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Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is a controversial bill passed by the State of Indiana and signed into law in March 2015. The purpose of this paper is to look into whether there is empirical evidence that the political shock of RFRA had a negative empirical impact upon the hotel industry in Indiana’s major city, Indianapolis, and investigate how DMOs and other organizations in the tourism and hospitality industry worked in ways to counteract the threat of a great deal of loss of business caused by the national furor caused by the passing of the original bill in March 2015.

To fully examine the impact of RFRA on hospitality business in Indiana, secondary data were used in this study. The researchers used the Trend Market report created by Smith Travel Research (STR) (2016b) with a focus on the greater Indianapolis area, which include Indianapolis South East, Indianapolis Central Business District, Indianapolis Airport/Speedway, Indianapolis North Loop, and Indianapolis small towns. In the Trend Market report, hotel operation performance results are listed including occupancy percentage, average daily rate, revenue per available room, supply, demand, and revenue.

The findings from this investigation illustrate that there is no empirical reason to believe that the political shock of the RFRA controversy in Indiana in 2015 had a meaningful impact upon the hospitality and tourism industry in Indianapolis, despite concerns that it would make a big and negative impact upon the industry. While event planners may have a negative perception of the city of Indianapolis and the state, these perceptions do not seem to be enough to make a difference in terms of impacting upon the hospitality industry in Indianapolis.

There are lessons that could be learned from this, as many states in the USA continue to pass similar laws to RFRA, laws that are perceived as being problematic for those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. The most noteworthy lesson is that the passing of laws that seem to threaten people of the LGBT community will bring a national response and will likely be accompanied with threats that are economic in nature. There is a great deal of evidence to show that passing any legislation that may be interpreted as infringing upon the rights of members of the LGBT community will result in substantial responses that may be negative in nature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore cultural tourism investment and resident quality of life in the Midwestern city of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is important to understand from a cultural tourism perspective how further attempts to grow and invest in tourism will affect resident perception of quality of life and future cultural tourism investment.

To achieve this goal, data from the 2012 Indianapolis Quality of Life survey was statistically analyzed to specifically examine how residents’ perceived quality of life affects cultural tourism investment. This allows for the study of what city-service attributes (i.e. safety, attractions, transportation, etc.) identify as potential indicators of whether residents’ perception of quality of life affects cultural tourism investment and if there were any correlations between demographic factors of age, gender, ethnicity, and household income with the perception that investing in cultural events and attractions for tourists is good for residents.

Results indicated that several key city-service attributes identify as potential indicators of whether residents’ perception of quality of life in Indianapolis affects residents’ perceptions that investing in cultural tourism for tourists is good for residents. Furthermore, excluding perceptions of cultural tourism investment, several key city-service attributes identified as potential indicators of residents’ perception of quality of life in Indianapolis. Finally, results indicated that demographic factors of gender, age, ethnicity, and income were not significant when it came to affecting the perception that investing in cultural events and attractions for tourists is good for residents.

The findings of this study have unique academic and applied implications in the continued study of tourism in Indianapolis, Indiana. This study provided research related to the study of quality of life in Indianapolis and reported statistics for the 2012 Indianapolis Quality of Life survey. The data and statistical analysis reported in this study will serve as valuable information for future endeavors concerning cultural tourism and quality of life in Indianapolis. The identification of city-service attributes that significantly impact resident perception of quality of life and city-service attributes that, in conjunction with resident perception of quality of life, affect how residents perceive cultural tourism investments is important information that can be utilized by future researchers, tourism planners, and policymakers in Indianapolis. The analysis revealed what city-service attributes are important to residents of Indianapolis and demographic factors that affect resident perception of quality of life. The continued examination of these city-service attributes may help to identify areas of public service that need to be improved.

This study demonstrates that resident level of awareness pertaining to the benefits of cultural tourism investment are relatively low. Tourism planners, officials, and researchers can utilize this knowledge to better facilitate methods to gain resident support for cultural tourism investment and development. In addition, this research can be utilized to better understand the needs of residents and how tourism and various city-services impact their quality of life. If cultural tourism planners and other tourism officials better understand methods to gain resident support for cultural tourism investment then they can maximize economic and cultural tourism gains for the city.

This case study specifically focussed on cultural tourism to better present data regarding this issue; however, the authors believe future studies that examine both cultural and sports tourism could be beneficial. Aspects such as city-services and resident perception of quality of life could be examined from both cultural and sports tourism perspectives. This approach could produce beneficial results regarding cultural and sports tourism investment and potentially highlight demographic characteristics unique to cultural tourism and sports tourism supporters in the city of Indianapolis.