The Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute welcomes exciting leadership changes this Summer. Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu assumes the role of Director of EFTI, as well as Chair of the Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management at the University of Florida.
Although some communities are just now having to deal and learn from a crisis, this time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, facing the importance of resilience for a crisis is not a new concept for some communities. Yu-Hua “Melody” Xu is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on destination resilience, community development, and sharing economy
EFTI’s faculty and students are outstanding not just in the field of tourism, but also in their interdisciplinary projects. For another year, our researchers represented EFTI and UF in the Association of American Geographers conference, virtually this time.
The COVID-19 crisis brought swift changes in the way our society functions and, unfortunately, has reduced or eliminated the workload of many professionals worldwide. This is not the case for our EFTI Director, Dr. Lori Pennington-Gray, whose expertise is Tourism Crisis Management.
Last Friday, March 13, 2020 we had the presentation from Dr. Andrei Kirilenko titled “Re-reading Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina helps analysis of tourist dissatisfaction”. The project is a collaboration between Dr. Kirilenko and Dr. Stepchenkova (EFTI Researchers) and Dr. Xiangyi Dai from Beijing Capital University.
The third round of the ongoing study conducted by the Tourism Crisis Management Initiative, directed by Dr. Lori Pennington-Gray had the results just announced. The group surveyed more than 500 American travelers to understand their travel intentions facing the current COVID-19 pandemic and analyze the changes from previous weeks.
EFTI Seminars are a great opportunity for students and other faculty to get updated on each other’s works and share knowledge, provide feedback and collaborate. On February 21st, we kicked off the EFTI Seminar Series Spring 2020 with a presentation from one of our own faculty, Dr. Jinwon Kim. The project titled “Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity: A Macrolevel Approach” was a collaboration with Changwook Kim, PhD candidate in the department of Sport Management.
Dr. Lori Pennington-Gray and PhD candidate Danielle Barbe surveyed more than 500 American travelers to understand their travel intentions facing the recent coronavirus outbreak. Two studies were done, one on January 26 and 27 and the second one on February 7 to 9.
The group, composed by Dr. Andrei Kirilenko, researcher at the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI), and two PhD candidates, Shihan (David) Ma and Lijuan Su, from the UF Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management (THEM), provided once again some “Expert Insights for Real Questions” , and proved that the tourism research at the University of Florida is one of the best in the world.
Dr. Heather Gibson and Dr. Brijesh Thapa, professors in the department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management and EFTI researchers, were recognized for their contributions to the academia during their successful careers.
The University of Florida International Center promoted the International Education Week 2019 between November 18 and 22 in appreciation of international scholars at UF. Part of a group of high-achiever individuals, three of EFTI’s international students were recognized with Certificates of Excellence at the Annual International Student Achievement Ceremony which happened on Monday, November 18.
Last November 8, EFTI hosted a seminar titled “Context and Determinants of Cross-University Collaboration: Extracting and Analyzing Networks from Grant Acknowledgement Texts”. Dr. Till Krenz, Postdoctoral researcher at the UF Bureau of Economic and Business Research and Jared Adams, graduate student at the department of Sociology and Criminology & Law presented about a research project conducted for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Every semester the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute brings an industry leader to share his/her experiences and perspectives with our students and faculty as part of our Seminar Series. This semester we hosted Dr. Joseph St. Germain, President and Partner at Downs & St. Germain Research.
As always, we are grateful for the volunteer participation of industry leaders on our Industry Advisory Board, sharing experiences, providing real research needs, and bringing valuable input and contributions to the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute.
It has been a successful summer for the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute! Hyejin Park (PhD student) was awarded “Best Paper Award” during the China Tourism Forum 2019-US (Temple University, Philadelphia, July 21-22) for a study analyzing the perceptions of destination image focused on South Korea’s KTO (Korea Tourism Organization) efforts toward Chinese travelers.
The Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute is grateful for the volunteer participation of industry leaders on our Industry Advisory Board. These individuals share their experiences and perspectives with our staff, researchers, and students.
The Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute had a great presence on the Travel and Tourism Research Association Annual International Conference which happened in Melbourne between June 25 and June 27, 2019. EFTI was a Bronze level sponsor and was represented by nine researchers.
On Friday, April 19th the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute hosted its final Seminar Series for the Spring semester, and concluded the year with Justin Gressel, PhD, Channel Analytics Manger for Universal Orlando Resorts. The conversations began with more insight into Universal Orlando Resort’s use of data in management decision making. Here are some photos from the seminar:
On Friday, April 12th the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute had its annual Industry Advisory Board (IAB) meeting with board members in both the Tourism and Events industries from around the United States. Our board was invited to Gainesville, FL to the College of Health and Human Performance and were given a handful of presentations about the programs that EFTI works under and some of the projects our researchers have been apart of over the past year.
Whether it is hosting Universal Parks and Resorts executives to come and speak to our faculty, staff, and students, or taking a trip to Marlins Park, the department of TRSM and EFTI partner to make sure our students and faculty are making the best of their time while at UF. Being able to bring our students into the industry and put them in front of the decision makers is help building up our students to be the thinkers and innovators in the future. Below are some videos on some of the amazing trips and seminars EFTI has partaken in the academic year!
