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.

Some of the most vulnerable areas across the world have started experiencing the consequences of climate change, with action to deal with it long overdue. Florida, one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world, holds one of the most 'unenviable' positions in terms of its vulnerability to climate change with the effects already visible, particularly on its coastal areas. Climate is one of the major factors in affecting travel motivations and destination choice, and as such the implications of climate change for tourist behavior and demand patterns are significant. Beside the physical impacts of climate change, society's perception of climate change, and the response to it at various decision-making levels, have become critical issues. This dissertation presents the perspective of tourists who have previously visited Florida, in a hypothetical scenario of changed climatic conditions. It is proposed that existing social representations about climate change, and therefore individuals' attitudes, views and beliefs concerning this phenomenon, need to be taken into account when examining tourists' stated intentions regarding their prospective visitation intentions and potential changes in future tourism demand. Using social representation theory as a theory of reference, this dissertation presents an analysis of visitors' responses to climate change impacts and adaptation measures, in consideration of their attitudes towards climate change. The main purpose of the study was to understand whether, with the implementation of adaptation strategies directed to limit negative impacts of climate change, the likelihood of tourists to return to Florida would improve in comparison with a future in which no action is taken at the state level to address climate change. In this scenario, the filter of social representations in shaping tourists' perspectives was used as a system of explanation of different tourist responses. This study contributes to the tourism and climate change body of knowledge by advancing a further step toward understanding potential responses of tourists in a scenario in which a destination's most appealing climatic and natural resources are impacted by climate change. The existence of a relationship between tourist's visitation intentions and the social representations they hold with respect to climate change offers a different way to look at tourists' stated responses. In fact, this study shows that predicting shifts in tourism demand based on stated visitation intentions requires caution. The findings of this study can encourage future researchers to pursue a more critical way of exploring the meaning behind tourists' stated responses, which could lead to expanding our current understanding of how climate change will transform tourism demand across different destinations.

The purpose of this dissertation is to create a holistic diversity management measurement scale and to analyze the impact of diversity management on employees' attitudes and behavior in the hospitality and tourism industry. Effective diversity management can have a multitude of positive outcomes in the hospitality and tourism industry. However, there is little research conducted regarding the direct and indirect impacts of diversity management on the attitudes and behavior of hospitality and tourism industry employees. This dissertation used a mixed-method approach to create a measurement scale to evaluate diversity management practices for the hospitality and tourism field. The first study of this dissertation included a scale development process using a qualitative and then a quantitative phase. Literature review and semi-structured interviews were conducted for developing the items for the diversity management scale. These items were then refined to finalize the diversity management measurement scale through a quantitative phase using exploratory factor analyses. The impact of diversity management on hospitality and tourism industry employees' job performance, service innovation behavior, and engagement were analyzed through a quantitative study using this measurement instrument. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized research model. The present research is the first of its kind in the hospitality and tourism field. The measurement scale developed in this study will expand the boundaries of diversity management research in the hospitality and tourism industry. This current research further establishes a link between diversity management and positive employee-related outcomes in the hospitality and tourism industry. The assessment of these relationships should extend the literature and open new models of academic research with additional organizational outcomes. Leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry can gain vital insight regarding the importance of effective diversity management through the study results.

International Labor Organization estimated that 40.3 million people were victims of human trafficking in 2016. The high rate of human trafficking has drawn policymakers' attention to this issue and made them enforce anti-trafficking laws and regulations. However, their legal measures have not been based on solid empirical evidence due to the lack of academic research on human trafficking. The scant research available on human trafficking has been mainly descriptive or an investigation of sex trafficking cases to provide help to survivors. Thus, there is a need for research to explore human trafficking as a human rights issue through various perspectives such as sociology and psychology and within various contexts such as hospitality and tourism. To respond to the above-mentioned need, the current research aims to examine the antecedents of hotel employees' likelihood to help the victims of human trafficking. The U.S. lodging industry is the selected setting of the current study since it is recognized as one of the top venues of human trafficking. A conceptual framework was developed and a survey-based quantitative study was conducted to test it. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Findings showed that employees' sympathy, feelings of compassion towards the victims, is the key factor to their likelihood to help. Also, employees' familiarity with human trafficking and perceived susceptibility of the lodging industry to human trafficking play an important role in their decision-making process to help. The present study provides important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the study addresses the research gap by focusing on the psychological and sociological aspects of human trafficking and integrating egoism and altruism schools of thought. Practically, the study provides insights for the lodging industry practitioners on the increase of employees' prosocial tendency towards victims of trafficking.

The purpose of this study was to employ a network perspective to detect fluctuations in tourism (at the level of tourism areas and by inbound tourism markets) that co-occur with hazardous events. Specifically, the study focuses on the Air Travel Tourism (ATT) network of the Hawaiian Islands and its changes with the incidence of nine hazardous events from 2015 to 2021. The three main aspects of the ATT network, which include tourism connections, island preferences, and concentrations of inbound tourism markets were analyzed for a total of eighty-four monthly and seven annual network models. The results suggest that the network perspective provides insights that are especially applicable to the study of prolonged hazardous events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Among local hazardous events, the volcanic eruption and Hurricane Lane, both occurring in 2018, were associated with a decrease in visitors and preferences for Hawaii and Molokai Island. During the COVID-19 pandemic, uneven fluctuations were detected for all groups of the Hawaiian Islands. The peripheral islands had the most interrupted tourism connections during the pandemic period, while the core and semi-core islands had the most fluctuations in preference. International travel restrictions favored increases in concentrations of both domestic markets in Oahu Island, and only of the U.S. West market in the other islands. Interestingly, the mix of pandemic-related travel restrictions and recovery policies corresponded with asymmetrical tourism fluctuations for each island. The annual results suggested more stability in the aspects of the ATT network compared to the monthly results. The current study advances the tourism literature on hazardous events with insights from a network perspective. Additionally, the findings serve as a starting point for the development of new propositions and hypotheses to be tested in future research. In terms of practical implications, the results suggest that the network perspective may be beneficial for tourism practitioners to evaluate the differentiated results of policies issued in times of hazardous events. Furthermore, the unevenness of the detected fluctuations in the ATT network underscores the value of tailored planning, management, and marketing strategies in times of turbulence.

Hotel reward programs have been in existence for three decades. These programs were originally established as a customer relationship management tool to reward loyal guests for their patronage. Over time, there have been indications that the programs that are intended to inspire loyalty to the company have actually inspired loyalty to the program itself. The aim of this study was to analyze the antecedents of program satisfaction and program loyalty in hotels to determine the relationship between the program attributes and the impact on program loyalty. Switching costs were also analyzed to determine if they played a moderating role in the relationship between program satisfaction and program loyalty. Data was collected using an online questionnaire based upon measures from previous studies on the following variables: functional value, external value, utilitarian value, hedonic value, symbolic value, program satisfaction, switching costs, and program loyalty. Using the statistical software SPSS and SmartPLS, the data was empirically tested. The results indicated that program satisfaction is a driver of program loyalty. Switching costs did not have a statistically significant impact on the relationship between program satisfaction and program loyalty. Of great interest is the indicators of perceived value. As utilitarian value has been used as a dominant portion of reward programs in the past, in this study, it did not have a significant impact on the perceived value of the program. As the needs of customers change, it is necessary for industry to change as well. The research presented in this study has both theoretical and practical implications, as the results can provide a greater understanding of the value of hotel rewards from the customers viewpoint.

The Economist (2017) estimated that the last five decades witnessed a substantial increase in the number of crises occurring around the world each year. This increase makes effective crisis communication strategies critical for destination management and marketing, which is hinged on a sound understanding of how audience members interpret the meaning of and respond to media content in the news. Destination risk perception has been well documented in tourism literature; however, there is little research regarding the contingent effects of media. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to identify how the media influences the direct and indirect relationships between destination risk perception, information-seeking and avoiding behaviors, and destination loyalty (the likelihood to recommend and likelihood to visit) with the conditional effect of optimism bias. This dissertation employed a 2 x 3 between-subjects factorial posttest-only quasi-experimental design with a randomized online sample, with six distinct conditions and a control group. A conceptual framework was developed to help explain the effect of the modeled relationships. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings showed that destination risk perception had a negative effect on destination loyalty, and information avoiding was found to partially mediate the effect of destination risk perception on destination loyalty. Also, the contingency effects of the risk type and crisis communication media effects each played a role in explaining the outcomes of destination risk perception. The present study offers important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the current research adds to the limited knowledge of media effects on a tourist's destination risk perception and subsequent tourist behaviors, while also filling the gap for crisis communication media effects of news framing theory. Practically, DMOs must understand how tourists interpret and react to media; therefore, best practices and solutions to implement an adequate crisis communication plan are suggested.