| Research Aids Tourism
 |
|
Wessol, Dalbey and Snepenger Present Research During Legislative Session
|
"Consumption Characteristics and Cultural Meanings of Places in a
Tourism System" is the topic of research recently conducted by
Montana State University College of Business marketing professor
David Snepenger and two students. The students, Amanda Wessol, of
Bozeman and Matt Dalbey, of Belgrade, are senior business
students in marketing.
Snepenger selected Wessol and Dalbey last spring to work with him
on this research project. "During their junior year, I teach
marketing students two classes, Marketing Research and Consumer
Behavior. A few of the students get the bug for doing more
advanced marketing research projects. I work with one or more of
these students on tourism marketing projects that the students
and I find interesting," Snepenger said.
To aid this research project, the students were given $3,000 from
the Undergraduate Scholars Program-MSU. The program helps fund
innovative studies conducted by a team of faculty and
undergraduate students.
The project involved a path breaking approach for assessing how
tourism impacts a local community. It is anticipated that the
findings from this study will be written up as a manuscript and
then submitted to the leading academic journal in the field of
tourism marketing, the Journal of Travel Research. In addition,
results will be shared with appropriate outlets in Montana.
The research team gathered survey data from Bozeman area
residents on how they view tourism's influence on 19 places in
and around the community. Once completed, communities interested
in tourism development as part of their local economy would find
this research useful to their region.
The study identifies specific places that are positively
impacted, have no impact, or are negatively impacted by tourism.
The research identifies the hot spots where tourism is considered
a problem or negative externality for community residents and
where tourism enhances the community or provides a positive
externality.
If accepted for publication, this will be one of the first
systems-level studies of its kind in the scholarly literature.
The information in this paper will be disseminated to tourism
researchers around the world through one of the top-tier journals
in the field.
The students were chosen to present this research to the Montana
legislative this past spring. The group set up a display at the
state capitol building and shared one-on-one with statewide
representatives their findings on what tourist attractions are
perceived as an asset to a community.
Snepenger has worked with small teams of undergraduate students
over the 16-years he has been teaching at MSU. "I realized that
for a handful of students, market research interested them as a
possible career. Over the years, I 've done probably 20 in-depth
projects with the students. We have published many of these
papers in academic journals. Contributors to the academic
journals are either PhD students or faculty teaching at
universities around the world. So it is quite a testament to the
work ethic and initiative of the undergraduate students at MSU
when we get a paper published together," Snepenger said.
The opportunity to engage in undergraduate research gives
students invaluable hands-on experience. Wessol says, "This
in-depth research experience has really helped to prepare me for
my transition from college to a career in marketing research."
Dalbey adds, "I have found that having the opportunity to work
with one of the most published tourism researchers in the world,
(Snepenger) has helped prepare me for a career in marketing
research, while differentiating myself from others in America s
highly competitive job market."
|
