HOLIDAY TRAFFIC COULD SPELL RECOVERY OR DISASTER FOR THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY --With Thanksgiving and Christmas among the busiest travel times of the year, many airlines will look to holiday reservations as an indication of a post-Sept. 11 recovery or a sign of further economic hardships, says Professor David West of Temple's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Not since the aftermath of the Gulf War has passenger traffic on international flights seen such a decline--17 percent less than September 2000, he notes. Most severely affected were carriers registered in North America: their passenger and freight traffic fell more than 30 percent, West reports.
Reach Professor West at his office, 215-204-1474, by email: [email protected], or through the Office of News and Media Relations, 215-204-7476.
AS HOLIDAYS APPROACH, (COMFORT) FOOD FOR THOUGHT -- Given world events, people may be even more likely to stay home this holiday season and enjoy some good, old-fashioned, high-carbohydrate, high-fat, familiar comfort food, says Temple psychologist Thomas F. Shipley, who teaches a course on the psychology of food. "It's very rare to find someone who goes out for Thanksgiving. And this year, even those folks may be likely to spend the time at home." Fall and winter are normal times to crave comfort foods and that trend may be more likely this year, says Shipley. "There has been a huge move toward comfort food in the food sections of the New York papers, especially. We crave comfort foods for a number of reasons. Certainly one reason is anxiety. Another is biological. We add extra fat for winter. And we also use comfort food as self-medicators, as natural tranquilizers to treat seasonal affective disorder and depression." Holiday food, says Shipley, "is inherently conservative. It gives us a contact with past events. The smells and tastes evoke strong, emotionally laden memories."
Reach Dr. Shipley through the Office of News & Media Relations.
WWW.SLOWHOLIDAYSALES.COM: ONLINE E-TAILERS FACE GLOOMY HOLIDAY SEASON --With online shopping no longer a novelty, the events of Sept. 11 will make it an even gloomier holiday shopping season for e-tailers, predicts Temple professor Jay Sinha. "Events of the past few months are causing families to cut back on their spending," says Sinha, the Washburn Research Fellow in Temple's Fox School of Business and Management. He feels that people's wariness about being in crowded malls or department stores, which could be considered likely terrorist targets, will be outweighed by people's fears about receiving contaminated packages in the mail. Sinha projects that even if the events of Sept. 11 had not occurred, online e-tailers would still be facing a slow holiday period. "The novelty of online shopping has worn off," he explains. Still, he sees sites such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and the toy e-tailers remaining popular with online shoppers. "But my hunch is, they still may do even worse than they did last year, not better," Sinha concludes.
Contact Sinha through the Office of News and Media Relations.
AIRPORT, AMTRAK AND OTHER OFFICIALS TALK TO STUDENTS ABOUT HOLIDAY TRAVEL -- Representatives from Philadelphia International Airport, Amtrak, the on-campus travel agency, and the student counseling center will be on hand Tuesday, Nov. 13, to talk to students about holiday travel. Students can find out how long of a wait to expect at the airport, what type of identification to have, what new baggage restrictions to prepare for, and they can address any other safety concerns they may have about traveling this holiday season. Representatives from the counseling center will be on hand to help students who still feel anxious about traveling back home for the first time since Sept. 11. Temple has nearly 7,000 students from outside the Philadelphia metropolitan area, many of whom are expected to return home to celebrate Thanksgiving.
For more information, contact the Office of News and Media Relations. (9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Student Center, 13th St. and Montgomery Ave.)
Cheryl AfonsoTemple UniversityOffice of News andMedia Relations[email protected]215.204.7476
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