Let’s talk Research.
Our researchers are working to answer questions in the industry through a number of outlets. Below, please explore some of our recent research projects.
EFTI White Papers
We are strong believers of conducting research focusing on the meaningful impacts of the findings to the industry. With this in mind, we are launching a series of white papers! They are written by faculty and PhD students, and explain insights and tools for industry practitioners, based on research findings in trend tourism topics. If you want to learn more, become a partner!
2023 – 2024 EFTI Industry Advisory Board White Paper Select.
1. [1st place] Examining the Variations Impacts of Loyalty & Rewards Programs Across the Darden Group. {Wuzhen Zhou and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
2. [2nd place] Investigating the Impacts of Restaurant Virtual Queue Apps on Customers’ Waiting Behaviors and Restaurant Choices. {Hwirim Jo, Dr. Oscar Chi [advisor], and Dr. Jinwon Kim [co-advisor]}
3. [3rd place] Dynamic Pricing and Demand Estimation: Analyzing Market Structures and Price Elasticity Across Hotel Classes {Bell Pan and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
4. Is Your Firm Prepared? Cybersecurity Risk in the Hospitality Industry. {Bell Pan and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
5. Connecting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Hospitality Research. {Bell Pan and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
6. Examine the impacts of social media influencer authenticity on customers’ restaurant visit behavior. {Stephanie Martinez, Dr. Oscar Chi [advisor], Jasper Jia}
7. Event Planning in the Age of AI: understanding the factors that drive adoption and its impact on event success. {Rayven Crisafulli & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
8. ChatGPT & Event Marketing: Evaluation Adoption, Strategies, and Perceived benefits in event planning. {Rayven Crisafulli & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]}
9. Whom Should I trust when Traveling: AI Recommender or Customer Review? {Jasper Jia & Dr. Oscar Chi [advisor]}
10. Text vs. Images: How social media influences travelers' perceptions of a Novel Tourism Product. {Yeonseo Jo & Dr. Svetlana Stepchenkova [advisor]}
11. Forecasting Hotel Room Prices: A Game-Theoretic Artificial Neural Network {Dr. Nasim Binesh [advisor], Amanda Belarmino, Jean-Plerre van der Rest, Ashok Sigh & Carola Raab}
2023 White Papers
Lodging
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Smart Devices in Hotels: Applications and trends. Ling Ding & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Exploring hotel responses during natural disaster. Yuting An and Dr. Andrei Kirilenko [advisor]
Restaurants
Robot Applications in the Restaurant Industry: Comparative Analyses. Ling Ding & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Events
Event Planning in the Age of AI: Understanding the factors that drive adoption and its impact on event success. Rayven Crisafulli and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Exploring Factors influencing Host community members' Mega Event Experience. Rayven Crisafulli and Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Destinations
The Interplay Between Mega Sport Events and Hotel Performance: An Empirical investigation into causal dynamics. Tianyu (Bell) Pan & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Twitter text analysis during and after COVID-19 Lockdown: A case in S. FL. Jiping Cao, Jiwoo Jung, Dahye Jung, Darcy Lu, and Dr. Andrei Kirilenko [advisor]
THEM industries
Cruise Tourism Markets and Price Optimization: A Longitudinal Study in the US. Tianyu (Bell) Pan & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Analysis and Evaluation of Factors Influencing Video Game Price: Sensitivities using mutual information. Olivia P. Dizon-Paradis, Tianyu (Bell) Pan, Mengdi Zhu, Avanti Bhandarkar, Daniel e. Capecci, Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor] and Dr. Damon L. Woodard [co-advisor]
Psychological Mechanism of Consumption Behavior in Traveling During Product-har crises: the role of health beliefs and mental readiness. Tianyu (Bell) Pan & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Seasonal vs. Non-Seasonal Time Series Decomposition and Forecasting: Improvements with Machine Learning (ML) and the Role of transfer learning (TL). Tianyu (Bell) Pan & Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu [advisor]
Social media
Whom should I trust When Traveling: AI recommender or customer review? Shizhen (Jasper) Jia, Oscar Hengxuan Chi (advisor)
Exploring social media Influencers' impacts on tourists' Pro-environmental Consumption Behaviors: A case study in China. Zixuan Xu, and Dr. Andrei Kirilenko [Advisor]
What attracts mid and later life adults to a cycling event and what factors contribute to their continued participation? An exploratory study of Bike Florida. Dahye Jung & Dr. Heather Gibson [advisor]
Previous Years
Social Media Big Data Analytics for the Needs of Tourism and Hospitality
Lijuan Su & Svetlana Stepchenkova, PhD
“Applications of social media Big Data analytics could help the tourism destinations and hospitality companies to segment market by fully exploring the user demographics, interests, and feedback, monitor public opinions to tailor response strategies to online crisis resulted from service failure incidents, as well as understand tourists travel patterns and utilization of recreational resources from the macro perspective”
This paper gives an overview of social media analytics in the tourism and hospitality fields and provides examples of research that apply those methods to user generated content posted on social media from studies conducted by faculty and students from EFTI Tourism Analytics Group.
Beyond Numbers: Social Media Analytics Enable Insightful Decision Making for Travel Businesses
Shihan (David) Ma & Andrei P. Kirilenko, PhD
“Social media analytics is the art and science of extracting valuable hidden insights…to enable informed and insightful decision making.” (Marshall Sponder; Gohar F Khan)
This paper highlights the job of social media analytics on extracting information from social media and providing valuable insights for travel businesses so managers can have informed decision making. The paper showcases collaboration projects done by the Tourism Analytics group with organizations to provide insights to their business strategies.
Research Publications
Public Safety influence on performance of peer-to-peer lodging
“The Sharing Economy: A Geographically weighted Regression Approach to Examine Crime and the Shared Lodging Sector” (Link)
Yu-Hua Xu, Lori Pennington-Gray, and Jin-Won Kim
June 2019- “Best Paper”, TTRA 50th Annual International Conference
Peer-to-peer lodging is becoming indispensable piece of the tourism industry in the past decade. Reports of crimes associated with the trend are also on the rise. The study analyzed the city of Orlando with the purpose of examining the spatial effects of crime on P2P lodging performance based on revenue per available room (RevPAR). Destination, community and individual property levels were analyzed as well as different types of crimes and types of accommodation. The results show community safety is more influential than individual property level crimes. To the tourism industry, the study provides meaningful insights for destination planning and P2P businesses: indispensable collaboration between government and community to create a safe environment, improving businesses and tourism.
Relationship between Airbnb locations and crime
“Exploring the Spatial Relationship between Airbnb Rental and Crime” - Yu-Hua Xu, Jin-Won Kim, and Lori Pennington-Gray
June 2017 - “Best Graduate Colloquium Paper”, TTRA 48th Annual International Conference
Stay tuned for more publications and white papers coming soon. Become a Partner for full access!
