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Conference Appearance Opening Doors for East Stroudsburg University HRTM Major

East Stroudsburg, PA (10/23/2026) — Presenting data analysis at a professional conference wasn't something Neylla Joseph was expecting to do just one year into her college career at East Stroudsburg University. Now that she has had the experience, however, it has only left her wanting to push herself further.

"This all just makes me want to look at myself and find out, 'How much more can I learn?'" Joseph said.

Joseph, a dual major in hospitality management and finance from East Stroudsburg, Pa., presented at the Northeast Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (NETTRA) annual conference on Oct. 8. The conference brings together travel and tourism industry experts, academics, and vendors from throughout the northeastern United States.

Her research, "Analyzing Ski Resort Experiences Through Online Reviews: A Data Analytics Approach to Customer Satisfaction in Pennsylvania Tourism," combed through online reviews from over 20 ski resorts throughout Pennsylvania to gain a deeper understanding of guest experiences.

"I aspire to own my own resort in the future, so knowing how to analyze different aspects of customer data will help me better understand the big picture," she said.

Joseph was encouraged to present at the conference by assistant professor of hospitality, recreation, and tourism management Yongwook "Yong" Ju, Ph.D., who taught Joseph's HRTM205: Data Wrangling class during the spring semester.

That semester, Joseph and Dr. Ju began researching what drives guest satisfaction at Pennsylvania ski resorts. Their goal was to provide results that tourism managers could use to improve visitor experiences.

Their work continued throughout the summer thanks to Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education's BRIDGE work-based learning program coupled with ESU's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience.

Under Dr. Ju's mentorship, Joseph used topic modeling, aspect-based sentiment analysis, and logistic regression methods to identify five key dimensions of customer experiences: mountain operations, service flow, family experience, cost perceptions, and resort environment.

In all, more than 3,700 individual user reviews were analyzed, with family experiences and service flow showing the strongest associations with positive customer ratings, Dr. Ju said.

The conference not only provided a space for Joseph to present the findings of her research, it also represented an important milestone in her educational growth, Dr. Ju said.

"It highlights how ESU's experiential learning and undergraduate research opportunities prepare students to conduct meaningful research and share their findings with academic and industry professionals," he said.

For Joseph, the experience is already leading to new opportunities.

"I've already had multiple people who attended the conference reach out to me and tell me they enjoyed my work, so I'm excited that this is another door that's opening for me," she said.

Joseph and Dr. Ju plan to present the research at ESU's Undergraduate Research Symposium in April and pursue further research in hospitality and tourism analytics.

Learn more about ESU's hospitality, recreation and tourism management program.

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A young woman standing with her arms crossed in front of an academic building.

East Stroudsburg University student, Neylla Joseph, presented at the Northeast Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (NETTRA) annual conference.

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