Localversity Research Output & Commercial Publications
Localversity® is designed
to be practical, not abstract.
There are serious gaps in
public understanding of basic economic, management, and marketing concepts. We
at Localversity seek to teach practically, and believe the key
concepts can be understood by most people age 12 and over. Our two commercial publications have been read & studied by hundreds of people around the world. More on the way!
Exploring place appeal
& new tourism tools: online information strategies
Localversity was part of a far-sighted research team studying
e-tourism. The recent pandemic triggered further changes in tourism & mobility. It's important to learn how and why to be competitive in marketing places. Our
full publication can be purchased via Amazon.com [here].
The chapter by Bruce Henry Lambert of Localversity
is as follows:
https://thoughtsmart.com/Lambert-Promoting-Place-Appeal-New-Tools-and-Strategies.pdf
WorldCat (partial) listing shows this work in 86
collections ranging from the Library of Congress (Washington, DC, USA), US
Coast Guard Academy (New London, CT, USA), Columbia University (New York, NY,
USA), Qatar National Library (Doha, Qatar), Howard University (Washington, DC,
USA), University of Chicago Library (Chicago, IL, USA), National Library of
South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa), University of Technology Sydney
(Australia), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), etc.
E-tourism offers new methods
for bridging geographic & cultural divides while minimizing risk &
uncertainty. Speedy, low-cost communications offers
huge benchmarking benefits; we can greatly reduce the costs of learning from
elsewhere, and adopt best practices. Creative place appeal strategies are now a
fundamental part of community development, and our studies have been helpful to
placemakers worldwide. Even if not emphasizing tourism, attracting & retaining people is a key element to local survival. These are just a taste of the
many important efforts being made at Localversity to better
understand the links between local places, entrepreneurship, new technology and
prosperity. More to Come!
Counterintuitive
conditions provide strong teaching opportunities.
Localversity & Prof. Bruce Henry Lambert developed a business
school case study on Sweden's ICEHOTEL widely used by international MBA students
and those interested in entrepreneurship and hospitality. It's available by
electronic access and also in the working collections
of The British Library (London, UK), Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA,
USA), LIBRIS (Stockholm, Sweden), the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh,
Scotland, UK), etc.
Bruce Henry Lambert of Localversity & Heena Jung (2012) "Sweden's
Ice Hotel: Marketing Adventure through Arctic Ecotourism." (SHBS
Hospitality Case Bank 019) Seoul: Sookmyung
Hospitality Business School. (ISBN 978-89-7182-275-3)
https://thoughtsmart.com/Lambert-Jung-ICEHOTEL-casestudy.pdf
Summary: Look at the condition
of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden: Above the Arctic Circle at
nearly 68°N latitude -- far from big cities and most modern services -- in
winter it's frigid cold, dark, and lonely. The sun sets in mid-December and
remains a few weeks below the horizon. The bitter cold keeps most people inside
& largely inactive, and lacking sunshine, many people are depressed. Never
a popular place to live and with frontier jobs scarce, Jukkasjärvi
and the surrounding region suffered decades of depopulation. Though there's a
quaint historic church, many people frankly believed Jukkasjärvi
was a god-forsaken shithole. Most people only saw the region's
many faults. Fast-forward, and today the
area is thriving, and a powerful magnet for tourists from around the world. All because
of the cleverly-marketed ICEHOTEL.
Imagine going to sleep on a
bed of ice, with reindeer skins and sleeping bag. Imagine the art spaces of the
ice hotel, and giant walls of ice lit from below, behind & inside. Imagine
stepping outside the world's largest igloo and watching the changing spectacle
of the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis. Imagine the fun of the ice
chandelier, ICEBAR & drinking from ice mugs. Imagine adventure! If you survive, you'll get
a certificate to hang on your wall - great for conversational capital and indicating a healthy, adventurous lifestyle. (My certificate
displays an ice bed photo, my name, and certifies details of my night in the
world's biggest igloo: 30 Dec 1997; inside the igloo -6°C; outside the igloo:
-30°C). Built afresh every year and hosting tens of thousands of visitors since
1989, the Ice Hotel is not cheap! I see a room for two (with breakfast) on the
same night I stayed (30 Dec) is now 6645 SEK, or nearly US$800.