Gamification has been used extensively to examine consumers' behavioral intentions. The existing empirical studies discussing the effectiveness of gamification and hotel guests' behavioral intentions are still in scarcity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of achievements on hotel guests' energy-saving behavioral intentions and revisiting intentions. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to understand hotel guests' decision-making process and test the impact of achievements on three TPB indicators (attitudes towards a behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control). This study further examined the effects of three TPB indicators on consumers' intentions to use gamification, intentions to save energy, and intentions to revisit a hotel. A total of 437 questionnaires were collected for data analysis through an online self-administrative survey on Amazon M-Turk. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to determine the achievements' measurements. A series of regression analyses were employed to test the impacts of achievements on behavioral intentions. The results of the EFA identified two key dimensions of achievements (i.e., achievement motivation and achievement difficulty). The results of a series of regression analyses indicated that achievements had a significant and positive impact on attitudes towards using achievement-based energy-saving gamification (ABESG) and subjective norms. However, achievements had a significant but partially positive impact on perceived behavioral control. Three TPB indicators had a significant and positive impact on intentions to use ABESG. Intentions to use ABESG had a significant and positive impact on energy-saving intentions and revisiting intentions. The findings of this study verified the effectiveness of achievements on intentions to use gamification, intentions to save energy, and intentions to revisit a hotel. The theoretical implications of this study are its contribution to two core areas. The first core area is the empirical study of achievements on behavioral intentions. The second core area is the extension of TPB under the gamification studies to hotel guests' intentions to save energy and intentions to revisit a hotel. The managerial implications of this study indicate the importance of achievements' design to motivate consumers' energy-saving behavioral intentions, leading to sustainability and marketing strategies in hotel sectors.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore a new type of ride design which integrates one or more transitions between formats. Theme Park visitors have come to expect a certain type of immersive experience from attractions. Most rides in the parks are very predictable such as roller coasters which offer loops, drops, speed and quick turns, while dark rides offer a slower pace with the attention on storytelling. The solution to this situation is to combine two ride systems or more into a single ride. The ride system for my attraction begins with a free-floating boat ride navigating its way down a peaceful river. When it reaches the waterfall, the boat is guided onto a motion platform which lifts it up to the top of the waterfall. It slowly glides through a Torii Gate, past a Powerful Dragon and to the Guests surprise transforms into a roller coaster for a dynamic finish. The results of this type of ride design conclude that transitions between formats gives Guests not only a storytelling dark ride experience, but also an unexpected thrilling surprise in the form of a roller coaster ending. It would provide an increased level of entertainment and a memorable experience for park Guests.

This thesis investigated factors affecting travelers' intention to adopt a new type of travel-focused mobile application named travel-tracking mobile applications (TTMA). In general, TTMAs enable travelers to act as travel-posters (i.e., those who use the application to record and post/share their travel routes and travel-related information and experiences), and/or travel-takers (i.e., those who use the application to access, read, and follow the travel routes and other travel-related information and experiences posted/shared by travel-posters). By adopting an extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework (Venkatesh et al., 2012), the first part of the study examined factors influencing travel-takers' intention to use the information provided on TTMAs. Based on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and an extended version of the UTAUT2 framework (Venkatesh et al., 2012), the second part of the study investigated factors affecting travel-posters' intention to post/share their travel-related information on TTMAs. To examine the proposed relationships, this study adopted a two-step approach recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The first step included a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the measurement model. The second step of the data analysis employed a structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the study hypotheses. Data collected from 305 mobile app users who traveled for leisure purposes at least once in the last two years demonstrated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivations, and trust positively; and system privacy, negatively influenced users' intension to use TTMA as travel-takers. In addition, the study results revealed that effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, social benefits, self-image had a positive impact; and location privacy concerns had a negative impact on users' intention to use TTMA as travel-posters. The findings of the current study contribute to the general body of knowledge in the context of technology acceptance in general, and TTMA acceptance in the travel and tourism industries in particular. The study results also provide significant practical implications for hospitality, tourism-related technology companies, and travel entrepreneurs.

Drive tourism has proven to be a popular sub-sector of the tourism industry, given its ability to offer tourists a substantial amount of flexibility and sense of freedom in determining what destinations to explore. Few studies have examined the future of the drive tourism with consideration to changing technologies and growing awareness to the impact of carbon emissions and Green House Gasses. Research has recently begun to examine the ecological consequences of park transportation systems. Some of these problems can be seen within the United States National Park System (NPS), as various park units are experiencing problems related to infrastructure and preservation of sites. As transportation plays an integral role within the NPS, the impacts of drive tourism must be considered. The study is founded on the premise that electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations will reduce GHG emissions, thereby increasing sustainability, supporting sustainable tourism and sustainable drive tourism within the NPS. In an effort to promote sustainable transportation efforts throughout the NPS this study investigates the facilitators that enable an EV infrastructure in some parks and inhibitors for other parks that have yet to develop an EV infrastructure. A qualitative methodology was adopted for this study. Data were analyzed using NVivo with findings being presented in case study format. The study, which offers a conceptual model and offers new definitions for electric vehicles and electric vehicle infrastructure within nature based tourism context, finds key facilitators to include: collaborative efforts through public/private partnerships, strong leadership within the NPS, and availability of funding; major inhibitors being: geography of park unit, lack cultural openness within NPS park unit, and regulatory policies. Current research has given little attention to the future sustainability of drive tourism, allowing this study to add to the academic body of knowledge. Additionally, the suggestions offered in the study are relevantly timed to what is happening within the industry.

Focusing on positive service encounters, this study examined the relationships among employee behaviors, customers' positive emotions, and subsequent customer behaviors. A comprehensive framework of positive service encounters and ten hypotheses were developed based on an in-depth literature review and an application of the theory of cognitive appraisal and the theory of positive emotions. The dissertation employed a survey design with measurements from previous research and collected data with Amazon Mechanical Turk. The target sample (N=299) was individuals that had a positive interaction with an employee at hotels over the last six months. The Structural Equation Modeling results suggested that employees' mutual understanding affects customer gratitude and employees' unsolicited behaviors and competence influence customer delight. Subsequently, customer gratitude has a positive relationship with customers' repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth. In addition, customer delight has a positive relationship with customer' repurchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth. However, the results of the study did not support that customer delight can be triggered by employees' authenticity and customer gratitude can be evoked by employees' customized service. In addition, the relationship between customer gratitude and customers' providing feedback was not established. This study provides valuable implications for the industry regarding generating favorable customer behaviors in positive service encounters. This research also offers a theoretical explanation of systematic relationships among five dimensions of employee behaviors, two customers' discrete emotions, and three customer behavioral intentions in positive service encounters.

Team cohesion has been clearly established in the literature as an essential component of effective work teams, yet little research has been conducted in regard to what factors lead to cohesion within a restaurant management team. What is currently known about the antecedents of cohesion indicates that it emerges from individual team member attitudes and perceptions as a collective property of the team. This, in turn, suggests cohesion is influenced by the dispositional traits of team members. The core evaluations construct, which represents a model of dispositional traits existing within each individual at the most basic level, offers implications for the emergence of cohesion in both of its forms, task cohesion and social cohesion. To help bridge the gap in prior research, this study was conducted to investigate the influence of core evaluations on team cohesion within restaurant management teams. This study first adopted and modified Judge et al.'s (1997) theoretical model of core evaluations, advancing a model in which two types of core evaluations, self and external, were both second-order latent constructs each reflected by four first-order evaluative traits. The proposed trait structure was then tested. Finally, drawing on approach/avoidance theory and social exchange theory, this study hypothesized a multilevel model in which the dispositional traits of core self-evaluation (CSE) and core external-evaluation (CEE) at the individual front-line manager level have positive effects on task and social cohesion within restaurant management teams. To accomplish the objectives of this study, a survey research design was employed. The survey instrument was comprised of four sections: core self-evaluation, core external-evaluation, team cohesion, and demographic profile. Data were collected from managers employed by four restaurant franchise groups, resulting in a useable sample of 317 individual responses composing 76 teams ranging in size from 2-6 members. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the factor structure of CSE and CEE, as well as the overall measurement model. The task and social cohesion items were then aggregated to the team level and multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was conducted to test the relationships between latent constructs. The results of this study supported the second-order factor structure of core evaluations. CSE was shown to be reflected by self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, emotional stability, and locus of control. CEE was shown to be reflected by belief in a benevolent world, belief in a just world, and belief in people. Due to sample size, a reduced-parameter model was developed in which CSE and CEE were treated as sub-dimensions and measured by mean scores. MSEM results from this model showed that CSE had significant positive effect on team task cohesion whereas CEE had a significant positive effect on team social cohesion. These results offer numerous theoretical and practical implications for the study of core evaluations, team cohesion, and micro-macro phenomena, which are discussed in the final chapter. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

The purposes of this dissertation are threefold: to define and operationalize different types of authenticity, to test the interactive network of different types of authenticity, and to test the relationships between authenticity and tourist outcome variables including transformation, place attachment, and loyalty. In psychology, authenticity is typically conceptualized to be subject-based in nature, referring to a person's state of being true to oneself across contexts and against external influences. This type of authenticity has been termed "dispositional authenticity" and operationalized in this study in dimensions of authentic living, accepting external influence, and self-alienation. In tourism, authenticity is usually considered to be object-based in nature, place authenticity, referring to the strength of the traditional/original cues in destinations. The level of tradition or originality is either expert-defined or laymen-perceived, constituting two distinct types of authenticity. This dissertation focused on the latter for its relevance to tourists. This type of authenticity was named "subjective object-based authenticity" and was operationalized in dimensions of the built and non-built environment. In sociology and tourism, a fourth type of authenticity emerged with a hybrid nature. This type of authenticity is subject-based in nature, referring to one's feeling true to their own thoughts and feelings; however, the sense of trueness is not context-stable but temporary and subject to one's exposure to the traditional/original cues they perceive at a destination. This type of authenticity was termed "imaginary authenticity" and measured in newly developed dimensions of a sense of nostalgia and a sense of ideal life. Twelve hypotheses were created to postulate the relationships among dispositional, place, and imaginary authenticity and three tourist outcome variables: place attachment, transformation, and loyalty. This dissertation chose the positivist paradigm and quantitative methodology for the purpose of theory-testing. The study design was a web-based survey collecting data from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Respondents answered the survey based on their travel experience to one of the three destinations that they had visited: Mexico, Italy, and China. A total of 588 surveys were collected, 566 cases remained after data cleaning. The measurement model and structural model were assessed using Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Partial Least Squares- Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart-PLS. The results supported the main claims regarding the role of dispositional authenticity, and the influence of the authenticity network on subsequent tourist outcomes. A multigroup analysis was also conducted to detect destination-based deviations on the hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as limitations and future suggestions were also discussed.

Prior to this study, no analysis had focused on the 31% failure rate recorded among theme parks opened in North American between the years 1955 and 2009. This study's purpose was to identify the causes of closures among the 23 failed theme parks and inform the industry of what can be learned from these business failures. Business failure analysis typically stresses the impact of financial ratios and the accuracy of certain negative numbers to predict impending failure, but such studies avoid examining the underlying causes that lead to poor financial performance in the first place. To focus on this question, this study adopted an events approach to discover the actual event causes that preceded failure and business closure. This study tabulated the frequency of event occurrences among two samples: failed/closed theme parks and a comparable sample of surviving theme parks. Event occurrences were more common among the failed/closed sample than among the surviving theme parks sample. A detailed analysis revealed that six of the 21 events measured were more common among the failed/closed theme park sample: declaring bankruptcy; excessive debt or general unprofitability; low customer satisfaction, defined as not offering enough to do in the park and/or inadequate capacity; development pressures; limited space for expansion; and a location in a regional geographic market. Theme parks failed more frequently due to involuntary event causes than due to voluntary closures. And, in contrast to previous studies, the occurrences of internal environmental events associated with business failure were not significantly different from the occurrences of external environmental events associated with failure. These findings identified events that have preceded failure or closure in theme parks and can provide insights to operators and industry decision makers on how best to prevent or better manage such business closures in the future.

The increasing demand for spa and hot spring resorts, particularly within the luxury markets, provides an opportunity for new types of accommodations. This study focused on Ryokan which is described as traditional Japanese hotels with hot springs. Despite the recent trend of expanding Japanese Ryokans in the global market, most extant research had only focused on perceptions of customers who have experienced Ryokans. Therefore, this study explored what attributes of Japanese Ryokans are important to potential customers and to what extent these attributes could enhance perceived values toward Japanese Ryokans. A total of 983 usable responses were collected through an online self-administrative survey on Qualtrics. The results of this study identified four major dimensions of Japanese Ryokan's attributes (i.e., hotel attributes, hot springs and spas, Japanese servicescape, and Japanese culture) and two major dimensions of perceived value (i.e., functional & hedonic value and symbolic & financial value). Overall, Japanese servicescape, Japanese culture, and hot springs and spas had a significant positive effect on both value dimensions, while hotel attributes positively related to functional & hedonic value. In addition, the two dimensions of perceived value significantly mediated the relationship between Ryokan attribute dimensions and purchase intention. This study contributes to the theoretical foundation in the lodging literature by identifying dimensions of Japanese Ryokan attributes which reflect the unique characteristics of Japanese Ryokans within the luxury hot spring hotel/ resort context. Furthermore, the results of this study revealed potential consumers' value perceptions toward luxury Japanese Ryokans and their effects on purchase intention. Overall, this study provided useful guidelines for Japanese Ryokans to create value-based marketing strategies.

Considered a disrupter in the lodging industry, sharing economy accommodations have become an emergent field in hospitality literature. While this literature predominantly addresses peer-to-peer accommodations such as Airbnb, it has not considered timeshares, one of the sharing economy pioneers. However, consumer behavior literature has integrated timeshares into the sharing economy due to the shared resource of accommodations between consumers. This study examined the determinants of Satisfaction (Amenities, Community Belonging, Economic Benefits, Trust, and Vacation Counselor/Host) for consumers of two different types of sharing economy lodging products, timeshares and peer-to-peer accommodations, and their electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior. Considered a critical travel information source, eWOM has been attributed to affecting purchase decisions in hospitality literature. Current research has revealed a gap in peer-to-peer accommodation studies related to eWOM. This study extended eWOM research by exploring the role of Satisfaction as a mediator between the determinants and eWOM. In addition, accommodation type (timeshare vs. peer-to-peer accommodation) was investigated as a moderator to the relationship between the determinants and Satisfaction, and to the relationship between Satisfaction and eWOM. The study employed the two-step approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicated that Amenities, Community Belonging, Economic Benefits, Trust, and Vacation Counselor/Host had a positive impact on sharing economy lodging Satisfaction. Amenities, Economic Benefits, and Trust demonstrated an indirect effect on eWOM behavior through sharing economy lodging satisfaction. The model also revealed that Community Belonging had a direct effect on eWOM. Multiple group SEM revealed that accommodation type moderated the effect of Community Belonging's impact on sharing economy lodging Satisfaction, as well as the effect of sharing economy lodging Satisfaction on eWOM behavior. Satisfaction did not mediate any relationships for peer-to-peer accommodations. This study extends eWOM literature and provides competitive advantage insights between two sharing economy accommodation types.