James Mak
Creating Tourism Improvement Districts to Raise Stable Funding for Destination Marketing and Promotion
Tourism Improvement Districts (TIDs), modeled after the more well-known Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), are increasing rapidly in the U.S. With enabling legislation from state and local governments, TIDs allow hoteliers in a tourist destination to ban together to impose compulsory assessments on nearly all the hotels in the district in order to raise money to […]
Read MoreCreating “Paradise of the Pacific”: How Tourism Began in Hawaii
This article recounts the early years of one of the most successful tourist destinations in the world, Hawaii, from about 1870 to 1940. Tourism began in Hawaii when faster and more predictable steamships replaced sailing vessels in trans-Pacific travel. Governments (international, national, and local) were influential in shaping the way Hawaii tourism developed, from government […]
Read MoreThe Growing Importance of Tourism in the Global Economy and International Affairs
For tourism-dependent countries and destinations, tourism’s share of GDP can exceed twice the world average. Today, international tourism receipts exceed $1 billion per year in some 90 nations. Worldwide, domestic tourism is typically several times larger. Tourism truly has become a global economic and social force. Full Published Article: https://www.georgetownjournalofinternationalaffairs.org/online-edition/the-growing-importance-of-tourism-in-the-global-economy-and-international-affairs
Read MoreHow China’s Approved Destination Status Policy Spurs and Hinders Chinese Travel Abroad
China’s “Approved Destination Status (ADS) policy allows citizens of mainland China to take pleasure trips abroad on group package tours to countries that have negotiated and implemented agreements with China. In this paper, we examine the reasons for this unique preferential and incremental travel liberalization system and how it affects mainland Chinese outbound pleasure travel.
Read MoreWhat Should Be the Appropriate Tax Base for Online Travel Companies’ Hotel Room Sales?
This essay examines the current dispute between state and local governments in the U.S. and online travel companies (OTCs) over the appropriate hotel occupancy tax base for online hotel bookings. It addresses the question of what should be the appropriate tax base in designing hotel occupancy tax statutes. It argues that the appropriate tax base should be the full […]
Read MoreHow Big? The Impact of Approved Destination Status on Mainland Chinese Travel Abroad
China’s Approved Destination Status (ADS) policy governs foreign leisure travel by citizens to ADS-designated countries. To model the effects of ADS on Chinese visitor arrivals, we specify a model of demand for a representative Chinese consumer who values trips to n differentiated foreign destinations. Using panel data for Chinese visitor arrivals for 61 countries from 1985 to 2005, we […]
Read MoreThe Direct and Indirect Contributions of Tourism to Regional GDP: Hawaii
After two decades of development and refinement, the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) has been touted as the most comprehensive way to measure the economic contribution of tourism to a destination’s gross domestic product. However, recent literature has pointed out that the TSA is deficient in that it does not yield the indirect contribution of tourism […]
Read MoreUHERO Research Fellow to appear at the Northeast Asian Economic Forum Meeting
UHERO Research Fellow James Mak to share his thoughts on tourism and tourism development based on 35 plus years of research at the Northeast Asian Economic Forum Meeting on August 2, 2011. Dr. Mak’s presentation will be built around a few thoughtful quotations about travel and tourism. The urge to travel is universal. Harold Vogel (2001) Tourism depends […]
Read MoreTourism Presentations to Soka University
On March 2-3, UHERO faculty Kim Burnett and Research Fellow Jim Mak gave presentations on tourism in Hawaii to a group of students visiting from Soka University, Japan. The presentations were a success and the visiting Japanese professors and students were grateful and impressed.
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