Welsh Centre for Tourism Research Newsletter
WCTR moves to its new home in the UWIC Cardiff School of Management Building
Issue 1: Summer 2010
WCTR moves to its new £20 million home… Welcome to the Welsh Centre for Tourism Research’s newsletter, launched as we move to our new home in the Cardiff School of Management’s up-to-the-minute facility on Llandaff Campus.
restaurant & bar. Many of its informal and formal research & teaching areas are in association with partners like Visit Wales & Cardiff International Airport. A striking glass atrium runs the building’s length, whilst its feature outside wall is copper clad.
CONTENTS Special Features: WCTR’s New Home Wales Challenges Golf’s Giants The Golf Tourism Prize Tourism, Education & Ethics Alcohol & Young People’s Behaviour ________________________
WCTR’s new home will provide superb teaching & research facilities
Open for business in July 2010, the building will enable WCTR to cement its place as a leading international centre for research and teaching, providing innovative facilities for our staff and large research associate community. Set over four floors, the new facility includes a 200-seat lecture theatre, events training suite and a state-of-the-art training kitchen,
In addition to educating managers and researchers of the future, it is hoped that the new building will also be a resource for our various academic and business partners with its exhibition and conference spaces and café with garden terrace.
Regular Features: Editor’s Notes Research Group in the Spotlight WCTR People in the News WCTR Research Associate Page New on the Bookshelf
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Editor’s Notes
CONTACT US
Professor Annette Pritchard, WCTR Director
A warm welcome from me as Director of the WCTR to the first of our quarterly newsletters aimed at our partners in industry, education and government. Each issue includes regular features on WCTR news, publications, research projects and our research degree students. In addition, it will also include short guest articles on topical issues in Welsh, UK and global tourism, hospitality and events policy, practice and education. Many of you will be familiar with the WCTR as since its creation in 2001, it has rapidly developed a leading international reputation for its cutting-edge applied and critical research, especially in the areas of destination development & branding and critical tourism research. For those less familiar with our research centre, it is located in
UWIC’s Cardiff School of Management. It’s the largest in the UK and the only stand-alone tourism, hospitality and events centre rated as producing world-leading and internationally excellent research in the UK RAE 2008. Our 21 researchers and 27 research associates produce theoreticallyinformed research and consultancy that engages with practice and policy. Our research projects are grouped under five research themes (detailed opposite). This newsletter will keep you updated on their activities, and our new website uwic.ac.uk\wctr has our breaking news.
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 Modes of 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
Wales Challenges Golf’s Established Giants
‘Wales - Golf as it should be’
WCTR STAFF
by Roger Pride, Director of Marketing, Welsh Assembly Government
The challenge of establishing Wales as a world class golfing destination is a monumental task. Golf is one of the fastest growing sectors of the lucrative holiday market and the biggest specialist activity holiday sector. Previously however, there has never been a serious attempt to penetrate the golf tourism market here. Wales does have a long golfing heritage and some superb links courses. Despite this, conventional wisdom was that these assets were not strong enough to seriously compete with our competitor destinations, particularly Scotland and Ireland. However the 90s saw major developments to Wales’ golfing assets, particularly the Celtic Manor Golf Resort. On the back of this 5 star resort, Wales won the bid to stage the Ryder Cup. In order to capitalize fully on the world’s third largest televised sports event the Wales Tourist Board was tasked with creating a strategy to transform Wales into a world class golf destination. The achievement of this goal demands a challenger mentality.
Success depends not just on a marketing strategy but also product investment, development and training to transform our golf assets into a quality golfing experience serving a global audience.
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
Most golf destinations cater for establishment golf, so as a challenger brand we have positioned Wales as the antidote to the golfing ‘scene’.
Sara Johnson
The golf establishment may not always agree with us but they can’t ignore us. When the Ryder Cup is over we want golfers to say ‘now that was a Ryder Cup, as it should be.’
Dr Diane Sedgley
For more, see Morgan, N., Pritchard, A. & Pride, R. (Eds.) (2010) Destination Branding, Oxford: Elsevier, out soon.
Dr Angie Luther Dr Steve Moore Prof Nigel Morgan Prof Annette Pritchard Dr Caroline Ritchie Andy Roberts
Sian Taylor Neil Wellman Alan White
Associate Members Prof David Botterill Prof Tom Baum Prof Conrad Lashley Prof Stephen Page Prof Chris Ryan
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Ryder Cup Fever Hits South-East Wales
The Golf Tourism Prize The Ryder Cup is the latest and the largest in a long line of major sports events hosted in Wales in recent years. It’s expected to generate £75 million during a week of golf, when 40,000 people a day go through the turnstiles at the Celtic Manor Resort. The real prize for Wales will be the global exposure from the world’s third largest televised sports event. This is particularly vital as many destinations are now integrating sports and cultural events into their marketing and branding strategies. Of course, Wales has been positioning itself as a world class golf destination ever since it was named host nation of the Ryder Cup in 2001. And its proposition as the antidote to establishment golf has become a well-known brand value.
Wales has a long and motivating heritage for golf tourists and boasts many superb courses, from those of its new resort hotels such as the four-star Vale of Glamorgan and the five-star Celtic Manor in South-East Wales, to the many outstanding links courses of the north and west.
Royal St David’s at Harlech, one of Wales’ outstanding links courses
Two of these: Royal Porthcawl and Royal St David’s at Harlech made it into the world’s top 100 golf courses chosen in 2005 by Golf World magazine. One of Visit Wales’ ‘Challenger Brand’ advertisements
PAR FOR THE COURSE? * Golf tourism is worth $US20 billion globally *50 million tourists travel the world, playing 32,000 courses * 25 million golfers in the USA, 5 million in Europe, Asia is growing fast * Wales has 200 plus courses; golf tourism generated £35 million in 2009 *Wales welcomed over 170,000 golfers in 2009 up from 30,000 in 2000 *Golf tourists to Wales are staying longer, spending more and are highly satisfied with their experiences *the typical golf tourist to Wales is an experienced, male golfer from the UK, staying 2-3 days, staying in 3 star plus accommodation *Wales has a long golfing heritage and has the world’s second oldest golfing union * The world’s golf travel writers voted Wales ‘Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year’ 2003
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Recognition for WCTR People
Recent Appointments WCTR has a new Reader – Dr Claire Haven-Tang was recently appointed Reader in Tourism Development. Claire is Programme Director for the MSc Hospitality/ Tourism/Event Management. Her research interests include: sense of place, destination development, SMEs and labour market and human resource issues in the tourism, hospitality and event industries.
After being extensively involved in its work for some time, WCTR’s Andy Roberts has been elected onto the main Executive Committee of The Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME) which represents UK universities and colleges offering higher education programmes in the fields of hospitality studies, hospitality management, and related fields (for more details on CHME’s work, see http://www.chme.org.uk). Andy is senior lecturer in hospitality and Programme Director of the Hospitality Courses. He is writing his PhD on internal and external influences
NEW POSTS on the design of the hospitality undergraduate curriculum. Dr Claire Haven-Tang
Having been coordinating editors since 2009, WCTR’s Professors Annette Pritchard and Nigel Morgan have been appointed Research Notes and Commentary Editors of the Annals of Tourism Research. Annette and Nigel are now responsible for handling all the journal’s research note submissions. Annette also recently joined Tourism and Hospitality Research’s editorial board.
chaven-tang@uwic.ac.uk
Andy Roberts aroberts@uwic.ac.uk
Professor Nigel Morgan nmorgan@uwic.ac.uk
Professor Annette Pritchard apritchard@uwic.ac.uk
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Opinion Piece: Tourism, Ethics and Education
A Matter of Opinion A FAIR TRADE?
By Professor Nigel Morgan, PhD, FTS
Tourism is a fast growing industry and a new source of wealth for less developed nations. But questions are being asked about its environmental sustainability, social and cultural impacts and social responsibility. This debate is not peculiar to tourism but is a general concern fuelled by the business scandals recently seen around the world and underpins the rise in interest in business ethics and corporate social responsibility. We do need to ask however, why it has taken so long to pose these questions. Tourism educators must shoulder some responsibility through their failure to embed ethics, values and stewardship in their programmes. Stewardship is a potent idea where thoughtful practitioners assume responsibility for promoting society’s well being and not just the profitability of individual firms. The WCTR is rising to the challenge of equipping tomorrow’s practitioners to engage in constructive dialogue and critique. Our MSc. Programmes in Tourism, Events &
Hospitality Management incorporate modules on business stewardship and crisis and risk management, as well as workshops, lectures and seminars on social inclusion, justice and ethics. Yes, tourism students must learn the technical skills necessary for their careers but they should acquire them along with critical thinking. Tomorrow’s managers need to understand that executive choices have impacts beyond their individual organizations. For more, see Cole, S. and Morgan, N. (Eds.) (2010) Tourism & Inequality, Oxford: Cabi, in press.
* less than 3% of the world’s population travel internationally by air * in developed economies the car is the route to tourism but 51% of the poorest UK households have no car compared with 11% of the richest *65% of those at-risk-ofpoverty in the EU cannot afford a week’s holiday *many of the world’s less developed countries are increasingly tourismreliant; for example, it accounts for 70% of all export value from the Maldives * 76% of single parent households in the EU cannot afford a week’s holiday * Almost half of the poorest US households make no long-distance trips compared to 17% of the richest * In Germany the three leading tourism companies control 68% of the market * About 1.4 billion people in less developed countries, a quarter of the global population, live on less than $1.25 a day
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
WCTR Research Group in Focus: Destination Development & Marketing
RESEARCH WCTR staff are recognized leaders in the broad field of destination development especially the areas of place brands, sustainability, human resource planning, service quality, the application of ICT and the SME economy – all embraced under this research group. It is led by Professor Eleri Jones and includes the work of half a dozen staff and several PhD students. Eleri has extensive experience of research and consultancy in human resource planning, service quality, the application of ICT and the SME economy and together with Dr Claire Haven-Tang has completed several projects funded by the European Social Fund Objective 3 and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Their edited collection Tourism-SMEs, Service Quality and Destination Competitiveness has become a leading text in this area. The group encompasses the African Centre for Sustainable Tourism Development and the Middle East and North Africa Tourism Research Centre, both led by Eleri to promote research and international partnerships in
sustainable destination development. The group includes the work of Dr Sheena Carlisle (on community development in Africa), John Dobson (on shark tourism) and Professors Nigel Morgan and Annette Pritchard (regarded as world experts in destination branding and reputation management). WCTR staff in this group have brought out numerous books and authored over 150 peer-reviewed academic articles in well-respected journals around the world, as well as undertaken research & consultancy for both the private and public sector. For more on this research theme and its associated centres, see uwic.ac.uk\wctr
SPOTLIGHT
Research Group Leader Prof Eleri Jones ejones@uwic.ac.uk * Destination Competitiveness & Sustainability * Destination Brands & Place Reputation *Human Resource Planning *Service Quality *The Application of ICT *The Tourism & Hospitality SME Economy ________________________ Associated Research Centres: The African Centre for Sustainable Tourism Development Middle East & North Africa Tourism Research Centre
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WCTR Research Associate News
RESEARCH A Leading Educator of Doctoral Students
STUDENTS
UWIC has a long and successful track record of research degree education in tourism, hospitality, events and leisure.
Saif Al-Habsi
Since our first completions in the mid-1990s, over 50 students have gained their research degrees at the University in these fields, most supervised by Professors Eleri Jones, Nigel Morgan, Annette Pritchard, David Botterill and Dr Claire Haven-Tang.
Elspeth Dale
WCTR’s cosmopolitan research associate community is accommodated in a suite of dedicated 15 WCTR students research rooms in successfully the new Cardiff defended their theses in 2009School of 2010 alone Management building.
All WCTR’s research degree students (whether studying for PhDs, Professional Doctorates or MPhils) have the status of research associate (or are members of staff).
Many of our MiddleEastern students are funded by their governments to study at UWIC, whilst three are fully funded by the University itself as part of its commitment to support WCTR’s world-leading research.
Saleh Al Shaaibi Paul Barrett Emma Bettinson
Karen Davies John Dobson Khaled El-Sayed Reda Gadelrab Daryl 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
An academic paper by Richard Ward (with Caroline and Felix Ritchie) published in Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes was chosen as a Highly Commended Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2010 – congratulations to all concerned.
Our Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Cardiff International Airport was runner-up in Wales’s KTPs Awards & Oliver Jaycock is now Commercial Business Manager there – fantastic news!
Agnieszka Rydzik Abu Elnasr Sobaih Sameh Soleman Sian Taylor Richard Ward Neil Wellman Alan White
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
WCTR People in the News
Professor Annette Pritchard’s research on tourism and gender featured in a CNN story on women’s role in volunteer tourism in June, for more details see: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TR AVEL/06/02/more.women.in.volu ntourism/index.html.
New On the Bookshelf
Nigel Morgan, Annette Pritchard (both WCTR) and Roger Pride (Welsh Assembly Government) have produced a revised second edition of Destination Branding, Creating the Unique destination Proposition with updated chapters and new online case studies. It precedes the upcoming 3rd edition.
Annette also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Wales’ X-Ray consumer affairs programme in June. She discussed the likely accommodation demand in SE Wales for the Ryder Cup.
Stroma Cole of the University of the West of England (UWE) and WCTR’s Nigel Morgan have just produced an edited collection entitled Tourism & Inequality: Problems and Prospects. Published by CABI it examines a wide range of interrelated inequalities and routes towards social justice and largely sprang from WCTR’s jointly hosted ESRC Seminar Series in 2008 (with UWE & the University of Stirling).
UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF | ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD
Award-Winning Doctoral Research at WCTR
Reconsidering Alcohol & Young People
By Richard Ward & Dr Caroline Ritchie
The youth of British society have been consistently demonized through misconceptions of their alcohol consumption behaviour – often as a result of denigrating portrayals by the popular British and worldwide press. However, it is apparent from current research being undertaken at WCTR, that many young adults are not typical of this portrayal. Dr Caroline Ritchie, Dr Felix Ritchie and Richard Ward’s award-winning academic article demonstrates that alcohol consumption patterns are not homogenous amongst any particular youth group.
The media skews society’s view of young people’s alcohol consumption
Students, in particular, are not representative of the UK young adult population as a whole and yet many studies have been based on their consumption patterns,
which have then been seen to typify that of all younger people. Alcohol consumption is based on several differing factors which are not as easily identifiable as the popular press would have us believe. It is clear from this WCTR research that differing strategies must be employed to reduce the general perception that youth culture is driven by, and dependant on, the availability and misuse of alcoholic products. This ongoing PhD research project hopes to shed further light on this issue and make recommendations.
Richard Ward Lecturer in Hospitality rtward@uwic.ac.uk
Caroline Ritchie Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management critchie@uwic.ac.uk
This article is based on Richard’s PhD - ‘AlcoholRelated Attitudes, Culture and Behaviour In Young Adults: Challenging Perceived Wisdom’.
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