Turgut Var’s research while affiliated with Texas A&M University and other places

The purpose of this study was to estimate the economic impact of the visitors to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Brazos County, Texas. An economic impact analysis was performed using IMPLAN PRO software utilizing estimated visitation numbers to the George Bush Library and Museum and visitor expenditures based on the data from the tourist expenditure breakdown figures to Brazos County. The results showed that the visitors to the Library have a significantly positive economic impact on Brazos County: $10 million in total sales output,$4 million of personal income, and $709,000 of tax revenues. The total gross product generated by visitors to the Bush Library was$6 million. Discussions are provided in the article.

Since international tourism is a rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide, the tourism industry has become a powerful engine for economic development and a major foreign exchange generator, especially in the East Asia and Pacific Region. With such growth and increased competition, it is vitally important to forecast tourism demand in the region and understand the factors affecting demand. Considering the national importance of tourism, Thailand was chosen as the destination country with nine major markets as the countries of origin. A model was developed for each country to forecast tourism demand from that market. Multiple regression analysis was applied over time series data. The empirical results suggest that independent variables, such as income level in the country of origin, prices of tourism goods in the destination country, currency exchange rate between the origin and destination country, and rooms supply in destination, do affect tourism demand. Qualitative factors, represented by dummy variables, namely special promotional program and political unrest, show slight impact on demand. The study reveals that there are differences in the relative impacts of variables among the tourist-generating countries. Thus, country-specific forecasting models and strategies must be formulated to reflect the uniqueness of each country of origin.

The purpose of this paper is to present and demonstrate the usefulness of the dynamic shift-share method in examining the performance of the tourism industry using time-series employment data for the State of Texas and the USA, and to compare its results with those of the traditional accounting based shift-share analysis. The findings show that, compared to the US average, the change in employment in Texas was mainly due to the strong national economy and not to the region's competitiveness or sectoral make-up. According to the findings, the use of a dynamic shift-share model eliminated one theoretical problem inherent in the classical static method.

The purpose of the study was to estimate the economic impact on Brazos County, Texas, of a proposed weekend Wine and Jazz Festival to be produced by Messina Hof Winery. An economic impact analysis was performed using IMPLAN PRO software. The 1998 value of the US dollar and average weekend festival visitor expenditure data from Messina Hof Winery were used as inputs into the model. The results indicated that this single event would generate $892,981 in total sales output,$324,942 in personal income and the equivalent of 21.8 jobs. The conclusion was that the weekend Wine and Jazz Festival proposed by Messina Hof Winery would have a significant positive economic impact on Brazos County.

There are over 3100 museums in the United States. Of these, around 320 are in Texas. These museums represent a cross section of American cultural values and contribute a great deal to attract visitors internationally and domestically. They are also used as a tool of educating the public through various activities. Since 1994 an increasing number of Texas museums have been connected to the Internet and are becoming members of the global marketplace. However, there are many museums that lack the tools and expertise to participate in the digital revolution. The objective of this exploratory research is to investigate the speed of acceptance of new technology, specifically the Internet, by Texas museums. The theoretical framework is related to the application of a learning curve. As in many industrial and service organizations, learning facilitates the acceptance of new techniques. According to the proponents of a learning curve, learning rapidly increases in the first period but the later periods typically show a leveling of the speed of acceptance. In order to achieve the objective of this research a random stratified sample of Texas museums was taken and a questionnaire was sent to test several hypotheses related to the acceptance of new technology, including barriers to enter the global market. The results indicate that acceptance of new technology by Texas museums is in line with a typical learning curve. However, many obstacles, including resource availability and lack of a niche in the marketplace, hinder further development. There are also two important factors that affect the acceptance. One of them is the unparalleled population growth in or around the large metropolitan areas like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. The second is related to the dramatic change in the cultural fabric of Texas due to immigration, mainly from Mexico. Future research on technological acceptance should take into account these structural changes and wider use of the Spanish language in Texas.

Visual preference is determined by what we see. This study shows the associative strength between visual preference and selected components of outdoor type scenes. Viewers were asked to assess the relative magnitude of what they saw when looking at 35 mm color slides depicting outdoor scenes. Correlation analysis was used to develop the association between the degree of viewer preference and the degree to which each scenic component was perceived. Analyses were also done for viewer groups by gender, age, ethnicity, community type, terrain type, education level, and professional expertise. Factor analysis revealed that twelve of the original eighteen components could be reduced to four, indicating that they are likely to be synonyms and may be measuring the same thing. The memories variable was consistently associated with viewing preference throughout all scenes and viewer types. Color brightness and color variety were also consistently correlated with viewing preference.