Morosan studies technology and tourism lab in Texas

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

Cristian Morosan returned this week from a “scouting” mission to the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in Tourism (LIST) at Texas A&M University, College Station.

LIST is a transdisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to creating new knowledge in the field of technology and tourism.

Morosan, a specialist in information technology in the tourism industry, met with Dr. Ulrike Gretzel, LIST director, and with renowned rural tourism experts to learn about LIST and to set the stage for future collaboration.

The lab has a strong tradition in tourism and knowledge on how to engage communities, Morosan said. It is part of the School of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at A&M, the land grant university in Texas.

He would like to see a similar research facility at K-State.

“Although there is some research available about rural tourism abroad, there is little in the United States,” said Morosan, assistant professor in Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management and Dietetics.

He hopes to change that.

In Texas, Morosan gave several presentations.

To Ph.D. students in an e-marketing class, he emphasized that quality and information are not enough for good online communication in tourism. “Information should be persuasive,” he said.

To an international tourism class, he talked about his work with the tourism industry in his native Romania. “I view tourism in the light of marketing and economic theory,” he said. “And, of course, I had to talk about Dracula. The students stayed beyond the class period to talk and ask questions.”

LIST’s goals, according to their website, include building the theoretical foundations for intelligent, immersive and inspirational systems in tourism and evaluating the influence of emerging technologies on the cognitive construction, memory and communication of vacation experiences.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 and is filed under Dean's Blog.