Simon Hudson has been asked to be a contributing editor to Hotel Business Review, an online journal for hotel executives (http://hotelexecutive.com). Over the next 12 months, Simon will write 6 articles on various topics for the journal, which is viewed weekly by thousands of industry practitioners. His first article, to appear in February, is about the service recovery paradox.

The Center's Graduate Assistant, Karen Irene Thal, presented at the 18th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism, held January 3-5, 2013 in Seattle, Washington. The presentation, based on the paper entitled "In Word and Deed: The Processes and Promises of Corporate Greening" was a collaborative effort with the Center's Dr. Cardenas and fellow doctoral student Tarik Dogru.  The session was well attended and topic well received.

Stefanie Benjamin, a USC PhD Student presented at the Race, Ethnicity and Place Conference in Puerto Rico regarding how African American residents place value on heritage sites within Columbia, South Carolina.

Simon Hudson was interviewed this morning on ETV Radio's South Carolina Business Review. He was talking about his new initiative to find entrepreneurs who want to start a tourism business in our state. The interview can be heard at:

http://www.scetv.org/index.php/sc_business_review/show/usc_looking_for_tourism_entrepreneurs/

 

 

Simon was also a guest last week on USC'S student radio show. Here is a picture of Simon with his DJ son Rupert, a student in the international business program at the Moore School of Business. 

Have you ever wondered why customer service is the exception rather than the norm? Why is it that some companies like Disney, Four Seasons and Virgin get it right, when so many others fail? A new book about customer service in the tourism and hospitality sector by Simon Hudson answers these questions and more. Given the critical importance of customer service for this sector, it is remarkable that this is the first comprehensive text that deals with this important topic. The book will be useful for both students and practitioners as it explains not only the theory behind the importance of customer service but also acts as a guidebook for those wishing to put this theory into practice. In essence it is the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of customer service. The book is easy to read, very current, and full of references to all the latest research from both academic and practitioner literature. The book called  “Customer Service for Hospitality and Tourism” is co-authored by Dr. Hudson's travel-writer wife Louise, and will be available to purchase through Goodfellow Publishers in the U.K.

Spotlight - Dr. Fang Meng

 

After completing the research project on Pee Dee’s tourism development, Dr. Fang Meng continued working with the Center’s team on a feasibility study of an international horse park in Aiken, South Carolina in Spring 2012. Dr. Meng presented a research paper based on the Pee Dee’s project findings on the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) conference in June 2012, in which she and co-author Dr. Simon Hudson won the Best Paper Award. She also presented another research paper in Asia Pacific Tourism Association (APTA) conference in Taiwan in the summer. Dr. Meng is planning on an empirical research on Chinese tourist shopping behavior, and working with the Center’s colleagues in exploring the possibility of a research project on promoting South Carolina to attract the Chinese visitors.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Simon Hudson will be introducing “The Year of the SmartState at Science Café 2012-2013”, a new year-long partnership between the monthly Science Café event and the SmartState Program. Dr. Hudson is this year’s Chair of the Council of Chairs for the SmartState program. On the second Tuesday of each month, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Speakeasy cocktail bar in Five Points, knowledge economy movers and shakers will convene at Science Café for drinks and informal presentations by some of South Carolina's top leaders in medicine, technology and innovation. The first speaker on the 11^th is Dr. Igor Roninson, SmartState Endowed Chair in Translational Cancer Therapeutics, South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina.  His topic is “Current Cancer Therapeutics Research at USC” (Childhood Cancer Awareness Month). More info and free registration: http://www.engenuitysc.com/sciencecafe.