Article: ASU Formally Launches New Research Center in Downtown Phoenix

ASU Formally Launches New Research Center in Downtown Phoenix

Is it better for the environment to have a restaurant cook meals for 40 people or to have 40 people stay home and cook meals in separate houses?

Tim Tyrrell, an Arizona State University professor and tourism economist, doesn't have the answer. But that's the kind of question he ponders as he prepares to formally launch a tourism research center in downtown Phoenix today.

It is one of about three dozen tourism research centers in the world. The others focus mainly on marketing or economic impact or how to develop local tourism industries. This one will have a broader focus.

"Ours is going to focus on: 'Can tourism serve the public good, and how can it do it better?' " said Tyrrell, the director.

The new Megapolitan Tourism Research Center opened three months ago at ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. It is staffed only by Tyrrell and one other employee and will use students for research. It officially launches today, with a private event to introduce the dozen members of its new leadership council to each other.

Tyrrell has been fascinated with how wide-ranging the effects of tourism are since he began doing economic-impact studies in 1978 with the University of Rhode Island. He has studied effects of hurricanes and oil spills on tourism, the impact of casinos, and how tourism changed undeveloped areas and raised prices. Every study left him wanting to know more.

"Can tourism play a better role in promoting public safety, reducing poverty? Can it play a role in helping us preserve our natural resources and improve the quality of life for residents?" Tyrrell asked.

"If it moves into a community, it can drive the prices very high and very fast for the residents," he said. "On the other hand, it can save and preserve cultures because tourists like to see and experience different things than they are used to."

The studies he tackles will be up to the funder of the research.

The center hosted a conference in early November at which about 125 hospitality and public-safety officials shared notes on communicating during emergencies and security plans for the Feb. 3 Super Bowl in Glendale.

As a result, his first study will be how to get the hospitality industry and public-safety and other agencies to better communicate.

Other areas he would like to explore include tourism's role in using water, such as for resort swimming pools and golf courses; how to attract more local workers so the industry doesn't have to import workers from out of the country; and how tourism changes communities over time.

"I have more questions than I have answers," he said.

The center was named the Megapolitan center to reflect its wide focus.

"We're trying to look at the largest scale possible because it's that kind of industry," he said.

"That's why we called it Megapolitan. It's a peculiar word, and at first I was really reluctant about it. It's kind of grown on me. Now I enjoy it. It's definitely the way the tourism industry and systems work. Phoenix isn't alone as a tourism destination. We work with Tucson and the Grand Canyon and the Indian reservations."