publications

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Legitimacy for Social Change

Christel Crane evaluates a major U.S. government development partner operating in Afghanistan to provide a broader consideration for her topic, legitimacy for social change.  She attempts to unravel the conflicting goals of military and civilian efforts in a counter-insurgency environment and illustrates how differing goals lead to unwieldy entanglements and compromises. 

Without stating an equivocal position for or against “change”, she offers an alternate model of pre and post testing of program effectiveness. She contrasts the problematic constructs of a large U.S. development effort with the modest, but more socially grounded, long-term efforts of a small foreign NGO in Afghanistan. 

Finally, she discusses how careful discussion of the core legitimacy for social change must be thoroughly examined before development interventions are even considered. 

Readers are urged to view the documentary film, “Collective Behavior Theory in Action - Afghanistan” (2013) produced and narrated by the author.  

 Collective Behavior Theory - Afghanistan (youtube.com) 

 Risk Assessment & Control - The Broadmoor Seven Falls

The last few years have been marked by horrific incidents related to the tourism industry in the United States. 

There seems to have been little effort to tie these events to the general topic of hazard identification and risk management writ large, or to establishing a body of best practices for the tourism industry in the U.S. 

To bolster the view that tourism risk management only requires dedication, familiarity and expertise, a tourism destination is examined for hazard identification, and risk mitigation controls are recommended.  

A range of industry sources are examined, and the research serves to confirm that good hazard identification and risk mitigation can be done in the field, with the resultant effort far outweighing the pain and suffering by injured guests or employees, or the likely collateral damage done to the image of the tourism enterprise. 

  Lighting the Way for Sustainable Tourism: Solar Streetlights in the Caribbean

St. Kitts and Nevis have become leaders in the Caribbean embracing sustainable tourism - benefiting islanders and tourists while preserving natural resources.

By tapping into the resourceful islands’ unlimited clean energy source, implementation of a more sustainable and safer efficient energy source with the use of solar streetlights has been an excellent sustainable alternative to traditional streetlights.

  In 2018, the tourism industry contributed more than 25% of St. Kitts GDP and supported one in four jobs. One way or another, every Kittitian is connected to tourism. 

Sustainable travel is on the rise and St. Kitts and Nevis are lighting the way for other islands.  

In the Caribbean, tourism is everyone’s business. Communities, governmental agencies, NGOs, visitors, and the tourism industry all play a role in stewarding these beautiful destinations and safeguarding their local assets. 

Ten Year Sustainability Plan - High Springs Florida

 High Springs expressed an interest in increasing economic opportunities for its citizens by expanding its tourism competitiveness and sustainability. 

 First, our guiding framework is referred to in academia as the conceptual model of destination competiveness and sustainability. This framework requires a battery of analyses including Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis; Assets Analysis; Competitive Analysis; Trends Analysis; Capacity Analysis; and Risk Analysis that have been quantified in detail for easy graphical understanding.   

The market segments identified by the client were borne out in research and we detail multi-stage market segmentation that can be used to reach those customers/visitors. 

Finally, we make some suggestions, recommendations and thoughts on funding for High Springs tourism that we believe will be useful in the years ahead. 

  Residence Inn by Marriott Marketing Plan - Gainesville FL

 Residence Inn, as the market leader in up-scale extended stay has remained a dominant presence in the Gainesville MSA. Occupancy was very strong, remaining far above national averages and 10% above the Comp Set. However, ADR growth told a different story, with Residence Inn falling behind both the national average in the ADR growth category as well as with the Comp Set.  REVPAR remained solid, but this too stood improving. Although there were impressive numbers and although the enterprise had recently completed a major refurbishment of the facility it did suggest there may be challenges underlying the business. 

 We began our robust seven-part Situation Analysis by answering the question: Where are we now?  Our detailed five-part Marketing Strategy answers the question: Where would we like to be? Our Activities Plan addresses the question: How do we get there? Our Control Procedures suggest: How do we make sure we get there? And finally, our Evaluation Procedures lays out the answers to the question: How do we know if we got there? 

The Marketing Plan enabled a greater sense of team spirit among the staff, providing a new sense of purpose, pride and feeling that the Residence Inn Gainesville is on the leading edge of a new period of growth and prosperity.