The workshop is part of a larger project aimed at building statistical capabilities in the tourism sector among member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Experts from the National Statistics Offices, OIC member country tourism authorities and international agencies participated. In total, 27 Islamic countries were represented, including Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

鈥淭ourism as an industry contributes significantly to the national and regional economy, but statistics on tourism are not fully developed for OIC member nations,鈥� said Dr. Hara. 鈥淭he goal of this workshop was to improve tourism data collection and analysis, so that these countries can better understand the sector and identify opportunities for international collaboration.鈥�

The workshop sessions covered the following topics:

serves as a UNWTO Consultant on tourism statistics and was the sole instructor for the workshop. He is also the author of the only technical textbook on the subject, “,” published in 2008.

For more information about hospitality management education at Rosen College, please visit .

This massive open online course (MOOC) is powered by the , which offers courses from a broad range of institutions and organizations worldwide. In addition, it’s the only 麻豆原创 MOOC currently available on the network. When the course was previously offered, Dr. Hara taught over 540 students from around the world, the majority of whom were from Western Europe.

The course will start on December 1, 2014. For more information and to enroll, please click here.

The Forum, organized by Eurostat and the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD),聽provides a unique platform for the global exchange of views, best practices, and important topics concerning the establishment of harmonized tourism statistics among governments, the private sector, statisticians, researchers, and academics.

As the only panelist from the United States, Hara, whose trip was sponsored by the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), offered both an American and Japanese perspective regarding the progress of tourism and its future.

鈥淯sing statistical data, we discussed ways to improve tourism in different countries around the world,鈥� said Hara. 鈥淲e discussed indicators of success, internal and external influences, the benefits of small businesses, and even ways to combat seasonality, or non-peak tourism seasons.鈥�

According Hara, the exchange of statistical data is necessary for destinations to improve their tourism industry and subsequently their respective economies.

“Orlando spends a great deal of money marketing to tourists around the world,” said Hara. “By collecting data from throughout the tourism industry, we can analyze our return on investment. We know where tourists are visiting us from, the average length stay by nationality, and even how much different nationalities spend here. Therefore, the data can help Orlando improve its marketing efforts, and ultimately attract more tourists to spend their time and money here.”

Over the last few years, Hara has established a well-known presence for 麻豆原创鈥檚 Rosen College in the tourism statistics field, serving on the Technical Advisory Board of the Tourism Satellite Accounts and Statistics Division of United Nations World Tourism Organization, as part of a JTA delegation. He is also an associate member of InRoute – a regional tourism statistics researcher network based in Spain and Italy.

Dr. Parsa explains, 鈥淚t was a creative project designed so that students would appreciate and understand marketing principles and promotion strategies.聽 They conceived the idea, executed it and presented it to the class.鈥�

Creative juices flowed and student Chris Regan鈥檚 video for the fictional 鈥淏uddy鈥檚 Restaurant鈥� took first prize.聽 The senior majoring in Hospitality Management decided to work solo and called upon the talents of his friends Ian Hilton and Paul Boyd to act in the advertisement. 聽Regan shares, 鈥淢y buddies and I always come up with little ideas that would be funny for a video and this was just one that we had in our back pocket for a while.鈥�

The commercial advertises a meal combo at Buddy鈥檚 Restaurant. 鈥淢y parents always call me Buddy,鈥� shares Regan.聽 He staged the scene in a typical break room; a setting that Regan felt his target market would be familiar with.聽 鈥淚 set up an everyday situation but then allowed the story to take a 90-degree turn that no one expected.聽 I think that is what makes a good commercial stand out 鈥� it鈥檚 more memorable.鈥�

Regan has edited video for various production companies and enjoyed a TV Productions class in high school.聽 His acting experience was limited to a couple of plays in middle school, but his natural talent is apparent in the commercial.

A panel of Rosen College judges concluded that Regan鈥檚 commercial stood out among the others in the class.聽 Judges included: Associate Dean of Administration and Finance, Dr. Tadayuki Hara; Chair of the Foodservice & Lodging Management Department, Dr. Joe Hutchinson; and Ph.D. Candidate, Mr. Milos Bjosic.

To view Regan鈥檚 winning commercial, please see: .

The delegation plans to build a convention center, hotels and attractions in their region and hopes to collaborate with Rosen College on these and other tourism planning, education and research initiatives.

The visit was organized by Rosen College鈥檚 Dr. Fevzi Okumus, and during their stay, the guests toured the Orange County Convention Center, Visit Orlando and several area convention hotels and theme parks.聽 Hotelier Harris Rosen and Professors Dr. Abraham Pizam, Dr. Tad Hara, Dr. Robertico Croes, Dr. Ady Milman and Mr. Ron Logan also had the pleasure of meeting with the delegation.

Rosen College is proud of its global partnerships and continues to develop international outreach initiatives.

His refereed paper titled 鈥淓xploratory Responses to Challenges in Teaching Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Accounts鈥� was presented in the Tourism Statistics session.聽 The study collected responses from undergraduate students enrolled in his Spring 2011 Tourism Impact Analysis course.聽 The course features video lectures as opposed to the traditional face-to-face method.

The purpose of the study was to collect responses from undergraduate students at a hospitality management program in the United States and discuss how the current stalemate towards the expansion of tourism statistics education may be mitigated.

Of the 27 students who responded anonymously to the survey, a generally favorable response demonstrated that most are interested in delving deeper into the topics of Tourism Satellite Accounts and tourism statics.

Dr. Hara posits, 鈥淚t is my assessment that many of the hospitality management curricula at hospitality and tourism programs today are focused on traditional management objectives of optimal resource allocations and profit maximization. This does not allow time for students to explore issues that many national statistics offices and international organizations are emphasizing, such as TSA, SNA and the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.鈥�

The 58th Congress was held in the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD).聽 The ISI has held biennial Congresses since 1853 and recent sessions have attracted over 2,500 delegates. Participants include academics, government and private sector statisticians and related experts from various institutes.