Thesis Topics

Customer reviews of network vs. low-cost air carriers: A comparative text mining study
Supervisor: Josef Mazanec

Mobile applications for tourism
The thesis should provide a state of the field regarding mobile applications used by tourism enterprises.
Supervisor: Astrid Dickinger

Service recovery on the internet
The internet is a major information source which also allows users to post experiences, reviews and comments. Travelers take advantage of the development of social media tools to share their experiences, comment about destinations and evaluate hotels and sights. The thesis analyzes managers response to such entries to identify service recovery strategies in place in the industry. Complaint handling and interacting with dissatisfied customers is an integral part of quality management.
Supervisor:Astrid Dickinger

The benefits of eco-certification schemes for hotels (or other types of tourism enterprises/organizations)
The expectations when applying for an eco-label vary widely. Investigate what expectations hotel managers had when applying for a certificate and what actual benefits they experience with their eco-label. This could be done with a survey for example among members of the “Österreichisches Umweltzeichen für Tourismusbetriebe”.
Supervisors: Dagmar Lund-Durlacher and N.N.

Guiding strategies for sustainability development of tourism destinations
In this study the student is asked to investigate and systematically compare governmental and DMO strategies for sustainable development. The analysis should lead to a common list of aims and priorities for the future development of tourism destinations which may be further developed to more operational indicators.
Supervisor: Karl Wöber

Future scenarios of tourism development
This master thesis should provide an overview of existing future studies (long-term forecasts) in tourism and a retrospective evaluation of predictions that have been made in the past.
Supervisor: Karl Wöber

The use of alternative medicine in wellness hotels
The use of treatments or devices, which are not or at least not fully acknowledged by the scientific community, is extremely wide-spread in the wellness sector. The spectrum ranges from the traditional, philosophically oriented treatment to the recently constructed technical apparatus, including notions such as energy flows, Bach flower remedies, aura massage, bio-resonance therapy, Hypoxi-trainer or water revitalization treatment. The role of alternative medicine in the spectrum of offers shall be analyzed as well as its marketing and the way in which customers are informed about it. The study can contain a systematic analysis of web pages and printed information, mystery calls and/or interviews with managers and guests of wellness hotels.
Supervisors: Ivo Ponocny

Subjective well-being of tourists
Subjective well-being of tourist is an aspect related to - but not identical to - their satisfaction with the offers by their hosts. The relationship between both aspects may be investigated by means of retrospective interviews. Unlike recent trends of assessing well-being by net affect or dominant emotions, another approach is chosen considering the mixture of current different feelings of the respondents. Another topic is to assess experimentally whether the presence of tourism-related thoughts influences the current state of happiness.
Supervisor: Ivo Ponocny

Tourism in the media
A systematic media observation shall document how tourism, tourists and members of the tourism industry are currently represented on TV. Special interest lies on the affective components involved: Do the representations convey positive or negative images? Are they based on stereotypes? Do they show desirable/undesirable behavior by tourists? Do they anyhow focus on sustainable tourism?
Supervisor: Ivo Ponocny

Strengths and weaknesses of the marketing information system TourMIS as perceived by market research specialists of the European Travel Commission
Supervisors: Irem Arsal and Karl Wöber