Two School of Tourism staff has successfully won bids to host events as part of the ESRC festival this November.
The ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) funds research into the big social and economic questions facing us today and the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science is part of this.
Dr Debbie Sadd and Dr Richard Shipway from the School of Tourism are both hosting events as part of the 10th ESRC Festival of Social Science.
Debbie Sadd’s event will take place at Bournemouth University and aims for teenagers to debate the theme of “London 2012: Was it worth it?”
This interactive debate will ask young people (13-18) from Dorset to question whether hosting London 2012 has been benefit to the area in which they live and to the UK as a whole. It will also ask them to consider the impact that the London Games will have on the sporting future of the UK, and to what extent they will take the legacy of London 2012 forward into adulthood.
Young people will be asked to vote (using a digital device integral to the venue) before and after facilitated discussion, following short speeches from representatives from Dorset 2012, Sporting Legacy, Podium and Bournemouth University.
This event has been chosen as there is a growing research agenda on the impact of mega-events on society at a local and national level. Thus researchers recognise the need to engage young people in discussion about how London 2012 has impacted their lives and how they will engage in any legacy.
Richard Shipway’s event will be held at the EBC in Bournemouth and covers the theme of optimising Olympic tourism opportunities after the 2012 Games. The “Going for Gold: Leveraging the Olympic tourism legacy beyond 2012” conference will see keynote speakers discuss the main tourism opportunities that will fall in the years immediately after the Games
Following the conclusion of the London 2012 Games, the conference will investigate the potential for the London Olympics to generate tourism benefits long after the hosting of the Games.
The workshop will look at issues surrounding the management, organisation and analysis of mega event sport tourism, building on the outcomes of a previous ESRC funded project (RES-810-21-0013) which explored the impacts and issues associated with sport tourism development.
Drawing from the experiences of both academics and industry practitioners involved in both the London Games and other global mega sports events, delegates will debate potential strategies to optimise the success of managing tourism in the post 2012 era.
The conference is aimed primarily at tourism business communities across the South West and South of England (incorporating London), exploring the potential to leverage tourism benefits.
From an academic perspective, the aim of the event is to revisit the theme of Olympic tourism by inviting delegates to consider advances which are theoretically grounded in one or more of the core social sciences. Key workshop sessions will be facilitated by stakeholders involved with the delivery of the 2012 Games including Visit Britain, Visit London, London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), and leading academic tourism experts.
Debbie Sadd’s event is November 5th and Richard Shipway’s is on November 9th.
We will be covering both the events extensively via blogs and other social media.
If you would like to attend Richard Shipway’s event please contact Dr Rebecca Edwards on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206
For more information on either events please contact Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or visit the ESRC website