Dr. Robertico Croes, assistant director of the Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management recently published a book titled, The Small Island Paradox: Tourism Specialization as a Potential Solution that defines and analyzes the growth and prosperity of small island destinations.

Dr. Croes explains the cyclic paradox as a conceptual trap, “Small islands cannot grow in economic terms because they are small, and they are small in economic terms because they cannot grow.” This direct correlation is influenced by the underlying premise that ‘small is ugly and big is beautiful.’

This study assesses the complexities surrounding tourism growth within thirty islands in the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Pacific. Croes elaborates, “In my journey to get answers, I noticed how poorly endowed small islands are in terms of rigorous and comprehensive research, particularly in the tourism literature.”

Croes’ book will be used as a supplemental resource guide for graduate courses taught at the Rosen College and is available for purchase through .

In addition to his extensive work with the Dick Pope Institute, Dr. Croes serves as interim chair of the Tourism, Events & Attractions department at the Rosen College.

DPI researchers completed a project titled “The Economic and Tourism Potentials of the Aruba Soul Beach Music Festival.”  The six-day festival, held May 28-29, 2011, included a concert series with current Billboard chart artists, daytime events, nightclub parties and comedy events.

More than 250 festival attendees were surveyed with regards to their perceived value of the event and its overall economic contributions.  The survey assessment showed that the festival was successful from both a management and destination perspective, although there are several areas for opportunities.

“The study is among the first to empirically assess the relationship between discounting and performance in a lodging industry context,” explains Semrad.  “It provides a theoretical framework that is practical in its application to assist practitioners.”

Semrad developed a model constructed on lodging managers’ daily operational needs to maximize and increase revenues through the sale of the firm’s core product — rooms. Her research provides managers with a rational “how to” set room prices as opposed to “what they should not do” regarding the use of discounting as a pricing strategy.

Semrad’s dissertation committee included Dr. Croes (chair), Dr. Parsa, Dr. Wang, Dr. Robinson and Dr. Kline.

Dr. Croes shares, “The value to the lodging industry [in Kelly’s research] is real in that hotels’ rooms departments are the primary revenue producers for the firms.  Without the sale of room nights, a hotel firm would collapse.”  Croes heralds Semrad’s research as the first empirical manuscript that evaluates the most commonly used pricing strategy in the industry — discounting.

Semrad is now an assistant professor with the ����ֱ�� of Florida’s Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management.   She teaches Intro to Hospitality & Tourism Management, Hospitality Management, and Event Management & meeting Planning.

“The required research, teaching, and service [in my current position] is a near extenuation of that required at Rosen,” says Semrad.  “That is certainly a credit to my major advisor, Dr. Robertico Croes, my committee, and Rosen College,” says Semrad.

The Institute will be preparing a strategic plan for the development of tourism in Aruba in the 21st century, aimed at maintaining and improving Aruba’s competitive position in the Caribbean in this century.

Additionally, the strategic plan will assist in generating sustainable growth in the tourism sector in a socially acceptable, environmentally sound and economically viable manner. The project will employ a variety of methodologies including focus groups, competitiveness analysis, surveys, marketing intelligence reports, supply analysis, and a variety of other tools. The Institute is expected to finish the project in November 2011.

The Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies was established in September 1979 in the College of Business Administration of the ����ֱ��, through a $25,000 donation by the Orange Blossom Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. The funds for this donation were collected at an annual Roast and Toast of the Association, which honored the late Dick Pope Sr., then the owner of Cypress Gardens and the first commercial tourist entrepreneur in Florida.

The Institute’s mission is to improve the quality of the tourism product and increase the benefits of the tourism industry to the State of Florida and the local Central Florida community. For more information, please contact Robertico Croes, Ph.D., (407) 903-8028 or robertico.croes@ucf.edu.

The graduate students made ten research presentations and five poster presentations.  Rosen College Associate Dean, Dr. Youcheng (Raymond) Wang, shares “All of [the students] did a wonderful job in presenting their research to their peer graduate students and faculty members from…programs throughout the world.”

Additionally, Rosen College’s Dr. Khal Nusair, Dr. Nan Hua, and graduate student Xu Li, won the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology’s 2010 Best Paper Award.  The paper is entitled “A conceptual framework of relationship commitment: E-travel agencies.”

Dr. Wang describes the conference as an excellent opportunity for the graduate students “not only for their research agenda, but also in terms of networking which may well lead to future job opportunities.”  He adds, “We will continue to support them.”

The conference was held January 6-8, 2011 in Houston, Texas, and was co-hosted by the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, ����ֱ�� of Houston School of Hotel and Tourism Management and The Hong Kong Polytechnic ����ֱ��.