National Travel and Tourism Week (NTTW) is an annual celebration highlighting the vital contributions that this industry makes as an economic driver that links cultures, communities and people together in all corners of our nation, according to the US Travel Association (2025).

The event was established in 1983 and is typically observed during the first full week of May, with the dates for this year between May 4-10, 2025 (US Travel Association, 2025).. Each year, industry representatives organize various individual activities to cultivate a sense of pride at the local level and to raise awareness of the impact the industry has by creating quality jobs, inspiring entrepreneurs and enhancing the quality of life for Americans every day (US Travel Association, 2025).

This year, we, the Course Leads for Purdue University Global Hospitality and Tourism Services and are holding the fourth annual virtual event on Monday, May 5, 2025, to recognize this national event by highlighting our PG Hospitality and Tourism Services and Hospitality Sustainability Concentrations and sharing more about the additional credentials you can earn.

We would like to invite you to participate in our exciting session, so here is a preview of the highlights from our agenda: 

Special Guest Speaker Michael Stutler. who will share his extensive experience working for the Walt Disney World Resort, where he developed a deep passion for Walt Disney’s vision and the Disney brand. His knowledge of hospitality operations, expertise in market research, human resources, and training has laid the foundation for his career in education. He also just happens to be one of our very own adjunct professors in the School of Business & IT.

There will be trivia with prizes to win!

We hope you will Save the date- Monday, MAY 5, 2025: 2:00-3:00 PM ET and click this Link to join our event.

We hope to see you there!

Mimi Gough and Julie Dort

Course Leads for TH Concentrations

Reference:

US Travel Association (2025) US travel association website.  https://www.ustravel.org/events/national-travel-and-tourism-week

Esports Industry’s Host Selection Process Proving Successful

Posted On : March 17, 2025 By : Justin Shaw Edited by MG: March 24, 2025 https://www.sportstravelmagazine.com/esports-industrys-host-selection-process-proving-successful/

As the esports world continues to grow, its biggest events have outgrown the old process of flying around the world and hoping to find the right destination.

These days, major esports events are getting the same treatment as traditional sports events when it comes to the bidding process, with Blast and ESL FaceIt Group leading the way.

This year, Blast will host 16 arena events across five continents and 11 countries. In addition to its 2025 Blast Major in Austin, the organization will also have major events in five of the top 10 esports titles in locations including London, Lisbon, Lyon, LA, Mexico, Rio, Raleigh and Singapore.

“We’ve had to professionalize our approach and the way we run these destination processes over time,” said James Woollard, director of market development for Blast. “A lot of this has been about digitizing our process and making it accessible to lots of cities of different sizes and scales all over the world. But also running an in-depth collaborative approach with cities to really give as many people as possible opportunities to host the biggest and best esports events within our calendar.”

A New Way of Doing Business

Over the years, the esports world has largely been the Wild West in finding the right host partner. A destination had to hope for a mixture of timing and luck to host a major event. Now, everybody is getting a chance to pitch why they should host. Woollard admits even with his global knowledge of host destinations, Blast received bids from cities he was not familiar with.

“I think it speaks to the reach of the process,” Woollard said. “We are reaching out now to hundreds of different host cities or potential host cities. We’re publicizing press releases in Sports Travel, as well as other leading publications, to reach more people. We have a destinations website so that cities can log on to watch videos, get detailed technical specs, understand the different titles and games that we have and really see the benefits for the host city as well.”

“The RFP process has been a huge success, given the fact it’s the first one that we’ve actually done,” said Bobby Hare, EFG director of host city partnerships and hospitality. “We had a huge interest from the market, because we brought four events to market. We had a real big demand across all of our different products. And then going through the process was exciting.” Hare has seen cities with a blend of host histories throughout the RFP process, which has given EFG more options.

“We’ve received bids from cities that have little experience when it comes to esports events but have hosted major sports events and we’ve had bids from cities that have huge experience when it comes to esports,” Hare said. “So we’ve had to spend a lot of time educating new cities on the esports world and the ecosystem, the players, the value and the economic impact that it can bring in community engagement.”

The old way of doing business — flying around the world to esports events and conferences to pitch cities on why they should host a Blast event — is a thing of the past for Woollard.

“More of the cities we’re speaking to at events like the EsportsTravel Summit are now aware of who Blast is, which is fantastic,” Woollard said. “And we’re starting the conversation now, not at, ‘What is esports?’ but at, ‘Which event can we host?’ Which is a great place to start.”

“The old process was we’d go to an event, meet somebody, we’d get a call, we’d have an exploration,” Hare added. “Now, it’s much more strategic. Market mapping, understanding the different markets that are in play, looking at the gaming communities, looking at the players, the fans. We’ve really developed over the past five years from being fairly opportunistic in our approach to having a full streamlined strategy.”

The Future of Esports

Woollard and Hare have both spent years in the esports and gaming industry, so if there’s anybody qualified to predict the next 10 years in the space, it’s them.

“There are around three billion gamers, so nearly half the world’s population play some kind of game,” Woollard said. “And of those, a high percentage — and a growing percentage — are also consuming esports as a spectator sport as well. Esports isn’t going anywhere, it’s going to continue growing.”

“Fans love to have real life experiences with those people that they spend their time playing with, because they’re playing with their friends all around the world,” Hare said. “These events give them the opportunity to be able to meet in real life and spend time together where they would never have met otherwise.” Woollard sees the esports events industry growing in numbers, but in dollars.

“The esports demographic is very young, very engaged and as these people grow older, have more buying power and consuming power and are able to make more commercial decisions, we’re going to see the value of the esports industry grow even further,” he said.

References

Comstock, Frannie (2025, Feb 16) Esports. Encyclopedia Britannica. 

https://www.britannica.com/sports/esports

Shaw, Justine (2025, March 17) Esports Industry’s Host Selection Process Proving Successful

https://www.sportstravelmagazine.com/esports-industrys-host-selection-process-proving-successful/