Dr. Ata Atadil, an Associate Professor, received his Ph.D. in Hospitality Management from the University of South Carolina (USC). He is the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Scientific Paper Reviewer in Information Technology Award by International CHRIE. Before joining UWF in 2016, Ata was an adjunct professor at USC. He conducts research on cognitive neuroscience, decision-making behavior of travelers, branding and information technology. In addition, Ata serves as a reviewer for several tourism and hospitality journals.

Ata’s research interests span a wide range of pioneering topics in tourism and hospitality research. They include memetics, destination neurogenetics, meme map creation and travelers’ perceptions regarding new technologies such as guest room technologies.

He has published several articles in international journals such as Journal of Vacation Marketing and has several articles currently under review in top-tier journals, including Journal of Business Research and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. He also received the Best Research Visual Presentation Award by Annual iHITA Research Conference in 2015. Moreover, Ata identified grant opportunities and created more than 100 grant reports for the faculty members during his time in USC.

His Research projects have been presented in more than 15 international conferences ranging from EuroCHRIE to Annual International CHRIE Summer Conference & Marketplace. His recent research papers were presented in 2016 Global Marketing Conference and 2016 AMS World Marketing Congress that took place in Hong Kong and Paris, respectively.

Ata earned his master's and B.A. degrees in Tourism and Hospitality Management in Turkey. He completed the junior year of his B.A. degree as an exchange student at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden.

Ata, a Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE), has taught Hospitality and Tourism Marketing courses. He also single-handedly developed the Introduction to Hospitality online course and taught the very same course at USC. He received a quality award from the Provost’s office because of his efforts in developing this course.

Ata has first-hand industry experience as well. He worked in the front office and reservations departments in international chain hotels in Turkey and Sweden.

Ata considers teaching as the most valuable and essential acting performance that a person can perform during his or her life. A former theatre instructor and acting teacher, he enjoys bringing his theatrical skill set into the classroom.

He always considers his students to be the future leaders, entrepreneurs, managers and decision-makers of tourism and hospitality industry. 

Publications:
Erdem, M., Atadil, H. A., & Nasoz, P. (Accepted for publication) Leveraging guest-room technology: A tale of two guest profiles. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.

Atadil, H. A., Sirakaya-Turk, E., Meng, F., & Decrop, A. (2018). Exploring travelers’ decision-making styles. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30 (1), 618-636.

Atadil, H. A., Sirakaya-Turk, E., Baloglu, S., & Kirillova, K. (2017). Destination Neurogenetics: Creation of destination meme maps of tourists. Journal of Business Research, 74, 154-161.

Atadil, H. A., Sirakaya-Turk, E., & Altintas, V. (2017). An analysis of destination image for emerging markets of Turkey. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 23(1), 37-54.

Atadil, H. A., Berezina, K., Yılmaz, B. S., & Cobanoglu, C. (2010). An analysis of the usage of Facebook and Twitter as a marketing tool in hotels. Dokuz Eylul University Journal of Faculty of Business. 11(2), 119-125.