New Grant Allows NU Senior To Compare Niagara Falls Tourism Industry To Others
A new research grant will allow a Niagara University senior to determine why Niagara Falls may lag behind comparable stateside tourist destinations when it comes to eradicating poverty and growing its tourism economy.
As the first recipient of the Peggy & John Day Honors Thesis Travel Grant, Adam Stumpf will travel to Asheville, N.C.; Newport, R.I.; Key West, Fla.; Santa Barbara Calif.; and Williamsburg, Va., to collect qualitative data. Stumpf used a set of characteristics that include population, visitor numbers and visitor expenditures to surmise that those five destinations “prosper to a greater extent than Niagara Falls while making use of comparable resources.”
Stumpf plans to connect with various stakeholders at each destination this summer to analyze their interactions with each other. Ultimately, he hopes to present a method in which Niagara Falls and other American tourist hotspots can learn from destinations that share similar characteristics pertaining to infrastructure and resources.