Recruitment, Selection and Retention of Managers In the Hotel and Restaurant Industry

The recruitment, selection, and retention of competent, reliable, and motivated managers has been the cornerstone of any successful organization. This is generally a complex assignment due to the subjectivity involved in determining what traits are needed to make a good manager. In order to determine the status of the hospitality industry with regard to managerial concerns, leaders in the hotel and restaurant industry were surveyed on these issues.

Trends for Meetings and Expositions Industry

During the last decade, the meetings and expositions industry has flourished, even as it has struggled to cope with difficult challenges. This is a taste of things to me. In the years ahead, the global population will continue to grow and change, science and technology will tighten their hold on business and society and the world will knit itself ever more tightly into a single market. As a result, both opportunities and trials will abound.

A New Vision: U.S Travel and Tourism Industry

Greg Farmer, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism, envisions a new proactive role for travel and tourism in the U.S. He has written this article especially for the FIU Hospitality Review.

Predicting Lodging Manager Annual Salary Based on Metropolitan Statistical Area Attributes and Lodging Industry Performance: Exploring the Concept

Using multiple regression analysis, lodging managers’ annual mean salaries in 143 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) within the U.S. were analyzed to identify what relationships existed with variables related to general MSA characteristics, along with the lodging industry’s size and performance. By examining the relationship between these variables, the authors predict the long-term possibility of predicting lodging industry managers’ salaries. These predictions may have an impact on financial performance of an individual lodging property or organization. Through this paper, this concept was applied and explored within U.S. MSAs. These findings may have value for a variety of stakeholders, including human resources practitioners, the hospitality education community, and individuals considering lodging management careers.

The analysis of the resort timesharing industry in order to determine the industry's familiarity with timesharing and the industry's conception of the present and future effects of timesharing

The purpose of the study is to examine the impactof the timesharing concept on the resort industry in order to determine the industry's familiarity with timesharing and the industry's conception of the present and future effects of timesharing. The study utilizes two methods of research, primarydata and secondary data, to examine the concept of timesharing. This section includes information on the different forms of timesharing, the legal aspects, the marketing, management, finance and future of timesharing in order to educate the public about the concept. The primary data takes the form of a survey thatquestions hotel/motel operators in the Fort Lauderdale Beach area to determine their attitudes towards the impact of timesharing on the resort industy.

Travel Marketing: Industry Relationships and Benefits

In the discussion - Travel Marketing: Industry Relationships and Benefits - by Andrew Vladimir, Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, the author initially states: “A symbiotic relationship exists among the various segments of the travel and tourism industry. The author has solicited the thinking of 37experts and leaders in the field in a book dealing with these relationships and how they can be developed to benefit the industry. This article provides some salient points from those contributors.” This article could be considered a primer on networking for the hospitality industry. It has everything to do with marketing and the relationships between varied systems in the field of travel and tourism. Vladimir points to instances of success and failure in marketing for the industry at large. And there are points of view from thirty-seven contributing sources here. “Miami Beach remains a fitting example of a leisure product that has been unable to get its act together,” Vladimir shares a view. “There are some first class hotels, a few good restaurants, alluring beaches, and a splendid convention center, but there is no synergism between them, no real affinity, and so while visitors admire the Fontainebleau Hilton and enjoy the food at Joe's Stone Crabs, the reputation of Miami Beach as a resort remains sullied,” the author makes a point. In describing cohesiveness between exclusive systems, Vladimir says, “If each system can get a better understanding of the inner workings of neighboring related systems, each will ultimately be more successful in achieving its goals.” The article is suggesting that exclusive systems aren’t really exclusive at all; or at least they shouldn’t be. In a word – competition – drives the market, and in order for a property to stay afloat, aggressive marketing integrated with all attendant resources is crucial. “Tisch [Preston Robert Tisch, currently – at the time of this writing - the Postmaster General of the United States and formerly president of Lowe’s Hotels and the New York Visitors and Convention Bureau], in talking about the need for aggressive marketing says: “Never...ever...take anything for granted. Never...not for a moment...think that any product or any place will survive strictly on its own merits.” Vladimir not only sources several knowledgeable representatives in the field of hospitality and tourism, but he also links elements as disparate as real estate, car rental, cruise and airlines, travel agencies and traveler profiles to illustrate his points on marketing integration. In closing, Vladimir quotes the Honorable Donna Tuttle, Undersecretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism, “Uniting the components of this industry in an effective marketing coalition that can compete on an equal footing with often publicly-owned foreign tourism conglomerates and multi-national consortia must be a high priority as the United States struggles to maintain and expand its share of a rapidly changing global market.”

Multifunctional nanoparticles in cancer: In vitro characterization, in vivo distribution, and cellular response after laser-NIR dye-induced heating

A novel biocompatible and biodegradable polymer, termed poly(Glycerol malate co-dodecanedioate) (PGMD), was prepared by thermal condensation method and used for fabrication of nanoparticles (NPs). PGMD NPs were prepared using the single oil emulsion technique and loaded with an imaging/hyperthermia agent (IR820) and a chemotherapeutic agent (doxorubicin, DOX). The size of the void PGMD NPs, IR820-PGMD NPs and DOX-IR820-PGMD NPs were approximately 90 nm, 110 nm, and 125 nm respectively. An acidic environment (pH=5.0) induced higher DOX and IR820 release compared to pH=7.4. DOX release was also enhanced by exposure to laser, which increased the temperature to 42°C. Cytotoxicity of DOX-IR820-PGMD NPs was comparable in MES-SA but was higher in Dx5 cells compared to free DOX plus IR820 (p<0.05). The combination of hyperthermia (HT) and chemotherapy improved cytotoxicity in both cell lines. We also explored the cellular response after rapid, short-term and low thermal dose (laser/Dye/NP) induced-heating, and compared it to slow, long-term and high thermal dose cell incubator heating by investigating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; (HIF-1&agr;) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. The cytotoxicity of IR820-PGMD NPs after laser/Dye/NP HT resulted in higher cancer cell killing compared to incubator HT. ROS level, HIF-1&agr; and VEGF expression were elevated under incubator HT, while maintained at the baseline level under the laser/Dye/NP HT. In vivo mouse studies showed that NP formulation significantly improved the plasma half-life of IR820 after tail vein injection. Significant lower IR820 content was observed in kidney in DOX-IR820-PGMD NP treatment as compared to free IR820 treatment in our biodistribution studies (p<0.05). In conclusion, both IR820-PGMD NPs and DOX-IR820-PGMD NPs were successfully developed and used for both imaging and therapeutic purposes. Rapid and short-term laser/Dye/NP HT, with a low thermal dose, did not up-regulate HIF-1&agr; and VEGF expression, whereas slow and long-term incubator HT, with a high thermal dose, can enhance expression of both HIF-1&agr; and VEGF.^