Online Lightening Talks
Anti-discriminatory Platform Shifts and User Review Behavior: An Empirical Examination
Virtual Lightning Talk Saunak Basu
The ubiquitous connections of mobile device, social networks, and market platforms have enabled the rise of sharing economy. Sharing economy is a term that describes market based activities mediated through systems or networks, in which participants conduct peer to peer sharing activities in the form of renting, lending, trading, bartering, and swapping of goods, services, transportation solutions, space or money with no transfer of ownership (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012; Belk 2014; Botsman and Rogers 2010; Möhlmann 2015; Sundararajan 2013).Sharing economy platforms have disrupted many industries globally. For example, plentiful availability of accommodations through AirBnB and Roomorama has disrupted the hospitality industry, and ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, have disrupted the taxicab service industry in a profound manner.In this study, we focus on the effect of one important policy change that was aimed at detrimental discriminatory behavior, and examine the post-policy behavior of participants. We draw policy implications and platform implications based on our empirical investigation. Using Airbnb as an example, we investigate how policy changes that had an anti-discrimination intent impacted the behavior of both the service providers and consumers. Airbnb launched “instant booking” starting 2015 in many cities. This policy was aimed at reducing discrimination against renters/guests and at the same time, eases the booking process and increase the occupancy rate. Using this event as a treatment in a natural experiment, and two instrumental variables in two stage models, we aim to understand the impact of this policy on the rating and sentiment of reviews.
Community Place-making, Cultural Heritage, and Tourism in Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico
Virtual Lightning Talk Andrea Hoff
This research focuses on community driven place-making and cultural heritage preservation in the context of rapid urbanization and growth. Ethnographic field research methods were applied to the case of Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico to understand the role of the "sacred" in local place-making efforts and in building and sustaining social capital. The research documented community perceptions of a freeway expansion project and the federal Pueblo Mágico [Magic Town] program intended to promote tourism while preserving culturally significant places. Tepoztlán’s social resistance to development projects (including a famous 1990 uprising that blocked a Golf Club project and recent unsuccessful attempts to block the freeway expansion) illustrate the contrast between indigenous local place-making and these federal urban development policies. Tepoztlán is a complex case study showing how preservation efforts can involve commodification and tourism cross-pressures; and, how ceremonial life including neighborhood exchanges of promesas, intergenerational convivencia, and a culture of mural creation not only contribute to a vibrant public realm, but also strengthen social ties that serve to unify and empower residents. The goal is to highlight lessons for tourism and leisure scholars and practitioners who seek to balance preservation and growth, and provide a deeper understanding how local residents value and find meaning in their surroundings in order to help create urban policies that meet residents’ diverse needs and desires, while highlighting the role of local efforts in creating culturally and environmentally sustainable urban environments.
Analyzing the Bidirectional Relation between Tourism and Economic Development
Virtual Lightning Talk Pablo Juan Cárdenas-García, Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández
There are many countries that have opted for tourism as dynamizing element of the economy, and, consequently, as a politics that allow to improve the socioeconomic development. Besides, scientific literature has demonstrated the existence of a relationship between tourism and economic development by revealing, in some cases, that tourism activity may allow to improve the life conditions of residents. On the other hand, in order to get an increase at the arriving tourist flow to the destination regions and, therefore, an expansion of the tourism activity, various factors are required. In turn, these variables determine the level of economic development. While it is true that a tourism expansion can be used as a tool for economic development, it is also true that a higher level of socioeconomic development of the destination can ease the tourism activity expansion. Thus, it may exist a bidirectional relation between both dimensions. This statement has received little attention by the scientific literature, which have been analyzing widely the bilateral relation between tourism and economic growth, tourism-led economic growth (TLEG) and economic-driven tourism growth (EDTG), but it has not been studied the relation between economic growth and economic development, in the same way. Thus, the aim of this paper consists in analyzing the bidirectional relation that exists between the tourism activity growth and the economic development through an empirical study at country level, by using a broad sample of 143 countries and its quantitative information during last two decades.
Local Perceptions on Legalized Marijuana and Its Impacts on Oregon State Tourism
Virtual Lightning Talk Pavlina Mc Grady, Soo Kang, Donna Lane, Mark Siders
This paper examines local perceptions on marijuana tourism in the state of Oregon. The legalization of recreational marijuana poses various business opportunities, as well as operational challenges for the tourism industry. Understanding residents’ perceptions of any new venture is imperative for state policy makers and community stakeholders. This study explores the relationship among perceived positive and negative impacts of marijuana legalization, the role of residents’ levels of place attachment and perceptions of Oregon as a tourism destination as predictors to support for marijuana tourism. Findings reveal that the more residents perceive impacts positively, the more they are likely to support tourism. In that sense, residents can be regarded as proactive stakeholders in marijuana tourism. Furthermore, results indicate that the more attached to the state a person is, the less supportive of marijuana tourism they are. Yet, those who perceived Oregon as a tourism destination were supportive of marijuana tourism. Lastly, the study’s findings reveal that a person’s age was negatively correlated with support for marijuana tourism. The success of any community depends on understanding of residents’ perceptions, which in turn facilitates planning and sustainable development. This study contributes to the limited literature on marijuana tourism and provides insight for managers of destinations where recreational marijuana is legal.
Sustainable Tourism Development of the Provincial Reserve, Staten Island
Virtual Lightning Talk Josefina Muratorio
At the moment, the promotion and the tourist exploitation of the Island of the States is minimum, reason why in the present work, in the function of the investigation of the destination made (including the survey of its natural and historical patrimony), the viability is verified to include it in a much more ambitious provincial and municipal tourism development plan, depending on the potential demand. A key point for this project is any activity that involves contact with this island must respect the parameters of sustainability and conservation of its current character of Provincial Ecological Reserve. Likewise, it is an object of this study. It is a place of entry in the whole region, promoting the maritime, tourist and regional integration of the island of the States with that city. and his or her environment. To be able to specify this, objectives have been designed that include an adequate tourist promotion, the possibility of concessions, the excursions in the operators, the corresponding correspondence to the national travel agencies with international reach. Finally, it has also become known in this work to bring to the knowledge various historical facts of great relevance in this island, which until now has not been fully compiled and has arrived. All this without forgetting to mention the mysteries and the laws that also integrate the heritage of this territory.
Analysing the Bidirectional Relation between Tourism and Economic Development
Virtual Lightning Talk Pablo Juan Cárdenas-García, Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández
After having demonstrated the relationship between tourism and economic growth, tourism-led economic growth (TLEG) and economic-driven tourism growth (EDTG), the scientific literature was concerned with studying the possible relationship between tourism and economic development, limiting itself to analysing a possible unidirectional relationship between tourism, economic growth, and economic development. In this context, the aim of this paper is to determine if the relationship between tourism and economic development is bidirectional, given that, although tourism can be a tool for economic development, it is also true that a higher level of economic development influences the expansion of tourism activity. Using a sample of 143 countries, and applying confirmatory factor analysis together with a structural equation model, the bidirectional relationship between tourism and economic development is confirmed. Therefore, although tourism activity and economic development face different challenges, if public policies work in a coordinated manner, they may contribute significantly to improving economic development in countries where tourism activity takes place.
