combines human lives with extraordinary nature and culture. While the bridge linking aesthetics and tourism has significant potential of helping to explore how tourism contributes to human life, the study of aesthetics in tourism remains unclear and fragmented. To fill this research void, this study aims to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of the nature of aesthetics in tourism by exploring and defining a Chinese classical aesthetic concept – Yijing. Specifically, the objectives are to (1) explore the manifestation of aesthetics in tourism, (2) unveil the formation of Yijing through tourist gaze, (3) uncover the connotation of Yijing, (4) comprehend how Yijing contributes to human life, (5) delve into the formation of Yijing through social media gaze, and (6) examine the impacts of Yijing on intention to transformational changes. Guided by the realism paradigm and employing an exploratory sequential mixed-method approach, this dissertation initially undertook a two-phase qualitative study, performing netnography to explore both tourists' and online audiences' activities on a travel platform. The sample for the narrative analysis consisted of 35 content-rich travel blog posts (total word count: 776,993; total number of pictures: 11,924), along with corresponding comments (total word count: 9,541) and interactive responses from online observers. A quantitative study was then conducted to test the conceptual model developed based on the qualitative findings with a generalized population. The main study (n=395) was analyzed with PLS-SEM. Findings from the qualitative study suggested a Yin-Yang philosophical approach to understanding aesthetics in tourism, proposing a new way to define "Beauty" and "Ugliness." A two-stage framework of Yijing's formation (i.e., preparation and realization) and a three-level pyramid of Yijing's connotation (i.e., perceptual appreciation, transcendence, and Epiphany) were revealed. The three levels of Yijing ideally correspond to the three realms of people's outlook on life and trigger individuals' behavioral, psychological, and transformational changes. Findings from the quantitative study further validated the three levels of Yijing and its significant influence on self-transformation in a global setting. This dissertation bears valuable theoretical contributions to studying aesthetics in various disciplines and fields such as tourism, hospitality, education, psychology, and marketing from a unique Eastern philosophical perspective. It also yields insightful practical implications for organizations and practitioners to practice aesthetic placemaking.

Cryptocurrency is virtual money that is secured by digital information and cryptographic techniques, enabling fast and secure hospitality and travel transactions without risks of fraud, conversion costs, or certain transaction fees. Despite its potential benefits, customers are hesitant to adopt cryptocurrency for purchases. Prior literature mostly utilized technology acceptance models to conceptualize individual cryptocurrency adoption in hospitality and tourism, preventing an interdisciplinary comprehension of this phenomenon that integrates technology, finance, and e-commerce aspects. This dissertation aims to explore factors explaining individuals' intentions to use cryptocurrency for hospitality and tourism purchases and to develop a conceptual framework that generalizes adoption intention towards cryptocurrency. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-method approach was employed, involving 29 semi-structured interviews and 401 online surveys with cryptocurrency holders. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to validate the proposed model's constructs and scales, while the online surveys were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test inter-construct relationships. Multigroup structural equation modeling estimations were also conducted to examine the moderation of personal innovativeness, risk propensity, and familiarity with cryptocurrency. The study revealed that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, price value, and perceived trust had positive impacts on usage intention while effort expectancy and stickiness to traditional payment were identified as barriers to customers' willingness to use cryptocurrency. The findings also showed that perceived ubiquity was determinant of perceived trust and performance expectancy, while perceived structural assurance predicted perceived trust and perceived risk. The study also confirmed the invariance in the relationships between adoption intention and its antecedents regardless of individuals' personal innovativeness, risk propensity, and familiarity with cryptocurrency. This dissertation provided valuable theoretical contributions to individuals' cryptocurrency adoption in hospitality and tourism from an interdisciplinary perspective, and practical implications for practitioners in these sectors and payment service providers to optimize their implementation of digital currency.

I intend to design an interactive educational experience that teaches guests about the culture, society, and beliefs of Scandinavian peoples during the Viking age. The concepts are illustrated through a dynamic narrative designed to be experienced through exploration of a themed environment. Immersion into the narrative is intended to instill a sense of active participation with the culture itself. This interaction is intended to inspire guests to further investigate the culture and history outside the limits of the experience. These qualities, unique to an immersive environmental themed experience, capture the lasting attention of an audience such as other mediums may not. Design and narrative decisions in the experience will be supported and justified by research of primary sources (untranslated medieval sagas from Iceland and Norway, archeological artifacts from the region and period, the prose and poetic Eddas) and secondary sources (translations and interpretations of Viking age literature and mythology, archeological documentation and interpretation of primary sources.) One goal of this experience will be to dispel common misconceptions of medieval Scandinavian culture and society propagated by popular literary, film, television, and video game representations, and to present a historically justified representation as equally compelling. Strict historical exactitude, however, is not the intent. A model of a historical Viking archeological site could be accurately created. However, it will not necessarily be as engaging as an endeavor that takes certain creative license. This thesis is also an experiment in establishing a groundwork for educational representations of historic and modern cultures in themed experiences. I use Viking iv Age Scandinavia, a culture with which I have significant academic experience prior to this thesis, as a test case for this idea. The scope of the project includes a designed and planned themed experience expressed through written and visual mediums where appropriate, as well as historical justification for design and narrative choices.

The sharing economy is the private redistribution of goods via peer-to-peer sharing. Since internet use has saturated the U.S., the sharing economy has become widely internet-based. Airbnb, a website and app that facilitates the short-term rental of space to stay in another person’s home, has become a major component of the sharing economy. This study includes an empirical analysis of the hotel occupancy rates in two major markets, San Francisco and Chicago, and how they have or have not changed, from the 2008 launch of Airbnb through the end of 2014. The study hypothesizes that Airbnb has had a statistically significant negative impact on the hotel occupancy rate. The results serve as empirical evidence that Airbnb’s introduction has had an insignificant impact on San Francisco hotel occupancy rates, but may have had a marginally significant negative impact on Chicago hotel occupancy rates. Major reasons why most travelers have not substituted Airbnb for hotel accommodations include the fact that nearly half of those traveling in the United States are traveling for work, Airbnb’s lack of amenities that many business travelers demand, and the absence of an Airbnb loyalty program that is similar to what many hotels have.