About the Director

Taylor Damonte, Ph.D., is the director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism. The center is housed within the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration.

Damonte is a professor and director of the resort tourism management major in the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration at Coastal Carolina University. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Orleans and went on to become a certified hotel administrator, managing both hotels and restaurants in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. He later received a Master of Science degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Damonte is the principal investigator on the Tourism Economy Study,  an ongoing analysis of tourism business performance in the Myrtle Beach area, and the primary author of the weekly summary of the CCU Lodging Update. He is also a frequent contributor to the Grand Strander, the monthly newsletter of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Damonte has also been an invited speaker on tourism issues in China, Germany, Panama, Ecuador, and Slovakia.