Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism at World Travel Market

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Bournemouth University opening their stand with Zoltan Somogyi Executive Director, Marcio Favilla Executive Director, Frederic Pierret Executive Director and Xu Jing Regional Director Asian and Pacific from UNWTO

Last week the School of Tourism exhibited at the World Travel Market at the Excel Centre in London.

The School of Tourism was the only university that exhibited at the four day event and they showcased some of the exciting advances being made in tourism at Bournemouth University, as well showcasing their courses and business services that they offer.

The School of Tourism stand was officially opened by Professor Dimitrios Buhalis and  Zoltan Somogyi Executive Director, Marcio Favilla Executive Director, Frederic Pierret Executive Director and Xu Jing Regional Director Asian and Pacific from UNWTO

As well as exhibiting, Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism staff held three free seminars across the four day conference.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis hosted a BU Tourism Futures Forum and Dr Janet Dickenson hosted a debate on “Is the travel and tourism industry taking responsibility for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions?”

The School of Tourism also worked closely with the World Travel Market’s charity, Just a Drop at the exhibition and collected money for them on the stand.

The exhibition was a huge success for the School of Tourism and their stand was busy throughout the conference.

For more information on World Travel Market please see http://www.wtmlondon.com/

Institute of Hospitality Aspiring Manager Awards Dinner 2012

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

Last week, Rebecca Cridge and Mhairi Strachan, Hospitality Management students were invited to attend the Institute of Hospitality London Branch Aspiring Manager awards dinner.

The dinner was hosted at The Langham Hotel, London and was attended by students, Hospitality Managers, General Managers and Directors of companies representing some of our top hotels and suppliers.

Each organisation attending can take a table at the dinner and nominate their Aspiring Manager winner who receives membership to the Institute of Hospitality, a luxury weekend break and this year a four day Management Development course run by People 1st Training. The Aspiring Manager winners are those individuals that have been recognised for giving an outstanding contribution to the development of the organisation they work for, and demonstrated a commitment to their colleagues and customers.

At the dinner the Guest of Honour was Suzanne Jackson, Executive Director for the Hospitality Guild who gave a very inspirational speech on her views of hospitality. She highlighted that we need to be focusing on our future hospitality managers, nurturing and developing them by not only promoting the industry in schools, but also to ensure that our current hospitality team members are given the continuing professional development they need to become our future managers, which is what the Institute of Hospitality stands for.

Students Mhairi and Rebecca were invited to attend the event by Monica Or from Star Quality Consultancy. Monica commented on meeting Mhairi and Rebbeca “These two ladies are definitely ones to keep an eye on and I have no doubt in the future they too will become Aspiring Manager winners for whichever organisation they end up working at.”

Mhairi commented that “that it was great being an “ambassador” for Bournemouth University and many of the companies were truly interested in our course content”

Historic ground-breaking video conference between Bournemouth University and Nepal

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Turning historic ties between two nations and peoples into dynamic collaborative initiatives 

 

On 31st October Bournemouth University was delighted to jointly facilitate a groundbreaking video conference, initiated by the UK-Nepal Friendship Society [UKNFS] that explored academic collaboration with leading Nepalese universities. 

This was the first occasion that Vice Chancellors of three Nepalese universities gathered together and made direct presentations at an international video conference.  Further, with the presence of senior representatives of key Nepalese government ministries, the conference provided a unique opportunity to learn of the current important work being developed in Nepal around interrelated new collaborative priorities and initiatives of international and national importance.

At the conclusion of the video conference, Dr Richard Shipway [Bournemouth University: Associate Dean: International Engagement in the School of Tourism] outlined, on behalf of Bournemouth University, three key areas of envisaged collaborative partnership, to be subsequently developed in more detail:

● Health and social care related;

● Tourism management and development across a range of disciplines and study areas;

● Media studies.

Forthcoming major direct outcomes of the video conference include:

● An official visit to Bournemouth University before the end of 2012, by Dr Suresh Chandra Chalice, Ambassador of the UK Embassy of Nepal, who will provide a keynote speech concerning the evolution and further development of the substantial historic ties between the nations of the UK and Nepal;

● Bournemouth University participation in a national level initiative to provide a UK Nepali community health needs identification and mapping survey that will be facilitated by the UKNFS at the official request of the UK Embassy of Nepal.  This project will have benefits to the UK’s National Health Service not only in terms of greater support for the UK Nepali community, but also to enhance awareness of, and representation of, UK BME communities health needs generally within the NHS.

The School of Tourism expressed interest in several specific areas which were aligned to both individual, departmental and University wide research interests.  These include:

  • Cultural heritage tourism (including Buddhism philosophy and practices / Gender and Buddhism);
  • Research on migrant workers in Nepal (incorporating issues linked to integration, language and employment);
  • Religion and Leisure
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Ecotourism
  • Yoga related studies
  • Tourism and Media

The video conference also highlighted the unique role that Nepal has internationally in being a focal point of cultural bridging between the West and both East and Southern Asian cultural spheres:

● It was noted that Nepal is the location of the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, and has up to 100 related historical and pilgrimage sites associated with the Buddha and his previous incarnations

● It was noted that Nepal contributes unique resources in regard to the holistic medical system and philosophy of Ayurveda (that is as ancient as and may predate the better known but related Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM])

 

Useful contacts:

 

Ram Hari Adhikari (UKNFS Secretary and Project Lead.  Email: ramhariadhikari17@yahoo.com

Alan Mercel-Sanca (UKNFS Vice-chair and UK public service organisations and academic institutions lead).  Email: oces.contact@gmail.com

Dr Richard Shipway (Associate Dean: International Engagement, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University). Email rshipway@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

School of Tourism events at the ESRC Festival of Social Science next week

Posted . Filed under News, Research, Student Experience.

Next week Dr Debbie Sadd and Dr Richard Shipway will be hosting their events as part of the 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.

For information on either events please contact Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or visit the ESRC website

John Fotis of the eTourism Lab at Bournemouth University presenting in Greece’s leading tourism conference

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www.seteconferences.gr

 

This week John Fotis delivered a keynote presentation at the SETE conference in Athens

The conference was the 11th annual “Tourism & Development” conference organised by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) and John was invited to present after an invitation from the Director General Mr George Drakopoulos.

This year the conference was entitled: “Marketing Greece – promoting the quality side of modern Greece” and it took place on 29-30 October at Athenaeum Intercontinental.

The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (www.sete.gr) represents 14 Panhellenic Unions of Tourism Enterprises & 485 Tourism Business Units. SETE aims at constantly boosting competitiveness and demonstrating the key role of tourism in the Greek economy. Their annual conference is considered to be the prime tourism forum in Greece.

John’s keynote presentation is entitled “Communication and promotional strategies for tourism enterprises and destinations: A low cost approach and ways of influencing travel related consumer behavior”.

His presentation described the role of social media in tourists’ “expanded trip”, their impacts on consumer behavior, and suggested tactics and actions that destinations and tourism companies can incorporate into their marketing and communication strategies.

Before John’s keynote there was a round table discussion session on “Marketing Greece: Cooperation between public and private sector in promoting Greek tourism”. The discussion panel consisted of Mr K. Karahalios, Secretary General of the Greek National Tourism Organization; Mr K. Lambrinopoulos, President of the Hellenic Management Association; Mr D. Mavros, President of the Association of Greek Advertising & Communication Companies; Mr G. Tsakiris, President of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels; Mr G. Tsopelas, Managing Director of McKinsey & Company (Greece); and Mr A. Andreadis, President of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises.

For more information you may visit SETE’s conference page (in Greek).

Visit John Fotis Blog

 

Bournemouth University School of Tourism at World Travel Market

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Next week Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism will be exhibiting at the World Travel Market at the Excel Centre in London.

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry – is a vibrant must attend four-day business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to UK and International travel professionals. It is a unique opportunity for the whole global travel trade to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business under one roof.

As well as exhibiting at the four day event, Professor Dimitrios Buhalis will be hosting two free seminars on eTourism and Tourism Futures during World Travel Market.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis commented “Bournemouth University is committed to work closely with the international tourism industry and to creative innovation tourism solutions based on research and knowledge creation. Naturally we work closely together with the World Travel Market where we will be exhibiting demonstrating our courses, research and consultancy services and exposure the BU talent in terms of students, graduates and staff to the global tourism industry. We also share knowledge with the international community by organising two important seminars, one on eTourism and another on Tourism Futures. We very much hope to welcome you at the stand EM1592 and our events. “

For more information on the free seminars please see http://buatwtm.eventbrite.co.uk/#

Richard Shipway hosts video conference with UK Nepalese Friendship Society

Posted . Filed under Guest speakers, News, Research.

Tomorrow morning, Richard Shipway is hosting a video conference with UKNFS (UK Nepalese Friendship Society) in order to look into potential collaborations between Bournemouth University and them.

The conference will look at Bournemouth University perspectives (existing and future projects) and Nepalese Perspectives (existing and futures projects), before a panel discussion on future UK and Nepalese collaborations.

In the morning, Richard and the other UK delegates will go live across to Nepal and will be joined by six colleagues from the UKNFS.

As well as receiving presentations from the UKNFS, which will be chaired by Ram hari Adhikari, the project lead, Porfessor Edwin van Teijlingen from Bournemouth University will be giving a presentation.

His presentation will be used to inform the UKNFS about our existing and future projects here at Bournemouth University.

We also be following up from the conference after it takes place and hopefully soon bringing you news about future collaborations with the UKNFS.

For more information on the UKNFS please see http://www.uknfs.org/

Susan Horner and Kimberly Kirk-Macaulay present published paper At EuroCHRIE

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On Saturday, Hospitality Management Graduate Kimberley Kirk-Macaulay and Dr Susan Horner presented their paper at the 30th EuroCHRIE conference in Lausanne.

The European Council on Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Education (EuroCHRIE) is the official federation for Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and Africa of International CHRIE, the leading international organisation that supports education and training for the world’s largest industry.

EuroCHRIE represents 169 International CHRIE members. The European Federation brings together educators from hospitality & tourism management schools and universities into a global network in close co-operation with industry representatives. Under the CHRIE umbrella, both education and industry combine their efforts to shape the future of hospitality & tourism.

The 30thannual conference was held from the 25th – 27th October in the historic city of Lausanne in Switzerland was this year tilted “Hospitality for a better world”.  The conference is aimed at lecturers and industry experts and most the papers are presented by doctorate students and lecturers.

Kimberley and Susan’s paper, titled “Status-Seeking Consumer Behaviour and its Impact on the Hospitality Consumption of Young Professional Females”, fought off intense completion to be accepted.

Susan commented “Over the last three years I have tried to get a paper published on the basis of an undergraduate dissertation in order to get the students present it at EuroCHRIE.

This year was the first paper to be accepted from Bournemouth University and only in my first year here! Kimberley’s paper fought off intense competition to be accepted, since a great deal were rejected.  

Her final presentation was highly praised by the audience which included delegates from across the world including leading Universities who deliver hospitality programmes in Europe and the US”

Congratulations to both Susan and Kimberley on this fantastic achievement!

For more information on EuroCHRIE please see http://eurochrie2012.ehl.edu/

PhD student gets MSc work published

Posted . Filed under News, Research, Student Experience.

Zornitza Yovcheva a PhD student, has had her paper published after two and half years of revision the Journal of Applied Ergonomics.

Zory is doing her PhD in User-Centred Design of Smartphone Augmented Reality Applications in Urban Tourism Context as part of the John-Kent Institute in Tourism.

The published paper was a result of her MSc work on Geo-Information Science at the University of Twente.

The article, titled “User requirements for geo-collaborative work with spatio-temporal data in a web-based virtual globe environment” is co-authored by Corné P.J.M. van Elzakker and Barend Köbben as well.

Zory commented  “The feeling of having your work published and knowing it is part of the academic literature is fantastic and very rewarding!  It has been quite a wait and many hours of editing and answering reviewer’s comments. Looking back, I feel that the waiting and efforts were absolutely worth it!”

The abstract for the article can be seen below:

Web-based tools developed in the last couple of years offer unique opportunities to effectively support scientists in their effort to collaborate. Communication among environmental researchers often involves not only work with geographical (spatial), but also with temporal data and information.  Literature still provides limited documentation when it comes to user requirements for effective geo-collaborative work with spatio-temporal data. To start filling this gap, our study adopted a User-Centered Design approach and first explored the user requirements of environmental researchers working on distributed research projects for collaborative dissemination, exchange and work with spatio-temporal data. Our results show that system design will be mainly influenced by the nature and type of data users work with. From the end-users’ perspective, optimal conversion of huge files of spatio-temporal data for further dissemination, accuracy of conversion, organization of content and security have a key role for effective geo-collaboration. 

Congratulations to Zory on this achievement!

If you would like more information on Zory’s research please email zyovcheva@bournemouth.ac.uk

20 Years of Graduates

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

This November sees the 20 year anniversary of BU gaining university status.  What better way to mark the occasion than through a look at some of our School of Tourism graduates from the past two decades?

Jihong Fu

MSc Events Management – 2011

As an international student, I treasured a lot of my time to live and study in BU. Although I can’t boast that I’ve made the full use of my university life, I did try my best. I’ve learned and experienced so much in the past year: I enjoyed the inspiring lectures, the group works with arguments and communication and all sorts of social practice such as volunteering.  Besides, I’ve learned how to get over the culture shock and live happily and independently in a new country, make friends here and be part of the community. Now, facing the real world outside the campus, I’m still working hard with dreams and beliefs. Time flies, but what life taught you will always be with you.

Lydia Ward

BA (Hons) Events Management – 2010

Originally from south Devon, I moved toBournemouthin 2006 to study for a four year event Event Management degree. During these years I met and worked with some fantastic people and was lucky enough to make many great life-long friends.  In 2008 I moved toLondonfor a placement year at The Royal Society of Medicine’s event venue,One Wimpole Street. In 2010, having completed my demanding final year at Bournemouth University, I relocated back to London to work for Banks Sadler, a market leader in the Events Agency industry.  Having lived inLondonfor two years, the fresh air of Devon called me back and I moved toExeterto work for a large national company. My job now incorporates event management and business support and has great scope for career progression.

Ross MacLeod

BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing – 2005

After graduating I swiftly disappeared to Canada for the snowboard season; I had planned this as part of my gap year following four years studying in Bournemouth.  This single gap year turned into four, and I found myself spending time in Borneo working as a dive instructor, beach lifeguarding inNew Zealandand travelling aroundSouth America.  This adventure was linked with annual summer returns to the beaches ofDorsetwhere I worked as a beach lifeguard for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a job which opened the door to being able to utilise my Leisure Marketing degree.

In 2010 I was given the opportunity to work at RNLI headquarters inPoolecovering a maternity leave over the winter.  I worked hard for the six month secondment and was pleased when the position was made permanent.  Nearly three years on I’m still with the charity, working on safety prevention campaigns to keep the British public safer around the coast.

My advice to graduates would be don’t rush for the ‘grown up’ job – it will find you soon enough, make sure you’ve enjoyed yourself first!

Lynsey Holbrook

BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing – 2002

Following graduation in 2002, I moved toLondonand returned to Jardine Communications, my placement year employer and specialist motorsport PR agency. I worked across national motorsport properties before being seconded toShanghaiin 2004 to manage BAT’s Chinese market activation in the build up to the inaugural Formula 1 China Grand Prix.

In 2006, I moved to Momentum Worldwide’sLondonoffice as Account Manager on Intel’s sponsorship of the BMW Sauber Formula 1 Team, progressing through the agency while building a specialism in international sponsorship activation for the likes of Nokia, Mobil 1 and most recently UPS, for whom I led the integrated activation of their groundbreaking London 2012 Logistics partnership.

In my new role of Sponsorship Director,UK, I am tasked with leading the sponsorship department’s growth strategy in the post-Olympic marketplace and establishing MomentumUKas the agency’s centre of excellence for international sponsorship strategy and execution.  MomentumUK’s sponsorship client group includes American Express, UPS, Mobil 1, UNICEF, Ricoh and TAM Airlines.

Right now, there isn’t a job on the planet (in Marketing anyway…) I would rather be doing, but when I’m not working I really haven’t grown up at all – it’s all about a good time with friends – preferably in sunnier climes.