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Given the unique nature of business events tourism, this paper evaluates the forecasting performance of various models using search query data (SQD) to forecast convention attendance.

This research uses monthly and quarterly business event attendance data from both the U.S. (Las Vegas) and China (Macau) markets. Using SQD as the input, we evaluated and compared the cutting-edge forecasting models including Prophet and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM).

The study reveals that Prophet outperforms complex neural network models in forecasting business event tourism demand. Keywords related to convention facilities, conventions or exhibitions, and transportation are proven to be useful in forecasting business travel demand.

Prophet is an accessible forecasting model for event-tourism practitioners, especially useful in the volatile business event tourism sector. Using verified search keywords in models helps understand traveler motivations and aids event planning.

Our study is among the first to empirically evaluate the performance of forecasting models for business travel demand. In comparison with other mainstream forecasting models, our study extends the scope to examine both the U.S. and Chinese markets.

This study aims to explore a potential conference experience design strategy, namely, festivalization. It investigates the potential festivalization effects on conference attendees in two formats of business conferences: virtual and in-person.

A series of two scenario-based experimental studies were conducted. A series of one-way analysis of covariance and PROCESS procedures (Model 6) were performed for data analysis.

The inclusion of festivalization elements significantly enhances positive responses of attendees, especially for in-person conferences. This effect is further explained by a serial mediation effect, where enhanced perceived values and conference engagement play key roles in improving attendees’ conference experience.

By incorporating festivalization elements, conference organizers can create a more engaging and satisfying event experience for attendees. This can lead to greater satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth and increased registrations.

This study represents a pioneering effort in revealing the underlining mechanisms that explain how festivalization affects attendee engagement and subsequent behaviors in business event management in both face-to-face and virtual settings.

By integrating stimulus-organism-response theory and uses and gratifications theory, this study explored the salient gamification factors that satisfy the gratifications of conference attendees in the context of an event gamification mobile app and their relationships with conference engagement, continuance intention and word-of-mouth.

The questionnaire was developed in Qualtrics and administered on a gamification application called Goosechase during an annual hospitality conference. The proposed hypotheses were tested using the partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The gratifications of social presence, education and entertainment through a gamification mobile app influences attendees’ engagement during the conference while achievement gratification does not. Positive effects of conference engagement on their continuous intention and WOM have been also validated.

By adopting a unique integrated approach that utilizes UGT and S-O-R framework, while considering conference engagement as work-related engagement, this study offers a fresh perspective on gamification apps and discusses its theoretical and practical implications in depth.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, stakeholder theory and extended theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate how consumers view the economic and sociocultural impacts (benefits/costs) of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations on the local community’s resilience and how consumers form behavioral intentions toward P2P accommodation as a part of sustainable tourism behavior.

With data from a survey of 300 consumers who have previously used P2P accommodation, the authors performed partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test the proposed model and hypotheses.

The current study reveals the significant impact of the sociocultural benefits of P2P accommodations on consumers’ perceived community resilience, while economic benefits have a non-significant impact on perceived community resilience. Moreover, neither the sociocultural nor economic costs of P2P accommodation significantly reduce consumers’ perceived community resilience. Furthermore, the authors found significant positive relationships among perceived community resilience, attitude, subjective norm, personal norm and behavioral intentions.

P2P accommodation platforms can leverage these research findings and contribute to the community resilience and help community residents by establishing strategic collaboration with various stakeholders (e.g. governments, destination marketing organizations and non-profit organizations) for the community’s sustainable development.

This study systematically investigates the role of P2P accommodation in achieving community resilience by categorizing the impacts of P2P accommodation into economic and sociocultural benefits/costs.

This study aims to explore how professional event associations’ recovery strategies are perceived by members and to measure the consequent influence of the perceived fit of recovery strategies on organizational identification (OI), consistent behavioral intentions and long-term commitment intentions.

Data were collected from current members of professional event management associations who work not only as event planners but also as service providers in the hospitality and tourism industry. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed model.

The perceived fit between recovery strategy and internal domains, the self in particular, was found to be the most important in exerting effects directly on OI, and its indirect effects are significant on all the behavioral intentions toward the association, while the perceived fit of recovery strategy with external domains, especially the industry, was not significant with any of the other factors.

The findings from the present study provide professional event association leaderships with significant managerial implications in establishing a sustainable business model to retain current members and increase their intentions toward consistent engagement and long-term commitment.

Stepping forward from the strategic management and organizational behavior literature in the private sector, the authors shed light on a crisis recovery mechanism of professional associations in the event industry, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first such attempt in the event management literature.