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Sofia Dermisi awarded “Best Research Manuscript” by the American Real Estate Society

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Dr. Sofia Dermisi, Runstad Endowed Professor in Real Estate is the recipient of the “Best Research Manuscript” award in the Hotel/Lodging Real Estate category for a paper presented at the American Real Estate Society annual conference in April, 2014.  Dr. Dermisi’s paper, “Effects of Worldwide Terrorist Attacks Targeting Hotels on Overall Hotels’ Performance” examined the worldwide terrorist activity targeting hotels leading to transnational casualties. Three aspects of terrorist activities were assessed, utilizing data on incidents from the first quarter of 1996 through 2014: a) assessing their cyclicality, b) identifying factors affecting their frequency and c) exploring their financial fallout [Average-Daily-Rate (ADR) and Revenue-Per-Available-Room (RevPAR)] among luxury, mid-price and economy hotels. The results affirmed the cyclical behavior of the terrorist activity and casualties (8 and 3 years, respectively). A pivotal point in the frequency increase on hotel attacks was September 11,2001 which led to an increase by 75% through the first quarter of 2014. Worldwide and USA luxury hotels suffered financially more after a hotel terrorist incident compared to any other hotel type. Other socioeconomic variables (e.g. GDP/capita, oil prices, recessions etc.) applied had either a non-effect or a diverse effect on attack frequency and hotel revenue.