Local residents and business owners aim to enhance hospitality and tourism in Calhoun Falls, SC

Dr. Hudson guides participants in customer service training exercise

On March 28th, 2014, the SmartState Center, in partnership with the SC Great Outdoors, facilitated a day long hospitality/tourism customer service training and small business training in the town of Calhoun Falls, SC.  Dr. Simon Hudson and Dr. David Cárdenas traveled to Calhoun Falls and provided a research-based, highly interactive session to residents and business owners in the town. The aim of the training was to provide the participants with the  tools needed to grow their businesses and contribute to the community's destination brand.

Dr. Cardenas leads small business discussion with participants

A Working Spring Break in Curacao

Dr. Cárdenas with students at the ICUC

USC's HRTM and ICUC (Inter-Continental University of the Caribbean) are in the initial stages of developing a  long-term academic partnership.  As part of our partnership, Dr. Cárdenas was invited  to Curacao to teach a one-week intensive course during USC’s spring break from March 10th-14th, 2014.  The course was titled,'Destination Management and Marketing' and Dr. Cárdenas focused primarily on the topic of branding.  The  11 students met Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm. During the one week course students attend lectures, worked on case studies, conducted a small pilot study to develop a brand for the island, presented their brand, and took a comprehensive final exam.  Also, during the week , Dr. Cárdenas conducted three TV interviews and one newspaper interview. In the spirit of this new partnership, Dr. Robin Dipietro will  travel to Curacao to teach a course on Revenue Management in April 2014 and in June 2014, students from ICUC will spend 5 weeks in Columbia to participate in the HRTM program.