Featuring Our Faculty

Academic Researchers - UNC System

Stacy R. Tomas, Ph.D.

Stacy R. Tomas

Assistant Professor and Tourism Extension Specialist

Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

North Carolina State University

3028C Biltmore Hall

Raleigh, NC 27695-8004

Phone: 919-513-7407

Fax: 919-515-3687

stacy_tomas@ncsu.edu

http://cnr.ncsu.edu/prtm/faculty/Tomas.html

http://www.ncsu.edu/tourismextension/

Community Outreach Interests

At NC State University, I have a split appointment as an assistant professor and sustainable tourism extension specialist. Through NC Cooperative Extension, I work with county cooperative extension field faculty across the state to develop and promote sustainable tourism. My interests focus primarily on rural communities and the connections between the community, tourism-related businesses and tourists. In collaboration with community leaders and business owners, I work to develop rural, cultural and nature-based tourism as a means for community and economic development. Additionally, I work with landowners and businesses to explore entrepreneurial activities relating to their tourism product. I am primarily interested in helping businesses and destinations evaluate and improve their tourism product to enhance the tourist experience. Of particular interest to me are the notions of service quality and visual quality and what cues tourists use to form perceptions of destinations and businesses. Through NC Cooperative Extension, I have also developed two curricula to help businesses create more enjoyable experiences for their guests. Additionally, I also teach numerous workshops on similar and related topics.

Research Interests

My general research focus is on consumer behavior and tourism marketing, with a special interest in visual quality, service quality and tourist satisfaction. From my research, I strive to contribute to the understanding of what constitutes satisfying tourist experiences and to provide managerial suggestions on engineering positive experiences for guests. Having conducted numerous economic impact analyses, I am also interested in how findings from economic impact studies can be used as a repositioning tool to gain political or financial leverage. For example, in 2002 I conducted a state-wide economic impact study for Texas Parks and Wildlife to examine the economic impact of 37 state parks. This study was used as a repositioning document for the state parks and findings were reported to the Texas Legislature during the 2003 session.

Notable Publications

Tomas, S. R., & Crompton, J. L. (2004). Repositioning Texas state parks. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 22(1), 115–128.
Tomas, S. R., Crompton, J. L., & Scott, D. (2003). Assessing service quality and benefits sought among zoological park visitors. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 21(2), 105–124.
Tomas, S., Scott, D., & Crompton, J. L. (2002). An investigation of the relationships between service quality, satisfaction, and intention to visit among visitors to a zoo. Managing Leisure, 7, 239–250.

Notable Reports and Curricula

Economic impact on Carteret County of the 2007 Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament. (2008, June). For the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament Board of Directors.
North Carolina hospitality: Making our state a better place to be. (2007, April). Curriculum developed for North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
Birder friendly business and birder friendly community training program. (2006, July). Curriculum co-developed to support the North Carolina Birding Trail.
The economic contributions of Texas state parks. (2003, January). For Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Texas Coalition for Conservation.
Estimated economic impact on Matagorda County of the Matagorda Bay Nature Park and Preserve Project. (2003, February). For the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority).
Economic impact analysis of Lake Bastrop parks on the city of Bastrop and Bastrop County. (2001, September). For the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority).