Most viewed article in Current Issues in Tourism - Reaches 10.000 views

One of my papers published in the Current Issues in Tourism journal has just reached the 10.000 views mark. An achievement since the paper has been published less than 2 years ago. The paper is co-authored with Scott Cohen (University of Surrey, UK, but formerly at BU) and Girish Prayag (University of Canterbury, New Zealand). 

Current Issues in Tourism is a highly regarded tourism journal: 

• Co-edited by two of the most prominent tourism academics (Professors C. Michael Hall and Chris Cooper)
• 2 star ranking in the Academic Journal Guide by ABS - Association of Business Schools
• Ranked as an "A" journal on the Australian ABDC list
• 2014 impact factor of 0.918 

The paper is freely available for download for everyone (golden open access sponsored by Bournemouth University - no subscription needed!) from this address 

Ray Holden / PAS Training and research / Plan for climate change

A while ago I reported on the activities of place and place research and their poor business practice (you can see my earlier posts here). Yet, I continue to be contacted by people who have dealt with them who feel compelled to share their (negative) experience with me. I recently received another first-hands experience of someone who attended one of their events and this is what the participant had to say about the experience (published with permission).

“Came across your blog having just been browsing to locate the tel no. of Ray Holden to remind him, yet again (after 6 written emails) that he agreed to reimburse my organisation having overcharged it for my attendance/presentation at a 'Climate Change Conference' held in London this June.  There are no numbers to be found.

The event I attended in London earlier this year was a joke and if I had been either of those who travelled so far (one came from S Korea, another from Toronto) I would have been outraged about the event.

Ray 'chaired' the event, wrote notes at the back of the room as individuals presented, and then privileged his own questions in the short period of time allocated to questions.  It was as if we had been gathered there for his own benefit and training!  It was poorly organised, no meaningful discussion, effectively a one man show, limited refreshments, no signage to get to the top of the building.  I left early and now can’t even get a response from him to get him to reimburse the £100 odd that we are owed.  Yet, Still receive the marketing for the next 'conference'.

I’m also going to be looking out for whether my work appears in any mutated way since the above gives me no confidence and there was less than transparent management of the presentation on the desktop.”

A month in Castilla-La Mancha

Ciudad Real is not a touristic city at all. Although its name is ‘Royal City’, there are very few signs of the old times.  Over time the four kilometers of walls and 130 towers that protected the city in the middle age were destroyed, with the last stroke coming in the 60's where all but two gates were removed. So there is not so much to see in terms of cultural tourist attractions. Yet the city is pleasant and very walk friendly. D. Quixote de La Mancha, the legendary character of Cervantes novel with the same name, is present in the city (as well as in surrounding cities).

The city has also got a beautiful park which I used for walks/runs. In the summer walking or running starts at 8 or 9pm due to the high temperatures. We had a maximum temperature of over 40oC every day (?!) and there were days when I went for a run at 10pm as it was too hot to do it before then. The first picture below was taken at 7pm...

The salsa scene is actually good for a small city (75.000) and I managed to go to two salsa parties. Bachata is very popular in the city so I could also practice this genre.

Angel and Marta were great hosts and spend some time showing me around or invited me to join them in social events they were attending. The first weekend I was taken to Toledo, a beautiful historical city north of Ciudad Real. We spent our time there visiting the grand and beautiful cathedral, walking through the narrow alleys and having lunch at the very nice restaurant. We ended the day tasting the Marzipan sweets that are traditional in the city.

On two different occasions, Marta and her parents invited me to go to their summer house and enjoy the swimming pool (a must given the hot weather!). The house is close to River Guadiana and an artificial lake and they took me there at dusk. The scenery was just beautiful. See for yourself!

Angel had talked about a nice restaurant where they served beef that is mature for 60 days. So I invited him, his wife and Marta to go there for my farewell meal. The restaurant works on price per person basis and you are served eight courses (and can eat as much as you like!). It starts with cheese and two types of smokes meats, followed by tuna on tomato, two types of prawns, lamb and finally the matured beef. It all ends with a desert. The food was delicious throughout, as was the wine that Angel selected. Here are some pictures of the food and wine:

The owners of the restaurant are cheese producers and they also have a delicatessen next to the restaurant, with products there are mouth watering. Obviously the smoked ham legs are on display, as are the different types of cheese. There are many wines available to purchase (Castilla-La Mancha is an important wine producing region), and an impressive selection of canned food.

After the meal I was taken to the Mirador de La Mancha Hotel & Restaurant, which sits on a mountain overlooking the beautiful Castilla-La Mancha plains. The impressive D. Quixote statue made of wood really stood out, as did the paintings in front of the car parking places, inspired in Cervantes' novel.

University Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Today my month long stay in Ciudad Real (Spain) as a guest of the University of Castilla - La Mancha (UCLM) comes to an end. Over the period I worked with Dr. Angel Millan and Ph.D. student Marta Retamosa Ferreiro from the marketing department, exchanging ideas and experiences about research in marketing. Our main focus was on University branding as they have a substantial database about the perceptions of their university’s brand. 

We worked on a paper about the satisfaction of students across different courses (engineering, business and nursing), using customer-based brand equity as the theoretical underpinning. This involved doing a factor analysis followed by a logistic regression and, as always, statistical analysis takes longer than you anticipate (even though we were already familiar with the tests!). In the end we got there and we are now continuing to write the paper.

UCLM has five campi spread across the region (Albacete, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cuenca and Talavera). The Ciudad Real one is modern and the facilities are good.

Interestingly, I had not met Dr. Millan in person prior to my arrival in Ciudad Real. Five years ago I presented a paper in Portugal about emotions in events which Dr. Millan attended. He then started supervising a Ph.D. on business travel which featured a strong component of emotions (experienced by business travellers during their trip). When he and his Ph.D. student were writing a paper about it, Dr. Millan remembered my talk and they decided to invite me to collaborate with them. 

In October they sent me an email asking if I was interested in co-authoring a paper with them. We ended up collaborating and submitted the paper to a good journal (three star according to the U.K.’s ABS list). After we submitted the paper, he commented that UCLM had funding for guest researchers and asked whether I would be interested in spending some time working with him. Fortunately I had a pretty uneventful July and therefore we applied to the grant, which was awarded. 

By the way, the paper we submitted got quite positive reviews, but as always we were asked to do some changes which we also worked on during my stay. We are now awaiting feedback about the revised version (we are optimistic as the changes requested were all possible to address!).

The month in Spain was not only about work. In the next post I will talk about some of the leisure experiences during my stay.

"Writing Dissertations & Thesis" e-book - First update is now live

Today I have added two major examples to the e-book:

* "Example 6.6: From description to analysis"
An example that explains how students can move from a descriptive review to an analytical one. I also include some information about how they could take it to the next level: the evaluation level

* "Example 7.1: Applying the generic process"
An excellent example of explaining a methodological choice that comes from a dissertation I supervised this year. The student applies the four stage generic process that I explain in the book very well.

Purchasers of the e-book get access to all updates. What you buy is not a finished book, but the current book + all future updates.

The e-book costs $7.99 (+VAT if applicable) and can be purchased at
https://leanpub.com/dissertations

Launching the “Writing Dissertations & Theses” e-book

“Writing Dissertations & Theses ” is now published!

Synopsis

“Writing Dissertations & Theses” is an e-book aimed at students (mainly Undergraduate and Masters but also Doctoral) that covers aspects that are little explored in other books about the topic. Thus, the book works as a complement rather than a replacement to existing books.

Adopting often a ‘reverse engineering’ strategy, the e-book identifies good and not-so-good practice and uses it to explain the principles behind a well written dissertation. These principles are set out in the form of simple yet effective ‘Tips & Tools’. The ‘Tips & Tools’ are explained in relation to the “6 C’s of Academic Writing Excellence’, which is a useful template for students to self-evaluate their dissertation. The e-book is written is a very student friendly way (students who have seen it say so!), with examples from past dissertations given throughout the book.

Major content areas include:

• The 6 C’s of Academic Writing Excellence;
• The three pillars of research which is a framework that helps students to design their research topic and maintain focus throughout their work;
• A number of tips & tools related to some of the most important characteristics of good academic writing, including language and vocabulary, argumentation and writing assumptions;
• A number of tips & tools about each of the sections of the dissertation or thesis: the introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion/conclusion.

What students say:

"I found the e-book to be very helpful. Using examples, particularly from other students, made it easier to not only understand how good it was what I was writing but also to find ways of improving it. The 6 C’s were also useful as a mental check after writing a point or paragraph. I think other students will find the e-book as helpful as I did."

Katherine, Undergraduate student

"I found the e-book very useful and really helped me to improve my dissertation. I was able to improve many of my sections, for example literature review and quantitative data analysis. The chapter about the literature review was particular useful as it highlights what is expected from us and how it should be written and structured."

Sebastian, Undergraduate student

“Writing Dissertations & Theses” can be purchased at 

https://leanpub.com/dissertations

Purchasers of the e-book will have access to the latest available version as well as access to updates in content: new tips & tools, examples and activities that will be added frequently. The e-book costs $7.99, though the buyer can pay as low as $5.99 - the buyer decides the exact price (s)he is willing pay as long as it is above $5.99. VAT applies to those living in the European Union.” 

Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in Events & Festivals

I've seen great festival aftermovies and when a colleague from Brazil posted one on her Facebook page, I started thinking about the impact these videos have on consumer behaviour. Although I am not fanatic about electronic music, one cannot avoid being affected by the energy and happiness that is conveyed by the movie (shown below). One natural reaction is "those lucky buggers" or "I wish I could have been there" or even "That's it! I am going next time". So, what mechanism are we talking about? FoMO - ‘Fear of Missing Out’.

As the events industry continues to grow, it is imperative that event organisers are aware and up to date of the motivations that drive consumers to attend events. The ‘Fear of Missing Out’, is a relatively new concept, but more ‘attuned’ marketers are now starting to capitalise on FoMO appeals, if anything because social media has heightened the sensation that everyone is having fun but us and therefore people are more sensitive to FoMO appeals. Besides more subtle strategies such as aftermovies, I have noticed that companies are using FoMO explicitly (e.g. The Croatia Summer Salsa Festival​ was using it last year).

This year I had the opportunity to review a paper on this topic and also to supervise a dissertation on FoMO. The issue of FoMO also came up in some research about prestige in events that I am currently writing about. The student who has recently finished her dissertation on the topic (Ellie Taylor) recognised that at present little is understood about the ‘FoMo’ as a concept. She then sought to investigate the mechanisms associated to the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ and to establish a connection between the ‘FoMo’ and an individual’s motivation to attend an event. She did a qualitative study involving eight ‘Generation Y’ participants.

A key finding identified the specific ‘negative feelings’ experienced by individuals which causes them to experience the ‘FoMo’. Specific emotions included (with sample quotes to illustrate each emotion):

• Jealousy/Envy – e.g. “I’m jealous of them all getting together and having loads of fun without me” // “I feel jealous; when they all talk about it I don’t wanna hear about it…”.
• Anxiety -  e.g. “…I get anxious about the thought of that night because I know exactly what I’ll be feeling if I don’t go...”.
• Anger/Frustration – e.g. “[I felt]… Kind of angry because it was frustrating that they could go and I couldn’t”.
• Annoyed/Upset – e.g. “Upset, yeah really, really upset…” // “When like I saw the pictures from Bournemouth sevens and I was just sat at work bored I guess I just found it really annoying”
• Excluded -  “I just remember feeling really left out…”  // “…I just didn’t feel like part of the friendship group anymore…I just felt like I wasn’t part of something like I didn’t belong with them as a friendship group”
• Regret – e.g. “I don’t wanna miss them because I know I will regret it once Uni is over and I look back at my time”.
• Guilt – e.g. “…even though it was out of my control I felt I had to justify why I wasn’t going to the girls and I dunno [pause]… I just felt as though they thought I was just bailing on them but it really wasn’t that at all”.

As humans we don’t like to feel negative emotions and therefore we develop strategies to avoid feeling them. These avoidance emotions are powerful triggers of behaviour and a second significant key finding discovered in the study relates to the fact once an individual has experienced the ‘FoMo’, they can react in four different ways:

• Attend the next event – e.g. “Well, it just kind of motivated me more to make sure I would go to Bestival this year” // “…so I just made sure that this year I definitely booked it off, even if I didn’t decide to go this year I just wanted to have the option of going and the freedom to choose to go”.
• Look on social media – e.g. “…I couldn’t stop myself from looking, like in a weird way you want to see what you’re missing out” // “…looking without looking if that makes sense, like they would come up on my news feed but I would try not to look at them but still I wanted to see what everyone was wearing [...] if they looked as though they were having a good time”
• Post on social media - “…because I knew I was missing out on a night out, I started to take loads of pictures to make it look as though I was having a really good time at work, when actually I was really bored [laughs]” // “I think I do that a lot with pictures and stuff like you just want to show off when you look nice and make out that your life is so fun [laughs]”
• Arrange another event – e.g. “…after ascot, I wrote to all the girls in our whatsapp group and arranged another night, we just had like a dinner round mine and it was really nice”.

By establishing a clear connection between the ‘FoMo’ and event motivation, Ellie’s dissertation made a very good contribution to knowledge (Who says we don’t learn anything from students?). I think that her dissertation is helping to develop this exciting area of marketing that is emerging. Based on her results, the area definitely warrants further research and I hope more students (and researchers) end up looking at this topic.

PS: if you want to cite the results of the dissertation, cite as:

Taylor, Ellie (2015), An investigation into the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ as a motivation to attend events, Unpublished undergraduate dissertation, Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, UK

Presentation at ICE Conference with undergraduate student accepted

One of my favourite parts of being an academic at BU is the opportunity to supervise student dissertations (notably undergraduate). Although the dissertation is done in the final year, we prepare students since day one as many of the skills we ask them to develop and employ in other assignments are then very useful for the dissertation. In the past I've had very good dissertations, some of which have resulted in journal articles. Not only they are well designed studies, but many are quite innovative in terms of both the topic and methodology. Many times I found myself thinking "I wouldn't do better" or "I wouldn't write this better" such is the maturity and quality of the work.

This year once again I've had the pleasure of supervising a number of brilliant students and I can see three or four ending up published. Since I am attending ICE - International Conference on Events in Macau, China, in September, I challenged one this year's students to submit an abstract to the conference. The abstract was accepted with no changes, with the following comment made by the reviewer:

"This is definitely one very interesting piece of submission to the conference I'm sure. It makes a lot of sense to use expectation management to frame the current research"

This is abstract of the paper written by the student and edited by me (very little). 

Strategies employed by wedding planners to manage clients’ unrealistic, fuzzy and implicit expectations

Kate Adams & Miguel Moital 

Department of Events & Leisure

Faculty of Management

Bournemouth University, UK

Expectations are widely regarded as the main reference point used by consumers to measure satisfaction and evaluate the performance of a service. Understanding what a consumer expects is considered one of the most vital steps in providing quality services and a manager’s ability to successfully manage client expectations has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Although expectation management has been studied in a professional service context, it has not been applied to events. This research aims to examine the techniques employed by managers when facing three different types of expectation; unrealistic, fuzzy and implicit.  These types of expectations can become extreme and create problems if they aren’t dealt with effectively. The study focuses specifically on wedding planners and their clients’ expectations. The higher the level of customer involvement in a service, the more intense and extreme expectations can become, and so the ability to manage wedding clients expectations effectively is vital for a wedding planner. 

A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used, interviewing eight wedding planners at several different UK venues. The process focused on the critical incident technique, which allowed the researcher to explore specific incidents in which managers faced extreme instances of unrealistic, fuzzy or implicit expectations, the behaviours they adopted and the outcomes. Coding was based on critical behaviours identified in the transcription process, and a list of techniques used by managers with each type of expectation was produced.

Findings stressed the importance of constant, clear communication and a strong relationship between client and manager in order to influence and manage expectations when planning a wedding. It was found that wedding coordinators adopt different expectation management techniques throughout all stages of the planning process; preventative strategies, reactive strategies and recovery strategies. The purpose of the strategies is to prevent unrealistic, fuzzy or implicit strategies from developing, to influence them to become realistic, focused or explicit if they become apparent, and to minimise the damage caused by them if they are not met by the wedding service offered. 

This research fills a gap in the existing knowledge of expectation management, particularly in the events industry. It offers a clear framework of management techniques based on the real life experiences of wedding planners. As unrealistic, fuzzy and implicit expectations can occur in any service, the findings can provide a useful tool to all managers, not just those in the wedding industry, to understand how to effectively manage client expectations and ensure that customer satisfaction is being achieved. 

External Examiner of a MPhil from Brazil

Today I examined a MPhill by a Brazilian Student from the Federal University of Parana (UFPR), South East Brazil. Raquel Pazini, a MPhil candidate from the Faculty of Geography, defended a thesis entitled “Tourism Products in Curitiba as perceived by incoming agencies’ managers”. The session started with a 30 minute presentation by the candidate, which was followed by comments and questions from the examiners. The thesis was examined by the supervisor (Dr. José Gândara), myself and 2 other academics: Dr. Debora Cordeiro Braga (Sao Paulo University) and Dr. Cínthia Maria de Sena Abrahão (UFPR). After a robust defense, the examining panel unanimously approved the thesis. Congratulations to Raquel on her success.