Rojan Baniya.
HPU Visiting Assistant Professor in Hospitality and Travel Management Rojan Baniya, Ph.D., has recently co-authored an article titled, “Conceptualizing visitors’ experience in heritage hotels using big data” in the Journal of Heritage Tourism.
Baniya’s study conceptualized visitors’ experience in heritage hotels by using organic data from TripAdvisor reviews and ratings of those guests who stayed there.
“Heritage hotels are the intersection of accommodation and heritage, and this article has provided a great amount of knowledge for tourism in Hawaiʻi since cultural heritage is an integral part of the offerings,” Baniya said. “Hawaiʻi has several heritage hotels, like Waikiki Heritage Hotels and Moana Surfrider.”
The article goes on to defines visitor experience in heritage hotels using heritage, architecture, tradition, beauty, people, and place. The results show that people generally have positive sentiments towards heritage hotels.
“Cultural heritage value, location experience, service experience, hotel, and basic amenities determine heritage hotels’ performance, among which cultural heritage value has a positive impact,” Baniya noted.
Heritage hotel managers, destination management organizations (DMO), and local policymakers can use this contemporary study to define heritage hotels and develop programs and policies to promote them.
In November 2022, Baniya also co-authored a research article titled, “Green hotel selection: the effects of social learning and eco-labels” in the journal Tourism Review. That article highlights the global shift towards sustainable development, noting the alignment of the tourism and hospitality sector with sustainability, particularly in the context of green hotel selection, and examines the influences of social learning and eco-labels on promoting sustainable consumption in this industry.
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