Existing tourism competitiveness/attractiveness indexes implicitly take the position that more tourism is desirable because it contributes to economic development (hence the need to compare tourism attractiveness and competitiveness across locations, see how one location stacks up against another, and improve scores/rankings to bring in more tourists). There are many factors that have not been included as indicators in these tourism indexes in the past that perhaps should be included now, such as the social and environmental impact of tourism.

SMART Challenge:

• This project builds upon the pioneering work of the 2021-22 AY SMART project that explored issues at the intersection of digital platforms, tourism, and economic development. This 2022-23 AY SMART project will create a new sustainable tourism index for U.S. cities.
• The team will interview selected economic development and tourism officials in New Orleans, a city that relies heavily on tourism, to gain a first-hand understanding of the underlying trends and forces shaping tourism and economic progress; collect secondary data on tourism and economic development variables from a wider set of domestic cities; and from that data, construct a new type of tourism attractiveness index that factors in ESG considerations.

Required Team Skills

• Background in Applied Economics and Management, Marketing, and Communications.
• Familiarity with secondary data sources, statistical analysis, construction of social indexes, tourism industries, alternative theories of economic development, and economic analysis
• Team player – cultural humility and sensitivity, Resilience, Flexibility

Fieldwork Dates

January 7- 12, 2023

Faculty & Project Lead

• Lin Fu | Research Fellow, Emerging Markets Program, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
• Hongdi Zhao | PhD Student, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
• Reza Moghimi | Lecturer, Operations Technology and Information Management, Dyson School of Applied  Economics & Management