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Award Winners

TTRA celebrates its past award winners.

Best Graduate 3-Minute Thesis Award (Academic Award)

Awarded to the best graduate 3-minute thesis presented at the Annual International Conference.
Year Name Paper
2019 Yawei Jiang “Building Dynamic Capabilities in Tourism Organisations for Crisis and Disaster Management: Antecedents and Barriers"

Best Graduate Colloquium Paper (Academic Award)

Awarded to the best graduate colloquium paper presented at the Annual International Conference.
Year Name Paper
2018 Michael Lever, Ye (Sandy) Shen & Marion Joppe "Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Segment Tourism Brochure Reading Typologies"
2017 Yu-Hua (Melody) Xu & Lori Pennington-Gray "Exploring the Spatial Relationship between Airbnb and Crime"
2016 Jennifer K. Young "Non-Travel: the role of design in the experience of contemporary travel"
2015 Jake Jorgenson "A Moment in Time: Autobiographical Memories of Nature-based Tourists"
2014 Mary-Anne Smith "Quality Tourism Experiences: A qualitative study of Australian Gold Coast residents’ perspective as tourists in a group tour to China"

Best Research Paper (Academic Award)

Awarded to the best research paper presented at the Annual International Conference.
Year Name Paper
2019 Yuhua (Melody) Xu “Spatial Effects of Crime on Peer to Peer Lodging Performance"
2018 Alana Dillette & Stephanie Benjamin "Tweeting The Black Travel Experience: Social Media Counter-Narrative Stories as Innovative Insight on #TravelingWhileBlack"
2017 Jason Stienmetz "Destination Value Systen Taxonomy for Smarter Tourism Management"
2016 Anil Bilghian, Peter Ricci, & Ye Zhang "Agent-Based Modeling of DestinationBased Tourists Interactive Evolution"
2015 Dan Fesenmaier, Jeongmi Jamie Kim "Designing Tourism Places: Understanding The Tourism Experience Through Our Senses"
2014 Danielle Barbe, Elizabeth A. Halpenny, Kelly MacKay, & Christine Van Winkle "Your Festival in 140 Characters or Less*: Exploring Festivals Use of Twitter"
2013 Suesheng Wang "Residents’ Propensity for Tourism Advocacy, a Place Identity Perspective"
2012 Fang Meng & Simon Hudson "Drive Tourism in Rural Destination Development: Dual Perspectives from Industry Stakeholders and Potential Visitors"

Best Illustrated Paper (Academic Award)

Awarded to the best illustrated paper presented at the Annual International Conference.
Year Name Paper
2019 Leah Gibson “What’s Old is New Again: Instagram as the New Slide Night"
2018 Ye (Sandy) Shen, Michael M. Lever & Marion Joppe “Determining Visitor Guide Appeal Using Eye Tracking and in-depth Interviews: The Case of Ottawa, Canada“
2017 Jyoti Sood, Deepak Chhabra, & Kathleen Andereck "Sustainable Promotion of Homestay Tourism in the Remote Himalayas of India"
2016 Jason Stienmetz & Dan Fesenmaier "Validating Volunteered Geographic Information: Can We Really Trace Visitors Digital Footprints?"
2015 Pete Parker, Nichola Evernden, Laurel Sliskovic "Designing systems for community-based visitor data: A collaborative case study on Vancouver Island"
2014 Rick Perdue, Geoffrey Crouch, & Whitney Knollenberg "On the Evolution of Tourism Research: An Analysis of the Journal of Travel Research Charles R. Goeldner Article of Excellence Award Recipient Papers"
2013 Carla Barbieri, Jie Gao, & Corinne Valdivia "Are pictures worth more than a 1000 words or…? Insights from preferences for agritourism destinations."

Boeing Masters Student Research Award (Academic Award)

Awarded to a masters student enrolled in a degree-granting program for a completed, original research study.
Year Name Paper
2019 Ashley Schroeder & Whitney Knollenberg "Understanding Best Practices to Improve Advocacy Efforts for the Tourism Industry"
2018 Not Awarded
2017 Not Awarded
2016 Not Awarded
2015 ​​Ibrahim Nasreen "The Development of Innovative Service Experiences to Maintain the Maldives Position as a Luxury Tourist Destination."
2014 Not Awarded
2013 Not Awarded
2012 Jie Gao “Residents Perceptions of Agroforestry Landscapes: Implications for Agritourism”

Chapter Achievement Award (awarded at the Annual Conference)

The Travel and Tourism Research Association’s Chapter Achievement Award is presented to the chapter that best furthers the mission of TTRA through spirit, innovation, effectiveness, and creativity.
Year Chapter
2019 Not Awarded
2018 CenStates
2017 SouthEast States
2016 Asia Pacific
2015 Greater Western
2014 Not Awarded
2013 Canada
2012 SouthEast States

Charles R. Goeldner Article of Excellence Award (Academic Award)

Awarded to recognize the most significant work in the Journal of Travel Research during the year. The award is named for the long-time editor of the Journal of Travel Research – Charles R. Goeldner.
Year Name Paper
2019 Jungkeun Kim, Peter Beomcheol Kim & Jae-Eun Kim "Different or Similar Choices: The Effect of Decision Framing on Variety Seeking in Travel Bundle Packages"
2018 Fred Bronner, Robert de Hoog “Tourist Demand Reactions: Symmetric or Asymmetric across the Business Cycle?“
2017 Ding Du, Alan A. Lew, Pin T. Ng "Tourism and Economic Growth"
2016 Tim Coltman, Sara Dolnicar, & Rajeev Sharma "Do Satisfied Tourists Really Intend to Come Back? Three Concerns with Empirical Studies of the Link between Satisfaction and Behavioral Information"
2015 Christina Cavaliere, Scott Cohen, & James Higham "Climate Change, Discretionary Air Travel and the “Flyers’ Dilemma"
2014 Vernon Biaet, Cody Morris Paris, & Timothy Tyrrell "A Quantifies Triple Bottom Line for Tourism: Experimental Results"
2013 Albert George Assaf & Alexander Josiassen "Identifying and Ranking the Determinants of Tourism Performance: A Global Investigation"
2012 Geoffrey I. Crouch "Destination Competitiveness: An Analysis of Determinant Attributes"
2011 M. Joseph Sirgy "Toward a Quality-of-Life Theory of Leisure Travel Satisfaction"
2010 Xiang Li, Bing Pan, Lixuan Zhang, Wayne W. Smith "The Effect of Online Information Search on Image Development: Insights from a Mixed-Methods Study"
2009 Zheng Xiang, Karl Wöber, Daniel R. Fesenmaier "Representation of the Online Tourism Domain in Search Engines"
2008 Joe Kelly, Wolfgang Haider, Peter W. Williams "A Behavioral Assessment of Tourism Transportation Options for Reducing Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gases"
2007 Yuksel Ekinci, Sameer Hosany "Destination Personality: An Application of Brand Personality to Tourism Destinations"
2006 Robert J. Johnston, Timothy J. Tyrrell "A Dynamic Model of Sustainable Tourism"
2005 Duarte B. Morais, Michael J. Dorsch, Sheila J. Backman "Can Tourism Providers Buy their Customers’ Loyalty? Examining the Influence of Customer-Provider Investments on Loyalty"
2004 Sara Dolnicar, Friedrich Leisch "Winter Tourist Segments in Austria: Identifying Stable Vacation Styles Using Bagged Clustering Techniques"
2003 Yvette Reisinger, Lindsay W. Turner "Cultural Differences between Asian Tourist Markets and Australian Hosts: Parts 1 and 2"
2002 Donald Getz, Martin O’Neill, Jack Carlsen "Service Quality Evaluation at Events through Service Mapping"
2001 Marcia Sakai, Jeffrey Brown, James Mak "Population Aging and Japanese International Travel in the 21st Century"

J. Desmond Slattery Graduate Student Research Award (Academic Award)

Awarded to a master or doctoral student to assist with their thesis or dissertation.
Year Name Paper
2019 Jada Lindblom "Investigating Emotion and Affect within Residents in a Post-War, Emergent Destination"
2018 Seojin Lee “Adoption and Rejection of Service Innovations by Travelers in the Sharing Economy”
2017 Florian Kock, A. George Assaf, & Alexander Josiassen "Advancing Destination Image: The Destination Content Model"
2016 Becky Liu "Developing Effective Crisis Response"
2015 Not Awarded
2014 P.C.R. Lam "Consumer Evaluations of Hotel Restaurant Brand Alliance"
2013 Matthew Dugdale "The effect of negative media on destination branding: Altered perceptions in the case of Jersey and Haut de la Garenne"
2012 Mark Wai Kan "Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Four and Five Star Hotels in Hong Kong: Perspectives from Hong Kong Visitors"

J. Desmond Slattery Professional Marketing Award (Marketing Award)

The J. Desmond Slattery Professional Marketing Award is presented to the travel marketing professional who has made a significant contribution to travel and tourism marketing. This award was named after past TTRA President J. Desmond Slattery. He was a favorite ttra speaker and shared wonderfully educational stories about his travel clients.
Year Name Paper
2019 Not Awarded
2018 Gail Bryant City of Hannibal / Convention & Visitors Bureau
2017 Heather Lemoine North Dakota
2016 Jarrod Lyman Clackamas County Tourism and Cultural Affairs
2015 Claudia Vecchio Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs

John and Joan Markham Tourism Marketing Award (Marketing Award)

This award was established in honor of John and Joan Markham for the almost 30 years of dedicated service by John Markham as the stalwart financial planner and treasurer for the international Travel and Tourism Research Association. Both John and Joan, up until her recent passing, have been unfaltering in their support for TTRA over the years and forever committed to its success.
Year Name Paper
2019 Hailey Post North Carolina State University
2018 Patrick Robbins Temple University
2017 Juleigh Giberson Ryerson University
2016 Kari Roberg Arizona State University
2015 Cassandra Ball Temple University

Keeling Dissertation Award (Academic Award; Awarded Every 2-Years)

Awarded to a junior researcher (faculty with less than 5 years out of terminal degree) for the creative development of a research project, technique, or methodology.
Year Name Paper
2019 Not Awarded
2018 Rawan Nimri “Positive versus Negative Framing: Triggering Pro-Environmental Behaviour in Hotel Guests“
2017 Not Awarded
2016 Ye Zhang "Self-Determined Travel Facilitation with Primed Mental Construal"
2015 Jake Jorgenson "A Moment in Time: Autobiographical Memories of Nature-based Tourists"
2014 Mary-Anne Smith "Quality Tourism Experiences: A qualitative study of Australian Gold Coast residents’ perspective as tourists in a group tour to China"
2013 Not Awarded
2012 Not Awarded

Shifflet Award for Research Excellence (Practitioner Award)

The Shifflet Award for Research Excellence recognizes a practitioner or their DMO for research that resulted or contributed to key decisions or actions for their organization and/or its constituents. This award also highlights the tireless work of a researcher role to measure and promote travel and tourism within their DMO and the industry.
Year Name Organization
2019 Marlise Taylor "Visit NC, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina"
2018 Stephen Schwer “Tourism Central Australia Membership Review“

Travel Research Grant (Academic Award; Awarded Every 2-Years)

Awarded to a junior researcher (faculty with less than 5 years out of terminal degree) for the creative development of a research project, technique, or methodology.
Year Name Paper
2019 Not Awarded
2018 Not Awarded
2017 Not Awarded
2016 Emily Ayscue "Airbnb: Assessing its Engagement and Sustainability in Athens, GA"
2015 Not Awarded
2014 Holly Donohoe "Ticks, tick-borne diseases, and their knowledge and prevention amongst Florida State Park Visitors and Workers"
2013 Not Awarded
2012 Not Awarded

Yesawich Award for Marketing Excellence (Marketing Award)

Sponsored by MMGY Global, this award seeks to recognize excellence in either a Marketing Manager or Director or a Destination Marketing Organization, with excellence defined as having created an outstanding marketing strategy based on relevant data and research, resulting in a superior marketing effort with significant, measurable results.
Year Name Organization
2019 Will Hare Discover Durham
2018 Lauren Hansen-Flaschen Visit Philadelphia
2017 Jay Kinghorn Utah Office of Tourism

Emerging Leaders Rising Star Award (awarded at the Marketing Outlook Forum)

Presented to an emerging leader employed the travel and tourism sector for the individual’s commitment to increasing his or her expertise in the industry, demonstration of leadership abilities, and outstanding accomplishments that have added value to travel and tourism.
Year Name Paper
2019 Not Awarded
2018 Whitney Knollenberg North Carolina State University
2017 Nick Breedlove Jackson County Tourism Development Authority
2016 Andria Godfrey Georgia Department of Economic Development
2015 Leah Chandler Branson Convention and Visitors Bureau

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