WCTR Newsletter Spring 2011

Welsh Centre for Tourism Research Newsletter

WCTR’s new home to host major tourism conference in July 2011

Issue 2: 2011

WCTR to host major tourism conference 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.

WCTR’s new home will host CTS IV

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 VisitWalessponsored 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.

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

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

Editors’ Notes

CONTACT US

Professor Annette Pritchard, WCTR Director

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.

Welsh Centre for Tourism Research, Cardiff School of Management, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, Llandaff Campus, Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB Tel: 029 20415682 apritchard@uwic.ac.uk Web: uwic.ac.uk\wctr Research Group Leaders: Sustainable Destination Development & Marketing Prof Eleri Jones ejones@uwic.ac.uk Tourism, Social Justice, Inclusion & Citizenship Prof Nigel Morgan nmorgan@uwic.ac.uk Critical & Humanist Tourism Enquiry Prof Annette Pritchard apritchard@uwic.ac.uk Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Hospitality Dr Caroline Ritchie critchie@uwic.ac.uk Events Dr Dewi JaimangalJones djaimangaljones@uwic.ac.uk

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

Conversations, Connectedness and Destination Brands

Tourism Marketing & Social Media

By Jon Munro & Bethan Richards of Cinch Marketing

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 usergenerated 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

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

http://www.cinchmarketing.co e. .uk/managing-reputation-in-amultichannel-world

Prof Chris Ryan Prof Brian Wheeler

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

Recognition for WCTR People

Conferences, Journals & Advisory Boards 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 chaven-tang@uwic.ac.uk

Professor Nigel Morgan has joined the Organising Committee of TRRA 2011 nmorgan@uwic.ac.uk

Professor Annette Pritchard is speaking at Surrey 2011 apritchard@uwic.ac.uk

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

Opinion Piece: Transforming Tourism and Age Research

OLDER WORLDS

A Matter of Opinion

By Dr Diane Sedgley

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 WAGfunded 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.

* 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

WCTR Research Group in Focus: Social Justice, Inclusion & Citizenship

RESEARCH 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).

For more on this research theme and its numerous publications and projects, visit uwic.ac.uk\wctr

SPOTLIGHT

Research Group Leader Prof Nigel Morgan nmorgan@uwic.ac.uk

* 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

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

WCTR Research Associate News

RESEARCH News From the Cutting-Edge UWIC has a long and successful complete her thesis in track record of research degree 2012 and recently education in tourism, hospitality, completed her upgrade events and leisure. Since from MPhil to PhD. our first completions Agnieszka’s All research in the mid-1990s, research brings students at UWIC over 50 students have the status of together have gained their research associate migration (in research degrees at particular postthe University in 2004 Accession 8 these fields. migration), gender, identities, media studies, critical Student Spotlight: With a tourism studies, social background in tourism studies, justice and mobilities. humanities and modern She is also interested languages, Agnieszka Rydzik is in the application of undertaking PhD research at the innovative research WCTR. Her research explores the methods in the social impacts of media representations sciences and uses of Accession 8 female migrants on action research and their employment experiences in visual methods in the UK hospitality sector. exploring migrants’ identities, lived Agnieszka is a holder of one of experiences and UWIC’s prized Vice-Chancellor perceptions of media Doctoral Awards and recently portrayals. completed our Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Social Agnieszka previously Research which all research studied at the students attend. Under the University of Warsaw, supervision of Professors Annette the University of Pritchard and Nigel Morgan and Alicante and UWE. Dr Diane Sedgley, she aims to

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

New On the Bookshelves

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, storytelling, 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

UWIC Staff & Students Cook Up a Storm

All in a Good Cause 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’s new Cardiff School of Management Brains Hospitality Suite

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.

UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD