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About the Institute

Tourism creates jobs, income, new businesses, and a better quality of life. The International Tourism Research Institute exists to make this happen in your community and for your business. The institute serves international, national, regional, state, and local clients. The mission of the institute is to provide innovative tourism assistance to communities, development organizations, agencies, and businesses. We advocate for the tourism industry, focusing on tourism-related issues, providing credible data, and promoting the industry as a globally viable economic development strategy.

Our Clients

The institute serves economic development organizations, city and regional planners, resort and community developers, convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, local governments, national governments, regional development organizations, and local, state, federal, and international agencies. It also provides services to individual businesses on a fee-service basis. Proposals for project work are free-of-charge.

About the Director

Dr. Rich Harrill

Author, lecturer, researcher, consultant, and traveler, Dr. Rich Harrill is director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. He also directs the university’s Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Travel & Tourism Industry Center. The institute provides both local and international projects and research while the center focuses on U.S. tourism industry competitiveness. His academic and professional experience combines tourism with economic development and urban planning, giving him an uncommon perspective on and familiarity with all three.

Dr. Harrill has conducted research in tourism planning and development, destination management and marketing, and economic development. His professional work includes recreation and open space planning, land use and comprehensive planning, environmental planning, citizen participation, and survey research. Also, he has taught university-level courses on tourism planning and policy; travel industry management; community tourism development; international and national resort development; behavioral aspects of parks, recreation, and tourism management; and environmental planning.

Since 2002, Dr. Harrill has researched some 50 best-practice case studies in tourism and destination management. This has resulted in two guidebooks for practitioners and generated interactions with national and international tourism organizations such as the American Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam, Brazil, and Guatemala; tourism ministries in Uruguay, Sudan, and Yemen; China National Tourism Administration; Hangzhou (China) Tourism Commission; Rhode Island Tourism Development Advisory Council; Pennsylvania Tourism Office; Center for Exhibition Industry Research; and Destination Marketing Association International.

Dr. Harrill is currently collaborating with the Travel Industry Association and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries on the definitive study of future Chinese tourism to the United States.

On behalf of the University of South Carolina, he has negotiated research and exchange agreements with several prestigious Chinese universities including Peking University and the Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau.

Formerly a senior business associate with Georgia Tech’s Economic Development Institute in Atlanta, he undertook numerous projects for Georgia clients seeking to foster tourism as part of a local/regional economic development strategy. These ranged from the Rockdale County Economic Development Authority to the Lower Chattahoochee Regional Development Center to the Golden Isles Parkway Association. During this period, his research, among other things, assisted with reviving the Woodpecker Trail Association encompassing 10 counties and helping the Lake Hartwell Regional Marketing Alliance better position itself for attracting tourists.

In South Carolina, he completed a strategic tourism plan for Kershaw County, South Carolina, world-renowned for its equine industry and events. Recently, he completed a strategic tourism plan for the state’s rural, five-county Salkehatchie region, exploring nature-based and ecotourism development opportunities.

Dr. Harrill earned his Ph.D. in parks, recreation, and tourism management and his master’s degree in city and regional planning from Clemson University. He holds as B.A. in political science from the College of Charleston. He has published his research in urban planning’s top three journals— the Journal of American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Literature, and Journal of Planning Literature. In 2003, he authored Guide to Best Practices in Tourism and Destination Management (American Hotel & Lodging Association), with a second volume published in 2005. Dr. Harrill is editor of Fundamentals of Destination Management and Marketing (American Hotel & Lodging Association, 2005), the first comprehensive textbook for the destination management industry. He is coeditor of the International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research and Research Notes Editor of Tourism Analysis.

About the Associate Director

Dr. Xiang (Robert) Li

Dr. Xiang (Robert) Li is currently an assistant professor and associate director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. He has conducted extensive research related to destination tourism marketing, tourist behavior, event management, and tourism planning, with special emphasis on destination perception, customer loyalty, and Internet marketing.

Before coming to the United States, Dr. Li worked as a destination marketing, event organizing, and tourism planning specialist in the city tourism bureau of Nanjing, China, for five years. In that job, he was a major drafter of the Tenth Five-year Plan of Nanjing Tourism Development (2001-2005) for the city government of Nanjing, and was the principal investigator of a destination image measurement project for the city of Nanjing. He was also involved in multiple county and district tourism planning projects.

Dr. Li earned his Ph.D. in recreation, parks, and tourism science from Texas A&M University. He holds a master’s in recreation and leisure facilities and services administration from East Carolina University and a master’s in physical geography from Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.

A member of the Travel and Tourism Research Association; the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education; and the National Recreation and Park Association, Dr. Li has published his research findings in several well-respected journals and books. He also has presented his research at numerous national and international tourism and leisure conferences. Dr. Li has been recognized for his research abilities with the following awards: Holland America Line Westours Scholarship (The American Society of Travel Agents), TTIA/TTF Scholarship (Texas Travel Industry Association/Texas Tourism Foundation), Simmons Scholarship (The American Society of Travel Agents), International Festivals and Events Association Foundation Convention Scholarship, and Conference Scholarship of 14th Annual Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium.


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