The Recreation, Travel, and Tourism Institute

Clemson International Institute
For
Tourism Research & Development

INSTITUTE ACTIVITIES

These include the following:

1. Conduct Various Forms of Research, Including Market Research

Conduct quantitative and qualitative forms of research that focus on both the national and international arenas with a special emphasis on the needs of South Carolina (examples may include economic and sociocultural impacts studies, tourist motivation and behavior, travel and aging, asset mapping and new market exploration); assist faculty in securing external funding and engage in collaborative research and joint publications

Some areas of research and expertise include:

Needs assessment surveys
Computer-assisted phone data collection, entry and analysis
Strategic planning and marketing strategies
Web design, hosting and development
Visitor surveys and perception studies (e.g., perception of the United States as a tourism destination
Sociocultural, environmental and economic impact studies (e.g., impacts of sports tourism on South Carolina)
Resident perception studies of tourists and tourism development
Identification/assessment of “change indicators”
Training and development
Tourist motivation/preferences/need satisfaction research(e.g., what tourists seek in a destination)
Trend forecasting and prediction studies; demand forecasting
New market exploration
In-depth case studies
Best practices indicator analysis
Trends in local, national and international tourism
Price measures and tourism demand modeling
Market Segmentation/market demographics and psychographics
Attracting tourists to a destination: research, asset mapping, positioning and marketing strategies
Coastal and lake-based tourism and visitor motivation
Ecotourism research and training

2. Serve as a Resource Center and Knowledge Repository for the PRTM Department, Clemson Universtiy, the State of South Carolina, and the Nation

Examples include the maintenance of a website with important information, reference material, data bases, and research findings

3. Conduct Professional Development Seminars and Conferences for Tourism Individuals and Organizations and Help Facilitate Selected Strategic Initiatives

Short thematic courses that will have a wide appeal at the local, national and international levels may be offered in the summer or during inter-sessions. These may be conducted at Clemson or in other states or countries. One such seminar may focus on "Measuring the impacts of tourism: Sociocultural and economic perspectives". Another may focus on "Using tourism to alleviate poverty", and so on.

4. Serve as a Training Environment for Graduate Students

Enrichment experiences will build on existing courses and help enhance the research and applied training of Clemson tourism graduate students. These may include such topics as advanced multivariate procedures, designing questionnaires, data collection, entry and analysis, proposal writing and web-based approaches to research, among others. This offering is an add-on to existing programs in tourism in PRTM

5. Serve in an Advisory Capacity to Professionals, Legislative Bodies, State Organizations and Private Agencies in Tourism

The expertise of the faculty in PRTM, including interested faculty from other disciplines, coupled with the use of existing knowledge and databases may be employed to advise and recommend courses of action that may inform policy-making and other areas of decision-making in the State of South Carolina and the nation.

6. Serve as a Think-tank and Strategic Planning Center

The Clemson Center will hold informal "seminars" that help bring together interested faculty, graduate students and practitioners to discuss and debate issues of common interest in tourism. The purpose of these sessions will be to facilitate creative thinking and problem-solving for complex issues faced by tourism researchers and tourism-based organizations and communities. Such sessions may help faculty with their own research and graduate students with their theses or dissertations

7. Facilitate the Conduct of Study Tours in the United States and Abroad

These may take the form of short visits/study tours to other states and/or countries for the purpose of studying tourism best practices (e.g., management and marketing practices), the nature and maintenance of local attractions and the types of tourism that they specialize in (e.g., ecotourism, sport tourism, heritage tourism). Such study tours may be offered under titles as "Tourism in Italy", "Tourism in the Southwest", and the like (Open to non-Clemson students)

9. Facilitate and/or Coordinate Inter-disciplinary and Cross-Cultural Initiatives with Individuals, Agencies, Constituencies, Universities and Ministries of Tourism Around the World

Examples include faculty and student exchanges, study abroad programs in tourism, collaborative research, professional development activities, consulting services and the provision of technical expertise.

(see: Clemson Study Abroad Programs - especially Faculty lead programs at the Belgium, Clemson University Brussels Center)

Last Updated: April 1, 2008