Tag: TravelAndTourism

According to the U.S. Department of Education, almost a third of undergraduate students in associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs change their major at least once. That was the case for Clemson University alumna Lee Hilderbrand Blakely (2008), who shifted her undergraduate degree focus from chemistry to communication, before a travel and tourism minor helped her discover a passion for event planning.

Blakely has since applied the same philosophy to her career, using experiences in different jobs to find the perfect fit. Blakely organized events for the Chick-fil-A Bowl Game in Atlanta, sold linens to event planners throughout Charleston, and worked as both a wedding planner and in destination management before launching her own business last fall. Now she’s sharing what she’s learned along the way with students in the Clemson University Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM).

Students in the department’s program and events planning class learn about planning, implementing and evaluating leisure and recreation programs and events. Blakely will lead a group of students through a project that they will carry out in the Charleston community, where they will be required to assess the project’s needs, develop goals and objectives, and build and implement a comprehensive plan. They will then be asked to measure whether they achieved the goals and objectives they set out to accomplish.

Blakely said that applying lessons learned in the classroom to real-world experiences is invaluable, something she discovered during her own time as a PRTM student.

“My favorite class was with a professor who had worked in national parks, and who taught much of the class based off of his first-hand experiences on the job,” Blakely said. “It inspired me to go out and do my own thing and learn by experience. Now I’m excited to pass that on to other PRTM students.”

Sheila Backman, Ph.D., one of Blakely’s former professors, said that Blakely was a great student who has a lot of on-the-ground knowledge to share with those currently completing their degrees, so she can help students understand what skills they need to succeed in the field.

“She exhibited positive behavior as a student, came to class on time, and was prepared and engaged – all skills that can be taken for granted, but have served her well in her past employment,” Backman said. “I expect her business to be successful, and for our students to benefit greatly from her knowledge.”

Blakely said that she’s happy to give back to her alma mater.

“I have a very deep connection with Clemson, the college and with the major as well, in many different ways,” said Blakely, whose father (Van Hilderbrand, 1974), brother (Van Hilderbrand Jr., 2002) and husband (David Blakely, 2008) are also graduates. “It’s good to keep those connections going.”

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The Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management is part of the University’s College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences (CBSHS). Established in July 2016, CBSHS is a 21st-century, land-grant college that combines work in seven disciplines – communication; nursing; parks, recreation and tourism management; political science; psychology; public health sciences; sociology, anthropology and criminal justice – to further its mission of “building people and communities” in South Carolina and beyond.

Experience Holy City in Charleston specializes in event planning, destination management, day-of-wedding coordination and transportation for groups visiting Charleston or other parts of South Carolina. The business was founded by Lee Blakely in October 2020.

The Clemson University Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management has recognized four students for outstanding service, leadership, professional engagement and personal qualities of integrity, compassion, service and a positive attitude.

Interim Department Chair Jeffrey Hallo says that the four awards are named after former leaders, faculty and alumni who exemplify qualities the department hopes to instill in its students.

“These four students demonstrate the best of those qualities and then some,” Hallo says. “Hannah, Danielle, Ellerslie and Gabrielle are all exceptional students who have made a lasting impact on this department and are credits to their communities.”

These students were recognized for:

Bert and Johnnie Brantley Outstanding Student Award – Hannah Snider

This award is presented to a PRTM senior who has exhibited outstanding service to the PRTM department, the University and the community during the student’s academic year at Clemson University while maintaining a 3.0 GPA. 

Hannah Snider is a senior at Clemson University, getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management with a concentration in Community Recreation, Sport and Camp Management. She is the daughter of Brian and Rebecca Snider and the sister of Rachel Snider. She is also the fiancé of Dillon Gums.

Hannah currently works part-time at both the Clemson Ticket Office and the City of Easley Parks and Recreation Department. She loves animals, especially goats, all things Disney, being outside and going on adventures. She is a follower of Christ and says she owes all of her success to Him. She is currently still in search of a job for after graduation and is looking forward to whatever the future has in store!

Hannah was also recognized for Academic Achievement at the Senior Level.

Greg Shoper Leadership Award – Danielle Rudy

Established to honor a graduate of the department who was killed in action in Vietnam, this award recognizes the department’s most outstanding student leader of the year.  

Danielle Rudy is a junior Recreational Therapy major with a minor in Business Administration. She currently serves as the Vice President of Clemson’s Recreational Therapy club, fundraising and service chair for the Clemson Triathlon Club, and service chair for a living learning community located on campus, called WAVS. She also has been involved in a creative inquiry that coordinates and directs adaptive soccer camps for veterans across the United States. Outside of school, Danielle works as an ABA therapist at Agapi Behavioral Consultants and as a Fitness Assistant at FIKE Recreation Center.

Lawrence R. Allen Engaged Future Professional Award – Ellerslie McCue

This award is given to an undergraduate PRTM student who has demonstrated a commitment to professional engagement in the PRTM field.

Ellerslie McCue is a senior majoring in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management with a concentration in Travel and Tourism and an interest in Agriculture. She is very grateful to all of the professors and administrators in both PRTM and CAFLS for four amazing years and for encouraging her to be the best that she can be. She wishes to thank them (virtually) for going above and beyond for their students and making a huge impact in their lives that continues after they leave Clemson University.

Ellerslie also runs a successful business called Highway Sailor, which she’s grown while earning her degree. Read her story.

Stevenson-Smith-Lovett Award – Gabrielle Wimberly

Established in memory of the families of donors to the PRTM department, this award is presented to a rising senior who exemplifies personal qualities of integrity, love, compassion, service and a positive attitude. 

Gabrielle Wimberly is a junior Recreational Therapy major from Simpsonville, South Carolina. At Clemson, Gabrielle currently serves as the founding Event Coordinator for Clemson CHAARG, a women’s health and fitness organization. She is also a member of the Recreational Therapy Club, the Clemson Dancers and the Pre-Physical Therapy Club on campus. With a love for health and wellness as well as children, Gabrielle hopes to work in pediatrics as a Child Life Specialist or a Pediatric Physical Therapist. She enjoys the opportunities her major provides to strengthen others and improve their quality of life.

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The parks, recreation and tourism management department at Clemson University is one of the largest and most well-recognized programs of its type in the nation. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in  community recreation, sport and camp management, park and conservation area management, PGA golf management, public administration, recreational therapy, travel and tourism, and youth development leadership.

By Harrison Wall, PRTM Communications Intern

Ellerslie McCue is a senior Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management major with an emphasis in travel and tourism at Clemson University. She also runs her own leather business, Highway Sailor, where she makes hair-on cowhide, leather and tooled bags, totes, coozies and other products.

Ellerslie has a true passion for her business that can be seen through her entrepreneurial skills and current role as a student. Ellerslie answered a few questions for us about her inspiration to start the business and how her time management skills help her juggle being both a student and a small business owner.

What made you begin your business?

I created this business by the best kind of accident. I kept falling in love with beautiful tooled and cowhide bags I saw on Instagram, only to realize I couldn’t afford them. I finally decided if they could make them so could I. I set out to teach myself how to tool leather, construct patterns and sew with absolutely no background. I talked my dad into taking a little class to learn the basics of tooling, bought my tools, started hammering and have been making products ever since. My business Highway Sailor has continued to grow and expand as I dream up new things to make.

How are you able to balance running a business and your learning?

Running a business while being a full time student is a huge juggling act that I am still perfecting. I thrive on being busy and I love to work, so this lifestyle works for me, but it is not without its struggles. Time management plays a huge role in being able to do both.

I try to set aside days where I focus on just school and get all my assignments done for the upcoming weeks allowing me to focus on my business. This approach works well for weeks where the business needs to be a priority. Other weeks where I am swamped with school I let the business be on the back burner. A lot of it comes down to prioritizing what is important in the specific moment when it comes to school, the business, a social life, friends and sleep.

Are you applying any of your travel and tourism training to your business?

YES! For starters there is a lot of planning, understanding target markets, and consumer behavior that plays a large role in the success of a business, regardless of if the consumer is deciding where to travel or what to buy. We learn a lot about this in the tourism classes and it has given me a lot to think about and act upon when it comes to my business.

In addition, I attend a fair amount of shows to sell my products, which directly relates to the topics covered in the event management classes I have taken. As a travel and tourism major we are also required to take a business law class, which I think is helpful regardless if you have a business or not, but we are constantly learning about topics that I encounter daily in my business.

Lacey Hennessey believes everyone has a marketable skill.

After talking to her for a few minutes, however, you realize she has more skills than most.

Her business started when she was a student in the parks, recreation and tourism management program at Clemson University, and looking to make some extra money to help pay for her school and living expenses.

“I was able to use my artistic ability to have a little fun while earning the extra money I needed,” she says. “I made things like fraternity coolers and decorative items for people’s apartments, and kept getting new business from people telling others to ‘see if Lacey does it’.”

If she didn’t know how to do something she was asked to create, she’d look it up online and become an expert at it.

Her skills came in handy after she completed her degree and began working in a marketing firm in Greenville, where she saw an opportunity to use her creative abilities to save her employer and its clients time and money.

“My job was to manage the agency’s events, and as I was doing it, I realized I could add value by doing things like making the floral arrangements and signage myself,” she says.

Lacey worked full-time and managed her business on the side for a couple of years. One day an office consultant asked her what she’d most like to do and she responded that she wanted to paint. She also wanted more flexibility and freedom to travel.

“I loved my coworkers, my clients and the projects I worked on, but I didn’t love that two-week vacation policy,” she says. “I realized I wanted the freedom to say yes to new opportunities.”

Soon after, she set out on her own and started running her business, Hennessy in the Home, full-time. Her business provides artwork, custom gifts, home décor, and wedding and event planning services. Lacey creates everything from t-shirt designs to painting murals, most recently at Clemson’s new Tipsy Taco restaurant. She also continues to provide event planning services for her former agency.

She’s built an online presence as a blogger and on Instagram, where she posts personally as @Lacey_does and for business @hennesseyinthehome, and which she credits for being hired to paint the Tipsy Taco mural. The project was so successful that she’s been asked to paint four more murals over the next two months.

Lacey says that her training in parks, recreation and tourism management gave her the background and internship opportunities she needed to get started.

“My events planning expertise gave me the value I needed to get in the door,” she says. “My internships helped me build contacts and find my mentor.”

Her advice to current students is to think about what you do well.

“If you have a skill that can help people, you have a potential business idea,” she says. “Someone will pay you for that service.”

You can learn more about Hennessey at the Home at hennesseyinthehome.com.

Clemson Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) faculty and graduate students were recently invited to South Africa to share their expertise, research human/wildlife experiences in Africa’s longest standing national park and explore new potential collaborations.

The group, led by Department Chair Wayne Freimund and consisting of Associate Chair Lori Dickes, faculty members Lauren Duffy and Aby Sene-Harper, and graduate students E’Lisha Fogle and Temitope Arogundade, took part in the Insaka international research symposium about how Africa can best meet the multiple societal and ecological challenges that come with transformative conservation, conducted a visitor research project for Kruger National Park and explored the possibility of a promising new collaborative project focused on Garden Route National Park.

The Insaka Symposium

The Insaka Symposium brought together experts in a wide variety of disciplines, such as social science, tourism, human rights, community development and environmental science to try to better understand and address rapid social and ecological changes in South Africa. According to Freimund, the multidisciplinary makeup of the group provides a richer and more thorough understanding of challenges throughout the country.

“South Africa’s conservation issues are complex, multidimensional and require all hands on deck, with everyone working together to find workable solutions,” says Freimund. “It’s rewarding to work as part of a collective of international leaders in their fields, collaborating on possible solutions we can share with the country’s decision makers.”

Most of the team presented at the symposium, with Freimund and Dickes delivering keynote speeches. Their presentations shared findings from research conducted by the department in national parks throughout the United States and parts of Africa, and applied those learnings to a South African context. PRTM’s different areas of focus, including parks, community recreation, youth development, tourism and public administration, makes it well-suited to address the rapidly evolving social and ecological challenges the region is facing.

“We had a great scientific exchange and social capital building experience at the symposium, with the collective experiencing the breadth and depth of what Clemson had to offer and how a department like ours can fit into these large-scale problems in a constructive way,” continued Freimund.

The collective is now working together to apply for a National Science Foundation network collaboration grant involving the Insaka Consortia, Clemson and Montana universities, and potentially the University of Botswana, the Nelson Mandela University and other African partners. The grant proposal is focused on the Kafue River basin in Zambia, part of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Trans Frontier Park, which is the largest in the world.

Kruger National Park

After the symposium, the PRTM group traveled to Kruger National Park, one of the longest standing parks in Africa, to develop a study on challenges associated with human interaction with wildlife.

International and domestic tourism to the park is increasing, which brings a number of opportunities to the region, but also creates a tension between the park’s natural space and the humans wanting to experience it. Wildlife is migratory, making it difficult to create experiences for tourists. Human interaction can also pose challenges when animals feel at risk.

The group conducted research in the park to get a sense of wildlife interactions from a visitor’s perspective, and to better understand the complexities – and possible solutions for – human and wildlife experiences over time. The group is developing an app-based experience sampling method, where visitors send data throughout the day during their visit that describes where they are, what they are doing, how they feel about it, their perceived quality of their experience, among other questions. This will give researchers a better understanding of how to better manage incidents and create a better code of ethics for visitors, while also taking steps to enhance their visitor experience.

“Right now, the visitor experience at the park is based on the luck of the draw. For example, you could have an awesome experience of nature if your car drives beside a lion next to the road, or you could stumble into a long traffic jam if dozens of people get there before you,” says Freimund. “The first is a very positive experience. The second isn’t. Developing a visitor app for the park can help flag some of these issues and help help us better understand how the positive and negative episodes affect the overall experience and impression of the park.”

Garden Route National Park

The group’s final visit was to Garden Route National Park, near the town of George, where they explored the possibility of a new research collaboration with the Sustainability Research Unit at Nelson Mandela University, the Knsyna Basin Project and South Africa National Parks.

The group is exploring a number of key opportunities and challenges facing the park and region, such as municipal park development, tourism as an economic generator, youth development and conservation.

“The area’s national parks are open access, similar to national forests throughout the United States,” says Freimund. “There are opportunities to help visitors explore the health and cultural benefits of nature and expand the park’s recreational use and community engagement, while also managing its conservation. We have a great deal of experience in managing those issues, making a partnership a good fit.”

After a successful first meeting, the collective is working together to explore potential opportunities for collaboration, including research projects, student and faculty exchanges and a possible visit to Clemson. The group has struck a committee to look for ways to facilitate an exchange moving forward.

Watch the video below for more pictures of the group’s experiences!

Clemson Graduate Student Uses an Innovative Research Approach to Understand the Lives of Marginalized Persons in the Global South

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, responsible for the creation of one in five new jobs over the last five years, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Most of those jobs are occupied by women, including in Africa. That said, job opportunities for men and women vary throughout the African continent, says E’Lisha Fogle, a doctoral student with the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management program at Clemson University, with gender dynamics playing a role.

“A woman’s experience in the tourism industry throughout Africa is affected by underlying societal, cultural and political influences that affect how, where and when she could be involved in – and constrained by – tourism,” Fogle says.

Past research on gender and tourism in Africa has primarily focused on entrepreneurship, empowerment and other community-based initiatives involving women. Although those are important perspectives, Fogle is applying a different approach to understanding constraints to women’s participation in tourism and its related industries.

Fogle is analyzing these relationships through collective memory work, a research tool that addresses power structures, hegemony and inequality, with a goal of emancipation through discourse analysis. Members of the collective are able to deconstruct their own narratives, which, in Fogle’s research, also creates a safe space for personal growth and empowerment. Fogle believes this approach can play an integral role towards gender equality in the Global South, which includes most countries in Africa, Central and Latin America, Asia and some countries in Europe.

“Collective memory work is still emerging in Africa as a tourism research tool, as there are fewer women of color investigating these phenomena from an academic perspective,” says Fogle. “As a result, it has been relatively underutilized as a method to understanding issues affecting women in tourism spaces.”

Fogle spent a month in Livingstone, Zambia, between December 2018 to January 2019, with a group of six participants recognized by the collective memory work methodology as co-researchers. Fogle served as the group scholar with five female community members.  Together, they used collective memory work to explore how gender could constrain female participation in the tourism industry. Her goal is to apply a new layer to existing research that can be used to help encourage confidence in the workplace among women and lead to better opportunities, both in and beyond the industry.

Fogle’s faculty advisor, Dr. Lauren Duffy, says that E’Lisha’s work focuses on an important topic that needs our attention. “Ensuring women have access to the tourism industry as a source of employment and income is vital in terms of providing the means for economic and social independence,” Duffy says. “E’Lisha’s research is pushing new boundaries methodologically and having a direct impact on the people and organizations she’s working with.”

Fogle’s impact on the Livingstone community goes beyond her academic research. Before she left for Livingstone last December, she raised $1,300 that was divided equally among six local organizations to purchase equipment and supplies, education materials and uniforms, and health and hygiene products for women and children.

Dollars were also used to address critical facility needs – for example, financial support provided to the Baobuyu Learning Center, which provides free schooling to young children in the Mwandi area, covered their water, sewage and electricity costs for an entire year, while also helping them prepare their roof for upcoming maintenance work. Kwathu Children’s Home, which operates an orphanage and free community school, was able to purchase food supplies for the first quarter of the year.

Fogle’s philanthropic efforts were supported by the Conservation and Tourism Society in Livingstone, with Society member Jacob Kampindu facilitating the relationships between Fogle and the participating organizations.

“It’s important to me to ensure that my research in Africa does more than benefit me as a scholar,” says Fogle. “The dollars we were able to raise provided direct, and immediate, benefits to the communities sharing their knowledge and insight with me, while also raising awareness of their work here in Clemson.”

Fogle is now back in Africa sharing her collective memory work research approach at two major tourism conferences – at the ATLAS Africa conference in Uganda, which explores innovations in tourism, and the Insaka 2019 Symposium in South Africa, focusing on transformative conservation. She’s hoping her presentations will raise awareness and encourage the use of collective memory work in tourism research.

“Understanding gender constraints to female participation in the tourism industry is critical, given the number of women working in the field. The collective memory work approach provides invaluable new insight into what opportunities and challenges women working in tourism are facing,” says Fogle. “My hope is that the more we share information about this research technique, the more female African researchers will begin to see the value in using it.”

Carmen Nibigira knows the value of focus and persistence.

She pursued – and earned – a PhD, taking several twists and turns along the way. Carmen started her PhD journey in 2012 when she moved to Clemson from Burundi, a difficult decision that took her away from her children, who stayed with family back home while she studied.

Although she had quickly risen in her field, Carmen was conscious that dynamics in the tourism and hospitality field were changing, and that she had much to learn if she wanted to continue to advance her career. “My professional background was in hospitality, however, I began to see tourism industry discussions shift to a greater focus on conservation, preservation and community engagement,” Carmen says. “I had little knowledge at the time about how my journey in Clemson would unfold, but had faith that pursuing my education in tourism development, with a focus on policy, here was the best decision, regardless of the circumstances.”

In 2014, two years into her doctoral studies, she temporarily put them on hold to take a job as Director General of the Burundi National Tourism Office. This position gave her an opportunity to serve her country, apply her newfound knowledge and skills, and to make a difference. A year after that, Carmen was preparing for her comprehensive exams (also called comps, which are a key part of the process towards earning a PhD), when she accepted another position, this time serving as the regional tourism coordinator for the East Africa Tourism Platform. She was joined by her family in Nairobi, who had abruptly left their home country because of a political situation.

She continued to work towards her PhD part-time, and earned her doctorate this past May. Carmen’s faculty advisor, Travel and Tourism Professor Sheila Backman, says this kind of tenacity and focus is typical for Carmen. “Other graduate students find themselves needing to overcome challenges while they complete their credential, but not like Carmen,” said Sheila. “Instead of slowing her down, she always manages to navigate through anything that’s thrown her way. And she does it the right way. As a result, her academic and practitioner colleagues have tremendous respect for her and the knowledge, skills and commitment she brings to the table.”

Carmen started her academic career in the United Kingdom, earning her undergraduate degree in Brighton and her master’s in Birmingham, with experiences in Switzerland and East Africa. Earning a PhD in North America was appealing to Carmen, as she wanted to learn about tourism from a different cultural perspective. She chose Clemson because of its climate, tourism and parks management program and faculty’s international reputation.

While she studied, Carmen also continued her long-standing work to empower women throughout East Africa by creating opportunities for education and mentorship. Carmen’s personally mentored dozens of women during her 20-year career in the travel and hospitality industry, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Akilah Institute in Rwanda, a women’s college that prepares a new generation of African female leaders. The institute has been so successful that it’s looking to expand, with a goal of creating a network of campuses across sub-Saharan Africa within the next 15 years.

Carmen sees herself as being in a unique position to help, as an industry leader and one of a small percentage of people throughout the world who have a PhD. “Education is a great opportunity for young women. But it’s not just about education. It’s about the quality of education, equal pay, being able to get a good job and striving to have it all, just not all at once,” says Carmen. “It took me 15-20 years to work towards my PhD, when you factor in my university education and work experience. Once you understand that hard work pays, you become mentally prepared for the challenge.”

She’s now working as a Project Director for Horwath HTL, an international consulting firm that provides governments and other clients with tourism research, policy and strategy development and implementation support in East Africa. And she’s recently found a new challenge to pursue, after a conversation with one of her sons. “He asked me, why are you always focused on helping girls? Why not boys?” she said. His statement caught her off guard, and made her think.

“I’m a mother of boys, and began to wonder, are we creating the same opportunities for them? We perceive boys as having an advantage, but I’ve started to wonder if that’s really the case,” says Carmen. “I’m compelled to see how I can start engaging boys in the very near future. We have helped girls and women access education and equal opportunities, and boys are feeling left out.”

“After all, in Africa, we say that it takes a village to raise a child,” she continues. “I feel like it took several countries to raise me. If I can make a difference in any way, I will.”