TIM faculty member explores how tourists from different countries respond to price changes

TIM Professor Junwook Chi

Junwook Chi, PhD, a UH Mānoa assistant professor in transportation at the School of Travel Industry Management (TIM), received the Best Paper Award at the 2016 Global Tourism & Hospitality Conference in Hong Kong.

His paper, “Asymmetric tourist responses to own- and cross-price changes: Evidence from U.S. tourism demand for the UK, France, and Italy,” investigates how tourists from different countries respond to price increases and decreases. For example, the research revealed that Italian visitors are much more sensitive to price decreases than visitors from the United Kingdom and France.

“I am honored and grateful to receive this prestigious award,” said Dr. Chi. “I hope it helps build an international reputation of the TIM School and UHM as a strong research institute.”

Dr. Chi's research and teaching activities at the TIM School are primarily in tourism transportation, transportation economics, and applied economics with focuses on air passenger service, demand analysis of transportation system, pricing behavior and price discrimination of the airline industry, and regional economic impacts of transportation development.

His research publications may be found in these academic journals: Transportation Research Part D (Transport and Environment), Transportation Research Part E (Logistic and Transportation Review), Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Journal of Transportation Research Forum, Journal of Air Transport and Management, and Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. He teaches introduction to tourism transportation and tourism transportation management.

About the School of Travel Industry Management: Founded in 1966, TIM possesses a rich history of innovation, growth, and change bringing it to its current status as one of the most respected programs, worldwide, in the field of hospitality, tourism, and transportation management. TIM pioneered the concept of integrating all aspects of the travel industry under a single discipline built on a foundation of management science.

TIM faculty are internationally recognized in the field of travel industry management for their academic research, international teaching, consultancy activities, and have authored numerous textbooks that are used worldwide by other hospitality programs and industry professionals. Please visit www.tim.hawaii.edu for more information.

About the Global Tourism & Hospitality Conference: The Global Tourism & Hospitality Conference serves as an important forum for academics, researchers, thought leaders, tourism policy makers, industry practitioners and students to network and exchange dialogue, research findings and insights related to current issues that the world’s tourism and hospitality industry is facing. Please visit www.globalapf2016.wix.com/hongkong2016 for information on this year’s conference.