This paper focuses on finding the key determinants influencing Las Vegas tourism demand from years 1987 to 2016. Based on previous tourism literature, this study explores various macroeconomic variables and Las Vegas-specific variables in explaining the effect on Las Vegas visitor volume. The results of this study indicate that U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), world GDP, and Las Vegas housing prices are major factors in determining Las Vegas visitor volume. Additionally, Las Vegas housing prices are inversely related to Las Vegas tourism demand. These variables are statistically significant and help explain visitor volume in Las Vegas. As expected, this article indicates that U.S. GDP, world GDP, U.S. median household income, and employment per population ratio have a positive relationship whereas U.S. unemployment rate and airline fare index per CPI have a negative correlation with Las Vegas visitor volume. In addition, this paper also finds that tourism in Las Vegas is considered a normal good, as indicated by the coefficients of greater than 1 for log U.S. GDP and log world GDP in most models. Overall, these findings are consistent with earlier tourism studies that macroeconomic variables including GDP, income, and employment are positively related to tourism. However, transportation costs and relative prices are negatively related to tourism demand.

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Planning for tourism and outdoor recreation in Swedish coastal areas could be improved with knowledge of visitors’ attitudes, experiences, activities and geographical dispersion. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the knowledge of visitors in planning for tourism and outdoor recreation. The Luleå archipelago in Northern Sweden is used as a case study. Supervisors: Professor Lars Emmelin, Blekinge Institute of Technology/ETOUR Dr Peter Fredman, ETOUR. The Department of Spatial Planning, BTH deals with research on planning processes, environmental impact assessment, social issues, gender issues and applied information technology in spatial planning. The European Tourism Research Institute, ETOUR, Mid Sweden University, develops knowledge and expertise within issues related to travel and tourism. There are three main objectives: to conduct research on tourism-related issues, to analyse statistics on tourism and to make the research results accessible to the tourism industry. The research aims to develop the tourism industry and the institute is a resource for businesses, organisations and authorities. This project has been financed by the AGORA Interreg III-project Network Sustainable Tourism Development in the Baltic Sea Region, the Blekinge County Administration Board, the Mid Sweden University in Östersund, the European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), and The Swedish Tourist Authority. / The Department of Spatial Planning, BTH carries out research on planning processes, environmental impact assessment, social issues, gender issues and applied information technology in spatial planning. The European Tourism Research Institute, ETOUR, Mid Sweden University, develops knowledge and expertise within issues related to travel and tourism. There are three main objectives: to conduct research on tourism-related issues, to analyse statistics on tourism and to make the research results accessible to the tourism industry. The research aims to develop the tourism industry and the institute is a resource for businesses, organisations and authorities. This project has been financed by the European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), the Mid Sweden University in Östersund, and the AGORA Interreg III-project Network Sustainable Tourism Development in the Baltic Sea Region.

The idea of curiosity has evolved over time and is a major building-block in the foundation and expansion of museums and their precursors, cabinets of curiosity. These proto-museums began in Italy and spread throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Cabinets of curiosity and museums transformed as visitors traveled to burgeoning collections across the Continent and England. Individuals visited curiosities for a variety of reasons. Some treated outings to collections as social events in which they could see others in their social circles and perhaps rise in social status if seen by the correct people. Others were merely curious and hoped to see rare, astonishing, monstrous, and beautiful objects. Scholars of the era often desired to discover new items and ideas, and discuss scientific and philosophical matters. The British Isles are removed from the main body of Europe, but still play a major role in the history of collecting. A number of private collectors and the eventual foundation of the British Museum contributed seminally to the ever-increasing realm of curiosities and historic, cultural, and scientific artifacts. The collectors and collections of Oxford and London and its surrounding areas, drew a diverse population of visitors to their doors. Individuals, both foreign and local, female and male, visitors and collectors in Early Modern England chose to actively participate in the formation of a collecting culture by gathering, visiting, discussing, writing about, and publishing on collections.

This thesis describes the development of a parent-to-infant attachment based questionnaire for use by health visitors as a discussion tool. An interpretive methodology was followed incorporating a sequential multi-method design. The original purpose of the study, to develop an attachment screening tool, changed due to reflexive decision making and the impact of changes in service delivery. This presented an opportunity to develop a tool that supported focused conversation between health visitors and parents about early relationships. Parallels between parent infant relationships and health visitor parent relationships were identified in four parent focus groups and four health visitor interviews. The resulting data were used to inform the development of the pilot questionnaire. Five parent-to-infant attachment relationship constructs were developed from attachment theory and current practice in infant mental health. These were combined with parent terminology preferences, and formed into a twenty-five item questionnaire. The twenty-five item questionnaire was used to collect data from twelve parents. Statistical testing on twenty-four test-retest completions of the tool resulted in a ten-item discussion tool that showed face and construct validity. Evidence of acceptability to practitioners and parents was gathered using a health visitor survey.

The objective of this research is to shed light on the phenomenon of independent volunteer traveling. It represents a form of tourism in which travelers independently organize their own volunteer efforts and typically provide assistance to local people in return for room and board. Travelers operate outside the confines of formal service organizations and various tourist groups, in conditions of close cross-cultural contact, often teaching and providing manual labor. They live with locals, speak the local language, use the same amounts of economic and natural resources that locals use, and eat, sleep, bathe and work in the same fashion as the local people do. Because this type of tourism takes place in remote Himalayan villages that are not in touristed areas, social arrangements are based on local tradition and culture, rather than on external forces. This research specifically links independent volunteer traveling with sustainable tourism development by examining its impacts. For instance, the majority of travelers in the study helped to create additional sources of income for local people by donating animals and land to families, which helped hosts to improve their living standards and boosted local economies in remote Himalayan regions, contributing towards the development of Nepal's rural communities. In addition, because of the many opportunities offered by this type of tourism, Nepali women were encouraged to eat with their families, get married at a later age, get an education and be treated more fairly in family situations, which contributed towards improving the status of women. The evidence of this research also indicates that there is a complex dynamic present in the interaction between hosts and guests when giving and receiving activities are examined. In particular, a sense of mutual interdependence and equality were maintained between hosts and guests, because no matter who was giving and who was receiving, both parties continued to feel they received more than they were able to give. Because of the joy and meaning it added to their lives, this aspect of the experience had the most profound effect on both hosts and guests, and made this form of tourism stand out against comparable cross-cultural encounters. In an era searching for improved forms of international relations, this kind of travel poses an interesting alternative, because it depends solely on the opportunity for travelers to contribute to the host culture and on the development of meaningful cross-cultural relationships. / Graduation date: 2003 / Best scan available for photos. Original has a moray pattern.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Catherine Matthews; submitted to the School of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 158-188).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-234).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: James E. Swasey, Dept. of Plant & Soil Sciences. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Lisa Waxman, Florida State University, School of Visual Arts and Dance, Dept. of Interior Design. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 7, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.