Harsha E. Chacko

Determining the importance of US convention destination attributes

This paper examines meeting planners’ rating of seven US convention cities not only as overall destinations but also on specific city attributes that are important in site selection. Regression analysis showed that promotional appeal of the city had a significant effect in the overall ratings of destinations. In addition, results suggested that different attributes are significant for different cities in explaining their convention, exposition and meeting-site attractiveness.

Positioning a tourism destination to gain a competitive edge

Positioning is a form of market communication that plays a vital role in enhancing the attractiveness of a tourism destination. This article describes the different parts of the positioning process and applies it to the case of positioning a U.S. destination to Japanese visitors.

The evolution of a festival: Creole Christmas in New Orleans.

Abstract Creole Christmas is a month-long festival created in 1986 to boost the fortunes of the tourism industry in New Orleans during the lowest point in the season. This is a case study about the development of the festival and the economic impact it has had on the tourism community in the city. An evaluation of the festival shows that it has turned out to be a success in economic terms but the social and cultural benefits have not yet been proven. The success of the festival can be traced to the cooperation between the major constituents of the tourism industry such as the city government, the hospitality industry and the merchants and residents of New Orleans.

Repositioning a Tourism Destination: The Case of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

SUMMARY This paper is a case study of the repositioning of New Orleans as a tourism destination after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It examines the event from a post-disaster marketing viewpoint and first outlines the tourism industry in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, including visitor profile, destination image, and positioning statements. The article then recounts the effects of the hurricane on the tourism infrastructure. The effectiveness of recovery marketing strategies, including the repositioning strategies undertaken by the citys tourism marketing organizations, is examined. The disaster management frameworks as discussed in the literature are revisited and extended to include the lessons learned for post disaster market repositioning.

Designing a seamless hotel organization

As hospitality customers become more seasoned, well‐travelled and quality conscious, a hotel’s organizational structure must facilitate the implementation of strategies designed to provide higher levels of service quality. This article discusses the weaknesses of the current organizational structure of hotels and presents a framework for the development of a seamless hotel organization. This modified structure is more favorable to the creation of an environment where customer service quality is the organizational driver, allowing hotels to develop service quality as a true competitive advantage.

Qualitative research: its time has come.

The purpose of this paper is to show the efficacy of qualitative research methodology for certain kinds of hospitality industry research. Qualitative research is contrasted with quantitative research to show strengths and weaknesses of each method. A qualitative research project to study effective hotel general managers will be discussed.

A Conceptual Framework for Attracting Generation Y to the Hotel Industry Using a Seamless Hotel Organizational Structure

The increasing sophistication of well-traveled customers and the burgeoning young demographic known as Generation Y constitute major environmental forces that are beyond the lodging industrys immediate control. Generation Y will form the bulk of new hires who, by the nature of their drastic differences in work values and lifestyles, will not be attracted to hotels as they are currently operated. The purpose of the authors in this article is to examine these environmental forces and propose a conceptual framework for an organizational structure at the unit level in the hotel industry that will create an attractive work environment for Generation Y.

The Effect of Ethnic Differences on Travel Characteristics: an Exploration of Marginality and Ethnicity in Urban Tourism

ABSTRACT This study explored the differences between African American and White traveler behaviors to an urban tourism destination to assess whether the differences could be attributed to factors related to a history of socioeconomic discrimination (marginality) or related to differences in culture (ethnicity). Results showed that there were some differences in income levels between African American and White travelers; however, after controlling for income, differences were still found in certain factors considered important when planning trips and also in the satisfaction ratings with specific city attributes. Results support the premise that at least in the urban tourism context, the differences between African American and White travelers are more related to ethnicity than to marginality.

The 'Big Easy or the Hard Ask': a case study of service quality in New Orleans hotels.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the issue of service quality in one of the top tourism and convention destinations in the United States. It focuses upon the hotel industry, in particular the mid to upscale market segment, using an expert panel approach to identify critical issues in service quality. In an increasingly competitive market for corporate, leisure and convention business, individual hotels and destinations have seen the need to address the issue of service quality as a means of differentiating themselves. The New Orleans market has several characteristics that set it apart from other destinations as is suggested by its colloquial name ‘The Big Easy.’ This name brings to mind connotations of a laid back and unhurried lifestyle often attributed, in music and verse, to the sultry southern climate of this historic city on the banks of the Mississippi river.

Important elements of hotel-meeting planner contracts: an exploratory study

Contracts between meeting planners and hotels are getting longer and more complex to protect the interests of both parties. Unlike many other industries, there is no standard contract for use between meeting planners and hotels. This study was undertaken to try to ascertain (a) what elements the literature suggests should be contained in all contracts between meeting planners and hotels, and (b) what actually appears in real life contracts. The result was development of a 9-item checklist and comparison of real contracts with this list. It was found that although the bids were for an identical event there was significant variation in the elements included in the contracts as well as the operationalization of each element. However, this study found that none of the hotels in this sample included all nine elements in their contract, which provides educators and practitioners with the opportunity to provide assistance to hotel managers. Additional discussion addresses the accepted practices exchange (APEX) development of recommendations for contract clauses. Thus, the results of the extant study make a contribution to the discipline and are of interest to academics and practitioners alike.