Tagged / ST

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy to assess the impact of the Japanese Tohoku Tsunami

Congratulations to Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy from the School of Tourism who has received a small grant from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (GBSF) London for his pilot research on the impact of the Tohoku Pacific Tsunami.

The Tohoku Pacific earthquake (8.9 magnitude) and the tsunami that followed have had catastrophic impacts on Japan creating economic, nuclear and humanitarian crises in 2011. It has made detrimental impacts on the infrastructure, economy, environment, society and culture of North Eastern Japan. The forthcoming pilot project by Dr Reddy aims to explore the nature of the impact on the tourism industry of the North East Japan, identify local collaboration and the priorities for future in-depth research to benefit the socio-economic revival of the tourism dependent communities and local businesses in North East Japan.

Dr Reddy commented ‘the small grant from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation will hugely help me to investigate the Japanese tsunami impacts on tourism and develop local collaboration with researchers in Japan for in-depth research’. Dr Reddy is a member of BU’s Grants Academy and is an expert working on natural disasters. He has successfully conducted larger projects for international agencies including UNESCO HQ Paris on the 2004 Asian tsunami, the worst natural disaster in the recent history.

Launch of the National Coastal Tourism Academy

On Tuesday 13 August Eric Pickles, MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced the allocation of a Coastal Communities Fund grant to the National Coastal Tourism Academy. The grant of £2 million will create the world’s only specialist coastal tourism academy, with the aim to turn local expertise into knowledge to share with towns across the country and internationally.

Bournemouth was chosen due to its unique position in the tourism industry. Eric Pickles said: “We want Bournemouth to be a catalyst in development. The town already has the infrastructure and resources like Bournemouth University specialising in tourism for this to be a success and to be able to communicate to struggling towns.”

Under the Bournemouth and Poole Joint Tourism Management Board, the Academy will be a combined project involving Bournemouth University, Bournemouth Borough Council and members of the Poole and Bournemouth Tourism industry. In addition to the economic benefits, Dr Keith Wilkes, Dean of the School of Tourism at Bournemouth University has been celebrating the opportunities the project will bring: “Bournemouth will be host to the first specialist Coastal Tourism Academy anywhere in the world – reflecting Bournemouth’s status as a major coastal tourism destination and the School of Tourism’s national and international reputation as a centre of research excellence and major provider of tourism, hospitality and event management undergraduate and postgraduate education”.

The National Coastal Tourism Academy is a ground breaking knowledge transfer institution, designed to accelerate tourism growth. The project shall be split into three growth initiatives: a Coastal Activity Park, a resort wide visitor experience programme and coastal tourism product research and development programme. Within the next few years, the National Coastal Tourism Academy will provide world-class educational and professional training to coastal tourism businesses, as well as producing a central sharing database and communications link for teams and individuals looking to expand their knowledge or businesses.

Dr Bruce Grant-Braham, member of the Dorset Local Economic Partnership (LEP) and Senior Lecturer in the School of Tourism, said that tourism is the backbone of Bournemouth’s economy, and that there is plenty of potential for development across Britain that coincides with the surge of ‘staycations’ and interest in the UK tourism industry, so now is the right time to be investing in expanding and creating sustainable coastal tourism opportunities with real local significance.

Bournemouth is a lively and modern coastal resort, but the introduction of this unique and innovative academy could raise its status to one of global significance. “Like all good ideas” concluded Eric Pickles, “I’m astonished it hadn’t been thought of before.”

Read the article on the Guardian website here: Bournemouth wins £2m to set up first coastal tourism academy in Europe

Leveraging LinkedIn for the benefit of current students and graduates from the B.A. Honours Retail Management degree programme

Guidance

David Kilburn, Associate Professor in the School of Tourism, discusses the benefits to current students and graduates of establishing a networking using LinkedIn…

I have been using LinkedIn for the past 6 years in a proactive way to leverage the benefits of interaction between present and former graduates of the B.A. Honours Retail Management degree programme.

I have been helping undergraduates to find placements and graduate jobs in the retail industry for the past 20 years and LinkedIn has certainly helped in the past few years.

I have almost 700 contacts on LinkedIn and a third of them are retail graduates from BU. In the current climate which is tough for both placements and graduate employment a network like this becomes invaluable.

So how does it work in practice?

Firstly, undergraduates have different wants and needs. I am currently helping several First year retail students to find a short summer placement in the retail industry so they can build their CV and acquire experience in a leading retail company. Placement search is becoming increasingly difficult so in the past few years I have been assisting undergraduates who have struggled to find placements. I have successfully placed them using the LinkedIn network. I also help Finalists to find employment with retail companies by using the Network so in a way it is leveraging the benefits of the unadvertised job market. Retail companies are canny and prefer to use their links with me to find really good graduates without having to pay agency fees and waste time interviewing unsuitable candidates.

Former Retail graduates have performed extremely well in corporate life and my network comprises 10 Chief Executives and 48 Directors as well as numerous senior managers. I helped all of these retail graduates to find suitable employment at the start of their careers and so they are happy to help current retail graduates if they have suitable vacancies available.

Any member of academic staff at BU could start to leverage the benefits of LinkedIn. You have to start somewhere. This academic year for the first time I invited all of the current Retail management finalists to join me on Linked In at the start of the Autumn term. The majority have done so and have already reaped the benefits of being able to connect with senior retail managers who are ex retail graduates from BU. I decided to do this because I want to keep in touch with all the graduates from the course not just the enlightened ones!

It would be great if even one member of academic staff reading this blog decides to engage in the use of Linked In to assist our graduates to find a summer placement, one year placement or graduate employment with a leading company.

 

David Kilburn, Associate Professor, School of Tourism

 

 

Looking to recruit a potential Post Doc – Food and Tourism

We are looking for a potential overseas Post Doc to work in the area of Food and Tourism.  In the first instance the candidate would work with collegues to secure the funding for this one or two year post, though we are looking at a funding route with a good success rate.

The specific package of work for the two years will be negotiated depending on the research interests of the candidate and the research team.

So if you have any connections with an individual that might fit the bill please get back to Sean for a chat. (sbeer@bournemouth.ac.uk )

Launch of Elsevier’s Journal of Destination Marketing & Management

In response to the significant growth in the number of publications emerging in the field and an increase in interest from policymakers and practitioners in academic research on the theme of tourist destinations, Professor Alan Fyall (School of Tourism, Bournemouth University), Dr Brian Garrod (Aberystwyth University, UK) and Dr Youcheng Wang (University of Central Florida, USA) have recently launched Elsevier’s new Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (JDMM). The ambitions of the journal are such that it aims to be the leading international journal for the study of tourist destinations by providing a critical understanding of all aspects of their marketing and management, as situated in their particular policy, planning, economic, geographical and historical contexts.

The objective of JDMM is to publish up-to-date, high-quality and original research papers alongside relevant and insightful reviews. As such, the journal aspires to be vibrant, engaging and accessible, and at the same time integrative and challenging. The journal will be of particular interest to those involved in the interdisciplinary approach of marketing and management, economic development and planning, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, retailing, policy making and public administration of tourist destinations.

Professor Fyall said: “This new journal provides a really exciting opportunity to consider the truly interdisciplinary nature of tourism destination research. JDMM is the first new journal from Elsevier in the area of tourism studies for more than 30 years which is testament to the increasing interest in the study of tourist destinations and the excellent quality and experience of the journal’s international editorial board”.

As if to confirm this prediction submissions for the first edition look like they will be both an interesting read and of the very highest quality while the journals first special issue on destination experiences (to be published in Spring 2013) has attracted widespread interest from around the world.

Find out more here: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-destination-marketing-and-management/

The British host: just how welcoming are we? New research by the School of Tourism

Despite the rise in international education, there is a lack of literature on the domestic student perspective of the international class room. A study by School of Tourism lecturers Lorraine Brown and Steven Richards redresses the balance somewhat. Their paper, The British host: just how welcoming are we?, has just been published in the Journal of Further and Higher Education.

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of British student attitudes to the presence in large numbers of international students on their tourism management programme. Analysis revealed home students to be empathetic, flexible and eager to learn about new cultures. This mindset was attributed by participants to their desire to work in the international tourism industry and their understanding that tourist satisfaction increases in line with host receptivity. This is shown in the quotes below:

“Studying alongside international students meant that we would get a completely diverse cultural input. The more the merrier!” Bianca 

“It was going to be really interesting learning about people’s backgrounds and cultures.” Natalie

“It does change you just in little ways, just in how you are with people, you don’t even realise it at first I don’t think. I guess it taught me that you sort of judge people a bit quick, and that you shouldn’t really.” Laura

“Any prejudices are challenged, and its no bad thing for me and my fellow students to all have to develop some cultural awareness if not sensitivity.” Bianca

The nature of the subject, tourism, has a massive international element to it; if you are doing tourism, you are quite likely to be interested in other cultures.

That employability was increased by exposure to different cultures was commonly stated, as shown in the following typical comments:

“I feel confident that I can go to some of these countries now because I am aware of what to expect, behaviour patterns, culture patterns, I can try some of the skills I have learnt from being here.” Diana

“The main benefit for me is that never before could I imagine working abroad. I would definitely feel more confident now.” John

“I definitely think I could get used to working with different cultures, even if it’s in London! London is going to be multinational and international. You get used to dealing with different cultures, just trying to understand people talking different languages. Now I know that even if at first it might be a bit difficult, you can always communicate and work it out.” Laura

Lorraine and Steve’s study has just received coverage in the Times Higher Education Supplement – http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=419037&c=1

Research into public health and tourism strategies

Watch this excellent short video from BU’s Dr Heather Hartwell (School of Tourism and School of Health and Social Care) who describes unique research facilitating strategic direction for public health, in alignment with tourism strategies, aimed at creating conversation and collaboration

To see other BU videos on YouTube go to the BU YouTube page.

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv8DM9zKU1c

Find out how BU research is helping councils improve the delivery of the Olympics and Paralympics

Watch this excellent short video from BU’s Dr Richard Shipway who discusses the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games and how his research has been used by local councils to improve the delivery of the games in the area.

To see other BU videos on YouTube go to the BU YouTube page!

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy_B4Nbzvv4

In search of a friendly physicist…

Guidance

Recently I have been doing some work looking at Ontology and the nature of Truth and have become interested in some of the ideas discussed in theoretical physics, such as multiple dimensions, space time, unified theories, observer effects, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle……….

My work relates to the authenticity of food.  A big gap I know, but I would like to have a chat with someone so that I can ask some naive questions such as, how can you have a very small dimension?

I will buy lunch or coffee.

Yours expectantly

Sean Beer

School of Tourism

(Sorry if this sounds like an add from the personal columns)

ST research methods seminars – exploding beans, quantitative data collection, Hamlet and Brian Cox…

Guidance

As previously mentioned, the School of Tourism has launched a programme of seminars on research methods for its research students.  The 12 seminars over the next 4 months provide an introduction to the broad range of research methods used by our PhD students, and I thought that  you  might like an update, now that we are three seminars into the programme. 

I led the first seminar on Initial Considerations in Research, where we examined issues relating to ontology, epistemology and axiology.  This time, the can of beans did not explode (a long story) and the interest (or was it confusion) has given rise to a series of potential parallel seminars looking at Philosophy.  The first two titles in this sub-series are: Towards a true understanding of reality. Ha, ha, ha! and The definitive guide to post modernism. Ha, ha, ha! (or alternatively, a spurious siren from the pre-ancient. Tears, crying and woe?).

The second session brought us back down to earth when Professor Roger Vaughan looked at the Quantitative Data Collection Process.  Roger has a fantastic ability to produce a coherent structure on which to hang complex ideas.  His emphasis on preparing well in order to make data collection easy (ier) was an object lesson for those tempted to charge headlong into gathering data without some deep reflection, as were his insights into the way that elements of what you do at the start of a PhD reappear and eventually come full circle.

The third session, led by Dr Lorraine Brown, looked at The Features of Qualitative Research.  I think that Lorraine exhibits a really embodied understanding of the qualitative research process and this came across in the seminar.  Naively some think that qualitative research is easy, possibly because they haven’t done it -“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy” Hamlet 1:5.  Student and staff jaws did drop when she mentioned that she had managed to realize 10 research papers from her PhD.  Another object lesson to us all.  As was the quote from the Physicist Professor Brian Cox on Radio 4….”Science makes no claim to be right. Quantum mechanics requires you to jettison your perceptions of the world………..”

 

Sean Beer

BSc. (Hons.), PGDip. AgSci., PGCert. RDS., Cert. Ed., NSch.

Winston Churchill Fellow. Rotary Foundation Scholar.

Senior Lecturer, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University.

Profile: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/about/people_at_bu/our_academic_staff/SM/profiles/sbeer.html

Publications: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/view/author/0de16b19f785821dc6cc6c5e2af05d37.html

Brewery Investing in its Future

Hall and Woodhouse brewery, famous for its ‘Badger’ award winning beers, has agreed to a second cohort of students to complete the ‘Business and Hospitality Management’ accredited Higher Education course at Bournemouth University. This development arose from engagement between business development staff in the School of Tourism and the HR team at the company.

Company Managers recognised that investing in its people was critical to beat the recession and ensure that the business is well managed and providing the best experience for its customer base. However, they could not find the right level of education, training and support to upskill its existing workforce and were looking for options tailored to their distinct needs.

In order to develop a bespoke Higher Education degree programme for the company, the Hall and Woodhouse HR team, working in conjunction with Keith Hayman (Head of CPD for the School), has invested significant commitment and resources. Keith has used his vast experience to identify skill gaps within the company and has created a bespoke course for its employees. The course is delivered at times that suit the management level students and includes elements of Marketing, HR and Financial Reporting to ensure effective management; and a motivated workforce throughout the chain.

In addition to the new cohort commencing next month, the first cohort progresses to Foundation Degree in March 2012. Once completed, recipients will receive a BA (Hons) degree.