Letter from the President

Approximately two years ago, the Southeast States Chapter of TTRA developed a scholarship program to assist tourism students in offsetting the costs required to conduct their research projects. With generous contributions from Randall Travel Marketing, Smith Travel Research and Visit Charlotte, we have funded three $1,000 scholarships over the last 24 months. The goal of our research grant program is develop the next generation of tourism professionals and with that, our industry. We have now increased the frequency of this award from once annually, coinciding with the Spring STS/SETTRA Symposium, to twice annually to also include one in conjunction with STS Fall Meeting. A subcommittee of SETTRA board members reviews applications and recommends the winner. This fall, they evaluated nearly two dozen worthy submissions.

It is my pleasure to announce our Fall 2011 Student Research Grant Recipient, Chantell LaPan, Ph.D. student, Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University. Chantell's study is titled "Mitigating poverty in North Carolina through tourism micro entrepreneurship" and she is working with Dr. Duarte Morais, Associate Professor. Here is what Chantell told us about the benefit of this particular project in her application: "Besides the obvious benefits to micro entrepreneurs, the tourism industry will benefit from an increased variety in tourism services at the selected destinations and allow for integration with other tourism services. These microenterprises will also allow for a more authentic experience for the visitor, allowing for a richer experience. Once People-First Tourism is scaled up to the southeastern region, the region's tourism product will be more complex, rich and authentic; in the end, making the southeast a more competitive destination at the national level."

I think that motivation perfectly illustrates the value of this scholarship program. Congratulations Chantell and N.C. State University.

Call for Papers: 2012 TTRA Graduate Student Colloquium

The upcoming Travel and Tourism Research Association International Conference, to be held June 17-19 2012, will include a special opportunity for graduate students to discuss their research and obtain feedback from established researchers. This opportunity, the Graduate Student Research Colloquium, will be held as a half-day pre-conference featuring student presentations and culminating with a panel session of well-known tourism academic researchers, journal editors, and administrators entitled "Advice for the early career academic".

To submit papers for consideration, students must enter abstracts by January 20, 2012. More information about the submission process and opportunity can be found here.

Call for Papers and Scholarships: 2012 SETTRA Symposium

Similar to the TTRA Graduate Student Colloquium, students will have an opportunity to present their work to academic and industry colleagues through the SETTRA Symposium. This Symposium is held in conjunction with the Southeast Tourism Society's Spring Meeting on March 19-20 in Tunica, Mississippi. Scholarships are also available to help students in attending the meeting.

Applications to present a paper at the Symposium can be accessed here. Deadline: Dec, 30 2011

Applications for Scholarships can be accessed here. Deadline: Feb, 24 2012

Applications for $1000 student research grant can be accessed here. Deadline: Feb, 17 2012

Highlights from Marketing Outlook Forum 2011

A number of us in the SETTRA Chapter were able to join colleagues from around the world at US Travel's Marketing Outlook Forum at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel on October 26-27. Conference-goers left with some great analysis of the recent and upcoming tourism industry. While last year's mantra was "flat is the new up", many presenters reported that things are looking rosier in comparison to the recent past. Still, near-future growth projections were conservative – consumers are still wary and businesses strive to balance their own budgets in an environment where the national government can't seem do the same. But, don't take it from just us. Check out the speaker presentations from the real experts – including Suzanne Cook, Adam Sacks, and J. Walker Smith. Thanks also to perpetual SETTRA-supporting organizations Smith Travel Research and the Virginia Tourism Corporation for sharing great industry insight during presentations and panels.

Here are this year's speaker presentations, industry whitepapers and the delegate registry:

• Speaker Presentations
• Industry Whitepapers
• Delegate Registry

VISIT FLORIDA Publicizes Some Results of the Share a Little Sunshine Program

In 2010 VISIT FLORIDA launched a social media campaign that focused on getting residents to invite their friends and family to visit Florida. This program, called Share a Little Sunshine, featured residents sending e-cards containing promotional information about Florida.

After the program had been running for some time, VISIT FLORIDA fielded a survey among program participants and then, in October of 2011, publicized some results on their blog. At that time over 90,000 invitations had been sent through the program. In terms of the survey respondents, "Over half of the respondents (52%) had someone travel to Florida after receiving an invitation from them and nearly 15% of the people that visited Florida after receiving an invitation had not previously considered visiting." The full post can be read on their blog here.

Chad Church Explains STR's Reduced Forecasts

In November, Director of Special Services at STR, Chad Church, published some additional perspective of why STR had reduced their predictions for 2012. In short, although business spending increased in Q3 of 2011, that increase was overshadowed by the poor key metrics regarding the public. In particular, Church cited unemployment, personal disposable income, and the housing market. While Group and Business Transient performance may be fairly positive in 2012, it will likely not be enough to offset the weak performance in the Leisure segment. Ultimately, given this economic climate, STR projects that RevPAR will increase in 2012 3.9%. This is however much weaker than the 7% they hoped in August. More details about this revision are available here.

STS/SETTRA Spring Meeting Schedule Released

In March 2012, in lively Tunica Mississippi, Southeast Tourism Society and SETTRA will hold their annual spring meeting and symposium. From golf to economic impact, the list below includes many of the key pieces of what can be expected for the upcoming year.

Your 2011-2012 SETTRA Board

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December 2011

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SETTRA's goal is to increase the understanding and the knowledge of tourism research within the industry and among tourism researchers. Follow SETTRA news on Facebook.

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