wctr newsletter spring 2011
DESCRIPTION
WCTR Newsletter Spring 2011TRANSCRIPT
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
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The Welsh Centre for Tourism
Research will celebrate its 10th.
birthday at the opening reception
of the Fourth Critical Tourism
Studies Conference (CTS IV) to be
held 2-5 July 2011 at WCTR’s new
home on Llandaff Campus.
CTS IV will bring academics,
policy-makers and practitioners
from the third sector to Cardiff to
discuss ethical and sustainable
tourism practice. A key focus will
be how the industry moves from
measures of competitiveness
based purely on growth to ones
which embrace ‘mindful
development’.
Previously held in
Croatia, the CTS
Conference Series is
an expanding
network. In 2011
WCTR will welcome
around 130
delegates with an
opening reception
and a VisitWales-
sponsored reception
in the Wales
Millennium Centre
on day two.
The keynote
speakers include
John Hilary,
Executive Director of
War on Want, Prof.
Pauline Sheldon of
the University of
Hawaii and recipient
of the UNWTO
Ulysses Prize for
knowledge creation
in tourism and Prof.
Cherry Short of the
University of
Southern California.
Welsh Centre for Tourism Research
Newsletter
Issue 2: 2011
WCTR’s new home will host CTS IV
CONTENTS
Special Features:
WCTR Hosts CTS IV
Tourism Marketing &
Social Media
A Matter of Opinion:
Transforming
Tourism & Age
Research
Welsh Stars Cook Up
a Storm
________________________
Regular Features:
Editor’s Notes
WCTR People in the
News
Research Group in the
Spotlight
WCTR Research
Associate Page
New on the Bookshelf
WCTR to host major
tourism conference
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
E
dit
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A warm welcome from me as
Director of the WCTR to the
second issue of our newsletter
aimed at our partners in industry,
education and government.
Issue two carries our new
branding, launched for our 10th
birthday. This new brand identity
conveys our distinctive Welsh
heritage (with its bilingual text
and stylized dragon) and our
global aspirations.
Our 10th birthday gives us a
chance to reflect on a decade of
achievement in research,
enterprise and teaching. Since
2001 WCTR has hosted five major
international conferences,
numerous KTPs and provided
consultancy, advice and counsel to
organizations
including: the BBC,
Visit Wales (and its
predecessor Wales
Tourist Board),
Techniquest, Brecon
Beacons National
Park, UNESCO and
Orlando-Sanford
International
Airport.
Our staff have given
dozens of keynotes
from Iceland to
China and the
Centre’s reputation
has gone from
strength to strength.
In the 2001 RAE it
was awarded a 3a
rating and the 2008
RAE 25% of WCTR
research was ranked
as world-class or
internationally
excellent.
As we prepare to
host international
conferences in 2011
and 2012, we are
looking forward to
the next 10 years.
CONTACT US
Welsh Centre for Tourism Research, Cardiff School of Management, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, Llandaff Campus, Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB Tel: 029 20415682 [email protected] Web: uwic.ac.uk\wctr
Research Group Leaders: Sustainable Destination Development & Marketing Prof Eleri Jones [email protected] Tourism, Social Justice, Inclusion & Citizenship Prof Nigel Morgan [email protected] Critical & Humanist Tourism Enquiry Prof Annette Pritchard [email protected] Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Hospitality Dr Caroline Ritchie [email protected] Events Dr Dewi Jaimangal-Jones [email protected]
Professor Annette Pritchard, WCTR Director
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Ed
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Co
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ina
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Don’t let anybody tell you
anything different. What we are
facing today is a fundamental and
revolutionary change. Digital
channels have driven a radical
shift in customer behaviour and
this is no more evident than in the
customer’s relationship with a
brand and the active role the
customer takes in shaping the
dialogue with that brand and
ultimately its reputation.
When it comes to deciding where
to go on holidays our friends’
recommendations are often the
most influential factor and online
information, especially user-
generated content plays a critical
role in destination choice.
Exactly why is it so important?
Quite simply, because people trust
other people more than they trust
those trying to peddle their
destination or hotel. The
marketing environment has
changed beyond all recognition
and relentlessly pushing our
destination brand to an
increasingly skeptical audience is
becoming less effective in driving
brand equity. Our customers are
engaging in more meaningful
relationships with brands and
demanding that they
personalize their
communications
with them.
For Destination
Marketing
Organizations
(DMOs) this creates
a serious challenge.
Today, blogging is
particularly
important in tourism
and travel. Plus,
destinations can
create their own
online communities
within existing
platforms or engage
in dialogue with an
existing community.
Finally, of course,
don’t forget
traditional search.
For most DMOs it is
likely to continue to
be the biggest driver
of traffic to your
website in the
foreseeable future
e.
WCTR STAFF
Emma Bettinson
Dr Sheena Carlisle
Elspeth Dale
Karen Davies
John Dobson
Helene Grousset-Rees
Dr Claire Haven-Tang
Dr Dewi Jaimangal-Jones
Prof Eleri Jones
Nigel Jones
Sara Johnson
Dr Angie Luther
Dr Steve Moore
Prof Nigel Morgan
Prof Annette Pritchard
Dr Caroline Ritchie
Andy Roberts
Dr Diane Sedgley
Sian Taylor
Alan White
Associate Members
Prof David Botterill
Prof Tom Baum
Prof Conrad Lashley
Prof Stephen Page
Prof Chris Ryan
Prof Brian Wheeler
http://www.cinchmarketing.co
.uk/managing-reputation-in-a-
multichannel-world
Tourism Marketing & Social Media By Jon Munro & Bethan Richards of Cinch Marketing
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Re
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Professor Nigel Morgan has joined
the Scientific Organizing
Committee of the 2011 TRRA
Conference in Annecy, France.
WCTR have appointed Professor
Brian Wheeler as its sixth
Honorary Professor. Brian has a
leading reputation for his writing
on sustainable tourism and our
next newsletter will carry an
interview with him.
Dr Claire Haven-Tang has joined
Visit Wales’ Digital Marketing
Advisory Group. Claire is Reader
in Tourism & Management and
Programme Director for the MSc.
She has worked on commissioned
research projects for the Tourism
Training Forum for Wales, Capital
Region Tourism, Visit Wales,
People 1st and Adventa.
Professor Annette Pritchard has
joined the International Advisory
Board of Copenhagen Business
School’s Research Centre Imagine
which focuses on the relations
between creativity and commerce.
Professor Annette
Pritchard will also
be a keynote
speaker at the
University of
Surrey’s
conference
‘Advancing the
Social Science of
Tourism’ in June
2011. The other
speakers include
Christopher
Rodrigues,
Chairman for
VisitBritain.
http://ocs.som.su
rrey.ac.uk/index.p
hp/tourism/index
/pages/view/key
note
Before that she is
speaking in April
at the Portuguese
international
congress on
destinations &
heritage alongside
the Minister for
Tourism.
Dr Claire Haven-Tang has joined Visit Wales’ Digital Marketing Advisory group
Professor Nigel Morgan has joined the Organising Committee of TRRA 2011
Professor Annette Pritchard is speaking at Surrey 2011
Conferences, Journals & Advisory Boards
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Op
inio
n P
iece
: Tra
nsf
orm
ing
To
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Ag
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ese
arc
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Whilst the amount of research
focused on tourism and ageing has
increased in recent years, most
focuses on market trends and
marginalizes personalized
accounts which foreground the
voices of older people themselves.
Here at WCTR we host a research
development group of the WAG-
funded OPAN initiative and a
UWIC-funded PhD student (Jane
Mullins), whose research focuses
on the lived experiences of older
people in tourism.
In a suite of recent publications
and events (e.g. the ESRC Seminar
Series on Tourism & Social
Justice), our group has developed
a tourism research agenda which
actively engages older people in
the research process and which
promotes the social inclusion,
human dignity and human rights
of older people.
We argue that too much work has
assumed homogeneity amongst
older people, which in turn has led
to stereotyping and
generalization. Just like any other
demographic category, older
people are a diverse group of
complex
individuals. Yet
studies often
group people aged
from 55 to 90
together, whilst
other research
under-represents
the views and
experiences of
people over 70 as
marketers
consider them
‘too old’ to change
their consumption
patterns.
Involving older
people in the
research process
and engaging with
their agendas is
likely to result in
studies that
inform policy,
work for older
people and
challenge ageism.
It also confronts
negative
stereotypes of
older people as
disengaged.
A Matter of Opinion
By Dr Diane Sedgley
OLDER WORLDS
* in more developed countries there is predicted to be some 1.2 billion people aged 60 and over by 2025, rising to two billion by 2050 - three times as many as today. * the number of people over 60 will more than double to constitute 22% of the world’s population by 2050. *the tourism industry has segmented older travelers into various groups, including: healthy indulgers; ‘healthy hermits,’ ‘ailing out goers’ and ‘frail reclusers.’ *just under a fifth of pensioners in Wales live on low incomes. * critical gerontologists and critical tourism researchers have recently called for more research which engages older people, gives them voice and aims to improve their lives and experiences. For more on this see: Sedgley, D., Pritchard, A. & Morgan, N. (2011) Tourism and Ageing: A Transformative Research Agenda, The Annals of Tourism Research, in press doi:10.1016/j.annals. 2010.09.002
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
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Gro
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Fo
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So
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& C
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In this issue we turn the spotlight
on the second of WCTR’s five
research themes and focus on our
work in social justice, inclusion
and citizenship and how these
overlap with tourism, hospitality
and events management.
This theme is led by Professor
Nigel Morgan and includes the
work of half a dozen staff and
several PhD students, including
three funded by UWIC. Nigel is a
strong proponent of advocacy
scholarship and was one of
originators of the notion of
hopeful tourism. He is
passionately interested in the
multi-faceted connections
between tourism, social justice,
citizenship, creative destinations
and place reputation. Together
with Professor Annette Pritchard
and Dr Diane Sedgley of WCTR he
has written on tourism and
inequality, disability, gender
inequality and older people and
tourism.
The group collaborates with
researchers around the world on
these and related issues and has
on-going projects with partners in
Africa, Europe, North America and
Australasia.
The group includes
Dr Sheena Carlisle
(community
development in
Africa and fair trade
in general),
Professor Eleri Jones
(sustainable and
pro-poor tourism in
Africa), Professor
Annette Pritchard
(regarded as a
leading expert on
tourism and gender),
Dr Diane Sedgley
(tourism and older
people) and Dr Angie
Luther (disability).
In addition four
doctoral students are
exploring ageing
(Jane Mullins),
disability (Vicky
Richards), gender
(Alan White) and
migrant workers
(Agnieszka Rydzik).
RESEARCH
SPOTLIGHT
Research Group Leader Prof Nigel Morgan [email protected]
* Tourism & Disability * Tourism, Poverty Alleviation & Fair Trade *Older People & Tourism *Citizenship and Migrant Workers *Gender, Employment and Representation in Tourism & Hospitality * Tourism & Peace *Sustainable & Ethical Tourism ________________________ Key Research Partners The African Centre for Sustainable Tourism Development Stenden University, The Netherlands, Auckland University of Technology
For more on this research
theme and its numerous
publications and projects,
visit uwic.ac.uk\wctr
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
WC
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Ass
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Ne
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All research
students at UWIC
have the status of
research associate
UWIC has a long and successful
track record of research degree
education in tourism, hospitality,
events and leisure. Since
our first completions
in the mid-1990s,
over 50 students
have gained their
research degrees at
the University in
these fields.
Student Spotlight: With a
background in tourism studies,
humanities and modern
languages, Agnieszka Rydzik is
undertaking PhD research at the
WCTR. Her research explores the
impacts of media representations
of Accession 8 female migrants on
their employment experiences in
the UK hospitality sector.
Agnieszka is a holder of one of
UWIC’s prized Vice-Chancellor
Doctoral Awards and recently
completed our Postgraduate
Certificate in Applied Social
Research which all research
students attend. Under the
supervision of Professors Annette
Pritchard and Nigel Morgan and
Dr Diane Sedgley, she aims to
complete her thesis in
2012 and recently
completed her upgrade
from MPhil to PhD.
Agnieszka’s
research brings
together
migration (in
particular post-
2004 Accession 8
migration), gender,
identities, media
studies, critical
tourism studies, social
justice and mobilities.
She is also interested
in the application of
innovative research
methods in the social
sciences and uses
action research and
visual methods in
exploring migrants’
identities, lived
experiences and
perceptions of media
portrayals.
Agnieszka previously
studied at the
University of Warsaw,
the University of
Alicante and UWE.
News From the Cutting-Edge
RESEARCH
STUDENTS
Saif Al-Habsi
Saleh Al Shaaibi
Paul Barrett
Emma Bettinson
Elspeth Dale
Karen Davies
John Dobson
Khaled El-Sayed
Reda Gadelrab
Darryl Gibbs
Helene Grousset-Rees
Nancy Ya-ting Huang
Oliver Jaycock
Sara Johnson
Nigel Jones
Jo-Anne Lester
Mohamed Moustafa
Victoria Richards
Andy Roberts
Zaida Rodrigo Perez
Agnieszka Rydzik
Sameh Soleman
Sian Taylor
Richard Ward
Alan White
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Ne
w O
n t
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Bo
ok
she
lve
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Nigel Morgan and Annette
Pritchard (both WCTR) and Roger
Pride (Welsh Assembly
Government) have produced the
third edition of Destination
Brands: Managing Place
Reputation with 25 new chapters
authored by place brand
consultants, destination
marketers, diplomats, urban
designers and academics.
Destination Brands asks whether
tourism places get the reputations
they deserve and discusses brand
concepts, challenges and topical
cases from Singapore to San
Antonio. It tackles how place
perceptions are formed, how
cities, regions and countries can
enhance their reputations as
creative, competitive destinations
and the link between competitive
identity and strategic tourism
policy-making.
It also discusses how successful
destination management
organisations increasingly engage
in conversations rather than
campaigns and handle
controversial questions of
authenticity, brand narratives,
leadership and authorship, story-
telling, aesthetics, ethics and
evaluation.
WCTR Emeritus Professor David
Botterill and Dr Trevor Jones of
Cardiff University’s Centre for
Criminology have just produced
Tourism and Crime. It provides a
critical examination of subjects
including tourism and property
crime, the tourist as victim,
specific 'danger travel spots',
safety in 'stateless' spaces, and
drugs tourism.
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
UW
IC S
taff
& S
tud
en
ts C
oo
k U
p a
Sto
rm
TWO of Wales’ top chefs went
head-to-head in the new Brains
Hospitality Suite along with a
team of celebrity helpers at a
special event to raise money for
early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Michelin star chef Shaun Hill of the
Walnut Tree and Stephen Terry of
the Hardwick and Great British
Menu fame, each devised a special
three-course menu for the Welsh
Chef’s Challenge, on Friday 28
January.
UWIC students played a
significant part in the evening
with a representative on each of
the competing teams, plus the
front-of-house duties were staffed
by Hospitality and Events students
and lecturers, giving them a
chance to put into practice what
they are learning as part of their
degree course.
Other celebrities taking part
included Admiral Chief Henry
Engelhardt and Babs Thomas –
wife of Blues owner Peter, Wales
rugby star Jamie Roberts and
actor Julian
Lewis Jones,
Only Men Aloud
conductor Tim
Rhys-Evans,
food writer
Angela Gray,
and opera star
Shan Cothi.
Meanwhile, on
the back of its
preparations to
host the IV
Critical Tourism
Studies
Conference in
July, WCTR are
in discussions
with US,
Chinese and
European
partners to host a major
international conference on
destination branding and place
competitiveness in 2012.
All in a Good Cause
UWIC’s new Cardiff School of
Management Brains Hospitality Suite