The 52nd TRC meeting took place in Lisbon, Portugal. The local organizer was Antonia Correia.

Dates: March 30 – April 2, 2017

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Abstracts

Eugeni Aguilo: Co-creating experiential tourism. Empirical evidence from Ibiza

Monika Bandi-Tanner and Adrian Künzi: Event Performance Index (EPI) – A holistic validation tool as a guideline for public support of cultural and sport events

Peter Björk: Destination Gastronomy Experiences: Food dimensions that count

Phillipe Callot: The Ecolabel for tourist accommodation in French regions: why a so disruptive distribution?

Antonia Correia and Justyna Majewska: Modelling of tourism flows between origin and destination regions – determinants and spatial dependence patterns

Sophie Elias: Hospitality: Making it Happen for the Connected Generation

Justyna Majewska and Grzegorz Golembski: “Determinants of international tourism flows – the gravity model for Poland

Jan Vidar Haukeland: BIOTOUR – From place-based natural resources to value-added experiences

Raija Komppula: “Values and Sustainable Behaviors – A Study Among Russian and Finnish University Students Tourism in the new bio-economy

Metin Kozak and Antonia Correia: Gamblers vs non-gamblers: Travel motivations to Macau

Martin Lohmann: Worried respondents and cool tourists: reported impacts of terror threats and factual destination choice patterns

Mara Manente: Tourism strategic planning in the European competitive environment. Investigation on national practices in terms of governance models, objectives, strategies and actions

Andreas Papatheodorou: Airline Route Development and Tourism: Implications for Involved Stakeholders

Harald Pechlaner and Ingrid Kofler: Innovation in Tourism: the example of the Regional Innovation System of South Tyrol

Mike Peters: Framing the labor market in the hospitality industry: An interplay of self-reflection, radicalization and contradiction

Egon Smeral: Variations in seasonal tourism behavior across the business cycles

Anne Verhaege: Teaching hotel

Karl Wöber: A partial model of tourism competitiveness in European cities

The 51st TRC meeting took place in Helsinki, Finland. The local organizer was Peter Björk.

Date: March 31 – April 3, 2016
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Abstracts

• Antonia Correia and Metin Kozak: “Tourists spending behavior in Portugal: A quantile regression analysis”
• Eugeni Aguilo, Marta Jacob, and Aldric Vives: “Revenue Management and the elasticity of demand: The case of three hotels”
• Monika Bandi: “Quality analysis of hotel rating portals – theoretical and empirical evidence from Switzerland”
• Johanna Danielsson: “Finding the clues that could help change sunbathing behavior – a multi method approach”
• Jessica de Bloom: “Should I Stay or Should I Go? Comparing leisure behaviors, thoughts and feelings during holiday travel and at home”
• Raija Komppula: “The role of different stakeholders in destination development, Case Ruka ski resort in Finland”
• Christian Laesser: “Luxury Travel: Is it only for the affluent? Conceptualization and exploratory empirical investigation of the financial domains in a mature market – Switzerland”
• Martin Lohmann: “Tourist’s Happiness”
• Justyna Majewska: “Spatial-temporal agglomeration processes in tourism – results of exploratory spatial data analysis of tourism supply in Poland in the period 2000-2015″
• Harald Pechlaner: “Architectural Governance and Regional Development: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Coordination of Architectural Development and the Regional Building Culture in five Alpine Regions”
• Gareth Shaw and Scott McCabe: “Social Tourism: the role of the third sector providers in a period of austerity”
• Egon Smeral: “Tourism forecasting performance: considering the instability of demand elasticities”
• Paris Tsartas, Ioannis Spilanis, and Andreas Papatheodorou: “Methodological, Developmental and Managerial Issues regarding the implementation of the Laboratory of Tourism on the Region of the South Aegean”
• Karl Wöber: “A Scientific Publication Platform for Tourism”

Norbert Vanhove has published a short history of the TRC in Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research. A preview of the first page is scanned below. Follow the link to read more about the origins of the TRC and how it developed into the organisation it is today.

“Tourist Research Centre (TRC): short history”

The 50th TRC meeting took place in Lyon, France. The local organizer was Sophie Elias-Varotsis.

Date: March 31-April 3, 2016
Location: Lyon, France

Check out the gallery of photos from the meeting:

Want more? You’re in luck – here’s another photo gallery!

… and an article about the meeting, published by Only Lyon (in French).

Abstracts

Peter Björk “Extending the Domain of Tourism Marketing”

Philippe Callot “An individual CO2 notebook to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)”

Valeria Croce, John Kester, and Karl Wöber “Expert Identification and Calibration for Collective Forecasting Tasks”

Sophie Elias-Varotsis “The Social Selling Gateway for Hospitality VSE’s & SME’s”

Raija Komppula “Involving Customers in (New) Service Development in Tourism”

Martin Lohmann “Why we travel. And does it change? Tourists’ motivation and tourists’ motives in Germany”

Justyna Majewska “GPS-based measurement of geographic spillovers in tourism”

Egon Smeral “Challenges of the hotel and restaurant industry: productivity and seasonality”

TRC learned with great sadness of the passing away of former Governor of the Province of West-Flanders prof. dr. em Olivier Baron Vanneste and one of the founders of TRC.

TRC learned with great sadness of the passing away of former Governor of West-Flanders prof. dr.em. Olivier Baron Vanneste and Honorary member of TRC on 17 September. Olivier Vanneste was the founder of WER (West-Flemish Development Council) and WES (Wes-Flemish Study Office) in 1954. Tourism is a very important economic activity in the province of West-Flanders. The Belgian Coast and the art city Bruges are well known tourism destinations in Europe., Taking into account the role of tourism in West-Flanders he took the initiative to start with a tourism research department within WES in 1962. Very soon WES became an important player in tourism research not only in Belgium but worldwide.

Based on the publication ‘Le Littoral et son Hinterland (O Vanneste & G. Declercq, 1955), Prof.W. Hunziker, President AIEST, invited Olivier Vanneste to join the AIEST in the late 1950s. The link between AIEST and TRC is rather close. On the occasion of the 25th Tourist Research Centre (TRC) meeting in Bruges, in 1990, Rik Medlik wrote on the history of the young TRC. From his text I quote: ‘the TRC was formed in the mid 1960s by a small group of researchers who felt the need to meet and exchange experience of research in tourism. Their decision at the time was to a great extent a reaction to larger organizations and their conferences, in which participants tended to talk at each other from the platform rather confer and discuss’. Rik was very polite. The origin of TRC was to a certain extent a discontent with the AIEST working in the beginning of the 1960s. A number of AIEST members were of the opinion that AIEST was not the ideal platform to discuss in depth the methodological aspects of tourism research. Olivier Vanneste was one of the reactionaries. TRC started in 1965 with a first meeting in Bruges. But he and other TRC members promised Prof W. Hunziker, that TRC members always should be an AIEST member

He always was a great defender of TRC also as governor of West-Flanders. He invited TRC two times in the provincial palace on the occasion of the annual meetings in Bruges.

We will always remember his pragmatic and purposive leadership.

Norbert Vanhove
Honorary President TRC

Krakkestraat 3
B-8200 Sint-Andries Brugge
phone : 050/38 78 12
fax : 050/38 78 12
e-mail : n.vanhove@telenet.be