Fredrick Collison, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI, USA
I spent 23 years (1983-2006) as a professor at the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Upon my retirement, I was granted the title Professor Emeritus. While there, I taught classes in tourism and transportation management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including Principles of Travel Industry Management, Air Travel Management. Strategic Travel Management, and Cruise Line Management.
The latter course was a new one that I developed, one of the earliest available. My research was primarily concentrated on air travel management, Pacific Island tourism development and marketing, and the cruise industry in the Pacific. Since retirement, I have gotten involved in national park tourism, primarily at Bryce Canyon National Park. I serve as a volunteer in their Astronomy and Dark Skies Program where I interact with visitors during both the day and evening. My efforts at data collection and analysis enabled the park to obtain Dark Sky Park certification from the International Dark-Sky Association. I also work to publish results of this work on dark sky tourism in the academic literature.
I am interested in this issue as it applies to national park travel and the travel industry in Florida, which is now my home. For both of those types of travel, there are many issues regarding how to open up travel in a safe, effective, and efficient manner. I believe my teaching and research experience can provide ideas on how this might be done. I think it is very critical from a marketing standpoint to be careful in how this is done as many people are currently unable or unwilling to travel even if the industry has opened up to visitors and guests. As of right now I don’t have any specific suggestions but wish to learn more so that I can contribute to this discussion.