Gómez to Appear on WHRV's "HearSay" Today

Edwin Gómez, associate professor of recreation and tourism studies at Old Dominion University, will be a guest on WHRV-FM's (89.5) midday talk show, "HearSay with Cathy Lewis," today at noon. The program, "What Are You Doing on Your Summer Vacation?" will discuss the mental and physical health benefits to taking a vacation.

According to the show's program listing, a recent study conducted by Expedia found that nearly 48 million Americans don't take advantage of all of the paid vacation days that they receive from their employer, despite the fact that research shows taking time away from work to have some fun improves mental health, can reduce the risk of stress-related disease and often leads to increased productivity when returning to work.

Gómez, who joined ODU in 2000, teaches courses in marketing, event programming, and socio-cultural dimensions of recreation and tourism, among others. His research interests include the social psychology of leisure, focusing on issues related to ethnicity and public recreation, and also on the psychology and motivations for why people recreate or travel, and what the benefits are of recreation and travel.

A rebroadcast of the program will be available at http://www.whro.org/home/publicradio/whrv/localprogramming/hearsay.